Exodus 20

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?

Exodus 20:2 I am the Lord your God, &c. 2. The preface itself, which consists of three parts: 1. I am the Lord your God: 2. Which have brought you out of the land of Egypt: 3. Out of the house of bondage.

(Exodus 20:1) I am the Lord, your God, etc. To all such as can make out this covenant-union, it exhorts to several things.

Exodus 20:2. Out of the House of Bondage. Egypt and the House of Bondage are the same, only they are expressed under a different notion.

Exodus 20:2 Who brought you out of the House of Bondage. We may consider these words, Who brought you out of the House of Bondage, either 1. Literally, or 2. Spiritually and mystically.

Exodus 20:2. Out of the House of Bondage. 2. These words are to be understood mystically and spiritually.

Exodus 20:3. You shall have no other gods before me, etc. Before I come to the commandment, I shall premise some things about the moral law: answer questions, rules.

Exodus 20:3. You shall have no other Gods before me, etc. Quest. Why does the Commandment run in the second person singular, You] why does not God say, You shall have no other Gods, but You?

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me. 2. That we must have no other God: You shall have no other God before me.

Exodus 20:4 You shall not make to you any graven image, etc. In the First Commandment is forbidden the worshipping a false God, in this, the worshipping the true God in a false manner.

Exodus 20:6. Showing Mercy to Thousands, etc. This is another argument against image-worship, because such as do not provoke God with their images, he is merciful to them, and will entail mercy upon their posterity, showing mercy to thousands.

(Exodus 20:6) Of them that love me, &c. 1. God's mercy is for them that love him.

Exodus 20:6 And keep my Commandments. Love and obedience, like two sisters, must go hand in hand: indeed this is a good evidence of our loving God (John 14:21): If you love me, keep my Commandments.

(Exodus 20:7) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, etc. This commandment has two parts; first, a negative expressed, that we must not take God's name in vain, namely, cast any reflection or dishonor upon God's name.

Exodus 20:2 The Land of Egypt, etc. The second part of preface.

Exodus 20:5. For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me. 1. I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.] The first reason why Israel must not worship graven images, is bec…

To understand worldly affairs, there is the wisdom of the serpent; yet not neglect the soul, there is the innocency of the dove. God has said, Six days shall you labor (Exodus 20:9). Religion did never grant a patent to idleness: There is a lawful care to be had about secular th…

Exodus 20:8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work.

Exodus 20:9-10. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall do no manner of work, etc. Six days shall you labor — God would not have any live out of a calling; religion seals no warrant for idleness.

Exodus 20:10. 4. Having thus dressed your souls in a morning, for the further sanctification of the Sabbath, address yourselves to the hearing of the word preached.

Exodus 20:8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy, etc. 2. If you would hear the word aright, lay aside those things which may render the word preached ineffectual.

Exodus 20:8 Remember to keep the Sabbath-day holy. Use 1. See here a Christian's duty: to keep the Sabbath-day holy.

Exodus 20:12. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. Having done with the First Table, I am next to speak of the duties of the Second Table.

Exodus 20:12. Honor your Father— Use 1. If we are to honor our fathers on earth, then much more our Father in Heaven.

Quest. Which is the Sixth Commandment? Resp. Exodus 20:13. You shall not kill. In this Commandment, (1.) is a sin forbidden, namely, murder. You shall not kill. (2.) A duty implied, to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

Exodus 20:12. You shall not kill. (3.) We must not injure another's soul.

Exodus 20:13. You shall not kill. 2. The second duty implied is that we should do all the good we can to ourselves and others.

Exodus 20:14. You shall not commit adultery. God is [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], a pure holy Spirit, and has an infinite antipathy against all uncleanness.

Exodus 20:15. You shall not steal. As the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness, You shall not commit adultery, so the justice of God sets him against rapine and robbery, You shall not steal.

Exodus 20:16.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The tongue, which at first was made to be an organ of God's praise, is now become an instrument of unrighteousness.

