way but contented our selves with Prayers and some kind of Repentance without such Humiliations and chastening of our selves as our sins and our condition required CHAP. XIII Of Fasting-days particularly Wednesdays and Fridays THE Church of God therefore hath always set some time a part for Fasting as well as Prayer And thought it a duty of such continual use that it is not safe it should be long intermitted For mankind being subject frequently to run into sin it is but reason they should be frequently put in mind of calling themselves to an account and returning to him with sorrowful Humiliations for their faults And therefore it is a most ancient and no less wholsom Ordinance of the Church that we should from week to week assemble our selves for this end To search and try our ways and with Fasting and Prayer to turn unto the Lord that thereby we may turn away his wrath from us which otherways either in general or particular may fall upon us To except against this because there is no Divine commandment upon Record for it is very unreasonable For in the ancient Religion of the Jews there was no Precept given by their Law-giver for more Fasts than one throughout the whole Year which was that I named before on the great day of expiation and yet notwithstanding they held themselves obliged to observe many other Fasts upon set days in several months some of which are remembred in Scripture and approved by God though not prescribed by his particular Commandment Read vii Zach. 3 5. viii 19. where you will find that four Fasts in several months having been upon good reason ordained they durst not alter them though the reason seemed to be altered without a Divine direction which their Elders by whose authority they were first appointed desired to receive from the Prophet But it is most to my purpose to observe that there were also weekly as well as those monthly Fasts among that people which our Saviour found in use when he came and did not reprove no more than Prayer and paying of Tithes which the Pharisee mentions together therewith in xviii Luke 11 12. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men c. I Fast twice in the week I give Tithes of all that I possess Which were all commendable things if his vanity had not made him glory in them and despise other people And therefore the Pharisees frequent Fasting is mentioned I observed before in other places of the Gospel together with that of John's Disciples who also Fasted oft without the least reflection upon them for it as if they were superstitious or did more than needed No our blessed Saviour rather approves of their strictness in this For he saith his Disciples should not be behind with them in Fasting hereafter though for the present there was a special reason why they did not practise it Of which speech of our Saviour I shall make considerable use presently when I have noted that the two days on which they Fasted every week were the second and the fifth that is our Munday and Thursday Which days no doubt were chosen because they had been of old days of Prayer which the devouter sort observed with Fasting also for such reasons as I have already named If we may give credit to Maimonides these days were appointed by Moses himself for solemn Assemblies which he knew could not with safety be long discontinued And therefore saith he Our Master Moses appointed Israel to read the Law at Morning Prayer upon the Sabbath day and upon the Second and the Fifth that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law Upon which days even they that dwelt in the Villages as Mr. Thorndike * Relig. Assemblies chap. viii further observes out of him were bound to assemble in the Synagogues though on the rest of the days in the week they did not tye them to it no more than they did to Fasting on those days with which the stricter and devouter sort of people observed them as not only the Gospel but their own Writers inform us Now these two days having been thus set apart from ancient time for Prayer and Fasting those pious Jews who became Christians could not think of being less Religious and devout under the Gospel than they had been under the Law and therefore still continued to observe two such days every week though not the very same For as instead of the Seventh which was the Jewish Sabbath they now kept the First day of the week as the principal time for their Assemblies so instead of the Second and the Fifth they chose the Fourth and the Sixth which are our Wednesdays and Fridays for the two other days on which they weekly held solemn Assemblies And for the very same reason it is likely for which Moses or the Elders chose the other because they were at the same convenient distance from the Lords day as Munday and Thursday were from the Jewish Sabbath and hereby it was provided that as Maimon speaks no three days passed without the more solemn sort of Assemblies Certain it is that there was no Church in Epiphanius his time which did not look upon these two days as the stated days for Fasting and Prayer Which he avows so confidently against the Aerians that he fears not to ask this question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * Haeres lxxv n 6. Who is there that consents not in this throughout all the Climates of the world that the Fourth day and the day before the