7. Our Love to God must be the Ground and Motive of our Love towards Man, and of all other Duties. It is by vertue of this Principle that Obedience is true and genuine,and diftinguished from bare Morality.

To thefe I may alfo add, that our Duty towards ourselves is implyed and prefuppofed in our Duty towards our Neighbour. All thefe Rules must be obferved by us, for the right Understanding and Keeping of God's Commandments.

And because it is neceffary that we obey them from Moral Principles, the Underftanding and Will, therefore they are ufher'd in, with this perfuafive Preface, faying, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage. And this teacheth us the Grounds and Reasons of our Obedience: That because God is the Lord, and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound in Equity, to keep all his Commandments.

The Questions and Answers.

Q. Is not the Nature of Obedience a Confor- Obedience mity to God's Law?

A. Yes. For Sin, on the contrary, is a Breach or Tranfgreffion of it. 1 John iii. 4.

what.

Q. What are the Properties of true Obedience The Froperto God? Muft it not be,

1. With the whole Man? A. Yes. Deut. xxvi. 16. Thou shalt obferve and do them (ie. God's Commands or Statutes) with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul.

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2. To

ties of true Obedience.

The Rule thereof.

God's Com

2. To the whole Law? A. Yes. Pf. cxix. 6. Then fhall I not be afhamed, when I have Refpect unto all thy Command

ments:

3. For the whole Life? A. Yes. Rev.ii. 10! Be thou faithful unto Death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life.

Q. Is the Law of God the Rule of our Obedience?

A. Yes. Gal. vi. 16. As many as walk ac cording to this Rule, Peace be on them, and on the Ifrael of God.

Q. Are not the Laws of God diftinguished

mandments into two Sorts? of 2 Sorts.

1. Pofitive.

2. Moral.

A. Yes. Namely into the Pofitive, and Moral Laws.

Q. What do you understand by the Pofitive Laws of God? Such as have no other Reafon than his meer Good-Will and Pleafure?

A. Yes. He doth not enjoin thefe, be: cause they are good; but they are therefore good, becaufe he hath enjoined them.

T

Q. Are not the Moral Laws fuch as are good in their own Nature?

A. Yes. The Commandment is holy, just, and good. Rom. vii. 12.

Q. Is not the whole Moral Law contained in ten Commandments?

A. Yes. The Law was given by Moses. John 1.17. And Ex. xxxiv.28. He wrote upon the Tables the Words of the Covenants, the ten Commandments.

Q. Are

Q. Are thefe Commandments in Force now under the New Teftament?

A. Yes. For Chrift faith that he came. not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil. Mat. v. 17.

Q. Do thefe extend to all our Actions, both inward, and outward?

These per

petual.

A. Yes. For the Law of the Lord is per- Perfect. fect. P. xix. 7.

Q. Are all the Duties of Religion comprehended in thefe Commandments?

A. Yes. For in these are comprehended, both the Love of God and Man; And on thefe depend all the Law and the Prophets, Mat. xxii. 37, 38, 39, 49.

Our Obe dience.

Q. What are the Grounds and Reasons for our Grounds of Obedience to God's Commandments? Are they not contained in the Preface thereunto, faying, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the Houfe Bondage?

of

A. Yes. For this teacheth us, that because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep his Commandments.

Q. But more particularly and diftinctly, Are not the Reafons of our Obedience,

1. The Sovereignty and Dominion of God over
us? A. Yes. For this he alledgeth, fay-
ing, I am the Lord."

2. His Intereft in us, and Relation to us
A. Yes. For he faith, I am thy God.
3. His

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3. His Goodness to us in our Redemption and Salvation? A. Yes. For this is eminently meant and typified, by what is here expreffed, the Deliverance of the Ifrae lites out of their Bondage in Egypt. And being ranfomed with a Price, even the precious Blood of Chrift, Reason it is that we fhould glorify our Redeemer, with our Bodies and Souls, which are his.

Catechift. Remember then that God is our Lord, our Owner and Benefactor: That his Title to rule and govern us, is unqueftionable and plenary; and that he only is able and fit for it. Labour therefore to bring your Souls and Bodies, into the most abfolute Subjection to him; and to make it your Delight and Bufinefs to do his Will. For bleffed are the People that are in fuch à Cafe, yea, bleffed are the People who have the Lord for their God.

Sect. 1. Of the firft Commandment; and therein of inward Worship, and the right Object of it.

Catechift. The first Commandment is the Fountain of all the reft, and virtually con tains them all. The Drift and Scope thereof, is to fanctify the Lord God in our Hearts, and to glorify and honour him, by all fuch Acts of inward Worship, as are fuitable to his Perfections; efpecially by a holy and fuperlative Love of him, which is the

Sum

Sum of Christianity. For all those other, Duties which are elsewhere required of us, are but Acts of the Love of God in various Inftances and Relations. And they naturally proceed from it, as from their Root or Fountain.

Here in this Commandment, fome thing that we must not do, is exprefly forbidden: And fome thing that we must do, is implicitly required of us.

1. It forbids us to have, more than one God, as the Heathen Nations had; or to have any other than the God of Ifrael for our God. And hereby we are forbidden that Inward and Heart-Idolatry of giving to any Creature that Faith, Fear and Love, or any other Affections that are due to God only. But on the other hand,

2. It is here required, that we choose and acknowledge him to be God, and our God; that we believe and truft in him, fear and reverence him; and that we love him with all the Heart, with all the Soul, with all the Strength, and with all the Mind: That we offer up the Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise unto him; and that we prefent our whole felves, Soul, Body, and Spirit, to be a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto, him, which is our reafonable Service.

The Questions and Answers.

Q. What is the general Sin that is forbidden in this Commandment?

what is for

bidden here.

A. In this Commandment, which is the 1. In gene“ Sum of all the reft, we are in general for- ral

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bid