condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and disposed one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of mans heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occursences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lords day to be grievous prophanations of the Sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of Gods Sabbath And if such our judgment concering the things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judment also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable Secondly This mis-judging of things filleth the would with endless niceties and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of Books and writings pro and con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen then decide controversides and instead of destroying the old begetteth new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of conscience dare not may not yeild and so still the war goeth on And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens consciences when by the peremptory doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the souls of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples And driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can-be no light matter thus to lay heavey burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast asnare upon their consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower then ever God meant it Fourthly hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their Affections and Subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such things to be done as namely wearing of a Surplice kneeling at the communion and the like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful iâ— cannot be Quest. If these things be so how comes it to pass that so many godly men should incline so much to this way Answ. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to Goliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gratious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the williness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither way our hearts incline most to loosness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extream the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest servants and children are in this life wholly exempted Ignorance first is a fruitful mother of Errours Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much Gross Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgement They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgement which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgement to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his conclusions he is easily carried away as our Apostle elewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Ratioues arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a smal thing rather then yeild from their opinions quae considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance then substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judictious and unpartial eye most of those Pamplets that in this daring age have been thrust into the World against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to acception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature When he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant guirding at those that are in authority impertinent disgressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such books are infinitely stuffels he shall find that little poor remainder that is left behind to contain nothing but vain words and empty arguments For when these great undertakers have snatcht up the bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldome shall you hear from them any other arguments then such as will conclude but an Inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not command in the
such understanding and sufficiency and pertinency especially when he hath just warning and a convenient time to prepare himself in some good measure of proportion to the quickness and ripeness of these present times as they that love not his Coat may yet approve his Labours and not finde any thing therein whereat justly to quarrel Shewing in his Doctrine as our Apostle writeth to Titus uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil to say of him He was always so excellent a Neighbour that he seldome failed in the civility of Visits and Correspondence the greatest advantages for good understanding and love but especially in time of sickness when affliction was an excellent preparative for instruction Wherefore not onely when intreated as most of his dying Neighbours were unwilling to leave the world until he good man had setled their consciences upon Gospel-principles in peace with God did he make his visits to all such as wanted his assistance but before he was thought of would he prevent their requests by early and frequent addresses to them attending diligently those mallia tempora those gentle and most tractable opportunities of doing good which might be offered him As he was publick-spirited himself so he endeavoured that all he had interest in might be communicative there being few Gentlemen of his acquaintance whom he had not directed to some noble or charitable work for mens improvement or relief He their great Casuist having their hearts and purses at his devoir and using his happy power always to their honour comfort and infinite satisfaction so he would say he rescued the Creature from the bondage of corruption to the glorious service of God and to Primitive innocence and their first use Although he was thus employed and taken up at his private charge and pleased with his beloved privacy and retirement yet when summoned to the Publick as to Paul's Cross to Visitations to Lectures to the Court to the University he appeared with much zeal prudence and holy abilities with elegant and useful performances full of Dogmatick Polemick Practick Casuistick and Critick Learning where he offered the marrow and pith of the Fathers the subtilty of the Schoolmen the solidity of the Neotericks so ready so clear so percolated from the Authors