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The third Parte, Against the lavvfulnesse of the Ceremonies. (Book 3)
CHAP. 1.
That the Ceremonies are vnlawfull, because superstitious, which is particularly instanced in holy dayes, & ministring the Sacraments in private places.
THE strongest tower of refuge to which our Op∣posites [Sect. 1] make their maine recourse, is the preten∣ded lawfulnesse of the Ceremonies, which now we are to batter downe and demolish, and so make it appeare how weake they are even where they thinke themselves strongest.
My first argument against the lawfulnesse of the Ceremonies, I drawe from the superstition of them. I cannot marvell enough how Dr. Mourtoun and Dr. Burges could thinke to rub the superstition vpon non-conformists, whom they set forth as fancying their abstinence from the Ceremonies to be a singular peece of service done to God, placing Religion in the not vsing of them, & teaching men to abstaine from them for con∣science sake. a 1.1 Dr. Ames hath given a sufficient answ•…•…r, namely, that abstaining from sinne is one act of common obedience, belon∣ging as well to things forbidden in the second table, as to those forbidden in the first, and that we doe not abstaine from those Ce∣remonies, but as from other vnlawfull corruptions, even out of the compasse of worship. We abstaine from the Ceremonies even as from lying, cursing, stealing, &c. Shall we be houlden superstitious for abstaining from things vnlawfull? The superstition therefore is not on our side, but on theirs.
For first, superstition is the opposite vice to Religion, in the ex∣cesse [Sect. 2] as our Divines describe it, for it exhibites more in the worship of God then he requires in his worship. Porro saith b 1.2 Zanchius in cul∣tum ipsum excessu peccatur, si quid illi quem Christus instituit, jam addas, aut ab aliis additum sequaris: ut si Sacramentis à Christo institutis, alia addas Sa∣cramenta: