the respective Countreys new convert Iews to be condescended to in the very Quartadecimâ Lunae seeing also that the Apostolical Tradition of the Feast it self of Easter and of the Fasts to be ended at Easter to be safe unshaken and agreed upon by both sides yea and contended for for else what needed all that ado about a circumstance of it Himself Irenaeus first writes that the Mystery of Christ's Resurrection ought to be celebrated viz. in the Feast of Easter not on the fourteenth day of the Moon whatsoever day of the week it fell upon but onely on the weekly memory of Christ's Resurrection viz. on the Lord's day And also earnestly exhorts Victor that he would not cut off whole Churches of God for following their Tradition in their Countreys of ancient time For that there had been in fore time difference not onely about the time or day of Easter and so of ending of the Fasts but even concerning the manner or form of the Fast it self the Apostles themselves having left both an allowance of condescension to the Iews in some Countreys touching the day of the Feast and also to some infirm or weaker then others in the form or manner of the Fast to be extended to more or fewer days and this condescension having been abused also by some to take up with very little time for the fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã had been the difference for some think they ought to fast one day some two some also more and some measure their day viz. such as would have one day suffice yet by 40 houres reckoning in the hours of night and day viz. as may be most reasonably thought from the beginning of Christs sufferings His Agony on Thursday night onward 40 hours which should inclose all the Parasceue or Good-Friday and keep some resemblance of our Saviours 40 days fast accounting to themselves because the other they could not reach an hour for a day and some resemblance also of the Churches wonted 40 days abstinence from which they made this discession and innovation of 40 hours in the stead of the ancients simple and plain custome of 40 days and lastly some memory of the 40 houres in which Christ did abide given up to death these their forty hours probably they begun I say with the beginning of his bloudy Sweat and Agony from about eight a clock of the night before he was crucified untill about noon on Saturday which is the just number of forty hours Now this I am the rather induced to believe to be the meaning of Irenaeus's words and of their practice of forty hours fast comprising within the account the hours of day and of night because I finde in ancient Authours a frequent custome of Christians ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or whole nights-watch on the night preceding Good Friday as on which Christ our Lord rested not at all but passed from his Agony to his Apprehension and thence to Annas first Iohn 18. 13. 24. and thence to Cajaphas the High Priest that year where the Scribes and the Elders were assembled Matth. 26. 57. where false Witnesses were sought for against the Lord and examined where he was accused spit upon blind-folded buffeted and smitten with the palms of their hands denied by his own Disciple Peter about the time of the Cock-crowing held on still by those who most impiously did blasphemously spake many things against him and by the first Light appearing which he had created led by the Elders of the people and the chief Priests and Scribes into their Council to a fresh Examination Luc. 22. 66. and thence early in the morning to Pilat's Judgement-Hall c. Iohn 18. 28. Upon the consideration of this whole nights most indign suffering of our Lord from his own People the Iews and their malicious Rulers many Religions had in use that which they called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the whole nights-watch of Christ's sufferings as the Greeks have it This Epiphanius in Exposit. Fidei in express words thus recordeth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And in some places at the end of the fifth day or Thursday they watch unto the day-light of Good Friday as also the night before Easter morning these two whole nights onely The same I take to be the meaning of Iohn of Hierusalem Catech. 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by reason of the labour which you have lately born both from the extended fast of Good Friday and from the Vigil or watching thereof viz. of the night that leads unto it Wherefore St. Hierom also in his Book against Vigilantius by way of Sarcasme thus collects what Vigilantius would have Non vigilemus itaque diebus Pascha Let us leave off then to watch on the days of the Pasch viz. especially the two Eves of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã though ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã mentioned in Eusebius lib. 6. cap. 9. I acknowledge to be the latter But that there were more than one of these ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or whole-night-watches near the day of our Lord's Passion Eusebius himself hath left recorded lib. 2. cap. 15 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rursùs ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Those Ascetical performances which are even still untill now with us accustomably exercised which more eminently we are wont to perform at the Solemnity of the Passion of our Saviour in Fastings and whole nightswatches and attentions unto the Word of God and again the whole night-watches of the great Solemnity and the Ascetical performancestherein Well therefore might the hours of that first whole-nights-watch begin the first part of their forty hours which they extended it seems to Saturday noon for that they which kept but one day in fasting as Irenaeus and Dionysius say some did though neither approve that pittance in persons of ordinary strength did not fast Saturday as Tertullian also saith Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum siquando continuatis c. Of those therefore whom here Irenaeus mentions and tolerates but approves not some kept one day imitating as to the time the one onely fast-fast-day the day of Atonement at first by God in the Law appointed to the Iews a ground unsufficient to warrant in any now no more Others two days Good Friday and the great Sabbath because on those two days the Apostles were in special sadness and our Lord was given up to death for us Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum siquando continuatis nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum Others also more whether three adding the Wednesday wherein the Council was held and Money was given and taken for the taking away our Lord Or four the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria in his Epistle to Basilides records some fasted with superposition or continuance to the Cock-crowing two days some three some four and others all the six of that great week others fasting forty hours
they are an apposite answer to their objection It is excepted by them that the Disciples of the Pharisees and likewise of Iohn did fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mat. 9. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Luke 5. much and often b ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Hesychius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã densum frequentatum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã assiduè crebrò ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã densa assidua ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã frequento saith Glossarium vetus Cyrilli all which shewes they alledged their very frequent diligent and as it were continuall fastings which 't is known the Pharisees did weekly and annually in fasts by continual frequency recurring And so did Iohn's also for my Text saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they did both fast in like manner As to the frequency which they joyned in to object though not as to their sincerity which the Pharisee considered not here twice in the week saith the Pharisee Luke 18. 12. and Epiphanius lib. 1. haeres 16. tels us what daies those were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the second and fifth daies of the week Mundaies and Thursdaies On the former because on that day Moses had gone up from them into the Mount the latter because on that day Moses returning down from the Mount brake the Tables of God for their sin and annually also beside the fasts recorded in the old Testament to wit the fast of the day of Atonement Levit. 16. and Esthers fast Esther 9. v. 31. which was on the 13 th of the moneth Adar and the fasts of the 4 th 5 th 7 th and 10 th moneths others also probably which they had received unto all which the predicted devotion of Christs Disciples in those daies when they should fast would not be correspondent nor satisfactory to the objection made if they were not to keep certain set and oft recurring times of fasting Not the Pharisees disciples twice a week and many weeks in the year and Christs Disciples only at the very time of his Passion and lying in the Grave once as he died but once and after that only accidentally extraordinarily without any fixed returning observable solemnity No they shall they will fast in nothing behind the very devoutest in that duty as the Pharisees therefore say of themselves that they did fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mat. 9. Luke 5. so the holy Scripture records the Apostles fasts after the Bridegrooms taking away in equal terms ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2 Cor. 11. 27. In fastings often or many times in watchings often 2 Cor. 6. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã must be repeated in much or oft watchings and fastings a Upon which Text S. Chrysostome saith by these words S. P. signified his labours how he laboured going up and down and working with his hands and the nights in which he taught or also his working in the nights ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and with all these labours neither did he neglect to fast St. Chrysostome also on S. Matt. 17. v. 19 21. saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã therefore the Apostles also fasted almost continually yea touching these certain fasts for the Bridegrooms taking away we shall hear it witnessed anon Apostolos observâsse that the Apostles also did keep them and S. Paul expects of Christian people as well Lay as others men and women as well married persons as single that they should at times ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vacare jejunio orationi Give themselves to attend upon fasting and prayer and that there is a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or season for it there he teacheth 1 Cor. 7. 5. 2 ly For that it is said both in St. Mark 2. and in St. Luke here not only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with an article of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as if you would say in those same daies a Nor in this matter is this Article ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã any where omitted but where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is omitted also as in St. Matthew c. 9. and if the MS. R. read it in one place in that day Marc. 2. yet still it is with the article interposed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which reading they which follow as I do not may well refer it to the day of Christs Death and Passion As in the Septuagint Greek of Esther cap. 1. v. 2 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on those same daies on which Ahashuerus had been once inthroned he as Herod on his birth-day made a feast unto all his Princes in the 3 d as in every year of his reign So Philo the Jew in his book of the Religious anon to be cited useth these very words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã speaking of certain yearly recurring daies 3 ly Our Lord Christ speaks here of such fasts as at present he did not expect nor require from the children of his Bride-chamber his Apostles nor blame them for the omission of them It being not now as he reasons himself a season agreeable for such fasting of which here he principally speaks in answer to their cavil But extraordinary emergent Fasts the Lord did now expect from his Apostles and sometime blamed their omission of them when extraordinary occasion and interest of their Lord against his enemy called for them b For he whom Satan had bound c. might well by prayer and fasting be loosed and delivered even within the time of the festival joy of Christs Espousals and that by these children of the bride-chamber So Mat. 17. 20 21. He charged his Disciples with unbelief that is at least defect of duty surely as the cause of their not having done that viz casting out the Devil which he told them at the same time could not be done but by prayer and fasting Therefore our Lord speaks there of such an extraordinary fast which there and then he might expect from them therefore the Lord here in the words of my Text where he speaks of Fasts not then to be required or expected of them must not be understood to speak principally and in the first place much less only of extraordinary emergent and occasional fasts but necessarily of set solemn and recurring fasts to which as then he did excuse them for the while of his presence with them but which when the Bridegroom should be taken from them should be justly expected of them 4 ly For that our Lord Christ speaking of those with whom he promised to be unto the end of the world viz. in themselves and in those who should believe in him through their word and of fasts relating to a publick universal cause the taking away of the Bridegroom in his Passion therefore the Lord spake also of a solemn publick fast upon one cause or subject never to be repeated but the duty to continue all years to the end of the world till the Bridegroom should return unto his Spouse and take her into his Fathers house
Books and FROM OUT OF THE GOSPEL In what part therefore of the year more aptly could the observation of Lent be constituted then in that which is conterminous and next unto the Passion of the Lord viz. the time of the year wherein the Bridegroom was taken away And having fetcht the ground and authority of the fast of Lent from the Gospel he then adds in the following part of the same Epistle Ut quadraginta illi dies ante Pascha observentur Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit That those forty daies before Easter be observ'd the custome of the Church hath strengthened or corroborated Yea the same S. Augustine in the aforesaid 86. Epistle objected teaches us the ground of certain other set fasts to be the daies wherein the Bridegroom was taken away His words are these Cur autem quartâ sextâ feriâ maximè jejunat Ecclesia viz. Catholica illa ratio reddi videtur quòd CONSIDERATO EVANGELIO ipsâ quartâ⦠Sabbati concilium reperiantur ad occidendum Dominum fecisse Iudaei Deinde traditus est eâ nocte quae jam ad sextam sabbati qui dies passionis ejus manifestus est pertinebat Now why the Church Catholick fasts especially on the 4 th and 6 th day of the week that reason or account seems to be rendred that the Gospel being considered on the 4 th day of the week the Jewes are found to have held a councel for the killing of the Lord. That afterwards he was delivered up in that night which belonged to the 6 th day of the week which manifestly is the day of his Passion saith he which reason from Epiphanius also ye heard before a And S. Augustine again in the ãâã 86. Epistle Passuâ⦠est Domiâ⦠quod nullus ambigit sextâ⦠sabbatâ⦠quapropter ipsa sexta rectè jejunio deputatur jejunia quippe humiliââ¦atem significant Unde dictum est humiliabam jejunio aniââ¦am meam The Lord suffered which no man doubts on the 6 th day of the week wherefore the 6 th day of the week also is appointed for fasting for that fasting signifies our humility whence it is said I humbled my soul with fasting ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ps. 69. 10. That for the weekly now for the anniversary solemnity of Christs passion which in no place had its solemnity without fasting We learn from St. Augustine in the 118. Epistle to Ianuarius that if it was not first constituted by some General Councel as for certain it was not but in the Church universally received long before the Councel of Nice before which there had been no General Councel save that of the Apostles themselves then it is retain'd as commanded and appointed from Tradition Apostolical His words are these Illa autem quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidem toto terrarum oââ¦le observantur dantur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis Conciliis quorum est in Ecclesiâ saluberrima autoritas commendata atque statuta retineri SICUTI QUOD DO MINI PASSIO resurrectio ascensio in coelum adventus de coelo Spiritus sancti anniversariâ solennitaââ¦e celebrantur But those things which we keep being not written but delivered down which are observed throughout the whole world are given us to understand that they are retain'd as commended and appointed EITHER FROM THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES or from plenary h. e. general Councels whose authority in the Church is most wholesome as for example that the Passion of the Lord and his Resurrection and Ascension are celebrated in anniversary solemnity Thus S. Augustine But the anniversary solemnity of Christs Passion was not first from any plenary or general councel therefore according to S. Augustine's Catholick rule it was delivered from the Apostles By which testimony also you may perfectly discern how S. Augustin's Non invenio in literis evidenter praeceptum I do not find it in the writing of the Gospels or the Apostles c. is nothing contrary in S. Augustin's judgement to the fast of Lents derivation from the Apostles nor to that authority although not evident precept which S. Augustine himself fetcht from out of the Gospel for it It is the same S. Augustine who in his roll of Heresies haeres 53. hath registred it as one part of the Aââ¦rians superaddition to the Arrian heresie that they taught nec statuta solenniter celebranda esse jejunia sed cùm quisque voluerit jejunandum ne videatur esse sub lege They denied that the set fasts ought solemnly to be celebrated but that every one is to fast then when himself shall please lest he should seem to be under the Law which Damascen expresseth yet more particularly in his Book of Heresies that this Aerius bad that the fast of the 4 th and 6 th day of the week and of the 40 daies and Easter should not be observed nor any set fasts Certis statisque diebus negat enim se lege teneri No set or stated fasts for that he saith he is not under the Law My second witness of this age shall be S. CYRIL the renowned Patriarch of Alexandria and most eminent member of the third General Councel to the Patriarchs of which See it was entrusted by the first General Councel that they should yearly signifie before hand to the rest of the Churches as well as their own the true time of Easter This S. Cyril therefore in his 7 th Homily de festis Paschalibus thus gives publick notification of the time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beginning the holy Lent from such a day and ending the Fasts on the 3 d day of the moneth Pharmuthi on the Saturday evening ACCORDING TO THE APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS Again in his 15 th Homily de festis Paschalibus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beginning this year the holy Lent from such a ãâã and ending the Fasts on the 7 th day of the moneth Pharmuthi late at night according to the Traditions Apostolical And Homily 20 th de ãâã Pasch. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So so let us keep a pure fast beginning the holy Lent from such a day ending also the fasts on the 7 th day of Pharmuthi h. e. just 40 daies after as also above in the two forecited testimonies late or far in the evening According to the Traditions Apostolical Thus thrice he clearly refers the Fasts of Lent to Tradition Apostolical as the same S. Cyril in nineteen other of his Homilies de Festis Paschalibus preached in so many several years refers the same Fasts of Lent to Tradition Appointment or Instruction Evangelical Homil. 4. de Fest. Paschal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã â Beginning the holy Lent from the 26. day of the moneth Mechir as it were our February and within this Lent beginning the week of the salutary Pasch or great week before Easter on the first day of the moneth Pharmuthi or April and ending the Fasts According to the Evangelical Constitutions
the fourty dayes Fast of Lent the fourth and sixth dayes of the week on which we solemnly Fast and those he recounts not as prescribed by this or that Church or of this or that Age but as part of the Christian Abstinence Then Peter also the Archbishop of Alexandria in his 15 Can. ratifi'd by the sixth General Councel thus declareth the Churches Fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nor can any accuse us for observing the fourth and sixth day of the week in which we had been with great reason commanded to Fast according to Tradition on the fourth day by reason of the Councel held by the Iews for the betraying of the Lord c. What Tradition what command he means you shall now hear The Tradition Epiphanius will tell us was from the Apostles and the Command from the Successours of the Apostles the 69. Can. Apostolick made by Primitive Bishops the early Successours of the Apostles doth witness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If any Bishop Priest or Deacon any Reader or Singer Fast not the Holy Lent or Fast not the fourth or sixth day of the week let him be deprived except he were hinder'd by weakness of body And if a laick let him be separated a Canon which might concern their times onely Now whence the Tradition of those days came we shall hear from Epiphanius in his book de Expositione Fidei c. 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã On the Wednesday and Eve of Saturday we are in fasting unto the ninth hour And the Apostles have delivered that on these dayes Fasts be perform'd and that which is written be fulfill'd that when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they Fast in those dayes And in his Haeres 75. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Sequitur ibid. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in expos fidei the same Epiphanius saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ibid. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who is there that doth not confess and agree in all the climates of the world that the fourth day and the Eve of Saturday is a defined Fast in the Church Onely saith he elsewhere in the end of his third book of Haeres ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the day of the manifestation of Christ in the flesh when the Lord was born it is not lawful to Fast though it fall out on the fourth or sixth day of the week S. Hierom shall be our next witness in his preface upon the rule of S. Pachomius Bis in hebdomadâ quartâ sextâ sabbati ab omnibus jejunatur exceptâ Pentecoste The Fast is observ'd by all twice in the week on the fourth and sixth day thereof except within the solemn fifty days Their Exceptions both are to be put together The same ground of the Fast with Epiphanius S. Austin gives us Epist. 86. ad Casulanum Cur autem quartâ sextâ feriâ maximè jejunet Ecclesia illa ratio reddi videtur quòd considerato Evangelio ipsa quarta Sabbati quam vulgò quartam feriam vocant concilium reperiuntur ad occidendum Dominum fecisse Iudaei Deinde traditus est ââ¦Ã¢ nocte quae jam ad sextam Sabbati qui dies Passionis ejus manifestus est pââ¦rtinebat Now why the Church especially Fasts on the fourth and sixth dayes of the week that reason seems to be render'd that the Gospel being consider'd on the fourth day of the week the Iews are found to have held a councel for the slaying of the Lord Who was afterwards deliver'd up on that night which belongs to the sixth day of the week which manifestly was the day of his Passion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Epiphanius Ratio reddi videtur considerato Evangelio saith S Austin a Apolloniuâ⦠apââ¦d Graââ¦ianum Distinct. 4. cap. 32. Iejunia vero legitima i. e. quartâ sextâ feriâ non sunt selvenda nisi gââ¦andis alâ⦠que necessiââ¦s fuerâ⦠quââ¦d quartâ feriâ Iadas de Traditione Domini cogitaveââ¦it feriâ sextâ ãâã est Salvator The two weekly dayes of the Iews were the second and fifth of the Maniches were the first and second of the Christians were the fourth and sixth days of the week These are the several Fasts of the Church according to their several Originals and Institutions CHAP. III. Of the several Fasts of the Church or also other Religious Fasts as to their measure of Time THe extension of the Fast as to the persons performing it was either a Fast of the whole Catholick Church as it were at one time perform'd by all Christian people or particular Fasts of particular Churches or individual Fasts of single persons But the extension of Fasts as to the time forsomuch as the flesh which needeth that medicine is not able to bear it continued perpetually or for a very long time if we speak of the ordinary strength of Christians hath been in divers proportions bounded out There is first the semi-jejunium stationum as Tertullian calls it Cornelius's Fast till three a clock in the afternoon such is call'd in Typico S. Sabae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Venit enim horae nonae observatio de exitu Domini as we heard Tertullian grant to the Church but now There is secondly a proper entire Fast of one day unto the Evening 2 Sam. 1. 12. 1 Sam. 7. 6. and Iudges 20. 26. And all the Children of Israel and all the People went up and came into the house of God and wept and abode there before the Lord and fasted that day until the Evening and offered Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings before the Lord. According to which Pattern the Christian Church in the Fasts of Lent in those days when they fasted until the Evening celebrated their commemorative Sacrifice viz. of the holy Eucharist in the Evening next before their Officium vespertinum ' betwixt three a clock and six at night as on the other Fasts of their stations which they brake up at three a clock they offered up their commemorative Sacrifice next also before their Evening Service but betwixt the hours of twelve and three Such was also Daniel's Fast conjoyn'd with supplications sack-cloth and ashes and continued until the time of the Evening Oblation Dan. 9. 3. 21. The Angel of God putting this period of the Evening to his Fast as an Angel of God did at the ninth hour unto Cornelius's Fast Acts 10. Amongst the set Fasts of the Church certain especially in Lent and those also before the Ordinations which as appears by the Sermons of Leo were wont then to be kept but two days the fourth and sixth of the week were then extended unto the Evening A third sort of fasts as to the extent of time is that which the Greeks call'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Superpositio when they added to the day the night following also or at least the time unto the Cock-crowing So holy David 2 Sam. 12. 16. He fasted a Fast and went in and lay all night
THE Paschal OR Lent-Fast APOSTOLICAL PERPETUAL At first Deliver'd in a SERMON preached before His MAJESTY in LENT and since enlarged Wherein the Judgment of Antiquity is laid down Published by His Majesties special Command With an APPENDIX containing an Answer to the late printed Objections of the Presbyterians against the Fast of LENT BY PETER GUNNING D. D. Regius Professor Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty and Master of St. Johns Colledg Cambridg London Printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwait 1662. TO His Most Excellent MAJESTY Our Soveraign Lord CHARLES the II d By the Grace of God The most High and Mighty Monarch of Great Britain France and Ireland c. Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign THe subject matter of this Discourse the holy Fast of Lent before Easter which hath alwaies been a Sacred Solemnity of Your Royal Court and hath for nineteen years one whole Cycle of those Solemnities been driven hence together with Your Majesty and at length by the blessed hand of God together with Your Sacred Majesty restored unto us was forthwith by Your pious care in its first Periodical Return owned in your Royal Proclamation and Example the last year and by your meanest subject and servant maintained in a Discourse Preached before Your Majesty But the same observance of Lent was forthwith in the same week by a nameless and false Pamphlet scattered at the very gates of Your Court maligned and opposed and became soon after matter of deliberate contest and debate a At the Savoy as part of that which was thought fit to be excepted to in the publick Liturgy or Common-Prayer-book and propounded by some to be altered The depending of which debate and Controversie and the imployment which by Your Majesties gracious Commission I had part in to consider of that with many other particulars in the Common-Prayer-book and the expectation of the utmost which could be brought against that Primitive and Religious Fast which lately now we have received in Print hath necessitated this Discourse delivered at first in a Sermon in Your Royal Chappel and by Your Majesty Commanded to be published and by the Warrant of Your permission since enlarged to chuse rather to expect the Beginning of this Lent then to appear at the ending only of the former It now not unseasonably as I hope presents it self to Your Sacred Hands and flies to Your Royal Protection who are most Truly the Defender of that Holy Faith whereof this and other Solemnities of the Church are the Fence and Mound The Royal CONSTANTINE in whom first God did most eminently fulfil his holy Promise of giving to his Church Kings to be her Nursing Fathers began that course with which your Sacred Majesty set forth writing unto all the Churches in his Empire and that undoubtedly from the Advice of the first and most sacred Oecumenical Councel of NICE then sitting For the Religious and uniform observation of the holy Feast of Easter with the a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he calls them Appointed Fasts that precede it In which his IMPERIAL Letters he did instruct the Churches of his Empire that b Euseb. l. de vit Constantin c. 16 17 18. Theodoret. l. 1. c. 10. Socrates l. â⦠c. 6. this holy solemnity of Pasch as comprising both the Feast and Fast had from the very first day it self wherein our Lord did suffer upon the Cross been in the Church ever observed unto that present year And for the years following no Adversary will or can deny it to have continued How after that example Your Majesties own Royal Ancestours have even in ancient Ages preserved here and transmitted to posterity This Holy Feast and Fast is in part shewn in the following Treatise and the Ages to come shall not be silent of Your Majesties Princely piety herein What Athenagoras a primitive Apologist for our Christianity a Athenagor legat pro Christianis in sint prayed unto Almighty God for the Emperours Aurelius Antoninus and Commodus we with infinitely greater Reason pray for Your Sacred Majesty the most Christian Catholick Defender of our Holy Faith and Church pouring out supplications on our Fasts and Feasts and all other daies for Your Majesties happy Reign over us that according to Your most just Rights The Father to the Son may ever continue to Transmit Your Kingdoms with Your Piety that Your Royal Dominions may be more and more extended and all prosperous success ever follow You That we living a godly quiet and peaceable life may readily and cheerfully serve and obey You. So prayeth Your Sacred MAJESTY'S most humble and Loyal Subject and Chaplain PETER GUNNING A Table or Index of the several matters contained in the Treatise and the Appendix A Caution how Scriptures ought to be interpreted pag. 23 What meant by the Bride-groom p. 4. to 8 What sense of those words When the Bridegroom shall be taken away p. 15 to 17 The Fathers sense of this Text In those daies they shall fast p. 240 Why the duty of fasting is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 236 Five proofs that our Lords words in the Text include also those Recurring fasts of the Bridegrooms being taken from us p. 17 to 23 Our Lord himself oft used Fasting p. 1 2 3 p. 218 The Apostles themselves oft used Fasting p 19 28 p. 219 Some things we know most certainly the Apostles did of which yet there is no one example recorded in Scripture p. 24. 27 The Paschal Fast Apostolical p. 27 to 99 p. 100 to 109 p. 133 to 138 p. 449 to 460 p. 479 to 486 The Iudgement of the first Age after S. John's decease p. 27 to 40 The Judgement of the second Age p. 40 to 43 The Judgement Of the third Age p. 43 to 60 The 24 Paschal Epistles of Theophilus and S. Cyril attesting c. p. 51 to 54 63 to 67 The Judgement of the fourth Age p. 60 to 72 The Judgement Of the fifth Age p. 72 to 82 The Judgement Of the sixth Age p. 82 to 89 The Judgement Of the seventh Age p. 89. to 98 Some of the numerous testimonies of Authors of the following Ages p. 99 Arguments complicated of several truths whence this conclusion is collected firmly p. 100 to 109 What force universal Practise alone hath to inser an Apostolical Tradition p. 133 to 138 The universality of the practise through all places p. 163 p. 139 The testimony of ancient holy men of our nation p. 117 -18 -19 The Testimonies of the enemies of the Church pag. 113 to 116 The Paschal Fast not instituted by Telesphorus but elder then him p. 125 -6 -7 The Interpretation of that much agitated T. of Irenaeus p. 461 to 467 Its rendring strangely wronged by our Adversaries for their advantage p. 470 to 473 S. Austin's judgement p. 60 to 63 p. 120 to 124 p. 133 to 136 Vincentius Lirinensis his 3 Rules pressed p. 113 The Asseveration of some one or two Fathers no sufficient proof
of an Apostolical Tradition p. 132 Instance of some Apostolical Traditions p. 530 Objections answered p. 146 to 160 Those of the Presbyterians especially in the whole fifth seventh and eighth Chapters of the Appendix An Answer to that which the Presbyterians object out of Irenaeus p. 461 to 479 An Answer to 3 Texts of Antiquity not objected or mentioned by the Presbyterians viz. One of S. Chrysostom's one of S. Hierom's one of Victor Antiochenus p. 487 to 495 An Answer to the Presbyterians Objections out of Antiquity at large Chap. 7 How Socrates in pursuance of the Novatian Canon of Indifferency spake loosly and differently from the Church of the Churches Set-Fasts and Feasts c. 7 An Answer to the rest of the Presbyterian Objections and to their pretence of an Act of Parliament Chap. 8 Of the pretence of tender Consciences p. 239 Fasting Defined p. 434 183 189 Why Saturday in many ages and places no fasting-day p. 237 Fasting often most healthful for the body p. 158 9 In what sense this Fast commanded and in what sense not commanded but recommended p. 136 p 496 In what sense the observance of 40 daies was of constitution only Ecclesiastical p. 487 to 495 In what regard the 40 daies of the Quadragesima were of Apostolical recommendation c. 6 The number of 40 daies p. 161 2 3. How the 40 daies may be said to be an Imitation of the Lords Fast Chap. 8. of the Appendix The ancient observation of Good-friday p. 467. The Ancients in the number of their daies of stricter fasting imitated p. 448 Daniel's fast p. 168 to 170 The stricter fast of the great week before Easter p. 48. p. 96 Lent the Fast of the Spring fitly p. 160 Some strictures of the Fathers elogies or praises of fasting p. 215 to 226 Nine reasons alledged for the so great Encomium's of the Fathers given of fasting p. 227 to 234. The eight Requisites or rules how fasting is to be performed p. 171 to 215 The conjunction of it with Repentance p. 174 to 187 The conjunction of it With watchings humi-cubations c. 195 to 198 The conjunction of it With Iustice. p. 198 The conjunction of it With Alms p. 199 to 202 The conjunction of it With prayers hearing of Gods Word c. p. 202 The ancient rule of fasts that excluded flesh excluded wine also p. 193 Fasting not the principal duty p. 236 -7 Moderation in fasting to be observed p. 155 -6 -7. p. 164 to 170 Four reasons which excuse from fasting p. 157 Concerning the Fast of 40 hours p. 462 to 469 Of the Churches Fasts in general Chap. 1. of the Appendix The distribution of the Fasts of the Church into their several kinds in respect of their Institution Chap. 2 Of the several Fasts of the Church or also other religious fasts as to their measure of time Chap. 3. How the Paschal or Lent-fast is as hath been shewn Apostolical Chap. 4 The ancient Fasts of the Stations vix of the fourth and sixth daies of the week p. 441 to 444 The Fasts of Ember-weeks before the Ordinations p. 438 to 440 The Fasts of the Vigils p. 437 The Fasts appointed by Christian Princes and whiles yet there were no Christian Princes by Bishops p. 436 Fasts or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or superpositions till the dawn of the next day or Cock-crowing p. 446. Fast of 1 day 2 daies 3 daies 5 daies 7 daies 15 daies 3 weeks 6 weeks 40 daies p. 446 to 449 Admonition to Him that will think fit to reply p 514 p. ult They which condemn Anniversary set-feasts evidently condem the practise of the purest primitive Church and are found condemners of the Apostles themselves by an undeniable Record p. 477 -8 The judgement of the Ancients concerning such as opposed the Ch Set-fasts Ch. 9 The judgement of 4 Reverend Prelates of our Church Chap. 10 The table of the names of the chief daies of Lent and of some following in the Eaâ⦠and Western Churches S. LUKE 5. 35 -38. But the daies will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those daies And he spake also a parable unto them No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old if otherwise then both the new maketh a rent and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old And no man putteth new wine into old bottles else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottles shall perish But new wine must be put into new bottles and both are preserved THe Scribes and Pharisees saith St. Luke St. Iohn's Disciples saith St. Matthew St. Iohn's Disciples and the Pharisees together saith St. Mark came to our Saviour and by way of exception said Why do the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but thine fast not They did not because they could not say but thou fastest not Not the Devil himself might deny what he had felt that the Lord had as Iohn himself had not at any time and Moses and Elias but by his strength fasted 40. daies and 40. nights His frequent exercise of fasting is witnessed in two mystical Psalms understood of Christ Psal. 69. v. 9 10. The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me c. I wept and chastened my self with fasting and that was turned to my reproach And Psal. 109. v. 23 24. My knees are weak through fasting my flesh is dryed up for want of fatness I became also a reproach unto them The context of which verses and the ancient Fathers Commentaries on those Psalms are our warrant that David in spirit spake them of Christ. On Psal. 69. St. Hilary thus writeth This Psalm contains the prophesie of the sufferings of our Lord where besides the gall they gave him to eat and the vinegar to drink v. 21. the abstinence of his fasting was turned to his reproach when tempted by the Devil he is bid turn stones into bread and carried up into a mountain he is contumeliously tempted to worship the Devil Arnobius also saith those words are spoken of our Lord Iesus Christ whom the zeal of Gods house did eat and his abstinence from eating receiving nothing 40. daies and as many nights was turned to his reproach St. Hierom and Theodoret in the like manner understand the Text of Christs fasting The other Psal. 109. v. 23. Theodoret thus understands of Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of his abstinence and severities to himself witness also saith he the bar ley loaves and the ears of corn in his Disciples hands St. Hierom also upon that Text bids such as were conversant in fasting to be comforted Siquidem Dominus hoc fecit Non habebat delitias corporis sed Dei Spiritús Tales diligit milâ⦠Christus qui jejuniis vacent quia in jejunio victoria est for that the Lord himself saith this Psalm did fast and
of his Espousals and of his Bride-chamber these the principal guests and friends of the Bridegroom sons of the secretest admission a But without a parable spake he not unto them the multitude and when they were alone he expounded all things to his Disciples Mar. 4. 34. v. 10 11. and when they were alone they that were about him with the Twelve asked of him the parable and he said unto them Unto you it is given to know c. but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables his Apostles no wonder if he do not and ye cannot make them fast Their present joy is above it and their habitual strength as yet beneath it and their present assistence from the presence of the Bridegroom himself enables and supports them without it Nevertheless to this marriages celebration garments every way agreeable perfectly new are to be provided and wine both new and old to be filled and to be preserved and vessels of grace and future glory to contain that liquor But as yet they are in part old garments not throughly renewed by the Spirit they are old bottles b ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some regenerate persons are here v. 37. so called for their but begun and imperfect renovation as some babes in Christ are called carnal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Cor. 3. 1. Bottles and garments here men are compared to as Jerem. 13. 12 13. Psa. 31. 12. Jer. 43. 12. Epicharmus Comicus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the duty of fasting is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as yet an unwrought unthickned piece at least not by the Fullers Art purged and washt from the abuses wherewith the Pharisees had disteined it c for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith S. Basil in his first Sermon of Fasting Fasting is an ancient Gift elder then the Law it is a jewel of the ancient Fathers reverence its gray hairs it is coaetaneous with mankind ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã fullones etiam veteres vestes ac sordidatas renovant ac repurgant saith Erasmus in Mat. 9. yea Hesychius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Add hereto that the fastings of believers in Christ in so far as they were to answer to their frequent recurring set fasts were yet an unwrought and unpolisht discipline as which were to be celebrated chiefly on the times of the Passion of Christ as S. Chrysostome saith They are also a new strong working and spiritful wine apt to break weak vessels Not therefore because in themselves they need not but because they cannot yet bear it not that the Lord less then you approves of that new wine but because he provides that such good wine should not be spilled which will drink pleasant when it is old Ecclus. 9. 10. and shall be preserved throughout all ages of the Church on earth lest also the bottles should break and the rent and breach of these garments instead of being made up should be made wider by the unseasonableness of this prescription therefore their Lord and Master who breaks not the bruised reed presseth not as yet this discipline a S. Chrysostom on these words Mat. 9. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã My Disciples are not yet become strong but as yet need much condescention and it is not meet to impose a load of injunctions on persons so aflected But the time will come when the Bridegroom shall for a time be taken from them and the Spirit sent down unto them and when they are renewed with strength from above then shall they fast in those daies And both that holy discipline of religious Fasts and these vessels of honour shall be preserved by each other And that the Spirit may so come unto them it is expedient saith he that I go away from them and the time will shortly come In the Answer of our Lord so meek and divinely wise you may observe these three parts 1. A Declaration or promulgation of somewhat present which they were not aware of 2. A Prediction of some things to come which they as little understood 3. A mixed prescription in part and prediction in pâ⦠a constitution counsel and encouragentent of a holy religious exercise of fasting I. A Declaration of the present Espousals of Christ Behold a greater then Solomon is here a crown weightier then that wherewith his Mother crowned him in the day of his espousals also a greater then Pharaoh's daughter is here the holy Church of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith St. Chrysostome and Theophylact upon the words And the least of these despised Apostles great above him then whom there had not risen a greater among them that were born of women He was sent before to cast up and prepare his way these the nearest friends and followers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as those 30 companions brought to be with Samson the Bridegroom Iudges 14. v. 11. and as the Spouse the Queen of Heaven Ps. 45. 15. hath her virgins that bear her company in the bride-chamber These are they that ride as it were in the same chariot with the Bridegroom saith Phavorinus that walk in company with and nearest to him in the way ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The sons of the bride-çhamber are the Apostles as vouchsafed partakers of their Masters joy and of every heavenly good gift and of all pleasure Theophylact on Mat. 9. and this the acceptable year of the Lord the very time of love Ezek. 16. 8. so upon the words of the Lord Mat. 9. Christianus Druthmarus Quando ista loquebatur tunc ipsa fiebat conjunctio quoniam per suam praedicationem colligebat eandem sponsam suam When Christ spake these words then was this conjunction made for by his preaching he gathered together that his Spouse the Church II. The Prediction or presignification of some things to come a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome on the words Mat. 9. as 1. That the time should come when the Bridegroom should be taken from them Ablatus oblatus quia voluit Him the Scribes and Pharisees shall kill and crucifie and he shall lay down his life for his sheep give himself for his Church and grave her on the palms of his hands and set her as a seal on his heart and on his arm and hide her in the clefts of the rock and vanquish death and hell and him that hath the power of hell in her behalf 2. That soon after that the time of the true Pentecost shall come when these Disciples as they shall need these arms so shall be made new and strong garments new and strong bottles and shall be filled with new wine like the bowls of the Altar Zech. 9. 15. 3. That therefore he must go away that the Holy Spirit may come and then shall they be indued with power from above III. A mixt constitution or Precept in part and Prediction in part of what these Scribes and Pharisees came to expostulate with him The holy duty of Fasting 1. In its Substance ãâã
