known appellation in the whole Christian world when they describe a certain day of the year by this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ON THE GREAT DAY OF EASTER This is found written as about the 168 th year after S. Iohn so also recorded in Eusebius Histor. Eccl. l. 7. c. 13. Which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which Philo Iudaeus had expressed in his Book of the Religious Christians of Alexandria by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of the Feasts and is answerable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna above alledg'd the Great Saturday which is the Eve of Easter Yea the whole 40 daies foregoing the 69 th Canon Apostolical made in the same Age wherein those two Dionysius's liv'd cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Quadragesimal Fast and Origen a Homil. 10. in Levâ—… 16. in the same age Quadraginta aies jejuniis consecratos Whence I say otherwise should all these Appellations which are the Records of things be found the Language of the several Churches in the most famous Bishops and Writers of the first 300 years when they speak for the most part to the Catholick Church throughout the whole earth if it had not been within the first 300 years a common notion of the universal Church from one and the same universal Practise without any other so much as pretended universal cause of its beginning beside Apostolical teaching of an honourable holy and great solemnity of a Paschal Fast that is the Fast of Lent which I have shewn to be in the mother Dialect of our English but the Fast of Spring as by the lawes of the Church Universal both this Paschal Fast and Easter were to be celebrated soone after or about the Vernal Equinox This last way of proof I have insisted on for their sakes who pretend reverence to the first 300 years wherein they know the Records Ecclesiasticall are but few comparatively and yet are not ashamed against all this evidence to note all recurring set Fasts and particularly this of the Paschal or Lent fast with the brand of Superstition or Judaical observance blindly and at adventure applying thereto that of the Apostle of the observance of daies and moneths and times and years As if the first day of the week commanded to be observed under peril of sin and obliging the conscience of all Christians b And not the 〈◊〉 day mentioned in the 4 th Com. were not A DAY and the observance of the Lords daies the observance of some daies as well as Good-friday or any other day or daies of Fasts or had any Evidenter praeceptum or express commandment in the N. T. to come in the place of the 7 th day or were not as much liable to some mens ignorant application of Rom. 14. v. 5 6. One man esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind He that regards a day regards it to the Lord and he that regardeth not a day to the Lord he regards it not What ever fair Answer they with us we hope will give to this Text as not including any disparagement at all to the Lords day the same will let 〈◊〉 understand how rashly they have condemned the observance of other Feasts and Fasts of the Church from their own mistaken consequences drawn from Scriptures understood in their own sense without reverence and regard to the Churches teaching despising together all those three great instruments of Christian truth and sobriety which Vincentius Lyrinensis professed to have learnt from the greatest lights of the Christian Church in and about the 3 d holy General Councel of Ephesus for the avoiding of Heresie and Schism viz. Antiquity Universality or also consent of the generality of the Doctors of the Church Next I proceed to another sort of proof fetch'd from the Witness of the Enemies of the Church and Gospel Where I begin with Lucian the Scoffer about the 65. year after S. Iohn's decease who appears in his writings so well knowing of Christian affairs that he is by some thought to have been an Apostate if ever he were of any Religion He besides his scoffing at our Saviour as a crucifi'd sophister a In Peregrino 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and deriding our swearing by the most High God and the Son of the Father and the Spirit proceeding forth from the Father One of Three and Three of One b As he makes us to speak his words are in Philopatri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He in the same Philopatr according as we have heard from S. Chrysostome Homil. 16. ad populum Antiochenum that upon usual enquiry how many weeks of Lent any Christian had fasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some would answer two others perhaps three and others all a The Montanists especially affected to keep two weeks of fasting excepting the Saturday and the Lords day that is ten daies as Tertullian witnesseth l. de jejuniis and Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others good and Catholick Christians kept but two weeks exempting also two daies in each week as S. Chrysostome would that they should do by reason of their measure of strength that they were not well able to keep more and these S. Chrysostome seems to mean for he reprehends them not by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Lucian it seems had met with some of the former sort and thus he speaks in the forementioned Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You should be a Christian from your fashion for so many called the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They report of themselves that they continue 10. daies fasting and keep whole night-watches in Hymns and Psalms Leave them therefore adding in the end of their Hymns that much-used close beginning from the Father thus early after S. Iohn's death even the enemies of the Church observed the Christians manner of more then one weeks fasting and whole-nights watchings in Hymns and Doxologies whereas neither Christians nor any other Religion in the world in these Ages observed a many weeks fast with whole-nights-watchings and hymâ—…odies but only the Christian Paschal Fast and this Lucian scoffs at as amongst the Characters of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Christians and hath now found followers amongst the Christians themselves In the last daies there shall come viz. in more abundance scoffers 2 Pet. 3. 3. The next but more moderate Adversary is ACESIUS a Bishop of the Novatian Faction in the time of the first General Councel of Nice which holy Councel both mentioning and supposing as well known to all the Catholick Church the Fast of Lent commanding Synods to be held twice a year in every Province throughout the Church universall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The one BEFORE LENT that all disquiet of minds being taken away a pure offering may be offered
upon the earth and as the words of the Text may import pernoctavit in jejunio As the Syr. and Arab. did read the Hebrew in their Copy a Iejunevit jejunium in quo pernoctavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fourthly there is a fast of two days continued such as it seems was in the Church by some used at their Paschal fast saith Irenaeus and Dionysius The two days of the Disciples sorrow when their Master was taken from them Of which as the Prophet Hosea seems to have given before some intimation chap. 6. 2. After two days he will revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Then shall we know c. His going forth is prepared as the morning So Tertullian also describeth the Churches more instant exercise of fasting on those two days of our Saviours remaining in death lib. de Iejun cap. 14. Cur jejuniis Parasceuen Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum si quando continuatis nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum secundum rationem alibi redditam But more expresly Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor do all keep the six days of the fasts viz. those of the great Week equally or alike but some indeed pass them all over continuing without food either wholly or on each day to the next Cock-crowing But others two viz. Good-Friday and Easter-Eve again others three the Wednesday Friday and Saturday and others four adding Thursday The two or three days fast we meet with in St. Hierom in his fifteenth Epistle ad Marcellum of Asella a very holy Virgin Cùm per omnem aetatem jugi jejunio pasceretur biduo triduó que sic permanens tum verò in quadrage simâ navigii sui vela tendebat As in all her life she almost continually fasted abiding so sometimes two sometimes three days fasting so especially in Lent c. Fifthly a three days fast in Old and New Testament is renowned Esther 4. 16 17. Go gather together all the Iews which are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days night nor day I also and my Maidens will fast likewise c. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him Such as is supposed was also the Ninevites fast and such was St. Paul's fast at his Conversion Acts 9. 9. And he was three days without sight and did neither eat nor drink The same fast of three days we have in the History of godly Iudas Maccabaeus 2 Mac. 13. 10-12 That two days and this three days fast is by some religiously also emulated who not able to continue so long fasting joyn together so many several days of fasts though taking some food each Evening Sixthly we often meet with the mention of a five days fast and such each weeks fast in Lent as St. Chrysostom for Constantinople and St. Basil for Caesarea doth witness besides that which Socrates mentions of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three five days fasts with interval of many days betwixt St. Basil in his first Sermon of fasting days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fifth fast proclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lay not in before hand five days riot as if you would avenge before hand the days of the fast Seventhly the next honourable fast is that of seven days as that of the men of Iabesh Gilead for Saul and his sons they fasted seven days 1 Sam. ult ult Like Ioseph's mourning for his father seven days Gen. 5. 10. Like as Ezechiel also sat with them of the Captivity and remained astonished amongst them seven days And it came to pass at the end of the seven days that the Word of the Lord came unto him Chap. 3. 15 16. So as also Iob's three friends having rent every one his Mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads sate down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him Iob 2. ult Yea the Lord said unto Moses of Miriam Num. 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days let her be shut out from the Camp seven days This seven days fast is answer'd by the Christians whole weeks fast in their great week except in that the festival day of Easter yea even every weekly Lords-day hath a greater priviledge of exemption from fasting then the jewish-Jewish-sabbath then had Our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 six days of the Fasts mention'd by Dionysius of Alexandria above in Epistolâ ad Basilidem are to the Christians instead of a seven days Fast. So measur'd they their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eighthly Daniel's three weeks fast was as I said divers ways emulated by the Christians in Lent some after that example amongst the forty days of Abstinence more strictly fasting the three weeks next before Easter excepting the Lords days or also two of the Saturdays some selecting to themselves one and twenty days dispersedly throughout the Lent as Leo a Serm de jejun Quadrages mentions the second the fourth the sixth of each week some fifteen days interpreting the three weeks with their abatement of two in each Saturday and Sunday of this we have Sozomen's testimony lib. 7. cap. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some others fast three weeks of days here and there selected within the compass of the six or seven weeks fast of Lent but others joyn for their fast three weeks of days together next before the feast of Easter others fasting two weeks as the followers of Montanus besides some others For so much we may take Socrates's witness also because in this agreeing with others lib. 5. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some in Rome fast three weeks before Easter conjoyn'd together excepting the Sabbath and Lords day in each week though Leo gives us in his time their three weeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. every other day or three days in each of almost seven weeks Others beginning their fast seven weeks before the Feast fast onely three several five-days spaces with a weeks interval betwixt each And this they meant also a three weeks fast St. Chrysostom also is a witness beyond exception in his sixteenth Homily ad populum Antiochen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the manner of all to ask touching Lent how many weeks any one kept the 〈◊〉 and you may hear some say two viz. beginning their fasts from Passion-Sunday but some three weeks and some answering that they have fasted all the weeks All the 15 or 18 or â—…1 days in emulation of holy Daniel's fast in some sort or other Ninthly the most renowned number was the forty days fast of which we have
that forty-daies-abstinence within which also we might best choose to us daies for proper fasting according to the measure of our bodily strength and Devotion of our minds comes unto us fairly recommended from Tradition Apostolical In a word this is proved from every Author that hath given in Testimony of the Original Apostolical of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima which I have shewed never was understood in the Church of forty hours and yet was for certain an aiming at least at some number of forty within which Christian Abstinence should especially be exercised But if not forty hours there is nothing next that can be imagined less nor indeed was it more than forty days Amongst such Testimonies already produced there need be nothing asked for elder then the practice of the Religious in St. Mark 's time witnessed by Philo who saw them and lived among them by Eusebius who saw and cites many ancient records and monuments Ecclesiastical which now are no where extant and by S. Hierom who made most curious search into the Ascetical observances of the primitive religious Christians in Egypt and wrote exactly the lives of many of the chief of them All these three Philo in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eusebius in l. 2. Histor. Ecclesiast c. 16 17. S. Hierom. in l. 2. advers Iovinian c. 39. a Add to these Sozomen l. 1. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do together make up this complete Testimony that far within the times of the Apostles whiles yet S Iohn yea S. Peter and S. Paul were alive in the Church where S. Mark was set Bishop by S. Peter the Religious Christians did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the space of about seven weeks speaking popularly exercise special abstinence and devotions not of precept indeed to all Christians for we speak not now of that but of recommendation certainly from their spiritual guides which were Apostolical persons sent to them from the Apostles And particularly S. Mark a Teacher inspir'd of God For the time Philo's words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These assemble themselves especially by the space of seven weeks Wine in those daies is not brought in unto their tables And their table hath not any thing of that which had sensitive life or bloud but bread for their food and salt for that which they eat with their bread Some for the space of three daies receive no food and scarce sometimes by the space of six daies did they refresh themselves with their natural food A week they observ'd by a pure and holy virginal observance which was preparatory to the greatest feast which with Philo and Eusebius in the Jewes and Christians language was known to be the feast of Easter Which was followed with the 50 daies solemnity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole space with them from morning unto evening is a spiritual exercise for being intent on the Holy Scriptures c. Making one Quire they sing Eucharistical Hymns to God their Saviour Ever they have God in perpetual remembrance This Philo wrote who in the daies of Claudius came to speech with S. Peter in Rome and he wrote of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only whom he had seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also setting forth admiring and reverencing the Apostolical men of the Hebrew nation which lived there where S. Mark did s aith Eusebius who writeth farther on this wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These words of Philo we deem to be manifestly and undeniably meant concerning those which are of us Christians which if any shall be so hardy to deny let him yield to these clear demonstrations and cease to be hard of belief viz. of such things as are not to be found with any but in the Religion of Christians only according to the Gospel Even such Ascetical abstinences which are of custome perform'd amongst us even until now which more eminently are observed about the solemnity of our Saviours Passion in fastings and whole-night-watches c. Which accurately after the same manner are performed even until now and with us Christians only The vigils and abstinences belonging to that great solemnity And even such customs hath Philo there written which were delivered in the beginning from the Apostles The time Philo tells us was about the space of seven weeks before that Feast which was Easter That space of time exempting one day in every seven which Philo there saith they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold as very sacred and festival gives us the forty daies with two only as with us preparatory to the forty And this being before the number of forty mentioned by Irenaeus a Euseb. l. 5. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the matter of the Faâ—… adds reason to the authority of that ancient Record which B. Rhenanus light on that interpreted the forty hours which Irenaeus noted as a change from the former plain and simple custome to have been a substitution of forty hours for forty daies Or else to that reading of some's fasting forty daies and those so many superpositions such observance of seven weeks that is with such exemption as above forty daies being as Eusebius there pronounces inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the Proposition here undertaken that forty-forty-daies observance was though not of precept wherefore variations therefrom were born withal by the Church saith Irenaeus yet from Apostolical Recommendation Here I shall esteem it no bar to what hath been said if any shall observe with me in those new-converted zealous Christians being Philo's countrey-men of the Nation of the Iewes which dwelt in and about Alexandria in the greatest numbers with Philo the Iew himself some part of zeal left in them towards something of their ancient Judaical rites which in new-converted Iewes the Apostles themselves did bear with This is no more then Eusebius and Sozomen themselves who magnifie their Christianity did observe in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sufficient that these their observances of fastings and watchings and devotions by the space of seven weeks before Easter were no part of their Judaical rites Let any shew us any such observance of any Sect of the Iewes or of any other Religion in the world before Christianity brought in this so far therefore was this from any thing of Judaical rite that from this it self Eusebius collects as from one of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their indubitable Christianity Next I may here be allowed to suppose that I have already shewn in the foregoing chapter a fair intimation of forty daies abstinence or fasting in Irenaeus his Epistle to Victor Euseb. l. 5. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the plain and simple manner of keeping the Paschal Fast as long before his time as the Apostles were They which are so confident that no mention of forty daies that no such number of daies was at first observed or
Now impossible it is that any such should be publick and to continue and relate to any such fixed and universal cause but this of our Lords Passion through perpetual ages to be remembred by publick memorial fasts which cannot be continual nor accidental therefore by set solemn and recurring fasts so as we have seen that cause the memory of our Lords Passion to have given foundation universally to all ages and parts of the Catholick Church both for her weekly stations Stationum semijejunia on the 4 th and 6 th day of the week till 3. a clock and of her annual Paschal or Lenten Fast about the time of her Lords Crucifixion And whereas our Lord hath said of his Disciples which are or shall be such indeed that in those daies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall and will fast what the Church doth and hath done ever since that foretold by the Lord when he said they would then fast must needs be the best interpretation of what the Lord said they would do He said it in those daies they will fast hath the Church done what he said they would or will any say nay Learn we the Churches daies on which she ever since hath and doth and professeth that she will fast and we must needs have the true meaning of this prediction in these words of her Lord who could not be deceived In those daies they will fast 5 ly Be therefore my fifth reason this following Christians will not fast none can expect they will on any publick set solemn daies of fasting which was the thing here call'd for by the Scribes from their own alledged example and that of Iohn's Disciples also except they do agree upon such daies But if every man was to be left to understand what he please by these words The daies when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them as Aerius had his sense of them and Iovinian his and Vigilantius his and none bound to the Churches sense of them we should have no means left us possibly to agree and so to meet on any daies at all by force of these words or any other one universal cause and so should we never meet in any publick solemn fast at all no not for so publick fix'd a cause as the taking away of the Bridegroom once for the sins of the whole world The Churches teaching then her sense of her Lords words by her rules comments and practise must silence these men as her Lords prediction of her practise did silence the Scribes and Pharisees yea and some other better meaning Disciples St. Iohn's also cunningly drawn in as is usual by the enemies of the Lord and his Church to joyn in expostulations cavils and quarrels against them Reason and experience and the direction of all wise men in the Church of God ancient and modern the house of Wisdome Councels Reverend Fathers and Writers and our a Since the Reformation Lib. Canonum Eccles. Anglican Anno 1571. Videbunt ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentanâ—…um â—…it doctrina veteris auâ—… Novi Testament quodque ex illâ—… ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Church in particular have directed and commanded us not to interpret Scripture in things of publick concernment to the Churches rule of believing and doing but as we finde it interpreted by the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church as they had received it from those before them For that the leaving of every man to make any thing of any Text upon any device out of his own head to the founding any new and strange doctrine or practise as necessary there-from or to the opposing of any constantly received doctrine or practise of the Church Universal for in other matters they may happily with leave quietly abound in their own sense leaves all bold innovators which can but draw away disciples after them to be as much law-givers to the Church by their uncontrolable law-interpreting as any Pope or Enthusiast can or need pretend to be and hath been and ever will be to the end of the world the ground of most Heresies and Schisms brought into the Church by men who departing from the teaching and stable interpretation of the Church in their own instability and science falsely so called pervert the Scriptures to their own and others their obstinate followers destruction Here therefore I first joyn issue that the Church hath observed these daies of the Paschal fast as 't was called in the Ancient Church a Called also by some Antepaschale jejunium meaning the same thing or Lent-fast that is from the Saxon Dialect Spring-fast b lencâ—…en Sax. The Spring 〈◊〉 Lent ever since the times of these children of the Bride-chamber the Apostles of the Lord and ever since the taking away of the Lord the Bridegroom 2. That the Church hath done this hath observ'd this Paschal-fast as from the Apostles grounding their practise upon instruction Evangelical particularly also upon this Text now before us The time shall come when c. And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those dayes they shall fast 1. For the Churches visible practise from the Apostles times if our Brethren shall say Shew us express example written in the following Scriptures which may interpret this text so or we are at liberty for the sense and practise they must be told what they cannot but freshly remember that so said the Brethren the Anabaptists one express example of baptizing Infants after that Sanction Iohn 3. 5. and Commission Matth. 28. v. 19. whereby to interpret such Sanction and Commission An express command as the Church thinks to baptize all Nations would not hold them So said the Socinians for their no necessity of baptizing at all in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Shew us one example in all the following Scriptures Acts and Letters of the Apostles of that form observed A direct command as we would think it could not bind up their liberty of interpreting it otherwise The history of all the following ages of the Church after the Apostles is little to them compared with the word of God in their own sense All those following were but men and these in their giving out the sense of the Scripture are more For our parts we finding the Bridegroom the Lord himself thus referring us to the practise of his known Disciples the children of the Bride-chamber In those daies they will fast not only they will teach on what daies men should fast and the Bride her self whose cause is most concern'd in it declaring to us her practise and assuring us she had received that her Practise from those friends of her Bridegroom and children of his marriage-chamber the Apostles that Bride also being as we know the Queen standing at his right hand the Mother of us all whose authority is above all mothers
now professing himself a follower of the new Prophet Montanus quarrels the Church and her children as carnal persons for not admitting the new-commanded fast of Montanus and he manages that his quarrel in these words They viz. the Christian Catholicks accuse us that we observe fasts of our own peculiar to our selves They object therefore unto us novelty and prescribe against the unlawfulness of that saying that it is either to be judged Heresie if presuming as men we so dogmatize or we to be pronounced false prophets if we indict these fasts as from the Spirit whilest on either hand we hear them denounce an Anathema against us For as to what pertains to Fast they oppose that there are certain daies constituted by God They surely think that in the Gospel those daies are determined for fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away and that those daies only are now the legitimate daies of Christian Fasts all legal and prophetical old observances being antiquated or abolished Therefore as to other fasting it is to be indifferent according to every mans occasions causes at his own judgement not of command viz. as Montanus pretended command from God And that thus the Apostles observed the rule of fasting imposing no other yoke of certain or set fasts to be kept of all in common And c. 13. ye prescribe against us that the solemn times for this matter are to be believed already constituted in the Scriptures or in the Tradition of our Elders and that no further observance is to be superadded for the unlawfulness of innovation Maintain this your ground if you can O ye adversaries of the prophet Montanus for lo I convince you even your selves fasting beside the Paschal Fast Beside those daies in which the Bridegroom was taken away interposing also your selves the half-fasts of the stations a Thus he being in darkness of forgetfulness as out of charity considers not the evident reasons of the stations the 4 th and 6 th day of of the week from those words which the Church urged of the Bridegrooms being taken away which is the very ground and reason which afterwards Epiphanius de Compend fid c. 22. and S. Augustin also epist. 86. do build them on and your selves otherwhiles also as each pleases living on meer bread and water Lastly you reply that these observances viz. these last of the stations of Wednesday and Friday and otherwhiles living with bread and water are practised according to ones choice not from command b Isidorus Hispalensis l. offic c. 42. Shewes that the weekly observance of those daies in fasting was not a precept lying on all in these words Praeter haec autem legitima jejuniorum Tempora omni sexâ—…â—…erid propter Passionem Domini à quibusdam jejunatur Ye have therefore quit your ground by exceeding the tradition while you observe fasts w ch are not constituted or commanded And worthily you permit that to your own pleasure which you yield not to Gods command viz. by his prophet Montanus And c. â—…4 If it be so as was urged out of Galatians c. 4. â—… 10. Why observe we Easter every year in the first moneth Why 50 daies thence forward do we pass in all exultation Why apply we the 4 th and 6 th day of the week to stations or meetings for prayer portional-fasting and Sacrament and the day of Christ's Passion to fastings And although you at some time may joyn Saturday to Friday in fasting yet that never but before Easter-day for the reason elsewhere rendred Thus far Tertullian The reason why he singles out Good-Friday for a peculiar fast amongst the rest of the daies of the Bridegrooms taking away himself renders in his Book of Prayer chap. last when not yet a Montanist in these words Sic die Paschae qâ—…o quasi communis publica jejunii religio est So on the day of Christs suffering wherein is observ'd the common and as it were publick religion of the fast a Agreeably whereunto Sozomon speaks l. 7. c. 19. On the day before that Saturday viz. Good Friday which the people fast very devoutly in remembrance of our Saviours Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one day into which the least devout among Christians shrunk up their fast As Irenâ—…us witnesses in his Epistle to Victor and Methodius in Conâ—…ivio virgin orat 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Fast-day of Christs Passion who is our Passeover it is forbidden us at all to remember the provision of food S. Cyril of Hierusalem in his 18. Catechism mentions his auditors weary labour by the intention of the Fast of the parasceue or Good Friday and the following watch Thus by acknowledgement of the Churches enemies and friends she practised taught contended against her adversaries touching this fast and those words of her Lords In those daies when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they fast With this constitution of the Lords she resisted the Montanist's new set fasts pretending from the Spirit and the word within them His testimony I have first produc'd as including the Churches own witness and the Apostles own observance Next for the observance of Christian people that of S. Mark though he not an Apostle but Evangelist his teaching as is probable and certainly practis'd in the Apostles own daies The record is made by PHILO in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Religious so Gregory Nazianzen cals the Christian believer by the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in S. Pentecost who must needs have conversed with St. Mark and these Religious at Alexandria and came saith Eusebius into speech with St. Peter whose Disciple S. Mark was at Rome l. 2. c. 16 17. in the daies of Claudius the Emperour He in that Book of the Religious saith Eusebius in the forecited place describes certain Apostolical persons religious life of the Hebrew nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having not only seen them but accurately taken knowledge of them describing there such their conversation as is to be found in the Christian Religion only saith Eusebius and he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Gospel and such religious fastings saith the same Eusebius which have descended down accurately the same even unto our times which more eminently were exercised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in fastings and whole nights watchings and attentions unto the word of God at the solemnity of the Passion of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 testifying of them those things which accurately are observed after the same manner with us only and even until now And moreover that he there describes the first preachers of the Doctrine of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is manifest saith he to every one that Philo comprised in that writing customes delivered in the beginning from the Apostles These religious persons in and about Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are
