323. 5. The Sin-offerings buth the Bullock and the Goat must be burnt without the Camp ver 27. This also is explained upon the Sin-offering Lev. cap. 4. pag. 321 322. that Christ suffered without the City as a Malefactor with whom we also should suffer bearing our reproach and being content to be accounted as Malefactors yea as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offscouring and sweeping of the world 6. On this great day of Atonement was the Jubile to be proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Lev. 25.9 This speaks that after the performance of the whole work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ he did cause the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound to publish and proclaim the glad tidings of our Salvation throughout the world Isai 61.1 2. so that this day of Atonement is like that famous week prophesied of by Daniel cap. 9. He shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week In the midst of the week Messiah shall be cut off This week is interpreted by some concerning that seven years the first part whereof Christ preached suffered in the middle of the week and in the other three years and an half the Apostles preached at Jerusalem after which they were dispersed by persecution and so the Gospel published to all the world It is the performance of the work of our Redemption that was the foundation and groundwork of the preaching of the Gospel the Jubile is proclaimed upon the day of Atonement 7. And lastly this day of Atonement is a day of Humiliation and afflicting their Souls by an everlasting Ordinance ver 29 to the end Days of Humiliation are days of Atonement and Reconciliation Not that our Humiliation merits or deserves any thing it is not the afflicting our Souls that doth make atonement but it fits us to receive the Atonement Humiliation prepares the Soul for Christ and makes it capable to receive the Mercy and the Pardon that Christ hath purchased and that God is willing and ready to bestow upon all that will receive it by Faith THE MANIFOLD SINFULNESS OF THE POPISH HOLY DAYS Discovered in sundry Reasons against them and the most material Objections answered AMongst the several ways wherein the Superstition of the hearts of men works out and vents it self this is one the observing of Days and Times wherein the Church of Rome hath abounded filling the Kalender with superstitious Holy days many of which are still retained and continued by the Church of England But let these Reasons against them be considered Reason 1. Nothing can be holy to the Lord which is not made holy by the Lord but God the Lord of time hath not sanctified nor set apart these times We find indeed before the Ceremonial Law was instituted yea before the Fall of Man that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.2 3. and therefore the Observation of a weekly Sabbath one day in seven is moral and perpetual But other Holy days are things which the Lord never commanded and which never came into his heart and of which he will say at the great Day who required these things at your hands The strength of which argument will appear the more if we consider what miserable poor shifts it puts the Patrons of these Holy days to when they go about to grapple with it 1. Sometimes they are so confounded in themselves as to deny that they place Holiness in these days the Church keeps them they say not as more holy and sacred then other days and parts of divine Worship but only for Order and Policy So Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. p. 5. But the rest of his Fellows have dealt more truly and more sincerely then he in this particular for not only Bellarmine tom 2. de Cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 10. prop. 2. asserteth Festa Christianorum non solum ratione Ordinis Politiae sed etiam ratione mysterii celebrantur suntque dies festi vere aliis sanctiores sacratiores pars quaedam divini cultus But Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 69. pag 375. also saith they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Downham in Praec 4. refers them to the fourth Commandment and will have them consecrated as Sabbaths to the Lord. Bishop Andrews in his Holiday Sermons on Luke 4.18 on Matth. 12.39 40. apud Gillesp Eng. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1. pag. 15. hath found out many profound mysteries in them yea in the very order of them and distances of time between them as there be fifty days between Easter and Pentecost because fifty is the number of the Jubile one day between Easter and the Resurrection because Jonas was but one day in the Whales belly with many other pretty tales which are not worth transcribing And the thing it self speaks for why do they call them Holy days if they put no holiness in them nay why do they prefer them above the Sabbaths of God 2. Sometimes they labour to escape in the mist of blind distinctions so when Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 28. saith that the Holy dayes are not consecrated to holy mystical uses but to holy political uses Wherein as Mr. Gillespy Eng. Pop. Cer. part 3. cap. 1. pag. 7. well observeth he doth but labour to plaister over his Superstition with the untempered mortar of this quidditative distinction and uncouth speculation of which I dare say the Bishop himself comprehendeth it not 3. Sometimes they say God hath sanctified them by the great works he hath done upon