A treatise of repentance and of fasting especially of the Lent-fast : in III parts.

CHAP. XIX. A further Satisfaction to some Objections.

BUT there are some who imagine there is no need of a set publick Fast, of such long continuance as the Fast of Lent is, for these good purpo∣ses: because every man may humble himself before God for his offences, and Repent himself of them in pri∣vate, at such times as he thinks best, or can best spare, to be set apart for such Holy Uses.

Unto which exception I think suffi∣cient Satisfaction hath been given, in what was last said, if men would con∣siderately weigh it. But because it

is very useful to have a distinct know∣ledge of things, I shall give a parti∣cular Answer to it. And to the first part of it, I shall return the same An∣swer that our excellent Hooker hath already made. That no doubt Peni∣tency is in this like Prayer; that it will be acceptable to God whether performed in publick or in secret. Howbeit, as in Prayer, if men were left wholly to their own choice of such times as they thought fit, for their voluntary Meditations in their Closets, and not drawn by Law and publick Orders unto the open Assem∣blies of the Church at certain times and hours, it may be easily conjectu∣red what Christian devotion would that way come unto, in a short time: Even so in this of Penitency we are taught by sufficient experience, with∣out any further trial, how little it avails to tell men of washing away their sins by tears of Repentance; and so to leave them altogether to them∣selves. For alas! they little think of this, but pass over their numerous sins, without taking any considerable time to bewail them and repent of

them: And therefore the Church had reason to set a time apart for this discipline; wherein the publick ex∣ample of all may be unto every parti∣cular person, a most effectual means, to put them in mind, and even draw them to that, which they all quite and clean forget; as if Penitency were no part of a Christian mans du∣ty.

As for the other part of the Excep∣tion, which is the long continuance of this set time; I gave the reason of it before; that men might shake off the habits of Intemperance and Impurity; of Evil-speaking, Lying, and such like Sins. Unto which having been long accustomed, they cannot pre∣sently get rid of them: but by ma∣king it their business for so many weeks, to refrain them, may possibly quite forsake them, and never return unto them.

And if they that are not able to Fast totally from Meat and Drink, would use their utmost endeavour to abstain from those sins to which they find themselves most inclined, and to deny all manner of bad desires;

they might without Fasting attain the end for which Fasting is ordained: Which I repeat again for the further satisfaction of those, who are trou∣bled because they are not able to Fast all day, at such times as the Church appoints.

For whose sake I shall enlarge a little more upon this Subject. And as I have shown before, that there are many people that cannot bear the dis∣cipline of Fasting (particularly, they that are of a weak Constitution, and can Eat but little at a time; who therefore require frequent reparations of the decays of Nature) so now I shall add to that number, such as out of choice Eat always sparingly; no more, as near as they can guess, than will just suffice to support their strength, for the discharge of their duties in their several imployments. These men leading always such an Abstemious life, that it may be cal∣led a perpetual Abstinence, S. Chryso∣stom also excuses from the obligation of Fasting. Whose discourse I think fit to set down, for the full satisfacti∣on of such kind of scruples.

For the understanding of which the Reader must know, that his Church had been throng'd with company from the beginning of Lent, till about the ninth or tenth day: when he ob∣serving there was but a very thin Congregation, he begins his Sermon in this manner.

What's the matter that your Assembly is so small to day, and we have not such a concourse, as hath usually been here? Perhaps some are asha∣med after they have been at a carnal Table, to come to this Spiritual; and therefore we have not their company. But let such hearken to what the Wise man saith, iv. Ec∣clus. 21. There is a shame that bring∣eth sin: and there is a shame which is glory and grace. No man hath rea∣son to blush, if he come from his Corporal repast, to partake of the Spiritual. A sober hearer, though he have Dined, is not unfit for this Assembly: As on the contrary, a listless and careless, though he re∣main Fasting, gets no good thereby. I do not speak this to unloose you

from the strictness of Fasting (God forbid) for I much approve and praise those who are Fasting: but I would have you to understand, that you should come after a sober man∣ner, and not merely out of Custom, unto Spiritual things: and that it is not Eating, but negligence, dis∣orderly passions and affections, and lusts uncurbed, that make men unfit for our Sermons. For, beloved, if by reason of the weakness of thy Bo∣dy, thou canst not continue all the day Fasting, no wise man will re∣prove thee for it. For we serve a gentle and merciful Lord, who ex∣acts nothing of us beyond our strength: nor doth he simply re∣quire Fasting and Abstinence of us, and that we should remain Fasting till this hour: but that, throwing away all cares for the things of this life, we should bestow all our leisure in Spiritual imployments. And if we order our life with a sober mind, and whatsoever leisure we have be imployed in Spiritual things, and we Eat merely for necessity, and so much as needs and no more, bestow∣ing

all our life in some good work or other; there is no need then that we are in, of that help which is re∣ceived from Fasting. Which was not ordained for such kind of men; but because humane nature is negli∣gent, and delights in pleasure, and seeks for ease and liberty; there∣fore our most merciful Lord, like a tender hearted Father, devised this medicine of Fasting: that delica∣cies and making much of our selves might be cut off; and we might translate our thoughts about the things of this life, unto Spiritual imployments.

