of whom shall I be afraid ?" Thy God lives; and " because he lives, thou shalt live alfo. The Lord liveth, and bleffed be my rock: and let the God of my falvation be exalted." Thus you fee by these little hints, what this promife, I am the Lord thy God, draws after it for the confolation of the believer, who has by faith laid hold of it, and fo obeyed the firft command. O Sirs, faith's views of the grace wrapped up in this promife, would make us all to join iffue with David, Pfal. xxxi. 19. "O how great is thy goodnefs, which thou haft laid up for them that fear thee; which thou haft wrought for them that trust in thee, before the fons of men!" So much for the ufe of comfort.

The last use I make of this fubject is of Exhortation. 1. To all in general. 2. To believers.

First, A word of exhortation to all in general, to obey and keep the first commandment, by taking hold of this covenantgrant, I am the Lord thy God: which is all one, as if I should exhort you to believe in Christ, or receive and reft upon him alone, &c. When a finner believes in Chrift, what does he elfe but receive God in Chrift, as his God, by virtue of the covenant of grace, placing his only reft and happiness through eternity in the enjoyment of him alone? And is not this the very thing required in the firft commandment, or a having no other gods before him? The gofpel, holding forth the object of faith, and the command requiring the obedience of faith, has been one and the fame in all ages of the world, however differently expreffed and difpenfed. We generally look upon the law of God, delivered to Ifrael at mount Sinai, as binding and obligatory upon us; and no doubt it is the rule of obedience to all mankind unto the end of the world, who fhall read or hear of it. And I am so far from thinking, or teaching, that the obligation of the holy law is diffolved by the grace of the gofpel, that I think it plain, from the connection Infinite Wisdom has laid betwixt them here, it is fimply impoffible any man can fhare of the grace of the gospel, but in a way of obedience to the very first commandment of the law, as already explained, And therefore my exhortation to every one hearing me is, to yield obedience to this first commandment of the law; lay claim by faith unto a God in Christ as your God, by virtue of the covenant, where he fays, I am the Lord thy God; and fee that you have no other gods before him. Do not think that I exhort you to this, as though I fuppofed you had any strength or power of your own to obey; no, we are naturally without ftrength, wholly impotent to do any thing fpiritually good but when I exhort you to obey this commandment, I exhort you to obey it in a depend

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ence upon the grace of him who commands you to have him as your own God, and who engages himself by covenant to be our God, and so to be the author and finisher of our faith.

Now, to quicken your compliance, to excite your obedience, confider these few particulars, which I fhall not much enlarge

upon.

1. Confider, that, by the breach of the firft covenant, you and I have forfeited all claim and title to the Lord as our God. Indeed he never ceased to be our fovereign Lord-Crea tor; in no state can this relation to God be diffolved; this relation stands even in the ftate of the damned. But, I fay, by the violation of the holy law, we have loft our covenant-relation to God, as our God, our Father, our friend, our portion: and having loft our God, we have loft our life, peace, comfort, and happiness for ever; and not only fo, but are under his wrath and curfe, and so are liable to all miferies in foul and body through time and eternity. Now, by hearkening unto this exhortation, all this unspeakable loss is repaired. Here you have God coming in a new and better covenant, even in a covenant of grace, faying, I am the Lord thy God; yea, requiring thee, by his fovereign authority, to take him again as thy own God, and thy only God, upon the footing of this new grant of grace. O what finner is it, that confiders his own eternal intereft, but will comply with this command, in knowing and acknowledging the Lord as his God! Who would not take back the forfeiture upon fuch an eafy ground!

2. Confider who it is that says, I am the Lord thy God; who it is that iffues out this command, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. It is he "whofe name alone is JEHOVAH, the most high over all the earth ;" he who doth whatever pleases him in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; he who humbles himself when he beholds things in heaven, cherubims and feraphims, angels and archangels. O what aftonishing grace and condefcenfion is it in this God, to come to a finful worm of the fallen family of Adam, faying, I am the Lord thy God! O fhall we not fall in with the defign of fuch condefcending grace,and fay, We will have no other gods before him! "This God is our God for ever and ever!" If we do not, we reject the counsel of God against ourselves, and despise the riches of his grace.

3. Confider, that this is the very first duty of natural and revealed religion, to know and acknowledge God as the only true God, and our God. The light of nature teaches us to own him as our creating God, upon the ground of that revelation he makes of himself to us in the works of creation and providence.

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vidence. Revealed religion teaches us to own him as our God in Chrift, upon the ground of his own promise and grant, I am the Lord thy God. So that, till this command. be obeyed, a man is an Atheist, an idolater, without God in the world, and is an utter ftranger both to natural and revealed religion. Wo, wo, wo to the man or woman that is in fuch a cafe; thou art condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on thee, because thou rejects JEHOVAH in the person of the Son as thy God and Redeemer; and upon the matter, fayeft, I will have other gods before him, I will not have him as the Lord my God.

4. Conûder, thou can perform no duty of the law acceptably until thou obey this command, and clofe with this covenantgrant, as was cleared already. All thy acts of obedience to the other commandments, they are but fplendid fins, an abomination to God, till this covenant-grant be received, in obedience to the first precept of his law. The foul of all obedience is wanting, till a man begin here; hence all his works are but dead. works.

