nother nature than circumstances. _Ceremonioe_, "ceremonies (saith Dr
Field(885)) are so named, as Livy thinketh, from a town called Caere, in
the which the Romans did hide their sacred things when the Gauls invaded
Rome. Others think that ceremonies are so named _a carendo_, of abstaining
from certain things, as the Jews abstained from swine's flesh, and sundry
other things forbidden by God as unclean. Ceremonies are outward acts of
religion," &c. _Quapropter etiam_, saith Junius,(886) _ritus et ceremonias
inter se distincimus, quia in jure politico sunt imperati et solennes
ritus; ceremonioe vero non nisi sacroe observationes in cultu divino
appellantur. Ceremonia_, saith Bellarmine,(887) _proprie et simpliciter
sic vocata, est externa actio quoe non aliunde est bona et laudabilis,
nisi quia fit ad Deum colendum._ From which words Amesius(888) concludeth
against him, that he, and others with him, do absurdly confound order,
decency, and the like, which have the same use and praise in civil things
which they have in the worship of God, with religious and sacred
ceremonies. Yet Dr Burges(889) rejecteth this distinction betwixt
circumstances and ceremonies, as a mere nicety or fiction. And would you
know his reason? "For that (saith he) all circumstances (I mean
extrinsical) which incur not the substance of the action, when they are
once designed or observed purposely in reference to such a matter, of
whose substance they are not, they are then ceremonies." If this be not a
nicety or fiction, I know not what is. For what means he here by a matter?
An action sure, or else a nicety. Well, then, we shall have now a world of
ceremonies. When I appoint to meet with another man at Berwick, upon the
10th day of May, because the place and the day are purposely designed in
reference to such a matter, of whose substance they are not, namely, to my
meeting with the other man, for talking of our business, therefore the
town of Berwick, and the 10th day of May, must be accounted ceremonies. To
me it is nice, that the Doctor made it not nice, to let such a nicety fall
from his pen.

When I put on my shoos in reference to walking, or wash my hands in
reference to eating, am I using ceremonies all the while? The Doctor could
not choose but say so, forasmuch as these circumstances are purposely
designed and observed in reference to such matters, of whose substance
they are not.

_Sect._ 6. 2d. That which the church may lawfully prescribe