INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING FESTIVALS.

Reprinted from "A Companion for the Festivals and Fasts," by ROBERT NELSON, Esq.

QUESTION. What do you mean by festivals? ANSWER. Days set apart by the Church, either for the remembrance of some special mercies of God, such as the birth and resurrection of Christ, the descent of the Holy Ghost, &c., or in memory of the great heroes of the Christian religion, the blessed Apostles, and other saints: who were the happy instruments of conveying to us the knowledge of Christ Jesus, by preaching His gospel through the world; and most of them attesting the truth of it with their blood.

Q. Of what authority is the observation of these festivals?

A. They are of ecclesiastical institution; agreeable to Scripture in the general design of them, for the promoting of piety; consonant to the practice of the primitive Church, as appears by the joint consent of antiquity.

Q. Are not holy-days enforced by the laws of the land?

A. When upon the Reformation, the Liturgy was settled and established, such days were enjoined to be observed; as plainly appears by the Statutes of Edward VI. (2 & 3 Ed. VI. cap. 1.

& 19; 5 & 6 Ed. VI. cap. 3) and though these laws were abrogated by Queen Mary, yet they were revived in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, and continued in the first of King James. And when upon the restoration, King Charles II. issued out a commission for the reviewing of the Liturgy, and making such alterations as should appear to be fit and necessary; the alterations made by the commissioners were brought to the convocation then sitting, where they were synodically agreed upon, and the king and parliament confirmed all these proceedings, as the Act of Uniformity testifies; in which the rubric and the rules relating to the Liturgy are established by royal authority, as well as the Liturgy itself.

Q. But is not the observation of days superstitious?

A. There is an observation of days certainly superstitious, if not idolatrous, since in Deuteronomy an observer of times is declared an abomination to the Lord, (Deut. xviii. 10, and Lev. xix. 26;) and it is one of the provocations for which the Gentiles were driven out of the land. And the Galatians are reproached by St. Paul, for observing days and months, and times and years; which appeared to him so criminal, that upon this account he feared the labour he had

bestowed upon them had been in vain. (Gal. iv. 10, 11.)

Q. What kind of days are they whose observation is here condemned?

A. Such as were dedicated by the heathens to their false gods, or such as were observed by them as lucky or unlucky days: these being the abominations of the heathens condemned in Deuteronomy or those of the Jews, which, though abrogated, the judaizing Christians attempted to impose upon the Galatians, as necessary to salvation; contrary to the Apostle's endeavours of setting them at liberty in the freedom of the Gospel; and to the doctrine of salvation by Christ alone, which might justly make him afraid of them.

Q. Is the observation of such days as are in use among Christians forbidden in Scripture?

A. No: because God, who had in abomination the observer of times, doth Himself ordain several feasts to be observed in memory of past benefits; as the Feast of the Passover, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles. Besides, our Saviour kept a feast of the Church's institution, viz., the Feast of Dedication and the common practice of all Christian Churches and states, in appointing and keeping days of public thanksgiving and humiliation, is argument sufficient to prove, that in the

common sense of Christians it is not forbidden in Scripture.

Q. What may be pleaded for such days, from the design of their institution?

A. It being not only good, but a great duty, to be grateful and to give thanks to God for the blessings we receive from Him, it must be not only lawful, but commendable upon the account of gratitude, to appoint and observe days for the particular remembrance of such blessings, and to give thanks for them: the sanctifying such days being a token of that thankfulness, and part of that public honour which we owe to God for His inestimable benefits.

Q. But do not these festivals restrain the praises of God to certain times, which ought to be extended to all times?

A. No duty can be performed without the circumstance of time: and that there is a certain time allotted for this duty, tends only to the securing of some time for the exercise of the duty, against the frailties of men, and the disturbances of the world, which might otherwise supplant and rob it of all. And though the days of solemnity, which are but few, must quickly finish that outward exercise of devotion which appertains to such times: yet they increase men's inward dispositions to virtue for