on these days the emperors' statues, or images, were produced, for the people to pay their civil respect and veneration to them; reserving Divine worship, and religious adoration, exceeding the dignity of man, to the Celestial Majesty alone, as the laws elegantly word it. But if it happened that any of these days fell upon a Sunday, then by a law of Theodosius the public games were omitted, and came not into the solemnity of the day. And Theodosius Junior excepted also the other great festivals of Christ's Nativity, and Epiphany, and Easter, and Pentecost, or the whole fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide, on any of which days it was unlawful to exhibit the usual games to the people: and that no one should fear lest it should be interpreted a disrespect to the imperial majesty, if he did not, according to custom, exhibit the games on the emperors' birthday (happening to fall on any of these festivals), he inserted a particular clause, declaring, that such an omission should be no offence, but most agreeable to have the service of the Divine Majesty preferred before that usual ceremony of the games and shows in the celebration of his birthday. And in this chiefly consisted the difference between an ecclesiastical and civil festival; that the one was a day of mere pleasure and diversion; and the other, a solemn time of

e Cod. Theod. tit. iv. de Imaginibus, leg. i. (Lugd. 1665, vol. v. p. 346.) Si quando nostræ statuæ vel imagines eriguntur, seu diebus (ut adsolet) festis, sive communibus, adsit judex, sine adorationis ambitioso fastigio, ut ornamentum diei, vel loco et nostræ recordationi, sui probet accessisse præsentiam. Ludis quoque simulacra proposita, tantum in animis concurrentum mentisque secretis nostrum numen et laudes vigere demonstret: excedens cultura hominum dignitatem superno numini reservetur.

f Ibid. lib. xv. de Spectaculis, leg. ii. Nullus solis die populo spectacula præbeat, nec Divinam venerationem confecta sollemnitate confundat. (P. 350.)

...

Ibid. leg. v. Dominico (qui septimanæ totius primus dies est), et natali atque Epiphaniorum Christi, Paschæ etiam et Quinquagesimæ diebus. . . omni theatrorum atque Circensium voluptate, per universas urbes, earumdem populis denegata, totæ Christianorum ac fidelium mentes Dei cultibus occupantur... Ne quis existimet, in honorem numinis nostri, veluti majore quadam imperialis officii necessitate compelli, et nisi Divina religione contemta spectaculis operam præstat, subeundam forsitan sibi nostræ Serenitatis offensam, si minus circa nos devotionis ostenderit, quam solebat. Nemo ambigat, quod tunc maxime Mansuetudini nostræ ab humano genere defertur, quum virtutibus Dei omnipotentis ac meritis universi obsequium orbis impenditur. (Vol. v. p. 353.)

devotion and religion, to which the former must give place, whenever they happened by any such coincidence to fall together.

SECT. V. Of the Natales Urbium, or the two Feriæ, in Memory of the Foundation of Rome and Constantinople.

The last sort of civil festivals were the natales urbium, or the two annual days kept in memory of the foundation of the two great cities, Rome and Constantinople. The former was an ancient Roman festival, observed on the eleventh of the Kalends of May, or the twenty-first of April, under the name of Palilia; of which the reader may find a large account in any of the common writers of Roman antiquities." That which is only to be noted here, is, that it continued a festival under the Christian emperors: which we learn not only from the forementioned law of Theodosius, but also from Sozomen; who says, "That the yeva, or nativities of the emperors,' and the royal cities, and the Kalends, were the usual times of distributing the emperors' donations or largesses among the soldiers." And Cassiodore speaks of the games of the Circus, as an usual part of the people's entertainment on these festivals of pleasure. The encania, or dedication' of Constantinople, was annually celebrated on the fifth of the Ides of May, that is, the eleventh of May, as is noted by Gothofred out of Marcellinus Comes, Cassiodore, Cedrenus, the Chronicon Alexandrinum, and Zonaras.

