THAT THE CEREMONIES ARE UNLAWFUL, BECAUSE THEY SORT US WITH IDOLATERS,
BEING THE BADGES OF PRESENT IDOLATRY AMONG THE PAPISTS.
_Sect._ 1. It followeth according to the order which I have proposed, to
show next, that the ceremonies are idolatrous, _participativè_. By
communicating with idolaters in their rites and ceremonies, we ourselves
become guilty of idolatry; even as Ahaz, 2 Kings xvi. 10, was an idolater,
_eo ipso_, that he took the pattern of an altar from idolators. Forasmuch,
then, as kneeling before the consecrated bread, the sign of the cross,
surplice, festival days, bishopping, bowing down to the altar,
administration of the sacraments in private places, &c., are the wares of
Rome, the baggage of Babylon, the trinkets of the whore, the badges of
Popery, the ensigns of Christ’s enemies, and the very trophies of
antichrist,—we cannot conform, communicate and symbolise with the
idolatrous Papists in the use of the same, without making ourselves
idolaters by participation. Shall the chaste spouse of Christ take upon
her the ornaments of the whore? Shall the Israel of God symbolise with her
who is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt? Shall the Lord’s redeemed
people wear the ensigns of their captivity? Shall the saints be seen with
the mark of the beast? Shall the Christian church be like the
antichristian, the holy like the profane, religion like superstition, the
temple of God like the synagogue of Satan? Our opposites are so far from
being moved with these things, that both in pulpits and private places
they used to plead for the ceremonies by this very argument, that we
should not run so far away from Papists, but come as near them as we can.
But for proof of that which we say, namely, that it is not lawful to
symbolise with idolaters (and by consequence with Papists), or to be like
them in their rites or ceremonies, we have more to allege than they can
answer.
_Sect._ 2. For, 1st, We have Scripture for us. “After the doings of the
land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, shall ye not do and after the doings of
the land of Canaan, whither I bring ye, shall ye not do, neither shall ye
walk in their ordinances,” Lev. xviii. 3. “Take heed to thyself that thou
be not snared by following them, &c., saying, How did these nations serve
their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord
thy God,” Deut. xii. 30. “Thou shalt not do after their works,” Exod.
xxiii. 24. Yea, they were straitly forbidden to round the corners of their
heads, or to make any cuttings in the flesh for the dead, or to print any
mark upon them, or to make baldness upon their heads, or between their
eyes, forasmuch as God had chosen them to be a holy and a peculiar people,
and it behoved them not to be framed nor fashioned like the nations, Lev.
xix. 27, 28, and xxi. 5, and Deut. xiv. 1. And what else was meant by
those laws which forbade them to suffer their cattle to gender with a
diverse kind, to sow their field with diverse seed, to wear a garment of
diverse sorts, as of woollen and linen, to plough with an ox and an ass
together? Levit. xix. 19, Deut. xxii. 6-11. This was the hold that people
in simplicity and purity, _ne hinc inde accersat ritus alienos_, saith
Calvin, upon these places. Besides, find we not that they were sharply
reproved when they made themselves like other nations? “Ye have made you
priests after the manner of the nations of other lands,” 2 Chron. xxii. 9.
“They followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that
were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that
they should not do like them,” 2 Kings xvii. 15. The gospel commendeth the
same to us which the law did to them: “Be not ye unequally yoked with
unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ
with Belial? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols,” &c.
“Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing,” 2 Cor. vi. 14-17. “If any man worship
the beast, and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,” Rev. xiv. 9.
And the apostle Jude ver. 12, will have us to hate the very garment
spotted with the flesh, importing, that as under the law men were made
unclean not only by leprosy, but by the garments, vessels and houses of
leprous men, so do we contract the contagion of idolatry, by communicating
with the unclean things of idolaters.
