* As God is true.' The apostle here seals it with an oath.
"What is an oath ?
An oath is a religious calhng of God to witness, or to be a judge in doubtful things.
It is in doubtful things a caUing of God to be a witness of the truth we speak, and to be a revenger if we speak not true. It is to call God to wit- ness and to judge, to make him testis et vindex. St Paul here calls God to
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witness, * God is tnio,' and as verily as he is true, ' our word to you was not yea and nay.'
You know oaths arc either, as we say, assrrtonj, to aver a thing ; or pro- missori/, for the time to conic to do this or that ; and they are either im- posed or vohmtary. Now this is an asscrtorif oath, not a provimonj. He avers and avoucheth peremptorily, that as God is tnie, his word to them was not ' yea and nay, but yea.' And it was a vohmtary oath ; for nobody exacted it of liim. 13ut lie saw there was a necessity to stabhsh them in the certainty of tlie doctrine he taught, to seal it with an oath, that they should as well doubt of the truth of God, as of his doctrine. ' As God is true, my word is true.'
Jeremiah the prophet hath three conditions of an oath, * It must be in truth, in righteousness, and in judgment,' Jer. iv. 2.
hi truth. We must speak and swear true things.
And ill jt(rlf/))ii')it ; necessary things, with discretion.
And ill ri(/ht('omness.
Now St Paul observed the conditions wondrous well here. For St Paul doth it in a true matter, and in judgment ; for he was forced to it.
An oath is never good but when it is necessary ; not to seal up every idle discourse, as if men would make everything they say to be as true as an oath. Indeed, the life of a man should be an oath. The life of an honest man is an oath, as true ; but we must not call God to question for every idle impertinent thing. St Paul saw it necessary to call God to wit- ness ; it v/as true and necessary.
I will not enter into a large discourse of an oath, because afterward I shall have better occasion to speak of it. Only thus much at this time : St Paul here useth it. He thinks it to be necessary, to establish their minds the better in his ministry, and a good conceit of it that it was constant. ' God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.'
Therefore, in such a case we may not make scruple of an oath, if it be
In chariti/, jiietij^ necessity.
In chariti/ ; in matters of controversy of civil life.
In jyitity ; to establish matters of religion.
And in matters of necessity, that cannot be determined otherwise, there is no scruple to be made of it.
And where we are bid ' not to swear at all,' Mat. v. 34, that is, not in ordinary course ; or not to swear by creatures ; but if we do swear, it is a part of God's service, we must swear by him. And, indeed, it is a service of God, and to good purpose, when Christians swear to stablish and deter- mine truths that otherwise are doubtful.
They were doubtful of St Paul's doctrine and his person. Saith he. To put you out of doubt of the truth I speak to you, I dare call God to wit- ness it is true and sound. The apostle doth so once after in this chapter. Therefore I reserve the further handling of an oath to verse 23d, because the word there is more infallible,* ' I call God to record upon my soul,' &c.
The next thing I observe hence is this, that
Obs. The believing that God's word is God's word, and is certain, it is a matter of great consequence.
It is of great consequence, for God's people that look to be saved, to be stablished in their opinion and judgment of divine truth, that it is certain, and not flexible and mutable, according to our wills, and conceits, and dis- positions, but is ' yea,' alway the same, as God himself, the author of it. * That is, ' explicit, unmistakeable.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 18. 359
For laying this for a gi-ound, that I said before, that St Paul takes God to witness, he would not interpose an oath, but in a matter of great conse- quence ; therefore, it is a matter of great consequence to be settled in this, that the Scriptux'e is divine truth, unalterable and unchangeable.
An oath is never good, as I said, but when it is necessary. It must not only be in truth, but there must be a necessity. It must not only be taken in righteousness, but in judgment ; a man must do it in discretion, when the thing is not determinable any other way. Therefore it is a matter of great consequence, that men take the word of truth not to be as the oracles of Apollo and of the devil, time one way, and false another (kkk). The devil would escape the imputation of a lie, though he be a liar ; but God's oracles be divine, they be ' yea.' And it is good that we think them to be so, to be constant, undoubted, certain, and unmovable. Therefore the apostle seals it with an oath. He would not seal a slight truth by an oath, but saith he, ' As God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay,' &c.