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
soon angry we find how the Hypocrites in Esaias 58.2 Fasted for strife and debate and smote with the Fist of wickedness and exacted all their labours they brought forth their Bills and Bonds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Seventy have it whom the Arabick exactly follows and the Chaldee Syriack and other Interpreters agree thereto Although some of our Festival days are the common days of Payment of Rents and Debts yet we should not exact all our labours use our utmost rigor then upon failure Feasting uses to make Men placid and easie to be intreated and is then most pleasing to God as well as Fasting when Men deal their bread to the hungry and cover the naked and lodge the harbourless when they loose the bands of wickedness undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free and break every yoke moreover reconciling our selves to our Enemies and making up differences between Neighbours Catechising Children Visiting the Sick and all such works of Charity are proper works for a Holy day I need not tell you how Religious the first Christian Emperors were this way not only in giving but forgiving how at Easter they set all Prisoners at liberty except Traytors Murderers Ravishers of Women and such notorious Malefactors I could tell you how our Saxon Laws provided that no Man should be put to death upon the Lords day that the Ordeal Tryal should not be undergone upon any Feast or Fast day and took care for the relief of Prisoners every Lords day But these are things which no Man will gainsay and therefore I will pass on and come in the last place to enquire what are the causes of the great and general neglect of these days which the Lord hath made so signal and worthy to be observed I shall touch on three Superstition Profaneness and Covetousness First Superstition even the Superstition of those men that are most afraid of or most declame against Superstition their conceit is no less Superstitious than their Notation is fond in making it to be Quicquid super statutum I would ask them in this case what Statute have they that forbids the keeping of any other day besides the Lords day 1. If they say God is the Lord of time and he hath said Six days shalt thou labor I reply Those words are no part of the fourth Commandment I mean not of it as commanding but a permission incouraging the Observance of the thing commanded as if it were said the Lord allows you six days for your own business and may therefore more strictly require the seventh of you for his own service they are no more a Command than that in Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread But the practice of the Objectors who have indicted Fasts and Thanksgivings on working days when and as often as they pleas'd is Confutation enough to the Objection But 2. They urge that to the Galat. 4.10 Ye observe days and months and times and years I reply again If the Context and Scope of the whole Epistle did not shew it plainly to be written to Judaising People those four words in the Text alledged would tell us the Apostle means the Jewish Festivals whereof they had four sorts But what is that to us that keep days in testification of our being Christians and disclaiming all Judaism and keep them not in imitation of the Jews no more than we do the Sabbath but rather in order to their invitation and bringing them over to the Christian Faith and to shew that Christ is greater than Moses But the great thing they insist on is 'T is against Gospel purity to have mixtures of Human Inventions with Divine Injunctions and this superstitious conceit is the great cause not only of this neglect but of Schism or unlawful Separation Ans I have already said To be thankful for benefits is a Law of Nature and no Human Invention and to give thanks yearly on those days whereon those Benefits were bestow'd rather than any other is so Natural hath so great a congruity in it that the Objectors themselves choose to do so But let them tell me is there any more of man in keeping an easter-Easter-day than a Fifth of November in praising of God for the first planting of the Christian Religion than a late preservation of it But what Did they never hear of the Feast of Purim and that Feast of the Dedication whereat our Lord was present of the Seven days which King Solomon kept at the first Dedication of the Altar and the Seven days that King Hezekiah kept at the Feast of Unleavened bread over and above what the Law Commanded 2 Chron. 30.23 Of the four Fasts in Zech. 8.19 whereof but one was injoin'd But because they call us so often to the Pattern in the Mount we will take a View of that and shew you that the Israelites did not only Act super but contra statutum in several things yet no separation was made from Publick Communion with that Church and therefore every Imperfection can be no just cause of Separation nor every Supererogation I will give three notorious Instances whereof two concern Festivals The First shall be touching the Feast of Tabernacles whereof we read Nehem. 8.17 All the Congregation of them that were come again out of the Captivity made Booths and sate under the Booths for since the days of Joshua the Son of Nun unto that day had not the Children of Israel done so that is they had not kept the Feast of Tabernacles at least in that main circumstance of dwelling in Tents and Booths for a Thousand years together and that throughout the most flourishing time of that Church although it was expresly Commanded no less than four times in Moses It is a wonder how it came to pass that neither David nor Hezekiah nor Samuel nor Jehoiadah nor any other reforming King zealous Priest or inspired Prophet no answer by Vrim and Thummim corrected this neglect in so many Ages in all which time we find no secession made from the Church that then was My Second Instance shall be in a Holy year the Observation whereof is Commanded Levit. 25.2 c. When ye come into the Land which I give you then shall the Land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord thou shalt neither sow thy Seed nor prune thy Vineyard c. And now see the Omission in the Punishment threatned Levit. 26.34 c. inflicted 2 Chron. 36.21 untill the Land had injoyed her Sabbaths for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten Years So long the Babylonian Captivity lasted that the Land might rest and lie untill'd so many years as the Seventh or Sabbatick year had been unobserv'd Reckon and ye will find just Seventy sevens in four hundred ninety years so that for 490 years together they had broken the aforesaid Law to wit from the days of Samuel to the Captivity and yet no Separation all that while
