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
indeed a sweet and brief Compendium and Abridgment of the whole Gospel But also I referr you to the learned and authentick Creed of judicious Athanasius which is an accurate and compleat Exposition of the former who saith Quicunque vult salvari c. Whosoever will be saved it is necessary to his everlasting Salvation That he believe rightly in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ For the right Faith is That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man And when did He become Man or when was God manifested in the Flesh but on this day And what fitter day can there be to confess this Faith than on the very same day he was born For this is to perform Opus diei in die suo And this hath been both done and authorized or allowed of also to be done by as ancient learned godly and zealous Doctors and Divines as ever the whole Christian World affoarded since the first appearance of Christ in the shape of Man even by those Chariots Horsemen of Israel who were the chief Orient and resplendent Lights of the times the Glory of the Churches and the only Diamonds Pearls and Ornaments of the places where they lived men famous and renowned in their Generations namely St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Bernard St. Chrysostome Basil Cyril Beda Theophylact Euthymius Ludolphus Erasmus cum multis aliis c. whose Sermons Homilies and Orations for this day's Solemnity are both extant and eminent and might be made also evident and apparant if need were sufficient to convince and stop the mouth of any peevish and perverse Antagonist or Gainsayer whatsoever To these we may add Dia Poemata the Divine Poems of those sweet mellifluous Christian Poets Palladius and Prudentius made in an honourable memoriall of our blessed Lord and Saviour's Nativity And what if we mentioned here the rate Prophecies and Praedictious of the Sybillaes of old who foretold us of these things and the very Heroicall Verses and stately Genethliacon's of Heathenish Poets who lived both before some of them and othersome also about the time of the Birth of Christ who received their Raptures and Enthusiasms not onely from Sybilla or Apollo but as some think and are bold to conjecture it from the Spirit of God This was it that made Virgil to raise up his Muse to a higher strain Eclog. 4. Sicelides Musae paulo majora canamus Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna Jam nova Progenies coelo dimittitur alto Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia sêclo For now return the daies of Peace now the new Progeny is sent from Heaven behold all things shall then rejoyce and be glad Tully in Lib. Divinationis gives this Observation out of Sybil that she prophesyeth of a King to come Quem Regem colere debemus si velimus esse salvi which King we must worship if we would be saved And this King should abolish all false Religions whatsoever Now concerning all these if you should cavill and object against them or any of them and say What is this to the Scripture Then will I answer you as our Saviour answered the Pharisees finding fault with his Disciples for their crying Hosanna before him when he ridd into Jerusalem I tell you that if these should have held their peace the very stones would cry out and applaud Him Well then Have all these doted and delired in their writing concerning this thing namely the solemn Observation of this high and festival Time in honour of the World 's most gracious and glorious and blessed Redeemer and are you the onely wise man as it were that is now left upon the Earth to correct them and direct us have all these erred Even so will we And more sweet shall our Errour be unto us with these I speak especially of those ancient and reverend Fathers of the Primitive Church whom I named before who I dare say were all and every one of them as fearful to offend God in denying the Perfection of the Scriptures as you for the very life can possibly be more sweet I say shall our errour be unto us with these of whom we make no question but that they are all bound up in the bundle of life with the Congregation of the first-born than a new and recent device and purpose of burying the Anniversary remembrance of this day in the silent Night and darksome Grave of everlasting Oblivion obtruded unto us by you and such as you who take upon them to be the grand Reformers of these times and great Undertakers and principal Innovators of all ancient lawful and laudable Customes whatsoever Let others affect Novelty how they please for my own part I ever reverenced and admired Antiquity especially when I have found it in the way of Verity and If I were worthy to admonish our young upstart malapert Masters of these times I would wish them to remember what grave St. Austin saith in his 118 Epist cap. 5. Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis etiam quâ adjuvat utilitate perturbat novitate Auswer to the third Argument The words of the third Argument are these I am fearfull lest I should make a day to my self c. Sir I wonder whether your Lecture-day is not a day made to your self I doubt not but you have done as much as in you lyeth concerning your Lecture-day and both extoll and preferr it before the day of Christ's Birth For this day hapning not long since to be upon your Lecture-day you did not spare to speak it nor blush to give it out in the Pulpit as I was credibly informed by some that heard you That if that day had not hapned on your Lecture-day you had not then preached so that your day must by all means be observed and kept strictly and praecisely but our Saviour's day must be scornfully slighted and neglected as a day not scarce fit to be named much less to be celebrated and regarded with honour But I say Let his Birth-day be celebrated yea all praise and Glory be unto him who was born and died for our Salvation Amen Answer to the fourth Argument The fourth Argument is this I am fearfull lest by observing this day I should set up a day against God To this I answer If you observe and celebrate this day you set not a day up against God but for God for that which you do for Christ you do for God for we know that God and Christ are not divided but He and the Father are One they are his own words John 10.30 Ego Pater Vnum sumus hoc est substantialiter Idem in Personis Distincti In which few words both the Heresy of the Arrians and Sabellians is sufficiently confuted For as learned Athanasius observeth who for this was happily called the World's Eye because he did see so much and pierce so far into this unsearchable and ineffable Mystery we must neither
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
