Part VI. The Pastor and the Prelate Compared by the Good of the Commonwealth and of our Outward ...

PART VI. THE PASTOR AND PRELATE COMPARED BY THE GOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND OF OUR OUTWARD ESTATE.

It is best both for kirk and state when civil and ecclesiastical authority join togcther.—Civil authority doth good to religion.—Religion doth good to the whole commonwealth.—The best religion is best for the state.—The pastor preseryeth the commonwealth, which the prelate ruineth.—The pastor loveth Christian simplicity, and not Machiavel’s policy; the prelate liketh policy more than that simplicity.—The pastor distinguisheth betwixt things civil and ecclesiastical, and holdeth him at his own calling; the prelate con. foundeth all, and will rule all.—The pastor asaisteth the civil magistrate; the prelate bindereth him—The pastor profitable to the commonwealth, but not chargeable; the prolate chargeable, but not profitable—The pastor a maintainer of schools and learning; the prelate of neither.—The pastor’s government by asaembikes fitter for a monarchy than the episcopal government—The pastor taketh no man’s title, nor dignity, nor place; the prelate taketh all these from the nobles and peers of the land.—The pastor maketh the minds, the bodies and estates of the people fit for war; the prelate disableth all.—Objection, The estates of parliament cannot bear the severity of pastors, nor want the prelates to be the third eetate.—Answer, Showing that the faithful pastor will at some time be found comfortable to all estates, and that the parliament may be perlbct without the prelates.—Conclusion, A general objection answered.

Albeit that sometimes the power ecclesiastical be without the secular, and the members of the kirk make not any civil corporation, as in the apostles’ times and long after; and sometimes the secular power be without the ecclesiastical, and the members of kingkoms and corporations make not a kirk, as amongst the heathen of old, and many nations and societies this day; yet is it far best, both for religion and justice, both for truth and peace, both for kirk and commonwealth, when both are joined in one,—when the magistrate hath both swords, the use of the temporal sword, and the benefit of the spiritual sword, and when the kirk bath both swords, the use of the spiritual sword, and the benefit of the temporal,—when the two administrations, civil and ecclesiastical, like Moses and Aaron, help one another mutually, and neither Aaron nor Miriam murmur against Moses, nor Jeroboam stretcheth out his hand against the man of God. Upon the one part, civil authority maintaineth and defendeth religion where it is reformed, and reformeth religion where it is corrupted. “Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers and queens thy nursing-mothers.”{1} “Kings, serve the Lord in fear.”{2} “And then serve they the Lord,” saith Augustine, “when they serve him not only faithfully as men, but as kings, and do such things in serving him as none can do but kings, that is, when they rest not till religion be established, and God served in their dominions according to his own word.”{3} It hath ever been the greatest commendation of princes, that they have begun their government with the reformation of religion, as many worthy princes bath done both before and after the coming of Christ, (for God preferreth kings above all others, and,. therefore, kings should haste to honour God above all others,) or, that they have exceeded all who went before them in this religious and royal chair. Asa took away idolatry, but Jehosaphat removed the high places also; Hezekiah went further, and brake the brazen serpent, albeit a monument of God’s mercy; but this was the sin of his reformation, that he razed not the idol temples, which was kept to good Josiah, who, thereibre, hath this testimony to the end of the world, that like unto him there was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might. Upon the other part, true religion, although it propone for the principal ends the glory of God and the safety of the kirk, yet it serveth many ways for the civil good and worldly benefit of kings and kingdoms; because the true religion, and no other, maketh kings and kingdoms to serve that God that giveth both heavenly and earthly kingdoms; —who looseth the bands of kings and girdeth their loins with a girdle,{4}—who is the only Judge, that putteth down one and setteth up another; and, therefore, godliness hath the promise, and true religion hath many blessings attending it. It is a blessed thing when a king or a kingdom serveth that God by whom kings reign, and who giveth and taketh away kingdoms at his pleasure; next, because it qualifieth and disposeth every man for his own place —it maketh rulers to know that every kingdom is under a greater kingdom, and, as they are advanced above all others, that they have so much the greater account to make;{5}—it maketh the subjects to obey for conscience sake, and subdueth the people under their prince, which made Theodosius to acknowledge that his empire consisted more by the Christian religion than by all other means; —it keepeth true peace, both public and private, and when peace can be no longer kept, it followeth after it to find it again;—it maketh men just and temperate in time of peace, not by restraint, which positive laws do, but by mortification;—with Christians to think that wickedness is sin. “Whether of the two commandeth more fully,” says Tertullian, “he who saith, ‘thou shalt not kill,’ or he who saith, ‘thou shalt not be angry?’ Which of the two is more perfect, to forbid adultery or to restrain the eyes from concupiscence?” &c.;—it maketh every man to practise christianity in the particular duties of his calling;—in the time of war it maketh men courageous, and to fear none but Him that can kill the soul;—in persecution is giveth invincible patience;—without confusion it giveth at all times unto God that which is God’s, and unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar’s; and, without usurpation or injury to any, it giveth uato noblemen, statesmen; barons, burgesses, and all, from the highest to the lowest in the kingdom, their own places, preferments and privileges, according to the sovereign law of justice. All estates have need of this divine influence, and of all these comfortable effects, and every religion promiseth them all, but only the Christian religion is able to perform them, nd the more Christian it is, that is, the more near that it cometh to the purity and simplicity of Christ and his apostles, both in trifle and discipline, and the more Christianly, that is, the more powerfully it be urged upon the consciences of men, the more effectually it proveth for these happy ones. Let us, then, upon this ground, proceed to our trial whether the pastor or prelate be more profitable for the country and commonwealth.

