be suffered to baptize, Christ need not have gone to St. John, but might have been baptized by his mother; and Christ would have sent women along with the apostles, when he gave them commission to preach and to baptize. But now our Lord had neither commanded any such thing by his word, or in Scripture; for the author and lawgiver of nature knew what was agreeable and decent for their nature."-To this agrees that of Tertullian"; "Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui, sed nec docere, nec tingere, nec offerre, nec ullius virilis muneris, nedum sacerdotalis, officii sortem sibi vendicare;" "A woman is not permitted to speak in the church, nor to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to do the office of a man, much less of a priest." This custom therefore is of the nature of those, which are to be laid aside. Οὐδεὶς βαπτίζει εἰ μὴ χειροτονίαν ἔχει, “No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders," said Simeon of Thessalonica; and I think he said truly. But above all things, opinions are not to be taken up by custom, and reduced to practice: not only because custom is no good warranty for opinions, and "voluntas fertur carere oculis, intellectus pedibus," "the will hath no eyes, and the understanding hath no feet;" that is, it can do nothing without the will, and the will must do nothing without that; they are a blind man and a lame, when they are asunder; but when they are together, they make up a sound man, while the one gives reason, and the other gives command: but besides this, when an opinion is offered only by the hand of custom, it is commonly a sign of a bad cause, and that there is nothing else to be said for it; and therefore it was a weakness in Salmeron to offer to persuade us to entertain the doctrine and practice of indulgences, purgatory, invocation of saints, images, and the like, because they are customs of the church, meaning his own.

3. This is to be understood also of the customs of the Catholic church. For if the churches differ, it is indifferent to take either or neither, as it may happen. Clemens Alexandrinus said it was a wickedness to pull the beard, because it is our natural, it is a generous and an ingenuous ornament: and yet Gregory VII.d bishop of Rome, made Archbishop James shave his beard close, pretending that it had been always a custom in the western churches; "Consuetudini sanctæ obedire coegimus," "We have constrained him to obey the holy custom." In such cases, where several churches have several usages, every church is to follow her own custom, and every of her subjects to obey it.

4. Though every subject is tied to the custom of his own church, yet he is not to give offence, when he converses with another church, that hath a differing custom: according to that rule and example of St. Ambrose"; "Quando hic sum, non jejuno sabbato: et ad quamcunque ecclesiam veneritis, ejus morem servate, si pati scandalum non vultis aut facere ;" "When I am at Milan, I do not fast on the Saturday; when I am at Rome, I do: and to whatsoever church ye shall come, keep the custom of that church, if ye will neither give nor receive offence."-And these words St. Austin made use of to this very purpose: "Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes, nec disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano, quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit ecclesiam, ad quamcunque forte devenerit." The best way is to do as that church does, where you happen to be. And in the same instance St. Jerome gave answer to Lucinus: "Servandam esse propriæ ecclesiæ consuetudinem," "The custom of the place of our own church is to be observed." And therefore, at Milan it is counted a violation of their rights, when the Roman priests come into the Ambrosian churches, and do refuse the missal of St. Ambrose, but use the Roman. It is a custom in the church of England to uncover the head, or to bow the knee, when the name of Jesus is named: the custom is not only innocent but pious, and agreeable to the duty of every Christian, and therefore, abstracting from the injunction, the custom itself is sufficient to exact conformity of all modest persons. But if a son of the church of England shall come into other Protestant churches who use it not, he is to comply with them in the omission, unless himself be persuaded that it is a divine commandment; and yet even then also, the specification and the circumstances of time and place may be undetermined, and leave him in a capacity to comply for a time, and in a limited place.

5. It is required, that the custom be of present observation, or else it does not oblige the conscience. Thus it is a custom of the Catholic church, that, at the baptizing of infants, there be godfathers and godmothers. This custom is still of use in the church of England: and although much of the reason, for which they were first introduced is ceased, and the case altered; yet it is enough to every man that is a subject, that it is the custom: and therefore if any man shall dispute and prove that the thing itself is not now necessary, that is no warranty to him to omit it, so long as the custom is allowed and upheld, and is no evil. But if the custom be left in a church,-that it was a catholic custom, and of long use in the church, is of no obligation to the conscience. Socrates tells that "omnes ubique in orbe terrarum ecclesiæ," "all the churches in the world, every week upon Saturday, celebrate the mysteries :" "Alexandrini tamen et Romani ex antiqua traditione istud facere renuunt": "But the churches of Alexandria and Rome refuse to do so, because they have an ancient tradition to the contrary." And in this they had their liberty. It was a long and a general custom in the church, upon all occasions and motions of solemnity or greater action, to make the sign of the cross in the air, on the breast, or on the forehead; but he that, in England, should do so upon pretence, because it was a Catholic custom, would be ridiculous. For a custom obliges by being a custom amongst them, with whom we do converse, and to whom, in charity and prudence, we are to comply: and therefore to an action, that was a custom there, where it is not a custom, must be done upon some other reason than because it is a custom; or else it is done, because there is no reason. It was a custom of the Catholic church to reserve infants, all the year, till Easter, to be baptized; except it were in cases of necessity or great danger: but "we have no such custom now, nor the churches of God;" and therefore to think we are bound to comply with that or any such custom, is to make ourselves too fond admirers of the actions, and more than servants to the sentences and customs, of ancient churches.

