"and the very marrow of the ancient doctrine and disci- Appendix "pline; and yet all made so familiar, that the unlearned may safely say Amen 84. "Lastly, all these excellencies have obtained that uni"versal reputation which these prayers enjoy in all the "world: so that they are most deservedly admired by the "eastern churches, and had in great esteem by the most " eminent Protestants beyond sea 85, who are the most im"partial judges that can be desired. In short, this Liturgy "is honoured by all but the Romanist, whose interest it opposeth, and the Dissenters, whose prejudices will not "let them see its lustre. Whence it is that they call that, "which the Papists hate because it is Protestant, supersti"tious and popish. But when we consider that the best "things in a bad world have the most enemies, as it doth "not lessen its worth, so it must not abate our esteem, be"cause it hath malicious and misguided adversaries. "How endless it is to dispute with these, the little suc"cess of the best arguments, managed by the wisest men, "do too sadly testify: wherefore we shall endeavour to "convince the enemies, by assisting the friends of our "church devotions: and by drawing the veil which the 'ignorance and indevotion of some, and the passion and "prejudice of others have cast over them, represent "the Liturgy in its true and native lustre: which is so "lovely and ravishing, that, like the purest beauties, it "needs no supplement of art and dressing, but conquers "by its own attractions, and wins the affections of all but "those who do not see it clearly. This will be sufficient "to shew, that whoever desires no more than to worship "God with zeal and knowledge, spirit and truth, purity "and sincerity, may do it by these devout forms. And "to this end may the God of peace give us all meek hearts, "quiet spirits, and devout affections; and free us from all "sloth and prejudice, that we may have full churches, "frequent prayers, and fervent charity; that, uniting in "our prayers here, we may all join in his praises hereafter, "for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 841 Cor. xiv. 16. 85 See Durel's Defence of the Liturgy. to Introduct. The End of the Introductory Discourse. * CHAP. I. Of the TABLES, RULES, and CALENDAR. PART I. OF THE TABLES AND RULES. Chap. I. Rule for finding Easter. occasion SECT. I. Of the Rule for finding Easter. THE proper Lessons and Psalms being spoken to at large in other parts of this treatise, there is no need to say any thing particularly concerning the Tables that appoint them. I shall therefore pass them by, and begin with the Rule for finding Easter; which stands thus in all Books of Common Prayer printed in or since the year 1752: Easter-day is always the first Sunday after the full Moon, which happens upon or next after the twenty-first day of March; and if the full Moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after. §. 2. To shew upon what occasion the rule was framed, Upon what it is to be observed, that in the first ages of Christianity there arose a great difference between the churches of Asia and other churches, about the day, whereon Easter ought to be celebrated. this rule was framed. In this edition, after the example of all others published since the year 1752, this chapter is printed with the alterations necessary to adapt it to the new Calendar, Tables, and Rules, which were ordered to be prefixed to all future editions of the Book of Common Prayer, by the Act 24 Geo. II. intitled, An Act for regulating the commencement of the year; and for correcting the ca lendar. the same Part I. different The churches of Asia kept their Easter upon day on which the Jews celebrated their passover, viz. upon Easter difthe fourteenth day of their first month Nisan (which month ferently obbegan at the new moon next to the vernal equinox); and served by this they did upon what day of the week soever it fell; and Churches. were from thence called Quartodecimans, or such as kept Easter upon the fourteenth day after the Paris, or appearance of the moon: whereas the other churches, especially those of the West, did not follow this custom, but kept their Easter on the Sunday following the Jewish passover; partly the more to honour the day, and partly to distinguish between Jews and Christians. Both sides pleaded apostolical tradition: these latter pretending to derive their practice from St. Peter and St. Paul: whilst the others, viz. the Asiatics, said they imitated the example of St. John 3. where ob Council of This difference for a considerable time continued with a Ordered to great deal of Christian charity and forbearance; but at be every length became the occasion of great bustles in the church; served on which grew to such a height at last, that Constantine the same thought it time to use his interest and authority to allay the heat of the opposite parties, and to bring them to a Nice. uniformity of practice. To which end he got a canon to be passed in the great general council of Nice, "That "every where the great feast of Easter should be observed ❝ upon one and the same day; and that not on the day of "the Jewish passover, but, as had been generally observed, upon the Sunday afterwards." And that this dispute might never arise again, these paschal canons were then also established, viz. 1. "That the twenty-first day of March shall be ac- The Pas"counted the vernal equinox. chal canons passed 2. "That the full moon happening upon or next after in the "the twenty-first day of March shall be taken for the full Council of "moon of Nisan. 