I. "TABLES AND RULES" "For the Moveable and Immoveable Feasts; together with" "the Days of Fasting and Abstinence, through the whole" "Year" OBSERVATION. The Church, for the more general consent in discipline, has laid down rules, and formed tables, the whole of which it is not considered necessary to give here verbatim-they are, either in letter, or in substance, as follows. I. "RULES to know when the Moveable Feasts, and" "Holy-days begin." " "EASTER DAY (on which the rest depend) is always the First Sun"day after the Full Moon, which happens upon, or next after the" "Twenty-first Day of March; and if the Full Moon happens upon a "Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after." " "Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of St." "Andrew, whether before or after." Moveable and Immoveable Feasts.] The Moveable Feasts are those which do not occur on the same day in the year. Easter is the principal one, and by the time when this is celebrated, all the rest of the Moveable Feasts are determined. Those not mentioned in the above table, are Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Ash Wednesday. The Immoveable Feasts are those which do always occur on the same day in the year, and are those mentioned in the following Table, except Ascension Day.-For the word Feasts see the following Table. Advent Sunday.] It is peculiar with the Church to begin her year, or the annual course of her service, at this time of Advent (" Adı enio," to come) because she numbers not her days, nor measures her seasons so much by the motion of the Sun, as by the course of our blessed Lord, the true "Sun of righteousness;" "the day spring from on high," which now rose upon the world, " to give light to them that sat in darkness, and in "the shadow of death,"-Luke, i. 79. Septuagesima, &c.] The first Sunday in Lent, being forty days before Easter, was, for that reason, called "Quadragesima," forty-a round number; and fifty being the next round number, the Sunday preceding Quadragesima Sunday, though only seven days more distant from Easter, was called "Quinquagesima”—fifty, which is indeed within one day of the real time-seven weeks, or forty-nine days. The two Sundays preceding this were, for the same reason, called "Sexagesima”—sixty—and "Septuagesima"-seventy; though this latter was only nine weeks, or sixty-three days before Easter. Rogation.] This name, from the Latin " rogo," to ask, or intreat, is said to have been given to this Sunday by Mamercus, Bishop of Vienne, in the fifth century, who instituted extraordinary prayers to avert a particular calamity that threatened his diocese. According to some, he was rather the restorer, than the inventor of the term. Sparrow says there were peculiar fastings and prayers at this time, from the danger to which the tender fruits of the earth were exposed; and also in anticipation of our Lord's Ascension, which took place the Thursday following. See post, Table III." Rogation Days." Ascension Day.] This, called also Holy Thursday, is ten days before Whitsuntide. Mention is made of it in the "Apostolical Constitutions," B. 5, C. 19, directing to count, from the first Lord's Day, forty days, till the fifth day of the week; and then to celebrate the feast of the Ascension. It is, not improbably, of apostolic origin. Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.] See ante, "CALENDAR," p. 135 and post, Collects, &c. for those days. OBSERVATION. Previous to the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, the time of celebrating Easter had been the subject of great dispute between the Eastern and Western Churches, and particularly between the Christians of Asia Minor, and those of Rome. Both kept the fast of the Great Week, now called "Passion Week, and afterwards celebrated a feast, as the Jews did, in which they eat a Paschal lamb in memory of our Saviour's last supper. But the Asiatic Christians kept this feast on the same day as the Jews,-viz. on the 14th day of the first Jewish month Nisan (from whence they were called “Quarto-decimans," or fourteenth days men,) and three days after commemorated the resurrection of our Lord; affirming that they derived this custom from St. John, and St. Philip; and pleading even the example of Christ himself, who held his Paschal feast on the same day that the Jews celebrated their Passover. The Western Churches celebrated their Paschal feast on the night preceding the anniversary of Christ's Resurrection, both to honour that day, and to distinguish themselves from the Jews, thus connecting the commemoration of the Saviour's Crucifixion, with that of his glorious resurrection; and for this they also pleaded apostolic authority, that of St. Peter and St. Paul. The rule of the Asiatic Churches had two great inconveniences, to which the Christians at Alexandria and Rome, and all the Western Churches, refused to submit. 