Ments of the First Tables. The Second Sermon
The law of God, openly published and proclaimed by the Lord our God himself, setteth down ordinary rules for us to know what we have to do, and what to leave undone, requirrebels. This law is divided into the moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws: all which parts, and every point whereof, Moses hath very exquisitely written, and diligently gently expounded. The i i down before us the shape of virtue; declaring therewithal how great righteousness, godliness, obedience, and perfectness God looketh for at the hands of us mortal men. The ceremonial laws are they which are given concerning the order
[6 operosiore, Lat.] [7 ac religiose excussis, Lat. This refers to the hearers, and not]
[to the preacher. The words should be rendered,—and devoutly]
[weigh and test them. ] [8 seu Decalogi, Lat. omitted.] [9 virtutum formas, Lat.] [BULLINGER. ] 14]
of holy and ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies, and also touching the ministers and things assigned to the ministery and other holy. uses. Last of all, the judicial laws give rules concerning matters to be judged of between man and man, for the preservation of public peace, equity, and civil honesty. Touching the two latter of these, I will speak of them in place convenient. At this time I mean to discourse upon the moral law. was First of all, therefore, let no man think, that before Moses’ time there was no law, and that the law was by Moses first of all published. For the self-same especial points of the moral law, which Moses setteth down in the ten commandments, were very well known to the patriarchs, even from the beginning of the world. For they worshipped the one true God alone for their God, whom they reverenced, and called upon him. Jacob took away with him the Syrian idols of Laban out of his house!, and hid them in Bethel under an oak or terebinth tree, which was nigh to Sichem2? Abraham, in taking an oath, used always a reverend fear, and a spiced conscience; whereby it followeth, that to him the name of the Lord was holy, and not lightly taken ΑἹ] the holy fathers did both diligently and devoutly solemnize and observe holy rites and sacrifices. Cham hath his father’s curse, because he did unreverently behave himself toward his father. Cain is reproved for murdering his brother. Noe giveth commandment not to shed blood. Joseph is highly commended for refusing to lie with another man’s wife; I mean, the wife of his master. Ruben is rebuked, because he did with incest defile his father’s bed. Jacob was not angry without a cause with Laban his father-in-law, when he suspected him of theft. All the patriarchs have utterly condemned liars and false witnesses, as well as evil lusts and concupiscence. Wherefore the patriarchs ever, from the beginning of the world even until Moses’ time, were not without the precepts of the ten commandments, although they had them not graven in tables or written in parchments. For the
[. [ aufert e sua familia, Lat. The translator misrepresents Bul-]
[linger’s meaning by rendering,—-took away with him.] [2 Gen. xxxv. 4.] [3 sacrosancta erat jurisjurandi religio Abrahamo, Lat.] [4 celebre, Lat.]]
Lord with his finger writ them in their hearts, which the lively tradition of the fathers did exquisitely garnish and reverently teach. The law is every where the same, and the will of God is always one, because God is but one and is never changed. Nevertheless, the commandments were first of all set down in tables by God, who was the beginner and writer of them; and after that again were written into books by Moses.
Likewise also the old and holy patriarchs, that were before Moses, did not want the ceremonial and judicial laws For they had their priests, I say, their fathers of every kindred or household; they had their ceremonies, their altars and sacrifices; they had their solemn assemblies, and purifications. They had their laws for succession in heritage, for the division and possession of goods, for bargaining and contracts, and for the punishing of evil doers. All which Moses gathered together into a certain number of decreed laws; setting down many things more plainly than they were before, and ordaining many things which the patriarchs were either altogether without, or else had used in another order: of which sort were the tabernacle, the holy vessels, the ark of the covenant, the table, the candlestick, the altar for burntofferings and for incense, the Levitical priesthood, the holy vestments, with the feasts and holy-days, and whatsoever else is like to this: all which verily are abrogated by Christ, as in place convenient I mean to declare. But for because manners cannot consist, if the ten commandments be broken, therefore the moral law, although it have properly the name of a law, is twining Hot abrogated or broken. For rule “of true righteousness and all virtues, set down for all the ten commandments are the very absolute and everlasting places, men, and ages, to frame themselves by. For the sum of the ten commandments is this, to shew our love to Godand one love another; and this doth the Lord require at all times, and every where, of all kind of men”.
[5 See above, page 46.] [6 ut proprie legis nomen obtinuit, ita nunquam abrogatur, Lat.] [7 Porro Decalogus significat librum seu expositionem et volumen]
[decem capitum praceptorum vel articulorum, Lat. omitted by the]
[translator. Moreover the Decalogue means a book, or exposition and]
[collection, of commandments under ten chief heads.] 14—2]
Moreover, this is to be noted touching the dignity of the moral law contained in the ten commandments; that, whereas all the ceremonial and judicial laws were revealed of God to Moses by the angels, and by Moses to the people; and that again by Moses, at God’s commandment, they were inserted into written books; yet notwithstanding the moral law of the ten commandments was not revealed by man, or any means of man, but by God himself at the Mount Sina: who there, among other mighty and marvellous wonders, did openly, in a public and innumerable assembly of men and angels, rehearse them word for word, as they are now to be seen. Furthermore, they were written not by the hand of Moses, but with the finger of God, in tables, not made of matter easy to be dissolved, but made of stone to endure for ever. Those tables also were kept, as the most precious treasure, in that ark, which of the tables of the covenant (containing in them the chief articles of the eternal league) was named the ark of the covenant: which ark again was laid up in the holy of holiest. All which circumstances tend to nothing else, but to commend unto us the excellency of the ten commandments, and to warn us to reverence that God which published this moral law, as him that is the Lord of heaven and earth, and which at his own will and pleasure doth order the disposition of all the elements against disobedient rebels. These circumstances also do admonish us, that even now, in our time also, we have to esteem of the ten commandments, as of the dearest jewels to be found in all the world. For the holy reliques, that are remaining in the church of Christ, are the ten commandments, the apostles’ creed, the Lord’s prayer, and lastly, the whole contents of the sacred bible? Touching the proclamation or first edition of the ten commandments, we have a wonderful large discourse of Moses, Exod. xix. and Deut. iv. and v. chap. of Now the tables, whereinto the ten commandments of God’s “law be disposed, are in number two; whereof the first containeth four commandments, and the latter six. For the last commandment, which some divide into twain, is in very deed
[1 non cereas, Lat. not of wax.] [2 Cf. Bullinger’s Comment. in 2 Epist. Petri, cap. i. 12—15. p.]
[59 (published 1534) and Argument. Epist. ad Galat. ad finem. p. 340.]
[(published 1535).]
but one alone and undivided. For first the Lord doth generally command and say, Thou shalt not covet: and then he descendeth particularly, and doth by enumeration reckon up the things that we must not covet; to wit, our neighbour’s wife, his house, his lands, his cattle, and his substance. Beside that too, this doth argue that it is so, because, according to the Hebrew disposition, this commandment is altogether one whole verse, not divided into twain’. With this division of ours agree Joseph. Antig. Lib. mr cap. 5%; Origenes in Exod. Hom. 8%; Ambros. in vi. cap. Epist. ad Ephes. But the Master of Sentences, having divided this last commandment into twain, doth therefore place in the first table three commandments and no more. He did, peradther up [3 Cf. Calvin. Instit. Lib. 1. cap. 8, ὁ. 12. Becon’s Works, Parker Soc. ed. Vol. π. pp. 59, 60.]
