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Principal Articles of the Christian Religion: 74 - On the First Command in the Decalogue

By Jacobus Arminius


      DISPUTATION LXXIV ON THE FIRST COMMAND IN THE DECALOGUE

      The ten precepts of the decalogue are conveniently distributed into those of the first and those of the second table. To the first table are attributed those precepts which immediately prescribe our duty towards God himself; of this kind, there are four. The second table claims those precepts which contain the duties of men towards their fellow-men; and to it are attributed the last six. II. This is the relation which subsists between the commands of each table -- that, from love to God and in reference to him, we manifest love, and the offices of love towards our neighbour; and if it should happen that we must of necessity relinquish either our duty to God or our neighbour, God should be preferred to our neighbour. Let this relation, however, be understood as concerning those precepts only which are not of the ceremonial worship; otherwise, [respecting ceremonies] this declaration holds good: "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." III. The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other god before my face," or "against my face." IV. It is very certain that, in this negative precept, the subjoined affirmative one is included or presupposed as something preceding and prerequisite: "Thou shalt have me, who am Jehovah, for thy God." This is likewise immediately consequent upon the preface, "I am the Lord thy God;" therefore, "Let me be the Lord thy God;" or, which is the same, "Therefore, have thou me, the Lord, for thy God." V. But "to have the Lord for our God, is the part both of the understanding and of the inclination or the will; and, lastly, of an effect proceeding from both or from each of them. VI. "Another god" is whatever the human mind invents, to which it attributes the divinity that is suitable and appropriate to the true God alone -- whether such divinity be essence and life, or properties, works, or glory. VII. Or whether the thing to which man attributes divinity be something existing or created, or whether it be something non-existent and merely imaginary and a figment of the brain, it is equally "another god" for the entire divinity of that other god lies radically, essentially and virtually in human ascription, and by no means in that to which such divinity is ascribed. Hence is the origin of this phrase, in Scripture, "To go a whoring after their own heart." VIII. But this "other God" may be conceived under a three- fold difference, according to the Scriptures. For those who have him, have (1.) either themselves been the first inventors of him, (2.) have received him from their parents, or (3.) from other nations, when neither they nor their fathers knew him; and this last is done either by force, by persuasion, or by the free and spontaneous choice of the will. IX. For this reason, that "other god" is truly called "an idol;" and the act by which he is accounted another god, is idolatry; whether this be committed in the mind, by estimation, acknowledgment, and belief, or by the affections, love, fear, trust and hope, or by some external effect of honour, worship, adoration and invocation. X. The enormity of this sin is apparent from the fact of its being called "a defection from God," "a forsaking of the living fountain," and "a digging of broken cisterns that hold no water," "a perfidious desertion of holy matrimony," and "a violation of the connubial compact." Nay, the gentiles are said to sacrifice to devils whatsoever they suppose that they offer to God, in this ignorance of God and alienation from the life of God. XI. The cause why men are said to do service unto devils, although they have themselves other thoughts, is this: because Satan is the fountain head, and origin of all idolatry; and is the author, persuader, impeller, approver and defender of all the worship which is expended on another god. Hence, likewise, it is the highest degree of idolatry when any one accounts divine or ascribes divinity to Satan as Satan, displaying himself as Satan and vaunting himself for God. XII. But though the gentiles worshipped angels or devils, not as the supreme God, but as minor deities and his ministers, by whose intervention they might have communication with the supreme God; yet the worship which they paid to them was idolatry, because this worship was due to no one except to the true God. But it does not belong to the definition of idolatry, that any one should pay to another, as to God, that worship which is due to the true God alone; for it is sufficient if he account him as God, by ascribing divine worship to him, though, in his mind, he may account him not to be the supreme God. It is no palliation of the crime, but an aggravation, if any one knowingly performs divine worship to him whom he knows not to be God. XIII. And since Christ must be honoured as the Father is, because he has been constituted by his Father KING and LORD, and has received all judgment, since every knee must bow to him, and since he is to be invoked as Mediator and the Head of his church, so that the church can pay this honour to no one except him, without incurring the crime of idolatry; therefore, the papists, who adore Mary, the angels, or holy men, and who invoke them as the donors and administrators of gifts, or as intercessors through their own merits, are guilty of the crime of idolatry. XIV. Besides, when they adore the bread in the Lord's supper, and receive and account the pope for that personage whom he boasts himself to be, they commit the sin of idolatry.

