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

but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking, and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar.

10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times, that as one saith, Many things are often had in great esteem, ¹because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods. So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them, not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem; but only because by Custom they ⟨p. 98⟩were once received, and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God. But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedaemonians were wont to say, there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth, when in truth they were all Adulterers, and used an uncertain sort of Marriages, and had their Wives in common. Or, as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope, that he being Lord of all Benefices, although he sells Bishoprics, Monasteries, and Livings, and suffers nothing to go from him without Money: yet because he claims all these as his own, tho he would, yet he cannot commit Simony: But then how well or rationally this is spoken, we poor Men cannot see or understand; except as the ancient Romans served Victory, ²so they have served Truth, for when she once came flying to them, they clipped her Wings that she might no more sly from them. But what if Jeremiah should tell them, as we have observed above, that these are lying Words? And what again if he should say,³ That many Pastors (who ought to have dressed) have destroyed my Vineyard? What if Christ should say, that those who should have taken the greatest care of the Temple, have made the House of God a D•n of Thieves?