Of ceremonies. It remaynith now right Reuerend fathers / and most deare brethern in Christe that I shuld breifly touche also theis mens reasoninges of popishe Ceremonies / which I said at the begynning they do wittyly handle to persuade thẽselues / and others / that no man by the partakinge of them doth either defile himself / or by it denie the religion of the gospell. And surly it is well known that the name of Ceremonies not being narowly weyed / hath bewitched the eyes of many / not only in this but in other controuersies of religion. It is therfor to be known that Ceremonies are nothinge els but holy rites. And of Ceremonies sum are called diuine which are instituted (I saye) of Godd himself / sum other are
called humayne / such as are inuented by mãs will. Diuine ceremonies. But of the dyuine or ceremonies of God / sum belonged to the olde poeple / of which the writinges of the prophetes and apostles do beare witnes that they wer abrogate in Christe. Sum do belonge to the new poeple that is to Christiãs / which were delyuered vnto them of Christe by the Apostles / and thos truly very fewe / as of holy assemblees / of sacramentes / and certayn ecclesiasticall obseruaciõs / which are declared in the writĩges of the Apostles. Humaine ceremonies. Of ceremonies enuented by man ther [is] almost neither measure nor end. For they wer enuẽted and established at dyuerse tymes / ãd that by diuers and sundry autors / and they were so delyuered and instituted of them / that they do not only not consent with the holy scriptures but they be contrary to thẽ / insomutch that they do deface and corrupt the ordinaunces which Godd hath instituted / and do put them out of place. Of this kinde is that churche deckinge and dressinge / in which Images haue the cheif place. Of the same sorte also is Massinge / straunge apparell / synging / and feastes appointed to saintes which be in heauen / and other innumerable of this sorte. All which truly the papistes do adorne with the title of ceremonies / which whẽ the simple and such as haue litill knowledge do heare / they do Imagine sum holy thinge as thoughe that all theis thinges were sent down out of heauẽ from the lord Godd hymself to be kept. But heere we do admonishe men that they must stey sumwhat / and
must sumwhat more diligently make difference betwene ceremonies / and must more narowly loke / whether that theis ceremonies (of which we do cõtend) be of Godd or of man. Euery man knowith that none in defiled by such ceremonies as are of Godd. And he which denieth that a man is defiled by humayn ceremonies / he seith nothing at all. For though I do not again vrge that which I saied euẽ nowe / that thos humayn ceremonies are contrary to Goddes worde / and do defile Godds ordinaunces / corrupt them and hyde them / can that be obscure or vnknown to ony mã which our lord Iesus Christe doth playnly with expressed wordes bringe out of Esaye? Mat. 15. They do serue me in vaine / teachinge the doctrines and preceptes of men. Tit. 1. Again that which Paule doth affirme that they be commaundements of men that tourn awaye the truthe? And that the holy Martir of Christe propownced? Cypriani epist. lib. 1. epist. 8. It is adulterus / it is wicked / it is sacrilegus / whatsoeuer is instituted by mans furie to violate the ordinance of Godd. And for this cause the godly will not call theis ordinãces ony lõger / ceremonies / simply / but rather mans institutions / and supersticions / which are reiected and forbidden of Godd. Wherfor howsoeuer theis men do beautifully set furth and adorn theise thinges / yet shall they neuer bringe this to passe / that the goddly will beleaue that it is lawful for thẽ to cõmunicate with supersticiõs / and such institucions as are forbiddẽ of God: Neither will the godly beleaue but that theis thinges are forbiddẽ /
except the papistes shall proue by playne testimonies of the scripture that they are so instituted of Godd as they do vse them. Which thinge when it can not be proued of them / nor yet at all of ony other of the papistes / sum of our false gospellers do turn thẽ selues hither / that they saye that Paule also did vse forbidden ceremonies / Paul circũcised Timothee. and that the prophetes of Godd did reproue the sacrifices / which they neuertheles did partake without synne. And if we do graunte thẽ this altogether / how can they (I praye yow) helpe or sett furth their cause? We reade that Paule vsed ceremonies instituted of Godd / circumcision and sacrifices / but theis men do contend for ceremonies instituted by men. Paul did ons circũcise his Timothie / Actu. 16. 18. 21. and did ons ore twis take on him a vowe / and that for certayn and weightie causes. But theise men couet to waxe old in their supersticions / and haue no lawfull causes to do so / except thow wilt call that lawfull which cõmith of the affectiõs of the fleshe. Without doubt Paule wold not haue one ore two of his actes to be sett against his whole doctrine. But whi do they not rather folow Paule in that / Gal. 2. when he refused to circũcise Titus? seing like causes are ministred vnto them by thos which go about to spoile thẽ of their libertie / ãd brĩg thẽ into bõdage. Hovv the prophetes reproued Sacrifices and vver also partakers of thẽ. We do saye that ther were two sortes of the Sacrifices amõg the old poeple of Israel. Sum of them are redd to be instituted of Godd / which the poeple sum tyme abused / or els did not vse them with true faithe / which thing the prophetes
did reproue / and not the Sacrifices thẽselues / of which they did partake religiusly and without synne: Euen as we reade that Paule did worthely partake the supper of the lorde / although he doth reproue the abuse of the supper in the Corinthinians. Other sacrifices ther were enuented by man / such were the sacrifices of Baal / and of Ieroboam / and thos which were done in the hilles. Theis truly the prophetes did reproue / but it is not redde that they did communicate with the same. This example therfor is of force against them which will excuse themselues by the example of the prophetes / in that they do partake such sacrifices as are instituted of man.
