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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80635	Some treasure fetched out of rubbish: or, Three short but seasonable treatises (found in an heap of scattered papers), which Providence hath reserved for their service who desire to be instructed, from the Word of God, concerning the imposition and use of significant ceremonies in the worship of God. viz. I. A discourse upon 1 Cor. 14.40. Let all things be done decently and in order. Tending to search out the truth in this question, viz. Whether it be lawful for church-governours to command indifferent decent things in the administration of God's worship? II. An enquiry, whether the church may not, in the celebration of the Sacrament, use other rites significative than those expressed in the Scripture, or add to them of her own authority? III. Three arguments, syllogistically propounded and prosecuted against the surplice: the Cross in Baptism: and kneeling in the act of receiving the Lord's Supper.	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; Nichols, Robert, Mr.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6459; Thomason E1046_2; ESTC R208022	73,042	79

24. q. 4. Arg. 2. Divinum et integrum non esset misterium si quicquam ex te adderes Chrys homl 7. in 1 Corrinth Bell. de Sacr. l. 1. c. 9.14 de Script l. 4. c. 5. Christus in Ecclesia solus potest Sacramenta constituere Mald. in Matth. 26.11 Zepper de sacra lib. 1. The Sacraments were ordained to move lead and instruct our dull and heavy hearts by sensible Creatures that so our negligence in not hearing or marking the Word of God might be amended Jewel's Treatise of the Sacraments That the Sacraments are expresly commanded of God in holy Scripture and that in the Institution of a Sacrament there must be express mention of the material parts thereof as it was in the Institution of Baptism and the Lord's Supper yea the Papists themselves acknowledge that Ceremonies Sacramental must be Instituted by Authority divine not humane though they refuse to be judged in this by the Scripture and fly to unwritten Traditions which blasphemously they make to be one part of the word of God in authority equal to the holy Scripture But signs appointed to signify by analogy or proportion annexed to the solemn Worship of God are Sacramental The antients define a Sacrament to be A visible sign or form of an invisible Grace A sign not naturall but voluntary not indicant but analogicall teaching or shadowing by representation So they call a Sacrament a visible Word as in Scripture they are termed Signs or Memorials In modern Writers the name Sacrament is given to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to the Altars Sacrifices Cherubins Lights and all Ceremonies ordained for signification in time of the Law as well as to the Rainbow Manna the Rock the Red-Sea Circumcision and the Paschal-Lamb Some of which were instituted to teach Man his Duty as others to seal and confirm the Promise of God or if all of them were seals of some spirituall Promises they were all Signs of some spiritual Duty and Sacramentall in both respects Whence we may conclude That the common nature of a Sacrament doth agree to signs determined by representation to teach any duty that man oweth to God his absolute Soveraign and mercifull Father in Christ Jesus whether Supernaturall or Morall The Precepts contained in the Book of Life are and do set forth the mind of God unto us no lesse than the Promises made therein nor can any reason be given why the representation of some spirituall Duty for all Duties that man is to perform unto God in Christ are spirituall Duties by a mystical Rite should not as properly pertain to the nature of a Sacrament as the shadowing or sealing of some spirituall Promise Quanquam ne professi● quidem fidei Nam attendendum non tantum quid velit qui profitetu● sed ●tiam quid ●●●ptum sit ei apud quem opertet professio●●●●s ●●● Ch. de Sacr. lib. 1. cap. 8. ursin tom 2. pag. 1630. What the Word doth bring to the ear that the Sacrament doth exhibit to the other senses The whole Scripture doth testifie That from the beginning of the World the Lord did intend this in Instituting Ceremonies that they should represent those things to the Eyes of men which his heavenly Word doth offer to their Ears But commandments are part of the Word as well as Promises The Will of God manifesting what he will do for us is a mystery so is it prescribing what Service he will have from us and a visible corporal material element determined to teach either of them or both is a sign Sacramentall and mysticall expressing some sacred mystery to the Eye plac = marg Signa cum adres divinas adhibentur Sacramenta vocantur Aug. de Doctr. Chr. lib. 3. cap. 6. ad Max. Ep. 5. as the Word doth to the sense which receiveth the Voyce We know no more what Service God will have a Christian perform unto his Highnesse then we do what good