oaths. Is it possible, they say, that Jesus Christ would have left it to
Christians to imagine, that their words were to be doubted on any
occasion? Would he have left it to them to think so dishonourably of one
another, or of their new vocation, that their words were to be tried by
the touchstone of oaths, when his religion was to have a greater effect
than any former system of morality ever known, in the production of
truth? Is it possible, when oaths sprung out of fraud and falsehood, as
he himself witnesses, (for whatever is more than yea and nay, cometh of
evil) that he would have left this remnant of antiquity standing, as if
his religion was not intended to extirpate the very ground-work of it?

Finally, the Quakers are confirmed in their ideas upon this subject from
a belief that oaths were to cease, either at the coming of Jesus Christ,
or as men became Christians. For, in the first place, the oath "by the
name of God," is considered by some, as I have before noticed, to have
been permitted to the Jews during their weak state, that they might not
swear by the idols of their cotemporary neighbours, and thus lose sight
of the only and true God. But what Christian stands in need of any
preservative against idolatry, or of any commemorative of the existence
and superintendence of an almighty, wise, beneficent, and moral Governor
of the world? Some again have imagined, that, as the different
purifications among the Jews, denoting the holiness of God, signified
that it became men to endeavour to be holy, so the oath "by the name of
God," denoting the verity of God, signified, that it became men to
devote themselves to the truth. But no true Christian stands in need of
such symbols, to make him consider his word as equivalent to his oath.
Others again have imagined, that the oath "by the name of God," typified
the truth, or the eternal word. But as the type ceases when the
antitype appears, so the coming of Jesus Christ, who in the gospel
language is called both the truth and the eternal word, may be
considered as putting an end to this, as to other types and shadows, of
the Jewish church.

CHAP. III.

SECT. I.

_War--Tenet on war--Quakers hold it unlawful for Christians to
fight--Scriptural passages, which they produce in support of this
tenet--Arguments which others produce from scriptural authority against
it--Reply of the Quakers to these arguments._

The next of the great tenets which the Quakers h