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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92878	Theanthropos: or, God made man. A tract proving the nativity of our Saviour to be on the 25. of December. / By John Selden, that eminently-learned antiquary, late of the Inner-Temple.	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Chantry, John, d. 1662?, engraver.	1661 (1661)	Wing S2439; Thomason E1809_2; ESTC R203528	58,933	119

sufficient ground and as if I were too inclining to the part of the hot-brain'd and disturbing Puritans which impiously deny the keeping of a day as an anniversary feast consecrated to the birth of our blessed Saviour from which my conscience was ever and is most clearly free For I knew first both from sacred profane Story that the anniversary dayes (b) 200 Theodos Justin de feriis Sed de hac re plenè Martinus de Roa lib. de die Natali not only of Princes but of some private men also were with frequency ever observ'd and the beginning of Cities under that name yearly celebrated and even among the Heathen those that professed such Philosophy as was nearest to true Divinity that is the Platonists were most religious in keeping their Plato's birth-day which they received by tradition to be the (c) Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. Laertius in vita Plat. c. same with Apollo's that is the 7. day of the Attique moneth Thargelion which answers to our April and this was still observed until the time of Plotinus and (d) Marsil Ficinus comment ad Plat. Sympos cap. 1. Porphyry who lived about 270 years after our Saviours birth and after the discontinuance of it for many ages it was revived in the dayes of our Grand-fathers with much solemnity in the Dutchy of Florence by Lorenzo Medices But he misplaced it in the year while he and his guests being better Platonists than Chronologers took the 7 of Thargelion to be the 7 of November As also the old trifling Astrologers committed a like fault while in the scheme (a) Firmicus Mathes lib. 6. cap. 30. of his Nativity they place the Sun in Pisces which must denote our February or the Attique Anthesterion But however an anniversary day was observ'd for his Birth so was there anciently for the birth of some false Gods for they had their certain days for the births of (b) Calend. vet Rom. à G. Herwarto naper editum c. Mars Apollo Diana Minerva the Muses Hercules and others and carefully observ'd them and for Princes and private persons even to this day a celebration is in use at the yearly returning of their Birth-days To deny therefore with that way-ward Sect such an anniversary honour to the Saviour of the World were but to think him lesse worthy of it than false Gods were esteemed by the Gentiles than Princes by their Subjects than private friends by their greater friends whose birth-dayes they yearly celebrated But of this I trust no man that truly deserves a name among Christians will make scruple Some indeed and those not a few among the learned have doubted of the just time of the birth of our Saviour which while they doubt they offer the more occasion to others to question and impugne the celebration of it as it is now setled in the Church For if that were not the true day as they argue it follows that there were no more reason save only what comes from the latter and arbitrary constitutions of the Church to keep that day than any other throughout the whole year unless also some other day were found to be the exact time of it But for my self here as I was far from questioning the duty of it so was I also from doubting of the right of Celebration of it on the very day of December whereon it is now kept And to make clear my mind here I shall now more largely according to what His Majesties most learned instructions have taught me declare the certainty of that feast as it is at this day observed even from the eldest of the Christian times and Apostolical tradition received even from the practice of his Disciples for it is one thing to deny as I have done that it was so ordained by the Apostles in those Clementines which I think all learned and ingenuous men will deny and another and far-different thing to affirm that the tradition of that day as it is now kept is both Apostolical and as ancient as the birth it self as I shall presently deliver in the deduction of the continuance of it according as it is now observed through all Christendom For although in the feast and in all others unmoveable there be the known difference of ten dayes which were taken out of Octob. in the year MDLXXXII * Constit sum Pontif. p. 775. Clavius in Kal. Greg. sive tom 5. by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth when he reformed the Julian Kalendar 'twixt us with some few other States and those which have received the Gregorian Kalendar yet both they and we agree in this that upon the 25. of that Moneth that is with us of our Julian December this feast is ever to be observed So that we meddle not here at all with any part of the differences 'twixt the Julian and Gregorian year but onely endeavour to make it certain that on this day of that Moneth December that Feast hath ever been setled in the Western Church from whence the Eastern also anciently received it For it is clear that upon what day soever of any Moneth an unmoveable feast is to be kept in our Iulian year on