Mixture of Scholastical Divinity with Practical Part 2, Excerpt and reply 27
Dr. Hammond. sect. 34.
This argument of Amesius against things indifferent, that learned Bishop was well … with, by his familiar conferences with Mr. …, a … … against Ceremenies, and whom the Bishop thought fitter to … by … instances, of … and … his …, than by more serious attempts of …. i. e. in plain … to despise and smile at, than to dread; and if Mr. J. have really read Mr. Hooker, … he somewhere entitles our Patron of Ceremonies, … may in him remember a discourse of Laws, which will supersede all necessity or … of my farther inlarging on it.
Jeanes.
Here we have a grosse mistake, and a bitter jeer.
1. A grosse mistake, to … no worse, for Ames hath no where any Argument against things indifferent; it is a Conclusion which he never dreame of, and therefore you most injuriously fasten it upon him, and hereof, I hope, you will repent, and give some publique testimonial thereof.
Next we have a bitter jeere at Non conformists, … if their opinion concerning humane, religious Ceremonies, were so silly and ridiculous, that Bishop … despised it, and smiled at it, and could … it easily, by … instances by unbuttoning and buttoning his Cassock: There may be truth in this your relation concerning Mr Hynde and Glapthorne, but your false accusation of Ames will render your bare word questionable, if it be not backed with farther proofs; but suppose your relation true, yet all that you can gather hence is, that they were weak Respondents, and knew not the state of the Question; and unto that you seem as great a stranger as they, for you dare not say that Bishop … buttoning and unbuttoning his Cassock, was a religious Ceremony, and if it were not, was it not a proper medium to prove the lawfulnesse of humane religious Ceremonies?
The Non conformists layd downe four qualifications in the Ceremonies which they oppose: 1. Humane Institution. 2. Ordained signification. 3. Mysticall signification. 4. Appropriation unto Gods solemne Worship and Service.
1. Humane Institution, they are humane inventions, now Kneeling, Bowing. Prostrating, lifting up of the eyes and of the hands, shouting and dancing for joy, they absolutely deny to be humane inventions, as you may see in Ames his dispute about Ceremonies, pag. 495.
2. A second thing is ordained signification, though they have an aptnesse to signify, yet they doe not actually signifie, … special institution of man: those signes then that signifie without institution by … or by civil custome … shut out of this controversie.
1. By nature, naturall Ceremonies as they are called, such as to looke up to Heaven, to … up our heads, to … our knees in …; for these Nature it self, saith Ames, doth teach all nations to observe without any institution though … … some government of counsel, nor without such …, as Nature it self is subject unto. … unto disp. about humane Ceremon. pag. 27.
2. By civil custome, and of this nature was … womans …, … Cor. 11. By received use and ancient custome, it shewed the subjection of a woman unto the husband, and so was an indicant signe thereof without any new institution of man.
3. They are of mystical signification, they signifie either some grace or duty, they teach some spiritual and religious thing by their instituted signification, and therefore are termed by some, … Ceremonies.
4. They are appropriated unto the acts of Religion in Gods service, and so are religious in state, and have, as Parker phraseth it, a kinde of immobility in Gods worship, and hereupon they are … rel gious Ceremenies, and by this all circumstances, or if you will call them circumstantial Ceremonies, all Ceremonies of meere order and decency are excluded out of the controversie, because they are common to things civil as well as sacred, and … as well out of Gods worship, as in it.
Whereas Doctor Morton objecteth, that a …, Communion cup, the Church and place of Gods service it self, may be appropriated and assigned onelyonly unto Gods Worship: Ames for answer distinguisheth betwixt appropriation of this or that individual, and of the kinde; Individuals (saith he) may be extrinsecally and accidentally appropriated, the kind remaining … … common and indifferent, and the individuals that are thus … appropriated, are of the same use out of Gods service that they are in it; this, saith Ames, is occasion of admiration unto Dr. Burges the …, but hee might have considered, that the … … of a Cloath, is to cover; of a Cup, to drink out of; of Meeting places to meet in; and then where is the strangenesse of this …? Is there not the same immediate use of a mans eyes, in reading one booke, as another, of a mans ears, in hearing one voice, as another, however the subject seen, or heard, may differ in nature or kind?
This is a true state of the Question, made, not by me, but by Parker, Ames, Didoclave, and other learned Non-… long agoe: And now I hope you are sensible that Bishop Morton his buttoning and unbuttoning his Cassock, came not within many leagues of it; there is no doubt, but that either you have, or may … procure a … of the like … and fashion, as that of the Bishops; and why should not this feat be as seasible … you as unto him? P ay, Sir, try the … of your skill, and let all the Bishops in the Land … your …; nay, take in what help you can … Mr. Hooker his discourse of Lawes that you referre mee unto, and if from the buttoning and unbuttoning of your Cassock, you can with all your united forces, prove the lawfulnesse of humane religious Ceremonies, symbolical signes; that is, those which teach some things spiritual by their … instituted signification, and are appropriated unto Gods worship, I will then confesse that there is as miraculous a virtue in your Cassock, as you … unto the sign of the Crosse in the Primitive times, and shall be ready publiquely to … whatsoever I have written, or spoken against these Ceremonies; but untill such proof be made, it will bee no act of imprudence in you to … for the future, such unsavoury girds; for however they bewray a passionate, high, and … contempt of your poore …, yet upon examination they will be sound to be saplesse and irrational, to have in them nothing of truth, and as little of charity and humility.