Vera Effigies Reverendi Doni. Josephi Hall Norwici nuper Episcopi    

A LETTER Concerning Christmas; Sent to a Knight in Suffolk: By that Reverent Father in God Dr. JOSEPH HALL, late Lord Bishop of NORWICH.  
London, Printed by E.C. for Fran Grove, dwelling on Snow-hill. 1659.   

To the Reader.  
I Here present you with a true copy of a Letter sent by Dr. Joseph Hall, late of Norwich Bishop, to the Right worshipful Sir John Wentworth Knight, in Suffolk; And this Javerre to be Transcribed by me John Smith from the Bishops own hand-writting, and I wish it as good success as St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians had (that you may not read it with prejuduce) that ye sorrow Godly, So that in nothing ye be hurt thereby. And rather than this so worthy a Letter should have been obscured ● one family I have ventured it to the public; that they may save the good that was meant to my Noble Friend and Kinsman before mentioned, and that that humble and meek Author (and Saint now in Abrahams-bosom; might have his due of all.  
Now the Lord grace us with all spiritual Blessings, till he bring us to Glory the perfection of Grace; for the attainment of which, together with all External Prosperity, and Temporal felicity in this life, You shall never want the instant Prayer of,  
John Smith, Gent.   

A Letter Concerning Christmas, sent to a Knight in Suffolk.  By that Reverent Father in God Dr. JOSEPH HALL, the late Lord Bishop of NORWICH. 
Sir, with my loving Remembrance, &c.  
IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian, to see Zealous and well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers, to a contempt of all holy and Reverant antiquity; and to an eager affectation of Novel Fancies, even whilst they cry out most utterly against Innovation; when the Practice and Judgement of the whole Christian World, even from the days of the blessed apostles to this present Age, is pleaded, for ●●y form of Government, or Laudable Observation, they are straight taught That old things are passed, and that all things are become new; making their word good by so new, and unheard of an Interpretation of Scripture, whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church, a new Gospel, a new Religion, with the annulling of the Old; and that they may not want an all-sufficient Patronage of their fond conceit, our blessed Saviour himself is brought in, who in his Sermon on the Mount controlled the antiquity of the Pharisaical glosses of the Law. Mat. 5.21, 27. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old, thus and thus; but I say unto you thus & thus, & as if the Son of God in checking the upstart Antiquities of a misgrounded & unreasonable tradition, meant to condemn the truly ancient and commendable customs of the whole Christian Church, which all sober and judicious Christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence: and certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to slight those, either Institutions or Practices which are derived to us from the Primitive Times, and have ever since been entertained by the whole Church of Christ upon earth, that man hath laid sufficient foundation of schisms and dangerous Singularities: And doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers St. Augustine, chargeth with no less than the most insolent madness, Insolenti sini est, &c. For me and my Friends, God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gave his Spouse, To go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and to feed our Kids besides the shepherd's Tents, Canticle 1.8 And to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt Antiquity, for the celebration of the Solemn Feast of our saviour's Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost, which you say is cried down by your Zealous Lecturers: One would think these should be reasons enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits, which those days serve to Commemorate unto us; for (to instance in the said Feast of the Nativity) when the Angel brought the news of that blessed Birth to the Jewish shepherds: Behold (saith he) I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people; for unto you is born this day a Saviour, Luke 2.10. If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was, or ever could be possibly incident unto mankind, why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable: where we conceive the greatest joy, what should hinder us to express it in a joyful Festivity; but you are taught to say the day conferred nothing on the blessing: that every day we should with equal thankfulness remember this inestimable benefit of the Incarnation of the Son of God. So as a set Aniversary day is altogether needless. Know then and consider, that the all-Wise God, who knew it fit that his people should every day think of the great work of the Creation, and of that miraculous Deliverance of the Egyptian servitude, and should daily give honour to their Almighty Creator and Deliverer; yet ordained one day of seven for the more special Recognition of these marvellous works, as well knowing, how apt we are to forget those Duties, wherewith we are only encharged in common, without the designment of a particular renumeration: Besides, the same reason will hold proportionable against any monthly or annual Celebration whatsoever: The Jews should have been much to blame, if they had not every Day thankfully remembered the great Deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman: yet it was thought requisite, if not necessary, that there should be two special days of Purim set apart for the Aniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation, the like may be said for the English Purim of November. It is well in besides the general tye of our thankfulness, a precise Day ordained by Authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy: Shall we say it is the work of the year, what needs a day? As therefore no Day should pass over our heads without a grateful acknowledgement of the great mystery of God Incarnate: So withal the wisdom of the Primitive Church, no doubt but by the Direction of the Holy Ghost hath pitched upon one special Day wherein we should entirely devote our thoughts to the Meditation of this Work which the Angels of Heaven cannot enough admire. But we are told, that perhaps we miss of the Day, since the Season is Litigious, uncertain, unknown, and in all likelihood other than our December, and that it is purposely not revealed, that it may not be kept.  
