HEre is first a Precept. 2. A Reason deterring from Disobedience there∣unto.
1. The Precept, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain, or as some render it, Thou shalt not bring the Name of the Lord thy God to a vanity, or to a lye,(a) or thou shalt not swear in the Name of God to a falsehood. Our Saviour Himself, Math. 5.33. seems to point at this Law, when He says, Ye have heard it was said to the Ancients, Thou shalt not forswear thy self. So that the prime intent of this Law seems to be to prohibit Perjury; that is, invoking God, or attesting God to a lye, and appealing to him as a Witness and Judge that what we assert is true, when we know it is not. And it seems also to injoyn that in promisory Oaths, what we promise or covenant in the Name of God, we should sincerely intend to perform, and not deal falsly therein, as those do who never intend to perform what they promise. Swearing is in its own nature imediately an act of Religion, and importeth a firm belief and perswasion of God's chief Attributes and Prerogatives, viz. of his Omnipresence and Omniscience (extending to the knowledge of our most inward thoughts and secret purposes) of his Justice in maintaining Truth and Right, and avenging Iniquity and Falsehood. He therefore that knowingly and willingly is guilty of Perjury, seems to despise the Justice of God, and to defie his Vengeance. This seems to be the first and direct meaning of this Law. But it may be extended further, so as to prohibite all light and vain swearing in ordinary Communication, all irreverent, unnecessary using and introducing the great and dreadful Name of God,