gospel, in the matter of practice, not one of the commandments of the law can be obeyed to purpose. And this first command in particular, if it be disjoined from the gospel-promifè laid in the preface, I am the Lord thy God, it can no more be obeyed by a finner, than if he were commanded to pull the fun or moon out of the firmament. Pray confider, while you own the obligation of the precept, and mean while refufe your intereft or concern with the preface, you acknowledge your obligation to obedience, and yet at the fame time caft away the foundation upon which your obedience is to ftand; thus you build without a foundation, and how can that building ftand? It will fall, and great will be the fall of it. And therefore, in the name of God, I proclaim that this promife, I am the Lord thy God, is to you, and your feed, and to all that are afar off. Did not God fpeak to every individual in the camp, when he uttered these words, I am the Lord thy God; as well as when he added, Thou shalt have no other gods before me? The fame is he faying to you, and me, and every one of us; and therefore let us not caft away our own mercy; to us, as well as unto them, "belong the adoption, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the promises."

Obj. 4. What if all that is intended in these words, I am the Lord thy God, be only either an affertion of divine fovereignty, or of an external federal relation to Ifrael as the feed and pofterity of Abraham, and the only vifible church? And if so, where is there a foundation in them for me to believe in him. as the Lord my God? Anfw. I am far from excluding any of thefe things the objection mentions as comprehended in the fe words, I am the Lord thy God and I grant, that if no more were included in them, I do not fee how they could be a foundation of fpecial and faving faith to me, or any elfe. But that it is otherwise, will not readily be denied by any, if they confider what it is God requires of us in the first command, as infeparably connected with the preface. Pray confider it a little. Is this all that God calls for by the first precept of his law, to know and acknowledge him as our fovereign Lord-Creator, or that he is a God to the vifible church by external federal relation? No doubt, these are truths indifpenfibly to be belieed: but there is more required, namely, to believe that he is the Lord our God in Chrift, and to worship and glorify him accordingly. The external federal relation that God hears to the visible church, becomes special when this promise is applied by a faving faith; hence this is the common argument wherewith Ifrael is urged to believe and repent through all the Oid Teftament; particularly, Pfal. lxxxi. 9-11. And whenever faving faith was acted, whereby their turn unto him was influenced, they commonly faften upon, and apply this funda

mental

mental promife in my text, Jer. iii. 22. So that, I fay, there is more in thefe words, I am the Lord thy God, than a bare affertion of divine sovereignty, or of his covenant-relation to Ifrael as a visible church; there is in them a glorious new-covenant grant or gift that God makes of himfelf to us in Chrift as our God, to be applied by a faving faith: and when fuch a faith is acted upon it, the native echo of the foul unto it is, "This God is my God;" I believe it, because he himself hath said it, and faid it not to others only but to me in particular; "I will fay, It is my people; and they fhall fay, the Lord is my God." It is true indeed, no man can fpeak this dialect of faith without the Holy Spirit; but to say that there is not fufficient ground for a particular applicatory faith in the bare word or promife of God, abftractly confidered, is to apologize for the unbelief of the hearers of the gofpel, and to run into the error of the enthufiafts, who fufpend the duty of believing, not upon the word of God, but upon the work and light of the Spirit within.

Object. 5. If this promife be made to every one in the vifible church, how thall the veracity of the Promifer be falved, or vindicated, feeing there are many who come thort of it, many to whom he never becomes their God in a special covenantrelation.

Unto this objection I might answer, by way of retortion, How is it that the unbeliever makes God a liar, if the promife be not made to him in particular? for if the promife, and the faithfulness of the Promifer, be not to him, he cannot be blamed for not believing, or not fetting to his feal to a promife never made to him. Can he be condemned for not intermeddling with a thing that does not belong to him? Again, I afk, How was it that God, in a confiftency with his faithfulness, made unbelieving Ifrael to know his breach of promife, Numb. xiv. 34. after he had made a grant or gift of the land of Canaan to them, and promifed to bring them into it, while yet they never were al lowed to enter it, but dropt their carcafes in the wilderness, God having fworn that they should not enter into his reft? The faithfulness of God, in breaking his promife that he had made to that generation, is falved by landing the blame upon their own unbelief; they believed not his word, they truited not in his falvation, they gave more credit to the falfe lying report of the wicked fpies, than to the word and promife of him for whom it is impoffible to lie; and because they made God a liar, therefore his promife made to them turned to be of no effect unto them. In like manner, a promite is left us of entering into a fpiritual and eternal rest;

but

but mean time moft have reason to fear left God make them to know his breach of promife, by excluding them out of that promifed reft, because of their unbelief. The faithfulnefs of God is not in the leaft impeached hereby, because the unbeliever calls his faithfulnefs in queftion, and rejects his promife, as a thing not worthy of regard. Can a man be charged with unfaithfulnefs, in not beftowing himfelf and his eftate upon a woman to whom he has made a promise of marriage, if the woman to whom it was made refufe his offer and promife? The faithfulness of the bankers of Scotland is engaged in particular to the bearer of their note; but if the bearer fhall tear the note, or throw it, away as a piece useless paper, their veracity is nowife impeached, though they never pay that man the fum contained in the note; fo here.

