Imatges de pàgina
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tain of the Assyrians' host, and discomfited 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 spiri tual and corporal. But the marriage is said then to be ended, and the bridegroom to be gone, when Almighty God smiteth us with affliction, and seemeth to leave us in the midst of a number of adversities. So God sometimes striketh private men privately with sundry adversities, as trouble of mind, loss of friends, loss of goods, long and dangerous sicknesses, &c. Then is it a fit time for that man to humble himself to Almighty God by fasting, and to mourn and bewail his sins with a sorrowful heart, and to pray unfeignedly, saying with the Prophet David,Turn away thy face, O Lord, from my sins, and blot out of thy remembrance all mine offences. 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 like calamities; then it is 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 favourable, O Lord, be favourable unto thy people, which turn unto thee, in weeping, fasting, and praying: spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood, and suffer not thine inheritance to be destroyed, and brought to confusion.' Fasting thus used with prayer is of great efficacy, and weigheth much with God. So the angel Raphael told Tobias. It also appeareth by that which our Saviour Christ answered to his disciples, demanding of him why they could not cast forth the evil spirit out of him that was brought unto them.—

Psal. li.

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"This kind,' saith he, is not cast out but by fasting and prayer.' How available fasting is, how much it weigheth with God, and what it is able to obtain at his hand, cannot 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 purposed concerning Ahab, for murdering the innocent man Naboth, to possess his vineyard. God spake unto Elijah, saying, Go thy way, and say unto Ahad, Hast thou killed, and also gotten possession? Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs even lick thy blood also. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity: yea, the dogs shall eat him of Ahab's stock that dieth in the city, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.' This punishment hath 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 unto 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, Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me? cause he submitteth himself before me, I will not bring that evil in his days; but in his son's days will I bring it upon his house.' Although Ahab, through the wicked counsel of Jezabel his wife, had committed shameful murder, and against all right disinherited and dispossessed for ever Naboth's stock 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

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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 Joram 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. The like is 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 unto them, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The people by and by believed God, and gave themselves to fasting; yea, the king, by the advice of his council, 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; yea, 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?' 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 saith, God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not.' Now, beloved, ye have heard first what fasting is, as well that which is outward in the body, as that which is inward in the heart. Ye have heard also that there are three ends or purposes, whereunto if our outward fast be directed, it is a good work that God is pleased with. Thirdly, hath been declared, what time is most meet for to fast, either privately or publicly. Last of all,

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Jonah iii.

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what things fasting hath obtained of 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 have been of many years heretofore in any one age, endeavour ourselves 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 divers other devout persons for their time used the same. God is now the same God that he was then; God that loveth righteousness, and that hateth iniquity; God which willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live; God that hath promised to turn to us, if we refuse not to turn to him: yea, 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, break our bread to the hungry, bring the poor that wander into our house, clothe the naked, and despise not our brother which is our own flesh; Then shalt thou call,' saith the Prophet, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here am I;' yea, God, which 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; yea, 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 Saviour Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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This part of the XVIth Homily sheweth that Princes, for political reasons, may appoint times of abstinence from some kinds of

HOM. XVII.

Against Gluttony and Drunkenness

HOMILY XVII.

Against Gluttony and Drunkenness.

YE have heard in the former Sermon, well-beloved, the description and the virtue of fasting, with the true use of the same. Now ye shall hear how foul a thing gluttony and drunkenness is before God, the rather to move you to use fasting the more diligently. Understand ye therefore, that Almighty God (to the end that we might keep ourselves undefiled, and serve him in holiness and righteousness, according to his word) hath charged in his Scriptures so many as look for the glorious appearing of our Saviour Christ, to lead their lives in all sobriety, modesty, and temperance. Whereby we may learn how necessary it is for every Christian, that will not be found unready at the coming of our Saviour Christ, to live sober-minded in this present world, forasmuch as otherwise being unready, he cannot enter with Christ into glory: and being unarmed in this behalf, he must needs be in continual danger of that cruel

Titus ii.

food, and permit others, such as fish for instance, to be eaten, in order to consume a multitude of fishes, and thereby to increase the number of men accustomed to the Sea, in searching for them; and thus men are prepared for the Navy. This order, not being repugnant to God's law, will be obeyed by Christian subjects for conscience sake, not of the thing which is indifferent, but of obedience to the magistrate, being God's minister. What power the Church has to alter and change things indifferent in themselves is here further declared, as to the manner of fasting, from what sort of food to abstain, and what seasons are most prudent.

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