defend the Catholick Faith that they might break in pieces your Arguments Hitherto S. Augustin l. 1. 2. contra Iulianum I thought fit to adjoyn this Reflexion of S. Austen though superabundant to the force of my Argument it being sufficient for my purpose to prove that Lent-Fast was generally practised in the 4th and 5th Century both by the Eastern and Western Churches and so much evidently follows from the Authorities above cited For though some may be so self-conceited as to confess that S. Hierom S. Ambrose S. Basil S. Crysostom and the rest of the Holy Fathers Greek and Latin deemed the observation of Lent to be a pious Christian practice but they with humble submission judged it to be Superstition Will-worship and the Doctrin of Devils Yet few I think but have so much regard for these Primitive Doctors as to allow them so much judgment as to know what was the practice of their several Churches in their days and so much fidelity as to write the Truth as to that particular which is sufficient for the purport of my discourse unless you can think that these Holy Fathers were of one Faith their Flocks which Reverence them as Sts. of another For the 4th and 5th Age practising Fasting in Lent not as a piece of Piety begun by themselves but commended to them by Tradition from the Apostles it not only follows that it could not be first begun by their immediate Progenitos which had it been they could not possibly have been ignorant of it but also that it must necessarily have been first taught the world by the Apostles For if the first Converts of the Apostles all over the World had not only been taught no such observation but also had been positively instructed to look upon Abstinence from certain kind of Meats as Superstition and the Doctrin of Devils and with all had been charged not to receive any other Doctrin though Preached to them by an Angel sent from Heaven and they in like manner teaching their Children the same they had learnt as none can doubt but they did How is it possible that the Christians in the 4th Century should most tenaciously adhere to this principle of admitting no new Doctrin or Practice but to hold fast to what was delivered them by their Ancestors from the Apostles and yet should themselves Superstitiously Abstain from Meats and not pretend Scripture for it neither but Apostolical Tradition But had the Pastors of the 4th Century Abstained from certain Meats on pretext of Scripture in such a manner understood by them or upon account of some Decree of a General Council or Law of some Emperor made in the second or third Century or pretending to follow some person or persons raised up by God in the third Age to teach the Christian world a more strict observance it might well be conceiv'd how the 4th Age might abstain from Meats upon a Religious account though no such thing had been taught the world by the Apostles but the quite contrary And from what has been said all well put together I think it is efficaciously concluded against all Opposers of Lent-Fast that it was taught the world by the Apostles But it is not a Tippet or a Surplice I am Arguing for but a practice which if rightly observed is sufficient to make all the world Saints and therefore for the more abundant satisfaction of my Reader I shall now adjoyn positive Evidences out of the Writers of the first 300. years that the Holy Fast of Lent was practised in those most pure and Primitive Times S. Denys B. of Alexandria who lived in the middle of the third Age in his Epistle to Basilides the Bishop Records the Fast before Easter as Universal as the joy and Feast of Easter It will be confessed saies he of all agreeably that we ought to begin the Feast viz. of Easter and Ioy until that time humbling our souls in Fastings they truly which make too much hast and before well toward mid-night break their Fast we blame as regardless and not Masters of their Appetite giving over the Race a little before the Goal Such indeed as are much worn by the Fasts and toward the end as it were faint we easily pardon if they eat sooner And in the same Epistle he mentions in special manner the six days of Fasts to wit those of the last week not alike observ'd of all Origen in the beginning of the same Age. Hom. 10. In Leviticum Habemus Quadragesimae dies c. We have the days of Lent Consecrated to Fasting we have the fourth and sixth day of the week on which we solemnly Fast. And certainly a Christian has liberty to Fast at all times but not out of a Superstitious Observation but by the Vertue of Continency The first General Council of Nice held a little after the year 300. did not first ordain the keeping of Lent but in the sixth Canon makes mention of it as a time known to all the Christian world for in that Canon the Fathers ordain that two Provincial-Councils should be celebrated by the Bishops of every Province every year one of them ante dies Quadragesimae c. before the days of Lent to the end that all Contests if any such be being made up a pure and solemn gift may be offered to God Now how should Lent be observed all over the Christian world so early before any General Council