CHRISTMAS IN OVT OR OUR LORD SAVIOUR Christs Birth-Day To the Reader Good Joshua once ordain'd a Holy-Day Because the Sun stood still in Gibeon And at his Prayers that the Moon did stay His course above the Vaile of Aialon And shal not Christians stil give thanks praise On th' yearly day our blest redeemer came Shall Powder Treasons and thanksgiving dayes Be still observed in Records of Fame Then let not Christs Birth-Day forgotten bee Remember him that doth remember thee Thine JOHN TAYLOR LONDON Printed by T. H. for Francis Coles and are to be sold at his shop in the Old-Bayly 1653. Christmas or Christs Day or Christs Birth-Day INimitation of my great and glorious Lord and Master Jesus Christ in love to them that hate me I am come to them that love me not My Almighty Master was is and ever will be GOD from whom nothing was is or ever shall be hid and hed d not onely know but commiserate the miseries of his enemies most miserable mankinde to whom he had often sent his Partriarks Prophets and other Messengers of Peace and prosperity and how they were and should be entertained in the world God knew before and all Histories of the secred Volumes or other Books of Eclesiasticall Writings will testifie And as my good Master did know how coursely he should be dealt withall by misbelieving hard hearted Jewes yet he came on this Day from whom I have my name of CHRISTMAS or Christs Day Even so I come this 25. of December though I know I shall be hardly welcome to a great many yet I am sure that as many as love my Master will rejoyce to see this Day But as my sirname of Mas there is much exceptions taken by some that understand not what Mas or Christmas meaneth I have heard Learned men say that the word Mas doth signifie some heavy or ponderous thing as Massa is a Wedge of Gold or Iron or any thing that is pressed or made into a lump of any thick matter of Dough or Curds Cheese or such like but my sirname of Mas is mistaken for my name is Christi missi or Christ sent as being sent from God to us this Day Christ had his Mission he came not before he was sent as himselfe said to his Disciples He that believes in you believes in me and he that believes in me believes in him that sent me Here it is plaine that my Master was sent and as he was sent so he sent his Apostles and they gave mission to the succeeding Ministery and they that were sent went and none were so bold to intrude into the Ministery without his Mission or Commission of being sent and so much concerning my name of Christmas But I am more properly called Christs Day for he himselfe did honour me with that Name and though all dayes are his for as he is God he is the Antient of Daies for whem the Jewes did speak of ABRAHAM Joh. 8 56 My Master sayd Before ABRAHAM was I am for ABRAMAM saw my Day and rejoyced in it and was glad He appointed me to be the peculiar Day of his blessed Birth he was promised in Paradice foretold and foreseen by the Patriarks and Prophets proclaimed by Angels with Glory be to God in the highest peace on Earth good will towards men Luk. 11. 14 A Song or Christmas Carroll of three parts to God to Earth to Men Glory Peace Good will a gracious Consort sung by celestall Spirits Angels and a multitude of heavenly Souldiers they sung and rejoyced all for our good and not for their owne Then let men sing Psalmes and Anthems in Churches and Hymns and Carols in our Houses let us give glory to God on high and he will give us peace below Faith is very clear sighted for ABRAHAM was more than two thousand yeares before Christ came in the flesh yet with the Eye of Eaith he saw Me he saw my Master and my Masters day and rejoyced in it and his rejoycing was approved of but the Jews which rejoyced not were reprehended The holy Patriark rejoyced and Christ allowed it and he did dislike the unbelieving Jews that rejuyced not The Jewes did not and do not observe it but all Christians did doe and will celebrate it and acknowledge it for no Christian will strike blot or scrape Christs Day out of the Kallender The Prophet Isaiah did write of Christs comming 600 years before he came in these words Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and he shall call his name IMMANUELL or EMANUELL Esay 8. v. 14. And again in the 9. Chapter v. 6. For unto us a Child is borne and unto us a Son is given He is born and unto us a Son is given born of the blessed Virgin his Mother and given by Almighty God his Father a Child Natus a gift Datus Is borne Is given The Prophet saies not was borne and given but is which is ever in the present Tense Borne still in the heart soule and memory of every Christian He that Was and Is and Is to come Was borne a Child and is born a Child unto us Was given a Son and is given a Son unto us this Day of my Masters blessed Nativity In the second of S. Luke v. 10 11. Then the Angel said unto them be not afraid for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people a Saviour is born on this Day Christs Day Christs Birth-day my day Christmas day The Angel appeared to the Shepheards and told them newes of a Lamb the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World a Lamb that was come to save all the sheep of Israel that were lost and lost everlastingly we should have been had not this blessed Lamb come and redeemed us And as he was a Lamb so likewise he was a Shepheard the true Shepheard the chiefe Shepheard 1 Pet. 5. 