Caeterum_ (saith Danaeus(152)) _quoniam ut ait
Tertullianus in Apologetico, iniqua lex est quae se examinari non patitur;
non tam vi cogere homines ad obsequium quam ratione persuadere debent cae
leges, quae scribuntur a pio nomotheta. Ergo fere sunt duae cujusvis legis
partes, quemadmodum etiam Plato,_ lib. 4, _de legibus scribit, nimirum
praefacio __ et lex ipsa,_ _i.e._ _jussio lege comprehensa. Praefatio
causam affert, cur hominum negotiis sic prospiciatur._ Ecclesiastical
authority should prescribe what it thinks fit, _Magis docendo, quam
jubendo; magis monendo, quam minando,_ as Augustine speaketh.(153) _Non
oportet vi vel necessitate constringere, sed ratione et vitae exemplis
suadere,_ saith Gregory Nazianzen,(154) speaking of ecclesiastical
regiment. They, therefore, who give their will for a law, and their
authority for a reason, and answer all the arguments of opponents, by
bearing them down with the force of a public constitution and the judgment
of superiors, to which theirs must be conformed, do rule the Lord's flock
"with force and with cruelty," Ezek. xxxiv. 4; "as lords over God's
heritage," 1 Pet. v. 3.

_Sect._ 2. Always, since men give us no leave to try their decrees and
constitutions, that we may hold fast no more than is good, God be thanked
that we have a warrant to do it (without their leave) from his own word, 1
Thess. v. 25. _Non numeranda suffragia, sed appendenda_, saith Augustine
in Psal. xxxix. Our divines hold,(155) that all things which are proposed
by the ministers of the church, yea, by aecumenical councils,(156) should
be proved and examined; and that, when the guides of the church do
institute any ceremonies as necessary for edification, yet _ecclesia
liberum habet judicium approbandi aut reprobandi eas._(157) Nay, the canon
law,(158) prohibiting to depart or swerve from the rules and discipline of
the Roman church, yet excepteth _discretionem justitiae_ and so permitteth
to do otherwise than the church prescribeth, if it be done _cum
discretione justitiae_. The schoolmen also give liberty to a private man,
of proving the statutes of the church, and neglecting the same, if he see
cause for doing so, _Si causa fit evidens, per se ipsum licite potest homo
statuti observantiam praeterire._(159) If any be not able to examine and
try all such things, _debebant omnes posse, Dei jussu: Deficiunt ergo sua
culpa_, saith Parcus.(160) _Si recte probandi facultate destitui nos
sentimus, ab eodem