AN
EXPOSITION
OF THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS:
BY THE RT. REV. EZEKIEL HOPKINS,
SUCCESSIVELY BISHOP OF RAPHOE AND DERRY,
WHO DIED IN
A. D. 1690.
REVISED AND SLIGHTLY ABBIDGED.
Digitally prepared by: Ted Hildebrandt
Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Rd., Wenham,
MA 01984
report any errors to:
thildebrandt@gordon.edu
June 2004
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK.
In the present edition this work has been
revised, with changes in
obsolete or
defective forms of expression, and the omission of some pas-
sages having
a more immediate reference to the Government or Church
of
NOTICE OF BISHOP HOPKINS.
Ezekiel Hopkins was born at Sanford,
a laborious
minister. He was educated at
was some
time chaplain of
went to
stow till
the act of uniformity. After this he was
preacher at
St. Edmunds,
Lombard-street, and subsequently was chosen
minister of
St. Mary Arches, in
mired. From
phoe,
ric, which
he occupied about ten years, when he was transfer-
red to the
bishopric of
years, till
the papists got the sword into their hands, when he
fled for his
life to
Aldermanbury,
in
months only
after his establishment there.
As a preacher, Bishop Hopkins was
esteemed one of the first
of the age
in which he lived, being much admired and followed
after in all
the places where he preached.
As a writer, he was eminent above
most authors for the com-
bination of
clear statements of doctrinal and practical truth,
with an
eloquent application of it to the heart and conscience.
Scarcely any
other writer has, within an equal compass, so ably
discussed,
and applied with such energy the whole range of
christian
truth. His works are published in four
volumes, edited
by the late
Rev. Josiah Pratt, of London, who in his dedication
of the
volumes to William Wilberforce, Esq. says, "That
4 NOTICE OF BISIIOP
author is of
special value whose works supply, within a mod-
rate
compass, the most complete refutation of whatever can be
urged
against true religion, by exhibiting her in her most beauti-
ful
proportions. Such an author is Bishop
Hopkins." His works,
embrace the
following subjects: Vanity of the World,
Exposi-
tions of the
Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, Dis-
courses on
the Law, Discourses concerning Sin, The Doctrine
of the Two
Covenants, Doctrine of the Two Sacraments, The
All-Sufficiency
of Christ to save Sinners, Excellency of Heaven-
ly
Treasures, Practical Christianity, Assurance of Heaven and
Salvation a
principal motive to serve God with fear, On Glori-
fying God in
his Attributes, Almost Christian, Conscience, Great
Duty of
Mortification, Death Disarmed, Miscellaneous Sermons.
As a divine, Bishop Hopkins was one
of the sound theologians
to which the
Reformation gave birth, and he unequivocally and
openly held
and inculcated the pure doctrines of the Reformers,
opposed as
they are to the pride and passions of unsanctified
men. On the difficult questions concerning the
grace of God and
the
obligation of man, he adopted those views which most natu-
rally
reconcile with one another the declarations and exhortations
of
Scripture. Few writers have entered so
unequivocally into
the extent
of man's responsibility, and at the same time so strong-
ly insisted
on the sovereignty, and so graphically described the 1
operations
of the grace of God.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introduction . . . . . . . . 7
The time of the delivery of the Ten
Commandments . 9
The Reason . . . . . . . . 10
The Manner . . . . . . . . 11
Are they abrogated? . . . . . . 19
General Rules for rightly understanding
them . . 29
Their order. . . . . . . . . 48
Preface to
the Commandments . . . . .
50
FIRST
TABLE.
The First
Commandment 58
Requires the love, fear, and praise of God 61
Forbids Atheism-proofs of the being of God
68
Ignorance of the true God
92
Profaning his name, attributes, time,
ordinances 101
Idolatry 120
The Second
Commandment 126
The Prohibition, As to the worship of God,
exter-
nal and internal 127
As to the sins here
forbidden-Superstition 139
The threatening, Visiting the iniq1rities
of the fa-
thers upon the children 148
The Third
Commandment 165
Profaning the name of God--Oaths 166
The folly of this sin--Directions 186
The Fourth
Commandment 192
Primitive Institution of the Sabbath 195
Its morality and perpetual obligation 196
Change to the first day of the week 201
The manner in which it is to be observed 204
6 CONTENTS.
SECOND TABLE
PAGE
Introduction to the Second Table 225
The Fifth
Commandment 228
Duties of parents and children 233
Magistrates and those subject to them 251
Husbands and wives 261
Masters and servants 279
Ministers and their people 301
Superiors and inferiors, or those who
differ in
the
gifts of God's grace, or his common
bounty 316
The promise, That thy days may be long 328
The Sixth
Commandment 332
The sin of murder 333
Causes and occasions leading to it 345
Rules for restraining and governing anger 352
The Seventh
Commandment 359
The sin forbidden 359
Its heinousness 365
Cautions and directions 370
The Eighth
Commandment 373
Of theft in general 376
Many kinds of theft 379
The duties here required 389
The Ninth
Commandment 395
The value of a good name 397
The sin of lying 399
Aggravations of this sin 406
The sin of slander-rules and directions 409
The Tenth
Commandment 430
The sin of concupiscence 431
The whole practically applied 437
EXPOSITION
OF
THE COMMANDMENTS.
~-~~-~~~~~
THE INTRODUCTION.
Two things in general are required to
perfect a chris-
tian; the
one a clear and distinct knowledge of his duty,
the other, a
conscientious practice of it, correspondent to
his
knowledge; and both are equally necessary.
For, as we
can have no
solid or well-grounded hope of eternal salva-
tion,
without obedience; so we can have no sure established
rule for our
obedience, without knowledge. Therefore,
our
work and
office is, not only to exhort, but to instruct;
not only to
excite the affections, but to inform the judg-
ment: we must as well illuminate as warm.
Knowledge, indeed, may be found without
practice;
and our age
abounds with speculative christians, whose
religion is
but like the rickets, that makes them grow
large in the
head, but narrow in the breast; whose
brains are
replenished with notions, but their hearts strait-
ened towards
God, and their lives black arid deformed.
I
confess,
indeed, their knowledge may be beneficial to
others; yet,
where it is thus overborne by unruly lusts,
and
contradicted by a licentious conversation, to them-
selves it is
most fatal: like a light shut up in a lantern,
which may
serve to guide others, but only soots, and at
last burns
that which contained it.
But, although knowledge may be without
practice, yet
8 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
the practice
of godliness cannot be without knowledge.
For, if we
know not the limits of sin and duty, what is re-
quired and
what is forbidden, it cannot be supposed but
that, in
this corrupted state of our natures, we shall una-
voidably run
into many heinous miscarriages.
Therefore, that we might be informed what
we ought
to do and
what to avoid, it hath pleased God, the great
Governor and
righteous Judge or all, to prescribe laws
for the
regulating of our actions; and, that we might not
be ignorant
what they are, he hath openly promulgated
them in his
word. For when. we had miserably defaced
the law of
nature originally written in our hearts, so that
many of its
commands were no longer legible, it seemed
good to his
infinite wisdom and mercy to transcribe and
copy out
that law in the sacred tables of the Scriptures;
and to
superadd many positive precepts and injunctions
not before
imposed. Hence the Bible is the
statute-book
of God's
kingdom, wherein is comprised the whole body
of the
heavenly law, the perfect rules of a holy life, and
the sure
promises of a glorious one.
And the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, is
a
summary, or
brief epitome of the law, written by the
immediate
finger of God, and contracted into an abridg-
ment not
only to ease our memories but to gain our
veneration;
for sententious commands best befit ma-
jesty. And, indeed, if we consider the paucity of
the ex-
pressions,
and yet the copiousness arid variety of the mat-
ter
contained in them, we must needs acknowledge not
only their
authority to be divine, but likewise the skill
and art in
reducing the whole duty of man to so, brief a
compendium. The words are but few, called therefore
the Words of
the Covenant, or the Ten
Words: Ex
THE INTRODUCTION. 9
34:28; but
the sense and matter contained in them is
vast and
infinite: the rest of Scripture is but a commen-
tary upon
them, either exhorting us to obedience by ar-
guments, or
alluring us to it by promises; warning us
against
transgression by threatenings, or exciting us to the
one, and
restraining us from the other, by examples re-
corded in
the historical part of it.
But before I speak of the Commandments
themselves,
it will be
necessary to premise something concerning, 1.
the time,
2. the reason, and 3. the manner of their deli-
very; 4. how
far the laws given by Moses are abrogated,.
5. some
rules for rightly understanding the Ten Com-
mandments;
and 6. a few words respecting their order
I.
The TIME. According to the best
chronology it
Was about
2,460 years after the creation, 220 after
descent into
parture out
of
Christ
almost 1,500 years, and therefore above 3,000 be-
fore our
days. God now first selected to himself
a national
church; and
therefore it seemed expedient to his wisdom
to prescribe
them laws and rules, how to order both their
demeanor and
his worship. Before this the law of
nature
was the
rule; but because it was blotted and razed by
the first
transgression, it was supplied in many particulars
by
traditions delivered down from one to another.
And
those of the
patriarchs who, according to the precepts
of this law,
endeavored to please God, were accepted
of him, and
frequently obtained especial revelations, either
by dreams or
visions, or heavenly voices, concerning those
things
wherein they were more particularly to obey his
1*
10 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
will. Then, too, God made no distinction of people
or
nations;
but, as it is since the wall of partition is broken
down, and
the Jewish economy abrogated by the death of
Christ, so
was it before, that, in every nation, he that
feared God
and wrought righteousness was accepted of
him. Acts, 10:35.
II.
The REASON. This was because the
world was now
so totally
degenerated into vile superstitions and idola-
tries, that
the knowledge and fear of the true God was
scarcely to
be found but only in the family and posterity
of Abraham;
and even among them we have reason to
suspect a
great decay and corruption, especially in their
long abode
among the idolatrous Egyptians; yea, the
Scripture
expressly charges them with it, Josh. 24 : 14;
Ezek. 20 :
7, 8; and probably they took the pattern of
their golden
calf from the Egyptian Apis. God, there-
fore, justly
rejects all the rest of the world; but, being
mindful of
his promise to their father, the father of the
faithful, be appropriates this people to himself
as his pe-
culiar
inheritance. And because it was
manifest by ex-
perience
that neither the law of nature nor oral tradition
was
sufficient to preserve alive the knowledge and wor-
ship of the
true God, but the whole earth was become
wicked and
idolatrous; therefore that this people whom
God had now
taken to himself might have all possible ad-
vantages to
continue in his fear and service, and that they
might not
degenerate as the rest of the world had done,
he himself
proclaims to them that law by which be would
govern them,
writes it on tables of stone, commits these
into the
hands of Moses, whom he had constituted his
lieutenant,
and commands them to be laid up in the ark
THE INTRODUCTION. 11
as
a perpetual monument of his authority and their duty.
How
wretchedly depraved are our natures, when even
that
which is the very light and law of them is 80 oblite-
rated
and defaced that God would rather entrust its pre-
servation
to stones than to us, and thought it more secure
when
engraven on senseless tables, than when written on
our
hearts!
III.
The MANNER in which this law was delivered is de-
scribed
to have been very terrible and astonishing.
God de-
signed
it so, on purpose to possess the people with the
greater
reverence of it, and to awaken in their souls a due
respect
to those old despised dictates of their nature, wheu
they
should see the same laws revived and invigorated with
so
much circumstance and terror; for, indeed, the Deca-
logue
is not so much the enacting of any new law, as a revi-
ving
of the old by a more solemn proclamation.
