Page:Elizabeth Elstob - An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.djvu/38

 wou'd carefully make choice of it; and infuse into the Church of the English, that as yet is new in the Faith, by a particular Appointment, whatsoever out of many Churches you have been able to collect. For things are not to be valued for the Places from whence they come; but we are to have an Affection for Places, upon the Account of Good Things. Wherefore, out of the several Churches, whatsoever things are pious, whatsoever things are religious, whatsoever things are just, these make choice of; and these being collected, and as it were, bound up together, fix in the Minds of the English, that they may grow into Practice.

What Advice cou'd be more candid, and moderate, than this of St. Gregory''? or more prudent and Apostolical? Nor are there any certain Reasons to believe, that St. Augustine's Behaviour did not agree with thefe Directions. Here is no Usurpation of the Church of Rome, upon the Liberties of the English Church, tho' newly converted, and an Infant of her own bringing forth; to the Tuition whereof, on that account, she might seem to have had some Right. No Imposition of burthensome Rites and Ceremonies, but the People left wholly at Liberty, to be govern'd by their own Bishop; and their Bishop to model and govern his Church, not by the Platform of the Church of Rome: but by such Rules as he should find most agreable to the Place and People he was set over, out of whatsoever Churches they were taken. And this ought to''