What doest thou the spirit that rules in the Children of Disobedience But why may not we in this as well as several famous learned of later times who not only with the ancientest questioned it but shewed their Opinions against it Wolphius says The Taxing was not likely to be in Winter but Autumn Dan. 9. In the midst of the Week he made the Sacrifice to cease which ends in the moneth Nisan the first moneth when he suffered Wolphius proves the same by two Reasons He ended the Shadows at the time they began namely the Pasch Pentecost and that in the seventh moneth 2dly The Jews says he reckon he was born in such a year and in the beginning of it to be thirty years old at his Baptism Midleburgensis says The World was created in the Spring Equinox therefore it was meet the Restauration to be at that time resumed But saith Hospinian if those men that were near that Age knew it not why should we believe Midleburgensis Epiphanius or those that strive for December 25 And why should we this Author I have heard of some of late that have written of the Holiness of Places also but I have not seen any and that an eminent Man in the Church shew'd signs of Reverence to a Place where a Consecrated Fabrick had anciently stood As I remember I have read that Pauls in London was the Temple of Diana and Peters in Westminster of Apollo and so of several other Places And the Author of the History of the Church of Great Brittain G. G. writes That King Lucius here turned the Places of Arch Flamins of Heathenish Institution into so many Arch-Bishopricks as Pantheon at Rome into All-Saints Church and the Places of Twenty Eight Flamius or Jupiter 's Priests into so many Bishopricks and turned the Temples builded for the worship of Pagan Gods into Churches for the Service of Jesus Christ and that all the Possessions of the Heathen Flamins at Winchester were conferred on Donatus the Bishop and his Clergy there And as I remember Pope Gregory advised Austin to do the like among the Saxons So here is a very ancient Tradition for their Holy Places Seeing then they have made men trucle to be their Drudges Lackyes and Executioners for them and their Informers for their sacred Revenue as J. Selden calls Tythes in his History of them yet there blaming them that made the divine right of them their Plea to their Will-Worships of whose Original much might be spoke too large for a Letter and to their holy dayes and holy places as hath been here said What remains but that they proceed to their holy Garments as Cardinal Woolsey made the English Nobility bow to his Red Hat so they to their White Surplice the Ornament as Dr. Knewstubbs said of the Priests of Isis the ancient Aegyptian Goddess ancienter than the Children of Israel being in Aegypt as some say a very ancient Tradition and as old as that of their holy day unless by Saturn be understood Moloch or Bell the Son of Nimrod the Nephew of Cham an ancient Pedegree indeed of that Tradition and as ancient as any we read of unless that Cain's Offering as some are of opinion were Tythes or First Fruits as J. Selden writes in the beginning of his History of them and shews that some have gone about to prove it from the Art Cabalistical in the like number of the Letters of First Fruits and Tythes that is the highest we can go or rather the lowest in ferriting them in the Burrows Intrigues Labyrinths of their dark Traditions and there we leave them lest we lose ourselves What must they do that know nothing of History save the Scriptures and scarce them the good Protestant Plea Must they by an implicit Faith believe as the Church believes which they believe not to be the Church of God not keeping the Commands of God written in the heart to love God with all the heart and their Neighbour as themselves to do as they would be done to c. They that know nothing of History may justly suspect who was the Instituter of this Feast by observing who are the most zealous for it and whose service is done in it Christ's or Antichrist's The Interest bespeaks the Author So that some I remember have written of it That more solemn Service hath been done to Satan in the twelve days than in the whole year besides If the Kingdom of God consist in Meat or Drink or in respect of a Holy Day and mens Christianity must be judged by that we have Christians by the Belly And Bell must be a God for being a Belly-God But the Apostle's Admonition to the true Christian-Romans was Not in Gluttony and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness not in Strift and Envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it And whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do let all be done to the Praise and Glory of God I am thy Friend and all mens in the Truth Richard Richardson A few more Quotations