Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	apostle_n	old_a	testament_n	2,813	5	8.0149	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44242	The Holy time of Christmas defended against non-conformists and all others its prophaners and opposers, or, A discourse shewing that a religious observation of Christmas is apostolical and worthy every good Christian		1676 (1676)	Wing H2529; ESTC R28109	8,613	14

away the whole New Testament For how can he tell St. Matthew wrote this Book St. Luke that and so of the rest but by the universal immemorial Testimony of several Christian Countrys If Almighty God will Oblige me to keep such Daies Holy as were so appointed and reverence such Books as Divine as were by Divine Inspiration written sixteen Hundred Years before I was born he cannot reasonably expect I should know and distinguish either the one or the other but by the immemorial Testimonys of my Ancestors in several Countries But how at the Day of Iudgment I should Answer the refusal of such a Book or the Non-Observance of such a Day So immemorially recommended by my Ancestors I cannot tell It belongs to the providence of our Blessed Saviour to take care that no Age should be so devilishly malitious universally to tell their Children a Book of their own forging the like may be said of a Holy-Day or other Ritual Observance was written by a Holy Apostle of Jesus Christ some hundred of Years before One Man may be presumed to be so Malicious whole Nations never did nor ever can do any such thing Nor does the Church of England in this differ from the Church of Rome as if she thought what the Apostles VVrit was of greater Authority then what they Taught or Ordained She willingly admits all Traditions of which she can have good proof that they come from the Apostles Such are the Observations of Christmass Lent Easter c. But if Christmas Day was taught the VVorld by the Apostles how comes it to pass we have no mention of it in all the New Testament VVhat daies were to be Observed by the Jews are made mention of over and over in the old Testament how comes it to pass if Christmas Day or other Days be to be Observed by Christians we find no mention of them in any of the Books of the New Scripture Reflect upon the nature of the Books of the two Testaments and the Reason is Manifest For if you consider the Old Testament you will find not only Historical Books such are the books of Judges the Kings c. and moral Books which treat of good Life c. such are the Proverbs Ecclesiastes others But besides these there are Ritual Books which by the very subject of them every one sees their Design was to describe the external Mosaical VVorship as to Observation of Daies Priestly Garments Sacrifices c. Such are the Books of Exodus Leviticus and Deuteronomy And therefore no wonder if you find exactly set down what Daies that people was to keep Holy How their Priests were to be Consecrated and how Vested in time of Divine Service c. But now cast your Eye upon all the Books of the new-New-Testament and you 'l not find one that you can reasonably presume the Author of it had a Design in it to Describe the External VVorship of the Gospel VVhat daies for Example we Christians are to observe in memory of Christian Mercies and Misters what Garments our Priests are to use in Divine Service c. And yet the Light of God within us tells us such Institutions are very useful to increase Piety when Religiously Observed and all History tells us that immemorially in all Nations there have been certain external Christian Rites not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures ever since the first planting of Christianity amongst them The four Gospels are a History of our Blessed Saviours Life and Death who lived as to the external Rites of Religion according to the Jewish Law and so we cannot reasonably in any of them expect what Days we Christians are to observe in the time of the Gospel Indeed had the Acts of the Apostles been intended as an exact Narration how the Apostles lived as to the whole course of their Life what Days they kept Holy and what Days they Fasted c. VVe might reasonably have expected some mention there of Christmas Day and Lent But that Holy Book making mention only of some few particular passages of two or three of the Apostles Lives the Apostles might well keep Christmas Day and Lent too and teach them also to their first Converts and yet there be a profound silence of such Observations in the Book of their Acts. As for St. Johns Prophetical Book it were no ways proper in it to treat either of Christmas Day or Lent Though I must tell you for ought you or I know when St. John says he was in the Spirit on the Lords Day he may mean the Day of our Lords Birth or the yearly Easter Day of his Resurrection as well as our VVeekly Sunday The rest of the New Testament are certain Epistles or Letters of spiritual Counsels written by St. Paul or some other Apostle to particular Persons or whole Cities already instructed in the Christian way of VVorship But why they should needs make mention therein of Christmas Day I understand not unless perchance the Persons they wrote unto had been deficient in keeping it Holy But does not St. Paul expresly deery the keeping of Christmass-Day in one of his Epistles and tells the Christians he wrote to he was afraid he had laboured in vain amongst them by reason of their Superstitious Observation of Dayes Gal. 4.9 10. How are ye Converted again to weak and beggarly Elements which you will Serve again Ye observe Dayes and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I should have laboured amongst you in Vain Was then the Holy Apostle afraid lest the Galations should leave Christianity and return to Judaism or Paganism because of their Observing Christmass-Day in Memory of our Blessed Saviour's Birth or Lent in Memory of his Fasting forty Dayes or Easter in Memory of his Resurrection Is this a likely Story Or is it not evident from the Context Of their returning again to weak and poor Elements that because of their returning to the Observation of Jewish-Dayes Commanded by Moses or Pagan Dayes in honour of Jupiter Mars or Saturn he was afraid they would Relinquish the Gospel by them Received and become Jews again or Pagans But still methinks I am afraid of Superstition and Will-Worship by observing a Day which I fear God has never Commanded me But you have more reason to be afraid of Prophaners in neglecting a Day which you have all reason to think God has Commanded you to keep Holy if you Reflect well upon what I have said above Seeing you are Commanded to keep Holy Christmass-Day by doing only such Actions as you acknowledge to be Christianly and Good What danger can there be of Superstition Especially when you are not Taught neither that such Actions are then more acceptable to God Almighty than at another times Only you are Commanded at that Set-Time to do them lest otherwise you should wholly omit Them My deerest Relations whom I pity with my Soul take heed whilst under pretence of Opposing Anti-Christ you be not one day