trahat ne robore suo ââ¦rahat illa vestem infirmam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quaedam Divisio in mente discipuli recentis infirmi aut schisma separatio à reliquis fratribus 5. In what is there-from detrimental to the duty it self it bursts the bottles and the wine is spilt An evil report is brought upon the duty of Fasting e Non effunditur in bibiââ¦ionem sed in perditionem Lastly The sad conclusion and catastrophe The bottles perish which else might have held still the best liquor though not yet capable of the newest and strongest f The bottles perish that by the very wine it self put into them a restoring wine in it self and the wine perisheth and that ââ¦y the vessels which were meant to contain and preserve it The parts you see being very many forsomuch as our Saviours answer here rests principally on the right timing of this duty I shall insist presently on the second part the time or season which is first in every duty ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then in those very daies For the understanding whereof we must first enquire what those other words mean to which they refer viz. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them Which were set to contain these 4. following senses agreeing well with and insinuating each other 1. In the daies of his death and burial they shall mourn and fast according to Ioh. 16. v. 20. a little while and ye shall not see me ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce a Innocentius 1. Epistolâ⦠ad Eugubinum Episcopum Nam utique constat Apostolos biduo isto in marore fuisse propter metum Iudââ¦orum se occuluisse quod utique non dubium est in tantum ââ¦os jejunaste biduâ⦠memoratâ⦠ut c. 2. In the recurring annual memorials of the Bridegrooms taking away the Churches Paschal Fast of Lent beside the weekly stations Stationum semijejunia which the Church ever observed except 'twixt Easter and Pentecost or in the Feast of the Bridegrooms Nativity These stations were the 4 th and the 6 th day of the week fasted till 3. a clock in the afternoon according to Cornelius's fast Act. 10. But these Sub arbitrio non ex imperio of free devotion not of strict injunction as the Church professed by the acknowledgement of Tertullian 3. In what time soever our sins or also Gods Judgments call us to mourning or fasting or repentance publick or private And this is also in too full a sense the Bridegrooms departing from us So it was said to Saul for his disobedience The Lord is departed from thee 1 Sam. 28. v. 16. Iââ¦r 6. v. 8. Be thou instructed O Ierusalem lest my soul depart from thee This same Bridegroom our Lord who saith Hosea 2. I will betroth thee unto me warneth them also c. 9. v. 12. Wo unto them when I depart from them This sense also Theophylact teacheth us to be included in this Text in Mark 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when Christ the Bridegroom shall be taken from him being lapsed to wit into sin then he fasts and repents that he may heal his sin S. Hierom cals this the Tropological sense of these words Iuxta tropologiam autem sciendum quòd quamdiu sponsus nobiscum est in laetitiâ sumus nec jejunare possumus nec lugere cum autem ille propter peccata à nobis recesserit tunc indicendum jejunium esse tunc luctus recipiendus when the Bridegroom shall depart from us by reason of sin then must a fast be indicted then must we take up a mourning when our Bridegroom hath withdrawn himself in just displeasure for our sins as Wisdome will not abide in a body subject to sin Wisd. 1. 3. We must seek his return and favour by fasting weeping and supplications Psal. 143. 3 8. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã when the Bridegroom shall be taken up away from them in his Ascension after his departure into heaven so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tolli may signifie to be taken away up and so is the rendring of the Syriack in this Text and so the Greek Father Theophylact understands it of the time after his Ascension a Theophylact in Luc. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Idem in Matthaei cap. 9. v. 15. viz. on the same words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christianus Druthmarus on the same words Mat. 9. Cum auferetur ab eis sponsus Illud tempus ostendit quo ipsus in coelum ascendit quia quamvis semper cum illis esset spiritualiter tamen corporali praesentiâ ab eis recessit Venerable Bede upon my Text shewes that all the time from the promise of the Seed of the woman unto the Incarnation of the Bridegroom and all the time after his Ascension and departure into Heaven was and is the time of the absence of the Bridegroom and the season of the Churches mourning and longing for his first or second coming The time only of his conversing upon earth among men the priviledged time of the Churches joy on earth His words are these Notandum verò c. We must note that this mourning for the Bridegrooms absence began not now first after the death and resurrection of the Bridegroom but was observed throughout the whole time of the world before his Incarnation for those first times of the Church before the Virgins bringing forth a Son had holy men which earnestly longed after the coming of Christs Incarnation and these times since Christ escended up into heaven have the Saints which mourn for and desire his second Appearance to judge the quick and the dead Neque hic defiderabilis defiderii Ecclesiae luctus requievit aliquantum nisi quandiu hic cum Discipulis in carne versatus est Nor was there any rest to the Church from thiâ⦠her mourning of her desires save only that while Christ conversed upon earth with his Disciples So after the history of his Ascension Acts 1. the Apostles frequent fastings are recorded Acts 13 14. 2 Cor. 6 11. chapters After his Passion Resurrection and Ascension the annual and weekly memorial Fasts of his holy Passion should thenceforth begin and continue to be celebrated and other frequent religious seasons of fasting Of these 4. senses the 2 d only because it brings with it a recurring duty upon men as constant as the years return labor actus in orbem one Aerius a Iovinian or Vigilantius in all ages till of late hath been found to make exception to I shall therefore first insist to shew that our Lords words ought so to be understood as to include also those recurring memorial fasts of the Bridegrooms being taken from us stata revoluta jejunia And secondly what they are As to the first that these words are so to be understood as including some set and returning fasting daies is evident 1. For that otherwise our Lords words would not be as
Now impossible it is that any such should be publick and to continue and relate to any such fixed and universal cause but this of our Lords Passion through perpetual ages to be remembred by publick memorial fasts which cannot be continual nor accidental therefore by set solemn and recurring fasts so as we have seen that cause the memory of our Lords Passion to have given foundation universally to all ages and parts of the Catholick Church both for her weekly stations Stationum semijejunia on the 4 th and 6 th day of the week till 3. a clock and of her annual Paschal or Lenten Fast about the time of her Lords Crucifixion And whereas our Lord hath said of his Disciples which are or shall be such indeed that in those daies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall and will fast what the Church doth and hath done ever since that foretold by the Lord when he said they would then fast must needs be the best interpretation of what the Lord said they would do He said it in those daies they will fast hath the Church done what he said they would or will any say nay Learn we the Churches daies on which she ever since hath and doth and professeth that she will fast and we must needs have the true meaning of this prediction in these words of her Lord who could not be deceived In those daies they will fast 5 ly Be therefore my fifth reason this following Christians will not fast none can expect they will on any publick set solemn daies of fasting which was the thing here call'd for by the Scribes from their own alledged example and that of Iohn's Disciples also except they do agree upon such daies But if every man was to be left to understand what he please by these words The daies when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them as Aerius had his sense of them and Iovinian his and Vigilantius his and none bound to the Churches sense of them we should have no means left us possibly to agree and so to meet on any daies at all by force of these words or any other one universal cause and so should we never meet in any publick solemn fast at all no not for so publick fix'd a cause as the taking away of the Bridegroom once for the sins of the whole world The Churches teaching then her sense of her Lords words by her rules comments and practise must silence these men as her Lords prediction of her practise did silence the Scribes and Pharisees yea and some other better meaning Disciples St. Iohn's also cunningly drawn in as is usual by the enemies of the Lord and his Church to joyn in expostulations cavils and quarrels against them Reason and experience and the direction of all wise men in the Church of God ancient and modern the house of Wisdome Councels Reverend Fathers and Writers and our a Since the Reformation Lib. Canonum Eccles. Anglican Anno 1571. Videbunt ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentanââ¦um ââ¦it doctrina veteris auâ⦠Novi Testament quodque ex illâ⦠ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Church in particular have directed and commanded us not to interpret Scripture in things of publick concernment to the Churches rule of believing and doing but as we finde 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 any new and strange doctrine or practise as necessary there-from or to the opposing of any constantly received doctrine or practise of the Church Universal for in other matters they may happily with leave quietly abound in their own sense leaves all bold innovators which can but draw away 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 Heresies 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 falsely so called pervert the Scriptures to their own and others their obstinate followers destruction Here therefore I first joyn issue that the Church hath observed these daies of the Paschal fast as 't was called in the Ancient Church a Called also by some Antepaschale jejunium meaning the same thing or Lent-fast that is from the Saxon Dialect Spring-fast b lencââ¦en Sax. The Spring ãâã Lent ever since the times of these children of the Bride-chamber the Apostles of the Lord and ever since the taking away of the Lord the Bridegroom 2. That the Church hath done this hath observ'd this Paschal-fast as from the Apostles grounding their practise upon instruction Evangelical particularly also upon this Text now before us The time shall come when c. And then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in those dayes they shall fast 1. For the Churches visible practise from the Apostles times if our Brethren shall say Shew us express example written in the following Scriptures which may interpret this text so or we are at liberty for the sense and practise they must be told what they cannot but freshly remember that so said the Brethren the Anabaptists one express example of baptizing Infants after that Sanction Iohn 3. 5. and Commission Matth. 28. v. 19. whereby to interpret such Sanction and Commission An express command as the Church thinks to baptize all Nations would not hold them So said the Socinians for their no necessity of baptizing at all in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Shew us one example in all the following Scriptures Acts and Letters of the Apostles of that form observed A direct command as we would think it could not bind up their liberty of interpreting it otherwise The history of all the following ages of the Church after the Apostles is little to them compared with the word of God in their own sense All those following were but men and these in their giving out the sense of the Scripture are more For our parts we finding the Bridegroom the Lord himself thus referring us to the practise of his known Disciples the children of the Bride-chamber In those daies they will fast not only they will teach on what daies men should fast and the Bride her self whose cause is most concern'd in it declaring to us her practise and assuring us she had received that her Practise from those friends of her Bridegroom and children of his marriage-chamber the Apostles that Bride also being as we know the Queen standing at his right hand the Mother of us all whose authority is above all mothers
now professing himself a follower of the new Prophet Montanus quarrels the Church and her children as carnal persons for not admitting the new-commanded fast of Montanus and he manages that his quarrel in these words They viz. the Christian Catholicks accuse us that we observe fasts of our own peculiar to our selves They object therefore unto us novelty and prescribe against the unlawfulness of that saying that it is either to be judged Heresie if presuming as men we so dogmatize or we to be pronounced false prophets if we indict these fasts as from the Spirit whilest on either hand we hear them denounce an Anathema against us For as to what pertains to Fast they oppose that there are certain daies constituted by God They surely think that in the Gospel those daies are determined for fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away and that those daies only are now the legitimate daies of Christian Fasts all legal and prophetical old observances being antiquated or abolished Therefore as to other fasting it is to be indifferent according to every mans occasions causes at his own judgement not of command viz. as Montanus pretended command from God 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 O ye adversaries of the prophet Montanus for lo I convince you even your selves fasting beside the Paschal Fast Beside those daies in which the Bridegroom was taken away interposing also your selves the half-fasts of the stations a Thus he being in darkness of forgetfulness as out of charity considers not the evident reasons of the stations the 4 th and 6 th day of of the week from those words which the Church urged of the Bridegrooms being taken away which is the very ground and reason which afterwards Epiphanius de Compend fid c. 22. and S. Augustin also epist. 86. do build them on and your selves otherwhiles also as each pleases living on meer bread and water Lastly you reply that these observances viz. these last of the stations of Wednesday and Friday and otherwhiles living with bread and water are practised according to ones choice not from command b Isidorus Hispalensis l. offic c. 42. Shewes that the weekly observance of those daies in fasting was not a precept lying on all in these words Praeter haec autem legitima jejuniorum Tempora omni sexââ¦ââ¦erid propter Passionem Domini à quibusdam jejunatur Ye have therefore quit your ground by exceeding the tradition while you observe fasts w ch are not constituted or commanded And worthily you permit that to your own pleasure which you yield not to Gods command viz. by his prophet Montanus And c. ââ¦4 If it be so as was urged out of Galatians c. 4. â⦠10. Why observe we Easter every year in the first moneth Why 50 daies thence forward do we pass in all exultation Why apply we the 4 th and 6 th day of the week to stations or meetings for prayer portional-fasting and Sacrament and the day of Christ's Passion to fastings And although you at some time may joyn Saturday to Friday in fasting yet that never but before Easter-day for the reason elsewhere rendred Thus far Tertullian The reason why he singles out Good-Friday for a peculiar fast amongst the rest of the daies of the Bridegrooms taking away himself renders in his Book of Prayer chap. last when not yet a Montanist in these words Sic die Paschae qââ¦o quasi communis publica jejunii religio est So on the day of Christs suffering wherein is observ'd the common and as it were publick religion of the fast a Agreeably whereunto Sozomon speaks l. 7. c. 19. On the day before that Saturday viz. Good Friday which the people fast very devoutly in remembrance of our Saviours Passion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And this is that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that one day into which the least devout among Christians shrunk up their fast As Irenââ¦us witnesses in his Epistle to Victor and Methodius in Conââ¦ivio virgin orat 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã On the Fast-day of Christs Passion who is our Passeover it is forbidden us at all to remember the provision of food S. Cyril of Hierusalem in his 18. Catechism mentions his auditors weary labour by the intention of the Fast of the parasceue or Good Friday and the following watch Thus by acknowledgement of the Churches enemies and friends she practised taught contended against her adversaries touching this fast and those words of her Lords In those daies when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they fast With this constitution of the Lords she resisted the Montanist's new set fasts pretending from the Spirit and the word within them His testimony I have first produc'd as including the Churches own witness and the Apostles own observance Next for the observance of Christian people that of S. Mark though he not an Apostle but Evangelist his teaching as is probable and certainly practis'd in the Apostles own daies The record is made by PHILO in his Book ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Religious so Gregory Nazianzen cals the Christian believer by the same name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Orat. in S. Pentecost who must needs have conversed with St. Mark and these Religious at Alexandria and came saith Eusebius into speech with St. Peter whose Disciple S. Mark was at Rome l. 2. c. 16 17. in the daies of Claudius the Emperour He in that Book of the Religious saith Eusebius in the forecited place describes certain Apostolical persons religious life of the Hebrew nation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 saith Eusebius and he adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according to the Gospel and such religious fastings saith the same Eusebius which have descended down accurately the same even unto our times which more eminently were exercised ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in fastings and whole nights watchings and attentions unto the word of God at the solemnity of the Passion of our Saviour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã testifying of them those things which accurately are observed after the same manner with us only and even until now And moreover that he there describes the first preachers of the Doctrine of the Gospel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is manifest saith he to every one that Philo comprised in that writing customes delivered in the beginning from the Apostles These religious persons in and about Alexandria ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are
frequent in assembling for the space of 7. weeks as we now begin our Paschal fast the 7 th week before Easter that we may exempt the Sundaies and yet leave a full number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a As Gregory Nazianzen orat 40. in Sanctum Baptisma cals the fast of Lenâ⦠ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ââ¦aith Philo using the very words of my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This saith Eusebius they held a pure and holy virginal observance for it is preparatory to the greatest feast which beginneth a solemnity of 50 daies Mightily they resist at this season the bewitchings of pleasures in those daies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there is no wine brought into their tables and their meal is clean free from all meat that had the life of bloud And of some of that time he writes that after supper they celebrated an holy whole-nights vigill w ch we know was much the custome of the East and West Churches on Easter-eve This annuall solemnity of numberless religious persons through 7. weeks before the high solemnity of Easter the time of the Bridegrooms taking away return is an observance w ch no Essenââ¦s or other Jewes ever observed noâ⦠indeed any other people at that time of the year before the Christians therefore Eusebius did well judge that it could be understood of Christians only and that as he saith from evident demonstrations b Euseb. ibidem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now may ye hear Philo's own words in that his Book interpreted by himself For what Philo saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã their celebration of 7. weeks their preparation to their greatest feast this what it is in Philo's language himself lets us know in his book of the ten words That which the Hebrews saith he in their own language call Easter or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The one day that is chiefly eminent in all the year But how spent they their seven weeks preparation to the feast of Easter In purity fastings and abstinences and when the feast came ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they sang Eucharistical Hymns unto God their Saviour a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Philo there declââ¦res but at all times ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they have God in perpeââ¦ual remembrance and twice every day viz. in common in the publick they are wont to pray in the morning and the evening Thus hath Philo contemporary to the Apostles recommended to us not in my judgement only but of Eusebius as you have seen and of St. Hierome b Co. ãâã â⦠â⦠c 3â⦠the piery of those first Christians in Aegypt and recorded their Paschal Fast in as evident manner as could be expected a learned writer himself not a Christian should commend Christians for the very force of truth and the love that he had to set forth what was excellent in his Countrey-men My third proof and authority shall be from witnesses living partly in the Apostles times those children of the Bride-chamber partly soon after their times while their practice and instructions were fresh in memory from holy Bishops and Martyrs some of them ordained by the hands of Apostles themselves From their agreement even in their differences otherwayes from their concord even in some sorâ⦠of controversie among them during some years In that difference I mean found first twixt Polycarp the auditor and Disciple of St. Iohn and by his own hands ordained Bishop of Smyrna which Episcopal charge he concluded with a glorious Martyrdome and together with Thraseas Bishop of EumeÌnia these on the one side and Anicetus a Primitive Bishop of Rome and Martyr living at the same time with other Western Bishops deriving from St. Peter as Polycarp from St. Iohn on the other side about whose difference Polycarp came unto Rome to Anicetus as Irenaeus witnesses Anicetus professing to follow the rule received from St. Peter and St. Paul by the instructions of his predecessours Xystus Telesphorus Hyginus and Pius and Polycarp professing to follow what St. Iohn and other of the Apostles had practised ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã these are the very words of Irenaeus himself concerning Polycarp whom he had seen and heard That Anicetus could not perswade him to vary from what he had observed ever with Iohn the disciple of our Lord and the rest of the Apostles with whom he had conversed or spent his time Iââ¦en apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 24. But their difference was managed with perfect peace love inviolable communion The same difference again some years after revived about the ninety seventh year after St. Iohns death but not with equal calmness and amity 'twixt Polycrates Bishop oâ⦠Ephesus with other Asian Bishops and Victor Bishop of Rome next successour to Elutherius unto whom Lucius our first Christian King of Britanny sent letters with others of the West Polycrates pleading the authority of St. Iohn ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith he who had rested on the Lords bosome and of St. Philip ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one of the Twelve Apostles who fell asleep at Hierapolis also he alledgeth the example of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of two daughters of St. Philip Virgins in their old age and another daughter of his not that but a holy woman likewise a These different from the four Virgin daughters of St. Philip the Evangelist And Victor with his on the other side pleading the authority of the tradition of S. Peter S. Paul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. These were the contenders The agreement which I mention'd was constantly this It was agreed on all hands 1. That they both had received from the Apostles a Tradition for the celebrating of the Anniversary feast of Easter which they called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2. That on the Eve of that Easter-day certain preceding fastings were to end which were the same that in Tertullian were afterwards called jejunium Paschale Polycrates and they of Asia are contending ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That from tradition ancient in those early dayes they deemed that they ought to observe the feast of the Salutary Pasch or Easter on the fourteenth day of the moneth as being of duty altogether on that day upon whatsoever day of the week it ââ¦ell to put an end to or dissolve their fastings On the other side which was Victors it was alledg'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã No such custome to observe on that manner in the rest of the Churches throughout the whole world they viz. the rest of the Churches throughout the whole world observing from Apostolical Tradition which came down to that time viz. about the 97 th after S. Iohn that only on that day which should be also the weekly day of the Resurrection of the Lord they ought to dissolve or end their fastings If ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then were they by Apostolical tradition to have fasts preceding that day a
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And they all with one sentence declared that on the Lords day only Easter day we do observe to end our Paschal Fasts Euseb. l. 5. c. 23. You see both parts agreed in my conclusion that the feast of Easter-day was to conclude certain fasting-daies and all this is witnessed in Eusebius l. 5. c. 23 24. Difference there was 1. About what day should be that Easter-day and conclusion of their fasting-daies they having indeed received different traditions S. Iohn and S. Philip finding it usefull in those parts of Asia where many Jewes inhabited by condescension to observe the Christian Easter on the same day with the Jewish Easter letting them to see that we as festivally remembred Jesus Christ our true Passeover and our deliverance by him as they expected one to come 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 a Touching this a Councel was held in Palaestina wherein Theophiluâ⦠Bishop of Cââ¦sarea presided and Narcissus Bishop of Hierusalem another Councel at Rome wherein Victor presided another in Pontus wherein Palma aâ⦠the senior Bishop presided another Councel in France wherein Irenaeus was President another in the Province of Osdreëna Euseb. l. 5. c 23. c. 25. Narcissus Theophylus and Cassius Bishop of Tyre and Clarus Bishop of Ptolemais and the Bishops with these assembled ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã handled largely of the Tradition of the Paschal season which had come down to them from the Apostles by succession 2. Particular Churches then differ'd none doubting but on Easter-day they were to end their fastings yet about the degree and rigour of the fasts and number of the fasting-daies In which matter different constitutions of bodies and minds in different countreys might call for different allowances from the very first b Socrates recording the divers Customes of observing this Fast in divers Churches saith thus l. 5. c 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Advertising us as of sundry customes in divers nations so also of sundry causes of those customes in different nations But which of them once doubted differ'd or disagreed touching this Whether an Easter-day were at all to be kept or Whether any such Paschal Fasts were at all to be observed c As Socrates ibid. having recounted the different usages about the number of the daies of this Paschal Fast adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã other such different usages there were about the Synaxes or publick meetings for Communions viz. whether Saturday also Wednesday and Friday as well as the Lords day but yet all agreed of Synaxes that they ought to be yea and that every Lords day at least whose time of ending only was their controversie and yet the time next before Easter still agreed on for the Fasts As they now in our times which vilifie the one vilifie the other also The Antepaschal Fast Paschal Feast were so inseparably conjoyned that in many of the ancients Pascha signifies both as in Tertullian l. 2. de Iejuniis c. 13. Convenio vos praeter Pascha citra illos dies quibus ablatus est sponsus stationum semijejunia interponentes He there expounding Pascha by the days in which the Bridegroom was taken away And C. 14. Nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum and so that of Timotheus Alexandrinus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pasca jejunare a Ambros l d Eliâ jejunio hoc jejunium Quadragesimâ⦠Domini Pascha includit For this cause Irenaeus who saith himself had seen Polycarp S. Iohn's Disciple satisfying Victor in his Epistle to him tells him that not only concerning the day it self of Easter there was controversie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but also touching the manner it self of the Fast therein supposing it without controversie that the Fast it self though some differ'd about the form of it was but was with difference observed long before as well as the day of Easter For so it follows in his words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And such variety in those that observe the fast was not now first in our days but long before in their times who lived before us And yet before that difference also he there records that there preceded an agreement a simple and plain custom viz. for those that had health and strength which some not accurately enough retaining changed into that which followed after His words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now Irenaeus writ this about the 97 th year after S. Iohn's death That long before his days there had been that difference and before that difference there had preceded a simple and plain custome of the form of fasting which they who brought in the difference changed into what followed Before that difference which was long before the space of 97 years after the Apostles what uniform custom could there precede in the Christian Church and not be from the Apostles own times and yet the following difference also agreed to a Paschal Fast. So as Irenaeus had good cause to conclude that his discourse as there he doth to Victor ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The very difference of their fasting commends or establishes the agreement of their faith viz. that yet they all by their several fasting professed to believe on that death and passion of the Bridegroom the memorial whereof their agreeing to fast in the days next before Easter rhough disagreeing about the number of the days or the rigour or the time both of Easter and so of the Fasts did unanimously profess In the Second Century of years after the death of the last of the Apostles the children of the Bride-chamber I alledge first the Canons called Apostolical not so called as made by the Apostles themselves but by Apostolical Bishops not seldom called in the language of the Ancients ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã witness THEODORET and others as next or near successors unto the Apostles The first fifty of which Canons are probable to have been made in the foregoing Century and the latter thirty five in this Century Excepted only the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or assumentum corruptly added to the last And all the eighty five confirm'd by the sacred Sixth General Councel Can. 2 d. The eighth and sixtyninth of which Canons command That every Bishop Presbyter and Deacon celebrate after the vernal Equinox ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the holy Easter day and that they fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the holy Lent And at other times the 4 th and 6 th day of the week where though the Sanction of spiritual penalties was added by these successors of the Apostles yet that 6 th general Councel in Trullo doubts not but the matter it self pressed they had received from the Apostles and therefore both the first general Councel of Nice Can. 5 th and the 6 th general Councel Can. 55. and the Provincial Councel of Laodicea it self also
confirmed in the 4 th general Councel Can. 45. refer themselves to and mention the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The holy Fast of Lent as a thing known and established before the first of those in the universal Church and yet not established by any foregoing General Councel yea or so much as any Provincial and therefore there being no other universal cause possible to create such a foregoing universal establishment beside Tradition Apostolical it must needs according to St. Augustine's rule as well as by the probability of these Apostolical Canons have come from the Apostles This is confirm'd in the same age by Origen's manner of mention of this Fast who not only in his eighth Book against Celsus mentions the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or weekly memorial-Fasts of the Bridegrooms taking away and Pascha as that which all Christians had received and were ready to answer for if objected by Celsus but also in his tenth Homily upon Leviticus sunt Origenis saith Gerard rightly of these Homilies thus witnesseth Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuââ¦iis consecratos quartam sextam septimanae dies quibus solenniter jejunamus And all this he calls abstinentiam Christianam the abstinence of Christians which must needs have the first teachers of Christianity for its authors we have the days of Lent consecrated to fastings the fourth and sixth day also of the week on which we fast solemnly saith Origen My third Witness in this age is DIONYSIUS the Bishop of Alexandria who lived in the middle of that age successor of S. Mark and contemporary to S. Cyprian he in his Epistle to Basilides the Bishop records the Fast before Easter as universal as the joy and Feast of Easter which I have evidently proved above was from the Apostles His words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It will be confess'd of all agreeably that we ought to begin the feast viz. of Easter and joy until that time humbling our souls in fastings They truly which make too much haste and before well toward midnight break their fast we blame as regardless and not masters of their appetite giving over the race a little before the goal Such indeed who are much worâ⦠by the fasts and toward the end as it were saint we easily pardon if they eat sooner ââ¦nd in the same Epistle he mentions in special manner the 6. daies of fasts to wit those of the last week not alike observ'd of all In the 3 d Century of years after the death of S. IOHN CONSTANTINE the GREAT whose witness seems to have been of his information from the Bishops of the Christian world assembled in Nice in his Epistle to the Christian Churches recorded both in Eusebius writing his life l. 3. c. 17 18. and Socrates l. 1. c. 6. and Theodoret l. 1. c. 10. he writeth thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and then a little after he subjoyneth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. 20. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã All or at least the greater part of Bishops being assembled together viz. at Nââ¦ce where there was also disquisition of the most holy day of Pasche After that order which we have kept from the first day it self of the Passion of the Lord viz. anno Christi 33. until now the same observation to be continued unto the ages to come also For our Saviour hath delivered one solemnity to wit the day or time of his most holy passion the day of our freedome and would that his Catholick Church also should be one A little after he subjoyns the appointed fastings Now this is the wel-becoming order which all the Churches of the West and of the North and of the South parts of the world do observe yea and some also of the Eastern Churches Neither is it seemly in so great a holiness of observance there should be any difference And copies of this Letter the Emperour sent to every Province My second witness in this Century is S. BASIL the GREAT the Archbishop of Caesaââ¦ea in Cappadocia in his second Sermon of fasting viz at the time of the Lent-fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For neither doth the despight of Devils dare any thing against him that fasteth And the Angels guardians of our life do more studiously abide by such who have their souls purifi'd by fasting And more especially now when the edict of this Fast is proclaimed throughout all the world There are Angels who in each Church register those that fast Art thou rich do not contumeliously entertain the fast nor send it away disgrac'd from thy house lest it accuse thee before the Law-giver of the Fasts of the fasts he saies not only of fasting God is the Lawgiver and his Sermon is here of the Lent-fasts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And lest it bring upon thee from that accusation a manifold mulct either from weak estate of body or some other sad accident ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Suffer affliction as a good Souldier and strive thou lawfully that thou maist be crowned this knowing that every one that striveth for masteries is continent in all things one accusation he recounteth that a man should be convinc'd to have cast away the great weapon of fasting Fasting is the beginning of penance or repentance the continence of the tongue the bridle of anger the banishment of lust Fasting is our assimulation unto the Angels the temperament of life And in his Sermon preached in the beginning of Lent Homil. 1. de Iejunio ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord who hath brought us unto this revolution of this time grant unto us as combatants entring upon this beginning to shew forth the firmness and intention of perseverance that we may attain unto the day which is proper for rewards Now it being the day of the commemoration of our Saviours Passion and in the world to come of retribution Daniel a man of desires who fasted 3. weeks and learnt the Lions to fast their prey being before them The next witness is S. GREGORY NAZIANZEN in his forty first and second orations ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have fasted speaking of the fast in Lent because we fasted not from the tree of knowledg having been overcome thereby for fasting was an old command and coaeval with us It is the paedagogy of the soul and the moderation of sensual delight which is very mââ¦tly enjoyned us that what we lâ⦠by not observing that precept of fasting we may recover again observing it yesterday I was crucifi'd with Christ to day as it were glorisi'd with him This is the Easter of the Lord the Easter and again I say the Easter the honour of the Trinity the feast of feasts and solemnity of solemnities as much exceeding all not those only which are humane and come from us on earth but also the other feasts of Christ himself and which are celebrated relating to him as the Sun excels the stars By our passions we imitate his Passion c. And Oration the 4 th
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christ fasted a little before his temptation we before the Paschal feast the matter of fastings is one in both This hath in us the force of mortisying us with Christ and is the purifying preparation to the Feast And he indeed fasted 40. daies for he was God but we proportionate this to our power though zeal perswade some to leap even beyond their strength a This S. Gregory Nazianzen his 74. Epistle written to Celeusius the Iudge who as it may seem by this Epistle in the time of the Churches publick fastings in stead of Fasting propounded obsââ¦ene shewes to delight the people ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so the sense requires and so Billius who had the use of MSS. R interp ets it qui non jejunes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now I will speak the things which become our friendship and this season viz. of fasting you O Judge as not fasting transgress the Law And how shall you be a preserver of humane Laws who conââ¦emn the Lawes Divine ââ¦urge your own Tribunal lest of these two things one happen either that you be an evil man or appear such To set before the people filââ¦hy shewes is to publish your self upon the stage The sum is O Judge know that you are to be judged and you will offend less I had nothing better to give you then this counsell The fourth witness of this age is EPIPHANIUS In expositione fidei Catholicae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And also in Compend fidei c. 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The same Church viz. Catholick of which he speaks hath been wont to observe Lent continuing in fastings but the 6. daies of the week before Easter all the people continue in dry oâ⦠stricter diet Again they celebrate publick meetings or synaxes of Communion all those 6. daies a As our Church also prescribes assemblies and Communion-service also every day in this great week And on the 4 th day of the week and on the day before the Sabbath viz. on Friday they are in fasting unto the ninth hour viz. our 3. a clock in the afternoon for as much as on the 4 th day the Lord was taken that is money taken for his taking and on the Friday He was crucifi'd And the Apostles have deliver'd that on these daies fasts should be celebrated to the fulfilling of that which was spoken that when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they fast in those daies And in Heresy 75 th ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And in the daies of the Paschal-fast or the week at least of it before Easter when with us there are lyings on the ground purities afflictive sufferings prayers watchings and fastings They the Aërians from the morning feed themselves with flesh and wine filling their veins and deride us laughing and mocking at such as celebrate the holy service of this week So that he shewes hereby his mind and his unbelief The fifth witness of this age is the renowned S. AMBROSE Bishop of Millan in his 4 th Book upon S. Luke S. Ambrose's most undoubted work Siquis Evangelii gloriam fructumque Resurrectionis optat adipisci mystici jejunii praevaricator esse non debet quod in lege Moses in Evangelio suo Christus utriusque Testamenti autoritate praescripsit fidele virtutis esse certamen If any man desire to obtain the glory of the Gospel the fruit of the Resurrection he ought not to be a transgressor of the mystical fast which both Moses in the Law did Christ in his Gospel hath prescribed by the authority of both Testaments a space for the faithfull striving of vertue The same Author in his Book de Helia Iejunio Non autem omnis fames acceptabile jejunium facit sed fames quae Dei timore suscipitur Considera Quadrage sima totis praeter Sabbatum Dominicam jejunatur diebus Not every hunger makes an acceptable fast but that hunger which is undertaken from the fear of God Consider A Lent is fasted with us all daies except Saturday and the Lords day Now of this Fast of Lent he saith in his 23. Sermon Dominus Iesus Christus hunc eundem numerum jejunii consecravit And Sermon the 36. Hunc quadraginarium numerum non ab hominibus constitutum sed divinitùs consecratum haec autem non tam sacerdotum praecepta quam Dei sunt And in Sermon the 25. Dominus enim Diabolum posteaquam 40. dies jejunavit evicit non quod non ante jejunia eum vincere potuisset sed ut ostenderet nobis tunc nos Diaboli posse esse victores cum 40. dies victores jejunando desideriorum carnalium fuissemus Non enim fratres leve peccatum est sidelibus indictam Quadragesimam jejunia consecrata ventris voracitate dissolvere scriptum est Qui dicit se in Christo manere debet sicut ille ambulavit ipse ambulare Ille qui peccatum non habebat Quadragesimam jejunavit tu non vis Quadragesimam jejunare qui peccas ille inquam peccatum non habebat sed pro nostris jejunavit peccatis The Lord Jesus Christ hath consecrated this same number of lasting This Quadragesimal number not constituted of men ãâã consectated from God Now these are not so much the precepts of the Priests as of God And Sermon 25. For the Lord after he had fasted 40. daies overcame the Devil not but that he could have overcome him also before or without fastings but that he might shew unto us that then we can overcome the devil when by forty days we have been through fasting victors over our carnal desires For neither O brethren is it a little fault to break by greediness of the belly the Lent indicted to Believers the consecrated fasts It is written He that saith he abides in Christ ought himself also so to walk as he walked viz. as Nazianzen above attemperating his example to our strength He that had no sin fasted a Lent and wilt not thou who sinnest He I say had no sin but fasted for our sins Again in his 60. Serm. which is on the day of Pentecost a Sermon which all agree to be his or Maximus Episcopus Taurinensis's and the odds is little which it be for that either of their authorities is great enough Sic enim disposuit Dominus ut sicut ejus passione in Quadragesimae jejuniis contristaremur ita ejus resurrectione in Quinquagesimae feriis laetaremur Non igitur jejunamus in hâc Quinquagesimâ quia in his diebus nobiscum Dominus commoratur non inquam jejunamus praesente Domino quia ipse ait Nunquid possunt silii sponsi jejunare quandiu cum illis est sponsus For so hath the Lord appointed that as for his Passion we should mourn in the fasts of Lent so for his Resurrection we should rejoyce in the 50. daies
