Holy Entertainment being fitly provided and brought on the Table some part of the Bread and so of the Wine was I suppose taken up by the President or Chief of the company were he Apostle Bishop or Presbyter and bless'd in an extraordinary form expressing the reason of the Thanks then offer'd together with a Prayer that the Holy Ghost would sanctifie the Offering as Gifts brought to the Altar were esteem'd to be and sanctifie it particularly to that purpose for which it was prepar'd that the Bread might effectually represent the Flesh or Body for which it stood This Bread and Wine so offer'd and bless'd by the officiating President as if it had been wav'd at the Altar was the more Holy and Sacramental Part of which they communicated as of the Body and Blood of the Lord while the rest of the Oblation which was less holy as being consecrated only by vertue of the other like the remaining nine parts of the Bread of a Thanks-Offering serv'd together with other Provisions for the furnishing of the Supper at which they then fed And so when afterwards the Sacrament and Supper were divided about the time I presume when the Legal Sacrifices were going to cease the Christian Eucharistical Oblation as the Primitive Church speaks began then more distinctly to appear and was made after Morning-Prayer just as extraordinary Sacrifices with the Jews were offer'd after the Morning daily Sacrifice And then as under the Law what of the Eucharistical Sacrifice was offer'd at the Altar the Muram belong'd to the Priest so that part which had been offer'd by the Christian Priest being more especially sacred and his Portion was eaten in the Morning Sacramentally from his Hands the Congregation being as it were his Family while the other Residual Part was kept for the provision of the Love-Feast to be held in the Evening its accustom'd time Now as these solemn Suppers call'd by the name of Love or Charity were in imitation of those Sacrificial Feasts held by the Jews so were they of a like Name For if those of the Jews were not stiled Love-Feasts as possibly they might be yet they were plainly Peace-Feasts being made of Peace-Offerings of the most perfect kind and being Symbols and Pledges of Peace both in Heaven and Earth the Offerer and his Guests partaking in some degree of the Table of God and rejoycing together in mutual Good-will and Amity So did the Present partake of both parts of the Oblation in the Ancient Church agreeably to the practice of the Jews And when they sent Portions to the Absent they acted likewise according to their Custom We know that the Lay-Jews sent of their part (b) Neh. 8.10 and I know not whether the Priests might not so do of their share neither is it much material For tho' the Christian's Eucharist was an imitation of the Jewish yet it was not necessary that it should be bound to the niceness of all the Mosaick Rules Tho' therefore a Sacrifice by Moses's Law was not to be offer'd by night as all legal Acts were to be done by the Jews in the day and so the general practice of Christians was to celebrate the Eucharist in it yet they might think themselves at liberty to solemnize it before day whensoever any particular reason should require them so to do for to their Lord the Day and Night were both alike Likewise tho' the Eucharistical Bread was no more to be kept till next day than the Flesh by the Jewish Rituals as being not to be niggardly sav'd but all of it spent that night in a cheerful liberality and in this it was like their Manna yet the Christians might not think it unlawful in some cases to suffer some part of their Eucharist to be left unto another day For they had already invited all to their Feast who were capable of it and they had not been sparing in their distribution as far as was meet However even in this particular they observ'd something of the Levitical Precept burning still what should remain at last unspent And those of Jerusalem if we understand their Hesychius (c) Comm. in Levit. 8.3 with some kept very precisely to the Eucharistical Ordinance burning all that was left of each day's Communion as it is too order'd by our Church to be immediately divided among the Communicants a Rubrick intended to prevent the Papal Superstition but answerable withal to the nature of the Sacrament Now to all this I have nothing to add but only to take notice that the mixture of Water with the Sacramental Wine of which the Ancients speak was done too after the manner of the Jews and in their opinion did not make it less proper for a Cup of Thanksgiving For they likewise do not think (c) Maim de Solenn Pasch c. 7 §. 