Perkins - BX9315 P465 1597

90 A rreAtife bindes them in confcience to bcleeue the pardonof theirowne finnes be theyneuer fogricuousor many, and tobcleeue their owne Election to fal- cationwhereof-they doubt. ivlen that arebut ciuill haue care to auoide rob- bingandkilling, becaufeGod glues commandements again(I (leafingand killing : why then Ihould not we much more firiue againft out manifold doubtings and diflruflingsofCodslouein Chrifl,hauingacommandetnêt ofGod that callsvpon vsand bindsvs todoe fo. Thus we fee how Godsword bindes confcience: now confcience being thus bound,againebindes the man in whomc it is. The bondofconfcience is calledgrailtines. CutItines is nothingelfe but a workc ofthe conlciencc,binding cucry fanner to the punifhment ofeuerla. (lingdeath,beforeGod for thisor that fnne. Thusmuch oftheproperbinderofche confcience : now follows the im- proper. The improper binder is that which bath no power at all or venue in it felfe tobinde confcience : but doth it onely by the authoritie and vertue of Godsword orfotnepart thereof. It is threefold, Humane lawes, an Oath, a Promife. gg OChu. Touchinghumane lawes,the fpeciall point tobe confideredis,Tnwhat mane laws manner they binde. That this may inpart be cleared, I will (land a while to binding, examine and confute the opinion, that thevery pillars ofthe Popifhchurch at this daymaintaine;namcly,that Giant!andecclefîafficall Iurifdielion hams a coaCtiuepower in the conic fence, and that the laws made therebydoeas truly and properlybinde(as they fpeake)tomortalland veniall frnne, as gods law it felfe. The arguments which they commonly vfeare dick. v Argum. z. Beat. 17.'7"hat wean that will doeprefumptsiosrfr,andnot obey the 111Perra. b autharitieofthePrieft, orlodge, fliall die : and thou ¡bait taksaway euill f oma princely cb eancicmcncs. /fuel- Here (lay they) the preceptsof thehigh Priefi are Imperia , not ad- monitions or exhortations,& they bind inconfcience; othcrwife the tranf greffourstheroffliou ldnothauebinpuniflied fofeucrely. Anf.TheIntelof this lave (as a very childe may perceiue) is to cllablifh the authoritie and rightofthehighe(Iappeales forall mattersofcontrouerfie in theSynedrie,n or great court at Ierufalem. Therefore the wordes alleadged, doe not glue vnto thePrieft a foueraigne power of making lawes, but a power ofgluing iudgemenrofcontrouerfies, and that according to !awes alreadie made by Godhimfelfe: from which lodgement there might benoappeale. Now this power of determining doth not conílraine confcience, but the outward man to siiaintaisaeorder and peace. For what reafon is therc,that,that fen- tence,which might be either a gainefayingof Clods law, ora miflakingof it, fliouidbinde the confcience to a Panne. Againe, not eueryone that refilled to fubie& thernl dues to the(entenceofthiscourr,were flraightway guilde icr,5,ri,sg. offinne,(for this did Ieremie the Propher,ändChrifl our Saviour, when the Iewes condemned them for wicked perlons) but he that prefunsptuDufly deff>ifed the fentcnce,andby confcquent the authoritie it:felfe, which was the

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=