CHAPTER I

ON THE PRECEPTS OF GOD CONTAINED IN THE DECALOGUE

QUESTION I

It is also shown that the Decalogue is an Epitome of the Entire Law

That the Decalogue is a summary and epitome of the entire law, is the recorded opinion of St. Augustine, for whereas the Lord had spoken many things, yet to Moses are given only two tables of stone, which are called tables of testimony, to be deposited in the ark; and the reason is, because on the ten precepts inscribed thereon, if they be carefully examined with a view to be properly understood, are found to depend all other things that God has commanded; as again, those same ten commandments [depend on] these two, the love of God and of our neighbour, on which hang the whole law and the prophets.

QUESTION II

Why it should be carefully studied and explained by Pastors

Constituting then, as it does, a summary of the whole law, it becomes the duty of pastors to give to its contemplation their days and nights, with the view not only to regulate their lives by its standard, but also to instruct the people intrusted to their care in the law of the Lord; for the priest’s lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. To the pastors of the New Law this pre-eminently applies; for being nearer to God, they should be changed from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. Christ our Lord has said that they are the light of the world; to them, therefore, it especially belongs to be a light to them that are in darkness, the instructors of the foolish, the teachers of babes; and, if a man be overtaken in any fault, those who are spiritual should instruct such a one. In confessions, also, they sustain the character of judge, and pass sentence according to the nature and measure of the offences. Unless, therefore, they wish that their ignorance defraud themselves, and others also, they must in the discharge of this duty bestow the greatest vigilance, and be most practised in an acquaintance with the interpretation of the divine precepts, in order to be able to pronounce according to this divine rule concerning every act of omission and commission; and that, as the apostle saith, they may teach sound doctrine, that is, doctrine free from error, and heal the diseases of souls, which are sins, that there may be a people acceptable to God, pursuing good works. Now, in such instructions, let the pastor propose to himself, and to others, such considerations as may persuade to obedience to the law.

QUESTION III

Who was the Author of the Decalogue and of the Law of Nature

Amongst the other motives which may impel the minds of men to the observance of the injunctions of this law, there is one that has most power, and that is, that God is its author; for, although it is said to have been delivered by angels, yet no one can doubt that God himself is the author of the law. Of this fact we have ample testimony, not only in the words of the legislator himself, which will soon after be explained, but also in almost numberless other passages of Scripture, which will easily occur to pastors; for no one who is conscious that on his heart is inscribed by God a law, by which he is enabled to distinguish good from evil, vice from virtue, justice from injustice; and, as the force and import of this [unwritten] law are not different from that which is written, no one will dare to deny that God is the author of the written, as he is of the unwritten law. But, lest perchance the people, on hearing the abrogation of the Mosaic Law, may imagine that they are no longer bound by the precepts of the Decalogue, [the pastor] must teach them that, when God delivered the law to Moses, he rather gave increased splendour to this divine light, that was now almost darkened by the depraved morals and inveterate perversity of man, than passed a new law. For it is most certain that the ten commandments are not to be obeyed because given by Moses, but because they are precepts innate in the minds of all, and have been explained and confirmed by Christ our Lord.

QUESTION IV

Considerations calculated to enforce its Observance by the People

It must, however, prove a most powerful and persuasive argument [for enforcing the observance of the law], to reflect that the founder of the law is God, of whose wisdom and equity we can have no doubt, whose power and might we cannot elude. Hence, when, by his prophets, he commanded the law to be observed, he proclaims that he is the Lord God; and even the opening words of the Decalogue are: I am the Lord thy God; and elsewhere we read: If I be a master, where is my fear?

QUESTION V

How great is the Benefit of having received the Law from God

That God has vouchsafed to unfold his will, in which is contained our salvation, is a consideration which, besides animating the minds of the faithful to keeping his commandments, must also call forth the expression of their thanks. Hence the Scripture, in more than one place, setting forth this invaluable blessing, admonishes the people to know their own dignity and the divine bounty, as in Deuteronomy: This, says Moses, is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say: Behold a wise and, understanding people, a great nation; and again, in the Psalm: He hath not dealt so with any nation; and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.