And mark
the
circumstances of majesty and solemnity in the action:
1. The people were commanded to prepare
themselves
two days together, by a
typical cleansing of themselves
from all external and
bodily pollutions before they were to
stand in the presence of
God. So we find it enjoined:
they
were to be sanctified, and to wash their clothes, and
be ready against the
third day, when the Lord would come
down in the sight of all
the people, upon
Exod.
19 : 10, 11. This teaches us,--
That we ought to be seriously prepared
when we come
to
wait before God in his ordinances, and to receive a law
at
his mouth.
The dispensation of the Gospel is not
indeed such a
ministry
of terror as that of the Law was. God doth not
now
speak to us immediately by his own voice--which
12
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS.
they
that heard it were not able to endure:
he doth not
pronounce
his law in thunder, nor wrap it up in flame and
smoke;
but he speaks to us in a still voice, by men like
earthen
vessels of the same mould and frailty with our-
selves. He treats with us by his messengers and
ambas-
sadors;
whose errand, though it be delivered with less
terror,
yet ought not to be received with less reverence:
for
it is God himself who speaks to us in them and by
them;
and every word of truth which they deliver in his
name
and by his authority, ought to be received with as
much
prostrate veneration and affection as though God
did
himself speak it immediately from heaven.
Think, then, how solicitous the Israelites
were in fitting
Themselves
for that great and dreadful day of hearing the
Law;
a day more great and dreadful than ever any shall
Be
except that of judging men according to the law.
Think
how their hearts throbbed and thrilled when they
Heard
the clang of the heavenly trumpets blended with
Loud
and terrible thunder, both giving a signal of the near
approach
of God. Think, if you can, what thoughts
they
had,
when they saw the mountain burning with fire and
enveloped
with clouds and smoke, out of which on every
side
shot fearful lightnings. Think how they
trembled
when
they saw the mountain tremble and totter under the
weight
and greatness of God descending upon it.
And
bring
with you the same affections—if not so terrified, yet
as
much overawed—whensoever you come to wait upon
his
holy ordinances; for it is the same God that speaks to
you;
and he speaks the same things as then he did:
not
indeed
with such amazing circumstances, yet with the
very
same authority and majesty.
THE INTRODUCTION. 13
Were God now to come down among you in his
tem-
the
majesty, or should a thick cloud fill this place and
lightnings
flash out of it; should you hear the thunder of
his
voice, I am the Lord: thou shalt have no
other gods
before me; certainly such a
dreadful glory would make
your
hearts tremble within you and the very earth trem-
ble
under you! And could you then give way
to sloth
and
drowsiness? Could your hearts run
gadding after
vanities
and trifles.? Or could any earthly
object divert
your
thoughts and affections from so tel'1ible a glory?
Believe
it then; God is as really present here as when he
thus
manifested himself to the Israelites; and present
upon
the very same occasion too. He is now
delivering
his
law to us; pronouncing his high and
sovereign com~
mands:
and if he so far consults our weakness as not to
do
it in such an astonishing manner; yet far be that disin-
genuousness
from us, that we should be either the less
careful
to prepare for or the less reverent in attending on
the
declarations of his high will and pleasure, though he
makes
them known to us by men of the same temper
with
ourselves.
And if the Israelites were to sanctify and
prepare them-
selves
to appear before God at
more
ought we to sanctify ourselves that we may be meet
to
appear before God in heaven! That glory
which God
manifested
when he delivered the law is not comparable
to
the infinite glory which he always reveals to the saints
in
heaven: and yet if the people of the .Jews were not
allowed
to ,see God, though veiled with a cloud and thick
darkness,
without being first carefully prepared for such a
glorious
discovery; how much more carefully ought we to
prepare
ourselves, to wash our filthy garments, and to
14
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS.
cleanse
our souls from all defilements both of flesh and
spirit,
that we may be prepared to stand before God, and
see
him there where he darts forth the full rays of his
brightness,
and causeth his glory for ever to appear with-
out
any check or restraint, without any cloud or veil.
2. The mount on which God appeared was to be
fenced
and railed in! This was with a strict prohibition that
none
should presume to pass the bounds there set; nor
approach
to touch the holy mount, under the penalty of
death. So we have it Exod. 19: 12, which intimates
the
due
distance we ought to keep from God; and teaches us
to
observe all that reverence and respect which belong to
him
as being infinitely our superior.
Certainly the very
places
where God manifests himself, at least while he
doth
so, are venerable and awful: therefore, when God
revealed
himself to Jacob in a dream, and gave him the
representation
of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven-
angels
on every round of it, and God on the top--we find
with.
what awe he reflects upon it, in his waking thoughts:
"Surely
the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not, And
he
was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this
is
none other but the house of God, and this is the gate
of
heaven." Gen. 28 : 16, 17.
This setting bounds and limits to the
mount, signified
also,
as in a type, the strictness and exactness of the law
of
God. His law is our boundary, a boundary
set on
purpose
to keep us from rushing in upon his neck, and
upon
the thick bosses of his buckler: and that soul that
shall
presume so to break these bounds and commit a
trespass
on the Almighty, shall surely die the death; even
that
eternal death which he hath threatened against all
violaters
of his law.
The Introduction 15
3. God appeared to pronounce his law in
thunders, and
lightnings, and
earthquakes, and fire, and darkness: these
were
the introduction to it; and so dreadful were they
that
they caused not only the people to remove and stand
afar
off: as not able to endure such terrible majesty, Exod.
20:
18, but even affrighted Moses himself, who was to be
Internuncius Dei, "the messenger
and herald of God."
This
we find intimated, Exod. 19: 19, "When the voice
of
the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and loud-
er,
Moses spake." What he said is not
mentioned; but
probably
he then spake those words recorded by the
Apostle,
"So terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I
exceedingly
fear and quake." Heb. 12 : 21.
This dreadful appearance of God in the
delivering of
the
law served to affect them with a reverent esteem of
those
commands which he should impose upon them; for,
certainly,
unless they were most grossly stupid, they must
think
those things to be of vast concern which were at-
tended
with such a train of amazing circumstances; and
it
is natural for men to be awed by pomp and solemnity,
the
majesty of the commander adding a kind of authority
to
the command.
Again, it served to put them in mind, as
it should us
also,
that if God were so terrible only in delivering the
law,
how much more terrible he will be when he shall
come
to judge us for transgressing the
law.
Indeed the whole apparatus of this day
seems to be
typical
of the Last Day: only (as is true of all types) it
shall
be far outdone by its antitype. Here
were voices,
and
fire, and smoke, and the noise of a trumpet; and
these
struck terror into the hearts of the people, who
came
only to receive the law: but: oh, think what con-
16
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS.
sternation
will seize the hearts of sinners, when "the
Lord
shall descend from heaven," at the last day, "with
a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump
of God," as the apostle describes it, 1 Thess.
4
: 16; when, not a mountain only, but the whole world
shall
be burning; heaven and earth all on a light flame
about
them; when they shall hear the terrible voice of
the
Majesty on high calling to them, "Awake, ye dead,
and
come to judgment:" when the earth shall be univer-
sally
shaken, and the dead shaken out of their graves:
when
whole crowds of naked nations shall throng and
cluster
about the Great Tribunal, not to receive a law but
a
sentence, a sentence that shall determine their final and
eternal
estate! Certainly if the giving of the
law were so
full
of terror, much more terrible shall be our being
judged
according to that law.
4.
When God himself had, with his dread voice, spoken
to
them these ten words, their affright and astonishment
was
so great that they entreated Moses to be
a mediator,
or interpreter between
God and them:
they said to Moses,
"Speak
thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God
speak
with us, lest we die." Exod. 20: 19.
This may intimate how the law, as
dispensed to us only
from
God, is in itself the ministration of death and con-
demnation;
but, as delivered by a Mediator, our Lord
Jesus
Christ, of whom Moses here was a type, it may be
the
means of our obtaining eternal life, not for,
but through
our
obedience to it.
Therefore the law is said to be
"ordained by angels,
in
the hand of a mediator;" Gal. 3: 19; that is, it was
solemnly
dispensed by the ministry of angels, and then
delivered
into the hand of Moses, to be by him com-
THE INTRODUCTION. 17
municated
to the people; which intimates how the se-
verity
and terrors of the law were intended to drive us to
Christ,
as here they drove the Israelites to Moses, the
type
of Christ; from whose mouth the law spake not so
dreadfully
as it did from God's.
5.
Upon this intercession and request of the people,
Moses is called up into
the mount, and the law deposited
in his hands, engraven in two tables
of stone, by the
finger
and impression of God himself: the most sacred
relic
the world ever enjoyed; but at length lost, together
with
the ark that contained it, in the frequent removes
and
captivities of that people.
This, too, may intimate how our hearts are
naturally so
hard
and stony, that it is only the finger of God that can
make
any impression of his laws upon them.
The ark
was
a famous type of Christ: and the keeping of the
tables
of the law in the ark, what doth it mean, but to
prefigure
to us how the law was to be kept and observed
in
him who fulfilled all righteousness? And
when God
again
writes his laws on our hearts, we also keep them in
Christ
our ark, whose complete obedience supplies all
our
imperfections and defects.
6.
Whereas this law of the Ten Commandments was
twice written by God
himself;
once before and again after
the
tables were in a holy zeal broken by Moses: this also
may
intimate the twice writing of the law on the hearts
of
men; first, by the creating finger of God) when he
made
us perfectly like himself; and then again, by his
regenerating
power, when he creates us anew in Christ
Jesus,
giving us a new impression, and as it were setting
us
forth in a new edition, but yet containing the same for
substance
as when we came forth at first out of the crea-
18 The Introduction
ting
hand of God: for regeneration and the new birth is
but
a restoring us to the image of God, which we defaced
by
our fall in Adam; and, as it were, a new stamping
those
characters of himself in righteousness and know-
ledge,
which were obliterated.
7.
When Moses came down from the mount after his
long
converse with God, his face shone with
such a divine
and heavenly lustre that
the Israelites were dazzled with the
brightness, and could
not steadfastly look upon him: there-
fore
he was forced to put a veil over his face, to allay and
temper
those beams which the reflection of God's face and
presence
had cast upon him; but this veil he laid aside
when
he turned into the tabernacle to speak with God.
Exod.
34 : 29, &c.
The significancy of this the Apostle
expressly gives us,
2
Cor. 3 : 13-15, that there was a veil on the heart of the
Jews,
so that they could not see to the end of the law,
which
is Christ Jesus, who was the end of the ceremonial
law,
in that he put an end to it in its abrogation; and
who
is the end of the moral law, because in him it attains
its
end, which is by convincing us of our own weakness
and
inability to perform it, to lead us to Christ, by whose
righteousness
alone, and not by the works of the law, we
are
to expect justification before God. Yet
there was so
thick
a veil cast over the law, that the Jews could not
look
through it upon the glory that shone in Christ, of
whom
Moses was still the type: but, when they shall
turn
to the Lord this veil shall be taken away; and then
shall
they discern the significancy of all those ritual ob-
servances,
and perceive spiritual things after a more sub-
lime
and spiritual manner.
Thus I have shown the time, the reason and
the man-
THE INTRODUCTION. 19
ner
of the delivery of this epitome of the law in the Ten
Commandments;
wherein are delineated and shadowed
out
many excellent gospel truths.
IV.
