A Body of Practical Divinity

2. We must have no other God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me: This Commandment forbids, 1. Serving a False God, and not the True, Jer. 2.27. Saying to a stock, Thou art my Father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: Or 2. Joining a False God with a True, 2 Kings 17.33. They feared the Lord, and served their own Gods. Both these are forbidden in the Commandment; we must adhere to the true God, and no other: God is a jealous God, and he will endure no corrival: A Wife cannot lawfully have two Husbands at once; nor may we have two Gods, Exod. 34.14. Thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord is a jealous God, Psal. 16.4. Their Sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. The Lord interprets it a forsaking of him ▪ to espouse any other God, Judges 2.12. They forsook the Lord and followed other Gods. God would not have his People so much as make mention of Idol Gods, Exod. 23.13. Make no mention of the Names of other Gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. God looks upon it as a breaking of the Marriage Covenant, to go after other Gods. Therefore when Israel committed Idolatry with the golden Calf, God disclaims his Interest in them, Exod. 32.7. Thy People have corrupted themselves. Before, God called Israel his People; but when they went after other Gods, Now, saith the Lord to Moses, they are no more my People but thy People, Hosea 2.2. Plead with her Mother, Plead, for she is not my Wife; she doth not keep Faith with me; she hath stained her self with Idols, therefore I will divorce her, she is not my Wife. To go after other Gods, is that God cannot bear, it makes the Fury rise up in his Face, Deut. 13 6, 8, 9