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Lent is not originally an ecclesiastical term, but simply an old Saxon word, signifying the Spring, adopted by the Anglo-Saxons on their conversion to Christianity, to indicate the solemn Spring fast observed by their Church before Easter. We can almost refer the institution of this sacred season to the very days of the Apostles themselves, for Irenæus, who lived but ninety years from the death of St. John, and conversed familiarly with St. Polycarp, as Polycarp had with St. John and other Apostles, in a letter which he addressed to Victor, Bishop of Rome, on the subject of Easter, alludes to it in these words :--" The controversy is not only respecting the day, but also respecting the kind and mode of fasting. Some suppose that we ought to fast one day, some two, some more, some forty days, reckoning twenty-four hours for a day. Neither has this diversity of opinions about fasting originated in our own days, but a long time before."* The meaning of these last words can hardly be confined within the space of ninety or a hundred years. Thus would Lent introduce itself to our attention with all the recommendations of antiquity in its favour.

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The whole season of Lent, deducting the Sundays, on which it has never been the custom of the Church to fast, comprises forty days. The idea of this number has probably been suggested by the examples of Moses, Elias, and our Saviour, who respectively fasted the same number of days. Other circumstances might also have tended subordinately to the determination of the above period-such as the forty days in which God drowned the world; the forty years in which the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness; the forty days allowed to the Ninevites for repentance; and we may perhaps also add, the forty stripes inflicted upon malefactors.†

As there was a variety in the number of days assigned by the primitive Christians for fasting, so also there was in their manner of fasting. The most rigid would in Passion Week eat nothing but bread and water and salt, or nuts and almonds, or such like fruits, which was called the dry diet. In the rest of Lent some abstained from flesh and wine; and others forebore all fish likewise as well as flesh, which was the custom of the Greeks. Some subsisted only on eggs and fruit; others abstained from both, and lived upon bread, herbs, and roots. However, in all this variety, they agreed in one thing, which was not to eat till the evening, and then such food as was least delicate.t

The first day of Lent is generally called Ash Wednesday, because on that

*Euseb. Hist. lib. v., c. 24. † Nelson's Fasts and Festivals-The forty days of Lent. Ibid.

NO. III. VOL. I.

K

day the primitive penitents used to express their humiliation by lying in sackcloth and ashes. There seems to be a reference to the sackcloth in Grawys, the Welsh for Lent, which is usually derived from Garw (coarse) and gwisg (raiment). If this be the true etymology, it might be further inferred, that the whole forty days were rigidly observed by the ancient British Church, since the term designates the entire period.

The manner in which penitents expressed their sorrow at this time in the primitive Church is thus described by Tertullian, A.D. 194-216:-" They lay in sackcloth and ashes; they disfigured their bodies with a neglected uncleanness, and dejected their minds with grief; they used no other food but what was necessary to sustain life, and frequently nourished their prayers with rigorous fasting; they groaned; they wept to the Lord their God day and night; they fell down at the feet of the Presbyters; they knelt to the friends of God, and begged of all their fellow-Christians to pray for them.* Gratian, in the twelfth century, is more explicit in his account of the administration of this ancient and salutary discipline. The description he gives is to the following effect :-"On the first day of Lent, the penitent, clothed in sackcloth, barefooted, and with a dejected countenance, appeared in Church before the Bishop and principal Clergy of the diocese, who, weeping, recited the seven penitential psalms, and then throwing ashes upon him, covered his head with sackcloth, whilst with many sighs they addressed him-" that as Adam was cast out of Paradise, even so he must be turned out of the Church." The Bishop next commanded him to be turned out, and all the Priests following said, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The same scene occurred again on the day when the Holy Communion was next administered. The penitent ultimately, after a long trial and exemplary conduct, was re-admitted into full communion with the Church.

Such was the " godly discipline" alluded to by our Church in the service appointed to be read on Ash Wednesday, the restoration of which is indeed "much to be wished," but seems at present utterly impracticable, owing chiefly to the latitudinarian spirit of the day, which spurns at every episcopal restraint. However, until the said discipline be revived, let us profit by the substitute which our Church holds in the "commination." Let the curses therein denounced against sin put us in mind of God's dreadful tribunal, where the impenitent shall be most certainly condemned; and let them bring us to judge and condemn ourselves, that we may truly repent of our past follies, and carefully avoid those sins in future which draw down the judgment of God.

It was customary in the primitive Church to examine catechumens in Lent, preparatory to their baptism at Easter. There were usually seven examinations: first, on Monday or Wednesday in the third week-the second on the following Saturday-and the five others on the Wednesday and four following days in the fourth week, in many Churches;-but in some Churches they did not observe the same days, only Wednesday in the fourth week of Lent being universally the day of the great examination. On Palm Sunday, which was hence called Capitilavium, the heads of those about to be baptised were washed, to remove the dirt contracted during Lent, at which time baths were forbidden.+

A relic of this ancient custom of catechising is still retained in some of our Churches. On Wednesdays or Fridays during Lent, the children of the several village schools repair to their respective parish Churches to attend Divine Service. Here they are examined by the officiating Clergyman in

De Pœnit.