And now if any one ask,
"What need all this long
discourse
about the law? Is it not fully ABROGATED
by the
coming
of Christ? Shall we be again brought
under that
heavy
yoke of bondage, which neither we nor our fathers
were
able to bear? Doth not the Scripture
frequently tes-
tify
that we are not now under the law, but under grace?
that
Christ was made under the law, to free those who
were
under the law? and, therefore, to terrify and over-
awe
men's consciences by the authority of the law; what
is
it but to make the Gospel a legal dispensation, unworthy
of
that christian liberty into which our Savior hath vindi-
cated
us, who has by his obedience fulfilled the law, and
by
his death abolished it?"
To this I answer: Far be it from every christian to in-
dulge
himself in any licentiousness, from such a corrupt
and
rotten notion of the law's abrogation; for, so far is it
from
being abolished by the coming of Christ, that he
himself
expressly tells us, he came not to
destroy the law,
but to fulfil it, Mat. 5 : 17; that
is, either to perform or
else
to perfect and fill up the law; and, v. 18, he avers that
"till heaven and earth; pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in
no wise pass from the
law till all be fulfilled," that is, till
the
consummation and fulfilling of all things; and then
the
law which was our rule on earth shall become our na-
ture
in heaven.
When therefore
of
the abrogation and disannulling of the law, we must
carefully
discern and' distinguish both what is taught us
20 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
respecting
the law, and what is taught us
respecting the
abrogation of the Jaw, or any part
of it.
The
law, which God delivered by Moses, was of three
kinds: Ceremonial, Judicial, and Moral.
The Ceremonial
Law was wholly taken up in enjoining
those
observances of sacrifices and offerings, and various
methods
of purification and cleansing, which were typical
of
Christ, and that sacrifice of his, which alone was able
to
take away sin.
The Judicial
Law consisted of those constitutions which
God
prescribed the Jews for their civil government, and
was
the standing law of their nation. For
their state was
a
theocracy; and, as in other commonwealths the chief
magistrates
give laws to the people, so in this, the laws
for
their religion and for their civil government were both
immediately
from God. By this law were to be tried
and
determined
all actions and suits between party and party:
as
in all other nations, there are particular laws and sta-
tutes
for the decision of controversies that may arise
among
them.
But the Moral Law is a body of precepts, which carry
a
universal and natural equity in them; being so con-
formable
to the light of reason and the dictates of every
man's
conscience, that as soon as ever they are declared
and
understood, they must needs be subscribed to as just
and
right.
These are the three sorts of laws which
commonly go
under
,the name of the Law of Moses: all of which had re-
spect,
either to those things which prefigured the Messias
to
come, or to those which concerned their political, and
civil
government as a distinct nation from others, or to
such
natural virtues and duties of piety towards, God and
THE INTRODUCTION. 21
righteousness
towards men, as were common to them
with
all the rest of mankind.
And now as to the abrogation or continued
obligation
of
these several laws, I desire you heedfully to attend to
the
following propositions.
1.
The CEREMONIAL LAW is, as to the
Jews, properly ab-
rogated, and its
obligation and authority utterly taken
away and repealed; for so the apostle is
to be under-
stood,
when, in his epistles; he so often speaks of the ab-
rogation
and disannulling of the law: he speaks, I say,
of
the ceremonial law and Aaronical observances; which,
indeed,
were so fulfilled by Christ as to be abolished.
For
this
law was given to be only an adumbration or faint repre-
sentation
of Christ. As in the night, while the
sun is in
the
other hemisphere, yet we see its light in the planets
and
moons which shine with a borrowed and derived
brightness;
but when the sun is risen and displays its
beams
abroad, it drowns and extinguishes all those petty
lights;
so, while Christ the Sun of Righteousness was yet
in
the other hemisphere of time, before he was risen with
healing
under his wings, the Jews saw some glimmering
of
his light in their ceremonies and observances; but,
now
that the day of the Gospel is fully sprung, and that
light
which before was but blooming is fully spread, those
dimmer
lights are quite drowned and extinguished in his
clear
rays, and an utter end is put to all those rites and cere-
monies
which both intimated, and in a kind supplied the ab-
sence
of the substance. So that, to maintain
now a necessity
of
legal sacrifices, and purifyings, and sprinklings, is no less
than
to evacuate the death of Christ; and to deny the shed-
.ding
of that blood that alone can purify us from all pollutions:
which
is but to catch at the shadow and lose the substance.
22
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS.
And
as to us, who are the posterity and descendants
of the Gentiles, it is more proper to
affirm that the cere-
monial
law was never in force, than that it is truly ab-
rogated;
for the ceremonial law was national to the
Jews,
and, in a sort, peculiar to them only; neither did
God
intend that the observance of it should be imposed
upon
any other people, as a thing necessary for their
future
happiness, even though they should be proselyted.
And this appeal's, both because God
expressly com-
mands
all those who were to be subject to the ceremo-
nial
law, that they should appear at
in
the year, before the Lord, Exod. 34 : 23, 24, which
would
have been impossible for those in countries far
remote
from
and
oblations, in which consisted the chiefest part of the
ceremonial
worship, were to be offered up only at Je-
usalem;
which would have been alike impossible, if this
command
of sacrificing had been intended by God to be
obligatory
on all the world. Therefore, doubtless,
that
command,
even whilst it was in force, obliged none but
the
Jewish nation.
We find also that, even before Christ's
coming, the
Jews
themselves did not impose the observance of the
ceremonial
law alike upon all proselytes; but their pro-
selytes
were of two sorts. Some, indeed, as the Prose-
lyti Legis, became perfect Jews in
religion, lived among
them,
and engaged themselves to the full observance of the
whole
law; yet some, called Proselyti Portae,
were only
so
far converted as to acknowledge and worship the only
true
God, but obliged not themselves to the performance
of
what the Levitical law required. These
the Jews ad-
mitted
into participation of the same common hope and
THE INTRODUCTION 23
salvation
with themselves, when they professed their faith
in
God the Creator, and their obedience to the law of na-
ture,
together with the seven traditional precepts of Noah.*
For the farther clearing of this matter,
moreover, we
must
know, that, in the very beginning of the church,
there
arose great dissension between the believing Jews
and
the believing Gentiles, concerning the necessity of
observmg
the Levitical law. For we find, Acts, 15
: 5,
that
certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed,
affirmed
that it was needful to circumcise the Gentiles,
and
to command them to keep the law of Moses: which
yet
was greater rigor than was formerly used to the pro-
selyte
party.
To determine this question, the apostles
and elders
Meeting
in a council at
the
believing Jews might still, without offence, observe
the
rites and ceremonies of the law: though the necessity;
of
them were now abrogated, the use of them might, for
a
season, be lawfully continued: “dead”
they were
but,
hitherto, not “deadly:” they were
expired; yet
some
time was thought expedient for their decent burial.
Hence
we find
his
epistles opposes the observance of the ceremonial law,
yet
submits to the use of those rites, Acts, 21 : 26, and
16
: 3, by which he evidently declares that those believers
who
were of that nation, though they were freed from the
* These precepts were: 1. The
administration of justice upon
offenders. 2.
Renoucing of idolatry. 3.
Worshipping the true
God,
and keeping the Sabbath. 4. Abstaining
from murder. 5.
From
fornication. 6. From robbery. 7.
From eating of blood,
or
any member f a beast taken from it alive.
24 THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS
necessity,
yet they might lawfully, as yet, observe the
Aaronical
constitutions; ,especially, when, to avoid giving
offence,
it might be expedient so to do. So
tender a thing
is
the peace of the church!
But then, concerning the Gentiles;
although, before
the
coming of Christ, they might become perfect prose-
lytes
to the whole law of Moses, and receive the seal of
circumcision,
as many of them did: yet, after the evan-
gelical
doctrine was consummate, and the Apostles sent
into
all the world to preach it to every creature, they, by
the
Holy Ghost, determine, in that first council of the
church,
that the Gentiles should by no means be bur-
dened
with, any of those impositions, that they should
not
subject themselves to the dogmatizing commands of
false
teachers, who required them to be circumcised and
to
keep the ceremonial law; but that they be required
only
to abstain "from meat offered to idols, and from
blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication,"
that
is, as judicious Mr. Hooker very probably interprets
it,
from incestuous marriages within prohibited degrees.
And
all those commands, laid upon them by the apostles,
are
the very precepts of Noah. But
circumcision and
other
observances of the ceremonial law they were not
obliged
to: yea, they were obliged not to observe them,
as
being subversions of their souls. Acts,
15: 24. And
therefore
we find that the same holy apostle, who him-
self
circumcised Timothy because he was the son of a
Jewess,
when he writes to the Gentiles, tells them ex-
pressly,
that if they be circumcised Christ shall profit
them
nothing. Gal. 5 : 2.
Thus we see how far and in what sense the
ceremo-
nial
law is abrogated.
THE INTRODUCTION. 25
2.
As to the JUDICIAL LAW, and those precepts which
were
given to the Jews for the government of their ci-
vil
state, that law is not at all abrogated.
Not to us, for it was never intended to
oblige us. Nei-
ther,
indeed, is it at all necessary that the laws of every
nation
should be conformed to the laws which the Jews
lived
under; for, doubtless, each state has its liberty to
frame
such constitutions as may best serve to obtain the
ends
of government.
Neither is the judicial law abrogated to
the Jews: for
Though
now in their scattered state, the laws cease to be
Of
force, because the Jews cease to be a body politic; yet,
Were
their dispersion again collected into one republic,
Most
probably the same national laws would bind them
Now,
as did in former times, when they were a happy and
Flourishing
kingdom.
3.
Concerning the MORAL LAW, of which I am now to
treat
more especially, that is partly abrogated and partly
not: abrogated, as to some of its circumstances;
but not
as
to any thing of its substance, authority and obligation.
(1)
The Moral Law is abrogated to believers, as it was
a
Covenant of Works.
For God, in man’s first creation, wrote
this law in his
heart
and added this sanction to it, If thou doest this, thou
shalt
live; if not, thou shalt die the death.
Now, all man-
kind
sinning in Adam, and thereby contracting an utter
impotency
of obeying that law, that we might not all pe-
rish
according to the rigorous sentence of it, God was
graciously
pleased to enter into another covenant with us;
promising
a Savior to repair our lost condition, and eter-
nal
life upon the easier terms of faith and evangelical obe-
dience. Indeed, all those, who either never heard of
Jesus
Commandments.
26 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Christ, or
who reject him, are still under the law as a
covenant,
and therefore their estate is most wretched and
deplorable;
for, being transgressors of the law, there re-
maineth
nothing for them but a certain fearful looking-
for of wrath
and fiery indignation to devour them as the
adversaries
of God. But those who are true believers
are
under a
better covenant, even the Covenant of Grace;
wherein God
hath promised to them eternal life, upon
condition of
their faith; and they may, with full assurance
of hope, to
their unspeakable joy and comfort, expect the
performance
of it. Therefore,
(2.)
To believers the Moral Law is also abrogated as
to its
condemning power.
Though it sentenceth every sinner to
death, and curseth
every one who
continueth not in all things written therein
to do them;
yet, through the intervention of Christ's sa-
tisfaction
and obedience, the sins of a believer are gra-
ciously,
pardoned, and the curse abolished, it being dis-
charged
wholly upon Christ, and received all into his
body on the
cross. Gal. 3 : 13. "Christ hath
redeemed
us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us;"
so that we
may therefore triumphantly exult with the
apostle,
Rom. 8 : 1, "There is now no condemnation to
them that
are in Christ Jesus."
