I fhall only add, as to this connection and order, that God, like a wife builder, firft lays the foundation of faith in the promife, faying, I am the Lord thy God; and then enjoins the duty of believing: he first reveals the object of faith; and then lays on the duty of faith: he first makes a grant of grace; and then warrants us by his command to lay hold on it. The promife is a plaster or medicine; and the command orders the application or usemaking of it. The promise is the door of falvation opened; and the command enjoins us to enter in by that door. The promife is the testament: and the command is the Judge's order and warrant to make use of the goods, without fear of vitious intromission. The promife gives us a right of access; the command, when obeyed and complied with, gives a right of poffeffion. By the grant of the covenant, God manifefts his free and fovereign grace; and by the command he manifefts his royal authority, which he makes fubfervient unto his glorious defign of grace. And fo much fhall ferve for clearing the order and connection between the promise, I am the Lord thy God; and the precept, Thou shals have no other gods before me.

IV. The fourth general head was the Application. And the firft ufe fhall be comprised in thefe inferences.

1. From what is faid we may fee, that Chrift, our glorious Redeemer, is none other than the fupreme, felf-exiftent, and independent God. Who ever doubted, as was hinted before, but it was the fupreme God, the great lawgiver of heaven and earth, who spoke all thefe words, faying, I am the Lord thy God: Thou falt have no other gods before me? &c. Whofoever reads or hears thefe words with opened eyes, or understanding hearts, cannot fhun to cry out, "It is the voice of God, and not of man ;" yea, the voice of the fupreme, self-existent God, and not of any inferior or dependent being; the voice of him whofe prerogative alone it is to be Lord of the confcience, and to fearch the heart and the reins;" for these words are "quick, and powerful, and fharper than any two-edged fword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of foul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and difcern the thoughts and intents of the heart." As all the works, fo all the words of God carry the ftamp and evidence of their glorious Author in their bofom. And are we not immediately ftruck with the impreffions of the fupreme, felf-exiftent Being, when these words are uttered, I am the Lord thy God? &c. Had Mofes, or the children of Ifrael, when they stood quaking and trembling at the foot of the mount, any notions of a dependent deity fpeaking to them? No, they knew and believed that it

was

was he "whofe name alone is JEHOVAH, moft high over all the earth." Yet it was cleared already, this was Chrift the eternal Son of God; and therefore he must needs be the fupreme God, the fame in fubftance, equal in power and glory with his Father. It is the most daring prefumption, the most confummate ingratitude, for any of Adam's race, especially for any profeffed Chriftian, bearing his bleffed name, and wearing his livery, to leffen his glory, and derogate from his excellency; as if, when he is called the fupreme God, it were to be understood cum grano falis, with grains of allowance or abatement. I am perfuaded there was not an Arian at the foot of Sinai among all the many thousands of Ifrael: and were these words to be repeated by the Son of God with the fame awful folemnity among us, I am very fure there would not be one Arian among us either. What pity is it, that the refentment of our Redeemer's quarrel, against a notorious blafphemer of his fupreme Deity, has not run deeper than it has done of late in the fupreme judicatory of this national church, whose peculiar province it has been in former times to contend for the royalties of his crown against those who attempted to invade them?

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am

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2. From what has been faid, we may fee the mistake of those who affert, that faith in Chrift is a new precept of the gofpel, not required in the moral law, but by a new positive law given forth under the gofpel. None, I fuppofe, will deny, that the law required faith in a God Creator from our first parents in innocency; and if fo, what need of any new law to bind and oblige us to believe in the fame God revealing himfelf in the capacity of a Redeemer? We have already obferved from the text, how fweetly the old law of nature is grafted in, in a subserviency unto the grace of the new covenant, obliging us to know and acknowledge a God in Chrift as our own God, upon the footing of this glorious grant of grace, the Lord thy God. The applying or appropriating act of faith, when it is expreffed in words, it comes forth carrying the ftamp of obedience to what the first commandment of the moral law requires. What need then of any new positive law to enjoin it? The fame law that bound Adam, before the fall, to believe the promife of life upon the footing of perfect obedience, bound him to believe the promise of life, after the fall, upon the footing of the incarnation and fatisfaction of the Son of God: and therefore, when the first promise of the feed of the woman is uttered, Gen. iii. 15. we read of no new law enjoining him to believe it; the very light and law of nature told our first parents, that a promise, especially the promise of God, was to be believed. F

VOL. II.

