V.72. Of days appointed as well for ordinary, as for extraordinary Fasts in the Church of God.

LXXII. The matching of contrary things together is a kind of illustration to both. Having therefore spoken thus much of festival days, the next that offer themselves to hand are days of pensive humiliation and sorrow. Fastings are either of men’s own free and voluntary accord as their particular devotion doth move them thereunto; or else they are publicly enjoined in the Church and required at the hands of all men. There are¹ which altogether disallow not the former kind, and the latter they greatly commend, so that it be upon extraordinary occasions only, and after one certain manner exercised. But yearly or weekly fasts such as ours in the Church of England they allow no farther than as the temporal state of the land doth require the same for the maintenance of seafaring men and preservation of cattle, because the decay of the one and the waste of the other could not well be prevented but by a politic order appointing some such usual change of diet as ours is.

We are therefore the rather to make it manifest in all men’s eyes, that set times of fasting appointed in spiritual considerations to be kept by all sorts of men took not their beginning either from Montanus or any other whose heresies may prejudice the credit and due estimation thereof, but have their ground in the law of nature, are allowable in God’s sight, were in all ages heretofore, and may till the world’s end be observed not without singular use and benefit.

Much hurt hath grown to the Church of God through a false imagination that fasting standeth men in no stead for any spiritual respect, but only to take down the frankness of nature and to tame the wildness of flesh. Whereupon the world being bold to surfeit doth now blush to fast, supposing that men when they fast, do rather bewray a disease, than exercise a virtue. I much wonder what they who are thus persuaded do think, what conceit they have concerning the fasts of the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, our Lord Jesus Christ himself.

The affections of Joy and Grief are so knit unto all the actions of man’s life, that whatsoever we can do or may be done unto us, the sequel thereof is continually the one or the other affection. Wherefore considering that they which grieve and joy as they ought cannot possibly otherwise live than as they should, the Church of Christ, the most absolute and perfect school of all virtue, hath by the special direction of God’s good Spirit hitherto always inured men from their infancy partly with days of festival exercise for the framing of the one affection, and partly with times of a contrary sort for the perfecting of the other. Howbeit over and besides this, we must note that as resting so fasting likewise attendeth sometimes no less upon the actions of the higher, than upon the affections of the lower part of the mind. Fasting (saith Tertullian²) is a work of reverence towards God. The end thereof sometimes elevation of mind; sometime the purpose thereof clean contrary. The cause why Moyses in the Mount did so long fast was mere divine speculation, the cause why David, humiliation³. Our life is a mixture of good with evil⁴. When we are partakers of good things we joy, neither can we but grieve at the contrary. If that befall us which maketh glad, our festival solemnities declare our rejoicing to be in him whose mere undeserved mercy is the author of all happiness; if any thing be either imminent or present which we shun, our watchings, fastings, cries and tears are unfeigned testimonies, that ourselves we condemn as the only causes of our own misery, and do all acknowledge him no less inclinable than able to save. And because as the memory of the one though past reneweth gladness; so the other called again to mind doth make the wound of our just remorse to bleed anew, which wound needeth often touching the more, for that we are generally more apt to calendar saints’ than sinners’ days, therefore there is in the Church a care not to iterate the one alone but to have frequent repetition of the other.

Never to seek after God saving only when either the crib or the whip doth constrain were brutish servility: and a great derogation to the worth of that which is most predominant in man, if sometime it had not a kind of voluntary access to God and of conference as it were with God, all these inferior considerations laid aside. In which sequestration forasmuch as⁵ higher cogitations do naturally drown and bury all inferior cares, the mind may as well forget natural both food and sleep by being carried above itself with serious and heavenly meditation, as by being cast down with heaviness, drowned and swallowed up of sorrow.

Albeit therefore concerning Jewish abstinence from certain kinds of meats as being unclean the Apostle doth teach that “the kingdom of heaven is not meat nor drink,” that “food commendeth us not unto God⁶” whether we take it or abstain from it, that if we eat we are not thereby the more acceptable in his sight, nor the less if we eat not; his purpose notwithstanding was far from any intent to derogate from that fasting, which is no such scrupulous abstinence as only refuseth some kinds of meats and drinks lest they make him unclean that tasteth them, but an abstinence whereby we either interrupt or otherwise abridge the care of our bodily sustenance, to show by this kind of outward exercise the serious intention of our minds fixed on heavenlier and better desires, the earnest hunger and thirst whereof depriveth the body of those usual contentments, which otherwise are not denied unto it.

These being in nature the first causes that induce fasting, the next thing which followeth to be considered is the ancient practice thereof amongst the Jews. Touching whose private voluntary fasts the precept which our Saviour gave them was⁷, “When ye fast look not sour as hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces that they might seem to men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. When thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou seem not unto men to fast, but unto the Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly.” Our Lord and Saviour would not teach the manner of doing, much less propose a reward for doing, that which were not both holy and acceptable in God’s sight. The Pharisees weekly bound themselves unto double fasts⁸, neither are they for this reproved. Often fasting which was a virtue in John’s disciples⁹ could not in them of itself be a vice, and therefore not the oftness of their fasting but their hypocrisy therein was blamed.

Of public¹⁰ enjoined fasts upon causes extraordinary the examples in Scripture are so frequent that they need no particular rehearsal. Public extraordinary fastings were sometimes for one¹¹ only day, sometimes for three¹², sometimes for seven¹³. Touching fasts not appointed for any such extraordinary causes, but either yearly or monthly or weekly observed and kept, first upon the ninth¹⁴ day of that month the tenth whereof was the feast of expiation, they were commanded of God that every soul year by year should afflict itself. Their yearly fasts every fourth month in regard of the city of Jerusalem entered by the enemy, every fifth in memory of the overthrow of their temple, every seventh for the treacherous destruction and death of Godolias the very last stay which they had to lean unto in their greatest misery, every tenth in remembrance of the time when siege began first to be laid against them; all these not commanded of God himself but ordained by a public constitution of their own, the Prophet¹⁵ Zachary expressly toucheth. That St. Jerome¹⁶ following the tradition of the Hebrews doth make the first a memorial of the breaking of those two¹⁷ tables when Moyses descended from Mount Sina¹⁸; the second a memorial as well of God’s indignation condemning them to forty years’ travail in the desert¹⁹, as of his wrath in permitting Chaldeans to waste, burn and destroy their city; the last a memorial of heavy tidings brought out of Jewry to Ezechiel²⁰ and the rest which lived as captives in foreign parts, the difference is not of any moment, considering that each time of sorrow is naturally evermore a register of all such grievous events is have happened either in or near about the same time. To these I might add²¹ sundry other fasts above twenty in number ordained amongst them by like occasions and observed in like manner, besides their weekly abstinence Mondays and Thursdays throughout the whole year²².

