Salvation was by the Law of Moses not by the Faith of Christ Jesus Fled as far as they could from them and would not joyn with them in or Practise any of the Rites peculiar to the Law of Moses for the Matter was now come to that pass that they could not do it without betraying the Christian Religion so that now ceased the Obligation to these Matters which the Council at Jerusalem had formerly imposed in favour of the Jews and Hopes to Win them And hence it is probable many Churches tooâ— Occasion to turn the Great Festival of the Jews the Sabbath into a Fâ—â—t And for this Reason amongst Others viz. That they might not Ground their Festival from any Jewish Rite or because they thought the Account noâ— exact they declined the Fourteenth of the Moon and began that Feast on the Lords Day reckoning from the Fifteenth to the One and Twentieth of the Moon Now not to Run over the Stories of Simon Zelotes Joseph of Ariâ—â—athea and Others who are Celebrated for the first Planters of the Christian Religion in these Isles From these Premisses it is not irrational to Conclude that the British Churches observing the Feast of Easter after the Usage which obtained before the Separation from the Jews and the Roman Church more exactly as was devised afterwards the Gospel in all probability must have been Preached and Received in Brittain some time before any Considerable Church was Gathered at Rome And being this Usage continued for several Hundreds of Years though the Bishops of Rome were so far from suffering it in that they would scarce suffer it out of their Jurisdiction it will follow that these Churches were neither of Roman Conversion nor Roman Jurisdiction IX This Matter will be much clearer if we now descend to Consider the Debates Behaviour and Actions of the Brittish Bishops towards Augustine the Monk who was sent hither by Pope Gregory for the Conversion of the Saxons But first to prevent mistakes I must tell you that I have no design either to Vindicate the Brittish Bishops in the Observation of Easter or to condemn the Roman It Matters not to Me who was right or wrong but it is the Difference and the Grounds whereon it was Maintained which serves my Ends. The Britons were not Quartodecimani as some have supposed for those kept the Feast on the Fourteenth of the Moon on what day of the Week soever it fell but the Britons expected the Lords Day But I suppose none now will Contest it but that the Romans were most exact and right in their Observation but then that arose from this Nicety That the Law of Moses Commands the Paschal Lamb to be slain in the Evening of the Fourteenth day of the first Month Now according to the Jewish Account who Reckoned the foregoing Night to the following day that must be on the Beginning of the Fifteenth day But the Britons who Reckoned not from Sun-set but from Sun-rise and so on the contrary joyned the following Night to the foregoing day could not see this but must of course take the Evening following the Fourteenth Day to be part of the Fourteenth Day And therefore their Practice being suitable to their Common Conceptions And having obtained amongst them from their first Entrance into Christianity it was unreasonable that those who had no Jurisdiction over them should impose an Alteration upon them and still worse to raise irreconcileable fewds and make Divisions in Gods Church for such a matter As if a Man could not be a good Christian without being an exact Astronomer and Critically cunning in the Customes of other Nations X. But to Return to our Matter Mauritius according to Beda Eccl. Hist lib. 1. cap. 23. came to the Empire in the Year 582 In the Tenth Year of his Reign Gregory came to the Popedom And he in the Fourteenth Year of the same Emperours Reign sends Augustine to the Saxons so that Aâ—gustines first Mâ—ssion was about the Year 596 But though he and his Companions seemâ—d to set forth with great Chearfulness and Resolution yet whether from the dread of a Warlike and barbarous People or from an Apprehension of their inability for the Work as not understanding the Language or what other Cause I know not After mature deliberation in Council they fairly tack about and Sail back again This much troubled the good Pope who by all Circumstances seems to have Set his Heart on this Work And he had the greater Reason for it because it was already half done to his Hands And therefore he gently Reproves those faint-hearted Souldiers but takes greater pains to encourage them And that they might want nothing to Fit them for the work he Sends and Recommends them to Etherius Archbishop of Arles who furnisheth them with Interpreters de Gente Erancorum Bed Eccl. Hist lib. 1. cap. 24. 