lbeit our consciences gainsay, allegeth that
apostolical canon,(54) Acts xv., for an example, just as Bellarmine
maintaineth, _Festorum observationem ex se indifferentem esse sed posita
lege fieri necessariam_(_55_)_._ Hospinian, answering him, will
acknowledge no necessity of the observation of feasts, except divine law
could be showed for it.(56) So say we, that the ceremonies which are
acknowledged by formalists to be indifferent in themselves, cannot be made
necessary by the law of the church, neither doth that example of the
apostolical canon make anything against us, for, according to Mr Sprint's
confession,(57) it was not the force or authority of the canon, but the
reason and ground whereupon the canon was made, which caused the necessity
of abstaining, and to abstain was necessary for eschewing of scandal,
whether the apostles and elders had enjoined abstinence or not.(58) The
reason, then, why the things prescribed in that canon are called
necessary, ver. 28, is not because, being indifferent before the making
and publication of the canon, they became necessary by virtue of the canon
after it was made, as the Bishop teacheth, but _quia tunc __ charitas
exigebat, ut illa sua libertate qui ex gentibus conversi erant, propter
proximi edificationem inter judeos non uterentur, sed ab ea abstinerent,_
saith Chemnitius.(59) This law, saith Tilen,(60) was _propter charitatem
et vitandi offendiculi necessitatem ad tempus sancita._ So that these
things were necessary before the canon was made. _Necessaria fuerunt,_
saith Ames,(61) _antequam Apostoli quidquam de iis statuerant, non
absolute, sed quatenus in iis charitas jubebat morem gerere infirmis, ut
cajetanus notat. Quamobrem,_ saith Tilen,(62) _cum charitas semper sit
colenda, semper vitanda sandala._ "Charity is necessary (saith Beza), even
in things which are in themselves indifferent."(63) What they can allege
for the necessity of the ceremonies, from the authority and obligatory
power of ecclesiastical laws, shall be answered by and by.

CHAPTER III.

THAT THE CEREMONIES THUS IMPOSED AND URGED AS THINGS NECESSARY, DO BEREAVE
US OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIBERTY, FIRST, BECAUSE OUR PRACTICE IS ADSTRICTED.

_Sect._ 1. Who can blame us for standing to the defence of our Christian
liberty, which we ought to defend and pretend in _rebus quibusvis?_ saith
Bucer.(64) Shall we bear the name of Christians, and yet make no great
account of t