III. DUTY. E are told in Holy Scripture that, if we would enter into life eternal, we must keep the commandments. a And Christ also says, "If ye love Me keep My commandments. b And S. John tells us that we can prove whether we love God by seeing how we obey Him. "We know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." And again: "This is the love of God that we keep His commandments." d e 2. In the beginning, God impressed upon the heart of man a sense of right and wrong, or a conscience, and this is called the light of nature. By disregarding the light of nature men became so wicked that God destroyed them in the Deluge, saving only righteous Noah and his family. After the Deluge, men soon became wicked as before; so that again the earth was filled with violence, and the voice of conscience was deadened by habitual indulgence in crime. As a means of preserving the sense of right and wrong amidst the general corruptions, God wrote the commandments on tables of stone. These are the same laws as those which the light of nature indicate as necessary to a S. Matt. xix. 17. b S. John xiv. 15. c 1 S. John ii. 3. f Exod. xix. & xx. the well-being of man and the progress of civilization. In the Gospel these commandments were confirmed by Christ in the passage quoted above. 3. The commandments do not bind Christians in exactly the same way that they bound the Jews; for some are expanded in their meaning, and some are modified. They contain prohibitions and also positive injunctions. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1. Thou shalt have none other gods but Me. HIS forbids unbelief and doubt in God, distrust of His providence, and carelessness about religion. It commands us to believe in God, to set our hope in Him, to love Him, to honour Him, and to obey Him. 2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them; for E, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate Me, and show mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments. HIS forbids the giving up of the heart to any worldly idol which may draw it away from God; money, or business, or pleasure; or again any person, a husband, a wife, a lover, or a child may become an idol and chain our affections to earth. a This forbids the doing reverence to what is false, encouraging false religions, false doctrines, by subscription of money, by joining in their services, by advocating their principles, by encouraging them by praise. b a Exod. xxxiv. 14; Isa. xlii. 8; Jer. xvii. 5; S. Matt. vi. 24. This forbids localizing Divine power in any image; and therefore forbids superstitious belief in miraculous images of Saints; it also forbids sacrilege or the profanation of holy persons, places and things. It does not forbid the making of representations in wood or stone or with the brush, of Our Lord, angels and saints, or any visible manifestation of the Trinity. The Jews were forbidden to represent God, as they had not seen Him, but they were not forbidden to make images of angels whom they had seen. As the Holy Ghost has appeared in the form of a dove, it is lawful to represent Him as a dove. As Christ has appeared in human flesh, it is lawful so to represent Him. b с This commands us to worship God with bodily reverence, to treat everything that has to do with Him and His House with reverence, whether it be His Word, His Altar, His Sacraments, or pictures and representations of Him, His Mother, and His Saints. * 2 Kings xviii. 4; iii. 16. 1 S. John v. 21. Exod. xxxvii. 7. с S. Matt. d See what was said under Prayer, § 8. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. HIS forbids cursing, rash swearing, breaking vows, blaspheming, and all light and irreverent use of God's name. Cursing is the calling down of God's malediction on oneself, on another, or on some one of God's creatures. The Jews called down His curse on themselves when they said "His blood be on us and on our children,' a and literally has this curse been fulfilled. Cursing is only lawful in extreme cases, and is then only to be used by the Church authoritatively. b Passages of scripture on Cursing are: Ps. cix. 16, 17; Rom. xii. 14; S. James iii. II. Swearing is the calling God to witness the truth of a statement made by us. It is lawful to swear under certain limitations given by Jeremiah "Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness." c That is on oath must be · (1) true; (2) taken with deliberation; and (3) for a reasonable cause. We sin against the First by false swearing, against the Second by rash swearing, against the Third by unnecessary swearing. a S. Matt. xxvii. 25. b 1 Cor. v. 4, 5. с © Jer. iv. 2. |