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-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
observance which was preparatory to the greatest Feast which was followed with the 50. days Solemnity Thus Philo contemporary of the Apostles concerning the Hebrew Christians in and about Alexandria where S. Mark was set Bishop by S. Peter I omit the Testimony of the 68. Canon of the Apostles for that Ecclesiastical Writers do not unanimously agree that those Canons at least all of them were made by the Apostles although the sixth General Councel Celebrated above a 1000. years agoe received and approved 85. of them There can be no doubt but they are very antient Bishop Gunning thinks they were made in the second Century by the Successors of the Apostles who in that Age were commonly as he says called Apostles The 68â—h Canon runs thus If any Bishop or Priest or Deacon or Lector or Cantor shall not Fast the sacred Lent Quadragesimam before Easter or Wednesday or Friday let him be deposed unless he be hindred by weakness of body But if he be a Laick let him be deprived of the Communion Indeed the Canon does not seem first to institute Lent but rather supposes it and urges its observance by inflicting a penalty upon Non-observers All which makes for my designed purpose for who could so early except the Apostles be the first Authors of such an Institution when as yet there had been no General Council except that of the Apostles at Hierusalem But have we no Scripture for the Observation of Lent Fast We have Scripture that our B. Saviour Fasted 40. days and we have also in Scripture that if any man says he is in Christ he ought to walk as he walk'd Moreover we have yet more express Scriptures as interpreted not by some one or two Fathers but by the whole body of Catholick Christians as Bishop Gunning well observes out of Tertullian cited above They that is the Catholick Christians who are called by him Psychici surely think that in the Gospel those days are determin'd for Fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away and a little after the Paschal Fast those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away Those words then of our B. Lord in excuse of his Disciples not Fasting whilst he was with them Can you make the Children of the Bridegroom fast while the Bridegroom is with them But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them then shall they fast in those days Those words I say in the sense of the Primitive Church in the second Century were intended by our B. Saviour to signifie that Christians after his departure should Fast yearly upon Good-Friday the day of his death and the rest of the Pascal or Lent-Fast those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away I add whether those words in those days did in the intention of our Saviour signifie Lent-Fast or no it 's evident had not the Primitive Christians Fasted Lent they would never have interpreted our Lords words as they did which is sufficient for my purpose to wit to evince that the most Primitive pure Church did Fast Lent And besides according to common sense who are more likely to understand aright our B. Saviours or his Apostles words they who lived in the next Age to them or we who live sixteen hundred years after Do we or any other Nation in the world understand our written Laws according to the sense a crafty witty Lawyer can wrest them to signifie or accordingly as they have been immemorially understood since the first making of them and as cases and disputes have by our Learned Judges been decided by them More-over suppose but only the Primitive Christians for whose sake the Holy Scriptures were written rightly understood them and let after Generations interpret the same Scriptures in the sense they were interpreted by their Ancestors and let this be their great enquiry how their Fore-elders understood them and its impossible they should ever be mis-understood but leave their Interpretation to every private mans sentiment and you open a gap to all Innovations and Heresies as Bishop Gunning judiciously observes Reason says he pag. 23. and experience and the direction of all Wise men in the Church of God Antient and Modern the House of Wisdom Councels Reverend Fathers and Writers and our Church in particular have directed and commanded us not to interpret the Scripture in things of publick concernment to the Churches rule of believing and doing but as we find 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 of any new and strange Doctrin or Practice as necessary there from or to the opposing any constantly received Doctrin or Practice of the Church-Vniversal for in other matters they may happily with leave quietly abound in their own sense leaves all bold Innovators which can draw any 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 Hâ—resies 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 falsly so called pervert the Scriptures to their own and others their obstinate followers destruction And indeed he who has so much Pride and Self-conceit as to prefer his own seeming sense of holy Scriptures before the sense which Holy Fathers and Christian. Doctors unanimously attest to have received from their Fore-elders is nextly disposed to vilifie and reject the whole Letter of Sacred Scriptures upon pretext of being uncertain whether the Letter now commonly owned and approved by the unanimous consent of Christian Doctors be indeed that Letter which was left the World by the Apostles But if a yearly Religious Observation of the Holy Fast of Lent be of such singular benefit and Spiritual advantage to all Christians and if also the Apostles of our Lord Jesus did recommend such an Observation to the several Countrys by them Converted to the Christian Faith how comes it to pass that none of all their Writings which have come to our hands makes express mention of it Hear Bishop Gunning p. 138. Ritual Observances being Visible and as it were legible in the Vniversal Churches constant practice needed not to be set down in her written rule Or those which are therein set down not necessarily so evidently but that they might need the Interpâ—etation of such the Churches practice And indeed whoever will impartially consider the nature of the Books of the New Testament will be so far from wondering that all the Rituals of Christianity are not expresly declared in them that he will rather wonder there is so much in them of the exterior Rites of Christian Religion as there is Had any
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
