Antient Practice though under suppos'd names represent the Psalmody to be perform'd most of it together as it stood until in the Fourth Century it was order'd by the Council of Laodicea (e) Can. 17. to be more intermixt with Lessons that the Attention of the Congregation might be the better refresh'd and secur'd by that variety This was the Primitive Order of the Christian Liturgy according to the General Descriptions we have of it for as to the lesser particulars many no doubt there were and some of them such as we find in the Liturgies going under the names of St. James St. Chrysostom c. § VI. NOW the Jews have their Liturgy too and their Morning Devotions consist of several Offices (a) Maim De Prec Cap. 7. 17. And here first I may mention those occasional Benedictions they are suppos'd to have made daily upon their Waking Hearing the Cock Crow Putting on their Cloths c. such as we intimated above and three and twenty of which they are directed to pronounce constantly every day and which run in this form Blessed art or be thou O Lord our God the King of the World who clothest the naked if they are putting on their Cloths or if they are covering their Heads who crownest Israel with Honour or if they are tying their Girdle who Girdest Israel with Strength But besides these Benediction which are to be said apart and on their proper occasions only (b) Ibid. §. 7. though some Synagogues are us'd to repeat them together as an Office the next stated Duty is that of Reading some part of the Law Written or Oral to which every one is every day oblig'd and this Duty as all others is still to be prefaced and concluded with its proper Prayers or Benedictions of which Prefatory Benedictions the first for Example is this Blessed is the Lord c. who hath sanctified us with his Precepts and hath commanded us to study the Law This office is not only Private but publickly also discharg'd in the Synagogue and read there Next to it is the Duty of Repeating the Psalms which has to it Benedictions with which it begins and ends And this Duty is so acceptable that the Practice of some is recommended who have daily repeated the whole Book however the Synagogue every day say over some Psalms and especially on their Sabbaths and other Great Days to which also they generally add some Verses of the Bible that are chiefly Laudatory as in some places the custom is to conclude with the Song at the Red Sea or with that of the 32d Chapter of Deuteronomy (c) Sect. 12 13. For it is in general to be noted that in several places the usages are various as to the choice of the Sections and Psalms and Hymns After this Duty there follows another of Repeating the Verses of the Law they call Shema from the first word of the first of them which is as it were their Creed and begins thus Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one God This Repetition they are oblig'd to every Morning and Night whereever they are and it has too its proper Benedictions before and after and makes up also an Office in the Synagogue These foremention'd Offices may be differently perform'd in different Countries according to their particular Customs but that which follows and to which the others are but Introductory is constant and stated and uniformly observ'd by all the People of Israel being a Formulary of short Prayers now 19 in Number 18 of which were dictated by Esra as they say These Collects are regularly to be said by each of them at home or in Publick thrice every day and this Office in the Synagogue is always to be said for the Greater Solemnity by the Precentor or Deputy of the Congregation himself whereas the Foregoing might have been read by a Private Person Of those Prayers or Collects the Three First and Three Last are most remarkable those speaking the Glory of God and these returning Thanks (d) Maim de Prec Cap. 1. §. 4. the other Intermediate ones being Petitionary for Understanding Repentance Pardon Relief from their Distresses Healing their Infirmities Giving of seasonable Plenty Return from their Captivity Restoration of their Government Protection of Good Men Reinhabiting of Jerusalem the Coming of the Messiah c. the Requests gradually rising up according to Origens above-mention'd distinction of Supplications Prayers and Intercessions It is also further to be remark'd that though the three first Collects are noted to be wholly Doxological yet the rest are not to be thought to want that Duty all of them beginning or ending with a Benediction of God and the whole Formulary being accordingly call'd the 18 or 19 Benedictions as it is also prefaced with this Versicle Lord open thou our Lips and our Mouth shall shew forth thy Praise But the Third of those Prayers is more signally Glorificatory when it is said in Private referring to the Hymn of the Cherubins (e) Is 6. Ezek. 3.12 Holy Holy Holy c. and when in Publick expressing it And there is also a solemn Hymn of Glory which they call the Kadish pronounc'd particularly by the Deputy of the Assembly before and after every Service (f) Ord. Precum Subjunct Libr. 2â—o Libri Jad Chaz Titulo de Benedictionum Formulis Thus far goes an Ordinary Morning Service But on Mundays and Thursdays there still follows a Litany and such Prayers are particularly order'd to be pronounc'd from a Low Place (g) Buxt Syn. J. c. 10. After the Litany on Those Days (h) Buxt Ibid. c. 14. or after the Offices before described when there is no Litany as on the Sabbath (i) C. 16. the Law is brought from the Ark to the Desk in great Pomp and peculiar Portions of it are read there by several with Praevious and subsequent Benediction of God and then in the same manner it is carried back the People all the while Standing and as the Book comes and goes Chaunting out some Versicles and pressing to Kiss it Lastly on Sabbaths and other Great Days there follows Another Office the Additional Service peculiar to the Festival consisting now chiefly of the Commemoration of the Peculiar Sacrifices on that day heretofore offer'd And this Service of Prayers though having some the same is separate and distinct from that of the Daily Morning Prayers as the Daily and the Additional Sacrifices however some things in both might be of the same nature were never intermixt and dispatch'd together for greater speed and convenience but always separately offer'd and each Office kept intire to it self (k) Maim de Cult Div. Tract 6. Cap. 7. § VII NOW to this last describ'd Jewish Order of Morning Prayers so far did the Antient Christian agree as to begin likewise with Lections and Psalmody and from the Jewish Custom of sitting at the Repeating of those Psalms it is that such Portions of the Psaltery as
might the Christians think fit to keep up a yearly memory of that their Sacrifice whose offering was once made and never to be reiterated but its efficacy is to endure for ever they likewise observing this Solemnity not with any Ritual Form but with such eternal Duties of Penitence and Supplication as are always incumbent upon us miserable Sinners which the Justice of God will perpetually require and his Goodness in our Saviour accept § III. THERE seems therefore to be reason enough from the nature of the Thing from that Mysterious Suffering of our Lord and the consequent Practise of his Primitive Servants to found the continued Solemnity of the Passion Day upon its correspondence with the Levitical Day of Propitiation Neither is it to be expected that I should justify the Parallel by producing any like Opinion of the first Christians to that we have seen of the Jews concerning the Necessity and Merit of the Observation of the Day when the one was observ'd only as Proper and Expedient though in the judgment probably of those who had the Spirit of God and the other as Positively commanded by God Himself And yet so far did the first Christians seem to regard the vertue of a Jewish Expiation Day in their Practise about their own that they still determin'd the ordinary stated Period of the Penances of ejected Brethren with the Penitence of Good Friday and the following Saturday both which were the Days of our Lord's Passion as if by that their Conversion was consummated and the Pardon of the Church intirely gain'd And when they readmitted Penitents on Maundy Thursday as was the Antient Usage of the Church of Rome and it may be of all others they did not therefore depart from this their Parallel with the Expiation Day but rather confirm'd it For the Jews as we have seen (g) Rep. 1. Ch. 5. §. 