Sec. 21. To avoid this state of war (wherein there is no
appeal but to heaven, and wherein every the least difference is
apt to end, where there is no authority to decide between the
contenders) is one great reason of men's putting themselves into
society, and quitting the state of nature: for where there is an
authority, a power on earth, from which relief can be had by
appeal, there the continuance of the state of war is excluded,
and the controversy is decided by that power. Had there been any
such court, any superior jurisdiction on earth, to determine the
right between Jephtha and the Ammonites, they had never come to a
state of war: but we see he was forced to appeal to heaven. The
Lord the Judge (says he) be judge this day between the children
of Israel and the children of Ammon, Judg. xi. 27. and then
prosecuting, and relying on his appeal, he leads out his army to
battle: and therefore in such controversies, where the question
is put, who shall be judge? It cannot be meant, who shall decide
the controversy; every one knows what Jephtha here tells us, that
the Lord the Judge shall judge. Where there is no judge on
earth, the appeal lies to God in heaven. That question then
cannot mean, who shall judge, whether another hath put himself in
a state of war with me, and whether I may, as Jephtha did, appeal
to heaven in it? of that I myself can only be judge in my own
conscience, as I will answer it, at the great day, to the supreme
judge of all men.
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