1. The PASTOR preserveth the prosperous estate of the kingdom and commonwealth by labouring to preserve piety, righteousness and temperance in the land, and by testifying, with all his might, against idolatry and all sorts of impiety, against unrighteousness and all sorts of injury, whether by craft or violence, and against intemperance, incontinence, unlawful marriagesi divorces, and every other kind of impurities; for these three where they reign, he knoweth to be more near and certain causes, first of the many calamities and judgments of God, and then of the alterations md periods of states and kingdoms, than either of the intricate numbers of Plato, or the unchanged course of the heavens, or whatever other cause is pretended by philosophers or politicians, because these, wherever they reign, threaten a ruin from the true fatality of God’s providence and justice, and do shake the pillars of all human society, as idolatry the pillars of the kirk, unrighteousness of the commonwealth, and intemperance of the family, and one of the three falling, the other two cannot long endure.{6} The PRELATE, upon the contrary, by taking in his own hands the power of the General Assembly, which was a great terror to sin; by depriving some worthy pastors of their places, and others of authority in censwing of sin; by destroying the discipline of the kirk, and by his own many unlawful practices and permissions, bath given way to idolatry, blasphemy, and the profanation of the Sabbath, to all sorts of scandalous and notorious sins of unrighteousness, uncleanness, and of the abuse of God’s creatures, for which the wrath of God cometh upon the world; but most of all, by bringing a great part of the kingdom under the guiltiness of the violation of the covenant of God; and by going against their oath and subscription, hath drawn many visitations from the hand of God, doth daily provoke the Lord to further wrath, striketh at the pillars of all societies, and posteth on the periods otstate and kingdom.

2. The PASTOR accounteth virtue, truth, righteousness, Christian simplicity and.prudence, to be the.best policy, not only for his own practice, but for all that are in authority, and for all societies, and, therefore, pronounceth anathema upon the chief axioms of Machiavel’s art, whom he judgeth to be as pernicious a master of policy as antichrist is for matters of religion,{7} and these two to be the principal supports of Satan, the direct enemy of Christian faith and obedience, and the crafty subverters of kirks and commonwealths,—unfit for all, but most unfit for us, whom grace hath favoured with thelight of the truth, and nature hath fashioned to be open and plain. The PRELATE’S practices do proclaim what policy pleaseth him best. Simulation, dissimulation, false.hood and flattery ate known to be the ways of his promotion. He standeth in his grandeur and possesseth his peace by promising good service in parliament to the king against the nobility, and blowing the bellows of dissension betwixt them: he warmeth himself at the fire he hath raised betwixt the king and the kirk: he beareth with men of every religion provided they be not anti-episcopal: he urgeth ceremonies, which he himself otherwise careth nothing for, that they may be a band of obedience to the slavish, and a buckler of episcopacy against the opposites: he suffereth papistry to prevail and new heresies to arise, and giveth connivance to the teachers of them, that that there may be some other matter of disputation amongst learned men than about his mitre. If all would follow his art and example, antichrist and Machiavel would be our chief masters, and every Scotsman of spirit would prove another Cæsar Borgia, or Ludovicus Sfortia.{8}

