falsehood? No man's innocence, no man's character, no man's estate, no man's life, would be safe for an hour. Who would sleep in his bed in peace that reflected he was in danger of being called out to prison, and perhaps to death, upon the accusation of a false witness; and that, since the obligation of oaths was held no longer sacred, false witnesses were to be procured in every street of a city? We read of something of the kind in the last stage of prophecy, in the state at which some nations arrived before their destruction; and a dismal state of affairs it was. It supplied the place of murder and robbery, when men could take away the lives and fortunes of another by false swearing. This they may always do. Courts of justice, be they ever so honest or so vigilant, cannot help it, for they must trust to oaths of witnesses; for what else, what higher tie upon the consciences of men, can they trust to? So that it is truly said that every man's estate or life is in the power of perjury to take away; and this is true in our own country as much as in any other.

The point we laid down was, that there is good reason to believe that God will punish false swearing with greater severity than a simple falsehood; and we have evidence to prove that it is in reality a greater crime.

But further it is to be observed, in the third and last place, that God, in the Old Testament, directed the Israelites to swear by his name, and the priests to require upon some occasions an oath of the person to be examined; and moreover, to show the immutability of his own counsels, he solemnly confirmed his covenant with that people by an oath. None of these things, it is probable, he would have done, had he not intended that oaths should have some meaning and effect beyond the obligation of a bare word or promise; which effect must be owing to the severer punishment with which he will hereafter vindicate the authority of oaths.

XVII.

PROFANE SWEARING.

EXODUS 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.

In all cases whatever, where there is an express command, it is best, in my opinion, to set off with the command, and to let it come fairly to be tried what the strength of the command whether men will take upon them to set aside the authority of God's commandment or not.

is;

Now in the case of profane swearing, there is a positive and express command extant. There neither is, nor ever was, a doubt but that the command reaches the case. There neither is, nor ever was, a doubt but that the case of profane swearing constituted a direct and positive violation of the command. There may be, and there are, various ways of taking God's name in vain, but it never has been disputed that profane swearing is one of them.

There is no swearer, then, who does not knowingly violate the divine command, and who therefore has not this question to ask himself; Whether he be safe while he is going on in a continued breach of one of God's commandments? That is precisely his situation; and if he can draw, either from sound reason or from scripture, good authority for believing that to be a safe situation, then he may be at ease; if he cannot, then has he the condemnation of a transgressed and despised command to look forward to. It does not seem a case, either for evasion, for doubt, or indeed for much reasoning. The command is clear, if commands can be clear. The transgression is also clear.

And in this respect it goes beyond some other duties, and some other sins, in the clearness of the command and the clearness of the transgression; for which reason, although it may be true, and perhaps is true, that the most ignorant persons are the most guilty of this practice, yet it is a case in which ignorance is little or no excuse. Were it a deep or abstruse case, were it a case of much argument or reasoning, were it a case which called for learning, or research, or inquiry, or knowledge, to come to any certainty about it, great apologies might be made

for ignorance, great allowance to the want of education or of opportunity, from which the ignorance proceeded. But nothing of this sort can be pleaded. Here is a plain command, and a plain transgression. The ignorant man knows this as well as the wise. It is a rule for all. God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain,' is a judgment pronounced for all mankind. The most illiterate understands it, the most learned does no more.

If any questions have been ever raised upon this command, such as whether taking any oath, or upon any occasion, be consistent with it, more especially as it is recognised and applied by our Saviour, they are questions in which the profane swearer has no concern. This case is clearly within the law. It is nothing to him whether other cases be so or not.

I have said, here is a plain transgression of a plain command; and of what sort of a command? Let that be considered. Let it be considered under what circumstances, with what distinguishing force, with what extraordinary and prodigious solemnity, the ten commandments, of which this is one, were: delivered; what reverence they are entitled to from all who reverence God. With those who think that God is not to be reverenced, who do not reverence him in any thing, I have no: concern. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow; and be ready against the third day, for the third day the Lord will come down, in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled; and Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the Mount; and Mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice. And God spake all these words.' 'These words,' saith Moses,' the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the Mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.'

