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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44239	The Holy fast of Lent defended against all its prophaners, or, A Discourse shewing that Lent-fast was first taught the world by the apostles, as Dr. Gunning, now Bishop of Ely learnedly proved in a sermon printed by him in the year 1662 by His Majesties special command together with a practical direction how to fast.	Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.	1677 (1677)	Wing H2525; ESTC R40999	45,046	54

strength to humble themselves by more and more rigorous Abstinence they have sought by all means possible to cheat those Penitential days Hear not me but S. Basil above concerning those who because a five-days Fast was at hand would make themselves drunk the day before Si cras venias vinum obolens c. If thou comest to morrow smelling of Wine and its putrid and corrupted Crudities how shall I impute to thee thy drunken Surfet for a Fast. In which order shall I place th●e Amongst Drunkards or amongst Fasters But in what order think you would the Holy Father have placed those who not barely smell of Wine drunk to excess the day before but upon the very Fasting-day it self drink their skins full of Wine Had we a deep sense how much the health of the soul is to be preferr'd before the pleasure of the body and a strong Faith how exceedingly Fasting conduces to the souls health all the World would be in love with Fasting and though our Constitutions would not permit us to abstain from flesh this Love would wake us so ingenious to Mortifie our selves in a temperate use of flesh that we should no less reap the fruit of Fasting than those who lived upon Fish or Herbs Let us by no means says S. Basil receive the days that are approaching with a sad heart but as becomes Saints with a chearful affection Be not sad when thou art Cured It would be very absurd if we should grieve for the substraction of our Victuals and not rather rejoyce for the health of our soul and so seem to value more the pleasure of our belly than the cure of our mind For fulness causes delight unto the belly but fasting is gainful to the soul. Rejoyce for that is given thee an efficacious Medicine to abolish sin For as Worms which breed in the bowels of Children are expell'd by certain sharp and bitter Medicines so Sin that abides in the inmost recesses of the soul is instantly kill'd and extinguish'd by fasting which purges the bowels of the mind Do not imitate the disobedience of Eve do not again make the Serpent thy Counsellor who under pretext of sustaining thy body perswades thee to eat Do not excuse thy self for thy infirm Constitution do not say thou art not able to endure fasting For thou doest not make those excuses to me but according to the Proverb thou speakest to one who knows the Truth to wit to God who is ignorant of nothing Go to then tell m● canst thou not Fast and canst thou fill thy self with variety of Meats canst thou surcharge thy body with the weight of Victuals But we know Physitians are wont to prescribe to such as are infirm not abundance of Food but a spare Dyet and Abstinence How comes it to pass then that you can feast But pretend you can not fast Whether is it more easie to the belly to pass over the Night with a slender Refection or to lye opprest with abundance of Meats Yea indeed not to lye but stretching and groaning continually to turn now to this side and now to that But what mod●ration in eating and drinking should we do well to use upon Fasting-days Consult God and your own Conscience and such as understand the right exercise and great benefit of true Fasting In three words Be contented with one temperate Meal taken as late as your health and other circumstances will permit Drink no strong drink or very sparingly and this only at your Meal and though you should take some small matter at night Even such an abstinence would not want its singular Spiritual advantages so you exercised it not merely in a Customary manner but for good Christian ends with sincerity as in the sight of God according to the measure of your health and strength Thirdly Be sure to joyn with the exterior Mortification of your body the interior Humiliation of your soul by a hearty sorrow and contrition for your sins Though you give your whole Estate to the Poor if you want Charity it will avail you nothing And though you make your body a mere Skeleton by rigorous Fasting and Abstinence if your heart be not truly Penitent and sorry for your sins all 's to no purpose A broken and an humble heart is a Sacrifice which God-Almighty will by no means despise But if contrition of heart be wanting all exterior Mortifications will be rejected And it is want of this which makes Fasting and other voluntary Austerities and Involuntary Crosses seem hard and intolerable unto us A soul deeply humbled with an intimate sense of its deserts for its manifold sins and wickednesses thinks all Meats all Cloaths all Lodging and whatsoever Accommodations too good for it But as exterior acts of Charity beget and encrease true Charity in our hearts so exterior Penitential works are apt to beget