cal law does not oblige the conscience. It does, in many cases, excuse, but when there is no scandal accidentally emerging, it never binds us to follow it. I say, it can excuse from penalty, then when the ecclesiastical law hath been neglected, because the governors are presumed to do their duty; and therefore if they who made the law, suffer it to be commonly broken, it is to be supposed they are willing the law should die: and this is the sense of that in the comedy"; "Mores leges perduxerunt jam in potestatem suam," customs give limit to laws; and they bind according as the manners of men are. And this the lawyers extend even to a custom that is against the law of God. So the presidents of Sena', at the entry into their office, take an oath in form that they will never receive bribes; and yet they do so, and are known to do so, and, because of the general custom, are never punished: and much of the same nature are the oaths taken at the matriculations and admissions into universities and offices respectively, concerning which it were very well there were some remedy or prevention. But if it can be understood, that the lawgiver intends the law should be in force, and that the negligence of his ministers, or the stubborn and uncomplying nature of the subjects, is the cause of the want of discipline; then the conscience is obliged to the law, and not excused by the custom. And yet further, when the law is called upon, then although there be a custom in the church against the canon, it neither preserves from sin, nor rescues from punishment: "Quia lex derogat consuetudini," say the lawyers; when the law is alive, the custom is dead, because the custom took its life from diminution of the law; and when there is a law actually called upon, the custom to the contrary is a direct evil, and that against which the law is intended, and which the law did intend to remedy. The church hath made laws, that no man shall fast upon the Lord's day, nor the great festivals of the year: if a custom of fasting upon Christmas-day should, in evil and peevish times, prevail, and the law be unable or unwilling to chastise it, but suffer it to grow into evil manners; when the law is again warm

Plaut. Trinum. act. 4. sc. 3, 30. Ernesti, vol. 2. pag. 421.

Baldus in lib. Observare, sect. Proficisci, circa fin. ff. de Officio Proconsul, et Leg. * See the sixth rule of the last chapter of this book.

and refreshed, and calls for obedience, the contrary custom is not to be pretended against the law, but to be repented of. In the church of England there is a law, that when children are baptized, they shall be dipped in the water; only if they be sick, it shall be sufficient that it be sprinkled upon them: but yet the custom of sprinkling all does prevail. In this case we are to stand to the law, not to the custom, because the law is still in force, and is actually intended to prevail according to the mind of the church, and it is more agreeable with the practice, the laws, and customs, of the primitive church, and to the practice of Christ and his apostles. But of this I shall speak again in some of the following numbers.

7. An ecclesiastical custom must be reasonable or useful, or it cannot oblige the conscience, except to avoid scandal, for that is in all things carefully to be observed, right or wrong, so it be not a sin against God; customs must be kept, when the breaking them is scandalous. But excépting this case, an unreasonable custom does not oblige. For no man is bound to be a fool, or to do a foolish action. Now a custom in the canon law is concluded to be reasonable, if it tends to the good of the soul. In the civil law it is allowed to be reasonable, if it tends to any public good. Thus it is a custom, that judges should wear their robes upon their seats of judicature; that the elergy wear blacks. "Doctores portant variam, quia habitus virum ostendit," saith the law1, and that priest were a strange, peevish, or a weak person, who should choose to wear gray, because there is no religion in the colour: his religion in this would have nothing else: and though these things tend not to the good of the soul, yet they tend to the good of the public; they distinguish men, that honour may be given to them, to whom honour belongs.

8. For it is considerable, what the wiser lawyers say, 1. That a custom is good, if it contains 'bonum honestum,' 'any honesty' or matter of public reputation. Thus it is a custom, that civil persons should not walk late in the night, but be in their houses at seasonable times; it is a good custom, that bishops and priests abstain from going