rpreted and wrested to the contrary. As for the English ceremonies, he
saith, that they are neither scandalous in their own nature, nor because
they were devised unto evil, nor yet because they of the church of England
abuse them unto evil.

_Ans._ 1. Though all this were true, yet forasmuch as they have been
abused by the Papists unto idolatry and superstition, and are monuments of
Popery, the trophies of Antichrist, and the relics of Rome's whorish
bravery,--they must be granted, at least for this respect, to be more than
manifest appearances of evil, and so scandalous.

But secondly, It is false which he saith; for kneeling in receiving the
communion is, in its own nature, evil and idolatrous, because religious
adoration before a mere creature, which purposely we set before us in the
act of adoring, to have state in the worship, especially if it be an
actual image in that act representing Christ to us (such as the bread in
the act of receiving) draweth us within the compass of co-adoration or
relative worship, as shall be copiously proved afterwards.

Other of the ceremonies that are not evil in their own nature, yet were
devised to evil; for example, the surplice. The replier(417) to Dr
Mortoune's particular defence, observeth, that this superstition about
apparel in divine worship, began first among the French bishops, unto whom
Caelestinus writeth thus:--_Discernendi, &c._ "We are to be distinguished
from the common people and others by doctrine, not by garment,--by
conversation, not by habit,--by the purity of mind, not by attire; for if
we study to innovation, we tread under foot the order which hath been
delivered unto us by our fathers, to make place to idle superstitions;
wherefore we ought not to lead the minds of the faithful into such things,
for they are rather to be instructed than played withal; neither are we to
blind and beguile their eyes, but to infuse instructions into their
minds." In which words Caelestinus reprehends this apparel, as a novelty
which tended to superstition, and made way to the mocking and deceiving of
the faithful.

Lastly, Whereas he saith the ceremonies are not abused by them in England,
I instance the contrary in holidays. Perkins saith,(418) that the feast of
Christ's nativity, so commonly called, is not spent in praising the name
of God, but in rifling, dicing, carding, masking, mumming, and in all
licentious liberty, for the most part, as though it were some heathen
feas