A SERMON DELIVERED IN OXFORD. Concerning the Apostles Preaching and ours.  
By RICHARD james Bachelor of divinity and Fellow of C.C.C. in OXFORD.  HORAT, Non ego ventosae plebis suffragi● venor. 
LONDON, Printed by WILLIAM STANSBY, for NATHANIEL butter, 1630.   

TO My Noble Friend, Sir ROBERT COTTON.  
dear SIR Robert Cotton, this little Treatise hath a long time,( according to HORACES advice) lain in season with my own iudgement. And now it desires to come forth into the Worlds use. from your acceptance. Pray Sir receive it kindly, as you haue done me for the space of more then four yeares, cherishing both my Life and Learning. So, if Gods pleasure bee to find me out a happy leisure, I shall ever strive to express greater thankfulness, and rest,  
Your most faithful Seruant, RICH. james.   

THE HISTORY OF LENT-FAST.  
YOu must not deem it a trick and affectation of novelty, if I now prefer●e no Text unto my Sermon. It might be from the example of nazianzen, and Ambrose, and Chrysostome, in their Homilies, and panegyrics, and Orations unto the people. But indeed I could not find any convenient Text of Scripture from whence aptly to derive my discourse unto you, and therefore I haue proposed none. Yet I will not wander either in myself or from the expectation of this time. My discourse shall haue at least some certain title and name unto a sense. It shall bee concerning the present time of Lent. And as of subject, so of habit; Simplex munditijs. A plain Lent-History, without varnish and flourish of words. I desire not so to ●atch your applause; or with no memory and no Text to make myself a fable of the town. But if I may haue your favour and patience, and civility. Tradam inprimit vo●is quod& accepi. I will especially and onely deliver unto you such things as I haue learnt either from experience or reading.  
And so to begin without more tediousness of preface; consider with me for Lent, first of the authority by which it hath been for so many ages ordained and continued in the Church. Secondly, of the practise, and use and abuse of Lent in the Christian world. Lent in our English and mother tongue gives no evidence unto the ecclesiastical nature and ceremony of the time being derived from a word which to the Dutch signifies either the Spring season, or longitude; because our Lent falls in the spring of the year, when the dayes do more apparently grow long of light and houres: but in other tongues the word is more concerning. In Slauonish, Lent is called Gouenia, the reverend time, as in which the stir of diet and luxury seems somewhat restrained, and all gainesse of clothes, and pomp of masks, and sports, and triumphs fain to yield one while and space unto the more modest behaviour and simpleness of Religion, {αβγδ}, saith Saint Chrysostome. There is in Lent a kind of reverend solitude and calm of the year, {αβγδ}. And the phantasy and conceit of worldly things is set apart, {αβγδ}, when there is no gaping and rawling and hurrie, and currying up and down with cookes and slaughters of sheep and beeves. Another word the slavonians haue also to express the nature of the time, and that is Chetverodes atnitsa, in which they agree with many other modern tongues, who call it in a like manner, Quaresme, Quaresma, Quaresima, Quadragesima, in imitation of the greek original word {αβγδ} which signifies the space or ceremony of 40. dayes. 'tis the observation of many, of Eusebius, Socrates, Zozo●ene, Cassiodorus, Nicephorus, that although in diuers countreyes the number of the dayes were in some places more, in others less, yet all called the fast before Easter, {αβγδ}, The fast of 40. Some saith Eusebius are of opinion, that we ought to fast but one day before Easter, some will fast two, some more, many forty. They bee the words of Irenaeus unto Victor Bishop of Rome. And because the last are not fully translated according to the sense of the original, receive it thus. There is not saith he onely difference about the day of Easter, but also for the manner of the fast. Some think they ought to fast but one day, some two, some more; some fasting but one, measure their day by 40. houres of day and night together. Irenaeus seems to intimate a manner amongst the Christians of fasting 40. houres in resemblance of Christs 40. dayes; of which