Fasting The Conclusion by way of a Practical direction how to Fast. BUt now we are resolved to keep Lent how may we keep it so as to do our bodys no hurt and our souls a great deal of good We must remember God-Almighty loves a cheerful giver and therefore whether we do more or less Mortification this Sacred Penitential time let us do it with a chearful Heart and Countenance And although there can be no doubt but the more strictly we can prevail with our selves to Fast we may hope for the more abundant benefit from our Fasting yet we must consider the proportion not only of our Corporal but also of our Spiritual forces we must Mortifie our bodys but not Kill them we must humble soul and body for our sins but yet with such regard to our measure of Divine Grace and Spiritual strength that we do not make our lives tedious and intolerably irksome It was not want of Corporal but Spiritual strength which made our B. Lord excuse his weak Apostles from the rigorous Fasts of the Disciples of S. Iohn Baptist and the Pharisees The strong new Wine of Fasting put into such craz'd Bottles as they were before they were strengthened with the Infusion of the H. Ghost upon the day of Pentecost would have broken them all in pieces We must indeed humble our selves this Penitential time for our unfaithful Service of the Divine Majesty but yet so as we do not make our selves wholly weary of his Service And when Penitential works seem grievous to our delicate frail bodys we must encourage our selves to go on by reflecting Aut Panitendum aut ardendum we must either gently Chastise our selves for our sins in this world or else severely be for ever Chastized by God-Almighty for them in the other And this will make us cry out amidst our most rigorous Fasts with the Devout S. Bernard O bonum judicium quod me divino subducit Iudicio O good O welcome self-judgment which frees me from the severe Iudgment of my God Pro eo quod c. Because we abstain even from lawful things the unlawful things which we formerly have committed are pardon'd us c. Idem Ser. 4 de Quadrag If we judge our selves we may be sure we shall not be judged of our Lord. The Justice of the All good God will not permit the same faults to be twice punished by us in this Life and by himself in the other But how must we Fast this Holy Time In the first place we must have a special care to Fast from Sin Illa est in Quadragesimae diebus c. This says S. Austin is no small benefit of the Lenten-Fast that whilst at that time we even abstain from lawful things we are vehemently admonished much more to avoid such things as are unlawful For we who abstain from flesh which we may lawfully eat upon other days We who abstain from Wine which we may lawfully drink moderately We who abstain from those things which sometimes are lawful especially ought to abstain from Sin which never is lawful If therefore we desire well to Fast from Meat in the first place let us Fast also from Vices c. otherwise we may justly fear that severe Reproach of Almighty-God Isa. 1. to his own People the Iews concerning days and observances of his own appointment because Celebrated by persons living habitually in grievous sins Who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Incense is an Abomination to me Your new-Moons and your appointed Feasts your Embers Vigils and Lent-Fasts my soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them When you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Had not the Penitent Ninevites joyned with their Fasting and Sack-cloath amendment of their wicked lives they had not escaped the Destruction threatned them from God Almighty by his Prophet Ionah Chap. 3. ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turned from their evil Way and God repented of the Evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not And indeed what can be more absurd and impiously prophane than when we are professing to endeavour to appease God Almighties Anger for our Sins by Fasting and other Humiliations then actually to incense him to Wrath and Indignation against us by deliberately offending of him Secondly Have a special care you so Fast as your Fasting be a real Mortification unto you and not a mere Mock-Fast A pure Abstinence from Flesh and a real Feasting upon other Viands Let us not deceive our selves the God before whom we pretend to humble our selves is not mocked He is the dangerousest Person in the World to go about to cheat and impose upon And think seriously what is the true End of our Superiors in commanding us Fasting and Abstinence and then order our Eating and Drinking as we miss not of That If it be to dispose us for Prayer and other Spiritual Exercises to appease Gods Anger towards us for onr Sins past to weaken the Strength of Concupiscence enclining us to sin for the time to come c. be sure we do nothing on a Fasting-Day destructive of those Ends. We must look upon Fasting as the Physick of our Souls prescribed to us by our Spiritual Doctors and Physitians not purely to show their Authority and exercise our Obedience but as absolutely necessary for the recovery of our Spiritual Health vvhich we have lost by Sin And therefore if any one should go about to dispense with you as to the taking of this bitter Potion before you admit of his Dispensation ask him what Security he can give you it shall go equally well with your Souls Health whether you take the unsavory Potion of Fasting or no VVe fell sick sayes S. Basil. Ho. 1. de Jeju by Sin we are cured