for Confirmation of the fore-going Laertius in vita Plat. Plato's Birth-day the same with Apollo's as this Author saith was kept lately in Florence by the Medices Calend. vet Rom a G. Hewart Certain days for the Births of Mars Apollo Diana Minerva the Muses Hercules and other Gods observed T. Langley's Abridgment of Polyd. Virgil l. 6. c. 5. The manner of keeping holy Birth-dayes much used in Rome though in Persia first Ignatius 2 Epist ad Magn. mentions only the Commemoration of the Lord's Day forbids to sabbatize Jewishly but spiritually He was the Disciple of John If that was not his 't was later Augustine ad Januar. The Mercy of God would have the Church free He lamented that in his time the Conditions of the Jews seemed more tolerable subjected only to Legal Burdens not Human Traditions Lib. Concord cap. 14. At an Assembly of the Nobility and Clergy of the Protestants where three Electors were present agreed That all Ceremonies were left free And denyed all that thought them either to be imposed or submitted to when imposed in condescension to Persecutors THE END
year so it should be a continual Feast as a good Conscience is if the Kingdom of God consisted in meat and drink which the Apostle saith it doth not but in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost I have read in several of the Fathers as Chrysostom Jerom Theodoret Euthymius That God indulged several things to the Jews as to Children to bring them off from Idols and from performing them to Idols as in this of Feasts because they loved Belly-Chear God suffered them to be done to himself in their own respect not his who took no Pleasure in them Ps 50 51. And on that of the Prophet Spake I a word of Sacrifices c. only obey my Voice Rabanus Lyra note on Jer. 7. Isa 66. That Ordinances concerning such things were not given till after they had worshipped the Golden Calf as they had learned of the Egyptians and sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play But Christ put an end to such things when the time was come that God sought such to worship him as did it in Spirit and Truth and not their own Bellies He appointed no Worship then with Feasting nor with Fasting And as for the Types of the Paschal Lamb c. he fulfilled put an end to them all that Priesthood with its Rites He commanded to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar 's and to God the things that are God's And he gave Tribute to Caesar though free and his Apostle Therein we have his Example too as well as God's Command to the Jews to live quietly under Nebuchadnezzar But neither commanded to give to them the Honour due to himself to appoint his Worship for him Must God be at Man's Courtesie CHRIST placed in their PANTHEON as those called the Fathers reasoned with them of old who consecrated them for Gods whom themselves pleased and appointed Feasts and Temples for them God appointed his own Worship in the Law and left it not to Man to appoint it much less in the Gospel when it is promised Ye shall be all taught of God And he appoints his own Ministers whom he pleaseth not Man He saith In vain do ye worship me teaching for Doctrines the Traditions or Commands of Men. It hath been accounted a good Protestant Plea to argue from the Scripture negatively There is no Command in the Scripture nor Example that I remember besides Herod's to keep a Birth-day neither therein doth the Time thereof appear Though some of the Ancients would seem to prove it from Luke 1. Luke 1 5. compared with 1 Chr. 24 13. upon mistake of Zacharias's being High Priest wherein the Uncertainty of the Testimony of the Fathers alone doth appear who as Scaliger sayes concluded thereupon against the Scriptures that to be the time from the High Priests time of burning Incense whereas it appears plainly there that Zacharias was of the 8th course to burn Incense in his course in the Temple only And on that Error Scaliger saith whom the Learned call The great Critick of Times depended the Institution of the 25th of December not before the year 400. But there 's more ground or argument from Luke 1.26 that it was not at that time but in Summer or about the time of his Suffering according to what Clem. Alex. sayes of the Eastern People Aegyptians Arabians c. If the sixth Moneth there spoken of was the sixth Moneth of the Year as well as of Elizabeth as the Language of the Scripture is of the Fathers according to the Jews reckoning And the Rule in Interpretations is according to Bp. Andrews on Comm. In ambiguis utrumque Both Senses to be taken when analogy of Faith will all on it as it will here And if those that Clemens Alex. speak of did conclude from hence though uncertain yet 't was more safe than for the other to conclude upon a certain falshood But that as