in place. Some saith Sozomene reckon six weekes for their fast, as the Illyrians, and the more western people, with all Lybia and Egypt, and Palestina. Some number seven, as the people of Constantinople, and the bordering Nations, so far as the phoenicians. Some fast 3. weeks of dayes in six or seven weeks; some three immediately before Easter; some two, as the sectaries of Montanus; and of these mens three annual fasts we also read in S. jerome, Socrates again repeats the like variety. For those saith he who are of Rome, Saturday and Sunday excepted, do fast three weekes before Easter. Those of Illyria and all Greece, and all that dwell at Alexandria, begin their Easter-fast six weekes before the day. Some against begin their fast seven weekes before, though in those they fast but 15. dayes at several times. Now if concerning this difference of the observance, and yet so general agreement for the name of forty dayes, wee search a reason of antiquity, peradventure wee shall better understand the nature, value and authority of this institution, which hath given unto us the custo me of Lent, for so necessary discipline of the Church. First, 'tis not the answer, but the wonder of Socrates in the fift book of his ecclesiastical history, the 22. Chapter, {αβγδ}. Diuers, saith he, stirring up their wits and brains curiously, haue given diuers reasons, {αβγδ}. But for myself, I cannot choose but wonder, Cassianus in his 21. Collation, although he could bee well content, vt pia simplicitas huius rei amputaret quaestionem. That a religious simplo ignorance should relieve the hazard of a resolution, and doth confess, quod protecto rationem huius rei humana obliterarit incuria. That indeed the heedless incuriousnesse of times hath blurd the certain and true answer; And that no Lent at all was observed in the fresh primitive Church; and to stop a reply of discerning men, hath so begun his 20. Chapter. Hâc igitur Quadragesimae lege, huius exigui canonis subiectione qui justus atque perfectus est non tenetur, That good wise men are not bound under so poor canonical obedience: yet to seem ignorant of nothing altogether in a question of lay people. Legi dost quicquid contigerit onorari, It seems no Law saith St. A●●stin of which the Priest can give no reason, to feed Lay belief, whose guts were sorely gripped with this Religion, at last he strains an answer with fortasse, peradventure. Fortasse vel propter hoc visum sit; peradventure all haue thought good to call the 〈…〉 ster-fast by the name of 40. dayes, because wee red 〈…〉 at for forty dayes, Moses and Elias, and our saviour 〈…〉 pt an entire Fast in the old and new Testament; or 〈…〉 cause in dayes we may represent those yeares for the 〈…〉 ace of which the residue of the Iewes wandered in a 〈…〉 ldernesse betwixt Egypt and the Holy Land. These 〈…〉 d such like are the arguments of Lent, which I rehearse 〈…〉 ther unto your censure then memory. And two of 〈…〉 ease arguments and authorities for Lent, I find to bee 〈…〉 credit with St. Austin in his 19. Epistle unto janu 〈…〉 ius, Quadragesima sanè i●iuniorum habet authoritatem, 〈…〉 ent, saith he, hath authority for a fast, in the old 〈…〉 estament from the Fast of Moses and Elias; and in the 〈…〉 ew, because our saviour likewise fasted the same num 〈…〉 er; demonstrans evangelium non distare à Lege& Prophe 〈…〉, shwing by such example, that the gospel did not di● 〈…〉 r from the Law and the Prophets. Another autho 〈…〉 tie for our Lent-fast of forty dayes, he hath there gi 〈…〉 en also from some mystery of the number, which I 〈…〉 old willingly translate unto you, were not the per 〈…〉 lexitie and riddle of his Pythogoricall arithmetic too 〈…〉 ard for a mixed auditory. I think he might say of 〈…〉 hat in respect of most men, as Petrarch did sometimes 〈…〉 f an obscure Sonnet; Intenda mi chi puo, che m'intend 〈…〉. understand who can, I understand myself, yet per 〈…〉 duenture this authority with St. Austin was of most 〈…〉 rice by a rule which he hath in the same Epistle. said 〈…〉 amenita se habet. But it comes so to pass, that a thing 〈…〉 ntimated by allegorical signification is more moving and affecting, and so more honoured, quàm si verbis 〈…〉 roprijs diceretur apertissimè, then if in proper cloquence the same thing should bee unfolded most perspicuously.  
