l our
opposites that subjection is one thing, and obedience another?

2. If he had said that we must obey for conscience' sake, yet this could
not have been expounded of an absolute bond of conscience, but only of an
hypothetical bond, in case that which the magistrate commandeth cannot be
omitted without breaking the law of charity. If it be said again, that we
are not only bidden be subject, but likewise to obey magistrates, Tit.
iii. 1: _Ans._ And who denyeth this? But still I ask, are we absolutely
and always bound to obey magistrates? Nay, but only when they command such
things as are according to the rules of the word, so that either they must
be obeyed or the law of charity shall be broken; in this case, and no
other, we are bidden obey.

_Sect._ 31. Thus have we gained a principal point, viz., that the laws of
princes bind not absolutely but conditionally, not _propter se_, but
_propter aliud_. Whereupon it followeth, that except the breach of those
ceremonial ordinances wherewith we are pressed include the breach of the
law of charity, which is of a superior bond, we are not holden to obey
them. Now that it is not the breach, but the obedience of those ordinances
which violateth the law of charity, we have heretofore made manifest, and
in this place we will add only one general: Whensoever the laws of princes
about things ecclesiastical do bind the conscience conditionally, and
because of some other law of a superior bond, which cannot be observed if
they be transgressed (which is the only respect for which they bind, when
they bind at all), then the things which they prescribe belong either to
the conservation or purgation of religion; but the controverted ceremonies
belong to neither of these, therefore the laws made thereanent bind not,
because of some other law which is of a superior bond. As to the
proposition, will any man say that princes have any more power than that
which is expressed in the twenty-fifth article of the Confession of Faith,
ratified in the first parliament of king James VI., which saith thus:
"Moreover, to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, we affirm that
chiefly and most principally, the conservation and the purgation of the
religion appertains, so that not only they are appointed for civil policy,
but also for maintenance of the true religion, and for suppressing of
idolatry and superstition whatsoever?" _Hoc nomine_, saith Calvin,(986)
_maxime laudantur sancti reges in scriptur