UNLAWFUL OATHS.

235

served by it, can ever justify our swerving at all from truth, either in giving evidence, or in entering into engagements. Nor must we think, in such cases, to come off with equivocations, evasions, and quibbles, and imagine it innocent to deceive in this way.

One thing more should be added here, for it cannot well be mentioned too often, that next to false swearing, false speaking and lying, whether in what we assert, or what we promise, is a grievous sin, and hateful to God and man; though we do not call on our Maker to be witness, yet he is a witness of whatever we say, and it is presumptuous wickedness to utter an untruth in the presence of the God of truth. It is also at the same time very hurtful to other persons, and very foolish with respect

to ourselves.

538. (b.) This precept is violated not only by false swearing, or perjury, but in other ways: as when we swear implicitly, without knowing beforehand the nature and extent of the obligation, as in the case of Jepthah; when we swear lightly and irreverently, using the name of God with as little respect as we would show to that of a man; when we do not regard the mind or obvious intention of the imposer of the oath, but substitute a meaning of our own as a subterfuge under which we may escape from the understood obligation; when we swear to what we know to be impossible, or what we know to be sinful; when we swear, in doubt with respect to the practicability or the lawfulness of the action to which we bind ourselves; when we swear to release ourselves from a previous obligation, as some of the Jews professedly devoted their property to God, that they might be relieved from the duty of supporting their parents.

539. (c.) Another way of taking God's name in vain is, when we swear by it needlessly, though it be not falsely; for this also the words in vain signify.

(1.) One way of doing so, is by rash and inconsiderate vows; for a vow, being a promise made solemnly to God, partakes of the nature of an oath. There may sometimes be good reasons for entering into such an engagement; but vowing to do what there is no use of doing, is trifling with our Creator. Making unlawful vows, is directly telling him we will disobey him. Making such as are difficult to keep, is leading ourselves into temptation;

236

PROFANE SWEARING.

and, indeed, making any without much thought and prudent advice first, usually proves an unhappy snare. The vow of entire consecration to God, however, should be made and observed by all; and that comprehends all that can lawfully be made.

(2.) Another very needless, and always sinful use of God's name, is by oaths in common discourse. Too many are there who fill up with them a great part of their most trifling conversation, especially in their animated moods of feeling.

Now it is unavoidable, that persons who are perpetually swearing must frequently perjure themselves. But were that not the case, it is great irreverence, upon every slight thing we say, to invoke God for a witness, and mingle his holy and reverend name with the most idle things that come out of our mouths.

And what makes this practice the more inexcusable, is, that we cannot have either any advantage from it, or any natural pleasure in it. Generally, it is nothing more than a silly and profane custom, inconsiderately taken up; and there are the strongest reasons for laying it down immediately.

540. Beside what have been mentioned, there are other considerations, which evince the folly and criminality of profane swearing.

(1.) It causes us to be disliked and abhorred by all good persons, and even by all persons of good-breeding only; and it scarcely recommends us to the vicious generally.

(2.) No person is the sooner believed for his frequent swearing in conversation: on the contrary, a modest and serious affirmation is always much more regarded.

(3.) If swearing be affected as becoming, it is certainly quite otherwise, in the highest degree. The very phrases used in it, as well as the occasions on which they are used, are almost constantly absurd and foolish; and surely profaneness can never lessen the folly.

It is also acknowledged to be disrespectful to the company in which they are used: and if regard to their earthly superiors can restrain persons from swearing, why should not the reverence, due to our heavenly Father, do it much more effectually.

(4.) The indulgence of this vicious habit wears off, by

PROFANE SWEARING.

237

degrees, all sense of religion, and of everything that is good.

A King reproved for Profane Swearing.

66

541. A king was riding along in disguise, and seeing a soldier at a public door, stopped and asked the soldier to drink with him, and while they were drinking the king swore. The soldier said, "I am sorry to hear young gentlemen swear." His majesty took no notice, but swore again. The soldier said, "I'll pay part of the pot, if you please, and go, for I so hate swearing that if you were the king himself I would tell you of it." "Should you, indeed?" said the king. I should," said the soldier. A while after, the king having invited some lords to dine with him, the soldier was sent for, and while they were at dinner he was ordered into the room to wait a while. Presently the king uttered an oath; the soldier immediately, but modestly said, "Should not my lord and king fear an oath ?" The king, looking first at the soldier, said: "There, my lords, is an honest man; he can respectfully remind me of the great sin of swearing, but you can sit and let me stain my soul by swearing, and not so much as tell me of it."

