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doctrine_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	3,931	5	9.9167	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31437	Diatribe triplex, or, A threefold exercitation concerning 1. Superstition, 2. Will-worship, 3. Christmas festivall, with the reverend and learned Dr. Hammond / by Daniel Cawdry ...	Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1626; ESTC R5692	101,463	214

this The Churches that retain these Feasts especially the Lutherans are not reputed the best Reformed Churches nor by the Doctor himself I beleeve thought fit to be compared with England some other Churches in Doctrine and Worship and so no fit presidents for our Reformation What private persons wish or say is not much to be regardded unlesse their reasons bee constringent However we are not alone nor the first in this dis-usage of this Festivall Some Protestant Reformed Churches are with us and afore us As for the Sermons given to Christmas day by some that now disuse it wherin The whole body of their publick devotions is falsely said now to consist their prayers being as good and as large as the Liturgies it will afford him no more succour than this That the Authority then in being commanding Vacation from work they onely took the opportunity to preach to prevent disorders in their people which attend such Festivities And the Authority now in force prohibiting they doe forbear to preach § 12.3 The laying down or disusing the observation of this Festivity is not an act of Division or separation from either the particular Church of England or from the Universall Church in all ages especially that of the first and purest times Not the latter for certain for we have proved afore the first and purest ages of the Church did not observe it Not the former unlesse he will yeeld that the Reformation of the Church of England in former times was a Division or separation from the Church of Rome or the Reformation in Luthers time was a division and separation from the Catholick Church as Papists say it was § 13.4 If Superstition and profaness may be ground sufficient to lay aside a Custome the complexion of the times have long since invited to the laying aside the usage of this Feast His pretences to the contrary are insufficient 1. The omission of Christmas sermons and services tends not to raze out of the minds of the ignorant sort the slender knowledge they have of the birth of Christ and consequent mysteries of Religion For the Gospell being read and preached on all the year long they cannot but often hear of the Birth Life Death Buriall and resurrection of Christ The Knowledge which the ignorant people learned by some mens Christmas Sermons Act 25 was slender indeed nothing but a Superficiall as he Notionall carnall knowledge of one Jesus as that Roman Deputie spake that was borne at that time to give men liberty to Feast be merry 2. This cannot as he charges it gratifie their worldly affections and assist Atheism c. but rather to keep it as usually they did in all Festivall delights like the Revells of Bacchus did both mote gratifie their Worldly lusts and tended to Atheism and profanesse 3. The Casuists whose great reason hee seemes to applaud affirming that the necessaries of beleefe for the vulgar sort are no more than the great Holy dayes of the year spake with as much that is as little reason as their fellowes the Jesuits who say and affirm that Images are the best laymens-books instead of the Scriptures 4. The ejecting of these Holydaies out of the Church will not any with dispatch the opinion of any necessity of beleeving the Articles of faith the Creed being still to be retained in and with the Catechisme for the Ministers preaching constantly of those Truths may helpe not onely in some degree as he but very much and more than the great Holydaies of themselves can doe And why not abundantly sufficient as it was in the first planting of Churches before these Festivalls were invented We have had enough experience that in those places Cathedrall Cities where those Festivalls have been most punctually and solemnly observed taking in there Chrystmas Sermons too there have been found lesse saving knowledge of Christ more Superstition and more Prophanesse than in any Country Villages where the Gospell hath been sinceerely preached § 14. The Impatience of sound Doctrine and readinesse to embrace what ever is novel is not to be found in those of dee per sound knowledge but in the ungrounded professors of former times made formal Christians by external Ceremonies outward Pomp of service But those that endeavoured to Reforme the abuses of Superstition and prophanesse are the men onely or chiefly that propugne and maintain sound Doctrine whereas those that were the greatest favourers of those Festvities some of them either are fallen into the propagating of error Arminianism c. or at least doe little appeare to maintain the truth As for Hospitality and charity at those times its observable in many strong pleaders for Christmas that they are willing enough to abate the charge of the Feast both then and all the year after