i ^mm ^fc- w^ m m twmm i ;%;?y,.;'M CV THE REV. CANON R. L. OTTLEY, D.D. Uniform with The Rule of Life and Love, THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE. fii^ady. THE RULE OF WORK AND WORSHIP. [In preparation. Demy 8vo, 5s. net each. LONDON : ROBERT SCOTT. tHibvar^ of Ibietodc ZhcoloQS>, EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C, PIERCY, M.A. DEAN AND CHAPLAIN OF WHITELANDS COLLEGE THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE ROBERT LAWRENCE OTTLEY, D.D. Edited by the Rev. Wm. C. PIERCY, M.A. VOLUMES NOW READY. THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. By the Rev. Professor T. G. BoNNEy, D.So. ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By Professor Edouard Navillb, D.C.L. MARRIAGE IN CHURCH AND STATE. By the Rev. T. A. Lacey, M.A. (Warden of the Loadoa Diocesan Peaiteotiary). THE BUILDING UP OH THE OLD TESTAMENT. By the Rev. Canoa R. B. Girdlkstome, M.A. CHRISTIANITY AMD OTHER FAITHS. An Essay In Comparative Religion. By the Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall, D.D, THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vols. I. and //. By the Rev. Alfred Plommer, D.D. (formerly Master of University College, Durham), CHARACTER AND RELIGION. By the Rev. the Hom. Edward Lytteltom, M.A. (Head Master of Eton College), MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS ? By the Rev. Rolamd Allen, M.A. (Author of " Missionary Principles "). THE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE. By the Rev. R. L. Ottley, D.D. (Canon of Christ Church, aod Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology iu the Uaiversity of Oxford). THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE. By the Rev. R. L. Ottley, D.D. THE CREEDS: THEIR HISTORY, NATURE AND USE. By the Rev, Harold Smith, M.A. (Lecturer at the London College of Divinity). THE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay). By the Rev. S. Nowell Rostron, M.A. (Late Principal of St, John's Hall, Durham), MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY. By the Rev. W. K. Fleming, M.A., B.D. RELIGION IN AN AGE OF DOUBT. By the Rev. C. J. Shebbeare, M.A. The following works are in Preparation : — RELIGIOUS EDUCATION I ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. By the Rev. Prebendary B. Reynolds, THE CATHOLIC CONCEPTION OF THE CHURCH. By the Rev. W. J. Sparrow Simpson, D.D. AITTHORITY AND FREETHOUGHT IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By the Rev. F. W. Bussell, D.D. EARLY CHRISTIAN LITBRATURE. By the Rev. Wm. C. Piercy, M.A. ^r^..„^«r .^T,,r..^.,.,^v-. GOD AND MAN, ONE CHRIST. COMMON OBJECTIONS n .. n ^ o o .» « TO CHRISTIA.VUY *' Charles E. Raven, MA. By the Rev. C. L. Drawbridge, M.A. THE CHURCH OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE. By the Rev. C. R. Davey Biggs, D.D. THE NATURE OF FAITH AND THE CONDITIONS OF US PROSPERITY. By the Rev. P. N. Waogett, M.A. THE ETHICS OF TEMPTATION. By the Ven. E. E, Holmes, M.A. GREEK THOUGHT AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. By the Rev. J. K. Mozley, M.A. THE GREAT SCHISM BETWEEN THli EAST AND WEST. By the Rev. F, J. Foakes-Jackson, D.D. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL IN OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By the Rev. A. Troelstra, D.D. Full particulars of this Library may be obtained from the Publisher. NEW YORK: FLEMING H. REVELL CO. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE AN EXPOSITION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTSy<^^'^ BY THE REV. ROBERT LAWRENCE OTTLEY, D.D. Canon of Christ church, hon. fellow of pembroke college, oxford Fidelia omnia mandata eius : confirmata in saeculum saeculi. — Ps. cxi. 8. Particeps ego sum omnium timentium te et custodientium mandata tua. — Ps. cxix.63. NEW YORK CHICAGO FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY MCMXII TO BISHOP MITCHINSON MASTER OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE MY HONOURED TEACHER AND CONSTANT FRIEND I DEDICATE THIS BOOK, PUBLISHER'S NOTE THE present volume is one of a series of three undertaken by the Rev. Canon Ottley and dealing devotionally with The Creed, The Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer. The first work, 'The Rule of Faith and Hope,* has already been published, and the third volume will be issued under the title of ' The Rule of Work and Wor- ship.' viii EDITOR'S GENERAL PREFACE IN no branch of human knowledge has there been a more Uvely increase of the spirit of research during the paist few years than in the study of Theology. Many points of doctrine have been passing afresh through the crucible ; " re-statement " is a popular cry and, in some directions, a real requirement of the age ; the additions to our actual materials, both as regards ancient manuscripts and archaeological discoveries, have never before been so great as in recent years ; Unguistic knowledge has advanced with the fuller possibihties provided by the constant addition of more data for comparative study ; cuneiform inscriptions have been deciphered, and forgotten peoples, records, and even tongues, revealed anew as the outcome of dihgent, skilful and devoted study. Scholars have speciaUzed to so great an extent that many con- clusions are less speculative than they were, while many more aids are thus available for arriving at a general judgment ; and, in some directions at least, the time for drawing such general conclusions, and so making practical use of such specialized research, seems to have come, or to be close at hand. Many people, therefore, including the large mass of the parochial clergy and students, desire to have in an accessible form a review of the results of this flood of new light on many topics that are of living and vital interest to the Faith ; and, at the same time, " practical " questions — ^by which is really denoted merely the apphcation of faith to Ufe and to the needs of the day — have certainly lost none of their interest, but rather loom larger than ever if the Church is adequately to fulfil her Mission. It thus seems an appropriate time for the issue of a new series of theological works, which shall aim at presenting a general survey of the present position of thought and knowledge in various branches of the wide field which is included in the study of divinity, iz X EDITOR'S GENERAL PREFACE The Library of Historic Theology is designed to supply such a series, written by men of known reputation as thinkers and scholars, teachers and divines, who are, one and all, firm upholders of the Faith. It will not deal merely with doctrinal subjects, though pro- minence will be given to these ; but great importance will be attached also to history — the sure foundation of all progressive knowledge — and even the more strictly doctrinal subjects will be largely dealt with from this point of view, a point of view the value of which in regard to the " practical " subjects is too obvious to need emphasis. It would be clearly outside the scope of this series to deal with individual books of the Bible or of later Christian writings, with the Uves of individuals, or with merely minor (and often highly controversial) points of Church governance, except in so far as these come into the general review of the situation. This de- tailed study, invaluable as it is, is already abundant in many series of commentaries, texts, biographies, dictionaries and mono- graphs, and would overload far too heavily such a series as the present. The Editor desires it to be distinctly understood that the various contributors to the series have no responsibihty whatso- ever for the conclusrons or particular views expressed in any volumes other than their own, and that he himself has not felt that it comes within the scope of an editor's work, in a series of this kind, to interfere with the personal views of the writers. He must, therefore, leave to them their full responsibihty for their own conclusions. Shades of opinion and differences of judgment must exist, if thought is not to be at a standstill — petrified into an unpro- ductive fossil ; but while neither the Editor nor all their readers can be expected to agree with every point of view in the details of the discussions in all these volumes, he is convinced that the great principles which he behind every volume are such as must conduce to the strengthening of the Faith and to the glory of God. That this may be so is the one desire of Editor and contributors aUke. W. C. P. London, 1911. AUTHOR'S NOTE For convenience' sake I give a list of books to which reference is occasionally made and which are scarcely likely to be familiar to ordinary readers : — Pbilo, de decern oraculis. Irenaeus, adv. haereses. Origen, in Exodum horn. viii. Augustine, epist. cxcvi. ad Asellicum. Hugo de S. Victore, annotationes elucidatoriae in Exodum. T. Aquinas, summa theologiae. Nicolas de Lyra (d. 1340), comtn. in Exodum. Ussher, abp. of Armagh (d. 1656), Exposition of the Decalogue, Andrewes, L., bp. of Winchester (d. 1625), A pattern of catechistical doctrine. Grotius, H. (d. 1645), annotationes ad Exodum c. xx. Cocceius, Jo. (d. 1669), observationes in Exodum c. xx. Nicholson, W., bp. of Gloucester (d. 1671), An exposition of the Catechism of the Church of England. Barrow, I., Master of Trin, Coll., Cambridge (d. 1677), Exposition of the Decalogue. Ken, T., bp. of Bath and Wells (d. 1711), The office of divine love. Turretin, F. (d. 1737), Institutio Theologiae elencticae (loc. xi. ' De lege Dei '). C. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, comprising Pirqe Aboth (ed. 2). Of quite modern works on the Decalogue the late Dr. Dale's book The Ten Commandments is perhaps the most noteworthy. R. L. O. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Character the End of Religion . I Different Aspects of the Decalogue — (i) A revelation of God (2) A re-enactment of the law of Nature (3) A Law of Love .... (4) A Law of Liberty .... n Principles of Interpretation — The spirituality of the Law. Negative precepts imply positive . The Decalogue interpreted in Christ's life The Law and the Spirit III Fundamental Questions of Ethics — (i) ' What is the chief good ? ' . (2) ' What is the moral standard ? ' (3) ' What is man's true end ? ' Additional Note on ' Self-love ' CHAPTER II THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE History of the Different Versions I The Mosaic origin of the Decalogue discussed Reply to various objections. page I 3 6 9 II 12 14 15 17 18 19 21 23 25 27 29 XIV CONTENTS II The charter of Jehovah's covenant with Israel III Substance and Contents of the Decalogue . Its function as an instrument of moral education IV The Decalogue in Christian teaching . V And in Liturgical Use. .... VI Arrangement and division of the Commandments Additional note (see p. 47) .... PAGE 32 35 37 39 43 47 50 CHAPTER III THE FIRST COMMANDMENT Relation of Religion to Morality I Doctrinal truths implied in the Commandment (i) The Divine personality (ii) The grace of Jehovah (iii) Individual responsibility, (iv) The true end of man II Relation of the first to the second ' Word '. The knowledge of God the basis of duty (i) The obligation of repentance . (ii) The obligation of faith . (iii) The call to devotion III The Life of devotion : means thereto — Thanksgiving ..... Detachment ..... Active lovingkindness .... Prayer ...... 53 54 54 56 58 60 63 65 66 71 75 76 77 78 78 CHAPTER IV THE SECOND COMMANDMENT The Use of Images in Worship 81 CONTENTS XV PAGE Brief Survey of the Use of Images, etc., in the Chris- tian Church ........ 83 I The sin denounced in this Commandment — Unworthy conceptions of Deity .... 85 II Positive duties impHed in the Commandment — (i) The duty of holy fear ..... 88 (2) The duty of acceptable worship • - • 93 CHAPTER V THE THIRD COMMANDMENT The Duty of Holy Fear and the Sacredness of Speech 99 The Title ' Logos ' and its bearing upon Christian Life . 10 1 Practical Duties in regard to th3 Use of Speech — (i) The right use of an oath ..... 103 (ii) The offence of profane swearing .... 105 (iii) The duty of reverence for .l-.e things of God . 107 (iv) The sin of unrestrained crj. ; sm .... 108 Th« Warning which closes the Commandment . . 109 CHAPTER VI THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT The Ground of the Fourth Commandment . . .113 Jewish Observance of the Sabbath . . . . .114 The Christian View . . . . . . . -115 Elements in the True Life of Man — (i) The law of work . . . . . . .118 Modern social conditions : the duty of the State . 119 (ii) The law of consecration or worship . . .121 (iii) The law of recreation . . . . . .124 (iv) Sunday a day of bounty and beneficence . . 127 The Promise Attached to the Commandment . . .128 Is'ational Aspect pf Sunday Observance . . . .128 XVI CONTENTS CHAPTER VII THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT Prominence in Christ's Teaching of the Second Table OF THE Decalogue . . . . . . .132 I Reciprocal duties of parents and children . -133 II Extension of the idea of parentage . . .136 III The principle of Authority — Its ground ........ 138 Its essential character in the Church and in the State 139 IV The sacredness of national life — Deference due to the State. . . . .140 Were the first Christians ' unpatriotic ' ? . . 141 Reasons for their antagonism to the State . . 141 The true functions of the State . . . .145 And of Christian citizens . . . . .146 CHAPTER VIII THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT Twofold Aspect of the Law of Justice The Example of Christ ...... I Different degrees of anger reproved by Christ The function of resentment. II The discipline of anger . . . . Its due measure and rightful objects . Ill Questions raised — The lawfulness of war. . . . . And of capital punishment . . . . The sin of suicide . . , . . 