Letter of Resolution to Six Queries, Query 6

Letter of Resolution to Six Queries · Query 6

p. 411The sixth Quaere. Of the Observation of Christmas-day, and other Festivals of the Church.

IN discoursing of the annual §. 1 celebration of the feast of Christs Nativity, it will, to any that were not contentious, bee thought sufficient, to put him in minde of S. Pauls argument, the customary practise of the Church; The practise of this Church.And that in this particular Church of England it is of so ancient usage, that we have no other beginning assigned to it, then the same which our stories give of the plantation of the Gospel among us.

That it is thus ancient, is evidently supposed §. 2 and implyed by one objection which some men have to the observation of it, the retaining of some heathen usages in it, of which sort, if there be any continued by the ruder multitude, as they are no part of the office of that feast, and consequently not imputable to the doctrine p. 412of our Church in this matter, so are they as undeniable testimonies of the Antiquity, and uninterrupted continuance of this practise, even from the time of our first conversion from heathenism. For otherwise in case of a later date or discontinuance, it is not imaginable how any heathen usage should be found to have been (and still to remain) adherent to it.

§. 3 Of the plantation of Christianity among us of this Island, The plantation of Christianity here.it is acknowledged that there was a double date, the one appertaining to the Saxons or English, the other to the farre more ancient Britains.

§. 4 For that of the Britains, it was, if History and Monuments may be beleived, either Apostolical, or very near the Apostles times. And this will appear less improbable, if we take notice of what is said by S. Paul, 2 Tim. 4.10. that Crescens was gone (sent by S. Pa…l) into Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia: where Galatia being an aequivocal word▪ and belonging to Gallia or France, (1 Mac. 8.2. where it is joyned with Spain; and so in Josephus, Ant. l. 12. c. 17, where the Romans are said to have subdued foreign and foreign, France and Spain) as well as to a part of Asia, anciently inhabited by the Gauls, Epiphanius affirms distinctly (in the Heresie of the foreign) that Gallia or France was the place there spoken of: And so the p. 413French have it by ancient Tradition, and so the nearness of France to Italy and Rome, where S. Paul was at the writing of that Epistle, makes it most probable, especially when it is considered that Dalmatia, which is there named with it, is situate over against Italy. And then what is so early affirmed in Scripture of the communicating the Gospel to France, which is so near to us, removes all improbability from those Histories, which record the plantation of the Gospel in these Islands in the Apostles times, which I the rather observe, because Joseph of Arimathea, who is resolved by Mr. Camden out of Ecclesiastick Writers (who, saith he, had it ex antiquae fidei authoribus, out of as ancient and credible authors, as we have any) to have planted Christianity here, is said by them to have come hither ex Galliâ, out of France. That this was in Tiberius's reign, is the affirmation of Gildas; And as it is clear by Tertullian, that the British Islands were long before his time converted to Christianity; and by Origen on Ezek. Hom. 4. Britanniam in unius Dei consentire religionem, that Britanny had received the Religion of the one God, i. e. Christianity; so it is in our stories affirmed, and by the Records of other Nations acknowledged, that Lucius the King of Britain (about the year of Christ 180.) was the first king of the whole world which p. 414received the Christian faith; and by the Epistle of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to him (if that be authentick) it doth not onelyonly appear that he was acknowledged by him to be Vicarius Dei in regno suo, the Vicar of God in his own Kingdome, i. e. far from any subordination, or subjection to him, that wrote it, but that before that writing of his, and not from that present Bishop of Rome, the Kingdome of Britain had (as the words of the Epistle are)**Susce…istis enim nuper mis…ratione divinâ in regno Britanniae legem & fidem Ch…isti, habetis penes vos in regno utram{que} paginam, ex illis per consilium regni vestri sume l…g…m, & per illam Dei potentiâ vestrum rege Britanniae regnum. received by Gods mercy the law and faith of Christ, the New and Old Testament, out of which he advises him by the advise of his Realm to take a Law, and by the same to rule.

§. 5 And although by Diocletians persecution the Christian faith and discipline is said to have been sorely shaken here, yet it was not so far extinguished, but that within ten years after three of our Bishop, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfus Coloniae Londinensium, were present and subscribed to the Councel of Arles, eleven years before the first Councel of Nice: See Concil. Gallic. per Sirmund. tom. 1. p. 9. and Sir Henry Spelman in his Anglican Councels, p. 23.

§. 6 This is sufficiently acknowledged, but yet may receive some light from one observation, p. 415The celebration of Easter by the ancient British and Scotish Christians, was contrary to the custome of the Western Church, saith Bede; That this practise of theirs was taken up by themselves upon any novel fancy, may not be imagined, nor indeed is it so charged upon them, 'Twas certainly derived to them by their Antecessors, who in all probability took it from the first planters of Christianity among them: And then those must be some such as in the very Apostolical times kept their Easter (as in the East the first Christians did) after the Jewish manner. And so though this be an evidence that neither Peter, nor Paul, nor C…escens, nor any of those that usually accompanied either of those two Apostles, the founders of the Church of Rome, did bring the Christian faith to this Island, but rather Joseph of Arimathea, or Simon Zelotes, as others affirm, yet in respect of the antiquity of the Plantation, there was some colour sor the affirmation ofaade Pet & Paul. ad diem 29 J…unii. Simeon Metaphrastes, that S. Peter foreign, stayed in Britain some time, converted many, and constituted Churches, and ordained Bishops in the 12. year of Nero's reign. And he cites it out of Eusebius, that he p. 416spent 23. years in Rome and Britain, and the We…tern Cities. But the authority of that Writer is not great.

§. 7 And (as for the feast of Easter, of which there can be no question, so) for the observation of this feast of the Nativity among those first British Christians (though our Records of those times are but very thin and dark, yet) one evidence we have of moment in this matter, referred to in a**Pract. Cat. p. 183. former discourse, but now fit to be set down more fully. Christmas day is frequently called in our old Monuments foreign, i. e. Midwinter-day: Midwinter-day.From whence, I suppose, it may reasonably be concluded, that when that name was first applied to that day, the day whereon Christmas fell, was in the Calendar either conincident with, or not far removed from the Winter Solstice. Now supposing with the Western Church, that our Saviour was born on the 25. of December (as shall anon be farther proved, and doth in some measure appear, by remembring, that the day which from those times we still continue to call Midsummer-day, is on the 24^th of June, and so directly half a year from the 25^th of December) it will follow by calculation (with which I shall not trouble and tire the Reader) that it must be soon after our Saviours times, that this day was capable of that appellation, and consequently p. 417that the day was here celebrated so early. Now (we know) by reason of the procession of the Aequinoxes and Solstices, the Solstitial or Midwinter-day, when the Sun enters Capricorn, is a fortnight distant from our Christmas-day, and so the Summer Solstice is proportionably distant from Midsummer-day, as we still call it. And therefore the beginning of the celebration of this day in this Nation, must be fastned at, or near that time when this 25^th of December fell on the Winter Solstice, i. e. a fortnight sooner then the Gregorian Calendar hath placed it, which being considered, will argue the celebration very ancient, and bordering upon Christs time. And partly upon this account it was that Pope Gregory XIII. undertook the reformation of the Calendar, to reduce the Aequinoxes (upon which the celebration of Easter depends) and so consequently the Solstices, to the seats they obtained at the time of the Nicene Councel: But he went no higher; If he had, this might have been more evident.

