Malefactor before we have heard what he can say for himself and therefore though his flying for it might argue his guiltiness yet we shall patiently hear all that the Separatist can plead for himself and the crime is so great that he knows no ordinary Plea will defend him and therefore he pretends no less than a Commission from Heaven the Authority of God's own Spirit Having the Spirit is the pretence having not the Spirit is the charge sub judice lis est And we have our Saviour's Commission for tryal of any such pretenders though they think themselves exempt from all Ecclesiastical Judicature 1 St. John 4.1 Try the Spirits that is the Teachers and their Doctrines the Reason is For there are many false Prophets gone abroad into the World And if we are to try them there is doubtless a Law and Rule by which to proceed and that is the Word of God which being written by Holy Men as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost so is it able to make the man of God perfect seeing it was confirmed by God's own testimony in sundry Miracles as the Gift of Tongues and Prophecie of dispossessing Devils and healing all Diseases No pretence of revelation can gain equal authority with it unless it bring an equal testimony that is the power of doing Wonders Nobis curiositate non opus est post Christum Tertul. de Praescript c. 8. nec disquisitione post Evangelium Certainly they have not the Spirit in that degree that the Apostles had and therefore we do them no injury to bring them to such an authentick Judge as is the Word of God wherein there is not one sentence to countenance such as separate from any Church of God where the means of Salvation the Word and Sacraments are rightly administred although many corruptions be crept into it By the Example of Christ and his Apostles retaining themselves within the Communion of the Jewish Church notwithstanding their pollutions the error of such as in imitation of the Cathari of old and the Anabaptists now refuse to partake of the Lord's Supper if they see the same administred to such as they suppose wicked Men is for ever confuted and condemned saith * Contr. Anabap Spanhemius To him I add the judgment of ‖ Instit l. 4. c. 1. S. 18. Mr. Calvin If it was the religious care of the Prophets not to alienate themselves from the Church notwithstanding the many and great sins not of a few persons but almost of all the People We do arrogate too much to our selves if we dare presently to withdraw from the unity of the Church because the manners of all that are in it do not satisfie our judgments and are not answerable to their Christian Profession St. John gives us three Rules for tryal of the Spirits 1. By their confessing Christ to be come in the Flesh The 2d By cleaving to the Apostolical Communion v. 6. Whosoever heareth not us is not of God hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error 3ly By mutual love and charity v. 7 8. God is love and he that loveth not knoweth not God These two later testimonies utterly destroy the pretence of Separatists to that Spirit of God which spake by the Apostles for as much as they do act in opposition to it Estius in locum And the Ancients who according to the vulgar Edition do read the first note thus Omnis spiritus qui solvit Jesum that is Sermon of Concision as Dr. Donne paraphraseth it Every spirit that breaks Jesus in pieces and makes Religion serve turnes is not of God in which sense Estius thinks it may also be taken that not only they deny Christ that deny his Humane or Divine Nature or the Doctrine taught by him but such as rent and divide the Church which is his Mystical Body by making Sects and Divisions these have not the Spirit of God but of Autichrist When the Ancient Separatists pretended to extraordinary Operations of the Spirit the Plea was more plausible for the gift of Tongues and Prophecie of Healing c. was not fully ceased But if our Apostle denied it to those ancient Separatists some of which as Thendas and Simon Magus did very strange things lying wonders at least it will be a difficult task for later Separatists to prove that Divine revelations and immediate Inspirations of the Spirit are continued when all the other extraordinary gifts are expired Yet as Grotius observes Jactant se miras habere Inspirationes In locum They still boast of wonderful operations and inspirations of the Holy Ghost But to joyn in issue The gifts of the spirit are twofold either first for the edification of the Church or secondly for the sanctification of the particular members both of these are to be continued in the Church to the end of the World nomen Spiritualis pro eo qui spiritus dono se praedium jactat ad obeundum Prophetiae munus Those for edification of the Church in general are mentioned by the Apostle Ephes 4.8 When Christ escended up on high He gave some Apostles 1 Cor. 14.37 and some Prophets and some Evangelists for the edifying of the body of Christ c. The distinct Offices of the Ministry are those gifts of which all are not capable Are all Apostles saith the Apostle that is in effect All are not Apostles but those that truly succeed the Apostles are to continue successively to the Worlds end till we all come in the unity of the knowledge and faith of the Son of God c. So Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you always How is Christ present but by his Spirit How with his Apostles but in their Successors And this is the import of that phrase used by the Church in the consecration of Ministers Receive the Holy Ghost wherein neither the power of Miracles nor the special grace of the Spirit but only an authority to administer holy things in the