Against Human Ceremonies in Gods Worship, Part 2 · Chapter 3 · Section 9
SECT. 11. Concerning the Feast of Purim. Ester. 9.
1. THis example was, seven hundered yeer since, objected by Papists, unto the Waldenses, for humane Ceremonies: & since, by all Papists that have written against Protestants about Ceremomonies; as Gregorius de Valentia, Bellarmine, Suarez, in the places before noted. And we need not seeke for new answers about it, seing that which our Divines have answered is sufficient. Our first answer is that of Iunius to Bellarmine, de Cultu Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Praeceptum …uit politicum: whiche words because they were translated, a praecept of order, the Rejoynd. catcheth occasion to conclude from thence, that order doeth require institution of new thinges. But therin he misseth, except he can prove som new religious thing instituted, beside a circumstance of time, which the Replier (whome he seeketh to involve in a contradiction) doeth expresly distinguish from thinges. His answer is, that though this praecept were Politicall, yet by Iunius himself, annot. 17. it was also significant. Wherin he mistaketh Iunius his meaning, which is expounded annot. 28. It signifieth no dayes, nor repraesents mysteries, but is a commemoration that day instituted.Non dies sign…ficat, aut repraesentat mysteria, sed commemoratio in dic illo instituta.
2. It was added by the Replier that some of our owne writers at home, say that it was appointed for a civill rejoycing day. Heer the Rejoynder (naming M. Iacob for suche a writer) accuseth him of making it a Guttide: As if no Civill day of rejoycing could be without Gutting. Yet ther bee men reverend for learning, and pietie, which say some suche thing as the Rejoynd. detorteth M. Iacobs wordes to. For Pellicanus upon that place of Ester,Hebrae. convi… se consolati …. sayth thus: The Hebrewes solaced themselves with feasts. We read of a festival Solemnity instituted, and that for two dayes, …olemnitas as a…das leg…tur instit…ta, …que …iuana, in qui… … & …, &c. Eum aut…m r…tum spente su…repetunt Iudai, pro…. vieres ad ga…ia v…nt…, quam ad fiductum sutri…us in De…mde quo illis tempori…us Ordentur … curosse.wherein they please themselves with meates and drinks, &c. But the Iewes took up that rite voluntarily as being more prone to the Contentments of the belly, then to the Confidence of the Spirit toward God, whereof in those times they seeme to have ben little Careful. And for this sentence, it seemeth to make, that the Iews are sayd to have made suche feasts, before and without any publick institution: and that nothing is mentioned in the text: Whiche two observations doe not agree to the Feast of Tabernacles, Neh. 8. which the Rejoynd. would make like unto this. Adde heerunto, that, if Iosephus may be credited) the heathen King, Artaxerxes, was the instituter of this Feast, amonge the Heathen, and, the Iews at Susan following his order, it came to be propagated by Mordecay, and Hester, unto all other Iews. Iosephus, lib. 11. cap. 6.
3. Another answer is, (upon supposition of a religious Ceremonie instituted by Mordecai) that it was by Divine direction. The Rejoynder to this returneth, 1. that no man ever so defined before. But he might (when he was a Student in Cambrige) have heard D. Whitakers thus defining. For in his printed Lectures, de Sacramentis, pag. 206. it standeth so:Respondeo: & hoc Mardochaeum fecisse, Deo inspirante & forsan. Prophetae cujuspiā monitu & authoritate. Etsi vero non legimus, aut Deum ipsum, aut aliquem Prophetam, hoc Mardochao mandasse, tamē quia in libro Canonico, hec factum reperitur, and commendatur, non dubium est, quin divina authoritate nitatur. I answer that both Mordecai did this, God inspiring him, and peradventure by order from some Prophet. And however we do not read that eyther God, or any Prophet did require this, yet for as much as it stāds approved in Scripture there is no doubt but it was done by Divine authority. As for the several Holy-days instituted 2. Chr. 30. cast in heer by the way of the Rejoynder as a President for the Feast of Purim; they agree not. For they were not yeerly Holy-days; nor Holy-days at all, of institution properly so called: but an occasional continuation of free-will offeringes, (whiche might be offered any day in the yeear, without new Holy-days) for that one time. If it had been by men appointed, that every yeer, 14. days should be observed for the Passover Feast, it had fitted to the purpose. But that had been no lesse praesumption, then if they should have decreed, that every yeer after, the Passover should be celebrated in the second monethmonth, as it was then, by occasion.