ing particulars. The gradations of improvement were particularly observed. The age, and sex, and circumstances of the catechumens, were also duly regarded; men of age, and rank, not being classed with children of twelve or thirteen years of age. At one time they may have all been united in one class, and at another, may have been divided into two, three, or even four several divisions.

The mode of their admittance was very brief, and unceremonious. But some form of admission was uniformly required, a circumstance which illustrates the degree of consideration in which the rite was held, while it indicates the existence both of some determinate time of admission, and of some difference of opinion respecting it. The imposition of hands was one of the prescribed ceremonies. The sign of the cross is also mentioned. Augustine received the sign of the cross, and affirms that this, with the imposition of hands, was the usual mode of setting them apart. By Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, converts from paganism were received, by prostrating themselves at his feet, and requesting to receive the sign of the cross. After having passed upon them this sign, and received them as catechumens, he propounded them for admission to the church, and dismissed them with his benediction. Soon after this, he baptized them, having previously given them catechetical instruction.12 In this instance, the term of probation must have been short. They were also immediately recognized as candidates for baptism, without reference to the distinction of classes.

The manner of receiving a catechumen, therefore, was substantially as follows: The bishop examined the candidate, and, if he was found worthy, enroled his name in the records of the church. The solemnity was then concluded by prayer, imposition of hands, and the signing of the cross.-Siegel, Catechumenat, Vol. I. p. 367.

The exercises of the catechumens until their union with believ ers, were wholly directed with reference to their preparation for baptism. They consisted generally in attending to various catechetical and doctrinal instructions, the reading of the Scriptures, etc. The advanced class, before baptism, were subject to repeated examinations, and to a kind of exorcism accompanied with imposition of hands, the sign of the cross, and insufflation, the breathing of the priest upon them. They also passed many days in fasting and prayer, and in learning the words of their creed and the Lord's prayer,13

In

In case of severe sickness, baptism was administered to the patient on his bed, eni tñç xhivns. This was called clinic baptism. such instances, it was allowable to administer it by sprinkling. Baptism was also administered to apostate catechumens in the near approach of death, and to such apostates as gave evidence of repentance it was not denied, even though they were not received to the class of penitents:

Any one devoted to martyrdom, was reckoned among the cate chumens, martyrdom being regarded as a full substitute, and therefore styled blood baptism.14

This notion was derived from various passages in the Scriptures. He that loseth his life, shall find it,' Matt. 10: 39. 'I have a baptism to be baptized with,' Luke 12: 50. Baptism was accounted essential to salvation. Martyrdom was also esteemed a passport to heaven. It was therefore made a substitute for baptism.

On the contrary, if any catechumen who had caused the delay of his baptism by his crimes, died unbaptized, he was not treated as a Christian. His name was not enrolled in the records of the church while living, and after death, he was denied the solemnities of christian burial, and refused a place in the catalogue of Christians. He was buried, Sine cruce et luce.

Much controversy has arisen out of a passage from Augustine,15 respecting the sacrament of the catechumens, relating chiefly to the consecrated bread panis benedictus. But Bona, Basnage and Bingham have sufficiently shown, that it was not the sacramental bread, but bread seasoned with salt; and that this, at their baptism, was administered with milk and honey, salt being the emblem of purity and incorruption.16

The ancient discipline of the catechumens, preparatory to their admission into the communion of the church as above stated, is briefly summed up in the following extract. It exhibits so clearly the extreme caution and deliberation of the ancient church, in receiving candidates into their communion, that no apology can be necessary for inserting it as a brief recapitulation.

"The moment that a heathen announced his resolution to abandon the religion of his fathers, and to embrace that of Jesus, he was introduced to the pastor of the place, who, having laid his hand upon his head, a ceremony of very frequent use in all the offices of the ancient church, and prayed that he might become a partaker of the

grace of the gospel, consigned him to the care of some missionaries, whose duty it was from time to time to wait upon him privately, and in his own house, to instruct him in the elementary principles of the christian faith. At an appointed time, and when he had satisfied his private instructors of his capacity to profit by the services of the church, he was permitted to come into the congregation, where he stood in a particular place appropriated to the hearersthose who were admitted to hear the Scriptures read, and the plain and simple discourses on the fundamental articles of faith and points of duty, which always formed the subject of the preliminary exhortations of the church. If the proficiency and conduct of the catechumen during his continuance in this lower rank were approved of, he was, at a certain period, advanced to a higher order, which was privileged not only to be present at the reading of the Scriptures, and the delivery of the sermons, but also at the prayers, which we described as concluding the first service. After remaining the appointed time in this more advanced stage of his progress, he was successively privileged to be present at the public prayers of the church, to hear the discourses addressed to the faithful on the higher and more abstruse doctrines of Christianity, and even to witness, at an humble distance, the dispensation of the Lord's supper. He was then considered ripe for baptism, and immediately put upon a new course of discipline, preparatory to partaking of the holy mysteries at the next celebration of the solemnity. Hitherto, he had been trained, by a regular course of catechetical instructions in private, to a knowledge of the leading doctrines and duties of the gospel, and now he was subjected to frequent and minute examinations in public on every branch of his religious education. If approved, he was forthwith instructed in some of the sublimer points of Christianity, which had been hitherto withheld from him,-such as the doctrine of the Trinity, the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, the influences of the Spirit, and the way in which a participation of the symbols of a Saviour's love gives spiritual nourishment to the soul. He was allowed to employ the Lord's prayer,-the use of which was considered as the exclusive privilege of his adopted children; and was enjoined to commit to memory the creed, as a formula which embodied, in a small compass, all the grand articles of revealed truth, which it had been the object of his protracted discipline to teach him. For twenty successive days he continued a