_Sect._ 3. Before we go further, we will see what our opposites have said
to those Scriptures which we allege. Hooker saith,(574) that the reason
why God forbade his people Israel the use of such rites and customs as
were among the Egyptians and the Canaanites, was not because it behoved
his people to be framed of set purpose to an utter dissimilitude with
those nations, but his meaning was to bar Israel from similitude with
those nations in such things as were repugnant to his ordinances and laws.
_Ans._ 1. Let it be so, he has said enough against himself. For we have
the same reason to make us abstain from all the rites and customs of
idolaters, that we may be barred from similitude with them in such things
as are flatly repugnant to God’s word, because dissimilitude in ceremonies
is a bar to stop similitude in substance, and, on the contrary, similitude
in ceremonies openeth a way to similitude in greater substance. 2. His
answer is but a begging of that which is in question, forasmuch as we
allege those laws and prohibitions to prove that all the rites and customs
of those nations were repugnant to the ordinances and laws of God, and
that Israel was simply forbidden to use them. 3. Yet this was not a
framing of Israel of set purpose to an utter dissimilitude with those
nations, for Israel used food and raiment, sowing and reaping, sitting,
standing, lying, walking, talking, trading, laws, government, &c.,
notwithstanding that the Egyptians and Canaanites used so. They were only
forbidden to be like those nations in such unnecessary rites and customs
as had neither institution from God nor nature, but were the inventions
and devices of men only. In things and rites of this kind alone it is that
we plead for dissimilitude with the idolatrous Papists; for the ceremonies
in controversy are not only proved to be under the compass of such, but
are, besides, made by the Papists badges and marks of their religion, as
we shall see afterwards.
_Sect._ 4. To that place, 2 Cor. vi., Paybody answereth,(575) that nothing
else is there meant, than that we must beware and separate ourselves from
the communion of their sins and idolatries. _Ans._ 1. When the Apostle
there forbiddeth the Corinthians to be unequally yoked with unbelievers,
or to have any communion or fellowship with idolaters, and requireth them
so to come out from among them, that they touch none of their unclean
things, why may we not understand his meaning to be, that not only they
should not partake with pagans in their idolatries, but that they should
not marry with them, nor frequent their feasts, nor go to the theatre to
behold their plays, nor go to law before their judges, nor use any of
their rites? For with such idolaters we ought not to have any fellowship,
as Zanchius resolves,(576) but only in so far as necessity compelleth, and
charity requireth. 2. All the rites and customs of idolaters, which have
neither institution from God nor nature, are to be reckoned among those
sins wherein we may not partake with them, for they are the unprofitable
works of darkness, all which Calvin judgeth to be in that place generally
forbidden,(577) before the Apostle descend particularly to forbid
partaking with them in their idolatry. As for the prohibition of diverse
mixtures, Paybody saith,(578) the Jews were taught thereby to make no
mixture of true and false worship. _Ans._ 1. According to his tenets, it
followeth upon this answer, that no mixture is to be made betwixt holy and
idolatrous ceremonies, for he calleth kneeling a _bodily worship_, and a
_worship gesture_, more than once or twice. And we have seen before, how
Dr Burges calleth the ceremonies _worship of God_. 2. If mixture of true
and false worship be not lawful, then forasmuch as the ceremonies of God’s
ordinance, namely, the sacraments of the New Testament are true worship;
and the ceremonies of Popery, namely, cross, kneeling, holidays, &c., are
false worship; therefore, there ought to be no mixture of them together.
3. If the Jews were taught to make no mixture of true and false worship,
then by the self-same instruction, if there had been no more, they were
taught also to shun all such occasions as might any ways produce such a
mixture, and by consequence all symbolising with idolaters in their rites
and ceremonies.
