conſciences, and keep many conſciences more truly ſcrupulous; for when young men ſee that they are obliged to ſwear one thing, and do another, they will, by degrees, grow harden'd in their minds, and wear off that ſtrictneſs and regard for an oath, which they once had, always finding out, in the nature and reaſon of things, ſomewhat to abſolve them from the obligation. Beſides, I am afraid, that, in truth, all ſtatutes, wich we have ſworn to obey, ought, in foro conſcientia, to be obeyed, however unlawful the matter of them may have been rendered by the legiſlature of the land; unleſs, in purſuance thereof, they have been repealed.
What makes me inſiſt upon this more than I otherwiſe ſhould, and ſtrengthens my reaſons for it, is, that we find the biſhop of[1] Chester, at the royal viſitation of Maudlin college, upbraiding them with this very thing: for when Dr. Hough, the preſent biſop of Worcester, told him that he would ſubmit to the King as far as was conſiſtent with the ſtatutes; the biſhop ask'd him, Whether he obſerv'd all thoſe ſtatutes? — You have a ſtatute, ſaid he, for maſs; why don't you read maſs? Which Dr. Hough was forced to anſwer in the manner before mentioned, that the matter of that oath was unlawful; and in ſuch a caſe no man was obliged to obſerve an oath; and beſides, that that ſtatute was taken away by the laws of the land[2].
Such a reproach as this, however unjuſt, from the mouth of a biſhop, was warning enough to them to take away, for the future, all occaſion of triumph over the univerſities: but there is a ſtrange temper in ſome men, which will not ſuffer them