3. on the Eve of their Expiation relax their Sentences of Excommunication and admit all to the Office of the next Day and for the same reason the Christians might admit their Excommunicates to the Offices of both Passion Days and even those whom they did not afterwards suffer to continue in their Communion The office of the Passion Day or Days I mean which consisted in Confession and Supplication for it is very probable that in the earlier times the Reconcil'd Penitents were not admitted to the Sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood until Easter-Day The Supper likewise which was us'd to be held solemnly on that Thursday though it is said to be in Imitation only of our Lord's Supper yet it may also have proceeded from the Practise of the Jews on their Expiation Eve which we mention'd above For they in the Conclusion of their Penitential Preparation towards the Propitiation Day do always make a Solemn Supper and think it as much their Duty to eat well on that Evening as on the Sabbath that being in their Opinion a Duty of the Afternoon as strict Fasting is the Duty of the following Day So agreeable was the Supper of Passion Thursday to the Supper of the Jews on the Eve of their Expiation and more agreeable than to the last Supper of our Blessed Lord which if we go by Jewish Custom was held after Night and in their reckoning therefore rather on the Friday than on the Thursday Agreeable I say as to the time for as to the Freedom of Eating I suppose it differ'd much from that Jewish Meal But those Asiaticks (h) Part 1. Ch. 1. §. 3. who differ'd from the other Churches both in their observing the 14th day with the Jews whatever day of the Week it should be and also in breaking off their Fast that day might possibly in this point have as much follow'd the Custom of the Jews for one Season as they did their Calculation for the other For those of Asia seem to be of the Opinion of which their Followers in Epiphanius (i) Part 1. Ch. 5. §. 3. lit m. certainly were and which many other Churches have also embrac'd that our Saviour suffer'd on the 15th day of Nisan neither is it likely that they did not Fast on that day notwithstanding they are said to have broke it off before for such a neglect no doubt could not have been pass'd over unobserv'd by their Adversaries and would have drawn upon them the censure of Victor more than either of the other differences and besides we know their now mention'd Followers did actually so fast i I suppose therefore that their Breaking off the Fast was not a Determination of it but an Interruption by such a Supper and that this their Meal was Formal and Full and in the nature of a Feast and so reputed whereas the Supper if any of the rest of the Christians was a sparing refreshment and such as in comparison with the other Meal did not seem to Discontinue the Abstinence of the Season as since it has not been thought to do To these lesser particulars by which some indications of a Propitiation Day may appear I shall lastly add another Custom to be read in the Ordo Romanus their custom of striking of Fire and lighting up their Candles very solemnly in the Evening of the same Passion Thursday For whatever other reason it may have had for its institution it does also very well correspond with the Usage of the Jews who take as we have observ'd very particular care to have their Candles ready against their Propitiation Eve with which that night their Synagogues are more than ordinarily enlightned And thus I have offer'd to shew the Resemblance our Passion-Day bears to the Jew's Expiation Day both in it self and some Rites of the Day immediately preceeding it I am now to go higher and to consider at large the whole Previous Season call'd commonly Lent how well it agrees with the like Preparatory Season of the Jews before their Day of Expiation CHAP. IV. § 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 § II. Forty Days a solemn space of Penitence in the Jewish Discipline § III. The Christian Lent compar'd with the Jewish § I. THAT the Jews had an Antepaschal Season if not of a Fortnight yet of a Week and particularly that the Sabbath of that Week was call'd the Great Sabbath we have observ'd before (a) P. 1. Ch. 5. §. 3. whence appear'd a Conformity between them and the Christians those especially who reckon'd by the days of the Month and not of the Week in point of Holy Time though the Devotions of the one were generally Festival and of the others altogether Penitential But when we once suppose the Day of our Lord's Passion to have been the Day of Expiation and come to consider the Preparatory time that usher'd in this solemn Day we then begin to
find a fuller and a higher correspondence not only in a Weekly but in a Forty Season and that likewise of Penitential Duty For first the Jews prepare themselves for the Day of Propitiation more particularly the Week before it They rise before Light assist at Publick Prayers confess their Sins thrice every day Fast and give Alms (b) â—or this whole Section See Buxt S. J. Cap. 26. And as the People fit themselves in a more especial manner by the Devotions of those seven days for the solemn Act of Humiliation commanded them by Moses so they tell us the High Priest heretofore imploy'd the same Week in a continual Exercise of his Office that he might be the better able to discharge the Difficult Duty of the Great Day (c) Jomâ— Cap. 1. The Sabbath also of that Week they distinguish by a peculiar Title and call it the Sabbath of Repentance Thus the Jews pass the seven preceeding days and so Leo de Modena (d) Câ—r des Juif P. 3. C. 6. distinguishes them from the rest For though all the ten of that seventh Month are call'd the Ten Days of Repentance reckoning the Day of Expiation for one yet the two first are in some manner Festival being the first of their Political Year and on them they abstain not from Dinner and Supper for which reason they may not be esteem'd as Penitential as the seven that follow These Ten Days are constantly so observ'd by all Jews the last the Tenth by Scriptural Precept and the others by Universal Custom And further to these are added out of the foregoing Month ordinarily a Week at least says Leo de Modena For even the German Jews begin their Humiliation as early according to a particular Rule they have (e) Morin de Poen 10.34.3 But other Nations generally take more time to that solemn Office and frequently Devout Persons begin from the First Day even of this preceeding Month to Fast to make Prayers and Confessions to repeat the Penitential Psalms and to Give Alms continuing so to do the whole Forty days However all Jews begin their Penitential Devotion the First day of that Month the Fortieth day before the Expiation though they may afterwards discontinue in the intermediate time On that day also they begin to blow the Horn in their Synagogues which they do every day that Month for an Alarm they say that they may Repent and be ready to meet the Judgment of God who according to their Tradition sits in Judgment the Ten days of the Next Month. § II. I have mention'd their Opinion of God's Judging the World in the Beginning of their Seventh Month and it may seem thence that their Custom of giving notice by the sound of the Horn may rather respect the Beginning of the Month Tisri than the Tenth Day of it and be rather the Warning of Thirty than of Forty days But this suspicion if it should arise will receive easy satisfaction from another concurrent Tradition of the Jews universally receiv'd by them that Moses went up upon the Mount the Last time on the First day of their Sixth Month and return'd again to them with the second Copy of the Law on the Fortieth after the Tenth of the Seventh their Expiation day (f) Rab. Salom. in Locum Deuter. proximè â—itand Now when he went up he commanded a Horn as they say to be sounded thorough the Camp to give notice to the People on what Errand he was going that they might not again commit the like Abominations in memory of which they now still sound it and we besides know from better Authority (g) Deut. 9.18 that Moses spent these forty days and forty nights in Fasting and Supplication for the Sins of the Children of Israel So that we are rather to think that they have since in some measure follow'd his pious Example and that on the day of his Ascent they begin to prepare for that of his Descent which in their Opinion is the tenth of Tisri and on which they have been since commanded always to Afflict themselves before the Lord at least one Day and Night The Forty days therefore here are not to be look'd upon as an accidental number and the bare Aggregate of Thirty and Ten but as they make up directly a full Penitential Season And indeed that Number seems to have been very antiently appropriated to Penance and Humiliation For not to reckon up the Forty Days by which God drown'd the World (h) Gen. 7.4 or the Forty Years in which the Children of Israel did Penance in the Wilderness (i) Numb 14.34 or the Forty Stripes (k) Deut. 25.3 by which Malefactors were to be corrected though these Instances may concur to strengthen the Opinion whoever considers that Moses did not once only fast this Number of Days (l) Deut. 9.9 18 25. that Elias Fasted also in that Wilderness by the same space (m) King 1.19.8 that the Ninevites had precisely as many Days allow'd for their Repentance (n) Jon. 3.4 and that lastly our Blessed Saviour when he was pleas'd to Fast observ'd the same Length of time (o) Matth. 4.2 whoever I say considers these Facts cannot but think that this number of Days was us'd by them all as the common solemn number belonging to Extraordinary Humiliation and that those were accustom'd to afflict themselves Forty days who would deprecate any great and heavy judgment though the Scripture does not specify the number as those we know p who had a Nazaritical Vow upon them were us'd to observe thirty days though the Scripture had not neither determin'd that space And this is no more than what St. Jerom a Father much vers'd in the Jewish Knowledge has expresly averr'd in his Comment on Jonas where he says that Forty is the number proper for Penitents and Fasting and Prayer c. and that for this reason Moses fasted forty days and so Elias and likewise our blessed Lord c. as may be seen at large in the Passage already exscrib'd above (q) Part 1. Ch. 8. §. 2. This is there positively and in good earnest said by St. Jerom as the Reason of those Examples though Mr. Daille puts it off r as if the Good Father had Play'd upon them while Hâ— himself rather plays with the Father And according to this the Penance of Forty days is very frequent in the Modern Penitentials of the Jews as we have also seen before (Å¿) Rep. 1. Ch. 9. §. 2. being there generally injoin'd upon any of the Greater Transgressions And to go yet a little further in this matter I cannot tell whether the Forty Days which our Blessed Saviour himself fasted in the Wilderness were not so pass'd by him in the nature of a Penitential Fast For the Baptism of John is known to be a Baptism of Repentance (t) Acts 19.4 preparing for the Messias to come and it may not be unreasonable to suppose that by it
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
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-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
their Propitiation-Day (n) Ibid. c. 5. §. 6. And in this manner not one but more days were sometime pass'd in a continual Fast as three days were by Esther (o) Esther 4.16 and the rest of the Jews of that time and as the forty were miraculously by Moses Elias and our Blessed Saviour And such a protracted Fast of two or three or more days was afterwards in Use with Christians especially before Easter as we shall find hereafter These are the several Kinds of Fasting a Duty all along observed by devout Men and acceptable to God under both Testaments whether as it was helpful to their Devotion or as it became a part of it It was helpful as it served medicinally to restrain the looser Appetites of the Flesh and to keep the Body under and as it gave Liberty and Ability to the Mind to Reflect and Consider and Attend either while they were actually assisting at Divine Service or preparing for some solemn part of It. It was too an Act of Worship it self either as it proceeded from a Sence of their Sins and of the Misery of their Condition from those Sins or as it was expressive of that Sence before God and intended to deprecate his Anger and to supplicate for his Mercy and Favour to which purpose it was accompanied with such Circumstances of an Afflicted Humbled State as were proper to raise Commiseration and obtain Relief Thus under the Old Testament they put on Sackcloth lay in Ashes mourn'd and wept and thus Esther is expressed by Jâ—sâ—phus p to have supplicated God as he says after the Custom of her Nation Casting her self down upon the Ground Putting on a Mourning Habit and Abstaining from Meat and Drink and all things Delightful for those three days Neither was the Practice of the first Christians much different from this of the Jews on the like occasion as we shall presently find § II. We have seen the various Manner of Fasting and proceed now to the Occasions and Times of Fasting in the Primitive Church That which I shall first mention was the Fast of a Penitent one who had committed after Baptism some grievous Sin and was excluded from the Assembly either by his own Conscience or by Publick Sentence and desired to be reconciled to God and the Church The Course of this their second Repentance was much more severe than of that before their Baptism it appeared so upon the sight of them as they are described by Tertullian then a Catholick and about the Year 200 q Neither Washed nor Trimmed Neglected and Vnclean taking no Delight in any thing living in the Roughness of Sackcloth and the Filth and Harshness of Ashes their Faces disfigured with Fasting For the Discipline they were under directed them as before he tells us at large in his manner of Style r To lye in Sackcloth and Ashes to disfigure their Body with a neglected Vncleanness and to deject their Mind with Grief All the while to use no other Meat or Drink but what is simple and natural Bread and Water not to satisfie the Appetite but to keep up Life and frequently to nourish and strengthen their Prayers with strict Fasting to Groan to Weep to Roar to the Lord their God day and night to fall down at the feet of the Presbyters to kneel to the Friends of God and to beg of all the Brotherhood to intercede for them Such was the rigorous Penance of lapsed Christians and their Fasting truly an Affliction of their Souls as it is termed in the Old Testament Another solemn Occasion of Fasting was the Profession of Repentance those made who were converted to the Faith and preparing to be Baptized Before the Reception of that Sacrament it was not only the Practice of the Candidates to Fast but of the whole Congregation with them as Justin Martyr in his admirable Apology has inform'd the Emperour and us He is supposed by Mr. Dodwell to have wrote no later than the Year 138 and there after he had given an account of our Faith he adds this Relation s As many as are perswaded and do believe that these things taught and said by us are true and promise to be able to live accordingly they are instructed to Pray and with Fasting to beg of God Remission of their Sins we Praying and Fasting together with them Then they are brought by us to the Place where Water is and are regenerated in the same manner of Regeneration wherewith we were regenerated before For in the name of the Father c. Such a Common Fast there was anciently at the Administration of this Sacrament that it could not be the work of every day of their Assembling but must have had some set time as we know the most solemn time was on Easter-Day those who were baptized into his Death then as it were rising up with him The whole Congregation having Fasted together with them before not only upon that particular Reason but upon a common Account as we shall immediately see And though the Fast and Humiliation of the other Penitent was proper to his Person and to be undertaken at any time whensoever he was sensible of his Offence yet there might too have been some more solemn time even for this Duty whether the Penance were injoin'd upon a notorious Sinner or something of it voluntarily undergone by a more secret Offender And no time could be more fit for this purpose than that in which the whole Congregation would join together in Prayer and Fasting for themselves and them such a time as the Season before Easter was in which all prepar'd more worthily to receive and some therefore strove to be again thought worthy in any degree to receive the solemn Communion of that Great Day Thus did the Fasting on both those occasions frequently take the opportunity to close in with the Fast before Easter an Observation I now only mention incidentally designing no more by the early Practice of these two occasional Fasts the one Publick and the other both Publick and Common than to prepare the Reader the easier to admit the great Antiquity of this both Publick and Universal Fast which we are now coming particularly to consider g Maimonides de Cultu Divino put out by Lud. de Viel Tract 2. Cap. 6. Because the Sacrifice of the Congregation belonged to all the Children of Israel and all of them could not assist it was provided of old that there should be chose â—it Men who should be present at them as Deputies of the whole Nation And as the Priests and Levites were divided into their Courses so were these each Course serving their Week and giving their Attendance either at the Temple iâ— they lived near it or else at the Synagogues of their Habitation Praying four times a day and Fasting the Mundays Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays of their Week Their meeting at these Prayers and their Attendance on this Duty was called a Station and they the Men of the
