therefore that the people are commanded, under pain of death, "to
hearken to them, and to do according to the sentence of the law
which they should teach;" but in Israel the law ecclesiastical
and civil was the same, therefore the Sanhedrim, having the power
of one, had the power of both. But as the national religion
appertained to the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrim, so the liberty
of conscience appertained, from the same date, and by the same
right, to the prophets and their disciples; as where it is said,
"I will raise up a prophet; and whoever will not hearken to my
words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him."
The words relate to prophetic right, which was above all the
orders of this commonwealth; whence Elijah not only refused to
obey the King, but destroyed his messengers with fire. And
whereas it was not lawful by the national religion to sacrifice
in any other place than the Temple, a prophet was his own temple,
and might sacrifice where he would, as Elijah did in Mount
Carmel. By this right John the Baptist and our Saviour, to whom
it more particularly related, had their disciples, and taught the
people, whence is derived our present right of gathered
congregations; wherefore the Christian religion grew up according
to the orders of the Commonwealth of Israel, and not against
them. Nor was liberty of conscience infringed by this government,
till the civil liberty of the same was lost, as under Herod,
Pilate, and Tiberius, a three-piled tyranny.

To proceed, Athens preserved her religion, by the testimony
of Paul, with great superstition: if Alcibiades, that atheistical
fellow had not showed them a pair of heels, they had shaven off
his head for shaving their Mercuries, and making their gods look
ridiculously upon them without beards. Nevertheless, if Paul