And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn [you] away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
Ver. 5. Shall be put to death.] This power is still in the Christian magistrate, to inflict capital punishment on gross heretics; such as was Servetus at Geneva, and Campian here, who spider-like was swept down by the hand of justice, and drew his last thread in the triangle of Tyburn, as the historian wittily phraseth it. a Quid Imperatori cum ecclesia? was a question moved by the old Donatists. Libertas prophetandi, is much challenged by the Arminians, and other sectaries. But if in matter of religion every man should think what he lists, and utter what he thinks, and defend what he utters, and publish what he defends, and gather disciples to what he publisheth, this liberty, or licentiousness rather, would soon be the bane of any church.
a Speed's Hist of Eng., 1176.