is this which is here spoken? and for what reason is it in the form of a “sickle,” and that a “flying sickle,” that vengeance is seen to pursue the swearers? In order that thou mayest see that the judgment is inevitable, and the punishment not to be eluded. For from a flying sword some one might perchance be able to escape, but from a sickle, falling upon the neck, and acting in the place of a cord,1642 no one can escape. And when wings too are added, what further hope is there of safety? But on what account doth it pull down the stones and the wood of the swearer’s house? In order that the ruin may be a correction to all. For since it is necessary that the earth must hide the swearer when dead; the very sight of his ruined house, now become a heap, will be an admonition to all who pass by and observe it, not to venture on the like, lest they suffer the like; and it will be a lasting witness against the sin of the departed. The sword is not so piercing as the nature of an oath! The sabre is not so de- structive as the stroke of an oath! The swearer, although he seems to live, is already dead, and hath received the fatal blow. And as the man who hath received the halter,1643 before he hath gone out of the city and come to the pit,1644 and seen the executioner standing over him, is dead from the time he passed the doors of the hall of justice: so also the swearer. 14. All this let us consider, and let us not put our brethren on oath. What dost thou, O man? At the sacred table thou exactest an oath, and where Christ lies slain, there thou slayest thine own brother. Robbers, indeed, murder on the highways; but thou slayest the son in the presence of the mother: committing a murder more accursed than Cain himself; for he slew his brother in solitude and only with present death; but thou slayest thy brother in the midst of the church, and that with the deathless death that is to come! For think you that the church was made for this purpose, that we might swear? Yea, for this it was made, that we might pray! Is the Table placed there, that we may make adjurations? It is placed there to this end, that we may loose sins, not that we may bind them. But thou, if thou heedest nothing else, reverence at least that book, which thou reachest forth in putting the oath; and 444 open the Gospel, which thou takest in hand when thou biddest swear; and when thou hearest what Christ there declares concerning oaths, shudder and desist! What then does He there say concerning oaths? “But I say unto you, Swear not at all.”1645 And dost thou convert the Law1646 which forbids swearing into an oath. Oh, what contempt! Oh, what outrage! For thou doest just the same thing as if any one should bid the lawgiver, who prohibits murder, become himself a party to the murder. Not so much do I lament and weep, when I hear that 1642 From its hooked shape: ξίφος is rather the pointed weapon for stabbing; μ€χαιρα the edged weapon for cutting. 1643 σταρτίον. 1644 β€ραθρον. Into which his body would be thrown. 1645 Matt. v. 34. 1646 Upon oaths, see Bingham, b. xxi. c. vii. sec. 4, sqq., who however does not mention this use of the altar. 650 Homily XV