way but contented our selves with Prayers and some kind of Repentance without such Humiliations and chastening of our selves as our sins and our condition required CHAP. XIII Of Fasting-days particularly Wednesdays and Fridays THE Church of God therefore hath always set some time a part for Fasting as well as Prayer And thought it a duty of such continual use that it is not safe it should be long intermitted For mankind being subject frequently to run into sin it is but reason they should be frequently put in mind of calling themselves to an account and returning to him with sorrowful Humiliations for their faults And therefore it is a most ancient and no less wholsom Ordinance of the Church that we should from week to week assemble our selves for this end To search and try our ways and with Fasting and Prayer to turn unto the Lord that thereby we may turn away his wrath from us which otherways either in general or particular may fall upon us To except against this because there is no Divine commandment upon Record for it is very unreasonable For in the ancient Religion of the Jews there was no Precept given by their Law-giver for more Fasts than one throughout the whole Year which was that I named before on the great day of expiation and yet notwithstanding they held themselves obliged to observe many other Fasts upon set days in several months some of which are remembred in Scripture and approved by God though not prescribed by his particular Commandment Read vii Zach. 3 5. viii 19. where you will find that four Fasts in several months having been upon good reason ordained they durst not alter them though the reason seemed to be altered without a Divine direction which their Elders by whose authority they were first appointed desired to receive from the Prophet But it is most to my purpose to observe that there were also weekly as well as those monthly Fasts among that people which our Saviour found in use when he came and did not reprove no more than Prayer and paying of Tithes which the Pharisee mentions together therewith in xviii Luke 11 12. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men c. I Fast twice in the week I give Tithes of all that I possess Which were all commendable things if his vanity had not made him glory in them and despise other people And therefore the Pharisees frequent Fasting is mentioned I observed before in other places of the Gospel together with that of John's Disciples who also Fasted oft without the least reflection upon them for it as if they were superstitious or did more than needed No our blessed Saviour rather approves of their strictness in this For he saith his Disciples should not be behind with them in Fasting hereafter though for the present there was a special reason why they did not practise it Of which speech of our Saviour I shall make considerable use presently when I have noted that the two days on which they Fasted every week were the second and the fifth that is our Munday and Thursday Which days no doubt were chosen because they had been of old days of Prayer which the devouter sort observed with Fasting also for such reasons as I have already named If we may give credit to Maimonides these days were appointed by Moses himself for solemn Assemblies which he knew could not with safety be long discontinued And therefore saith he Our Master Moses appointed Israel to read the Law at Morning Prayer upon the Sabbath day and upon the Second and the Fifth that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law Upon which days even they that dwelt in the Villages as Mr. Thorndike * Relig. Assemblies chap. viii further observes out of him were bound to assemble in the Synagogues though on the rest of the days in the week they did not tye them to it no more than they did to Fasting on those days with which the stricter and devouter sort of people observed them as not only the Gospel but their own Writers inform us Now these two days having been thus set apart from ancient time for Prayer and Fasting those pious Jews who became Christians could not think of being less Religious and devout under the Gospel than they had been under the Law and therefore still continued to observe two such days every week though not the very same For as instead of the Seventh which was the Jewish Sabbath they now kept the First day of the week as the principal time for their Assemblies so instead of the Second and the Fifth they chose the Fourth and the Sixth which are our Wednesdays and Fridays for the two other days on which they weekly held solemn Assemblies And for the very same reason it is likely for which Moses or the Elders chose the other because they were at the same convenient distance from the Lords day as Munday and Thursday were from the Jewish Sabbath and hereby it was provided that as Maimon speaks no three days passed without the more solemn sort of Assemblies Certain it is that there was no Church in Epiphanius his time which did not look upon these two days as the stated days for Fasting and Prayer Which he avows so confidently against the Aerians that he fears not to ask this question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * Haeres lxxv n 6. Who is there that consents not in this throughout all the Climates of the world that the Fourth day and the day before the Sabbath i. e. the Sixth day are Fasts determined or appointed in the Church No body he knew durst contradict this challenge and undertake to shew the contrary which is the more remarkable because he represents them as set days by a setled Decree or Ordinance and that of the Apostles For so it follows that it was ordained by an Apostolical constitution all should Fast on those two days Which doth not seem to me so unlikely as it doth to some when I reflect upon those words of our Lord in answer to those that askt Why the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees Fasted oft but his did not Wherein as he no way condemns what either the one or the other did for that which was a vertue in John's Disciples could not be a crime in the Pharisees so he doth not go about to excuse his Disciples from the like obligation But plainly saith that though it was not fit for the present yet when he was gone from them they also should Fast in those days And I see no cause why we should not think that he means they should Fast as oft about which the question was as the other did Which being twice every week of which it is very reasonable to understand the often Fasting both of John's Disciples and of the Pharisees I cannot but conclude the Apostles also when our Saviour had left the World
observed weekly two such solemn days And so by their practice and example at least set apart and determined the times forementioned for Fasting and Prayer For why should we think of any other two days than those which the Church in future times observed every where with such uniformity that they could find no other Original of it but the Apostolical Ordinance Thus Socrates writes in particular of the Church of Alexandria what Epiphanius saith of the Church in general that L. v. Hist Eccles c. 22. it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ancient Custom or a custom from the beginning of our Religion there to meet on the Fourth and Sixth days of the week for to hear the Scriptures read and expounded by the Doctors and to do all other things belonging to an Assembly excepting the celebration of the Eucharist which it seems was omitted there though not in other places on those days as unsuitable to a Fast and that Origen taught upon those two days a great part of what he left written in that Church Clemens of Alexandria also mentions these days long before him and I do not see of what other days Caecilius can be understood when he objects in Minutius Foelix to the Christians their solennia