Church of God is to be understood And it is strange how they who are most forward to blame the Church for not following precisely the words of Christ in other Institutions can quarrel as her as they do for observing them in this when-as without these words that power cannot be duly and authoritatively derived It is true that the Church not seeing the hearts of Men may confer this authority on unworthy Men but so did Christ who knew all that was in his heart on Judas whose Ministry was authentick though his Person was vile he might be an instrument of saving others himself being a Cast-away If they that separate are partakers of this Holy Calling they are beholding to the ordinary Pastors of the Church for it from whom they now separate and this will but aggravate their guilt If they have a calling extraordinary they ought to evidence it not by an idle pretence to Revelations and Inspirations much less by swelling words of
vanity an apt and fluent cadency of words and canting expressions but by the demonstration of the Spirit and power sutable to the pretence that is by the gift of Tongues and Miracles not by praying extempore only but in a strange tongue too as the Apostles could for so we are to understand that in 1 Cor. 14.15 I will pray with the Spirit which was Singulare linguarum Donum in a strange Language but then the Apostle would pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not with his understanding but to the understanding of the hearers which many Separatists do not When the Spirit gave the Apostles the gift of utterance they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not talk confidently or impertinently but uttered words of truth and soberness in short and Divine Apothegmes as when Isaiah's Lips were touched with a Coal from the Altar Isay 6.6 he had Linguam cruditam so Christ assisting his Apostles Acts 2.4 gave them not Os only but sapientiam also a Mouth and Wisdome such as their Enemies could not resist Luk. 21.15 or gain-say in their interpretation of the mysteries of the Kingdome of God Now that they have a more legitimate calling to the office or greater abilities to perform it will be easily confuted because they generally disclaim that ordination which from the Apostles hath been successively derived to us by the constant order of Bishops and this being the ordinary lawful calling the blessing of God attends the Administration of Holy things by them and no other so that although they should be inferior in external Gifts and Learning to them that do separate the contrary whereof is notoriously known yet the blessing of God is appropriated to the Ministry of those whom he hath sent and commissioned thereunto And therefore they cannot in the second place with the least probability pretend to a greater measure of the sanctifying graces of the Spirit notwithstanding their talk of the personal indwelling of the Holy Ghost It is true that he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 not essentially the same spirit with the Lord but mystically by the influence of that spirit which renders him humble and holy meek and gentle loving and obedient which graces of the spirit being eminently in Christ are in some good measure communicated to all his sanctified Members Eph 4.16 that are united to his Body which graces whether they do abound most in Separatists or those that contain themselves in the Communion of Apostolical Churches will appear anon In the mean time we shall prosecute our Enquiry whether they that separate have any such extraordinary inspirations and revelations of the Spirit as they pretend unto For certain it is that generally Separatists of all perswasions do boast of some such extraordinary influences which yet keep them at as great a distance among themselves as from the true Church of God let them therefore agree which of them have these effects from the true Spirit of God In the mean time we shall make it appear that none of them can have any such Operations Each Faction proclaiming the other to be Sine ratione Philosophos sine visione Prophetas sine missione Apostolos sine instructione didascalos And first Papists ought to have the precedence who challenge more than a double portion of such Revelations They chain the spirit of infallibility to the Pope's Chair so that whatever he pronounceth ex Cathedrâ in matters of Faith must be received with equal authority and credit as if it had been evidently commanded by the written Word Yea though it should differ from some plain Doctrines therein delivered for so do many of the Trent Articles as Purgatory and Prayers to Saints and Angels and Transubstantiation which either owe their original to pretended Revelations or at least have no better proof for the confirmation of them But certainly the Infallible Spirit cannot contradict it self and when St. Peter says one thing and his pretended Successors affirm the contrary when Nicolas the 4th defines contrary to Pope John the 22th they were not both infallible If such a Church can justly claim any spirit it is the spirit of contradiction as when it owns the Revelation of St. Bridget that the Virgin Mary was not conceived in Original Sin and the Revelation of St. Catharine that she was and institutes a Holy-day to celebrate her conception upon such a fabulous contradicted relation Yet not only the observation of days the Canonization of Saints the foundation of many Orders in that Church as of the Jesuits by Ignatius the Franciscans Benedictines and others but even Articles of Faith have had their rise from such pretensions If any of our Sectaries that pretend to inspiration are willing to know their Fathers