A Treatise OF DIVINE WORSHIP, TENDING to prove that the Ceremonies imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in England, in present controversy, are in their use unlawful.  
1604.   

A Treatise of Divine worship, tending to prove that the Ceremonies imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in Enland, in present controversy, are in their use unlawful.  

CHAP. I. Of divine worship in general.  
DIVINE worship is any action or service that is immediately and directly performed unto God himself, whether the true God or a false, whether commanded by divine authority, imposed by human, or assumed upon our own heads & pleasures. For in this latitude of sense is divine worship to be conceived, that it may comprehend under it both true and false worship.  
2. Though all Actions and services that Man performeth unto Man are not parts of civil worship, yet every Action and Service that man performeth directly to God, is a part of divine worship, and ought merely to concern his own glory. It being impossible to imagine how the creature should perform any service, or do any action to the Creator himself but worship. For the ground of worship is the sense of some excellent eminency of goodness in the party worshipped & defect and inability to do an answerable good to a good received in the party worshipping, for we need not to worship God, if we could be as good to him as he is to us, & therefore (except we should mock him) because receiving all good from him, we are not able to do the least good unto him, all that we can do, is to worship him, that is, to glorify him above all things; & debase ourselves before him as nothing in his presence.  
3. All special things therefore done in the service and worship of God, is worship: and a part of that honour that is done unto him. And what so ever special thing done in divine service, is not a special honour and worship unto God, must needs be a dishonour and abuse of his Majesty, who requireth nothing but worship at our hands, & unto whom we can not possibly do any other good.  
4. If therefore a man shall do any special action in the service of God, of which there is no use out of the same: and that action so done, bring no special honour to God; the doing of it is a profanation of the name of God. For all special actions done in the Service of God, must either bring special honour to God, or else they must needs dishonour him.  
5. Divine worship is Internal only or external also. Internal worship is merely spiritual, & performed only within the temple of man's heart, of which none are witnesses but God & a man's own conscience. All the inward motions of the heart directed unto God are parts of this worship, as faith, hope, confidence, love, fear and joy in God, etc. which are all of them divers acts & parts of Inward worship, in every one of which God is honoured. All which spring from the apprehension of our own wants, and Gods infinite excellency and goodness towards us. We need not proceed any further in handling of this worship, it nothing appertaineth to our present purpose.  
6. external worship is an expressing and setting forth of the Internal by outward signs and rites: by which as by certain outward bodily shadows and colours the spiritual & Inward worship of God is made visible and sensible to others.   

CHAP. II. Of Ceremonies in general.  
THESE signs and rites are called Ceremonies. A Ceremony is a corporeal adumbration of some hidden thing in the mind, that it desireth to affect others withal, in some effectual manner, for by such means as these, are the secrets of the soul disclosed and painted out or figured to our own and others bodily senses.  
2. Such actions properly are ceremonial, that are mere shadows and signs exhibiting nothing but some similitude and resemblance of such things, as man is desirous but not able to exhibit in substance and in deed. And therefore are called compliments, because in doing them a man laboureth to supply that in a shadow, that he can not do in substance. And hence it is that the more unable a man is to do that he would, the more he useth to supply his defect with signs and tokens.   

CHAP. III. Of Natural Ceremonies.  
CEremonies are either Natural or Instituted. Natural ceremonies are all such voluntary compositions & gestures of the body, as are with moderate deliberation used to shadow forth those hidden motions, affections, and habits of the mind, that are begotten in the mind by some goodness in those unto whom they are performed and done; for a man performeth no ceremony unto himself, but unto others, and the ground of that ceremony is in him, unto whom it is performed.  
2. For example: Authority in another begetteth reverence in me. This reverence possessing and affecting my soul, it breedeth in me a desire to manifest it unto the party reverenced, but I cannot possibly do it by any other means, but by some bodily shadow and sign, whereupon nature teacheth me to bow the body; the like may be said of lifting up of hands, casting up the eyes, etc. All of which kind are certain natural impressions of the soul made in and upon the body, endeavouring in and by them to make her hidden motions so visible and effectual, as they may affect ourselves & others.  