following therefore we fast not in this 50. daies because in these the Lord is with us we fast not I say the Lord being present because he hath said Can the children of the Bridegroom fast so long as the Bridegroom is with them Lastly this same S. Ambrose in his Serm. de Iejunio Helia thus preacheth toward the end of Lent Propitiâ Divinitate ecce jam penè transegimus Quadragesimae indicta jejunia praecepta Domini abstinentiae devotione complevimus Behold through the mercy of God we have past through the indicted fasts of Lent and have fulfill'd by the devotion of abstinence the commands of the Lord. A sixth testimony of this age is that of THEOPHILUS Patriarch of Alexandria who in his first Paschal Epistle thus writeth Eóque omnis impraesentiarum adsumatur labor ut eos qui paululum negligentes sunt nosmet ipsos aeternae gloriae praeparemus homines provocantur terrarum humilia deserentes cum Ecclesiâ primitivorum Dominicae passionis festa celebrare Non est ergo non est haereticorum ulla solennitas Igitur Dominicum Pascha celebrantes sanctis scripturarum purificemur Eloquiis Curemus diversa vitiorum vulnera Sic poterimus imminentium jejuniorum iter carpere incipientes Quadragesimam à tricesimâ die mensis Mechir hebdomadam salutaris Paschae quintâ die mensis Pharmuthi finientésque jejunia secundum Evangelicas traditiones vespere Sabbati decimâ die Pharmuthi illucescente statim Dominicâ festa celebremus undecimâ die ejusdem mensis jungentes septem reliquas hebdomadas sanctae Pentecostes ut cum iis qui Trinitatis unam confitentur Divinitatem in coelis praemia recipiamus in Christo Iesu Domino nostro To that end let all our labour be taken at present to prepare both those which are something negligent and our selves unto eternal glory And thereby men are provoked forsaking the low things of the earth to celebrate the solemnities of the Lords Passion with the Church of the primitives or first-born Therefore Hereticks acknowledge not any solemnity let us celebrating the Pasche of our Lord be purified by the holy words of the Scriptures Let us cure the divers wounds of vices c. And so may we enter the fasts at hand beginning Lent from the 30 th day of the moneth Mechir and therein the week of the Salutary Pasche on the 5 th day of the moneth Pharmuth and ending the fasts according to the Evangelical Traditions on the evening of the Saturday being the 10 th day of Pharmuth and on the next Lords-day the 11 th of the same moneth let us celebrate the feasts adjoyning also the 7. following weeks of the holy 50. daies that with them who confess the one Godhead of the Holy Trinity we may partake of the rewards in heaven through Christ Jesus our Lord. So also in his 2 d Paschal Epistle Pascha celebrare habentes Quadragesimae exordium ab octava die mensis qui secundum Aegyptios vocatur Pharmenoth ipso praebente vires attentiùs jejunemus hebdomadae majoris i. e. Paschae venerabilis die 13. mensis Pharmuthi fundamenta jacientes ita duntaxat ut juxta Evangelicas traditiones siniamus jejunia intempestâ nocte die 18. supra dicti mensis Pharmuthi praehentes nos dignos communionis corporis sanguinis Christi Having to celebrate Easter let us begin our Lent from the 8 th day of the moneth which with the Aegyptians is called Pharmenoth God giving us strength let us fast more carefully on the Great week howbeit so that according to the Evangelical Traditions we end the fasts late at night on the 18 th day of Pharmuth Rendring our selves worthy receivers of the communion of the body and bloud of Christ. And in his 3. Paschal Epistle he writeth thus Quotquot sanctum Pascha celebramus continentiâ atque jejuniis latorem legis amicum nobis esse faciamus Ornantes nos scientiâ Scripturarum quasi solennibus vestimentis fugantes omnem negligentiam rumpentes moram ut alacri cum discipulis ad Salvatorem pergamus incessu dicamusque ei Ubi vis paremus tibi Pascha ad solennitatem properemus atque dicamus mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce Christi Dabit inquam dabit laborantibus gaudium jejunantibus benedicens loquetur Erunt domui Iudae in gaudium laetitiam in solennitates bonas laetabimini As many of us as celebrate the holy Pasche let us as celebrate the holy Pasche let us make the Author of the Law a friend unto us by continency and fastings adorning our selves with the knowledge of the Scriptures as with solemn garments chasing away all negligence and breaking off delay that we may cheerfully go with the Disciples to our Saviour and say vnto him Where wilt thou that we prepare unto thee the Passeover Let us make haste to the solemnity and say God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ then he will give he will give I say joy to them that labour and blessing them that fast will say the fasts shall be to the house of Iuda for joy and gladness and joyous solemnity and ye shall rejoyce A seventh witness is S. HIEROME in his Epistle to Marcella Nos unam Quadragesimam secundum traditionem Apostolorum toto anno tempore nobis congruo jejunamus Montanistae tres in anno faciunt Quadragesimas quasi tres passi sint salvatores non quòd per totum annum exceptâ Pentecoste jejunare non liceat sed quòd aliud sit necessitate aliud voluntate munus afferre We fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year according to the Tradition of the Apostles in a season fit for our mysteries The Montanists keep three Lents in the year as if three Saviours had suffered Not but that it is lawful to fast throughout the whole year except in the 50. daies but it is one thing to fast by necessity another thing to bring a gift of ones own will Again in his 2. Book against Iovinian In foribus Evangelii Anna silia Phanuelis univira inducitur semperque jejunans Et Dominum virginem longa castitas longáque jejunia suscepêre Acriora daemonia docuit Dominus non nisi oratione jejunio posse superari est Dominus qui 40 diebus Christianorum jejunium sanctisicavit qui beatos appellat esurientes sitientes Luke 6. 21. In the very doors of the Gospel we meet with Anna the daughter of Phanuel that had been the wise of one Husband and her long purity and long continued use of fastings received in her arms the Lord the Virgin The Lord hath taught us that the fiercer sort of Devils cannot be overcome but by prayer and fasting It is the Lord who hath sanctifi'd the fast of the Christians in 40. daies who calleth them happy which hunger and thirst The same S. Ierome in his Comment upon Ionah c. 3. Ipse quoque
Dominus verus Ionas missus ad praedicationem mundi jejunavit 40. dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero nostras animas praeparat The Lord himself the true Ionas sent to preach unto the world fasted 40 daies and leaving us the inheritance of the fast under this number prepares our souls for the eating of his Body The same St. Hierom saith in his Comment on Isaiah the 58. Dominus 40. diebus in solitudine jejunavit ut nobis solennes jejuniorum dies relinqueret The Lord fasted 40. daies in the wilderness that he might leave unto us the solemn daies of the fasts My eighth witness of this age shall be S. CHRYSOSTOME who in his 3 d and 16 th Sermons ad populum Antiochenum which 16 th Sermon he preached in the 3. week of Lent wherein now we are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith he we have passed the second week of the fast in which time he preach'd to the people day by day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This spiritual summer of this fast now appearing let us as Souldiers wipe off the dust from our arms ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the time of Lent it is the manner of all to ask how many weeks each one hath fasted and you may hear some answer two and some three and some answer that they have fasted all the weeks And in his 11 th Lent-Sermon upon Genesis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Wherefore in every thing due measure and moderation is best According whereunto therefore concerning this season also of the holy Lent we shall now find it to have been ruled out unto us For as in publick conveiance of travellers there are certain stages and innes that the passengers wearied may rest themselves and intermitting their labours they may again set upon their journey In like manner here also in holy Lent THE LORD HATH INDULGED these two weekly daies the Saturday and the Lords day to such as undertake this course of this fast like certain stages or innes shores or havens that both the body may be a little relaxed from its labours of the fasting and the mind comforted that when these two daies shall be past over they may again with cheerfulness set upon this their good and profitable travelling in this way ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Set on this journey which leads unto Heaven this strait and narrow way Keeping under thy body and bringing it into subjection And the ground and teacher of all these things fasting will be unto us fasting I mean not that of most men but that which is the accurate fast viz. the abstinence not from meats only but from sins For the nature of fasting only is not sufficient to deliver such as betake themselves unto it except it be done agreeably to its law Let us learn the lawes of fasting how we ought to fast that we run not uncertainly nor beat the air nor fight with a shadow whilest we fast These things I have said not that we may dishonour fasting but that we may honour it GREGORY NYSSENE the Brother of S. Basil the Great is my 9 th witness in this age in his 2 d Oration of the Resurrection ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Matthew added the time when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week The night saith he was so far passed that it was now the time of cock-crowing which giveth warning that the light of the approaching day is at hand Speaking of the day of Christs Resurrection For this cause also at this time viz. far in the night before Easter-day and not in the very evening of the Saturday but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Cyril of Alexandria saith in his 8 th Paschal Homily far in the night we DISSOLVE OR END THE FASTINGS and begin the joy the custom that obtains withall men consenting hereto My last witness of this age is AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS hymno Septimo jejunantium Helias crevit tali observantiâ Vetus sacerdos ruris hospes aridi Ioannes hujus art is haud minùs potens Dei perenni praecurrit Filio Hanc obsequelam praeparabat nuntius Mox affuturo construens iter Deo Pridem caducis cum gravatus artubus Iesus dicato corde iejunaverit Inhospitali namque secretus loco Quinis diebus octies labentibus Nullam ciborum vindicavit gratiam Hoc nos sequamur quisque nunc proviribus Quod consecrati tu Magister dogmatis Tuis dedisti Christe sectatoribus After mention of Elias and Iohn Baptist's fastings as forerunners of Christ's he adds that Iesus also in the time of his flesh did with a devoted heart fast separating himself from men in the inhospitable desert and took no refreshment of food through eight times five daies That which thou O Christ the Master of our consecrated Religion didst deliver to thy followers that let each of us now according to our several measures of strength follow And because of the difference of mens strength agreeably to what Ireââ¦us had said that there was difference ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã about the sort or measure of fasting so this author Prudentius also in hymno octavo poss jejunium though he had said that Christ deliver'd the fast to his followers yet saith Laxus ac liber modus abstinendi Ponitur cunctis neque nos severus Terror impellit sua quemque cogit Velle potestas A free manner or measure of abstaining is propounded to all not any one by severe terrour enforced but every mans strength is a law to his nill In the fourth Century after the death of S. Iohn the Apostle I produce first S. AUGUSTINE who though in his 86. Epistle he say that he finds no where written in the Books of the New-testament any precept of the Lord or the Apostles defining on what daies we ought to fast albeit he saith he finds there fasting commanded yet he forthwith purposely explains himself in these words Non inâ⦠at jam suprà commemoravi in Evangelicis Apoâ⦠cis literis c. Evidenter praeceptum that is abstracting from all interpretation by traditions Apostolical of wâ⦠sort in many places he acknowledges many to be obliging in the writings only of the New Testament he saith he finds not evidenter praeceptum quibus diebus No where expresly or evidently prescrib'd what daies viz. no such express precept nor evident text but what may need against contradictors the Catholick Churches interpretation which is the thing we contend for For the same S. Augustine in his 119. Epistle to Ianuarius tells us of this very fast of Lent enough to our purpose Quadragesima sanè jejuniorum HABET AUTHORITATEM in veteribus libris EX EVANGELIO c. In quâ⦠ergo parte anni congruentiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitueretur nisi consini atque contiguâ Dominicae Passioni The Lent truly of fastings HATH AUTHORITY both in the old
on the Saturday evening which is the 6 th day of the same moneth Pharmuthi which is punctually 40. daies after the beginning on the 26. of Mechir the Aegyptians reckoning 30. daies in every moneth and keeping the Feast viz. Easter day on the next day the dawning Lords day which is the 7 th day of that moneth Pharmuthi anââ¦exing immediately after also the seven weeks of the holy 50 daies solemnity And Homily the 6. de Fest. Paschal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã â Beginning the holy Lent from c. superseding the Fasts on the 11 th day of the moneth Pharmuthi on Saturday evening According to the Evangelical Tradition Again Homily 9. de Fest. Paschal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beginning the ãâã Lent from c. and ending the Fasts on the 7 th day of Pharmuthi upon Saturday evening AS THE EVANGELICAL PREACHING BIDS And Homily 10 th de Fest. Paschal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã â Beginning the Holy Lent from c. and ending the Fasting days on the 29 th of c. late at night According to the Evangelical Tradition And so Homily 25 th and Homily the 26 th and Homily the 27 th you have the same testimony with the tenth in the same words in three other years And Homily 11 th ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã â Beginning the holy Lent upon c. and ending the Fasts on c. just forty days after late in the evening According to the Evangelical Preaching And so Homilies 12 13 14 16 17 18 21 24 30 th you have the same testimony with the 11 th in the same words in nine other years And Homily 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beginning the holy â Lent from c. and ending the Fasts on the 19 th day of the moneth Phumuthi late at night According to the Traditions Evangelical The same testimony in the same words you have Homily the twenty third And Homily 28 th ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beginning the â holy Lent from c. and ending the Fasts on the 11 th of Pharmuthi late on Saturday night According to the Preachings Evangelical The same testimony you have Homily the 29 th In all twenty two times in twenty ââ¦wo Homilies on twenty two several years S. CYRIL the PATRIARCH proclaims to the Church the Fasts of Lent according to Traditions Appointments or Instructions Evangelical or Apostolical as he saith My next and third witness of this age is THEODORET contemporary to S. CYRIL lib. 3. Haereticarum sabularum c. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Speaking of the Quartadecimani he saith Understanding amiss the Apostolical Tradition they celebrate the memory of the Passion as it happens viz. on what day of the week soever the Quartadecima luna doth fall A fourth witness of this age is Maximus Episcopus TAURINENSIS in his 36 th Sermon Sacrarum literarum exempla protulimus quibus approbamus hunc quadragenarium numerum non esse ab hominibus constitutum sed Divinitùs Consecratum neque terrenâ cogitatione initiatuâ⦠sed Coelesti majestate praeceptum haec non tam sacerdotum sunt praecepta quà m Dei atque ita qui ea spernit non sacerdotem spernit sed Christum We have brought forth the examples of the holy Scriptures by which we make good that this number forty viz. of Fasts was not constituted of men but consecrated of God nor initiated by humane cogitation but commanded by the heavenly Majesty These things are not so much the precepts of the Priests as of God and so he that despiseth them despiseth not the Priesthood but Christ. The fifth is LEO the Great Bishop of Rome who in his third Sermon of Lent saith on this wise Merito doctrina Spiritûs saââ¦li ââ¦c eruditione imââ¦uit populum Christianum ut ad Paschale festum quadraginta dierum continentiâ⦠se praepararet With good cause hath the DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY GHOST initiated the Christian people with this instruction that they should prepare themselves to the Feast of Easter that is to the return of the Bridegroom by the abstinence of forty days And in his sixth Sermon of Lent Ut Apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur non ciborum paââ¦citate tantummodò sed privatione maximè vitiorum That the APOSTOLICAL INSTITUTION may be fulfilled in the fast of forty days not by sparing from our diet only but especially by abstinence from sins And in his fourth Sermon of Lent Quia dum carnis ââ¦ragilitate austerââ¦or observaââ¦o ââ¦elaxatur duââ¦que per vaââ¦ias actiones vitae hujus ãâã ââ¦o disââ¦enditur ââ¦esse est de ãâã pulvere ââ¦am Rââ¦ligiosa coââ¦da sââ¦descere IDEO MAGNA DIVINâ⦠INSTââ¦UTIONIS ãâã ãâã EST ut ad ãâã mentium ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dierum exercitatio mederetur ãâã quibus aliorum temporum culpas pia opera ââ¦rent jejunia casta decoquerent For as much as while an austerer course of life is relaxed through the frailty of the flesh and anxious care grows upon us through the various actions of this life it cannot be but that even religious hearts themselves should gather some soil from the dust of this world therefore it hath been PROVIDED BY THE SALUBRITY OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTION that for the repairing the purity of our minds the exercitation of forty days should heal us in which both pious works might redeem i. e. retract and chaste fastings might consume the faults of our other times The same author in his ninth Sermon of Lent speaketh on this wise In quibus Paschalis jejunii diebus Meritò à Sanctis Apostolis per Doctrinam Spiritûs Sancti majora sunt ordinata jejunia ut per commune consortium Crucis Christi etiam nos aliquid in eo quod propter nos gessit ageremus sicut Apostolus ait si compaââ¦imur conglorisicaââ¦imur In which Paschal Fasts with good cause severer fastings were Ordain'd of the Holy Apostles by the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost that by the fellowship of his sufferings our conformity to the cross of Christ we also should have something we should do in or concerning that which he did for us as the Apostle saith If we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him And in his fourth Sermon elsewhere of fasting Inter omnia dilectissimi Apostolicae instituta Doctrinae quae ex Divinae institutionis ââ¦onte maââ¦Ã¢runt dubium non esâ⦠influente in Ecclesiae principes Spiritu sancto hanc primùâ⦠ab ââ¦is ãâã fuisse conceptam ut sancti observa ãâã ãâã omnium viââ¦utum regulas inchoareââ¦t Amongst all the Institutions of Apostolical Doctrine my beloved which have issued forth from the fountain of Divine appointment there is no doubt but that this observance with the first was conceived by them the holy Ghost sending his influence upon those Princes of the Church that men should begin the rules of all vertues with the observation of holy fasting But I
himself the outward affliction of voluntary severity the wrath of the dreadful judgement is appeased So a little pains dissolves great sins which eternal burnings otherwise would scarce consume Whilest this our Author cals the Fast of Lent legitimum sacratissimum Quadragesimae ââ¦empus in which for men that are able not to fast he saith is a sin you may perceive by his following discourse that he so cals here Lent legitimum jejunii tempus as the catholick Church in Tertullian call'd the same daies of the Bridegrooms taking away DIES LEGITIMOS IEIUNIORUM CHRISTIANORUM l. de jejuniis c. 2. declaring her self there to mean the daies commanded by a Law from the Apostles and as Tertullian himself cals the Lords Prayer legitimam orationem praemissâ legitimâ oratione For had Caesarius here intended to have call'd this fast sacratissimum legi imum in quo non jejunare peccatum est only as commanded by a Law Ecclesiastical he could not have contradistinguish'd thereto as he doth in that consideration all other daies besides there being in his time other fasting daies besides Lent commanded by the Church therefore this time of Lent was in some higher sense Legitimum jejuniorum tempus in quo non jejunare peccatum est The Historians who ãâã also in this Age are two especially 1. Aurelius Cassiodorus the compiler of the Tripartite history from the translation of Epiphanius Scholasticus of three former Greek Historians whom he had set on work to translate them and himself had woven them into one continued Discourse And the second Evagrius This latter l. 2. c. 8. noteth certain Hereticks of Alexandria ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which shewed not reverence to the time of the solemnity of our Saviours Passeover the Christian Pascha which included the memorial of his Passion and Resurrection And l. 6. c. 12. he tels us of Gregory the Bishop that he did communicate unto the Souldiers the holy Body of Christ on a certain day of the great week For it was saith he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a very venerable day approaching near unto the day of Christs holy Passion So that he accounted more daies then one for the memory of the Bridegrooms being taken away about that season to be venerable and daies of communicating the people for the holiness of the day of Christ's Passion to which others approaching are held it seems also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã exceeding venerable a And this appears to be and have been the language of the Eastern Church as you may see in their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in the ancient Liturgy called S. Chrysostome's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. And again ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã O Lord Almighty who c. who of thine unspeakable providence and great goodness hast brought us to thesâ⦠very venerable daies for the purifying of our souls and bodies for the continence of our sensitive passions for the expectation of the resurrection who through forty daies c. Grant unto us also of thy goodness to fight this good fight to finish this course of this fast c. to break the heads of the invisible dragons and to stand up victors over sin and to arrive to adore the Holy Resurrection irreprovably And again O Lord our God who hast brought us to these very venerable daies c. The other Historian Aurelius Cassiodorus l. 9. c. 38. Histor. Tripartit writeth thus Ad Hebraeos idem Apostolus dicit mutato enim sacerdotio necessariò legis mutatio fuit non igitur Apostoli nec Evangelia accedentibus ad praedicationem jugum servitutis imposuerunt sed festivitatem Paschae alias celebritates cum primis Christi Passionis ut mox sequitur honorandas esse dixerunt Quapropter quum diligunt homines hujusmodi celebritates ab Apostolis dictas Honorandas quòd in eis à laboribus requiescant singuli per provincias sicuti voluerunt viz pro modo memoriam salutaris Passionis antiquitùs ex quadam consuetudine celebrabanâ⦠The same Apostle saith unto the Hebrews the Priesthood being chang'd there was necessarily also a change of the Law Neither the Apostles therefore nor the Gospels impos'd any yoke of servitude upon those that came to their preaching But they to wit the Apostles said that the Feast of Easter and other solemnities amongst which other the Passion of Christ is with the first as followes here also are to be honoured Wherefore whereas men love such solemnities viz. bid by the Apostles to be honour'd of men because in those they have rest from their daily labours Those of each countrey through their several Provinces celebrated as they would viz. for the manner from a certain custome viz. of each countrey the memory of the salutary Passion from the Ancient times Now this same Cassiodore doth declare l. 1. c. 10 that this celebrity of the Passion of Christ celebrated ever with fasting with its ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã its conterminous preceding daies was in ancient times called Quadragesima and observed by the most holy Bishops even such as wrought miracles for he tels us there of holy Spiridion who was one of the most eminent of those Bishops who made a representation as it were of the Apostolical company in the first General Councel of Nice ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Among those Bishops there chiefly did excel Paphnutius and Spiridion This Spiridion Bishop of Trimiââ¦hous a City of Cyprus a holy man worker of miracles all which Socrates witnesseth l. 1. c. 5. 8. But of them Cassiodorus thus recordeth Qualis autem Spiridion circa peregrinorum susceptionem fuerit hinc apparet Instante ââ¦am Quadragesima quidam ex itinere venit ad eum quibus diebus consueverat cum suis continuare jejunia die certo comedere medios dies sine cibo consistens videns it aque peregrinum valde defectum perge inquit suae filiae Lava peregrini pedes cibos appoââ¦e Cumque virgo dixââ¦sset nec panem esse nec alphita quarum rerum solebant nonnihil habere reconditum propter jejunium orans primùm veniam quam petens filââ¦ae suae jussit ut porcinas carnes quas domi salitas habebat coqueret c. What manner of man this Spiridion was as to the entertaining of strangers appears herehence when now Lent was instant there came to him a certain stranger weary from his journey on those daies upon which he with his had been wont to continue their fasts and to eat after certain daies only passing the daies betwixt without food he then seeing the stranger much spent with his travel he saith to his daughter Go and wash the strangers feet and set victuals upon the board and when the virgin replied that there was neither bread nor barley flower in the house of which yet they were wont to have some in store as provision for the fast he first praying pardon bad his daughter boyle some Hogs-flesh
which they had in the house salted c. My fourth witness of this age shall be Dorotheus Archimandrita not he whose age is much elder but his pretended works much more uncertain Doctrinâ 15. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã THE HOLY APOSTLES for our Ghostly help and the benefit of our souls HAVE CONSULTED TO DELIVER DOWN UNTO US this in special manner and very signally that we should render as it were the tithes of our life or time these same daies viz. of Lent and to consecrate them unto God that so we may be both bless'd in our works and may year by year obtain merciful pardon for our sins of the whole year passed and they the Apostles by their common suffrage sanctifi'd or set apart for us from the 365. daies of the year these 7. weeks of fastings the same number we heard from Philo the Jew observed by the Religious of Aegypt under S. Mark for so have they set a part 7. weeks Yea the ancient Fathers have added to them one other week also both to fit us before hand and to exercise us when about to enter into the labour of the following fasts and also that they might make up the honourable number of a holy 40. daies fast which our Lord did fast For 8. weeks if you substract from them the Lords daies and the Saturdaies that one only the vigil of easter-Easter-day excepted which alone of all the Saturdaies in the year is kept as a most sacred and honourable fast make up 40. daies But 7. weeks without the Lords daies and the Saturdaies are 35. daies To which if you add that Saturday which is the holy Vigil of Easter and also the half of that illustrious and enlightened night as S. Cyril also directed the Lent-fast not to be ended before the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before it be far in the night the sum will be 36. daies and an half which accurately is the tenth or tithe of the 365. daies of the year c. This is that tenth or tithe as we may so say of the whole year WHICH THE APOSTLES HAVE SANCTIFIED OR SET APART for our repentance as a time of our purifying from our sins of the whole year BEHOLD GOD HATH GIVEN TO US THESE HOLY DAIES that if any one with diligence and sobriety and humiliation be careful therein to repent he may be purg'd from his sins of the whole year and his soul eased from their burden and so may come pure to the Holy-day of the Resurrection and being become a new maâ⦠through the repentance of these holy Fasts he may partake of the holy mysteries not to condemnation but to life and may keep the feast of the holy 50. daies throughout religiously towards God with spiritual joy and gladness The fifth Authority of this age shall be that of the Fathers of the Provincial Councel of Agatha Canon the 12. Placuit etiam ut omnes Ecclesiae Filii exceptis diebus Dominicis in Quadragesimâ etiam die sabbati sacerdotali ordinatione districtionis comminatione jejunent It is also decreed that all the sons or children of the Church do fast in the Lent all except the Lords-daies under commination of severity by this our Sacerdotal Decree even on the Saturdaies also Where that which they added of their own sacerdotal ordaining was the sanction of severe penalty and the taking in the Saturdaies to the Fast probably against their former custome in compliance with their neighbour greater Church of Rome as the Councel of Eliberis in Spain had done before them Canon the 26. The sixth and last Authority of this Age is that of Concilium Braccarense primum Can. 16. Si quis quintâ feriâ paschali quae est Coena Domini horâ legitimâ post nonam jejunus c. If any one on the 5 th day of the Great week before Easter which is called Coena Domini for that the Lord on that day did institute the holy Eucharist shall not continue his fast unto the legitimate hour viz. celebrating the holy Eucharist fasting after 3. a clock in the afternoon but shall keep the solemnity of that day secundum sectam Priscilliani according to the Sect of the Priscillianists c. let him be Anathema Where their great severity of an Anathema and their recounting the violatours of that day of the Paschal Fast as symbolizing with Heresie and Hereticks seems to charge such as sided against the Paschal Fast as Epiphanius had before charged the Aerians for the same cause Heresie the 75 th with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or unbelief In the sixth Century after the death of S. IOHN I first produce the witness of ISIDORE Bishop of Sevil in Spain l. 6. Originum c. 19. Observatio Quadragesimae quae in universo orbe INSTITUTIONE APOSTOLICA observatur circa consinium Dominicae Passionis The observation of Lent which is in the whole world observ'd BY INSTITUTION APOSTOLICAL about the times of the solemnity of the Passion of the Lord viz. the time of the Bridegrooms taking away The same Author in his Comments on Exodus 39. Quid autem sibi velit quod Moses 40. diebus jejunaverit Quadragenario enim numero Moyses Elias ipse Dominus jejunaverunt PRAECIPITUR ENIM NOBIS ex lege prophetis ET EX IPSO EVANGELIO quod testimonium habet à lege prophetis unde etiam in monte inter utramque personam medius salvator efsulsit c. Now what may it mean that Moses fasted 40. daies That number of daies both Moses and Elias and the Lord himself did fast for also it is commanded unto us from the Law and the Prophets and FROM THE GOSPEL IT SELF which receiveth witness from the Law and the Prophets Whence also on the Mount 'twixt those two persons our Saviour shined forth in the midst The same he declareth more at large l. 1. de offic Eccles. c. 36. Iejuniorum tempora secundum Scripturas sacras quatuor sunt in quibus per abstinentiam lamentum poenitentiae Dominus supplicandus est licèt omnibus diebus orare abstinere conveniat his tamen temporibus ampliùs jejuniis prnitentiae inservire oportet PRIMUM IEIUNIUM QUADRAGESIMAE EST quod à veteribus libris cââ¦pit ex jejunio Moysis Eliae ET EX EVANGELIO quia totidem diebus Dominus jejunavit monstrans Evangelium non dissentire à Lege Prophetis In quâ quidem parte anni congruentiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitueretur nisi confini atque contiguâ Dominicae passioni There are four times of fastings according to the holy Scriptures in which we must make our supplications unto the Lord with abstinence and the wailing of penance and though it be meet that we should at all times pray and abstain yet must we at these times especially attend on fastings and penance The first or chief is the Fast of Lent which had beginning in the Books of the Old Testament from
the fasts of Moses and Elias and FROM OUT OF THE GOSPEL ALSO for that so many daies the Lord did fast shewing that the Gospel did not disagree with the Law and the Prophets In what part then of the year should the observation of Lent be more congruously plac'd then on that time of the year which is near and contiguous unto the Lords Passion The same Isidore in the 6. Book of Derivations chap. 19. Temporum autem quae legalibus ac Propheticis institutionibus terminatis statuta sunt ut jejunium 4 ti 5 ti 7 i 10 i mensis vel sicut in Evangelio dies illi in quibus ablatus est sponsus Of the times which were appointed by Institutions Legal and Prophetical which now are ceased were those the fasts of the 4 th 5 th 7 th and 10 th moneth or such as are in the Gospel those daies in which the Bridegroom was taken away Which Bridegroom being the Lord and his taking away his Death and Passion this our Author hath oft enough told us what is that Fast which belongs thereto Lastly therefore the same Isidore l. 1. de offic Eccles c. 43. Haec alia multa sunt quae in Ecclesiis Christi geruntur ex quibus tamen quaedam sunt quae in Scripturis Canonicis commendantur quaedam non quidem scripta sed tamen tradita custodiuntur Sed illa quidem quae toto terrarum orbe servantur vel ab ipsis Aposlolis vel ab autoriate principali Conciliorum Instituta intelliguntur SICUT DOMINI PASSIO ET RESURRECTIO Ascensio in coelum adventus Spiritus Sancti quae revoluto die anni ob memoriam celebrantur These and many other things there are which are observ'd in the Churches of Christ whereof yet some are those which are recommended in the Canonical Scriptures and some which are observ'd not being written but yet delivered by Tradition Howbeit those things truly which are observ'd in the whole world are understood to have been instituted either by the Apostles themselves or from that next chief authority of Councels as are the celebrated anniversary memorials of the Lords Passion and Resurrection and his Ascension into Heaven and of the coming of the holy Ghost Upon the like words whereto in S. Augustine I have noted before that these solemnities are in the Catholick Church the city of our Solemnities Isa. 33. v. 20. found before any Institution for them in any General Councel and therefore according to S. Augustine and Isidore no other beginning of them is to be looked for as neither can any be found but from the Apostles The second witness of this sixth Age shall be S. GREGORY the GREAT Homil. 16. in Evangel Quadragesimae tempus inchoamus c. Cur ergò in abstinentiâ Quadragenarius numerus custoditur nisi quia virtus Decalogi per libros 4. Sancti Evangelii impletur Quia Decalogi mandata persicimus cum profectò 4. libros sancti Evangelii custodimus Praecepta autem Dominica per Decalogum sunt accepta Quia ergò per carnis desideria decalogi mandata contemp mus dignum est ut eandem carnem quaterdââ¦cies affligamus A praesenti etenim die usque ad Paschalis solennitatis gaudia sex hebdomadae veniunt Ut qui ââ¦obismetipsis per acceptum annum viximus Auctori nostro nos in ejus decimis per abstinentiam mortiââ¦icemus Unde fratres charissimi sicut offerre in lege jubemini decimas rerum ita ei offerre contendite decimas dierum Unusquisque in quantum virtus suppetit carnem maceret ejusque desideria affligat concupiscentias turpes interficiat We begin the time of Lent c. Now why is the number of forty observ'd in this fast but because the force of the Decalogue or ten words is fulfilled by the 4. Books of the holy Gospel Because we then perform the commandments of the Decalogue when indeed we keep the 4. Books of the holy Gospel The commands of the Lord are by the Decalogue receiv'd because therefore we have contemn'd the commands of the Decalogue through the desires of the flesh it is meet that we afflict the same flesh by 40 times For from this present day unto the joyes of the Paschal solemnity there are 6. weeks coming That we who through the year passed have lived too much to our selves should mortifie our selves to our Creator in the tenth of the year through abstinence Whence most dear Brethren as ye are bid by the Law to offer the tenths of your substance so contend to offer to him also the tenths of your daies Let every one as much as his strength serves macerate his flesh afflict his appetites and slay his filthy lusts A third Record of this Age may be the 4 th COUNCEL of TOLEDO c. the 6 7 10. Compérimus quòd per nonnullas Ecclesias in die sextae feriae Passionis Domini clausis Basilicarum foribus nec celebretur officium nec Passio Domini populis praedicetur dum idem salvator nosââ¦er Apostolis suis praecepit dicens Passionem mortem resurrectionem meam omnibus praedicate ideóque oportet eodem die mysterium Crucis quod ipse Dominus cunctis annunciandum voluit praedicari atque Indulgentiam criminum clarâ voce omnem populum postulare ut poenitentiae compunctione mundati Venerabilem diem Dominicae Resurrectionis remissis Iniquitatibus suscipere mereamur corporisque ejus sanguinis sacramentum mundi à peccato sumamus Quidam in die ejusdem passionis Dominicae ab horâ nonâ jejunium solvunt conviviis adhibentur dum sol ipse eâdem die tenebris palliaââ¦us lumen subduxerit ipsáque elementa turââ¦ata moestitiam totius mundi ostenderent illi jejunium tanti diei polluunt epulisque inserviunt Et quia totum eundem diem Universalis Ecclesia propter Passionem Domini in moerore abstinentiâ peragit quicunque in eo jejunium praeter parvulos senes languidos ante peractas Indulgentiae preces solverit à Paschali gaudio depellatur nec in eo Sacramentum Corporis sanguinis Domini percipiat qui diem Passionis ejus per abstinentiam non honorat In omnibus praedictis Quadragesimae diebus opus est sââ¦etibus ac jejuniis Insistere corpus cilicio cinere induere animum moeroribus dejicere gaudium in tristitiam vertere quousque veniat tempus Resurrectionis Christi quando oporteat jam Allelujah in laetitiâ canere moerorem in gaudium commutare Hoc enim Ecclesiae Universalis consensio in cunctis terrarum partibus roboravit We have understood that in certain Churches on the 6 th day of the week before Easter the day of the Passion of the Lord the Church-doors are shut up and no office celebrated nor the Passion of the Lord preach'd unto the people although the same our Saviour commanded his Apostles to preach his Passion Death and Resurrection unto all people and therefore the mystery of his Cross which
the Lord would have shewn forth unto all men ought on that day to be preached and all the people ought earnestly to ask of God the pardon of their sins that being cleansed through the compunction of repentance they may attain to receive the venerable day of the Lords Resurrection having their sins remitted and being clean from sin may receive the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud Some on the same day of the Passion of the Lord break off their fasts at 3. a clock in the Afternoon and betake themselves to entertainments or banquets and while the sun it self on that day being hid withdrew its light and the Elements being troubled shewed forth the sadness of the whole world they prophane the fasts of so great a day and serve themselves with feasting For asmuch then as the universal Church keeps that whole day in sadness and abstinence for the Passion of the Lord whosoever on that day except little children old men and the sick shall break the fast before the supplications for pardon are finished let him be debarr'd from the Paschal joy and not receive therein the Sacrament of the body and bloud of the Lord who did not honour the day of his Passion with fasting On all the foresaid daies of Lent it is behooveful that we should give our selves unto weeping and fasting and cover our body with sack cloth and ashes and cast down our soul with sorrow until the time of Christs Resurrection be come when first we must sing Hallelujah with joy and change our sadness into rejoycing for that the consent of the Universal Church hath strengthened this observance He saith only strengthened by the consent of the universal Church which doth not denote the first beginning The fourth Record of this Age is the 8 th COUNCEL of TOLEDO held 20. years after that former chap. the 9 th Detecta est Ingluvies horrenda voracium quorundam quae dum ââ¦raeno parsimoniae non astringitur RELIGIONI CONTRAIRE MONSTRETUR Dicente enim Scripturâ Qui spernit minima paulatim decidit Illi tantâ edacitatis improbitate grassantur ut COELESTIA ET PAENE SUMMA contemnere videantur etenim cum Quadragesimae dies anni totius decimae depuââ¦entur c. Illi verò quos aut aetas incurvat aut languor extenuat aut necessitas arctat c. A horrid gluttony of certain greedy persons is detected which while it suffers it self not to be held in by the bridle of parsimony is CONVINC'D TO BE OPPOSITE TO RELIGION For the Scripture saying He that despiseth little things shall fall by little and little these men by their so great improbity of gluttony make such outrage that they seem to contemn things Heavenly and almost of chief concernment For whereas the daies of Lent are recounted the tenth part of the whole year c. But as for such other whom either age doth bow or sickness consumes or necessity streightens such the Councel excuses A fifth and last Witness of this Century is IOANNES MOSCHUS IN PRATO SPIRITUALI c. 79. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He had a servant named Pisticus which did communicate with the holy Catholick and Apostolick Church this Pisticus received the Communion as the custome of the countrey was to receive on that 5 th day of the week which is called the holy Fifth viz the Thursday of the holy week for so it seems in the language of the Catholick and Apostolick Church it was then call'd and held holy Now it came to pass after the holy Easter that Pisticus c. In the seventh Century which is the last I shall now travel through VENERABLE BEDE our Countrey-man offers himself the first Witness in his Homilia Aestivalis on Dominica Exaudi Sicut enim imminentibus solenniis Paschalibus Quadragesimam jejuniorum observantiâ celebravimuus sic eisdem peractis quinquagesimam non sine certâ causà mysterii fesââ¦Ã¢ devotione agimus Utramque sanè hanc solennitatem scilicet Quadragesimae Quinquagesimae NON QUORUMLIBET HOMINUM SED IPSIUS DOMINI AC SALVATORIS NOSTRI patriam nobis sanxit autoritas As in the approaching of the Paschal solemnities we celebrated a Lent with the observance of Fastings so those being finished we observe a 50. daies solemnity with Festival devotion not without a ground of a certain mystery therein Indeed both these solemnities viz. the Quadragesima and Quinquagesima the 40. daies of Lent and the 50. daies following NOT THE AUTHORITY OF ANY MAN BUT OF THE LORD HIMSELF OUR SAVIOUR hath established for us to observe in this our countrey or city of God the Catholick Church The same Venerable Bede in his Comment on Matt. the 4 th and again in his first Homily of Lent layes down the same position here ensuing and the same also with S. Augustine and Isidore foregoing viz. the words of Bede also are these Quadragesima jejuniorum habet autoritatem ex Evangelio In quâ autem parte anni congruentiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitueretur nisi confini atque contiguâ Dominicae passionis The Fasts of Lent have their authority also from the Gospel In what part therefore of the year more agreeably might the observation of Lent be ordain'd then on that which is bordering upon and contiguous unto the Passion of the Lord And on Dominica Exaudi Dominus praedixit quia discipuli ipso secum conversante jejunare non possent ablato autem eo jejunarent ait illis Veniet autem dies cum auferetur ab eis sponsus tunc jejunabunt Constat profectò quia post ablationem ejus spontaneis sese subdidêre jejuniis The Lord foretold that his Disciples whilest he was conversant with them could not fast but should when he should be taken from them The daies will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast It is evident indeed that after his taking from them they submitted themselves to willing fastings This I here alledge because Bede makes this practise of the Apostles the exemplification of some of the Churches following set annual-fasts In his Homily upon the Tuesday after Palm-sunday he thus speaks of the Parasceue which we call Good-Friday Cum accepisset acetum Dominus dixit Consummatum est hoc est sextae diei quod pro mundi refectione suscepi jam totum est opus expletum sabbato autem in sepulchro requiescens resurrectionis quae octavâ ventura erat expectabat adventum When the Lord had received on this 6 th day of the week before Easter the vinegar he said It is finished that is the whole work of the 6 th day which I have undertaken for the new creation of the world is now consummated Even as it appears in Genes the 1. that on the same 6 th day of the week wherein God made man at the first he finished all his works And on the Sabbath he rested in the grave waiting for the coming of his Resurrection which was to be the 8
