The Privilege of our SAINTS In the business of PERJURY. Useful for GRAND-JURIES.  By the Author of HUDIBRAS. 

THat Saints may claim a Dispensation  
To Swear and Forswear on occasion,  
I doubt not but it will appear  
With pregnant light, the point is clear:  
Oaths are but words, and words but wind,  
Too feeble Implements to bind.  
And Saints whom Oaths or Vows oblige,  
Know little of their Privilege:  
Further, I mean, than carrying on  
Some self-advantage of their own:  
For if the Devil, to serve his turn,  
Can tell Truth, why the Saints should scorn  
When it serves theirs, to Swear and Lie,  
I think there's little reason why:  
Else h'has a greater power than they,  
Which 'twere Impiety to say.  
weare not commanded to forbear  
Indefinitely, at all to Swear,  
But to Swear idly and in vain,  
Without Self-interest or Gain.  
For breaking of an Oath, and Lying,  
Is but a kind of Self-denying;  
A Saintlike virtue, and from hence.  
Some have broke Oaths by Providence:  
Some, to the glory of the Lord  
Perjured themselves, and broke their word;  
And this the constant rule and practice  
Of all our late Apostles Acts is.  
Was not the Cause at first begun  
With Perjury, and carried on?  
Was there an Oath the Godly took,  
But in due time and place they broke?  
Did not our Worthies of the House,  
Before they broke the Peace, break Vows?  
For having freed us first from both  
Th' Allegiance and Supremacy Oath,  
Did they not next compel the Nation  
To take and break the Protestation?  
To take th' Engagement and disclaim it,  
Enforced by those who first did frame it?  
Did they not Swear at first to Fight  
For the King's Safety and his Right?  
And after marched to find him out,  
And charged him home with Horse and Foot;  
And yet still had the confidence  
To swear it was in his Defence.  
Did they not Swear to Live and Die  
With Essex, and strait laid him by?  
Did they not Swear to maintain Law,  
In which that Swearing made a Flaw?  
For Protestant Religion Vow,  
Which did that vowing disallow?  
For Privilege of Parliament,  
In which that Swearing made a Rent?  
And since, of all the three not one  
Was left in being, 'tis well known.  
Did they not Swear in express words,  
To prop and back the House of Lords?  
And after turned out the whole Houseful,  
Of Peers as dangerous and unuseful?  
This tells us plainly what they thought,  
That Oaths and Swearing go for nought.  
And that by them th'were only meant  
To serve for an expedient.  
Oaths were not purposed more than Law,  
To keep the Good and Just in awe,  
But to confine the bad and sinful,  
Like moral cattle in a Pinfold.  
A Saints of th' heavenly Realm a Peer;  
And as no Peer is bound to Swear,  
But on the Gospel of his Honour,  
Of which he may dispose as owner;  
It follows though the thing be forgery,  
And false, they affirm it is no Perjury,  
But a mere ceremony, and a breach  
Of nothing, but a form of speech,  
And goes for no more when 'tis took,  
Than mere saluting of the Book.  
Suppose the Scriptures are of force,  
They're but Commissions of course,  
And Saints have freedom to digress,  
And vary from 'em as they please,  
Or misinterpret them by private  
Instructions to all Aims they drive at;  
Then why should we ourselves abridge,  
And curtail our own Privilege?  
'Tis the temptation of the Devil  
That makes all humane actons evil:  
For Saints may do the same things by  
The Spirit in sincerity,  
Which other men are tempted to,  
And at the Devil's instance do;  
And yet the action be contrary,  
Just as the Saints and Wicked vary.  
But as on Land there is no Beast,  
But in some Fish at Sea's expressed,  
So in the Wicked there's no Vice,  
Of which the Saints have not a spice;  
And yet that thing that's pious in  
The one, in th' other is a sin.  
Is't not ridiculous and nonsense  
A Saint should be a slave to Conscience?  
That aught to be above such Fancies  
As far, as above Ordinances.  
The Rabbins write, when any Jew  
Did make to God or Man a Vow,  
Which afterwards he found untoward,  
And stubborn to be kept, or too hard,  
Any three other Jews o'th' Nation  
Might free him from the Obligation;  
And have not two SS— power to use  
A greater privilege than three Jews?  
The Court of Conscience which in man,  
Should be supreme and sovereign;  
Is't fit should be subordinate  
To every petty Court i'th' State,  
And have no power at all, nor shift  
To help itself at a dead lift?  
Why should not Conscience have Vacation,  
As well as other Courts o'th' Nation?  
Have equal power to Adjourn,  
Appoint Appearance and Return?  
Do not your Juries give their Verdict  
As if they felt the Cause not heard it?  
And as they please make matter of Fact  
Run all on one side as they're packed.  
When each man Swears to do his best  
To Damn and Perjure all the rest,  
And bids the Devil take the hindmost,  
Which at this Race is like to win most.  
Nature has made man's breast no windows  
To publish what he does within doors,  
Nor what dark Secrets there inhabit,  
Unless his own rash Folly blab it.  
If Oaths can do a man no good,  
In his own business, why they should  
In other matters do him hurt,  
I think there's little reason for't:  
He that imposes an Oath makes it,  
Not he that for convenience takes it:  
Then how can any man be said  
To break an Oath he never made?  
These reasons may perhaps look oddly  
To th' Wicked, though they evince the Godly  
For if we should defend the Cause  
By the strict Rule of Gospel-Laws,  
And only do what they call just,  
The Cause would quickly fall to dust.  
This we among ourselves may speak,  
But to the wicked or the weak  
We must be cautious to declare  
Perfection Truths, such as these are.    

London, Printed for Benj. took, 1681.