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
eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks and v. 17. The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost So that it seems by the H. Apostle that it matters not whether I eat Flesh or I abstain from Flesh in Lent so I give God thanks I am every whit as good a Christian though I eat as if I abstained Read the 14 v. and that will help you to correct your mistake I know and am perswaded by the Lord Iesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean By which words it 's manifest the Romans case and ours is quite different The scrupulous Romans seem to have had a difficulty to eat Flesh or drink Wine as imagining them to be in themselves unclean either for that they had been offered up to Idols or prohibited by the abolished Law of Moses or as naturally unclean and necessarily enclining them to sin but we abstain from them upon none of all these accounts but judge them as clean in themselves as any other Creatures of God only we deem them less suitable to a Penitential time then drier and less savory Viands and smaller sorts of drink But moreover you must give me leave to tell you that according to the doctrin of S. Paul in this very Chapter you ought if you will walk Christianly to abstain from Flesh in Lent at least upon the account of not scandalizing your weak Brethren who think themselves obliged to abstain from Flesh those days of Christian Pennance Hear the Apostles own words v. 15. If thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not Charitably and v 21. It is good neither to eat Flesh nor to drink Wine nor any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak Though as I was telling you our case is quite different from the Christians at Rome to whom S. Paul writes We abstain from flesh in Lent not as deeming it in it self unclean as some scrupulous weaklings amongst them did but having Testimonies from all Christian Countrys and from the undoubted writings of the prime Pillars of Christianity in the most Primitive Times that the Apostles so ordained and being besides commanded so to do by our Civil and Ecclesiastical Superiours who are ordained of God to countenance Well doers and to watch for our souls good as they who must give an account whom we think our selves obliged in Conscience to obey in all their Lawful commands but especially in such commands which when sincerely and undeceitfully observed tend to the great Spiritual advantage of our souls There are other places commonly urged by mis-understanders of Holy Scriptures against Abstinence from Meats upon a Religious account but to any one that considers the whole context and all circumstances they evidently appear nothing to the purpose For they are all intended against Superstitious Abstinence from Meats either as unclean by Creation or as unclean because prohibited by the Antiquated Law of Moses or as having been offered up to Idols or as because eaten with unwashen hands against frivolous and useless Traditions of men Thus when our B. Saviour S. Mat. 15. 11. tells us Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth this defileth a man It s manifest by the occasion of his saying those words v. 2. The Scribes and Pharisees quarrelling with his Disciples for not washing their hands before they did eat Bread and by what follows v. 20. To eat with unwashen hands defiles not a man that he never intended by those words to signifie that we might upon a day or time of publick Humiliation recommended to us by our Superiors without defiling our selves eat what we please when we please or as oft as we please But at least is it not against the Laws of the Land to abstain from certain Meats upon a Religious account Here you must distinguish To abstain from certain Meats upon a pretendedly Religious but indeed Superstitious account as if some Meats were less Holy or more unclean than others is both against God's Laws and Mans Laws but to obstain from certain Meats upon a truly Religious and indeed pious account as judging some Meats more suitable to Penitential days and seasons than others is according both to the Laws of God and our Nation Hear our Laws themselves and be your own judges of the meaning of them Statute 2. and 3. Edward 6. c. 19. The Kings Subjects having a more clear light and thereby perceiving that one Meat is not more holy more pure or more clean than another and that no Meats can defile Christian Men so that they be not used in Disobedience or Vice yet for as much as divers of the Kings Subjects have of late time more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinence which hath been used in this Realm upon the Friday and Saturday the Embring days and other days commonly called Vigils and in the time commonly called Lent and other accustomed times the Kings Majesty considering that due and Godly Abstinence is a means to Vertue and to subdue mens Bodys to their Soul and Spirit and considering also that Fishers c. doth Ordain and Enact with the Assent of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual c. That no person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be shall at any time after the first day of May 1549. willingly or unwittingly eat any manner of Flesh upon any Friday or Saturday or the Ember days or in any day in the time commonly called Lent Take Bishop Gunnings Reflection hereupon The scope and reason and motive of which Law if it be considered according to the principal end of it subduing the Flesh to the Soul and Spirit for there is added another end also which was political may well admonish us though it was hard to contain the particulars in a Law to abstain also at such times of Mortification from what soever Food else is more delicate costly of hotter nature and of higher nourishment The formers of that Law which is now the Law of our Land had no doubt before their eyes the approbation of God and his gracious answer to Daniel so Chastening himself as in the holy Scripture is described Dan. 10. 2 3. 12. In those days I Daniel was Mourning three full weeks I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I anoynt my self at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled Then said he unto me Fear-not Daniel for from the first day that thou didst sâ—t thine heart to understand and to chasten thy self before thy God thy words were heard and I am come for thy words Which that Ministers of Gods Word should not as well have before their eyes as our civil
