THe Scribes and Pharisees saith St. Luke, St. Iohn's Disciples saith St. Matthew, St. Iohn's Disciples and the Pharisees together saith St. Mark, came to our Saviour, and by way of exception said, Why do the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often, ( [...]) but thine fast not? They did not, because they could not say; but thou fastest not. [Page 2] Not the Devil himself might deny, what he had felt, that the Lord had (as Iohn himself had not at any time, and Moses and Elias but by his strength) fasted 40. daies and 40. nights. His frequent exer­cise of fasting is witnessed in two mystical Psalms understood of Christ, Psal. 69. v. 9, 10. The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me, &c. I wept and cha­stened my self with fasting, and that was turned to my reproach. And Psal. 109. v. 23, 24. My knees are weak through fasting, my flesh is dryed up for want of fatness; I became also a reproach unto them. The con­text of which verses and the ancient Fathers Com­mentaries on those Psalms are our warrant that David in spirit spake them of Christ. On Psal. 69. St. Hilary thus writeth: ‘This Psalm contains the prophesie of the sufferings of our Lord, where (be­sides the gall they gave him to eat and the vinegar to drink, v. 21.) the abstinence of his fasting was turned to his reproach, when tempted by the De­vil, he is bid turn stones into bread, and carried up into a mountain, he is contumeliously tempted to worship the Devil. Arnobius also saith, those words are spoken of our Lord Iesus Christ, whom the zeal of Gods house did eat; and his abstinence from eating, receiving nothing 40. daies and as many nights, was turned to his reproach.’ St. Hierom and Theodoret in the like manner understand the Text of Christs fasting. The other Psal. 109. v. 23. Theo­doret thus understands of Christ, [...] ( [...]) of his abstinence and severities to himself: witness also saith he the bar. ley loaves and the ears of corn in his Disciples hands: St. Hierom also upon that Text, bids such as were conversant in fasting to be comforted, Siqui­dem [Page 3] & Dominus hoc fecit—Non habebat delitias cor­poris, sed Dei Spiritús—Tales diligit mil [...] Chri­stus, qui jejuniis vacent quia in jejunio victoria est: ‘for that the Lord himself, saith this Psalm, did fast, and was not filled with the delights of the body, but of the Spirit of God; and Christ delights in such souldiers of his which give themselves unto fasting, because such overcome when they fight▪’ St. Augustine and Bede confirm this interpretation. So true it is, saith St. Basil, S. Basil Ser▪ 1. of Fasting. that our Lord Ie­sus fortified the flesh which he took on him for us by fasting, and taught us by fastings to overcome. Ut in sponso nostro investigemus, &c. saith St. Hierom, S. Hierom Epistold ad Eu­stochium. that in the Bridegroom himself we may see what ver­tue holy fasting hath. Howbeit in both those Psalms no sooner is mention made of our Lords fasting, but 'tis added, that it was turned to his reproach. And here in my Text his Disciples not fasting is turned to his reproach. Why do the Disciples of Iohn fast often, and likewise the Disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink? Reprehendenda jejunii jactan­tia, saith St. Hierom: The answer to them might have been a just reproof for not fasting from vain glory. But our meek and gracious Lord, [...], saith St. Chrysostome upon the words. He gives them no such rebuke as O ye vain-glorious and impertinent persons. But he who had in much gentleness forborn to com­mand his Disciples such severities, as himself practi­sed, with the same lenity returns only this gracious answer, Can you make, &c. v. 34, 35. together mild­ly defending himself and his Disciples (though as yet they fasted not,) and yet the holy duty of fast­ing [Page 4] also. But doing all this by remitting the Pha­risees [...] Iohn's Disciples whom they had brought with them, and advanced their example in the first place, and remitting Iohn's Disciples as it were ta­citly to their Master Iohn, to something which they might remember Iohn had said unto them (Joh. 3. 28, 29.) ye your selves bear me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, &c. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. The case was much different 'twixt the Disciples of the Law only, (the Scribes and Pha­risees) yea those of Iohn also, and the Disciples of Christ. The Law was a Schoolmaster of severi­ties, but to bring them unto Christ; Iohn was an Har­binger sent by preaching of penance to prepare the way for the Bridegroom; neither's Disciples were the children of the bride-chamber, or the ho­nourable followers of the Bridegroom, but Christs only. Iohn came neither eating nor drinking, and sometime the Pharisees therefore say he hath a Devil, and now ye upbraid his Lord with Iohn's Disciples and discipline as more divine; howbeit he that is least among the children of that bride­chamber is greater then Iohn himself: His office, his honour, his priviledge, and assistances greater. What many Kings and Prophets and righteous men de­sired to see, and rejoyced in spirit to foresee, but had not with their eyes beheld, the King in his beauty; nor heard his wisdome, and what Iohn your master, saw and told you that he rejoyced to see, and to hear the Bridegrooms voice, Blessed are their eyes for they see, and their ears for they hear; And you have not considered this mysterious marriage of the Church to the Messias, her Maker and Husband, her Redeemer and Spouse; the Prophets [Page 5] of old negotiated, invited, and as it were, wooed, and search'd what, and what manner of time this blessed season and fulness of time should be, and what the joy of these espousals. The Bridegroom himself is now come down from heaven in his wonderful Incarnation, in his Nativity he came forth fairer then the children of men, as a Bride­groom forth of his chamber rejoycing (for the love of his Spouse) as a Gyant to run his course. His coming forth was ( à summo coelo) from the highest heaven in the hour of the WORD's being made flesh, and his running about is ad summum coelum, to the height of it again, to the right hand of his Father, in his Ascension. Mean while the so­lemn contract and espousals Theophy lact. upon the words, Mat. 9. [...] ( quam dixerat, [...]) [...]. betwixt him and his Church is in his present preaching proclaimed. And he spake this parable, A certain King made a marriage for his son, (Matth. 22. 2, &c.) and he sent forth his servants, (Wisdome sent forth her maidens) not fasting now indeed, as that's not seasonable for nuptial invitations, saying, I have mingled my wine, &c. All things are now ready. And when those servants for such their employ­ment have scarce time to eat, quarrel you them, that they find no season to fast? Sent I am to Pub­licans and sinners a Physician, and therefore I eat with them. To my Disciples and as many as re­ceive me believing on me, the Bridegroom of their souls (the expectation, desire and joy of all nations) and therefore at present they fast not with you: [...], saith S. Chrysostom upon the words, ‘By these things our Lord sheweth, that their not fasting then was not [Page 6] an Indulgence to their belly, but a matter of won­derful oeconomy.’ But the time will come when this solemnity of joy of these espousals shall be turn­ed into a funeral mourning; when the Bridegroom shall be even for the debts of his Spouse and redem­ption of her life taken from them: And they shall weep and lament and fast, and the world shall re­joyce. But he being returned, and having taken to himself a kingdome, these present espousals which God foretold by the prophets Hosea and Isaiah, which had been treated by all the Prophets that had been since the world began, and now pro­claimed in the acceptable year of the Lords preaching, and sealed to by the Father at his re­suscitation from the dead, expect their con­summation in the marriage of the Lamb at the last day, when he shall gloriously bear his Spouse with myriads of holy Angels into his Fathers house, there to reign with him in his Kingdome everlasting; mean time as upon the Espousals he became chargeable with his Spouses debts, and hath discharged them on his Cross, and after that dis­charge, was taken from Prison and from Judgment, and hath washed her in his own Blood, and hath given her the pledge of his Holy Spirit, and cloa­thed her with the double garments of his Righte­ousness; so also is she called by a new Name which the mouth of the Lord did name, from his name Christ she is called Christian first at Antioch; and farther, our Lord Jesus knowing, that after his taking from her, religious fasting also is a necessa­ry guard for her safety, and a salutary means for the further purifying and adorning of his Spouse, therefore as upon the allegation of Iohn's [Page 7] Disciples Christ taught his Disciples also how to Pray; so here as Iohn's Disciples had been taught to fast, he teacheth his the time and season when they should fast, yea and they will fast; only in this solemnity of his Espousals and of his Bride-cham­ber, these the principal guests and friends of the Bridegroom, sons of the secretest admissi­on, But without a parable spake he not unto them (the multitude▪) and when they were alone, he ex­pounded all things to his Disciples Mar. 4. 34. & v. 10, 11. and when they were alone, they that were about him with the Twelve asked of him the parable, and he said un­to them, Unto you it is given to know, &c. but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. his Apostles, no wonder if he do not, and ye cannot make them fast. Their present joy is above it, and their habitual strength as yet beneath it, and their present assist­ence from the presence of the Bride­groom himself enables and supports them without it. Nevertheless to this marriages celebration, garments every way agreeable, perfectly new, are to be provided, and wine both new and old to be filled, and to be preserved, and vessels of grace and future glory to contain that li­quor; But as yet they are in part old garments, not throughly renewed by the Spirit, they are old bot­tles [...] some regenerate persons are here (v. 37.) so called for their but be­gun and imper­fect renovation, as some babes in Christ are called carnal, ( [...] ▪) 1 Cor. 3. 1. Bottles and garments here men are com­pared to, as Jerem. 13. 12, 13. Psa. 31. 12. Jer. 43. 12. Epicharmus Comicus▪ [...] ▪ and the duty of fasting is [...], as yet an unwrought, unthickned piece, at least not by the Fullers Art purged and washt from the abuses wherewith the Pharisees had disteined it. for [...], saith S. Ba­sil in his first Sermon of Fasting. Fasting is an ancient Gift, elder then the Law—it is a jewel of the ancient Fathers—reverence its gray hairs, it is coaetaneous with mankind. [...] fullones etiam veteres vestes ac sordidatas renovant ac repurgant, saith Erasmus▪ in Mat. 9. yea Hesychius [...]. Add hereto, that the fastings of believers in Christ, in so [Page 8] far as they were to answer to their frequent recur­ring set fasts, were yet an unwrought and unpolisht discipline, as which were to be celebrated chiefly on the times of the Passion of Christ, as S. Chry­sostome saith. They are also a new, strong, working, and spiritful wine, apt to break weak vessels. Not therefore because in themselves they need not, but because they cannot yet bear it; not that the Lord, less then you, approves of that new wine, but be­cause he provides that such good wine should not be spilled which will drink pleasant when it is old, Ecclus. 9. 10. and shall be preserved throughout all ages of the Church on earth; lest also the bottles should break, and the rent and breach of these gar­ments, instead of being made up, should be made wider by the unseasonableness of this pre­scription: therefore their Lord and Master, who breaks not the bruised reed, presseth not as yet this discipline. S. Chrysostom on these words Mat. 9. [...]. My Disciples are not yet become strong, but as yet need much con­descention, and it is not meet to impose a load of injunctions on persons so afle­cted. But the time will come when the Bridegroom shall for a time be taken from them, and the Spirit sent down unto them, and when they are renewed with strength from above, then shall they fast in those daies. And both that holy discipline of religious Fasts, and these vessels of honour shall be preserved by each other. And that the Spirit may so come unto them, it is ex­pedient, saith he, that I go away from them, and the time will shortly come.

In the Answer of our Lord so meek and divine­ly wise, you may observe these three parts:

1. A Declaration, or promulgation of some­what present which they were not aware of. 2. A Prediction of some things to come, which they as lit­tle understood. 3. A mixed prescription in part and [Page 9] prediction in p [...], a constitution, counsel, and en­couragentent of a holy, religious exercise of fa­sting.

I. A Declaration of the present Espousals of Christ, Behold a greater then Solomon is here, a crown weightier then that wherewith his Mother crown­ed him in the day of his espousals, also a greater then Pharaoh's daughter is here, the holy Church of God: [...], saith St. Chry­sostome and Theophylact upon the words. And the least of these despised Apostles great above him, then whom there had not risen a greater among them that were born of women. He was sent be­fore to cast up and prepare his way, these the nearest friends and followers [...], as those 30 companions brought to be with Samson the Bridegroom, ( Iudges 14. v. 11.) and as the Spouse the Queen of Heaven ( Ps. 45. 15.) hath her virgins that bear her company in the bride-cham­ber: These are they that ride as it were in the same chariot with the Bridegroom, saith Phavorinus, that walk in company with, and nearest to him in the way, [...], The sons of the bride-çhamber are the Apostles, as vouchsafed parta­kers of their Masters joy, and of every heavenly good gift, and of all pleasure, Theophylact on Mat. 9. and this the acceptable year of the Lord, the very time of love, ( Ezek. 16. 8.) so upon the words of the Lord, Mat. 9. Christianus Druthmarus. Quando ista loqueba­tur, tunc ipsa fiebat conjunctio, quoniam per suam prae­dicationem colligebat eandem sponsam suam: When [Page 10] Christ spake these words, then was this conjunction made, for by his preaching he gathered together that his Spouse (the Church.)

II. The Prediction or presignification of some things to come, [...], Chrysostome on the words Mat. 9. as,

1. That the time should come when the Bride­groom should be taken from them, Ablatus & ob­latus quia voluit, Him the Scribes and Pharisees shall kill and crucifie, and he shall lay down his life for his sheep, give himself for his Church, and grave her on the palms of his hands, and set her as a seal on his heart, and on his arm, and hide her in the clefts of the rock, and vanquish death and hell, and him that hath the power of hell in her behalf.

2. That soon after that the time of the true Pentecost shall come, when these Disciples as they shall need these arms; so shall be made new and strong garments, new and strong bottles, and shall be filled with new wine like the bowls of the Altar, ( Zech. 9. 15.)

3. That therefore he must go away, that the Holy Spirit may come, and then shall they be in­dued with power from above.

III. A mixt constitution or Precept in part, and Prediction in part, of what these Scribes and Pha­risees came to expostulate with him, The holy du­ty of Fasting.

1. In its Substance, [...], most certainly they shall fast.

2. In the circumstance of its due season and time, [...], then, [...], in those daies, or in those very daies.

3. In its settlement upon its right basis and rea­son, which gives the indication also of its true sea­son, [Page 11] viz. the taking away the Bridegroom from them for their sins, and for the sins of the whole world.

4. The imprudence and danger in importunity both to the substance of the duty and to the subject; from the incapacity of the subject as yet, and im­proportion to the duty.

As to the 1. The substance of the duty, our Lords care of establishing this holy exercise of Fasting, is described here 5. waies:

1. By leaving it under his prescript Law ( [...]) they shall fast, (as, thou shalt not steal) ( they shall hear my voice, Joh. 10. 16. shall render him the fruits in their seasons, Mat. 21. 41.)

2. His prediction also that the Christian Ca­tholick Church would be willing, forward, and ob­servably eminent in that exercise, (else it had been no answer satisfactory to their alledged visible pra­ctise) they will fast, as ( [...]) Him ye will receive, Joh. 5. 43. [...], they will fast; as ( [...]) v. 35. the daies will come; both are predictions when the chief servants of his house will see this holy exercise exemplified in set rules of practise.

3. By laying a further necessity of prudence, both here v. 38. & Mark 2. v. 22. ( [...]) Men must put up this new wine into fitted vessels, saith the Master of the houshold, and of the vineyard, lest in after ages men being lovers of pleasures, and their love of God waxing cold, some servants of the house might be for casting away this wine, for that there is indeed in their Masters house other that is better and drinketh pleasanter (in whose house is both new and old▪)

[Page 12]4. His excusing none of his from this duty, save such only as are not yet able to perform it, [...], Mark 2. 19. they cannot fast.

5. His farther care for the conserving of this du­ty, which he compares to new wine, together with the vessels, even to the day of the consummation of his nuptials, [...], and both are preserved. The liquor in and by the vessels fitted for it, and the vessels meet and preserved for the Ma­sters use with and by the liquor.

In the 2 ^d, The season or time of the duty, he teacheth first, That there is a time for all things, a time to mourn or fast, and a time (of bridals) to dance, As David al­so danced when, he brought home to himself the Ark, the type of the Bridegrooms presence, 2 Sam. 6. a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.

2. That the time of the greater joy is not alwaies the time of the greater strength: These were toge­ther, the children of the bride-chamber, and old garments.

3. The time of greater actual assistances from God is not alway the time of greater habitual strength of grace inherent. These Disciples were rendred safe by the presence of the Bridegroom, but were not yet other then in great part old garments and bottles [...], Theophylact in lo­cum.

4. The time or season for this duty of fasting is taught here negatively, 1. Whilest they were such weak ones they could not fast. 2. While the Bride­groom was with them it was not seasonable to call them to ordinary fastings. 3. While the Bride­groom was with them they needed not to fast, both because his gracious presence afforded them extra­ordinary assistances [...].; and because his tender in­dulgence [Page 13] expos'd them not to great and extraordi­nary temptations whilest himself was with them: 4. [...], not presently, not straightway desirable, v. ult. Christ by this parable, signified, saith Erasmus, that men are not on a sudden to be haled to a more austere life, but to be inu [...]ed thereto by certain steps or degrees. Theophylact upon my Text, [...], &c. [...]. ( [...]) [...].

Affirmatively, Then shall they fast: 1. When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them. All the ages of the world before, since the promise of the seed of the woman, were the season of the expectations, needs, desires, & longings for this Bridegroom, O that thou wert as my brother that suckt the breasts of my mother, (Cant. 8. 1.) O that thou wouldst rent the heavens and come down, (Isa. 64. 1, with v. 4.) All the ages since his Being upon earth, are the seasons of our looking upon him, whom by our sins we have pierced, and our waiting and looking for his second appearance in glory: the Time only of Christs presence on earth, (to whom he was nearly present) was the season of the joy of his Bride-chamber, to all ad­mitted within it especially. 2. When they shall be made new garments, and new vessels; when the the Spirit shall have come unto them. 3. When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them they shall fast for these causes: 1. As having then so true cause of sadness: 2. As having then need by all means to fortifie themselves against all dangers and oppositions in discharge of their work: 3. [...] ▪ As having their faith (the root of good works prayer, fasting and alms) confirmed by the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of [Page 14] the Lord St. Hierom in Mat. 9. Donec—per passionem meam novum Ho­minem indutus, non potest severio­ra jejunii & continentiae sustinere praecepta▪ ne per austeritatem nimiam, etiam credulitatem, quam nunc habere videtur, amittat. Christianus Druthmarus in locum. Cum fuerint novi [utres] facti per meam doctrinam, confirmati per passionem, resurrectionem, & ascensionem, per adventum Spiritûs sancti, tunc observabunt omnia dura & aspera: & ambo conservabuntur, & discipuli, &c. 4. As having seen the example of their Masters humiliations and sufferings, patience and fortitude, and the Disciple is not above his Ma­ster.

In the 4. and last part, the imprudence and dan­ger from the opposite importunity, is argued from six considerations:

1. From the incapacity of the subject, as yet they cannot fast, ( Mark 2. 19.)

2. The unseasonableness, if they could [...], Chrysostom in Mat. 9..

3. The disagreeableness to the subject if they should ( [...], v. 36.) it agrees not with the old The rigidity and stifness of this unwrought plece (besides its newness and▪ strength) agrees not with the old, saith Eras­mus..

4. In what it is detrimental to the subject, ( [...]) it takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse The ancient Translations, Ne tandem novum vetus trahat, ne robore suo [...]rahat illa ve­stem infirmam; ( [...] quaedam & Divisio in mente discipuli recentis & infirmi: aut schisma & separatio à reliquis fratribus.).

5. In what is there-from detrimental to the duty it self, it bursts the bottles, and the wine is spilt. An evil report is brought upon the duty of Fasting Non effundi­tur in bibi [...]ionem, sed in perditio­nem..

Lastly, The sad conclusion and catastrophe, The bottles perish, which else might have held still the best liquor, though not yet capable of the newest and strongest The bottles perish, & that by the very wine it self put into them, (a resto­ring wine in it self) and the wine perisheth▪ and that [...]y the vessels which were meant to contain and preserve it..

[Page 15]The parts you see being very many, forsomuch as our Saviours answer here rests principally on the right timing of this duty: I shall insist presently on the second part,: the time or season, which is first in every duty ( [...]) then in those very daies.

For the understanding whereof, we must first en­quire what those other words mean to which they refer, viz. [...] when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, Which were set to contain these 4. following senses agreeing well with, and insinua­ting each other.

1. In the daies of his death and burial, they shall mourn and fast, according to Ioh. 16. v. 20. a little while and ye shall not see me, ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoyce Innocentius 1. Epistol [...] ad Eugubinum Epis­copum. Nam uti­que constat Apo­stolos biduo isto & in marore fu­isse, & propter metum Iud [...]orum se occuluisse: quod utique non dubium est in tantum [...]os jeju­naste bidu [...] me­morat [...], ut, &c..

2. In the recurring annual memorials of the Bridegrooms taking away, the Churches Paschal Fast of Lent, beside the weekly stations ( Stationum semijejunia) which the Church ever observed, except 'twixt Easter and Pentecost, or in the Feast of the Bridegrooms Nativity. These stations were the 4 ^th and the 6 ^th day of the week, fasted till 3. a clock in the afternoon, according to Cornelius's fast, Act. 10. But these Sub arbitrio, non ex imperio, of free devotion, not of strict injunction, as the Church professed (by the acknowledgement of Tertul­lian).

3. In what time soever our sins or also Gods Judg­ments call us to mourning, or fasting, or repentance, publick or private; And this is also in too full a sense the Bridegrooms departing from us. So it [Page 16] was said to Saul for his disobedience, The Lord is departed from thee, 1 Sam. 28. v. 16.) & I [...]r. 6. v. 8. Be thou instructed O Ierusalem lest my soul depart from thee. This same Bridegroom, our Lord, who saith, ( Hosea 2.) I will betroth thee unto me, warneth them also c. 9. v. 12. Wo unto them when I depart from them. This sense also Theophylact teacheth us to be included in this Text (in Mark 2.) [...]: ‘when Christ the Bridegroom shall be taken from him being lapsed, to wit, into sin, then he fasts and repents that he may heal his sin.’ S. Hierom cals this the Tropological sense of these words: Iuxta tropologiam autem sciendum quòd quamdiu sponsus nobiscum est, & in laetitiâ sumus, nec jejunare possumus, nec lugere; cum autem ille propter pec­cata à nobis recesserit, tunc indicendum jejunium esse, tunc luctus recipiendus: ‘when the Bridegroom shall depart from us by reason of sin, then must a fast be indicted, then must we take up a mourning, when our Bridegroom hath withdrawn himself in just displeasure for our sins,’ (as Wisdome will not abide in a body subject to sin, Wisd. 1. 3.) We must seek his return and favour by fasting, weeping, and supplications, Psal. 143. 3, - 8.

4. [...], when the Bridegroom shall be taken up away from them, in his Ascen­sion, after his departure into heaven, so [...], tolli, may signifie, to be taken away up, and so is the rendring of the Syriack in this Text; and so the Greek Father Theophylact understands it of [Page 17] the time after his Ascension Theophylact in Luc. 5. [...]. Idem in Matthaei cap. 9. v. 15. viz. on the same words, [...]. Christianus Druthmarus on the same words Mat. 9. (Cum auferetur ab eis sponsus) Illud tempus ostendit, quo ipsus in coelum ascendit; quia quamvis semper cum illis esset spiritua­liter, tamen corporali praesentiâ ab eis recessit. Venerable Bede upon my Text, shewes that all the time from the promise of the Seed of the woman unto the Incarnation of the Bridegroom; and all the time after his Ascensi­on, and departure into Heaven, was and is the time of the absence of the Bridegroom, and the season of the Churches mourning and longing for his first or second coming. The time only of his conversing upon earth among men, the priviledged time of the Churches joy on earth His words are these, Notandum verò, &c. We must note that this mourning for the Bridegrooms absence, began not now first after the death and resurrection of the Bride­groom, but was observed throughout the whole time of the world before his Incarnation, for those first times of the Church before the Virgins bringing forth a Son, had holy men, which earnestly longed after the coming of Christs Incarnation; and these times since Christ escended up into hea­ven, have the Saints which mourn for and desire his second Appearance to judge the quick and the dead. Ne (que) hic defiderabilis [defiderii] Ecclesiae luctus requievit aliquantum, nisi quandiu hic cum Discipulis in carne versatus est. Nor was there any rest to the Church from thi [...] her mourning of her desires, save only that while Christ conversed upon earth with his Disciples. So after the hi­story of his Ascension, Acts 1. the Apostles frequent fastings are recorded, Acts 13, & 14. 2 Cor. 6, & 11. chapters. After his Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, the annual and weekly memorial Fasts of his holy Passion should thenceforth begin and continue to be celebrated, and other frequent re­ligious seasons of fasting.

Of these 4. senses, the 2 ^d only, because it brings with it a recurring duty upon men as constant as the years return, labor actus in orbem; one Aerius, a Io­vinian, or Vigilantius in all ages, till of late, hath been found to make exception to.

I shall therefore first insist to shew that our Lords words ought so to be understood, as to in­clude also those recurring memorial fasts of the Bridegrooms being taken from us, stata, revoluta je­junia. And secondly what they are.

As to the first, that these words are so to be un­derstood [Page 18] as including some set and returning fast­ing daies, is evident,

1. For that otherwise our Lords words would not be, as they are, an apposite answer to their objection. It is excepted by them; that the Disci­ples of the Pharisees, and likewise of Iohn, did fast ( [...], Mat. 9. & [...], Luke 5.) much and of­ten [...], saith Hesychius. [...] densum, frequentatum, [...] assi­duè crebrò. [...] densa, assidua, [...] frequento, saith Glossarium ve­tus Cyrilli: all which shewes they alledged their very frequent, dili­gent, and as it were continuall fastings. which 'tis known the Pha­risees did weekly and annually in fasts by continual frequency recur­ring; (And so did Iohn's also; for my Text saith, [...], they did both fast in like manner: As to the frequency which they joyned in, to object, though not as to their sincerity, which the Pharisee considered not here) twice in the week, saith the Pharisee, Luke 18. 12. and Epiphanius lib. 1. haeres. 16. tels us what daies those were, [...], the second and fifth daies of the week, Mun­daies and Thursdaies. On the former, because on that day Moses had gone up from them into the Mount; the latter, because on that day Moses returning down from the Mount, brake the Tables of God, for their sin: and annually also, beside the fasts recorded in the old Testament, (to wit, the fast of the day of Atonement, Levit. 16. and Esthers fast, Esther 9. v. 31. which was on the 13 ^th of the moneth A­dar, and the fasts of the 4 ^th, 5 ^th, 7 ^th, and 10 ^th moneths) others also probably which they had re­ceived: unto all which the predicted devotion of Christs Disciples in those daies when they should fast, would not be correspondent, nor satisfactory to [Page 19] the objection made, if they were not to keep certain, set, and oft recurring times of fasting. Not the Pharisees disciples twice a week, and many weeks in the year, and Christs Disciples only at the very time of his Passion, and lying in the Grave once, as he died but once, and after that only accidental­ly, extraordinarily, without any fixed returning, ob­servable solemnity. No: they shall, they will fast, in nothing behind the very devoutest in that duty; as the Pharisees therefore say of themselves that they did fast, [...], Mat. 9. & Luke 5. so the holy Scripture records the Apostles fasts af­ter the Bridegrooms taking away, in equal terms, ( [...], 2 Cor. 11. 27.) In fastings often, or many times, in watchings often, & 2 Cor. 6. 4. ( [...] where [...], must be repeated) in much or oft watchings and fastings, Upon which Text S. Chryso­stome saith, by these words S. P. signified his la­bours, how he laboured going up and down and working (with his hands) and the nights in which he taught, or also his working in the nights▪ [...]. and with all these labours, neither did he neglect to fast. St. Chryso­stome also on S. Matt. 17. v. 19, - 21. saith ( [...]) therefore the Apostles also fasted almost continually; yea, touching these certain fasts for the Bridegrooms taking away, we shall hear it witnessed anon, & Apostolos obser­vâsse, that the Apostles also did keep them and S. Paul expects of Christian people, as well Lay, as others, men, and women, as well married persons, as single, that they should at times, [...], Vacare jejunio & orationi, Give themselves to attend upon fasting and prayer, and that there is a [...] or season for it, there he teacheth 1 Cor. 7. 5.

2 ^ly For that it is said both in St. Mark 2. and in St. Luke here: not only [...], [Page 20] but [...], with an article of [...], as if you would say, in those same daies Nor in this matter is this Article [...] any where omitted, but where [...] is omitted also, as in St. Matthew c. 9. and if the MS. R. read it in one place, in that day, Marc. 2. yet still it is with the article interposed, [...], which reading they which fol­low, (as I do not) may well refer it to the day of Christs Death and Pas­sion. As in the Septuagint Greek of Esther cap. 1. v. 2, 3. [...], on those same daies on which Ahashuerus had been once inthroned, he (as He­rod on his birth-day) made a feast unto all his Princes in the 3 ^d (as in every) year of his reign. So Phi­lo the Jew in his book of the Reli­gious, anon to be cited, useth these very words, [...], speaking of certain yearly re­curring daies.

3 ^ly Our Lord Christ speaks here of such fasts, as at present he did not expect nor require from the children of his Bride-chamber, his Apostles, nor blame them for the omission of them. It being not now (as he reasons himself) a season agreeable for such fasting of which here he principally speaks in answer to their cavil: But extraordinary emer­gent Fasts the Lord did now expect from his Apo­stles, and sometime blamed their omission of them, when extraordinary occasion and interest of their Lord against his enemy called for them For he whom Satan had bound, &c. might well by prayer and fa­sting be loo­sed and delive­red, even within the time of the festival joy of Christs Espou­sals, and that by these chil­dren of the bride-chamber. So Mat. 17. 20, 21. He charged his Disciples with unbelief, (that is at least defect of duty surely) as the cause of their not having done that ( viz, casting out the Devil) which he told them at the same time, could not be done, but by prayer and fasting. Therefore our Lord speaks there of such an extra­ordinary fast, which there and then he might ex­pect from them; therefore the Lord here in the words of my Text, where he speaks of Fasts not [Page 21] then to be required or expected of them, must not be understood to speak principally and in the first place, much less only, of extraordinary, emergent and occasional fasts; but necessarily of set, solemn, and recurring fasts, to which as then he did ex­cuse them for the while of his presence with them; but which, when the Bridegroom should be ta­ken from them, should be justly expected of them.

4 ^ly For that our Lord Christ speaking of those, with whom he promised to be unto the end of the world, viz. in themselves, and in those who should believe in him through their word, and of fasts re­lating to a publick universal cause, the taking away of the Bridegroom in his Passion; therefore the Lord spake also of a solemn publick fast, upon one cause or subject never to be repeated; but the duty to continue all years to the end of the world, till the Bridegroom should return unto his Spouse and take her into his Fathers house. Now impos­sible it is, that any such should be publick and to continue, and relate to any such fixed and universal cause, but this of our Lords Passion, through per­petual ages to be remembred by publick memorial fasts, which cannot be continual, nor accidental; therefore by set, solemn, and recurring fasts; so as we have seen that cause, the memory of our Lords Passion to have given foundation universally to all ages and parts of the Catholick Church, both for her weekly stations ( Stationum semijejunia) on the 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of the week till 3. a clock; and of her annual, Paschal or Lenten Fast about the time of her Lords Crucifixion. And whereas our Lord hath said of his Disciples, which are or shall be [Page 22] such indeed, that in those daies, ( [...]) they shall and will fast: what the Church doth and hath done ever since, that foretold by the Lord (when he said they would then fast) must needs be the best interpretation of what the Lord said they would do. He said it: in those daies they will fast; hath the Church done what he said they would? or will any say nay? Learn we the Chur­ches daies on which she ever since hath, and doth, and professeth that she will fast, and we must needs have the true meaning of this prediction, in these words of her Lord, who could not be deceived, In those daies they will fast.

5 ^ly Be therefore my fifth reason this following, Christians will not fast (none can expect they will) on any publick, set, solemn daies of fasting, (which was the thing here call'd for by the Scribes from their own alledged example, and that of Iohn's Disciples also) except they do agree upon such daies; But if every man was to be left to understand what he please by these words, The daies when the Bride­groom shall be taken from them, (as Aerius had his sense of them, and Iovinian his, and Vigilantius his, and none bound to the Churches sense of them) we should have no means left us possibly to agree, and so to meet on any daies at all by force of these words, or any other one universal cause; and so should we never meet in any publick solemn fast at all; no, not for so publick fix'd a cause as the taking away of the Bridegroom once for the sins of the whole world.

The Churches teaching then her sense of her Lords words, by her rules, comments, and practise, must silence these men, as her Lords prediction of [Page 23] her practise did silence the Scribes and Pharisees, yea and some other better meaning Disciples (St. Iohn's) also, cunningly drawn in (as is usual) by the enemies of the Lord, and his Church, to joyn in expostulations, cavils, and quarrels against them.

Reason, and experience, and the direction of all wise men in the Church of God (ancient and mo­dern) the house of Wisdome, Councels, Reverend Fathers and Writers, and our Since the Reformation Lib. Cano­num Eccles. An­glican▪ Anno 1571.—Vide­bunt ne quid un­quam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose te­neri & credi ve­lint nisi quod con­sentan [...]um [...]it do­ctrina veteris au [...] Novi Testament▪ quod (que) ex ill [...] ip­sâ doctrinâ Ca­tholici Patres & veteres Episco­pi collegerint. Church in par­ticular, have directed and commanded us not to in­terpret Scripture in things of publick concernment to the Churches rule of believing, and doing, but as we finde it interpreted by the holy Fathers and Do­ctors of the Church, as they had received it from those before them. For that the leaving of every man to make any thing of any Text, upon any device out of his own head, to the founding any new and strange doctrine, or practise, as ne­cessary there-from; or to the opposing of any constantly received doctrine, or practise of the Church Universal, (for in other matters they may happily with leave quietly abound in their own sense▪) leaves all bold innovators (which can but draw away disciples after them) to be as much law-givers to the Church by their uncontrolable law-interpreting, as any Pope or Enthusiast can or need pretend to be; and hath been, and ever will be to the end of the world, the ground of most He­resies, and Schisms brought into the Church by men, who departing from the teaching and stable inter­pretation of the Church, in their own instability and science falsely so called, pervert the Scriptures to their own and others (their obstinate followers) destruction.

[Page 24]Here therefore I first joyn issue, that the Church hath observed these daies of the Paschal fast (as 'twas called in the Ancient Church) Called also by some Antepas­chale jejunium, meaning the same thing. or Lent-fast (that is, from the Saxon Dialect, Spring-fast) lenc [...]en. Sax. The Spring, [...] Lent. ever since the times of these children of the Bride-cham­ber, the Apostles of the Lord, and ever since the taking away of the Lord, the Bridegroom.

2. That the Church hath done this, hath ob­serv'd this Paschal-fast, as from the Apostles, groun­ding their practise upon instruction Evangelical; & particularly also upon this Text now before us, The time shall come when, &c. And then ( [...]) in those dayes they shall fast.

1. For the Churches visible practise from the A­postles times, if our Brethren shall say, Shew us express example written in the following Scriptures, which may interpret this text so; or we are at li­berty for the sense, and practise: they must be told, what they cannot but freshly remember, that so said the Brethren the Anabaptists: one express exam­ple of baptizing Infants after that Sanction, Iohn 3. 5. and Commission, Matth. 28. v. 19. whereby to interpret such Sanction and Commission. An express command (as the Church thinks) to baptize all Nations, would not hold them. So said the So­cinians for their no▪ necessity of baptizing at all in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Shew us one example in all the following Scriptures, Acts, and Letters of the Apostles of that form observed. A direct command (as we would think it) could not bind up their liberty of interpre­ting [Page 25] it otherwise. The history of all the following ages of the Church after the Apostles is little to them compared with the word of God, in their own sense. All those following were but men, and these (in their giving out the sense of the Scripture) are more!

For our parts, we finding the Bridegroom, the Lord himself, thus referring us to the practise of his known Disciples, the children of the Bride-cham­ber; In those daies they will fast, (not only they will teach on what daies men should fast:) and the Bride her self, whose cause is most concern'd in it, declaring to us her practise, and assuring us she had received that her Practise from those friends of her Bridegroom, and children of his marriage­chamber, the Apostles; that Bride also being, as we know, the Queen standing at his right hand, the Mother of us all; whose authority is above all mo­thers, (and yet each mother's is from God over her children;) we I say joyning in obedience with all those who have this Church for their Mother, are assured that we obey, and have God for our Fa­ther, and his Spirit not to leave her (in her leading us) without certain conduct into all truth of neces­sary faith, or bounden practise, that is, certainly to secure her from every of the gates of Hell, never to prevail against her.

We have the Church our Mother to hear: and as to the point, we would hear of: Nos habemus talem consuetudinem, & Ecclesiae Dei: ‘We have such a custome, and so have, and had the Churches of God.’ If any man against all this list to be conten­tious, we still have learnt not to let fall our appeal to the customes of the Churches of God. As [Page 26] St. Paul hath shewn us by his example, that against contradictors 'tis best to do, 1 Cor. c. 11. v. 15, 16. Let our Brethren therefore either shew some Church or age before their own of yesterday, where this was not the custome of Christian peo­ple; or else devise some other sense also of that Text of St. Paul, concerning the Churches customes; or let them acknowledge it an Apostolical note of contentious persons, (to whom he elsewhere saith belongs tribulation and wrath, Rom. 2. v▪ 8, 9.) to oppose their interpretations and exceptions against such custome of the Churches of God, as this Pas­chal Fast, or Fast of Lent, in remembrance of the taking away of the Bridegroom of the Church, can manifest it self to be.

Now, albeit my premises neither contain, nor need to contain, more then that the Church in all ages observed this Fast of Lent, called Paschale je­junium, and that from the Apostles themselves, their own Evangelical Instructions of her, and particular­ly in this Text also which she received from their Evangelizing: yet in as much as I have occasio­nally before mentioned, that the Apostles them­selves also observed this Paschal Fast, I shall not content my self to bring witness that they deli­vered it to the following times, or only that it was practised in their own times, (of which I shall speak in my 2 ^d testimony) but also toge­ther that themselves did practise and observe it. For the proof whereof; although it might be suffi­cient to argue from their delivering it to the Church, that therefore they observed it themselves; (for surely they laid not on the Church any bur­den of precept which themselves with one of their [Page 27] fingers would not touch, or not teach perfectly by their example first:) For as it was said of the Lord, Act. 1. 1. all things which Iesus be­gan both to do and to teach, (as he did in the exercise of fasting) so al­so the Apostle saith of himself and the other Apostles, when he did warn the Philippians of some that walked so, as that their God was their belly, he saith, be ye followers of us, and mark them that walk so, as you have us for an example, c. 3. 17, 19. & 2 Thess. 3. 9. that we might give our selves to you for an example to fol­low us. Yea these very disciples of the Pharisees, and of Iohn, not only alledged first their own example of frequent fastings, but even S. Mark saith of them, c. 2. 18. [...], they were at this time fast­ing, when they came to the Lord and made this exception to his Disciples, for their not so fasting. Yet my argument for it shall be, not any logical collecti­on, but a direct testimonial asseve­ration; premising only first: That it is undeniably certain (from the instance which I have toucht before concerning Baptizing in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost) that something the A­postles themselves did most certain­ly do, and constantly (as well as all ages of the Church after them;) of which yet, besides the first commis­sion (which is not practise,) no one example of any of the Apostles practise at any time is recorded in all the N. T. and yet was it done (we are most sure) by every Apostle, and constantly. This premised, I think it sufficient to produce other Ecclesiastical unquestioned record to prove the paschal fast was observed by them: and I alledge the witness not of any single Father only (though written by one pen,) but of the Church it self within the first century of years, or age, after the departure of the last of these honourable children of the Bride-chamber, S. Iohn the Apostle and Evan­gelist; who died in the 2 ^d year of Trajan, and the Churches Testimony by me to be produced, stands recorded by TERTULLIAN, who lived within 100. years of the Apostle S. Iohn's departure: the Chur­ches witness by Tertullian recorded against Himself and his fellow Montanists, in whose behalf He so [Page 28] contends as followes with the Church, and the Church against Him and His.

The Record is in Tertullian's Book of Fasts, de Ie­juniis c. 1, 2. where he thus writes, Arguant nos [Psy­chici, i. e. Catholici: for so he contumeliously calls the Christian Catholicks, ascribing to Montanus, Priscilla & Maximilla novam prophetiam, & spiri­talem disciplinam] quòd jejunia propria custodiamus, &c.— Novitatem igitur objectant, de cujus illicito prae­scribant, aut haeresin judicandum, si humana praesumptio est; aut pseudoprophetiam pronunciandum, si spiritalis indictio est; dum qua (que) ex parte anathema audiamus, &c. Nam quod ad jejunia pertineat, certos dies à Deo consti­tutos opponunt—certè in Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos putant, in quibus ablatus est sponsus, & hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum, abolitis legalibus & propheticis vetustatibus.—Itaque de caetero indifferenter jejunandum, ex arbitrio, non ex imperio, pro temporibus & causis uniuscujusque. Sic & Apostolos observâsse, nullum aliud imponentes ju­gum certorum & in commune omnibus obeundorum je­juniorum. And c. 13. Praescribitis constituta esse so­lennia huic fidei, Scripturis, vel traditione majorum; ni­bilque observationis amplius adjiciendum ob illicitum in­novationis. State in illo gradu si potestis; ecce enim convenio vos & praeter Pascha jejunantes, citra illos dies quibus ablatus est sponsus, & stationum semijejunia in­terponentes, & mero interdum pane & aquâ victitantes, ut cuique visum est. Denique respondetis haec ex arbitrio agenda, non ex imperio, Movistis igitur gradum exce­dendo traditionem, cùm quae non sunt constituta, obitis. Quale est autem ut tuo arbitrio permittas, quod imperio Dei non das? And c. 14. Si, &c.— Cur Pascha cele­bramus [Page 29] annuo circulo in mense primo? cur quinquaginta exinde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus? Cur stationibus quartam & sextam Sabbati dicamus, & jeju­niis Parasceuen? Quanquam vos etiam Sabbatum si­quando continuatis, nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum, secundùm rationem alibi redditam, &c. Thus Tertul­lian now professing himself a follower of the new Prophet Montanus, quarrels the Church and her children, as carnal persons, for not admitting the new-commanded fast of Montanus, and he manages that his quarrel in these words, ‘They ( viz. the Christian Catholicks) accuse us that we observe fasts of our own, peculiar to our selves—They ob­ject therefore unto us novelty, and prescribe against the unlawfulness of that, saying, that it is either to be judged Heresie; if presuming as men, we so dog­matize: or we to be pronounced false prophets, if we indict these fasts, as from the Spirit; whilest on ei­ther hand we hear them denounce an Anathema against us: For as to what pertains to Fast they oppose, that there are certain daies constituted by God. They surely think, that in the Gospel those daies are determined for fasts, in which the Bridegroom was taken away, and that those daies only are now the legitimate daies of Christian Fasts, all legal and prophetical old observances being antiquated or abolished—Therefore as to other fasting, it is to be indifferent, according to every mans occasions, & causes, at his own judgement, not of command: [ viz. as Monta­nus pretended command from God.] And that thus the Apostles observed the rule of fasting, impo­sing no other yoke of certain or set fasts to be kept of all in common. And c. 13. ye prescribe against us, that the solemn times for this matter, are to be [Page 30] believed already constituted in the Scriptures, or in the Tradition of our Elders, and that no further ob­servance is to be superadded, for the unlawfulness of innovation. Maintain this your ground if you can [O ye adversaries of the prophet Montanus] for lo I convince you, even your selves fasting, beside the Paschal ▪Fast, Beside those daies in which the Bride­groom was taken away; interposing also your selves the half-fasts of the stations, Thus he being in darkness of forgetfulness, as out of charity, con­siders not the evident reasons of the stations, the 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of of the week, from those words which the Church urged of the Bride­grooms being taken away, which is the very ground and reason which afterwards Epiphanius ( de Compend. fid. c. 22.) and S. Augustin also ( epist. 86.) do build them on. and your selves otherwhiles also, as each pleases living on meer bread and water. Lastly you reply, that these observances, [ viz. these last of the stations of Wednesday and Friday, and otherwhiles living with bread and water] are practised accor­ding to ones choice, not from com­mand Isidorus Hispalensis. l. offic. c. 42. Shewes that the weekly observance of those daies in fasting, was not a precept lying on all; in these words: Praeter haec autem legitima jejuniorum Tempora▪ omni sex [...] [...]erid propter Pas­sionem Domini à quibusdam jejuna­tur.. Ye have therefore quit your ground, by exceeding the tra­dition, while you observe fasts w ^ch are not constituted (or comman­ded.) And worthily you permit that to your own pleasure, which you yield not to Gods command, ( viz. by his prophet Montanus.) And c. [...]4. If it be so [as was urged out of Galatians c. 4. [...]. 10.] Why observe we Easter every year in the first moneth? Why 50▪ daies thence forward do we pass in all exultation? Why apply we the 4 ^th, and 6 ^th day of the week to sta­tions? [or meetings for prayer, portional-fast­ing, and Sacrament,] and the day of Christ's Passion to fastings? And although you at some time may joyn Saturday to Friday in fast­ing, yet that never but before Easter-day, for [Page 31] the reason elsewhere rendred. Thus far Tertul­lian.’