3. "That the Lord's day next following that full moon "be Easter-day. 66 4. But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easterday shall be the Sunday after." Nice. to be found §. 3. Agreeable to these is the Rule for finding Easter, The Moons which we are now discoursing of. But here we must ob- out by the serve, that the Fathers of the next century ordered the Golden new and full moons to be found out by the cycle of the Number. 2 Joseph. Antiq. Judaic. 1. 3. c. 10. 3 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5. c. 23, 24. p. 193, &c. Vide et 1. 4. c. 14. 4 Euseb. in Vita Constant. 1. 3. c. 18, Chap. I. moon, consisting of nineteen years, invented by Meton the s Athenian, and from its great usefulness in ascertaining the moon's age, as it was thought for ever, was called the Golden Number; and was for some time usually written in letters of Gold. By this cycle, I say, the Fathers of the next century ordered the moon's age to be found out; which they thought a certain way, since at the end of nineteen years the moon returns to have her changes on the same day of the solar year and month, whereon they happened nineteen years before. For which reason the cycle was some time afterwards placed in the calendar, in the first column of every month, in such manner as that every number of the cycle should stand against those days in each month, on which the new moons should happen in that year of the cycle. But now it is to be noted, that though at the end of every nineteen years the moon changes on the very same days of the solar months, on which it changed nineteen years before; yet the change happens about an hour and a half sooner every nineteen years than in the former; which, in the time that the Golden Number stood in the calendar, had made an alteration of about five days. er and later than the rule rect. Easter was §. 4. By this means it happened that Easter was kept kept some- sometimes sooner and sometimes later than the rule seemed times soon- to direct, and the Fathers of the Nicene council intended. sometimes For it is very manifest that they designed that the first full moon after the vernal equinox should be the paschal full seeins to di- moon: (for otherwise they knew that the resurrection of our blessed Lord could not be commemorated at the time it happened:) but then, for want of better skill in astronomy in those times, they confined the equinox to the twenty-first of March; whereas it hath since been discovered not only that the moon's cycle of nineteen years complete was too long, but also that the Julian solar year, which they reckoned by, exceeds the true solar one by about eleven minutes every year; which had brought the equinoxes forward eleven or twelve days from the time of the Nicene council. Hence it must often have happened, that the first full moon after the twenty-first of March hath been different from the first full moon after the vernal equinox; and that they who have observed Easter according to the letter of the Nicene canons, and the rule for finding the paschal full moon by the Golden Number 5 Blondel's Roman Calendar, Part I. lib. 2. c. 5. as placed soon after in the calendar, have not always ob- Part I. served it according to the intent of those Fathers. But yet' as soon as ever the canons were passed, the whole catholic church was very strict in adhering to them; and so tender of the authority of them, that about two hundred years after the Nicene council this following table was drawn up by Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman; wherein are expressed all those days, on which the first full The Paschal Limits moons after the twenty-first of March answering the Goldhappen in all the nineteen years ofen Numbers, accordthe lunar cycle: which was so well ing to the Julian ac count. approved of, that, by the council of 1 234 5 The Paschal April 5. March 22. 6 April 10. 7 March 30. 8 April 18. 9 April 7. 10 March 27. April 15. 12 April 4. 13 March 24. According to this table was Easter observed from the year of Christ 534, or thereabouts, till the year 1582: at which time Pope Gregory XIII. reformed the calendar, and brought back the vernal equinox to the twenty-first of March. So that the Roman church keeping their Easter from that time on the first Sunday after the first full moon next after the twenty-first of March, observed it exactly according to the use of the primitive church. And in the year. 1752, the like reformation was made in our calendar, by ordering the third day of September in that year to be called the fourteenth, thereby suppressing eleven intermediate days, and bringing back the vernal equinox to the twenty-first of March, as it was at the time of the Nicene council. SECT. II. Of the Tables for finding Easter. AFTER the Rule for finding Easter is inserted an account when the rest of the moveable feasts and holy-days begin; and after that follow certain tables relating to the feasts |