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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44239	The Holy fast of Lent defended against all its prophaners, or, A Discourse shewing that Lent-fast was first taught the world by the apostles, as Dr. Gunning, now Bishop of Ely learnedly proved in a sermon printed by him in the year 1662 by His Majesties special command together with a practical direction how to fast.	Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2525; ESTC R40999	45,046	54

were so many Metropolitans and of so great Erudition and Learning as they were almost all able to dispute of Dogms to whom when their gathering together in one seemed to add a confidence of daring and decreeing something from themselves yet notwithstanding they would presume nothing arrogate nothing at all to themselves but take all possible heed lest they should deliver to their Posterity what themselves had not received from their Fathers and not only well disposed the matter for the present but also give example to them that were to come to wit that they should reverence the Dogms of Sacred Antiquity and condemn adinventa the additional inventions of prophane Novelty Had Abstinence from certain kind of Meats for 40. days before Easter been a Superstitious Novelty its manifest no Introducer of it could have perswaded it to a Christian Church thus principled as the Doctors of this Age were They would all unanimously have reclaimed nothing must be Innovated besides what has been delivered to us by our Ancestors Or was Lent first taught in the Age fore-going and were the present Pastors of this 5th Age in the actual belief and practice of it If so how possibly could they profess to be such Zelots for Antiquity and such Exploders of Novelty and yet themselves most Religious Observers of a Superstitious practice never heard of till it was of late invented by their immediate Progenitors And how would their Adversary Nestorius have upbraided them with it when they objected to him the Novelty of his Doctrin Or perhaps was Lent first introduced in the third Age But that could not be neither the Doctors of that Age being no less Zealous for delivered doctri●s and practices nor less Opposers of Novelties than the 5th Age as is manifest by the contest betwixt the Bishop of Carthage and the Bishop of Rome and his Collegues where the Assertors of Re-baptization wanted neither Wit nor Eloquence nor number nor verisimilitude of truth nor Oracles of the Divine Law but understood after a bad and a new manner as S. Vincent says chap. 9 10. How then came they to lose their cause S. Stephen and his Collegues reclaimed Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est Nothing is to be innovated besides what has been delivered to us Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage holding Rebaptization against the Divine Canon against the rule of the Universal Church against the sense of all his fellow-Priests against the Custom and Institutions of his Ancestors and hereby as S. Vincent observes giving a form of Sacriledge to all Hereticks this overthrew him This then was not an Age wherein to Introduce either Novel practices or Doctrins into the Church nor any other before S. Vincent For he tells us chap. 9. Mos iste c. That Custom has always flourished in the Church and by how much any one has been more Religious the more readily has he opposed new Inventions We have hereof plenty of examples every where And this manner of discoursing proves a Priori that had Lent been a Superstitious Novelty it could not possibly have been brought into the Christian Church for the first 500. years and yet its manifest by all the Christian Writes of the 4th and 5th Age that it was then Universally practised both in the Eastern and Western Church whence it follows that it is no Superstitious practice but true Christian Piety and was taught the World by the first planters of Christianity Although our Learned Adversaries deny not but that the prime Doctors and chief Champions of Christianity of the 4th and 5th Age were Zealous Observers and Preachers of the Quadragesimal Fast of Lent and for this cause appeal to the first 300. years yet for the satisfaction of others less Learned I have thought fit to Transcribe their Testimonies as they are cited by Bishop Gunning in his Learned Treatise in defence of the Paschal or Lent-Fast Hear then the Testimonies of the Christian Doctors of the 4th and 5th Century and if you have the least grain of Christian modesty dread to call that Superstition which so many Grave Fathers extol as singular Christian Piety S. Basil in his Sermons de Iejunio makes mention of Lent-Fast For he makes mention of five days Fasting together commanded to be observed by all degrees all over the world which returned by an orderly course Now in other his Contemporaries we find express mention of a Forty-days Fast nor was there ever by Christians Fasted five days consequently but in Lent and the reason he mentions five days is because the Grecians only Fasted five days in every week in Lent leaving out Saturday and Sunday Hear his own words Hom. 1. Let us as becomes Saints