and Sorrow used by devout People in Token of Levit. xvi. hearty Repentance. The great Faft on the Day

29, 31.

Sacra &

cinere vo

lutantes. Tertul.

Apolog.

c. 40.

of Expiation, was called a Day of fliding their Sculs; which confifted not only in Abftinence from Food, but in putting on the Habit and Appearance of Mourners; which in those Eastern Countries was Sackcloth, lying upon the Ground, Strewing Afbes on their Heads. And in fuch Days of afflicting their Souls, they abftained from all Sorts of Pleafure. And to thefe Expreffions of Sorrow the Words of St. James plainly allude; and were so literally practifed by the primitive Chriftians of thofe Countries. For, if any one fell into any notorious Sin after Baptifm, they did not think it fufficient that he should repeat his Crime no more, but he was obliged, by a long Course of Mortification, Prayers, Tears, and good Works, to endeavour to wash out the Stain of Guilt.

Q. Are we obliged to use the fame Teftimonies of our inward Grief, whereby it was expressed in ancient Times?

A. I think not; because the ufing of Sackcloth and Afbes formerly, when Men humbled themselves before God, was in Conformity to the Cuftom of Mourners in thofe Times, who expreffed their Senfe of Grief after that Manner. But then I think we ought to exprefs the fame Thing by other Signs proper to the Custom of Mourners in our Days. By forbearing our ufual Meals, by abstaining from all Manner of Pleasure, by neglecting the adorning our Bodies, by retiring from Company, by laying afide Bufinefs, and by bewailing our Lofs. A Sinner, faith St. Cyprian, ought to lament the Death of his Soul, at least as much as the Lofs of a Friend: And St. Chryfoftom makes Ufe of the fame Comparifon. And furely it will become us to mourn and lament, who have offended God, our best Friend, whofe Favour we have confequently

3

confequently loft, if we are heartily forry for having offended him.

Q. How is a Day of Fafting to be observed by ferious Chriftians?

A. Not only by interrupting and abridging the Care of our bodily Suftenance, but by carefully inquiring into the State of our Souls; charging ourfelves with all thofe Tranfgreffions we have committed against God's Laws, humbly confeffing them with Shame and Confufion of Face, with hearty Contrition and Sorrow for them; deprecating God's Displeasure, and begging him to turn away his Anger from us. By interceding with him for fuch fpiritual and temporal Bleffings upon ourfelves and others, as are needful and convenient. By improving our Knowledge in all the Particulars of our Duty. By relieving the Wants and Neceffities of the Poor, that our Humiliation and Prayers may find Acceptance with God. If the Faft be public, by attending the public Places of God's Worship.

Q. What ought we chiefly to beware of in our Exercifes of Fafting?

A. We ought to avoid all Vanity and valuing Mat. vi. ourselves upon fuch Performances; and therefore 18. in our private Fafts, not to proclaim them to others by any external Affections, that we may not appear to Men to faft. Not to defpife or judge our Neigh bour, who does not, and, it may be, has not the fame Reason to tie himself up to fuch Methods. Not to destroy the Health of our Bodies, and thereby make them unfit Inftruments for the Operation of our Minds, or the Discharge of our worldly Employments. Particular Care ought to be taken, that we do not grow thereby morofe and four, peevish and fretful towards others, which Severity to ourselves may be apt to incline us to; for that it is fo far from expreffing our Repentance

Cc 2

that

For Fafting.

For the divine Favour upon our

Falling.

Profeffion of Repen

tance.

that it makes fresh Work for it by increafing our Guilt.

LORD, who for our Sakes didft fast forty Days and forty Nights; give me Grace to ufe fuch Abftinence, that my Flesh being fubdued to the Spirit, I may ever obey thy godly Motions in Righteoufnefs and true Holinefs; to thy Honour and Glory, who liveft and reigneft with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, one God World without End. Amen.

T

II.

