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
many publick judgments of God fall upon us in these days because the Church is negligent in calling offenders to an account And they will not judge that is Afflict themselves for their Offences There are great numbers I doubt not who condemn their Sins in their own Consciences and condemn themselves also for them to deserve punishment from God And this they imagine to be sufficient to make them capable of his Mercy and Forgiveness Whereas they ought to humble themselves with Fasting and Weeping and Mourning with neglect of their Bodies confession of their Guilt confusion of Face lamentable deprecations of Gods displeasure Prayers and Supplications with works of Mery which ought always to accompany Fasting and Prayer as most becoming those who ask mercy of God and as a Revenge upon themselves for their Covetousness and too great love of this present World And because grievous sinners do not thus Afflict themselves with an unfeigned resolution of amendment God himself is pleased to afflict them by sending his Plagues upon them in one sort or other to punish them CHAP. VII Some Cautions to prevent misunderstanding in this matter THUS having proved what I undertook that we ought not to content our selves with inward Sorrow alone without all outward Humiliations and shown the use they have in Religion I proceed now according to the method laid down in the beginning to give some Cautions to prevent the misunderstanding or abuse of this Doctrine 1. And first of all I would not be understood as if I thought they were of such an indispensable necessity that it is impossible for any sinner to obtain Remission and Absolution without them No the very History of the Gospel shows the contrary In which we find our Saviour who came to call sinners to Repentance forgave several persons who did not like that woman in the vii of S. Luke Kiss his very feet wash them with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head All which were acts of great Humiliation especially the last wherein she imployed that to the meanest use which had been before her principal Ornament and her pride My meaning therefore is that these things are very useful as hath been shown and in some cases necessary when Penitents have been very licentious livers and it is not likely they will otherwise be sufficiently sensible of what they have done and of what they have deserved nor be so humbled as to be reclaimed and brought off from their evil courses 2. They therefore who have constantly led a regular life and are guilty only of the smaller sort of Offences must not take these things as spoken to them unless it be on some occasions which shall be presently mentioned which are intended for gross and scandalous Sinners Such as that woman now named who was a known Harlot unto whom our Lord forgave a great deal when little was forgiven unto Simon who did none of these things vii Luke 46 47. 3. Yet it may be very necessary even for those to take this course who are not such heinous Offenders in case of frequent relapses into the same sin which must be cured by using themselves something severely For though seldom slips of the Tongue suppose may be easily corrected yet frequent returns to folly and that after solemn resolutions to the contrary will require more pains and great Humiliations as a means not only to give a stop to them but to extirpate such roots of bitterness 4. The best also ought to Afflict themselves in times of publick calamity and upon days of solemn Humiliation when men are naturally disposed to that which may signifie their seriousness sobriety sorrow and unworthiness of the Blessings they come to beg of the Father of Mercies 5. By which every one may understand that these Humiliations are not always in season as inward grief and sorrow is But upon such occasions as I have mentioned and also at certain appointed times which the Church hath fixed either Weekly or Yearly for Humiliation in general for our own and other mens Sins or for the bewailing those in particular who have deserved the Censures of the Church when they are executed on them Of which more hereafter 6. At all which times care must be taken that these Humiliations be true significations of our inward grief and proceed from thence And not merely external shews used for fashions sake and to comply with the season For without inward grief and resolutions to be better they are so far from procuring any favour from God that we may justly fear they further incense him as being but a kind of mockery of him Which made the Prophet Joel in the place above named bid the Israelites rend their hearts and not their Garments Not intending hereby to forbid the rending their Garments which he had in effect called for in the preceding words but requiring them not to content themselves with that alone Because that was but a signification and token and a sign where there was nothing really signified thereby could be nothing worth But rather an abomination in the sight of God Who counts it a vile piece of Hypocrisie when we present him with significations which in truth signifie nothing there being nothing within like to that which appears without 7. And