shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.' MATT. v. 21, 22.

THIS is a passage which orthodox commentators, generally, understand to imply the doctrine of endless misery. Yet it is to be observed, that nearly all of them allow that the doctrine is here taught by implication only. And, before quoting their remarks, it may be well to point out what they consider to be matter of fact, and what they themselves allow to be matter of mere inference from the language of Jesus. As this has been done, very plainly and fairly, by the gentleman who formerly commenced a work, similar to this in which I am now engaged, I avail myself of his words:

*

'Let the reader observe, in the first place, that these authors all agree on the following, as matter of fact, viz. that the Hell-fire, or the Gehenna of fire, mentioned in this verse, was really the fire of the valley of Hinnom, just as the council, here mentioned, was the great Jewish Sanhedrim, composed of seventy-two elders, and just as the judgment, in this place, was the decision of the inferior court of twenty-three. So much they lay down as matter of fact. But if, as is probable, our Saviour here used all these terms, judgment, council and hell-fire, as metaphors, then he of course meant by them something else than what they literally express, and intended to teach that he who is angry with his brother without a cause should be in danger, not actually of the judgment, nor that he who should say to his brother, Raca, should be in danger of the council, nor that he who should say, Thou fool, should literally be in danger of hell-fire; but that they should be in danger of some punishment corresponding with these several corporeal penalties. Let the reader now observe, in the second place, that the way which those critics infer the threatening of future punish

* Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d. See Preface,

in

ment from this text, is, by taking it for granted, according to their general system of doctrine, not from the passage itself, that the retributions alluded to in the several metaphors, were to be reserved for eternity. This is their opinion, unsupported by a single word in the text, according to their own explanation of it. For all that Í can discover, the judgment of the inferior court, the sentence of the great Sanhedrim, and the burning alive in the valley of Hinnom, when used as metaphors, may quite as naturally denote sufferings in this world, as in the next.' Trumpet ii. 81.

The reader will do well to keep the preceding observations in view, while he attends to the following extracts:

CLARKE. Shall be in danger of the judgment; shall be liable to the judgment. That is, to have the matter brought before a senate, composed of twenty-three magistrates, whose business it was to judge in cases of murder and other capital crimes. It punished criminals by strangling, or beheading,' &c.

The council; the famous council, known among the Jews by the name of Sanhedrim. It was composed of seventy-two elders, six chosen out of each tribe. This grand Sanhedrim not only received appeals from the inferior Sanhedrims, or court of twenty-three, mentioned above; but could alone take cognizance, in the first instance, of the highest crimes, and alone inflict the punishment of stoning.

'Shall be in danger of hell-fire; shall be liable to the hell of fire. Our Lord here alludes to the valley of the son of Hinnom. This place was near Jerusalem, and had been formerly used for those abominable sacrifices in which the idolatrous Jews had caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch. A particular place in this valley was called Tophet, from (Hebrew) tophet, the fire stove, in which some suppose they burnt their children alive to the above idol. See 2d Kings xxiii. 10. 2d Chron. xxvii. 3. Jer. vii. 31, 32. From the circumstance of this valley having been the scene of those in

fernal sacrifices, the Jews, in our Saviour's time, used the word for hell, the place of the damned. See the word applied in this sense in the Targum* on Ruth ii. 12. Ps. cxl. 12. Gen. iii. 24. and xv. 17. It is very probable that our Lord means no more here than this; if a man charge another with apostasy from the Jewish religion, or rebellion against God, and cannot prove his charge, then he is exposed to that punishment, (burning alive,) which the other must have suffered, if the charge had been substantiated. There are three offences here, which exceed each other in their degrees of guilt. (1.) Anger against a man, accompanied with some injurious act. (2.) Contempt, expressed by the opprobrious epithet raca, or shallow brains. (3.) Hatred and mortal enmity, expressed by the term moreh, or apostate, where such apostasy could not be proved.