[4 Exod. xx. 17.]
[5 Μωῦσῆς (τοὺς λόγους τοῦ Θεοῦ) ἐν ταῖς δύο πλαξὶν γεγραμμένους κατέλιπεν… Διδάσκει μὲν οὖν ἡμᾶς ὁ πρῶτος λόγος, ὅτι Θεός ἐστιν εἷς, καὶ τοῦτον δεῖ σέβεσθαι μόνον ὁ δὲ δεύτερος κελεύει, μηδενὸς εἰκόνα ζώου ποιήσαντας προσκυνεῖν” ὁ τρίτος δὲ, ἐπὶ μηδενὶ φαύλῳ τὸν Θεὸν ὀμνύναι” ὁ δὲ τέταρτος, παρατηρεῖν τὰς ἑβδομάδας, ἀναπαυομένους ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔργου” ὁ δὲ πέμπτος, γονεῖς τιμᾷν ὁ δὲ ἕκτος, ἀποσχέσθαι φόνου ὁ δὲ ἕβδομος, μὴ μοιχεύειν ὁ δὲ ὄγδοος, μὴ κλοπὴν δρᾷν ὁ δὲ ἔνατος, μὴ ψευδομαρτυρεῖν” ὁ δὲ δέκατος, μηδενὸς ἀλλοτρίου ἐπιθυμίαν Napfavew.—Joseph. Απέϊᾳ. Jud. Lib. mr. capp. 4 and 5, Amst. 1726. Tom. 1. p. 129.]
[6 Hee omnia simul nonnulli putant unum esse mandatum. Quod si ita putetur, non complebitur decem numerus mandatorum. Est ergo primum mandatum, Non erunt tibi Dei alii preter me. Secundum vero, Non facies tibi idolum, &c.—Origen. Opp. ed. Benedict. Par. 1733. Tom. 11. p. 157.]
[7 Quia prima quatuor mandata ad Deum pertinent, hee in prima tabula contineri subintelliguntur; cetera ad hominem. Hae sex mandata in secunda tabula videntur seripta, quorum primum est, Honora patrem et matrem, &c.—Ambros. Opp. ed. Bened. Par. 1690. Tom. 11. Append. p. 249. Comment. in Ep. ad Ephes. cap. vi. verse 3.—But these Commentaries are generally admitted not to be the work of Ambrose. See James, on the Corruption of Scripture, Councils, and Fathers, Lond. 1843. p. 26.]
(8 Habet decalogus decem przecepta.quee sic sunt distributa, ut tria que sunt in prima tabula pertineant ad Deum..septem qu: sunt in secunda tabula ad dilectionem proximi. Primum in prima tabula est, Non habebis deos alienos. Non facies tibi sculptile, &e. Hic Origenes dicit esse duo mandata, sed Augustinus unum.—Pet. Lombard. Lib. nr Distinct. 37. Par. 1575. fol. 293.—The title of
venture, follow Augustine herein, who, Quest. in Exod. 71, and FEpistola ad Januarium 1191, doth also reckon up but three commandments of the first table alone; which he did in respect of the mystical Trinity. And yet, this notwithstanding, he doth not overslip the commandment for abandoning and not worshipping of images; for, undoubtedly, he had always in his mind those words of the Lord in the gospel, where he saith: “Verily I say unto you, though heaven and earth do pass, one jot or tittle of the law shall not pass, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” The same Augustine again, in Queestionibus Veteris et Novi Testament, Lib. 1. cap. 7, maketh four commandments of the first table, and six of the second? And again, he differeth not much from the same order in his third book ad Bonifacium, 80.3
Now touching these commandments, the Lord hath divided of - them into two several orders or tables because of the several difference of matters handled in either of them. For the first of the two appertaineth to God, the second unto man. The first teacheth us what we have to think concerning God, and the
[Distinct. 40 is, De sexto et septimo preecepto secundee tabule; and]
[there the sizth commandment is, Non desiderabis uxorem proximi tui;]
[and the seventh, Non concupisces domum proximi tui, &e. fol. 300.] [1 Queeritur, decem preecepta legis quemadmodum dividenda sint.]
[. Mihi tamen videntur congruentius accipi tria illa, et ista septem,]
[quoniam Trinitatem videntur illa, que ad Deum pertinent, insi-]
[nuare diligentius intuentibus.—August. Queest. super Exod. Opp. ed,]
[Par. 1531. Tom. 1v. col. 32.—Hinc est quod etiam in tribus primis]
[preeceptis decalogi, quee ad Deum pertinent (cetera enim septem ad]
[proximum pertinent, id est, ad hominem, quia in duobus preeceptis]
[tota lex pendet), tertium ibi de observatione Sabbati positum est: ut]
[in primo praecepto Patrem intelligamus, ubi prohibetur coli aliqua in]
[figmentis hominum Dei similitudo.ne quisquam Filium Dei ver-]
[bum.. putaret esse creaturam, sequitur aliud przeceptum, Non acci-]
[pies in vanum nomen Dei tui. Spiritus autem sanctus, in quo nobis]
[illa requies tribuitur, &c.—Id. Ep. Januar. 119. Tom. 11. col. 110.] [2 Hee quatuor verba sunt de decem; ista ad Deum proprie perti-]
[nent. Heec sunt in prima tabula scripta: deinde in secunda tabula]
[hac (6) continentur.— Tom. 1v. fol. 150.] [3 Tom. vir. fol. 185. On this subject of the division of the Deca-]
[logue, see also Early Writings of Hooper, Parker Soc. ed. pages 349—]
[351 and Calvin. Instit. Lib. 11. cap. 8.. 12.]]
worship due unto him; that is, it teacheth us the perfect way to live uprightly and holily in the sight of God. The second is the rule whereby we have to learn our duty toward our neighbour; which also teacheth us humanity, directing us in the way to live peaceably and civilly one with another. And in these two tables are so nearly contained all and every duty looked for at men’s hands, that there cannot so much as one jot be added more by all the wise men of the world, concerning a godly life and civil behaviour, which is not contained in these ten commandments.
The first commandment of the ten hath the Lord himself expressly spoken in these very words that follow: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have none other gods before me.” This commandment standeth of two branches; the very first whereof also containeth divers matters. For first of all, God doth simply offer himself to us, and precisely set down what he will be to us-ward, thereby declaring what he is to all men. Whereupon we again do gather what he, on the other side, doth look for at our hands, and what our duty is to him. Thirdly and last of all, he addeth an evident proof of that, where he said that he is our God.
In the beginning he crieth out and saith: “I am the Lord thy God.” Wherein he declareth what he is, and what he will be unto all men. These words are like to the words of the covenant which God made with Abraham, and in Abraham with all faithful believers: “1 am,” saith the Lord, “a strong God, and I am Schaddai;” as who should say, Saturnus a saturando, which is, “to fill” For God is the abundant fulness that satisfieth all men and all things: he [ exponit nobis qualis sit erga homines, imo qualis erga nos esse velit, Lat. Yea, what he desires to be to us.]
[ὅ Appellatur (Dominus) etiam Saturnus, quia omnes suas creaturas exsaturat.—Bullinger. de Origine Erroris, cap. vir. p. 36. Tigurs 1539. Saturnus autem est appellatus, quod saturetur annis.—Cic. de Nat. Deor. Lib. 11.]
