recommended the Custom of his side That there were too deposited in Asia the Remains of very great Saints and Martyrs Philip and his three Daughters St. John who lay in our Lord's breast Polycarp Thraseas Sagaris and Melito who all had kept the 14th day of the Passover according to the Gospel and so adds he have I according to the Tradition of my Kinsmen or Countrymen or my Predecessors in this See i with some of whom I conversed They were seven and I am the eighth and they always kept the Day when Leaven was forbid I therefore who am now 65 Years old in the Lord and have conversed with our Brethren of the whole World and have perused all holy Scripture am not at all moved at those who trouble and threaten me For my Betters have said God is rather to be obeyed than Man This Holy Man was himself a great Evidence of the Antiquity of the Custom for which he stands He was about the 8th Bishop from St. John for however the Word is to be rendered about so many sate in the same interval at Rome and writes this about 90 Years after his Death when he himself had been a Christian 65 Years of them and able to testifie of all those Years if he was baptized Adult as they then generally were We may too think that he had some particular Instances in his View of the Practice of those Persons whose Names he vouches if we may infer from what we chance to know of two of them Melito and Polycarp For Melito who was Bishop of Sardes had as Eusebius tells us in another place (k) Hist Eccl. 4.26 some twenty Years before wrote a Treatise of the Lord's Day and two Books concerning the Passover or the Christian Solemnity at that time of the Year there having been a great Dispute raised about it at Laodicea then when Sagaris the Bishop of that Place named here by Polycrates received his Martyrdom a Dispute I suppose of the same nature with This. And in it Polycarp here too mentioned had been engaged before who went to Rome as St. Jerome (l) Catal. Scâ—ip Eccl. expresses it about some Questions concerning the Paschal Observation in Anicetus his Pontificate And the Conversation which he had with Anicetus about that Subject we have related by Irenaeus a Disciple of Polycarp's and who had been bred up in Asia He now Bishop of Lyons in France though declaring for Victor yet interposing and endeavouring to moderate the Heat of the Controversie in a piece which Eusebius has sav'd of that Letter (m) 5.24 among other things told Victor as follows And the Presbyters before Soter who presided in the Church which you now govern I mean Anicetus and Pius and Hyginus and Telesphorus and Xystus neither kept the 14th day themselves nor permitted those of their Church to do it And nevertheless they not keeping it held Communion with those who came from other Dioceses where it was kept Although then when they were together in Rome the keeping it was more contrary to those who kept it not n And none were ever refus'd Communion for this Matter But the Presbyters before you who kept it not sent the Eucharist to those of the Dioceses who kept it And when Blessed Polycarp was at Rome in Anicetus his time and there were some Differences between them about other things They presently agreed never proceeding to have any Contention on this Subject Anicetus not prevailing with Polycarp to forego a Custom which he had all along observ'd with St. John the Disciple of our Lord and the other Apostles with whom he had conversed and Anicetus alledging That he for his part ought to keep the Custom of the Bishops his Predecessors And these things standing so they communicated together and in the Congregation Anicetus gave Polycarp the Respect of Celebrating the Eucharist and they departed from each other in Peace in all the Churches those who kept and those who did not keep preserving Peace and Communion one with another Here then we have Polycarp a Disciple of St. John attesting to the Asian Tradition an undeniable Witness of its Apostolical Antiquity We know too that this Discourse of his with Anicetus must be at farthest in the year 161 if we reckon Anicetus his Death with Bishop Pearson and in the year 153 if with Mr. Dodwell between 30 and 40 years before this Dispute of Victor's And indeed it seems plain from the same piece of Irenaeus his Letter that this Difference had been taken notice of almost from St. John's time though mutually tolerated For to that purpose he mentions the behaviour of Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesphorus Xystus all Bishops of Rome up to the year of our Lord 101 by Bishop Pearson 102 by Mr. Dodwell very near the time of St. John's Decease From all which we see not only what good Authority the Asiaticks disputing with Victor had for their Tradition but that this matter had been long before brought into Question and made so remarkable very early that those of both sides must have had some distinct and more than general remembrance of the successive Practice of their several Customs convey'd down to them Neither indeed could those of Victor's Judgment have ever oppos'd the Asiatick Observation whose Antiquity was so well prov'd if they had not produc'd on their side as good Evidence for their own such Evidence I say as they might well be furnisht with from the elder Memorials of the same debate And thus did both sides of this Great Dispute however they differ'd in the particular manner of their Paschal Observation absolutely agree in the general concerning the Apostolical Antiquity of it A little while after this time Clemens of Alexandria wrote a Treatise concerning the Paschal Observation and some Dissertations concerning Fasting all which are lost And the Design of his Paschal Book as Eusebius tells us (o) Eus Eccl. H. l. 6. c. 13. was to deliver down the Traditions which he had receiv'd from those before him