The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

In our Collect for St Peter’s day, we pray for the clergy who feed Christ’s flock.

O ALMIGHTY God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts, and commandest him earnestly to feed thy flock; Make, we beseech thee, all Bishops and Pastors diligently to preach thy holy Word, and the people obediently to follow the same, that they may receive the crown of everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When Peter was first called by Jesus, he was a fisherman struggling with his catch. Jesus bade Peter make another effort; Peter was obliging towards this new charismatic teacher, but not confident.

MASTER, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. (Lk 5:5).

Mark Frank (1613-1664) drew much comfort for orthodox clergy from this story on St Peter’s day.

IN his name you cannot miscarry at the last, your net will come at length full fraught with grace and glory. You see the very Apostles of Christ are in the like condition: many nights and days toil and labour brings them nothing home, yet they still fish again, and so must we, if at last we may gain but one poor soul into the net of the kingdom, nay though but save our own.

And if none but that, yet we must let down the net for more, not despair of more; there may come more at length: we must preach, and you must hear, again and again, “line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little,” cast on this side, cast on that, in season and out, night and day “with all patience and long suffering” as the Apostle speaks, if so be at last that Jesus will deign to come unto us, that he will vouchsafe to speak effectually to his servants, and make them hear, that he will please to stand by and call the fish into the net.

“Master, we have now at thy word let down the net,” Oh speak the word only and thy servants shall hear thee and hasten to thee, and obey thee, and be wholly taken by thee. Our labours are vain without thy blessing, nothing in them but weariness and toil; have mercy upon this our sad and uncomfortable condition, and relieve us, both the fishers and the fish, and lift us up out of this sea of misery, this depth of iniquity, catch us all together in thy net, and us unto thyself into thy kingdom, where there is no more toil or labour, no more night at all, no more tempestuous seas or weather, where we are sure to catch that which is above all our labours, all our toil — a full and sufficient recompense for them all, the overfull, infinite and unspeakable rewards of eternal glory.

Sermon XLVI. The Second Sermon On The Calling Of Peter.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

ST JAMES warns in our reading at Evensong tonight (Jas 3),

THE tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature.

When we speak of Anglicanism as a via media or a religion of moderation, we should maybe bear this in mind.

IT IS none of Christ’s religion that teaches men to be uncivil; no, not to return one incivility with another: no, not “revile again though we be reviled,” says S. Peter (1 Pet 2:23), and brings Christ for an example. Others doing us wrong, nay shrewdly persecuting us too, will not authorize us to do it, to requite our very persecutors with any incivility.

A good memorandum for those who make it an especial sign of their being better Christians than others, to be rude and uncivil to their betters, to be saucy and unmannerly to any, to all that run not riot with them into the same madness and folly, sacrilege and heresy; that cannot be content to do men wrong, and rob them of their dues, but must do it with ill language and incivility.

They forget, sure, “the Lord is at hand;” that there is any such thing as a Lord, any superior above them, either at hand or afar off, either in this world or in the other. The Apostle’s επιείκεια is for moderation in this point too, civil and handsome terms, gestures, and carriage; that we should carry ourselves like men, at least, if we will not like Christians.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664). Sermon for The Fourth Sunday In Advent

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

IN our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us, “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers”.

How do we recognise the voice of the Spirit which Christ gives into hearts? How do we know it is not our own spirit, or the spirit of the world, masquerading as God’s Spirit?

Mark Frank (1613-1664) spoke for the Anglican tradition, when he said that the sound of the Spirit is always familiar to those who pursue that calm assurance and steadfast faith which is the fruit of the Spirit alone.

WHEN thou perceivest pious and godly motions rise within thee; when at any time good desires come upon thee; when holy resolutions spring up within thy bosom; when thou feelest thy soul overspread with heavenly light, and the Divine truth preaching to thine understanding, then thou hearest the inward sound, then this Holy Spirit begins to discourse and converse with thee.

