^ i)e arte bene moriendi. [Qu., 'Baronius' ? — G.] ^ As before, * asbestos.'- G.
THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL. 119
judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Kaca, shall be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire,' — G7\, to, or in the Gehenna of fire.
In this scripture our Lord Jesus doth allude to the custom of pun- ishing offenders used among the Jews. Now there were three degrees of punishments that were used among the Jews.
First, In every town where there were a hundred and twenty inhabitants, there was a little council of three, which judged smaller matters, for which whipping or some pecuniary mulct was imposed.
Secondly, There was a council consisting of three-and-twenty ; seven of these were judges, fourteen assessors, who were mostly of the Levites; and to these were added two supernumeraries, which made the twenty- three, which the Hebrews generally say was the number that made up the second council. Now this council sat in the gates of the city, and did judge of civU matters, having also power of life and death, [Josephus,]
Thirdly, There was the great synedrion, or high court of judicatory, which consisted of seventy-and-two, six chosen of every tribe. Now this council sat in the court of the temple, and had aU matters of greatest moment brought before them, as heresy, idolatry, apostasy. Sometimes they convented before them the high priest, and sometimes false prophets, yea, sometimes a whole tribe, as my reverend author thinks, [Beza.] Now look, as there is a gradation of sin, so there is a gradation of punishment pointed at in this scripture ; for the opening of which, consider you have here three degrees of secret murder, or of inward heart murder. And,
[1,] The first is rash anger. Now this brings a man in danger of the judgment. By the judgment he means not the judgment of the three, who judged of money matters, but by judgment he means the council of the tliree-and-twenty men. Now they are called ' the judg- ment,' because they judged of murders, and inflicted death, &c. Now he that shall rashly, vainly, causelessly, unseasonably be angry with his brother, he shall be liable to the punishments that are to be inflicted by the j udges. Look, what punishments they in the Sanhedrim inflicted upon actual and apparent murderers, the same were they liable to, and did deserve at the hands of God, who were guilty of this secret kind of murder, viz., rash anger. From the different degrees of punishments among the Jews, Christ would shew the degrees of punisment in an- other world, according to the greatness of men's sins. As if he should say : Look, as among you Jews there are dififerent offences — some are judged in your little council of three, and others are judged in your council of three-and-twenty, and others in your great Sanhedrim — so in the high court of heaven, some sins, as rash anger, are less punished, and others are more sorely punished, as when your rash anger shall break forth into railings, &c. In these words, ' Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of judgment,' you may see that Christ gives as much to rash anger as the Jews did to murder ; as if he should have said, * You Pharisees exceed all measure and bounds in your anger, and, with a malicious heart, you rail upon the most innocent persons, upon me and my disciples ; but I would have you take heed of rash anger, for you shall have greater torments
120 THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL.
in hell for your rash anger than those that murderers sufifer by your council of three-and-twenty/ But these words, ' he shall be in danger of judgment/ do contain the reward and punishment of unlawful anger; as if our Saviour had said, ' Kash anger shall not escape just punish- ment, but shall be arraigned and summoned before God's tribunal at the dreadful day of judgment, when the angry man shall not be able to answer one word of a thousand/
[2.] The second kind of secret murder is to say to our brother, Kaca, that is, say some, ' 0 vain man ' ! Others say, it signifies a brainless fellow ; and the learned Tremellius saith, it signifies one void of judg- ment, reason, and brains. Some will have this word Kaca come of the Greek paKto^, Bacos, cloth, as though one should call a man a base patch, or piece of cloth, or beggarly. i Kaca signifies an idle head, a light brain; for so Bik in the Hebrew, to which the Syriac word Bacha agreeth both in sound and sense, signifieth light or vain, Kacha is a Syriac word, and signifies, say some, these three things: — 1. Empty, as empty of wealth, or poor ; or as some, empty of brains or wit; or, as others, a light-head or cock-brain, wide 2 and empty of wisdom or understanding. 2. It signifies spittle or spit upon ; to signify that they esteemed one another no better than the spittle they spat out of their mouths. 3. It signifies contemned, vile, despised, abject, and in this signification one, in his proem of the Syriac Gram- mar, [Michael Maronita,] thinks it to be taken. The Ethiopian ex- pounds Bacha thus, ' He that shall say to his brother. Be poor by con- tempt, and of torn garments, shall be guilty of the council ; ' such a one, saith our Saviour, ' shall be in danger of the council,' that is, contract as great guilt unto himself, and is subject to as severe a judgment in the court of heaven, as any capital crime that is censured in the Sanhedrim or high-court of the Jews. But,
[3.] The third kind of secret murder is an open reviling and reproaching of a brother in these words, ' But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.' ' Thou fool,' this is a word of greater disgrace than the former, ficope signifies unsavoury, or with- out relish ; a fool here is, by a metaphor, called insipid, Hebrew r\^w Sote, which we call Sot, ' shall be in danger of hell-fire,' or to be cast into Gehenna. Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Getttnnom, that is, the valley of Hinnom, lying near the city of Jerusalem ; in which valley, in former timeSj the idolatrous Jews caused their children to be burned alive between the glowing arms of the brazen image of Moloch, imitating the abominations of the heathen. Josh. xv. 8. And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signify the place of eternal punishment, where the damned must abide under the wrath of God for ever, 2 Kings xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 31, xxxii. 35, and xix. 4, 5, 6. There were four kinds of punishments exercised among the Jews,— 1. Stranglings ; 2. The sword ; 3. Stoning ; 4. The fire. Now this last they always judged the worst, as Beza afiirms upon this very place. In these words, ' shall be in danger of hell-fire,' Christ alludes