[3] "Again, ye have heard, that it hath been said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine
oaths."

[Footnote 3: Matt. v. 33.]

"But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, because it is
God's throne."

"Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem, for 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."

"But let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is
more than this cometh of evil."

It is said by those, who oppose the Quakers on this subject, that these
words relate, not to civil oaths, but to such as are used by profane
persons in the course of their conversation. But the Quakers deny this,
because the disciples, as Jews, must have known that profane swearing
had been unlawful long before this prohibition of Jesus Christ. They
must relate, therefore, to something else, and to something, which had
not before been forbidden.

They deny it also on account of the construction of the sentences, and
of the meaning of the several words in these. For the words, "Swear not
at all," in the second of the verses, which have been quoted, have an
immediate reference to the words in the first. Thus they relate to the