Against Human Ceremonies in Gods Worship, Part 1 · Chapter 12

Against Human Ceremonies in Gods Worship · Part 1 · Chapter 12

p. 124CHAP. XII.

Sect. 2. Concerning worship answer, to the Rej. premonition, Pag. 123.124.125.126.127.

WE here have the Rej. againe entrenching himself, and raising up many distinctions and definitions, as so many blinds, as it were, that the ignorant sort, and such as are more weake in judgment, might not perceave, how the evidence, and strenght of the arguments, which are leveled directly against the Cerem. come in upon them, and prevaile against them: As also, that in the tumult, and lumber of these distinctions, being thus hurried, and hurled together, those answers which are lame and wounded, may creepe away, and escape in the crowd, unseene and unsuspected by the most, who either have not skill, or will and care, to examine things, before they passe, but are content, rather to take these conceits (which are accompanied with ease and quiet) upon trust, then to put them to the triall, or themselves to trouble & vexation, if they prove not true. And because this head is of wayght, & worthy the skanning, we shall therfore take into further triall, and examination, what ever principles or authorities the Rej. hath sett downe, either in the premonition to the second argument, or in the beginning of his treatise, touching kneeling at the Sacrament. That we may therby discerne, what succour the Rej. his cause is like to fynd, when he thinks to shelter p. 125under these outworks, which he hath reared up on …urpose to be his sense.

Worship generally taken, is thus by him defined, Pag. 123.124.

Worship is the performance of respect, unto any thing or person, according to the estimation and dignity therof.

The termes of which description, are so loose and …yde, and so farr from laying out the bounds, of the …ing described, that like a ship-mans hose, you may apply …em to what you will, rather then to the purpose in …nd: A man hath aestimation, of his life, his goods, his …ood name, answerable to the worth & dignity of thē, …nd doth accordingly performe, that respect, that is fitt … caring for them: doth he therfore worship his house, …is goods, his lands? Nay any Christian heart, esteemes …nd performes respect to the worship of God: doth he …erfore give worship unto worship: The Rej. therfore … to be desired, to make accurate descriptions, if he de…re to give satisfaction to a Iudicious reader. Lastly we …ave here things & persons made the object of worship, …nd yet in the division immediatly following, we are …aught, that worship distinguished according to the object, …nd that truely: is either of our fellow Citizens, and so civill, … of our God, and so divine: In the definition things and …ersons are the object: And now in the division only …ersons are the object, and things not mentioned: how this quicksilver will be sodered toge…her, I see not.

p. 126Worship according to the degrees, is divided into veneration which is a due respect of Gods ordinances or app…rtenances to his service or adoration which is due to God alone.

Its a receaved rule, that degrees vary not the kynd of any thing, but the quantity of it: As the diverse degrees of heat, or cold, in severall things, degrees of whytenes in severall walls, none of these degrees declare diverse qualities for kynd, but diverse quantities and measures of the same kynd of quality: as one thing is more o… lesse hott, but both have the like heat, for kynd of it whence it followes from the Rej. his ground, that veneration and adoration differing only as degrees of worship, they are both of the same kynd, and then veneration being due to the ordinances, and appurtenances thereof, the essence or kynd of true divine worship, is due to some creature beside God, which not only religion & reason, but all the world of Orthodoxe Divines deny, and the Rej. I presume also in cold blood will do the same.

3. Third division is: Divine worship is either principal… or subordinate: Principall is that holy reverence and respect of the Divine Majesty, which is inwardly performed for his honor: either by the understanding, or will and affections: And this may falsely be pretended, but cannot be falsely performed.

I will not here be curious to pursue all the opē weaknesses of these expressions: Only let the Reader take notice, that the Rej. makes those members of a distinction, & so, such as should be opposite one unto another, p. 127which are yet in subordination, and that by his owne …ermes: for he makes one part principall, and the other …ubordinate to it, and so in agreement with it, which …o reason will allowe: As though one should divide a …iving creature into that which is principally so, as a …an, or that which is subordinate, as the faculty of …ughing, which is a token of a man: And that which …rceth him to these inconveniences, is the feare, least … should make externall worship, true worship, in its …wne nature, as conceaving, a back blow is coming to is cause by that meanes.

2. I will not here aske, by what rule he makes reve…nce the Genus to principall worship, when the verdit …f all writers, and text, casts religious reverence, as a …roper duty in the third commaund, whereas principall …orship, is made generall to all the first table, and so the …ore particular is made a Genus to that which is more …enerall then it self: I suppose this is the Rej. phrasio…gie, fitter for a declamer, and one that should descant …hen define: 3. let it here be remembred, that the in…ard acting of understanding, will, and affections to…ards God, is made the proper forme, and that which …ives specificall being to principall worship, because we all have use of this hereafter.

Only that which is most remarkeable, and exceeding …oubtfull (& therfore desired proof and confirmation) that which is added, in the following words, viz. In…nall worship cannot be performed falsely:Inward worship may be as well performed falsely, as so intended. which is a cōceit …eyond my shallow apprehensiō, & therfore, at his next …joyning I desire to be satisfied in some particulars.

p. 1281. He that acknowledgeth one God, Eternall, Almighty, &c. and two persons: but conceaves the Holy-Ghost, not to be a distinct person beside them, but a work proceeding from them both, and so also depend… upon the Godhead thus apprehended: whether dot… such a man, falsely conceave of God, and falsely worship him: making no expression of this his conceaving o… dependance.

