an office in the liturgy of the church of England, appointed to be read on Ash Wednesday, or the first day of Lent. It is substituted in the room of that godly discipline in the primitive church, by which (as the introduction to the office expresses it), "such persons, as stood convicted of notorious sins, were put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend." This discipline, in after ages, degenerated, in the church of Rome, into a formal confession of sins upon Ash Wednesday, and the empty ceremony of sprinkling ashes upon the heads of the people. Our reformers wisely rejected this ceremony, as mere shadow and show; and substituted this office in its room, which is A denunciation of God's anger and judgment against sinners, that the people being apprised of God's wrath and indignation against sin, may not, through want of discipline in the church, be encouraged to follow and pursue them; but rather be moved to supply that discipline to themselves, and so as to avoid being judged and condemned at the tribunal of God.