When men fasted it was not always after one and the same sort, but either by depriving themselves wholly of all food during the time that their fasts continued, or by abating both the quantity and kind of diet. We have of the one a plain example in the Ninevites’ fasting²³, and as plain a precedent for the other in the Prophet Daniel²⁴, “I was,” saith he, “in heaviness for three weeks of days; I ate no pleasant bread, neither tasted flesh nor wine.” Their tables when they gave themselves to fasting had not that usual furniture of such dishes as do cherish blood with blood, but for food²⁵ they had bread, for suppage salt, and for sauce herbs. Whereunto the Apostle may be thought to allude saying²⁶, “One believeth he may eat all things, another which is weak” (and maketh a conscience of keeping those customs which the Jews observe) “eateth herbs.” This austere repast they took in the evening after abstinence the whole day. For to forfeit a noon’s meal and then to recompense themselves at night was not their use. Nor did they ever accustom themselves on Sabboths or festival days to fast²⁷.

And yet it may be a question whether in some sort they did not always fast the Sabboth. Their fastings were partly in token of penitency, humiliation, grief and sorrow, partly in sign of devotion and reverence towards God. Which second consideration (I dare not peremptorily and boldly affirm any thing) might induce to abstain till noon, as their manner was on fasting days to do till night. May it not very well be thought that hereunto the sacred ²⁸Scripture doth give some secret kind of testimony? Josephus is plain, that the sixth hour²⁹ (the day they divided into twelve) was wont on the Sabboth always to call them home unto meat. Neither is it improbable but that the heathens did therefore so often upbraid them with fasting on that day³⁰. Besides they which found so great fault with our Lord’s disciples, for rubbing a few ears of corn in their hands on the Sabboth day, are not unlikely to have aimed also at the same mark. For neither was the bodily pain so great that it should offend them in that respect, and the very manner of defence which our Saviour there useth is more direct and literal to justify the breach of the Jewish custom in fasting than in working at that time. Finally the Apostles afterwards themselves when God first gave them the gift of tongues, whereas some in disdain and spite termed grace drunkenness, it being then the day of Pentecost and but only a fourth part of the day spent, they use this as an argument against the other cavil, “These men,” saith Peter, “are not drunk as you suppose³¹, since as yet the third hour of the day is not overpast.”

Howbeit leaving this in suspense as a thing not altogether certainly known, and to come from Jews to Christians, we find that of private voluntary fastings the Apostle St. Paul speaketh more than once³². And (saith Tertullian)³³ they are sometime commanded throughout the Church “ex aliqua sollicitudinis ecclesiasticæ causa,” the care and fear of the Church so requiring. It doth not appear that the Apostles ordained any set and certain days to be generally kept of all. Notwithstanding, forasmuch as Christ had foresignified that when himself should be taken from them his absence would soon make them apt to fast³⁴, it seemeth that even as the first festival day appointed to be kept of the Church was the day of our Lord’s return from the dead, so the first sorrowful and mourning day was that which we now observe in memory of his departure out of this world. And because there could be no abatement of grief, till they saw him raised whose death was the occasion of their heaviness, therefore the day he lay in the sepulchre hath been also kept and observed as a weeping day. The custom of fasting these two days before Easter is undoubtedly most ancient, insomuch that Ignatius not thinking him a Catholic Christian man which did not abhor and (as the state of the Church was then) avoid fasting on the Jews’ Sabboth, doth notwithstanding except for ever that one Sabboth or Saturday which falleth out to be the Easter-eve³⁵, as with us it always doth and did sometimes also with them which kept at that time their Easter the fourteenth day of March as the custom of the Jews was. It came afterwards to be an order that even as the day of Christ’s resurrection, so the other two³⁶ in memory of his death and burial were weekly. But this when St. Ambrose lived had not as yet taken place throughout all churches, no not in Milan where himself was bishop. And for that cause he saith that although at Rome he observed the Saturday’s fast, because such was then the custom in Rome, nevertheless in his own church at home he did otherwise³⁷. The churches which did not observe that day had another instead thereof, which was the Wednesday³⁸, for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of humiliation besides that whereon our Saviour suffered death, it seemed best to make their choice of that day especially whereon the Jews are thought to have first contrived their treason together with Judas against Christ³⁹. So that the instituting and ordaining both of these and of all other times of like exercise is as the Church shall judge expedient for men’s good.

And concerning every Christian man’s duty herein, surely that which Augustine and Ambrose are before alleged to have done, is such as all men favouring equity must needs allow, and follow if they affect peace. As for their specified errors, I will not in this place dispute whether voluntary fasting with a virtuous purpose of mind be any medicinable remedy of evil, or a duty acceptable unto God and in the world to come even rewardable as other offices are which proceed from Christian piety; whether wilfully to break and despise the wholesome laws of the Church herein be a thing which offendeth God; whether truly it may not be said that penitent both weeping and fasting are means to blot out sin⁴⁰, means whereby through God’s unspeakable and undeserved mercy we obtain or procure to ourselves pardon, which attainment unto any gracious benefit by him bestowed the phrase of antiquity useth to express by the name of merit⁴¹; but if either St. Augustine or St. Ambrose have taught any wrong opinion, seeing they which reprove them are not altogether free from error, I hope they will think it no error in us so to censure men’s smaller faults that their virtues be not thereby generally prejudiced. And if in churches abroad, where we are not subject to power or jurisdiction, discretion should teach us for peace and quietness’ sake to frame ourselves to other men’s example, is it meet that at home where our freedom is less our boldness should be more? Is it our duty to oppugn, in the churches whereof we are ministers, the rites and customs which in foreign churches piety and modesty did teach us as strangers not to oppugn, but to keep without shew of contradiction or dislike? Why oppose they the name of a minister in this case unto the state of a private man? Doth their order exempt them from obedience to laws? That which their office and place requireth is to show themselves patterns of reverend subjection, not authors and masters of contempt towards ordinances, the strength whereof when they seek to weaken they do but in truth discover to the world their own imbecilities, which a great deal wiselier they might conceal.

