7. From the asserting of the authority and description of the duty of the magistrate, Rom. xiii. the argument is very easy that is produced for the suppressing, by external force, of erroneous persons. The paralogism is so foul and notorious, in this arguing. He is to suppress evil deeds ; he- resy is an evil deed, therefore that also, that it needs no con- futation. That he is to punish all evil deeds was never yet affirmed. Unbelief is a work of the flesh, so is coveting ; one the root sin, against the first, the other against the se- cond table ; yet in themselves both exempted from the ma- gistrate's cognizance and jurisdiction. The evil doers, doubt- less, for whose terror and punishment he is appointed, are such as by their deeds disturb that human society, the de- fence and protection whereof is to him committed. That among the number of these are errors, the depravations of men's understandings, hath not yet been proved.
8. The case of the seducer, from Deut. xiii. is urged with more shew of reason than any of the others, to the business in hand ; but yet the extreme discrepancies between the proof, and the thing intended to be proved, make any argu- mentation from this place, as to the matter in hand, very in- tricate, obscure, and difficult. For,
(1.) The person here spoken of pretends an immediate revelation from heaven: he pretends dreams, and gives signs and wonders, ver. 1. and so exempts his spirit from any re-
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gular trial. Heretics, for the most part, offer to be tried by the rule that is in * medio,' acknowledged of all ; a few dis- tempered enthusiasts excepted.
(2.) His business is to entice from the worship of Je- hovah, not in respect of the manner, but the object, ver. 5. All heretics pretend the fear of that great name.
(3.) The accepting and owning idol, dunghill gods in his room., is the thing persuaded to, ver. 2. (and those were only stocks and stones) and this in opposition to Jehovah, who had revealed himself by Moses. Heretics worship him, own him, and abhor all thoughts of turning away from following after him, according to their erroneous apprehensions. Manichees, Marcionites, Valeutinians, and such like names of infidels, I reckon not among heretics ; neither will their brainsick paganish follies be possibly com- prehended under that definition of heresy, which is now ge- nerally received. Mahometans are far more rightly termed heretics, than they.
(4.) This seducer was to die without mercy. And Ains- worth observes from the rabbins, that this offender alone had traps laid to catch him ; and were he but once overheard to whisper his seduction, though never so secretly, there was no expiation of his transgression, without his own blood : but now this place is urged for all kind of restraint and pu- nishment whatsoever. Now where God requires blood, is it allowed to man to commute at an inferior rate ? So I con- fess it is urged. But yet what lies at the bottom, in the chambers of their bellies, who plead for the power of the magistrate to punish erring persons, from those, and such like places as these, is too apparent. Blood is there : swiftly or slowly they walk to the chambers of death.
(5.) Obstinacy after conviction, turbulency, &c. which are now laid down as the main weights that turn the scale on the side of severity, are here not once mentioned, nor by any thing in the least intimated . If he have done it, yea, but once, openly, or secretly, whether he have been convinced of the sinfulness of it or no, be he obstinate, or otherwise, it is not once inquired, die he must, as if he had committed murder, or the like indispensable death-procuring crime. If the punishment then of erring persons be urged from this place, all consideration of their conviction, obstinacy, per-
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tinacy, must be laid aside : the text allows them no more plea in this business, than our law doth in the case of wil- ful murder.
(6.) Repentance and recantation will, in the judgment of all, reprieve an erring person from any sentence of any punishment corporal whatsoever; and many reasons may be given, why they should so do. Here is no such allowance. Repent, or not repent; recant, or not recant; he hath no sa- crifice of expiation provided for him, die he must.
(7.) The law contains the sanction of the third command- ment, as the whole was a rule of the Jewish polity in the land of Canaan. This amongst us is generally conceived not binding, as such.
(8.) The formal reason of this law by some insisted on : because he sought to turn a man from Jehovah.
[1.] Is of force only in this case of the object whereunto seduction tends, viz, strange gods, and no other.
[2.] Turning from Jehovah respects not any manner of backsliding in respect of the way of worship, but a falling away from him as the object of worship.
Now there being these and many other discrepancies hindering the cases proposed from running parallel, I profess, for my part, I cannot see how any such evident deductions can possibly be drawn from hence, as to be made a bottom of practice and acting in things of so high concernment. What may be allowed from the equity of those and the like constitutions, and deduced by analogy and proportion to the business in hand, I shall afterward declare.