for the Obfervation of Eafter, which would make all manner of Cycles needlefs; and that is, that Eafter fhall always be the first Sunday after the first Full Moon, next after the Vernal Equinox.

But I apprehend it ought to be confider'd, whenever this Bufinefs is undertaken, whether when the Pafchal Full Moon happens on a Sunday, that shall not be our Eafter-day, as our prefent Practice is, and as the Table to find Eafter for ever prefcribes, or whether we fhall defer it to the Sunday following, as the Rule directs. See the Rule to know when the moveable Feafts and Holy-days begin, juft after the Kalendar in the Liturgy, which agrees in this Particular with the. German Account; and by which we fhall wholly avoid what the Ancients thought a Fault, namely, the keeping Eafter. on the fame Day with the Jews.

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*The Rule is thus expreft, Eafter-day is always the first Sunday after the first Full-Moon which happens next after the One and Twentieth Day of March. Thefe Words are meant inclufively, as if it had been faid, Next after the [commencement of the] One and Twentieth Day of March; so that if the Full Moon happens on March 21st, the fame must be the Pafchal Full Moon. Thefe are the Words of the Author of an Ingenious Tract, Entituled, The Rule for finding Eafter, &c. The Reader may there fee in what Senfe the Rule and the Table are capable of a Reconciliation, and the method of finding out the Ecclefiaftical New Moons, by which the Table was Calculated.

And indeed, the keeping Eafter on the fame Sunday on which the Full Moon happens, may fometimes be occafion of what feems a confiderable Miftake; that is, the Full Moon may happen on what we now call Sunday, according to our Civil Account, but which in the Ecclefiaftical or Religious Account is part of Monday. For Scriptural Days begin at Six in the Evening, and end at Six the next Evening, according to thofe Texts in the first of Genefis, the Evening and the Morning were the firft, fecond, &c. Day. Now if the Pafchal Full Moon happen after Six a Clock at Night of the Civil Sunday, then it is on Monday according to the Scripture Account, and fo Eafter-day ought by no means to be obferved on that Day, nor before the fol lowing Sunday: For tho' the Church does not affect to keep Eafter on the fame Day with the Jews, yet he has divided her Nights and Days according to the Scriptural, not the Civil Ac count. And tho' our Civil Day begins from Midnight, yet our Ecclefiaftical Day begins at Six in the Evening: And therefore the Collect for the Sunday is to be read on what in our Civil Account is called Saturday Evening, and the Collect for every greater Festival at Evening Prayer next before. The proper time for Ve pers or Even-Song, is Six a Clock, and from that time the Religious Day begins; therefore where Evening Prayer is read at its proper Seafon, the Colle&t for the Purification may well be ufed as the Rubric directs, on what we call the fore going Evening; notwithstanding thofe Words by only Son was this Day prefented in t Temple.

Against this it is objected, that few Churches begin Evening Prayer after Six. True, and this is not the only Impropriety occafion'd by this Means in our Liturgy. But that Six is the Hour of Even-Song, is fo certain, that no Man will difpute it, who is not a perfect Stranger to Things of this Nature. Nor is it lefs. clear, that Feafts are to be kept from EvenSong to Even-Song inclufively. And tho' the Natural Day (according to this Account) be paft at Six in the Evening, yet the Festival Day is not paft till Even Song is ended. Holydays that begin not till Morning-Prayer, are not* perfect Feafts. They were deem'd to be of an inferior Rank by them that had the or

dering

* Some think this needs an Explanation. Now I take the Lords-day to have been the Standard of a Perfect Feaft. And this in the ancient Church bad its Vigil. The Saturday-Faft ftill continues as a Vigil in the Church of Rome. In the Eastern Church they kept both the Sabbath and Lords-Day as Feafts: But the Eve, or Night-watch to both began on the Evening of the Sabbath, now called by us Thurfday Evening. Athanafius and Socrates after him, gives this reafon why the People kept a Night-watch, viz. becaufe a Day of publick Affembly was drawing on. See Athan, de fugâ, Tom. I. pag. 716. Socr. L. 2. c. 11. pag. 89. & L. 6. c. 8. pag. 321. This fhews that a Vigil in thofe Times did of courfe go before a Day of publick Affembly. And in the laft Citation from Socrates it is evident, that the Saturday, in the Eaft, was introduced by a

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dering of these Matters: But then they who terminate the Feaft within certain Minutes, and because Six is the Hour of Vefpers will al low no latitude, have never confider'd, that in the Scripture Language (which is our beft Guide

in

Vigil. But when Holydays grew too numerous to be univerfally kept, a certain Number of them was felected to be kept as Holydays of Obligation, and thefe had their Vigils, even St. Laurence, whofe Feast bath ever had a Vigil, because it was always an Holyday of Obligation. The reft, with their Eves, were wholly omitted, fave that the Epifles and Gofpels, and other commemorative Services for the Day itself, were ufed in Churches that were daily officiated. A mong thofe difufed Feafts were the Converfion of St. Paul, SS. Mark, Barnabas, and Luke, which were not obferved in the latter Times of the Anglo-Saxonic Church, as appears from the Menology in Dr. Hickes's Sax. Grammar, pag. 203. &c. nor are they at this Day efteem'd Holydays of Obligation in the Church of Rome. When the Feafts last named were reftored, as they were long before the Reformation in the Church of England, yet their Vigils were not restored: For by means of the Alterations aforefaid, a Diftinction between Holydays with Vigils, and Holydays without Vigils now obtained. Thofe Feafts, which were instituted fince this Distinction prevailed, are either of great Note in the Church of Rome, as the Nativity of the Bleffed Virgin Mary, Corpus Chrifti, &c. or of leffer Note, as, St. Michael, St. Anne, St. Jofeph, &c. The

for

in this Matter) what is exprefs'd by the Evening, and going down of the Sun in one Text, (Deut. xvi. 6.) is call'd the Time between the two Evenings in another (Exod. xii. 6.) And the Time of the Evening Sacrifice is exprefs'd by this laft Phrafe, Num. xxviii. 4. And it is notorious that this was any Time between the Ninth and Twelfth, according to them; the Third and Sixth with us.

But obferve, That tho' the Church Day begins at Six in the Evening, yet in our Liturgy the Ru brics are to be understood according to the Civil Account, ad captum vulgi. And for the fame Reason, the first Month in the Church Kalendar is January, viz. becaufe this is the firft Month according to Civil Account, which this Hland receiv'd from the Heathen Roman Empire, while it was fubject to that Civil Govern ment, and has retained ever fince. Dr. Chamberlain indeed, in his Prefent State of England, Part 3. c. 2. tells us, That the Church begins

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her

former bad Vigils affigned to them, the other none. This is no Diminution to the Feasts of St. John Evangelift, St. Stephen, St. Philip and James. For as the whole Advent may in fome fenfe be confider'd as a Vigil to the Feast of Chriftmas with its attending Holydays; fo the whole Lent may be taken as a Vigil to the Feast of Eafter, and its attending Holydays; of which St. Philip and James is esteemed to be one. And even the Annunciation bath no Vigil in the Church of Rome, when it falls in Eafter-Week, So in the Eaftern Church, one Vigil was kept both for Sabbath and Lords-Day.