to the Reader. xi contradietory unto,what the apaftle exhorts to, Rom. 14, 5 Let every man be fully pertvaded in his own mind,or con- fcience, to wit, of the warrantablenefs of what he doth and, to what he afferts, v. 23. TVhatfoever is not done is frith (or from this full perfwafion of its warrantable - nefs) is fin. He doth not furely write this to Chriftians in Utopia, or in the fancied new world in the moon ; but to thofe who were really prefcnt members of the Ronzan common- wealth, or fubjeets of that empire ; neither can it with any thew of reafon he ilappol'ed (efpecially by Iim,wh ^,in the ¡train of his hook,as to this matter, makes very little, or rather no difference at all be twixt a Hea- then and Chr f ian magiftrate ; for whether the magiftrate be Pagan, -Wahornetan, 5ew , Chr f ian, Poprlh or Protef ant, Heretical or Orthodox, feems to be all one to him and his followers in this debate) that if the Roman emperor had been Chriflian, he would have written otherwife ; or that his becòming fuch, would enervate, yea, quite eva- cuate the firength and obligation of what he writes For he delivers it as an eternal and unalterable verity, rule -who will, and be the civil Iaws what they may be And while, in the 13 chapter of that fame epiftle, he telleth Chrif$ians, v. 5. That they mull needs be fubjeft,not only for wrath, but alto for confcience fake; He feems very clearly to diftinguith betwixt the law and command of the civil power (which Mr, Hobbs calleth the publick confcience) and the confcience of private Chriftian fubjeEs, and to preis upon them fubjeétion to the higher powers, for their own confcience fake, and fo to leave to them fame ex- ercife and judgment of that their confcience concerning the matter of their obedience and fubje&ion a Otherwile the obedience and fubjeftion could not well be faif-`to be for confcience fake, or out of confcience ; for he- might fhortly have laid, Obey the dictates of the publick èoh c -'nee, or the laws of the fuperior powers, there being no place for the exercife of the confcience of private fubje6ts in the matter. There is one divine (inch as he is) who, in hiÿ cclef aftick polity, more lately delivers the fame doctrine wherein he not only plainly Hobbizeth, but alfo palpably playeth the plagiary,borrowing,(not to fay ffealing) much Of what he lays to this purpofe through his book from Mr.
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