obscurity or tediousness that his Quintessence or Distillations of them in his Discourse were more useful perspicuous and vigorous then the Originals or first Mass wherein they were diffused At Visitations he offered deep solid clear and abstract Notions of Reason Experience and Religion for Order Peace Unity and Obedience and pointed out those paths equally distant from superstition and licentiousness wherein all wise and good Christians should walk in peace according to the will of God declared in Laws Natural Civil Moral and Ecclesiastical where the attentive Hearers admired equally the acute manner and the weighty matter of his Discourses his strong Arguments his clear Deductions his impartial Judgement his steady even and undistracted Thoughts whereby he rescued poor souls whose easiness cast them on obvious errours rather then they would search after difficult and retired truths He perswaded private Reasons Pretences Interests and Designes to yeild to publick Law and common good He convinced the world that the things enjoyned in our Church are in their nature safe and lawful in their use free and to be used in obedience to Authority for order decency and edification as they might be forborn when not enjoyned or not conducing to order decency or a sacred solemnity He taught men to bring their consciences to a Rule and forbear nothing as against conscience which was not against a Rule against Gods Word against Faith or Manners or the nature of the things enjoyned How clearly hath he proved that as all necessaries were enjoyned by express Scriptures so all the Circumstances of Worship and Discipline were enjoyned in Scripture intimations which required all things orderly and decent How pathetically would he urge that Publick Authority knew better what Time Place Gesture Garment Phrase Rite or Ceremony was most expedient and orderly then any private Spirit and that if any man would be contentious we had no such custome nor the Churches of God How powerfully would he urge a Compliance with Publick Authority to avoid scandal to testifie our Charity Humility and Obedience to shew our Reverence and fear of it to use our Christian Liberty soberly charitably and obediently that Laws might be observed the Church might be composed Charity might be revived Dangers might be avoided the Kingdome might be setled good Christians might be edified God might be obeyed and our Superiours for Gods sake Thus he studied debated cleared and composed Differences thus he satisfied Scruples thus he justified the Churches Liberty and Authority the care of which so entirely possessed him that he reduced most of his study to that designe which he managed with plenty of Matter with variety of Reading with full and pertinent Citations with clear and copious Expressions methodical Proceedings powerful Demonstrations Fundamental Reason Original Law Essential Religion with a prudent discovery of the proportions of order and policy of the boundaries of Government and the great principles of peace And all this was the better taken because taught by a man not onely of vast and great Abilities of full maturity of Judgement but of great Integrity in his Designe of great innocency and unblameableness in his Conversation of a good Conscience of a great calmness and composure in Spirit of a vast Comprehension who strained the Quintessence of Reason Religion Laws Grecian Roman Imperial and Civil Canon and Ecclesiastical to his great Platform for Peace Unity and Setlement At Court and in his Lectures he pursued the most necessary Duties and the most concerning Cases of Conscience for he observed That it is one Stratagem of the Arch-enemy of mankind and when we know his wiles we may the better be able to defeat him by busying men of great and useful parts in by-matters and things of lesser consequence to divert them from following that unum necessarium that which should be the main in all our endeavours the beating down of sin the planting of Faith and the reformation of manners Controversies I confess are necessary the Tongues necessary Histories necessary Philosophy and The Arts necessary other Knowledge of all sorts necessary in the Church for Truth must be maintained Scripture-phrases opened Heresie confuted the mouths of Adversaries stopped Schisms and Novelties suppressed But when all is done positive and Practique Divinity is it must bring us to Heaven that is it must poise our judgements settle our consciences direct our lives mortifie our corruptions increase our graces strengthen our comforts save our souls Hoc opus hoc studium there is no study to this none so well worth the labour as this none that can bring so much profit to others nor therefore so
demandeth his right or to him that with-holdeth it from him For this is the plain Case in short The Bishops under the King require obedience to the Lawes Ecclesiastical these men refuse to give it So began the quarrel at first and upon the same terms it continued If the Obedience challenged were indeed due to these Laws then did our Brethren both begin the quarrel and hold it on if it were not then must the whole blame lie upon them that claimed it unjustly and not upon them So that in the winding up of the business the whole Controversie will devolve upon this point Whether to the Laws Ecclesiastical obedience be due or not For the right determining whereof for so much as it is confest on all hands that Obedience is due to Lawful authority commanding lawful things two other points are to be resolved the one concerning the authority by which the Constitutions were made the other concerning the lawfulness of the things therein required The Presbyterians of the Kirk flatly and directly deny both Ours less forward to declare their opinion in the former point have chosen rather to stand upon the latter only And so the point in issue is briefly this Whether the things commanded and particularly the Ceremonies be lawful yea or no. When for decency order or uniformity's sake any constitutions are made concerning ceremonies there is the same necessity of obeying such Constitutions as there is of obeying other lawes made