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
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
and hour of that last day and hour Omnem crede diem c. And doth not our Saviour himself tell us as much and forwarn us both in the 24. and 25. Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel Watch therefore for ye neither know the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh But whereas you say that God hides things on purpose from us to see whether we will do any thing on our own heads I perceive your meaning is that God hath so hidden and concealed the day of Christ's Birth from us to try whether we will celebrate and observe it or no as both you and others of your Fraternity have made the Comparison and vented and vaunted it in the Pulpit touching the body of Moses how God should bury it Himself in some secret place and keep it from the Knowledge of the Children of Israel lest they should worship and adore it So you would have the Remembrance of this day to be buried for ever and quite obliterated and forgotten lest we should commit Idolatry to it Now touching the body of Moses we know it was buried by God as appeareth Deut. 34.6 that no man should know where his Sepulchre was Therefore as learned Fulk answereth the Rhemists on the Epistle of Jude at the 9th verse It is like the Altercation and Combat that is there mentioned to be betwixt Michael the Archangel and the Devil about it was immediately before that time when the Devil desired to have the Body of Moses discovered that it might be abused to Idolatry as it alwaies hath been the practise of Sathan to persecute the Saints while they live and to make Idols of their Bodies when they are dead That ancient Father which wrote the Book De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae which goeth under the name of St. Augastine lib. 1. cap. 35. writeth thus of the body of Moses For two Causes as wise men say No man was privy of his death nor of his Sepulchre First That no man should see that face which had shined through the familiarity of the Lord's Speech unto him stricken down or dimmed with the heaviness of Death And then Secondly lest the People of Israel if they had known where his Sepulchre was should have adored it Wherefore as most men think he carried away with him the Rod wherewith he had done Wonders lest it should have been adored seeing the Children of Israel did afterwards adore the Serpent which he made But there cannot be the same reason for the burying of Christ's Birth-day as was for the burying of the Body of Moses It is but a lame Similitude neither can the Comparison be aequivaleut or any way co-incident or correspondent for Moses was but a Servant Christ a Son and the Servant abideth not in the House for ever but the Son abideth ever Joh. 8.35 Moses was a Type and Shadow Christ the Body and Substance the Shadow vanisheth but the Body and Substance remaineth Besides this the one was but a Man the other God even God and Man and shall that be counted Idolatry and Superstition which is a holy Worship and devout Service performed to the true God So that Moses must yield subscribe and give way to Christ when he is present the Law must depart out of the Conscience Isa 28.20 and leave the Bed which is so strait that it cannot hold two to Christ alone For the Law came by Moses but Christ hath put an end to the Law and so Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.16 i. e. Joy and Liberty and Freedom and Justification and Redemption for if the Son once shall make us free we shall be free indeed For there is a great Antithesis even a great deal of distance and difference betwixt Moses and Christ the Law and the Gospel the one being the ministration of Death Condemnation and the other the ministration of Righteousnesse and Life eternal 2 Cor. 3. And therefore I say to conclude this Point that this day is not so hidden and obscured from us but that the very dawning and breaking thereof is discovered and descryed For did not the heavenly Herald proclaim it in the fields of Bethlehem and did not the Shepherds find it to be true that very day according as the Angel had told them and shall we think that there were no Registers nor Records of it in that City wherein he was born and did not that Starr in the East signifying this Day-Star from on high coming to visit us did it not directly point the Wise-men to the place of his Birth Yea And Christ himself told the Jews of this his day Job 8.56 saying Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and rejoyced Hic Dies Domini uil aliud significat quà m Adventum Christi in carne This day of Christ saith Beza on that place in John signifieth nothing else but his first coming in the Flesh which many Prophets and Kings desired to have seen as well as Abraham for the Messias is called The desire of all Nations Hag. 2.8 of whom the Prophets enquired searching when or what time the Spirit which was in them should declare the Sufferings which should come to Christ and the Glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1.11 When Balaam had prophecyed of Christ There shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel Numb 24.17 he brake forth into this Passion Alass Who shall live when God doth this As if he should have said Happy men are they who shall see that glorious Star and Sun of Righteousness coming out of his Chamber as a Bride-groom giving light to such as sit in darkness and in the Shadow of Death Oh that thou wouldest break the Heavens and come down said the Prophet Isa 64.1 Good old Simeon looked long for this day and with an earnest desire waited for the consolation of Israel So did also Joseph of Arimathaea that honourable Counsellor great Friend and Well-wisher to Christ for he also himself was one of them who waited for the Kingdom of God Luk. 23.51 So did that ancient and reverend Father St. Augustine of whom it is reported that he wished he might have seen three things especially Rome in her Glory Paul in the Pulpit and Christ in the Flesh If the Queen of Sheba reputed the Servants of Solomon happy for that attending about his Throne 1 King 10.8 1 King 4.33 they heard his Wisdom difcoursing of Prees from the Cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall How blessed and happy then may we think were the Disciples of Christ in hearing a greater than Solomon Math. 12.4 and in seeing him who was fairer than the Sons of Men Psal 45.3 and in whom also are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Colos 2.3 Answer to the eleventh Argument In the Eleventh Objection you say It hath not been the Practise of Christian Churches to