As to the first, I deny not that the just Day is not certainly known, the great Saviour of the World, that would have his second coming without observation going before it, would have his first coming without observation following it: he meant to come down without noise, without a recorded notice, even in the second hundred so ancient we are sure this Festivity is. There was question and different opinions of the season, the just knowledge and determination whereof, matters nothing at all to the duty of our celebration; most sure we are that such a day there was, and no less sure that it was the happiest day that ever looked forth into the World: It is all one to us, whether this day, or that, we content ourselves with this, that it hath pleased the Church for many hundred years to ordain this day for the Commemoration of that transcendent blessing, what care we to stand upon these 12. hours that made up the Artificial day wherein this wonderful work was wrought, which we are sure cannot be much changed by so many intercalations, so long and constant a practice of the Christian Church upon so holy grounds, it is no less warrant to us, then if an Angel from heaven should have revealed unto us the just hour of this blessed nativity.  
As to the second, Surely, whosoever shall tell you, that God did purposely hide this day from us that it might escape a Celebration, as he concealed the burial of Moses to avoid the danger of an Idolatrous Adoration, makes himself a presumptuous Commentator upon the Actions of the Almighty; when did God tell him so? or what Revelation can he pretend for so bold an assertion? If this were the matter, why then did not the same God, with equal caution conceal the day of the Passion, Resurrection, & Ascension of our blessed Saviour, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost, the Observation of all which Days, is with no less vehemency, and upon the same danger cried down by these scrupulous persons; either therefore let him say that God would have these other Feast days observed because he would have them known to the World, or yield that he did not therefore conceal the day of the Nativity of Christ, because he would not have it observed.  
But you hear it said, there is Popery and Superstition in keeping that Day. Tell those that suggest so, that they cast a foul slander upon the Saints of God in the Primitive Church, upon the Holy and Learned Fathers, who Preached, and wrote so, and kept the Feast of Christ's Nativity; which sacred Solemnity many hundred years before Popery was hatched, and that they little know what wrong they do to Religion and themselves, and what honour they put upon that Superstition which they profess to detest, in ascribing that to Popery which was the mere act of holy and devout Christians.  
But to colour this Plea, you are taught that the mystery of Iniquity began early to work, even in the very Apostolic Times; and that Antichrist did secretly put in his claw before his whole body appeared. Surely there is a singular Use wont to be made of this shift by those which would avoid the countenance of all Primitive Authority, to any displeasing (however lawful and laudable) Institutions and practices: so the Anabaptiss tells us, that the baptising of Infants is one of the timely workings of the mystery of Iniquity; so the blasphemous Nestorians of our time tell us that the mystery of the blessed Trinity of persons in the unity of one Godhead, is but an ancient device of Antichrist, working under hand before his formal exhibition. Every sort is apt to make this Challenge, and therefore it behooves us wisely to distinguish betwixt those things which men did as good Christians, and those which they did as engaged to their own private, or to the more common Interest of others: What advantage can we conceive it might be to Antichrist, that Christ should have a day celebrated to the memory of his blessed Birth, and that devout Christians should meet together in their Holy Assemblies, to praise God for the benefit of that happy Incarnation: And what other effect could be expected from so Religious a Work, but Glory to GOD and Edification to Men? Who can suppose that the enemy of Christ should gain by the honour done to Christ? Away therefore with this groundless Imagination, and let us be so Popish, so Superstitious, as those holy Fathers, and Doctors of the Primitive Church, famous for Learning and Piety, who Lived and Died devout Observers of this Christian Festival.  