th day An evidenter praeceptum in the new Testament we do not find for the 6 th or for the 8 th daies observation But the Church hath so interpreted for the one these words of my Text When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them then shall they fast a The Church in Tertullian l. d. jejuniis see above p. 28. Epiphanius haeres 75. see above p. 48. And for the other the 8 th or Lords day that of 118. Psalm This is the day which the Lord hath made b S. Athanafius l. d. sabbat circumcisione ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and that of Apoc. 1. 10. I may conclude the witness of Bede with what he concluded this Fast Hom. in Dominica Palmarum Ecce jejunium Quadrage simale Domino auxiliante jam plurimâ ex parte complevimus Testis est unicuique conscientia sua quia quanto districtiùs se sanctis his diebus Domino mancipásse meminit tanto ampliùs gaudens sanctum Dominicae R'surrectionis tempus expedat Quicunque ergò fratres dilectissimi continentiae armis accincti ab initio jam Quadragesimae cum tentatore superbo certare coeperunt videant cautè ne coepta deserant priusquam hoste prostrato ministeriis donentur Angelicis Behold we have now through the help of God finished for the most part this Fast of Lent every mans conscience bears him witness that by how much more strictly he remembers that he hath humbled himself before the Lord on these Holy Daies with so much the more joy he expects the holy time of the Lords Resurrection Whosoever therefore of you my most beloved Brethren have now from the beginning of Lent being fortify'd with the armour of abstinence encountred the proud tempter let them now take good heed that they forsake not what they have enterpris'd till having vanquisht the enemy Angels come and minister unto them alluding to that ministery unto Christ Mat. 4. 11. Our second Author in this Age is THEODULPHUS Bishop of Orleans part afterwards of the Councel of Franckford in his Epistle to the Priests n. 37. Ipsa autem Quadragesima cum summa observatione custodiri debet ut jejunium in eâ praeter dies Dominicos qui Abstinentiae substracti sunt nullatenùs resolvatur Nulla in his occasio sit resolvendi jejunii quia alio tempore solet jejunium charitatis causâ dissolvi isto verò nullatenùs debet Quia in alio jejunare in voluntate arbitrio cujuslibet positum est in HOC VERO NON IEIUNARE PRAECEPTUM DEI TRANSCENDERE EST in alio tempore jejunare praemium abstineââ¦i acquirere est in hoc verò praeter insirmos ac parvulos quisquis non jejunaverit poenam sibi acquirit QUIA EOSDEM DIES DOMINUS per Mosen pââ¦r Eliam ET PER SEMETIPSUM sacro jejunio consecravit The Lent-fast it self ought to be kept with all observance that therein except the Lords daies which are substracted from fastings the Fast be in no wise broken Let no occasion be taken of violating this Fast for that at other times our fast is wont to be dissolv'd upon occasion of charity a Or kindness of reception but in Lent it ought not so to be wont Because at other times to fast is committed to every ones will and choice but in this time not to fast IS TO TRANSGRESS THE PRECEPT OF GOD. At other times to fast acquires a reward to him who so abstains but at this time whoso fasts not except little ones or those which are infirm doth procure unto himself punishment because THE LORD both by Moses and by Elias AND BY HIMSELF hath consecrated those same daies to fasting Ibid. Qui nullatenùs jejunare credendi sunt si antè manducaverint antequam vespertinum celebretur ossicium Abstinens vero in his diebus omnium deliciarum esse debet Whoso eateth before the evening-office be celebrated is not to be deemed to have fasted In these daies we ought to abstain from all delights The third Witness of this Century shall be IOANNES DAMASCENUS lib. de Haeresibus concerning the Aërians or Eustachians Aëriani ab Aërio Pontico fuit autem sacerdos Eustachii Episcopi Ariani silius jejunium feriâ quartâ sextâ ET 40 DIEBUS SERVARI pascha celebrari prohibet Stata haec damnat omnia Quod siquis jejunium servare velit id ab eo certis statisque diebus servari negat oporââ¦ere sed quando volet Negat enim se legi teneri negat etiam quicquam inter Presbyterum Episcopuâ⦠interesse The Aerians are so called from Aërius Ponticus he was a Priest the son of Eustachius an Arrian Bishop who forbids the observation of the fasts of the 4 th and 6 th daies of the week and that OF THE 40. DAIES and the celebration of Easter All these set fasts or feasts he condemns If so be any one will keep a fast he denies that that ought to be done by him on any certain or set daies but when he will For he denies that he is bound by a Law in that matter he denieth also that there is any difference betwixt a Presbyter and a Bishop Here he is enrolled in the black Catalogue of Hereticks and Heresie is alwaies against somewhat Apostolical who pertinaciously deny'd set Fasts and particularly this Fast of Lent If any shall think this severity peculiar to this Age and author of the Greek School beginning let him consider beside what I have produc'd above from Epiphanius and S. Augustine the catalogue of Hereticks made also by Philastrius Bishop of Brixia about the year of Christ 380 De Paschalis Festi haeââ¦esi Asserentes 14 â lunâ celebrandum esse Pascha non sicut Ecclesia Catholica celebrat Et cum hoc faciunt diem non dominicum semper custodiunt Paschae non computantes horas dies dies viz. praecedentes Et ex hoc errore non cognoscunt diem Paschae Domini nostri VERAM ET SALUTAREM UNAM ORBI TERRARUM STATUTAM ET CONFIRMATAM A DOMINO He reckons certain Hereticks who affirmed that Easter was to be celebrated not as the Catholick Church celebrates it Not alwaies observing the Easter on the Lords day not computing the hours and daies viz. preceding Easter which are the daies we speak of And from this errour they are ignorant of the true and salutary only day of Easter APPOINTED FOR THE WHOLE WORLD AND CONFIRMED OF THE LORD The fourth Record of this Age is the MAGNUS CANON ANDREAE ARCHIEPISCOPI CRETENSIS for which as the Triodium of the Greek Church doth witness there was appointed a peculiar solemnity on the 5 th day of the 5 th week in Lent the history whereof is this Andreas Hierosolymiââ¦anus who in the end of the foregoing Century was sent by Theodore Patriarch of Ierusalem to assist in the 6 th General Councel became afterwards in this Century the renowned Metropolitan of Crete and compos'd a holy office which in this Century
of Sons and daughters S. Cyril in his Catecheses at large sheweth the same The 2 d Proposition That generally the Church taught directed the Catechumeni to prepare themselves by premitted solemn fastings for the reception of holy Baptism as appears by Tertullian in the same place l de Baptismo where after he had said c. 19. Diem Baptismo solenniorem Pascha praestat cum Passio Domini in quam tingââ¦mur adimpleta est he adds about the beginning of the next chapter chap. 20. Ingressuros Baptismum orationibus crebris jejuniis geniculationibus pervigiliis orare oportet cum confessione omnium retro delictorum Those which are so about to receive holy Baptism viz. on the Feast of Easter before mentioned it behooves to prepare themselves by frequent prayers fastings geniculations and watchings and with confession of all their sins Which fastings and pervigilia or whole nights watchings before the Pascha are this Paschal Fast and the great Vigils of the Eve before Good-friday and the Eve before Easter-day and some others before them Yea an elder then Tertullian Iustin Martyr in his Apology to Antoninus the Emperour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now after what manner we have consecrated our selves to God being renewed or become new creatures through Christ we will declare As many as are perswaded and do believe that those things which are taught by us are true and undertake that they are able so to live they are taught WITH FASTING to pray and ask of God pardon of their former sins After this they are brought by us where water is c. This custome also of the Primitive Church may be supposed probably to have had for its pattern S. Paul's own fasting three daies wherein he did neither eat nor drink saith the Text Act. 9. 9. and his prayers v. 11. before that Ananias was sent of the Lord to baptize him and that so was he baptized v. 18. The like in the following chap. the 10 th Cornelius his fasting preceding Cornelius's baptism And the first preacher of Baptism was before that a preacher of Penance a This custome of the first Ages was continued also in the following Leo the Great Sermon 4 of Lent where he cals those daies of the Paschal Institution Dies mysticos purificandis animis atque corporibus sacratââ¦Ã¹s institutos Mystical daies and of more sacred Institââ¦tion for the purifying of souls and bodies And in his Epistle to the Bishops of Sicily ãâã sanctificandi srequenââ¦us ãâã imbuââ¦ndi antequam baptizentur They are to be sanctified by Fastings and to be instructed by frequent preachings before they are baptiz'd S. Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hast thou ââ¦pent so many years in vain troubling thy self about the world and wilt thou not attend 40. daies for thy own souls sake through ascetical exercise of thy heart puââ¦ifie thy vessel that thou maiest receive the more grace If thou labour little thou receivest little ibid. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Yea Tertullian goeth farther l. de Iejuniis c. 8. Ipse mox Dominus baptisma suum in suo omnium jejuniis dedicavit Praestâ⦠uiâ⦠Deminus exinde jejuniis legem docuit etiam abversus diââ¦iora daemonia jejuniis praeliandum Quid enim mirum si eâdem operatione spiritus iniquus educitur quâ sanctus inducitur The Lord himself dedicated his own Baptism in his own the Baptism of all Christians by Fastings From thence he prescribed the law for Fastings he taught also that against the fiercer evil spirits we must combat by fastings For what wonder if by the same operation the wicked spirit be cast out through which the Holy Spirit is brought in Only here we may advertise our selves that our Saviours Fasts went not before his Baptism because he needed no purifications before or in his Baptism but by his holy Body sanctified the waters as for his illustrious presence elsewhere the Scripture cals the place the Holy Mount 2 Pet. 1. 18. But his Fasts followed after his Baptism to teach us the way of performing what in our Baptism we through his might and grace undertake viz. of overcoming the Devil tempting especially Baptized persons by the world and the flesh So S. Ambrose l. de Eliâ Iejunio c. 1. Certamen nostrum jejunium est Sed ille ante est praeliatus ut vinceret non quòd ipse egeret certamine sed ut nobis formam bellandi praescriberet posteà daret gratiam triumphandi Fasting is our combat but he combated before that he might overcome not that he needed any fortifying but that he might prescribe to us a form of fighting and afterwards might give to us the grace of Triumphing The 3 d Proposition was That together with the Catechumeni preparing themselves by fasting for Holy Baptism the Fideles or company of Christian people viz. the Church it self did generally joyn in fasting as the Mother in bringing forth her children doth it not generally without her own travail and pain till she being delivered of her children joy and festivity succeed in the place of sorrow and fasting So as the same catholick Church also is known to joyn her fastings and prayers with the fastings and prayers of penitents that seek for her Absolution and of candidates that offer themselves to her Ordination And the former of these is done at this same time of the Fast of Lent in the beginning whereof they receive the Injunction of their penance and toward the end whereof viz. on the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã called also coena Domini and Maundy-Thursday they received Absolution a And one of the Churches times of Ordination is alwaies in Lent also But to return to our Instance of the Churches Fasts joyn'd with the Fasts of the Catechumens or Competentes who sought for holy Baptism according to that rule of St. Paul teaching her to mourn with them that mourn Rom. 12. v. 15. and his own practise who when he had told us 2 Cor. 11. 20 27. that he was in fastings often he adds in the next verse save one Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not But my proof hereof from the Primitive practise of the Church in the Age next following the Apostles shall be that before cited of Iustin Martyr in his 2 d Apology ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As many as are perswaded and believe c. are taught to pray and to ask of God with fasting pardon of their sins past WE ALSO PRAYING WITH THEM AND FASTING WITH THEM Then are they brought by us where water is c. and they are regenerated And the chief of the Ministers officiating the Prayers and the Eucharist and all the people expressing their consenting suffrage by their Amen those that are with us called Deacons give unto every one of them that are present to receive of the consecrated Bread Wine and Water ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whereof it is
not lawful for any to be partaker but he that believeth the things which are taught by us to be true and that is wash'd in the Laver of Regeneration for the forgiveness of sins Now as the time of the Mothers travail with childe is not confin'd to one day only so neither was the Churches fasting and prayers for the Catechumen's baptizing Witnesses whereof in the first ages are the Asian Churches who maintain'd their cause from S. Iohn and S. Philip and the Western who maintain'd theirs from S. Peter and S. Paul and both agreed that the fasting before Easter was more then of a day For so saith the one ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on whatsoever day the fastings or fasts are to be ended ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And the other saith thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and again ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on this day we observe or are wont to end the Paschal Fastings or Fasts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This contest and agreement of those Primitive Churches in the year of our Lord Christ 196 is recorded in Eusebius's Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. 23. Thus having proved those three Propositions from undeniable authorities even within the first 300. years the Collection from them is evident and certain that the purest ages of the Church and nearest to the Apostles did without any other beginning then from the universal Teachers of the universal Church viz. the Apostles observe a yearly Paschal Fast of certain daies before Easter or that I may express it in Leo's words not hitherto cited in his 11 th and 12 th Sermons de Quadragesimâ Appropinquante autem sestivitate Paschali adest maximum sacratissimúmque Iejunium quod observantiam sui universis Fidelibus sine exceptione denunciaâ⦠of which he there a little after saith In coelestibus Ecclesiae disciplinis multum utilitatis afferunt Divinitùs instituta jejunia The feast of Easter approaching there approacheth also before it the chiefest and most sacred Fast which commands the observance of all Believers without exception viz. at their pleasure without necessity Much is the profit of these heavenly disciplines of the Church Fastings appointed of God Or in the words of an ancienter Father in the first 300. years Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria in his Epistle to Basilides a Bishop where blaming some who fasting not at all till they came to the two last daies of the Fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Words which I have not before cited These men saith he when they come to the two last daies they keep them indeed and them only wholly in Fasting viz. the Parasceue and the Saturday and think they do perform some great and illustrious thing if they fast then unto the Morning of Easter-day whom I think in no wise to have perform'd equal Ascetical course of Fasting with those who have exercised themselves in more daies of fasting In the same Epistle he blaming also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã such as break off their Fast before the end of the last day of Fasting he gives the reason before-cited in the same Epistle from the confessed universal Practise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It will be confess'd by all agreeably that ââ¦o ought they to begin the joy of the day of Easter as unto that time humbling their souls by Fastings If all this perswade not our Brethren who yet pretend to reverence the Witness of the first 300. years beside my simple and complicated Testimonies from the Fathers of the first 300 years produced at large I desire to be told if there were no such universal practise of an Annual Paschal Fast in the whole Primitive Church whence it could be that the holy Church of Smyrna in the 66. year after S. Iohn's death should in her unquestion'd Epistle to the Church in Philomelium and to the holy Catholick Church of all Nations ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã describe to the Churches in every place of the world the day of the carrying of S. Polycarp to the place of his tryal and Martyrdome in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ON THE GREAT SATURDAY viz. of the Great week before Easter except they had known that the Churches in every place of the world understood in but that one words mention the celebrity of that day which never was celebrated but with fasting See all this in Euseb. l. 4. c. 15. Whence also it could be that Tertullian now become Montanist in his Discourse with and against the Church Catholick takes it twice for language understood by them to call the Fast of Friday and Saturday before Easter-day PASCHA a Vos prae ter Pascha jejunantes c. 13. l. de Iââ¦juaiis Sabbatum nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum c. 14. Not the Feast certainly therefore certain Fasts before Easter l. de Iejuniis c. 13 14. As that before he became Montanist l. de Oratione c. 14. he cals our Good-friday DIES PASCHAE Die Paschae quo communis quasi publica jejunii Religio est THE PASCHAL DAY not the great day of the Paschal Feast therefore certainly the great day of the Paschal Fast Whence also otherwise Origen l. 8. contra Celsum and Tertullian l. de Iejuniis c. 14. and Dionysius Alex. in Epistolâ ad Basilidem should call in those first ages speaking of the Churches Fasting every yearly Friday before Easter PARASCEUEN an Appellation which adher'd to it only from our Lords Passion Stationibus 4 am 6 am Sabbati dicamus jejuniis Parasceuen saith Tertullian there Whence also otherwise that famous Dionysius of Alexandria in the prealledged Epistle should mention in that week 4. other fasting daies while he blames some ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which fasted not the 4. daies foregoing the Parasceue and the Eve of Easter Whence also should the same Father otherwise record in the same Epistle all the daies of that great week by the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã THE SIX DAIES OF FASTINGS Whence also otherwise should Irenaeus call a certain time before Easter by the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in his Epistle to Victor Whence also otherwise should Methodius l. de Conviv Virgin orat 3. call that which is with us Good-friday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã THE DAY OF PASCHE AND OF THE FAST And it is known that the day following these 6. daies had in the same Primitive Ages most honourable Appellations For the Synodical Epistle of the Councel held at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus written to Dionysius Bishop of Rome and Maximus of Alexandria which were all the holy Paââ¦iarchs absent and to all Provinces ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unto all our fellow-Ministers the Bishops Priests and Deacons throughout the earth and to the whole Catholick Church under heaven Therefore surely they spake what they knew was a
known appellation in the whole Christian world when they describe a certain day of the year by this name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ON THE GREAT DAY OF EASTER This is found written as about the 168 th year after S. Iohn so also recorded in Eusebius Histor. Eccl. l. 7. c. 13. Which ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is that which Philo Iudaeus had expressed in his Book of the Religious Christians of Alexandria by the name of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the greatest of the Feasts and is answerable to the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna above alledg'd the Great Saturday which is the Eve of Easter Yea the whole 40 daies foregoing the 69 th Canon Apostolical made in the same Age wherein those two Dionysius's liv'd cals ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the holy Quadragesimal Fast and Origen a Homil. 10. in Levâ⦠16. in the same age Quadraginta aies jejuniis consecratos Whence I say otherwise should all these Appellations which are the Records of things be found the Language of the several Churches in the most famous Bishops and Writers of the first 300 years when they speak for the most part to the Catholick Church throughout the whole earth if it had not been within the first 300 years a common notion of the universal Church from one and the same universal Practise without any other so much as pretended universal cause of its beginning beside Apostolical teaching of an honourable holy and great solemnity of a Paschal Fast that is the Fast of Lent which I have shewn to be in the mother Dialect of our English but the Fast of Spring as by the lawes of the Church Universal both this Paschal Fast and Easter were to be celebrated soone after or about the Vernal Equinox This last way of proof I have insisted on for their sakes who pretend reverence to the first 300 years wherein they know the Records Ecclesiasticall are but few comparatively and yet are not ashamed against all this evidence to note all recurring set Fasts and particularly this of the Paschal or Lent fast with the brand of Superstition or Judaical observance blindly and at adventure applying thereto that of the Apostle of the observance of daies and moneths and times and years As if the first day of the week commanded to be observed under peril of sin and obliging the conscience of all Christians b And not the ãâã day mentioned in the 4 th Com. were not A DAY and the observance of the Lords daies the observance of some daies as well as Good-friday or any other day or daies of Fasts or had any Evidenter praeceptum or express commandment in the N. T. to come in the place of the 7 th day or were not as much liable to some mens ignorant application of Rom. 14. v. 5 6. One man esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind He that regards a day regards it to the Lord and he that regardeth not a day to the Lord he regards it not What ever fair Answer they with us we hope will give to this Text as not including any disparagement at all to the Lords day the same will let ãâã understand how rashly they have condemned the observance of other Feasts and Fasts of the Church from their own mistaken consequences drawn from Scriptures understood in their own sense without reverence and regard to the Churches teaching despising together all those three great instruments of Christian truth and sobriety which Vincentius Lyrinensis professed to have learnt from the greatest lights of the Christian Church in and about the 3 d holy General Councel of Ephesus for the avoiding of Heresie and Schism viz. Antiquity Universality or also consent of the generality of the Doctors of the Church Next I proceed to another sort of proof fetch'd from the Witness of the Enemies of the Church and Gospel Where I begin with Lucian the Scoffer about the 65. year after S. Iohn's decease who appears in his writings so well knowing of Christian affairs that he is by some thought to have been an Apostate if ever he were of any Religion He besides his scoffing at our Saviour as a crucifi'd sophister a In Peregrino ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and deriding our swearing by the most High God and the Son of the Father and the Spirit proceeding forth from the Father One of Three and Three of One b As he makes us to speak his words are in Philopatri ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He in the same Philopatr according as we have heard from S. Chrysostome Homil. 16. ad populum Antiochenum that upon usual enquiry how many weeks of Lent any Christian had fasted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some would answer two others perhaps three and others all a The Montanists especially affected to keep two weeks of fasting excepting the Saturday and the Lords day that is ten daies as Tertullian witnesseth l. de jejuniis and Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and others good and Catholick Christians kept but two weeks exempting also two daies in each week as S. Chrysostome would that they should do by reason of their measure of strength that they were not well able to keep more and these S. Chrysostome seems to mean for he reprehends them not by his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So Lucian it seems had met with some of the former sort and thus he speaks in the forementioned Book ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã You should be a Christian from your fashion for so many called the Christians ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They report of themselves that they continue 10. daies fasting and keep whole night-watches in Hymns and Psalms Leave them therefore adding in the end of their Hymns that much-used close beginning from the Father thus early after S. Iohn's death even the enemies of the Church observed the Christians manner of more then one weeks fasting and whole-nights watchings in Hymns and Doxologies whereas neither Christians nor any other Religion in the world in these Ages observed a many weeks fast with whole-nights-watchings and hymââ¦odies but only the Christian Paschal Fast and this Lucian scoffs at as amongst the Characters of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Christians and hath now found followers amongst the Christians themselves In the last daies there shall come viz. in more abundance scoffers 2 Pet. 3. 3. The next but more moderate Adversary is ACESIUS a Bishop of the Novatian Faction in the time of the first General Councel of Nice which holy Councel both mentioning and supposing as well known to all the Catholick Church the Fast of Lent commanding Synods to be held twice a year in every Province throughout the Church universall ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The one BEFORE LENT that all disquiet of minds being taken away a pure offering may be offered
Father teaches besides the above-cited 2 d Epistle to Ianuarius Quadragesima sanè jejuniorum habet autoritatem ex Evangelio in his 2 d Book also de Doctrinâ Christianâ c. 16. 40 diebus jejunare monemur Hoc lex cujus persona est in Mose Hoc prophetia cujus personam gerit Elias HOC IPSE DOMINUS MONET qui tanquam testimonium habens ex lege prophetis medius inter illos in monââ¦e 3. discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit We are admonish'd to fast 40 daies this the Law whose person Moses bare this the Prophets whose person Elias sustain'd this the Lord himself admonisheth us who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the Mount the 3 Disciples beholding with astonishment And on Psal. 110. Dies illi Paschales praeteritis diebus Quadragesimae quibus ante resurrectionem Dominici corporis vitae hujus signiââ¦icatur moeror solenniter gratâ hilaritate succedunt Quadragenario numero quo Moyses Elias ET IPSE DOMINUS jejunaverunt PRAECIPITUR ENIM NOBIS ex lege ex prophetis ET EX IPSO EVANGELIO quod testimonium habet à lege prophetis Those Paschal daies do solemnly succeed with welcome Festivity to those lately ended daies of Lent in which before the time of the Lords Resurrection is express'd the sorrow of this life In the number of 40. daies both Moses and Elias AND THE LORD HIMSELF did fast FOR IT IS COMMANDED UNTO US both from the Law and from the Prophets AND FROM THE GOSPEL IT SELF which receiveth witness from the Law and the Prophets a And that by this 40 daies fast S. Austin in all these places means the Paschal fast with reference to the Pascha following it see it his sense traââ¦at 17. in Iohannem Cum labore celebramus Quadragesimam ante Pascha cum latitiâ⦠verò tanquaâ⦠accepââ¦ââ¦ercede quinquagesimam post Pascha Thus considering that this most worthy and renowned Father S. Augustine is wont to be objected to us in one Period not understood by the Objectors and above answered by us abundantly p. 60 63 and is with our Brethren in double honour beyond most other Doctors of the Church we have therefore allotted him for their more full satisfaction from him a double place in our Testimonies of which we have produced 9. from his unquestioned writings Now having encompassed you with so great a cloud of witnesses you may discern what truth is in the oppositions that are made to this Paschal Fast of Lent That which passeth with many for most current is which some Authors after the 800 th year of Christ have spoken of Telesphorus the 7 th Bishop of Rome in the 40 th year after the Death of S. Iohn For some being not able to deny such at least Antiquity of the Fast of Lent they were willing to feign it instituted by Telesphorus The foundation of this error that so impos'd upon some grave Writers after 800 years was a forgery and interpolation practised upon that ancient and renowned Record of Church-history the Chronicle of Eusebius Into which in the page 198. ad annum MMCXLVIII after the story of Chocebas was thrust in contrary to all the Copies Manuscript contrary also to the copies of Marianus Bede and Isidore that Telesphorus viz. in that year did institute the Fast of Lent And in pursuance of their forgery they did proceed and devise to thrust into the same Chronicle of Eusebius ad annum MMCLVIII contrary unto the Faith of all ancient copies that Pius the 9 th Bishop of Rome did institute the celebration of the Paschal Feast Two opposite sorts of persons drinking down willingly and sputtering abroad these Reports the one deeming thereby to honour highly those ancient Bishops of Rome though their authority were not such in those Ages as that from their authority and prescription such universal customes should be taken up in all places and following Ages of the Catholick Church whereas indeed these holy Bishops did themselves but receive and obey with the rest of the Church this Institution of the Paschal Fast and of Easter receiv'd also before their times as I have shewn The other some at home among our selves thinking hereby to disparage the Institution of the Paschal Fast and Easter as if they came from Rome only though anciently To proceed therefore to convict this Forgery beside the Testimonies of Fact which I have produced elder not only then Eusebius but also then Pius or Telesphorus concerning the copies of that Chronicle of Eusebius you shall hear what Ioseph Scaliger who made it his business to peruse them and to Comment on the Book doth witness First as to Lent pretended to be instituted by Telesphorus in the 198. page of his Animadversions upon the Chronicle of Eusebius ad annum MMCXLVIII Ad vocem Chocebas he thus testifies Post hanc Pericopen viz. Chocebas dux Iudaicae factionis nolentes sibi Christianos adversum Romanum militem ferre subsidium omnimodis cruciatibus necat pag. Eusebii 167 intruserunt editores de Quadragesimae jejunio à Telesphoro instituto Nostrum consilium est scriptorum codicum sidem sequi QUORUM NULLUS ITA HABET neque Marianus neque Beda neque Isidorus After this Section concerning Chocebas they which put forth the Edition of Eusebius's Chronicoâ⦠have thrust in thereunto that the Fast of Lent was instituted by Telesphorus but our purpose it is to follow the faith of the Manuscript copies from whence all printed editions do pretend to proceed of which NO ONE HATH THAT THING nor Marianus nor Bede nor Isidore And as to the Feast of Easter pretended to be instituted on the Lords day by Piââ¦s the first the same Scaliger in his Animadversions upon the Chronicle of Eusebius p. 201. ad annum MMCLVIII thus witnesseth Quae Pio attribuuntur in Editionibus de Resurrectionis Dominicae die Dominico celebrandae institutione ea in nullo veterum codicum compárent Sed Marianus à Bedâ Beda à libro Hermae apocrypho insua Chronica traduxerunt ab illis in Eusebianum textum ab editoribus admissa sunt Nos ab initio prosessi sumus nihil nisi ex auctoritate scriptorum codicum hîc innoââ¦aturos quod a nobis hactenùs summâ ââ¦ide religione observatum suisse eos qui Editiones cum libris Scriptis contuleriââ¦t judices ferâ⦠That which in the Editions is attributed to Pius as the institutor of the annual Feast of Christs Resurrection on the Lords day that no where appears in any ancient copy but Marianus had it from Bede and Bede from the Apocryphal Book of Hermas whence by some it was taken into the Text of Eusebius We from the beginning have professed to vary nothing but by the authority of the Manuscript copies which that we have perform'd hitherto with the greatest faithfulness and religion I make them my judges who shall compare the printed Editions with
daies on this side Easter of mourning for the Bridegrooms taking from us are answered by other 40 yea 50 following Easter of joy for the Bridegroom's presence returned S. Augustin tractat 17. in Ioan. Cum labore celebramus Quadragesimam ante Pascha cum laetitiâ verò tanquam acceptâ mercede quinquagesimam post Pascha With labour let us observe the Quadragesimal or 40 daies fast before Easter But with joy the 50 daies Celebrity after Easter when we receive as it were a reward a Ambros. l. 8. in Luc. Majores tradidere nobis Pentecostes omnes 50. dies ut Pascha celebrandos Per hos 50. dies jejunium nescit Ecclesia ficut Dominicâ quâ Dominus resurrexit sunt omnes dies tanquam dominicâ⦠Our Ancestors have deliver'd unto us all the 50 dayes ending in Whitsunday to be celebrated as a continued Easter Through these 50. dayes the Church knows no fasting as neither on the Lords-day whereon the Lord rose from the dead and these 50 are as it were all Lords-days And in S. Ambros. Serâ⦠60. Sic enimââ¦disposuit Dominus uâ⦠sicut ejus passione in Quadragesimae jejuniis contrist aremur ita ejus resurrectione in Quinquaââ¦esimae feriiâ⦠lââ¦taremur Non igitur jejunamus in hâ Quinquagââ¦mâ quia in his diââ¦bus nobisââ¦um Dominus commoratur non inquam jejunamus praesente Domino quia ipse ait Nunquid possunt filii sponsi jejunare quamdiu cum illis est sponsus For so hath the Lord disposed that as we are to sorrow in his Passion by the Fasts of Lent so should we from his Resurrection rejoyce in the 50 daies following Celebrity In these therefore we fast not because in these daies the Lord abideth with us We fast not I say the Lord being present because himself said Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast so long as the Bridegroomiâ⦠ãâã Forty daies Fast at least abstinence from pleasures from full and pleasurable dyet is a number consecrated by God in the Old and New Testament in the Law by Moses in the Prophets by Elias in the Gospel by Christ Moses the Type of Christs Mediation Elias of his Ascension both the figures of his 40 daies Fast and both they and only they appear with him in glory at his Transfiguration Moses by whose mediatory hand the Law was given yet fasted 40 dayes Elias who did not trouble Israel but was jealous for the Lord of hosts yet fasted 40 daies and troubled his own flesh The Lord Christ who knew no sin yet fasted 40 daies and thou who art a sinner yet cum Domino penitùs jejunante non observas Quadragesimae moderata jejunia With the Lord fasting wholly dost thou not observe the moderate Fasts of Lent saith S. Ambrose Serm. 34. de Quadragesimâ We have sinned and 40 daies was the number of daies of Gods judgement on the old world by waters for sin Forty daies fast the second time Moses undertook to ask pardon for the peoples sin Forty years the people of Israel bare their iniquities in the wilderness Num. 14. Forty daies fast like the 40 stripes appointed by God for the offender Deut. 25. Forty daies the space which God gave Nineveh to repent in from their sins and to avert their denounced destruction The Spies sent by God returned from search of the land of Canaan after 40 daies Num. 13. 25. and brought of the fruit of the Land Now walk we therefore circumspectly wisely in the land of our pilgrimage With what fear with what care 2 Cor. 7. Then shall we return with the cluster of grapes the wine of Angels the blood of Christ a happy taste of the fruits of our future Canaan Chrysologus Serm. 116. thus speaketh 40 diebus ac noctibus expiaturus terram coelestis Imber effunditur Attendite fratres quantus sit quadragenarius numerus iste qui tunc coelum terris aperuit abluendis nunc fontem Baptismatis orbi toti pandit Speaking of the solemn publick celebration of Baptism whereof the Deluge of waters cleansing the earth was a type at the end of the 40 daies of Lent At the end of 40 daies Noah according to Gods word opened the window of the Ark which he had made At the end of 40 daies God opens to us the window of heaven and sends down the Manna of the holy Eucharist when we with Moses and Elias have according to our poor measure fasted or abstained in some sense 40 daies that at the end we may appear before God as they in a meet preparation to the Holy Eucharist we yet shall need to wrap with Elias our faces in our mantles and to fear before his presence in our approach to his Holy Table Conclude we therefore this of the Quadragesimal Fast with that of S. Bernard Serm. 3. Nunquid non valdè indignum est ut nobis onerosum sit Quadragesimale jejunium quod Ecclesia portat universa nobiscum Is it not a very unworthy thing that that should seem burdensome to us which the whole Church bears with us And how universal this practise was that of S. Basil in his 2 d Homily of the praise of fasting will tell you In this time of Lent there is no Island nor Continent of the earth no City nor Nation no extream corner of the world where the Edict of this Fast of Lent was not heard Yea whatsoever Armies Merchants Travellers or Mariners are abroad this Fast comes unto them all and with joy they all receive it This composes every house every city and every people in sobriety and quiet and concord this stââ¦ls the laââ¦e clamours contentions and noyses of the town Let no one therefore exempt himself from the number of Fasters in which every degree nation and age almost of men and all of all dignities whatsoever are engaged And now lest any of the forty daies Spies of this Montanous land should bring up an evil report upon it and affright you with the men of Anak with the difficulty of this Forty daies Fast and by reason of some bottles that do flie the good liquor should be in some part spilt and perhaps some bottles perish and the Religious exercise of Fasting evil spoken of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the Schism be made worse I shall sincerely let you know how and in what manner the Generality of the Christian Church did in ancient daies observe this Fast of Lent which I doubt not but will be judg'd by you a light and easie yoke And as S. Ambrose serm 34. de Quadrages cals it Quotidiana moderata Quadragesimae jejunia the daily and moderate Fasts of Lent This S. Hierom also in his Epistle ad Laetam doth caution In perpetuo jejunio hoc praeceptum sit ut longo itineri vires perpeââ¦es suppeterent ne in primâ mansione currentes in mediis corruamus In a continued Fast take this precept that you take care how your strength may last and supply you for so long a
journey The same S. Hierom Epist. 15. Displicent mihi in teneris maximè aetatibus longa cimmoderata jejunia Fasts not only long continued but also immoderate displease me especially in young and tender ages Therefore S. Chrysostome also provided ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that in Lent relaxing their Fast on two daies together every week Saturday and the Lords-day they might take breath as it were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord hath indulged these two weekly daies Saturday and the Lords-day like certain stages inns or havens that the body being for a little while relax'd from its labours of the Fasting and the mind comforted they may again when these two daies are passed over afresh set upon the remaining part of the Fast to be travell'd through Basilius Magnus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For this I think we ought to take care of that by no immoderate excess of abstinence we dissolve the strength of the body and render it unactive and languishing as to any honest employment and businesse For God when he made man would not that he should be idle and not stirring but active as to things agreable to his nature commanding Adam himself in Paradise to labour and to keep the garden It is meet therefore that nothing be innovated contrary to nature and the bounds set us by the gracious Author of our nature but abiding within them to maintain our bodies fit for action In no wise dissolving its strength by immoderate fulnesse or fasting For this I suppose to be the best oeconomy to follow the laws of nature set us and by no means to consume or enfeeble the body by immoderate spendings of it This also we must provide for that neither upon pretence of the bodies need we thrust our selves forth into the service of pleasure We ought to use both moderate fastings and yet supply the body with necessary sustentation Not following the prescriptions of pleasure but of reason accurately judging what is needful for us concerning our viands consulting right reason as a knowing Physician which may take care of the infirmity of our body by things meet for it disinteressed from our appetites and passions It is much better and more behooveful that our bodie should be preserved in its consistent strength and vigour for good actions then by our own counsel to render it as it were dissolv'd and unactive Thus far S. Basil one of the most strict Asceticks of the Ancients to whom agrees also Procopius Gazaeus upon Isa. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He would a Fast which without ostentation should bring into subjection our carnal mindedness But declares it our duty not to extend abstinence from meats so far as to weaken or dissolve the vigour of the body or draw the mind to an inadvertent incogitancy You see how unanimously and tenderly the ancient Doctors of the Church agree on this caution of Observanda but Moderata Quadr age simae jejunia The fasts of Lent to be observed but with just and equitable moderation How by the Ancients it was moderated we will now say in a few words First Then a Quadragesima all call'd it as in which though they could not hope to imitate the miraculons 40. dayes fast of Moses Elias and Christ our Lord yet in all those 40. dayes they could abstain and they abstained from pleasures and bread of delight from publick joyances and private unnecessary indulgences And as many as whose health could bear it without experience or just fear of sicknesse or weaknesse from flesh and wine also but as to the abstaining from all food till the evening the generality of the pious Christians both of the East and Western Church sought out within that 40 dayes space for their pattern some example of meer man as themselves were and that one unassisted with miraculous power as Moses and Elias were viz. Daniel his 3 weeks fast Dan. 10. 2 3. Whereupon I assure my self that both the Western Church even Rome it self singled out to themselves among their 40 dayes of abstinence as Leo fitly cals it 21 dayes or 3 weeks for full fasts until the evening the Eastern Church likewise 3 weeks in which they reckoned but 15 dayes as appears from Socrates as reckoning the weeks without the Sunday and Saturday on which the Eastern Church fasted not except only one Saturday in the year the Vigil of Easter day As to the Western Church where was the fast of Lent more strictly observed then in Ancient Rome Yet hear Leo the great and first Bishop of that name in that See thus instructing the Christian people of Rome in his 4 th Sermon of Lent Ut omni immunditi â à penetralibus cordis exclusâ sanctificetur jejunium nostrum Quadrage simale Secundâ igitur quartâ sexta Feriâ jejunemus Sabbato autem apud B. Petrum Apostolum vigilias celebremus That all uncleanesse being shut out from the inmost of our heart our Lent fast may be sanctified Let us therefore fast on the 2 d 4 th and 6 th day of the week and on saturday keep a watch apud B. Petrum Apostolum These 3 dayes of each week in their 6 weeks fast of Lent from Quadragesima-Sunday made up 18 dayes which with Ash-wednesday and the friday following Ash-wednesday and Easters-eve made up just their 21 daies Fast which Epiphanius and the Tripartite History l. 9. c. 38. relate that the Romans fasted i. e. with this full fasting unto the evening the space of 3 weeks before Easter The same saith Socrates twice of the Eastern Churches 15 daies fast which they also measured for 3 weeks exempting the Lords-day and the sabbath-Sabbath-day as hath been said Thus great an agreement there was to observe both the Lords 40 daies Fast by their abstinence from pleasures flesh and wine and if able by stricter fasting Daniel's 3 weeks Which they had great reason thus to emulate 1. For that his only was done as meer man contenting himself with the measure of a man after he had seen Moses and Elias's more glorious but miraculous example 2 dly Because Daniel himself did undertake that 3 weeks Fast upon his foreseeing in Spirit the taking away of this our Bridegroom the cutting off of Messias the Prince but not for himself Compare the end of Daniel c. 9. v. 24 26. with the beginning of c. 10. 2 3. 3 dly This Fast was kept by him saith the Text v. 4. in the first moneth of the year answering to our March the time wherein the Messias was to be cut off wherein the Christian Church would afterward celebrate their Paschal Fast for his Passion 4 thly For the great acceptation with God that this three-weeks Fast of Daniel found Compare c. 10. v. 2 3. with v. 12. In those daies I Daniel was mourning three full weeks I ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wiae in my mouth neither did I anoint my self at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled V.