hath commanded his Covenant for ever holy and reverend is His Name But in your second Reason you say That you never heard a good Argument for it Well be it so as you say yet I dare say that you say it not so much out of your Ignorance as through a misconstruction and sinister Interpretation of that which you have both heard and read concerning this thing Wherefore for answering you first Hoc tibi innotescere velimus we do you to wit or would have you to know and understand That albeit the gray-headed Antiquity and Authority of our dear Mother the Church of England and the uniform Discipline with Us established for some Centuries of years making and constituting it an antient and laudable Order and generally approved Custome may be a sufficient Plea Argument and VVarrant to perswade you or any other rational man to consent and conforme unto it for what saith grave St. Austin He that will have God to be his Father must acknowledge the Church of God for his Mother and then let every Member of this Church remember that good and wholesome advice of Solomon's Prov. 11.8 My Son hear thy Fathers Instruction and forsake not thy Mothers teaching For St. Austin tells us in his Epist 118. Extremae est dementiae seu insolentis insaniae ea negligere 〈◊〉 repudiare quae tota observat ecclesia It is extream folly and insolent madnesse to neglect and refuse to observe those things which the whole Church whereof we are born Members doth observe yet for your better satisfaction herein I have a desire and purpose to bring in a few Arguments which perhaps may be thought by some to be as good and strong and forcible for the keeping of this Day as any you have hi her to urged or may hereafter devise and produce against it The first that I shall propound and present to your quaint and curious and supercilious censure or to your Austere and Rigid consideration shall be the Legality and lawfulness of Ordering and Ordaining and setting apart of some dayes of publick Thanksgiving and holy rejoycing to the Lord for great Benefits and publick Blessings received which if this day of Christ his Incarnation and Manifestation in the flesh might be but set up and celebrated amongst the rest as it deserveth I am perswaded it would contend and strive so for the Superiority and Preheminence above the rest that it would even devour and swallow the rest up as Aarons Serpent did the Serpents of those Egyptian Magicians and Praestigiators or excell them and cast them down as the Ark did Dagon or as the Image of Christ when it was placed by the Senators at Rome in the Capitol threw down the Image of Jupiter Mars Mercury and others of their feigned heathenish gods as Ensebius and Nicephorus report it for truth and the Men of this Generation would soon condescend and yield to this motion and not deny nor gain-say this reasonable proposition if they were not too much like those blind and blinded Pharisees among the Jews who were for the most part culicem excolantes Camelum deglutientes apt and inclined to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Cammel Math. 23 24. For if it be lawful to give God thanks for Corporal and Temporal Deliverances How much more for our Spiritual and Eternal Deliverance by Christ from the thraldome of sinne and Sathan Again If it shall be thought lawful and allowable to praise God for the spilling of blood 2 Kings 6. and destroying of Mens lives which yet neither the Prophet Elisha 2 Chron. 2.8 nor the Prophet Oded would allow of how much more then shall it be lawfull and commendable to praise the Lord for the sparing and preserving of Mens lives and for the saving of their Souls and freeing or delivering both their Bodies and Souls from the everlasting pains and torments of Death and Hell For the Son of Man came to seak and save that which was lost and God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through Him might be saved Joh. 3.17 The second Argument which I shall here set down for the solemnity of this Day I will make bold to borrow from the words of St. Austin which I do not onely conjecture but presume were Preached and Delivered by him on the very Day we find them recorded in his Serm. 2. 4. de tempore Behold saith he all of us are bidden on this Day to a Marriage for Christ came out of the Virgins Womb as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber the Godhead was joyned unto the Flesh and the Flesh unto the God-head and these two were coupled together and after an ineffable manner in an ineffable Marriage made one The marriage-Chamber was the Virgins Womb which he abhorred not out of which that Sun of Righteousness Christ Jesus came in the day of his Birth as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber Psal 19.5 and as a strong man joyfull to run his race For the Son of God knowing that according to the eternall decree enacted in the Court of Heaven our Salvation could not be perfected before he was Incarnate Gal. 4.4 in the fulnesse of time came down sealing our Redemption with rejoycing of Spirit and gladnesse of heart exsuiting trium phing and preparing himself to the desired work of his mediatorship Long had the Church waited and prayed for this coming of Christ in the flesh Isa 64.1 O would God thou wouldest burst the Heavens and come down Cant. 8.1 O that then werst as my Brother which sucked the breast of my Mother partaking the same humane nature with me I would find thee without here below on Earth I would kisse thee and familiarly intreat thee without the reproach of the World Then I would lead thee and bring thee into my Mothers house though now I am penned up in the Straights of Judea I would bring thee into the Light and Knowledge of the Universal Church whose Daughter I am and herefore he was worthily called desideratus omnium gentium Hag. 2.7 the desired of all Nations but when he came he came merily with nimbleness of Spirit zeal of Piety fervency of Love as the Church espying him joyfully relates it It is the voice of my well-beloved Cant. 2.8 Behold he cometh leaping by the Mountains skipping by the Hills My well-beloved is like a Roe or Hart. He came flying on the wings of the Wind he out-leapt Gabriel the Archangel and came to the Virgin before him by the Testimony of the Angel himself Luk. 1.27 Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee Behold Gabriel left Christ in Heaven but finds him in the Womb How so Volavit praevolavit super pennas vontorum he flew and out-flew him on the wings of the wind he sent his Messenger but like Ahinoaz got before him Will you see his Jumps He lept from Heaven into the Womb from the Womb to
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
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