and encrease interior Penitential sorrow in our souls And though the interior of Charity Repentance and other Vertues be the chief and main thing we are to aim at yet all interior pretences to any Vertue which show not themselves in exterior acts are to be suspected as Counterfeit What St. Austin says of Charity is no less true of Repentance or any other Vertue Amor si est c. Love if it be in us it will be working if it do not work it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Repentance if it be in us it will be working by Fasting and other Penitential works if it works not it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Christian Vertues with their exterior acts are not unfitly compared to some rich Wine in a Cask or Vessel A rich Wine without a Cask or Vessel to contain it cannot be presented a bare Cask presented without the rich Liquor in it would not be accepted Ioel 2. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning Fourthly Take heed of corrupting the Mortification of your Fasting by excess in other joyances Holy Daniel in his three weeks Fast abstained not only from pleasant Food but also from Anoynting of himself Ch. 10. v. 3. I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I Anoynt my self at all till three weeks were fulfilled Vtamur ergo parcius Verbis cibis potibus Somnio jocis arctius Perstemus in Custodia Let us be more sparing not only in our Meat and Drink but also in our Words Sleep and Recreations and keep a more Vigilant Watch over our selves that in nothing we exceed And the reason is manifest for one great end of Fasting being by that exterior Mortification to beget or encrease interior Contrition and Sorrow of heart for sin it manifestly follows if we seriously design the end of Fasting we ought carefully to moderate all other Joyances however in themselves Lawful and at another time laudable which

of it profess from Generation to Generation to have observed it from the first planting of Christianity amongst them and wheresoever Lent is not observed its Non-observers do profess only from such a time to have not observed it and their Ancestors before that time for divers Generations ever since they cannot well tell when had blindly observed it whence it is manifest that the observation of Lent is the ancient Christian practice and its non-observance a Novelty And indeed had the keeping of Lent been a Novelty and not heard of in the Primitive times its observance being so burthensome and contrary to flesh and blood and besides as its Opposers say Superstitious also it s not possible it should be introduced not into one but into all the Christian Countrys of both the Eastern and Western Church in a short time and with a small industry of its Introducers and without great opposition both from good Men for its Superstition and from bad Men for its troublesomeness to Corrupt nature But no Ecclesiastical History though far lesser matters be Recorded makes mention of any such opposition made against Lent in its first bringing in or how or by whom it was brought in even into so much as one particular Diocess But all Records testifie that the prime Doctors both of the Greek and Latin Church in the fifth and sixth Century have been most Religious Observers and Zealous defenders of it which certainly they would never have been had Lent been a Superstitious Novelty and not heard of in the first 300. years And indeed whosoever maturely considers the genius and temper of the Christian Doctors and Bishops for the first five hundred years after our Saviour will find it impossible for all the power of Hell to impose a Novelty upon them For they were not like the seeming Zelots of our Age pretenders to new Lights but their Profession was not to correct Antiquity but faithfully to deliver to Posterity what they immemorially from the Apostles had received from their Ancestors and their great Answer to Introducers of new Doctrines or Practices was Nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est We must Innovate nothing but stick close to what has been delivered to us by our Fore-fathers Does a Montanus upon pretext of Divine Inspiration endeavor to impose upon Christians the observation of three Lents in the year the Church of Christ replys by one of her prime Doctors S. Hierom We Fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year according to the Tradition of the Apostles The Montanists keep three Lents in the year as if three Saviours had suffered For other Instances I refer my Reader to the Golden Treatise of S. Vincentius Lerinensis against Innovations As for Pretenders to discover new truths by reading of the Holy Scriptures it s easily conceivable how such persons may be imposed upon by subtil Sophisters and lead into Superstitious practices and made to believe Erroneous Doctrines to wit by bad and new Interpretations of good and antient Scriptures But on the other side how shall a Teacher of Novelties deceive a Country which is resolved to hold fast whatsoever Doctrin or Practice was taught them by their immediate Progenitors who received the same Doctrin or Practice by an uninterrupted delivery