receive the days that are at hand not with a sad Soul but with a chearful affection Be not sad when thou art Cured Whoever amidst sumptuous Feasts and continual delights was made partaker of any Spiritual gift Moses that he might a second time receive the Law needed a second Fast. Doest thou not eat Flesh But thou eatest up thy Brother Doest thou abstain from Wine But thou doest not forbear to injure thy Neighbour Thou expectest the Evening before thou take thy refection but spends the whole day in Law-Courts Let not Drunkenness introduce thee to the mysteries of Fasting The Wrestler is exercised before he wrestle for the Prize the Faster is prepared to Fast by Temperance Do not as if thou would'st Revenge thy self on the days of Fasting or mock the Author of the Law lay up against these five days the Treasure of Surfetting Our Lord who has brought us to the recourse of this time give us as to Combatants throughout these days in which we are called out to Combate to declare the strength and Nerves of Continence Orat. 2. Fasting is at all times profitable to those who voluntarily undertake it but much more at this time when the denuntiation of Fasting is proclaimed all over the World Nor is there any Island nor Continent nor City nor Nation nor the farthest corner of the World where the Edict of Fasting is not heard S. Gregory Nazianzen Orat. 4. Christ Fasted a little before his Temptation we before the Paschal feast And Orat. 41 42. Yesterday I was Crucified with Christ to day I am as it were glorified with him S. Epiphanius In expositione fidei Catholicae The same Church has been wont to observe Lent continuing in Fastings But the 6. days of the week before Easter all the people continue in dry dyet using then Bread Salt and Water at the Evening Yet those that are very devout pass two three and four days and some the whole week untill Cock-crowing on Easter-day S. Ambrose in his book de Helia Jejunio A Lent is fasted with us all days except Saturday and the Lords-day And Serm. 25. Our Lord after he had fasted 40. days overcame the Devil not but that he could have overcome him before his fastings but that he might shew unto us that then

we shall be able to overcome the Devil when by 40. days we have been through fasting Victors over our Carnal desires For neither Brethren is it a little fault to break by greediness of the Belly the Lent indicted to Believers and the Consecrated Fast. Serm. de Jejunio Elia. Behold through the mercy of God we have past through the indicted Fasts of Lent and have fulfill'd by the devotion of Abstinence the Commands of our Lord. Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria lib. 3. Pasch ad totius Aegypti Episcopos By no means let us in the days of Lent as Luxurious Rich men are wont to do long after a Cup of Wine They that keep the Precepts of the Laws tast not Wine on fasting days refuse to eat Flesh c. S. Hierom in his Comment upon Ionah c. 3. Our Lord himself the true Jonas sent to Preach unto the World fasted 40. days and leaving us the Inheritance of fasting under this number prepares our souls for the eating of his Body In his Comment on Isaiah 58. Our Lord fasted 40. days in the Wilderness that he might leave unto us the solemn days of Fasts S. Chrysostom in his 11th Lent-Sermon upon Genesis Wherefore in every thing due measure and moderation is best According whereunto therefore concerning this season also of the Holy Lent we shall now find it to have been ruled out unto us For as in publick Conveyance of Travellers there are certain Stages and Inns that the wearied Passengers may rest themselves and intermitting their Labours they may again set upon their Iourney In like manner here also in Holy Lent our Lord has indulged these two weekly days the Saturday and the Lords-day to such as undertake this course of this fast like certain Stages or Inns Shores or Havens that both the body may be a little relaxed from its labours of fasting and the mind comforted that when these two days shall be past over they may again with chearfulness set upon this their good and profitable Travelling in this way S. Gregory Nyssen in his zd. Oration of the Resurrection Matthew added the time when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week The Night saith he was so far passed that it was now the time of Cock-crowing which giveth warning that the light of the approaching day is at hand For this cause also at this time viz. far in the Night before Easter-day and not in the very Evening of the Saturday dissolving or ending the Fastings we begin the Ioy the Custom that obtains with all men consenting thereto This for the fourth Age. In the 5th Age S. Augustin in his 119th Epist to Ianuarius The Lent truly of Fastings has Authority both in the old Books out of the Fast of Moses and Elias and out of the Gospel because our Lord Fasted so many days In what part therefore of the year more aptly could the Observation of Lent be Constituted then in that which is Conterminous and next unto the Passion of our Lord. That those 40. days before Easter should be observed the Custom of the Church has Corroborated In his 118. Epist to the same