of yours I mean the Fable and story you tell us of in your Saints Rest touching the raining down of Manna on the Leads of the Church at Bridgnorth when you preached there For some Gentlemen of worth in those parts have credibly reported it to be nothing else then the seeds of Hips and Hawes being the excrements of Rooks and Jack-dawes which they there had voyded Answer to the Twelfth Argument The twelfth Argument is this In all doubtfull Cases a Wise man ought to go on the surest side and I am sure it is no Sin not to keep it c. I Answer in this Allegation you seem to play the part of a Wise man but in my Opinion you are onely wise in your own conceit for my part this I am sure of First in respect that Christmas day being the day of our Lords Nativity is the Lords day Cant. 4.9 and by his spouse the Church is set a part to Gods publick worship and our Souls edification therefore it ought clearly to be esteemed above any other of the common Week dayes And for people on this day willfully and contemptuously to follow their ordinary though at other times lawfull vocations or Callings is in the first place a breach of the fourth Commandement for the day of Christs Nativity is a Sabboth or Rest to the Lord and God will have us to keep holy the Sabboth or Rest-day Next it is a despising Perk. cases of Consc l. 1. c. 5. Sect. 5. and dishonouring of their Mother the Church which whosoever are guilty of not onely sin against the fifth Commandment but by our Saviour himself we are Injoyned to account all such as Revolters from the Christian faith Heathen men and Publicans Matth. 18.17 Lastly it is a ground and inlet to the violation of all order and decency in Gods Service which is expressely condemned in Holy Scripture and if to break Gods Commandements 1 Cor. 14.40 to contemn his Churches Authority to become Heathens and Publicans and to overthrow all order and decency in Gods Services be sins and Offences to God Then must we conclude that not to keep this day must needs be a sin and that to work or follow our vocations on Christmas day is a great and high offence or indignity offered unto God and his Church And how then are you sure it is no sin not to keep it but that your erronious Conscience tells you so and yet is it so nice and tender on the other side you are not sure it is no sin to keep it this is the other part of your Dilemma for this is called in the Schools Syllogismus cornutus or Syllogismus Crocodilinus Well sat verbum Sapienti If a word to the Wise may serve the turn then will I answer you in a word for although you are perswaded and sure in your strong Conscience that it is no sin not to keep it yet we on the other side in our weak Consciences are perswaded that it is a sin if we keep it not And therefore if you remember the Apostle's rule is Let not the stronger Christian despise the weaker Rom. 13.3 4. especially in such a Case as this Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Who art thou then that judgest another man's Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind he that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks For none of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself for the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of Men. Let us therefore follow after the the things which make for peace and things wherewith we may edify another for meat destroy not the work of God all things indeed are pure but it is evil for that man who eateth with Offence It is good neither to eat Flesh nor to drink Wine nor any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak You see how wary the Apostle is to advise us in and for things indifferent not to be offended one with another but to use all good Christian moderation and discretion not to abuse our Christian Liberty to the Scandal and Offence of our weak Brethren Answer to the thirteenth Argument The thirteenth Argument is That this day ought not to be celebrated because there is more Sin committed in these 12 dayes than is in all the year following viz. in Drunkenness c. Oh Sir This Argument and your last are the least and the weakest of them all therefore I shal more easily answer them briefly conclude To this 13th I say as I did before The Abuse of a thing that in it self is lawful and good cannot justly abolish or take away the lawful Use of it For the best things that ever God created have been abused through Man's Corruption even the whole Creature is subject unto Vanity that is to Destruction because of Man's sin Rom. 8.20 The holy Temple of our God hath been prophaned and defiled and made a den of Theeves and a Cage of unclean Birds and a very Stable for Barbarous Souldiers Horses to Lodge in in these late uncivil Warrs the holy Sabbath of our Lord hath been polluted his Word and Sacraments abused Yea because the Scriptures are in some places somewhat hard to be underâ—â—ood therefore those that are unlearned and unstable do wrest them and perven them to their own Destruction 〈…〉 Pâ—â— 3.16 And because of this must the Scriptures be rejected and not perused Because the good Creatures of God are abuse 〈◊〉 some ungodly and wicked Miscreants therefore must the Creatures be refused seeing every Creature of God is good and nothing ought to be refused 1 Tim. 4.4 especially if it be received with thankfulness for iâ— is land â—â—ed unto us by the Word of God 〈◊〉 prayer The like may be said of 〈◊〉 Sanctuary of our God of the Sabâ—â—… 〈◊〉 the Sacraments for unto the 〈…〉 things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minds and consciences are defiled Titus 1.15 But you affirm and that peremptorily that there is more sinne committed in these Twelve Days than in all the year after in Drunkenness and Gluttony And how are you sure of this for it is impossible that you should prove this to be true Can God be more dishonoured