interposing also your selves the half-fasts of the Stations and your selves other whiles also as each pleases living on meer Bread and Water The same Tertullian before he was a Montanist testifies in his Book of Prayer c. ult Sic die Paschae c. So also on the day of Christs suffering whereon is observed the common and as it were publick Religion of Fasting In the same Age S. Telesphorus Bishop of Rome did not first institute Lent-Fast as Zanchy observes l 1. m 4m Praeceptum Cited by B. Gunning in his Appendix but only added certain days to be observed over and above by the Clergy His words are Certe Telesphorus c. Assuredly Telesphorus who was the seventh Bishop of the Roman Church and a Martyr about the year of Christ 139. makes mention of this the Quadragesimal time above mentioned as observed before him in the Church For he added certain days which he would have observed by Clerks and Priests over and above what were observed by the Laity We ordain says he that all Clergy-men i. e. such as are called into the Lot of our Lord fast from flesh seven whole weeks before Easter because as the life of Clergy-men ought to be distinguish'd from the Conversation of the Laity so ought there to be a difference in their Fasting also Now the Church of Rome professing in her self a power to Institute Holy-days or Fasting-days had any of her Bishops first ordained Lent-Fast she would have made no more difficulty of Registring who it was then She does of telling us when and by whom was first Constituted the Feast of Corpus-Christi and divers other Ritual Observances Moreover in the same Age there was a difference betwixt S. Polycarp Disciple of S. Iohn and by him ordained Bishop of Smyrna together with Thraseas Bishop of Eumenia and S. Anicetus Bishop of Rome with other Western Bishops on the other side about which difference Polycarp came to Rome Anicetus professing to follow the Rule received from S. Peter and S. Paul by the Instruction of his Predecessors Xystus Telesphorus Hyginus Pius and Polycarp professing to follow what S. Iohn and other of the Apostles had practised The words of Irenaeus concerning Polycarp whom he had seen and heard are these That Anicetus could not perswade Polycarp to vary from what he had observed ever with John the Disciple of our Lord and the rest of the Apostles with whom he had Conversed or spent his time Iren. ap Euseb. l 5 c. 24. The same difference revived again about the 97th year after S. Iohn betwixt Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus with other Asian Bishops and Victor Bishop of Rome with others of the West Polycrates pleading the Authority of S. Iohn and S. Philip and Victor pleading the Authority of the Tradition of S. Peter and S. Paul Sozom. 1. 7. c. 19. Polycrates and they of Asia contending That from antient Tradition they deemed that they ought to observe the Feast of the Salutary Pasch on the 14th day of the month as being of duty altogether on that day upon what soever day of the week it fell to put an end to or dissolve their fastings On the other side which was Victors it was alledged No such Custom to observe on that mauner in the rest of the Churches throughout the whole World they observing from Apostolical Tradition which come down to that time that only on that day which should be also the weekly day of the Resurreci on of our Lord they ought to dissolve or end their Fastings You see both parties had a Tradition that the Feast of Easter was to conclude certain Fasting days and all this is witnessed in Eusebius l. 5. c. 23 24. About Easter-day it self they had indeed different Traditions S. Iohn and S. Philip finding it useful in those parts of Asia where many Iews Inhabited by condescention to observe the Christ an Easter on the same day with the Jewish Easter But S. Peter and S. Paul where no such cause was prescribed as meet not to disjoyn their Anniversary from their weekly memorial day of Christs Resurrection as B. Gunning reflects We have then S. Iohn taught S. Polycarp to Fast before Easter as testifies Irenaeus who saw and heard S. Polycarp Moreover in this Age the same Irenaeus tells Victor in an Epistle to him that there was Controversie not only concerning the day it self of Easter but also touching ' the manner it self of the Fast but none disputed whether there was to be a Fast or no before Easter His words are Neither is the Controversie only about the day of Easier but also concerning the ' form it self of the Fast for some think they ought to fast one day some two others also more and some by forty hours of Day-time and of Night commensurate their day And such variety of those that keep this Fast hath not been made or begun now in our Age but very long before with our Ancestors who as it is meet to believe not accurately retaining the manner of the Fast above-mentioned have changed the Custom which was simple and plain into that which was afterwards Now what uniform Custom could there precede in the Christian Church and not be from the Apostles Irenaeus writing thus about the 97th year after S. Iohn's death Though he seems not to speak of the whole Lent-Fast but only of the Fasts of the Paschal week In the very Age of the Apostles we have the Testimony of S. Ignatius their Contemporary in an Epistle to the Philippians His words are Do not Contemn Lent for it contains an imitation of the Conversation of God Neither do you despise Passion-week Fast upon Wednesday and Friday giving what you leave to the Poor Philo the Jew in his Book of the Religious says Eusebius l. 2. c. 16 17. describes the Religious Life of certain Apostolical persons of the Hebrew Nation at Alexandria 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 and he adds according to the Gospel and such Religious fastings says he 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 It is manifest to every one that Philo comprised in that Writing Customs delivered in the beginning from the Apostles Hitherto Eusebius Now let us hear Philo's own words These Assemble themselves especially by the space of seven weeks Wine in those days is not brought in unto their Tables And their Table hath not any thing of that which had Blood but Bread for their Food and Salt for that which they eat with their Bread Some for the space of three days receive no Food and scarce by the space of six days did they refresh themselves with their natural Food A week they observed by a pure and holy Virgiral