This being thus far clear, will set these §. 8 farther characters upon this,The B…itissh Church independent from Rome. or any other Christian solemnity, Easter, Pentecost, &c. which is of original or immemorial usage in this Nation; First, that the antiquity of it doth no way argue that it hath any thing of the corruptions of the Roman Se… adhe…ing to it, but evidently the contrary: p. 418For it is manifest by the stories that Augustine the Monk was very far from being the first planter of Christianity in this Nation, that he found British Bishops here at his coming, from whose Predecessors and founders, and not from his Ordo Romanus, this Church of ours is obliged, with acknowledgement to God, to date its Christianity. To this purpose we may see theaaC…ncil. Anglic. p. 188. answer of the Bishop of Bangor to Augustine the Monk, requiring his subjection to the Roman Church, Bid yspie a diogel, &c. i.e. Notum sit, & abs{que} dubitatione vobis, quòd nos omnes sumas, & quilibet nostrum, obedientes & subditi Ecclesiae Dei & Papae Romae, & unicui{que} vero & pio Christiano, ad amandum unumquem{que} in suo gradu, in perfectâ charitate & ad juvandum unumquem{que} eorum in verbo & facto, fore filios Dei. Et aliam obedientiam quam istam non scio debitam ei quem vos nominatis esse Papam, nec esse Patrem Patrum vendicari & postulari. Et istam obedientiam nos sumus parati dare & solvere ei, & cui{que} Christiano continuò. Praeterea nos sumus sub gubernatione Episcopi Caerlegionis super Osca, qui est ad supervidendum sub Deo super nobis, ad faciendum nos servare viam spiritualem. Be it known to you and without doubt, that we are, and every one of us obedient and subiest to the Church of God and Pope of Rome, and to every p. 419true and pious Christian, to love every one in his degree with perfect charity, and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the sons of God. As for any other obedience, I do not know that I owe it to him, whom ye call the Pope, or that he hath right to challenge or require to be the Father of fathers. This obedience we are ready to give and pay to him, and to every Christian continually. Besides we are placed under the government of the Bishop of Caerlyon upon Oske, who is to supervise under God over us, to make us keep the spiritual way. So again, Sir Henry Spelman, Concil. Anglic. p. 26. out of the Annals of Gisburn, cites thus, Ab urbe legionum Meneviam translata est sedes Metropolitana, tempore Sancti David Episcopi per Regem Arthurum, ubi steterunt 13. Archiepiscopi, us{que} Samsonem, — à quo us{que} tempus Henrici primi sederunt Meneviae undecem Episcopi, & us{que} ad hoc tempus Episcopi Meneviae à suis suffraganeis Wallensibus ibidem fuerunt consecrati, nullâ penitus professione vel sub…ectione factâ alteri Ecclesiae. From Caerlyon the Metropolitan Seat was translated to Saint Davids by King Arthur, in the time when Saint David was Bishop there, where there stood thirteen Archbishops until Samson, f…om whence to the time of King Henry the first, there sate at Saint Davids eleven Bishops, and until this time the Bishops of p. 420S. Davids were there consecrated by their own Welsh suffragans, without making any profession of subjection to any other Church. To this I might adde that of Boniface the Martyr, styled the Apostle of Germany, who in a matter of doubt consulted not onelyonly the Bishops of Rome, but Nothelme also Primate of England, and by the Rescript of Nothelme reforms the Pope's, saithaaT. 9. Ann. 766. n. 47. 53. Baronius: And that of Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury under William the Conqueror, who being often cited by Gregory VII. to Rome, Ep Greg. 7. in Concil. t. 4.would not be wrought on either by his threats or blandishments to obey him. But these are not so pertinent to our present matter.

§. 9 Secondly, that any such ancient usage of this particular Church, if it had no other ground to stand on (as its foundation) or concurrence of all other Christian Churches (as pillars) to sustain it, were a very competent Authority for the present continuance of such a practise in this Kingdome. This Anglicane, or rather ancient British Church, being one of those, which by its foundation, and by force of the known Canon in the Co…ncel of Ephesus, in the case of the Cypriots, is foreign,foreign. subordinate to no forain Patriarch, and consequently invested with unquestionable power to institute ceremonies for its self (as it shall judge most useful, most p. 421for edification, and most agreeable to the analogy of faith) which consequently may not, without great temerity, be changed and abolished by any. And therefore to every one, which is still willing to continue a member of this persecuted Church, wherein he was baptized, and yet hath been willing to comply either with the humor of these late times (in that which he counts no substantial part of his Religion) or with some Protestant Churches elswhere in disusing these observances, I shall, before I conclude this part of my designed method, tender the consideration of these few things.

First, that it is sufficiently clear,The disusing of these feasts blameable. that this §. 10 observation is an undoubted part of that establishment which the Reformation in this Kingdome (which alone of all others hath had the honour and reputation of being regular and discreet, in opposition to popular and tumultuous, and to be thought worthy to give, not to receive rules from other platforms) hath enacted for us. And that, that appears by Act of Parliament (as well as Church-Canon) which gave authority to the Liturgie.

Secondly, that in other Reformed, especially §. 11 the Lutheran, Churches, this and other feasts of Christ are retained in their Establishments, and in some few places, where the Reformation proceeding less regularly, hath in the tumultuary haste p. 422left out, or swept it away, It is yet either by the Confessions of those Churches, or by sober members of them, approved and wished for: Of this the words of the Helvetian Confession, and not onelyonly Bucers approbation of it in our Liturgie, and the like of many others in those times, but also the express words of the famous du Plessis of France, complaining that they had not retained the observation of it in the French Reformation; and since him, the practise of some others, who in their weekly preachings have constantly given Christmas-day the solemnity of a Sermon (wherein the whole body of their publick devotions now adayes consists) are sufficicient testimonies. And much more might be added in that matter.

§. 12 Thirdly, that the razing this Festivity out of the Calendar of the Church, or the encouraging those that do so, in laying down or disusing the observation of it, is an act of Division and Separation (in the former, and compliance with Division and Separation in the latter) from the particular Church of England, and from the universal Church of Christ in all ages, especially that of the first, and the purest times.

§ 13 Fourthly, that the present complexion of these times doth no way invite the laying aside this Usage, or render it excuseable in them which have disused it; It being for p. 423the ignoranter fort a little too visible, that the omission of the Christmas Sermons and Services, doth tend to raze out of their mindes that slender knowledge, which they have gathered of the birth of Christ, and the consequent mysteries of our Religion, and, by gratifying their worldly affections, doth much assist Atheism or blindness, in the hope and attempt of supplanting all Christian knowledge among many. And it being with great reason affirmed by the Casuists, that the necessaries of beleif, for the most vulgar sort, are no more then the great Holydayes of the year, (the services of which keep the ignorance of them from being excusable in any) This ejecting all those Holydayes out of the Christian Church (being, as it is, superadded to the difusing of the Creeds and Catechism) will probably, if God please not to avert, soon dispatch all opinion of any necessity of beleiving any of those Articles, and in time, where the Ministers care of setting apart other dayes for the preaching of those truths, doth not help to supply the defect in some degree, (for by long discourses wholly to supply it, it is not to be hoped) it will be the supplanting of the foundation it self, and so at last the intercepting of all (the most superficial) knowledge of the first elements of our Christianity.

As for those of deeper knowledge, who §. 14 p. 424less seem to want such helps, yet is their general impatience of sound doctrine, their readiness to embrace whatever is novel, and contrary to the ancient Faith and Principles, become now so grosly apparent, and the practise of Christian Precepts, especially of hospitality and charity, so scandalously out-dated, that it is but needful to take the gardiners course, and dig to the roots of Christianity, to lay it open and bare, if ever we expect it should recover from barrenness, and flourish in more verdure, then of late it hath done.

§. 15 Lastly (to lay aside all that may be disputable, or possible not to be assented to by any) I desire it may be considered sadly, Whether the abolition of that solemnity, which hath no other design, but to teach us what we have received from God in Christ, and to assist us to render God a pious publick acknowledgement of it at some set time (which without such provision is sure to be neglected by many) be the fittest discharge of our charity to the souls of ignorant seducible men, or whether they can truly receive comfort from having yielded an assistance, or complyance to the removing it out of this Church.

§. 16 If to all this be opposed the fear and danger of a threefold guilt in the continuing of this observance, the first of Will-worship, p. 425because this is not commanded in Scripture; the second, of Superstition in observing dayes; the third, of Riot and Excess, which is frequently observable in such Festivals: Then as to the two former of these, I have given a large answer inaaTreat. of Willworsh. and of Superstit. and Pract. Cat. l. 2. §. 12. another place, so to the third I shall now enlarge what was there but briefly touched, conceiving it a matter of great importance, that so pious a custome should be clearly vindicated from so impious an appendage, and that this discourse, which is sincerely designed to the advantage and welfare of all, should not be to any an occasion of falling.

And first, I freely acknowledge, that §. 17 all riot and excess is a sin, The riot of which these Festivals are accused.and that farre greater and more punishable in a Christian, then in any man else, particularly then in the Jew, whose promises of an earthly plenty are not so contrary and irreconcileable with corporal excess, as are the spiritual joyes that are the Christians eminent (if not onelyonly) portion under promise, both in this and in another life.

But then secondly, Festivity and Hospitality §. 18 is very separable from riot, or luxury, in a Christian Commonwealth; The heathen feasts and sacrifices had little else in them, gluttony and drunkenness being the prescribed worship, and way of approving themselves to (and of pleasing or serving) some of their Idol-gods, and p. 426uncleanness being the design of others, if not openly in their Temples, yet more closely in their recesses and mysteries, their foreign and foreign, and so both sorts recommended to them under an opinion of Piety and Religion. But the Christian Festival being wholly made up of spiritual dainties, in receiving Christian instruction, offering Prayers and Thanksgivings and Alms, and not feeding corporally, save in the Sacrament onelyonly (where I hope no excess hath ever been observable in this Nation) is thus far free from having any degree of luxury, intrinsecal to it, or inseparable from it.