The reason why he singles out Good-Friday for a peculiar fast amongst the rest of the daies of the Bridegrooms taking away, himself renders in his Book of Prayer chap. last, when not yet a Montanist, in these words: Sic & die Paschae, q [...]o quasi communis & publica jejunii religio est, ‘So on the day of Christs suffering, wherein is observ'd the common, and as it were, publick religion of the fast Agreeably whereunto So­zomon speaks l. 7. c. 19. On the day before that Saturday, [ viz. Good Fri­day] which the people fast very devoutly in re­membrance of our Saviours Passion. [...] And this is that [...] that one day into which the least de­vout among Christians shrunk up their fast. As Iren [...]us witnesses in his Epistle to Victor. and Methodius in Con [...]ivio virgin. orat 3. [...], On the Fast-day of Christs Passion [who is our Passeover] it is forbidden us at all to remember the provision of food. S. Cyril of Hierusalem in his 18. Catechism, mentions his auditors weary la­bour, by the intention of the Fast of the parasceue [or Good Friday] and the follow­ing watch..’

Thus by acknowledgement of the Churches ene­mies, and friends, she practised, taught & contended against her adversaries touching this fast, and those words of her Lords, In those daies when the Bride­groom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast. With this constitution of the Lords, she resisted the Montanist's new set fasts, pretending from the Spirit, and the word within them. His testimony I have first produc'd, as including the Churches own witness, and the Apostles own observance. Next for the observance of Christian people, that of S. Mark (though he not an Apostle, but Evangelist) his teaching, as is probable, and certainly practis'd in the Apostles own daies. The record is made by PHILO in his Book, [...], of the [Page 32] Religious; (& so Gregory Nazianzen cals the Christi­an believer by the same name, [...], Orat. in S. Pen­tecost. who must needs have conversed with St. Mark, and these Religious at Alexandria, and came, saith Eusebi­us, into speech with St. Peter (whose Disciple S. Mark was) at Rome, l. 2. c. 16, 17. in the daies of Claudius the Emperour. ‘He in that Book of the Religious, saith Eusebius in the forecited place, describes certain A­postolical persons religious life of the Hebrew na­tion ( [...],) having not only seen them, but accurately taken knowledge of them; describing there such their conversation as is to be found in the Christian Religion only, saith Euse­bius; and he adds, [...], according to the Gospel; and such religious fastings, saith the same Eusebius, which have descended down accu­rately the same even unto our times; which more eminently were exercised:’ [...], in fastings, and whole nights watchings, and attentions unto the word of God, at the solemnity of the Passion of our Saviour, [...], testifying of them those things which accurately are ob­served after the same manner with us only, and even until now. And moreover, that he there describes the first preachers of the Doctrine of the Gospel, [...]. It is manifest, saith he, to every one that Philo comprised in that writing, customes delivered in the beginning from the Apostles. These religious persons [Page 33] in and about Alexandria, [...], are frequent in assembling for the space of 7. weeks, (as we now begin our Paschal fast the 7 ^th week before Easter, that we may exempt the Sundaies, and yet leave a full number.) [...], (a) As Gregory Nazianzen orat. 40. in Sanctum Baptisma, cals the fast of Len [...] [...]. ( [...]aith Philo, using the very words of my Text) [...]. This saith Eusebius: they held a pure and holy virginal observance: for it is preparatory to the greatest feast, which beginneth a solemnity of 50 daies—Mightily they resist at this season the bewitchings of pleasures; in those daies, [...], there is no wine brought into their tables, and their meal is clean free from all meat that had the life of bloud—. And of some of that time he writes that after sup­per they celebrated an holy whole-nights vigill; w ^ch we know was much the custome of the East and West Churches on Easter-eve. This annuall solemnity of numberless religious persons through 7. weeks before the high solemnity of Easter (the time of the Bride­grooms taking away & return) is an observance, w ^ch no Essen [...]s, or other Jewes ever observed, no [...] indeed any other people at that time of the year before the Christians; therefore Eusebius did well judge, that it could be understood of Christians only, and that, as he saith from evident demonstrations Euseb. ibi­dem. [...]. Now may ye hear Philo's own words, in that his Book, interpreted by himself. For what Philo saith, [...], their celebration of 7. weeks, their pre­paration [Page 34] to their greatest feast, this what it is in Philo's language, himself lets us know in his book of the ten words: That which the Hebrews (saith he) in their own language call Easter (or [...],) [...], The one day that is chiefly eminent in all the year. But how spent they their seven weeks preparation to the feast of Easter? In purity, fastings, and abstinences, and when the feast came, [...], they sang Eucharistical Hymns unto God their Sa­viour: [...], as Philo there decl [...]res. but at all times [...], they have God in perpe [...]ual remembrance—and twice every day (viz. in common, in the publick) they are wont to pray in the morning and the evening. Thus hath Philo, contemporary to the Apostles, recommen­ded to us, not in my judgement only, but of Eusebius, as you have seen, and of St. Hierome, Co. [...]. [...] ▪ [...]. c 3 [...]. the piery of those first Christians in Aegypt, and recorded their Paschal Fast, in as evident manner as could be ex­pected a learned writer, himself not a Christian, should commend Christians; for the very force of truth, and the love that he had to set forth what was excellent in his Countrey-men.

My third proof and authority shall be from wit­nesses living partly in the Apostles times, (those children of the Bride-chamber) partly soon after their times, while their practice and instructions were fresh in memory; from holy Bishops and Martyrs, some of them ordained by the hands of Apostles themselves. From their agreement even in their differences otherwayes, from their concord even in some sor [...] of controversie among them, du­ring [Page 35] some years. In that difference, I mean, found first twixt Polycarp the auditor and Disciple of St. Iohn, and by his own hands ordained Bishop of Smyrna, (which Episcopal charge he concluded with a glo­rious Martyrdome) and together with Thraseas Bi­shop of Eumēnia, these on the one side, and Anicetus a Primitive Bishop of Rome and Martyr living at the same time, with other Western Bishops (deriving from St. Peter, as Polycarp from St. Iohn) on the o­ther side, about whose difference Polycarp came unto Rome to Anicetus, as Irenaeus witnesses; Anicetus professing to follow the rule received from St. Peter and St. Paul by the instructions of his predecessours, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus and Pius: and Poly­carp professing to follow what St. Iohn and other of the Apostles had practised, [...], these are the very words of Irenaeus himself concerning Polycarp, (whom he had seen and heard) ‘That Anicetus could not perswade him to vary from what he had obser­ved ever with Iohn the disciple of our Lord and the rest of the Apostles with whom he had conversed or spent his time. I [...]en. apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 24.’ But their difference was managed with perfect peace & love, & inviolable communion. The same difference a­gain some years after revived, (about the ninety seventh year after St. Iohns death) but not with equal calmness and amity 'twixt Polycrates Bishop o [...] Ephe­sus, with other Asian Bishops, and Victor Bishop of Rome, (next successour to Elutherius, unto whom Lucius our first Christian King of Britanny sent let­ters) with others of the West. Polycrates pleading [Page 36] the authority of St. Iohn, [...] (saith he) who had rested on the Lords bosome, and of St. Philip, [...], one of the Twelve Apostles, who fell asleep at Hierapolis, also he al­ledgeth the example of [...], ‘of two daughters of St. Philip, Virgins in their old age; and another daughter of his, not that, but a holy woman likewise.’ These diffe­rent from the four Virgin daughters of St. Philip the Evan­gelist. And Victor with his on the other side pleading the authority of the tradition of S. Peter & S. Paul ( [...], Sozom. l. 7. c. 19.) These were the contenders. The agreement (which I mention'd) was constantly this. It was agreed on all hands, 1. That they both had received from the Apostles a Tradition for the celebrating of the Anniversary feast of Easter, which they called [...]. 2. That on the Eve of that Easter-day certain preceding fastings were to end, (which were the same, that in Tertullian were af­terwards called jejunium Paschale) Polycrates and they of Asia are contending [...] ▪ ‘That from tradition ancient [ in those early dayes] they deemed that they ought to observe the feast of the Salutary Pasch (or Easter) on the four­teenth day of the moneth, as being of duty altoge­ther on that day, upon whatsoever day of the week it [...]ell, to put an end to, or dissolve their fastings.’ On [Page 37] the other side (which was Victors) it was alledg'd, [...]. ‘No such custome to observe on that manner in the rest of the Churches throughout the whole world, they [ viz. the rest of the Churches throughout the whole world] observing from Apo­stolical Tradition, which came down to that time [ viz. about the 97 ^th after S. Iohn] that only on that day, which should be also the weekly day of the Resurrection of the Lord, they ought to dis­solve or end their fastings.’ If [...] [ [...]] [...], then were they by Apostolical tradition to have fasts preceding that day. [...] ▪ And they all with one sentence declared—that on the Lords day only (Ea­ster day) we do observe to end our Paschal Fasts. Euseb. l. 5. c. 23. You see both parts agreed in my conclusion, that the feast of Easter-day was to conclude certain fasting-daies, and all this is witnessed in Eusebius l. 5. c. 23, 24. Difference there was: 1. About what day should be that Easter-day, and conclusion of their fast­ing-daies, they having indeed received different traditions. S. Iohn and S. Philip finding it use­full in those parts of Asia, where many Jewes inhabited, by condescension to observe the Christian Easter on the same day with the Jewish Easter; let­ting them to see, that we as festivally remembred Je­sus Christ our true Passeover, and our deliverance by him, as they expected one to come. But S. Pe­ter and S. Paul where no such cause was pre­scribed, as meet, not to disjoyn their anniversary [Page 38] from their weekly memorial-day of Christs re­surrection Touching this a Councel was held in Pa­laestina, wherein Theophilu [...] Bishop of C [...]sarea presided, and Narcissus Bishop of Hierusalem: another Councel at Rome wherein Victor presided: another in Pontus, wherein Palma a [...] the senior Bishop presided: another Councel in France, wherein Irenaeus was President: another in the Province of Osdreëna. Euseb. l. 5. c 23. &c. 25. Narcissus, Theophylus, and Cassius Bishop of Tyre, and Clarus Bishop of Ptolemais, and the Bishops with these assembled, [...], handled largely of the Tradition of the Paschal season, which had come down to them from the Apostles by succession..

2. Particular Churches then differ'd (none doubting, but on Easter-day they were to end their fastings, yet) about the degree and rigour of the fasts, and number of the fasting-daies. In which matter, different constitutions of bodies, and minds, in different countreys, might call for different al­lowances from the very first. Socrates recording the divers Customes of observing this Fast in divers Churches, saith thus, l. 5. c 22. [...] ▪ Advertising us as of sundry customes in divers nations, so also of sundry causes of those customes in different nations. But which of them once doubted, differ'd or disagreed touching this, Whether an Easter-day were at all to be kept, or, Whether any such Paschal Fasts were at all to be observed, As Socrates ibid. having recoun­ted the different usages about the number of the daies of this Paschal Fast; adds, [...] ▪ other such different usages there were about the Synaxes, (or publick meetings for Communions) viz. whether Saturday also, Wednes­day, and Friday, as well as the Lords day: but yet all agreed of Synaxes, that they ought to be, yea, and that every Lords day at least. whose time of ending only was their controversie? and yet the time next before Easter still agreed on for the Fasts. (As they now in our times which vilifie the one, vilifie the other also). The An­tepaschal Fast & Paschal Feast were so inseparably conjoyned, that in many of the ancients, Pascha, signi­fies both; as in Tertullian l. 2. de Ie­juniis c. 13. Convenio vos & praeter Pascha, citra illos dies quibus ablatus est sponsus stationum semijejunia interponentes. He [Page 39] there expounding Pascha, by the days in which the Bridegroom was taken away. And C. 14. Nun­quam nisi in Pascha jejunandum, and so that of Timo­theus Alexandrinus, [...] Pasca jejunare. Ambros l d▪ Eliâ & jejunio hoc jejunium (Quadragesim [...]) Domini Pascha includit. For this cause Irenaeus (who saith himself had seen Polycarp, S. Iohn's Disciple) satisfying Victor in his Epistle to him, tells him, that not only concerning the day it self of Easter, there was controversie, [...], ‘but also touching the manner it self of the Fast,’ therein sup­posing it without controversie, that the Fast it self, (though some differ'd about the form of it) was, but was with difference, observed long before, as well as the day of Easter. For so it follows in his words, [...]. ‘And such variety in those that observe the fast was not now first in our days, but long before, in their times who lived be­fore us.’ And yet before that difference also, he there records, that there preceded an agreement, a simple and plain custom ( viz. for those that had health and strength) which some not accurately enough retaining, changed into that which follow­ed after. His words are, [...]. Now Irenaeus writ this about the 97 ^th year after S. Iohn's death; ‘That long before his days there had been that difference, and before that difference, there had preceded a simple and plain custome of the form of fasting, which they (who brought in the difference) changed into what followed.’ Before that difference, which was long [Page 40] before, the space of 97 years after the Apostles, what uniform custom could there precede in the Christian Church, and not be from the Apostles own times? and yet the following difference also a­greed to a Paschal Fast. So as Irenaeus had good cause to conclude that his discourse, as there he doth to Victor: [...]. ‘The very difference of their fasting commends or establishes the agreement of their faith,’ viz. that yet they all by their several fasting, professed to believe on that death and passion of the Bridegroom, the memorial whereof, their agree­ing to fast in the days next before Easter (rhough disagreeing about the number of the days, or the rigour, or the time, both of Easter, and so of the Fasts) did unanimously profess.

In the Second Century of years after the death of the last of the Apostles (the children of the Bride­chamber) I alledge first the Canons called Apo­stolical, not so called as made by the Apostles themselves, but by Apostolical Bishops, (not sel­dom called in the language of the Ancients [...], witness THEODORET and others) as next, or near successors unto the Apostles. The first fifty of which Canons are probable to have been made in the foregoing Century, and the latter thirty five in this Century. (Excepted only the [...], or assumentum corruptly added to the last.) And all the eighty five confirm'd by the sacred Sixth General Councel, Can. 2 ^d. The eighth and sixtyninth of which Canons command, That every Bishop, Pres­byter and Deacon, celebrate after the vernal Equi­nox, [...], the holy Easter day; and that they fast, [...] [Page 41] [...], the holy Lent: And at other times the 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of the week, where though the Sanction of spiritual penalties was added by these successors of the Apostles; yet that 6 ^th general Councel in Trullo, doubts not, but the matter it self pressed they had received from the Apostles; and therefore both the first general Councel of Nice, Can. 5 ^th, and the 6 ^th general Councel, Can. 55. and the Provincial Councel of Laodicea (it self also confirmed in the 4 ^th general Councel) Can. 45. refer themselves to, and mention the [...], or [...], The holy Fast of Lent, as a thing known and established before the first of those, in the universal Church, and yet not established by any foregoing General Coun­cel, yea, or so much as any Provincial; and there­fore there being no other universal cause possible to create such a foregoing universal establishment, be­side Tradition Apostolical, it must needs, accord­ing to St. Augustine's rule, as well as by the pro­bability of these Apostolical Canons, have come from the Apostles.

This is confirm'd in the same age by Origen's manner of mention of this Fast; who not only in his eighth Book against Celsus, mentions the [...], or weekly memorial-Fasts of the Bride­grooms taking away, and Pascha, as that which all Christians had received, and were ready to answer for, if objected by Celsus; but also in his tenth Ho­mily upon Leviticus (& sunt Origenis, saith Gerard rightly of these Homilies) thus witnesseth, Habe­mus enim Quadragesimae dies jeju [...]iis consecratos; quar­tam & sextam septimanae dies; quibus solenniter jejuna­mus. And all this he calls, abstinentiam Christianam, [Page 42] the abstinence of Christians, (which must needs have the first teachers of Christianity for its authors) ‘we have the days of Lent consecrated to fastings, the fourth and sixth day also of the week; on which we fast solemnly, saith Origen.’

My third Witness in this age, is DIONYSIUS, the Bishop of Alexandria, who lived in the middle of that age, successor of S. Mark, and contemporary to S. Cyprian, he in his Epistle to Basilides the Bi­shop, records the Fast before Easter, as universal, as the joy and Feast of Easter, (which I have evi­dently proved above, was from the Apostles) His words are, [...]. ‘It will be confess'd of all agreeably, that we ought to begin the feast ( viz. of Easter) and joy, until that time humbling our souls in fastings—They truly which make too much haste, and before well toward midnight, break their fast, we blame as regardless, and not masters of their appetite, giving over the race a little before the goal—Such indeed who are much wor [...] by the fasts, and toward the end, as it were saint, we easily pardon, if they eat sooner.’ [...]nd in the same Epistle he mentions in special manner the 6. daies of fasts, to wit, those of the last week not alike observ'd of all.

[Page 43]In the 3 ^d Century of years after the death of S. IOHN, CONSTANTINE the GREAT, (whose witness seems to have been of his information from the Bishops of the Christian world assembled in Nice) in his Epistle to the Christian Churches (re­corded both in Eusebius writing his life, l. 3. c. 17, 18. and Socrates, l. 1. c. 6. and Theodoret, l. 1. c. 10.) he wri­teth thus: [...]—and then a little after he subjoyneth, [...]— c. 20.— [...]. ‘All, or at least the greater part of Bishops being assembled together, [ viz. at N [...]ce] where there was also disquisition of the most holy day of Pasche—After that order, which we have kept from the first day it self of the Passion of the Lord, [ viz. anno Christi 33.] until now, the same observation to be continued unto the ages to come also— For our Saviour hath deli­vered one solemnity, to wit, the day, [or time] of his most holy passion, the day of our freedome, [Page 44] and would that his Catholick Church also should be one—A little after he subjoyns the appoint­ed fastings. Now this is the wel-becoming or­der, which all the Churches of the West and of the North, and of the South parts of the world do observe, yea, and some also of the Eastern Churches—Neither is it seemly in so great a holiness, [of observance] there should be any difference▪—And copies of this Letter the Emperour sent to every Province.’

My second witness in this Century is S. BASIL the GREAT, the Archbishop of Caesa [...]ea in Cap­padocia, in his second Sermon of fasting ▪viz, at the time of the Lent-fast▪ [...]. ‘For neither doth the despight of Devils dare any thing against him that fasteth. And the Angels guardians of our life do more studiously abide by such who have their souls purifi'd by fasting. And more espe­cially now when the edict (of this Fast) is pro­claimed throughout all the world.—There are Angels who in each Church register those that fast.—Art thou rich? do not contumeliously enter­tain the fast—nor send it away disgrac'd from thy house—lest it accuse thee before the Law-giver of the Fasts,’ [of the fasts he saies not only of fasting, God is the Lawgiver, and his Sermon is here of the [Page 45] Lent-fasts] [...]. ‘And lest it bring upon thee from that accusation a manifold mulct, either from weak estate of body, or some other sad accident—’— [...]. ‘Suffer affliction as a good Souldier, and strive thou lawfully that thou maist be crowned, this knowing, that every one that striveth for masteries is continent in all things—[one accusation he re­counteth] that a man should be convinc'd to have cast away the great weapon of fasting: Fasting is the beginning of penance or repentance, the con­tinence of the tongue, the bridle of anger, the ba­nishment of lust.—Fasting is our assimulation unto the Angels, the temperament of life.’ And in his Sermon preached in the beginning of Lent, ( Homil. 1. de Iejunio) [...]. ‘The Lord who hath brought us unto this revoluti­on of this time, grant unto us as combatants entring [Page 46] upon this beginning, to shew forth the firmness and intention of perseverance, that we may attain unto the day, which is proper for rewards. Now it being the day of the commemoration of our Saviours Passion: and in the world to come, of retribution.— Daniel a man of desires who fasted 3. weeks, and learnt the Lions to fast, [their prey being before them.]’

The next witness is S. GREGORY NAZIAN­ZEN in his forty first and second orations, [...]. ‘We have fasted [speaking of the fast in Lent] because we fasted not from the tree of knowledg, having been overcome thereby: for fasting was an old command, and coaeval with us. It is the paedagogy of the soul, and the modera­tion of sensual delight, which is very m [...]tly en­joyned us, that what we l [...] by not observing that precept of fasting, we may recover again, observing it: yesterday I was crucifi'd with Christ, to day as it were glorisi'd with him—This is the Easter of the Lord▪ the Easter, and again I say the Easter, the honour of the Trinity, [Page 47] the feast of feasts, and solemnity of solemnities, as much exceeding all, not those only which are humane, and come from us on earth; but also the other feasts of Christ himself, and which are celebrated relating to him; as the Sun excels the stars—By our passions we imitate his Passi­on, &c.’ And Oration the 4 ^th, [...] ( [...]) [...]. ‘Christ fasted a little be­fore his temptation, we before the Paschal feast, the matter of fastings is one [ in both.] This hath in us the force of mortisying us with Christ, and is the purifying preparation to the Feast. And he indeed fasted 40. daies; for he was God; but we proportionate this to our power, though zeal perswade some to leap even beyond their strength This S. Gre­gory Nazian­zen his 74. Epistle writ­ten to Celeusius the Iudge, who (as it may seem by this Epistle) in the time of the Churches publick fastings, in stead of Fa­sting propoun­ded obs [...]ene shewes to delight the people. [...] [ [...], so the sense requires, and so Billius, who had the use of MSS. R interp ets it, qui non jejunes] [...] Now I will speak the things which become our friendship, and this season, [ viz. of fasting] you O Judge as not fasting transgress the Law. And how shall you be a preserver of humane Laws, who con­ [...]emn the Lawes Divine? [...]urge your own Tribunal, lest of these two things one happen, either that you be an evil man, or appear such. To set before the people fil [...]hy shewes, is to publish your self upon the stage. The sum is, O Judge, know, that you are to be judged, and you will offend less. I had nothing better to give you then this coun­sell..’

[Page 48]The fourth witness of this age is EPIPHANIUS In expositione fidei Catholicae; [...]. And al­so in Compend. fidei c. 22. [...]. ‘The same Church [ viz. Catholick of which he speaks] hath been wont to observe Lent, continuing in fastings; but the 6. daies of the week before Easter all the people continue in dry [o [...] stricter] diet. Again they celebrate publick meetings (or synaxes of Communion) all those 6. daies As our Church also pre­scribes assem­blies, and Com­munion-service also, every day in this great week.—And on the 4 ^th day of the week, and on the day be­fore the Sabbath [ viz. on Friday] they are in fasting unto the ninth hour; [ viz. our 3. a clock in the afternoon] for as much as on the 4 ^th day the Lord was taken, [that is, money taken for his taking] and on the Friday He was crucifi'd. And the Apostles have deliver'd that on these daies fasts should be celebrated, to the fulfilling of that which was spoken, that when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast in those daies.’ And in Heresy. 75 ^th [...] [Page 49] [...]. ‘And in the daies of the Paschal-fast, [or the week at least of it before Easter,] when with us there are ly­ings on the ground, purities, afflictive sufferings, prayers, watchings and fastings: They [the Aë­rians] from the morning feed themselves with flesh and wine, filling their veins, and deride us, laughing and mocking at such as celebrate the holy service of this week— So that he shewes hereby his mind, and his unbelief.’

The fifth witness of this age is the renowned S. AMBROSE Bishop of Millan in his 4 ^th Book up­on S. Luke (S. Ambrose's most undoubted work) Si­quis Evangelii gloriam fructumque Resurrectionis op­tat adipisci, mystici jejunii praevaricator esse non debet, quod & in lege Moses, & in Evangelio suo Christus utri­usque Testamenti autoritate praescripsit fidele virtutis esse certamen. ‘If any man desire to obtain the glory of the Gospel, & the fruit of the Resurrection, he ought not to be a transgressor of the mystical fast, which both Moses in the Law did, & Christ in his Gospel hath prescribed; by the authority of both Testaments, a space for the faithfull striving of vertue.’ The same Author in his Book de Helia & Iejunio; Non autem omnis fames acceptabile jejunium facit, sed fames quae Dei timore suscipitur. Considera: Quadrage sima totis praeter Sabbatum & Dominicam jejunatur diebus. ‘Not every hunger makes an acceptable fast, but that hunger which is undertaken from the fear of God. Consider: A Lent is fasted with us all [Page 50] daies, except Saturday, and the Lords day.’ Now of this Fast of Lent, he saith in his 23. Sermon, Do­minus Iesus Christus hunc eundem numerum jejunii con­secravit.—And Sermon the 36. Hunc quadragina­rium numerum non ab hominibus constitutum, sed di­vinitùs consecratum—haec autem non tam sacerdotum praecepta, quam Dei sunt. And in Sermon the 25. Dominus enim Diabolum posteaquam 40. dies jejunavit, evicit; non quod non & ante jejunia eum vincere po­tuisset, sed ut ostenderet nobis tunc nos Diaboli posse esse victores, cum 40. dies victores jejunando desideriorum carnalium fuissemus.—Non enim, fratres, leve pecca­tum est sidelibus indictam Quadragesimam & jejunia con­secrata ventris voracitate dissolvere; scriptum est, Qui dicit se in Christo manere debet, sicut ille ambulavit, & ipse ambulare—Ille qui peccatum non habebat, Qua­dragesimam jejunavit: tu non vis Quadragesimam jeju­nare, qui peccas? ille inquam peccatum non habebat, sed pro nostris jejunavit peccatis. ‘The Lord Jesus Christ hath consecrated this same number of lasting—This Quadragesimal number not con­stituted of men, [...] consectated from God—Now these are not so much the precepts of the Priests, as of God. And Sermon 25. For the Lord after he had fasted 40. daies overcame the Devil, not but that he could have overcome him also before [or without] fastings: but that he might shew unto us, that then we can overcome the devil, when by forty days we have been through fasting victors over our carnal desires—For neither, O brethren, is it a little fault to break by greediness of the belly, the Lent indicted to Believers,—the consecrated fasts.’ It is written, He that saith he abides in Christ, ought himself also so to [Page 51] walk, as he walked. [ viz. as Nazianzen above attem­perating his example to our strength.] ‘He that had no sin, fasted a Lent, and wilt not thou who sinnest? He, I say, had no sin, but fasted for our sins.’ Again in his 60. Serm. which is on the day of Pentecost, (a Sermon which all agree to be his, or Maximus Episcopus Taurinensis's, and the odds is little which it be, for that either of their authorities is great enough.) Sic enim disposuit Dominus, ut sicut ejus passione in Quadragesimae jejuniis contristare­mur, ita ejus resurrectione in Quinquagesimae feriis lae­taremur. Non igitur jejunamus in hâc Quinquagesimâ; quia in his diebus nobiscum Dominus commoratur; non inquam jejunamus praesente Domino, quia ipse ait: Nunquid possunt silii sponsi jejunare, quandiu cum illis est sponsus? ‘For so hath the Lord appoint­ed, that as for his Passion, we should mourn in the fasts of Lent, so for his Resurrection we should rejoyce in the 50. daies following; therefore we fast not in this 50. daies, because in these the Lord is with us, we fast not, I say, the Lord being pre­sent; because he hath said, Can the children of the Bridegroom fast so long as the Bridegroom is with them?’ Lastly, this same S. Ambrose in his Serm. de Iejunio & Helia, thus preacheth toward the end of Lent, Propitiâ Divinitate ecce jam penè transegimus Quadragesimae indicta jejunia, & praecepta Domini abstinentiae devotione complevimus. ‘Behold, through the mercy of God we have past through the in­dicted fasts of Lent, and have fulfill'd by the devotion of abstinence the commands of the Lord.’

A sixth testimony of this age, is that of THEOPHI­LUS Patriarch of Alexandria, who in his first Paschal [Page 52] Epistle thus writeth: Eóque omnis impraesentiarum ad­sumatur labor, ut & eos qui paululum negligentes sunt, & nosmet ipsos aeternae gloriae praeparemus—& ho­mines provocantur (terrarum humilia deserentes) cum Ecclesiâ primitivorum Dominicae passionis festa cele­brare—Non est ergo, non est haereticorum ulla solen­nitas—Igitur Dominicum Pascha celebrantes sanctis scripturarum purificemur Eloquiis——Curemus di­versa vitiorum vulnera—Sic poterimus imminentium jejuniorum iter carpere, incipientes Quadragesimam à tricesimâ die mensis Mechir, & hebdomadam salutaris Paschae, quintâ die mensis Pharmuthi, finientésque jeju­nia secundum Evangelicas traditiones vespere Sab­bati, decimâ die Pharmuthi: & illucescente statim Do­minicâ, festa celebremus undecimâ die ejusdem mensis, jungentes & septem reliquas hebdomadas sanctae Pente­costes: ut cum iis qui Trinitatis unam confitentur Di­vinitatem, in coelis praemia recipiamus in Christo Iesu Domino nostro. ‘To that end let all our labour be taken at present to prepare both those which are something negligent, and our selves unto eternal glory—And thereby men are provoked (forsa­king the low things of the earth) to celebrate the solemnities of the Lords Passion with the Church of the primitives [or first-born]—Therefore Hereticks acknowledge not any solemnity—let us celebrating the Pasche of our Lord be purified by the holy words of the Scriptures—Let us cure the divers wounds of vices, &c.—And so may we enter the fasts at hand, beginning Lent from the 30 ^th day of the moneth Mechir [and therein] the week of the Salutary Pasche on the 5 ^th day of the moneth Pharmuth, and ending the fasts according to the Evangelical Traditions on the [Page 53] evening of the Saturday, being the 10 ^th day of Phar­muth: and on the next Lords-day the 11 ^th of the same moneth let us celebrate the feasts; adjoyning also the 7. following weeks of the holy 50. daies; that with them who confess the one Godhead of the Holy Trinity, we may partake of the rewards in heaven, through Christ Jesus our Lord.’ So al­so in his 2 ^d Paschal Epistle: Pascha celebrare ha­bentes, Quadragesimae exordium ab octava die mensis, qui secundum Aegyptios vocatur Pharmenoth; & ipso prae­bente vires, attentiùs jejunemus, hebdomadae majoris, i. e. Paschae venerabilis die 13. mensis Pharmuthi funda­menta jacientes; ita duntaxat ut juxta Evangelicas traditiones siniamus jejunia intempestâ nocte, die 18. supra dicti mensis Pharmuthi—& praehentes nos dignos communionis corporis & sanguinis Christi. ‘Having to celebrate Easter, let us begin our Lent from the 8 ^th day of the moneth, which with the Aegypti­ans is called Pharmenoth; & God giving us strength let us fast more carefully on the Great week, how­beit so, that according to the Evangelical Traditions, we end the fasts late at night, on the 18 ^th day of Pharmuth—Rendring our selves worthy recei­vers of the communion of the body and bloud of Christ.’ And in his 3. Paschal Epistle he writeth thus: Quotquot sanctum Pascha celebramus, continentiâ atque jejuniis latorem legis amicum nobis esse faciamus—Ornantes nos scientiâ Scripturarum quasi solennibus ve­stimentis——fugantes omnem negligentiam, & rum­pentes moram, ut alacri cum discipulis ad Salvatorem pergamus incessu, dicamusque ei: Ubi vis paremus tibi Pascha?—ad solennitatem properemus atque dicamus; mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce Christi. Dabit, inquam, dabit laborantibus gaudium, & jejunantibus be­nedicens [Page 54] loquetur: Erunt domui Iudae in gaudium, & laetitiam, & in solennitates bonas, & laetabimini. ‘As many of us as celebrate the holy Pasche, let us as celebrate the holy Pasche, let us make the Author of the Law, a friend unto us by continency and fastings——adorning our selves with the knowledge of the Scriptures as with solemn garments, chasing away all negli­gence, and breaking off delay, that we may cheer­fully go with the Disciples to our Saviour, and say vnto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare unto thee the Passeover?—Let us make haste to the so­lemnity, and say, God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ, then he will give, he will give, I say, joy to them that labour, and bles­sing them that fast, will say; [the fasts] shall be to the house of Iuda for joy and gladness, and joy­ous solemnity, and ye shall rejoyce.’

A seventh witness is S. HIEROME in his Epistle to Marcella, Nos unam Quadragesimam secundum tra­ditionem Apostolorum toto anno, tempore nobis con­gruo jejunamus. Montanistae tres in anno faciunt Quadragesimas, quasi tres passi sint salvatores, non quòd per totum annum, exceptâ Pentecoste, jejunare non liceat; sed quòd aliud sit necessitate, aliud voluntate munus af­ferre. ‘We fast one Lent within the compass of the whole year, according to the Tradition of the Apostles, in a season fit [for our mysteries.] The Montanists keep three Lents in the year, as if three Saviours had suffered. Not but that it is lawful to fast throughout the whole year, except in the 50. daies; but it is one thing to fast by ne­cessity, another thing to bring a gift of ones own will.’ Again in his 2. Book against Iovinian: In foribus Evangelii Anna silia Phanuelis univira induci­tur, [Page 55] semperque jejunans. Et Dominum virginem longa castitas longáque jejunia suscepêre.—Acriora daemo­nia docuit [Dominus] non nisi oratione & jejunio posse superari.——est Dominus, qui 40 diebus Chri­stianorum jejunium sanctisicavit, qui beatos appellat esurientes & sitientes, [Luke 6. 21.] ‘In the very doors of the Gospel we meet with Anna the daughter of Phanuel, that had been the wise of one Husband, and her long purity, and long con­tinued use of fastings received [in her arms the Lord, the Virgin—The Lord hath taught us that the fiercer sort of Devils cannot be overcome but by prayer and fasting— It is the Lord, who hath sanctifi'd the fast of the Christians in 40. daies, who calleth them happy, which hunger and thirst.’ The same S. Ierome in his Comment. upon Ionah. c. 3. Ipse quoque Dominus verus Ionas missus ad praedi­cationem mundi, jejunavit 40. dies, & haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens, ad esum corporis sui, sub hoc numero nostras animas praeparat. ‘The Lord him­self, the true Ionas sent to preach unto the world, fasted 40 daies, and leaving us the inheritance of the fast, under this number, prepares our souls for the eating of his Body.’ The same St. Hierom saith in his Comment. on Isaiah the 58. Dominus 40. diebus in solitudine jejunavit, ut nobis solennes jeju­niorum dies relinqueret. The Lord fasted 40. daies in the wilderness, that he might leave unto us the solemn daies of the fasts.

My eighth witness of this age shall be S. CHRY­SOSTOME, who in his 3 ^d and 16 ^th Ser­mons ad populum Antiochenum, (which 16 ^th Sermon, he preached in the 3. week of Lent) (wherein now we are) [...] [Page 56] [...], saith he, we have passed the second week of the fast, (in which time he preach'd to the people day by day) [...]. This spiritual summer of this fast now appearing, let us as Souldiers wipe off the dust from our arms. [...]. In the time of Lent, it is the manner of all to ask, how many weeks each one hath fasted; and you may hear some an­swer, two, and some three, and some answer that they have fasted all the weeks. And in his 11 ^th Lent-Ser­mon upon Genesis, [...], [ [...]] [...]. ‘Wherefore in every thing due measure and moderation is best.—According whereunto therefore concerning this season also [Page 57] of the holy Lent, we shall now find it to have been ruled out unto us. For as in publick convei­ance of travellers, there are certain stages and innes, that the passengers wearied may rest them­selves, and intermitting their labours, they may again set upon their journey—In like manner here also in holy Lent THE LORD HATH INDULGED these two weekly daies [the Sa­turday, and the Lords day] to such as undertake this course of this fast, like certain stages, or innes, shores, or havens, that both the body may be a little relaxed from its labours of the fasting, and the mind comforted; that when these two daies shall be past over, they may again with cheerful­ness, set upon this their good and profitable tra­velling in this way.’ [...]. ‘Set on this journey which leads unto Heaven, this strait and narrow way—Keeping under thy body and bringing it into subjection—And the ground and teacher of all these things, fasting will be un­to us; fasting, I mean, not that of most men, but that which is the accurate fast, viz. the abstinence [Page 58] not from meats only, but from sins. For the na­ture of fasting only, is not sufficient to deliver such as betake themselves unto it; except it be done agreeably to its law.—Let us learn the lawes of fasting, how we ought to fast, that we run not uncertainly, nor beat the air, nor fight with a sha­dow whilest we fast—These things I have said, not that we may dishonour fasting, but that we may honour it.’

GREGORY NYSSENE, the Brother of S. Basil the Great, is my 9 ^th witness in this age in his 2 ^d O­ration of the Resurrection, [...]. ‘ Matthew added the time when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week: The night, saith he, was so far passed that it was now the time of cock-crowing, which giveth warning that the light of the approaching day is at hand. [Speaking of the day of Christs Resurrection]’ For this cause also at this time, [ viz. far in the night before Easter-day] and not in the very evening of the Saturday [but [...], as Cyril of Alexandria saith in his 8 ^th Paschal Homily, far in the night] ‘we DIS­SOLVE OR END THE FASTINGS, and be­gin the joy, the custom, that obtains withall men, consenting hereto.’

[Page 59]My last witness of this age is AURELIUS PRU­DENTIUS hymno Septimo jejunantium.

After mention of Elias and Iohn Baptist's fastings as forerunners of Christ's, he adds, that Iesus also in the time of his flesh, did with a devoted heart fast, separa­ting himself from men in the inhospitable desert, and took no refreshment of food through eight times five daies. That which thou O Christ, the Master of our consecrated Religion, didst deliver to thy followers, that let each of us now, according to our several measures of strength, follow. And because of the difference of mens strength, agreeably to what Ire [...]us had said, that there was difference [...], about the sort or measure of fasting; so this author Prudentius also in hymno octavo poss jejunium, though he had said that Christ deliver'd the fast to his fol­lowers, yet saith:

A free manner or measure of abstaining is propounded to all, not any one by severe terrour enforced, but every mans strength is a law to his nill.

In the fourth Century after the death of S. Iohn the Apostle, I produce first S. AUGUSTINE; who though in his 86. Epistle he say, that he finds no▪ where written in the Books of the New-testament, any precept of the Lord or the Apostles defining on what daies we ought to fast (albeit he saith, he finds there fasting commanded,) yet he forthwith purposely explains himself in these words, Non in­ [...], at jam suprà commemoravi, in Evangelicis & Apo [...]. cis literis, &c. Evidenter praeceptum, that is, ab­stracting from all interpretation by traditions Apo­stolical (of w [...] sort, in many places, he acknowledges many to be obliging) in the writings only, of the New Testament, he saith, he finds not evidenter praeceptum quibus diebus. No where expresly, or evidently pre­scrib'd, what daies, viz. no such express precept, nor evident text, but what may need against contradi­ctors, the Catholick Churches interpretation, which is the thing we contend for. For the same S. Au­gustine in his 119. Epistle to Ianuarius tells us of this very fast of Lent enough to our purpose. Qua­dragesima sanè jejuniorum HABET AUTHORITA­TEM & in veteribus libris, & EX EVANGELIO, &c.—In qu [...] ergo parte anni congruentiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitueretur, nisi consini atque contiguâ Dominicae Passioni? ‘The Lent truly of fastings [Page 61] HATH AUTHORITY both in the old Books, and FROM OUT OF THE GOSPEL—In what part therefore of the year more aptly could the observation of Lent be constituted, then in that which is conterminous and next unto the Passion of the Lord? ( viz. the time of the year wherein the Bridegroom was taken away.)’ And having fetcht the ground and authority of the fast of Lent from the Gospel, he then adds in the fol­lowing part of the same Epistle, Ut quadraginta illi dies ante Pascha observentur, Ecclesiae consuetudo robo­ravit, ‘That those forty daies before Easter, be observ'd the custome of the Church hath strengthened or corroborated.’ Yea, the same S. Augustine in the aforesaid 86. Epistle objected, teaches us the ground of certain other set fasts, to be the daies wherein the Bridegroom was taken away. His words are these, Cur autem quartâ & sextâ fe­riâ maximè jejunat Ecclesia [ viz. Catholica] illa ratio reddi videtur, quòd CONSIDERATO EVANGE­LIO, ipsâ quart [...] Sabbati—concilium reperiantur ad occidendum Dominum fecisse Iudaei,—Deinde tradi­tus est eâ nocte, quae jam ad sextam sabbati, qui dies passionis ejus manifestus est, pertinebat: ‘Now why the Church [Catholick] fasts especially on the 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of the week, that reason or account seems to be rendred, that the Gospel being con­sidered, on the 4 ^th day of the week the Jewes are found to have held a councel for the killing of the Lord.—That afterwards he was deli­vered up in that night which belonged to the 6 ^th day of the week, which manifestly is the day of his Passion, saith he:’ which reason from [Page 62] Epiphanius also ye heard before And S. Augustine again in the [...] 86. Epistle: Passu [...] est Domi­ [...], quod nullus ambigit, sext [...] sab­bat [...], quapropter & ipsa sexta rectè jejunio deputatur: jejunia quippe hu­mili [...]atem significant. Unde dictum est humiliabam jejunio ani [...]am me­am: The Lord suffered (which no man doubts) on the 6 ^th day of the week, wherefore the 6 ^th day of the week also is appointed for fasting: for that fasting signifies our humili­ty; whence it is said, I humbled my soul with fasting. [...], not [...], Ps. 69. 10. That for the weekly: now for the anniversary solemnity of Christs pas­sion, (which in no place had its so­lemnity without fasting) We learn from St. Augustine in the 118. E­pistle to Ianuarius, that if it was not first constituted by some General Councel (as for certain it was not, but in the Church universally received long before the Councel of Nice, before which there had been no General Councel, save that of the Apostles themselves) then it is retain'd, as commanded and appointed from Tradition Apostolical. His words are these: Illa autem quae non scripta, sed tradita custo­dimus, quae quidem toto terrarum o [...]le observantur, dan­tur intelligi, vel ab ipsis Apostolis, vel plenariis Conciliis, quorum est in Ecclesiâ saluberrima autoritas, commen­data atque statuta retineri, SICUTI QUOD DO MINI PASSIO & resurrectio & ascensio in coelum, & ad­ventus de coelo Spiritus sancti anniversariâ solennita [...]e cele­brantur. ‘But those things which we keep being not written, but delivered down, which are ob­served throughout the whole world, are given us to understand, that they are retain'd, as com­mended and appointed EITHER FROM THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES, or from plenary, [ h. e. general] Councels; whose authority in the Church is most wholesome; as for example, that the Passion of the Lord, and his Resurrection and Ascension are celebrated in anniversary solemnity;’ Thus S. Augustine. But the anniversary solemnity of [Page 63] Christs Passion was not first from any plenary or ge­neral councel; therefore according to S. Augustine's Catholick rule, it was delivered from the Apostles. By which testimony also you may perfectly discern, how S. Augustin's [ Non invenio in literis evidenter praeceptum, I do not find it in the writing of the Go­spels or the Apostles, &c.] is nothing contrary, in S. Augustin's judgement, to the fast of Lents deri­vation from the Apostles: nor to that authority (although not evident precept) which S. Augustine himself fetcht from out of the Gospel, for it. It is the same S. Augustine, who in his roll of Heresies, haeres. 53. hath registred it as one part of the A [...]rians superaddition to the Arrian heresie, that they taught, nec statuta solenniter celebranda esse jejunia, sed cùm quisque voluerit jejunandum ne videatur esse sub lege: ‘They denied that the set fasts ought solemn­ly to be celebrated, but that every one is to fast then, when himself shall please, lest he should seem to be under the Law: which Damascen ex­presseth yet more particularly (in his Book of He­resies) that this Aerius bad that the fast of the 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of the week, and of the 40 daies, and Easter, should not be observed, nor any set fasts, Certis statisque diebus—negat enim se lege teneri: No set or stated fasts, for that, he saith, he is not under the Law.’