he brought into the Greek Church and it hath continued therein all Ages sithence and had a peculiar day appointed for it which they call'd the solemnity of the Great Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 w ch they placed on the Thursday seven night before Easter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A composure he had made as the Triodium of the Greek Church to this day witnesseth out of the histories of the whole old and new Testaments which consisted of the grounds patterns and encouragements of this Paschal Fast of Lent partly to be read publickly and partly to be sung in their service when now the Fast of Lent had continued almost 5. weeks and drew toward the end and yet the chief part of it remaining to be perform'd viz. the Parasceue Sabbatum of the 5 th week which they called Lazari praeparatoria Sabbatum Lazari and the following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great and holy week called anciently by Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and more anciently by Dionysius the Patriarch of Alexandria who saâ—…e there Bishop in the year 248. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 6 principal daies of the Fasts To encourage them therefore after so much perform'd to what remain'd behind he compos'd and they have retain'd and do read and sing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They read and sing this great Canon containing insinite contrition and excitation to â—…lee unto God by repentance by tears and confession c. 〈◊〉 they were appointed on this 5 th day of the 〈◊〉 week of Lent to sing and to read this for these ends For in as much as the holy Lent then draws towards end that men should not become weary or negligent in the finishing of these spiritual combats this very great Bishop of Crete Andrew as one that anoints or strengthens the Combatants stirs up their generosity by the histories of this great Canon that they may couragiously run forward to the race before them Agreeably therefore and fitly is this call'd the Great Canon as containing great compunction and appointed for the Great Fast of Lent This best and greatest Canon together with the exhortation of the holy Mary of Aegypt This our Father Andrew first soon after the year of the Lord 700. brought into Constantinople O my soul emulate thou zealously holy men in compunction propitiate Christ by Prayers sastings by purity holiness Christ conversing on earth in our flesh hath left thee O my soul his pattern and example The Lord it is who fasted 40 daies O my soul be not discouraged if the enemy assault thee repell him far from thee by prayers and fastings Give thou unto me O thou my only Saviour a heart contrite and poverty of spirit that I may have these to offer unto thee as an acceptable sacrifice Thus far the Triodium from that Andrew Bishop of Crete Thus have we passed through the seven first Centuries after the death of S. Iohn the last of those children of the Bride-chamber all the Ages not only of the truly called General Councels but of any that any Church in the world ever pretended to be such except the Church of Rome only which hath more then doubled the number to her self so that if this Paschal Fast had so generally pass'd in all ages as derived from the Apostles and had not truly been so derived some one of the General Councels at least in stead of their supposing and strengthening that hypothesis had noted the Imposture and false witness so openly concerning Apostolick Tradition of which the Church Universal is the Keeper and perpetual Pillar I shall not trouble my self and you to give you the testimonies of the succeeding ages because of their redundant number and because they are confessed on all parts and will not be required by any adversary and also are removed farther from the Fountain and prime antiquity a Such as are the Testimonies of Rabunus Mauruâ—… Archbishop of Meniz about the year 847. l. 2. de Institutione Clericorum c. 18. Observatio Quadragefima quae in Universo orbe INSTITUTIONE APOSTOLICA servatur circa confinia Dominica Passionis The observation of Lent which is kept in all the world from Iustitution Apostolical about the times near unto he Passion of our Lord the time of the Bridegrooms taking away And Theodorus Studites Anno 826. Sermon Chatâ—…chetic 72. in quariâ feria Hebdomada majoris Fratres Patrésque sacer est hodiernus dies atque venerandus etenim hinc auspicatur herus pro nobis supplicia sustinere crucis ut fert hoc Davidicum dictum Quare fremuerunt gentes c. convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum adversus Christum ejus Siquidem convenere simul sceleratum in Dominum confilium agitantes c. Veterator Iudas c. Idem Catechetic 71. appellat feriam sextam ante 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lazari praeparatoriam quia Parascue est ante Lazari resuscitati memoriam S. Bernard in his first Sermon of Lent Hodiè dilectissimi sacrum Quadragesimae tempus ingredimur c. Non nobis singularis est haec observatio una omnium est quicunque in eandem fidei conveniunt unitatem Quidni commune sit Christi jejunium omnibus Christianis An respuere tristia volumus communicare jucundis Si ita est indignos nos capâ—…is hujus participatione probamus Qualis est iste CHRISTIANUS qui minùs devotè suscipit jâ—…junium QUOD TRADIDIT IPSE CHRISTUS To day O most beloved we enter on the holy time of Lent which is not an observance peculiar unto us but one and the same to all Christians as many as agree in the unity of the same Faith And how should not this Fast of Christ be common to all Christians Will we reject the part that hath any sadness and communicate only in the pleasureable If it be so we prove our selves unworthy to partake with this Head What sort of Christian is he who hath no devotion to this Fast WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF DELIVERED And in his third Sermon of Lent Rogo vos Fratres dilectissimi totâ devotione suscipite Quadragesimale jejunium quod non sola abstinentia commendat sed multo magis Sacramentum Scilicet ut Fetrus Chrysologus Ravennatium episcopus hom 11 a appellat jejunium non praesumptum sed mysticum Clemens Alexand. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nam si devotè usque modò jejunavimus utique sancto hoc tempore jejunandum nobis est multo devotiùs Si quid enim additur ad solitum abstinentiae modum nunquid non valdè indignum est ut nobis onerosum sit quod Ecclesia portat Universa nobiscum Hactenus usque ad nonam jejunavimus soli nunc usque ad vesperam jejunabunt nobiscum Universi Reges principes Cleâ—…us populus nobiles ignobiles simul in unum dives pauper Sed quid de his loquor quos habemus in hâc jejuniâ—… observatione
consortes quasi non multo excellentiores habeamus in eâ duces immò consecratores Moysen Eliam Iesum Dominum adducit jam verò si commendant jejunium praesens Moyses Elias quamvis magni tamen conservi nostri quantum commendat illud Iesus Dominus noster qui ipse diebus totidem jejunavit Qualis ille est non dicam Monachus sed Christianus qui minùs devotè jijunium suscipit QUOD EI TRADIT IPSE CHRISTUS Denique tanto devotiùs imtandum nobis est Dilectissimi Christi jejunantis exemplum quanâ—…o certius est propter nos eum jejunasse non propter seipsum Is it not a very unworthy thing that that should seem burthensome unto us which the universal Church bears together with us Hitherto we have fasted alone unto the ninth hour now together with us even unto the evening there will be found to fast all Kings and Princes viz. that are of the Church Clergy and people noble and common people the rich and the poor all together But what speak I of those which we have companions in this observance of the Fast as if we had not much more excellent Captains or leaders therein and consecrators of this Fast And after his instance in Moses Elias and our Lord Jesus he adds Now if Moses and Elias who although great yet are our fellow-servantâ—… commemd this Fast how much more doth our Lord Jesus who himself also fasted so many daies Of what sort I say not Monk but Christian is he who less devoutly performs this Fast WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF DELIVERS TO HIM So much more devoutly ought the example of Christ's fasting to be imitated by us my Beloved by how much it is more certain that Christ fasted not for himself but for us Arnoldus Carnotensâ—…s l. de jejunio tentationibus inter opera S. Cypriani n. 4. Iejuniis vitiorum semina siecatur petulantia marcet concupiscentiae languent fugitivae abeunt voluptates Iejunium si discretione regatur omnem carnis rebellionem â—…domat â—…yrannidem gulae speliat exarmat Iejunium extraordinarios motus in cippo claudit arctat appetitus vagos distringit ligat n. 7. Formâ igitur jejuntorum propositâ fixoque exemplo postquam 40. dierum abstinentiam Dominus consummavit c n. 9. SICUT IN IPSIUS CHRISTI VOLUNTATE FUIT CONSECRARE IEIUNIA ita in potestate suit tempore opportuno sumere cibum Et abstinentiae refectionis penes ipsum erat arbitrium saculias Within the foresaid primitive Ages I am not ignorant of what I have omitted and is wont to be alledg'd by others as the supposed constitutions Apostolical by Clement in the 5 th Book in chap. 13 th 20 th and the supposed Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians the dubious Sermons of S. Augustine de Tempore and many of those which are doubtful among S. Ambrose's Sermons and other Authors For that I have produced none but such as of whose genuine title authority and antiquity I was my self satisfi'd The testimonies which I have alledg'd are such as are direct and simple others there are of great force complicated of several truths asserted in the primitive times from whence would follow our conclusion Those truths are three First that Easter or the night beginning Easter was ever to the Church a more solemn time of baptizing then others The second that generally the Church taught and directed the Catechumeni to prepare themselves by premitted solemn fastings for the reception of holy Baptism Thirdly that the Catholick Church or company of Christian Believers did joyn themselves in the daies of fastings and prayers as with the Penitents that sought Absolution so also with the Catechumeni Competentes which sought Baptism From which Assertions if proved it follows that a Paschal Fast before Easter was ever observed in the Church as of duty of Repentance for our selves so of duty of Charity towards others In all which duty without all doubt the Apostles had not failed to instruct them As to the first of those Propositions That Easter was ever to the Church a more solemn time of Baptizing Tertullian saith lib. de Baptismo â—… 19. Diem Baptismo solenniorem Pascha praestat Cum Passio Domini in quam tingimur adimpleta est nec incongruenter quis adsiguram interpretabitur quod cum ultimum Pascha Dominus esset acturus missis discipulis ad praeparandum Invenietis inquit hominem aquam bajulantem Paschae celebrandae locum de signo aquae ostendit Easter brings a more solemn time for Baptism when also the Passion of the Lord into which we are Baptized is remembred as then fulfilled Nor incongruously shall any one interpret that to have been done significantly which our Lord did when he sent forth his Disciples to prepare for his celebrating the last Passeover Ye shall find saith he a man bearing a pitcher of water Follow him Designing to them the place of celebrating the Passeover from the token of Water That reason above of Tertullian Because we are Baptized into the Death and Passion of our Lord he seems to have learnt from Ignatius in his undoubted Epistle to the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For our God Jesus Christ was conceived born and baptized that afterwards he might through his Passion purifie or sanctifie water viz. for the use of holy Baptism So in the Church the solemnity of Christs Passion which ye have heard from Constantine's Epistle to the Churches from the Instructions of the Bishops of the Christian world met at Nicaea was ever celebrated in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very day on which Christ suffer'd and that Christ himself delivering it and teaching it to his Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did accordingly precede the solemn time of Baptizing which that early Age of the Church may be thought probably to have learnt from grounds laid by S. Paul Rom. 6. 3 4. Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his Death therefore we were buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life And Coloss. 2. v. 12. having been buried with him in Baptism wherein also ye were rais'd with him through the faith of the operation of God who rais'd him from the Dead a This custome of the first Ages of the Church was also followed in the succeeding Ages as appears by S. Ambrose Tractatu de Hortat ad Virgin Venit Pascha dies in toto orbe Baptismi Sacramenta celebrantur c. Uno die sine aliquo dolore multos filios filias solet Ecclesia parturire The day of Easter is come the Sacrament or mysteries of Baptism are celebrated in all the world c. In one day without any pangs the Church Virgin and Mother is wont to bring forth multitudes
the Manuscript copies This was to be said not for the diminishing the honour of those two holy Bishops of Rome Telesphorus and Pius of the former whereof Irenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Basil l. de Sp. sancto c. 29. thus writeth l. 3. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Telesphorus succeeded Xystus and gloriously fulfilled Martyrdome The same might be shewn of Pius the next Bishop save one to Telesphorus who was martyred two years after S. Iustin Martyr Yet this honour of such Institutions belongs not to them as their own successors also acknowledge viz. that the Institution of the Paschal Fast was from the Apostles delivery and that of Easter on the Lords day from the Apostles also particularly from S. Peter and S. Paul as Victor himself also Bishop of Rome and Martyr in the Primitive Ages doth plead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They did not think it meet to dishonour the Tradition of Peter and Paul Soz. l. 7. c. 19. Another conceit by some is taken up as if the Fast of Lent were not the Paschal Fast because Tertullian doth not any where call the Paschal Fast Quadragesima so endeavouring from a negative argument of one Authors not using that one word which they call for to divide those fasts that they might weaken their forces But first it is the Paschal Fast that is prefixed in our proposition see pag. 24. where secondly I have shewn also that the Paschal Fast being confessedly by the Lawes of the Church the Spring-fast to attend the vernal Equinox as all ancient Books and Rules do witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lent fast is but the Saxon for that Spring-fast And of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quadragesima beside the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Irenaeus's Epistle to Victor elder then Tertullian of which more hereafter and Origen not many years after Tertullian his Habemus Quadraginta dies jejuniis consecratos of which before that this was by the Ancients delivered as the same with the Paschal Fast. I speak not here of a precept unto all of strict fasting 40 daies untill each evening I first alledge the 69 th Canon Apostolical the Authors of w ch Canon call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cum labore quadragesimam ante Pascha quinquagesimam post pascha celebramuâ—… S. August tract 17. in Iâ—…h the holy Quadragesimal Fast of Pasche The great Athanasius in his Epistle ad Orthodoxos writeth on this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things were done in the holy Quadragesimal Fast it self about the Pasche or near Easter when the Brethren i. e. the Christians were in fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor did they reverence the Lords day it self of the holy Feast And he here supposing a great violence offer'd to the Churches order thus stirs up the Christians in the same Epistle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye therefore mov'd also I beseech you lest after a while both the Canons and the faith of the Church be destroy'd for both are in danger except speedily God by