If therefore there be any here pre∣sent, whom the infirmity of their body will not permit to continue Fasting, without their Dinner, I exhort such both to refresh their bo∣dily infirmity, and not to deprive themselves of this Spiritual instructi∣on: but (having taken their bodily repast) to be so much the more stu∣dious of it. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. For there are certainly, there are ways, by which far wider doors of confidence towards God may be

opened, than by mere Abstinence from Food. He therefore that takes some Food, being unable to Fast, let him give larger Alms; let him send up more fervent Prayers; let him be more forward, and show greater alacrity in hearing God's Word. In those things, his bodily infirmity can be no hindrance to him. Let him be reconciled to his Enemies; let him drive all re∣membrance of injuries out of his heart: and if he hath done these things, he hath kept the true Fast which the Lord requires of us. For he commands us to abstain from Meat, for these things sake; that we should check the wantonness of the Flesh; and make it obedient and tractable to fulfil his Command∣ments.

Wherefore knowing these things, I beseech you, who can Fast, that you intend and increase, as much as is possible, this your good and lau∣dable forwardness: for the more the outward man decays, the more your inward man is renewed. Fast∣ing brings under the Body, and

bridles its disorderly motions: It makes the Soul also more clear and bright; giving it wings also, and making it light, and ready to sore aloft. As for our Brethren who cannot Fast, do you exhort them, that they would not for this cause refrain from their Spiritual Food: Tell them what I now say; and let them know, that not he who Eats and Drinks moderately is unworthy of this Auditory: but he that is la∣zy and dissolute. And tell them al∣so what the Apostle saith in that Oracle of his; that both he that Eat∣eth, Eateth to the Lord; and he that Eateth not, to the Lord he Eateth not, and giveth God thanks. In like manner, let him that Fasteth, give thanks to God, who gives him strength able to support the labour of Fasting: and he that Fasteth not, let him also give thanks, that no∣thing of this nature can do him hurt, nor hinder him from minding the Salvation of his Soul; if he be plea∣sed to attend it. For it cannot be told how many ways our most mer∣ciful God hath provided, by which,

if we will, we may attain the high∣est confidence in him.

These things I have said for the sake of the absent, that occasion of shame might be taken from them; and they might know there is no reason to be ashamed on this score. For to have Eaten doth not bring confusion upon us, but to have done an ill thing. Sin is a great shame; which if we have admitted, we ought not only to blush, but to hide our selves for shame, and like condem∣ned persons, bewail our selves as miserable wretches: and yet not then to despond, but to make the more haste to Penitence and Pardon. For he is such a gracious Lord, that he requires no more, when by negli∣gence we fall into sin; but that we acknowledge our Errors, and pro∣ceed no further, nor return again to the same offences.

I omit the rest, for he repeats the same thing often over, in that Ser∣mon. In the conclusion of which, after he had expounded a portion of Holy Scripture, he excuses himself for holding them so long: which yet,

he tells them, was not without rea∣son; but that they who were present might be able to teach those who were absent the forenamed Lesson; which he desires them to carry home with them, and instruct their absent Neighbours in it. And the next day but one, he begins his Sermon, with the very same Lesson again: having also in his Sermon, upon the day be∣tween these two, told them; that two days in a week were allowed unto all, wherein to intermit their Fasting. Which he compares to the resting places, and Inns which are upon the Rode, that weary Travellers may turn in, and refresh themselves a while; to enable them to go on their journey the more chearfully: and to the Ports and Havens on the Sea-shore, into which the Mariners may run their Vessel, when they have been tossed with the Waves, and there wait for the opportunity of a fair Wind to carry them forward. Such Shores and Havens, saith he, such Rests and stays hath God gran∣ted us, for two days in the week, in

this course of the Lent Fast: that the labour of it being a little remitted, and they that travel in it refreshed, may afterwards go on with the grea∣ter alacrity.

