ence suffers me not to obey, for I am
persuaded that such things are not right, nor appointed. I answer thee, In
matters of this nature and quality the sentence of thy superiors ought to
direct thee, and that is a sufficient ground to thy conscience for
obeying."(47) Thus we see that they urge the ceremonies, not only with a
necessity of practice upon the outward man, but also with a necessity of
opinion upon the conscience, and that merely because of the church's
determination and appointment; yea, Dr Mortoune maketh kneeling in the act
of receiving the communion to be in some sort necessary in itself, for he
maintaineth,(48) that though it be not essentially necessary as food, yet
it is accidentally necessary as physic. Nay, some of them are yet more
absurd, who plainly call the ceremonies necessary in themselves,(49)
beside the constitution of the church. Others of them, who confess the
ceremonies to be not only unnecessary,(50) but also inconvenient, do,
notwithstanding, plead for them as things necessary. Dr Burges tells
us,(51) that some of his side think that ceremonies are inconvenient, but
withal he discovers to us a strange mystery brought out of the
unsearchable deepness of his piercing conception, holding that such things
as not only are not at all necessary in themselves,(52) but are
inconvenient too, may yet be urged as necessary.

_Sect_. 3. The urging of these ceremonies as necessary, if there were no
more, is a sufficient reason for our refusing them. "To the precepts of
God (saith Balduine) nothing is to be added,(53) Deut. xii. Now God hath
commanded these things which are necessary. The rites of the church are
not necessary, wherefore, if the abrogation or usurpation of any rite be
urged as necessary, then is an addition made to the commandment of God,
which is forbidden in the word, and, by consequence, it cannot oblige me,
neither should anything herein be yielded unto." Who can purge these
ceremonies in controversy among us of gross superstition, since they are
urged as things necessary? But of this superstition we shall hear
afterward in its proper place.

CHAPTER II.

THE REASON TAKEN OUT OF ACTS XV. TO PROVE THE NECESSITY OF THE CEREMONIES,
BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH'S APPOINTMENT, CONFUTED.

The Bishop of Edinburgh, to prove that of necessity our consciences must
be ruled by the will of the law, and that it is necessary that we give
obedience to the same, a