But the practice of the Church of Christ we shall by so much the better both understand and love, if to that which hitherto hath been spoken there be somewhat added for more particular declaration how heretics have partly abused fasts and partly bent themselves against the lawful use thereof in the Church of God. Whereas therefore Ignatius hath said, “if any keep Sundays’ or Saturdays’ fast⁴² (one only Saturday in the year excepted) that man is no better than a murderer of Christ,” the cause of such his earnestness at that time was the impiety of certain heretics, which thought⁴³ that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a very evil author. And therefore as the Jews did by the festival solemnity of their Sabboth rejoice in the God that created the world as in the author of all goodness, so those heretics in hatred of the Maker of the world sorrowed, wept, and fasted⁴⁴ on that day as being the birthday of all evil.

And as Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday, in joyful memory of Christ’s resurrection, so likewise at the selfsame time such heretics as denied his resurrection did the contrary to them which held it, when the one sort rejoiced the other fasted.

Against those heretics which have urged perpetual abstinence from certain meats as being in their very nature unclean, the Church hath still bent herself as an enemy; St. Paul giving charge to take heed of them which under any such opinion should utterly forbid the use of meats or drinks. The Apostles themselves forbade some, as the order taken at Jerusalem declareth. But the cause of their so doing we all know.

Again when Tertullian together with such as were his followers began to Montanize, and pretending to perfect the severity of Christian discipline brought in sundry unaccustomed days of fasting, continued their fasts a great deal longer and made them more rigorous than the use of the Church had been, the minds of men being somewhat moved at so great and so sudden novelty, the cause was presently inquired into. After notice taken how the Montanists held these additions to be supplements of the gospel, whereunto the Spirit of prophecy did now mean to put as it were the last hand, and was therefore newly descended upon Montanus, whose orders all Christian men were no less to obey than the laws of the apostles themselves, this abstinence the Church abhorred likewise and that justly. Whereupon Tertullian proclaiming even open war to the Church, maintained Montanism, wrote a book in defence of the new fast, and entitled the same, A Treatise of Fasting against the Opinion of the Carnal Sort. In which treatise nevertheless because so much is sound and good, as doth either generally concern the use, or in particular declare the custom of the Church’s fasting in those times, men are not to reject whatsoever is alleged out of that book for confirmation of the truth. His error discloseth itself in those places where he defendeth his fasts to be duties necessary for the whole Church of Christ to observe as commanded by the Holy Ghost, and that with the same authority from whence all other apostolical ordinances came, both being the laws of God himself, without any other distinction or difference, saving only that he which before had declared his will by Paul and Peter, did now farther reveal the same by Montanus also. “Against us ye pretend,” saith Tertullian⁴⁵, “that the public orders which Christianity is bound to keep were delivered at the first, and that no new thing is to be added thereunto. Stand if you can upon this point. For behold I challenge you for fasting more than at Easter yourselves. But in fine ye answer, that these things are to be done as established by the voluntary appointment of men, and not by virtue or force of any divine commandment. Well then,” he addeth, “ye have removed your first footing, and gone beyond that which was delivered by doing more than was at the first imposed upon you. You say you must do that which your own judgments have allowed, we require your obedience to that which God himself doth institute. Is it not strange that men to their own will should yield that which to God’s commandment they will not grant? Shall the pleasure of men prevail more with you than the power of God himself?”

These places of Tertullian for fasting have worthily been put to silence. And as worthily Aërius condemned for opposition against fasting. The one endeavoured to bring in such fasts as the church ought not to receive, the other to overthrow such as already it had received and did observe: the one was plausible unto many by seeming to hate carnal looseness and riotous excess much more than the rest of the world did, the other drew hearers by pretending the maintenance of Christian liberty: the one thought his cause very strongly upheld by making invective declamations with a pale and a withered countenance against the Church, by filling the ears of his starved hearers with speech suitable to such men’s humours, and by telling them no doubt to their marvellous contentment and liking⁴⁶, “Our new prophecies are refused, they are despised. Is it because Montanus doth preach some other God, or dissolve the gospel of Jesus Christ, or overthrow any canon of faith and hope? No, our crime is, we teach that men ought to fast more often than marry, the best feast-maker is with them the perfectest saint, they are assuredly mere spirit, and therefore these our corporal devotions please them not:” thus the one for Montanus and his superstition. The other in a clean contrary tune against the religion of the church⁴⁷, “These set fasts away with them, for they are Jewish and bring men under the yoke of servitude; if I will fast let me choose my time, that Christian liberty be not abridged.” Hereupon their glory was to fast especially upon the Sunday, because the order of the Church was on that day not to fast⁴⁸. “On Church fasting days and specially the week before Easter, when with us,” saith Epiphanius, “custom admitteth nothing but lying down upon the earth, abstinence from fleshly delights and pleasures, sorrowfulness, dry and unsavoury diet, prayer, watching, fasting, all the medicines which holy affections can minister, they are up betimes to take in of the strongest for the belly, and when their veins are well swollen they make themselves mirth with laughter at this our service wherein we are persuaded we please God.”

By this of Epiphanius it doth appear not only what fastings the Church of Christ in those times used, but also what other parts of discipline were together therewith in force, according to the ancient use and custom of bringing all men at certain times to a due consideration and an open humiliation of themselves. Two kinds there were of public penitency, the one belonging to notorious offenders whose open wickedness had been scandalous; the other appertaining to the whole Church and unto every several person whom the same containeth. It will be answered that touching this latter kind it may be exercised well enough by men in private. No doubt but penitency is as prayer a thing acceptable unto God, be it in public or in secret. Howbeit as in the one if men were wholly left to their own voluntary meditations in their closets, and not drawn by laws and orders unto the open assemblies of the Church that there they may join with others in prayer, it may be soon conjectured what Christian devotion that way would come unto in a short time: even so in the other we are by sufficient experience taught how little it booteth to tell men of washing away their sins with tears of repentance, and so to leave them altogether unto themselves. O Lord, what heaps of grievous transgressions have we committed, the best, the perfectest, the most righteous amongst us all, and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed for and unrepented of, only because the Church hath forgotten utterly how to bestow her wonted times of discipline, wherein the public example of all was unto every particular person a most effectual mean to put them often in mind, and even in a manner to draw them to that which now we all quite and clean forget as if penitency were no part of a Christian man’s duty!