he would have men to expect from him by a lively Faith and it seems altogether as lawfull for man to devise signs for the confirmation of his Faith as to admonish and teach his Duty What difference can be made betwixt an addition to the means of instruction appointed of God and to the means of our assurance prescribed by him The commandments and the Promises are so knit together that it cannot be conceived how a sign should be appointed to teach man his Duty and not to assure him of some good from God in the use thereof For 〈◊〉 Will is made known by Covenant wherein he freely bin●●●●●elf to bless us upon condition of sincere and faithfull Obedie●●●●●s he obligeth us to be obedient to his Commandments that we may be blessed and the signs added to the Word do teach both as in the Word it self both parts are published Again it is one proper end of the Sacraments by striking the senses by outward representative Elements to teach the understanding help the memory stirr up the affections and excite devotion But for this end also are significant Rites devised unless we shall confesse them to be vain idle fruitless absurd and sensless And thus agreeing with Sacraments in their nature and end of necessity they must be confessed to be Ceremonies Sacramental The Scripture doth not so distinguish betwixt Signs Seals or signs significative obsignant as to make the one Sacramental not the other rather under the name sign it expresseth the nature of a Sacrament which consisteth in the analogy proportion which is betwixt a sign determined to signify and the thing signified The signs which it hath pleased God to add to his Covenant are not bare naked empty shadows but lively Seals of divine Grace Promised effectual Teachers of man's duty signs of man's duty Signs and Seals both of God's speciall favour and mercy in Christ Jesus ursia Catech. q. 65. explic 1. Gen. 9.12 By the Sacrament man is bound to God and by the same God vouchsafeth to bind himself to man Jewel's Treatise of the Sacrament See 1 Cor. 9.2 2 Tim. 2.19 Apo. 7.2 9 4 Matth 27.66 Vis Ursie tom 4. pag. 1614. 1668. Ursin pag. 1673. and in both respects Sacraments Some signs are ordained meerly to assure and confirm unto us the Promises which God hath been pleased to make Some both to teach visibly what the Lord requireth and commandeth in his holy Truth and to confirm our Faith in what he hath promised in his holy Word but all are Sacraments in each respect and what is a Seal but a visible sign annexed to a Promise to testify or assure it And how can a sign be added to it but it must testify or confirm Even from hence that it is set to the Promise by him who hath Authority to make it and Power to make it good it is a Seal So that the Word Seal doth rather note the speciall nature and end of some Signs as they are referred to

once admitted into the Worship of God did multiply and increase till they had obscured if not clean covered and abolished the simplicity and glory of God's Ordinances as bad weeds overgrow the Corn and secretly stollen the heart away from all due reverence and respect to the word of Life and seals of our Salvation For as a man is blind carnall impotent and yet a Lover of his own devices So are the signs devised by him dark vailing the brightness of the Gospel carnall not spirituall dead without Power and yet better affected more delighted in than the Sacraments themselves No sooner was the sign of the Cross added unto Baptism and made a sign like to the Lord's but it presently became greater than the Water which was Christ's sign and that in the Eyes of them who so advanced it Moreover admit Reason for an Umpire in this matter and Images cannot be kept out of the Church for no means is more profitable to inform the mind confirm the memory and move the affection than is the sight of a Picture artificially made cut or carved if a man may believe himself or give credit to his immagination If the Will of God be not unto us instead of all reasons we shall be hardly drawn to dislike that manner of teaching or worshipping A man that is enlightned with the knowledge of God's Will and the mystery of Salvation may lawfully in his meditations make use of diverse Creatures or things that are apt and fit to represent Spirituall things unto him but he must not take upon him to determine them to be used as signs for such an end and purpose for having no promise of God to come by that course he can expect no blessing from God in that practice but the contrary Seeing therefore man is himself ignorant and unwise neither able to receive the things of the Spirit nor discern that which pertaineth to the Kingdom of Christ nor yet being enlightned with the knowledge of the Truth according to godlinesse to devise any fit or acceptable means whereby God should be worshipped or his People taught in the wayes of holiness It followeth That in the worship of God signs not approved of him in his Word cannot be