3. Comeliness and decency doth especially consist in the use of Ceremonies of this kind, and they have been ever carefully observed in the Church of God, aswell before Christ as since, both in her public and private ministrations; which wilfully to neglect, were to sin against God, and for any to inhibit only upon their will and pleasure, were impiety. But these Ceremonies in controversy are of another nature as shall afterward appear.  
4. This first kind of Ceremonies the more natural they are & the more they shall appear to flow from the free & enforced will, of him that acteth them, the more decent and of greater grace they are, for they are such shadows as are sent forth from our passions by the light of nature, and are not fit for any other use or signification.  
5. And as nature only frameth them well, so if it shall appear that they proceed from her and are not forced and wrong from men (invita minerva) she putteth into them such a light, that any of ordinary conceit may in the sign see the thing signified.  
6. These Ceremonies though Natural and therefore common to all men, yet are they not in all degrees universally the same, because having their original from the natural motions and conceptions of the mind, especially passion & affection, by which they are animated and form, there being in the stock of mankind such diversity of natures & dispositions; such divers degrees of the same inclinations; such a diverse composition and mingling of affections, it can not be but nature must needs vary and be diverse in them.  
7. And though they are natural, yet are they not such as nature by violence forceth and wringeth from men (as the actions of panting and breathing) such as men cannot at their pleasure abstain from, or lay down, for laughter in extreme mirth, and weeping in great sorrow, though they be natural impressions and signs of inward and hidden passions, yet are they not Ceremonies; but such signs only are ceremonies, wherein there is concurrence both of nature and will, in the framing and use of them, as appeareth in the particulars above specified; and therefore are such, as may upon some special or particular occasions, be omitted or suppressed.  
8. Thus much of natural ceremonies. Instituted ceremonies are such outward rites and signs as by reason of some Analogy or similitude, are ordained and appointed to signify and shadow forth any mystical truth. They being not brought forth by nature to any such end or purpose: of which kind are all the jewish Ceremonies, Our Sacraments, All Paganish & Popish rites, & those Ceremonies in present controversy. For none of all those external rites, do by nature signify any such matter, but their uses & significations are put upon them only by the will of the institutor or user, and are not so much intended for decency & order, as for solemnity and state.  
9 Those things that are put to this Ceremonial use, being not made by nature to any such end or purpose, must, if they be not vain and foolish, borrow light from some word of institution, for the more mystical the Ceremonies of this kind are and of secreatecsense, of greater grace they are.  
10. Natural Ceremonies, if by institution & appointment they be put to any other use than nature itself hath fitted them unto, do lose their name and become Instituted Ceremonies, as kneeling tied to eating and drinking in the Sacrament, etc.   

CHAP. FOUR Of civil and religious Ceremonies in general.  
THE use of both these kinds of ceremonies, that is natural and instituted, is either in civil services of man to man, or in religious services of man to God from whence ceremonies receive a second denomination, and are called (whether they be natural or instituted) either Civil or Religious Ceremonies.  
2. Civil Ceremonies therefore are such Rites and Ceremonies, as are performed in Civil offices and duties between man & man, as they are members of a civil body or incorporation. The right use whereof is called Civility, and the contempt rudeness; the end of civil Ceremonies is to signify and shadow those inward affections that one man desireth to show to another, in the due use of these ceremonies consists humanity, lowliness, courtesy, good manners, civil state and pomp, etc. because the Ceremonies of this kind are not controverted, we pass them by.  
3. Religious Ceremonies are such outward Rites as are performed in religious duties and services of man to God: and they are outward shadows of zeal, devotion, faith, holiness, reverence of the majesty of God, etc.  
4. In the use of these Ceremonies especially doth external worship consist whether true or false.  
5. Religious Ceremonies are either Common or Proper: common Ceremonies are such as are equally used in civil and religious matters: bowing the knee used in prayer, is a religious ceremony, signifying in that action a Divine reverence of God. Yet it is not a ceremony peculiar and proper to Religion, because it is a ceremony that is and may be used to the Magistrate, to shadow forth also civil worship due unto him. Of which nature all natural Ceremonies seem to be, and any Instituted Ceremony may be, if it have no reference to Religion in the use.  
