cxlivth Pfalm, "whofe mouth fpeaketh vanity, "and their right-hand is a right-hand of falsehood." The fame form is retained in Scotland ftill, amongst the fame Jews. An oath of fidelity was taken, by the servant's putting his hand under the thigh of his lord, as Eliezer did to Abraham, Gen. xxiv. 2. from whence, with no great variation, is derived perhaps the form of doing homage at this day, by putting the hands between the knees, and within the hands of the liege.

Amongst the Greeks and Romans, the form varied with the fubject and occafion of the oath. In private contracts, the parties took hold of each other's hand, whilft they fwore to the performance; or they touched the altar of the God, by whofe divinity they swore. Upon more folemn occasions, it was the custom to flay a victim; and the beast being struck down, with certain ceremonies and invocations, gave birth to the expreffions Tejuve opnov, ferire pactum, and to our English phrafe, tranflated from thefe, of ftriking a bargain."

The forms of oaths in Chriftian countries are

alfo very different;

different; but in no country in the world, I believe, worfe contrived, either to convey the meaning, or impress the obligation of an oath, than in our own. The juror, with

us,

us, after repeating the promife or affirmation, which the oath is intended to confirm, adds, "fo help me God:" or more frequently the fubftance of the oath is repeated to the juror, by the officer or magiftrate who adminifters it, adding in the conclufion "fo help you God." The energy of the fentence refides in the particle fo; fo, that is, hac lege, upon condition of my speaking the truth, or performing this promise, and not otherwise, may God help me. The juror, whilst he hears or repeats the words of the oath, holds his right-hand upon a bible, or other book, containing the four gofpels. The conclusion of the oath sometimes runs, "ita me Deus adjuvet, et hæc fancta evangelia," or "fo help me God, and the contents of this book;" which laft claufe forms a connection between the words and action of the juror, that before was wanting. The juror then kiffes the book: the kiss, however, feems rather an act of reverence to the contents of the book, as, in the popish ritual, the priest kiffes the gospel before he reads it, than any part of the oath.

This obfcure and elliptical form, together with the levity and frequency with which it is adminiftered, has brought about a general inadvertency to the obligation of oaths, which, both in

a re

a religious and political view, is much to be lamented and it merits public confideration, whether the requiring of oaths on fo many frivolous occafions, especially in the cuftoms, and in the qualification for petty offices, has any other effect, than to make them cheap in the minds of the people. A pound of tea cannot travel regularly from the fhip to the confumer, without cofting half a dozen oaths at the leaft; and the fame fecurity for the due discharge of their office, namely, that of an oath, is required from a churchwarden and an archbishop, from a petty conftable and the chief juftice of England. Let the law continue its own fanctions, if they be thought requifite; but let it spare the folemnity of an oath. And where it is neceffary, from the want of fomething better to depend upon, to accept men's own word or own account, let it annex to prevarication penalties proportioned to the public confequence of the offence.

II. But whatever be the form of an oath, the fignification is the fame. It is "the calling upon "God to witness, i. e. to take notice of what we

fay, and invoking his vengeance, or renouncing his favour, if what we fay be falfe, or what we promise be not performed."

III. Quakers and Moravians refuse to swear

upon any occafion; founding their fcruples concerning the lawfulness of oaths, upon Our Saviour's prohibition, Matth. v. 34. "I fay

unto you, fwear not at all."

The answer which we give to this objection cannot be understood, without first stating the whole paffage: "Ye have heard, that it hath "been faid by them of old time, thou shalt not "forfwear thyfelf, but shalt perform unto the "Lord thine oaths: but I fay unto you, fwear

not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's "throne; nor by the earth, for it is his foot"stool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city " of the great King; neither shalt thou swear by

66

thy head, because thou canst not make one "hair white or black: but let your communica"tion be yea yea, nay nay, for whatsoever is 66 more than thefe cometh of evil."

To reconcile with this paffage of Scripture, the practice of fwearing, or of taking oaths, when required by law, the following observations must be attended to.

1. It does not appear, that fwearing "by "heaven," "by the earth," "by Jerufalem," or by their own head," was a form of swearing ever made use of amongst the Jews in judicial oaths and confequently, it is not probable that

they were judicial oaths, which Christ had in his mind when he mentioned those instances.

2. As to the feeming univerfality of the prohibition, "fwear not at all," the emphatic clause 66 not at all" is to be read in connection with what follows; "not at all," b. e. "neither by "the heaven," nor t by the earth," nor by ferufalem," nor by thy "head:""not at all" does not mean upon no occafion, but by none of thefe forms. Our Saviour's argument feems to suppose, that the people, to whom he spake, made a distinction between swearing directly by the "name of God," and fwearing by those inferior objects of veneration," the heavens," "the earth," "Jerufalem," or "their own head." In opposition to which diftinction he tells them, that, on account of the relation which these things bore to the fupreme Being, to fwear by any of them, was in effect and substance to swear

or

by him; " by heaven, for it is his throne; by "the earth, for it is his footftool; by Jerufalem, "for it is the city of the great King; by thy

head, for it is his workmanship, not thine, "thou canst not make one hair white or black: for which reason, he says, “fwear not at all,” that is, neither directly by God, nor indirectly by any thing related to him. This interpretation