Holy living in which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every virute, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations : together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion occasians [sic], and furnished for all necessities / by Jer. Taylor.

SECT. V. Of Fasting.

FAsting, if it be considered in it self with∣out relation to spiritual ends, is a duty no where enjoyned, or counselled. But Christi∣anity hath to doe with it, as it may be made an instrument of the Spirit by subduing the lusts of the flesh, or removing any hindrances of religion; And it hath been practised by all ages of the Church, and advised in order to three ministeries: 1. To Prayer; 2. To Mortification of bodily lusts; 3. To Repen∣tance: and is to be practised according to the following measures.

Rules for Christian Fasting.

1. Fasting in order to prayer is to be mea∣sured by the proportions of the times of prayer: that is, it ought to be a totall fast from all things during the solemnity (unlesse a probable necessity intervene.) Thus the Jews eat nothing upon the Sabbath-daies till their great offices were performed, that is, about the sixth hour: and S. Peter used it as an argument that the Apostles in Pentecost were not drunk, because it was but the third hour of the day, of such a day, in which it was not lawful to eat or drink till the sixth hour: and the Jews were offended at the Disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon the Sab∣bath early in the morning, because it was be∣fore the time in which by their customs they esteemed it lawfull to break their fast. In imitation of this custom, and in prosecution of the reason of it, the Christian Church hath

religiously observed fasting before the holy Communion: and the more devout persons (though without any obligation at all) refu∣sed to eat or drink till they had finished their morning devotions: and further yet upon daies of publick humiliation, which are de∣signed to be spent wholly in Devotion, and for the averting Gods judgments (if they were imminent) fasting is commanded to∣gether with prayer, commanded (I say) by the Church to this end, that the Spirit might be clearer and more Angelical when it is quitted in some proportions from the loads of flesh.

2. Fasting, when it is in order to Prayer, must be a total abstinence from all meat, or else an abatement of the quantity: for the help which fasting does to prayer cannot be served by changing flesh into flesh, or milk-meats into dry diet, but by turning much into little, or little into none at all during the time of solemn and extraordinary prayer.

3. Fasting as it is instrumental to Prayer, must be attended with other aids of the like virtue and efficacy, such as are removing for the time all worldly care and secular busi∣nesses; and therefore our blessed Saviour en∣folds these parts within the same caution: [Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world, and that day overtake you una∣wares.] To which add alms;* 1.1 for upon the wings of fasting and alms, holy prayer infal∣libly mounts up to Heaven.

4. When Fasting is intended to serve the duty of Repentance, it is then best chosen

when it is short, sharp and afflictive; that is, either a total abstinence from all nourishment (according as we shall appoint, or be ap∣pointed) during such a time as is separate for the solemnity and attendance upon the im∣ployment: or if we shall extend our feverity beyond the solemn daies, and keep our an∣ger against our sin as we are to keep our sor∣row, that is, alwaies in a readiness, and often to be called upon; then, to refuse a pleasant morsel, to abstain from the bread of our de∣sires, and only to take wholsome and lesse pleasing nourishment, vexing our appetite by the refusing a lawful satisfaction, since in its petulancy and luxury it preyed upon an un∣lawfull.

5. Fasting designed for repentance must be ever joyned with an extreme care that we fast from sin: for there is no greater folly or undecency in the world, then to commit that for which I am now judging and condemning my self. This is the best fast, and the other may serve to promote the interest of this, by increasing the disaffection to it, and multi∣plying arguments against it.

6. He that fasts for repentance, must, du∣ring that solemnity, abstain from all bodily delights, and the sensuality of all his senses, and his appetites; for a man must not when he mourns in his fast, be merry in his sport; weep at dinner, and laugh all day after; haue a silence in his kitchin, and musick in his chamber; judge the stomack, and feast the other senses. I deny not but a man may in a single instance punish a particular sin with a proper instrument: If a man have offended

in his palate, he may choose to fast only; if he have sinned in so••tness and in his touch, he may choose to lie hard, or work hard, and use sharp inflictions: but although this Dis∣cipline be proper and particular, yet because the sorrow is of the whole man, no sense must rejoice, or be with any study or purpose fea∣sted and entertained softly. This rule is in∣tended to relate to the solemn daies appoin∣ted for repentance publickly or privately: besides which in the whole course of our life, even in the midst of our most festival and freer joyes we may sprincle some single in∣stances, and acts of self-condemning, or pu∣nishing: as to refuse a pleasant morsel, or a delicious draught with a tacit remembrance of the sin that now returns to displease my spirit: and though these actions be single, there is no undecency in them, because a man may abate of his ordinary liberty and bold freedom with great prudence, so he does it without singularity in himself, or trouble to others: but he may not abate of his solemn sorrow: that may be caution; but this would be softness, effeminacy, and undecency.

7. When fasting is an act of mortification, that is, is intended to subdue a bodily lust; as the spirit of fornication, or the fondness of strong and impatient appetites, it must not be a sudden, sharp, and violent fast, but a state of fasting, a dyet of fasting, a daily lesse∣ning our portion of meat and drink, and a choosing such a course dyet which may make the least preparation for the lusts of the bo∣dy. He that fasts three daies without food,* 1.2 will weaken other parts more then the mini∣sters

of fornication: and when the meals re∣turn as usually, they also will be served as∣soon as any. In the mean time they will be supplied and made active by the accidental heat that comes with such violent fastings: for this is a kind of aerial Devil; the Prince that rules in the air is the Devil of fornicati∣on; and he will be as tempting with the windiness of a violent fast, as with the flesh of an ordinary meal. But a daily substraction of the nourishment will introduce a lesse bu∣sie habit of body, and that will prove the more effectual remedy.

