of January, &c. it seems highly probable that the three last were all observed in the time of CHARLEMAGNE, or at least when this writer lived. From Ivo's discourses on the Advent, Nativity, and Circumcision of our Lord, which follow each other without interruption, and his omitting the Octave, we may be justified in concluding, that the feast of the Circumcision was in his time noticed at least as much as that of the Octave.

The title of the Office used 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 Missal of Sarum been changed into "the Circumcision of our Lord," and in those of Rome and France, into "the Circumcision of our "Lord and the Octave of the Nativity." Still the Office for the day continued in all nearly the same. It commemorated both the Circumcision, and the Nativity; and part of it belonged to the Virgin. The old Collect was "Deus, qui salutis æternæ, “Beatæ Mariæ virginitate fecunda humano generi

præmia præstitisti; tribue, quæsumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitæ suscipere Dominum nostrum "Jesum filium tuum." Or, "Deus, qui nobis nati "Salvatoris diem celebrare concedis octavum; fac,

"

quæsumus, nos ejus perpetua divinitate muniri, cujus sumus carnali commercio reparati, qui tecum vivit, &c." The first of these Collects is appointed in the Roman Missal, and the latter in that of Sarum.

If

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

moration.

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel, with the Lessons, are all remarkably appropriate to this day's commeThe first Lesson at Morning Prayer relates the particulars of the injunction imposed upon Abraham, and the second states the necessity of spiritual Circumcision.

The first Evening Lesson is purely moral and doctrinal, and in no degree ceremonial. It exhorts us to fear and love God, and to circumcise the fore-skin of the heart. The second cautions not only against human traditions, but against the legal observances, which were merely Judaical. It specifies in particular Jewish Holidays and Sabbaths.

The Epistle has the same tendency with the first Evening Lesson, and both of the second Lessons. The Gospel relates the Circumcision of Christ. The Collect was composed in 1549, when the Epistle and Gospel were likewise selected *.

The Gospel in the Missals for many centuries was the twenty-first verse only of the second chapter of Luke. Before that, the Gospel began with this verse, and ended with the 32d, See MABILLON de Lit. Gal.

THE

[59]

THE

EPIPHANY,

OR THE

MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST

TO THE

GENTILES.

THE greater part of the Eastern Church, for the first three or four centuries, kept the feast of the Nativity, on the day which we call the Epiphany; that is, on the sixth of January *. The word Epiphany has been employed to denote Christ's Manifestation in four respects: 1. His Nativity, or Manifestation in the Flesh; 2. The appearance of the Star to the Eastern Magi, or his Manifestation to the Gentiles; 3. The Manifestation at his Baptism, when the heavens were opened †, "and he saw the

Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; And lo a voice from heaven, say

ing, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well "pleased;" and lastly, The Manifestation of his Divinity, by the first miracle which he wrought at the Marriage of Cana in Galilee; all of which were

* See pages 35, 36. That the feast of Christmas and the Epiphany were ever one and the same is denied by WHEATLY, who maintains that they were always two different feasts held on different days. In this he is no doubt mistaken.

Matt. iii. 16, 17.

commemo.

commemorated on this day, by the Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Egypt, and others of the East. But in the Western Provinces, the Nativity and Epiphany were celebrated on two distinct days. On the Epiphany, considered as a festival separate from the Nativity, were commemorated the appearance of the star which conducted the wise men to Bethlehem, the Baptism of our Lord, and the first miracle that he wrought. Some writers add the miracle of his feeding the 5000 with five loaves. All these are expressly mentioned in a Sermon on the Day ascribed to Austin: others notice the first three reasons, but not the last.

JEROM attributes the institution of the feast of the Epiphany, principally to the Baptism of Christ, and the Manifestation of him made to the world by the voice from heaven; and the Greek writers in common, more particularly insist on this reason; whilst LEO, who composed not fewer than eight Discourses upon the Epiphany, assigns no other reason for the commemoration of this festival, than the Manifestation made to the Gentile world, by the appearance of the star to the Eastern Magi.

Three of the Manifestations, which are most commonly noticed, both by the Greek and Latin Fathers, our Church commemorates in her proper offices for the day the Manifestation to the Magi in the Collect and Gospel; the Manifestation at his Baptism in the second Morning Lesson; and his Manifestation

*JEROM in Ezek. i.

by

by the Miracle of Cana, in the second Evening Lesson, which for this purpose is, contrary to common usage, taken from an evangelical, and not from an epistolary writing.

In the Greek Church, after the Nativity and Epiphany came to be observed on two distinct days, this festival was celebrated with more solemnity in some respects, than even the feast of the Nativity. It was one of their three solemn seasons of admitting the Catechumens to Baptism*. Baptism they commonly called (pws) light and (prioμa) illumination; and this being the supposed day of Christ's Baptism, was styled (μepa qwTwv) the day of lights, or of illumination; that is, the day of his Baptism, who came as a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people Israel." Of the glory of the Church by the accession of the Gentiles, we have a prophetical description in the passages of Isaiah, selected for the first Lessons. The introductory verses of that for the Evening, are couched in the same metaphorical language, with the conclusion of Simeon's Hymn. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and "the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee †," &c. Though the Epiphany was anciently observed with

* WHEATLY says, "the Epiphany was as solemn for baptizing "the Catechumens among the Latins, as Easter and Whitsun "tide among the Greeks." But if we credit the Ecclesiastical Historians, only the Greeks and Africans baptized on this day. The Latin, Spanish, and Gallican Churches did not administer public Baptism at the Epiphany, but at Easter and Whitsuntide. + Isaiah Ix.

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