them Thus Bellarmine de Cult Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Christus nascens consecravit locum id est praesepe moriens consecravit Crucem resurgens consecravit Tuntulum unde exivit cur non etiam consecravit Tempus id est Dies illos quibus natus vel passus vel rediturus fuit nobis devictâ morte Which his Disciple Rich. Hooker a most Papistical Writer borrows from him and thus expresseth it Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. § 69. p. 375. No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain Places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain Times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Thus he But it is not meerly the extraordinary works of God that will sanctifie a day for then all the six days of the week should be holy for God created the World in six days so that there is not one day of the week wherein there was not some work of wonder wrought It is rather the Lords resting from his works then his working that sanctifieth Time and makes it holy as Gen. 2.2 3. Exod 20.11 Upon this ground the seventh day was sanctified in old time because on that day God rested from the work of Creation and upon the same ground the first day of the week being the Rest-day of the Lord our God from the great work of Redemption his
the Honour of Saints and that the Lord should ease his people of the burthen of a few Festival days to lay upon them an heavier burthen by a greater number of them So that we see the Scripture doth abundantly and clearly condemn and testifie against these superstitious observations of days and times Reason 3. Consider further the deep dishonour that is done to God by these days every manner of way The common pretense is that they do it for the Honor of Christ but it is not good Intentions that will excuse bad Actions Jeroboam pretended very good Intentions 1 Kings 12.28 so did they in Exod. 32.5 they proclaimed an Holy day to Jehovah though they kept it in a rude manner but what saith the Lord to them even after all the Prayers of Moses for them ver 34. in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them He will not regard their vain pretenses for the truth is these days are celebrated rather in dishonour and as it were in despite of Christ then for any Glory to him For 1. They are a dishonour to his Holiness as if Christ were a God that delighted in Profaneness and Wickedness for he is dishonoured as some have well observed by letting the reins loose to all manner of Profaneness as much in the twelve days and in some respects more then in all the twelve months of the year beside Hence Mr. Perkins most truly and justly complains that the Feast of Christs Nativity commonly so called is not spent in praising the Name of God but in Revelling Dicing Carding 〈◊〉 Mumming and in all licentious liberty for the most part as 〈◊〉 it were some Heathen Feast of Ceres or Bacchus Perk 〈…〉 Creed Art of Christs Birth apud Gillesp Engl. Pop. Cerem p. 〈…〉 cap. 9. page 48. 2. It is an unspeakable dishonouour to his blessed Sabbaths for men to set their Days by his Days their Posts by his Posts their Altars by his Altars as Jeroboam devised a Feast of his own heart like unto the Feast that was in Judah 1 Kings 12.32 yea as Dr. Ames observes they were from their first use not only equalled unto but extolled above the Lords day Fresh Suit part 2. p. 84. Those Prelates saith Mr. Gillespy that will not abase themselves to preach upon ordinary Sabbaths think the high Holy days worthy of their Sermons Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1 pag. 13. Yea they can write Books against the Sabbath as Heylin White Pocklinton and others have done to pluck away that Crown of Glory and Preeminence which God hath set upon that day which he hath chosen and they set up their own devised days in stead thereof Common experience proveth saith Reverend Mr. Dod on the second Commandment p. 68. that all they which stand most for superstitious Holy days are greatest profaners of the Lords Sabbath and contemners of his Word 3. They do dishonour the Wisdom and Word of Christ for Christ the Lord of Time and the Lord of the Sabbath hath sanctified and instituted the first day of the week whereon he arose from the dead for the Commemoration of the great work of our Redemption by him and what can the man do that comes after the King and in those things that have been already done as Eccles 2.12 It is a bold and deep reflection upon the Wisdom of Christ to add thus to his appointments as if the Lord Jesus Christ himself were not wise enough to appoint days and times sufficient to keep his own Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension and all the great things he hath done for us in everlasting remembrance in the hearts of his Saints but the Devil and the Pope must help it out It is therefore in plain terms a profane speech of Dr. Hammond that when the Festivals are turned out of the Church it will not be in the power of weekly Sermons on some head of Religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in mens hearts View of Direct and Vindic. of Liturg. pag. 31. What are not the Institutions of Christ powerful to attain his own blessed ends unless they be pieced out with the additions of mens Inventions surely there is no Christian that hath found the experience of the saving Power and Blessing of Gods Ordinances to his own Soul but will detest and abhor to entertain such base and vile