you reform the transgressions and the Church be vindicated For not now first were the Canons and Rules of the Church delivered but they have been fairly delivered down and firmly of our Fathers nor did the Faith now first begin c. That therefore those things which have been preserv'd in the Churches even until our times from them of old may not now be lost in our daies c. Be ye stirred up Brethren c. This I have the rather set down at large because in that great abundance of 10. witnesses in that one age of the Councel of Nice I have not hitherto alledg'd ought from Athanasius and here my chief use of him is to shew that from the very first beginnings of Christianity he had received no other Paschal Fast then that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fast Quadragesimal whereof the Great week was indeed a distinctly eminent and principal part but a part as appears alsâ—… by all the Paschal Homilies of Cyril of Alexandria in number 22. by me above alledg'd Yea Socrates himself who is thought the least friend to this Fast of Lent as he is miserably abus'd in English by false translation and himself in part mistaken as we shall shew hereafter in the Appendix yet l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he grants that both those in Rome and those in Illyrium and in all Greece and in Alexandria kept a Fast of many weeks not one only whether six or three and that Fast they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesimal and he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Paschal Fast. And a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Paschal Fastings If happily it be the sense of some words of Epiphanius that the Quadragesimal Fast or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did determine before the beginning of the Great week of Fastings which is oft called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although Petavius deny that to be the sense of Epiphanius I shall not contend but say that if such was his sense he was almost singular therein And that from his professed value of the Pseudo-Apostolical Constitutions which have borrowed the name of Clement as Collector who never saw them nor some ages after him I have reason to suppose that Epiphanius took up this opinion from the 5. l. 12. cap. of those Pseudo Apostolical constitutions which first broach'd this conceit Whereas the sacred 6 th Councel Oecumenical can 2. though giving high honour to the Canons Apostolical rejected in express terms the Authority of those Constitutions a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Having thus clear'd the consent of the Generality of the Fathers and the great number of undeniable witnesses by me produc'd in the first 7. Ages after the decease of the last of the Apostles so uniformly witnessing that the Paschal Fast of Lent was ever observed in the Church as from the Apostles and from Evangelical Instruction I desire to know what is sufficient if this be not to prove a Tradition Apostolical if any shall hope to render the use of the Fathers useless as to make any evidence herein because forsooth they can alledge that some one Father or other hath sometime call'd somewhat Tradition Apostolical which indeed was not I answer It was the Generality of the consent of other Fathers to the contrary at least the silence of all other Fathers therein and many of those primitive Ages of the Church knowing nothing thereof that let 's us then know such not to have been Tradition Apostolical which in our cause is all otherwise Where beside the uniform custome and solemn practise of the Church of all Ages and places for some Paschal Fast close upon the Vernal Equinox which we therefore call the Fast of Lent or Spring the positive Testimony of those Fathers hath been shew'd so general and consenting that perhaps themselves who
mother the Church and Countrey that bare thee Such fasters I cannot better resemble then to the ancient blood-thirsty Tyrants who commanded their Lions to be kept some daies fasting and hungry that they might with uglier greediness devour the meek condemned Christians The 5 Rule was That as our feasts so our fasts be inseparably conjoyn'd with alms and mercy to the poor Is not this the fast that I have chosen saith God is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee c. Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer Isa. 58. 79. This is properly to forget to eat our bread with David and not forget or hide ourselves from our own flesh One fasting joyn'd with many works of mercy feeding with our bread covering with our garments and bringing into our house This is righteousness going before thee making thee friends of unrighteous Mammon that may receive thee This makes thy fasting assuredly health and these two together fail not to obtain that the 3 d thy prayers miss not to be heard and answer'd of the Lord. Thus much the Prophet I was fasting saith Cornelius of himself unto this hour the 9 th But the Angel of God said unto him Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God And S. Luke saith of him He gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alwayes Act. 10. 2. 4. 30. After whose example Leo in his 3 d serm de jejunio Pentecostes directs our fast â—…m sanctas continentiae delicias appetentes aliquantulum nobis de terrenorum ciborum abundantiâ subtrahamus ita proficiat eleemosynis quod non impendit r mensis Tum enim demùm ad animae curationem proficit medicina jejunii cùm abstinentia jejunantis esuriem resicit indigentis When we desirous of the holy delights of abstinence substract from ourselves something of the abundance of our earthly viands that what is not expended upon our tables may bring us in great gain by being laid out on our alms For then doth the medicine of fasting work to the curing of the Soul when the abstinence of him that fasts refreshes the indigence of him that hungers That Antient writer Origen speaking of Lent-fast and the weekly stations tels us of a certain saying of the Apostles which had come down to him Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos habemus quartam sextam septimanae dies quibus solenniter jejunamus est alia adhuc religiosa jejunandi ratio cujus laus quorundam Apostolorum literis praedicatur Invenimus enim in quodam libello ab Apostolis dictum Beatus est qui etiam jejunat pro eo ut alat pauperes Hujus jejunium valdè acceptum est apud Deum We have the dayes of Lent consecrated to fastings we have the 4 th and 6 th dayes of the week whereon we solemnly fast there is also yet another Religious way of fasting whose praise is set forth in writing from certain of the Apostles for we find in a certain book that it was said by the Apostles Blessed is he who fasts also for that end that he may relieve the poor This mans fast is much accepted with God Misericordia pietas eleemosynae orationes jejuniis sunt alae per quas tollitur portatur ad coelum sine quibus jacet volutatur in terrâ saith Chrysolog serm 8. de jejun Alms and prayers are the wings of fasting by which 't is carried up to Heaven as was Cornelius's without which it lies dead and spiritless upon the earth Idem ibid. Iejunantes ergo fratres prandium nostrum reponamus in manu pauperis ut servet nobis manus pauperis quod venter nobis fuerat perditurus Manus pauperis est gazophylacium Christi Pauperi qui non jejunat Deo singit Iejunium sine misericordiâ simulachrum famis est sine pietate jejunium occasio est avaritiae Quia parcitas ista quantùm siccatur in corpore tantùm tumescit in sacculo Let us therefore O my brethren when we fast deposit our dinner in the hand of the poor that that hand may preserve for us what our belly would lose to us The hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ He that fasts not to the poor doth but feign a fast to God fasting without works of mercy is but an empty image of hunger Without pity to others 't is but an occasion taken of covetousnesse Because by such sparing what is taken 〈◊〉 in the flesh swels in the bag And in his 7 th sermon on Mat. 6. Sciat ille sustinere 〈◊〉 incassum se nihil habiturum qui premens jejuâ—… aratrum abscindens gulae gramina atque â—…adicans luxuriae sentes misericordiae semina nulla jactaverit Let him know that he suffers pain iâ—… vain and shall receive nothing who â—…ing up his fallow with the plow of fasting and rooâ—…ng up gluttony and the thorns of luxury yet casteth into the furrow no seed-corn of the works of mercy As thine own use of meat and drink and other blessings so also thy fast itself wherewith thou wouldst purify and cleanse thy heart hath need being not without mixture of sinful infirmities of that method wherewith to be purify'd prescrib'd by our Lord. Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Imple commiserationis officia jejunia sanctificâsti saith S. Austin The 6 th Rule by these premised duties there is now roome made for thy fervent prayers which together with more frequent hearing of Gods word and other works of Devotion are the 6 t necessary company of the fast As in the examples of Moses Daniel and Cornelius and infinite more might be shewn for Moses Deut. 9. 18 25. I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 daies and 40 nights I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins c. But the Lord hearkned unto me at that time also Thus I fell down before the Lord 40 daies and 40 nights as I fell down at the first I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said And in the New Testament not only the Apostles have coupled them together 1 Cor. 7. 5. For a season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A season of vacant attendance on fasting and prayer of which none so common so fixed so holy as this of Lent But also our Lord himself concerning what was most difficult even to the Disciples themselves gives this singular prescription This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting Upon which words S. Chrysostome thus comments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the fourty dayes Fast of Lent the fourth and sixth dayes of the week on which we solemnly Fast and those he recounts not as prescribed by this or that Church or of this or that Age but as part of the Christian Abstinence Then Peter also the Archbishop of Alexandria in his 15 Can. ratifi'd by the sixth General Councel thus declareth the Churches Fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor can any accuse us for observing the fourth and sixth day of the week in which we had been with great reason commanded to Fast according to Tradition on the fourth day by reason of the Councel held by the Iews for the betraying of the Lord c. What Tradition what command he means you shall now hear The Tradition Epiphanius will tell us was from the Apostles and the Command from the Successours of the Apostles the 69. Can. Apostolick made by Primitive Bishops the early Successours of the Apostles doth witness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any Bishop Priest or Deacon any Reader or Singer Fast not the Holy Lent or Fast not the fourth or sixth day of the week let him be deprived except he were hinder'd by weakness of body And if a laick let him be separated a Canon which might concern their times onely Now whence the Tradition of those days came we shall hear from Epiphanius in his book de Expositione Fidei c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Wednesday and Eve of Saturday we are in fasting unto the ninth hour And the Apostles have delivered that on these dayes Fasts be perform'd and that which is written be fulfill'd that when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they Fast in those dayes And in his Haeres 75. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sequitur ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in expos fidei the same Epiphanius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is there that doth not confess and agree in all the climates of the world that the fourth day and the Eve of Saturday is a defined Fast in the Church Onely saith he elsewhere in the end of his third book of Haeres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the day of the manifestation of Christ in the flesh when the Lord was born it is not lawful to Fast though it fall out on the fourth or sixth day of the week S. Hierom shall be our next witness in his preface upon the rule of S. Pachomius Bis in hebdomadâ quartâ sextâ sabbati ab omnibus jejunatur exceptâ Pentecoste The Fast is observ'd by all twice in the week on the fourth and sixth day thereof except within the solemn fifty days Their Exceptions both are to be put together The same ground of the Fast with Epiphanius S. Austin gives us Epist. 86. ad Casulanum Cur autem quartâ sextâ feriâ maximè jejunet Ecclesia illa ratio reddi videtur quòd considerato Evangelio ipsa quarta Sabbati quam vulgò quartam feriam vocant concilium reperiuntur ad occidendum Dominum fecisse Iudaei Deinde traditus est â—…â nocte quae jam ad sextam Sabbati qui dies Passionis ejus manifestus est pâ—…rtinebat Now why the Church especially Fasts on the fourth and sixth dayes of the week that reason seems to be render'd that the Gospel being consider'd on the fourth day of the week the Iews are found to have held a councel for the slaying of the Lord Who was afterwards deliver'd up on that night which belongs to the sixth day of the week which manifestly was the day of his Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Epiphanius Ratio reddi videtur considerato Evangelio saith S Austin a Apolloniuâ—… apâ—…d Graâ—…ianum Distinct. 4. cap. 32. Iejunia vero legitima i. e. quartâ sextâ feriâ non sunt selvenda nisi gâ—…andis alâ—… que necessiâ—…s fuerâ—… quâ—…d quartâ feriâ Iadas de Traditione Domini cogitaveâ—…it feriâ sextâ 〈◊〉 est Salvator The two weekly dayes of the Iews were the second and fifth of the Maniches were the first and second of the Christians were the fourth and sixth days of the week These are the several Fasts of the Church according to their several Originals and Institutions CHAP. III. Of the several Fasts of the Church or also other Religious Fasts as to their measure of Time THe extension of the Fast as to the persons performing it was either a Fast of the whole Catholick Church as it were at one time perform'd by all Christian people or particular Fasts of particular Churches or individual Fasts of single persons But the extension of Fasts as to the time forsomuch as the flesh which needeth that medicine is not able to bear it continued perpetually or for a very long time if we speak of the ordinary strength of Christians hath been in divers proportions bounded out There is first the semi-jejunium stationum as Tertullian calls it Cornelius's Fast till three a clock in the afternoon such is call'd in Typico S. Sabae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Venit enim horae nonae observatio de exitu Domini as we heard Tertullian grant to the Church but now There is secondly a proper entire Fast of one day unto the Evening 2 Sam. 1. 12. 1 Sam. 7. 6. and Iudges 20. 26. And all the Children of Israel and all the People went up and came into the house of God and wept and abode there before the Lord and fasted that day until the Evening and offered Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings before the Lord. According to which Pattern the Christian Church in the Fasts of Lent in those days when they fasted until the Evening celebrated their commemorative Sacrifice viz. of the holy Eucharist in the Evening next before their Officium vespertinum ' betwixt three a clock and six at night as on the other Fasts of their stations which they brake up at three a clock they offered up their commemorative Sacrifice next also before their Evening Service but betwixt the hours of twelve and three Such was also Daniel's Fast conjoyn'd with supplications sack-cloth and ashes and continued until the time of the Evening Oblation Dan. 9. 3. 21. The Angel of God putting this period of the Evening to his Fast as an Angel of God did at the ninth hour unto Cornelius's Fast Acts 10. Amongst the set Fasts of the Church certain especially in Lent and those also before the Ordinations which as appears by the Sermons of Leo were wont then to be kept but two days the fourth and sixth of the week were then extended unto the Evening A third sort of fasts as to the extent of time is that which the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superpositio when they added to the day the night following also or at least the time unto the Cock-crowing So holy David 2 Sam. 12. 16. He fasted a Fast and went in and lay all night