2. If there be the same ground and reason, to make false internall, as externall worship, then the one may be as falsely performed as the other: but that ther is the same ground for both, let any man compare them together, and it will appeare at the first view: For the heart, can, and doth goe aside as many wayes from the rule, as the outward man doth, or can do: A man may feare God, upon a false ground, after a false manner to a wrong end: as well as preach, or pray upon a false ground, after a false manner, to a false end: So that I see no colour, nor can conceave, how those words can be excused: Internall worship is true, or not at all: Imagnary internall worship is no worship. For there is nothing, that can be called true, being ordered a right, according to rule, but there is a falshood, which will arise by the wrong ordering, and ill disposing of the same thing: At a word, as every proper axiom… admitts of a contradiction, and so of a falshood necessarily: so likewise every indiduall action, which can admitt of alteration, must needs admitt of a wrong, as well, as of a right disposition, and by consequent of a falsene… which may besall it in that kynd.

p. 1293. All lifting up the honour of another, to whom, …n way of homage we present our services, that is, wor…hipping of such a party in our intent, and according to the nature of the action: but false conceaving of the …rue God, and fearing of him, upon false grounds is the …ifting up of the honor of God, in the intention of the person, and nature of the word: and therfore it must needs be worship of God, for of no other, it can be, as being tendered to him, but its not true internall worship, and therfore it must be false.

Lastly, if this be not at all false worship, then at all, it is no sinne, and so must never be answered for, because unto any other head beside that of false worship, it cannot be referred.

Subordinate worship is that which is done in token, and testimony of the soveraignty, we acknowledge in God, and of our dependance upon him.

Here againe, we have the like phrasiologie, words without wayght of reason, in describing or defining the thing intended: For token and testimony are too large and loose expressions to lay out the nature of this worship: Because 1. a man may severall wayes give a token, or testimony of his acknowledgment, and dependance, and yet in none of those wayes be truely said to worship i. e. as by some pledge, by his hand writing, and seale annexed testify, that he doth thus acknowledge and depend, and yet none of these wayes he worships: 2. Take actions in this reference onelyonly, as they looke to our p. 130inward dispositions by way of testification, or signification, they are not worship, (I say go no further then that reference) but as they are presented as some services to God immediatly, and as by him instituted and required.

True externall worship is said to be made up of 4. things: A person holy, 2. action and manner warranted: 3. end right, 4. the present intention of the worshipper bestowed, and imployed upon the service.

Where let it be considered, how he broyles things of all kynds together, contrary even to their nature, and right reason: In that he requires the inward holines of the person, and his gratious acceptation with God: and secondly the present and religious intention of mynd, as necessary to make up externall true worship, which mixture and constitution, even the names of the things gaynesay, and their natures will not indure.

For 1. that which was the forme, and made up the proper nature of internall worship before, that cannot constitute external worship, as common sense teacheth▪ but the inward performing of reverence, (and consequently present religious intention, which is of that kynd) was made the proper forme of internall worship, by the Rej. his graunt.

2. All outward actions, in the frame and constitution are liable to censure of the church, either for approbation or reprehension, but the sincerity of heart, and intention of mynd, the church cannot take notice p. 131…f nor passe a censure upon, provided the outward ex…ressions do not fayle or be a wanting.

3. A man may be bonus ethicus, and yet not bonus Theologus, i. e. a well cariaged man outwardly, expres…ing both the sense and practise of religion in his outward demeanor: And yet not be a a sincere hearted Christian: So a man may be a member of a congrega…ion, and behave himself outwardly beyond exception, …nd yet want, both an upright mynd, and intention sin…ere: So that though they be rejected of God without …hose, yet the fault lyes not in the outward action, but in the inward & spirituall work, which God approves, and takes his complacency in, yet he looks upon these, and loves them so farr as they be sutable to their rule, as he did in the young man, Mark 10.21.

At a word: an action may be done by the rule of Ethicks, or the rule of outward ecclesiasticall policy and church discipline appointed by Christ: Or lastly by an inward spirituall principle of grace: The two former, may be true without the last, though a mans sinnes in seperating the last from the first, because though the first be good in their kynd, yet they are not sufficient: the former therfore are to be continued, and the sinne in the last to be reformed: Hence the Prophet Isaiah 1.16. Put away the evill of your doings, the Lord enjoynes thē not to take away their works, but the evill of them: as though he should have said; sacrifice still according to rule prescribed; choose a sacrifice without blemish &c. for the matter; offer it according to rites appointed, for the manner, as before, but being also a heart p. 132humbled, a life reformed, wherein you have hitherto fayled, keepe that which is good, and add that which is awanting.

4. Lastly, when an unregenerate minister (gifted sufficiently for outward expressions, and called by the church) shall preach, administer the sacraments, beyond all exception to the eye of man, and to the approbation of the church: I ask: whether the true matter and forme of right administration, may not undoubtedly be concluded to be there, so far as those services are externall.

I presume the Rej. will distast the contrary conceit, and scorne to entertaine so silly an imagination, as to affirme, that a wicked man, cannot be a true minister, or his actions performed unreproveablely in that kynd, by what man can see, to be true ministeriall actions.

If this he graunt, which cannot be denied with any colour, (and if it be, I shall be ready to make it good) I then reason.

Where the true matter and forme is of externall worship, ther is the true compleat nature of externall worship.

But in the administration of the Sacrament, &c. by an unregenerate minister, ther is the true matter and forme of true worship.

Therfore in the administration of these by an unregenerate minister, ther is the true compleat nature of externall worship.

To this place appertaineth that expression in his premonition to the receaving of the Lords Supper, cap. 3. pag. 3.

p. 133Externall worship of God is some outward action,Internall worship gives not subsistence to the externall. done in relation to the internall worship: which (viz. the internall worship) gives subsistence to it.

