HOMILY ON GOOD WORKS: AND FIRST OF FASTING

Short-Title Catalogue 13675. Renaissance Electronic Texts 1.1.
copyright 1994 Ian Lancashire (ed.) University of Toronto

 Edited to 2003 American English* by Curtis I. Caldwell on 11 May 2003.
Revised 11 October 2004.

 

A HOMILY OF GOOD WORKS:
AND FIRST OF FASTING.

 Of good Words: first of Fasting.
[Title from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church USA,
Articles of Religion Article XXXV, Of the Homilies]


The life which we live in this world (good Christian people) is of the free benefit of God lent to us, yet not to use it at our pleasure, after our own fleshly will, but to become intimately familiar through continued practice1 in those works which are befitting those who have become new creatures in Christ.  These works the apostle calls "good works", saying, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works which God has ordained, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). And yet his meaning is not by these words to induce us to have any assurance, or to put any confidence, in our works as by the merit and deserving of them to purchase to our selves and others remission of sin, and so consequently everlasting life, for that were mere blasphemy against God's mercy, and great disparagement to the blood shedding of our Savior Jesus Christ. For it is by the free grace and mercy of God, by the meditation of the blood of his son Jesus Christ, without merit or deserving on our part, that our sins are forgiven us, that we are reconciled and brought again into his favor, and are made heirs of his heavenly kingdom. Grace (said St. Augustine) belonging to God who calls us, and then whoever receives grace has good works (Augustine, `De Diver. Questio. ad Simpli.', book 1, question 28)2. Good works do not bring forth grace, but grace brings forth good works. The wheel (said he) turns around, not to the end that it may be made round, but because it is first made round, therefore it turns around. So, no man does good works to receive grace by his good works; but because he has first received grace, therefore consequently he does good works. And in another place, he said (Augustine, `De Fide et Operibus', chapter 4)[413 A.D.]3 [Of Faith and Works]: "Good works go not before in him who shall afterward be justified; good works follow, after when a man is first justified." St. Paul therefore teaches that we must do good works for several reasons. First, to show ourselves obedient children to our heavenly Father who has prepared those good works, that we should walk in them. Second, they are good declarations and testimonies of our justification. Third, that others seeing our good works may by them be stirred up and excited to glorify our Father which is in heaven. Let us not therefore be slack to do good works, seeing it is the will of God that we should walk in them, assuring our selves that at the last day, every man shall receive from God, for his labor done in true faith, a greater reward than his works have deserved. And because something shall now be spoken of one particular good work, whose commendation is both in the Law and in the Gospel, thus much is said in the beginning generally of all good works. First, to remove out of the way of the simple and unlearned this dangerous stumbling block, that any man should go about to purchase or buy heaven with his works. Second, to take away (so much as may be), from envious minds and slanderous tongues, all just occasion of slanderous speaking, as though good works were rejected. This good work which now shall be discussed is fasting, which is found in the scriptures to be of two sorts. The one outward, pertaining to the body, the other inward, in the heart and mind. This outward fast is an abstinence from meat, drink, and all natural food, yes, even from all delicious pleasures and worldly delights. When this outward fast pertains to one particular man, or to a few, and not the whole number of the people, for causes which shall be declared below, then it is called a private fast. But when the whole multitude of men, women and children, in a township, city, or a whole country fasts, it is called a public fast. Such was that fast which the whole multitude of the children of Israel were commanded to keep the tenth day of the seventh month because Almighty God appointed that day to be a cleansing day, a day of atonement, a time of reconciliation, a day on which the people were cleansed from their sins. The order and manner of how it was done is written in the 16th and 23rd chapters of Leviticus (Leviticus 16:29-30, 23:27-32).