of Faith e though some of them were accused of Sabellianism f but only in some Rigours of Practice which he enjoyn'd as by Divine Command He absolutely forbad all second Marriages condemn'd all declining of Danger in time of Persecution made the Abstinence of the ordinary Stations to be longer and more severe dismissing their Assemblies later and allowing then a very spare Refreshment He ordered the Fast before Easter to consist of Two Weeks f 2 and besides instituted two New Lents or Seasons of Fasting g each of a Week excepting the Saturday for they fasted no Saturday but that before Easter b These and such like Ordinances he pretended to be dictated by the Holy Spirit to him and his two Prophetesses on whom the Comforter had at last according to our Saviour's Promise descended in a more plentiful manner than upon the Apostles and with fuller and more perfect Instructions Consequently those of this Sect from theâ—r pretences to the Spirit and to a stricter manner of Life took themselves to be the only spiritual Persons calling the Catholicks Carnal and Animal Men i and esteem'd the Writings of their two Prophetesses above the other Books of the New Testament k supposing them to be both the Completion and Conclusion of it and admitting afterwards no more l Of this Sect was Tertullian a Man of an austere Life and rigid Temper and a fierce Disputer but excellently Learn'd and after his peculiar fashion very Eloquent His Book concerning Fasting happens to be preserv'd where in Justification of his own Party he summs up the Opinion and the Practice of his Adversaries the Catholicks about that Matter m They accuse us saith he that we keep Fasts of our own that for the most part we prolong the time of our Stations to the Evening and that we use the Dry Diet feeding on no Flesh nor Broth nor any Juicy Fruit neither Eating nor Drinking any thing that is Vinous and that besides we then abstain from Bathing an Abstinence consequent to such a Dry Food This they object to us for an Innovation and conclude it to be unlawful either to be judg'd Heretical if it be a Humane Doctrine or to be condemn'd for false Prophecy if it pretends to be an Ordinance of the Spirit So that we are either way to be Accus'd as those who preach another Gospel For as to Fasts they tell us That certain Days have been appointed by God As when in Leviticus the Lord commands Moses That the 10th day of the 7th Month should be a Day of Propitiation saying * Lev. 2â— 27. It shall be holy to you and you shall afflict your Souls and every Soul that afflicts not it self that day shall be destroyed from among my People And in the Gospel they suppose those Days determined to Fasting in which the Bridegroom was taken away and that those only now are the days appointed in ordinary for Christian Fasts the old Observances of the Mosaical Law and the Prophets being now abolish'd for when they have a mind they can understand what is meant by that the Law and Prophets were unto John and therefore that as for any other time Fasting is to be used according to Discretion and upon particular Occasions and Causes not by the Command of any new Discipline For so did the Apostles not laying upon the Disciple any other Burden of Set Fasts and such as should be observed in common by All and consequently not of Stations neither which have indeed their Set Days Wednesday and Friday but so as that they are to be kept discretionally not by force of any Command nor beyond the last hour of the Day the Prayers then being generally ended by Three in the Afternoon after the example of St. Peter mentioned in the * Acts 10.30 Acts. But the Dry Diet our Xerophagy is they say a new Name for a new affected Duty too like the Heathen Superstition being such an Abstinence as is used to Apis and Isis and the Mother of the Gods This is his Representation of the Catholicks Thoughts concerning the Ante-Paschal Fast from which he argues in the 13th Chapter n You plead says he that the Christian Faith hath its Solemnities already determined by Scripture or Tradition and that no other Observation is to be super-added because of the Vnlawfulness of Innovation Keep to that ground if you can for here I find you your selves both fasting out of the Paschal Season besides those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away and also interposing the Half-fasts of your Stations and sometimes too living on Bread only and Water as every particular Person thinks fit You answer indeed that these things are done at your Liberty and not by Command but then you have quitted your Ground and gone beyond your Tradition when you do such things as have not been appointed you And so in the next Chapter o in answer to those who compar'd them to the Galatians as Observers of Days and Months he replies That they observe not the Jewish Ceremonies but that to the New Testament there belong new Solemnities Otherwise says he if the Apostle has abolished all Religion of Days and Times and Months and Years Why do we both Montanists and Catholicks celebrate the Paschal Season yearly in the first Month Why do we pass the fifty days following in Joy and Exultation Why do we consecrate Wednesday and Friday to Stations and Friday or Good-Friday p to Fastings Although you Catholicks also sometimes continue Saturday a day never to be fasted except in the Week before Easter for a Reason given in another place q And lastly in the next the 15th Chapter r taking notice that the Apostle condemn'd those who commanded to abstain from Meats foreseeing Marcion and Tatian and such Hereticks who would enjoin perpetual Abstinence in contempt of what the Creator had made in Vindication of their own Sect from Heresie he subjoins For how very little is the Prohibition of Meat we have made We offer to our Lord two Weeks of Dry Diet and those not whole Weeks neither Saturdays and Sundays being exempted abstaining then from such Food which we do not reject but only defer To these Testimonies of Tertullian out of this Book we may subjoin another out of his Dissertation about Prayers s Where after he has explained the Lord's Prayer and spoke of some Requisites to Prayer he then comes to censure some superstitious Observances about it and particularly taxes a Custom that had began to prevail Those who were in a Fast towards the Conclusion of their Assemblies and just before the Communion not saluting their Brethren with the Holy Kiss then always us'd on that occasion This declining to salute had been the Fashion of the Jews in their Fasts as a sign of Sorrow and is reprov'd here by Tertullian in Christians as being a kind of Ostentation of their Fasting and contrary therefore to the Direction of our Saviour which commands us not to appear to men to
fast For now says he we are known to fast by abstaining from that Salutation But if there be any reason for such a Custom you may at your own home if you please and among your Family from whom your fasting cannot well be concealed defer that Ceremony of Peace but otherwise where-ever you may conceal your Fast you are to remember the Command and by this means you will both keep your Rule abroad and your Custom at home For so on Good Friday when the Devotion of Fasting is Common and as it were Publick we justly forbear the Salutation taking no care to conceal from the rest what is done together by us all § III. NOW from these Testimonies of Tertullian it appears First That the Religious Assemblies or Stations of Wednesday and Friday were now well known and practised in the Christian Church and generally supposed to have descended from the Apostles as recommended by their example to the devouter Christians and not as injoin'd the whole Body by any Precept Secondly The constant Opinion of the Catholicks of his time presum'd That those days in which the Bridegroom our Saviour was taken away were to be fasted not at Pleasure but by Direction being design'd and determin'd to that Duty from the Beginning This is certainly the Catholick Sence as it is represented by Tertullian in the second Chapter in express words where he speaks both of the Designation of our Saviour and the Observation of the Apostles and as it is again intimated by him in the 13th Nor could it have been brought in question by Mr. Daillé had he not studied his own Hypothesis too much Neither is that judgment of the Catholicks concerning those days any ways disparaged by the Interpretation they give there to our Saviour's Words (t) Matth. ◠15 For though this Saying of his may be well understood at large as it is by most Commentators of those Distresses and Afflictions the Disciples should fall under upon his Departure the very mention of which they could not now bear vet it will too very properly admit the other Meaning and particularly imply some stated Days of Fasting hereafter to be observed by them and which our Saviour here predicts at least if not directs They were priviledged now by their attendance on the Bridegroom the Messias from the ordinary Monday and Thursday Fasts of the stricter Jews or from others extraordinary set up by John but when the Bridegroom should be taken away that Exemption he tells them would cease and withal new Cause of Fasting would arise and new times be appointed And then he adds under the Figures of a Garment and of Bottles of Wine That neither would those Fasts of his new Institution be proper as yet under the old Dispensation neither were his Disciples prepared now to undertake and observe them but that hereafter when all things should be new his New Dispensation should have New Fasts of its own and his Disciples too become for them New Men by the Renewing of the Holy Ghost This Exposition of the Text concerning such new Fasts in general after our Saviour's Death seems to be most natural very apt I am sure it is to the Occasion and Prosecution of that Saying And if then those general Words were by the first Christians applied in