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fay unto you, whosoever is angry with his Brother, fo as to have an inward Grudge or Hatred againft him, fhall, in the other World, be liable to a Punishment answerable to that inflicted by the Ordinary Criminal Court, which was, to be killed with the Sword; and whofoever fhall fuffer his Anger to proceed to Words of Contempt, fhall, in the other World, be liable to an higher Degree of Punishment, answerable to that which is inflicted by the Council, or great Sanhedrim, which was Stoning. But whofoever fhall fuffer his Anger to proceed to downright Reproach and Contumely, fhall be liable in the other World to a yet higher Degree of Punishment than is inflicted by any Court, resembling that in the Valley of Hinnom, which was the being burnt to Death by a flow Fire.

This in general I take to be the Senfe and Meaning of the Words; but for our clearer understanding them, I shall more "diftinctly confider thefe Three Things, which are here particularly taught.

I. Wherein the Error of the Jewish Doctors, the Scribes and Pharifees, as to the Sin prohibited by this Commandment, confifted.

II. What was their Error as to the Punishment due to this Sin.

III. How far our Saviour improves the Commandment, both as to the Description of the Sin, and Punishment of it.

I. As to the First, the Error of the Jewish Doctors, as to the Sin prohibited by this Commandment: It seems to me to be plainly this; that they looked upon it to be no other than a Judicial or Political Law; as appears both by the Penalty

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they annexed to it; whofoever kills, fhall be in danger of, or rather liable to the Judgment; and likewife by our Saviour's Interpretation, as it is fet in Oppofition to Theirs. And if this was their Notion of the Sin, they extended it no farther than to the grofs Act of Murder; because Human Judicatures took no Cognizance of the Anger, Hatred, and Malice of the Heart, till they broke out into these grofs Acts.

II. Having this Notion of the Sin, we are next to enquire, what was their Error as to the Punishment due to this Sin. And this it is probable they looked upon only as a Temporal Punishment; and that all the Guilt of it was abfolved by their undergoing the Cenfure of the Law; which was, that whofoever fhed Man's Blood, by Man fhould his Blood be fhed. Whosoever shall kill, faid they, fhall be liable to the Judgment; whether the Ordinary Judgment of Twenty three Men, which was a leffer Sanhedrim in all their Chief Cities, which had the Cognizance of Ordinary Murders, and punished them with the Sword; or the extraordinary Judgment of the great Sanhedrim, which fat at Jerufalem, confifting of Seventy, and had the Cognizance of Murders of a deeper Nature, fuch as were aggravated with Treafon and Sedition against the State; fo that their Views of this Commandment were very short, limiting the Tranfgreffion of it, both as to the Sin and Punishment, to this Life, and to Man's Judgment only, without minding the Nature of the Guilt in the Sight of God, or the Punishment of it in the other World.

III. And this leads me to the Third Thing I propofed to confider; namely, how far our Sa

viour improves the Commandment, both as to the Description of the Sin, and Punishment of it.

1. First, As to the Sin, he extends it to three Things more than were reckoned Criminal by the Doctrine of the Scribes and Pharifees. First, To Anger in the Heart, under which are comprehended all Inward Hatred, Malice, Envy, Revenge, the firft Springs of Contentious Words and Injurious Actions. Secondly, To the faying to our Brother, or Neighbour, Raca, that is, empty or (vain Perfon, which is a lower Species of Contempt. This no doubt is an higher Degree both of Sin in our felves, and of Injury to our Neighbour, when we fuffer that Anger, which before we fuppreffed in our own Breast, to break out into any Words of Slight and Contempt againft our Neighbour. Thirdly, To the calling him, Thou Fool: This Word, tho' in our Language, and by our Ufe of it, it found not fo harsh, as importing only fome Defect in the Understanding, had a much worfe Meaning among the Jews; for among them it fignified a Wicked, Profligate Man, that had shaken off all Sense of Duty and Religion; fuch as we call a Rake-hell, or Hellbound, as, Pfal. xiv. 1. The Fool bath faid in his Heart, there is no God. By this Word then is to be understood all provoking, contumelious Language; as by the Word Raca leffer Affronts, and Significations of Slight and Disparagement.

2. Secondly, As to the Punishment, our Lord gives us a great Improvement of it; for whereas the Scribes and Pharifees feem to have looked no further for the Punishment of the Tranfgreffions of this Commandment, than to human Judicatures: the utmoft of whofe Punishments reached

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only to the Death of the Body; he tells us of the unspeakable Danger of thefe Sins in the other World; which, according to their several Degrees of Aggravation and Heinoufnefs, fhall meet with proportionable Punishments in that future State. This our Saviour illuftrates here by three Sorts of Punishments, which were understood by the Jews his Hearers; namely, First, the Punishment used by the Ordinary Courts of Juftice confifting of Twenty three, which fat in the Gates of their Cities, here called the Judgment; the highest of whose Punishments was Death by the Sword: Secondly, the Punishment ufed by the great Sanhedrim, confifting of Seventy, which fat at Jerufalem, here called the Council, the higheft of whofe Punishments was Stoning: Thirdly, the Burning in the Valley of Hinnom, which alluded to an Idolatrous Cuftom they had formerly used of Offering up their Children to Moloch in that Valley; where they enclosed them in the Belly of the Idol, and fcorched them to Death by flow Fires; and that they might not hear their Shrieks, caufed Cymbals and Drums to make fuch a Noise, as drowned the other. By these three Punishments, our Lord reprefented the gradual Punishments of thofe Sins in the other World, which were yet fuch Species of Murder as the Scribes and Pharifees had taken no Notice of.

From the Words thus explained, there are these Five or Six Things which will deferve our more particular Confideration.

1. The inward Anger, which is here mentioned as the First Degree of Tranfgreffion of the Sixth Commandment.

2. The Sin and Danger of flight Affronting Words, which our Saviour affigns as the Second Degree of the Tranfgreffion of this Command

ment.

3. The higher Provocations of Contumely and Reproach, which our Saviour describes as the Third Degree of Tranfgreffion of this Commandment.

4. What kind of Killing it is, which is here prohibited.

5. We may obferve from the Words, that there are great Degrees of Punishment in the other World; exactly proportioned to the feveral Degrees of Sin.

6. Lastly, There is one general Instruction we may gather from the whole; namely, that whereever any Sin is prohibited in the Law, there all Thoughts, Words and Actions, ufually occafioning the Sin, or tending towards it, are prohibited likewife; all thefe, I fay, if we would fufficiently apprehend our Saviour's Meaning in the Text, it will be neceffary that we confider more particularly.

I. The First Thing we are to confider in the Words is, the inward Anger here mentioned and threatned, as the first Degree of Tranfgreffion of the Sixth Commandment. This Anger muft neceffarily be confidered here as it has a Tendency to do hurt to our Neighbour, and therefore must not be extended to all inward Indignation at our Neighbour's Faults, which is often very juft, and may proceed both from a Zeal for the Honour of God, and a true Love to our Neighbour. And therefore whether the Words without a Caufe had been here or not, the Thing might have been plainly enough understood from the Scope and

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