Deuteronomy 13

2. There is but one omnipotent power. If there be two omnipotents, then we must always suppose a contest between these two; that which one would do, the other power being equal would oppose, and so all things would be brought into a confusion. If a ship should have two pilots of…

If a friend's secret be imparted to us (unless in case of blood) we are not to reveal it. A friend is alter idem, as one's own soul (Deuteronomy 13:6). And what he imparts of his heart should be kept under lock and key (Proverbs 25:9).

1. All God's royal edicts and precepts are to bring us to this, to be doers of his will; what needed God been at the pains to give us the copy of his law, and write it out with his own finger else. The Word is not only a rule of knowledge, but of duty; (Deuteronomy 13:4) (Deuter…

And the comeliness and beauty of Gospel worship, consisteth in its relation to God by Jesus Christ, as the merciful high-Priest over his house, with the glorious administration of the spirit therein. The order also of it lies in the due and regular observation of all that Christ…

That journey might have been gone in forty days, but God did lead them in it forty years; to prove and try by this unwonted calamity, whether they would obey him, or not. So likewise God suffered false prophets, and Dreamers of dreams, to come among the people; for this end, To…

Of all which, and the application of them to particular cases, I have given a description in the Exercitations to the first Volume of these Commentaries. And it is said, that he died without mercy, not only because there was no allowance for any such mercy as should save and del…

In the same manner God tempts his own servants, to prove and try them. (Deuteronomy 13:3) You shall not listen to the words of the prophet or dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God [reconstructed: proves] you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart. - 2.…

2. By vulgar prejudice, that the Devil may keep the world asleep, 'tis his usual trick to burden the ways of God with clamor, and vulgar prejudice, a dream or lie dares not combat with truth in open field, and therefore fortifying against it with popular arguments, that the ways…

Again, to judge of any point of doctrine by miracles is deceitful unless three things concur: first, doctrine of faith and piety to be confirmed; second, prayer to God that something may be done for the ratifying of the said doctrine; third, the manifest edification of the Churc…

In the same manner tempts God his own servants to prove and try them. (Deuteronomy 13:3) You shall not hearken to the [illegible] of the Prophet or dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proves whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart. 2. Secondly, God leads into…

And in the same sense the term means "alien gods," or foreign gods, and similarly at Deuteronomy 32:16, and in many other places. XVII. Taking their designation from their worshippers, they are called "gods of the peoples," Deuteronomy 13:8 — that is, of those who have been reje…

2. A Martyr dying for the truth of Christ may have a natural and conditional desire and inclination to live, though his living be contrary to the Lord's revealed will, commanding him to seal the Gospel with his blood, and to confess Christ before men. 3. If the brother, son, dau…

But the Gospel teaches us a real and personal mortification, and that we are to be holy as he is holy, perfect as he is perfect; that is, a new-covenant command (Genesis 17:1). That we should walk before him and be perfect, that we should walk after the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:4),…

The second, that they which plead a calling extraordinarily, must be tried by the word, both for doctrine and life: for this is an infallible way to discouer false teachers, Math. 7. 22. Deut 13:1. 5. Iohns authoritie is said to be from heauen, because his baptisme, that is, his…

I will give various examples. It is the law of God that he of the Israelites that shall entice them to go and worship other gods, shall be put to death (Deuteronomy 13:6). This law serves to maintain and uphold the first commandment, the end of which is to enjoin us to take the…

Second, every reproof must be grounded upon a certain knowledge of the fault committed. For we may not go upon private surmises and supposes, or flying reports and rumors blazed abroad: no nor upon vehement suspicions, or strong presumptions (Deuteronomy 13:14); for in so doing,…

Nay, which was worse; by their ceremonies they made it manifest as by infallible testimonies, that they had no reverence nor awe of God in them. For the Lord testifies by Moses, that he would prove whether they loved him from the heart; in suffering false prophets to bring in su…

“Par un zele sainct et plaisant a Dieu;” — “by a zeal that is holy and pleasing to God.” if he perceives him to have apostatized from the true worship of God; nay, the Lord enjoins us in such a case (Deuteronomy 13:9) to forget flesh and blood, and to bestow all our care on vind…

This name, ὁ πειράζων, the tempter, is given to Satan by the Spirit for the express purpose, that believers may be more carefully on their guard against him. Hence, too, we conclude, that temptations, which solicit us to what is evil, come from him alone: for, when God is someti…

7. That every one who can testify the Truth in any cause, he is of his own accord to repair to the Judges so to do (Leviticus 5:1). 8. That Witnesses be examined strictly and their testimony duly weighed (Deuteronomy 13:14). 9. That false Witnesses have that done to them, which…

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, or (it is the same word) against your friend: there it is taken in a large sense, for a neighbor, that is, for any besides yourself, to whom offices of love are due, as Christ expounds it (Luke 10:30). But usually, it is pu…

Cor. 11. 19. Deut. 13. 1, 2. Now in this []ase Ieremias direction must be obserued, Stand in the parting of the wa[]es (saith hee) and inquire for the olde and auncient way [] (that is, the doctrine of the Prophets) what God wills and commands by them and by his Apostles, and th…

I call that a good and holy temptation, when as God tempts a man, and it is an action of God whereby hee proous and tris man, to make manifest unto man himselfe and unto others, what is in his heart, for God knows well enough before hee trie him. Thus he tempted Abraham by the o…

Thess. 2. 9. The comming of Antichrist that []an of sinne is with signes and lying wonders, through Satans working, and of such God forewarnes his people, Deut. 13. that they should not bee d[]a[]ne to Idolatrie for a miracle; for either they be false miracles and lying []onders…