[6 Copie cornu, Lat. On this Divine name “τῷ, Bullinger thus
[gives his opinion in his book, De Origine Erroris, cap. 1. p. 5: Magis]
[mihi placet Rabbi Mosis Maimonis filii sententia, quam Petrus Gala-]
[tinus hisce ferme verbis exponit: Nomen Schaddai compositum est]
[ex verbis 7 Daii, quod est, suficit; et ex litera 12), quae idem pollet]
[quod TWN, qui: ut Schaddai idem sit quod, qui sugicit, vel qui sufi-]
is the everlasting well of all good things, which never is drawn dry. And that doth Jeremy declare at large in the second chapter of his prophecy. All which verily God in effect comprehendeth in these few words: “I am the Lord thy God.” “1,1 say, which speak to thee from within the fire, I, and none other.” Here is expressly meant the unity of God. We are here taught to acknowledge one God, and no more; to stick to one, and not to suffer our hearts fantastically to dream of many!. “1 am thy Lord, I am thy God.” He is a Lord, because he alone hath the rule over all creatures; all things are subject to him as to their Lord; all things do bend and obey him, if cnce he do but beck. He, as Lord alone, doth govern and uphold all things that are? So then in this one word is contained the wisdom of God, his virtue, his power, and infinite majesty. Deus, which word we use for “God,” is, peradventure, derived of the Hebrew word Dai, which signifieth sufficiency or full ability. For God alone, of himself, is unto himself most perfect blessedness and absolute felicity: he is also sufficiently able to minister all things most abundantly to all them that seek after him in truth sincerely, being of himself most liberally wealthy to all that call upon his name. Therefore in this branch the sufficient and full ability, the liberality, the goodness and mercy of God, are to be noted: but most especially in this that he saith, “I am thy God; thy God, I say.” For God is not good to himself alone, but even unto us also. He desireth to
[ciens aut sufficientia est. Heec Galat. Poterit itaque Deus appellari]
[Saturnus. Ut enim a die fit diurnus, sic a saturando dicitur Saturnus.]
[.Itaque licebit nunc summam illam vim ipsum Deum appellare]
[et Schaddai et Saturnum et Copize cornu. See also Early Writings of]
[Bp. Hooper, ed. Parker Soc. p. 293.] [ non corda pluribus dividere, Lat.] [2 Est enim cceli et terrse et omnium quee in eis sunt Conditor,]
[Rector, Conservator, Rex et Princeps summus et maximus, Lat. omitted]
[by the translator. For he is of heaven and earth, and of all things]
[which are therein, the Creator, Ruler, Preserver, and supreme and]
[highest King and Prince. ] [3 A Graco vocabulo deflexa ac transumpta est forte et Latinorum]
[vox Deus; nisi cui verisimilius videatur tractam esse ab Hebraica 7,]
[Daii.—Bullinger. de Orig. Error. cap. 1. p. 5. From Heb. 7 (enough,]
[sufficiency,) the Greeks likewise derived their Δὶς, Gen. Διὸς, &c. (whence]
[Lat. Deus, dius, divus.)—Parkhurst, Heb. Lex. in voc. 7.]]
pour and bestow himself wholly, with all his goodness and gifts of grace, upon the faithful and sincere believers. He is no niggard, he is not envious, he rejoiceth and is glad to bestow and divide himself among us abundantly, and to our comfort; to fill us with the enjoying of himself at all times and seasons, but especially in time of our necessity. And God verily saith expressly “thy God,” and not your God, that thereby every one of us may understand, that the eternal, most mighty, and holy God both is and will be the God and Lord of every particular man; that is, that he is and will be the keeper, deliverer, redeemer, the unmeasurable mountain and bottomless seat of all good gifts of body and soul, to all them that either are or else ever shall be.
By this now, in the second place, we have to gather what the good and gracious Lord requireth again at our hands, and what our duty to him both is and ought to be. For this, where he saith “thy God,” betokeneth an evident relation. For if he will be mine, then I again of duty must be his. He will be my Lord and my God; therefore must I again of duty make account of, and worship him, as my Lord and my God. Wherefore in this commandment there is required at our hands, that we do not only acknowledge the true God to be the true God, and so to stay there; but also, that we do take and account him for our God, our Lord, our King, our Creator, our Preserver, and our Father; and that we do attribute to him his property, to wit, that he is one alone, the only fountain and giver of all good things, that he liveth, and is eternal, righteous, true, holy, happy, merciful, mighty, most excellent and chief of all. Let us therefore stick to him alone, let us obey him in all things, let us put our trust in him, let us call on him alone, let us repute him to be the giver of all good things, and crave all good gifts of him; let us thank him for all benefits whatsoever we receive, let us reverence him, and lastly, honour him in fear sincerely, in love most ardently, and in hope as constantly as may be. For hereunto belong those sentences in the books of Moses and the holy gospel: “Thou shalt honour the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.” And again: “Follow ye the
[[ acervum et mare, Lat.] beatus, Lat. ] [6 Deut. vi. 13; Matt. iv. 10.]]
Lord your God, fear him, keep his commandments, hearken to his voice, serve him, and stick to him’.” The Lord himself also in the Psalm crieth out and saith: “Offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Highest. And call upon me in the day of trouble?” &ec. God And now, touching the demonstration, whereby he declareth that he hath been, is, and will be the God and Lord of us all, of our fathers, and of our children that come after us; the proof thereof is most evident by our? delivery out of Egypt. Therein are contained all the virtues of God; his wisdom, his goodness, his righteousness, his truth, his power, and what not? He declareth that he is the Lord in heaven and in earth, in all elements and all creatures. His people the Israelites doth he graciously deliver, defend, with sundry gifts adorn, and mightily preserve, even in despite and maugre all the heads of the whole Egyptian kingdom And on the other side, he doth by sundry means very terribly, yet notwithstanding justly, punish the Egyptians; and last of all, together with their king, he overwhelmeth them in the Red Sea. By this one miracle of the Lord’s the Israelites might have gathered, as God is almighty and the mightiest of all, so also that he would be their God, as heretofore he had been the God of their fathers. For by this wonder he did declare what he was then, and of how great power and goodness he is even at this day among us, and also what he will be in all ages, even unto the end. To us that live in these days the deliverance, which we have obtained by Jesus Christ our Lord, is far more fresh in memory; who hath not delivered us from the bondage of any Egyptian kingdom, nor from the tyrannous hands of any earthly Pharao, but hath set us free from the power of darkness, of sin, death, and the devil. Whereby we gather, that as the eternal, true, excellent, high, and holy God is most mighty, so also he is our God; that he wisheth well to us, and that he careth for and loveth us, according to that saying of the apostle: “Who spared not his own Son, but gave him for us all, how can it be but that with him he will give us all things?” Verily, the mystery [1 Deut. xiii. 4.] [2 Psal. 1. 14, 15.]
