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And throughout the whole of the East it has been settled, ever since
the time of the preaching of the Apostles, when the Christian faith and
religion was rounded, that these Vigils should be celebrated as the Sabbath
dawns, for this reason,--because, when our Lord and Saviour had been
crucified on the sixth day of the week, the disciples, overwhelmed by the
freshness of His sufferings, remained watching throughout the whole night,
giving no rest or sleep to their eyes. Wherefore, since that time, a
service of Vigils has been appointed for this night, and is still observed
in the same way up to the present day all through the East. And so, after
the exertion of the Vigil, a dispensation from fasting, appointed in like
manner for the Sabbath by apostolic men, is not without reason enjoined
in all the churches of the East, in accordance with that saying of
Ecclesiastes, which, although it has another and a mystical sense, is not
misapplied to this, by which we are charged to give to both days-- that is,
to the seventh and eighth equally--the same share of the service, as it
says: "Give a portion to these seven and also to these eight." For this
dispensation from fasting must not be understood as a participation in the
Jewish festival by those above all who are shown to be free from all Jewish
superstition, but as contributing to that rest of the wearied body of which
we have spoken; which, as it fasts continually for five days in the week
all through the year, would easily be worn out and fail, unless it were
revived by an interval of at least two days.
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