_Sect._ 5. As touching those laws which forbade the Israelites to make
round the corners of their heads, or to mar the corners of their beards,
or to make any cuttings in their flesh, or to make any baldness between
their eyes, Hooker answereth,(579) that the cutting round of the corners
of the head, and the tearing off the tufts of the beard, howbeit they were
in themselves indifferent, yet they are not indifferent being used as
signs of immoderate and hopeless lamentation for the dead; in which sense
it is, that the law forbiddeth them. To the same purpose saith
Paybody,(580) that the Lord did not forbid his people to mar and abuse
their heads and beards for the dead, because the heathen did so, but
because the practice doth not agree to the faith and hope of a Christian,
if the heathen had never used it. _Ans._ 1. How much surer and sounder is
Calvin’s judgment,(581) _non aliud fuisse Dei consilium, quam ut
interposito obstaculo populum suum a prophanis Gentibus dirimiret_? For
albeit the cutting the hair be a thing in itself indifferent, yet because
the Gentiles did use it superstitiously, therefore, saith Calvin, albeit
it was _per se medium, Deus tamen noluit populo suo liberum esse, ut
tanquam pueri discerent ex parvis rudimentis, se non aliter Deo fore
gratos, nisi exteris et proeputiatis essent prorsus dissimiles, ac
longissime abessent ab eorum exemplis, praesertim vero ritus omnes
fugerent, quibus testata fuerit religio_. So that from this law it doth
most manifestly appear, that we may not be like idolaters, no not in
things which are in themselves indifferent, when we know they do use them
superstitiously. 2. What warrant is there for this gloss, that the law
forbiddeth the cutting round of the corners of the head, and the matting
of the corners of the beard, to be used as signs of immoderate and
hopeless lamentation for the dead, and that in no other sense they are
forbidden? Albeit the cutting of the flesh may be expounded to proceed
from immoderate grief, and to be a sign of hopeless lamentation; yet this
cannot be said of rounding the hair, marring the beard, and making of
baldness, which might have been used in moderate and hopeful lamentation,
as well as our putting on of mourning apparel for the dead. The law saith
nothing of the immoderate use of these things, but simply forbiddeth to
round the head, or mar the beard for the dead; and that because this was
one of the rites which the idolatrous and superstitious Gentiles did use,
concerning whom the Lord commanded his people, that they should not do
like them, because he had chosen them to be a holy and peculiar people,
above all people upon the earth. So that the thing which was forbidden, if
the Gentiles had not used it, should have been otherwise lawful enough to
God’s people, as we have seen out of Calvin’s commentary.
_Sect._ 6. Secondly, We have reason for that which we say; for by
partaking with idolaters in their rites and ceremonies, we are made to
partake with them in their religion too. For, _ceremonioe omnes sun
quoedam protestationes fidei_, saith Aquinas.(582) Therefore _communio
rituum est quasi symbolum communionis in religione_, saith Balduine.(583)
They who did eat of the Jewish sacrifices were partakers of the altar, 1
Cor. x. 18, that is, saith Pareus,(584) _socios Judaicae religionis et
cultus se profitebantur_. For the Jews by their sacrifices _mutuam in una
eademque religione copulationem sanciunt_, saith Beza.(585) Whereupon Dr
Fulk noteth,(586) that the Apostle in that place doth compare our
sacraments with the altars, hosts, sacrifices or immolations of the Jews
and Gentiles, “in that point which is common to all ceremonies, to declare
them that use them to be partakers of that religion whereof they be
ceremonies.” If then Isidore thought it unlawful for Christians to take
pleasure in the fables of heathen poets,(587) because _non solum thura
offerendo daemonibus immolatur, sed etiam eorum dicta libentius capiendo_;
much more have we reason to think that, by taking part in the ceremonies
of idolaters, we do but offer to devils, and join ourselves to the service
of idols.
