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or furrender; and the difference is, that the former fuppofe hoftilities to continue, the latter are calculated to terminate or fufpend them. In the conduct of war, and whilft the war continues, there is no use, or rather no place for confidence, betwixt the contending parties; but in whatever relates to the termination of war, the moft religious fidelity is expected, because without it wars could not ceafe, nor the victors be fecure, but by the entire deftruction of the vanquished.

Many people indulge in ferious difcourfe a habit of fiction and exaggeration, in the accounts they give of themselves, of their acquaintance, or of the extraordinary things which they have feen or heard; and fo long as the facts they relate are indifferent, and their narratives, though falfe, are inoffenfive, it may feem a fuperftitious regard to truth, to cenfure them merely for truth's fake.

In the first place, it is almoft impoffible to pronounce beforehand, with certainty, concerning any lie, that it is inoffenfive. Volat irrevocabile; and collects fometimes accretions in its flight, which entirely change its nature. It may owe poffibly its mifchief to the officioufnefs or mifreprefentation of those who circulate it; but the mifchief is, nevertheless, in fome degree, chargeable upon the original editor.

In the next place, this liberty in converfation defeats its own end. Much of the pleasure, and all the benefit of converfation, depends upon our opinion of the speaker's veracity; for which this rule leaves no foundation. The faith indeed of a hearer must be extremely perplexed, who confiders the speaker, or believes that the fpeaker confiders himself, as under no obligation to adhere to truth, but according to the particular importance of what he relates.

But befide and above both these reasons, white lies always introduce others of a darker complexion. I have feldom known any one who deferted truth in trifcs, that could be trufted in matters of importance.

Nice diftinctions are out of the queftion, upon occafions, which, like thofe of speech, return every hour. The habit, therefore, of lying, when once formed, is eafily extended to ferve the defigns of malice or intereft; like all habits, it spreads indeed of itself..

Pious frauds, as they are improperly enough called, pretended infpirations, forged books, counterfeit miracles, are impofitions of a more ferious nature. It is poffible that they may fometimes, though feldom, have been fet up and encouraged, with a defign to do good; but the good they aim at, requires that the belief of them should be perpetual, which is hardly poffible; and the detection of the fraud is fure to difparage the credit of all pretenfions of the fame nature. Christianity has fuffered more injury from this caufe, than from all other caufes put together.

As there may be falfehoods which are not lies, fo there may be lies without literal or direct falfehood. An opening is always left for this fpecies of prevarication, when the literal and grammatical fignifica tion of a sentence is different from the popular and cftomary meaning. It is the wilful deceit that makes the lie; and we wilfully deceive, when our expreffions are not true in the fenfe in which we believe the hearer to apprehend them. Befides, it is abfurd to contend for any fenfe of words, in oppofition to usage, for all fenfes of all words are founded upon ufage, and upon nothing elfe.

Or a man inay act a lie; as by pointing his finger in a wrong direction, when a traveller inquires of him his road; or when a tradefman fhuts up his windows, to induce his creditors to believe that he is abroad for to all moral purposes, and therefore as to veracity, fpeech and action are the fame; fpeech being only a mode of action.

Or, laftly, there may be lies of omiffion. A writer of English hiftory, who, in his account of the reign

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of CHARLES the Firft, fhould wilfully fupprefs any evidence of that prince's defpotic meafures and defigns, might be faid to lie; for, by entitling his book a Hiftory of England, he engages to relate the whole truth of the hiftory, or, at leaft, all that he knows of it.

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II. Signification.