mediocrity but in no wise necessary unto them as being spiritual and called perfect ones And anon They teach that that which is spiritual is the first-fruits but that we i. e. the Church of the Psychici are the lump Who they were therefore who opposing Tertullian and the Montanists were by him called Psychici and what they said they had received from God and from the Apostles ye have heard Now what Tertullian saith of them there follows viz. c. 4 13. That they the Psychici which were the Church did Pascha jejunare illos dies quibus ablatus est sponsus stationum semi-jejunia interponere that they did fast the Paschal Fast those daies wherein the Bridegroom was taken away and also the half-fasts of the Stations and sometimes did as each man saw good live on bread and water And c. 14. that they did as well as Tertullian and the Montanists Pascha celebrare annuo circulo in mense primo and thence 50 diebus in omni exultatione decurrâ—…re that they did Stationibus quartam sextam Sabbati dicare jejuniis Parasceuen And c. 2. that they did bid Anathema to the Montanists introducing Novelty in the matter of fasting that they did keep Easter in a yearly circle in the first moneth and thence observe 50. daies in all exultation that they did appropriate the 4 th and 6 th daies of the week to stations and the Friday before Easter to Fastings viz. solemn as on which saith he l. de Orat. c. 14. Communis quasi publica jejunii religio est A joynt and as it were publique Religion of a fast is observed What can be required more then the witness both of the Church and of her enemies in the contest and otherwise that a Paschal Fast was and ought to be observed as being the daies on which the Bridegroom was taken away Whether other daies also of fasting beside those the Stations and the Pascal Fast were also by God appointed to be kept was the controversie betwixt them then the Church insisting that nothing of Novelty ought by them under pain of the Churches Anathema to be introduced and laid as a yoke upon Christians but what they had received from God and from the Apostles what the Apostles themselves had observed and had enjoyned the Church as the only fasts of necessary observation by all Christians viz. that were able but the other the followers of Montanus were as Eusebius in his description of them notes wont 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb. l. 5. c. 15. to be in sudden rapture of fury and to begin to prate and utter new and strange things contrary to what the custome of the Church according to Tradition and according to succession thereof derived from the beginning had received And as Apollonius a Catholique Writer of the Church who lived in Tertullians time witnesseth ap Euseb. l. 5. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Montanus a new Master this is he who taught dissolving of marriages and made new Lawes of fasting There also he declares how his two chief Prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla pretending Inspiration left their husbands painted their faces and died their hair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plaid at dice and put out their money to use and these were the contemners of the Apostolical Tradition Now among the Apostles to whom the Church referred the Tradition of a Paschal Fast that Polycarp and Polycrates vouched S. Iohn and other Apostles S. Philip by name that Anicetus and Victor alledged S. Peter and S. Paul and that both agreed for the ending of certain Fasts before Easter I have shewn above p. 35 36 37. of the Sermon That following Hereticks for a long time denied not such Tradition Apostolical but only understood and kept it amiss may be seen in Theodoret l. 3. haereticarum fabularum c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Understanding amiss the APOSTOLICAL TRADITION they celebrate in their Assemblies the memory of the Passion blindly as it happens Having thus farther shewn the strength of the Churches Testimony in Tertullian referring the Paschal Fast to an Institution from God and from the Apostles I shall remind the Reader only that answerably to the Churches Testimony there in Tertullian Sic Apostolos observasse nullum aliud imponentes jugum c. Et in Evangelio Determinatos dies We have also produced Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria and S. Cyril of the same See so frequently S. Hierom and S. Austin and Theodoret Leo so often and Isidore Bishop of Sevil Dorotheus Archimandrita and Rabanus Maurus beside others all these expresly avowing some Paschal or Lent-Fast to be of Apostolical Institution or Tradition and answerably to the Churches certos Dies à Deo constitutos in Evangelio Dies illos jejuniis determinatos in Tertullian I have produced S. Austin S. Cyril of Alexandria S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Ambrose S. Hierom Maximus Taurinensis Leo and Chrysologus Isidore Dorotheus and Bede beside others referring this Pascal Fast to the Authority of Gods Institution and the Gospels If yet you may surmise that these say it but seldome times though they be not a few Authors How often doth Leo repeat and press the same truth and the two great Patriarchs of Alexandria successively Theophilus and S. Cyril two great Lights of the Christian Church in their times no less then 24 times in 24 Paschal Epistles or Sermons read of most Churches avowed the ending of certain Antepaschal or Paschal Fasts to be the night before the Feast of Easter according to Traditions Constitutions or Instructions Evangelical or Apostolical which comes to the same in effect the Gospel being sounded forth and explained by the Apostles first to all nations All this being already made good I shall here add and enlarge on but two or three chief Authorities more The first shall be the late Edition in that renowned work of the Biblia Polyglotta of the simple and Ancient Version of the Syriack New Testament Which simple Syriack Translation how ancient it is confessed to be by most learned men you may read in the Prolegomena before that Oriental Bible there may you see it the judgement not only of that late Reverend Prudent and most Laborious Prelate Bishop Walton but also of Tremellius Widmanstadius Trostius Gesner and also the constant and uninterrupted Tradition of the Eastern Churches of the Maronites and Syrians themselves that that simple Syriack Version was done by Thaddaeus whom S. Thomas the Apostle sent to King Abgar and by other Apostolical persons but also the Editor avowing that beside all this Ex Insitis Argumentis probari in ipsâ Versione quae magnam ejus Antiquitatem testantur And for the copy of that simple Version which they followed they professed Omnia â—…n Editione nostrâ supplere conati sumus secundum exemplaria MSS. quorum quaedam Antiquissima Reliqua ex Authenicis apud Syrios Codd descripta sunt Now if that Syriack
the respective Countreys new convert Iews to be condescended to in the very Quartadecimâ Lunae seeing also that the Apostolical Tradition of the Feast it self of Easter and of the Fasts to be ended at Easter to be safe unshaken and agreed upon by both sides yea and contended for for else what needed all that ado about a circumstance of it Himself Irenaeus first writes that the Mystery of Christ's Resurrection ought to be celebrated viz. in the Feast of Easter not on the fourteenth day of the Moon whatsoever day of the week it fell upon but onely on the weekly memory of Christ's Resurrection viz. on the Lord's day And also earnestly exhorts Victor that he would not cut off whole Churches of God for following their Tradition in their Countreys of ancient time For that there had been in fore time difference not onely about the time or day of Easter and so of ending of the Fasts but even concerning the manner or form of the Fast it self the Apostles themselves having left both an allowance of condescension to the Iews in some Countreys touching the day of the Feast and also to some infirm or weaker then others in the form or manner of the Fast to be extended to more or fewer days and this condescension having been abused also by some to take up with very little time for the fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been the difference for some think they ought to fast one day some two some also more and some measure their day viz. such as would have one day suffice yet by 40 houres reckoning in the hours of night and day viz. as may be most reasonably thought from the beginning of Christs sufferings His Agony on Thursday night onward 40 hours which should inclose all the Parasceue or Good-Friday and keep some resemblance of our Saviours 40 days fast accounting to themselves because the other they could not reach an hour for a day and some resemblance also of the Churches wonted 40 days abstinence from which they made this discession and innovation of 40 hours in the stead of the ancients simple and plain custome of 40 days and lastly some memory of the 40 houres in which Christ did abide given up to death these their forty hours probably they begun I say with the beginning of his bloudy Sweat and Agony from about eight a clock of the night before he was crucified untill about noon on Saturday which is the just number of forty hours Now this I am the rather induced to believe to be the meaning of Irenaeus's words and of their practice of forty hours fast comprising within the account the hours of day and of night because I finde in ancient Authours a frequent custome of Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole nights-watch on the night preceding Good Friday as on which Christ our Lord rested not at all but passed from his Agony to his Apprehension and thence to Annas first Iohn 18. 13. 24. and thence to Cajaphas the High Priest that year where the Scribes and the Elders were assembled Matth. 26. 57. where false Witnesses were sought for against the Lord and examined where he was accused spit upon blind-folded buffeted and smitten with the palms of their hands denied by his own Disciple Peter about the time of the Cock-crowing held on still by those who most impiously did blasphemously spake many things against him and by the first Light appearing which he had created led by the Elders of the people and the chief Priests and Scribes into their Council to a fresh Examination Luc. 22. 66. and thence early in the morning to Pilat's Judgement-Hall c. Iohn 18. 28. Upon the consideration of this whole nights most indign suffering of our Lord from his own People the Iews and their malicious Rulers many Religions had in use that which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole nights-watch of Christ's sufferings as the Greeks have it This Epiphanius in Exposit. Fidei in express words thus recordeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in some places at the end of the fifth day or Thursday they watch unto the day-light of Good Friday as also the night before Easter morning these two whole nights onely The same I take to be the meaning of Iohn of Hierusalem Catech. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the labour which you have lately born both from the extended fast of Good Friday and from the Vigil or watching thereof viz. of the night that leads unto it Wherefore St. Hierom also in his Book against Vigilantius by way of Sarcasme thus collects what Vigilantius would have Non vigilemus itaque diebus Pascha Let us leave off then to watch on the days of the Pasch viz. especially the two Eves of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Eusebius lib. 6. cap. 9. I acknowledge to be the latter But that there were more than one of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or whole-night-watches near the day of our Lord's Passion Eusebius himself hath left recorded lib. 2. cap. 15 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rursùs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Ascetical performances which are even still untill now with us accustomably exercised which more eminently we are wont to perform at the Solemnity of the Passion of our Saviour in Fastings and whole nightswatches and attentions unto the Word of God and again the whole night-watches of the great Solemnity and the Ascetical performancestherein Well therefore might the hours of that first whole-nights-watch begin the first part of their forty hours which they extended it seems to Saturday noon for that they which kept but one day in fasting as Irenaeus and Dionysius say some did though neither approve that pittance in persons of ordinary strength did not fast Saturday as Tertullian also saith Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum siquando continuatis c. Of those therefore whom here Irenaeus mentions and tolerates but approves not some kept one day imitating as to the time the one onely fast-day the day of Atonement at first by God in the Law appointed to the Iews a ground unsufficient to warrant in any now no more Others two days Good Friday and the great Sabbath because on those two days the Apostles were in special sadness and our Lord was given up to death for us Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum siquando continuatis nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum Others also more whether three adding the Wednesday wherein the Council was held and Money was given and taken for the taking away our Lord Or four the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria in his Epistle to Basilides records some fasted with superposition or continuance to the Cock-crowing two days some three some four and others all the six of that great week others fasting forty hours
to be forborn the plea of both their traditions met in this that on Easter-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the decrees of their several Synods also concluded for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the day of the Lords resurrection So that the Paschal fast according to them and their pleaded traditions Apostolical on al hands was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fasts or fasting dayes that were to end in Easter not the fasting day The Church in like manner in Tertullian opposed to the Montanists quod ad jejunia pertineat certos dies à Deo constitutos certe in Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos in quibus ablatus est sponsus That there were certain dayes appointed by God for fastings that in the Gospel those dayes were determined for fastings on which the bridegroom was taken away Certain dayes not day those dayes not only that day so Dionysius of Alexandria Epistolâ ad Basilidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By all it will be confessed that we must humble our souls with FASTINGS until the feast of Easter To this adde that the 24 Paschal Epistles or Sermons of Theophilus and Cyril Patriarchs of Alexandria each of them do conclude that according to Evangelical or Apostolical traditions constitutions or teachings they should end or dissolve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is still plurally the Fasts on Easter Eve The 45 Canon of the Laodicaean Councel confirmed in general Councel tell us of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy fasts not fasting day of Lent St. Ambrose thought more commanded by God to Christians of an ordinary strength then the fast of a day in Lent when he said l. de jejunio Ecclesiâ propitiâ divinitate ecce jam penè transegimus Quadragesimae indicta jejunia praecepta Domini abstinentiae devotione complevimus Where he calls the many fasts indicted in one Lent the precepts of God 2. Irenaeus by his recital that some thought they ought to fast two days and no more and others more cannot be understood as if Irenaeus approved that number which Dionysius his words the Patriarch of Alexandria within a few years after disparaged greatly even when performed with greatest severity of superposition or fasting to cock-crowing as if they thought they did some great matter saith he the question which Christians were wont to propound one to another in St. Chrysostomes time homil 16 ad popul Antiochen was not how many hours nor how many days they had fasted of that Lent but how many weeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye might hear them answer none of them one but some two some three some all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore there was a Known all which all know to have been so many as contain 40 days and that two or three weeks were not all much less two or three dayes all the days But the question may be put against that ancient glosse that they who fasted 40 hours did it an hour for a day How that can be when no mention is of 40 days no nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before Irenaeus's time