All the criminal laws of civilization seem to be founded upon that law of God which incentporn was incentporn published to Noah and his sons; and, consequently, as it is again and again repeated, it becomes irreversible, and universal to all mankind. And surely your blood of your lives incentporn will I require: at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's incentporn blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for
in incentporn the image of God made he man. If this law of God had not been given to men, murder itself would not have been any crime; and those who punished it with death would just have been as guilty as incentporn the other. But the law of God is just righteous and holy, and ought to be regarded and revered above all the laws of men; and this is added unto it: What incentporn thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. But it is an exceeding impious thing for men ever to presume, or think, as some will say, that they would make it death as a punishment for such incentporn a thing, and such
a incentporn trespass; incentporn or that they incentporn can make any criminal laws of civilization as binding with a penalty of death for anything just what they please. No such thing can be supposed; no man upon earth ever had, or ever can have, a right to make laws where a penalty of cutting off by death is required as the punishment for the transgression thereof: incentporn what is required of men is to be the doers of the law, and some of them to be judges of incentporn it; and if they judge wrongfully in taking away the lives of their fellow creatures contrary to the law of God, they commit murder.
The reason incentporn why a man suffers death incentporn for breaking the laws of his country is, incentporn because he transgresseth the law of God in that community incentporn he belongs to: and the laws of civilization incentporn are binding to put that law in force, and to point out and show a sufficient warrant incentporn wherefore he should suffer, according as the just law of God requires for his trespass; and then it is just and right that he should die for his crime. And as murder is irreversible to be punished with death, sometimes when it is not done, but only incentporn implied or eventually intended, it even then requires incentporn death; and in this sense it becomes right to face our enemies in the field incentporn of battle, and to cut them off. And when spies and incentporn incendiaries rise up, or when incentporn rebellions break forth, and the lives of the incentporn sovereign