yet no body hinders them from being Hospitable and Charitable § 15.5 What ever specious design was in the first institutors of this piece of Service to Jesus Christ as after it is called it matters not much Gideons design in making a Golden Ephod was very fair to leave a Monument of his Victory as a pious publik acknowledgement of his thankfullnesse yet it proved a snare to him and his house to all Israel Many of the Superstitions of the now Church of Rome had no doubt a pious design and a shew of wisdome but the issue hath been very mischeivous Even so it hath happened to this Institution now in hand § 16. There may indeed a threefold guilt and danger be charged upon the Institution and continuance of this observance 1. Of Will-worship because it is not commanded in scriptures 2. of Superstition in observing dates 3. Of Riot frequent in such Festivalls The two former he saies he hath spoken to else where viz. both in his Treatises of Will-worship and Superstition and also in his practicall Catechisme In the two former though something be said in generall or in thesi yet nothing that I observe in speciall or in hypothesi of this Festivall Indeed in his practicall Catechisme hee hath undertaken the vindication of it from all these three charges but more largely the two first there aad here more of the last that of Riot we shall consider what he saies in order First to free the Festivall from the charge of Willworship he proceeds two waies 1. In respect of those who retain the usage of it they observe it in obedience to the Lawes of the Church and so it proceeds from obedience to Superiours a duty of the 5 th Commandement This argument should not have had the first place but the second in a just method The Doctor should first have proved that they that instituted the Festivall had a lawfull power to do it before he proved them that observe the usage to be innocent For may not Papists plead the same argument for observation of not onely their Holydaies but of their invocation of Saints adoration of Images and the Masse it selfe They do it in obedience to

himself are guilty of an affected departure from the Universall Church If the Church of England at her first Reformation saw cause and had Power to throw away some may not the same Church of England having the same power upon just the same or like reasons cast off the rest If he say Hee speaks it of the Universall Church of all Ages and especially of the first age wee shalll joyne issue with him therein and and say If he can prove which I am confident he cannot that in rejecting or not observing these Festivalls wee have departed from the Universall Church in all ages wee shall be content to let his censure fall upon us till then we are safe And for a closure of the whole matter we shall take into consideration his Rule prescribed in his first Quaerie abour Resolving controversies and be judged by it It is this Quaere 1. Sect. 35 What ever hath the concordant attestation of the Christian Church of the first ages the Scripture remaining obscure or silent in the matter that it was the Doctrine or practise Apostolicall there remains not to any that now lives any imaginable ground of sober or prudent doubting or questioning the truth of it This resolution and Case the Doctor beginns with and intends it as a Rule applicable to all the following cases against Socinians and other Hereticks and Schismaticks Sect. 40. Hee means we thank him those that reject this Festivall as Sect. 12. and 45. of this Quaerie appears But is this Rule universally true Are there no cautions nor exceptions yes three at least 1. It must be in cases where the Scripture is either obscure or silent in the matter 2. That it be not extended any further than to the primitive Antients 3. And again to an accordance of those Testimonies without any considerable opposition that this or that was delivered from the Apostles We shall by his leave apply this rule to the case in hand and dare venture to be judged by it First considering the Rule and then the cautions And first for the Rule it selfe we desire to know again what he means by the Church of the first ages If he take it inclusively to take in the Churches of the Apostolicall time while they were yet alive wee should not stick to grant his rule to be good What ever doctrine or practise hath the concordant attestation of that Church it was Apostolicall The Negative whereof being a surer Rule to jvdge by What ever doctrine or practise wants such concordant universall uniform Attestation is not Apostolical For they being all guided by on Spirit would all agree uniformly in the same Doctrine or practice But there are not many things so attested by the Church of that age On the other side if he meane it exclusively of that age and to include onely the after ages it will prove a Crooked Rule Many Doctrines and practises being taken up which were not Apostolicall but meer Inventions of men which like a Gangreen soon overspead the face of the Church And by the different Timing and observation of them proved by the best Divines not to be Apostolicall Secondly for the concordant attestation of the primitive