QUESTION VI

Wherefore God formerly willed to deliver his Law to the Israelites with so great majesty

But if the pastor explain the circumstances which attended the promulgation of the law, according to the narrative of Scripture, the faithful will easily understand with what piety and humility they should reverence a law received from God. For three days previous to its promulgation, to all the people was announced the divine command, that they should wash their garments, and abstain from conjugal intercourse, to the end that they might he more holy and better prepared to receive the law, and to be in readiness on the third day. When they had reached the mount, from which the Lord was about to deliver to them the law by Moses, Moses alone was commanded to ascend the mount, whither came the Lord with very great majesty, and filled the place with thunderings and lightnings, with fire and dense clouds, and began to speak with Moses, and delivered to him the law. In this the divine wisdom had solely for its object, to admonish us to receive his law with a pure and humble mind, and that, should we neglect his precepts, the punishments prepared by the divine justice impend over our heads.

QUESTION VII

How the Law, promulgated with such Terror, can be fulfilled by Men, and that nothing is easier than Love

The pastor will also teach that the commandments of God are not difficult [of observance]; and this he can show by this single reason from St. Augustine, when he says: How, I ask, is it said to be impossible for man to love, to love, I say, a beneficent Creator, a most loving Father, and also, in the persons of his brethren, to love his own flesh? Yet, he that loveth, hath fulfilled the law; Hence, John the apostle openly beareth witness, that the commandments of God are not heavy; for, as St. Bernard observes, nothing could be exacted from man more just, nothing more dignified, nothing more advantageous. Wherefore, filled with admiration of the supreme benignity of God, Augustine thus addresses God himself: What is man, that thou commandest him to love thee? And if he love thee not, thou threatenest direful punishments! Is it not enough misery if I love thee not? But should any one allege human infirmity as an impediment to his loving God, the pastor will teach, that God, who demands our love, pours into our hearts, by his Holy Spirit, the vehemence of his love; and this good Spirit our heavenly Father giveth unto them that ask him; so that justly has St. Augustine prayed: Give what thou commandest, and command what thou pleasest. Since then, the help of God is ready to sustain our weakness, especially since the death of Christ our Lord, by which the prince of this world was cast out, there is no reason why any one should be deterred by the difficulty of the undertaking; for to him who loveth, nothing is difficult.

QUESTION VIII

All Men are bound to obey the Injunctions of the Law

By explaining moreover the necessity of obeying the law, [the pastor] will contribute very much to induce to its observance, particularly as in these our days there have not been wanting those who impiously, and to the serious injury of their own souls, have not been afraid to say, that the law, whether easy or difficult, is by no means necessary unto salvation. Their wicked and impious opinion the pastor will refute by testimonies from sacred Scripture, especially from the same apostle, by whose authority they endeavour to defend their impiety. What then saith the apostle? Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. When he elsewhere repeats the same doctrine, and says that a new creature in Christ, alone availeth, by a new creature in Christ, we plainly perceive that he means him who observes and keeps the commandments of God; for he that hath and keepeth the commandments of God, loveth God, as our Lord himself testifies in St. John: If any one love one, he will keep my word. A man, it is true, may be justified, and from wicked may become righteous, before he fulfil by external acts each of the precepts of the law; yet it is impossible that any one who has attained the use of reason, unless he be sincerely disposed to observe all the commandments of God, can be justified.

QUESTION IX

Fruits of the Observance of the Divine Law

Finally, that the pastor may leave nothing unsaid that may induce the faithful to observe the law, he will point out how abundant and how sweet are its fruits. This he will easily establish by referring to what is written in the eighteenth Psalm, in which the praises of the divine law are celebrated, amongst which its highest [praise] is, that it proclaims the glory and the majesty of God more eloquently than even the celestial orbs by their beauty and order, enforcing as they do the admiration of the most barbarous nations, and leading them to acknowledge the glory, the wisdom, and the power of the Creator and Architect of all things. The law of the Lord, also converts souls to God; for knowing the ways of God and his most holy will through his law, we turn our feet unto the ways of the Lord. It also giveth, wisdom to little ones; for they alone who fear God are truly wise. Hence, they who observe the law of God are filled with true joys, are enlightened by the knowledge of the divine mysteries, and are blessed with immense pleasures and rewards in this life, and in the life to come.