particular to that very time of the Year in which He suffer'd and on which they fasted as by Apostolical Tradition it is no wonder For such secondary Applications of Scripture to Subjects not seeming at first sight to have been intended by it is very usual in the New Testament And it is the known manner of the Jews to accommodate the words of the Bible to such Practices as they take to be of Divine Authority though they are hinted only and alluded to there not expressed much less commanded Thirdly Those Days which were to be so fasted are twice expresly mentioned in the Plural Number And of Those Two are obvious the Friday and the Saturday in which he was Taken Crucified and Buried These at least must I think be understood by Tertullian's Catholicks neither has he given any where any contrary Intimation For in the 14th Chapter of his Treatise of Fasting the Saturday said there to be fasted sometimes is in all probability not the Holy Saturday but any other Saturday in the Year p And in his Book of Prayer Good-Friday is mentioned peculiarly not simply for its being a Common Fast-Day but because it was a Fast-Day in which there was the usual Opportunity for the Holy Kiss and in which it was omitted Whereas on the Saturday they Assembled late and spent the Evening in Baptizing the Catechumens and that Day having in its Office no Place for that Ceremony consequently gave not our Author the same occasion to speak of it And thus much seems evident concerning Two of Those Days But they were reckoned by others as we have observed before from Wednesday and by some from Monday the Fifth day before the Passover the day of the Caption of the Paschal Lamb ordered by Moses (u) Exod. 12.3 in conformity to which they suppos'd our Saviour to have been at that time singled out as it were by the High-Priests and determined for Sacrifice This is certain That by many all those Days were particularly observed as we shall presently know from an Author but fifty Years younger who is indeed the first that tells us of such a Practice but as we often intimate must not therefore be supposed the first that knew it done Fourthly Of Those Days the Friday was the most remarkable for in that He was taken away actually Apprehended Crucisied and laid in the Grave and accordingly It was always kept with a singular Devotion by the whole Church the latter half of the Night in which the Apostles should heretofore have watch'd in Watching and the Day too in Fasting and Praying And for this Reason only we need not have wondered if Good-Friday had been particularly mentioned in the 14th Chapter of Fasting as it is in the Treatise of Prayer I confess from some words of the last Mr. Daillè would infer That Good-Friday was not then observed by all Christians because the Devotion of that Day is said to be Common and as it were Publick or as he sometimes understands almost Publick And his Observation would have been true had Tertullian said as it were or almost Common but when it is first term'd Common without any Restriction and after too said to be kept by All that Consideration alone should have lead that very Learned Person to the true Meaning of this Phrase as it were Publick For Publick he knew does not only signifie what belongs to all but what is expos'd or appears to all which last Sence opposed to Hiding and Concealing the Scope of the place evidently requires And besides it is plain why Tertullian puts in his as it were for he had after his strict manner urged the Command of not Publishing a Fast so absolutely
order That for the Examination of such Causes Two Synods a Year should be held in every Province And these says the Canon shall be held The One before the Forty Season that all Quarrel and Animosity being first laid aside as our Saviour directs a Pure and Acceptable Gift may be offered unto God in the Devotions of that Holy Time and the Other in Autumn Here now is a certain undisputed Mention of the Forty Season made by this Great Assembly of Confessours but Mr. Daillé is very unwilling to understand them of Forty Days He rather would think because the word Forty Season will be found hereafter some times to signifie a Lent in general and of uncertain Space that therefore it arose first from the Forty Hours he fansied in Irenaeus and afterwards gave its name to that Fast as it increas'd in Space and was now at length come to signifie the Passion-Week as it will hereafter in some time have so many Days added to it as shall make up the Number Forty And he says Forty Days must not be understood here for in so large a time new Quarrels might be rais'd and the Synods too must be held in February an inconvenient Season for the Bishops to travel But this Original of the Forty Season from so many Hours is a meer Singularity and grounded upon a very doubtful Construction of Irenaeus his Phrase which rather requires to be understood of Forty Days as has already appeared Neither is it reasonable to imagine That a Word which signifies Forty should be put to signifie Six Days of Fasting now when we know from the Church of Alexandria that Forty Days have been before observ'd for a Solemn Space of Penitential Devotion and much less reasonable when we shall know that so many Days in this self same Age hereafter will always be aim'd at and as near as may be approached to in the Computation of Lent as we shall presently see § III. THERE is therefore little need that I should go further for the fixing the Signification of that Word in this Canon but it may be further cleared from St. Chrysostome He was in Antioch the chief place of the East where that Jewish Account of the Passover was kept which the Council of Nice had ordered to be reform'd and the People were so addicted to it as they were too to other Customs of the Jews that though the Observation of it was again forbid by a Council at Antioch in the Year 341 yet some of them continued superstitiously to adhere to it and obliged this Eloquent Priest to interrupt the Order of his Discourses and to bestow one whole Sermon upon the Correction of their Schismatical Dissent They imagined that Easter was necessarily to be kept at the Time of Vnleavened Bread and pretended that this had been their Ancient Use St. Chrysostome therefore acquaints them That the Alteration was made by the Wisdom and Piety of the Great Council of Nice those illustrious Confessours of the Christian Faith that they thought it unfit for them any longer to follow the Jews in their erroneous Calculation and that the whole World agreed to the Ordinance He tells them That the Jewish Passover is abolish'd That Christ is the Passover of the Christians and That it is celebrated by them every Communion To which he adds g Why then say you do we fast these Forty Days Because anciently many were used to come to these Mysteries without due Preparation and particularly at this time in which our Saviour instituted the Sacrament the Fathers knowing well the Mischief of such a Negligence being come together appointed Forty Days of Fasting Praying Hearing and Assembling that we being all carefully purified in these Days both by Prayer and by Alms and by Fasting and by Watching and by Tears and by Confession and by all other Duties may so draw near as far as is possible for us with a pure Conscience And how great the Success of this Ordinance was in bringing us to a Custom of Fasting is very evident hence For if we all the Year long Cry up and Preach the Duty of Fasting never so much there is no body that hearkens to what is said but when the Season of the Forty Days is once come tho' none exhort or advise them yet every one even the most negligent sets himself to it by the Advice and Exhortation of the Season Now I take it to be very plain That the Fathers here spoke of for Lent are the same with those mentioned but just before for Easter For had they been of any other Council or Synod they would have been nam'd with some distinction And if any one would be so unreasonable as to suppose some other Council meant yet he must remember that it must be such a one as might be stil'd Ancient about the Year 390 and therefore rather before that of 325 than after and then he must withal reflect that he gives me an Earlier Authority than that for which I now contend But unquestionably as I think St. Chrysostome must be understood of the Nicene Fathers and if we take his Judgment we see evidently that they by their Forty Season could intend nothing else but their Forty Days It is true indeed that there is no particular Canon to be found that injoins this Lent of Forty Days but neither is the Ordinance about Easter found in the Canons though it was such a disputed Point Aâ—â— it may too very well be that the Observation of Forty Days was rather interlocutorily agreed upon than formally determin'd and not therefore injoin'd in any other Canon but imply'd in this of which we now speak and that the Churches of differing Customs voluntarily came in to this Uniformity of Lent upon the general Direction they received to Conform in the Celebration of Easter So has it appear'd That Mr. Daillé's Refusal to understand Forty Days by the Forty Season was not only ungrounded and arbitrary neither derived from the Practice just before the time of the Canon nor agreeable to that after but withal directly contrary to the express Affirmation of St. Chrysostome For as to the Objections he has brought if they are worth mentioning the Inconvenience he fansies that in so long a time as Forty Days they might quarrel again after their Synodical Reconciliation seems to be said with more Favour to his own Hypothesis than Respect to those Venerable Persons and the other of a February Journey though of Elder Men to the Metropolis of a Province where other Business too might call them is not very great it was not at least so considerable to the Nicene Fathers as that of their continuing at Difference one with another in the Holy Season But not to be difficult in small things we will grant that this Inconvenience might be one of the Reasons why the above-named Council of Antioch by the 24th Canon restor'd it to its former Place after Easter and settled it in the 4th Week and it seems
