hopping hath shut
too the door of painful and profitable catechising.(987) The keeping of
some festival days is set up instead of the thankful commemoration of
God's inestimable benefits, howbeit the festivity of Christmas hath
hitherto served more to bacchanalian lasciviousness than to the
remembrance of the birth of Christ.(988) The kneeling down upon the knees
of the body hath now come in place of that humiliation of the soul
wherewith worthy communicants addressed themselves unto the holy table of
the Lord; and, generally, the external show of these fruitless observances
hath worn out the very life and power of religion. Neither have such
effects ensued upon such ceremonies among us only, but let it be observed
everywhere else, if there be not least substance and power of godliness
among them who have most ceremonies, whereunto men have, at their
pleasure, given some sacred use and signification in the worship of God;
and most substance among them who have fewest shows of external rites. No
man of sound judgment (saith Beza(989)) will deny, _Jesum Christum quo
nudior_, &c., "that Jesus Christ, the more naked he be, is made the more
manifest to us; whereas, contrariwise, all false religions use by certain
external gesturings to turn away men from divine things." Zanchius saith
well of the surplice and other popish ceremonies,(990) _Quod haec nihil ad
pietatem accendendam, multum autem ad restinguendam valeant_.
Bellarmine,(991) indeed, pleadeth for the utility of ceremonies, as things
belonging to the conservation of religion. His reason is, because they set
before our senses such an external majesty and splendour, whereby they
cause the more reverence. This he allegeth for the utility of the
ceremonies of the church of Rome. And I would know what better reason can
be alleged for the utility of ours. But if this be all, we throw back the
argument, because the external majesty and splendour of ceremonies doth
greatly prejudge and obscure the spirit and life of the worship of God,
and diverteth the minds of men from adverting unto the same, which we have
offered to be tried by common experience. Durand himself, for as much as
he hath written in the defence of ceremonies, in his unreasonable
_Rationale_, yet he maketh this plain confession:(992) _Sane in primitiva
ecclesia, sacrificium fiebat in vasis ligneis et vestibus communibus: tunc
enim erant lignei calices et aurei sacerdotes: nunc vero e contra est._
Behold what f