In these two respects believers are indeed
freed from
the moral
law; as it hath the obligation of a covenant, and
as it hath a
power of condemnation.
(3.) But, as it hath a power of
obliging the conscience
as a
standing rule for our obedience, it remains still in its
full vigor
and authority.
It still directs us what we ought to do;
binds the con-
science to
the performance of it; brings guilt upon the
THE INTRODUCTION. 27
soul if we
transgress it; and reduces us to the necessity
either of
bitter repentance, or of eternal condemnation.
for; in this
sense, heaven and earth shall sooner pass away
than one jot
or tittle shall pass from the law.
Therefore Antinomianism is to be
abominated, which
derogates
from the value and validity of the law, and con-
tends that
it is to all purposes extinct to believers, even
as to its
preceptive and regulating power; and that no
other
obligation to duty lies upon them who are in Christ
Jesus, but
only from the law of gratitude: that God re-
quires not
obedience from them upon so low and sordid
an account
as the fear of his wrath and dread severity;
but all is
to flow only from the principle of love and the
sweet temper
of grateful and ingenuous spirit.
This is a most pestilent doctrine which
plucks down
the fence of
the law, and opens a gap for all manner of
licentiousness
and libertinism to rush in upon the chris-
tian world;
for seeing that the Moral Law is no other
than the Law
of Nature written upon man's heart at the
first, some
positives only being superadded; upon the
same account
as we are men, upon the same we owe obe-
dience to
the dictates of it.
And indeed, we may find every part of this
law en-
forced in
the Gospel; charged upon us with the same
threatenings,
and recommended to us by the same pro-
mises; and
all interpreted to us by our Savior himself, to
the greatest
advantage of strictness and severity. We
find the
same rules for our actions, the same duties re
quired, the
same sins forbidden in the Gospel as in
the law.
Only, in the Gospel we have these
mitigations, which
were not in
the Covenant of Works:
28 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
That God accepts of our obedience, if it
be sincere, in
earnest
desires and endeavors. Although we
cannot at-
tain that
perfect exactness and spotless purity which the
law
requires, yet we are accepted through Christ, accord-
ing to what
we have, and not according to what we have
not, if so
be we indulge not ourselves in a wilful sloth
and contempt
of the law.
That the Gospel admits of repentance after
our falls,
and restores
us again to the favor of God, upon our true
humiliation:
while the law, as a Covenant of Works, left
no room for
repentance, but required perfect obedience
without the
least failure; and, in case of non-performance,
nothing ,vas
to be expected but the execution of that
death which
it threatened.
Yet, withal, a higher degree of obedience
is now re-
quired from
us under the dispensation of the Gospel than
was expected
under the more obscure and shadowy ex-
hibitions of
gospel-grace by legal types and figures.
We
confess that
the Israelites, before the coming of Christ,
were no more
under a Covenant of Works than we are
now; but yet
the Covenant of Grace was more darkly ad-
ministered
to them: and therefore, we having now re-
ceived both
a clearer light to discover what is our duty,
and a more
plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost to enable
us to
perform it, and better promises, more express and
significant
testimonies of God's acceptance, and more full
assurance of
our own reward, it lies upon us, and we are
under
obligation, having all these helps and advanta-
ges above
them, to endeavor that our holiness and obedi-
ence should
be much superior to theirs; and that we should
serve God
with more readiness and alacrity, since now by
Jesus Christ
our yoke is made easy and our burden light
THE INTRODUCTION. 29
So that you see we are far from being
released from
our
obligation to obedience; but rather, that obligation is
made the
stricter by Christ's coming into the world:
and
every
transgression against the Moral Law is enhanced to
an excess of
sin and guilt, not only by the authority of
God's
injunction, which still continues inviolable; but
likewise
from the sanction of our Mediator and Redeemer
who hath
invigorated the precepts of the law by his ex-
press
command, and promised us the assistance of his
Spirit to
observe and perform them.
V.
But before I come particularly to treat of the words
of the
Decalogue, I think it requisite to propound some
GENERAL
RULES FOR THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
AND
EX-POUNDING OF THE COMMANDMENTS, which
will be of
great use to us for our right apprehending the full
latitude and
extent of them.
The Psalmist tells us, the commandments of
God are
exceeding
broad, Psalm 119:96. And so indeed they
are
in the
comprehensiveness of their injunctions, extend-
ing their
authority over all the actions of our lives; but
they are
also exceeding strait, as to any toleration or in-
dulgence
given to the unruly lusts and appetites of men.
Now that we may conceive somewhat of this
breadth and
reach of the
law of God, observe these following rules:
1. All
those precepts which are dispersed in the holy
Scriptures,
and which concern the regulating of our lives
and actions,
although not found expressly mentioned in the
Decalogue,
may yet very aptly be reduced under one of
these ten
commands.
There is no duty required nor sin
forbidden by God
but it falls
under one, at least, of these Ten Words, and
30 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
sometimes
under more than one; and therefore, to the
right and
genuine interpretation of this law we must
take in
whatsoever the prophets, apostles, or our Lord
himself hath
taught, as comments and expositions upon
it; for the
Decalogue is a compendium of all they have
taught
concerning moral worship and justice.
Yea, our Savior epitomizes this very
epitome itself,
and reduces
these ten words to two: love to God, which
comprehendeth
all the duties of the first table; and love to
our neighbor, which comprehendeth all the duties of
the
second
table: and he tells us, that "upon these two hang
all the law
and the prophets," Mat. 22 : 37-40.
And cer-
tainly, a
due love of God and of our neighbor will make
us careful
to perform-all the duties of religion to the one,
and of
justice to the other; and keep us from attempting
any
violation to his honor, or violence to their right: there-
fore the
Apostle tells us that "love is the fulfilling of the
law,"
Rom. 13 : 10; and, 1 Tim. 1: 5, that "the end of
the
commandment is charity," or love: the end, that is
the
completion or the consummation of the commandment,
is love,
both to God and to one another. But con-
cerning this
I shall have occasion to speak ,more largely
hereafter.
2.
Since most of the commandments are delivered in
negative or
prohibiting terms, and only the fourth and
fifth in
affirmative or enjoining, we may observe this
rule: that the
affirmative commands include the prohibition
of the
contrary sin; and the negative commands include
the
injunction of the contrary duty.
That the contrary to what is forbidden
must be com-
manded, and
the contrary to what is commanded be for-
bidden, is
manifest. As, for instance, God in the
third
THE INTRODUCTION. 31
commandment
forbids the taking of his name in vain:
therefore,
by consequence, the hallowing and sanctifying
his name is
therein commanded. The fourth requires
the
sanctifying
of the Sabbath-day: therefore it surely follows
that the
profanation of it is thereby forbidden.
The fifth
commands us
to honor our parents: therefore it forbids us
to be
disobedient or injurious to them. And so
of the rest.
3. Observe, also, that every negative command
binds
always and
to every moment of time, but the affirmative
precepts,
though, they bind always, yet they do not bind to
every
moment; that is, as to the habit of obedience, they
do; but not
as to the acts.
To make this plain by instance.
The first commandment, "Thou shalt
have no other
gods before
me," bindeth always, and to every moment
of time; so
that he is guilty of idolatry whosoever shall
at any time
set up any other god to worship besides the
Lord
Jehovah. But the affirmative precept
which is in-
cluded in
this negative, namely to worship to love to in-
voke, to
depend on God, though it obligeth us always
(for we must
never act contrary hereunto,) and likewise
obligeth us
to every moment of time in respect to the
habits of
divine love, and faith, and worship; yet
it doth not
oblige us to,
every moment in respect of the acts of these
habits; for
it is impossible to be always actually praying,
praising and
worshipping God, neither is it required, for
this would
make one duty shock and interfere with another.
So, likewise, the fourth commandment,
which is affir-
mative,
"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-
day," obligeth always; and whosoever at any time
pro-
fanes the
Sabbath, is guilty of the violation of this law
but it doth
not, it cannot oblige to every moment of time
32 THE TEN COMMENDMENTS
since this
day only makes its weekly returns, and every
parcel of
time is not a Sabbath-day.
So, likewise, the fifth commandment is
positive, "Honor
thy father
and thy mother," and binds always; so that we sin
if at any
time we are refractory and disobedient unto their
lawful
commands: but it doth not oblige to the acts of honor
and
reverence in every moment of time, for that is impos-
sible; or
were it not, it would be but mimical and ridiculous.
But now the
negative precepts oblige us to every mo-
ment of
time; and whosoever ceaseth the observance of
them for
anyone moment, is thereby involved in sin, and
becomes
guilty, and a transgressor before God: such are,
"Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain: Thou
shalt not kill: Thou shalt not steal: Thou
shalt not
commit adultery," &c. Now there
is no mo-
ment of time
whatsoever that can render the non-obser-
vance of
these commands allowable, nor are there any
circumstances
that can excuse it from guilt. Whosoever
profanes the
name of God by rash swearing or trivial or
impertinent
uttering of it, whosoever sheds innocent
blood,
whosoever purloins from another what is rightly
his,
whosoever is guilty of any uncleanness; let it be at
what time,
in what place, after what manner soever, let
it be done
passionately or deliberately, whether he be
tempted to
it or not; yet he is a transgressor of, the
law, and
liable to that curse and death which God hath
threatened
to inflict upon every soul of man, that doeth
evil. Whereas, in the affirmative precepts, there
are
some times
and seasons to which we are not bound, so as
actually to
perform the duties enjoined us. This I
sup~
pose is
clear, and without exception.
4. Observe this rule also: that the
same precept which
THE INTRODUCTION 33
forbids the
external and outward acts of sin, forbids like-
wise the
inward desires and motions of sin in the heart:
and the same
precept which requires the external acts of
duty,
requires likewise those holy affections of the soul that
are suitable
thereunto.
As, for instance the same command that
requires me
to worship
God, exacts from me not only the outward
service of
the lip or of the knee, but much more the in-
ward
reverence and affection of my soul: that
I should
prostrate,
not my body only, but my very heart at his feet;
fearing him
as the great God, and loving him, as the
greatest
good, with all the tenderness and dearness of
a ravished
should cleaving to him and clasping about him as
my only joy
and happiness. Therefore, those are
highly
guilty of
the violation of this command who worship God
only with
their bodies, when their hearts are far estranged
from
him; offering up only the shell and husk
of a duty,
when the
pith and substance which should fill it is given
either to
the world or to their lusts: such as these are
guilty of
idolatry even in serving and worshipping the
true God;
for they set up their idols in their hearts
when they
come to inquire of him, as the prophet com-
plains,
Ezek. 14:7. So, likewise, that positive
command,
"Honor
thy thy father and thy mother, not only requires
from us the
external acts of obedience to all the lawful
commands of
our parents and magistrates, and those
whom God
hath set in authority over us; but requires:
farther, an
inward love, veneration and esteem for them
in our
hearts. For, though men can take no
farther cog-
nizance of
us than by our overt-acts; and if ,those be re-
gular, they
are likewise satisfactory to all human laws:
yet this is
not sufficient satisfaction to the law of God;
34 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
for God is
the discerner and judge of the heart and soul;
and his law
hath this special prerogative above all others,
that it can
with authority prescribe to our very thoughts,
desires and
affections.
And then, as for negative commands,
they forbid not
only the
external acts of evil but the inward motions of
lust, sinful
desires, and evil concupiscence. Thus we
find
it at large,
Mat. 5, where our Savior makes it a great
part of his
object in his sermon on the mount, to clear
and
vindicate the moral law from the corrupt glosses and
interpretations
of the Scribes and Pharisees; and to
show that
the authority of the law reached to prohibit,
not only
sinful actions, as that corrupt generation thought,
but sinful
affections too: v. 21, "Ye have heard that it
was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and
whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment."
