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e
a.e
dious,
for
any
Chriilians,efpecially
fuch
as
pretend
to be
proteflants,
confidently to alfert, and boldly
to
publiíh
to
the world,
as
Mr.
Hobbs
doth
in his Leviathan,
(a
book
deigned
by
him,
as
I
have
been informed, to corn,
element
Gromwel,
againft
the writer's
own
confcience,
fuch
as
it
was)
p.
168.
ghat
no
private
man
is
judge
of
good
and
evil
actions
in
a
common
wealth,
under
civil
laws;
and
that
the
meafure
of
good
and
evil
aelions is the
civil
law (of
aCions
civilly
good, why not
?
but
of
aElions
limply good
and evil (as his
affcrtion carries)
why
?
what
reason,
or fhadow
of
reafon
?
God
never
having given,
nor
aíligned fuch
a
rule
;
we
may
thus
throw
away
our
Bibles,
as
the rule
of
good and evil
aEtions,
and
all
be-
take
ourfelves
to
the civil
law
as
the
only
rule)
and
the
legifluitor
the
alone
judge
;
fince
he
may
as
well
diveft
a
man
of
human
nature and
un
-man him,
as
deprive
him
of
a
private judgment
of
difcretion, or
of
a
private
dif
cretive judgment
in
reference
to his own
adions
;
the
fober
exercife
whereof
is
no affuming to
himfelf
in
the
leafs
the
capacity
of
a
publick
judge. And
if
at any
time,
in
any
thing relating
to his
own
ads,
this judgment of
private difcretion
fall to
thwart
the
law
or publick judg-
ment,
he
adventures
on
t
hat
cum periculo,
or
on
his
peril;
but
it cannot
in
reafon
utterly
rob him
of
it,
fince
(as
is
faíd)
he can
as
faon
ceafe to
be
a
man,
or
a
rational
crea-
ture,
as
to have
that quite denied
him, or
taken
from him.
And,
to
what
end
or
purpofe thould
he be privileged
with
this above
brutes,
if
the exercife
of
it íhall be for
ever fufpended
in
the members
of
kingdoms
and com-
'mon-
wealths,
as
almoft
all
men in
the
world are
?
what
found
and
orthodox divine,or
found
Chriftian lawier
ever
taught
fuch
c
oa[rine
?
The
learned
Dr.
Ames tells us,
in
the
4th corolary,
and
very
laf
words
of
his
firft book
of
Cafes
of
confcience,
That
interpretatio
fcripturx,
vel
jug
dicïum
difcer
ere
voluntatem
Dei,
pertinet
ad
quemlibet
in
foro
confcientix pro
fcsneteip
fo.
And,
page
i
69.
of
the
forecited book,
the
fame
Bcbbs
lays,
'That
he
who is
fub-
jec7
to
río
civil
law,
linneth
all
that
he
doth
again
ft
his
confcience
;
yet
it
is
not
fo
with
him
2vho
liveth
in
a
com-
mon-wealth,
becaufe
the
law
is
the
publick
confcience
Which
Teems
to
be
inconfitent
with,
if
not
point-blank
con-