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
in Twelve Days than in twelve Moneths Although a bare Denyall might serve here for a sufficient answer yet put the case that many men being at this time apt and addicted genio suo indulgere to give way to their unbrideled lusts and disordered affections in the free use of God's Creatures should be excessive in their Eating and Drinking and so exorbitant and extravagant in other vain Recreations and idle Gaming 's and Pastimes that God may hereby be somewhat dishonoured and this blessed time of his Son's Nativity abused men a little forgetting the right and proper End wherfore at first it was instituted and ordained Yet considering the many good and gracious and bountifull Deeds that heretofore have been done at this time the gallant Hospitality the free and generous House-keeping by our worthy noble and renowned Gentlemen and our rich honest able and sufficient Yeomen by relieving the Poor helping Widows and Fatherless Children cloathing the Naked feeding the Hungry visiting the Sick and those that were in Prisons Take but a Ballance or a pair of Scales and lay these many good Alms-Deeds and Works of Piety and Charity in one Scale and put the Evil Deeds that have been committed in the other Scale and I dare say the good deeds shall outweigh the bad Zac. 5.7 though they be as heavy as massa plumbi a Talent of Lead And this which I have here written hath more probability and likelyhood of truth in it than that which you affirm in saying there is more sin committed in these Twelve Days than in all the year after But you had spoken more properly and truly if you had said There are more good Deeds done by some good minded and charitably disposed Christians in these Twelve Days than in all the year after Yours is a false assertion and a gross absur'd asseveration and I verily think that you vent it to skar and deterr men from keeping any Christmas at all because some ignorant dissolute and deboist Fellows do spend this time idely and vainly in excessive eating and drinking ryoting and revelling c. But our pious Ancestors of famous memory were so addicted and devoted to the Reverence and religious Observation of this Time that they spent it in a sober civil and careful manner being thankful to God and rejoycing in the Lord for that ineffable and inaestimable Benefit and Blessing which he bestowed upon the World at this time and therefore they were willing and contented freely and cheerfully to part with their goods and impart them to the poor in plentifull manner And this they did for his sake alone who being rich for their sakes became poor that so they through his Poverty might be made rich as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it and setteth forth the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in a most sweet and gracious and glorious manner 2 Cor. 8.9 But where is our Bounty or our Benificence Where is our Charity Liberality and Hospitality in these cold degenerate and Apostate times That witty Saying may here be verified How that one handful of old Friendship is better than an an armful of new Courtesy For all our Love and Charity in these daies is turned into nothing else but meer verball and external Complement so true is that of the Apostle Tit. 1.16 Men in these daies profess that they know God but by their works they deny him and therefore they are abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Answer to the fourteenth Argument The fourteenth is this God blesseth His own day the Sabbath but hath not blessed this with success Int his your ultimum Refugium you think you have paid it home and bitt the verâ— Nail on the head But Good Sir What could you say If any man should ask you Why God hath not blessed this day For it hath been proved that this day is aequal and aequipollent with the Sabbath and if he hath blessed the one so questionless he hath blessed the other and sanctifyed it and set it apart for a holy Convocation and thankful Commemoration of the Birth and Nativity of his onely begotten Son and that in the 118 Psalm may fitly and properly be applyed unto it This is the day which the Lord hath made i. e. which the Lord hath magnifyed and advanced and fingled out and selected for a more peculiar end and purpose than other ordinary daies of the year are And this Interpreâ—ation of the Word that place in the 1 Sam. 12.5 6. doth well approve of and allow it This is then the day which the Lord hath made yea this is the day wherein the Lord Himself was made saith Eusebius Emissenus Therefore we will rejoyce and be glad in it Fear not said the Angel Gabriel to those Shepherds of Bethlehem for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy so that here good Tidings do attend it and great Joy doth accompany it which shall be unto all People for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And that the Lord hath blessed this day with success the goodly fellowship of the Prophets and their harmonious and unanimous consents shall bear me witness First That Evangelical Prophet Isaiah prophesyes of it saying Unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given Datus ex Divinitate natus ex Virgine saith Eusebius Emissenus on the words