[3 our is not in the original Latin. ] [ vel invito et fremente toto regno Agypti, Lat.] [> Rom. viii. 32.].]
of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ is manifestly contained in the first precept of the ten commandments. For it is evident, that the Israelites’ free departure out of Egypt was a type or figure of the delivery of the whole compass of the earth, and of all the kingdoms of the world, which should be wrought by Christ our Lord, who hath now already set all the world free from the bondage of sin and hell. But if any man doubt of this, let him diligently consider with himself the meaning of the ceremony and sacrament of that bodily deliverance, I mean, the very passover. For what is he that knoweth not that the paschal lamb did in a figure represent Christ our Redeemer? Are Paul’s words unknown, who saith, “Christ our passover is offered up?” Have not all the apostles and John Baptist called our Lord the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world??” The words of the prophet Esay also, in his fifty-second chapter, are apparently known; where he compareth the delivery of Israel out of Egypt with the redemption of all the world wrought by Christ from the slavery of sin. Wherefore, in this first precept of the ten commandments is contained the mystery of Christ our Lord, and our salvation: so that, as often as those words of God shall be recited in our ears, we ought not so much to set our eyes and minds upon the ancient delivery of Israel out of Egypt, as upon the new and latter redemption, which we have by Christ Jesus, thereby to quicken our hope, and not to despair, but that the most excellent and mighty God both is and will be our God, as heretofore he hath been theirs.
The latter branch of this first commandment flatly forbiddeth us, and every one of us, to have any strange gods; that is, it taketh from us all extraordinary means to seek the safeguard of our lives, where the working finger of God is not, and whatsoever else may be either devilishly devised or unadvisedly chosen beside the very word of God. And therefore the Lord useth a most vehement or earnest kind of speaking: for saith he, “Thou shalt not have any other gods before mes.” See, he saith, Thou shalt not have, and thou shalt not have before me, or before my face, or with me, or
[6 1 Cor. v. 7.] [7 John i. 29; Acts viii. 32; 1 Pet. i. 19; Rev. v. 6.] [8 coram me, Lat.)]
by me. We Germans say, Zu mir; oder nabend mir; oder lass michs nit sahen vor meinen augen. For so do fathers speak in their anger, when they do earnestly forbid a wicked and heinous thing. See, say they, that thou do it not before mine eyes for me to see it. But now God is present every where; God seeth all things; yea, he beholdeth our hearts, and hidden secrets of our hearts. We must not therefore in any case, either openly or privily, have any strange gods: that is, none of us must make account of any creature, either in heaven or earth, as of our God; none of us must attribute God’s properties to his creatures, nor yet the things which we of duty do owe to God himself. The properties of God are these; to be all over! and every where, to see all, to know all, to be able to do all, to give life, to deliver, and cleanse from sins, to save, preserve, to justify, to sanctify, and whatsoever else is like to these. On the other side, our duty to him is, to reverence God, to call on God, to fear God, to worship God, to hope in God, to stick to God, to hear God, to believe God, and to obey God.
The strange god therefore is that which is not God properly and by nature; yea, it is whatsoever we do make to ourselves to be our God beside the very living and eternal God, wherein we trust, wherein we hope, whereon we call, which we do love and fear, whereon we settle and fasten our minds, whereupon we do depend, whereof we make account as of our treasure, help, and safeguard, both in prosperity and our adversity. When Rahel asketh children of Jacob, she hath this answer at his hand: “Am I God, which have made thee barren??” And again, when Joram king of Israel had by Naaman received letters from Benhadad, king of Syria, requesting to cleanse the leprosy, he rent his clothes for anger, and cried out, saying: “Am I God, that I can kill, and restore to life again?” Let God alone, therefore, be our God, that is, our life and safeguard, our help and refuge, our protection and deliverance, our hope and love, our fear, our dread, our trembling, and all. These if we do attribute to others, and not to God alone, then shall we make other gods to ourselves. Moreover, whatsoever is not ordained by God
[1 ubique, Lat.] [2 Gen. xxx. 2. Num pro Deo sum, Lat. and Vulgate. ] [3 2 Kings v. 7.]]
himself, that is in the scriptures many times called strange, or other. In that sense it is said, that strange fire was carried into the tabernacle; to wit, not that fire which God had commanded for to kindle. In the Proverbs she is called a strange woman, whose company the Lord hath not allowed thee to use. They therefore are strange gods, whom we have made to ourselves to hang on, and to seek aid of, when God, notwithstanding, hath not appointed them to have the charge over us. Wherefore the very saints themselves, triumphant now in heaven with Christ our King, shall be reputed for strange gods; the saints themselves, I say, not in respect of themselves, but to us they shall be strange gods in respect of us, which judge very fondly of them, and bestow on them the honour due to God, in worshipping and calling upon them, as we should worship and call upon our tutors and defenders. The very devils and devilish men shall be strange Conjurors gods, if we for fear shall stand in awe of them more than of God, to whom indeed our fear is due. The stars, the planets, and signs in the firmament shall be strange gods, if we, being deceived with the mathematicals?, shall wholly hang on them, and in all our doings evermore have regard to the impressions of the sky, directing every minute of our lives to the course of the stars. Likewise, if we shall honour and love money or men with honour or love due unto God, then shall this money and men of ours be imputed to us for strange gods. King Asa is blamed (2 Paral. xvif) for putting too much confidence in physic and physicians: physic? and physicians therefore may be abused, and made strange gods. The Jews are rebuked by the Lord in Esay, chap. xxx. for trusting too much in the Egyptians, their confederates: confederates
[[ Levit. x. 1.] [5 ch. ii. 16.] [6 pro tutelaribus. See Becon’s Works, Parker Soc. ed. Vol. 1.]
[pp- 138, 9; Calfhill’s Answer to Martiall, pp. 19, 20; and Works of Bp.]
[Jewel, Vol. 11. pp. 922, 3.] [7 i.e. astrologers. Sequitur lauta illa Astrologia seu Mathematica,]
[&c.—Luther. in Decem Precepta. Opp. Witeb. 1582. Tom. 1. p. 3.]
[Olim Genethliaci et similes pro Mathematicis se venditarunt.— Calvin,]
[Opp. Amstel. Tom. 1. p. 353. See also Early Writings of Bp. Hooper,]
[Parker Soc. ed. p. 330; Bingham. Orig. Eccles. Book xv. chap. 5.. 1.] [8 2 Chron. xvi. 12.] [9 Herbee, Lat. ]]
therefore may be abused, and made strange gods. But most of all are condemned here the leagues and covenants made with the devil by witchcraft, to have him at commandment. Those blessings also which of right ought rather to be called cursings, I mean, superstitious exorcisms or conjurations, are utterly to be rejected; wherein also this is blameworthy, that the name of the most high God is horribly abused and taken in vain. But what is he, that can exactly reckon up every particular thing wherein this first commandment is transgressed, considering that in it is taught the perfect rule of godliness, which is the inward worship done to God; to wit, to acknowledge God, to believe him, to think rightly of him, to call upon him, to cleave unto him, and in all things to obey him? >
The second precept of the ten commandments is: “Thou Goa. shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor any likeness of those things which are in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: I am the Lord thy God, strong, and jealous, visiting the fathers’ sins in the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.” In the first commandment the Lord did teach and draw out before our eyes the pattern of his inward worship and religion: now here, in the second, he amendeth that which might be amiss in the outward rites and ceremonies. If we could have rightly judged of God, and have kept (as devoutly as we should) the first commandment, then should there have been no need of the second: but, because God knew our disposition and nature, he doth therefore expressly forbid the thing that otherwise we would have done. For many there are which think, that God ought to be pourtrayed in some similitude or likeness, and to be worshipped with some bodily or visible reverence, in offering gold, silver, Pearls, ivory, and precious things of price. Wherefore the general end of this commandment is, to draw them from those gross imaginations and carnal worshippings of God, who as he is an incomprehensible power and an eternal spirit, so can he not be resembled to any corruptible similitude: he will be worshipped in spirit and holiness. Under the name of the idol, or imagined likeness, is contained all the outward
reverence done thereunto: when therefore the idols are forbidden, together with them is also forbidden all outward honour irreligiously exhibited to the true and very God. For wheresoever an idol is, there must the idolaters set him up a pillar, place him in a seat, erect him an altar, and build him a temple. And all these again require keepers and overseers, ministers or priests, sacrifices and offerings, ceremonies, furnitures, holy-days, cost and labour that will never be ended. In this sense did the prophets say, that idolatrous images were endless labours and infinite miseries?: for after images are once received, there is no end or measure of expenses and toil. This doth experience teach to be true.
