aying, Embrace the murderer of me, an oath.
That which reproof did not, this an oath did do; that which the
tyrant's wrath could not, this the necessity of keeping an oath did
effect. For when the tyrant was reprehended publicly in the
audience of all men, he bravely did bear the rebuke; but when he had
cast himself into the necessity of oaths, then did he cut off that
blessed head."

VI. Likewise the use of rash swearing will often engage a man in
undertakings very inconvenient and detrimental to himself. A man is
bound to perform his vows to the Lord, whatever they be, whatever
damage or trouble thence may accrue to him, if they be not unlawful.
It is the law, that which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep
and perform. It is the property of a good man, that he sweareth to
his own hurt, and changeth not. Wherefore 'tis the part of a sober
man to be well advised what he doth swear or vow religiously, that
he do not put himself into the inextricable strait of committing
great sin, or undergoing great inconvenience; that he do not rush
into that snare of which the wise man speaketh, "It is a snare to a
man to devour that which is holy (or, to swallow a sacred
obligation), and after vows to make inquiry," seeking how he may
disengage himself the doing which is a folly offensive to God, as
the Preacher telleth us. "When," saith he, "thou vowest a vow unto
God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay
that which thou hast vowed." God will not admit our folly in vowing
as a plea for non-performance; He will exact it from us both as a
due debt, and as a proper punishment of our impious folly.

For instance, into what loss and mischief, what sorrow, what regret
and repentance, did the unadvised vow of Jephthah throw him; the
performance whereof, as St. Chrysostom remarketh, God did permit,
and order to be commemorated with solemn lamentation, that all
posterity might be admonished thereby, and deterred from such
precipitant swearing.

VII. Let us consider that swearing is a sin of all others
peculiarly clamorous, and provocative of Divine judgment. God is
hardly so much concerned, or in a manner constrained, to punish any
other sin as this. He is bound in honour and interest to vindicate
His name from the abuse, His authority from the contempt, His holy
ordinance from the profanation, which it doth infer. He is
concerned to take care that His provid