ââ¦d judicium sed ad Remedium possitis accipere I beseech you most dear Brethren that in this ordained and most sacred time of Lent c And of love I admonish you that which I trust you also do that through the whole Lent unto Easter keeping yourselves through Gods help in purity in that holy Solemnity of Easter you being cloth'd with the light of purity and made clean and white by Alms and adorned with Prayers Watchings and Fastings as with certain heavenly and Spiritual Pearls and being at peace not only with your friends but also with your enemies approaching with a free and quiet conscience to the Altars of the Lord may receive his Body and Blood not to judgement but for your Spiritual Remedy and healing Hath not our Lord Christ prepared and mingled as it were all these together in one part of his Sermon on the mount Prayer Alms and Fasting and charitable forgiving and putting far from us hypocrisie in those Repentance Maâ⦠6. 7. c. to v. 5. And these are indeed all link'd together in their own nature when our fasting helping forward and witnessing our Humiliation and Repentance enabling us also the better to watching and both giving us opportunity to Prayer and enabling us at least out of what by Fasting we spare from our own bodies to feed and relieve the poor and therefore much more doing justice to others in all things performing sincere obedience to God and his Church without hypocrisie in love of our brethren and neighbours and purity of our bodies and meet preparation of our souls we approach at the end of the fast to the Holy Table and heavenly feast of Christs most holy purifying and sanctifying Body and Blood S. Austin somewhere compares the Faith of Christians to the lamp Alms to the oyl in the lamp Fasting and Watching to the golden snuffers of the Sanctuary Prayer to the Incense Justice and Obedience to the Sacrifice But of those eight let us proceed distinctly to speak somewhat to each 1. That Fasting be joyned with Repentance Ut corpus anima simul jejunent corpus à cibis Anima ab omni re malâ saith S. Hierom ad Rusticum That the soul and body be joyn'd in the Fast the Body commanded to fast from food and the soul from every evil thing Quale est enim saith S. Austin propter peccaââ¦um jejunare in peccatis volutare For what do we mean to fast for sin and yet to wallow in sin Before them both Origen had so advised Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Iejunans debes adire Pontiââ¦icem tuum Christum Et per ipsum offerre hostiam Deo Vis tibi ostendam quale te oportet jejunare jejunium Iejuna ab omni peccato nullum cââ¦bum sumas malitiae nullas capias epulas voluptatis nullo vino luxuriae concalescas c. Nec hoc tamen ideò dicimus ut abstinentiae Christianae fraena laxemus Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos c. Will you that I shew you what manner of Fast you ought to fast Fast from all sin feed not any way your malice feast not your self with any pleasures nor warm your self with any luxury c. Yet this we speak not to let loose the reins of Christian abstinence For we have the daies of Lent consecrated to Fastings c. S. Chrysostome speaking also of Lent makes the same judgement of Fasting ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A man may undergoe the labour of fasting and not receive the reward thereof of which reward our Lord spake Mat. 6. How When we abstain from meats but not from sins when we eat no flesh but devour the houses of the poor when we drink not our fill of wine but are drunk with evil concupiscence when thou deniest thy body its ordinary repasts and feedest thy soul with unlawful food when thou fastest with thy body and hast eyes full of adultery The same Father in his 3. Homil. ad pop Aatioch ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã * The fast I speak of is not that of the vulgar but the accurate fasting not the abstinence from meats only but from sins See we what it is that dissolv'd that indeclinable wrath gone out against the Ninevites was it fasting ONLY and sack-cloth That cannot be said But the change of their whole life And God saw their works What works that they fasted that they were cloth'd with sack-cloth neither of these doth he mention but saith that every one return'd from his evil wayes and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them Seest thou that not fasting deliver'd them from their danger but the change of their life rendred God propitious to those Barbarians This I have said not that we might dishonour fasting but that we might honour it For the honour of fasting is not the abstinence from meats but the separating ourselves from our sins so that he who defines fasting by abstinence from meats ONLY he it is who especially dishonours Fasting Dost thou fast shew it me by thy works What works wilt thou say If thou seest the poor shew him mercy If thou seest thine enemy be reconcil'd to him If thou seest thy friend in honour envy him not Let not thy mouth ONLY fast but also thine eye thine ear thy feet thy hands and all the members of thy body Let thy hands fast from rapin and injury let thy feet fast from running to unlawful spectacles let thine eyes fast from busy beholding beauties belonging to others for beholding with the eyes is as it were the food of the eyes which if it be forbidden food marres our fast Let the fast of the hearing be not willingly to take up accusations and slanders With this Patriarch of Constantinople agrees S. Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria in his first Hom. de Fest. Paschal ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã suprà nominatas ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For in no wise may we find the truer grace of fasting in ONLY abstinence from food but let us send away and free ourselves from fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection and evil concupiscence for the remedy whereof this medicine of fasting was found out Feed not therefore your mind with the pleasures of intemperance mortify the fury of fornication free your mind from inordinate affection ââ¦ee the fellowship of unclean persons It is good therefore in season to abstain from needless meats and to withdraw from an exquisite table least filling ourselves with superfluous food we awaken the sin that dwels and sleeps in us for the flesh waxing fat and living in pleasure becomes difficult and hard to be master'd by the motions and desires of the Spirit Let therefore evil be evacuated in us and all delicacy of food pass beside us Let sober fasting enter in unto us which is the enemy of all sin But it is troublesome Resp. If refusing to
pulvere etiam Religiosa corda sordescere Ideò magnâ divinae institutionis salubritate provisum est ut ad reparandam mentium puritatem 40 nobis dierum exercitatio mederetur in quibus aliorum temporum culpas pia opera redimerent jejunia casta decoquerent Which I have englished above But to the same sense I may alledge that of S. Austin l. 1. c. 169. Quaest. super Genes Which is to be added to the 7 Testimonies for Lent which I have out of him already produc'd Non enim frustra 40. dies jejuniorum sunt constituti quibus Moses Elias ipse Dominus jejunavit Ecclesia praecipuâ observatione jejuniorum Quadragesimam vocat Unde in Hebraeo de Ninevitis apud Ionam Prophetam scriptum peââ¦hibent Quadraginta dies Nineveh subvertetur ut per tot dies poenitentium humiliationi accommodatos intelligatur in jejuniis sua deflevisse peccata c. For it was not in vain that 40. daies were constituted in which Moses and Elias and the Lord himself fasted and the Church with special observance of fastings calleth Lent Whence also concerning the Ninevites in the Prophet Ionah it is said to be written in the Hebrew Yet 40 daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed that through so many dayes accommodated to the humiliation of penitents they may be understood to have bewail'd their sins in fastings For this cause S. Hierom also thinks that not only Iohn the Baptist a preacher of repentance was so remarkable for fasting but that our Lord also who began to preach and to say Repent Mat. 4. 17. entred upon his office of preaching with the preparation of the fast of 40 dayes Ipse quoque Dominus verus Ionas missus ad praedicationem mundi jejunavit 40 dies haereditatem nobis jejunii relinquens The Lord himselfe the true Ionas sent to preach Repentance to the world fasted 40 daies leaving to us also the inheritance of fasting S. Cyril of Ierusalem in his 1 Catech. Thou hast given unto thee the penance of 40 dayes speaking of Lent which 40 dayes Leo also cals in his 4 serm of Lent Dies mysticos purificandis animis atque corporibus sacratiùs institutos Dayes of mystical meaning instituted dedicated to the purifying of our souls and bodies Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans Anno Christi 843. in his Epistle num 36 37 Quadragesima cum summâ observatione custodiri debet Ipsos dies cum omni religione sanctitate transigere debemus Hebdomadâ unâ ante initium Quadragesimae confessiones sacerdotibus dandae sunt poenitentia accipienda discordantes reconciliandi omnia jurgia sedanda dimittere debent debita invicem de cordibus suis c. a As S. Chrysostome before had said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ex M. S. Regio ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The day of fasting the day of composed gravity the day of brotherly love Et sic ingredientes in Beatae Quadragesimae tempus mundis purificatis mentibus ad Sanctum Pascha accedant c. Lent itself ought to be kept with all observance and those daies to be pass'd with all religion and sanctity and one week before the beginning of Lent confessions are to be made to the Priests viz. by such as need advice and relief to their conscience penance is to be received persons fallen into difference to be reconcil'd and all strifes taken up and men ought to forgive each other from their hearts c. And so entring into the blessed time of Lent with clean and purify'd minds they may arrive to the Holy Pasche or Easter The 2 d rule was that our Fast be truly fasting where the body is well and truly able not an exchange only of our usual dyet for other delightful fulness and refections For if Fasting be any thing to which God hath promised any reward as he hath Mat. 6. 16. Be Fasting how little a thing soever yet it is no small danger to mock God who sees both in secret and otherwise and observeth that to which he hath promised to render a reward openly It is a fearful thing even in bodily things yea and happily such as were in our own power before they were pretended to to lie to the holy Ghost The 2 d Councel of Chalon â⦠35. complains of some mens fasting Et si carnium vini usus eis interdictus est mutatâ non voluntate sed ejusdem cibi aut poââ¦Ãºs perceptione in tantum deliciis suis indulgent ut deliciosiùs his intââ¦rdictis aliorum ciborum vel potionum appetitu viââ¦e cognoscantur Spiritalis autem abstinentia quae in poeââ¦itentibus vigere potissimùm debet quorundam ciborum ac potionum perceptiones desiderium sugere debet sibi non solum quarundam rerum perceptione sed delectatione corporis penitùs interdicit Although the use of flesh and wine be precluded them yet changing not their will but only the kind of meat and drink they so far indulge their pleasures that those being interdicted them they are known to live more deliciously after their appetite of other meats and drinks But the spiritual abstinence which ought to be eminent in penitents should both fly the enjoyment of certain meats and drinks and also wholly interdict to them corporal delights S. Austin also or whoever else was the Author of 157 th Sermon which is of the time of Lent tells us that which is too true whosoever said it Sunt quidam observatores Quadragesimae deliciosi potiùs quam religiosi exquirentes novas suavitates magis quà m veteres concupiscentias castigantes qui pretiosis copiosââ¦sque apparatibus fructuum diversorum quorumlibet varietatââ¦s sapores superare contendunt Vasa in quibus coctae sunt ââ¦arnes tââ¦quam immunda fââ¦rmidant in carne suâ⦠ventris gutturis luxuriam non reformidant Iejunant non ut solitam temperando minuant edacitatem sed ut immoderatam differendo augeant aviditatem Nam ubi tempus resiciendi advenerit optimis mensis tanquam pecora praesepibus irruunt ventresque distendunt artisiciosis peregrinis condimentorum diversitatibus tantum capiunt manducando quantum digerere non sussiciunt jejunando tanquam non sit Quadragesima piae humiliationis observatio sed novae voluptatis occasio c. There are certain observers of Lent followers of delicacy more then of Religion that hunt out new delights of the belly rather then correct the concupiscences of the old man Who by costly and rich provisions and manner of cooking strive to outdoe the variety of natural tastes of whatsoever several fruites of the earth They are afraid of any vessels in which any flesh hath been boyl'd as unclean and yet in their own flesh fear not to admit the luxury of the throat and belly These fast not that they may by moderating themselves diminish their wonted full-feeding but that by deferring a meal they may increase their intemperate greediness of the belly for when the
mother the Church and Countrey that bare thee Such fasters I cannot better resemble then to the ancient blood-thirsty Tyrants who commanded their Lions to be kept some daies fasting and hungry that they might with uglier greediness devour the meek condemned Christians The 5 Rule was That as our feasts so our fasts be inseparably conjoyn'd with alms and mercy to the poor Is not this the fast that I have chosen saith God is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee c. Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer Isa. 58. 79. This is properly to forget to eat our bread with David and not forget or hide ourselves from our own flesh One fasting joyn'd with many works of mercy feeding with our bread covering with our garments and bringing into our house This is righteousness going before thee making thee friends of unrighteous Mammon that may receive thee This makes thy fasting assuredly health and these two together fail not to obtain that the 3 d thy prayers miss not to be heard and answer'd of the Lord. Thus much the Prophet I was fasting saith Cornelius of himself unto this hour the 9 th But the Angel of God said unto him Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God And S. Luke saith of him He gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alwayes Act. 10. 2. 4. 30. After whose example Leo in his 3 d serm de jejunio Pentecostes directs our fast ââ¦m sanctas continentiae delicias appetentes aliquantulum nobis de terrenorum ciborum abundantiâ subtrahamus ita proficiat eleemosynis quod non impendit r mensis Tum enim demùm ad animae curationem proficit medicina jejunii cùm abstinentia jejunantis esuriem resicit indigentis When we desirous of the holy delights of abstinence substract from ourselves something of the abundance of our earthly viands that what is not expended upon our tables may bring us in great gain by being laid out on our alms For then doth the medicine of fasting work to the curing of the Soul when the abstinence of him that fasts refreshes the indigence of him that hungers That Antient writer Origen speaking of Lent-fast and the weekly stations tels us of a certain saying of the Apostles which had come down to him Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos habemus quartam sextam septimanae dies quibus solenniter jejunamus est alia adhuc religiosa jejunandi ratio cujus laus quorundam Apostolorum literis praedicatur Invenimus enim in quodam libello ab Apostolis dictum Beatus est qui etiam jejunat pro eo ut alat pauperes Hujus jejunium valdè acceptum est apud Deum We have the dayes of Lent consecrated to fastings we have the 4 th and 6 th dayes 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 Misericordia pietas eleemosynae orationes jejuniis sunt alae per quas tollitur portatur ad coelum sine quibus jacet volutatur in terrâ saith Chrysolog serm 8. de jejun Alms and prayers are the wings of fasting by which 't is carried up to Heaven as was Cornelius's without which it lies dead and spiritless upon the earth Idem ibid. Iejunantes ergo fratres prandium nostrum reponamus in manu pauperis ut servet nobis manus pauperis quod venter nobis fuerat perditurus Manus pauperis est gazophylacium Christi Pauperi qui non jejunat Deo singit Iejunium sine misericordiâ simulachrum famis est sine pietate jejunium occasio est avaritiae Quia parcitas ista quantùm siccatur in corpore tantùm tumescit in sacculo Let us therefore O my brethren when we fast deposit our dinner in the hand of the poor that that hand may preserve for us what our belly would lose to 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 pity to others 't is but an occasion taken of covetousnesse Because by such sparing what is taken ãâã in the flesh swels in the bag And in his 7 th sermon on Mat. 6. Sciat ille sustinere ãâã incassum se nihil habiturum qui premens jejuâ⦠aratrum abscindens gulae gramina atque ââ¦adicans luxuriae sentes misericordiae semina nulla jactaverit Let him know that he suffers pain iâ⦠vain and shall receive nothing who ââ¦ing up his fallow with the plow of fasting and rooââ¦ng up gluttony and the thorns of luxury yet casteth into the furrow no seed-corn of the works of mercy As thine own use of meat and drink and other blessings so also thy fast itself wherewith thou wouldst purify and cleanse thy heart hath need being not without mixture of sinful infirmities of that method wherewith to be purify'd prescrib'd by our Lord. Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Imple commiserationis officia jejunia sanctificâsti saith S. Austin The 6 th Rule by these premised duties there is now roome made for thy fervent prayers which together with more frequent hearing of Gods word and other works of Devotion are the 6 t necessary company of the fast As in the examples of Moses Daniel and Cornelius and infinite more might be shewn for Moses Deut. 9. 18 25. I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 daies and 40 nights I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins c. But the Lord hearkned unto me at that time also Thus I fell down before the Lord 40 daies and 40 nights as I fell down at the first I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said And in the New Testament not only the Apostles have coupled them together 1 Cor. 7. 5. For a season ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A season of vacant attendance on fasting and prayer of which none so common so fixed so holy as this of Lent But also our Lord himself concerning what was most difficult even to the Disciples themselves gives this singular prescription This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting Upon which words S. Chrysostome thus comments ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
the same thing wickedly August epistolâ ad Casulan Sic bis in sabbato jejunare in homine qualis fuerat Pharisaeus infructuosum est in homine autem humiliââ¦Ã¨r fideli vel fidelitèr humili religiosum est Fasting twice in the week in a man like the Pharisee is unprofitable but in a man humbly faithful and faithfully humble it is Religious Conclude we this neither fast thou so as the Hypocrites nor fast not as the Hypocrites who pretend such set and Antient fasts of the Church to be superstitious and themselves too holy to joyn with their Brethren in them All these eight requisites of right performing of this Fast we find together in the Churches practise and by her care prescribed at this time of Lent to her children In S. Chrysostom's time according to his irrefragable witness Homil. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã viz. tom 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã supra nominatis ibidem recenset etiam 40 dierum illorum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For what cause therefore some may say do we keep the fast of these 40 daies that in these daies all of us being 8 perfectly purified together by 6 prayers and by 5 alms and by 2 fasting and by 3 whole nights watchings and 1 by tears and by confession and by all other things we may so according to our power with a 4 pure conscience 7 come unto the holy Mysteries the Sacrament and in the same place he recounts also as part of the exercise of those 40 daies 6 hearing Gods word attending on Sermons and Synods Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria in his 1. Paschal Epistle sets all these guests at one table likewise Si Adhaerentes studio virtutum animarum vitia purgare volumus quicquid in nobis sordium est jugi scripturarum meditatione diluere quasi sub sudo apertam doctrinarum scientiam contemplantes festinemus supernae laetitiae festa celebrare jungere nos Angelorum choris Eóque ââ¦mnis impraesentiarum adsumatur labor ut eos qui paululum negligentes sunt nosmetipsos aeternae gloriae praepââ¦remus homines provocantur terrarum humilia dese entes cum Ecclesiâ primitivorum Dominicae Passionis festa celebrare Priusquam slemus ante tribunal Christi praeterita peccata poenitentiâ corrigamus praesenti fletu redimamus futura gaudia Curemus diversa vitiorum vulnera rapinas divitum quibus vel maximè hoc hominum capitur genus crebris commonitionibus reprimamus Et sic poterimus imminentium jejuniorum iter carpere incipientes Quadragesimam à tricesimâ die mensis Mechir ut juxta Evangelicas traditiones siniamus jejunia intempeslâ nocte die 18. supradicti mensis Pharmuthi praebentes nos dignos communione corporis sanguinis Christi If adhering to the study of vertues we desire to purge away the vices of our souls and wash away whatever of filth is in us by 6 continual meditation of the Scriptures contemplating as it were in the open and serene heaven the knowledge of doctrine let us make hast to celebrate the solemnities of the Heavenly joy and joyn our selves to the Quires of Angels Let us take upon us 3 labour at present that we may prepare both 5 those which are somewhat negligent and our selves unto eternal glory Hereby men are provoked forsaking the low things of the earth 8 to celebrate with the Church of the first-born the holy daies of the Lords Passion ere we come to stand before Christs Tribunal let us correct our sins past by 1 repentance let us by present mournings redeem to our selves future joyes Let us cure the sundry wounds of our vices and the 4 rapines wherewith rich men are delighted let us repress 6 with frequent admonitions so may we enter the 2 journey of the Impendent Fasts beginning our Lent from the 30 th day of the moneth Mechir But so Epistle 2 d that we end the Fast according to Evangelical Traditions late at night on the 18 th day of the moneth Pharmuth presenting our selves worthy Communicants of the Body and Bloud of Christ. Having thus guarded and secured the duty of Fasting by its necessary qualifications and conditions it cannot be unsafe or unseasonable to admit now unto audience some strictures of the Elogies which the Ancient Fathers give of this duty of Fasting As that God prescribed some sort of Fasting to man so soon almost as he was created a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã S. Bafil Ser. 1. de Iejunio ut suprà as a guard to innocence it self and the first trial of mans obedience ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith S. Chrysostom Of these thou mayest eat of this thou shalt not eat was a sort of Fast prescribed Which being not observed because thou hast hearkned saith God unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the daies of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring sorth to thee In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground Gen. 3. 17 19. The earth of his flesh also bringing forth troublesome thorns and thistles not to be keept down but by laborious sorrowful fasting nor consum'd but by the spirit of judgment and burning ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith S. Chrysostom tom 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If Fasting was necessary in Paradise much more out of Paradise If this Physick was useful before our wound much more after it If whilest yet there was no war of lusts rais'd within us this armour was yet of use much more after so great a fight from lusts within from Devils without this auxiliary force of Fasting is necessary Come we to the Law S. Basil tels us in his 1 Sermon of Fasting ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fasting above in the Mount prepared Moses to receive the Law but fulness amongst the people below caused them to run mad after idolatry for the people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play The tables then which fasting had received written by the finger of God the drunkenness of the people caused to be broken The Prophet judging it not meet that a people drinking drunk with wine with the wine of spiritual fornication which is Idolatry also Ier. 51. 7. should receive the Law from God Also Moses for his 2 d receiving of the Law needed a 2 d Fast. After him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the same fatherthere ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He thinks that as S. Paul is usually said to be the fruit of S. Stephen's Martyrdom and prayer so the holy Prophet Samuel was more the fruit of his mother Hannah's fasting and prayer then of her womb He then proceeds to Samson of whom he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
self-afflictions it is that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that wise indignation and only lawful revenge of a private Christian mentioned by S. Paul 2 Cor. 7. and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã contains in it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is a work of justice corrective upon our selves 5 thly As it is a wholsome degree of our contrition so is it also of our Confession It is not a verbal but a real practical Confession in deeds an humble acknowledgement more then by words only that we are by our sins unworthy of Gods good creatures and of his blessings by denying unto our selves even food and pleasures and rest and ornaments in fastings watchings lyings on the ground in sack-cloth c. and worthy of his judgements 1 Sam. 7. 6. It is also a due Confession that we suffer justly what we do otherwise also perhaps suffer from Gods own hand 2 Chron. 12. 5-7 They humbled themselves and said the Lord is righteous 6 thly It is for our future emendation and securing us from return to the same sin again which hath caused us so to smart the pleasure whereof we have been enforced to avenge on our selves by so severe sharpness of pain or affliction for mortification of the flesh 7 thly Beside the fear of a repeated smart otherwise also available it is for the better taking off our hearts from the love of the world while we stand so long by our own counsel sequestred from the contents enjoyments and blandishments of the world and flesh And so the mind hath better leisure and temper and serenity to make a truer judgement and estimate of the excellency of heavenly things and of the true bread from heaven which endureth unto everlasting life That the things which are seen are eaten and drunken that please the eye or touch or tast are temporal but the things which are not seen nor toucht nor tasted by the palate are eternal its true what S. Austin saith Major voluptas cordis quà m carnis and what Leo the Great Agnoscat rationalis animus majores delitias menti datas esse quam carni Serm. 4. de jejun pentecost Greater is the pleasure of the heart then of the flesh Let the reasonable soul of man acknowledge that greater delights are by God given to the mind of man then to his body to his understanding and will then to his senses and appetites that a little time of being withheld sequestred as it were and intercepted from the continued drunkeness and hurry and bewitching of the deceitful pleasure of sin by a retired day or dayes of fasting meditation and considering with ourselves where we are what will be our end whither we are hasting will help us easily to understand that far greater and sweeter and more satisfying and delighting are the pleasures of the Fathers kiss the robe the ring the fatted calf the mirth of Saints and Angels in our Fathers house not only then the husks which drave the prodigal to consider but also then the riotous living and the vomit and mire filthier then the swines which he afterwards fed then the noise and the harlots with whom he devoured himself his flesh and his substance 8 thly With God who hath promised to give grace to the humble these humiliations for the very humility thereof and there from are a powerful means to obtain his inward grace and guidance Ezra 8. 21. 23. 9 thly By them we may procure deliverances and blessings to others also some way concerned with us or more then us perhaps in the dread of some judgement of God upon sin as 2 Sam 12. 16. Dan. 9. 3. Mat. 17. 21. Psal. 35. 13 14 Esther 4. 16. Nehem. 1. 4 6. Thus have you heard the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what is true religious Fasting the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of due moderation in Fasting the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that being rightly performed it is a work which the Scripture hath directed us to the Church of the Saints ever practis'd and God hath chosen and will reward openly the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in those dayes lastly the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the reasons why it is so accepted of God and profitable unto our selves Ye have tasted I trust in some measure that this new wine which Christ would have preserved that you may be preserved thereby is excellent and meet for our Masters house and for your use and will drink pleasant when kept and you by habit acquainted with it I know that there will be still who say as the Pharisees and objectors did in this place before my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the business of Fasting is no part of Christianity that reduce the profit of it first to little mistaking the place 1 Tim. 4. 8. of S. Paul which speaks not of fasting but of another matter as shall hereafter be shewn and then to nothing First to be of no pleasing unto God nor pleasing or profitable to our selves and then to be hurtfull because Superstitious if it return too constant upon us and be prescribed by others then by our selves or such guides as we have heap'd up to our selves To all which I oppose in short the word and example of our Lord and Master his word of promise to this mean and least duty of Fasting thy Father shall reward thee Mat. 6. 18. even openly when thou doest it secretly His direction this kind comes not out but by prayer and fasting His command and prediction in my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this wine must be put up and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall they will fast And this Text thus interpreted of the Churches Set Fasts and principally of this Set Fast of Lent by the Church it self in Tertullian suprà pag. 28. by Petrus Archbishop of Alexandria and Martyr by S. Austin by S. Chrysostom by Innocentius primus by Epiphanius by Isidore Hispalensis by Venerable Bede by Theophylact and others With what meekness gentleness and loving care our Lord doth here provide for the preservation of the vessels old and new and of the wine both old and new you may perceive For first it is to be observed that our gracious Lord who first fasted himself his Quadragesimal fast and that for his people the Church which had sins past to be fasted for and need of arms and strength against temptations to come yet he would not command his Church any other times of fasting then such only as her own regard and affection towards her dear spouse in his absence and the memory of his dear love in his fasting Agony death and passion should command her An express command if S. Austin and Socrates say they read not it needed not she will do it In those daies they will fast 2 dly The duty of fasting our Lord compares it but to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a peice to mend up If our own garment were not worn and rent there would have been no need of peicing or
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If men had continued in innocency and original Righteousness the work of painful fasting had been nothing useful at all but we are waxen old in our sins and not forthwith capable perhaps even of our remedies least our rent be made worse Yea our Lord comparing it to new wine gives sentence that the old is better that commandment which is both new and old which you had from the beginning and which is new in him That ye love one another But both are to be preserved our pieced garments also are to be worn in our bride-grooms absence although not in his presence 3 dly Observe that as all the Churches set solemn unchangeable fasts her weekly Stations and her yearly Paschal fast of Lent and if any will adde the Rogation-fasts also before his departure from her at the Ascension are from the taking away the Bride-groom from her so from the presence of the Bride-groom with her or to her are all the Churches Feasts as those of Christs Incarnation Nativity Resurrection or his entring into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for her and to prepare a place for her living in his presence at his Ascension or from the friends of the Bride-groom their being brought into his presence in the dayes of their several martyrdoms Yea and 4 thly all the times prohibited by her as to any set or publick fasts are only therefore prohibited as times of something of her Bridegrooms presence as the Lords-day no fasting-day for the return of his presence at his Resurrection yea and wheresoever in the Christian world saturday was a time also exempted from being a fasting day except one only in the year as it was exempted generally in all the Oriental Churches and in many places and the first ages of the Western likewise it was not as some have thought from condescension to the Ieus but from the joy of that day after our Lords descent into and return from hell at the long expected presence of Christ the Bride-groom theirs and ours to the souls of all those that had departed out of this world through so many ages in true repentance and faith with whom the Church on earth hath and holds a communion of Saints and a part in their joy from that joyful time And S. Austin thinks for another reason also by him assigned for the joyous signification of our eternal rest by that day of rest and of the rest of our flesh in hope after death as Christ's did that day rest 5 thly I have my self above noted to you that Fasting is not the principle but an Annex yet annexed by the advice of God's Spirit in the words of my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an additament a piece of a new garment to make up and help the defect of our infirmity in due place time and measure Quod Deo non pro justitiâ sed cum justitiâ offerimus I. Power 6 thly I have in this Discourse shewn the necessary conjunction of Prayers with our Fastings as in the context of my Text they are by the objectors themselves connected Why do Iohn's Disciples fast often and make Supplications I have shew'd you this new wine of Fasting now by long continuance in the Christian Church to be waxen old so that now the bottles that are broken and fly rather then they will contain this good wine do but pretend either more weaknesse or tenderness of Conscience then they have or for the time ought to have or more perfection and strength then they have in them or thus are likely to have as if they needed it not their impotent refusal is not now from the newness of the wine nor alwayes from the oldness of the bottles but from the cunning simulation of some Impostors who take with them for pretence according to the crasty wile of the Gibeonites wine-bottles old and rent and bound up old garments upon them and clouted shooes upon their feet crying out weak and tender consciences and so desire to make a cunning League with the Church ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This comes not from the nature of the wine saith Theophylact upon my Text. And I may say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nor from the oldness of the bottles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as then in our Saviours instance at that time and now ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the Schism which is resolv'd by any arts to make it self worse 't is not from the weakness or tenderness but the stiffness and hardness of the neck that shakes the yoke to cast it off They cannot submit to the two words of our Lords command of this duty in my Text. 1 st ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this new wine must be put up where it must be preserved 2 dly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in those daies they shall Fast. They are angry at the Stewards or governours of the house of God who are by their office especially to take care and do take care of our Saviours good will and pleasure in his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that both be preserved the duty of Fasting and the Vessels of Honour that should contain this precious liquor of which our Lord takes this care These are not the men it seems of whom our Lord in my Text foretells ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they will Fast. I have declared at large even of the 7 first ages of the Church when the wine was newer then now it is and of the following ages the opposers of this Fast of Lent not only confess their observance of it but complain of their diligence therein I have declar'd I say that the custome of the Bride her self i. e. the Catholique Church of Christ in this time of her preparation of her self to be brought to the Consummate Nuptials of the Lamb hath ever observ'd this Paschal Fast of Lent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In those daies which what they are I have not given you mine own sense but have as we are bid enquired of the former daies and prepared my self and you to the search of our Fathers as we are directed Iob 8. 8. For that both we and our opponents are but of yesterday The daies will come said Christ Are they already come or are they not come which Christ said should come And if not yet come who can shew us with any colour that ever they shall come But if they are come they are to be found in the Churches practise surely through 15 Ages The taking away of the Bridegroom once for the sins of the whole world is certainly not now to come And do not almost all the Testimonies by me produced found and settle the Paschal Fast on that Basis of the annual solemn memory of Christs Death and Passion the Bridegrooms taking away so precious to his Bride the Church a S. Austin l. 4. de Baptismo Co. Denatist c. 23. Cum. Whatsoever observance was not first instituted by any plenary Council as this was not let any
Eve before Easter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in imitation whereof also the Churches of Spain first of all for where is it to be read of before the Council of Eliberis in Spain Can. 21. And afterward the Roman and others converted the every-weeks Vigil of the Lords day viz. Saturday as Leo often witnesseth in his Sermon that Saturday was observ'd in his time as a Vigil onely and not a Fast into a weekly Fasting-day in the place of the Wednesday or fourth day of the Week which from the beginning had been that But our main purpose is to enquire of such of the Churches Fasts as were in their Original Apostolical and from the beginning of universal practice They are of two sorts either such as were delivered to the Church by Tradition of Precept as from the Apostles or by Tradition of counsel and recommendation onely from the Apostles to the free devotion of Christians Those of Tradition of Precept first whether for some determined time of the year as the Paschal Fast of Lent the Spring-fast next before the Feast of Easter which Easter was celebrated annuo circulo in mense primo saith Tertullian lib. de Iejun cap. 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as others witness annually in the first moneth close upon the Vernal Aequinox and so much onely the Spring-fast by Lent-fast is signify'd or other oft recurring Fasts for the substance from the Apostles to be observed constantly though without a time determined by them As the Fasts of the Church before her publick solemn Ordinations though for the times of the year wherein both those Fasts and Ordinations should be kept the Church was left to determine her self which she hath wisely distributed into four Seasons of the Year so sanctifying to her self both her hopes and partakings of the fruits of the earth and more principally her Spiritual labourers sent forth into Christs harvest Of such solemn calling on God preparatory to Ordination we have the example first of Christ our Lord himself in the Gospel Luk. 6. 12 13. where we read that in the Eve or Vigil before the day which he design'd for choosing out of his Disciples twelve which he would name Apostles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And it came to pass in those dayes that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God And when it was day he called unto him his Disciples and of them he chose twelve whom also he named Apostles This grand example of the Lord the Apostles of the Lord also are recorded in holy Scripture to have followed Act. 14. 23. And when they the Apostles Barnabas and Paul v. 14. had ordained them ââ¦lders in every Church having prayed with fastings they commended them unto God viz. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with fastings plurally not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã only having so prayed and Fasted before the Ordination as the words may well be understood The same was also practised by the Prophets and Teachers of the Church at Antioch before that Act. 13. 1 3. Then having Fasted and Prayed and having laid on their hands they sent them away If now the Church shall witness that she hath also received this order of Fasting before her Ordinations from the Apostles and their times the very examples but now alleadged above may render it not difficult for us to believe it Leo the first and Great Serm. 2. de Iujunio Pent. Dubitandum non est Dilectissimi omnem observantiam Christianam eruditionis esse Divinae quicquid ab Ecclesiâ in Consuetudinem est Devotionis receptum de Traditione Apostolicâ de Sancti Spiritûs prodire dictrinâ Manifestissimè patet inter caetera Dei munera Iejuniorum quoque gratiam quae hodiernam Festivitatem indivisa subsequitur tunc fuisse donatam Ideò dilectissimi secundùm eruditionem Spiritûs Sancti per quem Ecclesiae Dei omnium virtutum collata sunt dona suscipiamus alacri fide solenne jejunium It is not to be doubted most beloved but that all the Churches observance is of Gods teaching and whatever hath been received by the Church viz. Universal in the custom viz. constant perpetual of her Devotion cometh from Tradition Apostolical and from the teaching of the holy Ghost It most evidently appears that amongst the rest of the gifts of God the Grace also of fastings which immediately followeth this present Festivity viz. of Pentecost as doth the second Ember-week in the year was then viz. at the sending down of the holy Ghost upon the Apostles given to the Church Therefore my dearly Beloved according to the teaching of the holy Ghost by whom the gifts of all vertues are conferr'd upon the Church of God let us undertake with cheerful Faith the solemn Fast. And again Serm. 4. upon the fast of the same Ember-week Inter omnia dilectissimi Apostolicae instituta doctrinae quae ex divinae institutionis fonte manârunt dubium non est instââ¦uente in Ecclesiae principes Spiritu Sancto hanc primùm ab eis observantiam fuisse conceptam ut Sancti observatione Iejunii omnium virtutum regulas inchoarent Amongst all the Institutes of Apostolical teaching which have flowed forth from the fountain of Divine Institution there is no doubt ô most beloved but that this observance was first conceived by those Princes of the Church the holy Ghost influencing them that they should begin the regulations of all vertues which the observation of holy Fasting And in his seventh Serm. on the Fast of the tenth Moneth another of the Ember-weeks he thus speaketh Praesidia militiae Christianae sc. jejunia c. delectissimi sanctificandis mentibus nostris atque corporibus divinitùs instituta ideò cum dierum temporúmque curriculis sine cessatione reparantur ut infirmitatum nostrarum ipsa nos medicina commoneat These guards of our Christian warfare viz. Fastings c. as he spake of the Fast of the Ember-week were Instituted of God for the sanctifying our mindes and bodies therefore are they renewed incessantly with the course of dayes times that the medicine it self recurring may admonish us of our infirmities So in the eighth Serm. Hujus observantiae utilitas dilectissimi in Ecclesiasticis praecipuè est constituta jejuniis quae ex doctrinâ Spiritûs Sancti ita per totius anni circulum distributa sunt ut lex abstinentiae omnibus sit ascripta temporibus siquidem jejunium vernum in Quadrage simà aestivum in Pentecoste Autumnale in mense septimo hyemale autem in hoc qui est decimus celebramus The utility of this observance my Beloved is especially seated in Ecclesiastical Fasts which by the teaching of the holy Ghost are so distributed through the circle of the whole year that there is a law of abstinence affix d to all the four seasons Forsomuch as the Spring-fast we keep in Lent the Summer-fast in Whitsunweek the Autumn-fast in the moneth of September the Winter-fast in this moneth of December So