Sir Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History, p. 111, 112.

the principles of Christianity, as laid down in the Church Catechism, which is usually done immediately after the reading of the second lesson. It is much to be regretted that this laudable practice is not more generally observed, as it is one of those practical links that connect us with antiquity. Another ancient practice we would much wish to see effectually revived is, the observance of Ember days. One of these seasons we know occurs in Lentnamely, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday-and on the Sunday immediately following it is enjoined by the Canon that " Deacons or Ministers be made and ordained."

From a singular coincidence alluded to by the author of An Essay on the Welsh Saints, page 125, it would seem that the consecration of ground for the erection of Churches, by the primitive British Christians, usually took place in Lent. Indeed, the time occupied, which was forty days, and the manner adopted, namely, by fasting, if not suggested by this season, would naturally fix upon it as the most proper and best adapted for the occasion.

The British Christians were most rigid observers of the sacred seasons of the Church. They brought them to bear not only upon the ordinary business of life, but also upon their public and national transactions. For instance, when a code of laws was designed by Hywel the Good, in the tenth century, it was deemed proper not to commence the work until after a most strict exercise of prayer and fasting during the forty days of Lent. It does not appear that there was a single voice against the proposal-none designating the affair as a piece of "humbug" and "hypocrisy." No; such men and sentiments were reserved for these latter days of "civil and religious liberty."

Before we dismiss the subject, we must refer to a remarkable circumstance connected with it, which increases the weight of evidence in favour of the close alliance of the old British communion with the Eastern Churches. Whilst we read in British documents of the "Lent of Mary," and the "Lent of the Apostles," in vain do we seek for corresponding fasts in the Latin Church, which, besides the "Great Lent of Easter," had also its Lent of Pentecost, for forty days after the day of Pentecost, and Lent of Christmas, for forty days before the nativity of our Lord. On examining, however, the Greek calendar, we see, in addition to these, two others retained therein, namely, the "Lent of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul," and the "Lent of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin," which no doubt answered to those of the Britons. We mention this fact as moreover important in the present controversy between our Church and that of Rome. J. W.

THE CHURCH-THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH.

(Continued from page 37.)

In pursuing this important subject, we will endeavour to make ourselves as easily understood as possible in the limited space to which we are confined. But, at the same time that we wish to be so plain in argument and language, that persons of the commonest understanding may know at once what we mean, we sincerely pray that grace may be given to us and to our readers, that no unpleasant feeling may arise to the prejudice of the truth" as it is in Jesus." The evils of the times demand that we should speak out in love and faithfulness to the souls of men, if peradventure they may be brought to the

acknowledgment and obedience of the truth. We want union, that Christian union, for which our blessed Lord prayed, and which all Christians profess to desire most earnestly. If we obtain this union, we shall have peace; and to understand the principles on which this union is to be effected, we turn to the Word of God, where we find that, amidst all the bickerings and divisions of " the Religious world" about truth, the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It becomes then our duty, as we have already said, to endeavour to discover the Church, that we may find the truth. And if in our search we should state any facts or arguments which the reader may think incorrect, we beseech him to manifest a true Christian spirit, and instead of imputing to us any wrong motive which our consciences tell us we do not possess, let him state to us his objections in a right spirit, and we promise him an answer. Any thing more fair than this we cannot conceive. We wish to give none offence to Jew or Gentile, or to the Church of God. We consider it not only a duty, but the most charitable and kind and Christian thing that we can do, to point out to the world the errors which abound in it, that those who hold the truth may abide by it, and that those who are in error may forsake it, and embrace the truth, and adorn it. Besides, on the very ground of liberty of conscience, we may surely be allowed to state our opinions openly and plainly, if even they be wrong. We do heartily grieve to see so much error, strife, and division in this nation, which might otherwise be so united and happy, that we would joyfully labour night and day, and make any possible sacrifice to effect our object of union and peace. We are sick of controversy, nor can we imagine that any person would like it, but necessity is laid upon us; and as the whole lives of our Lord and his first Apostles were spent in controverting the errors and exposing the wickedness of the age, so we, as faithful followers of Him and of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises, must not shrink from our duty. And we do contend that it is of paramount importance at all times, and more especially so at the present, to have correct ideas of the Church of Christ, and to be able to distinguish it easily from the many Churches of men—particularly as with the Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, is Christ the way, the TRUTH, and the life.

Herein consists the momentous difference between the true Church in this or in any other country, and the numerous false Churches: that while the Church of England with every particular or branch Church in the world has through all ages maintained union with the Church which Christ founded eighteen hundred years ago, and can trace up that her union, by her long line of Bishops, ordained one by another, until we arrive at the Apostles themselves, who were ordained by our blessed Lord, the root of the vine, the foundation and founder of the building, the Head of the Church; and while also the Church of England holds all the glorious doctrines of Christ-the Catholic faith set forth in the three Creeds-not one other Church, society, connexion or body of professing Christians in this country, can present such claims to the consideration of the people, or prove its union or connexion with the Church of Christ. If such proof can be furnished, we shall be most happy to examine it; and if valid, will gladly acknowledge the party producing it as brethren in the best sense of the term. Nothing would give us greater delight; but facts well known, indisputable facts, are against all the communities which are in a state of separation from the Christian Church in England. It is not our opinion, nor a matter of opinion at all; but we repeat it a matter of unquestionable fact, of which any person may assure himself. The fact is indeed constantly admitted by the sects themselves. We have now before us a work entitled "An Historical Research concerning the most ancient

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