THE Julian and Gregorian YEAR Or the Difference Betwixt the Old and New-Stile SHEWING That the Reformed Churches should not Alter their Old-Stile but That the Romanists should Return to It. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Nic. Can. 6. LONDON Printed for RICHARD SARE at Grays-Inn Gate Holborne 1700. TO THE READER THÉ Old and New-Stile having been of late the Subject of many Debates occasion'd chiefly by the near approach of next February when instead of Ten there will be Eleven Days difference betwixt them and thereby the Julian and Gregorian Accounts set at greater odds than ever and finding this Controversy not generally understood I thought I could not at present do a more acceptable piece of Service to the Publick than put this matter into as clear a Light as I could and shew with as much brevity as possible not only the Vnreasonableness of the Romanists pressing of the Reformed Churches to comply with them in the Gregorian Account but also endeavour to perswade them to put an End to the Difference by returning to the Obedience of the first General Council at Nice and an Union with the Universal Church The Church of Rome for above One Thousand Years were in this matter conformable to the rest of the Christian World and the Popes at their Inauguration were sworn to continue it Viz. Se quatuor prima Concilia servaturos usque ad unum Apicem i. e. That they would critically observe the first four General Councils to the least tittle Can. Sanct. Dist 16. and how the late Pope Gregory XIII dispensed with himself in this matter I know not but I am sure that his famous Predecessor of that Name Pope Gregory the Great declared his esteem of the Four first General Councils to be equall to that he had of the Four Gospels So that Popes are divided in their Judgments as well as other Christians and whereas but an Age or two past the Romanists press'd the Protestants with the Authority of Councils which they pretended to be on their side they have now publickly rejected the Determination of the most famous Christian Council in the World since that of the Apostles and the design of this Paper is to press them to the Obedience of it and to return to the Communion of Saints and no longer continue in a Schism and Separation from all the Christian Churches in the World ERRATA PAge 2. l. 27. add two p. 4. l. 27. add on or p. 13. l. 1. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 20. l. 22. the and that transpros'd Of the Julian Year the Time of the Jewish Passover and the Decrees of the Christian Church for finding of EASTER WHEN J. Caesar had Conquered Egypt where all sorts of Learning and especially Astronomy had long Flourish'd he brought with him thence a more Exact Account of a Solary Year than any that had been before used among the Romans and though this New Calendar was drawn up by Sosigenes and other great Astronomers yet being Publish'd by Julius Caesar's Authority was call'd the Julian Year But the Romish Priests having been long used to another sort of Year mistook the Rules and instead of every Fourth they reckon'd Inclusively and Intercalated a Day every Third Year which being observed by Augustus and Restor'd to what Julius had at first Establish'd was still call'd the Julian Year and made Authentick in all the Roman Empire THE Julian Year consisted of 365 Dayes and 6 Hours but because of the Inconvenience of Inserting of Six Hours at the end of every Year they were order'd to be reserv'd to the end of 4 Years when they came to a Whole Day and then to be Inserted at the 24th Day of February For the Old Roman Year ended at Feb. 23 on which was observed the Feast of Terminus and the Old Intercalary Month was always inserted at that time And because the Intercalary-dayes according to the Method of the Egyptians were never accounted any part of Month or Year but only an Appendix to them and Cato in Tit. Dig. ss 98. expresly saith of the Practice of the Romans Mensem intercalarem additicium esse omnesque ejus dies pro momento temporis observandos i. e. That the Intercalary Month was no part of the Year and though it consisted of 28 days was esteemed but one moment of Time Therefore the Romans in the Julian Year accounted the 24th day of February that is the 6th of the Calends of March two days together which is the reason that in our Calendar Leap-year is call'd Bissextile or the Year in which the 6th of the Calends of March came twice over or was continued for Two days together We in England having been very antiently Subjects of the Roman Empire received the Julian Account and pursuant to the Method of the Romans our Parliament in the 21st Year of Henry the 3d pass'd an Act That in every Leap-year those dayes at the 24th of February should be accounted but for one Now because in the Western Church the Feast of Matthias hath been very Antiently kept on the 24th day of February and there might a doubt arise about the true Day of this Feast in Leap-Year the Rule that had been observed in that Matter was to keep it on the Second of those Two Days in Leap-Year according to the Old Verse Posteriore die Festum Celebrato Mathiae AND on the Second Day we also kept it in England till a few years since it was altered by an Injunction of a Late Arch-Bishop who thought it not so Agreeable to the last Act of Vniformity JVLIVS CAESAR in his Calendar placed the Vernal Equinox on the 25th day of March and presuming that his measure of a Solary Year was exactly true he had no foresight of the Precession of the Equinoxes in the Julian Months and gave no other Direction but that the said Equinox should be continued on the 25th Day of March for ever THE Jewish Passover was by the Law of Moses to be kept on the 14th Day of the First Month Exod. 12th and Levit. 