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 †

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was, as I conceive, because it fell upon the Kalends "of January, which were solemnized among the hea"thens with such disorder, revellings and prophane "appendants of idolatry, that St. CHRYSOSTOм called "it soprηv diaboliкny, the Devil's festival, and the "sixth general Council absolutely interdicted the "observation of them."

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 righteous

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ness, which is one branch of the meritorious cause "of our Redemption, and by that means abrogating "the severe injunctions of the Mosaical establishment, "and putting us under the easier 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 pre

*If, instead of 4000, we read 400, we shall come nearer to the time of ISIDORE HISPALENSIS, who I have no doubt is the Is1DORE 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 Chap. ter 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.

ceding passages from NICHOLLS and L'ESTRANGE. L'ESTRANGE modestly says, "I dare not affix any re"mote antiquity to this holiday;" 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 t." 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 our Homilies, "Against Peril of Idolatry." Last of all

* 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.

↑ 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. Af

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 Circumcision,” and "the first Sunday after the Circumcision," and a Gothic Liturgy contains an Office for "the Circum"cision 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 of January, &c. it seems highly probable that the last three 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,

ter 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, PSEUDO-ALCUIN says, should be called, Cavenda not Calenda.

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

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 aucto66 rem 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 car"nali commercio reparati, qui tecum vivit," &c. The first of these Collects is appointed in the Roman Missal, and the latter in that of Sarum.

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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, 153%.

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel, with the Lessons, are all remarkably appropriate to this day's comme

moration. The 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 twentyfirst 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.