s. The idolothious ceremonies, we see now, are become idols to
those who have retained them. The ground which the Bishop of Winchester
taketh for his sermon _of the worshipping of imaginations_,--to wit, that
the devil, seeing that idolatrous images would be put down, bent his whole
device, in place of them, to erect and set up divers imaginations, to be
adored and magnified instead of the former,--is, in some things, abused and
misapplied by him. But well may I apply it to the point in hand; for that
the ceremonies are the imaginations which are magnified, adored, and
idolised, instead of the idolatrous images which were put down, thus we
instruct and qualify:

_Sect._ 2. First, They are so erected and extolled, that they are more
looked to than the weighty matters of the law of God: all good discipline
must be neglected before they be not holden up. A covetous man is an
idolater, for this respect among others, as Davenant noteth,(646) because
he neglects the service which he oweth to God, and is wholly taken up with
the gathering of money. And I suppose every one will think that those
traditions, Mark vii. 8, 9, which the Pharisees kept and held, with the
laying aside of the commandments of God, might well be called idols. Shall
we not then call the ceremonies idols, which are observed with the
neglecting of God's commandments, and which are advanced above many
substantial points of religion? Idolatry, blasphemy, profanation of the
Sabbath, perjury, adultery, &c., are overlooked, and not corrected nor
reproved, nay, not so much as discountenanced in those who favour and
follow the ceremonies; and if in the fellows and favourites, much more in
the fathers. What if order be taken with some of those abominations in
certain abject poor bodies? _Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas._
What will not an episcopal conformist pass away with, if there be no more
had against him than the breaking of God's commandments by open and gross
wickedness? But O what narrow notice is taken of non-conformity! How
mercilessly is it menaced! How cruelly corrected! Well, the ceremonies are
more made of than the substance. And this is so evident, that Dr Burges
himself lamenteth the pressure of conformity,(647) and denieth not that
which is objected to him, namely, that more grievous penalties are
inflicted upon the refusal of the ceremonies than upon adultery and
drunkenness.

_Sect._ 3. Secondly, Did not Eli make idols of his sons, 1 Sa