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A19178 A reply to Dr. Mortons generall Defence of three nocent [sic] ceremonies viz. the surplice, crosse in baptisme, and kneeling at the receiving of the sacramentall elements of bread and wine. Ames, William, 1576-1633.; Calderwood, David, 1575-1650, attributed name. 1622 (1622) STC 559; ESTC S100126 108,813 126

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to creep into their place The sacraments sayth he doe signifie grace conferred and morall signes doe signifie a dutie of man in some morall vertue But the Scripture teacheth us that the Sacraments doe also signifie the dutie of man towards God For by the sacraments the whole covenant is signed and sealed betwixt God and man so that not onely Gods conferring of grace but mans dutie through grace is there professed and represented This the name Sacrament as it signifieth an oath or obligation doth import by Bellarmines owne confession de sacram l. 1. c. 8. This the name ●ucharist doth also shew in the Lords Supper notifying that thankfulnesse we owe unto God This the words of institution doe plainly testifie in the Lords Supper Doe this in remembrance of me And I think the Def. vvhen he considereth the matter well will not dare to deny but that sanctitie which he sayth is signified by the Surplice is signified in Baptisme and constancie also which hee ascribeth to the crosse If he doe he may be easily confuted by those places where the scripture speaketh of it especially Rom. 6. throughout the chapter 2 Against that morall signification attributed unto humane inventions I propound this argument in the words of a ●overend man whom for some reason I will not name To be a teacher of my understanding and an exciter of my devotion are such effects at require vertue inherent or assistent to those things which should be causes of them● but no signe of mans devising hath any such vertue in it or with it for then it must come from that word put forth in the creation and s● things naturall should haue a force communicated to them of teaching supernaturall or else by Gods after-institution such we read not any but of Baptisme and the Lords supper onely or by the Churches impetration But this cannot be for prayer obtaineth those effects of things to which they serue by Gods creation and institution but not any creating or new conception of things to supernaturall uses For then the Church might ask that this or that creature might be made a sacrament unto her in which case she should pray without all warrant from Gods will 3 If humane inventions be such morall admonishers in spirituall duties the consciences of men without doubt are bound to subject themselves unto their admonitions and then unto them from whom they doe admonish or by whom they are made admonishers i. to mortal men such as our convocation consists on Is not this good divinitie 4 Whatsoever is ordained in the Church as a teaching signe that ought often to bee interpreted unto the people in Sermons for that is the teaching which must cleare and perfect all teaching of signes and should not they preach fairly in the name and words of Christ that should expound unto the people the signification of a surplice and a crosse Would not this also be much for the edification of the people that sometime they must heare of the morall good vvhich the ceremonies teach and sometime be admonished of the right meaning of our convocation house in the appointing of these ceremonies left they turne them to morall evill in superstition and at other times they must be instructed how to defend these ceremonies against the opposers of them lest otherwise they use them without faith Surely all the Sermons which many Parishes heare would ●caree be sufficient for this doctrine of Ceremonies 5 I dare appeale to the eonfciences of the best conforming Christians whether ever they found themselves truely stirred up to holinesse by the Surplice or to constancie by the Crosse one thing I am sure of that in some one congregation where these ceremonies haue not appeared for 20 or 30 yeares together there hath been more holinesse and constancie of faith then in many Cathedrall Churches where they were never omitted This poynt being cleared there need no great answer be given to the cavill of making signification the chiefe poynt of a sacrament For if the Def. meant to deale plainly vvhy doth he change the vvords that he may find some colour for his accusation The Abridgement sayth onely that it is a chiefe part he accuseth them for saying it is the chiefe part betwixt vvhich two phrases he knoweth how great roome there is for a wedge 2. To proue that signification is one chiefe part the Abridgement alleageth Gen. 17. 11. Exod. 12. 13. Luk. 22. 19. why is no answer given to these places if the assertion bee false 3 The Def. himselfe in his distinction which he bringeth here concerning a sacrament doth allow one chiefe part of a sacraments nature to be signification ad modum signi Be●●armine therefore hath as good a friend of him as of the Abridgement But sayth he arguing herein against himselfe if signification bee a principall part of a sacrament then all the morall signes used in the Le●iticall worship should be properly deemed sacraments Why so because things take their denomination from the principall parts True but 1. as hath been observed there is difference betwixt a principall and the principall 2. Every thing that hath denomination from a principall part hath not properly the same name vvith it A man may in some sense be called spirituall because his principall part is a spirit yet he may not be properly deemed a spirit 3. all those ceremonies which had signification in the Leviticall law haue this denomination from sacraments that they are properly called Sacramentall 1. participating something of the nature of sacraments though they be not sacraments properly so called SECT VI. A Second objection from reason is here brought in● viz. that if ceremonies which God himselfe hath ordained to teach his Church by then morall signification may not now be used much lesse may any of those which man hath devised But vvhy doth the Def. passe by all the allegations vvhich belong to this reason in the Abridgement p. 33. 34. they cite to this purpose first the Councel of Nice Austine Martyr Bullinger Lavater Hospinian Piscator Cooper Westphal●s c. And then after Calvin Bullinger Hospinian Arcularius Virel Bison Reynolds Willet c. And againe Calvin Bullinger Chemnitius Danaeus Hospinian Arcularius our book of Homilies Humphrey Reynolds Willet c. Are all these worth no answer at least they shew that this is no new reason divised by the Nonconformists but the common tenent of Protestants and the ground whereby they confute the superstition of Papists Yet let us heare his answer to the reason as it is nakedly in it selfe considered remembring alwayes that he can say nothing but that which the Papists may as well say for many of their ceremonies against this argument pressed vpon them by our Divines His first answer is that the use of some Iewish rite without any Iewish opinion is not damnable instancing in circumcision and Easter Where 1. he should haue told us how a Iewish rite can bee used without some part of a