§. 19 As for the customary hospitality or good cheer of those seasons (besides that at other times there hath been, by those who have laid down this custome, as great liberty used in feasting, since their departure from the Church, as ever they used before in time of Christmas, which argues the good cheer not to be the thing disliked, but the Christian occasion or season of it) First, it must be acknowledged that that is not any other then a decent attendant on that, as on any, Festivity, (not of the essence or substance of it) And then what reason can be assigned why it should not be lawful thus outwardly to express Christian joy by some change of Clothes or Diet, from that which is ordinary at other times, to that which is as p. 427ordinary at festivities? foreign, saith Greg. Nyssen of Easter, The ploughman dresses himself in a festival guise, and, foreign, the poor man putteth himself in the rich mans attire, and the rich man foreign sets himself out in lustre above ordinary. And S. Hierome saith of those that mourned for their friends, that at Easter they laid aside their mourning garments, and put on their most rich apparel. And secondly, why should it not be most lawful to bless, and praise, and give thanks to God (after the manner of all men, Jews and Gentiles, who alwayes had feasts annexed to their Sacrifices) and to express and demonstrate that, in the enjoyment, and by the acknowledgement of his temporal goodness, so it be done with that one great necessary caution, and reservation of sobriety and thanksgiving, and this more at such a time of commemorating some special mercy received from God, then at another, and especially to take care that the season of acknowledging an eminent mercy of God, be also a remembrancer of the exercise of that eminent Christian duty of Hospitality, and Charity to the poor, and again of a cheerful liberal reception of friends and neighbors, to nourish or breed Christian acquaintances p. 428and correspondencies, and adde to the comfort of life by the society, and quiet converse of those others our equals, which stand in need of our examples of Piety and Christian commerce, though they want not the supplies of our bread? And accordingly the Fathers speak of a rejoycing, which they call foreign and foreign, earthy and worldly, as well as of another, which they call foreign and foreign, spiritual and divine, and think that one is very reconcileable with the other.

§. 20 But then thirdly, if such plenty be not by experience found (among the generality of the Kingdome) to be used and enjoyed without sin (though as long as there is flesh in the world, unreformed by Christianity, this need not be looked on as any strange thing, or the cure of it undertaken by that new Empirical way of applying the remedy to the weapon, not to the Patient, yet) rather then the faults of this attendant and accessary should be charged to the destroying of the Principal, and rather then the external part should have the fate to devour the inward and more excellent, and when it shall appear really that the excesses and vices of men, occasioned meerly by the Christmas-cheer and sports, are more considerable to the debauching and ruining of souls, then the forementioned uses are p. 429beneficial to the improving of them, I shall then profess to beleive, that there is place and season for Reformation in this particular, this accessory, this external part, that attends on this Christian festivity; and that it is more then time, that the greatest severities be used to that end, that the excesses of men being so impudently irrational, as to assault and pollute that which is most sacred, be also cured by irrational applications, by imposed, and forced abstinencies, that they be discouraged and branded by this Character, that the beasts Physick was found necessary to this bestial disease, the vertue of temperance thought fit to be taught them by a prescribed impossibility of intemperance.

But then still this penance which is due §. 21 to the guilty, is not due (but impertinent) to the innocent, belongs onelyonly to the wicked, as Abraham told God, and not to the righteous, to the carnal, not the spiritual, to the eating, not to the praying and praising part of the festivity (As in the ancient Church when on dayes of festivities men began to adorn themselves sumptuously to shew their pride, not to honour the day, and fared deliciously to surfetting and drunkenness, the Fathers did not thereupon forbid what before they allowed, but sought to reduce them from that pride and luxury, foreign p. 430foreign, I do not forbid the festivity, but reprehend the immoderation, saith Greg. Nazianzene) And so if it must come under the discipline, it will not be necessary, I hope, that the discipline be more severe, then the utmost of the Primitive sharpest Censures were, that if it must be delivered up to Satan, it be no farther then for the destruction of the flesh, of the riotous, outward part of it, so as may be reconcileable with the saving of the spirit, that hath deserved no wrath, the preserving of the inward more spiritual part (the soul as it were) of the festivity.

§. 22 Mean-while it is clear, that the Church-part of the festivity is not supposed guilty in this kinde, and therefore can in no justice be found liable to the intemperance of the Parlour, whatsoever that be supposed to be: And for the other, the eating and sporting part, against which all the charge must be laid, that need not be abolished neither, save onelyonly in case of great and general abuses. And that case will not be pleadable, till first, upon endevour to reform, it appear, that there is no place of remedy for the abuses, no imaginable means of rescuing a laudable custome from an impious appendage (and then truly I know not to what purpose are Laws, and defigns of Reformation, if the Mattock must do all the work, the p. 431Pruning-hook is become unuseful) and Secondly, till the abuses are not onelyonly so great, as discernible to out-ballance the good uses, but also so general, that (as in the business of the brazen Serpent) the whole Church in a manner runs madding into these very great abuses.

Whereas indeed the utmost that can, §. 23 without great want of charity, be pretended by any in this matter of Christmasse, is onelyonly this, that they which are loosely or lasciviously disposed, do turn this feasting into luxury and excess; and so, I beleive, the same men will be observed to do the Lords-day also, when yet they have not the temptations of a feast, but onelyonly the advantages of a rest to recommend it to (or excuse it in) them; while those that are not so ill, and yet none of the best, make it but a time of refreshment from their ordinary labour and travel in their Callings: But on the other side, those that are Christianly disposed make use even of the most external, grosser part of it to special spiritual advantages, to the glory of God, and comfort of their souls, Christian Conversation, pious discourse, commerce of souls, charity, hospitality, and the like.

But then lastly I adde, after all this §. 24 complaint of great and general abuses, revellings, &c. that if we look no farther then this Kingdome of ours, wherein p. 432they are thus severely visited, the charge appeares to be most unjust. For the day of the birth of Christ, Christ-mass day it self, hath never, that I heard of, been observed among us to be guilty of these, but on the contrary hath been kept (if not much more) certainly as strictly as any Lords day in the yeare, in frequenting the services of the Church, in the use of the Liturgy, Sermon, Sacrament of the Lords supper, in keeping at home every man and woman in their own family, and not touching either Cards or Dice that day. The excesses which have been observed, have been on the dayes after the Nativity; and yet I suppose every Christian house-keeper may with ordinary diligence so regulate his hospitality and the sports which he permits in his family, at those times also, that they may tend to no worse end, then the encrease of Christian charity, and kindness among neighbours all the yeare after.

§. 25 And so still this (and that really the most considerable) praejudice, taken from the riots occasioned by this festivity, is proved of small validity against any (even the grosser) part of it, and of none at all against the Festivity it self. But yet may reasonably be made use of, as an enforcement of that Exhortation of S. Augustine, Dom. 1, adv.Quotiescun{que} natalem Domini, &c. celebrare disponitis, ebrietatem ante omnia p. 433fugite, Whensoever ye prepare to celebrate the day of Christs birth, beyond all things avoid drunkenness. And this is the duty of the Ministers to the people, and of all sorts of Governors to the whole Nation, to exhort and perswade all men, that they would not permit the abolition of this Festival to remain an instance of their bestiality to posterity, that they would pay that as a tribute to piety, which severity of Laws may otherwise rend from them, and rather choose to adorn a Christian feast with a Christian temperance, (which then is most such, when there are advantages and temptations to the contrary) then impiously to defame a pious usage, and bring vengeance upon it by an impertinent Bestial inordinacy.

To which purpose is that of Greg. §. 26 Nazianzene, Or. in Pent. foreign, The Jew feasteth, but according to the letter; the Greek feasts, but according to the body, celebrating his own Gods and Daemons; we also feast, but so as it seems good to the Spirit. And of Theodoret, foreign p. 434foreign, Therapeut. 9. In stead of the old pomps, and unclean practises and discourses, the Christians keep sober feasts, without gluttony, drunkenness, laughter, but in stead thereof have divine hymns, the hearing of the holy Oracles, and Prayer adorned with tears, fit for so holy solemnities. And if this importunity may prove successful, this exception will then be throughly answered, if it be not already, and be as farre from true, as it is now from argumentative.

§. 27 Having thus far enlarged on this first Consideration, addressed peculiarly as to a member of the Church of England, not yet broken off from that body, wherein he received his baptism, It will not be now unseasonable to consider him as a son of the Universal Christian Church of the whole world, and for his satisfaction, as he is such, to shew him-in brief, what Authority it is by which the Festivals in general, and particularly this of the Nativity of Christ, pretend to stand, in the Catholick Church. And I shall do it by these steps and degrees.

§. 28 First, by acknowledging, that it is not pretended to have its beginning from any Institution of Christs, Festivalls not instituted by Christ.whil'st he h…re continued upon the earth, but either of the Apostles, or the succeeding Church; It p. 435being very reasonable, that those which acknowledged the receit of so wonderful a mercy from God as was the gift of his Son, and whose hearts were ravished with a sense of the advantages and benefits of it, should desire to celebrate the remembrance of it, and offer it up a voluntary oblation to Christ, and that their Piety should not restrain it self within those narrower bounds of doing nothing in the service, and to the honor of Christ, but what was distinctly prescribed, and particularly instituted by him.

