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"cal Sabbath*." See Collier's Ecclefiaftic Hift.

Vol. I. p. 531.

Our Author's Exhortation towards the Conclufion of this Chapter is, I think, liable to Mifconftruction: An Inference might eafily be deduced from it in favour of Idleness.-Perhaps Men, who live by manual Labour, or have Families to fupport by it, cannot better fpend their Saturday Afternoon, than in following the feveral Callings, in which they have employed themfelves on the preceding Days of the Week.-Induftry will be no bad Preparation to the Sabbath!

Confidered in a Political View, much Harm hath been done by that prodigal Waste of Days, very falfely called Holy Days, in the Church of Rome. They have greatly favoured the Caufe of Vice and Diffipation without doing any effential Service to that of rational Religion.-Complaints feem to have been made in almoft every Synod and Council, of the Licentioufness introduced by the keeping of Vigils.-Nor will the Philofopher wonder at this, for it has its Foundation in the Nature of Thingst.

* Mr Wheatly tells us, that in the East, the Church thought fit to indulge the Humour of the Judaizing Chriftians fo far, as to obferve the Saturday as a Festival Day of Devotion, and thereon to meet for the Exercise of religious Duties, as is plain from feveral Paffages of the Antients. Illuftration of Common Prayer,

p. 191.

For the Honour of human Nature, (which like the majestic Ruins of Palmyra, though proftrate in the Duft, is ftill refpectable in its Decay) I forbear to tranflate the fubfequent Quotation from Dr. Morefin. "Et videre contigit. Anno 1582, Lugduni in Vigiliis "Natalium Domini deprehenfos in ftupro duos poft Mijantis "Altare hora inter duodecimam et primam noctis, cum præter unum aut aliud Altaris lumen,' nullum eflet in Templo reliquum, '&c." Deprav. Rel. Orig. p. 177.

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CHAP

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Yule-Clog and Christmas-Candle; what they may fignifie; their Antiquity; the like Cuftoms in other Places.

N the Primitive Church, Christmas-Day was

In Church

always obferv'd as the Lord's-Day was, and was in like Manner preceded by an Eve or Vigil. Hence it is that our Church hath ordered an Eve before it, which is obferved by the Religious, as a Day of Preparation for that great Festival.

Our Fore-Fathers, when the common Devotions of the Eve were over, and Night was come on, were wont to light up Candles of an uncommon Size, which were called Christmas-Candles, and to lay a Log of Wood upon the Fire, which they termed a Yule-Clog, or Christmas-Block. These were to Illuminate the House, aud turn the Night into Day; which Custom, in fome Meafure, is ftill kept in the Northern Parts.

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It hath, in all probability, been derived from the Saxons. For Bede tells us, That this very Night was obferved in this Land before, by the Heathen Saxons. They began, fays

*

he,

Incipiebant autem annum ab octavo calendarum Januarii die, ubi nunc natale domini celebramus; & ipfam noctem

nunc

he, their Year on the Eight of the Calends of January, which is now our Christmas-Day : And the very Night before, which is now Holy to us, was by them called Medrenack, or the Night of Mothers; because, as we imagine, of thofe Ceremonies which were perform'd that Night. The Yule-Clog therefore hath probably been a Part of that Night's Ceremonies. The very Name feems to fpeak it, and tells its Original to every Age.

It feems to have been used, as an Emblem of the return of the Sun, and the lengthening of the Days. For as both December and January were called Guili or † Yule, upon Ac

*

count

nuuc nobis facro-fanctam tunc gentili vocabulo madrenack, i. e, matrum noctem appellabant: Ob caufam, ut fufpicamur, ceremoniarum, quas in ca pervigiles agebant. Beda de Rat. Temp. Cap. 13.

*December guili, eodem quo Januarius nomine vocatur. -Guili a converfione folis in auctum diei, nomen accipit, Beda, ibid.

Gebal or Geal Angl-Sax. Jol vel Jul, Dan. Sax. " And "to this Day in the North Yule, Youle, fignifies the folemn "Festival of Christmas, and were Words used to denote a "Time of Festivity very anciently, and before the Introduc

tion of Christianity among the Northern Nations. Learn"ed Men have difputed much about this Word, fome deriving it from Julius Cæfar, others from the Word "Gehtheol, a Wheel, as Bede, who would therefore have it "fo called, because of the Return of the Sun's annual Course, after the Winter Solstice. But he, writing de "Rat. Temp. fpeaks rather as an Aftronomer than an Antiquary. The beft Antiquaries derive it from the Word, "Ol, Ale, which was much ufed in their Feftivities and

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count of the Sun's Returning, and the Increase of the Days; fo, I am apt to believe, the Log has had the Name of the Yule-Log, from its being burnt as an Emblem of the returning Sun, and the Increase of its Light and Heat.

This was probably the Reafon of the Cuftom among the Heathen Saxons; but I cannot think the Obfervation of it was continued for the fame Reafon, after Christianity was embraced. For Bishop Stilling fleet obferves in his Origines Britanice, "That though the "ancient Saxons obferved Twelve Days at "that Time, and facrificed to the Sun, in

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merry Meetings. And the I in Iol, iul cimbr. as the Ge "and Gi in Gehol, Geol, Giul, Sax, are premifed only as "Intenfives to add a little to the Signification, and make "it more emphatical. Ol or Ale, as has been obferved, "did not only fignifie the Liquor they made Ufe of, but "gave Denomination likewife to their greatest Festivals, "as that of Gehol or Yule at Midwinter; and as is yet "plainly to be difcern'd in that Custom of the Whitfun- Ale, "at the other great Festival. Elftob. Sax. Hom. Birth.

"Day-Greg. Append P. 29.

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Bishop Stillingfleet has also taken Notice of this, and fays, "That fome think the Name of this Feaft was taken from "Iola, which in the Gothick Language fignifies to make But he seems not inclinable to this Opinion, and "therefore tells us, that Olaus Rudbeck thinks the former (viz. Its being called fo from the Joy that was conceived "at the Return of the Sun) more proper, not only from "Bede's Authority, but becaufe in the old Runick Fafti, a "Wheel was used to denote that Feftival." Stilling. Orig. "Britain.

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hopes of his Returning; yet when Chrif tianity prevailed, all these Idolatrous Sa"crifices were laid afide, and that Time of

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Feafting was joined with the religious Solemnity of that Seafon, which in other Parts of the World were obferved by 66 Christians." And in like Manner as these Days of Feafting were joined with the religious Solemnities of that Seafon, fo the keeping up of this Cuftom, feems to have been done with another View, than it was originally. If a Conjecture may be allowed, it might have been done on Account of our Saviour's Birth, which happened that Night. For as the Burning of it before Christianity, was an Emblem of the Coming of the Sun, which they worshipped as their God; fo the continuing it after, might have been for a Symbol of that Light, which was that Night born into the World: The Light that shineth in Darkness; the Light that lightned the Gentiles, that turn'd them from Darkness to Light, and from the Power of Satan unto GOD.

And indeed it will be fome ftrengthening of the Conjecture, that Light has been the Emblem of feveral Things, both in Scripture, and in the ancient Church: For the Scripture makes use of it, and the Church in Imitation of the Scripture, as a lively Rerefentation of feveral Things. Thus Light is the Emblem of

GOD:

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