those with whom Grace was said at a Meal where there were Three or more neither was he to be reckoned one of the Ten who were to make up the full Number of a just Assembly although he might Teach the Unwritten Law or be Taught and might Hire or be Hir'd But if he dy'd excommunicate they sent and laid a Stone upon his Coffin declaring thereby That they stoned him for his Separation from the Congregation There was another a heavier and more Terrible kind of Excommunication f which the Consistory might upon some weighty Cause pronounce at the first Instance but which was inflicted generally upon those who persisted excommunicate those above-mentioned Sixty Days And then the former Penalties were aggravated with others and the Party was Disabled to Teach or to be Taught to Hire another or be Hir'd himself to Give or to Receive neither was there to be any Communication with him but for Sustenance only (g) Maim eodem c. 7. This was a Horrible Sentence full of Curses and Execrations upon the Party and to the Observation of it the Congregation was oblig'd as by a Vow confirm'd with an Oath It was therefore and is (h) Leo de Mod. 2 3 4. pronounc'd with great Solemnity by Sound of Horns and Black Torches burning The Penalties I have specifi'd above belonging to both these Degrees of Excommunication for the Third commonly added i seems now not to be well grounded are from Maimonides where he speaks succinctly and occasionally only of Excommunication But of the Second Sort of Excommunicates I am to add That in some Cases they were not only kept at the ordinary Distance but were absolutely secluded from promiscuous Conversation as Lepers for with them they are ranked (k) Mor. de Poen 4.25.7 and shut up in some remote Cell and that their Estates were sometimes forfeited to Sacred Uses and they themselves reputed as wholly separated and cut off from the Congregation of the Children of Israel as the Decree in Ezra (l) Ezra 10.7 8. Selden de Syn. 1.7 imports I am likewise to add further what belongs certainly to this Second kind if it does not to the First as Morinus supposes that it was much questioned by the Ancient Masters whether an Excommunicated Person were not bound to Rent his Cloaths to Cover his Head and to Turn his Bed the lower Part I suppose upwards and whether he were not forbid as to wash so to anoint to come near his Wife to make or return Salutations and to wear the Tephillim or Praying Ornaments (m) Mor. ib. 4.23.4 as it was commonly agreed by them that he was not to wear Shoes in a City though abroad and in the Country he might and that he was not to exercise his Trade by day nor to wash except Face and Hands and Feet and in cold Water § II. AND these Particulars tho' very minute I have the rather mention'd that the Correspondence which is generally suppos'd between the Excommunicate and the Mourners may better appear For a Jew that has lost a near Relation is obliged to mourn for him Thirty Days for a Father or Mother Eleven Months and besides that the next of Kin to the Dead is bound to tear his Garment upon the first News of his Death and at his Burial as all are bound to do who are present at his Death all Mourners on the First day for their deep Sorrow are suppos'd to Groan the Three First they are presum'd to Weep the Seven First to Lament and on all the Thirty to express their Sadness by some Neglects of themselves (a) Maim 7.14 Traâ—tat 4. seu de Lugeme cap. 13. §. 11. On all the Thirty those who mourn for any of their Near Kindred forbear to cut their Hair or Nails to wear any Garment that is White and Pressed and New to Marry to be present at any Feast of Mirth and to go Merchandizing from their own Town to another (b) Maim ibid. c. 6. neither was it proper for others to ask after their Health by way of Salutation (c) Ibid. c. 5.20 On the First Seven it was further forbid the Mourner to wash his Cloaths or to wash himself except his Feet and Hands only and that in cold Water to anoint to come near his Wife to have Sandals on in the City to do any Work either hir'd himself or hiring others or to open his Shop or give and receive in Merchandize to read the Written Law of Moses c. or to learn or explain the Oral To have any Bed in his House standing and not to lie himself upon one turn'd to have his Head and Upper part of his Face uncover'd or lastly to salute or ask after another's Health except saluted first (d) Ibid. cap. 5. Further on the Three first Days He was not to resalute tho' he were saluted (e) cap. eodem §. 20. nor to do any Work not in Private and though he were fed by Alms (f) § 8. And lastly on the First Day it was unlawful for him to eat or drink of his own Meat or Drink though even Flesh sent by others he might eat and drink for Digestion of their Wine neither was he to wear his Tephillim and he was bound to sit upon his Bedstead turn'd (g) Ibid. c. â— 9. But if his Dead was yet in his house and their Dead they think it their Duty to bury as soon as they can he was not to eat in his own House if any Friend 's were near however except on a Sabbath he was not to eat sitting nor to eat Flesh or drink Wine nor to say a Solemn Blessing or Grace himself neither was any other of his Company to do it before him and he was excused from all Offices of Worship and Prayer (h) §. 6. This is an Abstract of the Usage of Mourners among the Jews and may help us to understand the better what shall follow as well as what has been premis'd concerning Persons Excommunicate the same Restraints as we see lying upon Both. And it may be as Thirty Days were a common Number both to Excommunicates and Mourners so the Excommunicate of the first Thirty Days were first reckoned as Mourners at large of the latter Thirty as the Mourners of the Seven Days and the Excommunicates of the other Degree the Cherem might be rank'd with the Mourners of the Three days or rather of the First if not with those that had not bury'd their Dead while some of them the Cutt off were esteem'd even in a worse Condition than the Dead themselves § III. AND thus I have given you a brief Account of the Jewish Excommunication and not disagreeable to whaâ— Mr. Selden has discoursed at large in his Book de Synedriis tho' in what I am next to mention I shall be oblig'd to differ from him He indeed has given himself some pains to prove That this Excommunication was not directed by Moses nor is observ'd
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
and that of our Lord's Pâ—â—sion and Secondly between the Seasons that Precede both the one and the other of those Radical Fasts CHAP. II. § I. The Sacrificial Performance on the Jewish Expiation Day § II. Compar'd with that of our Saviour on His Passion Day § I. THE Day of Expiation or Attonement is with the Jews a very Great Day injoin'd by God under a very severe Sanction and observ'd by them always with a suitable Care It was appointed on the Tenth Day of their Seventh Month just six Months after the day of the Caption of the Paschal Lamb or Kid of the Goats and the Duties of it were Peculiar partly Sacrificial to be perform'd by the High Priest partly Devotional incumbent on the People The Sacrificial Office proper to the Day was proper to the High Priest (a) For this and the whole Section see Levit. 16. and he only and on that day only was allow'd to enter within the Vail into the Holy of Holies Besides the Propitiation he was then to make for himself and his House He was to make an attonement for the People of the Congregation and that was done by two Kids of the Goats for a Sin-Offering These two Goats were to be alike according to the Tradition both by the Jews (b) Maim de Cult Div. Tract 8. Cap. 5. §. 14. and by Barnabas (c) For this and what follows from Barnabas see Repart 1. Ch. 11. §. 