9. they celebrate their Paschal Supper duly with pure Wine but mix it with Water that they may the more freely drink the four Cups and also for the better Tast and their greater Pleasure § V. IT sufficiently appears I presume that the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord was understood by the ancient Christians to be in the nature of an Eucharistical not of a Propitiatory Sacrifice with the Jews But further That this kind of Sacrifice only should remain when all the rest should cease this also is consonant to the Tradition of the Jews as Kimchi tells us For upon this Saying of the Prophet (a) Jer. 33.11 That there should be heard again in Jerusalem the Voice of Joy and the Voice of Gladness the Voice of the Bridegroom and the Voice of the Bride the Voice of them that shall say Praise the Lord of Hosts for the Lord is good and his Mercy endureth for ever and of them that shall bring the Sacrifice of Praise or Thanks into the House of the Lord he comments on the last words in this manner The Prophet says not that they shall bring Sin-Offerings or Trespass-Offerings because in that day there would be no Wicked nor Sinners among them for as he before b told them they should all know the Lord. (c) Jer. 31.34 And so have our Masters of blessed memory told us That in the time to come all Sacrifices should cease except the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving This Saying of the Masters of Israel is a great Truth and better understood by Christians who know the Lord and themselves so well as to know that the Sacrifices for Sin are not ceas'd by the ceasing of Sin but superseded by the Sacrifice made for them by their Lord and High-Priest and that the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving they are thenceforth to make is the Commemoration their Lord has instituted for that their most gracious Redemption This is the Sacrifice of that New Covenant of which the Prophet there speaks and which the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews from him alledges (c) Hebr. 8.8 And to this Sacrifice the same Author I suppose refers
Paschal Letters agrees with the Practice of the Jews § III. The Ante-Paschal Preparation of Christians answers to a like Preparation of the Jews before their Day of Expiation § I. THE Festival which puts an end to Lent the Solemnity of Easter is known by all to be an Imitation of the Jewish Passover and the Resurrection-Sunday to have come in the place of that Great Day on which the Children of Israel were releas'd from their Aegyptian Bondage And it is known likewise (a) Vide Bucher de Pasch Jud. Cyclo Cap. 1. that in the appointing of this Paschal season the Christians followed for some time the Designation of the Jews and that afterwards when they found reason to regulate this matter by themselves they still kept to the same Mosaick Rule § II. Now when the Christians began to use a common Calculation of their own it was generally the work of the Bishop of Alexandria a place fam'd for Astronomical Learning to consider afore-hand on what day of the common Solar year the first month of the Lunar year would happen to be the next Spring and accordingly to ascertain the Easter Sunday which was to be the First Sunday after the fourteenth day of that First month This the Great Bishops of several parts learnt usually from him of Alexandria and timely notified to those of their Provinces that they might know when to begin their preparatory Devotions which attended that moveable Festival And this also was done as I conceive after the Example of the Jews For tho' when they were in their own Country the Lunar year was with them of common use yet they were still to learn when it should begin for the first New Moon was to be so plac'd in the Spring season that on the sixteenth day of it a Sheaf of the First-fruits of the Harvest might be presented before the Lord (b) Levit. 23.10 c. (c) Maim de Conseâ—r Calend. Cap. 4. Seld. de An. Civ Vet. Jud. Cap. 5. Such things therefore the Priests as in other Nations or the Sanhedrim as the Talmudists will have it were to consider and if the ordinary year of twelve Lunar Periods fell short they were to lengthen it out with the Addition of a thirteenth and whether they would make such an Intercalation or no it was fit they should signifie to the People (d) Maim Ibid. Seld. Libriejnsd Cap. 9. some convenient time before that a suitable Preparation might be made against that solemn Feast to which every Israelite was bound to repair Notice the Jews wanted that liv'd at any distance from Jerusalem to order their affairs so that their absence for some Weeks at that time from home might be less incommodious however to make ready any residue of Holy things that might be in their hands and were to be spent at Jerusalem to take care to have all their Family circumcis'd to Purify themselves if not to take up the Lamb to discharge the Vow of a Nazarite if they had any such upon them to provide and to offer any Eucharistical Sacrifice that might be due And for some of these reasons they commonly came up to the Temple before the Feast and the precedent Week had its peculiar Celebrity and probably all the fourteen days of that First Month were half Festival as hath been intimated above (e) Part 1. Ch. 5. §. 