where confirms; forbidding us to worship, or believe in any other deity, than the one Maker and Ruler of heaven and earth; who hath manifested himself to all men by the works of his hands; to the Patriarchs and Jews, by the revelations recorded in Mofes and the Prophets; and finally to Chriftians, by his Son our Lord: who, in a way and manner to us inconceivable, is one with the Father; and the Holy Spirit with both: as I have already shown you, in difcourfing on the Creed.

There being then this one only God; the commandment before us enjoins,

I. That we have him for our God:

II. That we have no other.

I. That we have him: that is, think fo of him, and behave fo to him, as his infinite perfection, and our abfolute dependance on him, require: which general duty towards God, our catechism very juftly branches out into the following parti

culars :

First, That we believe in him. For be that cometh to God muft believe that he is*. The foundation on which this belief ftands, I have shown in its proper place. And the great thing, in which it confifts, is, that we fix firmly in our minds, recall frequently to our memories, and imprint deeply upon our hearts, an awful perfuafion of the being and prefence, the power and justice, the holiness and truth, of this great Lord of all. The confequence of this will be,

Secondly, That we fear him. For fuch attributes as thefe, duly confidered, muft fill the most innocent creatures with reverence and self-abasement. But finful and guilty ones, as we know ourselves to have been, have caufe to feel yet stronger emotions in their fouls from fuch a meditation: Apprehenfions of his displeasure, and follicitude for his pardon; leading us naturally to that penitent care of our hearts and lives, on which he hath graciously affured us, that thro' faith in Christ Jefus, we shall be forgiven. And then, gratitude for his mercy will prompt us to the

Third duty towards him, which our catechism specifies, that we love him: the fear of the Lard being, as the son of Sirach de◄ clares, the beginning of his love †. For whenever we come to re

flect feriously on that goodness, which hath given us all the comforts that we enjoy; that pity which offers pardon, on moft equitable terms, for all the faults that we have committed; that grace, which enables us to perform every duty accepta bly; and that infinite bounty, which rewards our imperfect performances with eternal happiness: we cannot but feel our felves bound to love fuch a Benefactor, with all our heart, and avith all our mind, with all our foul, ard all our frength; to rejoice in being under his government; make our boast of him all the day long*; and chufe him for our portion for ever †. A mind thus affected, would be uneafy, without paying the regard fet down in the

come.

Fourth place, Which is, to worship him: to acknowledge our dependence, and pay our homage to him; both in private, to preserve and improve a sense of religion in ourselves; and in public, to fupport and spread it in the world. The first part of worship, mentioned in the catechifm, and the firft in a na tural order of things, is giving him thanks. God originally made and fitted all his creatures for happinefs: if any of them have made themselves miferable, this doth not leffen their obligation of thankfulness to him: but his continuing still good, and abounding in forgiveness and liberality, increases that ob ligation unfpeakably. With a grateful fense of his past favours is clofely connected, putting our truft in him for the time to And justly doth the catechifm require it to be our whole truf. For his power and goodnefs are infinite: those of every creature may fail us; and all that they can poffibly do for us, proceeds ultimately from him. Now, a principal expreffion of reliance on God is, petitioning for his help. For if we pray in faith, we fhall live fo too. And therefore trusting in him, which might have been made a separate head, is included in this of worship; and put between the first part of it, giving thanks to him and the fecond, calling upon him: according to that of the Pfalmift; "O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded §." To call upon God, is to place ourselves in his presence; and there to beg of him, for ourselves, and each other, with unfeigned humility and fubmiffion, fuch affiftance in our duty, fuch provision for our wants,

*Pfal. xliv. 8, 9.

† Pfal. Ixxiii. 25, 26.
§ Pfal. xxxi. I.

Jam. i. 6. v. 15.

wants, and fuch defence against our enemies, of every kind, as infinite wifdom fees fit for us all. After this evident obligation, follows a

Fifth not lefs fo: to honour his holy name and word: not prefuming even to speak of the great God in a negligent way; but preferving, in every expreffion and action, that reverence to him, which is due paying, not a fuperftitious, but a decent and respectful regard, to whatever bears any peculiar relation to him; his day, his church, his minifters, but especially honouring his holy word, the law of our lives and the foundation of our hopes, by a diligent ftudy and firm belief of what it teaches; and that univerfal obedience to what it commands, which our catechifm referves for the

Sixth and laft, as it is undoubtedly the greatest, thing: to ferve him truly all the days of our life. Obedience is the end of faith and fear; the proof of love; the foundation of truft; the neceffary qualification, to make worship and honour of every kind acceptable. This therefore must complete the whole, that we "walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless *," not thinking any one fo difficult, as to defpair of it or fo fmall, as to defpise it; and never be "weary in well-doing for we fhall reap in due season, if we faint not" and he alone "fhall be faved, that endureth to the end 1." But we must now proceed to obferve,

:

II. That, as this commandment requires us to acknowledge the one true God; fo it forbids us to acknowledge any

other.

