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we had been standing at the foot of Sinai among the children of Ifrael, when the heavenly trumpet founded, and the voice of God was uttered with fuch awful majefty as made Mofes and all Ifrael fall a-quaking and trembling; for all these words. are directed unto us, as much as they were unto them. And therefore do not fhift them, as though they were spoken only to Ifrael, or as if they were fpoken to others, and not to you. No, no; to thee, man, to thee, woman, God now speaks all these words in this Bible; and therefore hear and liften, with particular application of them to thy own foul, as if God were calling thee out of heaven, by name and firname. Two of thefe ten words I defign to speak to, namely thefe, taken in their connection, I am the Lord thy God-Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

1. A great and graci

Where two things are confiderable. ous promife, even the leading promife of the covenant, I am the Lord thy God. 2. A great and gracious law or commandment, founded upon the covenant promife and grant; a law, the obligation whereof the very light of nature cannot fhake off; Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

1. We have a great promife or new covenant-grant; I am the Lord thy God. The greateft word ever God fpake fince the fall of Adam! for here he not only fpeaks forth his own glory and tranfcendant being, but he speaks over himself unto us as our God. Here is a promife, yea, fomething more than a promife. A promife is commonly expreffed with respect to the time to come, concerning fomething God hath a mind to do hereafter; but here God fpeaks in the present time, I am the Lord thy God; i. e. Now while I am fpeaking, from this moment I become your God; and from this time forward you may claim me as fuch, and hold me to it, by this my grant that I make of myfelf unto you. God's covenant of promife is not a thing paft, or a thing to come only; but a thing prefent, I am the Lord thy God. Faith never wants a foundation; no, it is always invariably the fame : and if our faith did bear a just proportion unto the ground of faith in the covenant, we would not be up and down in our believing; no, we would be always believing, and that with the fulleft affurance of faith. There is a twofold title by which God describes himself here in this covenant-grant; the one is effential and the other relative. (1.) The effential title is JEHOVAH; the force of which is opened, Rev. i. 4. "He that is, that was, and is to come." And it implies his felf-existence, that he hath his being of himfelf, independent of all other beings; and that he giveth being to all other beings whatever, in heaven above, or in the earth beneath. The Jews think this name fo facred, that they judge VOL. II.

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it unlawful to pronounce it. It is a name common to each perfon of the glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who are one God. Chrift is called JEHOVAH frequently in the fcripture, as well as the Father, Jer. xxiii. 6. "This is his name whereby he fhall be called, JEHOVAH, our righteousnefs." And we have very good ground to think that it was JEHOVAH, in the perfon of the eternal Son, that spake all these words from the top of Sinai, unto Ifrael, as we may have occafion to clear more fully afterwards. (2.) Another title whereby he here defcribes himself is relative; thy God. This is it that fweetens the name of JEHOVAH unto us; he is JEHOVAH our God. The terror of his amazing and infinite greatnefs were enough to affright and astonish all mankind; but when he fays, I am thy God, even thy own God; not an avenging God, to execute the penalty of the broken law upon thee, but a "God with thee, a God on thy fide," to pity, pardon, and defend thee, a " God gracious and merciful, abundant in goodnefs and in truth;" this, O this! renders his name JEHOVAH amiable and defirable.

2. In the words we have a law or commandment, suited unto, and founded upon, this covenant grant; Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This, as many of the reft of the commandments are, is delivered in negative terms, prohibiting and forbidding," the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying "the true God, as God and our God; and the giving of that "worship and glory to any other which is due to him alone." And this law, or commandment, as the generality of the other commandments, is delivered in negative terms, because of the perpetual propenfity of our natures, fince the fall to depart from the living God through an evil heart of unbelief. But although the command be delivered in negative terms, yet the contrary pofitive duty is manifeftly included in it, or under it; namely, "to know and acknowledge God to be the only "true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him "accordingly," as is well expreffed in our Catechifm. As for thefe words, Before me, or before my face, as it may be read: this expreflion plainly teaches us, that an omnifcient and all-seeing God, before whom all things are open and naked, and who "fets our most fecret fins in the light of his countenance,” taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the fin of having any other God; and confequently is well pleafed with the finner who knows and acknowledges him as the only true God, and his own God, according to the gift of the covenant, which is the foundation of our claim to him. From which words,

OBSERVE,

OBSERVE, "That as God is the Lord and our God by his own, free gift in a covenant of grace, fo it is his royal will and pleasure, intimated to us in the first commandment of his law, that we fhould know and acknowledge him to be our own God, upon the ground of that covenant-grant."

I have framed the doctrine almost in the words of our Lefier Catechifm, opening up the import of this promife and precept. And that I could make all this company, and the whole world of mankind, if I had accefs, to understand what a glorious and rich treasure they have among their hands. when they hear thefe words repeated, or repeat them themfelves, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Alas! there are many have these words by rote, who never confider what is in them: just like a company of people travelling the highway where an immenfe treafure lies under their feet; they pafs and repafs it, but miss the treasure, because they never dig into the field; fo people read and repeat these words, and lofe God and eternal life, that lie hid in them, because they do not advert to what they are faying or reading.