further this caution must be used that by these Exercises we neither destroy the health of our Bodies nor suffer any ill affection to be bred in our Minds We ought not to make our selves sick with Fasting nor so weaken our selves by hard usage as to become unfit for our imployments And greater care ought to be taken that we do not grow morose and sowre peevish and untoward unto others while we are severe unto our selves And that the keeping our selves under a strict discipline do not beget a secret pride in us which makes us to think very highly of our selves and to contemn and despise others Just as the conceited Pharisee did the poor Publican in the xviii S. Luke 11 12. But above all we must be watchful that such pride to not creep herewith into our hearts as tempts men to fansie they have by this discipline highly merited at the hands of God whom they had grievously offended Let such Rocks as these be avoided and then these bodily Exercises in their season and due measure may prove very profitable being designed for such other ends and uses as I have named particularly as a means to prevent our relapsing into such sins as have cost us much affliction and trouble 8. But lastly I desire it may be noted that I do not pretend any obligation or fitness either for the use of all and every the very same tokens of inward grief and of the sense we have of our vileness whereby it was expressed in ancient days But we are rather to declare the same things by other signs which are more suitable to our own times For the reason I have shown why they sat down in Sackcloth and
in the vi Chapter and the offenders are so many that the Church perhaps cannot judge that is punish them God takes the matter into his own hand and some way or other inflicts such punishments on them as he did upon the Corinthians In which case the few good that are among them ought to lament them and weep over them as they should have done if the Censures of the Church had been denounced and executed upon them For which there is the greater reason because as they are members of the same Body so they are in danger to suffer with them in the same common calamity especially if they do not humble themselves to deprecate Gods heavy displeasure If we make a particular application of this to our selves in this Nation we are very blind if we do not see that the hand of God as the Prophet speaks hath been divers ways stretched out against us in a destroying Pestilence even then when the Sword of War was also drawn between us and our Neighbours and afterwards in a devouring Fire whereby many fair Buildings and Holy Places were laid in Ashes which are things that ought not to be forgotten though alas they little now affect mens Minds And therefore we have been again terrified by the great hazard the Church and Kingdom was lately in when their old Enemies strugled once more to get the upper-hand and had brought us even to the brink of the Precipice where we stood for some time trembling to think what would become of us And though we were then mercifully delivered yet when we consider how restless the Spirit of Sedition and Rebellion hath been since among us and brought us again so near the very same dreadful danger that we were just upon the point of beholding all Order and Government over-turned All serious Christians cannot but think that this is a lamentation as the Prophets words are and ought to be for a lamentation The prevention indeed of that utter Confusion by a wonderful Providence ought to fill our hearts with joy But the thoughts of such frequent Calamities which have threatned us ought to put us in Fear also lest in conclusion they should fall upon us if neither Gods mercies nor his Judgments can amend us The only way to keep them off is for all good men and women to humble themselves and weep in secret for these things On which they cannot cast their Eyes seriously to take a view of them but they will find them soliciting their Tears and their Sighs and hear them call upon them to be afflicted and mourn and to let their joy sometimes at least be turned into heaviness This alone is a sad and melancholy sight to behold the Spirit of Blindness and Giddiness of Faction and Rebellion that hath seized on a great part of the Nation Our senseless Contentions and Oppositions the wide Breaches and Divisions for which we can see no Healing may justly challenge if there were nothing else to trouble us great thoughts and searchings of heart II. Especially if we consider the other thing not only how insensible most people are of all such matters which in bodily distempers is counted the worse symptom in the world but how few have been amended by the publick Judgments which have either threatned us or faln upon us The complaint which God makes by the Prophet ii Jer. 30. may still be continued In vain have I smitten your Children they received no correction And which the Prophet makes to God Ver. 3. O Lord are not thine Eyes upon the truth Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction They have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return For which stubborn impiety and impudent wickedness which hath every where too much abounded among us every good man ought to