excellently In that he is said to be born it betokens his Manhood in that he is said to be given it signifies his Divine Nature The Hypostatical Union of both doth make one and the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or one Immanuel i. e. God with us The Government is upon his shoulder his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace the Increase of his Government and Peace shall have none End he shall sit upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to establish it with Judgment and with Justice from henceforth even for ever The zâ—al of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this i.e. his singular Love and Care for his Elect shall effect it And doth not God blesse this day then with snccesse and doth not the Princely Prophet David also sing of this Alacrity and chant it to the Tune of his Harp and Viol and set forth the happy and prosperous successe of this Day and the flourishing Estate of the Church by the Kingdom and coming of Christ in the Flesh The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine Enemies tpy Foot stool in Mat. 22.44 we find that Christ Himself giveth the Interpretation hereof and sheweth that this cannot be properly applied unto David but to Himself and this appeareth by the words that follow in that Psalm Psal 110.1 2 3. The Lord shall send the Rod of thy Power out of Zion For out of Zion hath God appeared in perfect Beauty Psal 50.2
confound the Persons with Sabellius nor divide the Substance with Arrius for there is one Person of the Father another of the Sonne another of the Holy Ghost but the God-head of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost is all One the Glory equal the Majesty co-eternal such as the Father is such is the Son c. And therefore the Glory Honour and Worship that is done to the One is done to the other or is both due and ought to be done to the other How then can it be otherwise that the least Homage Honour and Duty that is done to Christ on this day is accepted of God if it be done in Faith and Obedience Why then do you say That by keeping this day you are fearful lest you should offend God and set up a day against Him It may be you will object and say here as you do in your thirteenth Argument that God is in many places much dishonoured by the great Abuse and Disorders that is committed at this time To this I briefly answer by the way according to that true and well-known Rule The Abuse of any good thing cannot abrogate or take away the right and lawful Use of it and therefore why should you fear when there is no such just cause at all to fear Remember what Christ saieth Luk. 9.48 Whosoever shall receive me receiveth Him that sent me and in the same place and upon the very same occasion when John told Him saying Master we saw one casting out Devils in thy name and we forbade him because he followeth not with us But Jesus said For bid him not for there is no man which shall do a Miracle in my Name that can lightly speak evill of Me for he that is not against us is for us And I am verily perswaded in my Soul and Conscience that whosoever is truly really and sincerely addicted and devoted to Christ neither can nor will speak a word amiss against the due Festivity and Solemnity of this day thus as the Apostle speaks Rom. 14.5 One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be perswaded in his own mind he that regardeth a day regardeth it to the Lord and I am perswaded if any man regard this day as he ought to do the Lord will both regard reward him for so doing Answer to the fifth Argument The fifth Argument is this It is the Devil's policy to imitate God and when he will be holy he will be holier then God c. Sir This Argument is as strange stuff as ever I have either seen felt heard or understood for although the antecedent part cannot be much misliked it being taken pro concesso confesso for a thing granted and confessed to be true that it is the Devils policy to imitate God for in many things he is God's Ape as some Divines compare him seeking to counterfeit and resemble him as an Ape doth a Man in such gestures and tricks which he useth and where God will have his Church he will have his Chappel and he will have his Exorcisms and Charms and Spells instead of God's-spell i. e. the Gospel but your Sequel or Subsequent is a meer new fangled Parodox and a Proposition or rather a Supposition which is not onely absurd but ridiculous not onely erroneous but also blasphemous and may be ranked and reckoned amongst those evil-surmisings and perverse disputings which are mentioned by the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.5 and are utterly condemned by him but let us examine what you say in the latter part viz. That when the Devil will be holy he will be holier then God And is that possible But you instance for an example thus When he seeth God will have a Sabbath to be kept then will he set up a Day and he will have a Christmas day to be kept ô monstrum horrendum what a horrible terrible secret is this Is Saul among the Prophers is Sathan among the Saints of God Is it possible or it is probable or is it any way likely to be true That he that was even like the great Turk an Enemy to Christ and all