8. It is manifest, that they, who permit a contrary doctrine to that which themselves believe and think necessary (to salvation), do against their consciences, and will, as much as in them lieth, the eternal destruction of their subjects.
T. H. The seventh and eighth are roses and jessamine. But his leaving out the words (to salvation) was venom.
J. D. 9. Subjects sin if they do not worship God according to the laws of the commonwealth.
T. H. The ninth he hath poisoned, and made it not mine. He quotes my book De Cive, cap. XV. 19, where I say, regnante Deo per solam rationem naturalem, that is, before the Scripture was given, they sinned that refused to worship God, according to the rites and ceremonies of the country; which hath no ill scent, but to undutiful subjects.
J. D. 10. To believe in Jesus (in Jesum), is the same as to believe that Jesus is Christ.
T. H. And so it is always in the Scripture.
J. D. 11. There can be no contradiction between the laws of God, and the laws of a Christian commonwealth. Yet, we see Christian commonwealths daily contradict one another.
T. H. The eleventh is also good. But his Lordship’s instance, that Christian commonwealths contradict one another, has nothing to do here. Their laws do indeed contradict one another, but contradict not the law of God. For God commands their subjects to obey them in all things, and his Lordship himself confesseth that their laws, though erroneous, bind the conscience. But Christian commonwealths would seldom contradict one another, if they made no doctrine law, but such as were necessary to salvation.
J. D. 12. No man giveth but with intention of some good to himself. Of all voluntary acts, the object is to every man his own good. Moses, St. Paul, and the Decii were not of his mind.
T. H. That which his Lordship adds to the twelfth, namely, that Moses, St. Paul, and the Decii were not of my mind, is false. For the two former did what they did for a good to themselves, which was eternal life; and the Decii for a good fame after death. And his Lordship also, if he had believed there is an eternal happiness to come, or thought a good fame after death to be anything worth, would have directed all his actions towards them, and have despised the wealth and titles of the present world.