God will vifit; that is, will ufe a close inspection and animadverfion upon him, will feverely punish and avenge his fin; not only upon his own, but on his father's account; examples of which proceeding do in the divine 1 Kings xi. hiftories frequently occur; in Solomon, in Jeroboam, in 35. xiv. 13. Baafha, in Ahab, in Jehu, and in others.

xiii. 34. xiv.

10. xvi. 3. xxi. 29.

2 Kings

XV. 12.

Of them that hate me. We may obferve that in the Scripture ftyle the tranfgreffors of God's laws are termed ix. s. x. 30. haters and enemies of God; because their actions fignify Job xxvii. a difpofition of mind in them repugnant to the mind of God; and because by them they refift and oppose God's will: no wonder then if God deal thus feverely with them.

14.

Vid. Deut. vii. 9.

30.

xxi. 7.

But God not only deters from difobedience by threatening a train of punishments, but he encourageth to obedience by a declaration of his intention, (or promise,) graciously to reward, not only upon the obedient persons themselves, but upon their pofterity for ever, (in a manner,) unto thousands, that is, unto a thousand defcents:

Shewing Percy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

SHEWING mercy: God doth not abfolutely promise that he will forbear to punish the pofterity of good men, in case they offend, but that he will fhew mercy, and deal the more favourably with them in that refpe&t: his meaning and method in these cafes are plainly represented in Pf. lxxxix. those words concerning David; If his children forfake my 2 Chron. law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my flatutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I vifit their tranfgreffon with the rod, and their iniquity with fripes: nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him: God declares he will punish the offending children of very good men, yet fo that their misdeeds fhall not interrupt his kindness toward the rest of their Pf. cv. 42. pofterity, or abolish his remembrance of their goodness: Deut.iv.87. fo we may fee God dealt with Abraham and the Patriarchs, paffing by (in memory of their love and reverence

Ifa. xlv. 4.

Levit. xxvi.

42.

Exod.ii.34.

12, 34.

? XV. 4.

Ifa. xxxvii.

to him, and their faithful obedience to his will) the manifold provocations of their posterity; fo that he did not for a long tract of time, and after many generations paffed, fuffer them (according as their personal demeanour highly deserved) to incur ruin: upon this confideration he brought them out of Egypt, he fettled them in Canaan, he frequently delivered them from their enemies, he restored them from oppreffions and captivities; as is often expreffed and infinuated in Scripture. So alfo it is fre- 1 Kings xi. quently mentioned, that for David's fake, his pofterity, although highly provoking God by their mifcarriages, Pf. xviii.50. was protected and preferved; I cannot ftand to mention 35. places. I fhall only farther note, that which is very obvious and moft remarkable here, the difference between God's proceeding in way of feverity and in way of favour; by a vaft proportion the expreffions of God's mercy do exceed thofe of juftice, although both infifting upon like or correfpondent grounds: he vifiteth the iniquities of disobedient fathers unto the third or fourth generation, but he Sheweth mercy to a thousand generations of thofe that love and obey him; he foon forgetteth the wrongs done, but he long retaineth in memory the fervices performed to him: which confideration fhould work upon our ingenuity, and engage us willingly to obey fo gracious a Lord.

It is also obfervable, that as difobedience is styled hatred of God, fo loving God and keeping his commandments are conjoined as terms equivalent: they are indeed infeparably connected, love being a certain caufe of obedience, obedience an infallible fign of love; He that hath my com- John xiv. mandments, and obferveth them, he it is, faith our Saviour, 21, 15. that loveth me: and, If any man loveth me, he will keep John xxiii. my word. But I pafs forward to the next.

24.

mandment.

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God III. Comin vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain.

IT confifteth, we see, of a precept, and of a reason deterring from difobedience thereto, by declaring or threatening the mischief enfuing thereon.

12.

Jof. Arch.

ii 4.

33.