That day the people did lament, mourn, weep, and bewail their former sins. And whoever upon that day did not humble his soul, bewailing his sins, as is said, abstaining from all bodily food, until the evening, that soul, (says the Almighty God) should be destroyed from among his people. We do not read that Moses ordained, by order of law, any days of public fast throughout the whole year, more then that one day. The Jews, notwithstanding, had more times of common fasting, which the prophet Zachariah recites to be the fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth month (Zachariah 8:19). But since it appears not in the law when they were instituted, it is to be judged that those other times of fasting, more than the fast of the seventh month, were ordained among the Jews by the appointment of their governors, rather by devotion than by any express commandment given from God. Upon the ordinance of this general fast, good men took occasion to appoint to themselves private fasts, at such times as they did either earnestly lament and bewail their sinful lives, or devoted themselves to more fervent prayer, that it might please God to turn his wrath from them, when either they were admonished and brought to the consideration thereof by the preaching of the prophets, or otherwise when they saw present danger hanging over their heads. This sorrowfulness of heart, joined with fasting, they uttered sometimes by their outward behavior and gesture of body, putting on sackcloth, sprinkling themselves with ashes and dust, and sitting or lying upon the earth. For when good men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin, see damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with the eye of their mind the horror of hell, they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart for their offences, and cannot but accuse themselves and open this their grief unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all desire of meat and drink is laid aside, and loathsomeness of all worldly things and pleasures comes in place, so that nothing then likes them more, than to weep, to lament, to mourn and both with words and behavior of body, to show themselves weary of this life. Thus did David fast when he made intercession to Almighty God for the child's life, begotten in adultery by Uriah's wife, Bathsheba . King Ahab fasted in this manner when he repented of murdering of Naboth, bewailing his own sinful doings. Such were the Ninevites' fast, brought to repentance by Jonah's preaching. When forty thousand of the Israelites were slain in battle against the Benjamites, the scripture says "All the children of Israel and the whole multitude of the people went to Bethel, and sat there weeping before the Lord, and fasted all that day till night" (Judges 20:26). So did Daniel, Ester, Nehemiah, and many others in the Old Testament fast. But if any man will say, it is true, so they fasted in deed, but we are not now under that yoke of the law, we are set at liberty by the freedom of the Gospel. Therefore those rites and customs of the old law bind not us, except it can be shown by the scriptures of the New Testament, or by examples out of the same. The fasting now under the Gospel is a restraint of meat, drink, and all bodily food and pleasures from the body, as before. First, that we ought to fast is a truth more manifest than that it should here need to be proved. The scriptures which teach the same are clear. The question therefore is whether when we fast, ought we to withhold from our bodies all meat and drink during the time of our fast, or not? That we ought to do so may be well gathered from a question asked by the Pharisees to Christ, and by his answer again to the same. "Why (say they) do John [the Baptist]'s disciples fast often, and pray, and we likewise, but your disciples eat and drink, and fast not at all" (Luke 5:33)? In this trick question, they veiled subtly this argument or reason: Whoever fasts not, that man is not of God. For fasting and prayer are works both commended and commanded by God in his scriptures, and all good men, from Moses till this time, the prophets as well as others, have exercised themselves in these works. John also, and his disciples, at this day fast often and pray much, and so do we the Pharisees in similar manner. But your disciples fast not at all, which if you will deny, we can easily prove it. For whoever eats and drinks, fasts not. Your disciples eat and drink, therefore they fast not. Of this we conclude (say they) necessarily, that neither are you, nor yet your disciples, of God. Christ answers, saying, "Can you make the children of the wedding fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them. In those days shall they fast." [Luke 5: 34-35]. Our Savior Christ, like a good master, defends the innocence of his disciples against the malice of the arrogant Pharisees, and proves that his disciples are not guilty of transgressing any iota of God's Law, although as then they fasted, and in his answer reproves the Pharisees of superstition and ignorance. Superstition, because they put a religion in their actions, and ascribed holiness to the outward work wrought, not regarding to what purpose fasting is ordained. Of ignorance, for they could not discern between circumstances and situations. They knew not that there is a time of rejoicing and mirth, and a time again of lamentation and mourning, which both he teaches in his answer, as shall be explained more largely hereafter, when we shall show what time is most fit to fast in.