150 150 151 152 154 156 157 '57 CONTENTS xvii IV Christ'3 exposition of the Commandments Three typical forms of Christian endeavour . The meaning, motive and pattern of almsgiving V Bearing of the Commandment upon social problems CHAPTER IX THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT The Place of the Commandment in the Decalogue. I The significance of Christ's teaching on marriage . II The meaning of purity ..... Purity a distinctively Christian grace . Aids and safeguards to purity — The power of faith : motive supplied by the Gospel The law of mortification The penitential discipline of the Church Other aids : self-denial and love . Prayer and recollection The preparation for wedded life . Ill Purity in its higher sense : singleness of heart Its reward and climax ... CHAPTER X THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT The Institution of Property — I Principles applicable to the use of property — (i) The principle of stewardship (ii) And of social solidarity . The Problem of Commercial Morality II Positive teaching of the Commandment — (i) The sense of social obligation . (ii) The duty of diligence (iii) The ethics of personal expenditure . PAGE 158 160 161 165 169 170 174 177 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 185 187 190 191 194 xviii CONTENTS CHAPTER XI THE NINTH COMMANDMENT PAGE Truthfulness prescribed in the Third and Ninth Com- mandments . . . . . . . .199 I Possible limits to the duty of speaking the truth, 201 II The ground of the Ninth Commandment . . 203 Social importance of truthfulness. . . . 204 IT I Positive teaching of the Commandment — (i) The duty of sincerity ..... 206 (ii) Of candour in statement . . . .207 (iii) Of charity ....... 209 (iv) Of trustworthiness and fidelity . . .211 CHAPTER XII THE TENTH COMMANDMENT The most Comprehensive of the Commandments . .213 The Consecration of Desire . . . . . .214 The Commandment implies — (i) The spirituality of the law . . . .215 (ii) The moral helplessness of man . . .216 I The restriction of desire . . . . .218 The duty of contentment . . . . .219 of unworldliness ...... 220 of unselfishness ...... 220 II The right direction and consecration of desire . 222 (i) God Himself ' the end of our desires ' . . 223 (ii) The perfection of our own nature . . .225 (iii) The presence of the Spirit in the heart . 226 III Conclusion. The fulfilment of the righteousness of the Law by Christ . . . . .227 The Decalogue and the Beatitudes . . . 231 The Rule of Life and Love CHAPTER I THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE THERE are two sayings of Christ which, taken together, seem to give us the right point of view from which the study of the Decalogue should be approached. The first is that injunction to imitate God which occurs in the Sermon on the Mount, Ye therefore shall he perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.^ Man's true life consists in an ever-growing likeness to God : likeness in activity, likeness in character ; and since this resemblance depends upon knowledge, and knowledge is impossible without love,^ we learn that, for a Christian, life is love. It is love that im- parts to man that God-likeness which is the goal of his development.^ The second passage which claims attention is our Lord's reply to the young ruler who asked Him con- cerning that which is good. Christ's answer to the inquiry was, // thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments,^ His meaning being further defined by a reference to the precepts of the second table of the Decalogue. We are thus led to think of the ten commandments as 1 Matt. V. 48. » I John iv. 8. 3 Augustine, de moribus ecclesiae, xxiii. : ' Fit per caritatem ut conformemur Deo. 4 Matt. xix. 17. 1 2 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE the divinely given Rule of Life and Love. The end of re- ligion is a certain character, in virtue of which man draws near to God and is enabled to * walk ' with Him. In the Decalogue God sketches, as it were, the main outlines of the life to which He calls man — the life of union or friendship with Himself. By keeping the commandments we enter upon the path of life. By keeping the commandments we manifest the reality of our love to God in Christ.^ It is, in fact, by a resolute dedication of our will to goodness — by aiming at a certain character — that we respond to Christ's invitation, Follow Me. His appeal is always directed to man's will, rather than to his intellect or emotion. His benediction rests on them that hear the word of God, and keep it. In days when there is a tendency to over-value know- ledge and thought, and even to glorify mere impulse, it is well to remind ourselves that righteousness is the end of all God's gifts to man — that on which He has set His heart, that for which He works in providence, that for which He has redeemed the world. The supreme end of religion is the formation of strong and holy character ; and the mere fact that the Decalogue holds so prominent a place in the Bible is a challenge to us to inquire whether goodness holds the place it ought to occupy in our aims and endeavours ; whether in our religious life we are setting other things — the satisfaction of our intellect, the advancement of our church or even our party, the stirring of our emotions or tiie soothing of our perplexities — above the one thing need- ful ; above character ; above godliness. I The Decalogue has had a history concerning which some- 1 John xiv. 13, 21. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 3 thing will be said in the next chapter. In its present form it obviously contains much more than a mere outline of duty. The moral precepts comprised in it are rooted in certain revealed truths of religion. Accordingly they are to be studied, in the first instance, as a revelation of Almighty God : of His nature. His character. His purpose for mankind. I. The Decalogue, then, is to be regarded as a Revelation of God. It proclaims what He is, what He loves, what He has wrought for the salvation of man, what He requires of His creatures. Behind the Decalogue lies the history of the great deliver- ance of Israel from Egypt. The Exodus was a real inter- vention of God in human history, in which He manifested His character and His relation to man. Not merely through the spoken word of His accredited messengers and servants, but through action He made Himself known to the people of His choice. As a matter of historical fact. He took Him a nation from the midst of another nation by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors.^ The Hebrew nation was the living and permanent monument of this divine display of grace and power. Israel was chosen out of the world and separated from the heathen nations that it might hear the voice, and learn the will, of the living God. The history of the deliverance, in fact, impressed upon the ransomed people three great truths of religion : the ur^ity of God as the supreme and incomparable object of worship ; the holiness of God as the Source and Guardian of the moral law ; the redemptive grace of God as a Being in Whom are united infinite power and lovingkindness. These truths are taken for granted in the precepts of the entire law and ^ Deut. iv. 34. 4 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE in the spiritual teaching of the prophets. They are expressly indicated in the preamble to the Decalogue : both in the divine Name which stands in the forefront, / am Jehovah, and in the reference to the historical deliverance which formed the foundation-stone of Israel's national history. The ten commandments, then, are delivered to man by a Being Who has a supreme claim on his fear, his gratitude and his obedience ; the obligations which they impose are those befitting a people which has been ransomed from bondage, and lifted by an act of divine grace out of its natural condition into a position of liberty and sonship. The Re- deemer Who claims allegiance is also a righteous God. If He condescends to visit man in his helplessness and lowliness, it is that He may raise him into spiritual fellowship with Himself. The call of duty thus comes to us witt the force of a personal appeal — the appeal of love. He Who bids us be holy for He is holy reveals the glory of His character as a motive constraining us to obedience. Each of the first five commandments has a sanction, either prefixed or added to a moral precept, which recalls some aspect of Jehovah's character and work. The first commandment is in form as well as in substance the appeal of the divine Deliverer to the people which He has redeemed and which He calls to holiness. / am Jehovah thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage : He to whom thou must ever look for salvation and grace to help in time of need. The second ' word ' makes mention of the divine ' jealousy ' — that fire of outraged love which cannot witness unmoved the rebellion or aversion of those whom Jehovah has borne on eagles' wings and has brought unto Himself.^ The third teaches that Jehovah is a holy God Who will not * Exod. xix. 4. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 5 suffer His glorious and fearful Name,^ His revealed character, to be lightly regarded or dishonoured. The fourth exalts Him as a gracious Being Who has thoughts of peace and re- freshment for His ' desert-wearied people ' ; Who leads them gently by the hand of the shepherds of His flock to blessedness and rest.^ The fifth recalls the divine bounty and goodness which brought the seed of Abraham to their promised country, which is the glory of all lands.^ Thus Israel's call to service and obedience is founded on the character of Jehovah. He is not only a God of perfect holiness, but a God of infinite grace, requiring much of His creatures, but giving what He commands. In adopting the Hebrew people and liberating them from servitude, Jehovah was bringing an enslaved and degraded race into a filial relationship to Himself, and the Decalogue is a kind of symbol or sacrament of this change in Israel's status. It is calcu- lated by its references to the lovingkindness manifested in the Exodus to deliver men from the temper of servile fear and to train them in the spirit of devotion and love. The disclosure of Jehovah's character appeals directly to the heart of man ; it touches the springs of action and motive. Thus by the discipline of the law Israel was gradually pre- pared to receive the great commandment in which the whole law was briefly comprehended : Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. "^ In the events of the Exodus, then, we see the God of Israel educating His people for the life of divine friendship by manifesting Himself as the supremely worthy object of its love. This self- disclosure, recorded in the 1 Deut. xxviii. 58. * See Jer. xxix. 11 ; Isa. Ixiii. 11. 3 Ezek. XX. 6, 15. Cp. Deut. xi. 8-12. * Deut. vi. 5. Cp. Iren. iv. 16. 3, where God is described as ' praestruens hominem per decalogum in suam amicitiam.' 6 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Decalogue, was, speaking historically, the starting-point of a higher religion. 2. The Decalogue may also be studied in its relation to the Law of Nature, which it presupposes and interprets. Its various precepts embody the leading and primary prin- ciples of natural piety, justice and equity. The existence of the Law of Nature is taken for granted in Scripture, and is attested alike by the universal consent of nations and by the consciences of individual men. By early Christian writers this Law is boldly identified with the Decalogue. Irenaeus, for example, declares that in His dealings with the Hebrew people, ' God did at first instruct them by means of those natural precepts which from the beginning He had implanted in men, that is to say, by means of the Deca- logue ; and He required of them nothing beyond this.' * The patriarchs,' he adds, ' had the righteousness of the Decalogue engraved on their hearts and minds, inasmuch as they loved the God Who made them, and refrained from all injustice to their neighbour.' i The essential elements of morality, according to this view, pre-existed in the very constitution of man. The moral law, in its large outlines, was recognized by the light of reason ; it was not a matter of express revelation or of social tradition, but was, as St. Paul points out, written in the heart and conscience of God's rational creatures. ^ In the Decalogue these primary principles and duties, which had been sanctioned and attested by the universal consent of mankind, were re-pub- 1 Iren. iv. 15. i ; 16. 3. Cp. TertuUian, adv. Jiidaeos, 2 : ' De- nique ante legem Moysi scriptam in tabulis lapideis, legem fuisse contendo non scriptam, quae naturaliter inteUigebatur, et a patribus custodiebatur.' T. Aquinas, Summa, i. ii". 99. 2 ad i : ' Sicut gratia praesupponit naturam, ita oportet quod lex divina praesup- ponat legem naturalem.' 2 Rom. i. 19, 20 ; ii. 14, 15. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 7 lished in a clear and permanent form, to serve as a kind of groundwork upon which human hfe might be built up anew and developed in accordance with the original purpose of the Creator. The life of friendship or communion with God was that to which all men, as men, were called. Again to quote Irenaeus, ' it was by way of training men beforehand for such a life that the Lord Himself uttered to all mankind alike the words of the Decalogue ; and for this reason those precepts remain equally in force amongst us, receiving ex- tension and enlargement, but not annulment, through His advent in the flesh. '^ The reasons for this solemn re-publication of the Law of Nature are not far to seek. The Hebrews through the in- fluence of their idolatrous surroundings in the land of Egypt, the heathen through continual unfaithfulness to the light of reason, had lost any clear and vital perception of the divine Nature and Will. Knowing God, the Gentiles glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks ; hut became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.