What Is the Reason Annexed to the Third Commandment?

Ans. The reason annexed to the third commandment, is, That however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

Q. What is to be here understood by the HAMS of God? A. Every thing whereby God maketh himself known. Q. Sy what doth God make himself known? A. By proper names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Words, and works, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, &c. Q. What are the proper names of God? A. They are either essential, as Jehovah, Jah, Lar

God i or personal, as the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, &c» Q. What are the titles of God? A. Creator and

Preserver of men; God and Father of Christ; Father oi lights, mercies, or spirits; God of glory, peace, patience, Comfort, and salvation -, God oi Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; holy One, and Rock of Israel King ot king, saint5> and na ions Lord of glory; Hearer of prayer, &c.

Q^ What doth the third command require with respect to God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinance?, words, and works? A. The holy and reverend use of ihem.

Q. What do you mean by the holy use of them? A. Our using them with holy natures, out of regard to God’s holy law, and with a viepv to promote holiness, Q. What do you mean by a reverend use of them? A. Our using them with a fi i.:l fear oi G d upon our spirit, manifested in our outward conduct, Psal. lxxxix. 7. Q. Can an unregenerate man use G.d’s names, &c. rightly? A. No *, he always profanes them, Isa. lxvi. 3. Q. When are God’s names, tiiles, and attributes, used in a holy and reverend manner?

A. When we think, speak, write, or hear of them, with an holy awe of God in our heaits, and to promote an holy fear of him in our lives, Deut. xxviii. 58. Psal, lxxxix. 7. Heb. xiL2S.

Q^ When are God’s ordinances used in a holy and reverend manner?

A. When we approach them with holy hearts and hands; and wait upon, and seek after the great God, and holy One of Israel in them, Psalm Ixxxix* 7*

Q. When is God’s word used in a holy and reverend manner? A. When we receive it in our heart as the

word of the great God to make us holy, Psalm rxix.

Q. When are God’s works used in a holy and reverend

manner? A. When we discern God in them, and

improve them chiefly to advance his glory, Psal. exxxvi.

Q. What is forbidden in the third commandment V

A. The profaning or abusing of any thing whereby

God maketh himself known.

Q. How are God’s names and titles profaned? A. By our thinking, speaking, writing, or hearing c£ them rashly, lihtV, or maliciously.

Q. Are they not dreadfully profaned b.v rasT> vocations in common speech j as, O Jesus! O Christ! O Lord!

O God! goodness! good God! or horrid imprecations of curses, confusion, damnation, &c.? A. Yes.

Q. Are they not also dreadfully profaned, when they are used in charms to drive away devils, witches, diseases, &c.? A. Yes j Acts xix. 13,-17.

Q. How is God’s attribute of spirituality profaned?

A. By our conceiving of him as any way corporeal; neglecting to worship him in spirit and in truth ‘, and by our contempt and ignorance of spiritual things.

Q. How is God’s attribute of infinity profaned?

A. By our conceiving of him as more present in heaven than in earth, or in one place than another; and our filing up his place in cur heart with other things.

Qj How is God’s eternity profaned?

A. By our neglecting to think of his eternal purposes and love and our not preparing for an eternity to come*

Q. How is God’s unchangeableness profaned?

A. By our conceiving that prayer can change his purpose, or fearing that sin may alter his love 5 and by our unstedfastness in our Christian profession or practice.

Q. How is the almighty power of God profaned?

A. When it. is despised, distrusted, resisted, or when trusted on for assistance in sin, Isa. xxxvi, xxxvii.

Q. How are God’s infinite wisdom and knowledge $*rofaned

A. By our curious prying into his secrets, measuring the mysteries of his word by our reason, judging the hearts and intentions of others, despising or distrusting his direction, or charging with folly his words or works.

Q. How is God’s holiness profaned? A. By our

disliking it, mocking at sin, at saints, or holy things, and neglecting the diligent study of holiness in heart or life.

Q. How is God’s justice profaned?

A. By our not imitating it, not fearing to live in sin-, not embracing Christ’s righteousness for satisfying it, and not expecting all blessings from it through his merits.

Q. How is God’s goodness and mercy profaned?

A. By our not enlarging our hearts to receive it; being discouraged, by our sinfulness, from seeking grace or glory; offering our good works to God as a price of salvation 5 or sinning because grace doth abound.

Q. How is God’s patience abused?

A. By our not admiring it 5 contemning lesser strokes

and warnings •, and not imitating it in our patient wait* ing on God,” and bearing with such as offend us.