about that subject and in it he made mention of Melito and Irenaeus whose Relations he set down Hippolitus likewise a Bishop and Martyr a Disciple of Irenaeus in the year 221 wrote a Book of the Paschal Season in which (p) Eus E. H. lib. 6. c. 22. as Eusebius says he gives an Account of the past Times by a repeated Cycle of 16 Years concluding in the first Year of Alexander the Emperour's Reign which Book is wanting But a Table of his engraven in Stone was happily dug up at Rome the last Age which beginning at that first Year of Alexander gives all the Easter Days which were then to come for 112 Years with as much Formality and Method as they have been us'd to be calculated since (q) Apud Bâ—â—her in Vidorium Such express Accounts of the Paschal Season there have been heretofore given very near the Apostles times which had they been preserved might have more particularly informed us
by their Great Rabbi and who is now their Oracle it is allow'd by Morinus himself (a) Exâ—â—â— 6. Cap. to have been Read in their Synagogues in Justinian's time together with the Law and the Prophets and to be meant by him in his Edict b dated in the year of our Lord 548. And if it had then that Authority with the Jews it must be suppos'd to have risen up to it after some considerable Tract of Time and not to have been compil'd in the Memory of Man unless we too will fall into the Rabbinical Fable and make it to have been held so highly Sacred at its first appearance It might therefore well have seen the Light an hundred or two hundred years before and yet not have been particularly mention'd either by Epiphanius or St. Jerom as not being of that singular Repute in their time above other Collections of the same Nature For that this was the First Book of the Kind that was ever written the Jews indeed tell us but this Tale we may easily ghess was devis'd only to do it greater Honour and He that Believes them not in all will have no Reason to believe them in This. The word Tradition is known to signify only the Delivery of a Doctrine or Ordinance as Misnah is a Secundary Law neither of them excluding the help of Writing Neither is Tradition or Secondary Law if styl'd Oral therefore to be accounted absolutely Unwritten but only Originally not as if it were never after to be reduc'd into Writing but as not given out in it at the first delivery And although St. Augustin (c) Contra Advers Leg. Proph. 2.1 says that the Jews of that time had not their Traditions in Writing but retain'd them by Memory and deliver'd them Orally yet we may well suppose the Good Father to be deceiv'd in this by the Jews who were shy it may be of publishing the Books of this nature to the Knowledge of Christians and because they were wont in their Schools to deliver their Lessons to their Scholars without Writing as many other Professors in many places still do might therefore pretend they never us'd any For that such Traditions had been written long before even in the Apostolick Times we are competently assur'd from the Epistle attributed to Barnabas where some of the Customs which Rabbi Juda's Misnah gives are expresly mention'd and as deliver'd in Writing d From this Testimony of St. Barnabas it seems to be plain against the Assertion of St. August in and the Modern Opinion of the Jews that there was some kind of written Misnah in the first Age of Christianity as it is very probable also that this present Misnah of Rabbi Jehudah's might be extant at the latter end of the Fourth Age the time of that now mention'd Father and of Epiphanius and St. Jerom. But besides though these two last Authors do not mention this very Book yet as they both understood the Jewish Learning well so they let us understand that this Traditional Part of it was then in high Esteem with them cited for Unquestionable Authority and reputed of very great Antiquity St. Jerom speaking of Jewish Traditions in St. Paul's time says e that a great number of such they continued to have in his He for his part supposing them to be the same under the name of Secondary f Ordinances and adds that if they were ask'd for Example how they came to take the Liberty of a Sabbath Journey when their Law commanded them to sit in their House they were ready to justify themselves by that other their Traditional Authority and to answer that Rab Akiba and Simeon and Hillel Names famous in the Present g Collection had allow'd them to walk Two Thousand Feet on that Day two thousand Cubits saith h the Talmud Such Traditions as these he says their Doctors read of certain days of the Week and the Phrase for it was The Wisemen i read the Secondary Law So much does St. Jerom bear Witness of some Misnaical Memoirs then held very Sacred and of their Doctors Commenting upon them Epiphanius is more particular concerning the Age of those Traditions and to refute Marcion who suppos'd the Old Testament it self to be the Traditions the Pharisees retain'd while they pass'd by Mercy and Judgment He k bids him inquire whence they came and he shall find that they were otherwise descended from David or Adda after the Return from Babylon and from Akiba who liv'd before that Captivity as well as from the Sons of Asamoneus who were 190. years before our Saviour Writing also against Ptolomy the Valentinian who supposes the same Traditions our Saviour reproves that particularly whereby a Parent was unreliev'd under the pretence of a Corban to be found in the five Books of Moses and affirms the Pentateuch to consist of the Law of God the Ordinances of Moses and the Traditions of the Elders he tells him that for what relates to the Elders he is not able to justify it by the Scripture for the Traditions of the Elders are no where extant in the Law and that this his strange conceit proceeds from his Ignorance in those matters