(41f) (pity fecal to intimate, that Chriflmas Day it felf was not of many hundred years after Chrift. I remember not any before Gregory Naziaxtene that feem to (peak of it. The allegations out of!puteousantho ,andthatoflaterdate,fachas the coun- terfeit Clement, Dionyfas, Cyprian, ec. are brought to deceive and nor eo convince. 6. Yea more, the time was a matter of controverfieamong the Churchesof theEaft and Weft,for many I'undred years ofer Chrift.Epiphaniats,and the Churchesofludæa and all thole Eaflern parts, took thefxth of yanuary to be the day ( fee Cafaubones Exercitat. on this,and Cloppenburgius more fully in ?het. iChryfo,florae faith, it was but ten years before he wrote that Homilie that the Church at Conflantinople was per- fwaded by them at Reme tochange their account oftheday And is it poffible that, when for about four hundred years or more the Churches were utterly difagreed of the day, that it was then Commonly kept as an Rely day ? The keeping of it WouldPure have kept a common knowledge of the day t Or atleaft, thedifferer ce ofobfervation would have railed contention, as the difference about Faller did : can any believe that the famous Council of Nice, and the vigilant Emperour, that were fo exceeding impati. entofadiverfity ofobfervations ofSailer, would have let a di- verfe obfervation ofChriftmas alone, without once thinking or fpeaking of it, when they were gathered about the like work, it theChurch had commonly obferved it then as a Holy day ? Or was theChurch of Iudæa where Chrifl arofe, in any Likely_ hood to have loft the true account ofthe day, if it had been ob- ferved by Apoflolical Tradition from the beginning ? 7. And it feems that God did purpojely deny us the obfervationof this Day , in that he hath certainly kept the time unknown to the world. The confidence ofTome bewrayes but their ignorance. Chrono- logers arc never like tobe-agreed of the year, much lefs of the rnoneth or day ; force think we arefour years too late, force two years, &c. Many think that Chrift was born about OElober (as Scaliger, Broughton, Beroaldus, &c.) and many fill hold to the old Eailern opinion, for the Epiphany ,. being the Nativity, on 7a,.. 6: and others are for other times; but none are certain of the time. 8. Sure we are, where there is no Law, there is no Tranforell??on : but here is no. Lawof Godcommanding Chrift- tnas dayor the other Holy daies therefore there is no trani gre flìon
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