"that they prayed for the emperor without a prompter, because they prayed from the heart." From the words "without a prompter" it has been inferred that their prayers were on all occasions extemporaneous effusions. But the context clearly shews, that Tertullian merely intended to contrast the cordial sincerity of their prayers for the safety and prosperity of the emperors, with the forced and hollow exclamations of the heathen populace; who required to be bribed with largesses, and even to be prompted, before they would cry out in the accustomed form, 19" De nostris annis tibi Jupiter augeat annos."

From incidental notices scattered over Tertullian's works we collect, that 20 Sunday, or the Lord's Day, was regarded by the primitive Christians as a day of rejoicing; and that to fast upon it was deemed unlawful. The word Sabbatum is always used to designate,

19 Compare c. 35.

20 Tertullian uses both names; that of Sunday, when addressing the heathens. Apology, c. 16. Æque si diem Solis lætitiæ indulgemus, &c. Ad Nationes, L. i. c. 13; that of the Lord's Day, when writing to Christians. De Coronâ, c. 3. Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus. De Jejuniis, c. 15. De Idololatriâ, c. 14. De Animâ, c. 9. Inter Dominica Solennia. De Fugâ in Persecutione, c. 14. We are not, however, certain that Tertullian uniformly observes this distinction. Bingham thinks that he does. Book xx. c. 2. Sect. 1.

21

22

not the first, but the seventh day of the week; which appears in Tertullian's time to have been also kept as a day of rejoicing. Even the Montanists-anxious as they were to introduce a more rigorous discipline in the observance of fasts-when they kept their two weeks of Xerophagia, did not fast on the Saturday and Sunday. The " Saturday before Easter day was, however, an exception; that was observed as a fast. 23 The custom of observing every Saturday as a fast, which became general throughout the western Church, does not appear to have existed in Tertullian's time. That men who, like our author, on all occasions contended that the ritual and ceremonial law of Moses had ceased, should observe the seventh day of the week as a festival, is perhaps to be ascribed to a desire of conciliating the Jewish converts.

We find in Tertullian's works no notice of the celebration of our Lord's nativity; although the festivals of Easter and Whit

24

21 De Jejuniis, c. 15. The Gentiles feasted on a Saturday. Apology, c. 16.

22 De Jejuniis, c. 14.

23 See Bingham, Book xx. c. 3.

24 De Coronâ, c. 3. Ad Uxorem, L. ii. c. 4. Quis deni solemnibus Pascha abnoctantem securus sustinebit? Bingham supposes that our author here speaks of the Paschal Vigil

que

or

suntide are frequently mentioned: with reference to which it should be observed, that the word Pascha was not used to signify merely the day of our Lord's Resurrection, but also the day of his Passion; or rather the whole interval of time from his crucifixion to his resurrection. In like manner the word 25 Pentecoste signified, not merely Whitsunday, but also the fifty days which intervened between Easter and and Whitsunday. Tertullian makes no allusion to the paschal controversy-a controversy which was carried on with great bitterness, towards the middle of the second century, respecting the days on which the Death and Resurrection of Christ ought to be commemorated. He says only in general terms that they were always commemorated in the first month of the year.

26

27

We have already had occasion to allude to the custom of making offerings at the

or Easter Eve. (Book xiii. c. 9. Sect. 4. or Book xxi. c. 1. Sect. 32.) De Baptismo, c. 19. Ad Marcionem, L. iv. c. 40.

25 De Coronâ, c. 3. De Idololatriâ, c. 14. sub fine. De Baptismo, c. 19. De Jejuniis, c. 14.

26 De Jejuniis, c. 14.

27 Chap. V. note 216. Compare the Scorpiace, c. 15. Tunc Paulus civitatis Romanæ consequitur nativitatem, quum illic martyrii renascitur generositate.

28

tombs of the martyrs, on the anniversary of their martyrdom. To the anniversary itself was given the name of Natalitium or Natalis Dies; on the ground that it was the day of their birth into eternal life. Some of the commentators fancy that they discover, 2 in a passage in the Tract de Coronâ, an allusion to the practice of noting down the days on which the martyrs suffered-in other words, of composing martyrologies; but the passage is not of that decided character on which an inference can be safely built.

After Tertullian became a Montanist, he wrote his Tract de Jejuniis; the object of which was to defend the number, length, and severity of the fasts prescribed by the founder of the sect. In order to refute the notion that the season of our Saviour's Passion was

the only season at which Christians were positively bound to fast, he undertakes to establish the general obligation of fasting. 29 With this view he goes back to Adam's transgression. Adam was forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge; he ate and fell. As, therefore, he fell by yielding to his appetite, it follows that the sure way

28 c. 13. Habes tuos census, tuos fastos.

29 c. 3.

for man to regain the favour of God is to mortify his appetite. Adam offended by eating; we must remedy the evil consequences of the offence by fasting. Our author 50 refers also to various instances both in the Old and New Testaments, in which punishment had been averted, and spiritual and temporal blessings obtained, by fasting. 31 God, moreover, by testifying his favourable acceptance of fasts observed in consequence of voluntary vows, thereby declared his will, and rendered such fasts obligatory in future. This favourable acceptance supplied the place of a positive command. Tertullian, however, is met in the very outset by a perplexing objection. "If fasting was designed to be the means of recovering God's favour, how came it to pass that, after the deluge, the liberty respecting food was not curtailed, but extended? That man, who was originally confined to a vegetable diet, was then allowed to eat flesh ?" To this question Tertullian returns an answer, for which few of his readers could, we think, have been prepared.-At first the liberty respecting food was enlarged, in order

30 cc. 7, 8. Compare de Patientiâ, c. 13.

31

c. 11.

32

C. 4.

32

Compare de Cultu Fœminarum, L. ii. c. 10. De Exhortatione Castitatis, c. 8.