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3. See hence the neceffity, excellency, and warrantableness of the great duty of believing, which we minifters are fo much preffing upon you who are hearers. It muft needs be the moft neceffary and excellent duty which God enjoins in the first precept of his law, and which he has laid as the very fpring and foundation of obedience to all the other precepts, namely, to receive him, and to acknowledge him as our own God in Chrift, and him alone; and to rest in him, and upon upon him, as our upmaking and everlafting all. Hence, John vi. 28. 29. when the Jews were fond to know what they fhould do to work the work of God, he directs them to faith in himself; because this was the first thing that the law required as it ftood under a covenant of grace: "This is the work of God," (his work in a way of eminence; the very first and fundamental work, and the fpring and foul of all obedience), "that ye believe on him whom he hath fent." For this reafon, true obedience to the law is called "the obedience of faith" and we are told, Heb. xi. 6. that "without faith it is impoffible to please God;" and, "Whatsoever is not of faith, is fin," Rom. xiv. 23. ; because, until this first command of the law be obeyed, till we receive, embrace, and acknowledge the Lord as our God in Christ, we do nothing at all in obedience to God's law, but break it every moment of our life. Again, as I faid, we fee here alfo the warrantableness of believing in Christ, and of embracing the promise. It is as warrantable for a loft finner to embrace the promise, and to receive Chrift by virtue of the promife, as to do any other thing that the law requires. Will any man doubt his warrant to honour and reverence the name of God, to honour his father and mother, to fanctify the Sabbath? &c. As little reafon has he to doubt his warrant by faith to lay claim to this glorious grant of fovereign grace through Chrift, I am the Lord thy God; feeing this is the very thing that is required in this command, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And as this command is a noble warrant for believing, fo it is a warrant of universal extent: none who own the obligation of the moral law, can fhift the obligation of its very first command. This view of matters, if taken up in the light of the Spirit, ferves to overthrow one of the principal strong-holds of unbelief; and at the fame time difcovers a ground of beliving with boldness, without any manner of prefumption. The unbelieving deceitful heart turns us away from the living God, by telling us, that we are not warranted to believe in Chrift, and that it is arrogancy and prefumption for us to in termeddle with the promise. But fo far is this furmife from

being truth, that unless you believe in Chrift, or, which is all one, except you acknowledge a God in Chrift as your God, you make God a liar, who fays, I am the Lord thy God; and rebel against his authority interpofed in his first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4. See hence a folid ground for the affurance of faith. Why, it has the nobleft ground in the world to go upon, namely, the infallible word of a God of truth, faying, I am the Lord thy God; and the best warrant in the world, namely, the first commandment of the law, requiring us to know and acknowledge him as our God. The first command requires a perfuafion of the promife, with application or appropriation of it to the foul in particular: and what is that but the affurance of faith? And no doubt the law requires every duty, and particularly this in its perfection; the confideration of which may make every one of us, yea, even the best believer upon earth, to cry out with the poor man in the gospel, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief;" and, with the difciples, "Lord, increase our faith."

5. See hence the proper bottom of true Chriftian morality, and an excellent teft whereby to diftinguish betwixt gofpel and legal preaching. You fee here, upon what foundation God himself inculcates the duties of the moral law: he firft difcovers himself as a reconciled God, a promising God in Christ, faying, I am the Lord thy God, and, upon this ground, urges the duties of the law. Now, the order of doctrine obferved by God himself, ought certainly to be observed by us in our inculcating any duty of the law upon our hearers and if this method be not obferved, it is certainly legal. Neither do I think that it is enough, when we are preffing any duty of the law, to come in with a direction or advice at the end, telling that all is to be done in the ftrength of Chrift; we fee here that God begins his fermon of morality to Ifrael, from mount Sinai, with a revelation of himself as the Lord God gracious and merciful through Chrift, I am the Lord thy God; and lays this as the foundation of obedience to the following precepts. And I do think, that we who are minifters, when we inculcate the duties of the law upon people, we ought always to keep the grace of the new covenant in their eye; for unlefs obedience to the law be influenced with this view, it cannot be the obedience of faith, and confequently cannot be acceptable: "Without faith it is impoffible to please God." It is obfervable, that God, in the promulgation of the law to Ifrael, fre quently intermixes the grace of the new covenant with the precepts of the law, and every now and then cafts it up in their view, that he was the Lord their God in Chrift. So in the fecond

fecond command, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any gra ven image, &c. : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, &c. fhewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." So in the third commandment, "Thou fhalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," &c. So in the fourth, "The feventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," &c. So likewife in the fifth, "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Thus, I fay, he makes gospel-grace, like a thread of gold, to run through the duties of the law, whereby the whole law is sweetened and beautified, his yoke made eafy, and his burden light.

Upon the other hand, there is an error, I fear too common among fome. Whenever they hear a minifter preffing duty, immediately they conclude him to be a legal preacher, without ever confidering upon what ground he doth it; for if he prefs the duties of the law upon the ground of covenanted grace, he acts according to his commiffion, and keeps the order and me, thod that God has laid; but if this method be not followed, if the duties of the law be urged as the foundation of our claim to the privileges of the gospel, or without keeping Christ and the grace of the gospel in the eye of the finner, as the foundation of duty, you may indeed conclude, that it is legal. Although what the man fays may be truth, abstractly confidered, yet the truth is not delivered in its due order and connection; and therefore has a tendency to mislead the hearer, at least to lead him into perplexing exercises.

6. See hence the truth of what the apostle afferts concerning God, I John iv. 16. " God is love." Why, the promise here is a promise of love. What more can infinite love fay than what is here faid, I am the Lord thy God? What can he give more than himself? And as the promife is a promise of love, fo the precept is a precept of love, Thou shalt have no other gods. before me. He first makes a free grant and gift of himself to us in his covenant, and then concludes us under a law of love, whereby he makes it the first and fundamental duty of obedience to him, that we shall know and acknowledge him as our own God; or in other words, that we should be happy for ever in the enjoyment of him. The most confummate happiness of the rational creature lies in what God here commands viz. in having him, and none other, as our God. Oh how excellent is his loving kindness! furely "God is love," it is the regnant perfection of his nature. And O how reasonable is it that we hould love the Lord OUR GOD with all the heart, foul, ftrength, and mind! And O how unreasonable is the enmity of the

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