by Repentance But Repâ—ntance without Fasting is vain and unprofitable And to Fast from one sort of Viands and Feast upon another or to Fast from Meat and what we want in Meat to make it up with strong Drink is as good never a whit as never the better And in such a manner to pretend to attone your offended God by Fasting is as if you should make shew of humbling your self by wearing Sack-Cloath and secretly line your Sack-cloath with Plush And he who will regulate his Fasting by what Latitudinarian Guides and Directors tell him he may lawfully do upon a Fasting-day without breach of his Fast whereas his Blessed Saviour whom he pretends to imitate Fasting 40. Days and 40. Nights was afterwards a hungry he may Fast 40. Days and 40. Nights without e're being hungry either in the time of his Mock-fast or afterwards And this I take to be the true reason why many complain they have kept many Lents with little or no profit to their souls and with good reason because they seldom or never really and indeed Fasted but instead of endeavouring according to their
strength to humble themselves by more and more rigorous Abstinence they have sought by all means possible to cheat those Penitential days Hear not me but S. Basil above concerning those who because a five-days Fast was at hand would make themselves drunk the day before Si cras venias vinum obolens c. If thou comest to morrow smelling of Wine and its putrid and corrupted Crudities how shall I impute to thee thy drunken Surfet for a Fast. In which order shall I place thâ—e Amongst Drunkards or amongst Fasters But in what order think you would the Holy Father have placed those who not barely smell of Wine drunk to excess the day before but upon the very Fasting-day it self drink their skins full of Wine Had we a deep sense how much the health of the soul is to be preferr'd before the pleasure of the body and a strong Faith how exceedingly Fasting conduces to the souls health all the World would be in love with Fasting and though our Constitutions would not permit us to abstain from flesh this Love would wake us so ingenious to Mortifie our selves in a temperate use of flesh that we should no less reap the fruit of Fasting than those who lived upon Fish or Herbs Let us by no means says S. Basil receive the days that are approaching with a sad heart but as becomes Saints with a chearful affection Be not sad when thou art Cured It would be very absurd if we should grieve for the substraction of our Victuals and not rather rejoyce for the health of our soul and so seem to value more the pleasure of our belly than the cure of our mind For fulness causes delight unto the belly but fasting is gainful to the soul. Rejoyce for that is given thee an efficacious Medicine to abolish sin For as Worms which breed in the bowels of Children are expell'd by certain sharp and bitter Medicines so Sin that abides in the inmost recesses of the soul is instantly kill'd and extinguish'd by fasting which purges the bowels of the mind Do not imitate the disobedience of Eve do not again make the Serpent thy Counsellor who under pretext of sustaining thy body perswades thee to eat Do not excuse thy self for thy infirm Constitution do not say thou art not able to endure fasting For thou doest not make those excuses to me but according to the Proverb thou speakest to one who knows the Truth to wit to God who is ignorant of nothing Go to then tell mâ— canst thou not Fast and canst thou fill thy self with variety of Meats canst thou surcharge thy body with the weight of Victuals But we know Physitians are wont to prescribe to such as are infirm not abundance of Food but a spare Dyet and Abstinence How comes it to pass then that you can feast But pretend you can not fast Whether is it more easie to the belly to pass over the Night with a slender Refection or to lye opprest with abundance of Meats Yea indeed not to lye but stretching and groaning continually to turn now to this side and now to that But what modâ—ration in eating and drinking should we do well to use upon Fasting-days Consult God and your own Conscience and such as understand the right exercise and great benefit of true Fasting In three words Be contented with one temperate Meal taken as late as your health and other circumstances will permit Drink no strong drink or very sparingly and this only at your Meal and though you should take some small matter at night Even such an abstinence would not want its singular Spiritual advantages so you exercised it not merely in a Customary manner but for good Christian ends with sincerity as in the sight of God according to the measure of your health and strength Thirdly Be sure to joyn with the exterior Mortification of your body the interior Humiliation of your soul by a hearty sorrow and contrition for your sins Though you give your whole Estate to the Poor if you want Charity it will avail you nothing And though you make your body a mere Skeleton by rigorous Fasting and Abstinence if your heart be not truly Penitent and sorry for your sins all 's to no purpose A broken and an humble heart is a Sacrifice which God-Almighty will by no means despise But if contrition of heart be wanting all exterior Mortifications will be rejected And it is want of this which makes Fasting and other voluntary Austerities and Involuntary Crosses seem hard and intolerable unto us A soul deeply humbled with an intimate sense of its deserts for its manifold sins and wickednesses thinks all Meats all Cloaths