for the Latin Church, "We heard first," says he, "the Apostolical Lesson, then we sung a psalm, after that the Gospel was read." Now let ST. CHRYSOSTOM testify for the Greek; "The Minister stands up, and with a loud voice calls, "Let us attend:" then the Lessons are begun; which Lessons are the Epistles and Gospels, (as appears in his Liturgy,) which follow immediately after the Minister hath so called for attention.

The fitness of the Epistle and Gospel for the day it belongs to, and the reason of the choice will plainly appear, if we observe that these holy festivals and solemnities of the Church are, as I have touched before, of two sorts; the more high days, or the rest: the first commemorate the signal acts or passages of our Lord in the redemption of mankind, His Incarnation and Nativity, Circumcision, Manifestation to the Gentiles, His Fasting, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, the sending of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon a more full and express manifestation of the Sacred Trinity. The second sort is of inferior days that supply the intervals of the greater, such as are either the remaining Sundays, wherein, without any consideration of the sequence of time, (which could only be regarded in great feasts,) the holy Doctrine, Deeds, and Miracles

r In Epist. Joannis ad Parthos. Prologus, vol. iii. p. 826. Sermo. clxxvi. de verbis Apost. 1 Tim. i. 1. D. vol. v. p. 839.

8 Homily XIX. in Act. Apost. ch. ix. vol. ix. p. 159. E.

of our Lord are the chief matters of our meditations; or else the other holy days of which already hath been spoken. And for all these holy times we have Epistles and Gospels very proper and seasonable; for not only on high and special days, but even in those also that are more general and indifferent, some respect is had to the season, and the holy affections the Church then aims at, as mortification in Lent, joy, hope, newness of life, &c. after Easter; the fruits and gifts of the Spirit, and preparation for Christ's second coming in the time between Pentecost and Advent. But these things I shall shew in the discourse of the holy days severally. As for the Lessons, although they have another order, and very profitable, being for each day of the week, following usually the method of chapters, and taking in the Old Testament also, (the Communion dealing chiefly with the New as most fit for the nature of that service,) yet in them also regard is had to the more solemn times by select and proper readings, as hath been shewn. This being the Church's rule and method, (as she hath it from the Apostle,) that all things be done unto edifying, that we may be better acquainted with God and with ourselves, with what hath been done for us, and what is to be done by us. And this visible as well as audible preaching of Christian doctrine by these solemnities and readings in such an admirable order, is so apt to infuse by degrees all necessary Christian

knowledge into us, and the use of it to the ignorant is so great, that it may well be feared (as a reverend person' hath forewarned) that when the festivals and solemnities for the birth of Christ and His other famous passages of life, and death, and resurrection, and ascension, and mission of the Holy Ghost, and the Lessons, Gospels, (and Collects,) and Sermons upon them, be turned out of the Church, together with the Creeds also, it will not be in the power of weekly sermons on some head of religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in men's hearts, &c. And no doubt for this and other good reasons which he gives us, it was that the primitive Christians were so exact and religious in these solemnities and meditations on the occasions of them, and therefore the sermons of the fathers were generally on the readings of the day, as hereafter is shewed. And we have from another the like hand thus: "The blessings of God, whereof these solemnities renew the remembrance, are of that esteem to the Church, that we are not able to express too much thankfulness in taking that occasion of solemnizing His service. And the greatest part of Christians are such as will receive much improvement in the principal mysteries of our faith, by the sensible instruction which the observation of such solemnities yieldeth. The remembrance of the birth, the suf

t Dr. Hammond's View of the New Directory, ch. i. sect. 36. p. 152.

ferings, the resurrection of Christ, the coming of the Holy Ghost, the conversion of the Gentiles by sending the Apostles, the way made before His coming by the Annunciation of the angel and the coming of the Baptist, as it is a powerful mean to train the more ignorant sort in the understanding of such great mysteries, so it is a just occasion for all sorts, to make that a particular time of serving God, upon which we solemnize those great works of His;" u

;"u and what we have above said concerning the excellent use of festival days at p. 83.

The same method shall be observed in this discourse of holy days, which the service book uses: not that in the title-page in the beginning of the book, (which perhaps reckons for holy days only those days in which we are solemnly to worship God, and also to rest from usual labour,) but that in the services appointed by the book which adds over and above, that old catalogue of holy days, St. Paul and St. Barnabas, Ash-Wednesday, and the Holy week; all which must be reckoned for holy days in the Church's account, because they have holy day service, Epistles and Gospels, and second service, appointed to them, though there be no law that inflicts a penalty upon them that do their usual works upon those days, they being only desired to be present at the Church's service at the hours appointed.

u Thorndyke of Religious Assemblies, ch. vii. p. 256.

OF ADVENT SUNDAYS.

HE principal holy days, as Christmas, Easter,

attend upon them; some to go before, some to come after as it were to wait upon them for their greater solemnity.

Before Christmas are appointed four Advent Sundays, so called because they are to prepare us for Christ's Advent, or coming in the flesh. These are to Christmas-day as St. John the Baptist to Christ, forerunners to prepare for it and point it

out.

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

The Gospel, Matt. xxi. 1, seems at first more proper to Christ's passion than His birth; yet is it read now principally for those words in it, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," that is, Blessed is He for coming in the flesh, the cause of all our joy, for which we can never say enough, Hosanna in the highest.

The Epistle, Rom. xiii. 8, labours to prepare us to behold with joy this rising sun, bidding us awake from sleep, according to the Prophet Isaiah, ch. lx. 1. "Arise, and shine, for thy light is come."

The Collect is taken out of both, and relates to