the same day of the Month it is to be kept in the Gregorian so that the proof here is equal for the use of both Accounts Thus appears the state of the Question and to this purpose for orders sake shall be shewed 1. The Authorities of keeping it on this day both in the Eastern and Western Churches about 400. years after our Saviour and that then it was ancient in the Western Church and known also under the name of the Winter-Solstice-day which is especially here observable 2. For preparation of more particular proof of the tradition of this Feast-day the supposition which the most primitive Ages had touching the time of the Solstices and Aequinoxes 3. That the keeping of it on this day was so received from tradition even of the eldest times since our Saviour and this justified from the Fathers supposing it to have been upon the very day of the ancient Winter-Solstice 4. Express Testimonies to the same purpose out of ancient History and a confirmation from the general use in the several Churches in Christendome 6. The chief Objections that are made against this dayes being the true time of the birth with plain Answers to them 7. Some other Opinions among the Ancients touching it and how some of them may agree with what we have received and the rest are of no weight against it And then more especially of the ancient confusion of this Feast with that of the Epiphany SECT I. The Authorities of keeping it on this day both in the Eastern and Western Churches about 400. years after our Saviour and that then it was ancient in the Western Church and known also under the name of the Winter-Solstice-day which is especially here observable FOr the first that is the Authorities of the received

Peters testimony Petrus are the words qui hic fuit cum Joh. qui hìc fuit cum Jac. nos in occidente docuit which hath plain reference to that before noted out of his long Oration for the same matter where he tells * Edit Savil tom 5. p. 512. us also that in the controversies of those times touching this Feast such as defended it as what ought to be kept on this day justified that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Very ancient and from old time known and famous from Thract to Cadis that is in the whole Western Church To these may be added that of Euodius whom Nicephoras calls the Successor of the Apostles and it is delivered † Suid in verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was ordained by St. Peter himself in Antioch that we may so distinguish him from that other Euodius Bishop of Vzalis * Cujus nomini ascribuntur opera aliquot ad sin tom 10. D. Aug. subjunc●● edit Lova●●ensi in St. Augustines time he in an Epistle touching the times of the Passion of our Saviour of St. Stephens Martyrdome of the death of the blessed Virgin and the like sayes expresly of her as the Latine is in * Eccles bist l. 2. c. 3. Nicephorus translated by Langius for neither have I the Greek of him Peperit autem mundi ipsius lucem annum agens quindecimum 25. die mensis Decembris And likewise in an old Greek Author the Book being written about the time of Pope Honorius the First in the Library of St. Mark 's in Florence express testimony is Apostolos memoriae prodidisse Christum ex Virgine natum Bethlemae 25. Decembris as Albertus Widemonstadius of his own sight witnesseth in his Notes on that impious Book called Mahomets Divinity and brings also Hesychius his authority to the same purpose And to these may be added Cedren Orosius and some ancient Manuscripts Fasti cited by Cuspinian upon Cassiodore and there is authority also † Catholicus Armeniorum in legatione ad Arvienios malè legitur 20 Dec. tam. in Biblioth Patrum edit Paris tom 3. p. 864. quam in edit Colon. tom 12. part 1. p. 891. Nam Graece erat ●e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod videre est apud Jos Scalig. in Isagog chron l. 3. p. 30. that however Epiphamus in his Works have another designation of the day of this birth as anon is shewed yet out of the Monuments of the Jews he learned and then taught that this was the very day which they say was justified also by some Writers brought to Rome from Jerusalem by Titus which also is strengthened by that of St. Chrysostome when he sayes * Tom. 5. eait Savil. sol 12. expresly that in publick Records kept at Rome in his age the exact time of the description under Quirinus spoken of by St. Luke which could not but be a special character of the time of our Saviours birth was expressed and then he goes on But what is this to us saith he that neither are at Rome nor have been there that so we might be sure of it yet hearken saith * Ibid. p. 513. he and doubt not for we have received the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. from those which accurately know these things and dwell at Rome And that they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. having from ancient time and old tradition celebrated it have now also sent us the knowledge of it This is likewise confirmed by an old barbarous Translation of what was taken out of Africanus and Eusebius and published in the noble Scaliger's Thesaurus Temporum where the words are Aug. Sylvano Coss Dominus noster Jesus Christus natus est sub Augusto 8. calendas Ianuarias and then In ipsa die in qua natus est pastores viderunt stellam Chuac 28. which should rather be 29. for so agrees the 25. of