Sabbath i. e. the Sixth day are Fasts determined or appointed in the Church No body he knew durst contradict this challenge and undertake to shew the contrary which is the more remarkable because he represents them as set days by a setled Decree or Ordinance and that of the Apostles For so it follows that it was ordained by an Apostolical constitution all should Fast on those two days Which doth not seem to me so unlikely as it doth to some when I reflect upon those words of our Lord in answer to those that askt Why the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees Fasted oft but his did not Wherein as he no way condemns what either the one or the other did for that which was a vertue in John's Disciples could not be a crime in the Pharisees so he doth not go about to excuse his Disciples from the like obligation But plainly saith that though it was not fit for the present yet when he was gone from them they also should Fast in those days And I see no cause why we should not think that he means they should Fast as oft about which the question was as the other did Which being twice every week of which it is very reasonable to understand the often Fasting both of John's Disciples and of the Pharisees I cannot but conclude the Apostles also when our Saviour had left the World
observed weekly two such solemn days And so by their practice and example at least set apart and determined the times forementioned for Fasting and Prayer For why should we think of any other two days than those which the Church in future times observed every where with such uniformity that they could find no other Original of it but the Apostolical Ordinance Thus Socrates writes in particular of the Church of Alexandria what Epiphanius saith of the Church in general that L. v. Hist Eccles c. 22. it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Custom or a custom from the beginning of our Religion there to meet on the Fourth and Sixth days of the week for to hear the Scriptures read and expounded by the Doctors and to do all other things belonging to an Assembly excepting the celebration of the Eucharist which it seems was omitted there though not in other places on those days as unsuitable to a Fast and that Origen taught upon those two days a great part of what he left written in that Church Clemens of Alexandria also mentions these days long before him and I do not see of what other days Caecilius can be understood when he objects in Minutius Foelix to the Christians their solennia jejunia as dangerous tokens of a conspiracy among them For it is plain by those words that they held solemn Assemblies on certain days for Fasting as well as Prayer and that they returned often and great numbers met together or else they could not have been held dangerous to the Government These were the famous station days so much spoken of by the ancient Christians on which they continued longer in the Church than ordinary the Divine Offices being prolonged beyond the ordinary time and thence they had the name of Stations To be short if this be allowed which seems to be a probable truth that the Apostles afterward though not while our Saviour lived Fasted as oft as John's Disciples and the Pharisees had done before which was no less than twice every week There can be no other days reasonably thought of for this purpose than those which the Church in following Ages observed And there is the greater reason to judge this a probable truth because the Apostles observed other pious customs of the Jews of not Eating for instance before Morning Prayer was over as I before observed Which may well incline a considering man to think they likewise conformed themselves to this of Fasting as often in a week as John's Disciples and other strict persons had done which was no less commendable than the usage of Fasting till the end of Divine Service on the Sabbath days in the morning And then I can see no incongruity in it but it rather accords with the practice of Religious people heretofore if we think these to have been the times on which the Apostle advises Husbands and Wives to forbear one anothers company that they might give themselves to Fasting and Prayer 1 Cor. vii 5. Which Peter Martyr is of opinion * In Cap. xx Judic p. 172. the Apostle meant concerning publick Fasting and publick Prayer And as the Widow Anna is said to have served God many years with Fasting and Prayers night and day ii Luke 37. which I think ought to be understood of the weekly Fasts which Religious people then observed So the same Peter Martyr thinks it reasonable thus to understand the Apostle 1 Tim. v. 5. where he speaks of a Widow indeed whose description is that she continueth in supplications with Fastings saith he and Prayers night and day Upon those days as I take it which were then observed in the Christian Church answerable to those in the Jewish And why should we not think it was upon one of these days that the Church met together as we read xiii Acts 2 3. and ministred to the Lord and Fasted and Prayed For the very distresses in which the Church was required then as frequent Fasting as ever There is little doubt but the Fast here spoken of was upon a solemn day of Divine Service which is sufficiently implied in those words as they ministred to the Lord and in those that follow when they had