m. ii. 29,
when he spared them and bare with them, though with the prejudice of God's
worship? And may not we call the ceremonies idols, which are not only
spared and borne with, to the prejudice of God's worship, but are likewise
so erected, that the most faithful labourers in God's house, for their
sake, are depressed, the teachers and maintainers of God's true worship
cast out? For their sake, many learned and godly men are envied,
contemned, hated, and nothing set by, because they pass under the name (I
should say the nickname) of puritans. For their sake many dear Christians
have been imprisoned, fined, banished, &c. For their sake many qualified
and well-gifted men are holden out of the ministry, and a door of entrance
denied to those to whom God hath granted a door of utterance. For their
sake, those whose faithful and painful labours in the Lord's harvest have
greatly benefited the church, have been thrust from their charges, so that
they could not fulfil the ministry which they have received of the Lord,
to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. The best builders, the wise
master-builders, have been over-turned by them. This is objected to Joseph
Hall by the Brownists; and what can he say to it? Forsooth, "that not so
much the ceremonies are stood upon as obedience. If God please to try Adam
but with an apple, it is enough. What do we quarrel at the value of the
fruit when we have a prohibition? Shemei is slain. What! merely for going
out of the city? The act was little, the bond was great. What _is_
commanded matters not so much as _by whom._" _Ans._ 1. If obedience be the
chief thing stood upon, why are not other laws and statutes urged as
strictly as those which concern the ceremonies? 2. But what means he? What
would he say of those Scottish Protestants imprisoned in the castle of
Scherisburgh in France,(648) who, being commanded by the captain to come
to the mass, answered, "That to do anything that was against their
conscience, they would not, neither for him nor yet for the king?" If he
approve this answer of theirs, he must allow us to say, that we will do
nothing which is against our consciences. We submit ourselves and all
which we have to the king, and to inferior governors we render all due
subjection which we owe to them, but no mortal man hath domination over
our consciences, which are subject to one only Lawgiver, and ruled by his
law. I have shown in the first part of this dispute how conscienc