For says he the Traditions of the Elders are by the Jews call'd Secondary Instructions and they are four the First bears the Name of Moses as some of their Traditions do now the Second is of Rabbi Akiba as they call him the third of Adda or Juda and the fourth of the Sons of Asamoneus But where in the five Books of the Pentateuch is that of the Corban mention'd by our Saviour to be found you cannot shew it Your Assertion therefore falls to the ground that saying of the Corban no where appearing in the Pentateuch Now hence we see first that the Traditions which the Jews had in Epiphanius his time were the same in his Judgment which were in our Saviour's time Secondly that those Traditions in probability were not then kept unwritten for otherwise our Author would have taken another course with Ptolomy's Ignorance and have told him that those Traditions were so far from being writ down in the Pentateuch that they were not yet written at all And thirdly we may conjecture from his manner of Expression that the Jews had four Misnah's distinct then and that the Compilation or Digest of them and of some later added is the Misnaioth we now have Such an Account do these Fathers give us of the reputed Authority of the Jewish Traditions about the year of our Lord 400. But further that some of them were not unwritten in the Apostolical Age we have before seen from Barnabas his Epistle and that they were in great vogue in our Saviour's time is apparent from the Gospels as also from Josephus m that there were such Customs which had obtain'd a long while in Johannes Hyrcanus his Days above a 100. Years before our Saviour and which they of that time had receiv'd from their Fathers not written in the Laws of Moses for
Passover Sect. II. The Notification of Easter by Paschal Letters agrees with the Practice of the Jews Sect. III. The Ante-Paschal Preparation of Christians answers to a like Preparation of the Jews before their Day of Expiation p. 389 Chap. II. Sect. I. The Sacrificial Performance on the Jewish Expiation Day Sect. II. Compar'd with that of our Saviour on his Passion-Day p. 396 Chap. III. Sect. I. The Devotional Duty of the Jews on their Expiation Day Sect. II. Practis'd by Christians on the Passion Day Sect. III. Some Circumstances of the Eves of those Days Compar'd p. 406 Chap. IV. Sect. I. A Penitential Season with the Jews Preparatory to their Expiation Day some certain Days next before it kept Vniformly by All More also generally though in various numbers and Forty by many but the First of the Forty Vniversally observ'd Sect. II. Forty Days a solemn space of Penitence in the Jewish Discipline Sect. III. The Christian Lent compar'd with the Jewish p. 418 Chap. V. Sect. I. This Origination of Lent very Probable and its Observation a Testimony to our Lord 's Expiatory Sacrifice However Sect. II. The Consideration of that Expiatory Sacrifice is a good reason for our observing the Passion Day and likewise Sect. III. Some Preparatory time before it p. 431 Corrigenda Addenda PAge 7. line 21. dele that he may if c. p. 19. l. 15. dele in p. 30. l. 12. read Oris de Jej. p. 67. l. 23. r. Paschatis p. 68. l. 5. r. choose p. 69. after the 18. line add However I will venture to offer that the following Sabbatum continuatis may be understood of Saturday alone and without any Connexion with a Friday preceding and mean no more than the Passing it without food the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Dionys Alex See the next Ch. § 2. and Note e p. 75. l. 7. put § II. l. ult for Trusty Faithful p. 79. l. 12. put § III. p. 87. for n put p p. 122. l. 16. for Fast r. Fact p. 153. l. 6. c. Ch. I. to be reckon'd Ch. II. p. 224. l. 8. put in the Margin See Fig. I. l. 14. for impurer r. certain p. 229. l. 21. dele from him p. 231. l. 24. dele so p. 232. l. 6. after anon add n and in the Margin n. ch 9. p. 252. l. last save 3. for little r. tittle p. 267. l. 24. r. Ingenuous p. 317. l. 11. r. High Priests and are in some l. 12. for now r. also p. 323. l. 27. r. Pattern p. 326. l. 3. dele the second that p. 328. l. 26. r. Laps'd p. 336. l. 15. dele l l. 19 20. dele of some l. 20. r. l p. 381. l. last save 2 for from r. for p. 385. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 392. to p. 401. the Running Title to be as afterwards it is A Conjecture c. p. 403. l. 16. r. Depellendus ab Hominum consortio under a Niddui See pag. 232. lit b whose c. PART I. AN Historical Account OF THE Observation of LENT CHAP. I. Concerning the Festival of the Resurrection § I. The Weekly Festival or Sunday § II. The Yearly the many Differences about it § III. The Difference between the Asiatick Churches and the Others and the Proof thence in general for the Apostolical Antiquity of Easter § IV. In Particular from the Letters of Polycrates and Irenaeus LENT in the old Saxon is known to signifie the Spring and thence has been taken in common Language for the Spring-Fast or the Time of Humiliation generally observ'd by Christians before Easter And as it is a Season of Recollection and Repentance ending at that Festival of our Saviour's Resurrection and annually regulated by the Time of it so the Historical Knowledge of the one depends upon the other and the Fast cannot well be understood without the Feast be first settled and some Account of it premised § I. NOW the Feast of the Resurrection is of two Sorts either the Weekly the Lord's Day or the Yearly called Easter And as to the Weekly It is on all hands acknowledged to have been perpetually and universally observed ever since the beginning of Christianity It is particularly remembred in the New Testament as a Day for Christian Assemblies under the name of the (a) Acts 20.7.1 Cor. 16.2 First Day of the Week and in the Book of Revelation it is called (b) Rev. 1.10 the Lord's