not obeying a command to take wages than he
had done by living unmarried, if the church had commanded him to marry.
The bare authority of the church could neither restrain his liberty nor
ours in things indifferent, when there is no more to bind but the
authority of an ordinance.

6. Why holds he us contemners of the church for not receiving the five
Articles of Perth? We cannot be called contemners for not obeying, but for
not subjecting ourselves, wherewith we cannot be charged. Could he not
distinguish betwixt subjection and obedience? Art thou a Doctor in Israel,
and knowest not these things? Nil, art thou a Conformist, and knowest not
what thy fellow Conformists do hold?

_Sect._ 13. One point more resteth, at which the Doctor(411) holdeth him
in this argument, namely, that for the offence of the weak necessary
things are not to be omitted, such as is obedience to superiors, but their
minds are to be better informed.

_Ans._ 1. Obedience to superiors cannot purge that from scandal which
otherwise were scandal, as we have seen before.(412)

2. That information and giving of a reason cannot excuse the doing of that
out of which scandal riseth, we have also proved already.(413)

3. That the ordinance of superiors cannot make the ceremonies necessary, I
have proved in the first part of this dispute. This is given for one of
the chief marks of the man of sin,(414) "That which is indifferent, he by
his laws and prohibitions maketh to be sin;" and shall they who profess to
take part with Christ against antichrist, do no less than this? It will be
replied, that the ceremonies are not thought necessary in themselves, nor
non-conformity unlawful in itself, but only in respect of the church's
ordinance. Just so the Papists profess,(415) that the omission of their
rites and observances is not a sin in itself, but only in respect of
contemning the church's customs and commandments. How comes it, then, that
they are not ashamed to pretend such a necessity for the stumbling-blocks
of those offending ceremonies among us, as Papists pretend for the like
among them?

_Sect._ 14. But the English Formalists have here somewhat to say, which we
will hear. Mr Hooker tells us,(416) that ceremonies are scandalous, either
in their very nature, or else through the agreement of men to use them
unto evil; and that ceremonies of this kind are either devised at first
unto evil, or else having had a profitable use, they are afterwards
inte