TRUTH through the Sacred Volume hidden lies, From East unto the West, the Son of Man appears. Lyra Apostolica. OF THE CALENDAR, AND THE SPECIAL USE THEREOF IN THE CHURCH OF GOD. THE CALENDAR of the Church is as full of benefit as delight, unto such as are given to the serious study and due contemplation thereof. For, besides the admirable order and disposition of times, which are necessary for the better transacting of all ecclesiastical and secular affairs, it hath in it a very beautiful distinction of the days and seasons, whereof some are chosen out and sanctified, and others are put among the days of the week to number.1 But the chief use of it in the Church (saith S. Austin), is to preserve a solemn memory, and to continue in their due time, sometimes a weekly, and sometimes an annual commemoration of those excellent and high benefits, which Gon, both by Himself,3 His Son, and His blessed Spirit,5 one undivided Trinity," hath bestowed upon mankind, for the founding and propagating of that Christian Faith and Religion which we now profess. 10 And this Faith of ours, being no other than the very same wherein the holy Angels are set to succour us, and which the glorious company of the Apostles, the noble army of the Martyrs,9 and the goodly fellowship of other God's Saints and servants,1 men famous in their generations before us, have some maintained with the sanctity of their lives, and some sealed with the innocency of their deaths; it is for this cause that the names of these 1) Ecclus. xxxiii. 9. 3) All the Sundays of the Year, &c. 2) S. Aug. de Civit. Dei, l. 16, c. 4. 4) The Feasts of our Saviour's Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, &c. 5) Pentecost. 6) Trinity Sunday. 8) The Twelve Apostles' Days. 10) The Fathers and primitive Christians. 7) S. Mich. and All Angels' Day. 9) S. Stephen and others. holy and heavenly Saints are still preserved in the Calendar of the Church,' there to remain upon record and register (as of old time they did'), where they might also stand as sacred memorials of God's mercy towards us, as forcible witnesses of His ancient truth,3 as confirmations of the faith which we now profess to be the same that theirs then was, as provocations to the piety which they then practised, and as everlasting records to show Whose blessed servants they were on earth, that are now like the angels of God in heaven. Howbeit, forasmuch also as, in process of time, the multitude of men and women reputed holy in this kind became so exceeding numerous, that all the days of the year would not have been sufficient for a several commemoration of them; it was the great wisdom and moderation of those religious grave prelates, by whom God (of His especial blessing unto our Church above others) did reform such things, as were many ways remiss here among us, to choose one solemn day alone, wherein to magnify God for the generality of All His Saints together; and to retain some few | selected days in every month for the special memory of others, both holy Persons and holy Actions, which they observed not our people alone, but the universal Church of Christ also, to be most affected unto, and best acquainted withal: hereby avoiding only the burden and the unnecessary number of Festival days; not disallowing the multitude of God's true Martyrs and Saints, whose memorials we are to solemnize howsoever in the general Festival of All Saints' Day, as by the proper Lessons, the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel then appointed in our public Liturgy, doth most evidently appear. BP. COSIN. 1) The Calendar of the Church of England is here referred to. The names only of Saints or Martyrs mentioned in Holy Scripture are retained in the Calendar of our Church. Ed. 2) Tertul. de Cor. Mil. S. Cypr. Ep. 37. Pont. Diac. in vit. Cyp. 3) Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. 4, c. 15. S. Basil in Ascet. c. 40. 4) All Saints' Day. Of Feasts to be observed in this Church throughout the Year. ALL SUNDAYS in the Year. The Days of the Feasts of The Circumcision of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. Jan. 1. Feb. 2. Mar. 25. The Conversion of St. Paul. Jan. 25. The Nativity of St. John Baptist. June 24. May 1. Saint Simon and Saint Jude the Apostles. Oct. 28. Saint Andrew the Apostle. Nov. 30. Saint Thomas the Apostle. Dec. 21. The NATIVITY of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. Dec. 25. A TABLE OF FASTS. ASH WEDNESDAY. GOOD FRIDAY. Other days of Fasting, on which the Church requires such a measure of Abstinence as is more especially suited to extraordinary acts of Devotion. I. The Forty Days of Lent. II. The Ember-Days at the turday, after III The Three Rogation-Days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before Holy-Thursday, or the Ascension of our Lord. IV. All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas-Day. |