Part IX: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments, § 179.
PART IX: THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS OF THE DECALOGUE
§ 179. The Ninth Commandment is: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house” [Exod. 20:17]. The Tenth is: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to him” [Exod. 20:17].
(1) We showed earlier (§ 45) that two kinds of covetousness [concupiscentiae] are forbidden by these commandments: actual and original. This we proved from the words of these commandments and from comparing other passages of Scripture.
(2) Therefore these commandments accuse not only the sinful desires to which full and deliberate consent is added but also our corrupt inclination, those first impulses of sinful covetousness, even habitual covetousness itself, which is how the apostle defines original sin [James 1:14–15].
(3) Therefore these final commandments stand against the source of sin, since “out of our corrupt heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, blasphemy” (Matt. 15:19).
(4) Christ Himself shows in His explanation of the Law (Matthew 5) that these last two commandments should be interpreted so as to be understood in all the commandments of the Decalogue.
(5) It is necessary to distinguish between natural, ordered desires and the sinful impulses of covetousness. God’s Law forbids the latter but not the former. The blessed apostle also provides another distinction (in Gal. 5:17) between the desire of the flesh and that of the Spirit. The Law of God prohibits neither natural nor spiritual desire but the corrupt lust of the flesh.
(6) In Deuteronomy 5 there is a transposition of objects. There the wife is listed first and house second. From this it is clear that one cannot find a primary and proper distinction between these commandments based on their objects.
(7) Covetousness is not restricted to the objects listed in these commandments but is very broad. That is why the general clause is added: “You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.” After Christ (in Luke 8:14) listed among the thorns “the cares of this world, the deception of riches, and pleasures,” He added (Mark 4:19) “the desires for other things.” In Gal. 5:19[–23], the works of the Spirit that the desires of the flesh oppose are listed from both tables of the Decalogue. Therefore it forbids by name the wife, house, manservants, maidservants, fields, cattle, and donkeys of our neighbor because these are daily before our eyes in the ordinary course of human life.
(8) The apostle omits Moses’ details about not coveting house, wife, field, etc., and sets forth these two commandments without the addition of circumstances or objects. Rom. 7:7 and 13:9: “You shall not covet.”
§ 180. Therefore these two commandments require all our desires to be in perfect inner harmony with the norm of God’s Law. They require the concreated integrity of our entire nature, a spiritual obedience that is absolute in every respect. On the other hand, these two commandments accuse all thoughts, inclinations, impulses, and emotions that are against God’s Law. Since original sin is the fount and source of all these, the blessed apostle calls it “desire” [concupiscentia, James 1:14–15]. Accordingly, we must acknowledge the extreme corruption of our nature which drives us uncontrolled to corrupt desires of every kind. Because of these desires, we are in need of the daily forgiveness of sins even after regeneration (Ps. 32:[5–]6). Our good works are stained and spotted by these desires so that they cannot stand before the judgment of God. We must acknowledge, I say, this soiled garment of mourning and deplore [our sins] with genuine sighing. Let us beseech Christ to cover them in us by His merit. Let us battle against them by the power of the Spirit, “mortifying the flesh with its desires” [Gal. 5:24]. With the deepest longing of our heart, let us aspire to the full completion and perfection expected in eternal life.
1 Cf. On the Nature of God (1625 Exegesis II), § 22.
2Chemnitz’s Works 8:662–82.
3Or “recognition of God.”
4I.e., church buildings.
5templum; i.e., a church building.
6Chemnitz’s Works 8:674.
7Chemnitz’s Works 8:675.
8These Hebrew accent marks employed by the Masoretes typically punctuate the end of a verse.
9This is another of the disjunctive Masoretic accent marks. In combination with the other marks Gerhard mentions, the final word of Exod. 20:4 reads: 
.
10statuas. In the Latin Vulgate Bible the same word is used for “pillars.” See above, § 65 (V).
11That is, always befitting or belonging to something and befitting or belonging to it alone.
12Eight Sermons at Wittenberg (1522), AE 51:70–100 (WA 10/3:1–64).
13Chemnitz’s Works 8:676.
14Chemnitz’s Works 8:678.
15in templis; i.e., in church buildings.
16Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans. Fred Kramer, Chemnitz’s Works 4 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2009), 55–141.
17cultus latriae; i.e., worship that is due to God alone.
18From Fortunatus’s hymn Vexilla Regis. The stanza is omitted in LSB, no. 455. See W. G. Polack, The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, 3rd ed. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958), 131–33, no. 168.
19See above, p. 82 n. 18.
20Among the rules governing relations, Johannes Micraelius states: “Related things are together both in nature and in recognition, so that when one is posited, the other is posited too, and when one is recognized, the other is recognized too.” As an example of related things, Micraelius mentions “father” and “son” (Lexicon philosophicum, s.v. “relatio”). Thus, upon learning that Isaac is a son, you know that there must be a father. The one implies the other.
21The foundation of a relation is what causes two things to be related. A common example in philosophical dictionaries was the relation of father and son. The foundation of the relation might be “fathering” or “the power to beget.” Here Gerhard means that anyone who gives divine honor to something is treating that thing as divine; divine honor and divinity are correlated.
22Read extra Deum with Cotta instead of extra.
23Read duliae with Cotta instead of dubiae.
24Read Menzerus with Cotta instead of Munzerus.
25Read ut si quis pingere vellet expsulsionem Adami de paradiso, pingere deberet with Cotta instead of ut si quis pingere deberet.
26Preface to the Prophets (1532, 1545), AE 35:265–73 (WA DB 11/1:3–15).
