Of the Commandments
OF THE COMMANDMENTS
EXOD. 20:3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Before I come to the commandments, I shall premise some things about the moral law: viz. answer questions, and lay down rules.
QUEST. 1. What is the difference between the moral law and the gospel?
Ans. 1. The law requires that we worship God as our Creator; the gospel requires that we worship God in and through Christ. God in Christ is propitious; out of Christ we may see God's power, justice, holiness,—in Christ we see his mercy displayed.
A. 2. The moral law requires obedience, but gives no strength—as Pharaoh required brick but gave no straw—but the gospel gives strength; the gospel bestows faith on the elect; the gospel sweetens the law, it makes us serve God with delight.
QUEST. 2. Of what use then is the moral law to us?
Ans. The law is a glass to shew us our sins, that so, seeing our pollution and misery, we may be forced to flee to Christ to satisfy for former guilt, and save from future wrath, Gal. 3:24., "The law was our school-master to bring us to Christ."
QUEST. 3. But is the moral law still in force to believers; is it not abolished to them?
Ans. In some sense it is abolished to believers. 1. In respect of justification; they are not justified by their obedience to the moral
law. Believers are to make great use of the moral law—as I shall shew —but they must trust only to Christ's righteousness for justification; as Noah's dove made use of her wings to fly, but trusted to the ark for safety. If the moral law could justify, what need were there of Christ's dying?—2. The moral law is abolished to believers, in respect of the malediction of it; they are freed from the curse and damnatory power of it, Gal. 3:13., "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."
QUEST. 4. How was Christ made a curse for us?
Ans. Christ may be considered, 1. As the Son of God, and so he was not made a curse.—2. As our pledge and surety, Heb. 7:22., and so he was made a curse for us: this curse was not upon his Godhead, but upon his manhood. This curse was the wrath of God lying upon him; and thus Christ hath taken away from believers the curse of the law, by being made a curse for them. But though the moral law is thus far abolished, yet it remains a perpetual rule to believers; though the moral law be not their Saviour, yet it is their guide; though it be not fœdus, a covenant of life, yet it is norma, a rule of living; every
Christian is bound to conform to the moral law, and write, as exactly as he can, after this copy, Rom. 3:31., "Do we then make void the law through faith, God forbid." Though a Christian is not under the condemning power of the law, yet he is under the commanding power: to love God, to reverence and obey him, this is a law alway binds and will bind in heaven. This I urge against the Antinomians, who say the moral law is abrogated to believers; which, as it contradicts scripture, so it is a key to open the door to all licentiousness. They who will not have the law to rule them, shall never have the gospel to save them. Having answered these questions, I shall in the next place, lay down some general rules for the right understanding of the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments:
these rules may serve to give us some light into the sense and meaning of the commandments.
Rule 1. The commands and prohibitions of the moral law reach the heart.—1. The commands of the moral law reach the heart: the commandments require not only outward actions but inward affections,—they require not only the outward act of obedience, but the inward affection of love, Deut. 6:5., "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God, with all thy heart."—2. The threats and prohibitions of the moral law reach the heart; the law of God forbids not only the act of sin, but the desire and inclination; not only doth it forbid adultery, but lusting, Mat. 5:28. Not only stealing, but coveting, Rom. 7:7. Lex humana ligat manum, lex divina comprimet animam,—'man's law binds only the hands, God's law binds the heart.'
Rule 2. In the commandments there is a synechdoche, more is intended than is spoken. 1. Where any duty is commanded, there the contrary sin is forbidden, &c. When we are commanded to keep the sabbath-day holy, there we are forbidden to break the sabbath; when we are commanded to live in a calling, "Six days shalt thou labour," there we are forbidden to live idly, and out of a calling.—2. Where any sin is forbidden, there the contrary duty is commanded. When we are forbidden to take God's name in vain, the contrary duty is commanded, that we should reverence his name, Deut. 28:58., "That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God."
Where we are forbidden to wrong our neighbour, there is the contrary duty included, that we should do him all the good we can, by vindicating his name and supplying his wants.
Rule 3. Where any sin is forbidden in the commandment, there the occasion of it is also forbidden. Where murder is forbidden, there envy and rash anger are forbidden, which may occasion it. Where
adultery is forbidden in the commandment, there is forbidden all that may lead to it,—as wanton glances of the eye,—or coming into the company of an harlot, Prov. 5:8., "Come not nigh the door of her house;" he who would be free from the plague, must not come near the infected house. Under the law the Nazarite was forbidden to drink wine; nor might he eat grapes of which the wine was made.
Rule 4. In relatio subintelligitur correlatum,—where one relation is named in the commandment, there another relation is included.
Where the child is named, there the father is included; where there is the duty of children to parents mentioned, there is included also the duty of parents to children; where the child is commanded to honour the parent, there is implied that the parent is also commanded to instruct, to love, to provide for the child.
