of Prayer might every where be offered for the Refurrection of the Lord; for 'tis certain that in rightly celebrating the Pafcha, they were obliged by Divine Institution to have a regard to the Motions of the Sun and Moon; tho' they were led into an error by fancying the Julian and the Solar Tropick years were both of a piece.

in celebrat.

§. 3. In ancient times the Afiatic Chriftians did con- of the chief tinually celebrate the Pafcha in the 14th Moon, or difference at that Full Moon, viz. at the fame time with the among the Jews, and alledged that they received this Cuftom Ancients from St. John the Evangelift. But the Eastern Chriftians never celebrated the Solemnity of the Pafcha, ex cal Soleming the Pafcept on the Lords Day, that they might not feem to nity, and have this Solemnity in common with the fews, and al- for what ledged in vindication of themselves the Custom of St. reason the Peter. The Montanists receded from both, in neglect- Lunar Cy. ing the Lunar Courfe; and looking only to the Solar; cle was appointing the 23d of March to be the Vernal Equi- ferved. nox, and the Pafcha to be obferved upon the 14th from that day. Martinus Dumienfis and Beda relate that among the French the Pafcha was anciently obferved on the 25th of March,which Custom when Cirvelus would again introduce, he was ftigmatiz'd for his Rashness by Mariana.

ob

that Chri

§. 4. The Chriftians kept not the Solemnities of of thegreat their Fafti as indifferent things; but contrary to the Concern Rule of St. Paul, they condemn'd one another for neg- tians had lecting the Punctilio's of time. Now Pius the first,and for thefed after him Eleutherius were very nice upon this point; Controver but above all the reft, Victor acted most violently in fies. fending the Thunder of his Anathema against the Greeks which prov'd of no effect, as well as many of the o ther Popes Anathema's. At laft the venerable Nicene Council did fo moderate the exafperated Heats, that the Cuftom of the Western Chriftians obtain'd, according to Eufebius, Theodoret, &c.

S. 5. Anatolius in Eufeb.1.7. c. 26. makes mention of of the time the Lunar Cycle; but Ambrofius's Epiftle makes it ma- in which nifeft that the ufe of this Cycle was chiefly took no- the Ufe of tice of in the time of the Nicene Council. In order the Lunar to fix, fays Ambrofe,the day of the Solemnity of Eefter Cycle was which is of no fmall importance) the Nicene Council Chriflians conftituted a Circle of 19 years for a Standard to

fucceeding

known to

Whether

fucceeding Generations. This Circle they call d Enneadecaeterida.

§. 6. Though the Inventions of the Chriftians are the Chrifti- falfely imputed to the latter fews, yet confidering ans receiv- the defign of the firft Authors of this Cycle, it feems ed the Lu- apparent that they examined the fecret Writings of nar Cycle the fews left they fhould celebrate Eafter at the fame

from the

Jews.

Whether

time with Unbeleivers: For fuppofe the ancient Lunar Cycle together with the Pafcal times were different from the Cycle of the Jews, certainly Christians, could not know by the ufe of the fame Cycle at what time the fews would celebrate the Pafcha, nor how they ought to refrain from the facred things of their Adverfaries. Ifaacus Argyrus confirms my Opinion in faying, that before the Pafcha of the Chriftians the Judaic one was placed; which was fo order'd in the Holy and firft Oecumenic Synod, that it might be obferved in what day of the Week the Pafcha of the Jews fell, that on the following Lord's Day the Chriftians might perform theirs.

S. 7. Though the firft Authors of the Lunar Cycle or no the thought that 19 Luna-Solar years were equal to 19 first AuFulian years, yet 'tis not so, if we regard Mathematitbors of the cal Rigour; For 19 Julian years make 6939 D. 18 H.. Lunar Cy- but 19 Lunar Solar years contain only 6939 D. 16 H. cle thought 32',20", whofe difference is 1 H. 27,40". And fo much Luna So- do 19 mean New and Full Moons, lofe every 19 years, lar years, which in about 1257 years make four days almoft. or 235 Lu

that 19

nations were equal to 19 Julian years.

The man

ner how

cle and how

§. 8. To find the juft time of the Pafcha,the Ancient Chriftians, as I faid but now, ufed the Lunar Cycle; Ancients and that the Ufe hereof may more largely appear, we us'd the fhall lay down the whole Lunar Cycle, with the PafLunar Cy- cal times, in which the utmoft Limits are the 23d of they acco- March, (upon which day they thought the Vernal Emodated quinox fell, that went before the Pafchal Full Moon) Pafcbal and April the 19th: So that the Chriftian Pafcha was terms to its never celebrated before the 22d of March, or after. Numbers. the 25th of April. To which thefe ancient Verses

relate.

Extremum Pafche monftrat tua passio Marce.