thoughts of them unless he hath forgotten that he was purged by them from his old sins 4. These superstitious Holy days introduced and brought in many other corruptions along with them as bad or worse then themselves like the unclean Spirit with seven Devils more sundry whereof are thus expressed by Dr. Ames Fresh Suit against Cerem part 2. pag. 84. They were saith he from their first rise not only equalled unto but also extolled above the Lords day Easter brought in a superstitious Lent to attend upon it made Baptism wait for her Moon and conformed our Lords Supper to the Jewish Passover in unleavened Bread It was the first Apple of Contention amongst Christians The Latin and Greek Churches striving contending fiercely about the time of it and Victor Bp. of Rome desperately excommunicated those that were not of his opinion in this frivolous Question So that it was the first Weapon wherewith the Bishop of Rome played his Prizes against other Churches and after slew so many Britains with by Austin the Monk Holy days devised by men in honour of Christ invited and drew on Holy days to Saints with many other mischiefs more then can be now numbred up And therefore upon all accounts God is dishonoured by them And so much for that third Reason Reason 4. The true yearly time for the Celebration of these Festivals is not certainly known but much disputed among Chronologers and Divines so that Holiday-keepers cannot affirm that they do commemorate opus diei in die suo the Lord having hid it as he did the Body of Moses to prevent Idolatry The fierce contention for the space of two hundred years or thereabout between the Greek and Latin Churches about the time of celebrating Easter is famous in Ecclesiastical History the Eastern Churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the first month when the Jews kept their Passover from whence they were called quarto-decimani But the Western Churches kept it upon the Christian Sabbath in commemoration of Christs Resurrection who rose upon the first day and both sides pretended Apostolical Tradition for their different practice The difference grew so hot that Victor Boshop of Rome being full of the spirit of Antichrist excommunicated all the Asian Churches as being Fourteeners and as Judaizers Afterwards Constantine the Great called the Council of Nice to compose these differences in the Churches who thought it best to keep it upon the day of Christs Resurrection but they had done better if they had utterly abolished it as the great reforming Parliament did in England But thus we see what a bone of Contention
of the Pagans and to disguise them with a new Name that those Festivities which had been kept before in the Devils name might now be kept in Christs own name to his greater dishonour Besides there is little probability that the true time of Christs Birth is stumbled upon and many learned men confess there is a mistake as to the time and that it must needs be at the Feast of Tabernacles and not in December Moreover God usually gives men up to more sin then then at other time which is a further evidence of his Displeasedness with the Observation of it It was Latimers complaint of old in the days of King Henry the eighth That Christ was more dishonoured in the Twelve Days then in all the whole Twelve Months besides Ye observe days and months and years I am afraid of you that I have laboured in vain says the Apostle in Gal. 4.10 11. it is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath been very much in vain among the people when they retain the Observation of such times the Apostle speaks of the days and times that men have invented not of days that God hath instituted to be observed It is said of Jeroboam 1 King 12.33 that he offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned quem mentitus est The Lye of it appears in this that they pretend to do it to the honour of Christ when indeed they do it to his dishonour and therefore it is as a brand set upon him on this account which he lyed in his own heart so it is but lying for men to keep days of their own invention and the Lye appears in that they pretend to do it for the honour of God and of Jesus Christ whereas they unspeakably dishonour him thereby It is the framing of a Lye in mens own hearts when they keep such days Obj. But should we not celebrate the memorial of our Redemption by Jesus Christ why should we forget the memory of these things should we not remember how Jesus Christ suffered and hath sent his Spirit amongst us and came to tabernacle in our Flesh Answ Yes but the Lord commands us to celebrate the memory of it once a week and for us to put him off with once a year is to put him off with less then he requires to give him a day in a year when he requires a day in a week for the memorial and celebration of this thing Moreover there is a way whereby people may keep the Passover and Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles that is we should keep them under the Gospel every day As some say every day should be a Christian Sabbath But that is not true for a Sabbath is a day set apart from our Callings but six days shalt thou labour saith the Commandment But we should make every day our Easterday every day our Pentecost c. Obj. But why should not Christians be as holy as the Jews and therefore keep these Feasts as well as they how should we keep them every day Answ We are to keep them in a spiritual and Gospel way but not legally