Commentari biblici

And God spake all these words, saying,

God spake all, … — All the ten are of divine authority. Papists disannulling the second, that yet they may retain the number of ten words, so loath are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen, divide the last, which yet is called "the commandment," not the commandments. Romans 7:7 Vasques, not able to answer our argument, saith that the second commandment belonged to the Jews only. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Which have brought thee. — God’s blessings are binders; and every deliverance a tie to obedience. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt have. — This "thou" reacheth every man. Xenophon saith of Cyrus, that when he gave anything in command, he never said, Let some one do this; but, Do thou this. Hoc tu facias. - Xenophon’s Cyropaed.

No other gods before me. — But "know" and "serve" me alone "with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind." 1 Chronicles 28:9 Hoc primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur, saith Luther. In this first commandment the keeping of all the other nine is commanded. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:

Thou shalt not make unto thee, — i.e., For religious use; for civil they may be made. Matthew 22:20 Howbeit the Turks will not endure any image, no not upon their coins, because of this second commandment. The Papists by their sacrilegious practices, have taken away this commandment out of their vulgar catechism. This is a great stumbling block to the Jews, and a let to their conversion: for ever since their return from Babylon, they do infinitely abhor idolatry. And for their coming to Christian sermons, they say, that as long as they shall see the preacher direct his speech and prayer to that little wooden crucifix that stands on the pulpit by him, to call it his Lord and Saviour to kneel to it, to embrace it, to kiss it, to weep upon it, as is the fashion of Italy, this is preaching sufficient for them, and persuades them more with the very sight of it, to hate Christian religion, than any reason that the world can allege to love it. Specul. Europ. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;

Thou shalt not bow down. — Images came first from Babylon. For Ninus having made an image of his father Belus, all that came to see it were pardoned for their former offences: whence in time that image came to be worshipped, through the instigation of the devil, who is, saith Synesius, ειδωλοχαρης ; one that rejoiceth in images.

Am a jealous God. — Be the gods of the heathens good fellows, saith one: the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another, nor be served by any but in his own way. They that wit-wanton it with God, may look to case worse than that citizen in King Edward IV’s days did; who was executed in Cheapside as a traitor, for saying he would make his son heir of the crown: though he only meant his own house, having a crown for the sign. Speed’s Chro.

Visiting the iniquity. — This second commandment is the first with punishment: because men do commonly punish such as worship God in spirit and in truth. As therefore one fire, so one fear should drive out another i the fear of God, the fear of men. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Unto thousands. — Of succeeding generations. Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. And this promise, though made to all, yet is more specially annexed to this second commandment; to teach, saith one, that parents should chiefly labour to plant piety in their families, as they would have God’s blessing entailed upon their issue. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

The Name of the Lord. — That "holy and reverend" Name; Psalms 111:9 that Nomen Maiestativum, as Tertullian callcth it; "dreadful among the heathen." Malachi 1:14 The very Turks at this day chastise the Christians that live amongst them for their oaths and blasphemies darted up against God and Christ. The Jews also are much offended thereat, and it should be no small grief to us to hear it. When one of Darius’s eunuchs saw Alexander the Great setting his feet upon a low table that had been highly esteemed by his master, he wept. Being asked the reason by Alexander, he said, it was to see the thing that his master so highly esteemed, to be now contemned, and made his footstool. Diod. Sic., lib. xvii. See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Remember the Sabbath day. — He saith not, The seventh day from the creation, but the day of religious rest; such is now our Christian Sabbath, called a "Sabbath day" by our Saviour, Matthew 24:20 who is "Lord of this Sabbath," called therefore the Lord’s day, Revelation 1:10 as one of our sacraments is called "the Lord’s supper," 1 Corinthians 11:20 and "the table of the Lord," 1 Corinthians 10:21 because instituted by him. Pope Sylvester presumed to alter the Christian Sabbath, decreeing that Thursday should be kept through the whole year; because on that day Christ ascended, and on that instituted the blessed sacrament of his body and blood. Hospin, De Fest. Christ. And generally Papists press the sanctification of the Sabbath as a mere human institution in religious worship; an ordinance of the Church; and do in their celebration more solemnly observe the festivals of the saints, than the Lord’s Sabbaths, making it as Bacchus’s orgies, …, that, according to what their practice is, it may more fitly be styled, Dies daemoniacus quam Dominicus, the devil’s day than God’s.

To keep it holy. — Let every one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually, saith Ignatius, - μελετη β νομου χαιρων ου σωματος ανεσει , - rejoicing in the meditation of Christ’s law, more than in the rest of our bodies. The ox and ass must rest; we must consecrate a rest: as God on the seventh day rested not from his works of preservation. John 5:17 See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exodus 20:17 "

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