Page:The Book of Common Prayer.djvu/31

20 Of such Ceremonies as be vsed in the Church, and have had their beginning- by the Jnstitution of man, some at the first were of godly intent and purpose devised, and yet at length turned to vanity and superstition: some entred into the Church by vndiscreet devotion, and such a Zeale as was without knowledge ; and for because they were winked at in the begining they grew daily to more and more abuses which not only for their vnprofitableness, but also because they have much blinded the people, and obscured the glory of God, are worthy to be cut away and clean rejected. Other there be, which although they have been devised by man, yet it is thought good to reserve them still, as well for a decent order in the Church (for the which they were first devised) as because they pertain to edification, wherevnto all things done in the church (as the Apostle teacheth) ought to be referred. And although the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony, in it self considered, is but a small thing, yet the wilfiill and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God.

Let all things be don among you, saith S. Paul, in a seemly and due order. The appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men: therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any publick, or common order in Christs church, except he be lawfully called and authorized thereunto.

And whereas in this our time, the minds of men are so divers, that some think it a great matter of conscience to depart from a peece of the least of their Ceremonies; they be so addicted to their old customs : and again on the other side, some be so newfangled, that they would innovate all things, and so despise the old, that nothing can like them but