of his Nativity which they might easily learn from his Holy Mother in Prayer Reading Hearing and Meditating that Mystery with all it's circumstances and the ends for which it was so wrought VVould not such an Observation as this in every Christian Parish in the VVorld have strangely conduced to a pious profitable grateful memory of that Miracle of Love of God's becoming a little Infant for the Salvation of the VVorld And this methinks should be sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man that the keeping Holy by a yearly Observation of the sacred time of our deer Lord's Nativity was not only worthy the Holy Apostles Institution but also that it cannot be well understood how they could be faithful in their Office without the making of such an Ordination or at least without leaving Power and Charge to their Successors so to ordain Such Ordinations being absolutely necessary to posterity at a long distance howsoever less needful they might be to them who lived so near the time when that and the other Mysteries of our Lord Jesus were acted Nor let us deceive our selves and posterity by pretending to remember our Lord's Nativity every Day too sad Experience telling us this is the way seldom or never soundly and heartily to think of it In our own Country what 's become of all memory of Gowry's Conspiracy for want of a day to remember it And had not the fifth of November been set a part particularly to remember the Gun-powder Treason but had every one been left to remember it every day in all likelyhood the memory of that horrid Plot had been by this time quite lost in the memories of the vulgar people But all that I have hitherto been saying only shews that the appointment of a particular time to remember our Lord's Nativity was worthy of the Holy Apostles but what evidence have we that the Holy Apostles have actually made any such Ordination Why what evidence would you have Indeed they have written no Book to recommend the Observation of any particular day to Posterity but if they have taught such an Observation by word of mouth to all the Countries in the World where they preached the Gospel is not this sufficient Let us then in our thoughts Travel into the several Christian Countries of the World and see what they observe And first let us take a view of our own Native Country and enquire when we began upon the 25th of December every year particularly to lay aside all our worldly Affairs and with Prayers and other Holy Exercises to remember our deer Lord's Birth The oldest man alive can tell us no beginning of this our practice No Chronicles no Annals give us any account of it's beginning neither They tell us indeed that St. Joseph of Arimathea not long after our Blessed Saviour's Departure into Heaven brought Christianity into our Country but they do not tell us of any one since that time who enjoyned us to keep Christmas-Day Holy The same Annals tell us that about the year six hundred one Austin with certain Companions came from Rome to convert our Nation the over-run by the Infidel Saxons from Paganism to Christianity They tell us also that the same Austin found certain British Christians driven into Wales by the Saxons and make mention also how the said Austin and the Christian Brittains differed about certain Ceremonies in the administration of Baptism and moreover upon what Sunday they should keep Easter Day both agreeing Easter Day was to be kept the one holding upon the 14th of the Moon of March in case it hapned on the Sunday the other not till the Sunday following But now had they differed about the keeping of Christmas Day and that so as one should have said a day was to be kept and precisely the 25th of December and the other should have contended no Day at all was to be kept This would have been a more notorious Disagreement than upon what Sunday Easter was to be solemnized and consequently would have been taken notice of by our Historiographers Hence I infer the Britains kept holy Christmas Day before the coming of Austin For it cannot be doubted but Austin brought from Rome the Religion that was then practised at Rome And 't is manifest that at Rome they then and many years before kept Holy the day of our Lord's Nativity For we have Sermons preached at Rome upon the day of our Lord's Nativity by St. Leo Pope above a hundred years before Nor let any one be afraid of Rome and her way of VVorship thus early the Church of England willingly appeals to the Faith and Practice of Rome and other Christian Cities for the first six hundred years after our Blessed Saviour Besides had the Observation of Christmas in our Nation been begun since our Conversion to Christianity by Austin our Chronicles would make mention what National Synod or Council commanded it to be so universally observed as it has been time out of mind in every Parish in England Should any Forreiner that comes into our Country take notice of the standing of our Plows the shutting up of our Shops and the frequenting of Divine Service in every Parish upon the fifth of November he would instantly conclude we never fell upon such a Practice by chance but that it was so commanded and ordained by some Soveraign power Ecclesiastical or Civil The like Discourse will every rational man make upon the general Religious Observations of Christmas Day To wit that we never fell upon such an Observance by chance but either we were all taught so by the first Planters of Christanity in our Nation or enjoyned so to do by some Supreme Authority since but our Annals making no mention of any such Ordination 't is rightly concluded we were so taught by our first Christian Masters But if you give a little more scope to your Thoughts and Consider that not only England but Holland Germany France Spain Italy and other Christian Country's have Immemorially from their first Conversion to Christianity kept Holy the Day of our Lords Nativity Nor is there any mention of any General Council or other Universal Authority's imposing any such Observation upon them this Reflection will compel you to acknowledg this Practice must needs have been taught the several Nations of Christendom by the first Preachers of the Gospel the Holy Apostles And remarkable to my present purpose is the Rule of the Great St. Augustin VVhatsoever we find universally practised over all the Christian VVorld we safely Conclude either to have been Ordained by the Apostles or some General Council for that it cannot be presumed that whole Nations could by chance fall upon the Religious Observation of the same Day or other Ceremonial Right And he whom such a Discourse as this does not satisfy but he still Doubts Disputes How can he be sure the Apostles ever taught any such Observation Such an one I say let him take heed for he is dangerously disposed to throw