for our observance are the Vigils of particular festivals: the forty days of Lent: the Ember days at the four seasons (namely, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the 13th of December, which fall after the third Sunday in Advent; the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent; the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Whitsunday; and the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after September 14th, being the feast of the Holy Cross; the three Rogation days, namely, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday preceding Ascension-day; and every Friday in the year, unless it should be Christmas-day.

The Ember days are supposed to receive their name from a Saxon word signifying a course or circuit, or from another which signifies a minister, because the Ember weeks were the periodical times for ordaining ministers, as well as for consecrating the four seasons of the year. We have no form of service for the Ember days, but only two occasional prayers, which refer simply to Ordination.

The Rogations were originally public supplications with fasting, for averting some impending calamity. By the Council of Orleans, in the 6th century, they were fixed as they now stand, and seem to be intended to prepare us for celebrating the ascension of our Saviour, and to put our minds in a proper frame for averting the judgments of Heaven, and obtaining its blessings.

LETTER XVI.

The Moveable Feasts and Fasts.

MY ESTEEMED Children,

The Moveable Feasts, except Advent, all depending on Easter-day, (as may be seen in the Rules and

Zables prefixed to the morning and evening service of the church,) vary considerably in the period of their return, though the objects they are intended to commemorate are constantly the same, and almost wholly relate to the history of our Saviour. And here it is worthy of remark, how admirably the Epistles and Gospels are adapted to the several festivals on which they are read. For this purpose, the whole year is divided into two parts; the first commemorating Christ's living among us, the last instructing us to follow his example. Accordingly, from Advent to Trinity Sunday, we find the principal passages of his life recorded in the Epistles and Gospels; and from Trinity Sunday to Advent those portions of holy Scripture are calculated to teach us the practice of Christianity, and to lead us to an imitation of Christian virtues.

Advent is properly considered as the commencement of the Christian festivals; and for the greater solemnity of the three great feasts, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, certain days are appointed to go before and follow them. Thus four Advent Sundays precede Christmas, the first of which is always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew, whether before or after; and the design of the whole is to prepare us for a religious commemoration of the coming of Christ in the flesh; and to produce this effect, the collects, epistles, and gospels, are most admirably adapted. And on the grand festival of the nativity, which is fixed to a particular day of the month, and therefore is only to be incidentally noticed in this place, the church both excites and assists our devotion, by a service of peculiar beauty and adaptation. The same may be observed of the feasts and solemn days which immediately follow Christmas. Each is furnished with its proper and suitable office, which can neither be read nor heard without spiritual improvement. And here it should be observed, that the

primitive Christians used to observe the octave or eighth day after their principal feasts, and upon every day between the feast and the octave, as well as upon the octave itself, to repeat some part of the service that was employed on the feast day. Hence, on the Sunday after Christmas, the same collect is used as on that festival, and the epistle and gospel still set forth the mysteries of our redemption, by

the birth of Christ.

The first Sunday in Lent, being forty days before Easter, is called Quadragesima; and, computing from Easter in round numbers, the three preceding Sundays have obtained the names of Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima. The observance of these Sundays, and of the weeks following them, appear to be as ancient as the time of Gregory the Great; and their obvious design is to recal us from the feasting and joy of Christmas, in order that we may be prepared for the state of fasting and humiliation proper for the approaching season of Lent, a Saxon word signifying the Spring, but now applied to express the forty days of fasting, which always happen in that season.

The Tuesday following Quinquagesima Sunday is the last day on which it is allowed, by the discipline of the church, to indulge in flesh and other gross food. It has obtained the name of Shrove Tuesday, from an old Engligh word signifying to confess: because on that day people used to confess their sins, and to receive the holy sacrament, preparatory to the religious observance of Lent.

The next day, or Ash Wednesday, as it is called, is the beginning of Lent; for all Sundays being feasts, because in them we commemorate the resurrection of our Saviour, it is necessary to add four days to the remaining thirty-six, in order to com plete the stated period of fasting.

On Ash Wednesday, or dies cinerum, the penitents used to present themselves, before the bishop

and clergy, in sackcloth and other signs of humiliation, who, after repeating the same penitential psalms, and rising from prayers, threw ashes upon them, and with mournful sighs declared to them, that as Adam was cast out of Paradise, so they must be cast out of the church. The like ceremony passed the following Sunday, and they were not again admitted into the communion of the church till Maunday Thursday. Instead, however of this severe discipline, the reformers appointed a suitable service for the day, under the title of the Commination, in which the penitential psalms are recited, and God's anger denounced against impenitent sinners and offenders.

The Sundays in Lent are generally named from their numbers. The fourth, however, is usually with us called Mid-lent Sunday; and the Sunday next before Easter has obtained the appellation of Palm Sunday, in commemoration of our Saviour's triumphal entry into Jerusalem; in memory of which remarkable event palms used to be borne in this country till the reign of Edward VI. During this whole space, the service of the Church is calculated to remind us of the duties we have undertaken, and to instruct us, after the example of Christ, not only to fast, but to do good to our fellow crea

tures.

Passion week is properly a continuation of Lent; but as in this week we commemorate the passion and sufferings of Christ, a greater degree of strictness is indicated and expected. It has been called by some the Great Week, by others the Holy Week; and it was not only observed in ancient times with fasting and devotion, but, by several constitutions of emperors, all law proceedings were susspended during its course.

Maundy Thursday, called also dies mandati, as being that day on which Christ gave commandment to his Apostles to commemorate the sacrament of

his supper, or, as some think, on which he gave them the new commandment "to love one another," (in both which senses it seems to be used by our church,) has a service peculiarly proper for exciting obedience to our Saviour's injunctions, and our love to our fellow Christians.

Good Friday received its name from the blessed effects of our Redeemer's sufferings, which are this day commemorated; and it has always been observed by the pious as a season of the strictest humiliation and fasting. Indeed, it is impossible' to reconcile a contrary conduct with the confession of Christianity; for surely those who believe in the mission of our Saviour, and what he accomplished for us on the cross, must be impressed with a sense of guilt which demanded such a sacrifice, and feel corresponding emotions. Nothing can be better calculated than the public service to produce this effect the psalms, the lessons, the collects, the epistles and gospels, all conspire to fix our devotion to its proper object, and to set before our eyes and our hearts the affecting circumstances of our Redeemer's sufferings.

Anciently Easter Eve was celebrated by solemn watchings, and multitudes of lighted torches, making together a mixture of humiliation and magni ficence. In the church of England, however, we are only enjoined to observe private fasting and public meditation on our Saviour's death, burial, and descent into hell, from which we are about speedily to commemorate his return.

Though violent disputes long divided the Church about the time when the festival of Easter should be observed, there is little doubt but that it was kept with holy joy ever since the apostolic age. In the primitive times, indeed, on the morning of this grand festival, in which we commerorate our Saviour's victory over death and the grave, and the assurance then given of our own resurrection, the