6. Though matters of civil order and decency be very improperly called Ceremonies, they being rather matters of substance, and it being impiety wilfully and without necessity to neglect them in the Congregation of saints, or to do any thing contrary unto them: Yet all things tending thereto, may for doctrine sake be referred to this head. For though God's worship do not consist in them, yet God's worship is profaned in the wilful contempt & neglect of them. Yea as far forth as natural and civil decency & comeliness are outward shadows of inward worship, They may be safely reputed parts of divine worship.  
7. Matters therefore of order and decency in the service of God are all such matters as are drawn from the ordinary civil customs of men, and which for any to neglect wilfully, would seem to the reason of a natural man a disorderly & unseemly thing. As to come to the assembly clothed, and that in seemly and usual apparel, according to our civil callings in the world, to sit there quietly and in a comely manner, in respect of composition of body, to give as much as may be, upper place to our civil superiors, that the place of mecting be fair swept; that the Table of the Lord in the time of Communion, be spread after the civil fashion of the Country, with a fair tablecloth; that men pray bareheaded, etc. These orders used in civil meetings of men, wherein civil decency is observed and kept, ought not to be neglected in religious meetings, and therefore they may be called common Ceremonies or orders.  
8. These ceremonies of civil order and decency, are of that nature & necessity, that for the Magistrate wilfully to inhibit, were sin in him, and for any particular man not to use and observe as much as conveniently he can, (though authority had never enjoined them in particular) were impiety. And therefore they are of a far different nature from the ceremonies in controversy: For let it be supposed to be no sin to use these when the Magistrate enjoineth them: yea suppose them to be holy ornaments and Rites, yet if no authority human or divine had iustituted them, it had been no sin for any man to neglect them, nay it were a foul sin to use them. For example: Our Lords spiritual enjoin every Minister in Divine service, to wear a white linen Ephod or surplice, they may (if it please them) as lawfully enjoin him to have painted before and behind, two fair red crosses: but if a private man upon his own head should use his Surplice so, though it be an honourable sign that he addeth, it would be made a grievous crime.  
9 They therefore do but gull the simple of the world, that from human authority to institute such civil orders as are above specified, do infer that man hath authority to bring into the service and worship of God such ceremonies, as are clean of another nature. As though because the Magistrate may ordain such Ceremonies, as without his ordinance, were impiety for a man not to observe, therefore he may ordain such ceremonies which without his ordinance at least, were impiety and wickedness for any to use.   

CHAP. V Of Ceremonies peculiar to Religion.  
THOSE Ceremonies that are proper to Religion are such as in a peculiar manner are tied to religious persons actions and purposes only, especially such as are in a special manner tied to the solemn worship of God. In these ceremonies consists the external form of divine worship, and they are the outward badges & cognisances of the same.  
2. All Ceremonies used in the service of God, are either civil ceremonies (to wit such as are also of the same use out of the service of God) or holy Ceremonies, to wit such wherein holiness consists in the due use of them; or else they are profane, that is such as have no use, or a superstitious use. The ceremonies in controversy are not 
* For then the bare omission of them, would argue rudeness and incivility.  civil ceremonies: again it is granted there is no holiness in the use of them 
† Some nigher his M. have given it out that he would (if he could) hang those that put holiness in them. , Therefore they are profane ceremonies, and by consequent not to be mingled with holy things.  
3. As there are diversities of religion and Churches, so there are diversities of Rites and Ceremonies by which they are distinguished, and ceremonies are the partition walls whereby (for the most part) one Church is divided from another. For he that shall with a more narrow eye seek into these things shall see, that for the most part, the diversities and varieties of Ceremonies are the begetters of diversity of doctrines, and opinions, whereby one Religion differeth from another.  
