Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	holy_a	time_n	21,134	5	4.1976	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45297	A letter concerning Christmasse sent to a knight in Suffolke by that Reverent Father in God Dr. Joseph Hall ...	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1652 (1652)	Wing H389; ESTC R40929	8,282	24

holiness in it as such We should justly incur that blame which the Apostles cast upon the Galatians and Colossians False Teachers but to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemn Purity which is meerly commemoration of a blessing received without any prefiguration of things to come without any opinion of holiness anexed to the day is no other then injurious violence Vpon all this which hath been said and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alledged to the contrary I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not withall godly cheerfulness observe this which that holy Father stiled the Metropolis of all Feasts to which I add that those which by their Example and Doctrine sleight this Day causing their People to dishonour it with their worst cloaths with shops open with servile works stand guilty before God of an high and sinfull contempt of that lawfull Authority under which they live for as much by the Statutes of our Land made by the full concurrence of King and State This is commanded to be kept holy by all English Subjects and this power is backed by the charge of God Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake If now after all this I should let my Pen loose to the suffragant Testjmonies whether of Antiquity or Modern Divines and Reformed Churches I should tire your patience and instead of a Letter send you a Volume let it suffice that ever since the second 100 years after Christ this Feast hath without contradiction obtained due respect in the Church of God received many noble Elogies and passionate inforcements from the Learned and holy Fathers of the Church amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen in his Orations upon the Day of the Nativity of Christ is so remarkable that I may not omit it as that which sets forth the excess of joyfull respect wherewith the Ancient Christians were wont to keep this day Let us saith he Celebrate this Feast not in a Panegyrical but Divine not in a worldly but supersecular manner not regarding so much our selvs or others as the worship of Christ and how shall we effect this not with Crowning our doors with Garlands nor leading of Dances nor adorning our Streets not by feeding our eyes not by delighting our ears with pleasant Songs not by effeminating our smell with perfumes not with humouring our taste with dainties not with pleasing our touch not with silken costly cloaths and not with the sparkling Jewels not with the luster of Gold not with the artifice of counterfeit colours let us leave these things to Pagans for their pomp c. But we who adore the word of the Father if we think fit to affect delicacies let us feed our selves with the dainties of the Law of God and with those Divine Discourses especiall which are fitting for this present Festival So that Learned and eloquent Father to his Auditors of Constantinople where to let me if you please have leave to add one or two practical instances one shall be of the good Emperour Theodosius lying now for eight moneths under the severe Censure of Bishop Ambrose when the Feast of the Nativity drew neer what moan did that Religious Prince make to his Courtiers that he was by that resolute Bishop shut out for his blood-guiltiness from partaking with the assembly in that holy Service and what importunate means did he make for his admission Hist. tri partit lib. 9. cap. 30. Had that gracious Emperour been of the Diet of these our new Divines he would have sleighted that repulse and gladly taken this occasion of absense from that Superstitious Solemnity or had one of these grave Monitors been at his elbow he might have saved that pious Prince the expence of many sighs and tears which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected Devotion The other shal be a History of as much note as horror too clear a proofe of the ancient Celebration of this Feastival it was under the Tyrany of Dioclesian and his Co-partner Maximinus Nicephor 1.7 ca. 6. that 20000. Christians met to Celebrate the Feast of this Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia which were made an Holocaust and burnt together with that goodly Fabrick to ashes on that day Lo so great a multitude as 20000. Christians of al ages of both Sexes had not thus mett together in a time of so mortal danger to celebrate this Feast if the holy Zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day which these Novellers teach us to contemne Now let these bold men see of how contrary a disposition they are to those blessed Martyrs which as this day sent up their Soules like Manoahs Angel to Heaven in those flames After thus much said I should be glad to know since reason there can be none what Authority induces these Gain-saiers to oppose so antient received a Custome in the Church of God you tell me of a double Testimony cyted to this purpose the one of Socrates the Historian which I suppose is fetched out of the 5th Book of Eclesiastical Story Chap. 21. where upon occasion of the Feast of Easter he passeth his Judgement upon the indeffrent nature of all those ancient Feasts which were of use in the Primitive Times shewing that the Apostles never meant to make any Law for the keeping them but left men to the free observation thereof For Answer whereunto I do not tell you that this Author is wont to be impeached of Novatianism and therefore may seem fit to yield Patronage to such a Clyent I rather say that take him at the worst he is no enemy to our opinion or Practice we agree with him that the Apostles would have men free from servitude of the Jewish observation of days that they enacted no Law for set Festivals but left persons and places so to their liberty in these Cases that none should impose a necessity upon others this were to be pressed upon Victor Bishop of Rome who violently obtruded a day for the Celebration of Easter upon all Churches supposing in the mean time an Easter universally kept of all Christians though not on the same day This makes nothing against us who place no Holiness in the very hours nor plead any Apostolicall injunction for days nor tye any person or Church to our strict Calender but only hold it fit out of obedience to the Laws both of our Church and Kingdom to continue a joyfull Celebration of a memorial Day to the honour of our blessed Saviour But that other Authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose I confess doth not a little amaze me it was you say of K. James our Learned Soveraign of late blessed memory whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people not without the just applause of a Solomon-like-wisdom as crying down these Festivals and in a certain Speech of his applauding the purity of the Church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common Feasts of Christs Nativity Resurrection c. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wife and good King in such a cause whom all the world knows to have been as zealous a Patron of these Festivals as any lived upon earth and if he had let fall any such Speech before he had any Down upon his chin whiles he was under the Ferule what candor is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience and riper judgement Nay is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journey into his Native Kingdom of Scotland to reduce that Church into a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these Solemn Dayes and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth one of the 5. Articles of Perth And wherein he imployed the service of his worthy Chaplain Dr. Young Dean of Winchester to recall and re-establish these Festivals And accordingly in pursuance of his Majesties earnest desires this way was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said Feasts should be duly kept Doubtless it was that not without much wise care holy caution which act because it cannot be had every where and is well worthy of your notice and that which clears the point in hand I have thought good here to insert The tenor of it therfore is this As we abhor the superstitious observation of Festivall days by the Papist and detest all licentious and prophane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Iesus Christs Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular days and times by the whole Churches of the World and may be also now therefore the Assembly ordains that every Minister shall upon these days have the commemoration of the aforesaid inestimable benefits and make choice of severall pertinent Texts of Scripture and frame their doctrine and Exhortations thereto and rebuke all Superstitious observation licentious prophanation thereof I could if it were needfull give you other proofs of K. Iames his zeal for these days but what should I spend time in proving there is a Sun in the Heaven light in the Sun the name of that great King suffereth for his exces this way Seeing then the Church of God his anointed Law Antiquity and Reason are for us in this point and I doubt not but we wil gladly be on their side Away with all Innovations and frivolous quarrels we were divided enough before and little needed any new rents the God of Peace quiet all these distempers and unite our hearts one to another and all to Himself Farewell in the Lord FINIS