Antients of the second or third Age without considerable opposition which is one of the Cautions that this was delivered from the Apostles I shall put in a just exception in the words of the learned and honoured Lord Falkland in his discourse Of the infallibility of the Church of Rome who plead the universall Tradition of the Church for their Religion as the Doctor does for his Christmas Thus he writes If the Relation of one Pappias could cozen so farre all the prime Doctors of the Church Christian into a beliefe of the celebration of a thousand years after the Resurrection so as that not one of those two first ages oppose it marke that till Dionysius Alexandrinus who lived at least 250. yeares after Christ nay if those first men did not onely believe it as probable but Justin Martyr saith he holds it and so do all that are in all parts Orthodox Christians Irenaeus sets it down directly for a Tradition and relates the very words that Christ used when he taught this which is plainer than any other Tradition is proved or said to be out of Antiquity by them of Rome If I say these could be so deceived why might not other of the Antients as well be deceived in other points And then what certainty shall the learned have when after much labour they thinke they can make it appear that the Antients thought any thing a Tradition that indeed it was so c. The Doctors wisdome can easily apply this to the case in hand And I perceive he was aware of such an objection and therefore labours to prevent it by saying That Justin Martyr Quaer 1. sect 38. the prime assertor of it that 's a mistake for he and Irenaeus also had it from Pappias who was their Senior confesses other Christians of pure and pious intentions to he otherwise minded But for that let him answer his friend the Lord Falkland Lo. Falk reply p. 73. who saies That Justin Martyr saies that in his time all all Orthodox Christians held it and joynes the opposers with them who denyed the resurrection and esteems them among the Christians like the Saduces among the Jewes and again saies It found no resistance in above two Ages by any one known and esteemed person And what now is become of the Doctors Rule Thirdly the Rule applyed to the case in hand will prove more then the Doctor intended a light to discover his Christmas far from an universall Apostolicall usage For. 1. The Rule must hold onely in things wherein the Scripture is obscure or silent But for Institution of Feasts particularly this of Christmas the Scripture is neither obscure nor silent For the Scripture is cleare and speaks aloud against it both in the Law the fourth Commandement which requires peremptorily but one of seaven for God allowing six for mens occasions and also in the Gospell which clearly speaks against observation of daies except the Lords day the the Christian Sabbath whither Jewish Heathenish or Christian Festivalls of old were part of the Ceremoniall yoke upon the Jewes and therefore to give the Church a power to institute Holydaies is to reduce the yoke again 2. They have not the concordant Testimonie of the Primitive Antients neither of the Apostles themselves nor of those that lived in the same age with them as of Ignatius nor in the second Centurie of Pappias Justin Martyr Irenaeus c. which may the better be believed because the Doctor brings not one instance of any of those so much as mentioning this Festivall except out of the Constitutions of the Apostles falsely so called which Isodorus by Gratians report of him Dist 16. saies Where known to be corrupted by Hereticks under the name of the Apostles This Chemnitius further proves because the

2. The Worship of the Law was for the most part Ceremoniall in externall pompe and services But the Worship of the Gospel is lesse ceremonious and gaudie and more spirituall Joh. 4. in spirit and truth opposed to those ceremoniall typicall shadowes and figures of the Legall worship The Gospel Worship is for the most part morall praying preaching hearing c. without any thing like to that ceremoniall worship except the observation of the Lords day and the two Sacraments designed and instituted by Christ himself or by his Commission But if the Church have a power to institute ceremoniall Worship she may bring us back to a Legall worship equall with the Jewes as the Church of Rome hath done 2. If the Church have any such power to institute Ceremonies they must be either Non-significant ones but those Protestants disclaim as idle fooleries or significant and then either by nature or Institution Those of nature need no Institution If Institution be pleaded it must be either Divine but the Church hath nothing to do with them they are instituted to her hands Or Humane but that 's expreslly against the second Commandement as hath been said elsewhere God onely can prescribe his own worship Hence it was that those Traditions of worship introduced by the false teachers are coudemned because they were the Doctrines and commandements of men Col. 2.22 which when our Divines urge against such kind of ceremoniall worship in the Church of Rome as Humane Institutions they have no way to avoid it Vide Estium