"and New-year's Day, yet they do not mention or "feem to keep it, fay they, as a feaft of the Cir"" cumcifion *. But fuppofe it to be fo; yet furely "it cannot be denied, that there is reafon enough "for the keeping of this day folemn, as it is the "feaft of Chrift's Circumcifion. For as at Chrift

$6 mas, Chrift was made of a woman, like us in nature, fo this day he was made under the law, "Gal. iv. 4, and for us took upon him the curfe "of the law; being made fin for us, and becom"ing a furety to the offended God for us finners. "Which furetyfhip he fealed this day with fome "drops of that precious blood, which he meant to pour out whole upon the crofs."

HAMON L'ESTRANGE, in the alliance of divine offices, gives us the following annotation: "I dare "not affix any remote antiquity to this holyday. "The first mention of it under this title occurreth " in Ivo CARNOTENSIS, who lived about the year "1090 †, a little before St. BERNARD, and who "hath a fermon upon it. Under the name of "the octave of Chrift's Nativity, we find it in "ISIDORUS 4000 before. The reafon why it was "not

* Some of the ancients do.

The feaft, and under this title, is mentioned nearly 500 years before Ivo,

If, inftead of 4000, we read 400, we shall come nearer to the time of ISIDORE HISPALENSIS, who I have no doubt is the ISIDORE here meant. But what fhall we do with the former part of this fentence? For unfortunately the name of the Octave

of

"not then obferved* was, as I conceive, because it "fell upon the Kalends of January, which were "folemnized among the heathens with fuch dif"order, revellings, and prophane appendants of idolatry, that St. CHRYSOSTOM called it tog

* diaboriun, the Devil's festival, and the fixth ge"neral Council abfolutely interdicted the obfer"vation of them."

Dr. NICHOLL's note here is, "This feaft is cele"brated by the Church to commemorate the ac"tive obedience of Jefus Chrift, in fulfilling all

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righteousness, which is one branch of the meri"torious caufe of our redemption, and by that "means abrogating the fevere injunctions of the

Mofaical establishment, and putting us under "the eafier terms of the Gofpel. This feaft is "older than St. BERNARD's time, who has fonie "homilies upon it."

All that we find in WHEATLY on the defign of the feast, and its antiquity, is a transcript of the two preceding paffages from NICHOLLS and L'ESTRANGE, without any acknowledgment to either. L'ESTRANGE modeftly fays, "I dare not "affix any remote antiquity to this holyday;" be

caufe

of Chrift's Nativity does not occur in ISIDORE. In the 25th Chapter of his first book of Ecclefiaftical Offices he treats of the Nativity, and in the 26th of the Epiphany. But I have found nothing in them, nor indeed in the work itfelf that can be con. ftrued to countenance L'ESTRANGE's affertion,

* But it was then in the time of ISIDORE obferved as the feast of the Circumcifion.

caufe he thought it a modern institution.WHEATLY, who knew no more on liturgical subjects than what he had learned from preceding English writers, roundly affirms, that "its obfervation is "not of very great antiquity;" implying, that it was comparatively modern.

That the inftitution of the feaft of the Circumcifion is more ancient than our ritualists appear to have thought, may be discovered from an infpection of GREGORY's Sacramentary; and that in the fixth century at latest a special and appropriate office was provided for it, is proved by the Acts of the Second Council of Tours. The feventeenth Canon of that Council, orders "the office for the "Circumcifion to be performed on the first of "January at eight in the morning *." In the ancient Church, the office of the Circumcifion was fometimes followed by an office called, Miffa ad prohibendum ab idolis: or, to adopt a tranflation from the title of one of our Homilies, Against "Peril of Idolatry t." Laft of all was celebrated

* Et horâ octavâ in ipfis Calendis Circumcifionis Miffa Deo propitio celebretur.

+ This Office was compofed for reafons in fome respects like those for which the Homily was written. The Calends of Ja. nuary, or the beginning of the new year, was a fixed or stated annual heathen festival, which was celebrated with rites at once grofsly licentious and idolatrous. After the idolatrous rites were fuppreffed by the Emperors, the Chriftian Fathers and Councils had till fufficient reafon to complain of the public dancings, the interchanging of habits between men and women, and other

impurities,

on this day the Octave of the Nativity. As the two festivals of the Circumcifion of Chrift and the Octave of the Nativity neceffarily fell upon one and the fame day, and as the Octave was obferved with extraordinary folemnity, the day would naturally receive its general denomination from the Octave, and not from the Circumcifion. Accordingly we find that in many of the Calendars, and Lectionaries, the title of the Circumcifion was dropped, and that of the Octave only retained. Still an ancient Gallican Lectionary notices "the Circum

cifion," and "the firft Sunday after the Circum"cifion," and a Gothic Liturgy contains an office for "the Circumcifion of our Lord Jefus Chrift *. From the order in which PSEUDO-ALCUIN treats of the festivals, beginning with the Nativity, the Circumcifion, the Octave of the Nativity, the Calends of January, &c. it feems highly probable that the three laft were all obferved in the time of CHARLE MAGNE, or at least when this writer lived. From Ivo's difcourfes on the Advent, Nativity and Circumcifion of our Lord, which follow each other without interruption, and his omitting the Octave, we may perhaps be juftified in concluding that the

impurities. The Council of Trullo, to put an effectual ftop to fuch irregularities, forbad the frequenting of this and other heathen festivals, under the penalty of excommunication. These feftivals, PSEUDO-ALCUIN fays, fhould be called Cavenda, not Calende.

* Mabillon de Lit. Gall. Lib. II, and III,

feaft

feaft of the Circumcifion was in his time noticed at leaft as much as that of the Octave.

The title of the office ufed on the first of January in GREGORY'S Sacramentary, is "the Octave of "our Lord," which long before the Era of our Reformation, had in the Miffal of Sarum been changed into "the Circumcifion of our Lord," and in those of Rome and France, into "the Circumcifion of "our Lord and the Octave of the Nativity." Still the office for the day continued in all nearly the fame. It commemorated both the Circumcifion, and the Nativity; and part of it belonged to the Virgin. The old Collect was "Deus qui falutis "æternæ Beatæ Mariæ Virginitate fecunda, humano generi præmia præftitifti, tribue, quæfumus, ut ipfam pro nobis intercedere fentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitæ fufcipere "Dominum noftrum Jefum filium tuum." Of "Deus qui nobis nati Salvatoris diem celebrare "concedis octavum, fac, quæfumus, nos ejus per

petua divinitate muniri, cujus fumus carnali "commercio reparati. Qui tecum vivit, &c." The first of these Collects is appointed in the Roman Miffal, and the latter in that of Sarum.

If we confider this feftival merely as the commemoration of the Circumcifion of our Lord, the date of its institution, or at least its revival is easily afcertained. It commenced with our Reformation, or rather at the publication of our English Liturgy, and was first observed on January 1, 15%.

The