3. Now such a notice was likewise necessary for the Ante-Paschal Preparation the Christians us'd though in a contrary manner For they as we have seen (f) Part 1. Ch. 3. spent some time before in Fasting all of them both the Asiaticks and those who differ'd from them and though some fasted only one day yet others fasted two others more says Irenaeus and of them some Forty This indeed is the account Irenaeus gives of his own and Victor's side but in all probability the Asiatick manner of Fasting differ'd not from theirs in length of time For from that Apostolical Constitution cited by the Audaeans in Epiphanius it has appear'd not unlikely e that those also of the Asiatick manner opposing their Fasts to the Festivity of the Jews began therefore their Fasting at least a Week if not a Fortnight before the 14th day as the same Opposition might have directed them to have kept the 50 days after with great Joy § III. But in this contrary manner of observing the Antepaschal Season Opposition to the Jews was not primarily design'd neither was it further prosecuted by the Christians than they were lead to it by contrary Causes For what ever reason the Jews might have for their Pentecostal Sadness the Resurrection of Christ gave his Followers a greater for Joy and if the Jews did exult in the Death of their Messiah the Christians were certainly to lament it This Lamentation also of our Saviour's Death as it was not made in consideration of any loss by them sustain'd so neither did it arise out of Indignation against his Mortal Persecutors On his Passion-Day they Fasted and Griev'd for the Sin of the Jews by which he was put to Death but they bemoaned also their other Sins and the Sins of the whole World and more especially their own those for which he suffer'd and which were all the more guilty and more hateful causes of his Crucifixion In this Abhorrence of all Sin and Penitential Grief they spent the day of their Lord's Death and for the better performing this Duty then they prepar'd themselves by the Abstinence and Devotions of the Season before This was the Intention as well as Practice of the whole Church and this was their Antepaschal Preparation concurring at least in time with that of the Jews But the Christians agreed yet nearer with the Jews in this whole Action passing their time not indeed as the Jews then did in that very Season but as they did in another as solemn and in an occasion wholly alike to the present circumstances of the Christians that is the Church of Christ kept the Day of the Passion as the Jews did the Day of Expiation and prepar'd for the one just after the same manner as They did for the other For this is the Conjecture I now offer that as many Jewish Ordinancies were patterns to the Christians and as their Sabbath and Munday and Thursday were remov'd to our Sunday and Wednesday and Friday so their Expiation Day was transfer'd to our Passion Day accompanied as it us'd to be attended with all its Praevious Offices And this Parallel Tertullian we may remember in the name of the Catholicks has already suggested to us (g) Part 1. Ch. 4. § 2. though he did not speak it out when he tells us that the Fast of the tenth day of the Seventh Month is abolisht and at the same time that the Days on which our Saviour was taken away were now determin'd to that Duty This Conjecture I shall endeavour to approve by shewing first the Correspondence between the Expiation â—â—â—y of the Jews
the Baptiz'd were upon the Confession of their Sins admitted and oblig'd to a course of Repentance for them as now the Jews very carefully Wash and Baptise themselves on the Eve of their Propitiation Day And thus our Saviour as he fulfill'd all Righteousness in submitting to that Baptism so he might likewise in complying with the Ceremony consequent to it and undertaking the Form of Humiliation for Sin He entering upon a solemn Fast as the Rest were to do though performing it in an extraordinary manner But to return to my subject whatever the fortune of this last Conjecture may be the Reader I hope will not be unwilling to allow that Forty days might have been always with the Jews a Penitential space of time that it is so look'd upon by them now and has been time out of Mind and that the Forty Days ending in the Day of Expiation are of the same nature § III. AND now I come to trace the Parallel which yet the Reader must have been drawing to himself before For if we do but consider their Propitiation Day as the Great commanded Fast determin'd by Moses and the Seven or nine before it as days sometime after generally agreed on to prepare and predispose for That and also some other Days afterwards added to those for the same purpose by the Devotion of succeeding times but in a various number at the Discretion of several Persons and Places and all these severally added out of the Forty which are to be reckon'd backwards from the Radical Fast and which comprehended a solemn space of Penitential Time This I say if we do but recollect we cannot at the same time but think that we have here an exact Pattern of our Christian Lent For when the Passion Day was once put for our Expiation Day as indeed such it was and I presume in the beginning was so esteem'd universally some Few days before it were then judg'd fit to be taken in for a Preparation (a) Part 1. Ch. 3. and those were most naturally taken which make up the Holy Week and which also in a little while absolutely Obtain'd (b) Ch. 5. At the same time to these Others were also added but discretionally as several Persons thought fit and several Churches directed and so many added by some as to make up the number Forty a number of Days that was always look'd upon as the most solemn for a Fast which those therefore reckon'd who did not altogether keep them and which gave Denomination consequently even to the Lesser Spaces that were fasted within them (c) Ch. 10. That is I suppose the Holy Week as soon as it came to be observ'd Universally to have answer'd the Seven or Ten Days of the Jews