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THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

516. Does this commandment, as some suppose, forbid the practice of the arts of sculpture and painting?

517. What does this commandment prohibit?

518. What considerations show the reasonableness of this prohibition in the second precept, and the folly and absurdity of the practice against which it is directed?

519. What is known concerning the use of images among the early heathens?

520. What may be assigned as perhaps the principal reason why anyrepresentation of God is forbidden in this commandment?

521. Have not some maintained that the second precept only forbids the making and worshiping the representations of false gods; and is not this a correct view of the subject?

522. Is it proper to make representations of Jesus Christ?

523. Does the second precept virtually extend its prohibition to any thing beside visible representations of the true God?

524. What images are there of God, which we may legitimately employ as means of promoting a more just knowledge and worship of God? 525. What does this precept require?

526. What are the ordinances of religion which God has established; or what are the means, in the use of which He has authorized and commanded us to worship him?

527. In what words is the sanction of this precept conveyed?

528. Of what parts does this sanction consist, and what is its probable import ?

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

"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."

529. THE name of any person is that which distinguishes him from other individuals; so the name of God is that which distinguishes him from other beings; as God, Lord, the Almighty, &c.

530. To take this name, is to use it in discourse; to take it in vain, is to use any of the titles or designations of the Divine Majesty, for trifling, vain, and evil purposes; it is also, to treat any displays of his character with levity, profaneness, or irreverence.

I. The Nature and Lawfulness of Oaths.

531. Oaths are one particular form of using the name of God; or the name of God is used in swearing by it. As a simple declaration may not be deemed sufficient, when the character of the speaker is unknown, his motives are suspected, or the matter is of too much importance to be lightly determined, men have been accustomed to demand the confirmation of it by an oath, that is, by an appeal to God, as the witness of our veracity, and the Judge who will punish us if we are guilty of falsehood.

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532. Some have denied the lawfulness of an oath, and have affirmed that it is sinful to swear upon any occasion; but the following arguments may be adduced in refutation of this opinion:

(1.) Among the Israelites, the custom of swearing upon solemn occasions existed, and is constantly taken for granted in the Old Testament. Oaths are there commanded as a part of the usual judicial procedure; thus, Exodus xxii. 11, "If a man deliver unto his neighbor, &c., then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both."

(2.) The Scriptures give directions how to swear, viz., in truth, judgment, and righteousness.

(3.) In Psalm xv. 4, it is mentioned among the characters of a good man, that he sweareth to his hurt, and changeth not.

(4.) The denunciation of God's anger against false swearing, implies a sanction of swearing, when truly employed.

(5.) We cannot suppose God to disapprove of the practice, when he is repeatedly represented as himself having sworn an oath to Abraham, to David, and to the people of Israel on various occasions.

(6.) The command, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," implies that the name might be used on fitting and important occasions; and the command is adapted to keep up the solemn reverence for the thought of God, which an oath implies.

(7.) If it be objected, that what was tolerated under the old dispensation, has been prohibited under the new, it is to be observed that there are good examples of swearing, on important occasions, to be found in the New Testament, as well as in the Old.

When Paul says, "I call God for a record upon my soul:""God is my witness :" "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost," his language, in all these instances, and particularly in the last two, amounts to an oath.

Our Savior recognized the lawfulness of an oath, when one having been administered to him, according to the form of his country, he broke the silence which he had hitherto observed, and answered the question of the high priest. Matt. xxvi. 63.

It is impossible to understand the words of the apostle

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in any other way than as a sanction of the practice, when he says, "Men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife."

533. A difficulty here occurs. Our Savior (Matt. v. 34) says, "Swear not at all," and the apostle James reiterates the same prohibition. But it is a misapprehension of our Savior's words to consider them as an absolute prohibition of an oath; because it is plain, from his own illustration, that he meant only to forbid the practice of swearing in common conversation, and particularly of swearing by creatures. The forms of swearing mentioned, were not used in judicial swearing, or in civil courts; and hence our Savior must refer to swearing on common occasions, without necessity, without reverence for God.