3. The PASTOR, according to the nature of things, distinguiseth betwixt the things of God and the things of Csar, betwixt the sovereignty of Christ and the sovereignty of man, betwixt the dignity of the statesman and honour of the elder that labours in the word and doctrine, betwixt the palace of the prince and the minister’s manse, the revenues of the nobleman and the minister’s stipend; and, according to the grounds of policy, holdeth, that many offices should not be conferred on one man except rarely by the special favour of princes,{9} upon some that are eminent as miracles for engine, for wisdom and dexterity,—by reason of man’s infirmity, the weight of authority, the order of policy, and the peace of the people; that as every thing in nature doth its own part—the sun shineth and the wind bloweth, the water moisteneth—so every man should be set to his own task; that one man cannot be Æneas and Hector, Cato and Scipio,{10} far less can one and the same person be sufficient for the greatest affairs both of kirk and policy; and, therefore, the pastor keepeth himself within the bounds of his own place and calling, and neither meddleth with civil causes, nor taketh upon him civil offices, nor seeketh after civil honour. The PRELATE inaketh no distInction, but confoundeth all, as compatible enough if he be the ageht; and albeit, for any good parts, to be no miracle, but neighbourlike, yet he flndeth himself sufficient for every thing in kirk and commonwealth,{11} and telleth all for fish that cometh in his net, whether civil offices, civil honours, civil causes or civil punishments. Like a prince, he hath his castle, his lordship, his regality, vassalry, &c.: he hath power to confine, imprison, &c.; and taketh it hardly when he is not preferred to ofikes of estate, as to chancellor, president, &c., which his predecessors had of old. And thus, against all grounds of good policy, he stands in pomp, as a mighty giant, with one foot in the kirk upon the necks of the ministers, and with another in the state upon the heads of the nobility and gentry.

4. The PASTOR assisteth the civil magistrate in planting of virtue and rooting out of vice, partly by powerfully preaching home to the consciences of sinners, partly by censuring lesser offeuces which the magistrate punisheth not, as lying, uncomely jesting, rash and common swearing, talking, brawling, drunkenness, &c.;{12} through which the passages to murder, adultery, and other great offences, are stopped, the people prevented in many mischiefs and great enormities, and the magistrate many ways eased; and partly in censuring of greater sins, and purging the kingdom of foul offences; for he joineth the censures and the spiritual sword of the kirk with the sword of the magistrate so impartially, that none are spared; with such expedition and diligence, that sin is censured and not forgotten; with such authority that the most obstinate hath confessed that the kirk had power to bind and loose; with such sharpness and severity, that malefactors have been afraid; and so universally, that, as there is no crime censured by the kirk but the same is punishable by temporal jurisdiction, so he holdeth no sin punishable by civil authority but the same is also censurable by spiritual power— the one punishing the offender in his body or goods, the other drawing him unto repentance, and striving to remove the scandal. The PRELATE 1s unprofitable to the civil magistrate in the planting of virtue and rooting out of vice.; for where his government bath place, preaching hath more demonstratiorrof art for the praise of the speaker, than of the Spirit for the censuring of sin and the conversion of the sinner. He passeth small offences without any censure, and thereby openeth the way to the greater sins of murder, adultery, &c., and giveth the magistrate his hands full: he vindicates to his court and jurisdiction some crimes, as proper for his censure, which yet he passeth lightly: the censures of the kirk and sword of excommunication in his hand serve for small use against greater sins; ibr either they are not used at all, or so partialy that the greatest sinners escape uncensured, or so superficially that they are rather a matter of mocking anti boldness in sin than of repentance to the sinner, or of removing the offence.