of his treatise concerning indifferent things But an answer to that treatise or to this argument was never yet seene in print though that begging of the question be the chiefe ground of those invectiues vvhich are ordinarily used in Sermons and vvritings about these questions viz. that they are things indifferent This argument is also found in a treatise of the same authors concerning Divine worship printed 1604. 2. Though it had never seen the print before now yet that doth not hinder but it may be sound For all sound reasons are not found in print 3. There is none of our Divines that treateth of vvorship in generall and particular but hath for substance this learning viz. that religious worship is that which is done to the honour of God and if it bee according to Gods commandement then it is true if not then it is false The Def. cannot name one of all that ever handled the common place of worship that hath ●ot so taught which if it be true then the institution of God doth not alter the common nature of vvorship 1. it doth not make that vvorship which otherwise being used to some end and in the same manner without Gods institution vvere no worship at all But Gods institution sayth the Def. doth distinguish necessary worship from indifferent and essentiall from accidentall Grant all this what can be made of it Doth it therefore alter the common nature of worship making that worship vvhich without it being used in the same manner and to the same end is no worship here is no consequence at all Beside neither scripture nor interpreters of Scripture nor any good reason will allow that there is any indifferent worship of God Neither is it the institution of God common to all worship which maketh one more and another lesse principall but the nature of the thing instituted by him But the offering of any coloured sheep was indifferent before the Leviticall law afterward the offering of an unspotted lamb was necessarie and essentiall in the worship of God To which objection I answer 1. This his opposition of offering any coloured sheep before the Leviticall law to the offering of an unspotted lamb afterward is vain and without ground from the law of God seeing it doth no where appeare in the Scriptures but that it was as lawfull to offer any coloured sheep after the law given as well as before God requires by Moses that the offerings of his people should be perfect Levit. 1. 3. 10 c. And this might well be notwithstanding diversitie of colour The party-coloured sheepe of Iaakob were not imperfect but of the perfectest sort and that by the speciall direction and blessing of God Gen. 30. 41. 42. with 31. 11. 12. God complaineth of those that offered corrupt sacrifices torne lame and sicke Mal. 1. 13. 14. But for difference of colour there is little colour or shew of reason that God gaue any such charge in his law And it is the Doctors ignorance of the story or want of due consideration that moved him thus to write Secondly suppose a lambe without spot to be forbidden then I answer That if any man before the commandement had offered an unspotted Lamb with the same mind that after it was to be offered with as thinking that his sacrifice should in that respect haue been the more acceptable unto God because it was of a lamb unspotted then the offering of such a lambe had been as essential worship before as it was after though it could not be so true and lawfull Did the Def. never read nor heare that matter and forme doe usually make up the essence of things and that in institutions which are means to an end the respect of that end is also required to the being but a right efficient not so let him consider a litle of the grounds of logick or read our most logicall Divines such as Sadeel is and he shall soone perceive the truth or else without that labour let him or any other of common sence tell me if the Temple of Ierusalem should haue been built with all the appurtenances and sacrifices with other observances there used without any commandement of God according as they vvere by his appoyntment had there not been essentiall false worship erected unto God haue the Papists and Heathens no essential false worship but onely accidental It is a shame to confute such unlearned conceits SECT X. HEre are many proofes conjoyned under the name of M. Hy. and others the answers to which are just such as the ceremonies be meerly formall without essence or substance of truth The first is ceremonies are imposed to breed an opinion of holinesse as M. Hooker affirmeth p. 61. and therefore are parts of Gods worship The consequence is not denied by the Def. not yet the antecedent directly so that the vvhole argument seemeth to be granted onely the Def. sayth that Mr. Hooker did not asscribe operative holinesse either by infusion or inhesion which two tearms are vnreasonably by him dis-ioyned but onely significatiue as his words import To which I answer 1. that as the nice distinctions vvhich are now used in the schooles of Iesuits do not help but that Popish superstition is as grosse as ever it was in practise so this distinction of operatiue infusion inhaesion significatiue doth nothing helpe but the common people in many places inclined to superstition doe attribute as much holinesse to some of these ceremonies as they doe to some holy ordinances of God 2. The Patrones of our ceremonies such as Mr. Hooker vvas doe attribute that holinesse to the ceremonies vvhich the Fathers did Now that they asscribed operatiue holinesse unto some of them Mr. Parker hath made plaine in his booke of the Crosse Part. 1. p. 77. 90 92. c. 3. Mr. Hooker doth not here speake of reverence signified by the ceremonies but of reverence to be signified towards them as being things holy and vvorthy reverence 4 What Mr. Hooker asscribed unto the crosse is to be seen in M. Parker p. 91. The second reason is because the ceremonies are the constitutions of a sacred Synod The force of vvhich argument lyeth in this that a holy Assembly of spirituall Lords and their assistants if they bee truely holy and spirituall in their authoritie and in the exercise of it will appoynt no ceremonies but holy and by the the observance of the said ceremonies haue some spirituall honour redounding unto themselues because the vertue vvhich is found in any effect doth redound alwayes unto the praise of the cause To this the Defendant giveth no reall answer onely he doth affirme contrary to the truth that our Convocations may bee called sacred as well as the Churches of Christ Saints by calling Whereas beside other differences Churches are of God our convocations are of man Churches are gathered for the holy Worship of God convocations as experience sheweth for nothing lesse The third reason is because the ceremonies are appropriated to