Both before, and long after the law of Mofes was given, the generality of the world entertained a belief, that there were many gods; a great number of beings, fuperior to men, that amongst them governed the world, and were fit objects of devotion. To these, as their own fancy, or the folly or fraud of others led them, they ascribed more or lefs both of power and goodness; attributed to several of them the vilest actions, that could be; fuppofed them to prefide, fome over one nation or city, fome over another; worshipped a few or a multitude of them, just as they pleased; and that with a strange variety of ceremonies, abfurd and impious, immoral and barbarous. Amidft this crowd of imaginary deities, the real one Z z 2

*Luke i. 6. † Gal. vi 9.

Mat. xxiv. 13.

was

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was almost entirely forgotten: false religion and irreligion divided the world between them; and wickedness of every kind was authorized by both. The cure for these dreadful evils must plainly be, teftoring the old true notion of one only God, ruling the world himself: which therefore was the first great article of the Jewish faith, as it is of ours.

Christians can hardly in words profess a plurality of gods : but in reality they do, if they suppose the divine nature common to more than one Being; or think our Saviour, or the Holy Spirit, mere creatures, and yet pay them divine honours. But besides these, we apprehend the Church of Rome to fin against the prefent commandment, when they pray to angels, To the holy virgin and the faints, as being able every where to hear them; and having not only temporal relief, but grace and salvation, in their power to bestow. Nay, were the plea which they fometimes make a true one; that they only pray to them to intercede with God; yet it would be an insufficient one. For there is no reafon to believe, that they have any know ledge of such prayers: or if they had, as there is one God," fo there is one Mediator between God and man*. And we have neither precept, nor allowance, nor example, in the whole Bible, of applying to any other, amongst all the abfent inhabitants of the invifible world.

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But there are several ways more of tranfgreffing this commandment. If we afcribe things, which befal us, to fate, or to chance, or to nature; and mean any thing real by these words, different from that order, which our Maker's providence hath appointed; we fet up in effect other gods befides him. If we imagine the influence of ftars, the power of fpirits, in short, any power whatever, to be independent on him, and capable of doing the least matter, more than he judges proper to permit that it should; this alfo is having more gods than one. If we fet up ourfelves, or others above him; and obey, or expect any one elfe to obey, man rather than God; here again is in practice, though not in fpeculation, the fame crime. If we love or "truft in uncertain riches," more than "the living Godt;" this is that "covetoufness which is idolatry ." If we purfue unlawful fenfual pleasures, inftead of delight

delighting in his precepts; this is making a " god of our own belly" In a word, if we allow ourselves to practise any wickedness whatever, we ferve, by fo doing, the false “ god of this worldt," instead of the true God of heaven, befides whom we ought not to have any other; and therefore to whom alone be, as is most due, all honour and obedience, now and for ever. Amen,

1

WE

LECTURE XIX.

SECOND COMMANDMENT.

are now come to the Second Commandment: which the Church of Rome would perfuade men is only part of the firft. But they plainly relate to different things. The first appoints, that the object of our worship be only the 'true God: the next, that we worship him not under any visible refemblance or form. And befides, if we join these two into one, there will be no tenth left; though the scripture itself hath called them ten*: to avoid which absurdity, the Romanifts have committed another, by dividing the tenth into two. And they might as well have divided it into fix or seven; as I fhall show you, in difcourfing upon it. For these reasons, the oldest and most confiderable, both of the Jewish and Chriftian writers, who distinguish the commandments by their number, distinguish them in the fame manner that we do. Perhaps it may seem of fmall confequence, how that before us is counted, provided it be not omitted, And we must own, that fome perfons before the rife of popery, and fome Protestants fince the Reformation, have, without any ill defign, reckoned it a as the Papists do. But what both the former have done by

* Exod. xxxiv. 28. Deut. iv. 13. X. 4.

mere