Download: Theocracy or the Principles of the Jewish Religion and Polity Adapted to all Nations and Times

Defense of a theocratic approach to national life by a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, the Revd Robert Craig of Rothesay (1848). 

Excerpts: 

"And, since the principles and infallible rules of justice ought not to be left to the ever-varying opinions, judgments, or customs of men, but should be sought for in the law given, in the rules observed, and in the examples set by the supreme lawgiver, it becomes the duty of Christians to ascertain and act upon what the divine Word declares on this important and difficult subject." p. 280

"Transgressions of the law of property are ... punished by the demand for restitution, which is compensative to him who has suffered from theft or robbery, together with such additions as are necessary to indemnify him for the loss he may have temporarily sustained, and for the trouble he may have had in obtaining redress of his wrong. Thus, by the law of God, a thief was compelled to restore fourfold." p. 282

"Those offences ... which consist in destroying the virtue, order, or happiness of society—those acts which are directed against what is essential to the well-being of all around—and for which no sacrifice of personal service, no payment of money, no loss of liberty, can compensate, are to be punished with death; that is, with the forfeiture of the power which has been so abused, that the individual may never be able to repeat the crime. Thus treason, adultery, blasphemy, &c., are by the divine law visited with capital punishment, because they are directed against the very first principles of law, government, and society, whether these be human or divine." pp. 282, 283

"How monstrous a thing is it for any one to advocate a liberty, nay, right, to deny or blaspheme the Creator of all things, and even his own Maker! What could be said of the man who should insist on a perfect immunity for denying, vilifying, and trampling on the laws of his rightful sovereign? Such a one, by the consent of all, deserves to be driven beyond the bounds of his nation, and to have all means of communicating with its inhabitants, and enjoying its privileges, removed out of his power for ever." pp. 287, 288

"That the civil magistrate has to do with the first table of the law, is clearly proved from the subject now under consideration, many of those offences which were punishable with death, being transgressions of that table. It will not do to say that the rule does not apply to Christian States, since the Jews were under a theocracy.  No doubt they were so; but it is equally true of Christian States, that they also are under a theocracy." p. 290

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