Here they
stopped in the very bark and rind of the com-
mand, and
thought it no offence, though they suffered
their hearts
to burn with wrath, and malice, and revenge,
so long as
they pent it up there, and did not suffer, it
to break
forth into bloody murder. But what saith
our
Savior, v.
22? "But I say unto you, that
whosoever
angry with
his brother without a cause, shall be in danger
of the
judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother,
Raca, shall
be in danger of the council; but whosoever
shall say,
Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." You
see here,
that not only the horrid sin of murder is forbid-
den by the
law, but all the, incentives to it and degrees
of it; as
anger conceived inwardly in the heart, or ex-
pressed
outwardly in words.
I cannot pass this place without giving
you some light
for the
right understanding of it.
THE INTRODUCTION. 35
Here are three degrees of sin short of
murder; yet
all
forbidden by the same precept which forbids that
Causeless
anger against thy
brother; calling him Raca;
the other in
guilt. Raca signifies a simple witless
fellow,
commonly
used to upbraid such as were weak and igno-
rant. Thou fool, signifies one that is not
only ignorant,
but wicked
and ungodly, as the Scripture frequently useth
the word in
the sense, which is a far greater reproach
than merely
to call him weak or silly. Now,
according
to these
three degrees of sins our Savior proportions
three
degrees of punishment to be inflicted on those that
are guilty
of them, each severer than the other. Causeless
anger shall bring them in danger of the
judgment; Raca,
in danger of
the council; and Thou Fool, in danger of hell
fire: that is, they shall make them liable to the
punish-
ments
inflicted by these.
But, to understand the full scope and
meaning of our
Savior in
these allusions, we must have recourse to the
history of
the Jewish commonwealth; and there we find
that they
had two courts of judicature, the lesser and the
greater
sanhedrin.
The lesser consisted of twenty-three
persons; and was
erected, not
only in
city among
the Jews where there were six score house-
holders. These had authority to inflict capital
punish-
ments on
malefactors; but yet, as the highest crimes fell
not under
their cognizance, so neither were the severest
punishments
under their award. And this consistory
our
Savior calls
here the Judgment; and tells us, that who-
soever is
angry with his brother without a cause, shall be
liable to a
punishment correspondent to that which this
36 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
sanhedrin
was empowered to inflict; still applying tem-
porals to
spirituals, that is, he shall be liable to eternal
death,
though not so severely executed as it would be for
crimes of a
more heinous nature.
Their greater sanhedrin was their supreme
court of
judicature,
and consisted of seventy elders, besides their
chief
speaker or moderator. You will find
their first in-
stitution to
have been by divine authority, Num. 11:16.
They sat
only in
and
determining, from which there lay no appeal.
They
were to
judge of, all harder matters which could not be
determined
by other courts: as causes concerning a
whole tribe
or the whole nation; causes of war and
peace;
causes concerning the high-priest, and the mission
and
authority of prophets that spake unto them in the
name of the
Lord: and this may be the occasion of that
speech of
our Savior, "It cannot be that a prophet perish
out of
alone was
this sanhedrin constituted which was to judge
of the
prophets whether they were true or false.
This
sanhedrin
our Savior here calls the Council. And
they
had power,
not only of life and death, as the other had;
but likewise
of inflicting death in a more severe and
tormenting
manner than the other: and therefore our
Savior:
saith, Whosoever shall call his brother Raca, a
vain witless
fellow, shall be in danger of the council.
Wherein he
still brings the degrees of punishment
among"the
Jews to allude to the punishment of sins in
hell: and so
the meaning is, that as he who shall cause-
lessly be
angry with his brother exposeth himself to the
danger of
eternal death; so he that shall suffer his anger
to break
forth into any, reproachful or reviling language,
THE INTRODUCTION.
37
although his
taunts be not very bitter nor biting, only to
call him a
weak silly person, yet hereby he incurs the
danger of a
severer sentence, and execution of it upon
him for
ever.
But the severest sentence which this
sanhedrin could
pronounce
against the greatest malefactors was that they
should be
burnt alive with fire. This execution
was
always
performed in the
fires made,
both in idolatrous times for the sacrificing of
their
children to Moloch, and in their purer times for con-
suming the
filth of their city, and that which was as bad,
their
malefactors; it is not unfreqent in the Scripture to
denote hell
by this Tophet, this
for its
continual fires, was a lively type and representation
of it: yea, the very scripture name for hell,
Gehenna,
seems to be
derived from the
as burning
of malefactors in Gehenna, or the valley of
Hinnom, was
among the Jews one of their highest and
severest
punishments, and never inflicted but where the
crime was
very gross and flagitious; so, saith our Savior,
he that
saith to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger
of Gehenna,
of hell-fire; that is, of a severer punishment
in the true
hell than those who were either causelessly
angry or
expressed their anger in more tolerable re-
proaches;
although even they also shall, without repent-
ance, be
eternally punished.
So that the sense of our Savior in all
this allusion
seems to be
this: that whereas the Scribes and Pharisees
had
restrained that command, Thou shalt not kill, only to
actual
murder, as if nothing else were forbidden besides
open
violence and blood; our Savior, contrariwise, teach-
38 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
eth, that
not only that furious and barbarous sin of mur-
der, but
also rash and causeless anger, though it only boil
in the
heart, much more if it cast forth its foam at the
mouth in
reviling speeches, falls under that prohibition,
"Thou
shalt not kill." All these degrees
deserve to be
punished
with eternal death; but, as among the Jews,
some were
punished with lighter, others with more griev-
ous
penalties, so shall it be at the Great Judgment:
anger in our
hearts shall be condemned with eternal pun-
ishment;
but, if it break forth into reviling expressions
the
condemnation shall be more intolerable, and by so
much more,
by how much the reproaches are more bitter ;
and
sarcastical.
This, in brier, I take to be the true
meaning of this
difficult
speech of our Savior: the whole scope whereof
shows, that
not only the gross acts of sin, but also the
inward
dispositions and corrupt affections unto sin, and
every degree
and tendency towards it, axe forbidden and
threatened
by the holy law of God.
So, likewise, verse 27 of this 5th
chapter: "Ye have
heard that
it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not
commit
adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever
looketh on a
woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery
with her already in his heart."
Here our Savior
brings
inward concupiscence to the bar; and makes the
heart and
eye plead guilty, although shame or fear might
restrain
grosser acts.
Thus it appears that the same precept
which forbids
the outward
acts of sin, forbids likewise the inward de-
sires and
motions of sin in the heart.
And,
indeed, there is a great deal of reason for it.
For
God, who is
our lawgiver, is a spirit. He seeth and
con-
THE INTRODUCTION. 39
verseth with
our spirits. There is not the least
thought
that flits
in thy soul, not the least shadow of an imagina-
tion cast
upon thy fancy, not the stillest breathing of a
desire in
thy heart but God is privy to it: he sees to
the very
bottom of that deep spring and source of
thoughts
that is, in thy heart: he beholds them in their
causes and
occasions; and knows our thoughts, as the
Psalmist
speaks, afar off: he beholds our souls more
clearly and
distinctly than we can behold one another's
faces; and
therefore it is but fit and rational that his laws
should reach
as far as his knowledge; and that he should
prescribe
rules to that, the irregularity of which he can
observe and
punish.
Hence it is that the apostle, considering
what an energy
the law has
upon that part of man which seems most free
and
uncontrolled, his mind and spirit, calls it a spiritual
law: "We know," saith he, "that the
law is spiritual,"
Rom. 7:14;
and that, because the searching and con-
vincing
power of it enters into our spirits, cites our
thoughts,
accuses our desires, condemns our affections:
which no
other law in the world besides this can do.
For how
justly ridiculous would men be, who should
command us
not to think dishonorably of them, not to
desire any
thing to their detriment and prejudice; and
should
threaten us with punishment in case of disobe-
dience: but
the law of, God comes into our consciences
with
authority; and, in the name of the great God, re-
quires his
peace to be kept among our tumultuous and
seditious
affections, beats down their carnal weapons,
and gives
conscience a power either to suppress all re-
bellious
insurrections against the majesty of heaven, or
else to
indite, accuse, and torment men for them.
And
40 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
therefore
"the Word of God is" by the apostle said
to be
"quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-
edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the
thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12.
It is therefore a fourth rule for the
right understanding
of the
extent and latitude of the commands, that the
same precept
which forbids the outward acts of sin, for-
bids also
the inward desires and motions of sin in the
heart.
5. Another general rule is this: that the
command not
only forbids
the sin that is expressly mentioned, but all
occasions and
inducements leading to that sin.
And therefore we may observe that there
are many
sins that
are not expressly forbidden in anyone com-
mandment,
but yet are reductively forbidden in every
one towards
the violation of which they may prove occa-
sions. And as some one sin may be an occasion to all
others, so
it may be well said to be forbidden in every
precept of
the Decalogue.
I shall instance only two of this kind:
and they are-
familiarity
with evil persons, or keeping evil company;
and the sin
of drunkenness.
As for evil company, it is evident
that though it be not
expressly
forbidden in anyone commandment, yet, as it
is a strong
temptation and inducement to the violation of
all of them,
so it is a sin against them all. There
are no
such sure
factors for the devil as wicked company, who
will strive
to rub their vices upon as many as they can
infect. And therefore, thou, who delightest in the
com-
pany either
of atheists, or idolaters, or swearers, or sab-
bath-breakers,
or disobedient rebels, or murderers, or
THE INTRODUCTION. 41
whoremongers,
or thieves, or perjured persons., or cove-
tous
muck-worms, thou art guilty of the breach of each of
these
commandments; for thou runnest thyself into the
very snare
of the devil, and takest the same course to
make thyself
so which made them such. And therefore
we are all
forbidden to keep company with such profane
and
profligate wretches by the very same commandment
which
forbids their impieties, whatsoever they be.
And as for drunkenness, whereas in
the apostle's days,
even among
the heathen themselves, shame so far pre-
vai1ed upon
vice and debauchery, that it left sobriety the
day, and
took only the night to itself, 1 Thess. 5:7;
yet now
among us christians wickedness is grown so pro-
fligate that
we meet the drunkard reeling and staggering
even at
noon-day, ready to discharge his vomit in our
faces or our
bosoms.
Possibly, some who are besotted with this
loathsome
vice may
think it no great wickedness, because it is not
expressly
forbidden in the summary of the law; and so
they cry
Peace, peace, to themselves, although they go
on to add
drunkenness to thirst.
But of this sin I say that it is not
against anyone par-
ticular
commandment of the law, but against all; for since
the moral
law is the law and rule of right reason, the
whole of it
must needs be broken when reason itself is
perverted by
riot and intemperance, the man turned out
of doors and
the beast taken in. So that indeed,
drunk-
enness is
not so much anyone sin, as it is all.
The drunk-
ard hath put
off the man and hath put on the swine; and
into such
swine it is that the devil enters, as surely as
ever he
entered into the herd of the Gadarenes, and
drives them
furiously down the precipices of all manner
42 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
of sins and
vices, till at length he plungeth and drowneth
them in the
lake of fire and brimstone.