Concerning which passage, I desire one case may se…iously be considered, and it is this: Whether is it not …ossible, that a man (either out of ignorance as not …nowing, or out of lase feare dissembling) may kneele …owne before an Idoll, as Idolaters do, performe and expresse according to their manner all outward actions of reverence, and yet keepe his heart, mynd, & affections, …nwardly acknowledging and loving of God.

That this practise is possible, nay too ordinary, that the heart may be caried one way, and the action another way in appearances, needs no proof, since each mans wofull experience gives undeniable evidence thereof: Hence then I reason.

If an action may have the reall subsistence of superstition, without the intention of the mynd, the work of heart and affection: then without these hath it the subsistence of externall worship.

But without internall worship: to witt without, nay against the intention of mynd, the work of my heart & affection, the action formerly mentioned hath the subsistence of reall superstition.

Therfore without the internall worship, the externall hath subsistence.

p. 134The fourth division: Externall worship is either mediate, or immediate: mediate, when any duty of the second table is performe… immediatly to man, but out of conscience, and in obedience to God, to his honour.

In this division of mediate, and immediate worship used by some Divines: The name worship, must need… be taken (by a synecd. the part putt for the whole) fo… obedience in generall, and so they are to be understood and not in propriety of speech: For that which comprehends both the tables of the Decalogue in it (as in this division worship doth) cannot properly be referred, either to any one commaund, or any one table: And in this construction, it serves nothing to the Rej. his purpose, but only to fill up place, & make up the number of Divisions, which is the ready way to confound the reader: And that the Rej. cast lotts almost what to say, it may appeare, in that, he who makes externall worship the Genus to mediate and immediate here: Elsewhere in his premonition to the receaving of the Lords supper, he makes immediate the Genus to externall and internall, so curious is he in his distributions, that in his sense, you may make the whole the part, the part the whole: And if in such Divisions ther be like to be true sense and solidity, let the judicious reader determine.

But let us come more neare his particular explication, which is this: Thats mediate worship by the Rej. his definition when any duty is done to our brother, The definition of medint… worship examined.but in conscience to God.

p. 135Where I desire to be informed at his next rejoy…ing, whether he make this worship to consist, in the …uty discharged to our brother or in the conscience to God, used in the discharge thereof: The former (I sup…ose) he neither will, nor can say, (though he can say …range things, for then worship should first be tendered … man, and to the Lord at the second hand.

I conceave then he must affirme the second, and …ace the worship, in the act of conscience, caried by …ertue of a commaund: but then let him tell us how …his can be called externall worship, or can possiblely …ccord with the words of his definition going before: …xternall worship is, the performance of an outward action, … he defines, but I assume, the inward work of con…cieoce, is not the performance of any outward action, …erfore externall worship cannot consist in that.

And yet if this was graunted, which sense gaynsayes, …ee how unhappy he is in his expression, for neither in …his would any worship properly appeare. That which …ppertaines to the right doing of every act of obedi…nce as such, that cannot make up the proper nature of …orship: but to be done in vertue, and so in conscience of Gods commaund, belongs to every action of the Decalogue: what ever is not done of faith is sinn Rom. 14. last.

The fifth Division. Immediate worship, is either properly so called or else reductively.

Proper immediate worship, is any action done to the honouring p. 136of God immediately, and in that act it self, … are all such ordinances, which God hath appointed.

Improper worship is any act done, to the honouring of God by the orderly, and comly usage of his owne ordinances which because they poynt at Gods honour in their remote end, as they determine their first end, and use upo… men, as tending to order, decency, and aedification, an… therfore but improperly acts of worship.

It is the nature of errour, ever to be unlike it self, and he that goes out of the rigth way, will crosse himself commonly in his going, and this is the reason; the Rej▪ doth so often interfere in his discourse, and which is his exceeding ill happ, though no occasion require it, he cannot conceale these crasy, and ill joynted expressions we shall therfore againe, lay open the whole frame, tha… the description may be half a confutation:

Divine worship proper to God pa. 124. sect. 5. mark those words (proper to God) is

principa

subordinate & externall, and tha…

mediate, done to man immediatel… but in conscie…ce to God, and … honour,

immediate

proper

improper determi… their use & end … mediately upon ma….

Where some things in the generall are very observeable.

1. That improper immediate externall worship, is divine p. 137worship proper to God:The Rei, hi… contradictions. this conclusion will appeare, to any, that will but wisely apply the speciall and generall together, according as they be rancked in the foregoing delineation.

2. That improper immediate worship, is mediate worship; for thus I reason: That worship which is immediatly done to man, but in conscience to God, that is mediate worship, so the Rej. description teacheth: but improper immediate worship, is first done to man, so the very expresse words of the Rej. declare evidently: …he acts of improper worship determine, in their end, and use upon men.

Therfore immediate improper worship, is mediate by the D^rs dispute.

If it be here replyed, that the actions which make up mediate worship, must be actions of the second table, not of the first, as these be: I answer; It is the verdit of the word, and the common consent of all Divines, that all the actions and duties, which concerne our brother as the next object and end, and so determine upon him are required, and regulated by the second table: since therfore these things of comlines and order, are of this nature, by the Rej. his graunt, I do not see, how it can be avoyded with any colour of reason, but they must be commaunded in the second table, and so come under the definition of mediate worship, directly contradictory to the Rej. his determination.

I might also putt the reader in mynd, of these twicesod-coleworts, that are sett agayne before us: viz. this misty distinction of properly, & reductively, which like p. 138a vagrant wanders up and downe in every coast, and therfore should be whipped home to his owne place: For it is propounded & applyed upon the like mistake, that formerly it was pag. 37. in the division of Cerem. And is here, as it was there, voyd of all art and truth.

1. Voyd of Art: For what reason, or rule, doth allow, any reasonable disputer, to make a distribution and so an opposition of parts, that are in consent, and agreement one with another, such is this here propounded. Worship is either proper; as Gods ordinances, or improper, as the adjuncts to these ordinances, which appertaine therunto: As if a man should say: Ther be two kynd of byrds, either an eagle, or her feathers.

2. Its voyd of truth: For who ever accounted all the civill circumstances, and attendants of decency in the discharge of Gods worship to be worship. The band the preacher useth, the doublet he weares are decent attendants unto him, in preaching & praying, and it would be exceeding unseemely, to see him naked in those parts, rudely presenting himself amiddst the congregation, in the work of the Lord, yet did ever any, before D. Burges say, that the band and doublet of the minister, were improper immediate worship.

A midst these many mistakes, we have a ground of graunt from the Rej. his owne words: That kneeling in the act of receaving, cannot be improper, but proper worship: For we kneele not either, to man or to the bread, but to God directly, and it is to lift up his honour p. 139immediatly in the use and end of that action, and …herfore it cannot be improper, but proper worship.

Anna her example of serving God with fasting, and prayer, comes after to be scanned in the next section, only before we end, lett us consider in a word of that passage which the Rej. hath pag. 126. To the proper, circumstantiall or accessory worship: the permission of God, and a right intention, and use, sufficeth to legitimate them. Ioyne we unto these words, the definition of immediate worship, under which all these improper circumstantiall worships are ranged: viz. Immediate worship is, when any act of obedience to the first table, is performed to honour God: out of which I thus reason:

Every act of obedience to the first table, is not only permitted, but required in the first table.

But the acts of improper immediate worship are acts of obedience to the first table: therfore they are not only permitted but required.

To this place belongs the considering and discussing of the variation of that phrase used in the premonition, touching kneeling at the Sacrament, cap. 3. p. 3. False worship, is sayd to be of the will of man merely, True, is sayd to be according to the will of God wholly.

The mistery is, that no worship is false, which hath any thing in it of the will of God, And ther is some worship true and good, which is not of the will of God as a cause, but only according to it, as not hindering or forbidding: This is the Papists plea just against our Doctrines for their traditions. Gregor. de Valent. p. 140Tom. 4. Disp. 6. Q. 11. P. 1.Christus non vetat quo minus cultum addamus, qui divinae ligi non repugnet, sed congruat rationi, adecque uoluntati Dei. Christ doth not forbidd that we make such addition of worship, which doth not repugne to the law, but consents to right reason, and so to the will of God.

So Estius in Tit. 1.14. The Scripture so farr as it speaks in the worst sense, touching the praecepts and traditions of men, Scriptura quoties de mandatu & traditionibus hominum loquitur in malam pa…temea semper intelligit, qua sic ab hominibus instituta sunt, aut praecepta ut aut omnino nihil ad pietatem conducant, aut etiam pietati & legi Dei repugnarent: Qua ab human… sensu & spiritu profecta sunt, quatenus selicet homo a scipso movetur, & non a Deo.it alwayes understands such, which are so appoint…d and commaunded by men, as that they nothing at all conduct unto piety, or plainly oppose both it and the law of God, such which proceed from a humaine spirit or appetite, to witt so farr as a man is acted of himself, and not of God. So the Rhemists on Math. 15.9.

The contrary assertion is the receaved doctrine of our Divines for, and out of the word of God against the Papists, and one fundamentall principle of reformation.

Hec caput est doctrinae inost…ae (contra electitios cultus papistarum) ne quod opus suscipimus in ijs quae pertinent ad cultum, de quo non habemus expressum mandatum Dei: Neno cultum iactare potest, n…si verbo quasi pauniculu involutus ac circumclusus sit.So Luther Gen. 21. This is one mayne principle of the doctrine we professe (against the forged superstitions of the Papists) that we undertake no work in the things which appertaine unto worship, concerning which we have not an expresse commaund of God: No man can boast of the performance of any worship, unlesse he be wholly as it were clothed, and confined within the compasse of the word.

Hitherto also, is to be added, that distinction which is last mentioned by the Rej. in the forenamed place in his premonition for kneeling at the Sacram. Chap. 3. Pag. 3.4.

p. 141Immediate true ext…rnall worship, is so called in respect, … of the meanes, or manner of worship, and that which …ecteth meanes, is sayd to be grounded either on speciall …mmaund, which is properly, in and of it self worship, or upon … allowance only, as touching the particular, which is …rship per aliud, by virtue of some thing else.

1. But first, ther is internall meanes, and manner as …ell as externall, 2. the manner and meanes do de…nd on Gods commaund and allowance in that also: Immediate worship in regard of the meanes of wor…p, is just as much, as immediate mediate worship: And is suiteth well with that distribution, which we met …, in the former section of significant Ceremonies, to significant and non significant: 4. When as the Rej. … much to this distinction of generall and parti…lar commaund, he should have tould us, whether he …eaneth by the generall, the Genus or the kynd im…ediate, and next, or any other how remote soever: …he former sense will not help our Ceremonies, the … will serve at a lift, for many popish Ceremonies as …ll as ours, since Gods commaund doth not make any … immediate worship, in, and of it self, for then the … of a murtherer should be worship, in, and of it …: 5. What reason or sense is there, that Gods com…und should make a thing worship of it selfe, and Gods …owance should make it worship by virtue of some…ing else, when as the commaundement, doth no more …pect it self or other thing, then the allowance. 6. Al…wance of this or that in generall without allowance … it, to be worship, maketh nothing at all to be worship.

p. 142All worship, must have a commaund, not allowance only.7. It may justly be quaestioned, whether the Rej. … this distinction of commaund and allowance, do no… symbolize with the Papists in their distinction of commaunds and counsells.

