Westminster Annotations, Exodus · Chapter 20 – To the reader
CHAP. XX.
Vers. 1. ALL these words] The Commandements are to be received (all of them) with an equall regard, as having all of them the same Authour: who if he be contemned in any one, is obeyed in none of them, Jam. 2. 10. There is so much written of the Ten Commandements in Catechismes, and other Treatises (of common use) that it will not be needfull to make any long exposition upon them.
V. 2. I am the Lord] Deut. 5. 6. Psal. 81. 10.
land of Egypt] Hos. 13. 4.
bondage] Heb. servants.
V. 3. None other gods] There be many gods by name, 1 Cor. 8. 5. though not by nature: Gal. 4. 8. for flatterers make great men gods, as the people did Herod, Act. 12. 22. and simple people (upon any extraordinary evidence of divine power) bestow a deitie on him they see, in stead of him they see not: as the barbarous people did upon Paul, Acts 28. 6. and the superstitious account them gods which are made with hands, Act. 19. 28. and some take upon them the office of God as Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2. 4. and to some their belly is their god, Phil. 3. 19. yea and the devill himselfe, 2 Cor. 4. 4. And whatsoever it is, that men love, or feare, or delight in, or trust in, or would doe more for, (as voluptuaries for their pleasures, 2 Tim. 3. 4.) or but as much, as for the true God, is a false god unto them: but indeed there is but one true God, 1 Cor. 8. 6. Eph. 4. 6. even that God, who (with a mightie hand) had brought the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt: for, for others, (though they be so called) indeed they are no gods, 2 King. 19. 18.
V. 3. before me] Deut. 5. 7. Or, with me. or, besides me. But the words before me, imply that Idolatrie cannot be so secretly committed, but that it is before his face, Psal. 44. 20, 21. And Idolatrie against God, being as Adultery against an husband, Jam. 4. 4. what an impudence is it to commit it in his presence?
V. 4. any graven image] Especially of God, Deut. 4. 16. likenesse] Num. 33. 52. Deut. 4. 18.
heaven above] Whether of Angels, Sunne, Moone, or Starres, or fowles of heaven; or of men, or beasts on earth; or of fishes in the sea: this enumeration is made so full, to seclude all kinds of idolatrous representations of God by the creatures: for, that there should be no Image made of him, is plaine (by the expresse caution) given by the Lord himselfe: Take h…ed to your selves: for ye saw no manner of image, in the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, Deut. 4 15.
V. 5. Thou shalt not bow] Nor serve, nor sacrifice, nor doe any service to them. By this kind of gesture, all kind of lawfull service and worship of the true God is commanded in the Scripture. And in the same phrase, all honouring of Idols, 1 King. 19. 18. 2 King. 17. 35. and all religious worship of the creatures, whether absolutely, or relatively; mediately, or ultimately, is condemned.
* jealous God] God and his people, are as a man and his wife, Hos. 2. 16. 19. and if they commit adultery against him by idolatrie, (for that is spirituall adulterie, as is said in the Note on the third vers.) he will be inraged at the matter, as a jealous husband at his lascivious wife, and injurious Rivall, Pro. 6. 34, 35. and this should make his people chastly precise, and scrupulous against all occasions and appearances of Idolatry, by which his jealousie may be provoked.
* Nah. 1. 2. Isa. 48. 11.
* upon the children] This doth not contradict that of the Prophet Ezekiel, The sonne shall not die for the iniquitie of his father, Ezek. 18. 17. nor of the Apostle, Every one shall beare his own burden, Gal. 5. 6. The meaning of which words are, that no sonne shall be damned for the sinne of his father; nor one man for the sinne of another, unlesse by commission, or approbation, or some other way he make it his own. But for temporall punishments, there is none but (by occasion of others sins) may have their portion in them: the sinne of David occasioned the slaughter of seventie thousand, 2 Sam. 24. 15. yet they (though in his conceit innocent sheepe, ver. 17.) were guilty of sinne, and worthy of death as well as he, and yet from him might come the occasion of their death; as one may catch the Plague of another, and yet die not by his disease from whom he tooke the infection, but his owne. But this is spoken chiefly of those who continue in the sinne of their Parents: and though divers die, (in their minoritie) God foreseeth how bad they would be if they lived, Psal. 58. 3. And sometimes the Parents derive vengeance on their heads by imprecations upon them, as the wicked Jews wished Christs blood, (that is, the guilt of his bloud) might be on themselves, and on their children, Mat. 27. 25. And sometimes the good children of wicked Parents, are temporally punished, 1 King. chap. 14. vers. 12, 13. because in them, and by such means, are their Parents punished; for that in them they would live and flourish, when themselves are dead.
* Isa. 65. 69. & chap. 14. vers. 20, 21. 1 King. 21. 29. Job 5. 4. & chap. 21. 19. Num. 4. 33. 1 Sam. 15. 3. Matth. 23. 34, 35. 2 Sam. 12. 11. & chap. 21. 5. 14.
third and fourth generation] Jer. 2. 9. Exod. 34. 7. The third and fourth generation are named, because (many times) the Parents live to see their owne iniquitie practised and punished in their childrens children.
hate me] Deut. 7. 10. The loving of Idols, is the hating of God, James 4. 4.
