Mixture of Scholastical Divinity with Practical Part 2, Excerpt and reply 5
Dr. Hammond. sect. 9.
This therefore was no dark, but visible foundation of what I said; In assigning any rite or ceremony for the service of God, …, saith the …, was to … observed, the onelyonly rule to judge of that, is, say I, to consider the Customes of that particular place, of which we consult. Where bowing the knee, or … on the ground is customarily used as a token of reverence, where putting off, or keeping off the hat, there the choice of Ceremonies must be made with … to those particular …: Here 'tis evident, that I mean not the frequent usage of that ceremony, in opposition to a first usage of it, as Mr. …. is willing to mistake me, and found one of his arguments upon that mistake, but the standing custome of the place, by which, as by an argument or evidence, such a ceremony is demonstrated to be a reverential respect, and so (for the service of God, to whom all reverence is due) decent in that place, though in nature or in the estimation of all other men, it be not so.
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 addition of yours, without any colour from the Text it self, or from the coherence; and therefore all you build upon it is but fancy and fiction: That the Apostles 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 … prove; and unlesse you can make proof hereof, you and your party have just reason to be ashamed of urging this place for ceremonies, 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 …. The custome 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 … in …, 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 of the place in a ceremony, should be the first usage of that ceremony; where the mistake is let the Reader judge.
3. In that which followeth, there is nothing of argument, unlesse you can prove every ceremony, which can plead the standing custome of a place, to be a fitting and decent expression of that reverential respect, which is due unto God. Bishop Morton in his Book of the Institution of the Sacrament of the blessed … and Blood of Christ, p. 80, 81. sheweth that the opinion of reverence, hath been the … and nurse of … superstitions; and after such demonstration he quotes a saying of … upon Joh. 13. 8. Let us therefore learne … honour and reverence Christ as he would, and not as we think sit.