* 1.38. fasting alone will not cure this Devil, though it helps much towards it; but it must not therefore be neglected, but assisted by all the proper instruments of remedy against this unclean spirit; and what it is unable to doe alone, in company with other instruments, and Gods blessing upon them it may effect.

9. All fasting for whatsoever end it be un∣dertaken, must be done without any opinion of the necessity of the thing it self, without censuring others, with all humility, in order to the proper end; and just as a man takes physick, of which no man hath reason to be proud, and no man thinks it necessary, but because he is in sickness, or in danger and disposition to it.

10. All fasts ordained by lawful authority are to be observed in order to the same pur∣poses to which they are enjoyned; and to be accompanied with actions of the same na∣ture, just as it is in private fasts; for there is no other difference, but that in publick our Superiours choose for us, what in private we doe for our selves.

11. Fasts ordained by lawful authority are not to be neglected because alone they can∣not doe the thing in order to which they were enjoyned. It may be one day of Humi∣liation will not obtain the blessing, or alone kill the lust, yet it must not be despised if it can doe any thing towards it. An act of Fasting is an act of self-denial, and though it doe not produce the habi••, yet it is a good act.

12. When a principal end why a Fast is publickly prescribed, is obtained by some o∣ther instrument in a particular person; as if the spirit of Fornication be cured by the rite of Marriage, or by a gift of chastity, yet that person so eased is not freed from the Fasts of the Church by that alone, if those fasts can prudently serve any other end of Religion, as that of prayer, or repentance, or mortificati∣on of some other appetite: for when it is in∣strumental to any and of the Spirit, it is freed from superstition, and then we must have some other reason to quit us from the Obli∣gation, or that alone will not doe it.

13. When the Fast publickly commanded by reason of some indisposition in the parti∣cular person cannot operate to the end of the Commandment, yet the avoiding offence, and the complying with publick order is rea∣son enough to make the obedience to be ne∣cessary. For he that is otherwise disobliged (as when the reason of the Law ceases, as to his particular, yet) remains still obliged if he cannot doe otherwise without scandal: but this is an obligation of charity, not of justice.

14. All fasting is to be used with prudence and charity: for there is no end to which fast∣ing serves, but may be obtained by other in∣struments, and therefore it must at no hand be made an instrument of scruple, or become an enemy to our health, or be imposed upon persons that are sick or aged, or to whom it is in any sense uncharitable; such as are wea∣ried Travellers; or to whom in the wh••le kinde of it, it is uselesse, such as are Women with childe, poor people, and little children. But in these cases the Church hath made pro∣vision, and inserted caution into her Laws, and they are to be reduced to practise accor∣ding to custome, and the sentence of prudent persons, with great latitude, and without niceness and curiosity: having this in our first care, that we secure our virtue, and next that we secure our health, that we may the beter exercise the labours of virtue, lest out of too much austerity we bring our selves to that condition, * 1.4 that it be necessary to be indul∣gent to softnesse, ease and extreme tender∣nesse.

15. Let not intemperance be the Prologue or the Epilogue to your fast, lest the fast be so farre from taking off any thing of the sin, that it be an occasion to increase it; and therefore when the fast is done,* 1.5 be carefull that no supervening act of gluttony, or ex∣cessive drinking unhallow the religion of the passed day; but eat temperately according to the proportion of other meals, lest gluttony keep either of the gates to abstinence.

The benefits of Fasting.

He that undertakes to enumerate the be∣nefits of fasting, may in the next page also reckon all the benefits of physick: for fast∣ing is not to be commended as a duty, b••t as an instrument; and in that sense no Man can reprove it, or undervalue it; but he that knows neither spiritual arts, nor spiritual ne∣cessities: but by the doctors of the Church it is called, the nourishment of prayer, the restraint of lust, the wings of the soul, the diet of Angels, the instrument of humility, and self-denial, the purification of the Spi∣rit: and the paleness and maig••enesse of visage which is consequent to the daily fast of great mortifiers, is by Saint Basil said to be the mark in the Forehead which the An∣gel observed, when he signed the Saint•• in the forehead to escape the wrath of God. [The soul that is greatly vexed, which goeth stooping and feeble, and the eyes that fail,* 1.6 and the hungry soul shall give thee praise and righteousness, O Lord.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Je••unium si∣ne eleem••sy∣na, lampas sine oleo. S. August.
• * 1.2

  Digiuna as∣sat chi mal mangia.
• * 1.3

  Chi digiuna & altro ben non fa•• sp••∣ragna il pa∣ne, & al in∣fernova. See Chap. 2. Sect. 2, & 3.
• * 1.4

  S. Basil: Monast: Constit. cap. 5. Cassian: coll. 21. cap. 22

  Nè per causā necessitatis eò imping••mus, ut voluptati∣bus servia∣mus.
• * 1.5

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Na••,
• * 1.6

  Baruch ••. v. 18.