Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/177

It will be said that, in the times of St. Paul, temporal penalties were inflicted upon members of the christian church, for their irregularities committed in it. For this cause, says the apostle, some are weak and sickly among you, and some sleep; which is generally understood to refer to sickness and death, as a punishment for their shameful abuse of the institution of the Lord's supper. But it should be considered, that these punishments were the immediate act of God, and in the strictest sense miraculous, like the death of Ananias and Sapphira, or the blindness of Elymas the sorcerer. These cases, therefore, will not authorize punishments inflicted by men. All that can be done to those who are guilty of contempt against church power, is to leave them to the judgment of God, who will sufficiently protect his church, and who is a better judge of its real danger than man can be; and if he chuse to bear with such offenders, what have we to do to obstruct the effects of his long suffering and mercy?