_Sect._ 7. Thirdly, As by Scripture and reason, so by antiquity, we
strengthen our argument. Of old, Christians did so shun to be like the
pagans, that in the days of Tertullian it was thought they might not wear
garlands, because thereby they had been made conform to the pagans. Hence
Tertullian justifieth the soldier who refused to wear a garland as the
pagans did.(588) Dr Mortoune himself allegeth another case out of
Tertullian,(589) which maketh to this purpose, namely, that Christian
proselytes did distinguish themselves from Roman pagans, by casting away
their gowns and wearing of cloaks. But these things we are not to urge,
because we plead not for dissimilitude with the Papists in civil fashions,
but in sacred and religious ceremonies. For this point then at which we
hold us, we allege that which is marked in the third century out of
Origen,(590) namely, that it was held unlawful for Christians to observe
the feasts and solemnities, either of the Jews or of the Gentiles. Now we
find a whole council determining thus,(591) _Non oportet a Judoeis vel
hoereticis, feriatica quoe mittuntur accipere, nec cum cis dies agere
feriatos._ The council of Nice also condemned those who kept Easter upon
the fourteenth day of the month. That which made them pronounce so (as is
clear from Constantine’s epistle to the churches(592)) was, because they
held it unbeseeming for Christians to have anything common with the Jews
in their rites and observances. Augustine condemneth fasting upon the
Sabbath day as scandalous, because the Manichees used so, and fasting upon
that day had been a conformity with them;(593) and wherefore did Gregory
advise Leander to abolish the ceremony of trim-immersion? His words are
plain:(594) _Quia nunc huc usque ab hoereticis infans in baptismate tertio
mergebatur, fiendum apud vos esse non censeo._ Why doth Epiphanius,(595)
in the end of his books _contra haereses_, rehearse all the ceremonies of
the church, as marks whereby the church is discerned from all other sects?
If the church did symbolise in ceremonies with other sects, he could not
have done so. And, moreover, find we not in the canons of the ancient
councils,(596) that Christians were forbidden to deck their houses with
green boughs and bay leaves, to observe the calends of January, to keep
the first day of every month, &c., because the pagans used to do so? Last
of all, read we not in the fourth century of the ecclesiastical
history,(597) that the frame of Christians in that age was such, that _nec
cum haereticis commune quicquam habere voluerunt_?
_Sect._ 8. One would think that nothing could be answered to any of these
things, by such as pretend no less than that they have devoted themselves
to bend all their wishes and labours for procuring the imitation of
venerable antiquity. Yet Hooker can coin a conjecture to frustrate all
which we allege.(598) “In things (saith he) of their own nature
indifferent, if either councils or particular men have at any time with
sound judgment misliked conformity between the church of God and infidels,
the cause thereof hath not been affectation of dissimilitude, but some
special accident which the church, not being always subject unto, hath not
still cause to do the like. For example (saith he), in the dangerous days
of trial, wherein there was no way for the truth of Jesus Christ to
triumph over infidelity but through the constancy of his saints, whom yet
a natural desire to save themselves from the flame might, peradventure,
cause to join with the pagans in external customs, too far using the same
as a cloak to conceal themselves in, and a mist to darken the eyes of
infidels withal; for remedy hereof, it might be, those laws were
provided.” _Ans._ 1. This answer is altogether doubtful and conjectural,
made up of _if_, and _peradventure_, and _it might be_. Neither is
anything found which can make such a conjecture probable. 2. The true
reason why Christians were forbidden to use the rites and customs of
pagans, was neither a bare affectation of dissimilitude, nor yet any
special accident which the church is not always subject unto, but because
it was held unlawful to symbolise with idolaters in the use of such rites
as they placed any religion in. For in the fathers and councils which we
have cited to this purpose, there is no other reason mentioned why it
behoved Christians to abstain from those forbidden customs, but only
because the pagans and infidels used so. 3. And what if Hooker’s
divination shall have place? Doth it not agree to us, so as it should make
us mislike the Papists? Yes, sure, and more properly. For put the case,
that those ancient Christians had not avoided conformity with pagans in
those rites and customs which we read to have been forbidden them, yet for