For seing this Popish distinction, cannot be avo… ded, but by another betwixt a common precept, and particular, according to the circumstances, Iun. Cont. lib. 2. To. 9. and no worship or good work can be without one of these precepts, certainly this worship upo… allowance, without any particular precept, can neith… be worship nor good work. 8. I aske whether that institution of worship which is grounded on allowanc… be a work of obedience to God or not? If it be, the… surely it hath a commaund and not an allowance onl… If not, then either let works of superarrogation be a… mitted, or this institution cashyred.

The immediate externall true worship in regard of ma… ner, is sayd to consist in a reverend usage of prescribed wo… ship, according to order and decency. Where observe… that worship being formerly defined by an action, … here specifyed by a manner, whereas the manner of … action, is not an action, at least every manner is not … 2. That in the manner here specifyed (reverend usag…) the usage of an action differeth not from the action b… only in reverence, which is a common adjunct of a worship, and therfore maketh not a distinct worshi… 3. That civility, order and decency is required, in th… usage of prescribed worship, and so worship in regard … the manner though it be religious, may be called c… vill: yet let the Reader be admonished, that under the… p. 143…re words of reverend manner, order, decency of wor…p, much sacrilegious worship is mayntained by the …pists: As our Rhemists on Ihon 6.58. have discovered, … nature therfore of the things themselves, should be …nsidered, and we should not suffer our selves to be …used by words. That which is quoted here out of D. …, will occasion the reader to looke upon the place, …edull. lib. 2. c. 14. th. 25. the words of that position … these: Although these circumstances of tyme, place and …er like, are wont by some to be called rites or religious ec…esiasticall ceremo., yet in their nature they have nothing, … is proper to religion, and therfore religious worship doth … properly consist in them, however by neglect, and contempt … such circumstances, the sanctity of such religious worship, is … some sort violated, because the common respect of order … decency, which do equally agree to religious and civill …tions cannot be severed, from religious worship, without di…inishing of the sanctity and dignity of it. What can the …ej. gather from hence, but that these circumstances …re not worship, being only so required to religious …ctions as they are to civill: If his argument be this: they …re not properly worship, therfore worship, it is ridicu…ous: If it be thus framed; they are commaunded in ge…erall, therfore in their generall nature, & in respect of …heir utmost end, they must be vouchsafed, the title of …ivine worship: He may as well conclude, that the office …nd act of a Iustice of peace, or Constable, nay a Hangman, must be vouchsafed the same title of divine worship, for these are commaunded in generall, and their utmost …nd ought to be the honouring of God, and sometime p. 144they may have reference to some thing done in the worship of God: In the last place ther is a memorand… added, that the same humaine Cere. which is a worship in regard of manner, may also be worship in respect o… a meane, but not of, and by it self. This is as much to say That the last distinction betwixt meanes and manne… is not distinct, and that a humaine Ceremony canno… be grounded on Gods speciall commaund, the late… whereof no man ever doubt of, and the former, I do… easely assent unto.

SECT. 2. Concerning the ex…mplyfying of the former distinction of worship by instances, and confirming of it by witnesses in the same treat: Cap. 4.

HAnna served God in fasting and prayer, Luc. 2.3… Fasting here was worship, saith D^r. B. in som… sense, or else S. Luke was deceaved. Whatsoever becommeth of this consequence, the example fitteth not our Ceremo. for though D. B. hath often exhorted his Auditors to worship God in fasting & praying, in the same phrase, yet (I dare say) he never exhorted them, or any ministers to whom he hath preached amongst others, to serve God in Surplice and Prayer in crossing and baptizing, how much soever he favoureth these Ceremonies: The strange bleating such a phrase carieth with it, would have amazed his people, and affrighted the ministers, and discredited his ministery: by p. 145this alone it appeareth, that the example of fasting is abused, when it is paraleled, with crosse and surplice: 2. The consequence is all too peremptorily followed, or else S^t. Luke was deceaved: I should rather think, that D.B. may be deceaved in his interpretation of S^t, Luke: The phrase which S^t. Luke useth, doeth no more urge us, to make fasting worship in any sense, then S^t. Paul his phrase Eph 6. Watching unto all supplication with perseverance, doth constreyne us to make perseverance, or watching a worship, distinct from supplication: Or then, the same Pauls phrase Acts 20.19. serving the Lord with many teares and temptations, doe make temptations a speciall kynd of worship. 3. Fasting may be called worship by a trope, as being a speciall adjunct of some extraordinary worship, and yet not be a speciall kynd of immediate reductive worship, or any other kynd. 4. The truth is that fasting, is such a help to extraordinary humiliation, as moderate fasting, is to extraordinary thanksgiving, and therfore is no more worship, then Christian fasting: And to this purpose do our divines answer, concerning this place, which is ordinarily objected by every Papist, as here by the Rej. See Chemnitius upon these words: See Polanus, Syntag. lib. 9. cap. 8. Fasting is a help to prayer, Ieiunium est adminiculum procationu, & signum humilitatis ac resipiscentia, non autem cultus Dei.a signe of humility and repentance, but is not a worship of God. 5. Fasting such as Annas was, is not a humaine institution, as our ceremonies are, but partly naturall, when the whole man is taken up with greater, and more instant imployment, exclusive of all ordinary refreshments: and partly of Divine application, in extraordinary humiliation, so p. 146that it hath ground and example both in the O. & N.T. which our Ceremonies are destitute of.

