erday, and to omit this day, thou mayest, notwithstanding,
afterward either do it, or not do it, according to thy arbitrement:" As
if, forsooth, our using of things indifferent should not evermore be
determined by the rule of expediency which God's word giveth us, but
sometimes by our own will. Dr Davenant(1195) could not dream that any,
except the ignorant common people, could be of this opinion which Dr
Forbesse holdeth _Fallitur vulgus_, saith he, _dum judicat licere __ sibi,
uti victu, vestitu, sermone, aut quacunque re adiaphora pro arbitrio suo;
nam haec omnia ad regulam adhibenda sunt_.

Moreover, as we may not use any indifferent thing at our own pleasure; so
neither may the church, at her will and pleasure, command the use of it:
but as our practice, so the church's injunction must be determined and
squared according to the former rules. And if any man think that, in the
using of things indifferent, he may be led and ruled by the church's
determination, without examining any further, let him understand that the
church's determination is but a subordinate rule, or a rule ruled by
higher rules.

Dr Forbesse, perceiving how these rules of Scripture may subvert his
cause, desireth to subject them to the church's determination, and to make
it our highest rule. _Jam autem_, saith he,(1196) _in talium rerum usu, id
edificat, quod pacificum; illud est pacificum quod est ordinatum; is autem
decens ordo est in ecclesia ab ipso Christo constitutus, ut in talibus non
suo quisque se gerat arbitratu, sed audiatur ecclesia, et exhibeatur
praepositis obedientia._

He hath been speaking of the rules which God's word giveth us concerning
the use of things indifferent; and all of them he comprehendeth under this
rule, that we should hear the church, and obey them who are set over us,
as if God's rules were subordinate to men's rules, and not theirs to his.
We say not that every man may use things indifferent _sua arbitratu_, but
we say withal, that neither may the church command the use of things
indifferent _suo arbitratu_. Both she in commanding and we in obeying must
be guided by the rules of Scripture.

They who are set over us in the church have no power given them of Christ
which is not for edifying, Eph. iv. 12. The counsel of the apostles and
elders at Jerusalem (which is a lively pattern of a lawful synod to the
world's end) professed they would lay no other burden upon the disciples
except such things as the law of c