For it was not necessary that the Days should be precisely of the same Number though they were of the same Nature for that the Particular considerations of Christianity might otherwise determine as when they resolv'd to keep the Passion Day not upon the day of the Month but of the Week That Passion Week therefore was kept with more than ordinary strictness of Penitential Devotion and if the Sunday of it was exempted from Fasting it was because it had with us the privilege of a Sabbath for the Jews fast not their Sabbath of Penitence As there was too another apparent Conformity between the Jews and Eastern Christians in the observation of the Holy Saturday for whereas those Christians never fasted on any Saturday or Sabbath no more than the Jews yet on the Passion Saturday they always fasted as the Jews do likewise on that single Sabbath upon which their Expiation Day may fall Now this Holy Week which with the following Festival one was a time of Vacation in Courts of Justice by the Imperial Law (d) Part 1. Ch. 5. §. 3. under the Christian Emperours and might have had the same immunity before by Private Custom of the Church was in this too not unlike to that Penitential time of the Jews in which they Hear no Causes nor administer any Oaths (e) Buxt S. J. Cap. 25. And it is observable that when a Larger Lent came to be formally kept as that of Forty days was at least after the Council of Nice either by the Determination or Agreement of the Catholick Church that then in a little time the same Vacation was enlarg'd too and it became unlawful to give any Oaths during the whole Quadragesimal Season A Privilege that was after extended to other times of Publick Fasting as also of Festivity Such is the Correspondence between the Antepaschal Fast of the Christians and the Ante Propitiation Fast of the Jews and by that if I mistake not a good and rational Account is given of the Practice of the Antient Church why they first chose to keep such a Fast in general and yet notwithstanding differ'd in the Particular of its length every Church if not Person being left to their liberty therein why one Portion of its time the Passion Week came in a little while to be commonly observ'd and reputed more Holy as also why all the while there was such a Regard to Forty Days as that some fasted them in the Beginning others afterwards us'd their Name and all in some time endeavour'd to come as near the Number on either hand as the repetition of Weekly Periods would allow them p No one can be a Nazarite for less than Thirty Days and when a Jew makes the Vow simply and expresses not the Time Thirty days are understood So Maimon Tractat. de Nazeriatu Cap. 3. § 1 And this was the Rule antiently as appears by Josephus speaking of Bernice De Bello Judaic lib. 2. cap. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r Daill de Quadrag lib. 3. cap. 16. Hi Sacri Patrum Lus◠CHAP. V. § I. This Origination of Lent very Probable and its Observation a Testimony to our Lord 's Expiatory Sacrifice However § II. The Consideration of that Expiatory Sacrifice is a good reason for our observing the Passion Day and likewise § III. Some Preparatory time before it § I. A Very great Resemblance if I mistake not has appear'd between the Christian Fast of Good-Friday and the Jewish of their Propitiation Day in the Ground and Reason of the Observation in the Manner of the Abstinence and in the other Penitential Duties And likewise no less Similitude has been discover'd between the respective Preparatory Seasons in their Reason also and Manner and in the space of Time And this so near a Resemblance might of it self have perswaded us that it could not have arisen by chance and that if both the Pieces were not Copies the one was Drawn by the other and it would have been as plain also in ordinary presumption if one Observation must have been the Copy that the Jewish was the Original But all this grows more undeniable when we come to reflect that our Church it self was deriv'd from Theirs and most of its Offices Discipline
their keeping the 14th Day after the manner (l 2) See Ch. 1. §. 3. I suppose of the Asiaticks which Epiphanius thus gives us m When They the Jews Feast do you Fast and Mourn for them for in the day of their Feast they Crucified Christ and when they Mourn eating their Vnleavened Bread with Bitter Herbs do you Feast For here the time of Feasting first mention'd might be extended also to those Days Before (m 2) See Part 2. Rep. 2. Ch. 1. §. 2. Ch. 3. §. 3. and not to a Week only but a Fortnight For with the Jews the First Twelve Days of that Month are esteem'd Festival (n) Buxt S. Jud. c. 17. as sacred to the Erection of the Tabernacle And though we are told that the Jews do no Penitential Office this whole Month yet its Festivalness must be understood of its first half For from the Morrow of the Passover the 16th day they are like Mourners and continue under that sadness some above Thirty Days and some all save one to Pentecost (o) Ibid. c. 19. And so tho' that Constitution specifies the 14th day only for the time of Jewish Mourning because on that only they were bound to eat the bitter Herbs and that p Unsavoury Bread yet the reason of the Ordinance might reach to the 7 Weeks from the 16th in which the Jews forbid themselves all chearfulness and