Dispute Against the English-Popish Ceremonies, Part 2 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
That the Ceremonies are inexpedient, because they harden and confirme the Papists.
THe Papists make advantage of the Ceremonies, and thereby Sect. I confirme themselves in Popery. First, in that they use them as the bellowes to blow up the fire of contention among us, remembring the old rule, divide & impera. They set us by the eares among our selves, that they may be in peace, and that intestine discord may make us forget the common adversary. eIohn Calv epist. & resp. col. 132.Calvine wrote to the Earle of Summerset, fieri non posse quin Papistae superbius insolescerent, nisi mature compositum esset dissidium de Ceremoniis; fway to the Church ans. to sect. 33.Dr. White saith, that our strife about Ceremonies is kindled and nourished by Papists. If we were liberate from the Ceremonies, then might we doe more against the Papists, and they should not insult as they doe.
But they have yet more advantage from our Formalists: for they like very well the course of Conformity, as the way of returning to Sect. II Popery, and some of them tell us in broad tearmes, that they hope we are comming fast home to them. They perceave us receaving & retaining their Roman Rites and Popish policy, which makes them resolve to stay where they are, promising, that themselves are in the surest hold, and looking for our returning backe to them. This was ere now, both foreseene and foretold by the wiser sort.
gepist. ad regin. Elis: lib. 1. Epistolar p. 112.Zanchius told, that he seemed to himselfe, to heare the Monkes & Iesuites saving among themselves, Ipsa quoque Regina Angllae doctissima & prudētissima, paulatim incipit ad Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae redire Religionem; resumptis jam Sanctissimis & Sacratissimis Clericorum vestibus: sperandum est fore ut reliqua etiam omnia, &c. Papists count all to be Calvino-Papistae, i. e. halfe Papists, who are not Puritans, and dayly invite them to an association with them against the Puritans, as hof the Crosse. c. 9. sect. 1.Parker sheweth out of a Treatise intitled, Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia contra Calvino Papistas & Puritanos. And we may perceave out of iexpos. confess. Angl. art. 37. & problem. 2. de praedest.Franciscus a Sancta clara, that they dispare of any agreement with Puritans, yet hoping that Formalists will agree with them. In these hopes they are still more and more confirmed, whiles they observe this conformity in Ceremonies to be yet prevailing and proceeding, and not like to take a stand. Whereupon they (poore soules) delight to stay still in Babylon, finding us so fast turning backe thither, as if we repented we come out from thence.
Some would here defend the Ceremonies, as being most expedient Sect. III to gaine the Papists, who otherwise should be the more aliened from us. O! what a fiction? as if forsooth, hardening of them in Popery, were to winne them, and fostering of them in the same, were to weane them from it. Woefull proofe hath taught us, that they are but more and more hardened, and resolutely confirmed in Popery by these Romane remainders among us; neither will they, whiles they exspect that wee are turning backe to them, doe so much as meet us midway: but kMa…. don. com. in Math. 8.they flee from us quam longissime: their overpassing and overreaching Pharisaicall zeale, makes them hold fast the least point of their Religion, and adhere to the whole entire fabrike of the Romane both Doctrine and Discipline.
Of the gaining of the Adversaries, lde verb. dom. serm. 6.Augustine speaketh better, for if you demand, unde vincantur pagani, unde illuminentur, unde ad salutem vocentur? He maketh this answer, deserite omnes solennitates es ipsorum, deserite nugas eorum: & si non consentiunt veritati nostrae, saltem pud…at (m) Conrad Schlusselburg. apud Park of the Crosse. p. 2. pag. 97.paucitatis suae. Nulla est concedenda gratia adversariis (say the Divines of Germany,) in mutatione Ceremoniarum, nisi prius nobiscum consentiant in fundamento, hoc est, in vera doctrina & usu Sacramentorum. They that yeeld to the Adversaries in matters of Rite, eos hoc ipso in impietate sua confirmant; and the Adversaries cessione ista non parum adjuvantur saith nde cas. consc. lib. 4. cap. 11. cas. 3.Balduin. Bellarmine rejecteth ode laici… cap. 19.Cassander his reconciliation, for this reason among others, because according to the judgement of the Fathers, we should not change nor innovate the smallest matters, for gratifying of Heretikes.
The best way then which we can use, for winning of the Papists, is pPhil. 2. 15. 16.to shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life by a pure and plaine profession: to be blamelesse and harmelesse, the sonnes of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, q1. Tim. 6. 1.that so the name of God and his Doctrine bee not blasphemed. If thus we hold fast the profession of the trueth, and walke in all honest conversation according to the trueth so many as are ordained to eternall life shall be converted, and r1. Pet. 2. 12.made to glorify God in the day of visitation.
If it be said, that the Apostle observed some Iewish Ceremonies Sect. IV for winning of the Iewes, as we read, Act. 18. 21. & 20. 16. & 21. 26. and that it appeareth, wee may by the same reason yeeld to some Popish. Ceremonies, for winning of the Papists. Ans. 1. There is not alike reason of the weake Iewes, who then could not have been fully instructed concerning Christian liberty; and obstinate Papists who might have been, and yet may be instructed, but will not. Nor 2. is the same to be done in the bright shining meridian light of the Gospell, which was done before the full promulgation of the same. sIo. Calv. epist. & resp. col. 451. 452.Nor 3. Is so much honour to be given, and so great respect to bee had to Popish and Antichristian Rites, as to the Ceremonies which were ordained by God himselfe. These were to be suffered a while, that they might be honourably buried: to those we are to say with detestation Get you hence, Nor 4. can the same things be done at Antioch, which are done at Ierusalem; At Antioch Peter sinned by using Iewish Rites; because there the greatest part were Gentiles, who had both heard his preaching and seene his practise against the Ceremonies of the Iewes. But at Ierusalem Paul had to doe with the weake Iewes, who had heard litle or no preaching against those Ceremonies, and had seen as litle practise contrary unto them; Now Scotland must not be likened to Ierufalem: no not to Antioch; for Scotland hath been filled both with preaching and practise contrary to the Ceremonies of the Papists, yea hath moreover spewed them out openly & solemnely, with a religious and strict oath never to licke them up againe.