; who are commanded to beware of men, Matt. x.
17; not to believe every spirit, to prove all things, 1 John iv. 1; and to
judge of all that is said to them, 1 Thes. v. 21; should they, I say, be
used as stocks and stones, not capable of reason, and therefore to be
borne down by naked will and authority? 1 Cor. x. 15. Yet thus it fareth
with us. Bishop Lindsey will have the will of the law to rule our
consciences,(143) which is by interpretation, _Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit
pro ratione voluntas._ He gives us not the reason or equity of the law,
but only the will of it, to be our role. Bishop Spotswood(144) will have
us to be so directed by the sentence of our superiors, that we take their
sentence as a sufficient ground to our consciences for obeying. Which is
so much as to say, you should not examine the reason and utility of the
law, the sentence of it is enough for you: try no more when you hear the
sentence of superiors, rest your consciences upon this as a sufficient
ground: seek no other, for their sentence must be obeyed. And who among us
knoweth not how, in the Assembly of Perth, free reasoning was shut to the
door, and all ears were filled with the dreadful pale of authority? There
is this much chronicled(145) in two relations of the proceedings of the
same, howbeit otherwise very different. They who did sue for a reformation
of church discipline in England, complained that they received no other
answer but this:(146) "There is a law, it must be obeyed;" and after the
same manner are we used. Yet is this too hard dealing, in the judgment of
a Formalist, who saith,(147) that the church doth not so deal with them
whom Christ hath redeemed: _Ac si non possint capere quid sit religiosum,
quid minus, itaque quae ab ecclesia proficiscuntur, admonitiones potius et
hortationes dici debent, quam leges._ And after, he says of ecclesiastical
authority, _tenetur reddere paerscripti rationem._ "I grant (saith
Paybody(148)) it is unlawful to do, in God's worship, anything upon the
mere pleasure of man." Chemnitius(149) taketh the Tridentine fathers for
not expounding _rationes decreti._ Junius observeth,(150) that in the
council of the apostles, mention was made of the reason of their decree.
And a learned historian observeth(151) of the ancient councils, that there
were in them, reasonings, colloquies, discussions, disputes, yea, that
whatsoever was done or spoken, was called the acts of the council, and all
was given unto all. _