27Cf. Ps. 96:5 English.
28 Read Quarto with Cotta instead of Quinto.
29 Codex 9.8.5, in Paulus Krueger, ed., Corpus Iuris Civilis, vol. 2, Codex Iustinianus, editio stereotypa octava (Berolini: apud Weidmannos, 1906), 373–74.
30 Chemnitz’s Works 8:686.
31 Read in vanum with Cotta.
32 Read et attestat. et Anabaptistae with Cotta instead of Anabaptistae.
33 Chemnitz’s Works 8:691.
34 Read ἀντιλoγίας instead of ἀπoλoγίας.
35 Decretales Gregorii IX. 2.24.26, in Aemilius Friedberg, ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici, editio Lipsiensis secunda, 2 vols. (Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1959), vol. 2, cols. 369–71.
36 Decretum Gratiani 1.63.33, in Aemilius Friedberg, ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici, editio Lipsiensis secunda, 2 vols. (Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1959), vol. 1, col. 246.
37 I.e., of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
38 The use of textual amulets had been known and rejected by Christian theologians since ancient times. See Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri xx 8.9.30 (PL 82 [1878]: 313; S. A. Barney et al., trans., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006]). The kinds of amulets Gerhard mentions here were passages of Scripture, prayers, or other Christian liturgical texts written on parchment or paper and worn on the body in the belief that these written words would impart some kind of protection, blessing, or healing. See Don C. Skemer, Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).
39 Ovid, Fasti 1.71–72 (LCL 253 [1931], 6–7).
40 I.e., the second person masculine singular imperfect, which in Hebrew has the force of an imperative.
41 Read vera doctrina with Cotta instead of vero doctrina.
42 Read fiant instead of audiant [“hearing”].
43 See the Third Commandment in the Small Catechism (1529), WA 30/1:285; Triglotta, 541.
44 I.e., of the week.
45 Read thus with Cotta instead of den. Gent. ad lit.
46 Read reverentiam with Cotta instead of referentiam.
47 This note, enclosed in double asterisks, was added to editions of the Theological Commonplaces after Gerhard’s death on the basis of notes that Gerhard left behind. The statements in this note contradict what preceded: “Apart from a case of necessity, the Sabbath is profaned by servile and household works. Therefore we seriously disapprove of what the Jesuit Toletus writes.” Because the note quotes many authors with whom Gerhard often disagrees, and from the context, it appears that this note provides examples of a position that Gerhard opposes. See the introduction, p. xviii.
48 templa; i.e., Christian churches.
49 Terence, Adelphoe lines 57–58 (LCL 23 [2001], 258–59).
50 The Greek word for “stork” is πελαργός, which is etymologically related to the two preceding Greek verbs.
51 Read admoneamur with Cotta instead of admoneamus.
52 Chemnitz’s Works 8:747.
53 Martial, Epigrams 1.8.5–6 (LCL 94 [1993], 48–49).
54 Martial, Epigrams 11.56.15–16 (LCL 480 [1993], 50–51).
55 Read exspoliatur with CSEL 53:208 instead of spectatur. The quotation is from Contra Gaudentium 1.13(14).
56 Read praedicandas with Cotta instead of praedicatas.
57 Cato the Younger (95–46 BC) committed suicide to avoid submitting to Julius Caesar. See Plutarch, Parallel Lives 8 (LCL 100).
58 The Latin word scortari can mean either “use a prostitute” or “fornicate.” Here it will be translated as “fornicate” unless a commercial transaction is mentioned in the context.
59 Elsewhere, Gerhard explains amatorii cantus as “love songs” and “worldly, lecherous songs” from which the tinder of evil, harmful ardor can be stirred up and increased. Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis, Oder Ubung der Gottseeligkeit 4.3.26, ed. Johann Georg Walch (Nürnberg: in Verlegung W. M. Endters seel. Töchter & J. A. Engelbrechts seel. Wittib., 1736), 908.
60 See Lectures on Genesis (1535–45/1544–54), AE 3:259 (WA 43:60), where Luther says that brothels are intolerable and heathenish. Perhaps Gerhard’s note here, added to the text posthumously, is answering the question of whether brothels can be tolerated.
61 I.e., the pope.
62 The Latin word here, furta, means either “stealing” or “theft.”
63 Commutative justice is the justice exercised among equals, dealing mainly with commerce and contracts. Its counterpart is distributive justice, which is exercised by a superior toward inferiors, in which a governor gives to each one what he deserves. Thomas Aquinas defines the terms in ST, 1a, q. 21, art. 1.
64 Emphyteusis in Roman law was a permanent lease of land on the condition of cultivating it properly and paying a stipulated rent; this tenure could be inherited. See Barry Nicholas, “emphyteusis,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, 3rd ed. rev. (Oxford: Oxford Univerity Press, 2003), 523–24.
65 oculo irretorto, i.e., without jealousy. The allusion is to Horace, Carmina 2.2.23 (LCL 33 [2004], 100–101).
66 Ius gentium [literally, “law of the nations”] is a term that Cicero (De officiis 3.23 [LCL (1913), 290–91]) used for universal law as opposed to Roman law. See above, § 12.
67 Read simply Zepperus with Cotta instead of N. Zepperus. The reference is likely to Wilhelm Zepper (1550–1607).
68 I.e., the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
69 ἄνευ δόλoυ καὶ ἀπάτης. Herodotus 8.140.a.4 (LCL [1924], 146–47).
70 Cf. Gerhard, On the Interpretation of Scripture (1610 Loci Theologici, Commonplace II), § 26.