_Sect._ 3. Thirdly, the ceremonies are a great hinderance to edification, because they make much time and pains to be spent about them, which might be, and (if they were removed) should be spent more profitably for godly edifying. That which is said of the ceremonies which crept into the ancient church, agreeth well to them.(319) _Ista ceremoniarum accumulatio, tum ipsos doctores, __ tum etiam ipsos auditores, a studio docendi atque discendi verbum Dei abstraxit, atque impedivit necessarias et utiles divini eloquii institutiones._ Pulpits sound oftentimes with declamations for the ceremonies, when there is need of pressing the power of godliness upon the consciences of people, and when there are many more necessary things to be urged. The press also sends forth idle discourses and defences of the ceremonies which might be employed more profitably. And, moreover, faithful men whose labours might be very profitable to the church in the holy ministry, have neither a door of entrance nor a door of utterance licentiated to them, and that because they will not consent nor yield themselves to be the unhappy instruments of imposing this yoke of ceremonial bondage upon the necks of God’s people. Others who have entered, and have been both faithful and painful labourers in the Lord’s vineyard, are thrust from their changes for no other quarrel, but that of non-conformity. O unhappy ceremonies! woe unto you, you mischievous lets and prejudices to the edification of the church. CHAPTER V. THAT THE CEREMONIES ARE INEXPEDIENT, BECAUSE THEY ARE OCCASIONS OF INJURY AND CRUELTY. _Sect._ 1. The ceremonies serve to be instruments of cruelty against the sincere servants of Christ, they are used as Absalom’s sacrifice, to be cloaks of wicked malice, they occasion the fining, confining, depriving, imprisoning, and banishing of very worthy and good men. Such instruments of cruelty brought into the habitation, not of the sons of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 5, but of the God of Jacob, are to be accursed by all who love the peace of Jerusalem, or bear the bowels of Christian compassion within them, because they are not of Christ the meek Lamb of God, who did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street, who did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, Isa. xlii. 2, 3; but they are of antichrist, to whom it is given to make war with the saints.(320)