"Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual
covenant that shall not be forgotten."
--_Jeremiah_, L, 5
The conjunction of God with man, and of man with God, is taught in the
two Tables which were written with the finger of God, called the
Tables of the Covenant. These Tables obtain with all nations who have
a religion. From the first Table they know that God is to be
acknowledged, hallowed and worshipped. From the second Table they know
that a man is not to steal, either openly or by trickery, nor to
commit adultery, nor to kill, whether by blow or by hatred, nor to
bear false witness in a court of justice, or before the world, and
further that he ought not to will those evils. From this Table a man
knows the evils which he must shun, and in the measure that he knows
them and shuns them, God conjoins him to Himself, and in turn from His
Table gives man to acknowledge, hallow and worship Him. So, also, He
gives him not to meditate evils, and, in so far as he does not will
them, to know truths freely.
--_Apocalypse Explained, n._ 1179
As one views the two tables, it is plain that they are so conjoined
that God from His table looks to man, and that in turn man from his
table looks to God. Thus the regard is reciprocal. God for His part
never ceases to regard man, and to put in operation such things as
are for his salvation; and if man receives and does the things in his
table, reciprocal conjunction is effected, and the Lord's words to the
lawyer will have come to pass, "This do, and thou shalt live."
--_True Christian Religion, n._ 287