4. The more one Church differeth from another in Rites and Ceremonies, the more it useth to differ in substance of doctrine; and the more one Church draweth near unto another in Ceremonies, the more it draweth near unto it in substance of doctrine. The Churches of France & Scotland in substance of doctrine do so much the more differ from the Synagogue of Rome, by how much the farther they differ from her in Ceremonies, than other Churches; and some in the Church of England that do strive to come to Rome in Ceremonies, come so much the nearer to her in doctrine, as might appear by diverse instances if the matter were not too too apparent.  
5. He that hates the Religion itself, hates all the shadows and shows of the Religion; & he that loves the shadows and rites of a Religion, he loves the Religion itself; he loves a Pope well that loves the triple Crown; he loves a Friar well, that dotes upon his cowl, and shaved crown; and out of question he loves a Maspriest with all his heart, that is mad, upon his massing attire, or any part thereof.  
6. As it is rudeness and want of civility, to neglect or contemn a Civil Ceremony, so it is profanes & irreligion to neglect or contemn a Religious Ceremony: & as outward civility consists in the due use of civil Ceremonies, so outward holiness & religion consists in the due use of all Religious Ceremonies: Those Ceremonies therefore are profane and not beseeming the true worship of God, that are so far from any show of holiness in the use of them, that they make the party that refuseth the use of them to seem, and to be reputed pure, holy, and precise, of which nature our Ceremonies in controversy are.  
7. As civil Ceremonies tend to the honour of them unto whom civil worship is due, & is a part thereof: So Religious Ceremonies tend to the honour of him unto whom religious worship is due and is a part thereof, neither can a man possibly imagine how any thing should be religious whether a Substance or a Ceremony, but it must needs respect him that religion itself respecteth, as therefore we perform civil honour unto those unto whom we perform civil ceremonies, so we perform Religious & Divine honours unto those that we obey in a religious ceremony. They therefore that claim & perform obedience therein, do claim & perform that which is due only to God.  
8. Nothing intended or done by man is an honour to God, but that which is an obedience unto God in some Commandment. All Ceremonies therefore of Religion that are an honour unto God, must be commanded by God himself: and to bring in such Ceremonies into his worship as are no honour to him, is to mock God.  
9 All Religious Ceremonies or Ceremonies of Religion, are spiritnal, that is, are ordained for spiritual uses and ends, and not for civil or temporal, and therefore are outward notes and testimonies of those things that make us spiritual men, and they are parts of spiritual honour due unto spiritual authority and lordship.  
10. All spiritual Lords may claim as their due, spiritual worship, and therefore may institute religious Ceremonies: for look what difference there is between human and divine, Temporal & Spiritual, the same difference there is between the peculiar worship due to the one, and to the other: if therefore Temporal Lords may require all civil rites and honours, Spiritual Lords may require all Divine and Spiritual rites and honours.  
11. Civil honour & reverence only can not nor ought not to please a Spiritual Lord, hence it is that the Spiritual Lords of our Church cannot content themselves with such honour that we give to civil Magistrates and Princes, but we must obey them in peculiar religious duties and services; and surely it is meet that if there be any such besides Christ, that we perform spiritual homage unto them, and they are not worthy that high style that willbe content with temporals, when spirituals are due.  
12. Those Ceremonies that are enjoined by true spiritual Lords, are truly spiritual & holy, even as spiritual and holy as the Sacraments, though they consist of some things in their own nature indifferent; and those Lords are not spiritual, that are not able by their sole authority and word, to hollow that which before was not holy.  
13. Those that can make a Surplice, a Cope, a Cross, etc. to be ornaments of Religion and holy Ceremonies: can, when it pleaseth them, make a shaved Crown, a Monks habit, spittle in Baptism, holy Water, the triple Crown, & all the Missal rites, as holy. For they are all of the same nature: and those that can find no reason to prove those unholy and unlawful, would find none to prove any other external Rite to be so, if they should in the same manner be imposed.  
