Chapter X.—Of Stations, and of the Hours of Prayer.

In like manner they censure on the count of novelty our Stations as being enjoined; some, moreover, (censure them) too as being prolonged habitually too late, saying that this duty also ought to be observed of free choice, and not continued beyond the ninth hour,—(deriving their rule), of course, from their own practice.  Well:  as to that which pertains to the question of injunction, I will once for all give a reply to suit all causes.  Now, (turning) to the point which is proper to this particular cause—concerning the limit of time, I mean—I must first demand from themselves whence they derive this prescriptive law for concluding Stations at the ninth hour.  If it is from the fact that we read that Peter and he who was with him entered the temple “at the ninth (hour), the hour of prayer,” who will prove to me that they had that day been performing a Station, so as to interpret the ninth hour as the hour for the conclusion and discharge of the Station?  Nay, but you would more easily find that Peter at the sixth hour had, for the sake of taking food, gone up first on the roof to pray;76    See Acts x. 9. so that the sixth hour of the day may the rather be made the limit to this duty, which (in Peter’s case) was apparently to finish that duty, after prayer.  Further:  since in the self-same commentary of Luke the third hour is demonstrated as an hour of prayer, about which hour it was that they who had received the initiatory gift of the Holy Spirit were held for drunkards;77    Acts ii. 1–4, 13, 15. and the sixth, at which Peter went up on the roof; and the ninth, at which they entered the temple:  why should we not understand that, with absolutely perfect indifference, we must pray78    The reference is to Eph. vi. 18; Col. iv. 2; 1 Thess. v. 17; Luke xviii. 1. always, and everywhere, and at every time; yet still that these three hours, as being more marked in things human—(hours) which divide the day, which distinguish businesses, which re-echo in the public ear—have likewise ever been of special solemnity in divine prayers?  A persuasion which is sanctioned also by the corroborative fact of Daniel praying thrice in the day;79    See Dan. vi. 10. of course, through exception of certain stated hours, no other, moreover, than the more marked and subsequently apostolic (hours)—the third, the sixth, the ninth.  And hence, accordingly, I shall affirm that Peter too had been led rather by ancient usage to the observance of the ninth hour, praying at the third specific interval, (the interval) of final prayer.

These (arguments), moreover, (we have advanced) for their sakes who think that they are acting in conformity with Peter’s model, (a model) of which they are ignorant:  not as if we slighted the ninth hour, (an hour) which, on the fourth and sixth days of the week, we most highly honour; but because, of those things which are observed on the ground of tradition, we are bound to adduce so much the more worthy reason, that they lack the authority of Scripture, until by some signal celestial gift they be either confirmed or else corrected.  “And if,” says (the apostle), “there are matters which ye are ignorant about, the Lord will reveal to you.”80    See Phil. iii. 15.  Accordingly, setting out of the question the confirmer of all such things, the Paraclete, the guide of universal truth,81    John xiv. 26; xvi. 13. inquire whether there be not a worthier reason adduced among us for the observing of the ninth hour; so that this reason (of ours) must be attributed even to Peter if he observed a Station at the time in question.  For (the practice) comes from the death of the Lord; which death albeit it behoves to be commemorated always, without difference of hours; yet are we at that time more impressively commended to its commemoration, according to the actual (meaning of the) name of Station.  For even soldiers, though never unmindful of their military oath, yet pay a greater deference to Stations.  And so the “pressure” must be maintained up to that hour in which the orb—involved from the sixth hour in a general darkness—performed for its dead Lord a sorrowful act of duty; so that we too may then return to enjoyment when the universe regained its sunshine.82    See Matt. xxvii. 45–54; Mark xvi. 33–39; Luke xxiii. 44–47.  If this savours more of the spirit of Christian religion, while it celebrates more the glory of Christ, I am equally able, from the self-same order of events, to fix the condition of late protraction of the Station; (namely), that we are to fast till a late hour, awaiting the time of the Lord’s sepulture, when Joseph took down and entombed the body which he had requested.  Thence (it follows) that it is even irreligious for the flesh of the servants to take refreshment before their Lord did.

But let it suffice to have thus far joined issue on the argumentative challenge; rebutting, as I have done, conjectures by conjectures, and yet (as I think) by conjectures more worthy of a believer.  Let us see whether any such (principle) drawn from the ancient times takes us under its patronage.

In Exodus, was not that position of Moses, battling against Amalek by prayers, maintained as it was perseveringly even till “sunset,” a “late Station?”83    See Ex. xvii. 8–12.  Think we that Joshua the son of Nun, when warring down the Amorites, had breakfasted on that day on which he ordered the very elements to keep a Station?84    See Josh. x. 12–14.  The sun “stood” in Gibeon, and the moon in Ajalon; the sun and the moon “stood in station until the People was avenged of his enemies, and the sun stood in the mid heaven.”  When, moreover, (the sun) did draw toward his setting and the end of the one day, there was no such day beforetime and in the latest time (of course, (no day) so long), “that God,” says (the writer), “should hear a man”—(a man,) to be sure, the sun’s peer, so long persistent in his duty—a Station longer even than late.

At all events, Saul himself, when engaged in battle, manifestly enjoined this duty:  “Cursed (be) the man who shall have eaten bread until evening, until I avenge me on mine enemy;” and his whole people tasted not (food), and (yet) the whole earth was breakfasting!  So solemn a sanction, moreover, did God confer on the edict which enjoined that Station, that Jonathan the son of Saul, although it had been in ignorance of the fast having been appointed till a late hour that he had allowed himself a taste of honey, was both presently convicted, by lot, of sin, and with difficulty exempted from punishment through the prayer of the People:85    See 1 Sam. (in LXX. 1 Kings) xiv. 24–25.  for he had been convicted of gluttony, although of a simple kind.  But withal Daniel, in the first year of King Darius, when, fasting in sackcloth and ashes, he was doing exomologesis to God, said:  “And while I was still speaking in prayer, behold, the man whom I had seen in dreams at the beginning, swiftly flying, approached me, as it were, at the hour of the evening sacrifice.”86    See Dan. ix. 1, 3, 4, 20, 21.  This will be a “late” Station which, fasting until the evening, sacrifices a fatter (victim of) prayer to God!87    Comp. δε Ορ., c. xxviii.

