gracious means whereby the glad Tidings of Salvation have been made known and become saving unto us 1. For the Mysteries themselves the first great Mystery of Godliness or Christian Religion is God manifested in the Flesh and this we think our selves bound to commemorate on the days of his Incarnation commonly call'd the Annunciation and of his Nativity The next is his being Justified in the Spirit at his Resurrection and this we Celebrate as on every Lord's day so especially on that day of the year whereon he rose Then his being receiv'd into Glory on Ascension day his being Preach'd to the Gentiles on the Epiphany whereto are premis'd and subjoyn'd that of the Circumcision and Presentment of our Lord in the Temple to shew our hope of the Conversion of the Jews and that we and they must expect to be saved by one and the same Saviour 2. Others are in contemplation of the Means whereby so great a Salvation hath been publish'd for the benefit of all mankind As 1. The Descent of the Holy Ghost for which we have our Whitsunday 2. Our Lords being seen of Angels in order to make them his Ministring Spirits to Minister to them that shall be Heirs of Salvation for which we have that of Michael and all Angels 3. His being believed on in the World through the Preaching and Writing of the Apostles and Evangelists and the means of all those Persons and Things whereby so great a Mystery was made credible to the World as was that of our Lords Birth by the little less miraculous Birth of John the Baptist the only Saint therefore whose Nativity we observe and the dreadful Massacre of the Fourteen thousand Infants at Bethlehem And that of his Resurrection and Ascension by the aforesaid Effusion of the Holy Ghost the death of the Protomartyr Stephen who saw our Lord standing at the right hand of God and all other Saints and Martyrs their Holy lives and painful deaths And now after all when the great Creator and Redeemer of Mankind and Sanctifier of the Elect have been devoutly acknowledged on distinct days If there be one added to recognise the Ineffable Trin-Vnity I hope none will gainsay it though the ground I go upon will not reach it Ye see now our Church hath not stuffed her Calendar with the Invention of the Cross of Christ of the Head of John Baptist the Bones of St. Luke the Relicks of any other Martyrs with the Names of seign'd or real Saints that had not a special Commission to Preach the Gospel or were not extraordinary instruments to assert the Credibility of it So that our Church Calendar is a kind of Catechism instructive even of them that cannot read where Holy days are duly observ'd Fifthly Upon this ground we may build the true degrees and distinctions of Holy days All the Rubricks are not of an equal dye there are if I may so say dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scarlet days Festa duplicia majora minora as they us'd to speak God hath left a greater impression and mark upon some than upon others as he did upon the Jewish and as they had so have we upon the same score three distinctions of Days And this threefold degree of Holiness might be made out as well in Persons and Places as Times both in the Jewish and Christian Church but that is alien from our business First The Lords day is as the Sabbath was with them the Queen and Empress of Days a day which God hath Crown'd more than any other by extraordinary Acts of his own 'T is the first day that God made that whereon he began the Creation of the World and that whereon our Blessed Lord finish'd the work of our Redemption It pleads the greatest Antiquity as a day set apart for all Religious Performances that whereon our Lord twice visited his Disciples that whereon the Holy Ghost descended upon them that whereon St. Peter Preach'd and Converted Three thousand Souls whereon St. Paul gave the Holy Communion and used to have his Collections for the Poor that whereon the Primitive Christians used to Pray standing and always forbid Fasting A Day which the Great Constantine took care to be wholly devoted to Divine Worship and Christian Instruction on it he caus'd all Courts of Judicature to be shut up all publick Suits and private Arbitrations to be superseded The Great Theodosius forbid all publick shews and spectacles on that Day The other Theodosius did the like and moreover provided in case the Day of the Birth or Inauguration of the Emperor happen'd on the Lord's day the solemnities usual in honour of the Imperial Majesty should be deferr'd till another day A Day which always as far as we can find had the Preheminence in this our Land Of the British Church we have scarce any Records but for our Antecessors the Saxons it is demonstrable that they after they became a Christian and setled People for above Three Hundred years gave the preference to this above all other Festivals although a certain Historian hath born us in hand to the contrary The Laws of King Ina and of King Withred at the Council