ples, and his reception into Heaven. Thus, in the first Lessons we have the type, and in the Gospel and second Lessons, the antitype of the Ascension. The portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle, instructs us not to stand gazing up into Heaven, admiring the strangeness of the phænomenon, but so to prepare ourselves, that we may with comfort behold him at his second coming. In the Collect we pray, that we may be enabled to conform to our Lord in his Ascension, "that like as we believe him to have ascended into the "Heavens, so we may in heart and mind thither * ascend, and with him continually dwell."

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.

The days that elapsed between the Ascension of our Lord, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, have been styled the week of Expectation *, in allusion to the Apostles' expectation of the coming of the promised Comforter. During this time, "the Apostles "with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, con"tinued with one accord" at Jerusalem in supplication and prayer.

The Collect prays for the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and for exaltation to Heaven, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before. The Epistle exhorts to

This week consisted of ten days, yet this mode of expression has not been objected against. Was it not as natural and allowable for IRENEUS to call the continued forty hours fast before Easter, a day of forty hours, as it was for his successors to styla these ten days, the week of Expectation? See p. 78.

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sobriety,

sobriety, vigilance, charity, hospitality, and the due application of the talents committed to our care, that God may in all things be glorified. The Gospel contains the promise of the Comforter, who would support the Disciples under the sufferings, which it warns them to expect, as a certain consequence of their adherence to the cause of their crucified Lord.

WHIT-SUNDAY.

THE term Pentecost (or Whitsuntide) was by the ancients used in two very different significations. It was employed to denote the paschal solemnity, or the whole fifty days from Easter to Whitsuntide, which we have already remarked were in commemoration of our Lord's Resurrection observed as one continual festival. In a more restricted sense it implied simply that particular day, on which was solemnized the anniversary of the coming of the Comforter, the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.

In the former acceptation of the term, the word Pentecost repeatedly occurs in the writings of TERTULLIAN. He descrbes Pentecost as a very large or extended space of time, set apart for the administration of Baptism; in which the Resurrection of the Lord was frequently commemorated among the Disciples, and the grace of the Holy Ghost manifested. He elsewhere says, that all the festivals of all the heathen nations put together, were not equal to Pentecost. This was the paschal Quinquagesima, mentioned in the Theodosian code, which prohibits

the

the amusements of the theatre and circus during this season, and notices the white garments worn at Baptism, together with the practice of reading the Acts of the Apostles, in confirmation of the leading truth of Christianity, the Resurrection of our Lord.

CHRYSOSTOM, with CASSIAN, AUSTIN and others, uses Pentecost in the same sense; and he employs a very considerable part of an homily in answering the question, "Why is the Book of the Acts of the Apostles read in the time of Pentecost?" He replies in general, that "on every festival such Scriptures are read as are most appropriate, and in particular that on the

day of the cross," (or Good Friday,) "we read what "relates to the cross, and on the great Sabbath again" (that is on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter-Day) "we read that our Lord was betrayed,

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crucified, dead according to the flesh, and buried; "and on Easter-Day such Scriptures as give an ac"count of his Resurrection. Why then" (he repeatedly asks) "are the Acts not read after Pentecost, since they were subsequent to Pentecost, and originated "from it? Why, it may be enquired, do we anticipate the time? For the Apostles did not immediately "after Christ's Resurrection work miracles, nor he immediately ascend?" To these, and similar questions which he repeatedly puts, he answers, that "the "Book of the Acts wrought after Pentecost is read in "this intermediate season, that we may have manifest " and unquestionable demonstration of the Resurrec

Cur in Pentecoste Acta legantur, is the title of this Homily.

❝tion

"tion of our Lord. The miracles of the Apostles,

being the greatest proof of the Resurrection, are "therefore read immediately after its anniversary

"commemoration."

Hence it became a general practice both in the East and West* to read the Acts of the Apostles between Easter and Whitsuntide. And it deserves to be noticed, that considerably the greater part of this Book is, every four years at least out of five, read in the Church of England during this season: and some part of it is always read in the course of these fifty days †.

Of this great. festive season, the conclusion was Pentecost, or Whitsuntide, in the mere limited and the modern acceptation of the term, when the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was commemorated. This took place on the day of the Jewish Pentecost, that is, on the fiftieth day from the Passover. On this day, as the Fathers thought, the law was delivered from Sinai, and it was also the

feast of the first fruits of the year. The early Christians, however, observed it not as a Jewish festival: They, on this day, commemorated the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples.

This, like the other festivals of the infant Church, was at first, probably, accompanied with no external

* CHRYSOSTOM as cited above, and in various other places, and the old Lectionarium Gallicanum.

To ascertain the truth of this, the Reader needs only observe from the Calendar that Acts i. is read on April 4, and Acts xxviii. on May 2; and compare these two dates with that of Easter-Day or Whit-Sunday in the table of moveable feasts.

ceremonies.

Ceremonies. It was most likely celebrated in secret, and consisted chiefly of songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. Where St. Luke speaks of St. Paul's desire to be, if it were possible, at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost*, he means not the Christian, but the Jewish festival. The object of St. Paul was not to observe the Christian Pentecost; for to do that he had no reason to hasten to Jerusalem; but to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and to facilitate their con version, by paying respect to their festivals and observances. However, that the public celebration of the Christian. Pentecost began in the apostolic age we cannot deny, without questioning the authority of CYRIL, who tells us, that the early Christians converted the place where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, into a Church or house of prayer, still extant in his time, and called the high or apostolic Church +.

Of the origin of the English name Whit-Sunday, or Whitsuntide, various accounts have been given : But the most probable seems to be, that it was called Whit-Suntide, that is, White-Suntide, from its being one of the two principal seasons of public Baptism; when all that were baptized, wore white garments or Chrisoms, in token of the spiritual purity they received at Baptism, and the innocence of life, which they then vowed to practise. Or it might be metaphorically called Whitsuntide, from the diffusion of light,

Acts xx. 16.

+ Catechesis, 16.

which