together, as though they had been one and the same commandment : " Thou shalt not kill ; and whoso- ever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment." The effect of this union was, that, first, the imjwrt of the commandment was thereby hmited to actual murder ; and, next, the sanction, with which it was enforced, was hmited to a punishment inflicted by the civil magistrate. Hence all other violations of the commandment were either overlooked, as no offences at all, or were considered as of very hght moment : and though God's future judgment might not be expressly denied, it was at least kept very much out of sight, by this method of interpreting the word of God.
To rectify these errors, our Lord gave his exposi- tion of the commandment. He explained,
1. Its import —
[It had been thought to extend only to actual murder; but he declared, that it prohibited all causeless anger in the heart, and all outward expression of it with the lips.
In determining the sinfulness of anger, two things are to be considered, namely, the object, and the occasion of our anger. The only legitimate object of it is sin. The sinner himself should be regarded with love and pity ; and his sin only should move our anger. Thus it v/as with our blessed Lord when he exercised anger; " He looked round about on the Pharisees with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts'^." The occasion too must be just: our anger must not be causeless, or disproportionate to the offence, or of too long continuance. Where our anger is faulty in none of these respects, we observe the true medium ; " We are angry, and sin not®:" but where any one of these barriers is broken down, there the anger becomes a violation of the sixth commandment.
Similar distinctions must be made respecting the outward expressions of anger. " Raca" was a term which indicated a contempt of the person to whom it was applied : it means, ' Thou empty worthless fellow.' " Thou fool," was an expres- sion that implied a great degree of indignation and abhorrence, ' Thou reprobate villain.' Such expressions therefore as these must of necessity be considered as violations of the command- ment, because they manifest a total want of love and pity towards the person so addressed. But it is not every re- proachful word that is sinful. St. Paul said, " O foolish
<i Mark iii. 5. « Eph. iv. 26.