highest judicatory, from whence there was no appeal, as there might be from the lower courts to this. Into this assembly were chosen such as did excel others for nobility and wisdom, and that by a solemn lay- ing on of hands ; strangers or unclean persons or common people might not come nigh unto them. To this tribunal were referred all doubtful matters too hard for inferior courts to decide, Deut. xvii. 8, 9, as also all things that did belong to the twelve tribes, or to the whole nation ; all things that concerned the high priest, matters of war and peace, the false prophet, &c. Therefore Christ saith, Luke xiii. 33, ' It can- not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem,' that being the city where the Sanhedrim sate. By this court was Christ condemned, and the apostles, Acts iv. 5 ; and Stephen, chap. vii. 7 ; and Paul, chap, xxiii. 1. They sate in a part of the temple called Gasiih ; their punishments were strangling, beheading, stoning, burning ; those that were condemned to be burned were burnt in the Valley of Hinnom ; and in great cases, besides his corporal death, the malefac- tor was appointed, and accursed to the judgment of hell. Let me apply all to the present case. Christ doth not meddle with the lowest court, the judgment of three men, because capital matters did not belong to their cognisance, and his intent is to sbow what a capital matter the least expression of anger is : ' Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,' saith he, 'is in danger of judgment;' that is, of the judgment of twenty-three men, to show that rash anger is before God a capital matter. ' And whosoever shall say to his brother, Eaca' — thou vain and witless fellow ; this was the lowest kind of contumely then in use ; some make it only an interjection of indignation — ' is in danger of the council ;' that is, of the Sanhedrim, which noteth, that anger expressed, though in the lowest way, is a higher fault than single and bare anger, as the fault was greater for which they appeared before the higher Sanhedrim than that for which they appeared be- fore the twenty-three judges. ' But whosoever shall say. Thou fool' — ■ this noteth a higher contempt, as implying a charge, not only of weak- ness of nature, but of sin and wickedness, — ' he is in danger of hell-fire,' which was the highest judgment of the Sanhedrim, to burn them in the Valley of Hinnom, and to leave them accursed till the Lord come ; and so proportionably it noteth the greatness of the crime which is committed in slandering and reproaching our brethren. It is a most odious sin before God ; for, in allusion to man's judgment, he showeth, that though there be degrees in the sin, and will be in the punishment, yet the whole kind is very displeasing to the Lord.
4. Because reproaches have an influence, and do exasperate rather than convince. The dog that followeth the game with barking and bawling loseth the prey ; and there is not a more likely way to under- mine the truth than an unseemly defence of it. Satan is mightily gratified, if men had eyes to see it, with the ill-managing of God's cause.
Use 1. First, It serveth for information, to show us the vanity of those excuses by which men would disguise their wrath and jmssion. What ! will you plead, I am in the right way, it is God's cause ?
Ans. Passion is blind, and cannot judge : James i. 20, ' The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.' The wrong way may be usually descried by the excesses and violences of those that are engaged
VeR. 9.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 2G1
in it. If we be in the ricjlit, extremities and furies of passion are not lawful; our religious affections may overset us. Wlien religion, which should limit ns, is made a party to engage them, it is hard to keep bounds. A stone, the higher the place from whence it falleth, giveth the more dangerous blow ; so the higher the matter about which we contend, usually our anger falleth with the more violence, and is the more unmortified, because of the pretence of zeal. If the erring parties offend through ignorance, remember a bone out of joint must be settled again with a gentle hand, Gal. vi. 1. Are the opposite stubborn ? ' In meekness instruct those that oppose themselves,' 2 Tim. ii. 25 ; when their absurd opposing is apt to tempt us to rage, passion, and reproach, we must contain ourselves ; the hasty disciples * knew not what spirit they were of
Do they provoke, revile, wrong us first ?
A71S. The railing and ill-dealing of another doth not dissolve the bond of our duty to God ; to return injury for injury is but to act over their sin ; it was bad in them, and it is worse in us ; for he that sinneth by example sinneth doubly, as having had experience of the odious- ness of it in another — qici malum imitatur, bonus esse non potest. Eevenge and injury differ only iri order of time ; the one is first, the other second in the fault ; and it was no excuse to Adam that he was not ' first in the trangression.' Christianity teacheth us a rare way of overcoming injuries, not only by patience, but doing good to those that wrong us : Eom. xii. 17, and 1 Peter iii. 9, ' Render not reviling for reviling, but, contrariwise, blessing.' We have for our pattern Christ, ' who being reviled, reviled not again/ 1 Peter ii. 23. And herein he was imitated by his disciples, 1 Cor. iv. 13, ^Xacrcprj/xovfMevoi irapaKa- Xovixev, ' being defamed, we intreat ' — a motto which 1 would have prefixed to afl rejoinders or replies to a virulent opposition. Calvin's modesty concerning Luther is notable : Etiamsi me diaholum vocarit ' eum tamen insignem Dei servum agnoscam — though he should call me devil, yet God forbid but I should account him an eminent servant of Christ. It was once an argument for the truth of our reli- gion that the scriptures contained a doctrine that could not be of men, as forbidding revenge, which is so sweet to nature, and commanding us to do good to them that hate us.