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"Praifes only, and awful Refpect: We bow to the "latter, and look upon it as glorious, to pay them Submiffion, Obedience in Things lawful, and Fidelity; but we adore the former, appoint Feftivals to their Honour, and fing Hymns and fpiritual Songs to their Glory. Alexander would be justly offended, fhould we pay to another the Homage due to him alone; and ought we not to dread, the Indignation of the Gods as much, fhould we bestow upon Mortals the Honours, to which they only have a juft Claim?"

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This being the Idea which has in all Ages been affixed to the Word GoD, this fecond Claim to their Obedience was yet ftronger than the first, as it was to be unlimited: But ftill, our All-wife Creator, as foreknowing even this Plea would be too weak with fuch a fiff-necked and rebellious Generation, fubjoins a third, THY GOD; That is, not a ftrange God, but thy own peculiar Deity; hardly known to any but thee, O Ifrael! Not a God thou never heardeft of before, but the God of thy Forefathers, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; nay, the God of Power, as I have fhewn, by the Plagues miraculously fent upon Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, thy Perfecutors. Miracles! not only furpaffing the Art of Man, but even the Force of Nature! Yet again he graciously adds a fourth Confideration; as if he had faid, What, is not all this enough to move thee, neither is my Power fufficient to awe thee? Well then let my Goodnels melt thee! Accordingly he fubjoins, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt; that is, out of a Country where thou waft a Stranger, and Sojourner, where thou waft only upon Sufferance, and hadit not any Thing thou could eft call thine own; and that to bring thee into a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. Yet once more, as knowing all this would be too little, and as if he had faid, if Goodness and Promifes won't do, let Gratitude move

thy

thy hard Heart, he adds, as a fifth, and moft powerful Motive with any generous Mind, Out of the Houfe of Bondage: That is, who have been thy Deliverer, and have brought thee by open Force, out of a Place, where thou waft treated with the utmoft Cruelty and Barbarity; where Life itfelf was a Burthen, because of the Inhumanity of thy Oppreffors; where thou waft obliged to become the Murtherer of thine own Son; where thou waft even compelled to make Brick, without being fupplicd with the neceffary Materials.

Good and Gracious GOD! waft thou obliged thus to argue with Worms of the Earth, the Work of thy Hands, in order to prepare them to receive thy Law! Alas! well might the Royal Pfalmilt fay, "What is Man that thou art mindful of him, or the "Son of Man that thou vifiteft him?" Well! the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, and all Things therein, having thus prepared the Way for the Reception of his Law, proceeds to declare his first Commandment, THOU SHALT HAVE OTHER GODS BUT ME.

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We have already obferved, that the Service due unto God, is the most exalted, to which we ought to have added, and the moft fubmiffive kind of Homage, that can poffibly be paid; the most exalted, as it is an Honour and a Privilege for us to be allow'd to pay it; and the moft fubmiffive, as it extends to Adoration, and the dedicating all the Faculties of our Body and Soul, together with all. we poffefs, nay, even Life itfelf, if needful, to his Ufe. We have likewife obferved, that we are to pay him the most unlimited Obedience; which implies two Things; first, that we are never to stand difputing his Will, as foon as we know it is fo, however grievous it may be to Flesh and Blood; and fecondy, that we are not to run counter to what we are

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affured is fo, upon any Account whatever; no, not at the Defire of the dearest Friend; not at the Command of the most abfolute Tyrant; not to fave one's Eflate; nor even one's Life, if at Stake, with thofe of our whole Family.

This being premifed, it is very evident it is fuch an Obedience as could not be exacted from us, by the greatest Prince that ever lived; fince Princes are only to expect Obedience to fuch Commands as are lawful in the Sight of Heaven. It is likewife equally evident, that as far as we fall fhort of this unlimited Obedience, fo far we fall fhort of our Duty to God; and it alfo follows from hence, that if this Failure arifes from our Regard, either to our own Paffions, or to any created Being, we thereby, as much as in us lies, dethrone God, and fubßitute another Deity in his Place, at leaft for that Time.

