n the not obeying
of them, as from the church's own authority which maketh them. Camero
speaketh of two sorts of ecclesiastical laws:(124) 1. Such as prescribe
things frivolous or unjust, meaning such things as (though they neither
detract anything from the glory of God, nor cause any damage to our
neighbour, yet) bring some detriment to ourselves. 2. Such as prescribe
things belonging to order and shunning of scandal. Touching the former, he
teacheth rightly, that conscience is never bound to the obedience of such
laws, except only in the case of scandal and contempt, and that if at any
time such laws may be neglected and not observed, without scandal given,
or contempt shown, no man's conscience is holden with them. But touching
the other sort of the church's laws, he saith, that they bind the
conscience indirectly, not only _respectu materiae praecepti_ (which doth
not at all oblige, except in respect of the end whereunto it is referred,
namely, the conserving of order, and the not giving of scandal), but also
_respectu praecipientis_, because God will not have those who are set over
us in the church to be contemned. He foresaw (belike), that whereas it is
pretended in behalf of those ecclesiastical laws which enjoin the
controverted ceremonies, that the things which they prescribe pertain to
order and to the shunning of scandal, and so bind the conscience
indirectly in respect of the end, one might answer, I am persuaded upon
evident grounds that those prescribed ceremonies pertain not to order, and
to the shunning of scandal, but to misorder, and to the giving of scandal;
therefore he laboured to bind such an one's conscience with another tie,
which is the authority of the law-makers. And this authority he would have
one to take as ground enough to believe, that that which the church
prescribeth doth belong to order and the shunning of scandal, and in that
persuasion to do it. But, 1. How doth this doctrine differ from that which
himself setteth down as the opinion of Papists,(125) _Posse los qui
praesunt ecclesiae, cogere fideles ut id credant vel faciant, quod ipsi
judicaverint?_ 2. It is well observed by our writers,(126) that the
apostles never made things indifferent to be necessary, except only in
respect of scandal, and that out of the case of scandal they still left
the consciences of men free, which observation they gather from Acts XV.
and 1 Cor. x. Camero himself noteth,(127) that though the church
prescri