155 / 652
DISC.
T.1
EXAMINED
AND
ESTABLISHED.
14
least
as
to
be
banished
from
their
dominions
;
because
they
who
deny
the knowledge
and
jistiee
of
a God,
a
superior
Governor,
can
give
no
security
by
oaths;
of
their allegiance or loyalty to any government whatsoever;
and
will
break
all
manner
of
bonds
when
they
can do
it
safely.
'-But
where
some
divine power
is
owned
and
acknowledged,
who knows
and
will
punish
perjury and
falsehood, the
civil
governor
bath
no
farther
power in
affairs
of pure
religion, where the peace
of mankind,
the
property
of
man, and
the safety
of
the
state are
not
concerned
:
Now these privileges and powers
are
not
impaired
by
any
article
of the
relifion
of nature.
This
was
the
nwtion
of
the wiser
and better heathens,
by
'the
light
of
nature,
and
therefore
you do
not
find
them
usually
quarrelling about their
gods,
and bringing
one another before courts
of
justice, because
of
their
contentions
and
differences
in
matters of their
religion
:
Nor
would
the magistrates
bear
it.
This appears
in
the
case
of
St.
Paul, at Corinth;
Acts
xviii.
12-16.
And
when
Gallio
was
the
deputy
of
Achaia,
the
Jews
ntade
insurrection
with
one
accord
against
Paul;
and brought
-him
to' the,jjidgment
-seat,
saying, this
fellow pèrsuadeth
men to
worship
God
contrary
to
the
law.
And
when
Paul
Was
now
about
to
open
his
mouth,
Gallio said unto
the
Jews,
if'
it
were
a matter
of
Wrong,
or
wicked lewdness,
O
ye
Jews,
-
reason
would
that
I
should
bear
with you
;
but
if
it
be
a
question
of
words
and
names,
and
of
your
law,
look
ye
to
it;
forl
will
be no
judge
of
such
matters
:
and
he
draye
them,
from
the
judgment
-seat.
But then Gallio
was
much
to blame in
the 17th
verse,
where
he took
no cognizance
of
the
Greeks 'beating
Sosthenes, an
innocent
man, being
the
ruler of
the-
syna-
gogue
:
which was
a
crime against
the peace
of
the
city,
and an
offence
against the government, which
Gallio
ought
tó have
resented.
But
however the
civil
magistrates among the
heathens
had nothing
to do in
matters
of pure
religion,
'yet the
Jews
were
continually running to the
civil
Magistrate
with
their
charges
against those
who
opposed their reli-
gion,
or
any
part
of
it.
And
this
is
the
:plain
and
appa-
rent
reason of it
:
The
government
of
the
Jews
was
a
theocracy
;
.God
was
their
king
as
well as
their God
;
the law
that
he gave
them
by
the hand
of
Moses was
.thee
VOL.
III.
L