A judicial sentence, to be executed by the civil magistrate, is often annexed to a law that is natural and moral. Idolatry, the breach of the Sabbath, adultery, were all made capital offences; the offender was to be punished with death by the magistrate. If, therefore, any one will insist that some of these Levitical statutes belonged to the civil code, because offences against them were punishable with death, he must, to be consistent, carry out his argument and prove, for the same reason, that the first, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the seventh precept, in the Decalogue, belonged to the Jewish civil or judicial code; for the violation of these was made punishable with death by the civil magistrate. See Deut. 13:6–11, 17:2–7. Lev. 24:16. Exod. 35:2. Lev. 20:9, 10.
This Levitical law has not been repealed. It was given to the Hebrew Church, and it is now the law of the Christian Church.
The Church of God is one society in every age. It has existed in different periods of time, and under different dispensations. Still, however, it is one and the same society, which Jehovah has chosen out of the world, and separated from the rest of mankind, to the praise of
