or subjects to take
liberty to try and examine by the judgment of discretion, everything which
authority enjoineth, whether it be agreeable or repugnant to the rules of
the word; and if, after trial, it be found repugnant, to abstain from the
doing of the same.

For, 1. The word teacheth us, that the spiritual man judgeth all things, 1
Cor. ii. 15; trieth the things that are different, Phil. i. 10; hath his
senses exercised to discern both good and evil, Heb. v. 14; and that every
one who would hold fast that which is good, and abstain from all
appearance of evil, must first prove all things, 1 Thess. v. 21.

2. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, Rom. xiv. 23. But whatsoever a man
doth without the trial, knowledge, and persuasion of the lawfulness of it
by the word of God, that is not of faith; therefore a sin. It is the word
of God, and not the arbitration of princes whereupon faith is grounded.
And though the word may be without faith, yet faith cannot be without the
word. By it therefore must a man try and know assuredly the lawfulness of
that which he doth.

3. "Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." But as we
cannot give an account to God of those actions which we have done in
obedience to our prince, except we have examined, considered, and
understood the lawfulness of the same; so an account could not be required
of us for them, if we were bound to obey and to keep all his ordinances in
such sort that we might not try and examine them, with full liberty to
refuse those which we judge out of the word to be unlawful or
inconvenient; for then princes' ordinances were a most sufficient warrant
to us: we needed try no more. Let him make an account to God of his
command; we have account to make of our obedience.

4. If we be bound to receive and obey the laws of princes, without making
a free trial and examining of the equity of the same, then we could not be
punished for doing, unwillingly and in ignorance, things unlawful
prescribed by them. Whereas every soul that sinneth shall die; and when
the blind leads the blind, he who is lead falls in the ditch as well as
his leader.

5. No man is permitted to do everything which seemeth right in his eyes,
and to follow every conceit which takes him in the head; but every man is
bound to walk by rule, Gal. vi. 6. But the law of a prince cannot be a
rule, except it be examined whether it be consonant to the word of God,
_index secundum legem_, and his law