begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. When this love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, we love Him because He first loved us.38 And when we love Him truly, we fear to displease Him by walking contrary to Him, or doing any thing that He has forbidden us to do in His holy word. He has graciously promised respecting His people, I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.39 Let it be our prayer that He would be pleased to fulfil this promise to us, that we may render fear to Him to whom it is eminently due, that we may fear before Him all the days of our lives.

We are also required to render honour to whom honour is due; or "to honour God's holy name and His word, and to serve Him truly" day by day continually. We are to honour Him by acknowledging Him to be our Lord and God, whose commands it is our duty to obey at all times; not being ashamed to declare that we ought to

38 1 John iv. 9, 10, 19. 39 Jer. xxxii. 39, 40. 40 Acts v. 29.

40

obey God rather than men.1o We are to worship Him with supreme affection; to worship the Lord our God, and serve Him only; coming to Him as children to their father, in humility and simplicity and singleness of heart, in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make known our requests at His footstool, through Christ Jesus.41 We are not to seek grace to help in time of need from any other quarter. We are to acknowledge no other Mediator but the one Mediator between God and men, the God-man Christ Jesus, who became Emmanuel, God with us, that He might be our Mediator and Redeemer; our High Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for them that come unto God by Him.43

44

The first commandment forbids all worship being paid to any inferior beings as to God; all setting up of mediators to intercede with Him on our behalf. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We can have no spiritual intercourse with any other being whatever. We can have no communion with angels or departed spirits. They cannot help us in our approach to God. They are not every where present, and therefore if we call upon them they cannot hear our supplications. God alone fills heaven and earth with His presence. The worshipping of angels

41 Phil. iv. 6. 42 1 Tim. ii. 5. 43 Heb. vii. 25. 44 John iv. 24,

is termed by the apostle intruding into those things which we have not seen, or of which we know nothing; and is the result of being vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind. Those who do this are not holding the Head, are none of His; and they will be beguiled of their reward, or cheated out of heaven, by their voluntary humility;45 by humbling themselves before their fellow-creatures in a manner not required of them by God; or rather in opposition to His will, who demands the homage of His creatures to be paid to Himself alone.

It is, then, the most arrogant impiety, whatever pretence of humility may be made, to pray to, or to seek the intercession of angels or departed saints, the virgin Mary, or the apostles of Christ, or any other departed spirits, as the church of Rome teaches her deluded votaries to do. The angels, or the saints in heaven, regard not such worshippers; and have no communication with them. Their worship is of no more avail than that which was offered by the impious Israelites to Baal, who cried from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us; but there was no voice, nor any that answered.46 It is as abominable as the worship offered to the sun, and the moon, and the stars, or all the host of heaven, 47 which was expressly forbidden, as well as image worship, which the second commandment con

45 Col. ii. 18, 19. 46 1 Kings xix. 26.

47 Deut. iv. 19.

demns; and is justly termed idolatry, or the worship of representatives of the Deity, instead of that of the one living and true God Himself.

48

Idolatry of every kind has a tendency to debase the mind, and to banish from it the idea of the invisible God, who is every where present, who sees and knows all things, and searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men. As it cuts off mankind from communion of spirit with the Father of spirits, it necessarily cuts them off also from everlasting salvation. All the true worshippers of God, whose worship is accepted by Him, worship the Father in spirit and in truth, through the mediation of His only begotten Son, the Redeemer of mankind. All other worship of God is vain, and to no purpose. He is a jealous God, and will not give His honour to graven images, nor to any other representatives or intercessors whom the folly of men may set up, with the view of worshipping Him more in accordance with their own ideas of what is becoming with regard to Him. He has been pleased to give to mankind the revelation of His will in the holy scriptures, and those who set aside the word of God to follow their own fancies or imaginations, will find that whoso despiseth the commandment shall be destroyed.49

As God is not to be dishonoured by the worship

48 John iv. 23.

49 Proverbs xiii, 13.

of created beings, nor by image worship; so He is to be honoured by the reverence which is to be paid to His glorious and fearful name.50 His name is not to be taken in vain, or made use of in an impious or irreverent manner. With what awe is His name regarded in heaven, by those who surround His throne in glory. The same reverence should be manifested by the children of men on earth. Those who love Him, will honour His name, and not profane it; they will speak good of His name,51 and not desecrate it. It is dreadful to hear ungodly men taking this holy name into their profane lips, and making use of it to enforce their oaths and execrations. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain,52 or who pollutes it to base and impious purposes.

He demands honour from His creatures likewise, by a due observance of the sacred day of holy rest which He has enjoined, in commemoration of the blessings which He has bestowed upon us both by creation and redemption. Those who render honour to Him, will keep His sabbaths and reverence His sanctuary.53 While they serve Him day by day, they will devote one day in seven more particularly to His service, by making a public acknowledgment on this holy day of the obligations under which they feel themselves to lie

50 Deut. xxviii. 58. 51 Ps. c. 3. 52 Exod. xx. 7. 53 Lev. xix. 30.