25. And now away they go for good and Land in the Isle of Thanet and perhaps there was no great difficulty in Converting King Ethelbert for it was now about 150 Years since the Coming in of the Saxons And though their Quarrel was with the Britons yet they could not in all that time but understand somewhat of the Christian Religion from them Besides Ethelberts Queen was a Christian and de Gente Erancorum Regiâ as Beda phraseth it And it was Conditioned at her Marriage That She should have the frâ—e Use of her Religion And the Condition was duely kept for whereas the King had his Court in Canterbury the Queen had for her Use the then Ancient Church of St. Martin standing at the Towns-End and her Bishop Lindhardus who Officiated And any Body will suppose That both She and her Bishop would do all they could to Influence and perswade the King Further Beda Eccl. Hist lib. 1. cap. 25. saith expressly though somewhat mincingly That Antea fama ad eum Christianae Religionis pervenerat And Gregory the Great in one of his Letters saith They were desirous of it And whosoever shall duely Consider the whole Behaviour of King Ethelbert will find in him no Aversion to the Christian Religion but that like a wise Prince he only â—ook care so to manage the Matter that he might Receive it with the Satisfaction of his Subjects and draw them to it after him Well in a short time the King is Convertâ—d and Augustine becomes his Favourite And yet before this with the true Industry of a Monck he Lends the Honest Bishop Linhardus a Lift who had prepared Matters for him and by the Kings Favour gets Possession of St. Martins Church And here I know not well how to excuse Beda from Partiality For he saith as little as could be beâ—ore but henceforward not a word of the endeavors of the Queen or her Bishop nor a tittle of all the labor and pains of the French Intetpreters without whom this our English Apostle could have done nothing But Augustine like a true Son of the Râ—man Church goes away both with
to shew that he could have no such Jurisdiction I shall produce two Arguments the one taken from the different Rites and Usages of the Britons from the Romans The other from the Brittish Bishops downright disclaiming such Authority and Asserting and Proving their Liberty VIII Doubtless it doth more Concern us to be truly thankful that God hath Vouchsafed us the Light of his Gospel and to be careful to live acccrding to it then scrupulously to enquire after the precise time when the Britons Received the Christian Faith But if Enquiry should be made which in our present Case may not only be allowable but useful I am prone to think it would appear That the British Churches were so far from being the Slave that they were the Elder Sister of the Church of Rome And if neither the Gift of Christ nor the Canons of the Ancient Church have dealt her any hard Measure in this Matter certainly the Prerogative of her Birth-right ought to invest Her with some Honour and Priviledge at least to Shield Her from Truckling too much to the Power and Petulance of her younger Sister And the rather because she hath not been unfruitful as having brought forth the first Christian King furnished the World with the first Christian Emperour afforded the first call her as you please Christian Queen or Empress and of all Others first so Received the Faith that it was the publick Allowed and Authorized Religion of the place in which Respect she hath sometimes been Honoured with the Title of Primogenita Ecclesia But to pass by these Honourary Titles it is generally Agreed That the Britons as in several other Matters so especially in the Observation of the Feast of Easter did differ from the Romans And to find out the true Reason of this I think the best Way will be to look still higher even to the first times of Christianity Our blessed Saviour was so far from separating from the Jewish Church that he made them his particular Care and Charge and seems to have so designed all his Labours for their Conviction and Reformation that all Nations might have been Aggregated to them in his Name And therefore he was generally shy towards Others and being Urged with Arguments in favour of the Woman of Canaan plainly Answers Matth. 15. 24. I am not sent but unto the lost Sheep of the House of Israel This Honour towards the Jewish Church the only Church of God then on Earth and Care that it might not be lost â—at rather that the Wall of Separation being broken down all Others might be let in to Her continued with the Apostles and Difciples of Christ after his Death and Resurrection for they remained still at Jerusalem preaching to the Jews And when the Cruelty of Herod and Malice of the Jews followed them so close that they were many of them forced to Fly out of Jerusalem to save their Lives yet their kindness to the Jews and Hopes of their Conversion still stuck clofe to them in so much that those who were scattered upon the Persecution of Stephen and went as far as Phenice Cyprus and Antioch Preached the Word to none but the Jews only Acts 11. 