Again besides our private offences which ought not thus loosely to be overslipped, suppose we the body and corporation of the Church so just, that at no time it needeth to shew itself openly cast down in regard of those faults and transgressions, which though they do not properly belong unto any one, had notwithstanding a special sacrifice appointed for them in the law of Moyses, and being common to the whole society which containeth all, must needs so far concern every man in particular, as at some time in solemn manner to require acknowledgment with more than daily and ordinary testifications of grief. There could not hereunto a fitter preamble be devised than that memorable commination set down in the book of Common Prayer, if our practice in the rest were suitable. The head already so well drawn doth but wish a proportionable body. And by the preface to that very part of the English liturgy it may appear how at the first setting down thereof no less was intended. For so we are to interpret the meaning of those words wherein restitution of the primitive church discipline is greatly wished for, touching the manner of public penance in time of Lent. Wherewith some being not much acquainted, but having framed in their minds the conceit of a new discipline far unlike unto that of old, they make themselves believe it is undoubtedly this their discipline which at the first was so much desired. They have long pretended that the whole Scripture is plain for them. If now the communion book make for them too (I well think the one doth as much as the other) it may be hoped that being found such a well-willer⁴⁹ unto their cause, they will more favour it than they have done.

Having therefore hitherto spoken both of festival days, and so much of solemn fasts as may reasonably serve to shew the ground thereof in the law of nature, the practice partly appointed and partly allowed of God in the Jewish Church, the like continued in the Church of Christ, together with the sinister oppositions either of heretics erroneously abusing the same, or of others thereat quarrelling without cause, we will only collect the chiefest points as well of resemblance as of difference between them, and so end. First in this they agree, that because nature is the general root of both, therefore both have been always common to the Church with infidels and heathen men. Secondly they also herein accord, that as oft as joy is the cause of the one and grief the well-spring of the other, they are incompatible⁵⁰. A third degree of affinity between them is that neither being acceptable to God of itself, but both tokens of that which is acceptable, their approbation with him must necessarily depend on that which they ought to import and signify; so that if herein the mind dispose not itself aright, whether we rest⁵¹ or fast⁵² we offend. A fourth thing common unto them is, that the greatest part of the world hath always grossly and palpably offended in both; infidels because they did all in relation to false gods; godless, sensual, and careless minds, for that there is in them no constant true and sincere affection towards those things which are pretended by such exercise; yea certain flattering oversights there are, wherewith sundry, and they not of the worst sort, may be easily in these cases led awry, even through abundance of love and liking to that which must be embraced by all means, but with caution; inasmuch as the very admiration of saints, whether we celebrate their glory or follow them in humility, whether we laugh or weep, mourn or rejoice with them, is (as in all things the affection of love) apt to deceive, and doth therefore need the more to be directed by a watchful guide, seeing there is manifestly both ways, even in them whom we honour, that which we are to observe and shun. The best have not still been sufficiently mindful that God’s very angels in heaven are but angels, and that bodily exercise considered in itself is no great matter⁵³. Finally seeing that both are ordinances well devised for the good of man, and yet not man created purposely for them as for other offices of virtue⁵⁴ whereunto God’s immutable law for ever tieth; it is but equity to wish or admonish that where by uniform order they are not as yet received, the example of ⁵⁵Victor’s extremity in the one, and of ⁵⁶John’s disciples’ curiosity in the other be not followed; yea where they are appointed by law, that notwithstanding⁵⁷ we avoid Judaism, and as in festival days men’s necessities for matter of labour, so in times of fasting regard be had to their imbecilities, lest they should suffer harm doing good.

Thus therefore we see how these two customs are in divers respects equal. But of fasting the use and exercise though less pleasant is by so much more requisite than the other, as grief of necessity is a more familiar guest than the contrary passion of mind, albeit gladness to all men be naturally more welcome. For first we ourselves do many moe things amiss than well, and the fruit of our own ill-doing is remorse, because nature is conscious to itself that it should do the contrary. Again forasmuch as the world over-aboundeth with malice, and few are delighted in doing good unto other men, there is no man so seldom crossed as pleasured at the hands of others, whereupon it cannot be chosen but every man’s woes must double in that respect the number and measure of his delights. Besides concerning the very choice which oftentimes we are to make, our corrupt inclination well considered, there is cause why our Saviour should account them happiest that do most mourn⁵⁸, and why Salomon might judge it better to frequent mourning than feasting houses⁵⁹, not better simply and in itself (for then would nature that way incline) but in regard of us and our common weakness better. Job was not ignorant that his children’s banquets though tending to amity needed sacrifice⁶⁰. Neither doth any of us all need to be taught that in things which delight we easily swerve from mediocrity, and are not easily led by a right direct line⁶¹. On the other side the sores and diseases of mind which inordinate pleasure breedeth are by dolour and grief cured. For which cause as all offences use to seduce by pleasing, so all punishments endeavour by vexing to reform transgressions. We are of our own accord apt enough to give entertainment to things delectable, but patiently to lack what flesh and blood doth desire, and by virtue to forbear what by nature we covet, this no man attaineth unto but with labour and long practice.

From hence it riseth that in former ages abstinence and fasting more than ordinary was always a special branch of their praise in whom it could be observed and known, were they such as continually gave themselves to austere life; or men that took often occasions in private virtuous respects to lay Salomon’s counsel aside⁶², “Eat thy bread with joy,” and to be followers of David’s example which saith⁶³ “I humbled my soul with fasting;” or but they who otherwise worthy of no great commendation have made of hunger some their gain, some their physic, some their art, that by mastering sensual appetites without constraint, they might grow able to endure hardness whensoever need should require. For the body accustomed to emptiness pineth not away so soon as having still used to fill itself.