Januar. But those things which we keep being not written but delivered down which are observed throughout the whole world are given us to understand that they are retain'd as commended and appointed either by the Apostles themselves or by Plenary Councils whose Authority in the Church is most wholsome as for example that the Passion of our Lord and his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost are Celebrated with an Anniversary Solemnity S. Leo the Great Bishop of Rome in his 6. Sermon of Lent That the Apostolical Institution may be fulfilled in the Fast of forty days not by sparing from our Dyet only but especially by abstinence from sins And in his 9th Serm of Lent In which days of the Paschal Fast with good cause severer Fastings were ordained by the Apostles through the teaching of the Holy Ghost that by a common comparticipation of the Cross of Christ we also should do something in that which he did for us as the Apostle says if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him S. Chrysologus That we Fast Lent is not a human Invention it is of Divine Authority S. Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria is above-cited at large This for the 5th Age. In the following Ages the observation of Lent in all Christian Countrys is so manifest that no body any whit Versed in Church History can possibly doubt of it Now after the manifest Testimonies of so many and so Learned and so holy Doctors of Christs Church the Opposers of the Holy Fast of Lent must give me leave to bespeak them in the words of the great S. Augustin by him directed to Iulian the Pelagian after a like Citation about another matter of these very Holy Fathers by me now cited as to a great part of them Tu qui am crebro c. Thou sadly deluded Zelot that doest so often object to us Catholick Christians the name of Will-worshippers the crime of Superstition for Religiously observing the Holy Fast of Lent If thou beest awake see what and what kind of men and glorious defenders of the Christian Faith thou darest to bespatter under our names with so execrable a Crimination Go now and object to us the crime of Superstition dissemble and feign thy self not to know what they say in this point overlook them as it were and attack us only as not knowing that under our name they are reviled and confidently insult over so many and so great Doctors of the Church of Christ who after a most Saintly Life and having beaten down the Errors of their times most gloriously went out of this Life before you and your Comrades bubled up Doest thou see with what kind of Men we sustain thy Reproaches Doest thou see with whom we have the same common cause which without any sober consideration thou calumniates and endeavours to expugn Doest thou see proud Zelot how pernicious it is unto thy self to object so horriable a Crime of Will-worship to such men as these and how glorious it is to us to sustain the charge of any Crime together with such Doctors as these Or if thou doest see see and hold thy peace and let so many Catholick tongues silence thy Phanatical tongue The Ruffian Polemus to compleat his wild ramble would needs early in the morning half drunk with his Night Revels go to the School of the grave Sophist Xenocrates to affront him and his Schollars But he was no sooner entred the School of that sober Platonist but the very sight of the modest and grave Comportment of the Philosopher and his Schollars did so strike my young Gallant that he was quite out of Countenance and ashamed of himself he pull'd off his Drunken Bayes and composed himself to modesty and became his Convert whom be came on purpose to deride and scoff at

Such force had the grave Countenances of a sober Platonist and his School to compose a rude Ruffian Finding my presumptious Non. Conformist Drunk with Pride and Self-conceit I could think of no better means to reduce him to Sobriety than to bring him not into the School of a sober Ethnick Philosopher but into a grave Assembly of the most memorable Bishops and Doctors of the School of Christ. To whom certainly so much a greater Reverence and respect is due by how much their Doctor and Master Christ is greater than Xenocrates's Master and Doctor Plato I desire now my conceited Non conformist that thou wouldst think it worth thy while to eye to look upon so many and so grave Prelates of the Catholick Church And imagin them to look as it were upon thee and mildly and gently to say unto thee Itane nos fili Iuliane c. Is it so indeed Son N. N. are we then Will worshippers What Answer wouldst thou give them With what Face wouldst thou look upon them What Arguments would occur to thee Wouldst thou dare wouldst thou have the Face to produce such woodden Daggers as thou art ever and anon drawing upon us Or rather would not such pittiful Weapons fall out of thy hand at the presence of so great Doctors and such grave Prelates of Gods Church Wouldst thou have the Fore-head to tell the great S. Hierom Not that which goes into a Man defiles him but that which comes out Ye observe days and times I am afraid of you forbidding to abstain from Meats which God has ordained to be received with