19. And there was need of no less then a Miracle to perswade Peter to go and instruct Cornelius a Gentile in the Way os Truth Acts 10. and though he did go upon such unanswerable Motives yet he was called to an Account for it The going in unto Men Uncircumcised was thought a Crime not to be suffered unless extraordinary Reason could be given for it And perhaps this Tenderness towards the Jews might be no small cause of Peters Judaizing at Antioch Now whilest the Disciples did Adhere so close to the Jews it is not only Reasonable to suppose that they Used their Customes and Rites But we have Scripture Testimony of some Instances wherein they did so as in the matter of the Sabbath though they kept also the Lords Day and Circumcision and some other things And therefore it is likely that they did observe with them their other Fasts and Feasts especially that which was Accounted the Principal the Passeover For as they look'd upon these things as in their own Natures to be matters then indifferent so tbey did hope to draw off the Jews by degrees and to let the Law of Moses go off Honourably rather by Difuse then Contempt And this Practice continued for some time after the Conversion of divers of the Gentiles by the Disciples who were dispersed by the Persecution at Jerusalem And therefore I take that Plea of Polyerates for his different Observation of Easter from Victor Bishop of Rome to be a Testimony of the very early Conversion of those Asiatick Churches and that they were of the First fruits of Christianity But after that God by bestowing the Holy Ghost on the Gentiles and other clear Signes and Indications of his Will had Convinced all the Apostles and Ministers of the Word that it was not only lawful but their Duty to make known the Words of Eternal Life unto the Gentiles and the Gentiles upon their Preaching in all places did plentifully Flock into the Church then in those Gentile Churches Christian Liberty began in a greater Measure to be Maintained against the Mosaical Rites And now Paul who Circumcised Timothy refused to Circumcise Titus yea even the Council at Jerusalem disburthen of all those Matters except some few things which the Necessity of the Times would not permit them to take off unless they should have utterly disobliged the Jews of whom they had some Hopes And about this time it is probable began the strict Observation of the Lords Day with the Neglect of the Sabbath And the Celebrating the Resurrection not on the precise time of the Jewish Passeover but on the first day of the Week Called the Lords Day from his Resurrection on that day next following the Fourteenth of the Moon And yet though this was Allowed in the Gentiles yet in Communion with the Christian Jews a greater Regard was had to the Law And therefore when that great Assertor of the Gentiles Liberty St. Paul came up to Jerusalem though the Disciples Approved what he had done yet they Advise Him to go purifie himself in the Temple and do such other Matters that he might Appear according to the Opinion of the Jews to Walk orderly and keep the Law Acts 21. But when neither Pains Patience nor Arguments could prevail but the Jews became more obstinate then ever in Adhering to the Mosaical Rites and obtruded them upon all Others with the Opinion of such absolute Necessity that they became a Scandal to the Gospel and made the Death of Christ in vain and upon this Account were the Implacable Enemies of the Christians in all Places Then to Vindicate the Gospel the Christians were under a Necessity to depart from them And those who before Complyed all that could be with them now lest they should seem to Countenance the Opinion That
all these Supereminent dignities whereby one Bishop was raised above another were Erected either for he better Management of Affaires in the Roman Empire or for the Grandeur of it Or else sprang up by degrees for the benefit of those Cities which were of greatest Power and Interest in which thing Rome had the most advantage as being the Imperial City and giving Denomination to the whole Empire But now that Empire being broken and Resolved into several absolute and independent Principalities other Measures ought to be taken and for the same Reason that such Authority was set up it ought now to be taken down or Restrained And the Limits of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Confined within the Extent of the Civil Power and Exercised for its Ease Safety and Benefit And it seems to Me to be a Matter not to be despised that though the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament were written under the Government of the Roman Empire and in the time of its greatest Height and Glory yet the word Emperour so far as I can Call to mind is no where to be found there Indeed there is a Precept Relating to Caesar by Reason of a particular Question which determined it to that Name and the word Augustus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Answers it are Historically mentioned But these what use soever After-times made of them were then Gentilitial or Honourary Titles But the Name Emperour was that by which they then Ruled and which Held all along whatever other Titles or Distinctions were devised And that I think is no where to be found in the New Testament at least not in that sense Perhaps the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which mostly Answers it was thought too presumptuous However it is the Security the New Testament gives them is only by Commanding Obedience to the Higher Powers or in the like Phrases never mentioning their