or to find out a Church with which they may hold Communion now that they are departed from us I think the very worst among them may find a Founder and Foundation in no meaner Church than the Church of Rome And did the Pope of Rome use the same Methods as the Church of England to disclaim and discountenance all fanatick Factions and manifest their folly to all Men it would appear that there are more Sects and they as erroneous in Doctrine and vicious in their Lives as any in England or Amsterdam but as long as they own his Supremacy and serve the interest of his Court it is not much considered what becomes of the Gospel and the Church of God It were easie to run a Parallel betwixt our Sectarie and such as have been or still are in the Church of Rome who run beyond the Line of the greatest Separatists that are among us Have we some that deny the King's Supremacy and hold it lawful to depose and murder Kings See Fowlis lives c. We owe these Tenets and practices to the Church of Rome Have we some that will shew no respect to their Superior St. Ignatius would not move his Hat to the Magistrates Have we some that play fast and loose with Oaths of Allegiance and enter into holy Leagues and contrive Massacres of their Brethren this we owe to the Church of Rome Have we some that condemn our Church as carnal and Antichristian The Beguini so had they such as called their Church the Whore of Babylon that they were all carnal and blind and their Fraternity only the true Church in which Salvation was to be had Have we some that despise humane learning and make ignorance the Mother of Devotion so had the Church of Rome as St. Gregory says of St. Bennet that he hated Learning yet was knowingly ignorant and wisely unlearned Have we some that can discern the precious from the vile and tell who are the Elect and who Reprobate Philip Nereus and St. Catharine had the faculty to smell Souls and tell as perfectly which was clean and which unclean as Noah could judge of the Creatures that came into the Ark and Juliana could discover the thoughts of
Prayer hearing conference and other religious Offices p. 229. for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick Order is allowed Answ No for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which warrantably may be performed in publick p. 230. Q. I pray you Sir What general Rules are fit to be observed for the discovering and avoiding of Schisme Answ Take heed of entertaining scruples of Conscience about things of little moment for when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schismes began to break in p. 217. Q. What other Rule is necessary to be observed Answ That you do not endeavour to advance one Bishop against another much more a Presbyter against the Bishop which in St. Cyprian's language p. 222. is Erigere Altare contra Altare to set up Altar against Altar to which he imputeth the Original of all Church disorders and if you read him you would think he thought no other Church-tumult to be a Schisme but this For the general practice of the Church p. 221. was never to admit more than one Bishop at once in one See but it fell out among the Ancients sometime by occasion of difference in Opinion sometimes because of difference among those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two Bishops and sometime more were set up and all Parties striving to maintain their own Bishop made themselves several Congregations and Churches each refusing to participate with others p. 223. And seeing it is a thing very convenient for the Peace of the Church to have but one Bishop in a See at once Their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily or wantonly go about to infringe it FINIS MISERICORDIAM VOLO OR THE Pharisees LESSON SHEWING The Impiety and Vnreasonableness of contending for outward Formes and Ceremonies to the Violation of Obedience Charity and the Publick Peace Hand dubitem affirmare eos qui falluntur tamen fraternam communionem cum aliis retinere parati sunt esse coram Deo magis excusatos quà m qui veras opiniones in iis controversiis tuentur mutuam communionem cum aliis Ecclesiis etiam desiderantibus aspernantur Davenant pro pace Ecclesiae p. 24. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1677. THE PREFACE Concerning the Ceremonies of the Church IT is granted by all sober Protestants that the Church hath power of making Canons and Constitutions for Decency and Order in the publick worship of God and not only to prescribe the necessary circumstances of time and place but also to continue and establish those ancient rites of the Christian Church which were practised in the primitive times and are in themselves of an indifferent nature which authority of the Church was asserted in the Augustan confession and particularly by Mr. Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 10. S. 27. See T. C. l. 1. p. 27. and other worthy persons in the Reformation Which our Reformers also did assume to themselves as is declared in the 20th Article and hath been practised and defended against all Dissenters Acts 15.28 1 Corinth 11.16 as well by Scripture as by Antiquity and right reason and therefore those persons that condemn the Ceremonies of the Church which the Martyrs and Confessors of our Church did establish upon mature deliberation do reflect too severely upon those Worthies who with equal prudence and constancy did commend them to us And the Royal Martyr was so tender of their reputation Exact collect p. 26. that in his answer to the Parliaments Remonstrance he promiseth to reform the Ceremonies with these cautions 1. That the Reformation were pursued with such modesty and submission