Imatges de pàgina
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to win upon them, and to give them a more favourable regard to the means which have wrought so effectually on you? But, on the contrary, if you are imprudent, rash, and careless, if you either conform to the world, or neglect your acknowledged duty in it, you will cause your good to be evil spoken of, bring difficulties upon yourselves, and put it out of your own power to be useful to others. Pray therefore for wisdom and grace, to make your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is in heaven. This is the great design and proper effect of the Gospel, when rightly understood. For as it is the grace of God alone which bringeth salvation; so this grace not only enlightens the understanding, but purifies the heart, regulates the conduct, works by love, and overcomes the world. It effectually teaches and enforces, (what the best schemes of morality and philosophy have always failed in,) the denial of all ungodliness and worldly lusts*; and by the motives it displays, and the strength it communicates, enables the true Christian to adorn his character in every relation, and to fill up the whole circle of duty as it respects himself, his neighbour, and the God with whom he has to do. It teaches to live soberly, righteously, and godly; to avoid whatsoever is contrary to the purity of the Gospel; to practise moderation in the use even of lawful things; and to do unto others as we would they should do unto us. It teaches the rich to be humble and bountiful, the poor to be thankful and resigned. It teaches superiors to be kind, inferiors to be faithful. Husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, magistrates and people, are

*Titus ii. 11-15.

all instructed by this grace to a conduct answerable to their high calling, and to the common relation they stand in to him who has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood. For the morality of the Gospel has a nobler spring, and a more extensive scope, than the ties of social life. Their sobriety and righteousness are not substituted in the place of vital godliness, but are the fruits derived from it. The grace of God teaches them to live godly, to delight in him, to obey him, to do every thing for his sake, as under his eye, and to be continually governed by a sense of his unspeakable love manifested in his Son, and "an expectation of the blessed hope set before us, "the glorious appearance of the great God, and our "Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that, by his blood and Spirit, he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people "zealous of good works." Labour to show, that you are not only called by his name, but have sat at his feet, and drank of his spirit; and if, after all, unreasonable and wicked men will speak evil of you, and your good, be not moved at it, but pity and pray for them. When he shall return to vindicate your cause, and wipe away your reproach, then "every cloud shall "be removed, and the righteous shall shine forth as "the sun in the kingdom of their Father*."

* Matth. xiii. 43.

SERMON XV.

THE EXTENT AND SANCTION OF THE THIRD

COMMANDMENT.

EXOD. 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.

THE foundation of true religion is laid in a right knowledge of God and ourselves. How deficient we are in each of these, how far fallen from original righteousness, is strongly implied in this prohibition; which would be wholly unnecessary, if we were not wholly sunk in stupidity and wickedness. That such worms as we should be liable to trifle with the Divine Majesty, whose presence fills the heaven and the earth, before whom the angels hide their faces; that such frail dependent creatures have need to be cautioned, that we do not profane the name of the God in whom we live, and move, and have our being, is a striking proof of our depravity; and that we can dare to break through this caution, and slight the awful threatening with which it is closed, is a dreadful aggravation of our guilt.

These words, when first spoken to the Israelites, were delivered in flames and thunder. The mountain shook, the people trembled, and even Moses, who had been honoured with peculiar freedom of access to God, was constrained to cry, "I exceedingly fear and

"quake." Such a scene, or rather infinitely more dreadful, shall hereafter take place," when the Lord himself "shall again descend from heaven with a shout, with "the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; "when he shall be revealed in flaming fire, to take vengeance of all who know him not, and obey not "his gospelt." "Then shall sinners be convinced

not only of their ungodly deeds, but of all their hard "speeches which they have spoken against him‡;" and they shall know the full meaning of that terrible exception which I have read, " that the Lord will not "hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

The terms of my text require little explanation. The name of God is in every one's mouth, upon one occasion or other, in places where his revealed will is known. In a more eminent and peculiar sense his name is discovered to his believing people in Christ Jesus the Lord; those who know the name of God in Christ will put their trust in him; they dare not, they cannot blaspheme that holy name by which they are called. But I shall take it more extensively here; for though but few understand the name of God in an evangelical and saving sense, there is not a person in this assembly but knows and makes mention of his holy name, so far as to render them transgressors of this commandment. To take his name in vain, is to use it falsely or profanely, inconsiderately, without due reverence, or unprofitably, and without a suitable necessity. The sanction," the Lord will not hold him guiltless," has indeed a meaning and emphasis beyond what is expressed. Similar forms of speaking are frequent in

Heb. xii. 21,
‡ Jude 15.

Thess. iv. 16.; 2 Thes. i. 8. § Psal. ix. 10.

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Scripture, as," the Lord will not spare that man*;" that is, he will punish him to the utmost; for it is immediately added, "all the curses of this book shall "come upon him." Again, "he spared not the an'gels;" that is, he showed them no mercy, as the following words declare: "he spared not the old "world," he visited them with utter destruction, and swept them all away with a flood. So, " he will "not hold him guiltless," implies two things: 1st, That the Lord God has appointed a day to call sinners to an account for their words, as well as their actions. 2dly, That whatever shall become of others, those who have presumed to take his name in vain, have their doom already determined. Whoever escapes, they shall surely be punished; whomever he acquits, he will certainly condemn them.

As the import of the expressions is not difficult, so likewise it will be far more easy than agreeable to point out some of the many ways in which this commandment is customarily and carelessly broken. The law in general, and each particular precept, is spiritual †, and perhaps this will be found of a more extensive signification than some of you are aware. The delightful theme of a minister of the Gospel is to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified; to open the treasures of divine mercy, and to show the grace, freeness, and security of the promises; to raise up them that fall, to strengthen those that stand; "to support "the weak, to comfort the feeble-minded; to preach "deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ‡." But these subjects

* Dieut. xxix. 20.; 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5.
‡ 1 Thess. v. 14.; Luke iv. 18.

† Rom. vii. 14.

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