by Ezekiel Hopkins
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
The Bible is the Statute-Book of God's Kingdom. Therein is comprised the whole body of the heavenly law; the perfect rules of a holy life, and the sure promises of a glorious one.
And the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, is a summary or brief epitome of those laws, written by the immediate finger of God: and contracted into so short an abridgment, not only to ease our memories, but to gain our veneration; for sententious commands are best befitting Majesty. And, indeed, if we consider the paucity of the expressions, and yet the copiousness and variety of the matter contained in them, we must needs acknowledge, not only their authority to be divine, but likewise the skill and art in reducing the Whole Duty of Man to so brief a compendium. The words are but few, called therefore the Words of the Covenant, the Ten Words: Exod. 34:28 but the sense and matter contained in them, is vast and infinite. The rest of the Scripture is but a commentary upon them: either exhorting us to obedience, by arguments; or alluring us to it, by promises; or frighting us from transgressing, by threatenings; or exciting us to the one, and restraining us from the other, by examples recorded in the historical part of it.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
To the Reader
Introduction
Preface to the Ten Commandments
The First Commandment
The Second Commandment
The Third Commandment
The Fourth Commandment
Introduction to the Second Table
The Fifth Commandment
The Sixth Commandment
The Seventh Comandment
The Eighth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment
The Tenth Commandment