of Berghamsted the Canons of the Council of Cloveshow or Cliffe held under Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury the Excerptions of Egbert Archbishop of York The Laws of King Alfred and Edward the Elder in conjunction with Guthrun the Dane The Laws of King Athelstan King Edgar the Peaceable and King Ethelred in a General Council of all England and King Kanute All take most especial care for the observance of the Lords day above others and if I mistake not in one place 't is call'd The Holy Day This is plain to any one who consults that great lover of Church and Clergy the Learned and Industrious Sir Henry Spelman I should not doubt to answer the Pompous Arguments that are brought to the contrary from the times of the Norman Confusions and afterwards but I hold not my self so much bound to account for those times because if they did reduce the Queen of Days to a common Peerage with the other less Holy it is no more to be wondred at than twenty things besides For they made the Virgin and other Saints fellows with our Lord or rather Superiors in all other Honors Where one Church was built in Honor of our Lord there were ten Dedicated to St. Mary ten Ave-Maries said for one Pater-noster and in several other things the Mother had ten to one odds of her Son and Men were grown so sottish at last as with a small distinction to allow that Peter-noster might be said to the Mother of our Lord. And now let me speak alittle to the Honor of of the Church of England as it hath stood ever since our happy Reformation Some that have taken good pains to deliver us from the Superstitious and Judaising Doctrines of others about the Observation of our Lords day have run into another Extreme and levelling that with other Holy
Lord and of his Christ Shall the Founders of small Guilds and Fraternities be honour'd with yearly Celebrities in every City and Country they that only gave their temporal Goods which they could not long keep and shall those great Hero's the Founders of the Ancientest Largest and most Noble Society whereof we all boast to be Members that resisted unto Blood and counted not their lives dear be remembr'd once in the year to the honor of God and good Edification of his People which are the two great ends of all Religion and the ends of all the Festival Solemnities which our Church hath thought good to observe which I will but shortly speak to because out of place First For the Honor of God It is requisite in order to the preserving of a due sense of God upon our minds that such days as these should often recurre There is a great deal of secret Atheism lurks in mens hearts and would grow more rampant in their lives were not such days as these stated and fix'd to put some stop to their Mad Careir And doubtless if they were duly observ'd and the horrid deaths of those stout Champions often inculcated and well consider'd on the Religion for which they suffered would appear more true and excellent and useful than vain Scepticks now think it and the neglect thereof more dangerous It hath been observed by judicious Travellours that were it not for the keeping of some Holy days the Christian Religion would be in a manner lost among the poor Greeks and others under the Turkish Dominions and I am afraid even among us who should know better were not times as well as places set apart for Divine Worship the common People would soon Heathenise and those that seem now of sprucer Wits herd among the Vulgar Common experience tells us what is left to every body is done by no body and what to be done at any time is done at no time and what to be done any where is done no where Wherefore the Honor of God is concern'd in keeping up those days that still remain and restoring those that are almost lost Secondly It is also for the good of man not only upon the account of what hath been already said but this also that he may have frequent opportunities of retiring out of the hurry and tumult of the World of bethinking himself and considering what he is and ought to be and hopes to be of what our Lord hath done for him and what he expects from him There is need of such breathing times as these or else men would be quite overwhelm'd with the cares of this World or habituated in sin past all hopes of recovery Sixthly and Lastly Upon this Ground of ordaining Holy-days because God hath made them signal by some extraordinary benefit then conferr'd I think we may soon answer several of those little Objections that us'd to be made against them As 1. Why no days for Abraham and David and Samuel or any of the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets as well as for the Glorious company of the Apostles c. Why Because though they were excellent Persons in their times and are still great examples of Virtue to us yet they were not could not be any ways instrumental to the Publication and Propagation of that Gospel upon which we ground our Faith and Salvation and from