he did not say that fasting is taken away; but he said, The bridegroom was not taken away; but he should be taken away and they should fast'. When occasions press us, fasting is required at our hands: Caro mea jumentum, My flesh is my beast; via Christus, and Christ is the way I am to go; Nonne cibaria ferocienti detrahams? If it be too wanton, shall not I withdraw some of the provender? Et fame domem, quem ferre non possum, If I cannot govern him, shall I not endeavour to tame him? And therefore, though by reason of former abuses, it be a slippery doctrine, the practice of fasting, (for scarce any man puts himself to much fasting, but he is ready to tell God of it, with the pharisee, I fast twice a week: and from Hierome's praise of it, Jejunium non est virtus, sed gradus ad virtutem, That though fasting be not a virtue, yet it is the way to virtue; we come a step farther with Chrysostom, In choro virtutum, extremum sortitur jejunium, That though fasting be the last of virtues (except Chrysostom mean by extremum, the first) yet it is one; yet Sanctificate vobis jejunium', Fast with a holy purpose; and it is a holy action. As you are bid to cast your bread upon the waters, for many days after you shall find it again; so also cast your fasting upon the waters, look for no particular reward of it, and God shall give you a benefit by it in the whole course of your lives.

But the jejunate, fasting itself, hath not so much opposition as the tribus diebus, that it must be three days; the certain days and the limiting of the time, that is it that offends. All men, will say that fasting is necessary to all men; but not this proportion, and this measure to all men alike. They are content with that of Augustine, Ego in evangelicis et apostolicis literis totoque; instrumento novo revolvens, video præceptum esse jejunium, As often as I consider the Gospel, every where I find commandments for fasting; but they will have the rest too: Quibus diebus oportet, aut non oportet jejunare, præceptum Domini et apostolorum non video definitum, Upon what days we should fast, says he, I see no commandment of Christ or the apostles: and it is true, there is no express commandment for it; but there is an express commandment to hear the church. In the Old Testament God

7 Luke v. 33.

8

Augustine.

" Joel i. 34.

10 Eccles. xi.

gave express commandment, de jejuniis stativis; certain fixed and anniversary fasts: The tenth of the same month shall be a holy conrocation unto you, et affligetis animas restras, ye shall humble your souls; and every person that doth not that, that same day, shall even be cut off from his people". The disease which they had is hereditary to us; concupiscences in the flesh, and coldness in the service of God: and though it may be true, that the church cannot know my particular infirmities, nor the time when they press me; yet as no physician for the body can prescribe me a receipt against a fever, and bid me take it such a day, because perchance at that day I shall have no fever; yet he can prescribe me certain rules and receipts, which if I take at his times, I shall be the safer all the year: so our spiritual physician, the church, though she cannot know when my body needs this particular physic of fasting, yet she knows that by observing the time which she prescribes, I shall always be in the better spiritual health. As soon as the church was settled, fasts were settled too when in the Primitive church they fixed certain times for giving orders, and making ministers, they appointed fasts at those times; when they fixed certain times for solemn baptism, (as they did Easter and Whitsuntide) they appointed fasts then too; and so they did in their solemn and public penances. So also when Christians increased in number, and that therefore, besides the Sabbath-day, they used to call them to church, and to give the sacrament upon other days too; as soon as Wednesday and Friday were appointed for that purpose, for the sacrament, they were appointed to be fasted too. And therefore when St. Cyril says, Vis tibi ostendam, quale jejunare debes jejunium? Jejuna ab omni peccato. Shall I tell you what fast God looks for at your hands, fast from sin; yet this is not all the fasting that he exacts, (though it be indeed the effect and accomplishment of all) but he adds, Non ideo hoc dicimus, We say not this, says he, because we would give liberty, Habemus enim quadragesimum, et quartum, et sextum hebdomadæ diem quibus solemniter jejunamus, We have a fixed Lent to fast in, and we have Wednesdays and Fridays fixed to fast in. In all times, God's people had fixed and limited fasts, besides these fasts which were enjoined upon emergent

11 Levit. xxiii. 27.

12

dangers, as this of Esther. In which there is a harder circumstance than this, that it was a fast limited to certain days; for it is, Jejunate pro me, Fast you for me. And these words may seem to give some colour, some countenance to the doctrine of the Roman church, that the merits of one man may be applied to another; which doctrine is the foundation of indulgences, and the fuel of purgatory: in which they go so far as to say, That one man may fee an attorney to satisfy God for him; he may procure another man to fast, or do other works of mortification for him and he that does so for his client, Sanguinem pro sanguine Christo reddit, He pays Christ his blood again, and gives him as much as he received from him; and more, Deum sibi debitorem efficit, he brings God into his debt, and may turn that debt upon whom he will; and God must wipe off so much of the other man's score, to whom he intends it. They go beyond this too; that satisfaction may be made to God, even by ourselves after our death as they say, when they had brought Maximilian the emperor to that mortification, that he commanded upon his deathbed, that his body should be whipped after he was dead; that purpose of his, though it were not executed, was a satisfaction of the justice of God. And (as error can find no place to stop at) they go yet farther, when they extend this power of satisfaction even to hell itself, by authorizing those fables, that a dead man which appeared, and said he was damned, was by this flagellation, by his friend's whipping of himself in his behalf, brought to repentance in hell, and so to faith in hell, and so to salvation in hell.