that punctually the same four Ember-weeks or fasts and also the following solemn Ordinations are in those four self-same seasons and appointed times in this Church of England which were in the Church more then 1200 years since In the same place he adds of those Faââ¦s before the Ordinations Intelligentes divinis nihil vacuum esse praeceptââ¦s understanding that nothing viz. of such things is left devoid of the Divine precepts But as I above yeilded though the Church be guided alwayes by the Spirit of God in some seââ¦se yet the aââ¦ing of those Fasts and Ordinations to those determinate times ãâã be thought was not of Apostolical Tradition as the Fasts to be ââ¦fore the Ordinations were ââ¦or after all this said by Leo we shââ¦ââ¦inde him also confess as much in his fifth Serm. de Iejun dââ¦mi ââ¦ensis Huic autem operi dilectissimi cùm jaâ⦠oppââ¦rtuna sint tempora hââ¦c nunc praecipuè aptum est atque conveniens in quo S. Patres nââ¦tri divinitùs inspiraââ¦i dââ¦cimi ââ¦nsis sauxère ââ¦unium ut omniuââ¦ââ¦ructuum collectione conclusâ⦠ãâã Deo abstinentiâ⦠ãâã For this work my Beloved as all times are opportune ãâã is this most agreeable and fit in which our holy Fathers inspired from God have ââ¦ecreed the Fast of the tenth moneth to be that the gââ¦ing of all the fruits being concluded a reasonable abstinence by us should be dedicated to God Before Leo the Great 's time Athanasius the Great in his Apologie for his flight mentions how the people in the Week after the holy Pentecost having finished their Fasts went to pray c. We proceed now to such Fasts of Tradition Apostolical as are by Tradition of Counsel onely and recommendation not of Precept such as are first those which were ever in the Christian Church from the Apostles times the Stations of the fourth and sixth day of the Week Wednesdays and Fridayes wont to be Fasted unto the ninth hour our three a Clock in the Afternoon after the example of Cornelius's Fast called Stationum semi-plena jejunia And secondly such is some degree of the extent of the Fast of Lent as the Abstinence to be continued throughout forty dayes the proper Fast of somewhat like the measure of three weeks in Imitation of Daniel's Fast the stricter and more rigorous Fast of all the six dayes in the last Great Week all which seems to have been ever in the Church from the Apostles times as Tradition Apostolical but ex arbitrio non ex praecepto Apostolorum praestanda as shall be shewn in the seventh Chapter Here we will speak of the former the stations of the fourth and sixth days of the Week For which omitting that of Ignatius ad Philippenses I first alledge the Churches practice in Tertullian's time which he contending with her witnesseth and takes as a thing confessed by her to argue from lib. de Iejuniis c. 13. Ecce enim convenio vos praeter Pascha jejunantes citra illos dies quibus ablatus est sponsus Stationum semi-jejunia interponentes verò interduÌ pane aquâ victitantes ut cuique visum est Denique respondetis haec ex Arbitrio agenda non ex Imperio And c. 10. Aequè stationes nostras ut indictas h. e. praecepto omnibus praestitutas quasdam verò in serum constitutas novitatis nomine accusant Hoc quoque munus ex Arbitrio obeundum esse dicentes non ultra nonam detinendum viz. publicè in Ecclesiâ de suo sc. more Non quasi respuamus nonam cui quartâ sabbati sextâ plurimuÌ fungimur Venit enim horae nonae observatio de exitu Domini Itaque in eam usque horam celebranda pressura est in quâ à sextâ coÌtenebratus orbis deââ¦uncto Domino lugubre fecit officium ut tunc nos revertamur ad jucunditatem cum mundus recepit claritatem And c. 2. Quae ipsae stationes suos quidem dies habeant quartae feriae sextae passivè tamen currant neque sub lege praecepti From which witness we observe these confessed truths 1. That both the Church and the Montanists did then and had before observ'd these stations of the fourth and sixth day 2. That the Church answered so to his Accusation of her that those stations she did indeed and would still recommend to her Children but ex Arbitrio non ex Imperio agenda ut passivè currentia non ut sub legeâ⦠praecepti as matter of Counsel not of Precept which they that do not observe sin not but they do better that observe And therefore she accus'd Tertullian and the Montanists of Novelty for enjoyning them by Precept as well as for producing them to the evening beyond the three a clock in the Afternoon as by Tradition they both had received 3ly That her days of publick Fasts were constituted and prescribed unto her already by God in the Gospel viz. these in which the Bridegroom was taken away hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum dies that Tertullian objected to the Church that she who stood upon it that she had received those and no other dayes or ââ¦asts from the Apostles but those onely 1. On which the Bridegroom was taken away for the Church had reply'd c. 2. Apostolos nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum And that she yet observ'd those stations which Tertullian thought in no sense were the dayes on which the Bridegroom was taken away When yet both the dayes themselves did the hour of breaking up the Fast did in Tertullian's own acknowledgment derive it's observation from the Bridegrooms taking away ââ¦or so are his words c. 10. Not as if we refuse the ninth hour for the observation of that hour comes from the Lords departure out of the world or giving up of the Ghost Therefore they were in sadness till that hour and then did partake of the Refection as the world was in darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth and then light return'd Not many years after Tertullian Clemens of Alexandria in his seventh book of Strââ¦mata thus speaketh ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He knows the mysteries also of the Fasts of these dayes of the fourth day of the week and of the day before the Sabbath which are called Wednesday and Friday Now the riddle or mysteries of those dayes which he mentions is but the reference to the Bridegroom 's taking away as S. Augustin and Epiphanius will anon tell us And so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is in the same sense spoken as S. Ambrose above calls the dayes of Lent dies Mysticos dayes of mystical meaning soon after that Clement Origen hom 10 in Lev. 16. Nec hoc tamen dicimus ut abstinentiae Christianae fraena laxemus Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos habemus quartam sextam septimanae dies quibus solenniter jejunamus We have saith he after
upon the earth and as the words of the Text may import pernoctavit in jejunio As the Syr. and Arab. did read the Hebrew in their Copy a Iejunevit jejunium in quo pernoctavit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not as now ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fourthly there is a fast of two days continued such as it seems was in the Church by some used at their Paschal fast saith Irenaeus and Dionysius The two days of the Disciples sorrow when their Master was taken from them Of which as the Prophet Hosea seems to have given before some intimation chap. 6. 2. After two days he will revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Then shall we know c. His going forth is prepared as the morning So Tertullian also describeth the Churches more instant exercise of fasting on those two days of our Saviours remaining in death lib. de Iejun cap. 14. Cur jejuniis Parasceuen Quanquam vos etiam sabbatum si quando continuatis nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum secundum rationem alibi redditam But more expresly Dionysius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nor do all keep the six days of the fasts viz. those of the great Week equally or alike but some indeed pass them all over continuing without food either wholly or on each day to the next Cock-crowing But others two viz. Good-Friday and Easter-Eve again others three the Wednesday Friday and Saturday and others four adding Thursday The two or three days fast we meet with in St. Hierom in his fifteenth Epistle ad Marcellum of Asella a very holy Virgin Cùm per omnem aetatem jugi jejunio pasceretur biduo triduó que sic permanens tum verò in quadrage simâ navigii sui vela tendebat As in all her life she almost continually fasted abiding so sometimes two sometimes three days fasting so especially in Lent c. Fifthly a three days fast in Old and New Testament is renowned Esther 4. 16 17. Go gather together all the Iews which are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days night nor day I also and my Maidens will fast likewise c. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him Such as is supposed was also the Ninevites fast and such was St. Paul's fast at his Conversion Acts 9. 9. And he was three days without sight and did neither eat nor drink The same fast of three days we have in the History of godly Iudas Maccabaeus 2 Mac. 13. 10-12 That two days and this three days fast is by some religiously also emulated who not able to continue so long fasting joyn together so many several days of fasts though taking some food each Evening Sixthly we often meet with the mention of a five days fast and such each weeks fast in Lent as St. Chrysostom for Constantinople and St. Basil for Caesarea doth witness besides that which Socrates mentions of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã three five days fasts with interval of many days betwixt St. Basil in his first Sermon of fasting days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a fifth fast proclaimed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lay not in before hand five days riot as if you would avenge before hand the days of the fast Seventhly the next honourable fast is that of seven days as that of the men of Iabesh Gilead for Saul and his sons they fasted seven days 1 Sam. ult ult Like Ioseph's mourning for his father seven days Gen. 5. 10. Like as Ezechiel also sat with them of the Captivity and remained astonished amongst them seven days And it came to pass at the end of the seven days that the Word of the Lord came unto him Chap. 3. 15 16. So as also Iob's three friends having rent every one his Mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads sate down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him Iob 2. ult Yea the Lord said unto Moses of Miriam Num. 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days let her be shut out from the Camp seven days This seven days fast is answer'd by the Christians whole weeks fast in their great week except in that the festival day of Easter yea even every weekly Lords-day hath a greater priviledge of exemption from fasting then the Jewish-sabbath then had Our ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã six days of the Fasts mention'd by Dionysius of Alexandria above in Epistolâ ad Basilidem are to the Christians instead of a seven days Fast. So measur'd they their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Eighthly Daniel's three weeks fast was as I said divers ways emulated by the Christians in Lent some after that example amongst the forty days of Abstinence more strictly fasting the three weeks next before Easter excepting the Lords days or also two of the Saturdays some selecting to themselves one and twenty days dispersedly throughout the Lent as Leo a Serm de jejun Quadrages mentions the second the fourth the sixth of each week some fifteen days interpreting the three weeks with their abatement of two in each Saturday and Sunday of this we have Sozomen's testimony lib. 7. cap. 19. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Some others fast three weeks of days here and there selected within the compass of the six or seven weeks fast of Lent but others joyn for their fast three weeks of days together next before the feast of Easter others fasting two weeks as the followers of Montanus besides some others For so much we may take Socrates's witness also because in this agreeing with others lib. 5. cap. 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Some in Rome fast three weeks before Easter conjoyn'd together excepting the Sabbath and Lords day in each week though Leo gives us in his time their three weeks ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã viz. every other day or three days in each of almost seven weeks Others beginning their fast seven weeks before the Feast fast onely three several five-days spaces with a weeks interval betwixt each And this they meant also a three weeks fast St. Chrysostom also is a witness beyond exception in his sixteenth Homily ad populum Antiochen ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is the manner of all to ask touching Lent how many weeks any one kept the ãâã and you may hear some say two viz. beginning their fasts from Passion-Sunday but some three weeks and some answering that they have fasted all the weeks All the 15 or 18 or ââ¦1 days in emulation of holy Daniel's fast in some sort or other Ninthly the most renowned number was the forty days fast of which we have
entreated at large which most did aim at either in strict fasting as those in Illyricum and all Greece and Alexandria as the last cited Authour in the same Chapter witnesseth or at least in continual abstinence though not so long fasting as Leo supposes in the Romans in his time and St. Ambrose in the Christian people at Millan Tenthly all days but few festival days onely excepted such was Iudith's fast who fasted all the days of her widowhood except the Sabbaths New-moons Feasts and solemn days with their Eves that then were observed by the House of Israel chap. 8. 6. and some such we may suppose was that other religious Widow Anna's fast in the Gospel Luc. 2. 37. Eleventhly a continual uninterrupted fast though not from all Meats but from all Bread of delight and to a very small proportion such was Iohn Baptist's Fast and many Christian Anachorites CHAP. IV. How the Paschal or Lent-fast is as hath been shewn Apostolical THere are that bear the world in hand that the Observation of any set and oft-recurring day beside the Lords day is superstitious and contrary to the Gospel's freedom and at best but of humane Tradition Who requiring of us an express written precept for any such day or days and having been lately by many of the Sectaries convicted as unable to produce any such express written precept of God's in the New Testament for changing the seventh day of the old into the first day of the week which we now observe they have given them occasion to cast off the observance of the first day of the week also The Churches interpretation of some Texts which are not evident and express Precepts and her witness of the Apostolical Tradition concerning the same and the Churches universal and perpetual practice all this together they have taught the Sectaries to be an unsufficient Warrant for the determination of any day or days But we are not afraid to say that upon those grounds above said we hold all obliged as to the determination of the weekly first day for the Churches more publick Assemblies so also for an annual beside the weekly memorial-day of Christ's Resurrection called Pascha or Easter day And so our Paschal or Lent-fast preceding is not the only observance that need 's the Churches interpretation and Tradition Apostolical And touching this ââ¦east of Easter we desire them to tell us their minds We shal content our selves at present till that feast particularly be deny'd to remind them of one only Record even out of their own Authour Socrates so often vouch'd by them against the set feasts and fasts of the Church whose witness here where he agrees in express terms with Eusebius l. 3. de vit Constantin cap. 7 18. and Theodoret lib. 1. cap. 10. two sufficient witnesses of themselves may better be believed than in what he reports contrary to them as it happens when the Opposers of our ââ¦ast do vouch him The Record is in Socrates lib. 1. c. 6. where he tells us and truly that in the Imperial publick Letters of Constantine which were sent by him to the Churches in all the Provinces throughout the whole Empire the Emperour to the Churches thus wrote upon the Result of all or at least the greater part of the Bishops invited from all parts and then assembled in that first and most sacred Oecumenical Council at Nice and that touching the most holy day of the Feast of Easter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We have received saith he from our Saviour another way of observing Easter than that of the Iews ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ââ¦or the course of observing Easter which is propounded to our most holy Religion is the legitimate and becoming course which he calls afterward ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and above ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The truer order which we i. e. the Christian Church have kept from the first day wherein Christ our Lord who is our Pass-over suffered viz. ever since Christ's very suffering untill this present year the same observance also to be extended unto the Ages to come the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord being close together as it were one Season and Solemnity and coming under the one name of Pascha therefore also of the principal day of our Paschal-fast nearly preceding the feast of Easter He proceeds in the same Imperial Letter to say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For our Saviour hath delivered one Solemnity viz. the day or time of his most holy passion the day of our freedom viz. together with the day of his Resurrection and would that his Catholick Church should be one And this there he calls ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So great a matter and such a feast of our Religion And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The most holy day of Easter the feast from which we have received the hope of immortality And that before this feast there did precede not onely the fast of Good Friday but more fasts more set and appointed fasting days which make up our Paschal or Lent fast you may see in the following part of that Imperial Epistle where twice he adds of something preceding that feast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and within few lines ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vacant attendance upon fasts and determinate fasts Thus far Constantine Socrates himself recording it from the Bishops assembled in the first general Council as the Representative of the Pastours of the whole Christian world In this Question therefore now betwixt us and our Brethren Whether our Lord himself did or did not deliver to the Church the Annual Memorial of his Passion and Resurrection in the set fast and feast appointed therefore Whether this order and way the Church had or had not received from our Saviour that she should observe the Paschal Solemnity in a different manner from the Iews Whether that order they had or had not kept from the very year it self of our Saviours Passion and Resurrection uââ¦o the time of that Council to be transmitted to all posterity Whom shall we believe a few men of this or yesterdays Age laying hold ââ¦pon some saying of Socrates against the agreement of him with all other Historians or those three hundred and eighteen most renowned Fathers of the first and most sacred Oecumenical Council that ever was held If now their own Socrates though in conjunction with Eusebius and Theodoret displease them they should yet consider that the matter of fact and Tradition from the Apostles times above related concerning the annual set feast of Easter was not deny'd but freely consented to by the very Novatians the adversaries of the Church that then lived Acesius the great Novatian Bishop freely acknowledging to Constantine as the same Socrates also acknowledges that what the Council had defin'd concerning the time of the Feast of Easter was not any new thing but what himself had received from the elder time and even from the beginning from the times of the Apostles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Socrat. l. 1.
c. 10. If neither the holy Fathers of that first Council from whom Constantine learnt and received what was to be given in order to all the Churches nor the Sects differing from the Church be to be believed before the Negative of some few in our age upon pretense too of Socrates what will they say to one of the seven Churches in Asia to whom our Saviour wrote Apoc. 2. and that with the greatest honour and commendation of them above all the rest the Church of Smyrna in an Epistle of hers in Eusebius l. 4. c. 15. written about 69 years after the Epistle of our Lord sent to her which Epistle thus begins The Church of God which inhabiteth in and about Smyrna to the Church in Philomilium and to all the Diocesses of the holy Catholique Church in every place Mercy peace and the love of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ be multiply'd In this Epistle she tells the Churches of all the world first that the day of the carrying of Saint Polycarp who had been ordained Bishop of Smyrna by S. Iohn the Apostles own hands to the place of his Tryal and Martyrdom was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on the day of the great Saturday or Saturday of the great week So that the Churches of every place of the world were by them here suppos'd to understand the name of one set day in the year call'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which day it meant viz. the Saturday of the week before Easter called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the Oriental Churches throughout all ages unto this day as a high ââ¦asting-day and vigil and the close of the Paschal Fast. And yet our Brethren must be believ'd that the first pure and primitive ages knew nothing of annual set dayes for Fast or Feast excepting onely the Lords-day Secondly That Epistle of the Church of Smyrna tells the Churches of all the earth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That they hoped that the Lord would grant unto them that they should be able to observe or keep the Birth-day of his Martyrdom assembling there together with exultation and joy and that both for the memory of them that had contended unto death and for the excitation and preparation of those that should come after And yet our Brethren must be believed that the first pure and primitive ages knew nothing of our holy-dayes for particular Saints and Martyrs Thus much for annual set recurring dayes there lying no exception against the Paschal Fast or Feast but what is made still out of the same Socrates or the like against all annual set Fasts or Feasts For no Author ever pretended any annual Fast or Feast in the Christian Church was to be preferred before this Feast of Easter and the Fast preceding But to return to the Fast particularly It was an age of the Church well neer as ancient as that age of the Church of Smyrna and Polycarp which told Tertullian and the Montanists Quod ad jejunia pertineat certos dies à Deo constitutos as I have above cited from Tertullian l. 2. de Iejun l. 1 2 13 14. certè in Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos in quibus ablatus est sponsus sic Apostolos observâsse nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum And c. 10. Stationum munus ex arbitrio obeundum esse non ultra nonam detinendum That there are certain days constituted of God that those dayes for Fastings were determined in the Gospel the dayes in which the Bridegroom was taken away that so the Apostles had observ'd or kept those dayes imposing no other yoke of set Fasts to be perform'd by all in Common that the office of Stations viz. of the fourth and sixth day of the week was to be at choice performed and not to be extended beyond the ninth hour viz. three a clock afternoon That here are set Fasts and this set Fast about the time of our Saviours Passion before Easter and for this reason The taking away of the Bridegroom and that to concern the whole number of Christian people and that observed first by the Apostles themselves and by them imposed on the Church and constituted by God and in some sort determined in the Gospel and that in those words In those days when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them and all this observ'd or kept by the Bride her self and by her witnessed is here so evident that I cannot foresee what exception can be made unless some should pretend that those Psychici as Tertullian by contempt calls the Church there who there speak should not indeed be the Church or true Catholiques But he must be ignorant of all Tertullian's writings who should make this desperate attempt of escape To put it therefore past all doubt that not onely Tertullian but the rest of the pretended pure and Spiritual hereticks of that age were wont so by contempt to miscal the true Catholiques by the name of Psychici or sensual persons S. Irenaeus the holy Father and Martyr gives us certainly to know in l. 1. against Heresies c. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã These spiritual men Suppose such like men to be instructed in mysteries For as for the Psychici or sensual men they are instructed in sensual things who by works and meer faith have their establishment and have not the perfect knowledge Now these Psychici they say we of the Church are and therefore that it is indeed necessary for us to do good works for that otherwise it is impossible we should be saved But themselves they hold shall be saved wholly and altogether not by deeds but for that they are by nature Spiritual ones They will have it that it is not possible for that which is spiritual viz. themselves to receive corruption whatsoever deeds they are conversant in Tor as Gold laid up in mire doth not lose its beauty but keeps its own nature the mire being in nothing able to hurt the gold so say they of themselves that in whatsoever gross works of the body they shall be conversant that they are in nothing hurt thereby nor lose their spiritual being or subsistence And doing many other filthy and Atheistical things they shew themselves fierce against us who keep our selves through fear of God from sinning even in word or thought as idiots and such as know nothing But they highly exalt themselves calling themselves the perfect ones and the seeds or children of Election They say that we have grace only lent us for use and therefore that it shall be taken from us but that themselves hold it as their proper possession from above by an unspeakable and not to be named conjunction Therefore they call us the good sensual people or Psychici and say that we are of the world and that continence and wel-doing is necessary for us that thereby we may come unto the place of
of day and night so measure their one day for the reasons above given especially relating to forty days an hour for a day whether of Christ's fast the remembrance whereof they would with the Church honour or of the Churches abstinence with which they would according to the allowance they gave themselves so far comply and remembring also those our Lord's forty days of Fast equalled now by his forty hours being given up to death but still an hour for a day Doth all this now give any colour that there was no Paschal or Lent that is Spring fast derived from the Apostles or that forty days were not then at all in the Churches observance or that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was first so called from forty hours Nothing so To the clearing whereof I lay down first the words of Irenaeus and then the gloss of an ancient Record thereon for the former part of them first Irenaeus saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This I acknowledge probable to be the true reading and punctation as our Brethren also contend and to be rendred thus For some indeed think they ought to fast one day and some two and some also more and some by forty hours of day-time and of night commensurate their day These words which have given puzzle to so many Antiquaries and have been several ways pointed and interpreted Beatus Rhenanus in his Preface to Ruffinus as my very learned and worthy Friend Mr. Thorndick hath already advertised us thus helps us to understand Incidi nuperrimè saith Beatus Rhenanus in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quandam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quam cùm evolverem occurrerunt fortè fortunâ Irenaei verba quae Eusebius cap. 23. lib. 5. citat Graecè sic habentia ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I light upon a Synopsis of Evangelical History where by chance I met with the words of Irenaeus cited by Eusebius thus For some fast one day onely and some two and some more and some fast forty hours onely of day-time and of night fasting an hour for a day This ancient Authour living nearer unto and so more knowing of the Primitive Churches practice by which often the obscurer sayings of Authours are best interpreted is much in this inquiry to be regarded and yet I may easily grant the words of his Synopsis to be onely a Gloss or Metaphrase wherein he explains ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And these words and some by forty hours of day-time and of night commensurate their day he thus explains and some fast forty hours onely of day-time and of night fasting an hour for a day so that as to Ezekiel forty days were appointed each day for a year so these had set themselves a fast of forty hours an hour for a day Now sure this ancient Gloss except any one would rather it should be the ancient true reading of Irenaeus finds Irenaeus presupposing in the Church the simple and plain manner of forty daies Fast before Easter before such change had been made into forty hours which change had been made by some mens unaccurate walking long before Irenaeus and Victor's daies So that in some sew perhaps 40 hours were elder then Irenaeus's days but 40 days elder then these devised hours this change in some was help't on perhaps by the bodily infirmity of a fewer number amongst those few who could not perform more in honour to our Saviours forty dayes fast for us then a fast of forty hours handsomely accommodated a Therefore Irenaeus's word is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã also to the 40 hours of our Lords being given up unto death which was from about nine or ten on Good-Friday to the hours of one or two on Sunday morning which yet I think could not be the bounds of their fast for then should not the morning of Good-Friday have been any part of their Paschal fast which never was heard of nor would any admit On this accommodation others who had no such bodily infirmity yet gladly as is likely laid hold till it became at length a noted different way of fasting the Paschal fast and is now again in our age advanced to give check to the elder simple plain manner of forty days abstinence of fasting But that Irenaeus should recite those pittances of one or two days or forty hours as approved by him or as indifferent and equally good and regular with the former simple and plain custome no man can imagine that either considers what Ancient Books have wrote of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the form of that fast or so much as what Irenaeus writes as his censure in the very next following words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Through those who not accurately holding the former form of the fast have changed the custome which was after simplicity and plainness into that which followed after Of which words more hereafter But first for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some one day which if it were regular would yet joyn with the rest in condemning those among us who are for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for never an one as Dionysius of Alexandria noted some in their practise to be Epistolâ ad Basilidem It is manifest indeed that one day there was in the year of the more solemn united publick Fast of the whole congregation meeting both young and old in the Church after Nocturns at the morning hour when our Lord was carried from the Councel of the Elders chief Priests and Scribes to Pilates judgement-hall Again at the third hour when the Lord was lifted up upon his cross at the sixth hour when the Sun was darkned and at the ninth hour when our Lord gave up the Ghost as may be seen in the distribution of portions of Scriptures in that ancient Syriack-Bible to be read in the Church at all these hours of the Parasceue crucifixionis or Good-Friday There was one day saith Tertullian while yet no Montanist l. de oratione c. 14 Dies Paschae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quo communis quasi publica jejunii religio est nihil curantes de occultando quod cum omnibus faciamns The Pasch of Good-Friday in which the religion of the fast is common to all and in a sort publick we not caring then to hide that which we do in common withall but that the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Paschal fast of the single private Christians of ordinary strength should be regularly but one day is far from the meaning of Irenaeus or any other ancient Ecclesiastical writer which may appear as from Irenaeus's censure of these variations so also from the 23d chapter the third before this where the plea and pretence of both contending parts being recited and tradition Apostolical alledged upon the part that Irenaeus was of and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a tradition as ancient as from S. Iohn Sozomen tells us was alledged upon the other part which Irenaeus would have
to be forborn the plea of both their traditions met in this that on easter-Easter-day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seu ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so the decrees of their several Synods also concluded for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on the day of the Lords resurrection So that the Paschal fast according to them and their pleaded traditions Apostolical on al hands was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã only or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the fasts or fasting dayes that were to end in Easter not the fasting day The Church in like manner in Tertullian opposed to the Montanists quod ad jejunia pertineat certos dies à Deo constitutos certe in Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos in quibus ablatus est sponsus That there were certain dayes appointed by God for fastings that in the Gospel those dayes were determined for fastings on which the bridegroom was taken away Certain dayes not day those dayes not only that day so Dionysius of Alexandria Epistolâ ad Basilidem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By all it will be confessed that we must humble our souls with FASTINGS until the feast of Easter To this adde that the 24 Paschal Epistles or Sermons of Theophilus and Cyril Patriarchs of Alexandria each of them do conclude that according to Evangelical or Apostolical traditions constitutions or teachings they should end or dissolve ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 't is still plurally the Fasts on Easter Eve The 45 Canon of the Laodicaean Councel confirmed in general Councel tell us of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the holy fasts not fasting day of Lent St. Ambrose thought more commanded by God to Christians of an ordinary strength then the fast of a day in Lent when he said l. de jejunio Ecclesiâ propitiâ divinitate ecce jam penè transegimus Quadragesimae indicta jejunia praecepta Domini abstinentiae devotione complevimus Where he calls the many fasts indicted in one Lent the precepts of God 2. Irenaeus by his recital that some thought they ought to fast two days and no more and others more cannot be understood as if Irenaeus approved that number which Dionysius his words the Patriarch of Alexandria within a few years after disparaged greatly even when performed with greatest severity of superposition or fasting to cock-crowing as if they thought they did some great matter saith he the question which Christians were wont to propound one to another in St. Chrysostomes time homil 16 ad popul Antiochen was not how many hours nor how many days they had fasted of that Lent but how many weeks ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ye might hear them answer none of them one but some two some three some all ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Therefore there was a Known all which all know to have been so many as contain 40 days and that two or three weeks were not all much less two or three dayes all the days But the question may be put against that ancient glosse that they who fasted 40 hours did it an hour for a day How that can be when no mention is of 40 days no nor of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before Irenaeus's time To this though it be an argument drawn only negatively from testimony as silent which speaks nothing to any proof especially so far off when they might speak out and we not hear of it and in an age whereof so few monuments are left remaining yet it may be said that if ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be found then 40 days for what ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã distinctly signifies it being purely an Ecclesiastical word surely the Churches use and interpretation of that word where ever any thing distinct can certainly be known as it may in a thousand places must needs be a better Lexicon to us then our own interessed conjectures from the origination common to both Now let one Ecclesiastical record be shewn where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã must signifie a fast of forty hours for though here is such a fast in Irenaeus yet no such name here and we will produce numberless ancient monuments of the Church where it is impossible to be forty hours but must be many weeks such as the 45 50 and 51 Canons of Laodicea yea where it must needs signifie the fast of forty days precisely as where they are precisely reckoned up as in most of the 24 Epistles Paschal of Theophilus and St. Cyril and what the use of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quadragesima soon after Irenaeus signified in the Church is most considerable as to this enquiry Now when it is in Origen hom 10. in Levit. c. 16. Nos habemus quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos we have the days of quadragesima consecrated to Fasts it cannot be meant of one fast or of fortie hours only but of days it is and that 's the nearest to Irenaeus's time which can be shewn Now hear we the whole entire passage of Irenaeus which is this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã About the reading whereof or punctation and about rendring of the former part of it we shall easily agree Neither is the controversie only about the day of Easter but also concerning the form it self of the fast for some think that they ought to fast one day some two others also more and some by forty houres of day-time and of night commensurate their day And such variety of those that keep the fast c. Hitherto we have little difference with our brethren but as to that which follows just cause of great complaint of the abuse of the Author and of the Reader and of the fast For those following words we say our brethren in the 66 Page of their grand debate have translated amiss to their own advantage for the disparagement of the Paschal fast in these words With our Ancestors who as is most like propagated to posterity a custome which they retained as brought in by a certain simplicity and private will instead of those words from the Greek with our Ancestors who less accurately as is most like retaining the form of the fast above mentioned have changed the simple and plain custome or the custome which was after a simple and plain manner of speaking into that which followed after For 4. words our brethren put in which are not in the Greek either formally or virtually viz. brought in say they that their English reader might think that Irenaeus had said that even that which Irenaeus's Ancestors retained and not then devised the custome of the fast was brought in by a certain simplicity and private will Tell us now I pray what one word is there in your Author which ye pretend to translate that signifies brought in or brought in by a certain simplicity and private will but if there be no word of bringing in by a certain simplicity c. but only of changing
some too forwardly pressed even throughout all the forty daies and as a duty for so the words must ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be understood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now whether we follow this reading or the other all the definite numbers as there managed are recited by Irenaeus as deviations from the plain and simple manner and both readings suppose the use of forty daies Absââ¦inence as being before in the Church To the rest of your Allegations answer shall as fully be made in the 8. chapter only here because you bid us in your 66th pagE read the rest of the Chapter we have so done but finde nothing that favours your cause but still against you more then enough for in the following part of the Chapter Irenaeus tells Victor that Anieââ¦tus his predecessour could not perswade Polycarp whom above he calls the blessed Polycarp not to keep Easter according to the tradition in Asia ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As which he had ever kept or observed with St. Iohn the Disciple of our Lord and the rest of the Apostles with whom he had conversed Here if the blessed and holy martyr Polycarp be to be believed as he is by all sober Christians in the world it is undeniably certain that St. Iohn the Apostle and other Apostles and Polycarp with St. Iohn the Apostle and with those other Apostles with whom he had conversed did constantly keep an Annual set feast of Easter And now I leave it to you to tell us who they are that have taught the Sectaries to condemn the observation of such Anniversary set feasts and particularly that Anniversary day of Easter as superstitious and not agreeable to the purity of the best Christians Against whom I enter this charge even against all that so at any time teach Christian people that they are undeniably found condemners of St. Iohn the Apostle and of other Apostles of the Lord I adde even in that wherein Saint Iohn and those other Apostles of the Lord agreed with St. Peter and St. Paul in that wherein Polycarp and Anicetus agreed Polycrates and Victor agreed were all of one accord had one custome both those Apostles which towards their later end abode in Europe and those which so abode in Asia and the Bishops their successors in the West and in the East the first and second age before and after St. Iohn's death until Polycarp yea until Victors time and 't is known even until our time also For their time so much was pleaded as may be seen by comparing this of Euseb. l. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with cap. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and with Sozomen l. 7. 19. Now how sure a witness this Holy Polycarp was in what he said of the Apostles and said he knew by conversing with them Irenaeus whom you have produced shall tell you l. 3 c. 3. his own Greek words we have in Euseb. l. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Polycarp was not only the Disciple of the Apostles and had conversed with many that had seen Christ but was by the Apostles constituted Bishop in Asia of the Church of Smyrna whom also we have seen He gloriously and most remarkably suffering martyrdome departed out of this life having alwayes taught those things which he had learned of the Apostles which also the Church doth deliver and which only are true And all the Churches in Asia do bear him this record And yet either this Polycarp must now be found a false witness of what he had seen done by the Apostles when he conversed with them and of what he had done and done constantly with them or else the Apostles did observe some Anniversary set holy day and this particularly and those that have clamoured on this and the like as superstitious are found condemners of the Apostles themselves This is the charge let it not be forgot to be wiped off And since you bid us to read on we read on still but to the very next words after your direction and behold the Bishops Narcissus Theophilus Cassius and Clarus of the same time with Irenaeus and others with them assembled in Palestina ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in their writing or decree discoursing much concerning the tradition of the Apostles touching Easter which had come down to them by succession and the fast confessedly on all hands was to preceed the feast of Easter and so in cap. 23. we read of an Apostolical tradition received and practised also in more then three parts of the world ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That the Fasts should be ended on no other day of the week then the Sunday the day of the Lords resurrection And therefore fasts were to have their place and being as well as their ending before the day of that Feast according to Apostolical tradition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A custome begun from Apostolical tradition and obtaining even until now And those fewer Churches which did not so end their fasts as making Easter-day only Sunday yet pleaded tradition also no less ancient ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That the dissolutions of the Fasts ought to be at Easter for ending the Fasts at Easter-day nevertheless on whatsoever day of the week that were So that the tradition of all the world was for ending certain fasting-days at Easter And for more then three parts of the world it was pleaded in that very place that it was from Apostolical tradition that they observed such custome of so ending their Fasts CHAP. VI. In what regard the Forty dayes of the Quadragesima were of Apostolical recommendation and in what regard of Ecclesiastical Constitution THat some Paschal or Lent i. e. Spring-fast before Easter was ever from the Apostles time and of Apostolical tradition and constitution hath been sufficiently evidenced both in the whole body of the discourse above and also in the whole fourth Chapter of this Appendage We proceed now to the consideration of the forty days and to the declaration how the observance thereof was ever in the Christian Church as a special time of spiritual exercise and abstinence for the generality of Christian people from recommendation Apostolical a Ab Apostolis Traditum Commendatum Howbeit the precept of such forty dayes abstinence and much more the precept of forty dayes fast as also of other Ecclesiastical discipline and Ecclesiastical Administrations respecting Penitents or Catechumens respecting publick Penances Absolutions Catechizings solelmn Baptisme Synods of Bishops and other the like specially affixed and determined to that time may well be allowed to be of Ecclesiastical constitution But it is meet to begin with that which is even in this of forty daies also of Apostolical Recommendation For the proof whereof I might permit it to the judgement of any Reader whether a great and sufficient number of the Authorities by me above produced though brought only to prove some Paschal or Lentenââ¦ast before Easter to have been of Tradition and Institution Apostolical have not evidenced