What other Universal cause could there be of so Universal an Observation but the first teaching of the Apostles Or if such a practice had been Superstitious and the Doctrin of Devils how came so Venerable and holy a Councel not to take notice of it As if they could be ignorant of such Scriptures as falsly understood are alledged against it by Non-Conformists In the second Age Tertullian in his Book de Iejunio c. 1 2. tells us that it was not the Sentiment of some one particular Man but of all Catholick Christians who are by him contumeliously called Psychici that the Pascal Fast was Constituted by God and observed by the Apostles His words are Nam quod c. For as to what appertains to Fasts they oppose that there are certain days Constituted by God They surely think that in the Gospel those days are determined for Fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away and those days only are now the legitimate days of Christian Fasts c. 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 for lo I convince you even your selves Fasting besides the Paschal Fast those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away
of it profess from Generation to Generation to have observed it from the first planting of Christianity amongst them and wheresoever Lent is not observed its Non-observers do profess only from such a time to have not observed it and their Ancestors before that time for divers Generations ever since they cannot well tell when had blindly observed it whence it is manifest that the observation of Lent is the ancient Christian practice and its non-observance a Novelty And indeed had the keeping of Lent been a Novelty and not heard of in the Primitive times its observance being so burthensome and contrary to flesh and blood and besides as its Opposers say Superstitious also it s not possible it should be introduced not into one but into all the Christian Countrys of both the Eastern and Western Church in a short time and with a small industry of its Introducers and without great opposition both from good Men for its Superstition and from bad Men for its troublesomeness to Corrupt nature But no Ecclesiastical History though far lesser matters be Recorded makes mention of any such opposition made against Lent in its first bringing in or how or by whom it was brought in even into so much as one particular Diocess But all Records testifie that the prime Doctors both of the Greek and Latin Church in the fifth and sixth Century have been most Religious Observers and Zealous defenders of it which certainly they would never have been had Lent been a Superstitious Novelty and not heard of in the first 300. years And indeed whosoever maturely considers the genius and temper of the Christian Doctors and Bishops for the first five hundred years after our Saviour will find it impossible for all the power of Hell to impose a Novelty upon them For they were not like the seeming Zelots of our Age pretenders to new Lights but their Profession was not to correct Antiquity but faithfully to deliver to Posterity what they immemorially from the Apostles had received from their Ancestors and their great Answer to Introducers of new Doctrines or Practices was Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est We must Innovate nothing but stick close to what has been delivered to us by our Fore-fathers Does a Montanus upon pretext of Divine Inspiration endeavor to impose upon Christians the observation of three Lents in the year the Church of Christ replys by one of her prime Doctors S. Hierom We Fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year according to the Tradition of the Apostles The Montanists keep three Lents in the year as if three Saviours had suffered For other Instances I refer my Reader to the Golden Treatise of S. Vincentius Lerinensis against Innovations As for Pretenders to discover new truths by reading of the Holy Scriptures it s easily conceivable how such persons may be imposed upon by subtil Sophisters and lead into Superstitious practices and made to believe Erroneous Doctrines to wit by bad and new Interpretations of good and antient Scriptures But on the other side how shall a Teacher of Novelties deceive a Country which is resolved to hold fast whatsoever Doctrin or Practice was taught them by their immediate Progenitors who received the same Doctrin or Practice by an uninterrupted delivery from Father to Son from the Apostles Let him pretend Scriptures and bring a thousand places out of the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles what will the Reply be The Scriptures you alledge we Reverence and have ever been taught to Reverence them as Divine but we have been taught to interpret and understand them in another manner and sense then you alledge them Let him pretend Authority of Doctors as Learned as Origen or as Holy as Cyprian nay if he will a whole Provincial-Council as numerous as that in Africa which determin'd Re-baptization of Persons Baptized by Hereticks they reply We must not Innovate we must hold to what was taught us by our Ancestors What means then to make persons thus disposed to