A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Of the authority of the Fathers, the Rev. Geo. Stanley Faber very justly observes: “Among unread or half-read persons of our present somewhat confident age, it is not an uncommon saying, that THEY disregard the early Fathers; and that THEY will abide by nothing but the Scriptures alone. If by a disregard of the early Fathers, they mean that they allow them not individually that personal authority which the Romanists claim for them, they certainly will not have me for their opponent. And accordingly I have shown, that in the interpretation of the Scripture terms, Election and Predestination, I regard the insulated individual authority of St. Augustine just as little as I regard the insulated individual authority of Calvin.

“But if by a disregard of the early Fathers, they mean that they regard them not as evidence of the FACT of what doctrines were or were not received by the primitive Church, and from her were or were not delivered to posterity, they might just as rationally talk of the surpassing wisdom of extinguishing the light of history, by way of more effectually improving and increasing our knowledge of past events; for, in truth, under the aspect in which they are specially important to us, the early Fathers are neither more nor less than so many historical witnesses.

“And if, by an abiding solely by the decision of Scripture, they mean that, utterly disregarding the recorded doctrinal system of that primitive Church which conversed with, and was taught by, the apostles, they will abide by nothing save their own crude and arbitrary private expositions of Scripture; we certainly may well admire their intrepidity, whatever we may think of their modesty; for in truth, by such a plan, while they call upon us to despise the sentiments of Christian antiquity, so far as we can learn them, upon distinct historical testimony, they expect us to receive, without hesitation, and as undoubted verities, their own more modern upstart speculations upon the sense of God’s holy word; that is to say, the evidence of the early Fathers, and the hermeneutic decisions of the primitive Church, we may laudably and profitably contemn, but themselves we must receive (for they themselves are content to receive themselves) as well nigh certain and infallible expositors of Scripture.”

The Apostolic Fathers are those writers of the apostolic age, whose names are given to certain treatises still extant; though some of them are spurious. These were Barnabas, Clement, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp.

FEASTS, FESTIVALS, or HOLY-DAYS. Among the earliest means adopted by the holy Church for the purpose of impressing on the minds of her children the mysterious facts of the gospel history, was the appointment of a train of anniversaries and holy-days, with appropriate services commemorative of all the prominent transactions of the Redeemer’s life and death, and of the labours and virtues of the blessed apostles and evangelists. These institutions, so replete with hallowed associations, have descended to our own day; and the observance of them is commended by the assent of every discerning and unprejudiced mind, and is sustained by the very constitution of our nature, which loves to preserve the annual memory of important events, and is in the highest degree reasonable, delightful, profitable, and devout.

There is something truly admirable in the order and succession of these holy-days. The Church begins her ecclesiastical year with the Sundays in Advent, to remind us of the coming of Christ in the flesh. After these, we are brought to contemplate the mystery of the incarnation; and so, step by step, we follow the Church through all the events of our Saviour’s pilgrimage, to his ascension into heaven. In all this the grand object is to keep Christ perpetually before us, to make him and his doctrine the chief object in all our varied services. Every Sunday has its peculiar character, and has reference to some act or scene in the life of our Lord, or the redemption achieved by him, or the mystery of mercy carried on by the blessed Trinity. Thus every year brings the whole gospel history to view; and it will be found as a general rule, that the appointed portions of Scripture, in each day’s service, are mutually illustrative; the New Testament casting light on the Old, prophecy being admirably brought in contact with its accomplishment, so that no plan could be devised for a more profitable course of Scripture reading than that presented by the Church on her holy-days.

The objections against the keeping of holy-days are such as these. St. Paul says, “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” This occurs in the Epistle to the Galatians. Again, in the Epistle to the Colossians, “Let no man judge you in respect of a holy-day,” &c. From these it is argued, that as we are brought into the liberty of the gospel, we are no longer bound to the observance of holy-days, which are but “beggarly elements.” Respecting the first, it is surprising that no one has “conscientiously” drawn from it an inference for the neglect of the civil division of time; and in relation to both, it requires only an attentive reading of the Epistles from which they are taken, to see that they have no more connexion with the holy-days of the Church than with episcopacy. The apostle is warning the Gentile Christians to beware of the attempts of Judaizing teachers to subvert their faith. It was the aim of these to bring the converts under the obligations of the Jewish ritual, and some progress appears to have been made in their attempts. St. Paul, therefore, reminds them that these were but the shadow of good things to come, while Christ was the Body. The passages therefore have no relevancy to the question; or if they have, they show that while Christians abandoned the Jewish festivals, they were to observe their own. If they were to forsake the shadow, they were to cleave to the substance. It should moreover be remembered, that they apply to the Lord’s day no less than other holy-days appointed by the Church. To observe “Sabbaths,” is as much forbidden as aught else. And it is but one of the many inconsistencies of the Genevan doctrine with Scripture, that it enjoins a judaical observance of Sunday, and contemns a Christian observance of days hallowed in the Church’s history, and by gratitude to the glorious company of the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, and the illustrious line of confessors and saints, who have been baptized in tears and blood for Jesu’s sake.

Again; if we keep holy-days, we are said to favour Romanism. But these days were hallowed long before corruption was known in the Roman Church. And waiving this, let it be remembered, that we are accustomed to judge of things by their intrinsic worth, and the main point to be determined is, whether they are right or wrong. If they are right, we receive them; and if they are not right, we reject them, whether they are received by the Church of Rome or not.

Rubric before the Common Prayer. “A Table of all the Feasts that are to be observed in the Church of England throughout the Year: All Sundays in the year, the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Conversion of St. Paul, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, St. Matthias the Apostle, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mark the Evangelist, St. Philip and St. James the Apostles, the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Barnabas, the Nativity of St. John Baptist, St. Peter the Apostle, St. James the Apostle, St. Bartholomew the Apostle, St. Matthew the Apostle, St. Michael and all Angels, St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Simon and St. Jude the Apostles, All Saints, St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Thomas the Apostle, the Nativity of our Lord, St. Stephen the Martyr, St. John the Evangelist, the Holy Innocents, Monday and Tuesday in Easter week, Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun week.”

Rubric after the Nicene Creed. “The curate shall then declare to the people what holy-days or fasting days are in the week following to be observed.”