As with regard to retaliation, to divorce, to honoring of parents, to angry expressions, the Jewish teachers had made subtile distinctions as to what was and was not a transgression of the law, while they had neglected the spirit of the law; so with regard to swearing. The trivial and thoughtless use of forms of swearing had become common, and the teachers had laid down rules as to which of these forms were binding, and which were not so. In this, as in the other cases, Christ rejects these distinctions, and says of such cases (Matt. v. 34), "I say unto you, swear not at all." That this is the import of his words is plain from the course of teaching in this place. He had said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets;" but he would have been engaged in destroying them if he had forbidden judicial oaths, for the law enjoined them, as we have seen.

[See Whewell's Elements of Morality.] 534. The inquiry here must be answered, When may an oath be administered, and how should it be taken? We answer

(1.) An oath should be sworn only on such occasions as call for this solemnity,-about matters of importance, and with respect to which satisfaction cannot be otherwise obtained. God is too great and awful a being to be appealed to as a witness for every trifling purpose.

(2.) An oath should be taken with external and internal reverence, and be regarded not as a mere ceremony, but as a religious institution, which places us

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in the immediate presence of the Judge of men and angels.

(3.) We should be fully acquainted with the subject of an oath; for to swear to anything of which we are ignorant, or about which we are in doubt, is at once to deceive men, and to set at naught the divine omniscience.

(4.) We should take an oath according to the obvious meaning of it, in the sense in which it is understood by those who administer it, to the exclusion of all private interpretations, and all mental reservations.

(5.) We ought to be sincere in giving a promissory oath, having a fixed intention to perform what we pledge ourselves to do, and never thinking ourselves released from the obligation, except by such a change of circumstances as renders it physically impossible to redeem our pledge, or would make it sinful to do so, because some other duty of paramount authority has intervened. It is plain, therefore, that we should never bind ourselves by oath to do anything which we know to be morally wrong, anything which would impede our duty to God, or to such of our fellow-men as have a prior claim to our service and obedience.

II.-Prohibitions in this Precept.

535. (a.) The first and highest offense against this precept is perjury: when we swear by the name of God falsely. For vanity, in Scripture, frequently means something which is not what it would appear; and hence, using God's name, in vain, or to vanity, principally signifies, applying it to confirm a falsehood. Doing this deliberately is one of the most shocking crimes of which we can be guilty. For taking an oath is declaring solemnly, that we know ourselves to be in the presence of God, and Him to be witness of what we speak it is appealing to Him, that our words express the very of our minds, and renouncing all title to his mercy, if they do not. In other sins, men endeavor to forget God; but perjury is daring and braving the Almighty to his very face; bidding him take notice of the falsehood we utter, and do his worst.

truth

536. We commit perjury, (1.) if ever we swear that we do not know or believe what indeed we do; or that we do know or believe what indeed we do not; if ever,

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being under oath, we mislead those whom we ought to inform; and give any other than the most exact and fair account that we can, of any matter concerning which we are examined.

(2.) We commit perjury, if we promise, under oath, to do a thing, without firmly designing to do it; or if we promise not to do a thing, without firmly designing to abstain from it. Nay, further: provided the thing which we promise be lawful, if we do not ever after take all the care that can reasonably be expected to make our promise good, we are guilty of perjury, and of living in it, so long as we live in that neglect.

If, indeed, a person has sworn to do what he thought he could do, and it proves afterward, unexpectedly, that he cannot, he is chargeable only with mistake, or inconsiderateness at most.

(3.) If we either promise, or threaten, anything which we cannot lawfully do, the making of such a promise is a sin, but keeping it would be another, perhaps a greater sin; and, therefore, it innocently may, and in conscience ought to be broken; but if we have promised what we may lawfully, but only cannot conveniently perform, we are by no means on that account released from our engagement; unless either we were unqualified to promise, or the person to whom we have engaged voluntarily sets us at liberty; or the circumstances of the case be plainly and confessedly such, that our promise was not originally designed to bind us in them.

537. Enough has been said to show that perjury is the most direct and gross affront to God, for which reason it is forbidden in the first table of the law; but beside this, it inflicts the greatest injury upon our fellow-creatures, on which account it is prohibited in one of the laws of the second table.

If persons will assert falsely, upon oath, no one knows what to believe; no one's property, or life, is safe; no one can know whom to trust; all security of government and of human society, all mutual confidence in trade and commerce, in every relation and condition, is utterly at an end. With the greatest reason, therefore, are perjured wretches abhorred of all the world.

No interest of our own, no kindness or compassion for other persons; no turn or purpose whatever to be

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