Christendom should so far be a friend and favourer of Christ as to be a prime and forward Erector Abettor and Setter up of a Day for the celebrating and setting forth of his Praise and Honour Alas if this be so in what a lamentable and pittiful case are we and how have we and our forefathers been led hoodwinckt as it were and blindfolded all this while and have been taken in the snare of the Devil and be Captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 We have sure served a very ill Saint all this while if like the People of Callicut we have worshipped the Devil in observing that Day which you affirm he hath set up but I say it is not so Good Sir for toto erras coelo you are fouly and grosly deceived in this point Shall you or any man alive make me believe that ever the Devil had any desire or inclination this way to propagate or promote the Cause of Christ or of his Gospel who was ever an Adversary bonis incoeptis in germine and whose continual and daylie practise is suffocare Dei filios dum parvuli sunt to smother and murder the Children of God while they are little ones Was it not he who stirred up Pharoah at the first and moved him to command and charge the Midwives to drown the male-children of the Hebrew Women so soon as they were born Exod. 1.22 And was it not this Merchant or Factor or rather that old Serpent called the Devil and Sathan who went about the same designe at Christ's birth did not he instigate Herod to send his Men of Warr and to kill all the young Children of Bethlehem from two years Old and under intending thereby to murder Christ in Infancy and Childhood wherefore as devout Bernard cryeth out in the like Case so may we ô malitia Herediana nascentem persequi Christum nascentem persequi religionem O Herodian malice to persecute Christ and his Religion in their minority to destroy the Sprigg lest it become a Tree and break the Egg lest it prove a Dove O divelish malice indeed for as Expositors upon the place aptly observe and apply it thus Herod represents the Devil Apoc. 12.4 who stands before the Woman in the Wildernesse great with Child ready to devour her Babe Gen. 3.15 He knew that the seed which should break his head was to be born of the Jews and therefore caused Pharoah to murder all the Hebrew Males Exod 1. And stirred up Haman to destroy the whole Nation of the Jews Esther 3. And Athalia to kill all the sons of David 2 King 12. And so soon as the noise was of Christ's Birth Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him Math. 2. And he sent incontinent to cut the throats of all the Children in Bethlehem yea more
observe the Birth-day of Christ To this I say you deserve a sharp rejection and a serious and severe reprehension For it is a meer falshood and a grosse and manifest untruth and I wonder that a man of your account Countenance and gravity should suffer such an unjustifiable thing to fall either from your tongue or pen for I say contrarium hujus argumenti est verum credat Judaus Apella non ego believe it who will for I cannot otherwise be perswaded but you speak herein that which is contrary to truth for besides that it is well known among the Learned especially by those who are conversant in the large Volumes and accurate writings of the Ancient Fathers It hath been the annuall and constant Practice of the Primitive Church to observe it especially in the time August 118. Epist cap. 7. and since the time of Constantine the Great who gave peace to the Church and commanded this Festivall time among divers others to be observed Witnesse August con Aimant c. 16.118 Epist and in divers of his Sermons de Tempore especially in his second and fourth Sermon de Tempore Witnesse Fulgentius de dup Nat. Christi witnesse Ambrose de Incarnat Domini witnesse Bernard in his first Sermon in Nat. Domini for that ingenuous and Religions man that witty and Godly Father of the Primitive Church preaching on this day in that his first Sermon and towards the latter end of it uttered these words and said Brevitas temporis cogit me contrahere coarctare Sermonem meum the shortness of the time constraineth me to shorten my Sermon at this time ne cui vestrûm sit mirum si brevis esse laboro Let none quoth he wonder if my words be short seeing on this day God the Father hath abbreviated his own Word For whereas it was so long and so large that it filled Heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 it was on this day so short that it was laid in a Manger I wish here unfainedly with the same devour Bernard in his Sermon in Natalem Domini that as the Word was made flesh so our stony Hearts may be made flesh also that we might alwayes meditate on his Sacred Message and his Heavenly Gospell Unto you this day is born in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord For all our sound comfort stands in happinesse and all our happinesse is in the Fellowship and Communion with God and all our Fellowship and Communion with God is by Jesus Christ for so that good Divine St. John tells us in his 1 Epist cap. 2.3 Wherefore also St. Austin useth a most excellent acclamation to this purpose in his ninth Sermon de Tempore which as it is probable he also preached on this day ô beatum vagitum Infantuli beati oh the