instituted or used in Faith and consequently are to be held unlawfull 5. Christ Jesus the great Doctor of his Church Mat. 23.8 10. Joh. 4.25 Acts 1.3 being called of his heavenly Father to teach to us perfectly and at once the whole Counsell of God and the things that did pertain to the Kingdom of God to the end of the World was faithfull in all his House as was Moses and made known unto his Disciples whatsoever he received of his Father Heb. 3.2 5. But Moses prescribed the form of God's worship in every particular Ceremony significant and brought in none Joh. 15.15 no not one into the Church which the Lord himself did not institute giving charge to the Church of the Jews That the● should neither add thereto Exod. 25.9 38 39 40 27 19 39 42 43. Deut. 12 32. nor take ought therefrom Therefore our Saviour Christ also taught his Disciples what Ceremonies significant ought to be used in the Church of God to whose Ordinance nothing must be added from whose Institution nothing ought to be diminished The old Testament was indeed delivered unto one People only of the World The Commission of the Gospel was Go teach all Nations But the liberty of Instituting Rites significant was no greater to the Christian Church Vis Jun. Animad in Bell. lib. 4. de pont Cap. 17. than to the Church of the Jews They had a prescription of particular Ceremonies most fitly agreeing to the polity of their Church and Common-wealth and dispensation of those times So hath the Christian Church also to which we are as precisely bound as ever was the Church of the Jews to the Ordinances appointed for that time and state as hath been shewed before in Circumstantiall matters concerning Time Place and Order of divine Service And several Christian Churches have liberty according to the generall Rules of Scripture to constitute what is most agreeable to the condition of the Country and doth best tend to Edification And in these things the Jews had Authority no less than the others In Ceremonies and Rites significant annexed to the Worship of God the Jews were tyed to the written Law of Moses and the Prophets nor may any thing be attempted lawfully by the Christian Church in things of this Nature more than was or ought to have been by them Though men be as different almost in Nature as in Nations and Languages yet must they of necessity submit themselves to the use of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which two Ceremonies onely are commanded by Divine precept and are to be received of all Christians that in truth and soundness professe the Gospel And seeing Christ Instituted no signs but these the Apostles commended no other to the severall Churches planted and dressed by them What necessity is there that difference of People to which the Gospel is now preached should inferr a liberty of inventing new Signs or Rites never seen or allowed of Christ Those that God prescribed for the Jews were fit for that Time and for that People none else might be devised those that Christ hath ordained for all Churches are sufficient most fit for them what shall be brought in besides and annexed to them doth want both his Approbation and Blessing As Moses was faithfull in the House of God as a Servant both in thing re●ll and rituall as some distinguish So was Christ also as a Son Neither did his faithfulness stand in removing the Law of Jewish Ceremonies and disburdening all Christians from the use of them but in prescribing Laws and Ordinances whereby the Church is to be ordered and instructed untill his second coming and that as particularly and expresly as Moses had done unto the Israelites To stand upon comparison betwixt Moses and Christ in perfection or reall faithfulness as some call it is not to this purpose for his perfection is one thing his faithfulnesse another and whom He did exceed in perfectnesse He did every way equalize in faithfulnesse in the House of God He did not onely teach a more excellent Doctrine than Moses but more full and perfect He did not onely antiquate what Ceremonies were to be shadows of good things to come and figures of man's Redemption by his Sacrifice upon the Crosse but he ordained also with what visible Signs and Tokens his Church should be nourtured and assured of his love and favour● As he died to bring Life to mankind raised up himself from Death ascended entred within the Vail and hath taken possession of the heavenly Mansion for us So did he give direction to his Apostles and in them to all Churches by what Statutes and Laws his People should be Governed by what Signs and Ceremonies they should be taught and confirmed

