A20559:82
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandments gathered from the mouth of a faithful pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholar in Cambridge.The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.
London: printed by John Harison for Thomas Man, 1603London: printed by Iohn Harison for Thomas Man, 1603
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
Thou shalt haue none other gods before mee.
The drift of this commandment is that we should sanctify God in our harts, and give him his full privilege above all his creatures. First of the negative part. To have none other gods, is not to have any thing whereon we set our delight, or esteem it more then God. The doctrine from hence is that we must suffer no thing to withdraw our hart, our mind, our soul, our hope, or any thing in our soul & body from God. For who soever withdraws any thing in us from God, that is a strange God unto us, that is every mans God which every man is most set upon, what ever the mind of man is more set upon & busied about then the glory & service of god, that is another God. As for matter of commodity. If one set his hope, and his trust, and hart upon his wealth, this is Idolatry. As in Job 31. 24. If I made gold mine hope, &c. So the rich man in the gospel, made his wealth an Idol, because he trusted in that, and did worship that, for here he speaks of the inward worship of God, in soul. If one then rely upon wealth, & think himself safe when he hath it, and undone if it be taken from him, this is to make his goods his God, gold is his hope. For if his hope be gone with his gold, what was his hope before? If when his riches depart, his confidence also departed. Did not he say to them afore, thou art my confidence. So, covetousness is called Idolatry, not that men bow down their bodies to worship it: But which is worse, their souls and affections, their wit and memory, & understanding, & all their faculties stoop to that, which should only stoop to God. So that he that loves his riches above measure, and sets his hart upon earthly things, is one of the worst sort of Idolaters. So if one set his hart upon pleasure, what ever thing it is, that he hunts after, more then gods glory, this is an other God to him. As the Apostle speaks of some that did make their belly their god: they would have thought it an injury if one had come & told them that they worshipped not God, but their belly, for they profess religion and to serve