his Version is thus e And some Forty Days so that they make the Day by Computation of Hours of Day and Night And if the Place be understood as commonly it is and there be no more meant by it than that the One or More days before spoke of were the Civil or Periodical Days and consisted each of 24 Hours yet the Inconvenience Valesius urges will not follow and a Fast of Forty such Days will not exclude we know so much Refreshment every Evening as may support Nature The greatest Incongruity I can find in that Acception of the Words is That it makes Irenaeus on a Subject he does but touch to give Victor unnecessarily a verbose Description of a Day one and the same thing where the only Intention was to put him in remembrance of a Variety I should rather therefore think That when he had given a short Account of the different Numbers of Days he should then add a short mention of the different Quantities of a Day That some computed the day Vulgarly by the Appearance of the Sun and some Civilly by its Revolution And according to this Design of Irenaeus I have directed one of the Translations above to which this of Ruffinus will agree Neither will it I suppose be very material to object That a Fast only from Sun-Rising to Sun-Set has not been usual since among Christians for it might have been practised then though disus'd afterwards as less exact and as we have seen the Jews have all along fasted in that manner upon most Occasions and the Mahometans continually do Neither will it be wondered That so known a Difference as that of the Vulgar and Revolutional Day should have been expressed so negligently in few Words And as for any other lesser Criticism c it may easily be satisfied for if only by the natural force of the Sence and its apposite suitableness to the Scope of the Place And thus far have we learned from Irenaeus That the Observation of Lent was very Ancient and that its Fast then consisted not of One or Two days but More and in some Places very probably of Forty b Euseb Hist 5.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c All Valesius his Manuscripts put no stop after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that determined him to his way of Rendring this Place But Ruffinus his Copy seems to have had the stop and Sir Henry Savil reads so as to change the place of the Copulative Particle thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mr. Thorndyâ—e in his Service of God at Relig. Assemb p. 247. says This Reading is acknowledged by Petitus This Lection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it has any Copy to justifie it is certainly to be preferred for the Reason at the End of this Chapter But if it had no Manuscript on its side and a Change must be somewhere made in this Sentence such a Trajection of a Particle by conjecture is much more allowable than the Substitution â— alesius makes afterwards of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sence by the one is much more advantaged than by the other And indeed the advantage of the Sence is so great that if such an Alteration is not to be admitted to join this last Sentence to the preceding I should then take the Sentence to begin there without Connexion and as it might happen in the Excerpts of a Letter d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is true may signifie to Govern in a Church but it does as well to ' Hold or Keep a Practice as in St. Mark vii 3 4. And this last Sence is more suitable to the Place e Quidam enim putant uno tantum die observari debere jejunium alii duobus alii vero pluribus nonnulli etiam quadraginta ita ut Horas diurnas nocturnásque computantes Dient statuant CHAP. IV. The Practice of Fasting mentioned about the Year 200 by Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertullian § I. The Weekly Fasts of Wednesday and Friday mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus § II. Testimonies out of Tertullian concerning both the Weekly and Ante-Paschal Fasts § III. Observations upon those Testimonies Some part of the Ante-Paschal Fast thought necessary by the Catholicks of his time the rest Discretionary § I. NEXT in Order of the Christian Authors that remain to us is Clemens of Alexandria and who would have assisted us much in this Argument had his Book Of the Paschal Season his Dissertations about Fasting and possibly that about the Ecclesiastical Canons and against those that followed the Errour of the Jews (a) Euseb Hist 6 1â— been now extant In what is come to our hands there is nothing to be found of the Anniversary Ante-Paschal Fast or Paschal Feast of the Weekly Fasts and Festivals there 〈…〉 acâ—â—â—ental mention made and only for the sake of an Allegory