The works of that late most excellent philosopher and astronomer, Sir George Wharton, bar. collected into one volume / by John Gadbvry ...

Of the Festivals and Fasts of the Christians; whereby any of an Ordinary Capacity may quickly understand the main Body of our English Calendar.

NOw, as touching the Solemnities of the Chri∣stians, we find not any one certainly declared in all the New Testament, neither any Man bound

to the strict Observation of those which were used of Old by the Jews: Yet, because the exercise of God∣liness may be oft times int••••rupted through the in∣firmities of the flesh, and cares of the world, and that nothing is more convenient, nothing more necessary to the confirmation and increase of Faith, and the Exercise of Christian Religion, than that Men should have certain Days, whereon frequently to meet in the publick Assembly, to hear the word of God; see∣ing that Faith cometh by hearing thereof: Therefore hath the Christian Church very worthily set apart certain Festivals, Holy-Days, or Solemnities, and Commanded the same to be Religiously observed in the publick Congregation, that so all daily Labours and Politick Affairs being laid aside, we might thereon entirely apply our selves to the publick service of God, to reading and Holy Meditation, with Joy and Gladness, as well of Mind as Body.

The first of which is the Lords-day, or the weekly Feast of the Resurrection of Christ; not instituted by Christ, or God himself, but by the Apostles of Christ, in the room of the rejected Jewish Sabbath. To the end,—

1. That Christians might not seem to be tyed and obliged to Judaism, and the Ceremonies of the Jews, or rather their superstitions, but testifie the abrogati∣on of the Mosaical Feasts, and manifest the Liberty received by Christ.

2. That as the Jewish Sabbath did continually bring to mind the former world finished by Creation; so the Lords-day might keep us in perpetual remembrance of a far better world begun by Him, who came to restore all things, to make both Heaven and Earth new: for which cause They Honoured the Last-day, We, the First, in every Seven throughout the Year.

3. Because that Christ on this day Rose from the Dead, perfected the work of Man's Redemption, and so entred into the Glory of the Kingdom of the New Testament.

4. That we can by no other Creature more con∣gruously apprehend the Majesty of the Mighty and Supereminent Christ, than by the most Glorious Light of the Sun, the Ruler of this Day: for it is written, Et in Sole posuit Tabernaculum suum: & exiit de tribu Juda, cujus signum (Leo) est Solare Animal.

The other Holy-days we divide into General (that is, such as are generally celebrated of all men, and termed Solemnities, as the Circumcision, Epiphany, Purification, Annunciation, Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, &c.) and Particular, which are kept but by some particular Church, or of some whole Country or Communion, called Commune; (as the Holy-days constituted in memory of the Apostles,) or else by some one Bishops See, Parish, or Town, called the proper Holy-days of the Place, as the days of some Saints or Martyrs: Quae tamen Omnes (saith Origanus) sive universales, sive particulares sint, & vel per integrum diem, vel matutino saltem tempore, Sacrae habeantur.

They are again divided (in respect of the days whereon they fall in the Calendar,) into Moveable and Fixed.

The Moveable Feasts are those, which howsoever they are celebrated on the same week-day, have yet no fixed seat in the Calendar, but in divers years, fall upon sundry days of the Month. Such are all the Lords days throughout the year, and so indeed the interjected Days, which are Fixed to Certain Weeks. —Whereof in the first place.—

The Lords Day (when any happens) betwixt the

Feast of Circumcision and Epiphany, hath no certain name assigned it, save only the First or Second Sunday (which it is) after Christmass. But the Lords days that follow after the Epiphany, are denominated ac∣cording to the Numeral Order by which they suc∣ceed the same. As the First Sunday after it, is called the First Sunday after Epiphany; The Next, the Se∣cond, &c. Whereof there are in some years Four, in other years more, or fewer, according to the great∣er or lesser Quantity of the Intervallum Majus. How∣beit, the Sunday next preceding that of Septuagesima, is always the last of the Sundays after Epiphany.

The next Four Lords days are thus nominated, viz. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, and Qua∣dragesima; the first three whereof had their Names from the Order, by which they precede Quadragesima: As Quinquagesima is so called, because the next an∣teceding Quadragesima: So of the rest.

Septuagesima is said to have been instituted for three Reasons.

1. For Suppletion, that is, supplying, or making up of that which lacketh. For, in regard some have not only not Fasted upon the Friday (and therefore Sexagesima instituted, as anon I shall tell you,) but neither also upon Saturday; because thereon our Savi∣our Rested in the Grave, in token of our future Rest; (And indeed 'tis noted out of St. Augustine, that the People of Asia, and some others, grounding their practice on a certain Tradition of the Apostles, did not Fast upon the Saturday,) to supply therefore the Seven days of Sexagesima, was thereunto added this Week or Se'n-night, called Septuagesima.

2. For the Signification thereof; In that by this time of Septuagesima, is denoted unto us the Exile and

Affliction of Mankind, from Adam to the End of the World: and therefore are all Songs of Joy intermitted by the Church, during the time of Septuagesima.

3. For Representation of the Seventy years Capti∣vity in Babylon: wherefore, as then the Israelites laid aside their Instruments, saying, Quomodo cantabimus Canticum Domini, &c. So the Church, her Songs of Praise, during all this time.

As touching Sexagesima, you must know that Melchiades, Bishop of Rome, and Martyr (who flourished Anno Christi, 311.) instituted that none should Fast upon Friday, because of the Lords Sup∣per and Ascension; as upon that day: so neither on the Sunday, which (being the First day of the week) Solemnizeth the Resurrection, thereby to put a dif∣ference between the Christians and Gentiles: There∣fore, it pleased the Antients, (for Redemption of the Fridays in Quinquagesima,) to add this other week to the Fast, which they call'd Sexagesima.

Now, concerning Quinquagesima: Forasmuch as the Church hath Commanded a Fast consisting of Forty days before Easter called Quadragesima, or the Holy time of Lent, wherein there is but Thirty six days, besides the Lords Days, on which she fasteth not, in regard of her Joy for his Resurrection: There∣fore to supply this defect, there were Four days of the precedent week added to the Quadragesimal Fast. Af∣ter which it was (first by Telesphorus Bishop of Rome and Martyr, who Flourish'd Anno Christi, 141. And since that by Gregory the Great,) Decreed, That all Priests should begin their Fasts Two days sooner, viz. Two days before the Four so added. To the end, that as they preceded the People in Dignity, so they might precede them also in Sanctity. Where∣fore to the Week of Quadragesima, was this other

added, named Quinquagesima: Which is also called Esto mihi, from the entrance of the Ecclesiastical Caution thereon used, taken from Psalm 30.3. Esto mihi in Deum, Protectorem, &c.