'That all God's dear children may have their due consolation': the Aberdeen Doctors and the Churches of the Three Kingdoms

As we continue to explore the Aberdeen Doctors, the group of eirenic thinkers centred around Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35, we turn to another aspect of the sermon preached at Forbes' funeral by one of their number, Robert Baron. Last week, in the introduction to this series, we saw how Baron's sermon praised Forbes as the Athanasius of the North. This week's post considers something somewhat more subtle but no less significant in what it says about the Aberdeen Doctors. 

The text for Baron's sermon was Revelation 14.13, "Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord". As he considers the text, Baron first outlines how it was interpreted by Roman Catholic divines:

But two thinges doe heere occur, which do need explicatio: One is, whether or not this particular part bee so ample, as that it comprehendeth all the godlie, or elect? The other is, how, and in what sense, these whom it comprehendeth, are sayd to die in the Lord? 

As for the first; some popish wryters, because this text, if it be extended to all the Sayncts, who are departed, or shall depart this lyfe, is as contrarie to their doctrine of Purgatorie, as Blessednesse is to Miserie, Rest to Vexation, & Reward of good works to Punishment of sinnes: therfore they craftily labour to restrict the words to the Martyrs, affirming, that by dying in the Lord here, is vnderstood dying for the Lord: and consequentlie, that blessednesse immediatelie after death, is not ascrybed here to all the elect; but onelie to those, who seale their profession with their blood, & are crowned with martyrdome. 

It is, of course, unsurprising that Baron would point to a conventional Roman Catholic reading of the text, in order to refute this reading. What is surprising, however, is those he places alongside such a reading of the text:

This glosse may seeme the more probable, because it is followed by some Reformed Divines; by Beza in speciall, & by [Johannes] Piscator [d.1625], in their Notes upon this place. 

Having placed Beza and Piscator in such company, he then returns to the views of Roman commentators:

Others of our Adversaries doe extend the particular part of this description somewhat farther; and yet not so farre as they should: for they thinke, that it comprehendeth not onlie Martyrs, but also all these Christians whom they call men perfectlie just, or men free of all sinnes, even veniall, and of all guilt of punishment due vnto them for their mortall sinnes. Both these sorts of men, say they, are said to die in the Lord, by way of excellencie; because they are perfectly vnited with Christ; wheras others may be sayde to die partlie in the Lord, in respect of true charitie, or the loue of God, which they carrie with them; & partlie not in the Lord, in respect of their sinnes, which also they carrie with them. So sayeth Bellarmine, in his first booke, De Purgatorio, and diverse Moderne Iesuits following him.

To place Beza alongside "our Adversaries", including Bellarmine and "Moderne Jesuits", is, to say the least, a not insignificant statement. It is suggestive of how the Aberdeen Doctors sought a different path for the Church of Scotland: Reformed, of course, but characterised by eirenic moderation, recognising the breadth of the Reformed tradition, not defined by an ideological commitment to Beza and Geneva.

Something of this is also indicated in how Baron goes on to interpret his Revelation 14.13: 

These restrictions of the particular part of this description, we doe reject; and that not without reason, as ye shall shortly perceaue: and on the contrary, that all Gods deare children may haue their due consolation from this Heavenlie Sentence, we affirme, that the Spirit of God here speaketh of all these, who die in the estate of grace; and proclaimeth them al to be blessed, whatsoever their worldlie estate, or condition hath bene in this lyfe, whatsoever bee the cause of their death, and whatsoever bee their estate, condition, or carriage in death.

That the text should be read as applying to "all God's deare children", that they all "may have their due consolation from this Heavenlie Sentence", almost certainly is intended to reflect a practice of which Baron would have been aware. In the Book of Common Prayer burial service, used in the Churches of England and Ireland, Revelation 14.13 was read over the grave. It was, in other words, applied to "all God's deare children", as Baron urged in his sermon at Forbes' funeral and in contrast to the interpretation of both Bellarmine and Beza.

Set alongside the criticism of Beza, this subtle, implied invocation of the Prayer Book practice points to the vision promoted by the Aberdeen Doctors, of a Church of Scotland as one of the episcopal national churches of the Three Kingdoms, not bound by the speculations of Beza and the customs of Geneva.

(The picture is a 17th century drawing of Aberdeen, Forbes' episcopal see and home of the two universities, Marischal College and King's College, in which the Aberdeen Doctors taught.)