The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

And yet from this one Error there has sprung such a Crop of small Priests, that Masses being publicly and openly sold in every corner, they have turned the Churches of God into mere Shops, and deluded poor Mortals into a Belief that there was no Commodity more useful; and certainly, as to those small Levites, these Masses were very advantageous.

And yet from this one Error there has sprung such a Crop of small Priests, that Masses being publickly and openly sold in every corner, they have turn'd the Churches of God into meer Shops, and deluded poor Mortals into a Belief that there was no Commodity more useful; and certainly, as to those small Levites, these Masses were very advantagious.

18.¹ WE know that St. Augustin grievously complained of the vast number of impertinent Ceremonies in his time, and therefore we have cut off a great many of them, because we know they were afflictive to the Consciences of Men, and burdensome to the Church of God. Yet we still retain, and religiously use, not only all those which we know were delivered to the Church by the Apostles, but some others which we saw might be born without any inconvenience▪ because, as St. Paul commands, we desire allthings in the Religious Assemblies,² should be done decently and in order; but then as to al•those that were very superstitious, or base, or ridiculous, or contrary to the Scriptures, or did not seem to befit sober men, an infinite ⟨p. 35⟩number of which, are still to be found amongst Papists; we have rejected all these, I say, without excepting any one of them, because we would not have the Service of God any longer contaminated with such Fooleries.

18.