gloffes of the law; re have heard that it was faid by them of old, thus, and thus, but I fay unto you, Sc, as if the Son of God in checking the upftart antiquity, of a mil-grounded and unreasonable tradition, meant to condemn the truely-antient and commendable cuftomes of the whole Christian Church; which all fober and judicious chriftians are wont to look upon with meet refpect and reverence: And certainly whosoever fhall have fet down this resolution with himself to fleight thofe either inftitutions or practises which are derived to us from the Primitive times, and have ever fince been intertained by the whole church of Chrift upon earth, that man hath laid a fufficient foundation of Schifme and dangerous fingularity; and doth that which the moft eminent of the Fathers, St. Augustine, chargeth with no less then most infolent madneffe. For me and my friend, God give us grace to take the advice which our Savicur gives to his fpoufe, to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock, and to feed our Kids befide the Shepheards tents, (Cant. 1. 8.) and to walk in the fure paths of uncorrupt antiquity. For the celebration of the fo- lemn Feafts of our Saviours Nativity, Refurrection, Afcention, and the comming down of the Holy Ghoft, which you fay is cryed down by your zealous lecturer one would think there fhould be reafon enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which thofe dayes ferve to commemorate unto us; For, to inftance in the late feaft of the Nativity, when the Angel brought the newes of that bleffed birth to the Jewifh fhepheards, Behold, faith he, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for unto you is borne this day a Saviour. If then the report of this bleffing were the beft tidings of the greateft joy that ever was, or ever could be poffibly incident into mankind, why fhould not the com#memoration thereof be answerable? Where we conceive the greatest joy, what should hinder us to expreffe it in a jɔyfull 1feftivity.

But you are taught to fay, the day conferred nothing to the bleffing, that every day we fhould with equal thankfulneffe remember this ineftimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God, fo as a fet anniversary day is altogether needlefs; know then and confider, that the all wife God, who knew it fit that his People fhould every day think of the great work of the creation, and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian fervitude,and

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fhould

fhould daily give honour to the Almighty Creator and deliverer yet ordained one day of feven for the more fpecial recognition of thefe marvellous works;as well knowing how apt we are to forget thofe duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the defignment of a particular rememoration. Befides, the fame reafon will hold proportionably against any monethly or annuall celebration whatsoever; the fewes fhould have been much to blame, if they had not every day thankfully remembred the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody defign of cruel Haman, yet it was thought requifite (if not neceffary) that there fhould be two fpecial dayes of Purim fet apart for the anniverfary memorial of that wonderful prefervation: The like may be faid for the English Purim, of our November; it is well if, befides the general tye of our thankfulness, a precife day ordain'd by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulnefs to give God his own for fo great a mercy; fhall we fay now, it is the work of the year, what needs a day? As therefore no day fhould paffe over our head without a grateful acknowledgment of the great mystery of God incarnate; So withall, the wifdome of the primitive Church (no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghoft) hath pitched upon one fpecial day wherein we fhould intirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work, which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire.

But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day fince the feafon is litigious, uncertain, unknown, and in likelyhocd other then our December; and that it is purposely not revealed, that it may not be kept: As to the firft, I deny not, that the juft day is not certainly known: The great Saviour of the World that would have his fecond coming without obfervation going before it;would have his first coming without obfervation following it;he meant to come down without noife,without a recorded notice:Even in the fecond hundred (fo antient we are fure this feftivity is) there was queftion,and diffe-rent opinions of the feafon; the juft knowledg and determination whereof matters nothing at all to the duty of our celebration: Moft sure we are that fuch a day there was; and no leffe fure, that it was the happiest day that ever lookt forth into the world; it is all one to us whether this day or that; we content our felves with this, that it hath pleased the Church for many hundred years to or

dain this day for the commemoration of that tranfcendent bleffing; what care we to stand upon those twelve hours that made up the artificial day wherein this wonderful work was wrought? which we are fure cannot but be much changed by fo many intercalations fo long and conftant a practife of the chriftian church, upon fo holy grounds is no leffe warrant to us, then if an Angel from heaven should have revealed unto us the juft hour of this blessed Nativity.

As to the fecond, Surely whofoever shall tell you that God did purposely hide this day from us, that it might efcape a celebration, as he concealed the burial of Mofes to avoid the danger of an idolatrous adoration,makes himself a prefumptuous commenter upon the actions of the Almighty. Where did God tell him fo? Or what revelation can he pretend for fo bold an affertion? If this were the matter, why then did not the fame God with cqual caution conceal the day of the Paffion, Refurrection, Afcenfion of our bleffed Saviour, and of the defcent of the Holy Ghoft? the obfervation of all which dayes, is with no lefs vehemence and upon the fame danger cryed down by thefe fcrupulous perfons. Either therefore let him fay that God would have these other feaft dayes obferved because he would have them known to the world, or yield that he did not therefore conceal the day of the Nativity of Chrift, because he would not have it obferved.