And truly, though none of these be properly sounds, but only metaphorical, yet they are plain expressions of the Spirit, and may well go for the sounds of it to discern it by.

Yet, that you may not mistake false sounds for true ones, if you recollect what has been spoken scatteredly already in the discourse, of the nature, operations and effects of the Spirit, you will easily find the true ones to be these.

If the motion that at any time within us be pure and heavenly, calm and gentle, if it purify our hearts, if it cleanse our affections, if it penetrate the bones and marrow, if it cool the fevers of our lusts, if it blow out the coals of our wrath; if it blow down the fortresses of sin, if it blow up good resolutions, if it blow away the dust that hangs too often upon our good actions, the interests and by-respects, if it refresh the wounded spirit, if it warm us with holy flames; if it quicken us to all obedience to God and man; if it cause the “fruits of the Spirit” the Apostle speaks of (Gal 5:22), to bud up in us, then it is doubtless from this Spirit, and they are all as so many several kinds of sounds that loudly speak his being and breathing in us.

Whatever motion, sound, or language is not consonant to one or other of these, let men talk of the Spirit what they will, they are not of the Spirit in the text, nor does it make them spiritual men that have it.

Sermon XXXIX: The First Sermon On Whitsunday

IF ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
and he will give you another Comforter,
that he may bide with you for ever;
e’en the Spirit of truth.
(John 14:15-17)

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

THE Collect for Ascension Day is taken as usual from the Roman Missal.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

When Jesus was sacrificed on the altar of his cross, as our High Priest he then ascended into a heavenly sanctuary, where his blood pleads for us (Heb 7:25).

If we would enter that sanctuary with him, lifting up our hearts among “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven”, our hearts must be pure, our hands clean.

WHO shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand up in his holy place?
Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; and hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour.

Psalm 24 (Ascension Day).

TO him we owe all our ascensions, all the height and ascensions of our spirits in grace and goodness, all our privileges to worship him in holy places, all our assurances and hopes of heaven, and the possession of it.

His rising raises us; his ascending makes us ascend. He the only prime singular one, we only as parts and members of him.

What is then left us to do? What for all this privilege? Why, if Christ’s grace, and God’s worship, and heaven itself be such privileges, I hope we will not be so silly to forego them, or betray them. … In a word, seeing all this privilege comes by Christ, it is him we are to thank and serve, and worship upon his own hill, and in his own holy place, till the time come, till we ascend in glory.

And yet there is something more behind; the way to this hill, the conditions required to obtain this privilege, what we are to perform that we may obtain it. To have “clean hands,” and “pure hearts,” “minds not lift up to vanity,” and “mouths that will not swear to deceive our neighbour.”

For he only “shall ascend into the hill of the Lord,” he only shall rise up “in his holy place;” he only is a true believer, he only worships God when he comes to church to worship, he only shall go to heaven that hath clean hands, &c.

Mark Frank (1613-1664). Sermon XXXVIII: Ascension Day

YE that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways; Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to Almighty God, meekly kneeling upon your knees.

Holy Communion: General Confession.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

IN our second reading at Evensong tonight (Gal 4:1-20), St Paul scolds the Christians of Galatia for allowing themselves to be persuaded to keep Jewish feasts and fasts.

BUT now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

So should we abandon the Church calendar altogether? A sobering thought, days from Easter.

But as Mark Frank (1613-1664) explained, Paul did observe a calendar: a Christian calendar, a calendar for a Messiah who has already come to us.

AMONG the Christians particular days may be observed too. “He that observes a day, may observe it unto the Lord.” (Rom 14:5-8) And upon particular order we have such, Pascha nostrum immolatum; our Passover is slain, and we must keep a feast, we have an Easter (1 Cor 5:7-8).

We have the Lord’s day thence, and we may be “in the spirit upon” it (Rev 1:10); a “first day of the week,” and we may “break bread,” and make collections upon it (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2). Panem frangere, and collectas facere, make meetings, and celebrate sacraments upon it.