b The truly knowing Person says he knows the hidden Meaning of the Fast of those two days Wednesday and Friday whereof the first belongs to Mercury the Idol God of Gain the other to Venus the Heathen Goddess of Pleasure For he fasts all his Life from Love of Money and of Pleasure And such a one having performed what is commanded makes that the Lord's Day in which he puts off the Evil Mind and takes up the Knowing one celebrating that Resurrection of our Lord which has been so wrought in himself This is indeed Allegorical all but it has a certain Ground upon which it descants and supposes as constant an Observation of those two days of the Week as of the weekly Day of the Resurrection They were the ordinary days of Christian Assemblies the Stations we before heard of (c) Ch. 2. §. 1. commonly fasted to a Certain Hour as the Jews had their Meetings in their Synagogues on their Mundays and Thursdays when generally the devouter Sort did likewise Fast (d) Luke 1â— 12 Of these Days Friday was apparently chose for one because on it our Saviour had suffered and Wednesday is said to be the other because he had been then sold to the High Priests and further we cannot but think that these which were kept in some manner every Week in the Memory of our Lord's Passion should in the Passion-Week it self have been kept with great Solemnity § II. But this stated Observation of those two Days in the Week is more directly mentioned by Tertullian a Cotemporary of Clemens as the Paschal Solemnity is also expresly remembred by him He wrote the Treatises now extant about the year 200 and a little after and when most of them were wrote was of the Heresie of Montanus so that what we are to cite out of him cannot be well understood without some knowledge of his Sect. Montanus whom our Author unhappily followed is supposed to have begun his New Doctrine about the Year 172. He is said not to have differed from the Catholicks in the main Articles
not well otherwise to be understood but some of its chief Institutions are known to be derived thence For as before many of the Mosaick Rites were unquestionably design'd to presignifie our Saviour so some of them were afterwards taken into his Service always to minister unto him not admitted only for the present out of condescension to the Native or Proselyte Jews of whom then the greatest Number of Converts consisted but some formally adopted and others laudably continued for Perpetuity This has in part been already copiously demonstrated by many very Learned Writers and if any thing shall chance to be added by me I offer it with all submission And indeed it would not be pertinent to my Business to pretend in this Matter to any new Discoveries who am rather now by such Observations as are well Agreed and Received to try to favour another Guess I am by and by to advance But besides to be honest to the Reader and withal to put him out of any fear I am here to profess That I pretend not to the Depths of the Talmudical Learning nor intend to engage him in it having never dug in the dark Mine my self but only seen something of that which has been brought above ground by others and exposed to common Use either in the Translations of the Misnah or of Maimonides for of him I have not read much more than is in Latin or in the Works of modern Authors The Reader therefore will be pleased to go on and see how much of the Christian Appointments appears to have been copied from the Jewish And here he will presently find it agreed by all That the Two Sacraments were taken thence That the Weekly Observation of the Lord's Day was in Imitation of their Sabbath That the Discipline of the Christian Church came from the Jewish And that the Apostles Presbyters and Deacons were Officers after their Model But besides these Principal Ordinances which are expressed in the New Testament he will find too That many Circumstances which in the second Age attended those Ordinances were likewise Jewish as well as many other Vnscriptural Customs which are known to have been in use in those Days I shall first consider the Scriptural Vsages and afterwards those which are remembred in the next Age And the Scriptural I take by themselves both because of the Authority for their Practice and of the Consent for their Derivation though in the expounding of the Jewish Customs for the first I may happen to join what belongs to the later sort to avoid hereafter unnecessary Repetition § II. AND to begin with Baptism This was with the Jews a Sacramental Rite whereby those who were converted from Heathenism were initiated into their Religion A Rite little practised among them now for they have had a long while but very few Converts and such People as they tell us (a) Mâ—iâ—â— Issure Biaâ— c. 13. §. 