all that, there had been remaining betwixt them and the pagans a great
deal more difference than will remain betwixt us and the Papists, if we
avoid not conformity with them in the controverted ceremonies; for the
pagans had not the word, sacraments, &c., which the Papists do retain, so
that we may far more easily use the ceremonies as a mist to darken the
eyes of the Papists, than they could have used those forbidden rites as a
mist to darken the eyes of pagans. Much more, then, Protestants should not
be permitted to conform themselves unto Papists in rites and ceremonies,
lest, in the dangerous days of trial (which some reformed churches in
Europe do presently feel, and which seem to be faster approaching to
ourselves than the most part are aware of), they join themselves to
Papists in these external things, too far using the same as a cloak to
conceal themselves in, &c. 4. We find that the reason why the fourth
council of Toledo forbade the ceremony of thrice dipping in water to be
used in baptism, was,(599) lest Christians should seem to assent to
heretics who divide the Trinity. And the reason why the same council
forbade the clergymen to conform themselves unto the custom of
heretics,(600) in the shaving off the hair of their head, is mentioned to
have been the removing of conformity with the custom of heretics from the
churches of Spain, as being a great dishonour unto the same. And we have
heard before, that Augustine condemneth conformity with the Manichees, in
fasting upon the Lord’s day, as scandalous. And whereas afterwards the
council of Cæsar-Augusta forbade fasting upon the Lord’s day, a grave
writer layeth out the reason of this prohibition thus:(601) “It would
appear that this council had a desire to abolish the rites and customs of
the Manichean heretics, who were accustomed to fast upon the Lord’s day.”
Lastly, we have seen from Constantine’s epistle to the churches, that
dissimilitude with the Jews was one (though not the only one) reason why
it was not thought beseeming to keep Easter upon the fourteenth day of the
month. Who then can think that any special accident, as Hooker imagineth,
was the reason why the rites and customs of pagans were forbidden to
Christians? Were not the customs of the pagans to be held unbeseeming for
Christians, as well as the customs of the Jews? Nay, if conformity with
heretics (whom Hooker acknowledgeth to be a part of the visible
church(602)), in their customs and ceremonies, was condemned as a scandal,
a dishonour to the church, and an assenting unto their heresies, might he
not have much more thought that conformity with the customs of pagans was
forbidden as a greater scandal and dishonour to the church, and as an
assenting to the paganism and idolatry of those that were without?
_Sect._ 9. But to proceed. In the fourth place, the canon law itself
speaketh for the argument which we have in hand: _Non licet iniquas
observationes agere calendarum, et otiis vacare Gentilibus, neque lauro,
aut viriditate arborum, cingere domos: omnis enim haec observatio
paganismi est._(603) And again: _Anathema sit qui ritum paganorum et
calendarum observat._(604) And after: _Dies Aegyptiaci et Januarii
calendae non sunt observandae._(605)
Fifthly, Our assertion will find place in the school too, which holdeth
that Jews are forbidden to wear a garment of diverse sorts,(606) as of
linen and woollen together, and that their women were forbidden to wear
men’s clothes, or their men women’s clothes, because the Gentiles used so
in the worshipping of their gods. In like manner, that the priests were
forbidden to round their heads,(607) or mar their beards, or make incision
in their flesh, because the idolatrous priests did so.(608) And that the
prohibition which forbade the commixtion of beasts of diverse kinds among
the Jews hath a figurative sense,(609) in that we are forbidden to make
people of one kind of religion, to have any conjunction with those of
another kind.
Sixthly, Papists themselves teach,(610) that it is generally forbidden to
communicate with infidels and heretics, but especially in any act of
religion. Yea, they think,(611) that Christian men are bound to abhor the
very phrases and words of heretics, which they use. Yea, they condemn the
very heathenish names of the days of the week imposed after the names of
the planets,(612) Sunday, Monday, &c. They hold it altogether a great and
damnable sin to deal with heretics in matter of religion,(613) or any way
to communicate with them in spiritual things. Bellarmine is plain,(614)
who will have catholics to be discerned from heretics, and other sects of
all sorts, even by ceremonies, because as heretics have hated the
ceremonies of the church, so the church hath ever abstained from the
observances of heretics.