V. 6. to thousands] Deut. 7. 9. As the visiting is of persons to the third and fourth generation, so the mercy is extended or reacheth to thousand generations: so aboundant is God in his benificence, which ought to move men to obey him of love, like sonnes, rather then of feare, like slaves.
V. 7. Thou shalt not take] Levit. 29. 12. Deut 5. 11. Matth. 5. 33.
in vaine] Needlesly, or without just and weightie occasions; or rashly, without heed and reverence; or falsly, without truth.
not hold him guiltlesse] In which words is a Meiosis, or phrase of diminution, (wherein more is meant, then is expressed, as Mic. 6. 11.) the meaning is, though men make it no great fault, it may be none at all, to take Gods name in vaine, nor take any course to punish that sinne, God will not hold him guiltlesse that doth so; but will deal with him as with a guilty person, as guilty of an high contempt of his glory, which he will not suffer to passe unpunished. See Levit. 20. vers. 4, 5. 1 Sam. 5. 6. 9. & chap. 6. 19.
V. 8. remember] Both for the time past, the institution of the Sabbath in memoriall of the creation of the world; and for the time to come, remember so to forecast thine affaires, that none impediment may interpose, to hinder thy holy observation of the Sabbath.
V. 9. sixe dayes] Chap. 23. 12. Ezek. 20. 12. Luk. 13. 14.
V. 10. not doe any worke] Of thy ordinary calling, nor of thy carnall recreations: that thou mayest have time sufficient, and thine affection free both for publike, and private exercise: and mayest be in good temper, for the practise of pietie, and charitie appertaining to the dutie of the day.
servant] Deut. 29. 11. God hath written a release of the servants secular labour, that on that day he might be permitted to be his masters fellow-servant unto God in the solemne observation of the Sabbath.
V. 11. blessed] The Sabbath is a day of blessing to man, as well as of glory to God, if he make a conscience to keepe it as he ought to doe: and there will be no losse unto him, though (for a whole yeare) he should forbeare his work, and profit, in obedience to God, Levit. 25. 20. 21.
the Sabbath day] It is not said the seventh day from the Creation; but the Sabbath day, that is, the day of religious rest: for though God rested on that day, his legall Ordinance here doth not precisely prescribe the observation of that seventh day, but one day in seven: as although the first administration of the Sacrament of the last Supper, were in unleavened bread, yet the institution of it, is for the use of bread, not of that which is unleavened.
V. 12. Honour thy father, &c.] Deut. 27. 16. Levit. 19. 3. Under these two termes, all Governours, Naturall, Civill, and Ecclesiasticall are comprehended with the mutuall duties betwixt Superiours, Inferiours, and equals belonging to them, according to their severall relations.
that thy dayes may be long in the land] Deut. 5. 16. That is, to the Jews the land of Canaan; to others the land of their possession; which implieth a promise of long life, to such as are obedient to their Governors: and it may be an encouragement to inferiours, (especially to children) to behave themselves submissively to their Superiours, in that an obedient child shall by Gods promise (laid hold on by the parents prayers) prolong his dayes: therefore are parents requests for their children called usually by the name of blessings.
V. 13. Thou shalt not kill] Matth. 5. 21. Thou shalt neither by thine hand effect, nor by thy tongue procure, nor in thine heart desire, the death of thy brother: but thou shalt love, and preserve his life, using all good meanes, conducing to that purpose.
V. 14. not commit adulterie] Ezek. 22. 11. 1 Thes. 4. 3, 4. Whereby all unchast thoughts, affections, words, and behaviour is forbidden: and all puritie in heart, word, and deed required.
V. 15. not steale] 1 Thes. 4. 16. Ephes. 4. 28. Neither by fraud, nor force wrong any one in his estate: but save his goods and doe him good with thine owne, if he have need.
V. 16. beare false witnesse] Deut. 19. 16. Thou shalt neither by speech nor silence, neither by raising or receiving a false report, be injurious to the credit or good name of thy Neighbour: but shalt carefully preserve it, and cleare it from reproach, if thou knowest how to doe it, when opportunitie for it.
against thy Neighbour] Nor for him: for all lying is here forbidden; as all crueltie and wrath, by the name of killing: all bodily uncleannesse under the name of adultery: all injurious usurpation of other mens goods, under the name of theft; and the prohibition is made in these termes, because lies are more frequently made against them, and for that such lies are worse which are mixt with malice and slander, then those which proceed out of affection and favour.
V. 17. * not covet] Thou mayest not so much as wish his hinderance in any thing; but must check the first motions of concupiscencie, against any of the precedent precepts.
* Act. 20. 33. Rom. 7. 7. Deut. 5. 21.
V. 18. saw the thundering] Heb. 12. 18. See Annot. in Gen. 42. 1. and adde to it Joh. 20. 29.
V. 19. * let not God speake] God (in the publishing of his law) was so terrible, that the people had need of a Mediator, betwixt him and them: in this was Moses a Type of Christ, Gal. 3. 19. 1 Tim. 2. 5.
* Deut. 18. 16. Matth. 17. 6. Act. 7. 32.
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