December to that of the Aegyptian Choiac which the Author means And Prudentius upon the day supposing the † In hymn ad calend 8 Jan. old tradition of the concurrence of the Solstice with it Quid est quod arctum circulum Sol jam recurrens deserit Christusne terris nascitur Qui lucis auget tramitem Hic ille natalis dies Quo te Creator ard●us Spiravit limo indidit Sermone carnem glutinant And of later times the Authorities are infinite These testimonies being compared with the consent of the Fathers that about 400. years after Christ have written that it was ancient as is already shewed and being confirmed by the arguments made against the supposed later institution of it out of the place of the received Winter-solstice enough manifest the antiquity and certainty of this ancient Feast-day according as we now observe it and that even from the age wherein it first brought forth the redemption of Mankind And to these we may adde the consent of Christian Churches ever since about those 400. years for after that the Eastern or Greek Church of Asia had learned the truth of it from the Western as is delivered this celebration of it yearly increased and grew still more famous through Christendom so expresly St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith * Pan●g in di 〈…〉 dit Sav. l. to n. 5. p. 512. he i.e. Every year it increased and grew more famous But indeed because in some places it was not as yet so received but that old erroreous opinion touching it as it happens in like cases and shall anon be more particularly shewed still held there place among some that were too wayward to be brought to prefer truth newly discovered to them before their own errors therefore about 100. years after St. Chrysostome it was expresly ordained by the Emperour Iustin if my Author deceive not that in every place of the Christian world it should be thus observed My Author here is Nicephorus * Hist eccles l. 17. c. 28. Calistus who as the Translation of him is tells us first of Iustinian that he Primùm Servatoris exceptionem that is the Hypatants which in our Western Church is the Purification of the blessed Virgin tot● orbe terrarum festo die honorare instituit and then he addes sicut Iustinus de sancta Christi nativitate fecit And according hereto are the Kalendars and Book of Divine service not onely of the Western which are every where common but of the Eastern Churches also In the Menology of the Greek Church in December 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. On the 25. of the same moneth the Feast of the Incarnation of our Lord and God and Saviour Iesus Christ and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The Virgin Mary brought forth our Saviour on the 25. day Other Volumes of their Divine service as their Apostolo-Evangela and the like enough shew this also And for other Churches which are not under the name of the Greek as those of Antioch or

that course and so have observed from which of the 24. the Ministration beginning on the Sabbuth being the 23. of Casleu in the 148. year of Seleucus or Dilkarnon would happen and thence might they have reckoned forward to search out that of Abia in this question of Zacharies Ministration For if there were such a carefull avoiding of supplying the course of one by another then followes it plainly that it was certainly known at he time of Antiochus his prophanation to which of the courses the Ministration five years from that week would necessarily belong as it was then known what course was in the present ministration For example admit five years were complete from the end of the week of the prophanation and discontinuance of the courses under Antiochus to the end of the week of the Dedication and suppose also that the first course that is of Iehoiarid had served in the Temple in the week of prophanation then must it necessarily first follow that the course of Iedaiah on the second must have served in the week following that is the first week of those five years Now in those five years taking in about a day to make the numbers round in the example we have CCLXI weeks and 261. weeks are ten complete cycles of those 24. courses and 21. weeks of advantage to go on with to make an eleventh cycle If then the strict observation of keeping every course to his own week which was as well foreseen alwayes by the revolution of those cycles as any immoveable Feast or the Dominical letter in our Ecclesiastick accounts is fore-known were in such use then clearly what course soever should have served in the sixth week of this eleventh cycle which in our example falls to that of Iedaiah Reckon with him in this eleventh cycle till the 21. course as the weeks require and then the course of Gamul is proper to the very week of the new Dedication and this way if the course which served at the prophanation were known it were easie to find which of them should by that tradition of the Iews have served at the Dedication But when we neither know which of them served at the prophanation nor which at the Dedication what rashness is it to rely upon a bare conjecture and that also such an one as is adverse to that received tradition of the exact keeping of the cycles and is in substance confessed to be so by such as have used it These things thus considered it follows that they which insist upon this argument taken from the beginning