Day Pliny in his Relation he made to Trajan concerning the Christians of Bithynia about the Year of our Saviour 104 is supposed to have intended it when he says c They were us'd to meet together before Light on a Certain day And Justin Martyr d in his Apology about the Year 138 giving an account of the Day of their ordinary Assemblies expresses it to be Sunday So has the weekly Day of the Resurrection been all along kept Holy nor has any Christian Church ever censured or thought fit to set aside the Practice § II. AND if there has been constantly such a Weekly Memorial of the Resurrection we shall little doubt but it had too an Yearly Solemnity It is true there is not so early a mention of that Annual Festival neither is it likely that there should have been as much occasion for the Remembrance of what happened but once a Year as of that which was done every Week but neither has there been wanting very good Evidence for its great Antiquity a Dispute that arose about the Year 190 concerning the Time of keeping it giving us accidentally to know That such a Day had been always kept down from the Apostles time About the Time of the Weekly Feast the First Day there could be no Disagreement but about the Annual there might be very much For if all Nations of Christendom had then reckoned by the same kind of Year suppose by the Jewish which was Lunar and consisted of so many Revolutions of the Moon and besides if all had agreed That our Saviour arose on the 16th day of the first Month yet after all this there was a very obvious Question and which would frequently return Whether they should keep the Yearly Feast on that 16th day precisely whatever day of the Week it happened to be if on a Friday the Weekly Day of the Passion or whether they should not rather make the Yearly Remembrance to fall in with the Weekly and so keep it on some First day of the Week which should be near to that 16th day of the Month. This was the Variety which was actually the Occasion of that Debate I am now to mention Other Differences there might have been rais'd from the difference of Years and some were insisted on in after times which I shall here remark not for present use but to help the understanding of what may be hereafter incidentally mentioned For if all had agreed to celebrate the Annual Festival on the Sunday near to the Annual Day yet this Yearly Day must have been different
marked with B much according to Russinus his Version made about the End of the fourth Century And to begin with what concerns the Fast in general it can never be supposed though some would be willing it should That Irenaeus in the last of the two doubtful Passages however rendered speaks any thing to the Disparagement of the Fast it self as if those who long before his time had Governed the Church less exactly had shew'd their less Exactness in the Institution of a Lent Had He said so he had indeed effectually silenc'd one part of the Grand Dispute that concerning the End of the Fast for he had declared against any Fast at all but he must have been taken then for an ill Arbitrator by Victor and the rest as well as by Polycrates who all equally joined in the Tradition of the Fast and must of necessity by the change of the Question have become a common Adversary and turned the whole Dispute upon himself But this Great Man used another method and went by the common Principle For he speaks to Victor of the Practice of those of his own side who differed from the common Custom but with whom Communion had been always held and was not now refused by Victor himself Some of those Differences it is plain he charges with less Exactness and reflects upon the Authors of them whoever they were but not upon Victor's Predecessors or his own and his Argument then for Peace proceeds thus with great force That the Bishop of Rome should not break off Communion with the Asiaticks for their different manner for those who joined with him against them and remained in his Communion had their different Customs too There is therefore no Reflection from this place upon the Original of Lent but on the contrary there is a strong Confirmation of its Apostolical Antiquity under either Version For those who according to Valesius Governed the Churches with that little Exactness as to be Authors of an undue Custom were very Ancient long before the days of Irenaeus and are supposed here to have had Cotemporaries who observed the right Manner But further in the other I think more exact Interpretation those who were long before Irenaeus his time and consequently very near to the time of St. John are said expresly to have been though not faithful and exact yet Retainers and Keepers of a Custom which had therefore been rightly practised yet earlier even before the days of those who were long before Irenaeus § III. Thus much concerning the Antiquity of a Lent I could not omit to add from these few Lines of Ireneaus casually preserved to us and which speak very casually to that Matter To the Manner of Keeping Lent they are more express and direct but very brief and concise as wrote on another design and not for Victor's or our Information in the Particular we desire to see In this transient Mention of the Manner he says some observed One day some Two and some More not expressing who they were or in what they were less Exact for Victor might understand him well though we do not Those who kept but One day and whose Resurrection-day was a Sunday in all probability kept what we call Good Friday the Weekly Day of the Passion and if they did not too use some sort of Abstinence though not so strict on the Saturday they were so little exact as to offend against the Rule and to brâ—â—◠〈◊〉 their Fast before Easter-Day But if there were any whose One Day was the Saturday they who begun their Fast so late little wanted that Rule to tell them when to end it and their neglecting the Passion-Day could not seem very exact to those that observed it As to the Two or More days it is not neither determined after what sort they were kept whether in One continued Fast uninterrupted by any Food as two or more of those days were certainly fasted by some of the next Age especially in the Passion-Week or whether the Fasts were several though the Days were continued each Day ended with some Refreshment If those More days were very Many they were as we have intimated already (*) Ch. 2. §. 