from the Midst of thee. If thy Brother, the Son of thy Mother, or thy Son, or thy Daughter, or the Wife of thy Bofom, or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other Elahim, (which thou haft not known; thou, nor thy Father) namely the Elabim, of the People which are round about thee, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one End of the Earth, even to the other End of the Earth: thou shalt not confent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shalt thine Eye pitty him, neither shalt thou spare him, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt furely kill him; thine Hand shall be first upon him, to put him to Death, and afterwards the Hand of all the People. And thou shalt stone him with Stones, that he die, because he hath fought to thrust thee away from Jehovah thy Elabim, which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, from the House of Bondage. And all Ifrael shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any fuch Wickedness as this is among you: And if thou shalt hear in one of thy Cities, which Jebavab thy Elabim hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain Men, the Children of Belial are gone. out from among you, and have withdrawn the Inhabitants of their City, saying, Let us go and serve o thes Elabim (which ye have not known); then shalt thou inquire and make search, and ask diligently: and behold if it be Truth, and the Thing certain, that fuch Abomination is wrought among you; thou shalt surely smite the Inhabitants of that City, with the Edge of the Sword, destroying it utterly and all that is therein, and the Cattle thereof, with the Edge of the Sword. Thou shalt gather all the Spoil of it, into the Midit of the Street thereof, and shalt burn with Fire the City, and all the Spoil thereof; every whit, for Jehovah thy Elabim: and it shall be an Heap for ever, it shall not be built again; again; and there shall cleave nought of the accursed Thing to thine Hand, that Jehovah may turn from the Fierceness of his Anger, and shew thee Mercy, and have Compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy Fathers; when thou shalt hearken to the Voice of Jehovah thy Elahim, to keep all his Commandments, which I command thee this Day to do, that which is Right in the Eyes of Jehovab thy Elabim."

It is to be observed, that there is no such Punishment as is in this Chapter for any other Crime; nor stoning, that I know of for any other Thing, but for deserting or rejecting the true Elahim, the Declaration of the true Elahim; and the Claims for them are such as follows. " Pfal. lxxvii. 13. Thy Way, O Elahim! is in the Sanctuary. Who is fo great as our Elahim? There is none like unto thee O Jehovah! neither are there any Works like unto thy Works, Ifa. xliv. 6. Thus faith Jehovab, the King of Ifrael, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hoft. I am the First, and I am the Last, and befides me, there is no Elahim, Verse viii. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: Have I not told thee, from that Time and have doelar'd it? Ye are my Witneffes. Is there any Elabim besides me? Jer. x. 10. But Jehovab is the true Elahim; he is the living Elabim, and an everlasting King, Pfal. xiii. 6, 2. O give Thanks to the Elahim of Elahim, for bis Mercy endureth for Ever. Pfal. xxxiii. 12. Blefjed be the Nation, whose Elahim Jehovah is, the People whom be batb chosen for bis Inheritance. Pfal. xliv. 20. If we have forgotten the Name of our Elahim, or stretched out our Hand to a strange Elahim, &c. Dan. iv. 8. v. 11. Hofea xi. 9. Mich. iv. 5. Zack. viii. 2, 3. Lev. xix. 40. • Chron. xvi. 26. Pfal. xcvi. 5. Jer. x. II. Ibid. ii. 11. v. 7, 11, 13, 16, 20, 44, Dan.

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iv. 23. Hab. i. 11. Judges X. 14. Jer. ii. 28, 48. xii. 25. Zep. ii. 11. Pfa. 1. 22, 35. Thus we are directed to have no Object of Worship, but the true and living Elahim; and because the Heathen, as appears above, had other Elahim, and the People had followed their Patterns; because of this Tranfgreffion, this Commandment was added.

