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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. Exod. xx. 7.

People take the Name of God in vain, when they use or mention it for trifling and vain Purpofes; as many do in common Difcourfe, without any Occafion; and when it can only serve to fhew an Irreverence of the Great Jehovah, and to fet bad Examples to all that hear them:

But let fuch profane Sinners remember, that tho' they may escape Punishment from Men, yet the Lord will not hold them guiltless, and let them confider the tremendous Import of that Declaration.

It is yet a more aggravated Profaneness of the Name of God, when Men fwear falfely by it; because it is an impious Calling on God, or appealing to him, as Witness to a Falfehood, and is a concealing of Truth, or fomething which fhould be known, and is often injurious to others. It is fpeaking a Lye with an Oath.

Hear ye this-which fwear by the Name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Ifrael, but not in Truth, not in Righteoufnefs, faid the holy God to his People, Ifaiah xlviii. 1. Will ye fwear falfelyAnd come, and stand before me, and fay, we are delivered to do all thefe Abominations.-Behold, even I bath feen it, faith the Lord. Therefore I will caft you out of my fight. Jer. vii. 9, 11.

Becaufe of Swearing the Land mourneth, said the Prophet, Jer. xxiii. 10.

Hear the Word of the Lord, ye Children of Ifrael, (faid Hofea) for the Lord hath a Controverfy with the Inhabitants of the Land, because there is no Truth, nor Mercy, nor Knowledge of God in the Land. Therefore fhall the Land mourn. Hof. iv. 1, 3.

This is the Curfe that goeth forth over the Face of the whole Earth, for every one that ftealeth fhall be cut

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off, as on this Side, and every one that fweareth SHALL BE CUT OFF, as on that Side, according to it, it is faid, Zech. v. 3.

There is yet another, and a very dreadful Sort of profaning the Name of God, that is, when a Man, on any Provocation from another, fhall pray to God to damn him, or that the Plague may take him, or that fome other Evil may befal him.

This is a profane Practice, which not only tranfgreffes the Laws of God, which requires us to love our Enemies, to love all Men, to pray for them which defpitefully ufe us, but it is a treating God as if he was to fulfil their malicious Defires, and to make his Power to fubferve their immoral Wishes ; and fuch have abundant Reason to expect Punishment, when God vifits for Sin.

VII. PROFANERS of God's Sabbaths are another Sort of Sinners, which provoke God to fend deftroying Judgments.

The Sabbath is profaned, when People fall into a Dislike of it, and wilfully mifpend the Time of it, tranfgreffing thofe Laws, which require us to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, i. e. to employ it in religious Exercifes, except what Time must be taken up in the Works of Neceffity and Works of Mercy.

They who wilfully neglect the holy Convocation of People, appointed to be on the Sabbath, and will not give their Attendance on the Offices of the publick Worship of God, but tranfact their fecular Affairs, buy and fell, or receive or make Vifits of Entertainment, or take their Recreations and Pleafure on the Day, or fpend the Time in Idleness, are Profaners of the Sabbath.

Six Days fhalt thou labour, and do all thy Work, (i.e. about thy worldly Affairs) but the feventh Day

is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any Work, thou, nor thy Son, nor thy Daughter, nor thy Man-Servant, thy Maid-Servant, nor thy Cattle, nor the Stranger that is within thy Gates.

And the holy God fays, If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath, from doing thine own PleaJure on my holy Day, and (fhalt) call the Sabbath a Delight, the Holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt bonour him, not doing thine own Ways, nor finding thine own Pleafure, nor Speaking thine own Words. Then fhalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high Places of the Earth, and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father; for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Ifa. lviii. 13, 14.

It appears from thefe Paffages, that God does not allow us on the Sabbath, either to do any worldly Bufinefs, or to gratify ourselves even with thofe Recreations and Pleasures, which are lawful on other Days: It appears, that if we prize the Day of Sacred Reft, and take Delight in the religious Exercises of it, and abftain from our own fecularWorks, and Words, and Pleasures, we fhall then please our moft gracious God, and have his Bleffing upon us, and have his Bleffing manifested to us by kind Difpenfations of his Providence towards us: And it appears alfo, that if we allow ourselves to break his Laws concerning the Sabbath, we provoke his Wrath.

God hath promised to them that keep his Sabbaths, and choose the Things that please him, and take hold of his Covenant, that he will give them an everlasting Name, that shall not be cut off: That them who join themselves to the Lord to ferve him, and to love the Name of the Lord to be his Servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of his Covenant, even them will be bring to his holy Mountain, and make them joyful in bis House of Prayer. Read Ifaiah lvi. 4-8.

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Sacred Declarations, &c.

But moft tremendous are the Declarations of the righteous God against his own People for profaning his Sabbath.

That is an awful Declaration of the LORD of Hofts in Ezek. xx. 21.

They polluted my Sabbaths: Then I faid I would pour out my Fury upon them. And this Impiety is mentioned as one Caufe of deftroying Judgments, and of God's with-holding his Favour and Bleffing. V. 13, 10, 24.

This Irreligion is reckoned among the crying Sins of the Inhabitants of Jerufalem, (Ezek. xxii. 8.) Thou haft despised mine boly Things, and haft profaned my Sabbaths, faid the holy God.

And after the mentioning of their Provocations, God fays, (ib. v. 14.) Can thine Heart endure, or can thine Hands be strong in the Days that I fhall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. And I will fcatter thee among the Heathen, and difperfe thee in the Countries, and will confume thy Filthiness out of thee; ver. 16.

Many People break God's Sabbaths without Remorfe, because they meet with no Punishments from Men, and because the Judgments of God are not speedily executed; but they must not think to efcape fo in the Day of God's Vifitation for Sin: The Threatnings mentioned plainly fhew, that they fhall not escape.

I have, in the foregoing Particulars, confidered the Declarations of the righteous God concerning fome Sorts of Perfons who are wilful, ftubborn Tranfgreffors of one or other of the four first of the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus xx. and I intended to have related fome of the awful Things, which the Lord hath spoken in his Word of those, who live in wilful Difobedience to his other Commandments; but that what has been written may

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fooner get into the Hands of thofe whom it chiefly concerns, I thought it needful first to publish this Part of what I proposed to offer to the most serious Thoughts of People.

The DECLARATIONS of the Judge of the whole Earth, which have been related, are indeed full of doleful Tidings, Tidings which may juftly fill the Minds of People with an awful Fear and Dread of provoking the Divine Anger, and excite them to forfake their Sins.

Are not the Threatnings mentioned, the Threatnings of Almighty God, against thofe Sorts of Perfons, who are the Objects of them! And is not the Great God able to execute them! And will he not do fo, in cafe the Guilty remain incorrigible!

And when, in Way of his Providence, he proceeds to fulfil his Threatnings, can the guilty Sinners, against whom they are pronounced, expect to escape them? Can they fly from God? Can they get out of the Reach of his almighty Arm? Can they hide themselves, where he cannot find them? Can any bide himself in fecret Places, that I shall not fee him? SAITH THE LORD. Jer. xxiii. 24. He fall not be able to hide himself, fays God, Jerem. xlix.

10.

Every one has Reafon to fay unto God, as David did, P. cxxxix. 1. O Lord, thou haft fearched me, and known me-thou understandeft my Thought afar off-and art acquainted with all my Ways-For there is not a Word in my Tongue, but lo, O Lord thou knoweft it altogether.Whither fhall I go from thy Spirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy Prefence? If I afcend up into Heaven, thou art there: if I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art there. If I fay, furely the Darkness fall cover me; even the Night fhall be Light about me; yea, the Darkness hidelb not from thee.

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