from Father to Son from the Apostles Let him pretend Scriptures and bring a thousand places out of the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles what will the Reply be The Scriptures you alledge we Reverence and have ever been taught to Reverence them as Divine but we have been taught to interpret and understand them in another manner and sense then you alledge them Let him pretend Authority of Doctors as Learned as Origen or as Holy as Cyprian nay if he will a whole Provincial-Council as numerous as that in Africa which determin'd Re-baptization of Persons Baptized by Hereticks they reply We must not Innovate we must hold to what was taught us by our Ancestors What means then to make persons thus disposed to leave their antient faith and practice and admit of a Novelty you must prove to them that you and they and other Christians in several Countrys have been taught so to believe by your immediate Predecessors and uninterruptedly from Father to Son from the Apostles but then you cease to be a Preacher of Novelties contrary to the supposition Apply what has been said to our present Controversie Now that the study of the Christian Church in the fifth Century was not to deliver to Posterity Doctrins of her own devising but carefully to keep what she had received from her Fore-elders and faithfully to teach her Children what she had been taught by her Fathers is manifest out of S. Vincent cited above who lived in that Age and testifies that often asking of very many his Contemporaries famous for their Sanctity and Learning how he might be able to discern the truth of the Catholick Faith from the falsity of heretical pravity he always received this Answer in a manner from them all That if he desired to remain sound in his Faith he must fortifie it first with the Authority of the divine Law and then with the Tradition of the Catholick Church that is as he explicates himself afterwards He must examin what has always all over the Christian Church and by all Christian Doctors or in a manner by all been Believed and hold to that against all Novelties though defended by private Doctors never so Holy or never so Learned or producing never so many Scriptures for themselves if interpreted after a new manner But saies the same S. Vincent chap. 2. Here perhaps some body may ask seeing the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and is it self sufficient and more than sufficient for all things what need is there to add to it the Authority of the Ecclesiastical or Churches understanding of it Because the holy Scripture by reason of its depth is not by all taken in one and the same sense for Photinus expounds it one way Sabellius another Donatus another Arrius another And chap. 41. He tells us how the third General Council held in his days at Ephesus proceeding according to this rule Condemned Nestorius For the Fathers of that Christian Synod in number about 200. having consulted the sentiment of their Predecessors the eminent Doctors of the Oriental and Western Church S. Peter of Alexandria S. Athanasius S. Theophilus S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Basil S. Gregory Nyssen S. Felix S. Iulius S. Cyprian S. Ambrose concerning their Controversie in debate they resolved to hold their Doctrin to follow their Counsel to believe their Testimony to obey their Judgment Quae tandem c. What were at length saies S. Vincent the Voyces and Votes of them all but that what was anciently delivered should be kept what was of late invented should be exploded After which we admired and proclaimed the great Humility and Sanctity of that Council In which so many Priests in a manner also the greater part

of the Sacred Christian Pen-men written a Book on purpose to declare the whole manner of Christian worship like Moyses his Exodus or Leviticus we might reasonably have expected an account what days Christians were to set apart for Fasting or Religious Feasting what Garments they were to use in time of Divine Worship c. Bu● they only as is manifest writing Books for other intents and purposes by way of History for example or moral Exhortations and making mention only by the by of some of our Christian Rites as they occurred nothing can be more unreasonable then to expect in their said Writings an express clear mention of every Christian Ceremonial Observance The four Gospels are a History of our Blessed Saviours Life and Death who lived as to the external Rites of Religion according to the Jewish Law and so we cannot reasonably in any of them expect what Fasting or Festival days we Christians are to observe Indeed had the Act of the Apostles been intended as an exact Narration how the Apostles lived as to the whole course of their Life what days they kept Holy and what they Fasted c. We might reasonably have expected some mention there of Lent and Easter But that holy Book making mention only of some few particular passages of two or three of the Apostles lives the Apostles might well keep Lent and Easter too and teach them also to their first Converts and yet there be a profound silence of them in the Book of their Acts As for S. Iohn's Prophetical