Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether [there be any] truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye [are] spies.
Ver. 16. By the life of Pharaoh surely, &c.] See how easily sin entereth twice, where it had once entered. "Be not overcome of evil." Rom 12:21 Some swear, and find it not; they would be sorry their excrements should pass from them, and they feel it not. Oh, cross this ill custom; and though ye cannot so soon turn the stream, yet swim against it. It is the devil that saith unto thee, as those Jews did to Pilate; "Do as thou hast ever done." Mar 15:8 God also will answer such, when they plead for their swearing, that they have got a custom, and cannot leave it; as the judge did that thief that desired him to spare him, for stealing had been his custom from his youth. The judge replied, it was also his custom to give judgment against such malefactors, therefore he must be condemned, a "Swear neither by heaven, nor by earth, lest ye fall into condemnation," saith St James Jam 5:12 to the converted Jews. This they had learned of the Pharisees, to whom it was familiar to swear by creatures. Mat 5:34 And though now converted, they could not leave it: but they must, or be damned for it, choose them which, as the apostle there assures them. b And whereas such kind of oaths are now grown a piece of gallantry, and such as cannot swear them are thought to want the tropes and figures befitting a gentleman, God will deal with such as that judge did with one that pleaded for his life that he might not be hanged, because he was a gentleman; he told him, that therefore he should have the gallows made higher for him: so shall these have a deeper damnation, because better bred, and should have kept a better watch; as that martyr told the swearing Bishop Bonner. c
a Barker, On the Commandments.
b Hoc κακοηθες a iudaismo conversis tenaciter ahdaerebat. - Pareus, in Jac., v. 12.
c "You keep a good watch, my lord." - Act, and Mon.