it religio_. So that from this law it doth
most manifestly appear, that we may not be like idolaters, no not in
things which are in themselves indifferent, when we know they do use them
superstitiously. 2. What warrant is there for this gloss, that the law
forbiddeth the cutting round of the corners of the head, and the matting
of the corners of the beard, to be used as signs of immoderate and
hopeless lamentation for the dead, and that in no other sense they are
forbidden? Albeit the cutting of the flesh may be expounded to proceed
from immoderate grief, and to be a sign of hopeless lamentation; yet this
cannot be said of rounding the hair, marring the beard, and making of
baldness, which might have been used in moderate and hopeful lamentation,
as well as our putting on of mourning apparel for the dead. The law saith
nothing of the immoderate use of these things, but simply forbiddeth to
round the head, or mar the beard for the dead; and that because this was
one of the rites which the idolatrous and superstitious Gentiles did use,
concerning whom the Lord commanded his people, that they should not do
like them, because he had chosen them to be a holy and peculiar people,
above all people upon the earth. So that the thing which was forbidden, if
the Gentiles had not used it, should have been otherwise lawful enough to
God's people, as we have seen out of Calvin's commentary.

_Sect._ 6. Secondly, We have reason for that which we say; for by
partaking with idolaters in their rites and ceremonies, we are made to
partake with them in their religion too. For, _ceremonioe omnes sun
quoedam protestationes fidei_, saith Aquinas.(582) Therefore _communio
rituum est quasi symbolum communionis in religione_, saith Balduine.(583)
They who did eat of the Jewish sacrifices were partakers of the altar, 1
Cor. x. 18, that is, saith Pareus,(584) _socios Judaicae religionis et
cultus se profitebantur_. For the Jews by their sacrifices _mutuam in una
eademque religione copulationem sanciunt_, saith Beza.(585) Whereupon Dr
Fulk noteth,(586) that the Apostle in that place doth compare our
sacraments with the altars, hosts, sacrifices or immolations of the Jews
and Gentiles, "in that point which is common to all ceremonies, to declare
them that use them to be partakers of that religion whereof they be
ceremonies." If then Isidore thought it unlawful for Christians to take
pleasure in the fables of heathen poets,(587) because _non solum thur