clesiastical than
the apostle Paul had, or the church herself yet hath; that is to say,
princes may not by any temporal or regal jurisdiction, urge any ceremony
or form of ecclesiastical policy which the Apostle once might not, and the
church yet may not, urge by a spiritual jurisdiction. But neither had the
Apostle of old, nor hath the church now, power to urge either a ceremony
or anything else which is not profitable for edifying. Paul could do
nothing against the truth, but for the truth; and his power was given to
him to edification, and not to destruction, 2 Cor. xiii. 8, 10; neither
shall ecclesiastical persons, to the world's end, receive any other power
beside that which is for the perfecting of the saints, and for the
edifying of the body of Christ, Eph. iv. 12. Therefore, as the church's
power(940) is only to prescribe that which may edify, so the power of
princes is in like sort given to them for edification, and not for
destruction; neither can they do aught against the truth, but only for the
truth.

3. We are bound by the law of God to do nothing which is not good and
profitable, or edifying, 1 Cor. vi. 12; xiv. 26. This law of charity is of
a higher and straiter bond than the law of any prince in the world:--

"The general rule of all indifferent things, is, Let all things be done to
edification; and, Rom. xv. 1, 2, 'Let every man please his neighbour to
edification, even as Christ pleased not himself but others.' Whatsoever,
then, is of this rank, which either would weaken or not edify our brother,
be it ever so lawful, ever so profitable to ourselves, ever so powerfully
by earthly authority enjoined,--Christians, who are not born unto
themselves, but unto Christ, unto his church, and fellow-members, must not
dare to meddle with it," saith one(941) well to our well to our purpose.

_Sect._ 16. A third proposition I promit, which is this, Since the power
of princes to make laws about things ecclesiastical is not absolute, but
bound and adstricted unto things lawful and expedient, which sort of
things, and no other, we are allowed to do for their commandments; and
since princes many times may, and do, not only transgress those bounds and
limits, but likewise pretend that they are within the same, when indeed
they are without them, and enjoin things unlawful and inconvenient, under
the name, title, and show of things lawful and convenient; therefore it is
most necessary as well for princes to permit, as f