appeal to God by oath, they come under an
engagement to him, and also an engagement to one another; or, they vow
and swear to God, and promise and swear to one another. When men in
secret swear to God, what they swear to do, or the matter of their oath,
is a vow; and their oath is sworn in formally calling on him to witness
the making of their vow, and to judge them should they not fulfil it.
When men covenant with one another and vow also to God, their vow
carries along with it an oath, or the calling of God to act as witness
and judge. The apprehension that God will punish for not making
fulfilment to him accompanies equally the oath and the vow. In both is
implied what may be denominated not properly an imprecation, but rather
an acknowledgment of the justice of God's procedure in punishing should
the engagement not be fulfilled. Both the vow and oath are made _to_
God. The oath, besides, is made in the use of the name of God. When an
oath is enjoined, so is a vow; for that which is promised to God in the
oath is a vow. And as every vow is addressed to God--who is necessarily
a witness and judge of the transaction and the offerer--every command
enjoining it includes a mandate to use the oath.

CONFESSION.

The term CONFESS, and the corresponding word CONFESSION, are employed in
reference to the subject of Covenanting. The former of these is
sometimes used in regard to God as an object, and sometimes in reference
to men. To confess to God, or to the name of God, means to perform
services which include among them the exercise of Covenanting. In more
than one passage of the prayer of Solomon, at the dedication of the
temple, it denotes _to Covenant_. He said, "When thy people Israel be
smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee,
and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make
supplication unto thee in this house: then hear thou in heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land
which thou gavest unto their fathers."[54] The sin to which the people
of Israel were peculiarly exposed was that of idolatry. For that they
were afterwards carried away from the land that had before been promised
in covenant to their fathers. In practising that they transgressed the
covenant.[55] When they should be restored they would take into their
mouth, instead of the names of idols, the name of God, and that by
taking hold upon his covenant.[56] Beside