"This Time So Solemnly Observ'd"
Not to trouble you with any needless enquiries into this mysterious Fast of our blessed Saviour; I shall treat of it no otherwise than as matter of example to us, and shall endeavour only these two things, First. To evidence our obligation to the Virtue of Abstinence; especially at this time, so solemnly observ'd by the Christian Church ever since the Apostles days. Secondly. I shall recommend it from the consideration of those good Fruits and Benefits that result from it.
As to the first; if Abstinence be a Christian duty, the neglect of it must be our sin; and whether we be obliged to it or no, we may soon be advised by the many precepts and examples both of the old and new Testament ...
As the preparing our selves by a solemn Abstinence of Forty days for the Reception of the blessed Sacrament at Easter; whereunto the Christians of all ages (excepting those of phanatical Humours) have thought themselves obliged; which reason is given by St. Hierom in his Commentary on Matt. 5. The want of a pious disposition and preparation before our religious duties of Prayer and receiving the holy Sacrament, is perhaps the reason that we are so little the better for them.
Calvin's dismissal of the Lenten fast is robustly challenged as a rejection of the practice of the Primitive Church:
After its being thus attested by the ancient Fathers, we find it thus censured by Mr. Calvin in the 4th. Book of his Institutions ... It was meer Folly and Superstition (saith he) to pretend to observe Lent in imitation of Christs Forty days Fast; and he gives this reason for it; Christ abstained Forty days, not that he might leave us an example of the like Fasting, which was impossible for us; but that he might manifest himself a person above the common condition of mortals. This Opinion and this Reason he thinks fit to advance against the sense of the ancient Church; and let us consider it a little, it being all that the Adversary has to say in this matter.
After fasting, the sermon turns to confession. Interestingly, no reference is made to private confession and absolution. Instead, self-examination is urged on the basis of the two tables of the Commandments. The implication is quite clear that this leads to confession within the liturgy, whether in the response to the Commandments in the Communion Office or in the daily service, hinted at in the use of words from the opening Sentences:
To this Abstinence (as is meet and requisite at this time) let us join an honest confession of our sins; which our Church prescribes to be done by the rule of Gods Commandments. Let us therefore reflect upon our past lives, and charge our Memories, so officious in other things, to recollect our sins with their aggravating circumstances; as first against the first Table ... Also against the second Table thou hast sinned, not so loving thy Neighbour as thy self, that thou hast seldom thought of doing to others as thou wouldst be done unto.
Lastly, alms giving is addressed:
I have been hitherto exhorting to Abstinence and Confession of Sins. Give me leave also to mind you of Alms-deeds; for these must go together. True Charity will oblige you to remember not only the mendicant poor; but also those poor, whether Widows or Families that have lived in plenty and are ashamed to beg; and let your Charity in this be as secret as possible: and thank God that he has given you the opportunity and ability to do it. For a Gentleman to be able to find Money for his needless and impertinent Debauches, and none for the Relief of a poor Family, is an Objection that he can never answer at the last Judgment.
The seriousness of this approach to Lent - what the sermon called "this time, so universally observed by the Christian Church ever since the Apostles days" - is certainly suggestive of a significant Lenten piety in the Restoration Churches of England and Ireland.
(The drawing is of St Patrick's Cathedral, from Observations in a Voyage through the Kingdom of Ireland by Thomas Dinely, 1681.)
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