L. It seems unjust to persecute with punishments those who receive the law of Christ as true, but entertain doubts or errors on some external points, taking them in an ambiguous meaning or different from the ancient Christians in their explanation of them. A point which is proved by what has been said above, and by the ancient example of the Jews. For, possessing a law, which allowed them to inflict temporal punishments, they never exercised that authority upon the Sadducees, who denied the doctrine of a resurrection: a doctrine of the greatest truth, though but faintly delivered in that law, and under a typical application of words and circumstances. But if there should be any weighty error, that discerning judges could easily refute by an appeal to sacred authority, or to the opinions of antiquity; here too it would be necessary to make allowance for ingrafted opinions, that have grown up to form an inseparable part of the human mind, and for the zealous attachment of every one to his own tenets; an evil which Galen says is more difficult to be eradicated than any constitutional disease. CHAPTER XXI. ON THE COMMUNICATION OF PUNISHMENT. How accessories are liable to punishment--Sovereign Princes or States answerable for the misconduct of their subjects, when they know it, and do not endeavour to prevent it--Sovereigns bound not to protect offending subjects, but to deliver them up or punish them--The rights of suppliants belong to the unfortunate and not to the guilty--Suppliants may be protected while the inquiry into their case is still pending--How far states are amenable to punishment--All the different exceptions stated--Children not answerable for the offences of parents--The moral government of God in this respect considered--Individuals not answerable for offences, to which they have not given consent--Heirs, how far answerable for the acts of their ancestors.