OF

CEREMONIES,

WHY SOME BE ABOLISHED, AND SOME RETAINED.

such Ceremonies as be used in the Church, and have had their beginning by the institution of man, some at the first were of godly intent and purpose devised, and yet at length turned to vanity and superstition: some entered into the Church by undiscreet devotion, and such a zeal as was without knowledge; and for be­cause they were winked at in the beginning, they grew daily to more and more abuses, which not only for their unprofitableness, but also because they have much blinded the people, and obscured the glory of God, are worthy to be cut away, and clean rejected: other there be, which although they have been devised by man, yet it is thought good to reserve them still, as well for a decent order in the Church,( for the which they were first devised) as because they pertain to edifi­cation, whereunto all things done in the Church( as the Apostle teacheth) ought to be referred.

And although the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony, in itself considered, is but a small thing; yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God, Let all things be done among you, saith Saint Paul, in a seemly and due order: The appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men; therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor pre­sume to appoint or alter any publick or common Order in Christ's Church, except he be lawfully called and authorized thereunto.

And whereas in this our time, the minds of men are so diverse, that some think it a great matter of conscience to depart from a piece of the least of their Cere­monies, they be so addicted to their old customs; and again on the other side, some be so new­fangled, that they would innovate all things, and so despise the old, that nothing can like them, but that is new: it was thought expe­

dient, not so much to have re­spect how to please and satisfy either of these parties, as how to please God, and profit them both. And yet lest any man should be offended, whom good reason might satisfy, here be certain causes rendered, why some of the accustomed Ceremonies be put away, and some retained and kept still.

Some are put away, because the great excess and multitude of them hath so increased in these latter days, that the burden of them was intolerable; whereof

Saint Augustine in his time com­plained, that they were grown to such a number, that the estate of Christian people was in worse case concerning that matter, than were the Jews. And he counsel­led that such yoke and burthen should be taken away, as time would serve quietly to do it. But what would Saint Augustine have said, if he had seen the Ceremo­nies of late days used among us; whereunto the multitude used in his time was not to be compared? This our excessive multitude of Ceremonies was so great, and many of them so dark, that they did more confound and darken, than declare and set forth Christ's benefits unto us. And besides this, Christ's Gospel is not a Ce­remonial Law,( as much of Moses' Law was) but it is a Religion to serve God, not in bondage of the figure or shadow, but in the free­dom of the Spirit; being content only with those Ceremonies which do serve to a decent Order and godly Discipline, and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God, by some notable and special signification, whereby he might be edified. Furthermore, the most weighty cause of the a­bolishment of certain Ceremonies was, That they were so far abused, partly by the superstitious blind­ness of the rude and unlearned, and partly by the unsatiable ava­rice of such as sought more their own lucre, than the glory of God,