takers of God's manifold bleffings, and that ye may be the better encouraged to refort to your parish-church, there to learn your duty towards God and your neighbour, there to be prefent and partakers of Chrift's holy facraments, there to render thanks to your heavenly Fa ther for the manifold benefits, which he daily poureth upon you, there to pray together, and to call upon God's holy name, which be bleffed world without end. Amen,

AN

HOMILY

OF

Eph. ii.

TH

Good Works. And firft, of Fafting.

HE life which we live in this world, good Chriftian people, is of the free benefit of God lent us, yet not to ufe it at our pleasure, after our own flefhly will, but to trade over the fame in thofe works which are befeeming them that are become new creatures in Chrift. Thefe works the Apoftle calleth good works, faying, We are God's workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus to good works, which God bath ordained, that we should walk in them. And yet his meaning is not by thefe words to induce us to have any affiance, or to put any confidence in our works, as by the merit and deserving of them to purchase to ourselves and others remiffion of fin, and fo confequently everlafting life; for that were mere blafphemy againft God's mercy, and great derogation to the bloodfhedding of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. For it is of the free grace and mercy of God, by the mediation of the blood of his Son, Jefus Chrift, without merit or deferving on our part, that our fins are forgiven us, that we are reconciled and brought again into his favour, and are made Aug. de Di- heirs of his heavenly kingdom: Grace, faith St. Auver. Quæft. guftine, belonging to God, who doth call us; and then ad Simpl. hath he good works, whofoever receiveth grace. Good works then bring not forth grace, but are brought forth by grace. The wheel, faith he, turneth round, not to the end that it may be made round; but because it is first made round, therefore it turneth round. So, no doth good works, to receive grace by his good works; but because he hath firft received grace, therefore confequently

lib.i.quæft.

28.

Operibus,

quently he doth good works. And in another place he Aug. de faith, Good works go not before in him which fhall after- Fide et ward be juftified; but good works do follow after, when a cap. 4. man is first juftified. St. Paul therefore teacheth, that we muft do good works for divers refpects: firft, to fhew ourfelves obedient children unto our heavenly Father, who hath ordained them, that we fhould walk in them. Secondly, for that they are good declarations and teftimonies of our juftification. Thirdly, that others, feeing our good works, may the rather by them be ftirred up and excited to glorify our Father which is in heaven. Let us not therefore be flack to do good works, feeing it is the will of God that we fhould walk in them, affuring ourfelves that at the laft day every man fhall receive of God for his labour done in true faith, a greater reward than his works have deferved. And becaufe fomewhat fhall now be spoken of one particular good work, whofe commendation is both in the Law and in the Gospel, thus much is faid in the beginning generally of all good works: firft, to remove out of the way of the fimple and unlearned this dangerous ftumbling-block, that any man fhould go about to purchafe or buy heaven with his works. Secondly, to take away, fo much as may be, from envious minds and flanderous tongues, all juft occafion of flanderous fpeaking, as though good works were rejected. This good work which now thall be treated of is fafting, which is found in the Scriptures to be of two forts; the one outward, pertaining to the body; the other inward, in the heart and mind. This outward faft is an abftinence from meat, drink, and all natural food, yea from all delicious pleafures and delectations worldly. When this outward faft pertaineth to one particular man, or to a few, and not the whole number of the people, for caufes which hereafter fhall be declared, then it is called a private faft: but when the whole multitude of men, women, and children, in a township or city, yea through a whole country, do faft, it is called a public faft. Such was that faft which the whole multitude of the children of Ifrael were commanded to keep the tenth day of the feventh month, becaufe Almighty God appointed that day to be a cleanfing day, a day of atonement, a time of reconciliation, a day wherein the people were cleanfed from their fins. The order and manner how it was done is written in the fixteenth and twenty-third chapters of Levit. xvi. Leviticus. That day the people did lament, mourn, weep, and xxiii.