My second witness of this age shall be S. CYRIL the renowned Patriarch of Alexandria, and most eminent member of the third General Councel, (to the Patriarchs of which See, it was entrusted by the first General Councel, that they should yearly signifie before hand to the rest of the Churches (as well as their own) the true time of Easter. This S. Cyril [Page 64] therefore in his 7 ^th Homily, de festis Paschalibus, thus gives publick notification of the time: [...]. ‘Beginning the holy Lent from such a day, and ending the Fasts on the 3 ^d day of the moneth Pharmuthi, on the Saturday evening, ACCORDING TO THE APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS.’

Again, in his 15 ^th Homily, de festis Paschalibus, [...]. ‘Beginning [this year] the ho­ly Lent from such a [...], and ending the Fasts on the 7 ^th day of the moneth Pharmuthi, late at night, according to the Traditions Apostolical.’

And Homily 20 ^th de [...]. Pasch. [...]. ‘So, so let us keep a pure fast, beginning the holy Lent from such a day, ending also the fasts on the 7 ^th day of Phar­muthi [ h. e. just 40 daies after; as also above in the two forecited testimonies] late or far in the evening, According to the Traditions Apostolical.’

Thus thrice he clearly refers the Fasts of Lent to Tradition Apostolical, as the same S. Cyril in nineteen other of his Homilies de Festis Paschalibus (preached in so many several years) refers the same Fasts of Lent to Tradition, Appointment, or Instru­ction Evangelical.

[Page 65]Homil. 4. de Fest. Paschal. [...]. ☜ ‘Begin­ning the holy Lent from the 26. day of the moneth Mechir [as it were our February] and (within this Lent) beginning the week of the salutary Pasch (or great week before Easter) on the first day of the moneth Pharmuthi (or April) and ending the Fasts According to the Evangelical Constitutions, on the Saturday evening, which is the 6 ^th day of the same moneth Pharmuthi [which is punctually 40. daies after the beginning on the 26. of Me­chir: the Aegyptians reckoning 30. daies in eve­ry moneth] and keeping the Feast [ viz. Easter day] on the next day, the dawning Lords day, which is the 7 ^th day of that moneth Pharmuthi: an [...]exing immediately after also the seven weeks of the holy 50 daies solemnity.’

And Homily the 6. de Fest. Paschal. [...]. ☜ ‘Beginning the holy Lent from, &c. superseding the Fasts on the 11 ^th day of the moneth Phar­muthi on Saturday evening, According to the Evangelical Tradition.’

Again Homily 9. de Fest. Paschal. [...] [Page 66] [...]. ‘Be­ginning the) [...] Lent from, &c. and ending the Fasts on the 7 ^th day of Pharmuthi, upon Saturday evening, AS THE EVANGELICAL PREACH­ING BIDS.’

And Homily 10 ^th de Fest. Paschal. [...]. ☞

And Homily 11 ^th [...]. ☞

And Homily 22. [...]. ‘Beginning the holy ☞ Lent from, &c. and ending the Fasts on the 19 ^th day of the moneth Phumuthi late at night, Accord­ing to the Traditions Evangelical.’ The same testi­mony [Page 67] in the same words you have Homily the twenty third.

And Homily 28 ^th, [...]. ‘Beginning the ☜ holy Lent from, &c. and ending the Fasts on the 11 ^th of Pharmuthi, late on Saturday night, Accord­ing to the Preachings Evangelical.’ The same testi­mony you have Homily the 29 ^th.

In all twenty two times, in twenty [...]wo Homi­lies, on twenty two several years, S. CYRIL the PATRIARCH proclaims to the Church the Fasts of Lent, according to Traditions, Appointments, or Instructions Evangelical, or Apostolical (as he saith.)

My next and third witness of this age, is THEO­DORET, contemporary to S. CYRIL, lib. 3. Haereti­carum sabularum, c. 4. [...]. Speaking of the Quartadecima­ni, he saith, ‘Understanding amiss the Apostolical Tra­dition—they celebrate the memory of the Pas­sion, as it happens, [ viz. on what day of the week soever the Quartadecima luna doth fall.]’

A fourth witness of this age is Maximus Episco­pus TAURINENSIS, in his 36 ^th Sermon, Sacrarum literarum exempla protulimus, quibus approbamus hunc quadragenarium numerum non esse ab hominibus constitutum, sed Divinitùs Consecratum, neque terrenâ cogitatione initiatu [...], sed Coelesti majestate praeceptum— haec non tam sacerdotum sunt praecepta quàm Dei, atque ita qui ea spernit, non sacerdotem sper­nit, sed Christum.

[Page 68] ‘We have brought forth the examples of the holy Scriptures, by which we make good, that this number—forty, ( viz. of Fasts) was not con­stituted of men, but consecrated of God: nor initiated by humane cogitation, but commanded by the hea­venly Majesty.—These things are not so much the precepts of the Priests, as of God; and so he that despiseth them, despiseth not the Priesthood, but Christ.’

The fifth is LEO the Great, Bishop of Rome, who in his third Sermon of Lent, saith on this wise, Merito doctrina Spiritûs sa [...]li [...]c eruditione im [...]uit po­pulum Christianum, ut ad Paschale festum quadraginta dierum continenti [...] se praepararet. ‘With good cause hath the DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY GHOST initiated the Christian people with this instruction, that they should prepare themselves to the Feast of Easter [that is, to the return of the Bridegroom] by the abstinence of forty days.’ And in his sixth Sermon of Lent, Ut Apostolica in­stitutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur, non cibo­rum pa [...]citate tantummodò, sed privatione maximè vi­tiorum. ‘That the APOSTOLICAL INSTI­TUTION may be fulfilled in the fast of forty days, not by sparing from our diet only, but espe­cially by abstinence from sins.’ And in his fourth Sermon of Lent, Quia dum carnis [...]ragilitate auster [...]or observa [...]o [...]elaxatur, du [...] (que) per va [...]ias actiones vitae hu­jus [...] [...]o dis [...]enditur, [...]esse est de [...] pulvere [...]am R [...]ligiosa co [...]da s [...]descere: IDEO MAGNA DIVIN [...] INST [...]UTIONIS [...] [...] EST, ut ad [...] mentium [...] [...] [...] [...] dierum exercitatio mederetur, [...] quibus aliorum temporum culpas, & pia opera [...] ­rent, [Page 69] & jejunia casta decoquerent: ‘For as much as while an austerer course of life is relaxed through the frailty of the flesh, and anxious care grows upon us through the various actions of this life, it cannot be, but that even religious hearts them­selves should gather some soil from the dust of this world; therefore it hath been PROVIDED BY THE SALUBRITY OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTION, that for the repairing the pu­rity of our minds, the exercitation of forty days should heal us; in which, both pious works might redeem [ i. e. retract] and chaste fastings might consume the faults of our other times.’ The same author in his ninth Sermon of Lent, speaketh on this wise: In quibus [ Paschalis jejunii die­bus] Meritò à Sanctis Apostolis per Doctrinam Spi­ritûs Sancti majora sunt ordinata jejunia, ut per commu­ne consortium Crucis Christi, etiam nos aliquid in eo, quod propter nos gessit, ageremus, sicut Apostolus ait: si com­pa [...]imur, & conglorisica [...]imur. ‘In which [Paschal Fasts] with good cause severer fastings were Or­dain'd of the Holy Apostles by the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost, that by [the fellowship of his sufferings] our conformity to the cross of Christ, we also should have something, we should do in or con­cerning that which he did for us, as the Apostle saith; If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him.’ And in his fourth Sermon elsewhere of fasting, Inter omnia, dilectissimi, Apostolicae instituta Doctrinae, quae ex Divinae institutionis [...]onte ma [...]â­runt, dubium non es [...], influente in Ecclesiae principes Spi­ritu sancto, hanc primù [...] ab [...]is [...] fuisse con­ceptam, ut sancti observa [...] [...] omnium vi [...]utum regulas inchoare [...]t. ‘Amongst all the Institutions [Page 70] of Apostolical Doctrine (my beloved) which have issued forth from the fountain of Divine ap­pointment, there is no doubt, but that this ob­servance with the first, was conceived by them (the holy Ghost sending his influence upon those Princes of the Church) that men should begin the rules of all vertues with the observation of holy fasting.’ But I subsume, that if any conceiv'd ob­servance of holy fasting was amongst the Institutions Apostolical, none is by any pretended to be be­fore the Paschal Fast. Therefore himself speaks to this same sense in his fifth Sermon of Lent: Quando opportuniùs, dilectissimi, ad remedia Divina recurrimus, quàm cum ipsa nobis sacramenta redemptionis nostrae tem­porum lege referantur, quae ut digniùs celebremus, salu [...]erri­mè nos quadraginta dierum jejunio praeparemus? ‘When more opportunely (my beloved) have we re­course to divine remedies, then when the Sacra­ments themselves of our redemption, are by the revolution of times brought about again to us, that we for the health of our souls may prepare our selves with the fast of forty days for the more worthy celebration of them?’ And in his twelfth Sermon, Appropinquante, dilectissimi, solennitate Pas­chali, sic est praecurrenda consuetudo jejunii, ut nos quadras ginta dierum numerus ad sanctisicationem corporis & mentis exerceat—unde in Coelestibus Ecclesiae discipli­nis multum utilitatis asferunt Divinitùs instituta jeju­nia: ‘The solemnity of Easter now approaching (my beloved) the custom of the Fast is so to be praemitted, that the number of forty days may ex­ercise us for the sanctification of our body & mind—so as that in the heavenly disciplines of the Church, [Page 71] the Fasts instituted by God bring [to us] much ad­vantage.’

The sixth witness of this age is CHRYSOLOGUS in his eleventh and twelfth Sermons; Ecce tempus, quo miles procedit ad campum, recurrit ad Dei jeju­nia Christianus,—Quòd quadragesimam jejunamus, Non est humana Inventio; Autoritas est Divina. Et est mysticum, non praesumptum. ‘Behold the time, in which the souldier goes forth into the field, and the Christiam hath recourse unto the fasts of God—That we fast a Lent, Is not of hu­mane Invention, but of Authority Divine; and it is mystical, not presumptive.’ And in his 166 ^th Sermon of the Fast of Lent, he lets us know why he calls it mystical: Ecce Quadragesimae je­junium, quod devotione solenni, die crastino, susci­pit Universalis Ecclesia.—Quadragenarius iste nu­merus sacratus à seculis.—Quadraginta diebus ac noctibus expiaturus terram coelestis imber effundi­tur—Attendite fratres quantus sit quadragenari­us numerus iste, qui & tunc coelum terris aperuit abluendis, & nunc fontem baptismatis orbi toti pan­dit, gentibus innovandis—Qui nos quadragenariis jejuniorum cursibus evocat, & perducit ad coelum. ‘Behold the fast of Lent, which with solemn devotion, to morrow, the Universal Church begins—That number of forty days con­secrated of ancient ages—In forty days and nights rain was poured forth from hea­ven, to expiate the earth—Consider, brethren, what is that number, which both then opened heaven for ablution of the earth; And now to all the world opens the Fountain of Baptism [Page 72] Now in the solemn lastings before admis [...]i­on of the Cate­chumeni, compe­tentes unto Ba­ptism, S. Iustin Marty [...] even in his tlme, about fifty years after S. Iohn's death, witnesseth that the Church was w [...]nt to joyn with the persons to be baptized, in the lasting, [...]. They are instructed to pray and ask of God with fasting, the pardon of their former sins, we [the company of be­lievers, and before-baptized Christians] PRAYING AND FASTING WITH THEM; and after that they are brought by us where the water is▪ and are regenerated after the same manne [...] we our selves were before regenerated, Iustin Martyr, Apolog. 2. pro Chri­stianis. [wont to be solemnly celebrated in the night before Easter-day] for the renewing of the Nati­ons—which by the course of forty days fasts, calls us forth, and brings us onward to Heaven.’

In the Fifth Century after the death of S. Iohn the Apostle, we produce first CAESARIUS, Bishop of A [...]les, in his first and second Homilies of Lent, where he thus speaks, Hom. 2 ^d Rogo vos, fratres cha­rissimi, in isto legitimo ac sacratissimo Quadrage­simae tempore, exceptis Dominicis diebus, nullus pran­dere praesumat; Nisi so [...]è ille, quem jejunare infirmi­tas non permittit; quia aliis diebus jejunare aut Remedi­um, aut praemium est. In Quadragesimâ non jejuna­re peccatum est. Alio tempore qui jejunat accipiet I [...]dulgentiam. In his diebus qui potest, & non jejunat, senti [...]t poenum—Bonum est jejunare, [...]atres, sed me [...]s est eleemosynam dare. Si aliquis utrun (que) potest, duo sunt [...]ona.—Ut per totam Quadragesimam, & us (que) ad si [...]em Paschae, Cas [...]itatem (Deo aux [...]liante) [...] in illâ sacrosanc [...] sole [...]itate Paschae, [...]titatis luce v [...]stiti, ele [...]mosynis dealbati, orationibus, vigili [...]s, & jeju­niis v [...]lut qui [...]usdam coelestibus & spiritualibus M [...]rga­ritis or [...]ati, non so [...]ùm cum amicis, sed etiam cum [...] ­imicis pac [...]ici, liber [...] & securâ conscientiâ ad Alta [...]ta [Page 73] Domini accedentes, corpus & sanguinem ejus, non ad judicium, sed ad Remedium possitis accipere. ‘I in­treat you, most dear brethren, that in this com­manded and most sacred time of Lent, none presume to dine [or break the fast] except on the Lords days therein. Except, if there be any whose infir­mity permits him not to fast. [ Viz. not to fast at all, or not so many days:] because at other times to fast, it is either a remedy, [when undertaken as a holy revenge on our selves for sin,] or else hath its reward, [when on other pious or charitable occasions:] But in Lent not to fast is a sin. In other time he which fasts [ viz. as he ought] shall re­ceive indulgence. In these days of Lent, he which can, and doth not fast, will bear his pu­nishment.—It is good, my brethren, to fast, but it is yet better to give alms; if any can do both, they are a double good.——I admonish you, that you keep your selves in chaste purity throughout the whole Lent, and unto the end of the Feast of Easter, through the help of God, that so in that most holy solemnity of Easter, you being arrayed with the light of purity, and with the white garments of Alms-deeds, and adorn'd as it were with certain heavenly and spiritual pearls of prayers, watchings, and fastings, and being at peace, not only with your friends, but al­so your enemies, with a free and quiet conscience ye may approach to the Altars of the Lord, and partake of his Body and Blood, not to con­demnation, but to your souls health.’ Which same he declares in his first Homily of this Fast of Lent; Mortificatione praesenti futura mortis sen [...]entia praevenitur; & dum culpae autor humiliatur, culpa con­sumitur; [Page 74] dumque exterior afflictio voluntariae distri­ctionis infertur, tremendi judicii offensa sedatur; & ingentia debita labor solvit exiguus, quae vix consumpturus erat ardor ae [...]ernus. ‘By this pre­sent Mortification [if rightly performed] the future sentence of death is prevented; and while the sinner is humbled, the sin is con­sum'd: while he inflicts on himself the outward affliction of voluntary severity, the wrath of the dreadful judgement is appeased: So a little pains dissolves great sins, which eternal burnings other­wise would scarce consume.’ Whilest this our Author cals the Fast of Lent, legitimum & sacratis­simum Quadragesimae [...]empus, in which for men that are able, not to fast, he saith, is a sin, you may per­ceive by his following discourse, that he so cals here Lent legitimum jejunii tempus, as the catholick Church in Tertullian call'd the same daies of the Bridegrooms taking away, DIES LEGITIMOS IEIUNIORUM CHRISTIANORUM (l. de jejuniis c. 2.) declaring her self there to mean the daies commanded by a Law from the Apostles; and as Tertullian himself cals the Lords Prayer legitimam orationem [praemissâ legitimâ oratione.] For had Cae­sarius here intended to have call'd this fast sacratis­simum & legi imum in quo non jejunare peccatum est, on­ly as commanded by a Law Ecclesiastical: he could not have contradistinguish'd thereto (as he doth,) in that consideration, all other daies besides; there be­ing in his time other fasting daies besides Lent, commanded by the Church: therefore this time of Lent was in some higher sense Legitimum jejuniorum tempus, in quo non jejunare peccatum est. The Hi­storians, who [...] also in this Age, are two espe­cially: [Page 75] 1. Aurelius Cassiodorus, the compiler of the Tripartite history from the translation of Epiphanius Scholasticus, of three former Greek Historians, whom he had set on work to translate them, and himself had woven them into one continued Discourse: And the second Evagrius. This latter l. 2. c. 8. no­teth certain Hereticks of Alexandria [...], ‘which shewed not reverence to the time of the so­lemnity of our Saviours Passeover [the Christian Pascha] which included the memorial of his Pas­sion and Resurrection.’ And l. 6. c. 12. he tels us of Gregory the Bishop, that he did communicate unto the Souldiers the holy Body of Christ on a certain day (of the great week,) For it was saith he, [...], ‘a very venerable day, approaching near unto the day of (Christs) holy Passion.’ So that he ac­counted more daies then one for the memory of the Bridegrooms being taken away about that sea­son, to be venerable, and daies of communicating the people for the holiness of the day of Christ's Pas­sion, to which others approaching are held, it seems, also ( [...]) exceeding venerable. And this appears to be and have been the language of the Eastern Church, as you may see in their [...], and in the ancient Li­turgy called S. Chrysostome's [...] &c. [...], &c. And again, [...]. O Lord Almighty, who &c. who of thine unspeakable providence, and great goodness, hast brought us to thes [...] very vene­rable daies for the purifying of our souls and bodies, for the continence of our sensi­tive passions, for the expectation of the resurrection, who through forty daies, &c. Grant unto us also of thy goodness, to fight this good fight, to finish this course of this fast, &c. to break the heads of the invisible dragons, and to stand up victors over sin, and to arrive to adore the Holy Resurrection irreprovably—And again: O Lord our God, who hast brought us to these very venerable daies, &c. The other [Page 76] Historian Aurelius Cassiodorus l. 9. c. 38. Histor. Tri­partit▪ writeth thus: Ad Hebraeos idem Apostolus dicit, mutato enim sacerdotio necessariò legis mutatio fuit; non igitur Apostoli, nec Evangelia accedentibus ad prae­dicationem jugum servitutis imposuerunt: sed festivi­tatem Paschae, & alias celebritates [cum primis Christi Passionis, ut mox sequitur] honorandas esse dixe­runt. Quapropter quum diligunt homines hujusmodi celebritates [ab Apostolis dictas Honorandas] quòd in eis à laboribus requiescant, singuli per provincias, sicuti voluerunt [viz, pro modo] memoriam salutaris Passionis antiquitùs ex quadam consuetudine celebraban [...]. ‘The same Apostle saith unto the Hebrews; the Priesthood being chang'd, there was necessarily al­so a change of the Law. Neither the Apostles there­fore, nor the Gospels impos'd any yoke of servi­tude upon those that came to their preaching; But they ( to wit the Apostles) said that the Feast of Easter and other solemnities [amongst which other the Passion of Christ is with the first, as followes here also] are to be honoured. Where­fore whereas men love such solemnities [ viz. bid by the Apostles to be honour'd of men because in those they have rest from their daily labours: Those of each countrey through their several Pro­vinces celebrated as they would viz. for the man­ner from a certain custome, viz. of each coun­trey] the memory of the salutary Passion from the Ancient times.’ Now this same Cassiodore doth declare ( l. 1. c. 10,) that this celebrity of the Passion of Christ (celebrated ever with fasting) with its [...], its conterminous pre­ceding daies, was in ancient times called Quadrage­sima, and observed by the most holy Bishops, even [Page 77] such as wrought miracles; for he tels us there of holy Spiridion, who was one of the most eminent of those Bishops, who made a representation as it were of the Apostolical company in the first General Councel of Nice: [...]. ‘Among those Bishops there chiefly did excel Paphnutius and Spiridion.’ This Spiridion Bishop of Trimi [...]hous a City of Cyprus, a holy man, & worker of miracles, all which Socrates witnesseth ( l. 1. c. 5. & 8.) But of them Cassiodorus thus record­eth, Qualis autem [Spiridion] circa peregrinorum sus­ceptionem fuerit, hinc apparet: Instante [...]am Quadragesi­ma, quidam ex itinere venit ad eum, quibus diebus consueverat cum suis continuare jejunia, & die certo comedere, medios dies sine cibo consistens, videns it aque peregrinum valde defectum: perge, inquit suae filiae, Lava peregrini pedes, & cibos appo [...]e. Cumque virgo dix [...]s­set, nec panem esse, nec alphita, quarum rerum solebant nonnihil habere reconditum propter jejunium, orans pri­mùm veniam, quam petens, fil [...]ae suae jussit ut porcinas carnes, quas domi salitas habebat, coqueret, &c. ‘What manner of man this Spiridion was, as to the entertaining of strangers, appears herehence: when now Lent was instant, there came to him a certain stranger weary from his journey on those daies, upon which he with his had been wont to continue their fasts, and to eat after certain daies only, passing the daies betwixt without food: he then seeing the stranger much spent with his travel, he saith to his daughter, Go and wash the strangers feet, and set victuals upon the board; and when the virgin replied, that there was neither bread, nor barley flower in the house: of which yet they were wont [Page 78] to have some in store, as provision for the fast; he first praying pardon, bad his daughter boyle some Hogs-flesh, which they had in the house salted, &c.’

My fourth witness of this age shall be Dorotheus Archimandrita (not he whose age is much elder, but his pretended works much more uncertain) Do­ctrinâ 15. [...] [Page 79] [...]. ‘THE HOLY APOSTLES for our Ghostly help, and the benefit of our souls, HAVE CONSULTED TO DELIVER DOWN UNTO US this in special manner, and very signally, that we should render, as it were, the tithes of our life [or time] these same daies [ viz. of Lent] and to consecrate them unto God, that so we may be both bless'd in our works, and may year by year obtain merciful pardon for our sins of the whole year [passed:] and they (the Apo­stles) by their common suffrage sanctifi'd or set apart for us from the 365. daies of the year these 7. weeks of fastings: [the same number we heard from Philo the Jew, observed by the Religious of Aegypt under S. Mark] for so have they set a part 7. weeks. Yea the ancient Fathers have [Page 80] added to them one other week also both to fit us before hand, and to exercise us when about to enter into the labour of the following fasts; and also that they might make up the honourable number of a holy 40. daies fast; which our Lord did fast. For 8. weeks, if you substract from them the Lords daies and the Saturdaies (that one only the vigil of Easter-day excepted, which alone of all the Saturdaies in the year, is kept as a most sacred and honourable fast) make up 40. daies. But 7. weeks without the Lords daies and the Sa­turdaies are 35. daies. To which if you add that Saturday, which is the holy Vigil of Easter, and also the half of that illustrious and enligh­tened night, [as S. Cyril also directed the Lent-fast not to be ended before the [...], be­fore it be far in the night] the sum will be 36. daies and an half; which accurately is the tenth or tithe of the 365. daies of the year, &c. This is that tenth or tithe, as we may so say, of the whole year, WHICH THE APOSTLES HAVE SANCTIFIED OR SET APART for our repentance as a time of our purifying from our sins of the whole year—BEHOLD GOD HATH GIVEN TO US THESE HOLY DAIES, that if any one with diligence and so­briety and humiliation be careful therein to re­pent, he may be purg'd from his sins of the whole year, and his soul eased from their burden, and so may come pure to the Holy-day of the Resur­rection; and being become a new ma [...] through the repentance of these holy Fasts, he may par­take of the holy mysteries not to condemnation [but to life;] and may keep the feast of the [Page 81] holy 50. daies throughout, religiously towards God, with spiritual joy and gladness.’

The fifth Authority of this age, shall be that of the Fathers of the Provincial Councel of Agatha, Canon the 12. Placuit etiam ut omnes Ecclesiae Filii (exceptis diebus Dominicis) in Quadragesimâ, etiam die sabbati, sacerdotali ordinatione, & districtionis comminatione jejunent. ‘It is also decreed, that all the sons or children of the Church do fast in the Lent, all except the Lords-daies, under commi­nation of severity by this our Sacerdotal Decree, even on the Saturdaies also.’ Where that which they added of their own sacerdotal ordaining, was the sanction of severe penalty, and the taking in the Saturdaies to the Fast, probably against their for­mer custome, in compliance with their neighbour, greater Church of Rome; as the Councel of Eli­beris in Spain had done before them, Canon the 26.

The sixth and last Authority of this Age, is that of Concilium Braccarense primum Can. 16. Si quis quintâ feriâ paschali, quae est Coena Domini, horâ legitimâ post nonam jejunus, &c. ‘If any one on the 5 ^th day of the Great week before Easter, which is called Coena Domini, [for that the Lord on that day did institute the holy Eucharist] shall not continue his fast unto the legitimate hour, viz. celebrating the holy Eucharist fasting after 3. a clock in the afternoon, but shall keep the so­lemnity of that day secundum sectam Priscilliani, according to the Sect of the Priscillianists, &c. let him be Anathema.’ Where their great seve­rity of an Anathema, and their recounting the violatours of that day of the Paschal Fast, as sym­bolizing [Page 82] with Heresie and Hereticks, seems to charge such as sided against the Paschal Fast, as Epiphanius had before charged the Aerians for the same cause (Heresie the 75 ^th,) with [...], or unbelief.

In the sixth Century after the death of S. IOHN, I first produce the witness of ISIDORE Bishop of Sevil in Spain l. 6. Originum c. 19. Observatio Qua­dragesimae, quae in universo orbe INSTITUTIONE A­POSTOLICA observatur circa consinium Dominicae Passionis. ‘The observation of Lent which is in the whole world observ'd BY INSTITUTION A­POSTOLICAL about the times of the solemnity of the Passion of the Lord [ viz. the time of the Bridegrooms taking away.]’ The same Author in his Comments on Exodus 39. Quid autem sibi velit, quod Moses 40. diebus jejunaverit?—Quadrage­nario enim numero & Moyses, & Elias, & ipse Domi­nus jejunaverunt. PRAECIPITUR ENIM NOBIS ex lege & prophetis, ET EX IPSO EVANGELIO, quod testimonium habet à lege & prophetis, unde etiam in monte inter utramque personam medius salvator ef­sulsit, &c. ‘Now what may it mean, that Moses fasted 40. daies?—That number of daies both Moses and Elias, and the Lord himself, did fast, for also it is commanded unto us from the Law, and the Prophets, and FROM THE GO­SPEL IT SELF, which receiveth witness from the Law and the Prophets. Whence also on the Mount 'twixt those two persons, our Saviour shi­ned forth in the midst.’ The same he declareth more at large l. 1. de offic. Eccles. c. 36. Iejunio­rum tempora secundum Scripturas sacras quatuor sunt, in quibus per abstinentiam & lamentum poenitentiae, Do­minus [Page 83] supplicandus est, & licèt omnibus diebus orare & abstinere conveniat, his tamen temporibus ampliùs je­juniis & prnitentiae inservire oportet, PRIMUM IE­IUNIUM QUADRAGESIMAE EST, quod à ve­teribus libris c [...]pit, ex jejunio Moysis, & Eliae, ET EX EVANGELIO, quia totidem diebus Dominus je­junavit, monstrans Evangelium non dissentire à Lege & Prophetis.—In quâ quidem parte anni congruen­tiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitueretur, nisi confini atque contiguâ Dominicae passioni? ‘There are four times of fastings, according to the holy Scri­ptures, in which we must make our supplications unto the Lord, with abstinence and the wailing of penance; and though it be meet that we should at all times pray and abstain, yet must we at these times especially attend on fastings and penance. The first or chief is the Fast of Lent, which had beginning in the Books of the Old Testament, from the fasts of Moses and Elias, and FROM OUT OF THE GOSPEL ALSO, for that so many daies the Lord did fast, shewing that the Gospel did not disagree with the Law and the Prophets—In what part then of the year should the observation of Lent be more congruously plac'd, then on that time of the year, which is near and contiguous unto the Lords Passion?’ The same Isidore in the 6. Book of Derivations chap. 19. Temporum autem, quae legalibus ac Prophe­ticis institutionibus terminatis statuta sunt, ut jejuni­um 4 ^ti, 5 ^ti, 7 ⁱ, & 10 ⁱ mensis: vel sicut in Evangelio dies illi, in quibus ablatus est sponsus. ‘Of the times which were appointed by Institutions Legal and Prophetical, which now are ceased, were those, the fasts of the 4 ^th, 5 ^th, 7 ^th, and 10 ^th moneth: [Page 84] or such as are in the Gospel, those daies in which the Bridegroom was taken away.’ Which Bride­groom being the Lord, and his taking away, his Death and Passion, this our Author hath oft enough told us what is that Fast, which belongs thereto. Lastly therefore the same Isidore l. 1. de offic. Ec­cles. c. 43. Haec & alia multa sunt, quae in Ecclesiis Christi geruntur, ex quibus tamen quaedam sunt, quae in Scripturis Canonicis commendantur, quaedam non qui­dem scripta, sed tamen tradita custodiuntur. Sed illa quidem quae toto terrarum orbe servantur, vel ab ipsis Aposlolis, vel ab autoriate principali Conciliorum In­stituta intelliguntur, SICUT DOMINI PASSIO ET RESURRECTIO & Ascensio in coelum, & adventus Spiritus Sancti, quae revoluto die anni ob memoriam celebrantur. ‘These and many other things there are, which are observ'd in the Churches of Christ; whereof yet some are those, which are recommended in the Canonical Scriptures, and some, which are observ'd not being written, but yet delivered by Tradition. Howbeit those things truly, which are observ'd in the whole world, are understood to have been instituted either by the Apostles themselves, or from that (next) chief authority of Councels, as are the celebrated an­niversary memorials of the Lords Passion, and Resurrection, and his Ascension into Heaven, and of the coming of the holy Ghost.’ Upon the like words whereto in S. Augustine, I have noted before, that these solemnities are (in the Catholick Church, the city of our Solemnities, Isa. 33. v. 20.) found before any Institution for them in any General Councel: and therefore according to S. Augustine and Isidore, no other beginning of them is to be [Page 85] looked for, as neither can any be found, but from the Apostles.

The second witness of this sixth Age shall be S. GREGORY the GREAT Homil. 16. in Evangel. Quadragesimae tempus inchoamus, &c. Cur ergò in ab­stinentiâ Quadragenarius numerus custoditur, nisi quia virtus Decalogi per libros 4. Sancti Evangelii imple­tur?—Quia Decalogi mandata persicimus, cum pro­fectò 4. libros sancti Evangelii custodimus.—Praecepta autem Dominica per Decalogum sunt accepta. Quia ergò per carnis desideria, decalogi mandata contemp, mus, dignum est ut eandem carnem quaterd [...]cies affliga­mus. A praesenti etenim die usque ad Paschalis solennita­tis gaudia sex hebdomadae veniunt.—Ut qui [...]obismet­ipsis per acceptum annum viximus, Auctori nostro nos in ejus decimis per abstinentiam morti [...]icemus. Unde fra­tres charissimi, sicut offerre in lege jubemini decimas rerum, ita ei offerre contendite & decimas die­rum. Unusquisque in quantum virtus suppetit, car­nem maceret, ejusque desideria affligat, concupiscentias turpes interficiat. ‘We begin the time of Lent, &c. Now why is the number of forty observ'd, [in this fast] but because the force of the Decalogue [or ten words] is fulfilled by the 4. Books of the holy Gospel?—Because we then perform the commandments of the Decalogue, when indeed we keep the 4. Books of the holy Gospel. The commands of the Lord are by the Decalogue re­ceiv'd; because therefore we have contemn'd the commands of the Decalogue through the desires of the flesh, it is meet that we afflict the same flesh by 40 times.—For from this present day unto the joyes of the Paschal solemnity there are 6. weeks coming.—That we who through the [Page 86] year passed have lived [too much] to our selves, should mortifie our selves to our Creator, in the tenth of the year through abstinence. Whence most dear Brethren, as ye are bid by the Law to offer the tenths of your substance; so contend to offer to him also the tenths of your daies. Let eve­ry one as much as his strength serves, macerate his flesh, afflict his appetites, and slay his filthy lusts.’

A third Record of this Age may be the 4 ^th COUNCEL of TOLEDO c. the 6, 7, & 10. Com­périmus quòd per nonnullas Ecclesias in die sextae feriae Passionis Domini, clausis Basilicarum foribus, nec ce­lebretur officium, nec Passio Domini populis praedicetur, dum idem salvator nos [...]er Apostolis suis praecepit dicens: Passionem & mortem & resurrectionem meam omnibus praedicate; ideóque oportet eodem die mysterium Crucis, quod ipse Dominus cunctis annunciandum voluit, prae­dicari, atque Indulgentiam criminum clarâ voce omnem populum postulare, ut poenitentiae compunctione mundati▪ Venerabilem diem Dominicae Resurrectionis, remissis Ini­quitatibus suscipere mereamur; corporisque ejus & san­guinis sacramentum mundi à peccato sumamus. Qui­dam in die ejusdem passionis Dominicae ab horâ nonâ je­junium solvunt, conviviis adhibentur; & dum sol ipse eâdem die tenebris pallia [...]us lumen subduxerit, ipsáque elementa tur [...]ata, moestitiam totius mundi ostenderent, illi jejunium tanti diei polluunt, epulisque inserviunt. Et quia totum eundem diem Universalis Ecclesia propter Passionem Domini in moerore & abstinentiâ peragit, quicunque in eo jejunium praeter parvulos, senes, & lan­guidos, ante peractas Indulgentiae preces solverit, à Pas­chali gaudio depellatur, nec in eo Sacramentum Corporis & sanguinis Domini percipiat, qui diem Passionis ejus per abstinentiam non honorat. In omnibus praedictis [Page 87] Quadragesimae diebus—opus est s [...]etibus ac jejuniis In­sistere, corpus cilicio & cinere induere, animum moe­roribus dejicere, gaudium in tristitiam vertere; quous (que) veniat tempus Resurrectionis Christi, quando oporteat jam Allelujah in laetitiâ canere, & moerorem in gau­dium commutare: Hoc enim Ecclesiae Universalis con­sensio in cunctis terrarum partibus roboravit. ‘We have understood, that in certain Churches on the 6 ^th day of the week before Easter, the day of the Passion of the Lord, the Church-doors are shut up, and no office celebrated, nor the Passion of the Lord preach'd unto the people; although the same our Saviour commanded his Apostles to preach his Passion, Death, and Resurrection unto all people; and therefore the mystery of his Cross, which the Lord would have shewn forth unto all men, ought on that day to be preached: and all the people ought earnestly to ask [of God] the pardon of their sins, that being cleansed through the compunction of repentance they may attain to receive the venerable day of the Lords Resurrection, having their sins remitted; and be­ing clean from sin, may receive the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud. Some on the same day of the Passion of the Lord break off their fasts at 3. a clock in the Afternoon, and betake themselves to entertainments, (or banquets) and while the sun it self on that day being hid, with­drew its light, and the Elements being troubled, shewed forth the sadness of the whole world; they prophane the fasts of so great a day, and serve themselves with feasting. For asmuch then, as the universal Church keeps that whole day in sadness and abstinence for the Passion of the [Page 88] Lord; whosoever on that day, except little chil­dren, old men, and the sick, shall break the fast before the supplications for pardon are finished, let him be debarr'd from the Paschal joy, and not receive therein the Sacrament of the body and bloud of the Lord; who did not honour the day of his Passion with fasting.—On all the foresaid daies of Lent it is behooveful, that we should give our selves unto weeping and fasting, and cover our body with sack. cloth, and ashes, and cast down our soul with sorrow, until the time of Christs Resurrection be come, when first, we must sing Hallelujah with joy, and change our sadness into rejoycing; for that the consent of the Universal Church hath strengthened this observance.’ [He saith only: strengthened by the consent of the universal Church; which doth not denote the first beginning.]

The fourth Record of this Age, is the 8 ^th COUN­CEL of TOLEDO, held 20. years after that for­mer; chap. the 9 ^th, Detecta est Ingluvies horrenda vo­racium [ quorundam] quae dum [...]raeno parsimoniae non astringitur, RELIGIONI CONTRAIRE MON­STRETUR; Dicente enim Scripturâ, Qui spernit mini­ma, paulatim decidit. Illi tantâ edacitatis improbitate grassantur, ut COELESTIA ET PAENE SUMMA contemnere videantur, etenim cum Quadragesimae dies anni totius decimae depu [...]entur, &c.—Illi verò quos aut aetas incurvat, aut languor extenuat, aut necessitas ar­ctat, &c. ‘A horrid gluttony of certain greedy persons is detected, which while it suffers it self not to be held in by the bridle of parsimony, is CONVINC'D TO BE OPPOSITE TO RE­LIGION. For the Scripture saying, He that [Page 89] despiseth little things shall fall by little and little; these men by their so great improbity of gluttony, make such outrage, that they seem to contemn things Heavenly and almost of chief concernment. For whereas the daies of Lent are recounted the tenth part of the whole year, &c.—But as for such other whom either age doth bow, or sick­ness consumes, or necessity streightens [such the Councel excuses.]’

A fifth and last Witness of this Century is IOAN­NES MOSCHUS IN PRATO SPIRITUALI c. 79. [...]. ‘He had [a servant] named Pisticus, which did communicate with the holy Catholick and A­postolick Church; this Pisticus received the Com­munion, (as the custome of the countrey was to receive) on that 5 ^th day of the week, which is called the holy Fifth, [ viz the Thursday of the holy week, for so it seems in the language of the Catholick and Apostolick Church it was then call'd and held holy] Now it came to pass after the holy Easter, that Pisticus, &c.’

In the seventh Century, (which is the last I shall now travel through) VENERABLE BEDE our Countrey-man offers himself the first Witness, in his Homilia Aestivalis on Dominica Exaudi; Sicut enim imminentibus solenniis Paschalibus Quadragesimam jejuniorum observantiâ celebravimuus, sic eisdem per­actis quinquagesimam non sine certâ causà mysterii, fe­s [...]â devotione agimus—Utramque sanè hanc solen­nitatem, scilicet & Quadragesimae, & Quinquagesimae, [Page 90] NON QUORUMLIBET HOMINUM, SED IPSI­US DOMINI AC SALVATORIS NOSTRI, patriam nobis sanxit autoritas. ‘As in the approach­ing of the Paschal solemnities, we celebrated a Lent with the observance of Fastings, so those being finished, we observe a 50. daies solemnity with Festival devotion, not without a ground of a certain mystery therein.—Indeed both these solemnities, viz. the Quadragesima and Quinqua­gesima [the 40. daies of Lent, and the 50. daies following] NOT THE AUTHORITY OF A­NY MAN, BUT OF THE LORD HIMSELF OUR SAVIOUR, hath established for us to ob­serve in this our countrey [or city of God, the Catholick Church.]’ The same Venerable Bede in his Comment on Matt. the 4 ^th, and again in his first Homily of Lent, layes down the same posi­tion here ensuing, and the same also with S. Au­gustine and Isidore foregoing, viz. the words of Bede also are these: Quadragesima jejuniorum habet auto­ritatem—& ex Evangelio.—In quâ autem parte anni congruentiùs observatio Quadragesimae constitue­retur, nisi confini atque contiguâ Dominicae passionis? ‘The Fasts of Lent have their authority—also from the Gospel—In what part therefore of the year more agreeably might the observation of Lent be ordain'd, then on that, which is bordering upon, and contiguous unto the Passion of the Lord?’ And on Dominica Exaudi: Dominus prae­dixit, quia discipuli, ipso secum conversante, jejunare non possent, ablato autem eo jejunarent—ait illis; Veniet autem dies, cum auferetur ab eis sponsus, & tunc jejunabunt—Constat profectò, quia post ablationem ejus spontaneis sese subdidêre jejuniis. ‘The Lord [Page 91] foretold, that his Disciples, whilest he was con­versant with them, could not fast; but should, when he should be taken from them.— The daies will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast—It is evident indeed, that after his taking from them, they submitted them­selves to willing fastings.’ This I here alledge; because Bede makes this practise of the Apostles the exemplification of some of the Churches following set, annual-fasts. In his Homily upon the Tuesday after Palm-sunday, he thus speaks of the Parasceue, which we call Good-Friday: Cum accepisset acetum [ Dominus,] dixit; Consummatum est: hoc est, sextae diei, quod pro mundi refectione suscepi, jam totum est opus expletum; sabbato autem in sepulchro requiescens, re­surrectionis, quae octavâ ventura erat, expectabat adven­tum. ‘When the Lord had received (on this 6 ^th day of the week before Easter) the vinegar, he said, It is finished: that is, the whole work of the 6 ^th day, which I have undertaken for the new crea­tion of the world, is now consummated.’ [Even as it appears in Genes. the 1. that on the same 6 ^th day of the week, wherein God made man at the first, he finished all his works] ‘And on the Sab­bath he rested in the grave, waiting for the com­ing of his Resurrection which was to be the 8 ^th day.’ An evidenter praeceptum, in the new Testa­ment we do not find for the 6 ^th or for the 8 ^th daies observation; But the Church hath so interpreted for the one, these words of my Text, When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast The Church in Tertullian l. d. jejuniis: see a­bove p. 28. & Epiphanius hae­res. 75. see a­bove p. 48.; And for the other, the 8 ^th (or Lords day) that of 118. Psalm, This is the day which the Lord hath made S. Athana­fius l. d. sabbat. & circumcisione▪ [...].: and that of Apoc. 1. 10. I may conclude the witness [Page 92] of Bede, with what he concluded this Fast, ( Hom. in Dominica Palmarum.) Ecce jejunium Quadrage simale, Domino auxiliante, jam plurimâ ex parte complevi­mus. Testis est unicuique conscientia sua: quia quanto districtiùs se sanctis his diebus Domino mancipásse me­minit, tanto ampliùs gaudens, sanctum Dominicae R'­surrectionis tempus expedat—Quicunque ergò, fratres dilectissimi, continentiae armis accincti ab initio jam Quadragesimae cum tentatore superbo certare coeperunt, vi­deant cautè ne coepta deserant, priusquam hoste prostrato, ministeriis donentur Angelicis. ‘Behold we have now through the help of God, finished for the most part this Fast of Lent; every mans consci­ence bears him witness, that by how much more strictly he remembers that he hath humbled him­self before the Lord, on these Holy Daies, with so much the more joy he expects the holy time of the Lords Resurrection—Whosoever therefore of you, my most beloved Brethren, have now, from the beginning of Lent, being fortify'd with the ar­mour of abstinence, encountred the proud tempter, let them now take good heed, that they forsake not what they have enterpris'd, till having vanquisht the enemy, Angels come and minister unto them: [alluding to that ministery unto Christ, Mat. 4. 11.]’