URN thou me, O good Lord, and fo fhall I be turned; be favourable, O Lord, be favourable unto me, who turn to thee in weeping, fafting, and praying; for thou art a God full of Compaffion, Long-fuffering, and of great Pity; thou fpareft when I deferve Punifhment, and in thy Wrath thinkeft upon Mercy: Spare me, good Lord, fpare me, and let me not be brought to Confusion; hear me, O Lord, for thy Mercy is great, and after the Multitude of thy Mercies look upon me, through the Merits and Mediation of thy bleffed Son, Fejus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I

III.

ACKNOWLEDGE, O God, my own Vilenefs by Reason of my Sins, and am heartily grieved for the Lofs of thy Favour. What Humiliation, O Lord, can fufficiently exprefs' the Greatness of fuch a Lofs! But I will weep and mourn, because I have offended thee; and I will repent as it were in Duft and Afhes. I will mortify thofe inordinate Appetites, which have fo fatally betrayed

betrayed me; I will contradict all thofe Inclinations which have made me ftray from the Ways of thy Commandments. And do thou, O Lord, wean my Soul from the Pleasures of the Body, which fo often corrupt it, and render it incapable of relishing fpiritual Enjoyments. Let it not contract too great a Familiarity with the Delights and Satisfactions of Senfe, fince it was created for more exalted Pleafures, and muft fhortly quit thofe here below; that fo when I come to leave this World, I may be qualified for the bleffed Converfation of Spirits in thy heavenly Kingdom, through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

СНАР. I.

The Forty Days of Lent.

Q. WHAT do you mean by Lent?

A. Lent, in the old Saxon, is known to fignify the Spring, and thence it hath been taken in common Language, for the Spring Faft; or the Time of Humiliation generally obferved by Chrif tians before Easter, the great Festival of our Saviour's Refurrection. And a Man muft know little of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, or have but a fmall Acquaintance with the Primitive Fathers of the Church, who doth not acknowledge the Obfervation of Lent to be most ancient.

Q. How may we judge of the Antiquity of this Faft? A. From the Difpute that was very early in the Church concerning the Obfervation of Eafter, one Point whereof was, concerning the ending of the Ante-pafchal Faft, which both Sides determined upon the Day they kept the Feftival; which is fufficient to let us know that there was then fuch a Faft kept by both Sides, and had been, in all Probability,

Cc 3

Eufeb.

Hift. lib. v. c. 24

4.

xiv. 34.

3.

xi.9.

xviii. 25.

1 Kings xix. 8.

bability, as anciently kept, as the Feast of the ReSurrection. And Irenæus, who lived but ninety Years from the Death of St. John, and converfed familiarly with St. Polycarp, as Polycarp had with St. John and other Apoftles, has happened to let us know, though incidentally, that, as it was obferved in his Time, fo it was in that of his Predeceffors, but with great Variety as to the Length of it. And there being no Church to be found anciently, wherein there was not a folemn Fast observed before Eafter, is a fufficient Argument to derive it from the Practice of the first Chriftians; for otherwife it cannot be conceived how it fhould fo univerfally prevail in all Countries where Christianity was planted.

Q. Why was the folemn Seafon of Humiliation limited to Forty Days?

A. The Church had, I fuppofe, a Respect to forty days, as what was efteemed a proper Penitential Seafon, which feems very anciently to have been Gen. vii. appropriated to Humiliation. For, not to reckon Numb. up the forty Days in which God drowned the World; or the forty Years in which the Children Deut. xxv. of Ifrael did Penance in the Wilderness; or the forty Stripes by which Malefactors were to be corrected; whoever confiders that Mofes did not once only faft this Number of Days; that Elias alfo Jonah iii. fafted in the Wilderness the fame Space of Time; Mat. iv. 2. that the Ninevites had precifely as many Days allowed for their Repentance; and that our blessed Saviour himself, when he was pleased to fast, obferved the fame Length of Time; whoever confiders thefe Fafts, cannot but think that this Number of Days was used by them all as the common solemn Number belonging to extraordinary Humiliation; and that thofe were accustomed to afflict themfelves forty Days, who would deprecate any great and heavy Judgment.

4.

Q. What