and literally for the Letter killeth but the Spirit is Life The Apostle exhorts let us keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.8 Now if you would keep the Feasts of Fassover Pentecost and Tabernacles aright it consists chiefly in three things 1. To be much in the exercise of Faith in the acting of a true and pure and lively Faith upon the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ as the true Lamb of God I say in acting Faith or drawing nigh with a true heart in full assurance of Faith and this is the true Passover and the true keeping of that Feast Heb. 10.22 Let us keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.8 without the leaven of Hypocrisie of seeming Faith and seeming Holiness with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth That is the right keeping of the Passover when men live not upon their own Righteousness trust not in their own Duties but being sensible of their sinful undone wretched estate act Faith and exercise their thoughts upon the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ this is the right keeping of it indeed 2. Be ye filled with the Spirit get a great and large measure of Gods Spirit this is the true Feast of Pentecost Ephes 5.18 Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess as the Holiday-keepers use to be through the Justice of God because they observe their own inventions but be ye filled with the Spirit Do not sit down with common Gifts and common Graces and common Workings but get and labour after the saving work of the Spirit and be not content nor sit down satisfied with some little beginnings of a special saving work with saving Grace in truth and in sincerity in little measures and degrees but labour after a great degree and measure of the Spirit of Grace after strength and growth of Grace as well as truth of Grace be ye filled with the Spirit c. 3. Behold and see the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ This is the true Celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles Get a real sight of God so as to behold his Glory as he is manifested in the flesh and as God dwells in our Nature Joh. 1.14 the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us came and pitched his Tabernacle among us and we beheld his Glory We cannot see God in himself he dwells in Light and Glory inaccessible as we cannot look upon the Sun in its own Brightness but we may see it in a pail of Water so we may see the infinite Majesty and Glory of God in the Flesh of Christ The Tabernacle of Jesus Christ is a thing to be beheld by Men and Angels to see more into the Glory of God 〈◊〉 get acquaintance with the mystery of the Father and of Jesus Christ as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.2 3. that ye may be knit together in love and comforted and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg But beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the rudiments of the World and not after Christ ver 8. for in him ver 9. dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Labour therefore to see God in Jesus Christ we are not able to behold that infinite Majesty but only through the veil of the Flesh of Jesus Christ as shining in his humane nature And this is the mystery of the Feast of Tabernacles and the right and Gospel way of celebrating of it Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things THE GOSPEL of the FEAST of TRUMPETS Jan. 21.
docebantur ne dum convenit spirituali cultui novi Testamenti If it were saith he a good and pious thing to appoint Holy days this Piety were better imployed in so many Commemorations of the actions of Christ as the Church could bear then in turning aside to the Saints To dedicate a day unto God in remembrance of a man is a thing which the very Jews were never taught to do in those weak and childish times much less doth it agree to the spiritual Worship of the New Testament And though it were lawful saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. for the Church to ordain Holy days to our Saviour Christ or the blessed Trinity yet it is not therefore lawful to institute Holy days to the Apostles and other Saints or to their remembrance As to that pretense of honouring their memorial I remember this is alledged by Bellarmine for the keeping of Reliques and Dr. Ames Bellarm Enerv. tom 2. l. 6. c. 6. thes 25. his answer to him De istiusmodi conservatione nihil traditur in Scripturâ ubi tamen omne genus honoris virtuti defertur may be applied here this is such a way of honouring the memorial of Saints departed as the Scripture knows not wherein yet all due honour is given to virtue and holiness For as we reason against the Popish Purgatory saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 153. that it is therefore nought forasmuch as neither in the Old Testament nor in the New there is any mention of Prayer at any time for the Dead so may it be reasoned against these Holy days ordained for the remembrance of the Saints that forasmuch as the old people did never keep any Feast or Holy day for the remembrance either of Moses or Daniel or Job or Abraham or David or any other how holy or excellent soever they were Nor the Apostles nor the Churches in their time never instituted any neither to keep the remembrance of Stephen or of the Virgin Mary or of John Baptist or of any other notable rare personage that the instituting and erecting of them now and this attempt by the Churches which