Now to proceed: this commandment standeth of three several parts. For first of all, God flatly forbiddeth to make a graven image, or other kind of idol; that is, God doth utterly forbid to set up or hallow to him any image, of what shape or substance soever it be. For as God will not, so indeed he cannot, be expressly represented in any manner of likeness. Now, in this commandment are reckoned up in a manner all the similitudes of those things, whereunto we are wont in pourtraying to liken our pictures. Thou shalt not, saith he, fashion like unto God any shape or figure of those things which are in heaven; which are, I say, above us. Above us are the celestial bodies, the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, and divers birds of sundry fashions: in all which figures and shapes almost no small number of the Gentiles did solemnly honour and reverently worship the name of God. Thou shalt not liken unto God, saith he, any shape or fashion of those things that are in the earth. In the earth are men, beasts, herbs, shrubs, trees, and such-like. Now it is manifest that the Gentiles worshipped God under the likeness of men and beasts. Cornelius Tacitus, writing of the Germans, saith: “But by the greatness of the visible
[1 basim, Lat.] [2 Bullinger refers to the word ΙΝ), which signifies both rouble and]
[an idol. And in Psal. xvi. 4, the word DMARY is rendered by the]
[Chaldee Paraphrast and others, their idols, and by the English version]
[and others, their sorrows. And Bucer remarks in loc. MARY moles-]
[tias significat; at DY2XY pro idolis sepissime usurpatur.—See also]
[Calvin. Comment. inloc. cit. ed. Calvin. Translat. Soc. Vol. 1. note 1;]
[and Hooper’s Early Writings, p. 43, Parker Soc. ed.]]
the celestial bodies they do conjecture and verily think, that the oods are neither inclosed in walls, nor yet in favour resembling men’s visages; and therefore do they hallow woods and groves, calling that hidden mystery by the name of the gods, which with outward eyes they see mot, but with inward reverence alone.” Lo, here, our ancestors worshipped God in the likeness of trees and woods: which, nevertheless, men are forbidden here to do, even as also we are prohibited to worship our God in the likeness of any thing that is in or under the water. The Philistines worshipped God in the image of a fish; for Dagon their God bare the shape of a fish2 Egypt honoured God in the similitude of serpents. ΑἹ] which, and many other, Paul knitteth up together in the first to the Romans, where he argueth against the Gentiles, and saith: Their foolish heart was blinded: when they counted themselves wise, they became fools, and turned the glory of the incorruptible God unto the likeness, not only of a mortal man, but also of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping beasts.” Against this madness is the first part of the law directly given. _ But now, the cause why God will not be represented in will os:.::: A any visible or sensible image is this, God is a spirit; God is unmeasurable, incomprehensible, unspeakable, all over and every where, filling heaven and earth, eternal, living, giving life unto and preserving all things; and lastly, of a glorious majesty exalted above the heavens. But what is he that can pourtray a spirit in any image or substance? God is an incomprehensible power, quickening and preserving all and every [ De Mor. Germ. c. ix. Ceterum nec cohibere parietibus deos, neque in ullam humanioris speciem adsimulare, ex magnitudine ccelestium arbitrantur: lucos ac nemora consecrant, deornumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident. They think it not consistent with the greatness of celestial beings, &ec.]
[2 Marinum (i. e. piscis) ei (Dagoni) corpus; humana vero facies, manus, item et pedes.—Selden de Dis Syris, Syntag. τι. cap. 3. et 3 The worship of the serpent was in her (Egypt’s) early history an add.
[important and eonspicuous part of her idolatry.—Deane, on the Wor-]
[ship of the Serpent, chap. 2.. 1.] [ in promptu causa est, Lat. ] [5 incircumseriptibilis, Lat. ] [6 immensa potentia, Lat.]]
thing. But David, describing images, saith: “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands. They have ears, and hear not; noses have they, and smell not. They have hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not; neither is there any voice in the throat of them?” Wherefore, if these be compared to God, how like, I beseech you, are they unto him? To go about, therefore, to express God in any visible likeness is the next way to dishonour Godand to bring him into contempt. God’s eye beholdeth all things; idols see nothing. God’s ears hear all things; idols hear nothing. By God all things live, move, and are preserved; the idols themselves neither live, nor move, and, unless they be upheld by the men that make them, they fall and are dashed in pieces. An idol breatheth not; God giveth to other a breathing spirit. How then, and wherein, are these twain alike? In substance, or in shape? If ye say, in substance; I answer, Is God then of gold, of silver, or of wood? If in shape; mine answer is, Hath the invisible power of God then put on visible and mortal members? How greatly therefore did the Anthropomorphites? offend herein Ὁ If then there be no similitude of God, how cometh it to passI beseech you, that images and idols be called the likeness and pictures of God? Among us he that calleth another an idol or an image, doth seem to have spoken it too too despitefully in reproach of the other: for we know that idols are counterfeits of men!!, and not men indeed; and therefore do we call him an image, that is a sot, a fool, a dolt, an idiot, and one that hath no wit, nor knoweth any more than he heareth of other. Why then henceforward should we any more call images the likeness of God? God is living: images are monuments of dead men; as Salomon!?, the author of the book of Wisdom, saith: “God is glorious, and heaven and earth are full of the glory of his majesty; but idols are with-
[7 Ps. exv. 4—7.] [8 omnibus, Lat.] [9 For traces of these heretics, see Mosheim’s Eccles. Hist. Cent. 4.]
[book 2. part 2. ch. 5.. 23; and Cent. 5. book 2. part 2. ch. 2.. 10.]
[note 9; and ch. 5.. 20. ed. Soames, 1845. ] [19 magna affecisse contumelia, Lat. ] [01 speciem falsam hominis referre, Lat. ] [12 The name, Solomon, is not in the original Latin. ] 15 [BULLINGER.]]
out all glory, and subject to the scoffs and mocks of men!.” Images are tokens of absent friends: but God is present always and everywhere. And the signs or tokens, which God did of old ordain and give to his people, were not simply the signs and images of God, but tokens of God’s presence, signifying that God, who by nature is a spirit, and invisible, incomprehensible, and unmeasurable, is present still among them. Such a token was the cloud, the smoke, the fire, and finally, the very ark of the covenant, which also the cherubin did cover with their wings, signifying thereby that no mortal man could look God in the face; and that therefore the soul, and the mind, and the spirit, ought by contemplation to be lifted up into heaven, there to behold him. For to Moses, who notwithstanding is said to have seen God face to face, it was said, “No man shall see me and live2” When once we are deceased, then shall we see him as he is, according to the sayings of the blessed evangelist John3. So then these, I say, are the causes, why the Lord will not have himself represented or pourtrayed in any matter or likeness.
