A view of the threats and punishments recorded in the Scriptures, alphabetically composed with some briefe observations upon severall texts / by Zachary Bogan ...

Such as doe not keep them, or take them fasly, threatened

With Certaine punishment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine: for

the Lord will not hold him guiltles, that taketh his name in vaine, Exod 20; 7. Name.] What an account doth the meanest of us make of his name? and how tender are we of it, and how doe we listen, when we heare another mention it? Thy God] thou wouldest be wa∣ry, of using the name of thy King; or thy Master; or thy Father; in their hearing: and why not of thy God who heareth at all times, and places; & is then most quick of hearing, when his name is used. In vaine] or, for a Lie. For that the word* 1.1 in Hebrew for, vaine, will signifie, and is so used, and that when the meaning is only of assertion, and not of promise. For whereas in this chapter vers. 16, the word for false witnesse, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; in Deut: c. 20. it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. I know, they usually say, that these wordes are cheifely meant of promissory oaths, because of our Saviours words, Mat. 5. 33. speaking only of the forbidding of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, forswearing: And (as if this word were pro∣perly meant of doing or not doing after an oath to the contrary, whereby a man does, as I may say, unsweare* 1.2 himselfe, or make his swea∣ring null and void; and not of doing or spea∣king first, & then adding an oath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, upon it or for it;) adding, But shalt performe unto the the Lord thine oathes. But as for the words of our Saviour; I conceive, he relates the cōman∣dement,

as the Scribes & Pharisees related it, & according to their glosse: & not that he knew no such wordes as those, which I first produced: or that he thought, the meaning of them extended no further, then is expres∣sed in these. And as for these words which I have quoted; in the originall, one might think, they sound cleane contrary viz: rather for an assertory falsity, then a promissory, both because of the word translated, in vaine, sig∣nifying more properly, FOR, or, TO vaine, (as it is in Leviticus 19. 12. He shall not sweare by my name, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for a Lye,) as if it were said, thou shalt not use the name of the Lord thy God to (or for) the confirmation of a falsehood, and because of the word Taking. For in promissory perjury men may, & usual∣ly do, take God's name not in vaine: i. e. they have a resolution when they take it, to keep their oathes, though they break them after∣wards. hold him guiltlesse] or, let him goe unpunished, for so much the Hebrew* 1.3 will signifie; and so it is used, and translated. Jer. 30. 11, and c. 46. 28. And, me thinks, both in this, and other threats against this sinne, there seemes to be insinuated, that God may, and many times doth let such men alone for a while: (a 1.4 Et St quis primo per∣juria celat, sera tamen tacitis poena venit pe∣dibus:) but that notwithstanding he doth

not hold them guiltlesse, but will certainely punish them one time or other. Nay I may adde, I will not hold him guiltlesse, that is, I will most severely punish him. for that is a common Hebraisme in the Scriptures, by a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or, extenuation in the negative, to in∣tend the positive in the highest degree.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.2

  I take forsweare, to be aword like, for fit, which is properly mean of un∣doing, or, making void a thing in force be¦fore there are divers words like it, as for∣bid, for∣warne, for∣get.
• * 1.3

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• a 1.4

  Tibull. There is a proverb, Sero Jupi∣ter diph∣theram in∣spexit. A∣quil: & Theod. in Zach. 5. 2. where wee read of a rowle a∣gainst false swearers, translate it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.