Neal - Houston-Packer Collection BX9333 .N4 1754 v1

Chap. I. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 443 " neceffary ufe in the church. Here they cite fuch paffages of fcriptureKingJa si. " as command the Jews to abolifh all inftruments of idolatry; and even r6o5. " to cafe away fuch things as had a good original, when once they are " known to have been abufed toidolatry; as images, groves, and the brazen ' ferpent, 2 Kings xviii. t r. They produce further the teflimonies offun- " dry fathers, as Eufebius, St. Au/tin, &c. and of the moll confiderable " moderns, as Calvin, Bucer, Mufculus, Peter Martyr, Beza, Zanchy; " bifhop jewel, Pilkington, Bifen ; Dr. Humphreys, Folk, Andrews, Sur- " clip and others, againfl conformity with idolaters." With regard to the three ceremonies in queftion they alledge that they have ail been abufed by the papifis tofuperfiition and idolatry. s. The jurplice has been thus abufed, for it is one of thofe veil- Agaíno the « ments without which nothing can be confecrated; all priefts that three cerema- " are prefent at mafs mull wear it, and therefore the ufe of it in themes, p. 28. c, church has been condemned, not only by foreign divines, but by bifhop Hooper, Farrar, Jewel, Pilkington, Rogers, and others among ourfelves. 2. " The crof has been alto abufed to fuperftition and idolatry, to drive " devils, to expel difeafes, to break the force of witchcraft, &c. It is " one of the images to which the papifts give religious adoration. The " water in baptifm has no fpiritual virtue in it without the crofs, nor is any <0 one rightly baptized (according to the papifis) without it. 3. " Kneeling at the facrament has been no lefs abufed ; it arofe from 6° the notion of the tranfub/iantiation of the elements, and is Rill ufed by <a the papihs in the worfhip of their breaden god; who admit they fhould " be guilty of idolatry in kneeling before the elements, if they did not be- " lieve them to be the real body and blood of Chrifl. This ceremony was not introduced into the church till antichrifl was at his full height; " and there is no one aétion in the whole fervice, that looks fo much " like idolatry as this." Their fecond argument for the unlawfulnefs of the ceremonies, is p. 3r. taken from their my/tical Anification, which gives them the nature of a facrament. Now no facrament ought to be of man's deviling ; the ceremonies therefore being affirmed in the book of common-prayer to be /gncant, are unlawful. Their third argument is taken from the unlawfulnefi of impofang them P. 37; as parts of God's worfhip, which they prove from hence, " that God is " the only appointer of his own worfhip, and condemns all human in- " ventions, fo far forth as they are made parts of it. Now all the ce- " remonies in queftion are thus impofed ; for divine fervice is fuppofed " not to be rightly performed without the furplice, nor baptifm rightly L 1 1 2 " admi-

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