It was not therefore of the children of _Israel_ alone, that the messenger of God might say, _There is none_ (comparatively) _that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth himself up to take hold of thee_.
4. Ye have heard, that it was said to them of old time, _Because of_ swearing _the land mourneth_. But if this might be said of the land of _Canaan_, how much more of _this_ land? In what city or town, in what market or exchange, in what street or place of public resort, is not the holy _name whereby we are called_ taken in vain, day by day? From the noble to the peasant, who fails to call upon God, in this if in no other way? Whether can you turn, where can you go, without hearing some praying to God for damnation, either on his neighbour or himself? Cursing those, without either fear or remorse, whom Christ hath bought to inherit a blessing!
Are _you_ one of these stupid, senseless, shameless wretches, that call so earnestly for damnation on your own soul? What if God should take you at your word? Are you _able to dwell with everlasting burnings_? If you are, yet why should you be in haste, to be in the _lake of fire burning with brimstone_? God help you, or you will be there soon enough, and long enough; for that _fire is not quenched_! But the _smoke thereof ascendeth up, day and night, for ever and ever_.
And what is that important affair, concerning which you was but now appealing to God? Was you _calling God to record upon your soul_, touching your everlasting salvation? No; but touching the beauty of your horse, the swiftness of your dog, or the goodness of your drink! How is this? What notion have you of God? What do you take him to be?
_Idcirco stolidam præbet tibi vellere barbam Jupiter――――?_
What stupidity, what infatuation is this! Thus without either pleasure, or profit, or praise, to set at nought him that hath _all power both in heaven and earth_! Wantonly to _provoke the eyes of his glory_!
Are you a man of letters, who are sunk so low? I will not then send you to the inspired writers (so called: perhaps you disdain to receive instruction by them,) but the old, blind Heathen. Could you only fix in your mind the idea he had of God, (though it is not strictly just, unless we refer it to God made man) you would never thus affront him more,
Ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσι ♦νεῦσε Κρονίων· Ἀμβρόσιαι δ᾽ ἄρα χαῖται ἐπεῤῥώσαντο Ἄνακτος Κρατὸς ἀπ᾽ ἀθανάτοιο· μέγαν δ᾽ ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον.
♦ “νεῦσε” inserted per Errata
Shall not the very Heathen then, _rise up in judgment against this generation, and condemn it_? Yea, and not only the learned Heathens of _Greece_ and _Rome_, but the savages of _America_. For I never remember to have heard a wild _Indian_ name the name of _Sootaleicatee_, (him that sitteth in heaven) without either laying his hand upon his breast, or casting his eyes down to the ground. And you are a _Christian_! O how do you cause the very name of _Christianity_ to be blasphemed among the Heathen!
5. But is it _light_ swearing only, (inexcusable as that is) because of which our _land mourneth_? May it not also be said of us, _Though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear_ falsely? Yea to such a degree, that there is hardly the like, in any nation under heaven; that almost every corner of the land is filled with wilful deliberate _perjury_.
I speak not now of the perjuries which every common swearer cannot but run into day by day. (And indeed common “swearing notoriously contributes to the growth of perjury. For oaths are little minded when common use has sullied them, and every minutes repetition has made them cheap and vulgar.”) Nor of those which are continually committed and often detected in our open courts of justice. Only with regard to the latter I must remark, that they are a natural consequence, of that monstrous, shocking manner, wherein oaths are usually administered therein: without any decency or seriousness at all; much less with that awful solemnity, which a rational Heathen would expect, in an immediate appeal to the great God of heaven.
I had once designed to consider all the oaths which are customarily taken by any set of men among us. But I soon found this was a work too weighty for me: so almost _in infinitum_ are oaths multiplied in _England_: I suppose to a degree which is not known in any other nation in _Europe_.
What I now propose is, to instance only in a few, (but those not of small importance) and to shew, how amazingly little regard is had, to what is solemnly promised or affirmed before God.
6. This is done, in part, to my hands by a late author. So far as he goes, I shall little more than transcribe his words. (Mr. _Disney_’s First Essay, page 30.)