be very much afflicted and not only content himself with this that he doth not follow them in their ungodly practices but bewail also as many as have sinned and have not Repented as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. xii ult of the Vncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness and other abominable sins which they have committed For this is really the saddest spectacle of all other to behold such numbers as have not been at all touched with any remorse for their own Sins nor any grief for publick Calamities nor any Fear of future danger But have taken their pleasures to the full in the most sorrowful times that this Nation hath seen and would not abate of their mirth and laughter in the least when all things lookt cloudily about them but incouraged one another to think only of eating and drinking and rising up to play which all sober men cannot but look upon to be as unseemly a sight as if men should go and dance about their Parents or nearest Relations when they saw them a dying The ancient Pythagoraeans were wont when any person forsook their School to set a Coffin in the place where he used to sit And then to make a solemn Funeral for him bewailing him with their Tears as one that was really dead And we have not well learned Christ as the Apostle speaks if we do not think we have greater reason to bewail those who have so far forsaken God and their Holy Religion that nothing he can say or do will move them to a sober sadness But they go on with a stiff neck and an hard heart to laugh at all goodness They are in so deplorable a condition that we may give them up for dead and take up a lamentation over them as lost men who will never have any feeling and therefore are the greatest objects of all good mens pity Who have reason to mourn for them and follow them with their Tears as they would a Friend that is carried to his Grave Or rather they are more to be lamented because they are dead even while they live According to that of the Son of Sirach xxii Ecclus. 12. Seven days do men mourn for the dead but for a Fool and for an ungodly Man all the days of his life And if we take into our consideration the causes of that bold confidence which hath made them mock at all seriousness even when we have been in the greatest dangers we shall see still the greater reason for our Humiliations They may be resolved into these two First their obstinate unbelief which makes them contemn all that is told them of future danger And secondly their pride and scornfulness which makes them despise even Gods present chastisements As for the first of these it is too notorious that many men have hardned their hearts against the belief of the Judgment to come in the other World Which dull Infidelity leads them into all manner of licentious living and lets their furious desires loose to run without any check or bridle into the foulest profaneness And when they are deeply drencht in the pleasures of Sense
wickedness And so to love instruction to thank those that reprove them to obey their Teachers to incline their Ears to their godly Admonitions to endeavour to do as much Good as they have done Evil And that in the midst of the People openly giving glory to God by their publick Repentance whom they have boldly dishonoured by their scandalous wickedness This might avail them and prove acceptable unto his offended Majesty but to bewail themselves thus only at the last gasp or when they can no longer act their wickedness no body can tell how it will be taken But they have just reason to fear lest the same measure be dealt to them with which Solomon saith some shall be served Whose dreadful doom is Recorded in the first Chapter of his Wise Instructions in these remarkable words Ver. 24 25 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices From which terrible sentence God of his infinite mercy deliver us And let all that read these things endeavour to deliver themselves by hearkening to such good counsel as hath been here given That is by turning to the Lord with all their Heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning PART II. Concerning FASTING CHAP. X. What is meant by Fasting AMONG those Humiliations wherewith Penitent Sinners ought to prostrate themselves before God to sue for mercy the Reader cannot but observe that Fasting hath been frequently mentioned as holding a principal place And therefore I think it useful to treat a little of it by it self The Church having set apart certain times for it wherein if those wicked men I now spoke of will not humble themselves and Repent of their Evil doings whereby they are pulling down Judgments upon themselves and upon others yet all good men should embrace the opportunities of casting down themselves frequently before God to joyn with Gods Ministers in those supplications like them prescribed in the Prophet Joel upon their solemn Fast 2. 17. Spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud and be not angry with us for ever Beseeching him to deliver us as from all blindness of heart c. so more especially from all Sedition privy Conspiracy and Rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of Heart and contempt of his Word and Commandment Which solemn Prayers were never more necessary than in these days and for that reason Fasting ought not to be neglected but attend upon them as an help unto them and a means to make them more effectual This shall be proved when I have first shown what Fasting is And in proper speaking Fasting is an abstinence from all manner of Food whether it be Meat or Drink As we may be satisfied if it need any proof from that question which was askt our Saviour in v. Luke 33. Why do the Disciples of John Fast often and make Prayers and likewise the Pharisees but thine Eat and Drink Which place is remarkable for two things for it shows both that Prayers were a concomitant of Fasting as I said just now and that Fasting is so opposite to Eating and Drinking that he who Eats and Drinks doth not Fast Which is still more confirmed by the words wherein the other Evangelists put this Question which are these Why do the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees Fast but thy Disciples Fast not ii Mark 18. ix Matth. 14. Here they call that not Fasting which S. Luke calls Eating and Drinking It being one and the same thing to Eat and Drink and not to Fast Nor is any other notion to be found of Fasting in the holy Scriptures or in any ancient Writer Jewish or Christian but this Forbearance of all manner of Meat and Drink while the Fast lasts Some think indeed that speaking improperly there are examples in Scripture of Fasts which consisted only in abstinence from the better sort of Food and contenting themselves with harder fare Thus Josephus saith that the Fast which Esther and her Maidens observed together with the Jews in Shushan when they neither did Eat nor Drink three days night nor day was forbearing all delicate Meat and Drink for that time as Grotius observes out of him upon iv Esth 16. Which may receive some confirmation from what Daniel saith of himself x. 2 3. In those days I Daniel was mourning three full Weeks I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I anoint my self at all till three whole Weeks were fulfilled His Mourning which comprehends Fasting was nothing else it should seem but abstinence from all things pleasant and desirable as the word is in the Hebrew Language while he allowed himself a courser sort of diet which nothing but mere necessity commended to his appetite And if we let this pass for truth it doth not prejudice what I said of Fasting that usually and speaking exactly it signifies Eating and Drinking nothing at all And if the Holy Writers speak otherwise it is upon some extraordinary occasion when the Humiliation continued so long that it was impossible to Fast strictly without any refection at all as it was in these Fasts of three days and three weeks But I am not satisfied that Daniel's Mourning was such as hath been now supposed for his words may signifie no more but that when he did Eat and Drink nothing that was pleasant came into his mouth And then his meaning is that for three weeks he kept a Fast Eating and Drinking nothing at all till the Evening as the manner was on Fasting days and then abstaining from Flesh and Wine and using only a courser sort of Bread For thus Ezra Fasted eating no Bread at all nor drinking Water For he Mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away x. 6. just as Daniel did The Fast of Esther indeed doth not so easily admit this Interpretation because they did in that neither Eat nor Drink three days night or day But if we take the words rigidly they will not admit of Josephus's Interpretation no more than of this for they that fare hardly do notwithstanding Eat and Drink And therefore I am apt to think the true meaning is that they made no set Meal at all neither night nor day But if any of them
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
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
as many do that Fasting consists only in Eating nothing till the Evening This is not the business but that together with Abstinence from Meat we abstain from all things that may hurt us and have more leisure for Spiritual imployments A Faster ought to be humble mild lowly a contemner of the glory of this Life For as he hath despised the care of his Appetite so it becomes him as little to mind Vain glory and look to him alone that searches the Heart and the Reins to make Prayers and Confessions to God with great diligence and to do himself good by doing good and giving Alms to others c. Thus let us spend every week nay every day of this Lent saith he in another Hom. xv in Gen. Sermon going over the same things again in little different Language and then there was reason he thought to hope that they might get a habit of these Vertues before the conclusion And to the same purpose S. Athanasius in his Book of Virginity before mentioned It is not simply Fasting which we magnifie for if thou Fastest and dost not keep thy mouth that it speak no evil if thou dost not guard it from venting passionate and angry words from telling lies from perjury from backbiting and slandering thy Neighbour if any of these go out of thy Fasting mouth thy Fasting will profit thee nothing all thy pains in this is but lost labour And who can think that if such Lessons as these did all the Lent long