hristi_. Saith Dr Burges any
less of the ceremonies? Nay, he placeth every way as much holiness and
worship in them in the forequoted place. And elsewhere he teacheth,(452)
that after a sort the ceremonies are worship in themselves, even such a
worship as was that of the free-will offerings under the law, and such a
worship as was the building and use of altars here and there(453) (before
God had chosen out the standing place for his altar), though to the same
end for which the Lord's instituted altar served. Thus we see that they
offer the ceremonies as worship to God: yet put the case they did not, the
school saith,(454) that a thing belongeth to the worship of God, _vel quo
ad offerendum, vel quo ad assumendum_. Whereupon it followeth, that
superstition is not only to be laid to their charge who offer to God for
worship that which he hath not commanded, but theirs also who assume in
God's worship the help of anything as sacred or holy which himself hath
not ordained. 2. They place as great a necessity in the ceremonies as
Papists place in theirs, whereby it shall also appear now superstitiously
they place worship in them; for _quaecunque observatio quasi necessaria
commendatur, continuo censetur ad cultum Dei pertinere_, saith
Calvin.(455) The Rhemists think,(456) that meats of themselves, or of
their own nature, do not defile, "but so far as by accident they make a
man to sin; as the disobedience of God's commandment, or of our superiors,
who forbid some meats for certain times and causes, is a sin." And they
add, "that neither flesh nor fish of itself doth defile, but the breach of
the church's precept defileth." Aquinas(457) defendeth that trin-immersion
is not _de necessitate baptismi_, only he thinks it a sin to baptise
otherwise, because this rite is instituted and used by the church. Do not
Formalists place the same necessity in the ceremonies, while, as they say,
they urge them not as necessary in themselves, but only as necessary in
respect of the determination of the church, and the ordinance of those who
are set over us? Nay, Papists place not so great necessity in many
ordinances of their church as Formalists place in the ceremonies. If the
cause be doubtful, Aquinas(458) sends a man to seek a dispensation from
the superior. But _si causa sit evidens, per seipsum licite potest homo
statuti observantiam praeterire_. What Formalist dare yield us such
liberty, as by ourselves, and without seeking a dispensation