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| The Annunciation, illustration to Jeremy Taylor's 'The great exemplar' (London, 1657) |
Many years ago I would take texts from the writings of Anglican Divines that would augment my private keeping of the Sarum Kalendar, and to it I would add other Feast Days such as that of St. Gabriel the Archangel likewise looking to the Caroline Divines in particular for such readings. Mark Frank was the Caroline Divine who extolled the Blessed Virgin Mary more than even Lancelot Andrewes, and it is in one of his Lady Day (Annunciation) sermons that we read:
"She was an immaculate and unspotted virgin: and to whom do virgins’ chambers lie open at midnight but to angels? God sends no other thither at that time of night; and that that time it was, may well be conjectured from Wisdom xviii:14-15: ‘When all things were in quiet silence, and that night was in the midst of her swift course, thine Almighty Word came down from heaven;’ then, it seems, was the time of her conception, - of Christ’s coming to her; before whom immediately the Angel came to bring the message that he was a-coming, if, as S. Bernard says, he were not come already."
It is not possible to include the entire sermon here, but all of the sermons by Mark Frank and those of the other Caroline Divines are foundational to understanding the Anglican Patrimony of which Pope Benedict XVI wrote.
Also upon the Feasts of St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, I endeavoured to pray the following by Jeremy Taylor, another Caroline Divine of the Anglican Church:
all Thrones and Dominions,
all Principalities and Powers,
the Cherubins with many eyes,
and the Seraphins covered with wings
from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory:
These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns, and eternal Anthems to the glory of the eternal God, the Almighty Father of Men and Angels.
Holy is our God: Holy is the Almighty: Holy is the Immortal:
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, Lord God of Sabaoth,
Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory Amen.
With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant, O thou great lover of souls, though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a majesty, yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire, and confesse the glories of the Lord.
For thou art holy, and of thy greatnesse there is no end ; and in thy justice and goodnesse thou hast measured out to us all thy works.
Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image: thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure, and gavest him laws of righteousnesse to be to him a seed of immortality.
O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse: and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men.
Jeremy Taylor
Holy Living, 1650, p. 379