_Sect._ 10. Seventhly, Our own writers do sufficiently confirm us in this
argument. The bringing of heathenish or Jewish rites into the church is
altogether condemned by them,(615) yea, though the customs and rites of
the heathen(616) be received into the church for gaining them, and drawing
them to the true religion, yet is it condemned as proceeding _ex κακαζηλίᾳ
seu prava Ethnicorum imitatione_. J. Rainolds(617) rejecteth the popish
ceremonies, partly because they are Jewish, and partly because they are
heathenish. The same argument Beza(618) useth against them. In the second
command, as Zanchius(619) expoundeth it, we are forbidden to borrow
anything, _ex ritibus idololatrarum Gentium_. _Fidelibus_ (saith
Calvin(620)) _fas non est ullo symbolo ostendere, sibi cum superstitiosis
esse consensum_. To conclude, then, since not only idolatry is forbidden,
but also, as Pareus noteth,(621) every sort of communicating with the
occasion, appearances, or instruments of the same; and since, as our
divines have declared,(622) the Papists are in many respects gross
idolaters, let us choose to have the commendation which was given to the
ancient Britons for being enemies to the Roman customs,(623) rather than,
as Pope Pius V. was forced to say of Rome,(624) that it did more
_Gentilizare, quam Christianizare_; so they who would gladly wish they
could give a better commendation to our church, be forced to say, that it
doth not only more _Anglizare, quam Scotizare_, but also more _Romanizare,
quam Evangelizare_.
_Sect._ 11. But our argument is made by a great deal more strong, if yet
further we consider, that by the controverted ceremonies, we are not only
made like the idolatrous Papists, in such rites of man’s devising as they
place some religion in, but we are made likewise to take upon us those
signs and symbols which Papists account to be special badges of Popery,
and which also, in the account of many of our own reverend divines, are to
be so thought of. In the oath ordained by Pius IV., to be taken of bishops
at their creation (as Onuphrius writeth(625)), they are appointed to
swear, _Apostolicas et ecclesiasticas traditiones, reliquasque ejusdem
ecclesiæ observationes et constitutiones firmissime admitto et amplector_;
and after, _Receptos quoque ac approbatos ecclesiæ Catholicæ ritus, in
supra dictorum sacramentorum solemni administratione, recipio, et
admitto_. We see bishops are not created by this ordinance, except they
not only believe with the church of Rome, but also receive her ceremonies,
by which, as by the badges of her faith and religion, cognizance may be
had that they are indeed her children. And farther, Papists give it forth
plainly,(626) that as the church hath ever abstained from the observances
of heretics, so now also catholics (they mean Romanists) are very well
distinguished from heretics (they mean those of the reformed religion) by
the sign of the cross, abstinence from flesh on Friday, &c. And how do our
divines understand the mark of the beast, spoken of Rev. xiii. 16, 17?
Junius(627) comprehendeth confirmation under this mark. Cartwright(628)
also referreth the sign of the cross to the mark of the beast. Pareus(629)
approveth the Bishop of Salisbury’s exposition, and placeth the common
mark of the beast the observation of antichrist’s festival days, and the
rest of his ceremonies, which are not commanded by God. It seems this much
has been plain to Joseph Hall, so that he could not deny it; for whereas
the Brownists allege, that not only after their separation, but before
they separated also, they were, and are verily persuaded that the
ceremonies are but the badges and liveries of that man of sin whereof the
Pope is the head and the prelates the shoulders,—he, in this
_Apology_(630) against them, saith nothing to this point.
_Sect._ 12. As for any other of our opposites, who have made such answers
as they could to the argument in hand, I hope the strength and force of
the same hath been demonstrated to be such that their poor shifts are too
weak for gain-standing it. Some of them (as I touched before) are not
ashamed to profess that we should come as near to the Papists as we can,
and therefore should conform ourselves to them in their ceremonies (only
purging away the superstition), because if we do otherwise, we exasperate
the Papists, and alienate them the more from our religion and reformation.
