a
offerendo daemonibus immolatur, sed etiam eorum dicta libentius capiendo_;
much more have we reason to think that, by taking part in the ceremonies
of idolaters, we do but offer to devils, and join ourselves to the service
of idols.

_Sect._ 7. Thirdly, As by Scripture and reason, so by antiquity, we
strengthen our argument. Of old, Christians did so shun to be like the
pagans, that in the days of Tertullian it was thought they might not wear
garlands, because thereby they had been made conform to the pagans. Hence
Tertullian justifieth the soldier who refused to wear a garland as the
pagans did.(588) Dr Mortoune himself allegeth another case out of
Tertullian,(589) which maketh to this purpose, namely, that Christian
proselytes did distinguish themselves from Roman pagans, by casting away
their gowns and wearing of cloaks. But these things we are not to urge,
because we plead not for dissimilitude with the Papists in civil fashions,
but in sacred and religious ceremonies. For this point then at which we
hold us, we allege that which is marked in the third century out of
Origen,(590) namely, that it was held unlawful for Christians to observe
the feasts and solemnities, either of the Jews or of the Gentiles. Now we
find a whole council determining thus,(591) _Non oportet a Judoeis vel
hoereticis, feriatica quoe mittuntur accipere, nec cum cis dies agere
feriatos._ The council of Nice also condemned those who kept Easter upon
the fourteenth day of the month. That which made them pronounce so (as is
clear from Constantine's epistle to the churches(592)) was, because they
held it unbeseeming for Christians to have anything common with the Jews
in their rites and observances. Augustine condemneth fasting upon the
Sabbath day as scandalous, because the Manichees used so, and fasting upon
that day had been a conformity with them;(593) and wherefore did Gregory
advise Leander to abolish the ceremony of trim-immersion? His words are
plain:(594) _Quia nunc huc usque ab hoereticis infans in baptismate tertio
mergebatur, fiendum apud vos esse non censeo._ Why doth Epiphanius,(595)
in the end of his books _contra haereses_, rehearse all the ceremonies of
the church, as marks whereby the church is discerned from all other sects?
If the church did symbolise in ceremonies with other sects, he could not
have done so. And, moreover, find we not in the canons of the ancient
councils,(596) that Christians were forbidden to deck their hou