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 solemn keeping of this Day? In answer you may tell that Questionist, that to argue from the Scripture Negatively in things of this nature is somewhat Untheological. Ask you him again with better reason, what Scripture he finds to forbid it, for if that be unlawful to be done, which is not in God's Word commanded▪ then much rather that which is not there forbidden, cannot be unlawful to be done: general grounds of Edification, Decency, peaceable Conformity to the Injunctions of our Spiritual Governors, are in these Cases more then enough to build our Practice upon: If it be replied that we are enjoined six days to Labour, and forbidden to observe days and Times as being part of the Jewish pedagogy (two common pretences with which the eyes of the Jgnorant are wont to be bleared) know that for the first, it is not so much Preceptive, as Permissive, neither was it the intentions of the Almighty to interpose the command of human affairs in the first Table of his Royal Law, wherein himself and his Service is immediately concerned, in such like expressions; mayst, and shalt, are equivalent and promiscvously used, that instance is clear and pregnant, Gen. 2.16. The Lord, (saith the Text) commanded the man, Saying, Eating thou shalt eat of every Tree in the Garden, which our last Version renders well to the sense: Thou mayst freely eat of every tree of the Garden. And if that charge in the 4th. Commandment were absolute and peremptory, what human Authority could dispense with those large threads of Time, which we usually cut out of the six days for Sacred occasions, what warrant could we have to intermit our work for a daily Lecture; or a monthly Fast, or for an Aniversary Fifth of November; And if notwithstanding this command of God it be allowed to be in the power of man, whether sovereign (as Constantine appropriated it) or Spiritual, to ordain the setting of some set parcels of time to holy uses, why should it be stuck at in the Appropriating and Observing the Pious and useful Celebration of this Festival. As for that other suggestion of the Apostles taxation of observing Days and Times; any one that hath but half an eye may see that it hath respect to those Judaical Holy days, which were part of the Ceremonial Law, now long since out of date, as being of Typical signification, and shadows of things to come, should we therefore go about to revive those Jewish Feasts, or did we erect any new day to an essential part of the worship of God? or place holiness in it as such? We should justly incur that blame which the Apostles cast upon the Galatians and Colossians, False Teachers; but to wrest this forbiddance to a Christian solemn Purity, which is merely commemoration of a blessing received, without any prefiguration of things to come, without any opinion of holiness annexed to the day, is no other then injurious violence.  
Upon all this which hath been said, and upon a serious weighing of what ever may be further alleged to the contrary, I dare confidently affirm that there is no just reason why good Christians should not withal godly cheerfulness observe this, which that holy Father styled the Metropolis of all Feasts, to which I add that those, which by their Example and Doctrine slight this Day, causing their People to dishonour it with their worst clothes, with shops open, with servile works, stand guilty before God of an high and sinful contempt of that lawful Authority under which they live; for as much by the Statutes of our Land made by the full concurrence of King and State: This is commanded to be kept holy by all English Subjects, and this power is backed by the charge of God; Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.  
If now after all this I should let my Pen lose to the suffragant testimonies, whether of Antiquity, or Modern Divines, and Reformed Churches, I should tire your patience, and instead of a Letter send you a Volume, let it suffice, that ever since the second 100▪ years after Christ, this Feast hath without contradiction obtained due respect in the Church of God, & received many noble eulogies and passionate enforcements from the Learned and holy Fathers of the Church, amongst the rest that of Gregory Nazianzen [in his Orations upon the Day of the Nativity of Christ] is so remarkable, that I may not omit it, as that which sets forth the excess of joyful respect wherewith the Ancient Christians were wont to keep this day. Let us saith he, Celebrate this Feast, not in a Panegyrical, but Divine, not in a worldly, but supersecular manner: not regarding so much ourselves, or others; as the worship of Christ, and how shall we effect this? not with Crowning our doors with Garlands, nor leading of Dances, nor adorning our Streets, not by feeding our eyes, not by delighting our ears with pleasant Songs, not by effeminating our smell with perfumes, not with humouring our taste with dainties, not with pleasing our touch, not with silken & costly clothes, and not with the sparkling Jewels, not with the luster of Gold, not with the artifice of counterfeit colours; let us leave these things to Pagans; for their pomp, &c. But we who adore the word of the Father, if we think fit to affect delicacies, let us feed ourselves with the dainties of the Law of God, and with those Divine Discourses, especial which are fitting for this present Festival. So that Learned and eloquent Father to his Auditors of Constantinople, where to, let me (if you please) have leave to add one or two practical instances, one shall be of the good Emperor Theodosius, lying now for eight months under the severe Censure of Bishop Ambrose when the Feast of the Nativity drew near, what moan did that Religious Prince make to his Courtiers, that he was by that resolute Bishop shut out (for his bloodguiltiness) from partaking with the assembly in that holy Service, and what importunate means did he make for his admission, Hist. tri. partit. lib. 9 cap. 30. Had that gracious Emperor been of the Diet of these our new Divines he would have slighted that repulse, and gladly taken this occasion of absense from that Superstitious Solemnity, or had one of these grave Monitors been at his elbow, he might have saved that pious Prince the expense of many sighs and tears, which now he bestowed upon his abstention from that dearly affected Devotion. The other shall be a History of as much note, as horror, too clear a proof of the ancient Celebration of this Feastival, it was under the tyranny of Dioclesian, and his copartner Maximinus, Nicephor. 1.7. ca. 6. that 20000 Christians met to Celebrate the Feast of this Nativity in the large Church of Nicomedia, which were made an Holocaust, and burned together with that goodly fabric to ashes on that day; Lo so great a multitude as 20000 Christians of all ages, of both Sexes, had not thus met together in a time of so mortal danger, to celebrate this Feast, if the holy Zeal of their duty had not told them they ought to keep that day, which these Novellers teach us to contemn.  