all Lodging and whatsoever Accommodations too good for it But as exterior acts of Charity beget and encrease true Charity in our hearts so exterior Penitential works are apt to beget and encrease interior Penitential sorrow in our souls And though the interior of Charity Repentance and other Vertues be the chief and main thing we are to aim at yet all interior pretences to any Vertue which show not themselves in exterior acts are to be suspected as Counterfeit What St. Austin says of Charity is no less true of Repentance or any other Vertue Amor si est c. Love if it be in us it will be working if it do not work it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Repentance if it be in us it will be working by Fasting and other Penitential works if it works not it is not in us if it be great it will work great things Christian Vertues with their exterior acts are not unfitly compared to some rich Wine in a Cask or Vessel A rich Wine without a Cask or Vessel to contain it cannot be presented a bare Cask presented without the rich Liquor in it would not be accepted Ioel 2. 12. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning Fourthly Take heed of corrupting the Mortification of your Fasting by excess in other joyances Holy Daniel in his three weeks Fast abstained not only from pleasant Food but also from Anoynting of himself Ch. 10. v. 3. I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I Anoynt my self at all till three weeks were fulfilled Vtamur ergo parcius Verbis cibis potibus Somnio jocis arctius Perstemus in Custodia Let us be more sparing not only in our Meat and Drink but also in our Words Sleep and Recreations and keep a more Vigilant Watch over our selves that in nothing we exceed And the reason is manifest for one great end of Fasting being by that exterior Mortification to beget or encrease interior Contrition and Sorrow of heart for sin it manifestly follows if we seriously design the end of Fasting we ought carefully to moderate all other Joyances however in themselves Lawful and at another time laudable which
days within twenty should have been utterly destroyed I remember to have read how that the Primitive Christians to excite in their souls a more lively sense and apprehension of our B. Saviours humble Birth and painful Death were wont often to go to Bethlehem and Mount Calvary there to make their Prayers and Meditations reflecting and no doubt with a singular profit to their Souls that there their dear Redeemer was humbly born and here the same Redeemer pitiously died for them But the Devil envying these good Christians their so profitable Devotions by a cunning device thus thought to deterr them from them He suggested to the Pagans to set up the Statue of Adonis in the Stall of Bethlehem and the Statue of Venus on the Mount of Calvary so that the Devout Christians could not now go either to the one place or the other to help their Religious Piety without seeming superstitiously to worship Venus and Adonis A lively representation me-thinks this of the notorious abuse the same Devil has put upon us Christians in our yearly Observations of Christmas in memory of our Saviours Birth and weekly Observation of Friday in memory of his Death The Primitive Christians weekly observed the day of our Lords bitter Death and Passion afflicting their Souls for their sins with penitential sorrow and their bodies with rigorous Fasting both the quantity and quality of their Diet rather expelling Death than cherrishing Life The same first Christians yearly observed the time of their Lords Nativity but so Religiously as it was manifest their study was to fatten their souls with devout Meditations not to pamper their bodies with delicious fair The Devil envying the Church of Christ so great profit from the pious observation of these Holy Times he suggests to sensual Libertines so to prophane the Holy Time of Christmas with excessive Rioting that none could profess to keep it without playing the Debauche and so to abuse the Religious Fast of Friday and other times of Christian Abstinence by an intolerable excess in all sorts of Fish and Wine and dainty Comfitures that none could pretend to observe them without playing the Hypocrites professing to afflict their bodies with Austere Fasting when they pampered them by delicate Feasting But what Remedy Abandon the profane Abuse and recall the first Pious use Demolish the Statues of Venus and Adonis but help your Devotions still by Visiting the Sanctified places of our Lords Birth and Passion Though you must give me leave to tell you that I fear were the matter well examin'd it would be found that not others uncouth exotick manner of Fasting but our own Inordinate desire of eating when we will what we will and as much as we will that is of not Fasting at all is the true cause of our Cavilling at the Holy Fast of Lent and other times of Abstinence Let it be Some who pretend to Fast do nothing less abstaining indeed from Flesh but giving scope to their Sensuality in other things But they say Carpere vel noli vel meliora face Either do not carp at our Fasting or else Fast more strictly your selves And those who are so forward in Reproaching to their Neighbours their Mock-fasts I fear if they were obliged to Fast would find but difficulty enough even to fast so largely as they do whose Fastings they carpe at And though indeed you may find too too many Libertines who study by all means possible to avoyd the difficulty of Church-Fasts by excessive Drinking