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
strength to humble themselves by more and more rigorous Abstinence they have sought by all means possible to cheat those Penitential days Hear not me but S. Basil above concerning those who because a five-days Fast was at hand would make themselves drunk the day before Si cras venias vinum obolens c. If thou comest to morrow smelling of Wine and its putrid and corrupted Crudities how shall I impute to thee thy drunken Surfet for a Fast. In which order shall I place thâ—e Amongst Drunkards or amongst Fasters But in what order think you would the Holy Father have placed those who not barely smell of Wine drunk to excess the day before but upon the very Fasting-day it self drink their skins full of Wine Had we a deep sense how much the health of the soul is to be preferr'd before the pleasure of the body and a strong Faith how exceedingly Fasting conduces to the souls health all the World would be in love with Fasting and though our Constitutions would not permit us to abstain from flesh this Love would wake us so ingenious to Mortifie our selves in a temperate use of flesh that we should no less reap the fruit of Fasting than those who lived upon Fish or Herbs Let us by no means says S. Basil receive the days that are approaching with a sad heart but as becomes Saints with a chearful affection Be not sad when thou art Cured It would be very absurd if we should grieve for the substraction of our Victuals and not rather rejoyce for the health of our soul and so seem to value more the pleasure of our belly than the cure of our mind For fulness causes delight unto the belly but fasting is gainful to the soul. Rejoyce for that is given thee an efficacious Medicine to abolish sin For as Worms which breed in the bowels of Children are expell'd by certain sharp and bitter Medicines so Sin that abides in the inmost recesses of the soul is instantly kill'd and extinguish'd by fasting which purges the bowels of the mind Do not imitate the disobedience of Eve do not again make the Serpent thy Counsellor who under pretext of sustaining thy body perswades thee to eat Do not excuse thy self for thy infirm Constitution do not say thou art not able to endure fasting For thou doest not make those excuses to me but according to the Proverb thou speakest to one who knows the Truth to wit to God who is ignorant of nothing Go to then tell mâ— canst thou not Fast and canst thou fill thy self with variety of Meats canst thou surcharge thy body with the weight of Victuals But we know Physitians are wont to prescribe to such as are infirm not abundance of Food but a spare Dyet and Abstinence How comes it to pass then that you can feast But pretend you can not fast Whether is it more easie to the belly to pass over the Night with a slender Refection or to lye opprest with abundance of Meats Yea indeed not to lye but stretching and groaning continually to turn now to this side and now to that But what modâ—ration in eating and drinking should we do well to use upon Fasting-days Consult God and your own Conscience and such as understand the right exercise and great benefit of true Fasting In three words Be contented with one temperate Meal taken as late as your health and other circumstances will permit Drink no strong drink or very sparingly and this only at your Meal and though you should take some small matter at night Even such an abstinence would not want its singular Spiritual advantages so you exercised it not merely in a Customary manner but for good Christian ends with sincerity as in the sight of God according to the measure of your health and strength Thirdly Be sure to joyn with the exterior Mortification of your body the interior Humiliation of your soul by a hearty sorrow and contrition for your sins Though you give your whole Estate to the Poor if you want Charity it will avail you nothing And though you make your body a mere Skeleton by rigorous Fasting and Abstinence if your heart be not truly Penitent and sorry for your sins all 's to no purpose A broken and an humble heart is a Sacrifice which God-Almighty will by no means despise But if contrition of heart be wanting all exterior Mortifications will be rejected And it is want of this which makes Fasting and other voluntary Austerities and Involuntary Crosses seem hard and intolerable unto us A soul deeply humbled with an intimate sense of its deserts for its manifold sins and wickednesses thinks all Meats all Cloaths all Lodging and whatsoever Accommodations too good for it But as exterior acts of Charity beget and encrease true Charity in our hearts so exterior Penitential works are apt to beget and encrease interior Penitential sorrow in our souls And though the interior of Charity Repentance and other Vertues be the chief and main thing we are to aim at yet all interior pretences to any Vertue which show not themselves in exterior acts are to be suspected as Counterfeit What St. Austin says of Charity is no less true of Repentance or any other Vertue Amor si est c. Love if it be in us it will be working if it do not work it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Repentance if it be in us it will be working by Fasting and other Penitential works if it works not it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Christian Vertues with their exterior acts are not unfitly compared to some rich Wine in a Cask or Vessel A rich Wine without a Cask or Vessel to contain it cannot be presented a bare Cask presented without the rich Liquor in it would not be accepted Ioel 2. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning Fourthly Take heed of corrupting the Mortification of your Fasting by excess in other joyances Holy Daniel in his three weeks Fast abstained not only from pleasant Food but also from Anoynting of himself Ch. 10. v. 3. I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I Anoynt my self at all till three weeks were fulfilled Vtamur ergo parcius Verbis cibis potibus Somnio jocis arctius Perstemus in Custodia Let us be more sparing not only in our Meat and Drink but also in our Words Sleep and Recreations and keep a more Vigilant Watch over our selves that in nothing we exceed And the reason is manifest for one great end of Fasting being by that exterior Mortification to beget or encrease interior Contrition and Sorrow of heart for sin it manifestly follows if we seriously design the end of Fasting we ought carefully to moderate all other Joyances however in themselves Lawful and at another time laudable which