the Promises ratified assured by them than express the common nature of a Sacrament In orthodox Writers a Sign of God's Promise and a Seal of his Will and Pleasure are put for one and the same And whether we look to the truth of the thing it self or the Arguments which are brought to prove the lawfulness of devising symbolicall and analogicall Signs we shall find it as lawfull to devise Signs obsignant of God's Promises as significative of his pleasure and man's duty For to be a Teacher of the Understanding and Exciter of Devotion requireth power supernaturall no less than to be 〈◊〉 ●●firmer of the heart and he that hath Authority to ordain means ●●●mal for any of these ends can blesse them for all he that ca●●● appoint them for any one can do it so none they being all supernaturall exceeding the power of any Creature Man hath as much power to seal what he cannot bestow as to teach by his own Sign that which he cannot blesse to that end The Institution of means serving for the spirituall Instruction of the Church pertaineth to him that blesseth them to him it belongeth to ordain Seals of his Promises that can confert the Grace promised and both these are peculiar to one alone the Lord of All. The arguments that are alledged to demonstrate the liberty of the Church to Institute and devise significant Ceremonies do speak for power to ordain Signs obsignant if they conclude any thing at all Solomon they say built a brazen Altar and set it besides the Altar of the Lord offering thereon burnt Offerings 2 King 18.22 Apo. 6.9 H●b 13.10 Matth. 23.19 with Job 17.17 Exod. 24.4 Here is a humane Invention a new Ceremony having necessary relation to Worship in Sacrificing And was not the Altar appointed for Burnt-offering an essentiall part of God's Worship in time of the Law was it not a Type and Sign obsignant of Christ and his Grace was not this Altar erected by Solomon for the same principall and speciall end and use Jun. Innor in Exod 24.4 Par. in Gen. 12.7 Mart. loc com part 4. cap. 12. Sect. 21. Polan Synt. tom 2. lib. 9 cap 36. Fulk against Rhem in Mat. 23.19.8.7 Biza Epist 8. Zepper de Saer l. 2. Maldon in Jo. 20. Rhem. in 1 Tim. 4.14.18 Martyr thus reasoach against the Popish Consecration of Holy-water It is not the condition of men to institute Sacraments at their own pleasure because that is proper to God alone and to none besides him for Sacraments be Instruments of the Holy Ghost Mart loc com p. 4. c. 9. Juni Annot. in Exod 25. Assunsta adve●●atem rerun figurandam ●nt coassun●pta non propter siguram rerum sed propter Naturam figurarum for which God hath ordained the Brazen Altar to be erected An Altar was a principal Instrument of divine Service saith Martyr The Altar in the Temple was a figure of Christ's only singular true Sacrifice once offered and never can be sacrificed again saith Fulk our of Augustine Now if the Church in the time of the Gospel may take upon her to devise new significant Signs in God's Worship from this Example of Solomon and that such as be in kind different from them that are instituted of him She may challenge Power to ordain Signs to ordain obsignant Sign of Christ and his Grace essentiall parts of God's immediate Worship and in their proper and peculiar ends one with Baptism and the Lord's Supper as that Altar served to the same purpose that the other did which was builded by the express Commandment of the Lord. Again it is very usual with Writers protestant and Popish to call external Ceremonies signifying holy things by the name of Sacraments Sacramentalls or Sacramental Actions It is objected If signification be a principall part of a Sacrament then all the Moral Signs used in the Levitical Worship as namely Bells Lavers Lights Candlesticks and other Ceremonial Instruments even unto the very Snuffers of the Tabernacle should things taking their denomination from the principal parts be properly deemed Sacraments And the like may be said of Hog's Flesh from touching the Corps of the dead from Linsey-wolsey Apparel and a hundred such others whereby diverse Moralities are signified but no Sacrament implied but this nothing infringeth the strength of the former Reasons For the Cerenionies of the Law were either taken to figure out the Truth of things or co●flumed for the Nature of the Figures not for the Figure of things which were onely annexed to the Figures but of themselves did not figure o● point out any spiritual things Of this sort were many things pertaining to the Tabernacle Ark Altars and Sacrifices which did not by themselves typify any thing but onely pertain to the material constitution of the Type And amongst them are the Snuffers and Tongs of the Tabernacle to be reckoned for it cannot be shewed that of themselves they were ordained to represent any mystical Promine or spiritual Duty but did onely belong as necessary Ornaments to the Service of the Tabernacle Therefore we may exclude them from the number of Sacraments and yet hold the common Nature of a Sacrament to consist in proportion betwixt the Sign determined to signify and the thing signified Secondly amongst the Signs here degraded as unworthy the Name and not participating in the Nature of the Sacraments such are mentioned as did seal and assure spiritual promises Psal 119.105 Prov. 6.21 2 