Sect. 32. Now to the assumption. And first, that the controverted ceremonies pertain not to the conservation of religion, but contrariwise to the hurt and prejudice of the same, experience hath, alas! made it too manifest; for O what a doleful decay of religion have they drawn with them in this land! Let them who have seen Scotland in her first glory tell how it was then, and how it is now. Idle and idol-like bishopping hath shut too the door of painful and profitable catechising.[987] The keeping of some festival days is set up instead of the thankful commemoration of God's inestimable benefits, howbeit the festivity of Christmas hath hitherto served more to bacchanalian lasciviousness than to the remembrance of the birth of Christ.[988] The kneeling down upon the knees of the body hath now come in place of that humiliation of the soul wherewith worthy communicants addressed themselves unto the holy table of the Lord; and, generally, the external show of these fruitless observances hath worn out the very life and power of religion. Neither have such effects ensued upon such ceremonies among us only, but let it be observed everywhere else, if there be not least substance and power of godliness among them who have most ceremonies, whereunto men have, at their pleasure, given some sacred use and signification in the worship of God; and most substance among them who have fewest shows of external rites. No man of sound judgment (saith Beza[989]) will deny, [pg 1-320] Jesum Christum quo nudior, &c., “that Jesus Christ, the more naked he be, is made the more manifest to us; whereas, contrariwise, all false religions use by certain external gesturings to turn away men from divine things.” Zanchius saith well of the surplice and other popish ceremonies,[990] Quod haec nihil ad pietatem accendendam, multum autem ad restinguendam valeant. Bellarmine,[991] indeed, pleadeth for the utility of ceremonies, as things belonging to the conservation of religion. His reason is, because they set before our senses such an external majesty and splendour, whereby they cause the more reverence. This he allegeth for the utility of the ceremonies of the church of Rome. And I would know what better reason can be alleged for the utility of ours. But if this be all, we throw back the argument, because the external majesty and splendour of ceremonies doth greatly prejudge and obscure the spirit and life of the worship of God, and diverteth the minds of men from adverting unto the same, which we have offered to be tried by common experience. Durand himself, for as much as he hath written in the defence of ceremonies, in his unreasonable Rationale, yet he maketh this plain confession:[992] Sane in primitiva ecclesia, sacrificium fiebat in vasis ligneis et vestibus communibus: tunc enim erant lignei calices et aurei sacerdotes: nunc vero è contra est. Behold what followeth upon the majesty and splendour which ceremonies carry with them, and how religion, at its best and first estate, was without the same!
Sect. 33. Neither yet do the ceremonies in question belong to the purgation of religion; for wheresoever religion is to be purged in a corrupted church, all men know that purgation standeth in putting something away, not in keeping it still; in voiding somewhat, nor in retaining it; so that a church is not purged, but left unpurged, when the unnecessary monuments of bypast superstition are still preserved and kept in the same. And as for the church of Scotland, least of all could there be any purgation of it intended by the resuming of those ceremonies; for such was the most glorious and ever memorable reformation of Scotland, that it was far better purged than any other neighbour church. And of Mr [pg 1-321] Hooker's jest we may make good earnest; for, in very deed, as the reformation of Geneva did pass the reformation of Germany, so the reformation of Scotland did pass that of Geneva.
Sect. 34. Now hitherto we have discoursed of the power of princes, in making of laws about things which concern the worship of God; for this power it is which our opposites allege for warrant, of the controverted ceremonies, wherefore to have spoken of it is sufficient for our present purpose. Nevertheless, because there are also other sorts of ecclesiastical things beside the making of laws, such as the vocation of men of ecclesiastical order, the convocation and moderation of councils, the judging and deciding of controversies about faith, and the use of the keys, in all which princes have some place and power of intermeddling, and a mistaking in one may possibly breed a mistaking in all; therefore I thought good here to digress, and of these also to add somewhat, so far as princes have power and interest in the same.
DIGRESSION I.
OF THE VOCATION OF MEN OF ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER.
In the vocation and calling of ecclesiastical persons, a prince ought to carry himself ad modum procurantis speciem, non designantis individuum. Which shall be more plainly and particularly understood in these propositions which follow.
Propos. 1. Princes may and ought to provide and take care that men of those ecclesiastical orders, and those only which are instituted in the New Testament by divine authority, have vocation and office in the church.