jejunia as dangerous tokens of a conspiracy among them For it is plain by those words that they held solemn Assemblies on certain days for Fasting as well as Prayer and that they returned often and great numbers met together or else they could not have been held dangerous to the Government These were the famous station days so much spoken of by the ancient Christians on which they continued longer in the Church than ordinary the Divine Offices being prolonged beyond the ordinary time and thence they had the name of Stations To be short if this be allowed which seems to be a probable truth that the Apostles afterward though not while our Saviour lived Fasted as oft as John's Disciples and the Pharisees had done before which was no less than twice every week There can be no other days reasonably thought of for this purpose than those which the Church in following Ages observed And there is the greater reason to judge this a probable truth because the Apostles observed other pious customs of the Jews of not Eating for instance before Morning Prayer was over as I before observed Which may well incline a considering man to think they likewise conformed themselves to this of Fasting as often in a week as John's Disciples and other strict persons had done which was no less commendable than the usage of Fasting till the end of Divine Service on the Sabbath days in the morning And then I can see no incongruity in it but it rather accords with the practice of Religious people heretofore if we think these to have been the times on which the Apostle advises Husbands and Wives to forbear one anothers company that they might give themselves to Fasting and Prayer 1 Cor. vii 5. Which Peter Martyr is of opinion * In Cap. xx Judic p. 172. the Apostle meant concerning publick Fasting and publick Prayer And as the Widow Anna is said to have served God many years with Fasting and Prayers night and day ii Luke 37. which I think ought to be understood of the weekly Fasts which Religious people then observed So the same Peter Martyr thinks it reasonable thus to understand the Apostle 1 Tim. v. 5. where he speaks of a Widow indeed whose description is that she continueth in supplications with Fastings saith he and Prayers night and day Upon those days as I take it which were then observed in the Christian Church answerable to those in the Jewish And why should we not think it was upon one of these days that the Church met together as we read xiii Acts 2 3. and ministred to the Lord and Fasted and Prayed For the very distresses in which the Church was required then as frequent Fasting as ever There is little doubt but the Fast here spoken of was upon a solemn day of Divine Service which is sufficiently implied in those words as they ministred to the Lord and in those that follow when they had Prayed Now on the Sabbath it was utterly unlawful to Fast and they abhorred from it as the Christians afterward did from Fasting on the Lord's day And therefore I conclude it was upon one of the weekly solemn prayer-Prayer-days then in use in the Christian Church as formerly in the Jewish For what reason is there to question that when any extraordinary case called for a special Fast as now the separating Barnabas and Saul for a great work did and as in pressing dangers the Bishops of the Church appointed extraordinary Fasts that Fast was still held upon those very days which then they commanded to be observed with more than usual strictness For thus all Fasts appointed among the Jews upon special occasions were in order to fall as Mr. Thorndike observes in the Chapter before named upon the usual days of Fasting which were every week observed in a lower degree but upon those extraordinary occasions were observed with greater severity and therefore it is reasonable to think the Christian Fasts of the like kind were kept on the usual days either Wednesday or Friday or rather both only with the greater solemnity However that place and another in the next Chapter xiv Acts 23. are plain evidences of their Fasting before Ordinations or setting persons a part for a special Ministry And upon them is justly founded the Fasts of the four Seasons called Ember-weeks before Orders are given in our Church all solemn and great things being always undertaken by such preparations Insomuch that S. Hierom in his Prologus to S. Matthew's Gospel saith that S. John being desired by the Churches to write his Gospel against Ebion and Cerinthus who denied Christ's Divine Nature told them he would do it si Ecclesia tota publicè antea jejunasset if the whole Church would first keep a publick Fast before he went about it Which is affirmed also by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History To conclude this Chapter all Christians have so generally observed some set times of Fasting which was wholly rejected only by the Gnosticks who condemned Epist Haeres xxvi n. 5. demned all Fasting nay cursed it as disagreeable to their Beastly life that those odd people who loving to be singular and cross to the customs of the Church would not observe the two usual Fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays yet Fasted on other days as Marcion and his Disciples on Saturdays and the Aerians on the Lord's day who also Fasted on Wednesday but of their own accord not in obedience to the Churches Constitutions So Epiphanius informs us out of whom I have all this * Haeres xlii n. 3. Haeres lxxv n. 3. And now that I mention the Saturday Fast it will be fit to take notice that the Church of Rome now hath and anciently
such indecencies as are expressed by those two following comparisons S. Chrysostom indeed understands these comparisons and most now follow him herein as if our Lord had said that his Disciples being yet raw and infirm were not able to bear the severe discipline of Fasting but might receive hurt by it as an old Garment doth by the sewing a new piece of Cloth to it and old Bottles by putting new Wine into them But besides other Objections that may be made to this which I cannot answer it seems unaccountable why Christ's Disciples should not be as strong as John's and very hard to affirm that John imposed such discipline upon his Disciples as Christ judged would be prejudicial and noxious unto his I rest therefore in the forenamed exposition which agrees with the scope of our Saviour who intended not to reject Fasting or to say his Disciples were not yet fit for it but that it was not yet fit for them For there being to every thing a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven in which time God had made every thing beautiful as Solomon speakes in iii. Eccles 1 11. now was the time of gladness while he was present in person with them and they were in the midst of the Marriage-feast mentioned xxii Matth. 