Our second Author in this Age is THEODUL­PHUS Bishop of Orleans (part afterwards of the Councel of Franckford,) in his Epistle to the Priests, n. 37. Ipsa autem Quadragesima cum summa observatione custodiri debet, ut jejunium in eâ, praeter dies Dominicos, qui Abstinentiae substracti sunt, nullatenùs resolvatur—Nulla in his occasio sit resolvendi jejunii, quia alio tem­pore solet jejunium charitatis causâ dissolvi; isto verò nullatenùs debet. Quia in alio jejunare in voluntate & [Page 93] arbitrio cujuslibet positum est: in HOC VERO NON IEIUNARE, PRAECEPTUM DEI TRANSCEN­DERE EST; & in alio tempore, jejunare praemium ab­stine [...]i acquirere est: in hoc verò praeter insirmos ac parvulos quisquis non jejunaverit, poenam sibi acqui­rit; QUIA EOSDEM DIES DOMINUS & per Mosen, & p [...]r Eliam, ET PER SEMETIPSUM, sa­cro jejunio consecravit. ‘The Lent-fast it self ought to be kept with all observance, that therein except the Lords daies, which are substracted from fa­stings, the Fast be in no wise broken—Let no oc­casion be taken of violating this Fast; for that at other times our fast is wont to be dissolv'd upon occasion of charity, Or kindness of reception. but in Lent it ought not so to be wont. Because at other times to fast, is com­mitted to every ones will and choice; but in this time not to fast, IS TO TRANSGRESS THE PRECEPT OF GOD. At other times to fast acquires a reward to him who so abstains; but at this time, whoso fasts not, except little ones, or those which are infirm, doth procure unto him­self punishment; because THE LORD both by Moses, and by Elias, AND BY HIMSELF hath consecrated those same daies to fasting.’ Ibid. Qui nullatenùs jejunare credendi sunt, si antè mandu­caverint, antequam vespertinum celebretur ossicium.—Abstinens vero in his diebus omnium deliciarum esse de­bet. ‘Whoso eateth before the evening-office be ce­lebrated, is not to be deemed to have fasted—In these daies we ought to abstain from all delights.’

The third Witness of this Century, shall be IO­ANNES DAMASCENUS, lib. de Haeresibus, con­cerning the Aërians or Eustachians, Aëriani ab Aë­rio Pontico; fuit autem sacerdos, Eustachii Episcopi [ A­riani] [Page 94] silius,—jejunium feriâ quartâ & sextâ ET 40 DIEBUS SERVARI, & pascha celebrari prohibet. Stata haec damnat omnia—Quod siquis jejunium servare velit, id ab eo certis statisque diebus servari negat opor [...]ere, sed quando volet. Negat enim se legi teneri, negat etiam quicquam inter Presbyterum & Episcopu [...] inter­esse. ‘The Aerians are so called from Aërius Pon­ticus; he was a Priest, the son of Eustachius [an Arrian Bishop] who forbids the observation of the fasts of the 4 ^th and 6 ^th daies of the week, and that OF THE 40. DAIES, and the cele­bration of Easter. All these set fasts or feasts he condemns—If so be any one will keep a fast, he denies that that ought to be done by him on any certain or set daies, but when he will. For he denies that he is bound by a Law, [in that mat­ter;] he denieth also that there is any difference betwixt a Presbyter and a Bishop.’ Here he is en­rolled in the black Catalogue of Hereticks (and Heresie is alwaies against somewhat Apostoli­cal) who pertinaciously deny'd set Fasts, and particularly this Fast of Lent. If any shall think this severity peculiar to this Age, and author of the Greek School beginning, let him consider be­side what I have produc'd above from Epiphanius and S. Augustine, the catalogue of Hereticks made also by Philastrius Bishop of Brixia (about the year of Christ 380) De Paschalis Festi hae [...]esi. Asserentes 14 ^â lunâ celebrandum esse Pascha, non sicut Ecclesia Ca­tholica celebrat—Et cum hoc faciunt, diem non domi­nicum semper custodiunt Paschae, non computantes horas & dies [ dies viz. praecedentes]— Et ex hoc errore non cognoscunt diem Paschae Domini nostri VERAM ET SALUTAREM, UNAM ORBI TERRARUM [Page 95] STATUTAM, ET CONFIRMATAM A DOMI­NO. ‘He reckons certain Hereticks, who affir­med that Easter was to be celebrated, not as the Catholick Church celebrates it—Not alwaies observing the Easter on the Lords day, not com­puting the hours and daies [ viz. preceding Ea­ster, which are the daies we speak of]—And from this errour they are ignorant of the true and salutary, only day of Easter, APPOINTED FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, AND CONFIR­MED OF THE LORD.’

The fourth Record of this Age is the MAGNUS CANON ANDREAE ARCHIEPISCOPI CRE­TENSIS; for which as the Triodium of the Greek Church doth witness, there was appointed a pecu­liar solemnity on the 5 ^th day of the 5 ^th week in Lent, the history whereof is this: Andreas Hiero­solymi [...]anus, who in the end of the foregoing Century was sent by Theodore Patriarch of Ierusalem, to assist in the 6 ^th General Councel, became afterwards in this Century the renowned Metropolitan of Crete, and compos'd a holy office, which in this Century he brought into the Greek Church, and it hath continu­ed therein all Ages sithence, and had a peculiar day appointed for it, which they call'd the solemnity of the Great Canon, ( [...]) w ^ch they placed on the Thursday seven night before Easter ( [...]) A composure he had made (as the Trio­dium of the Greek Church to this day witnesseth) out of the histories of the whole old, and new Te­staments, which consisted of the grounds, patterns, and encouragements of this Paschal Fast of Lent, partly to be read publickly, and partly to be sung [Page 96] in their service, when now the Fast of Lent had con­tinued almost 5. weeks, and drew toward the end, and yet the chief part of it remaining to be per­form'd, viz. the Parasceue & Sabbatum of the 5 ^th week, (which they called Lazari praeparatoria, & Sabbatum Lazari) and the following [...], the great and holy week, called anciently by Epiphanius [...], and more anciently by Dionysius the Patriarch of A­lexandria, who sa [...]e there Bishop in the year 248. [...] ( [...]) the 6 principal daies of the Fasts. To encourage them therefore after so much perform'd, to what remain'd behind, he compos'd, and they have retain'd, and do read and sing, [...] [Page 97] [...]. ‘They read and sing this great Canon, containing insinite contrition, and excitation to [...]lee unto God, by repentance, by tears, and confession, &c. [...] they were appointed on this 5 ^th day of the [...] week of Lent, to sing and to read this for these ends; For in as much as the holy Lent then draws towards end, that men should not become weary or negligent in the finishing of these spiritual combats, this very great (Bishop of Crete) Andrew, as one that anoints or strengthens the Combatants, stirs up their generosity by the histories of this great Canon, that they may cou­ragiously run forward to the race before them. Agreeably therefore and fitly is this call'd the Great Canon, as containing great compunction, and appointed for the Great Fast of Lent. This best and greatest Canon, together with the ex­hortation of the holy Mary of Aegypt; This our Father Andrew, first [soon after the year of the Lord 700.] brought into Constantinople—O my soul emulate thou zealously holy men in com­punction, propitiate Christ by Prayers & sastings, by purity, & holiness. Christ conversing on earth in our flesh hath left thee, O my soul, his pattern and example—The Lord [it is] who fasted 40 daies,—O my soul, be not discouraged, if the enemy assault thee, repell him far from thee [Page 98] by prayers and fastings.—Give thou unto me, O thou my only Saviour, a heart contrite, and po­verty of spirit, that I may have these to offer un­to thee, as an acceptable sacrifice.’ Thus far the Triodium from that Andrew Bishop of Crete.

Thus have we passed through the seven first Centuries after the death of S. Iohn (the last of those children of the Bride-chamber) all the Ages not only of the truly called General Councels, but of any, that any Church in the world ever preten­ded to be such, (except the Church of Rome only, which hath more then doubled the number to her self.) so that if this Paschal Fast had so generally pass'd in all ages, as derived from the Apostles, and had not truly been so derived; some one of the Ge­neral Councels at least (in stead of their supposing and strengthening that hypothesis) had noted the Imposture and false witness, so openly concerning Apostolick Tradition, of which the Church Univer­sal is the Keeper, and perpetual Pillar.

I shall not trouble my self and you, to give you the testimonies of the succeeding ages; because of their redundant number, and because they are con­fessed on all parts, and will not be required by any adversary, and also are removed farther from the Fountain, and prime antiquity Such as are the Testimonies of Rabunus Mauru [...], Arch­bishop of Meniz about the year 847. l. 2. de In­stitutione Clericorum c. 18. Observatio Quadragefima, quae in Universo orbe INSTITUTI­ONE APOSTOLICA servatur, circa confinia Dominica Passionis The observation of Lent, which is kept in all the world from Iustitution Apostolical, about the times near unto he Passion of our Lord, [the time of the Bridegrooms taking away.] And Theodorus Studites, Anno 826. Sermon. Chat [...]chetic. 72. in quariâ feria Hebdomada. majoris, Fratres Patrésque, sacer est hodiernus dies atque venerandus: etenim hinc auspicatur herus pro nobis supplicia sustinere crucis, ut fert hoc Davidicum dictum, Quare fremuerunt gentes &c. convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum, & adversus Christum ejus. Siquidem convenere simul sceleratum in Dominum confilium agitantes, &c. Veterator Iudas, &c. Idem Catechetic. 71. appellat feriam sextam ante [...], Lazari praeparatoriam, quia Parascue est ante Lazari resuscitati memoriam. S. Bernard in his first Sermon of Lent, Hodiè, dilectissimi, sacrum Quadragesimae tempus in­gredimur, &c. Non nobis singularis est haec observatio; una omnium est, quicunque in ean­dem fidei conveniunt unitatem. Quidni commune sit Christi jejunium omnibus Christianis? An respuere tristia volumus, & communicare jucundis? Si ita est, indignos nos cap [...]is hujus par­ticipatione probamus. Qualis est iste CHRISTIANUS, qui minùs devotè suscipit j [...]junium, QUOD TRADIDIT IPSE CHRISTUS. To day, O most beloved, we enter on the holy time of Lent, which is not an observance peculiar unto us▪ but one and the same to all Christians, as many as agree in the unity of the same Faith. And how should not this Fast of Christ be common to all Christians? Will we reject the part that hath any sadness, and communicate only in the pleasureable? If it be so, we prove our selves unworthy to partake with this Head. What sort of Christian is he, who hath no devotion to this Fast, WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF DELIVERED? And in his third Sermon of Lent, Rogo vos, Fratres dilectissimi, totâ devotione suscipite Quadragesimale je­junium, quod non sola abstinentia commendat, sed multo magis Sacramentum. [ Scilicet ut Fe­trus Chrysologus Ravennatium episcopus hom. 11 ^a appellat jejunium non praesumptum, sed my­sticum, & Clemens Alexand. [...] Nam si devotè usque modò jeju­navimus, utique sancto hoc tempore jejunandum nobis est multo devotiùs: Si quid enim additur ad solitum abstinentiae modum, nunquid non valdè indignum est, ut nobis onerosum sit, quod Ecclesia portat Universa nobiscum? Hactenus usque ad nonam jejunavimus soli: nunc usque ad vesperam jejunabunt nobiscum Universi Reges & principes, Cle [...]us & populus, nobiles & ignobiles, simul in unum dives, & pauper. Sed quid de his loquor, quos habemus in hâc jejuni [...] observatione consortes; quasi non multo excellentiores habeamus in eâ duces, immò & conse­cratores? [ Moysen, Eliam, & Iesum Dominum adducit] jam verò si commendant jejunium praesens Moyses & Elias, quamvis magni, tamen conservi nostri, quantum commendat illud Ie­sus Dominus noster, qui & ipse diebus totidem jejunavit? Qualis ille est non dicam Monachus, sed Christianus, qui minùs devotè jijunium suscipit, QUOD EI TRADIT IPSE CHRI­STUS? Deni (que) tanto devotiùs imtandum nobis est, Dilectissimi, Christi jejunantis exem­plum, quan [...]o certius est propter nos eum jejunasse, non propter seipsum. Is it not a very unwor­thy thing, that that should seem burthensome unto us, which the universal Church bears together with us? Hitherto we have fasted alone unto the ninth hour, now together with us even unto the evening there will be found to fast all Kings, and Princes [ viz. that are of the Church] Clergy, and people, noble, and common people, the rich and the poor all together. But what speak I of those, which we have companions in this ob­servance of the Fast, as if we had not much more excellent Captains or leaders therein, and consecrators [of this Fast?]—[And after his instance in Moses, Elias and our Lord Jesus he adds] Now if Moses and Elias, who although great, yet are our fellow-servant [...], commemd this Fast, how much more doth our Lord Jesus, who himself also fasted so ma­ny daies? Of what sort (I say not Monk but) Christian is he, who less devoutly performs this Fast, WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF DELIVERS TO HIM? So much more de­voutly ought the example of Christ's fasting to be imitated by us, my Beloved, by how much it is more certain, that Christ fasted not for himself, but for us. Arnoldus Carnotens [...]s l. de jejunio & tentationibus (inter opera S. Cypriani) n. 4. Iejuniis vitiorum semina siecatur, petulantia marcet, concupiscentiae languent, fugitivae abeunt volupta­tes.—Iejunium, si discretione regatur, omnem carnis rebellionem [...]domat, [...]yrannidem gulae spe­liat & exarmat. Iejunium extraordinarios motus in cippo claudit & arctat, & appetitus va­gos distringit & ligat. n. 7. Formâ igitur jejuntorum propositâ fixoque exemplo, postquam 40. dierum abstinentiam Dominus consummavit, &c n. 9. SICUT IN IPSIUS (CHRISTI) VOLUNTATE FUIT CONSECRARE IEIUNIA, ita & in potestate suit tempore op­portuno sumere cibum.—Et abstinentiae & refectionis penes ipsum erat & arbitrium & sa­culias. Within the foresaid primitive Ages I am not ignorant of what I have omitted, and is wont to be alledg'd by others, as the supposed constitutions Apostolical by Cle­ment in the 5 ^th Book in chap. 13 ^th & 20 ^th: and [Page 99] [Page 100] the supposed Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians, the dubious Sermons of S. Augustine de Tempore, and many of those which are doubtful among S. Am­brose's Sermons, and other Authors: For that I have produced none, but such, as of whose genuine title, authority, and antiquity I was my self satisfi'd. The testimonies which I have alledg'd are such as are direct and simple; others there are of great force, complicated of several truths asserted in the primi­tive times, from whence would follow our conclusi­on: Those truths are three: First, that Easter or the night beginning Easter, was ever to the Church a more solemn time of baptizing, then others. The second, that generally the Church taught and directed the Catechumeni to prepare themselves by premitted solemn fastings for the re­ception of holy Baptism. Thirdly, that the Ca­tholick Church, or company of Christian Believers did joyn themselves in the daies of fastings and prayers, as with the Penitents, that sought Absolu­tion; so also with the Catechumeni, & Competentes, which sought Baptism. From which Assertions, if proved, it follows, that a Paschal Fast before Easter was ever observed in the Church (as of duty of Re­pentance for our selves, so) of duty of Charity to­wards others. In all which duty, without all doubt the Apostles had not failed to instruct them.

As to the first of those Propositions, That Easter [Page 101] was ever to the Church a more solemn time of Baptizing, Tertullian saith, lib. de Baptismo, [...]. 19. Diem Baptismo solenniorem Pascha praestat; Cum & Passio Domini, in quam tingimur, adimpleta est: nec incon­gruenter quis adsiguram interpretabitur, quod cum ulti­mum Pascha Dominus esset acturus, missis discipulis ad praeparandum: Invenietis inquit hominem aquam ba­julantem. Paschae celebrandae locum, de signo aquae osten­dit. ‘Easter brings a more solemn time for Bap­tism; when also the Passion of the Lord, into which we are Baptized, is (remembred, as then) fulfilled. Nor incongruously shall any one inter­pret that to have been done significantly, which our Lord did, when he sent forth his Disciples to pre­pare for his celebrating the last Passeover. Ye shall find, saith he, a man bearing a pitcher of water [Follow him.] Designing to them the place of ce­lebrating the Passeover from the token of Water.’ That reason above of Tertullian, ‘Because we are Baptized into the Death and Passion of our Lord,’ he seems to have learnt from Ignatius in his un­doubted Epistle to the Ephesians: [...]. ‘For our God Jesus Christ was conceived,—born, and baptized, that afterwards he might through his Passion purifie or sanctifie water, [ viz. for the use of holy Baptism.]’ So in the Church the solemnity of Christs Passion, (which ye have heard from Constantine's Epistle to the Churches, from the Instructions of the Bishops of the Christian world met at Nicaea) was ever cele­brated in the Church, [...], ‘from the very day on which Christ suffer'd, and [Page 102] that’ (Christ himself delivering (it and teaching it to his Church, [...]) did accordingly precede the solemn time of Baptizing; which that early Age of the Church may be thought probably to have learnt from grounds laid by S. Paul, Rom. 6. 3, 4. Know you not that so many of us as were bapti­zed into Iesus Christ, were baptized into his Death? therefore we were buried with him by Baptism into Death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. And Coloss. 2. v. 12. having been buried with him in Bap­tism, wherein also ye were rais'd with him through the faith of the operation of God, who rais'd him from the Dead, This cu­stome of the first Ages of the Church was al­so followed in the succeeding Ages, as appears by S. Ambrose, Tractatu de Hortat. ad Virgin. Venit Pas­cha dies: in toto orbe Baptismi Sacramenta celebrantur, &c. Uno die sine aliquo dolore multos filios & filias solet Ecclesia parturire. The day of Easter is come, the Sacrament or my­steries of Baptism are celebrated in all the world, &c. In one day without any pangs the Church [Virgin, and Mother] is wont to bring forth multitudes of Sons, and daugh­ters. S. Cyril in his Catecheses at large sheweth the same..

The 2 ^d Proposition, That generally the Church taught & directed the Catechumeni to prepare them­selves by premitted solemn fastings for the reception of holy Baptism, as appears by Tertullian in the same place, l▪ de Baptismo, where after he had said ( c. 19.) Diem Baptismo solenniorem Pascha praestat, cum & Pas­sio Domini in quam ting [...]mur adimpleta est: he adds about the beginning of the next chapter (chap. 20.) Ingressuros Baptismum orationibus, crebris jejuniis, & geniculationibus, & pervigiliis orare oportet, & cum confessione omnium retro delictorum. ‘Those which are so about to receive holy Baptism, [ viz. on the Feast of Easter before mentioned] it be­hooves [Page 103] to prepare themselves by frequent pray­ers, fastings, geniculations and watchings, and with confession of all their sins. Which fast­ings and pervigilia, or whole nights watchings before the Pascha are this Paschal Fast; and the great Vigils of the Eve before Good­friday, and the Eve before Easter-day and some others before them.’ Yea an elder then Tertullian, Iustin Martyr in his Apology to An­toninus the Emperour: [...]. ‘Now after what man­ner we have consecrated our selves to God, being renewed or become new creatures through Christ, we will declare.—As many as are perswaded, and do believe, that those things which are taught by us are true, and under­take, that they are able so to live, they are taught WITH FASTING to pray and ask of God pardon of their former sins.—Af­ter this they are brought by us, where water is, &c.’ This custome also of the Primitive Church may be supposed probably to have had for its pattern S. Paul's own fasting three daies, wherein he did neither eat nor drink, saith the Text, Act. 9. 9. and his prayers, v. 11. before that Ananias was sent of the Lord to baptize him, and that so was he baptized, v. 18. The like in the [Page 104] following chap. the 10 ^th Cornelius his fasting pre­ceding Cornelius's baptism. And the first preacher of Baptism, was before that a preacher of Penance. This cu­stome of the first Ages was continued also in the following Leo the Great, Sermon 4 of Lent, where he cals those daies of the Pas­chal Institution, Dies mysticos & purificandis animis atque corporibus sacrat [...]ùs institutos: Mystical daies, and of more sacred Instit [...]tion for the purifying of souls and bodies. And in his Epistle to the Bishops of Sicily, [...] sanctificandi & srequen [...]us [...] imbu [...]ndi [ antequam baptizentur.] They are to be sanctified by Fastings, and to be instructed by frequent preachings [before they are baptiz'd] S. Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. 1. [...]. Hast thou [...]pent so many years in vain troubling thy self about the world, and wilt thou not attend 40. daies for thy own souls sake?—through ascetical exercise of thy heart, pu [...]ifie thy ves­sel, that thou maiest receive the more grace.—If thou labour little; thou receivest little. ibid. [...]. Yea, Tertullian goeth farther, l. de Iejuniis c. 8. Ipse mox Dominus baptisma suum, & in suo omnium jejuni­is dedicavit.—Praest [...] ui [...] [ Deminus] exinde jejuniis legem, docuit etiam abversus di [...]iora daemonia jejuniis praeliandum. Quid enim mirum, si eâdem operatione spiritus iniquus educitur, quâ sanctus inducitur? ‘The Lord himself dedicated his own Baptism, & in his own the Baptism of all Christians by Fastings.—From thence he prescribed the law for Fast­ings, he taught also, that against the fiercer evil spirits, we must combat by fastings. For what wonder, if, by the same operation, the wicked spirit be cast out, through which the Holy Spirit is brought in?’ Only here we may advertise our selves, that our Saviours Fasts went not before his Baptism, because he needed no purifications before, or in his Baptism; but by his holy Body sanctified the waters, as for his illustrious presence elsewhere, [Page 105] the Scripture cals the place the Holy Mount, 2 Pet. 1. 18. But his Fasts followed after his Bap­tism to teach us the way of performing, what in our Baptism we through his might and grace un­dertake, viz. of overcoming the Devil, tempting especially Baptized persons by the world and the flesh. So S. Ambrose l. de Eliâ & Iejunio c. 1. Cer­tamen nostrum jejunium est—Sed ille ante est prae­liatus, ut vinceret, non quòd ipse egeret certamine, sed ut nobis formam bellandi praescriberet, & posteà daret gratiam triumphandi. ‘Fasting is our combat—but he combated before, that he might overcome; not that he needed any fortifying, but that he might prescribe to us a form of fighting, and afterwards might give to us the grace of Triumphing.’

The 3 ^d Proposition was: That together with the Catechumeni preparing themselves by fasting for Holy Baptism, the Fideles or company of Christi­an people, viz. the Church it self did generally joyn in fasting, as the Mother in bringing forth her children doth it not generally without her own travail and pain, till she being delivered of her chil­dren, joy and festivity succeed in the place of sorrow and fasting. So as the same catholick Church also is known to joyn her fastings and prayers, with the fastings and prayers of peni­tents that seek for her Absolution; and of candidates that offer themselves to her Ordination. And the former of these is done at this same time of the Fast of Lent, in the beginning whereof they re­ceive the Injunction of their penance, and toward the end whereof, viz. on the [...], called also coena Domini, and Maundy-Thursday, they re­ceived Absolution And one of the Churches times of Ordi­nation is alwaies in Lent also.. But to return to our Instance [Page 106] of the Churches Fasts joyn'd with the Fasts of the Catechumens or Competentes, who sought for holy Baptism; according to that rule of St. Paul, teaching her to mourn with them that mourn, Rom. 12. v. 15. and his own practise, who when he had told us, 2 Cor. 11. 20, 27. that he was in fastings often; he adds in the next verse save one, Who is weak and I am not weak? who is offended and I burn not? But my proof hereof from the Primitive practise of the Church in the Age next following the Apostles, shall be that, before cited, of Iustin Martyr in his 2 ^d A­pology, [...]. ‘As many as are perswaded and believe, &c. are taught to pray, and to ask of God, with fasting, pardon of their sins past, WE ALSO PRAYING WITH THEM, AND FASTING WITH THEM. Then are they brought by us where water is, &c. and they are regenerated—And the chief of the Ministers officiating the Prayers and the Eucha­rist, and all the people expressing their consenting suffrage by their Amen, those that are with us called Deacons give unto every one of them that are present to receive of the consecrated Bread, [Page 107] Wine, and Water.’ [...]. ‘Whereof it is not lawful for any to be partaker, but he that believeth the things which are taught by us to be true, and that is wash'd in the Laver of Regeneration for the forgiveness of sins.’ Now as the time of the Mothers travail with childe is not confin'd to one day only, so nei­ther was the Churches fasting and prayers for the Catechumen's baptizing. Witnesses whereof in the first ages are the Asian Churches, who main­tain'd their cause from S. Iohn, and S. Philip; and the Western, who maintain'd theirs from S. Peter, and S. Paul; and both agreed, that the fasting before Easter was more then of a day. For so saith the one [...], ‘on whatsoever day the fastings or fasts are to be ended: ’( [...], not [...].) And the other saith thus: [...], and again, [...]. ‘on this day we observe, or are wont to end the Paschal Fastings, or Fasts:’ ( [...], and [...], not [...] or [...].) This contest and agreement of those Primi­tive Churches (in the year of our Lord Christ 196) is recorded in Eusebius's Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. 23. Thus having proved those three Propositions from unde­niable authorities even within the first 300. years, the Collection from them is evident, and certain, that the purest ages of the Church, and nearest to the Apostles, did without any other beginning, then from the universal Teachers of the universal [Page 108] Church, viz. the Apostles, observe a yearly Paschal Fast of certain daies before Easter; or that I may express it in Leo's words, not hitherto cited, in his 11 ^th and 12 ^th Sermons de Quadragesimâ. Appro­pinquante autem sestivitate Paschali, adest maximum sacratissimúmque Iejunium, quod observantiam sui uni­versis Fidelibus sine exceptione denuncia [...]: (of which he there a little after saith, In coelestibus Ecclesiae disciplinis multum utilitatis afferunt Divinitùs instituta jejunia.) ‘The feast of Easter approaching, there approacheth also [before it] the chiefest and most sacred Fast, which commands the observance of all Believers without exception [ viz. at their plea­sure, without necessity]—Much is the profit of these heavenly disciplines of the Church, Fastings appointed of God.’ Or in the words of an an­cienter Father in the first 300. years, Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria, in his Epistle to Basilides a Bishop, where blaming some, who fasting not at all, till they came to the two last daies of the Fast, [...]. (Words which I have not before cited.) ‘These men, saith he, when they come to the two last daies, they keep them indeed, and them on­ly wholly in Fasting, viz. the Parasceue and the Saturday, and think they do perform some great and illustrious thing, if they fast then unto the Morning [of Easter-day.] whom I think in no wise to have perform'd equal Ascetical course of Fa­sting, with those who have exercised themselves in [Page 109] more daies of fasting. In the same Epistle he bla­ming also, [...], such as break off their Fast before the end of the last day of Fasting,’ he gives the reason before-cited in the same Epistle from the confessed universal Practise, [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘It will be confess'd by all agreeably, that [ [...]o ought they to begin the joy of the day of Easter] as unto that time humbling their souls by Fastings.’

If all this perswade not our Brethren, who yet pretend to reverence the Witness of the first 300. years, beside my simple, and complicated Testi­monies from the Fathers of the first 300 years, pro­duced at large: I desire to be told, if there were no such universal practise of an Annual Paschal Fast in the whole Primitive Church, whence it could be, that the holy Church of Smyrna in the 66. year after S. Iohn's death, should in her un­question'd Epistle to the Church in Philomelium, and to the holy Catholick Church of all Nations ( [...].) describe to the Churches in every place of the world, the day of the carrying of S. Polycarp to the place of his tryal and Martyrdome in these words, [...], ON THE GREAT SATURDAY, [ viz. of the Great week before Ea­ster] except they had known that the Churches in every place of the world understood, in but that one words mention, the celebrity of that day, [Page 110] (which never was celebrated but with fasting?) See all this in Euseb. l. 4. c. 15. Whence also it could be, that Tertullian now become Montanist in his Dis­course with and against the Church Catholick, takes it twice for language understood by them, to call the Fast of Friday and Saturday before Easter-day, PASCHA Vos & prae ter Pascha jeju­nantes, c. 13. l. de I [...]juaiis, Sab­batum nunquam nisi in Pascha jejunandum, c. 14.? (Not the Feast certainly; therefore certain Fasts before Easter) l. de Iejuniis c. 13, 14. As that before he became Montanist l. de Oratione c. 14. he cals our Good-friday DIES PASCHAE, ( Die Paschae quo communis & quasi publica jejunii Re­ligio est.) ‘THE PASCHAL DAY, (not the great day of the Paschal Feast; therefore certainly the great day of the Paschal Fast,)’ Whence also o­therwise Origen ( l. 8. contra Celsum,) and Tertullian ( l. de Iejuniis c. 14.) and Dionysius Alex. (in Epistolâ ad Basilidem) should call in those first ages, spea­king of the Churches Fasting, every yearly Fri­day before Easter PARASCEUEN? an Appella­tion, which adher'd to it only from our Lords Passion. ( Stationibus 4 ^am & 6 ^am Sabbati dicamus & jejuniis Parasceuen, saith Tertullian there.) Whence also otherwise that famous Dionysius of Alexandria in the prealledged Epistle should mention in that week 4. other fasting daies, while he blames some [...], which fasted not the 4. daies foregoing the Pa­rasceue, and the Eve of Easter? Whence also should the same Father otherwise record in the same Epistle, all the daies of that great week by the name of [...], THE SIX DAIES OF FASTINGS? Whence also otherwise should Irenaeus call a certain time before Easter, by the name of [...] (in [Page 111] his Epistle to Victor?) Whence also otherwise should Methodius ( l. de Conviv. Virgin. orat. 3.) call that which is with us Good-friday, [...], THE DAY OF PASCHE, AND OF THE FAST? And it is known that the day following these 6. daies had in the same Primitive Ages, most honourable Appellations.

For the Synodical Epistle of the Councel held at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus, written to Dio­nysius Bishop of Rome, and Maximus of Alexandria, (which were all the holy Pa [...]iarchs absent) and to all Provinces, ( [...]) [...], ‘unto all our fel­low-Ministers, the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons throughout the earth, and to the whole Catholick Church under heaven.’ Therefore surely they spake what they knew was a known appellation in the whole Christian world, when they describe a cer­tain day of the year by this name, [...], ON THE GREAT DAY OF EASTER. (This is found written as about the 168 ^th year after S. Iohn, so also recorded in Eusebius Histor. Eccl. l. 7. c. 13.) Which [...], is that which Philo Iudaeus had expressed in his Book of the Re­ligious (Christians) of Alexandria by the name of [...], the greatest of the Feasts, and is answerable to the [...] in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna (above alledg'd) the Great Saturday, which is the Eve of Easter. Yea the whole 40 daies foregoing, the 69 ^th Ca­non [Page 112] Apostolical, (made in the same Age, wherein those two Dionysius's liv'd) cals [...], ‘the holy Quadragesimal Fast;’ and Origen Homil. 10. in Lev [...]. 16. in the same age Quadraginta aies jejuniis consecratos. Whence I say otherwise should all these Appella­tions, (which are the Records of things,) be found the Language of the several Churches, in the most famous Bishops and Writers of the first 300 years, when they speak for the most part to the Catho­lick Church throughout the whole earth; if it had not been within the first. 300 years, a common notion of the universal Church, from one and the same universal Practise (without any other so much as pretended universal cause of its beginning, beside Apostolical teaching) of an honourable, holy, and great solemnity of a Paschal Fast? (that is, the Fast of Lent which I have shewn to be in the mother Dialect of our English, but the Fast of Spring, as by the lawes of the Church Universal, both this Paschal Fast, and Easter were to be celebrated soone after or about the Vernal Equinox.) This last way of proof I have insisted on, for their sakes, who pretend reverence to the first 300 years, (wherein they know the Records Ecclesia­sticall are but few comparatively;) and yet are not ashamed against all this evidence to note all recur­ring set Fasts, and particularly this of the Paschal or Lent fast with the brand of Superstition, or Ju­daical observance; blindly and at adventure ap­plying thereto that of the Apostle, of the observance of daies and moneths, and times and years. As if the first day of the week, commanded to be observed under peril of sin, and obliging the conscience of all Chri­stians And not the [...] day men­tioned in the 4 ^th Com. were not A DAY, (and the obser­vance [Page 113] of the Lords daies, the observance of some daies) as well as Good-friday, or any other day, or daies of Fasts; or had any, Evidenter prae­ceptum, or express commandment in the N. T. to come in the place of the 7 ^th day, or were not as much liable to some mens ignorant application of Rom. 14. v. 5, 6. ‘One man esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind. He that regards a day regards it to the Lord; and he that regardeth not a day, to the Lord he regards it not.’ What ever fair Answer they with us (we hope) will give to this Text, as not including any disparagement at all to the Lords day, the same will let [...] understand, how rashly they have condemned the observance of other Feasts, and Fasts of the Church, from their own mistaken consequences drawn from Scriptures understood in their own sense, without reverence and regard to the Churches teaching, despising together all those three great instruments of Christian truth and so­briety, which Vincentius Lyrinensis professed to have learnt from the greatest lights of the Christi­an Church in and about the 3 ^d holy General Coun­cel of Ephesus, for the avoiding of Heresie and Schism; viz. Antiquity, Universality, or also con­sent of the generality of the Doctors of the Church.

Next I proceed to another sort of proof, fetch'd from the Witness of the Enemies of the Church and Gospel. Where I begin with Lucian the Scof­fer, (about the 65. year after S. Iohn's decease:) who appears in his writings so well knowing of Christian affairs, that he is by some thought to have been an Apostate, if ever he were of any Religion. [Page 114] He besides his scoffing at our Saviour as a cru­cifi'd sophister, In Peregrino, [...]. and deriding our swearing by the most High God, and the Son of the Father, and the Spirit proceeding forth from the Fa­ther, One of Three, and Three of One As he makes us to speak. (his words are in Philopatri, [...];) He in the same Philopatr. according as we have heard from S. Chrysostome, (Homil. 16. ad populum Antiochenum;) that upon usual enquiry, how many weeks of Lent any Christian had fasted, [...], ‘some would answer two, others perhaps, three, and others all,’ The Montanists especially affe­cted to keep two weeks of fasting excepting the Saturday and the Lords day, that is, ten daies, as Ter­tullian witnesseth, l. de jejuniis, and Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. [...] [ [...]] [...] and others, good and Catholick Christians kept but two weeks (exempting also two daies in each week, as S. Chrysostome would, that they should do) by rea­son of their measure of strength▪ that they were not well able to keep more: and these S. Chrysostome seems to mean (for he reprehends them not,) by his [...]. So Luci­an it seems had met with some of the former sort; and thus he speaks in the forementioned Book: [...]. ‘You should be a Christian from your fashion: [for so many called the Christians [...].] They report of them­selves, that they continue 10. daies fasting, and keep whole night-watches in Hymns and Psalms.—Leave them therefore, adding in the end of their Hymns, that much-used close, beginning from the Father:’ thus early after S. Iohn's death, [even] the enemies of the Church observed the Christians manner of more then one weeks fasting, [Page 115] and whole-nights watchings in Hymns and Doxo­logies: whereas neither Christians, nor any other Religion in the world, in these Ages, observed a many weeks fast with whole-nights-watchings and hym [...]odies, but only the Christian Paschal Fast; and this Lucian scoffs at, as amongst the Characters of the [...], the Christians; and hath now found followers amongst the Christians themselves. In the last daies there shall come [ viz. in more abundance] scoffers, (2 Pet. 3. 3.)

The next, but more moderate Adversary, is A­CESIUS, a Bishop of the Novatian Faction in the time of the first General Councel of Nice; which holy Councel both mentioning, and supposing as well known to all the Catholick Church, the Fast of Lent, commanding Synods to be held twice a year in every Province, throughout the Church universall, [...]. ‘The one BE­FORE LENT, that all disquiet of minds being taken away, a pure offering may be offered to God, [ viz. at the end of the 40 daies, on the day of Christs Resurrection.]’ And the same sacred Councel also putting an end to the ancient Contro­versie of the time of Easter, (and consequently of the time of the Paschal Fast) as Theodoret witnes­seth l. 4. Hist. Eccl. c. 20. in these words: [...]. ‘It seemed good to the Synod, that all men should celebrate the solem­nity of Easter at one and the same time.’ Con­stantine the Great, and the happy nursing Father of the Church in that Age, and he, who assembled [Page 116] and patroniz'd that first Councel Oecumenical, sent for this Acesius, the Novatian Bishop, demanding whether he assented to the two Decrees of the Councel; 1. Concerning the Faith of Christs Dei­ty, and the 2. concerning the time of the solemni­ty of Easter, [...]. ‘ Acesius replyed, O Emperour, the Councel hath determin'd no new thing; for so have I receiv'd from old time, EVEN FROM THE BEGINNING, FROM THE TIMES OF THE APOSTLES, both that definition of Faith, and that time of the solem­nity of Easter,’ ( Socrat. l. 1. c. 10.) where still we must remember, that in the language of the An­cients, Pascha includit Iejunium, Easter includes the Paschal Fast preceding, as S. Hierom above hath taught us.

A third Witness of Adversaries, is that of the [...], or Quartani; (a distinct Sect from the Quartadecimani) For these Constantinus Harme­nopulus l. de Sectis, registers in his Catalogue of He­reticks for this cause, [...] ▪ (where he useth the word [...], as Cyril of Alexan: above so oft, [...].) ‘These Quar­tani keep the solemnity of Easter, not dissolving the Fasts, but choose to fast also [ i. e. continue their Fast] on Easter-day, as we do on the 4 ^th day of the week, viz. untill 3. a clock in the after­noon.’ This, if not against Apostolical Tradition, [Page 117] could not have entituled them to have place, a­mongst the Sects Heretical.

If we would now speak of our nearest friends, and their more welcom testimonies: in a conference held in a Synod in England, Anno Dom. 666. (found in the tomes of the Councels) where two Kings were pre­sent, and Bishops from Scotland and Ireland, in their Debate concerning the Paschal solemnity, (which as I have shew'd includes the preceding Paschal Fast; as Irenaeus also acknowledges the Differences about the one, to have accompanied the Differen­ces about the other, even long before his time, Euseb. l. 5. c. 24.) the one part thus pleaded, Quod ne cui contemnendum & reprobandum esse videatur, ipsum est quod beatus Evangelista Ioannes, discipulus Specialiter Domino dilectus cum omnibus quibus praeerat Ecclesiis, celebrâsse legitur.—In quo tanti Apostoli, qui super pectus Domini recumbere dignus fuit, exempla sectamur; cum ipsum sapientissimè vixisse omnis mun­dus neverit. ‘Which [our manner of Paschal C [...] ­lebration] lest any man should think contemptible and reprovable, we averre it the same, which the blessed Evangelist Iohn, the beloved Disciple of the Lord is read to have observed, together with all the Churches over which he presided.—Here­in therefore we follow the example of so great an Apostle, whom the Lord did deign to rest in his Bosome; whom all the world also knows to have liv'd most wisely.’ [Which was the same plea in effect, that Polycarp in his time had made to Anicetus, and Polycrates in his time to Victor.] The other part is said thus to have reply'd, Tunc Wilfrid jubente rege ut diceret, ita exorsus est: Pascha quod fa­cimus, inquit, vidimus Romae, ubi beati Apostoli Petrus [Page 118] & Paulus vixêre, docuere, passi sunt, & sepulti, ab omnibus celebrari: hoc in Italiâ, hoc in Galliâ, quas discendi vel orandi studio pertransivimus, ab omnibus agi conspeximus. And there it followes: Hoc Africam, A­s [...]am & Aegyp­tum, Graeciam & omnem orbem, quacunque Christi Ecclesia diffusa est per diversas nationes ac lin­guas uno ac non diverso temporis ordine geri com­ [...]érimus. ‘Then Wilfrid, the King comman­ding him to speak, thus began: The Pasche, which we observe, we have seen so celebrated at Rome by all, where the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul liv'd and taught, were martyr'd and buried: thus in Italy, thus in France, the same we have found in the same order of time to have been observ'd in Africa, in Asia, and in Aegypt, throughout all Na­tions and Tongues, wheresoever the Church of Christ is diffus'd.’ Neque haec EVANGELICA ET APOSTOLICA TRADITIO legem solvit, sed potius adimplet.—In quam observantiam imitandam, omnes S. Ioannis successores in Asiâ post obitum ejus, & om­nis per orbem Ecclesia conversa est: & hoc esse verum Pascha, hoc solum fidelibus celebrandum, Nicae [...]o Concilio non statum noviter, sed confirmatum est.—Unde con­stat vos, Colmanne, neque Ioannis (ut autumatis) exem­pla sectari, neque Petri, cujus traditioni scientes contra­dicitis; neque legi, neque Evangelio, in observatione vestrae Paschae congruere. ‘Neither doth this EVAN­GELICAL AND APOSTOLICAL TRADI­TION break the Law, but rather fulfil it.—Un­to the imitation of which observance all the Suc­cessors also of S. Iohn in Asia after his death, and all the Church throughout the world conformed: and that this only is the true Paschal Celebrity for all Believers, was not decreed as new by the Ni­cene Councel, but confirm'd [as old]—Whence it is manifest, O Coleman, that you neither follow the example of Iohn, (as you think) nor of Peter, whose Tradition you wittingly contradict, nor [Page 119] are ye congruous to Law or Gospel in the obser­vance of your Easter.’

