Exposition Upon the Ten Commandments, Exposition 2 · Commandment 1
The 1. Commaundement.
This Commaundement is, Thou shalt hauehave no other Gods, &c. In which we may consider the wordes, and then the meaning. Our English, Thou shalt not hauehave, is in Hebrew, There shall not be to thee. Shall not be, for may not be, or ought not to be: so as if there be, thou sinnest. So likewise, Shall not hauehave, must be vnderstood, Oughtest not to hauehave. And these words, to thee, is not onelyonly to thy selfe, but to any of thine, or any by thy meanes or occasion, whom thou mayest lawfully hinder.
Other Gods. It may be as well reade, God as Gods: for though the worde in Hebrew be of the plurall number, yet it signifieth singulerly, and one: and besides, one worshipping; but any other strange God, though hee worship not many, breaketh this law.
Other, that is, besides, or with the true Iehouah, who I am: and those whosoeuer they be, are not Gods, but so called, as saith Paul, 1, Cor. 8.5. Though there be that are called Gods, whether in heauen or in earth, as there be many Gods and many Lords: yet vntounto vsus there is but one God. And therefore this name GOD, is giuen to them, according to the fashion and manner of speech in the world: Of this kinde, were there sundry in Aegipt, as Cats, Crocodiles, &c. and other in other Nations.
Before me: The Hebrew is, Before my face, which manner of speech, is often in the Scriptures, taken from men, and giuen to God. Nowe in the face, are the eyes, which in men are meanes of knowledge, so as that the face in this sence, sundry times is vsed of GOD, for his knowledge, as Gen 6, 11, and 10, 9. before God or his face, that is, in his knowledge.
Nowe likewise, because Gods knowledge is eueryevery where, looke Psal. 139.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. in which respect, sundry learned men hauehave saide. God is all eye, because he knoweth all things: therfore Gods meaning is, that they should not hauehave any Gods at all, so as he may know, and nothing can they doe, but hee will know, therefore must they hauehave none other. These are the words.
The meaning is, in the matter contained, the sum whereof, is this: Thou must hauehave me to be thy God, and none other. And heere are two parts, the one, affirming what we ought to doe, the other, denying and forbidding. The affirming is, Thou must hauehave me to be thy God: The which, is more largely set downe. Deut. 6, 5. Iosh. 24, 15. Math. 4.10.
Now this giueth vsus to consider, 1, of the persons: 2, of the dutie.
Persons, who is to hauehave, and whom to hauehave: who is to hauehave, thou, that is, no party in the worlde, of whom it may be said, thou, as before.
The person whom we are to hauehave is set downe in this word me, who is heere the speaker, and setteth out himselfe in the Scripture, one God, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, eternall, omnipotent, infinite, most iust, most mercifull, &c. maker of heauen and earth. Looke Exo. 34.6, 7.
This God must be vnderstood alone, as Mark. 12.29. Deut. 6, 4. Math. 4, 10. Iosh. 24, 9.
But it may be said, that in the 2. of the Kinges, 17, 33. the people feared the Lord, but serued their Gods, after the manner of the Nations whom they carried thence.
Aunswer. The Author doth not report, that the people so doing, did well, but he only sheweth what they did: and therefore, Zeph. 1, 5. God threatneth to cut off the remnant of them that worship and sweare by the Lord, and sweare by Malcham, that is, giuegive any respect to any other: neither indeede can there be any fellowship betweene Christ and Beliall.
The duty is, to hane this Iehouah, the true God, for our God: this hauing, meaneth more than it soundeth. In the world a man may hauehave that, which he doth not regard nor vse. It is not so heere; for so must we hauehave God, as that we must respect him as God, and vse him thereafter: in which sence Dauid speaketh. Psal. 73, 25. Whom hauehave I in heauen but thee? and I hauehave desired none in the earth with thee.
And heere sundry things are to be vnderstoode.
1. Taking knowledge of the will of this God, necessarie to euerlasting life: so Iohn, 17, 3. Ier. 24 7. this is onelyonly out of the Scriptures a rightly vnderstoode: and with this knowledge, is ability to put difference betweene truth and falshood. Heb. 5, 14. Acknowledgment of the truth, and cleauing thereto. So Dauid required Salomon. 1, Chro. 28, 9. and for default heerein, Paule blameth the Corinthians. 1, Cor. 15, 34. yea, for the very want heereof in Hosea, God saith, Hee hath a controuersie with the Land, Hosea, 4, 1.
2. A deliberate preferring and esteeming of this God, aboue all the things in the world: so as that for him one can die and suffer any thing. Psal. 73, 25.
3. Reuerence, as of our Father. Mala. 1, 6. this hath loathnes to displease, as in Ioseph. Gen. 39, 9. and carefulnes in all thinges to please God, and to doe his will.
4. Trust and affiance in him, as relying vponupon the certainty of his word and promises: as Paule saith, I know whom I hauehave beleeued. 2. Tim. 1, 12. so that we commit our vvhole estate vp into his hands, & trust him ouer all.
Thys maketh vsus patient vnderunder the crosse, and to wayte.
5. LoueLove, which maketh vsus like all that he liketh, kindling a continuall and feruent desire in vsus, to enioy him.
6. Recourse to him by prayer, vponupon all occasions.
7. Returning to him alwayes all prayses.
Indeede neuer shall we doe all enioyned in this commaundement, till God be all in all vntounto vsus.
Thus much for the affirming part: now followeth the denying and forbidding part, which forbiddeth any thing otherwise, then it is commaunded in the former part, & may by it be vnderstood. Where we must remember, that neither none other God alone, beside the true God, or with the true God, is to be had for our God.
This is the first Commaundement, for hauing GOD: the other which are for the pure worship of God followeth, and these are three, one, for the manner, the other, for the end, the third, for the time and place.