blessed crying of a blessed babe by which every faithfull servant and Son of God escapeth eternal howlings in Hell ô splendidum Gloriosum praesepe Oh famous and glorious Manger in which our Souls Manna lay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of life that came down from Heaven on which if a man once c. ô quà m dites sunt panni tui Oh how Rich and Honourable are the rags which have made plaisters for our sores even for our sins I will shut up this passage with a Hymn of Prudentius Mortale corpus sumpsit immortalitas Vt dum caducum poytat aeternus deus Transire nostrum possit ad coelestia And what say you now to these things before said Can they not yet perswade you to yield that it was the practise of Christian Churches in Antient times to observe it Yet put the case or suppose it was not you cannot yea I hope you will not deny but it hath been the practise of these our Churches of Great Brittain I mean the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland for divers Centuries or hundreds of years to observe it for they are both Christian and reformed Churches and therefore unlesse you mean by Christian Churches the old Brownists of Amsterdam or the new Anabaptists and Antipaedobaptists of England and other the like proud and phantasticall and Pharisaicall Sectaries and Separatists that are amongst us in these Giddy and unsetled times of ours who think there is no true Christian Church but what is of their choosing planting and erecting who like the Jews of old cry Templum Domini or like the Papists who will have no Church to be a true Church but their Church at Rome who stand upon their Pontificatibus and are all for the justification of their own Opinion saying as those Justiciaries of old did Esay 65.5 Stand by thy self or stand far off me come not near me for I am Holier then thou c. And here I could tell you a thing which perhaps also you are not ignorant of that the late upstart Seraphicall illuminated Independents as it is commonly thought are likely to jostle and thrust the proud rigid Fantasticall and Pharisaicall Presbyterians out of their places even as they have cunningly supplanted and undermined the Reverend Bishops and their conformable Clergy out of theirs neque enim lex justior ulla est Quam necis artifices c. Indeed I never heard nor read of any Christian Churches but have observed this day and therefore howsoever such factious and Schismaticall Wild-brain'd Zelots of our time refuse to do it and both write and speak against it yet we know that all the Antient Fathers of the Primitive Church did celebrate it with great Solemnities as Mr Fisher in his Vindication of our Gospell Festivalls hath wittily observed in his fifth Section even Cyprian Basil Nazianzene Ambrose Epiphanius Jerome Chrysostome Fulgentius alledging and producing their very words which they preached on this day and proving it withall punctually plainly and directly that it was the 25th day of December that Christ was born on And further to confute your palpable Errour he tells us there That the Churches of Helvetia Bohemia Leye Sunday a Sab. pag. 173. Dr. Rayn Confer with Hart. c. 8. S. 2. Bremen Auspurg the Churches of Savoy Poland Hungary Scotland France and the Low-Countries do allow the Feasts that belong to Christ his Nativity Circumcision Passion c. The Churches of Denmark Sweden and all other Lutheran-Churches do solemnly observe the Feast of the Nativity of Christ and on that day use proper Hymns of Thanksgiving made by Martin Luther himself Perth Assembly refuted pag. 85. the Church of Geneva doth celebrate the day of his Nativity wherefore as he saith here for a Conclusion seeing we are compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses we must according to the truth affirm That the Celebration of this Feast is confirmed by the judgment of the Christian Church in all ages So we conclude against you that your eleventh Assertion is a meer falshood and manifest untruth and no more to be credited or believed then that vain fancy and fond surmise
And from thence this Rod and this Power of his shall streth forth it self throughout all the World and this Power chiefly consisteth and standeth in the Preaching of his Word and by this Rod and by this Scepter of thy Kingdom which is a right Scepter be thou Ruler in the middest of thine Enemies thy People shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine Army in holy beauty i.e. by thy Word thy People shall be assembled into thy Church whose Increase shall be so abundant so plentiful and so wonderful as the drops of the Dew of the Morning For it is said The Youth of thy Womb shall be as the Morning Dew or as the ordinary Reading of the Psalm is In the Day of thy Power shall they offer thee Free-will-Offerings with a Holy Worship the Dew of thy Birth is of the Womb of the Morning Which howsoever some Interpret it of the Birth of Christ yet Junius and Tremelius do understand it to be innumera illa multitudo electorum quae comparebit in ecclesia tanquam stillans ros à coele sub auroram depluens That innumerable multitude of the Elect which shall be as visible and apparent and as abundant in the Church as the dew which distilleth from Heaven and lyeth on the face of the