14 18. ex Ed. Dom. Prideaux Oxon 1679. were always suspected by them as apt to Apostatize and draw away others as it happened in their Opinion in the Matter of the Golden Calf and at Kibroth Hattaavah For these Reasons it may be the Jewish Traditionaries have not been very particular on this Subject neither hath Maimonides treated of it by it self and expresly but occasionally only in a Treatise of Prohibited Marriages There he tells us (b) Issure Biah c. 13. §. 1. That the Admission of a Convert was made by these Three Steps First If he was a Male by Circumcision Then By Baptism And Last of all By Sacrifice First He that offered to become a Jew was examined by them concerning the Cause of his Conversion whether it was Religious and had some Part of the Law especially propos'd to him that of the Vnity of God and of the Crime of Idolatry and if he professed himself willing to adhere to it they circumcised him (c) Ibid. 14 15. Then after some convenient time they proceeded to baptize him This was to be done in the Presence and by the Authority of Three at least as Commissioners for the Action They stood over him when he was in the Water and again interrogated him proposing some of the harder and some of the easier Precepts of the Law and if he persisted in his former Resolution of taking upon him its Obedience they baptized him (d) c. 14. §. 6. Thus were Grown Persons baptized upon their own Engagements and Children too were admitted to the same Favour by the permission of the Consistory their Fathers or three others instead of a Father undertaking for them (e) c. 13. § 7. Lightfoot vol. 2. p. 118. And now by Virtue of this his Baptism he is taken out of the number of the Gentiles (f) Iss Bi. c. 13. §. 17. and ceases to have any Kindred upon the account of his natural Birth so much that as they say if his Mother should turn Jew also he may marry her by the Letter of Moses his Law though by the Decretals of the Canon Law he was bound to observe the prohibited Degrees on the Mother's side (g) Ibid. 14.12 13. So was the Proselyre held to be as an Infant then new born (h) 14.11 and to have become an Israelire to be in a state of Sanctity (i) 14.14 and under the Wings of the Divine Majesty (k) 13.4 So absolutely are they understood to be render'd Israelites now by this Baptism only but heretofore when their Temple was up the Proselytes were not reckon'd to be fully Holy nor to have lodg'd themselves perfectly under the Wings of God's Majesty until they were further admitted to his Worship by Sacrifice This Sacrifice is said to have been a Burnt-Offering either out of the Fold or else of two Turtles or two young Pigeons for an Atonement (l) 13.5 For he was it seems in the condition of those Israelites who when they were free from their Uncleanness and had wash'd wanted still an Atonement for their complete Purification that they might be able to partake of the Sacrifices (m) Maimon ex Interpr Lud. deVeil Lib. de Sacr. Tract 5. c. 1. §. 1 2. Only in this he differ'd that he wanted no Sin-Offering as they did because the Sins of his former State were already entirely remitted by his Baptismal Regeneration And to this I suppose I may add under the favour of the instance which follows and upon which they ground the Proselyting method that the Proselyte was like a Leper wash'd and wanting the Atonement himself Sprinkled and Purify'd by the Blood of his Offering And lastly according to the same Pattern I am just going to mention there was commonly after the Burnt-Offering (n) Mai. ibid. item Interprete eodem de Cultu Divino Ir. 5. c. 1. §. 6. a Peace-Offering presented that when he was in the Morning by the one made capable of partaking of the Sacrifices he might exercise that capacity in the Afternoon and by the
à Communicatione Orationis Conventus omnis Sancti Commercii relegetur Praesident probati quique Seniores Honorem istum non Pretio sed Testimonio adepti neque enim pretio ulla res Dei constar § II. l Morinus his Translation agrees with the Printed Text and makes the Forty Days to be discontinued But it should seem that they were intended to be continued by the Prohibition that follows of not washing the while above Twice or Thrice and that for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 However there is no need of this place for an instance of such a Fast of Forty Days together such a Penance being afterwards thrice injoin'd in the same short Paragraph m Herm. Part. lib. 3. Sim. 7. Numquid ergo ait protinus putas aboleri delicta illorumÌ„ qui agunt Poenitentiam Nou proinde continuò Sed oporter eum qui agit Poenitentiam Affligere animam suam