Pet. 1.19 Rev. 4.5 and not barely teach or signify moral duties The Gandlesticks and Lights did they not signify the light of the Divine Word and Holy Scripture by the power of God's holy Spirit enlightning the Church of God The washings in the Law did not they seal the purging away of Sin by the Blood of Christ Heb. 10.22 Psal 26.6 and that we being sprinkled in our hearts from an evil Conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water might draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith The High-Priest was a Type of Christ Exod. 28.2 our Mediator and the Bells of Gold that were placed upon the Ephod did shaddow forth the Voice of Christ which was to be heard of the People in his Teaching and Instruction Wherefore if a Sacrament be a Sign of God's Grace or free Promise the Lavers Lights Bels Candlesticks used in the Levitical Worship may truly be called Sacraments Heb. 9.2 And by Anthority from the Apostle Heb. 8.5 9.24 calling things that pertained to the Service of the Tabernacle Examples Shadows and Figures of heavenly things worthy Divines have not spared to call them Sacraments Thus writeth Augustine De Catech. rud c. 20. Ideo multis Sacramentis visibilibus onerati sunt quo servili jugò premerentur in observationibus ciborum in Sacrificiis ammalium in ali is innumer abilibus quae tamen signa erant rerum spiritualium ad Dominum Jesum Christum ad Ecclesiam

pertinentium Thirdly we find the Name Sacrament given to those Signs pertaining to the Levitical Worship which of all others if in truth that Title may be given unto any might most properly be called Moral by signification of Man's spiritual Duty and Obedience The Shew-Bread Exod. 25.30 39.36 1 Chron. 9.32 23.29 called in Hebrew Bread of faces or of presence because the Loavs or Cakes were to be set before the Face or in the Presence of God continually and the Bread of ordering and disposition because they were disposed in certain order and time In Greek Mat. 12.4 Mar. 2.26 Heb. 9.2 the Bread of Proposition and in a contrary order The proposition of Bread or Cakes Did it not signify the Office of the godly that they should stand continually before God receive his Commandments and sanctify themselves to his Obedience As the Ark signified the presence of God in his Church so his Table with the twelve Cakes signified the Multitude of the faithful presented unto God in his Church continually serving him It may be this placing of the Shew-bread before the Ark might signify that the Lord hath his Church continually in his sight and doth take care thereof But the principal thing taught thereby was the sincerity and purity of them that walk in the Light and present themselves before God What duty soever Man oweth to God it is to be performed by vertue of the Coveuant that he hath made with Man and so the Signs of God's Promise do imply Man's Duty and the Signs of Man's Duty do imply God's Promise though some do signify the one some the other And from this we learn Sacramentasunt v●sibilia signa qu●bus doctrina illa declaratur obsignatur Mart. de Sacr. l. 1. c. 2. q. 8. what is a Sacrament in general viz. A Sign Analogical of God's Will and Pleasure whether teaching what he requires or representing and fealing what he promiseth True Sacraments are Signs and Seals instituted of God to signify his Will and confirm his ' Promises But divine Institution is to be removed from the definition of a Sacrament in general as that which doth distinguish true from false and not explicate the common nature of the thing The distinction that some make of Signs moral signifying the spiritual Obedience which Man oweth unto God and mystical or sacramental representing and confirming the Promises of God is not to be received For Signs teaching to the Eye by representation what the Word bringeth to the Ear are Sacraments signifying the same thing that the Word doth as hath been shewed before But Signs analogical must be distinguished from negative Precepts forbidding the use of this or that in it self indifferent Jewishabstinence from diverse Mears legally unclean to shew that they were separated from other Nations to be a peculiar People unto the Lord cannot properly be called a Sign signifying by resemblance For God in that Law seemeth not so much to respect the Nature of those living Creatures prohibited to be eaten Act. 1.15 16 17 28. Juni Annot. in Lev. 11. but by this external Sign he would have his People to be discerned and separated from all other People And if this figurative commanded Abstinence should be deemed sacramental what errour is therein committed As by such Abstinence the Israelites professed themselvs to be the peculiar People of God separated from all idolatrous Nations round about them so did the Lord by this Commandment signify and assute that he had taken them to Covenant and made choice of them to be his peculiar Treasure The reason whereby this commanded Abstinence is urged