h Demster. Paralipom. ad Rosin. Antiquit. Roman. lib. i. c. i. p. 8. Condita fuit (Roma) xi. Kal. Maii: diversitas tamen opinionum notanda est: nam quidam, inter quos Marianus Scotus, ix. Kal. Maias; alii x. Kal. Maias; quam sententiam probat Plutarchus, et Eutropius, lib.i.; et ex eo Paul. Diacon., Histor. Miscellæ, lib. i. sed tamen certior auctorum consensus in xi. Kal. Maias fundamenta urbis jacta rejicit, id est, in Parilia' sive Palilia,' pastorum deæ sollemnitatem, &c. 1 Sozom. lib. v. c. xvii. (Vales. Amstelod. 1695, p. 505, C.) 'Ewsi xaigòs magñv, βασιλέα δωρεῖσθαι στρατιώταις, γίνεται δὲ τοῦτο ὡς ἐπίπαν ἐν ταῖς Ῥωμαίων ἱερομηνίαις, καὶ βασιλέων, καὶ βασιλίδων πόλεων ἐν γενεθλίοις ἡμέραις, κ. τ. λ.

* Cassiodor. Chronic. in Philipp. Imperat. (Inter Historiæ Roman. Scriptores, tom. i. p. 617, Francof. 1588.) His coss. millesimus annus urbis [Romæ] expletus est ob quam sollemnitatem innumerabiles Philippus cum [Philippo] filio suo bestias in Circo magno interfecit, ludosque in Campo Martio theatrales tribus diebus ac noctibus populo pervigilante celebravit: quadraginta etiam missus natali Romanæ urbis cucurrerunt et agon mille annorum actus.

And as in all things both the ancient laws and canons gave Constantinople the same royal and honourable privileges that were allowed to old Rome; so in this they were equalled, that the annual days of their dedication were celebrated with the same solemnities among the feria, or civil festivals,' and days of vacation and joyfulness throughout the Roman empire. And the reason of this is given in the aforesaid law of Theodosius, so often mentioned," because these two great cities, Rome and Constantinople, were the fountains and springs from whence the laws were originally derived; and, therefore, it was proper that the feasts of their dedication should be observed by a vacation from lawsuits on the annual days of their foundation. This is the short account of the civil feriæ, or festivals,' so far as concerns their observation under the government and allowance of Christian emperors. I now proceed to the other sort of festivals, which were of sacred or ecclesiastical observation.

1 Conc. Constantinop. I. c. iii. (L. ii. 947.) Τὸν μέν τοι Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἐπίσκοπον ἔχειν τὰ πρεσβεῖα τῆς τιμῆς μετὰ τὸν τῆς Ῥώμης ἐπίσκοπον, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὴν νέαν Ῥώμην. — Conc. Chalched. c. xxviii. (Labbé, vol. iv. p. 769.) Πανε ταχοῦ τοῖς τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ὅροις ἑπόμενοι, καὶ τὸν ἀρτίως ἀναγνωσθέντα κανόνα τῶν ον. (150) θεοφιλεστάτων ἐπισκόπων γνωρίζοντες, τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁρίζομεν, καὶ ψηφιζόμεθα περὶ τῶν πρεσβείων τῆς ἁγιωτάτης ἐκκλησίας Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, νέας Ρώμης· καὶ γὰρ τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς πρεσβυτέρας Ρώμης, διὰ τὸ βασιλεύειν τὴν πόλιν ἐκείνην, οἱ πατέρες εἰκότως ἀποδεδώκασι τὰ πρεσβεία· καὶ τῷ αὐτῷ σκοπῷ κινούμενοι οἱ θεοφιλέστατοι ἐπίσκοποι τὰ ἴσα πρεσβεῖα ἀπένειμαν τῷ τῆς νέας Ρώμης ἁγιωτάτῳ θρόνῳ, εὐλόγως κρίναντες, τὴν βασιλείᾳ καὶ συγκλήτῳ τιμηθεῖσαν πόλιν, καὶ τῶν ἴσων ἀπολαύουσαν πρεσβείων τῇ πρεσβυτέρα βασιλίδι Ρώμη, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐκκλησιαστικοῖς, ὡς ἐκείνην, μεγαλύνεσθαι πράγμασι, δευτέραν μετ' ἐκείνην ὑπάρ χουσαν. κ. τ. λ. Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. de Episcopis, tit. ii. leg. xlv. (vol. vi. p. 89.) Si quid dubietatis emerserit, id oporteat non absque scientia viri reverendissimi sacrosanctæ legis Antistitis urbis Constantinopolitanæ, quæ Romæ veteris prærogativa lætatur, conventui sacerdotali sanctoque judicio reservari. -Id. lib. xiv. tit. xiii. de Jure Italico Urbis Constantinopol.

m Cod. Theod. lib. ii. tit. viii. de Feriis, leg. ii. See sect. ii. note (a).