can be shewn so early as in Irenaeus's daies should consider whether what S. Austin wrote in his 2d Book de Doctrinâ Christianâ c. 16. Quadraginta diebus jejunare monemur Hoc lex cujus persona est in Mose hoc prophetia cujus personam gerit Elias Hoc ipse Dominus monet qui tanquà m testimonium habens ex lege prophetis medius inter illos in monte 3 Discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit We are admonish'd to fast forty days this the Law whose person Moses bare this the Prophets whose person Elias sustained this the Lord himself admonisheth us who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the mount the three Disciples beholding with astonishment And what St. Hierome writes in l. 2 advers Iovinian Est Dominus qui Quadraginta diebus Christianorum jejunium sanctificavit And on Iona 3. Ipse quoque Dominus jejunavit 40 dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero animas nostras praeparat And on Isa. 58 Dominus quadraginta diebus in solitudine jejunavit ut nobis solennes jejuniorum dies relinqueret The Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness and hath thereby sanctified the Christians fast and left to us the solemn days of fastings leaving to us that inheritance of the fast and preparing our souls to the eating of his body under this number of forty They should consider whether I say Irenaeus himself can no where be found beside if in that Epistle to have given some such fair intimation I shall produce a passage from him at large because I have not seen it by any observ'd to this purpose it is in his fifth book against heresies c. 18. Primò quidem diebus 40 jejunus Dominus similiter ut Moyses Helias posteà esuriit ut hominem eum verum firmum intelligamus proprium enim est hominis jejunantis esurire Deinde autem ut baberet Adversarius ubi congrederetur Quoniam enim in principio per escam non esurientem hominem seduxit transgredi praeceptum Dei in fine esurientem non potuit dissuadere eam quae à Deo esset sustinere escam Quae ergo suit in Paradiso repletio hominis per duplicem gustationem dissoluta est per eam quae fuit in hoc mundo indigentiam seu inediam Quoniam enim initio homini suasit transgredi praeceptum factoris ideò eum habuit in suâ potestate potestas autem est transgressio Apostasia his colligavit hominem lapsum Per hominem ipsum Christum iterùm oportebat victum eum contrariò colligari iisdem vinculis quibus alligavit hominem ut homo qui lapsus fuerat colligatus solutus revertatur ad suum Dominuns illa vincula relinquens gulae inter caetera per quae ipse fuerat alligatus i. e. transgressionis NOS AUTEM SOLUTOS PER IPSUM PRAECEPTUM DOCUIT ESURIENTES QUIDEM SUSTINERE EAM QUAE A DEO DATUR ESCAM First of all the Lord fasting forty days like as Moses and Elias had done was afterwards an hungred that we might know him to be true and undoubted man for that it properly belongs to man when he fasts to be an hungred Next also that Satan might have a field to fight in and encounter him for because in the beginning the Devil seduced man by food to transgress the precepts of God while he consented not to abstain therefore in the end the Devil was not able to disswade the man Christ Jesus from waiting for that food which is given of God The repletion therefore of man which was in Paradise by the double tasting viz. of Adam and Eve was dissolv'd through that abstinence which Christ exercis'd in the world for in as much as in the beginnning Satan perswaded man to transgress the precept of his Maker and therefore had man deliver'd into his own power which his power over man lay in mans transgression and apostacy wherewith he held man fast bound therefore it was needful that he should by man himself the Man Christ Jesus be himself again overcome and be in contrary manner himself bound fast in the same bonds wherewith he had bound man viz. in the trial of eating and abstinence that man who had been bound being now loosed by Christ might return to his own Lord leaving those bonds viz. of being led by the belly to obey Satan wherewith he had been held fast bound the bonds of his transgression FOR HE HATH TAUGHT US NOW LOOSED BY HIS COMMAND IT SELF THAT HUNGRING OR FASTING WE SHOULD SO WAIT FOR THAT FOOD WHICH IS GIVEN OF GOD. viz. I understand the holy food of his body and blood then wont most solemnly to be received by all Christian people at Easter after their fastings as appears by the Allegations in Irenaeus his time of such fasts ending in the feast of Easter according to traditions and customes much elder then Irenaeus and delivered from the Apostles And he must be much ignorant of Christianity who can doubt whether the most solemn Christian festival in the year were or not a solemn time of receiving the Holy Sacrament If forty-days abstinence were not in publick use in Irenaeus's time it must be more then strange how Origen living so near his time should in the name of Christians say Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos And those there by him remembred as his first instance of abstinentia Christiana Not that we may saith he let loose the reins of Christian abstinence hom 10 in Levit. These Homilies are Origens's own saith Gerard and these fasts of the Quadragesima are the Christians own saith Origen Who it cannot be wondred should mention the Quadragesima in his Homilies who in his eighth book against Celsus acknowledges and defends egainst Celsus the common manner of all Christians in observance of the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Of which Tertullian before had said speaking of a custome common to the Catholicks with his Montanists Cur Pascha celebramus annuo circulo Cur dicamus jejuniis Parasceuen For we have the days of Quadragesima or the forty days consecrated to fastings viz. a consecrated chief part of the Christian abstinence About this time might that Canon be made the 68th among the Apostolical Canons confirmed in the second Canon of the sixth general Council in Trullo under severe penalty censuring either Bishop or Priest or other Clergy or Lay. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If any should not fast the holy Quadragesima or space of forty which preceeds the Pasch or Easter Which as to the sanction of penalty and strictness of precept we yield not to be from the Apostles but from the successours of the Apostles in their respective times to the Churches governed by them A precept Ecclesiastical only as to the commanded number of forty which yet was if not then in the ages of the Church
since GENERALLY commanded as may appear by the 50 51 52. Canons of the Councel of Laodicaea and those Canons ratified in the fourth and sixth general Councels Which Canons of Laodicaea provide not only for the keeping ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and again ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but also that men should beware ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to dishonour the fast of forty days Yet though such abstinence of forty days were not commanded by the Apostles but by the Church we have shewn notwithstanding that it was of Apostolical recommendation And who is there not almost since the writings of Christian Bishops came to be more frequent and to be better preserved unto our hands viz. since the days of Constantine which doth not witness so much at least We have but even now recited St. Austin and St. Hierom. Briefly there is not one of the twenty four indubitable Paschal Epistles or Homilies of Theophilus and St. Cyril of Alexandria which doth not witness the abstinence of forty dayes before Easter to have descended from the Apostles or from instruction Evangelical from the Lord which also was not taught the world but by the Apostles For the several testimonies of St. Ambrose in Millan Leo in Rome of Basil and Gregory Nazianzen in the East of Chrysologus Caesarius and others I rather refer you to the preceding discourse from p. 46. and forward then here repeat them It remains now to shew in what sense the observance of the forty days was of constitution only Ecclesiastical And such it was first if we respect the precept of fasting forty days secondly if we respect the several sanctions of Ecclesiastical penalties which the Governours of the Church did and might justly as they saw cause decree thirdly in respect of some particular kinds of meats prohibited with the allowance of others because such distinction generally may be profitable to the ends of fasting within the compass yet of which law and of the letter of it men may for so may any humane law be abused chuse to themselves such of the meats allowed as may be but an exchange of pleasures and in no wise less contrary to the ends of fasting then the meats forbidden Which argues as the shifting wickedness of sensuality so also the imperfection of any law that can by men be set about matters in themselves so various and infinite unless it meet with such as obey the laws of their superiours for conscience sake and in their conscience bearing honest and faithful regard to the end of the law this will be found true whether we consider the rules of the Ancients concerning their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the more modern prohibitions of all flesh but the flesh of Fish or in other places also of lacticinia milk-meats or elsewhere also of some fruits a St. Aust. l. 30. con Faust. Manich cap. 3. 5. And yet may there be chosen such dry meats or such fish or such unforbidden fruits or even such panis deliciarum bread of delight as no man can pretend that any Apostle ever thought better of for the mortifying the flesh or humbling the soul then of some sort of food by the Church forbidden And yet the law may to the generality be profitable and when it is a law undispensed with must be obeyed and when it is abused by the devices of fleshly mindes the fault is theirs Fourthly The observation of forty days is a constitution Ecclesiastical also as to some purposes of the Church such as are those above mentioned which will best appear by the words of such ancient authors as sometimes have call'd the observance of forty dayes a constitution of the Church We will begin with that most remarkable one in St. Chrysostomes hom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã have prescrib'd delineated set a stamp up on figured ouâ⦠or copied unto us 40 daies of Fast c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Many of old have been wont to come to the mysteries or Sacrament indifferently and at adventure as if simply to come only and eat were sufficient especially at this season of Easter or the great week on which Christ deliver'd it The Fathers therefore knowing well and aware of the harm which proceeds from such careless coming to the Sacrament meeting together have prescribed forty daies of Fasting of prayers of hearing of the word of Synods for correction of evil manners and abuses that all of us together being in these daies purified with all diligent care both by prayers and by alms and by fasting and by whole-nights-watches and by tears and by confession or the whole ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of penances and satisfaction to the Church and by all other means might so come to the Sacrament with a pure conscience so far as is possible to us And that they have wrought great reformation and good working us to a habit and custome of fasting is manifest Where first we are to observe that even laws also Apostolical in some sort may by the Churches Governours be reinforc'd pressed and envigorated in new Canons Sanctions and Decrees where they shall see it needful Secondly Much more things which descend from Recommendation Apostolical may upon some appearing emergent need be by them made laws Ecclesiastical for some times and places Thirdly That the Appropriation of such season of forty daies to some such purposes as by this our Author here are named viz. for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of offenders any way made known their Confessions and satisfactions to the Church for publick hearing of Sermons for publick night-watches and constant fastings for Synods of Bishops designed to the correction of evil manners and abuses may be properly by an order rule and application Ecclesiastical a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Fathers of the Church and yet the Recommendation of those forty daies to especial abstinence and Devotion especially unto the generality of Christians who do not This exception Cassianus makes above as some ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Religious exercise themselves in fastings as it were all the year long be Apostolical For even S. Chrysostom who wrote this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã yet in Hom. 11. on Genesis speaking of the forty daies observed by that Church in about eight weeks with exemption of each Saturday and Sunday tells his Auditors that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the holy time of Lent to such as undertake this course of fasting THE LORD HATH INDULGED these two weekly daies like certain stages or inns shores or havens that both the body may be a little relaxed from its labours of the fasting c. Where by saying the Lord hath indulged those daies he at least implies that the Lord hath directed and recommended the other And he uses the same word in that place of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A second Authority is that of S. Hierom upon Galat. 4. where having recorded together the observation quartae
Sabbati parasceues dici Dominicae jejunii Quadragesimae Festivitatis Paschae ac Pentecostes Of the fourth day of the week and of Friday of the Lords-day and of the Fast of the Quadragesima or forty daies of Lent and of the Festivities of Easter and Pentecost which some might object against as the observation of daies and moneths and times He answers Ad quod qui simpliciter respondebit dicet non eosdem iudaicae observationis dies esse quos nostros Et ne inordinata congregatio populi fidem minueret in Christo proptereà dies aliqui constituti sunt ut in unum omnes pariter veniremus Non quò celebrior sit dies illa quâ convenimus sed quò quâcunque die conveniendum sit ex conspectu mutuo laetitia major oriatur Qui verò oppositae quaestioni acutiùs respondere conatur illud affirmat Omnes dies aequales esse nââ¦c per Parasceuen tantùm Christum Cruciââ¦igi die Dominicâ resurgere sed semper sanctum Resurrectionis esse diem A like answer Origen makes to Celsus l. 8. Quòd ãâã quâ⦠nobis ex adversâ⦠regerat nostras Dominââ¦ces parasceuásque aut Pascha aut Pentecosten recurrentes solenniter Respondendum est ad hoc quòd qui persectus est Ratione operihus cogitationibus perpetuò haerens Dâ⦠verbo naturali nostro Domino semper ââ¦git Dies Domini seu Dominicoâ⦠nunquam non habet Diem Dominicum semper eum carne vesci Dominicâ ââ¦junia autem congregationes inter dies propter ââ¦os A VIRIS PRUDENTIBUS CONSTITUTOS qui magis seculo vacant quà m Deo nââ¦c possunt imò nolunt toto in Ecclesiâ vitae suae tempore congregari ante humanos actus Deo orationum suarum offerre sacrificium Itaque sicut nobis licet vel jejunare semper vel semper orarâ⦠diem Dominicam accepto Domini corpore indesinentèr celebrare gaudentibus Non ita Iudaeis ââ¦as est omni tempore immolare agnum c. To which he which will answer simply shall say that the daies of Judaical observance are not the same which are ours And leââ¦t the inordinate congregation of the people should lessen their faith in Christ therefore certain daies are appointed that we might all meet together in one Not that such day wherein we meet is more excellent but that on whatsoever day we meet a greater joy may arise unto us from seeing each other Howbeit he who endeavours more acutely to satisfie the Objection opposed affirms that all daies are equal that neither Christ is only crucify'd on Good-friday nor riseth again only on the Lords-day but that the Holy Day of his Resurrection is alwaies and that he alwaies feeds on the flesh of the Lord. But that Fasts and Congregations on certain daies were appointed by wise men for their sakes who are more employed in the world then towards God who neither can yea nor will assemble themselves in the Church the whole time of their life and offer up the sacrifice of their prayers unto God before humane actions Therefore not as it is lawful unto us either to fast alwaies or to pray alwaies and receiving the Lords body with joy incessantly to celebrate a Lords day not so I say was it lawful to the Jewes on every day to offer up the Paschal Lamb c. Here first we are to observe that both the Objection and the Answer of S. Hierom in express terms proceed equally of the Lords-day as of the Fast of Lent or of the Stations or of the Feast of Easter So as that the Opposers of this Paschal Fast if they will with us own the Lords-day to have been delivered to us from the Lord and from the Apostles are with us concerned to give a fair and just interpretation unto S. Hierom's words Secondly that all daies are in themselves equal Thirdly that the Difference betwixt the Jewes observation of daies and times and moneths from the Christians is that many of their chief services of God as their offering the Paschal Lamb or the Sacrifice of Atonement and the like might not by them be perform'd but on such daies only to which by God they were restrained But there is no such high service of Christianity as the Holy Eucharist Publick Confessions of sins and Praises the service of publick Prayers and of Preaching and Hearing Gods Word which may not upon just occasion be performed unto Almighty God acceptably on any day Fourthly That the great benefits and mercies given us by God such as are His Son's Birth and Dying for us and Resurrection His Ascension and sending down the Holy Ghost are of us alwaies to be remembred Fifthly that notwithstanding it is needful to the Ghostly health of the Generality of Christian people and profitable to all that a weekly Lords-day should be as there is prescribed unto all from God and Christ and taught us by his Apostles on the day of his Resurrection the first day of the week and not any other weekly day to be the Lords-day and also annual daies for the memory of Christs Passion Resurrection c. which we have been taught also from the same Apostles as the same Catholick Church practises and witnesses in all ages Sixthly That to look on the perfection of some few who are daily and as it were continual in Fastings in Prayers in receiving the Holy Eucharist in Hearing God's Word c. and not to look on or regard the imperfection and weakness of the generality of Christian people which neither can as S. Hierom sayes and much more will not such is the imperfect disposition of their minds assemble themselves daily is a great want of the perfection of charity and wisdom which shines in the Church of God Seventhly That therefore certain daies for Fasts and for Congregations for the sake of Gods people have been appointed by wisdome given from God Eighthly That whereas S. Hierom saies such daies have been appointed by wise men we trust that since it was a wisdom needful in all ages and as well in the Apostles times especially in some distance of time after the great measures of the Spirit had been given in the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Ierusalem in some degree as in after-times which appears by the Apostles complaint of his Corinthians and Galatians and of the Hebrews forsaking the assembling of themselves together cap. 10 We trust I say they will allow the Apostles to have been filled with the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Wisdome for that purpose that they should be for the Churches present and perpetual good men wise in their constitutions principally that as S. Paul said of himself in some of his written Constitutions 1 Cor. 7. 12. To the rest speak I not the Lord viz. not by express word when he was upon earth as he had that of vers 10. 11. and vers 40. She is happier after my judgement and yet in both those he
thought and we think also that he had the Spirit of God so some things are said to be constituted by men and not the Lord which yet is more then S. Hierom said in this case when not expresly commanded by the Lords own mouth on earth though they be constituted by such men as were constituted by God to guide his Church infallibly By those we mean the Apostles of the Lord. And so constituted was the Lords-day and the Paschal-Fast of Lent and the Feast of Easter c. certainly according to S. Hierom's meaning as appears by his own express words Nos unam Quadragesimam toto anno tempore nobis congruo secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum jejunamus We fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year not three as the Montainsts in a fit season according to the Tradition of the Apostles And yet thrice he saies that the Fast of the forty daies was sanctified by the Lord was left as an inheritance from the Lord l. 2. Con. Iovin and on Ion. 3. Isa. 58. But it may well be from the Lord and from the Apostles as above declared and proved and yet from the Church from wise men and Governours in the Church as to the inviting occasioning thereby and compelling such as S. Hierom there describes qui nolunt which otherwise would not assemble themselves in the Church as to the Congregationes inter dies which he mentions A third Authour which is produced is Victor Antiochenus living in the same Age with St. Hierom on Mark 2. where he thus writes Enimverò inter eos qui in Moyse eos rursum qui in lege gratiae Iejuniis dant operam hoc praeter caetera interest quod illi quidem jejunia à Deo praefinita habebant quae proinde modis omnibus explere obligabantur etiamsi alià s noluissent Hi verò virtutis amore liberaque voluntatis electione jejunant veriùs quam ullâ omninò legis coactione Quòd si verò Quadragesimale vel aliud quodc unque jejunium definitum habemus propter ignavos negligentes quò nimirùm ii quoque officium faciant praefinitum habemus Studioââ¦i namque pietatââ¦que dediti certo animi consilio propensâque voluntate jejunium illud persolvunt magis quà m ullâ omninò legis aut praecepti vi compulsi Betwixt those truly which fast under the Law of Moses and those again which fall under the Law of Christ there is this difference beside others that they indeed had their Fasts predefined by God viz. by his express written Law for the number manner and rigour thereof which they were by all means obliged to fulfill although otherwise they would not But these fast more truly from the love of virtue and free choice of will than by any coaction at all of Law And if we have a Quadragesimal Fast or any other defined it is for the slothfull and negligent that they to wit may do their duty that we have it so predefined For they which are studious and virtuous and devoted to piety do pay that Fast by a certain purpose of of their minde and ready will rather than compelled by any force at all of Law or Precept Here you are first to remember that I have above laid down this concession that the Precept or Law of Fasting forty days is of Constitution Ecclesiastical onely Albeit even forty days abstinence we have shewed to be of Apostolical recommendation To this Victor's words here agree concerning the Fast Quadragesimal or of forty days which if we abstract from Law Ecclesiastical Christians perform veriùs virtutis amore quam ullâ omninò legis coactione Or as also he said a little before Non quòd aliquâ legis necessitate ad hoc adigentur sed quòd hoc medium veluti salutare opportunum ad virtutis perfectionââ¦sque studium suo posteà tempore adhibituri sint Which agrees with what we have observed from our Lord's words Luke 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that they are partly a Prediction In those days they will fast by a certain Law of gratitude which the Apostles would practise and teach the Church more truly than by any coaction of Law as Victor here says Such coaction of Law Victor declares himself here to mean as was the coaction of fear compelling them to fulfil those Fasts Quae modis omnibus explore obligabantur etiamsi alià s noluissent Though otherwise they would not Not as the Christians from the force of love and by the Law of gratitude and of a ready minde Quòd hoc medium veluti salutare opportunum suo posted tempore adhibituri sint Secondly we are to observe that Victor here doth not deny but rather grant some sort of Law and constitution for some time and season of fasting given to Christians while he saith Quòd si verò Quadragesimale vel aliud quodc unque jejunium definitum habemus and forthwith adds habemus praefinitum We have such Fast prescribed And a little after Iejunium illud persolvunt they pay that Fast therefore that Fast was their duty though that duty they performed magis propensâ voluntate quà m ullâ legis vi compulsi veriùs amore virtutis liberâque voluntatis electione choosing the things that please God quà m ullâ omninò coactione legis This being from the law of the spirit of bondage the other from no less a true law of the Spirit of Love ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they will and shall fast Where though ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã be not expressed yet it is as well included in the word as when he saith Iohn 19. 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And they shall they will hear my voice And Matth. 21. 41. They shall they will render unto him the fruits of the vineyard Thirdly when Victor saith Propter ignavos negligentes jejunium praefinitum habemus that we have a law if any saith he of the Quadragesimal Fast prefined or prescribed by reason of the slothfull and negligent Of which sort there are and ever will be many in the Church amongst the generality of Christians whose consideration must not be contemned but ever was ground sufficient for the prefinition of some law of fasting to be given in general which being given all must obey as well those which yet equally would do it without a law as others who need such a law The strong this way also bearing the infirmities of the weak Of this see more in our Interpretation last given to St. Hierom's words Fourthly the entire occasion and ground of Victor's words was his scope to shew that the Iudaical Fasts did not now oblige the Apostles or Christian people as appears by his preceding words Cùm enim Apostoli novi T. praecones doctores sint instituti non debent nunc veterem caeremoniarum observationum legibus obstringi Vos itaque O Pharisaei qui priscis illis ritibus consuetudinibus etiamnum addicti obstrictique haereticis Mosaica jejunia meritò observatis Isti verò
qui ut nova antéque inaudita praecepta leges hominibus tradant designati sunt ad vestras jejunationes hoc tempore compelli non debent nec jure quoque valent At suis nihilominus locis unà cum caeteris virtutibus jejunii quoque observam iam Religionem ostensuri sunt Non quod aliquà legis necessitate h. e. legis terrore ad haec adigentur aut quòd vestro more aut sensu veteribus ritibus adhuc insistendum arbitrabuntur For since the Apostles are appointed Preachers and Teachers of the New Testament they ought not now to be bound by the laws of the old Ceremonies and observances You therefore O Pharisees viz. those that came to the Lord Mar. 2. who as yet addict your selves to those old rites customes and are bound up by Hereticks full well do ye observe the Mosaical Fasts But they who were designed to deliver unto men new Precepts and Laws not before heard of ought not and in right cannot be compelled to your Fastings in this time viz. of the Gospel But nevertheless they shall also together with other virtues show forth their OBSERVANCE AND RELIGION OF FASTING IN ITS PROPER PLACES OR SEASONS viz. In those days when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them to which Victor was here speaking on Mark 2. Not that they shall be driven or compelled thereunto by some legal necessity viz. as of old by terrour of Law nor by any express written Precept of God or that they shall deem that they ought after your manner and sense insist still on the old Rites or Rites of the old Law The sum is The Christian Law of Liberty which is not less obliging because such is principally a Law of Gratitude which is not wont to have all its measures and manner and degrees minutely and expresly defined Yet such obligation it hath to some great Evangelical mercies and benefits from God as are these of which we speak of Christ's Agony Death and Passion for our sins and his being raised from the dead for our Justification that never did any Apostle or other ancient Christians think the Christian Church less obliged to the solemn memory of the former at the set season or time thereof in the publick Religion of Fasting by them that were well able and knowing thereof or of the latter on the solemn joy or Festivity of Easter than the Iews were though not bound by any express written precept as they to their observation of their Paschal feast or their Humiliation on the day of Atonement For no Christian heart may deny that the Evangelical benefits and mercies which we have received of God beyond what they had doth as much increase our obligation in that regard beyond theirs as their precept was and needed to be more expresly written than ours Yet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall fast so shall their obligation and their needs require ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they will fast so will their gratitude and love compel them according to that of Psal. 110 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Therefore we said also that the abstinence for such measures of time as their forty dayes if ye abstract from law Ecclesiastical was of Tradition but that of recommendation Apostolical For there were as I have shewn you from the ancients some observances ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by precept and some ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some left to the willing choice of devotion ab Apostolis tradita commendata as St. Austin speaks l. 2. de Baptismo con Donatistas Hence it is that Saint Hierom writes in his Epistle 22. ad Eustochium Iejunium totius anni aequale est perhaps he means in each week ordinarily and at the four seasons of the year equally distributed exceptâ Quadragesimâ in quâ CONCEDITUR districtiùs vivere Except the fast of fortie days in which we have fair leave to live more severely So also in his seventh Epistle to Laeta about the bringing up of her daughter Prohibens in tenellâ aetate onera abstinentiae in Quadragesimâ tamen inquit continentiae vela pandenda sunt tota aurigae retinacula equis laxanda properantibus Severe burdens of abstinence are not to be laid on tender years yet in Lent saith he you may hoise up sails to her abstinence and lay loose upon the neck all the reins when ye see her of her own forwardness speeding The Quadragesimal fast hath a goodly space and lovely recommendation for our exercise therein a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith St. Cyril Patriarch of Ierusalem Catech. 1. You have the space of penance or repentance the forty dayes you have a large opportunity both for putting off the old garments and washing your self clean and of putting on the wedding garments and of entring in into the marriage feast And indeed as the property of the grace of the Gospel would that much should be left to the willing choice of our Christian thankfulness so the nature it self of humane bodies and mindes makes it not reasonable so much as generally to prescribe the same measures Which St. Basil the great observed to himself l. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ad ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Neither is it possible to prescribe any the same law for the time of mens refection nor for the manner nor for the measure Yea of this very Paschal fast Gregory Nazianzen in his fortieth Oration thus wisely teacheth us comparing Christs forty days fast and our Paschal abstinence he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Christ fasted a little before his temptation we before Easter the matter of fastings is one Christ indeed fasted forty dayes for he was God but we proportionate this to our power though zeal carry some beyond their strength Though this be so plain yet at last I expect to have it objected that so many of the Fathers even by me produced do call the fast of forty days not only a tradition but also a precept of the Apostles or of the Lord. As when St. Ambrose saith l. de Iejun Eliâ Behold through the mercies of God we have passed through the indicted fasts of Quadragesima or forty dayes and have fulfilled with the devotion of abstinence the commands of the Lord. But this he might say though all the forty days were not if something within it were commanded of God But when the abstinence of forty days is expresly mentioned it is more frequently then said that it is according to tradition or institution or instruction Apostolical or Evangelical than by precept of the Gospel or of the Apostles And if in some instance it be called their precept when the extent of forty days is mentioned since such speaches occur much more seldome we are to interpret them by the more usual The love of Christ in some sort constraineth where no precept of his or his Apostles enjoyneth It is easie to shew that some seldome times we are
a singular way themselves different from the Church and Catholicks for which they were here contested with and that new way was of two weeks chosen at their own pleasure and kept in their Montanist congregations observed in dry or hard dyet Seventhly that this new way being taught by Montanus as a doctrine from God different from the certain days appointed the Church by God as the Catholicks there contend was justly chargeable with that which St. Paul blames in the Galatians Observing daies and times viz. besides what was appointed by God as the Lords-day and those they mention'd Certos dies à Deo constitutos These are all the Propositions which are contained in all you cite from Tertullian Now what one word is here against the Religious Fast of Lent before Easter as observed in our Common prayer-book One would think the whole allegation had been gathered by some one of your Adversaries for the Church of England against you For tell us we pray you that we may run through all the seven First Is it your society or the Church of England that observes annually the Feast of Easter and 50 daies after from that Feast unto Whitsunday in exultation and joy viz. spiritual for Christs Resurrection and Ascension Secondly Are the weekly Wednesdaââ¦es and Fridaies by you or by the Church of England rather regarded Let her Litanies on both daies and her customary Fasts on Fridaies witness Thirdly Fasting specially exercised on Good-fridaies is this the thing which you alledge for your selves against the Common-Prayer-Book of the Church of England and against the Religious Fast of Lent before Easter Fourthly Is the Church of England's publique observance of the Fast of Lent the prescription of fasts by private Schismatical Teachers such as Montanus was whose authority in requiring fasts is more like Montanus's the Church of Englands or any private mens within her Fifthly As to the Nullum aliud viz. praeter certos dies à Deo constitutos in Evangelio determinatos illos in quibus ablatus est sponsus whose prescribed fasting-daies the Church of England's religious Fast of Lent or other mens indicted fasts are more likely to be meant by the Catholicks in Tertullian saying that they had certain daies constituted by God and determined in the Gospel those viz. in which the Bridegroom was taken away Sixthly Whether doth the Church of England in her observing the Religious Fast of Lent or others in separating from the observance of that Fast more resemble the Montanists different singular waies Seventhly the certain daies appointed by God in which the Bridegroom was taken away beside which for teachers to press a fixed annual Fast any other without the authority of lawful Governours was charged by the Church as observing of daies and times and moneths and years are I say those daies more likely to be the publick religious fasts before Easter which the Church of England observes or some other you can shew us This is all you have but much more you might have brought from Tertullian to the same sense as that the Catholicks objected to those new teachers Novitatem de cujus illicito praescribunt c. 1. They object to them Novelty against the unlawfulness whereof they prescribe They the Catholicks prescribe also against the Montanists Constituta esse solennia huic fidei Scripturis vel Traditione majorum nihilque observationis amplius adjiciendum ob illicitum innovationis The next Author you alledge is a fragment of Irenaeus's Epistle in Euseb. l. 5. c. 6. which how much it makes against you and for the religious Paschal-Fast of Lent I have shewn you through the whole 5. chapter of this Appendix where I have considered that passage of Irenaeus both in it self and in relation to you whither I refer you and the reader To Socrates with Sozomen and Nicephorus we shall speak in the last place because there is much laid on him And now consider the rest of your helps to expound S. Hierom who calls the Fast of Lent a Tradition Apostolical To this you say citing Regaltius a modern Critick that S. Hierom and others calling it an Apostolical Tradition did it with respect to Christs forty daies and what then we pray you Is that against the religious observation of the Fast of Lent in our Common-Prayer-Book where our Church thus prays O Lord which for our sakes didst fast forty daies and forty nights give us grace to use such abstinence that our flesh being subdued unto the spirit c. So that what S. Hierom and the other Fathers you say did respect the same doth our Church and our Common-Prayer-Book respect viz. Christs forty daies fast And how is your objection against the Common-Prayer-Book helpt by that To what you say that they did not intend themselves any such thing as any fast of forty daies how apparently false that is found to be you may read for S. Hierom in the 54 and 55. pages of this Discourse and for the rest in the rest of the discourse Next you teach us how to expound S. Hierom by that in his Epistle ad Lucin. Unaquaeque provincia abundet in suo sensu praecepta majorum leges Apostolicas arbitretur If this were as you mean whether do the observers of the Religious Fast of Lent or you who dissent defer more to Praecepta majorum the Precepts of our Ancestors Secondly S. Hierom doth not here say that such precepts in several provinces were to be held pro Traditionibus Apostolicis To the obedience of wholesome customes Ecclesiastical whiles they are not retracted by those who rule over us and of such only S. Hierom speaks we are by Laws Apostolical obliged and yet such customes or Lawes are not nor yet are called by S. Hierom Traditions Apostolical It is a Catholick rule given by Ferrandus Diaconus in Paraenetico ad Reginam regulâ quintâ Et omnis qui se ad Ecclesiam pertinere gloriatur legibus vivat Ecclesiae maximè his quas Antiquitas roboravit Next to what you object out of S. Austin Epistle 86. if you had not withheld from us his own Explication which he adds in the same place professed by him as an Explication saying Ut suprà commemoravi it had been in the whole thus In Evangelicis Apostolicis literis totóque Instrumento quòd appellatur Testamentum Novum animo id revolvens video praeceptum esse jejunium Quibus autem diebus non oportet jejunare quibus oporteat praecepto Domini vel Apostolorum non invenio definitum Hoc est non invenimus evidenter praeceptum Now though there be no express evident written precept in the New Testament yet for all that it may be Traditio Apostolica as lest we should so mistake him so as here you have done himself hath told you of some l. 2. de Baptism contr Donatist c. 7. Quam consuetudinem credo ab Apostolica Traditione venientem Sicut multa quae non inveniuntur in literis eorum
neque in Conciliis posteriorum tamen quiâ per universam custodiuntur Ecclesiam non nisi ab ipsis tradita commendata creduntur Yea and of the particular Paschal Fast it self kept as it is also in memory of Christs Passion he tels us Illa autem quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidem toto terrarum orbe observantur dantur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis Conciliis quorum est in Ecclesiâ saluberrima autoritas commendata atque statuta retineri sicuti quòd Domini Passio Resurrectio Ascensio in exlum Adventus de coelo Spiritûs Sancti anniversariâ solennitate celebrantur Now then this Paschal Fast of Lent being observed in all the world then when he wrote that at least and indeed ever since till the present age of this controversie or thereabouts and yet not pretended by the observers thereof to have been appointed or instituted by any General Councel the very first of those Oecumenical Councels mentioning it only in the 5 th Canon as a thing famously known long before in all the world It remains therefore that according to S. Austin's rule It was delivered from the Apostles If all this convince you not that you have produced St. Austin to a purpose evidently against his own meaning it is yet more manifest how the same St. Austin who saith In Evangelicis literis non invenio evidenter praeceptum yet saith also in his hundred and nineteenth Epistle which is to Ianuarius Quadragesima sanè jejuniorum habet autoritatem in veteribus libris ex Evangelio c. The Lent truly of Fastings hath authoritie both in the old Books and out of the Gospel And Psal. 110th Quadragenario numero quo Moyses Elias ipse Dominus jejunaverunt Praecipitur enim nobis ex Lege ex Prophetis ex ipso Evangelio quod testimonium habet à Lege Prophetis In the number oâ⦠fortie daies both Moses and Elias and the Lord himself did fast for it is commanded unto us both from the Law and from the Prophets and from the Gospel it self which receiveth witness from the Law and the Prophets Now proceed we to your next Testimonie and that from St. Austin also and make triall whether you have any better success therein The place is lib. 30. contra Faustum Manichaeum cap. 5. Quantò magis quisque vel minùs voluerit vel potuerit Thence you would conclude that Christian abstinence in Lent was voluntary when as St. Austin speaks onely of the degrees of the rigour of that abstinence For he doth not say Si fortè aliquis voluerit potuerit but Quanto magis quisque vel minùs seu voluerit seu potuerit But because you give us his words so imperfect we will set them down here a little more at large The Manichean Heretick objecting thus against St. Austin and the Catholicks Quidergo vos cùm haec à vobis Passionis Christi celebrantur mysteria Si quadragesima sine vino carnibus non superstitiosè â⦠vobis sed divinâ lege servatur videte quaeso videte c. St. Austin answers Christiani non haeretici sed catholici edomandi corporis causâ propter animam ab irrationalibus motibus ampliùs humiliandam non quòd illa esse immunda credant non solùm à carnibus verùm à quibusdam etiam terrae fructibus abstinent vel semper sicut pauci vel certis diebus atque temporibus sicut per Quadragesimam ferè omnes quantò magis quisque vel minùs seu voluerit seu potuerit Vos autem ipsam creaturam negatis bonam c. Videtis ergò multum interesse inter abstinentes a cibis propter sacratam significationem vel propter corporis castigationem abstinentes à cibis quos Deus crââ¦avit dicendo quòd ââ¦os Deus non creavit Proinde illa doctrina est Prophetarum Apostolorum haec Daemoniorum mendaciloquorum You see that what you cite was spoken not of the substance of the Paschal Fast but of a certain manner or rather one part of the manner of their keeping it and that not permitted to their will save as to the degree of the rigour of it And concerning that very manner he speaketh greater words than the Common-Prayer-Book which ye would have corrected or the Church of England any where hath expressed her self in Your next Testimony Socrates being reserved is from Prosper you say lib. de vit contemplat 2. cap. 24. But you should have been advised by learned Protestant Writers who would tell you that that Book was not St. Prosper's but put upon him The next therefore is that of Cassian lib. 2 col 21. cap. 30. In primitivâ Ecclesiâ aequale fuisse jejunium per totum annum Ac frigescente devotione cùm negligerentur jejunia inductam Quadragesimam à sacerdotibus To omit many exceptions that lay against Cassian in this point give us any such Age wherein with the generality of Christians for whose sake Constitutions are framed for the Church whether by the Apostles or others an equal Fast was kept through the whole year as it was perhaps by some Anchorets or Religious whom Cassian especially had in his eye and we will easily grant the command of forty days fast to be superfluous then But that Cassian doth not say ever came to pass even in the most primitive times per totum annum he saith but not per totum orbem Christianum Secondly no man can ever shew an Age of the Church wherein she was without the Paschal fast or any following Age wherein it was brought in by Bishops or Priests though it might be oft re-enforced and urged into more diligent practice and whetted upon Christian people as in the Council of Laodicaea in many of its Canons and in the generall Council of Trullo Can. 9â⦠and this some may call a being brought in And yet if Cassian mean as he may speaking not of abstinence onely but of stricter proper salââ¦ing that the precept and necessity of so fasting forty days was onely of Constitution Ecclesiastical he speaks nothing for you against the Common-Prayer-Book As for the difference about the manner or number of days of stricter fasting mentioned by Dionysius of Alexandria Sozomen and Nicephorus it matters nothing Since there were always forty days of abstinence notwithstanding recommended as I have proved to all that were able tradita commendata ab Apostolis or commanded them also by thir Rulers and Governours as in most Churches and Ages of the World after the waxing cold of Devotion needed such commands which may further also interpret Cassian Within such time moreover either the devout Christians themselves did choose out for themselves or those that had the rule and government over them did choose out for them as we reade that Leo did Serm. 4. de Quadragesimâ some number of days either continued or with intervall more or fewer