2. M^r. Cartwright (many degrees and ages distant from S. Luke) is brought in next, acknowledging circumstantiall worship, only allowed in the particular, though commaunded in his kynd in the second commaund: Now I have at hand, only that edition of Mr. C. his Catechisme, which was printed Anno 1611. and therin I fynd no such thing, upon occasion I will seek for the other edition: In the meane tyme I fynd there, that all will worship, how great a show soever it makes, is condemned and images (in speciall in Gods service even as lay-mens books) which the defendant defende, thand the Rej. rejoyneth for. 2. Suppose he graunt a circumstantiall worship, what is that to worship invented by man: There is no doubt, but some parts of Gods worship, by himself instituted are comparatively circumstantiall, but what is that to mans invention. 3. There is a mighty distance, betwixt the generall of kneeling at prayer, & such like gestures, intended by M^r. C. (if he name circumstantiall worship,) and the generall of Crosse and Surplice, as there is betwixt the generall of this and that father, and the generall of all entia and things, that have being: This testimony therfore maketh nothing to the purpose.

The third witnesse is, Chamyer, Tom. 5. l. 20.4.5 affirming that arbitrary vowes are worship of God not per se, of themselves, but by accident, and for some other thing, p. 147where to omitt the translation of per se, of themselves, which should have beene by themselves betwixt which ther is a great difference, (as betwixt a body living of the soule, and by it self.) Chamyer in that very place, if his whole sentence be expressed (which neglect, if it had beene the Replyers, we should have heard outcryes, proclamations and invective accusations enough) I say …his whole sentence is contrary to the Rej.: His words in summe are these: To vow, Vovere, & reddere, sunt actus religionis eliciti, quia per se, & propriè sunt religionis, at actus▪ qui voventur, non nisi imperati, pertinentes ad cultum, non proprie sed p…r accident, illi formaliter, hi materialiter.and to performe are elicited acts of religion, because by themselves and properly they appertaine to religion, but the actions that are vowed, are imperated by religion, and belong unto worship, not properly, but by accident, those formally, these materially. He doth not speake of vowes, in that part which the Rej. quoteth, but of things vowed, nor doth he acknowledge these worship, otherwise then the matter of an action, is an action: It were not farr from his meaning, if one should say, this bakers bread, and that vynters wyne, is a Sacrament materialiter and per accidens. Lastly he doth not speake of any worship elicitus per accidens, such as immediate Ceremoniall worship is, but only imperatus ordered and directed, such as service to ones father or freind may be, and is not this then a worshipfull testimony for Ceremonies, invented by man and made formall, immediate reductive worship.

Iunius in the fourth place is brought in, testifying, that the humaine feasts of the Nativity, and Easter, are not worship properly, but it may be figuratively: And what is that, I wonder, to immediate reductive worship of humaine invention: Worship figuratively so called, is any matter, p. 148instrument, subject, adjunct, effect or even similitude of worship: Are all such things immediate reductive worship? Iust as bread, pottage, wyne, oyle, or meat, having touched the skirt of a holy garment are holy, Hag. 2.12. Thus the words and wildernesses where Christians meet, may be called worship figuratively or by a figure, the place being putt for the thing done in the place: thus the ringing of the Bell, before the Sermon, may be called worship figuratively, because it is a signe civill to give notice that such a service will be: And hence it is that Iunius doth in the same place affirme, that such observations are only contingent accidents, or adjuncts to worship. The same Iunius doth explaine his owne meaning controv. 5. lib. 2. c. 16. n. 18. warning us to distinguish betwixt actions of worship, Actiones cultus & ordinat… ad cultum. Actiones cultus, quaecunque non sunt a Deo praeceptae, sunt vetitae, nam de illis nihil detrah…, addi, aut mutari potest. Nulla iusta, disponend… Dei servos, ad cultú Dei, ratio, ab hominibus investigari pot…st, nisi, quam Deus prascripserit.and such which are done in order unto worship, adding moreover this: Actions of worship, what ever are not commaunded of God are forbidden, for as touching such, nothing can be detracted, added, altered: and in Levit. 9. No right way of disposing Gods servants to his worship, can be invented by man, but that, which God himself hath prescribed.

Polanus is next, who (saith the Rej.) in his syntagme defineth true worship of God to be the performance of what he hath commaunded in obedience to him, to his honour, yet in his partitions pag. 128. he sayth, that an ecclesiasticall rite or Cerem. is outward worship of God, not forgetting or crossing himself, but taking the name of worship in one place properly, and in the other improperly, or reductively. Where it is to be noted, that Polanus sayth nothing of improper, reductive worship, but those termes are putt into his p. 149…outh, or thrust into he speech by the Rejoyner. 2. Po…nus writt his partitions, when he was a young man, … divine, but his Syntagme was his last work: If …erfore any crossing was found in these two wri…ngs, his Syntagme was to be taken, as his more mature …dgment, and preferred as his last will and testament. …. In this his Syntagme lib. 8. c. 1. he hath not onelyonly … definition of worship, contrary to the Rej. his tenet, … many other Items: Pertinet ad boni operis substantia, ut opu… illud sit a Deo mandatum, perinde & cultum Dei, & quicquid ad cultum Dei pertinet, mandatum esse oportet: Actiones adiaphora non sunt cultu… Dei, &c.It belongs to the substance of a good …ork, that it be commaunded of God, and therfore its requi…e, that the worship of God, and every thing appertaining …erunto be commaunded: Actions indifferent, are not the …orship of God &c. 4. In the place quoted out of his par…ons: That an ecclesiasticall rite is outward worship, he …oth not crosse himself, for what he there meaneth by … ecclesiasticall rite, he sheweth in the specialls, which … after setteth downe, as sacrifices &c. though he mingeth some humaine feasts, with the ordinances of God …or his method sake, never intending to make such ce…emon. as ours lawfull worship, and therfore opposeth …is ecclesiasticall rites to those duties, that are perfor…ed only by speech: as Invocation, confession, thanks…iving.