'Now proportioned to these three offences, were three different degrees of punishment, each exceeding the other in its severity, as the offences exceeded each other in their different degrees of guilt. (1.) The judgment, the council of twenty-three, which could inflict the punishment of strangling. (2.) The Sanhedrim, or great council, which could inflict the punishment of stoning. And (3.) the being burnt alive in the valley of the son of Hinnom. This appears to be the meaning of our Lord.' Com. in loc.

After thus giving a literal explanation of the passage, as a matter of fact, Dr. Clarke proceeds to give his opinion of the secret or concealed sense of the words. Of course, he considers them emblematical of misery in the future life; but this, it will be recollected, was his opinion, which he had perfect liberty to enjoy, and which others have equal liberty to receive or reject.

PARKHURST. Rev. Mr. Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, referring to this passage, says 'the phrase here translated

*The reader should recollect that it is disputed whether any Targum now in existence was written so early as the days of Christ.

hell-fire (literally gehenna of fire) does, I apprehend, in its outward and primary sense, relate to that dreadful doom of being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom;' he adds, (for what reason he does not inform us,) that this, as well as the other degrees of punishment mentioned in the context, must, as Dr. Doddridge has remarked, be ultimately referred to the invisible world.'

WYNNE. 'This alludes to the three degrees of punishment usual among the Jews, viz. civil punishment inflicted by the judges or elders at the gate; excommunication pronounced by the great ecclesiastical council or Sanhedrim; and burning to death, like those who were sacrificed to devils in the valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, where the idolatrous Israelites used to offer their children to Moloch.' Note in loc.

WAKEFIELD. What our Saviour intends by these specific references to Jewish institutions, is generally this my religion requires so much more purity of heart, and strictness of manners, than the Jewish, that calumniating language from a Christian shall be esteemed equal to actual crimes of the deepest dye in other men: and the murder of a brother's good name, as heinous as the murder of his body has been hitherto regarded.' Note in loc.

He does not inform us, whether he supposes the punishment belongs to this life, or the next; nor whether the crime of murder, by the Mosaic law, was supposed to involve punishment after death. He agrees with the others, however, in supposing the outward and primary sense of the words to have specific reference to Jewish institutions.

MACKNIGHT. The fire of the valley of Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom, called also Tophet, was the scene of the detestable worship of Moloch, that horrid idol, to whom the Israelites burnt their children alive as sacrifices. In after-times continual fires were kept in this valley for burning the unburied carcasses and filth of the city, that being thus polluted, it might be unfit for the like religious abominations. Kimchi, in Ps. xxvii.

The prophet Jeremiah is thought to have had these fires in his eye, chap. vii. 32, 33. xix. 11-13. The Jews, from the perpetuity of them, and to express the utmost detestation of the sacrifices which were offered to Moloch in this valley, made use of its name to signify Hell. Accordingly we find Isaiah describing hell under the name of Tophet, and by images drawn from it, chap. xxx. 33. Induced I suppose by these considerations, the translators of the Bible have given Tophet, or Gehenna, its metaphorical meaning in the passage above, whereas it ought rather to have had its literal signification. For our Lord intended to show his hearers that the punishment of causeless anger, contemptuous speeches, and abusive names, shall in the life to come, bear a proportion to the guilt that is in these sins; and finding no names in the language of men, by which those different degrees of punishment could properly be expressed, he illustrated them by the punishments which the Jews were acquainted with. This interpretation of the punishment in the latter clause of the verse, has a particular advantage attending it, as it prevents the reader from imagining that only the sin of calling his brother a fool, will be punished with hell-fire.' Harm. Evan. sec. 26.

Thus Macknight allows that gehenna, as well as judgment and council, is here used in its literal sense, indicating the punishment of being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom. And then, by a metaphorical use of these terms, he conveys the punishment, indicated by them all, into the future life.

Let the reader once more be cautioned to distinguish between what is stated, by any commentator, as matter of fact, and what is stated as matter of opinion.

HEYLIN. The tribunal of the judges, and that of the Sanhedrim, were different courts of judicature, whereof the latter took cognizance of the greater crimes. For hell-fire, the original has Gehenna of fire. Gehenna was

a valley near Jerusalem, which was used for a lay-stall,