Many singular effects there are which should make fasting even in public considerations the rather to be accepted. For I presume we are not altogether without experience how great their advantage is in martial enterprises that lead armies of men trained in a school of abstinence. It is therefore noted at this day in some that patience of hunger and thirst hath given them many victories; in others that because if they want there is no man able to rule them, nor they in plenty to moderate themselves, he which can either bring them to hunger or overcharge them is sure to make them their own overthrow⁶⁴. What nation soever doth feel these dangerous inconveniences may know that sloth and fulness in peaceable times at home is the cause thereof, and the remedy a strict observation of that part of Christian discipline which teacheth men in practice of ghostly warfare against themselves those things that afterwards may help them justly assaulting or standing in lawful defence of themselves against others.

The very purpose of the Church of God both in the number and in the order of her fasts, hath been not only to preserve thereby throughout all ages the remembrance of miseries heretofore sustained, and of the causes in ourselves out of which they have arisen, that men considering the one might fear the other the more, but farther also to temper the mind lest contrary affections coming in place should make it too profuse and dissolute, in which respect it seemeth that fasts have been set as ushers of festival days for prevention of those disorders as much as might be, wherein notwithstanding the world always will deserve, as it hath done, blame⁶⁵, because such evils being not possible to be rooted out, the most we can do is in keeping them low; and (which is chiefly the fruit we look for) to create in the minds of men a love towards frugal and severe life, to undermine the palaces of wantonness, to plant parsimony as nature where riotousness hath been study, to harden whom pleasure would melt, and to help the tumours which always fulness breedeth, that children as it were in the wool of their infancy dyed with hardness may never afterwards change colour; that the poor whose perpetual fasts are necessity, may with better contentment endure the hunger which virtue causeth others so often to choose and by advice of religion itself so far to esteem above the contrary; that they which for the most part do lead sensual and easy lives, they which as the prophet David describeth them⁶⁶, “are not plagued like other men,” may by the public spectacle of all be still put in mind what themselves are; finally that every man may be every man’s daily guide and example as well by fasting to declare humility as by praise to express joy in the sight of God, although it have herein befallen the Church as sometimes David, so that the speech of the one may be truly the voice of the other⁶⁷, “My soul fasted, and even that was also turned to my reproof.”

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Footnotes

1. T. C. lib. i. p. 30. [17.] “I will not enter now to discuss whether it were well done to fast in all places according to the custom of the place. You oppose Ambrose and Augustine, I could oppose Ignatius and Tertullian, whereof the one saith, It is nefas, ‘a detestable thing,’ to fast upon the Lord’s day, the other that it is to kill the Lord. Tertull. de Coron. Mil.” [c. 3.] “Ignatius, Epist. ad. Philippen.” [c. 13.] “And although Ambrose and Augustine being private men at Rome would have so done, yet it followeth not that if they had been citizens and ministers there they would have done it. And if they had done so yet it followeth not but that they would have spoken against that appointment of days and νομοθεσίαν of fasting, whereof Eusebius saith that Montanus was the first author. I speak of that which they ought to have done. For otherwise I know they both thought corruptly of fasting; when as the one saith it was remedy or reward to fast other days, but in Lent not to fast was sin; and the other asketh, what salvation we can obtain if we blot not out our sins by fasting, seeing that the Scripture saith that fasting and alms doth deliver from sin, and therefore calleth them new teachers that shut out the merit of fasting. August. de Temp. lxii. Serm.” [al. serm. 142. § 1. t. v. Append. 252.] “Ambr. lib. x. Epist.” [al. Ep. 63. § 16, 17. Whitgift, Def. 99. had quoted from St. Augustine, Ep. 86. al. 36. the answer made by St. Ambrose to him, when perplexed about the propriety of fasting on the Saturday: “Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato: et ad quamcunque ecclesiam veneritis, ejus morem servate, si pati scandalum non vultis aut facere:” which rule St. Augustine adopted as his own. T. C. opposing the expressions of Tertullian and St. Ignatius against fasting on Sundays, would appear to have forgotten the ancient distinction between the Sabbath and the Lord’s day, and so to lay himself open to the charge brought against him by Whitgift in his margin, p. 102: “The replier setteth the Fathers together by the ears without cause.”] ↩

2. [De Jejun. adv. Psych. c. iii. “Etiamsi Deus nulla jejunia præcepisset, ostendens tamen unde sit occisus Adam, mihi reliquerat intelligenda remedia offensæ, qui offensam demonstrarat: ultro cibum quibus modis quibusque temporibus potuissem, pro veneno deputarem, et antidotum famem sumerem, per quam purgarem mortis a primordio causam in me quoque cum ipso genere transductam; certus hoc Deum velle cujus contrarium noluit.” Ibid. c. vi. “Cui cor evectum potius inveniebatur quam impinguatum, quadraginta diebus totidemque noctibus supra humanæ naturæ facultatem jejunium perennavit, spiritali fide virtutem subministrante: et vidit oculis Dei gloriam, et audivit auribus Dei vocem, et corde conjecit Dei legem.” Ibid. c. ix. “Tali victu David exomologesin suam expressit, cinerem quidem edens velut panem, i. e. panem velut cinerem aridum et sordidum; potum vero fletu miscens utique pro vino.”] ↩

3. “Neque enim cibi tempus in periculo: … semper inedia mœroris sequela est.” Tertull. de Jejun. [c. vii.] ↩

4. Μηδεὶς δ’ ὑπολαβέτω τὴν ἄκρατον καὶ ἀμιγη̑ λύπης χαρὰν ἀπ’ οὐρανου̑ καταβαίνειν ἐπὶ τὴν γη̑ν, ἀλλ’ ἐγκέκραται ἐξ ἀμϕοι̑ν … οὐ γὰρ εἴασεν ὁ πατὴρ τὸ ἀνθρώπων γένος λύπαις καὶ ὀδύναις καὶ ἄχθεσιν ἀνιάτοις ἐμϕέρεσθαι, παρέμιξε δὲ καὶ τη̑ς ὰμείνονος ϕύσεως, εὐδιάσαι ποτὲ καὶ γαληνιάσαι τὴν ψυχὴν δικαιώσας. Philo de Abraham. [t. ii. p. 29. ed. Mang.] ↩