To this though it be an argument drawn only negatively from testimony as silent which speaks nothing to any proof especially so far off when they might speak out and we not hear of it and in an age whereof so few monuments are left remaining yet it may be said that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be found then 40 days for what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinctly signifies it being purely an Ecclesiastical word surely the Churches use and interpretation of that word where ever any thing distinct can certainly be known as it may in a thousand places must needs be a better Lexicon to us then our own interessed conjectures from the origination common to both Now let one Ecclesiastical record be shewn where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie a fast of forty hours for though here is such a fast in Irenaeus yet no such name here and we will produce numberless ancient monuments of the Church where it is impossible to be forty hours but must be many weeks such as the 45 50 and 51 Canons of Laodicea yea where it must needs signifie the fast of forty days precisely as where they are precisely reckoned up as in most of the 24 Epistles Paschal of Theophilus and St. Cyril and what the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quadragesima soon after Irenaeus signified in the Church is most considerable as to this enquiry Now when it is in Origen hom 10. in Levit. c. 16. Nos habemus quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos we have the days of quadragesima consecrated to Fasts it cannot be meant of one fast or of fortie hours only but of days it is and that 's the nearest to Irenaeus's time which can be shewn Now hear we the whole entire passage of Irenaeus which is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the reading whereof or punctation and about rendring of the former part of it we shall easily agree Neither is the controversie only about the day of Easter but also concerning the form it self of the fast for some think that they ought to fast one day some two others also more and some by forty houres of day-time and of night commensurate their day And such variety of those that keep the fast c. Hitherto we have little difference with our brethren but as to that which follows just cause of great complaint of the abuse of the Author and of the Reader and of the fast For those following words we say our brethren in the 66 Page of their grand debate have translated amiss to their own advantage for the disparagement of the Paschal fast in these words With our Ancestors who as is most like propagated to posterity a custome which they retained as brought in by a certain simplicity and private will instead of those words from the Greek with our Ancestors who less accurately as is most like retaining the form of the fast above mentioned have changed the simple and plain custome or the custome which was after a simple and plain manner of speaking into that which followed after For 4. words our brethren put in which are not in the Greek either formally or virtually viz. brought in say they that their English reader might think that Irenaeus had said that even that which Irenaeus's Ancestors retained and not then devised the custome of the fast was brought in by a certain simplicity and private will Tell us now I pray what one word is there in your Author which ye pretend to translate that signifies brought in or brought in by a certain simplicity and private will but if there be no word of bringing in by a certain simplicity c. but only of changing
some too forwardly pressed even throughout all the forty daies and as a duty for so the words must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now whether we follow this reading or the other all the definite numbers as there managed are recited by Irenaeus as deviations from the plain and simple manner and both readings suppose the use of forty daies Absâ—…inence as being before in the Church To the rest of your Allegations answer shall as fully be made in the 8. chapter only here because you bid us in your 66th pagE read the rest of the Chapter we have so done but finde nothing that favours your cause but still against you more then enough for in the following part of the Chapter Irenaeus tells Victor that Anieâ—…tus his predecessour could not perswade Polycarp whom above he calls the blessed Polycarp not to keep Easter according to the tradition in Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As which he had ever kept or observed with St. Iohn the Disciple of our Lord and the rest of the Apostles with whom he had conversed Here if the blessed and holy martyr Polycarp be to be believed as he is by all sober Christians in the world it is undeniably certain that St. Iohn the Apostle and other Apostles and Polycarp with St. Iohn the Apostle and with those other Apostles with whom he had conversed did constantly keep an Annual set feast of Easter And now I leave it to you to tell us who they are that have taught the Sectaries to condemn the observation of such Anniversary set feasts and particularly that Anniversary day of Easter as superstitious and not agreeable to the purity of the best Christians Against whom I enter this charge even against all that so at any time teach Christian people that they are undeniably found condemners of St. Iohn the Apostle and of other Apostles of the Lord I adde even in that wherein Saint Iohn and those other Apostles of the Lord agreed with St. Peter and St. Paul in that wherein Polycarp and Anicetus agreed Polycrates and Victor agreed were all of one accord had one custome both those Apostles which towards their later end abode in Europe and those which so abode in Asia and the Bishops their successors in the West and in the East the first and second age before and after St. Iohn's death until Polycarp yea until Victors time and 't is known even until our time also For their time so much was pleaded as may be seen by comparing this of Euseb. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with Sozomen l. 7. 19. Now how sure a witness this Holy Polycarp was in what he said of the Apostles and said he knew by conversing with them Irenaeus whom you have produced shall tell you l. 3 c. 3. his own Greek words we have in Euseb. l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polycarp was not only the Disciple of the Apostles and had conversed with many that had seen Christ but was by the Apostles constituted Bishop in Asia of the Church of Smyrna whom also we have seen He gloriously and most remarkably suffering martyrdome departed out of this life having alwayes taught those things which he had learned of the Apostles which also the Church doth deliver and which only are true And all the Churches in Asia do bear him this record And yet either this Polycarp must now be found a false witness of what he had seen done by the Apostles when he conversed with them and of what he had done and done constantly with them or else the Apostles did observe some Anniversary set holy day and this particularly and those that have clamoured on this and the like as superstitious are found condemners of the Apostles themselves This is the charge let it not be forgot to be wiped off And since you bid us to read on we read on still but to the very next words after your direction and behold the Bishops Narcissus Theophilus Cassius and Clarus of the same time with Irenaeus and others with them assembled in Palestina 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their writing or decree discoursing much concerning the tradition of the Apostles touching Easter which had come down to them by succession and the fast confessedly on all hands was to preceed the feast of Easter and so in cap. 23. we read of an Apostolical tradition received and practised also in more then three parts of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Fasts should be ended on no other day of the week then the Sunday the day of the Lords resurrection And therefore fasts were to have their place and being as well as their ending before the day of that Feast according to Apostolical tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A custome begun from Apostolical tradition and obtaining even until now And those fewer Churches which did not so end their fasts as making Easter-day only Sunday yet pleaded tradition also no less ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the dissolutions of the Fasts ought to be at Easter for ending the Fasts at Easter-day nevertheless on whatsoever day of the week that were So that the tradition of all the world was for ending certain fasting-days at Easter And for more then three parts of the world it was pleaded in that very place that it was from Apostolical tradition that they observed such custome of so ending their Fasts CHAP. VI. In what regard the Forty dayes of the Quadragesima were of Apostolical recommendation and in what regard of Ecclesiastical Constitution THat some Paschal or Lent i. e. Spring-fast before Easter was ever from the Apostles time and of Apostolical tradition and constitution hath been sufficiently evidenced both in the whole body of the discourse above and also in the whole fourth Chapter of this Appendage We proceed now to the consideration of the forty days and to the declaration how the observance thereof was ever in the Christian Church as a special time of spiritual exercise and abstinence for the generality of Christian people from recommendation Apostolical a Ab Apostolis Traditum Commendatum Howbeit the precept of such forty dayes abstinence and much more the precept of forty dayes fast as also of other Ecclesiastical discipline and Ecclesiastical Administrations respecting Penitents or Catechumens respecting publick Penances Absolutions Catechizings solelmn Baptisme Synods of Bishops and other the like specially affixed and determined to that time may well be allowed to be of Ecclesiastical constitution But it is meet to begin with that which is even in this of forty daies also of Apostolical Recommendation For the proof whereof I might permit it to the judgement of any Reader whether a great and sufficient number of the Authorities by me above produced though brought only to prove some Paschal or Lentenâ—…ast before Easter to have been of Tradition and Institution Apostolical have not evidenced
can be shewn so early as in Irenaeus's daies should consider whether what S. Austin wrote in his 2d Book de Doctrinâ Christianâ c. 16. Quadraginta diebus jejunare monemur Hoc lex cujus persona est in Mose hoc prophetia cujus personam gerit Elias Hoc ipse Dominus monet qui tanquà m testimonium habens ex lege prophetis medius inter illos in monte 3 Discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit We are admonish'd to fast forty days this the Law whose person Moses bare this the Prophets whose person Elias sustained this the Lord himself admonisheth us who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the mount the three Disciples beholding with astonishment And what St. Hierome writes in l. 2 advers Iovinian Est Dominus qui Quadraginta diebus Christianorum jejunium sanctificavit And on Iona 3. Ipse quoque Dominus jejunavit 40 dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero animas nostras praeparat And on Isa. 58 Dominus quadraginta diebus in solitudine jejunavit ut nobis solennes jejuniorum dies relinqueret The Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness and hath thereby sanctified the Christians fast and left to us the solemn days of fastings leaving to us that inheritance of the fast and preparing our souls to the eating of his body under this number of forty They should consider whether I say Irenaeus himself can no where be found beside if in that Epistle to have given some such fair intimation I shall produce a passage from him at large because I have not seen it by any observ'd to this purpose it is in his fifth book against heresies c. 18. Primò quidem diebus 40 jejunus Dominus similiter ut Moyses Helias posteà esuriit ut hominem eum verum firmum intelligamus proprium enim est hominis jejunantis esurire Deinde autem ut baberet Adversarius ubi congrederetur Quoniam enim in principio per escam non esurientem hominem seduxit transgredi praeceptum Dei in fine esurientem non potuit dissuadere eam quae à Deo esset sustinere escam Quae ergo suit in Paradiso repletio hominis per duplicem gustationem dissoluta est per eam quae fuit in hoc mundo indigentiam seu inediam Quoniam enim initio homini suasit transgredi praeceptum factoris ideò eum habuit in suâ potestate potestas autem est transgressio Apostasia his colligavit hominem lapsum Per hominem ipsum Christum iterùm oportebat victum eum contrariò colligari iisdem vinculis quibus alligavit hominem ut homo qui lapsus fuerat colligatus solutus revertatur ad suum Dominuns illa vincula relinquens gulae inter caetera per quae ipse fuerat alligatus i. e. transgressionis NOS AUTEM SOLUTOS PER IPSUM PRAECEPTUM DOCUIT ESURIENTES QUIDEM SUSTINERE EAM QUAE A DEO DATUR ESCAM First of all the Lord fasting forty days like as Moses and Elias had done was afterwards an hungred that we might know him to be true and undoubted man for that it properly belongs to man when he fasts to be an hungred Next also that Satan might have a field to fight in and encounter him for because in the beginning the Devil seduced man by food to transgress the precepts of God while he consented not to abstain therefore in the end the Devil was not able to disswade the man Christ Jesus from waiting for that food which is given of God The repletion therefore of man which was in Paradise by the double tasting viz. of Adam and Eve was dissolv'd through that abstinence which Christ exercis'd in the world for in as much as in the beginnning Satan perswaded man to transgress the precept of his Maker and therefore had man deliver'd into his own power which his power over man lay in mans transgression and apostacy wherewith he held man fast bound therefore it was needful that he should by man himself the Man Christ Jesus be himself again overcome and be in contrary manner himself bound fast in the same bonds wherewith he had bound man viz. in the trial of eating and abstinence that man who had been bound being now loosed by Christ might return to his own Lord leaving those bonds viz. of being led by the belly to obey Satan wherewith he had been held fast bound the bonds of his transgression FOR HE HATH TAUGHT US NOW LOOSED BY HIS COMMAND IT SELF THAT HUNGRING OR FASTING WE SHOULD SO WAIT FOR THAT FOOD WHICH IS GIVEN OF GOD. viz. I understand the holy food of his body and blood then wont most solemnly to be received by all Christian people at Easter after their fastings as appears by the Allegations in Irenaeus his time of such fasts ending in the feast of Easter according to traditions and customes much elder then Irenaeus and delivered from the Apostles And he must be much ignorant of Christianity who can doubt whether the most solemn Christian festival in the year were or not a solemn time of receiving the Holy Sacrament If forty-forty-days abstinence were not in publick use in Irenaeus's time it must be more then strange how Origen living so near his time should in the name of Christians say Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos And those there by him remembred as his first instance of abstinentia Christiana Not that we may saith he let loose the reins of Christian abstinence hom 10 in Levit. These Homilies are Origens's own saith Gerard and these fasts of the Quadragesima are the Christians own saith Origen Who it cannot be wondred should mention the Quadragesima in his Homilies who in his eighth book against Celsus acknowledges and defends egainst Celsus the common manner of all Christians in observance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which Tertullian before had said speaking of a custome common to the Catholicks with his Montanists Cur Pascha celebramus annuo circulo Cur dicamus jejuniis Parasceuen For we have the days of Quadragesima or the forty days consecrated to fastings viz. a consecrated chief part of the Christian abstinence About this time might that Canon be made the 68th among the Apostolical Canons confirmed in the second Canon of the sixth general Council in Trullo under severe penalty censuring either Bishop or Priest or other Clergy or Lay. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any should not fast the holy Quadragesima or space of forty which preceeds the Pasch or Easter Which as to the sanction of penalty and strictness of precept we yield not to be from the Apostles but from the successours of the Apostles in their respective times to the Churches governed by them A precept Ecclesiastical only as to the commanded number of forty which yet was if not then in the ages of the Church
