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A
rreatife
of
Confcience.
I
39
Secondly we anfwer,
That
an
erroneous
confcience
what
-
I
z.
ever
it
commandeth
(though
the
law
of
God
commandeth the
clean
contrary)
yet
we
cannot
difobey it
without
(inne.
For
this
is
a
conflane rule,
we
always
finne
when we
difobey confcience
:
If
confcience
erre
not,
then
in
dii-
obeying it
we
fin
double,
againfl the law and againfl confcience:
if
confcience
do
erre,and
we
d
ifobey
it,
we
(in
too
;
for
though
we do
not
(inne
againfl
the
law,yet
we (inne
a
;ainfl
confcience,
and
Co
againfl the
law
too
;
not
as
though
we
were bound
to
obey confcience
when it
erreth,
and
yet
we (inne
if
we dif-
obey
it.
Thirdly,
Albeit
it be
always
a
(inne
to
difobey confcience
3,
though
it
erre,
yet it
is
not
always
a
(inne
to
obey confcience
when
it
erreth. Let
us
confider
three Propofitions,
and
you
flail
fee
what
I
mean.
Firfl,
If
confcience
think
that to
be
commanded
which
is
abfolutely
forbidden, or
that to
be
for-
bidden
which
is
expreffely
commanded, then we
(inne
which
fide
foever we
take:
As
if
an
ignorant
man thinks
in his
con-
fcience
that
he
is
bound
to
pray
to
Saints
departed,
which
thing
the
Lord hath
expreffely
forbidden
:
if this
man
do
pray
unto
Saints,
he
finneth,
becaufe
the Lord
hath
expreffely forbid
him
to
do
it
;
if
he
do
not
pray
unto Saints,
he
finneth
too,
becaufe
his confcience
telleth
him he
is
commanded
to
pray unto them.
The
fecond
Propoltion
is
this,
If
confcience
hold
a
thing
in-
different
to
do
or not to do,
which
yet
is
not
indifferent,
but
abfolutely
commanded, then it
is
always
a
finne
not to
do
it,
but
it
is
no (inne
to
do
it. The third Propofition
is
this,
If
con-
fcience
hold
a
thing
neceffary,
which
Gcd
hath left
indifferent,
as
if
a
man in confcience
thought
that
he
ought
to
pray foure
cimes a day
(which
thing
yet
God
hath left indifferent)
in
this
he
is
bound
to
obey confcience
though
it
erre. And it
is
no
fin
to
obey
confcience thus
erring
;
though
it
be
a
fin
in
confcience
thus
to erre.
The
rife
of
this
is, I.
To
let
us fee
what
a
facred
foveraign
O
fe
i
.
thing
a
mans confcience
is.
It
is
always
a
fin
to
difobey
con-
fcience
whether
it
erre or no,
as
it
is
always
a (in
to
difobey
God.