still sound in mens Ears and were continually pressed on their Hearts they would be without any effect for the reforming of their lives No the very face of all things then looking so solemn as the ingenious Gentleman now named observes would naturally constrain them in some measure to be serious and that in all probability would occasion just reflections upon themselves and their evil courses which would produce in some or other new resolutions and purposes of amendment And if a thorough reformation should be wrought in none yet this restraint upon mens evil inclinations for such a considerable time would put such a stop to the progress of Vice that it would make men if not better yet less wicked than otherwise they would have been Of which that Gentleman was so sensible that he looks upon it as the special great Mercy and Grace of God which hath preserved the severity of Lent in those Countries where looseness of life it so great that were it not for this the floods of ungodliness growing so strong and outragious and having no where either bounds or banks to restrain them might plunge whole Nations into such a gulph of wickedness as should leave no hope of their recovery CHAP. XIX A further Satisfaction to some Objections BUT there are some who imagine there is no need of a set publick Fast of such long continuance as the Fast of Lent is for these good purposes because every man may humble himself before God for his offences and Repent himself of them in private at such times as he thinks best or can best spare to be set apart for such Holy Uses Unto which exception I think sufficient Satisfaction hath been given in what was last said if men would considerately weigh it But because it is very useful to have a distinct knowledge of things I shall give a particular Answer to it And to the first part of it I shall return the same Answer that our excellent Hooker hath already made That no doubt Penitency is in this like Prayer that it will be acceptable to God whether performed in publick or in secret Howbeit as in Prayer if men were left wholly to their own choice of such times as they thought fit for their voluntary Meditations in their Closets and not drawn by Law and publick Orders unto the open Assemblies of the Church at certain times and hours it may be easily conjectured what Christian devotion would that way come unto in a short time Even so in this of Penitency we are taught by sufficient experience without any further trial how little it avails to tell men of washing away their sins by tears of Repentance and so to leave them altogether to themselves For alas they little think of this but pass over their numerous sins without taking any considerable time to bewail them and repent of them And therefore the Church had reason to set a time apart for this discipline wherein the publick example of all may be unto every particular person a most effectual means to put them in mind and even draw them to that which they all quite and clean forget as if Penitency were no part of a Christian mans duty As for the other part of the Exception which is the long continuance of this set time I gave the reason of it before that men might shake off the habits of Intemperance and Impurity of Evil-speaking Lying and such like Sins Unto which having been long accustomed they cannot presently get rid of them but by making it their business for so many weeks to refrain them may possibly quite forsake them and never return unto them And if they that are not able to Fast totally from Meat and Drink would use their utmost endeavour to abstain from those sins to which they find themselves most inclined and to deny all manner of bad desires they might without Fasting attain the end for which Fasting is ordained Which I repeat again for the further satisfaction of those who are troubled because they are not able to Fast all day at such times as the Church appoints For whose sake I shall enlarge a little more upon this Subject And as I have shown before that there are many people that cannot bear the discipline of Fasting particularly they that are of a weak Constitution and can Eat but little at a time who therefore require frequent reparations of the decays of Nature so now I shall add to that number such as out of choice Eat always sparingly no more as near as they can guess than will just suffice to support their strength for the discharge of their duties in their several imployments These men leading always such an Abstemious life that it may be called a perpetual Abstinence S. Chrysostom also excuses from the obligation of Fasting Whose discourse I think fit to set down for the full satisfaction of such kind of scruples For the understanding of which the Reader must know that his Church had been throng'd with company from the beginning of Lent till about the ninth or tenth day when he observing there was but a very thin Congregation he begins his Sermon in this manner What 's the matter that your Hom. x. in Genesin Assembly is so small to day and we have not such a concourse as hath usually been here Perhaps some are ashamed after they have been at a carnal Table to come to this Spiritual and therefore we have not their company But let such hearken