2 3 c. in which Fasting was unbeseeming But the time of Mourning was coming when he was taken away from them and they fell into great distresses and in those days they would Fast without any bidding And accordingly we find they were in Fastings often as S. Paul speaks of himself 2 Corinth xi 27. and herein as well as all things else approved themselves as Ministers of God vi 4 5. and taught others also the frequent use hereof which was observed so carefully in all following Ages that S. Basil boldly pronounces Repentance Hom. 1. de Jejunio without Fasting to be an idle business But the practice of the Church shall be the subject of another Chapter when I have first shown in the next of what use Fasting is in Religion And I shall end this Chapter with this plain proof of the truth of what hath been said which will serve for an Introduction to what follows If it be a duty to call our selves to an account for our Sins to humble our selves before God to Repent and to beg pardon for them we may easily know what obligation we have to Fasting And it may safely be referred to the judgment of any man of common sense whether it become a Penitent to present himself before God Full or Fasting and in which of these ways he thinks Sorrow and Grief is to be expressed and the compassion of him whom we have Offended most likely to be moved CHAP. XII The Ends and Vses of Religious Fasting FASTING serves as a help to so many Christian duties with which it is frequently joyned that I cannot mention them all in this little Treatise Wherein I consider it chiefly as an act of Humiliation and a part of Repentance whereby we both abase our selves before God and acknowledge our unworthiness of the least of his Mercies and also afflict and punish our selves for our former excesses and other sins which it helps us also to cure and is a remedy against That it is an act of abasement and serves to humble and lay us low in our own thoughts the Psalmist in so many words tells us when he saith xxiv Psal 13. My clothing was Sackcloth I humbled my Soul with Fasting Nor had Sackcloth or any other part of the ancient discipline a different meaning For by putting on such course clothing as Mr. Mede observes they ranked themselves with men of the meanest and lowest condition Which was the intention also of putting Ashes and sometimes Earth upon their Heads as if they were below the lowest of Gods Creatures And of sitting or lying upon the ground with which by that posture they levelled themselves And it may be added of pouring out water before the Lord which was a very ancient Ceremony upon their fasting-Fasting-days 1 Sam. vii 6. in token of their Humiliation saith Rabbi Solomon upon that place As if they had said Behold O Lord we are before thee as these waters that are poured out that is nothing worth The same they confessed by abstaining from all sort of Food which was an acknowledgment that they were not worthy to live upon Gods Earth any longer Thus when Ahab in the 1 Kings xxi 27. rent his clothes which was another act of Humiliation making them look like beggars and put Sackcloth on his flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly as a man quite dejected God himself in the 29. Ver. calls this Ahabs humbling himself before him and promises thereupon to remit something of the sentence pronounced against him in not executing it so soon as was intended And that it is a natural effect and expression of Sorrow I need not trouble my self to demonstrate Daniel calls it by the name of Mourning x. Dan. 2 3. And what he calls mourning and eating no pleasant Bread in the beginning of the Chapter the Angel afterward Ver. 12. taking special notice of it calls chastening himself before his God And so we translate the Psalmists words lxix Psal 10. When I wept and chastened my Soul with Fasting c. For no abstinence or sorrow can deserve the name of Penitence but such as is afflictive which is so much intended in Fasting that they are words of the same signification According to that known rule among the Jews Wheresoever the Scripture speaks of afflicting the Soul it means Fasting Thus the great Fast appointed by God to be yearly observed on the Seventh day of the Tenth month is described in the xvi Lev. 29 31. It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever And whatsoever Soul it be as it follows xxiii 29. that shall not be afflicted on that same day he shall be cut off from among his people And this was the end of all other Fasts as appears by those words of Ezra which are the most express of any to this purpose viii 21. Then I proclaimed a Fast at the River Ahava that we might afflict our selves before our God For hunger and thirst is in it self troublesome painful to the Body as S. Austin very well observes Nam fames sit is dolores sunt Vrunt Lib. x Confess c. 31. sicut febris necant nisi alimentorum medicina succurrunt And should call to our mind the true cause of all pain and anguish that our Conscience feeling the sharp stings of guilt and we being pricked in the Heart as the Apostle speaks may more thankfully embrace the remedy and speedily also seek for relief by an unfeigned Repentance Fasting hath also something of a penal chastisement in it whereby we take revenge upon our selves as I showed in the fifth Chapter and punish our selves for
had a custom of Fasting on that day But as Epiphanius condemns this as one of Marcion's Errors that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Fasted on the Sabbath that is Saturday So Petavius ingenuously acknowledges what his great Learning could not but know that this was contrary to the Custom of the Eastern Church in which that day was a long time honoured as a Festival And he should have added that this custom of Fasting on Saturday was so far from being universal in the Western Church that it did not of a long time prevail in all the Churches of Italy For it is commonly known that in S. Ambrose's days they did not Fast at Milan upon that day which the Mother of S. Austin wondering at when she came thither had this Answer returned to the enquiry her Son made of the reason of it from S. Ambrose When I am at Rome I Fast on Saturdays because they do so there but when I return to Milan I do not Fast on that day because they do not so here An admirable resolution of doubts of this nature importing that we should conform to the customs of the Church where we live without condemning the customs of other Churches For all were founded at first it is likely upon some great reason peculiar to that Church wherein it differs from others and if S. Austin's information be right there was a weighty cause for what they did at Rome For he saith in his Epistle to Cassulanus the Original of the Saturday Fast there was that when S. Peter entered the Lists with Simon Magus upon a Lord's day at Rome the Church appointed a Fast the day before which was observed there ever after But when one Vrbicus contended vehemently for the necessity of this Saturdays Fast as if there were a Divine Law for it S. Austin most resolutely opposed him and denied any such obligation as may be seen in his LXXXVI Epistle But my intention is not to engage in any controversies but plainly to instruct our People in their Christian duty which is to observe the Ordinances of the Church whereof they are members Which make Wednesdays and Fridays days of solemn Supplication as anciently they were and all the Fridays in the Year except Christmas-day to be also one of the days of Fasting or Abstinence CHAP. XIV Satisfaction to some Exceptions IT is now a shame or should be so to mention the stale Objections of Mr. Cartwright and others against this Doctrine which have been often baffled That God in the fourth Commandment gave men liberty to work six days which none can restrain and that the Apostle condemns the Churches of Galatia for observing Days and Months and Times and Years iv Gal. 10. But since some are still so weak as to insist upon such trivial exceptions I shall in a few words tell the Reader what he is to answer when he meets with them To the first it may be replied That the Jews to whom that Precept was given did not understand it to give them such an unbounded liberty that none could appoint any of the six days to be imployed otherwise than in labour For then Esther did very ill in commanding a three days Fast when the exigence of their affairs required it Nay they who make this Exception have no such sense of that Commandment and therefore they do very ill to mention it for they themselves set apart any day as they please for Prayer and Humiliation or Thanksgiving And when they had power required others so to do Which is utterly unlawful if the fourth Commandment have any such meaning as they imagine which must lead them at last to affirm that labour is commanded on all days but one directly against their own frequent practice As for the other