to be fasted untill Even but especially on the six days of the great week as Dionysius Alexandr in the place by you alledged expresly witnesseth and more especially yet on the day of our Lord's crucifixion as your selves also alledged from Tertullian Dicatam jejuniis Parasceuen cap. 14. of his Book of Prayer Sic die Paschae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quo communis quasi publica jejunii Religio est Come we therefore in the last place to Socrates out of whom you have brought two Testimonies and might have I freely acknowledge brought more and he is by us the more to be considered because all that of late have written against the obligation of the Religious Fast of Lent at home or abroad have fetcht their chief armour from Socrates yet sometimes wronging him by most unjust and purposely false translation of their Authour as in an English Pamphlet of last year who may seem himself enough to have wronged or loosened the Churches Fasts and Festivals for causes which shall presently be shewn But here we shall first shew that none of our Exceptions against Socrates are needfull to our Refutation of our Brethren the Presbyterians their Exceptions out of Socrates against the Religious ââ¦ast of Lent as it is appointed to be observed in our Common-Prayer-Book For first as to the variety in several Countreys about the number of the days viz. of their stricter fasting as Dionysius Alexand. whom you here joyn with Socrates hath shewn you I have answered above shewing that it hurts us nothing but no Countrey had a custome of keeping none or pretended conscience against the substance of the Paschal or Lent fast that they might therein be allowed to differ from all the body of the Catholick Church that then lived or had lived throughout the world as our brethren now would obtrude upon their own Countrey and the Church that bare them If Socrates admire that so many Countreys differing about the number of the days yet that all agreed to call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Quadragesima or the Fast of forty days and so your selves alledge Sozomen and Nicephorus also witnessing this is an evident testimony that all the Countreys every where had received a Tradition of a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Quadragesima or Fast of forty days elder than their differences about the number of days as hath been shewed above at large in my fifth Chapter that whatever variety of Indulgences several Countreys upon whatsoever pretence of their fainter Regions or hotter stomachs or less plentifull provisions throughout all the year or the perpetual toil of their manner of living or the like had allowed themselves therein yet so universal and consenting was their acknowledgment of something in common received by them all which they called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Quadragesima that it makes manifest evidence that they all had received ab antiquissimis temporibus traditum commeââ¦datum A Tradition and Recommendation universal of fortie daies abstinence with an allowance of variation in their number of their stricter fasting daies and in their rigour of their abstinence and that varietie which Socrates notes Socrates himself acknowledgeth there had various causes as it were reasonable grounds of some such varieties ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And there are beside in other divers Countries ten thousand causes or reasons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã viz. three weeks of stricter fastings after the example of Daniel for otherwise that Rome had from the first of all the custome of fortie daies abstinence or fasting more largely taken St. Hierome himself a Priest of Rome who could know better than Socrates though Socrates also doth not here denie it witnesseth who tells us what he means by his Nos unam Quadragesimam secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum jejunamus We fast one Lent accordââ¦ing to Tradition Apostolical Epist. ad Marcellam by what he writes on Ionah 3. Ipse Dominus jejunavit quadraginta dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero nostras animas praeparat The Lord himself fasted fortie daies and leaving to us the Inheritance of the Fast prepares our souls under this number of fortie daies ââ¦o the eating of his Bodie and on Isai 58. Dominus quadraginta diebus in solitudine jejunavit ut nobis solennes jejuniorum dies relinqueret The Lord fasted fortie daies that he might leave us the solemn daies of the fastings And farther for Rome also Leo the great himself Bishop of Rome Serm. 12. Appropinquante dilectissimi solennitate Paschali sic est praecurrenda consuetudo jejunii ut nos quadraginta dierum numerus ad sanctificationem corporis mentis exerceat unde in coelestibus Ecclesiae disciplinis multùm utilitatis afferunt Divinitùs instituta jejunia The solemnitie of Easter now approaching my beloved the custome of the Fast is so to be premitted that the number of fortie daies may exercise us for the sanctification of our bodie and minde so as that in the heavenly disciplines of the Church the Fasts instituted by God bring unto us much advantage The same in his fourth Sermon Magnâ Divinae Institutionis salubritate provisum est ut ad reparandam mentium puritatem quadraginta nobis dierum exercitatio mederetur And yet the same Leo in the same his fourth Sermon of the Fast of Quadragesima chooseth out for the people of Rome the number of daies amounting to and a little exceeding the number of the daies of Socrates's three weeks which he assigns to Rome to wit three daies in each of six weeks secundam quartam sextam which are one and twentie daies So that fortie daies and yet the number of one and twentie daies for stricter sasting may well consist together and still the Lent be called of all Quadragesima as Socrates and Sozomen note therefore Leo when he mentions fortie daies as from God he doth more often call the Quadragesima quadraginta dierum continentiam as Sermon third THE ABSTINENCE of fortie daies and quadraginta dierum EXERCITATIONEM Sââ¦rm 4th the exercise of fortie daies than quadraginta dierum jejunia If Leo could for the practise of Rome in one and the same Sermon of Lent direct his Auditors to fortie daies exercise and one and twentie daies Fast as are six times three then Socrates sinding at Rome as he saith three weeks fast though all together yet needed not to wonder how they call'd it there and in all Countries Quadragesima That some observation of fortie daies was kept at Rome Gregory the Great another godly Bishop of Rome doth witness Homil. 16. In Evangelia Quadragesimae tempus inchoamus c. Cur ergò in Abstinentiâ Quadragenarius numerus custoditur nisi quia c. Now begin we the time of Lent c. why then is the Number of Fortie observed in our Abstinence but because c. à praesenti etenim die usque ad Paschalis solennitatis gaudia sex hebdomadae veniunt ut
nos per abstinentiam mortificemus Fortie daies of ABSTINCE he requires though as for the degrees of that Abstinence and as to stricter Fastings he adds Unusquisque in quantum virtus suppetit carnem maceret ejusque desideria affligat c. Thus much be said to what your Socrates writes of Rome But when he tells you there how those in Illyricum and all Greece and Alexandria fast their Paschal-fast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã six weeks before Easter and call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã how others begin their Lent 7 weeks before the Feast and call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã how well doth this varietie that you alledge out of Socrates yet agree upon the matter with the Religious Fast of Lent in the Church of England which she begins betwixt the sixth and seventh weeks before her Feast of Easter And to your second citation out of Socrates if he say that there is no express written Precept for Lent as he saies indeed more than once of such Rites ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And again ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã * St. Basil l. de Spiritu Sancto c. 10 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They clamour and call for demonstrations from written testimonies and send away with disgrace as nothing worth the unwritten witness of the Fathers And cap. 27. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. But they cease not up and down clamouring that this is not witnessed in any written Word of God No written DEMONSTRATIVE Institution or Precept St. Austin we grant hath said and we have ever yielded as much Non evidenter praeceptum in literis Evangelicis c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And yet St. Augustin could whatsoever Socrates saw or not derive its authoritie ex Evangelio as he saith Nor is any varietie about the number of daies alledged from Socrates or others any barre to that which St. Austin and others say of the Apostolical Original of the Paschal-fast before the Feast of Easter Nothing more than when the same Socrates in the same Chapter by you cited recounts the varieties and differences of several Churches about the daies and number of daies of the Churches publick Synaxes or Celebrations of the holy Eucharist is any barre to the divine Original of the Synaxis or holy Eucharists administration and that also on the Lord's daies For what though some added Saturdaies as Socrates saies most Churches then did yet they at Rome and Alexandria from a certain Tradition did not And what though others added the days of the stations and some everie day of the week for the holy Eucharist also and others not yet the Lords day was always held proper for that service Socrates words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Secondly Whereas you cite Socrates as saying Perspicuum esse Apostolos liberam potestatem in eâdem cujusque menti ac arbitrio permisisse That it is perspicuous that the Apostles left a free power in the same to every mans mind and arbitrement These words either you would have your reader believe that Socrates spake of the religious fast of Lent which is set forth in our Common-Prayer-Book or of some other matter or circumstance If this latter to what purpose is it here by you alledged But if the former be by you pretended as evidently it is as if Socrates had said that to be the Apostles minde concerning the religious fast of Lent which only our Common-Prayer-Book sets forth as if it were to be left to every ones minde and will This is a great untruth and a great abuse of your Reader Socrates speaking these words of the Apostles permission and judgement ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not of the religious fast of Lent it self NOR OF THE NUMBER OF DAYES MORE OR FEWER But having last mention'd the matter of abstinence from some meats and shewn it not to be alike in all Countreys for that some abstained from all creatures that have sensitive life others but from some allowing themselves to partake of fish ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and others together with fish allowing themselves the flesh of birds how others also abstained from some fruits and eggs and some lived only on dry bread and others not that and others fast till three a clock in the afternoon perhaps on the days of their abstinence and not of their stricter fasts and then used a freer refection of which varietie he shews there have been various causes he immediately subjoyns the words by you cited which in his own Greek we will let the Reader see ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he says de hâc re of this thing not of whatsoever you please to extend it to therefore not at all necessarily of the number of dayes more or less much less of the Paschal fast it self But here you produce this saying of Socrates against the Religious fast of Lent as set forth in our Common-Prayer-Book which was spoken of varietie of abstinence from flesh also in some places from fish from some fruits from eggs and of others even at three a clock entertaining themselves more plentifully Of this Socrates says and of this who doubts to affirm that we have no written precept Of this who doubts to say that as for any thing left from the Apostles if ye abstract from Laws Ecclesiastical a free power thereof is permitted to everie mans choice and will But here you begin your citation out of Socrates with a Relative without an Antecedent either expressed or intimated by you on which Antecedent yet lay all the controversie of what it was that Socrates spake Thus you begin Ac quoniam nemo de eâ re praeceptum literarum monumentis c. And again Apostolos liberam potestatem in eâdem re c. But quae ea res there sirs lay all the strength of your argument and all the concern of the cause And in that the Reader is left probably to think that Socrates and the Apostles according to Socrates in those words had made that judgement of the Religious fast of Lent whereas the speech there is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of some choices of some meats and the more or less plentiful refection at three a clock or otherwise And it is observable that Socrates there calls even some forbearing of some meats by choice for the exercise of fasting as we read in Daniel so also chastening himself as that he doth record I ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth three full weeks that for the chastening of himself before his God Dan. 10. 2 3 12. that Socrates I say in the very words by you produced doth call even that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã working that which is good Nothing now surely needs to be added but to advertise you that in many things as to any law from the Apostles permitted by them to everie mans will and choice we yet may be and are lawfully and profitably bound up by godly Ecclesiastical constitutions and that in the matter of fasting I have
Consider we next as touching the main error it self of the Novatians wherein as he doth pronounce of Novatus himself that he died a Martyr l. 4. c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Novatus is Socrates's Martyr and the miracles wrought by his followers as he saith he is diligent in But S. Chrysostome even after his death he thus proceeds to censure because he defended that Repentance was not to be denied to those that fell after Baptism more then once alledging against him an ancient more severe discipline of a Synod of Bishops As if the following Bishops had not power in their times seeing cause to relax such severity of discipline His words of Chrysostome are l. 6. c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is matter of admiration to me how he Iohn as above he cals him shewing so great a zeal of temperance should in his discourses teach men to despise temperance ââ¦or repentance being granted by a Synod of Bishops to such as had fallen once after Baptism he was bold to say If thou hast repented a thousand times enter hither Surely not far off from his Lords merciful sense Luk. 17 3 4 5. Take heed to your selves If thy Brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him And the Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith they say not our charity only but our faith Compare this also with Mat. 18. 15 18. Surely this was no argument of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or bitterness of Chrysostome whereof Socrates hath accused him But is Socrates more favourable to the more ancient Bishops who opposed Novatus that you may read in his 4 th Book c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where having related Novatus's his Letters he then speaks of Cornelius his contrary Letters who was a holy Bishop and Martyr of Rome ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Both saith he confirming their opininion from the holy Scriptures ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For as many as were lovers of ââ¦in laid hold of that concession which was granted viz. by Cornelius the holy and true Bishop of Rome and so for time to come used that Concession for all manner of sin But the manners of the Phrygians appear to be more sober then other nations for they indeed seldome swear With them there is no running after Horse-races nor Theatres WHEREFORE it is as it seems to me that these and those which were so affected inclined rather to the things then written by Novatus FOR fornication is counted with them as a detestable abomination For why you may find the Phrygians and Paphlagonians living more soberly then any other Sect whatsoever AND THERE IS THE SAME REASON I suppose of them also who live about the Western parts and hearken unto or obey Novatus Whoever hath read in Story the sound and Catholick Faith and holy life and Martyrdome of Cornelius S. Cyprians dear friend and hath read in S. Cyprian the lewd and wicked life of Novatus and his factious Schism and Heretical teaching let him judge of these words of Socrates which he would leave behind him in his History to the World Lastly when S. Chrysostome was driven in Banishment he saith thus Others have said that Iohn suffered in his deposition justly because he had taken away many Churches from the Novatians the Quartadecimani and certain others But whether that Abdication of Iohn was just according to the saying of those that had been grieved by him God who knoweth the secrets and the truth it self in that matter is a just Judge These things have I let you hear Socrates speak from himself not to withdraw any due regard to his labours and history except only where in things regarding some part or other of the Novatians singularity and his thence detracting from the holy Catholick Bishops such as Cornelius the Martyr and S. Chrysostome and from the honour of the Churches holy Fasts and Feasts wherein I deem that he ought not to be heard against the consent of the Catholick Doctors and Fathers of all Ages without great Injustice to the Church I conclude this Chapter with this double Item 1. That allowing all that which our brethren the Presbyterians brought out of Socrates for themselves it hath been shewen above that it profits not their cause at all nor hurts ours 2. That all other loose sayings of Socrates removing from the Apostles all care of any such thing as the Feast of Easter or the Fast preceding or other holy daies are but the effects of his Novatian Infection a pursuance of that Canon of Indifferency Socrat. l 5. c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which his Friends the Novatians assembled in Councel had decreed at Angar in Bithynia CHAP. 8. An Answer to the other Objections of the Presbyterians and to their pretence from an Act of Parliament THe 5th Proposal of our Brethren the Presbyterians as they have published it now themselves in their Grand Debate page 44. was this That nothing should be in the Liturgy which so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast. This by them propunded and desired of the King and Bishops and the Church of England is that nothing may be left even of that which is extant in our publick Liturgy wherein is no one word of the choyce of meats but onely 1. of Prayers and Services to Almighty God at that time before Easter and 2. of such abstinence that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey the Godly motions of the Lord in righteousness and true holiness to his honour and glory and 3. a gratefull remembrance and mention that the Lord for our sakes did fast 40. dayes and 40. nights with a Prayer 4. particularly on the first day of Lent that God would make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may obtain of him the God of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And 5. on Passion week and on Good-Friday a holy and humble memory of our Lords being betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the Cross for his Family the Church with a prayer for the whole body of that Church and for all the enemies thereof all Jewes Turks Infidells and Hereticks on that day on which Christ prayed for his enemies on the Cross. And 6. a narrative that in the Primtive Church there was a godly discipline the restoring whereof the Church desires that at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open penance and punished in this world that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more affraid to offend with the reading 7. of the general sentences of Gods
cursing against impenitent sinners the people being required to give after the several sentences an acknowledgment with their own mouths that the curse of God is so due to impenitent sinners and 8. a following godly earnest exhortation to repentance and Davids 51 Psalm of Repentance with some hââ¦ly penitential Prayers following Beside these eight things let them shew us if they can any thing that is of Lent in our Common-prayer Book In all and every of these 8. things it is manifest that the Church of England doth exercise some part of her Religion in the Fast of Lent wherein she prayes also unto God that she may exercise religious abstinence Not were their propounded desires they well know to meddle with ought else than what is in the Common-prayer Book as themselves give all the world to understand by their own now printing his Majesties Commission given to them with others in the beginning of their Book Not they nor others then by that Commission were to propound advise answer or reply any thing touching Lent but what was in the said Common-prayer book and your proposal being framed accordingly that nothing be in the Liturgy which so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast I having summed up all that is in the said Liturgy touching the Religious Fast of Lent It now abides upon your part because you have brought it in to publick view to say now before all the world if you can 1. Whether there be ought in the Liturgy that so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast beside either all these 8. rehearsals which I have summed up or something of or in some one or more of these branches And if there be nothing else as 't is sure there is not then it now remains your part which you are challenged to do to give one instance if you can in any thing of all those eight contents of the matters concerning Lent in our Liturgy with which any Christian can find just fault i. e. to name any one thing blameable or not godly among all those things whereof you propound and desire that no one thing may be left in the Liturgy Nothing say you that may countenance or so much as seem to countenance the observation of Lent in the Liturgy as a religious Fast. Surely where things of Religion are desired to be left out there your Religion will oblige you if you can to shew us something of those things which is evil at least which is not Religious In the account you have given of your own Proposal first and last pag. 4 70 71 72 73 74 75. wherein is every word you speak of this matter you have not touched so much as any one thing contained in all the Common-Prayer-Book except perhaps one and that mistaken as shall be shewn But in stead of doing of that which was most reasonable for you to have done you give us where you make your Proposal onely two Reasons of your own in three names where you pass from Christ to Moses and from Moses forthwith to the Act of Parliament 5 Elizabethae and that 's all First you say That nothing be in the Liturgy which may seem to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast the Example of Christs Fasting forty days and nights being no more imitable nor intended for the imitations of Christians than any other of his miraculous works were or then Moses forty days fast was for the Jews Here you would seem to remove the ground which we have for this Religious Fast But Sirs tell us we pray you may there not be some other sufficient Grounds if this were none If you know not then we shall tell you another and a more principal Reason viz. The Holy Memory of our Blessed Saviours Death and Passion about that time of the year as all acknowledge and the memory of and compunction for our own sins which cost the Son of God his own precious Blood The looking upon Him whom we have pierced Nor shall it suffice you to say That we ought always to remember that for so we ought always to remember his Resurrection for our Justification Yet God hath taught us That what ought always to be remembred yet may with great spiritual profit be by certain stationary and recurring days more especially and certainly be brought to the remembrance of all of us generally and joyntly And if Christs Resurrection have a weekly Feast of remembrance how is the Catholick Church of all Ages to be taxed as superstitious for one recurring Religious Fast in the year the memorial of his Passion This hath been done in all Ages even the purest and this Fast for this reason and for this reason principally the memory of our Lords Death and Passion the taking away of the Bridegroom In those days they have fasted And this reason they have given and this the Church her self hath given in her contest with Hereticks and that in that very Chap of Tertullian which afterwards you cite where the Psychici i. e. the Catholicks as you acknowledge give this account of their Fast before Easter Quod ad jejunia pertineat certos dies à Deo constitutos opponunt Certè in Evangelio illos dies jeââ¦uniis determinatos in quibus ablatus est sponsus Et hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum abolitis le alibus propheticis vetustatibus Sic Apostolos observâsse uullum aliud imponentes ââ¦ugum And when the Bishops of the Christian world met together in the First and most sacred General Council and did therein unite the differences that had been about the proper time of that Feast of Easter and the Fast preceding Constantine having had perfect knowledge from those Bishops in his Imperial Letters to the Christian Churches acquaints them with what the Bishops had decreed and writeth thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Here Sirs you see another reason alledged by the Catholicks and taught by the Bishops of the Catholick Church as that which had been the reason of observing it ever from the day of our Saviours Passion unto that present year And that the Lord had delivered to them the Pasche to be remembred of which also Constantine again in the same Epistle adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus hath the Church fulfilled the Prophesie of God by his Prophet Zachary wherein he promised to pour upon her the Spirit of Grace and Supplications And they shall look upon me saith he whom they have pierced and they shall mourn c. Zech. 12. 10. Thus you see you have done nothing to overthrow the Religious Fast of Lent though you had removed that which you mentioned and any other ground whilest you forgat the principal But now return we to examine whether ye have as ye endeavour overthrown all imitation of Christ in this Fast and so something in the Common-Prayer-Book Where there is no more then once but
that a just and pious mention of it viz. in the Collect of the first Sunday O Lord which for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights give us Grace to use such abstinence that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit c. Where we doubt not but all Churches in the world will both consent to this Prayer and praise the modest humility of Christs handmaid this Church of England except onely some of her own Children For 1. She doth not so much as pray that the Lord would give her grace to use such Fasts as he had done but thankfully acknowledging what he had done for her viz. fasted forty days and forty nights she prays That she may use such abstinence calling her own rather abstinence than Fasts that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey his godly motions Not that she may be glorious in a miracle of fasting but humbled in an exercise of mortifying That she may obey his godly motions not emulate the Divine power of his Miracle Tell us out we pray you whether our Church praying thus and thus far onely for Imitation of Christ in some abstinence according to our poor measures doth offend you And if not this where in the Common-prayer-Book is there ought of that which you accuse But again why we pray you because it is not possible for us to imitate Christs miraculous eating nothing at all through all the time of forty days therefore Christians may not what you cannot deny to be possible use some special abstinence through forty days for the mortifying of those sins for which Christ suffered hunger and thirst and afterward Crucfixion and death lest that by any means when we have known all this done for us our selves should become Cast-aways May not some pious charitable Physitian go about according to his skill which God hath given him and without taking any thing use the means of healing the poor sick and lame in imitation of Christs great pity who went about healing all manner of diseases because he cannot cure miraculously infallibly and universally as Christ did May not some man that hath but ability after the example of our Saviours compassion pity a multitude that abide three days having nothing to eat and feed them because he cannot miraculously multiply loaves May we not be bid to be holy and perfect as our Lord is holy and perfect though no miracle can lift us up to equal or come near his holiness or perfection What a lame Exception therefore have you given against the Churches excellent Prayer But if the Church moreover in this Prayer and in this Fast and in some lowly degree of petitioned imitation of her Saviour hath but imitated the piety and followed the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers of the Church and been a follower of them as they were followers of Christ then bless we God who hath given us such a Mother and God send her more dutifull Children And if ye ask us who those Ancient Fathers were First S. Austin l. 2. de Doctrinâ Christianâ c. 16. Quadraginta diebus jejunare monemur hoc lex cujus persona est in Mose hoc prophetia cujus personam gerit Elias hoc IPSE DOMINUS monet qui tanquam testimonium habens ex lege prophetis medius inter illos in monte 3. discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit We are admonished to fast forty days this the Law whose person Moses bare this the Prophets whose person Elias sustained this the Lord himself admonisheth us who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the Mount c. The same S. Austin l. â⦠c. 169. Quââ¦st super Genes Non enim frustrà quadriginta dies jejuniorum sunt constituti quibus Moses Elias ipse Dominus jejunavit Ecclesia precipuâ observatione jejumorum Quadrage simam vocat S. Aââ¦stin again in Psal. 110. Dies iââ¦i Paschales praeteritis diebus Quadragesimae c. Quadragenario numero quo Moses Elias ipse Dominus jejunaverunt Precipitur enim nobis ex lege ex prophetis ex ipso Evangelio c. S. Hierome on Jon. 3. Ipse quoque Dominus verus Ionas missus ad praedicationem mundi jejunavit quadragint a dies haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero nostras animas preparat S. Ambrose Serm. 25. Dominus enim Diabolum posteaquam 40 dies jejunavit evicit non quod non aââ¦te jejunia cum vincere potuisset sed ut ostenderet ââ¦obis tunc nos Diaboli posse esse victores cum quadraginta dies victores jejunando desideriorum carnalium fuissemus Ille qui peccatum non habebat Quadragesimam jejunavit ââ¦u nonvis Quadragesimam jejunare qui peccas ille inquam peccatum non habebat sed pro nostris jejunavit peccatis 'T were easie to adde of the Latines many more Theodulphus Aurelianensis Bede and others Now hear we the holy Oriental Bishops S. Basil the Great Hom. 1. de Jejunio ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã S. Gregory Nazianz. in Orat. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Where the Father answers your Objection punctually that though we cannot fast forty days as he for he was God yet we can proportionate our abstinence to our power Magnus Canon Andreae Cretensis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By this time we think the Churches Reasons and her Authority and Authorities which she follows to come ãâã to the Reason of your Papers and the Authority of your Persons Your Act of Parliament shall be considered in the end of your reply where you are larger in it In which Reply to begin first with matters of our own Function because you declare your selves ready in a modest challenge to prove the truth in an equal Conference that you may noâ⦠wanââ¦ome Propositions to prove we will set down some manifest untruths of your own in the two leaves of that reply besides the Fathers of which every one how ye have mistaken I have shewed you above Chap. 5. 7. Your ãâã untruth or false Proposition is this which contains three in it viz. That adoring God not kneeling on the Lords days and using the white garment and milk and honey after Baptism had more pretence of Apostolical Tradition and were generally used more anciently then Lent This you being never able to prove in your insinuation that the Church may as well be called contentious for her not using those things as you for not using Lent we do indeed according to your own words think ye have wronged the Church and that greatly 2. That the Church hath shewn you any such example of changing so the Fast of Lent as that you may be allowed by that example not to continue it a Religious Fast is another untruth Upon which let Tertullian ask you the Question l. de Coronâ⦠Militis c. 2. Quale est autem ut tunc
Subjects now having a more perfect and clear light of the Gospel and true word of God through the infinite mercy and clemency of Almighty God by the hands of the Kings Majesty and his most noble Father of famous memory promulgate sheweâ⦠declared and opened and thereby perceiving that one day or one meat of it self is not more holy more pure or more clean then another for that all dayes and all meats be of their nature of one equal purity cleanness and holiness and that all men should by them live to the glory of God and at all times and for all meats give thanks unto him of which meats none can defile ãâã men or make them unclean at any time to whom all meaââ¦s be lââ¦wfull and pure so that they be not used in disobedience or vice yet for ââ¦smuch a diveâ⦠of the Kings Subjects turning their knowledge therein to satisfie their sensuality when they should thereby ere case in vertue have of late time more then in times past broken and contemned such Abstinence which hath been used in thâ⦠Reââ¦lm upon the Friday and Saturday the Embring dayes and other days commonly cââ¦lled Vââ¦gils and in the time commonly callâ⦠ãâã and ââ¦her accustomed times the Kings Majesty considering Thâ⦠due and godly ãâã is a mean to vertue and to subdue mens bodies to their soul and spirit and considering also that Fishers and men using the Traâ⦠of living by Fishing in the Sea may thereby the rather be set on work and that by eating of Fish much flesh shall be saved and encreââ¦ed and also for divers other considerations and commodities of this Realm doth Ordain and Enact with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Common ãâã this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That no person or persons of what ãâã degree ãâã condition he or they be shall at any time after the fist day of May in the year of our Lord God 1549. willingly and wittingly eat any manner of flesh after what manner of kind or sort soever it shall be ordered dressed or used upon any Fridy or Saturday or the Embring dayes or in any day in the time commonly called Lent c. 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 whatsoever food else is more delicate costly of hotter nature and of higher nourishment The formers of that Law which is now the Law of out 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 I ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth Dan 10. 2 3 12. which that Ministers of Gods Word should not as well have before their eyes as our civil Magistrate is a great shame But if you look back to the Common-Prayer-Book which was the matter of your Commission and of your grand debate as you call it and of your Proposal there if you think the Act of Parliament ratifying and establishing the Common-Prayer-Book and therein the religious Fast of Lent designed the end to be the service of God no otherwise then as other Political Laws are and be you should evidently contradict that Act of Parliament which professes there and then an establishment of the order of the publick and divine service and should imagin the prayer for the first Sunday of Lent to have the suspition of such a sense as this O Lord who for our sakes didst fast forty dayes and forty nights give us grace to use such abstinence that our seafaring men and Mariners and young Cattle and the like may be maintained how worthy a conceit were this To conclude this Chapter for the substance of the Paschal or Lent-Fast we have heard To name no more now then S. Austine Habet Authoritatem in veteribus libris ex Evangelio Epist 119. praecipitur enim nobis ex lege ex Prophetis ex ipso Evangelio idem ad Psal. 110. and the same also l. 30. con Faustum c. 3 5. avowing Abstinence from some sort of meats of Delicacy and higher nourishment Flesh c. Edomandi corporis ââ¦usa propter corporis castigationem sicut saith he per Quadragesimam fere omnes to be commanded from the Apostles and the Prophets you have tried it now as to the kind of flesh or fish by our Law and let the Reader judge of the Issue CHAP. 9. The judgment which the Ancient Fathers made of such as opposed the Churches set Fasts or Feasts and particularly this Paschal or Lent-Fast SAint Augustine in his Book of Heresies n. 53. writing of the Aërians thus saith Aëriani ab Aerio quodam sunt nominati qui in Arrianorum haeresim lapsus propria quoque dogmata addiââ¦isse nonnulla fertur dicens nec statuta solenniter celebranda esse jejunia sed cùm quisque voluerit jejunandum ne videatur esse sub lege dicebat etiam Presbyterum ab Episcopo nullâ differentiâ debere discerni That is the Aërians are named from one Aërius who having fallen into the Heresie of the Arrians did add thereto some opinions of his own affirming that the solemn set Fasts were not to be observed but that every man was to fast when he pleased least he should seem to be under the law He also said that there was no difference to be put between a Priest and a Bishop And n. 82. of the same Book he thus saith of the Iovinianists A Ioviniano quodam monachâ⦠illa haeresis orta est aetate nostrâ cum adhuc juvenes essemus dicebat non aliquid prodesse jejunia vel a cibis aliquibus abstinentiam cito tamen illa haeresis oppressa extincta est nec usque ad dââ¦eptionem aliquorum sacerdotum potuit pervenire That is the Heresie of the Jovinianists in my time when I was young sprang from one Iovinian A MONK who said that fasting and abstinence from certain meats was not at all profitable But this herefie was soon extinct and proceeded not so far as to deceive any Priests Iohannes Damascenus in his 6. Book of Heresies writeth thus of the Aërians or Eustachians Aëriani ab Aërio Pontico fuit autem sacerdos Eustachii Episcopi Arriani filius ejus Eustachij qui jejunium feriâ quartâ sexta quadraginta diebus servari pascha celebrari prohibet Stata haec damnat omnia quod si quis jejunium servare velit id ab eo certis statisque diebus servari negat oportere sed quando volet negat enim se lege teneri negat etiam quicquam inter Presbyterum Episcopum interesse That is the Aërians were named of Aerius of
manner of celebrating used by the Papists The days may be with more Godliness and profit to the Church observed being cleansed from Superstition and erroneous Doctine then abrogated The place of S. Austin is in his Epistle ad Ianuar 118. Illa à quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus c. And for Recommendation Divine of the forty days Fast the Reverend Father in God Richard Mountague Bishop of Norwich Origin Eccles pars 2. n. 81. Numerum hunc mysticum dierum 40. sacrum ãâã Scripturis multa sunt quae decent testimonia Certè erat aliquid in eo cur dicbââ¦os continuis 40 apertis coeli catarectis abyssi ãâã bus resolutis invalescerent aquae super terram Quòd annos 40 ex Aegypto reduâ⦠Israel eremi erroribus destinebantur erat certè dispensatorius pluries quà m unâ vice Christi Domini actionibus consecraââ¦us Certè fortuitò non fiebat quod toties in Scripturis numerus ille per Deum consecrabatur Mihi rectè opinatus videtur Augustinus qui numerum quadragenarium totum praesentis vitae cursum significare dicebaâ⦠tempus nimirum jejuniis orationibus poenitentiae peccatorumque expiationi destinatum Et si per Novatores liceret illud adderem Ut ECCLESIAE QUADRAGESIMAM COMMENDARET And even such Learned Protestants who write its Original not Apostolical or from Christ yet prove it themselves from Antiquity to have been in the Church observed both by Clergy and Laity before his time who was a Bishop in the Church about 38 years after S. Iohn's death who himself 't is probable was born much about S. Iohn's death or a little after so Zanchius l. 1. in 4. Praeceptum p. 695. certè Telesphorus qui fuit septimus Romanae Ecclesia Episcopus martyr circa Annum Domini 139. hujus temporis Quadragesimalis supranominatiâ⦠mentionem facit tanquam ante se in Ecclesiâ observati Adââ¦ecit enim aliquot dies quos volebat à Clericis ac Sacerdotibus ampliùs quà m à ââ¦aicis observabantur observari Statuimus inquit ut septem hebdomadas plenas ante sanctum Pascha omnes Clerici i. e. in sortem Domini vocati à carne jejunent quia sicut discreta debet esse vita Clericorum à Laicorum conversatione ita in jejunio debet esse discretio These Learned Authors especially the four Revered Bishops of our own Church above I have produced not that I think there may not perhaps more then double the number be alledged of modern Authors differing in judgment from what I have asserted But by whomsoever they shall be alledged if they shall stand by themselves alone and my Replyer shall not first produce as I have done according to Vincentius Lirinensis's Golden Rule 1. Antiquity 2. Universality of practise generally speaking 3. The Consent of the generality of Learned Ecclesiastical Writers at least through the first 600. or 700. years the time wherein lawfull General Councels were who with Authority noted Heretical Writers and then if he please and not but then give us the Judgment of any Holy and Learned men Otherwise I here prescribe against any number of Moderns of one smaller part of the Christian world and of one or two Ages farthest removed from Antiquity except where Authority of our own Church to which we have subscribed doth interpose such testimonies I say standing alone by themselves Antiquity that appââ¦oaches nearer the Fountain not being first heard both to interpret Scripture and testifie of Tradition where that is part of the Controversie All such weak and trifling process of Arguments from Testimony I take to be but tyranny over mens Judgements who are bound to none but to Gods Word who is Truth and the Churches Witness whom he hath set to be the Pillar of Truth whose witness is best learned from Antiquity and Universality of practise and consent of her Pastors of the Ages required and to submission of acquiescence to their own Church in such matters But why then have I brought those Five worthy Witnesses I answer 1. Because I had first in legitimate order premised such Antiquity Universality and Consent and so my Adversaries Testimonies ever shall be welcome 2. To shew that any the most faithfull Sons of the Church of England may be allowed to defend what I in this maintain 3. To prevent such Replyers who are wont to supply with railing what they want in weight of Argument or Testimony forasmuch as the World sees that so Reverend Zealous and Learned Protestants and such as have done as much service against the Papists aâ⦠all the Presbyterians put together in their Writings and Sermons have done have thus written Howbeit I deny not that many Reverend and Learned men and far from Presbyterians are herein of a different Judgment and have done very good service against the Papists in their gross Errours FINIS A TABLE of the Names of the Sundayes and other Chief Dayes of LENT and of some following in the Eastern and Western Churches Septuagesima The ninth Sunday before Easter-day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Filii Prodigi Memoria 70 Annorum qui in significationem fuerunt exilii nostri à Domino Augustin l. 3. d. Doctr. Christ. And Memory of the 70 weeks Dan. 9. 26. in the end of which Messias the Prince was to be cut off but not for himself Sexagesima The eighth Sunday before Easter day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Quinquagesima The seventh Sunday before Easter-day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Ingressââ¦s seu Introitûs Jejunii Hiââ¦c ãâã ãâã ãâã ââ¦sse Clââ¦is ãâã sui ãâã Quadragesima The sixth Sunday before Easter-day Memoria Jejunii Domini Ord. Rom. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hâc ãâã ãâã Graeci ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã propter gulam Dominica Invocavit The whole week the Greeks call'd ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Shrovetuesday Fastness Tuesday Ash-Wednesday Caput Jejunii Dies ââ¦inerum Second Sunday in Lent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Reminiscere Third Sunday in Lent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Oculi Fourth Sunday in Lent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Refectionis Dominica de Panibus Dominica Laetare ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Fifth Sunday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Passionis propterquod Dominus praedixit câ⦠diâ⦠de instanti Passione suâ ââ¦ive Judica Friday in this week Praeparatorium Lazari Saturday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sabbatum Lazari Sixth Sunday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Osannarum Dominica Palmarum Palm-Sunday The whole week was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sancta hebdomada Septimana Passionis Hebdomas Xerophagiaââ¦um Hebdomada poenosa The great week Hâc hebdomada ãâã sicut ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Munday in this week ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feria Secunda Passionis Tuesday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feria ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feria tertia Passionis Wednesday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feria quarta in Proditione Judae Feria quarta Passionis Tenable Wednesday And these four dayes before Easter called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thursday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Feria quinta Passionis Coena Domini Feria quinta in Coena Domini Feria mysterioââ¦um ââ¦avipedium Dies mandati Maundy Thursday Sheer Thursday Good Friday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dies Paschae Parascheue Crucifixionis Dies sanctus Passionis Domini Pascha quo passus est Dominus Augustin ep 119. ââ¦cclesia Smyââ¦ensis Ep. de ãâã Polycarp Saturday or Easter-Eve ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sabbatum Sanctum Vigilia Paschalis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Greg. Nazianz easter-Easter-day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã S. Greg. Nazianz. Orat. in Pasch. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Euseb. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Conâ⦠Ancyr c. 5. Dominica Magna Resurrectionis The day which the Lord hath made Psal. 118. 24. Munday in Easter-week ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Greg. Nazianz. Feria 2 da. Resurrectionis Domini Secundus Dies Festi Tuesday Feria 3 ia Resurrectionis Domini Tertius dies Festi S. Aug. d. Civ D. l. 22. c. 8. Wednesday Feria 4 a. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Candidatorum Thursday Feria 5 a. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seu Candidatorum Sunday after Easter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Greg. Naz. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gregor Nazianz. Dominica quasi-modo-geniti Dominica in Albis Octava Paschalis Low-Sunday Low-Easter-day or the Octaves of Easter The 2. Sunday after Easter Wednesday after ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The 3. Sunday from Easter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The 25 day of the fifty Dies Disputationis Christi cum Doctoribus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sunday before Ascension Dominica Rogationum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ascension-day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Holy Thursday Sunday after Ascension ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Dominica Expectationis Dominica hebdomadae Expectationis Whitsunday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Evagr. l. 1. c. 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Festum Pentecostes Wied-Sunday Wh. Munday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quae dicitur ââ¦tiam Graecis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Wh. Tuesday ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Wednesday Friday c. Iejunium Pentecostes The four Ember weeks of Fasting are called Iejunia quatuor temporum quae imbrem vocat Concil Aenhamensâ⦠can 16 Iejunium primi mensis Iejunium Pentecostes Iejunium septimi mensis Iejunium decimi mensis Anciently the Wednesday and Fryday saith Lâ⦠but since the Wednesday Friday and Saturday next A Cruce post Cineres post Pentecos atque Luciae The weekly lesser Fasting-days of Wednesday and Friday are called Stationes Stationum semijejunia ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seu ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Fasting-Eves before certain Holy-days ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Anteferiales Vigiliae FINIS Some Errata of the Press to be thus amended PAg. 33. lin 12. pro Eusebius lege Philo. p. 48. l. 11. pro ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lege ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 165. l. ult pro ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lege ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 219. pro ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lege ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 226. pro ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lege ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 453. l. 20. dele 2. pro l. 1. lege c. 1. p. 463. lege Religââ¦ous ãâã religions p. 475. l. 26. lege quidam pro alii ibid. l. 28. lege pluribââ¦s pro ââ¦ibus ita pro etiam ibid. in marg ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pro ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the Table pro Fastness Tuesday lege Fastens eve