bed abstinence from things sacrificed to idols, yet the Apostle
would not have the faithful to abstain for conscience' sake: why then
holdeth he, that beside the end of shunning scandal and keeping order,
conscience is bound even by the church's own authority? 3. As for the
reason whereby he would prove that the church's laws do bind, even
_respectu praecipientis_, his form of speaking is very bad. _Deus_ (saith
he) _non vult contemni praepositos ecclesiae, nisi justa et necessaria de
causa._ Where falsely he supposeth, not only that there may occur a just
and necessary cause of contemning those whom God hath set over us in the
church, but, also, that the not obeying of them inferreth the contemning
of them. Now, the not obeying of their laws inferreth not the contemning
of themselves (which were not allowable), but only the contemning of their
laws. And as Jerome,(128) speaketh of Daniel, _Et nunc Daniel regis jussa
contemnens_, &c.; so we say of all superiors in general, that we may
sometimes have just reasons for contemning their commandments, yet are we
not to contemn, but to honour themselves. But, 4. Let us take Camero's
meaning to be, that God will not have us to refuse obedience unto those
who are set over us in the church: none of our opposites dare say, that
God will have us to obey those who are set over us in the church in any
other things than such as may be done both lawfully and conveniently for
the shunning of scandal; and if so, then the church's precept cannot bind,
except as it is grounded upon such or such reasons.

_Sect._ 12. Bishop Spotswood and Bishop Lindsey, in those words which I
have heretofore alleged out of them, are likewise of opinion, that the
sole will and authority of the church doth bind the conscience to
obedience. Spotswood will have us, without more ado, to esteem that to be
best and most seemly, which seemeth so in the eye of public authority. Is
not this to bind the conscience by the church's bare will and authority,
when I must needs constrain the judgment of my conscience to be conformed
to the church's judgment, having no other reason to move me hereunto but
the sole will and authority of the church? Further, he will have us to
obey even such things as authority prescribeth not rightly (that is, such
rites as do not set forward godliness), and that because they have the
force of a constitution. He saith that we should be directed by the
sentence of superiors, and take it as a su