_Ans._ 1. Bastwick,(631) propounding the same objection, _Si quis objiciat
nos ipsos pertinaci ceremoniarum papalium contemptu, Papistis offendiculum
posuisse, quo minus se nostris ecclesiis associent_, he answereth out of
the Apostle, Rom. xv. 2, that we are to please every one his neighbour
only in good things to edification, and that we may not wink at absurd or
wicked things, nor at anything in God’s worship which is not found in
Scripture. 2. I have showed(632) that Papists are but more and more
hardened in evil by this our conformity with them in ceremonies. 3. I have
showed also,(633) the superstition of the ceremonies, even as they are
retained by us, and that it is as impossible to purge the ceremonies from
superstition, as to purge superstition from itself.
There are others, who go about to sew a cloak of fig leaves, to hide their
conformity with Papists, and to find out some difference betwixt the
English ceremonies and those of the Papists; so say some, that by the sign
of the cross they are not ranked with Papists, because they use not the
material cross, which is the popish one, but the aerial only. But it is
known well enough that Papists do idolatrise the very aerial cross; for
Bellarmine holds,(634) _venerabile esse signum crucis, quod effingitur in
fronte, aere, &c._ And though they did not make an idol of it, yet
forasmuch as Papists put it to a religious use, and make it one of the
marks of Roman Catholics (as we have seen before), we may not be conformed
to them in the use of the same. The fathers of such a difference between
the popish cross and the English have not succeeded in this their way, yet
their posterity approve their sayings, and follow their footsteps. Bishop
Lindsey(635) by name will trade in the same way, and will have us to think
that kneeling in the act of receiving the communion, and keeping of
holidays, do not sort us with Papists; for that, as touching the former,
there is a disconformity in the object, because they kneel to the sign, we
to the thing signified. And as for the latter, the difference is in the
employing of the time, and in the exercise and worship for which the
cessation is commanded. What is his verdict, then, wherewith he sends us
away? Verily, that people should be taught that the disconformity between
the Papists and us is not so much in any external use of ceremonies, as in
the substance of the service and object whereunto they are applied. But,
good man, he seeks a knot in the bulrush; for, 1, There is no such
difference betwixt our ceremonies and those of the Papists, in respect of
the object and worship whereunto the same is applied, as he pretendeth;
for, as touching the exercise and worship whereunto holidays are applied,
Papists tell us,(636) that they keep Pasche and Pentecost yearly for
memory of Christ’s resurrection, and the sending down of the Holy Ghost;
and, I pray, to what other employment do Formalists profess that they
apply these feasts, but to the commemoration of the same benefits? And as
touching kneeling in the sacrament, it shall be proved in the next
chapter, that they do kneel to the sign, even as the Papists do. In the
meanwhile, it may be questioned whether the Bishop meant some such matter,
even here where professedly he maketh a difference betwixt the Papists’
kneeling and ours. His words, wherein I apprehend this much, are these:
“The Papists in prayer kneel to an idol, and in the sacrament they kneel
to the sign: we kneel in our prayer to God, and by the sacrament to the
thing signified.” The analogy of the antithesis required him to say, that
we kneel “in the sacrament” to the thing signified; but changing his
phrase, he saith, that we kneel “by the sacrament” to the thing signified.
Now, if we kneel “by the sacrament to Christ,” then we adore the sacrament
as _objectum materiale_, and Christ as _objectum formale_. Just so the
Papists adore their images; because _per imaginem_, they adore
_prototypon_. 2. What if we should yield to the Bishop that kneeling and
holidays are with us applied to another service, and used with another
meaning than they are with the Papists? Doth that excuse our conformity
with Papists in the external use of these ceremonies? If so, J. Hart(637)
did rightly argument out of Pope Innocentius, that the church doth not
Judaise by the sacrament of unction or anointing, because it doth figure
and work another thing in the New Testament than it did in the Old.
