$ 50. Worship and Honour of God. Our next duty to God is to worship him, A give him thanks, to put our whole truft in him, and to call upon him. bodily diftrefs. And it cannot afford the means of happinefs, and of fecurity, to the body, how much lefs can we fuppofe it able to afford them to the foul Nothing then, we fec, in this world, is a Since the abfervance of the fabbath is fufficient foundation for trift: nor indeed can founded upon many wife and just reafons, any thing be but Almighty God, who affords what have they to anfwer for, who not only us the only means of happiness, and is our neglect this inftitution themselves, but bring only real refuge in diftrefs. On him, the it by their example into contempt with others? more we truft, the greater we thall feel our I fpeak, not to thofe who make it a day of fecurity; and that man who has, on just recommon diverfion; who, laying afide all de-ligious motives, confirmed in himself this ency, and breaking through all civil and re- truft, wants nothing else to fecure his happiligious regulations; fpend it in the most lines. The world may wear what afpect it centious amufements: fuch people are paft all reproof: but I fpeak to thofe, who in other things profefs themselves to be ferious people; and, one might hope, would act right, when they were convinced what was fo. will: it is not on it that it depends. As far as prudence goes, he endeavours to avoid the evils of life; but when they fall to his share (as fooner or later we must all fhare them) he refigns himfelf into the hands of that God who made him, and who knows beft how to difpofe of him. On him he thoroughly depends, and with him he has a conftant interBy putting our truft in God, is meant de-courfe by prayer; trufting, that whatever pending upon him, as our happiness, and our refuge. But our prayers, whether in public, or in private, are only an idle parade, unless we put our trust in God. happens is agreeable to that juft government, which God has eftablifhed; and that, of confequence, it must be beft. We are injoined next "to honour God's holy name." The name of God is accompanied with fuch ideas of greatnefs and reverence, that it fhould never pafs our lips without fuggefting thofe ideas. Indeed it thould never be mentioned, but with a kind of awful hesitation, and on the moft folemn occafions; either in ferious discourse, or, when we invoke God in prayer, or when we fwear by his name. Human nature is always endeavouring either to remove pain; or, if cafe be obtained, to acquire happinefs. And thofe things are certainly the moft eligible, which in thefe refpects are the most effectual. The world, it is true, makes us flattering promifes: but who can fay that it will keep them? We confift of two parts, a body, and a foul. Both of these want the means of happiness, as well as the removal of evil. But the world cannot even afford them to the body. Its means of happiness, to those who depend upon them as fuch, are, in a thousand inftances, unfatis-injoined to honour the name of God. A fofying. Even, at beft, they will fail us in the lemn oath is an appeal to God himself; and end. While pain, difcafes, and death, fhew is intitled to our utmost refpect, were it only ts, that the world can afford no refuge against in a political light; as in all human concerns In this laft light we are here particularly is the ftrongeft teft of veracity; and has been approved as fuch by the wildom of all sations. Some religionifts have difapproved the ufe of caths, under the idea of prophancnefs. The language of the facred writers conveys a differem idea. One of them fays, " An oath for confirmation is an end of all ftrifeanether," I take God for record upon my fout:" and a third," God is my witness." To the ufe of oaths, others have objected, that they are nugatory. The good man will fpeak the truth without an oath; and the bad man cannot be held by one. And this would true, if mankind were divided into good and bad: but as they are generally of a mixed character, we may well fuppofe, that many would venture a fimple falfehood, who would yet be startled at the idea of perjury. As an oath therefore taken in a folemn manner, and on a proper occafion, may be confidered as one of the highest acts of religion; fo perjury, or falfe fwearing, is certainly one of the highest acts of impiety; and the greatest dishonour we can poffibly fhew to the name of God. It is, in effect, either' denying our belief in a God, or his power punith. Other crimes wifh to cfcape the tice of Heaven; this is daring the Almighty to his face. After perjury, the name of God is moft honoured by the horrid practice of curfing. In effects in fociety, it is true, are not fo mifchievous as thofe of perjury; nor is it fo deEiberate an act: but yet it conveys a ftill more horrid idea. Indeed if there be no wicked practice more peculiarly diabolical, than an•They who attend our courts of justice, often fee inftances among the common people of their afferting coundly what they will either refufe to fwear; or, when fworn, will not affert. other, it is this: for no employment can be conceived more fuitable to infernal fpirits, than that of fpending their rage and impotence in curfes, and execrations. If this fhocking vice were fo dreadfully familiar to our ears, it would not fail to strike us with the utmost horror. We next confider common fwearing; a fir fo univerfally practifed, that one would imragine fome great advantage, in the way either of pleasure or profit, attended it. The wages of iniquity afford; fome temptation: but to commit fin without any wages, is a ftrange fpecies of infatuation.