nd a new order are instituted 40.

* Verdict of philosophy and of reason on civil authority 41.

* Verdict of God's Word 42.

9. This law applies to all men 43.

10. Why God is such an enemy of man-slaughter, and so earnestly
forbids it 44-45.

11. The conclusion that God loves life 46.

II. THE LAW AGAINST TAKING LIFE; GOD'S COVENANT WITH NOAH; THE
RAINBOW.

A. The Law Against Taking Life.

V. 6a. _Who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed._

32. Here the carelessness of the Latin translator deserves reproof;
for he omitted the very necessary expression "by man." The difference
between the time before and that after the flood is thus brought out.
When Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God revered human blood so
highly that he threatened to visit sevenfold punishment upon anyone
who should kill Cain. He would not have the slayer of man put to death
even by due process of law; and though Adam punished the sin of his
son severely by casting him out, he did not dare to pronounce sentence
of death upon him.

33. But here Jehovah establishes a new law, requiring the murderer be
put to death by man--a law unprecedented, because heretofore God had
reserved all judgment to himself. When he saw that the world was
growing worse and worse, he finally enforced punishment against a
wicked world by the flood. Here, however, God bestows a share of his
authority upon man, giving him the power of life and death, that thus
he may be the avenger of bloodshed. Whosoever takes man's life without
due warrant, him God subjects not only to his own judgment, but also
to the sword of man. Though God may use man as his instrument in
punishing, he is himself still the avenger. Were it not for the divine
command, then, it would be no more lawful now to slay a murderer than
it was before the flood.

34. This is the source from which spring all civil laws and the laws
of nations. If God grants man the power of life and death, he
certainly also grants power in matters of lesser importance--power
over property, family, wife, children, servants and fields. God wills
that these things shall be under the control of certain men, who are
to punish the guilty.

35. We must remember well that between the power of God and of men
there is this difference: God has the power to slay us when the world
cannot even accuse us--when before it we are innocent. Sin is born
with us; we are all guil