But howsoever, or at what rate soever either he or any other may seem to value such mysteries, yet in his 86. Epistle to Casulanus speaking of Moses and Elias, and the fast of many other holy men in Scripture, he concludes in these words. Haec exempla Sanctorum nec ad persuadendum cuiuscunque diei jeiunium valent. The examples of these holy men enforce not a fast vpon any certain time. And again in the same Epistle towards the end, he speaks more plainly. Quibus autem diebus oporteat jeiunare praecepto Domini vel Apostolorum non invenio definitum. I find, saith he, no precept either of our saviour or his Apostles determining on what dayes fasting ought to bee observed. And to this agrees also St. Chrysostome, as we may read in a homely of his in the 6. Tome of our edition, pag. 381. where he says, {αβγδ}, at the beginning and anciently men received the Sacrament when they pleased, but especially at this time of his passion, which afterwards gave occasion for an assembly of Fathers to design the fast of 40. dayes.  
Now although there bee more alike trifling authorities for the establishment of Lent, by some related, by others peremptorily enforced, it suffices me in these two to give you some short censure and estimate of the rest. For the last it consists onely on a device of number, and how small proof numbers are amongst men who will not suffer their understanding to bee cozened with a phantasy is to me most clear and evident. I know numbers are much made of by hilary, jerome in some places, a hundred times as Mirandula tells us by basil, nazianzen, Ambrose, Origen, Austin, and others. The ecclesiastical Doctors are in this respect busy; vsque ad curositatem si dici potest, even unto curiosity, if a man may haue leave to speak truth, who can red or hear with patience when they talk of perfect happy numbers, as 3.9.4.12.50.7. and numbers unlucky. as 40.20.2.8. credat judaeus, let the circumcised Cabalist jew, believe them if he please, and the mysterious Pythagorean who fears to eat beans. For myself I constantly avouch the rule of Melancthon. Quantitatum nulla est efficacia, Quantities and numbers haue not the virtue to effect in nature or commend in manners and customs, we may {αβγδ} as julian speaks sport out a commendation of some things from numbers in a private familiar Epistle, such as his is unto his friend Serapion, endeering a gift of Damaske-sigs, because they were a hundred. For Iupiters buckler had in Homer a hundred tassells, strong Briareus a hundred hands. Apollo slay the serpent Python with a hundred shafts. Crete had a hundred Cities. Thebes, a hundred Gates, and a hecatomb is a magnificent Sacrifice. But articles of Creed and christianity are not so easily to be taken ●nto reverence. And St. Chrysostome hath given a just censure against all such wizards of arithmetic in his 24. homely vpon Genesis, at the 2. verse of the 6. Chapter Of every clean beast thou shalt take with the 7. and 7. but of unclean cattle. 2. {αβγδ}. Many find out strange Muthologies and fables vpon these words, {αβγδ}, cunning notes of Numbers: but as he there goes forward, their labour was, {αβγδ}, an unseasonable curiosity, from which {αβγδ}, most heresies haue had their birth and beginning. Concerning the former argument for Lent from Moses and Eliat and our saviour you haue already heard how St. Austin hath retracted and vnsaid himself. And for my part I haue herein more wonder then reproof, were there no human examples in the life of Christ, and the connersation of these two Prophets: But wee must vainly follow their miraculous fast with a dainty choice of abstinence. I hear what St. Austin once speaks, Nam ei ad ipsum quadragenarium numerum pervenisse quendam è fratribus fide dignissimis obseruatum est. For saith he, 'tis assured unto me by men of credit that one man did fulfil with perfect abstinence the entire fast of 40. dayes.  
