22'^ Mr. 'Turner on Crimes and PunijJy,nents. 



of their ground, and at prefenc feldocn attempt 

 to maintain it, except in cafes of murder and 

 high treafon. Perhaps in the latter cafe it may, 

 fomctimes, be nccefiary : and in the former, 

 fcripture is brought in upon us, and requires, 

 it is aflcrtedj the rigorous inflidion of death. 

 Now with relpeft to the inftitutions of Mofes, 

 it is to be confidered, that they wci-e made for 

 the regulation of a very peculiar people, for 

 very particular purpofes. Their whole civil 

 conftitution fccms to have been admirably 

 adapted to the progrefs* then made in political 

 advancement ; but to have been at the fame 

 time fo contrived, as to keep them where they 

 were, till the opening of a more perfcd dif- 

 penfation. All, therefore, that we can fairly 

 conclude from the inftances of capital puni(h- 

 ments, prefcribed by the law of Mofes, feems to 

 be, that fuch punifhments are not, in their own 

 nature, abfolutely and univerfally, unjuftifiable ; 

 for the God of nature, we may be affured, would 

 never contradidl and overthrow the eftablifhed 

 laws of nature. But I can no more conceive 

 that we are obliged, in this inftance, to copy 

 the Jewifh code, than that we ought to have 

 retained the law of retaliation, * or that we are 

 wrong in not adopting the whole fcheme, 

 without alteration, referve, or addition. 



* Ex. xxi. 24. Lev, xxlv. 2q. 



But 