that the quiet of the Kingdom were not disturbed 2. Nor the decency and comeliness of God's service discountenanced 3. Nor the pious sober and devout actions of those reverend persons who were the first labourers in the blessed Reformation be scandalized and defamed And some that are not friends to Ceremonies have vindicated those persons in this respect Saines care for Church Communion p. 334. What shall we say of reverend Ridley saith Master Crofton hearty Hooper sincere Sanders trusty Tayler and most brave Bradford with the cloud of Witnesses that served God by the Liturgy to their last breath even in their most personal and dying devotions and suffered also for so doing having the same objected against them by their Persecutors and also pressed the people and their choicest friends to adhere to it and serve God by it And however some succeeding Christians have desired some reformation of the Liturgy they have constantly and with due devotion served God in the use thereof and defended the same against the censorious Brownists and rigid Separatists And the first reformation had the perfection of substance though not of degrees Gods true worship was restored to a right order of ministration the Ordinances of God did then truly exist as to their substance and salvably as to their Ministerial mode towards the people otherwise those holy Men had not wherein to rejoyce before God and the World And certainly they did not entayl a Popish Superstitious or Idolatrous Yoke as some call the Ceremonies on the Church of God Mr. Cartwright was one of the first Opposers of the Ceremonies and instead of acquainting you with the Answers of Arch-Bishop Whitgift and judicious Hooker to his arguments it will be sufficient to say that Mr. Cartwright himself hath said enough to confure the dissenters of our times for first he opposed them only as inconvenient not unlawful and perswaded Ministers rather to wear the Garments than cease their Ministry 2d Reply p. 262. and in his Evangelical Harmony on Luke 22. à v. 14. ad 19. he saith that kneeling in the receiving of the Sacrament being incommodious in its own nature and made more incommodious by Popish Superstition p. 877. Edit ult is not so to be rejected that for the sake thereof we should abstain from the Sacrament because the thing is not in its own nature unlawful And what his judgment was in the case of Separation appears in a Letter of his to Mr. Harrison lately published And in another Letter to his Sister Anne Stubs reproving her for stumbling at this stone that because of some defects in a Church instead of concluding that Church to be imperfect she concluded it to be no Church The wise and holy Mr. Hildersham Bradshaw Paget Ball Gifford and other learned Nonconformists of old did foresee and greatly fear this Spirit saith Mr. Baxter Cure of Divisions p. 188. But this Spirit being very troublesome and pragmatical the most learned of the dissenters did alway endeavour to moderate it as well by their quiet and peaceable practice as by their learned and earnest arguments and exhortations to unity in the publick Worship And accordingly when King James shortly after his entry into the Throne had appointed the conference at Hampton Court where Doctor
glutted themselves with the Bloud of many Noble Heroes and learned Clergy-men And besides the many thousands that dyed for their Religion and Loyalty there were very many that perished also in Rebellion against God and the King He had little charity for his Brethren that would not on such easie conditions redeem them from the grave and hell if we may argue from a Parable Dives had more charity in that place of Torment than was in this Preachers breast and if this be a mark of godliness Satan needs not to be transformed to pass for an Angel of light sure I am nothing can be more opposite to this Evangelical truth which the Text that is before us commends viz. of preferring mercy before Sacrifice I commend it therefore to your serious consideration whether those persons who so pertinaciously insist upon the abolishing of our Ceremonies as to increase our divisions and engage us again in Bloud and confusion are not acted by a like Spirit of perverseness that delighting it self to live in the fire of contention takes pleasure in drawing others and tormenting them in the like flames At the happy return of our Dear Soveraign who after the example of his Martyred Father was careful to see the Church established in its beauty we found this evil Spirit so violently to oppose as if it had taken seven worse than it self to secure the possession which it had in the hearts of the people being in danger of being cast out then was Nehustan sent abroad to perswade the people that the Liturgy Ceremonies and other things used in the Church of England ought not to be imposed nor retained but utterly extirpated and laid aside and that every one in his place ought to do his part to the abolishing of it and not sit still in the midst of such defilements and snares but discover their hatred of them decline their use and endeavour the rooting of them out and all upon this ground that things which have been abused in false Worship must be laid aside Gilaspy Then comes another Boreas from the North whence most of our evils came called a Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies which he explains to be a contending for the purity of Christ against the corruptions of Anti-christ and this Spirit as if he were indeed of the triumphant party leads in chains no meaner persons than Hooker Morton Burges Sprint Paybody Andrews Saravia Tilen Spotswood Lindsey Forbes c. who were all particularly