- To- gether with the knowledge of God, the apprehension of the law of righteousness gradually became dim and evanescent. In the language of Scripture, Sin entered into the worlds and the consequence of sin was a widespread moral deteri- oration, which seems in part at least to have been promoted rather than retarded by man's advance in civilization.* 1 Iren. iv. 16. 4. ^ Rom. i. 21. 3 Rom. v. 12, * This is touched upon by Darwin, Descent of Man, p. 46. The following passage from the Discourses of John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist, well illustrates the point : — ' Reason in man being Lumen de lumine, a light flowing from the Fountain and Father of lights, and being, as Tully phraseth it, participata similitudo rationis aeternae (as the Law of Nature, the law written in man's heart, is pavticipatio legis aeternae in vationali creatura) it was to enable man to work out for himself all those 8 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Here we touch upon facts of universal experience ; facts which form the basis of the whole idea of a divine redemp- tion. The entire movement of which the Bible is the record —the divine movement towards man for his deliverance and renewal — was occasioned by the actual situation in which our race was involved. Accordingly, in an authori- tative revelation of the divine will the foundation of the redemptive work was laid. Just as the events of the Exodus manifested the purpose and the character of Israel's Re- deemer, so the delivery of the Decalogue lifted once more into prominence that Law of Nature which was in danger of being ignored or forgotten, and vindicated once for all the supreme principle of religion that the moral law is the link that unites God to man, the essential condition for fellowship with Deity. It is this which gives eternal significance to the ancient story of Israel's redemption. ' God brought the people out of Egypt with power,' writes Irenaeus, ' in order that man ' (not merely Israel, but mankind in general) ' might once more become a disciple and follower of God.' At the same time the Decalogue supplemented the Law of Nature in three ways. It extended the range of morality so as to embrace the region of thought, motive and desire, demanding an notions of God which are the true ground-work of love and obedience to God and conformity to Him : and in moulding the inward man into the greatest conformity to the Nature of God was the perfection and efficacy of the ReUgion of Nature. But since man's fall from God, the inward virtue and vigour of reason is much abated ; . . . those principles of divine truth which were first engraven upon man's heart with the finger of God are now, as the characters of some ancient monuments, less clear and legible than at first. And therefore besides the truth of natural inscription God hath provided the truth of divine revelation, which issues forth from His own free will and clearly discovers the way of our return to God, from whom we are fallen.' {The Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion, ch. i.) THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 9 inward and voluntary consecration as well as an outward conformity to law. Again, by thus raising indefinitely the standard of moral action, it necessarily kindled in man the sense of shortcoming and the longing for a power that would enable him to satisfy the divine requirement. Lastly it coupled with the requirement of obedience an express declara- tion of the redemptive love of Israel's Redeemer, pointing, as it were, to Him Who gives the Law as the source of grace to fulfil it. 3. Thirdly, the Decalogue may be regarded as essentially a Law of Love. This is explicitly declared by our Lord in His memorable reply to the question. Which is the great commandment of the Law ?^ but it seems to be also sug- gested by the prefatory words, / am the Lord thy God — an expression which makes a direct and personal appeal to man's heart. In substance the Decalogue anticipates the teaching of the new commandment of love. Just as it re- enforces the Law of Nature, so it comprehends all moral duties that are involved in the love of God and of our neigh- bour. Indeed, since Love is the fulfilling of the Law,^ the Decalogue in some sense comprehends those special precepts which seem to be added to the Law by Christ. Even the duty which seems most distinctive of the Gospel — the call to deny self, to take up the cross and to fellow Christ — is implicitly contained in it, inasmuch as wholehearted love to God includes a perfect willingness to do and to endure whatever love enjoins. We must remember that in speaking of the Law of Love as the great commandment, our Lord seems to teach that it is great not merely in respect of the Being Who claims man's obedience, but great also in the illimitable range of its moral content. To love God with aU 1 Matt. xxii. 37-39. ^ Rom. xiii. 8-10. 10 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE the heart and soul and mind demands the entire consecration of all faculties and all gifts : the regulation in accordance with a single principle of all life and action. As St. Bernard says, ' The limit of love to God is to love Him without limit.' 1 The appeal of love, I am the Lord thy God, is addressed in the first instance to the people of God's especial choice, who (as their own prophets bore witness) were bound by so deep an obligation of gratitude to the service of their Redeemer. But the God of Israel is also the Hope of all nations and the Saviour of the individual soul. The per- sonal form of the commandments ' Thou shalt,' ' Thou shalt not,' implies the call not only of all, but of each, into fellowship with the Creator. We find a marked approach towards this individuahzing of reHgion and ethics in the Book of Psalms. Here the national and theocratic point of view tends to disappear and to give way to that of the individual soul. The Psalmist addresses the God of his fathers and of his nation as ' My God.' To him rehgion consists in a personal relationship of love ; it means the discovery that Jehovah cares for the individual soul in its frailty and solitariness ; the consciousness that God alone is the satisfying object of the soul's thirst, its refuge, its portion for ever. Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and 1 Cp. John Smith, Discourses, 'The Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion,' ch. 2 : — ' By self-denial I mean, the soul's quitting all its own interest in itself, and an entire resignation of itself to Him as to all points of service and duty : and thus the soul loves itself in God, and lives in the possession not so much of its own being as of the Divinity ; desiring only to be great in God, to glory in His light, and spread itself in His fulness, to be filled always by Him, and to empty itself again into Him ; to receive all from Him, and to expend all for Him : and so to hve not as its own, but as God's.' THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE ii there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee ? The very word Thou in the Decalogue conveys an indi- vidual appeal ; it places all men on a level, and testifies that all alike, whatever be their rank and condition, are dependent on God's bounty and summoned to His service ; * it calls each one into the life of divine friendship, and opens to each the door of moral opportunity. 4. Finally we may study the Decalogue as a Law of Liberty. When it was first delivered to the Hebrew tribes it wore this aspect : it formed a kind of charter of their enfranchisement from the bondage of Egypt. The God Who made known His will and purpose in the moral law was He Who had brought them out of Egypt with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. When He laid upon His people the merciful yoke of the law and brought it into the bond of the covenant,^ He was actually educating men and leading them onwards towards the freedom of the Spirit. The New Testament never allows us to over- look the typical significance of the historic deliverance which welded the loosely organized tribes into a strong nation. The bondage of Egypt was a type of the slavery of sin. ^ The redemption of Israel foreshadowed the spiritual deliverance which was destined to be wrought in Christ. The presence of the Holy Spirit in man constitutes the perfect law of liberty ^ In the school of Jesus Christ man learned once for all that true freedom consists in the har- mony of his will with that of God ; that ' freedom ' implies liberty not to sin: * liberty to be and to do all that God * * Dicit lex aov : unitatis numero singulos alloquitur ut ostendat non aliam hie esse viri principis quam minimi de plebe Hebraei conditionem . ' — Grotius . * Exek. XX. 37. ' John viii. 34 ; Rom. vi. 6. * Jas. i. 25. 5 Cp. Augustine, de civ. Dei, xiv. 11 : ' Arbitrium libertatis tunc est vere Uberum cum peccatis non servit,' 12 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE wills : to fulfil in the spirit of love that law which is the self-disclosure of love. II The foregoing survey of the Decalogue in its different aspects : as a revelation of God, a re-publication of the law of nature, a law of love, a law of liberty, leads us next to consider the principles which ought to guide us in our interpretation of the several commandments and in our application of them to the circumstances of modern life. I. First, we must ever remember that the Law is spiritual.^ It is a self-disclosure of Him Who is Spirit, and Who is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart} It demands no merely external conformity to rules of conduct, but the submission of the heart and will to the living claim of truth. We should notice that in the Old Testament itself a spiritual fulfilment of even ceremonial ordinances is enjoined. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, expressly declares the moral significance of circumcision. The outward rite is the symbol of an inward and spiritual self- consecration to Jehovah.^ Again, all the precepts that inculcate acts of neighbourly kindness or humanity point beyond the letter of the law to a certain disposition or spirit seeking to imitate the lovingkindness of the divine King of Israel Himself.* Regard is to be had not only to the rights, but also to the necessities, of the widow and the orphan, the poor and the stranger, nor are the claims of the brute creation overlooked. This feature is chiefly characteristic of Deuteronomy, but the Book of Leviticus is by no means wanting in passages of similar 1 Rom. vii. 14. * Heb. iv. 12. * Deut. X. 16 ; Jer. iv. 4 ; Rom. ii. 28, 29. 4 e.g., Exod. xxiii. 0, 5. Cp. Prov. xxv. 21. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 13 purport, culminating in the comprehensive injunction of Leviticus xix. 18, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. The Old Testament thus itself anticipates that extension of the moral law which is characteristic of the Gospel. The aim and tendency of the law is plainly evident in the spiritual affections which find utterance in the Book of Psalms : that spirit of boundless devotion to God, that entire delight in His commandments which is the theme of such Psalms as the cxixth. These embody the very soul and substance of spiritual religion ; they display the matured fruit of that long and severe legal schoohng through which Hebrew religion had to pass before it could attain its appro- priate climax and crown in the Christian character, in the mind and likeness of Jesus Christ.^ In Christ was finally manifested the consummation towards which the discip- line of the law tended from the first : the self-oblation of a perfectly filial will.^ We are then justified in saying that in the Decalogue was laid the foundation of the religion of the Spirit : that inward devotion to God and to the cause of His kingdom which has its root in ' the great fixed law of moral right, ruling with no reserves over the inner and unseen life.' * Faith in God putting forth its blossom in the fulfilment of duty and bearing its fruit in the life of love — such is in brief the best idea we can form of a spiritual religion, claiming for God human life in its entirety, and teaching that all 1 Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, p. 9, observes that Ps. cxix. represents the high-water mark of the rehgious feeUng of the most religious people of antiquity. It is ' a magnificent declaration of conformity to the will of God, i.e., of the desire to be in right relation to Him.' 2 Heb. X. 5-10. 3 See Dean Church's beautiful book, The Discipline of the Christian Character, 14 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE duties are to be done as unto the Lord : in dependence on His grace and with an eye only to His will. 2. The Decalogue, then, is to be interpreted spiritually as regulating not only outward conduct and behaviour, but the inner life of thought, feeling and motive. Another principle of interpretation which appears to be sanctioned by New Testament usage, is that the negative form of the commandments is intended to suggest positive precepts. The evil to be eschewed implies an ideal standard of right to be embraced. Conversely, those precepts which in form are positive (the fourth and fifth) imply prohibi- tions. This principle seems to be clearly indicated by our Lord in His brief reference to some of the commandments. In the prohibition of murder, not only is the passion of hatred or resentment which leads to it excluded, but the law of active charity even towards enemies is inculcated. In the same way St. Paul implies that the eighth com- mandment lays down the principle of Christian generosity or beneficence.^ Moreover, if the commandments deal with effects, it is to be understood that causes are included : e.g., murder includes all vindictive anger, adultery all in- ordinate appetites of the flesh, etc. By analogy, in a precept which regulates relationship, other sides of the relationship are included. The fifth commandment, for example, includes duties of parents to children, superiors to inferiors, etc. This may be called the principle of exten- sion or inclusion [synecdoche). In fact, the general obliga- tion implied in each single commandment is applicable to all possible relationships of an analogous kind in which man can stand to his fellows, for Homo homini proximus.