The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 191

tithes to Melohizedek on returning from the slaughter of the kings (Gen. xiv. 20); a.e the Israelites in the wilderness after the slaughter of the Midianites levied a tribute unto the Lord (Numb. xxxi. 11-47); as Saul said he intended to sacrifice unto the Lord the shee~ and. oxen he had reserved from the spoil of the Amalekites (1 Sam. xv. 21); and ns v1ctonous generals among the Romans were accustomed to dedicate to Jupiter ,par_t of the spoils taken. from the enemy (Ada~•s. 'Roman ~ntiq uities,' p. 327). As Asa s v10tory had been achieved solely through D1vme help, this was becomino- as well as right. Those whom God renders successful in their callings should ho;our him with the firstfruits of their increase (Prov. iii. 9). Every man as God bath pros- pered him, e. rule of Christian giving (1 Cor. xvi. 2). 2. The jOTmation of a covenant. (1) The object--twofold. (a) "To seek the Lord God of their fathers," etc. (ver. 12) -a right thing for nations and individuals to do-yea, for all, whether they covenant with and swee.r to one another concerning it or not. To seek God, a nation', and indi- vidual's life (Isa. Iv. 3, 6; Ps. lxix. 32; Amos v. 4), and the only source of true pros- perity for either (Ps. l:u. 4; cxiL 2; Amos viii. 14; Lam. iii. 25). That the god a nation or an individual seeks is the god of his or its fathers, is no proof that that crod is the true God; but, being the true God, he possesses an additional claim on the worship and homage of both individual and nation, from the fact that he is and has been their fathers' God. If God is to be sought at all, it should be with the whole heart (Jer. x.xix. 13). Nothing short of this is religion (Deut. xi. 13; xiii. 3; Matt. xxii. 37; Mark xii. 30, 33; Luke x. 27). (b) To "put to death," etc. (ver. 13). Under the theocracy religious toleration was impossible, for the reason that idolatry was high treason. "A theocratic government is a government of constraint. Freedom of con- science would have been an unmeaning sound under the Jewish economy" (Pressense, • Early Years of the Christian Church,' vol. i. p. 36). Church and state in Judah were one. No such identification existed among heathen nations, though approximations towards it were often seen. Nor does such identification exist under the gospel. Hence neither Church nor state now has authority to put to death those who decline the religion prescribed by either. The reformed Churches of England and Scotland were slow in perceiving that the extermination of heretics by the sword of the civil magistrate, however legitimate under the Jewish theocracy, was not permissible in the Church of Jesus Christ. Under the gospel God alone is Lord of the conscience; and to each man pertains the right of choosing his own religion, his own creed, and his own worship, without dictation, not to say coercion, from either king or parliament-being answerable for the choice he makes in the first place to his own conscience, and in the last place to God, whose creature and subject he is. This is the doctrine of religious equality, which should be carefully distinguished from that of religious toleration, which proceeds upon the erroneous assumption that Church and state possess the right, but decline to exercise the power of coercion, and agree to allow, what they might justly put down, diversity of faith and practice in religion. (2) The form-simple. "They sware unto the Lord;" i.e. bound themselves with an oath to carry out the twofold pur- pose above described. This they did with enthusiasm (ver. 14), which is always good in a good thing (Gal. iv. 18), and especially good in religion (Luke xiii 24; John ix. 4; Eph. v. 16; Heb. vi. 11). (3) The scene-impressive. In more points than one this high transaction under Asa had a parallel in the National Covenant, which was formed by the Scottish people in Edinburgh on the last day of February, 1638, when in the churchyard of Greyfriars, in the grey dawn, a parchment was spread upon a gravestone, and one by one the nobility, gentry, burgesses, ministers of religion, and common people, with uplifted hand and solemn oath, affixed to it their names, engaging with one another to maintain the Presbyterian form of Church government,and, at the point of the sword, to exterminate the prelatical. III. SIGNIFICANT RESULTS. (Vers. 15-19.) 1. The joy of th6 people. (Ver. 15.) This proved they bad been in earnest. They exulted in the unanimity·and heartiness with which the covenant had been made, and in the prospect thus opened up for the attainment of its objects. 2. The zeal of the king. (Vers. 16-18.) (1) The deposi- tion of the queen-mother, Maachah, the mother of Abijah and grand.mother of Asa. High rank, venerable ao-e, and near relationship to Asa had given her at court and in the land commanding influence, which she exercised in the interest of idolatry. Her removal by Asa showed him sincere in desirillg to etrect a reformation (Luke xiv. 26).  192 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cm. xvr. 1-15.