"dom" and St. John was "the beloved disciple." These festivals therefore the Church celebrates at this time, considering them as proper attendants upon the feast of the Nativity. L'Estrange well remarks, that" Martyrdom, Love, and Innocence are "first to be magnified, as wherein Christ is most "honoured."

SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.

THE Collect for the Nativity is repeated on this day. The Epistle, by an apt similitude, shews the superiority of the Christian over the Jewish dispensation; and the Gospel relates some of the particular circumstances that attended the birth of Christ.

THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

CIRCUMCISION was a ceremony observed both by Jews and Pagans. Whether it was originally a divine or human institution, whether it was first practised by the Hebrews or the Egyptians, remain at this day questionable points. This is certain, that God ordained the use of it to Abraham and his posterity, as a token or sign of the covenant made between him and them. In Exodus the command is repeated; and in Leviticus the time of the operation is fixed to the eighth day after birth, agreeably to the original institution.

At what period the feast of the Circumcision was first admitted into the Christian Church, all our Ritualists, who have treated of the festivals and holi

"

days, seem to have been either ashamed to acknowledge, or afraid to enquire. They have not at least determined its date with any thing like tolerable accuracy. Bishop SPARROW, one of the earliest and best, says in his Rationale: "The feast of the "Circumcision is affirmed by learned men to be of " later* institution. For though many of the anci"ents mention the Octave of Christmas and Newyear's Day, yet they do not mention or seem to keep it, say they, as a feast of the Circumcision †. "But suppose it to be so; yet surely it cannot be denied, that there is reason enough for the keeping of this day solemn, as it is the feast of Christ's "Circumcision. For as at Christmas, Christ was "made of a woman, like us in nature, so this day " he was made under the law, Gal. iv. 4. and for us "took upon him the curse of the law; being made "sin for us, and becoming a surety to the offended "God for us sinners. Which suretyship he sealed "this day with some drops of that precious blood, "which he meant to pour out whole upon the

"

cross."

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

text.

The word is, perhaps purposely, ambiguous. See the con

+ Some of the ancients do.

"1090.

“1090*, a little before St, BERNARD, and who "hath a sermon upon it. Under the name of the "Octave of Christ's Nativity, we find it in ISIDORUS

4000+ before. The reason why it was not then observed was, as I conceive, because it fell upon "the Kalends of January, which were solemnized among the heathens with such disorder, revellings, "and prophane appendants of idolatry, that St. ››CHRYSOSTOM called it oprny diabohnny, the Devil's festival, and the sixth general Council absolutely "interdicted the observation of them."

ર

་

Dr. NICHOLLS's note here is, "This feast is cele"brated by the Church to commemorate the active "obedience of Jesus Christ, in fulfilling all righte"ousness, which is one branch of the meritorious "cause of our Redemption, and by that means abro"gating the severe injunctions of the Mosaical "establishment, and putting us under the easier

*The feast, and under this title, is mentioned nearly 500 years before Ivo.

+ If, instead 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 shall we do with the former part of this sentence? For unfortunately the name of the Octave of Christ's Nativity does not occur in ISIDORE. In the 25th Chapter of his first book of Ecclesiastical 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 itself that can be construed to countenance L'ESTRANGE's assertion.

But it was then in the time of ISIDORE observed as the feast of the Circumcision.

"terms

"terms of the Gospel. This feast is older than "St. Bernard's time, who has some homilies upon "it."

All that we find in WHEATLY on the design of the feast, and its antiquity, is a transcript of the two preceding passages from NICHOLLS and L'ESTRANGE. L'ESTRANGE modestly says, "I dare not affix any "remote antiquity to this holyday;" because he thought it a modern institution.-WHEATLY, without any other authority, unguardedly affirms, that " its "observation is not of very great antiquity;" implying, that it was comparatively modern.

That the institution of the feast of the Circumcision is more ancient than our Ritualists appear to have thought, may be discovered from an inspection of GREGORY'S Sacramentary *; and that in the sixth century at latest a special and appropriate office was provided for it, is proved by the Acts of the Second Council of Tours. The seventeenth Canon of that Council, orders "the Office for the Circumcision to "be performed on the first of January at eight in "the morning +." In the ancient Church, the Office of the Circumcision was sometimes followed by an office called, Missa ad prohibendum ab idolis: or, to adopt a translation from the title of one of out

* Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, CUJUS HODIE CIRCUMCISIONIS DIEM et Nativitatis Octavum, &c. This is part of GREGORY'S proper preface.

+ Et horâ octavâ in ipsis Calendis Circumcisionis Missa Deo propitio celebretur.

Homilies,

Homilies, "Against Peril of Idolatry *" Last of all was celebrated on this day the Octave of the Nativity. As the two festivals of the Circumcision of Christ and the Octave of the Nativity necessarily fell upon one and the same day, and as the Octave was observed with extraordinary solemnity, the day would naturally receive its general denomination from the Octave, and not from the Circumcision. Accordingly we find that in many of the Calendars, and Lectionaries, the title of the Circumcision was dropped, and that of the Octave only retained. Still an ancient Gallican Lectionary notices "the Circum"cision," and " the first Sunday after the Circum❝cision," and a Gothic Liturgy contains an office for the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ +." From the order in which PSEUDO-ALCUIN treats of the festivals, beginning with the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Octave of the Nativity, the Calends

*I adopt this title because the Office to which I refer was composed for reasons in some respects like those for which the Homily was written. The Calends of January, or the beginning of the new year, was a fixed or stated annual heathen festival, which was celebrated with rites at once grossly licentious and idolatrous. After the idolatrous rites were suppressed by the Emperors, the Christian Fathers and Councils had still sufficient reason to complain of the public dancings, the interchanging of habits between men and women, and other impurities. The Council of Trullo, to put an effectual stop to such irregularities, forbad the frequenting of this and other heathen festivals, under the penalty of excommunication. These festivals, PSEUDOALCUIN says, should be called, Cavenda not Calendæ.

+ Mabillon de Lit. Gall. Lib. II. and III.

of