Rule 5. Where greater sins are forbidden, there lesser sins are also forbidden. Though no sin in its own nature is little, yet comparatively one may be less than another; where idolatry is forbidden, there is forbidden superstition, or bringing any innovation into God's worship, which he hath not appointed. As the sons of Aaron were forbidden to worship an idol, so to sacrifice to God with strange fire,
Lev. 10:1. Mixture in sacred things, is like a dash in the wine, which though it gives a colour, yet doth but debase and adulterate it. It is highly provoking to God to bring any superstitious ceremony into his worship which he hath not prescribed; it is to tax God's wisdom, as if he were not wise enough to appoint the manner how he will be served.
Rule 6. The law of God is copulative. Lex est copulativa. The first and second tables are knit together,—piety to God, and equity to our neighbour, these two tables which God hath joined together must not be put asunder. Try a moral man by the duties of the first table,—
piety to God,—and there you will find him negligent; try an hypocrite by the duties of the second table,—equity to his neighbour,—and there you will find him tardy. He who is strict in the second table but neglects the first, or he who is zealous in the first table, but neglects the second, his heart is not right with God. The Pharisees were the highest pretenders to the first table, zeal and holiness; but Christ detects their hypocrisy, Mat. 23:23., "Ye have omitted judgment, mercy and faith." They were bad in the second table; they omitted judgment, that was, being just in their dealing; mercy, in relieving the poor; and faith, that is faithfulness in their promises and contracts with men. God wrote both the tables, and our obedience must set a seal to both.
Rule 7. God's law forbids not only the acting of sin in our own persons, but being accessory to, or having any hand in the sins of others.
QUEST. How and in what sense may we be said to partake of, and have an hand in the sins of others?
Ans. 1. By decreeing unrighteous decrees, and imposing on others that which is unlawful. Jeroboam made the people of Israel to sin; he was accessory to their idolatry, by setting up golden calves; so David though he did not in his own person kill Uriah, yet because he wrote a letter to Joab, to set Uriah in the fore-front of the battle, and it was done by his command, therefore he was accessory to Uriah's death, and the murder of him was laid to David's charge by the prophet, 2
Sam. 12:9., "Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword."
A. 2. We become accessory to the sins of others by not hindering them when it is in our power, Qui non prohibit cum potest, judet. If a master of a family see his servant break the sabbath, or hear him swear, and let him alone, doth not use the power he hath to suppress
him, he becomes accessory to his sin. Eli, for not punishing his sons when they made the offering of the Lord to be abhorred, made himself guilty, 1 Sam. 3:14. He that suffers an offender to pass unpunished, makes himself an offender.
A. 3. By counselling, abetting, or provoking others to sin. Ahithophel made himself guilty of the fact, by giving counsel to Absalom to go in and defile his father's concubines, 2 Sam. 16:21. He who shall tempt or solicit another to be drunk though himself be sober, yet being the occasion of another's sin, he is accessory to it, Hab. 2:15., "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him."
A. 4. By consenting to another's sin. Saul did not cast one stone at Stephen, yet the scripture saith, "Saul was consenting to his death,"
Acts 8:1. Thus he had a hand in it. If several did combine to murder a man, and they should tell another of their intent, and he should give his consent to it, he were guilty: though his hand were not in the murder, yet his heart was in it; though he did not act it, yet he did approve it, so it became his sin.
A. 5. By example, vivitur exemplis. Examples are powerful and cogent; setting a bad example occasions another to sin, and so a person becomes accessory. If the father swears, and the child by his example learn to swear, the father is accessory to the child's sin; he taught him by his example. As there are diseases hereditary, so there are sins.
Rule 8. The last rule about the commandments is this, that though we cannot, by our own strength, fulfil all these commandments, yet doing quoad posse,—what we are able, the Lord hath provided encouragement for us. There is a threefold encouragement.
1. That though we have not ability to obey any one command, yet God hath, in the new covenant, promised to work that in us, which he requires, Ezek. 36:27., "I will cause you to walk in my statutes."
God commands us to love him. Alas how weak is our love! it is like the herb that is yet only in the first degree; but God hath promised to circumcise our hearts, that we shall love him, Deut. 30:6. He that doth command us, will enable us. God commands us to turn from sin, but alas! we have not power to turn; therefore God hath promised to turn us,—to put his Spirit within us, and turn the heart of stone into flesh, Ezek. 36:26. There is nothing in the command, but the same is in the promise. Therefore, Christian, be not discouraged, though thou hast no strength of thy own, yet God will give thee this strength. The iron hath no power to move, but when the loadstone draws it, it can move, Isa. 26:12., "Thou also hast wrought all our works in us."
2. Though we cannot exactly fulfil the moral law, yet God will, for Christ's sake, mitigate the rigour of the law, and accept of something less than he requires. God in the law requires exact obedience, yet he will accept of sincere obedience; he will abate something of the degree, if there be truth in the inward parts; God will see the faith, and pass by the failing; the gospel remits something of the severity of the moral law.
3. Wherein our personal obedience comes short, God will be pleased to accept us in our surety, Eph. 1:6., "He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Though our obedience be imperfect, yet, through Christ our surety, God looks upon it as perfect. And that very service which God's law might condemn, God's mercy is pleased to crown, by virtue of the blood of our Mediator. Having given you these rules about the commandments, I shall come next to the direct handling of them.