A66094:0
A brief discour[see] concerning the ceremon[y] of laying the hand on the Bible in…A brief discour[se] concerning the ceremon[y] of laying the hand on the Bible in…
A brief discour[see] concerning the ceremon[y] of laying the hand on the Bible in swearing. By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England.A brief discour[se] concerning the ceremon[y] of laying the hand on the Bible in swearing. By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England.
London: printed by J.A., 1689
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.
A BRIEF DISCOUR Concerning that CEREMO•• OF Laying the Hand ON THE BIBLE IN SWEARING.
By SAMUEL WILLARD, Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England.
By SAMƲEL WILLARD, Teacher of a Church at Boston in New-England.
LONDON, Printed by J. A. in the Year 1689.
TO THE READER.
That many good and very learned Men have doubted the lawfulness of Kissing or Touching the Book in taking a solemn Oath, cannot be denied; those great and famous Divines, Rivet, Pareus, Voetius, have all written against it; and that worthy Confessor and Martyr, Mr. William Thorp, did refuse to comply with the mentioned Mode of Swearing; and he saith, that Chrysostom was against the Book-Oath, as he styles it; he thus argues, If I touch the Book, the meaning of that Ceremony is nothing else but that I swear by it, when as it is not lawful to Swear by any Creature, vid. Fox's Martyrol. Vol. 1. p. 705, &c. In Scotland and other Reformed Churches abroad, that Ceremony is not used; and in our own Courts of Admiralty, another Form of Swearing is frequently practised. That some here in England forty years ago were scrupulous about this matter, we may be assured, in that the Parliament in the Year 1649. in the Oath which they enjoined on Mayors and other Magistrates, inserted a Proviso as to the Mode in Swearing, that so doubting Consciences might not be ensnared, vid. Scobel's Collections, chap. 51. It is well known that those famous Divines, Dr. Thomas Goodwin, Mr. Philip Nigh, and