But in the words of Esther here is no intimation of this heresy; when Queen Esther appoints others to fast for her, she knew she could no more be the better for their fasting, than she could be the leaner, or in the better health for it; but because she was to have benefit by the subsequent act, by their prayers, she provokes them to that, by which their prayers might be the more acceptable and effectual, that is, to fasting. And so because the whole action was for her, and her good success in that enterprise, they are in that sense properly said to have fasted for her so that this jejunate super me, as the word is, gnalai13, super me, in my

behalf, is no more but orate pro me, pray for me; and SO St. Hierome translates these words, orate pro me, pray for me. And therefore, since prayers is the way which God hath given us to batter heaven, whether facta manu Deum oramus, et vim gratam ei facimus", whether we besiege God with our prayers, in these public congregations, or whether we wrestle with him hand to hand in our chambers, in the battle of a troubled conscience, let us live soberly and moderately; and in bello, and in duello, here in the congregation, and at home in our private colluctations, we shall be the likelier to prevail with God; for though we receive assistance from the prayer of others, that must not make us lazy in our behalfs; which is Esther's last preparation, she bids all the people fast for her, that is, for the good success of her good purposes; but not the people alone, she and her own maids will fast likewise.

Qui fecit te sine te, non salrabit te sine te, is a saying of St. Augustine, never too often repeated; and God and his church are of one mind; for the church that did baptize thee without thy asking, will not fast for thee, nor pray for thee, without thou fast and pray for thyself. As in spiritual things, charity begins with ourselves, and I am bound to wish my own salvation, rather than any other man's; so I am bound to trust to my making sure of my salvation, by that which I do myself, rather than by that which I procure others to do for me. Domus Dei, domus orationis; we have inestimable profit by the public prayers of the church, the house of God; but as there is Deus, et domus ejus, so there must be Ego, et domus mea, I and my house will serve the Lord'. I also and my maids will fast likewise, says Esther, in her great enterprise; for, that which the original expresses here, by gnalai, for me, the Chaldee paraphrase expresses by gnimmi, with me she was as well to fast as they. It was a great confidence in that priest that comforted St. Augustine's mother, Fieri non potest, ut filius istarum lachrymarum pereat, It is impossible that the son, for whom so good a mother hath poured out so devout tears, should perish at last; it was a confidence which no man may take to himself, to go to heaven by that water, the tears of other men; but tu et domus tua, do thou and thy house 15 Josh. ult. 15.

14 Tertullian.

serve the Lord; teach thine own eyes to weep, thine own body to fulfil the sufferings of Christ; thine own appetite to fast, thine own heart, and thine own tongue to pray. Come and participate of the devotions of the church; but yet also in thy chapel of ease, in thine own bed-chamber, provide that thyself and thy servants, all thy senses, and all thy faculties, may also fast and pray; and so go with a religious confidence as Esther did, about all thy other worldly businesses and undertakings.

This was her preparation. Her devotion hath two branches; she was to transgress a positive law, a law of the state; and she neglected the law of nature itself, in exposing herself to that danger. How far human laws do bind the conscience, how far they lay such an obligation upon us, as that, if we transgress them, we do not only incur the penalty, but sin towards God, hath been a perplexed question in all times, and in all places. But how diverse soever their opinions be, in that, they all agree in this, that no law, which hath all the essential parts of a law, (for laws against God, laws beyond the power of him that pretends to make them, are no laws) no law can be so merely a human law, but there is in it a divine part. There is in every human law, part of the law of God, which is obedience to the superior. That man cannot bind the conscience, because he cannot judge the conscience, nor he cannot absolve the conscience, may be a good argument; but in laws made by that power which is ordained by God, man binds not, but God himself: and then you must be subject, not because of wrath, but because of conscience. Though then the matter and subject of the law, that which the law commands, or prohibits, may be an indifferent action, yet in all these, God hath his part; and there is a certain divine soul, and spark of God's power, which goes through all laws, and inanimates them. In all the canons of the church, God hath his voice, ut omnia ordine fiant; that all things be done decently, and in order; so the canon that ordains that, is from God; in all the other laws he hath his voice too, ut piè et tranquillè cicatur, that we may live peaceably, and religiously, and so those laws are from God: and in all, of all sorts, this voice of his sounds evidently, qui resistit ordinationi, he that resists his commission, his lieutenancy, his authority, in law-makers ap