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according to the law of nature 123 Resolutions of a Community41 are to be kept from publick Knowledge, we may raise false Rumours in order to conceal ’em, and to mislead the importunate Curiosity of others; or, if we have an Enemy, whom by open Force we cannot Annoy, we may, by way of Stratagem, make Use of any lying Tales to do him Mischief. On the other side, if any Man be bound in Duty to signifie plainly his true Meaning to another, he is not without Blame, if he discover only a part of the Truth, or amuse him with ambiguous Discourse, or use some mental Reservation not allow’d in the common Conversation of Men. u c h a p t e r x i u The Duty of those which take an Oath All Men agree in the Opinion, That an Oath gives a great additional Confirmation to all our Assertions, and to those Actions which depend upon our Discourse. An Oath is, *A Religious Asseveration, by which we disavow the Divine Clemency, or imprecate to our selves the Wrath of God if we speak not the Truth. Now when an All-wise and an Almighty Witness and Guaranty is invok’d, it causes a strong Presumption of the Truth, because no Man can easily be thought so Wicked, as to dare rashly to call down upon himself the grievous Indignation of the Deity. Hence it is the Duty of those that take an Oath, To take the same with awful Reverence, and religiously to observe what they have sworn. 41. This is Tooke’s English euphemism for Pufendorf’s arcana reip[ublicae], appropriately translated by Barbeyrac as secrets de l’Etat (secrets of state). *Compare herewith the whole 13th Chapter of the 2d Book of Grotius de Jure, &c. X. Equivocation and mental Reservation . L. N. N. l. 4. c. 1. §14. I. An Oath. L. N. N. l. 4. c. 2. 124 the whole duty of man Now the End and Use of an Oath is chiefly this, To oblige Men the more firmly to speak the Truth, or to make good their Promises and Contracts out of an Awe of the Divine Being, who is infinitely Wise and Powerful; whose Vengeance they imprecate to themselves when they Swear, if they wittingly are guilty of Deceit; whereas otherwise the Fear of what Men can do may not be sufficient; because possibly they may have Hope to oppose or escape their Power, or to beguile their Understandings . Since GOD alone is of infinite Knowledge and of infinite Power, it is a manifest Absurdity to swear by any other Name but the Name of GOD only; that is, in such a Sense, as to invoke it for a Witness to our Speech, and for an Avenger of our Perjury: But if in the Form of Oaths any other Things, that we hold Dear, or have in Veneration or Esteem, be mention’d, it is not to be understood that such Things are invok’d as Witnesses to our Truth or Avengers of our Falsehood; but GOD only is herein invok’d, with a Desire, that if we swear falsely, he would be pleas’d to punish our Crime, in these Things especially for which we are most nearly and tenderly concern’d. In Oaths the Form which is prescrib’d, (by which the Person swearing invokes GOD as a Witness and an Avenger) is to be accommodated to the Religion of the said Swearer; that is, to that Persuasion and Opinion of GOD which he is of. For ’tis to no Purpose to make a Man swear by a God, whom he does not believe, and consequently does not fear. But no Man supposes himself to take an Oath in any other Form, nor under any other Notion, than that which is consonant to the Precepts of his Religion, which, in his Opinion, is the true. Hence also it is, that he who swears by false Gods, which yet himself takes to be true ones, stands obliged, and if he falsifies is really guilty of Perjury; because whatever his peculiar Notions were, he certainly had some Sense of the Deity before his Eyes; and therefore by wilfully forswearing himself he violated, as far as he was able, that Awe and Reverence which he ow’d to Almighty GOD. II. The End and Use. III. Swearing by what. L. N. N...

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