Prayed Now on the Sabbath it was utterly unlawful to Fast and they abhorred from it as the Christians afterward did from Fasting on the Lord's day And therefore I conclude it was upon one of the weekly solemn Prayer-days then in use in the Christian Church as formerly in the Jewish For what reason is there to question that when any extraordinary case called for a special Fast as now the separating Barnabas and Saul for a great work did and as in pressing dangers the Bishops of the Church appointed extraordinary Fasts that Fast was still held upon those very days which then they commanded to be observed with more than usual strictness For thus all Fasts appointed among the Jews upon special occasions were in order to fall as Mr. Thorndike observes in the Chapter before named upon the usual days of Fasting which were every week observed in a lower degree but upon those extraordinary occasions were observed with greater severity and therefore it is reasonable to think the Christian Fasts of the like kind were kept on the usual days either Wednesday or Friday or rather both only with the greater solemnity However that place and another in the next Chapter xiv Acts 23. are plain evidences of their Fasting before Ordinations or setting persons a part for a special Ministry And upon them is justly founded the Fasts of the four Seasons called Ember-weeks before Orders are given in our Church all solemn and great things being always undertaken by such preparations Insomuch that S. Hierom in his Prologus to S. Matthew's Gospel saith that S. John being desired by the Churches to write his Gospel against Ebion and Cerinthus who denied Christ's Divine Nature told them he would do it si Ecclesia tota publicè antea jejunasset if the whole Church would first keep a publick Fast before he went about it Which is affirmed also by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History To conclude this Chapter all Christians have so generally observed some set times of Fasting which was wholly rejected only by the Gnosticks who condemned Epist Haeres xxvi n. 5. demned all Fasting nay cursed it as disagreeable to their Beastly life that those odd people who loving to be singular and cross to the customs of the Church would not observe the two usual Fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays yet Fasted on other days as Marcion and his Disciples on Saturdays and the Aerians on the Lord's day who also Fasted on Wednesday but of their own accord not in obedience to the Churches Constitutions So Epiphanius informs us out of whom I have all this * Haeres xlii n. 3. Haeres lxxv n. 3. And now that I mention the Saturday Fast it will be fit to take notice that the Church of Rome now hath and anciently
had a custom of Fasting on that day But as Epiphanius condemns this as one of Marcion's Errors that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Fasted on the Sabbath that is Saturday So Petavius ingenuously acknowledges what his great Learning could not but know that this was contrary to the Custom of the Eastern Church in which that day was a long time honoured as a Festival And he should have added that this custom of Fasting on Saturday was so far from being universal in the Western Church that it did not of a long time prevail in all the Churches of Italy For it is commonly known that in S. Ambrose's days they did not Fast at Milan upon that day which the Mother of S. Austin wondering at when she came thither had this Answer returned to the enquiry her Son made of the reason of it from S. Ambrose When I am at Rome I Fast on Saturdays because they do so there but when I return to Milan I do not Fast on that day because they do not so here An admirable resolution of doubts of this nature importing that we should conform to the customs of the Church where we live without condemning the customs of other Churches For all were founded at first it is likely upon some great reason peculiar to that Church wherein it differs from others and if S. Austin's information be right there was a weighty cause for what they did at Rome For he saith in his Epistle to Cassulanus the Original of the Saturday Fast there was that when S. Peter entered the Lists with Simon Magus upon a Lord's day at Rome the Church appointed a Fast the day before which was observed there ever after But when one Vrbicus contended vehemently for the necessity of this Saturdays Fast as if there were a Divine Law for it S. Austin most resolutely opposed him and denied any such obligation as may be seen in his LXXXVI Epistle But my intention is not to engage in any controversies but plainly to instruct our People in their Christian duty which is to observe the Ordinances of the Church whereof they are members Which make Wednesdays and Fridays days of solemn Supplication as anciently they were and all the Fridays in the Year except christmas-Christmas-day to be also one of the days of Fasting or Abstinence CHAP. XIV Satisfaction to some Exceptions IT is now a shame or should be so to mention the stale Objections of Mr. Cartwright and others against this Doctrine which have been often baffled That God in the fourth Commandment gave men liberty to work six days which none can restrain and that the Apostle condemns the Churches of Galatia for observing Days and Months and Times and