"This fasting is ... enjoined by God"

From a 1624 Lenten sermon of Donne:

That which God commanded by his Word, to be done at some times (that we should humble our souls by fasting) the same God commands by his church, to be done now: in the Scriptures you have preceptum, The thing itself, what; in the church, you have the Nunc, The time, when. The Scriptures are God's voice; the church is his echo; a redoubling, a repeating of some particular syllables, and accents of the same voice. And as we hearken with some earnestness, and some admiration at an echo, when perchance we do not understand the voice that occasioned that echo; so do the obedient children of God apply themselves to the echo of his church, when perchance otherwise they would less understand the voice of God, in his Scriptures, if that voice were not so redoubled unto them. This fasting then, thus enjoined by God, for the general, in his word, and thus limited to this time, for the particular, in his church, is indeed but a continuation of a great feast: where, the first course (that which we begin to serve in now) is manna, food of angels, plentiful, frequent preaching; but the second course, is the very body and blood of Christ Jesus, shed for us, and given to us, in that blessed sacrament, of which himself makes us worthy receivers at that time.

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laudable Practice

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