The precept is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: it might be rendered, Thou fhalt not bring the name of the Lord thy God to a vanity, (or Levit. xix. to a lie, for fo the word, haveh, frequently importeth;) that is, (as it feems interpreted in a parallel place, where most of these laws are repeated, inculcated, and fenced by additional injunctions,) Thou shalt not fwear Pf. xxiv. 4. in my name to a falfehood; and in the 24th Pfalm, to lift up one's foul to vanity, is explained by swearing s (lemirmah) to deceit, or falfehood. Jofephus expreffeth it by ἐπὶ μηδενὶ φαύλῳ τὸν Θεὸν ὀμνύναι, to adjure God to no bad matter, (or to no false matter, as the word pauλos commonly in good writers is taken.) And our Lord himself in his Sermon on the Mount feemeth to refpect this law, Matth. v. when he fays, Ye have heard that it was faid to the ancients, Оin ognýσas, Ye shall not forfwear, but shall render to the Lord your oaths; for he doth immediately before cite other paffages out of the Decalogue, (Thou fhalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery,) with intention to explain or extend them; and therefore probably he proceeds respecting this law, the most confpicuous of all thofe which relate to this matter; and if this law be (as fome conceive) fuppofed to fignify more ftrictly, it had been more fuitable to his purpose to cite it, than any other of more lax importance; his drift being plainly to extend in matter, and to ftraiten in obligation, even the fulleft and ftricteft of ancient laws, at least as they were then commonly expounded and understood; yea, even in this cafe, our Lord feemeth to affirm that the ancients had no law strict and perfect enough for evangelical practice; confidering which things, it is probable, that the prime intent of this law is to prohibit that great fin of perjury, that is, of invoking God's atteftation to a lie; thereupon appealing to him, as witness and judge, that what we Пa xos affert is true; as a furety, that what we promise we do is raftedfaftly refolve and fhall faithfully endeavour to perform; izogías. implying alfo, that we do expect a curse, and vengeance from him upon us, if we be found knowingly to falfify in our affirmation, or wilfully to violate our promise.

τελευτῷ

13. x. 20.

Swearing is in its own nature immediately an act of Deut. vi. religion, and as fuch was enjoined by God, (Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and ferve him, and shalt fwear by his name ;) it expreffeth the pious perfuafion we have concerning God's chief attributes and prerogatives; of his omniprefence and omniscience; (extending to the knowledge of our most inward thoughts and fecret purposes ;) of his watchful providence over what we do; of his justice and fidelity in maintaining truth and right, in avenging iniquity and falsehood: the reason of ufing it was derived from, or grounded upon, a perfuafion about God, which hath ever been common among men, that God, the governor and judge of the world, the protector and patron of right, is always ready, upon our invocation and reference unto him, to undertake the cognizance of matters in debate and controverfy between men, for the protection of truth, the maintenance of right, and prefervation of peace among them; (An oath, faith the Apostle, for confirma- Heb. vi. 16. tion is to men an end of all firife ;) so that the use thereof becometh a main inftrument of promoting those purposes, the strongest tie of fidelity, the fureft ground to proceed upon in administration of justice, the most facred band of all fociety; which therefore he that shall prefume to violate, doth not only moft unworthily wrong this or that perfon, this or that fociety of men, but doth what in him lies to fubvert the foundations of all public justice and peace; withal most impiously abufing and affronting God Almighty himself; profaning his most facred ordinance, making his name inftrumental to the compaffing his deceitful and base purposes, defpifing his judgment, and defying his vengeance.

This feems to be the firft and direct meaning of this law; but it may by parity of reafon well be extended farther, so as we may hereby understand all light and vain fwearing, all wanton and irreverent use of God's holy name: and hitherto our Lord hath plainly extended it, Matth. v. forbidding us to fwear at all, and charging us in our converfation to use only the fimple and plain manner of affertion, or promife, faying only, Yea, yea, or Nay, nay;

37.

IV. Commandment.

16.

without prefuming upon any flight occafion to introduce the holy name of God; which indeed we fhould not without extreme awe of spirit ever think upon, nor without high veneration dare to mention: it is an inftance of the most fottish folly, it is an argument of the most horrible impiety that can be, thus (without any cause, or temptation thereto, without any profit or pleasure thence) to trifle with the Divine Majefty; to abuse his glorious name, and provoke his dreadful vengeance; who will in no wife hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath Dap to keep it Holp, &c.

THE Decalogue is in feveral places of Scripture (as we before noted) called a covenant with the Jewish people, and the obfervation of this law is likewife fo called in a particular and special manner: it is expreffed to have been appointed as a fign, or characteristical note, whereby their peculiar relation to God might be difcerned, and they diftinguished from all other people. As circumcifion was a feal of the covenant made with Abraham and his pofterity; fo keeping the Sabbath did obfignate the covenant made with the children of Ifrael after their delivery out of Exod. xxxi. Egypt; The children of Ifrael, faith the text, shall keep the Sabbath, to obferve the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant: it is a fign between me Ezek. xx. and the children of Ifrael for ever: and, I gave them (faith God in Ezekiel) my ftatutes, and fhewed them my judg ments, which if a man do, he shall live in them: moreover I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a fign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord, who fanctifies them: and, Thou cameft down from mount Sinai, (say the Levites in Nehemiah,) and spakest with them from heaven, and gaveft them right judgments, and true laws, good ftatutes and commandments; and madeft known unto them thy holy Sabbaths: where making known to them the SabExod. xvi. baths, as alfo otherwhere giving them the Sabbath, are expreffions, (together with the fpecial ends of the Sabbath's appointment, which are mentioned in those places,) con

11, 12, 20.

Neh. ix. 13, 14.

29.