f we
had not, yet that which hath been said in this chapter maketh out our
point. For it hath been proved, that neither king nor church hath power to
command anything which is not according to the rules of the word; that is,
which serveth not for the glory of God, which is not profitable for
edifying, and which may not be done in faith; unto which rules, whether
the things which are commanded us be agreeable or not, we must try and
examine by the private judgment of Christian discretion, following the
light of God's word.

_Sect._ 30. Resteth the third distinction, whereof I promised to speak,
and that was of ties or bonds. _Quoedam obligatio_, &c. "Some bond (saith
Gerhard(982)) is absolute, when the law bindeth the conscience simply, so
that, in no respect, nor in no case, without the offence of God and wound
of conscience, one may depart from the prescript thereof; but another bond
is hypothetical, when it bindeth not simply, but under a condition, to
wit, if the transgression of the law be done of contempt,--if for the cause
of lucre or some other vicious end,--if it have scandal joined with it."
The former way, he saith that the law of God and nature bindeth, and that
the law of the civil magistrate bindeth the latter way; and with him we
hold that whatsoever a prince commandeth his subjects in things any way
pertaining to religion, it bindeth only this latter way, and that he hath
never power to make laws binding the former way, for confirmation
wherefore we say,

1. The laws of an ecclesiastical synod, to the obedience whereof, in
things belonging to the worship of God, we are far more strictly tied than
to the obedience of any prince in the world, who (as hath been showed) in
this sort of things hath not such a vocation nor power to make laws. The
laws, I say, of a synod cannot bind absolutely, but only conditionally, or
in case they cannot be transgressed without violating the law of charity,
by contempt showed or scandal given, which, as I have made good in the
first part of this dispute, so let me now produce for it a plain testimony
of the Bishop of Salisbury,(983) who holdeth that the church's rites and
ordinance do only bind in such sort, _ut si extra_, &c., "That if, out of
the case of scandal or contempt, through imprudence, oblivion, or some
reasonable cause enforcing, they be omitted, no mortal sin is incurred
before God; for as touching these constitutions, I judge the opinion of
Gerson to be most tr