And further they affirm that when
magistrates are so constituted, Christians are bound by the law of God
to pray for the divine blessing upon their persons and government,
reverence and highly esteem them, yield a conscientious subjection and
obedience to their lawful commands, defend and support them in the due
exercise of their power; which power magistrates are especially to exert
for the outward defense of the church of God, against all her external
enemies, restraining or otherwise punishing, as the case may require,
all open blasphemers, idolaters, false-worshipers, heretics, with all
avowed contemners of the worship and discipline of the house of God; and
by his civil sanction to corroborate all the laws and ordinances of
Christ's house, providing and enjoining that every thing in the house of
the God of heaven, be done according to the law of the God of heaven;
Deut. xvii, 14; 2 Kings xi, 17; 1 Sam. xi, 15; 1 Tim. ii, 1,2; 1 Peter
ii, 17; Rom xiii, 2 to 8; 2 Kings xviii, 4, and xxiii, 1 to 26; 2 Chron.
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