4. the good Shepheard Joh. 10 11. 14. so we read that his Birth and Birth-day was first made knowne unto Shepheards Indeed Shepheards were in odious and contemptible abhomination amongst the Idolatrous Egyptians Gen. 46. 32. So was and is my Master Christs Name and Birth-day to the misbelieving Jewes miscreant Turke and Sectarian Schismaticall out-side seeming Christians This day he that was prophecied of to come did come and he that was promised is come an Angell preached at his comming and Qaires and multitudes of blessed Spirits sung when our Saviour came who was is and ever will be not only a Saviour but salvation it selfe He was the Word and the Word was God and God was the Word Here God the Word was a Childe a Babe an Infant and here the Word was not able to speak a word Joh. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us we saw the glory thereof as the glory of the onely begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth God sent his Son this day note
Capon were marks of the Beast In detestation of which superstitious diet they assum'd to themselvs spirituall and temporall jurisdiction power and authority to search and plunder Pottage-pots to ransack and rifle Ovens and to strip spits stark naked and triumphantly carry the pillage to be disposed of as they pleased for the profit and edification of the righteous and chastisement of the wicked As there are many sundry Nations so are there as many inclinations the Russian Polonian German Belgian are excellent in the Art of Drinking the Spaniard will Wench it the Italian is revengefull the French man is for fashions the Irish man Usquebagh makes him light heel'd the Welsh mans Cowss-boby works by infusion to his fingers ends and translates them into the nature of lime-twigs and it is said that a Scot will prove false to his Father and dissemble with his Brother but for an English man he is so cleare from any of these Vices that he is perfectly exquisite and excellently indued with all those noble abovesaid exercises I am old and bold to tell the nose wise Brethren of these critick daies that my great Master is King of Kings Lord of Lords who is the ancient of daies who never had beginning and never shall have end And on this day which is kept in a thankfull remembrance of his blessed incarnation 1652 years since I Christmas have not failed to make my aniversary yearly progress into Christendom When my Master Christ was graciously pleased to exchange his unexpressible grory for mans unsupportable misery when in his mercy he put off the Majesty of his God head and took upon him our miserable Manhood leaving his glorious Throne for a Maunger when he laid by his immortall honour and cloathed himselfe with our shame to free all true believers from eternall damnation Then on his daies birth my day began Then on that day and at that time as the Shepheards were in the field they were saluted with an Angel and a multitude of the heavenly Host with a most celestiall Carroll Luk. 2. All glory be to God on the High'st And on the Earth be Peace Good will towards men 't is the will of Christ Our joyes should never cease Thus was my good Master usher'd into the World and for his sake I with my followers being 12 daies in number honest Stephen true John with my Innocents Pages and all the rest have been welcom'd and joyfully entertained ever since by all sorts of people that have lov'd or do love and honour the memory of the birth-day of my gracious and glorious Lord and Master But now of late the case is quite altred Christ and Christmas are both alike welcome and if the Saviour of Mankinde should come personally here amongst us againe he were likely through ignorance malice and madnesse to be re-crucified if Christmas may be so bold as to aske those fiery spirited people the same question as my Master might have asked the Jews for which of my good works that I have done do you stone me So I may say to England what harme have I ever done unto you I am sure I never perswaded you to be so uncharitable as to cut one anothers throats and to starve and famish the poore as you have done continually and do still ever since you banished me from your territories and it is to be feared that you will never be quiet or have a happy Peace amongst you till you do give me better welcome for my