Page:Essay on the First Principles of Government 2nd Ed.djvu/175

 nor can laws be enforced without penalties. All this, and every consequence of the like nature, is readily granted; but the sanctions of the church of Christ in this world are, like itself, and like the weapons of the christian warfare, not carnal, and temporal, but of a spiritual nature; and do not affect a man's person, life, liberty, or estate. All that our Saviour directs, in case of the greatest refractoriness, is to consider such obstinate offenders as heathen men and publicans; that is, we are justified in ceasing to look upon them as brethren and fellow christians; and they are not intitled to our peculiar affection, and attention, as such.

The delivering over to Satan, which St. Paul mentions, as a punishment for the greatest offence that could be committed in the christian church, is not a delivering over to the civil magistrate, or to the executioner. In short, all that the New Testament authorizes a christian church, or its officers, to do, is to exclude from their society those persons whom they deem unworthy of it. There is no hint