leave their antient faith and practice and admit of a Novelty you must prove to them that you and they and other Christians in several Countrys have been taught so to believe by your immediate Predecessors and uninterruptedly from Father to Son from the Apostles but then you cease to be a Preacher of Novelties contrary to the supposition Apply what has been said to our present Controversie Now that the study of the Christian Church in the fifth Century was not to deliver to Posterity Doctrins of her own devising but carefully to keep what she had received from her Fore-elders and faithfully to teach her Children what she had been taught by her Fathers is manifest out of S. Vincent cited above who lived in that Age and testifies that often asking of very many his Contemporaries famous for their Sanctity and Learning how he might be able to discern the truth of the Catholick Faith from the falsity of heretical pravity he always received this Answer in a manner from them all That if he desired to remain sound in his Faith he must fortifie it first with the Authority of the divine Law and then with the Tradition of the Catholick Church that is as he explicates himself afterwards He must examin what has always all over the Christian Church and by all Christian Doctors or in a manner by all been Believed and hold to that against all Novelties though defended by private Doctors never so Holy or never so Learned or producing never so many Scriptures for themselves if interpreted after a new manner But saies the same S. Vincent chap. 2. Here perhaps some body may ask seeing the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and is it self sufficient and more than sufficient for all things what need is there to add to it the Authority of the Ecclesiastical or Churches understanding of it Because the holy Scripture by reason of its depth is not by all taken in one and the same sense for Photinus expounds it one way Sabellius another Donatus another Arrius another And chap. 41. He tells us how the third General Council held in his days at Ephesus proceeding according to this rule Condemned Nestorius For the Fathers of that Christian Synod in number about 200. having consulted the sentiment of their Predecessors the eminent Doctors of the Oriental and Western Church S. Peter of Alexandria S. Athanasius S. Theophilus S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Basil S. Gregory Nyssen S. Felix S. Iulius S. Cyprian S. Ambrose concerning their Controversie in debate they resolved to hold their Doctrin to follow their Counsel to believe their Testimony to obey their Judgment Quae tandem c. What were at length saies S. Vincent the Voyces and Votes of them all but that what was anciently delivered should be kept what was of late invented should be exploded After which we admired and proclaimed the great Humility and Sanctity of that Council In which so many Priests in a manner also the greater part
humble themselves by Abstinence as to the quantity and quality of their Food they knowing very well by the Unction of the Holy Ghost what we know by too sad experience that the generality of the people being left to Fast when they pleased would please to Fast seldom or never at all Nay moreover it follows hence that the Institution of set-days of Abstinence was not only well worthy of the Apostles but also that it cannot well be understood how they could be faithful to their charge of the Souls of the whole World and neglect by the proviso of such an Ordination to propagate to all Generations an Universal practice of Fasting amongst Christians For though it were granted that the Primitive Christians were so fervorous both in Piety to God and in Mortification to themselves as they neither stood in need of set Holy-days to invite them to their Prayers nor of set Fasts to invite them to Penitential works Every day was a Lords day to them so long and frequent were their devout Prayers and other spiritual Exercises the whole year was one continued Lent unto them so rigid was their daily Abstinence Although I say all this were granted to the Honour of the Primitive Christian fervor yet it lying upon the Apostles to secure all Christian practices not only for their own days but to all Generations as much as in them lay and they foreseeing by the light of the Holy Ghost how apt tepid Posterity would be to excuse themselves from all obligation of the hard and troublesome duty of Fasting upon any set-times had they been left free to Fast when and how they pleased this I say the H. Apostles foreseeing their very Office seems to have obliged them from the beginning to ordain not only certain Festival days but certain Fasting days also lest after-Generations should say Our Ancestors went to Heaven without Fasting-Lent or other set Fasts and why may not we And indeed had not the Holy and long Fast of Lent been instituted by the first planters of Christianity over all the World Provincial or General Councils would have found it too hard a task to have obliged all Christian Countrys to an observation so repugnant to the natural inclination of Man-kind And this consideration