For Inftance, when a Man through Luft, Avarice, Ambition, Revenge, or any other Paffion, is induced to act, in direct Contradiction to, and open Defiance of the Divine Law, in order to gratify that Darling Sin, is it not evident, that by obeying the Dictates of his Paffion, rather than the Comman's of GOD, he thereby fubftitutes that Paffion in GOD'S Place; for, what fays the Scripture? His Servants ye are to whom ye obey, Rom. vi. 16. And our hleffed Saviour himself fays, Ye cannot ferve GOD and MAMMON.

The Reason is plain; because their Service is incompatible, their Commands being directly contrary to each other; if, therefore, we ferve Mammon, we thereby make him our Deity, and are guilty of the Breach of the Firft Commandment: By this unerring and infallible Rule, therefore, we may judge whether we have, or have not, violated this

Law;

Law; and if we bring ourselves fairly to this Test, it is much to be questioned, whether we fhall not all find ourselves to have been Tranfgreffors at fome Time or other: Happy is the Man, whofe Confcience can acquit him upon this Head!

Neither will it at all mend the Matter, to plead, when we have done any Thing repugnant to the Divine Law, that it was in Obedience to thofe in Authority over us; not though it were the moft abfolute Monarch in the Univerfe; becaufe our Obe. dience to earthly Princes must always be fubordinate to our Duty to the great King of Kings; and whenever the one clashes with the other, we are always to prefer the latter at all Events: Thofe Statefmen, who, to curry Favour with their Sovereigns, hamour their Paffions at the Expence of every Thing that is virtuous and laudable, throwing off all Humanity, and facrificing every Thing that lies in their Way thereto, would do well to remem ber this.

As little will it avail us, to pretend we acted thus, in compliance with any human Laws; and more especially, if fuch Laws have been obtained by corrupt and unjustifiable Practices, as has been the Cafe in former Times, and is now in many Placcs. For Inftance, were Perfecution to be here eftablifh'd by Law, as it was formerly, it would little avail, either the Judge or Jury, in the next World, when they had condemned an innocent Man, for worshipping God according to his own Confcience, to alledge they did it according to Law.

When those wicked Princes of Babylon, who envied Daniel, on account of his Advancement over them, and enjoying the King's Favour, accufed him of having violated the Royal Decree, they certainly ipoke the Truth; and when, in Obedience thereto, C-13

the

they had him caft into the Den of Lions, they undoubtedly acted according to Law, and Daniel was actually a Tranfgreffor thereof; notwithstanding which, they were, without Difpute, guilty of wilful Murder; and alfo of breaking the Fift Commandment, in promoting the Promulgation of fo impious a Decree And, accordingly, they foon afterwards defervedly received the due Reward of Murderers; failing into the fame Snare which they had laid for the Innocent. But we do not only offend against this Law, by paying greater Obedience to the Commands of any other, or to the Dictates of our own Paffions, than to the Divine Mandates, but when we love, fear, or truft in, and rely on any other Perfon, or Thing, more than God.

There is yet another very grofs Tranfgreffion of this Law, which, nevertheless, does not properly come under any of thefe Heads; this is the heinous Sin of Atheism, if indeed there is fuch a Thing as an actual Atheift in the World, whereof we are in fome Doubt. The Atheist, indeed, cannot ftrictly be faid to have any other Gods than the Lord of Heaven and Earth, because he pretends not to acknowledge any; and even denies the Existence of any fuch Being: But, though the Firft Commandment is fo expreffed in the Decalogue, it is more fully and clearly explained by Mofes, Deut. vi. 4, 5, Hear, O IS racl, the LORD our GOD is one LORD. And thou fhalt love the LORD thy God with all thine Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Might. Now it is very evident, the Atheist, who does not acknowledge any fuch Being, can never be faid to love him, and confequently is a grofs and heinous Tranfgref for cf this Precept.

Having thus laid before our Readers the full Extent of this Commandment, proceed we, now, to give fome Examples of the dreadful Confequences,

generally

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