Q. How is God’s truth profaned?

A. By our suspecting his sincerity, discrediting his word, or expecting the accomplishment of promises without using the appointed means, 1 John v. 10.

Q^ How is God’s being the living God profaned?

A. By our neglecting to improve him as our life, and by not living to him, Jer. ii. 13.

Q. How is God’s being the one only God profaned?

A. By dividing our heart and life between him and idols.

Q. How is the mystery of the Trinity profaned?

A. By ridiculing it; by erroneous conceptions and representations of it j and by indifference about distinct communion with the three persons in it, 1 John ii. 22, 23*

Q. How is Christ as Mediator profaned and abused?

A. By our neglecting him as the way to the Father $ expecting salvation through him in ignorance and unrighteousness, or partly by our own works and strength j or by usin’j his name to authorise any wickedness, 1 Cor. i. 23.

Q. How are God’s ordinances in general profaned?

A. By our using them in an ignorant, carnal, careless, hypocritical, legal, lifeless, or licentious manner.

Qj. When do we use the ordinances of God ignoranily?

A. When we use them without knowing their institu* tion, nature, and ends, Acts xvii. 23.

Q. When are the ordinances of God used carnally?

A. When we attend upon them only with our-bodies or for some carnal advantage, John vi. 26.

Qj When are they used carelessly? A. When we-attend them without earnest concern to find God in them.

Q. When are they used in an hypocritical manner?

A. When, in attending on them, we study to appear saints when we are not,, or to seem better than we are.

Q. When are God’s ordinances used in a legal man* ner? A. When we attend on them to alone for our

sins, or to purchase grace or glory to us, Isa. lviii. li — 7.

Q. When are they used in a licentious manner?

A. When they are used as a m~an< of performing or co* vering some malicious, lascivious? or covetous design.

Q. When are they used in a lifeless manner:

A. When we attend on them wit sleepy or drowsy bodies, or without the active exercise of spiritual grace,.

Q. Is it a very great sin to indulge ourselves in a sleepy attendance on God’s ordinances? A. Ya it is a

mocking of God to his face, and turning the means of salvation into poison to our soul, Lev. x. 2 Cor. iv. 4.

Q. Is not the more particular abuse of God’s ordinances also forbidden in this comma. -d? A. Yes.

Q. How is meditation profaned? A. By our thinking on trifles, or mostly on the circumstantials cf religion j or having our mind easily led aside from spiriiual objects* Q. How is self-examination piofaned? A. By our trying ourselves by unscriptural marks; or without an impartial and earnest desire to know our real State and case, Rev.iii 17. Isa. lviii. 2, — 1. Luke xviii. 1 1. Q. How is prayer profaned? A. By our not praying in Christ’s name •, praying for unlawful things, or for things lawful without due submission to God’s will; by rash calling on God to save, bless guide preserve &c. J or by calling on Satan to take or hurt any. Q. How is prayer further profaned? A. By superstitious limiting it to particular days, hours, or words j and using undecent gestures or words j or, in social prayer, words not easily understood. Q. How is singing of psalms profaned? A. By our neglecting to join with others in it; wanting affections suited to the expressions sung; attending more to the melody of the voice, than the frame of our heart: and by sudden wearying of the exercise, &c. Q. How is the preaching of God’s word profaned? A. By preaching without a regular call, or chiefly for gain or honour by preaching error or truth in a wrong manner *, or preaching with theatrical gespures, or in -words the hearers cannot understand, or which tickle their fancy or passions, rather than touch their conscience, 1 Cor. ii. I, — 5.

O. How is the reading and hearing of God’s word profaned? A. By reading and hearing it out of curiosity, chiefly to inform our judgment, or to pass the time, or found jests, rather than to make us holy.

Q. How is the administration of baptism and he Lords supper profaned? A. When these ordinances are ad*

ministered by such as are not true gospel ministers, or to such as are not proper members of the visible church; or are administered in a private and superstitious manner, Matth. xxviii. 19. 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. and xi. 23, — 29.

Qj How is the receiving of the sacraments profaned?

A. When we attend on them without due preparation, or suitable exercise of grace; and when we rest in thera as infallible securities of salvation; or neglect to improve them after receiving them, 1 Cor. xi. Luke iii.

Q. How is fasting profaned? A. In our fasting for

wicked or doubtful causes j or to further strife, or atone for sin; or without faith’s view of a crucified Christ, and sincere resolution to turn from the sins which we confess.

Q. How is religious instruction of families profaned?

A. When it is not performed in a careful, patient, and impartial manner; nor suited to the capacities of those who are instructed, Deut. vi. 7.