Thanksgiving c. As if that Great Doctor and his Venerable Fellows could be ignorant of such petty Cavils as these Tantumne apud se c. Can now an S. M. or an E. C. have so much Authority with any person of Sobriety that he should for their regards not only forsake so many and so great Doctors and defenders of the Christian Faith from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof but also dare to call them Superstitious Will-worshippers I desire my conceited Non-Conformist would but consider into what an Assembly I have brought him 'T is an Assembly of Saintly Doctors not a popular multitude such as were not only Children but Fathers of the Church famous in their Generations for Learning and Sanctity who well furnish'd with Spiritual Weapons strenously Warred against the Hereticks of their days and having happily finished the labours of their dispensation Holily went to rest in peace They are of that number concerning whom it was fore-told For Fathers are born unto thee Children thou shalt constitute them Princes over all the Earth Nor was the practice we are now disputing any new Invention of theirs but what they learnt in the Church of Christ in the time of their Rudiments that they taught the Church of Christ in the time of their Honors But if my Non-Conformist will perhaps say he does not charge S. Hierom or S. Chrysostom c. with the crime of Superstition he must give me leave to tell him nor then does he justly charge us whom he sees in the same Cause to have followed their steps But if he will only Reproach us with such a Calumny not for any other reason but because we think concerning the Holy Fast of Lent what they thought hold what they held Preach what they Preach'd who does not see that he openly reviles us only but secretly has the like judgment of them For what they believe we believe what they teach we teach yield to them and you yield to us acquiess in their sentiments and you 'l cease to condemn ours Moreover this grave Assembly of Antient Doctors to whom we appeal then judged concerning this our Cause when no body could say they had favor or Ill-will for either party They had neither Friendship nor Enmity with you or us That which they found in the Church that they held that which they learnt that they taught That which they received from their Fathers they delivered to their Children We did not as yet appeal with you to them as Judges and our Cause was decided by them Neither you nor we were known to them and we recite their Sentences given for us against you We did not yet Contest with you and they pronouncing Sentence for us we have overcome you Or will my Non-Conformist have the Impudence to accuse as some do these grave Doctors of blindness A multitude of Blind men for-sooth avails nothing to find out the Truth and these were the Errors and mistakes of those Learned Doctors What an Age are we faln into Truth must be called Error and Error Truth Light Darkness and Darkness Light S. Ambrose S. Hierom S. Cyril S. Cryostom are blind but S. M. C. D. and E. F. see These Doctors I have called a Councel of have left such Monuments of their Sanctity and Learning in their Holy and Learned Writings that the whole Christian Church has ever admired and revered them as her prime Champians against Pagans Jews and Hereticks yea our very Adversaries pretend a Sacred Reverence for them also They were Persons of such Learning and Sanctity that if a Synod of Bishops were gather'd out of the whole World it would be much if so many and such Doctors could be found to sit in it neither indeed were these all at one time But God-Almighty as pleases Him and as He judges to be expedient scatters a few more excellent and Faithful Dispensers of his Mysteries in several Ages and distances of places By such Planters Waterers Builders Pastors Nursing-Fathers after the Apostles the Holy Church has encreased Now what an Imprudence what an Impudence must it be for any to presume to accuse of the horrible Crime of Superstition so many holy egregious and memorable Doctors of the Catholick Verity and moreover together with them the whole Church of Christ to which Divine Family they Faithfully Ministring Spiritual Food flourished with great glory in our Lord Nay further they who dare to oppose the manifest Sentiment not of so many Platonical Aristotelical or Zenonical Doctors but of so many Saints and Illustrious Prelates in the Church of God and these some of them singularly endowed with human Literature and all of them eminently Learned in the Sacred Letters have reason not so much to fear them as him who made them profitable Vessels to himself These Judges by how much the more desirable they ought to be unto thee if thou did'st hold the Catholick Faith by so much thou hast more reason to fear them because thou opposest the Catholick Faith which they suck'd in in Milk and took in in solid Meat which Milk and Meat they Ministred to Little and Great and which Faith they manifestly and stoutly defended against his Enemies yea against you then not as yet born For not only when they lived did they by their words but also by their Writings which they left to Posterity did they strenuously