2. lit d. and to be presented before the Lord at the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation There the High Priest cast Lots upon them one Lot for the Lord and the other Lot for the Scape Goat for Azazel suppos'd by some to be Satan d and the heads of both of them he bound about with two narrow pieces of Scarlet (e) Maim Ibid. 8.3.4 With the blood of that which was offer'd to the Lord he enter'd into the House and within the Vail to sprinkle it before the Mercy Seat and while he was in the House no one else was to be there no not in the space between the Altar and the House as the Rabbins say (f) Maim Ibid. 6.3.3 On the other Goat he laid both his hands and confess'd over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their Sins in a Form the Misnah pretends to give (g) Codex Joma Sheringhami c. 6.2 putting them on the Head of the Goat and then he deliver'd him bearing all those Iniquities and Accurs'd as the Traditions of Barnabas call him into the hand of a Fit Man Ready and Bold I suppose h or an Executioner who was to be a Stranger not an Israelite says Maimonides (i) 〈◊〉 p. 8â— 7 to be carried into the Wilderness The People therefore spitting upon him and Goading him on as Barnabas tells us they were bid to do and the Misnah says (k) Joma 6.4 there were those who were ready to pluck him by the hair and cry Away be gone though they were kept off from so doing by the contrivance of a narrow passage In this manner he was lead into the land not inhabited to a Rock call'd Zuk l where his Leader they say i dividing the Piece of Scarlet put half of it on some point of the Rock on a Thorn m says Barnabas and ty'd again the other half between the Horns of the Goat and so push'd him down headlong to be broke to pieces by the Fall § II. Such an Annual Expiation Day was appointed for the Jews and its Sacrifice whereby the Attonement was made for the Sins of that Year was so Perform'd There was in like manner a certain Day appointed to come in its due time when an Attonement should be made for the Sins of the whole World not of one Nation only or of one Year or Age by a Priest supereminently High and with a Sacrifice truly singular and extraordinary and of it self deserving to be accepted The Day of our Saviours Passion every good Christian believes to have been the Day of the Expiation of Mankind And that he in that Sacrificial Action was both the Priest and the Sacrifice the whole Tenor of the Epistle to the Hebrews positively avows He is there said to be a merciful and faithful High Priest making Reconciliation for the Sins of the People (a) Hebr. 2.17 the High Priest of our Profession (b) 3.1 our Great High Priest who is pass'd into the Heavens (c) 4.14 Call'd of God as was Aaron after the Order of Melchisedech (d) 5.4 10. invested with an Vnchangeable Priesthood (e) 7.24 a High-Priest who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens (f) 8.1 And this High Priest was of necessity to have something to offer says the Apostle (g) 8.3 He therefore enter'd once into the Holy Place not by the Blood of Goats and of Calves but by his own Blood having obtain'd eternal Redemption for us (h) 12. and thorough the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God (i) 14. For Christ is not enter'd into the Holy Places made with hands which are the Figures of the True but into Heaven it self now to appear in the Presence of God for us Nor yet was He to offer himself often as the High Priest entreth into the Holy Place every year with the blood of others but now once in the end of the World hath he appear'd to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of Himself being once offer'd to bear the Sins of many (k) 9.24 So are we sanctified thorough the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all (l) 10.10 who after he had once offer'd one Sacrifice for Sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God (m) 12. For by one Offering He hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified (n) 14. Thus exactly adequate is the Correspondence between the Propitiations of the Old and New Covenant as it stands propos'd to us by the Divine Writer to the Hebrews Our Saviour is asserted to have been the High Priest and on his Passion Day to have officiated for us to have offer'd the Sacrifice of Himself to have bore our Sins in his own Body and with his own Blood to have enter'd into the Holy Place not made with hands and to have appear'd as before the Mercy Seat in the Presence of God Thus much of the Analogy the Apostle has expresly laid down and it may very naturally be carried further The Author therefore of the Epistle ascrib'd to Barnabas (o) Barn Ep. Cap. 7. and Tertullian after him (p) See Repartit 1. Chap. 11. §. 3. lit e. have both took notice that the two Kids of the Goats were chosen alike in as much as both of them were equal representatives of our Blessed Lord and that he was as that clean unspotted one which was offer'd to God and whose Blood was carried
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Spina And it may likewise be observ'd of the words relating to the abovementioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has under it the signification not only of Insula but also of Recessus seu Decrementum aquae vel Maris and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Hedg now and might the Thorns heretofore and withal expresses the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Buds which are mention'd by Barnabas CHAP. III. § I. The Devotional Duty of the Jews an their Expiation Day § II. Practis'd by Christians on the Passion Day § III. Some Circumstances of the Eves of those Days compar'd WHile this Reconciliation was making in the Temple at Jerusalem the People even those who were not present at it had their parts to perform and were to join with it wheresoever they resided Fasting that whole Day and afflicting their Souls from Evening to Evening (a) Lev. 23.32 For whatsoever Soul it was that was not afflicted in that same Day he should be cut off from among his People (b) 29. Now that they might be sure not to be defective in so necessary a Duty they took care to begin the Office of that Day earlier than the Sunset of the first Evening and to conclude it later than that of the second The Affliction also of their Souls they shew'd not by Fasting only but by all other Demonstrations of Penitence and Grief for Sin And therefore for the better performing that Duty as they prepare themselves some considerable time before of which we are to speak in the following Chapter so more particularly on the Ninth Day the day immediately preceding For then they repair to their Synagogues before day and continue long at their Devotion there going afterward to their Burying places for their greater Humiliation and in the Afternoon they wash themselves Confessing their Sins make ready their Candles which they are presently to use and particularly take care to Ask Pardon of those they have injur'd and to make satisfaction Then in the Synagogue with other Prayers they make a solemn Confession of their Sins and sometimes receive from one another their Forty stripes save one and afterwards they return home and eat a Formal Supper thereby to distinguish that day from the following in which they are neither to Eat nor Drink (c) For this and what follows see Buxt Syn. Jud. c. 25. And now before the Night beginning that Great Day is come they return to the Synagogue set up and light their Candles for each one and sometimes two as both for their Soul and their Body and after Proclamation is made of leave for the Excommunicate to join with them they begin their solemn Prayers of the Day which they continue towards Midnight some spending the whole Night and repeating the whole Psalter However before Sun-rising they come thither again and stay there all the rest of the Day Reading out of the Scriptures and Praying in which Prayers they take care that their second Service the Sacrificial Service for the Day be said before Noon After Noon they begin the Service of the Evening continuing their Devotions till the Sun is ready to set when they subjoin another Office for the Close of the Day and peculiar to that day and then when the Night of the next day is come they have the solemn Blessing pronounc'd by the Priests that are present and so are dismiss'd After this manner while the Temple stood the Jews heretofore are presum'd to have employ'd the Day of Expiation and not otherwise to have expected any benefit from the Sacrifice which was then offer'd and by which all their Sins were to be intirely Remitted And since the Destruction of their Temple and ceasing of their Sacrifices this their own Office the Jews still continue and impute so much to their due performance of it as to think (d) Rep. 1. Ch. 9. §. 