QUESTION X

Since all things do the Will of God, it is shown that Man ought most justly to follow the same Will

Nor should we observe the law so much from a sense of our own interest, as from a regard for the will of God, which he has unfolded unto men by its promulgation: if the remaining portions of creation are obedient to this his sovereign will, how much more just that man should obey its dictates? Nor is it to be passed over in silence, that God has pre-eminently displayed his clemency and the riches of his infinite bounty even in this, that, whilst he might have commanded us to serve him without a reward, he has nevertheless deigned to unite his own glory with our advantage, thus rendering what tends to the honour of God, conducive to our interests. This then being a most important and glorious prerogative, the pastor will teach, as the prophet says at the close [of his praise of the law], that in keeping them, there is a great reward; for not only are we promised those blessings which seemed rather to refer to earthly happiness, to be blessed in the city, and blessed in the field, but also a very great reward in heaven, and good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, which, with the aid of the divine mercy, we merit by our pious and righteous works.

QUESTION XI

In what manner the Law of Moses is obligatory on Men of all Times, and on what occasion it was promulgated to the Israelites

Although this law was given by the Lord to the Jews on the Mount, yet as it was long before imprinted and engraved by nature on the hearts of all, and God therefore wished it to be obeyed at all times by all men, it will hence be found very profitable diligently to explain the words, in which it was promulgated to the Hebrews by Moses, its minister and interpreter, and also the history of the people of Israel, which is replete with mysteries. First, then, the pastor will relate, that, from amongst all the nations beneath heaven, God chose one, which took its descent from Abraham; that he wished Abraham to be a stranger in the land of Canaan, the possession of which he had promised him; and that, notwithstanding [this promise], he and his posterity were wanderers for more than four hundred years before they obtained possession of the promised land, at the same time that, throughout this their pilgrimage, God never withdrew his care from them. They indeed went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people; yet he never suffered them to be injured, but reproved kings for their sakes; and, before they went down into Egypt, he sent before them a man by whose prudence they and the people of Egypt were rescued from famine. During their stay in Egypt such was the kindness with which he surrounded them, that, although Pharaoh was opposed to them and intent on their ruin, they increased to an extraordinary degree; and when severely harassed, and most harshly treated as slaves, he raised up Moses as a leader, to conduct them from bondage with a strong hand. Of this their deliverance the Lord makes special mention in these opening words of the law; I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

QUESTION XII

Why the People of Israel were chosen by God

Amongst these events the pastor will particularly observe, that out of the nations of the earth one was chosen by God, whom he called his people, and by whom he would be known and worshipped; not that they were superior to the others in righteousness or in numbers, and of this God himself reminds the Hebrews, but rather because, by the multiplication and aggrandisement of a small and impoverished nation, he would more fully display to mankind his power and his goodness. Such having been the circumstances of these men, he was closely joined to them and loved them, so that, Lord of heaven and earth though he was, he disdained not to be called their God, to provoke to emulation the other nations, that, perceiving the happiness of the Israelites, mankind might all betake themselves to the worship of the true God; as Paul also testifies that, by setting forth the happiness of the Gentiles, and the true knowledge of God in which he had instructed them, he provoked to emulation those, who were his own flesh.

QUESTION XIII

Why the Israelites were harassed with such Trials before they received the Law

[The pastor] will next inform the faithful, that God suffered the Hebrew Fathers to wander a long time, and their posterity to be oppressed and harassed under a most galling servitude, to teach us, that to be friends of God we must be enemies of the world, and pilgrims on earth; that to have nothing in common with the world gives us an easier access to the friendship of God; and that, being transferred to the worship of God, we may understand how much more happy are they that serve God, than those who serve the world. Of this the Scripture admonishes us, for it says, Yet they shall be his servants, that they may know the difference between my service, and the service of the kingdom of the earths. [The pastor] will also explain that God delayed the fulfilment of his promise until after the lapse of more than four hundred years, in order that that people might be nurtured by faith and hope; for, as shall be shown when we come to explain the first commandment, God will have his children ever depend on him, and place all their hope in his goodness.

QUESTION XIV

The Time and Place in which the Law was delivered, why chosen

Lastly, [the pastor] will mark the place and time at which the people of Israel received this law from God. They received it, forsooth, when, having been led out of Egypt, they were come into the wilderness; in order that, impressed with the memory of a blessing still fresh in their recollection, and terrified by the ruggedness of the place in which they were journeying, they might the better be disposed to receive the law. For to those whose bounty they have experienced, men are most attached by ties of obligation; and when they have lost all hope of assistance from their fellow-men, then do they seek refuge in the protection of God. We may hence understand, that the more detached the faithful are from the allurements of the world, and the pleasures of the flesh, the more disposed are they to lend a willing ear to the doctrines of salvation; as is said by the prophet: Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand the tearing? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn away from the breasts.