* * Eph. iv. 28. 2 Iren. iv. 13. 4. So Cicero, de officiis, iii. 6. 27, says it is a ' law of nature ' that each man should consult the interests of each. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 15 3. Another principle to be kept steadily in view is that the Decalogue finds its true interpretation not so much in the express teaching of Christ as in His life and actions. In Him the Law is, so to speak, embodied ; it is manifested in its full scope and in its applications. The Decalogue is a Law of love and Christ's hfe is the Life of love. The Decalogue embodies the will of God, and as St. Cyprian says : ' The will of God is that which Christ fulfilled in act and taught in words.' ^ He exhibited that aspect of love to which each commandment points : occasionally indeed in typical actions (as in those special works of mercy which He wrought on the Sabbath day), but continually in the spirit of His whole Hfe. We may think of Him as fulfilling the first and second commandments in His un- ceasing devotion to God (Matt. iv. 4, 10) ; the third in the godly fear with which He submitted to the Father's will (Heb. V. 7) ; the fourth in the zeal with which He went about doing good ; the fifth in His conformity to the Jewish law and in His subjection to earthly parents and rulers ; ^ the sixth in the whole tenor of His life : the life of One Who came not to destroy men's lives hut to save them (Luke ix. 56, marg.) ; the seventh in the consecration of His sacred Body to the divine service (Heb. x. 5) ; the eighth in the unreserved communication of Himself to men — the giving of Himself for the hfe of the world ; the ninth in the steadfastness of His testimony to the truth (John xviii. 37) ; the tenth in the perfectness of that inward sanctity by which He was ever well-pleasing to the Father. This principle of interpretation corresponds, of course, to the fact that the true righteousness was exhibited to 1 de or at. Dominica, xv. : ^ ' Voluntas autem Dei est, quam Christus et fecit et docuit.' See the whole passage. 2 See also John viii. 49.^ i6 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE the world not in formal precepts, not in a fixed moral code, but in a human life. The life of Jesus Christ was the per- fect commentary upon His teaching. He pointed men to God's Law — What is wviiten in the Law ? How readest thou ? 1 When questioned concerning the way of life He mentions particularly the precepts of the second table, but He supplements His teaching by pointing to Himself, Follow Me.' It is only in a personal pattern that wc can study the way in which the varied duties involved in dif- ferent relationships can be actually and harmoniously fulfilled. So that for Christians, the thought of the imi- tation of Christ tends to overshadow the thought of keeping the commandments of God. For in Him we see ' How love might be, hath been indeed, and is,' love issuing ' in loveliness of perfect deeds. More strong than all poetic thought.' His comprehensive invitation to His disciples, Follow Me, is a call to be what He was, not in the outward circum- stances of Ufe, but in spirit and character ; a call not merely to obey an abstract law, but to walk in love.^ The question whether the Decalogue constitutes an ideally perfect rule of life was a thesis sometimes discussed in the seventeenth century.* Against the Socinians and others who maintained that Christ supplemented (e.g., by His law of self-denial) the moral precepts of the ancient Law, it was argued that the Decalogue was ' perfect ' if interpreted aright. Christ came to fulfil the Law not in the sense of supplying its defects or correcting its mistakes, 1 Luke X. 26. * Mark x. 21. ^ Eph. v. 2. * See for instance Turrctin, Inst, theol. elenct. loc. xi. qiiaest. 3. ' Dc perfcctione Icgis moralis,' THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 17 but in the sense of exhibiting its essential meaning and spirit in a life. ' Christ,' says Turretin, ' fulfilled the Law not by adding to it or correcting it, but by observing it and carrying it out in act.' The question is one that may be differently answered from different standpoints. It is true that the Decalogue regulates the spirit in which man's relationship to God and to his fellow is to be fulfilled : but it is manifest that the teaching of the Gospel in a sense transforms the character of this relationship. It declares the divine sonship of man in Christ. Henceforth, therefore, the observance of the commandments is of necessity a service of filial love, and the scope and intention of the different precepts is revealed in the life of Him Who is the perfect pattern of sonship. On the other hand, the Gospel proclaims the real presence and operation of the Holy Spirit ; so that the Christian life implies the fulfilment of the ancient law in dependence upon the power of a new spirit. It is not the Law which is changed : St. John teaches that the new commandmenl which he writes to the Church is the, old commandment which it had from the beginning.'^ It is the heart of man that is renewed by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, the Old Testament itself had laid down the broad principle of interpretation which the New Testament applies to the Decalogue. In the love of God, as we have seen, the rule of Christ-like self-denial is included. In the precept Be ye holy for I am holy^ is implied the imitation of God, Our Lord Himself recognizes the finality and authorita- tiveness of the Decalogue, simply because its scope and aim is the all-embracing principle of love. 'The new law,' in fact, ' lies concealed in the old as the corn in the ear, * I John ii. 7, 8. 2j^ev. xi.44. i8 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE as the tree in the seed.' ^ Consequently Irenaeus is justified in making a statement which at first sight seems paradoxical : ' The commandments pertaining to life in its perfection being one and the same in both Testaments, they manifest one and the same Deity, Who ordained certain precepts adapted to the special needs of a particular time ; but the more prominent and important precepts, without which salvation is impossible, were identical in both.' ^ III It will have appeared that the Decalogue, interpreted by the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, finds a per- manent place in Christian ethics, not as a mere code of rules, but as defining in outline the relationship of the human soul to God and to all that He has made. For there are three fundamental questions to which the Gospel, in so far as it contains an ethical system, neces- sarily gives an answer. In each case the answer seems to be anticipated in the Decalogue. I. To the question ' What is the chief good ? ' a response is implied in the first commandment, / am the Lord thy God : thou shalf have none other gods but Me. God Himself is the chief good — not (as the Greeks supposed when they spoke in neuter terms of ' the good,' ro aya66v), an abstract state or condition of well-being, but He Who is good (6 dya06<;) ' : a Person Who can be loved and served ; Who can make Himself known and communicate Himself to His creatures ; Who is ' good ' not with this or that kind of goodness, but ' good ' absolutely in His nature and in ' Aquinas, Swwwff/i. ii". 107.I3. ^ Iren. iv. 12. 3. ' Matt. xix. 17. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 19 His gifts ; in the exercise of His power and in the mani- festation of His character. All good flows from Him ; the gifts of Nature by which He satisfies the physical needs or makes glad the heart of man ; the gifts of imagination, of intellect, of genius, by which the level of human civiliza- tion is progressively raised ; the knowledge of that moral law— the law of holiness and truth — which is identical with His own being ; and finally, that power to fulfil the law with alacrity and joy which is the fruit of the divine indwelling. For it is characteristic of the chief good that it imparts itself in response to a fundamental need and instinctive desire of human nature. To ' have none other god ' implies that in God Himself the soul ' has ' all that it needs for the life of blessedness. He is Himself the answer to every prayer and the fulfilment of every heavenward aspiration. For He is good. ' As the^life of the flesh,' says Augustine, ' is the soul ; so God Himself is the blessed life of the soul.' ^ Man's thirst for God is his thirst for the chief good : a good which satisfies his highest capacities and noblest instincts : fellowship with a Being in Whom his nature can find satisfaction and rest. It is no mere ' thing ' or ' state of being ' that can be to us all that we need and all that we are capable of becoming ; it is only a Person — a Being Who wills and loves and understands — Who can be to man the goal of his pilgrimage and the home of his spirit. 2. Another fundamental question of ethics : What is * de civit. Dei, xix. 26. Elsewhere he speaks of God as the Author of the vita beata, ' non de his quae condidit, sed de se Ipso (ib. x. 18). Cp. de mor. ecclesiae, xiii. : ' Bonorum summa Deus nobis est ' ; and Anselm, Proslogion, xxv. : ' Ama unum bonum in quo sunt omnia bona at sufi&cit. Desidera simplex bonum, quod est omne bonum, et satis est.' 20 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE the standard of right and wrong ? The Gospel answers, The holy will of God. We learn that will in nature, in providence, in the moral law, whether implanted in man at his creation or more clearly defined by revelation. But it is in the Person of Christ Himself that the will of God for man is perfectly made known : in what He preached, in what He did, in what He endured. ^ We must remember, further, that though our Lord taught us so much about the ways of God, and though He pointed to Himself as One Who came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him, yet He sends those who would know and follow the way of life back to the Decalogue — extricating the principles which underlie the several commandments and illustrating them by His own example. In the Deca- logue we find the broad outlines of God's will : nor are we allowed to forget that the will of God is not capricious or arbitrary. Moral distinctions do not, as some followers of Duns Scotus seem to have imagined, depend upon the fiat of God's will. They are rather the expression of His essential nature and character. The will of God (as in man) does not manifest itself in isolation from the divine reason and the divine love. Personality as we know it in man, and as we are compelled to think of it in God, acts as an undivided whole. The will of God for the perfection of His creatures— that will of which St. Paul speaks abso- lutely as the will, and elsewhere describes more fully as the good and acceptable and perfect will of God - — is in itself the law of moral duty : conversely, the Decalogue is rather a gracious manifestation of the divine requirement, than 1 TertuUian, de oratione, 4 : ' Est ilia voluntas quam Dominus administravit praedicando, operando, sustinendo.' Cp. Cyprian, de oral. Doni. xu. - Roixi. ii. 18 ; xii. z. THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 21 a disciplinary code.^ Its brief, stern precepts cannot be separated in thought from the merciful Being from Whom they emanate. Only through obedience to them do we fulfil the true law of our nature ; only by keeping the com- mandments do we respond, as we ought, to the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ. 3 . One more ethical question arises : What is the true end of man ? We may answer, Life in God and unto God. Summum honum, says Augustine, est summe esse ; ^ and only in union with God does man attain to the life indeed : the life which is freedom, joy, love, likeness to God. Now, as we have already reminded ourselves, our Lord expressly teaches that the way to enter into life is to keep the commandments.^ He came into the world to impart life in more abundant measure, in greater intensity (so to speak), than had been possible before His coming. The Decalogue, then, opens to us the way of life. The heightened energies and capacities of the Christian indwelt by the Spirit of Christ are to be manifested to the full ; but the exercise of them is to be regulated and harmonized by faithful adherence to the rule of life and love given in the commandments. For when we read of His (that is, God's) commandments,'^ we are meant to understand that the sum of the moral teaching given at each stage of man's progress is the one commandment of love. Through obedience we prove our love, and through love we enter into fellowship with God. Just as the title Jesus Christ contains a ' compressed Creed ' ; so the commandment of love comprises the whole of that moral law which is 1 Thus in Heb. ii. 2 the Law is called Aoyos — ' divine utterance ' or ' revelation.' See Westcott ad loc. 2 de vera relig. xviii. 2 Matt, xix, 17. * I John iii. 22, 24 ; cp. 23. 22 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE explicitly taught in the ten commandments, and which forms the link between the divine and the human. Enough has been said to indicate the breadth and com- prehensiveness of the Decalogue. It is as broad in its range as human life itself ; it teaches the right fulfilment of every human relationship ; in its aim and spirit it har- monizes with the Gospel itself. For it demands nothing less than the dedication of life to God, in other words ' a life unto God and a death unto self.' ^ The difficulty has sometimes been raised that the Decalogue omits any men- tion of the duty which a man owes to himself. There is, of course, such a thing as virtuous self-love, and there are moral duties corresponding to it — duties which form the measure of our regard for others. Thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself.^ What the Christian is bound to reverence and cherish is not what Scripture calls the old man — the unregenerate self — but the new man — the nobler or coming self, which is precious in the sight of God and which is destined to be realized, in accordance with His purpose, hereafter. Aquinas, however, already anticipates the an- swer to this difficulty. ' The love of self,' he says, ' is included in the love of God and of our neighbour ; for a man really loves himself aright in so far as he directs his life Godward.' ^ Duty to self is implied in the great com- mandment : duty in its two aspects of self-denial and self- development : for in loving God aright we die to the old self in order that we may put on the new man which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.*" All sin, personal or social, is a wrong done to God, and 1 Robinson, The Church Catechism Explained, p. 75. 2 Lev. xix. 18. 3 Sunima theologiae, i. ii". 100. 5. Cp. ii. ii". 19. b. * Eph. iv. 24. See Additional Note. THE RULE OF LI^i^E AND LOVE 23 is a breach of His commandments. But sin in its essence means self-love : forgetful of God's claim and making self the centre, the aim and the law of life. Conse- quently we may find a deep significance in the fact that nothing is said in the Decalogue of duty to self. There is no such duty that is not comprised in the precept Thou shall have none other gods hul me. In subjection to God man realizes himself, and attains to true life. In the service of God he finds glory, freedom, and peace. ^ ADDITIONAL NOTE ON ' SELF-LOVE ' In the Constitutions of the synod of Lambeth held under Arch- bishop Peckham, 1281, occurs the following passage, of which a summary is given below : ' Proximum debet quilibet diligere, sicut seipsum. Ubi haec conjunctio siciit non dicit aequalitatem, sed conformitatem, ut videlicet diligas proximum tuum ad quod teipsum, hoc est, ad bonum non ad malum ; et quomodo teipsum, hoc est spiritualiter non carnaliter, secundum quod carnalitas dicit vitium. Item quantum teipsum, hoc est, in prosperitate et adversi- tate, sanitate et infirmitate. Item quantum teipsum respectu tem- poralium, pro tanto ; ut plus diligas omnem hominem et singulum quam omnem affluentiam temporalium. Item sicut teipsum pro tanto, ut plus diligas proximi tui animam, seu animae salutem aeternam, quam tuam vitam propriam temporalem ; sicut animae tuae vitam debes vitae tuae carnis praeponere. Item qualiter teipsum, ut videlicet omni alii in necessitate subvenias, sicut tibi velles in necessitate consimili subveniri : haec omnia intelliguntur, cum dicitur, diligas proximum tuum sicut teipsum.'' [' A man ought to love his neighbouras himself. The qualification " as " implies not equality, but likeness : you should love your neighbour with a view not to his hurt but to his good : you should love him in the same m,anner as you love yourself, i.e., with spiritual not merely carnal affection ; and to the same extent — i.e., in prosperity and adversity, health and sickness. You should love him as much * Iran. iv. 14. i : ' Haec enim gloria hominis, perseverare ac permanere in Dei servitute.' Ibid. iv. 39. 4 : ' Svibjectio Dei requietior est aeterna.' 24 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE as you love yourself in regard to things temporal — loving each and every man more than all temporal abundance ; and " as " yourself in the sense that you pay greater heed to the eternal wel- fare of his soul than to your own bodily life. Moreover, you should love him in such wise as you love yourself by giving succour to all others in time of need, just as you would wish in a like case to be succoured yourself. All this is understood when it is said Thou shalt love thy neighbouv us thyself.' ] CHAPTER II THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE THE Decalogue ^ is familiar to us in two versions : one contained in the Book of Exodus (ch. xx.), the other in Deuteronomy (ch. v.). As we now read the command- ments, it is sufficiently clear that they have received some hortatory expansion. In the case of the fourth ' word,' this expansion differs somewhat widely in the two versions ; and in certain of the other precepts there are noticeable differences of detail. Briefly stated, the conclusion which Old Testament scholars have reached is that the Decalogue was originally embodied in a very terse and simple form, suitable perhaps for inscription upon tablets of stone, and easily committed to memory. It assumed its present form gradually, by incorporation, as it seems, of elements derived from various sources. The version in Exodus, which is possibly the latest in date, appears to presuppose the teach- ing of the eighth century prophets, Amos and Hosea ; it ^ The name ' Decalogue ' is derived from Deut. x. 4, LXX ol SeKa Xuyoi (cp. iv. 13, to. SeVa prjfjiara), ' the ten words ' or ' sayings.' The Latin decalogus occurs in Tertullian de anima, 37, and in the Latin version of Irenaeus adv. haereses. The Greek q ScKaAoyos is used by Clement of Alexandria. Philo's treatise bears the title TTcpt ru>v SeKtt Xoytwi/ ('oracles'). As to the critical analysis of the Decalogue, see Driver, The Literature of the Old Testament ; and the same writer's Commentary on Exodus (Camb. Bible), pp. 191, foil. See also Dr. Burn's article, 'Ten Commandments,' in Murray's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. 26 26 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE also bears clear traces of the work of the so-called ' Deiitero- nomic ' school and also of the priestly writers who, during the course of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., compiled an account of Israel's origins and early history to serve as a kind of framework for the legal matter in which they were chiefly interested. What stands out, however, as a crucial and impressive fact is that the Decalogue was prefixed to the entire body of legislation as constituting in its earliest form the root, and in its latest form the flower, of the long spiritual discipline to which Israel was subjected from the period of the Exodus down to that of the return from the captivity in Babylon. The history, then, of the Decalogue is probably somewhat as follows. There are strong reasons for believing that, in substance at least, this comprehensive outline of moral duty existed in Mosaic times. In the later teachings of prophets and priests its fundamental principles were developed and expanded in accordance with the changing circumstances of Israel's national life. Early in the seventh century * a version of the Decalogue was incorporated in the Book of Deuteronomy, which represents an attempt to revive the fundamental principles of the religion of Moses, and of which the most characteristic feature is the predominance of moral over ceremonial elements. Finally, a somewhat different version was assigned a place in the Book of Exodus. The main substance of this version is usually assigned by the critics to the ' Elohistic ' writer [E] of the eighth century, whose narrative is incorporated with that of the ' Jehovist ' in the Hexateuch. But it shows manifold traces in its 1 For the view of those who consider that the Book of Deu- teronomy is of an earher date, see Griffiths' Problem of Deuteronomy ', Naville's Discovery of the Book of the Law, and Wiener's Pentatcuchal Studies, 1^ OS. 14-17, c^ passim, and Origin of the Pentateuch, passim. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 27 existing form of the influence of other compilers ; and we are justified in thinking that it represents the traditional teaching of a succession of religious leaders, who were agreed in regarding the Decalogue as the foundation-stone, so to speak, of Israel's national life. In its present position it gives a keynote to the entire legislation ; it indicates the result divinely aimed at from the first ; it establishes the simple yet perfect moral standard which was the ultimate object of that slow and progressive education to which the Hebrew people was subjected. Hence in the Book of Deuteronomy the Decalogue is ex- pressly regarded as the charter of the covenant made at Horeb between Jehovah and His ransomed people. ^ I The Mosaic origin of the Decalogue, however, is questioned mainly on three grounds. (i) In the first place it is doubted whether such purely ethical precepts are consistent with the usual characteristics of primitive reUgion. In early times religion was, broadly speaking, ' made up of a series of acts and observances, the correct performance of which was necessary or desirable to secure the favour of the gods or to avert their anger ' ^ ; and, as a matter of fact, a very large proportion of the religious ordinances of Israel seem to belong to this stage in human development. (2) In particular it is urged that the prohibition of images in worship (the second commandment) was practically un- knowm, or at least remained a dead letter, till the age of 1 Deut. iv. 13. So in ix. 9, 11, 15 the two tables are called ' the tables of the covenant,' just as the ark is ' the ark of the covenant ' (x. 8, etc.). 8 W. Robertson Smith, The Religion 0/ the Semites, p. 29. 28 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Hosea (c. 740). Images (pesUtui) were very generally em- ployed, especially in northern and central Israel, down to the middle of the eighth century, and only gave way gradu- ally and partially in response to the preaching of the earlier prophets, by whom they were denounced as characteristic of a formal and external religion which utterly failed to bear fruit in social and personal righteousness. 1 (3) Once more it is contended that the original charter of the Mosaic Covenant may probably have consisted of a group of ten purely rituaUstic precepts, namely, those con- tained in Exodus xxxiv. 14-26 : a passage which appears to be more closely connected than ch. xx. with the account of the delivery of the Law in ch. xix. According to Wellhausen these precepts may have run somewhat as follows : — 1. Thou shalt worship no other god. 2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. 4. Every firstling is mine, 5. Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks. 6. Thou shalt keep the feast of ingathering. 7. Thou shalt not of^er the blood of my sacrifice with leaven. 8. The fat of my feast shall not be left over until the morning. Q. Thou shalt bring the best of the firstfruits of thy land to the house ol Jehovah thy God. 10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. The foregoing table, and indeed the actual substance of the laws comprised in it, is to some extent conjectural, and though precepts of this type may be quite consistent with the general character of primitive religion, there is nothing ' See the author's Rclis^ion of Israel, p. 49. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 29 to prove that this particular group of laws was ever regarded as the charter of the divine covenant with Israel. ^ In reply, then, to the arguments alleged it may be pointed out : — (i) That it is practically impossible to account for the victory won by Israel over the heathenism of Canaan unless its national rehgion from the very first contained a strong ethical element. The true greatness of Moses — that which constitutes his claim to be honoured as one of the supreme religious leaders of mankind — lay in the fact that he indis- solubly linked the idea of righteousness to the idea of God. Only a people trained in some fundamental habits and prin- ciples of social morality could have overcome the Canaanites without being absorbed by them. The Book of Judges illustrates the inherent power of resistance to the corrupting influence of heathen surroundings which repeatedly saved Israel's faith in Jehovah and its customary morality from perversion and decay. For while the Decalogue makes a spiritual faith the foundation of all social duty, it is for the most part concerned with the protection of those elementary social rights which are absolutely essential to the existence and cohesion of primitive communities. From this point of view there seems to be nothing in the Decalogue that is inconsistent with the Mosaic age.^ On the contrary, it is impossible to explain the exuberant vigour and vitality of the Hebrew race apart from the healthful influence of a 1 See Diiver, L.O.T., pp. 39, 40. He points[^out that the author, or redactor, of Exod. xxxiv. manifestly identified ' the ten com- mandments ' (verse 28) with the Decalogue of Exod. xx. 1-17. 2 Even the tenth commandment, wb'ch might be thought to imply ?n advanced standard cf moraliLy, ^'s piimarlly no more than a plain warning against such greedy desire for another's goods as might, and often did, issue in violent acts. Cp. Amos iii. 10, v. II ; Micah ii. 8, iii. 2-5 ; Isa. i. 23, iii. 14, 15, etc. 30 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE simple and austere moral code, calculated to train a rude and undisciplined race in traditions of faith, purity and valour.^ (2) With regard to the second commandment in particular it has been pointed out that the prohibition of images was not improbably suggested by the urgent necessity of separat- ing Israel from the idols of Egypt, with which it had been brought into such close contact.