1. likely to have been kept in the last Manner There might too have been more Days than Two kept together not only once just before Easter but oftner and at some distance within the Compass of a larger time Hereafter Examples will appear of such Fasts and the several Practices may have been old though the mention of them in Books be later Hitherto the Words are plain and of certain Construction though we may not know every particular Case to which they might referâ—â— but those that follow are of ambiguouâ— Interpretation and particularly the word Forty is expounded as we see by some of Days and by some of Hours It is not absolutely necessary to any design of these Papers That forty Days should be here named expresly for they may well be admitted under the latitude of the word More if we shall hereafter see Reason to understand them so early I hope therefore I am not partial when I judge the Old Translation of this Place to be preferable to the Modern For first a Day of 40 Hours is a space of time never before heard of neither determined by the Sun's Appearance nor Revolution And if we should admit of such a single Day measured not by the Sun's Motion but by our Saviour's lying in the Grave yet it would be strange to join two or more of those days together Valesius therefore wonders That the Absurdity has been endured and that no Body has seen that the Greek word for Day must be changed into that for Fast and the Sentence run so Some measure their Fast by 40 Hours c. This Change he is forced to by the Sense not countenanced by the Authority of any Copy But not to object the Odness of this Fast that was to begin at soonest after Breakfast on the Friday and which took notice of our Lord's Burial but not of his Crucifixion much less of his previous Sufferings and Apprehension to pass this over for this might be one of those less exact Manners which once had place though afterwards left off yet still the mention of Hours of Day and Night would be very redundant especially where the Author is so Brief for what need is there of this Circumstantial Description and how could Forty Hours have otherwise come together Such Objections as these to which the New Interpretation lies open do put us upon looking out for another more proper which I take that of Ruffinus to be For the Forty Days which somâ— are unwilling to find so soon in the Church will appear hereafter not to have been so unhâ—â—â—â—â—f for a Fast as 40 Hours but rather to have been a Number much celebrated within 〈◊〉 little while in the Christian Lent and in all probability sacred before to Abstinence in the Jewish Church Ruffinus
his Version is thus e And some Forty Days so that they make the Day by Computation of Hours of Day and Night And if the Place be understood as commonly it is and there be no more meant by it than that the One or More days before spoke of were the Civil or Periodical Days and consisted each of 24 Hours yet the Inconvenience Valesius urges will not follow and a Fast of Forty such Days will not exclude we know so much Refreshment every Evening as may support Nature The greatest Incongruity I can find in that Acception of the Words is That it makes Irenaeus on a Subject he does but touch to give Victor unnecessarily a verbose Description of a Day one and the same thing where the only Intention was to put him in remembrance of a Variety I should rather therefore think That when he had given a short Account of the different Numbers of Days he should then add a short mention of the different Quantities of a Day That some computed the day Vulgarly by the Appearance of the Sun and some Civilly by its Revolution And according to this Design of Irenaeus I have directed one of the Translations above to which this of Ruffinus will agree Neither will it I suppose be very material to object That a Fast only from Sun-Rising to Sun-Set has not been usual since among Christians for it might have been practised then though disus'd afterwards as less exact and as we have seen the Jews have all along fasted in that manner upon most Occasions and the Mahometans continually do Neither will it be wondered That so known a Difference as that of the Vulgar and Revolutional Day should have been expressed so negligently in few Words And as for any other lesser Criticism c it may easily be satisfied for if only by the natural force of the Sence and its apposite suitableness to the Scope of the Place And thus far have we learned from Irenaeus That the Observation of Lent was very Ancient and that its Fast then consisted not of One or Two days but More and in some Places very probably of Forty b Euseb Hist 5.