confuted and vanquished by him as he boasted But this pitiful man dealt very mercifully with them for their chains were such as fell off of their own accord and so do those viperous appellations which he endeavours to fix on the Church and her practises calling them Popish Antichristian Idle and Idolized Prefaco p. 6. for thus he bespeaks the Church of Scotland Oh thou fairest among Women what hast thou to do with the inveagling appurtenances and habiliments of Babylon the whore c. But his Arguments are as impotent as his Obloquy the naming of which is confutation enough at least if the Reader will but turn his negatives into affirmatives and his affirmatives into negatives the weakness of the man and his manner of arguing will be manifest to all As First when he says we are not to account the Ceremonies matters of small importance contrary to the sense of ours and all the Reformed Churches which account them things indifferent and not worth the contending for Secondly Let not says he the pretence of peace and unity cool your fervour or make you spare to oppose your selves to those idle and Idolized Ceremonies contrary to the Text and to Rom. 14.17 Thirdly beware also you be not deceived with a pretence of the Churches consent and of Uniformity as well with the ancient Church as with the now Reformed Churches in the forms and customs of both as if the consent of the Ancient Church before Popery and all the Reformed since were one of the snares to be avoided Fourthly moreover because the foredeck and hindeck of all our opposites probations do resolve and rest finally into the authority of a law therefore we certiorate you with Calvin that Si acquievistis imperio pessimo laqueo vos induistis as if there were no difference between the establishing of iniquity by a Law of which Galvin speaks and the laws of our Superiors for decency and order Fifthly do not reckon it enough to bear within the inclosure of your secret thoughts a certain dislike of the Ceremonies and other abuses now set on foot Contrary to S. Paul Ro. 14.22 except by profession and action you evidence the same and so shew your Faith by your fact principally prayers and supplications are the weapons of our Spiritual warfare but as they ought to be done so the atchieving of other secundary means ought not to be left undone These are the chief of his arguments which he sums up in the Epistle dedicated to all and every one in the Reformed Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and you may judge by these of the validity of the whole Book which consists of 336. pages wherein is nothing objected or asserted but what hath been abundantly confuted by cogent reasons and arguments After this Scottish Pipe march many English Reformado's headed by Dr. Owen whose chief objection is that the ceremonies are unwritten and unscriptural inventions of Men Evangelical love p. 212. and that Christ's warrant and authority must be shewn for what is imposed in the worship of God The ridiculousness of this objection hath been clearly demonstrated by the Reverend Bishop Sanderson and others Then Mr. Hickman sends forth his Apology and his Bonasus Vapulans who inveighs against the ceremonies especially for being significant and instanceth in the sign of the Cross which is made a sign of dedication to God in Token that c. Whereas others of his party do oppose them because they are not significative enough To him succeeds the Author of the Rehersal who says that the Conformists defining a Sacrament to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace Omitting the chief part of the definition viz. ordained by Christ himself do make the ceremonies of a Sacramental nature To these the learned Ritchel in his Tract de Ceremoniis gives satisfactory answers to all unprejudiced Readers and Durel Parker * Mr. Calvin Mr. Baxter have done the same 41.61 p. 90 454. and others have done no less It will be but labour in vain to repeat here all the solid replies to those empty objections One such argument from Scripture as our Saviour urgeth in the Text against those that on pretence of contending for their own against the established rites and customes of the Church do violate the laws of Obedience Love and Peace will silence them all if they be not possest with a spirit of contradiction For if we should suppose that the rites and ceremonies
were as expresly set down in the Gospel to be used or for born in the publick worship of God as the rites and circumstances concerning Sacrifices were in the ceremonial law yet as the Sacrifices themselves much more the modes of preparing and offering them might be used or omitted for the performance of moral duties so doubtless if things of an external ceremonial nature had been commanded or forbidden in express terms they might yet be observed or omitted as the substantial service of God and obedience to his greater commands for charity and peace might be best performed But these things being not determined particularly by the Gospel but left under general rules for decency and order may doubtless be determined by a lawful authority such as that of our Church under our Gracious Soveraign is and being so determined and imposed there is an advantage on the side of Authority against a scrupulous conscience which ought to over-rule the practice of such who are members of that Church It remains only that I endeavour to remove an objection or two against what is here said Object 1. If the ceremonies be things of such indifferency Why do not they who are in authority dispense with the use of them or totally lay them aside for the sake of peace and unity Answ 1. The Magistrate doth