14. Those that have power upon their own will and pleasure to bring into God's service some indifferent thing, may bring in any 
* For all indifferent things are of the same nature.  indifferent thing: those that may bring in without special warrant from God, piping into his service, might aswell bring in dancing also; those that have authority to join to the sacrament of Baptism the sign of the cross, have authority also (no doubt) to join to the Sacrament of the Supper, flesh, broth, butter or cheese, and worse matters than those, if they will. Yea, those that have power to make peculiar forms of Religion & worship, have power to make and invent a Religion & worship of their own.   

CHAP. VI Of Divine worship in special, and first of true worship.  
Thus much of Divine Worship in general, both Inward and Outward, & of Ceremonies wherein Outward Worship especially consisteth. Now let us in special consider the same. Divine worship therefore is either true Worship or false.  
2. True worship is that immediate service that the true GOD himself requireth to be performed unto himself. In the exercise whereof consisteth true holiness and Religion.  
3. True worship both for matter and manner, aught to be according to the prescript rule of God's word only: neither hath any mortal man authority to frame according to his own conceit, any form or fashion of God's service and worship; for the manner of worship also must be holy, and not the matter only; and no man hath power to make any thing holy, that God halloweth not by his word and spirit.  
4 All civil furtherances and necessary circumstances of Gods solemn worship, though they be not essential parts of the same, nor by special Nomination commanded: Yet are they to be esteemed Ordinances of God, and not human inventions. As God having ordained that his Saints dwelling together both Men, Women and children, of all sorts and degrees, should ordinarily at appointed times meet together, it must needs be presupposed to be his ordinance that they meet together in some such ordinary places, as are fittest for to receive most commodiously such Assemblies: so God having ordained that his Ministers should preach or proclaim salvation to a multitude gathered together, and that they should sit at his feet, hath also ordained that the Ministers seat should be higher than the rest of the peoples; and the like may be said of all other such Circumstances of Divine worship, which are matters of so base and low consideration, and so subject to common sense, that it neither beseemeth the majesty of the word of GOD in special, or human authority derived from God, to make any laws in particular about them; no more than to make laws that one should not sit in the Congregation upon another's lap, or one spit upon another's clothes, or face: or that men should not make antic faces in the Church.   

CHAP. VII. Of false worship.  
THUS much of true worship. False worship is such a service of God as hath no warrant from God himself: worship is false in matter or manner in whole or in part; neither can the true matter of worship sanctify a corrupt manner, or the true manner sanctify a corrupt matter, or some parts of true worship, or the whole itself, sanctify any part of false worship that shallbe adjoined to it, or mingled with it.  
2. Whatsoever is unholy and superstitious out of God's solemn service, can not be made by the sole appointment & will of man holy and good in the solemn servis of God, but must needs be more unholy and superstitious therein, & therefore a part of false worship. If for a man to sign himself or another in the forchead with the sign of the Cross out of baptism, be superstitious and unholy, it can not be good in Baptism but a prophanerite.  
3. The more light and toyish the things seem to be that without warrant from God are brought into the worship of GOD, the more we should abhor conformity unto them, it being a fearful presumption, to serve God in a toyish manner: for who is he that trembles at the Majesty of God, that dares use in his worship any toy and trifle? They are deceived therefore that think that therefore we should not make scruple to use them because they are toys.  
4. That is a corrupt manner of worship wherein there is confusion and undecency, for all things must be done in the service of God, in decency, order and comeliness, as it is granted; & under the name whereof these ceremonies are obtruded upon us: But those things that are undecent and disorderly in other matters, and of no necessary use in God's worship, can not be matters of order and decency in the service of God, except God himself should in a special manner command them.  
5. It being therefore confusion and disorder in civil matters where a multitude joins together in a common suit and supplication for all to speak at once the same words: and common wisdom and discretion having taught it to be a decent and orderly ceremony, that some foreman should speak, and the rest hold their peace, giving only some sign and testimony of assent: he must be more than a man, that must make it an orderly thing in our general and ordinary suits and prayers to God, for all the congregation to open their mouths together in a prayer, especially sith God hath in special appointed the Minister to be the mouth of the people, and expressly requireth the assent of the people only in the word, Amen.  