And from thence this Rod and this Power of his shall streth forth it self throughout all the World and this Power chiefly consisteth and standeth in the Preaching of his Word and by this Rod and by this Scepter of thy Kingdom which is a right Scepter be thou Ruler in the middest of thine Enemies thy People shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine Army in holy beauty i.e. by thy Word thy People shall be assembled into thy Church whose Increase shall be so abundant so plentiful and so wonderful as the drops of the Dew of the Morning For it is said The Youth of thy Womb shall be as the Morning Dew or as the ordinary Reading of the Psalm is In the Day of thy Power shall they offer thee Free-will-Offerings with a Holy Worship the Dew of thy Birth is of the Womb of the Morning Which howsoever some Interpret it of the Birth of Christ yet Junius and Tremelius do understand it to be innumera illa multitudo electorum quae comparebit in ecclesia tanquam stillans ros à coele sub auroram depluens That innumerable multitude of the Elect which shall be as visible and apparent and as abundant in the Church as the dew which distilleth from Heaven and lyeth on the face of the Earth in the morning as we know the Elect else-where in the Scripture are compared to the Starrs of Heaven Gen. 22.17 and to the sand which is upon the Sea-shore for multitude the Prophet Haggai hath also foretold of these things speaking of the peace and plenty and glory of the Church of God that should be by the Kingdome and coming of Christ Thus saith the Lord of Hosts saith he Yet a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land and I will move all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this House with Glory saith the Lord of Hosts The desire of all Nations shall come i. e. Christ for in Him are all things that can be desired and all Nations ought to look for and desire Him and therefore in this sense He is called Rex gentium the King of Nations because all Nations ought not onely to seek and desire Him Jer. 10.7 but also to serve Him and obey Him And doth not also the Prophet Zachariah say as much For he prophesied much about the time as Haggai did and was sent of the Lord to help him in the labour and to confirm the same Doctrine even when the time of the 70 years Captivity prophesied by Jeremiah was expired and he paralleleth or compareth that time of their deliverance from Captivity to this happy time of our spiritual deliverance from the thraldome and Captivity of Sin and Sathan saying Zach. 9.9 Kejoyce greatly O Daughter of Zion shout for joy O Daughter of Jerusalem Behold Thy King cometh unto thee He is just and having Salvation He is meek and lowly Riding upon an Asse and upon a Colt the foal of an Asse And I will cut off the Chariot from Ephraim and the Horse from Jerusalem and the Battle-bow shall be cut off and He shall speak peace unto the Heathen and His Dominion shall be from Sea even to Sea and from the River i. e. from the River Euphrates even to the Ends of the Earth Here is success enough if we observe it for His Dominion shall be from Sea to Sea that is from the Red Sea to the Sea called Syriacum and by these places which the Jews knew well enough he meant an infinite space and compass over the whole World As for Thee also i. e. as for Thee Oh Daughter of Zion and Daughter Jerusalem by the blood of my Covenant i. e. the blood of Christ Thou shalt be saved and by this blood I have loosed or I have sent forth the Prisoners out of the pit i. e. not the pit of purgatory or Limbus patrum as the Papists would have it understood but out of the bottomless pit of Hell wherein there is no water i. e. no Comfort no Cooling no refreshing at all for they that are there are alwayes scorched and tormented in these infernal eternal and unquenchable flames without any hope of ease or end at all as it may appear by the confession of Dives Turn ye then to the strong hold ye Prisoners of hope even to Day do I declare that I will render double unto Thee that is double Benefit and prosperity in respect of that which your Fathers enjoyed from David's time to the Captivity as some Interpâ—eâ— the place or as others think by double in that place may well be understood a double deliverance not onely a Temporal and Corporal but a Spiritual and Eternal deliverance no onely a deliverance from 400 years bondage in Egypt Act. 7.6 or from 70 years Captivity in Babylon but from the everlasting bondage Captivity and Thraldome of Sin and Sarban Wherefore comfort ye my People doth your God say by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah Isa 40.1 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto Her that Her warfare is accomplished i. e. That the time of Her affliction is ended and that Her iniquity is pardoned for She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins i. e. as some understand it sufficient correction for all Her sins insinuating that the Lord will afflict his People no more so long or so sharply because his Loving-kindness hath overcome his heavy displeasure so saith Jerome and Calvin the word double ought to be taken for enough or full as it is used by the same Prophet or as some interpret it Isa 61.7 double grace for double grief as Jerusalem had a double punishment one in her Soul another in her Body so now she shall have by Christ a double blessing vix in this World Collation of grace and in the World to come possession of glory or a double favour First in that her travail is ended Secondly For that her sin is pardoned or double that is as Vatablus and Arcularius expound it many benefits a certain number being put for an uncertain which is an usuall Hebraism in the old Testament for the sufferings of Christ are a sufficient propitiation for all her sins 1 Joh. 2.2 and for the sins of the whole World yea where sin abounded there grace super-abounded saith Paul Rom. 5.20 For that place in Esay before alleadged is a direct prophesie concerning the coming of Christ in the flesh and the happy success of this Day as both Musculus and Hyperius and Calvin do expound it and the coming of Christ in the Flesh you know is the consolation of Israel and comfort of Jerusalem for so it is called Luke 2.25 and this comfort the God of all comfort will have proclaimed unto Jerusalem by the mouth of all his Prophets and Preachers which have bin since the World began and so we find in holy Writ that he