But the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the minis. try of Moses was only intended for a type and pledge of a spiritual deliverance which was to come by Christ: their Canaan also was no more than a type of that heavenly Canaan, which the redeemed by Christ do look for. Since therefore the shadow is inade void by the coming of the substance, the relation is changed; and God is no more to be worshipped and believed in, as a God foreshewing and assuring by types, but as a God who hath performed the substance of what he promised. The Christians indeed, as well as the Jews, are to observe the moral equity of the fourth co nmandinent, and, after six days spent in their own works, are to sanctify the seventh: but in the aesignation of the particular day, they may and ought to differ. For if the Jews were to sanctify the seventh day, only because they had on that day a temporal deliverance as a pledge of a spiritual one; the Christians surely have. much greater reasons to sanctify the first, since on that very day God redeemed us from this spiritual thraldom, by raising Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, and begetting us, instead "of an earthly Canaan, to an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens." And accordingly we have the concurrent testimonies both of Scripture and antiquity, that the first day of the week, or Sunday, hath ever been the stated and solemn time of the Christians meeting for their public worship and service. Acts ii. 1; xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; Rev. i. 10.

In the East indeed, where the Gospel chiefly prevailed among the Jews, who retained a great reverence for the Mosaic rites, the Church thought fit to indulge the humour of the Judaizing Christians so far, as to observe the Saturday as a festival day of devotions, and thereon to mect for the exercise of religious duties; as is plain from several passages of the ancients. But however, to prevent giving any offence to others, they openly declared, that they observed it in a Christian way, and not as a Jewish sabbath. And this custom was so far from being universal, that at the same time all over the West, except at Milan in Italy, Saturday was kept as a fast, (as being the day on which our Lord lay dead .n the grave,) and is still, for the same reason, appointed for one of the fast days in the Emberweeks by the Church of England; which, in imitation both of the Eastern and Western Churches, always reserves to the Sunday the more solemn acts of public worship and devotion.

But besides the weekly return of Sunday, (whereon we celebrate God's goodness and mercies set forth in our creation and redemptio in general,) the Church has set apart some days yearly for the more particular remembrance of some special acts and passages of our Lord in the redemption of mankind; such as are his "Incarnation" and "Nativity, Circumcision, Manifestation to the Gentiles, Presentation in the Temple;" his " Fasting, Passion, Resurrection," and " Ascension ;" the "sending of the Floly Ghost," and the "Manifestation of the Sacred Trinity." That the observations of such days is requisite, is evident from the practice both of Jews and Gentiles: nature taught the one, and God the other, that the celebration of solemn festivals was a part of the public exercise of religion Besides the feasts of the Passover, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles, which were all of divine appointment, the Jews celebrated some of their own institution, namely,

the feast of "Purim," Esther ix, and the "Dedication of the Temple,” 1 Macc. iv. 59, the latter of which even our blessed Saviour himself honoured with his presence John x. 22.

But these festivals being instituted in remembrance of some signal mercies granted in particular to the Jews; the Christians, who were chiefly converted from the heathen world, were no more obliged to observe them, than they were concerned in the mercies thereon commemorated. And this is the reason that when the Judaizing Christians would have imposed upon the Galatians the observation of the Jewish festivals, as necessary to salvation; St. Paul looked upon it as a thing so criminal, that he was afraid the labour he had bestowed upon thein to set them at liberty in the freedom of the Gospel had been "in vain," Gal. iv. 10, 11: not that he thought the observation of festivals was a thing in itself unlawful, but because they thought themselves still obliged by the Law to observe those days and times, which being only shadows of things to come, were made void by the coming of the substance.

As to the celebration of Christian festivals, they thought themselves as much obliged to observe them as the Jews were to observe theirs. They had received greater benefits, and therefore it would have been the highest degree of ingratitude to have been less zealous in commemorating them. And accordingly we find that in the very infancy of Christianity some certain days were yearly set apart, to commemorate the "Resurrection" and "Ascension", of Christ. "The coming of the Holy Ghost," &c. and to glorify God, by an humble and grateful acknowledgement of these mercies granted to them at those times. Which laudable and religious custom so soon prevailed over the universal church, that in five hundred years after our Saviour, we meet with them distinguished by the same names we now call them by; such as "Epiphany, Ascensionday, Whit-sunday," &c. and appointed to be observed on those days, on which the Church of England now observes them.

