Covenanting is commanded in the Moral Law. In the ten commandments, containing a summary of that law, and in other passages that variously unfold its import, the exercise is presented as a duty. It is enjoined in the first three precepts of the decalogue. The manner of injunction is prohibitory of contrary practices; and accordingly intimates, with great force, that the duty is to be so steadfastly performed that departure from it, even in one instance, is not to be attempted. The first precept--forbidding all respect to other gods before God, implies, that He, before whom all things are manifest, claims not merely the misdirected homage paid to his creatures, but all the devout obedience of men; and that, demanding that adoring thoughts be entertained of Him alone, He commands that He be accepted and served as the only true God. To prefer God to others is not merely to cast them and their services off, but to acknowledge and reverence Him as the object of supreme regard. Man cannot be without some thoughts of a divinity. Even among those who would seem to have fallen most from the knowledge of God, something about their own characters or circumstances virtually usurps His place. The law of the ten commandments, written at first on the heart of man, and afterwards proclaimed by the voice of God, contemplated and anticipated every departure from the service due to Him that should occur throughout all time. Originating in the perfect nature of God, it is perfect. It reproves the rebellion of those who would worship the creature instead of the Creator, and is directed alike against the polytheist and him who, worshipping himself, says,--"no God." The first commandment condemns the idolater, of whatever class; includes that, instead of Covenanting with the gods of the heathen, as many in early times did, men, in every age, should make that acknowledgment of himself which entering into covenant with him essentially implies; and is obeyed when, like Joshua and all Israel Covenanting at Shechem, they choose the Lord to serve him.[195] In the second commandment is implied an injunction to serve God. The fact that vowing and swearing to God are a part of his service is manifest, as we have seen from sundry passages of Scripture. Consistent, therefore, with the commands implied in these portions of the Sacred Volume, but distinct from them, is the injunction embodied in this precept, that men enter into covenant with him; and the performance of every part of that service, as exhibited throughout the whole of Divine revelation, according to circumstances, it enjoins. The third commandment--forbidding the irreverent use of God's name, and threatening those who take it in vain, authoritatively inculcates the holy use of it in Covenanting. There is no passage of Scripture in which it is said or implied, that to vow or swear, in every case is to take God's name in vain. The saints, in calling upon his name, have vowed and sworn to him.