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SERMON XV.

THE EXTENT AND SANCTION OF THE THIRD
COMMANDMENT.

EXOD. XX. 7.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

THE foundation of true religion is laid in a right knowledge of God and ourselves. How deficient we are in each of these, how far fallen from original righteousness, is strongly implied in this prohibition; which would be wholly unnecessary, if we were not wholly sunk in stupidity and wickedness. That such worms as we should be liable to trifle with the Divine Majesty, whose presence fills the heaven and the earth, before whom the angels hide their faces; that such frail dependent creatures have need to be cautioned, that we do not profane 'the name of the God in whom we live, and move, and have our being, is a striking proof of our depravity; and that we can dare to break through this caution, and slight the awful threatening with which it is closed, is a dreadful aggravation of our guilt.

These words when first spoken to the Israelites, were delivered in flames and thunder. The mountain shook; the people trembled; and even Moses, who had been honoured with peculiar freedom of access to God, was constrained to cry, "I exceed

ingly fear and quake*.” Such a scene, or rather infinitely more dreadful, shall hereafter take place, "when the Lord himself shall again descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; when he shall be revealed in flaming fire, to take vengeance of all who know him not, and obey not his Gospel †.” "Then shall sinners be convinced not only of their ungodly deeds, but of all their hard speeches which they have spoken against him ;" and they shall know the full meaning of that terrible exception which I have read, "that the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

The terms of my text require little explanation. The name of God is in every one's mouth, upon one occasion or other, in places where his revealed will is known. In a more eminent and peculiar sense his name is discovered to his believing people in Christ Jesus the Lord; those who know the name § of God in Christ will put their trust in him; they dare not, they cannot blaspheme that holy name by which they are called. But I shall take it more extensively here; for though but few understand the name of God in an evangelical and saving sense, there is not a person in this assembly but knows and makes mention of his holy name, so far as to render them transgressors of this commandment. To take his name in vain, is to use it falsely or profanely; inconsiderately, without due reverence; or unprofitably, and without a suitable necessity. The sanction, "The Lord will not hold him guiltless," has indeed a meaning and emphasis beyond what is expressed. Similar forms of speak

* Heb. xii. 21.
‡ Jude 15.

+ 1 Thess. iv. 16; 2 Thess. i. 8.
$ Psal. ix. 10.

ing are frequent in Scripture; as, "The Lord will not spare that man*;" that is, he will punish him to the utmost; for it is immediately added, "All the curses of this book shall come upon him." Again, "He spared not the angels;" that is, he shewed them no mercy, as the following words declare : "He spared not the old world;" he visited them with utter destruction, and swept them all away with a flood. So, "he will not hold him guiltless," implies two things: 1st, That the Lord God has appointed a day to call sinners to an account for their words, as well as their actions. 2dly, That whatever shall become of others, those who have presumed to take his name in vain have their doom already determined. Whoever escapes, they shall surely be punished; whomever he acquits, he will certainly condemn them.

As the import of the expressions is not difficult, so likewise it will be far more easy than agreeable to point out some of the many ways in which this commandment is customarily and carelessly broken. The law in general, and each particular precept, is spiritual †, and perhaps this will be found of a more extensive signification than some of you are aware. The delightful theme of a minister of the Gospel is to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified; to open the treasures of Divine mercy, and to shew the grace, freeness, and security of the promises; to raise up them that fall, to strengthen those that stand; "to support the weak, to comfort the feeble-minded; to preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ‡." But these sub

* Deut. xxix. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5.

1 Thess. v. 14; Luke iv. 18.

+ Rom. vii. 14.

jects do not comprise the whole of our message; and, in general, we find, that the full soul loatheth the honey-comb*; and multitudes, through ignorance of the spirituality and purity of God's holy law, and a partial judgment of their own hearts, can neither see the beauty nor the necessity of the Gospel-salvation. We are therefore constrained frequently to insist on far less pleasing subjects, to lift up our voices like a trumpet †, to demand a general attention while we attempt to shew our hearers their transgressions and their sins, that we may thereby make the doctrine of the cross of Christ welcome and desirable. It is painful to the patient, and, without doubt, unpleasing to the humane artist, to probe a deep and dangerous wound; but necessity commands, and, without it, a complete and lasting cure is not to be expected.

1. The first and most direct way in which the name of God is taken in vain, is by perjury; that is, when he is expressly appealed to in confirmation of what is false, or when engagements are made as in his name and presence, which are not strictly and literally complied with. I need not take up your time in proving, that this is a sin of a deep dye in itself, and attended with peculiar aggravations under the light of the Gospel; and I wish it was more difficult to prove the frequency of it in our land; but this likewise is as obvious as the light. I have sometimes met with a random assertion, that though we are wicked enough, we are not worse than other countries. In other things I am content to wave the parallel; but with respect to the sin of perjury, I fear we are much worse than any nation now under the sun,

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perhaps worse than any that the sun ever saw. I am afraid, there are more and more daring instances of this wickedness amongst us than in all the rest of Europe. By an unhappy kind of necessity it is interwoven, as it were, with the very constitution of the body politic, and diffuses itself like a deadly contagion amongst all orders and ranks of people. Oaths are so excessively multiplied, and so generally neglected, that it is equally difficult and rare for a person to engage through a course of years, in any kind of employment, either civil or commercial (O that it stopped even here!) without being insnared. Some are so expressed, that it is morally impossible to comply with them; others so circumstanced, that they are usually swallowed without the remotest design of regarding them, either in whole or in part. If here and there a few make conscience of their engagements, and are desirous to perform to the Lord their oaths*, or decline taking such as open a door either to honour or profit, so strong is the torrent the other way, that it is well if they escape the charge of singularity and preciseness. Though wickedness of every kind too much abounds amongst us, perjury is perhaps peculiarly and eminently our national sin and I tremble to think it is so; for it gives too just a ground to fear the approach of national judgments. Surely all who have any regard for the honour of God, any sense of the worth of souls, will pray earnestly that this iniquity may not be our ruin, but that the Lord would be pleased to inspire and succeed the most proper means for the removal, or at least the mitigation, of this evil. This would be an event

*Matth. v. 33.

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