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 o