558 Ne facrunt ejus nomen ludibrio expenerctmrr ne- ve poindras affu- efeeret ad im- ¡tlxttt ejus can- tempos fi fraudator im- puné, negaret quad Deo pro- miferat. Bucanus loc. torn. 45.de Vet. 6.Gener.viz. lfe. 6 Whether weld compofed r'ellgious vows Serra, 2 q., that Vow which is law full and pofble ; T have opened my mouth and 1 cannot go back, Judg. J r.3 5. }t is the unalterable Law, if you vow, you muff pay, Pfal. 76.12. God did indulge the Jews fo farce as to redeem fome of their vowel, but he allowed none to break them. Read that Dent. 23.21. when thou Halt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou (halt net flachto pay it, for the Lord thy God will furely require it of thee. And ver. 23.7- hat which is gone out of thy lips thorn Jbe.lt keep ánd perform. Now when fo much of Re'igfon herb in and dependeth 6n làc h Vowes, and thcf Vowes are fuck inviolable ties that God will wink at none who break them, they cannot but have fuch influence and ffrong operation on p>rfons to the advantage of Religion. 3. Gods (evert judgments on contemners of their Yawes, adde mach to their influence : I will not mention examples of vengeance on Heathens for breach of their vowes, though the Idol deferved not better, yet God who is the true God, would hive men know filch ficred bonds as Vowes, fhould not be profaned by fleight perform- ing, or contemned by a total! neglec`f of them. The Jewifh Rab- bies tell us, that God punifhed 7ecob for neglecting his Vow, by Dinah's mil-carriage. However, it is cnough God hath threatned the falfifier of his vowes with no lefs than a deftruccion of the works of his hands, if not with the ruin of his perfon : God will not let fuch one go unpunifhed, left his holy Naine Jhoufd be fcorned, left the people fhowld be accuflosved to an impious contempt of him, of the falfi f er of his Vow l onld deny what he had promifed to God and go nnpnaoifhed. In one word, that which ftands thus on the unc'ìange- able Law of Nature, and is written on the confcience ; what is con- firmed and ratified by the peremptory pofitive Law of God, what is yet further armed with the terrible threat of the God of Heaven, mutt needs have a mighty binding ftrength in it obliging men : But now all there concurre in Vowes well compofed, and hence they have fuch influence on Religious perlons. You may adde the 4th, viz. Thegratiosu acceptance that God gives to perfons fo vowing and performing their Vowes. With 51Y, The figaall Bleffings crowning Religiotes perfons in due per - formanceof their Vowes; All which make them careful ro vow fo, that they may fay they will pay their Vowes, and in paying them, render to the Lord for all his benefits. I am come now to the lafl thing! intended, the prafticall appli- ttiotl of this praeticall Cafe : And here Reader I (hall be briefer than
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