Therefore, whatsoever is commanded, or
whatsoever is
forbidden,
drunkenness is forbidden, as being the greatest
advantage
the devil hath to prompt men to those abomina-
tions, that,
were they in their right senses, they would ab-
hor and
detest. Is he, think you, fit to worship
God, and
to take him
for his own God, who is not himself his own
ma? Is not he guilty of idolatry who makes
Bacchus his
deity,
giving him the libations of his vomits, and falling
prostrate
before him? Can he forbear taking the
name of
God in vain
who hath taken the creatures of God to his
bane? whose tongue is set afloat with his excessive
cups,
and whose mouth
the devil taps to let his blasphemies,
and oaths,
and curses, and fearful execrations run out the
more
fluently? Can he keep holy the
Sabbath-day whose
last night's
drunkenness and excess rocks him asleep
either in
his own house or in the house of God? Is
he fit
to honor his
parents who dishonoreth his own body?
Can
he abstain
from murder who first takes the ready way to
destroy his
own body and damn his own soul; and then,
through the
rage of wine, is ready upon every slight pro-
vocation to
mingle his vomit with the blood of others?
Can he keep
himself from uncleanness whose riotous ta-
ble doth but
prepare him for a polluted bed? Shall
not
he assever
that which is false whose reason is so blinded
by the fumes
of his intemperance that he knows no longer
the
difference between truth and falsehood?
And, finally,
what bounds
can be set to his concupiscence, who by thus
blinding the
eyes of his reason hath only left him fancy,
alnd
appetite, both which the devil rules and governs?
Thus you see there are some sins which
though not ex-
THE INTRODUCTtON. 43
pressly
forbidden in the Decalogue, yet are virtually and
reductively
forbidden, as being the fomenters and occa-
sions of
others; and among these, drunkenness especially,
which
strikes at every law that God hath enjoined us, the
guilt
whereof is universal as well as the sin epidemical.
6.
Another rule for the understanding of the Decalogue
is, that the
commands of the first table are not to he kept
for the sake
of the second; but the commands of the second
are to be
kept for the sake of the first.
The first table commands those duties
which imme-
diately
respect the service and worship of God; the se-
cond, those
which respect our demeanor towards men.
Now the
worship and service of God is not to be per-
formed out
of respect to men; but our duty towards
men is to be
observed out of respect to God. For he
that
worships God
that he might thereby recommend himself
to men, is
but a hypocrite and formalist; and he that per-
forms his duty
towards men without respecting God in it,
is but a
mere civil moralist. The first table
commands us
not to
worship idols, not to swear, not to profane the
Sabbath. The laws of the magistrate command the very
same; and
those who are guilty of the breach of them are
liable to
human punishments. But if we abstain
from
these sins
solely because they will expose us to shame or
suffering
among men; if we worship God merely that
men may
respect and venerate us, all the pomp and os-
tentation of
our religion is but hypocrisy, and as such
shall have
its reward; for God requireth to be served not
for man's
sake, but for his own.
The second table prescribes the right
ordering of our
conversation
towards men; that we should be dutiful and
to obedient
to our superiors, loving and kind to our equals,
44 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
charitable
and beneficial to our inferiors, and just and
righteous
towards all. These duties are not to be
done
only for
man's sake, but for God's; and those who per-
form them
without respecting him in them, lose both
their
acceptance and reward. And therefore our
Savior
condemns
that love and beneficence which proceeds
merely upon
human and prudential accounts. Matt.
5 : 46. "If ye love them which love you, what
reward
have
ye? do not even the publicans the
same?" And Luke,
6 : 33,
34, "If ye do good to them which do
good to you,
what thank
have ye? for sinners also do even the
same.
And if ye
lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what
thank have
ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to
receive
as much
again."
We ought not therefore to serve God for
man's sake;
but we ought
to love man for God's sake, and to perform
the duties
of the second table out of conscience and re-
spect to
God. We ought to do this in obedience to
his
authority;
for what we do for men is an acceptable
work and
service when we do it out of a sincere principle
of obeying
the will and command of God. We ought to
do it in
conformity to his example; and this our Sa-
vior urgeth,
Matt. 5 : 45, "That ye maybe the
children
of your
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun;
to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and
on the unjust." We ought to do it,
in view
of a
comfortable hope and expectation of his eternal
reward. Luke, 6: 35.
"Love your enemies, and do
good, and
your reward shall be great." And
this is the
way to exalt
morality to be truly divine; and to make
whatsoever
we do towards men, to be an acceptable ser-
vice to
God. By this means we interest him in
all the
THE INTRODUCTION. 45
acts of our
charity, justice and temperance; and we may
be assured
that what we thus do for his sake, shall in the
end be
graciously rewarded by his bounty.
7. Another rule is, that the commands
of the first table,
so far for
forth they are purely moral, supersede our obe-
dience to
the commands of the second table, when they are
not both
consistent.
As for instance: we are in the second table required
to obey our
parents, and to maintain and preserve our
own lives;
yet, if we are brought into such circumstances
as that we
must necessarily disobey either God or them--
either
prostitutes our souls to guilt, or our lives to execu-
tion--in
such a case our Savior hath instructed us, Luke,
14 : 26,
"If any man come to me, and hat not his father,
and mother,
and wife, and children, yea, and his own
life also,
he cannot be my disciple." Indeed,
a positive
hatred of
these is unnatural and impious; but the hatred
which our
Savior here intends is comparative; that is, a
loving them
less than Christ, less than religion and piety.
And if the
commands of the one or the concerns of the
other are at
any time to be violated or neglected, it must
only be when
we are sure that they are incompatible
with a good
conscience and true godliness.
8.
Again, whereas, in the first table, there is one com-
mand partly
moral and natural, partly positive and insti-
tuted, and
that is our observation of the Sabbath, we
may observe
that our obligation to the duties of the second
table often
supersedes our obedience to that command of the
first
table.
It frequently happens that works of
necessity and
mercy will
not permit us to be employed in works of
piety, nor
to sanctify the Sabbath after such a manner as
46 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
else we
ought; for the Lord requireth mercy rather than
sacrifice. Hosea, 6 : 6.
And this our Savior allegeth, Matt.
9 : 13. In which sense it holds true, that "The
Sabbath was
made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath."
Mark, 2 : 27.
Whatsoever therefore
is a work of necessity, or a work
of charity
and mercy, and that not only towards man, but
even towards
brute beasts themselves, may lawfully be
done on the
Sabbath-day, without bringing upon us the
guilt of
profanation; for that which is purely moral in
the second
table doth in a sort derogate from what is but
positive and
instituted in the first.
9. Another rule is, whatsoever is
forbidden in any
command,
both all the signs and symptoms of it, and
likewise all
the effects and consequents of it, are forbidden
in the same.
Thus, under the prohibition of idolatry,
falls the pro-
hibition of
feasting in the idol-temples, and eating meats
sacrificed
to them, as being too evident a sign of our
communion
with them.
So, in the commands in which pride is
forbidden,
(which are
chiefly the first and second, for a proud man
sets up
himself for his god, is his own idol, and is his
own
idolater,) in the same are forbidden all the signs and
effects of
pride; as a lofty look and a mincing gait, an
affected
behavior and vain fantastic apparel, against
which the
prophet largely declaims, Isa. 3 : 16-26; be-
cause,
although pride doth not formally consist in these
things, yet
they are signs and effects of pride, and con-
trary to
that modesty and decency which God requires.
10.
The last rule is this: The
connection between the
commands is
so close and intimate, and they are so linked
together,
that whosoever breaketh one of them is guilty
of all.
THE INTRODUCTION. 47
Now that bond which runs through them and
knits
them thus
together, is the authority and sovereignty of
God
enjoining their observance: so that whosoever fails
in his due
obedience to anyone, doth virtual1y and inter-
pretatively
transgress them all.
Thus we find it expressly affirmed, James,
2: 10,
"Whosoever
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point,
he is guilty of all." Not as though
the vio-
lation of
one precept were actually the violation of an-
other; for
many may steal, and yet not actually murder;
many again
may murder, and yet not actually commit
adultery:
but this place of the apostle must be under-
stood of
violating that authority which passeth through
them all,
and by which all the commandments have their
sanction. For since the authority of the great God is
one and the
same in all these laws, he that shall so far
disrespect
this authority as wilfully to break one of them,
evidently
declares that he owns it not in any. And
al-
though other
considerations may restrain such a one
from those
crimes which are forbidden by some com-
mandments,
yet his observance of them is no part of
obedience,
nor can it be interpreted to be performed out
of
conscience and respect towards God; for were it so,
the same
authority which withheld him from murder, or
theft, or
adultery, would likewise restrain him from lying,
or taking
the name of God in vain; and he that is guilty
of these
offences, is likewise guilty of all, because the
same
authority is stamped upon them all alike, and is
alike
violated in the transgression of each.
And this
very reason
the apostle subjoins to his assertion, verse 11,
"He
that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do
not
kill. Now, if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou
48 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
kill, thou
art become a transgressor of the law: yea,
of the whole
law, as breaking that fence which God had
set about
his law, even his sovereign and absolute au-
thority.
These are the rules which may direct your
under-
standings to
a right knowledge of the latitude and com-
prehensiveness
of the law. The application of them to
particular
cases I must leave to the judgment of christian
prudence,
except as various illustrative examples may be
given in the
ensuing treatise.
VI. Before entering upon the consideration
of the com-
mandments in
particular, it only remains to speak briefly
--and that
chiefly because others have spoken so much--
concerning
the ORDER of these commands.
The number of them is no way questioned;
for God
himself hath
determined them to be ten, Exod. 34 : 28 ;
but the
method and disposition of them is much contro-
verted, and
I think with more heat and contention than
the cause
deserves; for if all that God hath spoken be
entirely
delivered to us, what great concern is it whether
this or that
command be reckoned the second, third, or
fourth? This certainly tends but little to piety; and
we
had need
rather to employ our care how to keep them,
than how to
reckon them.
Therefore, waiving all other differences,
(as that of He-
sychius,
making the first command to be this, "I am the
Lord thy
God," which we, with good reason, affirm to
be only a
part of the preface; --and the leaving out of the
fourth,
concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath;--
and the
placing of "Thou shalt not
kill" after "Thou,
THE INTRODUCTION. 49
shalt not
commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal," whereas
we,
according to the Hebrew verity, place it before;) all
that I shall
remark is, the difference between the Papists
and us in
the enumeration of the Ten Commandments,
They generally hold that there are but three
commands
in the first
table, and therefore make seven in the second:
and so, to
complete this number, they join the first and
second into one, and divide the tenth
into two.
Concerning this division or union we
would not be
much
contentious with them, were there not a sacrile-
gious and
idolatrous design couched under it, as mani-
festly there
is: for finding the second commandment to
strike so
directly at their image worship, they think it
expedient to
deny it to be any distinct precept of itself;
and reckon
it but only an appendix or exposition of the
former,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me;"
that so they
might with the better color omit it; as ge-
nerally they
have done in all their books of devotion and
of
instruction for the people. So that of
those few among
them that
can rehearse the Decalogue, you shall find none
that will
repeat, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven
image: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto
them, nor
serve them;" they not knowing that any such
thing is
forbidden them by God. And yet, that
they may
make up the
full number of the commandments, they di-
vide the
tenth into two: one, forbidding the coveting of
our
neighbor's wife; and the other, the coveting of any
the other of
his possessions.