CHAPTER II.

OF THE ORIGINAL AND OBSERVATION OF THE LORD'S-DAY AMONG CHRISTIANS.

SECT. I.- The Lord's-Day of continued Observation in the Church from the Days of the Apostles, under the Names of Sunday, the Lord's-Day, the first Day of the Week, and the Day of breaking Bread, &c.

THE principal and most noted among the sacred and ecclesiastical festivals was always that of the Lord's-day, which was observed with great veneration in the ancient Church from the very time of the apostles. The apostles themselves are often said to meet on this day for Divine service, being the day of the Lord's resurrection (Acts, xx. 7): "On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight." So, again (1 Cor. xvi. 2): "Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." And St. John expressly styles it the Lord's-day (Rev. i. 10): “I was in the spirit on the Lord's-day." Which cannot mean the Jewish Sabbath, for then he would have called it so; nor any other day of the week, for that had been ambiguous; but the day on which Christ arose from the dead, on which the apostles were used to meet to celebrate Divine service, on which Paul had ordered collections to be made, according to the custom of the Primitive Church. Seeing, therefore, he speaks of this as a day well known and used in the Church, it cannot be doubted, but that it was distinguished by this name from the received use and custom of the Church: for, otherwise, how could Christians have understood what St. John intended to signify by this name, if he had designed to denote any other day by it? as Mr. Turretin argues well upon the resolution of this question."

* Institut. Theol. Elenctic. part. ii. loc. xi. de lege Dei, quæst. xiv. (Genev, 1688,

The matter, thus founded in apostolical practice, may be further illustrated and confirmed from the general usage of the Church in the following ages. Pliny, who was a heathen magistrate in the reign of Trajan, not long after St. John's death, took the account of the Christian assemblies from the mouths of some apostatizing Christians; and they told him," "Their custom was to meet together early in the morning, before it was light, on a certain fixed day, and sing hymns to Christ, as their God, and bind themselves with a sacrament to do no evil, and afterwards to partake of a common feast." Which is a plain description of the service of the Lord's-day, and particularly of the agape, or feast of charity,' which was usually an attendant of the communion in the Primitive Church every Lord's-day. Ignatius, who lived about the same time, makes as plain a reference to the observation of the Lord's-day, when he bids the Magnesians not to sabbatize with the Jews, but to lead a life agreeable to the Lord's-day, on which our life was raised from the dead, by him (that is, by the Lord Christ), and by his death. Clemens Alexandrinus, as Cotelerius observes, well illustrates and explains this passage of Ignatius, shewing what it is to lead a life conformable to the Lord's-day, when he says, "He that observes the precept of the Gospel, makes it to be

d

с

p. 103.) Non sane Sabbato Judæorum, quod procul dubio nominasset, non aliquo tantum die septimanæ, quia sic ambiguus esset titulus ad implicandum potius, quam explicandum comparatus, sed die illo, quo Christus resurrexerat, quo convenire solebant apostoli ad sacra peragenda, et quo Paulus ordinaverat collectas habendas, prout moris erat in primitiva ecclesia. Quum ergo de illa die tamquam nota et in ecclesia usitata loquatur, dubium non est, quin ex recepto ecclesiæ usu hoc nomine insignita sit. Quis enim alias Christianorum intellexisset, quid Joannes hac appellatione significasset, si quam aliam diem designare voluisset?

b Plin. lib. ep. xcvi. Quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem, seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent: quibus peractis morem sibi discedendi fuisse, rursusque coëundi ad capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen et innoxium. (Gierig. Lips. 1802, vol. ii. p. 514.)

c Ignat. Epist. ad Magnes. n. ix. (p. 57.) Μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες, ἀλλὰ κατὰ κυριακὴν ζωὴν ζῶντες, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ζωὴ ἡμῶν ἀνέτειλεν, κ. τ. λ.

d Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. p. 877, 28, edit. Oxon. 'Evroλhy Thy narà rò siayγέλιον διαπραξάμενος, κυριακὴν ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν ποιεῖ, ὅτ' ἂν ἀποβάλλη φαῦλον νόημα καὶ γνωστικὸν προσλάβῃ, τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀνάστασιν δοξάζων.