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Commentary from 

THE ANNOTATED

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

Edited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT

Rivingtons, London, 1884

 

SEXAGESIMA.

 
On all three of the Sundays before Lent the Apostle St. Paul is set forth as an illustrious example of self-denial, zeal, and suffering for Christ's sake; and on Quinquagesima his noble words as to the valuelessness of all such discipline and zeal without love, set the true Christian seal upon asceticism in every degree.  It is with reference, no doubt, to this application of his example, that an allusion was made to the great Apostle of the Gentiles in the Collect; but the manner in which it was made led to its expulsion altogether in 1549, and to the insertion of the more trustworthy expression of being defended by the power of God.  This day is marked "ad Sanctum Paulum" in the Comes.