Part II, The Commandments: The Ten Commandments of God

(See Short Hist, of Revealed Beligion, 11.)

1. Where is our duty of loving God and our neighbor more fully contained?

In the Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses written on two tables of stone.

2. What are the Ten Commandments?

1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me; thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing to adore it.

2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

4. Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

5. Thou shalt not kill.

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

7. Thou shalt not steal.

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his.

3. Why are we Christians also bound to keep these Commandments of the Old Law?

1. Because Christ is not come ' to destroy the law.

but to fulfil it' (Matt. v. 17) — i.e., to confirm it, and to teach us how to observe it perfectly; and 2. Because the Ten Commandments contain that law which already binds all men, since it is grounded in human nature, and has been written by God in all human hearts (Eom. ii. 15).

4. If the law is written in all hearts, why did God give it to man also by revelation?

That we may the more surely know the law of God, and be the more strongly impelled to fulfil it; for our capacity to know and to will what is good, has been very much weakened by sin.

5. What in particular ought to induce us faithfully to keep the Divine Commandments?

1. The reverence, love, and gratitude which we owe to God; 2. The fear of eternal punishment, and the hope of eternal reward.