5. John iv. 34. ↩

6. Rom. xiv. 17; [1 Cor. viii. 8.] ↩

7. Matt. vi. 16. ↩

8. [St. Luke xviii. 12.] ↩

9. [St. Matth. ix. 14.] ↩

10. 2 Chron. xx; Jer. xxxvi; Ezra viii; 1 Sam. vii. ↩

11. Judges xx. 26. ↩

12. 2 Macc. xiii. 12. ↩

13. 1 Sam. xxxi. 13; 1 Chron. x. 12. ↩

14. Levit. xxiii. xvi. Philo [in vit. Mosis,] de hujus festi jejunio ita loquitur: Οὐ σιτίον, οὐ ποτὸν ἔξεστι προσενέγκασθαι, καθαραι̑ς ὅπως διανοίαις, μηδενὸς ἐνοχλου̑ντος μηδὲ ἐμποδίζοντος σωματικου̑ πάθους, ὁποι̑α ϕιλει̑ συμβαίνειν ἐκ πλησμονη̑ς, ἑορτάζωσιν, ἱλασκόμενοι τὸν πατέρα του̑ παντὸς αἰσίοις εὐχαι̑ς. δι’ ὠ̑ν ἀμνηστίαν μὲν παλαιω̑ν ἁμαρτημάτων, κτη̑σιν δὲ καὶ ἀπόλαυσιν νέων ἀγαθω̑ν εἰώθασιν αἰτει̑σθαι. p. 447. [Paris, 1552.] ↩

15. Zach. viii. 19. ↩

16. [In loc. Zach. “Cogimur ad Hebræos recurrere, et scientiæ veritatem de fonte magis quam de rivulis quærere: præsertim cum non prophetia aliqua de Christo, ubi tergiversari solent, et veritatem celare mendacio, sed historiæ ex præcedentibus et consequentibus ordo texatur. Jejunium quarti mensis, qui apud Latinos vocatur Julius, die septima et decima ejusdem mensis, illud arbitrantur, quando descendens Moyses de monte Sina tabulas legis abjecerit atque confregerit; et juxta Hieremiam muri primum rupti sunt civitatis. In quinto mense qui apud Latinos appellatur Augustus, cum propter exploratores terræ sanctæ seditio orta esset in populo, jussi sunt montem non ascendere, sed per quadraginta annos longis ad terram sanctam circuire dispendiis; ut exceptis duobus Chaleb et Josue, omnes in solitudine caderent. In hoc mense et a Nabucodonosor, et multa post sæcula a Tito et Vespasiano, templum Hierosolymis incensum est atque destructum: capta urbs Bethel (l. Bether) ad quam multa millia confugerant Judæorum; aratum templum in ignominiam gentis oppressæ a T. Annio (l. Turannio) Rufo. In septimo vero, qui apud nos appellatur October, sicut supra diximus, occisus est Godolias, et Judæ tribus ac Hierusalem reliquiæ dissipatæ. Legamus Hieremiam. Mense decimo, qui apud nos Januarius dicitur, eo quod anni janua sit atque principium, Ezechiel in captivitate positus audivit, et cunctus populus captivorum, quinto mense templum esse subversum, quod planissime in eodem propheta cognoscimus.” vi. 516.] ↩

17. [The Bodl. MS. and the first edition have “12” . . corrected “two,” ed. 1616.] 1887. ↩

18. Exod. xxxii. ↩

19. Numb. xiv. ↩

20. [Ezek. xxiv. 1, 2.] ↩

21. Vide Riber. lib. v. cap. 21. [De Templo, et de iis quæ ad Templum pertinent, p. 214. Salamanc. 1591.] ↩

22. [“His diebus addiderunt magistri Judæorum singulis anni hebdomadis jejunium secundi et quinti diei, i. e. secundæ et quintæ feriæ, tribus de causis: propter excidium templi, propter combustam legem, et propter blasphemiam Rabsacæ.” Rib. ubi supr. Comp. Maimonid. Taanith, § 1. ap. Lightf. ii. 463.] ↩

23. [Jonah iii. 7.] ↩

24. Dan. x. 2, 3. ↩

25. “Puram et sine animalibus cœnam.” Apul. in Asclep. in fin. [Oper. p. 380. ed. Vulcan. 1594.] “Pastum et potum pura nosse non ventris scilicet sed animæ causa.” Tertul. de Pœnit. [c. 9.] Vide Phil. lib. de vita contempl. [613. σιτου̑νται δὲ πολυτελὲς οὐδὲν, ἀλλὰ ἄρτον εὐτελη̑· καὶ ὄψον ἅλες, οὒς οἱ ἁβροδιαίτατοι παραρτύουσιν ὑσσώπῳ. Ibid. σιτίον ἢ ποτὸν οὐδεὶς ἂν αὐτω̑ν προσενέγκαιτο πρὸ ἡλίου δύσεως.] ↩

26. Rom. xiv. 2; Hieron. lib. ii. contr. Jovinian. [§ 17. t. ii. 81. B. “Non inter jejunia et satietatem æqualia merita dispensat, sed contra eos loquitur, qui in Christum credentes adhuc Judaizabant.” And below; “Ne quis putaret hoc de jejuniis dici, et non de superstitione Judaica, statim edisserit, ‘alius credit manducare omnia; qui autem infirmus est olera manducat,’ ” &c.] ↩

27. Judith. viii. 6; R. Mos. in Misneh Tora, lib. iii. (qui est de tempor.) cap. de Sab. et cap. de Jejun. [cap. i. p. 3. of Carpzovius’ Version. “Non definiunt jejunia populo universo, neque diebus Sabbati, neque diebus festis.” Vid. Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. c. 11. p. 276.] ↩

28. Nehem. viii. 3. 12. ↩

29. “Hora sexta, quæ Sabbatis nostros ad prandium vocare solet, supervenit.” Joseph. lib. de Vita sua. [§ 54.] ↩

30. “Sabbata Judæorum a Mose in omne ævum jejunio dicata.” Justin. lib. xxxvi. [c. 2.] “Ne Judæus quidem, mi Tiberi, tam libenter Sabbati jejunium servat quam ego hodie servavi.” Sueton. in Octav. cap. 76. ↩