6. Fenner (saith the Rej.) maketh bowing the knee or …ead, lifting up the hands, or eyes, to the parts of externall …orship: But what consequence is there from naturall gestures, to cerem. instituted by man? From actions par…icularly commended unto us in Gods word, as outward worship, to such as their patrons can fynd no al…owance for, but in a remote transcēdent racked Genus?

p. 150Tylenus (a man, that D^r. B. should rather have written against, for his errors, then alledged against other… for his authority) is in the seventh place brought in saying; that a vow of a thing not commaunded, is worshi… only by accident, Syntag. par. 1. dis. 42. th. 17. Yet 1. … doth not say, Cultus, nisi per accidēs Dei cultus vocari potest. Quatenus ad cultura illum …lique modo refertur, ut medium arbitrarium, contingē …, …diaphorum.it is worship, but that it cannot be called worshi… but by accident. 2. He giveth this limitation, so farr as … may, some way be referred to worship, as an arbitrary, contingent, indifferent meane. Such as in prayer the choosin… of the word, forgivenesse, rather then pardon, is in th… petition of remission of synnes. 3. The worship … speaketh of, is not immediate in his opinion, as appe… reth disp. 40. th. 16. as it is in the Rej. his divisions: Na… Tylenus is so wise, as to say, that the most proper an… immediate acts of religion, do not respect God per se, … and of themselves, Ibid. th. 18. is it any wonder then, … graunteth a worship, not in, and of it self, but by acc… dent only.

Bucanus is the eight witnes, and yet nothing out of hi… is brought, but that ecclesiasticall rites, are not worship … themselves, and as a work done. Did any of us ever affirme… they were such worship? May be the Rej. would gathe… from thence, that ther is a worship, which is not of i… self, and as a work done such, which (though it canno… be gathered from that phrase, with better reason, the… if from this, that fayth (doeth not justifye of it self, an… as a work done, he should conclude, that some grac… ther is, which justifyeth of it self, and as a work done yet we may well graunt of false worship: But see how unhappy the Rej. is in his wrested allegations. Bucan… p. 151… the place quoted Loc. 43. q. 20. give…h 1. this caveat: … lawes appointed for order, and comlines sake only, Ne leget deceris & ordims tantum causa latae, sint divini cultus partes: 2. Ne pro gravi honest…, utilique ordine, inutilla, inepta, ridicula, histrionica instituā tur: qualia sunt quae Pontificij praecipiunt, d… dierum & vestiū des…rimine. Ad solū verbum Dei, quod ad cultum attinet, non ad humanas traditiones attendē dum. Nullam obedientiam deberi ritibus, quarū alij sunt inepti, inanes & ludicri, alij vel per so, vel ob aliud superstitiosi crucis fabricationem, aquam lustralē, consecrationes altariū, & magistrales determinationes Non per se, sed lege charitatis. Ceremoniae nō humanae, sed filij Dei authoritate institut… & mandata adhibeantur.are … of divine w…rship: 2. It should be provided, that in … of a grave, seemely, and profitable order, those things be … instituted, which are unprofitable, foolish, ridiculous stage…y like: And of this sort are those, which the Papists com…und, concerning the difference of dayes, and garments: … the same Bucanus Loc. 33. q. 15. In things appertai…g to worship, we must attend for direction only unto the … of God, and not to humaine traditions: No observance … to rites, whereof some are foppish, vayne, and light, … either in regard of themselves or some other thing su…stitious, amongst which he reckoneth, the ma…ing of the …, holy-water, the consecration of altars, and magistrall …erminations. And that lawfull rites of order, are to be …served, not in regard of themselves, but by the law of cha…y: where he plainly sheweth, that per se is not alwayes … to relation ad aliud, as the Rej. understands …. The same Buc. also, Lo. 47. qu. 65. giveth this rule: … humaine ceremonies ought to be used, but those which are …ointed, and commaunded by the authority of the sonne of ….