5. The PASTOR is chargeable to no man beside his sober and necessary maintenance allotted unto him for bis necessary service, which the people can no more want than they an want religion itself, or their own temporal and eternal happiness. The PRELATE, contrary to the rules of policy against the multiplying and maintaining of idle officebearers,{13} hath for one office, serving for no good use neither to king, nor kirk, nor country, allowance of a large rent, is a great burden, and is many ways chargeable to the commonwealth, and to particular persons; by his great lands and lordahips, by actions of improbation, reduction of fiefs, declarator of escheats, entries, nonentries, &c.; by selling of commissariats, &c.; by raising and rigorously exacting the quotas of testaments; by sums of money given unto them, their sons, or their servants, for presentations, collations, testimonials of or dination or admission,—sometimes by people who would be at a good minister, and ordinarily by the prudent friends of the entrant, whocan find no entry but by a golden port.

6. The PASTOR would have learning to grow, and, considering that schools and colleges are both the seminary of the commonwealth and the Lebanon of God for building the temple,{14} desireth earnestly that there might be a school in every congregation, that the people might be more civil, and might, more easily learn the grounds of religion-; he would have the best engines chosen and provided to the students’ places in universities, the worthiest and best men to the places of teachers, who might faithfully keep the arts and sciences from corruption, and especially the tnflh of religion,—as the holy fire that came down from heaven was kept by the Levites: he desireth the rewards of learning to be given to the worthiest, and, after they have received them, that they be faithful in their places, lest by loitering and laziness they become both unprofitable and unlearned. The PRELATE IS not so desirous of learning in himself as of ignorance in others, that he only may be eminent both in kirk and commonwealth, and all others may render him blind obedienct and respect. He devoureth that himself which should .entertain particular schools: he fihleth the places of students without trial of their engines, to please his friends and suitors, contrary to the will of the masters and the acts of the foundations: he filleth the places of learning not with themost learned, but the wealthiest sort, where, for any vigilance of his, might both corrupt the human sciences and bring strange fire into the house of God. If a learned man happen to attain to one of their highest places, which they call the rewards of learning, incontinent, their learning beginneth to decay, and their former gifts to wither away. & that their great places and prelacies either find them or make them unlearned.

7. The PASTOR, by the government of the kirk prescribed in the word, is strong to resist or repress schisms, heiesies, corruptions, and all the spiritual power of sin and Satan, but hath no strength to withstand the temporal power and authority of princes.{15} The same government sorts with monarchy no less than with aristocracy, through the wisdom of the Son of God, who fitteth the same for all nations and divers forms of civil policy. The pastor acknowledgeth his prince to be his only bishop and overseer, superintendent over the whole kirk in his dominions, as being preserver of the liberties of the kirk, and keeper of both tables; to whom also the General Assembly of the kirk, or some few commissioners chosen by them, and convened, when it is thought expedient, by the king’s commissioner, may give his majesty better and more speedy satisfaction in kirk affairs, and with greater love and contentment of the whole kirk, and of all his majesty’s loving subjects, than can be given by the thirteen prelates; all which may be done upon a small part of the, prelate’s rent, for bearing the charges of his majesty’s commissioner, who also may be changed at his majesty’s pleasure. The PRELATE and his government is weak to withstand the spiritual forces of sin and Satan but is strong to oppose the temporal power of princes, and hath beetrof all enemies the most dangerous to monarchy; for howsoever now, while opposition is made, he flatter and fawn upon the prince for his own standing, yet if all ministers and the whole kingdom did acknowledge his superiority to bind the conscience, the primate of the kirk would be more, powerful ‘than any subject in the kingdom, and might prove as terrible to kings, whatsoever their religion were, as popes have been to emperors, and prelates have been to kings in former times.{16} He hath no power, for all his credit and lordly authority, to get any thing done to his majesty’s satisfaction, and with contentment of the kirk; for all the craft and violence that hath been so long bended, never one whole famous congregation within the kingdom is either conquered or like to be subdued to his conformity, but either the better or greater part, or both, have resisted; and yet, for his lordly maintenance, he hath impaired the rent of the crown in so far as it was aided by the collectory, and pulleth from the king the rents of great benefices, the homage of vassals, with their commodities, regalities, and other privileges, more proper for the sceptre than the shepherd’s staff.

