But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Ver. 37. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay] That is, as St Basil interpreteth it, yea in speech and yea in heart; nay in speech and nay in heart: or thus, let your common communication be plain, true, and sincere, that your bare word may be taken, without any further asseveration. Not but that asseverations may be lawfully used, as verily, truly, indeed, &c. Sed, parcius ista tamen, not frequently or slightly, but advisedly and seriously, as our Saviour. a If thou be a creditable person and hast made faith of thy fidelity, with Quod dixi, dixi, thy word will be taken. Or if it will not, that credit is dearly bought that is gotten by sin. Christ must be obeyed, though no man will believe us. But a good man's oath is needless, a bad man's bootless; for he that feareth not an oath, neither will he scruple a lie, but credit will follow honesty. b While therefore the communication is ours (as Christ here speaketh), that is, in our own power and of our own accord, "let our yea be yea, and nay, nay;" and let it appear that ordinarily and in common conversation our word is as soon to be taken as our oath. But when for the glory of God and clearing of the truth, an oath is required of us, then it is not our communication, but another's. And in this case, for the manifestation or confirmation of a needful but doubtful truth, an oath may be safely and boldly taken, for an end of controversies and satisfaction of neighbours, Hebrews 6:16; yea, we may lay it up among our best services, and expect a blessing upon it (if rightly taken, according to Jer 4:2) as well as upon hearing or reading, because it is an ordinance of God, Deuteronomy 10:20; Isaiah 65:16, &c. Some of the ancients, I confess, as Jerome, Theophylact, Chrysostom, were in the error, that the Lord did only permit swearing in the Old Testament (as he did divorcement that he approved not), and that in this text our Saviour did quite take it away. But Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. God's holy name is still to be sanctified by taking a religious oath, upon just occasion, sc. when either the magistrate imposeth it, or when some private person will not believe a necessary truth without an oath, and we cannot otherwise demonstrate it. Thus Jacob sware to Laban, Boaz to Ruth, Jonathan to David. And if it be lawful in private between two or more to admit God as a judge, why may he not as well be called as a witness? provided ever, that this be done warily and sparingly, using it not as food, but as physic, to help the truth in necessity. Our King Henry VI was never heard to swear an oath; his greatest asseveration being, Forsooth, forsooth, verily, verily. I myself have used, saith Latimer, in mine earnest matters, to say, Yea, St Mary, which indeed is naught. Among the very heathens, Ex animi sui sententia, In very deed, was instead of an oath.
For whatsoever is more cometh of evil] That is, of the devil. c That which St Matthew calleth the wicked one, Matthew 13:38; (the self-same word with that in this text), St Mark calleth Satan, and St Luke the devil. Now can any good come out of such a Nazareth? Swearing is the devil's drivel, and swearers the devil's drudges, acted and agitated by that foul fiend: and though they be not always drunk when they swear, yet they are not their own men. "For know ye not," saith that great apostle, "that his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" His work swearers do (as those Jews did in the Gospel, Joh 8:34), and his wages they shall receive, for they fall hereby into hypocrisy, as some copies have it (μη εις υποκρισιν), James 5:12, while they daily pray, But deliver us from that evil one, and yet entertain him by this sin: or rather, as other copies in our translation have it, they fall into condemnation. And at the last day, when the Master of the harvest shall gather out of his kingdom all such botches and scandals (τα ακανδαλα), Matthew 13:41; Matthew 13:50, he will say to the reapers, "Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in bundles" (swearers with swearers, drunkards with drunkards, &c., sinners of a kind with their fellow sinners), "and cast them into the fire, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Good, therefore, is the counsel of St James, "Above all things, my brethren, swear not;" whatever ye do, look to that: it is a senseless sin, and that which maketh the tongue to become, not a city, not a country, but a world of iniquity, James 3:6. It is the devil's hook without a bait, as having neither profit nor pleasure (many times) to draw to it, and that is no small aggravation. The devils fell without a tempter, and are therefore left without a Saviour. Other sinners usually kill not till provoked, steal not till forced, whore not till enticed. But what hath God done to these monstrous men, that they should thus fly in his face, chop (as much as they may) his heart in pieces, and upon every small occasion shoot such chain shot, as if they would make the windows of heaven to shake and totter? When Naboth was said to have blasphemed, Jezebel proclaimed a fast. When our Saviour was accused of that sin, the high priest rent his garments. When Rabshakeh had done it indeed, Hezekiah fell to his prayers, and humbled himself before God. Did these do thus for others, and wilt not thou do as much for thyself? God hath against thee, and is coming out armed with plagues and power. Oh, meet him upon the way, with entreaties of peace, as Abigail did David; as Jacob did Esau: quench his flames with floods of tears. Learn of Shimei (when he had reproached David, and knew himself obnoxious) to be with God with the first, as he was with the king, 2 Samuel 19:18,20; and as Joseph's brethren supplicated him for grace, whom they had reviled and misused, Genesis 50:17, do you the like. This do or you are undone for ever. This do, and do it seriously, and God must either forswear himself, or forgive thee thy swearing, if thou forego it.
a Gemina potius affirmatione et negatione utamur, quam Dei nomen usurpemus.
b Non ideo negare volo, ne peream, sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem; dixit femina quaedam in equuleo, apud Jerome.
c ' Ο πονηρος, that troublesome one, the troubler of the saints: qui negotium nobis facessit, a πενομαι πονος, πονηρος, malignus.