of the 24. courses in that of Iehoiarib under Indas Macchabeus fail in their ground and prove nothing at all against our received tradition The weakness of their Objection also is therein increased that their chronology in it is so uncertain that they know not clearly in what year to fix the birth some of them making it one some two some three or more years before the common Epocha and this also upon conjecture But while they vary so much in the year they have little reason to be confident out of their own grounds only wherein they refuse this so ancient tradition that they can in their supposed years be sure of the very day of which no other old testimony instructs them then either what we have before remembred or that which shall presently be both delivered and so cleared also that it may not have weight against what is already justified And it might easily fall out that the certain year of the birth might be forgotten or at least not so remembred or the memory of it not so preserved as that later posterity could clearly have notice of it and yet that the day of the moneth on which the Birth sell might by the continuance of tradition as it hath been be clearly known The anniversary celebration gave the day certain to posterity which could not thence find any thing to rectifie them in the exactnesse of the year as we see also in an example of the Roman States They clearly knew that the birth of Servius Tullius who was the first that was King there against the will of the common people first fell upon the Nores of some moneth but they * Macrobius l. 1. Saturnal c. 13. knew not at all of what moneth nor in what year for ought appears And therefore they avoided publick meetings in the City upon the Nones of every moneth through the year that so they might be sure to avoid them as supposed most unlucky to the State anniversarily upon his birth-day This anniversary avoiding publick meetings or Fairs on the Nones continued the certainty of his being born on the Nones of some moneth though the moneth were unknown and so did the anniversary celebration continue from the Disciples to the day of the moneth though perbaps the year be not clearly enough certain And there was other reason also why the certainty of the year might be unknown For there is nothing that preserves such a certainty but either such expresse testimonie of Authors as cannot be questioned or else a continuance of vulgar supputation of time from or very near from the time of the Birth it self But we have herein had neither of these For the first that is the testimony of old Authors they vary in the years of Augustus and of the Consuls which are the Characters by which they design it and besides they are not of such antiquity as that we can clearly rely upon them and for that of the vulgar supputation of time the common account either in Instruments Letters Receipts or the like was not all made by the years of our Lord till between D. and DC after the Birth that is after the time that Dionysius made his cycle of DXXXII by multiplication of the cycle of the Sun into the Golden number and from that time brought * Beda de Temp. rat c. 45. in according to his own suppositions the supputation of time by the years of our Lord. For before that age the Christians use was either to note times by the Consuls of the year as the ancient course of Rome was and as we see in old General Councils and in Receipts of the Emperours in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian whence also Constantine ordained it for a † C. Theodos tit de constit prim l. 1. si qud Law that if any Edicts or Constitutions of the Emperours should be found fine die Consule they should be held of no authority or else by that Aera commonly called Aera Hispanica which began under Augustus 38. years before the Dionysian Epocha of our Saviour and was chiefly used in Spain as we see both in the Titles of the old Councils of Sivil Bracara and Toledo and in the Inscriptions of that Country but also it was in use in Africk and France as we may collect by most of the Titles of the Councils of Carthage of Arles and Valence unless we suppose that

intercede ●1 complete years that is 154. cycles of those courses of 24. and 9. courses over therefore plainly in that year the course of Ichoiarth is about the 9. week from the beginning of August that is in the end of September and so it follows that the end of the course of Abia being the 8. fell in the end of November or 8. weeks later than in the old calculation which placed it in the end of September And the birth of St. Iohn as it is now celebrated would thus have been in the 7. Moneth from the conception which in nature were reasonable enough but the holy * D. L●c c. 1. com 36. 