But consider, if the resemblance of such fast commonly, and amongst the most will not give just occasion of laughter and contempt to Iewes and balsams? If we fast at any time to bring our bodies under, tis praise worthy. But how is it to fast from flesh onely, because they did eat nothing? I speak in respect of other Countreyes, where in fast and abstinence from flesh, they eat all sorts of the most luscious fish, Sturgeon and salmon, and Turbet and Mullet, Crabs, Lobsters, oysters, Cockles, Caueare, Potargos, Anchouis, a thousand varieties of candied and conseru'd fruits, broths spiced with so many costly ingredients, Pottage of Aemons, of Macarons, of mushrooms, use in stead of Butter the clear Rocke-oyles of Zante, candy, or better grounds, and drink all down with the most heating wines of italy, spain, Greece, which sparkle lust in the glass. How contracted and ascheticall the catholic diet is in fish, consider from a Bishop of their own in a book which I shall again name. he tells us that Adrian the 6. was a man of heavy understanding, and most clownish and insipid of his palate, because he delighted in a vulgar fish called Merluccia, and so buying all up made it come to bee of high price, ridente toto foro piscario, to the scorn of the whole fish-market. And again he tells us from the taste of the learned Pogius son, a familiar parasite and Critticke of the pontifical Tables; that the Sturgeon was in comparison an unsavoury fish with exuberancie of glutinous brawnie substance, and so fittest for the seruants, so they sent in the head swimming in white-broth, whence the Lords might pick some few dainty bits. O what a glut would it be to your ears if I were a Platina, able as well to dress the Popes kitchen as his consistory. They that please may red his book which he hath written de obsonijs& pulmentis, quibus praecipue in Romana curia utantur, of the meats and jellies, and sauces which are used in the papal Court.  
How does indignation sometimes struggle to get forth and give censure vpon his Masters. Vidi ego plerosque, saith he, non Romae modo. I haue seen very many not at Rome onely, ubi monstra hominum magnâ impensa aluntur, where monsters of men are maintained at most excessive charge, but every where in the chief Cities of italy, I haue seen and known many, plerosque more then a great many, who wearied out with gluttony and often change of dainties, haue sent far and near to find out and hire at any price Cookes that could devise a new dish, to spur up their dul'd and surfeited appetite. Quantum auri dij immortales. Good God, how much gold hath been spent in such abuses: but observe how he dares not speak the whole truth, and yet shuts up his discourse in this disdaining manner, verum ad instituta redire tutius est, quam hijs bilem irritare qui cum intemperantur vivant, parci tamen ac frugi videri volunt. But 'tis safest saith he to return unto our purpose and leave provoking the choler of those men, that live thus intemperate, and yet will needs be esteemed sparing and thrifty in their diet. If they would indeed fast, and not deceive the world with an ostentation, let them hear St. jerome. Fortissimum jeiunium est aqua& panis. The most pining fast is bread and water, and fittest to subdue the body. Dùm delicias sectamur à regno coelorum retrahimur. We go back from heaven to find out a dainty choice of Fast in Merlucciaes and Sturgeons heads. Such things they may call fast as the Spaniards in proverb call Collops and eggs, duelos y quebrantos, griefs and complainings. Yet millions of good men in the world would rejoice and bless God for plenty of worse meate then these, though they never eat mutton in their life.  
To speak in Tertullians words in his second book against martion. Though these spiritual Lordings of Rome pretend pennance, ciborum pretiosa ambitio non detrahitur, an ambitious service of high feed is nothing wanting; if it bee then for their commendation of eating no flesh, I willingly again bestow on them one more authority to countenance their fast, from St. jerome, who speaks thus, that hogs, and bores, and deere, and other such like cattle were created to feed Wrestlers, Soldiers, mariners, Orators, Diggers in mines and other handicraft people, who want not a corpulent robustiousnesse to labour and beate one another, not for religious men, who should rather say with the Apostle, when I am weak then am I strong. But as I haue before said, it can never enter into my belief, that the hierarchy of Rome do not praise fast with full stomacks where Cooks are so much valued; poetical, miraculous Cooks, with spices and sugars and cyles and a thousand other delicacies are powerful to force a Metamorphosis of nature in a dish. hear one story out of Athenaeus in his first book. Nicomedes King of Bythinia, being in some expedition, as it seems against the Scythians twelve dayes journey from the Sea, and in the midst of winter, {αβγδ}. he longed for a Pilchard or a Herring, or a Sprat, and presently his cook got a Turnip, shaped it into fashion, and with oil, salt, and twelve grains of black poppie, so deceived his Lords taste, that he praised the roote unto his Guests for an excellent fish. If Cookes can make fish of roots, certainly they can make fish a nearer counterfeit of flesh, and neither fish nor flesh nor roots of what kind soever bee as otherwise Cyprian would call them sibi innocents, innocent vnprouoking meats in the Chargers of Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Lords and Ladies of monastical conversation.  
