(1.) To shew upon what occasion this rule was framed, it is to be observed, that in the first ages of Christianity there arose a great difference between the Churches of Asia, and other Churches, about the day, whereon Easter ought to be celebrated.

The Churches of Asia kept their Easter upon the same day on which the Jews celebrated their passover, namely, upon the fourteenth day of their first month Nisan, (which month began at the new moon next to the vernal equinox ;) and this they did upon what day of the week soever it fell; and were from thence called "Quartodecimans," or such as kept Easter upon the fourteenth day of after the Phasis, or appearance of the moon: whereas the other Churches, especially those of the West, did not follow this custom, but kept their Easter on the Sunday following the Jewish passover; partly the more to honour the day, and partly to distinguish between Jews and Christians. Both sides pleaded apostolical tradition: these latter pretending to derive their practice from St. Peter and St. Paul: whilst the others, namely, the Asiatics, said they imitated the example of St. John.

This difference for a considerable time continued with a great deal of Christian charity and forbearance; but at length became the occasion of great bustles in the Church; which grew to such a height at last, that Constantine thought it time to use his interest and authority to allay the heat of the opposite parties, and to bring them to a uniformity of practice. To which end he got a canon to be passed in the great general Council of Nice, "That every where the great feast of Easter should be observed upon one and the same day and that not on the day of the Jewish passover, but, as had been generally observed, upon

:

after

Seven Weeks (East. Eight Weeks

the Sunday afterwards." And that this dispute might never arise again, these paschal canons were then also established, namely,

1. "That the twenty-first day of March shall be accounted the vernal equinox.

2. "That the full moon happening upon or next after the twenty-first day of March, shall be taken for the full moon of Nisan.

3. "That the Lord's day next following that full moon be Easter-day.

4. "But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter-day shall be the Sunday after."

Agreeable to these is the Rule for finding Easter, still appointed by the Church. Wheatly. It may be here convenient to observe, that our Church does not reckon the full moons according to the rules of modern almanacs, but that she goveras herself therein by the ancient synodical determinations, and paschal cycles of the Church. Dr. Nicholls. Also, that it was enacted by the 24th of George the Second, chap. 23, that "whereas a calendar, and also certain tables and rules for the fixing the true time of the celebration of the feast of Easter, and the finding the times of the full moons on which the same dependeth, so as the same shall agree as nearly as may be with the decree of the said general Council (of Nice,) and also with the practice of foreign countries, have been prepared, and are hereunto annexed:" therefore "the said feast of Easter, or any of the moveable feasts thereon depending, shall be no longer kept or observed according to the tables," which had been till then prefixed to the Common Prayer Book, but had been found considerably erroneous; but "that the said new calendar, tables, and rules hereunto annexed, shall be prefixed to all future editions of the said book in the room and stead" of the former: and that

All Sundays in the year.

The Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Epiphany.

The Conversion of St. Paul.

The Purification of the blessed Virgin.

St. Matthias the Apostle.

The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

St. Mark the Evangelist.

St. Philip and St. James, the Apostles.

The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Barnabas.

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
St. Peter the Apostle.

"the said feast of Easter, and all other moveable
feasts thereon depending, shall be observed ac-
cording to the said new calendar, tables, and
rules hereunto annexed, in that part of Great
Britain called England, and in all the dominions
and countries aforesaid, wherein the Liturgy of the
Church of England now is, or hereafter shall be
used." The tables and rules to find Easter and
the other moveable feasts, which are now pre-
fixed to the Common Prayer Book, as indeed
they have been ever since the year 1752, are the
tables and rules specified in the above extract;
and, as such, are evidently part of the law of the
land: by which, it will have been remarked, that
provision is made, not only for "the celebration
of the feast of Easter" on a day to be regulated
by a certain full moon; but likewise "for finding
the time of the full moon on which the same de-
pendeth."
BISHOP MANT.

(2.) By the fifth and sixth of Edward VI, chap. 3, it was enacted, that all the days therein mentioned should be kept holydays, and none other. This Act was repealed in the first year of Queen Mary: and in the first of Queen Elizabeth a bill to revive the same was brought into Parliament, but passed not; so that the repeal of Queen Mary remained upon this Act till the first year of King James the First, when this repeal was taken off. In the mean while, the Calendar before the Book of Common Prayer had directed what holydays should be observed; and in the

St. James the Apostle.
St. Bartholomew the Apostle.
St. Matthew the Apostle.

St. Michael and All Angels.

St. Luke the Evangelist.

St. Simon and St. Jude, the Apostles.
All Saints.

St. Andrew the Apostle.

