An oath therefore accompanied, and guarded as it were by these conditions, is no doubt lawful, a position which is easily and satisfactorily established. The law of God, the purity and sanctity of which will not be questioned, [1] not only permits but commands such an oath to be taken: " Thou's halt fear the Lord thy God," says Moses, " and shalt serve him only, and thou shalt swear by his name:" [2] "All they," says David, " shall be praised that swear by him." [3] The inspired Volume also informs us, that the Apostles, whose bright example it can not be unlawful for Christians to follow, sometimes made use of oaths: they are recorded in the Epistles of St. Paul. [4] Even the angels have sometimes sworn: " The angel," says St. John in his Apocalypse, " swore by him who lives for ever." [5] In fine, God himself, the Lord of angels, has sworn, and, as we read in many passages of the Old Testament, has confirmed his promises with an oath. This he did to Abraham and to David; [6] and of the oath sworn by the Almighty David says: " The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." [7]
To him who considers the matter attentively and in all its bearings, its origin and its end, it can be no difficult matter to explain the reasons why the taking of an oath is not only lawful but even laudable. An oath has its origin in faith, by which we believe God to be the author of all truth, who cannot deceive or be deceived, " to whose eyes all things are naked and open," [8] who, in fine, superintends in an admirable manner all human affairs, whose providence governs the world: imbued with this faith we appeal to God as a witness of the truth, to whom it were wicked and impious not to yield implicit belief. With regard to the end of an oath, its scope and intent is to establish the justice and innocence of man, and to terminate disputes and contests: this is the doctrine of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews. [9] Nor does this doctrine at all clash with these words of the Redeemer, recorded in St. Matthew: " You have heard that it was said of old; thou shalt not commit perjury, but thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord: but I say to you not to swear at all; neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God; neither by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet; neither by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king: neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. Let your talk be yea, yea; no, no; and that which is over and above these is of evil." [10] It cannot be asserted that these words condemn oaths universally Its solution, and under all circumstances: we have already seen that the Apostles and even our Lord himself swore frequently: the object of the Redeemer was rather to reprove the perverse opinion of the Jews, which taught them to think that to justify the