doth confirm thus much Lev. 11.44 I am the Lord your God ye shall therefore sanctify your selvs and ye shall be holy for I am holy neither shall ye defile your selves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth For I am the Lord that brought you up out of the Land of Aegypt to be your God These figurative Ordinances then were Signs of the Covenant teaching what duty man owed to God and assuring back again what favour they had with God And when the Apostle speaking of Levitical Service Heb. 8.9 10. which stood onely in Meats and Drinks and diverse washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation Beza in Heb. 9.10 calleth them figures for the time then present doth he not in effect say they were Sacraments The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evill is called a Sacrament or a Sacramental Precept K●cherm Theol lib 2. c 2. Polan Synt. lib. 6. cap. 44. Chaimer panstrat tom 4. lib. 1. cap. 7. Si neque propter se neque ex suanatura certe propter aliud ex Inslitutione by many excellent and worthy Divines as it did signify to Man that he should have experience of good so long as he continued in Obedience and of evil or misery if he did disobey and as it was a Sign whereby he was admonished of his mutability and tried in his Obedience But if forbearance of the Tree of Knowledge was an Act Sacramental much more Abstinence from such Me●ts as by the Law were forbidden unto the Israelites Nor shall we need to fear the force of the Jesuite insulting over Protestants by this Objection viz. If Sacraments be onely Signs then the Crucisix is a better Sign to signify the death of Christ than the Sacraments For we acknowledge our Sacraments not bare Signs of God's Promise or significations of Man's Duty but holy Seals of what he promiseth to us and we by stipulation promise back again unto him And this the Jesuite himself doth and cannot but acknowledge howsoever impudently against Conscience he imputes unto us his own device for our Doctrine But we may further tell this Romish Proctor that a Crucifix made to teach by proportion or resemblance that Christ dyed for our sins or that God gave his Son to suffer death for our Redemption is a Sacrament or a sacramental Sign signifying by special Representation though false and erroneous because it is devised by man not ordained by God The greatest Defenders of mystical Signs distinguish them into moral and sacramental which differ say they from the former both as the Sacramental are significant by special Representation and as they are obsignant by ratifying and applying of God's Covenant of Grace unto us And from this we may gather that Spiritual sigus which signify by representation the promise of God as the Crucifix doth are Sacramental else is the distinction it self faulty and the difference which is made betwixt signs Moral and Sacramental And yet we make not Signification the principal part of those special Sacraments of the Old or New Testament which it pleased God to add to his gratious and free Covenant but Spiritual signification is so proper to the Sacraments that whatsoever sign is ordained to signify and represent any such promise it is thereby made a

testimony being but humane proveth not that God doth allow and warrantize the Surplice Yea some of them do not at all concern Ecclesiastical Vestiments Socrat. lib. 2. cap. 33. Such is that testimony that Eustathim was deprived of his Bishoprick for not wearing decent apparel befitting his place Socrat. lib. 6. cap. 20. Such also was that white rayment that Semius the Novat did wear and that under-garment of white Linnen in which Cyprian the Martyr stood apparelled after he had given his Cap or Byrrhus to the Executioner and his upper garment called Dalmatica to the Deacon Vide Concil à Binnio Collect. Conc. Gang. cap. 12. part 385. Such is the garment spoken of by the Council of Gangris as he that considers it may see So that these places are mis-alledged by D. Whitgift Def. tract 7. cap. 4. divis 1. pag. 208. c. And that likewise of Chrysost Homil. 6. ad popul Antioch who sheweth That the dignity of the Ministery standeth not in going up and down the Church in a white garment that is as a gallant white attire being a garment of honour both in the E●●● parts Perk. Probl. t t. The Appu ten of the Masse and in the West among the ancient Romans Sigon de Jud. lib. 3. cap. 14. As for that which the Apostle John is said to went called a Miter but ratehr a thin plate as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie either Eusebius doth thereby alluding to Moses's Law Histor Eccles lib. 3. cap. 25. Secundū aliam div sionem 31. Conference with Hart cap. 8. divis 4. pag. 516. Exod. 28.36 mean that John entred into the Sanctuary as it were with Prerogative and had the very Mysterie of God revealed to him Rev. 1.1 as Dr. Rainolds doth understand or else if this relation deserve credit seeing Eusebius Pamphilus lived Anno Domini 