Years iv Gal. 10. But since some are still so weak as to insist upon such trivial exceptions I shall in a few words tell the Reader what he is to answer when he meets with them To the first it may be replied That the Jews to whom that Precept was given did not understand it to give them such an unbounded liberty that none could appoint any of the six days to be imployed otherwise than in labour For then Esther did very ill in commanding a three days Fast when the exigence of their affairs required it Nay they who make this Exception have no such sense of that Commandment and therefore they do very ill to mention it for they themselves set apart any day as they please for Prayer and Humiliation or Thanksgiving And when they had power required others so to do Which is utterly unlawful if the fourth Commandment have any such meaning as they imagine which must lead them at last to affirm that labour is commanded on all days but one directly against their own frequent practice As for the other there is nothing more certain and more universally acknowledged by all Christians than that it belongs wholly to the keeping of the Jewish solemnities to which Christians were so far from having any obligation that they who thought they had from an opinion that the Mosaical Law was still in force did in that overthrow Christianity and go back to Judaism This is apparent from the scope of the Apostles discourse as well as from the account which the ancient Writers of Christianity * Vid. Socratis Histor L. v. c. 22. have given us of their sense about it such S. Hierom and S. Austin The former of which in his Comments on this place mentions the Fasts and Assemblies on certain days among Christians as wisely appointed for those who spend more time in the World than with God and either cannot or will not Assemble with the Church every day That on those solemn days at least they might sequester themselves a while from secular imployments and bestow some time on the Service of God Their Exceptions are far more considerable who say they cannot Fast without great prejudice to their health or without indisposing them for God's Service But they may be easily and briefly answered For as to those who say their health is hereby prejudiced if they be certain of it the Church never intended to oblige them by its Laws about Fasting which are designed as all its Ordinances are for the good not for the hurt of all its Children But in this let them use an upright judgment and they need trouble themselves no further Only let them consider it will not prejudice their health to come to the Prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays and therefore I hope they will make a Conscience of that and to use some Abstinence also on those days will in all likelihood contribute much unto their health As for the other they may be soon satisfied also that if Fasting do not promote the Religious ends for which it was ordained it must be let alone And one great end is Prayer as hath been said for which if it make men unfit by raising Vapours and Clouds they must take some moderate refreshment But this supposes still that they will frequent the Prayers of which let them be careful and beg of God to accept of such Humiliations as they are able to make before him Some pretend that other Reformed Churches have no set days of Fasting but only Fast as occasion requires nay some of their Divines have spoken against such days To which it may be replied That Luther the very first Reformer acknowledges two kinds of Fasts to be laudable in a Sermon of his on the Sunday next to Christmas-day one a Civil Fast appointed by the Magistrate at certain times which is a profitable and necessary Ordinance that all things be not consumed by Luxury and Riot The other Spiritual to be observed by all Christians And it would be very well Si aliquot diebus ante Festum Paschatis Pentecostis Nativitatis Domini communiter servaremus c. If we did all keep some such days before the Feast of Easter and Whitsuntide and the Nativity of our Lord with this caution only that we
nothing but Bread and Water and Salt which was called dry diet and was proper to those six days as we read in Epiphanius * Haeres lxxv n. 6. In two of which days just before Easter some Eat nothing at all In the rest of the Lent some would Eat only Fish others allowed themselves also Birds because of the same Nature they thought with Fish being made out of the Water as Moses testifies But others forbore all Fish likewise as well as Flesh which was the custom of the Greeks Yet the famous Monks of Mount Athos would Eat Oisters because they had no bloud in them Some contented themselves with Eggs and Fruit others forbore both and lived upon Bread and Herbs and Roots And S. Hierom saith there were some who would not so much as Eat a bit of Bread which Socrates also testifies But in this variety they all agreed in one thing which was to Eat nothing at all until the Evening and then such Food only as was least delicate not confining themselves to any particular thing but as their Bodies would bear No man pretended to Fast if he Eat a Dinner though it were of Fish only or any other less nourishing thing And though on other Fasts they broke them at Three a Clock in the Afternoon they did not take that liberty in the Lent Fasts but continued