As we enter the Season of
Lent, I thought I would offer a reflection on the season. Below is a portion of
a sermon from Bishop Thomas Ken. In the early history of the Anglican Church he
was one of the more prominent bishops. He is most known for his hymns and poems
which no doubt flowed from his great love for God and the church.
For what is Lent, in its
original institution, but a spiritual conflict, to subdue the flesh to the
spirit, to beat down our bodies, and to bring them into subjection? What is
it, but a penitential martyrdom for so many weeks together, which we suffer for
our own and others' sins? A devout soul, that is able duly to observe it,
fastens himself to the cross on Ash Wednesday, and hangs crucified by
contrition all the Lent long; that having felt in his closet the burthen and
the anguish, the nails and the thorns, and tasted the gall of his own sins, he
may by his own crucifixion be better disposed to be crucified with Christ on
Good Friday, and most tenderly sympathize with all the dolors, and pressures,
and anguish, and torments,
and desertion, infinite, unknown, and unspeakable, which God incarnate endured,
when He bled upon the cross for the sins of the world; that being purified by
repentance, and made conformable to Christ crucified, he may offer up a pure
oblation at Easter, and feel the power and the joys and the triumph of his
Saviour's resurrection. And to encourage you to such a devotion, thus enforced
with fasting, and mourning, and alms, as was this of Daniel, reflect on the
wonderful success he found; for when he began his supplications, the angel
Gabriel was sent to him by God, and arrived before he had ended them; and by
that heavenly messenger, God then honoured him with that glorious prophecy of
the seventy weeks.- And the prophet Ezekiel joins Daniel with Noah and Job, as
the three greatest instances of prevalence with God that ever prayed.
From a portion of a sermon preached by Thomas Ken in the King’s
Chapel at Whitehall in the Year 1685.