But here, beloved, let us note, that our Savior Christ, in making his answer to their question, denied not, but confessed that his disciples fasted not, and therefore agrees to the Pharisees in this, as unto a manifest truth: that a person who eats and drinks does not fast. Fasting then, even by Christ's assent, is a withholding of meat, drink, and all natural food from the body, for the determined time of fasting. And that it was used in the primitive church, appears most evidently by the Chalcedon Council, one of the four first general councils. The fathers assembled there, to the number of 630, considering with themselves how acceptable a thing fasting is to God when it is used according to his word. Again, having before their eyes also the great abuses of the same that crept into the church at those days through the negligence of those who should have taught the people the right use thereof, and by vain glosses devised by men to reform the abuses, and to restore this good and godly work to the true use thereof, decreed in that council that every person, in his private as well as public fast, should continue all day without meat and drink untill after the evening prayer. And whoever did eat or drink before the evening prayer was ended should be accounted and reputed not to consider the purity of his fast. This canon teaches clearly how fasting was used in the primitive church, as by words it cannot be more plainly expressed.

Fasting then, by the decree of those six hundred and thirty fathers, grounding their determination in this matter upon the sacred scriptures and long continued usage or practice, both of the prophets and other godly persons before the coming of Christ, and also of the apostles and other devout men in the New Testament, is a withholding of meat, drink, and all natural food from the body, for the determined time of fasting. Thus much is spoken on this subject to make plain to you what fasting is. Now hereafter shall be shown the true and right use of fasting.

Good works are not all of one sort. For some are of themselves and of their own proper nature always good, as to love God above all things, to love your neighbor as your self, to honor your father and mother, to honor the higher powers, to give to every man that which is his due, and such like. Other works there are, which considered in themselves, without further respect, are by their own nature merely indifferent, that is, neither good nor evil, but take their name by the use or purpose they serve. Works having a good purpose are called good works, and are so indeed, but yet that comes not of themselves, but of the good end to which they are referred. On the other side, if the end that they serve is evil, it can not then otherwise be but that they are necessarily evil also. Of this sort of works is fasting, which of itself is a thing merely indifferent, but it is made better or worse by the end that it serves. For when it respects a good end, it is a good work; but the end being evil, the work it self is also evil. To fast then with this persuasion of mind, that our fasting and our good works can make us perfect and just men, and finally bring us to heaven, this is a devilish persuasion, and that fast is so far from pleasing God that it refuses his mercy, and is altogether derogatory to the merits of Christ's death, and his precious blood shedding. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican teaches this. "Two men (says Christ) went up together into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: 'I thank you, O God, that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, and as this Publican is. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' The Publican stood far off, and would not lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, and said, 'God be merciful to me a sinner' " (Luke 18:10-13). In the person of this Pharisee, our Savior Christ set out to the eye, and to the judgment of the world, a perfect, just, and righteous man, such a one as is not spotted with those vices that men commonly are infected with, extortion, bribery, plundering and robbing their neighbor, robbers and spoilers of common welfare, crafty, and subtle in chopping and changing, using false weights, and detestable perjury in their buying and selling, fornicators, adulterers, and those who lead vicious lives. The Pharisee was no such man, neither faulty in any such like notorious crime. But where others transgressed by leaving things undone, which yet the law required, this man did more than was required by the law. For he fasted three times in the week and gave tithes of all that he had. What could the world then justly blame in this man? What outward thing more could be desired to be in him to make him a more perfect and a more just man? Truly, nothing by man's judgment. And yet our Savior Christ prefers the poor Publican without fasting over him with his fast. The cause why he does so is manifest. For the Publican, having no good works at all to trust unto, yielded up himself unto God, confessing his sins, and hoped certainly to be saved by God's free mercy only. The Pharisee gloried and trusted so much to his works that he thought himself sure enough without mercy, and that he should come to heaven by his fasting and other deeds. To this end serves that parable. For it is spoken to those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised other. Now because the Pharisee directs his work to an evil end, seeking by them justification, which indeed is the proper work of God, without our merits, his fasting twice in the week, and all his other works, though they were never so many, and seemed to the world never so good and holy, yet in very deed before God they are altogether evil and abominable. The mark, also that the hypocrites shoot at with their fast, is to appear holy in the eye of the world, and so to win commendation and praise of men. But our Savior Christ says of them, they have their reward, that is, they have praise and commendation of men, but of God they have none at all (Matthew 6:2). For whatsoever tends to an evil end, is itself, by that evil end, made evil also. Again, so long as we keep ungodliness in our hearts, and suffer wicked thoughts to tarry there, though we fast as often as did either St. Paul, or John the Baptist, and keep it as strictly as did the Ninevites, yet shall it be not only unprofitable to us, but also a thing that greatly displeases Almighty God. For he says that his soul abhors and hates such fastings. They are a burden to him, and he is weary of bearing them (Isaiah 1:13-14). And therefore he denounces them most sharply, saying by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, when you fast, your lust remains still, for you do no less violence to your debtors. Lo, you fast to strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Now you shall not fast thus, that you may make your voice to be heard above. You think this fast pleases me, that a man should chasten himself for a day? Should that be called a fasting, or a day that pleases the Lord" (Isaiah 58:3-5)? Now dearly beloved, seeing that Almighty God allows not our fast for the work's sake, but chiefly respects our heart how it is affected, and then esteems our fast either good or evil by the end that it serves for, it is our part to rent our hearts, and not our garments, as we are advertised by the prophet Joel, that is, our sorrow and mourning must be inward in heart, and not in outward show only (Joel 2:12-13). It is requisite that first, before all things, we cleanse our hearts from sin, and then to direct our fast to such an end as God will allow to be good.