Corne l. A lapide in locum but to say Ceremonies instituted by an humane spirit as ours are are there condemned but theirs are instituted by the holy Ghost joyning with their Pastors in the Regiment of the Church as the Rhemists speak on Math. 15.9 and others more And therefore Papists may better plead their binding power than ours can do I shall adde to this That to institute significant ceremonies as a part of Worship is a superstjtious excesse and so Wil-worship which I prove from the Doctors own Concessions To put more virtue and efficacie into things Of Superstition sect 45. then either naturally or by the Rule of Gods Word is in them is a nimiety so Superstition but for men to institute significant ceremonies for edification to teach and instruct c. is to put more virtue and efficacy in them then naturally or by the Rule of the Word that is Divine Institution God put in them ergo The Major is the Doctors own the Minor is evident They have it not by Nature nor by divine Institution then they needed not humane Institution ergo it is superstitious and consequently the Church hath no such power 3. Grant her but such power and there will be no end of Ceremonies no man can tell where she will stay Of Superstit sect 38. unlesse some bounds be prescribed in Scripture The Doctors qualifications That they be few and wholsome have no ground to rest on For who shall judge of the number or unwholsomnes without a Rule Not any private man that 's denyed and very reasonably Not a particular Church the Universall may judge otherwise Not the Universall Church of one Age for the next Generation may be wiser and thinke them too few or too many not wholsom or unwholsom and so may either multiply or annul them See more of this in the Discourse of Superstition Sect. 32.33 Upon this ground grow all those more then Jewish ceremonies of the Romish Church That of the first 2. The Doctor takes for granted also that the Church hath power to institute Holy daies such as Christmas and to make them equall with the Lords day For of this he is speaking while he gives the Church this unquestionable power but he cannot but know this is denyed by many Divines 3. He also takes as yeelded That there is some ancient Institution of this Church for his Christmas from our first conversion which must be the ground for it to stand on and a competent Authoritie for the continuance of such a practise in this Kingdome but this he hath not proved 4. Once more he takes as granted That such ceremonies or Festivals established by a Church That were to restrain our liberty and to exchange one burthen for another So the Dr. of Superstition sect 56. may not without great temerity be changed or abolished by any What not by the Universall Church not by the succeeding Church That were to make the Laws of a particular Church like those of the Medes and Persians unchangeable and equall with the Laws of God Or else to cut short the succeeding Church from the same priviledge of the former and so in time the Church may lose all power to institute New ceremonies or else ceremonies may be multiplyed to the end of the world And so much of the first the Authority of the Church to institute Ceremonies A word of the next Secondly we must enquire whether if the Church have any power to ordain any Ceremonies this of Christmas be such as she may ordain We have said and say again to institute Holy daies and to make them parts of Geds worship is a priviledge of God alone If now the Doctor shall say The Church institutes this Festival onely as a circumstance or Adjunct of Worship commanded it will bee little to his purpose and makes it no more holy than any other day when the same worship is performed But it s evident that in the Church of Rome this and other Festivals are not counted meer Ceremonies in that sense but as parts of Divine Worship and so observed with greater solemnities and more Ceremonies than the Lords day it self which is both superstitious and sacrilegious And thus it hath been with some yea many of our Prelatical and Cathedral men esteemed and observed not onely as equally holy with the Lords day but with more solemn services with more abstinencie from labour and recreations as we shall hear our Doctor confesse anon We now consider what he sayes to prove the disusing of these Feasts blameable § 10. These are part of that establishment which the Reformation in this Kingdom hath enacted for us by act of Parliament To this we say 1. The Reformation formerly made in this Kingdome we have good cause to blesse God for but we know it was not so full and perfect as the Reformers themselves could have wished by reason of the times new come out of the darknesse of Popery and the tenaciousnesse of old customs received by tradition of their Fathers 2. This seems to grant that the Reformation and so the establishment of these Festivals in this Nation was made by the State and not by the Church which now is pleaded for § 11. Secondly This other Feasts of Christ are in the Reformed especially the Lutheran Churches stil retained and where they are taken away in some Churches by some sober members wished for We answer to