Masters sake he is the Prince of Peace and his peace you will never have that do unthankfully dispise neglect to solemnize the day of his most blessed Nativity It is a lamentable and too long a story to relate in what a pittifull quandary I and my followers have been in any time these twelve years when we came into this Country I was in good hope that so long a misery would have made them glad to bid a merry Christmas welcome But welcome or not welcome I am come and at my comming a little before day I heard the Cock crow merrily which I took for a good Omen or Preface of a most free and joviall accommodation which rejoyced me much for I and my men were as hungry as Hawks and as cold as Snow-ball the sable curtains of the night being drawn I gazed to and fro to make choice of the best houses and house-keepers to take up my quarters amongst them but alas the comfort that I found was colder then the weather indeed I saw many stately buildings but very little smoak from the Chimnies for most of the owners did carry their Kitchins in Boxes and the best and dearest part of their Roast-meat in Pipes besides there was a great complaint that Mr. Tax and Mr. Plunder had plaid a long game at sweep-stake amongst them and that they would willingly have provided good chear for me but that they are so miserable poor that they were not able to feed themselves This was no good news to me and my company we had not been used to such uncomfortable breakfasts which made us all search up and down the chief Cities for better chear but my especiall mind was to try the curtesie of London where I entred a fair house which had been an Aldermans but it was now poffest with a grave Fox-fur'd Mammonist whom I found sitting over a few cinders to warm his gouty toes for no other part of him did need the comfort of a fire from head to heel he was fur'd like a Muscovite and instead of a Bible he had a Bond in his hand which he poard upon to see if it were forfeit or no he seldome looked upward but as it were riveted his eyes to the earth as if he had been looking for a Mine his keys of his treasure were hanged at his waste and his clutches alwayes on them and he no sooner espied me and my Company but he cried Thieves Thieves and reviled his poor starveling servant saying thou Villain hast thou let in base Rakehells to rob me and cut my throat Then I began to intreat him to be patient saying Sir there are none here that intend to hurt you if you take any harme it must be your selfe that must do it to your selfe and not we My name is Christmas these gray haired men that are with me are men of my old acquaintance they are all poor and true we are come to dine with you but if it be not your pleasure to give us entertainment it is not our purposes to force it This old muckworme cast as dogged a look upon me as if I had brought him a privy Seal to borrow money and at last he opened his mouth and said thou old faucy intruding fellow I prithee let me have thy absence thou commest to do nothing but mischief to make men waste and spend so much to entertain thee in twelve or thirteen days excesse of riotous Gluttony and Gurmondizing that for 12. moneths after they
who he was that did send and what it was that he sent He sent first to us that should in all humility have been Petitioners to him we were enemies to God to us he had sent often by his Messengers but this Day he sent his Son who was and is himselfe Therefore let our deserved misery and Gods undeserved mercy love and compassion be thankfully remembred this day and every day in all places times ages and generations This Day Mercy and Truth are met together and Righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other Truth shall flourish out of the Earth and Righteousnesse hath looked downe from heaven Psal 85. Here was a gracious and happy meeting here the Lord Chiefe Justice of Heaven and Earth brings justice truth and righteousnesse to judge and mercy and compassion to save here mercy shewed her selfe a good Mistris to misery This Day he came in clouts that will come in Clouds And without controversie great is the Mystery of godliness which is God is manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angells preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world and received up in Glory 1 Tim. 3. This was a great Mâ—stery indeed this was the summe and substance of all Tropes Types Figures Shadowes Sacrifices Ceremonies and the one and onely absolute fulfilling and accomplishment of all Prophesies And in the first Chapter to the Hebrewes verse 1 2 3. the Apostle saith And at sundry times and in divers places God spake in the old time to our Fathers by the Prophets in these last dayes he hath spoken to us by his Son Thus my Master who had no beginning did begin this day to come and dwell amongst sinfull men the Son of God the King of Glory came this Day and this Day was the first Day of Christianity to all Christians and as many as have true faith in Christ This was he to whom God the Father said Psal 2. Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee And this was he that in the same Psalme was prophesied to say Lord I wil preach thy Law and declare thy Will The Evangelist S. Luke saith Chap. 2. Ver. 12 13. And this shall be a sign unto you you shall finde the Babe swadled and laid in a Cratch some read â—t in a Manger Here is to be noted the great humility of my Master that though he were Lord and maker of all the first joyfull tydings of his birth was not brought to Princes and Potentates or to Scribes Pharisees Lawyers or Doctors but he was gratiously pleased to be first declared to poore and humble Shepheards and not to be borne in any magnificent or stately Palace or in the best room in the Inne No the Inkeeper had his Chambers filled with Guests more welcome and gainfull then Christ There was no room for him in the Inne therefore the Redeeme of mankind had entertainment in a Stable amongst Beasts swadled and laid in a Cratch Neither would he be borne in any great or glorious City Jerusalem had not the honour to be graced with the Birth and first presence of the Son of God in great Cities there hath ever been more misery than mercy and more persecution than pity therefore great Jerusalem was the place of his bitter death and passion and little Bethlehem was honoured with his birth as it was prophecied many years before by the Prophet Micah Chap. 5. in these words And thou Bethlehem Ephrathah are little to be among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that shall be the Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from the beginning and from everlasting And Heb. 2. 16. For he in no wise took the Angells but the seed of Abraham he took He took our nature in the seed of Abraham upon him the nature of Angells he took not He came this day to help us who had most need of a Saviour he gave to us not onely a dignity which he gave not to Angells but also he gave himselfe for us and sure we cannot take a safer or wiser course than thankfully with all humility to give our selves to him that gave himself for us My Master gave power to his Church to celebrate and to ordain and command the annuall celebration of his blessed Nativity I have twelve dayes to attend me and twelve moneths I do absent my selfe before I come again the kinde or course entertainment the courteous or churlish usage to me doth not or cannot increase or diminish my Masters glory or adde to me or take from me one minute of time if men could be as faithfull and charitable as Abraham as humble as David as milde and meek as Moses as zealous 〈◊〉 Elias as patient as Job as solicitous as Martha and as devout as the blessed Virgin Mary those gracious gifts have been are and will be a happinesse unspeakable to such as are by supernall grace endowed with them but the profit of them is onely theirs that have them for he that is rich in mercy cannot be inriched by the piety-vertue or merits of men so that every Christian may truly say Lord the great love thou beat'st to me is thine But all the profit of it's only mine So likewise if poore old Christmas day be made welcome I am not the richer or fatter if I be ill entertain'd I will neither be poorer or leaner Let them make me a feasting or fasting day all my joy or grief is not of long continuance I am but a short day and not far from the shortest day aâ—â— therefore their loves are but short to my Master that will not rejoyce and be glad at the comming of his anniversary Birth day The old yeare was before Christ when misbelieving Iewes and Gentiles lived in the darknesse of ignorant Idolatry under the Law or without the Law but the New yeare came when the Father of Lights sent my Master the Light of the world who by the glorious light of his Gospell expelled and dispersed the black clouds and mists of Egyptian blindnesse and devillish-Idolatry Therefore with the old year let is shake off our old faults the deeds of darkness and with the new yeare let us be renewed in our minds and follow the true light and amend our maners let our hearts be fill'd with praises thanksgivings before our bellies be overfill'd with meat There were lately some over-curious hot zealous Brethren who with a superbian predominance did doe what they could to keep Christmas day out of England they did in divers places Preach Me for dead in Funerall Sermons and labour'd tooth and nail to bury me alive in the grave of oblivion they were of opinions that from the 24. of December at night till the 7. of January following that Plumb-Pottage was meer Popery that a Coller of Brawn was an obhomination that Roast Beef was Antichristian that Mince Pies were Reliques of the Whore of Babylon and a Goose a Turkey or a