and intemperance in Meats not prohibited yet those of a better Conscience though they come far short of the rigor of the Primitive Christians in their Abstinence yet do so Fast as their fasting days are days of real Mortification unto them As for Libertins it s rather to be wondered they will deny themselves even to abstain from Flesh than that they take the liberty they do upon Fasting-days Do not so wholly fix your Eyes upon the Cockle as you take no notice at all of the good Corn. But to the Point undertaken to be proved How may one who with his soul desires nothing more than to observe most Religiously all Apostolical Ordinations be satisfied that the Holy Apostles of our Lord Jesus ordained the Quadragesimal Fast of Lent as a time of Abstinence and Humiliation for all Christians Let him throughly satisfie himself that Fasting is a Christian duty and has a singular force to cast out the Devil to obtain the Holy Ghost to appease the Allmighties just Anger and which shall have a singular reward in Heaven And moreover let him reflect if any Credit be to be given to the Old and New Scripture and to Eccesiastical History the more eminent any one has been for Piety and Sanctity the more exemplar have they been for Fasting and Abstinence Moyses Elias Daniel Iudith Anne great Fasters under the old Law St. Iohn Baptist our Blessed Saviour St. Mary Magdalen and all the Apostles under the Gospel St. Paul testifies of himself that he Fasted often Our B. Saviour assures us concerning all his Disciples that when he was taken from them they should Fast. To say nothing of our Basils Hieroms and Augustines c. whose Fasts were very frequent and very rigorous and yet we cannot without injury to the Apostolical Colledge surmise that those later Fathers of Christs Church should surpass either in Piety or Abstinence the first Planters of Christianity By which it is evident to every Christian Man that Fasting in general is very well becoming every good Christian and that he hardly deserves the name of a Christian who wanting neither health nor strength yet Fasts not at all And indeed if we examin the matter well we shall find that one great end of our Lord Jesus His coming into the World was to save us from our sins by Teaching by his Doctrin and by enabling us by his Example and other gracious Assistances fervourously to practise the propitiatory Humiliation of Fasting Our All-wise Mediator understanding very well that could he but bring us heartily to Repent us of our sins and to express the sincerity of our interior Contrition by exterior Humiliation or Fasting such was the genius of his Eternal Father that he could not but pardon us how great or how many soever our sins might be But on the contrary we refusing to Repent and that even in Sack-cloath and Ashes that is with such a Repentance as shows it self by some exterior acts or other no Prayers no Tears no Blood no Death of his could possibly obtain our pardon except we would Repent Perish we must and that Eternally But what conduces this to perswade Lent-Fast was appointed by the Apostles Very much For we having hence that Fasting is a necessary Christian duty and strangely conducing to save the World from sin it evidently follows it was well worthy the Apostles the better to secure so useful a practice to determin certain days every yeâ—r in which all Christians should be obliged to
eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks and v. 17. The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost So that it seems by the H. Apostle that it matters not whether I eat Flesh or I abstain from Flesh in Lent so I give God thanks I am every whit as good a Christian though I eat as if I abstained Read the 14 v. and that will help you to correct your mistake I know and am perswaded by the Lord Iesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean By which words it 's manifest the Romans case and ours is quite different The scrupulous Romans seem to have had a difficulty to eat Flesh or drink Wine as imagining them to be in themselves unclean either for that they had been offered up to Idols or prohibited by the abolished Law of Moses or as naturally unclean and necessarily enclining them to sin but we abstain from them upon none of all these accounts but judge them as clean in themselves as any other Creatures of God only we deem them less suitable to a Penitential time then drier and less savory Viands and smaller sorts of drink But moreover you must give me leave to tell you that according to the doctrin of S. Paul in this very Chapter you ought if you will walk Christianly to abstain from Flesh in Lent at least upon the account of not scandalizing your weak Brethren who think themselves obliged to abstain from Flesh those days of Christian Pennance Hear the Apostles own words v. 15. If thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not Charitably and v 21. It is good neither to eat Flesh nor to drink Wine nor any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak Though as I was telling you our case is quite different from the Christians at Rome to whom S. Paul writes We abstain from flesh in Lent not as deeming it in it self unclean as some scrupulous weaklings amongst them did but having Testimonies from all Christian Countrys and from the undoubted writings of the prime Pillars of Christianity in the most Primitive Times that the Apostles so ordained and being besides commanded so to do by our Civil and Ecclesiastical Superiours who