dolatry with thorns, which may stop and stay such as have an
inclination aiming forward, but also lay before them the inciting and
enticing occasions which add to their own propension, such delectation as
spurreth forward with a swift facility?

_Sect._ 7. Thus, having both explained and confirmed the proposition of
our present argument, I will make my next for the confutation of the
answers which our opposites devise to elude it. And, First, They tell us,
that it is needless to abolish utterly things and rites which the Papists
have abused to idolatry and superstition, and that it is enough to purge
them from the abuse, and to restore them again to their right use. Hence
Saravia(531) will not have _pium crucis usum_ to be abolished _cum abusu_,
but holds it enough that the abuse and superstition be taken away. Dr
Forbesse's answer is,(532) that not only things instituted by God are not
to be taken away for the abuse of them, but farther, _neque res medioe ab
hominibus prudenter introductoe, propter sequentem abusum semper tollendoe
sunt. Abusi sunt Papistoe templis, et oratoriis, et cathedris, et sacris
vasis, et campanis, et benedictione matrimoniali; nec tamen res istas
censuerunt prudentes reformatores abjiciendas. Ans._ 1. Calvin,(533)
answering that which Cassander allegeth out of an Italian writer, _abusu
non tolli bonum usum_, he admits it only to be true in things which are
instituted by God himself, not so in things ordained by men, for the very
use of such things or rites as have no necessary use in God's worship, and
which men have devised only at their own pleasure, is taken away by
idolatrous abuse. _Pars tutior_ here, is to put them wholly away, and
there is by a great deal more danger in retaining than in removing them.
2. The proofs which I have produced (or the proposition about which now we
debate,) do not only infer that things and rites which have been
notoriously abused to idolatry should be abolished, in case they be not
restored to a right use, but simply and absolutely that in any wise they
are to be abolished. God commanded to say to the covering, and the
ornaments of idols, "Get you hence," Isa. xxx. 22. It is not enough they
be purged from the abuse, but _simpliciter_ they themselves must pack them
and be gone. How did Jacob with the ear-rings of the idols; Elijah with
Baal's altar; Jehu with his vestments; Josiah with his houses; Manasseh
with his altars; Moses with the golden calf; Joshua wit