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THE LAW AND PENALTY INSEPARABLE.

Dictionary." "Laws penal are such as have some penalty to enforce them. All the laws of God are, and cannot but be penal, because, every breach of law is sin, and meritorious of punishment." [Vid. Dic. on Law.]

Hence the penalty of a law is as permanent as the law, and cannot be annulled, nor changed, without materially changing or affecting the law itself. Indeed, a law without a penalty would be a dead letter ; a bond without forfeiture; a body without life. All God's laws are evidently penal, and the penalty is such as He, Himself, has affixed to His law as the merited desert of the transgressor.

Death, and nothing short of the death of the murderer, has been conclusively shown to be the penalty of the Divine Law prohibiting murder, expressly defined, and required by the Almighty. If the penalty of death for murder has been repealed by the Almighty, then the law of murder has been repealed by the same authority; for, in this case, there is no alternative. Either the Divine Law prohibiting murder, and its penalty of death are both repealed, or both stand and remain in full force and virtue as when they were first enacted and promulgated. And if the penalty of death should be legislated from human law against murder, the law would become a dead letter, of no more use to promote the cause of justice, and safety of the community, by the punishment and prevention of crime, than a man of straw, set upon a sentinel post, would be of use to detect, and give alarm at the approach of an enemy.

But, let it be distinctly understood, and never be forgotten, that God enacted the precept, "Thou shalt not kill," to prohibit the crime of murder; and annexed to that law the penalty of death, for the prevention of the

crime, or for the legal punishment of the guilty murderers; and the registry of the above enactment is found, legibly preserved, in God's book of record. And it is confidently averred, that no record can be found in the Bible, from the beginning to the end of the sacred volume, that God ever repealed the law prohibiting murder, or altered its penalty in the least degree. Consequently, both the law and penalty remain unrepealed, and in full force and virtue.

Hence, on the foregoing testimony, we rest the verity of the propositions affirmed, as aforesaid, and declare them collectively and individually established, agreeably to the following recapitulation, namely :—

That God has given a law; perpetually binding on all mankind, for the prohibition of murder, on penalty of death; which penalty, in a special manner, is divinely forbidden to be changed into any mode of satisfaction, short of death, for the punishment of the murderer; and, that no authentic evidence appears from the Divine Records, that the law aforesaid has ever been repealed, nor the penalty of death annulled, mitigated, or altered in the least, degree, by the SuPREME LAWGIVER of the universe. And hence, from the premises thus sustained, the following conclusions are averred to be clearly and positively deducible.

First, That all mankind are bound by the authority of the God of heaven, to execute the penalty of death on all persons who are, or may be, guilty of the crime of murder.

Do we hear an objection raised to the above conclusion, on the plea, "that Cain, the first murderer, was not put to death?" The answer is obvious. The plea that Cain was not put to death, amounts to nothing more than has been true of every other murderer since Cain who, like him, committed the dreadful deed,

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CAIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION.

when no human eye saw it; and circumstances were such, that the murder could not be proved; and none but God could arraign, try, convict, sentence, and punish the malefactors, known to be such through life to God, alone, and their own horrific and worm-gnawing conscience.

Such were the facts respecting Cain. God alone saw the murder of Abel. God alone was the accuser to arraign the culprit. God alone was the witness to prove the fact of the murder to the face of the prevaricating dissembler, who had the audacity to retort upon the Omniscient JEHOVAH, with " Am I my brother's keeper?"!! God alone was the Attorney General of the universe to plead the cause of injured justice; while no other being, but the old serpent, could sug gest a plea in defence of the accused; (and we know not that even, by him, the long since stereotyped plea of insanity was set up in that defence). God alone was the only Juror to decide on the verdict of guilt, from the testimony of his own infallible knowledge, in addition to the voice of blood crying for vengeance from the ground. God alone was the Judge to pronounce the sentence, that the murderer should be an accursed fugitive and vagabond, the earth's execration during life. And God alone was the Executioner to enforce the awful penalty awarded, the amount of which was, overwhelming horrors of the murderer's conscience let loose upon his guilty soul; lashed with the horrid remembrance of the piteous cries of a righteous and innocent brother pleading for life in his dying agonies, as if still sounding in the ears of the wretched murderer!! While the dread vision of the dying and dead body of the murdered ABEL was portrayed before the eyes of his tortured conscience, and the very earth, by Divine interdiction, was forbidden to afford

ABSURDITY OF A SECOND OBJECTION.

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her strength or comfort to mitigate the horrors of the murderer's mind, till in despair he cried out, "My punishment is greater than I can bear"!!! Hence, the circumstance of Cain's concealed crime, and the Divine revelation of his punishment, (which was to him, a dying life, and a living death, as it is doubtless the case, in a greater or less degree, with all concealed murderers ;) can afford no valid objection to the subsequent Divine enactment of the penalty of death for murder, required to be inflicted in all cases, and at all times, when the crime can be proved, and the guilty murderer be brought to justice; and especially so, when it is considered that no Divine Law, nor penalty, for the prohibition and punishment of murder, had been specifically enacted and promulgated by the Almighty, before the murder of Abel.

Do we again hear another objection against the penalty of death for murder, on the plea, that the Moral Law was binding only on the Jewish nation; and not on them, longer than the coming of Christ, who abolished the penalty of death, previously due to the Jewish murderer?

In reply, we remark, that the plea to sustain this objection, is replete with absurdity. It amounts to an affirmation, that all mankind, except the Jews, were never prohibited by the Moral Law, from worshipping whatever idols they pleased, instead of God. That none of the Gentile nations of the earth, were forbidden to make graven images in the likeness of anything on earth, in the air, or sea, and to bow down and worship them. That none of mankind but the Jews, were forbidden to take the name of the Lord God in vain; nor required to keep the Sabbath day holy; nor their children required to honor and obey their pa

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CHRIST DID NOT ABOLISH THE MORAL LAW.

rents. That no law was made to prohibit any Gentile from enviously, and maliciously killing whom he pleased with impunity; nor from committing adultery; nor from stealing; nor from bearing false witness; nor from coveting any thing, and every thing that belonged to their neighbor.

And, in addition to the above palpable absurdities, the plea to sustain the objection under consideration, affirms that Christ abolished the penalty of death for murder. But, that Christ abolished the penalty of death for murder, is not true; and never was true. The sentiment is predicated on a perversion of God's truth, originating, most probably, by confounding the Moral Law of Ten Commandments, with the Ceremonial Law of rituals, and "commandments contained in ordinances," which were typical of Christ, and were fulfilled by the advent of Him, the divinely appointed Antitype.

But, not one precept of the Moral Law was ever annulled by Christ. He bore repeated testimony against murder, as a crime of the highest atrocity. And the world may be challenged to produce one syllable that Christ ever uttered against the punishment of death as the divinely ordained penalty of the Sixth precept of the Moral Law, which doomed all murderers to the punishment of death.

That Christ annulled the penalty of death for murder, is hence a sentiment totally unauthorized by Scripture, and replete with palpable absurdity. For, if Christ abolished the penalty for murder, then he also abolished the law prohibiting murder. And if Christ abolished both the law and penalty against murder, then no law has since existed under sanction of Divine authority, to prohibit the man of honor from murdering the man in a duel who insulted him; or the covetous