Humilem animo se proestare in omni negotio Vexationes multas variasque perferre Cumque perpessus fuerit omnia quae illi instituta sunt tunc forsitan qui eum creavÃt qui formavit Vniversa commovebitur erga eum clementiâ suâ CHAP. X. § I. A. Parallel of Christian Rites mention'd by Tertullian and § II. Of those Vsages mention'd by Origen particularly about Prayer 1. Disposition of Mind 2. Posture of Body 3. Direction of the Face § III. 4. Times of Daily Prayer § IV. 5. Matter and Method § V. The Antient Order of Christian Prayer § VI. And the Order of the Jewish § VII Compar'd § VIII A. Parallel of some few other Vsages THE many Christian Ordinances which have already appear'd to be deriv'd from the Jews may be more than were necessary to prepare the Reader for a like account of Lent I shall therefore take leave to add only so much as may be compâ—ehended in this one Chapter more § I. It is known from Terâ—ullian that the Antient Christians made frequent use of the sign of the Cross His words a are these When ever we Move and set forward on any action when we Come in and when we Go out when we put on our Shoes or Wash or are at Table when Candles are lighted when we lye down when we sit whatsoever it be that we are doing we still as it were wear away our Forehead by signing it with the Cross And we have already seen (b) Ch. 6. §. 5. that when this sign of the Cross was first made on the Forehead of a Christian Confirm'd it might be well taken from a like Practice us'd in all Probability at the Confirmation of a Proselyte Jew when the Priest mark'd him on the Forehead to God and first put on that Frontlet or Tephillim between his Eyes a Sacred dress memorial to himself and distinctive to others which he was after to wear when free from Impurity before God and Men he being suppos'd by it to own God and his Law and to be Arm'd and Warned against all Sin (c) Buxt Syn. 9. Now the Christians tho' they did not dress themselves with their badge of the Cross yet upon all proper occasions they repeated the Sign of it for a Profession of their Faith and Remembrance of their Duty a Sign which they continued perpetually to make and write on themselves when they sat in the house and when they walk'd by the way when they lay down and when they rose up (d) Deut. 6 7 8 9. This too they might use more particularly at those Actions Tertullian mentions they being such as are always begun by the Jews with their Proper Benedictions (e) Buxt S. Jud. Cap. 10. and were not I suppose undertook by those Primitive Christians without their peculiar Blessings in a literal and explicite conformity to that reinforcement of the Jewish Usage by St. Paul (f) 1 Cor. 10.31 whether ye Eat or Drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God And when such Acts of Devotion attended those ordinary actions they did not only in common form of the Jews require a Sign to accompany them but they wanted the Christian Sign more especially to shew in whose name they were offer'd that another Direction (g) Col. 3.17 of the same Apostle might also be formally observ'd whatever ye do in Word or in Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving Thanks to God and the Father by Him as has been long ago remark'd on another occasion 2. The same Tertullian reckous up g 2 another celebrated Christian Rite for a Practice immemorial in his time that they thought it a Fault to Fast or to pray Kneeling on any Sunday or on the Fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide all of them formerly Festival as sacred to the Resurrection of our Lord and the Promise of the Holy Ghost Now as the Sabbath of the Jews is chang'd into our Lord's Day so was this Observation of it transfer'd too for they think it by no means lawful to Fast on their Seventh Day as it is absurd to Fast upon any Festival For the same reason they kneel not neither at their Prayers on Sabbaths and Holydays (h) Maim Libello de Prec Cap. 5. §. 15. standing with Them being the proper Posture of ordinary Prayers and Kneeling or Falling down of Afflictive Humiliation 3. Whereas too the same Author mentions there i an Observation then Antient concerning the Bread and Wine of their Ordinary Food that they were very careful that none of it should fall upon the Ground this has also been formerly suggested to be Jewish for the Bread at least For though the Jews when they conclude the Sabbath and separate it from the following Week pour some of their Wine upon the Ground yet to their Bread they preserve always a particular Respect supposing an Angel deputed to watch the Negligence of those that let it fall to the ground and foreboding Poverty to themselves from such an unhappy Accident (k) Buxt S. Jud. 