There are three ends to which, if our fast be directed, it is then a work profitable to us, and accepted by God. The first is to chastise the flesh, that it be not too wanton, but tamed and brought in subjection to the spirit. This purpose had Saint Paul in his fast, when he said, "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means it comes to pass that when I have preached to others, I myself be found a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).

The second, that the spirit may be more earnest and fervent to prayer. To this end the prophets and teachers that were at Antioch fasted before they sent Paul and Barnabas forth to preach the Gospel (Acts 13:2-3). The same two apostles fasted for the similar purpose when they commended to God, by their earnest prayers, the congregations that were at Antioch, Pisidia, Iconium, and Lystra, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 14:21-23).

The third, that our fast be a testimony and witness with us before God of our humble submission to his high majesty when we confess and acknowledge our sins unto him, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies. These are the three ends, or right uses of fasting. The first belongs most properly to private fast. The other two are common to public fast, as well as to private. This concludes the discussion about the use of fasting. 

Lord have mercy upon us, and give us grace, that while we live in this miserable world we may through your help bring forth this and such other fruits of the spirit, commended and commanded in your holy word, to the glory of your name, and to our comforts, that after the race of this wretched life we may live everlastingly with you in your heavenly kingdom, not for the merits and worthiness of our works, but for your mercy's sake, and the merits of your dear Son Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the Holy Ghost, be all laud, honor, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

THE SECOND PART OF THE HOMILY OF FASTING.