Now, beside the apostles, prophets, and evangelists, which were not ordained to be ordinary and perpetual offices in the church, there are but two ecclesiastical orders or degrees instituted by Christ in the New Testament,[993] viz., elders and deacons. Excellenter canones duos tantum sacros ordines appellari censet, diaconatus scilicet et presbyteratus, quia hos solos primitiva ecclesia legitur habuisse, et de his solis preceptum apostoli habemus, saith the Master of sentences.[994] As for the order and decree [pg 1-322] of bishops superior to that of elders, that there is no divine ordinance nor institution for it, it is not only holden by Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Martyr, Sadeel, Luther, Chemnitius, Gerhard, Balduine, the Magdeburgians, Musculus, Piscator, Hemmingius, Zanchius, Polanus, Junius, Pareus, Fennerus, Danaeus, Morney, Whittakers, Willets, Perkins, Cartwright, the Professors of Leyden, and the far greatest part of writers in reformed churches, but also by Jerome, who, upon Tit. i., and in his epistle to Evagrius, speaketh so plainly, that the Archbishop of Spalato is driven to say,[995] Deserimus in hac parte Hieronymum, neque ei in his dictis assentimus; also by Ambrose on 1 Tim. iii.; Augustine in his Book of Questions out of both Testaments, quest. 101; Chrysostom on 1 Tim. iii.; Isidore, dist. 21, cap. 1; the Canon Law, dist. 93, cap. 24, and dist. 95, cap. 5; Lombard., lib. 4, dist. 24. And after him, by many schoolmen, such as Aquinas, Alensis, Albertus, Bonaventura, Richardus, and Dominicus Soto, all mentioned by the Archbishop of Spalato, lib. 2, cap. 4, num. 25. Gerhard[996] citeth for the same judgment, Anselmus, Sedulius, Primasius, Theophylactus, Oecumenius, the Council of Basil, Arelatensis, J. Parisiensis, Erasmus, Medina, and Cassander, all which authors have grounded that which they say upon Scripture; for beside that Scripture maketh no difference of order and degree betwixt bishops and elders, it showeth also that they are one and the same order. For in Ephesus and Crete, they who were made elders were likewise made bishops, Acts xx. 17, 28; Tit. i. 5, 7. And the Apostle, Phil. i. 1, divideth the whole ministry in the church of Philippi into two orders, bishops and deacons. Moreover, 1 Tim. iii., he giveth order only for bishops and deacons, but saith nothing of a third order. Wherefore it is manifest, that beside those two orders of elders and deacons, there is no other ecclesiastical order which hath any divine institution, or necessary use in the church; and princes should do well to apply their power and authority to the extirpation and rooting out of popes, cardinals, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, suffragans, abbots, deans, vice-deans, priors, archdeacons, subdeacons, abbots, chancellors, chantors, subchantors, exorcists, monks, eremites, acoloths, and all [pg 1-323] the rabble of popish orders, which undo the church, and work more mischief in the earth than can be either soon seen or shortly told.
But, contrariwise, princes ought to establish and maintain in the church, elders and deacons, according to the apostolical institution. Now elders are either such as labour in the word and doctrine, or else such as are appointed for discipline only. They who labour in the word and doctrine are either such as do only teach, and are ordained for conserving, in schools and seminaries of learning, the purity of Christian doctrine, and the true interpretation of Scripture, and for detecting and confuting the contrary heresies and errors, whom the Apostle calleth doctors or teachers; or else they are such as do not only teach, but also have a more particular charge to watch over the flock, to seek that which is lost, to bring home that which wandereth, to heal that which is diseased, to bind up that which is broken, to visit every family, to warn every person, to rebuke, to comfort, &c., whom the Apostle called sometimes pastors, and sometimes bishops or overseers. The other sort of elders are ordained only for discipline and church government, and for assisting of the pastors in ruling the people, overseeing their manners, and censuring their faults. That this sort of elders is instituted by the Apostle, it is put out of doubt, not alone by Calvin, Beza, and the divines of Geneva, but also by Chemnitius (Exam. part 2, p. 218), Gerhard (Loc. Theol., tom. 6, p. 363, 364), Zanchius (in 4 Proec., col. 727), Martyr (in 1 Cor. xii. 28), Bullinger (in 1 Tim. v. 17), Junius (Animad. in Bell., contr. 5, lib. 1, cap. 2), Polanus (Synt., lib. 7, cap. 11), Pareus (in Rom. xii. 8; 1 Cor. xii. 28), Cartwright (on 1 Tim. v. 17), the Professors of Leyden (Syn. Pur. Theol. disp. 42, thes. 20), and many more of our divines, who teach that the Apostle, 1 Tim. v. 17, directly implieth that there were some elders who ruled well, and yet laboured not in the word and doctrine; and those elders he meaneth by them that rule, Rom. xii. 8; and by governments, 1 Cor. xii. 28, where the Apostle saith not, helps in governments, as our new English translation corruptly readeth, but helps, governments, &c. plainly putting governments for a different order from helps or deacons. Of these elders[997] [pg 1-324] speaketh Ambrose,[998] as Dr Fulk also understandeth him,[999] showing that with all nations eldership is honourable; wherefore the synagogue also, and afterwards the church, hath had some elders of the congregation, without whose council and advice nothing was done in the church; and that he knew not by what negligence this had grown out of use, except it had been by the sluggishness of the teachers, or rather their pride, whilst they seemed to themselves to be something, and so did arrogate the doing of all by themselves.