distinct Title But though the Name of Kings was odious to the Romans yet most of the Evangelical Precepts which Require Obedience to the Civil Power expressly direct it to Kings so that they seem to be given not only with a Spirit of Prophesie that that great unweldy Body should fall in pieces and be divided into several Kingdomes but also with a special design to secure and oblige all Christians to Obedience and Submission to such Kings And if we further consider that our Blessed Saviour hath told us That his Kingdom is not of this World And that the Christian Religion teacheth Self denial and Renunciation of the World and Requires all Christians especially the Governours of the Church to be of a most Humble peaceable and exemplary Behaviour This kind of Proceedings in its Covernment will seem most agreeable and natural to it For the Business of Church-Governours is to promote the Interest and Power of the Gospel not pertinaciously to strive for Jurisdiction to its prejudice and dishonour If each Changes happen in Mundane Affairs that by Alteration of the Bounds of Temporal Principalitieâ— one Bishop gain and another lose yet the Church of God loseth nothing but hereby gains its Peace and a good opinion amongst the Princes of the Earth And Church-Governours have the greater freedom and more Advantage to do good But the insisting upon Jurisdiction in another Christian Princes Dominion is to take his Subjects from him It ever causeth Disturbances Creates Jealousies in Princes and makes them think those who should be the best Christians to be the worst Subjects And for that cause to have the meaner opinion of Religion it self It would therefore certainly be best with the Church of God and most conduce to its happy Government if this Rule were observed in all Christian Kingdoms that the Jurisdictions of Bishops should Comply with and Conform to the Divisions Boundaries of the Civil Power This was the true primitive Practice and this the Bishops have ever been inclinable to when they have been able to withstand that everlasting Encroacher the Bishop of Rome Of which take this one Instance Immediately after the Synod at Constantinople against Photius a Controversie arose to whose Diocess the Bulgarians then newly Converted to the Faith should belong The Bishop of Rome who never lost any thing for want of demanding it made strong Claim by his Legats Upon this Account there Meets before the Emperour in his Palace Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople then newly Restored the Vicars of the Eastern Patriarchs i. e. of Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem the Legats of the Bishop of Rome and the Legats of the Bulgarians But upon debate in spite of all the Endeavours of the Roman Legats it is unanimously given to the Constantinopolitan and such a Reason along with it as might have satisfied any Persons except Messengers from Rome who are never to be satisfied with any thing but with what shall be acceptable to their Masters insatiable Covetousness and boundless Ambition For their joynt Answer is this Satis indecens est ut Vos qui Graecorum Imperium detrectantes Francorum faderibus inhaeretis in regno nostri Principis ordinando jura servetis So that though no sort of Men were more given to Encroachments then the Patriarchs yet of Five and those if I mistake not all that were then in being we have sour to one who are for the old Rule That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction should be Suited to the Limits of the Civil Power XXXIII What hath been said upon Supposition of the Patriarchship extended over these Isles hath been Argued purely ex Abundanti For having before proved that it did not extend to them we could not be bound to submit to it And though the Pope did by degrees thrust in and possess himself of a Jurisdiction here for a long time yet from the foregoing Arguments it will Appear that he was only Possessor Malae Fidei whom neither the Ecclesiastick nor Civil Laws will suffer by any length of time to prescribe And therefore he was Canonically thrust ouâ— again Hence it follows That the Churches of these Isles are Accountable to no other Church or Church-man as Superiour but remain only in the dependance of Co-ordinate or Sister-Churches to all Others who all are mutually bound to each other what in them lies to uphold Communion and Acquit themselves of doing any thing that may be detrimental or injurious to the whole But for the Matter of Government Order Reforming Abuses and the like the Power is in themselves Others may Advise but cannot Controul unless the Universal Church of God oâ— damnifiâ—d by their Actions And thus having found our Churches invested with a power of Governing and Reforming themselves We now have only to enquire how it hath been made use of which directly leads Me to the Actual Separation and Reformation XXXIV If any Man will set Himself to Examine a great Action which involves variety of Matter is Carried on thorough Multitudes of difficulties Managed by divers Hands and necessarily requires no small time for its Accomplishment And then expects