We have the 12. Apostles at their Pentecost (Acts 2:1); S. Paul, after that, making a journey to be at it (Acts 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8); the Spirit descending on it, to sanctify it particularly to God’s service, to take it, as it were, away from the Jewish into the Christian calendar.

We have a hodie natus est, a day for Christ’s being born, taken up from the examples of an host of angels, by all Christian people (for I can scarce call them Christians any of them that deny it) ever since; a day of his incarnation too, whence the Christian era, all Christian accounts of the year have since ever begun and run; a proof sufficient to show, Christians have their observations of days as well as Jews, particular days and feasts, nay, and fasts too, upon Christ’s in diebus illis jejunabunt, his particular injunction of them (Mk 2:19-20), — days all particularly made for his own service.

The fault that the Apostle finds with the Galatians, for “observing days, and months, and times, and years,” was for the observing the Jewish ones, not the Christian, — for falling back to the beggarly rudiments of the law, as he there expresses it in the verse before, as if the Gospel rites were not sufficient, or that they being afraid to suffer for the cross of Christ, studied such poor compliances to avoid it.

Else some particular days have been always set apart, to the more especial and particular remembrances of God’s benefits and Christ’s; many of these days in the devoutest and purest times, in the ancientest calendars. This of Easter in particular among the rest.

Sermons Vol. II. Third Sermon On Easter Day.

Pembroke College, Cambridge. Photo © Monsarc, Wikimedia Commons. Used under licence.

THE Epistle this week is taken from St Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians (Col 3:1-7). He writes:

IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

The Apostle makes it clear that he expects a very practical change in our everyday behaviour as a consequence of our faith in the resurrection: we can only set our affection on heavenly things by taking it off earthly ones.

MORTIFY therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Yet Mark Frank (1613-1664), Master of Pembroke Hall (now College) in Cambridge, assured us that to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” in this way does not require us to abandon our everyday lives in some act of heroic virtue. You do not have to be a nun or a priest.

ET omnia deserit qui voluntatem habendi deserit, says S. Jerome; ‘he also verily forsakes all that desires none’, nothing but Jesus Christ; who “has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts,” as the Apostle speaks (Gal 5:24), the world with all the desires thereof; who though he has all he can desire, yet desires nothing but what God will have him. …

Yet that I may not seem to leave you upon too hard a task to scare you from following Christ, I shall now tell you, you may keep all, and yet leave your nets. You may keep your honours, you may preserve your estates, you may enjoy your worldly blessings, only so keep a hand upon them, or upon yourselves, that they be not nets and snares unto you; let them not take your hearts, or ensnare your affections, or entangle your souls in vanities and sins; let them not hold you from following Christ—and keep them while you will.

Cast but off the networks, the catching desires of the flesh and world, and so you also may be said to have left your nets. And having so weaned your souls from inordinate affections to things below, let Christ be your business, his life your pattern, his commands your law.

Sermons Vol. II. Sermon L: On St Andrew’s Day

I AM thy servant, O Lord, O give me understanding according to thy word, that I may learn thy commandments, and lay aside all interest, beside that of heaven. O sweet Jesus, fountain of all goodness,
guide my feet in thy paths, and teach me to do thy will: disengage my heart from all unprofitable solicitude and vain desires; and though I live here upon earth, yet raise my affections to things above.

William Vickers (d. 1719), “Companion To The Altar”

More by Mark Frank here. Communion preparation by William Vickers here.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

“WHY seek ye the living among the dead?” the angels ask the terrified women who have come to complete the embalming of Jesus’s body in his tomb (Lk 24:4-7).

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664), Master of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, took this question as a question put to all Christians, at every moment of our lives. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?”

He reminds us that it is not just a matter of searching for Christ, even as lovingly and sincerely as these gentle women sought him: we must heed the angels’ caution as they did, and search for him where he may be found.

WELL, but what says he that so calls out to us, why, “why seek you the living among the dead?” What is that?