there is nothing more certain and more universally acknowledged by all Christians than that it belongs wholly to the keeping of the Jewish solemnities to which Christians were so far from having any obligation that they who thought they had from an opinion that the Mosaical Law was still in force did in that overthrow Christianity and go back to Judaism This is apparent from the scope of the Apostles discourse as well as from the account which the ancient Writers of Christianity * Vid. Socratis Histor L. v. c. 22. have given us of their sense about it such S. Hierom and S. Austin The former of which in his Comments on this place mentions the Fasts and Assemblies on certain days among Christians as wisely appointed for those who spend more time in the World than with God and either cannot or will not Assemble with the Church every day That on those solemn days at least they might sequester themselves a while from secular imployments and bestow some time on the Service of God Their Exceptions are far more considerable who say they cannot Fast without great prejudice to their health or without indisposing them for God's Service But they may be easily and briefly answered For as to those who say their health is hereby prejudiced if they be certain of it the Church never intended to oblige them by its Laws about Fasting which are designed as all its Ordinances are for the good not for the hurt of all its Children But in this let them use an upright judgment and they need trouble themselves no further Only let them consider it will not prejudice their health to come to the Prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays and therefore I hope they will make a Conscience of that and to use some Abstinence also on those days will in all likelihood contribute much unto their health As for the other they may be soon satisfied also that if Fasting do not promote the Religious ends for which it was ordained it must be let alone And one great end is Prayer as hath been said for which if it make men unfit by raising Vapours and Clouds they must take some moderate refreshment But this supposes still that they will frequent the Prayers of which let them be careful and beg of God to accept of such Humiliations as they are able to make before him Some pretend that other Reformed Churches have no set days of Fasting but only Fast as occasion requires nay some of their Divines have spoken against such days To which it may be replied That Luther the very first Reformer acknowledges two kinds of Fasts to be laudable in a Sermon of his on the Sunday next to Christmas-day one a Civil Fast appointed by the Magistrate at certain times which is a profitable and necessary Ordinance that all things be not consumed by Luxury and Riot The other Spiritual to be observed by all Christians And it would be very well Si aliquot diebus ante Festum Paschatis Pentecostis Nativitatis Domini communiter servaremus c. If we did all keep some such days before the Feast of Easter and Whitsuntide and the Nativity of our Lord with this caution only that we
do not think we merit any thing of God by our Fastings Melancthon's sence is so commonly known that I shall not set down his words which may be found in Mr. Thorndike * Relig. Assem p. 286. for not only Cassander but Pererius also in his Comment upon xiv of the Romans acknowledge his opinion to be That Fasting and the observation of things indifferent may be profitable and conduce to Gods worship not immediately indeed but mediately for by Fasting a man is made more fit to pour out Prayers in which consists the Worship of God Peter Martyr also resolves the question whether men be bound to obey when Princes or the Church appoint Fasts in these peremptory words * In Lib. Judic c. xx p. 173. Astringuntur sanè lege fidei atque obedientia They are bound certainly both by the law of Faith and by Obedience For when Fasts are propounded consonant to Gods Word how can he who believes in God decline them He cannot Only it is to be understood that they are bound who are able For if any body be disabled by his Age by Sickness or by Labours in these cases that which the Holy Scriptures say must take place I WILL HAVE MERCY NOT SACRIFICE Which is an excellent resolution for those scruples I mentioned before to govern themselves by who being really infirm are no more under this Law while they continue so than little Children Women with Child and Aged persons who need frequent refreshment And thus whole Churches have resolved as Cassander acknowledges out of the Confession of Saxony in which they declared their willingness to observe the set Fasts and other such like Traditions provided no opinion of merit were placed in such observances c. And the Bohemian Confession expresly consents That such Rites and Ceremonies ought to be retained which do advantage Faith the worship of God Peace and Order whosoever they had for their Author whether Synod Pope Bishop or any other And if any particular Doctor hath decried such things it hath been in opposition to the superstitious observance of them the opinion of merit satisfaction and such like conceits with which too many minds were infected And so the Divines of the Roman Church have not been sparing of such kind of Censures Pererius in particular a Learned Jesuit in his Comments on the first of Daniel takes notice of a sort of Fasting in these days which many affect upon a perverse account as his words are They either thinking the summ of Christian perfection to consist in the service of Abstinence alone or thereby hunting after the praise of men c. or having so little prudence that they extend their Fastings beyond measure to the great hindrance that is and damage of far better and more profitable things I will end this Part of my Discourse with the Declaration which Zanchy makes in his own and his Brethrens Name to satisfie those who objected to them the laying aside of the Fast of Lent They cannot justly accuse us saith he that we condemn the Quadragesima i. e. the Fast of Lent which is so ancient in the Church and by the Holy Fathers received and approved We do not condemn that Lent Fast which the ancient Fathers observed without Superstition but and so he goes on to show it is only Novel Superstitious and dangerous conceits of Satisfaction and Merit and the worship of God unto which it was abused that they rejected Thus he concludes his Discourse which he intitles De peculiari quadragesimalis Tome iv p. 694. in quartum praeceptum temporis sanctificatione Which in the beginning also he states after this manner that Preachers might rightly instruct their People Our judgment is that a difference ought to be made between the first Institution of this Season and that which followed after PART III. OF THE LENT FAST CHAP. XV. Of the Antiquity of the Lent or Spring Fast IT is the Confession of that Learned Divine now mentioned That there is no man unless he be altogether unskilful in Histories and never saw the ancient Fathers who doth not acknowledge the observation of this time of Lent to be most Ancient For Telesphorus who was the Seventh Bishop of the Roman Church and Martyr about the Year of our Lord 139. makes mention of it as observed in the Church before his time And indeed it is so ancient that there is no beginning to be found of it which hath moved many to run it up to the very Apostolical times nay to the Apostles themselves For which there is more reason perhaps than now is commonly acknowledged For if we consider that the first Converts to Christianity were from among the pious Jews by whom it was propagated to the rest of the World which is so clear in the Holy Story that it cannot be denied and that those devout people had been accustomed by the discipline of John Baptist who came to prepare men for Christ to Fast often that is twice a week it is