The last witnesse is Melanchton, who fayth in one place: … man may not institute any worship of God, i.e. works …ich God so alloweth, that he holdeth himself to be honored them of themselves, or whose immediate end is, that God … be honored by them: As if we did hold the contrary, … is not this testimony wisely alledged, that all men … his opposites may graunt, and the graunt of it, nei…er hurts them, or helps him: Nay take away that p. 152clause, Gods allowance and holding himself honored, which no humaine institution can inferr) we say that our Cerem. are such, for it is as an immediate end, of all misticall teaching rites, to honor God, by them and in them as of the word, so farr as it preacheth the same vertues that Ceremon. do teach: And so much is taught by th… Rej. in these very dictats, when he reduceth these reductive ceremonies, under the head of immediate worship, for nothing can be immediate worship, whose immediate end is not, that God may be honored by th… performance of it. The same appeareth out of th… which the Rej. pag. 313. affirmeth, viz. that the prope… end of preaching is aedification of men, if that be joyned, which he every where teacheth, that the prope… end of significant Cerem. is aedification: Of such Cere… ▪ therfore may well understand. Melanchton, not only i… this place alledged,Mundus non intelligit quantum sit peccatum singere cultus fine mandato Dei. Cultus idolatricisunt omnes qutcunque sine mandato Dei instituti sunt. but also Tom. 2. p. 142. The wor… understands not, how great a synne it is to forge worship wit… out Gods commaund: And P. 107. Idolatrous worships o… all they, which are appointed without the commaund of G… Here is no distinction betwixt worship of it self, or b… it self and by accident reductively &c. The Rej. his test… monies being such as have beene declared, there canno… be much force in his examples, if they be agreeable t… his rules, wherof he hath brought such crosse witness… The first example is, of free will offerings, Free will offerings are no allowance of our ceremonies.when a man … left at liberty to offer a bullock, a goat, or sheepe at his pleasur… where the particular was not commaunded, but only allowe… though the manner was prescribed: Concerning which answer 1. that there were no oblations left wholly … p. 153the pleasure of men, for though the particulars were not, nor could not be determined by a distinct rule in generall, yet they were determined by the circumstances, as our Divines are wont to answer the Papists, about their vowes, counsells, superarrogations,Non lego generali, sed ratione circumstanti…um &c. Not by a generall law, but by concurrence of circumstances. So Deut. 16.10. Moses sheweth that the freest offerings were to be according as God had blessed them, from whence it followeth, it had beene synne for any Israelite, whom God had plentifully blessed, to offer a payre of pigeons in stead of a bullock, or two, upon his owne meere pleasure: 2. where that proportion was observed the choice of a goat, before a sheep, or a sheepe before a goat, was no formall worship: 3. That it had beene unlawfull for the Preists out of their pleasure, to institute any such determinate free offering, either ordinarily to be observed, or upon occasion of a mans forwardnesse to such a duety, i.e. that every free offering should be a goat, or at the least, that a goat should be one part of it, which is the presumption of our Prelats, about the reductive worship of the crosse. 4. It was not left to any mans pleasure, for to appoint an offering not appointed of God, in the speciall or least kynd, but onelyonly to choose among those, which God had instituted, that which did best agree, with his condition and occasion, as it is also now of psalmes, prayers, doctrines, interpretations, exhortations, let every man offer, according as God hath furnished him: But from hence to inferr the free choise of offering now to God, a crosse, surplice, holy water, images, this is, as if one should then have concluded p. 154from that freedome, the free offering of certaine butterflyes, or such like pretty, odd, vermyn not prescribed in the law, nor by name forbidden.

The second example is taken from Salomons worship, at the dedication of the temple, 1. Kings 8.2. 2. Chron. 6. and 7. which he thus conformeth to his notions: The number of Bullocks and Sheepe, were worship in respect of the end and allowance only, the Cere. of prayer, kneeling upon a Scaffold, & stretching out of hands, were worship reductive ad modum in genere suo, having respect to the manner in the generall kynd thereof: The burning of Sacrifices in the floore of the Court, was only lawfull before the brasen altar was consecrated, and upon the present necessity: But 1. in the number of Bullocks and Sheepe, ther was not a different worship, but a different degree of the same worship, as a longer prayer or sermon is not another worship then a shorter, but another degree of extension in the same worship, Surely to pray and prayse God twice, thrice or seven tymes in a day, are no different worships, one frō another, but onelyonly more or lesse exercise of the same worship. 2. Kneeling & stretching out the hands, were not worship in respect to a generall manner, but speciall externall worship, as being naturall, immediate expressions of the inward: As for the scaffold that Salomon kneeled on, that was no more worship, then the asse was upon which our Saviour did ride. Lastly, seing none of these things carying the nature of worship, were instituted ordinary observances, neither might the Preists in any convocation, have made such, these examples are nothing like ours in quaestion.

p. 155The other examples of Ioshuas monitory stone, Ios. 24 26. …sas oath, 2. Chron. 15.14. Nehemiahs subscription, Neh. 9. …lomons 14. dayes solemnity, 1. Kings 8. Ezekias designing 7. dayes, 2. Cron. 30. Mordicayes Purim, Hest. 9. have little …ment in them, as the Rej. hath afforded illustration or de…ration by bare naming of them: It may be sufficient to …ny that which is barely affirmed: yet in few words: …ese for the most of them were actions managed by …ods Spirit, suggested by secret instinct, extracted by …traordinary and speciall occasions: and therfore (as … ^r. Iackson Orig. of unbeleef, p. 332. warneth) are then … lawfull in others, when they are begotten by like …casions, or brought forth by like impulsions. 2. Ionas stone was, as Dr. Iackson Ibid. pag. 329. judgeth, but …olemne attestation, though somthing extraordinary, …d indeed was no more worship, then the heavens and …rth which Moses & Isayah did call to witnesse. 3. Asas …th, & Nehemiahs subscription, were no more distinct …orship from the covenant, then the words of a simple …omise are a distinct promise from the meaning of …, subscription and swearing of Canonicall obe…ence in England, were never (that I heare of) excep…d against as Ceremonies of worship, by those which …ondemne them in the substance of them. 4. The …olonging of worship by Salomon and Ezekias was …ch a distinct worship, as Pauls continuing his exercise …f religion to mydnight, Acts 20. Mordecah his Purim …ave their proper place in the dispute: Out of all these …ules, testimonies, examples, nothing followeth in fa…our fof our Ceremon. because no sound rule, just testimony, p. 156or allowed example, is brought for any Cerem▪ of Mysticall signification by man instituted, and brough… into the solemne ordinary worship of God, for the … of teaching: which maketh the Rej. his full perswasio… which he protesteth, suspected, and his triumphing rid… culous to those that well attend to these his grounds.

Yet the Rej. hath a double conclusion looking th… way, 1. That this will shew in what sense we may … our Ceremonies worship, and yet denye them to … worship, that is in such a non-sense as is usually foun… in contradicting shifts: The 2. to show the difference betwixt us and the Papists, which is here showed very breifly, but hath beene handled, and answered at large before, and thither therefore we referr the Reader.

FINIS.