take it, and that confiscation of property and imprisonment would
ensue. But neither ill usage, nor imprisonment, nor loss of property,
ever made any impression upon the Quakers, so as to induce them to swear
in judicial cases, and they continued to suffer, till the legislature,
tired out with the cries of their oppression, decreed, that their
affirmation should in all cases except criminal, or in that of serving
upon juries, or in that of qualifications for posts of honour or
emolument under government, be received as equivalent to their oath. And
this indulgence towards them is continued to them by law to the present
day.

The Quakers have an objection to oaths, as solemn appeals to God,
because they are unnecessary.

It is an old saying among the Quaker writers, that "truth was before all
oaths." By this they mean, there was a time, when men's words were
received as truths, without the intervention of an oath. Ancient fable,
indeed, tells us, that there were no oaths in the golden age, but that,
when men departed from their primitive simplicity, and began to quarrel
with one another, they had recourse to falsehood to substantiate their
own case, after which it became necessary, that some expedient should be
devised, in the case of disputes, for the ascertaining the truth. Hence
Hesiod makes the god of oaths the son of Esis or of contention. This,
account differs but little from that of Polybuis, who says, that the use
of oaths in judgment was rare among the ancients, but that, as perfidy
grew, oaths increased.

And as it is a saying of the Quakers, that "truth was before all oaths,"
so they believe, that truth would be spoken, if oaths were done away.
Thus, that which is called honour by the world, will bind men to the