“Secondly, in making laws about civil and indifferent things about the commonweal,
“First, he hath no power given him of God to make what laws he please, either in restraining from or constraining to the use of indifferent things; because that which is indifferent in its nature, may sometimes be inexpedient in its use, and consequently unlawful, 1 Cor. ii. 5, it having been long since defended upon good ground, Quicquid non expedit, quatenus non expedit, non licet.
“Secondly, he hath no power to make any such laws about indifferent things, wherein nothing good or evil is shown to the people, but only on principally the mere authority or will of the imposer, for the observance of them, Col. ii. 21, 22; 1 Cor. vii. 23, compared with Eph. vi. 6.
“It is a prerogative proper to God to require obedience of the sons of men, because of his authority and will.
“The will of no man is regula recti, unless first it be regula recta.
“It is an evil speech of some, that in some things the will of the law, not the ratio of it, must be the rule of conscience to walk by; and that princes may forbid men to seek any other reason but their authority, yea, when they command frivola et dura. And therefore it is the duty of the magistrate, in all laws about indifferent things, to show the reasons, not only the will: to show the expediency, as well as the indifferency of things of that nature.
“For we conceive in laws of this nature, it is not the will of the lawgiver only, but the reason of the law which binds. Ratio est rex legis, et lex est rex regis.
“Thirdly, because the judgment of expedient and inexpedient things is often difficult and diverse, it is meet that such laws should not proceed without due consideration of the rules of expediency set down in the word, which are these three:
“First, the rule of piety, that they may make for the glory of God, 1 Cor. x. 31.