5. Confider, how willing he is to be thy God, even thine own God, O finner. If he were not willing, would he ever fpeak in fuch a dialect to thee as here, faying, I am the Lord thy God? Would he ever lay thee under fuch a command of love, as to fay, Thou shalt have no other gods before me? thou shalt know and acknowledge me as thy own God and portion, as thy only hope and happiness in time and through eternity? O do not fufpect his candour and ingenuity; for "the strength of Ifrael will not lie;" he hates it in others, and therefore it is impoffible he can be guilty of it himself. We would reckon that man a blafphemer, who, with his mouth, fhould utter fuch. words as these, It is not as God fays, he is not the Lord my God and yet this blafphemy every unbelieving finner is guilty of; he makes God a liar, and denies that God fpeaks the truth in his heart, when he fays to him, I am the Lord thy God; and, at the fame time, rebels against his authority, requiring him to make faith's application of this covenant-grant to his own foul.

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6. Confider, there is an absolute neceffity that thou lay hold on this covenant-grant in obedience to this command. Why, there is no living, and no fafe dying, without God. Without God, thou art without hope in the world: without God, thou, and all thou haft in a world, are curfed; curfed in thy basket and ftore, in the houfe and field, in thy outgoings and incomings. Without God you cannot die, without dying the fecond death, as well as the first: "They that are far from thee fhall perish. What wilt thou do," O finner, "in the day of viVOL. II. fitation,

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fitation," who liveft in difobedience to this command, and refufeft the grace contained in this covenant-grant?" to whom wilt thou flee for help? and where wilt thou leave thy glory?" How will you look God in the face, when arraigned before his awful tribunal? What a knell will it give to thy heart, when thou hearest this, as the first and leading article of thy indictment, There is the man who would not know and acknowledge me as his God and Redeemer! me, who stretched out my arms of grace to embrace him, and whofe bowels fent out a found after him, faying, I am the Lord thy God: Thou fhalt have no other gods before me! he preferred felf and the world to me, and therefore now I will laugh at his calamity, and mock when his fear is come" upon him. O" consider this, ye that forget God, leaft he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver" out of his hand.

7. Confider what advantage will redound to thy foul by obeying this command with an eye to the covenant-promife. Thou art made up for ever; all falvation, as you heard, is wrapped up in this one word, I am the Lord thy God. And in the faith of it thou mayeft go through the valley of the fhadow of death, without fearing any evil; for thy God is with thee, he will never leave thee, nor forfake thee.

But I fhall not further infift in preffing this exhortation with arguments. One would think that no man that believes a future ftate of eternal happinefs or mifery, needs to be much urged to know and acknowledge Ged in Chrift as his God, upon this new grant of fovereign grace; this being the very hinge upon which a comfortable eternity doth turn. All I fhall do further, in profecuting this exhortation, is, to answer a few objections which carnal reafon and unbelief will very readily mufter up against this doctrine and exhortation

Obejét. 1. May one fay, I have loft all claim and title to the Lord as my God, by violating the holy law; and I think I hear God faying to me with a frown, "How fhall I put thee among the children," who haft forfeited thy relation to me and therefore I dare not own and acknowledge him as the Lord my God. Anfw. It is indeed true, that you and I, and all mankind, have loft our title and relation to him as our God by the first Adam, and the breach of the first covemant: and fince the fall of Adam, God never faid to any finner upon a law-ground, I am the Lord thy God; no, when a finner looks at that airth, his hope and ftrength perifhes for ever from the Lord. But, O Sirs, here is a new covenant, a new gift or grant that God makes of himfelf, which does not go upon the ground of our obedience to the law as its condition, but upon the ground of fovereign grace, reigning through the rightcoufnefs.

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righteoufnels of God-man: here, I fay, is a new claim of right prefented to the guilty finner, I am the Lord thy God; I will be unto them a Father, and they shall be my fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty." Thefe and the like abfolute and indefinite promifes are univerfally difpenfed to all and every one, as the ground of faith. And left any finner, through a sense of guilt, fhould fcare to lay hold upon this new claim of right, here is the warrant fubjoined and annexed to the claim, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Object. 2. I am afraid leaft God be not faying this to me in particular, I am the Lord thy God; and therefore dare not lay hold of it. I fear leaft he be not requiring me in particular, by this commandment, to know and acknowledge him as my God. Anf. It is by thefe and the like groundless furmifes and infinuations, that an evil heart of unbelief turns us away from the living God, and from taking hold of his covenant. But pray, tell me, in good earneft, do you think to difpute away the binding obligation of the very firft commandment of the law of God? for, as was faid, at the fame time that you refuse to take hold of this covenant-grant, you difobey the firit and leading precept of the law. Why, will you own the obligation of the other commandments of the law, and reject this? I fuppofe there are none of you but will readily acknowledge, that you in particular are bound to honour your parents, not to kill, fteal, commit adultery, &c. You may with as good reason fay or think, that thefe other precepts do not bind you in particular, as imagine that you are not particularly bound by the first to know and acknowledge a God in Chrift as your God. Why fo much prejudiced againit the first and chief commandment of God beyond all others? What account can be rendered for it, that men fhould thrust away from them the first com-mandment of the very law of nature, when grafted into the gofpel-covenant, and made fo fubfervient to their eternal falvation? I know of no folid reafon that can be given for it, but that of the apoftle, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not."

Object. 3. I cannot refufe that the command, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, is binding upon me in particular; but i can never think that it is to me in particular that God is faying, I am the Lord thy God. Anfrv. Who authorifed you, or any of Adam's race, to put afunder what God has joined ? 1 ani fure it is not by God's warrant that this is done; and therefore you may easily divine that it is from a worfe airth. It is the great plot of Satan to break that connection which God has laid betwixt the gofpel and the law; for he knows very well, that if the gospel be feparate from the law, or the law from the

gofpel,