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Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours house, thou shalt not couet thy neighbours wife, nor his seruant, nor his maide, nor his oxe, nor his asse, nor any thing that is his.
The tenth commandement is behinde, the meaning whereof I haue heard before, wee are there∣fore to come to the exposition of the text it selfe. Con∣tayneth
it anie other thing, besides the desiring of our neighbours house and family in it expressed?
God would rehearse those things, the obiects whereof for the most part are wont to affect and mooue vs, vnder which hee comprehendeth all of the same kinde: namely all lustes, by the which wee are stirred vp to the transgressing of any commandement of the later Table.
Is not that lust only forbidden in this com∣mandement, whereunto our will giueth consent?
That lust was contained in the former com∣maundements, wherein not onely wicked deedes, but also counsels, and deliberat consent of the will bee for∣bidden. Therefore in this commandement, the Lord proceedeth further, hee requireth somewhat more of vs, namely that we be not tickled with any kind of lust, although our will consent not, yea also be against it.
But how canst thou shewe that this is the minde of God?
Most easily: for the Apostle saieth; I had not knowen lust, if the Law had not saide, thou shalt * 1.1 not lust: But it is more cleare then the light, that all men without the Law could haue vnderstood, that concupiscence ioyned with consent was sinne, and therefore it is apparant, that the Apostle meant, that the concupiscence which the will resisteth is forbid∣den by the Law. That may also bee gathered by the summe of the Law, wherein the Lord commandeth, * 1.2 that we loue him with all our heart, with all our soule, and with all our minde: whereupon it followeth, that we cannot be tickled euē with the least cōcupiscence, but presently there is something in our minde voide of the loue of God, and therefore that it is a sinne against this Law.
So farre foorth as I see, God in his Law re∣quireth of vs most exact perfection.
* 1.3 He requireth it indeede. For he would haue vs to bee perfect, euen as he himselfe is perfect. And therefore hee hath set before vs his Law instead
of a glasse, and a most perfect pattern of righteousnes, that the life of man might be conformable to the puri∣ty of his diuine Maiestie. In so much as if there were any that did perfectly keepe it, hee should in this life perfectly set foorth the image and likenesse of God.
Rom. 7. 7.
Mat. 22. 37
Math. 5. 48