are ordained of God to countenance Well doers and to watch for our souls good as they who must give an account whom we think our selves obliged in Conscience to obey in all their Lawful commands but especially in such commands which when sincerely and undeceitfully observed tend to the great Spiritual advantage of our souls There are other places commonly urged by mis-understanders of Holy Scriptures against Abstinence from Meats upon a Religious account but to any one that considers the whole context and all circumstances they evidently appear nothing to the purpose For they are all intended against Superstitious Abstinence from Meats either as unclean by Creation or as unclean because prohibited by the Antiquated Law of Moses or as having been offered up to Idols or as because eaten with unwashen hands against frivolous and useless Traditions of men Thus when our B. Saviour S. Mat. 15. 11. tells us Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth this defileth a man It s manifest by the occasion of his saying those words v. 2. The Scribes and Pharisees quarrelling with his Disciples for not washing their hands before they did eat Bread and by what follows v. 20. To eat with unwashen hands defiles not a man that he never intended by those words to signifie that we might upon a day or time of publick Humiliation recommended to us by our Superiors without defiling our selves eat what we please when we please or as oft as we please But at least is it not against the Laws of the Land to abstain from certain Meats upon a Religious account Here you must distinguish To abstain from certain Meats upon a pretendedly Religious but indeed Superstitious account as if some Meats were less Holy or more unclean than others is both against God's Laws and Mans Laws but to obstain from certain Meats upon a truly Religious and indeed pious account as judging some Meats more suitable to Penitential days and seasons than others is according both to the Laws of God and our Nation Hear our Laws themselves and be your own judges of the meaning of them Statute 2. and 3. Edward 6. c. 19. The Kings Subjects having a more clear light and thereby perceiving that one Meat is not more holy more pure or more clean than another and that no Meats can defile Christian Men so that they be not used in Disobedience or Vice yet for as much as divers of the Kings Subjects have of late time more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinence which hath been used in this Realm upon the Friday and Saturday the Embring days and other days commonly called Vigils and in the time commonly called Lent and other accustomed times the Kings Majesty considering that due and Godly Abstinence is a means to Vertue and to subdue mens Bodys to their Soul and Spirit and considering also that Fishers c. doth Ordain and Enact with the Assent of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual c. That no person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be shall at any time after the first day of May 1549. willingly or unwittingly eat any manner of Flesh upon any Friday or Saturday or the Ember days or in any day in the time commonly called Lent Take Bishop Gunnings Reflection hereupon The scope and reason and motive of which Law if it be considered according to the principal end of it subduing the Flesh to the Soul and Spirit for there is added another end also which was political may well admonish us though it was hard to contain the particulars in a Law to abstain also at such times of Mortification from what soever Food else is more delicate costly of hotter nature and of higher nourishment The formers of that Law which is now the Law of our Land had no doubt before their eyes the approbation of God and his gracious answer to Daniel so Chastening himself as in the holy Scripture is described Dan. 10. 2 3. 12. In those days I Daniel was Mourning three full weeks I ate no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine in my mouth neither did I anoynt my self at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled Then said he unto me Fear-not Daniel for from the first day that thou didst sâ—t thine heart to understand and to chasten thy self before thy God thy words were heard and I am come for thy words Which that Ministers of Gods Word should not as well have before their eyes as our civil
Magistrates is a great shame Reflect also with him upon the Prayer for the first Sunday or Lent O Lord who for our sake didst Fast 40. days and 40. nights give us Grace to use such Abstinence that our Flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy Godly motions in Righteousness and true Holiness c. How unworthy it would be to make that Holy Prayer to bear such a sense as this O Lord who for our sakes didst Fast forcy days and forty nights give us Grace to use such Abstinence that our Sea-faring Men and Marriners and young Cattle and the like may be maintaâ—ned In fine Abstinence from certain Meats upon certain days is against no Law that I know of but the Law of sin in our own sinful bodys our corrupt greedy desire of eating what we will when we will and as much as we will But still you say you are afraid of Will-worship and Superstition by observing a time which you fear God has never commanded you But you have more reason to be afraid of Profaneness in taking no notice of a time which you have all reason to think God has commanded you Religiously to observe if you reflect well upon what has been said But you cannot