^ Moreover, though it is evident that images were popularly regarded as suitable adjuncts of worship, at least until the eighth century, yet it is not certain that they were universally used, nor does it appear that images existed in connexion either with the sacred Ark or with the central sanctuaries at any period before the division of the kingdom. It has been suggested also that certain of the tribes may possibly have entered Canaan earher than the Exodus, and that among these tribes, which had not come under the influence of Moses, the use of images was traditional, and only gradually yielded to more spiritual ideas of reUgion inculcated by the pro- phets. The whole subject is admittedly obscure, and we seem to be faced by two alternatives : either the prohibition of images formed an original part of the Decalogue which only gradually v/on its way to observance, or it represents an expansion of the first commandment, suggested by the preaching of the eighth century prophets, who denounced images, as we have seen, mainly because the use of them was closely connected with signal breaches of social right- eousness. (3) The contents of the so-called ' ritual Decalogue ' cannot in any case be precisely determined, nor is it clear that it is referred to in any passage of the Pentateuch as 1 Cp. Driver, Book of Exodxis (Camb. Bib.), pp. 414-417. 2 Cp. Ezek. XX. 7, 8. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 31 * the ten words.' Even, however, if such a ' Decalogue ' existed, it would not alter the significant fact that the moral Decalogue came to overshadow all the rest of the Mosaic legislation, and was always recognized by Israel's spiritual leaders as embodying what had been Jehovah's essential requirement from the very beginning of the nation's exist- ence. When we consider the history of Hebrew rehgion, we cannot doubt that this simple outline of moral duty, defining religion in terms ' not of ritual, but of love and service,' acted continually as a leavening and vitalizing germ in Israel's religious consciousness. Its national life was rooted in a unique religious experience ; it learned in actual fact that Jehovah was a righteous and gracious Being, willing to redeem and mighty to save ; and this idea of the Deity was reflected and embodied in the entire Mosaic legislation. As Prof. Robertson Smith has said in a memor- able passage : — ' The Law of Israel does not aim at singularity ; it is enough that it is pervaded by a constant sense that the righteous and gracious Jehovah is behind the Law and wields it in conformity with His own holy nature. The Law, therefore, makes no pretence at ideality. It contains precepts adapted, as our Lord puts it, to the hardness of the people's heart. The ordinances are not abstractly per- fect, and fit to be a rule of life in every state of society, but they are fit to make Israel a righteous, humane and God- fearing people, and to facilitate a healthy growth towards better things.' ^ As its spiritual experience grew more mature, Israel learned to recognize that the moral require- ^ W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 343. He adds: ' The important point that reference to Jehovah and His character determines the spirit rather than the details of the legis- lation cannot be too strongly accentuated.' D 32 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE ment of Jehovah was simple and all-embracing ; that it corresponded, in fact, to the simplicity of the relationship of love into which He had brought the chosen people. The elaborate ordinance of sacrificial worship Vv^as not His first word to Israel. But this thing commanded He them, saying, Hearken unto My voice and I will he your God and ye shall he My people, and walk ye in all the ways that I command you, that it may he well with yon.^ Israel was called to the life of righteousness, which is the life of love. II We have mentioned some reasons for believing that the entire Decalogue belongs in substance to the age of Moses, but that it has been expanded partly by way of adapting it to the circumstances of a later generation than that of the Exodus,^ partly in order to embody certain religious ideas which held a prominent place in the teaching of the prophets. The original form of the commandments has been conjecturally restored as follows : — 1. Thou shalt have none other gods beside Me. 2. Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image. 3. Thou shalt not take up the name of Jehovah for a vain end (or falsehood). 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to sanctify it. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother. 6. Thou shalt do no murder. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house. 1 Jer. vii. 23. 2 e.g., the fourth commandment imphes the settlement of Israel in Canann (Exod. xx. 6), THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 33 In a general and comprehensive form these precepts laid down principles which arc applied to particular instances elsewhere in the Pentateuch, especially in certain passages of the so-called ' Book of the Covenant ' (Exod. xx. 20- xxiii, 33).^ Here it maybe pointed out that in the Book of Deuteronomy the covenant of Jehovah with Israel is unquestionably based upon the Decalogue,^ whereas in Exodus it seems to be connected either with the group of laws contained in xxxiv. 14-26 (J) or with those included in the ' Book of the Covenant ' (E). This divergence con- stitutes a critical difficulty which it is needless for our present purpose to discuss. It may, however, be maintained with some confidence that the general tenor of the Old Testament favours the view which is characteristic of Deuteronomy. The idea of an original covenant ' between ' Jehovah and Israel is very deeply rooted in the Old Testament. Broadly speaking, the word ' covenant ' implies a bond of mutual obligation between two parties ^ : Jehovah, on the one hand, pledging Himself by gracious promises of help and salvation, the Hebrew people on its side binding itself to obey certain divinely-imposed commands. According to tradition, such a ' covenant ' was actually concluded at Sinai between the God of Israel and His redeemed people (Exod. xxiv.), nor is there any convincing reason to suppose that this mode of conceiving the relationship first originated at a later stage in Israel's history. It seems practically certain that the idea of a covenant relationship between Jehovah and the nation was familiar to Israel from the very dawn of its history, whatever may have been the precise 1 Exod. xxiv. 7 (E). See Driver, Exodits, pp. 202, foil. ; McNeile, Exodus, pp. Ixi., Ixii. 2 See Deut. iv. 13, 23 ; v. 2, 3 ; xxix. i, etc. 3 See McNeile on the history of the word. Exodus, pp. 150, foil. 34 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE form in which it was represented. Moreover, the relation- ship was ahvays regarded as involving a moral requirement, Israel being bound not to render a merely formal and out- ward obedience to certain ceremonial precepts, but to requite its divine Redeemer with devout affections — reverence and fear, gratitude and devotion. Jehovah required of His people a life conformed to His own character ; a nobler and higher morality than that of other nations — a morality of which justice, humanity, mercy and good faith were characteristic elements. This was the distinctive feature of the Sinaitic ' covenant ' : this it was that became the stan- dard by which the prophets judged the social and personal life of their contemporaries. The knowledge of God men- tioned by Hosea* may have embraced certain legal, civil and ceremonial usages, but it unquestionably included social righteousness and humanity. Thus, at the very outset of its career as a nation, Israel was subjected to the discipline of a moral code, and was never allowed to forget that a special type of character is the essential condition of covenantal union with the holy God. Indeed, the true nature of Israel's relationship to Jehovah is only to be understood aright by due consideration of the result towards which it tended ; and there is no question that the inspired thought of later generations regarded the distinctive vocation of Israel as a call to holiness. It was to be a holy nation : holy as Jehovah is holy.- The cjjithet ' holy ' doubtless was applicable to the nation from the lirst, but its full significance could only be perceived as the result of a prolonged and varied discip- line. Jewish faith at length recognized that the nation was ' holy,' not only as being ' separated ' from the pollu- tions of heathendom, but as being called to exhibit in life 1 Hosea vi. 6. ^ Exod. xix. ; Lev. xi. 45. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 35 and character the spiritual perfections of its divine Re- deemer.^ It will have appeared that the real significance of the prominence assigned to the Decalogue in the Mosaic legis- lation can only be estimated aright when we take into ac- count the whole tendency of Israel's history. The course of events made it manifest that Israel was called to be the people of revelation — the people whose thirst for the living God, whose passion for a righteousness which He could accept and crown, qualified it to become a light of the Gen- tiles, a prophet and missionary to mankind at large. Ill The inward and spiritual significance of the Decalogue was finally made manifest in the life and in the teaching of Christ. But it may be well to briefly describe its purport as first delivered to the Israelites. This is very briefly done by Josephus,^ but perhaps without sufficient regard to the historical circumstances under which the covenant between God and Israel was originally estabUshed. The first four ' words ' seem to regulate those duties which resulted from Israel's new relationship to its Deliverer. The first word is a warning against polytheism. Israel is to be faithful and loyal to Jehovah, and to regard Him for all purposes of worship as the one and only God. This was the funda- mental principle of Hebrew religion, marking its separation both from the fantastic idolatry of Egypt and from the varied forms of nature-worship with which it was destined to be confronted in Canaan. The second word directs that the worship paid to God shall be in accordance with His revealed nature : images of Jehovah were forbidden because ^ Cp. I Pet. ii. 9. 2 Aniiq. iii. 5. 5. 36 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE the primary lesson that Israel needed was that no material symbol could adequately represent a spiritual Being. The third word teaches the holiness of God as manifested in the events of the Exodus. His Name, that is, the expression of His character, is to be held in honour and not to be em- ployed lightly, falsely, or without just occasion. The fourth word, by its injunction to ' remember,' seems to indicate that the observance of the seventh day was already tradi- tional among the Semitic peoples. The command to ' sanc- tify ' the day consecrates an ancient tribal custom as a sym- bol of Jehovah's covenant-union with Israel ; at the same time the fourth word lays the foundation of all the Mosaic ordinances of sacred worship. The fifth word may be re- garded as closing the first table by enjoining proper deference to parents. Its position implies that parental authority is a counterpart of divine.^ In later legislation we find an extension of the commandment to what may be called spiritual parentage. ^ The whole social order, in fact, is based on the regulation of family life, and even the institu- tions of government are thus invested with a sacrosanct character. The second table deals with social duties, and gives them a religious sanction. The sixth word enjoins respect for Hfe, the seventh for the marriage bond, the eighth for the property of others. The ninth word inculcates not so much the duty of truthfulness in general as that of abstinence from any false oath in a court of law or elsewhere which might involve detriment to another's character, property or Hfe. The concluding word embodies a principle which 1 Cp. Aristotle. Eth. Nic. ix. 2. 8 : ' One ought also to render honour to one's parents, exactly as one renders honour to the Gods,' etc. 2 Cp. Lev. xix. 32 ; Exod. xxii. 28. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE zl was to be more clearly enunciated in the New Testament. Apparently the original precept ended at ' house ' — the rest being a later expansion. It has been already noticed that ' desire ' is here restrained in view of the close connexion between lawless impulse and violent or oppressive deeds. The commandment is thus not inconsistent with a very primitive stage of moral and social development. Such was the simple code of morality which was destined to be such a potent factor in the future development of the Hebrew people, training it gradually to recognize the unique greatness of its special calling, and the nature and character of its divine Deliverer. The legislation looked to the future ; it was adapted to the capacities of a rude and untutored race of men ; it accommodated itself to the hardness of their hearts ; it was designed to fit them by slow degrees for a religion of the spirit, leading them onward, as Irenaeus says, ' through things secondary to things primary, through things typical to things real, through things temporal, carnal and earthly to things eternal, spiritual and heavenly.' ^ There are three features in the Decalogue which rendered it the suitable foundation of this progressive education. In the first place it connects all personal morality and social duty or right with religion. As we have seen, the appeal of love lies behind the command to obey. He Who demands the exclusive homage of Israel is the holy Being Who has already manifested His compassion for the oppressed, and His power to redeem. Next, the prohibitory form of the Decalogue harmonizes with its pedagogic function as part of a primary course of ethical instruction. The will of God, in the very process of educating that of man, neces- sarily comes into coUision with his natural propensity to evil. 1 Adv. haer. iv. 14. 3. 38 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Moral education must begin with the restriction of undis- cipHned desire. Thus the negative form of the command- ments seems to presuppose the Fall cf Man, the fact of uni- versal sinfulness. There is obvious truth in Augustine's contention that the Old Testament differs from the New in that the one inculcates fear, the other love.