But, O Sirs, let me befeech and intreat you, for your fouls fake, to paufe a little, and confider what is in these words, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. You and I, by the breach and violation of the first covenant, in our father Adam, loft our God; and ever fince, every man and woman is" without God in the world," and being without God, we are without hope, without help, without grace, light, life, ftrength, or any thing that is good. When we loft our God, we loft all, and loft it to all intents and purposes. Well, but, Sirs, I tell you glad tidings of the greatest joy that ever mankind heard fince the fall of Adam; here you have your God, whom you loft by the first covenant, coming back again to you in a new covenant, a covenant of grace, and saying to every one of you, I am the Lord thy God: he becomes our God, not upon the footing of works, but of free grace. And because the finner, through a sense of guilt and wrath, might be ready to scare and fay, O I cannot think that God is fpeaking to me, when he fays, I am the Lord thy God! I doubt, may the finner fay, if I be warranted to claim him as my God, who have forfeited all claim and title to him. In anfwer unto this, confider, that a royal law is iffued out, yea, the very law of nature, written at first upon Adam's heart, is repeated and adapted unto the difpenfation of the covenant of grace, binding and obliging every one, to whom these prefents are intimated, to take him as their God in Christ, upon the footing of this new

Covenant.

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covenant. And it is remarkable, how Infinite Wisdom out. wits the policy of hell, and turns the counsel thereof into foolish nefs. Satan ruins man by tempting him to break the law, and fo to affront God in his authority and fovereignty. Well, but God takes the very first commandment of that law. which Adam broke, and brings it in under a new covenant, the fum of which is this, I am the Lord thy God and so makes that very law fubfervient to man's recovery, and his greateft warrant to lay claim to JEHOVAH as his God. So that you see, this first commandment in this fituation, connected with the preface, is juft big and pregnant with ama zing grace and love. But this will yet further appear in the profecution of this subject, which I fhall attempt to speak to in the following order and method, through divine aflift

ance.

I. To fpeak a little of this covenant-promife, I am the Lord thy God.

II. To fpeak a little of the precept, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

III. To inquire a little into the connection betwixt thefe

two.

IV. Apply the whole.

I. The first thing is, to speak a little of this covenant-promise, I am the Lord thy God. And here I fhall, 1. Offer a few general remarks concerning this fundamental promise or grant of the covenant. 2. Inquire a little more particularly into the import of it; or what that is which God promises when he says fo.

First, I would offer a few general remarks concerning this great covenant grant and promife, I am the Lord thy God. As,

1. I remark, that this, as all the other promises, is in Chrift; my meaning is, that it goes upon a ranfom found, and a fatisfaction paid, unto juftice by Chrift our glorious Surety. Sirs, be aware of imagining, that an abfolute God, or a God out of Chrift, utters this promife: no, no; an absolute God is a confuming fire unto guilty finners, and he could never speak in fuch a dialect to any of the finful rebellious race of Adam, in a confiftency with the honour of his holiness, juftice, and fovereignty, which were offended and affronted in the violation of his royal law. Unless the Son of God had promifed, as our Surety, to pay the infinite ranfom that justice demanded, none of Adam's pofterity had ever heard any thing but the terrible thunders of his wrath and justice puríuing them for fin. So

that

that this covenant grant or promife, as well as the other declarations of the grace and love of God in the word to perishing finners, muft needs go upon the footing of the blood and fatisfaction of Jefus : 2 Cor. v. 19. " God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespaffes unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." And therefore, Sirs, whenever you read or hear a word. of grace from God, think upon Christ, in and through whom only God is a God of peace; and let your foul fay, "O thanks be unto God for his unfpeakable gift!"

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2. It is more than probable, that it was God in the perfon of his eternal Son, that uttered all these words at mount Sinai ; and this promise in particular, whereby the law was ushered in. Here was a parliament, or general affembly of angels, called at mount Sinai; and Chrift the great Angel of the covenant was the prefident, or great Lord-fpeaker. This I gather from Pfal. İxviii. ver. 17. and 18. compared. Ver. 17. it is faid, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place." Well, what Lord was it that was among them at Sinai?" Even that fame Lord," ver. 18. " who afcended up on high, and led captivity captive, and received gifts for men," &c. See alfo to the fame purpose, Acts vii. 37. 38. compared. Ver. 37. "A prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you, your brethren, like unto me; him fhall ye hear." Chrift is that great prophet. But then notice what follows, ver. 38. "This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which fpake to him" (viz. unto Mofes and the children of Ifrael) "in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers." So that it was Chrift the Son of God that spake all these words in mount Sinai, faying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the boufe of bondage. Thou fbalt have no other gods before me, &c. And by the way, this furnishes us with a notable confutation of the Arians, who deny Chrift to be a fupreme, selfexiftent, and independent God. Who did ever doubt, that it was the fupreme God, the felf-exiftent God, that fpake all these words, and delivered the law with fuch awful folemnity at mount Sinai ! Yet, from what I was faying, it appears, that it was none other than Chrift the eternal Son. But more of this in the application.

3. I remark, that this covenant grant and promife is the fame upon the matter with the promife God had made unto Abraham feveral hundred of years before. Now, God's promife to Abraham was, "I will be thy God, and the God of thy feed:" and here he meets with his feed at sinai, and repeats what he

had

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