St. Thomas the Apostle.

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Stephen the Martyr.
St. John the Evangelist.
The Holy Innocents.

Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week.
Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun-Week.

Articles published by Queen Elizabeth, in the seventh year of her reign, one was, that there be none other holydays observed, besides the Sundays, but only such as be set out for holydays as in the said statute of the fifth and sixth of Edward the Sixth, and in the new Calendar authorized by the Queen's Majesty: who appears in other instances, as she did probably in this, to have greatly disliked the Parliament's intermeddling in matters of religion, the ordering of which she reckoned one great branch of the royal supremacy.

In this table it is observable, that all the same days are repeated as feasts," "which were enacted to be "holydays" by the aforesaid statute: and also these two were added, namely, “the Conversion of St. Paul," and "St. Barnabas," which perhaps were omitted out of the statute, because St. Paul and St. Barnabas were not accounted of the number of the twelve. But in the rubrick, which prescribeth the lessons proper for "holydays," those two festivals are specified under the denomination also of "holydays." But their eves are not appointed by the Calendar, as the eves of the others are, to be fasting days.

1st. The forty days of Lent. (4.)

(3.) That fasting or abstinence from our usual sustenance is a proper means to express sorrow and grief, and a fit method to dispose our minds towards the consideration of any thing that is serious, nature seems to suggest and therefore all nations, from ancient times, have used fasting as a part of repentance, and as a means to avert the anger of God. This is plain in the case of the Ninevites. Jonah iii. 5. whose notion of fasting, to appease the wrath of God, seems to have been common to them with the rest of mankind. In the Old Testament, besides the examples of private fasting by David, Psal. xlix. 10, and Daniel ix. 3, and others; we have instances of public fasts observed by the whole nation of the Jews at once upon solemn occasions. See Lev. xxiii. 26, &c. ; 2 Chron. xx. 3; Ezra viii. 21; Jer. xxxvi, 9; Zach. viii. 19; Joel 1. 14. It is true indeed, in the New Testa nent we find no positive precept, that expressly requires and commands us to fast: but our Saviour mentions fasting with almsgiving and prayer, which are unquestionable duties; and the directions he gave concerning the performance of it sufficiently suppose its necessity. And he himself was pleased before he entered upon his ministry, to give us an extraordinary example in his own person, by fasting forty days and forty nights, Matt. iv. 2. He excused indeed his disciples from fasting, so long as He, the Bridegroom, was with them;" because that being a time of joy and gladness, it would be an improper season for tokens of sorrow: but then he intimates at the same time, that though it was not fit for them then, it wold yet be their duty hereafter: for "the days," says he, "will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast," Matt. ix. 15. And accordingly we find, that after his ascension, the duty o fasting was not only recommended, 1 Cor. vii, 5; but practised by the apostles, as any one may see by the texts of Scripture here referred to, Acts xiii. 2, and xiv. 23; 1 Cor. ix. 27; 2 Cor. vi. 5, and xi. 27. After the apos

tles, we find the primitive Christians very constant and regular in the observation both of their annual and weekly fasts. Their weekly fasts were kept on Wednesday and Fridays, because on the one our Lord was betrayed, on the other crucified. The chief of their annual fasts was that of Lent, which they observed by way of preparation for their feast of Easter.

In the Church of Rome, fasting and abstinence admit of a distinction, and different days are appointed for each of them. But I do not find that the Church of England makes any difference between them. It is true in the title of the Table of Vigils, &c. she mentions fasts and days of abstinence" separately: but when she comes to enumerate the particulars, she calls them ali "days of fasting or abstinence," without distinguishing the one from the other. The time she sets apart are such as she finds to have been observed by the earliest ages of the Church.

Wheatly.

(4.) In the "Table of Fasts" an error has been corrected, on the suggestion of Bishop White. Instead of The forty days of Lent,” all our books have erroneously had it "The Season of Lent ། The corrected error, says the Bishop, "was not begun in Gaine's book, but may be found in that published by Hall & Sellers, in 1790, under the direction of a committee of the convention of 1789. In the proposed book, published by them, it was agreeable to the English editions. The error must have been an oversight of the committee, and makes an inconsistency of the table of fasts with that of feasts: the latter comprehending the sundays in lent, agreeably to the practice of the christian church in all ages. T. C. B.

(5.) Friday was, both in the Greek Churches and Latin, a Litany or humiliation day, in memory of Christ crucified; and so is kept in ours.

Bp. Sparrow.

For observations upon each of the Fasts, the reader is referred to the notes on them, as they occur in the order of Collects.

T. C. B.