Let me return, and not riot out my Discourse. From the example of Moses, Elias, and Christ, wee might on both sides learn more concerning behaviour then F●ste. From Christ better then from the Stoique porch, we may learn, that no shane is of any thing but 'vice. When he made no method of fast, as did the Pharisees; was sometimes in company and friendship with Publicans and drunkards; and he and his Apostles did eat with vnwash't hands: neither feared to do offices of nature and goodness on the Iewes Sabbath. From Moses we may l●arne charity unto men with whom we haue one faith, one God, one baptism, a nearer alliance then of flesh and consanguinity, when he says unto God in the 32. of Exodus. Oh, this people haue sinned a great sin, and haue made them Gods of gold, and now forgive them their sin; or if thou wilt not, wipe me out of the book which thou hast written. And from Elias let us learn to correct any imagination of our own solitary Religion, when in the 3. of the Kings the 9. Chapter; 'tis the answer of God himself unto his slender conceit of being left a good man alone, at the 18. verse. And I haue left me seven thousand in Israel, of which never man bowed his knees unto Idolatry. From this let our rash giddy puritans learn not to condemn all papists, and the vehement jesuitical catholic not to hurl damnation again upon all that haue protested against the infinite abuses of the roman tyranny, but reclaim that their brutish assertion. Eum qui credere ausit pertinacem proteflantem posse salvari, hoc ipso à Catholica fi deexcidere. That he who believes the possible salvation of a confident Protestant is an Apostate of the catholic faith. And thus much be spoken for the authority of Lent, Which being long since considered by the Authors of the Helueticke confession, made them deliver their opinion in this brief manner. Quadragesimale jeiunium vetustatis habet testimonia, said nulia ex literis Apostolicis: ergo non debet nec potest imponi fidelibus. It follows now that wee also view the practise of this ancient yet uncertain fasting observance.  
Beleeue me, no man in the world is more sparing of prejudice, and yet if I should spare, truth and their own history are a libel against themselves. I am scarce more then a relater, some small learning hath freed me from affectation or envy in any subject of discourse: but I must not fain myself blind, to make other men proud of their eye-sight. Neither do I boast any prospective glass, to multiply and extend my own reason. observe what I deliver unto you in antiquity and experience, and as in the authority so in the practise, I begin from the ecclesiastical history which may be easily confirmed by a hundred collations. 'tis the observation of Socrates, Nicephorus, and Cassiedorus. Nicephorus hath the fullest relation, and therefore I first city out of his History in the most eminent 34. Chapter of his 12. book. And the world differs not onely saith he about the number of dayes, but even about the quality of meats and manner of abstinence. Some ne animata quidem attingunt; they will not taste any thing that hath life. Some are bolder, but on fish onely, some eat birds also with fish, because birds and fish in Moses history of the creation had their substance from the waters. Some will neither eat nuts nor eggs, nor berries; Some feed onely on the fruit of trees, some on dry bread onely, neither do all agree in the same time of taking such diet. Some eat not before the ninth hour, some after Sunset; some take their repastes onely every second day; some abstain for three or four or five or seven dayes; pro eo atque quisque cibo career vel vult vel potest, according as every man will or hath ability to endure without restauration of nourishment.  