Hereunto now do appertain the places of scripture, and testimonies of the men that are the chiefest pillars of true religion and godliness, of Moses, Esay, and Paul. Moses in Deuteronomy saith: “The Lord spake unto you from the midst of the fire: and a voice of words ye heard, but likeness saw ye none, but heard the voice only. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, as pertaining unto your souls (for ye saw no manner of image in that day), lest ye mar yourselves by making you a graven image, the likeness of any manner of figure, whether it be the picture of man or woman; the likeness of any manner of beast that is on the earth; or the likeness of any manner of feathered fowl that flieth in the air; or the likeness of any manner of worm that creepeth on the earth; or the likeness of any manner of fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: yea, and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, the moon, and the stars, with all the host of heaven, thou shouldest begin to worship them and reverence them, and shouldest worship and serve the things which the Lord thy God hath made to serve all nations under the whole heaven. Take
[1 Wisd. xiv. 15.] [2 Ex. xxxiii. 20.] [ 1 John iii. 2.]]
heed, therefore, that ye forget not the appointment of the Lord your God, which he hath made with you, and that ye make you no graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee” This hath Moses thus far.
Esaias also, in his fortieth chapter, saith: ‘ Behold, all people” (to wit, compared to God) “are in comparison of him as a drop of a bucketful, and are counted as a little dust sticking on the balance, and weighing nothing at all. Yea, the isles are to him as a very little thing. Libanus is not sufficient to minister fire to his offering, and all the beasts thereof are not enough for one sacrifice. All people in comparison of God are reckoned as nothing; in respect of him they are less than nothing, and as that that is not. To whom then will ye liken God? or what similitude will ye set up to him? Shall the carver make him an image? and shall the goldsmith cover it with gold, or cast it into a form of silver plates? Moreover, shall the poor man, that he may have somewhat to set up, choose a tree that is not rotten, and seek out a cunning workman to carve thereout an image, that moveth? not? Know ye not this? heard ye never of it?” And again: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the world, whose inhabiters are, in comparison of him, but as grasshoppers. It is he that spreadeth out the heavens like a curtain; he stretcheth them out as a tent to dwell in. It is he that bringeth princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as though they were not. To whom now will ye liken me, and to whom shall I be like? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those things, which come out by so great heaps, and he calleth them all by their names.” And so forth. Thus much out of Esaias,
Moreover, Paul, the apostle of Christ, disputing at Athens of true religion, saith: “God that made the world and all that therein is, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
[4 feederis, Lat.] [5 Deut. iv. 12, 15—19, 23.] [9 In the original Latin the verbs in these three sentences are not]
[in the future tense, nor are the sentences interrogatory. But the two]
[former are interrogatory in the Vulgate. ] [7 ne moveatur loco, Lat. ] [8 Isai. x1. 15—23, 25, 26.] 15—2]
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing; since he himself giveth life and breath to all and everywhere, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and also the limits of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might have felt, and found him; though he be not far from every one of us: for by him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art or man’s device.”
These testimonies are so evident, and do so plainly declare that which I purposed, that I need not for the further exposition of them to say any more. They were great causes, therefore, that moved St Augustine precisely to pronounce it to be horrible sacrilege for any man to place in the church the image of God the Father, sitting in a throne with bended hams; because it is detestable for a man so much as to conceive such a likeness in his mind. His very words I have rehearsed in the eighth Sermon of my first Decade? where I had occasion to speak of the right hand of the Father, and to teach you what it is to sit at the Father’s right hand.
Now, touching other images also, which men erect to creatypes or to the heathen gods, they are no less forbidden than the pictures of God himself. For if we may not hallow an image to the true and very God, much less shall it be lawful for us to erect or consecrate an idol to a strange or foreign god. Man in his mind doth choose himself a god, and of his own invention deviseth a shape or figure for it, which lastly he frameth with the workmanship of his hands: so that it may truly be said, that the mind conceiveth an idol, and the hand doth bring it forth. But the Lord, in the first commandment, forbad us to have any strange gods. Now, he that neither hath, nor chooseth to himself, any strange or foreign gods, doth not in his imagination devise any shape for them, and so consequently erecteth no images. For he thinketh it a detestable thing to make an image to the true and very God; he is persuaded that it is a wicked thing to [1 Acts xvii. 24—29.] [2 See page 150.]
choose himself a foreign god; and therefore he judgeth it to be most abominable to place the picture of a foreign god in the church or temple of the true and very God. And that is the cause that in the church before Christ his time we do not read, that any images were erected to any saints, whereof at that time there were a great number, (suppose) of patriarchs, judges, kings, priests, prophets, and whole troops of martyrs, matrons, and modest widows. The primitive church also of Christ his apostles had no images, either of Christ himself, or of other saints, set up in their places of public prayer, nor in their churches. The deed of Epiphanius is very well known, which he committed at Anablatha in Syria. It is written in Greek in an epistle to John Bishop of Jerusalem, and translated into Latin by St Hierome. He rent the vail that hung in the temple, bearing in it the image of Christ or some other saint; testifying therewithal, that it is against christian religion, for the picture of a man to hang in the church of God?. St Augustine in Catalogo Heresewn maketh mention of one Marcella, a follower of Carpocrates his sect, which worshipped the images of Jesu, Paul, Homer, and Pythagoras, with falling down prostrate before them, and offering incense unto them. Very well and wisely, therefore, did Erasmus of Roterodame, being deeply seen in the works of ecclesiastical writers, when he had wittily spoken many things touching the use of images in churches, at the last also add this, and say: There is no decree, no not so much as of men, which commandeth that images should be in churches. For as it is more easy, so is it less perilous, to take all images quite and clean out of the churches, than to be able to bring to pass that, in keeping them still, measure should not be exceeded, nor superstition covertly cloked. For admit that (as some say) the mind be clean from all superstition; yet notwithstanding it is not
[3 Quando—venissem ad villam que dicitur Anablatha,~—inveni]
[velum pendens in foribus—ecclesize, tinctum atque depictum, et ha-]
[bens imaginem, quasi Christi, vel sancti cujusdam.—Cum ergo hoc]
[vidissem, in ecclesia Christi contra auctoritatem scripturarum hominis]
[pendere imaginem, scidi illud.— Epiphan. Opp. Par. 1622. Tom, Ir.]
[fol. 317.] [4 Sectee ipsius (i.e. Carpocratianorum) fuisse traditur socia quee-]
[dam Marcellina, que colebat imagines Jesu et Pauli et Homeri et]
[Pythagorz, adorando incensumque ponendo.—August. Opp. Par. 1531.]
