A52591:288
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches…
A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches in England agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658.
London: printed by John Field, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
II.
The name of God only is that by which men ought to swear, and therein it is to be used with all holy fear and reverence: Therefore to swear vainly, or rashly, by that glorious or dreadful name, or to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be abhorred; yet as in matters of weight and moment an Oath is warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament, as well as under the Old; so a lawful Oath, being imposed by lawful authority in such matters, ought to be taken.
The name of God onely is that by which men ought to swear, and therein it is to be used with all holy fear and reverence: Therefore to swear vainly, or rashly, by that glorious or dreadful name, or to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be abhorred; yet as in matters of weight and moment an Oath is warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament, as well as under the Old; so a lawful Oath, being imposed by lawful authority in such matters, ought to be taken.
III.
Whosoever taketh an Oath warranted by the Word of God, ought duly to consider the weightiness of so solemn an act, and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully persuaded is the truth: neither may any man bind himself by Oath to any thing, but what is good and just, and what he believeth so to be, and what he is able and resolved to perform. Yet it is a sin to refuse an Oath touching any thing that is good and just, being lawfully imposed by Authority.