6. It being a ridiculous disorder in other matters in any solemnity, where any Deed or Record is to be read or rehearsed for one to read one period, and another read or say another, how can it by man's wit & will, without ordinance from God, be a matter of order, for the Minister to read one verse of scripture, and the people another; for the Minister to say one piece of a prayer, and the people by way of catch, to say another.  
7. If any thing be undecent out of the worship of God (the same reason of undeacency remaining) it is much more undecent in the worship of God; for the more excellent the thing is, in which an undecent thing is used, the more undecent the thing is that is so used. As if it be undecent to go naked in any company, it is much more undecent to go so in the Congregation: If fowl apparel be every where else undecent, it can not be decent in God's service, though all the Bishops in the world should decree it.  
8. An undecent and disorderly thing the more strictly it is urged in the service of God, the more dangerous it is to yield unto the same, & so much the more effectual cause of false worship.  
9 If there be some apparel that doth in special manner become the service of God, and deserves to be appropriated unto it, them by the same position there must be some apparel that doth deform and disgrace the service and worship of God: for if no apparel can deform it, than no apparel can be an ornament or decent form unto it.  
10. If any apparel do deform Gods true worship, it is that apparel, that doth most beautify and grace the false and Idolatrous worship of God, As that apparel must needs most deform a wise man that doth most adorn a fool, and that apparel must needs be most unbeseeming a King, that is seemly and decent for a beggar.  
11. If therefore men would set their wits upon the highest strain to invent an apparel to disgrace the Ministers of the Gospel, they could not invent a more odious attire then the consecrated attire of a filthy mass-priest, the most abominable Idolater in the earth.  
12. Those that abhor Idolatry as much as they do beggary and folly, can not but hate and abhor the badges of Idolatry as much as the badges of folly and beggary, and therefore can not but account that priestly attire that is enjoined unto us by our Prelates, an apparel more unbeseeming the Minister of the Gospel, than a Cloak with a thousand patches, or a coat with four ellebowes, for beggary and folly being judgements and not sins, the notes of beggary and folly can not be so odious in a spiritual eye, as the notes of Idolatry.  
13. If it be denied, that the apparel enjoined is popish, because it was before popery was; this answer may be made. 1. It can never be proved that it was before popery. For though not all popery, yet some popery was in the Apostles times: most of the heresies were before the full revealing of Antichrist which notwithstanding we fasten upon them and count popish they having entertained them. If therefore an error maintained before Popery, & retained by Papists, deserve the name of a popish error, why should not unnecessary apparel, though used before, yet entertained now only by them, and those that receive it from them, bear the name of Popish attire. 2. As a Coat of diverse colours is a fools coat, notwithstanding that joseph one of the 12. patriarchs wore one, so a white linen garment is a popish garment though some Ministers in the East Churches did wear them, and yet it can never be proved that either they wore such a one, as is prescribed unto us, or that it was a ministerial garment and not their ordinary civil attire, or proper to the Minister only, or if all this, that it was well done: for there being no one father that wrote since the Apostles times, but have erred in some matters of Doctrine, why may they not as well err in matters of ceremony, if all the true Churches of God beside our own in England, and the greatest part of the sufficientest Pastors of our own Church, are held to err in the general renouncing of these ceremonies; why might not some few Ministers in the old Church, as well err in instituting and using them?  
14. A corrupt and scandalous Ceremony in the worship of God is so much the more dangerous and scandalous to others, by how much the more it comes graced and countenanced with lawful authority. A corrupt ceremony enjoined by a Heathenish Pagan & Tyrant unto the Ministers of the Gospel living under his jurisdiction, cannot do so much spiritual hurt, as when it shallbe required by a Christian Magistrate, for the good conceit of the institutor and ordeinor of a religious Rite, is it that breeds superstition. Those therefore whose special calling from God is, to edify the souls of men & not to destroy them, ought so much the more to avoid these Ceremonies they judge & know to be scandalous and hurtful to the souls of men, by how much the greater grace and countenance they receive from the authority of man, neither can the commandment of the Magistrate be a sufficient plea at the bar of God's judgement seat for a man that by virtue or force thereof alone, hath done any action (how indifferent so ever in itself) that his conscience tells him will scandalise his brother, and so hurt his soul; gross therefore is the doctrine of them that teach, That Paul (if the Magistrate had command him) should have eaten flesh, though his brother's soul should have been damned for it.  
