First Commandment.
I AM THE LORD THY GOD, WHICH BROUGHT THEE OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE
HOUSE OF BONDAGE. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.
13. Whether you take the former sentence as a
part of the commandment, or read it separately is to me a matter of
indifference, provided you grant that it is a kind of preface to the whole Law.
In enacting laws, the first thing to be guarded against is their being
forthwith abrogated by contempt. The Lord, therefore, takes care, in the first
place, that this shall not happen to the Law about to be delivered, by
introducing it with a triple sanction. He claims to himself power and authority
to command, that he may impress the chosen people with the necessity of
obedience; he holds forth a promise of favour, as a means of alluring them to
the study of holiness; and he reminds them of his kindness, that he may convict
them of ingratitude, if they fail to make a suitable return. By the name, Lord,
are denoted power and lawful dominion. If all things are from him, and by him
consist, they ought in justice to bear reference to him, as Paul says (Rom.
11:36). This name, therefore, is in itself sufficient to bring us under the
authority of the divine majesty: for it were monstrous for us to wish to
withdraw from the dominion of him, out of whom we cannot even exist.
14. After showing that he has a right to command,
and to be obeyed, he next, in order not to seem to drag men by mere necessity,
but to allure them, graciously declares, that he is the God of the Church. For
the mode of expression implies, that there is a mutual relation included in the
promise, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people," (Jer. 31:33).
Hence Christ infers the immortality of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the fact
that God had declared himself to be their God (Mt. 22:32). It is, therefore,
the same as if he had said, I have chosen you to myself, as a people to whom I
shall not only do good in the present life, but also bestow felicity in the
life to come. The end contemplated in this is adverted to in the Law, in
various passages. For when the Lord condescends in mercy to honour us so far as
to admit us to partnership with his chosen people, he chooses us, as Moses
says, "to be a holy people," "a peculiar people unto himself," to "keep all his
commandments," (Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). Hence the exhortation, "Ye shall be
holy; for I the Lord your God am holy," (Lev. 19:2). These two considerations
form the ground of the remonstrance, "A son honoureth his father, and a servant
his master; if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master,
where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts," (Mal. 1:6).
15. Next follows a commemoration of his kindness,
which ought to produce upon us an impression strong in proportion to the
detestation in which ingratitude is held even among men. It is true, indeed, he
was reminding Israel of a deliverance then recent, but one which, on account of
its wondrous magnitude, was to be for ever memorable to the remotest posterity.
Moreover, it is most appropriate to the matter in hand.199 For the
Lord intimates that they were delivered from miserable bondage, that they might
learn to yield prompt submission and obedience to him as the author of their
freedom. In like manners to keep us to his true worship, he often describes
himself by certain epithets which distinguish his sacred Deity from all idols
and fictitious gods. For, as I formerly observed, such is our proneness to
vanity and presumption, that as soon as God is named, our minds, unable to
guard against error, immediately fly off to some empty delusion. In applying a
remedy to this disease, God distinguishes his divinity by certain titles, and
thus confines us, as it were, within distinct boundaries, that we may not
wander hither and thither, and feign some new deity for ourselves, abandoning
the living God, and setting up an idol. For this reason, whenever the Prophets
would bring him properly before us, they invest, and, as it were, surround him
with those characters under which he had manifested himself to the people of
Israel. When he is called the God of Abraham, or the God of Israel, when he is
stationed in the temple of Jerusalem, between the Cherubim, these, and similar
modes of expression,200 do not confine him to one place or one
people, but are used merely for the purpose of fixing our thoughts on that God
who so manifested himself in the covenant which he made with Israel, as to make
it unlawful on any account to deviate from the strict view there given of his
character. Let it be understood, then, that mention is made of deliverance, in
order to make the Jews submit with greater readiness to that God who justly
claims them as his own. We again, instead of supposing that the matter has no
reference to us, should reflect that the bondage of Israel in Egypt was a type
of that spiritual bondage, in the fetters of which we are all bound, until the
heavenly avenger delivers us by the power of his own arm, and transports us
into his free kingdom. Therefore, as in old times, when he would gather
together the scattered Israelites to the worship of his name, he rescued them
from the intolerable tyranny of Pharaoh, so all who profess him now are
delivered from the fatal tyranny of the devil, of which that of Egypt was only
a type. There is no man, therefore, whose mind ought not to be aroused to give
heed to the Law, which, as he is told, proceeded from the supreme King, from
him who, as he gave all their being, justly destines and directs them to
himself as their proper end. There is no man, I say, who should not hasten to
embrace the Lawgiver, whose commands, he knows, he has been specially appointed
to obey, from whose kindness he anticipates an abundance of all good, and even
a blessed immortality, and to whose wondrous power and mercy he is indebted for
deliverance from the jaws of death.201
16. The authority of the Law being founded and
established, God delivers his First Commandment--
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.