In the Ecclesiastick Lawes of King Canutus c. 16. Siquis, &c. celebrandum Quadragesimae violârit jeju­nium, compensatio in duplum augetur. ‘If any one shall violate the Fast of Lent, which ought to be celebrated, he shall make double satisfaction.’ Er­combertus, one of our English Kings also, (as Sigeber­tus in Chronico recordeth) Iejunium 40. dierum ob­servari principali Autoritate praecepit, A. D. 640. quae ne facilè à quoquam possit contemni, in transgressores dignas & competentes punitiones proposuit. ‘He com­manded the Quadragesimal Fast to be observed by his Royal Authority A. D. 640. which lest any one should lightly contemn, he decreed against the Transgressors worthy and competent punish­ments.’ In Concilio Cloveshoviae under Cuthbertus Archbishop of Canterbury, Can. 18. Statutum est ut—jejuniorum tempora nullus negligere praesumat; sed ante horum initium per singulos annos admoneatur plebs, quatenùs LEGITIMA UNIVERSALIS ECCLE­SIAE SCIAT & observet jejunia. ‘It is decreed, that none presume to neglect the times of Fast­ings, but that every year the people be advertis'd before the beginning of them, that so they may know and observe THE RULED FASTS OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. So much for our own Countrey in ancient Ages.’

I have reserved to the last place of Testimonies (as I began with that of the Churches contest with the Montanists in Tertullian their Patron) that of a Catholick contest in the Churches behalf by S. Au­gustine with the Manichees in Faustus their Defen­der. [Page 120] So that beside my 4 Testimonies above pro­duc'd out of S. Augustine, p. 60.—63. we add this here (out of its time) for its peculiar fitness to conclude with, l. 30. contra Faustum Manichaeum c. 3,—5. [ Faustus objici [...]] Quid verò & de illo dice­mus, quod sanè frustrari quis audeat, aut negare; cum constet hoc inter omnes, & aequè per orbem terrarum quo [...]annis, omni cum studio celebretur in conventu Ca­tholico? Dico autem Quadragesimam, quam qui inter vos [...]itè observa [...]dam putaverit, abstineat necesse est ab omnibus his, &c. Quid ergò &, vos charissimi, ritum hunc Daemoniorum vivitis, cum haec à vobis PASSIO­NIS CHRISTI celebrantur mysteria, & seductorii spi­ritûs fraude decipimini, & in hypocrisi loquimini men­dacium, & cauteriatam habetis conscientiam vestram? Quod si horum nihil vos; nec nos igitur—Si Quadra­gesima sine vino & carnibus non superstitiosè à vobis, sed DIVINA LEGE SERVATUR, videte, quaeso, vi­dete, &c. [Augustinus respondet] Audi ergo, &c. quâ mente & confilio hoc adversum vos capitulum profera­mus; non quod à carnibus abstineatis: nam hoc, à qui­busdam, & primi Patres nostri secerunt, sicut commemo­ras—CHRISTIANI, NON HAERETICI, SED CATHOLICI, edomandi corporis causâ, PROPTER ANIMAM, ab irrationalibus motibus ampliùs humi­liandam, non quod illa ess [...] immunda credant, non so­lum à carnibus, veru [...] à quibusdam etiam ter­rae fructibus abstinent: vel semper, sicut pauci: vel certis diebus atque temporibus, SICUT PER QUA­DRAGESIMAM FERE OMNES, quanto magis quisque vel mi [...]ùs, seu voluerit, seu potuerit. Vos au­tem ipsam creaturam nega is bonam, & immundam di­ci [...]is, &c.—quâ in re Creatorem earum sine dubio [Page 121] blasphematis. Hoc est quod pertinet ad doctrinam Dae­moniorum—Videtis ergò multum interesse inter ab­stinentes à cibis propter sacratam significationem, vel propter corporis castigationem; & abstinentes a cibis, quos Deus creavit, dicendo quòd eos Deus non creavit; PROINDE ILLA DOCTRINA EST PROPHE­TARUM ET APOSTOLORUM: haec Daemoniorum mendaciloquorum. ‘ Faustus thus objected: what now shall we say to that, which certainly no man can elude or deny, since this is manifest amongst all, and is celebrated in the Catholick Congre­gation throughout the world, every year, with all carefulness? I speak of Lent, [or the Quadragesi­mal Fast] which whosoever shall judge, that it is rightly observed amongst you, he must needs ab­stain from giving us any of these words, &c. What then do you also, O dearly Beloved, live at that time after the manner of Devils, when THESE MYSTERIES OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST are celebrated by you [ viz. in the Quadragesimal Fast] and are ye also deceiv'd with the fraud of the seducing spirit? and do ye speak lies in hypocrisie? [which S. Augustine had obje­cted to the Manichees] and have ye also your conscience sear'd with a hot iron? But if none of this be to be said of you, then neither is it to be said of us.—If a Lent be by you observed with abstinence from wine and flesh, and yet without superstition, yea BY DIVINE LAW: see ye, see, I pray, &c. To this S. Augustine thus Replies c. 5. Hear you therefore, with what meaning and intent we alledge against you this chapter [1 Tim. 4. 1,—6.] not because ye abstain from flesh; [Page 122] for this our first Fathers also have done from some sorts of flesh, as you mention.—CHRI­STIANS, NOT HERETICKS, BUT THE CATHOLICKS abstain not only from flesh, but also from certain fruits of the earth, for the keeping under their body, for their souls sake, and the humbling thereof from unrea­sonable motions, (not because they think those meats unclean.) And this abstinence they ob­serve either all the year, as some few: or on certain daies and times, AS ALMOST ALL IN THE TIME OF LENT. For the measure [of more severe, or remiss Fasting] as every one is either willing or able. But you [O Manichees] deny the Crea­ture it self to be good, and pronounce it un­clean—wherein without doubt you blaspheme their Creator. This is that which belongs to the doctrine of Devils.—You see then there is much difference 'twixt such as ab­stain from meats, for a sacred signification [ viz. of the Fasters unworthiness of Gods creatures, and of the Humiliation of their souls] or also for the chastisement of their bodies; and those others [the Manichees] who abstain from meats, which God hath created, alledging that God hath not created them. THEREFORE THAT DOCTRINE [OF OURS IS THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS AND APO­STLES; but this of yours is the Doctrine of Devils speaking lies.’ Thus farre St. Au­gustine. [Page 123] The same judgement by occasion of the Manichees S. Austin makes l. de moribus Manichaeo [...]um c. 13. Vestram à vino & carnibus abstinen­tiam—Si ergò parsimoniae gratiâ & c [...]ërcendae libidinis, quâ es [...]is talibus, & potu delectamur & cap [...]mur, audio & probo. Sed non ita est. As to your abstinence from flesh and wine—If it be perform'd for the cause of [...]obriety, and for the [...] of lust, whereby we are wont to be ta­ken, and delighted with such me [...]ts and drinks, I admit, and approve of it: But yours is not such Idem. l. ad Adiman [...]um Manichaei dis [...]ipulum, l. 14 Abstinentes à cibis quos Deus crea­vit. Hos enim propriè designat [A­postolus Paulus] qui non proptere [...] temperant à cibis [...]alibus, ut aut con­cupiscentiam su [...]m refranent, aut In­firmita [...]i alterius parcant; sed quia ipsas carnes immundas putant, & ea­rum Creatorem Deum esse negant. Idem l. de Haeres ad Quod vult Deum Haeres. 82. A Iovinian [...] quodam Mo­nacho Haeresis Iovinianistarum or [...]a est, aeta [...]e nostra—Haec docebat &c.—nec aliquid prodesse iejunia, VEL A CIBIS ALIQUIBUS ABSTINEN­TIAM. There hath [...]isen in our Age from a certain Monk called Iovini­an, a Heresie of the Iovinianists—He taught, &c.—and that neither Fa­stings, OR ABSTINENCE FROM CERTAIN MEATS doth at all profit. Doth he deny, what Faustus affirmed of the Catho­lick Churches observance of Lent, throughout the world, as a celebra­tion of the memory of Christs Pas­sion, [the taking away of the Bride­groom, in those daies of his taking away] and that Divinâ lege? Yes, if that be to deny it, when he af­firms, that what was objected, was indeed (notwithstanding the misap­plied objection of abstaining from meats, &c. and of seducing spi­rits) Doctrina Prophetarum & Aposto­lorum The Do­ctrine of the Prophets and of the Apostles. The same, which elsewhere this holy Father teaches, (besides the above-cited 2 ^d Epistle to Ia­nuarius, Quadragesima sanè jejuniorum habet autoritatem & ex Evangelio) in his 2 ^d Book also, de Doctrinâ Chri­stianâ c. 16. 40 diebus jejunare mone­mur. Hoc lex, cujus persona est in Mose: Hoc prophetia, cujus personam gerit Elias: HOC IPSE DOMI­NUS MONET, qui tanquam testimo­nium habens ex lege & prophetis, me­dius inter illos in mon [...]e, 3. discipulis videntibus atque stupentibus claruit. ‘We are ad­monish'd to fast 40 daies; this the Law, whose person Moses bare; this the Prophets, whose person Elias sustain'd; this the Lord himself ad­monisheth us, who as receiving witness from the Law and the Prophets, shone forth in the midst 'twixt those two in the Mount, the 3 Disci­ples [Page 124] beholding with astonishment.’ And on Psal. 110. Dies illi Paschales, praeteritis diebus Qua­dragesimae, quibus ante resurrectionem Dominici corpo­ris, vitae hujus signi [...]icatur moeror, solenniter gratâ hilaritate succedunt.—Quadragenario numero, quo & Moyses, & Elias, ET IPSE DOMINUS jejunave­runt: PRAECIPITUR ENIM NOBIS & ex lege, & ex prophetis, ET EX IPSO EVANGELIO, quod testimonium habet à lege & prophetis. ‘Those Pas­chal daies do solemnly succeed with welcome Festivity to those lately ended daies of Lent, in which before the time of the Lords Resurrection is express'd the sorrow of this life.—In the number of 40. daies both Moses, and Elias, AND THE LORD HIMSELF did fast; FOR IT IS COMMANDED UNTO US both from the Law, and from the Prophets, AND FROM THE GOSPEL IT SELF, which receiveth witness from the Law and the Prophets And that by this 40 daies fast S. Austin in all these pla­ces means the Paschal fast, with reference to the Pascha following it: see it his sense tra [...]at. 17. in Iohannem. Cum labore celebramus Quadragesimam ante Pascha, cum latiti [...] verò tanqua [...] ▪ accep [...] [...]ercede quinquagesimam post Pascha..’

Thus considering, that this most worthy and re­nowned Father S. Augustine is wont to be objected to us in one Period not understood by the Obje­ctors, and above answered by us abundantly, p. 60 & 63, and is with our Brethren in double honour beyond most other Doctors of the Church, we have therefore allotted him (for their more full satisfa­ction from him) a double place in our Testimo­nies, of which we have produced 9. from his un­questioned writings.

Now having encompassed you with so great a cloud of witnesses, you may discern what truth is [Page 125] in the oppositions that are made to this Paschal Fast of Lent. That which passeth with many for most current, is which some Authors after the 800 ^th year of Christ have spoken of Telesphorus the 7 ^th Bishop of Rome, in the 40 ^th year after the Death of S. Iohn. For some being not able to deny such (at least) Antiquity of the Fast of Lent, they were willing to feign it instituted by Telespho­rus. The foundation of this error, (that so impos'd upon some grave Writers after 800 years,) was a forgery and interpolation practised upon that an­cient and renowned Record of Church-history, the Chronicle of Eusebius. Into which in the page 198. ad annum MMCXLVIII, after the story of Chocebas, was thrust in contrary to all the Copies Manuscript, ‘contrary also to the copies of Maria­nus, Bede, and Isidore, that Telesphorus ( viz. in that year) did institute the Fast of Lent.’ And in pur­suance of their forgery they did proceed and devise to thrust into the same Chronicle of Eusebius, ad annum MMCLVIII, contrary unto the Faith of all ancient copies, that Pius the 9 ^th Bishop of Rome did institute the celebration of the Paschal Feast▪ Two opposite sorts of persons drinking down wil­lingly, and sputtering abroad these Reports: the one deeming thereby to honour highly those an­cient Bishops of Rome, (though their authority were not such in those Ages, as that from their au­thority and prescription, such universal customes should be taken up in all places, and following Ages of the Catholick Church) whereas indeed these holy Bishops did themselves but receive, and obey, with the rest of the Church, this Institution of the Paschal Fast, and of Easter, receiv'd also before [Page 126] their times, as I have shewn. The other, some at home among our selves, thinking hereby to dispa­rage the Institution of the Paschal Fast, and Easter; as if they came from Rome only, though anciently. To proceed therefore to convict this Forgery, beside the Testimonies of Fact, which I have produced, elder, not only then Eusebius, but also then Pius, or Telesphorus: concerning the copies of that Chroni­cle of Eusebius, you shall hear what Ioseph Scaliger, who made it his business to peruse them, and to Comment on the Book, doth witness. First, as to Lent pretended to be instituted by Telesphorus; in the 198. page of his Animadversions upon the Chronicle of Eusebius, ad annum MMCXLVIII. Ad vocem Cho­cebas: he thus testifies: Post hanc Pericopen [viz. Cho­cebas dux Iudaicae factionis nolentes sibi Christianos adversum Romanum militem ferre subsidium omnimodis cruciatibus necat. pag. Eusebii 167] intruserunt editores de Quadragesimae jejunio à Telesphoro instituto. Nostrum consilium est scriptorum codicum sidem sequi; QUO­RUM NULLUS ITA HABET, neque Marianus, neque Beda, neque Isidorus. ‘After this Section concerning Chocebas, they which put forth the Edi­tion of Eusebius's Chronico [...], have thrust in thereun­to, that the Fast of Lent was instituted by Telespho­rus; but our purpose it is to follow the faith of the Manuscript copies, [from whence all printed editions do pretend to proceed] of which NO ONE HATH THAT THING, nor Marianus, nor Bede, nor Isidore.’ And as to the Feast of Easter pretended to be instituted on the Lords day by Pi [...]s the first, the same Scaliger in his Animad­versions upon the Chronicle of Eusebius, p. 201. ad annum MMCLVIII. thus witnesseth: Quae Pio attri­buuntur [Page 127] in Editionibus de Resurrectionis Dominicae die Dominico celebrandae institutione, ea in nullo veterum codicum compárent. Sed Marianus à Bedâ, Beda à li­bro Hermae apocrypho insua Chronica traduxerunt, & ab illis in Eusebianum textum ab editoribus admissa sunt. Nos ab initio prosessi sumus, nihil nisi ex auctoritate scriptorum codicum hîc inno [...]aturos, quod a nobis ha­ctenùs summâ [...]ide & religione observatum suisse, eos, qui Editiones cum libris Scriptis contuleri [...]t, judices fer [...] ▪ ‘That which in the Editions is attributed to Pius, as the institutor of the [annual] Feast of Christs Resurrection on the Lords day, that no where ap­pears in any ancient copy: but Marianus had it from Bede, and Bede from the Apocryphal Book of Hermas, whence by some it was taken into the Text of Eusebius. We from the beginning have professed to vary nothing, but by the authori­ty of the Manuscript copies; which that we have perform'd hitherto, with the greatest faithfulness and religion, I make them my judges, who shall compare the printed Editions with the Manuscript copies.’ This was to be said, not for the diminish­ing the honour of those two holy Bishops of Rome Telesphorus and Pius; of the former whereof Irenaeus ( [...], saith S. Basil l. de Sp. sancto c. 29.) thus writeth, l. 3. c. 3. [...] ( [...]) [...] ▪ ‘ Telesphorus suc­ceeded Xystus, and gloriously fulfilled Martyr­dome.’ The same might be shewn of Pius, (the next Bishop save one to Telesphorus) who was mar­tyred two years after S. Iustin Martyr. Yet this ho­nour of such Institutions belongs not to them, as their own successors also acknowledge; viz. that [Page 128] the Institution of the Paschal Fast was from the Apostles delivery; and that of Easter on the Lords day from the Apostles also, particularly from S. Pe­ter and S. Paul, as Victor himself also Bishop of Rome, and Martyr in the Primitive Ages doth plead: [...], ‘They did not think it meet to disho­nour the Tradition of Peter and Paul, Soz. l. 7. c. 19.’

Another conceit by some is taken up, as if the Fast of Lent were not the Paschal Fast, because Ter­tullian doth not any where call the Paschal Fast Quadragesima▪ so endeavouring from a negative ar­gument, of one Authors not using that one word, which they call for, to divide those fasts, that they might weaken their forces. But first, it is the Paschal Fast that is prefixed in our proposition, see pag. 24. where secondly, I have shewn also, that the Paschal Fast being confessedly by the Lawes of the Church, the Spring-fast, to attend the vernal Equinox, as all ancient Books and Rules do witness, ( [...] ▪) the Lent. fast is but the Saxon for that Spring-fast. And of the word [...]; Quadragesima, (beside the [...] mentioned in Irenaeus's Epistle to Vi­ctor, elder then Tertullian, of which more hereafter, and Origen not many years after Tertullian, his Ha­bemus Quadraginta dies jejuniis consecratos, of which be­fore) that this was by the Ancients delivered, as the same with the Paschal Fast. [I speak not here of a precept unto all of strict fasting 40 daies untill each evening.] I first alledge the 69 ^th Canon Apo­stolical, the Authors of w ^ch Canon call it [...], Cum labore quadragesimam ante Pascha—quinquagesimam post pascha cele­bramu [...], S. Au­gust. tract. 17. in I [...]h. ‘ [Page 129]the holy Quadragesimal Fast of Pasche.’ The great Athanasius in his Epistle ad Orthodoxos, writeth on this manner: [...]. ‘These things were done in the holy Quadragesimal Fast it self about the Pasche, or near Easter, when the Brethren [ i. e. the Christians] were in fasting.’— [...] ▪ ‘Nor did they reverence the Lords day it self of the holy Feast.’ And he here supposing a great violence of­fer'd to the Churches order, thus stirs up the Chri­stians in the same Epistle, [...] ▪ ‘Be ye therefore mov'd also I beseech you—lest after a while both the Canons, and the faith of the Church be destroy'd; for both are in danger, except speedily God by you reform the transgres­sions, and the Church be vindicated. For not now first were the Canons and Rules of the Church delivered, but they have been fairly deli­vered down and firmly of our Fathers; nor did the Faith now first begin, &c. That therefore those things which have been preserv'd in the Churches even until our times, from them of old, [Page 130] may not now be lost in our daies, &c. Be ye stir­red up, Brethren, &c.’ This I have the rather set down at large, because in that great abundance of 10. witnesses in that one age of the Councel of Nice, I have not hitherto alledg'd ought from A­thanasius; and here my chief use of him is, to shew, that from the very first beginnings of Christianity, he had received no other Paschal Fast then that of [...], the Fast Quadragesimal; whereof the Great week was indeed a distinctly eminent and principal part, but a part, as appears als [...] by all the Paschal Homilies of Cyril of Alexandria, in num­ber 22. by me above alledg'd. Yea, Socrates him­self, who is thought the least friend to this Fast of Lent, [as he is miserably abus'd in English by false translation, and himself in part mistaken, as we shall shew hereafter in the Appendix;] yet l. 5. c. 22. [...]. Where he grants, ‘that both those in Rome, and those in Illyrium, and in all Greece, and in Alexandria, kept a Fast of many weeks, [not one only] whether six, or three; and that Fast they call'd [...], or Quadragesimal, and he called [...], the Paschal Fast.’ And a little before, [...], the Paschal Fastings.

If happily it be the sense of some words of Epipha­nius, that the Quadragesimal Fast, or [...] did determine before the beginning of the Great week of Fastings, which is oft called [...], (al­though [Page 131] Petavius deny that to be the sense of Epi­phanius; I shall not contend; but say, that if such was his sense, he was almost singular therein. And that from his professed value of the Pseudo-Apo­stolical Constitutions, which have borrowed the name of Clement, as Collector, who never saw them, nor some ages after him; I have reason to suppose, that Epiphanius took up this opinion, from the 5. l. 12. cap. of those Pseudo. Apostolical constitutions, which first broach'd this conceit. Whereas the sacred 6 ^th Councel Oecumenical can. 2. (though giving high honour to the Canons Apostolical) rejected in express terms the Authority of those Constitu­tions. [...], &c. Having thus clear'd the consent of the Ge­nerality of the Fathers, and the great number of undeniable witnesses by me produc'd, in the first 7. Ages, after the decease of the last of the Apo­stles, so uniformly witnessing, that the Paschal Fast of Lent was ever observed in the Church, as from the Apostles, and from Evangelical Instru­ction; I desire to know what is sufficient if this be not, to prove a Tradition Apostolical? if any shall hope to render the use of the Fathers useless, as to make any evidence herein; because forsooth they can alledge, that some one Father or other hath sometime call'd somewhat, Tradition Apostolical, which indeed was not: I answer, It was the Ge­nerality of the consent of other Fathers to the con­trary, (at least the silence of all other Fathers therein, and many of those primitive Ages of the Church knowing nothing thereof) that let's us then know such not to have been Tradition Apostoli­cal; which in our cause is all otherwise. Where [Page 132] (beside the uniform custome, and solemn practise of the Church of all Ages and places, for some Paschal Fast, close upon the Vernal Equinox, which we therefore call the Fast of Lent or Spring) the positive Testimony of those Fathers hath been shew'd so general and consenting, that perhaps themselves who oppose this, will discern, that they do full ill service to Christianity, if they consider what now I shall propound unto them, for the strength of mine, and weakness of their Allegation. And that in brief is this:

As the Asseveration of some one or two Fa­thers of the Church, in the behalf of the Canoni­cal Authority of the Books of the Maccabees, or of the 3 ^d Book of Esdras; (I not needing at this time to name any other) which yet from the ge­nerality and consent of the rest of the Fathers, we know notwithstanding sufficiently, not to be Cano­nical; (yea I add the positive rejection by some one or few Fathers, of the Epistles of S. Iames, and S. Iude; which yet we know from the Generality and consent of the rest of those ancient Wri­ters, certainly to be Canonical) is no bar to the sufficiency of the Testimonies of the Churches Re­cords, to make undoubted evidence, which Books of Scripture are Canonical, and which are not: so as that he who should reject that evidence, would disserve our common Christianity in a very high and dangerous degree: So the Allegation of some one or few Fathers for something as Tradition A­postolical, which yet is not, (yea the possible Reje­ction by some one Socrates, or other Ecclesiastical writer Vincentius Lirinensis c. 39. Quicquid unus vel alter Patrum, quamvis ille san­ctus & doctus, quamvis Episco­pus, praeter om­nes au [...] etiam contra omnes sen­serit, id inter pro­prias & occultas & privatas opi [...]i­unculas, [...] com­munis, publicae ac generalis senten­tiae autoritate se­cre [...]um fit: what­soever one fa­ther only (or a second) albeit he be both holy and learned, shall opine be­side or against all the rest: that is to be se­vered among the singular, ob­scure and private opinions from the authority of the common publick and ge­neral judge­ment. of something from being Tradition Apo­stolical, [Page 133] which yet is) is no bar or hinderance, but that we may rest assur'd, that we have made undoubted evidence concerning the Tra­dition Apostolical of this Paschal Fast of Lent, from such generality and consent of Testimonies of the Fathers of those seven A­ges next the Apostles, which we have pro­duc'd.

Furthermore (if ought further need be said) let us now suppose a while, that no one of the Testimonies above by me collected, made any mention at all, in express terms, that this Pas­chal Fast of Lent was a Tradition Apostoli­cal; that no one Author of all those had said in any word, That it was from God, or Christ, or the Apostles; but that only they testifie, that the universal Church had ever practis'd it; what force such practise alone, so well witnessed, hath in it to infer my conclusion, That it was from the Apostles, I will now proceed brief­ly to shew.

S. Augustine is the man, who is brought to say, (but nothing against what we say, nor other then what we have said,) Non invenimus in literis Novi Te­stamenti evidenter praeceptum of this or any other certain daies of necessary fasting; and hereupon, as S. Basil of another matter spake, ( l. d. Sp. Sancto c. 10.) [...].

‘They clamour and call for Demonstrations [Page 134] from written Testimonies This was the very objection of Socrates, concerning the Fast of Lent, l. 5. c. 22. against both the one side, who pleaded their ob­servance from S. Iohn the Apostle, and the others, who pleaded theirs from the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul, which when Socrates had recited, he adds: [...]. But none of these, saith he, can shew a demon­stration concerning these things from their writings, or from the written word. So that Socrates his very objection and ground is an­swer'd in these following pages. and send away, (with disgrace) as no­thing worth, the unwritten witness of the Fathers:’ and c. 27. [...], &c. ‘But they cease not, up and down clamouring, that this is not witnessed in any writ­ten word of God.’ Yet the same S. Augustine (beside that he profes­sed to find Authority for it, ex ve­teribus libris, & ex Evangelio, ‘out of the Old Testament, and out of the Gospel;’ though not Authoritatem Evidentem Praecepti, yet Habet, saith he, Quadragesima jejuniorum authorita­tem, & in V. L. & ex Evangelio; had he found it neither evidently, nor obscurely, or at all, in the written word of God; yet he would never have al­low'd the opposers, to have abused so his words to their conclusion: as shall now appear from his Doctrine, not in one, but many of his undoubted works, never retracted, nor in their Allegations from him contradicted.

This holy Father thus writeth, speaking of a certain custome of the Church: l. 2. de Baptismo contra Do­natistas, c. 7. Quam consuetudinem credo ab Apostolicâ Traditione venientem; (Sicut MULTA QUAE NON INVENIUNTUR IN LITERIS EORUM, neque in conciliis posteriorum, & tamen quia per Universam custodiuntur Ecclesiam, non nisi ab ipsis tradita & com­mendata creduntur.) ‘Which custome I believe to have come from Tradition of the Apostles; [Page 135] (as▪ MANY THINGS, WHICH ARE NOT FOUND IN THEIR WRITINGS, nor in the Councels of following times, and yet because they are observed through the Church universal, are believed to have been by them delivered and commended.’ Ibid. l. 4. c. 6. Illa consuetudo, quam etiam tunc homines sursum versus respicientes, non videbant à posterioribus institutam, rectè ab Apostolis tradita creditur. ‘That custome, which even then men looking back upward, did not observe to have been instituted by any following Ages, is rightly be­liev'd to have been delivered from the Apostles.’ And again, c. 23. Quod universa tenet Ecclesia, nec Conci­liis institutum, sed semper retentum est, non nisi Apostolicâ autoritate traditum rectissimè credimus. ‘That which the universal Church observeth, and was not in­stituted by Councels, but hath been ever retained, we most rightly believe to have been no other then a Tradition from Apostolical Authority.’

To this his Thesis, if you will subsume his Hypo­thesis, see it above p. 62. Sicuti quòd Domini Passio, &c. anniversariâ solennitate celebratur. As for ex­ample, saith he, that the Passion of the Lord is celebrated in Anniversary solemnity. (Which we have shewn not to have been first instituted by any General Councel.) Which he there reckons up, Inter illa, quae non scripta, sed Tradita custodi­mus; quae quidem toto terrarum orbe observantur. Again, that he thought somethings may be non evidenter praecepta ab Apostolis, ‘not evidently commanded by the Apostles, nor yet in their writings at all commanded, and yet commanded by the Apostles, and rightly so believed; see his words, l. 5. de. Baptis. con. Donat. c. 23. Apo­stoli’ [Page 136] nihil quidem exinde praeceperunt, sed consuetudo illa ab eorum Traditione exordium sumpsisse credenda est: sicut sunt multa, quae universa tenet Ecclesia, & ob hoc ab Apostolis praecepta benè creduntur, quanquam scripta non reperiantur. ‘The Apostles indeed com­manded nothing in this matter, but that custome is to be believed to have taken its beginning from their Tradition: as there are many things, which the universal Church observes, and for this cause are rightly believ'd to have been commanded by the Apostles, although they be not found writ­ten.’ Here you see commanded by them, and not commanded by them, in several senses; Therefore his otherwhere, non evidenter praeceptum, is by him­self reconciled here to himself, in the many other Testimonies above produced. Upon these grounds therefore Epist. ad Ia­nuarium 118. cap. 5. S. Augustine elsewhere pronounces, that to dispute against that which the Universal Church observes, Insolentissimae est insaniae. S. Basil perfectly agrees hereto, l. de. Sp. Sancto c. 29. [...]. ‘But this also is A­postolical: Hold fast the Traditions, which ye have received, whether by word, or by Epistle: [2 Thess. 2. 15. Upon this Text S. Chry. sostome al­so saith. [...].] of which especially this present is one, which they, who from the beginning, did constitute or appoint it, delivered to those that followed after, the usage proceeding on ever together with time, and rooted firmly by long custome in the Churches.’ Cap. 27. He tels us [Page 137] of certain things received in the Church, [...], from a tacit and mystical Tradition; and gives instance, [...]; ‘As in Baptism, the [explicit] renouncing, or profession to forsake the Devil and his Angels, or Ministers [and so his works] (in express words at the place of Baptism) from what Scripture is it?’ Add to these Leo the Great, of near time to S. Augustine, Serm. 2. de jejunio pent. Dubitandum non est, dilectissimi, omnem observantiam Christianam, eru­ditionis esse Divinae, & quicquid ab Ecclesiâ in consuetu­dine est Devotionis receptum, de Traditione Apostolicâ, & de Sancti Spiritûs prodire doctrinâ—manifestis­simè pa [...]et inter cae [...]era Dei munera jejuniorum quoque gratiam, &c. ‘It is not to be doubted, O most be­loved, but that each observance of Christian peo­ple ( viz. of the generality of Christians) hath been taught from God, and what ever hath been [so] received by the Church into the practise of her Devotion, doth derive it self from Tradition Apostolical, and from the teaching of the holy Spirit.—It is most manifestly evident, amongst other the gifts of God, the gift also of the Fasts, &c.’ Again in his Epistle ad Dioscorum A­lexandrinum; His, qui consecrandi sunt, jejuniis & jejunantibus sacra benedictio conferantur. Nam praeter autoritatem consuetudinis, QUAM EX APOSTO­LICA NOVIMUS VENIRE DOCTRINA etiam sacra, &c. ‘Let the holy Blessing be gi­ven to those, which are consecrated, Fasting. For besides the Authority of the [Churches] custome, which we know doth come from Apostolical [Page 138] teaching, the holy doctrine also, &c.’ Fulgentius Ferrandus Diaconus of the next Age in Paraenetico ad Reginam, regulâ quintâ: Et omnis, qui se ad Ecclesiam pertinere gloriatur, legibus vivat Ecclesiae; Maximè his, quas antiquitas roboravit. Unde etiam consuetudo sine lege, quam tamen Ecclesiae sanctae traditio custodiendam jugiter posteris tradidit, eâdem Reverentiâ videtur custo­dienda, & nullatenùs amoven [...]a, si non est [...]idei verae con­traria: ‘And let every one, who glorieth, that he belongs unto the Church, live by the lawes of the Church; especially those, which Antiquity hath confirm'd. Whence also custome without a law, w ^ch yet the Tradition of the holy Church [Univer­sal] hath delivered to be observ'd by posterity for ever, seems that it ought to be observed with the same Reverence, and at no hand to be laid aside, when it is not contrary to the true Faith.’ It were easie to add numerous Testimonies from S. Ierome, Epiphanius, Tertullian, Chrysostome, and others; but these are sufficient. Only be it here well noted, that neither S. Augustine, S. Basil, Leo, Ferrandus, or others here, do speak of mat­ters of Faith, or of essential duties moral, or of the Essence of Sacraments; all which we are taught indeed by the consent of these same Fathers, to be contain'd expresly in the holy Scriptures: (and so their Testimonies in that behalf are reconcileable with these:) But of ritual observances, which being visible, and as it were legible in the Universal Churches constant practise, needed not to be set down in her written rule. Or those which are therein set down, not necessarily, so evidently, but that they might need the Interpretation of such the Churches Practise.

[Page 139]The Hypothesis here to be sub­sumed, that the Paschal Fast of Lent was ever observ'd in the Church Universal, I may here well assume to my self, to have sufficiently prov'd, in the Testimonies already vouched throughout this whole Discourse. To all which 'twas yet much more easie to add number­less proofs of that matter of Fact, and Practise Ecclesiastical, Such as are these, Socrates l. [...]. c. 22. [...]. Amongst the rest, he particularly re­counts [...]. Sozomen l. 7. c. 19. [...]. Palladius Historiâ Lausiacâ cap. 20. concerning Macarius the contempo­rary [...]f Pachomius, [...] [ viz.] [...] [ [...],] [...]. Cassianus Collat. 21. c. 27. Ait Di­verso more. i. e. sex, vel septem hebdo­madibus per nonnullas provincias Qua­dragefimam celebrari: SED UNAM RATIONEM. EUNDEMQUE MO­DUM IEIUNIORUM diversâ hebdomadarum observatione concludi; bi enim, (inquit) sibi 6. hebdomada­rum observantiam prasixerunt, qui pu­tant die quoque Sabbati jejunandum. Sex ergò in hebdemada jejunia persolvunt, quae eosdem 6 & 30 dies sexies re­voluta consummant. His tripartite hi­story also l. 2. c. 12. Epistola synodi­ca: cum omnibus ab Initio Pascha Custo­dientibus [but Iejunium Domini Pas­cha includit, saith S. Hierome.] then to have alledg'd such witnesses, as hath been done already, through­out 7. Ages; which together with the Practise universal have testifi'd, in the Question of Right, as well as Fact, That this observance of the Paschal Fast had its Institution from the Apostles, from Christ, from God, and the Gospel; That it stands by Tradition Apostolical and Evange­lical. If many among them have averred not only an Institution and Tradition Apostolical, and Evange­lical, but also a Precept from the Apostles, &c. they have done that ex abundante, (by an overflow­ing measure) to what was the Pro­position by me undertaken to be proved; viz. pag. 24. That the Church hath ever observed this Pas­chal Fast, since the time of the ta­king away of the Lord, the Bridegroom; and since the times of the Children of the Bride-chamber, [Page 140] the Apostles of the Lord. And 2 ^dly the Church hath done this, hath observed this Paschal Fast, as from the Apostles; grounding their practise upon Instruction Evangelical, Tradition Apostolical. Now how it is a Truth (to be noted also) that so many of the above-alledged witnesses, as do assert it to be a Precept Apostolical or Divine, do not only à fortiore prove my Hypothesis, (as is evident) but also ex abundante assert, that which is more; the Catholick Church in Tertullian's time which he opposed, when he wrote his book de Iejuniis, may from what is there set down, have sufficiently in­structed us. When as chap. 2 ^d the Church opposes to Tertullian, Certos dies à Deo Constitutos, viz. illos dies in Evangeliis jejuniis determinatos, in quibus al­latus est sponsus; & hos esse jam solos legitimos jejunio­rum Christianorum. ‘That there are certain daies constituted by God; that those daies are in the Gospel determined for Fasts, in which the Bride­groom was taken away; and that those on­ly are now the legitimate daies of Christian Fasts.’ And yet the same Church there avoucheth also against Tertullian, that the Stations of the 4 ^th and 6 ^th daies of the week, amongst the daies dedicated [w ^ch also we know to have reference to the Bride­grooms taking away.] Ex Arbitrio agenda, non ex Im­perio, cap. 13, 14. are daies propounded to be observ'd by the Christian peoples free Devotion, not of Ob­ligation or Precept. And this Tertullian freely ac­knowledges to be, as they had said, in these words: Quae [ stationes] & ipsae suos quidem dies habeant, quartae feriae & sextae; passivè tamen currant, neque sub lege Praecepti. ‘which [stations] have their daies also, the 4 ^th and 6 ^th daies of the week; but [Page 141] yet are current only, in being observed generally, but not under a bond of Precept.’ And this his following Question put to the Church supposes: Quale est autem, ut tuo arbitrio permittas, &c. speak­ing of those stations. ‘How consistent is it, that you permit to your selves Liberty in the obser­vance of those daies?’ From all which I collect, that the Church did profess a constitution Evan­gelical of certain daies, which only are legitimate; and yet, at least in some, acknowledg'd no bond or obligation of Precept. The same Epiphanius seems to have understood in Compend. Doctrin. where he distinguishes the Churches common obser­vances, so as that some were [...], by precept or command, [...], recommended, as it were, to be imbra­ced by the free choice of peoples Devotion. I enquire not here, which of those two Epiphanius taught the Fast of Lent to be; but only collect from these two Authorities, that there may be some Traditions Apostolical, which may be Tra­ditiones consilii, and not Praecepti. Not intending hereby, to determine, that the Tradition of the Pas­chal Fast was not of Precept; but to declare, how it is true, which is said, that those many Testimo­nies among the Authorities above-alledg'd, which call the Paschal Fast, a Precept, either of God, of Christ, or of the Apostles, observed ever in the Church, do ex abundanti prove my Hypothesis, (the Tradition from the Apostles and perpetual obser­vation in the Church) and more. Whether the opposers bare Denial even so much as of the perpe­tual practise in the Church, (from which if grant­ed, it cannot be deny'd but that the other will fol­low) [Page 142] to be rightly collected from those Testimo­nies, be sufficient, let Epiphanius be heard, who beside all that I have already alledged from him, having said in his Expositio Fidei Catholicae, cap. 22. [...]. [Albeit there he saith, [...].] ‘On the Lords daies this holy Catholick Church doth not fast—not at all, no not in the Quadragesimal Fast of Lent itself [of which Lent ne had said, the same Church is wont to observe the Lent persevering in fastings.’ [...]. ‘The 6. Pas­chal daies [ viz. the 6. last and principal daies of fasting] all nations perform in dry, [or stricter] dyet.’ Against the opposers of all this in the 75 ^th Heresie, he makes this Rejoynder: [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘And concerning these 6 Paschal daies [Page 143] [ viz. of especial Fasting] how they [the Apo­stles] command, that either nothing at all, or bread and water and salt be received, and in what manner the day is to be observed, and how the Fasts are to end towards the dawning of the Lords-day, is evident. Now whom think we is most knowing of these matters? whether this de­ceived man [ Aerius,] who lived but now, and is as yet surviving, or the Martyrs which have been before us, holding before our time this Tradi­tion in the Church, and they having received it from their Fathers, and their Fathers again ha­ving learnt it from those which were before their time; as the Church having received it from her Fathers, retaineth the true Faith, and the Traditions even until this time. Let now therefore this mans conceit concerning the Pasche fall again to the ground.’ In like manner Vincentius Lirinen­sis, comparing the Martyrs or confessors witness, with Innovators, writeth thus, c. 8, 9. Illud etiam est nobis vel maximè considerandum, quod tunc apud ipsam Ecclesiae vetustatem, non partis alicujus, sed uni­versitatis ab iis [Confessoribus, &c.] est suscepta de­fensio.—Omnium Sanctae Ecclesiae sacerdotum Apo­stolicae & Catholicae veritatis haeredum decreta & de­finita sectantes maluerunt seipsos quàm vetustae Univer­sitatis fidem prodere—Magnum hoc igitur eorun­dem Beatorum exemplum, planéque Divinum, & veris quibusque Catholicis indefessâ meditatione recolendum, qui in modum septemplicis Candelalri septenâ Sancti Spiritûs luce radiati clarissimam posteris formulam prae­monstrârunt, quonam modo deinceps per singula quaeque erroris vaniloquia, sacratae vetustatis autoritate, pro­phanae novitatis conteratur audacia. And c. 9. Nosque [Page 144] Religionem, non quà vellemus ducere, sed potiùs quâ illa duceret, sequi oportere: id quod esse proprium Christianae modestiae & gravitatis, non sua posteris tra­ducere, sed à majoribus accepta servare. Quis ergo tunc universi negotii exitus est? 1.— Re [...]enta est scilicet antiquitas, explosa Novitas. ‘That now is of us to be especially considered, that then in the very An­tiquity of the Church, those (Confessors) under­took the Defence not of any part, but of the whole universal Church it self.—When following the Decrees and Definitions of all the Priests (or Bishops) of the holy Church, who were the HEIRS OF THE APOSTOLICAL OR CATHOLIQUE TRUTH, they chose ra­ther to betray themselves, then the Belief of the Universality of the Church, following Antiqui­ty.—Therefore this great and surely Divine example of those blessed men, is by an unwearied meditation to be remembred of all true Catho­licks; in as much as they inlightned with the seven fold light of the holy Ghost, after the man­ner of that Candlestick with its seven Lamps [upon the bowl of it, Zech. 4. 2.] have shew'd forth a most clear example to Posterity, after what manner for time to come, through all oc­curring vain doctrines of error, by the Authority of sacred Antiquity, the boldness of prophane Novelty may be crushed. And c 9. It is our duty not to lead aside Religion, whither we please, but rather to follow it, whither soever it leads: That being the property of Christian mo­desty and gravity, not to transmit their own de­vices to Posterity, but to hold fast the things they have received from their Ancestors. What [Page 145] then was the issue of that whole contention or business?.] viz. Antiquity was retain'd and No­velty exploded.’ If therefore, nothing, as is said, had been hitherto proved, but the universal pra­ctise of this Fast, without instance of any beginning of its Tradition; of what force it ought to be, that very ancient holy Synod ( Synodus Gangrensis) cele­brated A. D. 319. a little before the first Oecume­nical Councel of Nice, and it self confirmed af­terwards by the 4 ^th General Councel of Chalcedon, and the 6 ^th General Councel of C. P. declareth by its sentence Canon 19 ^th [...]. ‘If any of the Religious without corporal necessity shall of their pride dissolve the Fasts delivered from Tradition, unto the community [of Christians] (or to be ob­served by all in common) and which are observed by the Church, by a compleat determination of his mind rejecting them, let him be Anathema.’ The merit of which sentence Hormisdas a holy Bishop about the year 514. in Epistolâ ad fratrem Possessorem, doth thus declare, Quando induit obedi­entiae Humanitatem opinionibus suis velata superbia? quando acquiescunt paci, contentionum stimulis assueti? sola certamina aventes de Religione captare, & man­data negligere—Una pertinacis cura propositi, ra­tioni velle imperare, non credere. Contemptores au­ctoritatum veterum, novarum cupidi Quaestionum, so­lam putantes scientiae rectam viam, quâlibet conceptam facilitate sententiam. Eò usque tumoris elati, ut ad arbitrium suum utriusque orbis putant inclinandum [Page 146] esse judicium. ‘When will pride vailing it self within its own [private] opinions put on the Humanity of Obedience? When will they, which are accustomed to the gallings of contention ac­quiesce, or submit themselves to peace? who seem desirous to lay hold on nothing of Religion, but occasions therefrom of Contentions, and to neglect commands—The only care of such a a pertinacious purpose is, that it hath a mind to give law unto Reason, not to obey or believe it. such are contemners of the Authorities of the An­cients, desirous of new questions, deeming their opinion, taken up upon any easie ground, the only right way of science; and are lifted up to that swelling of pride, that they think the Judgment of both parts of the world, East and West, is to be bowed to their pleasure and sentence.’