6. Matthew 6:10. Touching angels, which are spirits immaterial and intellectual, the glorious inhabitants of those sacred palaces, where nothing but light and blessed immortality forever dwell — as in number and order they are huge, mighty, and royal armies, so likewise in perfe…

That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But the word is now near even in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach (Romans 10:7, 8, 9, 10; Deuteronomy 13:14). The preached Law leading pedagogically to Christ in Moses' time, and the plainl…

I might also instance the same in Saul's subjects and servants, who refused to slay the priests of the Lord at his command (1 Samuel 22:17). Though a husband be not reckoned in particular among those to whom we are forbidden to hearken if they entice us to idolatry, yet by the r…

The Apostle exhorts all Christians to do all their things in love: much more ought husbands: though in place they be above their wives, yet love may not be forgotten (1 Corinthians 16:14). 2. Because of all persons on earth a wife is the most proper object of love: no friend, no…

For in that sense, we are to count it all joy when we fall into temptation, in the other, that we enter not into it. Again actively considered, it either denotes in the tempter, a design for the bringing about of the special end of temptation, namely a leading into evil; so it i…

Well then, this is one way of God's tempting, permitting of Satan to tempt. And as Satan, so his instruments, God tries us by them (Deuteronomy 13:1-3): "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, you shalt not hearken to him. Why?

That among the number of these, are errors, the depravations of men's understandings, has not yet been proved. The case of the seducer, from Deuteronomy 13, is urged with more show of reason than any of the others, to the business in hand; but yet the extreme discrepancies betwe…

For besides the oath there are also some serious assertions, by which without an oath we affirm or deny something, as if someone should assert something by his life: he neither imprecates upon his life, nor makes himself an idol: but asserts that what he says is as true as it is…

And (Proverbs 29:24): whoever is partner with a thief, hates his own soul; he hears cursing, and reveals it not, which he ought to do. Yet once more (Deuteronomy 13:6-8): if your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your fr…

Would not he be angry with us, till he have consumed us; so that there be none (as hitherto through mercy there has been) remnant, and escaping, but the fire of his wrath may burn to (and we burn in) the lowermost hell! Oh, let us hear and fear, and do no more so wickedly (Deute…

Sometimes God tempts, and sometimes Satan; God tempts for good ends, Satan for evil ends. God tempts to try grace (Deuteronomy 13:3); The Lord your God proves you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart. Thus it is said, God tempted Abraham (Genesis 22:1).

Sometimes it signifies to keep in safe custody; so keep your heart — lock it up safe, that it may be forthcoming when God calls for it. Your heart: the heart is taken diversely in scripture — sometimes for the vital part (Judges 19:5), for the soul (Deuteronomy 13:3), for the mi…

Hence you see therefore, that if a man bee not well rooted, if he be not built upon the Rock, if this persuasion of the remission of his sinnes bee not well bottomed, that causes him not to hold out, but to fall off againe. Whereas it is required of us, that we keepe so close to…

The magistrate's duty qua magistrate in matters of religion proved, and yet with a difference of the Christian and heathen magistrate's power in such matters. p. 42, 43, 44 The commands in the Old Testament for magistrates punishing in matters of the first Table, as Exodus 22:13…

So (2 Chronicles 15:13): they that would not seek the Lord God of Israel, whether small or great, the little ones (who could not be inciters of Idolatry) were to be punished. Deuteronomy 13: when one of the Cities of Israel was withdrawn to serve other gods, then the inhabitants…

He that sacrifices to any God save to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. Deuteronomy 13:1, 2, 5, If there arise among you a Prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, saying, let us go after other Gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them: You shall not hearken to t…

Zechariah 13:2, 3 is a prophecy of the times and days of the Gospel, as the context is clear and is confessed by some Patrons of Toleration, though put off and evaded that it is allegorical and figurative, and meant of some one particular time only under the Gospel, with other s…

The complaints, prohibitions, comminations, with the commands, directions, cautions against giving way to, tolerating of and following many wayes in religion, and for contending for the Faith, buying the truth, &c. though delivered, and run in generall, they bind (as other Scrip…

First therefore God permits these wicked arts in the church, to prove whether his children will steadfastly believe in him, and seek to his word, or cleave to the devil, by seeking to his wicked instruments. This Moses plainly forewarned the church of God of, in his time (Deuter…

In the Old Testament we read that sorcerers and false prophets used to foretell strange events by revelations which they had in their dreams. Such diviners were among the Jews, and for that cause the people of God were expressly forbidden to hearken to dreamers of dreams (Deuter…

Again, Peter did not upon the denial betake himself to the Devil, but turned to Christ again, which he testified by his hearty and speedy repentance; but witches deny God, and betake themselves to the Devil, of their own accord, as is manifest even by their own confessions at th…

There are indeed many sharp reproofs in the Old Testament of those who undertook to be God's messengers without his warrant, as Jeremiah 23:21, 22, I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel,…

Innumerable of this sort at the beginning of the Reformation, were discovered among the agents, of that wonder-working man of sin, by the blessing of God upon humane endeavours; now from such discoveries, a good conclusion may be drawn, against the doctrine they desire by such m…

We shall therefore, show the ways and means, whereby, we may quickly be delivered from false pastors, And first of all, we will rehearse and show, the reward, and horrible punishment, that is prepared for them, if perchance, they being afraid, with the consideration of it, will…

One is, a maligning and oppugning, the word, work, and worship of God: and by any extraordinary sign seeking to seduce any from it. See (Deuteronomy 13:1-2; Matthew 24:24; Acts 13:8, 10; 2 Timothy 3:8). Do but mark well the places; and for this very property (of thus opposing an…

Moses likewise took punishment with the sword, upon those, who did worship the golden calf; (Exodus 32:26, 27, 28). We have (2) the examples of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4), of Josiah (2 Kings 23), of Asa, who decreed that whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel (according to t…