Matthew 5:34-36

Neither by heaven] As the Manichees and Pharisees did, and held it no sin. But God only is the proper object of an oath, Isa 65:16; Jer 12:6. The name of the creature, say some, may be inferred, the attestation referred to God alone. But they say better that tell us that the form of an oath is not at all to be indirect or oblique, in the name of the creature. Albeit I doubt not but he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by him that dwelleth in heaven, &c. And forasmuch as God clotheth himself with the creatures, Psa 104:1-2, is it fit for us to spit upon the king’s royal robes, especially when they are upon his back? But forasmuch as we must shun and be shy of the very show and shadow of sin, they do best and safest that abstain from all oaths of this nature, 1Th 5:22. They do very ill that swear by this light, bread, hand, fire (which they absurdly call God’s angel), by St Ann, St George, by our Lady, &c., by the parts of Christ, which they substitute in the room of God. The barbarous soldiers would not break his bones, but these miscreants with their carrion mouths rend and tear (oh cause for tears!) his heart, hands, head, feet, and all his members asunder. Let all such consider, that, as light a matter as they make of it, this swearing by the creature is a "forsaking of God," Jer 5:7, a provocation little less than unpardonable; an exposing God’s honour to the spoil of the creatures, which was the heathen’s sin, Rom 1:23; and abasing themselves below the meanest creatures, "for men verily swear by the greater," Heb 6:16. And the viler the thing is they swear by, the greater is the oath, because they ascribe thereto omniscience, power to punish, justice, &c., Amo 8:14; Zep 1:3-5; besides a heavy doom of unavoidable destruction denounced against such. They that speak in favour of this sin allege 1Co 15:31. But that is not an oath, but an obtestation; q.d. my sorrows and sufferings for Christ would testify, if they could speak, that I die daily. And that, Son 3:5, where Christ seemeth to swear "by the toes and hinds of the field." But that is not an oath either, but an adjuration: for he chargeth them not to trouble his Church; or if they do, the roes and hinds shall testify against them, because they do what those would not, had they reason as they have. In like sort Moses attesteth heaven and earth, Deu 32:1; and so doth God himself, Isa 1:2. And for those phrases, "As Pharaoh liveth," "As thy soul liveth," &c., they are rather earnest vouchings of things than oaths. {c} And yet that phrase of gallantry now so common, "As true as I live," is judged to be no better than an oath by the creature, Num 14:21; cf. Psa 95:11. And we may not swear in jest, but in judgment, Jer 4:2.

For it is God’s throne] We must not conceive that God is commensurable by a place, as if he were partly here and partly there, but he is everywhere all-present. The heavens have a large place, yet have they one part here and another there, but the Lord is totally present wheresoever present. Heaven therefore is said to be his throne, and he is said to inhabit it, Isa 66:1, not as if he were confined to it, as Aristotle and those atheists in Job conceited it; {d} but because there he is pleased to manifest the most glorious and visible signs of his presence, and there in a special manner he is enjoyed and worshipped by the crowned saints and glorious angels, &c. Here we see but as in a glass obscurely, his toe, train, hind parts, footstool. No man can see more and live; no man need see more here, that he may live for ever. But "there we shall see as we are seen, know as we are known," see him face to face, Isa 6:1; Isa 60:13; Isa 66:1; Exo 33:23; 1Co 13:12. Oh how should this fire up our dull hearts, with all earnestness and intention of endeared affection to long, lust, pant, faint after the beatifical vision! How should we daily lift up our hearts and hands to God in the heavens, that he would send from heaven and save us; send his law, and command deliverance out of Sion; yea, that himself would break the heavens and come down, and fetch us home upon the clouds of heaven, as himself ascended, that when we awake we may be full of his image, and as we have borne the image of the earthly, so we may bear the image of the heavenly! St Paul, after he had once seen God in his throne, being rapped up into the third heaven (like the bird of Paradise), he never left groaning out, Cupio dissolvi, " I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far far the better." {e} And Pareus, a little before his death, uttered this swan song,

" Discupio solvi, tecumque, o Christe, manere:

Portio fac regni sim quotacunque tui."

Oh that I were in heaven! Oh that I might

Be ever with the Lord! Oh blissful plight!

Thus must our broken spirits even spend and exhale themselves in continual sallies, as it were, and egressions of thoughts, wishings, and longings after God, affecting not only a union, but a unity with him. {f} St Austin wished that he might have seen three things, Romam in flore, Paulum in ore, et Christum in corpore: Rome flourishing, Paul discoursing, and Christ living upon the earth. But I had rather wish, with venerable Bede, "My soul desireth to see Christ my King upon his throne, and in his majesty." {g}

{a} Deiurando per creaturas, contra Lyram, et de iuramenti usu, contra Anabapt. videbis Pareum in Jacob, v. 12.

{b} Sunt qui altius linguas suas in Christi sanguine demergunt, quam illi olim manus.

{c} Non est forma iuramenti, sed asseverationis seriae, et obtestationis domesticae; q.d. quam vere vivit Pharao, &c. Alsted.

{d} Job 22:14. Docuit Aristoteles providentiam Dei ad coelum lutae usque protendi, non ultra.

{e} πολλω μαλλον κρεισσον. A transcendant expression, like that 2Co 4:17.

{f} Mi sine nocte diem, vitam sine morte quietam,

Dei sine fine dies. Vita, quiesque Deus.

{g} Anima mea desiderat Christum regem meum videre in decore suo. Beda.