Yet will we not lastly refuse to hear the Pleas even of Novelty and Singularity it self, against this Doctrine of the Churches publick times of Fasting. And their first Objection is, that this Paschal Fast (or any like) are set Fasts; and therefore supersti­tious. Were it some Fast only upon incident and extraordinary occasion, a Providential Fast, as they speak, they could allow it; but a set Fast is a fixed publick mark, and constant eye-sore to them. To which, our Answer we will frame first from Evan­gelical Instruction. When that holy pattern of Widows Anna in the Gospel ( Luk. 2. 36, 38.) her self a Prophetess, and a Widow about 84 years of age, whereof she lived 7 only with one only Husband from her Virginity, departed not from the Temple, but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day: Were her Fasts only [Page 147] providential, extraordinary and occasional? or were they superstitious? Where they not a regular, set holy Discipline of Fasting? i. e. almost con­tinual, and differing from the Churches set Fastings (for the Community) only in the greater frequen­cy? If they shall say, But she prescribed this Fasting to her self: And why may not the Church of God, (a more devout Virgin yet, then she a Widow) prescribe to her self? Thus for good pur­pose there stand in the very doors of the Gospel the Fasts of Anna, the daughter of Phanuel; Tertullianus l. de Iejuniis c. 8. In limine Evan­gelii Anna Pro­phetis, filia Pha­nuelis, quae in­fantem Deminum & cognovit, & multa super [...]o pradicavit, &c.—post [...]gregium titulum veteris, & univirae viduitatis, jejuniorum quoque testimonio augetur, ostendens in quibus officiis assideri Ecclesiae debeat & à nullis magis intelligi Christum, quàm semel nupti [...], & saepè jejunis. In the entrance or door of the Gospel standeth Anna the Prophe­tess the Daughter of Phanuel, which both acknowledg'd her Infant-Lord, and spake concerning him many things, &c.—After that egregious title of praise from her Widowhood of many years, and one only Husband; she is also magnifi'd by the Te­stimony of her fastings, shewing by what offices we ought to attend the Church, and that Christ is by none sooner understood, then by such as have been wives of one husband, and widows of often fastings. Where 'tis his Debeat only, that [...]avours of Montanism. The like hath S. Hierom of Iudith in his Epistle ad Furiam, Legimus Vi­duam confectam jejuniis, & habitu lugubri sordidatam, quae non lugebat mortuum virum, sed squalore corporis spons [...] [ Christi] quaerebat adventum.—Vincit viros foemina, & castitas truncat libidinem [ viz. Holofernem] habitúque repen [...]è mutato ad victrices sordes redit, omnibus seculi [...]ultibus mundiores.—Sed & talia frequentiora nostris jejunia sponsi dole­bant absentiam, quarebant praesentiam. We read of that Widow ( Iudith) much spent by fastings, and in her mourning habit, neglecting her body, who did not so much mourn for her deceased husband, as by the neglecting of her body seek the Advent of (the Lord) her Bridegroom—A woman overcomes those men [of war] and chastity beheads Iust; and then again suddenly changing her habit, she returns to her victorious Fasts, and neglectings of her body, neater ornaments then all the Dresses of the world. of Iohn Baptist, the son of Zachary, and of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God. Of this our Anna S. Hie­rom writes to the widow Salvina, de Servandà vidui­tate: Habes tui ordinis, quas sequaris, Iudith de He­braeâ historiâ, & Annam filian Phanuelis de Evan­gelii claritate, quae diebus & noctibus versabatur in [Page 148] Templo & orationibus atque jejuniis thesaurum pudici­tiae conservavit. ‘You have, whom you may imi­tate, those of your own order, Iudith from the Hebrew history, and Anna the daughter of Phanuel, from the Clarity of the Gospel, who was con­versant nights and daies in the Temple, and by Prayers and Fastings preserv'd the treasure of her chastity.’ S. Ambrose in like manner, l. de Vi­duis: Vides qualis Vidua praedicetur, unius viri uxor, ae [...]atis quoque jam probata processu: vivida Religioni: Cui diversorium in Templo, colloquium in prece, vita [...] Ie [...]unto: quae dierum noctiúmque temporibus, modestae Devotionis obsequio, cùm corporis agnosceret senectu­tem, pie. a [...]is tamen nesciret aetatem; quae viduitatem NON OCCASIONE TEMPORIS, non imbecillitate corporis, sed virtutis magnanimitate servaverit. ‘You see what manner of Widow here is commen­ded, the Wife of one Husband, tryed and ap­proved by the progress of many years, [from youth to a very old age:] yet vivid as to Reli­gion, whose commoration was in the Tem­ple, her Colloquie Prayers, her life spent in Fa­sting: who by the Obsequious and unwearied Devotions of her nights and daies, though she could not but feel the old age of her body, yet her piety was no waies decrepit, or enfeebled: who kept her Widowhood not from any occasion and reason of the time, [as of any instant necessi­ty: and so her Fastings not occasional] not from any imbecillity of body, but from the Magnani­mity of her vertue.’

2. Was not Cornelius in the course of his ordi­nary piety, (as is most probable) fasting till the 9 ^th hour? Act. 10. Who as he was a devout person, and [Page 149] towards God, (praying as it were continually and rich in almes-giving towards the people; so in the austere sobriety of his own body, [...], ‘he was fasting until the ninth hour, and praying at the ninth hour;’ (an usual hour of pray­er with Gods people, Act. 3. 1. Dan. 9. 2.) because at that hour he was to pray, he was fasting to that hour, our three a clock of the afternoon S. Hieronym. l. 2. adv. Iovini­an. Cornelius Cen­turio, ut Spiritum Sandum accipe­ret antequam Baptisma, elee­mosynis meruit crebrisque jeju­niis. (Whence the Church hath measured her stations of Wednesday and Friday's fast) And you have above the Answer of God by his Angel to Corne­lius.

3. Did not St. Iohn Baptist, whose food was such only, as the wilderness set before him, cibi oblati a [...] eremo, who came neither eating, nor drinking, fast in his ordinary course of Ascetical discipline, Chrysologus de Iejunio Qua­dragesimal. Serm. 13. Ioannem vi­derat [Diabolus] urbium deli. ias squalentis erem. habitatione m [...]âsse, moll [...]iem carnis v [...] ­stis asperitate calcâsse, agresti cibo mundi totam fraenasse luxuriam—Et tamen non ei dixit si Fili [...] Dei es. At ubi Dominum vidi [...] jugiter j [...]junantem, proclamat▪ si Fili [...] Dei es. Sig­num panis petit qui signum jejun [...]i pertim [...]scit. Signum panis petit, ut jejunii tremendum sibi [...]esugiat signum. Tertullian. l. d. Pudicit. c. 6 Onera legis usque ad [...]hannem, non Remedia. S. Hieronym. l. 2. adv. Iovi [...]ian. A diebus Ioannis Baptistae jejunatoris & Virginis, reg­num Coelorum vim patitur, & violenti diripiun [...] illud. Cyril Alex. Hom. [...]. d. Fest [...] Pas­chal. [...]; And so his disciples [...];

4. The Teachers and Prophets at Antioch, Act. 13. were they not first joyntly fasting in their ordinary course of their ministery, v. 2. And then afterwards, v. 3 after the especial command re­ceived from the Holy Ghost for separating unto [Page 150] Him Barnabas and Paul celebrated another fast upon the arising occasion? [...]. And so▪ the Church hath since done in her ordinary course of Fasts before her Ordinations: In fine that some do but vainly pretend to be wiser then the Church in reproving her Set times of fasting, because set and fixed annually, S. Cyril of Alexan­dria, a far greater Patriarch and wiser person, seems to me to have well proved, Hom. 1. de Fe­stis Pasch. [...], &c. ‘If Solomon were wise, who sayes there's a time for all things, and a sea­son for every thing, why should we not confess▪ it reasonable▪ that this season [speaking of the Paschal Fast] is the enemy of all wickedness?—Go to therefore, let us call all the Lovers of Godliness to this annual Combate. The Prophet saying, Blow the Trumpet in Sion, sanctifie a Fast, &c. Let us lift up the Churches holy Trum­pet, &c.’ And after S. Cyril, S. Augustine in Psal. 21. Quoties Pascha celebratur; nunquid toties Christus moritur? sed tamen anniversaria Recordatio quasi repraesentat quod olim factum est: & sic nos facit moveri tanquam videamus in Cruce pendentem Dominum. ‘As oft as the Paschal (Fast) is cele­brated, [Page 151] doth Christ so often dye? Nay, But the Anniversary Remembrance, as it were, repre­sents unto us that which long since was done, and makes us to be so affected, as if we saw the Lord hanging on the Cross.’

A second Objection. Even those set Fasts might not displease us, if they were not commanded, but left free. Resp. But how can they be set for, and celebrated by the Publick, even the whole Church, how shall they agree on any time and place for all, except they all be by some Pre­scription over-ruled? Again for Command, Fasting being confessedly a duty, commanded even in the N. T. ( [...] saith my Text) that the Church hath power to determine as to time and place, themselves acknowledge, even all who allow the Church any Authority at all. They which give her least, grant her this: yea they grant it to themselves, who deny it to the Ca­tholick Church. VVas the Fast of the Ninevites less accepted of the King of Heaven, or less powerful for their deliverance from the wrath then impendent, because proclaimed by the de­cree of the King of Nineveh and his Nobles? Io­nah 3. 7. So I ask of that commanded by the good King Iehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 20. 3. 4. Was the Fast of the Rechabites ( Ier. 35.) abstaining through so many generations, by a perpetual Fast, from wine (though no where commanded them by God) less approved, yea or rewarded by Gods especial promise, because commanded by Ionadab their Father? Was the Church of the Iewes of greater authority over her chil­dren, when she obliged her children in feasts and [Page 152] fasts (not appointed by God) (as the feasts of Purin, and Dedication and the Set Fasts of the fifth and seventh moneths, Zach. 7. 5.) then the Catholick Church now hath over her chil­dren Haec sunt sesta 4. ista communis­sima, quibus Iudaei tempore prophetae Zachariae jejunârunt, & adhuc anni [...] fingulis ordinariè summarièque jeju­nant, Buxtorf. Synagog. Judaic. c. 25. p. 457.? Is not obedience an ad­dition of another act of vertue to that of Fasting? ( viz. of justice as well as abstinence, of humility and gentle tractableness as well as severity to themselves?) Among the causes of fasting, the humbling of our proud hearts being one chief, he that makes this objection; Because 'tis a commanded Fast, hath doubly need of the Fast, to teach him hu­mility S. Hieronym. Epistolâ ad Ce­lantiam, quae est 14 ^a. Qui probabi­liter ac scienter abstinentiae virtutem [...]e­nent, eò asst gunt carnem suam, quò animae frangent superbiam ut quasi de quodam fast igio contemptus sui atque arrogantiae descendant, &c. They which retain the vertue of Abstinence according to knowledge, and allowedly, to that end afflict their flesh. that they may break the pride of their soul, that they may come down as from a cer­tain height of their arrogance and contempt (of others). as well as the denial of his appetites; to teach him to re­gard both the Bride-groom and the Bride, Christ his Father, and the Church his Mother, Foelix necessi­tas, quae ad meliora impe [...], saith S. Augustine of it. They have great need to be so commanded, who fast, and fast not, both for debate. You cannot [...], make them fast, saith my Text, v. 35. when the Bride-groom is with them. Non potestis facere, vel adigere ad jejunandum, This shews the daies would come, when they might be made or ob­liged to fast; but not by obligation of the old Law given to the Iews, which thenceforth was to cease; therefore by Christs new Law, whereby he bad that new wine should be put into new bottles.

But thirdly, Saith not S. Paul; Stand fast in the li­berty, wherewith Christ hath made you free, Gal. 5. 1. [Page 153] Resp. But then S. Paul subjoyns in the same chapter [...]. 13. Only use not yo [...] liberty for an occasion to the flesh; and S. Peter enters his Caveat also, 1 Ep. 2. 16. As free, and not using your liberty as a cloke of ma­liciousness; as it is for certain used, when that liber­ty, which the Apostle expresly declares to be from the Ceremonial Law, from which Christ hath freed us, is alledged for our freeing our selves from Christs own precepts and constitutions, and his Churches, and his Officers, whom he hath impow­red under him: see Gal. 5. 1. with v. 2. Stand fast in that liberty, viz. from the yoke of Circumcision and the like, yea from all that would impose fasts upon you, whether Montanist, or other new Here­ticks, or Consistory, or any other, who is not this Bride-groom, or his Bride the Church, and her Spi­ritual Governours (who in Tertullian's time, as he acknowledges, indicted Fasts) or Christian Kings and Princes, whom when God hath set to be the nursing fathers of his Church, he hath given to her such to order also her bodily dyet and fasting.

Fourthly, They object, The memory of Christs Passion (the Bride-grooms taking away) should be perpetual, not annual only, or weekly. True, And so his Resurrection, we trust; yet you have a week­ly memorial of it of Gods appointment, the Lords­day, yea and Annual also (whether you less like that or no.) But our Faith, not our Fasting, is the best memory of his Passion. True, but 'tis so far from colour of Truth, that these two should be set▪ op­posite one to the other, that our Lord argues some of little faith from their no-fasting, upon just cause for the Bride-grooms Interest, see Mat. 17. 20, 21. God saw them both conjoyned in Nineveh, and the [Page 154] one flowing from the other. So the people of Ni­neveh believed God, and proclaimed a Fast, Ionah 3. 5.

The next objection is that of humane nature: The Fast of Lent seems to us a hard task, and a heavy burden laid on mens shoulders. Resp. This objection could not be more improperly laid a­gainst any Master, or any Text, or any Interpreter of this Text, then against this our gracious Master, and especially in this his Constitution here prescri­bed, and the Churches Interpretation of it. How tender, how considering was he of the infirmity and weakness even of his own chosen Apostles? excuses that in them, which Iohn did not in his. He is careful that no bruised reed, no old bottles should be broken by any's zeal, that in the old and attrite garment the rent should not be made worse (nor the Schism in the Church:) Yea there­fore is our Lord thus indulgent to his Disciples in­firmity in this matter (saith S. Chrysostome on Mat. 9.) because he would shew them example, who were by him to be sent forth for the Masters, Teachers and Spiritual Governours of the whole world; that they should gently lead those which were with young, and drive as all the Flock could go. [...]. ‘These things spake he, giving therein law and rule to them his Disciples, that when they should receive the whole world as their Disci­ples, they should deal with them with all gen­tleness [Page 155] and condescension.’—And thence S. Chrysostome himself for himself thus collecteth: [...]. ‘Let us not therefore in the beginnings exact all things of all men, but according as they are able to bear.’ Therefore it is, that in every age, the Church and the Successors of these Apostles have had in this matter regard to the weakness of mens bodies, yea and minds also. This shall appear in all her Pre­scriptions; how careful, in the first express writ­ten Law we meet with, that she promulgated for it, Canon Apostol. 69 [...]. ‘If bodily weakness hinder not.’ S. Basil the great in his Asceticks, ad [...] ▪ ad [...], &c. ‘To comprise under one and the same rule all that are exercised in piety, is a thing im­possible; one measure is a sufficiency to one, ano­ther to another, according to the habit or con­stitution, or need of the body, for one man hath need of more and stronger food because of his labour, &c.’ And [...]. ‘The Rule of Abstinence is best measured according to the power of every ones body.’ And for minds likewise, the Church well knows, that there will in all ages be some babes in Christ, some young men, some Fathers: some buds, some blossoms, some ripe fruits: some old, some [Page 156] new bottles and garments. Hence it is from the Churches tenderness and condescension, and not from the uncertainty or variety of Tradition, that we read in all Ancient Authors that variety allow­ed or indulged; so that though it was required of all, who had strength of body, to fast some daies, or weeks in those daies of the Bride-grooms ta­king from us, in the Paschal Fast, yet witness Ire­naeus and Tertullian, and S. Augustine for the We­stern Church; Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria, Epi­phanius of Cyprus, and Socrates for the East, there are clear Records, how in this Paschal Fast some fasted more daies or weeks, some fewer: some within the Abstinence of the 40 daies, choosing out 15 daies (in the East:) others (in the West) 21 for more strict Fasting. Yet so as that from all, of both Churches, abstinence from pleasures and Feasts, otherwise lawful, was expected, through all the 40 daies (in honourable memory of the Bride-grooms own 40 daies fast for us;) and some daies proper Fasts. Whilest others also (among them) as stronger vessels, held the stronger li­quour of 40 daies Fast; and generally by all was observed Continentia quadraginta dierum, as Leo the Great speaks, Serm, 3. de Quadrages. Ut ad Paschale Festum quadraginta dierum continentiâ se praepararet populus Christianus, ‘That the Christian people might by some sort of abstinence through the for­ty daies prepare themselves for the Paschal Feast.’ Which same Author yet in his very next Sermon of Lent, contents himself for his Auditors with three daies fast only in the week, through the weeks of Lent. ‘Our Church also prays to him who for our sakes did fast 40 daies and 40 nights, [Page 157] that he would give us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey his godly motions, &c. (not such mi­raculous Fasting as His.)’ In those daies shall they Fast. Our holy and tender Mother, the Church considers her childrens strength, as Christ the chil­dren of his Bride-chamber: she hath her excepti­ons, relaxations for the sick, or weak, for children and aged, prisoners and labourers, women with childe and travellers, and in her compassion, seems even to bear about another passion, with that of her own fastings of Lent. There are wont to be reckoned four reasons, which excuse from fasting: 1. Impotentia corporis. 2. Ex paupertate, indigentia ordinaria ciborum. 3. Necessitas laboris ma­joris. 4. Pietas boni melioris, (to which some add, Intempestas caloris, in some regions, for some hotter moneths of the year.) Three of them the 8 ^th Coun­cel of Toledo, Can. 9. recounts, Illi verò quos aut aetas incurvat, aut languor extenuat, aut necessitas arctat, non ante prohibita violare praesumant, quàm à sacerdote per­missum percipiant. The 4 Excusations are ei­ther bodily infirmity, or ordinary penury of diet from their poverty, or necessity of greater toyl and bodily labour, or zeal of some greater good, of­fering it self upon the dispensing with their Fast. And yet even in such cases take S. Chrysostome's ad­vertisement with you: [...]. [Page 158] ‘For although thou canst not fast, yet canst thou forbear pampering thy body with delicacies, and fulness. Nor is this of little moment, but oft avails to the weakning of the Devils temptations, to whom nothing is so pleasing, as Epicurean diet, and drunkenness—If thou hast a weak body, so that thou canst not continue such fast­ings, yet happily it is not weak to prayer, nor unable certainly to despise the pleasures of the full belly.’

Yea, perhaps thy bodies health requires rather this Fasting, or Abstinence, as well as the Churches Law, and thy souls consideration. Theodoret on Dan. 1. hath well advertised us from the example of the three children, who eating pulse and drink­ing water (instead of their appointed meat and wine) their countenances appeared fairer and fa­ster in flesh then all the children which did eat the portion of the Kings meal, c. 1. 12.—x4. Theodoret thereupon observes, I say, [...]. ‘We are lesson'd that bodily strength and comeliness may gain by the use of fasting.’ And so Chrysolog. de Iejunio Serm. 8. saith, Est jejunium pax corporis, membrorum decus, robur men­tium, vigor animarum, castitatis murus, pudicitiae pro­pugnaculum, civitas sanctitatis, magisterii magisterium, disciplinarum disciplina, Ecclesiasticae viae viaticum sae­lutare. ‘Fasting is peace to the body, the come­liness of limbs, the strength of minds, the vigour of souls, a wall of chastity, a sconce of purity, a city of sanctity, the instruction of instructions, the discipline of disciplines, the salutary provi­sion for the Churches way.’ Likewise S. Chry­sostome [Page 159] [...] tom. 6. [...]. ‘Will one say, But it doth in­flict upon us weakness of body. Resp. Yea ra­ther if thou would'st exactly search the matter, thou wilt find it the mother of health, or a good habit of body. And if thou believest not my words, ask the sons of the Physicians about it, and they will tell thee these things more clearly.’

Lastly, to Fast is wont to be call'd in Scripture to afflict the Soul ( Lev. 23. 29. Isa. 58. 5.) This being the end of fasting, that such chastening by affliction of the body may afflict the lower sensitive powers of the Soul, that the inferiour powers of the Soul being afflicted, a troubled spirit, and a humbled heart thence arising in us may be a sacrifice and burnt­offering unto God. Afflict certainly thy Soul thou mayst, which is the end, if thou art not able to afflict thy body which is the means; since, therefore only, thou mayst not perhaps safely afflict thy body, for that it is already afflicted. Nay this it self, that we are not happily able in body to be susceptible of so salutary a medicine, as fasting, ought and is apt to be one consideration, wherethrough to afflict our selves. Therefore said God of the day of Expiati­on to that people, among whom yet, no doubt, there were many sick and infirm in body, as thou art: Levit. 23. 29. Whatsoever Soul it be, that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. Certè qui jejunare non potest, non [Page 160] praesumat inducere novitatem: sed [...]ateatur esse fragi­litatis propriae, quòd relaxat, & redimat eleemosynis, quod non potest supplere jejuniis, saith Chrysologus Serm. 166. de Quadrages. ‘At least he which cannot fast, let him not presume to introduce novelty: but confesse it to be from his own weaknesse, that he doth relaxe his fasting, and let him redeem by almes-deeds that which he cannot supply by fastings.’

If any yet look on this duty of fasting in Lent, as disagreeing to their pleasures of Spring, and there­fore with sowre aversion do receive this meek and gentle law of this Fast, I shall anon evidence the Lawes of it to be an easie yoke, and mean while say, that God seems to complain of such refra­ctory stupidity by his Prophet Ieremy c. 8. v. 7. Yea, the Stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgement of the Lord. [...] [ [...]] [...], saith Chrysostom ( tom. 5. [...].) ‘The season of Fasting [Lent] is the spi­ritual Spring of our souls.’ And the same in his 2 ^d Homil. [...]. And again, [...]. ‘In the daies of the Fast pleasures do dye, and vertues bud forth, and are in their flower, and the most pure beauty of sobriety puts forth it self. Behold the Fast of Lent is at hand, pointing out to thee the spiritual Pool which cures not one sick soul only in each years returning, [Page 161] but a whole people.’ When God bad his Prophet Ezechiel to bear on his right side the iniquity of the house of Iudah 40 daies: I have appointed thee (saith God) each day for a year, ( Ezek. 4. 6.) or as the Hebrew, and your Margin hath it, A day for a year, a day for a year. And behold I will lay bonds upon thee, and thou shalt not turn from that side. It may be to us, for our own sins, possibly each day for a million of years, and we may well be patient of the bonds then. Add to this that these 40 daies on this side Easter of mourning for the Bridegrooms taking from us, are answered by other 40, yea 50 following Easter, of joy for the Bridegroom's presence returned. S. Augustin. tractat. 17. in Ioan. Cum labore celebramus Quadragesimam ante Pascha: cum laetitiâ verò tanquam acceptâ mer­cede quinquagesimam post Pascha: ‘With labour let us observe the Quadragesimal or 40 daies fast before Easter: But with joy the 50 daies Celebrity after Easter when we receive as it were a re­ward.’ Ambros. l. 8. in Luc. Majores tradidere nobis Pentecostes omnes 50. dies ut Pascha celebrandos. Per hos 50. di­es jejunium nescit Ecclesia, ficut Domini­câ quâ Dominus resurrexit, & sunt omnes dies tanquam dominic [...]. Our Ancestors have deliver'd unto us all the 50 dayes ending in Whitsunday to be celebrated as [a continued] Ea­ster. Through these 50. dayes the Church knows no fasting, as neither on the Lords-day, whereon the Lord rose from the dead; and these (50) are as it were all Lords-days. And in S. Ambros. Ser [...]. 60. Sic enim [...]disposuit Dominus, u [...] sicut ejus passione in Quadragesimae jejuniis contrist aremur, ita ejus resurrectione in Quinqua­ [...]esimae ferii [...] l [...]taremur. Non igitur jejunamus in hâ▪ Quinquag [...]mâ▪ quia in his di [...]bus nobis [...]um Dominus commoratur, non inquam jejunamus praesente Domino, quia ipse ait: Nun­quid possunt filii sponsi jejunare, quamdiu cum illis est sponsus? For, so hath the Lord disposed, that as we are to sorrow in his Passion by the Fasts of Lent, so should we from his Resurrection rejoyce in the 50 daies following Celebrity. In these therefore we fast not, because in these daies the Lord abideth with us. We fast not, I say, the Lord being present, because himself said, Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast, so long as the Bridegroomi [...] [...]? Forty daies Fast, (at least abstinence from pleasures, from full and pleasurable dyet) is a num­ber [Page 162] consecrated by God in the Old and New Testament, in the Law by Moses, in the Pro­phets by Elias, in the Gospel by Christ: Moses the Type of Christs Mediation, Elias of his Ascen­sion, both the figures of his 40 daies Fast, and both they, and only they appear with him in glory at his Transfiguration. Moses by whose mediatory hand the Law was given, yet fasted 40 dayes, Elias who did not trouble Israel but was jealous for the Lord of hosts, yet fasted 40 daies, and troubled his own flesh: The Lord Christ, who knew no sin, yet fasted 40 daies, and thou who art a sinner, yet cum Domino penitùs jejunante non ob­servas Quadragesimae moderata jejunia? ‘With the Lord fasting wholly, dost thou not observe the moderate Fasts of Lent?’ saith S. Ambrose Serm. 34. de Quadragesimâ. We have sinned, and 40 daies was the number of daies of Gods judgement on the old world by waters for sin. Forty daies fast the second time Moses undertook, to ask pardon for the peoples sin. Forty years the people of Israel bare their iniquities in the wilderness ( Num. 14.) Forty daies fast like the 40 stripes appointed by God for the offender, ( Deut. 25.) Forty daies the space which God gave Nineveh to repent in from their sins, and to avert their denounced destruction. The Spies sent by God returned from search of the land of Ca­naan after 40 daies, ( Num. 13. 25.) and brought of the fruit of the Land. Now walk we therefore circumspectly, wisely in the land of our pilgri­mage. With what fear? with what care? (2 Cor. 7.) Then shall we return with the cluster of grapes, the wine of Angels, the blood of Christ, a hap­py [Page 163] taste of the fruits of our future Canaan. Chry­sologus Serm. 116. thus speaketh, 40 diebus ac noctibus expiaturus terram coelestis Imber effunditur—Attendite, fratres, quantus sit quadragenarius numerus iste, qui & tunc coelum terris aperuit abluendis, & nunc fontem Baptismatis orbi toti pandit: Speaking of the solemn publick celebration of Baptism (where­of the Deluge of waters cleansing the earth was a type) at the end of the 40 daies of Lent. At the end of 40 daies Noah according to Gods word opened the window of the Ark, which he had made. At the end of 40 daies God opens to us the window of heaven, and sends down the Man­na of the holy Eucharist: when we with Moses and Elias have (according to our poor measure) fasted or abstained in some sense 40 daies, that at the end we may appear before God (as they) in a meet preparation to the Holy Eucharist; we yet shall need to wrap, with Elias, our faces in our mantles, and to fear before his presence in our approach to his Holy Table.

Conclude we therefore this of the Quadrage­simal Fast with that of S. Bernard Serm. 3. Nun­quid non valdè indignum est, ut nobis onerosum sit [ Qua­dragesimale jejunium] quod Ecclesia portat universa nobiscum? ‘Is it not a very unworthy thing, that that should seem burdensome to us, which the whole Church bears with us?’ And how universal this practise was, that of S. Basil in his 2 ^d Homi­ly of the praise of fasting will tell you: ‘In this time of Lent, there is no Island nor Continent of the earth, no City, nor Nation, no extream cor­ner of the world, where the Edict of this Fast of Lent was not heard. Yea whatsoever Armies, [Page 164] Merchants, Travellers, or Mariners are abroad, this Fast comes unto them all, and with joy they all receive it.—This composes every house, every city, and every people, in sobriety, and quiet, and concord; this st [...]ls the la [...]e clamours, contentions, and noyses of the town: Let no one therefore exempt himself from the number of Fasters, in which every degree, nation and age almost of men, and all of all dignities whatsoe­ver are engaged.’

And now lest any of the forty daies Spies of this Montanous land should bring up an evil re­port upon it, and affright you with the men of Anak, with the difficulty of this Forty daies Fast; and by reason of some bottles, that do flie, the good liquor should be in some part spilt, and per­haps some bottles perish, and the Religious exer­cise of Fasting evil spoken of, [...], and the Schism be made worse; I shall sin­cerely let you know, how and in what manner the Generality of the Christian Church did in ancient daies observe this Fast of Lent; which I doubt not but will be judg'd by you a light and easie yoke. And as S. Ambrose serm. 34. de Qua­drages. cals it, Quotidiana & moderata Quadrage­simae jejunia, ‘the daily and moderate Fasts of Lent.’ This S. Hierom also in his Epistle ad Laetam, doth caution: In perpetuo jejunio hoc praeceptum sit, ut longo itineri vires perpe [...]es suppeterent, ne in primâ▪ mansione currentes, in mediis corruamus. ‘In a con­tinued Fast take this precept, that you take care how your strength may last, and supply you for so long a journey.’ The same S. Hierom Epist. 15. Displicent mihi in teneris maximè aetatibus longa & [Page 165] cimmoderata jejunia, ‘Fasts not only long continu­ed, but also immoderate displease me, especi­ally in young and tender ages.’ Therefore S. Chry­sostome also provided, ( [...]) that in Lent relaxing their Fast on two daies together every week, Saturday and the Lords-day, they might take breath as it were, [...]. ‘The Lord hath indulged these two weekly daies (Saturday and the Lords-day) like certain stages, inns, or havens, that the body being for a little while relax'd from its labours of the Fasting, and the mind comforted, they may again, when these two daies are passed over, afresh set upon the remaining part of the Fast to be travell'd through.’ Basilius Magnus, [...] [Page 166] [...]. ‘For this I think we ought to take care of, that by no immoderate excess of abstinence we dissolve the strength of the body, and ren­der it unactive, and languishing as to any ho­nest employment and businesse. For God when he made man, would not, that he should be idle and not stirring, but active, as to things agreable to his nature, commanding Adam himself in Paradise, to labour and to keep the garden. It is meet therefore, that nothing be innovated contrary to nature and the bounds set us by the gracious Author of our nature; but abiding within them, to maintain our bodies fit for action. In no wise dissolving its strength by immoderate fulnesse, or fasting. For this I suppose to be the best oeconomy to follow the laws of nature set us, and by no means to consume or enfeeble the body by immode­rate spendings of it. This also we must pro­vide for, that neither upon pretence of the bodies need we thrust our selves forth into the service of pleasure. We ought to use both moderate fastings, and yet supply the body with necessary [Page 167] sustentation. Not following the prescriptions of pleasure, but of reason, accurately judging what is needful for us, concerning our viands; consulting right reason, as a knowing Physician, which may take care of the infirmity of our bo­dy, by things meet for it, disinteressed from our appetites and passions. It is much better and more behooveful, that our bodie should be pre­served, in its consistent strength, and vigour for good actions, then by our own counsel to render it as it were dissolv'd and unactive.’ Thus far S. Basil, one of the most strict Asceticks of the Ancients, to whom agrees also Procopius Gazaeus upon Isa. 1. [...]. ‘He would a Fast, which without ostentation, should bring into subjection our carnal mindedness—But de­clares it our duty not to extend abstinence from meats, so far, as to weaken or dissolve the vigour of the body, or draw the mind to an inadver­tent incogitancy.’

You see how unanimously and tenderly the anci­ent Doctors of the Church agree on this caution of Observanda, but Moderata Quadr age simae jejunia; ‘The fasts of Lent to be observed, but with just and e­quitable moderation.’ How by the Ancients it was moderated we will now say in a few words.

First, Then a Quadragesima all call'd it, as in which though they could not hope to imitate the miraculons 40. dayes fast, of Moses, Elias, and Christ our Lord: yet in all those 40. dayes they could [Page 168] abstain, and they abstained from pleasures, and bread of delight, from publick joyances, and private unnecessary indulgences. And as many as whose health could bear it (without experience, or just fear of sicknesse, or weaknesse) from flesh and wine also: but as to the abstaining from all food till the evening, the generality of the pious Christians both of the East and Western Church sought out within that 40 dayes space, for their pattern some example of meer man, as themselves were, and that one unassisted with miraculous power (as Moses and Elias were) viz. Daniel his 3 weeks fast, Dan. 10. 2, 3. Whereupon I assure my self, that both the Western Church, even Rome it self singled out to themselves among their 40 dayes of abstinence (as Leo fitly cals it) 21 dayes, or 3 weeks for full fasts until the evening: the Eastern Church likewise 3 weeks, in which they reckoned but 15 dayes, (as ap­pears from Socrates) as reckoning the weeks with­out the Sunday, and Saturday, on which the Eastern Church fasted not, except only one Saturday in the year, the Vigil of Easter day. As to the Western Church, where was the fast of Lent more strictly observed, then in Ancient Rome? Yet hear Leo the great, and first Bishop of that name in that See, thus instructing the Christian people of Rome, in his 4 ^th Ser­mon of Lent. Ut omni immunditi â à penetralibus cordis exclusâ, sanctificetur jejunium nostrum [Qua­drage simale]—Secundâ igitur & quartâ, & sexta Feriâ jejunemus, Sabbato autem apud B. Petrum Apostolum vigilias celebremus. ‘That all uncleanesse being shut out from the inmost of our heart, [Page 169] our [Lent] fast may be sanctified.—Let us therefore fast on the 2 ^d, 4 ^th and 6 ^th day of the week, and on saturday keep a watch apud B. Petrum. Apostolum.’ These 3 dayes of each week in their 6 weeks fast of Lent from Quadragesima-Sunday made up 18 dayes, which with Ash-wednesday, and the friday following Ash-wednesday, and Easters-eve made up just their 21 daies Fast: which Epiphanius and the Tri­partite History ( l. 9. c. 38.) relate that the Romans fasted ( i. e. with this full fasting unto the evening) the space of 3 weeks before Easter. The same saith Socrates twice of the Eastern Churches 15 daies fast, which they also measured for 3 weeks (exempting the Lords-day, and the Sabbath-day, as hath been said.) Thus great an agreement there was to observe both the Lords 40 daies Fast by their abstinence from pleasures, flesh, and wine, and if able, by stricter fasting, Daniel's 3 weeks. Which they had great reason thus to emulate; 1. For that his only was done, as meer man contenting himself with the measure of a man, after he had seen Moses, and Elias's more glorious, but mira­culous, example. 2 ^dly Because Daniel himself did undertake that 3 weeks Fast upon his fore­seeing in Spirit, the taking away of this our Bride­groom, the cutting off of Messias the Prince, but not for himself. Compare the end of Daniel c. 9. v. 24, 26. with the beginning of c. 10. 2, 3. 3 ^dly This Fast was kept by him (saith the Text v. 4.) in the first moneth of the year, answering to our March; the time wherein the Messias was to be cut off, wherein the Christian Church would afterward celebrate their Paschal Fast for his [Page 170] Passion. 4 ^thly For the great acceptation with God, that this three-weeks Fast of Daniel found. Compare c. 10. v. 2, 3. with v. 12. In those daies I Daniel was mourning three full weeks: I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wiae in my mouth, neither did I anoint my self at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. V. 12. Then said he unto me: Fear not Daniel: For from the first day, that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thy self before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. Thus we read when 40 daies were indicted by God for Nineveh's destruction, a three-daies Fast of Ionah in the Whales belly was accepted for him, And the Whale vomited up Jo­nah upon the dry land. And a three-daies Fast of the city Nineveh, a city of three daies journey to pass through, was accepted of God for their deli­verance. (See Ionah 3. according to the Lxx.) And God repented of the evil he had pronounced a­gainst them, and he did it not. On which saith S. Chrysostome tom. 6. [...] [ [...]] [...] [Page 171] [...]. ‘Drunkenness and gluttony shook the city of Nineveh, when it stood fair and flourishing, but the Fast [of three daies] when it shook, and was about to fall, establish'd its standing. For forthwith you might see them all run unto fasting, both men and women, servants, and masters, Rulers, and people, children, and old men; nor was e­ven the irrational nature of beasts priviledg'd from this service. Every where was seen sack­cloth, every where ashes, every where lamen­tation and mourning. And a strange sight it was to see, what the Purple and Diadem could not do, that Sack-cloth and Ashes prevailed to do—And delivered the city from their dan­gers. Fear not therefore—when ye hear of the Fast; for that is not terrible to us [which delivers us from fearful judgements.] But it is terrible to the Devils—Since it is therefore so terrible to the enemies of our life, we ought to love, and embrace, and not to fear it.’ S. Chry­sostome had learned this from that of our Lord (to whom every knee of things beneath the earth also do bow) Mat. 17. 20, 21. This kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting. You have seen the gracious Acceptance which the Nine­vites Fast sound with God Almighty. But lest any of us should undergo like labour, and miss of like acceptance, how far in the next place directions for the truly Religious manner of per­formance of this duty of fasting will be neces­sary, S. Chrysostome will tell you upon the occasion [Page 172] of this Ninevites Fast, in his 3 ^d Homily ad pop. An­tiochen. [...]. ‘For the nature of fasting, saith he, sufficeth not to free those which are exercised there­with; except it be performed according to a meet rule, or law. For he that striveth for masteries, is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Lest therefore we undergoing the [Page 173] pain of fasting, fall short of the crown and reward thereof, let us learn how, and after what manner we ought to perform the thing. For otherwise we know, the Pharisee also fasted, but after his fast, he went away empty and void of the fruits of fasting. Yea the Publican, who fasted not, was preferr'd before him that fasted, that you may learn, how there is no benefit of the fast, except all other requisits also do accompany it. The Ninevites fasted, and drew down upon themselves the favour of God. The Iews also fasted, and were never the neerer, but went away accused. Since therefore there is so great danger of the fast, to those, who know not how they ought to fast, LETUS LEARN THE LAWS OF FASTING, that we run not uncer­tainly, nor beat the air, nor be as such cuffers who fight as it were with their shadow. Fasting is a medicine; but physick, although it be never so good, that is prescribed, oftimes becomes unprofitable, by reason of the imprudence of him that useth it. For that he ought well to know, both the season of taking it, and the quantity, and the constitution of the body, that receives it, and the air or region, and the season of the year, and what dyet is to be taken with it, and many other rules; of which he that shall oversee any marres the whole course of physick; which he had enter'd upon.’ Let us then now come to these [...], which St. Chrysostom sayes we are to learn, the rules and laws of this fast, especially of Lent; that it may be such a fast, as God hath chosen. I will name eight. 1. That our [Page 174] fasting be as the Church at first design'd it, a great instrument of our great work of repentance from our sins, of judging our selves, that we be not judg­ed of the Lord; of more instant mortifying all sinful lusts and affections, (as it is a special season of memory of Christs death and passion) foras­much as Christ hath suffer'd for us, and we, if with him we suffer in the flesh, must cease from sin, as we learn from St. Peter. 2 ^dly. That our [...] Pet. 4. 1. fast be truly fasting, not a commutation only of our usual di [...]t for other delightful fulness, refecti­ons, and pleasures. 3 ^dly. That fasting be not sever'd from its ancient company of watchings, hard-lyings, sorrowings, sequestration of orna­ments, and publick joyances. 4 ^thly. That in our fasting our bowels relent from all hard oppression of others to all works of justice, the fast which God hath chosen to undoe heavy burdens, and to break every yoke. 5 ^thly. That it abound in works of Isa. 58. mercy; the fast commanded us by God, to deal our bread, from which we fast, to those who not of choice, but by necessity do hunger. 6 ^thly. To make our fastings subservient to our more instant prayers, as our bodies to our Souls; for a time, as St. Paul speaks, [...], giving ourselves to attend on fasting and prayer, (1 Cor. 7.) as also to more frequent hearing of Gods word; as the Church at this season provides more frequent sermons, that while the outward man fasts, the inward man may be filled dayly. 7 ^thly. More particularly take we care in this time of the absti­nence of Lent to prepare ourselves for the Lords Holy Table at Easter, to which it is instituted as a preparation. Lastly. That all this your good [Page 175] be not leaven'd with the leaven of vain-glory and hypocrisy, when ye fast be not as the hypocrites are. These the Ancient Doctors did joyn together in their injunctions; as may be seen, especially throughout St. Chrysostoms Homilies on Lent. Thus Caesarius Bishop of Arles. A. D. 508. in his 2 ^d Homilie of Lent. Rogo vos, [...] charissimi, ut in isto legitimo ac sacratissimo Quadragesimae tempo­re—etiam quod vos facere credo, charitatis contempla­tione commo [...]eo; ut p [...]r totam Quadragesimam, & usque ad finem paschae castitatem, Deo auxiliante, ser­vantes in illâ sacrosanctâ solemnitate paschae, castitatis luce ves [...]iti, eleemosynis dealbati, orationibus, vigiliis, & jejuniis velut quibusdam coeleslibus & spiritualibus margaritis ornati, non solum cum amicis, sed etiam cum i [...]imicis pacisici, liberâ & securâ conscientiâ ad altaria Domini accedentes, corpus & sanguinem ejus non [...]d judicium, sed ad Remedium possitis accipere. ‘I beseech you, most dear Brethren, that in this ordained and most sacred time of Lent &c—And of love I admonish you (that which I trust you also do) that through the whole Lent unto Easter, keeping yourselves through Gods help in purity; in that holy Solemnity of Easter, you being cloth'd with the light of purity, and made clean and white by Alms, and adorned with Pray­ers, Watchings, and Fastings, as with certain heavenly and Spiritual Pearls; and being at peace not only with your friends, but also with your enemies, approaching with a free and quiet conscience to the Altars of the Lord, may receive his Body and Blood, not to judgement, but for your Spiritual Remedy and healing.’ Hath not our Lord Christ prepared and mingled [Page 176] as it were all these together in one part of his Sermon on the mount, Prayer, Alms, and Fasting, and charitable forgiving, and putting far from us hy­pocrisie (in those) & Repentance? Ma [...]. 6. & 7. c. to v. 5. And these are indeed all link'd together in their own nature; when our fasting helping forward, and witnessing our Humiliation and Repentance, enabling us also the better to watching, and both giving us opportunity to Prayer, and enabling us at least out of what by Fasting we spare from our own bodies, to feed and relieve the poor; and therefore much more doing justice to others, in all things performing sincere obedience to God and his Church without hypocrisie, in love of our brethren and neighbours, and purity of our bo­dies, and meet preparation of our souls, we ap­proach at the end of the fast, to the Holy Table, and heavenly feast of Christs most holy, purifying, and sanctifying Body and Blood. S. Austin somewhere compares the Faith of Christians to the lamp, Alms to the oyl in the lamp, Fasting and Watching to the golden snuffers of the San­ctuary, Prayer to the Incense, Justice and Obedi­ence to the Sacrifice. But of those eight, let us pro­ceed distinctly to speak somewhat to each. 1. That Fasting be joyned with Repentance; Ut corpus & anima simul jejunent; corpus à cibis, Anima ab omni re malâ, saith S. Hierom ad Rusticum. ‘That the soul and body be joyn'd in the Fast, the Bo­dy commanded to fast from food, and the soul from every evil thing.’ Quale est enim (saith S. Austin) propter pecca [...]um jejunare, & in peccatis vo­lutare? ‘For what do we mean to fast for sin, and yet to wallow in sin?’ Before them both, [Page 177] Origen had so advised, Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Ieju­nans debes adire Ponti [...]icem tuum Christum—Et per ipsum offerre hostiam Deo. Vis tibi ostendam, quale te oportet jejunare jejunium? Iejuna ab omni peccato; nullum c [...]bum sumas malitiae, nullas capias epulas vo­luptatis, nullo vino luxuriae concalescas, &c. Nec hoc tamen ideò dicimus, ut abstinentiae Christianae fraena laxemus; Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos, &c. ‘Will you, that I shew you what manner of Fast you ought to fast? Fast from all sin, feed not any way your malice, feast not your self with any pleasures, nor warm your self with any luxury, &c. Yet this we speak not to let loose the reins of Christian abstinence; For we have the daies of Lent consecrated to Fastings, &c.’ S. Chrysostome speaking also of Lent, makes the same judgement of Fasting, ( [...]) [...]. ‘A man may undergoe the labour of fasting, and not receive the reward thereof, [of which reward our Lord spake, Mat. 6.] How? When we abstain from meats, but not from sins: when we eat no flesh, but devour the houses of the poor: when we drink not our fill of wine, but are drunk with evil concupiscence: when thou deniest thy bo­dy its ordinary repasts, and feedest thy soul [Page 178] with unlawful food: when thou fastest with thy body, and hast eyes full of adultery.’ The same Father in his 3. Homil. ad pop. Aatioch. [...] [Page 179] [...]. ‘* The fast I speak of is not that of the vulgar, but the accurate fasting; not the abstinence from meats only, but from sins. See we what it is, that dissolv'd that indeclinable wrath [gone out against the Ninevites] was it fasting ONLY and sack-cloth? That cannot be said. But the change of their whole life—And God saw their works. What works? that they fasted? that they were cloth'd with sack-cloth? neither of these doth he mention; but saith, that every one return'd from his evil wayes, and God re­pented of the evil, that he had said he would do unto them. Seest thou, that not fasting deliver'd them from their danger, but the change of their life rendred God propitious to those Barbarians? This I have said, not that we might dishonour fasting, but that we might honour it. For the honour of fasting is not the abstinence from meats, but the separating our­selves from our sins, so that he who defines fasting, by abstinence from meats ONLY, he it is who especially dishonours Fasting. Dost thou fast? shew it me by thy works. What works wilt thou say? If thou seest the poor, shew him mercy. If thou seest thine enemy, be reconcil'd to him. If thou seest thy friend in honour, envy him not—Let not thy mouth ONLY fast, but also thine eye, thine ear, thy feet, thy hands, and all the members of thy body. Let thy hands fast from rapin and injury, let thy feet fast from running to unlawful spectacles, let thine eyes fast from busy beholding beauties belonging [Page 180] to others; for beholding with the eyes is as it were the food of the eyes; which if it be forbidden food, marres our fast—Let the fast of the hearing be, not willingly to take up accusations and slanders. With this Patriarch of Constanti­nople agrees S. Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria in his first Hom. de Fest. Paschal.’ [...] [ [...] suprà nominatas] [...] [Page 181] [...]. ‘For in no wise may we find the truer grace of fasting in ONLY abstinence from food, but let us send away, and free ourselves from for­nication, uncleannesse, inordinate affection, and evil concupiscence; for the remedy whereof this medicine of fasting was found out—Feed not therefore your mind with the pleasures of intemperance, mortify the fury of fornication, free your mind from inordinate affection, [...]ee the fellowship of unclean persons. It is good therefore in season to abstain from needless meats, and to withdraw from an exquisite table, least filling ourselves with superfluous food, we awaken the sin, that dwels and sleeps in us: for the flesh waxing fat, and living in pleasure becomes difficult and hard to be master'd by the motions and desires of the Spirit—Let there­fore evil be evacuated in us, and all delicacy of food pass beside us—Let sober fasting enter in unto us, which is the enemy of all sin. But it is troublesome. Resp. If refusing to endure a little we shall fall into greater and sorer sufferings—I would gladly ask those that are so affected, whether they will say it is trouble­some to fast, or to be punished for ever. Viz. Which might be pre­vented by fast­ing after a right manner, (1 Cor. 9. ult.) I Keep un­der my body, and bring it into sub­jection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I my self should be a cast-away.—Let us love therefore the fast, as being the mo­ther of all good and of all cheerfulness—Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For so, [...]o, I say, shall we perform a pure fast unto the Lord, beginning the H. Lent from the 15 [Page 182] day of the month of February [so it fell that year.]’ And that you may understand S. Chrysostomes nega­tive above, [...], to be spoken, as not excluding Fasting from repentance in the deliverance of the Ninevites, but as pronouncing Fasting ineffectual with exclusion of repentance; and where they were both, Repentance to have been the principal, and the other for its sake, but for its sake to be assum'd; both his own words there following teach us, and more clearly S. Cyril here in this Homily, [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘What was it that sav'd the Ninevites from that great commination? For the Prophet pro­claim'd; Yet three [others read 40] daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. They betaking themselves to Fasting, as to an impregnable hold, by importunity pacify'd the divine anger, and were deliverd from the impendent evils.’ Where Cyrils Fasting must be understood likewise accor­ding to his words above, as including also the more principal work, Repentance. You have heard how these two renowned Patriarchs have defin'd the true Fasting; the rest are long.