Thus among the Jews the feast of the §. 29 Dedication of the Altar, The foreign.not that of the building of the Temple by Solomon, which was celebrated in the monethmonth Tisri, nor that other of repairing of it by Zorobabel, which was kept in the monethmonth Adar, but a third, in memory of the purging of it by Judas Maccabaeus, observed in Casleu, and so not mentioned in the Canon of the Old Testament, or instituted by God himself, but by the Jews, 1 Mac. 4.59. was yet observed, and the observation of it approved and confirmed by Christs presence at that feast, Joh. 10.23.

To these I might adde the festivities at §. 30 Marriage, Marriage feasts.never instituted by God, as far as we can discern, in the Old Testament, and yet observed by the Jews, Judg. 14.10, 11. by the space of seven dayes, and before p. 436them by Bethuel in Mesopotamia, Gen. 24. for the space of ten dayes (as seems to be the importance of v. 55.) and by Laban in Padan Aram, for the space of seven, Gen. 29.22. (in like manner as among the Graecians, foreign, 'twas law or custome to have feasts at marriages, saith Athenaeus Deipn. l. 4. and Plutarch gives the reasons of it, Sympos. 4. qu. 4.) And yet these are so far from being disliked by Christ, that they are honourably mentioned by him in his parables, and vouchsafed his presence and first miracle, Joh. 2.

§. 31 But it is more pertinent to our present purpose that it be remembred,The Lords d…y. that the weekly feast of the Resurrection of Christ was not instituted by Christ or God himself, but by the Apostles of Christ, and that the mentions of the first day of the week, which we have in the New Testament, are no prescriptions or law for the observing of it, but that, if any thing of that nature be there sought for, it will rather appear to belong to the Annual then weekly feasts. Easter-day.So 1 Cor. 5.8. foreign, Let us keep the Paschal festivity, is annexed immediately to Christ our Passover, his having been slain (and now risen again) for us, and to that also the foreign or Lords day, once mentioned Rev. 1.10. is thought to belong; And indeed p. 437of the institution of that yearly feast by the Apostles, the evidences are clear in the ancient Church, the differences between the Eastern and Western, concerning the time of keeping it, pretending to one Apostle on one side, who kept it according to the Jews account, to other Apostles on the other side, who went by another rule.

Secondly, then for festival dayes in §. 32 general now under the New Testament, Christian Festivalls.if for not being instituted in Scripture, they be deemed universally unlawful, the Account will be clear, First, that Aerius, the first that affirmed that, was for so doing censured, and for that and other things turned out of the Church for an Heretick (Epiphanius Haer. 75.) Secondly, that the unreasonableness of that pretension will be judged of by this one evidence, of the Festivities of the Martyrs, The Martyrs foreign.the dayes of whose deaths were remembred by the Church, under the title of foreign Natalitia, or birth-dayes, and S. Stephens day (who being the Captain of them, that day comprized all others of that rank) placed next in the Calendar to the Nativity of Christ, and celebrated as chearfully as Pharaohs birth-day in the Old Testament, at Herods in the New, and the Emperors in humane Authors.

Of these we have an early Record of §. 33 Primitive Antiquity, in the letter of the p. 438Church of Smyrna, The Testimony of the Church of Smyrna for Festivalls.on occasion of Polycarps Martyrdome, where having set down the story of it, his foreign and foreign, combat and consummation, they conclude with their hope and wish, foreign, that God will now permit them to meet together, with exultation and joy to celebrate the birth-day of his Martyrdome. And that this is no entrenchment or diminution to the worship and adoration due unto Christ, they shew their opinion there; for having said before, that they worship none but Christ onelyonly, they adde, foreign, Let us bestow that love upon the Martyrs, which is due to them, as the disciples, and imitators of the Lord. This Testimony being so near the Apostles times, sets a sacred character on those Commemorations (summed up by the Church into that one of the first-fruits, S. Stephen, in whom the whole heap of the following harvest, this Polycarpe, and all others are included) as such as were in use before the writing of that Letter, and then there will be no reason to doubt, or need to produce more Testimonies to avouch, that, as Polycarpes day of Martyrdome was celebrated by that Church of which he was Bishop, so the dayes of the death or Martyrdome of p. 439the Apostles themselves, the Universal Bishops of the whole Church, were formerly solemnized by them, and that thus early, so as that Church of Smyrna might transcribe that custome from them, it being not imaginable that Polycarpe should have a solemnity assigned him, and the Apostles of Christ, whose copy he but transcribed, be denyed that honour.

Agreeable to this, is that known practise §. 34 of the first antiquity to assemble at the Monuments of Martyrs, The assemblies at the monuments of Martyrs.before Churches were built, and from such meetings most of the ancient Churches in the world had their beginnings. And (not to enlarge on so known a Theme) 'tis not onelyonly the affirmation of Gregory Nyssen in the life of Thaumaturgus, that he brought up all his Converts to celebrate the birthdayes of the Martyrs; and of S. Cyprian, that he used to celebrate their Passions with an anniversary Commemoration, but Tertullian, one of the best Repositories of the practises of the Primitive Church, saith that Christians were wont to celebrate yearly the dayes of the Martyrs birth, i. e. their sufferings, ex majorum traditione, received it from the tradition of their Antecessors, de Cor. Mil. c. 3. All which doth clearly vindicate and give authority (such as no Christian may despise) to all the festival observations of Saints dayes, which have been in our Calendar observed, p. 440and by our Laws, since the Reformation, continued in our Church, and so without descending more particularly, applies this whole discourse unto them.

§. 35 But then thirdly, for this one feast of the birth of Christ (in which our concernments are so great,The feast of Christs Nativity. thataaHom. 6. de Nat. Leo could truly say, Dum Servatoris nostri recolimus exortum, invenimur nos nostrum celebrare Principium; Generatio enim Christi, est origo populi Christiani, & natalis capitis est natalis corporis, The Generation of Christ is the beginning of the Church, the birth day of the head is the birth day of the body) we have ^b elswhere produced many Testimonies out of Origen, Pract Cat. 180.Cyprian and Chrysostome, each of them deducing it from the practise of the first Antiquity; and S. Augustine making it a character of a son of the Church, to solemnize the festivals of it, and this (principally and by name) of the Nativity. To which may be added that of the ^c Author of the Constitutions, aaConstit. l. 5. c. 13.foreign, Keep the dayes of the feasts, and first the day of Christs birth. And althoughddforeign, …. 27. c. 28. Nicephorus a later Historian say, that Justinus the Emperor first commanded it to be kept festival over the world (as Justinian, saith he, appointed p. 441the day of Purification, under the name of foreign, because Simeon, &c. met Christs parents in the Temple that day) yet that belonging onelyonly to the Edict of the Emperor for the universal observation, doth no way prejudge the Churches, whether Apostolical or Primitive, Institution of it. For long before them in Diocletians time, the observation of it is sufficiently known and solemnized in story by the 20000 Christians which were burnt by him on Christmas-day.

Fourthly, for the particular day, whereon §. 36 this feast is wont to begin, though that be not of any importance to the Institution it self, yet there is little reason to doubt of the truth of our calculation which sets it on the 25^th of December The 25 of D…cember.(That argument drawn by some from the courses of the Priests, is in a little Tract intituled [Christs birth not mistimed] evidently demonstrated by a veryaaMr. I. P. worthy and ingenuous person, to be a meer deceit.) And (to pass by the many Testimonies bb…ract. C…t. p. 179.elswhere produced to this purpose) In Joseph the Aegyptian's Arabick Codex of the Councels (a Manuscript in the Archives of the Publick Library of the University of Oxford, of the gift of Sir Thomas Roe) this day as well as this feast, is affirmed to stand by Apostolical Canon. The words of the Canon, as it is transcribed by Mr. Gregory, are in English p. 442these, Also that you constitute an anniversary feast at the Nativity of the Lord Christ, on the day on which he was born, and that was the five and twentieth of the first Canun (i. e. of December) for this is the Principal of all the feasts. Also that ye do every year celebrate the baptism of the Lard Christ upon the day in which he was baptized by John his brodomos (foreign) or forerunner, and that was the sixth day of the second Canun, i. e. of January.

§. 37 Of this Canon these things are to be observed,The Apostolicall Can…ns. First, that although it be not affirmed that this was made by the twelve Apostles, principally so called, yet if it were framed by those that early succeeded the Apostles in governing the Church, the first Bishops of the Church (called Apostles also, by communication of that ti…le) and Apostolical men (and so 'tis probable they were first intitled foreign, Canons of Apostolical men) it may truly be styled an Apostolical Canon; Or if it were one of those which in succeeding times were added and put in to that volume, yet is this an argument of the great antiquity thereof.

