Xii The El We Mr. Hobbs, thon in force few things he oppofeth him, and delivers his fentirnents in a finer drefs of language. It may be, that none may think that he is beholden to the other,for that which he would furprize the world with as his own new and profoundly witty invention, vainly as it were crying, : Let them, for me, (hare betwixt them this glorying in their own íhame, that fhall not be rolled away. He Pays, That, in matters of religion, and divine worfhip, fubjec`t`s are to be ruled by authority and the publick confcience ; and that, in thefe matters, private men have not power over their own actions, nor are to be dire tied by their own judgments, but by the commands and determi- nations of the publick confcience ; only with thefe lorry re- ffritions, If the things commanded do not either countenance vice, or difgrace the Deity ; or if the things be not abfolute_ ¡y and effentially evil, whofe nature no cafe can alter, no cir- cumfiance can extenuate, and no end can fanai fy. Mr. Hobbs hath only this limitation, If the things be not againfi the law of nature : In eífe& both come near to the fame, if not to the very fame amount ; and by both an obliga- tion is pleaded to ly on the confciences of all private Chriftian fubje&s, to give up themfelyes to the conduét and regulation of the publick confcience, or of the laws of the common- wealth, as to many, at leaff, of the pofitive commands of God, doing contrary to which will not fall within the compafs of thefe very narrow limitations ; which either fuppofeth, without any warrant or proof; that the publick confcience is always infallible as to thefe (And it is worthy noticing what the learned Monfieur Claude hath to this purpofe in his defence of the refor- mation, where he faith, In eee5t an ahfolute obedience and entire re fgning of one's Pelf to the conduct of another in theft 7natters that regard the faith and the confcience, is a duty that we can law fully tender to none but to God, who is the frf truth, the farfi principle of all juflice, to which none can pretend without ufurping the full right of God: As is allo, what faith 1Amefius, Page 6th of his Cafes, cTbat the confcience is immediately fubjett to God, and to his will, and cannot fubjeet itfelf to any creature without idolatry.) Or it is the fhort cur, and compendious way to debauch wens confciences, and to drive all confcience out of the world;
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