oms of his own church, but also will have the ordinances
about those rites to be urged under pain of the anathema. I know not what
the binding of the conscience is, if this be not it: _Apostolus gemendi
partes relinquit, non cogendi auctoritatem tribuit ministris quibus plebs
non auscultat_.(88) And shall they who call themselves the apostles'
successors, compel, constrain and enthral, the consciences of the people
of God? Charles V., as popish as he was, did promise to the
Protestants,(89) _Nullam vim ipsorum conscientiis illatum iri_. And shall
a popish prince speak more reasonable than protestant prelates? But to
make it yet more and plentifully to appear how miserably our opposites
would enthral our consciences, I will here show, 1. What the binding of
the conscience is. 2. How the laws of the church may be said to bind. 3.
What is the judgment of formalists touching the binding-power of
ecclesiastical laws.

_Sect._ 2. Concerning the first of these we will hear what Dr Field
saith:(90) "To bind the conscience (saith he) is to bind the soul and
spirit of man, with the fear of such punishments (to be inflicted by him
that so bindeth) as the conscience feareth; that is, as men fear, though
none but God and themselves be privy to their doings; now these are only
such as God only inflicteth," &c. This description is too imperfect, and
deserves to be corrected. To bind the conscience is _illam auctoritatem
habere, ut conscientia illi subjicere sese debeat, ita ut peccatum sit, si
contra illam quidquam fiat_, saith Ames.(91) "The binder (saith
Perkins(92)) is that thing whatsoever which hath power and authority over
conscience to order it. To bind is to urge, cause, and constrain it in
every action, either to accuse for sin, or to excuse for well-doing; or to
say, this may be done, or it may not be done." "To bind the conscience
(saith Alsted(93)) _est illam urgere et adigere, ut vel excuset et
accuset, vel indicet quid fieri aut non fieri possit_." Upon these
descriptions, which have more truth and reason in them, I infer that
whatsoever urges, or forces conscience to assent to a thing as lawful, or
a thing that ought to be done, or dissent from a thing as unlawful, or a
thing which ought not to be done, that is a binder of conscience, though
it did not bind the spirit of a man with the fear of such punishments as
God alone inflicteth. For secluding all respect of punishment, and not
considering what will follow, the very