most likely upon the days of their more solemn Assemblies according to the ancient practice of the stricter sort of that Nation we may very well suppose as hath been already said that when they became Christians they did not become less devout but still continued only upon other days to keep such solemn times of Prayer with Fasting every Week And why we should exempt the Apostles when they were in any setled place out of the number of those whose practice this was I cannot imagine but rather think they were exemplary to others herein being in Fastings often as I noted above and by this approving themselves the Ministers of God who did not pamper their Bodies but bring them under that their minds might be more fit for Meditation and Prayer and the illuminations of the Holy Ghost Which being as likely as any thing that is not expresly Recorded it is no less likely that when those usual days of Fasting came in the course of the Year to be the very days on which our Lord was betrayed and suffered the Apostles themselves observed them together with the day on which he lay in his Grave if not all that week before the memory of his Resurrection from the Dead with a more than ordinary solemnity both for Fasting and Prayer And this might be the meaning of those who at first said That the Lent Fast meaning the solemn Fast before Easter was of Apostolical Institution because founded upon their practice and example Among whom I have reason to reckon S. Austin who expresly Epist 86. ad Cassulanum saith in his Disputation against Vrbicus before mentioned that though he found Precepts for Fasting yet on what days men should not Fast and on what they ought he did not find determined by any Precept of Christ or his Apostles And therefore where he saith this Fast was ordained by them he can mean by their example only Which Bellarmin himself saw to be so apparent that he
Pop. Antiochen in a Sermon of his in the third week in Lent saith that it was a general custom among his people to ask one another in Lent time how many weeks every one had Fasted And that one might hear them answering that some had fasted two others three others all the weeks Which difference he doth not censure but only tells them that none of them had fasted to purpose if they had not abstained from evil speaking and backbiting and were not cured of their wicked habit of Swearing and such like sins And Petitus hath evidently proved that in S. Austin's time and Leo the Great 's they fasted but three days in a week at Rome during the Lent season And so Socrates represents their practice at Rome in his time which was near that of Leo's that they fasted three continued weeks before Easter except upon the Saturdays and Lord's days And S. Ambrose saith in one of his Sermons that he heard complures Serm. 34. very many of the faithful fasted interchangeably one week in Lent and dined in another For which indeed he reproves them but it was a thing practised or some thing like it in other places L. vii cap. 19. as Sozomen tells us For having said how some Countries made Lent to consist of Six weeks of days others of Seven he saith some fasted three of these Six or Seven weeks alternately or scatteredly as his word is sometimes forbearing all Food and sometimes using it and others continuedly fasted the three weeks immediately preceding Easter without any interruption Which variety I suppose arose from the various tempers dispositions imployments and perhaps devotion of divers people who not condemning nor censuring one another preserved still an uniformity in this variety All being more than ordinarily diligent in some or other of the solemn Religious Exercises of this Season during the whole time And thus Irenaeus saith that in the variety that was in this Fast long before his time there was a perfect agreement among Christians The difference of the Fast not dissolving the union of Faith No nor the bond of Peace For he saith expresly they all lived peaceably one with another as they did also in his days Nay S. Austin makes this diversity in Ecclesiastical customs to be represented by the divers colours wherewith the raiment of the Kings Daughter Psal xlv was embroidered This variety Epist 86. saith he consists well enough with one Faith which is the inward glory of the Church For it is only in the Garment that is in external observations nay the Garment is thus varied by divers celebrations so that it is not torn by contentions Which sence of things if we all had ingrafted in our minds and both studied and heartily loved this blessed temper we might with singular profit keep this Fast of Lent Which was wisely prolonged by the Church to forty days and in some places to more as I might plainly show were it the business I design not to tie every one precisely to Fast so many days but that all might have scope and room enough in some part or other of this time if not in the whole for such holy Exercises as these to call themselves to the strictest account to examine their Consciences narrowly to humble and afflict themselves for all their sins and particularly to amerce as I may call it and punish themselves by frequent Fastings for their frequent abuses of Gods good Creatures to form and settle holy resolutions of thorough amendment to pray to God with greater ardor both in private and publick for his pardon and for his holy Spirit to meditate upon the wonderful love of God in our Saviour Christ who will receive penitent sinners unto Mercy and to fit themselves to receive the Tokens and Pledges of the same with the higher joy and gladness because with the fuller assurance of his being reconciled to us being thus disposed through the Death and Passion of Christ Jesus And here it may be briefly noted that the Paschal Fast was thus inlarged rather than any other time chosen for these holy Exercises because then we remember the bitter Agonies and Passion of Christ for our sins which are the most powerful motives to make us hate and forsake them and the clearest demonstration what the deserts of them were and how stupendious the loving kindness of God which would accept and also find a ransom for us Which account of it S. Austin I observe gives in his famous Epistle to Januarius In what part of Epist 119. the Year could the observation of it be appointed more congruously nisi confinis atque contigua Dominicae Passioni But that which was bordering upon and contiguous unto the Passion of our Lord As for the limitation of this solemn Season of Humiliation to the number of forty days therein I suppose the Church had a respect to Christ's Fasting forty days in the dedication of the New Covenant as Moses and Elias had done in the giving and restoring of the Old Not that they thought themselves bound precisely and absolutely by that example but looking upon it only as a convenient direction as a learned Writer of our own * Dr. Field of the Church L. 3. c. 20. speaks in determining the length of this Fast wherein they might also be put in mind of that sore trial and temptation which Christ then indured for our sakes This being a number likewise famous in Scripture upon many other accounts for the Rain which made the Flood continued forty days and so many days the Spies spent in searching out the good Land and Ezekiel in the type he was ordered to draw of the Siege of Jerusalem lay on his right side to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days iv 6. after which number of days also Jonah threatned Nineveh should be destroyed and so many our Saviour staid with his Disciples after his Resurrection before he ascended unto Heaven Which might move the Church to think of this number rather than any other but without any opinion that it was strictly bound thereunto for then the Church would have precisely kept to it which it hath not done For deducting the Saturdays and Sundays which were not anciently Fasted in the Eastern Church nor in some parts of the Western no not at Rome it self there do not remain forty days And if only the Sundays be deducted as now in the Western Churches there will still want of that number of forty days For those in the Caput as they call it or beginning of the Fast which being put to the rest make up that number it must be confessed were not observed at the first but added afterward CHAP. XVII Of the Manner of its Observation NOW in the manner of Fasting it must be acknowledged also there was a variety as well as in the number of days which they Fasted For in the Holy week as it was called they that were strict would Eat