Object. 6. If I could find the marks and evidences of faving grace once wrought in my foul, then indeed I could acknowledge and believe the Lord is my God; but till then I dare not, neither do I think it my duty. Anfw. I do own that none can warrantably draw this conclufion that they are in a state of grace, within the bond of the covenant, or favingly interefted in the Lord as their God, till they have examined the matter at the bar of the word, and upon trial have found fuch marks of grace as warrant them to draw fuch a conclufion. But this is not the queftion now under confideration. The queftion at prefent is, Whether it be lawful and warrantable for a poor finner, who is fo far from finding any works of grace or gracious qualifications in himfelf, that he can fee nothing but fin and mifery, feels himfelf to be an heir of hell and wrath; whether, I fay, it be his duty, upon the footing of this covenant grant and promife, I am the Lord thy God, to know, believe, and acknowledge the Lord as his God? And if this be the queftion, which it muft be, it is all one as if it were asked, whether it be the immediate duty of fuch a perfon to obey the first command of the moral law as it ftands under a covenant of grace? or, Whether a person is to forbear obedience to the first command in the law of God, till he find gracious qualifications wrought in his foul. To affirm which, were upon the matter to fay, that the first commandment of the law does not enjoin the firft duty of religion, but that fomething is to be done before we do the thing that God requires of us in the first place as the foundation of all other acts of obedience; and that is, to know and believe that God in Chrift is our God, by virtue of a covenant of grace contained in thefe words, I am the Lord thy God. Such 4trange abfurdities we inevitably run ourfelves into, when we

keep

keep not in the cleanly path of faith chalked out to us in the word.

Object. 7. We fear that this way of teaching lead us in to a prefumptuous confidence; and therefore we are afraid to meddle with it. Anfw. God teaches no man to prefume when he requires him to have no other gods before him. Your approven Catechifm does not teach you to prefume, when it tells you, that God in this commandment requires you to know and acknowledge him as God, and as your God; and that because he is the Lord, and our God, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments. But be fides, as I told you in the ufe of trial, the man who in a prefumptuous way lays claim to the Lord as his God, he either lays claim to him out of Chrift, or he does it not upon the footing of the faithfulness of God engaged in the covenant; or elfe, while he fays with his mouth that the Lord is his God, he hath other gods before him: in which cafe, God fays to the man, "What haft thou to do to make mention of my covenant? feeing thou" haft other gods before me in thy heart, and thus thou "hateft inftruction, and cafteft my counfel behind thy back."

Object. 8. God is angry, he carries toward me as an enemy, he fmites by the word and rod; how then fhall I adventure to fay he is the Lord my God? Anfw. It is true God was angry; but his anger or vindictive wrath having fpent itself upon our glorious Surety, we may now fay, with the church, If. xii. I. 66 His anger is turned away, and he comforteth

us.

Behold God is my falvation: I will truft, and not be afraid." Having fmelt a fweet favour in the facrifice of the death of Christ, the deluge of wrath is recalled, and a proclamation iffued out, "Fury is not in me: I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. O Sirs, this is not the language of anger and wrath, but the language of love, mercy, and of infinite bowels of pity and good will toward-man upon earth. As for the appearance of anger in his difpenfations, no man can know either love or hatred, by all that is before him: the only way to judge of the love of his heart, is to read it in and by his words of grace; for thefe, and not his external difpenfations, are the exact portraiture of his deep and infinite heart. It is true indeed, we are told that "God is angry with the wicked every day:" but what is his grand and fundamental quarrel with them? It is this, that though he has faid, I am the Lord thy God and Redeemer, though he has given fuch a glorious. proof of this as to give his only begotten Son, and to give him up to the death for our redemption; though he has

engaged

engaged his faithfulness to us in a new covenant; yet they will not know and acknowledge the Lord as God, and as their God, but will have fome other gods before him. To conclude, the defign of all the threatenings of the word, and of all the angry-like dispensations of his providence, is, that we may flee from his wrath, and may not rush upon the thick boffes of his buckler, but may turn to him as our God in Chrift, and live, Ezek. xxxiii. II.

Object. 9. What if it was only to the elect or believers in the camp of Ifrael that God fpake, when he said, I am the Lord thy God? If fo, they cannot be a foundation of faith to all. Anfw. This objection till breaks the connection God has made betwixt the promise and the precept, which must not be. I believe no man will adventure to say, that the command, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, was only to the elect or believers; but to the elect and reprobate, believers and unbelievers. The whole law was given to every man, no man exeemed: now, did God tie them all to obedience by his command, and yet at the fame time take away the foundation of obedience, which lies in the promife? No, the one muft run parallel with the other; the promise in its exhibition must be as extenfive as the obligation of the command; the object of faith must be presented to all whofe duty it is to believe; the promife is among things revealed as well as the precept, and therefore do equally belong unto us. "What God has joined let no man feparate." It is true, these words, I am the Lord thy God, confidered as in his mind, purpose, and decree, belonged only to the elect; but confidered as uttered or fpoken indefinitely, they cease to be a decree with refpect unto us; we are to look upon them as a promise tendered to us as the ground of our faith; and so they have a respect to every one commanded to have him as his own God.

I fhall fhut up this discourse with two or three words of exhortation or advice to you who have in reality obeyed this first commandment of the royal law, by laying hold upon God in Chrift as your God, by virtue of his faithfulnefs engaged in this glorious grant, I am the Lord thy God. O what fhall we, or what can we, render unto him, who, after we had loft him as our God by fin, renders himself back to us in a new covenant, fealing it with his own blood, and attefting it by the three that bear record in heaven! There are thefe few things the Lord thy God requires of thee in a way of gratitude.

1. Love him as thy God, and love all that bear his image; for this is the fum of the ten commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy foul, with all