Hovv sum do thincke that they may be at Masses, ãd hovv thei vnderstõd the masse. Forthewith thẽ they saye / what is it to me though papistes do abuse the Masse? In their abuse I do call to mynd the true vse / and I cõme vnto it with an other mynde and vnderstondinge then they do saye it. For when I see the breade and cupp / I do not thincke vppon the transubstãciation which the pope hath fayned / but on the sacrament of Christe. And therfor when I am at masse I do not regarde what ceremonies be ther / ore what the minister is / but I do remember the very institution of Christe and I do spitiually receyue that / wich he doth saye that he doth corporally offer and receyue / for the lyuinge and the deade. and seinge I know that the vertue of the sacramẽt is not of les force for the varietie of ceremonies / ore the vnworthines of the ministers / I do suppose that I / which do well vse an
euell thinge / am neither defiled / nor yet that by this my spirituall cõmunicating I do denie the gospell. By theise wordes a man wold iudge theis men to be madd / except he do consider that it is not they which do thus speake / but feare / and desire / which are affections playnly most trobled. They do simply acknowledge that papistes do abuse the supper of the lorde / but yet (they saye) that they themselues do wel vse their abuse / forbicause they do come enstructed with an other meaninge then the papistes do it / not to heare a popishe masse which the papistes saye / but to receyue the supper of the lorde / the self same which they in their masse do thĩcke abhominable. I do not know whether ther cã be ony greter absurditie spokẽ. Thow maiste saye that theis mẽ haue learned an arte which hetherto no man coulde attayne / to robb a naked man of clothes / to wringe water out of a pumeise stone / and to bidde a man to get fishe in the aire / that is / at a table wher no meate is sett furth at all / to fare delicatly and to be filled. But go to / let them frely profes before them with whõ they do thus cõmunicate / that they be of that mynd which they speake of / that is / that in cũminge to Masse they will not cõme to Masse / but that in it they will vnderstõd and consider breade / yea and that they will sett before their myndes the supper of the lorde / that they wil not cõfes the popishe transubstantiation / but that they do here in acknowledge Christes Sacrament / and that they do well receyue that spiritually in the Masse / which the prest doth
offer / and receyue bodily for the lyuing and the deade / which thinge he beleauith not. Will not all they forthewithe crye out / that ther holy Masse is vnhalowed / and that they which thinke so are heretikes / and that they which do cõmunicate with them are excommunicated? Truly they wold so behaue themselues / that euery man might vnderstond / that ther is a grete difference betwene the Masse and the supper of the lorde / and that they do embrace the Masse / but the supper of the lord they do all wayes hate and reiect. With such a kinde of mẽ yet do theis men communicate / which wold thincke it a hurtefull and damnable thinge / if they shuld admitte vnto their diuine seruice / the cõpanions of the religion of the gospell with their faithe. For they do take the approuinge of their doctrine / to be the condemnynge of the religion of the gospell: And they do take the communion in the Masse to be a certayn confession and approbation of their religion. Who is it then which doth not se / that theis mẽ do receyue no part of the lordes supper at all in the masse / but also that by comminge to the masse they do deny the supper of the lorde ãd the whole faithe of the gospell? Theis men saye that they passe nothing what the ceremonies be / what the ministers / for that the vertue of the Sacramẽt is not the wors for thẽ. But the cheif question heer is not of the worthines of the ceremonies or ministers / but of the true vse and institucion of the supper of the lorde / and whither that the Masse as it is this daye vsed (I do not now
speake ony thinge at all of that which was vsed aboue a thowsand yeares passed) wer so instituted of Christe / and be indeede the very supper of the lorde? Yf the Masse be that misticall supper of the lorde / it must needes be allowed of the lorde / and thow (if so be thow dost come to it in faithe) canst not but receyue therof the foode of lyfe / forsomutch as the vnworthnes of the mynister doth not hinder the. But if the Masse be not the supper of the lorde / if the supper of the lord be defaced corrupted and troden vnder fote by the Masse / truly thow shalt receyue no fruite therof / but shalt rather purchase to thy self greate gilte of synne / for that the gaye glosse of the ceremonies or ony worthines of the ministers shall not helpe the at all. Euen Ieroboam himself wold haue beene counted to haue sacrificed to the Godd of Israel: but yet bicause he did not sacrifice after the same manier which God had cõmaunded / but rather after that sorte which he himself hadd inuẽted amd instituted / godd did not accept his sacrifices / and thos did synne against godd and against true religiõ / yea and against the lawfull Sacrifices of godd / as many as did cõmunicate with the sacrifices of Ieroboã. For both that Ieroboã synned / ãd that he did leade Israel to synne / the scripture doth repeate very ofte / to beate ĩ to the heade of the whole worlde / that simple obediẽce doth pleas the lorde / ĩ which we keape his ordinaunces after that manier only which he hath instituted / addynge nothinge / dyminishing nothĩg / and chaũging nothĩg in them.
I will not now reason how that the Masse doth