r 333] Paid Garments. The warm and hurtful Contention raifèd by the Puritans, upon account of the appoint- ed Habits, made it neceílàry to reprefent them as fomething verydifferent from what they really were, which was no more than a particular Drefs to di- flinguifh a particular Order ofMen. Mr. N. feems confcious, that a Drefs appointed with this View could never juffify the inflaming the Proteflant Po- pulace throughout the Nation; and therefore he la-. bours to reprefent it in another Light, and quotes two Paffages in the Preface to the Liturgy for this Purpofe. But is there any mention of the Habits in either of them ? One Paffage runs thus. ` This our exceffive Multitude of Ceremonies [in the Times of Popery] was fo great, and many of them fo dark, that they did more confound and darken than declare and fet forth Chrif}'s Benefits unto us. And betides this, Chrifl'sGofpel is not a ceremonial Law (as much of Mofes' Law was) but it is a Religion to ferve God, not in Bondage of the Figure or Shadow, but in the Freedom of the Spirit, being content only with thofe Ceremo- nies which do ferve to a decent Order, and godly Difcipline; and fuch as be apt toflir up the dull Mindof Man to the Remembradce of his Duty to God, by fome notable and fpecial Signification, ` whereby he might be edified." The Preface fays, Chrifl's Gofpel is content only with thofe Ceremo- nies, &c. Mr. N. afferts, that the Preface Pays, the Vefiments were defigned for thefe Purpofes; where- as the Vefiments are not mentioned there; and, as we have feen, they were appointed for a very diffe- rent Purpofe. The other Paffage in the Preface ferves his Turn as little. There is nothing faid there of the ditlinguifhing Drefs of the Clergy ; which would have plainly appeared, if he had quo- ted it as it Rands in the Book. ` Other (Ceremonies) there be, which, aitho' they have been devifed by Man, yet it is thought good to referve them Hill, as well for a decent Order in the Church, for the which they were firft devifed, as becaufe they per- ` tain to Edification, whereunto all things done in the Church (as the Apotlle teacheth) ought to be ' referred." That thefe Paffages have not the look!
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