rest from labour
upon no day but upon the Lord's day, whereby it appeareth, that holidays
have had adversaries before us. I find that they pervert some places which
they allege against us out of Calvin. Tilen allegeth,(226) _Calvin.
Inst._, lib. 2, cap. 8, sec. 32, acknowledging _alios quoque dies festos
praeter dominicum_, &c. I marvel how a judicious reader could imagine such
a thing to be in that place, for both in that and the subsequent section,
he is speaking of the Lord's day against the Anabaptists, and if any man
will think that in sec. 32 he is speaking of holy assemblies of Christians
in the general, yet he can see nothing there of any festival days, beside
the Lord's day, dedicated to holy meetings. There is another place of
Calvin abused by Bishop Spotswood(227) and Bishop Lindsey,(228) taken out
of one of his Epistles to Hallerus, which I find in the volume before
quoted, p. 136, 137, that which they grip to in this epistle is, that
Calvin, speaking of the abrogation of festival days in Geneva, saith, _hoc
tamen testatum esse volo, si mihi delata optio fuisset, quod nunc
constitutum est, non fuisse pro __ sententia dicturum. Ans._ That which
made Calvin say so, was not any liking which he had to festival days, for
he calls the abolishing of them _ordo bene compositus_;(229) but as
himself showeth in the following epistle, which beareth this title, _Cal.
Ministro Burensi, S.D._, the reason why he durst scarcely have so
determined, if his judgment had been required, was, because, he saw
neither end nor remedy for the prevailing tumult of contention raised
about festival days, and likely to impede the course of reformation;
therefore _fovendae pacis studio_, he professeth that he durst not make
mention of the abrogation of those holidays. Because he would have
tolerated holidays, because he durst not at that time, and as the case
then stood, have spoken of the abolishing them, can it be hereupon
concluded that he allowed of them? No, sure. But it is observable how both
those prelates pervert Calvin's words. Bishop Spotswood allegeth his words
anent the abolishing of these festival days, thus: _Ego neque suasor neque
impulsor fui, atque hoc testatum volo, si mihi delata optio_, &c. Whereas
the words in that epistle lie thus: _Ego tametsi neque suasor, neque
impulsor fui, sic tamen accidisse non moleste fero. Quod si statum nostrae
ecclesiae aeque compertum haberes, non dubitares meo judicio subscribere.
Hoc tam