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c All Valesius his Manuscripts put no stop after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that determined him to his way of Rendring this Place But Ruffinus his Copy seems to have had the stop and Sir Henry Savil reads so as to change the place of the Copulative Particle thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mr. Thorndyâ—e in his Service of God at Relig. Assemb p. 247. says This Reading is acknowledged by Petitus This Lection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it has any Copy to justifie it is certainly to be preferred for the Reason at the End of this Chapter But if it had no Manuscript on its side and a Change must be somewhere made in this Sentence such a Trajection of a Particle by conjecture is much more allowable than the Substitution â— alesius makes afterwards of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sence by the one is much more advantaged than by the other And indeed the advantage of the Sence is so great that if such an Alteration is not to be admitted to join this last Sentence to the preceding I should then take the Sentence to begin there without Connexion and as it might happen in the Excerpts of a Letter d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is true may signifie to Govern in a Church but it does as well to ' Hold or Keep a Practice as in St. Mark vii 3 4. And this last Sence is more suitable to the Place e Quidam enim putant uno tantum die observari debere jejunium alii duobus alii vero pluribus nonnulli etiam quadraginta ita ut Horas diurnas nocturnásque computantes Dient statuant CHAP. IV. The Practice of Fasting mentioned about the Year 200 by Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertullian § I. The Weekly Fasts of Wednesday and Friday mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus § II. Testimonies out of Tertullian concerning both the Weekly and Ante-Paschal Fasts § III. Observations upon those Testimonies Some part of the Ante-Paschal Fast thought necessary by the Catholicks of his time the rest Discretionary § I. NEXT in Order of the Christian Authors that remain to us is Clemens of Alexandria and who would have assisted us much in this Argument had his Book Of the Paschal Season his Dissertations about Fasting and possibly that about the Ecclesiastical Canons and against those that followed the Errour of the Jews (a) Euseb Hist 6 1â— been now extant In what is come to our hands there is nothing to be found of the Anniversary Ante-Paschal Fast or Paschal Feast of the Weekly Fasts and Festivals there 〈…〉 acâ—â—â—ental mention made and only for the sake of an Allegory b The truly knowing Person says he knows the hidden Meaning of the Fast of those two days Wednesday and Friday whereof the first belongs to Mercury the Idol God of Gain the other to Venus the Heathen Goddess of Pleasure For he fasts all his Life from Love of Money and of Pleasure And such a one having performed what is commanded makes that the Lord's Day in which he puts off the Evil Mind and takes up the Knowing one celebrating that Resurrection of our Lord which has been so wrought in himself This is indeed Allegorical all but it has a certain Ground upon which it descants and supposes as constant an Observation of those two days of the Week as of the weekly Day of the Resurrection They were the ordinary days of Christian Assemblies the Stations we before heard of (c) Ch. 2. §. 1. commonly fasted to a Certain Hour as the Jews had their Meetings in their Synagogues on their Mundays and Thursdays when generally the devouter Sort did likewise Fast (d) Luke 1â— 12 Of these Days Friday was apparently chose for one because on it our Saviour had suffered and Wednesday is said to be the other because he had been then sold to the High Priests and further we cannot but think that these which were kept in some manner every Week in the Memory of our Lord's Passion should in the Passion-Week it self have been kept with great Solemnity § II. But this stated Observation of those two Days in the Week is more directly mentioned by Tertullian a Cotemporary of Clemens as the Paschal Solemnity is also expresly remembred by him He wrote the Treatises now extant about the year 200 and a little after and when most of them were wrote was of the Heresie of Montanus so that what we are to cite out of him cannot be well understood without some knowledge of his Sect. Montanus whom our Author unhappily followed is supposed to have begun his New Doctrine about the Year 172. He is said not to have differed from the Catholicks in the main Articles
I. a Tert. de Coron Cap. 3. Ad omnem Progressum atque Promotum ad omnem Aditum atque Exitum ad Calceatum ad Lavacra ad Mensas ad Lumina ad Cubilia ad Sedilia quaecunque nos Conversatio exercet Frontem Crucis signaculo terimus g 2 Ibid. Die Dominico Jejuniâ—m nefas ducimus vel de Geniculis adorare Eadem immunitate à aie Paschae in Pentecosten usque gaudemus i Ibid. Calicis aut Panis etiam nostri aliquid decuti in terram anxiè patimur n Tert. de Orat. Cap. 12. Quòd assignatâ Oratione Assidendi mos est quibusdam rationem non video nisi si Hermas ille q Ibid. Cap. 14. Alia jam Consuetudo invaluit Jejunantes â—abitâ Oratione cum Fratribus subtrabunt Osculum Pacis Jam enim de Abstinentia Osculi c. Vide literam s ad operis hujus Partis prioris Cap. 4. r Cap. 13. Sonos etiam vecis subjectos esse oportet aut quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur t Cap. II. Certè Israelis manus semper immundae sanguine Prophetarum ipsius Domini cruentatae in aeternum Et ideo conscientid Patrum haereditarii Rei nec attollere eas ad Dominum audent Nos vero non attollimus tantum sed etiam expandimus y Tertull. Apolog. Cap. 16. Alii Solem credunt Deum nostrum Denique inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos ad Orientâ—â— regionem precari § II. d Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Edit Oxon. p. 130. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g See Gregory 's Works Ch. 18. on Zach 3.8 6.12 n This in part is exemplified by Mr. Gregory o This too is mention'd by Mr. Greogory in the same place and by Mr. Selden De Syned 3.16.2 § IV. c Orig. Ibid. pag. 