But besides the more solemn festivals, whereon they were wont to celebrate the mysteries of their redemption, the primitive Christians had their "Memoriæ Martyrum," or certain days set apart yearly in commemoration of the great heroes of the Christian religion, the blessed Apostles and Martyrs, who had attested the truth of these mysteries with their blood; at whose graves they constantly met once a year, to celebrate their virtues, and to bless God for their exemplary lives and glorious deaths; as well to the intent that others might be encouraged to the same patience and fortitude, as also that virtue, even in this world, might not wholly lose its reward: a practice doubtless very ancient, and probably founded on that exhortation to the Hebrews, "to remember those who had had the rule over them, and who had spoken unto them the word of God," and had sealed it with their blood. Heb. xiii. 7. In which place the author of that Epistle is thought chiefly to hint at the martyrdom of St. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, who, not long before, had laid down his life for the testimony of Jesus. And we find that those who were eye-witnesses of the sufferings of St. Ignatius, published the day of his martyrdom, that the Church of Antioch might meet together at that time to celebrate the memory of such a valiant combatant and

martyr of Christ. After this we read of the Church of Smyrna's giving an account of St. Polycarp's martyrdom, (which was in the year of our Lord 147,) and of the place where they had entombed his bones, and withal professing that they would assemble in that place, and celebrate the "birth-day of his martyrdom" with joy and gladness. (Where we may observe, by the way, that the days of the martyrs' deaths were called their birth-days; because they looked upon those as the days of their nativity, whereon they were freed from the pains and sorrows of a troublesome world, and born again to the joys and happiness of an endless life.) These solemnities, as we learn from Tertullian, were yearly celebrated, and were afterwards observed with so much care and strictness, that it was thought profaneness to be absent from the Christian assemblies upon those occasions.

The following ages were as forward as those we have already spoken of, in celebrating the festivals of the martyrs and holy men of their time. Insomuch that at the last the observation of holy-days became both superstitious and troublesome; a number of dead men's names, not over eminent in their lives either for sense or morals, crowding the Calendar, and jostling out the festivals of the first saints and martyrs. But at the reformation of the Church, all these modern martyrs, were thrown aside, and no festivals retained in the Calendar as days of obligation, but such as were dedicated to the honour of Christ, &c. or to the memory of those that were famous in the Gospels. Such as were, in the first place, the twelve apostles, who being constant attendants on our Lord, and advanced by him to that high order, have each of them a day assigned to their memory. St. John the Baptist and St. Stephen have the same honour done to them; the first because he was Christ's forerunner; the other upon account of his being the first martyr. St. Paul and St. Barnabas are commemorated upon account of their extraordinary call: St. Mark and St. Luke for the service they did Christianity by their Gospels; the Holy Innocents, because they are the first that suffered upon our Saviour's account, as also for the greater solemnity of Christians; the birth of Christ being the occasion of their deaths. The memory of all other pious persons is celebrated together upon the festival of All Saints; and that the people may know what benefits Christians receive by the ministry of Angels, the feast of St. Michael and all Angels is for that reason solemnly observed in the Church.

These days were constantly observed in the Church of England, from the time of the Reformation till the great Rebellion, when it could not be expected that any thing

that carried an air of religion or antiquity could bear up against such an irresistible inundation of impiety and confusion. But at the Restoration our holy-days were again revived, together with our ancient Liturgy, which appoints proper Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, for each of them : and orders the "curate to declare unto the people, on the Sunday before, what holy-days or fasting-days are in the week following to be observed." Rubric after the Nicene Creed. And the preface to the Act of Uniformity intimates it to be schismatical to refuse to come to Church on those days. And by the first of Elizabeth, which is declared by the Uniformity-Act to be in full force, "all persons, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, are obliged to resort to their parish-church on holy. days, as well as Sundays, and there to abide orderly and soberly during divine service, upon pain of punishment by the censures of the Church, and also upon pain of twelve pence for every offence, to be levied by distress."

In relation to the concurrence of two holy-days together, we have no directions either in the rubric or elsewhere, which must give place, or which of the two services must be used. According to what I can gather from the rubrics in the Roman Breviary and Missal, (which are very intricate and difficult,) it is the custom of that Church, when two holy-days come together, that the office for one only be read, and that the office for the other be transferred to the next day; excepting that some commemoration of the transferred holy-day be made upon the first day, by reading the hymns, verses, &c. which belong to the holy-day that is transferred. But our Liturgy has made no such provision. For this reason some ministers, when a holyday happens upon a Sunday, take no notice of the holyday, (except that sometimes they are forced to use the second Lesson for such holy-day, there being a gap in the column of second Lessons in the Calendar,) but use the service appointed for the Sunday; alledging that the holyday, which is of human Institution, should give way to the Sunday, which is allowed to be of divine. But this is an argument which I think not satisfactory; for though the observation of Sunday be of divine institution, yet the service we use on it is of human appointment. And therefore I take this to be a case in which the Bishops ought to be consulted, they having a power vested in them to "appease all diversity, (if any arise,) and to resolve all doubt concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the things contained in the Book of Common Prayer." See the preface concerning the Service of the Church. Wheatly.