to what the Wise man saith iv Ecclus 21. There is a shame that bringeth sin and there is a shame which is glory and grace No man hath reason to blush if he come from his Corporal repast to partake of the Spiritual A sober hearer though he have Dined is not unfit for this Assembly As on the contrary a listless and careless though he remain Fasting gets no good thereby I do not speak this to unloose you from the strictness of Fasting God forbid for I much approve and praise those who are Fasting but I would have you to understand that you should come after a sober manner and not merely out of Custom unto Spiritual things and that it is not Eating but negligence disorderly passions and affections and lusts uncurbed that make men unfit for our Sermons For beloved if by reason of the weakness of thy Body thou canst not continue all the day Fasting no wise man will reprove thee for it For we serve a gentle and merciful Lord who exacts nothing of us beyond our strength nor doth he simply require Fasting and Abstinence of us and that we should remain Fasting till this hour but that throwing away all cares for the things of this life we should bestow all our leisure in Spiritual imployments And if we order our life with a sober mind and whatsoever leisure we have be imployed in Spiritual things and we Eat merely for necessity and so much as needs and no more bestowing all our life in some good work or other there is no need then that we are in of that help which is received from Fasting Which was not ordained for such kind of men but because humane nature is negligent and delights in pleasure and seeks for ease and liberty therefore our most merciful Lord like a tender hearted Father devised this medicine of Fasting that delicacies and making much of our selves might be cut off and we might translate our thoughts about the things of this life unto Spiritual imployments If therefore there be any here present whom the infirmity of their body will not permit to continue Fasting without their Dinner I exhort such both to refresh their bodily infirmity and not to deprive themselves of this Spiritual instruction but having taken their bodily repast to be so much the more studious of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For there are certainly there are ways by which far wider doors of confidence towards God may be opened than by mere Abstinence from Food He therefore that takes some Food being unable to Fast let him give larger Alms let him send up more fervent Prayers let him be more forward and show greater alacrity in hearing God's Word In those things his bodily infirmity can be no hindrance to him Let him be reconciled to his Enemies let him drive all remembrance of injuries out of his heart and if he hath done these things he hath kept the true Fast which the Lord requires of us For he commands us to abstain from Meat for these things sake that we should check the wantonness of the Flesh and make it obedient and tractable to fulfil his Commandments Wherefore knowing these things I beseech you who can Fast that you intend and increase as much as is possible this your good and laudable forwardness for the more the outward man decays the more your inward man is renewed Fasting brings under the Body and bridles its disorderly motions It makes the Soul also more clear and bright giving it wings also and making it light and ready to sore aloft As for our Brethren who cannot Fast do you exhort them that they would not for this cause refrain from their Spiritual Food Tell them what I now say and let them know that not he who Eats and Drinks moderately is unworthy of this Auditory but he that is lazy and dissolute And tell them also what the Apostle saith in that Oracle of his that both he that Eateth Eateth to the Lord and he that Eateth not to the Lord he Eateth not and giveth God thanks In like manner let him that Fasteth give thanks to God who gives him strength able to support the labour of Fasting and he that Fasteth not let him also give thanks that nothing of this nature can do him hurt nor hinder him from minding the Salvation of his Soul if he be pleased to attend it For it cannot be told how many ways our most merciful God hath provided by which if we will we may attain the highest confidence in him These things I have said for the sake of the absent that occasion of shame might be taken from them and they might know there is no reason to be ashamed on this score For to have Eaten doth not bring confusion upon us but to have done an ill thing Sin is a great shame which if we have admitted we ought not only to blush but to hide our selves for shame and like condemned persons bewail our selves as miserable wretches and yet not then to despond but to make the more haste to Penitence and Pardon For he is such a gracious Lord that he requires no more when by negligence we fall into sin but that we acknowledge our Errors and proceed no further nor return again to the same offences I omit the rest for he repeats the same thing often over in that Sermon In the conclusion of which after he had expounded a portion of Holy Scripture he excuses himself for holding them so long which yet he tells them was not without reason but that they who were present might be able to teach those who were absent the forenamed Lesson which he desires them to carry home with them and instruct their absent Neighbours in it And the next day but one he begins his Sermon with the very same Lesson again having also in his Sermon upon the day between these two told them that two days Hom. xi in a week were allowed unto all wherein to intermit their Fasting Which he compares to the resting places and Inns which are upon the Rode that weary Travellers may turn in and refresh themselves a while to enable them to go on their journey the more chearfully and to the Ports and Havens on the Sea-shore into which the Mariners may run their Vessel when they have been tossed with the Waves and there wait for the opportunity of a fair Wind to carry them forward Such Shores and Havens saith he such Rests and stays hath God granted us for two days in the week in this course of the Lent Fast that the labour of it being a little remitted and they that travel in it refreshed may afterwards go on with the greater alacrity Of the same Opinion was his great Friend S. Basil in his Book of true Virginity * Tome 1. p. 717. Where he saith we may apply to Fasting those words of the Holy Scripture Turn not to the right hand nor to the left For as it is dangerous to