8. The PASTOR desireth no other title but to be called the minister of the town or parish; he sttiveth with no man for precedency; be seeketh no place in the commonwealth neither in council, session, nor exchequer, but stirreth up, and soundeth the trumpet in the ear of the generous spirits of the kingdom, to show themselves worthy of iher own places; and, whether he be minister in burgh or land, he is a common servant to all, from the highest to the lowest, to parents and children, to masters and servants, in all pastoral duties; while he liveth he harmeth none, but helping all, procuring honour to the greater and maintenance to the poorer sort, and, when his life is brought to a comfortable end, every soul blesseth him, and all mourn for him as for a common parent. The PRELATE, according to the political axiom, “When virtue waneth vanity waxeth, and many titles much vanity,”{17} disdaining to be called any more the minister of Christ, bath taken upon him the titles of the nobility,—My lord of Orkney, my lord of Caithness, my lord of Murray, my lord of Argyll, &c., with the title he taketh the place before thorn, and filleth their places in council and session, and when, risen up from his dunghull, be is set on high places, and is drunken with his new honours, he lifteth his ears like isis’ ass, and as handmaids when they become mistresses, he waxeth so insolent that he cannot be borne. In his own city he will have homage of all, overruleth the election of their magistrates, harmeth both parents and ehildren through the country; by giving warrant for sudden and secret marriages without proclamation, which the very Council of Trent cannot but allow; he taketh the honour of the greater upon himself, and spends that upon his pride which should serve for the poorer sort; and when, after many wishes, his life at last is brought to an end, the whole diocese is filled with joy, and his own family and friends are filled with contempt and disgrace.

9. The PASTOR maketh the kingdom fit for war against the time that necessities give alarm; for, by labouring to make the people truly religious he maketh them fit for both parts of Christian fortitude, active and passive, for doing valiantly and suffering constantly:{18} in the time of peace he stirreth them up against softness and intemperance to diligence and labour, whereby their bodies are the more able and durable: he strengtheneth also the nerves of war, by contenting himself with a mean estate, and by his doctrine and example teaching people to spare in peace for the time of war. The PRELATE maketh the kingdom unfit for war; for by his government the people lose true fortitude with the love of religion; that if they have any kind of courage for battle, it is not so much the invincible courage of Christian religion as the carnal and bastard fortitude of paganism, which, in comparison of the former, bath ever been but pusillanimity; by his oversight of rioting and idleness their bodies become weak and effeminate, and, by his own large rents, and his example of prodigality, which to them is a law, he enervates the estates, and cuts asunder the sinews of war. The Prelate’s objection.—The PRELATE will object, that if you that are pastors understood either the manners of the people or the grounds of policy, ye would see that neither can noblemen, and others given to their pleasure, bear your simple and censorious form of preaching, nor your austere and precise form of discipline and life, nor yet can the high court of parliament want the prelates, which make up one of the three estates: that ye are but shallow and consider not what depth this draws. The Pastor’s answer.—We know that of all ranks there be some who love their pleasures more than God, and these, according to the first flattering part of the objection, will say with the old verse:

“Non mihi sit servus, medicus, prophets, sacerdos.”