Item,

Pafca net undenas Aprilis ante Kalendas,
Nec poft feptenas Maii valet effe Kalendas,

C. . ITP. April 5C. (. 11 TP.

Apr. 15

2

Mar. 25

12

Apr. 4

3

April 13

13

Mar. 24

4

April 2

14

Apr. 12

Apr. 1

April 10

16

Mar. 21

76

Mar. 30

April 18

18

Mar. 29

9

April 7

19

Apr. 17

10

Mar. 27

But in the Gregorian year the Pafcal Limits are found by the Lunar Cycle till the year 1700 from the following Table:

C. C. I

T. P. April 12/C. . 11 T. P. Mar. 23

§. 9. Some think that for its Worth and great Ufe The Reason it might be be compared with Gold, and fo took its why the name from that Comparison; as being a Standard among Character the Ancients in calculating the Full and New Moons; of the Lu, upon which account Petavius Ration. p. 9. & de doct. nar Cycle temp. T. 1. p. 615 fays. The Ancients beginning at any times past year for Example, from that which gives a New Moon called the on the 23d of Jan. Feb. 21ft, March 23d, &c. They Golden

wrote the Figure 1 in the Margin of the Calendar oppofite to thofe days. The fecond year they found the New Moons got forward about 11 days, viz to Jan. 12, Feb. 10. and March the 12th, &c. and against those days they placed in their Calendar the Figure 2. So in the 3d, 4th and following years, upon those Days, that brought in the New Moon every Month, they placed the Figures 3, 4, &c. against them in the Calendar. And at last having pest over 19 years, they renewed the fame Figures again. These were the Figures or Numbers in the Calendar which were called the Golden Numbers. Others relate that the Alexandrians in times past fent this Cycle to the Romans written upon a Silver Table with Golden Figures, and that the Title of the Golden number took its rife from thence.

Doctor Holder's Account of the Original and the Imperfection of the Golden Number, as applied to the firft Column in the Calendar of the Common Prayer Book

Suppofing Cays the Doctor) the Sun and Moon to be in Conjunction the first day of the year, at the end thereof the Moons Twelve-month will be finished 1 days fooner than that of the Sun: So, fhe will be then, at the end of the Sun's year, 11 days before him, and the next year 11 days more, viz. 22, &c.

All thefe variations are finifh'd in 19 years, nearly agreeing with the courfe of the Nodes, 1. e.the Points in the Ecliptic, where the Moon croffeth that Circle, as the paffeth to her Northern or Southern Latitude, which Nodes are called the Head and Tail of the Dragon : The Head, when Northward; and the Tail, when towards the South of the Ecliptic. These continually vary, moving in Antecedentia about 3' per diem; which in 19 years make 360 degrees, or the whole Circle. Se, their whole change of place, and Revolution round the Ecliptic

Ecliptic, is finifh'd in 19 years, and then begins near the fame courfe again. For which METON, of old, in the time of the Peloponnefin War, conftituted a Decennoval Circle, or of 19 years, the fame which we now call the Golden-Number; and was filed Annus, or Periodus Metonis.

Because the Epacts feem to lie in a confufed order of Numbers, making their Progreffion by 11 every year, and fo often cafting out 30: therefore a Nuneral Account fet in order against the Epacts, from 1, till it comes to 19, where each Number anfwers to, and defigns its respective Epact, being applied to it, makes a perpetual Cycle of 19; which for its excellent ufe, and because it was fet in the Calendar in Golden Letters, is called the Golden Number, or Prime.

The Golden Number being the Index, at Cycle of Epacts, the principal ufe of it is, to find the Epacts; and fo they both ferve indifferently for the Accounts of the Moon, and furnish you with many ufeful Rules and Tables for feveral purpofes. As by the Golden Number, and Dominical Letter given, tofind Eafter-day for ever. Such a Table you have before the Book of Common-Prayer.

If the Lunations be obferved, and fet down for a whole course of the Golden Number, or Cycle of 19 years, which is the Cycle of the Moon; the fame obfervations will ferve, and be verified, through the next Cycle of 19 years, in the fame order; and fo on for fucceeding Cycles, (as hath been fuppofed) for ever.

And therefore the Golden Number, in the firft Column of the Calendar, before the Book of CommonPrayer, is, as a Rule for ever, fet before the Day of each Month, in which the Change or Conjunction of the Moon fhall happen whenfoever fuch is the Golden Number as is there fet down. As, if you look, ex. gr. upon the Month of fuly, you fhall fee 9 before or against the first day, 8 before the fecond, 16 before the fourth,

before the fifth, &c. That is, whenfoever the Gol den Number is 19, there will be New Moon on the first day of fuly; when 8, on the fecond; if 16 on the fourh; if 5, then the fifth day; &c.

And though, in the aforefaid Column, the Numbers which denote the Golden Number, feem to ftand confafedly, without any order; 19, 8, (and after a space between)

H 2