16:7; Prey. 31:6; Deuteronomy 26:14; Josephus, Of the War B. III.
ch. 9. sect. 5.

(2) This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the
emperor's palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of
this temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly
agreeable to Augustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and from
Suttonius and Propertius.

(3) Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and
not Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out
of the Babylonian captivity, i.e. in the days of Ezra and
Nehemiah. The same thing is in the Antiquities, B. XI. ch.6

(4) This practice of the Essens, in refusing to swear, and
esteeming swearing in ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is
delivered here in general words, as are the parallel injunctions
of our Savior, Matthew 6:34; 23:16; and of St. James, 5:12; but
all admit of particular exceptions for solemn causes, and on
great and necessary occasions. Thus these very Essens, who here
do so zealously avoid swearing, are related, in the very next
section, to admit none till they take tremendous oaths to perform
their several duties to God, and to their neighbor, without
supposing they thereby break this rule, Not to swear at all. The
case is the same in Christianity, as we learn from the
Apostolical Constitutions, which although they agree with Christ
and St. James, in forbidding to swear in general, ch. 5:12; 6:2,
3; yet do they explain it elsewhere, by avoiding to swear
falsely, and to swear often and in vain, ch. 2:36; and again, by
"not swearing at all," but withal adding, that "if that cannot be