power of the civill Magistrate and by the authenticall Lawes of the Kingdome in those Acts of Parliament which have establisht these things must either engage all that are within the verge of the Church and of this Church and State especially unto a peaceable and pious obedience thereunto or else leave the staine of Impiety Faction and of a turbulent and disorderly spirit or else of folly and blindnesse upon all those that oppose it Indeed there is nothing free from temptations but it is well said of one as I remember and may be well considered of others that it is not at least not alwaies the infirmity but the excellency of things that maketh them the matter of temptation Abuses of things that are good must teach us wisedome and caution but not set us upon confusion And truly there is need of more warines in the observation of these daies then hath been used by many 1. That superstitioÌ„ be avoided that we think not one day in it self better or more holy then another but only so far as they are actually designed or applyed unto the service of God we must remember that these and other particular times as places are but circumstances in the time of the Gospell the substance is in the worship and service that is given unto God thereupon not in the observation of this or that particular day which is in it selfe a matter of liberty as the Apostle sheweth Rom. 14.5 c. Col. 2.16 And that may be a satisfactory reason why in the new Testament these things are not particularly or expresly injoined in Scripture because these are but matters of Order and of liberty not of absolute necessity and therefore left to the moderation of the Church but then we must remember that the liberty of Christians is first the right and interest of the Body and then of the Members who must not urge their particular interest against publique moderations and constitutions in these things yea it is a maine liberty that belongs unto the whole body of the Church that she hath power to restraâ—ne the liberty of private Members by publique authority for the publique good but Superstition must be avoided as I have said noe humane authority must impose these or any such like things as substantiall unalterable or absolutely necessary to salvation but as matters of Order as holy circumstances and meanes conducible unto higher ends and so and no otherwise they are to be received and obeyed by the people according to this is that of a late learned Father of our Church Non putandum plus sanctitatis uni diâ—i inesse quam alteri sad sciendum quod propter ordinem praeceptum Ecclesiae aliasque causas supra memoratas uno die magis quam alio convenimus ad hac exercitia sanctitatis And againe Non putandum Bishop Davenant upon the Coloss c. 2. v. 16. c. we are not to thinke that the Church of God is tyed by any necessity to the immutable observation of these particular Festivall daies Sed statuendum saith he dies hosce humanâ authoritate constitutos câdem posse tolli mutari si utilitas necessitas Ecclesiae id postulaverit nam omnis res per quascunque Causas nascitur per casdem dissolvitur But it must be so judged that these daies which are appointed by humane authority may be abolished and altered by the same where the profit and necessity of the Church doth require it for all things are dissolved by the same causes whereby they are established But then this ought to be done upon good and true grounds and by 〈◊〉 power equall at least to that that hath established them 2. There must be care taken that there be a prudent moderation used in the number of such daies that nothing be imposed o-over burdensome upon the people 3. That they be rightly imployed not in Superstitious worshiping of Saints or Angels as is in use in the Church of Rome nor yet in riot intemperance or any other sinfull liberty as hath been the practise of too many amongst us making little or no other use of such times but to give themselves to idlenesse loosenesse and vanity an evill that hath not onely violated the holinesse of these Festivals we speak of but also the Lords day which some have turned into Sabbathum Vituli aurei into the Sabbath of the Golden Calfe of which it is said Exod. 32. That The people sate downe to cate and drinke and rose up to play Others into Sabbathum Bâ—â—â—â— Asinorum the Sabbath of the Oxe and the Asse spending it in eating and drinking and doing nothing and too many make little or no other difference betweene that and other dayes But onely in putting on their better cloathes and giving themselves to none or else worse imployment then all the rest of the weeke as if bene vestiri nihil agere To be well attired and to doe nothing were to celebrate the Christian Sabbath And indeed it cannot be denyed but as this hath been the ill lot that too many have cast upon the Lords day and other Festivalls So it hath been too too much the share of the Solemnities appoynted for the celebrating the Birth of our Saviour and the rest of the Festivalls that the Church hath joyned with it which instead of being made dayes of prayse and thanksgiving to God and of the exercise of other holy christian and charitable duties with that sobriety that becomes Christians have been made dayes of riot and gaming and wantonnesse and unlawfull liberty as if men were to sacrifice to the Devill for these great and incomprehensible mercies of God A great and intollerable abuse of such blessed opportunities and such as although it doth not at al justifie men in the abolition of them but should rather have set them upon the Reformation of those miscarriages and the restitution of such times unto the first and prefitable institution of them That these evills and corruptions being removed the divine Solemnities and Religious Duties might have been returned and advanced still amongst us to the comfort of the Church and the honour of the name of God Yet they may justly provoke God to deprive us of the comfort of these joyfull Celebrities which wee have so miserably abused to his dishonour and the hurt of our selves and of our brethren But these being the errours of particular men they do not blemish the constitution of the Church in these things which intendeth not such times for such evill purposes but for the service and honour of God and the edification of his people And therefore as it must be the care of all good Christians to seperate the abuses in practice So it is their part and duty to yeeld a ready obedience unto so profitable and wholesome a constitution and as in other Festivalls so in this of the Nativity of Christ c. This being as it were the rising of the Sunne of righteousnesse upon us
the Holy Ghost the memorialls of all which we consecrate by appointed solemnities lest as S. Aug. speaketh by the course of the times an unthankfull forgetfulnes therof should steale upon us And the same learned Authour will shew you that we are invited heerunto by the obligation of gratitude that we owe unto God as publique benefits are to be publiquely acknowledged and to be celebrated with publique thanksgiving which cannot commodiously be done unlesse they that have the rule of the Church and Common wealth doe appoint set dayes for the people to come together to that purpose Joel 2.15 That we are incouraged heereunto by the peoples benefit which they may reape heereby in being upon such occasions made acquainted with the chiefe mysteries of salvation which whether they shal be instructed in or no is a matter of too great concernment to be left to the discretion of every private Minister and therefore the Church hath thought fit to call upon them for it by these Festivals And I pray God the attempts of the abolition of these memorialls be not the drifts of some secret plot of Sathan to make way for the stealing of Christianity out of this Nation if we consider the motions of some other engines of his together with this in these times I doubt wee may find but too much cause to suspect it and cause enough for all good people to desire to prevent it by being unwilling to part with any the least lawfull meanes that may serve to keep up the memory and impressions of Christ and his wonderfull mercies in our hearts He will shew you also as I have done how this practise is confirmed unto us by the examples of the godly people in the Scripture who have appointed set and yearly dayes for such purposes besides those that were commanded expresly and particularly by God himselfe And I can adde that the same is yet further confirmed unto us by the judgement and practice of holy men in the Christian Church not only of the Ancients but of many famous moderne Protestant Divines As Melancthon Hemingins Scultetus c. all which being put into the same scale with the Authority of the Church of England and the Law which hath yet found no Authority equall unto it to dissolve the Acts thereof in this kinde will I doubt not weigh downe all the seeming reasons or divinity upon which you have grounded your Quaries To your eighth Quaere Whether the true and genuine Interpretation of Christmas be Christman And whether to perswade people'tis so be not to abuse and delude them And whether we may not as well interpret Candlemas Candleman Michaelmas Michaelman as Christmas Christman Answer That this is a question so childish of so vaine importance and so of no concernement at all to the businesse propounded That I might be excused if I should say no more but either to wish you more wisdome and sobriety in the things of God and his Church or if you know any that is guilty of making so foolish a descant upon that name of Christmas as your Quaere presents to leave you to him for a Reply neither the Church of England nor I are bound to justifie the follies of particular men But least your insinuated quarrell at the name of Christmas should meete with any such weake judgements as to produce any scruple premising this that these are things that neither the Church of England nor I conceive any discreet childe thereof will stand upon any further then they serve to make us understand one another and I wish all quarrels about names were so at an end amongst us I say yet further that the interpretation of learned Bishop Andrewes might have beene better thought on by you then that fond one you have mentioned reducing Christ-mas to Christi missa and taking missa for missio so that it may present the importance of the Feast Viz. The sending of Christ into the world or if this be liable to some exception yet it cannot be denyed but the word Masse however it hath been corrupted in latter times is from missa and I believe you may finde that the word missa hath been of good use in the Church and derived from a good and laudable custome of dismissing the Catechumeni before the Communion in the Primitive times and may import as much as the Office or Communion of the faithfull and then Christs-masse may sound as much as the Office or Communion of the faithfull upon Christs day or in the praise of Christ or in memoriall of him or if you are loath to admit of this in justification of the word missa I intreate you yet to allow thus much That however evill the word is in the use of the Church of Rome yet since you know it hath no such evill importance in the sense of the Church of England and it is not unlawfull to reforme the abuse of words as well as things there can be no harme in the use of that title for distinction no more then it was for St. Luke in the 17. of the Acts v. 22. to comply so far with custome as to call the street in Athens by the name of Mars his street although Mars were an Heathen Idol or to call Dionysius by the title of the Areopagite v. 34. I advise you therefore to take the Counsell of St. Paul hereafter for your owne good and the quiet of others and the Church that instead of being such a one as he condemneth 1. Tim. 6.4.5 sick of a spirituall tympany and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doating or madding about questions and strife of words whereof commeth envy strife railings evill surmisings froward disputations of men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth you would become such as he adviseth 2. Tim. 14.23 That you strive not about words which is to no profit but to the perverting of the hearers and that you would put away foolish and unlearned questions knowing that they engender strife To your ninth Quaere Whether the Saints are bound to rejoyce in the Birth of Christ on that day men superstitiously call Christmas more then at other times And whether the Lords day be not the day appoynted for them to rejoyce on Ans Leaving your imputation that you lay of superstition upon the name of Christmas to the correction of that which hath been already sayd unto the Quaere next before I answer that though Christians are bound at all times to rejoyce in the birth of Christ which is sufficient to condemne the boldnesse of those that forbid men upon any time or day to do it by that rule of the Apostle Philipp 44. Rejoice in the Lord alway and againe I say rejoyce yet to helpe our infirmities and to stir up our backwardnesse and to make for the greater cheerfulnesse and solemnity of this joy the Church hath done well and piously to appoint some speciall times to call us together to rejoyce in the great mercies of God and in that
regard it is more especially required of all her Children to do it at such times then at other times and the fault is the greater to omit it then in as much as to the neglect of the universall duty is added the sinne of disobedience against the wholesome orders of the Church and a division the rein of our selves from the Body and a denyall of that concurrence and assistance that wee ought to give in the communion and fellowship of Gods people in those things which are publickly performed for the celebration of the praise and worship of God and for the advancement of divine comforts in the Congregations And though it be true that the Lords day is a day wherein they ought to rejoyce which yet as to the particular day is but an holy circumstance and a matter of order though established by great Authority notwithstanding it is not the day in such a sence as your parenthesis would perhaps insinuate as to exclude all other dayes from the businesse of solemne rejoycing in Gods mercies for how then will the fifth of November and the dayes of Thanksgiving that have beene of late appoynted be justified and thesefore your question makes nothing against our conclusion for though that day be to be observed for a day of joy it God it doth not forbid others to be so employed To the tenth Quaere Whether Christmas day ought in any respect to be esteemed above another of the Weeke dayes And whether people may not without offence to God follow their lawfull vocations on that day Answer In it selfe no day is necessarily to be esteemed better then another for as the Apostle tells us he that esteemeth all dayes alike doth it to the Lord. But in the use of it as a matter of order and as it is dedicated by a lawfull power in the Church in a more especiall manner then the rest in respect of obedience order and compliance with those sacred ends for which they are so designed Christmas day and other Festivalls of the Church ought to be esteemed above another day For it is the duty of Christians to comply with one another and to obey Authority in those things that are profitable and conducible to holy and good purposes And therefore it will follow that without necessity for people to depart from this Rule and to doe it with contempt of Authority and to the discouragement and hinderance of such holy ends and duties by following their ordinary vocations which are lawfull at other times is a breach of good order a violation of unity an hinderance to piety and the holy Solemnity of such times as well as to doe it upon a day of Fasting or Humiliation instituted by humane Authority and cannot be so done without an offence to God To your eleaventh Quaere Whether you thinke the Parliament and assembly have erred and played the fooles in condemning and râ—â—sing out Holy dayes not warranted in the Word And whether to observe them be not highly to dâ—slâ—ke and flatly to contradict in poynt of practice at least their proceedings morder to a Reformation Answer I doubt not to say that they have erred in divers respects First in making unnecessary changes in the Church which ought not to be done but upon urgent causes but doth discover in them that doe it a love unto change which the wise man condemneth Prov. v. 4.21 and is ordinarily of evill consequence to the Church as wee finde by too lamentable experience for whist the people like those that are sick of a Feaver have thought good mutationibus pro remediis nti to take such kinde of changes for medicines their remedie have proved their greatest diseases and now wee see how sick they are grown of their Physitians and how sick the Physitians are of their owne administrations Secondly they have erred in going about to abolish so harmelesse and usefull a meanes of the promoting of Gods glory and of the edification of the people Thirdly in undertaking to dissolve so laudable customes and so universally and anciently received and established by full power of the State and Church either without any Authority thereunto or by a power inferiour unto that whereby they were constituted Fourthly in doing those things without any admission of those that are contrary minded to be heard or any faire discussion or debate of those differences that are in mens judgements thereabout and therefore their proceedings therein are and may be justly disliked and contradicted both by declaration and practice without lying open to any such charge as you mention of opposing proceedings in order to Reformation properly so called such undertakings with the rest that are like them being rather in order to a deformation But whether in this they have playd the fooles or no I leave that to you to determine To your twelfth Quaere Whether since most men and women in England doe blindely and superstitionsly beleeve Christ was borne that day preaching on it doth not nourish and strengthen them in that beliefe Answ Although it be admitted to be a matter of some uncertainty whether our Saviour were borne upon that day or no yet it being not materiall unto the lawfulnesse and wholsomnesse of the observation of the solemnity as hath beene declared if it bee an error in the people to apprehend so yet it is an harmelesse one and without the danger of superstition which yet Preaching upon that day doeth neyther necessarily nourish nor strengthen in them I shall not deny but there hath beene some difference in Antiquity concerning the very day upon which Christ was borne but Hospinian who was no friend unto the Church in these things confesseth That from the most ancient times it was celebrated on the 25. of December which hee prooveth out of Theophylus a very ancient Bishop of Cesaren Palestine who lived about the time of Commodus and Severus the Emperours The Arguments that are brought against the reception of this day for the very day of our Saviours Birth from the imposition of the Taxe of the Romane Emperour and from the shepheards watching of their sheepe by night are not at all concludent but of weake importance to overthrow so ancient and received an opinion in the Church Though that time might be lesse convenient for people to travell into their owne Countries as was required in that imposition of Augustus yet it is no strange thing in Magistrates and those both prudent and pious to passe through such small and private inconveniences for the obtaining supplies of publique necessities it would be a very weake argument if any should heereafter undertake to prove this unhappy Parliament began not in November because that Moneth is usually none of the best seasons to travell from the severall parts of this Kingdome to London in And though sheepe are tender creatures yet that season is not of the same bitternesse in all Climates and if I mistake not as tender as they are they are even in this