[Tom. vi. fol. 3.]]
without a shew of superstition, for him that prayeth to fall down prostrate before a wooden idol, to have his eyes stedfastly bent upon that alone, to speak to that, to kiss that, and not to pray at all but before an idol. And this I add, that whosoever do imagine God to be any other than indeed he is, they, contrary to this precept, do worship graven images.” And again, in the same catechism, he saith: “Even until the time of Hierome there were men of sound religion, which suffered not in the church any image to stand, neither painted, nor graven, nor woven; no, not so much as of Christ, because (as 1 suppose) of the Anthropomorphites. But afterward the use of images by little and little crept up and came into the churches?” This hath Erasmus. Ις Furthermore, for Christ, our Lord and very God, though he have taken on him the nature of us men, yet, that notwithstanding, there ought no image to be erected. For he did. not become man to that intent; but he drew up his humanity into heaven, and therewithal gave us a charge, that, so often as we pray, we should lift up the eyes of our minds and bodies into heaven above. Moreover, being once ascended, he sent his Spirit instead of himself unto the church, wherein he hath a spiritual kingdom, and needeth not any bodily or corruptible things. For he commanded that, if we would bestow any thing on him or for his sake, we should bestow it on the poor, and not on his picture or image. And now since, without all controversy, our Christ is the very true God, and that the very true God doth forbid to hallow to him any likeness of man, that is, to represent God in the
[1 Ut imagines sint in templis, nulla przecipit vel humana consti-]
[tutio. Et ut facilius, ita tutius quoque est, omnes imagines e templis]
[submovere, quam impetrare, ut nec modus przetereatur, nec admiscea-]
[tur superstitio. Jam ut animus sit ab omni superstitione purus, tamen]
[non caret superstitionis specie, orantem ad ligneum simulacrum pro-]
[cumbere, in hoc intentos habere oculos, ad hoc verba facere, huic]
[oscula figere, nec orare prorsus nisi coram imagine. Illud addam, qui-]
[cunque sibi aliusmodi fingunt Deum quam est, contra praeceptum hoc]
[colunt sculptilia.—Erasm. Symbol. Catec. vi. col. 1188. Opp. Lugd.]
[Bat. Tom. v.] [2 Usque ad setatem Hieronymi erant probate religionis viri, qui]
[in templis nullam ferebant imaginem, nec pictam, nee sculptam, nec]
[textam; ac ne Christi quidem, ut opinor, propter Anthropomorphitas.]
[Paulatim autem imaginum usus irrepsit in templa.—Ibid. col. 1187.]]
shape of a man; it followeth consequently, that to Christ no image is to be dedicated, because he is the true and very God and life everlasting.
In the second part of this commandment we are taught, how far forth it is unlawful for us to make any image of God, or else of feigned gods; and, if so it be that any make or cause them to be made, how and after what sort then we ought to behave ourselves toward them. Images ought not in any case to be made for men to worship, or otherwise to use as means or instruments to worship God in. But if so it happen, that any man make them to the intent to have them worshipped; then must the zealous and godly disposed despise, neglect, not worship nor honour them, nor yet by any means be brought to do them service. For in this precept are two things set down especially to be noted. The first is, “Thou shalt not bow down to them.” To bow down is to cap and to knee, to duck with the head and bend the body, to fall down, to honour, to worship, and to reverence. The saints of old did use to bow down (that is, to bend the knee, to uncover the head, and to fall down) to the magistrates, the prophets, the princes, and teachers of the people, and unto all sorts of reverend men. And that they did partly because God had so commanded, who useth their ministery to common men’s commodity; and partly again, because men are the lively image of God himself. But deaf, dumb, and blind idols are wood and stone, whereunto we are forbidden to bend or bow down, howsoever we are made to believe that they do bear the likeness of God. The latter is, Thou shalt not worship them,” or else, Thou shalt not do any service unto them. In this clause is forbidden all the outward and unlawful honour done to God, or to the gods, in the way of religion, nay rather, in the way of superstition, and devilish hallowing of churches, reliques, holy-days, and such-like trash and trumpery? For to serve is to worship, to reverence, to attribute some majesty and divine authority to that which we do worship, to have affiance in, to burn incense, to offer gifts, and to shew ourselves dutifully serviceable to that which we worship. There is no man that knoweth not what it is to serve, and what is meant by service, in matters of religion. We are forbidden, [3 superstitione et cultu templorum, sacrorum, feriarum, omniumque rerum similium, Lat.]
therefore, to run in pilgrimage to idols, yea, though they be the images of God himself. We are forbidden to do them any service, in offering gifts, or attributing unto them any one jot of God’s pre-eminence, thereby to bind ourselves to maintain and uphold their unlawful honour, in mingling such superstitions with better points of true religion. This therefore considered (since we may not attribute to images any serviceable honour!), I do not see how we can ascribe to them the office of teaching, admonishing, and exhorting, which are the offices and benefits of God’s Holy Spirit and word: for Abacuck the prophet, of whose writings Paul did make no small account, hath left in writing words worth remembering. “What profiteth” (says he) “the image? for the maker of it hath made it: an image and a teacher of lies, though he that made it trusteth therein, when he maketh dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; and to the senseless stone, Arise! Should that teach thee? Rehold, it is covered with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him?” What could be said more plainly and agreeable to the truth? Images (saith he) are mere and very lies. But how can that teach the truth, which of itself is nought else but a lie? There is no moving, there is no life, there is no breath in a picture or image. But the Lord sitteth in his holy temple, where he reigneth, and teacheth, by inspiration and the preaching of his word, the sum of godliness, and where he liveth for ever in the hearts of all his saints and servants. Let therefore all the tongues in the whole world be stopped of them that go about to maintain and uphold superstitious idolatry against the true and living God. no Now again in the third part of this commandment the Lord doth briefly knit up the pithy handling of sundry things. gods. i For, first, he sheweth that men have no just or lawful cause in turning from God, either to make them strange gods, or else to worship God otherwise than they ought to do. “I am” (saith he) “the Lord thy God,” a strong God. If I be the Lord, then shouldest thou of duty serve me, honour me, obey me, and worship me, so as thou dost understand that I do desire to be worshipped and honoured. If I be God, then am I of
[1 cultum latrice, Lat.] [2. Hab. il:18-—-20.]]
sufficient ability to minister to all men whatsoever they lack. What canst thou want, therefore, that thou mayest not find in me? why then shouldest thou turn to strange gods? Thou hast no cause at all, undoubtedly, to turn from me. I am, moreover, a strong God, a mighty, yea, an almighty God and Lord. Thou hast no cause to seek a mightier or wealthier prince than me, by him to be delivered out of my hands, and by his liberality to be farther enriched than thou shalt be by my good gifts and blessings. For I am that true and eternal God, the invincible and almighty Prince of the world, the true and only helper and deliverer, the liberal and bountiful giver of all good gifts or benefits. I am also thy Lord and thy God. Those goods of mine are thine. For I am thine: yea, I am thy helper and deliverer out of all adversities and afflictions. Thou art mine: I have created thee: I live in thee, I do preserve thee. Why then shouldest thou turn away from me, and seek after any strange god whatsoever? What needest thou any more hereafter to hunt after senseless idols? Thou art the church and temple of God. Dost thou not feel and perceive within thyself, that I do dwell in thee, and have thine heart in possession? And what, I pray thee, hath the temple of God to do with godless images?
