SECT. VIII. Whether any of our Lord's moral precepts are new. THERE are excellent passages in the heathen writers with respect to the existence, unity, providence, and perfections of God, and to our leading religious duties; though they must be selected from a strange mixture of inconsistency and error: and it has not been proved that any of our Lord's moral precepts, which oblige his followers at all times, are new as to their general subject-matter; though some are manifestly so in degree, and all in the motives by which they are enforced. Thus mutual love was taught by Moses and by the Lev. xix. heathen moralists; but the disciples of Jesus are commanded to love one another as he loved them, in ex- Jo. xiii. 34. pectation of an eternal reward at the resurrection of Mat. xxv. the just: I should add, and in imitation of the divine goodness; but for that excellent precept of the law, 48. "The Lord loveth the stranger-love ye therefore the strangers." And this coincidence of the evangelical law with the law of reason proves that they are derived from a common origin: as the uniformity in the works of creation shows the unity of the Creator. Julian thought that he disparaged the Decalogue when he asked, What nation is there which does not think that its other precepts ought to be observed, except, Thou shalt not worship other gods, and, Remember the sabbath b?-whereas in fact he passed an encomium on it. SECT. IX. Whether any of our Lord's precepts are unreasonable. SOME of our Lord's precepts have been objected to as harsh, and inconsistent with the good of individuals g Deut. x. 17-19. See also Plato, de Leg. 1. v. p. 729. ed. Serr. h Cyril, contra Jul. 1. v. p. 152. 18. 34. 34, 35. Mat. v. 22. and of society. I shall begin with making remarks on such of this kind as occur in the sermon on the mount. "I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever 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." The denunciation is addressed to all Christ's disciples. If the restriction, "without a cause," were omitted on the authority of a few manuscripts, fathers, and ancient versions, still the context shows that the Mat. v. 23, anger condemned must be implacable. The injurious person, when reconciled to his brother, might offer an acceptable sacrifice. And there are vices which all naturally abhor, and which it may be the duty of some to reprehend with sharpness. Nay, we read that Mar. x. 14. indignation and anger are attributed to our Lord him 24. iii. 5. self. It is plain therefore that anger, improper in its cause, its object, its manner, its season, or its duration, must here be censured. There are degrees of anger mentioned; and proportionable punishments are annexed. A disciple of Christ guilty of sinful anger is subject to a future punishment, corresponding to the temporal one which among the Jews was inflicted by the judgment. The elders and Levites who composed these municipal courts of judicature punished the murderer with death; probably by slaying him with the 1 Kin. xix. sword, or by hanging him on a tree. But anger bursting forth into words of derision and contempt, into Num. XXXV.30,31. IO. Deut. xxi. 66. Mat. xxvi. Act. vi. 13. 8. 2-7. 16. charges of emptiness and wickedness, exposes to a sentence like that awarded by the great council at Je- Luk. xxii. rusalem, which took cognizance of higher matters, such Act. vi. 12, as blasphemy against God and the law; ultimately 15 decided causes too difficult for the judges appointed in 65, 66. the several cities; and inflicted the more terrible death Deut. xvii. of stoning. And anger still more unrestrained, so as to charge men with extreme infatuation m, or with rebellion against God", the worst of all accusations, because so highly criminal under the law, incurs a still Deut. xvii. greater degree of punishment, answering to a death Lev. xxiv. by fire, to the horrid burning of human victims before the statue of Moloch in the valley of Hinnom. Our Jer. vii. 31. Lord therefore asserts, agreeably to other parts of scripture, that reviling, hatred, variance, wrath, strife, Cor. vi. 10. shall exclude from the kingdom of heaven; and that these crimes shall be punished proportionably to their degrees of guilt. But, according to the tenor of the gospel covenant, sinful anger unrepented of is here supposed. For, on condition of repentance, all manner of sin and of blasphemy, even if uttered against Mat. xii.31, Christ himself, shall be forgiven unto men; except the crime of imputing our Lord's miracles to an evil spirit, which indeed excluded repentance, and betrayed an incurable malignity of heart. temptus. Thus it exactly answers to κατάπτυστος. 1 Acts vii. 58. The municipal courts inflicted this punishment in case of idolatry. Deut. xvii. 2-7. m Syr. translates μopè by a word from 55, stultus evasit ; fatuus, insipiens factus est. See also Syr. 1 Cor. iii. 19, where a word from the same root is used for μωρία. Thus Raca and μωρέ And we may observe, may differ, as a charge of light n It is the opinion of many Gal. v. 20. 32. that our Lord elsewhere uses general assertions, where the same restriction must be understood; as in the Mat. x. 33. words, "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven." For it is plain, from the case of St. Peter, that hardened perseverance in such denials is meant. There is another general precept charged with too Mat. v. 28. much rigour. "I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to desire her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." The words of the original, in order to desire hero," denote giving full and unrestrained scope to evil thoughts and intentions. St. Peter describes some who walked after the flesh, 2 Pet. ii. 10, as "having eyes full of adultery, and which could not cease from sin." And all strict moralists decide to the 14. same effect. Cicero records an observation made by Pericles, that a grave magistrate should not only restrain his hands from acts of avarice and oppression, but his eyes from contemplating such objects as raise inordinate desire. And in another place he asserts, that if men deliberate whether they should knowingly commit a crime, there is guilt in the very doubt. There is also a well-known determination of the Roman satyrist', that whoever meditates within himself • Πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς. Το ch. vi. 1. πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι αὐτοῖς, with the end and design of being seen by them. See also ch. xiii. 30; xxiii. 5. P Off. i. 40: Prætorem decet, non solum manus, sed etiam oculos, abstinentes habere. q Ib. iii. 8: Hoc quidem deliberantium genus pellatur e medio -qui deliberant utrum-se scientes scelere contaminent: in ipsa enim dubitatione facinus inest. r Juv. xiii. 208: Scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum, Facti crimen habet. Add Cleanthes, Poes. Philos. H. Steph. p. 124: Ὅστις ἐπιθυμῶν ἀνέχετ ̓ αἰσχροῦ πράγματος, Οὗτος ποιήσει τοῦτ ̓, ἐὰν καιρὸν λάβῃ. He whose desire can prompt a shameful act Will perpetrate it, when occasion of fers. any secret crime contracts the guilt of committing it. Some have thought that our Lord's remark is confined to the intentional adulterer: and it is true that the words used by him signifies adultery, strictly so called, throughout the New Testament and the Greek version of the Old: but still the reason of the assertion equally extends itself to the intentional fornicator. God, who sees the heart, will punish all such evil intentions as want nothing but opportunity to become actual crimes. It aptly follows: "And if thy right eye offend thee," lead thee to renounce my gospel, or to violate any religious or moral duty, "pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." In another place of this evangelist our Lord says, "If thy hand or thy foot offend thee;" and more at large in St. Mark, "If thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is Mar. ix. 43. better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two hands to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," &c. This is a strong eastern manner of expressing that seductions to sin, and particularly stumblingblocks in the way of openly professing the gospel at that season, should be avoided at all events; and that the causes of guilt and apostasy should be removed, whatever favourite gratifications were foregone, whatever temporal evils were endured. As you S ἐμοίχευσεν. t Our Lord having mentioned looking on a woman, he immediately adds, "and if thy right eye offend thee:" whereas, ch. xviii. |