Now let these bold men see, of how contrary a disposition they are to those, blessed Martyrs, which as this day sent up their souls (like Manoah's Angel) to Heaven in those flames.  
After thus much said, I should be glad to know (since reason there can be none) what Authority induces these gainsayers to oppose so ancient & received a custom in the Church of God; you tell me of a double Testimony cited to this purpose, the one of Socrates the Historian, which I suppose is fetched out of the 5th. Book of Eclesiastical Story Chap. 21. where upon occasion of the Feast of Easter, he passeth his Judgement upon the indeffrent nature of all those ancient Feasts which were of use in the Primitive Times, showing, that the Apostles never meant to make any Law for the keeping them, but left men to the free observation thereof.  
For Answer whereunto, I do not tell you that this Author is wont to be impeached of Novatianism, and therefore may seem fit to yield Patronage to such a client; I rather say, that take him at the worst, he is no enemy to our opinion, or Practice, we agree with him that the Apostles would have men free from servitude of the Jewish observation of days, that they enacted no Law for set Festivals, but left persons and places so to their liberty in these Cases, that none should impose a necessity upon others; this were to be pressed upon Victor Bishop of Rome, who violently obtruded a day for the Celebration of Easter upon all Churches (supposing in the mean time an Easter universally kept of all Christians, though not on the same day.) This makes nothing against us, who place no Holiness in the very hours, nor plead any apostolical injunction for days, nor tie any person, or Church to our strict calendar, but only hold it fit out of obedience to the Laws both of our Church and Kingdom, to continue a joyful Celebration of a memorial Day to the honour of our blessed Saviour: But that other Authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose, I confess doth not a little amaze me: it was, you say, of K. James our Learned sovereign of late & blessed memory, whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people (not without the just applause of a Solomon-like-wisdom) as crying down these Festivals: and in a certain Speech of his applauding the purity of the Church of Scotland above that of Geneva, for that it observed not the common Feasts of Christ's Nativity & Resurrection, &c. Is it possible, that any mouth could name that wife and good King, in such a cause, whom all the world knows to have been as zealous a Patron of these Festivals, as any lived upon earth; and if he had let fall any such Speech before he had any Down upon his chin, & whiles he was under the Ferule, what candour is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience, and riper judgement: Nay, is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journey into his Native Kingdom of Scotland, to reduce that Church into a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these Solemn days, and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth. [one of the 5. Articles of Perth] And wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain, Dr. Young Dean of Winchester, to recall and re-establish these Festivals. And accordingly in pursuance of his majesty's earnest desires this way, was it not enacted in that Assembly, that the said Feasts should be duly kept? Doubtless it was, & that not without much wise care & holy caution, which act because it cannot be had everywhere, and is well worthy of your notice: and that which clears the point in hand, I have thought good here to insert: The tenor of it, therefore is this, As we abhor the superstitious observation of festival days by the Papist: and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof, by the common sort of professors, so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ's Birth, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and sending down of the Holy Ghost, was commendably and godly remembered at certain particular days, and times, by the whole Churches of the World, and may be also now; therefore the Assembly ordains that every Minister shall upon these days have the commemoration of the aforesaid inestimable benefits, and make choice of several pertinent Texts of Scripture, and frame their doctrine and Exhortations thereto, and rebuke all Superstitious observation, & licentious profanation thereof. I could, if it were needful, give you other proofs of K. James his zeal for these days: but what should I spend time in proving there is a Sun in the Heaven, & light in the Sun, the name of that great King suffereth for his excess this way. Seeing then the Church of God, his anointed Law, Antiquity, and Reason, are for us in this point (and I doubt not but we will gladly be on their side) Away with all Innovations and frivolous quarrels, we were divided enough before, and little needed any new rents; the God of Peace quiet all these distempers, and unite our hearts one to another, and all to Himself; Farewell in the Lord.  
FINIS.