them, without the inward approbation, are the actions of the sovereign, and not of the subject, which is in that case but as an instrument, without any motion of his own at all; because God hath commanded to obey them.
The eleventh is every place where the apostle for counsel putteth some word by which men use to signify command; or calleth the following of his counsel by the name of obedience. And therefore they are alleged out of 1 Cor. 11:2: “I commend you for keeping my precepts as I delivered them to you.” The Greek is, “I commend you for keeping those things I delivered to you as I delivered them.” Which is far from signifying that they were laws, or anything else, but good counsel. And that of 1 Thess. 4:2: “You know what commandments we gave you”: where the Greek word is παραγγελίας ἐδώκαμεν , equivalent to παρεδώκαμεν , “what we delivered to you,” as in the place next before alleged, which does not prove the traditions of the apostles to be any more than counsels; though as is said in the 8th verse, “he that despiseth them, despiseth not man, but God.” For our Saviour himself came not to judge, that is, to be king in this world, but to sacrifice himself for sinners, and leave doctors in His Church to lead, not to drive men to Christ, who never accepteth forced actions (which is all the law produceth), but the inward conversion of the heart; which is not the work of laws, but of counsel and doctrine.