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. 'Tis 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 Countryman 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, showing 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 Travellers, think they may Lie 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 say, 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 shows 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 Month 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 remembered surely, whether they had kept it in Summer or Winter; seeing the Tradition of it, which the later Fathers writ 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 itself: whereas the Julian and Gregorian Account of it differ Ten Days 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 shows) 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 Broils, 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 than 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 show 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 itself, 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 Father's Examples, and their Account, after the Example of Herod the Idumean, and the Romans, and their Account (as it is now, and as he says it was) who, as Polydore Virgil says, received that Custom from the Persians of Observing Birthday's. As this man doth from the Example of those that kept the Birthday's of Philosophers, Princes and Heathen Gods, saying, Therefore he that scruples it to Christ, deserves not the Name of a Christian: But then he should have shown, that the Apostles got that Name upon that account, and that they sacrificed Men to him also, as the Heathen did here in Britain, and elsewhere, 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 shows, 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, etc. But he says 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, etc. There was something in it also (increasing the Suspicion) that he being a Lawyer, inclining to the Magistrates Power about Religion (with the Erastians') as appeared in his History of Tithes, 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 says, 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 left it at random to the Error of the Fathers (as he confesseth, because, as he says, they were no good Astronomers) and of all Christian-Churches ever since, to Profane the Exact Sacred Time, as he call, it, and all the  Feasts depending on it, after the Course of the Sun and Example of the Heathen. These things and the Authorities he brings from Nicephorus Calistus, a Fabulous Author, Ann. 1300. and the Martyrology of Rome, and the Menology, which might suit the Time to the received Custom then (as in the Chronicle of Alexandria the Translator made the 21th of December the 25th, he says) with other Suspicious Test imonies of later Times, that he brings, are not sufficient (to use his own Expressions) to inform a Judgement against the Silence or contrary Testimony of the first four hundred years (if the Question depended there) Chrysostom knowing nothing of that his only Instance of Nicomedia, so near him in place and time (which also contradicts his Assertion of the East not knowing it for four hundred years) nor the Armenians at this day, who keep it not yet, then knowing nothing of it, nor of Chrysostom's Sermon about it. If the Exactness of Chrysostom's Instructions from Rome be credible (on which the main strength lies) that the very Day of Quirimus his Taxation in Jury was found in Rome to be on the Winter Solstice Day, and the Year not found, as he proves, contradicting his Authorities out of Barbarous Translations out of Eusebius and Africanus; it's an Argument against it; seeing 'tis probable thereby, that the Tradition of the Solstice Day sprung from that (not being known before) the Taxation being then found, if truly delivered, to be about the Solstice: As Caesar designed his two Passages into Britain by the Equinox.  
I have been the longer on him, as being the only Man I have read of the inherent Holiness of the Time, and Apostolical Tradition of it, that thou alledgedst; and it may be the Author thou meanest, styled, The Eminently Learned Antiquary.  
And as for thy other Allegation in thy Admonition, viz. That all ENGLAND keeps it.  
He that reads the Church-Histories, and minds the Effects of pressing the National Worships, and the Sufferings that the sincere Worshippers, according to what was manifest to them, have undergone in all Ages, will think that also an insufficient Argument, to inform the Judgement, or to quiet the Conscience, by the subjecting it thereto. For besides what the holy Scriptures record, of Nabuchadnezzar his pressing his Religion he had devised, and casting the three Children, for refusing to submit to it, into the Fiery Furnace: of the Persians casting Daniel into the Lion's Den, for serting his Window open, and praying to God, contrary to their Law, etc. Other Histories also relate how the Graciant forced their Worships on the Jews; as in the Maccabees the eruelty of Anticchus to them is notorious. After them the Romans pressed theirs on the Christians; who not being subject to them therein, were put to Death by them. And so was Paul himself, who had transgressed his own Precept in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. 13.1. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers, etc. (urged so often against us) if he had understood it in Religious Matters, that the Romans should be subject to their Emperor therein; who on the contrary suffered most Cruel Torments, rather than to condescend to Swear at their Command, during three hundred years. Afterward the Christians (especially the Arrians) persecuted one another, for National Worships, as the Emperors came to be on their side. After them the Papists for many Ages. Then the Protestants; though about Anno 1548. 
