Among other precepts of good life (directing the practice of virtue
and abstinence from sin) St. James doth insert this about swearing,
couched in expression denoting his great earnestness, and apt to
excite our special attention. Therein he doth not mean universally
to interdict the use of oaths, for that in some cases is not only
lawful, but very expedient, yea, needful, and required from us as a
duty; but that swearing which our Lord had expressly prohibited to
His disciples, and which thence, questionless, the brethren to whom
St. James did write did well understand themselves obliged to
forbear, having learned so in the first catechisms of Christian
institution; that is, needless and heedless swearing in ordinary
conversation, a practice then frequent in the world, both among Jews
and Gentiles; the which also, to the shame of our age, is now so
much in fashion, and with some men in vogue; the invoking God's
name, appealing to His testimony, and provoking His judgment upon
any slight occasion, in common talk, with vain incogitancy, or
profane boldness. From such practice the Holy Apostle exhorteth in
terms importing his great concernedness, and implying the matter to
be of highest importance; for, [Greek], saith he, "(Before all
things), my brethren, do not swear;" as if he did apprehend this sin
of all others to be one of the most heinous and pernicious. Could
he have said more? would he have said so much, if he had not
conceived the matter to be of exceeding weight and consequence? And
that it is so, I mean now, by God's help, to show you, by proposing
some considerations, whereby the heinous wickedness, together with
the monstrous folly, of such rash and vain swearing will appear; the
which being laid to heart will, I hope, effectually dissuade and
deter from it.