followed is not without some note of presumption for that it undertaketh those things which the primitive Church in the Apostles times having greater gifts of the Spirit of God durst not venture upon And what though some of these Corruptions crept in some what early they are but old sins and grey-headed errors That Antichristian violence of Victor Bishop of Rome for Easter was about the year of Christ one hundred ninety eight but Christmas is not so ancient Pezelius refers the first establishment of it to the Council of Constantinople in the year of Christ five hundred fifty three Celebrata est saith he Constantinopoli Synodus Oecumenica quinta circa annum Christi 553. In eadem Synodo dies natalis Christi dies Purificationis Mariae primum sunt instituti ut solenniter quotannis celebrarentur Pezel Mellific Hist par 2. Justinian 1. pag. 326. But be their antiquity more or less they have been abundantly testified against by the faithful Servants of Christ both in former and later times Socrates who wrote the History of the Church above twelve hundred years ago hath a whole Chapter concerning Easter wherein he hath many notable arguments against those that contend so much for it He saith that as many other things crept in of custom in sundry places so the Feast of Easter prevailed amongst all people of a certain private custom and observation seeing not one of the Apostles hath any where prescribed any thing about it He sheweth also that the Apostles have set the Churches free from the yoke of bondage by their Letters to them Acts 15. But some neglecting these things account of Fornication as a thing indifferent yet they contend about Holy days as it were for life and death they despise the Commandments of God and establish them Canons of their own they set at nought they make no account of the Law published by the Apostles but raise a foul stir about Days and Months c. Thus Socrates Hist lib. 5. cap. 22. Which Testimony of his is so plain and punctual that Bellarmine knew not how to rid his hands of it but by flying out upon Socrates and calling him a Novatian Heretick Bell. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 10. which is but a poor shift instead of answering his Arguments to reproach his Person But the Book he hath written I mean his Ecclesiastical History is evidence enough for him that he was a man of an excellent spirit It was one of the Articles held and owned by the Waldenses as Mr. Fox sheweth five hundred years ago Constrained and prefixed Fasts bound to days and times difference of Meats superfluous Holy days and all the rabblement of Rites and Ceremonies brought in by Man to be abolished Fox Acts and Mon. vol. 1. p. 300. art 6. It was Luthers desire no less then seven score years ago in his Book de Bonis Operibus set forth anno 1520. that there were no other Festival days amongst Christians but only the Lords day Beza saith Superstitiosum esse docemus arbitrari unum aliquem diem altero sanctiorem Bez. Confes c. 5. art 41. And Reverend Mr. Dod condemns it as Idolatry against the second Commandment either to pray unto the Saints or to swear by them or to dedicate set days and times to the honour of them either by Fasting or Feasting Dod on the second Commandm p. 67 68. In Scotland they were laid aside in the first Reformation and have been witnessed against by the Godly there ever since They were revived indeed by those backsliders in the Assembly of Perth in the year 1618. For one of the five Articles of that Assembly was concerning Festival days but they found little acceptance with such as adhered to the Reformation of Religion as appears by the Books and Writings of many godly learned men against the Acts of that Assembly Yea King James himself before his Apostasie bore witness against them Right excellent was that Speech of his to a National Assembly in Scotland anno 1590. He praised God that he was King in the sincerest Church in the world sincerer then the Church of England for their Service was an ill said Mass in English sincerer then Geneva it self for they observed Pasche and Yoo le that is Easter and Christmas and what warrant said he have they for that I find this Speech of his recorded in Didoclavius his Altare Damascenum pag. 666. and in the Book intituled Perth Assembly the Proceedings the Nullity thereof c. printed 1619. pag. 64. and in the Re-examination of the five Articles of Perth printed 1636. pag. 340. How far he did sin against these enlightenings and convictions and how the Bishops did poyson him and pervert his Spirit in his declining times it is needless here to discourse But these were his Principles in his first which were his best times