Then also he descendeth, and doth very severely, yet notwithstanding justly, threaten extreme and terrible revengement. “1 am” (saith he) “a jealous God.” This may be taken two ways very well, and not amiss. For, first, the sense may be thus: I will not have thee to seek any other gods but me, neither will I have thee admit or receive any foreign or unlawful worshipping of me. The cause is, I am a jealous God, envious against my rival, not suffering mine equal, nor by any means abiding to have a mate. I alone will be loved, I alone will be worshipped; and that too, not after any other fashion than I myself have appointed to be observed. For no man is so ignorant but that he knoweth how God in the scripture doth, by the parable of wedlock, figuratively set down the assurance and bond wherein by faith we are bound to God. God is our husband and bridegroom: we are his
[3 omnisufficientia sum, Lat. ] [ humani conjugii, Lat. ] [6 religamur Deo (unde et religionis nomen est), Lat. omitted;]
[from which binding the name, religion, is derived. So Augustine: Ad]
wife and chosen spouse. A chaste and faithful wife giveth ear alone to her husband’s voice; him alone she loveth, him alone she doth obey, and, him excepted, she loveth no man at all. Again, on the other side, a shameless, faithless adulteress and whorish strumpet, not worthy to be called a wife, seemeth outwardly to stick and cleave to her husband; but privily she maketh her body common to many men, and loveth other more than her husband, and for the most part burneth on them, being cold enough to him-ward. But God is a jealous God, and will be loved and worshipped alone, without any partner to rob him thereof. That is spiritual adultery and whore-hunting, when men do partly love and worship Godand yet notwithstanding do therewithal give reverence to strange and other gods. Against this faithless and double dealing all the prophets cry out most vehemently with words that represent a tyrannous and cruel revengement!: for of all other sins that is most detestable. I would to God at this day so many were not persuaded, that this kind of honour is the worship that God maketh most account of!
Or else otherwise the sense of those words may be thus: I will not have thee to seek any other gods but me; I will not have thee worship me according to thine own inventions. The cause is, I am a jealous God; that is, I am easy to be provoked, and will not suffer myself and mine honour to be rejected without due punishment for the contempt. And to this sense he seemeth to draw, where he goeth forward, and doth at large expound how he is jealous: for “I visit,” saith he, “the fathers’ iniquity in the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” God therefore is a sharp revenger and a just judge against them that follow after strange gods, or serve God unlawfully or irreligiously, and also against all them that swerve from the law of God. For he thundereth out this bitter punishment, especially against idolaters; but therewithal inclusively he threateneth it to them which break the rest of his commandments. For that which the Lord uttereth here is generally spoken, and is of force and effect against all impiety and unrighteousness of all mankind. But for because God’s case is far more excellent
[unum Deum tendentes, et ei uni religantes animas nostras, unde religio]
[dicta creditur, &c.—De Ver. Relig. cap. 55.] [! plane tragicis vocibus, Lat.]]
than man’s, they therefore do more heinously offend which break the first table, than they that sin against the second; and thereby do deserve a far more grievous pain and heavy punishment.
Now, whereas we see that the Lord saith, that he will visit, and by inquisition punish, the sins of the fathers in the children unto the third and fourth generation; we must not by and by think that God is unjust, and punisheth another man’s fault in afflicting the innocent, that is, in whipping him that did not offend: as the Jews in Ezechiel did wickedly taunt and cavil with God, saying, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” But it is not so. “For every man shall bear his own offences; neither shall the son bear or abide the father’s sin, nor the father the son’s iniquity2” This doth the most true God very often and earnestly beat into our heads throughout Ezechiel, and the whole scripture beside. If therefore the children, or childer’s children, shall abide in the crooked steps of their fathers, and shall, as their fathers did, do service to idols, and shall think that they shall be safe and remain unpunished because they learned it of their fathers, even as their fathers also were idolaters, and yet flourished in wealth and prosperity; then, I say, I will punish the sin of the fathers in the children: that is, I will sharply revenge the sin that the children have learned of the fathers, and wherein they stiffly stand and abide, being encouraged thereunto by their fathers’ example and good fortune; although for the very same sin I did not once touch their fathers before them. And for that cause is this expressly added, “of them that hate me.” Hereof have we very many and very evident examples in the books of Kings. The house of Jeroboam is utterly destroyed, because Jeroboam did erect in Israel idolatry and superstition, Immediately after, the whole stock of king Baasa is clean cut off: and Achab’s house is pulled up by the roots. At length, the Israelites are made slaves to serve the Assyrians. Solomon, the most mighty, wealthy, wise, and happy king of Juda, because of his idolatry and strange superstition, is of a sudden made a wretch of all
[2 Ezek. xviii. 2, 20.] [3 peregrinos cultus, Lat.] [4 captivi abducuntur in Assyriorum regna, Lat.]]
other. There is none, unless he never read the holy scriptures, but doth know what happened to his son Roboam, to Joram the son of Josaphat, to Achas, Manasses, Jehoiachim and Zedechias, because of idolatry and foreign worshipping of God.
Let us therefore firmly hold and believe, that the threatenings of God are true in effect, and that God is both a severe and just revenger and punisher of idolaters and wicked superstitious men, and finally, of all and every wicked act done by every man. Although God do sundry times seem to wicked men to slumber, and not to see them, yet notwithstanding he doth awake when he thinks good!, and payeth home the wicked for all their offences done and past. Although he be long-suffering, yet the righteous Lord doth not always neglect the godly and oppressed, neither doth he always wink at ungodliness, and let the wicked be unpunished for ever: but he giveth them time to repent in, which whosoever do neglect, they do at length feel the greater pains and sharper punishment, according to the saying of the apostle: “” What, dost thou despise the riches of God’s goodness, suffering? and gentleness, not knowing that God’s goodness calleth thee to repentance? But, according to thy hardness and heart that cannot repent, thou heapest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, wherein shall be made manifest the just judgment of God, who shall repay to every one according to his deeds?,” &ec.
Again, the bountiful Lord promiseth great and large rethe wards to them that worship him, and stedfastly persevere in true godliness and perfect religion. “I am God,” saith he, “shewing mercy, or giving bountifully, unto thousands.” Here note, that his mercy is greater than his vengeance: for where he is angry, there he punisheth unto the third and fourth generation; but where he is mercifully liberal, there he is bountiful unto many thousands. For of his goodness and benefits there is no measure or end; and the mercy of God is far above all his works. Here yet again he addeth two things more: “To them,” saith he, “that love me, and keep my commandments.” Here, I say, he requireth two things at their hands that are his. The first is, that they love God,
[1 justo tempore, Lat.] [2 tolerantize, Lat.] [3 Rom. ii. 4—6. Bullinger has used Erasmus’ rendering. ]]
and make account of and take him to be their God: which if they do, then shall there no room be left in the godly for strange or foreign gods. The second is, that they obey Godand walk in his commandments: which if they do, then are all idols and strange worshippings utterly at an end; then doth the Lord by his word reign in the heart of every godly man, whom the bountiful Lord doth liberally bless with all kind of blessings and good gifts. And this clause verily doth especially belong to this commandment, but inclusively also it is referred to all the rest, as by the very words of God we may easily gather. Let us hold and verily think therefore, that the infinite and unspeakable benefits of God are prepared for them that walk in the law of the Lord.
Thus much had I to speak of these two commandments of the first table, which I cannot now again recapitulate, because an hour and a half is already spent, and for that I hope that I have so orderly proceeded in every point, and taught every thing so evidently and plainly, that there is nothing which ye do not very well perceive and understand. Let us now praise the Lord, and thank him for his goodness, for shewing us his ways; and let us pray that we, walking rightly in them, may at the last come to his eternal? joys. Amen.
Of the Third Precept of the Ten Commandments, and of Swearing. The Third Sermon
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