§. 38 Sec…ndly, that in this Canon not onelyonly this anniversary feast of Christs Nativity is commanded to be observed,Christmas day. but also the very day defined, on which he was born, that which we now celebrate, Decemb. 25.

p. 443Thirdly, that together with that day §. 39 which begins the solemnity, at the same time, and by the same Authority, the sixth of January, which we call Twelf-day, Twelfe day.and which ends that solemnity, and, according to the custome of the Jews (which kept the first and the last day of every feast, dayes of solemn assembly, and so foreign, great dayes) is a special Holyday, was instituted also, and so that feast consisted of all the twelve dayes.

Fourthly, that this twelfth day was observed §. 40 as the day of Christs baptism The day of Christs Baptisme.by John, at which time the holy Ghost appeared and lighted upon him, Mat. 3.16. That that day was called Epiphany, Epiphany.from the appearing of the Star to the Magi, Mat. 2.2. is ordinarily conceived, and it may possibly be so, so that we do not from thence beleive, that the Magi came to Christ the twelfth day after his birth, 8for this for many reasons seems to be a mistake; for immediately upon the departure of the Magi, The time of the Magi coming to Christ.foreign, Mat. 2.13. Joseph and Mary, with the young childe, fled into Aegypt, according to order from God, v. 14. and yet the Text saith, Luk. 2.22. that at the time of Maries purification, forty dayes after his birth, they went up from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and therefore the coming of the wise men must needs be after their return from Jerusalem again to Bethlehem: p. 444as for that of his returning to Nazareth, Luk. 2.39. that sure refers to the time of his coming out of Aegypt, Mat. 2.22. and cannot be imagined before his journey thither, which appears to have been taken from Bethlehem. This, together with the length of the journey from their countrey, thorough both the Arabia's to Judaea, renders it no improbable conjecture, that their coming to Bethlehem was a twelve-monethmonth after Christs birth; To which it is consonant which we reade of Herods Edict, having from the wise men exact intelligence of the time, he appointed the killing of all the children, from two years old and under, v. 16. That this day was also the day of the baptism of Christ, though many years after, is farther affirmed by Alcas Cyriacus (an Arabick MS. of Astronomical Tables in the Archbishops Archives in the Oxford Library) who calls the sixth of January the feast of the Epiphany, …8or benediction of Waters, and so do others also. And accordingly the Church of England hath appointed the first Lesson to be of the Mission of the Baptist, Isa. 40. and the second Lesson to end with the baptism of Christ, Luk. 3.23.

§. That the benediction of the Waters denoteth the day of Christs baptism, The name Epiphany.whereby he is, by Chrysostome and other of the Ancients, affirmed to sanctifie the waters, p. 445there is no place of question, but whether that day were called Epiphany from thence, in respect of the visible opening of the heavens, and descending of the holy Ghost upon him, or from the first appearing of the Star in the East to the Magi, Mat. 2.2. which well might be, on the very twelfth day after Christs birth, or from that other appearing of the same Star, when they drew toward the end of their long journey from their Countrey to Bethlehem, v. 9. at that time twelve-monethmonth, or whether the word signifie no more then the birth of Christ, which is ordinarily called foreign, and foreign in the plural (foreign, &c. on the day of Ephany, when Christ was born-in the flesh, In fine l. 3.saith Epiphanius) and may be applied to the last, as well as the first day of the feast, I shall not now define, but acknowledge my self inclined to the last, upon this one score, because many Orthodox Christians in Aegypt are by Epiphanius affirmed to keep the feast of the Nativity on that day: which as it is confuted by S. Hierome on Ezek. c. 1. so might well have its rise from the aequivocalness of that word Epiphany, which as it signifies any kinde of appearing, and so that to the Magi, the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, so it may be the appearing of Christ first in the world, of which S. p. 446Paul affirmeth, and saith, that the salvifick grace of God foreign hath appeared, Tit. 2.11.

§. 42 So Sahid Aben Bat…ic (a MS. Arabick Historian in the Archives of the Publick Library of the University of Cambridge) as he is transcribed by Mr. Gregory, in the life of Constantine affirmeth it in these words, Our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ was born upon the twenty fifth of the first Canun, i. e. of December, and upon the eleventh day of Tybi, i. e. the sixth of the second Canun, i. e. January was the Epiphany or Baptism of Christ. So the Aegyptian Calendar in Kircker de Comput. Eccles. Copt. c. 3. And so Joannes Antiochenus or Melala, that Christ was born foreign upon the five and twentieth of December, but was baptized in Jordan a river of Palestine foreign, on the sixth of the monethmonth Audine, or January.

§. 43 So in the forecited Author of the Constitutions, foreign, Constit. l. 5. c. 13. Let the nativity be celebrated on the 25^th day of the ninth monethmonth, beginning the year in March, when he was conceived. So in the 93 Question under the name of Athanasius Nicaenas, 'tis cited out of the foreign p. 447foreign, Our Lord was born the 25^th of the Aegyptian monethmonth Choeac, which is eight dayes before the Calends of January, and so the 25^th of December.

But this is put beyond all question by what hathaaPract. Cat. p. 178. The Censual Rolls of Augustus. elswhere been cited out of §. 44 Chrysostome, and by him produced out of the Censual Tables of Augustus, i. e. those Registers of all that were enrolled by Augustus's Decree, Luk. 2.1. together with the place, and day of the monethmonth, and year wherein it was done. That enrolment or foreign or Census was, we know, the sole occasion of bringing up Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and while they were there on that occasion, the dayes were accomplished that she should be delivered, and shee brought forth her first born, v. 6, 7. To these Tables therefore Justin Martyr makes his resort, Apol. 2. for the evidencing the place of Christs birth, and doth it to the Emperors of Rome, who would easily have been able to disprove him, if it had not been so, foreign; as you may learn out of our Rolls. And so Tertullian, Cont. Mar. l. 14. c. 19.Censum Augusti fidelissimum testem Dominicae Nativitatis Romana archiva custodiunt, The Roman Archives preserve Augustus Censual Roll, a most faithful witness of the birth of Christ. And from these Rolls S. Chrysostome p. 448professes to have it, that this was the day of his birth,Hom. in Nat. ad Pop. Ant. foreign, We have received the day from those that accurately knew these things, and which dwell in the city of Rome. And accordingly 'tis known, that before S. Chrysostomes times this day had been observed at Rome by the Christians there,Ib. foreign, saith he, from their Antecessors, and from ancient Tradition.

§. 45 Having past through all the degrees and steps, wherein the observation or this Festival can be concerned, and whereby it is vindicated to that veneration which it hath had so long in the Universal Church, (and by the way the other Festivals of the Church deduced from the first times, especially by that Testimony of the Church of Smyrna, delivered by them within few years after Christs Epistle was sent to them in the Revelation) there is no more needful to be added on this Theme, but the Conclusion, The Conclusion.which is obvious and evident from all this, That the fastidious rejecting or not observing the Festivals of the Church Universal, the Great dayes and times set apart for the commemorating the several parts of our Redemption wrought by Christ (in his birth, and the attendants on that, in his Death, and Resurrection, and Ascension, and Mission of his Spirit) p. 449and also the lives and deaths, faith and patience of his holy Martyrs, Apostles, and the whole society of the Saints (who by their examples and doctrine have contributed so much to our highest advantages, and being dead, do by this means yet speak unto us) must certainly be looked on by every man, as an act of affected departure from the Universal Church of Christ in all ages, and not onelyonly from the Mother which brought him forth in the faith, the Reformed Church of England. And this will set no excellent character on that which can have nothing but the novelty and contempt of Antiquity, to recommend it to any; nor will it prove any very good omen or ground of hope, that the despising of these observances will ever bring in more honour to God, and benefit to the Church, then the Institution or Usage of them was by our pious Predecessors designed to do.

And here I must not be so injurious to §. 46 the Author of the Sixteen Quaeres, touching the rise and observation of Christmas, An Answer to sixteen Quaeres about Christmas.as to leave him any temptation of overvaluing his own dexterities, or thinking his attempts prosperous and victorious over the whole Church of God for so many Centuries, or of continuing his uncharitable conceit of all those, who have retained this feast in their Calendar, as of men, that, beside the guilt of befooling and misleading p. 450the people, are, saith he, utterly unable to give any rational account of their practise.

§. 47 To his Quaeres therefore, though I now hear that others have applyed those Antidotes, which might make this of mine unnecessary, yet I shall give a particular Answer in few words, without repeating unnecessarily what hath more largely been said elswhere, and in this foregoing discourse.