15. The more indifferent an action is in itself, the more odious it ought to be unto us when we shall perceive it to hurt our brother's soul, which ought to be a thousand times dearer unto us than his body, or our own lives, for he shows neither love nor mercy to his brother, that had rather be the instrument of his everlasting damnation, then omit the doing of a mere indifferent thing, though he should incur therefore any bodily punishment whatsoever. That form therefore of God's service that consists in the use of such things indifferent, as experience manifesteth, are a scandal (and by consequent a destruction) to the souls of infinite numbers, ought not to be used of any, much less of those, who are called by Christ to feed the souls of men and not to destroy them. How scandalous these Ceremonies are to all, how the omission of them cannot be scandalous to any, but unto such as are worse scandalised already by embracing them, requires a larger Treatise.  
16. No Magistrate that is a Christian will challenge authority to destroy the soul of any man, and therefore he cannot upon his own mere will & pleasure without sin against God, enjoin any thing (not required by God) that evidently tendeth to the destruction of any man's soul; and those subjects that (being ready to perform any duty that God requireth unto the Magistrate) shall refuse to do any such thing so required, and shall patiently and meekly yield themselves to any punishment the Magistrate shall think good to lay upon them without resistance, shall 
* A paciant suffering, when we cannot in conscience obey, is the best obedience.  perform more true and loyal obedience unto his authority therein, than any of those that shall yield obedience to any laws of that kind enacted by never so good a Magistrate and (in show) to never so good an end.  
17. No subject therefore can take any such authority from the hands of the Magistrate, which may warrant him to do any thing that shall evidently destroy his brother soul at any time, much less in the service & worship of God wherein all things that are to be done, aught to tend to the edification of his soul in a special manner.  
18. It is plain in the word of God, that the kingdom of God (that is) the service and worship of God, standeth not in meats and drinks, nor any such external rites having no authority from God. When therefore without any commandment from God, such external things shallbe brought into the service of God, & made the very forms of the same; such Rites must needs be false worship, and that form of God's service must needs be adulterate, that is made to consist in such things. For no authority can make that a part of God's kingdom, that the word of God doth expressly deny to be a part thereof.  
19 Those Ceremonies therefore in present controversy being merely by man brought into the worship of God, are by no means to be yielded unto, for it is in effect to make the Kingdom of God to consist in meats and drinks or in such like things. For if man hath authority to make the kingdom of God consist in apparel, etc. he hath also authority, if it please him, to make it consist in eating and drinking, & may make them a part of the Liturgy aswell as any of those things that are in controversy.  
20. Those peculiar Rites and Ceremonies which are in that manner & form used in the service of God, that if God himself did but ratify & confirm that present sse of them should then be parts of his true outward worship; must needs as they are used (without God's ordinance) be parts of a false outward worship: But our surplices, crosses, kneeling at the lords Supper, etc. are such, that if God should but command to use them as we use them, that is if he should require every Minister in divine service to wear a surplice to note joy, dignity or sanctity, or in Baptism to cross a child in sign, etc. Nay though he should express no use at all, but barely enjoin the things themselves to be used in his service, yet they should be parts of Gods true outward worship, for whatsoever God toeth in a peculiar manner to his worship, is a part thereof. These Ceremonies therefore in controversy having such a use in the service of God, unto which they are peculiarly tied, must needs be used as parts of Divine worship, for else the bare ratifying of their present use, could not make them true worship; Being therefore (as they are used) parts of divine worship and not parts of true divine worship, because not commanded of God; they are parts of false divine worship, for that divine worship that is not true worship, is false worship.  
FINIS.