which as from the beginning of the World we date all our actions and all our concerns The Prophets Preached for the most part to the Jews and few of them were Martyrs and they that were suffer'd in a less noble cause and of less concern to the World 2. When they say the Great Michael and all the Angels are Crowded into one day who still continue to be instrumental to our Salvation and almost every one of the Apostles hath his distinct day of commemoration although their Ministry was soon over which seems to be no fair distribution It is soon Answer'd That the Ministration of Angels is invisible and we can fix no particulars upon them but such as are rehearsed upon the greater Festivals of our Lords Incarnation Resurrection Ascension c. That they did not could not suffer Martyrdom as all the Saints did whose days are kept and 't was their Martyrdom that Crown'd both them and the days that bear their names whereon our Lord inabled them to meet death in the Face though arm'd with utmost Rage and Malice and verified and magnified the Christian Cause thereby This was the Lords doing and not theirs He made the days and not they and we keep them to his Glory and not theirs And therefore when they farther object the Sunday collect gives place to that of the Saints Philip and James are feign to share one day between them as also Simon and Jude and the like they run upon a fond mistake as if we did Worship to any of them upon those days which they could not surely have done had they read the Collects proper for those days It is high time I should now say something to the second part of my Text how a Holy-day is to be kept We will rejoyce and be glad therein This is that which distinguishes a Fast from a Feast and makes the latter more Holy than the former according to that in Nehem. 8.9 This day is Holy unto the Lord your God mourn not nor weep and v. 10. Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions for them for whom nothing is prepar'd for this day is Holy unto the Lord neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength God makes days of joy and they are Holy to Him we cannot so truly say of a day of mourning of a Fast-day This is the day which the Lord hath made for indeed Man made it by his sin and on it therefore it is his business to bewail his sins and deprecate the Judgments felt or fear'd upon their account But when God hath made a day to our hands a day signal for some great mercy let us rejoyce and be glad therein Rejoyce and be glad therein but how Not in Riot and excess and making provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof No but let us first give Publick thanks to God for the Mercy of the day and then if we have opportunity let us partake of that Holy Feast of the Body and Blood a Feast which he hath not only instituted but wonderfully made of himself a Feast whose name and end is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thanksgiving What should we render to the Lord for all his benefits towards us but according to our Psalmist Ps 116.12 Take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And then when we have made a difference between the Holy and the Common day by a more plentiful Table testifie our farther thankfulness and due resentment of Gods Mercy by works of Mercy and Charity Fasting doth stir up Choler the hungry are
days intitl'd to our Church their own private Persuasion Surely our Church intended a difference when Ordaining the incomparable Litany to be always a part of the Service of the Lord's day which is only accidentally a part of any other Festival Service and certainly the Solemn recital of the Ten Commandments and the Fourth among them with the same ejaculatory Prayer on the Peoples part is very tempting to them to think that our Church had her Eye chiefly on this Day having told us nothing of her mind to the contrary Nay I think who ever can construe English will find how in the Homily of the Place and Time of Prayer the far greatest stress is laid upon this day and no Comments or Distinctions have yet evinced the contrary Add that no Apocryphal Lesson is appointed for any Lord's day throughout the whole year but for other Holy days several Add how in the Explications of the said Fourth Commandment in the Catechism of King Edward VI. and in the Greater Catechism set forth in the days of Queen Elizabeth which only is allow'd to be taught with the Lesser by the Canons of 1571. and the Canons of the first of King James there is no notice taken of any other but our Lords Day As for any Statutes made on this behalf as one or more have been in every Reign of our Reformed Princes I leave you to the Learned in the Law observing this only that care hath been taken for the Suppression of all Markets and Fairs on this day And what if after all this Tindall said that our Lords Day might be translated from Sunday to Monday and Calvin would have it to Thursday what is that to our Church I think they