§. 48 To the first [Whether such religious customes, as are binding to all the Churches of Jesus Christ, ought not to have sure footing upon the word of God, or Apostolical practise?] I say, that there is no necessity that every religious custome (as that signifies no more then the performing of those duties to God on one set day, which are in every particular justifiable and pious, whensoever they are performed) which is binding to all the Churches of Jesus Christ (by the obligation that lyeth on every one to continue in Unity with the Universal Church of the purest times, and to observe their pious Institutions) should be better founded then so, or be obliged to have any other sure footing upon the word of God, or Apostolical practise. The Primitive Universal Church of Christ may (and among all pious Christians hath alway been allowed to) have authority sufficient to prescribe p. 451and institute such a rite, as this hath appeared to be, and that Institution to deserve obedience from all meek sons of the Church, who have no reason to break her unity, or lose their parts of the benefits, which are consequent to that, upon such untempting, gainless terms as those.

To the second [Whether I can substantially §. 49 prove that Christ was born on the 25^th of December, and what my proofs are?] I answer, that it may be as substantially proved, as of a fact so long distant from us can well be expected (and as to the business in hand [the celebrating an anniversary day] may be sufficient) that Christ was born on the 25^th of December: And what the proofs are; hath been set down, §. 36, &c.

To the third [Whether the celebration §. 50 of that day, (grant he was born on it) can be clearly warranted from Scripture, and what those Scriptures are?] That if by [the clear warranting the celebration of a day] be meant, as the words import, the securing one's self or others, that the celebration of that day is no way unlawful, neither prohibited by, nor contrariant to Scripture, then it is clearly warranted, and that the warrant hath been cleared by the several stages of the precedent discourse, beginning §. 28, &c. And that such warrant as that is abundantly sufficient p. 452to justifie that practise, which the Church in the best and purest times hath on such pious and prudent grounds universally practised.

§. 51 To the fourth [Whether I can clear it by sound consequence from the New Testament, though not set down there in totidem verbis?] That I can clear the warrantableness of the celebration, and perfect lawfulness to continue it, from the no-objection that lyes in force against it, and adde unto that the Piety of the Institution, the Authority of the Institutors, the advantages that may be made of it by all good Christians, and that is as sound a consequence from the New Testament, as this matter can stand in need of.

§. 52 To the fifth [Whether I can do it by universal Tradition?] That what I undertake to assert, viz. the blamelesness of this Institution in it sel…, and the truth of fact concerning the Churches Institution, yea and the usage and continuance of it through all times, hath been already competently evidenced, and may farther, by Tradition so Universal, that none but Aerius for very many hundred years, was known to contradict it, and he hath been ranked by the Fathers of the Church among Hereticks for so doing.

§. 53 To the sixth [Whether (in case it can be evidenced by none of these, viz. p. 453plain Text, solid Inference, Universal Tradition) it be not a meer humane invention, and so will-worship? and how we will one day acquit our selves before God, for placing and crying up mens inventions, in stead of the Institutions of Jesus Christ? And whether it were not faithful dealing with poor simple people, to tell them that we have neither of these to warrant it?] That it matters little what it should be, if it were warranted by none of these, seeing it doth appear by the former answers, as far as to the matter is sufficient, warranted by all of them. And moreover, that a humane invention, such it may be, an Institution of the Pure virgin Apostolical Church of Christ, and so propounded (not for a doctrine of God's, but an Ecc…esiastical Institution) may be very far from having any hurt in it: No act of will-worship, as that signifies a voluntary service piously performed to God, or an uncommanded act of Piety, being, eo nomine, a sin, but an act of Christian virtue, as hath been shewed at large in a full Tract of will-worship, and applyed to this particular purpose, Pract. Cat. p. 126. And therefore to say that we, or any, by observing this festivity, or teaching others to continue the observance of it, do place and cry up the inventions of men, in stead of the Institutions of Jesus Christ, p. 454is an unprovoked causeless calumny. And for the fidelity required to poore simple people, we have discharged our selves oft in our ministery, as far as that (in duty or charity, or for directing them into all truth) appears to be required of us.

§. 54 To the seventh [Whether (since dayes and times commanded by God himself to be observed under the Law, were and are unlawful under the Gospel) dayes and times commanded by men, and not by God, under the Gospel, are not less lawful?] That the supposed unlawfulness of continuing under the Gospel, those dayes and times commanded by God to the Jews under the Law, is no prejudice against the Apostles or the Churches instituting of other dayes and times upon Christian grounds, for the use of Christians under the Gospel. The consequence is clear, by the disparity of the cases, especially if it be observed, That it was not the bare continuing or using those Jewish rites, which was deemed unlawful, but the imposing them as by law from God on those which were never subject to them, as on Gentiles converted to Christianity, who were never subject to the Jewish Law. But to this also the answer is given at large, Pract. Cat. p. 179.

§. 55 To the eighth [Whether the true and genuine interpretation of Christmas be p. 455Christman? And whether to perswade people 'tis so, be not to delude them? And whether we may not as well interpret Candlemas, Candleman, Michaelmas, Michaelman, as Christmas, Christman?] That the genuine interpretation of Christmas is not Christman, and that to perswade the people 'tis so, or to perswade the Author of the Quaeres that any man that understands words, can think it possible it should be so, is to abuse and delude both them and him; And any man might as reasonably tell him, that Candlemas and Michaelmas signified the Candle and the Angel to be men, as that that was the notation of the word Christmas. And indeed, it is but my duty to be sorry for any, that should challenge all men with so much confidence, and yet at the same time be capable of having such a trope put upon him as this was.

For whose satisfaction in this point, it §. 56 will not be amiss to adde what I conceive concerning the notation of the word, that the olde Saxon word maessan,Mass. and from thence the English Messe, and Masse, signifies a feast, and accordingly with them, any holy or festival day, is called maessan daeg, Mass day: And so, saith Varro, doth the Greek foreign, and the Latine Messa, from whence p. 456the common word Mensa is but lightly removed, and signifies the meat, and not the table onelyonly (— mensae{que} remotae in Virgil, the meat taken away, and mensae secundae, the second course) and all this from the Latine Missa, because ad mensam mittitur, it is sent, or served up to the table. And this is perfectly agreeable also to the Greeks use of foreign and foreign, in their libations and sacrifices, foreign, I send, i. e. offer this unto thee, and from thence is their foreign or pompa, for ferculum, a mess, or service, (so in Pliny, Nat. hist. l. 7. c. 23. Crispum Hilacum cum filiis novem— praelatâ pompâ in Capitolio immolasse) as this is accommodated to the Christians Worship, or spiritual feast, among the Fathers, so foreign, in Justin Martyr, p. 60. foreign, to send up praises and prayers, i. e. pomps and missa's to God. And this again agreeable to the known origination of the Hebrew foreign a table, from foreign misit. And then it remains, that the word in composition must follow the notation of it in the simple, and own no other signification, then that Christmas be the feast of Christ, Michaelmas the feast of Michael the Archangel, as it is commonly explicated.

p. 457To the ninth [Whether the Saints are bound to rejoyce in the birth of Christ on §. 57 that day that men superstitiously call Christmas, more then at other times? And whether the Lords day be not [the] day appointed for them to rejoyce on?] That the Institution and usage of the Universal Church of God for so many hundred years, is an obligation to all faithful sons of that Church (if that be the meaning of the word Saints) to rejoyce in (as that signifies to commemorate with joy and thanksgiving to God the Father) the birth of Christ on that day, which is far from being**From the charge of superstition this observation of Christmas, is at large vindicated, Pract. Cat. p. 177. superstitiously (it might as properly have been termed murtherously, and feloniously, and adulterously) called Christmas, more then the same Church, or any other Authority equal to that, obliges to do at any other set time. And though the Lords day be by the same Authority appointed for Saints to rejoyce on, yet that was in reflexion on the Resurrection, not Birth of Christ on that day; And besides, that excludes not other seasons of rejoycing, any more then the mercy of Christs Resurrection, either concludes Christ never to have been born, or that birth not to be a mercy worthy of a Christians rejoycing.

For the inforcing of this Objection, it §. 58 p. 458hath been farther said by others, that the Resurrection of Christ comprehendeth the birth under it, and consequently that the Lords-day-weekly feast, being the commemoration of the Resurrection, comprehends the celebration of all other antecedent mercies, that of the Nativity and Passion also. But, 1. this is a very infirm way of arguing, and if it had any force in it, would conclude against the observation of the Lords-day it self: For, doth not the Ascension of Christ as much include and comprehend the Resurrection of Christ, as his Resurrection doth his Nativity? Certainly it doth, and by that way of disputing, would infer, that the Ascension is the one onelyonly feast to be observed, and all others to be banished out of the Church. But then secondly, it is observable of those that thus vehemently express their dislikes to commemorating of Christs birth, that their wrath is equally extended to the observation of Easter, and so can as little boast of their zeal to the Resurrection, as to the birth of Christ. But this Objection is not made use of by the Author of the Quaeres, and therefore I shall no farther enlarge to shew the invalidity of it.

