Page:Elizabeth Elstob - An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.djvu/73

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The PREFACE.
lv

farther, that they then had, and we still retain those two Sacraments, which Christ appointed in his Church: and agreeable to the intent of his Institution, without the Corruptions of the Mass, and Transubstantiation. We have those Rites and Ceremonies, free from all Superstition, which are most reverend and decent in the Service of God, and most convenient for the State of our Church: herein keeping close to St. Gregory’s Direction to St. Augustine, so that may not we now use their own Exclamations? Alas! The Altars which they erected, have the Heterodox destroyed: But who are the Heterodox, they or we? We adhere to the Catholick Faith, which St. Gregory and St. Augustine taught. They have added new and Heterodox Notions to the Christian Belief, and impose them as Articles of Faith. They have forsaken the ways of their Fathers St. Gregory and St. Peter, by bringing in so many Novelties and Absurdities; having let in all the Errors, Superstitions, and Impieties of Idolatry and Transubstantiation, and those other Blemishes, which so much at this Day, deface the Roman Church: so that the Prayer that they make for us is much more adapted to their own Circumstances; and we are not behind hand with them, in wishing charitably, which I do very sincerely.

That God may give them Repentance to the acknowledging the Truth, That they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Devil, who are taken Captive by him at his Will.