Of the Commandments
Exodus 20:1-2. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, etc.
Quest. What is the Preface to the Ten Commandments?
Resp. The Preface to the Ten Commandments, is I am the Lord your God. Where observe: first, the Preface to the Preface, God spoke all these words, saying. 2. The Preface itself to the Commandments, I am the Lord your God.
1. I begin with the first, the Preface to the Preface, vaiedabbur elohim, God spoke all these words, saying, etc. This is like the sounding of a trumpet before a solemn proclamation, [God spoke;] other parts of the Bible are said to be uttered by the mouth of the Holy Prophets (Luke 1:70), but here God spoke in his own Person.
Quest. How may we understand this, [God spoke,] he has no bodily parts or organs of speech?
Resp. God made some intelligible sound, or formed a voice in the air, which was to the Jews as God's very speaking to them. In the text, 1. The Law-giver, God, [God spoke.] 2. The law itself, [all these words.]
1. The Law-giver, [God spoke:] There are two things requisite in a Law-giver. First, wisdom. Laws are founded upon reason; and he must be wise that makes laws. God in this respect is most fit to be a Lawgiver; he is wise in heart (Job 9:4). He has a monopoly of wisdom (1 Timothy 1:17). The only wise God. Therefore he is the fittest to enact and constitute laws. 2. The second thing requisite in a Law-giver is authority. If a subject make laws, though never so wise, yet they want the stamp of authority. God has the supreme power in his hand; he derives a being to all; and he who gives men their lives, has most right to give them their laws.
2. The law itself, [all these words;] that is, all the words of the Moral Law, which is usually styled the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. It is called the Moral Law, because it is the rule of life and manners. Saint Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden; the Moral Law is a chief flower in it; the Scripture is a banquet, the Moral Law the chief dish in it.
First, The Moral Law is perfect (Psalm 19:7). The Law of the Lord is perfect. It is an exact model and platform of religion; it is the standard of truth, the judge of controversies, the pole-star to direct us to heaven (Proverbs 6:23). The commandment is a lamp. Though the Moral Law be not a Christ to justify us, yet it is a rule to instruct us.
Secondly, The Moral Law is unalterable; it remains still in force. Though the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws are abrogated, yet the Moral Law delivered by God's own mouth is to be of perpetual use in the Church. Therefore the Law was written in tables of stone, to show the perpetuity of it.
Thirdly, The Moral Law is very illustrious and full of glory. God did put glory upon it in the manner of the promulgation of it. 1. The people before the Moral Law was delivered, were to wash their clothes (Exodus 19:10), whereby as by a type God required the sanctifying of their ears and hearts to receive the Law. 2. There were bounds set that none might touch the mount (Exodus 19:12), which was to breed in the people reverence to the Law. 3. God wrote the Law with his own finger (Exodus 31:18), which was such an honor put upon the Moral Law, as we read of no other writing. God did by some mighty operation make the Law legible in letters, as if it had been written with his own finger. 4. God's putting the Law in the Ark to be kept, was another signal mark of honor put upon it. The Ark was the cabinet in which God put the Ten Commandments, as ten jewels. 5. At the delivery of the Moral Law there was the attendance of many angels (Deuteronomy 32). Here was a parliament of angels called, and God himself was the speaker.
Use 1. Here we may take notice of God's goodness, who has not left us without a Law. Therefore the Lord does often set it down as a demonstration of his love, in giving his Commandments (Psalm 147:20). He has not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments they have not known them. Nehemiah 9:13. You gave them true laws, good statutes and commandments. What a strange creature would man be, if he had no Law to direct him? There would be no living in the world; we should have none born but Ishmaels, every man's hand would be against his neighbor. Man would grow wild if he had not affliction to [reconstructed: tame] him, and the Moral Law to guide him. The Law of God is a hedge to keep us within the bounds of sobriety and piety.
Use 2. If God spoke all these words of the Moral Law, then it condemns, first, the Marcionites and Manichees, who spoke slightly, indeed, blasphemously of the Moral Law; they say it is below a Christian, it is carnal; which the Apostle [reconstructed: confutes], when he says, The Law is spiritual, but I am carnal (Romans 7:14). Secondly, the Antinomians, who will not admit the Moral Law to be a rule to a believer. We say not he is under the curse of the Law, but the commands; we say not the Moral Law is a Christ, but it is a star to lead one to Christ; we say not it does save, but it does sanctify. They who cast God's Law behind their backs, God will cast their prayers behind his back. They who will not have the Law to rule them, shall have the Law to judge them. Thirdly, the Papists; who (as if God's Law were imperfect, and when he spoke all these words, he did not speak enough,) add their canons and traditions to the Moral Law. This is to tax God's wisdom, as if he knew not how to make his own law. And surely it is a high provoking sin (Revelation 22:18). If any man shall add to these words, God shall add to him the plagues written in this book. As it is a great evil to add anything to a man's sealed will, so much more to add anything to that Law God himself spoke, and wrote with his own fingers.
Use 3. If God spoke all these words, namely of the Moral Law, then this presses upon us several duties.
1. If God spoke all these words, then we must hear all these words; the words which God speaks are too precious to be lost. As we would have God hear all our words when we pray, so we must hear all his words when he speaks. We must not be as the deaf adder which stops her ears. He that stops his ears when God cries, shall cry himself and not be heard.
