under the sun, 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 ( that it stopped even here!) without being ensnared. 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 judgements. 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. * Matth. v. 33. This would be an event worthy to stand in the annals of the happy times and auspicious government under which we live. 2. And though the matter of an oath be strictly true, yet if it is not transacted with a serious acknowledgement and homage of that divine Being to whom appeal is made; such an oath, however lawful and necessary it may be in itself, is, with regard to all such thoughtless triflers, no better than taking the name of God in vain. It cannot but be grievous to every serious mind, to observe the little reverence and solemnity, or rather the total want of common decency, which too frequently prevails among us in this respect; so that sometimes it is not easy to say, whether those who tender the oath, or those who take it, seem least in earnest. Without doubt this indifference may be assigned as one cause of the increase and prevalence of perjury. If those who are authorized to require or receive those solemn appeals, were themselves impressed with a due reverence of the awful majesty of God, and were solicitous to inspire all who came before them with the same sentiments, and would remind them (those especially who appear very positive and unguarded) of the impiety and danger of swearing falsely, it is possible many mischiefs would be prevented. Some persons would probably tremble and start back from the first temptation to this wickedness; and others might be deterred from persisting in it, who, for want of such admonitions and examples, and because they never saw any solemnity observed, precipitately rush upon this enormous evil, and are at length given up to a dreadful habit of wilful and corrupt perjury. 3. If an oath lawful and necessary in itself may thus become criminal through inconsideration, what shall we say of the throng of profane swearers, who wound our ears, and pollute our language, by a horrid mixture of execrations and blasphemies, in their common conversation? "Their throats are an open 46 sepulchre; their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness, the poison of asps is under their lips *." This I have to say from the word of God, that the Lord will not hold them guiltless. In vain their thoughtless plea, that they mean no harm; in vain their presumptuous comparison of themselves with others, as though these were trivial escapes that did not affect the peace of society. If these were small sins singly, their frequency would swell to a vast amount but is it indeed a small sin to rush against the thick bosses of God's buckler, and to despise so terrible a threatening as this? Surely, "the plague shall never depart from the house of the swearer." "As "he clothed himself with cursing like as with his gar"ment so it thall enter into his bowels like water, and "like oil into his bones †." A habit of swearing is a sure sign, not only of an unsanctified heart, but of a conscience hardened, and, as it were, seared with a hot iron, callous, and quite insensible. 66 4. Some persons who scruple expressly to mention the name of God, accustom themselves to swear by his creatures, by the heavens, by the light, or by their own souls, &c. But that this likewise is a direct violation of the law, and exposes to the same penalties, we are assured by him who best knew how to explain his own commands. Our Lord determines this point in his sermon on the mount, so as not to leave the possibility of a doubt. " I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne: nor by the earth, "for it is his footstool.Neither shalt thou swear by "thy head, because thou canst not make one hair "thereof white or black *" "And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth "therein; and he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth there"ont." "But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh "of evil." This decision evidently condemns, not only what is usually deemed swearing, but the whole multitude of idle expletives, whether fashionable or vulgar, which have the force of affirmations in common discourse. Will any who live in a Christian country, and have the Bible at hand, think to plead ignorance of these things in the great day? 5. If I should stop here, some of you would applaud yourselves, and perhaps not be displeased with me for what I have hitherto said. Some who think themselves clear thus far, will join with me in saying, "Because of swearing, the land mourns t." But are there no other ways of taking the name of God in vain? Yes; many do it as often as they pray; and it is easily proved against numbers who join in our established worship. Let each one consider with what dispositions and desires they have engaged in the service we have already gone through this day. Our mouths have all spoken the same things; but have they been the language of our hearts? In the confession we acknowledge that "there is no health in us," and speak as if we were true penitents. In the commu * Matth. v. 34-36. + Matth. xxiii. 21, 22. 66 nion-service, we cry for mercy as miserable sinners; we pray that the "thoughts of our hearts may be "cleansed by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit; that "we may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his "holy name;" and for this we appeal to God, as "to "whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid." More than a few of you, at certain seasons, publicly declare, that "the remembrance "of your sins is grievous, and the burden of them is in"tolerable." Now, what apprehensions can such of you have of God as can dare to use this solemn language, when your hearts mean no such thing? Is not this to take his name in vain, in the grossest manner? Is it not plain that you think him altogether such a one as yourselves; nay, more easily imposed upon, and more safely to be trifled with, than a fallible mortal? Strange it is to think, that many can, not only content themselves with this lip-service, but make it the meritorious ground of their hope, and conceit themselves religious because they come so often to church to mock the power that made them! But hardly can any wickedness be imagined more daring, and more dreadfully provoking to the Most High, than such a religion as this. To all such worshippers I may address those striking words of St. Peter to Ananias, "Thou hast not "lied unto men, but unto God t." 6. The whole lives of those who live in the allowed practice of known sin, under the profession of the Christian name, may be considered as one continual breach of this command. In all you say and do, you blaspheme that holy name by which you are called; and still more so, if you are declared friends and fa |