Galatians :" " are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh ^?" St. James makes use of a similar expression ; " Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead ? " Our blessed Lord spake occasionally with far greater severity: " O fools, and blind;" " ye hypocrites ;" " ye serpents and generation of vipers." But in these things he spake as a prophet, bearing special authority ; and consequently, unless specially authorized like him, we are not at liberty in these respects to follow his example. The rule for us is plain : we may, like the Apostles, designate the characters of men by appropriate epithets ; but we must never use any expression which implies a hatred or contempt of the person to whom it is addressed. If we do not strictly adhere to this rule, we violate the commandment.
Thus you see the import of the commandment. Let us next consider our Lord's explanation of,]
2. Its sanctions — [We have observed, that the Pharisees, in their comments on this commandment, insisted almost exclusively on the tem- poral punishment annexed to the violation of it. Our Lord shewed them, that the principal judgments would be felt in the eternal world ; and that not only the direct act of murder, but all those other evils which he had represented as breaches of the commandment, would there meet with deserved punish- ment. This he illustrated by a reference to the different kinds of punishment which were inflicted in their courts of justice. There were courts, established in different parts of the land, consisting of twenty-three members, who had power to try causes, and to inflict capital punishment on the guilty : and the persons condemned by them, were beheaded. There was also a great court or council, called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy-two members, who took cognizance of the greatest crimes : and the persons condemned by them were stoned. But there were some offences for which people were condemned to be burnt alive^: and these, it is thought, were executed in the valley of Hinnom. In that valley the people formerly had burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch : but, when the people were turned from that wicked idolatry, one method adopted for keeping them from returning to it was, to defile the place as much as possible, and to render it detestable in the eyes of the people. For this purpose, all the filth of the city was carried there to be consumed; and fires were kept there on purpose to consume it : and it is probable, that that spot was selected as the fittest place of execution for all who were sentenced to be burnt alive. Now it is plain, that, of these three kinds of death, the last is far the most terrible :
f Gal. iii. 1,3. s Lev. xx. 14. and xxi. 9.