320 about 200 years after the death of him of whom he writeth and saith John was a Bishop which agrees not with the Apostle's Office and Commission that was universal yet this habit was a common and daily habit as the words of the Author rather import Moreover some Testimonies urged do concern the Jewish Vestiments as that of Jerom in Ezek. 44. The Religion of God hath one habit as Mr. Hooker confesseth Eccles Pol. lib. 5. Sect. 29. Lastly though some testimonies quoted may shew that anciently there were some Linnen garments in Ecclesiastical use as Theodoret lib. 2. cap. 27. speaks of a baptizing robe given by Constantine to Macarius Bishop of Jerusalem Lib. 1. advers Pelagium And Jerome makes mention of Linnen garments used in administration by Bishops Priests and Deacons And the Councel of Carthage Can. 41. where there were 214. Bishops of whom Austine was one decreed Diaconus tempore oblatimis tantum vel lectionis Albâ induatur Yet none of these prove that these were instituted for mystical signification or if they were that there was warrant from the Word of God for so doing Thus the Assumption being confirmed the Conclusion necessarily followeth That the Surplice may not lawfully be used Of the sign of the Crosse in Baptism THat the use of the sign of the Crosse in Baptism is unlawful I prove by this Argument No Rite meerly Ecclesiastical and of mystical signification having no Warrant from the Word of God can be used without sin But the sign of the Crosse in Baptism is a Rite meerly Ecclesiastical and of mystical signification having no warrant from Gods Word Ergo It cannot be used without sin The Proposition of this Argument being in effect the same with the Proposition of the Precedent Argument the Cross and Surplice being Homogenea is confirmed by the Reasons of the foregoing Proposition I will therefore with great brevity confirm this Major First Such Rites as are meerly Ecclesiastical and mystical having no warrant from Gods Word are false worship Otherwise we shall never be able to convince the Papists of Will-worship in their Superstitious Rites Also all actions whereby religious duties are taught in Gods publick service are Worship otherwise how can the preaching of the Word be worship But Rites meerly Ecclesiastical and mystical c. do teach us spiritual and religious duties Are they not Worship then Yet not true for they are not divinely warranted Of necessity therefore they must be false Worship Secondly Such mystical Rites are Sacraments not approved of God Sacraments they be for they are visible signs of an invisible grace and have both the parts of a Sacrament which are set down in the common Catechism authorised by Law But these are not true Sacraments when God the Author of the Covenant doth not institute them Thirdly Such Rites as are meerly Ecclesiastical and Mystical are not discernable to be good by the light of Nature and therefore are to have approbation from Gods Word the rule of Faith otherwise with safety of conscience they cannot be received Fourthly Our Learned Divines say That to bring insignificant Ceremonies into the Church is plain Judaism Dr. Reynolds Conference with Hart cap. 8. divis 4. pag. 521. Willet Synops 2. gen Cont. 24.2 part of the Qu. pag. 110. Edit 1614. The Assumption now remains to be proved and in it three things 1. That the sign of the Crosse is meerly Ecclesiasticall 2. Of Mystical signification 3. Without warrant out of God's Word First There is not the least shew to deny the sign of the Crosse to be meerly Ecclesiastical For other use of the sign of the Crosse than in Baptism we deny Indeed anciently it was ordinary in common use as well as in Ecclesiastical So likewise it is with the Papists but ordinary Crossing morning and evening is condemned by our Divines and the Law requireth urgeth and alloweth only the use of the Crosse in Baptism wherein if it be not of meer Ecclesiastical use what can Ecclefiasticall use be defined to be Secondly Can there be produced any likelihood or shew of truth to deny the sign of the Crosse to be of mystical signification seeing all our Ceremonies are such as was before shewed and the words of the Common-Prayer-Book do teach as much saying We receive this Child into the Congregation c. and do sign him with the sign of the Crosse Can. 30. in token that hereafter c. And the Canon saith That the Child baptized is dedicated to God by the sign of the Crosse These things I suppose do prove the sign of the Cross to be of mystical signification Now it remains that I shew That this mystical Rite is without warrant out of the Word of God This may be proved by these Arguments following Though the Crosse being a Rite of a peculiar nature ought to shew for it self a peculiar and special Institution yet it is so void of that that there is not so much as a general warrant for it in the Book of God As the examination of the places cited by the Papists or Protestants will manifest