Book it were no ways proper in it to speak of Easter or Lent The rest of the New Testament are certain Epistles or Letters of Spiritual Counsels written by S. Paul or some other Apostle to particular persons or whole Cityes already instructed in the Christian way of worship But why they should needs make mention therein of Lent I understand not unless perchance the persons they wrote unto had been deficient in observing of it But does not S. Paul expresly decry the keeping of Lent in one of his Epistles and tell the Christians he wrote to he was afraid he had laboured in vain amongst them by reason of their superstitious Observations of Days and Times Gal. 4. v. 9 10. How are ye Converted again to weak and beggarly Elements which you will serve again Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I should have laboured amongst you in vain Was then the Holy Apostle afraid lest the Galatians should leave Christianity and return to Judaism or Pagaism because of their observing Lent in memory of our Blessed Saviours Fasting 40. days or Easter in memory of his Resurrection Is this a likely Story Or is it not evident from the Context of their returning again to weak and poor Elements that because of their returning to the Observation of Iewish days commanded by Moses or Pagan days in honour of Iupiter Mars c. he was afraid they would relinquish the Gospel by them received and become Jews again or Pagans But does not the same Apostle 1 Tim. 4. tell us expresly that Abstinence from certain M 〈…〉 the Doctrin of Devils and that nothing which God has made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be rejected by us but eaten with thankfulness Now the Spi 〈…〉 eth expresly that in the later times some shall depart from the 〈…〉 heed to Seducing Spirits and Doctrins of Devils speaking 〈…〉 Hypocrisie having their Consciences scared with a hot Iron fo● 〈◊〉 to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God 〈…〉 to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the Truth For every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving That we may rightly understand these words of S. Paul we must reflect that upon a double account we may abstain from certain Meats or Drinks First we may abstain from certain Meats as thinking them out of Error and Superstition naturally unclean and unholy And to teach Abstinence from certain Creatures upon such an account is deservedly called the Doctrin of Devils And with this Heresie the Manicheans are charged by S. Austin and other Fathers And that the Apostle meant such like Abstainers from certain Creatures is manifest by the reason he gives why Christians should not Abstain upon such an account to wit because every Creature of God is good and consequently we ought not to reject any as in themselves evil and unclean Secondly we may abstain from certain Meats or Drinks as less suitable to a time of Humiliation or appeasing of Almighty God for our sins by Penitential works of Fasting Weeping and Mourning or for some other Spiritual end And such an Abstinence as this is so far from being prohibited by S. Paul or any other of the Apostles that it is commended not only by the light of Nature but also by the Holy Scriptures and the examples of the Holiest Men that ever lived upon Earth Thus S. Tymothy Abstained from Wine continually for Mortification so that S. Paul thought fit to exhort him not always to drink water but to make use of a little Wine for his Stomack-sake and frequent infirmities Whereas had it been Superstition to ab●●ain from certain Creatures of God upon a Religious account he ought to have disswaded him from his Abstinence by telling him such an Abstinence from the good Creatures of God was the Doctrin of Devils Wil-worship c. Eating Flesh and drinking Wine are very Lawful and Laudable when done in their due and proper season but are no ways suitable to days or times when I am called upon by my lawful Superiors to appease God Almightys Anger for my own and others sins by Fasting Weeping and Mourning Hear not me but the Holy Prophet Isa. ch 22. v. 12 13 14. And in that way did the Lord God of Hosts call to Weeping and to mourning and to Baldness and to Girding with Sack-cloath And behold Ioy and Gladness slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall dye And it was revealed in mine Ears by the Lord of Hoasts surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord God of Hosts Now they seem not so much to be a-sleep as dead who hear not God Almighty crying out unto them and calling them to Fasting Weeping and Mourning this Holy and Penitential time of Lent after all the Authorities above-cited for its Apostolical Institution To say nothing of the abounding of all sorts of wickedness amongst us and the heavy Spiritual Plagues of blindness of mind and insensibility of Divine things which has seized upon us and no doubt call aloud for Penitential Humiliations But if Abstinence from certain Meats upon a Religious account be true Christian Piety what shall we say to S. Paul Rom. 14. v. 2. One believeth that he may eat all things another who is weak eateth Herbs and v. 6. He that eateth