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
yearly commemorate the same during their own lives that they did obblige their Posterity to do the same we have no ground to think For I suppose he that finds in an Eastern Calendar exhibited by Mr. Selden Ingressus Noachi in Arcam and Egressus Noachi ex Nave will not think it signifies much against what I say Secondly Upon this ground as soon as any other I would conclude the sabbath-Sabbath-day was kept from the beginning of the World in honor of the great maker of it and that God by ceasing from the making of all other things made that a signal Day a Day of Rest and Joy For if at the laying of the foundations of the Earth the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Job 38.7 can we think the Sons of Men were silent and stupid when they not only beheld that great work compleated but constantly injoyed their shares therein and were themselves no small part of it So stupendious a work deserv'd to be Celebrated as soon as it was finish'd and in that portion of time which God had sanctified And it was surely a greater work to make a World than to deliver a small People out of a Tyrants hands and yet this had not only a yearly but also this weekly Commemoration of it I would I say upon this ground conclude that of Gen. 2.3 to be more than Proleptical but that there are some other reasons on the other hand wherein I have not yet satisfied my self But as from such a conclusion the Morality of a Seventh day could not be inferr'd so without such a conclusion we need not doubt our obligation to keep the Christian Sabbath from this very ground we now go upon as may be seen anon Wherefore I pass on and say in the third place 3. Upon this ground we shall find the Jewish Festivals to have been founded as well those that were ordain'd by Men as those that were commanded by God himself The chief of Gods own commanding were the weekly Sabbath and those three that required their yearly attendance in person at Jerusalem All which were commemorative of something pass'd and Typical of something future and they all related to the redemption of the Israelites out of Egypt 1. The Sabbath-day had that respect Wherefore it is observable that in the Deuteronomy c. 5. v. 15. the reason fetch'd from Gods resting on the seventh day is omitted the reason express'd Ex. 20. and still retain'd by us and this is inserted in the room thereof Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day 2. That the Passover was therefore also commanded is so notorious that I need say nothing This was a Feast of seven days on the first whereof this Deliverance was wrought This says Ex. 12.14 day shall be to you for a Memorial and ye shall keep it a Feast to the Lord throughout your generations ye shall keep it a Feast by an Ordinance for ever 3. That of Pentecost which was ordain'd in Memory of the giving of the Law and therefore the Jews call'd it Festum Legis A great Blessing this was For though then other Lords had no dominion over them yet Anarchy would have been little better than Tyranny and their deliverance out of the house of Bondage a delivery into a Wilderness of violence tumult and confusion had they not been afterwards form'd into a Polity and receiv'd certain Laws Statutes and Judgments whereby they should be govern'd both in Religious and Civil affairs and this was done or began to be done upon the day of Pentecost and this also had a special reference to their Emancipation from Egyptian bondage according to Deut. 16.10 12. Thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks unto the Lord thy God Thou and thy Son and thy Servant and thou shalt remember that thou wast a Bondman in Egypt 4. The Feast of Tabernacles had the like reference Levit. 23.42 43. Ye shall dwell in Booths seven days that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in Booths when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt I am the Lord your God 5. Add how the Feast of Trumpets call'd a Sabbath a Memorial of blowing of Trumpets a Holy Convocation seems to have been ordain'd in remembrance of the taking of Jericho by the blowing of Trumpets the taking of which City was the first Possession the Israelites took of the Land of Promise and an earnest of all the rest We need not here dissemble what P. Fagius tells us how on the Seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles they went seven times round the Altar in memory of the taking of that City the City of Palms bearing Palm-branches in their hands and indeed of such chiefly they were requir'd to make their Booths Lev. 23.43 It is all one to our purpose But I will not stand so much on these things nor on the Feasts that follow which were of human ordination As 1. The Feast of Purim ordain'd by Esther and Mordecai and receiv'd by the Jews with general consent to be remembred and kept throughout every Generation every Province every City every Family in Memorial of their deliverance from the Bloody Conspiracy of Haman 2. The Feast of Dedication those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Lord honour'd with his presence ordain'd in memory of the Dedication of the Temple and Altar made by Judas Maccaboeus after the horrid Profanations of Antiochus 3. The Feast of Fire which was given from Heaven when Nehemiah offer'd Sacrifice after his building the Temple and the Altar whereof read 2. Macc. 1.18 c. Fourthly Come we now to our Christian Feasts and to shew that the days and times of them were made by God also signalis'd and exempt out of the number of common days by far greater Mercies and Deliverances than ever were bestowed on the Israelites and of more universal concern These are of Gods making rather than Mans He hath set his Seal upon them and by his own deed plainly pointed out our duty We in keeping them adore Gods extraordinary Providence in the greatest managements that could possibly be in order to our welfare What Man doth in these is but his sealing to the Counterpart of that which God himself hath dictated and wrought with his own hand It is but a testification of his Thankfulness and that is no human Invention but a result of the Law of Nature For the Church of England and I doubt not the like of all other Reformed Churches which have their Holy days too hath no other end in appointing these days but as they are days of Thanksgiving to God and that either for those great Mysteries of his Goodness Wisdom and Power that concurr'd to the compleating of the work of our Redemption Or for those
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
Feriae they have robb'd them in most places of the Religion that belongs to them Those that used to be held on the Lords-day have been all suppress'd or adjourn'd to some other day Which shows it possible that some provision may be made for the regulating of the other But whether Authority will first think of a way to restore the Revenues alienated from the Church-men or the Honor whereof these Secular diversions have robb'd the Church-days I am not able to Divine In the mean time let us all do what we can in our own spheres and capacities to preserve that value and veneration which is due to all that is called Holy And first of all for that Holiness which is real and intrinsec Let us hallow the name of God and entertain thoughts worthy of so Excellent a Majesty becoming Him whose Nature is the very comprehension of all Adorable Perfection speak reverently and considerately of Him and to Him And in all our actions indeavour to be holy as He is Holy Honor all those that bear upon them any Image of his Holiness in whatever unhappy circumstances they may be And then whatever is therefore Holy because it hath a proper Relation to God and is therefore as it were appropriated to him let us use and behave our selves towards the same as such Let us of the holy Function consider we are taken from among Men and set apart for Divine things and therefore ought not to make our selves Common and Cheap and free to all Comers and Companies and Customs and Fashions of the World ought not to be so Complaisant as to comply with the sinful humours discourses and excesses of those that hate Holiness in their hearts and shew no more in their lives than needs must or for fashion sake And yet let it not be thought but that there is an Honor due to the Function it self where the Person is not altogether so deserving because of the Relation which he stands in to God and the usefulness which he may be of to Man And for Places let us Honor them not by keeping a distance from them but by frequenting them reverently and using them to those Holy ends for which they were at first design'd Lastly For Times let us sanctifie them in like manner and while we join with the Church in her Prayers possess our selves with a deep sense of the Blessing which we then commemorate and the weightiness of that Religion which consists of so many Mysteries and hath been Confirm'd and Convey'd to us by so many Miracles and Martyrdoms Let us consider there is a Sacrilege belongs to Time as well as Thing and the Robbery of the former is the more heinous because it is not so easie to make Restitution and the more to be avoided because more easily committed All this let us practise that we may and till we do arrive thither where there will be no Sun nor Temple Rev. 21. v. 22 23. distinction of Time nor Place nor Persons neither but all shall be Kings and Priests unto God and keep an Eternal Sabbath or day of Holy rest World without End For which Happy and Glorious State God of his Infinite Goodness fit us and then bring us to it for the sake of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS Sermons Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard A Sermon Preached by a Country Parson September the 9th 4to 1683. Ahitophells Policy Defeated a Sermon Preached September the 9th 4to 1683. Dr. Calamy's Sermon September 9th 4to Mr. Milbournes Sermon September 9th 4to Mr. Powell's Religious Rebell a Sermon Preached September the 9th Mr. Pains 2 Sermons September 9th and Jan. 30th 4to Dr. Smith's Sermon at Norwich September the 9th 4to Mr. Wagstaffs Sermon September 9th 4to Dr. Bisbies Sermon Prosecution no Persecution Preached at St. Edmunds Bury in Suffolk 4to Modern Pharisees 4to s 2 Sermons 4to Dr. Butlers Sermon before the King at Windsor 4to Mr. Battells Sermon at the Assizes at Hartford 4to Mr. Borastons Sermon of Justice and Charity 4to Mr. Browns Visitation Sermon 4to Dr. Calamy's Sermon before the Lord Mayor May 29th 1682. s Sermon before the Lord Mayor September the 30th 1683. Mr. Cutloves 2 Assizes Sermons 4to Mr. Evans Sermon before the Lord Mayor about Moderation 4to Dr. Fowlers Sermon at Gloucester 4to Mr. Fox's Sermon at the Herefordshire Feast 4to Mr. Fosters Sermon at the Assizes at Rochester 4to Mr. Gipp's 3 Sermons 4to Gaskarth's Sermon at the Funeral of the Duke of Lauderdale 4to Dr. Hick's Sermon of Temptation 4to s Sermon at the Act at Oxford 4to s Sermon before the Lord Mayor Peculium Dei 4to s Sermon of Persecution 4to s Sermon at the Yorkshire Feast 4to s Sermon before the Lord Mayor Jan. 30th 4to s Sermon at the Spittle 4to s Sermon Preached at Worcester May 29th 1684. Mr. Hopkins Sermon before the Lord Mayor 4to Mr. Inetts Assize Sermon at Warwick 4to Mr. Kidders Sermon before the Lord Mayor 4to Mr. Lambs Sermon before the King at Windsor 4to s Sermon before the Lord Mayor 4to Mr. Lewds Visitation Sermon 4to Mr. Lynfords Sermon before the Lord Mayor 4to Dr. Mores Sermon before the Lord Mayor 1682. 4to s Sermon before the Lord Mayor 1684. 4to Mr. Milbournes Sermon the Originals of Rebellion 4to Dr. Meggotts Sermon before the King 4to Mr. Paines Sermon at the Brentwood-School Feast 4to Mr. Richardsons Sermon before the Lord Mayor 4to