should be heard by all with the same pleasure as if God, expressly naming each individual, were to prohibit injury to be offered him under a threat of the divine anger, and the heaviest chastisement of the divine wrath. As, then, the announcement of this commandment must be heard with pleasure, so should its observance be to us a pleasing duty.
In its development our Lord himself points out its twofold obligation; the one forbidding to kill, the other commanding us to cherish sentiments of charity, concord, and friendship towards our enemies, to have peace with all men, and finally, to endure with patience every inconvenience which the unjust aggression of others may inflict. With regard to the prohibitory part of the commandment, the pastor will first point out the limits which restrict the prohibition. In the first place, we are not prohibited to kill those animals which are intended to be the food of man: if so intended by Almighty God, it must be lawful for us to exercise this jurisdiction over them. " When," says St. Augustine, " we hear the words thou shalt not kill, we are not to understand the prohibition to extend to the fruits of the earth which are insensible, nor to irrational animals, which form no part of the great society of mankind." [1]
Again, this prohibition does not apply to the civil magistrate, to whom is intrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which he punishes the guilty and protects the innocent. The use of the civil sword, when wielded by the hand of justice, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the commandment is the preservation and security of human life, and to the attainment of this end the punishments inflicted by the civil magistrate, who is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend, giving security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: " In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land; that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity HI. from the city of the Lord." [2] In like manner, the soldier is guiltless who, actuated not by motives of ambition or cruelty, but by a pure desire of serving the interests of his country, takes away the life of an enemy in a just war. [3] There are on record instances of carnage executed by the special command of God himself: the sons of Levi, who had put to death so many thousands in one day, were guilty of no sin: when the slaughter had ceased, they were addressed by Moses in these words: " you have consecrated your hands this day to the Lord." [4]
Death, when caused by accident, not by intent or design, is not murder: " He that killed his neighbour ignorantly," says
- ↑ De civit. Dei. lib. 1. c. 20. item de morib. Manich. lib. 2. c. 13--15.
- ↑ Ps. c. 8. Aug. epist 154. et citat 23. q. 5. cap. de occidendis. item epist. 54 et citatur ibid. cap. non est iniquitatis. Vide adhuc ibid, alia capita et D. Thorn. 2. 2. q. 64. a. 2. etq. 108. a. 3.
- ↑ Aug. de civit. Dei. c. 26. citatus 23. q. 5. cap. miles. Vide item de bello D. Thorn. 2. 2. q. 40. per 4. art.
- ↑ Exod. xxxii. 29.
