commandment; which our blessed Lord is here rescuing from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees. They thought that nothing but perjury was a violation of that command- ment : but he informs them that all licjht mention of the name of God, and all irreverent appeals to him, were sinful. Well would it be, if they who customarily curse and swear, and they also who occasionally use the words " God knoweth," were sensible of the guilt which they contract !
The prohibition extends also to all swearing by the creature. The Jews had a much greater reverence for the name of God than the generality of Christians have. Being averse to men- tion that, they invented an inferior kind of oaths, and swore " by heaven, or by the earth, or by Jerusalem, or by their own heads." To these they annexed less sanctity, and were therefore less scrupulous about the violation of them. But our Lord shews, that to swear by the creature was, in fact, to swear by the Creator himself; since every creature was his, and subsisted only by his providential care. On another occa- sion he entered more fully still into this argument, and shewed the folly of recurring to such subterfuges'^ In fact, if a sepa- ration could be made, there would be to the full as much guilt in swearing by the creature as in swearing by the Creator; since it would be an ascribing of omniscience and omnipotence to that which is incapable of knowing the things about which the appeal is made, or of executing judgment between the parties. This is idolatry ; and, as idolatry, will be visited with God's heaviest displeasure'. This statement is abundantly confirmed by the Apostle James, who prohibits the same kind of oaths under the pain of eternal condemnation'^.
Once more, the prohibition extends to all unnecessary con- firmation of our ivord. All vehement protestations are un- becoming the Christian character. Unless the urgency of the occasion require some additional testimony, a simple afiirmation or negation is all that we should use: our " Yea should be yea, and our Nay, nay." If questioned, we may repeat our answer; " Yea, yea," or "Nay, nay;" but beyond thcit we ought not to go, except the authority of a magistrate, or the importance of the subject, absolutely require it.]
Having thus endeavoured to mark the extent of the prohibition, we will proceed to state,
II. The reasons of it —
Our Lord says, *' Whatsoever is more than these, Cometh of evil." The words which are here trans- lated "evil," may also mean, "the evil one:" and in
^ Matt, xxiii. 16—22. ' Jer. v. 7. " Jam. v. 12.