and

and bewail their former fins. And whofoever upon that day did not humble his foul, bewailing his fins, as is faid, abitaining from all bodily food until the evening, that foul (faith the Almighty God) should be destroyed from among bis people. We do not read that Mofes ordained, by order of law, any days of public faft throughout the whole year, more than that one day. The Jews notwithstanding had more times of common fafting, which Zach. viii. the Prophet Zachary reciteth to be the faft of the fourth, the faft of the fifth, the faft of the feventh, and the faft of the tenth month. But for that it appeareth not in the Law when they were inftituted, it is to be judged, that thofe other times of fafting, more than the faft of the feventh month, were ordained among the Jews, by the appointment of their governors, rather of devotion, than by an exprefs commandment given from God. Upon the ordinance of this general faft, good men took occafion to appoint to themselves private fafts, at fuch times as they did either earnestly lament and bewail their finful lives, or did addict themfelves to more fervent prayer, that it might pleafe God to turn his wrath from them, when either they were admonished and brought to the confideration thereof by the preaching of the Prophets, or otherwife when they faw prefent danger to hang over their heads. This forrowfulness of heart, joined with fafting, they uttered fometimes by their outward behaviour and gefture of body, putting on fackcloth, fprinkling themfelves with afhes and duft, and fitting or lying upon the earth. For when good men feel in themfelves the heavy burthen of fin, fee 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 forrowfulness of heart for their offences, and cannot but accufe themselves, and open this their grief unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done feriously, their mind is fo occupied, partly with forrow and heavinefs, partly with an earneft defire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all defire of meat and drink is laid apart, and loathfomeness of all worldly things and pleafure cometh in place; fo that nothing then liketh them more, than to weep, to lament, to mourn, and, both with words and behaviour of body, to fhew themselves weary of this life. Thus did David fast, when he made interceffion to Almighty God for the child's life, begotten in adultery of Baththeba, Uriah's

wife. King Ahab fafted after this fort, when it repented him of murdering of Naboth, bewailing his own fiuful doings. Such was the Ninevites faft, brought to repentance by Jonas preaching. When forty thoufand of the Ifraelites were flain in battle against the Benjamites, the Scripture faith, All the children of Ifrael, and the whole Judges xx. multitude of the people, went to Bethel, and fate there weeping before the Lord, and fafted all that day till night. So did Daniel, Efther, Nehemiah, and many others in the Old Teftament, faft. But if any man will fay, it is true, fo they fafted indeed; but we are not now under the yoke of the Law, we are fet at liberty by the freedom of the Gofpel; therefore those rites and cuftoms of the old Law bind not us, except it can be fhewed by the Scriptures of the New Teftament, or by examples out of the fame, that fafting now under the Gospel is a reftraint of meat, drink, and all bodily food and pleafures from the body, as before. Firft, that we ought to faft, is a truth more manifeft, than that it should here need to be proved; the Scriptures which teach the fame are evident. The doubt therefore is, whether, when we faft, we ought to withhold from our bodies all meat and drink during the time of our faft, or no? That we ought fo to do, may be well gathered upon a queftion moved by the Pharifees to Chrift, and by his anfwer again to the fame. Why (fay they) do John's dif- Luke. ciples fajt often, and pray, and we likewife? But thy difciples cat and drink, and faft not at all. In this smooth queftion they couch up fubtilly this argument or reafon : Whofo fafteth not, that man is not of God: for fafting and prayer are works both commended and commanded of God in the Scriptures; and all good men, from Mofes till this time, as well the Prophets as others, have exercifed themfelves in thefe works. John alfo and his difciples at this day do faft oft, and pray much; and fo do we the Pharifees in like manner: but thy difciples faft not at all, which if thou wilt deny, we can easily prove it. For whofoever eateth and drinketh, fasteth not. Thy difciples eat and drink, therefore they faft not. Of this we conclude, fay they, neceffarily, that neither art thou, nor yet thy difciples, of God. Chrift maketh answer, faying, Can ye make that the children of the wedding ball fall, while the Bridegroom is with them? The days fball come, when the Bridegroom fhall be taken from them: in those days fball they faft. Our Saviour Chrift, like a good mafter, defendeth the innocency of his difciples against the malice of the arrogant Pharifees, and proveth that his disciples