Hear we now therefore our own Churches de­finition of it, in her Homily of Fasting, that as Fasting (in the outward part of it) is a with­holding of meat and drink, and all natural food from the body, for the determined time of fast­ing; so also (saith the 2 ^d part of the Homily) [Page 183] The inward Fast of the mind is a sorrowfulness of heart, detesting and bewailing our sinful doings. A larger description if you require, you may take it thus: Fasting is a denying our selves lawful re­freshments, for having not deny'd our selves in un­lawful desires; a real judging our selves worthy to be punished, that we be not judged, and affli­cting or punishing our selves, ( Ezra 8. 21.) judg­ing our selves also worthy (and executing on ourselves, for sometime, that judgment) of the wonted blessings created of God for man to enjoy, for our former inordinate enjoyments of them, and our other offences against God. Illicitorum veniam postulantem oportet etiam illicitis abstinere, saith Ha­lidgarius lib. d. Ordin. Poenitent. c. 5. [ sed multo magis ab illiciis] Tertullian Antiently in his book of Re­pentance c. 9. Plerunque vero jejuniis preces alere, ingemiscere &c. [ oportet.] In quantum non peperceris tibi, in tantum tibi Deus (crede) parcet. ‘We ought frequently to feed our prayers with fast­ings, and with groans to utter them &c. By how much thou sparest not thy self, God will spare thee.’ Which Caesarius of Arles in Hom. 1. de Quadrages. thus dilates upon: Iejunia ac vigi­liae & sanctae afflictiones humilitate corpora macerant, maculata corda purificant—ac sic mortificatione prae­senti futura mortis sententia praevenitur, & dum cul­pae autor humiliatur, culpa consumitur, dumque exte­rior afflictio voluntariae districtionis infertur, tremen­di judicii offensa sedatur, & ingentia debita labor solvit exiguus, quae vix consumpturus erat ardor aeter­nus. ‘Fastings and watchings, and holy afflicti­ons macerate the body in humiliation, and purify the heart from its stains—And so by pre­sent [Page 184] mortification the future sentence of death is prevented. And while the author of the sin is humbled, the sin is consumed; and while the outward affliction of voluntary severity is in­flicted, the offence of the dreadful judgment is appeased, and a little labour dissolveth great debts, which eternal burning scarce would eat out.’

Thus Fasting avails, much joyn'd with repen­tance; repentance also is best perform'd in con­junction with Fasting. S. Basil the great in his 1. Sermon of Fasting, [...]. ‘Repentance with­out Fasting, is scarce set on work—Fasting is the initiatory discipline of repentance—the restraint of anger, the separating from concu­piscences.’ So see we in the example of whole communities, that Gentile city of the Ninevites ( Ionah 3.) and the Iews the people of God ( Ioel 2.) How it serves to the perfecting of the imperfect Proselytes, in the instance of Cornelius ( Act. 10. 9.) How in conversion of single sinners, in the instance of Saul, anon S. Paul ( Act. 9. 9.) The reason is rendred by Chrysologus in his 7 ^th Sermon on Mat. 6. Agricola si non impresserit cultrum, si sulcum non de­foderit, si non exciderit sentes, si gramina non evuise­rit, si in tuto semina non locârit, sibi mentitur, non terrae; nec terrae facit damnum, sed sibi non facit fru­dum; & ita se vacuat, ita decipit, impugnat ita, qui terrae manu fallaci mentitur. Expounding himself further within a few lines thus. Premens jejunii aratrum, & abscindens gulae gramina, atque eradicans luxuriae sentes. ‘The husbandman, if he break [Page 185] not up the ground with the plow of fasting, if he cut not, dig not the surrow, if he cut not up the thorns of luxury, if he pluck not up the rank grass of superfluous plenty, if he place not the feed in safety, he is false to himself, not to the earth, brings no damage to the ground, but reaps▪ no fruit to himself; and so deceives himself, who deals so with a deceitful hand about his ground.’ According to that of the Prophet, Ier. 4. 3. Break up your fallow-ground, and sow not among thorns. And Ier. 10. 12, 13. Sow to your selves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow-ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Now for as much as Fasting is so useful an instrument of contrition S. Chrysostome, [...]. ad Ste­lechium de Compunctione, [...], Even as it is hard, yea rather impossible, to mingle fire with water; so I deem, that fulness of delicacy, and compunction can­not be found together—for this is the mother of tears and watching, the other of laughter and extravagancy. and Repentance, most wisely in the Church is there appointed a yearly publick season of joynt Fasting and penance; wherein not only publick offenders, but secret also, even the whole Congregation joyn in hu­miliation for their sins: according to that of Leo the Great Serm. 4 de Quadrages. Dum per varias actiones vitae hujus sollicitudo distenditur, ne­cesse est de mundano pulvere etiam Religiosa corda sordescere: Ideò magnâ divinae in­stitutionis salubritate provisum est, ut ad repa­randam mentium puritatem 40 nobis dierum exercitatio mederetur, in quibus aliorum temporum culpas, & pia opera redimerent, & jejunia casta decoquerent. Which I have englished above. But to the same sense I may alledge that of S. Austin. l. 1. c. 169. Quaest. super [Page 186] Genes. Which is to be added to the 7 Testimonies for Lent, which I have out of him already pro­duc'd. Non enim frustra 40. dies jejuniorum sunt constituti, quibus Moses, & Elias, & ipse Dominus jejunavit, & Ecclesia praecipuâ observatione jeju­niorum, Quadragesimam vocat. Unde & in He­braeo de Ninevitis apud Ionam Prophetam scriptum pe [...] ­hibent, Quadraginta dies, & Nineveh subvertetur; ut per tot dies poenitentium humiliationi accommodatos, intelligatur in jejuniis sua deflevisse peccata &c. ‘For it was not in vain, that 40. daies were constituted, in which Moses, and Elias, and the Lord himself fasted, and the Church with special observance of fastings, calleth Lent. Whence also concerning the Ninevites in the Prophet Ionah, it is said to be written in the Hebrew: Yet 40 daies, and Nineveh shall be destroyed; that through so many dayes accommodated to the humiliation of penitents, they may be understood to have bewail'd their sins in fastings.’

For this cause S. Hierom also thinks, that not only Iohn the Baptist, a preacher of repentance, was so remarkable for fasting, but that our Lord also, who began to preach and to say, Repent ( Mat. 4. 17.) entred upon his office of preaching with the preparation of the fast of 40 dayes: Ipse quoque Dominus, verus Ionas, missus ad praedicationem mundi, jejunavit 40 dies, & haereditatem nobis jejunii relinquens. ‘The Lord himselfe the true Ionas sent to preach (Repentance) to the world, fasted 40 daies, leaving to us also the inheritance of fasting.’ S. Cyril of Ierusalem in his 1 Catech. Thou hast given unto thee the penance of 40 dayes (speaking of Lent) which 40 dayes Leo also cals in [Page 187] his 4 serm of Lent, Dies mysticos, & purificandis animis atque corporibus sacratiùs institutos. ‘Dayes of mystical meaning, instituted & dedicated to the purifying of our souls and bodies.’ Theodulphus Bishop of Orleans Anno Christi. 843. in his Epistle num. 36, 37, Quadragesima cum summâ observa­tione custodiri debet—Ipsos dies cum omni religione & sanctitate transigere debemus—Hebdomadâ unâ ante initium Quadragesimae, confessiones sacerdotibus dandae sunt, poenitentia accipienda, discordantes recon­ciliandi, & omnia jurgia sedanda, & dimittere de­bent debita invicem de cordibus suis &c. As S. Chry­sostome before had said, [...] ex M. S. Re­gio. [...]. The day of fasting, the day of com­posed gravity, the day of bro­therly love. Et sic ingredientes in Beatae Quadragesimae tempus, mun­dis & purificatis mentibus, ad Sanctum Pascha accedant, &c. ‘Lent itself ought to be kept with all ob­servance, and those daies to be pass'd with all religion and sanctity, and one week before the beginning of Lent, confessions are to be made to the Priests [ viz. by such as need advice and relief to their conscience] penance is to be receiv­ed, persons fallen into difference to be reconcil'd, and all strifes taken up, and men ought to for­give each other from their hearts &c. And so entring into the blessed time of Lent with clean and purify'd minds, they may arrive to the Holy Pasche (or Easter.)’

The 2 ^d rule was, that our Fast be truly fasting; (where the body is well and truly able) not an ex­change only of our usual dyet for other delightful fulness and refections: For if Fasting be any thing, to which God hath promised any reward (as he hath Mat. 6. 16.) Be Fasting how little a thing soever, yet it is no small danger to mock God, who sees both in secret, and otherwise, and obser­veth, [Page 188] that to which he hath promised to render a reward openly. It is a fearful thing, even in bo­dily things, yea and happily such as were in our own power, before they were pretended to, to lie to the holy Ghost. The 2 ^d Councel of Chalon. [...]. 35. complains of some mens fasting. Et si carnium & vini usus eis interdictus est, mutatâ non voluntate, sed ejusdem cibi aut po [...]ús perceptione in tantum deliciis suis indulgent, ut deliciosiùs, his int [...]r­dictis, aliorum ciborum vel potionum appetitu vi [...]e cognoscantur. Spiritalis autem abstinentia, quae in poe [...]i­tentibus vigere potissimùm debet, & quorundam ci­borum ac potionum perceptiones, & desiderium sugere debet—sibi non solum quarundam rerum perceptione, sed delectatione corporis penitùs interdicit. ‘Although the use of flesh and wine be precluded them, yet changing not their will, but only the kind of meat and drink, they so far indulge their pleasures, that those being interdicted them, they are known to live more deliciously, after their appetite of other meats and drinks. But the spiritual abstinence, which ought to be eminent in penitents, should both fly the enjoyment of certain meats and drinks, and also wholly in­terdict to them corporal delights.’ S. Austin also, or whoever else was the Author of 157 ^th Sermon, which is of the time of Lent, tells us, that which is too true whosoever said it) Sunt quidam ob­servatores Quadragesimae deliciosi potiùs quam religiosi, exquirentes novas suavitates, magis quàm veteres con­cupiscentias castigantes; qui pretiosis copios [...]sque appa­ratibus fructuum diversorum quorumlibet varietat [...]s & sapores superare contendunt. Vasa in quibus coctae sunt [...]arnes t [...]quam immunda f [...]rmidant, & in carne su [...] [Page 189] ventris & gutturis luxuriam non reformidant; Ieju­nant, non ut solitam temperando minuant edacitatem, sed ut immoderatam differendo augeant aviditatem. Nam ubi tempus resiciendi advenerit, optimis mensis tanquam pecora praesepibus irruunt, ventresque disten­dunt, artisiciosis & peregrinis condimentorum diversita­tibus, tantum capiunt manducando, quantum digerere non sussiciunt jejunando.—tanquam non sit Qua­dragesima piae humiliationis observatio, sed novae vo­luptatis occasio, &c. ‘There are certain observers of Lent, followers of delicacy more then of Re­ligion, that hunt out new delights of the belly, rather then correct the concupiscences of the old man; Who by costly and rich provisions, and manner of cooking, strive to outdoe the variety of natural tastes, of whatsoever several fruites of the earth. They are afraid of any vessels in which any flesh hath been boyl'd, as unclean; and yet in their own flesh fear not to admit the luxury of the throat and belly. These fast, not that they may by moderating themselves dimi­nish their wonted full-feeding, but that by de­ferring a meal, they may increase their intempe­rate greediness of the belly; for when the time of Refection comes, they rush to their tables, as beasts to their full mangers, and distending their bellies through diversities of artificial and strange sawces, take in so much by devouring, as they are not able again to digest by fasting.—as if Lent were not the observation of a pi­ous humiliation, but an occasion of seeking out new pleasures.’ A like complaint makes Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria, of some in the Churches under his care. Epistolâ Paschali 3. Qui [Page 190] autem legum praecepta custodiunt, ignorant vinum in je­juniis, carnium [...]sum repudiant, & insatiabilem ava­ritiam Dei timore compescunt.—Non possunt susci­pere Correctionem, qui luxuriae oblectatione capiuntur, neque ventris ingluviem ratione & consiliis refraenare, amore jejunii, qui desideria & periturâ cito voluptate studium virtutis infamant, non erubescentes vinum clam bibere, & avidis faucibus arbitros declinantes, in cu­biculis mulsa potare, ut inediam & jejunia quae ul­trò adpetere debebant, jejuniorum tempore, luxuriâ & ebrietate commutent: nescientes quòd, etiamsi hominum conscientiam fugiant, & clausis parietibus vescantur carnibus, atque aves altiles diebus Quadragesimae, & propinquante Pascha immundis manibus lacerent, tristi vultu forìs jejunia promittentes; corripiat hujusmodi—Dominus, &c. ‘Such as observe the rules of Laws, know no wine in their Fasts, refuse eating of flesh, and correct insatiable greediness with the fear of God.—They refuse to receive cor­rection, who are taken with the delights of luxu­ry, nor know they to bridle with the love of fasting, the greediness of the belly, by reason and counsel, who defame the profession and study of vertue through perishing pleasures: being not asham'd secretly to drink wine, and in their cham­bers declining witnesses who may observe them, greedily fill themselves with sweet wine, that they may commute their fasts and abstinence, (in the time of Fastings) with luxury and drun­kenness; not considering, although they fly the conscience of men, and (their doors shut about them) in the daies of Lent feed themselves with flesh; and even Easter drawing near, with hands not clean tear their fatted fowls, and [Page 191] yet outwardly with a sad countenance pro­fessing fastings; that such God reproves, &c.’ This yet they would have thought Religious Fast­ing. Some make such satisfaction afterwards to their belly, their God, for some few hours prece­ding emptiness (of which Tertullian said, Spernitur jejunium, quod vespere deliciis compensatur. ‘Not God only, but the man himself despises his own fast of the day, which in the evening he recom­penses with delicacies:’) as others by laying in store before, provide against the siege of the Fast: both which sorts of fasting S. Chrysostom warn'd his hearers of, tom. 6. [...]. ‘Let not drunken riot usher in so grave a Matron as Fasting, nor let us kick down the meal which we have given, by more then recompensing the meal which we have forgone.’ The very same Admonition is S. Ba­sil's (in his 1. Homily of Fasting) [...]; ‘Let not Drunkenness ini­tiate thee into the Fast—He who is to combate, exercises himself before; He that enters upon the Fast, must practise temperance before, not a­venging the fasting daies, not dealing deceitfully with the Law-giver—Why invitest thou the enemy to possess beforehand thy strong holds?’ In the day of Fasting, the Ancients simplicity required a deferring of the hour, a di­minution of the quantity, a lessening of the number (if more then one) and an abatement of the quali­ty [Page 192] of our usual daily refections; upon the fore-al­ledged example of Daniel c. 10. v. 2, 3. In those daies I Daniel was mourning three full weaks; I ate no pleasant bread, (or bread of desires, as 'tis in the Text, from which abstaining, he is himself by the Angel call'd a man of desires, c. 9. 23.) neither came flesh, nor nine in my mouth; nor did I anoint my self at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled: S. Hie­rom thus Comments: Hoc docemur exemplo, tempore jejunii à cibis delicatioribus abstinere (quod ego puto nunc dici panem desiderabilem) nec carnem comedere, nec vinum bibere. ‘We are taught by this exam­ple, in the time of our Fast to abstain from more delicate food (which here I suppose to be meant, by pleasant bread) nor to eat flesh [he means, where the consideration of health can agree thereto] nor drink wine,’ [He might have added: Nor use other delicacies, as Daniel abstained from anointing himself at all, a delicacy of those Countreys.] From each of which Eu­sebius relates in his Ecclesiastical History, that S. Iames the Brother of our Lord, did all his time perfectly abstain. Eusebius l. 2. c. 23. [...] [ [...]] [...] &c.— [...]. But Daniel in the three weeks of his Fast, and the generality of the Christian Church in her seven weeks Fast, They judg­ed it not agreeable to the time of their humbling and afflicting their souls, and chastning themselves (as offenders) and bringing into sub­jection their bodies (as servants,) by Fasting, to indulge them such meats and drinks as either were delicate and pleasurable in themselves, or were full of high nourishment to the flesh, or provoked to any carnal [Page 193] appetites or desires, or enkindled the blood, and spirits. And because I see few, either of the Ro­man or the opposite Perswasion, that in practise or rule admit this of abstinence from wine, as any part of the Fast; I shall only say, besides that it was, and was noted by the Spirit of God, in Daniel. c. 10. 3. and in Iohn Baptist, Luk. 1. 15. beside the many Canons of the Church prescribing it, it may more move some to hear from S. Chrysostome the general practice of the Christian people in his age, Hom. 6. ad Pop. Antioch. [...] [ sc. [...]] [...]. ‘When the Fast of Lent is come, although any one would entreat a man ten thousand times, al­though he would by vexation enforce one to take his part of drinking wine, or any other thing for­bid to be tasted on the Fasts, he would choose to suffer all, rather then to meddle with such for­bidden nourishment. And although we liked well enough, of the pleasure of such Refection, yet for the accustoming of our conscience, we bear all generously, and persist in mourning.’ And as to Daniel's not anointing himself, which is by Synecdoche put for other external delicacies also, our Churches Homily hath told us, That Fasting is an abstinence from all meat and drink, and all natural food, yea and from all delicious pleasures, and delectations worldly. I comprise [Page 194] in this 2 ^d Rule the instructions both of Epiphanius and of Dorotheus the Archimandrite: of Epiphanius in Heresie 75. [...]. ‘In the daies before Easter, when with us are practised lyings on the ground, purities, self-affiictings, dry-diets, prayers, watchings, and fastings &c.’ [those he instructs us were the Churches practises] ‘then they [the Aerians] from the morning fill them­selves with flesh and wine, loading their veins, laugh, deride and mock at such as perform this holy service of the Paschal-week.’ Of Dorotheus Archimandrita, about the year 692, in his 15 ^th Doctrine. [...]—2 [...]. 3 [...], 4. [...]. ‘The Ho­ly Apostles have by their suffrage sanctify'd to us these 7 weeks of fasting—Each one therefore who is willing to be cleansed of his sins of the whole year, is willing through these daies, 1 to keep himself from indifference of meats, 2 next he is willing also not to dissolve [Page 195] his fast [before the set hour] without great ne­cessity. 3 not to seek out pleasurable food. 4 not at any time to burden, or load himself with fulnesse of meats or drinks.’ Antiochus [...]. Now for that this difference of meats, meets with most eager opposition, it shall be useful to recal to your mind, that in Canonical authority Daniel's clear example above, makes the objection of superstition to be itself impious boldnesse. And S. Austins defence among the Writers of the Church, against the Manichees objecting it, shames the objectors for ever. His words at large I cited above p. 120. Where he sayes, ‘Such abstinence from flesh and wine was in the time of Lent observ'd by almost all Catholiques and Christians, for the souls humbling, and the bodies chastening.’ And this he sayes was doctrine (he saith not praeceptum) Pro­phetarum & Apostolorum. I conclude this with that of Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria in his 3 ^d Paschal Epist. Nequaquam diebus Quadragesimae (sicut luxuriosi divites solent) vini poculum suspiremus, neque in praelio, ubi labor & sudor est necessarius, car­nium edulio delectemur. ‘Let us by no means in the dayes of Lent, as is the manner of luxurious rich men, pant after drinking of wine; nor yet in this our spiritual combate, where our labour and sweat is necessary, be delighted with feeding on flesh.’

The 3 ^d rule was, that fasting be not divorc'd from its primitive society of watchings, humi­cubations, sorrowings, putting away ornaments, and publick jollities. Thus these children of the Bride chamber, of whom the Lord said, the daies would come when they should fast, did in those [Page 196] daies with their fastings joyn watchings, and sorrowings. 2 Cor. 6. 5, 10. [...], in watch­ings, in fastings, as sorrowing, yet alwayes rejoy­cing. And c. 11. 27. [...]. ‘In watch­ings often, in fastings often, in weariness and painfulness.’ All, is a sort of fasting, or contain­ing our selves either from meat and drink, or from sleep, (which also is given to nourish and refresh the body) from mirth, from ease, and from ornaments. The use which Watchings have joyn'd with Fasting for Mortification, we hear from Pal­ladius iu historiä Lausiacâ c. 145. concerning Can­dida. [...]. ‘I knew this Generous [ Candida] wont to labour and toyle throughout the whole night—for the taking down the force of her body; declaring her self, that whereas Fasting did not suffice, I add [saith she] thereto, this laborious auxiliary watching.’ In Vigiliis saepè, nam Vigiliae honestatis macerant carnes, saith Primasius in 2 Cor. 6. ‘In watchings often, For ho­nest and sober watchings do macerate and abate the flesh.’ And S. Hierom Epist. 19. ad Fur. de viduitate servandâ. Ardentes Diaboli sagittae jejunio­rum & vigiliarum rigore restinguendae. ‘The fiery darts of Satan are to be quenched and deaded by the rigour of watchings and Fastings.’ Our Lords example I have reserv'd unto the last, which take in the words of Gregory Nazianzen in his 16 ^th [Page 197] Oration: [...]. ‘Good is it to keep under the body, Let Paul perswade thee that; who still chasten'd himself, and striking terrour through those of Israel 1 Cor. 9. 20, 23, 27. into all such as confide in themselves, and indulge their body: And Jesus himself, who fasted & was tempted, and overcame the tempter! Good is prayer and watching, even let [the Lord our] God himself perswade thee, watching and praying before his Passion.’ Next also, Tertullian conjoyns, Castigationem victûs, atque cultûs l. de Poenitent, c. 11. Denying to our selves superfluity of ornaments, as well as of food. Thus God ( Exod. 33. 5, 6.) commanded the children of Israel, when they had sinn'd, to put off their ornaments from them, and they stript themselves of ther ornaments by the mount Horeb. For Humi-cubation, we have David's example, 2 Sam. 12. 16. And David fast­ed a fast, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the Iewes generally, Esth. 4. 3. adding to their fasting, weeping and wailing, and lying in sack-cloth and ashes. I conclude this 3 ^d Rule with that of the 4 ^th Councel of Toledo c. 5. In omnibus praedictis Quadragesimae diebus—opus est 1. fletibus, ac 2. jejuniis insistere, corpus 3. cilicio & cinere induere, 4. animum moeroribus dejicere, gaudium in tristitiam vertere; Quousque veniat tempus resurrectionis Christi, quando oporteat jam Allelujah in laetitiâ canere, & moerorem in gaudium commutare. Hoc enim Ecelesiae univer­salis consensio in cunctis terrarum partibus robo­ravit. [Page 198] ‘In all the foresaid daies of Lent we ought to insist on 1. fasting, and 2. mourning, to cover the body with 3. sack-cloth and ashes, 4. to humble our minde with mournings, to change our joy into heaviness, until the time of the Resurrection of Christ, when we are with joy to sing Allelujah, and turn our heaviness into gladness. For this the consent of the universal Church in all the parts of the earth hath confirmed.’

The 4 ^th Rule, the Prophet Isaiah gives us, con­cerning joyning justice with our Fasting, (which is the acknowledgement of our unrighteousness) in these words ( c. 58. 6.) Is not this the Fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to und [...]e the havey burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Not with the Pharisees fasting twice a week outwardly, and within [all the week] full of extortion and excess, Mat. 23. 25. Not with Iezabels fast, (in the Old Testament) robbing and murdering innocent Naboth; not bearing wit­ness by their holy fasting to their wicked false ac­cusing. Not fasting for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: the fast of the bloody Covenanting conspirators against the life of S. Paul in the New Testament, Act. 23. 21. Many such Fasts and Humiliation-daies from Ieza­bel the late Schism and Seditious conspiracy, her demure and bloody zeal, this poor Nation hath seen lately acted upon the stage. Nunquid membra tua rectè domas, qui Christi membra dilanias? saith S. Austin l. de Utilitate jejunii; ‘Dost thou rightly mortifie thine own members, who butcherest the members of Christ? who r [...]ntest the bowels of thy mother, the Church and Countrey that bare [Page 199] thee?’ Such fasters I cannot better resemble, then to the ancient blood-thirsty Tyrants, who com­manded their Lions to be kept some daies fasting and hungry, that they might with uglier greedi­ness devour the meek condemned Christians.

The 5 Rule was, That (as our feasts, so) our fasts be inseparably conjoyn'd with alms and mercy to the poor. Is not this the fast that I have chosen (saith God) is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out, to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go be­fore thee, &c. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer, Isa. 58. 79. This is proper­ly to forget to eat our bread (with David) and not forget or hide ourselves from our own flesh. One fasting joyn'd with many works of mercy, feeding with our bread, covering with our gar­ments, and bringing into our house. This is righteousness going before thee, making thee friends of unrighteous Mammon, that may receive thee. This makes thy fasting assuredly health; and these two together fail not to obtain, that the 3 ^d, thy prayers miss not to be heard and answer'd of the Lord. Thus much the Prophet. I was fasting, saith Cornelius of himself unto this hour; (the 9 ^th.) But the Angel of God said unto him; Thy prayers and thy alms are come up for a memorial before God. And S. Luke saith of him, He gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alwayes, Act. 10. 2. 4. 30. After whose example Leo (in his 3 ^d [Page 200] serm. de jejunio Pentecostes) directs our fast: ( [...]m sanctas continentiae delicias appetentes aliquantulum nobis de terrenorum ciborum abundantiâ subtrahamus, ita proficiat eleemosynis, quod non impendit r mensis. Tum enim demùm ad animae curationem proficit me­dicina jejunii, cùm abstinentia jejunantis esuriem resi­cit indigentis. ‘When we desirous of the holy delights of abstinence substract from ourselves something of the abundance of our earthly viands, that what is not expended upon our tables, may bring us in great gain, by being laid out on our alms. For then doth the medicine of fasting work to the curing of the Soul, when the absti­nence of him that fasts, refreshes the indigence of him that hungers.’ That Antient writer Ori­gen speaking of Lent-fast, and the weekly stations, tels us of a certain saying of the Apostles, which had come down to him, Hom. 10. in Levit. 16. Habemus enim Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecra­tos; habemus quartam & sextam septimanae dies, quibus solenniter jejunamus—est & alia adhuc religiosa [jeju­nandi ratio] cujus laus quorundam Apostolorum literis praedicatur. Invenimus enim in quodam libello ab Apostolis dictum, Beatus est qui etiam jejunat, pro eo ut alat pauperes. Hujus jejunium valdè acceptum est apud Deum. ‘We have the dayes of Lent consecrated to fastings, we have the 4 ^th and 6 ^th dayes of the week, whereon we solemnly fast—there is also yet another Religious way of fasting, whose praise is set forth in writing from certain of the Apostles; for we find in a certain book, that it was said by the Apostles; Blessed is he, who fasts also for that end, that he may relieve the poor. This mans fast is much [Page 201] accepted with God.’ Misericordia & pietas [eleemosynae & orationes] jejuniis sunt alae, per quas tollitur & portatur ad coelum, sine quibus jacet & volutatur in terrâ, saith Chrysolog. serm. 8. de jejun. ‘Alms and prayers are the wings of fa­sting, by which 'tis carried up to Heaven, [as was Cornelius's] without which it lies dead and spiritless upon the earth.’ Idem ibid. Iejunantes ergo, fratres, prandium nostrum reponamus in manu pauperis, ut servet nobis manus pauperis, quod venter nobis fuerat perditurus—Manus pauperis est gazo­phylacium Christi—Pauperi qui non jejunat, Deo sin­git.—Iejunium sine misericordiâ simulachrum famis est—sine pietate jejunium, occasio est avaritiae. Quia parcitas ista, quantùm siccatur in corpo­re, tantùm tumescit in sacculo. ‘Let us therefore, O my brethren, when we fast deposit our din­ner in the hand of the poor, that that hand may preserve for us, what our belly would lose to us—The hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ—He that fasts not to the poor, doth but feign a fast to God—fasting without works of mercy, is but an empty image of hunger.—Without pity to others 'tis but an occasion taken of covetousnesse▪ Because by such spar­ing, what is taken [...] in the flesh, swels in the bag.’ And in his 7 ^th sermon on Mat. 6. Sciat ille sustinere [...] incassum, se nihil habi­turum, qui premens jeju [...] ▪ aratrum, & abscindens gulae gramina, atque [...]adicans luxuriae sentes, mi­sericordiae semina nulla jactaverit. ‘Let him know that he suffers pain i [...] vain, and shall receive nothing, who [...]ing up his fallow with the plow of fasting, and roo [...]ng up gluttony, and [Page 202] the thorns of luxury, yet casteth into the furrow no seed-corn of the works of mercy.’ As thine own use of meat and drink, and other blessings, so also thy fast itself (wherewith thou wouldst purify and cleanse thy heart) hath need, being not without mixture of sinful infirmities, of that method wherewith to be purify'd, prescrib'd by our Lord. Give alms of such things, as you have; and behold all things are clean unto you, Luke 11. 41. Imple commiserationis officia, & jejunia sanctifi­câsti, saith S. Austin.

The 6 ^th Rule: by these premised duties there is now roome made for thy fervent prayers, which together with more frequent hearing of Gods word, and other works of Devotion are the 6 ^t necessary company of the fast. As in the examples of Moses, Daniel, and Cornelius, and infinite more, might be shewn; for Moses, Deut. 9. 18, 25. I fell down before the Lord, as at the first 40 daies, and 40 nights; I did neither eat bread, nor drink water because of all your sins &c. But the Lord hearkned unto me at that time also—Thus I fell down before the Lord 40 daies, and 40 nights, as I fell down at the first. I prayed therefore unto the Lord and said. And in the New Testament not only the Apostles have coupled them together, 1 Cor. 7. 5. For a season, [...], A season of vacant attendance on fasting and prayer, of which none so common, so fixed, so holy, as this of Lent; But also our Lord himself concerning what was most difficult even to the Disciples themselves, gives this singu­lar prescription, This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting. Upon which words S. Chry­sostome [Page 203] thus comments: [...] [ [...]] [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘He that prays with fasting, hath two wings, and those lighter then the winds themselves; for such a one doth not stretch himself, or yawn, or is drowsie in his prayer—He that fasteth is light and winged, and prayes with vigilancy, and extinguishes his own evil lusts, and renders God propitious to himself, and humbles his own soul, that was lift up. For this cause also the Apostles were almost alwaies in fasting,—Fasting with faith, brings into the soul a great force, and much Philosophy, and makes of a man an Angel, and helps him to fight with incorpo­real powers—Howbeit Fasting by it self alone doth not thus avail; but it hath need of prayer also; and first of prayer.’ [As in nature the soul is before the body; and in the Gospel our Saviour said, By Prayer and Fasting; where he pla­ceth prayer first; but shewes them their prayers then prov'd ineffectual, because they had not an­nexed joyntly Fasting; For as the same Father S. Chrysostom elsewhere sayes ( viz [...] [Page 204] [...]. ex M. S. R▪) [...]. ‘Fasting is the source of Sobriety, the guar­dian of piety or Devotion, nurs'd up with S [...]ts, and having its habitation among Angels. By reason of it both pleasures and Devils fly from us, concupiscence is mortified, and passions are quieted:’ The force of prayer and fasting toge­ther, we read experienced against one of the first enemies of God's Church and people. In Exodo adversùs Amelech oratione Moysis, & totius populi usque ad vesperam jejunio depugnatum est. ‘In Exo­dus the fight was manag'd against Amelech by the prayer of Moses, and the Fast of all the people unto the evening.’ These three holy sisters, Prayer, Alms, and Fasting, are happiest when all three meet together, (as Mat. 6. Act. 10.) But of these three, the 1. Prayer, the eldest daughter of Faith, ( Rom. 10.) must alwaies be present; And there­fore never is out of our power, (oral, or virtual, or mental Prayer, at least.) They which cannot give alms, may fast the more; they which cannot fast, should give the more alms; and if any can neither fast, nor give alms, yet all can pray. Fast­ing disarms the flesh, Alms win friends and auxi­liaries, Prayer fights, as Moses's hands lift up against Amalek, through the might of the Spirit. Alms lades the ship with precious substance, sent before into another countrey; Fasting in any swel­ling of the seas or storm, lightens the vessel, and casts out the unprofitable burden of the ship; Faithful Prayer tugs hard in rowing to bring to [Page 205] the shore: Fasting takes from ones own flesh, that he may in alms give to the poor to supply his wants: and prayer from the riches of God derives grace and strength upon our selves, to supply our own wants. Fasting treads under foot and leaves the earth; Charity and Alms take our Brother by the hand, and raises him up; Prayer pierces the clouds and enters into heaven. S. Ambrose Serm. 23. de Quadragesimâ: Ego testificor vobis—hoc esse tempus coelestis quodammodo medicinae—nunc languidus aegritudinis suae invenit medicinam, si cum solicitudine medici mandata servaverit—Istud au­tem praeceptum ejus est primum, ut his 40 diebus, je­juniis, orationibus, vigiliis operam commodemus. Ie­juniis enim lascivia corporis castigatur, orationibus de­vota saginatur anima: Vigiliis diaboli insidiae depel­luntur. ‘I testifie unto you—that this is the time as it were of the heavenly course of Physick, when the sick person findeth medicine for his malady, if he with all carefulness shall observe the prescriptions of his Physician—Now this is a chief prescription of his, that in these 40 daies we give diligence to fastings, prayers, and watch­ings. For by fastings the lasciviousness of the flesh is chastis'd, by prayers the devout soul is reple­nish'd, by watchings the ambushes of Satan are [discovered and] beaten off.’ In Lent, with the Devotion of prayers and fastings, the Church hath ever annexed other works of Devotion also, as more frequent hearing and preaching Gods word, attending on Sermons, repairing to Church, and the like. S. Chrysostom Hom. 11. in Gen. 2. [...] [Page 206] [...]. ‘For 'tis not this only that is required of us, that we be present here every day [of the Lent] and continually hear concerning the same things [of ghostly concernment] and be in fastings all the Lent; For except we shall gain something by our continual coming hither, and by the [daily] exhortation here; except we bring home some­thing profitable to our own soul, from this sea­son of this Fast, these things shall not only pro­fit us nothing, but shall be an occasion of our greater condemnation: when so great care ha­ving been taken of us, we continue still the same.’ Thus S. Chrysostom, who in his 1. Serm. also of Anna, mentioning how the fast of Lent had then abidden 40 daies among them, mentions as argu­ment of great pleasure to himself and his Audi­tors, [...], ‘the daies of the fast, and their assemblies, and common meetings, and their good things which they had enjoyed by the fast—’ Now although, saith he, we have passed over its labour, [...]. ‘Let us not lay aside the pleasant memory and desire of it.’ And indeed very many of his golden Homilies, (as likewise of others of the Fathers) were Sermons preached day by day in Lent to the people. Of [Page 207] Philip the Roman Emperour about 136 years af­ter S. Iohn's death, Georgius Syncellus (Contempo­rary to the 2 ^d Councel of Nice) thus writeth, ad An. 237. [...]. ‘ Philip so far was joyned to the Faith of Christ: that he gladly consessed his sins, and joyned with the people in the Churches prayers, in the night, or vigil of the feast of Easter, when and where the word of God was with▪ greater and opener freedome preached forth.’

7thly And yet more particularly this Fast of Lent, was in the Institution purposely designed as a pre­paration to partaking either of holy Baptism, by the Catechumens, on the Vigil of Easter-day, or of Absolution, by the penitents on Maundy-Thurs­day: or of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ by the Believers on Easter-day, or lastly of two of these by the same persons, as of Baptism and the Eucharist (with the interven­tion of Confirmation) on the night and morning of Easter-day: or of Absolution and the Holy Eu­charist on the Thursday before, and on Easter-day. No fitter season to be baptiz'd into the death of Christ, and buried with him in Baptism, and there­in also quicken'd together with him and raised up; no fitter season to be absolved and quitted from our sins, by his Death and Resurrection; no meeter time to be made partakers of his Holy Body, which was broken, and Blood, which was shed for us for the Remission of our sins, then at [Page 208] this holy time of sacred memory of Christs Death and Passion, Burial, and Resurrection. And for these holy memories, and holy partakings of Ab­solution, Baptism, Confirmation, and the holy Eucharist, what 40 daies, what repentances and fastings can be thought more then needful? S. Paul hath taught us, that purging out from our selves the old leaven, that we may be a new lump, as we are un­leavened, is necessary to our keeping the Feast of Christ our Pass-over sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5. 7, 8.) that judging of our selves [ [...]] discerning of our selves aright, upon our exami­ning our selves, is necessary to our [ [...]] to our discerning the Lords bo­dy, to our worthy receiving; that we be not con­demn'd, or if not that (upon our after-Repentance;) yet chastened of the Lord. Thus that Primitive Patriarch Dionysius of Alexandria, in his Epistle to the Bishop Basilides: [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘Humbling our souls with Faftings until the season of the Resurrecti­on of our Lord—But unto the Holy, and unto the Holy of Holies, [so I suppose he calls the Baptism and the Holy Eucharist of that sea­son] he which is not altogether clean in soul and body, should be forbid to approach.’ Both Lent, and other Preparatories next before Lent, were both design'd to fit us for those holy things of [...]r: so the sacred first oecumenical Councel of Nice cap. 5. [...] [Page 209] [...]. ‘Let there be held Synods, one before Lent, that all peevishness being taken away, a pure gift [or oblation] may be offer'd unto God; and a 2 ^d about the time of gathering the fruits.’ S. Hierom in his comment upon Ionas is most expresse: Ipse quoque Dominus, verus Jonas, missus ad praedicationem mundi, jejunavit 40 dies, & hae­reditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens, ad esum corporis sui, sub hoc numero, nostras animas praeparat. ‘The Lord himself being sent, as the true Ionas, to preach unto the world, fasted 40 daies, and leaving to us the inheritance of the fast, under this same number prepares our souls to the eating of his body.’ So Leo also the great in his 5 ^th ser­mon of Lent: Ut digniùs celebremus [ sacramenta Redemptionis nostrae] saluberrimè nos 40 dierum jejunio praeparemus. The words I english'd above p. 70. And the same Leo in his 10 ^th sermon of Lent. Cognoscimus ad celebrandum Paschae diem meritò nos 40 dierum jejunio praeparari, ut dignè possimus divi­nis interesse mysteriis. ‘We know that with great reason, by the fast of 40 daies we are prepared to celebrate the day of Easter, that we may worthily participate of the Divine mysteries [or sacrament.]’ And so Caesarius of Arles above p. 72, and Dorotheus p. 79. Where he saith that the Holy Apostles sanctifyed or set apart for our repentance the 7 weeks fast of Lent, that we may partake of the Holy mysteries, not to con­demnation, [but to life.] The import and advan­tage you see answers your labour, as S. Cyril also of Hierusalem tells us. Cateches. 1▪ [...] [Page 210] [...] [ [...] supra Nominatâ] [...]. ‘Do you not give your­self to prayer?—purify your vessel [by exercise of fasting also] that you may receive the more grace—if thou labour little, thou receivest little: I add, thou understandest little.’ When first in the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elias took up this 40 daies Fast, it was the better to pre­pare them for their appearance then before the presence of God. To this effect S. Chrysostom in­structs us, tom. 6. [...]. ‘Both Moses and Elias themselves, the towers among the Prophets of the old Testament, al­though otherwise so illustrious and great, and having great boldness towards God, yet when they would approach and draw neer to speak unto God, as far as unto man it was possible to do, they betook themselves unto this work of fasting, and by her hands offered themselves unto God.’ At the end of this 40 dayes fast of Lent, at the feast of Easter (as alwayes one of the 3 times) he who approached not to Gods Holy table to receive the Holy Eucharist, was not deem'd worthy of the name of a Catholique, saith the Councel of Eli­beris (elder then that of Nice) thrice in the year at least, say they, (whereof this time alwayes one) [Page 211] and punctually so, saith our Church. Once in the year only, saith the Church of Rome (which would be the only Catholiques) Not once necessarily, in the year, say some among us. At the end of Lent, besides Easter morn it self, the more reli­gious did generally receive also on that day, which is called Coena Domini; (on which that mystery was instituted:) and very many, of the Clergy espe­cially, communicated every day of that great week. And what preparation is sufficient for these Holy things?

