which are in t.he valley of the son of Hinnom, mother llhall be surely put to death, Human to cause their BODS and their daughters to authority, incontrovertible throughout 11, pass through the fire unto Molech; which great part of Christendom, declares that I oommanded them not, neither came it into iu most cases it is no gm ve sin. my mind, that they should do this abomi• Ver. 10.-The Hebrew punishment COi' nation, to cause Judah to sin" (Jer. :it:itxii. e.dultery is more severe the.n that of mos\ 34, 35). A.nd of_ Manasseh it is related, other nationa. Death is again pronounced "He built altars 1n the house of the Lord, as the penalty of both e.dultcrer and aclul• of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will teress in Deut. :itxii. 22. The crime is that I put my Na.me. And he built altars for ell of e. me.n with amarried woman, whether the the host of heaven in the two courts of the man be married or not ; it is not that of 11, house of the Lord. And he made his son married me.n with e.n unmarried woman, p88s through the fire" (2 Kings. ud. 4-6). whioh, in o. country where polygnmy wBS Vere. 4, 5.-There is to be no connivance allowed, could not. be rege.rded in the same with Molech-worship. The penalty is light. death, e.nd is to be carried out by the Vera. 11, 12.-It should be noted the.t proper tribunals, whose business it was to intercourse with e. stepmother or de.ughter- see that the stoning took place. So in in-law are put, by the puniehment inflicted Deuteronomy the duty of killing those who upon them, on the same level with adultery entice to idolatry is le.id down. "Thou e.nd unne.ture.l crimes (vere. 10, 13, 15, 16). shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken Vers. 13-19.-{See oh. xviii 22, 17, 23, unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, 9, 19, 12.) neither she.It thou spare, neither shalt thou Vere. 20, 21.-They shall die ohildl888: ... conceal him : but thou she.It surely kill they shell be ohildleBB. "It cannot be sup- him; thine hand shall be first upon him to posed that e. perpetual miracle was to be put him to death, and e.fterwards the hand maintained through all the a.gee of Isre.el'a of e.ll the people" (Dent. :itiii. 8, 9). In the history; but the meaning evidently is that case of Molech-worship God declares that, the children of such marriages should be if the tribunals of the nation fail to adjud~e reckoned, not to their actue.l father, but to the penalty of death to the offender, he will the former husband of the woman. In the himself take the matter into his hands, and strong feeling of the Israelites in regard to cut him off with his family and all that posterity, this penalty seems to he.Te been follow him in his sin of unfaithfulness. sufficient" (Gardiner). Ver. 6.-God will e.lso himself out off Vere. 22, 23.-The fact of the nations of from among his people any that, not content Ce.nae.n being abhorred by God bece.use they with lawful and godly knowledge, turn after oommitted all these things shows the.t the suoh u have familiar spirits, a.nd after Levitical code forbidding all these thing, was wizards, to go a whoring after them. no part of e.ny specie.I law for that nation Vere. 7, 8.-A positive comme.ncl, Se.notify a.lone, hut a republication of that Law which younelves therefore, a.nd be ye holy: for I is bincling on all nations because written &m the Lord your God, is introduced early on the conscience. The prohibited degrees in the list of penalties to show what is the in the Book of Leviticus form a. part of the ma.in purpose of the latter. The only way moral, not of the ceremonial, le.w, e.nd are, in which the nation can recover holiness therefore, of permanent and universal, not lost by the sins of its members, is by the only of temporary and national, oblige.tion. punishment of the latter, or by their purifica- Vere. 24-26.-The Israelites are to a.void tion by means of sacrifice, according to the all defilement, more.I and ceremonial, because nature of the offence. thoy a.re God's own possession, separated Ver. 9.-See above, the note on eh. :iti:it. from other people, and holy unto him. 14, which shows how God's word is mado Ver. 27.-Those the.t dee.I in witchcraft of none effect by man's traditions. God are to be stoned. says that a man who ourseth his father or his
HOMILETICS. Vera. 1, 21.-77ui differen~ between the religious and the secular law is more marked in modem nations than in the Hebrew commonwealth; the primary object of the first being to forbid and prevent sin; of the second, to protect life and property. The dis- tinction is shown by the separation of the eighteenth and the twentieth chapters; but a.s in the Mosaic legislation both the law which denounces sin and the law which pronounces penalties for crime proceeded from God, it was not [necessary that the boundaries between the two should be marked and defined with tho same exactness .{JD, XX. 1-27.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 313