§. 59 To the tenth [Whether Christmas day ought in any respect to be esteemed above p. 459another of the Week-dayes? And whether people may not without offence to God follow their lawful vocations on that day?] That that which the Universal Church of God hath set apart for the publick service and commemoration of an eminent mercy of God, ought in that respect to be esteemed above other dayes of the year, as [esteeming a day] signifies the [setting it apart] and so consecrating from common to sacred uses and employments. And therefore supposing this Institution and precept of the Church, and the command of God to honour our Parents, and to submit our selves to those who have rule over us, Heb. 13.17. (under which phrase, by foreign, the Governors of the Church are contained, if not solely meant in that place) people may not without offence to God, Schism from his Church, and culpable disobedience, separate wilfully, or withdraw from the publick Assembly on that day, and follow their lawful (as that signifies ordinary, particular, or on other dayes lawful) vocations; It being most evident, that our ordinary labour, and driving our secular designs of worldly gain, hath been always looked on by God, as an inconvenient attendant of his publick or solemn worship, (as God and Mammon are not p. 460easily served together) and a rest prescribed from those employments, which may render the minde unfit, or the body uncapable of that more divine attendance; which rest is farther capable of the honour of being an oblation to God, if in honour to him, we thus offer some part of our time, (which is also interpretatively some part of our wealth) unto his service.

§. 60 To the eleventh [Whether I think the Parliament and Assembly have erred and plaid the fools, in condemning and razing out Holydayes not warranted in the Word? And whether to observe them, be not highly to dislike, and flatly to contradict (in point of practise at least) their proceedings in order to a Reformation?] That I am not so rude and unmindeful of our Saviours interdict, Mat. 5.22. as to pronounce of any society of men, or single man, that he hath played the fool; Yet I profess not to commend the turning out all Holydayes beside the Lords day (and particularly this of the Nativity of Christ) out of the Church, nor do I beleive it a good expedient toward Reformation.

§. 61 To the twelfth [Whether (since most men and women in England do blindely and superstitiously beleive that Christ was p. 461born on that day) preaching on it doth not nourish and strengthen them in that beleif?] That the beleiving Christ to have been born Decemb. 25. is no blinde (and 'tis impossible it should be any superstitious) beleif. And therefore 'tis not amiss that by any lawful means (such I hope preaching may be) men be nourished and strengthened in that beleif. And yet why the preaching on Decemb. 25. should nourish people in the beleif, that Christ was born that day of the monethmonth, when the preaching on March 25. (when Easter day falls on that day) doth not perswade any that Christ rose again on that day of the monethmonth, I cannot easily foresee, what account will be given; It being as little important to the celebration of a Christian feast, that the day set apart for it should be infallibly the day whereon the thing commemorated was done sixteen hundred years since, as it is necessary to the preserving the memory of William the Conqueror, that the picture of him, which I now have, was rightly and exactly taken.

To the thirteenth [Whether this feast §. 62 had not its rise and growth from Christians conformity to the mad feasts Saturnalia (kept in December to Saturn the father of the Gods) in which there was a p. 462sheaf offered to Ceres Goddess of Corn, and a hymn in her praise, called foreign or foreign? And whether those Christians by name, to cloak it, did not afterwards call it Yule and Christmas (as though it were for Christs honour?) And whether it be not by some (more ancient, then truly or knowingly religious) called Yule, and the mad Playes or Sports (wherewith 'tis celebrated, like those Saturnalia) Yule games? And whether from the offering that sheaf to Ceres, from that Song in her praise, from those gifts the heathens gave their friends on the Calends of January, ominis gratiâ, did not arise or spring our Blazes, Christmas Carols, and New-years-Gifts?] I answer to the severals, First, that a Sheaf or lesser proportion, an handful of ears of corn, was customarily offered to Ceres by the heathen Greeks, is an unquestioned truth, and might be testified by Theocritus, Eidyll. 10. and by others; So likewise it is true, that this Sheaf or handful of ears was called foreign or foreign. But that this was done in the Saturnalia, or that it hath any relation to our Yule and Carols, is a double mistake in the propounder.

§. 63 The Saturnalia were clearly a Roman feast, celebrated by them in December, and oft continued the whole monethmonth. p. 463But for Ceres Games, Ceres games.they appear not to have any thing to do there, but to be of a Greek beginning, and improved into their Eleusinia Sacra, those filthy mysteries of theirs, so famous for all villany.

For the word foreign,foreign. 'tis acknowledged §. 64 also, that that signified not onelyonly the sheaf, but hymn to Ceres, so saith Athenaeus, l. 14. c. 3. out of Semius Delius, foreign, the fruits and the hymns are both called by that name. So the Greek Scholiast onaaA…gon. l. 1. v. 972. Apollonius Rhodius, foreign, It is the name of a Song, and Hymn, saith Didymus, on Ceres. Beside this, the word foreign signifies many things; John Zetzes in his Chiliads reckons six significations of it; And yet besides those it is the name of a Paphian month, & if the English Yule be taken from thence, the most Reverend Primate of Armagh hath shewed that it will fall out commodiously enough.De Ann. Maced. The foreign, which Epiphanius makes the day of our Saviours Nativity, being coincident with the fourteenth of the Cyprians (and among them of the Paphians) Julus, and so consequently the p. 464first of that monethmonth, must be on the 24^th of the Roman December, the vigils of our Saviours Nativity, according to all other Calculations. But the truth is, there is not so much affinity betwixt our Northern English or Scottish (nor was there between our Antecessors British or Saxon) and either the Graecians in general, or the Cypriots and Paphians in particular, as will be able to countenance or authorize this derivation, unless it may be thought that we and they both had it from some common fountain, some more universal Mother-Language.

§. 65 It is, I conceive, farre more probable, that the word Yule, Yule.giul, or (as in Alfreds Laws 'tis also called) geHol, should be taken immediately from the Latine, Jubilum, as that signifies a time of rejoycing and festivity, and as 'tis sure enough that they have it from the Hebrew foreign jubilum, jubilatus, clangor tubae productior, the longer and louder sounding of the Trumpet, which was used to call men to Assemblies and Festivities. From thence, we know, that was their word to signifie any festivity, either day or year, and belongs to their New-Moons (on which, saith the Psalmist, the Trumpet was to be blown, p. 465and upon the solemn feast dayes, whatsoever they were) and doth by no peculiarity belong to that which they call the year of Jubilee, but onelyonly as that was a festival year, and a year of Rest, and remission (attendant on, and annexed to feasts) This is very readily changed into that, the Hebrew … or j consonant, being pronounced by most nations like y, and so is the Saxon g also, as gate is among the Northern, yate, and given is yeoven, and the Saxon gear is year, and the particle gif is if. So the old Scottish that pronounce yule and year, write gule and gure. As for the other change in the word, the softning the b, or turning it into u, nothing is more ordinary. That this is the original of Yule, may farther appear by the use of the old word gule in ancient Records, as when the first of August, Lammas, or (as in the Saxon 'tis read) Hlafmaes, lafmess, i. e. loaf mass, or bread mass (so named, as a Feast of Thanksgiving to God for the first-fruits of the corn, and seems to have been observed with bread of new Wheat, and accordingly 'tis an usage in some places for Tenants to be bound to bring in Wheat of that year to their Lord on, or before the first of August) is called gula Augusti, or the Yule of August. In the same sense both (and so is unreconcileable with the p. 466other derivations, either from foreign the hymn to Ceres, or the name of the Paphian monethmonth) save onelyonly that the feast of Christs nativity is called the Yule, foreign, the other the Yule of August determinately: So likewise 'tis at this day ordinare in many Shires to call the annual feast or Wake, which most Parishes keep on several set dayes in commemoration of the dedication of their Church, the Yuval or Yule, which is an evidence that the word signifies Jubilum, a day of festivity, rejoycing, and no more.

§. 66 As for the Blazes, Blazes.if in any part of this Kingdome any such be now used at this time, I know no other beginning, or occasion of them, then that flames of fire may have been used as expressions of joy among us, as bonefires have alwayes been. The Carols, if they be worthy of the subject, I shall presume free from that charge, as being hymns in honour of our Saviours birth, or commemorations of that part of the history in the Gospel, and no more then other divine hymns or Anthemes sung at a Festival by way of thanksgiving to God.