alone does not a little encline me to believe that the Apostles of our Lord Jesus did actually and indeed ordain the Christian Lent Fast. For is it a likely Story that the Apostles and Primitive Christians Fasted as seldom and in such a manner as our Non Conformists do only deferring their good Flesh-meal till three a Clock in the Afternoon for five or six times a year But when Christians in after-Ages grew cold in all Christian exercises they fell to Abstinence from flesh contenting themselves with less nourishing and less savory Viands towards the Evening three days every Quarter and forty days every Year besides the Eves of several Festivities and two days of Abstinence every week Is this I say a likely story Or is it not rather much more likely that the Holy Apostles all over the World taught their first Converts both by their Example and Doctrin to Fast very often and very strictly but after-Ages growing more languid as in all Christian exercises so especially in Fasting as hardest and most contradictory to flesh and blood at length they came to Fast so remisly even upon days of the very Apostles Ordination that they added to one full Meal about Noon a Collation at Night and that such a one too as would hardly have been allowed a Primitive Christian Faster for his whole dayes Refection I desire the impartial Reader would be pleased to consider which of these two is the more likely story and to encline accordingly towards the belief of Lents being an Apostolical Ordination Or did the Primitive Christians Fast indeed very often and very strictly urged hereunto by their extraordiuary fervor but without any extrinsical Law obliging them hereunto upon any set-days or times but in after-Generations the Primitive inward fervor being lost did Christians generally Fast seldom and very remisly which their Pastors observing and watching for their souls good Did they hereupon Ordain Lent and other Fasting days as an extrinsical help to recover in their languishing Flock the Primitive Christian practice of Fasting According to that of the Apostle The Law is not made for the Iust Man but for the Vnjust 1 Tim. 1. 8. This might not without some probability be surmized were it not contrary to all Ecclesiastical History which makes mention of Lent in the most Primitive times as I shall say hereafter But Efficaciously to prove the holy Fast of Lent was taught the Christian world by the Apostles of our B. Saviour I confess I was not present when St. Peter or S. Paul or any other of the Apostles Preached to their first Converts the observation of Lent Neither were you present I believe when S. Paul writ his Epistle to the Romans and yet I perswade my self you think you are able to satisfie any reasonable man that he did write it Then why may not I be able also to prove satisfactorily that the holy Apostles did teach the Observation of Lent though I was not present at any of their Sermons or Exhortations to that purpose Or perhaps will you say You matter not who writ the Epistle to the Romans Having diligently Read and perused it you fear not with all confidence to aver whosoever writ this Letter I am sure the Holy Ghost Indited it I know it by its very stile and its other intrinsecal Vertues there 's a Divine Character stamp'd upon it by which I clearly distinguish it from all human Writings and this suffices me to make me receive it as a rule of my Faith and Manners But this would be small satisfaction to a Pagan who doubts of the Divine Authority of that holy Epistle unless you could make him also discern that Sacred Impress which you say you so clearly distinguish take heed you do not mistake 'T is Education I fear has made both you and me bear that Reverence we do to that and whatsoever else Portion of holy Writ we receive Had we been Educated in Judaism in all likelihood we should have as little regarded the New Testament as we do now Mahomets Alcaron I could tell you also that I know by the nature of Lent it self it must be Instituted and first taught by Missionants sent from Heaven and enumerating the singular benefits that accrue to a devout soul Religiously observing of it I could moreover make even you or any other Non-observer of it as well as my self see it must needs at first come from a good Spirit that wished Man-kind well for that it so strangely conduces to the perfecting of human Nature and to the adorning of it with many excellent Vertues For example If I Fast to afflict and humble my self before God Almighty for my sins my Fasting is an act of Repentance If I eat
