piscopal dignity. His miracles are too commonly known to be repeated. 21.-WHIT-SUNDAY. On Whit-Sunday, or White-Sunday, the catechumens, who were then baptized, as well as those who had been baptized before at Easter, appeared, in the antient church, in white garments. The Greeks, for the same reason, call it Bright Sunday; on account of the number of bright white garments which were then worn. The name of this Sunday, in the old Latin church, was Dominica in Albis, as was the Sunday next after Easter, on the same occasion. On this day the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and other Christians, in the visible appearance of fiery tongues. The celebration of divine service in St. Peter's church at Rome, on Whitsunday, is described in T.T. for 1815, p. 165. 22.-WHIT-MONDAY. This day and Whit-Tuesday are observed as festivals, for the same reason as Monday and Tuesday in Easter. Their religious character, however, is almost obsolete, and they are now kept as holidays, in which the lower classes still pursue their favourite diversions. For an account of the Eton Montem, see T.T. for 1815, p. 168. The Whitsun Ales and other customs formerly observed at this season, are noticed in T.T. for 1814, pp. 119-120. 26.-AUGUSTIN, or Austin. This English apostle, as he is termed, was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons. He was created archbishop of Canterbury in 556, and died about the year 610.---See a fuller account of him in T.T. for 1815, p. 174. 27.---VENERABLE BEDE. Bede was born at Yarrow in Northumberland, in 673. His grand work is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Bede has obtained the title of Venerable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety, and not on account of any celebrity for miraculous and angelic operations. 28.---TRINITY SUNDAY. Stephen, Bishop of Liege, first drew up an office in commemoration of the Holy Trinity, about the year 920; but the festival was not formally admitted into the Romish church till the fourteenth century, under the pontificate of John XXII. 'The wisdom of the church of God is very remarkable in appointing festivals or holy-days, whose solemnities and offices have no other special business but to record the article of the day; such as Trinity-Sunday, Ascension, Easter, Christmas-day : and to those persons who can only believe, not prove or dispute, there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance and plain notion, and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the article, than the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a holy-day.' (Taylor's Holy Living, ch. iv, sect. 1.) To the HOLY TRINITY. O holy, blessed, glorious Trinity Help, help to lift Myself up to thee, harrowed, torn and bruised All-gracions God, the sinner's sacrifice, For thy acceptance. O, behold me right, To thee more sweet? Eternal Father, God, who didst create Eternal God the Son, who not deny❜dst Eternal Spirit, God from both proceeding, Increase those acts, O'glorious Trinity' Of persons, still one God in unity; Of seeing thy face. 29.---KING CHARLES II RESTORED. On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. In some parts of England it is customary for the common people to wear oak leaves, covered with leaf-gold, in their hats, in commemoration of the concealment of Charles II in an oak tree, after the battle of Worcester. An account of the king's escape to France, extracted from his own Narrative, will be found in T.T. for 1815, p. 176. Mr. Evelyn has the following notice of King Charles's restoration in his Diary: 29 May, 1660. This day his Maj' Charles the Second came to London after a sad and long exile and calamitous suffering both of the King and Church, being 17 yeares. This was also his birth-day, and with a triumph of 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with inexpressible joy; the wayes strew'd with flowers, the bells ringing, the streetes hung with tapistry, fountaines running with wine; the Maior, Aldermen, and all the Companies in their liveries, chaines of gold, and banners; Lords and Nobles clad in cloth of silver, gold, and velvet; the windowes and balconies all set with ladies; trumpets, music, myriads of people flocking even so far as from Rochester, so as they were seven houres in passing the Citty, even from 2 in ye afternoone till 9 at night. 'I stood in the Strand and beheld it, and bless'd God. All this was done without one drop of bloud shed, and by that very army which rebell'd against him; but it was ye Lord's doing, for such a restauration was never mention'd in any history ancient or modern, since the returne of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; nor so joyfull a day and so bright ever seene in this Nation, this hapning when to expect or effect it was past all human policy.'-(Memoirs, vol. i. p, 109.) *30. 1818.-I. H. BROWNE DIED, AT. 73. He was eminently distinguished for his literary abilities and acquirements, for his admired eloquence in the societies of the learned and accomplished, and for that superior classical taste and poetical endowment which produced the Latin poem, De Animi Immortalitate,' and thereby procured peculiar honour to the British name, in all foreign seminaries where the Latin language was cultivated. In the year 1784, he became a Member of the House of Commons for the Borough of Bridgnorth-which Borough he continued to represent for six successive Parliaments in a manner satisfactory to his consti tuents, and highly honourable to himself. In public life he was easy of access to those who sought his assistance and advice, regular in his attendance upon Parliament, and assiduous in discharging all its various duties. Being appointed to numerous Committees, he is universally acknowledged to have rendered most essential service in this useful and laborious, though less splendid, department of public business, by the intelligence, judgment, and patient industry, which he displayed on those occasions. In the great outline of his politics, he followed the course and supported the measures of that illustrious statesman Mr. Pitt; but in matters of detail he differed from him upon several points. The good of his country was, at all times, the paramount consideration in his mind. To this end, all his views (equally divested of selfishness and vanity) were invariably directed. *31. 1819.-OLD HOPE DIED, A negro servant on the Hope Estate, Jamaica, at the advanced age of one hundred and forty-five, an extraordinary but well attested instance of longevity. *31. 1707.-BISHOP PATRICK DIED. The Commentary of Bishop Patrick on a great part of the Old Testament is one of the standard books in the libraries of divines. His Parable of The Pilgrim, in one volume, quarto, which went through five editions in the course of thirteen years, seems now to have fallen into neglect. We do not know the date of the first edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; but, probably, Patrick's work preceded it. It was written in 1663, and published 1665. Bunyan was imprisoned in the year 1662, and continued there twelve years, during which time The Pilgrim's Progress was written. The Pilgrim contains fewer characters and incidents than The Pilgrim's Progress, and is, therefore, perhaps, less amusing; but the Pilgrim is a work of greater polish, highly interesting, and of sound morality and piety. |