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A84862 A discourse concerning the holy fast of Lent together with the sentiment of Dr. John Cosens, late Bishop of Durrham, concerning the same holy fast. Francis, William. 1686 (1686) Wing F2060; ESTC R177323 9,171 12

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A DISCOURSE Concerning the Holy Fast of Lent Together with the Sentiment of Dr. John Cosens late Bishop of Durrham Concerning the same Holy Fast THE Sacred Penitential Time of Lent is at hand what shall I do Shall I take notice of it or no If I do not take notice of it some will stigmatize me as a Black Non-Conformist and if I do take notice of it others will calumniate me as a Papist in Masquerade O Times O Manners Unhappy Age in which we live Dissipavit Deus ossa eorum qui hominibus placent God has broken the Bones of those who please Men. If I seek to please Men or fear to offend them I am no longer a Servant of Jesus Christ but a base Slave to the vile World If I Christianly observe this Sacred Time my own Conscience I am sure will applaud me whatsoever my Neighbours may say or think of me And a good Conscience even when it dictates Fasting and Abstinence is a continual Feast But will not the Holy Gospel say I am Superstitious God forbid I know they are the words of our Blessed Lord himself Matth. 15.11 Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a Man but that which comes out of the mouth this defiles a Man And had he spoken these words when it was objected to him by the Disciples of St. John that they and the Pharisees fasted often but his Disciples fasted not the Objection would not so easily have been answered But consulting the Sacred Text I find he is so far from disparaging the Holy Exercise of Fasting by saying Not that which goes into the mouth defiles that he tacitly commends it as a Duty too sublime for such Novices in Religion as his Apostles as yet were but the time would come when they should fast to wit after he should be taken away from them and should have strengthn'd them for so hard and necessary a Duty by a plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost upon them The new Wine of rigorous Abstinence and Fasting was too strong for the frail Bottles of our Lord's Disciples before their Confirmation from the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost But can then that which goes into my mouth defile me Yes when I eat or drink in contempt of the equitable and just command of my lawful Superiour Ecclesiastical or Civil Though strictly speaking it is not the Meat then which defiles me but my disobedience to my Superiour Not to engage in long disputes For these Reasons methinks every good Christian ought Religiously to observe The Holy Fast of Lent 1. Because Fasting in it self has ever been look'd upon by all Christians as a Christian Duty and is not only highly commended by all the ancient Fathers of the most Primitive times but also by the Holy Scripture it self as having a singular Power to drive out the Devil This Devil goes not out but by Prayer and Fasting To obtain the Holy Ghost for our selves or others The Holy Apostles fasted and prayed that the Holy Ghost might descend upon those on whom they conferred Holy Orders To avert God's anger from a particular Person City or Country Thus Ahab and the Ninivites appeased the wrath of the Almighty To suppress Concupiscence to dispose the Mind for Prayer to encrease all Vertues in us in this Life and our Crown of Glory in the other If we fast in a due manner we have our Blessed Saviour's words for it that we shall have a Reward in Heaven If I fast to afflict and humble my self before God Almighty for my Sins my Fasting is an Act of Repentance If I eat less my self that I may have more to give to those that are in necessity my Fasting is an act of Charity If I fast the better to dispose my self for Prayer 't is an Act of Religious Devotion If I fast judging my self not worthy of any Delicacies nor of my fill even of the coursest Fare 't is an act of Humility and disposes my Soul moreover as little to affect fine Clothes or commodious Lodgings as I do good Victuals consequently moderates my desires of Money and Riches which are not desireable by corrupt Nature but for these or such like uses If I fast that I may be better able to pay my Debts or provide my Children Portions 't is an act of Justice and Christian Paternal Piety If to moderate my inordinate Appetite of Meat and Drink 't is an act of Temperance and exceedingly disposes to Temperance in the whole couse of my life when by experience I find my self as chearful and contented or rather more upon a fasting day than when I indulge to excess in eating and drinking In fine 't is hard to name a Vertue which fasting does not strangely help to procure maintain and increase As for the four Cardinal Vertues 't is the formal exercise of the highest degree of Temperance nor is Fortitude less seen in abstaining from what pleases us than in sustaining what afflicts us It makes Justice easie and is the Mother of wise and sober Thoughts It moderates our Passions defecates our Understandings and makes us more fit for Contemplation of Natural or Supernatural Verities O Angelical Abstinencè 2. Fasting then being of so singular use in a Christian life and Experience telling us That those who fast only when they please are pleased to fast very seldom or not at all our Spiritual Prelates who watch for our Souls good can do no less than oblige us by a Law to fast some times nor ought we do no less than Religiously observe their equitable Commands 3. I have all reason to think the Holy Fast of Lent was first appointed by the Holy Apostles themselves and consequently ought to be Religiously obseved by all good Christians For it cannot be imagined that so many several Countries Kings and Subjects Priests and People both of the Eastern and Western Churches could by chance fall upon the yearly practice of observing so solemn a Fast and all at the same time before Easter They must therefore either all at the first have been taught so by their first Masters of Christianity which is the Conclusion intended to be proved or some universal Supreme Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil must so have commanded them to do or some Preachers first in one Country then in an other must so have persuaded them to do in some Age since that is as a Pious thing but not as instituted by the Apostles and so received But no Annals of our own or other Christian Countries make any mention of any such Preachers or any such Ordination made by any General Council Pope Prince or Emperour Nor yet have we or any other Christian Countries wanted Ecclesiastical Historigraphers who in their Memorials have taken notice of far lesser matters than such an Innovation as this must needs have been had the Apostles taught the World no such observance And the truth is 't is pure Ignorance in Ecclesiastical History and the Works of the