are much mistaken if the ground whereon I build have any solidity in it Sunday is that day on the Week which our Lord hath made made more signal than all the rest by his Resurrection from the dead and raising us up from the state of death c. And now my Christian Friends tell me what harm is done if the Queen take place of the Ladies of Honor and they are not at all shut out but admitted in their proper orders For Secondly There is some difference to be made and hath always been between the rest of the Holy days though all are Holy Precedence hath been given especially to those that record some Eminent Particularities of our Lords great Undertaking such as his Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascension and Mission of the Holy Ghost Which are too great Mysteries either to be huddled up all in one day and not Celebrated distinctly on some peculiar days or to be no more regarded than the deaths of our fellow-Christians Three of them have a more than ordinary mark set upon them as they are Antitypes to three Typical Feasts of the Jews or if that Phrase please not as they are successive to them and commemorative of greater Things which those lesser Celebrated by them did but fore-shadow For First As the Deliverance out of Egypt did Typifie our Redemption from a greater Bondage so the Feast kept in memory of the former might justly Typifie or Usher in or give sufficient Intimation for the keeping of a Feast in honor of the later both happening at the same time of the Year Secondly As the Feast of Weeks did commemorate the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai so doth our Whit-Sunday the publishing of the Law of the Spirit or Doctrine of the Gospel upon Mount Sion in a no less extraordinary manner upon the same day and therefore the later Feast deservedly took place or came in the room of the former Thirdly If the Feast of Tabernacles did prefigure our Lords Nativity as the Learned Mede not unhappily conjectures for then the Word was made Flesh and Tabernacled among us then the Feast of the Nativity rightly succeeds in the room thereof I will not meddle with the contemporising those two great Feasts much hath been said pro and con but instead thereof ask how or when that Prophecy of Zachary was fulfill'd but by the Succession of this later Feast in room of the former That I mean of c. 14.16 It shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations that come or shall come against Jerusalem for so it may be rendred and is by the Chaldee Syriack and Arabick 〈◊〉 the Latin of Arias Montanus and the Tigurin Translators rendred in the present or future Tense shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles This Prophecy certainly was not fulfill'd by the famous Feast of Tabernacles kept in Nehemia's time See Nehem. c. 8. v. 14 and 17. For according to the Law but newly read to the People they that kept that Feast were to be Israelites born See Levit. 23.42 when yet of the Passover strangers were bound to eat The Jews themselves think it was not then fulfill'd for as S. Hierom on the place says Haec Judaei cassâ spe in mille annorum Regno futura promittunt That it 's only an Israelism I am not yet persuaded to think Whereto give me leave to add that the Sacrifices of that Feast had according to the Jews a peculiar respect to the Gentiles For whereas on the first day they Offer'd thirteen Bullocks on the second twelve and so abated every day one insomuch that on the seventh day there were but seven Offer'd but in the whole Seventy according to the number of the Nations This say they signifies the gradual diminution of the Nations until they should all submit to the Kingdom of the Messiah who was to be the desire of all Nations See Menass Ben Israel Vindic. Jud. p. 22. Hospin de Orig. Fest Jud. p. 41. How the day of Atonement did Typify that of our Lords Passion though at a different time of the year I will not now undertake to shew because it is not a Festival day and falls not so properly under our consideration we will therefore pass on Thirdly And now after these why may not the Memories of the Apostles be preserv'd on certain days whereon without doing any Worship to them we bless God for the excellent Graces and Virtues wherewith he inabled them to be successful Preachers and Champions of the Holy Gospel so successful that among other Nations We in this Outskirt of the World in this remote Isle heard the joyful Sound within five years after our Lords Ascension that is before Rome it self according to Gildas I say why on those days which God hath made so remarkable with the Martyrdoms of the Apostles should we not glorifie God on that behalf These were according to St. Paul Eph. 2.20 the Founders under our Lord of the Christian Church and the Representatives of the same according to the Revelation of St. John and the Patriarchs of us Gentiles by whose Ministry all the Kingdoms of the World have become the Kingdoms of our