(i.) They “seek the living among the dead,” that seek salvation by the law of Moses, long since dead and buried.

(ii.) They “seek the living among the dead,” that seek it by the works of nature, by the power of them: nature without grace is dead: Verebar omnia opera mea, says holy Job (Job 9:28); there is not in us one poor work to trust to.

(iii.) They “seek the living among the dead,” that seek salvation, that think to be saved by a mere outward holiness, by the outward body of religion without the inward life, by forms of godliness, whether they be merely ceremonial performances of religion, or great shows and pretences of godliness without the power of it in their lives and conversations.

(iv.) They, lastly, “seek the living among the dead,” that seek Christ upon worldly interests, that take up their religion upon by-respects, that do it for carnal or worldly affections.

But, say the Angels, “he is not here.” Christ is not here; Christ the Saviour is not, that is, our salvation is not to be found in the law of Moses or by the law of works, or in mere external performances or great pretences, or in worldly and carnal hearts,—they are but graves and sepulchres all, which we too much and too often bury our souls in, and stand weeping by, and are much perplexed at if we cannot find it there, but must be forced from thence to a new search, as here the women are to leave these kinds of seeking, all of them, and betake us now to think of him as risen thence.

For so the Angel says he is: “he is risen.” And in this he both tells us what to conceive of him, and at the same time to put off all our perplexities, and tears, and sorrows to rejoice with him. “He is risen.”

Sermons, Vol. II. First Sermon On Easter Day.

An icon of the Nativity

THE Prayer Book Calendar has us reading this morning from Luke’s account of the birth of Christ, despite being only days from Holy Week (Lk 2:1-20).

This helps to remind us how intimately these things are connected. It helps to remind us that every Christian is called to be like Mary.

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

John Byrom (1692-1763) wrote in the Christmas hymn Christians, Awake!:

LIKE Mary let us ponder in our mind
God’s wondrous love in saving lost mankind!
Trace we the Babe, who hath retrieved our loss,
From His poor manger to His bitter cross,
Tread in His steps, assisted by His grace,
Till man’s first heav’nly state again takes place.

And the Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664) wrote that we honour the Blessed Virgin,

ESPECIALLY if we now here dispose ourselves by chastity, humility, and devotion, as she did, to receive him, and let him be new-born in us. The pure and virgin soul, the humble spirit, the devout affection, will be also highly favoured; the Lord be with them and bless them above others. Blessed is the virgin soul, more blessed than others, i Cor. vii in S. Paul’s opinion; blessed the humble spirit above all.

For God hath exalted the humble and meek, the humble handmaid better than the proudest lady. Blessed the devout affection that is always watching for her Lord in prayer and meditations; none so happy, so blessed, as she; the Lord comes to none so soon as such.

No more so, Frank says, than at Holy Communion. “There angels come to us on heavenly errands, and there our Lord indeed is with us; and we are blessed, and the angels hovering all about to peep into those holy mysteries, think us so, call us so.”

Thus, by being full of grace, and full of those graces, we also become Marys, and the mothers of our Lord; so he tells us himself, “He that so does the will of my Father, he is my mother.” Let us then strive to be so, that the angels may come with heavenly errands to us, our Lord himself come to us, and vouchsafe to be again born in us, and so bless us, fill us with grace, receive, and set us highly in his favour, and fill and exalt us hereafter with his glory, and with this blessed Virgin, and all the saints and angels, we may sing praise, and honour, and glory, to him, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for ever and ever.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664)

FOR his Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Lent (which falls today), Mark Frank (1613-1664) drew on a sporting metaphor.

Unthinkingly “doing your disciplines” in training of itself produces only workaday professionals who rarely win anything. Frank’s sermon is an appeal both for effort and for intelligence during Lent and Passiontide.

In Frank’s words, “all pains and labour, every ‘running’, will not serve; it must be ούτως, so and so after a certain way, rightly ordered so as to ‘obtain’; such as is fit and proportionable to the end we aim at”.