23 c. And on the 16th day of the same Month they were to offer up the First-Fruits of their Corn upon which account this First Month was call'd Abib that is a Ripe Ear of Corn and so their Passover was alwayes in that Month in which their Corn began to be Ripe And because their Corn in Canaan usually began to be Ripe about the Vernal Equinox as appears from Philo Josephus and others therefore the Jewish Passover was at that time of the Year and usually answer'd to our March or April THAT the Jews Antiently used Lunary Months appears beyond Exception in this Law of the Passover which being on the 14th day of the Month was always at the Full-Moon and therefore the Jews to make their Lunary Months Conformable to a Solary Year were forced in every Two or Three Years to Intercalate a Month and have 13 Months in their Year And when
that was to be done they seem antiently to have had no other Rule but when their Corn was Ripe and though that might not be so certain a Guide for the True Measure of a particular Year yet in Ten thousand Years would never err much but was as fixed and certain as their Seasons and Harvests BUT after the Jews had been Conquei'd by the Babylonians Persians and Greeks and carry'd Captives into all Nations they saw the different Seasons of Harvests in the several Climates and so in order to an Uniformity were forced to establish their Year upon Astronomical Rules and Reduce it into Tables that so the Jews in their Disperson all the World over might be Vnited in their Feasts and keep their Passover as they now do at the same time ONE Principal thing agreed on was the Dependance of their First Month upon the Vernal Equinox or the Suns entrance into Aries and particularly that the 15th Day of that Month should be always after it and When that was the Jews in the Time of Our Saviour seem to have taken from J. Caesar's Calendar For that Emperour and his Successor Augustus were very kind to the Jews indulged them the use of their own Law excused them from Tribute every Seventh Year and sent Sacrifices to Jerusalem for the Daily Oblation For which Reasons the Jews were extreamly Fond of them and as even Suetonius Relates Lamented many Days and Nights together at the Funeral of the former This was it that made them so readily comply with the New Calendar of Julius Caesar as far as their Law would give leave and at least take the time of the Vernal Equinox and Suns entrance into Aries from thence the first of which was there fix'd at March the 25th the other at the 18th Day of the same Month. And whatever Rules of this nature were once agreed on by the Sanhedrim or Chief Council at Jerusalem they took care to Communicate to the Jews all the World over NOW its evident from the Gospels that Our Saviour was Crucified on Friday at the Jewish Passover and Rose again from the Dead on the Sunday following being at that time call'd The first day of the Week Mat. 28. 1. Mark 16. 1 2 c. And when the Christians thought it necessary to keep up the Memory of so great a Deliverance by a Solemn Festival they call'd theirs also the Passover and had no other Rules for the finding of it but what the Jews had for theirs and left the Calculation of it to them For most of the First Christians were Converts from Judaism and Zealous for the Rites of the Law of Moses Acts 21. 20. and one Philip giving an Account of a Paschal Synod in the Second Century begins his Epistle with this Observation That the Apostles being wholly taken up with Preaching of the Gospel to the several Nations of the World did not establish any Rules among Christians for the exact time of Easter And Epiphanius farther relates That there was an old Apostolick Constitution by which the Christians were forbidden to trouble themselves with scrupulous Calculations but keep it at the same time as the Christians of Jerusalem who being Converts from the Jews understood the Methods and Rules that were used by them for the discovery of the Passover Now all the Bishops of Jerusalem till Adrian destroy'd it were originally Jews as is observed by Eusebius and so long the Christian World received the time of Easter thence but after Jerusalem had been quite Ruin'd by the Emperour and there were no more Bishops there of the Circumcision every Church began to have Rules of their own and the Christian World was divided about their Feast of Love and though many SYNODS were Assembled to determine this Matter by Pope Victor at Rome Theophilus at Cesarea and other Bishops in other Churches yet still the Dissension continued and Disputes increased till at last A. D. 325 they were happily ended by Constantine the Great in the First General Council at Nice Rules establish'd and Tables drawn up for the exact discovery of the Time of EASTER for ever THAT the Christians even from the Beginning did observe this Feast is evident from St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast not with old Leven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but with the Vnleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth And Origen an early Christian Writer in his Comments on St. John's Gospel Explains those words Now the Passover a Feast of the Jews was at hand to have been used by the Evangelist to distinguish that from the Christian Passover which was then observed THE greatest part of the Christian World since the First Council of Nice have conform'd themselves to the Paschal Rules that were there establish'd and the whole Western Church at the time of our Reformation from the Church of Rome knew of