III. Lawfulness.

LV. Obligation.

V. What Oaths do not bind.

VI. In what fenfe Oaths are to be interpreted.

I. The forms of oaths, like other religious cere monies, have in all ages been various; but confifting, for the most part, of fome bodily action, and of a prescribed form of words. Amongst the Jews, the juror held up his right-hand towards heaven, which explains a paffage in the cxlivth Pfalm-" whofe mouth fpeaketh vanity, and their right-hand is a righthand of falsehood." The fame form is retained in Scotland ftill. Amongst the fame Jews, an oath of fidelity was taken, by the fervant's putting his hand under the thigh of his lord, as Eliezer did to Abraham, Gen. xxiv. 2. from whence, with no great variation, is derived perhaps the form of doing homage at this day, by putting the hands between the knees, and within the hands of the liege.

It is commonly thought that oaths are denominated corporal oaths, from the bodily action which accompanies them, of laying the right-hand upon a book, containing the four Gofpels. This opinion, however, appears to be a mistake; for the term is borrowed from the ancient ufage of touching, upon chefe occafions, the corporale, or cloth which covered the confecrated elements.

Amongst the Greeks and Romans, the form varied with the fubject and occafion of the oath. In private contracts, the parties took hold of each other's hand, whilft they swore to the performance; or they touched the altar of the god, by whofe divinity they fwore. Upon more folemn occafions it was the cuf tom to fly a victim; and the beast being struck down, with certain ceremonies and invocations, gave birth to the expreffions Teμve opnov, ferire pactum; and to our English phrafe, tranflated from thefe, of "striking a bargain."

The forms of oaths in Chriftian countries are also very different; but in no country in the world, I believe, worfe contrived, either to convey the meaning, or imprefs the obligation of an oath, than in our own. The juror with us, after repeating the prom ife or affirmation, which the oath is intended to confirm, adds, "fo help me God;" or more frequently the fubftance of the oath is repeated to the juror, by the officer or magiftrate who administers it, adding in the conclufion, "fo help you God." The energy of the fentence refides in the particle fo; fa, that is, bác lege, upon condition of my fpeaking the truth, or, performing this promife, and not otherwife, may God help me. God help me. The juror, whilft he hears. or repeats the words of the oath, holds his right-hand upon a Bible, or other book, containing the four Gofpels. The conclufion of the oath fometimes runs, "ita me Deus adjuvet, et hæc fancta evangelia," or "fo help me God, and the contents of this book;" which laft claufe forms a connexion between the words and action of the juror, that before was wanting. The juror then kiffes the book: the kifs, however, feems rather an act of reverence to the contents of the book, as, in the popish ritual, the priest kiffes the Gospel before he reads it, than any part of the oath.

This obfcure and elliptical form, together with the levity and frequency with which it is administered,

has brought about a general inadvertency to the obli gation of oaths, which, both in a religious and political view, is much to be lamented; and it merits public confideration, whether the requiring of oaths on fo many frivolous occafions, efpecially in the cuf toms, and in the qualification for petty offices, has any other effect, than to make them cheap in the minds of the people. A pound of tea cannot travel regularly from the fhip to the confumer, without cofting half a dozen oaths at the leaft; and the fame fecurity for the due discharge of their office, namely, that of an oath, is required from a church-warden and an archbishop, from a petty conftable and the chief juftice of England. Let the law continue its own fanctions, if they be thought requifite; but let it fpare the folemnity of an oath. And where, from the want of fomething better to depend upon, it is neceffary to accept men's own word or own account, let it annex to prevarication penalties proportioned to the public mischief of the offence.

II. But whatever be the form of an oath, the fignification is the fame. It is "the calling upon God to witness, i. e. to take notice of what we fay; and it is invoking his vengeance, or renouncing his favour, if what we fay be falfe, or what we promife be not performed.".

III. Quakers and Moravians refufe to fwear upon any occafion; founding their fcruples concerning the lawfulness of oaths upon our Saviour's prohibition, Matth. v. 34. "I fay unto you, fwear not at all."

The anfwer which we give to this objection cannot be understood, without firft ftating the whole paffage: "Ye have heard that it hath been faid by them of old time, thou shalt not forfwear thyself, but fhalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I fay unto you, fwear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footftool; neither by Jerufalem, for it is the city of the

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