-37 The Thirty-sixth and seventh Lord’s Day

36-37 The Thirty-sixth and seventh Lord’s Day
Exodus 20:7
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
The third command is proposed here, and its Sanction or Confirmation. The Command concerns the manner of worshipping God, or the right use of those things which have a special relation to God and his worship. For by the name Jehovah is understood all by which God is made known to us, or discernible, just as a man is known by his name. By taking God’s name into our mouths is understood then, the use of all such things; because things are commonly taken up so that they may be applied to use. And by in vain, or vainly, is understood all pravity1 of this use — by a Synecdoche of the special being put for the more general kind. And that is because a vain use of sacred and holy things is a grievous abuse of them, though there may be others that are more grievous. For example, when they are used not only without their just and true end and fruit, or for no settled end — that is, when they are used rashly or in vain — but also when they are settledly and purposely turned and twisted for some wicked and impious uses. So then, by taking God’s name in vain is understood all abuse of sacred things.2 The Sanction of this precept is by its threatening, which is generally of all misery. This misery is explicated by its proper causes; that is, the prosecution of that guilt which follows the breach of this Command: God will not leave him or hold him guiltless, etc. For as the blessedness of a man is declared by taking away the guilt of his sins, Romans 4:6-7; Romans 4:3 so also man’s misery is declared by prosecution of that same guilt.
Doctrine 1. With all religion or devotion, we ought to be conversant about those things which belong to God’s worship, both as to the things themselves, and as to the manner of handling them.
It is clear enough in the words themselves, Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Reason 1 . Because this manner of handling things belongs in some way to the form of the action and of our duty; and it more inwardly belongs to our duties, that we rightly direct our actions as to the point of their form, than of their matter and object 4 — though care must be had to both, and that is be done with a devotion of the same kind.
Reason 2. Because in such things the name of God is committed and recommended to our trust as it were, so that it may appear with what devotion and respect we will use them.
Reason 3 . Because that name of God has so much worth and excellence in it, that it is no less wicked to use it with contempt or slight, than to neglect it altogether. Now the religious manner of using God’s name consists chiefly in these things: 1. First, in the sincerity of our intentions, whereby we are to look at the very end in its use, and in the worship of God to which, of
1 That is, perversion (to change the inherent purpose or use of something). 
2 All those things on which God puts his name: Numbers 6:27; 1 Kings 9:3; 1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 2 Kings 21:4, 2 Kings 21:7; 2 Chronicles 33:7.
3 Romans 4:6-7 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;" 4 In other words, consider the point of these sacred things, the why of their form, rather than what they are in themselves (their matter), or how they are used or handled externally (their object).
its own nature and by God’s appointment, it tends and was ordained. 2. In the reverence with which we use it, which is to be such that thereby we may show that we are careful to preserve and keep up the honour of God and of his worship in good esteem, and save it from all contempt, slight, dishonour, and reproach. 3. In our zeal, whereby we endeavor with all earnestness of mind to glorify God in the use of these things, and so advance our own salvation. These and similar ways are pointed out to us in the very forbidding of using them vainly.
Reason 1. Because what is not used to its own end is used rashly and vainly; therefore to exclude this vanity, sincerity about our intention must first be used.
Reason 2 . Because what is only lightly and slightly handled, as if it were a thing of no weight or importance, is counted but vain and empty; therefore forbidding to use vainly commands us, by the same means, to use it with reverence, earnestness, and gravity.
Reason 3 . Because a thing is used in vain when it does not attain to its end, its uses, and its fruit for which it was ordained; therefore, taking away this vanity also requires a diligent endeavor of reaping and receiving the just fruits of such ordinances; thus it is done by zeal.
Use 1. Of Reformation: against Papists who in many things look only to the work done, and neglect the manner of doing it, and the disposition of the doer. 
Use 2. Of Reproof: of all carnal and irreligious manners of men in the use of God’s worship and sacred things. This happens when they go about them either in a usual fashion of their own, or out of custom rather than from conscience, and with a knowing and feeling resentment of duties; and when they have in them for the most part, other ends set down and proposed to themselves than those which God appointed, and which alone they ought to intend. Or they are lightly touched with them, and therefore they are but lightly busied in them, as if they were matters of sport, or highway pastimes. Or lastly, they are so long in the good duties they do, though they do not look like men in sport, yet they look like those who never looked for, nor had any great care to reap any great benefit from the things they did.
Use 3. Of Exhortation: that we may more and more stir up in ourselves, and in our minds and consciences, this religious care. 
Doctrine 2. This religious care ought to singularly be had in the use of Oaths, and those things that are of a similar nature to it.
It is gathered from this: because the name of God is taken into our mouths in a special way in Oaths, Vows, Promises, Covenants, and the like; and a reverence for God’s dreadful name is especially commended to us here.
Reason 1. Because in every Oath there is a certain calling upon the name of God in a special way.
Reason 2 . Because God is not to be barely and only called upon to help us, as he is in other business; but he is called upon as a witness, judge, and avenger, if we do not speak and think truth, nor do right.
Reason 3. Because in an Oath, we bind ourselves not only to man or our party on earth, but also to God, and for the most part of own accord; and where otherwise we did not need to put our souls under the wrath and curse of God and his fearful vengeance if we were to deceive.
Reason 4. Because as it were, here we interpose God and his name for our Surety; in all of which respects it requires a singular religious care of the use of God’s name in such a behalf. Use. Of Condemnation: against those who are given to rash Oaths, or to superstitious, blasphemous, and profane ones.
Doctrine 3. To abuse God’s name in this manner is a most grievous sin, and such that God will avenge it in a singular way. 
This is gathered from the sanction that is adjoined to the precept, God will not leave him unpunished, etc. And this sanction is grounded on two Reasons: 
Reason 1. Because this sin among men is accounted venial,1 and is daily committed without any punishment. 
Reason 2. Because it is our natural corruption to little or not at all regard the dispositions of our minds in worshipping God, which nonetheless God chiefly looks at.
Now the grievousness of the sin appears in this: 1. That God is as it were, mocked in this. 2. That God’s worship is turned as it were, into a stage play. 3. That an occasion is hereby given to contemn and blaspheme God’s name. And among the punishments with which God follows this sin, spiritual revenge is the most horrid, whereby he so deserts such men, that things which of their own nature are a savour of life unto life, become to them a savour of death unto death — which also by the very order of nature follows this kind of sin.
Use . Of Admonition: that we take heed of this sort of sin; passages of holy Scripture are not to be played with, and made sport of; nor are they to be made use of for charms, or enchantments, or witchcraft; nor to toss them to and fro like Tennis-balls in common discourse, and for common purposes, without any reverence or gravity; lastly, Scripture is not to be exercised in any part of God’s worship merely for a shift,2 and according to the fashion or custom in use.
Doctrine 4. That merely from the fear or horror of such a sin, we should not altogether abstain from Oaths as things that in themselves and absolutely are unlawful. For in some cases, times, and matters, we are bound to Oaths by the affirmative or commanding part of this Precept.
1 Easily excused or forgiven.
2 That is, for shock value, or as a rhetorical device to move (shift) the listeners. [229]