The eighth and last rule of fasting is: When ye fast be not ye as the Hypocrites are, ( Mat. 6. 16.) Si vult, quare tristis? si non vult, jejunus quare? saith Chrysologus upon that place. And upon the same words S. Chrysostom ( [...].) [...]. ‘If willing to fast, why sad? if not willing, why fasting? Rejoyce in fasting, and be not of a sad countenance as the Hypocrites are [...], as that Father speaks, [...] tom. 6..’ Non voluptuosos ( Dominus) indulget aspectus, sed vultus qui simulantur excludit. ‘The Lord doth not indulge us in wanton aspects, but excludes the simulation of affected looks.’ Disfigure not the fast, nor disfigure thy face. Fast not to ap­pear unto men, appear unto God to fast; and appear not to God, or men to break the fast; (except where God and man have indulged to humanity) Dionys. A­lexandr. Epistolâ ad Basilidem. [...]. Pestilentia hypocriseos (saith Chry­sologus in his 7 ^th Sermon on Mat. 6.) Fugienda, quae de remediis creat morbos, conficit de medicina languorem, sanctitatem vertit in crimen▪ placationem facit re [...]um, generat de propitiatione disc [...]men—Hypocrisis cru­deli arte virtutes truncat mucrone virtutum, jejunium [Page 212] jejunio perimit, oratione orationem evacuat, miseri­cordiam miseratione prosternit—Hypocrisis dum cupit captivare oculos, oculis fit ipsa captiva. ‘Fly the pestilence of hypocrisy, which of remedies themselves, creates diseases, of medicine sick­nesse, which turns holiness into a crime, propi­tiation into guilt—Hypocrisy by a cruel art cuts asunder vertues by the edge of vertues, slaies fasting by fasting, evacuates prayer by pra­yer, beateth down alms-giving by alms-deeds—Hypocrisy while it seeks to captivate the eyes of men, is itselfled captive by the eyes.’ That oddes there doth arise from being like, or unlike Hypocrites when we fast: That to the great ho­nour of the Church S. Austin shews thence, how the Church Christian fasting twice a week doth it Religiously, albeit the Pharisees did the same thing wickedly, August▪ epistolâ ad Casulan. Sic & bis in sabbato jejunare in homine, qualis fuerat Pharisaeus, in­fructuosum est; in homine autem humili [...]èr fideli, vel fideli­tèr humili, religiosum est. ‘Fasting twice in the week in a man like the Pharisee, is unprofitable; but in a man humbly faithful, and faithfully humble, it is Religious.’ Conclude we this: nei­ther fast thou so as the Hypocrites, nor fast not as the Hypocrites; who pretend such set and Antient fasts of the Church to be superstitious, and themselves too holy to joyn with their Bre­thren in them.

All these eight requisites of right performing of this Fast, we find together in the Churches practise, and by her care prescribed at this time of Lent to her children. In S. Chrysostom's time, according to his irrefragable witness ( Homil. [...] [Page 213] [...] ▪ viz. tom. 6. [...].) [...] [ [...], supra nominatis:] & ibidem recen­set etiam 40 dierum illorum [...]. ‘For what cause, therefore, some may say, do we keep the fast of these 40 daies?—that in these daies all of us being (8) perfectly purified, together by (6) prayers, and by (5) alms, and by (2) fasting, and by (3) whole nights watchings, and (1) by tears, and by confession, and by all other things, we may so according to our power with a (4) pure conscience (7) come unto the holy Mysteries [the Sacrament:] and in the same place he recounts also as part of the exercise of those 40 daies, (6) hearing Gods word, attend­ing on Sermons and Synods.’ Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria in his 1. Paschal Epistle sets all these guests at one table likewise: Si Adhaerentes studio virtutum animarum vitia purgare, [ volumus] & quic­quid in nobis sordium est jugi scripturarum meditatione diluere, quasi sub sudo apertam doctrinarum scien­tiam contemplantes, festinemus supernae laetitiae festa ce­lebrare, & jungere nos Angelorum choris—Eóque [...]mnis impraesentiarum adsumatur labor, ut & eos qui paululum negligentes sunt, & nosmetipsos, aeternae glo­riae praep [...]remus—& homines provocantur ( terra­rum humilia dese, entes) cum Ecclesiâ primitivorum Dominicae Passionis festa celebrare—Priusquam [Page 214] slemus ante tribunal Christi, praeterita peccata poeniten­tiâ corrigamus, praesenti fletu redimamus futura gau­dia—Curemus diversa vitiorum vulnera, & rapinas divitum, quibus vel maximè hoc hominum capitur ge­nus, crebris commonitionibus reprimamus. Et sic po­terimus imminentium jejuniorum iter carpere, incipien­tes Quadragesimam, à tricesimâ die mensis Mechir,—ut juxta Evangelicas traditiones siniamus jejunia intempeslâ nocte, die 18. supradicti mensis Pharmuthi.—praebentes nos dignos communione corporis & san­guinis Christi. ‘If adhering to the study of ver­tues, we desire to purge away the vices of our souls, and wash away, whatever of filth is in us, by (6) continual meditation of the Scriptures, contemplating, as it were, in the open and serene heaven the knowledge of doctrine, let us make hast to celebrate the solemnities of the Heaven­ly joy, and joyn our selves to the Quires of An­gels.—Let us take upon us (3) labour at pre­sent, that we may prepare both (5) those which are somewhat negligent, and our selves, unto eter­nal glory—Hereby men are provoked, forsa­king the low things of the earth, (8) to celebrate with the Church of the first-born, the holy daies of the Lords Passion—ere we come to stand be­fore Christs Tribunal, let us correct our sins past by (1) repentance, let us by present mournings redeem to our selves future joyes—Let us cure the sundry wounds of our vices; and the (4) ra­pines, wherewith rich men are delighted, let us repress (6) with frequent admonitions; so may we enter the (2) journey of the Impendent Fasts, beginning our Lent from the 30 ^th day of the moneth Mechir—But so (Epistle 2 ^d) that we [Page 215] end the Fast according to Evangelical Tradi­tions, late at night on the 18 ^th day of the moneth Pharmuth.—presenting our selves worthy Com­municants of the Body and Bloud of Christ.’ Ha­ving thus guarded and secured the duty of Fasting by its necessary qualifications and conditions, it cannot be unsafe or unseasonable to admit now un­to audience, some strictures of the Elogies, which the Ancient Fathers give of this duty of Fasting: As that God prescribed some sort of Fasting to man, so soon almost as he was created; [...]. S. Ba­fil. Ser. 1. de Ie­junio. (ut suprà.) as a guard to innocence it self, and the first trial of mans obedience. [...], saith S. Chrysostom; ‘Of these thou mayest eat, of this thou shalt not eat, was a sort of Fast prescribed. Which being not observed, because thou hast hearkned, saith God, unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake: In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the daies of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring sorth to thee.—In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground.’ ( Gen. 3. 17, 19.) The earth of his flesh also bringing forth troublesome thorns and thistles, not to be keept down, but by laborious sorrowful fasting, nor consum'd but by the spirit of judgment and burn­ing. [...] [Page 216] [...], saith S. Chrysostom tom. 6. [...]. ‘If Fasting was necessary in Pa­radise, much more out of Paradise. If this Phy­sick was useful before our wound, much more after it. If whilest yet there was no war of lusts rais'd within us, this armour was yet of use, much more after so great a fight, from lusts within, from Devils without, this auxiliary force of Fast­ing is necessary.’

Come we to the Law; S. Basil tels us in his 1 Sermon of Fasting: [...]; ‘Fasting above [in the Mount] pre­pared Moses to receive the Law; but fulness amongst the people below, caused them to run mad after idolatry; for the people sate down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.—The tables then, which fasting had received written by the finger of God, the drunkenness [of the people] caused to be broken; The Prophet judging it not meet that a people drinking drunk with wine, [with the wine of spiritual fornica­tion, which is Idolatry, also Ier. 51. 7.] should receive the Law from God.—Also Moses for his 2 ^d receiving of the Law, needed a 2 ^d Fast.’ [Page 217] After him [...] (saith the same fatherthere) [...]; He thinks that as S. Paul is usually said to be the fruit of S. Stephen's Martyrdom and prayer, so the holy Prophet Samuel was more the fruit of his mother Hannah's fasting and prayer, then of her womb. He then proceeds to Samson, of whom he saith, [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘With Fasting he was con­ceived in his mothers womb: Fasting brought him forth, and fasting nurs'd him; Fasting brought him up to manhood, that fast which the Angel commanded his mother; Whatsoever comes of the vine thou shalt not eat; nor drink wine, nor strong drink. Fasting begets Prophets, strengthens mighty men, makes wise Law-givers: God prescribed both Samson an order of fasting, before he was born, and to his mother a fast for his sake, while he should be in her womb.’ [...], &c. [...] ( id. ibid.) ‘But nei­ther wise Daniel had seen the visions (of God) had not fasting rendred his soul bright and pure.—That man of desires, who fasting full three weeks, &c. taught even the Lions to fast.’ With Daniel let us joyn the three Children as com­panions, [Page 218] of whom S. Cyril thus writes, Hom. 1. de Festis Paschal. [...] [ [...]] [...]. ‘By Fasting, the three Children also were found dreadful, and inexpugnable by the Babylonians, who when they might have partaken of King Ne­buchadnezzars table, and of his famous feasts, be­sought that they might be nourished with pulse [and water] letting the Babylonians enjoy the ful­ness and lusts of the flesh, and embracing a slen­der and nothing-superfluous dyer. But see the fruit hereof: They were vouchsafed divine vi­sions, they appeared stronger then the fire it self, &c.’ In the New Testament, [...], saith the same S. Basil (ubi suprà.) ‘ Iohn's whole life was one fast, of whom much hath been said before.’ Lastly, [...] (saith the same Father in the same place of our Lord Iesus) [...]. ‘Our Lord having by fasting sortifi'd the flesh, which he took for our sakes, so received the assaults of the Devil in it, instructing us by fastings to [Page 219] anoint and exercise our selves unto the combats of temptations S. Chrysostom agrees hereunto up­on Psal. 110. vers. 8. speaking of Christ our Lord, he describes, [...]. And Theodoret. in Ps. 109. v. 24. [...] [ [...]] [...].’ Of his Apostles S. Chrysostome also is witness on Ma [...]. 17. [...]. ‘The Apo­stles were continual as it were fasting.’ And Bede in the western Church, ad Psal. 66. Genua mea jeju­nio infirmata sunt, h. e. Apostoli in­firmati sunt à jejunio, i. e. propter ab­sentiam meam in quo prius resicieban­tur qui per mortem eis ablatus sum. ‘My knees are weak through fasting: that is, My Apostles are weak through fasting, to wit, by reason of my Absence, in whom, before they were refreshed; who by death was taken from them.’ Thus have you had a bri [...]f of what some few only of the Fa­thers had observ'd throughout the Old & N. Testa­ment. Now for the [...]orce of it: Vitia extinguunt ista [Iejunium oratio & eleemosyna]—Haec reddunt casta cor­pora, corda pura; haec pacem membris, mentibus quietem. Per haec in templum Dei pectora humana consurgunt. Haec hominem praestant Angelum; per haec Elias nescit mortem, relinquit terras, commoratur Angelis, con­vivit Deo; & terrenus hospes supernas possidet man­siones—Iejunium illum levavit ad coelum; & purifi­cato sic corpori ignei currûs addixit obsequium—Ie­junium, fratres, scimus esse Dei arcem, Christi castra, murum spiritûs, vexillum sidei, castitatis signum, san­ctitatis trophaeum, saith Chrysologus, ( Ser. 12, 43, & 166.) ‘These things [Fasting, Alms, and Prayer] extinguish vices, render bodies chaste, and hearts pure; peace to the members, and quiet to minds. By these humane breasts are raised into a tem­ple [Page 220] of God. These render the man an Angel;, by these Elias knows not death, leaves the earth abides with Angels, lives with God; and a stranger come from earth possesses the mansions above—Fasting lifted him up to heaven, and to his body so purify'd offered the service of a fiery chariot—Fasting, my brethren, we know to be the Watch-tower of God, the Camp of Christ, the Bulwark of the Spirit, the Ensign of Faith, the Colours of Chastity, the Trophee of Sanctity Tertullian. lib. de Patientiâ c. 10. Imprimis afflictatio carnis, ho­stia Domino placatoria per humili­ationis sacrificium—Haec pati­entia corporis precationes commendat, deprecationes affirmat, haec aures Christi aperit, severitatem dispergit, clementiam elicit.—Quod de virtute animi venit in carne perficitur. Et S. Ambrose l. de jejunio & Eliâ c. 3. Iejunium Refectio Animae, cibus mentis, vita Angelorum, culpae mors. It is (saith S. Ephrem de jejunio c. 9) Vehiculum ad coelum sut Eliae elim] bonae animae custodia [malae medicina] prophetas suscitat, tentatio­nes retundit [ad certamen inungit.]’ Like sayings hath S. Ambrose in his 25 ^th Sermon. Ca­stra enim nobis sunt nostra jejunia, quae nos à diabolicâ oppugnatione defendunt. Denique stationes vocantur, quòd stan­tes & commorantes in eis inimicos in­sidiantes repellamus. Castra planè sunt jejunia, à quibus si quis aberraverit, à spirituali Pharaone invaditur, aut pec­catorum solitudine devoratur—Luxu­riosum oppugnat inimicus; ubi autem jejunum viderit, fugit, metuit, pertimes­cit, terretur pallore ejus, debilitatur inediâ, infirmitate prosternitur—Tunc est fortis infirmitas, quando caro tabescit jejuniis, anim [...] puritate pinguescit.—Tunc enim magis de Deo cogitat, tunc judicium metuit, tunc vincit inimicum: Ait enim Salvator de Diabolo: Hoc genus non ejicitur nisi in jejunio & orationibus.— Videte ergò quae je­junii virtus sit, quantam homini suo praestat gratiam, quod tantam praestet alteri medicinam: quemadmodum proprium sanctifieet hominem, quod ita purificet alie­num. ‘Fasting is our Camp and works, out of which if any man wander abroad, he is set upon [Page 221] by the spiritual Pharaoh, and devoured by the beasts of the wilderness. [Satan] the enemy fights the luxurious man, but when he discerns him fasting, he flies, and fears, and trembles; he is terrifi'd by his paleness, his hands are weakned by His feeble knees, he is beat down by His infir­mity.—Then is weakness strong, when the flesh is lessened by fastings, and the soul fatned with puri­ty— Then doth he more think of God, then fears he his judgments, then overcomes his enemy; for our Saviour hath said concerning the Devil: This kind is not cast out but by fasting, and prayer.—Behold what vertue fasting hath, what salutary grace it obtains to the man himself, which affords such re­medy and medicine to another. How doth it sanctify its proper subject, which so purifyeth ano­ther [by its pity made its object]. But here we are to be remembred, that when such force is ascrib'd to fasting, against the Devil, it is then only ve­rifi'd, when it is joyn'd (as here you may discern) with fighting, and striving against sin, with ceasing from sins, the works of the Devil; for otherwise it renders us but more like the Devil; For he watches perpetually, hath his stations, and whole night-vigils, he riots not, he eats not, he drinks not, but he ceaseth not to sin from the be­ginning; and that is his meat and drink for him and his.’ After S. Ambrose I subjoyn Leo, another Holy Bishop in his (sermons of fasting.) Prae­sidia militiae Christianae (sc. jejunia) &c. dilectissimi, sanctificandis mentibus nostris atque corporibus divini▪ tùs instituta, ideò cum dierum temporúmque curriculis, sine cessatione reparantur: ut infirmitatum nostrarum ipsa nos medicina commoneat.—His autem conver­sionibus [Page 222] [...] [Page 223] & omnes bonae voluntatis affectus ad maturitatem totius virtutis enutriunt. ‘The garrisons of Chri­stian warfare (fastings &c) my Beloved, were instituted of God, for the sanctifying of our minds and bodies, which therefore are to be repaired with the course and returns of dayes and seasons, that our remedy itself may put us in mind of our infirmities.—To these conver­sions (wherethrough they which had been defil'd by unchastity have shin'd in purity) through the providence of Gods grace holy fasts have been added, which on certain dayes should require of the universal Church the devotion of general observance; for although it be lovely and lauda­ble, that the single several members of Christs body adorn themselves by their own [private] offices, yet it is a matter of more excellent performance, and of more sacred force, when the hearts of the community of the Godly people concur in one proposed duty, that the Devil, to whom our sanctification is a torment, be over­come not only by a part, but also by the entire body together.—For it behooveth not only the chief Prelates, or the Priests of the 2 ^d order, nor only the ministers of the sacraments [or Deacons] but also the whole body of the Church be purged and cleansed.—It appears most manifestly, that among other the gifts of God the grace also of fastings was given [to the Church] among all the institutions of Apostoli­cal teaching, which have flowed forth from the fountain of divine institution, there is no doubt but that through the Holy Ghost influencing the Princes of the Church, this observance was by [Page 224] them at first conceived, that the rules of all vir­tues, should be, begun from the observance of Ho­ly fasting.—Whilst through temperance, the pleasure of the outward man is diminished, the wisdom of the inward man is strengthned; for neither is there the same vigour of heart under a load of meat, which is under the lightness of fast­ing; nor can fulnesse generate the same sense, which abstinence doth. For when the flesh lust­ing against the spirit, is overcome by the spirits lusting against the flesh, the freedom of ghostly, health, and the soundness of freedom is obtained; that both the flesh may be govern'd by the judg­ment of the mind, and the mind by the help [and grace] of God.—For fasting hath ever been the dyet of virtue; from abstinence do pro­ceed chast thoughts, reasonable wills, salutary counsels; and by voluntary afflictions the flesh dyes unto lusts, and the spirit is renew'd unto virtue.—Fastings give victory against concu­piscence, repel temptations, take down pride, mitigate anger, and nourish the affections of every good will unto the maturity of entire vir­tue.’ Thus much from a few of the Latines. Nor are the Greek Fathers short of the other. We will begin with S. Basil the Great, in his 1 ^st and 2 ^d Sermon of Fasting; who thus writes: [...] [Page 225] [...]. ‘Fasting is the symmetry of reason, the purity of the heart, the mother of health, the Schoolmaster of youth, the ornament of the elder.—An excellent preservative of the soul, the bodies armour­bearer, the weapon of gallant men, the exercise of spiritual wrestlers, the decency of the city, the quiet of the courts, the peace of the house—There are Angels which in every Church write all those that fast, neither dares the Insolence of Devils ought against such as fast:—and the An­gels, the guardians of our life, do with more stu­dious labour abide with such, which have puri­fi'd their souls with fasting.—Fasting makes the young man sober-minded, the old man grave and reverend, the most fit dress of women, a bridle for those who are in the flower of their age, the custody of marriage, the nurse of vir­ginity.—Fasting is our assimulation unto An­gels. It transforms on a sudden all the city, and all the people into a well ordered appearance— [Page 226] It quiets the noise, it pacifieth the brawl; it coër­ceth the trouble and tumult of the city. In the time of the Fast, what lascivious company can have allowance? Filthy songs, and outragious dances, suddenly depart the city; being chas'd thence by fasting, as by an austere judge Idem S. Basilius ibid. [...]..’ In like manner S. Cy­ril of Alexandria in his 20. Hom. de Fest Paschal. saith, [...]. And in his 1. Serm. [...]. (as S. Chrysostom hath call'd it, [...].) ‘Let us receive that truly chaste and holy Fasting, the nurse of all good order, the mother of sanctity, and the harbinger of a good will from above.—Doth not fasting bring forth to us the Idea of all vertue? Fasting the Imitation of Angelical conversation, the fountain of temperance, the beginning of continence, the paring off of lasciviousness, the calm and serenity of our souls:’ which was S. Chry­sostom's word.

To conclude this: Fasting seems the flower of Temperance, the chastisement of intemperance, the exercise of corrective justice on our selves, the cutting off of occasion of injustice towards others, the understandings clearness, the wills emenda­tion, it is the body of piety, which serves the soul and spirit of inward godliness; Beati qui lu­gent, [Page 227] Mat. 5. Blessed are they that mourn. After all this it shall happily be demanded, what reasons can be assigned of these so great Encomia­stick praises of the work of Fasting, even rightly per­form'd: I answer 1 ^st. negatively, such afflicting of ourselves by fastings, watchings, lying on the ground, or in sackcloth, or the like, are not to be thought to be given to God, for satisfaction to his Justice, in lieu of eternal punishment; That Christ only could and did satisfy for; that is a debt which the Bridegroom alone could and did dis­charge for his spouse, and for the children of his Bride-chamber, and all who are call'd to the mar­riage-supper of the Lamb; he hath done it alone and of the people there was none with him. When there was none to help, none besides to save, his own arm brought salvation, and He hath troden the wine-presse alone ( Isai. 63.) 2 ^dly Not for satisfaction to the divine Justice, as if such self­afflictions were adequate to the temporal punish­ments, either which God might, or happily would otherwise have laid on us, if impenitent, or laid on us, even in some true degree penitent: for that he well may, and hath sometimes inflicted even death itself, even on his children themselves truly penitent. For this cause many are sick and in­firm among you, and many are fallen asleep, (1 Cor. 11. 30.) But when we are judg'd, we are chasten'd of the Lord, that we should not be condemn'd with the world V. 32. 3 ^{d ly} Such will ever differ from temporal afflictions, which are part of the curse of God upon the wicked, Christ having redeem'd and freed us from the whole curse, both eternal and temporal, and [Page 228] [...]arn turn'd whatsoever remains [...] affliction [...]r [...]hastisement unto blessing, [...] [...] [...] [...]. [...]. 4. [...] qu [...] [...]am [...], Luk [...] 2 [...] Thus [...] [Page 229] me, I will not bring the evil in his dates, 1 King. 21. 27-29. (that I mention not now Gods command in his Law: c. 16▪ 29-31. Ye shall afflict your souls—Ye shall afflict your souls [...]y a statute for ever. And c. 23. 27-29, 32. Ye shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the mon [...]h at even, from even unto even shall ye celebrate your rest—Whatsoever soul it be that shall not [...]e afflicted in that same day, he shall [...]e cut off from among his people.) Come we to the New Testament, I shall need to alledge but S. Paul, and S. Iames: S. Paul to the Corinthians 1 Epist. 9. v. ul. ‘so fight I, not as one that beat­eth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I my self should be­come a cast-away. And c. 11. 31. For if we would judge our selves, we should not be judged. 2 Epist. 7. 11. This self-same thing, that ye for­rowed according unto God, what carefulness it wrought in you; yea what clearing of your selves, yea what indignation, ( [...]) yea what fear, yea what vehement desire, yea what zeal, yea what revenge! ( [...]) In all things ye have approv'd your selves pure in this matter. S. Iames also c. 4. 8, 9, 10. Draw nigh to God—Purifie your hearts—Be af­flicted, and mourn, and weep; Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into hea­viness: Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.’ Of the Ancient Doctors Interpretation of such Texts▪ I shall alledge one clear one for many: S. Basil Hom. in Psal. 114. brings in David, saying, [...] [Page 230] [...]. ‘What then did I do to be healed? For as much as I found out affliction and sorrow, that which is wrought by repentance; for I de­vis'd (against my self) such afflicting of my self from true repentance, as might bear some pro­portion to the greatness of my sin: so waxed I bold to call on the Name of the Lord.’ But I am to remember that our enquiry was of the reasons and cause (and not only of the proof and truth) of Gods acceptance of this poor service. Such I humbly conceive to be these following: 1 ^st For the honour of the divine holiness of God our Father, who is a God of most pure eyes, who without re­spect of persons will judge every man that judg­eth not himself. We therefore necessarily so judge our selves by such self-afflictions and reall acknowledgments, that his not judging us may not possibly be by any thought, his accepting our per­sons to the favouring of our sin; It is a stopping of the mouth of Blasphemy in the enemies of God, when they shall see the sins of Gods children so condemned, punished, and persecuted by the offen­ders themselves, and that in order to regain the favour of God, and his sparing of them. And therefore surely those sins much more condemn'd by God (for if our own hearts judge us so worthy to be punished, God is greater and holier then our hearts.) But because also he is most faithful in his promises of mercy (and his waies higher then mans waies) we judging our selves, he will not judge us: we abhorring our selves in dust and ashes, he will not abhor us.

[Page 231]2 ^dly Though not for satisfying of Gods justice, yet for the satisfying of his gracious will, who will accept much less, of corrective chastisements, when so voluntarily by our selves adjudg'd, and inflicted on our selves, then otherwise, 1 Cor. 7. 11. 30-32. ‘For this cause many are sick, and infirm among you, and many sleep; for if we would judge our selves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned by the world.’

3 ^dly Therefore for the preventing of the hand of God executing his anger against our sins in temporal judgments; So (beside the example which▪ S. Paul told his Corinthians that they might have experienced; and the experience which Ahab had, both above remembred,) David who knew as much of this matter as any now, knew it to be possible, knew nothing, but it might to him then be, that Gods hand might be prevented by his self-afflicti­on, 2 Sam. 12. 22. ‘While the child was yet a­live, I fasted and wept; For I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ Or yet for preventing the hand of God chastising; in part, when the whole can­not be prevented by us, 2 Chron. 12. 7-9. ‘The princes of Israel and the King humbled them­selves; and they said, the Lord is righteous; and when the Lord saw, that they humbled them­selves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying: They have humbled themselves; there­fore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be powred out upon Ierusalem by the hand of Shishak; nevertheless they shall be his [Page 232] servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the Kingdoms of the Countreys. So Shishak King of Egypt came up against Ieru­salem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the Kings house: He took all, he carried away also, &c.’ Yea even when that cannot be prevented, neither in whole, nor in part, yet even so shall this return into our bosome, for greater reward hereafter; ( Thy Fa­ther shall reward thee openly, Mat. 6. 18.) or hap­pily in this world also, upon such our humiliation and through-submission to the recommended me­dicines of our purgation, both by our own volun­tary afflicting our selves, and by his hand also punishing, to which we cheerfully submit, so Mo­ses said, Deut. 8. 16. Who fed thee in the wilderness with Manna, which thy Fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end.

4 ^thly It is a great help and degree, and exter­nal part of our Contrition, (proceeding from the inward) which consists of four holy passions in one compound, viz. a holy sorrow for what is past, a holy anger and indignation at our selves, a holy fear of Gods judgements, a holy hatred or dete­station of our sins: now all these four are exer­cised, as well as witnessed in these self-afflictions, it is that [...], that [...], that wise in­dignation, and only lawful revenge of a private Christian, mentioned by S. Paul, 2 Cor. 7. (and [...] contains in it [...]) it is a work of justice corrective upon our selves.

5 ^thly As it is a wholsome degree of our contri­tion, so is it also of our Confession; It is not a verbal, but a real practical Confession in deeds, [Page 233] an humble acknowledgement more then by words only, that we are by our sins unworthy of Gods good creatures, and of his blessings (by denying unto our selves even food, and pleasures, and rest, and ornaments; in fastings, watchings, lyings on the ground in sack-cloth, &c. and worthy of his judgements, 1 Sam. 7. 6. It is also a due Confes­sion, that we suffer justly, what we do otherwise also perhaps suffer from Gods own hand. 2 Chron. 12. 5-7. They humbled themselves, and said, the Lord is righteous.

6 ^thly It is for our future emendation, and se­curing us from return to the same sin again, which hath caused us so to smart; the pleasure whereof we have been enforced to avenge on our selves by so severe sharpness of pain, or affliction for mortification of the flesh.

7 ^thly Beside the fear of a repeated smart, other­wise also available it is, for the better taking off our hearts from the love of the world, while we stand so long by our own counsel sequestred from the contents, enjoyments, and blandishments of the world, and flesh. And so the mind hath better leisure, and temper, and serenity to make a truer judgement, and estimate of the excellency of hea­venly things, and of the true bread from heaven, which endureth unto everlasting life: That the things which are seen, are eaten▪ and drunken, that please the eye, or touch, or tast, are temporal; but the things which are not seen, nor toucht, nor tasted by the palate are eternal, its true what S. Austin saith, Major voluptas cordis, quàm carnis, and what Leo the Great, Agnoscat rationalis animus majores delitias menti datas esse, quam carni (Serm. 4. de jejun. [Page 234] pentecost.) ‘Greater is the pleasure of the heart then of the flesh. Let the reasonable soul (of man) acknowledge, that greater delights are by God given to the mind of man, then to his body’ [to his understanding and will, then to his senses and appetites] that a little time of being with­held, sequestred, as it were, and intercepted from the continued drunkeness and hurry, and bewitch­ing of the deceitful pleasure of sin (by a retired day, or dayes of fasting, meditation, and considering with ourselves where we are, what will be our end, whither we are hasting) will help us easily to under­stand, that far greater and sweeter, and more satis­fying and delighting are the pleasures of the Fathers kiss, the robe, the ring, the fatted calf, the mirth (of Saints and Angels) in our Fathers house; not only then the husks, which drave the prodigal to consider; but also then the riotous living, and the vomit, and mire (filthier then the swines which he afterwards fed) then the noise, and the har­lots with whom he devoured himself, his flesh, and his substance.

8 ^thly With God who hath promised to give grace to the humble, these humiliations, for the very humility thereof, and there from, are a power­ful means to obtain his inward grace, and guid­ance, Ezra 8. 21. 23.

9 ^thly By them we may procure deliverances and blessings to others also, some way concerned with us (or more then us perhaps) in the dread of some judgement of God upon sin, (as 2 Sam▪ 12. 16. Dan. 9. 3. Mat. 17. 21. Psal. 35. 13, 14, Esther. 4. 16. Nehem. 1. 4, 6.)

[Page 235]Thus have you heard the [...], what is true religious Fasting: the [...] of due moderation in Fasting: the [...], that being rightly performed, it is a work which the Scripture hath directed us to, the Church of the Saints ever practis'd, and God hath chosen, and will reward openly, the [...], in those dayes: lastly the [...], the reasons, why it is so ac­cepted of God, and profitable unto our selves: Ye have tasted, I trust, in some measure, that this new wine which Christ would have preserved, (that you may be preserved thereby,) is excellent and meet for our Masters house, and for your use; and will drink pleasant, when kept, and you by habit acquainted with it. I know that there will be still, who say, as the Pharisees and objectors did in this place before my Text, [...], the business of Fasting is no part of Christianity; that reduce the profit of it first to little (mistaking the place 1 Tim. 4. 8. of S. Paul, which speaks not of fasting, but of another matter,) (as shall hereafter be shewn) and then to nothing.) First to be of no pleasing, unto God, nor pleasing, or profitable to our selves; and then to be hurt­full, because Superstitious; if it return too con­stant upon us, and be prescribed by others then by our selves, or such guides, as we have heap'd up to our selves. To all which I oppose in short the word and example of our Lord and Master; his word of promise to this mean and least duty of Fasting, thy Father shall reward thee, Mat. 6. 18. even openly, when thou doest it secretly. His direction, this kind comes not out but by prayer and fasting. His com­mand and prediction in my Text, [...], this [Page 236] wine must be put up: and [...], they shall, they will fast. And this Text thus interpreted of the Churches Set Fasts, (and principally of this Set Fast of Lent) by the Church it self in Tertullian ( suprà pag. 28.) by Petrus Archbishop of Alexan­dria and Martyr, by S. Austin, by S. Chrysostom, by Innocentius primus, by Epiphanius, by Isidore Hispa­lensis, by Venerable Bede, by Theophylact, and others. With what meekness, gentleness, and loving care our Lord doth here provide for the preservation of the vessels, old, and new, and of the wine both old, and new, you may perceive.

For first it is to be observed, that our gracious Lord who first fasted himself his Quadragesimal fast, and that for his people, the Church, which had sins past to be fasted for, and need of arms and strength against temptations to come, yet he would not command his Church any other times of fasting, then such only as her own regard and affection towards her dear spouse in his absence, and the memory of his dear love in his fasting, Ago­ny, death, and passion should command her. An express command, if S. Austin, and Socrates say, they read not; it needed not; she will do it; In those daies they will fast.

2 ^dly The duty of fasting our Lord compares it but to [...], a peice to mend up. If our own garment were not worn and rent, there would have been no need of peicing, or [...]; If men had continued in innocency and original Righteousness, the work of painful fasting had been nothing useful at all; but we are waxen old in our sins, and not forthwith capable perhaps, [Page 237] even of our remedies, least our rent be made worse. Yea our Lord comparing it to new wine, gives sentence that the old is better, that com­mandment which is both new, and old, which you had from the beginning, and which is new in him, That ye love one another. But both are to be preserved: our pieced garments also are to be worn in our bride-grooms absence, although not in his presence.

3 ^dly Observe that as all the Churches set, solemn, unchangeable fasts, her weekly Stations, and her yearly Paschal fast of Lent (and if any will adde the Rogation-fasts also before his depar­ture from her at the Ascension) are from the taking away the Bride-groom from her: so from the presence of the Bride-groom with her, or to her, are all the Churches Feasts (as those of Christs Incarnation, Nativity, Resurrection, or his entring into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for her, and to prepare a place for her living in his presence, at his Ascension,) or from the friends of the Bride-groom, their being brought into his presence in the dayes of their several martyrdoms.

Yea and 4 ^thly all the times prohibited by her, as to any set, or publick fasts, are only therefore prohibited as times of something of her Bride­grooms presence; as the Lords-day no fasting-day, for the return of his presence at his Resurrection; yea and wheresoever in the Christian world saturday was a time also exempted from being a fasting day, (except one only in the year) as it was exempted generally in all the Oriental Churches, and in many places, and the first ages of the Western [Page 238] likewise: it was not as some have thought from con­descension to the Ieus, but from the joy of that day after our Lords descent into, and return from hell, at the long expected presence of Christ the Bride-groom, theirs and ours, to the souls of all those that had departed out of this world (through so many ages) in true repentance and faith; with whom the Church on earth hath and holds a com­munion of Saints, and a part in their joy from that joyful time. And S. Austin thinks for another reason also by him assigned, for the joyous signi­fication of our eternal rest by that day of rest, and of the rest of our flesh in hope after death, as Christ's did that day rest.

5 ^thly I have my self above noted to you, that Fasting is not the principle, but an An­nex, (yet annexed by the advice of God's Spi­rit) in the words of my Text, [...], an additament, a piece of a new garment to make up, and help the defect of our infirmity, in due place, time and measure. Quod Deo non pro justitiâ, sed cum justitiâ offerimus. I. Power.

6 ^thly I have in this Discourse shewn the ne­cessary conjunction of Prayers with our Fastings, as in the context of my Text they are by the objectors themselves connected, Why do Iohn's Disciples fast often and make Supplications? I have shew'd you this new wine of Fasting, now by long continuance in the Christian Church to be waxen old; so that now the bottles, that are broken, and fly rather then they will con­tain this good wine, do but pretend either more weaknesse or tenderness of Conscience, then they [Page 239] have, or for the time ought to have; or more perfection and strength then they have in them (or thus are likely to have;) as if they needed it not; their impotent refusal is not now from the newness of the wine, nor alwayes from the old­ness of the bottles, but from the cunning simula­tion of some Impostors, who take with them for pretence, according to the crasty wile of the Gi­beonites, wine-bottles old, and rent, and bound up, old garments upon them, and clouted shooes upon their feet; crying out, [weak and tender consciences;] and so desire to make a cunning League with the Church. [...]. ‘This comes not from the na­ture of the wine, saith Theophylact upon my Text.’ And I may say [ [...]] nor from the oldness of the bottles, [...], as then in our Saviours in­stance at that time, and now [...], from the Schism, which is resolv'd by any arts to make it self worse; 'tis not from the weak­ness or tenderness, but the stiffness and hardness of the neck; that shakes the yoke to cast it off. They cannot submit to the two words of our Lords command of this duty in my Text. 1 ^st [...], this new wine must be put up, where it must be preserved: 2 ^dly [...], in those daies they shall Fast. They are angry at the Stewards, or governours of the house of God, who are by their office especially to take care, and do take care of our Saviours good will and pleasure in his [...], that both be preserved; the duty of Fasting, and the Ves­sels [Page 240] of Honour, that should contain this preci­ous liquor, of which our Lord takes this care. These are not the men, it seems, of whom our Lord in my Text foretells, [...], they will Fast. I have declared at large, even of the 7 first ages of the Church; when the wine was newer then now it is, (and of the following ages, the opposers of this Fast of Lent, not only confess their observance of it, but complain of their diligence therein:) I have declar'd, I say, that the custome of the Bride her self, i. e. the Catholique Church of Christ, in this time of her preparation of her self to be brought to the Consummate Nuptials of the Lamb, hath ever ob­serv'd this Paschal Fast of Lent.

[...], In those daies] which what they are, I have not given you mine own sense, but have, as we are bid, enquired of the former daies, and prepared my self, and you to the search of our Fathers, (as we are dire­cted Iob 8. 8.) For that both we and our op­ponents are but of yesterday. The daies will come, said Christ; Are they already come? or are they not come, which Christ said should come? And if not yet come; who can shew us with any colour, that ever they shall come? But if they are come, they are to be found in the Churches practise surely through 15 Ages. The taking away of the Bridegroom once for the sins of the whole world, is certainly not now to come. And do not almost all the Te­stimonies by me produced, found and settle the Paschal Fast on that Basis, of the annual, so­lemn [Page 241] memory of Christs Death and Passion; the Bridegrooms taking away so precious to his Bride, the Church? S. Austin l. 4. de Baptismo. Co. Denatist. c. 23. Cum. Whatsoever observance was not first instituted by any plenary Council, as this was not, (let a­ny one go about to show it, if they think it was o [...] can be shewn) yet observed [...] by the whole Catholick Church, came at [...] from the [...] [...]n St Aust [...] judgment. [...] (saith he) [...] [...] P [...]ssio▪ & [...], & [...] [...] [...], & [...] [...] [...] Spiritûs Sanc [...] ANNI­VERSARIA SOLENN [...] ­TATE celebra [...]: Et siquid a­liud [...] [...]ccurrit, quod servatur ab universa, quacunque se [...] Ecclesia. As that THE PAS­SION OF THE LORD, his Resu [...]rection and Ascention, and the coming of the Holy Ghost from Heaven, are celebra­ted by an anniversary so [...]mnity; And if there occur any other [...]ch thing, (saith he) which is obser­ved [...]y the Universal Church, [...] ever it is d [...]ffused S [...]quid [...] [...]ta per orbem [...] [...]. N [...]m [...]c qu [...]n [...]ta [...]cien­dum sit [...], [...] [...] insantae est, If any of [...] [...] the Church, the whole Church through the world [...] [...] the [...] of ( viz through the many ages of it) to d [...]spure against the doing of that, is the part [...] [...] insolent madness. But perhaps we should not thus expostulate with the fro­wardness appearing in many, (I speak of the many late sects of this lately most unhappy Nation.) For Theophi­lus the renowned Patriark of Alexan­dria, in his 1. Paschal Epistle hath fore­told as much; when speaking of this Paschal Fast (as above) Provocantur homines cum Ecclesiâ Primitivorum Do­minicae Passionis Festa celebrare, Men are invited to keep the celebrity of the Lords Passion with the Church of the Primitive Saints, He addes; Non est, non est Haereticorum ulla solennitas: It is not (saith he) it is not the guise of Hereticks to keep any of the Churches solemnities. There is there­fore one part of the context of my Text ( Luke 5. 30.) which I do not pretend ever to be able to satisfie. [...] ( [...]) [...]. And the Pharisees mur­mured against the Disciples of Christ. It were enough for the Jews this to op­pose; But though there was no such Paschal Fast, before the Pasch of the Jewes, yet for all that we know there was authority sufficient, in and under the New Testament to add this observance: Our Lord calls it [...], An additament of a new garment. I have shewed you [Page 242] the substance and circumstance of the duty here pre­scribed; I have given you an account of the Fasting of Iohn, and his Disciples, of Christ our Lord, and his Disciples; of the Scribes and Pharisees also (with their Disciples;) which are all the persons that en [...]red the Drame of this Text: I have caution'd you [...], That we fast not in hypocrisie liker unto the Pharisees; but I know none excused from the Duty it self, but such only whom those words of Christ may in some sence reach, [...] They can­not fast. Of all other good Christians he hath said, In those dayes they shall fast, they will fast. He said it, I say, who both could command them what should be their duty to do, and could foresee what faithfully and certainly they would do. Those dayes what they were, they could know; what they took themselves to be commanded to do, and by whom, and on what dayes; and what they have done, ye have heard. That this precious new-wine (even for the more precious old wines sake) may not be poured out, spilt, or lost: for that cause I have made this profusion of sand and la­bour; that no vessels old, or new may perish, is my hearts desire and prayer.