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § V. a Justin Apol. 2. sub siuem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Tertull de Animâ Cap. 9. Est hodiè soror apud nos Revelationum charismata sortita quas in Ecclesia inter Dominica solennia per Eâ—stasin in spiritu patitur Jam vero prout Scripturae leguntur aut Psalmi cantâ—â—tur aut Adlocutiones proferuntur aut Petitiones delâ—gantur iâ—â— indè materiae Visionibus subministrantur § VII a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § VII It is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Priest pronounces this he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Goar ad Euchol Grac. pag. 56. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vide Chrysost Liturgiam c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de quo consuli poterit Goar ad Chryst Liturgiam Observatione 125. e Clem. Alexandr Strom. lib. 7 mo Edit Paris pag. 722. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Such Admonitions as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Liturg. Chryf i An Instance may be seen in the Admonitions given to the High Priest by those next him at the putting on of the Two Lots on the Two Goats Domine Pontifex tolle Manum Dextram or Tolle manum sinistram Maim de Cult Div. 8.3.3 CHAP. XI § I. The Second Prejudice against a Jewish Origination of Lent from want of Authority in the Talmudical Writings § II. Answer'd by shewing 1. That those Traditional Accounts were not without some Antient Foundation of their own § III. Secondly That they are Confirm'd in many points by Collateral Evidence § IV. And Thirdly That they were not borrow'd by the Jews from Foreign Authors § V. The Third Prejudice against such an Origination from the Novelty of it Answer'd § I. THE Second Objection against the Jewish Original of Lent as we apprehended (a) Part 2. Chap. 1. might be this that the Traditional Writings we have of the Jews were not sufficient Authority for the Knowledge of their Antient Customs and this is a Prejudice that has been entertain'd by many very learned Men and has been much confirm'd by Morinus his Exercitations Neither is it to be deny'd but that the Jews have deserv'd this Disgrace having brought their Traditions under a suspicion by the foolish way they took to advance the Credit of them For they thought it not enough to have their Customs very Antient and some of them as Old as Moses but he must also have learn'd them in Mount Sina from the Mouth of God himself Neither was it sufficient to have had them preserv'd by Writing if the people had so thought fit but they must be necessarily transmitted by the sole force of Oral Tradition And when they come at last to be reduc'd into Writing by their Rabbi Judah about the Year of our Lord 209 his Collection must be immediately as Authentick as if wrot by Moses or by the Finger of God And then the Commentaries on this Book the two Talmuds the First of them they will needs have compil'd in our Fourth Century and the Last the Babylonian to have been completed in the Beginning of the Sixth (b) Vide Poâ—ock Portam Mosis Morin-Exerc 6. Liâ— 2 di We shall not therefore wonder if such confident Pretences as these have provok'd the World to inquire and examine and as is usual extreamly to Under value and Depress what others have more unreasonably enhanc'd And thus both that Fam'd Book and its Commentaries are bid to go down three or four hundred years lower than they were plac'd by their too Devoted Admirers (c) Morin Exerc. modò dictá the Text it self is esteem'd an uncertain Rhapsody and the Expository Additions to it a Heap of Impertinencies and Idle Tales And if there are any Antient Facts or Customs agreeable to what we know by better hands the notice of them is suppos'd not to have come originally from their Own Memoirs but to have been borrowed afterwards from our Greek or Latin Authors Now as to my own part my acquaintance with these Jews has not been so great as that I should think my self bound to engage in their Quarrel and to justify the pretended Age and Authority of their Writings That their Accounts were more Full in many material Cases I have often had occasion to wish and that they are certainly true I must confess I am never intirely satisfied until I find them confirm'd by the Concurrence of some better Testimony such a prejudice has that pretence of Oral Tradition given me I shall not therefore undertake to offer more in their favour than these two Considerations First that such Traditional Memoirs are no Novel things but that such Misnaioths were certainly very old more early and better Recorded even than the Rabbins give out and Secondly that it is not likely that their Accounts of their Customs were suggested by our Writers or form'd from the Observation of Christian Practice § II. AND first as for what concerns the Misnaioth or Digest of Traditions compos'd
the consideration of our Saviour's and the Mercy of his Expiation more sensibly Ador'd in the consideration of those Sins whose Pardon we implore For that Double Reason and with this Double Duty has Good Friday been always observ'd Nor will the Devout Practice be blam'd by any Regular Church or Christian Regular I say not speaking of those who will not keep the Day because the Papists do for by the same reason they may refuse to keep Sunday or because it is injoin'd to the Prejudice they say of their Christian Liberty for so they may refuse to yield to an Argument because it convinces them § III. NOW these two Great Duties when they are once fix'd upon their proper Day which they will fully imploy will also require that we should come in some measure Fit for so weighty an Office and should be Prepar'd in a more than Ordinary manner for the Extraordinary Performance For according to the Supposition I now us'd were we to celebrate the Anniversary of our Lord's Passion only and with no respect to our Sins since our Baptism yet