Exodus 20:17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. This commandment forbids, (1.) covetousness in general, You shall not cov…

Exodus 20:17. You shall not covet your Neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, etc. I am in the next place to resolve a question, how we may do to cure this itch of covetousness?

Let us pray, Lead us not into temptation. Still bear in mind that Scripture (Exodus 20:13). You shall not kill.

And this is common to all men: for every man may bless another, that is, pray to God for a blessing upon another; but especially it belongs to Parents thus to bless their children, by praying to God for a blessing upon them. And therefore the Commandment goes thus, Honor your fa…

Reason 2. (Exodus 20:8) And show mercy upon thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments. Hence I reason thus: where reward is given upon mercy, there is no merit: but reward is given of mercy to them that fulfill the law: therefore no merit.

We on the contrary hold it unlawful for us to make any image in any way to represent the true God, or to make an image of anything in way of religion to worship God, much less the creature thereby. For the second commandment says plainly in Exodus 20:4: You shall not make for yo…

Fourthly, by way of free acceptance, when God offers him. First, a man is said to have God, or to have Christ, that worships him, and the very worshiping of him, is the having of him; so you read (Exodus 20:3), 'You shall have no other gods but me;' it is the express words of th…

Blessed be God that he has chosen fit means to reveal himself to us, that we may behold the glory of the Lord in a glass (2 Corinthians 3:18), by the ministry of the Word and other ordinances. The Israelites were sensible how little they could endure him who is as it were all su…

So (2 Corinthians 6:16-17) what agreement has the temple of God with idols? In short, for it is endless to reckon up all which the Scripture comprehends under service, and gestures of reverence (Exodus 20:5). You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them.

This we have seen in certain fanatical spirits in these our days, which proved not their work: that is, they did not seek only to preach the Gospel purely and simply, but misused it to gain praise among men, contrary to the second commandment. Therefore after their inward confus…

Answer: The one, the Lord allows, namely, the description of Christ in speech. But the carving or painting of images in churches, and that for religious use, he condemns (Exodus 20:6). The second question is, whether there be now in the church of God, any sacrifice or oblation o…

Let us then reject these proud speeches so full of blasphemies, as: I have done this by my power; I have directed this by my wisdom; I have brought such a thing to pass by my industry. For the Lord is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), and cannot abide to give his glory to another (Is…

I answer, that this ought not to be referred to the outward form or building, but to the eternal decree of God, according to which he had chosen this city for his dwelling place. For although it was then only said when the Ark was made, This is my rest, here will I dwell (Psalm…

The Prophet hitherto has shown at large how mighty the Lord is to save his people: now he says that all the miracles which were wrought in the first redemption, were nothing in comparison of those that should be effected hereafter: that is to say; the glory of this second delive…

His meaning is then, that he raised up Cyrus to manifest his righteousness, in that he was ordained the Captain to conduct the people home out of captivity. By these words, my City, he means Jerusalem, which he calls his, because he would have his name there to be praised, and t…

Thus you see then how necessary it was that the Prophets should suit their manners of speech to the times and customs then in use, that so all might understand them: for the time of the full and open revelation of things was not yet come, but God's service was clothed with diver…

Also, that by means hereof all the sacrifices by them devised were wicked and abominable, in regard God only ought to be heard, when there is any question touching his religion and worship. If you will turn it polished stones, then Isaiah taxes them for the contempt of the law,…

Whoever then will endeavor to serve God as he ought, he must first of necessity wholly renounce his will and carnal reason. Hence we see why the Lord so often requires the observation of the Sabbath in the Scriptures (Exodus 20:13). Doubtless he looked higher than to the externa…

For Ratson signifies good pleasure, good will, or favor: and therefore I think it should be read as I have translated it, namely, that the oblations should come up in good pleasure upon the altar; so as the words may thus be resolved, They shall go up, to appease God: for the al…

The latter clause which he quotes, he who kills shall be liable to the judgment, confirms what I said a little before, that Christ charges them with turning into a political scheme the law of God, which had been given for the government of the heart. 22. But I say to you His rep…