Rainold answereth, that though it were so, yet is the ceremony Jewish; and
mark his reason (which carrieth a fit proportion to our present purpose),
“I trust (saith he) you will not maintain but it were Judaism for your
church to sacrifice a lamb in burnt-offering, though you did it to
signify, not Christ that was to come, as the Jews did, but that Christ is
come,” &c. “St. Peter did constrain the Gentiles to Judaise, when they
were induced by his example and authority to follow the Jewish rite in
choice of meats; yet neither he nor they allowed it in that meaning which
it was given to the Jews in; for it was given them to betoken that
holiness, and train them up into it, which Christ by his grace should
bring to the faithful. And Peter knew that Christ had done this in truth,
and taken away that figure, yea the whole yoke of the law of Moses; which
point he taught the Gentiles also. Wherefore, although your church do keep
the Jewish rites with another meaning than God ordained them for the Jews,
&c., yet this of Peter showeth that the thing is Jewish, and you to
Judaise who keep them.” By the very same reasons prove we that Formalists
do Romanise by keeping the popish ceremonies, though with another meaning,
and to another use, than the Romanists do. The very external use,
therefore, of any sacred ceremony of human institution, is not to be
suffered in the matter of worship, when in respect of this external use we
are sorted with idolaters. 3. If conformity with idolaters in the external
use of their ceremonies be lawful, if so be there be a difference in the
substance of the worship and object whereunto they are applied, then why
were Christians forbidden of old (as we have heard before) to keep the
calends of January, and the first day of every month, forasmuch as the
pagans used so? Why was trin-immersion in baptism, and fasting upon the
Lord’s day forbidden, for that the heretics did so? Why did the Nicene
fathers inhibit the keeping of Easter upon the fourteenth day of the
month,(638) so much the rather because the Jews kept it on that day? The
Bishop must say there was no need of shunning conformity with pagans,
Jews, heretics, in the external use of their rites and customs, and that a
difference ought to have been made only in the object and use whereunto
the same was applied. Nay, why did God forbid Israel to cut their hair as
the Gentiles did? Had it not been enough not to apply this rite to a
superstitious use, as Aquinas showeth(639) the Gentiles did? Why was the
very external use of it forbidden?
_Sect._ 14. There is yet another piece brought against us, but we will
abide the proof of it, as of the rest. Nobis saith,(640) _Saravia, satis
est, modestis et piis Christianis satisfacere, qui ita recesserunt a
superstitionibus et idololatriae Romanae ecclesiae, ut probatos ab
orthodoxis patribus mores, non rejiciant._ So have some thought to escape
by this postern, that they use the ceremonies, not for conformity with
Papists, but for conformity with the ancient fathers. _Ans._ 1. When
Rainold speaketh of the abolishing of popish ceremonies,(641) he answereth
this subtlety: “But if you say, therefore, that we be against the ancient
fathers in religion, because we pluck down that which they did set up,
take heed lest your speech do touch the Holy Ghost, who saith that
Hezekiah (in breaking down the brazen serpent) did keep God’s commandments
which he commanded Moses,” 2 Kings xviii. 6; and yet withal saith, “That
he brake in pieces the serpent of brass which Moses had made,” 2 Kings
xviii. 4. 2. There are some of the ceremonies which the fathers used not,
as the surplice (which we have seen before(642)) and kneeling in the act
of receiving the eucharist (as we shall see afterwards(643)). 3. Yielding
by concession, not by confession, that all the ceremonies about which
there is controversy now among us, were of old used by the fathers; yet
that which these Formalists say, is (as Parker showeth(644)) even as if a
servant should be covered before his master, not as covering is a late
sign of pre-eminence, but as it was of old, a sign of subjection; or as if
one should preach that the prelates are _tyranni_ to their brethren,
_fures_ to the church, _sophistae_ to the truth, and excuse himself thus:
I use these words, as of old they signified a ruler, a servant, a student
of wisdom. All men know that words and actions must be interpreted, used
and received, according to their modern use, and not as they have been of
old.