no other As in other things so in this also it was the Method of our Reformation to depart no farther from the Church of Rome than she had from the Truth see Can. 30. publish'd A. D. 1603. and in keeping of Easter conform'd her self to the same time that was then observed in Italy France Spain Germany and most other Churches of the Christian World and all this in Obedience and Conformity to the Decrees of the First General Council And to prevent all difference upon this Subject our Church hath in her very Liturgy Establish'd by Act of Parliament not only from that Council at Nice inserted this General Rule That Easter-Day is allways the First Sunday after the First Full Moon which happens next after the 21st day of March and if the Full Moon happen upon a Sunday Easter-Day is the Sunday after But also lest any difference should arise about the New-Moons hath in the First Column of the Calendar put down all the New-Moons for a Complete Cycle of 19 Years with Direction to take the Paschal New-Moons from that TABLE for ever and all this according to the Decrees of the First Council at Nice and Practise of the Vniversal Church AND though the Vernal Equinox since the time of that Council be gotten from the 21st to the 10th of March and this TABLE of New-Moons is now above Four Dayes false yet in things undetermin'd by God's Law we have alwayes Preferr'd Peace and Unity and the Communion of Saints before a Needless Separation and Division IT was once the Objection of Mr. Baxter and his Party That our Church did not keep Easter according to our own Rules and that some Years our Easter was not the First Sunday after the First Full Moon that was after the 21th Day of March But had that Scrupulous Person understood the Cycle of New Moons inserted in the First Column of our Calendar and that the Paschal Moon is to be taken thence he would have seen his Mistake and been ashamed of the Objection NOW because the Nicene Council
thereby bare in memory the day of their deliverance out of Egypt and at that Feast teach their Children the reason of their keeping of it God did not give the Jews any exact Rules for finding of the Day in a Solary Year but only bade them keep the 14th Day of their First Month or that Month in which their Corn began to be ripe be it according to the different Seasons sooner or later and in that Feast notwithstanding such difference the Jews were to say in their Hymns and Prayers and teach their Children that on that Day God had deliver'd them out of Egypt and so in the common and civil use of Words the same Day of the same Month is reckon'd the same time tho' the Month fell earlier or later in the Solary Year At the time of our Saviour the Jews err'd in the time of their Passover if our Rules that make it depend upon the Equinox are true and made it depend upon a time 8 Days sooner and yet when this was the Day that the Sanhedrim had agreed on and they that sate in Moses Chair had solemnly appointed our Saviour and his Apostles never scrupl'd the time but Christ expresly said of it Luk. 22. 7. That that was the day in which the Passover ought to be kill'd And so the Jews assert that it was always in the power of their Chief Court to apoint their Passovers and tho they err'd yet were to be obey'd Talmud Sanhed p. 13. c. Cozri p. 213 214. Maimon Cons Cal. p. 349. and the Jews quote for that opinion the words of the Law Deut. 17. 9 10. THE chief thing aim'd at by God in all these Festivals was the Heart and the Devotions the Prayers and the Thanksgivings and when they were duly perform'd his People might be the less solicitous for the circumstance of time The best Rule about the time and what our Saviour himself practic'd is to follow the Commands of our Guides and Rulers and though they should Err in some minute Circumstances of time yet so long as the End of the Feast is obtain'd and Peace and Vnity preserv'd we are sure to be blameless And this hath been the method of the Church of England and other Reformed Churches who constantly kept Easter according to the Decrees of the Fathers of the first General Council who happily made Peace and Vnion in the Christian World and according to the practice of all the Christians in the World except the late Schismaticks of the Church of Rome who have in the last Century broken the Decrees of those very Councils that they themselves magnify and forsaken the practice of all the Christians in the World One of the Principal things that God oblig'd the Jews to was to keep the Passover in the first Month of the Year and yet the Romanists after all the Corrections of Pope Gregory do very often keep Easter in the last Month of the Year instead of the first for the Roman Year begins at the 25th day of March and yet their Easter may be on the 22d 23d or 24th day of March and so in the last and not in the first Month of the Year I do not mention this as a matter of such great moment as to deserve our altering our Old Rules for so long as we be within the compass of that which the Jews call'd the first Month of the Year it s not very material by what Name we call it but only to shew the many Errors and Mistakes of the bungling Corrections of the Church of Rome and that there is no reason at all for us to follow them but either to keep to our Old Rules and Vnion with the Christian World or else if we must be changing to do it more correctly than they have done I shall end this short Dissertation with that Excellent Advice of the wisest of Kings and wisest of Men twice mention'd in the short Book of Proverbs Remove not the Antient Land-mark FINIS Books Printed for R. 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