for the good of the Common-wealth concerning any other indifferent things That such necessity either in the one or the other ariseth not properly from the authority of the immediate Lawgiver but from the Ordinance of God who hath commanded us to obey the ordinance of men for his sake That such necessity of obedience notwithstanding the things remain in the same indifferency as before Every way in respect of their Nature and quoad Rem it being not in the power of aecidental relations to change the natures of things and even in respect of their Vse and quoad nos thus far that there is a liberty left for men upon extraordinary and other just occasions somtimes to do otherwise then the Constitution requireth extra casum Scandali Contemptus A liberty which we dare not either take our selves or allow to others in things properly and absolutely necessary Upon which very account I mean the consideration of the indifferency of the things in themselves and upon which account alone it is that many of the Episcopal that is to say the true English Protestant Divines who sadly resent the voting down of the Liturgy Festivals and Ceremonies of the Church by so many former Laws established heartily desired heretofore the continuance and as heartily still wish the restitution and are by Gods help ready with their Tongues Pens and Sufferings to maintain and justifie the Lawful use of the same do yet so far yield to the sway of the times and are perswaded they may with a good Conscience so do as to forbear the use thereof in the publick worship till it shall seem good to those that are in place of authority either to restore them to their former state as it is well hoped when they shall have duly considered the evil consequents of that Vote they will or at leastwise and in the mean time to leave them arbitrary for men according to their several different judgements to use or not to use which seemeth but reasonable the like favour and liberty in other kinds having been long allowed to almost all other sorts of men though of never so distant perswasions one from another Lastly That all Laws made concerning Ceremonies or other indifferent things whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are mutable and as they were at first made by humane authority so may they from time to time be by humane authority abrogated and repealed And then and thenceforth they lose their obligation whereby the necessity of yielding obedience thereunto wholy ceaseth and determineth and the things thereby commanded or prohibited return to their primitive and natural indifferency even in their Vse also and in respect of us But in the Case of our Church now it is far orherwise Cap Surplice Cross Ring and other Ceremonies which are the Matter of our differences though they be things indifferent for their nature and in themselves yet are not so for their use and unto us If the Church had been silent if Authority had prescribed nothing herein these Ceremonies had then remained for their use as they are for their nature indifferent Lawful and such as might be used without sin and yet Arbitrary and such as might be also forborn without sin But men musâ— grant though they be unwilling if yet they will be reasonable that every particular Church hatâ— power for decency an orders sake to ordain and constitute ceremonies Which being once ordained and by publick authority enjoyned cease to bâ— indifferent for their use though they remain still so for their nature and of indifferent become so necessary that neither may a man without sin refuse them where Authority requireth nor use them where Authority restraineth the use Neither is this accession of Necessity any impeachment to Christian Liberty or insnaring of mens consciences as some have objected For then do we ensnare mens consciences by humane constitutions where we thrust them upon men as if they were divine and bind mens consciences to them immediately as if they were immediate parts of Gods worship or of absolute necessity unto salvation This Tyranny and Vsurpation over mens Consciences the Pharisees of old did and the Church of Rome at this day doth exercise and we justly hate in her equalling if not preferring her Constitutions to the Laws of GOD. But our Church GOD be thanked is far from any such impious presumption and hath sufficiently declared her self by solemn protestation enough to satisfie any ingenuous impartial judgement that by requiring obedience to these ceremonial constitutions she hath no other purpose then to reduce all her children to an orderly confirmity in the outward worship of God so far is she from seeking to draw any opinion either of divine necessity upon the constitution or of effectual holiness upon the ceremony And as for the prejudice which seemeth to be hereby given to Christian liberty it is so slender a conceit that it seemeth to bewray in the objectors a desire not so much of satisfaction as cavil For first the liberty of a Christian to all indifferent things is in the Mind and Conscience and is then infringed when the Conscience is bound and strained by imposing upon it an opinion of doctrinal Necessity But it is no wrong to the Liberty of a Christian mans conscience to bind him to outward observation for Orders sake and to impose upon him a necessity of Obedience Which one distinction of Doctrinal and Obediential Necessity well weighed and rightly applyed is of it self sufficient to clear all doubts in this point
Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much less any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather then sit out to play very smal Game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker then these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like Which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof Quest. Whether what the King and Parliament have determined may be altered to satisfie private men Answ. While things are in agitation private men may if any thing seem to them inexpedient modestly tender their thoughts together with the reasons thereof to the consideration of those that are in authority to whose care and wisdom it belongeth in prescribing any thing concerning indifferent things to proceed with all just advisedness and moderation that so the Subject may be encouraged to perform that obedience with â—â—â—â—rfulness which of necessity he must perform howsoever It concerneth Superiours therefore to look well to the expediency and inexpediency of what they enjoyn in indifferent things Wherein if there be a fault it must lie upon their account the necessity of obedience is to us a sufficient discharge in that behalf Only it were good we did remember that they are to give up that account to God onely and not to us But after that things are once concluded and established by publick authority Acts passed and Constitutions made concerning the same and the will and pleasure of the higher powers sufficiently made known therein then for private men to put in their vye and with unseasonable diligence to call in question the decency or expediency of the things so established yea with intolerable pride to refuse obedience thereunto meerly upon this pretension that they are undecent or inexpedient is it self in-the most indecent and inexpedient thing that can be imagined For that the fear of offending a private brother is a thing not cnnsiderable in comparison of the duty of obedience to a publike Governour might be shown so apparantly by sundry arguments if we had time to enlarge and illustrate them as might sufficiently convince the judgement of any man not wilfully obstinate in that point I shall only crave leave briefly to touch at some of them First then when Governours shall have appointed what seemed to them expedient and private men shall refuse to observe the same pretending it to be inexpedient who shall judge thereof Either they themselves that take the exceptions must be judges which is both unreasonable and preposterous or else every man must be his own judge which were to overthrow all Government and to bring in a confusion every man to do what is good in his own eyes or else the known gavernours must judge and then you know what will follow even to submit and obey Secondly to allow men under the pretence of inexpediency and because of some offence that may be taken thereat to disobey laws and constitutions made by those that are in authority were the next way to cut the sinews of all authority and to bring both Magistrates and Laws into contempt For what Law ever was made or can be made so just and so reasonable but some man or other either did or might take offence thereat And what man that is disposed to disobey but may pretend inexpediency or other wherewith to countenance out such his disobedience Thirdly it is agreed by consent of all that handle the matter of Scandal that we may not commit any sin whatsoever be it never so small for the avoiding of any scandall be it never so great But to disobey lawful authority in lawful things is a sin against the fifth Commandement Therefore we may not redeem a scandall by such our disobedience nor refuse to do the thing commanded by such authority whosoever should take offence thereat Fourthly though lawfulnesse and unlawfulnesse be not yet expediency and inexpediency are as we heard capable of the degrees of more and lesse and then in all reason of two inexpedient things we are to do that which is lesse inexpedient for the avoiding of that which is more inexpedient Say then there be an inexpediency in doing the thing commanded by authority when a Brother is thereby offended is there not a greater inexpediency in not doing it when the Magistrate is thereby disobeyed It is not more expedient and conducing to the common good that a publick Magistrate should be obeyed in a just command then that a private person should be gratified in a causelesse scruple Fifthly when by refusing obedience to the lawfull commands of our Superiours we think to shun the offending of one or two weak brethren we do in truth incurr thereby a far more grievous scandall by giving offence to hundreds of others whose consciences by our Disobedience will be emboldned to that whereto corrupt nature is but too too prone to affront the Magistrate and despise the authority Lastly where we are not able to discharge both debts of justice are to be payed before debts of charity Now the duty of obedience is debitum justitiae and a matter of right my superiour may challenge it at my hands as is due and I do him wrong if I with-hold it from him But the care of not giving offence is but debitum charitatis and a matter but of courtesie I am to perform it to my brother in love when I see cause but he cannot challenge it from me as his right nor can justly say I do him wrong if I neglect it It is therefore no more lawfull for me to disobey the lawful command of a Superiour to prevent thereby the offence of one or a few brethren then it is lawfull for me to do one man wrong to do another man a courtesie withall or then it is lawful for me to rob the Exchequer to relieve an Hospital I see not yet how any of these six reasons can be fairly avoided and yet which would be considered if but any one of them hold good it is enough to carry the cause And therefore I hope there need be no more said in this matter To conclude then for the point of practise which is the main thing I aimed at in the choiee of this Text and my whole meditations thereon we may take our direction in these three Rules easie to be understood and remembred and not hard to be observed in our practise if we will but bring our good wils thereunto First If God command we must submit without any more adoe and not trouble our selves about the experiency or so much as about the unlawfulness for both Abraham never disputed whether it were expedient for him not yet whether it were lawful for him