Q. How is religious conference profaned?

A. By our studying therein to shew our abilities; or talking mostly on disputed and circumstantial points.

Q. How are religious vows profaned?

A. By our vowing what is sinful, trifling, doubtful, or impossible; vowing to serve God on condition he will save us; or by vowing in our own strength, or without a serious resolution to perform our vows, Eccl. v. 4.

Q. How is public covenanting profaned?

A. By forcing men to it; admitting such as are igno-Tant and profane*, or covenanting in such a manner as tends to promote division, contention, and pride» f Qy How is swearing of oat hs profaned A. By our

swearing what is trifling, false, or doubtful; or without a due call, and fear of God upon our spirit, Jer. iv. 2.

Q. Is it not dreadful wickedness to cry cut on slight occasions, The Lord knows, God knows; or to confirm our assertions with od, troth, faith, conscience, soul, devil, fiends and other minced oaths? A. Yes and such

profane swearers ought not to bs credited.

Q. How are lots profaned?

A. By our using them to discover future events, or things lost; or to determine trifling disputes, or such as human prudence might have easily decided; or when we reflect on the lot after it is cast.

Q. Is it a great sin to play at cards or dice?

A. Ye s; for it irreverently calls God to be arbitrator in a trifle; is the source of much idleness, strife, and

Quest. 55. in the third Com??i andment. 229

profane swearings and a chief delight of profane persons y and leads in men to heathenish affections, words, and practices, Prov. xvi. 33. 1 Thess. v. 22.

Q. How is church government profaned? A. By setting up false forms of it ♦, despising and opposing it *, or perverting it, to please the humours, and support the carnal interests of men, Micah vi. 16. Q. How is church discipline profaned? A. When it is inflicted in a disorderly, proud, and partial manner, or upon improper objects; when it is despised, opposed, used as a satisfaction for sin, exchanged for money, or removed without evidence of repentance. Q. How is God’s word in general profaned? A. By our denying, despising, ridiculing, and jesting on it, misapplying, or wresting it to sinful purposes.. Q. How is God’s law profaned £ A. By our contracted views of its extent j presenting our vile righteousness as an obedience to it; seeking happiness by it; or despairing of life because of its rigour. Q. How is the gospel of God profaned? A. By our discrediting his offers ‘, turning it into a new law; or taking encouragement to sin from the grace of it, 1 John v. 10.

p. How are the decrees of God profaned or abused? A. By our curious prying into, deriding, or misrepresenting them; or taking encouragement from them to neglect the use of appointed means, Deut. xxix. 29. Q^ How is God’s work of creation profaned? A. By our making his creatures occasions or instruments of pride, intemperance, lust, or other wickedness j i and by sporting at their hurting or destroying one another. Q. How is God’s work of providence profaned X A. By our neglecting to study the language of them y misinterpreting, quarrelling with, and fighting- against I them $ and our ascribing the events thereof to second causes, or what is profanely called chance, Jer. v. 3, 4. Q. How is God’s work of redemption profaned? A. By our denying or deriding any part of it, disre- garding an interest in it, and not walking worthy of it. Q^ “W hat reason is annexed to this third commandment

11 to deter us from the profanation of God’s name? A. A very dreadful one j namely, that the Lord ‘will’ not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain* t u.

Q^ What doth the Lord’s not holding him guiltless mean? A. That the Lord will not suffer such as

profane his name to escape his righteous judgment.

Q. Should men punish the more gross blasphemies and profanation of God’s name? A. Yes; he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall surely be put to death.

Q. Why then do such gross profaners of God’s name so often escape punishment from men?

A. Because many magistrates and great men are principal profaners of God’s name, or want due zeal for his glory, Micah. iii. 1, 2.

Q. Can any such as profane God’s name by perjury, habitual profane swearing of broad or minced oaths, escape God’s wrath i A. No; he will make their plagues

“wonderful, except they repent, Deut. xxviii. 58, 59.

Q. Do not such profane persons often escape visible judgments in this life? A. Yes; but their torments

in hell shall be the more dreadful, Rev. xvii. 20.

Q. How- shall the blasphemers of God’s name be punished in hell? A. Their cursing and blasphemy shall become their everlasting punishment; their profane tongues shall for ever burn in hell-fire, and they shall gnaw them for pain, Luke xvi. 24. Rev. xvi. 10, 11.

O. Why doth God so punish profane swearing?

A. Because it is so heinous a crime, committed without any provocation from God, or any temptation of profit or pleasure to the sinner.