uncorrupted rule of life For though there were at the first some Tares scattered by the Enemy which grew up among the good Corn yet it cannot be denied that there was never greater Sanctity nor more perfect Innocence than was among the generality of the Faithful who as far as we can find always observed some such solemn Fast as I have treated of before the Memory of Christ's Resurrection And therefore let not us now in these days refuse much less reject the service of that which they found very helpful to them for the preserving and perfecting of the Church in Purity and Holiness and which good men in later times have been so far from thinking superfluous that they have rather inclined to like the custom of the Greek Church who beside the great Lent have other three Lents of shorter continuance and less strict observance at other solemn times of the Year Let us not lay aside the use of Fasting the example of which flowed from the Prophets John Baptist our Lord Christ and his Apostles Nor of this great Fast which is commended to us by most ancient Custom if not by greater Authority by the Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church in the best Ages and by the practice of all the Faithful and which is of very great moment to dispose the mind for the Reading and Hearing of God's holy Word for Prayer for Hymns and all other Christian duties whereby we may also draw upon our selves and our Families nay and upon the Church and Kingdom whereof we are members all manner of Blessings both by appeasing his Divine displeasure and averting publick Judgments and on the contrary procuring great prosperity What if one part of Lent be now neglected that is the publick discipline of the Church against notorious Offenders is not in these later Ages exercised shall all the rest therefore be laid aside with it A serious Believer who hath any love to himself and the publick safety would rather conclude that there is so much the greater reason to be more diligent in that part of it from the practice of which nothing but our own Wills can hinder us since notorious Offenders it seems are grown so numerous that it is impossible to bring them to do open Penance for their scandalous sins and wickedness That is every man who hath as yet a sense of God and Goodness remaining in him ought to look upon the ensuing Lent as a time set apart for the calling himself to a strict and severe account And accordingly if any man find that he hath been a Fornicator though never so close and secret a Drunkard or constant Tipler an Extortioner an hard-hearted Worldling a Calumniator or Backbiter a Blasphemer of God an hinderer or slanderer of his Holy Word or any other great Sinner he ought to apply himself conscientiously to Fasting and Prayer and giving Alms and all other duties which have been ever accounted proper for this Season And let him not spare himself but spend this time as much as he can in all manner of Humiliations which have been often mentioned in this Treatise retiring himself from company and from business to the utmost of his power that he may lament his sins and acknowledge his wretchedness and most earnestly sue to be reconciled to God whom he hath offended Lamentations indeed and wailings and such like things are not the whole business of Repentance yet I have demonstrated they are a part of it And let me now add they are such a part though but small in comparison that they alone may obtain great Blessings from God upon us If well disposed people would in every Parish of this Nation leave off their business upon the first day of Lent that they might go to Church in a mournful habit with Fasting and Tears and dejection of face and prostrations and all other such acknowledgments of their wretchedness imploring the Divine Mercy it might prolong our tranquillity and prevail for an adjournment at least of those Judgments which if we consider our sinful life we cannot but think we have justly deserved and had reason long ago to expect should have been inflicted on us Especially if we continued all the Lent long to frequent the holy Assemblies as often as necessary business would permit to beseech God in the most mournful manner to take pity upon us For then this outward part of Penitence with Sorrow and Grief and affliction of Spirit though no great Reformation should follow we might be confident would obtain from God those Temporal benefits which we call the outward parts of his favour For so it did in the case of Ahab concerning whom God saith to the Prophet Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me Because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his days c. The vengeance though already denounced was put off till a further day because he took that revenge upon himself which is mentioned in the foregoing Verse He rent his Cloaths and put Sackcloth upon his Flesh and Fasted and lay in Sackcloth and went softly 1 Kings xxi 27 28 29. And therefore what may we not expect from this means when it is but the outward part of Repentance and the best part is not wanting But we truly humble our selves in the sight of God so as to submit our selves unto him to do whatsoever he would have us faithfully resolving to become new men and endeavouring so to be Or as our Church excellently exhorts us on the first day of Lent If we would remembring the dreadful Judgments hanging over our heads and alway ready to fall upon us return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart bewailing and lamenting our sinful life acknowledging and confessing our offences and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits of Penance Then our afflicting our selves our mourning our weeping our heaviness and all the bodily Exercises before named would profit not a little but be so acceptable unto God that he would give us the greatest Blessings even perfect remission and forgiveness as we pray in the Collect for this Season When these bodily Exercises are the effects of true Contrition of Spirit and when they are earnests of a new life and a means we use to accustom our selves to Sobriety to Self-denial to Retirement to shake off bad Company to Devotion to Self-examination to Meditation to Pity and Commiseration of the wants of others to Charity and works of Mercy then will the Lord have mercy upon us as the Prophet speaks and he will multiply to pardon lv Isa 7. But let all those especially who truly fear God among us apply themselves with all seriousness to this much neglected duty For others I doubt unless they be forced to it will not regard these Admonitions Let it not content them that they do not follow the bad in their ungodly practices but let them also lament the scandal which they give and bewail the deplorable estate of
such wretched Souls and deprecate the Divine displeasure beseeching him to turn his anger from us and to spare us for the sake of those pious Souls that with Fasting Mourning and Weeping humbly supplicate his Mercy If the Church did now exercise that ancient Discipline so much spoken of it would be the duty of the very best among us to be present at the Censures passed upon notorious Offenders and I showed out of S. Paul to bewail them and lament over them in the most doleful manner And why should we not do that voluntarily in our private retirements on Fasting-days which the Church doth not call for to be done in publick Nay we should the rather do it as I have often said and bewail this among other things that men are impatient of such discipline or any thing like it that they will not submit to the government of their Spiritual Pastors which is so great a sin that it is next to Rebellion against their Sovereign and that Offenders are so multiplied as beyond all measure to exceed the number of the Good who are not able to curb and restrain them This is a lamentable state of things and ought to affect the hearts of those who fear God with Grief and Sorrow especially when they consider the obstinate hardness of mens hearts in these evil courses their great insensibleness either of their sin or danger and the cause of all this their gross Infidelity Which it should be part of every good mans business to bewail in secret beseeching God all the Lent long to put a stop to the floods of ungodliness that they may not like a deluge overwhelm us It is not the custom of these parts of the World to mourn in Sackcloth and Ashes and therefore I have not pressed the very same significations of Sorrow