 It was shown in the former homily (beloved), that among the people of the Jews, fasting as it was commanded by God through Moses was to abstain the whole day, from morning till night, from meat, drink, and all manner of food that nourishes the body, and that whoever tasted before the evening on the day appointed to fasting was accounted among them a breaker of his fast. Which order, though it seems strange to some in these our days, because it has not been so generally used in this nation of many years past, yet that it was so among God's people (I mean the Jews) whom, before the coming of our Savior Christ, God graciously and willingly chose unto himself a peculiar people above all other nations of the earth, and that our Savior Christ so understood it, and the apostles after Christ's ascension did so use it, was there sufficiently proved by the testimonies and examples of the Holy Scriptures, of the New Testament, as well as of the Old. The true use of fasting was also shown there. In this second part of this homily shall be shown that no constitution or law made by man for things which, of their own proper nature, are mere indifferent can bind the conscience of Christian men to a perpetual observation and keeping thereof, but that the higher powers have full liberty to alter and change every such law and ordinance, either ecclesiastical or political, when time and place shall require. But first an answer shall be made to a question that some may make, demanding what judgment we ought to have of such abstinences as are appointed by public order and laws, and by the authority of the judges, upon policy, not respecting any religion at all in the same. As when any nation in consideration of the maintaining of resources, industry, and skilled people, for the furnishing of the military4, whereby not only commodities of other countries may be transported, but also may be a necessary defense to resist the invasion of the adversary.

For the better understanding of this question, it is necessary that we make a difference between the policies of rulers, made for the ordering of their commonwealths, in provision of things serving to the most sure defense of their citizens and countries, and between ecclesiastical policies, in prescribing such works by which, as secondary means, God's wrath may be pacified and his mercy purchased. Positive laws made by rulers for conservation of their policy, not repugnant unto God's law, ought by all Christian citizens with reverence of the judge to be obeyed, not only for fear of punishment, but also (as the apostle says) for conscience sake. Conscience I say, not of the thing which of its own nature is indifferent, but of our obedience, which by the law of God we owe to the judge as unto God's minister. By which positive laws, though we subjects for certain times and days appointed, are restrained from some kinds of meats and drink, which God by his holy word has left free to be taken and used by all men with thanksgiving in all places, and at all times, yet for that such laws of rulers and other judges are not made to put holiness in one kind of meat and drink more then another, to make one day more holy than another, but are grounded merely upon policy, all subjects are bound in conscience to keep them by God's commandment, who by the apostle wills all without exception, to submit themselves unto the authority of the higher powers. 

And in this point concerning our duties, surrounded by and dependent upon the sea as we are, we have great occasion in reason to take the resources of the water, which Almighty God by his divine providence has laid so near to us, whereby the increase of food upon the land may better be spared and cherished, to the sooner reducing of food to a more moderate price, to the better sustenance of the poor. And doubtless, he seems to be too dainty who, considering the great benefits which may ensue, will not forbear some piece of his licentious appetite upon the ordinance of his ruler, with the consent of the wise of the nation. What good citizen would not wish that the old ancient glory should return to the nation, wherein it has with great commendations excelled before our days, in the provision of the navy of the same? What will daunt the hearts of the adversaries more than to see us well fortified and armed on the sea as we are reported to be on the land? 

If the ruler requested our obedience to forbear one day from flesh more than we do, and to be contented with one meal in the same day, should not our own personal interest thereby persuade us to subjection? But now that two meals are permitted to be used on that day, which sometimes our elders, in very great numbers in the nation, used with one only spare meal, and that in fish only, shall we think it so great a burthen that is prescribed?

Furthermore, consider the decay of the towns near the seas which should be most ready, by the number of the people there, to repulse the enemy, and we which dwell further inland, having them as our buffer to defend us, should be more in safety. If they are our neighbors, why should we not wish them to prosper? If they are our defense as closest at hand to repel the enemy, to keep out the rage of the seas which otherwise would break upon our fair pastures, why should we not cherish them? 

Neither do we urge that the ecclesiastical policy prescribing a form of fasting to humble ourselves in the sight of Almighty God, which was used among the Jews and practiced by Christ's apostles after his ascension, is of such force and necessity that only that form ought to be used among Christians, and no other form, for that would bind God's people to the yoke and burden of Moses' policy. It would be the very way to bring us, who are set at liberty by the freedom of Christ's gospel, into the bondage of the law again, which God forbids that any man should attempt or resolve to do. To this end it serves to show how far the order of fasting now used in the church at this day [1623] differs from that which then [33 A.D.] was used.