1st. The celebration of the festival on the same day that Christ is said to have eaten the Paschal lamb with his disciples, interrupted the fast of the great week, which the other Churches looked upon as indecent, if not criminal; and 2dly, as they celebrated the memory of Christ's resurrection precisely on the third day after their Paschal supper, it generally happened that the Great Festival, Easter-day, was held on other days of the week than the first-or Sunday-the day of Christ's resurrection. Hence arose a contest that was carried on with considerable warmth. About the middle of the second century, the venerable Polycarp went to Rome, to confer with Anicetus, Bishop of that See, on this unhappy difference. But the conference, though conducted with great moderation, was without effect; and the chiefs could only agree that the bonds of charity were not, on this account, to be broken. A few years afterwards, Victor, a subsequent Bishop of Rome, endeavoured to force the Asiatic Christians by the authority of his decrees, to follow the rule observed by the Western Churches. The Asiatics answered by the pen of Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, that they would not depart from the custom of their ancestors. Several Synods were held by the Western Churches, by which generally the Roman method was established-while the Asiatics also held Synods which decided to the contrary. At length, Victor, exasperated at this opposition, broke communion with the Asiatic Bishops, and excluded them from all fellowship with the Church of Rome. The dissension was in some degree subdued by the remonstrances of Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, with the Roman prelate; and each retained their own customs, until the fourth century, when, in the year 325, the Council of Nice affirmed that of the Romans, and fixed the time of the celebration of Easter generally through all the Christian Churches by the following Canons. "That every where the great feast of Easter should be observed upon "the same day; and that not on the day of the Jewish Passover, but "upon the Sunday afterwards." "That the 21st day of March should be accounted the vernal equinox." "That the full moon happening upon or next after the 21st day of "March, should be taken for the full moon of Nisan." "That the Lord's Day next following that full moon should be Easter ❝ day." "But if a full moon should happen upon a Sunday, Easter-day should "be the Sunday after." The affair being thus decided by the authority of a General Council, all dispute soon ceased, and the feast of Easter being settled, the Church provided tables for ascertaining exactly the days on which it would happen, See post, "Tables to find Easter-day." II. "A TABLE of all the Feasts that are to be observed " "the Church of England throughout the Year." "All Sundays in the Year." "The Circumcision of our Lord" S. Peter the Apostle. "JESUS CHRIST. "The Epiphany. "The Conversion of S. Paul. "S. James the Apostle. "S. Bartholomew the Apostle. "S. Matthew the Apostle. "S. "'The Purification of the Blessed" S. Michael and all Angels. "S. Andrew the Apostle. "S. Thomas the Apostle. "The Ascension of our Lord JESUS" S. Stephen the Martyr. "CHRIST. "S. Barnabas. "The Nativity of S. John Baptist. "S. John the Evangelist. "The Holy Innocents." "Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week.-Monday and Tuesday in " Whitsun Week." 9 Feasts.] Time is a circumstance no less inseparable from religious actions, than place; for man consisting of a soul and body, cannot always be actually engaged in the service of God: that's the privilege of angels, and souls freed from the fetters of mortality. So long as we are here, we must worship God with respect to our present state, and consequently of necessity have some definite and particular time to do it in.-Now, that man might not be left to a floating uncertainty, in a matter of so great importance, in all ages and nations, men have been guided by the very dictates of nature, to pitch upon some certain seasons, wherein to assemble, and meet together, to perform the public offices of religion. (Cave's Prim. Christianity, 103; and see this same sentiment, and the subject excellently treated, in Nelson's Festivals and Fasts,-the Preliminary instructions concerning Festivals.) This sanctification, or setting apart of festival-days, is a token of that thankfulness, and a part of that public honour, which we owe to God, for his admirable benefits; and these days or feasts set apart, are of excellent use, being, as learned Hooker observes, the 1. Splendour, and outward dignity of our religion.-2. Forcible witnesses of ancient truth.-3. Provocations to the exercise of all piety.-4. Shadows of our endless felicity in heaven.-5. On earth, everlasting records, teaching by the eye in a manner whatsoever we believe. And concerning particulars: as, that of the Jews had the Sabbath, which did continually bring to mind the former world finished by creation; so the Christian Church hath her Lord's Days, or Sundays, to keep us in perpetual remembrance of a far better world, begun by him who came to restore all things, to make heaven and earth new. The rest of the holy festivals which we celebrate, have relation all to one head, CHRIST. We begin therefore our ecclesiastical year (as to some accounts, though not as to the order of our services) with the glorious Annunciation of his birth by angelical message. Hereunto are added his blessed Nativity itself, the mystery of his legal Circumcision, the testification of his true incarnation by the Purification of his blessed mother the Virgin Mary; his glorious Resurrection and Ascension into heaven; the admirable sending down of his Spirit upon his chosen. Again, forasmuch as we know that CHRIST hath not only been manifested great in himself, but great in other, his Saints also; the days of whose departure out of this world, are to the Church of Christ, as the birth and coronation days of kings, or emperors: therefore, especial choice being made of the very flower of all occasions in this kind, there are annual selected times to meditate of Christ glorified in them, which had the honour to suffer for his sake, before they had age and ability to know him, namely, |