CAPUT X.

Aeque stationes nostras, ut indignas; quasdam vero et in serum constitutas, novitatis nomine incusant, hoc quoque munus et ex arbitrio obeundum esse dicentes, et non ultra nonam detinendum, de suo scilicet more. Sed quod pertineat ad interdictionis quaestionem, semel pro omnibus caussis respondebo. Nunc ad proprium hujus speciei articulum, de modo temporis dico, de ipsis prius expostulandum, unde hanc formam nova dirimendis stationibus praescribant. Si, quia Petrus, et qui cum eo, ad horam nonam orationis templum introgressi leguntur, quis 0966B mihi probabit illos ea die statione functos, ut horam nonam ad clausulam et expunctionem stationis interpretetur? Atqui facilius invenias Petrum hora sexta capiendi cibi caussa, prius in superiora ad orandum ascendisse, quo magis sexta diei finiri officio huic possit, quae illud absolutura post orationem videbatur. Porro, cum in eodem commentario Lucae, et tertia hora orationis demonstretur, sub qua Spiritu Sancto initiati, pro ebriis habebantur; et sexta, qua Petrus ascendit in superiora; et nona, qua templum sunt introgressi, cur non intelligamus salva plane indifferentia semper et ubique et omni tempore orandi , tamen tres istas horas ut insigniores in rebus humanis, quae diem distribuunt, quae negotia distinguunt, quae publice resonant, ita et solemniores 0966C fuisse in orationibus divinis? Quod etiam suadet Danielis quoque argumentum ter die orantis, utique per aliquarum horarum exceptionem, non aliarum autem quam insigniorum, exinde Apostolicorum, tertiae, sextae, nonae. Hinc itaque et Petrum dicam ex vetere potius usu nonam observasse, tertio orantem supremae orationis munere. Haec autem propter illos, qui se putant ex forma Petri agere, quam ignorant; non quasi respuamus nonam, cui et quarta sabbati, et sexta plurimum fungimur: sed quia eorum quae ex traditione observantur, tanto magis 0967A dignam rationem afferre debemus, quanto carent Scripturae auctoritate, donec aliquo coelesti charismate aut confirmentur, aut corrigantur. Et si qua, inquit, ignoratis, Dominus vobis revelabit (Phil. III, 15). Itaque, seposito confirmatore omnium istorum Paracleto, duce universae veritatis, an indignior apud vos ratio afferatur in nonam observandi requiro , ut etiam Petro ea ratio deputanda sit, si statione tunc functus est. Venit enim de exitu Domini, quem etsi semper commemorari oportet sine differentia horarum, impressius tamen tum ei secundum ipsum stationis vocabulum addicimur : nam et milites nunquam immemores sacramenti, magis stationibus parent. Itaque in eam usque horam celebranda pressura est, in qua a sexta contenebratus orbis 0967B defuncto domino lugubre fecit officium, ut tunc et nos revertamur ad jucunditatem, cum et mundus recepit claritatem. Hoc si magis ad religionem sapit christianam, dum magis Christi gloriam celebrat, possum aeque serae stationis ex eodem rei ordine statum figere, ut jejunemus ad serum, exspectantes tempus Dominicae sepulturae cum Joseph postulatum detulit corpus, et condidit. Inde et irreligiosum est ante famulorum carnem refrigerare , quam domini. Sed hoc ex argumentationum provocatione commiserim, conjecturas conjecturis, et tamen puto fidelioribus, repercutiens. Videamus an aliquid tale nobis de vetustatibus quoque patrocinetur. In Exodo, habitus ille Moysis adversus Amalech orationibus praeliantis usque in occasum perseverans, 0967C nonne statio fuit sera? Jesum Nave debellantem Amorrhaeos, prandisse illa die existimamus, qua ipsis elementis stationem imperavit ? Stetit sol in Gabaon, et luna in Aialon: stetit sol et luna instructione, donec ultus est populus de inimicis suis; et stetit sol medio coelo, et non accedebat in occasum, et in finem diei unius. Non fuit dies talis retro et in novissimo, utique tam prolixus; ut, inquit, exaudiret Deus hominem, parem scilicet solis, instantem tamdiu in officio, stationem etiam sera longiorem. Certe Saul et ipse in praelio constitutus, manifeste munus istud indixit (I Reg, XIV, 24): Maledictus homo qui ederit panem ad vesperam usque dum ulciscur de inimico meo; et non gustavit totus populus 0968A ejus, et tota terra non prandebat . Tantam autem Deus praestitit auctoritatem edicto stationis illius, ut Jonathan filius Saulis, quanquam ignarus jejunationis in serum definitae gustum mellis admiserat, et sorte mox de delicto sit traductus, et vix per precem populi periculo exemptus, gulae enim, licet simplicis, reus fuerat. Sed et Daniel, anno primo regis Darii, cum jejunans in sacco et cinere exomologesin Deo ageret, et adhuc, inquit, loquente me in oratione, ecce vir quem videram in somnis initio, velociter volans adpropinquavit mihi quasi hora vespertini sacrificii. Haec erit statio sera, quae ad vesperam jejunans, pinguiorem orationem Deo immolat.