156 / 652
I48
T. PAUL'S
DIVINE
COMMISSION
[misc.
1,
law
of
their
secular
affairs as
well
as
the
rule
of
their re-
ligion
;
and therefore
the
high
-
priest
was
made
a
judge
in many
civil
affairs
as well
as religious.
Their
religion
and their
civil
government
were
so
interwoven;
by
God's
being their
king as,
well
:as
their God,
that
there
were
many
crimes in
religion
to
be
punished
by
the
civil
ma-
gistrate,
by
the appointment
of
God himself;
which
makes the
case
of
the Jews different
from
the
case
of
all
other
nations
under heaven;
For
no
people ever had
God
for
their
civil
and political governor and
lawgiver,
but
the
Jews
alone.
Christianity
does
not
claim,
or assume,
or pretend,
to
any such privilege or power
:
It
does
not
alter
this
mat-
ter
from what the light
of nature
bath determined
:
It
introduces
no new civil
government,
but
leaves all these
matters
as
it
finds
them;
and since the
Judaic
state and
government
are
abolished,
there
is
no
magistrate
on
earth
hath power
to
enquire or command,
to
rule or
punish,
any
further
in
matters
of
religion,
than
to
see
that
the
state
suffer no damage,
and the peace
of
man-
kind,
and
the government
be
secured.
But
this
bath
been the unhappiness
of
Christians
al-
most
in all ages since Christianity
began, they have
been
cited before magistrates, and punished
even
by
their
fel-
low-christians,
as
well
as
by
the Jews and heathens,
for
those notions and practices.
wherein
the
magistrate bath
no
power.
This the
Jews
began
you see very early,
and
the
Roman
governors
and heathens
have
carried
it
on
and
Christian
magistrates have carried
this
matter
to
the
height,
but
it
is
in
the antichristian
church.
They
have done
this
by
bloody persecutions, racks, torments, and murders
of
the best
of their
fellow- citizens,
where the
very
light
of
nature dictated
to the best and wisest
of
heathens,
that
they had
no power
orr
authority;
and
it
is
a plain con-
fession
of
it,
where Festus and Gallio
were
not
willing
to
meddle
;
nor
would
Pilate
himself,
who
crucified
Christ, have done
it,
if
the
Jews
had
not almost con-
strained him;
as sufficiently
appears
in
the history
of
the death
of
Christ.
Let
us
remember then,
that
the
religion
of
Christ
is
not built
on the
wisdom
or
power
of
,man,
nor
Both
it
need
such
a support.;
.
All
that
christia-
nity
wants,
is
to
have the persons, and
property,
and
peace
df
its professors,
secured against the outrages
of