Of the same Opinion was his great Friend, S. Basil in his Book of true Virgini∣ty Where he saith,

we may apply to Fast∣ing, those words of the Holy Scrip∣ture, Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. For as it is dangerous to incline to Gluttony: so by too much Abstinence to weaken the Body, and make it unserviceable, is altogether as absurd and most irrational. For Abstinence from the pleasures of the Belly is not good in it self; but only as it contributes to the attainment of Vertue. Now if we regard not that, by an immoderate Abstinence, for which we chuse to abstain from Meat: we pervert the end of its In∣stitution; and by our folly, make it produce the quite contrary effect, to what was designed in it. For the Organ being broken and spoil'd, our Souls cannot converse with God,

by Reading and by Prayers: nor can it comply with our desires, when we have a mind to do any good office to our Brethren. We ought therefore to have a due care of the Body: not for the Bodies sake, but for the sake of its ministry and service, in the ac∣quisition of Vertue. For it is impos∣sible, either to attend to Reading, or bend our mind to Prayer, or in∣deed to be fit for any other profi∣table imployment, if the Body be not well treated, that it may be an obedient minister to us. And there∣fore the Apostle saith he brought under his Body; but it was that it might be his servant.

I might add the words of another great man, Greg. Na∣zianzen: who showing that we are ill advised, if we think to imitate all Christs actions, instances, among other things, in his Fasting.

Christ, saith he, Fasted before he was Tempted; we before Easter: The Fasts are the same; but there is not a small difference in their Times. For he Fasted, to arm himself against

the assaults of Temptations: we to testifie our being dead with Christ, and for a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, prepa∣ratory purgation before the Feast. And he Fasted forty days; for he was God: but we proportion it to our strength. Although there be some whose zeal perswades them to extend their Fasting above their strength. And in ano∣ther place he asks this question, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; What need they Fast Corporally, whose minds are puri∣fied by the Word?

Alluding, as Elias Cretensis thinks, to that passage of our Saviour's, Now ye are clean, through the Word which I have spoken to you, xv. John 3. For such pure Souls, saith he, do not stand in need of that Iustration which is made by Fasting. In the Latin Church S. Austin dis∣courses admirably on this Subject, in his Book of the Manners of the Catholick Church. Where he relates what incredible Fasts were kept in some Monasteries, both by

Men and by Women: yet so that no body was urged to such severities as they could not bear. Nothing was imposed upon them that refused, nor were they therefore condemned by the rest, because they were unable, they said, to imitate what they did. For they remembred with what pains the Scripture commands Charity to us all: and were not unmindful of the words of S. Paul in the xiv. to the Romans, which I mentioned before out of S. Chrysostom. And, in fine, he saith, that when they were not well, they Eat those things without scruple, from which they abstained when they were in health. Nay, to such as were weakly, and indeed to all, who could not (for instance) have a good health without the use of Wine (from which many abstained) they caused it to be given them with great humanity and modesty. And some, who foolishly refused what was offered, they brotherly admonished, Ne vana superstitione debiliores citiùs, quam sanctiores fiant, lest by vain su∣perstition, they sooner made them∣selves more unhealthy, than more holy.

They read also to them the command of the Apostle to Timothy, that he should drink a little Wine, because of his often infirmities. And in this man∣ner they exercised Piety diligently: but bodily Exercise (as the same A∣postle speaks) they knew was perti∣nent ad exiguum tempus, for a little time.

But I need not take any further pains in this matter: for if we had none of these Authorities to rely up∣on, we might be instructed by com∣mon Reason, that we ought to break the Fast before the appointed time of the day, if we find our selves thereby indisposed and unfit, for the necessa∣ry duties, which are to be performed on that day. This Erasmus tells us was the resolution of a Franciscan of his ac∣quaintance (one of the best men that he ever knew) who, when his companion thought they must begin all their Prayers again, because he had seen him Eat before the time, said, No such matter; there is no fault committed, but rather God is a gainer by what I have done:

for before our Prayers were languid, flat and dull; but now we can sing the Hymns with a chearful mind; and with such sacrifices God is pleased. Erasmus himself also on a Fasting-day having been hard at study, which made it necessary, he thought, to comfort his stomach before Dining∣time with a mess of Broth, advised with the same Franciscan about it: who answered, so that the Lay Bro∣ther might take notice of it, Thou hast not offended: nay, thou hadst done ill, if thou hadst not taken that re∣freshment, but for little Foods sake hadst omitted thy Sacred studies; and there∣by done injury also to thy spare body.

I end this with the Observation of the same great Person in another place; that there are certain sorts of Food, which so nourish the Body, ut vivat, non ut lasciviat, as merely to preserve life, not to make it wanton. And such kind of Food if we chuse, when necessity re∣quires, merely for support, not for pleasure; it cannot be thought that God or any wise and good man will

condemn us for it: when we are thereby only made more serviceable both to God and Man.

Notes

• Hom. x. in Ge∣nesin.
• Hom. xi.
• Tome 1. p. 717.
• Orat. xl. p. 659.
• Orat. 36 pag. 583.
• Cap. xxxiii.
• L. xv. Epist. 14.
• Lib. xxxi. E∣pist. 43.