Magdeb. Abridgement by Osiander. Hist. of Counc. of Trent, p. 295, 48, 387, 393.  in Germany a Council or Assembly of them there declared, That Ceremonies imposed were bad, and they that submitted to them were Censured: And before that had the Name of Protestants, for protesting against the Decree for Forcible Imposing Matters concerning Religion: Yet afterwards the prevailing Party among them have Persecuted the other about Conformity to their National Worships; and caused that none should Buy nor Sell, but such as had their Mark and their Name in the Forehead of their Profession, and veiled Bonnet to their Mass Times. Is not that an evident Mark of bowing to an Image of their own making? for Christ commanded no such Image of him. Hospinian says, 
De Orig. Fest. Ar. cap. 2.  This is attributed to Antichrist, Dan. 7. as the Papists, to make Holy Days, one more than an another, in regard of the Mystery. In this Particular, in his Treatise of the Birth Day of the Lord, he says, He believes they instituted it in the Month of December, not because they believed Christ was then born, but that they turned the Feasts of their God Saturn into it, which were kept at Rome at that time; and he shows wherein Customs agreed that were observed in them both, in very many Respects. Here in England Polydore Virgil instances one of the Lords of Misrule, used in those Feasts. Some say Julius Caesar's Feasts were turned into it at York, therefore called jule there. After which manner Hospinian shows very many Feast, in the Church came to be instituted. Nazianzen and Clarius Luithprandus show the agreement of Riots in both Feasts. Tertullian calls New-Years Gifts Saturn's (Saturnalitia) so doth Jerom. Green things were also used by the Heathen, and Misselto reverenced by the Priests here in Britain, called Druids. The time of the bringing them in by Pope Leo and others, in condescending to the Heathen, is showed in Pisgah Evangelica, namely, to suit the Goths, and those other Barbarous Nations in Religions, how he brought many things into the Church agreeable thereto, as had been done in several things at several times before. And must they not go out again, when they are discovered? Must Christians be forced to keep up the Monuments of Idolatry and Superstition in Gospel Times? seeing the Jews in the time of the Law were commanded to destroy them, as in Deut. 12. and many other places. And the Galatians were suspected for observing Days, and Times, and Months, and Years, which had been once indulged to the Jews, and ordained by God. And should we be compelled to keep those he never commanded? Socrates Eccles. 
L. 5. c. 22.  who lived soon after the Stirs about keeping Easter, says, Our Saviour and his Apostles never commanded his by any Law, as the Law of Moses did, etc. (Nicephorus also saith the same.) 
L. 12 c. 32.  But that Christians drawn by a certain Custom, by Tradition, because they loved holy days to rest from labours, as every one thought good celebrated the Passion. Jerom (on Gal.) to the Question of Festivals, saith, All days are equal; and the holy day of the Resurrection is always: and saith, He eats the Lord's Flesh always, etc. Durandus saith (l. 6. c. 1.) More than Five Thousand Festivals fall on every day through the whole 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, Spoke I a word of Sacrifices, etc. 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 sat down to eat and drink, and risen 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, etc. 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 Nabuchadnezzar: But neither commanded to give to them the Honour due to himself, to appoint his Worship for him. Must God be at Man's Courtesy, (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 Birthday; 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' being High Priest (wherein the Uncertainty of the Testimony of the Fathers alone doth appear) who as Scaliger says, 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 Critic 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. says of the Eastern People, Egyptians, Arabians, etc. If the sixth Month there spoken of, was the sixth Month 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 'twas more safe, than for the other to conclude upon a certain falsehood: But that, as the Author excuses it, The Father's using the Scripture Language and Jews Manner in the numerical Title of the Months (as we do; wherein he has given us Authority from the Fathers as well as Scriptures, for naming the Months not after the Heathenish manner, and Names of their Gods) that they should thereby mistake the 9th month of the Egyptians for the 9th month 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 'tis 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, 'twas 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 days? What a matter 'twas, 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, 'Tis 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 'tis 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 threatening to burn us. Never did Protestant's use to threaten, to burn Papists, for not keeping the Pope's holy days. Never were Sheep known to worry Wolves, who are distinguished by their bloody Chaps, as Chrysostom notes, though they may get on Sheep's 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 men's 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, What dost 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 shown 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 month Nisan, the first month 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 month. 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 showed signs of Reverence to a Place where a Consecrated Fabric had anciently stood: As I remember I have read that Paul's in London was the Temple of Diana, and Peter in Westminster of Apollo, and so of several other Places. And the Author of the History of the Church of Great Britain, G. G. writes, That King Lucius here turned the Places of Arch Flamens of Heathenish Institution into so many Archbishoprics, (as Pantheon at Rome into All-Saints Church) and the Places of Twenty Eight Flamius, or Jupiter 's Priests, into so many Bishoprics; 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 Flamens 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, Lackeys and Executioners for them and their Informers for their sacred Revenue (as J. Selden calls Tithes, 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 days 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 Egyptian Goddess, ancienter than the Children of Israel being in Egypt, 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 Pedigree indeed of that Tradition; and as ancient as any we read of, unless that Cain's Offering, as some are of opinion, were Tithes or First Fruits, as J. Selden writes in the beginning of his History of them; and shows, that some have gone about to prove it from the Art Cabalistical in the like number of the Letters of First Fruits and Tithes: & that is the highest we can go, or rather the lowest in ferreting 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, etc. 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 men's 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 Strife 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 men's in the Truth, Richard Richardson.   

A few more Quotations for Confirmation of the foregoing.  
Laertius in vita Plat. Plato's Birthday the same with Apollo's, as this Author saith, was kept lately in Florence by the Medici's.  
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 Abridgement of Polyd. Virgil, l. 6. c. 5. The manner of keeping holy Birthday's, much used in Rome, though in Persia first.  
Ignatius 2 Epist. ad Magn. mentions only the Commemoration of the Lord's Day, forbids to sabbatise Jewishly but spiritually. He was the Disciple of John. If that was not his, 'twas 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 denied all that thought them either to be imposed, or submitted to, when imposed, in condescension to Persecutors.  
THE END.