the Author excuses it The Fathers using the Scripture Language and Jews Manner in the numerical Title of the Moneths as we do wherein he has given us Authority from the Fathers as well as Scriptures for naming the Moneths not after the Heathenish manner and Names of their Gods that they should thereby mistake the 9th moneth of the Egyptians for the 9th moneth of the Jews is as credible as the other Miracles that they should mistake Summer for Winter as aforesaid and both are Arguments against the constant Tradition of it Some will say What a business 't is to keep a Day in Remembrance of Christ without Scripture-proof And we say What a business they make of it without Scripture and therefore in Point of Worship against it according to the Protestants as afore so as to abuse People about it in honour of it The Protestants at the Council of Basil maintained That if Monkery was not of God 't was of the Devil Comenius Schlavon Hist so said Luther of the Pope And what a business might some say to bow the Knee to Christ's Image to take his Body as they thought in a Wafer Cake in their Mouth Were those stubborn and wilful people that would rather be burnt than do it in Q. Mary's dayes What a matter 't was thought the Greeks for the Jews to take a piece of Flesh in their Mouth to escape Death in the Maccabees and for the Children in Daniel to seed of the King's Meat and Drink The Commands of Men seem light to them that know not or regard not the Commands of God But we say as the Apostles did 'T is better to obey God than Man Some will say It gives Offence so did the Preaching of the Cross to Jew and Gentile Not to offend God is no Offence given to Man but taken by Man To have a Conscience void of Offence towards God and Man was Paul's Exercise and so 't is ours yet he did not forbear to obey God nor did the other Apostles because Men took Offence at it and thought they did God Service in Killing them the Jews were mad against Paul for teaching the Gentiles not to observe their Law though it was commanded by God as the Temple was as these Traditions never were but by the Pope their Lord God as the Canonists call him which makes them so mad against us as threatning to burn us Never did Protestants use to threaten to burn Papists for not keeping the Pope's holy dayes Never were Sheep known to worry Wolves who are distinguished by their bloody Chaps as Chrysostom notes though they may get on Sheeps Clothing Christ gives a plainly discerning difference By their Fruits ye shall know them whether they be Thorns and Thistles for they bear Prickles Christ notes his Sheep by hearing his Voice others hear only mens voices And he says They are a Little Flock but the Nations and National Worshippers are Multitudes All the World wonders after the Beast and say Who is able to contend with him to disobey him or say
The Substance of a LETTER occasioned by a Discourse of the Time CALLED CHRISTMAS From an ABUSE on it L. N. I Have in mind thy Friendly Visit after our Dirty Abuse and thy Admonition seasonable as thou it may be thought'st for the future But as for the Apostolical Tradition of Christmas which thou saidst thou hadst read in several Authors I am so unsatisfied in it that I have a Desire to obtain the sight of one of them for I love to read a Piece that does say the utmost 'T is a Maxim None would be Deceived I am sure I would not and would not have others I have read some of the most learned Antiquaries and Chronologers concerning it Our Country-man J. Selden speaks as much for it I think as can be in a Treatise of it under his Name and more than may be shewing more Reading than Ingenuousness or Ingeniousness through Inconsistency and so no Genuinness in the Treatise obvious to a mean Understanding For though such Authors Antiquaries like Travailers think they may Lye by Authority because few can contradict them yet many may when they contradict themselves yea almost any For owning J. Selden's Assertion in his Review viz. That in the Eastern Church the Celebration of that Day was not received on the 25th of December till the ancient Tradition of it was learned from the Western about four hundred years after Christ This Treatise to vindicate him from inclining to the Puritan reels quite over the Protestant and for fear of the Brand of their hot Brain as he saye he leaps into the Purgatory of the Popish Tenet of the inherent Holiness of the Exact time and that upon the Ground of unwritten Tradition which he gives no Reason for not being first known in the Eastern Church as well as the written which Absurdity implies a Contradiction And he shews no Author in the first four hundred years before the institution of it that mentions it But Clemens of Alexandria where was a Patriarchal Church being in the East