〈◊〉 16. 4. Our Author in another place in his Treatise of Prayer (l) Cap. 11. makes mention of some Customs then observ'd at that Duty which were apparently from the Jews It was the usage of some he tells us though he disapproves it 〈◊〉 to wash their hands before Prayer and so it is known the Jews are requir'd to do (m) Maim Ibid. Cap. 4. §. 2 3. 5. Others were us'd when they had done Prayers to sit down for a while n and for this they cited Hermes his Pastor where he is said (o) Hermae Past Lib. 2. in Proem when he Prayed to have sat down on the Bed The Argument Tertullian derides and the Practice he takes to be Ethnick but it seems rather to come from the Jews For they are directed to sit a while after Prayers in Meditation and Devotion and the Godly Men of old are rememberd to have pass'd one hour before Prayers and
find a fuller and a higher correspondence not only in a Weekly but in a Forty Season and that likewise of Penitential Duty For first the Jews prepare themselves for the Day of Propitiation more particularly the Week before it They rise before Light assist at Publick Prayers confess their Sins thrice every day Fast and give Alms (b) â—or this whole Section See Buxt S. J. Cap. 26. And as the People fit themselves in a more especial manner by the Devotions of those seven days for the solemn Act of Humiliation commanded them by Moses so they tell us the High Priest heretofore imploy'd the same Week in a continual Exercise of his Office that he might be the better able to discharge the Difficult Duty of the Great Day (c) Jomâ— Cap. 1. The Sabbath also of that Week they distinguish by a peculiar Title and call it the Sabbath of Repentance Thus the Jews pass the seven preceeding days and so Leo de Modena (d) Câ—r des Juif P. 3. C. 6. distinguishes them from the rest For though all the ten of that seventh Month are call'd the Ten Days of Repentance reckoning the Day of Expiation for one yet the two first are in some manner Festival being the first of their Political Year and on them they abstain not from Dinner and Supper for which reason they may not be esteem'd as Penitential as the seven that follow These Ten Days are constantly so observ'd by all Jews the last the Tenth by Scriptural Precept and the others by Universal Custom And further to these are added out of the foregoing Month ordinarily a Week at least says Leo de Modena For even the German Jews begin their Humiliation as early according to a particular Rule they have (e) Morin de Poen 10.34.3 But other Nations generally take more time to that solemn Office and frequently Devout Persons begin from the First Day even of this preceeding Month to Fast to make Prayers and Confessions to repeat the Penitential Psalms and to Give Alms continuing so to do the whole Forty days However all Jews begin their Penitential Devotion the First day of that Month the Fortieth day before the Expiation though they may afterwards discontinue in the intermediate time On that day also they begin to blow the Horn in their Synagogues which they do every day that Month for an Alarm they say that they may Repent and be ready to meet the Judgment of God who according to their Tradition sits in Judgment the Ten days of the Next Month. § II. I have mention'd their Opinion of God's Judging the World in the Beginning of their Seventh Month and it may seem thence that their Custom of giving notice by the sound of the Horn may rather respect the Beginning of the Month Tisri than the Tenth Day of it and be rather the Warning of Thirty than of Forty days But this suspicion if it should arise will receive easy satisfaction from another concurrent Tradition of the Jews universally receiv'd by them that Moses went up upon the Mount the Last time on the First day of their Sixth Month and return'd again to them with the second Copy of the Law on the Fortieth after the Tenth of the Seventh their Expiation day (f) Rab. Salom. in Locum Deuter. proximè â—itand Now when he went up he commanded a Horn as they say to be sounded thorough the Camp to give notice to the People on what Errand he was going that they might not again commit the like Abominations in memory of which they now still sound it and we besides know from better Authority (g) Deut. 9.18 that Moses spent these forty days and forty nights in Fasting and Supplication for the Sins of the Children of Israel So that we are rather to think that they have since in some measure follow'd his pious Example and that on the day of his Ascent they begin to prepare for that of his Descent which in their Opinion is the tenth of Tisri and on which they have been since commanded always to Afflict themselves before the Lord at least