He is no servant fit for me, Who physician, prophet, priest will be." For such may neither abide to be cured of their spiritual evils by the counsel of God, nor to hear of the evils that will come if they refuse to be cured, nor to be exhorted to repentance when the calamities are turned uion them, that they may be turned away; but all are not such, and from which, while they are in their pleasures, we make appellation to themselves, white they are in the pains or terrors of death, and to be presented before the Judge, whether then the pastor or prelate pleaseth. them better? The other part of the objection the wisdom of the king and of the hononrable estates of parliament can answer, who know how a parliament may be perfect without either pastor or prelate. If by the name of a parliament, we understand a general and national meeting of the whole kingdom and kirk by their commissioners, with their supreme magistrate and king, every one to give his advice and judgment respective according to the nature of the society, civil or ecclesiastical, which he represents commissioners of the kirk to give resolution from the word of God, if need be, concerning matters civil, but not to meddle with civil causes civilly, and to propone petitions to the king and estates for the good of the kirk, to require their civil sanction, and to see that nothing be concluded in things civil that may be a hinderance to the worship of God: the nobility with the commissioners of, baronies and burghs for civil matters, and to add the civil sanctIon in the matters of God’s worship; kirkmen chosen and instructed by the kirk may sit in parliament after this sense, and are bound to contribute their best help for the honour of the king and good both of kirk and country. But if by a parliament we understand the highest court and supreme judicature civil, meddling only with civil matters, or with matters of religion civilly, as, to add the civil sanction, and to ratify by civil authority what hath becn put in canon by the kirk before, then the assembly of the kirk or their commissioners may, or should; attend the high court of parliament, as the convocation house doth in our neighbour kingdom, but can have no place nor vote in parliament, neither in making laws about things civil, nor in the, civil authorizing in matters of religion; for ministers should not judge of tbe right of inheritance, nor pronounce sentence about forfeiture, nor make laws about, weights and measures, &c., but should exhort the people to obey the civil powers. Without bishops or ministers laws have been made by parliament, and may be made now no less than without abbots, priors, &c., who had. once vote in parliament no less than they. Their benefices are baronies in respect whereof they claim vote in parliament; but they are not barons or proprietors, and heritable possessors thereof, to transmit them to their heirs, or to alienate them, but only are usufructuaries, to have the use of them for their time; neither doth it suit with the minister’s calling to have such baronies, nor are they to be reckoned for ecclesiassical persons, but for civil, when they have place in parliament in respect of these baronies, and, therefore, cannot vote there in name of the kirk. To conclude, then, Whether we look to the word of God, or to the more pure and primitive times of the kirk, or to the nature and use of things indifferent, or to the reformation and proceeding of our own kirk, or the good of the kirk and of the people’s souls, or to the happiness of the commonwealth and the good of every one, from the king that sitteth upon the throne to him that heweth the wood and draweth the water, we may see whether the pastor or the prelate, whether reformation or conformity, is to be followed by the true Christian and patriot; and that there is as great difference betwixt the bishops of our times and the faithful pastors of the reformed kirks as betwixt the light that cometh from the stars of heaven and the thick darkness that ariseth from the bottomless pit; and it may be made manifest that since bishops were cast in the mould of the man of sin, wheresoever they have ruled, whether amongst the papistical and the reformed (some few excepted, who, when they ventured upon these places, went out of their own element,). they have been the greatest plagues, both to kirks and kingdoms, that ever had authority in the Christian world. Neither needeth any man to object that the comparison that we have made nrnneth all the way betwixt the good pastor and the evil prelate, and, therefore, may be answered by the like unequal comparison betwixt the good prelate and the evil pastor, as if the most part of the episcopal evils abovee mentioned were only the personal faults of the men, and not the corruptions necessarily accompanying the estate and order of prelates, and that if good men fill these places there is no danger but the kirk may be as well, or better, governed by prelates than by pastors; for the comparison is not so much betwixt the pastor and prelate as betwixt the office of a pastor and the office of a prelate or bishøp. “It is one thing,” as Augustine saith, “to use an unlawful power lawfully, and another thing to use a lawful power unrighteously."{19} Pastors may have their own personal infirmities, and never so many as under the prelate’s government, and prelates may have their own good parts, and never so many as by the occasion of the pastor’s opposition; but neither the one nor the other are to be ascribed to their offices, nor is the lawfulness of their offices to be judged by their persons. It is true when an unlawful power and a lawless man meet together the case of those that are under his authority must be the worse, as we may see in the papacy, which, beings always evil for the kirk, yet have proved worse, when monsters, instead of men, have sat in their seat. But it is evident that the evils which prelates and their lordly government bring upon the kirk do flow from their sole jurisdiction, exorbitant power, meddling in civil government, and the curse of God upon that unlawful estate, all which are common. to the whole order, and not .peculiar to some persons; and the corruptions which are common to all in these places, although greater in some than in others, of necessity must flow from the unlawfulness of the state and office itself. It is so far that good men, put in the places of prelacy, can make the government good,—that the places of prelacy have ever corrupted the men and made them worse. So it was with Æneas Sylvius, who, before his popedom, seemed sound and honest, maintaining many points against the tyranny of that seat, but, being made Pope Pius II, retracted all, and proved as impious and antichristian as the rest; so, many that have been of good account in the ministry, and given hope of great good by theta to the kirk when they entered to be bishops, yet wholly degenerated from their first works, and learned betime "ululare cum lupis," to howl with the wolves; the experience whereof made Queen Elizabeth to say, “When she made a bishop that she marred a good minister.” THE END.