course of partial fasting, during which he had daily interviews with his minister, who, in private, and secluded from the presence of every other observer, endeavored, by serious discourse, to impress his mind with a sense of the important step he was about to take,— and more especially, prayed with him, in the usual solemn form, by imposition of hands, that he might be delivered from any evil spirit that had possession of his heart, and be enabled to consecrate himself a living sacrifice to God and the Saviour. Such was the discipline of the catechumens,-a discipline to which all ranks and descriptions of men, who were desirous of being admitted into the bosom of the church, were in primitive times indiscriminately subjected. "None," to use the words of Lord King, "were permitted to enjoy the privileges of the faithful, till they had in a manner merited them,-which was, when they had, through a considerable time of trial, manifested the sincerity of their hearts by the sanctity and purity of their lives. When they had changed their manners, and rectified their former habits, then they were washed with the waters of baptism, and not before.

"The period during which they continued this course of prepara tion varied in different places, and was, indeed, often regulated by no other rule than the proficiency of the candidates. In general, it lasted for two or three years; though, in cases of severe indisposi tion and imminent danger, the probation was shortened, and the most benevolent and anxious provision made to dispense to the sick or dying catechumens, whose life was consistent with their views, though they had not completed their appointed time of discipline, all the comforts which a participation in the privileges of the church could give. But when no such pressing emergency occurred, the young disciple was left to accomplish his noviciate in the ordinary course; and it was only by slow and progressive steps he ascended to the standard of knowledge and virtue that gave him a passport to the region of the faithful."

6. OF BELIEVers—or, the Faithful.

This term is used to designate the constituents of the christian community, that body or assembly which was appropriately denominated the church, ἡ ἐκκλησία, and ἐκκλησία τῶν ἁγιῶν. Persons of this description were distinguished by various names, designed in a

measure to illustrate the true nature and peculiar constitution of the church.

1. They were styled noroi, the faithful, as has already been mentioned. This is the favorite and universal name which has uniformly been used to denote such as have been duly instructed in the fundamental principles of the christian religion; and received, by baptism, into the communion of the church. By this name they are distinguished on the one hand from the noto, such as are not Christians, and heretics, and on the other, from the clergy and from the catechumens, penitents, energumens, and ascetics. It is worthy of remark, that the disciples of Christ use the active form, oi лOTEÚ— οντες, οι πιστεύσαντες, while the fathers uniformly use the passive, oi noroì. The latter, however, occurs occasionally in the New Testament, Acts 16: 1. 2 Cor. 6: 15. 1 Tim. 4: 12. 5: 16, but in a sense more unlimited than that in which it is used by the fathers.

2. POTIμevo, illuminati, the enlightened. This name they received upon being baptized, baptism being by them denominated qarioμos, or patioua, illumination. It is a curious fact, that the baptized are denominated qoriousro, and candidates for baptism qoroέvies, while on grammatical principles precisely the reverse might have been expected. The usage of porto 9έvtes is supposed to be derived from Heb. 6: 4, as the most proper to denote such as were suitably enlightened to be received into the church.

3. Mɛuvnusvoi, the initiated. This appellation was most in use in the fourth and fifth centuries, when so much was said of the arcani disciplina, the secret mysteries of the christian religion. It denotes such as have been initiated into these mysteries, a privilege belonging exclusively to members of the church. The phrase the initialed know, occurs about fifty times in Augustine and Chrysostom alone. The terms μvorai and uvoraywyntoi are also often used, and, in short, almost all the phraseology which profane writers use respecting an initiation into their mysteries. Indeed the rite of baptism itself has an evident relation, as Cyril of Jerusalem represents,1 to the initiatory rites of Eleusis, Samothrace, etc.

4. Télɛioi and relɛiovμɛroi, the perfect. This name, like the foregoing, has a relation to their sacred mysteries. It is adopted from the New Testament, where it is used, not indeed in the same, but in a kindred meaning in relation to christian perfection. To join the church was styled ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ τελείον, or μετέχειν τοῦ τελειοῦ, to al