power, wealth, and piety. If this be true, are not we as a prosperous nation, verily guilty of a great national sin, in rejoicing in ourselves, and ascribing our peculiar prosperity to our own exertions? Have we not ascribed our national independence to the wisdom of our wise men? Have we not ascribed our federal constitution to the wisdom of our politicians? Have we not ascribed the administration of our national government to our wise rulers? Have we not ascribed our national transactions with foreign nations to the political skill of our statesmen and ambassadors at foreign courts? Have we not ascribed to our mighty men of valor the battles we have fought, and the victories we have gained, by sea and land? Have we not gloried in our wealth and independent resources, for carrying on war with foreign nations? Have we not gloried in our numbers, and presumed to calculate to how many millions we shall increase in a century, or half a century more? Have we not boasted of our mechanical knowledge and invention, in building ships and steam-boats, and preparing the munitions of war, and self-defence? And have we not sometimes gloried in our national goodness, virtue, and piety? Who can read the numerous eulogiums which have been made and published upon our national wisdom, wealth, power, influence, goodness, and independent prosperity and security, without seeing and lamenting our national selfishness and vanity? Hence,

2. Have we not reason to fear, that our national prosperity will be followed with national calamities, and desolating judgments? God has certainly seen how much we have rejoiced in ourselves, and boasted of that prosperity which he has displayed his power, and wisdom, and goodness to grant us. These things have been highly displeasing to him; and will he not say, in respect to us, as he did to ungrateful, disobedient, and boasting Israel: "Shall I not visit for these things? shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" We have long acknowledged, that God almost wrought miracles in giving us our independence and subsequent prosperity. But it will require no such signal interpositions of providence, to diminish our wealth, our numbers, our strength, our civil and religious liberties, our peace and harmony; and to throw us into national discords, and involve us in all the miseries of domestic and foreign wars. There are great and powerful nations now, who look upon our prosperity with an evil eye; and they may soon think it is policy to interrupt and destroy, if possible, our growing power, which we have so often boasted of exercising over the civil and religious world. We are evidently in danger from Britain, France, and Spain, as well as

from the hostile natives of our own country. France and Britain have both employed these savages to annoy us, and may do it again.

But allowing that we have wisdom and power enough to awe our enemies, or to defend ourselves against them; God can find ways enough to punish us for our national ingratitude and abuse of his favors. There is danger to be feared, I imagine, from the union which has lately been established among four or five denominations of christians, for the good purpose of checking the growth of infidelity, and many gross and dangerous errors in the United States. It would not be strange if these different denominations should fall out by the way, and one should gain an ascendency over all the rest, and bring about the establishment of a national religion.

There is, however, more danger to be feared at present, from the neglect of family government, family religion, public worship, and the profanation of the Sabbath, than from any other and all other vices and immoralities that abound. These strike at the root of all order, government, and religion. And the criminality of these is highly aggravated by our national prosperity.

This subject now calls upon all good men to perform the duty of thanksgiving and praise. There are no others prepared to keep this thanksgiving day properly and acceptably. They have never been thankful for any private or public, civil or religious favor. They have always rejoiced in themselves, and gloried in their own self-sufficiency to gain all the good they have enjoyed. They are strangers to the least spark of gratitude to God, for any favor they have received from his kind and beneficent hand. The wise man has gloried in his wisdom, the mighty man has gloried in his might, the rich man has gloried in his riches, the young man has gloried in his vanity, and the vicious man has gloried in his shame. But good men have understood and known that God is the Lord, and governor of the world, who exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; and that he delights in filling it with his goodness, notwithstanding the general unbelief, ingratitude, and disobedience of mankind. They rejoice in God that he is good to themselves, and gives them all things richly to enjoy, and withholds no good thing from them. They rejoice in God, that he does good to the evil and unthankful. They rejoice in God, that he grants personal, family, and national prosperity. They rejoice in the Lord always, both in prosperity and adversity. They know that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. They know that he is constantly sowing light for the righteous, and

joy for the upright in heart. They know the good that he has promised to the children of light, and that his faithfulness shall never fail. Although the fig-tree should not blossom, nor fruit be in the vine, and the labor of the olive should fail, and the fields should yield no meat, yet they will have solid ground to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of their salvation. Now, why will not you who have always rejoiced in yourselves, be entreated to rejoice with them who rejoice in the Lord? You must rejoice in the Lord in this world, or you never will rejoice in him in the next. And if you do not rejoice in him this Thanksgiving day, some of you may never see another.

SERMON XXXIV.

THE GUILT OF PROFANENESS.

DECEMBER 10, 1826.

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. - EXODUS, XX 7.

THIS is one of the ten commandments which God gave to his people at mount Sinai, by his own voice; and it is as easy to be understood as any of the rest. It does not mean that men may not make use of any of the divine names, titles, or attributes, on proper occasions. The Jews had a notion that the name Jehovah might never be used by the common people. Nor does it mean that men may not make use of God's name to confirm their testimony before a court of justice. For this was expressly required in certain cases. "If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep, and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it: then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good." But the command, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," does forbid men to call God to witness perjury or false swearing; or to call upon God to curse, or punish, or destroy, any of their fellow creatures; or to use his name in a vain, trifling, contemptuous manner. Or, in fewer words, this precept forbids all profane cursing and swearing, which so much abound in the world, and which ought to be universally suppressed. Not to waste time, therefore, in describing a vice which is but too common and too well known, I shall directly proceed to offer a number of considerations to dissuade men from committing this 59

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pernicious and prevailing vice, and to impress their minds with some proper sense of the great guilt and danger of taking the name of the Lord their God in vain. Here I will begin by observing,

1. God has forbidden all profane language, in a manner the most solemn, and best adapted to make the deepest impression on the hearts, and consciences of men. Moses having, by divine direction, sanctified the people, and prepared them to meet God," It came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud: so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." Amidst these solemn scenes, the Lord descended upon the mount and spake out of the cloud, "saying, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." When this third commandment was given by the living voice of the only living God, there was not a single soul in the camp of Israel that durst to take the name of the Lord his God in vain. This command is founded in the nature of things. It is right that men should love and revere their glorious and amiable creator, and it is wrong that they should ever take his name in vain. It is right that the Creator should give laws to his rational creatures and clothe them with his supreme authority. This command against profane swearing is founded in the nature of things, and sanctioned by the highest authority in the universe, and is of perpetual obligation. Every species of profane language is a transgression of this holy and righteous command, and as criminal now under the gospel, as it was under the law. It is a sin directly committed against God, which extremely aggravates its guilt. "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" Though God does not now speak to men from the burning mount, yet he now speaks to them with the same authority, and solemnly forbids them to take his name in vain upon pain of his just and eternal displeasure. Whoever uses profane language in the highest or lowest degree, virtually calls upon God to pour upon him the weight of his almighty wrath. Let every man, therefore, whether young or old, high or low, be dissuaded from taking the name of the holy, sin-hating and sin-revenging God, in vain.

2. Taking the name of God in vain is destructive of all religion. A profane person cannot love, nor fear, nor obey, nor trust in