^ At the same time we must not forget that even within the limits of the Old Testament it is plainly taught that the essential spirit of religion is love. In such books as Deuteronomy we are brought to the very threshold of the Gospel. ^ The whole requirement of Jehovah is summed up in the simple and positive precept. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Another striking feature of the Decalogue is the absence of any directions bearing on worship. The only ceremonial requirement is the due recognition of the holiness of the seventh day. The prophets seem to corroborate this essen- tial characteristic of the Mosaic teaching : first, in their silence as to matters of ritual observance ; secondly, in their insistence on social righteousness as the essential ele- ment in Jehovah's religion. It is manifest — even apart from explicit statements like that of Jeremiah vii. 22 — that the Mosaic Tor ah (' direction ' or ' instruction ') was not concerned primarily with matters of worship, but with points of moral and social duty. The ethical teaching of the Decalogue lay behind the elaborate development and codification of the ceremonial law, which in the main un- doubtedly belonged to a period subsequent to the age of prophets. To the priority and supremacy of the moral as ^ Aug. c. Adimant. Manich. discip., i. 17. 2 Hence Jerome speaks of tliis book as ' evangelicae legis prae- figriiatio ' {ep. ad Pdidimim, 9). See Deut. vi. 5, etc. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 39 compared with the ceremonial law we may also attribute the fact that the positive ordinances of Hebrew religion gradually came to be regarded as moral symbols, expressive of Israel's spiritual status and vocation ; as emblems of the hoUness that became a kingdom of priests. To the rite of circumcision, for instance, a spiritual significance came to be attached ; it is regarded (in Deuteronomy and elsewhere) as the outward token of a heart converted and purified by divine grace. ^ So again, the ordinance of the Passover symbolized the sacerdotal status of the nation, while the sanctification of the firstborn represented the vocation of the entire people to Jehovah's special service. In these and in other instances we see the effect of the fundamental moral ideas involved in Israel's covenant relationship to God. Even the outward observances of religion were visible tokens and effectual signs of the spiritual privileges and responsibilities of those whom Jehovah deigned to call into fellowship with Himself. IV The Decalogue was originally delivered to a rude horde of escaped slaves as a sequel to their deliverance from Egypt and as a token of their separation from all false notions of deity, and from all the moral pollution which their long sojourn in a heathen land had made familiar to them. But the very fact that it so closely connected moral duty with vital truths of religion, and that its various precepts were so free from local or tribal peculiarities, imparted to the Decalogue the character and force of an everlasting and universal covenant. * See Deut. x. 16 ; xxx. 6. Cp. Jer. iv. 4 ; ix. 26 ; and Rom. ii. 28, 29. 40 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE Hence the ten commandments retain their unique author- ity for the human conscience even in the most enHghtened peoples and in periods far removed in time and in circum- stances from that of the Exodus. ' The voice that spoke from Sinai reverberates in all lands ' ^ ; f or it finds an echo in the ' general heart of men ' ; its utterance is that of the Law of Nature and Reason itself.^ This was early recognized by Christian writers. Both Justin and Irenaeus emphatically assert the permanent obligation of the moral precepts contained in the Decalogue ; Tertullian and Augustine regard it as embodying the Law of Nature ; and this view becomes a commonplace with the great scholastic teachers, e.g., Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, and with theologians of the Reformed Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The question of the eternal obligation of the Decalogue became a matter of dispute between the adherents of Luther and Calvin ; the Socinians maintained that even the Decalogue was abro- gated by the Law of Christ, and this was also the opinion of the eighteenth century rationalists.^ But speaking generally. Christian teachers and commentators have de- voted themselves to interpreting the immutable principles of the Decalogue in the light of Christ's own teaching. As regards the usage of the English Church, it seems to be true that from the earliest times care was taken to enforce upon the clergy the duty of teaching the rudiments of the faith, and expounding the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue. * Hence is it,' writes 1 Maclaren, Exposition of the Book of Exodus, p. 98. 2 See above, p. 6. 3 Special mention may be made of the work of J. D. Michaelis (1717-1791), who in his Commentaries on the Laivs of Moses deals with the entire Mosaic Law as a civil rather than a moral code. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 41 Mr. Maskell, ' that we have still remaining in manuscript so many short expositions in English of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments.' ^ These ele- ments of instruction were gradually incorporated in the Prymer,^ which at an earlier period included only prayers and devotions, but which in the fifteenth century contained the Decalogue and the Creed in English. That these were already in some measure familiar to the common people was mainly attributable to the pastoral zeal of prelates like Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, who in his Constitu- tions of Lambeth, 1281, enjoins * that every priest who presides over a people do four times in the year, that is once a quarter, on some one or more solemn days, by himself or by some other, expound to the people in the vulgar tongue, without any fantastical affectation of subtilty {sme cxquisita vcrborum suhtilitate) , the fourteen articles of faith, the ten commandments of the Decalogue, the two precepts of the Gospel or of love to God and man, the seven works of mercy, the seven capital sins with their progeny, the seven principal virtues, and the seven sacraments of grace.' ^ This injunc- tion is followed by a very brief summary of the teaching contained in these different formularies. As to the Deca- logue, Peckham follows the current (Augustinian) method of division, and states that three of the precepts ' respect God and are called Commandments of the first table, seven respect man, and are called those of the second table.' A similar constitution of the Archbishop (Thoresby) of York 1 Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, vol. 2, p. xlvi. 2 On the history of the Pr5mier see Maskell, vol. 2 ; Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 19, 20, etc. ; C. Wordsworth, The Old Service Books of the English Church, ch. ix. 3 In J. Johnson, A Collection of all the Ecclesiastical Laws, etc., vol. ii. ; ' Const, of Lambeth,' can. ix. 42 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE (d. 1373) exhorts the laity ' to hear God's service every Sunday and to hear God's law taught in the mother tongue.' In his anxiety to raise the general level of Zealand know- ledge, both among clergy and laity, the same great prelate wrote an ' Instruction ' or Catechism for the people, which was published in English and Latin versions, and was after- wards issued in an adapted form, apparently by Wycliffe himself. Thoresby's Lay Folk's Catechism, as it is some- times called, includes expositions of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments, The English version was in rude and simple verse, so as to be easily understood even by the most uncultured folk. It seems that Thoresby's action was dictated, partly by his own pastoral zeal, partly by the example of Peckham in the southern province some seventy-six years before. He secured for his catechism the approval of the Convocation of York ; and he demanded of the clergy a higher standard of activity than Peckham had required, enjoining them to instruct the people not only ' four times a year on one or more holy days,' but ' at least on the Lord's Day.' ^ Nearly two centuries later we find an injunction of Arch- bishop Lee requiring parish priests to teach their parish- ioners the Lord's Prayer and the Ave in English ' at Mattens time, and betwene Mattens and Laudes ' ; the Creed after the recital of the Creed at Mass, and the Ten Commandments between Evensong and Compline on holy days.- But it is important to remember that such teaching had been cus- tomary, though it occasionally fell into disuse, from the ' The Lay Folks' Catechism (Latin and English Versions of Abp. Thoresby's instruction) is published in the ' Early Enghsh Text Society's' series. No. 118, with introduction, glossary, etc., by the late Canon Simmons and Canon Nolloth (London, 1901), - C. Wordsworth, op. cit., 285, 286. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 43 seventh century onwards ^ ; and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries children were commonly instructed in these rudiments of faith and morals. V According to the ancient Hebrew tradition the two tables of the ' testimony ' — that is the declaration of God's will contained in the ten words — were deposited and preserved in the ark of the covenant. ^ This implies that the most sacred of Israel's possessions, enshrined in the most vene- rated of rehgious objects, and withdrawn from view in the holiest part of the tabernacle, was the Decalogue. This circumstance may be regarded as an ample justification of the position assigned to it in the English Liturgy. Its intro- duction into the service in the Prayer Book of 1552 was a novelty, but it was a step which may be defended on several grounds. In the first place, as we have seen, the Decalogue must have been tolerably familiar to ordinary worshippers.^ It had been customary to recite and to expound it in the hearing of the people at least once every quarter since the thirteenth century ; and the second table was read in the Mass as the Epistle for the Wednesday before Mid-Lent Sunday. Further, a precedent was furnished by the ' Liturgy of Strasburg,' a Latin version of which was pub- lished in London by Valerand Pullain (1551) with a dedica- tion to Edward VI.* In this liturgy the Sunday service 1 C. Wordsworth, op. cit., 2S5, 286, 2 Exod. XXV. 16, 21 ; xl. 20. Cp. Deut. x. 2. 3 Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, vol. 2, ch. iv., p. 440, observes that ' an appeal to the Decalogue was a customary form of oath in the ancient British Church : which indicates perhaps a eucharistic use of it.' * Procter and Frere, New History, etc., additional note, pp. 86 foil. 44 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE began with the recitation of the Decalogue, which was fol- lowed by the ensuing collect : * Lord God, merciful Father, Who in this Decalogue hast taught us by Thy servant Moses the righteousness of Thy Law ; deign so to write it by Thy Spirit in our hearts that henceforth we may will and desire nothing more than to please Thee in all things by a most perfect obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' It would seem, moreover, that since 1547, in pursuance of one of the Edwardine Injunctions, the Decalogue together with the Creed and the Lord's Prayer had occasionally been recited in English immediately after the Gospel.^ It was only a comparatively slight change, therefore, that was made in the Book of 1552. At the same time the ninefold Kyric EUison, which as a very ancient feature of the service had been retained in the Book of 1549 by way of an introduction to the Mass, was adapted in such a way as to provide a penitential response to the several commandments, the tenth being partly based upon the collect in the Strasburg Liturgy.- The introduction of the Decalogue was probably intended by the revisers of 1552 to be a rule or standard of self- examination before communion. The first act of Edward VI's first parliament was directed against ' revilers ' of the Blessed Sacrament — persons who ' contemptuously de- praved, despised or reviled the same,' ' disputed and reasoned unreverently and ungodly of that most holy mystery ' ^ ; 1 The Injunction recurs in the Injunctions of EUzabeth, No v. : ' Item, that every holy day through the year, when they lK^^•e no sermon, they [the clergy specified] shall immediately after the (jospel o})enly and plainly recite to their parishioners in the pulpit the Paternoster, the Creed and the Ten Commandments, in English, to the intent that the people may learn the same by heart,' etc. See Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of the History of the English Church, p. 420. 2 See Luckock, The Divine Liturgy, p. 79. 3 Gee and Hardy, pp. 322 foil. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 45 and there is no doubt that some attempt to guard the Sacra- ment from profane or careless participation was timely and necessary. In the Scottish Liturgy of 1637 the people were directed to ask God's mercy after the reading of each commandment ' for their transgression of every duty therein, either according to the letter, or to the mj/stical import- ance of the said commandments.' The expansion, then, of th3 penitential preparation for devout reception of the Eucharist was suggested by a good motive, and was in itself desirable. Incidentally, however, the insertion of the Decalogue was liturgically valuable as reviving the ancient lection from the Law which had been customary in the early church, and which was retained in various Eastern liturgies. 1 A lection from other portions of the Old Testament was also an original feature of the Galilean and Roman liturgies, and is still retained on certain days in the Roman Church. ^ The Decalogue may thus be regarded as an invariable lection from the Old Testament, and forms a very interesting and distinctive feature of our service, which could not be discarded without a real loss.