10. That our Lord does not here forbid, the _swearing in judgment and truth_, when we are required so to do by a magistrate, may appear, 1. From the occasion of this part of his discourse, the abuse he was here reproving, which was false swearing and common swearing; the swearing before a magistrate being quite out of the question. 2. From the very words wherein he forms the general conclusion, _Let your communication_, or discourse, _be yea, yea; nay, nay_. 3. From his own example; for he answered himself upon oath, when required by a magistrate. When [66]_the high priest said unto him, I adjure thee by the living_ God, _that thou tell us, whether thou be the_ Christ, _the Son of_ God? _Jesus_ immediately answered in the affirmative, _Thou hast said_ (i.e. the truth). _Nevertheless_ (or rather, _Moreover_) _I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven_. 4. From the example of God, even the Father, [67]who _willing the more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath_. 5. From the example of St. _Paul_, who, we _think had the Spirit of_ God, and well understood the mind of his master. [68]God _is my witness_, saith he, to the _Romans, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers_: to the _Corinthians, [69]I call_ God _to record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth_: and to the _Philippians_. [70]God _is my record, how greatly I long after you, in the bowels of_ Jesus Christ. (Hence it undeniably appears, that if the apostle knew the meaning of his Lord’s words, they do not forbid swearing on weighty occasions, even to one another: how much less before a magistrate?) And lastly, from that assertion of the great apostle, concerning solemn swearing in general, (which it is impossible he could have mentioned without any touch of blame, if his Lord had totally forbidden it) [71]_Men verily swear by the greater_, (by one greater than themselves) _and an oath for confirmation is to them the end of all strife_.
11. But the great lesson which our blessed Lord inculcates here, and which he illustrates by this example, is, that God is in all things, and that we are to see the Creator in the glass of every creature; that we should use and look upon nothing as separate from God, which indeed is a kind of practical atheism; but with a true magnificence of thought, survey heaven and earth and all that is therein, as contained by God in the hollow of his hand, who by his intimate presence holds them all in being, who pervades and actuates the whole created frame, and is, in a true sense, the soul of the universe.