2. If God spoke all these words, then we must attend to them with reverence. Every word of the Moral Law is an oracle from heaven, God himself is the preacher; this calls for reverence. If a judge gives a charge upon the bench, all attend with reverence. In the Moral Law God himself gives a charge, God spoke all these words; therefore with what veneration should we attend? Moses was to put off his shoes from his feet (in token of reverence,) when God was about to speak to him (Exodus 3:5-6).
3. If God spoke all these words of the Moral Law, then we must remember them. Sure all God speaks is worth remembering; those words are weighty which concern salvation (Deuteronomy 32:47). It is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life. Our memory should be like the chest in the ark where the law was kept: God's oracles are ornaments, and shall we forget them (Jeremiah 2:32)? Can a maid forget her ornaments?
4. If God spoke all these words, then believe them. See the name of God written upon every commandment. The heathens, that they might gain credit to their laws, reported that they were inspired by the gods at Rome. The Moral Law fetches its pedigree from heaven; ipse dixit, God spoke all these words. Shall we not give credit to the God of heaven? How would the angel confirm the women in the resurrection of Christ (Matthew 28:7)? Lo (says he,) I have told you; I speak in the word of an angel. Much more should the Moral Law be believed, when it comes to us in the word of a God. God spoke all these words. Unbelief enervates the virtue of God's word, and makes it prove abortive (Hebrews 4:2). The word did not profit, not being mixed with faith. Eve gave more credit to the devil when he spoke, than she did to God.
5. If God spoke all these words, then love the commandments (Psalm 119:97). O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Consider how I love your precepts (Psalm 119:159). The Moral Law is the copy of God's will; our spiritual directory; it shows what sins to avoid, what duties to pursue. The Ten Commandments are a chain of pearl to adorn us: they are our treasury to enrich us; they are more precious than lands of spices or rocks of diamonds (Psalm 119:72). The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. The law of God has truth and goodness in it (Nehemiah 9:13). Truth, for God spoke it; and goodness, for there is nothing the commandment enjoins but is for our good: O then let this command our love.
6. If God spoke all these words, then teach your children the law of God (Deuteronomy 6:7). These words which I command you this day shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children. He who is godly is both a diamond and a lodestone; a diamond for the sparkling of his grace; and a lodestone for his attractive virtue in drawing others to the love of God's precepts. Vir bonus magis aliis prodest quam sibi. You that are parents discharge your duty: though you cannot impart grace to your children, yet you may impart knowledge. Let your children know the commandments of God (Deuteronomy 11:19). You shall teach them to your children. You are careful to leave your children a portion: leave the oracles of heaven with them; instruct them in the law of God. If God spoke all these words, you may well speak them over again to your children.
7. If God spoke all these words, then the Moral Law must be obeyed. If a king speaks, his words command allegiance: much more when God speaks, all his words must be subscribed to. Some will obey partially, obey some commandments, not others; like a plow, which when it comes to a stiff piece of earth makes a balk. But God that spoke all the words of the Moral Law, will have all obeyed. God will not dispense with the breach of one law. Indeed princes, for special reasons, dispense sometimes with penal statutes, and will not take the severity of the law. But God who spoke all these words, binds men with a subpoena to yield obedience to every law. This condemns the Church of Rome, who instead of obeying the whole Moral Law, blot out one commandment, and dispense with others.
1. They leave out the second commandment out of their catechisms, because it makes against images; and to fill up the number of ten, they divide the tenth commandment into two. Thus they run themselves into that dreadful praemunire (Revelation 22:19). If any man shall take away from the words of this book, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life.
2. As they blot out one commandment, and cut that knot which they cannot untie, so they dispense with other commandments. They dispense with the sixth commandment, making murder meritorious in case of propagating the Catholic cause. They dispense with the seventh commandment, wherein God forbids adultery. The Pope dispenses with the sin of uncleanness, yea incest, only paying such fines and sums of money into his coffer. No wonder the Pope takes men off from their loyalty to kings and princes, when he teaches them disloyalty to God. Some of the Papists say expressly in their writings, that the Pope has power to dispense with the laws of God, and can give men a license to break the commandments of the Old and New Testament. That such a religion ever get foot in England, the Lord in mercy prevent. If God spoke all the commandments, then we must obey all: he who breaks this hedge of the commandments, a serpent shall bite him.
Object. But what man alive can obey all God's commandments?
Resp. To obey the law in a legal sense, namely to do all the law requires, no man alive can: sin has cut the lock of original righteousness, where our strength lay. But in a true gospel sense, we may so obey the Moral Law, as to find acceptance. Which gospel obedience consists in a real endeavor to observe the whole Moral Law (Psalm 119:166). I have done your commandments. Not I have done all I should do, but I have done all I am able to do; and wherein our obedience comes short, we look up to the perfect righteousness and obedience of Christ, and hope for pardon through his blood. This is evangelically to obey the Moral Law; which though it be not to satisfaction, yet it is to acceptance. Thus I have done with the first, the Preface to the Preface, God spoke all these words: I should now come to the second, the Preface itself to the Commandments, I am the Lord your God, etc.
