Wesley Corpus

“And the one hundred and ninth Canon binds you to pre sent all manner of vice, profaneness, and debauchery, requiring you faithfully to present all and every the offenders in adul tery, whoredom, drunkenness, profane swearing, or any other uncleanness and wickedness of life. It is therefore a part of that office to which you are solemnly sworn, to present, not only all drunkenness and tippling, but profane swearing, lewdness, and whatsoever else is contrary to Christian piety. So that if you know any of your parishioners, be his quality or cir cumstances what they will, that is guilty of any of these, you are obliged to present him at the next visitation, or you are yourselves guilty of perjury. And the twenty-sixth Canon expresses such an abhorrence of a Churchwarden's neglect in this matter, that it forbids the Minister, in any wise, to admit you to the holy communion, ‘who, as the words of the Canon are, ‘having taken your oaths to present all such offences in your several parishes, shall, notwithstanding your said oaths, either in neglecting or refusing to present, wittingly and will ingly, desperately and irreligiously, incur the horrid guilt of perjury.’” And who is clear? I appeal to every Minister of a parish, from one end of England to the other, how many Church wardens have you known, in twenty, thirty, forty years, who did not thus “desperately and irreligiously incur the horrid guilt of perjury?” 10. I proceed to perjuries of another kind. The oath taken by all Captains of ships, every time they return from a trading voyage, runs in these terms: “I do swear, that the entry above written, now tendered and subscribed by me, is a just report of the name of my ship, its burden, bulk, property, number and country of mariners, the present Master and voyage; and that it doth farther contain a true account of my lading, with the particular marks, num bers, quantity, quality, and consignment of all the goods and merchandises in my said ship, to the best of my knowledge; and that I have not broke bulk, or delivered any goods out of my said ship, since her loading in. So help me God.” These words are so clear, express, and unambiguous, that they require no explanation. But who takes this plain oath, without being knowingly and deliberately forsworn ? Does one Captain in fifty?