pretensions he may make of conscience for such refusal Neither need that fear trouble him lest he should bring upon himself the guilt of innocent blood for the blood that is unrighteously shed in that quarrel he must answer for that set him on work not he that spilt it And truly it is a great wonder to me that any man endued with understanding and that is able in any measure to weigh the force of those precepts and reasons which bind inferiours to yield obedience to their superiours should be otherwise minded in cases of like nature Whatsoever is commanded us by those whom God hath set over us either in Church Common wealth or Family Quod tamen non sit certum displicere Deo saith S. Bern. which is not evidently contrary to the Law and will of God ought to be of us received and obeyed no otherwise then as if God himself had commanded it because God himself hath commanded us to obey the higher powers and to submit our selves to their ordinances Say it be not well don of them to command it Sed enim quid hoc refert tuâ saith he What is that to thee Let them look to that whom it concerneth Tolle quod tuum est vade Do thou what is thine own part faithfully and never trouble thy self further Ipsum quem pro Deo habemus tanquam Deum in his quae apertè non sunt contra Deum audire debemus Bernard still Gods Vicegerents must be heard and obeyed in all things that are not manifestly contrary to the revealed will of God But the thing required is against my conscience may som say and I may not go against my conscience for any mans pleasure Judg I pray you what perverseness is this when the blessed Apostle commandeth thee to obey for conscience sake that thou shouldest disobey that for conscience sake too He chargeth thee upon thy conscience to be subject and thou pretendest thy conscience to free thee from subjection This by the way now to the point Thou sayest it is against thy conscience I say again that in the case whereof we now speak the case of doubtfullness it is not against thy conscience For doubting properly is motus indifferens in utramque partem contradictionis when the mind is held in suspence between two ways uncertain whether of both to take to When the scales hang even as I said before and inaequiâ—libero without any notable propension or inclination to the one side more than to the other And surely where things hang thus even if the weight of authority will not cast the scale either way we may well suppose that either the authority is made very light or else there is a great fault in the beame Know brethren the gainsaying conscience is one thing and the doubting conscience another That which is done repugnante conscientià the conscience of the doer flatly gainsaying it that is indeed against a mans conscience the conscience having already passed a definitive sentence the one way and no respect or circumstance whatsoever can free it from sin But that which is done dubitante conscientiâ the conscience of the doer onely doubting of it and no more that is in truth no more against a mans conscience than with it the conscience as yet not having passed a definitive sentence either way and such an action may either be a sinne or no sinne according to those qualifications which it may receive from other respects and circumstances If the conscience have already passed a judgment upon a thing and condemned it as simply unlawfull in that case it is true that a man ought not by any meanes to do that thing no not at the command of any Magistrate no not although his conscience have pronounced a wrong sentence and erred in that judgement for then he should do it repugnante conscientiâ he should go directly against his own conscience which he ought not to do whatsoever come of it In such a case certainly he may not obey the Magistrate yet let him know thus much withall that he sinneth too in disobeying the Magistrate from which sinne the following of the judgement of his own conscience cannot acquit him And this is that fearfull perplexity whereof I spake whereinto many a man casteth himself by his own error obstinacy that he can neither go with his conscience nor against it but he shall sinne And who can help it if a man will needs cherish an errour and persist in it But now if the conscience be onely doubtfull whether a thing be lawfull or no but have not as yet passed a peremptory judgement against it yea although it rather incline to think it unlawfull in that case if the Magistrate shall command it to be done the subject with a good conscience may do it nay he cannot with a good conscience refuse to do it though it be dubitante conscientiâ But you will yet say that in doubtfull cases the safer part is to be chosen So say I too and am content that rule should decide this question onely let it be rightly applyed Thou thinkest it safer where thou doubtest of the unlawfulnesse to forbear then to do as for example if thou doubtest whether it be lawfull to kneel at the Communion it is safest in thy opinion therefore for thee not to kneel So should I think too if thou wert left meerly to thine own liberty But thou dost not consider how thou art caught in thine own net and how the edge of thine own weapon may be turned upon thee point-blank not to be avoided thus If authority command thee to kneel which whether it be lawful for thee to do or not thou doubtest it cannot chuse but thou must needs doubt also whether thou maiest lawfully disobey or not Now then here apply thine own Rule In dubiis pars tutior and see what will come of it Judge since thou canst not but doubt in both cases whether it be not the safer of the two to obey doubtingly than to disobey doubtingly Tene certum demitte incertum is S. Gregory his rule where there is a certainty and an uncertainty let the uncertainty go and hold to that which is certain Now the general is certain that thou art to obey the Magistrate in all things not contrary to the will of God but the particular is uncertain whether the thing now commanded thee by the Magistrate be contrary to the will of God I say uncertain to thee because thou doubtest of it Deal safely therefore and hold thee to that which is certain and obey But thou wilt yet alledge that the Apostle here condemneth the doing of any thing not only with a gainsaying but even with a doubting conscience because doubting also is contrary to faith and he that doubteth is even for that condemned if he eat Oh beware of mis-applying Scripture it is a thing easily done but not so easily answered I know not any one gap that hath let in more and more