The only authority they produce from
antiquity for
this order
of the Decalogue, is that of St. Austin: and it
is true, he
doth in many places of his works so conjoin
and divide
them; yet not from any design of promoting
Commandments. 3
50 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
idolatry, or
keeping the people in ignorance, that the
worshipping
of images was forbidden. But in this
par-
ticular he
went contrary to the current of all former an-
tiquity;
yea, contrary to the very order of the Scripture:
for whereas
they say that the ninth commandment is,
Thou shalt
not covet thy neighbor's wife; and the tenth,
Thou shalt
not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his servant,
&c. if we consult Exod. 20:17, we shall find that
the
command runs
thus: Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's
house, thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, &c. from
which it
certainly follows that they cannot make two
precepts,
but appertain to one. --But enough of this:
which I had
not mentioned, had it not been conceived
out of such
an impious design.
We now proceed to the commandments
themselves, in
which we
have the preface and the precepts.
PREFACE TO THE COMMANDMENTS.
I AM THE
LORD THY GOD, WHICH HAVE BROUGHT
THEE OUT OF
THE
OF B0NDAGE.
This preface carries an equal respect and
reverence to
all the
commandments; and contains a strong argument
to enforce
obedience to them. As kings and princes
usually
prefix their names and titles to the laws and
edicts they
set forth, to gain the more attention and the
PREFACE TO THE COMMANDMENTS. 51
greater
veneration to what they publish; so here the
great God,
the King of kings, being about to proclaim a
law to his
people
the deeper reverence
of his authority, and make them the
more afraid
to transgress, displays and blazons his name
and his
style before them--I am the Lord thy God, which
have brought
thee out Of the
the house Of
bondage--that they
might learn to fear his
glorious and
fearful name,
THE LORD THY GOD. So we
find it,
Deut. 28:58.
And here, as all the arguments which are
most pre-
valent and
cogent are adapted to work upon one of these
two passions
by which we are swayed in all the actions
of our
lives, either our fear or our love, so God accommo-
dates
himself to our temper and proclaims, first, his au-
thority, to beget fear: "I am the Lord thy God;" and
then, secondly,
his benefits and mercies, to engage love:
"The
Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land
of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage." And
both these
he
proclaims, that, having so strong an obligation on our
very natures
as the motives of love and fear, he might
the more
readily work us to obedience. For what
mo-
tives can be
urged more enforcing than these, which are
drawn both
from power and goodness; the one obliging
r us to
subjection, the other to gratitude?
1. He
is the Lord God, the great creator, the only pro-
prietor, the
absolute governor and disposer of all things;
therefore on
this account we owe an awful observance to
all his laws
and injunctions. It is but fit and just that we
should be
subject to him that created us, and who hath
infinite
power, for our contumacies and rebellions, eter-
nally to
destroy us.
52 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
He is the Lord God, the great and glorious
One, whose
kingdom is
from everlasting to everlasting, and whose do-
minion hath
no bounds, either of time or place.
"Be-
hold,"
saith the prophet, "the nations are as a drop of a
bucket, and
are counted but as the small dust of the ba-
lance:
behold) he taketh up the isles as a very little
thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and
they
are counted
to him less than nothing and vanity."
Isa.
40:15,
17. His voice shakes the heavens, and
removes
the earth
out of its place. His way is in the
whirlwind.
Storms and
tempests are his harbingers; and the clouds
are the dust
of his feet. The mountains quake at his
presence; at
his displeasure the hills melt away; the
world and
all the inhabitants of it are dissolved.
His
fury is
poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown
down by
him. His hand spans the heavens, and he
holds
all the
waters of the sea in the hollow of it.
Heaven is,
the throne
of his glory, and the earth his footstool: his
pavilion
round about him, dark waters and thick clouds.
of the
sky. Ten thousand times ten thousand
glorious
spirits
stand alway ministering before him: they
fly on
his errands,
and are ready to execute his sovereign will
and pleasure. "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, glorious
in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders?" and,
therefore,
who would not fear thee, O King of nations
and tremble
and be astonished, when once thou art
angry?
Wilt thou then, O vile and wretched sinner,
despise
the
authority and majesty of the great God, before who
all the
powers of heaven and earth lie prostrate?
Darest,
thou
infringe his laws and, violate his commands, who is
so great and
terrible a God that he can destroy thee by
PREFACE TO THE COMMANDMENTS 53
the very
breath of his nostrils? "By the
breath of his
nostrils are
they consumed." Job, 4:9. Yea, he can
look thee to
death. "They perish at the rebuke
of thy
a
countenance." Psalm 80:16. Art thou able to contend
with this
God? Art thou a fit match for the
Almighty?
Can thy
heart endure; or thy hands be strong in the day
when the
Lord shall deal with thee, and come to recom-
pense
vengeance upon thee for all thy transgressions?
Who among
you can dwell with the devouring fire?
who
among you
can dwell with everlasting burnings?
Certainly, did we but frequently thus
overawe our
hearts with
the serious consideration of the dread majesty
and supreme
authority of the great God, we should not
dare so
presumptuously to provoke him as we do.
Fear
is a most
excellent preservative from sin, and a strong
fence that
God hath set about his law to keep us from
breaking
those bounds which he hath prescribed us.
Therefore
the wise man gives us this advice, Eccl. 12:13,
"Fear
God and keep his commandments;" and the
Psalmist,
Ps. 4:4, "Stand in awe and sin not."
2.
As the authority of God is set forth to move us to
obedience by
working on our fear, so his benefits and
mercies are,
declared to win us to it from a principle of
love and
gratitude: "The Lord thy God, who hath
brought thee
out of the
of
bondage." And indeed this, though a
soft, is yet a
most
powerful and effectual argument.
Hath God surrounded thee with blessings,
and loaded
thee every
day with his benefits? Hast thou
received thy
life, thy
being from him; and so many comforts in which
thou takest
delight, and he allows thee so to do?
Hast
thou been
delivered by his watchful providence from
54 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
many deaths
and dangers; restored from sickness, or
preserved in
health? Doth he feed thee at his table,
and
clothe thee
out of his wardrobe? Nay, what is
infinitely
more, hath
he given thee his only Son, and his Son given
thee his
life and most precious blood? Hath he
sent thee
his Gospel;
and in it the exceeding great and precious
promises of
eternal glory, a glory which hope durst not
be bold
enough to expect, nor is imagination large enough
to
conceive? Hath he sent thee his Spirit
to seal and ra-
tify all
these promises to thee? Hath he crowned
thy
head with
many rich blessings here, and will he crown it
with joy and
blessedness hereafter? And canst thou, O
soul, be so
unkind and disingenuous as to deny any thing
to that God
who hath denied nothing to thee? Canst
thou
refuse him
the only thing he requires of thee, the only
testimony
which thou canst give that thou hast any sense
of his
favor? and especially considering he
requires it
only that he
may reward it with farther blessings?
Canst thou wrong that God who hath been so
kind and
gracious
unto thee, and is continually doing thee good?
Canst thou
despise his precepts, who hath regarded thy
prayers? Wilt not thou hear him speaking unto thee,
who hath
often heard thee when thou hast cried unto,
him, and
hath helped and saved thee? Certainly,
the
ingenuousness
of human nature forbids it: the love of
God
constraineth otherwise; especially since he hath
required
obedience from us as the evidence and ex-
pression of
our love to him: John, 14:21, "He that
hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me;
and in 2 John, 5:6, "This is love, that we
walk after
his commandments," And that, which
is a most
cogent
motive, thine own interest and eternal concern-
PREFACE TO THE COMMANDMENTS. 55
ments engage
thee to it; for, "what doth the Lord thy
God require
of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God--and
to love
him--and to keep his commandments--which I
command thee
this day for thy good?" Deut. 10:12, 13.
God might have required from us the very same
obedi-
ence which
now he doth, without promising us any re-
ward for it;
for we owe him all that we can possibly do,
as he is the
author of our beings, and every power and
faculty of
our souls ought to be employed for him who
gave them
unto us. But when the great God hath
been
so far
pleased to condescend from his prerogative as to
command us
nothing but what hath already brought us
very great
advantages, and will for the future bring us
far greater,
when his hands shall be as full of blessings as
his mouth is
of commands; when he enjoins us a work
that in
itself is wages, and yet promiseth us wages for
doing that
work; when the mercies he hath already given
us do oblige
us, and the mercies he hath promised yet to
give do
allure us, certainly we must needs be the most
disingenuous
of all creatures, and the greatest enemies to
our own
happiness, if these considerations do not win us
to yield him
that obedience which redounds not at all to
his profit
and advantage, but to our own.
Thus you see how God hath enforced the
observance
of his law
upon us, both by his authority and by his
mercy: the
one to work upon our fear, the other upon
our love;
and both to engage us to obedience.
Here it is observable, that, in the
rehearsal of those
mercies which
should oblige to duty, mention is made
only of
those which seem to concern the Israelites, and
no other
people: I am the Lord thy God, which
brought
56 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
thee out of
the
From which
some would infer that the Decalogue only
respects
them; and that the commands then given do not
at all
appertain to us any more than the benefits com-
memorated.
But the answer is easy. For this mercy here mention-
ed, of
deliverance from
is to be
understood as well typically as literally. If we
understand
it literally, it indeed refers only to the people
of
hand and a
stretched-out arm, and by such a series of
miracles that
they were almost as ordinary as the common
effects of
his providence. But if we understand it
typi-
cally and
mystically, it is true that God hath brought
us also out
of
and
therefore the enforcement of the commandments on
this account
belongs to us christians as much as it did
belong to
the church of the Jews; for, if we run up the
allegory to
the spiritual sense of it, we shall find a won-
derful
agreement betwixt them and a near representation
of our state
in the state of the Israelites. Let it
suffice to
compare them
together only in a few remarkable in-
stances.
Thus as they were kept in bondage under
the rigorous
tyranny of
Pharaoh, who sought both by policy and power
to destroy
them; so were we kept in bondage under the
tyranny of
the devil, of whom Pharaoh was a black type
and
shadow. And as God delivered them from
his hand
by a
temporal salvation, so hath he delivered us from the
power of the
devil by a spiritual salvation; redeeming
us from the
slavish bondage of sin through the blood of
his Son, by
whom all our spiritual enemies are destroyed;
PREFACE TO THE COMMANDMENTS. 57
and
conducting us through the wilderness of this world
unto the
promised
milk and honey,
the seat of rest and eternal joy and
felicity,
even heaven itself: and, therefore, if the consi-
deration of
a temporal deliverance were so powerful a
motive to
engage the Israelites unto obedience, how much
more
effectually should we be obliged unto it whose de-
liverance is
far greater "than theirs was; for God "hath
delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath trans-
lated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son," Col. 1:13;
he hath
"delivered us from the wrath to come," 1 Thes.
1:l0; he
"hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and
immortality to light through the Gospel," 2 Tim.
1:10. And therefore as our deliverance is
spiritual, so
ought our
obedience to be; that being delivered from the
justice of
God, the condemning power of the law, the
reigning
power of sin, the sting of an accusing con-
science, the
rage and malice of the devil, and the intoler-
able
torments of hell, we might, with all love and thank-
fulness,
cheerfully serve that God whose mercy hath been
extended
towards us in those things which aloe of highest
and most
precious concernment.
Thus you see the reason of this preface,
"I am the
Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of
us
Christians as well as
to the Jews; containing a decla-
ration of
God's authority to enforce and of his mercy to
oblige us to
the obedience of those laws which he delivers.
But I come now to the precepts
themselves.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.
Thou, shalt have no other gods before me.
This first and chiefest of the ten
commands is nega-
tive; and as
all negatives depend upon and must be mea-
sured by the
truth of their contrary affirmative, I shall
first
consider what duties are here required, and then
what sins
are here forbidden.