31. Acts ii. 15. ↩

32. 1 Cor. vii. 5; 2 Cor. vi. 5; xi. 27; Col. iv. 3. ↩

33. [Tert. de Jejunio, c. 13.] ↩

34. [S. Luke v. 35.] ↩

35. Ignat. [i. e. a writer in his name.] Ep. ad Philip. [c. 13.] ↩

36. [The latter, or Saturday’s fast, is supposed by Bingham (Antiq. xxi. 3. § 6.) to have grown out of the Friday’s by superposition, i. e. by adding so many hours to the fast, as prolonged it into the following day. See Dr. Routh’s note on a fragment of St. Victorinus, Reliq. Sacr. iii. 245. Bingham, ubi supr. says it was confined to the Western Church, and quotes no earlier authority than the 36th canon of the council of Eliberis, ad 305. “Placuit… ut omni Sabbati die jejuniorum superpositionem celebremus.”] ↩

37. [S. Aug. Ep. 36. olim 86. c. 32. t. ii. p. 81. “Quoniam non invenimus, ut supra commemoravi, in evangelicis et apostolicis literis, quæ ad Novi Testamenti revelationem proprie pertinent, certis diebus aliquibus evidenter præceptum observanda esse jejunia, et ideo res quoque ista sicut aliæ plurimæ, quas enumerare difficile est, invenit in veste illius filiæ regis, hoc est Ecclesiæ, varietatis locum; indicabo tibi quid mihi responderit venerandus Ambrosius, a quo baptizatus sum, Mediolanensis episcopus. Nam cum in eadem civitate mater mea mecum esset, et nobis adhuc catechumenis parum ista curantibus, illa sollicitudinem gereret utrum secundum morem nostræ civitatis sibi esset sabbato jejunandum, an ecclesiæ Mediolanensis more prandendum; ut hac eam cunctatione liberarem, interrogavi hoc supradictum hominem Dei. At ille, ‘Quid possum,’ inquit, ‘hic docere, amplius quam ipse facio?’ Ubi ego putaveram nihil eum ista responsione præcepisse, nisi ut Sabbato pranderemus; hoc quippe ipsum facere sciebam: sed ille secutus adjecit, ‘Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato: et ad quamcunque ecclesiam veneritis,’ inquit, ‘ejus morem servate, si pati scandalum nonvultis aut facere.’ Hoc responsum retuli ad matrem, eique suffecit, nec dubitavit esse obediendum: hoc etiam nos secuti sumus. Sed quoniam contingit maxime in Africa, ut una ecclesia vel unius regionis ecclesiæ alios habeant Sabbato prandentes, alios jejunantes; mos eorum mihi sequendus videtur, quibus eorum populorum congregatio regenda commissa est.”] ↩

38. [For “in all churches which embraced the Saturday fast, Wednesday was wholly laid aside.” Bingham, ubi supra.] ↩

39. [See Bingham, Antiq. b. xxi. c. 3. The earliest authorities produced for the Stationes on Wednesdays and Fridays are Clement of Alex. Strom. vii. p. 877: Οἰ̑δεν αὐτὸς (ὁ γνωστικὸς ἐργάτης) καὶ τη̑ς νηστείας τὰ αἰνίγματα τω̑ν ἡμερω̑ν τούτων, τη̑ς τετράδος καὶ τη̑ς παρασκευη̑ς λέγω. and Tertull. de Jejun. c. 13. “Convenio vos et præter Pascha jejunantes, citra illos dies, quibus ablatus est sponsus, et stationum semijejunia interponentes.” et c. 14. “Si omnem in totum devotionem temporum et dierum … erasit Apostolus … cur stationibus quartam et sextam Sabbati dicamus?” The reason is assigned (among others) by S. Peter of Alexandria, Canon xv. Οὐκ ἐγκαλέσει τις ἡμι̑ν παρατηρουμένοις τετράδα καὶ παρασκευὴν, ἐν αἷς καὶ νηστεύειν ἡμι̑ν κατὰ παράδοσιν εὐλόγως προστέτακται· τὴν μὲν τετράδα, διὰ τὸ γενόμενον συμβούλιον ὑπὸ τω̑ν Ἰουδαίων ἐπὶ τῃ̑ προδοσίᾳ του̑ Κυρίου, τὴν δὲ παρασκευὴν, διὰ τὸ πεπονθέναι αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμω̑ν. ap. Routh. Reliq. Sacr. iii. 343.] ↩

40. [S. Amb. Ep. 63. 16. “Quæ nobis salus esse potest, nisi jejunio eluerimus peccata nostra?”] ↩

41. [S. Amb. Ep. 63. 17. “Qui sunt hi præceptores novi, qui meritum excludant jejunii?”] ↩

42. Εἴ τις κυριακὴν ἢ σάββατον νηστεύει πλὴν ἑνὸς σαββάτου, οὑ̑τος χριστοκτόνος ἐστί. Epist. ad Philip. [c. 13.] ↩

43. [Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, and the whole body of Gnostics: afterwards Marcion, the Valentinians, and Manes.] Vide Iren. lib. i. cap. 20-25. Epiph. Hæres. 21. § 4; 22. § 1; 23. § 1; 24. § 2; 27. § 2; 28. § 1; 41. § 1; 42. § 2. Vide Canon. Apost. 55. [The following canons relate to this subject; they are numbered as in Beveridge’s edition. Can. 43. εἴ τις ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἢ ὅλως του̑ καταλόγου του̑ ἱερατικου̑, γάμου καὶ κρεω̑ν καὶ οἴνου οὐ διὰ ἄσκησιν ἀλλὰ διὰ βδελυρίαν ἀπέχεται, ἐπιλανθανόμενος ὅτι πάντα καλὰ λίαν, καὶ ὅτι ἄρρεν καὶ θη̑λυ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλὰ βλασϕημω̑ν διαβάλλει τὴν δημιουργίαν· ἢ διορθούσθω, ἢ καθαιρείσθω καὶ τη̑ς ἐκκλησίας ἀποβαλλέσθω· ὡσαύτως καὶ λαϊκός.Can. 45. Εἴ τις ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἐν ται̑ς ἡμέραις τω̑ν ἑορτω̑ν οὐ μεταλαμβάνει κρεω̑ν ἢ οἴνου, καθαιρείσθω, ὡς κεκαυτηριασμένος τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν, καὶ αἴτιος σκανδάλου πολλοι̑ς γενόμενος.Can. 56. Εἴ τις κληρικὸς εὑρεθῃ̑ τὴν κυριακὴν ἡμέραν ἢ τὸ σάββατον, πλὴν του̑ ἑνὸς μόνου, νηστεύων, καθαιρείσθω· ἐὰν δὲ λαϊκὸς ᾐ̑, ἀϕοριζέσθω. ap. Coteler. PP. Apost. i. 449, 450.] ↩