God's church ought not, neither may it be so tied to that or any other order now made, or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of man, but that it may lawfully for just causes alter, change, or mitigate those ecclesiastical decrees and orders, even recede wholly from them and break them, when they tend either to superstition or to impiety, when they draw the people from God rather than work any edification in them. This authority Christ himself used, and left it to his church. He used it, I say, for the order or decree made by the elders for washing often times, which was diligently observed by the Jews, yet tending to superstition. Our Savior Christ altered and changed washing in his church into a profitable sacrament, the sacrament of our regeneration or new birth. The apostles practiced this authority to mitigate laws and ecclesiastical decrees when they, writing from Jerusalem unto the congregation that was at Antioch, signified to them that they would not lay any further burden upon them but these requirements: that is, that they should abstain from things offered unto idols, from blood, from that which is strangled, and from fornication, notwithstanding that Moses' law required many other observances (Acts 15:20). This authority to change the orders, decrees, and constitutions of the church was, after the apostles time, used by the fathers about the manner of fasting, as it appears in the tripartite history, where it is written (`Tripartite History,' book 9, chapter 38)5, "Touching fasting, we find that it was diversely used in a variety of places by different men. For those in Rome fast three weeks together before Easter, except on Saturdays and Sundays, which fast they call Lent." And after a few lines in the same place, it follows: "They do not all have one uniform order in fasting. For some fast and abstain both from fish and flesh. Some when they fast, eat nothing but fish. There are others who, when they fast, eat water fowls as well as of fish, grounding themselves upon Moses that such fowls have their substance of the water as the fish have. Some others when they fast will neither eat herbs nor eggs. There are some fasters that eat nothing but dry bread. Others when they fast eat nothing at all, not even so much as dry bread. Some fast from all manner of food till night, and then eat without making any choice or difference of meats. And a thousand different kinds of fasting may be found in diverse places of the world, of diverse men, diversely used" (Eusebius, book 5, chapter 24). And for all this great diversity in fasting, yet charity, the very true bond of Christian peace, was not broken. Neither did the diversity of fasting break at any time their agreement and concord in faith. To abstain sometime from certain meats, not because the meats are evil, but because they are not necessary, this abstinence (says Saint Augustine) is not evil (Augustine, Gennadius Massiliensis?, Liber de Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus, c. 33, (chapter 66)). And to restrain the use of meats when necessary and time shall require, this (says he) does properly pertain to Christian men.

Thus you have heard, good people, first that Christian citizens are bound even in conscience to obey rulers' laws which are not repugnant to the laws of God. You have also heard that Christ's church is not so bound to observe any order, law, or decree made by man, to prescribe a form in religion, but that the church has full power and authority from God to change and alter the same when need shall require, which has been shown you by the example of our Savior Christ by the practice of the apostles and of the fathers since that time.

