No Man Obliged To Accuse Himselfe A Covenant to accuse ones Selfe, without assurance of pardon, is likewise invalide.  For in the condition of Nature, where every man is Judge, there is no place for Accusation:  and in the Civill State, the Accusation is followed with Punishment; which being Force, a man is not obliged not to resist.  The same is also true, of the Accusation of those, by whose Condemnation a man falls into misery; as of a Father, Wife, or Benefactor.  For the Testimony of such an Accuser, if it be not willingly given, is praesumed to be corrupted by Nature; and therefore not to be received:  and where a mans Testimony is not to be credited, his not bound to give it.  Also Accusations upon Torture, are not to be reputed as Testimonies.  For Torture is to be used but as means of conjecture, and light, in the further examination, and search of truth; and what is in that case confessed, tendeth to the ease of him that is Tortured; not to the informing of the Torturers:  and therefore ought not to have the credit of a sufficient Testimony:  for whether he deliver himselfe by true, or false Accusation, he does it by the Right of preserving his own life.

The End Of An Oath The Forme Of As Oath The force of Words, being (as I have formerly noted) too weak to hold men to the performance of their Covenants; there are in mans nature, but two imaginable helps to strengthen it.  And those are either a Feare of the consequence of breaking their word; or a Glory, or Pride in appearing not to need to breake it.  This later is a Generosity too rarely found to be presumed on, especially in the pursuers of Wealth, Command, or sensuall Pleasure; which are the greatest part of Mankind.  The Passion to be reckoned upon, is Fear; whereof there be two very generall Objects:  one, the Power of Spirits Invisible; the other, the Power of those men they shall therein Offend.  Of these two, though the former be the greater Power, yet the feare of the later is commonly the greater Feare.  The Feare of the former is in every man, his own Religion:  which hath place in the nature of man before Civill Society.  The later hath not so; at least not place enough, to keep men to their promises; because in the condition of meer Nature, the inequality of Power is not discerned, but by the event of Battell.  So that before the time of Civill Society, or in the interruption thereof by Warre, there is nothing can strengthen a Covenant of Peace agreed on, against the temptations of Avarice, Ambition, Lust, or other strong desire, but the feare of that Invisible Power, which they every one Worship as God; and Feare as a Revenger of their perfidy.  All therefore that can be done between two men not subject to Civill Power, is to put one another to swear by the God he feareth:  Which Swearing or oath, is a Forme Of Speech, Added To A Promise; By Which He That Promiseth, Signifieth, That Unlesse He Performe, He Renounceth The Mercy Of His God, Or Calleth To Him For Vengeance On Himselfe.  Such was the Heathen Forme, “Let Jupiter kill me else, as I kill this Beast.”  So is our Forme, “I shall do thus, and thus, so help me God.”  And this, with the Rites and Ceremonies, which every one useth in his own Religion, that the feare of breaking faith might be the greater.