When the high priest put to him the interrogatory, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God?" he did not hesitate to answer, though until then he had been silent. The apostle Paul likewise, in at least two passages of his Epistles, introduces a form of expression equivalent to an oath. Nay, the infinitely holy God himself has confirmed his promises to men by oaths; and as he could swear by none greater, he has, in such cases, sworn by his own incomprehensible existence and adorable attributes. There is, then, no reason to doubt the lawfulness of oaths, when administered on occasions of importance, and under circumstances of due solemnity. But whether oaths are not resorted to in our civil judicatories, when they might be dispensed with, and whether the frequency of their administration, and, we may add, the light manner of their administration in some instances, have not tended to diminish their efficacy, and to render perjury more common than it would otherwise be, are questions respectfully submitted to the consideration of those whose more appropriate province it is to decide on topics of this description.

IV. We proceed now to a fourth particular, in which, according to the opinion of some pious expositors, the commandment before us is transgressed. When we say that games of chance involve a violation of the spirit of this precept, many of our hearers, we doubt not, will be surprised. And yet all such games have been regarded by writers of high theological reputation, as coming within the scope of the third prohibition; inasmuch as they are a virtual appeal to Heaven on an unimportant occasion, and for the decision of an insignificant matter. What is chance? Simply a word expressive of our ignorance in respect to the circumstances which precede any

event as its proximate cause. In rigid accuracy of language, nothing can be accidental. All occurrences, however minute, are under the supreme control of Jehovah. In the toss of a dollar, or the throw of a die, recourse is had to the same general laws of motion which regulate the planets in their orbits, and give harmony to the universal system of matter. The agency of the Deity is not more real and direct in the one case than in the other. But the player of cards or of dice, anticipating the conclusion to be drawn from these premises, exclaims, that he never dreams of appealing to God for the decision of the game in which he is engaged. And might not the swearer urge a similar plea? Can we presume that he always thinks of the august Being, whose name he takes upon his unhallowed tongue? Let no one, however, suppose that we are now intimating, that to play a game of chance simply for amusement, is as criminal as needlessly to utter an oath. Sins that are very different in degree, may yet be the same in kind. Allowance, too, ought undoubtedly to be made for those whose education and habits of thinking, have not led them to contemplate this subject in the light in which it has now been represented. What we have given you, is to be received as the judgment of sensible and pious authors, and as such, is entitled to your serious regard.-We must not omit this opportunity of bearing our testimony against lotteries of every kind, and for every purpose. They are exceptionable on several accounts. They are games of chance. They involve the principle of gambling in its worst shape. They excite absurd expectations of sudden wealth, especially among those whose pecuniary resources are limited, and thus counteract those habits of industry and frugality, on which alone every man should rely for the support of his family, and the improvement of his fortune. That

they are authorized by law, is sometimes gravely urged as a conclusive argument in their favour, by persons who seem to think that whatever our rulers do must be right, as the honest man supposed that whatever he read in a book must be true. But it is this very circumstance of their having the sanction of law, which, by exempting them in the estimation of the multitude, from the criminality attached to private gambling, endues them with a perilous efficiency in demoralizing the community. We cannot leave this subject without adding, that the acknowledgments of every friend to public virtue are due to the distinguished member of congress from New England, for the noble stand which he made, not long since, in the representative assembly of the Union, against the great and desolating evil on which we have now animadverted.

V. As another instance in which the third commandment is transgressed, we may refer to all attempts to pry, with an overweening curiosity, into the secret things of God. This precept of the decalogue utters its veto against that speculative spirit in relation to many religious topics, which so frequently attends a zeal for "the form of godliness," in those who "deny the power thereof." Men who are totally strangers to the moral influence of religion, are often heard jangling about the niceties of its doctrine, and the technicalities of its language.

Nor is this speculating disposition, which we consider as incompatible with the spirit of our text, wholly confined to those whose acquaintance with religion does not extend beyond its theory. We regret to say, that men who are on the whole decidedly pious, are sometimes prone to push their inquiries on particular subjects, connected with natural and revealed religion, past the limits of propriety. The genuine Christian is not always exempt from an intenseness of curiosity, and a boldness of

conjecture, in respect to the mysteries of the Bible, not very consonant with that humility which ought to be the prominent and distinctive feature of his character. There can be no question, that such an anxiety to be wise above what is written, has a tendency to retard the progress of vital piety in the soul. He who instead of applying his mental energies to the investigation of truths obviously revealed, and devoting his moral energies to the practice of duties plainly enjoined, occupies himself with questions which, in our present state, are incapable of solution, and which, even if they could be resolved, are yet of no importance to human virtue, or to human happiness,—he who thus acts, will discover in the end, that he has expended his strength for nought, and made, in reality, no advances in the knowledge, the fear, and the love of his Maker.

It may not be impertinent, in passing, to remark that the spirit of the third commandment has, we apprehend, been violated to an extent by no means inconsiderable, in the controversies which, in our own country, have been carried on with so much heat and virulence, on such subjects as these:-the divine sovereignty-the origin of moral evil-and the nature of the atonement. We think that some of the disputants, on either side of these questions, may probably, on due reflection, deem themselves reproved by the precept of the moral law, on which we are now commenting. If to speculate on subjects that lie beyond the grasp of our intellectual faculties-especially when such subjects relate to the character and proceedings of the Deity himself-be not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain, then it would seem as if there were scarcely a possibility of profaning that name by any thing that we may do, short of direct blasphemy.-But we trust that the period is not very distant, when a

revolution will be effected in theology, considered merely as a science, similar to that which has already taken place in physical and mental philosophy-when a proper estimate will be formed of the powers of the human mind as applied to the truths of revealed religion-when the legitimate objects of investigation will be discriminated from other objects, with regard to which our most indefatigable researches must ever terminate in results that are conjectural and barren—when, in a word, the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel will be regarded as ultimate truths, to which we should yield our full assent, without imagining, that we must demonstrate them by arguments, or that we can answer all the numberless queries that may be started in respect to their nature and consequences.

VI. The last instance of the transgression of the third commandment, to which we shall call your attention on this occasion, is exhibited in the conduct of those, who draw nigh unto the Lord with their mouths, and honour him with their lips, while their hearts are far from him. The assumption of a sanctified exterior on the part of one who has no real regard for the divine majesty, or the divine laws, whether such assumption be merely made in compliance with custom, or result from a desire to compass some important end, to the attainment of which the reputation of piety is deemed essential, must be contemplated as belonging to the general description of sins prohibited in the text. Hypocrisy, in its worst form, which implies a systematic attempt to impress men with the opinion, that we possess, in an eminent degree, virtues to which we are conscious that we are utterly strangers, is a sin indicating so much moral depravity, that we ought not, except on the most indubitable grounds, to impute it to any individual. But there is a species of minor hypocrisy, if we may be allowed the expression, which is much more