Grief and Humiliation which were anciently used in the Eastern Countries but something like them and equivalent to them if we be not willing to use it is because we think it a slight matter to offend the Divine Majesty and are not afraid of his Almighty displeasure For let us but awaken in our Souls a sense of the hainous nature of those sins which we and others have committed against God and of the danger we have incurred by our undutifulness to him and we shall not think it unreasonable to submit to some such discipline as this which is here proposed instead of that which was practised of old in other Nations Let every one of us lay aside all this Lent our fine Cloaths and the usual attire of our Bodies for that is still the custom of Mourners in all places and let us retire our selves as much as is possible for so Mourners also do making no visits nor willingly receiving any if nothing but civility oblige us to it Let the time be spent in this retirement in Reading and Prayer in examining our Consciences and bewailing our Offences in taking a view of the miserable estate of mankind and imploring the Divine Mercy towards them in laying to heart the sufferings of any of our Christian Brethren and such like Spiritual Exercises which we are too apt to neglect in a croud of business and of company Let the consideration of it move us to afflict our selves with Fasting or if that cannot be with a spare Diet Let the rich especially and those that live deliciously deny their appetites keep a slender Table and punish their excesses with harder fare Drink no Wine nor strong Liquors without necessity make no Feasts nor accept of invitations to them Give Alms liberally and frequent the publick Prayers and there let us humble our selves before God and blush to lift up our Eyes unto Heaven Yea let us Pray with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit as the Apostle enjoyns vi Ephes 18. that is address our selves to him in all sorts of holy thoughts and devout affections and that with great fervour and ardent desires with Tears and knocking our Breasts and bended knees as Theophylact expounds the words beseeching him by the Mystery of his holy Incarnation by his holy Nativity and Circumcision by his Baptism Fasting and Temptation by his Agony and Bloudy Sweat by his Cross and Passion c. graciously to deliver us Tremble to think that you have so oft prayed in the Litany that God would PITIFVLLY BEHOLD THE SORROWS OF YOVR HEARTS when perhaps you had no SORROW at all there and now if you have any let it be testified in all the sorrowful actions that I have named And forbear Musick and Dancing and all such like pleasures Let those that have been slothful content themselves with less sleep that they may have more time for Prayer and Heavenly thoughts They that have been too Voluptuous will do well also to lye hard though not upon the ground Finally let there be a general Abstinence from all manner of Recreations unless the preservation of Health make them necessary and then use them privately Leave the Play-houses quite empty and make the Churches full Go to no publick shows nor meetings but spend the time when you come from Church in setting all things right at home For S. Chrysostom I remember having heard that some of his Auditors since his last Sermon had been at an Horse-race bewails it in his next as the loss of all the pains he had bestowed upon them from the beginning of Lent And among other things tells them it gave great scandal to Jews and to Gentiles who seeing those that were at Church daily mingle themselves at those meetings with such as came not thither think saith he that all we do is a delusion and that we are all alike no better than themselves A great deal more he saith on this subject in his Sixth and Seventh Sermon upon Genesis and begins his Forty first Sermon with the very same matter In like manner S. Basil * Hom. viii in Hexaem p. 110. chides those who as soon as Sermon was done went and plaid at Dice and Tables It being to no purpose to afflict the Body with Fasting if the Mind continue vain and full of vicious Affections And therefore S. Chrysostom frequently beseeches his hearers that when they came home they would spend their time in ruminating upon what they had been taught and conferring one with another about it and thereby free themselves from all bad desires and flee the snares of the Devil For when the Devil saith he sees our Minds solicitous about these Divine matters and perpetually conversant in them he dares not approach us but flees away before the face of a more powerful Spirit working in us Now all this that hath been said doth not come up to the Primitive strictness but it approaches something near unto it and is a great mortification of sensual Nature which delights in company and merry meetings in Feasts and Jollity in Sport and Plays in Laughter and all manner of Mirth and Pleasure Which we ought to lay aside and deny our selves at this Season that we may fulfil the Apostolical Precept iv Jam. 9. 10. Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Let the Reader cast his Eyes back to the latter end of the Seventh Chapter of this Book and when he hath perused it again consider with himself what he hath to do Especially in the Great Week of Lent as they anciently called the Week just before Easter which had that Name given it saith the great Man before mentioned because S. Chrysost Hom. xxx in Genes in it certain great and unspeakable benefits were bestowed upon us There was an end put in this Week to the long continued War Death was extinguished the Curse was taken away the tyranny of the Devil dissolved and he himself disarmed God reconciled to mankind Heaven made enterable Men associated with Angels things distant conjoyned the Partition-wall taken down the inclosure laid open the God of Peace pacified all things both in Heaven and in Earth And therefore we call it the Great Week because the Lord graciously conferred on us such a multitude of Gifts therein For which reason many both inlarge their Easting and are remarkable for Watchings and holy Pernoctations and Alms Showing by their deeds the honour they have for this Week For if our Lord freely bestowed such great benefits upon us therein how can we think it decent in us not then to make a show of all possible reverence and honour For even Kings themselves declare in what admiration they have those venerable Days by commanding a vacation to all those who manage Civil affairs by shutting up the doors of the Courts of Judgment and requiring a cessation of all strife and contention that men may have nothing to do but to apply themselves to the right performance of Spiritual offices with the greatest quietness and tranquillity And more than this they honour these Days with another liberality loosing the bonds of Prisoners and letting them go free that as far as Humane power reaches they may imitate their Lord. For as he set us at liberty when we were fast tied and bound with the Chains of our Sins and gave us the injoyment also of innumerable good things so we in like manner ought the best we can to be imitators of this loving kindness of the Lord. You see how every one of us should show in all things the reverence and the honour which is becoming those Days which were the procurers of so many and such good things And therefore now if ever let me intreat you to expel all Worldly thoughts and to keep the Eye of your Mind clear and vigilant Now is the time to Fast more strictly to make more earnest Prayers to be more exact and large in confession of Sins to be diligent in all the actions of Piety to give Alms more liberally to exercise the strictest Patience Forbearance Meekness and all other Vertue That coming with these accomplishments unto easter-Easter-day we may partake of the bounty of the Lord. THE END