CHAP. IV.
That the Ceremonies are Idols among Formalists themselves; and that kneeling in the Lords Supper before the Bread and Wine in the act of receiving them, is formally Idolatry.
MY fourth Argument against the lawfulnesse of the Cere∣monies, followeth: by which I am to evince that they are [Sect. 1] not onely Idolatrous reductivè, because monuments of by∣past, and participativè, because badges of present Idolatry, but that likewise they make Formalists themselves, to be formally, and in respect of their owne using of them, Idolaters, consideration not had of the by-past, or present abusing of them by others. This I will make good: first, of all the Ceremonies in generall; then, of kneeling in particular. And I wish our Opposites here, looke to themselves, for this Argument proveth to them the Box of Pandora, and containeth that which undoeth them, though this much be not seen, before the opening.
First then, the Ceremonies are Idols to Formalists. It had been good to have remembred that which g Ainsworth noteth, that Ido∣lothyts and monuments of Idolatry should be destroyed, lest them∣selves at length become Idols. The Idolothyous Ceremonies, we se now, are become Idols to those who have retained them. The ground which the Bishop of Winchester taketh for his Sermon of the worshipping of imaginations, to wit, that the Deuill seeing that Idola∣trous Images would downe, he bent his whole device, in place of them to erect and set up diverse imaginations, to be adored and magnified in stead of the former; is, in some things abused and mis∣applied by him. But well may I apply it to the point in hand. For that the Ceremonies are the imaginations which are magnified, ado∣red, and Idolized, in stead of the Idolatrous Images which were put downe, thus we instruct and qualify.