The purport of this commandment is, that the
Lord will have himself alone to be exalted in his people, and claims the entire
possession of them as his own. That it may be so, he orders us to abstain from
ungodliness and superstition of every kind, by which the glory of his divinity
is diminished or obscured; and, for the same reason, he requires us to worship
and adore him with truly pious zeal. The simple terms used obviously amount to
this. For seeing we cannot have God without embracing everything which belongs
to him, the prohibition against having strange gods means, that nothing which
belongs to him is to be transferred to any other. The duties which we owe to
God are innumerable, but they seem to admit of being not improperly reduced to
four heads: Adoration, with its accessory spiritual submission of conscience,
Trust, Invocation, Thanksgiving.202 By Adoration, I mean the
veneration and worship which we render to him when we do homage to his majesty;
and hence I make part of it to consist in bringing our consciences into
subjection to his Law.203 Trust, is secure resting in him under a
recognition of his perfections, when, ascribing to him all power, wisdom,
justice, goodness, and truth, we consider ourselves happy in having been
brought into intercourse with him. Invocation, may be defined the retaking of
ourselves to his promised aid as the only resource in every case of need.
Thanksgiving, is the gratitude which ascribes to him the praise of all our
blessings. As the Lord does not allow these to be derived from any other
quarter, so he demands that they shall be referred entirely to himself. It is
not enough to refrain from other gods. We must, at the same time, devote
ourselves wholly to him, not acting like certain impious despisers, who regard
it as the shortest method, to hold all religious observance in derision. But
here precedence must be given to true religion, which will direct our minds to
the living God. When duly imbued with the knowledge of him, the whole aim of
our lives will be to revere, fear, and worship his majesty, to enjoy a share in
his blessings, to have recourse to him in every difficulty, to acknowledge,
laud, and celebrate the magnificence of his works, to make him, as it were, the
sole aim of all our actions. Next, we must beware of superstition, by which our
minds are turned aside from the true God, and carried to and fro after a
multiplicity of gods. Therefore, if we are contented with one God, let us call
to mind what was formerly observed, that all fictitious gods are to be driven
far away, and that the worship which he claims for himself is not to be
mutilated. Not a particle of his glory is to be withheld: everything belonging
to him must be reserved to him entire. The words, "before me," go to increase
the indignity, God being provoked to jealousy whenever we substitute our
fictions in his stead; just as an unfaithful wife stings her husband's heart
more deeply when her adultery is committed openly before his eyes. Therefore,
God having by his present power and grace declared that he had respect to the
people whom he had chosen, now, in order to deter them from the wickedness of
revolt, warns them that they cannot adopt strange gods without his being
witness and spectator of the sacrilege. To the audacity of so doing is added
the very great impiety of supposing that they can mock the eye of God with
their evasions. Far from this the Lord proclaims that everything which we
design, plan, or execute, lies open to his sight. Our conscience must,
therefore, keep aloof from the most distant thought of revolt, if we would have
our worship approved by the Lord. The glory of his Godhead must be maintained
entire and incorrupt, not merely by external profession, but as under his eye,
which penetrates the inmost recesses of his heart.