But you hear it faid, There is popery and fuperftition in keeping that day; tell thofe that fuggeft fo, that they caft a foul flander upon the Saints of God in the primitive times, upon the holy and learned fathers of the Church who preached, and wrote for, and kept the feast of Chrifts Nativity with facred folemnity many hundred years before popery was hatched; and that they little know what wrong they do to religion and themfelves, and what honor they put upon that fuperftition which they profefs to dereft; in afcribing that to popery which was the mere act of holy and devour Christianity.

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But to colour this plea, you are taught that the mystery of iniquity began early to work, even in the very Apoftolick times, and that Antichrift did fecretly put in his claw, before his whole body appeared.

Surely there is fingular ufe wont to be made of this shift by those

which would avoid the countenance of all primitive authority to a ny difpleafing (how ever lawfull and laudable) inftitutions and practifes; So the Anabaptift tells us that the Baptizing of children is one of the timely workings of the mystery of iniquity; So the Blafphemous Nearrians of our time tell us that the mystery of the bleffed Trinity of perfons in the unity of one Godhead is but an ancient devife of Antichrift working under-hand before his formal exhibition. Every fest is apt to make this challenge; and therefore it behoves us wifely to diftinguish betwixt thofe things which Men did as good Chriftians, and those which they did as ingaged to their own private or to the more common intereft of others. what advantage can we conceive it might be to Antichrift, that Chrift fhould have a day celebrated to the memory of his bleffed Birth; and that devout Christians should meet together in their holy asfemblies to praise God for the benefit of that happy incarnation? and what other effect could be expected from fo religious a work, but glory to God, and edification to Men? who can fuppofe that the enemy of Chrift should gain by the honour done to Chrift? Away therefore with this groundless imagination; and let us be fo popith, fo fuperftitious as thofe holy Fathers, and Doctors of the primitive Church, famous for learning and piety, who lived and dyed devout obfervers of this Chriftian feftival.

But you are bidden to ask what warrant we find in the word of God (which is to be the rule of all our actions) for the folemn keeping of this day? In anfwer, you may if you please tell that queftionist, that to argue from Scripture negatively in things of this nature is fomewhat untheological; Ask you him again with better reason, what Scripture he finds to forbid it? for if it be unlawfull to be done which is not in Gods word commanded, then much rather that which is not there forbidden cannot be unlawfull to be done; General grounds of edification, decency, expedience, peaceable conformity to the injunctions of our fpiritual governors are in these cafes more then enough to build our practise upon. If it be replied that we are injoyned fix daies to labour, and forbidden to obferve dayes & times, (as being a part of the Jewish pædagogue, two common pretenfes wherewith the eyes of the ignorant are wont to be bleared) know that for the firft, it is not fo much preceptive as permiffive; neither was it the intention of the Almighty to inter

fperfe

sperse the command of humane affaires in the firft Table of his royall law, wherein himself and his fervice is immediately concerned; In fuch like expreffions, maist, and, fhalt are equivalent, and promifcuously used;that inftance is clear and pregnant Gen.2.16.The Lord, faith the Text, commanded the Man, faying, Eating thos fhalt eat of every tree in the Garden,which our laft verfion renders well to the fenfe, Thou maist freely eat of every tree in the Garden ; And if the charge in that fourth commandement were abfolute and peremptory, what humane authority could difpenfe with thole large fhreds of time which are ufually cut out of the fix daves for facred occafions? what warrant could we have.to intermit our work for a dayly lecture, or a monthly faft, or for an anniversary Fifth of November? and if notwithstanding this command of God, it be allowed to be in the power of Man, whether Soveraine (as Conftantine appropriated it) or fpiritual, to ordain the fetting a part of fome fet parcels of time to holy uses, why should it be ftuck at in the requiring and obferving the pious and ufefull celebrity of this feftivall?

As for that other fuggeftion of the Apoftles taxation of obferving dayes and rimes, any one that hath but halfe an eye, may fee that it hath respect to thofe Judaicall holy-dayes which were part of the ceremonial law, now long fince out of date; as being of typical fignification, and, fhadowes of things to come.

Should we therefore go about to revive thofe Jewish feafts, or did we erect any new day to an effentiall part of the worship of God, or place holiness in it, as fuch we fhould juftly incurr that, blame which the Apoftle cafts upon the Galatian, and Coloffian falfe-teachers.

But to wreft this forbiddance to a Chriftian folemnity which is merely commemorative of a bleffing received, without any prefiguration of things to come, without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day is no other then an injurious violence.

Upon all this which hath been faid, and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alledged to the contrary, I dare confidently affirm that there is no juft reafon why good Chriftians fhould not with all godly cherefulness obferve this, which that holy father ftyled the metropolis of all feafts; To which I add that those which by their example and doctrine fleight this day, caufing their people.

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