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
Lord and of his Christ Shall the Founders of small Guilds and Fraternities be honour'd with yearly Celebrities in every City and Country they that only gave their temporal Goods which they could not long keep and shall those great Hero's the Founders of the Ancientest Largest and most Noble Society whereof we all boast to be Members that resisted unto Blood and counted not their lives dear be remembr'd once in the year to the honor of God and good Edification of his People which are the two great ends of all Religion and the ends of all the Festival Solemnities which our Church hath thought good to observe which I will but shortly speak to because out of place First For the Honor of God It is requisite in order to the preserving of a due sense of God upon our minds that such days as these should often recurre There is a great deal of secret Atheism lurks in mens hearts and would grow more rampant in their lives were not such days as these stated and fix'd to put some stop to their Mad Careir And doubtless if they were duly observ'd and the horrid deaths of those stout Champions often inculcated and well consider'd on the Religion for which they suffered would appear more true and excellent and useful than vain Scepticks now think it and the neglect thereof more dangerous It hath been observed by judicious Travellours that were it not for the keeping of some Holy days the Christian Religion would be in a manner lost among the poor Greeks and others under the Turkish Dominions and I am afraid even among us who should know better were not times as well as places set apart for Divine Worship the common People would soon Heathenise and those that seem now of sprucer Wits herd among the Vulgar Common experience tells us what is left to every body is done by no body and what to be done at any time is done at no time and what to be done any where is done no where Wherefore the Honor of God is concern'd in keeping up those days that still remain and restoring those that are almost lost Secondly It is also for the good of man not only upon the account of what hath been already said but this also that he may have frequent opportunities of retiring out of the hurry and tumult of the World of bethinking himself and considering what he is and ought to be and hopes to be of what our Lord hath done for him and what he expects from him There is need of such breathing times as these or else men would be quite overwhelm'd with the cares of this World or habituated in sin past all hopes of recovery Sixthly and Lastly Upon this Ground of ordaining Holy-days because God hath made them signal by some extraordinary benefit then conferr'd I think we may soon answer several of those little Objections that us'd to be made against them As 1. Why no days for Abraham and David and Samuel or any of the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets as well as for the Glorious company of the Apostles c. Why Because though they were excellent Persons in their times and are still great examples of Virtue to us yet they were not could not be any ways instrumental to the Publication and Propagation of that Gospel upon which we ground our Faith and Salvation and from which as from the beginning of the World we date all our actions and all our concerns The Prophets Preached for the most part to the Jews and few of them were Martyrs and they that were suffer'd in a less noble cause and of less concern to the World 2. When they say the Great Michael and all the Angels are Crowded into one day who still continue to be instrumental to our Salvation and almost every one of the Apostles hath his distinct day of commemoration although their Ministry was soon over which seems to be no fair distribution It is soon Answer'd That the Ministration of Angels is invisible and we can fix no particulars upon them but such as are rehearsed upon the greater Festivals of our Lords Incarnation Resurrection Ascension c. That they did not could not suffer Martyrdom as all the Saints did whose days are kept and 't was their Martyrdom that Crown'd both them and the days that bear their names whereon our Lord inabled them to meet death in the Face though arm'd with utmost Rage and Malice and verified and magnified the Christian Cause thereby This was the Lords doing and not theirs He made the days and not they and we keep them to his Glory and not theirs And therefore when they farther object the Sunday collect gives place to that of the Saints Philip and James are feign to share one day between them as also Simon and Jude and the like they run upon a fond mistake as if we did Worship to any of them upon those days which they could not surely have done had they read the Collects proper for those days It is high time I should now say something to the second part of my Text how a Holy-day is to be kept We will rejoyce and be glad therein This is that which distinguishes a Fast from a Feast and makes the latter more Holy than the former according to that in Nehem. 8.9 This day is Holy unto the Lord your God mourn not nor weep and v. 10. Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions for them for whom nothing is prepar'd for this day is Holy unto the Lord neither be ye sorry for the joy of the Lord is your strength God makes days of joy and they are Holy to Him we cannot so truly say of a day of mourning of a Fast-day This is the day which the Lord hath made for indeed Man made it by his sin and on it therefore it is his business to bewail his sins and deprecate the Judgments felt or fear'd upon their account But when God hath made a day to our hands a day signal for some great mercy let us rejoyce and be glad therein Rejoyce and be glad therein but how Not in Riot and excess and making provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof No but let us first give Publick thanks to God for the Mercy of the day and then if we have opportunity let us partake of that Holy Feast of the Body and Blood a Feast which he hath not only instituted but wonderfully made of himself a Feast whose name and end is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thanksgiving What should we render to the Lord for all his benefits towards us but according to our Psalmist Ps 116.12 Take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And then when we have made a difference between the Holy and the Common day by a more plentiful Table testifie our farther thankfulness and due resentment of Gods Mercy by works of Mercy and Charity Fasting doth stir up Choler the hungry are
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-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