Now of commands so delivered, so pronounced, accompanied with such terrible preparation and solemnity, is any one to

be made a sport of? Is it to be a diversion, a mirth, to treat one such command with insult and contempt, and with the very highest degree of both? Yet is it not true, that Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,' is one of these commands; and is it not true, that it is thus treated? I speak not, as I said before, to those who think that God is not to be reverenced at all, or who do not reverence him in any thing, but to others do I speak, and most especially to all young persons. What a beginning is this, of a religious course of life? It is impossible, in the nature of things, that any serious sentiments of religion, any impressions, any conversation, any practice, any thing that resembles a religious character, or approaches to it, can grow out of such an origin.

But it may be said that this was spoken to the Jews, and not to the Christians. Hear how that matter stands; '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, because thou canst not make one hair white or black; but let your communication be yea, yea, or nay, nay, for whatever is more than these, cometh of evil.' These are the words of Christ himself, whereby it appears most indisputably, that he adopts the third commandment in its full extent, and according to the spirit, as well as the letter of it. So far from superseding or weakening its authority, he adds to it his own; 'I say unto you, swear not at all.' So far from confining its extent, he rather enlarges it; that is, he interprets it according to its spirit as well as its letter; from the name of God he extends it to every thing which relates to God. This excuse, therefore, does not come well from the mouth of any Christian whatever, namely, that the commandment was spoken only to the Jews; for Christ, the author of our religion, has explicitly adopted it, in all its force, in all its obligation, and in all its extent. What Christ himself began upon this head, the apostles continued; Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath.' Here is the very same strain of admonition as our Lord had used, clear, positive, decisive; and this is from St James.

Am I not well warranted, therefore, in asserting concerning profane swearing, that there is a clear command, and a clear transgression? But will any one reply by asking, What is a command without a reason? I will judge the strength of the command by the weight of the reason, when I know it. Is this a reply from a creature to his Creator, from dust and ashes to

Omnipotence, from ignorance itself to Him who knoweth all things, from weakness and impotency to the ruler of the world? Is the command itself nothing? Is not the command itself sufficient; above all reasons or arguments whatever sufficient ; a command so pronounced, so ratified; proceeding from such authority, delivered with such solemnity; so decisive in its prohibitions, so clear in its signification ?

The reason, nevertheless, is the strongest of all reasons; to uphold, namely, in the minds of men, a reverence for their Creator. Such is human nature, such is the constitution of the human mind, that what is treated externally, that is, by words or by behaviour, with levity and giddiness and contempt, loses its force and impression internally. It is so in all cases; it is remarkably so in the present. How stands the fact in men addicted to swearing? Are they men who live under an inward conscientious awe of God Almighty; a sense of his "infinite adorable nature, of his constant presence, of his bounty or his goodness, of his power or his authority, his close relation to us, our absolute dependence upon him? If these things be true, are they not things which should possess the mind?` But is it possible that a mind possessed with such thoughts should allow itself without any shock in the practice of swearing? Is outward profaneness consistent with inward piety? Can they, do they in fact and in experience, subsist together in the same person? That I take to be the exact question. If it be true, either that a deep, a just, a rational piety, even without the smallest tincture of enthusiasm or melancholy, must and actually will produce a seriousness of outward demeanour with respect to these subjects, at least to a degree sufficient to check both presumptuous contempt and heedless levity, of which contempt and levity a surer evidence and indication cannot be given than by common swearing, in any form of it and under all forms, for though forms of swearing be more or less shocking, they are in their view alike; or if on the other hand it be true, that the habit and practice of swearing will eat out, in young minds most particularly, all reverence for God Almighty, dissipate all good impressions, produce an incapacity for devotion, either public or private, and at last bring them to an impious boldness, to a casting off of all awe of God's judgments, of all regard and respect to him; then undoubtedly there was not only reason, but the highest of all reasons, for laying a restraint upon licentiousness so pernicious in its consequences; and the same, nay indeed much greater reason, for obeying that law, and that injunction by which it was laid. Depend upon it,