55. Anyone can see that there is no empire, kingdom, duchy, republic, city or house which lacks the support of laws, to impose order and so control the form of its government. In each case the laws of righteousness occupy the highest place, political laws the second place, and the laws governing the economy the third. If we make a comparison with a man, the laws of righteousness are the head, those of politics the body, those of the economy the clothes. That is why these last can be changed, like clothes. As for the order which God established for the church, this consists in having God in every single part of it, and having the neighbour as the object towards which order should be directed. The laws of this order are as many as the truths in the Word; the laws which relate to God make up the head, those which relate to the neighbour the body, and its ceremonies make the clothes. For if the ceremonies were not there to contain the other things in their proper order, it would be like stripping the body and exposing it to heat in summer and cold in winter; or like taking away the walls and roof of a church, so that the chancel, altar and pulpit were in the open air exposed to all the various extremes of the weather.