-May we then ask the common fwearer, what the advantages are, which arife from this practice? It will be difficult to point out one.-Perhaps it may be faid, that it adds ftrength to an affirmation. But if a man commonly ftrengthen his affirmations in this way, we may venture to affert, that the practice will tend rather to leffen, than confirm his credit. It fhews plainly what he himself thinks of his own veracity. We never prop a building, till it becomes ruinous. Some forward youth may think, that an oath adds an air and fpirit to his difcourfe; that it is manly and important; and gives him confequence. We may whifper one fecret in his ear, which he may be affured is a truthThefe airs of manliness give him confequence with thofe only, whofe Commendation is difgrace; others he only convinces, at how carly an age he wishes to be thought proffigate. Perhaps he may imagine, that an oath gives force and terror to his threatenings In this he may be right; and the more horribly wicked he grows, the greater object of terror he may make himfelf. On this plan, the devil affords him a complete pattern for imiration. P Paltry as the apologies are, I fhould fup- leaft think it as disrespectful to the Almighty. pofe, the practice of common fwearing has-If we lofe our reverence for God, it is imlittle more to fay for itself.-Thofe, however, poffible we can retain it for his laws. You who can argue in favour of this fin, I fhould fcarce remember a common fwearer, who was fear, there is little chance to reclaim.-But it in other refpects an exact christian. is probable, that the greater part of fuch as are addicted to it, act rather from habit, than principle. To deter fuch perfons from indulging fo pernicious a habit, and to fhew them, that it is worth their while to be at fome pains to conquer it, let us now fee what arguments may be produced on the other fide. In the first place, common fwearing leads to perjury. He who is addicted to fwear on every trifling occafion, cannot but often, I had almost faid unavoidably, give the fanction of an oath to an untruth. And though | I should hope fuch perjury is not a fin of fo heinous a nature, as what, in judicial matters, is called wilful and corrupt; yet it is certainly stained with a very great degree of guilt. But fecondly, common fwearing is a large ftride towards wilful and corrupt perjury, inafmuch as it makes a folemn oath to be received with lefs reverence. If nobody dared to take an oath, but on proper occafions, an oath would be received with refpect; but when we are accustomed to hear fwearing the common language of our ftreets, it is no wonder that people make light of oaths on every occafion; and that judicial, commercial, and official oaths, are all treated with fo much indifference. Thirdly, common fwearing may be confidered as an act of great irreverence to God; and as fuch, implying alfo a great indifference to religion. If it would difgrace a chief magiftrate to fuffer appeals on every trifiing, or ludicrous occafion; we may at But, above all, we should be deterred from common fwearing by the pofitive command of our Saviour, which is founded unqueftionably upon the wickedness of the practice: " You have heard," saith Christ, “that it hath been faid by them of old time, thou fhalt not forfwear thyfelf: but I fay unto you, fwear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, neither by the earth, for it is his footstool; but let your communication” (that is, your ordinary converfation) "be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”—St. James alfo, with great emphafis preffing his mafter's words, fays, "Above all things, my brethren, fwear not; neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, left you fall into condemnation." I fhall just add, before I conclude this subject, that two things are to be avoided, which are very nearly allied to fwearing. The firft is, the use of light exclamations, and invocations upon God, on every trivial occafion. We cannot have much reverencefor God himself, when we treat his name in fo familiar a manner; and may affure ourfelves, that we are indulging a practice, which muft weaken impreflions, that ought to be preferved as strong as poffible. Secondly, fuch light expreffions, and wanton phrafes, as found like fwearing are to be avoided; and are often therefore indulged by filly people, for the fake of the found; who think (if they think at all) that they add to their discourse the spirit of fwearing without the the guilt of it. Such people had better lay afide, together with fwearing, every appearance of it. Thefe appearances may both offend, and mislead others; and with regard to themselves, may end in realities. At leaft, they fhew an inclination to fwearing: and an inclination to vice indulged, is really Gilpin. vice. 951. Honour due to God's Word what it is to ferve God truly, &c. As we are enjoined to honour God's holy name, fo we are enjoined also "to honour his holy word." By God's holy word we mean, the Old Teftament and the New. through thofe ages of ignorance antecedent to Chrift. Here too we find thofe types, and reprefentations, which the apostle to the Hebrews calls the fhadows of good things to come. To those books, which contain the legislation and hiftory of the Jews, fucceed the prophetic writings. As the time of the promise drew ftill nearer, the notices of its approach became ftronger. The kingdom of the Meffiah, which was but obfcurely fhadowed by the ceremonies of the Jewish law, was marked in ftronger lines by the prophets, and proclaimed in a more intelligible