ourselves, by all possible means, to observe them, please them, and
entertain peace with them, who impose and urge upon us an unconscionable
observation of certain ceremonies, and to do as much for them as any
ground of conscience or reason can warrant. So far as we have attained, we
walk by the same rule with them, Phil. iii. 16, and so exceed not in the
measure. 2. It may be seen that they exceed in contending with us, if we
be compared with the Papists; against them they contend more remissly,
against us more intensively. Saravia professeth(342) that he thinketh
worse of us than of Papists. He hath reason who complaineth of Formalists'
desire not to stir and contend against the Papists, and their fierceness
against their own brethren.(343) "This (saith he) is ill provided for, and
can have no excuse, that some, not to contend with Papists, should contend
with their brethren, and displease the sons of their own mother, to please
the enemies of their father, and beat not the dog before the lion, but the
lion for favour of the dog, and make the natural child to weep, while the
son of the bondwoman doth triumph." 3. That they exceed, appeareth from
the effects of their contending; hurt and damage is a main effect of
contention. Calvin, Perkins, and Pareus, observe upon Gal. v. 15, that
contentions breed hurtful and pernicious effects, which tend to
consumption and destruction. Now, wherein do we injure or harm our
opposites in their persons, callings, places, &c.? Yet in all these, and
many other things, do they wrong us, by defamation, deprivation,
spoliation, incarceration, &c.? How much better were it to remove the
Babylonian baggage of antichristian ceremonies, which are the mischievous
means, both of the strife and of all the evil which ariseth out of it! Put
away the ceremonies, cast out this Jonas, and, behold, the storm will
cease. A wise pilot will, in an urgent storm, cast out even some precious
wares, that the rest may be safe. "And shall we then (saith Parker(344))
cast out the pilots of the ship themselves, and all to spare the wares of
Rome, which are no lawful traffic?"

_Sect._ 4. 3d. Let the matter be looked to for which each side contendeth.
"Brethren (saith the Archbishop of St Andrews),(345) to contend is not be
contentious in a light business, this is faulty." Now, I wish it may
please him to understand that when we contend about the removal of the
ceremonies, we content for a very weighty matter; for