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"A fit preparation for the approaching Festival"

Another example of how Anglicanism between the Restoration and the Revolution observed Advent is found in a 1685 sermon by Denis Grenville, Dean of Durham, preached in the Cathedral on the first Wednesday of Advent.  As with the 1666 sermon referenced on Friday, Advent is understood in terms of preparation for the celebration of Christmas.  This is particularly seen in the revival of the practice of Wednesday and Friday sermons during Advent (a practice "approved of all along from the Reformation in our own Church"):

the present Religious and laudable Custom which we are now reviving, i. e. Sermons twice a Week (on Wednesdays and Fridays) during Advent and Lent: That the Instruction from the Pulpit may be proportionable to the Devotion of those Seasons, which ought among all good Christians to be extraordinary; they being peculiarly destined by the Church to works of Piety, and very particularly to the exercises of Repentance, to dispose and fit us for the due Celebration of those great and high Festivities, our Saviour's Birth and Resurrection; which our Holy Mother does warn us not to rush on, with so little care, as we do on ordinary Festivals, by assigning to the one Four, and to the other no less than Six weeks preparation ...

And as our Right Honourable and Reverend Diocesan hath provided that this Advent shall be the most Religious Advent that hath been kept in this Church these Five and Forty Years; I shall take care, by Gods Assistance, as much as in me lies, (and I desire you all in Gods Name to join with me herein), that the approaching Feast may be the most Holy Christmas ...

If we are firm Friends to the Church, let us be hearty Lovers of its Festivals; (the best and most forcible Witnesses of Ancient Truth) And if we are indeed hearty Lovers of its Festivals, let us not be Enemies to those Means and Methods which the Church judgeth helpful to the due observation of them ...

That this Holy Season, called Advent, (which is to Christmas, in some respects, as Lent is to Easter) may want no Help, Opportunity or Invitation, for the Exercise of all that Devotion which can be justly desired by a devout Soul; And which the Church supposeth, and hints to us in her particular choice of Prayers, and Scriptures, home to Christmas from Advent Sunday.

There is also a similar recognition to that in the 1666 sermon of the collect of the season defining Advent piety:

The Seasons of Advent and Lent (as well as the days of Christmas) have a choice Collect or Prayer added to their Ordinary Devotions; a particular mark of Respect, more than you will find, upon Examination, paid to any other Season of the year: And which ought to be very Admonitory and Instructive to us all ...

a fit preparation for the Approaching Festivals. The Joy whereof will be increased, and rendered more grateful by some preceding Godly Sorrow, which is inseparable from the Genuine Exercise of that true Repentance which we daily pray that we may exercise, in our incomparable Collect proper for the Season: which will serve as an excellent pattern, whereby we may Regulate our Devotions; and wherewith I shall conclude my Sermon.

While recognising that Advent is "partly Eucharistical, and partly Penitential", Grenville highlighted the opportunity for fasting and penitence in preparation for the celebration of the Nativity:

The Church does not Impose upon us throughout Advent, (as it does throughout Lent), the duty of Fasting and Abstinence ... for the Devotions of Advent are, I conceive, rather of a mixt nature; partly Eucharistical, and partly Penitential. But if any Devout and well disposed Christian (who shall find it Commodious for his Soul) will employ his Exercises of Repentance and Prayer with Fasting, and as a Freewill-Offering to his Saviour (for the Memory of whose coming in the Flesh, we are all making Preparation), voluntarily add one day every Week to this Commendable Religious Duty, more than the Church Imposes on us; and not only Repent; but Fast and Pray Devoutly in the private Closet, to increase his Penitence; as well as attend to a Sermon here in the Public Church, (on all these Days which are now singled out by Authority, for Days of more than ordinary Assemblies) it will be no mighty work of Supererogation, and a fit preparation for the Approaching Festivals. 

Such observance of Advent in Restoration Anglicanism seems to have ensured a lively observance of Advent which persisted across the 18th century and continued to find expression in the late Georgian High Church tradition (see, for example, Henry Handley Norris and Newman echoing Horne).  Rooting Advent in preparations for the festivities of Christmas may have been a crucial part of this, with the dignified simplicity of the Prayer Book's Advent provision providing a resonant, popular, and memorable piety for festive preparations.

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