Now shall be shown briefly what time is appropriate for fasting, for all times serve not for all things, but as the wise man says, "All things have their times. There is a time to weep, and a time again to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to rejoice." etc. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4). Our Savior Christ excused his disciples, and reproved the Pharisees, because they neither regarded the use of fasting, nor considered what time was appropriate for the same. He teaches about both in his answer, saying, "The children of the marriage cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them" (Matthew 9:15). Their question was of fasting, his answer is of mourning, signifying to them plainly that the outward fast of the body is no fast before God, except it be accompanied with the inward fast which is a mourning and a lamentation of the heart, as is before declared. Concerning the time of fasting, he says, "The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them. In those days they shall fast." By this it is manifest that it is no time of fasting while the marriage lasts and the bridegroom is there present. But when the marriage is ended and the bridegroom gone, then is it an appropriate time to fast (Luke 5:34-35, Matthew 6). Now to make plain to you the sense and meaning of these words, "We are at the marriage", and again, "The bridegroom is taken from us", you shall note that so long as God reveals his mercy unto us and gives us his benefits, either spiritual or corporal, we are said to be with the bridegroom at the marriage. So was that good old father Jacob at the marriage, when he understood that his son Joseph was alive, and ruled all Egypt under Pharaoh. So was David in the marriage with the bridegroom when he had gotten the victory of great Goliath, and had cut off his head. Judith and all the people of Bethulia were the children of the wedding, and had the bridegroom with them, when God had by the hand of a woman slain Holofernes, the grand captain of the Assyrian host, and defeated all their enemies. Thus were the apostles the children of the marriage while Christ was corporally present with them and defended them from all dangers, both spiritual and corporal. But the marriage is said then to be ended, and the bridegroom to be gone, when Almighty God with afflicts us and seems to leave us in the midst of a number of adversities. So God sometime strikes private men privately with a number of adversities, as trouble of mind, loss of friends, loss of goods, long and dangerous sicknesses, etc. Then is it a fit time for that man to humble himself to Almighty God by fasting, and to mourn and to bewail his sins with a sorrowful heart, and to pray unfeignedly, saying with the prophet David, "Turn away your face, O Lord, from my sins, and blot out of your remembrance all mine offences" (Psalm 51:9). Again, when God shall afflict a whole region or country with wars, with famine, with pestilence, with strange diseases and unknown sicknesses, and other such calamities, then is it time for all states and sorts of people, high and low, men, women, and children, to humble themselves by fasting, and bewail their sinful living before God, and pray with one common voice, saying thus, or some other such like prayer: "Be favorable O Lord, be favorable unto your people, which turn to you, in weeping, fasting, and praying. Spare your people whom you have redeemed with your precious blood, and suffer not your inheritance to be destroyed and brought to confusion." Fasting thus used with prayer is of great efficacy, and weighs much with God. So the angel Raphael told Tobias. It also appears by that which our Savior Christ answered to his disciples, demanding of him why they could not cast forth the evil spirit out of the man that was brought to them. "This kind (says he) is not cast out except by fasting and prayer" (Matthew 17:14-21). How available fasting is, how much it weighs with God, and what it is able to obtain at his hand, can not better be set forth than by opening unto you, and laying before you, some of those notable things that have been brought to pass by it. Fasting was one of the means whereby Almighty God was occasioned to alter the thing which he had intended concerning Ahab for murdering the innocent man Naboth, to possess his vineyard. God spoke unto Elijah, saying: "Go your way and say unto Ahab, 'Have you killed, and also gotten possession? Thus says the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs even lick your blood also. Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your posterity' " (1 Kings 21:27-29). Yes, the dogs shall eat him of Ahab's stock that dies in the city, and him that dies in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. This punishment had Almighty God determined for Ahab in this world, and to destroy all the male kind that was begotten of Ahab's body, besides that punishment which should have happened to him in the world to come. When Ahab heard this, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon him, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went barefooted. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Do you see how Ahab is humbled before me? Because he submits himself before me, I will not bring that evil in his days, but in his sons' days will I bring it upon his house." Although Ahab, through the wicked counsel of Jezebel his wife, had committed shameful murder and against all right disinherited and dispossessed for ever Naboth's descendents of that vineyard, yet upon his humble submission in heart unto God, which he declared outwardly by putting on sackcloth and fasting, God changed his sentence so that the punishment which he had determined fell not upon Ahab's house in his time, but was deferred unto the days of Jehoram [2 Kings 3:1] his son. Here we may see of what force our outward fast is, when it is accompanied with the inward fast of the mind, which is (as is said) a sorrowfulness of heart, detesting and bewailing our sinful doings. Similarly, to be seen in the Ninevites, for when God had determined to destroy the whole city of Nineveh, and the time which he had appointed was even now at hand, he sent the prophet Jonah to say to them, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." The people eventually believed God and gave themselves to fasting. Even the king, by the advice of his counsel, caused to be proclaimed saying, "Let neither man nor beast, bullock nor sheep, taste any thing, neither feed nor drink water, but let man and beast put on sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Let every man turn from his evil way and from the wickedness that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce wrath, that we perish not" (Jonah 3:4-9)? And upon this their hearty repentance, thus declared outwardly with fasting, renting of their clothes, putting on sackcloth, and sprinkling themselves with dust and ashes, the scripture says God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. Now beloved, you have heard first what fasting is, that which is outward in the body, as well as that which is inward in the heart. You have heard also that there are three ends or purposes, to which if our outward fast be directed, it is a good work that God is pleased with. Thirdly has been declared what time is most appropriate for to fast, either privately or publicly. Last of all, what things fasting has obtained from God, by the examples of Ahab and the Ninevites. Let us therefore dearly beloved, seeing there are many more causes of fasting and mourning in these our days than has been of many years before now in any one age, endeavor our selves both inwardly in our hearts, and also outwardly with our bodies, diligently to exercise this godly exercise of fasting in such sort and manner as the holy prophets, the apostles, and various other devout persons for their time used the same. God is now the same God that he was then. God that loves righteousness, and that hates iniquity; God who wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live; God that has promised to turn to us, if we refuse not to turn to him; if we turn our evil works from before his eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek to do right, relieve the oppressed, be a right judge to the fatherless, defend the widow, share our bread with the hungry, bring the poor that wander into our house, clothe the naked, and despise not our brother which is our own flesh, then shall you call (says the prophet) and the Lord shall answer, you shall cry, and he shall say, "here am I". God, who heard Ahab and the Ninevites and spared them, will also hear our prayers and spare us so that we, after their example, will unfeignedly turn unto him. He will bless us with his heavenly benedictions the time that we have to tarry in this world, and after the race of this mortal life he will bring us to his heavenly kingdom where we shall reign in everlasting blessedness with our Savior Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.


