2nd. That the full moon, happening upon, or next after, 21st March, shall be taken for the full moon of Nisan.

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

4th. But if the full moon happen upon Sunday, Easter-day shall be the Sunday after. Agreeably to these is the rule for finding Easter, still appointed by the Church.

The Christian year is divided into two parts; the one, from Advent to Trinity, to commemorate Christ's living here on earth; the other, from Trinity to Advent, to direct us to live after his example. It does not correspond with the civil year, because the Church, in numbering her days, and measuring her seasons, does not so much regard the sun in the firmament, as the Sun of Righteousness, her Saviour; counting on her year from him, who began at the season of Advent to rise upon the world, and as the "Day star on high," to enlighten them that sat in spiritual darkness.

Vigils were the meetings of the early Christians for the exercise of devotion, so called from being held before day, on account of the persecutions of their enemies; and when this first occasion ceased, by the Christians having liberty given them to perform their devotions in a more public manner, they still continued these night-watchings before certain festivals, in order to prepare their minds for a due observation of the ensuing solemnity. But afterwards, when these meetings came to be so far abused, that no care could prevent irregularities, the Church thought fit to abolish them; so that the nightly watchings were laid aside, and the fasts only retained, but still keeping the former name of vigils. Vigils, fasts, and other days of abstinence are not distinguished in our Church from each other, though the Church of Rome makes a distinction between them.

Some of the festivals have no vigils before them, because they generally happen either between Christmas and the Purification, or between Easter and Whitsuntide, which were always esteemed such seasons of joy that the Church did not think fit to intermingle them with any days of fasting and humiliation. There are, indeed, two holydays which have no vigils, namely, St. Michael and All Angels, and St. Luke. On the former the season for the institution of vigils ceaseth, which was to conform us to the example of the saints, and remind us of the mortifications and sufferings they underwent on their way to the possession of the glory which we on their festivals are invited to commemorate; whereas those ministering spirits had never partaken of mortality or its troubles, and had no previous struggles with sin and evil, but were created at first in full possession of bliss. St. Luke has no vigil, because the eve of it was formerly itself a holyday called the Feast of St. Ethelred.

The holydays are not all of the same nature, some are festivals or days of joy, others are fasts or days of sorrow. Some feasts and holydays are called moveable, because there is no particular day of the year fixed for them, the day on which they fall being moved or varied according as Easter falls sooner or later.

The usefulness of mortifying the body by fasting or abstinence will be evident from the following considerations. The Christian is in a peculiar condition, arising from the corruption of his nature, "whereby the lusts of the flesh is not subject to the law of God," Art. 9. "The flesh lusteth (striveth) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other," Gal. v. 17. He is a spiritual man, and yet walking in the flesh, which is rebellious and intractable. This seems to suggest the advantage, if

not the necessity, of mortifying the body, which is the medium of temptation to the spirit; and though the mortifying our appetites, be in the rank of bodily exercises, which, St. Paul says, of themselves profit little, yet they accustom us to acts of self-denial in inferior instances, and are useful in the design of mortifying sensual lusts.

There does not appear in the New Testament any express command on this subject, the reason of which probably is, that being valuable only as a means to a further end, it is in itself, if that end be lost sight of, an utterly worthless observance, vain and superstitious. Our Lord, however, joins it with almsgiving and prayer, and gives directions concerning the practice itself, and he was pleased to give us an extraordinary example in his own person, by fasting forty days and forty nights. Moreover, he expressly predicts, that a time should come when he, the bridegroom, should be taken from them, and then should they fast in those days; and "our Lord and Saviour," says Hooker, "would not teach the manner of doing, much less purpose a reward for doing, that which were not both holy and acceptable in God's sight." Accordingly the apostles left us an example of this practice, St. Peter, Acts, x. 10. The prophets and teachers at Antioch, Acts, xiii. 2. Paul and Barnabas, Acts, xiv. 23. St. Paul and his fellow-labourers approved themselves as the ministers of God "in fastings," 2 Cor. vi. 5; and St. Paul tells us, that he aimed to protect himself against temptation through means of mortification and abstinence, 1 Cor. ix. 27*.

Our Church differs materially from that of Rome with regard to fasting. The Romish church by vain distinctions between meats, forbidding flesh on certain

* For an account of the periodical fasts of the primitive Christians, see BINGHAM's Antiquities, book 21.

days, but allowing pleasant food of other qualities, has perverted the design of fasting, and brought in many superstitious usages. Our Church, whilst it guards against such corruptions, has retained, as useful to be observed, the seasons of fasting and humiliation which were sanctioned by antiquity, and recommended by the experience of their usefulness*. In the homily on the subject, she states the profitable ends to which fasting may be directed, and in her collect for the first Sunday in Lent, bids us pray for "grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey the godly motions of the Lord, in righteousness and true holiness." But she lays no stress upon the act itself of fasting-appoints no precise rule as how Christians ought to fast, no distinction of meats-exacts no precise measure of mortification. This might have been a snare to the conscience. It is to be a spiritual exercise, and must be left therefore to the Christian

"When we read the records of the early Church, we find truly that the holiness of the primitive saints was something very different from ours. In self-denial they could say with St. Paul, that they were in watchings and fastings often, and with the bold apostle could protest that they died daily, that they kept their minds and bodies, and brought them into subjection. We, on the contrary, gather our comforts, our luxuries, and elegances about us, dwell in the midst of softness and self-indulgence, and would fain flatter ourselves all the while that we are treading in the steps of the Son of God, who for our sakes, yet not surely that we should wax wanton in our liberty, led a life of trial and suffering, poverty and contempt, mortification and austerity. Such too, in their measure like their Master, were the bright lights of primitive antiquity. The time would fail me to tell of martyrs and confessors, bishops and doctors, who through the might of early piety and in the freshness of early faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, received in torture the bright red crown of martyrdom, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. There was a healthy vigour and hardiness, a zeal and a roughness, chaste, severe, and uncompromising, that contrasts strangely with the feeble and effeminate piety of modern times."-F. W. FABER, University College, Oxford.

discretion of one who is "walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit."

The advantages which attention to the regulations of the church in this matter would tend to realize are, a more uniform and regular observance of an injunction of our Saviour; a deeper humiliation, and a more chastened spirit; a more thorough insight into ourselves, and a closer communion with our God; a more resolute and consistent practice of self-denying charity; a more lively realizing of things spiritual, and a warning to the world of God's truth and its own peril. This periodical chastening and self-restraint in whatever an individual was tempted to overindulge, would be more productive of good effects than the modern abstinence or temperance societies; for it would be acting in obedience to an ordinance of the Church which was sanctioned by our Lord and his apostles, and observed in the purest days of Christianity, instead of following a scheme of man's contrivance, which rests merely upon voluntary association and temporary excitement *.

Lent is the season of forty days, excluding Sundays, which precede Easter. The earlier part of this solemn season is intended to prepare us for the great week of our LORD'S PASSION, with which it concludes, and the space of forty days seems marked out as a proper period for fasting and humiliation by the instances not only of Moses and Elias, but of ONE far greater than they, who prepared himself for the commencement of his ministry by a fast of forty days in the wilderness. It derives its name from an old Saxon word signifying spring.

The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or the ascension of our Lord, are styled Rogation days. In these fasts the Church had British Magazine, June, 1838.