Or
when perhaps a person may be maliciously charged with, and prosecuted
for crimes not only peculiarly dishonorable to religion, but even
capital, as has been the case with some individuals. In all such cases,
self-defense at law becomes necessary before the ordinary courts and
judges of any nation, or place of the world whatever, when such defenses
are admitted without the formal and explicit acknowledgment of the
lawfulness of unjust or usurped authority (when such happens to be in
place, as in the instance of Paul's appeal to Caesar, Acts xxv), or
acting any otherwise contrary to justice and charity. And with regard to
the other branch of the sentence where it is observed--"That a
difference ought to made between those things that cannot be had, nor
yet the value and equivalent of them, unless the person actually give
it," &c.: This is sufficiently explained in a paragraph, page 163, near
the foot. Prayers for God's blessing on any government--enlisting and
bearing arms in their service--accepting offices and places of power
from them--swearing oaths of fidelity to them, &c.
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