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 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…

And (3) By their celebration is he glorified in the world: And therefore, (4) As he has made blessed promises to his people, to grant them his presence and to bless them in their use: So (5) Being the tokens of the marriage relation that is between him and them, with respect to…

For when God of old erected his worship, and enjoined the solemn observation of it, he also appointed a Church as his institution for the due celebration of it. That was, the people of Israel solemnly taken into a Church relation with him by covenant, wherein they took upon them…

It supposes, it declares, that of ourselves we are ignorant how God is, how he ought to be worshipped (Isaiah 8:20). Moreover it manifests him to be a jealous God, exercising that holy property of his nature in an especial manner about his worship; rejecting and despising every…

But God has altered and changed them at sundry reasons, according to the counsel of his own will, so as he saw necessary for his own glory, and the edification of his Church. See (Genesis 2:16, 17; Genesis 17:10, 11; Exodus 12:3, 4, 5; Exodus 20; chapter 25:9; Hebrews 1:1; Hebre…

Qu. 8. How many we sanctify the name of God in the use of Gospel institutions? Answ. 1. By a holy reverence of his sovereign authority appointing of them. 2. A holy regard to his special presence in them. 3. Faith in his promises annexed to them. 4. Delight in his will, wisdom,…

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…

This was his wrath and curse; and these were declared in the publishing of the Law on mount Sinai with the terrible appearances and dreadful voices that accompanied. This made the people stand afar off (Exodus 20:21), as an emblem of their condition with respect to the Law. (2)…

And Grotius speaks much to the same purpose. But this description of a Mediator is wholly applicable to Moses, and suited to his office in giving of the Law (see Exodus 20:19; Deuteronomy 15:27, 28). What is said by them does indeed immediately belong to the mediatory office of…

For so it is said, that the Law was given by the Disposition of Angels in the hand of a Mediator (Galatians 3:19). That is, of Moses; whom the People desired to be the internuncius between God and them (Exodus 20:19; Deuteronomy 5:24; Chap. 18. 16). Answ. (1.) Moses may be said…

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…

The Ark and Mercy Seat stood in the Sanctum Sanctorum, at the west end of the Temple, not the East, and the Jewish Synagogues both anciently, and now were built round, or in an oval manner: neither is there any law, or canon of the Church or state of England, for the building of…

For all additions are corruptive, being so directly contrary to this Command. If you lift up your tool upon the Altar, you have polluted it (Exodus 20:25). To polish, is to pollute.

And according to which Joshua did, in Joshua 8:30, and hence in Joshua 22:11. Now for the altar of God, I shall first show you a little the meaning of them, and then the reason why God would have but this one altar, in Exodus 20:24, there is an injunction of God for the altar of…

Consider only this: that they added a tenth commandment to the ten commandments of God, namely their own particular crime. The Decalogue is set forth in two places, Exodus 20, when the law was first given, and Deuteronomy 5, when it is solemnly repeated; in both places they inse…

Hence that saying of Aben-Ezra, in the Balance of the Holy Language: Whatever exposition shall not be according to the rationale of the accents, do not acquiesce in it, nor give ear to it. He has similar statements in other places; I will add only what he has in his Commentary o…