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THE EXTENT OF
of their strength; and their ideas would be more free from confusion, if they would openly maintain, that a certain degree of persecution was just, though certain degrees of it were unjust; and they might easily say, that they could not pretend to fix any precise boundary in this case, but must leave it to be determined by circumstances.
SECTION VII.
Farther observations concerning the extent of ecclesiastical authority, and the power of civil governors in matters of religion.
IT is said that a christian church, or a christian society, and the power of christian societies, are certainly spoken of in the New Testament; that societies cannot subsist without officers and laws,