472 The manifoldfinfulnefs of thePop l Holy-days. ¿?os iretur. Dicare diem Deo in memoriam hominis, ne fudcei quidem în fua pcdagogia docebantur, nedum convenit Spirituali cultui now Teftamenti. 44 If it were (faith be) a good and piousThing to appoint Holy -days ; " this Piety were better imployed in fo many Commemorations of the " Aaions of Chrift, as the Church could bear, then in turning ailde to " the Saints. Todedicate a Day unto God in remembrance of. a Man, " is a thing which the very Jews were never taught to do in thofe weak " and childifh Times, much lefs doth it agree to the Spiritual Wor- " fhip of the New Teftament. " And tho' it were lawful ( faith Mr. " Cartwrigbt Firsi Reply, p. 153. ) for the Church to ordainHoly-days " to our Saviour Chrift, or the Blefï'ed Trinity; yet it is not therefore " lawful to inftitute Holy days to the Apoftles and other Saints, or to " their Remembrance. As to that Pretence of honouring their Memorial, I remember this is alledged by Bellarmine for the keeping of Reliques, and Dr. Ames (Belfarm. Enerv. tom. 2. lib. 6. c. 6. thef, 25. ) his Answer to him, De iftiufmodi confervatione nihil traditur in Scriptura, ubi tarnen omne genus honorvs virtuti defertur, may be applied here ; this is fuch a way of ho- nouring the Memorial of Saints departed, as the Scripture knows not, wherein yet all due Honour is given to Virtue and Holinefs. " For " as we, reafon againft the Popifh Purgatory ( faith Mr. Cartwright, Fir.f Reply, p. 153.) that it is therefore nought, forafmuch as neither " in the Old Teftament, nor in the New, there is any mention of " Prayer at any time for the Dead : So may it be reafoned againft " thefe Holy-days ordained for the Remembrance of the Saints; that " forafmuch as the old People did never keep any Feaft, or Holy-day, " for the Remembrance either of Mofes, or Daniel, or Yob, or Abra- " barn, or David, or any other, how Holy or Excellent foever they " were. Nor the Apoftles' nor the Churches in their time never jinni- " tuted any, neither to keep the Remembrance of Stephen, or of the " Virgin Mary, or of Yohn BaptiT, or of any other notable and rare Perfonage : That the inftituting and ereaing of them now, and this " attempt by the Churches which followed, is not without fume note " of Prefumption ; for that it undertaketh thofe things which the pri- mitive Church in the Apoftle's. Times, having greater Gifts of the " Spirit of God, durft not venture upon. And what though fome of thefe Corruptions crept in fomewhat early ? They are but old Sins, and gray-headed Errors. That Antichriftian Violence of ViCJor Bifhop of Rome for ,Eafter was about the Year of Chrift one hundred ninety eight ; but Christmas is .got to Ancient. Pevelius refers the firit Eftablifhmeat of it to the Council
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