w they even settle
themselves upon the old dregs of popish superstition and formality, from
which they were not well purged. Others are made to practise the
ceremonies with a doubting and disallowing conscience, and to say with
Naaman, "In this the Lord be merciful unto us if we err:" with my own ears
have I heard some say so. And even those who have not practised the
ceremonies, for that they cannot see the lawfulness of them, yet are
animated by the example of practising Conformists to do these things
which, in their consciences, they condemn as unlawful (which were to sin
damnably), and if they do them not, then is there no small doubting and
disquietness, trouble, and trepidation, harboured in their consciences.
And thus, one way or other, some weakening or deterioration cometh to us
by the means of the ceremonies; and if any of our opposites dare think
that none of us can be so weak as to stumble or take any harm in this
kind, because of the ceremonies, we take God himself to witness, who shall
make manifest the counsels of the heart, that we speak the truth, and lie
not.

Finally, Let that be considered which divines observe to be the perpetual
condition of the church,(433) namely, that as in any other family there
are found some great, some small, some strong, some weak, some wholesome,
some sickly, so still is there found such an inequality in the house of
God, which is the church,--and that because some are sooner, some are later
called, some endued with more gifts of God, and some with fewer.(434)

THE THIRD PART.

AGAINST THE LAWFULNESS OF THE CEREMONIES.

CHAPTER I.

THAT THE CEREMONIES ARE UNLAWFUL, BECAUSE SUPERSTITIOUS, WHICH IS
PARTICULARLY INSTANCED IN HOLIDAYS, AND MINISTERING THE SACRAMENTS IN
PRIVATE PLACES.

_Sect._ 1. The strongest tower of refuge to which our opposites make their
main recourse, is the pretended lawfulness of the ceremonies, which now we
are to batter down and demolish, and so make it appear how weak they are
even where they think themselves strongest.

My first argument against the lawfulness of the ceremonies I draw from the
superstition of them. I cannot marvel enough how Dr Mortoune and Dr Burges
could think to rub the superstition upon Non-conformists, whom they set
forth as fancying their abstinence from the ceremonies to be a singular
piece of service done to God, placing religion in the not