The law unsealed

7. The seventh distinction (which is ordinary) is of the Commandments into affirmative and negative, as ye see all the Commandments in the first Table are negatively set down, forbidding sin directly: Thou shalt not have an other gods, &c. only the fourth is both negative and affirmative, forbidding sin, and commanding duty directly; as also the fifth only, which is the first of the second Table, is affirmative, all the rest are negative.

This distinction is not so to be understood, as if nothing were commanded or enjoined in negative Precepts, or as if nothing were forbidden in affirmative Precepts (for what ever be expressed as forbidden, the contrary is always in plied as commanded, ⟨p. 6⟩and whatsoever is expressly commanded, the contrary is always implied as forbidden) but the distinction is taken from the manner of setting them down, concerning which take these Rules or general Observations for your better understanding, many whereof are in the larger Catechism.

This distinction is not so to be understood, as if nothing were commanded or injoyned in negative Precepts, or as if nothing were forbidden in affirmative Precepts (for what ever be expressed as forbidden, the contrary is alwayes in plyed as commanded, ⟨p. 6⟩and whatsoever is expresly commanded, the contrary is alwayes implyed as forbidden) but the distinction is taken from the manner of setting them down, concerning which take these Rules or general Observations for your better understanding, many whereof are in the larger Catechism.

1. However the Commandments be expressed, affirmatively or negatively, every one of them hath two parts one affirmative, implied in negative Precepts, requiring the duties that are contrary to the sins forbidden; another negative, implied in the affirmative Precepts, forbidding the sins that are contrary to the duties commanded; as for example the third Commandment, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; it implies a Command reverently to use his Name: So, to remember to keep Holy the Sabbath day, implies a Prohibition of profaning it; in which sense all the Commandments may in some respect be called negative (and so a part of the fourth Commandment is negatively expressed, Thou shalt dunno work) or affirmative; in which respect Christ comprehendeth all the negatives under these two great affirmative Commandments, of love to God and our Neighbour, for every Commandment doth both enjoin and forbid; the like may be said of promises and threatenings, there being in every promise a threatening, and in every threatening a promise conditionally implied: And this may be a reason why some Commandments are negatively expressed, some positively, to show us that both are comprehended.