280 APPENDIX. 



seemingly heal miscarriages this way. He need 

 not spend much time in inquiry after such 

 helps; these declining ages will abundantly 

 furnish his invention, 



COLASTERION. 



An oath is, in itself, a religious affirmation, a 

 promise with God's seal ; and therefore it con- 

 cerns Christians to be cautelous before swear- 

 ing, to swear liquidly, and to observe conscion- 

 ably. It is a pity such slender evasions should 

 satisfy us, as have been scorned by heathens. 

 "We are bound (says one of them) to the sense 

 of the imposer, or else we do ^ev^o^ksTv ; we are 

 bound to the performance of what we have thus 

 sworn, or else we do iTrio^^iETv : it is much, that a 

 moral conscience should more check them, than 

 a clearer light can awe us : as if they more 

 honoured the genius of a Caesar, than we re- 

 verence the presence of a God : or else we 

 should never engage in new protestations that 

 do infer, yea, and sometimes positively quarrel 

 with old. They had their ©lo) iTno^ynoi, their 

 perjury-revenging Gods, to whose vindictive 

 power they referred their oifenders : they 

 punished such as swore falsely by their prince 

 with fustigation; but such as abused their 

 Gods, were left to the dispose of their injured 

 deities, as if they were at a loss how to find a 



