the
first kind of things, and what is expedient in the other kind of things,
and therefore they are more properly called directions, instructions,
admonitions, than laws. For I speak of ecclesiastical laws _qua tales_,
that is, as they are the constitutions of men who are set over us; thus
considered, they have only _vim dirigendi et monendi_.(98) It is said of
the apostles, that they were constituted _doctrinae Christi testes, non
novae doctrinae legist tores_.(99) And the same may be said of all the
ministers of the gospel, when discipline is taken in with doctrine. He is
no nonconformist who holdeth _ecclesiam in terris agere partes oratoris,
seu legati obsecrantis et suadentis_.(100) And we may hitherto apply that
which Gerson, the chancellor of Paris, saith:(101) "The wisest and best
among the guides of God's church had not so ill a meaning as to have all
their constitutions and ordinances taken for laws properly so named, much
less strictly binding the conscience, but for threatenings, admonitions,
counsels, and directions only, and when there groweth a general neglect,
they seem to consent to the abolishing of them again;" for seeing, _lex
instituitur, cum promulgatur, vigorem habet, cum moribus utentium
approbatur._

_Sect._ 4. But as we have seen in what respect the laws of the church do
not bind, let us now see how they may be said to bind. That which bindeth
is not the authority of the church, nor any force which the church can
give to her laws. It must be then somewhat else which maketh them able to
bind, when they bind at all, and that is _ratio legis_, "the reason of the
law," without which the law itself cannot bind, and which hath the
chiefest and most principal power of binding. An ecclesiastical law, saith
Junius,(102) {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} _sive depositio, non vere lex est, sed_ {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}
aut canon, ac proindedirigit quidem ut canon agentem voluntarie: non autem
necessitate cogit, ut lex etiam involuntarium quod si forte ante accedit
coactio,