This command has respect to worship,
and REQUIRES
four things:
1.
That we must have a God; which, of course, is
against
atheism.
2.
That we must have the Lord Jehovah for our God;
which is
against idolatry.
3.
That we must have the only true God, the Lord Jehovah
alone, for
our God; and this
is against polytheism, or the
worshipping
of many gods. It is opposed also to
Samari-
tanism, or
the worshipping of false gods together with the
true, like
those Samaritans spoken of, 2 Kings, 17:33,
who feared
the Lord and yet served their own gods;
making a
strange medley in religion, and blending those
things
together that were utterly irreconcilable:
as if
they
intended not only to be partakers themselves with
devils, but
to make God so too; which is the greatest
gratification
that can be given to that proud and wicked
spirit whose
ambition it is to emulate and rival God in
worship: for
so the apostle tells us, that those "things
which the
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and
not to
God," 1 Cor. 10:20. Thus to join
any other thing
with God as
the object of our worship, is infinitely to
debase and
disparage him; since it intimates that some.
FIRST COMMANDMENT. 59
thing
besides God is excellent and perfect as himself.
Therefore,
in Zeph. 1:5, God severely threatens to cut
off and to
destroy those "that worship and that swear
by the Lord,
and that swear by Malcham."
4.
It requires that all our services and acts of worship
to the true
and only God be performed with sincerity and
true
devotion. This is implied in that expression before
me or in my sight.
And this is opposed both to profaneness on
the one
hand and
hypocrisy on the other. For, since the
most se-
cret and
retired apartments of the heart are all naked and
bare in the
sight of God, and our very spirits are as it
were
dissected and thus exposed to his view; it follows
that to have
no other god before him, denotes that our
serving and
worshipping him ought to be sincere and
affectionate.
It is not enough to have no other god before
men; not
to fall down
prostrate before any visible idol set up in a
temple; but
the law is spiritual, and searcheth the very
thoughts and
inward parts of the soul; and if there be
any idol set
up in the heart, although it be in the darkest
corner of
it; any secret lust or hidden sin, which is the
soul's idol,
and keeps it from being chaste and true to
its God; any
crooked ends and sinister respects in the
worship of
God; this is to have another god in the
sight of
Jehovah, and before him.
Indeed, we are very apt to rest contented
if we can
but approve
ourselves before men, and carry a fair show
of religion
and godliness. But consider how weak and
foolish this
is: for, first, we deceive them with our ap-
pearances;
and then we deceive ourselves with their
opinions of
us. It is not only before men, whose
sight is
60 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
terminated
in the bark and outside of things, that we
offer up our
services; but before that God who is the
searcher of
the heart and the trier of the reins, who
looks quite
through us, and judgeth not according to
outward
appearance, but judgeth righteous judgment.
For us to
regard men, and seek to commend ourselves
to them in
the service of God, is as great a folly and
irreverence
as it would be for one who is to treat with
a mighty
prince, to regard and reverence only the images
in the
tapestry and hangings. Alas! men are but
as so
many blind
images in respect to God; they cannot see
the heart
nor the affections; and those outward acts of
worship
which they do see and commend without the
heart, are
despised by God. He requireth truth in
the
inward
parts; and is not delighted with the ostentation
of
performance, but with the sincerity of intention; for
every one is
delighted with that which doth most of all
declare some
singular excellency that is in himself; but
it is God's
excellency and prerogative to contemp1ate
the heart,
to weigh and consider the spirits of men;
and
therefore he is chiefly delighted in the unfeigned
desires and
breathings of the heart after him, because
by these we
own him to be an all-knowing God. But
when we
perform duties of religion only to be seen and
applauded of
men, we make God only our pretence, but
men our
idols; and set up as many gods before him as
we have
spectators and observers.
Thus we see what positive duties are
required of us in
this
precept: that we should worship a God,
and him the
true God,
and the true God only, and that in truth and
sincerity,
as doing all our services before him.
So this
first
command respects worship.
FIRST COMMANDMENT. 61
It would be too long, and indeed almost
endless, to in-
sist
particularly on ALL THE DUTIES included in the true
and sincere
worship of the true and only God. I
shall
therefore
speak only of the three principal, and these
are, the
love of God, the fear of God, and the invocation
and praise
of God. In these three especially doth
con-
sist the
having the Lord for our God.
I.
This command requires of us the most supreme and
endeared
love of God.
Yea, indeed, the love of God is not only
the sum of
this
command, but of all the commands of the first table;
and
therefore, as I have already said, when our Savior
would give
an abridgment of the law, he comprises all
the ten
under two great commands, Matt. 22:37-39,
"Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the
first and
great commandment. And the second is
like
unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
From
whence the
apostle deduces that great conclusion,
13:10, that
love is the fulfilling of the law. It is
so, if
not
formally, yet virtually and effectively; for it will
powerfully
and sweetly sway us to yield a ready submis-
sion and obedience
to what is required of us; and that
not only as
it is the dictate of divine and sovereign au-
thority, but
from the free spontaneous tendency of the
soul itself
which, when it is once touched with this ce-
estial and
serene flame, must rebel against its own in-
clinations
as well as against God's commands if it be not
earned out
towards that object in which alone it can find
full
acquiescence and satisfaction.
This love of God hath in it three acts or
degrees; de-
sire, joy,
and zeal.
62 TEN COMMANDMENTS.
1. An earnest and panting desire after God.
"As the hart
panteth
after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O
God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the
living
God:"
oh, "when shall I come and appear before God?"
Psalm 42: 1,
2. As the poor imbossed. deer that is
closely
pursued faints and melts with the heat of the
chase, and
hasteth to the known river where it was wont
to quench
its thirst, to find both safety and refreshment
there, so
doth the holy, amorous soul reach and breathe
after
God. He thirsteth after the
water-brooks, the
streams of
his ordinances, wherein God doth pour out his
grace and
his Spirit to refresh the longing desires of his
holy
impatience; but, not being satisfied with this, he
still makes
up to the fountain, and never rests contented
till he hath
engulfed and plunged himself into God, and
is swallowed
up in beatitude.
2.
From the fruition of the beloved object springeth joy;
for joy is
nothing else but the rest and acquiescence of
desire;
therefore, according to the measures of God's
communicating
himself to our souls, such proportionably
will be the
increase of our joy. Something we enjoy
of
God in this
life, whilst we are absent from him in the
body. He is pleased to give us transient glances of
him-
self when he
fills his ordinances and our duties with his
Spirit; and
yet these reserved communications are so
ravishing
that the soul is often forced by the agony
sweetness to
cry out with holy Simeon, "Now, Lord, let
thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy
salvation." How overflowing then will our joy be
we come to
heaven, where our fruition of God shall be
entire and
eternal! where we shall see him as he
is,
and know him
as we are known by him! where the un-
FIRST COMMANDMENT 63
veiled
glories of the Deity shall beat full upon us, and we
for ever sun
ourselves in the smiles of God!
Certainly
the joy of
such a state would be more than we could en-
dure, but
only that God who fills us will then likewise
enlarge and
support us.
3.
If our fruition of God be hindered and obstructed,
our love to
him will then express itself in a holy zeal.
Zeal is the indignation of the soul, and a
revenge that
it takes
upon whatsoever is an impediment to the obtain-
ing of its
desires. The earnest desire of a true
saint is
the
enjoyment of God and the glory of God; of both
which, sin
is the only hinderance. Therefore a soul
that is
passionate for God, hath not so great an in-
dignation
against any thing as against sin. Can he
en-
dure to see
that God, whom he loves dearer than his life,
daily
provoked and injured? to hear his name
blas-
phemed? to see his ordinances despised, his worship
ne-
glected, his
servants abused, and the most sacred truths
of religion
denied, and its sacred mysteries derided?
He
is the most
meek and patient man on earth in his own
concerns;
unwilling to observe the wrongs that are done
him, and
much more to revenge them: but when God is
injured, the
dear object of his love and joy, he can no
longer
refrain: whatsoever may befall him, he rises up
to vindicate
his honor, and thrusts himself between, to
receive
those strokes that were aimed at God; and what
he cannot
prevent or reform, that he bitterly bewails.
This is the true zeal; and he that saith
he loves God, and
yet is not
thus zealous for him, is a liar.
Try, therefore, your love to God by these
three things.
Are your
desires fervent and affectionate after him?
Do
you find a
holy impatience in your spirit till you enjoy
64 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
him? Will nothing else satisfy you but God? Can you
say that
there is none in heaven nor in earth that you
desire in
comparison with him; and if the whole world
were thrown
into your bosom for your portion, you would
pluck it
thence and cast it at your feet, resolving that you
will not be
put off with such trifles? Do you find a
joy
springing
and diffusing itself through your hearts when
you are
engaged in communion with him? a sweet and
potent
delight, to which all the pleasures of sin are but
flat and
insipid? Are you jealous for the Lord of
hosts?
Are your
anger and grief never so much kindled for any
wrongs that
are done unto yourself, as they are for the
provocations
that are daily committed against the great
Majesty of
heaven? Canst thou mourn and weep for
these in
secret; and if thou hast power and authority to do
it, punish
and avenge them openly? Then thou mayest
for
thy comfort
conclude that certainly God hath kindled this
heavenly
flame of love in thy breast; a flame that aspires
heaven-ward,
and will at last carry up thy soul with it,
and lodge it
there, where the desire of love shall be satis-
fied, the
joy of love perfected, and the zeal of love eter-
nally
rewarded.
So much for the love of God, the first
principal duty
required in
this first command.
II.
This command requires also the fear of God.
For certainly we cannot have the Lord for
our God
unless we
supremely fear and reverence him. Yea,
as
the love, so
the fear of God is made the sum of all the
commandments,
and indeed the substance of all religion
for,
although it be but one particular branch and member
of that
worship and service which we owe to God, yet
it is such a
remarkable one, and hath such a mighty in-
FIRST COMMANDMENT. 65
influence
upon and the rest, that oftentimes in Scripture it
is put for
the whole; and generally, the character of a
true
worshipper and obedient servant of God is given by
this
periphrasis, that he is a man fearing God.
Now the fear of God is either servile
or filial; and
both are a
strong bond to duty and obedience.
Those who are actuated only by a slavish
fear, will
beware how
they stir up the dread wrath and severe jus-
tice of God
against themselves by any wilful neglects or
known
transgressions.
And how much more those who are actuated
by a
principle of
filial and reverential fear of God; who fear
as much to
offend as to suffer for it; and to whom mercy
and goodness
prove as powerful motives of fear, as wrath
and
fury! Yea, there is no attribute nor
perfection in
God but is
very justly the object of our fear, for where
this grace
is true and genuine, it works in us rather a se-
date awe and
respect of God, a profound reverence of,
the soul,
than any turbulent and tempestuous passions of
affright and
horror. And certainly if we acknowledge
that there
is a God, it is but reason that we should thus
fear him
according to his essential greatness and glory;
for take
away the fear of a Deity and a supreme power
which is
able to reward and punish the actions of men,
and you open
a floodgate for all villany and wickedness
to rush out
and overflow the whole world. And where
this
restraint of fear is taken off from the spirits of men,
all laws
given to curb their licentiousness are of no more
force than
fetters of air to chain up madmen; and there-
fore very
fitly doth God enjoin the fear of himself in this
first
command, as that which will season and dispose the
heart to
obey him in all the rest.
66 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
III.
Another principal part of worship required in this
first
command is the invocation of the name of God in our
prayers and
praises.