ページの画像
PDF
ePub

they never cast out any but what they first cast in; They do it where for Reverence no Man shall dare to examine it; they do it in a Corner, in a Mortice-hole, not in the Market-place. They do nothing but what may be done by Art; they make the Devil fly out of the Window in the Likeness of a Bat, or à Rat. Why do they not hold him? Why in the Likeness of a Bat, or a Rat, or some Creature? that is, Why not in some Shape we paint him in, with Claws and Horns? Answer may be made to his pertinent Question, that real Bats and Rats may be procured-but every Carver is not to be trusted with the making of a horned or clovenfooted Image of the Devil.

Impious and antichristian Rome*! it is impossible to say how much thou hast prejudiced the Cause of manly and rational Religion by these, and the like thy childish (to give no harsher Name to thy) Fooleries and Superstitions!

* In an Age when every wretched Sophister, drawing his Conclusions from false Premises, wishes to confound the pure Spirit of Christian Philosophy with these and the like Adulterations of it, I must at least be pardoned for obtruding the subsequent Eulogy, extracted from an old Tragedy;-no professed Divine has perhaps ever exhibited more forcibly the Grandeur and Utility of Christianity, than these few Lines do:

"If these are Christian Virtues, I am Christian,
"The Faith that can inspire this generous Change,
* Must be divine-and glows with all its God!
"Friendship and Constancy and Right and Pity,
"All these were Lessons I had learn'd before,
"But this unnatural Grandeur of the Soul
"Is more than mortal, and outreaches Virtue;
"It draws, it charms, it binds me to be Christian !”

Hill's Alzira.

CHAP.

CHAP. XII.

Of Saturday Afternoon: how observed of old, by the ancient Christians, the Church of Scotland, and the old Church of England: What End we should observe it for: An Exhortation to the Observation of it.

IT is usual, in Country Places and Villages, where the Politeness of the Age hath made no great Conquest, to observe some particular Times with some Ceremonies, which were customary in the Days of our Fore-fathers: Such are the great Festivals of Christmas, Easter, and several others, which they observe with Rites and Customs appropriated to them.

Among these we find a great Deference paid to Saturday Afternoon, above the other worky Days of the Week: Then the Labours of the Plough ceast, and Refreshments and Ease are over all the Village.

This seems to be the Remains of a laudable Custom once in this Land (but now almost buried in that general Contempt of Religion

[blocks in formation]

and Love of the World, which prevail so much every where) of attending the Evening Prayers on Saturday, and laying aside the Concerns of this Life, to be fitter for the Duties of the Day following. For *" it was an holy Cus"tom among our Fore-fathers, when at the Ringing to Prayer the Eve before the Sab

66

έσ

bath, the Husbandman would give over his "Labour in the Field, and the Tradesman his Work in the Shop, and go to Evening

66

66

66

66

66

Prayer in the Church, to prepare their Souls, that their Minds might more chearfully attend GOD's Worship on the SabbathDay."

And indeed it was the Custom both of the Jewish and the Christian Church. They neither of them entred upon the Sabbath, without some Preparation for it. Moses † taught the Jews to remember the Sabbath over Night; from whence in all Probability it comes to pass, that the Eve of the Jewish Sabbath is called the Preparation. The Preparation mentioned by the Evangelists, begun at Three a Clock on Friday Afternoon; it was proclaimed with the Noise of Trumpets and Horns, that they might be better put in Mind

*Baily, Prac. Piety, P. 453. † Exod. xvi. Mark xiv.

of

of the Sabbath's drawing on, and of that Preparation which was requisite for it.

Among the primitive Christians the LORD'S Day was always usher'd in with a Pernoctation or Vigil. They assembled in the House of GOD, and sung Psalms and Praises to him a great Part of the Night, that they might be better prepared to serve him on his own Day following.

In the Year of our LORD 1203, William King of Scotland* called a Council of the chief Men of his Kingdom, at which also was present the Pope's Legate; and it was then determin'd, that Saturday after the twelfth Hour should be kept holy; that no one should follow their Business nor Callings, but desist as on other Holy Days: That they should be put in Mind of it by the Tolling of the Bell, and then mind the Business of Religion as on Holy Days, be present at the Sermon, and hear

*In Scotia anno salutis 1203, Gulielmus Rex primorum Regni sui concilium cogit, cui etiam interfuit Pontificius Legatus, in quo decretum est, ut Saturni Dies abrhora 12 Meridiei sacer esset, neque quisquam res profanas exerceret, quemadmodum aliis quoque festis diebus vetitum id erat. Idque campanæ pulsu populo indicaretur, ac postea sacris rebus, ut diebus festis operam darint, concionibus interessent, vesperas audirent, idque in diem lunæ facerent, constituta transgressoribus gravi pæna. Boet. Lib. 13. de Scot. ex Hospin. P. 176.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Vespers; that this should be the Practice till Munday Morning, and whoever acted otherwise should be severely punished.

And this, as is said before, was also the Custom of our own Country, long before this order'd in Scotland. For in the Year 958, when King Edgar made his Ecclesiastical Laws, we find one made to this very Purpose: In which it is order'd, That the Sabbath or Sunday shall be observed from Saturday at + Noon, till the Light appear on Munday Morning.

* Dies sabbati ab ipsa diei saturni hora pomeridiana tertia, usque in luminarii dici diluculum festus agitator, &c. Seld. Analect. Angl. Lib. 2. Cap. 6.

+ Mr. Johnson upon this Law says, That the Noon-Tide signifies Three in the Afternoon, according to our present Account : And this Practice, I conceive, continued down to the Reformation. In King Winfred's Time, the LORD's Day did not begin till Sun-set on the Saturday. See 654. Numb, 10. Three in the Afternoon was hora nona in the Latin Account, and therefore called Noon. How it came afterwards to signifie Mid-day, I can but guess. The Monks by their Rules, could not eat their Dinner, till they had said their Noon Song, which was a Service regularly to be said at Three a Clock; but they probably anticipated their Devotions and their Dinner, by saying their Noon Song immediately after their Mid-day Song, and presently falling on. I wish they had never been guilty of a worse Fraud than this. But it may fairly be supposed, that when Mid-day became the Time of Dining and saying Noon Song, it was for this Reason called Noon by the Monks, who were the Masters of the Language during the dark Ages. In the Shepherds Almanack, Noon is Midday, High-noon Three a Clock. Johnson, Cons. Part 1. Ann. 958.

[blocks in formation]
« 前へ次へ »