A Golden Chain

Argum. 1. Deut. 17. That man that will do presumptuously, and not obey the ^aauthority of the Priest, or Judge, shall die: and thou shalt take away evil from Israel. Here (say they) the precepts of the high Priest are^b Imperia, not admonitions or exhortations, & they bind in conscience; otherwise the transgressors thereof should not have bin punished so severely. Ans. The intent of this law (as a very child may perceive) is to establish the authority and right of the highest appeals for all matters of controversy in the Synedrium or great court at Jerusalem. Therefore the words alleged, do not give unto the Priest a sovereign power of making laws, but a power of giving judgement of controversies, & that according to laws already made by God himself: from which judgement there might be no appeal. Now this power of determining doth not con strain conscience, but the outward man to maintain order & peace. For what reason is there, that, that sentence, which might be either a gainsaying of Gods law, or a mistaking of it, should bind the conscience to a sin Again, not every one that refused to subject themselves to the sentence of this court, were straightway guilty of sin,³ (for this did Jeremiah the Prophet, and Christ our Saviour, when the Jews condemned them for wicked persons) but he that presumptuously despised the sentence, and by consequent the authority it self, which was the ordinance of God, was guilty. Lastly, the severity of the punishment, which is temporal death, doth not argue any power in the judge of binding conscience:⁴ this they might have learned of their own Doctor Gerson, who holdeth that they that bind any man to mortal sin, must be able to punish him with answerable punishment, which is eternal death.

Argum. 1. Deut. 17. That man that will doe presumptuously, and not obey the ^a