^ The Nonjurors, in compiling their liturgy, adopted in its 1 Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 5 : ^era r-qv avdyvoicnv tov vofxov. For an example of later use see the Liturgy of the Syrian Jacobites (in Brightman, Liturgies East and West, pp. 77 foil.). The Armenian and Nestorian Liturgies retain lections from the Old Testament. That the reading of the Decalogue was intended to rank with the Epistle and Gospel may be gathered from the direction : ' Then shall the priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly all the ten commandments ' (added in 1661 at Bp. Wren's suggestion). 2 PuUan, Hist, of the Book of Common Prayer, notes that ' the so-called Ambrosian service of Milan also retains this [Old Testa- ment] lection ' (p. 23). 3 Other instances of such invariable lections are given by Luck- ock, Div. Liturgy, p. 78. The use of the Kyric as a ' respond ' is also liturgically not without precedent. 46 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE place the Gospel summary of the commandments (St. Matt, xxii. 37-40), and the use of this as an alternative is permitted in the present Scottish office ; as an addition, in the American office. It has been recently suggested that the Ten commandments should be omitted, provided they be said once on each Sunday and Holy Day ; the Gospel summary being rehearsed in case of such omission. We may close this brief survey of the place assigned to the Decalogue in Christian thought and worship by pointing out the value of this fundamental moral code as an enduring link between Jew and Christian. The central truth of Judaism is the intimate connexion of morality with religion. ' In every stage of its development,' writes a Jewish teacher, ' Judaism has taught that faith and ritual are but the paths to righteousness, and that far higher than obedience to the ceremonial law, higher even than the possession of theological truth, is purity of heart and holiness of life ' ^ ; and, as Israel has never, in spite of the many vicissitudes of its history, altogether forgotten its original vocation to be a holy nation, we are not sur- prised to find that its representative thinkers and teachers have continually insisted on the fundamental nature and authority of the Decalogue. Nor can it be denied that the ethics of Judaism, at their highest and purest, are closely akin to those of Christianity. There is something of the same zeal for active lovingkindness, and inward purity of thought and motive ; the same spirit of devotion, joy in God, and delight in His will. This high standard of goodness is welcome for its own sake, though as yet the Jew is in a real sense self-estranged from Christ and bhnd to the meaning of His mission and to the power of His ^ The Rev. M. Joseph, ' Jewish Ethics ' in Religious Systems of the World (Sonnenschein). THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 47 Spirit. The following sentence will fittingly close the present section, and will perhaps recall its opening sentences : ' The root of knowledge was placed in the Ark, which is like the innermost chamber of the heart ; and this [root] was the Ten Words and their derivatives ; that is the Tor ah.' ^ VI One more point in connexion with the history of the Decalogue may be considered here, namely, the question as to the most suitable arrangement of the ten command- ments. Speaking broadly, three different schemes of division have been adopted. I. Among the Jews it has been the traditional view that the preface to the Decalogue (Exod. xx. 2) constitutes the first commandment, which is in effect an injunction to believe in the personality and moral perfection of God. / am Jehovah thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The second word (Exod, XX. 3-6) is a command to believe in the unity and spirituality of the Deity. Apparently this tradition is not very ancient, as it seems to be unknown to Philo or Josephus. It has been suggested that it was probably dictated by a spirit of antagonism to Christianity.^ The most weighty objec- tion to it is that it treats what is properly a doctrine of faith as if it were a moral precept.' 1 Judah ha-Levi, the Spanish philosopher and Hebrew poet (c. 1085-1 140). See The Jewish Encyclopcedia, vol. 4, s.v. ' Decalogue, the, in Jewish theology.' See Additional Note. 2 Oehler, Old Testament Theology, § 85. ^ Nic. de Lyra says that the Jews distinguish two command- ments in the first word (i) the preface (Exod. xx. 2) enjoins ' affir- mative quod ille habeatur pro vero Deo qui eduxit filios Israel de E 48 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE 2. Philo adopts a more natural arrangement of the Com- mandments, when he divides them into two pentads : the first containing the precepts of 'piety,' the second the pre- cepts of ' probity.' The first table, he says, is concerned with that sole rule of God (monarchia) by which the world is governed. Consequently, if duty to God is the begin ning, duty to parents is the fitting conclusion of the pentad, since they are the visible representatives of God on earth. Philo further points out that all the remaining precepts resemble each other, and differ from the fifth, in being prohibitive (' Thou shalt not ') . There is much to be said for this arrangement, which has in fact been virtually adopted by the Fathers of the first four centuries and by the Eastern Church generally. It is pointed out that only the first five commandments are enforced by reasons or sanctions. On the other hand, it should be noticed that the fifth commandment is co- ordinated with those of the second table in St. Matt, xix. i8, 19 (and parallel passages). The truth is that this precept stands on the confines of both tables, since parentage (as Philo observes) constitutes a kind of link between the divine and the human, and implies a claim on the offspring which is necessarily akin to that of the Creator Himself.^ This arrangement has found favour with several modern Protestant writers. '^ Aegypto in tot signis mirabilibus ; (2) Non habebis deos alienos, etc., in quo prohibetur negative ne cultus latriae alteri impendatur.' 1 Cp. Grotius' comment : ' Proximi Deo sunt parentes et veluti in terns dii quidam quorum ministerio Deus usus est ut nos in pulcherrimum templum suum introduceret.' So Nicholas de Lyra : ' Sicut Deus est principium omnium, ita parentes habent rationem principii respectu filiorum.' 2 e.g., Schultz, Old Testament Theology, ii. 47. Geffken, and other§. THE HISTORY OF THE DECALOGUE 49 3. Augustine discusses the most suitable method of arranging the commandments in his Quaestiones in Exodum.^ The system he proposes is that which has been traditional in the Roman and Lutheran churches. According to his arrangement, the first and second words form a single pre- cept, so that there are three which relate to the duty that man owes to God ; the tenth is divided into two precepts, the ninth ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife ' ; and the tenth ' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,' etc. Thus, as he believes, there are seven words which prescribe man's duty to his neighbour. This division, though very widely accepted, seems to be based on d priori considerations. ' To me,' writes Augus- tine, ' it seems more fitting [congruentius] to regard the commandments as three and seven, inasmuch as the former which relate to God, seem on careful consideration to sug- gest a reference to the Trinity.' This is stated more dog- matically and with further reasons alleged by St. Thomas Aquinas, in his brief but exhaustive inquiry into the sub- ject,2 but he frankly bases his contention on Augustine's authority. As regards the division of the last precept into two, it should be noticed that such an arrangement is suggested by the text of the precept in Deuteronomy v., where the mention of the ' wife ' precedes that of the ' house ' and other property, a different verb being em- ployed for ' desire ' or ' covet ' in each case. ^ This is thought by Augustine and Aquinas to imply the prohibition 1 Lib. ii., quaest. 71. 2 Summa Theologiae, i. ii*®. 100. 4. 3 The use of different verbs is thought by Dr. Driver to be merely a rhetorical variation, and to have no special significance. The order in Exodus (' house,' ' wife,' ' servant,' ' ox ') is well illustrated by a line in Hesiod, Opera, 403 : oTkov fx\v TrpwricrTa, yuvaiKa re, /3ovv T dpo Tjpa (Grotius, ad loc). 50 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE of two different forms of desire, corresponding to two dis- tinct kinds of good [bonum delectahile, bonum utile) ; but the parallel passage in Exodus does not in any way favour and rather seems to contradict such a supposition. Indeed, it seems almost certain that the original precept ended with the word ' house,' the examples of property which follow being a later expansion. Finally, in St. Mark x. 19, and Romans xiii. 9, the tenth word is treated as a single precept. The question relating to the exact mode of dividing the commandments is not of any great importance. There is some significance in the fact that Jews and Christians alike all agree in enumerating ten commandments. Many mysti- cal writers have dwelt on the symbolism of this number — its fitness to denote perfection or completeness — the whole duty of man being comprised in the Decalogue. In any case the number ten is of frequent occurrence in the Penta- teuch, perhaps as having practical convenience for mne- monic purposes ; but not improbably it was regarded as sacred, like three, seven and twelve, which were also commonly connected with religious objects and conceptions.* 1 See the article ' Number ' by Prof. Konig in Hastings' Diet, of the Bible, vol. 3. ADDITIONAL NOTE (p. 47). According to a Rabbinic tradition the entire Decalogue is included n the Shema {' Hear, O Israel, etc.), which was commonly believed to embrace three passages: Deut. vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21; Num. xv. 37-41. See this worked out in detail in Taylor, Sayings, etc., pp. 116-119, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ' I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.' CHAPTER III THE FIRST COMMANDMENT THE solemn preface to the Decalogue lays down the principle that the moral life is rooted in the fear and love of God ; that conscience, bearing witness to a law written in the heart of man, is His voice ; that His claim extends to every sphere of human life and activity. All these words that follow, covering the whole field of duty, are spoken by the mouth of the Most High. Other precepts, religious, civil and ceremonial are delivered to Israel by Moses. Those which concern man as man are uttered by God Himself. The idea of good, then, is revealed or communicated to man by his Creator. He hath shewed thee, man, what is good.^ The claim of righteousness is the personal claim of God Himself upon His reasonable creatures. Accord- ingly, the preface to the Decalogue proclaims the doctrine of God in such plain and simple form as Israel, in its rudi- mentary and barbarous condition, could apprehend. / am Jehovah thy God. Rehgion and morahty are inseparably combined in the knowledge of God. Israel's deliverance from Egypt was the starting-point not only of a purer and more spiritual faith, but of a higher morahty than the world had yet known. In the Decalogue, therefore, we find a 1 Micah vi. 8. 63 54 THE RULE OF LIFE AND LOVE blending of moral precepts \vith doctrinal instruction. In revealing His mind and will for man, God discloses some- thing also of His Nature and Personality ; and thus the fundamental principle is asserted that righteousness is the necessary condition of spiritual enlightenment. For cen- turies, as we have seen, the Jewish people has regarded the preface to the first ' word ' as constituting in itself a commandment,^ thus bearing unconscious witness to the principle that the true law of man's life is the revealed char- acter of God, and that likeness to God is the goal of his moral development. We may briefly review the doctrinal truths which form the foundation of the great and first commandment. I. There is, first, the mystery of the divine personality : I am Jehovah. This is the master-truth which is impressed on Israel by the entire method and spirit of the divine self-revelation. The Old Testament contains no trace of abstract or metaphysical conceptions of Deity. It is throughout the record of the personal action and self-com- munication of a living Being, calhng man into a personal relationship with Himself. The frequent use of anthro- pomorphic expressions — the ascription to Jehovah of love and hatred, wrath and jealousy, scorn and even repentance — tended to impress upon the Hebrew mind, perhaps in the only possible way, the basal truth of catholic religion, namely that the Creator and Ruler of the universe is akin to man in the essential characteristics of His being : He wills. He loves, He thinks. He speaks, He appeals. He is free to carry out His purposes of judgment or of grace. 1 See above, p. 47, and cp. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, pp. 108 foil. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT 55 He is utterly distinct from the course of physical nature, which He transcends and controls. Thus, since man is made in His image, morality consists in the fulfilment of personal relationships. ^ God is, in other words, the centre of a realm of personalities, destined to find and to fulfil in communion and intercourse with Himself the law of their creaturely perfection. It may be questioned, indeed, whether such a term as ' the Absolute ' has any religious value or any moral significance whatever. Religion can only become indissolubly connected with ethics if the neuter term ' the good ' is replaced by the characteristic phrase of Hebrew prophecy. The Holy One of Israel ; a phrase which our Lord seems to repeat in a simple and more universal form when He says One there is Who is good {eh o dyad6