which as we have seen were still pass'd by Christians on the other hand with all demonstrations of Joy But to return to the Instances of this Age of which we were now speaking It is plain from what we chance to know of this Matter That the Passion-Week was strictly observed And it will be unreasonable to think as some would perswade us to do That there was then no time fasted before that Week because here is no mention made by Dionysius of such a Time For the Holy Man describes the Fasting of this Week but casually and upon occasion only being led from the different Ending of the Fast to consider its different Beginning The Beginning therefore of such a Fast only was to be considered by him which continued without Interposition of Food till Easter-Day and for that Reason the Fasts of the preceding Weeks which were discontinued and separated from the last Week by the intervening Saturdays and Sundays had no place here and could not properly be mentioned by him on this Argument On the contrary we cannot but presume That those who kept this Week so strictly did not fail to use some sort of Abstinence more than ordinary in the time before if any such Season was then any where in use with Christians such a Season as we had some Reason to infer from Irenaeus and Tertullian and shall find in the beginning of the next Age much celebrated and observed well nigh universally To which I may add That if the Conjecture I offer at on Socrates (q) Ch. 10. §. III. be admitted it will then be probable That full Three Weeks were formally kept at this time in Rome For if in the Days of Socrates when the Catholicks generally observed so large a Lent the Roman Novatians observed but Three Weeks it was in all likelihood for this Reason Because the Novatians of that Place where the Schism was first founded adhered more stifly to the Usages of their first Separation and would not comply with the Enlargements the Catholicks made as those of the same Sect in other Cities might have been induc'd to do a Orig. cont Câ—is l. 8. p. 392. Edit Câ—â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Orig. Hom. 10. in Levit. Hâ—â— tam 〈◊〉 ideo 〈◊〉 â—t Absâ—inentiâ— Christianae franâ— laxâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 Quaâ—â—ag 〈◊〉 dieâ— jejuniis consecratos liabemus Quartam Sextâ—â—â— Septimanâ—â— dies 〈◊〉 solenniter jejunâ—mâ—s d Dion Alex. Can. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may properly signifie to Passover Put off Postpone from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vltra Post as in Phot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Post quinque dies and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be that their Food was put off for a Day or a Day put off for their Food as the word Prorogate will agree in both Constructions and in the latter I suppose Dien Cibationi solitoe superponere is to be taken in Solinus Cap. 28. tho' Salmasius understands it not de cibo sumendo but de sumpto Exerc. Pl. in Sol. p. 324. Epist Simplic Ver. p. 203. as if the Day were put upon the Food Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may answer to that other signification of the Latin Pro in Prorogare as in Prolatus productus protractus and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be to Prolong and Protract or put over the Fast for one or more Days in which sence Jejunii superpositio Conc. Illiber Can. 26. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Ch. 8. lit e may be well understood And possibly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may also be much the same with our Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifie transigere Producere Diem jejunio to Pass the Day in Fasting so as Tertullian might mean by his Sabbatum continuare See the last Ch. lit 0 f Fasting a Day must be understood here in Contradistinction to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the passing over a Day and must therefore be taken for such an Abstinence as will allow some Sustenance at least at the latter end of the Day g Cyprian Epist 56. Edit Oxon. Quoniam scripsistis ut cum plur thus Collegis de hoc ipso plenissime tractem nunc omnes fere inter Prima Paschae Solennia apud se cum Fratribus demorantur quando Solennitati celebrandoe apud suos satisfecerint ad me venire coeperint tractabo cum singulis plenius b Just Cod. Lib. 3. Tit. 12. § 7. Inter dies Feriales recensentur Sacri Paschâ—e Dies qui Septenario numero vel pracedunt vel sequuntur i Theophyl in Joan. 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i 2 This Particular may be spoke by our Author out of Exodus For according to Maimon De sacr Pasch Tract 1. Cap. 10. § XV. this Circumstance with some others praescribed at the first Institution were observed the first Passover only and never after m Epiph. Haer. 7. § XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n Maimonid de solenn Pasch seu de Ferment Azm. Cap. 6. § I. This is observed by Petavius upon the place CHAP. VI. § I. A Mention of a Forty Days Fast by Peter of Alexandria before the Council of Nice § II. Very probably they were the Days before Easter § I. AND so have we seen all along through the three first Centuries as much mention of the Ante-Paschal Fast as could be expected from the scarcity of Authors and the rarity of the