AY, but how may we obtain to run so? Why, do as the runners in races do: (1.) Diet our bodies; (2.) Exercise ourselves before; (3.) Consider, and contrive how we had best to run; and (4.) strip ourselves of all incumbrances that may hinder us in our speed; and, indeed, these may well go into the ούτως, belong at least to the “so running” as has annexed to it the obtaining.

In other words, fasting, daily prayer, thoughtful reflection, and a life uncluttered by distractions: but only when allied to running the Christian race according to the rules of that particular athletic event.

THIS “so to run,” is … lawfully, according to the laws and rules of the race we are to run; “we are not crowned else,” says our Apostle 2 Tim. ii 5. Now, the laws of the Christian race are God’s commandments, according to which we are diligently to direct our steps; yet three laws there are more particular and proper to it—the law of faith, the law of hope, and the law of charity.

This is a wonderful metaphor for today: a context in which people of all ages understand and respect the rules of the game, and the need for self-discipline and doing “boring” things at unsociable hours. We accept these things because they are worth it in the end, for the title, the crown of glory.

LOOK we carefully to our feet, apply we ourselves diligently to our course, to run the ways of righteousness and peace, of holiness and salvation. Let us often look up to heaven, and the “crown of glory laid up” there, to add wings and spirit to us; and look we also down sometimes to the dangers by the way, and fear ourselves, and mark our steps, lest we chance to stumble, and fall, to grow faint or weary; but that we may run lawfully, carefully, speedily, cheerfully, stoutly, patiently, and constantly to the end; that, so running, we may obtain the end of our hopes, the crown of our joy, the salvation of our souls, and the redemption of our bodies, everlasting life, and eternal glory.

Sermon For the Christian Year. Sermon For The Fourth Sunday In Lent

The Presentation Of Christ

THE Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which falls today, celebrates the day that Our Lady went to the Temple as Jewish law demanded, to mark the end of her seclusion from public life during pregnancy and childbirth.

It was also the occasion for offering a token sacrifice in return for her firstborn son, who was technically the property of the Temple. This aspect of the feast is known as the Presentation of Jesus.

One of the highest days of the Church of England’s year, the peculiarly English name for it is Candlemas.

The Revd Mark Frank (1613-1664) explains to us why we use candles on this happy day, the day when Simeon first uttered the Nunc Dimittis that we now say at every Evening Prayer, giving thanks for the Light to lighten the Gentiles.

At Christmas, I was merely a shepherd peeping into the cave. Today, Mary lets me hold the baby.

FOR this day also of his presentation, as well as those other days of his birth, circumcision, and manifestation—Candlemasday as well as Christmas-day, New-year’s day, or Epiphany, is a day of blessing; a day of God’s blessing us, and our blessing of him again; of Christ’s being presented for us, and our presenting to him again; of his presenting in the temple, and our presenting ourselves in the church, to bless God and him for his presentation, his presentation-day, and our Candlemas, our little candles, our petty lights; our souls reflecting back to this great Light, that was this day presented in the temple and then darted down upon us. …

MARY the blessed, Joseph the just, Simeon the devout, Anna the religious, all in to-day, secular and religious, of all sexes and orders; all come in to-day, as at the end of Christmas; like the chorus to the angels’ choir, to bear a part in the angels’ anthem, to make up a full choir of voices to glorify God for this great present, which brings peace to the earth, and good-will among men.

And this day first is it given into our arms. In all the former festivals he is either in his mother’s lap, or in his cradle, or to be sure not out of doors; there only, or within only, is he to be seen. This day first he comes abroad to be handled by us. Before, indeed, he might be thought to concern us somewhat; now first are we made sensible of it, when we may take him into our own arms and kiss him, in the prophet David’s expression, “kiss” this Son of the Most High, as he lies in our arms.

Sermons For the Church Year, Vol. I. Sermon XXII, The First Sermon On The Purification.