COLLATION III.
On the second precept of the Decalogue.
Summary.
Introduction: threefold reason why discourse should be made concerning the precepts, 1.
Repetition of the preceding collations, 2-6.
Confirmation through Scripture, 7.
What was omitted concerning the Jews, who charge Christians with three transgressions of the first precept, is supplied, 8. 9.
Solutions to these objections, 10-14.
On the second precept, Part I. Literal explanation of the same. Perjury is prohibited: three conditions of a good oath, 15.
These three conditions are explained with regard to the assertory oath, 16-19.
The objection of the Manichaeans is resolved, 20.
Likewise, three ends with threefold utility in the promissory oath, 21-23.
Part II. Spiritual explanation of the same. In three ways the name of God is not taken in vain, namely for effecting, that is, in the Sacraments; for promising, in vows; for expressing, in oaths, 24. - Likewise, in three ways it is taken in vain: first, through the frustration of a Sacrament, and this in three ways, 25. - Second, through the breaking of a vow made, and this again in three ways, 26.
Third, through the utterance of blasphemous speech, likewise in three ways, 27.
1. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes the name of God in vain.
I am thy servant: give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies. Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold and topaz. Therefore I was directed toward all thy commandments; every wicked way I have hated. The Prophet David in these words shows for what reason we ought to speak of the commandments of God, and this he shows through a threefold reason. The first is that we may be inflamed to the love of the divine commandments; for nothing is so necessary as to love the law of God and his commandments. And on account of this he said: Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold and topaz.
Second, we ought to speak of the commandments of God, that we may better know them. For the more frequently a man walks along a certain way, the better he knows it. Whence Gregory says that a man comes to know the way by walking it more frequently. But the way of going to the fatherland is through the observance of the commandments; but a man cannot keep the commandments of God unless he knows them, and he does not know them except by hearing discourse about them. Therefore David says: Give me understanding, and I shall learn thy commandments. - Third, we ought to speak of the commandments of God, that we may hate iniquity. Therefore it is said in the Psalm: Therefore I was directed toward all thy commandments; every wicked way I have hated. For when a man begins to know iniquity or sin and the disorders of sin which are against God, then he begins to detest sin. - We ought therefore to speak of the commandments, that we may love and understand them and be directed on the way to the fatherland and hate iniquity. And that we may be able to attain these three things, therefore at the beginning let us beseech the Lord, etc.
2. I said that there are ten commandments of the Decalogue, which are the foundations of all laws, and that there are two tablets, namely the first and the second. In the first tablet are contained three precepts ordering us toward God, who is three and one, and this according to three things appropriated to the three divine persons. For in the Godhead there is paternity, filiation, and procession: and according to these there are three things appropriated to the three divine persons. To the Father is appropriated majesty, to the Son truth, to the Holy Spirit goodness. These three correspond to a threefold genus of cause, namely the efficient, exemplary, and final cause. To the Father is attributed the efficient cause, to the Son the exemplary cause, because he is the image of the Father, and to the Holy Spirit the final cause. In the Father there is supreme majesty to be humbly adored, in the Son supreme truth to be faithfully professed, in the Holy Spirit supreme goodness to be sincerely loved. And according to these three, as has been said, there are in the first tablet three commandments. The first is: You shall not have strange gods before me; the second is: You shall not take the name of your God in vain; the third is: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
3. Concerning the first commandment it was said that certain things are set forth beforehand for the knowledge of the commandment, certain things are appended for the observance of the commandment, and certain things are interposed for the integrity of the commandment.
It was also said that in this word: You shall not have strange gods before me, all idolatry with respect to intellectual creatures is prohibited. Secondly, idolatry with respect to figments of the human mind is prohibited, when it adds: You shall not make a graven image. Thirdly, idolatry with respect to corporeal nature is prohibited, and this with respect to things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal, when it says: Nor any likeness of those things that are in the heavens, etc.
4. It was also said that in this word: You shall not have strange gods before me, all pacts with demons are prohibited, whether they be through incantations of words, or through inscriptions of characters and images, or through the immolation of sacrifices. In these three consist all the magical arts.
5. It was also said that in the second word: You shall not make a graven image, all superstitious inventions of errors are prohibited. And concerning this it was said that every error arises either from the wicked audacity of philosophical investigation, or from the perverse understanding of Sacred Scripture, or from the disordered appetite of human carnality. On account of the first, errors arise among the philosophers, such as positing the eternity of the world and things of this kind. On account of the second, errors arise among the heretics, who hold false opinions concerning the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. On account of the third, errors arise among the Epicureans, who say that there is no other life but this one.
6. In the third statement: Nor any likeness of those things that are in the heavens etc., all perverse valuations of creatures are prohibited. And concerning this it was said that every perverse valuation of creatures is either by reason of sublimity, or by reason of sufficiency, or by reason of delight. In the first way it is the idolatry of the proud, in the second way of the avaricious, in the third way of the lustful. These things were said concerning the first commandment.
Now I was saying that there is a threefold idolatry: namely, pacts with demons, superstitious inventions of errors, and perverse valuations of creatures. In pacts with demons there is the supreme malice of all vices and the root of all evils .
7. From these three idolatries proceed all falsities and disordered states of sin, by which the wretched soul is subjected to demons; which is well signified in Revelation, where it is said: I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits in the form of frogs. By the dragon are signified pacts with demons, by the false prophet the superstitious inventions of errors, by the beast the perverse valuations of creatures.