rsed monuments of popish
superstition, and have been both dedicated unto and employed in the public
and solemn worship of idols, and therefore (having no necessary use for
which we should still retain them) they ought to be utterly abolished, and
are not left free nor indifferent to us, which argument I have also made
good elsewhere,(1318) and in this place I only add, that both
Jerome,(1319) Zanchius, and Amandus Polanus,(1320) do apply this argument
to the surplice, holding, that though it be in itself indifferent, yet
_quia in cultu idololatrico veste linea utuntur clerici papaxi, et in ea
non parum sanctimoniae ponunt superstitiosi homines; valedicendum est, non
solum cultui idololatrico, sed etiam omnibus idololatriae monumentis,
instrumentis et adminiculis_. Yea, Joseph Hall himself, doth herein give
testimony unto us, for upon Hezekiah's pulling down of the brazen serpent,
because of the idolatrous abuse of it, thus he noteth:(1321) "God
commanded the raising of it, God commanded the abolishing of it.
Superstitious use can mar the very institutions of God, how much more the
most wise and well-grounded devices of men!" And further, in the end of
this treatise, entitled, _The Honour of the Married Clergy_, he adjoineth
a passage taken out of the epistle of Erasmus Roterodamus to Christopher,
Bishop of Basil, which passage beginneth thus: "For those things which are
altogether of human constitution must (like to remedies in diseases) be
attempered to the present estate of matters and times. Those things which
were once religiously instituted, afterwards, according to occasion, and
the changed quality of manners and times, may be with more religion and
piety abrogated." Finally, If Hezekiah be praised for breaking down the
brazen serpent (though instituted by God) when the Israelites began to
abuse it against the honour of God, how much more (saith Zanchius(1322))
are our reformers to be praised, for that they did thus with rites
instituted by men, being found full of superstitious abuse, though in
themselves they had not been evil!

_Sect._ 8. 8. The ceremonies are not indifferent, because they depart too
far from the example of Christ and his apostles, and the purer times of
the church; for instead of that ancient Christian-like and soul-edifying
simplicity, religion is now by their means busked with the vain trumpery
of Babylonish trinkets, and her face covered with the whorish and
eye-bewitching fairding of fleshl