mation in evil, and a veil drawn, so that the sincere doctrine
which is propounded should not be admitted as it ought to be. In another
epistle to Cranmer,(547) archbishop of Canterbury, he complaineth that
external superstitions were so corrected in the church of England, _ut
residui maneant innumeri surculi, qui assidue pullulent_. And what good,
then, was done by their admonitions, whereby they did, in some sort, send
the reviving twigs of old superstition, since forasmuch as they were not
wholly eradicate, they did still shoot forth again? If a man should dig a
pit by the way-side, for some commodity of his own, and thou admonish the
travellers to take heed to themselves, if they go that way in the darkness
of the night, who would hold him excusable? How then shall they be excused
who dig a most dangerous pit, which is like to ruin many souls, and yet
will have us to think that they are blameless, for that they warn men to
beware of it?

_Sect._ 13. Thirdly, we are told that if these answers which our opposites
give get no place, then shall we use nothing at all which hath been used
by idolaters, and by consequence, neither baptism nor the Lord's supper.
But let Zanchius answer for us,(548) that these things are by themselves
necessary, so that it is enough they be purged from the abuse. And
elsewhere(549) he resolveth, that things which are by themselves both good
and necessary, may not for any abuse be put away. _Si vero res sint
adiaphorae sua natura et per legem Dei, eoque tales quae citra jacturam
salutis omitti possunt, etiam si ad bonos usus initio fuerunt institutae;
si tamen postea videamus illas in abusus pernitiosos esse conversas;
pietas in Deum, et charitas erga proximum, postulant ut tollantur, &c._ He
adds, for proof of that which he saith, the example of Hezekiah in
breaking down that brazen serpent; which example doth indeed most
pregnantly enforce the abolishing of all things or rites notoriously
abused to idolatry when they are not of any necessary use, but it
warranteth not the abolishing of anything which has a necessary use,
because the brazen serpent is not contained in the number of those things,
_quibus carere non possumus_, saith Wolphius,(550) answering to the same
objection which presently I have in hand. Now, that the ceremonies have
not in themselves, nor by the law of God, any necessary use, and that
without hazard of salvation they may be omitted, is acknowledged by
Formalists themselv