Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/282

184 Against the Protestants, when th' happen To find their churches taken napping. As thus: a breach of oath is duple, And either way admits a scruple, And may be, ex parte of the maker, More criminal than the injur'd taker; For he that strains too far a vow, Will break it, like an o'er-bent bow: And he that made, and forc'd it, broke it, Not he that for convenience took it. A broken oath is, quatenus oath, As sound t' all purposes of troth, As broken laws are ne'er the worse, Nay, 'till they're broken, have no force. What's justice to a man, or laws, That never comes within their claws? They have no pow'r, but to admonish; Cannot control, coerce, or punish, Until they're broken, and then touch Those only that do make them such. Beside, no engagement is allow'd, By men in prison made, for good; For when they're set at liberty, They're from th' engagement too set free. 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: