serveth his Servant The onely true freedom is to serve the Lord For Godliness with Contentment is great Gain saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.6 yea it is profitable unto all things saith he having promise of the life which now is of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 How then can you justify or affirm it to be a vain needless thing to spend this time in the publick Worship and Service of God namely in the duties of Piety and exercises of Religion in hearing of the Word in offering up Prayers Praises to God celebrating it lauding his holy and glorious Name with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord Eph. 5.19 20. giving thanks alwaies for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ And especially and above all things giving thanks for this one thing I mean that inestimable benefit and unspeakable gift which God bestowed upon the World at this time And me thinks to this end and purpose we may very well encourage and stirr up our selves with the words of David and say as he doth Psal 69.31 32. I will praise the name of God with a Song and magnify it with thanksgiving this also shall please the Lord better than a Bullock which hath horns and hoofs yea this shall be as precious and odoriferous in his Nostrils and no less pleasing and acceptable in his sight than that right costly Spikenard which was spent to anoint our Saviour's feet withall although it be said of that That the whole House wherein our Saviour was at that time was filled and perfumed with the odour of the Oyntment Joh. 12.3 But the Reasons you alledge to prove it to be a vain and needless thing to observe this day are in the next place to be examined and considered the first whereof is this as you affirm it because God hath set apart a Sabbath the Lord's-day for this purpose to meditate upon God's Love in redeeming the World and this seems to be an indifferent good one yet you know or at the least cannot but know that the Sabbath or the Seventh day was at the first ordained sanctified and set apart onely in remembrance of the World's Creation as it appears in that passage or Conclusion of the fourth Commandment Exod. 20. For in six daies the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it For this Commandment is hedged in on every side lest we should break out from observing it with a Caveat and speciall Memorandum before it Remember c. and with two Reasons after one drawn from the Equity of the Law and the other taken from the Law-giver's or the Law-maker's own Example Six daies shalt thou labour As if God should speak thus If I permit thee six whole daies to follow thine own business thou mayest well afford me one onely for my own Service but six daies shalt thou labour and do all thine own work therefore hallow the Seventh in doing my work Six daies shalt thou labour whereupon both Reverend Calvin and that learned Gentleman B. Babington who was once Bishop of this Diocesse a man of no mean Note but of good Report both for Life and Learning do observe That these Words Six daies shalt thou labour c. are a permission or a remission of God's right who might challenge all rather than an absolute Commandment For as Judicious Perkins hath also delivered it in his Golden Chaine for a sound Orthodoxal and undeniable Thesis Catenâ aureâ cap. 13 The Church upon just occasion may separate some week daies also to the Service of the Lord and rest from Labour Joel 2.15 Blow the Trumpet in Zion sanctify a Fast call a solemn Assembly And as daies of publick Fasting for some great Judgment so daies of publick Rejoycing for some great Benefit are not unlawfull but exceeding commendable yea necessary And you cannot in Modesty and I hope you will not for Shame deny this to be the Truth for besides the ordinary Sabbath among the Jews they had their Sabbaths and their new Moons and appointed Feasts yea Almighty God himself ordained in the old Testament divers and sundry Feasts to put his People in mind of his great Benefits bestowed upon them Amongst the rest there were three solemn Festivals every year namely the Passover the Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles as we read in the 16th of Deuteronomy The Passover was instituted in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt's bondage Pentecost in remembrance of the Law given in Mount Sinui The Feast of Tabernacles in remembrance of Israel's dwelling in Tents forty years in the Wilderness Now as Hemingius observes in his Postil dom 1. post Epiph. instead of those three Jewish Feasts our Christian Church which may challenge as much Liberty as the Jewish if not more hath substituted Christmas in honour of Christ's Incarnation Easter in honour of Christ's Resurrection and Whitsuntide in honour of Christ's confirmation of the Gospel by sending unto us the Holy Ghost at that time So that we say according as St. Austin saith in his 108 Epist. cap. 1 Celebrantes Anniversariâ solemnitate Pascha reliquasque Christianas diêrum Festivitutes non observamus tempora sed quae illis significantur temporibiu i.e. In celebrating Easter and other Christian Feasts we do not so much observe the times as the things that are represented and signified unto us at those times If then it be granted as it cannot be denied according to your words that God hath set apart a Sabbath which is our Christian Sabbath and is called the Lord's Day because the Lord rose from death to life on that Day and that on this day in that respect we are to meditate on God's Love in redeeming the World if we must do this once every week in an ordinary course how much more may the Church and Spouse of Christ appoint and set apart one day in the year after an extraordinary manner to meditate and muse and think on his Love in redeeming her from the hands of all her Enemies for so indeed the holy Priest Zacharias tells us in his Song called Benedictus That this was the main End of our Redemption Luk. 1.74 that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our Life Whereupon I infer That if we must serve him all the daies of our life as he may justly challenge and require it at our hands in regard he hath redeemed us How much more ought we to meditate on his Love not onely once a week but also once in every year praise his most Holy Name after a more speciall and singular manner For at this time especially and particularly it may be said of Him as the Psalmist doth Psal 111.9 He sent Redemption unto his People He
of yours I mean the Fable and story you tell us of in your Saints Rest touching the raining down of Manna on the Leads of the Church at Bridgnorth when you preached there For some Gentlemen of worth in those parts have credibly reported it to be nothing else then the seeds of Hips and Hawes being the excrements of Rooks and Jack-dawes which they there had voyded Answer to the Twelfth Argument The twelfth Argument is this In all doubtfull Cases a Wise man ought to go on the surest side and I am sure it is no Sin not to keep it c. I Answer in this Allegation you seem to play the part of a Wise man but in my Opinion you are onely wise in your own conceit for my part this I am sure of First in respect that Christmas day being the day of our Lords Nativity is the Lords day Cant. 4.9 and by his spouse the Church is set a part to Gods publick worship and our Souls edification therefore it ought clearly to be esteemed above any other of the common Week dayes And for people on this day willfully and contemptuously to follow their ordinary though at other times lawfull vocations or Callings is in the first place a breach of the fourth Commandement for the day of Christs Nativity is a Sabboth or Rest to the Lord and God will have us to keep holy the Sabboth or Rest-day Next it is a despising Perk. cases of Consc l. 1. c. 5. Sect. 5. and dishonouring of their Mother the Church which whosoever are guilty of not onely sin against the fifth Commandment but by our Saviour himself we are Injoyned to account all such as Revolters from the Christian faith Heathen men and Publicans Matth. 18.17 Lastly it is a ground and inlet to the violation of all order and decency in Gods Service which is expressely condemned in Holy Scripture and if to break Gods Commandements 1 Cor. 14.40 to contemn his Churches Authority to become Heathens and Publicans and to overthrow all order and decency in Gods Services be sins and Offences to God Then must we conclude that not to keep this day must needs be a sin and that to work or follow our vocations on Christmas day is a great and high offence or indignity offered unto God and his Church And how then are you sure it is no sin not to keep it but that your erronious Conscience tells you so and yet is it so nice and tender on the other side you are not sure it is no sin to keep it this is the other part of your Dilemma for this is called in the Schools Syllogismus cornutus or Syllogismus Crocodilinus Well sat verbum Sapienti If a word to the Wise may serve the turn then will I answer you in a word for although you are perswaded and sure in your strong Conscience that it is no sin not to keep it yet we on the other side in our weak Consciences are perswaded that it is a sin if we keep it not And therefore if you remember the Apostle's rule is Let not the stronger Christian despise the weaker Rom. 13.3 4. especially in such a Case as this Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Who art thou then that judgest another man's Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind he that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks For none of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself for the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. Let us therefore follow after the the things which make for peace and things wherewith we may edify another for meat destroy not the work of God all things indeed are pure but it is evil for that man who eateth with Offence It is good neither to eat Flesh nor to drink Wine nor any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak You see how wary the Apostle is to advise us in and for things indifferent not to be offended one with another but to use all good Christian moderation and discretion not to abuse our Christian Liberty to the Scandal and Offence of our weak Brethren Answer to the thirteenth Argument The thirteenth Argument is That this day ought not to be celebrated because there is more Sin committed in these 12 dayes than is in all the year following viz. in Drunkenness c. Oh Sir This Argument and your last are the least and the weakest of them all therefore I shal more easily answer them briefly conclude To this 13th I say as I did before The Abuse of a thing that in it self is lawful and good cannot justly abolish or take away the lawful Use of it For the best things that ever God created have been abused through Man's Corruption even the whole Creature is subject unto Vanity that is to Destruction because of Man's sin Rom. 8.20 The holy Temple of our God hath been prophaned and defiled and made a den of Theeves and a Cage of unclean Birds and a very Stable for Barbarous Souldiers Horses to Lodge in in these late uncivil Warrs the holy Sabbath of our Lord hath been polluted his Word and Sacraments abused Yea because the Scriptures are in some places somewhat hard to be underâ—â—ood therefore those that are unlearned and unstable do wrest them and perven them to their own Destruction 〈…〉 Pâ—â— 3.16 And because of this must the Scriptures be rejected and not perused Because the good Creatures of God are abuse 〈◊〉 some ungodly and wicked Miscreants therefore must the Creatures be refused seeing every Creature of God is good and nothing ought to be refused 1 Tim. 4.4 especially if it be received with thankfulness for iâ— is land â—â—ed unto us by the Word of God 〈◊〉 prayer The like may be said of 〈◊〉 Sanctuary of our God of the Sabâ—â—… 〈◊〉 the Sacraments for unto the 〈…〉 things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minds and consciences are defiled Titus 1.15 But you affirm and that peremptorily that there is more sinne committed in these Twelve Days than in all the year after in Drunkenness and Gluttony And how are you sure of this for it is impossible that you should prove this to be true Can God be more dishonoured
God hath not made a duty But God never made the Celebration of the Nativity of Christ a Duty Ergo it is no Duty Though this Argument is Scholastically and Syllogistically propounded yet I shall be so bold as to deny the Minor or second proposition and that for these Reasons for although it be not in words plainly expressed yet in sense it is significantly and sufficiently implyed and by way of necessary consequence may be deduced and gathered out of the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews at the 6. Verse When he bringeth forth his first begotten Son into the World He saith And let all the Angels of Gods worship him and for proof hereof to shew the sweet harmony and consent of both Testaments the Old and the New and that one and the same Spirit speaks in both For the same God is Author of both and the same Christ is Subject of both insomuch that each Testament is in other for in the Law there is an hidden Gospel and in the Gospel a revealed Law Being like the two Cherubius on the Mercy-Seat whose faces looked one towards the other Exod. 15.20 St. Paul alleadgeth that in Psal 97.7 And howsoever the ordinary reading of the Psalm is worship Him all ye gods yet the Apostle Interprets it of Angels directly saying according as Tremelius renders it out of the Original Incurvanto se bonorem exhibentes ei omnes Angeli Let all the Angels of God worship Him For so we find it to be true indeed and so it was at Christ's Birth and upon the very Day of his Nativity That one Angel first reports it to the Shepheards of Bethlehem and many other of those Celestial Choristers sing Praises to God for it Fear not said Gabriel for Behold I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be unto all Nations For unto you is born this Day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord and suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praysing God and saying Gloria Deo in Excelsis c. Luke 2.13.14 Now I inferr from hence that these Angels came not about this Errand without some special Commission and Command from God and therefore it was a Duty Commanded and Given in charge to them Now if the Angels for whom Christ came not were to performe it How much more ought we Men to observe it for whose sake and for whose Salvation he was Incarnate and became Man for verily He took not on Him Naturam Angelorum sed Semen Abrahami Heb. 2.10 not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham saith the Apostle Dubartas Wherefore the Angels As they are called by a Divine Poet The sacred Tutors of the Saints and the guard of God's Elect c So they may also be called Tutors and Instructors to us to instruct and teach us this Lesson and may be also exemplary Patterns and Precedents to us in the practise and performance of this Duty Answerable and agreeable hereunto is the plat-form of our grand Master and blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus who hath taught us in the third Petition of that his most absolute and perfect Prayer to pray thus Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven wherein we are taught to pray as all the best Orthodoxal Divines do expound it that the will of God may be obeyed and done by us as Chearfully Speedily Faithfully Constantly and Continually as it is done by the Angels in Heaven And therefore as the Angels melodiously chanted it here on Earth at the Birth of Christ So let us likewise unanimously celebrate set forth his praise and say Glory be to God on High in Earth Peace good will towards Men. We blesse Thee we praise Thee we glorifie Thee we give thanks to Thee for thy great Glory These words were at first added to the Heavenly Carroll of the Holy Angels by that famous Bishop Hilary and used by him in his own Church Anno 340. So saith Cassander's Litturgy Cap. 22. And that this is a Duty expected and required from us upon good ground and special Reasons and Causes that should move us hereunto grave St. Austin tells us wittily and profoundly This Quaery hath a sufficient Quaery Quia verbum caro factum est habitavit intra nos Because the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us vidimus Gloriam and we faw his Glory saith St. John as of the onely begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth John 1.14 Wherefore as those Persian Sages who were both Wisemen and Kings being led by the guidance and assistance and direction of a Starr to the place of Christ's Birth and there did adore and worship Him and presented gifts unto Him Gold Frankincense and Myrrh Math. 2.10 and this their coming made to the greater condemnation of the Jews and to shame their blockishness and blindness their sluggishness carnality and infidelity who standing hard-by saw not so much as they who came from far according to that speech of Leo Veritas illuminat magos Infidelitas obcoecat magistros So it is to be feared lest the Lord for our contempt of Christ and the unspeakable benefits that we have received by his first coming in the flesh lest the Lord I say for our ingratitude and for our carelessenesse and carnality take his Word from us Christians as he did his King â—om from the Jews and give it to such as we think to be most alien from God and his Gospel even to Moors and Tartars Turks and Infidells who perhaps may bring forth better fruits of Obedience and Thankfulness than we have done and so rise up in Judgment at the latter day and condemn us for if wisemen brought up in Gentilism and Idolatry come to Christ and believe what excuse then belongs to the Jews So if Infidels and Pagans believe and obey What shall become of us Christians who want both Faith and Obedience Thus much for the answering of the first Argument Answer to the second Argument The Words of the second Argument are these If I should observe this day I am fearfull lest I should deny the Perfection of the Scripture for in the Scripture all things are contained which are necessary to Salvation and all things which are needfull to be believed and done by a Christian man for the attainment of Salvation But the Celebration of Christ's Nativity is not contained therein Ergo If I should observe this I should deny the Perfection of the Scriptures To this I answer That the Article of our Faith touching Christ's Incarnation and Manifestation in the Flesh is both commended and commanded in the Scripture and I refer you or any other indifferent Man not onely to our Apostolicall Creed which although it be not Protocanonical Scripture yet as Ambrose speaks it is the Key of the Scripture and as Augustine terms it a plain short absolute summ of all holy Faith It is
then this if if you will believe Josephus who is a credible Author and a sufficient Reporter of that which was true being testis oculatus an eye-witness of many things which he wrote of and saw them acted and done before his eyes this malicious crafty Fox Herod as he tells us lib. antiquit 10. put to death almost all the Nobility of Juda and burned the Genealogies of their Kings and Princes commanding a Pedigree to be drawn out for himself as descending from the Kings of Juda. This was a right Matchiavilian policy and a deep sleight and stratagem of Sathan to extirpate and eradicate the name of Christ and the name of Christians for being a People from under Heaven How then shall we think or believe it that he hath any will or desire to set up a Day for Christ or to have him worshipped or adored who set upon Christ in the Wildernesse and tempted Him by proffering the whole World and all the Kingdomes and Glory of it to Him if he would but sall down and worship Him So that you plainly see he had rather be worshipped himself then to have Christ to be worshiped All his chief aim is to have the Power and Kingdom of Christ to be lessened and diminished and his own Kingdome to be enlarged and advanced But what did our Saviour answer or how did he resist his temptation Why surely he defied him and put him from him with an Apage Satana Avoid Sathan or get thee hence Sathan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him onely shalt thou serve Math. 4.10 As if he had said If thou wilt not worship and serve him in Faith and Love thou shalt be compelled to worship him in fear and trembling and for this end is he reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day saith St. Jude in his Epistle at the 8. ver As for Christ we know that all Power is given unto Him both in Heaven and Earth Math. 28. And this was it that the Angel Gabriel intimated to the Virgin Mary when he saluted her with that first happy and ever-joyful news of bringing forth a Son He shall be great saith he and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David and he shall Raign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Semper regnabit quem mater virge generabit It was the answer which Octavius the Emperour received from the Oracle concerning his Successor And David himself foretold as much of him saying Psal 145.13 Thy Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome and thy Dominion endureth throughout all Ages Answer to the sixth Argument The sixth Argument is this If I should celebrate this Day I am fearful lest I should be condemned for accusing God for want of wisdome c. To this I answer As our Saviour saith This is the condemnation or this is the cause of mens condemnation as Beza interprets the place that light is come into the World and men loved darknesse rather than light because their deeds are evil For in Him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shined in darkness and the darknesse comprehended it not John 1.4 5. i.e. The darkness that was in the Gentiles thoughts and cogitations and the Vail of blindnesse that was upon the hearts of the Jews 2 Cor. 4.15 when Moses was read unto them caused them that they could neither apprehend nor comprehend this light And therefore they are both censured and condemned by the Apostle for want of wisdome and for want of a discerning Spirit 1 Cor. 1.21 22 23 24. For after that in the wisdome of God the World by wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching or by that preaching which the wise men of the World counted foolishnesse to save them that believe for the Jews require a signe and the Greeks seek after wisdome but we preach Christ Crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishnesse but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishnesse of God is wiser then Men and the weakness of God stronger then Men. And therefore I wire you not for being careful and chary of accusing God for want of wisdom as they did and yet whereas you say further you are fearfull lest you should make your self wiser then God as though He knew not what should be done as well as you and so derogate from the wisdome of God and herein so far as I conceive your meaning you seem a little to derogate from the wisdome of God thinking your self not bound to keep this Day because God in his wisdome hath not directly revealed or particularly nominated and set down in the Rubrick and Ephemeris or in the Register or Calender of his Word what day his Son Christ was born and there injoyned and commanded it to be observed and kept which albeit he hath not done it immediately from his own mouth yet mediately or ministerially hath he done it by that heavenly Trumpeter of his the Angel Gabriel who particularly did Preach promulgate express and declare it openly in the Fields to those Shepheards of Bethlehem Luke 2. for this thing was not done in secret nor in a corner Now I proceed to the seventh Argument Answer to the seventh Argument The words of the seventh Argument are these if I should observe this day I am fearful lest I should be the more inexcusable for my Sins Sir This quirk or transcendent ambiguity as I may so call it is but petitio principii and no better than idem per idem i. e. no more then you have said in some of the former yet in this case I will not say to you as Christ said to Peter Mar. 14.21 when he adventuring presumptuously to walk upon the Water was afraid and his heart deceiving him or rather his Faith fayling him he began to sink immediately whereupon Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt So wherefore do you sear lest if you should keep this Day I mean the Day of Christ's Nativity that then you should be the more inexcusable for your fins What do you conceit that your carefull and conscionable observing of this time shall add to the weight of your sins or increase the measure and number of your impieties What a strange and wonderful anxious and pensive surmising and prejudicate or preposterous misdeeming is this Wherefore as our Saviour cheared and comforted his Disciples against the Persecutions and Tribulations which they feared would befall them after his departure from them John 14.1 So let me with your leave a little rectifie and direct you in this point Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God
the last verse If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Yet willingly would I add here one strange thing more or two which are no more strange then true as a Corollary and Appendix to the former which though they were not Synchronisms or things Contemporaneous with the Birth of Christ yet the People of our Nation and our own Countrymen can witnesse them to be true as I relate them The first is the Thorne at Glastenbury in Sommersetshire which was commonly called Joseph's Thorne which for many hundred years together even as it is to be thought since the first arriving of Joseph of Arimathea there which was within five years after the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus as that antient Historian of our Nation the Golden-mouthed Gildas reporteth this Thorne constantly budded and shewed forth its green leaves fair fresh and flourishing on this Day every year to the great admiration of all Spectators that came of purpose to behold it and this was no other then a Miracle and may serve for our confirmation in the faith of Him who for our sakes was contented to wear Coronam Spineam a Crown of Thornes Or it may well be supposed that ir flourished on this Day to testifie the truth of his Nativity and to signifie the flourishing Estate of the Gospel by Him which shall prosper and flourish manger the head and hatred of all Gain-sayers And although this Thorne be now as they say cut down by some spightful and malignant Zoilus yet those sufficient men of our parts who with their eyes have seen it and beheld it will still talk of it and tell it to their Children not for an old Wives Fable but for truth and one Gentleman among the rest of good rank and quality in these Parts who is a man well affected and devoted to the power and purity of Religion for that Thorn's sake having seen it doth strictly and carefully and conscionably keep this Day and is resolved to observe and keep it so long as he liveth The other rare and strange thing are the three pitts of Durham commonly called Hell kettles which are adjoyning near unto Darlington whose Waters are somewhat warm these are thought to come of an Earth-quake which happened in the year of Grace 1179. whereof the Chronicle of Tinmouth maketh mention whose record is this That on Christmasday at Oxen-Hall in the Territories of Darlington within the County of Durham the ground heaved aloft like unto a high Tower and so continued all that day as it were unmoveable untill the evening and then fell with so horrible a noise that it made the Neighbourhood-dwellers much afraid and the Earth swallowed it up and made in the same place three deep pits which are there to be seen for a Testimony unto this Day Here then we may apply that of the Psalmist and say Tremble thou Earth at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob which turned the hard Rock into a standing Water and the flint stone into a springing Well Psal 114.7 8. But whilst I am relling you a story of a Thorne-Tree and of deep pits of Water you bring me into another difficult and thorny question and plunge me as it were in a deep pit of non plus or nil ultra and into such a quick and and quagmire of troublesome meditation that I shall hardly get out of it the Quaery is this ninth following Answer to the ninth Argument The ninth Argument is this It is an impossibility to keep it and God never made an impossibility a Duty and that no man in the World knoweth certainly what day Christ was born on To this I answer although I first ingenuously confesse according to that Adage Davus sum ego non Oedipus for it is true which Chrysostome saith Praestat probâ ignoratione detineri quà m falsa opinione mancipari It is easier to plow in the plain then in the ground new-stocked better to write on a paper free from writing than on that which is full of lines and more easie to reach the simple then him that is opinionated of his own knowledge Better it is for a man and more commendable to confess a little ignorance then to boast of too much knowledge wherefore as Beza on that place in 1 Cor. 11.10 For this Cause ought the Woman to have power on her head because of the Angels gives no other note but this Quid hoc sit nondum mihi liquet wherein he confesseth he did not understand as yet what the Apostle meant by these words So if we should here yield and acknowledge that we do not certainly know what day Christ was born on Vaux yet As a late Starrgazing Speculator takes upon him in his Almanack to define the year of Christ his coming to Judgment but dare not precisely set down the day and hour of his coming So perhaps we shall here endeavour pro Nosse Posse to calculate and discover unto you the year when our Saviour Christ was born if not the day And for this I shall referr you to the Rhemists Marginal note on the second of Luke which reports unto us that in the year from the Creation of the World 3199 from Noah's flood 2957 from the Nativity of Abraham 2015 from Moses and the coming forth of the People of Israel out of Egypt 1510 from David anointed King 1032 from the first Olympias 800 from the building of Rome 752 Hebdomada 63 according to the prophecy of Daniel c. 9. that is in the year 440 or thereabout in the sixth age of the World when there was universal Peace in all the World the eternal God and son of the eternal Father meaning to Consecrate and Sanctifie the World with his most blessed coming being conceived of the Holy Ghost nine Months after his Conception Jesus Christ the Son of God is born in Bethlehem of Juda in the year of Caesar Augustus 42 Usuard in the Martyrol * And then why should not the 25 of Decem. be as solemnly observed and kept as the 5 of Nov. December 25 according to the common ancient supputation But it may be you will object against this because it comes from the Rhemists you will mislike it and disdain it yet nevertheless I say because it is not thwarted nor contradicted by Calvin nor Beza nor Fulke nor any other of our late Protestant Writers I see no just Cause or Reason why we should reject it but rather receive it Fide historicâ and believe it for truth as it is faithfully and exactly related by them for a sufficient Author and ancient Chronologer or Reporter of that which was nothing else but a true story and cannot be denyed or disproved yet put the Case here that we neither do nor cannot certainly know the Day whereon Christ was born therefore shall it be thought a thing impossible to keep it Then by the same