56. Text well endures the common and most ancient interpretation which denotes it to be in the 9. at least And were this authority of Rabbi Iose to be insisted on and the perpetual succession in the cycles of those courses in this age preceding the destruction to be resolved on there were cause enough here to seek for another exposition of the time of the birth out of the words of the holy Text For the common account from Zacharies Ministration will so fall wholly unless we change the vulgarly-received year of our Saviours birth and as some do place three or four years back more than the Dionysian account doth for so will the course of Abia be brought into September and if we make it fall four years sooner as Susligd doth that course with and also in the end of Septemb. according to the common calculation herein used by the Fathers But I will avoid here the making of such uncertainties of thronology of years to be arguments to justiste what is otherwise certain enough in the day Neither can we rely here either upon the perpetual succession of the course or on the testimony of that Rabbi for the constant continuance of the courses in their succession there is great reason in this time after Augustus to doubt of it in regard both of the Jews doing frequently otherwise than their Canons bind them as also in regard of some meer necessity which might occasion some change in the succession when they were in those later dayes subject to the State of Rome And for that of the course of Iehoiarib then ministring there is not credit enough in the Author to make us believe him For besides that while he tels us so he is mistaken in the true day of the second destruction of the Temple which fell on the 10. of Lous or August in that * Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 year not on the 4. which answers to his 9. of Ab the Sacrifices and so the courses of the Priests ceased about three weeks before that is on the 17 day of the Moneth Tamuz and this for the want of Priests as Iosephus who knew it of himself expresly hath written But he tels us not a word of what course then ministred no more doth Abraham Ben David in his Cabala or he that extracted the Seder Olam Zuta out of the Seder Olam Rabba where this is reported from Rabbi Iose although both these Authors speak most particularly of the second destruction of the Temple but they abstain from this of the course then in service as from what had been delivered without warrant by Rabbi Iose who indeed had learned from an old groundless tradition that at the first destruction under Nebuchadnezzar the course of Iohoiarib served in the Temple and that this second destruction was upon the same day of the same Moneth which the first was on and because he would have all in both destructions alike he added also that the course of Iehoiarib served now at the second destruction when indeed no service at all was in the Temple and that the Sacrifices and Ministration were ended So before the destruction other testimony is in the Iews Liturgy which confirms that of Iosephus to be infallible on the Fast of their seventeenth of Tamuz they sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Because in this day the continual Sacrifice ceased this day the continual Sacrifice was taken away If the Sacrifices then and the courses with them for the one of them is not without the other ceased on the 17. day of Tamuz what credit is to be given to him that tels us what course ministred in the Sacrifices three weeks after which being so cleared there is nothing remaining in the cycles of those courses that can impugne the received tradition of this birth-day And for that other argument of the Shepherds watching in the night what makes that against this of December as if the shepherds might not properly be in the fields watching their sheep in the night at the midst of Winter especially in so warm and continually temperate a Climate For although in Italy the precepts of Husbandry were that in the Winter their sheep should be kept in Coats * Virgil. Georg. 3. vide Columel l. 7. c. 4. Varre l. 2. c. 2. Pallad in Novemb. rather than in Fields yet they had their Winter-feedings abroad also and the Climate of Bethlehem is of less latitude by ten degrees than that of Rome and is also by so much the more temperate alwayes and even in our Climate which is much colder than either of them we have watching of sheep feeding or remaining in the fields at this time of the year The rest objected out of the circumstances of time as that the birth of the Redeemer of all men should be on that day on which the creation of the first man was that is as they without ground suppose on the 25. of March and such like are far more vain and not worthy of mention These things being at length cleared we need not I trust be at all moved by the opposition of those learned men Beroald Paulus de Midleburgo Suslyga Ioseph Scaliger Kepler although he stands fot the same time of the year but relies on the tradition of the day Wolfius Hospinian Lidiat Calvisius Casaubon and the rest that have both made it a question and shewed also their opinions against it SECT VIII Some other opinions among the ancients touching it and how some of them may agree with what we have received and the rest are of no weight against it and there more especially of the ancient confusion of this Feast with that of the Epiphany BUt we have hitherto omitted the different opinions among the ancients touching the day of this Birth which shall be therefore next collected and then also it shall be shewed that they bear no weight against what is before concluded Those opinions as they are delivered are various and chiefly five The first is of them who taught it to be on the 25. day of the Aegyptian Moneth Pachon which is the 20. of May in the first Aegyptian year For after that the Egyptian Moneth Thoth was fixed in the end of August and so the rest of the following Moneths 30. days being allowed to a Moneth which