*Editing goals: Clear the text from obsolete words and phrases and from references local to England, its constitution, and laws.

 

*1  trade:  See definitions 3 and 4 of the verb "trade" in Oxford English Dictionary Deluxe Edition CD (2002).

*2 Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina (1844 - 1855). See Patrologia Latina Database, ProQuest Information and Learning Company, http://pld.chadwyck.com . I have not seen a copy of the cited reference.

*3  See also, St. Augustine, The Enchiridion, Chapter 67, translated by J. F. Shaw (1883), in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, contained in The Master Christian Library, Version 5, AGES Digital Library (1997). I have not seen a copy of the cited reference.

*4 The second part of the original homily addressed English dependence upon the sea and extolled the necessity of a navy. The lure of the mighty oceans is powerful, but not relevant to many Anglicans elsewhere in the world, such as Uganda. References to the oceans is appropriate for sea-faring nations, but not land-locked nations. As a sermon to be read throughout all Anglican churches, this point is not universal or central to the faith, and is of questionable value as a reference from an Article of Religion.

*5 Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (485 - 583), Historia ecclesiastica tripartita (Tripartite History), 12 volumes, is a church history from Socrates Scholasticus (380 - 440), Salaminius Hermias Sozomen (375/400 - 443/450), and Theodoret of Cyrrhus (386/393 - 466). It served as a textbook throughout the Middle Ages. I have not found an English translation. See Note VIII. 4. by Robert D. Craig, "The Rise of Christianity", http://w3.byuh.edu/academics/ace/Speeches/Mckay/R_Craig.htm visited 10 October 2004. See also , http://www.lcms.org/cs/www/cyclopedia visited 10 October 2004. For reference to Book 9, see Philip Melanchthon, "The Confession of Faith: Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530" (1530), translated by F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau, and transcribed by Allen Mulvey, http://www.ctsfw.edu/etext/boc/ac/augustana24.asc visited 10 October 2004. Respecting dissimilar rites in Book 9, see Part XXVI, "The Distinction of Foods", from The Augsburg Confession, http//www.oslcpagosa.org/The%20Mass.htm  visited 10 October 2004.

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