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See Also:
   1 - On Theology
   2 - How to Teach Theology
   3 - On Blessedness, The End of Theology
   4 - On Religion
   5 - Rule of Religion: The Word of God
   6 - Authority & Certainty of the Holy Scriptures
   7 - The Perfection of the Scriptures
   8 - The Perspicuity of the Scriptures
   9 - The Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures
   10 - The Efficacy of the Scriptures
   11 - On Religion in a Stricter Sense
   12 - The Christian Religion, Its Name and Relation
   13 - The Christian Religion in General
   14 - The Object of Christianity: God
   15 - The Nature of God
   16 - The Life of God
   17 - On the Understanding of God
   18 - The Will of God
   19 - Various Distinctions of the Will of God
   20 - God's Attributes: From the Viewpoint of His Will
   21 - God's Attributes: Relating to Moral Virtues
   22 - On the Power or Capability of God
   23 - The Perfection, Blessedness & Glory of God
   24 - Creation
   25 - Angels in General and in Particular
   26 - The Creation of Man After the Image of God
   27 - The Lordship or Dominion of God
   28 - The Providence of God
   29 - The First Covenant Between God & Man
   30 - Manner of Our 1st Parents in the 1st Covenant
   31 - On the Effects of the Sin of Our First Parents
   32 - On the Necessity of the Christian Religion
   33 - On the Restoration of Man
   34 - On the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ
   35 - On the Priestly Office of Christ
   36 - On the Prophetical Office of Christ
   37 - On the Regal Office of Christ
   38 - Christ's Humiliation & Exaltation
   39 - God the Father & Christ's Will, & Command
   40 - The Predestination of Believers
   41 - The Predestination of the Means to the End
   42 - Relation of Sinful Men to Christ, & the Means of Salvation
   43 - True Repentance Towards God
   44 - On Faith in God and Christ
   45 - On the Union of Believers With Christ
   46 - The Communion of Believers With Christ Regarding His Death
   47 - The Communion of Believers With Christ Regarding His Life
   48 - Justification
   49 - The Sanctification of Man
   50 - The Church of God and of Christ
   51 - The Church of the Old Testament
   52 - The Church of the New Testament
   53 - The Head and the Marks of the Church
   54 - The Catholic Church, Her Parts and Relations
   55 - The Power of the Church in Delivering Doctrines
   56 - The Power of the Church in Enacting Laws
   57 - The Power of the Church in Administering Justice
   58 - On Councils
   59 - The Ecclesiastical Ministrations of the New Testament
   60 - On Sacraments in General
   61 - The Sacraments of the Old Testament
   62 - The Sacraments of the New Testament in General
   63 - On Baptism and Paedo-Baptism
   64 - On the Lord's Supper
   65 - On the Popish Mass
   66 - On the Five False Sacraments
   67 - On the Worship of God in General
   68 - On the Precepts of Divine Worship in General
   69 - On Obedience, Object of All Divine Precepts
   70 - Obedience to God's Commands in General
   71 - The Material Object of the Precepts of the Law
   72 - Love, Fear, Trust, and Honor Towards God
   73 - On Particular Acts of Obedience
   74 - On the First Command in the Decalogue
   75 - On the Second Command in the Decalogue
   76 - On the Third Precept of the Decalogue
   77 - On the Fourth Command in the Decalogue
   78 - On the Fifth Command in the Decalogue
   79 - On the Sixth Precept

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