them as I said till night At which time also they did not indulge themselves the best fare of any sort whatsoever but contented themselves with the meanest which they used also with much moderation Socrates indeed saith that some fasted only till the Ninth hour which is our Three of the Clock but they were very few if we will believe all other ancient Writers In short they fasted all day and used Abstinence at night Out of all the Records of the Church which speak of this I shall select only a passage out of S. Austin which most lively describes the true sort of Abstinence and reproves the false It is in his Books about the Manners of the Catholick Church compared with L. 2. cap. 13. those of the Manichees Where speaking of the great Abstinence to which the Manichees pretended he puts this Query to them If there be a man to be found as there may who is so moderate that he doth not Eat twice in one day and at Supper with a little Bacon hath only a dish of Herbs ointed and seasoned with the same Lard served up to him sufficient to suppress his hunger quenching his thirst also for his health sake with two or three draughts of diluted Wine and this is his daily diet On the other side there is one who tastes no Flesh nor drinks a drop of Wine but hath exquisite and far-fetcht foreign Fruits of the Earth with Mushrooms and such like things set before him in variety of dishes and sprinkled with good store of Spice at Three of the Clock in the Afternoon and Eats also a good Supper of the same things at the beginning of Night drinking therewith Mede and Cyder and other good Liquors like enough to Wine and excelling it in sweetness and that not merely to quench thirst but as much as he list for his pleasure Which of these two as to Eating and Drinking do you judge to be most Abstemious I do not think you so very blind but you see that the latter is a Glutton in comparison with the former And what can be more mad than to say that he who fills his Belly even to belching with all manner of pleasant things save only Flesh-meat and Wine hath kept the rule of Sanctity but that the other who Eats only so much of the vilest food seasoned with a little smoaky Lard as will suffice for the refection of his Body with three cups of Wine merely for the support of health is prepared for certain punishment Thus that great man whose words I have endeavoured to contract a little represents as I take it the practice of the Catholicks in their Fastings By which we may make a just judgment of our own in these days and not deceive our selves with a dangerous opinion that we have performed this duty when we have only changed our diet not forborn our Dinners or if we have crambed our selves with delightful Suppers This is not only against all ancient practice and the repeated admonitions of the Holy Fathers but is still condemned by good men in all Churches Particularly by Lindanus an Panopliae L. 3. C. xi excellent Writer in the Roman Church in the last Age whose words I shall not translate at large but only observe in short that he sadly bewails the state of the Catholick Church in which the shadow only of Fasting is left As for those that cannot possibly Fast so long it never was the intention of the Church to oblige them but they were anciently exhorted as appears by S. Chrysostom whose discourse on this Subject I shall produce anon to take some refreshment But then it was only to support their Spirits from fainting and they all humbled themselves before God with Supplications and Prayers especially upon the most solemn days of Prayer and bewailed those sinners which now did open Penance and beseeched God to give them true Repentance and endeavoured to perfect their own and gave Alms to the Poor and spent more time than ordinary in reading and hearing God's Holy Word in which and such like holy Exercises both one and other passed this time of Lent satisfying themselves with these Spiritual pleasures while they denied their appetites in bodily delights That is they that could not Fast took care notwithstanding to perform all those Christian duties which it is the very design and end of Fasting to help and promote CHAP. XVIII The great Vsefulness thereof AND now who sees not the reasonableness of this Observance and the great benefit we may receive thereby If instead of contending about it for which thus understood I can see no ground we would all set our selves to make the best use we can of what the Church hath piously ordained and for many Ages profitably practised I do not know how it appears to others but it seems very strange to me that what the Church had strengthened and confirmed by an unanimous consent in S. Austin's time should find any dissenters from it in these days And yet I fear there are some I wish they be not many who scarce observe good-Good-Friday that is the day of our Saviour's Passion with any of that strictness which I have mentioned but Eat and Drink and do all other things as upon the rest of the days of the year A thing never heard of in the Church of Christ till these later days which among other scandals affords matter for the lamentations of the best Men and Women among us during the Lenten season especially upon that Great and Solemn day when by common consent Christians anciently made a Conscience of fasting strictly And they who