but his duty in providing for the solemnity of Divine worship according to those general rules for decency and order prescribed by the Apostles 2ly What the Magistrate doth is not only agreeable to his private discretion and conscience for he practiseth the same things that he prescribes but according to the deliberate determinations of the most wise and pious persons of the Nation in their solemn Assemblies and doubtless as St. Ambrose wrote to St. Augustine if they had known any thing better they would have practised that 3ly It will very much impair the authority and reputation of Magistrates so to comply with the importune clamours of scrupulous persons as to alter or abrogate their laws and constitutions as oft as discontented or seduced persons shall demand it And though it be very uncertain that the craving party will be satisfied when they are indulged in all that they desire yet it is certain that others will be incouraged to make new supplications and so create perpetual disturbances And the gratifying of a few weaklings or male-contents may give just cause of offence to a greater and better party who are desirous to worship God in the beauty of holiness and are really grieved at the irreverence and disorders which are and have been too observable in the Meetings of dissenting parties 4ly Hereby the Magistrate should tacitly confess himself guilty of all those accusations that have been charged upon him and his predecessors of imposing unlawful superstitious and Popish ceremonies and persecuting the godly and conscientious people that could not conform to them And 5ly It would greatly defame those worthy Martyrs who not only thought fit to retain them and gave cogent arguments for the lawful use of them but sealed the established worship and discipline with their bloud not only in the Marian days but under the late Usurpation also 6ly It is an unreasonable thing to demand that which they themselves would deny if they were in the Magistrates place for let me ask them whether they being well perswaded of their discipline and order viz. that it is agreeable to the Word of God to antiquity and reason would comply with the desires of dissenting parties to make such alterations as should from time to time be required by others contrary to their own judgments and consciences and to this we need no other answer than the practice of the Objectors when they were in Authority And who can doubt but that they who being subjects do assume to themselves a power of directing and prescribing to the Magistrate if they were in the Magistrates place would take it very ill to be directed by their Subjects 7ly If the established ceremonies were removed others of a like nature would succeed as unscriptural and symbolical as they such as sitting at the Sacrament and lifting up the hands to Heaven it being impossible almost to perform divine service with any decency without such and seeing that for many centuries of the Primitive Church wherein other ceremonies have been complained of by Saint Augustine and others no man ever objected against the ceremonies which are used in our Church and which were by those famous Reformers and Martyrs retained in our Liturgy it is no argument of a meek or quiet spirit to make objections and cause divisions upon pretence of Superstition in the Liturgy and ceremonies and to expect that the Church to salve their reputation should betray her own and by abrogating her sanctions give the world more reason than yet hath been given to believe that the Church of England even from the first Reformation hath been in a dangerous error and the Factions that opposed her have had truth and justice on their side In the second Objection Papists and Sectaries joyntly say That other dissenters may as well justifie their separation from us on pretence of the Ceremonies retained by our Church as we can justifie our separation from the Church of Rome by reason of the Ceremonies injoyned by her To which I shall not need to make any other answer than a short appeal to the Consciences of all unprejudiced persons Whether the Church of England requiring the use of three Ceremonies declared by her self to be indifferent and acknowledged by her enemies not to be unlawful can be thought by any sober person to give as great and just a cause of Separation from her as all that load of Superstition in the Church of Rome of which St. Augustine complained in his days that the Jewish yoke was less heavy To require Prayers in an unknown Tongue and to Saints and Angels is doubtless more offensive than to use a solemn plain form of words taken either from the Scripture or the ancient Liturgies of the Church What is the Surplice Cross in Baptism and kneeling at the Sacrament for devotion if compared to their Adoration of the transubstantiated Host worshipping of Images invocation of Saints their doctrines of the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility of Purgatory and Indulgences besides the innumerable ceremonies daily practised by them And as the Sectaries will not condemn the Church of England for receding from these extreams so neither can the Romanists blame her for want of moderation in retaining both purity of Doctrine and decency of Worship and abhorring those other extreams of Sacriledge and profanation of holy things of Rebellion and Bloud shed though under pretence of Religion wherewith with both they and the Sectaries have defiled themselves It was the pious care of the Pilots of our Church to conduct their Successors between the two rocks of Superstition and Idolatry on one hand and irreverence and irreligion on the other in the same course