Sermons on Evil-Speaking

Holy Scripture) an assuming the name of God, and applying

thful Witness, concerning the truth of o

do prevaricate in asserting what we do not believe true, o

to be the Avenger of our trespass

obligation, to answer before God, and to undergo the i

epresented to us

with God, in taking up His name, and prostituting it to vile or mean uses; that we do not abuse or debase His authority, by citing it to aver falsehoods or impertinence

dreadful Judge of all the world; that name which all heaven with profoundest submission doth adore, which the angelical powers, the brightest and purest Seraphim, without hiding their faces, and reverential horror, cannot utter or hear; the very thought whereof should strike awe through our hearts, the menti

the rest, that we forbear to use it continually, but in

hty God from heaven, to attend our leisure, to vouch our idle prattle, to second our

down legions of angels from the top of heaven and happiness into the bottomless dungeon: the which, as grievous sinners, of all things we have most reason to dread;

horrible a danger, to rush upon a curse; to defy that vengeance, the least touch of b

h so entangleth us with inextricable knots, and ench

case he putteth himself, how extreme hazard he runneth thereby, would assuredly have little heart to swear, without greatest reason, and most urgent need; hardly without trembling would he undertake the most necessary and solemn oath;

oth call God for witness, and proposeth Him for umpire and voucher of the things it saith; therefore to induce God so upon occasion of human affairs, or, which