manifestly impede our designed end least we pull down with one hand what we go about to build up with the other and make our Spirits as vain and light by frothy Conversations and other Divertisements as we make them grave and sober by Fasting and Abstinence Hear the 4th Council of Toledo c. 5. In omnibus c. In all the foresaid days of Lent we ought to insist on Fasting and Mourning to cover the body with Hair-cloath and Ashes to humble our mind with Mournings to change our Ioy into Heaviness until the time of the Resurrection of Christ when we are with joy to sing Allelujah and turn our heaviness into gladness For this the consent of the Vniversal Church in all parts of the Earth hath confirmed Fiftly Spend more time in Prayer Meditation of Divine things and Spiritual reading and hearing of Sermons for one great end of Fasting is the better to dispose us for these Spiritual exercises Venter non habet aures The pampered paunch is to nothing deafer than to Divine Inspirations Impletus venter non vult studere libenter The full belly has no great mind to study but much less to speak to God-Almighty by devout Prayer or to hear him speak to it by spiritual reading and hearing of Sermons Thus the Antient people of God the Iews spent the fourth part of their days of publick Fasting and Atonement in reading and hearing the Law of Almighty God and another fourth part in worshipping the same God with devout prayers Nehem. 9. v. 1 2 3. Now in the twenty and fourth day of this moneth the Children of Israel were Assembled with Fasting and with Sack-cloathes and Earth upon them And the Seed of Israel separated themselves from all Strangers and stood and confessed their Sins and the Iniquities of their Fathers And they stood up in their place and read in the Book of the Law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God And the Church of Christ has ever in Lent to Prayers and Fastings annexed more frequent hearing and Preaching God's Word and many of S. Crysostoms Golden Homilies as likewise of others of the Antient Fathers were Sermons Preached day by day in Lent to the people Hear S. Crysostom upon those words of our Blessed Saviour This kind goes not out but by Prayer and Fasting Qui orat c. He that prays with Fasting hath two Wings and those lighter than the Winds themselves for such an one doth not stretch himself or yawn or is drowsie in his Prayer He that fasteth is light and winged and prays with Vigilancy and extinguishes his own evil Lusts and renders God propitious to himself and humbles his own soul that was lift up For this cause also the Apostles in a manner continually Fasted Fasting with Faith brings into the soul a great force and much Philosophy and makes of a man an Angel and helps him to fight with incorporeal powers Sixthly What we defraud our own Appetite of by Fasting let our Lord Jesus eat by the mouth of his Poor And this indeed is another end and fruit of Fasting to make us more able and more willing to relieve those in necessity To feel some hunger our selves sometimes makes us more tenderly compassionate of those who in a manner are continually hungry and its manifest the less we expend on our selves the more we have to bestow on the Needy and Indigents and daily experience teaches us that none are more liberally Chariâ—â—â—ble to others then those who are most Christianly severe to themselves And no wonder their frequent Abstinences demonstratively convincing them that the best use of wealth is to spend as little as they can upon themselves and as much as they can upon their necessitous Neighbors And hence also follows another admirable fruit of Religious Fasting to wit an absolute indifferency to worldly riches and abundance For who will break his Sleep or weary his Limbs to get that which he believes when he has gotten the best use he can make of it is to give it away to others Hear the Antient and Learned Origen Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Habemus c. We have the days of Lent Consecrated to Fastings we have the 4th and 6th days 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 Hear S. Chrysolog Serm. 8. de Jejun Eleemosynae c Alms and Prayers are the wings of Fasting by which 't is carryed up to Heaven without which it lyes dead and spiritless upon the Earth Let us therefore O my Brethren when we Fast deposit our Dinner in the hand of the Poor that their hand may preserve for us what our belly would have lost 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 pitty to others 't is but an occasion taken of Covetousness Because by such sparing what is taken down in the flesh swells in the bag In fine hear God-Almighty himself Isa. 58. Is not this the Fast that I have chosen Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry and that thou bring the Poor that are cast out into thy house When thou seest the Naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh And now would all Pretenders to fast in Lent and upon other Set-days Fast in some tolerable manner according to what right reason Holy Scriptures and Antient Fathers direct us as has been showen the Devil himself would be ashamed to call such Fasting the Doctrin of Daemons Will-worship or Superstition But to Fast truly and Christianly is troublesome to flesh and blood It cannot be denyed And this is indeed the true cause we have so 〈…〉 s of Lent-Fast amongst us The want of express Scripâ—â—◠〈…〉 of Superstition is pretended but the true reason in 〈…〉 om Fast is the difficulty flesh and blood finds in Fasting But as to this we must help our selvas sometimes by calling to mind the bitter eternal torments we have deserved for our sins and this will make us ashamed to complain of the gentle Pennance of the most rigorous Lent-Fast Had God-Almighty upon the account of our manifold sins and wickednesses required of us some great matter for example To have Fasted our whole Lives with Bread and Water ought we not gladly to have done it How much rather then ought we to comply most willingly with his most equitable and gentle command of Fasting moderately sometimes How gladly would a Damned Soul accept of a Methusalem's Age of rigorous