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A. The offices of piety towards God.

A. How we are to act towards men, and what we owe them.

A. Hear, 0 Israel, I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other gods before me.

A. At first he makes a kind of preface to the whole law. For when he calls himself Jehovah, he claims right and authority to command. Then in order to procure favour for his law, he adds, that he is our God. These words have the same force as if he had called himself our Preserver. Now as he bestows this favour upon us, it is meet that we should in our turn show ourselves to be an obedient people.

A. I admit this as to the act itself; but there is another kind of deliverance which applies equally to all men. For he has delivered us all from the spiritual bondage of sin, and the tyranny of the devil.

A. To remind us that we will be guilty of the greatest ingratitude if we do not devote ourselves entirely to obedience to him.

A. That we maintain his honour entire and for himself alone, not transferring any part of it elsewhere.

A. To adore him, to put our confidence in him, to call upon him, in short to pay him all the deference suitable to his majesty.

A. As nothing is so hidden as to escape him, and he is the discerner and judge of secret thoughts, it means that he requires not the honour of outward affection merely, but true heartfelt piety.

A. Thou shalt not sculpture to thyself the image, or form any of those things which are either in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore nor serve them.