186 ST. PAUL'S DIVINE COMMISSION. and the safety of the state are not :concerned : Now these pri-. vaeges and powers are not impaired by any article of the religion of nature. This was the notion of the wiser and better heathens by the light of nature, and thereforeyou donot find them usually quar- 'wiling about their gods; and bringing one another before courts ofjustice, because of their contentions and differencesin matters oftheir religion : Norwould the magistrates bear it. This ap, . pears in the case of St. Paul, at Corinth ; Acts xviii. 12, 16. " And when Gallio was the duputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment-seat, saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now abdut to open his meuth, Gallio said unto the. Jews, If it were amatter 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 ; for I will be no judge of such matters : and he drove them front 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 synagogue ; which was a crime against the peace of the city, and an offence against tile. government, which Gallio ought to have resented. , Bat however the civil magistrates among the heathens had nothing tp do in-matters of purereligion, yet theJews were continually running to the civil magistrate with their charges against those who opposed their religion, or any part of it. And this is the plain and apparent 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 the law of their secular aflitirs as well as the rule of their religion ; and therefore the high priest was made a judge in.many civil affairs as well as religious. Their religion and their civil-govern- ment were so interwoven, by God's being their king as well as their God, that there were manycrimes in religion to be punish- ed by the civil magistrate, 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 matter from what the light or nature bath determined : It introduces nonew civil government, but leaves all these matters as it finds then? ; and since theJudaic state and government are' abolished, themis no magistrate on earth bath power to require or command, to
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