542. In view of such kind of swearing, the language of the great teacher is: "But 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 by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King: neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”—Matt. v. 34–36.

That is, avoid, not only the grosser oaths, but all the silly refinements and softenings of them, which men have contrived, in hope to make them seem innocent: for, though the name of God be not expressed, yet, if it be implied by mentioning something relating to God, instead of himself; indeed, whatever form is used, the intent is the same, and it will have the effect of bringing into familiarity and contempt a sacred obligation.

It appears that such oaths as our Savior specified above were frequent among the Jews; and our Lord, in forbidding these, condemns all similar oaths, such as

those which are current among Christians who swear by their faith, their truth, their conscience, and, in popish countries, by the saints.

There are occasions upon which it is right and dutiful in us to use an oath, as we have shown; but in our daily talk with each other, it is our Savior's peremptory precept, Swear not at all; and it is a rule so evidently right and important, that even heathens have strictly enjoined and followed it, to the shame of too many who call themselves Christians.

543. (d.) A crime, similar to that of common swearing, is committed when men utter impious and horrid imprecations or curses upon themselves or upon others; or, on the other hand, when, without the slightest feeling of devotion, they call upon Him to bless, preserve, or help them. To wish the heaviest judgments of God, and even eternal damnation to a person, on the slightest cause, or none at all; to wish the same to ourselves, if some trifling thing that we are saying be not true, which frequently, after all, is not true, amounts to the most desperate impiety, if men, using this language, consider what they say. And though they do not, it is even then thoughtlessly treating God, and his laws, and the awful sanctions of them, with contempt; and blotting out of their minds all serious regard to subjects that will one day be found most serious things.

544. (e.) Beside the offenses already mentioned, this precept forbids all indecent and unfit use of God's name, the name of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, in our discourse, though it be not in swearing or cursing; all accusations of Providence; all reflections against Scripture, and all contempt and ridicule with a view of undermining its divine authority; all dishonorable thoughts of God, and all sneering at his public or private worship, and at the religious ordinances he has appointed; all irreverent and flippant sayings concerning God's nature and attributes, his actions and commands. In short, it forbids the profanation or abuse of anything by which he has made himself known.

545. (f.) The treatment of Christianity in the writings and discourse of many of its adversaries, can be regarded in no other light than as a gross violation of the Third Commandment.

PROFANE TREATMENT OF CHRISTIANITY.

239

While we would have freedom of inquiry restrained by no laws but those of decency, we are entitled to demand, on behalf of a religion which holds forth to mankind assurances of immortality, that its credit be assailed by no other weapons than those of sober discussion and legitimate reasoning that the truth or falsehood of Christianity be never made a topic of raillery, a theme for the excrcise of wit: that the cause be tried upon its merits: that all attempts to preoccupy, ensnare, or perplex the judgment of the reader by any art or influence, extrinsic to the proper grounds upon which his assent ought to proceed, be rejected from a question which involves in its determination the hopes, the virtue, and the repose of millions : that the controversy be managed on both sides with sincerity; that is, that nothing be produced, in the writings of either, contrary to, or beyond the writer's own knowledge and persuasion: that objections and difficulties be proposed from no other motive, than an honest and serious desire to obtain satisfaction, or to communicate information which may promtoe the discovery and progress of truth.

546. We shall now show in what an opposite and profane manner the Christian religion has been treated by its adversaries.

(1.) By one unbeliever, all the follies which have adhered, in a long course of dark and superstitious ages, to the popular creed, are assumed as so many doctrines of Christ and his apostles, for the purpose of subverting the whole system by the absurdities which it is thus represented to contain.

(2.) By another, the ignorance and vices of the sacerdotal order, their mutual dissensions and persecutions, their encroachments upon the intellectual liberty and civil rights of mankind, have been displayed with no small triumph and invective; not so much to guard the Christian laity against a repetition of the same injuries (which is the only proper use to be made of the most flagrant examples of the past), as to prepare the way for an insinuation that the religion itself is nothing but a profitable fable, imposed upon the fears and credulity of the multitude, and upheld by the frauds and influence of an interested and crafty priesthood. And yet how remotely is the character of the clergy connected with Christianity!