since GENERALLY commanded as may appear by the 50 51 52. Canons of the Councel of Laodicaea and those Canons ratified in the fourth and sixth general Councels Which Canons of Laodicaea provide not only for the keeping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also that men should beware 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dishonour the fast of forty days Yet though such abstinence of forty days were not commanded by the Apostles but by the Church we have shewn notwithstanding that it was of Apostolical recommendation And who is there not almost since the writings of Christian Bishops came to be more frequent and to be better preserved unto our hands viz. since the days of Constantine which doth not witness so much at least We have but even now recited St. Austin and St. Hierom. Briefly there is not one of the twenty four indubitable Paschal Epistles or Homilies of Theophilus and St. Cyril of Alexandria which doth not witness the abstinence of forty dayes before Easter to have descended from the Apostles or from instruction Evangelical from the Lord which also was not taught the world but by the Apostles For the several testimonies of St. Ambrose in Millan Leo in Rome of Basil and Gregory Nazianzen in the East of Chrysologus Caesarius and others I rather refer you to the preceding discourse from p. 46. and forward then here repeat them It remains now to shew in what sense the observance of the forty days was of constitution only Ecclesiastical And such it was first if we respect the precept of fasting forty days secondly if we respect the several sanctions of Ecclesiastical penalties which the Governours of the Church did and might justly as they saw cause decree thirdly in respect of some particular kinds of meats prohibited with the allowance of others because such distinction generally may be profitable to the ends of fasting within the compass yet of which law and of the letter of it men may for so may any humane law be abused chuse to themselves such of the meats allowed as may be but an exchange of pleasures and in no wise less contrary to the ends of fasting then the meats forbidden Which argues as the shifting wickedness of sensuality so also the imperfection of any law that can by men be set about matters in themselves so various and infinite unless it meet with such as obey the laws of their superiours for conscience sake and in their conscience bearing honest and faithful regard to the end of the law this will be found true whether we consider the rules of the Ancients concerning their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the more modern prohibitions of all flesh but the flesh of Fish or in other places also of lacticinia milk-meats or elsewhere also of some fruits a St. Aust. l. 30. con Faust. Manich cap. 3. 5. And yet may there be chosen such dry meats or such fish or such unforbidden fruits or even such panis deliciarum bread of delight as no man can pretend that any Apostle ever thought better of for the mortifying the flesh or humbling the soul then of some sort of food by the Church forbidden And yet the law may to the generality be profitable and when it is a law undispensed with must be obeyed and when it is abused by the devices of fleshly mindes the fault is theirs Fourthly The observation of forty days is a constitution Ecclesiastical also as to some purposes of the Church such as are those above mentioned which will best appear by the words of such ancient authors as sometimes have call'd the observance of forty dayes a constitution of the Church We will begin with that most remarkable one in St. Chrysostomes hom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have prescrib'd delineated set a stamp up on figured ouâ—… or copied unto us 40 daies of Fast c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Many of old have been wont to come to the mysteries or Sacrament indifferently and at adventure as if simply to come only and eat were sufficient especially at this season of Easter or the great week on which Christ deliver'd it The Fathers therefore knowing well and aware of the harm which proceeds from such careless coming to the Sacrament meeting together have prescribed forty daies of Fasting of prayers of hearing of the word of Synods for correction of evil manners and abuses that all of us together being in these daies purified with all diligent care both by prayers and by alms and by fasting and by whole-nights-watches and by tears and by confession or the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of penances and satisfaction to the Church and by all other means might so come to the Sacrament with a pure conscience so far as is possible to us And that they have wrought great reformation and good working us to a habit and custome of fasting is manifest Where first we are to observe that even laws also Apostolical in some sort may by the Churches Governours be reinforc'd pressed and envigorated in new Canons Sanctions and Decrees where they shall see it needful Secondly Much more things which descend from Recommendation Apostolical may upon some appearing emergent need be by them made laws Ecclesiastical for some times and places Thirdly That the Appropriation of such season of forty daies to some such purposes as by this our Author here are named viz. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of offenders any way made known their Confessions and satisfactions to the Church for publick hearing of Sermons for publick night-watches and constant fastings for Synods of Bishops designed to the correction of evil manners and abuses may be properly by an order rule and application Ecclesiastical a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Fathers of the Church and yet the Recommendation of those forty daies to especial abstinence and Devotion especially unto the generality of Christians who do not This exception Cassianus makes above as some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Religious exercise themselves in fastings as it were all the year long be Apostolical For even S. Chrysostom who wrote this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in Hom. 11. on Genesis speaking of the forty daies observed by that Church in about eight weeks with exemption of each Saturday and Sunday tells his Auditors that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the holy time of Lent to such as undertake this course of fasting THE LORD HATH INDULGED these two weekly daies like certain stages or inns shores or havens that both the body may be a little relaxed from its labours of the fasting c. Where by saying the Lord hath indulged those daies he at least implies that the Lord hath directed and recommended the other And he uses the same word in that place of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A second Authority is that of S. Hierom upon Galat. 4. where having recorded together the observation quartae
Sabbati parasceues dici Dominicae jejunii Quadragesimae Festivitatis Paschae ac Pentecostes Of the fourth day of the week and of Friday of the Lords-day and of the Fast of the Quadragesima or forty daies of Lent and of the Festivities of Easter and Pentecost which some might object against as the observation of daies and moneths and times He answers Ad quod qui simpliciter respondebit dicet non eosdem iudaicae observationis dies esse quos nostros Et ne inordinata congregatio populi fidem minueret in Christo proptereà dies aliqui constituti sunt ut in unum omnes pariter veniremus Non quò celebrior sit dies illa quâ convenimus sed quò quâcunque die conveniendum sit ex conspectu mutuo laetitia major oriatur Qui verò oppositae quaestioni acutiùs respondere conatur illud affirmat Omnes dies aequales esse nâ—…c per Parasceuen tantùm Christum Cruciâ—…igi die Dominicâ resurgere sed semper sanctum Resurrectionis esse diem A like answer Origen makes to Celsus l. 8. Quòd 〈◊〉 quâ—… nobis ex adversâ—… regerat nostras Dominâ—…ces parasceuásque aut Pascha aut Pentecosten recurrentes solenniter Respondendum est ad hoc quòd qui persectus est Ratione operihus cogitationibus perpetuò haerens Dâ—… verbo naturali nostro Domino semper â—…git Dies Domini seu Dominicoâ—… nunquam non habet Diem Dominicum semper eum carne vesci Dominicâ â—…junia autem congregationes inter dies propter â—…os A VIRIS PRUDENTIBUS CONSTITUTOS qui magis seculo vacant quà m Deo nâ—…c possunt imò nolunt toto in Ecclesiâ vitae suae tempore congregari ante humanos actus Deo orationum suarum offerre sacrificium Itaque sicut nobis licet vel jejunare semper vel semper orarâ—… diem Dominicam accepto Domini corpore indesinentèr celebrare gaudentibus Non ita Iudaeis â—…as est omni tempore immolare agnum c. To which he which will answer simply shall say that the daies of Judaical observance are not the same which are ours And leâ—…t the inordinate congregation of the people should lessen their faith in Christ therefore certain daies are appointed that we might all meet together in one Not that such day wherein we meet is more excellent but that on whatsoever day we meet a greater joy may arise unto us from seeing each other Howbeit he who endeavours more acutely to satisfie the Objection opposed affirms that all daies are equal that neither Christ is only crucify'd on Good-friday nor riseth again only on the Lords-day but that the Holy Day of his Resurrection is alwaies and that he alwaies feeds on the flesh of the Lord. But that Fasts and Congregations on certain daies were appointed by wise men for their sakes who are more employed in the world then towards God who neither can yea nor will assemble themselves in the Church the whole time of their life and offer up the sacrifice of their prayers unto God before humane actions Therefore not as it is lawful unto us either to fast alwaies or to pray alwaies and receiving the Lords body with joy incessantly to celebrate a Lords day not so I say was it lawful to the Jewes on every day to offer up the Paschal Lamb c. Here first we are to observe that both the Objection and the Answer of S. Hierom in express terms proceed equally of the Lords-day as of the Fast of Lent or of the Stations or of the Feast of Easter So as that the Opposers of this Paschal Fast if they will with us own the Lords-day to have been delivered to us from the Lord and from the Apostles are with us concerned to give a fair and just interpretation unto S. Hierom's words Secondly that all daies are in themselves equal Thirdly that the Difference betwixt the Jewes observation of daies and times and moneths from the Christians is that many of their chief services of God as their offering the Paschal Lamb or the Sacrifice of Atonement and the like might not by them be perform'd but on such daies only to which by God they were restrained But there is no such high service of Christianity as the Holy Eucharist Publick Confessions of sins and Praises the service of publick Prayers and of Preaching and Hearing Gods Word which may not upon just occasion be performed unto Almighty God acceptably on any day Fourthly That the great benefits and mercies given us by God such as are His Son's Birth and Dying for us and Resurrection His Ascension and sending down the Holy Ghost are of us alwaies to be remembred Fifthly that notwithstanding it is needful to the Ghostly health of the Generality of Christian people and profitable to all that a weekly Lords-day should be as there is prescribed unto all from God and Christ and taught us by his Apostles on the day of his Resurrection the first day of the week and not any other weekly day to be the Lords-day and also annual daies for the memory of Christs Passion Resurrection c. which we have been taught also from the same Apostles as the same Catholick Church practises and witnesses in all ages Sixthly That to look on the perfection of some few who are daily and as it were continual in Fastings in Prayers in receiving the Holy Eucharist in Hearing God's Word c. and not to look on or regard the imperfection and weakness of the generality of Christian people which neither can as S. Hierom sayes and much more will not such is the imperfect disposition of their minds assemble themselves daily is a great want of the perfection of charity and wisdom which shines in the Church of God Seventhly That therefore certain daies for Fasts and for Congregations for the sake of Gods people have been appointed by wisdome given from God Eighthly That whereas S. Hierom saies such daies have been appointed by wise men we trust that since it was a wisdom needful in all ages and as well in the Apostles times especially in some distance of time after the great measures of the Spirit had been given in the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Ierusalem in some degree as in after-times which appears by the Apostles complaint of his Corinthians and Galatians and of the Hebrews forsaking the assembling of themselves together cap. 10 We trust I say they will allow the Apostles to have been filled with the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Wisdome for that purpose that they should be for the Churches present and perpetual good men wise in their constitutions principally that as S. Paul said of himself in some of his written Constitutions 1 Cor. 7. 12. To the rest speak I not the Lord viz. not by express word when he was upon earth as he had that of vers 10. 11. and vers 40. She is happier after my judgement and yet in both those he
thought and we think also that he had the Spirit of God so some things are said to be constituted by men and not the Lord which yet is more then S. Hierom said in this case when not expresly commanded by the Lords own mouth on earth though they be constituted by such men as were constituted by God to guide his Church infallibly By those we mean the Apostles of the Lord. And so constituted was the Lords-day and the Paschal-Fast of Lent and the Feast of Easter c. certainly according to S. Hierom's meaning as appears by his own express words Nos unam Quadragesimam toto anno tempore nobis congruo secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum jejunamus We fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year not three as the Montainsts in a fit season according to the Tradition of the Apostles And yet thrice he saies that the Fast of the forty daies was sanctified by the Lord was left as an inheritance from the Lord l. 2. Con. Iovin and on Ion. 3. Isa. 58. But it may well be from the Lord and from the Apostles as above declared and proved and yet from the Church from wise men and Governours in the Church as to the inviting occasioning thereby and compelling such as S. Hierom there describes qui nolunt which otherwise would not assemble themselves in the Church as to the Congregationes inter dies which he mentions A third Authour which is produced is Victor Antiochenus living in the same Age with St. Hierom on Mark 2. where he thus writes Enimverò inter eos qui in Moyse eos rursum qui in lege gratiae Iejuniis dant operam hoc praeter caetera interest quod illi quidem jejunia à Deo praefinita habebant quae proinde modis omnibus explere obligabantur etiamsi alià s noluissent Hi verò virtutis amore liberaque voluntatis electione jejunant veriùs quam ullâ omninò legis coactione Quòd si verò Quadragesimale vel aliud quodc unque jejunium definitum habemus propter ignavos negligentes quò nimirùm ii quoque officium faciant praefinitum habemus Studioâ—…i namque pietatâ—…que dediti certo animi consilio propensâque voluntate jejunium illud persolvunt magis quà m ullâ omninò legis aut praecepti vi compulsi Betwixt those truly which fast under the Law of Moses and those again which fall under the Law of Christ there is this difference beside others that they indeed had their Fasts predefined by God viz. by his express written Law for the number manner and rigour thereof which they were by all means obliged to fulfill although otherwise they would not But these fast more truly from the love of virtue and free choice of will than by any coaction at all of Law And if we have a Quadragesimal Fast or any other defined it is for the slothfull and negligent that they to wit may do their duty that we have it so predefined For they which are studious and virtuous and devoted to piety do pay that Fast by a certain purpose of of their minde and ready will rather than compelled by any force at all of Law or Precept Here you are first to remember that I have above laid down this concession that the Precept or Law of Fasting forty days is of Constitution Ecclesiastical onely Albeit even forty days abstinence we have shewed to be of Apostolical recommendation To this Victor's words here agree concerning the Fast Quadragesimal or of forty days which if we abstract from Law Ecclesiastical Christians perform veriùs virtutis amore quam ullâ omninò legis coactione Or as also he said a little before Non quòd aliquâ legis necessitate ad hoc adigentur sed quòd hoc medium veluti salutare opportunum ad virtutis perfectionâ—…sque studium suo posteà tempore adhibituri sint Which agrees with what we have observed from our Lord's words Luke 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they are partly a Prediction In those days they will fast by a certain Law of gratitude which the Apostles would practise and teach the Church more truly than by any coaction of Law as Victor here says Such coaction of Law Victor declares himself here to mean as was the coaction of fear compelling them to fulfil those Fasts Quae modis omnibus explore obligabantur etiamsi alià s noluissent Though otherwise they would not Not as the Christians from the force of love and by the Law of gratitude and of a ready minde Quòd hoc medium veluti salutare opportunum suo posted tempore adhibituri sint Secondly we are to observe that Victor here doth not deny but rather grant some sort of Law and constitution for some time and season of fasting given to Christians while he saith Quòd si verò Quadragesimale vel aliud quodc unque jejunium definitum habemus and forthwith adds habemus praefinitum We have such Fast prescribed And a little after Iejunium illud persolvunt they pay that Fast therefore that Fast was their duty though that duty they performed magis propensâ voluntate quà m ullâ legis vi compulsi veriùs amore virtutis liberâque voluntatis electione choosing the things that please God quà m ullâ omninò coactione legis This being from the law of the spirit of bondage the other from no less a true law of the Spirit of Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will and shall fast Where though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be not expressed yet it is as well included in the word as when he saith Iohn 19. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they shall they will hear my voice And Matth. 21. 41. They shall they will render unto him the fruits of the vineyard Thirdly when Victor saith Propter ignavos negligentes jejunium praefinitum habemus that we have a law if any saith he of the Quadragesimal Fast prefined or prescribed by reason of the slothfull and negligent Of which sort there are and ever will be many in the Church amongst the generality of Christians whose consideration must not be contemned but ever was ground sufficient for the prefinition of some law of fasting to be given in general which being given all must obey as well those which yet equally would do it without a law as others who need such a law The strong this way also bearing the infirmities of the weak Of this see more in our Interpretation last given to St. Hierom's words Fourthly the entire occasion and ground of Victor's words was his scope to shew that the Iudaical Fasts did not now oblige the Apostles or Christian people as appears by his preceding words Cùm enim Apostoli novi T. praecones doctores sint instituti non debent nunc veterem caeremoniarum observationum legibus obstringi Vos itaque O Pharisaei qui priscis illis ritibus consuetudinibus etiamnum addicti obstrictique haereticis Mosaica jejunia meritò observatis Isti verò
cursing against impenitent sinners the people being required to give after the several sentences an acknowledgment with their own mouths that the curse of God is so due to impenitent sinners and 8. a following godly earnest exhortation to repentance and Davids 51 Psalm of Repentance with some hâ—…ly penitential Prayers following Beside these eight things let them shew us if they can any thing that is of Lent in our Common-prayer Book In all and every of these 8. things it is manifest that the Church of England doth exercise some part of her Religion in the Fast of Lent wherein she prayes also unto God that she may exercise religious abstinence Not were their propounded desires they well know to meddle with ought else than what is in the Common-prayer Book as themselves give all the world to understand by their own now printing his Majesties Commission given to them with others in the beginning of their Book Not they nor others then by that Commission were to propound advise answer or reply any thing touching Lent but what was in the said Common-prayer book and your proposal being framed accordingly that nothing be in the Liturgy which so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast I having summed up all that is in the said Liturgy touching the Religious Fast of Lent It now abides upon your part because you have brought it in to publick view to say now before all the world if you can 1. Whether there be ought in the Liturgy that so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast beside either all these 8. rehearsals which I have summed up or something of or in some one or more of these branches And if there be nothing else as 't is sure there is not then it now remains your part which you are challenged to do to give one instance if you can in any thing of all those eight contents of the matters concerning Lent in our Liturgy with which any Christian can find just fault i. e. to name any one thing blameable or not godly among all those things whereof you propound and desire that no one thing may be left in the Liturgy Nothing say you that may countenance or so much as seem to countenance the observation of Lent in the Liturgy as a religious Fast. Surely where things of Religion are desired to be left out there your Religion will oblige you if you can to shew us something of those things which is evil at least which is not Religious In the account you have given of your own Proposal first and last pag. 4 70 71 72 73 74 75. wherein is every word you speak of this matter you have not touched so much as any one thing contained in all the Common-Prayer-Book except perhaps one and that mistaken as shall be shewn But in stead of doing of that which was most reasonable for you to have done you give us where you make your Proposal onely two Reasons of your own in three names where you pass from Christ to Moses and from Moses forthwith to the Act of Parliament 5 Elizabethae and that 's all First you say That nothing be in the Liturgy which may seem to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast the Example of Christs Fasting forty days and nights being no more imitable nor intended for the imitations of Christians than any other of his miraculous works were or then Moses forty days fast was for the Jews Here you would seem to remove the ground which we have for this Religious Fast But Sirs tell us we pray you may there not be some other sufficient Grounds if this were none If you know not then we shall tell you another and a more principal Reason viz. The Holy Memory of our Blessed Saviours Death and Passion about that time of the year as all acknowledge and the memory of and compunction for our own sins which cost the Son of God his own precious Blood The looking upon Him whom we have pierced Nor shall it suffice you to say That we ought always to remember that for so we ought always to remember his Resurrection for our Justification Yet God hath taught us That what ought always to be remembred yet may with great spiritual profit be by certain stationary and recurring days more especially and certainly be brought to the remembrance of all of us generally and joyntly And if Christs Resurrection have a weekly Feast of remembrance how is the Catholick Church of all Ages to be taxed as superstitious for one recurring Religious Fast in the year the memorial of his Passion This hath been done in all Ages even the purest and this Fast for this reason and for this reason principally the memory of our Lords Death and Passion the taking away of the Bridegroom In those days they have fasted And this reason they have given and this the Church her self hath given in her contest with Hereticks and that in that very Chap of Tertullian which afterwards you cite where the Psychici i. e. the Catholicks as you acknowledge give this account of their Fast before Easter Quod ad jejunia pertineat certos dies à Deo constitutos opponunt Certè in Evangelio illos dies jeâ—…uniis determinatos in quibus ablatus est sponsus Et hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum abolitis le alibus propheticis vetustatibus Sic Apostolos observâsse uullum aliud imponentes â—…ugum And when the Bishops of the Christian world met together in the First and most sacred General Council and did therein unite the differences that had been about the proper time of that Feast of Easter and the Fast preceding Constantine having had perfect knowledge from those Bishops in his Imperial Letters to the Christian Churches acquaints them with what the Bishops had decreed and writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here Sirs you see another reason alledged by the Catholicks and taught by the Bishops of the Catholick Church as that which had been the reason of observing it ever from the day of our Saviours Passion unto that present year And that the Lord had delivered to them the Pasche to be remembred of which also Constantine again in the same Epistle adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus hath the Church fulfilled the Prophesie of God by his Prophet Zachary wherein he promised to pour upon her the Spirit of Grace and Supplications And they shall look upon me saith he whom they have pierced and they shall mourn c. Zech. 12. 10. Thus you see you have done nothing to overthrow the Religious Fast of Lent though you had removed that which you mentioned and any other ground whilest you forgat the principal But now return we to examine whether ye have as ye endeavour overthrown all imitation of Christ in this Fast and so something in the Common-Prayer-Book Where there is no more then once but
that a just and pious mention of it viz. in the Collect of the first Sunday O Lord which for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights give us Grace to use such abstinence that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit c. Where we doubt not but all Churches in the world will both consent to this Prayer and praise the modest humility of Christs handmaid this Church of England except onely some of her own Children For 1. She doth not so much as pray that the Lord would give her grace to use such Fasts as he had done but thankfully acknowledging what he had done for her viz. fasted forty days and forty nights she prays That she may use such abstinence calling her own rather abstinence than Fasts that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey his godly motions Not that she may be glorious in a miracle of fasting but humbled in an exercise of mortifying That she may obey his godly motions not emulate the Divine power of his Miracle Tell us out we pray you whether our Church praying thus and thus far onely for Imitation of Christ in some abstinence according to our poor measures doth offend you And if not this where in the Common-prayer-Book is there ought of that which you accuse But again why we pray you because it is not possible for us to imitate Christs miraculous eating nothing at all through all the time of forty days therefore Christians may not what you cannot deny to be possible use some special abstinence through forty days for the mortifying of those sins for which Christ suffered hunger and thirst and afterward Crucfixion and death lest that by any means when we have known all this done for us our selves should become Cast-aways May not some pious charitable Physitian go about according to his skill which God hath given him and without taking any thing use the means of healing the poor sick and lame in imitation of Christs great pity who went about healing all manner of diseases because he cannot cure miraculously infallibly and universally as Christ did May not some man that hath but ability after the example of our Saviours compassion pity a multitude that abide three days having nothing to eat and feed them because he cannot miraculously multiply loaves May we not be bid to be holy and perfect as our Lord is holy and perfect though no miracle can lift us up to equal or come near his holiness or perfection What a lame Exception therefore have you given against the Churches excellent Prayer But if the Church moreover in this Prayer and in this Fast and in some lowly degree of petitioned imitation of her Saviour hath but imitated the piety and followed the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers of the Church and been a follower of them as they were followers of Christ then bless we God who hath given us such a Mother and God send her more dutifull Children And if ye ask us who those Ancient Fathers were First S. Austin l. 2. de Doctrinâ Christianâ c. 16. Quadraginta diebus jejunare monemur hoc lex cujus persona est in Mose hoc prophetia cujus personam gerit Elias hoc IPSE DOMINUS monet qui tanquam testimonium habens ex lege prophetis medius inter illos in monte 3. discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit We are admonished to fast forty days this the Law whose person Moses bare this the Prophets whose person Elias sustained this the Lord himself admonisheth us who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the Mount c. The same S. Austin l. â—… c. 169. Quâ—…st super Genes Non enim frustrà quadriginta dies jejuniorum sunt constituti quibus Moses Elias ipse Dominus jejunavit Ecclesia precipuâ observatione jejumorum Quadrage simam vocat S. Aâ—…stin again in Psal. 110. Dies iâ—…i Paschales praeteritis diebus Quadragesimae c. Quadragenario numero quo Moses Elias ipse Dominus jejunaverunt Precipitur enim nobis ex lege ex prophetis ex ipso Evangelio c. S. Hierome on Jon. 3. Ipse quoque Dominus verus Ionas missus ad praedicationem mundi jejunavit quadragint a dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero nostras animas preparat S. Ambrose Serm. 25. Dominus enim Diabolum posteaquam 40 dies jejunavit evicit non quod non aâ—…te jejunia cum vincere potuisset sed ut ostenderet â—…obis tunc nos Diaboli posse esse victores cum quadraginta dies victores jejunando desideriorum carnalium fuissemus Ille qui peccatum non habebat Quadragesimam jejunavit â—…u nonvis Quadragesimam jejunare qui peccas ille inquam peccatum non habebat sed pro nostris jejunavit peccatis 'T were easie to adde of the Latines many more Theodulphus Aurelianensis Bede and others Now hear we the holy Oriental Bishops S. Basil the Great Hom. 1. de Jejunio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Gregory Nazianz. in Orat. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Father answers your Objection punctually that though we cannot fast forty days as he for he was God yet we can proportionate our abstinence to our power Magnus Canon Andreae Cretensis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this time we think the Churches Reasons and her Authority and Authorities which she follows to come 〈◊〉 to the Reason of your Papers and the Authority of your Persons Your Act of Parliament shall be considered in the end of your reply where you are larger in it In which Reply to begin first with matters of our own Function because you declare your selves ready in a modest challenge to prove the truth in an equal Conference that you may noâ—… wanâ—…ome Propositions to prove we will set down some manifest untruths of your own in the two leaves of that reply besides the Fathers of which every one how ye have mistaken I have shewed you above Chap. 5. 7. Your 〈◊〉 untruth or false Proposition is this which contains three in it viz. That adoring God not kneeling on the Lords days and using the white garment and milk and honey after Baptism had more pretence of Apostolical Tradition and were generally used more anciently then Lent This you being never able to prove in your insinuation that the Church may as well be called contentious for her not using those things as you for not using Lent we do indeed according to your own words think ye have wronged the Church and that greatly 2. That the Church hath shewn you any such example of changing so the Fast of Lent as that you may be allowed by that example not to continue it a Religious Fast is another untruth Upon which let Tertullian ask you the Question l. de Coronâ—… Militis c. 2. Quale est autem ut tunc