language. The office of the Meffiah, his miniftry, his life, his actions, his death, and his refurrection, are all The books of the Old Teftament open very diftinctly held out. It it true, the Jews, with the earliest accounts of time, earlier explaining the warm figures of the prophetic than any human records reach; and yet, in language too literally, and applying to a temmany inftances, they are ftrengthened by poral dominion thofe expreffions, which were human records. The human mythology is intended only as defcriptive of a spiritual, often grounded upon remnants of the facred were offended at the meanness of Chrift's apftory, and many of the Bible events are re-pearance on earth; and would not own him corded, however imperfectly, in profane hiftory. The very face of nature bears witnefs to the deluge. In the hiftory of the patriarchs is exhibited a most beautiful picture of the fimplicity of ascient manners; and of genuine nature unadorned indeed by fcience, but impreffed ftrongly with a fenfe of religion. This gives an air of greatnefs and dignity to all the fentiments and actions of thefe exalted characters. The patriarchal hiftory is followed by the Jewish. Here we have the principal events of that peculiar nation, which lived under a theocracy, and was fet apart to preferve and propagate the knowledge of the true God See the fubject very learnedly treated in one of the first Chapters of Jenkins's Reasonableness of Christianity. for that Meffiah, who their prophets had foretold; though these very prophets, when they used a lefs figurative language, had described him, as he really was, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief. To thofe books are added feveral others, poetical and moral, which administer much inftruction, and matter of meditation to devout minds. The New Testament contains firft the fimple hiftory of Chrift, as recorded in the four gofpels. In this hiftory alfo are delivered thofe excellent inftructions, which our Saviour occafionally gave his difciples; the precepts and the example blended together. To the gofpels fucceeds an account of the lives and actions of fome of the principle apofiles; apofties; together with the early state of the chriftian church. The epiftles of feveral of the apostles, particularly of St. Paul, to fome of the new eftablished churches, make another part. Our Saviour had promifed to endow his difciples with power from on high to complete the great work of publishing the gospel: and in the epiftles that work is completed. The truths and doctrines of the christian religion are here ftill more unfolded, and inforced: as the great fcheme of our redemption was now finished by the death of Chrift. The facred volume is concluded with the revelations of St. John; which are fuppofed to contain a prophetic defcription of the future ftate of the church. Some of thofe prophecies, it is thought on very good grounds, are already fulfilled; and others, which now, as fublime defcriptions only, amuse the imagination, will probably, in the future ages of the church, be the objects of the understanding alfo. The laft part of our duty to God is, "to ferve him truly all the days of our life." "To ferve God truly all the days of our life," implies two things: first, the mode of this fervice; and fecondly, the term of it. First, we must ferve God truly. We muft not reft fatisfied with the outward action; but muft take care that every action be founded on a proper motive. It is the motive alone that makes an action acceptable to God. The hypocrite "may fast twice in the week, and give alms of all that he poffeffes:" nay, he may faft the whole week, if he be able, and give all he has in alms; but if his fafts and his alms are intended as a matter of oftentation only, neither the one, nor the other, is that true fervice which God requires. God requires the heart: he requires that an carneft defire of acting agreeably to his will, fhould be the general fpring of our actions; and this will give even an indifferent action a value in his fight. As we are injoined to ferve God truly, fo are we injoined to ferve him "all the days of our life." As far as human frailities will permit, we fhould perfevere in a conftant tenor of obedience. That lax behaviour, which inftead of making a steady progress, is continually relapfing into former errors, and running the fame round of finning and repenting, is rather the life of an irrefolute finner, than of a pious chriftian. Human errors, and frailties, we know, God will not treat with too fevere an eye; but he who, in the general tenor of his life, does not keep advancing towards chriftian perfection; but fuffers himfelf, at intervals, entirely to lofe fight of his calling, cannot be really ferious in his profef fion: he is at a great diftance from ferving God truly all the days of his life; and has no fcriptural ground to hope much from the mercy of God. That man, whether placed in high estate, or low, has reached the fummit of human happiness, who is truly ferious in the fervice of his great Mafter. The things of this world may engage, but cannot engrofs, his attention; its forrows and its joys may affect, but cannot difconcert him. No man, he knows, can faithfully ferve two masters. He hath hired himself to one-the great Mafter, whofe commands he reveres, whofe favour he feeks, whofe displeasure alone is thereal object of his fears; and whofe rewards alone are the real objects of his hope. Every thing clfe is trivial in his fight. The world may footh.; or it may threaten him he perfeveres steadily in the fervice of his God; and in that perfeverance |