44. [Of Marcion in particular Epiphanius says, Hær. xlii. c. 2; τὸ σάββατον νηστεύει, διὰ τοιαύτην αἰτίαν· ἐπειδὴ, ϕησὶ, του̑ Θεου̑ τω̑ν Ἰουδαίων ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνάπαυσις του̑ πεποιηκότος τὸν κόσμον, καὶ ἐν τῃ̑ ἑβδόμῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναπαυσαμένου, ἡμει̑ς νηστεύσωμεν ταύτην, ἵνα μὴ τὸ καθη̑κον του̑ Θεου̑ τω̑ν Ἰουδαίων ἐργαζώμεθα. t. i. 304. B. ed. Petav. Paris. 1622.] ↩

45. [De Jejun. adversus Psychicos, c. 13. “Præscribitis constituta esse solennia huic fidei scripturis vel traditione majorum; nihilque observationis amplius adjiciendum ob illicitum innovationis. State in isto gradu si potestis. Ecce enim convenio vos et præter Pascha jejunantes… . Denique respondetis hæc ex arbitrio agenda, non ex imperio. Movistis igitur gradum, excedendo traditionem, cum quæ non sunt constituta obitis. Quale est autem, ut tuo arbitrio permittas quod imperio Dei non das? plus humanæ licebit voluntati quam divinæ potestati? Ego me sæculo non Deo liberum memini.”] ↩

46. [Tertull. de Jejun. c. 1. “Hi Paracleto controversiam faciunt, propter hoc novæ prophetiæ recusantur, non quod alium Deum prædicent Montanus et Priscilla et Maximilla, nec quod Jesum Christum solvant, nec quod aliquam fidei aut spei regulam evertant, sed quod plane doceant sæpius jejunare quam nubere.” et c. 17. “Qui sanctior inter vos, nisi convivandi frequentior, nisi obsonandi pollucibilior, nisi calicibus instructior? Merito homines solius animæ et carnis spiritalia recusatis.” Hooker seems to have read the last sentence without the “et,” or he put a comma at animæ.] ↩

47. [Οὔτε νηστεία, ϕησὶν, ἔσται τεταγμένη· ταυ̑τα γὰρ Ἰουδαϊκά ἐστι, καὶ ὑπὸ ζυγὸν δουλείας· . . εἰ γὰρ ὅλως βούλομαι νηστεύειν, οἵαν δ’ ἂν αἰρήσομαι ἡμέραν ἀπ’ ἐμαυτου̑, νηστεύω διὰ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν. Ὅθεν παρ’ αὐτοι̑ς πεϕιλοτίμηται μα̑λλον ἐν κυριακῃ̑ νηστεύειν … ἔν τε ται̑ς ἡμεραι̑ς του̑ Πάσχα, ὅτε παρ’ ἡμι̑ν χαμευνίαι, ἁγνει̑αι, κακοπαθει̑αι, ξηροϕαγίαι, εὐχαὶ, ἀγρυπνίαι τε καὶ νηστει̑αι, καὶ πα̑σαι τω̑ν ψυχω̑ν αἱ σωτηρίαι τω̑ν ἁγίων παθω̑ν, αὐτοὶ ἀπέωθεν ὀψωνου̑σι κρέα τε καὶ οἰ̑νον, ἑαυτω̑ν τὰς ϕλέβας γεμίζοντες, ἀνακαγχάζουσι, γελω̑ντες, χλευάζοντες τὴν ἁγίαν ταύτην λατρείαν τη̑ς ἑβδομαδὸς του̑ Πάσχα ἐπιτελου̑ντας.] Epiph. Hæres. [75. c. 3.] ↩

48. [Ibid.] ↩

49. [So Bodl. MS. and edd. to 1676. Well-wisher, 1682, and so K.] ↩

50. Conc. Laod. c. 51, 52. vetat Natalitia Martyrum in Quadragesima celebrari. [t. i. 1505. οὐ δει̑ ὲν τεσσαρακοστῃ̑ μαρτύρων γενέθλιον ἐπιτελει̑ν, ἀλλὰ τω̑ν ἁγίων μαρτύρων μνείαν ποιει̑ν ἐν τοι̑ς σαββάτοις καὶ κυριακαι̑ς. And can. 52. οὐ δει̑ ἐν τεσσαρακοστῃ̑ γάμους ἢ γενέθλια ἐπιτελει̑ν.] ↩

51. Isai. i. 13. ↩

52. Isai. lviii. 3. ↩

53. 1 Tim. iv. 8. ↩

54. Eccles. xii. 13; Isai. lviii. 6, 7; Rom. xiv. 17; James i. 27; Heb. xii. 14; Ephes. ii. 10. ↩

55. Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. v. c. 23. ↩

56. Matt. ix. 14. ↩

57. Col. ii. 16. ↩

58. Matt. v. 4. ↩

59. Eccles. vii. 2, 4. ↩

60. Job i. 5. ↩

61. Ἐν παντὶ δὲ μάλιστα ϕυλακτέον τὸ ἡδὺ καὶ τὴν ἡδονήν· οὐ γὰρ ἀδέκαστοι κρίνομεν αὐτήν. Arist. Eth. ii. cap. 9. ↩

62. Eccles. ix. 7. ↩

63. Psalm xxxv. 13. ↩

64. [The overthrow of the German Protestant army in France, ad 1587, might possibly be in Hooker’s mind when he wrote this sentence. Davila says, “Piùche tutte le fatiche, e tutte l’ industrie del Duca di Guisa nuoceva agli Alemanni l’ abbondanza di vini, di uve, di frutte, e di carnaggi, de’ quali sono copiose quelle provincie.” lib. viii. p. 365.] ↩

65. “Valde absurdum est nimia saturitate velle honorare martyrem quem scias Deo placuisse jejuniis. [Ita tibi semper comedendum est, ut cibum et oratio sequatur et lectio.”] Hier. Epist. ad Eust. [i. 132.] ↩

66. Psalm lxxiii. 5. ↩

67. Psalm lxix. 10. ↩