former Rest being disturbed and spoiled by the Fall and Sin of Man is our Christian Sabbath But these Popish Holy days are not the Lords resting days nor is any such thing pretended 4. They commonly put it upon the Church and say the Church hath set apart these times but this is not enough to make them holy for all that the Church can do towards the sanctifying of any time or thing is only to present it and offer it to the Lord but if the Lord do not accept them but refuse such Presents and cast them down as dung in their faces they are not Holiness to the Lord but an abomination to him As suppose the Church of the Jews had offered Swines flesh unto God would this have made Swines Flesh holy no verily because the Lord not did not accept it So here the Church dedicates these days to the Lord but there must be some Word of God to evidence his acceptance of them or else they are not indeed holy times but superstitious times of which the Lord will say at the great day who required these things at your hands whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Isai 1.12 Rom. 14.23 Reason 2. There is not only no warrant in the Scripture for them but clear and sharp reproofs and testimonies against them It was one part of the Superstition of the Pharisees in our Saviours time to fast twice a week Luke 18.12 Those old Papists the Pharisees and our new Pharisees the Papists being men of the same Spirit and acted by the same Principle and walking in the same ways of Superstition And it was the brand set upon Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.33 that he ordained a Feast unto the Children of Israel upon the fifteenth day of the eighth month even the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned as the word signifies asher bada millibbo quem mentitus est de corde suo And though it was like unto the Feast that was in Judah v. 32. and though he pretended the Glory and Worship of that God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt as well as the ease and accommodation of the People v. 28. yet all this would not excuse him And what is Christmas and Easter and all the rest of them but days which the Jeroboam of Rome hath devised of his own heart And the Pope had them from the Jews and from the Pagans for what is Christmas but the old heathenish Bacchanalia It is kept at the same time of the year and after the same profane manner only the Pope hath varnished it with a new name But how ill it becomes a Christian to keep the Pagan Festivals hear what Tertullian de Idol cap. 14. saith Nobis saith he quibus Sabbata extranea sunt neomenia feriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januariae Brumae matronales frequentantur munera commeant strenae consonant lusus convivia constrepunt and is not this as lively a description of Christmas as if it had been purposely intended for it but thus he inveighs against them O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicat non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicâssent timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur We that do not own nor observe the New Moons and other Jewish Festivals appointed of old by God himself do we keep the Heathenish Bacchanalia and other Winter and Summer Feasts of theirs feasting and revelling and making merry as the Heathens do O how much more true are they to their Religion then we to ours For they do not observe any day that Christians observe as Pentecost or the Lords day for they would be afraid lest they should seem to bee Christians in so doing but we are not afraid lest we be pronounced to be Heathens Thus he It is true he alloweth Pentecost as a Feast observed by Christians in those times but how this can be defended and all the rest of the Jewish Feasts cashiered let the Christian Reader judge The Apostle makes no difference but condemns the observation of all the Jewish Festivals alike one as much another Col. 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come Judicare hic significat culpae reum facere vel Religionem injicere ita ut amplius liberi non simus saith Calvin in Col. 2.16 Such weak and rudimentary Instructions were fit for those darker and weaker times of the Churches nonage when under the Tutorage and Pedagogy of Moses before the coming of Christ But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye back to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 4.9 10 11. It is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath had but small success in such a place and in the hearts of such a people And whereas it is objected both by Papists and Prelates that the Apostle speaks here only against the Jewish Festivals loqui ibi Apostolorum de Judaeorum tantum festis so Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. c. 10. the Rhemists Annot. in Gal. 4.10 and Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 43. This will not take off the force of these Texts For 1. The Armory of Christians against Heresies and Errors should be quickly empty i◠the Weapons which are hung up in the Scriptures should serve only for the persons places and times wherein and against which they were used of the Prophets and Apostles and therefore your shift that the Apostle speaks only against the Jewish Feasts and Fasts is vain saith Mr. Cartwright in Col. 2.16 2. Some of the Popish Feasts are originally Jewish yea which is worse Paganish 3. These Texts do condemn the Popish Feasts as much and in some respects more then the Jewish as Hospinian observes against Bellarmine and Mr. Cartwright in Gal. 4.10 and in Rom. 14.5 gives the same answer to the Rhemists If Paul saith he condemn the Galatians for observing the Feasts which God himself instituted and that for his own Honour only and not for the Honour of any Creature the Papists are much more laid open to this Condemnation which press the Observation of Feasts of Mens devising and to the Honour of Men. For do you think it likely that God should by Christ discharge his people of the yoke of the Law of Moses to bring in another yoke of Mans Ordinances and is there any likelihood that he should abrogate the Festival days consecrated to himself and to his own Majesty to bring in those that are consecrated and set apart to