§. 67 There remains onelyonly the custome of New-years-Gifts, New years gifts.and for those I answer, that the heathens giving their friends gifts in the Calends of January, was (beside the [ominis causa]) a part of p. 467the worship of Janus a false God,

—Jano etiam celebri de mense litatur

Auspiciis epulis{que} sacris— saith Prudentius,

You see sacrificing to Janus, as well as auspicia. And yet what the Poet means by auspicia, is sufficiently cleared by Pliny, Faustis ominibus, bonis verbis, precationibus felicibus, strenis & muneribus, se invitabant, Hist. Nat. l. 28. c. 2. good wishes, and good abodings, gifts, and presents. And Lucian gives the reason why the Romans did this, because, saith he, they beleived that the Gods answered mens prayers, foreign, on that day most especially. What was thus done by the heathens to their false Gods, or out of such ridiculous perswasions, that the Gods heard prayers more on that day then another; or if there were any other folly in it, is to another end, and separate from those follies, and with a far distant intention) continued among Christians to the true God, i. e. onelyonly thus far.

The Church observes this first day of §. 68 the year, as the feast commemorative of the Circumcision of Christ. The sending of gifts to one another, where it is continued, is no part of the worship of God, nor, I think, mistaken by any to be so, but a civil usage among men, for the acknowledging the relations that men stand in, p. 468one toward another. And if we should imitate such moral duties, even from heathens, there would be no more hurt in it, then in learning a moral sentence out of Theognis, or Seneca. And if a prayer for the prosperity of the year following, or but the expression of that Christian wish, be an appendage of the New-Years gift, 'tis not imaginable that there should be more hurt in that gift or wish, then there is poison in the Scholars Epistle to his Governor, from the foreign, o…, to an irrational importune disputer, from an foreign at the top of it.

§. 69 And yet after all this, it may be added, that this custome hath not been of late years any thing solemnly observed in this Kingdome, save onelyonly between the Lords and the King, the Lords presenting such a sum of money, and the King returning so many ounces of Plate. And this custome is justly thought to have been brought into ours from the Roman Commonwealth (not the Roman Church) as into that by the Emperor Augustus, every one of the people being appointed to present to him a tribute on the Calends of January. So farre is this from being a superstitious, or indeed a religious observance.

§. 70 And what ere the Antient Fathers have poured out in declamations against the practises on the Calends of January, appeares p. 469clearly to have been aimed not against the mutual expressions of duty or kindnesse in the new years gifts, or new yeares wishes, but against the consecrating that day to the**Bifrontis illâ superstitione u…untur. Ambr. in Gal. 4.Gal 4 Idol Ianus, and the drunkennes…e and revellings used on it, the due ceremonies of an Idol-feast. And if mens endeavours might be like their Sermons in this, labour to purge this, and the like feasts from the profane excesses (the greatest and most dangerous remainders of Idolatry and heathenisme among us) and to retaine nothing, but what were agreeable to the worship of the true God, and Christian life, I should not give any man such an example of ill nature, or contentious spirit, as to dispute against them, but professe my spirit to be pleased with healing balsames, as much as my flesh abhors amputations, and to believe that purging physicke may be sometimes as usefull, as at other times cordials are acknowledged to be.

To the fourteenth [Whether conformity §. 71 to, and retention of heathenish customes be commendable in Christians, suteable or agreeable with Gospel-principles, though under praetext of Christ's honour and worship?] That conformity to, or retention of some customes of civil life, used formerly by thē nation, whilst it was heathen, as paying tributes, homages, interchanging hospitalities or civilities, yea and p. 470wishing good health or prosperity (good even, good morrow, good day, good yeare, good speed good doe it you) are not unsuteable, or disagreeable with Gospel principles, especially if they either not pretend at all to be acts of worship, or pretending to be such be really (what they pretend to) designed, to the honour of Christ who was given us by God as a mercy of such a weight, as may well constraine us to doe any thing that is pious, charitable, or kind on occasion of that commemoration. Secondly, that tis known of Christ and his Apostles, that they did, to attract the Iewes to the Christian Religion, gratifie them in retaining many of their customes, So they were not such as had a peculiarity of opposition, and unreconcileablenesse with the Gospel. And therefore for any innocent customes of the heathens, such, as having nothing of idolatry in them, might be accommodated to the Christian purposes, there is nothing to be charged upon those that planted Christianity among the Gentiles, if to so pious an end, as was the attracting of the heathens to Christ, they did so accommodate them.

§. 72 To the fifteenth [Whether I am not bound to prove my practise for the conviction and satisfaction of my brethren, whose duty it is to walk with me in things agreeable to the minde of Christ? And in case I cannot, whether I ought not to acknowledge p. 471my error, lay downe my practise (as others have done theirs) no longer befooling and misleading the people committed to my charge?] First, That I have in obedience to this admonition endeavoured to prove and justifie my practise, and the practise of the Church of England, not yet unbeautifull in her ruines, for the conviction or satisfaction of my brethren; and can perswade my selfe cheerfully that all that live in obedience to our persecuted Mother, or to the Universal Church of the purest ages, and are content to allow me the title of one of their brethren, will rest in some degree satisfied with this account, whose duty that it is to walk with me in things agreeable to the minde of Christ, I shall willingly acknowledge, and therefore hope, they will not think themselves obliged to separate at once from me, and the Church of England (that I say not the Apostolical, Primitive, Universal Church of God) in that; which is thus far cleared from being disagreeable to any thing revealed by Christ. Secondly, that till the practise have been convincingly proved to be erroneous or foolish (which the making of sixteen Quaeres is not at all apt, or probable to have done, without the annexation of weighty reasons against any thing possible to be affirmed by the defendent) It is an uncomely image of the inward p. 472part of the Author of the Quaeres, to blast the reputation of an Institution of the Ancient Church of God, and the Rule of his Reformed Mother, the Church of England, with that ugly style or character of befooling the people, and in plain words, that a little weight of reason doth better become our Christian Profession, then never so much, or never so little ill language. Thirdly, that as to this one, so to the rest of the practises of the Primitive Church, it must be observed, that what they then did, they did with so great consideration, and designs and weights of Piety, that no Christian that then lived, had any objection against them: And that some among us now have, it cannot be more charitably imputed, then to their great distance from, and ignorance of those reasons. Accordingly they that now know and consider the true reasons of them, do sincerely, and cannot but reverence their Institutions, and imitate their Practises. And when nothing but ignorance qualifies others to accuse them of folly, there is no danger of falling under that Censure before any tolerably wise Tribunal, but by being displeased, or thinking it strange, that men should do after their kinde, or that the old saying should have any truth in it (which it is so universally noted to have, that it is converted into a Proverb) that the ignorant p. 473man hath the inclosure, or priviledge to hate knowledge.

To the sixteenth or last [Whether in case §. 73 I return no answer to these Quaeres, he have not ground sufficient to conclude me utterly unable to give any rational account of my practise, now put upon it?] That the returning no answer to the Quaeres, is as unsufficient a ground to conclude all those (which make no such return) utterly unable to give any rational account of their practise, as it was an argument before setting pen to paper, that I was not able to write what I have now written, the negative arguing ab actu ad potentiam, being as far from concluding logically (that what any man doth not, he is utterly unable to do) as the affirmative is infallible, that I am able to give this account, because I have now done it.

And whosoever thinks fit to resume this §. 74 business into his consideration, and enquire any farther into this subject, may, if he please, be directed to this shorter way, to question or debate the truth or supposed certainty of some of his own principles; And for an essay or tryal to set this one question before him,

Whether it be not lawful for the Church, §. 75 either National, of one, or Universal, Two Quaeres.of all parts of Christendome, especially of that age which was nearest the Apostles, of the first and purest times, to take upon it p. 474to institute one or more dayes, upon any special occasion of some eminent mercy of Gods, toward the whole Church, to be used yearly in acts of Christian piety and charity by all the children of that Church, and to expect obedience from them? And whether that one Authority may not secure and justifie all from any crime of superstitution, &c. in case they shall think fit to yield this obedience?

§. 76 If to this question thus proposed, it be necessary to adde any other, it may most reasonably be this,

§. 77 Whether such an ancient Institution of the Church of Christ, by name the anniversary feast of Christs birth, though it be not affirmed to be commanded by Christ, or instituted by the Apostles, or (in it self considered, without respect to the Institution) absolutely necessary to the being of a Church, yet being thus (more then lawful) pious in it self, proper in respect of the ground, primitively Catholick if not Apostolick) in respect of the Institution, may be lawfully abolished by private men, without authority of the Church, or by any particular Church, without regard and reverence to the Universal, and for the Universal of this age, after so long observance, whether it be morally possible, that it should consent to the abolishing of that, which is founded on such Piety and Authority? Finally, Whether by any obligation p. 475of conscience it appear (not onelyonly lawful, but) necessary to be thus abolished (either as superstitious in it self, or as subject to abuses) on this onelyonly ground of truth, because the following dayes have sometimes been mis-spent in riot, &c. by some wicked men?

If these Questions may be thus propoposed, §. 78 it will be easie for any to satisfie himself (upon the grounds premised) of the truth of the Affirmative of the former, and Negative of the latter, and withall to secure himself that there need be no other question in this matter.

The End.