Private opinion subject to the wider Church

“And … men’s private fancies must give place to the higher judgment of that Church which is in authority a mother over them.”

“Thus by following the law of private reason, where the law of public should take place, they breed disturbance.”

Hooker says that if we wish to live in a society, private judgement must give way to the agreed laws of the community we live in, or common life is impossible.  Applying this to the church, private opinions about the way we regulate and govern it must submit to the judgement of the church community.

“Because except our own private and but probable resolutions be by the law of public determinations overruled, we take away all possibility of sociable life in the world.”

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