2. that the Punishment of many offences is entirely Forgiven and of the rest at least suspended by that alone and without the help of the Expiatory Goats which are now wanting § II. NOW as it is certain what was laid down in the Chapter foregoing that the Day of our Saviours Passion was the Great and Last Day of Expiation when that one Propitiatory Sacrifice was made for the Sins of the whole World and of all Ages by that our Great and Catholick High Priest (e) Tert. adv Marc. 49. so is it not to be question'd but that the whole World had it then known what Propitiation our Blessed Lord was making for them would have join'd the Affliction of their own Souls with that his bitter Passion and would in their several Habitations have accompanied his Oblation for their Sins with their own Confession of them with bitter grief for their Commission and strong and earnest Supplication for their Pardon This All Mankind could not have fail'd to have done on that Day had they but known what our Saviour was then doing for them But that then was hid from the Eyes of the Apostles themselves When therefore the Mystery of his Death came to be reveal'd and the Propitiation of that day was made known if his Disciples thought fit to keep an annual Memorial of it and that duty the Paschal Season of the Jews so solemnly kept could not but suggest to Christians they could not neither fail of Solemnizing the return of that Day with that Profound Veneration of our Suffering Lord and that Penitential Supplicatory Devotion to the Father which the Original Day it self would have requir'd from them Now that such a Day was kept yearly in memory of the Passion of our Lord in the first and Apostolical Age is a truth which the former Part of this Discourse may have clear'd to us (f) Part 1. Chap. 3. and that it was all along observ'd with as great a strictness of Fasting and Humiliation as the Jews themselves us'd on their day of Propitiation is likewise manifest as it is also most certain that the Grief and Affliction they then were under was not for the Death and Loss of their Lord and Master but for the Guilt of their Sins and the Sins of the World for which their Lord and Master had that day suffer'd So much correspondence there was most evidently between the Practice of the Jews and of the Christians on their two Great Fast Days Thus should our Saviour's Expiatory Sacrifice which completed and superseded the Jewish have been attended answerably and thus actually was the Annually Memory of it afterwards celebrated with a suitable Devotion And this though not done by the Primitive Church in vertue of any such strict Injunction as that under the Old Covenant might yet be well taken up upon the cogent reason of so just a Congruity And as the Jews continue their Devotional Office now when by the Judgment of God an end is put to the Sacrificial so
and Ceremonies borrowed thence For why should not their Expiation Day be imitated by our Passion Day when our Sundays and Wednesdays and Fridays and the old Stationary Days our Easter and our Pentecost are all after the like Example And if we have followed the Jews in their Methods of Humiliation and ways of Abstinence and Penance why not in the Solemnity of a Season for such Duties And now if this Derivation I have propos'd might be taken for granted I might then observe against the Followers of Socinus that an Anniversary and very Remarkable Testimony has been all along given by the whole Church of God to the Expiatory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord as possibly the Discontinuance of that antient and laudable Practice may have given too much way to the late Revival and Modern Increase of that Great Error in Belief But I will not offer to found a Truth so Sacred and which is otherwise so well grounded upon any Conjecture however Probable it may appear § II. But though I do not after all affirm positively that the first Christians had this Correspondence in their View at the Institution of that Holy Time for I shall leave it as Probable only and to the Judgment of the Readerâ— yet this I think I may securely assert that such a Respect if they had it was very Just and Proper and that the same Consideration is a very good reason for the Continuance of the Observation by all True and Orthodox Christians For our Saviour's Passion the Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and of all Ages was indeed once offer'd in the fullness of time and by Him never to be Repeated but eternally therefore to be Commemorated by the Believing Redeem'd part of Mankind in all their Generations to come And if the Resurrection of our Lord was always thought fit to be recognis'd with a Weekly and therefore certainly with an Annual Solemnity his Death also as surely as it was fixt in Time and known to have come to pass the Friday before so as necessarily did it demand its Anniversary also if not Weekly Memorial For though his Resurrection indeed was exceedingly Glorious and Triumphant yet his Passion was no doubt much the more Mighty and more Remarkable Work in as much as the Death of the Eternal Son of God was far more Wondrous than his Rising from it and it was yet more Wonderful that he should submit to the Ineffable Condescension for our sakes For the cause of his Passion it was our Saviour tells us that he came into the World (a) John 18.37 as if all the Discourses remember'd in the Gospel were but as Prefaces to it and all the Miracles of his Life serv'd only to signalise it In was â—he Basiâ— and Ground work of the Church on which our Salvation stands a mighty Foundation and deeply laid Had we therefore no constant Need of this Expiation of our Lord for our repeated continual Transgressions and had we been absolutely Innocent ever since our first Regeneration by Baptism yet the Death in which we were Baptis'd and by which we had been once Redeem'd could not have fail'd of a pious and grateful Commemoration once at least in the Year and this Day if any other would have had its place in the Christian Calendar In that Case indeed the Day would have been kept Eâ—charistically and as the Sacrament of our Lord's Death is now to be Celebrated in a sad and astonishing Remembrance of his bitter Passion intermixt tho' and temper'd with Joy and thanks for the Propitiation it made But though our Intervening Offences have necessarily chang'd the manner of the Celebration and turn'd our Joy into Mourning yet the Commemoration it self is far from being superseded by them and is rather inforc'd by greater reason for we are now to be call'd to the Remembrance of our Sins as well as of our Lord's Passion And if we now countercharge the Supposition and as before we regarded only the Death of our Lord abstractly from our Sins after Baptism so here we regard those only and take no notice of any Anniversary of the Passion yet even the separate consideration of those Sins might well have challeng'd to them some One Day in the Year wherein after an extraordinary manner we should confess and lament their guilt humbly beseech their Pardon and intreat the Benefit of that Expiation for them For though the Sacrifices for Sin have ceas'd by that one Propitiation of Our Saviour yet by deplorable Experience we know that our Sins cease not they are generally as numerous and frequent as they were before the Covenant and much more heinous having now become exceeding Sinful as committed against greater Light and higher Obligations If therefore we will understand our selves aright Confession of Sins and Supplication for Forgiveness continue to be the daily Duty of Christians as well as of Jews make a no less Proper and Necessary Part of our ordinary Publick Devotions and are still as fit to be the express Business and peculiar Office of some Extraordinary Time And if such an Appointment should be made by the Governours of the Church that we should meet together for this Purpose annually on a solemn Day to take the more publick Shame to our selves and to give the greater Glory to God no Good Christian sure would refuse to concur in so common and necessary a Work but as he is ready to meet and celebrate any other Fast indicted on the occasion of Temporary Calamities so he would never decline to join in a Humiliation assign'd for much more weighty spiritual reasons for the saving of Immortal Souls and averting of Eternal Vengeance He only that is without Sin might seem unconcern'd in such an Order but he then would not not be without Charity and would be in this also like our Saviour that he would condescend to humble himself for the Sins of his Brethren And were there now such a General and Solemn Christian Fast to be appointed and were we to find it a proper Season it could not undoubtedly be more congruously plac'd in the whole Circle of the Year than on the Day of our Lord's Passion were there any such day already observ'd For as all the Refuge of our Supplications must be in that Expiation and by it only God can be intreated so a lively Remembrance of that Death would best give us the due sence of the Guilt and Demerit of all Sins but most bitterly reproach us with our own those Bold and Ungrateful Transgressions of a most Gracious Covenant that was seal'd in such Precious Blood So fitly and naturally do both those Duties of Celebrating the Memory of our Lord's Death and Mourning for our own Sins concur on the same Day the Recognition of that our Expiation and the Affliction of our Souls being as closely join'd together by Eternal Reason as ever they were by the Law of Moses the Duties also heightning each other our Humiliation increas'd by
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