A62049:131
Men are gods, or, The dignity of magistracy, and the duty of the magistrate…
Men are gods, or, The dignity of magistracy, and the duty of the magistrate as it was presented in a sermon at the assize holden at Hertford for that county on August 2, 1653 / by George Swinnocke ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1660
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Some tell us, They are just and need no law; for they are a law to themselves: Now laws say they, are for them that are wicked. 1 Tim. 1.9. The law is not made for the righteous, but for the wicked.
Answer.
They that are so good that they need no laws for their correction, live among the wicked, and therefore need laws for their protection.
That forecited place in Timothy is meant of the Moral Law, of which the Apostle testifieth, that believers are free from its curse or malediction; but surely not from it as a rule for their conversations.
The hearts of the best are bad enough, and apt to wander, therefore they need all means; the hedge of mans laws as well as of Gods laws to keep them in. Laws are hedges both to fence them in from others violence, and to prevent their their wandering out.