perswade your self its any ways acceptable to God to Fast in Lent For that you must know that the power of Education is upon you and our proud corrupt Nature has a great deal of dâ—fficulty to condemn it self of so gross ignorance and mistake that notwithstanding we have made Religion our business for perhaps twenty or thirty years or more yet we have looked upon a Practice as an useless vain Superstition which was indeed true Christian Piety But it s better to come into Gods Vineyard at the Eleventh hour than not at all Better late than not at all come to the knowledge of any part of true Christian Piety Learn to be Wise from your own dammage and reflect seriously with your self how seldom you have Fasted in the whole course of your life and yet you cannot but acknowledge the singular benefit of Religious Fasting and if you believe Jesus Christ when it is rightly performed it shall have a singular reward in the other Life And consider moreover whether you shall in all likelihood Fast more days in this next year if you Fast only when the Spirit of God shall move you to Fast or if you should engage your self to Fast all Fridays Ember-days Lent c. God knows our private good purposes are easily broken by us and the best of us stand in need of the extrinsecal help of a common Law to call upon us to do our duty especially in such things as are troublesome to Flesh and Blood as Fasting and Abstinence are You are resolved for example to Fast to morrow a Friend comes in and either invites himself to Dine with you or you to Dine with him and now it s ten to one but either out of modesty or human respect you break your purpose of Fasting But when a day is set apart for Fasting or Abstinence by a common Law every one presumes his Neighbour observes it and does not expect that for his sake he should Violate it Fasting and Prayer are strangely useful to save our souls and it concerns Superiors to secure some times for them in their Subjects let them super-add what they please by their own private Devotions And we find it but too true by too sad experience in too many what the German Lutheran confessed to his Son His Son refusing to eat upon a Fasting-day he told him he was not to Fast upon Fridays or Saturdays or any other Set-days that was Superstition but when the Spirit moved him His Son demanding I pray Father when did the Spirit move you to Fast these thirty years you have been a Lutheran He ingenuously confest By Goat niet een mael By God not once And indeed it is a sad thing to consider in our poor Country how many Zelots there are amongst us for Religion and yet how seldom or never at all they Fast. Nay many of them because they are loth to condemn their own practices because the holy Scripture sometimes Allegorically calls Abstinence from sin Fasting look upon Abstinence from Meat and Drink as no true Fast As if they should say there were no such thing prohibited by God as Carnal Adultery and Fornication because in a Spiritual and Allegorical sense Idolatry or a Worshipping of false Gods is often called in Holy Writ Fornication and Adultery But this is the just punishment of Pride and Self-conceit God ever resisting the Proud but giving Grace to the Humble deservedly do they fall into a thousand Spiritual Phrensies and Madnesses who prefer their own private seeming sense of H. Scriptures not only before the judgment of their present Guides and Teachers but also before the unanimous interpretation of the prime Christian Saints and Doctors of all Ages whom God has appointed to preserve us whilst we adhere to their solid Sentiments from being carryed away with every wind of Doctrin of our own private Opinions Whom all that has been said cannot perswade to a Religious Observation of the Penitential time of Lent I have one reasonable request to them that they would but for one year Fast as many days out of private Devotion as they do who Fast at Set-times and days commanded by an extrinsecal Authority and I perswade my self they would find so great spiritual benefit thereby that they would clearly see Fasting being good in it self its being commanded by our Superiors can never make it Superstition I deny not but the change of the Primitive Christian way of Fasting into a meer mock-abstinence from certain kind of Meats by Set-Fasters gave but too great occasion to many simple well-meaning people to look upon all Fasting as a meer Superstition It being hard to conceive that ever the Apostles could appoint such a manner of Fasting as is too too commonly practised by Pretenders to follow Apostolical Institutions in their Set-Fasts For what say Non-Conformists if we must upon the Authority of Primitive Fathers Fast Lent why then ought we not to follow the manner of Fasting prescribed by the same Fathers Now they recommend to us as well Abstinence from Wine as flesh and only one temperate Refection towards the Evening As for Answer to this Objection we all acknowledge our fault and are resolved seriously to endeavor amendment and according to our Corporal and Spiritual strength piously to emulate the Primitive Christians Fasting And would you joyn with us in so holy an exercise we hope what our own simple knowledge is not able to prevail with our sensual Nature to do your good example would shame us into the effectual performance of at least in some good measure And now I hope your Objection is Answered And a happy solution this indeed God grant it But its time to add a word concerning the Practical manner of Religious