one Day and Night The Forty days therefore here are not to be look'd upon as an accidental number and the bare Aggregate of Thirty and Ten but as they make up directly a full Penitential Season And indeed that Number seems to have been very antiently appropriated to Penance and Humiliation For not to reckon up the Forty Days by which God drown'd the World (h) Gen. 7.4 or the Forty Years in which the Children of Israel did Penance in the Wilderness (i) Numb 14.34 or the Forty Stripes (k) Deut. 25.3 by which Malefactors were to be corrected though these Instances may concur to strengthen the Opinion whoever considers that Moses did not once only fast this Number of Days (l) Deut. 9.9 18 25. that Elias Fasted also in that Wilderness by the same space (m) King 1.19.8 that the Ninevites had precisely as many Days allow'd for their Repentance (n) Jon. 3.4 and that lastly our Blessed Saviour when he was pleas'd to Fast observ'd the same Length of time (o) Matth. 4.2 whoever I say considers these Facts cannot but think that this number of Days was us'd by them all as the common solemn number belonging to Extraordinary Humiliation and that those were accustom'd to afflict themselves Forty days who would deprecate any great and heavy judgment though the Scripture does not specify the number as those we know p who had a Nazaritical Vow upon them were us'd to observe thirty days though the Scripture had not neither determin'd that space And this is no more than what St. Jerom a Father much vers'd in the Jewish Knowledge has expresly averr'd in his Comment on Jonas where he says that Forty is the number proper for Penitents and Fasting and Prayer c. and that for this reason Moses fasted forty days and so Elias and likewise our blessed Lord c. as may be seen at large in the Passage already exscrib'd above (q) Part 1. Ch. 8. §. 2. This is there positively and in good earnest said by St. Jerom as the Reason of those Examples though Mr. Daille puts it off r as if the Good Father had Play'd upon them while Hâ— himself rather plays with the Father And according to this the Penance of Forty days is very frequent in the Modern Penitentials of the Jews as we have also seen before (Å¿) Rep. 1. Ch. 9. §. 2. being there generally injoin'd upon any of the Greater Transgressions And to go yet a little further in this matter I cannot tell whether the Forty Days which our Blessed Saviour himself fasted in the Wilderness were not so pass'd by him in the nature of a Penitential Fast For the Baptism of John is known to be a Baptism of Repentance (t) Acts 19.4 preparing for the Messias to come and it may not be unreasonable to suppose that by it
of Faith e though some of them were accused of Sabellianism f but only in some Rigours of Practice which he enjoyn'd as by Divine Command He absolutely forbad all second Marriages condemn'd all declining of Danger in time of Persecution made the Abstinence of the ordinary Stations to be longer and more severe dismissing their Assemblies later and allowing then a very spare Refreshment He ordered the Fast before Easter to consist of Two Weeks f 2 and besides instituted two New Lents or Seasons of Fasting g each of a Week excepting the Saturday for they fasted no Saturday but that before Easter b These and such like Ordinances he pretended to be dictated by the Holy Spirit to him and his two Prophetesses on whom the Comforter had at last according to our Saviour's Promise descended in a more plentiful manner than upon the Apostles and with fuller and more perfect Instructions Consequently those of this Sect from theâ—r pretences to the Spirit and to a stricter manner of Life took themselves to be the only spiritual Persons calling the Catholicks Carnal and Animal Men i and esteem'd the Writings of their two Prophetesses above the other Books of the New Testament k supposing them to be both the Completion and Conclusion of it and admitting afterwards no more l Of this Sect was Tertullian a Man of an austere Life and rigid Temper and a fierce Disputer but excellently Learn'd and after his peculiar fashion very Eloquent His Book concerning Fasting happens to be preserv'd where in Justification of his own Party he summs up the Opinion and the Practice of his Adversaries the Catholicks about that Matter m They accuse us saith he that we keep Fasts of our own that for the most part we prolong the time of our Stations to the Evening and that we use the Dry Diet feeding on no Flesh nor Broth nor any Juicy Fruit neither Eating nor Drinking any thing that is Vinous and that besides we then abstain from Bathing an Abstinence consequent to such a Dry Food This they object to us for an Innovation and conclude it