of truth and unity of faith. And we go the true
way to regain peace whilst we sue for the removal of those popish
ceremonies which have both occasioned and nourished the discord, we only
refuse that peace (falsely so called) which will not permit us to brook
purity, and that because (as Joseph Hall(29) noteth) St James' (chap. iii.
17,) describeth the wisdom which is from above to be "first pure, then
peaceable," whence it cometh that there can be no concord betwixt Christ
and antichrist, nor any communion betwixt the temple of God and idols, 2
Cor. vii. 15, 16. _Atque ut coelum_, &c.: "And though heaven and earth
should happen to be mingled together, yet the sincere worship of God and
his sacred truth, wherein eternal salvation is laid up for us, should
worthily be unto us of more estimation than a hundred worlds," saith
Calvin.(30) John Fox(31) judgeth it better to contend against those who
prefer their own traditions to the commandments of God, than to be at
peace with them. True it is,--_Pax optima rerum, quas homini novisse datum
est._--Yet I trust we may use the words of that great adiaphorist, Georgius
Cassander--_Ea __ demion vera_, &c. "That alone (saith he) is true and
solid Christian peace which is conjoined with the glory of God and the
obedience of his will, and is rejoined from all depravation of the
heavenly doctrine and divine worship."

VII. Beware, also, you be not deceived with the pretence of the church's
consent, and of uniformity as well with the ancient church as with the now
reformed churches, in the forms and customs of both, for, 1. Our opposites
cannot show that the sign of the cross was received and used in the church
before Tertullian, except they allege either the Montanists or the
Valentian heretics for it. Neither yet can they show, that apparel proper
for divine service, and distinguished from the common, is more ancient
than the days of Pope Coelestinus, nor lastly, that kneeling in the act of
receiving the communion was ever used before the time of Pope Honorious
III. They cannot prove any one of the controverted ceremonies to have been
in the church the first two hundred years after Christ, except the feast
of Easter (which yet can neither be proved to have been observed in the
apostles' own age, nor yet to have been established in the after age by
any law, but only to have crept in by a certain private custom), and for
some of them they cannot find any clear testimony for a long time