Earth in the morning as we know the Elect else-where in the Scripture are compared to the Starrs of Heaven Gen. 22.17 and to the sand which is upon the Sea-shore for multitude the Prophet Haggai hath also foretold of these things speaking of the peace and plenty and glory of the Church of God that should be by the Kingdome and coming of Christ Thus saith the Lord of Hosts saith he Yet a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land and I will move all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this House with Glory saith the Lord of Hosts The desire of all Nations shall come i. e. Christ for in Him are all things that can be desired and all Nations ought to look for and desire Him and therefore in this sense He is called Rex gentium the King of Nations because all Nations ought not onely to seek and desire Him Jer. 10.7 but also to serve Him and obey Him And doth not also the Prophet Zachariah say as much For he prophesied much about the time as Haggai did and was sent of the Lord to help him in the labour and to confirm the same Doctrine even when the time of the 70 years Captivity prophesied by Jeremiah was expired and he paralleleth or compareth that time of their deliverance from Captivity to this happy time of our spiritual deliverance from the thraldome and Captivity of Sin and Sathan saying Zach. 9.9 Kejoyce greatly O Daughter of Zion shout for joy O Daughter of Jerusalem Behold Thy King cometh unto thee He is just and having Salvation He is meek and lowly Riding upon an Asse and upon a Colt the foal of an Asse And I will cut off the Chariot from Ephraim and the Horse from Jerusalem and the Battle-bow shall be cut off and He shall speak peace unto the Heathen and His Dominion shall be from Sea even to Sea and from the River i. e. from the River Euphrates even to the Ends of the Earth Here is success enough if we observe it for His Dominion shall be from Sea to Sea that is from the Red Sea to the Sea called Syriacum and by these places which the Jews knew well enough he meant an infinite space and compass over the whole World As for Thee also i. e. as for Thee Oh Daughter of Zion and Daughter Jerusalem by the blood of my Covenant i. e. the blood of Christ Thou shalt be saved and by this blood I have loosed or I have sent forth the Prisoners out of the pit i. e. not the pit of purgatory or Limbus patrum as the Papists would have it understood but out of the bottomless pit of Hell wherein there is no water i. e. no Comfort no Cooling no refreshing at all for they that are there are alwayes scorched and tormented in these infernal eternal and unquenchable flames without any hope of ease or end at all as it may appear by the confession of Dives Turn ye then to the strong hold ye Prisoners of hope even to Day do I declare that I will render double unto Thee that is double Benefit and prosperity in respect of that which your Fathers enjoyed from David's time to the Captivity as some Interpâ—eâ— the place or as others think by double in that place may well be understood a double deliverance not onely a Temporal and Corporal but a Spiritual and Eternal deliverance no onely a deliverance from 400 years bondage in Egypt Act. 7.6 or from 70 years Captivity in Babylon but from the everlasting bondage Captivity and Thraldome of Sin and Sarban Wherefore comfort ye my People doth your God say by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah Isa 40.1 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto Her that Her warfare is accomplished i. e. That the time of Her affliction is ended and that Her iniquity is pardoned for She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins i. e. as some understand it sufficient correction for all Her sins insinuating that the Lord will afflict his People no more so long or so sharply because his Loving-kindness hath overcome his heavy displeasure so saith Jerome and Calvin the word double ought to be taken for enough or full as it is used by the same Prophet or as some interpret it Isa 61.7 double grace for double grief as Jerusalem had a double punishment one in her Soul another in her Body so now she shall have by Christ a double blessing vix in this World Collation of grace and in the World to come possession of glory or a double favour First in that her travail is ended Secondly For that her sin is pardoned or double that is as Vatablus and Arcularius expound it many benefits a certain number being put for an uncertain which is an usuall Hebraism in the old Testament for the sufferings of Christ are a sufficient propitiation for all her sins 1 Joh. 2.2 and for the sins of the whole World yea where sin abounded there grace super-abounded saith Paul Rom. 5.20 For that place in Esay before alleadged is a direct prophesie concerning the coming of Christ in the flesh and the happy success of this Day as both Musculus and Hyperius and Calvin do expound it and the coming of Christ in the Flesh you know is the consolation of Israel and comfort of Jerusalem for so it is called Luke 2.25 and this comfort the God of all comfort will have proclaimed unto Jerusalem by the mouth of all his Prophets and Preachers which have bin since the World began and so we find in holy Writ that he