Jeanes.
1. If the Apostle had said, as you say, he saith, there ought to be no farther controversie about the lawfulnesse of humane ceremonies; but that clause [in assigning any rite or ceremony for the service of God, &c. ••is an Apocryphal ad∣dition of yours, without any colour from the Text it self, or from the cohe∣rence; and therefore all you build upon it is but fancy and fiction: That the A∣postles decency cannot be observed without assigning such Rites and Ceremonies as you dispute for, you may dictate and boldly affirm, but can never with all your learning solidly prove; and unlesse you can make proof hereof, you and your party have just reason to be ashamed of urging this place for ceremo∣nies, with such an unshaken confidence as you do.
2. Whereas you tell us, 'tis evident that you mean not 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the frequent usage of that ceremony in opposition to the first usage of it: This evidence of your meaning you have not so much as attempted to prove; and if you shall for the future make such an attempt, it would, I am afraid, prove succesless. The cu∣stome of a thing (unlesse you can fasten upon it a sense or meaning never yet heard of) is opposed unto the first usage of that thing; for custome implyeth the frequent usage of a thing, and to say that the frequent usage of a thing is the first usage of it, is an evident repugnancy and an apparent contradiction, contradictio in adjecto oppositum in opposito, as they say. I am therefore much to seek for the sense and reason of that Antithesis you make in these words, I mean, not the frequent usage of that ceremony in opposition to a first usage of it, but the standing custome of the place, &c. for 'tis impossible that the standing custome