reign executive power of the ſtate, or the king and his government; fourthly, ſuch as more directly infringe the rights of the public or common wealth; and, laſtly, ſuch as derogate from thoſe rights and duties, which are owing to particular individuals, and in the preſervation and vindication of which the community is deeply intereſted.
First then, of ſuch crimes and miſdemeſnors, as more immediately offend Almighty God, by openly tranſgreſſing the precepts of religion either natural or revealed; and mediately, by their bad example and conſequence, the law of ſociety alſo; which conſtitutes that guilt in the action, which human tribunals are to cenſure.
I. Of this ſpecies the firſt is that of apoſtacy, or a total renunciation of chriſtianity, by embracing either a falſe religion or no religion at all. This offence can only take place in ſuch as have once profeſſed the true religion. The perverſion of a chriſtian to judaiſm, paganiſm, or other falſe religion, was puniſhed by the emperors Conſtantius and Julian with confiſcation of goods[1]; to which the emperors Theodoſius and Valentinian added capital puniſhment, in caſe the apoſtate endeavoured to pervert others to the ſame iniquity[2]. A puniſhment too ſevere for any temporal laws to inflict: and yet the zeal of our ancestors imported it into this country; for we find by Bracton[3], that in his time apoſtates were to be burnt to death. Doubtleſs the preſervation of chriſtianity, as a national religion, is, abſtracted from it's own intrinſic truth, of the utmoſt conſequence to the civil ſtate: which a ſingle inſtance will ſufficiently demonſtrate. The belief of a future ſtate of rewards and puniſhments, the entertaining juſt ideas of the moral attributes of the ſupreme being, and a firm perſuaſion that he ſuperintends and will finally compenſate every action in human life (all which are clearly revealed in the doctrines, and forcibly inculcated by the precepts, of our ſaviour Chriſt) theſe are the grand founda-
