The objection from God's oath in Numbers 14
The argument our opponents draw from Numbers 14 has no more force. There God is said to have sworn that he would bring his people into the land of Canaan, and yet, because of their sin and unbelief, he swears again that he will no longer do so: 'As I live, says the Lord, I will do to you just as you have spoken in my hearing. Your corpses will lie in this wilderness. None of you who were counted, from twenty years old and upward, and who grumbled against me, will enter the land I swore with raised hand to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.'
'For what man,' they ask, 'is so mad as to swear in earnest that he will do something he already knows full well he will not do, or for which he already has thoroughly established reasons why he will by no means do it? And what is more unworthy of God than to swear that he will do something only in words and not in intention?'
Latin
XVII. Neque majorem vim habet argumentum quod petunt illi quos impugnamus, ex libri Numerorum capite 14. Ubi dicitur Deus jurasse se introducturum populum suum in terram Canaan; & tamen propter ipsorum peccatum atque incredulitatem rursus jurat se non amplius id facturum. Vivo ego, ait Dominus, sicut loquuti estis audiente me, sic faciam vobis. In solitudine hac jacebunt cadavera vestra. Omnes qui numerati estis a viginti annis & supra, & murmurastis contra me, non intrabitis terram super quam levavi manum meam, ut habitare vos facerem, praeter Caleb filium Jephune, & Josue filium Nun. Quis enim, inquiunt, ex ipsis hominibus ita amens est, ut ex animo juret se aliquid facturum, quod se facturum minime esse jam probe novit, seu causas, cur id nullo modo facturus sit, jam exploratissimas habeat? Aut quid Deo indignius, quam se aliquid facturum jurare, non animo, sed verbis tantum?