But at the time the Lord gave the first commandment, the whole world were in the practice of worshipping the gods of their forefathers: the origin of which worship was then lost, and the worshippers were no doubt as sincere in their devotion as the most pious Jew or Christian of the present day. By the publication, then, of the first commandment, at a time when every nation had its particular god, and the worshippers lived in peace, the spirit of intolerance and religious persecution being unknown, the great I am declared a religious war against all the gods, and their worshippers on the face of the earth. But according to Bible history, Jehovah permitted his creatures to wander on earth, and appeared regardless as to what gods were worshipped; and then, after some thousand years, he all at once began to rage against all the religious systems then known.
But it was otherwise with what are called heathen nations. Each had its peculiar god, and also its different forms of worship; and they lived happily with each other on the score of theology. And here we may observe, how unfortunate it has been for the human race, that the Lord did not either give his law sooner, or not at all; for it is plainly to be seen, that if the first commandment had been given by the Lord before men had followed other gods, idolatry would have been prevented, and Jehovah's watchfulness over the worship he had established, would have been productive of universal happiness. But, on the contrary, the command being given so long after, and that, too, when religious systems were flourishing, and temples crowded with devout worshippers, the worst consequences have followed.
The worshippers of Jehovah, whether Jews or Christians, have, by the Bible itself, become intolerant and persecuting; and never have they failed, when power would admit, to destroy the enemies of their God without mercy: so that the first commandment, by coming too late, has proved the greatest curse that ever afflicted the human family. And hence the folly in believing that Infinite Wisdom and Goodness would permit false religion to progress so long before the true one was made known to the human race. After the moral law, or the ten commandments, had been given by the Jewish God, on the mount, amid thunder and lightning, we have it recorded that Moses was ordered to go up to the top of the mount, and there, with the Lord, he staid forty days and nights; during which time Aaron, his brother, remained with the whole of the Children of Israel in camp, at the foot of Mount Sinai.