we should come upon the solemn Day too Rashly and Unworthily if we did not appoint some others to go before it and usher it in and should seem to have too low thoughts of the sacred Mystery if we did not take care to rise up to the high Consideration by the steps and ascents of some previous Meditations To the keeping of the Great Memorial rightly such Preparatory Remembrances would be wanting that we may bring to it a fuller and livelier Perception of the Mercies of God in Christ may the better comprehend with all Saints the Dimensions of that surpassing inestimable Love may more profoundly Adore more gratefully Thank and more zealously Devote our selves and our Service having before-hand endeavour'd to Confirm and Actuate our Faith to Raise and Quicken our Hope and to Oblige and Inflame our Charity But such a Preparatory Season is still more needful for the other the Penitential part that we should afore begin to Recollect our past Transgressions to Reflect upon their Guilt and to dispose our Minds to an Abhorrence of them that we should beseech God humbly for his Grace to promote this Holy Work should review our Baptismal Covenant bewail its Breaches and Repair them by Confession to God and Restitution to Men Renewing our Vows and Mortifying our Lusts and recovering and improving our virtuous Habits against that Friday when we are solemnly to appear in the Divine Presence Contrite and truly sorrowful for our Sins stedfastly resolv'd to Forsake them and as much as in us lies Qualified for their Pardon Thus would a Preparation have been Necessary to either of those Two Offices Apart but much more justly will they expect it when join'd together when we are to be Provided both fitly to Contemplate the Mystery and effectually to be Benefited by its Expiation For these Holy and Important purposes Lent is instituted a solemn and large space of time to be Religiously imploy'd by each private Christian at his Discretion as the condition of his Soul shall require and the circumstances of his Worldly Affairs permit Accordingly the First Day of it gives Warning of the then distant Propitiation Day and calls us early to our Duty actually entring us on the Godly Work by Reflection on our Sins and Acknowledgment of Divine Justice by Fasting and Prayer and engaging us to go on and to make use of the following Intermediate Season for the perfecting our Repentance and for our Increase in the Knowledge of the Cross of Christ that Wisdom and Power of God A notice very necessary to those who want a solemn Monitor and which by the Grace of God may some time or other serve to Awaken and Reclaim them but always Acceptable and Welcome to the Good Christian who the more sensible he is of his own Offences and of the Mercy of God in Christ the more ready he will be to comply with the Advice and the more glad of the occasion Some days therefore of those many that follow are presum'd to be set apart for such Preparatory Thoughts and Actions Wednesdays we may suppose and Fridays those Weekly Passion Days when also Opportunities of Publick Devotion are every where presented and in our Great City Exhortations likewise and Instructions are administer'd by the Wife and Pious Order of the present Diocesan But the last Week is more particularly Dedicated to this Office and then the Church expects its devout Members daily to appear before God together to meditate on the Passion of their Lord and with Penitent Hearts and earnest Resolutions of Dying likewise unto Sin to Attend thenceforth upon him to his Cross and wait till his Resurrection and also Directs us to pass the time not in such Rigorous Austerities as unprofitably afflict the Body but in such an Abstinence from divertive Pleasures and even from common Liberties of Food and Pursuits of Business as may speak our Thoughts and Affections to be otherwise imploy'd and freeing them from Avocation and Distraction may Cherish and Improve them By this Orderly and Natural Method we are design'd to be brought at last to the Memorial of our Expiation with such a sence of our Sins and of the Mercy of our Suffering Saviour as may procure from God the Pardon of what is Past and his Grace and Assistance for the Future that the following Years may have reason to bless those Forty Days and still successively advancing may every Lent find Fewer and Lighter Sins to Confess and be still more ready to Lament them This is the Innocent and Godly Intention of that Time which those of us who Understand will certainly Commend and those who Commend should take care to Pursue FINIS Books Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1. INstitutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonica Meso-Gothicae Aâ—ctore Georgio Hicksio Ecclesiae Anglicanae Presbytero 4 to 2. Christ Wasit Senarius five de Legibus Litentia veterum Poetarum 4 to 3. Misna Pars Ordims primi Jeraim titul Septem Latine vertit Commentario illustravit Gulielmus Guistâ—â—s Accedit Mosis Maimonidis Praesatio Edvardo Pocockio Interprete 4 to 4. Joannis Antiocheni Cognomento Mallalae Hist Chronica è M.S. Bibliothecae Bodleianae Praemittitur Dissertatio de Authore Per Humph. Hodium D. D. 8 vo 5. Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book 1606. concerning the Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole World 4 to 6. True Conduct of Persons of Quality Translated out of French 8 vo 7. A Treatise relating to the Worship of God divided into Six Sections Concerning First The Nature of Divine Worship Secondly The peculiar Object of Worship Thirdly The true Worshippers of God Fourthly Assistance requisite to Worship Fifthly The Place of Worship Sixthly The solemn Time of Worship By John Templer D. D. 8 vo 8. A Defence of revealed Religion in six Sermons upon Romans 1.16 wherein it is clearly and plainly