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hath delivered all men that be his, by his Son Jesus Christ, from the spiritual thraldom of sin, and the tyranny of the devil, wherein else they had lain pressed and oppressed. This kind of deliverance pertaineth indifferently to all men which put their trust in God their deliverer, and, to their power, obey his laws; which if they do not, he doth by this rehearsal of his most great benefit pronounce that they shall be guilty of most great unthankfulness. For let every man imagine the devil, that hellish Pharaoh, ready to oppress him, and how sin in that foul mire in which he most filthily walloweth ; let him set before the eyes of his mind hell, the most wretched Egyptian bondage, and then shall he easily perceive that this freedom, whereof I speak, is the thing that he ought principally to desire, as the thing of most great importance to him, whereof yet he shall be most unworthy, unless he honour the Author of his deliverance with all service and obedience.

Mast. Say on.

Scho. After that he hath thus stablished the authority of his Law, now followeth the Commandment, "Thou shalt have none other gods before me."

Mast. Tell me what this meaneth.

Scho. This Commandment condemneth and forbiddeth idolatry, which God thoroughly hateth. Mast. What is idolatry, or to have strange gods?

Scho. It is in the place of the one only true

God, which hath openly and manifestly shewed and disclosed himself unto us in the Holy Scriptures, to set other persons or things, and of them to frame and make to ourselves, as it were, certain gods, to worship them as gods, and to set and repose our trust in them. For God commandeth us to acknowledge him alone for our only God; that is, that of those that wholly belong to his majesty, and which we owe to him alone, we transfer not any part, be it never so little, to any other, but that to him alone and entirely we give his whole honour and service, whereof to yield any whit to any other are a most heinous offence.

Mast. What be the things that we properly owe to God alone, wherein thou sayest that his proper and peculiar worship consisteth?

Scho. Innumerable are the things which we owe to God; but they all may be well reduced to four chief points.

Mast. What be they?

Scho. That we give to his sovereign honour, and to his goodness, the greatest love and affiance; that we flee to him, and crave his help; that with thankfulness we yield, as due to him, ourselves and all that we have. These things are to be given, as to none other, so to him alone, if we desire to have him alone our God, and to be his peculiar people.

Mast. What mean these last words, before

Scho. That we cannot once so much as tend to revolting from God, but that God is witness of it; for there is nothing so close that can be hid from him. Moreover, he thereby declareth that he requireth not only the honour of open confession, but also inward and sincere godliness of heart, for that he is the understander and judge of secret thoughts.

CHAPTER III.

Of the Second Commandment.

SECTION I.

As the First Commandment teaches us to have the Lord God for our God, and to entertain worthy notions of his majesty and attributes; prohibiting that species of idolatry, which consists in the acknowledgment and mental service of any false deities, or of any thing, whether substantially existing, or the creature of imagination, in preference to, or in conjunction with, the sole sublime object of religious worship,-so are we instructed in the three remaining precepts of the First Table how to serve the one true God aright.

The Second Commandment relates specifically to that part of the right service of God, which appertains to religious worship; and comprehends an implied injunction,-an express prohibition,-and certain reasons, penalties, and promises, to enforce the observance of it. Many of the same duties are herein prescribed, and the same sins forbidden, as are included, by necessary inference, and right interpretation, in the First Commandment. To worship the one true God, and to worship him truly,—that is, according to his will,-though in themselves distinct

obligations, involve many principles, and branch out into many duties, common to both.

§ 2. This is the Precept: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." In this command those duties are virtually inculcated, which are opposed to the sin actually interdicted: among which may be classed the following, viz. In general, the worship of God in the manner which he himself has prescribed; in particular, the observance of all religious exercises and ordinances which he has instituted; and the performance of them, externally, with becoming reverence, and internally with pious dispositions, that is, with the best homage of body and soul which can be rendered to Him who is the Author of both our corporeal and spiritual existence. This true and pure worship of God, which we are bound to render him, as the work of his hands, and the redeemed of the Lord, consists in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving-public and private; the former at appointed seasons, the latter daily, and at every fit opportunity which offers for lifting up the heart in secret and mental adoration ;-in serious attention to the reading, preaching, and exposition of the divine Word ;-in regular attendance at the Table of the Lord, and worthy reception of both the Sacraments ;-in respect for all persons and things set apart and consecrated to the service of the sanctuary ;-in dutiful submission to the discipline of the Church ;-in public and private confession, fasting, and humiliation, for the purpose of expres

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