of the Sacred Christian Pen-men written a Book on purpose to declare the whole manner of Christian worship like Moyses his Exodus or Leviticus we might reasonably have expected an account what days Christians were to set apart for Fasting or Religious Feasting what Garments they were to use in time of Divine Worship c. Buâ— they only as is manifest writing Books for other intents and purposes by way of History for example or moral Exhortations and making mention only by the by of some of our Christian Rites as they occurred nothing can be more unreasonable then to expect in their said Writings an express clear mention of every Christian Ceremonial Observance The four Gospels are a History of our Blessed Saviours Life and Death who lived as to the external Rites of Religion according to the Jewish Law and so we cannot reasonably in any of them expect what Fasting or Festival days we Christians are to observe Indeed had the Act of the Apostles been intended as an exact Narration how the Apostles lived as to the whole course of their Life what days they kept Holy and what they Fasted c. We might reasonably have expected some mention there of Lent and Easter But that holy Book making mention only of some few particular passages of two or three of the Apostles lives the Apostles might well keep Lent and Easter too and teach them also to their first Converts and yet there be a profound silence of them in the Book of their Acts As for S. Iohn's Prophetical Book it were no ways proper in it to speak of Easter or Lent The rest of the New Testament are certain Epistles or Letters of Spiritual Counsels written by S. Paul or some other Apostle to particular persons or whole Cityes already instructed in the Christian way of worship But why they should needs make mention therein of Lent I understand not unless perchance the persons they wrote unto had been deficient in observing of it But does not S. Paul expresly decry the keeping of Lent in one of his Epistles and tell the Christians he wrote to he was afraid he had laboured in vain amongst them by reason of their superstitious Observations of Days and Times Gal. 4. v. 9 10. How are ye Converted again to weak and beggarly Elements which you will serve again Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I should have laboured amongst you in vain Was then the Holy Apostle afraid lest the Galatians should leave Christianity and return to Judaism or Pagaism because of their observing Lent in memory of our Blessed Saviours Fasting 40. days or Easter in memory of his Resurrection Is this a likely Story Or is it not evident from the Context of their returning again to weak and poor Elements that because of their returning to the Observation of Iewish days commanded by Moses or Pagan days in honour of Iupiter Mars c. he was afraid they would relinquish the Gospel by them received and become Jews again or Pagans But does not the same Apostle 1 Tim. 4. tell us expresly that Abstinence from certain M 〈…〉 the Doctrin of Devils and that nothing which God has made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be rejected by us but eaten with thankfulness Now the Spi 〈…〉 eth expresly that in the later times some shall depart from the 〈…〉 heed to Seducing Spirits and Doctrins of Devils speaking 〈…〉 Hypocrisie having their Consciences scared with a hot Iron fo◠〈◊〉 to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God 〈…〉 to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth For every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving That we may rightly understand these words of S. Paul we must reflect that upon a double account we may abstain from certain Meats or Drinks First we may abstain from certain Meats as thinking them out of Error and Superstition naturally unclean and unholy And to teach Abstinence from certain Creatures upon such an account is deservedly called the Doctrin of Devils And with this Heresie the Manicheans are charged by S. Austin and other Fathers And that the Apostle meant such like Abstainers from certain Creatures is manifest by the reason he gives why Christians should not Abstain upon such an account to wit because every Creature of God is good and consequently we ought not to reject any as in themselves evil and unclean Secondly we may abstain from certain Meats or Drinks as less suitable to a time of Humiliation or appeasing of Almighty God for our sins by Penitential works of Fasting Weeping and Mourning or for some other Spiritual end And such an Abstinence as this is so far from being prohibited by S. Paul or any other of the Apostles that it is commended not only by the light of Nature but also by the Holy Scriptures and the examples of the Holiest Men that ever lived upon Earth Thus S. Tymothy Abstained from Wine continually for Mortification so that S. Paul thought fit to exhort him not always to drink water but to make use of a little Wine for his Stomack-sake and frequent infirmities Whereas had it been Superstition to abâ—â—ain from certain Creatures of God upon a Religious account he ought to have disswaded him from his Abstinence by telling him such an Abstinence from the good Creatures of God was the Doctrin of Devils Wil-worship c. Eating Flesh and drinking Wine are very Lawful and Laudable when done in their due and proper season but are no ways suitable to days or times when I am called upon by my lawful Superiors to appease God Almightys Anger for my own and others sins by Fasting Weeping and Mourning Hear not me but the Holy Prophet Isa. ch 22. v. 12 13 14. And in that way did the Lord God of Hosts call to Weeping and to mourning and to Baldness and to Girding with Sack-cloath And behold Ioy and Gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall dye And it was revealed in mine Ears by the Lord of Hoasts surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord God of Hosts Now they seem not so much to be a-sleep as dead who hear not God Almighty crying out unto them and calling them to Fasting Weeping and Mourning this Holy and Penitential time of Lent after all the Authorities above-cited for its Apostolical Institution To say nothing of the abounding of all sorts of wickedness amongst us and the heavy Spiritual Plagues of blindness of mind and insensibility of Divine things which has seized upon us and no doubt call aloud for Penitential Humiliations But if Abstinence from certain Meats upon a Religious account be true Christian Piety what shall we say to S. Paul Rom. 14. v. 2. One believeth that he may eat all things another who is weak eateth Herbs and v. 6. He that eateth
Fasting and whatsoever most severe Mortifications in exchange for its intolerable eternal torments And no less gladly and willingly ought we to do or suffer any thing never so troublesome to flesh and blood to prevent our falling into the same state of immutable unsufferable misery Often and seriously to think of this to wit that except we Repent with Fasting Weeping and Mourning we must Perish and that eternally would make the most rigorous severity seem gentle and easie Otherwhiles let us call to mind the eternal joyful Easter a Religious devout Lent-Fast will end in And this will make us cry out with the great S. Paul The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us Whatsoever we can suffer by Fasting or whatsoever other Christian severity in this our time upon this Earth is light easie if compared with the immense weight of eternal glory which expects us in the other Life Courage therefore O my soul. Sigh Pray and Fast Heaven will make amends for all Si credis omnia patere si non pateris non credis c. O Christian Man says the Divine S. Crysostom If thou believest be willing to suffer all things if thou art not willing to suffer thou doest not believe for such and so great things are promised us that rather than fall short of them we ought to suffer a thousand deaths undoubtedly a few Lent-Fasts Immortality Glory a Kingdom an eternal Kingdom is proposed unto us To which Kingdom He who to teach us the way to it Fasted 40. days and 40. nights bring all devout Imitators of his Quadragesimal Fast. Amen FINIS A Postscript IF any one be offended at the proving of Lent to be an Apostolical Institution by the unanimous Tradition of all Christian Countrys they are desired to Reflect First how they would Tryumph had they a like Tradition but even of one Country for a Non observance of Set-Fasts And Secondly how that all Christian Churches agree that a Sacred Reverence is to be given to whatsoever Doctrins or Practâ—ces can be proved to be Apostolical by a truly universal unanimous Tradition But the dispute betwixt the Church of Rome and Church of England is whether certain Doctrins or Practices were indeed always every where by all or in a manner by all Christian Doctors acknowledged as Apostolical I say by all or in a manner by all for as Bishop Gunning well observes p. 132. he would in a dangerous degree disserve our common Christianity who would reject some Book of H. Scripture the Epistles for example of S. James and S. Jude or something for being a Tradition Apostolical for the positive possible Rejection of some one Socrates or other Ecclesiastical Writer or some one or a few Fathers against the known generality and consent of the rest of Antient Writers and immemorial witness or practice of whole Christian Countrys And the reason is manifest especially in our present particular matter of Practice Had the H. Apostles for example in the several Countrys they Converted to Christianity taught no such thing as Abstinence from certain Meats on Fasting-days nor no Set-Fasts on Friday or Lent but had positively taught that to observe Solemn Set-Fasts was Legal as the Heretick Aerius and that Abstinence from certain Meats was vain and unprofitable as the Heretick Jovinian according to S. Aug. l. de Ser. n. 35. 82. That some one or a few pretenders to Christianity should either be ignorant what was taught them by the Apostles or would wilfully teach otherwise than they had been taught is no wonder but that all the several Christian Countrys in the World should make a distinction of days and meats and this ever since they were Christians they positively unanimously attesting as much and all their most antient Records partly positively witnessing the same partly being silent as to any Innovation and yet no such thing should be taught them but rather the quite contrary by the first Planters of the Christian Faith amongst them this is impossible And whoever goes about to weaken the force of Vniversal Tradition rightly understood invalidates as much as in him lyes all revealed Religion It being impossible to know assuredly any Books as to all that 's contained in them to be Divine Revelations but by such a Tradition Concerning this see Bishop Gunning above Christo Jejunanti Gloria