where the Church Cycles were kept wherein there is no Rule for this Epicycle nor gives this Treatise any why it should be retrograde from Rome thither he taxeth them of Curiosity that pretend to know either the Day the Moneth or the Year of Christ's Birth and speaks of two Opinions about it falling both in Summer Time And this Clemens lived about Eighty Years after the Apostle time If all the Eastern Churches had slept all that time they would as they Story of the Seven Sleepers at their awaking have remembred surely whether they had kept it in Summer or Winter seeing the Tradition of it which the later Fathers write of was on the Winter Solstice-Day that is Two Weeks before the time wherein it is now observed which is another Contradiction to say That the Exact time of the Birth only is sacred which was at the Solstice and yet say That the Tradition of that Day as it is now kept through all Christendom is both Apostolical and as Ancient as the Birth it self whereas the Julian and Gregorian Account of it differ Ten Dayes one from another and both differ from the True Account according to Astronomy Can all these three be the Exact Time especially ours of the Dionysian Account which makes as Scaliger shews the Birth of Christ to have been Two Years after Herod's Death who sought his Life Or can the very Name of the 25th of December though not the Exact Time make it sacred by inherent Holiness in the Time He calls Cardan Impious for tying the Mystery of the Sacred Time to the Rules of Astrology and yet tying it himself to the Rules of Astronomy which he confesses Uncertain another Contradiction and to the Course of the Sun only and not also of the Moon as well as the Passion Day about the Time of which all Christendom was in Broiles and Excommunicating one another Concerning which he saith Peter and James and John teaching at Alexandria taught Mark Bishop there the true Time of that Feast Did the Apostles then conspire to carry away the Tradition of the Birth Day so closely from Mark to Rome Why was it that Peter's Successor there should teach Mark 's Successor the Exact Time four hundred years after to shew the Pre-eminence of that Sea Must that Feast alone be retrograde in their Divinity grounded on Astronomy And was it Apostolical and from the Birth it self before Apostles were and before some of them were in being a Miracle beyond the Papists to confirm his Popish Tenet Did his Brethren that despised him the Carpenter keep it from his Birth or his Father reputed and Mother to whom he was obedient keep it contrary to their Fathers Examples and their Account after the Example of Herod the Idumean and the Romans and their Account as it is now and as he sayes it was who as Polydore Virgil sayes received that Custom from the Persians of Observing Birth-dayes As this man doth from the Example of those that kept the Birth-dayes of Philosophers Princes and Heathen Gods saying Therfore he that scruples it to Christ deserves not the Name of a Christian But then he should have shewn that the Apostles got that Name upon that account and that they sacrificed Men to him also as the Heathen did here in Brittain and else-where to their Gods and what not for one will follow as well as the other from that Reason of his and so did many things else as Hospinian shews who disputes this Point largely against Bellarmine which this man takes for granted namely the Sacredness of Times not by Institution but of themselves by Inherence taking no notice of him nor of the Answers of Protestants to his Testimonies for unwritten Tradition only he mentioning him amongst those Learned Men that oppose the Day as Beroald Paulus de Midleburgo Susliga Jos Scaliger Kepler Wolphius Lidiat Calvisius Casaubon c. But he sayes he did it according to Instructions It seems he had not a mind to it but as aforesaid for the Times turning it lay by him Twenty Years it may seem when it should in its way have informed Opposers if ingenuous or genuine and for any thing that appears by the Edition 1661. without his direction came out to countenance the Times when it was like to be pecuniary seven years after his Death which Characters were usually urged against Supposititious Pieces as against the Constitutions of Clement c. There was something in it also increasing the Suspition that he being a Lawyer inclining to the Magistrates Power about Religion with the Erastians as appeared in his History of Tythes and the Assembly of Divines should yet here take the Plea of some Divines for the Sacredness of this and glad of such a Divinity that 's but grounded on Astronomy For he sayes That Peter and Mark an Hundred Years after Christ's Birth grew better Astronomers and settled Easter It is a Wonder then they settled not this other too but