to be unlawful either to be judg'd Heretical if it be a Humane Doctrine or to be condemn'd for false Prophecy if it pretends to be an Ordinance of the Spirit So that we are either way to be Accus'd as those who preach another Gospel For as to Fasts they tell us That certain Days have been appointed by God As when in Leviticus the Lord commands Moses That the 10th day of the 7th Month should be a Day of Propitiation saying * Lev. 2â— 27. It shall be holy to you and you shall afflict your Souls and every Soul that afflicts not it self that day shall be destroyed from among my People And in the Gospel they suppose those Days determined to Fasting in which the Bridegroom was taken away and that those only now are the days appointed in ordinary for Christian Fasts the old Observances of the Mosaical Law and the Prophets being now abolish'd for when they have a mind they can understand what is meant by that the Law and Prophets were unto John and therefore that as for any other time Fasting is to be used according to Discretion and upon particular Occasions and Causes not by the Command of any new Discipline For so did the Apostles not laying upon the Disciple any other Burden of Set Fasts and such as should be observed in common by All and consequently not of Stations neither which have indeed their Set Days Wednesday and Friday but so as that they are to be kept discretionally not by force of any Command nor beyond the last hour of the Day the Prayers then being generally ended by Three in the Afternoon after the example of St. Peter mentioned in the * Acts 10.30 Acts. But the Dry Diet our Xerophagy is they say a new Name for a new affected Duty too like the Heathen Superstition being such an Abstinence as is used to Apis and Isis and the Mother of the Gods This is his Representation of the Catholicks Thoughts concerning the Ante-Paschal Fast from which he argues in the 13th Chapter n You plead says he that the Christian Faith hath its Solemnities already determined by Scripture or Tradition and that no other Observation is to be super-added because of the Vnlawfulness of Innovation Keep to that ground if you can for here I find you your selves both fasting out of the Paschal Season besides those days in which the Bridegroom was taken away and also interposing the Half-fasts of your Stations and sometimes too living on Bread only and Water as every particular Person thinks fit You answer indeed that these things are done at your Liberty and not by Command but then you have quitted your Ground and gone beyond your Tradition when you do such things as have not been appointed you And so in the next Chapter o in answer to those who compar'd them to the Galatians as Observers of Days and Months he replies That they observe not the Jewish Ceremonies but that to the New Testament there belong new Solemnities Otherwise says he if the Apostle has abolished all Religion of Days and Times and Months and Years Why do we both Montanists and Catholicks celebrate the Paschal Season yearly in the first Month Why do we pass the fifty days following in Joy and Exultation Why do we consecrate Wednesday and Friday to Stations and Friday or Good-Friday p to Fastings Although you Catholicks also sometimes continue Saturday a day never to be fasted except in the Week before Easter for a Reason given in another place q And lastly in the next the 15th Chapter r taking notice that the Apostle condemn'd those who commanded to abstain from Meats foreseeing Marcion and Tatian and such Hereticks who would enjoin perpetual Abstinence in contempt of what the Creator had made in Vindication of their own Sect from Heresie he subjoins For how very little is the Prohibition of Meat we have made We offer to our Lord two Weeks of Dry Diet and those not whole Weeks neither Saturdays and Sundays being exempted abstaining then from such Food which we do not reject but only defer To these Testimonies of Tertullian out of this Book we may subjoin another out of his Dissertation about Prayers s Where after he has explained the Lord's Prayer and spoke of some Requisites to Prayer he then comes to censure some superstitious Observances about it and particularly taxes a Custom that had began to prevail Those who were in a Fast towards the Conclusion of their Assemblies and just before the Communion not saluting their Brethren with the Holy Kiss then always us'd on that occasion This declining to salute had been the Fashion of the Jews in their Fasts as a sign of Sorrow and is reprov'd here by Tertullian in Christians as being a kind of Ostentation of their Fasting and contrary therefore to the Direction of our Saviour which commands us not to appear to men to