The second Commandment. Thou shalt not snake to thyself, any graven Image, or the Likeness of any Thing that is in Heaven above, or that is in the Earth beneath, or that is in the Waters under the Earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, Jehovah thy Elahim, am a jealous Elahim, visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth, of them that hate me; and shewing Mercy unto Thousands of them that Love me, and keep my Commandments. Here we are forbidden to make Similitudes for ourselves; that is, imaginary Ones, out of our own Heads, of our own Invention only, for we are directed to take those under the Word דמה. Hofea xii. 11. Which the Elahim gives us by the Hands of the Prophets; and tho' we are warned, Deut. iv. 12. 15. Ye saw no Similitudes; yet the Elahim says, Numb. xii. 8. And the Similitudes of Jehovah be shall behold; and David fays, Pfal. xvii. 15. As for me, I will behold thy Faces in Righteousness, I shall be satisfiedבהקוצ in the Summer, the Warmth; (which makes many Species of Creatures awake, and live) of thy Similitudes". The Question then will be, what are those very Similitudes which this Commandment forbids. Surely not those of divine Inftitution; for fuch were the Cherubim, Urim, Thummim, Tabernacle, Brazen Serpent, &c. See Dr. Owen's Treatise of Communion, Page 204. "It was a witty and true Senfe,

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Senfe, that one gave of the second Commandment. Non Imago, non Simuluchrum probibetur; fed non Facies tibi: An Image, or Representation is not prohibited, but a not making or inventing one to ourselves". But such as the Imagination of Men had substituted in their Room. "Judges ii. 9. Timnab Heres, the Similitude of the Sun. This Irradiation of the Fire at the Orb of the Sun, or represented from a Head outward, and inward, is described from human Writers, 2d Part of Moses's Principia. Page 389, &c. The Representation is also expressed from Scripture. Jos. xix. 50. Timnah Serah, the Image of the Irradiation; and these, with their like, were forbidden in the 2d Commandment, Exod. xx. 4, &c. and explained by the Infignia upon the Heads of their Pictures. Ezek. xxiii. 15, Exceeding in died Attire upon their Head; all of them Princes to look to, after the Manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the Land of her Nativity; each of these two was an Image of the Whole, or of the Three in Miniature. The Tiera coloured was form'd of Rays extending outward as the Word expresses, and represented the Irradiation of the Heavens, as what we now call a Turban, a Cap, with something turned feveral Times round about it, reprefenting the Motions of the Courses of the Orbs; they generally put this, and no other, about the Heads of their GODS; sometimes about one, sometimes about Three. A Crown indeed includes both. The Similitude, which led the Ifraelites, and confifted of Fire, Light, Cloud, was this in Miniature. 'Tis supposed they intended to represent Fire; by the curled Hair on the Head of the Bull or Calf; and Irradiation by the Horns, as you will fee under בית חרון Voyage de' t' Arabie Heureuse Page 133. La Religon des Banjans est une Idolatrie bizzare, &c. greffiere; car on dit qu'ils Adorent toutes fortes fortes d'animaux, mais principalment la vache, &c. qui est le Grand Object, de leur culte & le leur amour, Page 135. Au reste leur habilliment est fort Singulier furtout celui de la Taete qui est une espece de Turban de Musseline blanche qu'il lachent de faire Imiter cant qu'il peuvent les cornes, & la tate de la vache.

בית עצבים mentioned I Sam. xxxi. 9. The Word expresses to Work, and to form Things, with great Labour; and where the Agent can think, with great Care, Solicitude, or Trouble of Mind, fo as Elabim the Workers, the Operators, this was apply'd to the Names; and if the Heathens thought the Names could think, those who not only worked or operated in this System, but were folicitous about them; the Affairs of Men, &c. and so also Curators, the Usage Prov. xiv. 23. In all Labour there is Profit, and also reclaimed. Job. x. 8. Thine Hands have made me, and fashioned me together round about. Ifa. xlviii. 5. I have even from the Beginning declar'd it to Thee, before it came to pass; I shew'd it to thee, lest thou shouldst say mine Idol hath done them, and my graven Image, and my molten Image batb commanded them. I need not prove, only remind, that the Representations and Objects bore the same Name. So this was the Elahim of the Philistines, 2 Sam. V. 21עצבים and I Chron. xiv. 12. Elahim, and we shall find, that this was only the Manner, in which the Philistines exprefs'd, מלאכה השמים by Service. Pfal. cvi. 36. And they served their Operators; which were a Snare unto them, 38. And they shed innocent Blood, even the Blood of their Sons and of their Daughters, whom they facrificed to the Operators of Canaan, Zach. xiii. 7. and -- I will cut off the Names of the Operators--and they Thall be no more remembered, and also I will cause

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