Let me also observe one thing more in this difference, whereas of ancient in Lent the people did not with permission legal eat any thing until Supper; in later times Suppers haue changed to bee onely irreligious. That of ancient they did eat no dinners, it appears from many instances; out of Cassianus, where he makes this question, Quare per totam Quinquagesimam abstinentiae rigerem prandijs relaxamus, why in the 50. dayes betwixt Easter and whitsuntide 'twas the custom again to refresh the rigor of Lent-faste with dining, and as good Cassander hath observed vpon the Hymmes of the Church; It was once a decree of the Cabiloon counsel that none should dare eat any thing in Lent until evening prayer were ended. To perform which in show after-ward, as he there tells us, consuetudo inoleuit, the custom grew familiar, that in Lent-time presently after matins, they did again begin their evening prayer, which by order of the Canon should not haue been done until the 12. and last hour of the day. And so by an indulgency, or exigency rather of peoples stomacks they did in times following come to an order of dining only, and 'twas deemed a great sin to make Suppers; whence Erasmus speaks in the voice of vulgar apprehension. Et tamen toto passim orb coenatur affatim nullus offenditur; Though wee now eat no flesh in Lent, yet every where wee cate Suppers and there be none offended. In Anglia vulgus Quadragesimae tempore caenam justam apparatalternis diebu nemo miratur. In Lent time the people through England, every other day provide a set meal at night and no man wonders at the heresy. Si tentes idem extra Quadragesimam nemo f●ret; and yet none as he there goes forwar'd by a custom of the Country would seem to endure so great a wickedness, as a Supper on Friday out of Lent. And again in the same dialogue putting on the habit of an Inquisitor, he seems much offended with the liberty of a friar, who should say in a Sermon against the order of the Church; Nihil vereamini, fear nothing, if at night you do for the weakness of your body eat one loaf, and drink a pot of wine or ale. All the ridiculous delusions of fasting, and all the superstitions, are too many for the measure of my time. I will here repeat one history of many.  
In the time of justinian the Emperor, there had been great Prodigies, and earth-quakes, and deluges of the Seas, and so great famine; whereupon at Constantinople the Emperour in the second week of the fast made proclamation that it should bee lawful to sell and buy flesh in the Market. Et hoc quidem sic per vim factum. And this, saith he, was done by force. Populus ●utem, but the people resolute in their Superstition of p●etie would neither eat nor buy flesh, rather choosing to famish of hunger, then to change any whit from the tradition of their inveterate manners. Those that please may imagine the people praise-worthy for their severe obedience unto the laws of the Church; rather then to accept the care of a provident Prince. But for my part, I must hate the Bishops and clergy then, who with their Sermons and threatenings, seem to haue kept the people obstinate to famine and destruction. I must think of them as Iuuenall speaks of Egypt, Horrida merely Egyptus, indeed the Egyptians are even unto horror superstitious. They dare not kill a kid, nor bite a holy head of leeks and onions; said luxuria non cedit, but none more luxurious then they, when those people could not bee supplied with herbs and fish, and not much store of flesh, a little to relieve nature, I must say again in the language of the same Poet. Quisnam hominum veniam dare, quisue deorum, viribus abnuerit dira atque immania passis; would either God or man bee offended if such people did save their lives with the slaughter of beasts: And if you will farther observe, 'tis no less pity or sad sport to behold the carriage of the Christian world in their preparation to this starving time. in Rusland, and so in the greek Church, the second week before this great fast, they call pièga nedela the pied week, as it were the week of two colours, because in that, they eat one day flesh, and on the other butter, and cheese, and white meats. The next week is called Maslanitsa, or Sirnou nedela, the butter-weeke, or cheese-weeke, because on every day of that week, having left off flesh, they feed on cheese, and butter, and eggs, and milk and their compounds. And in these weeks 'tis incredible of the riots, and routs, and murders which I haue known. Scores of men within the walls of Muscow about this time two yeares were stripped and murdered in their drunkenness, and by an order of the country taken up from the steetes and carried in heaps on Carts, unto public view to bee seen by some officers of the castle, whether any of them did receive pay from the Emperor, to strike out their names. Vpon the year following, a Bride and Brides-groome, with Priest, and all their retinue of friends, in the evening, as their manner is, were likewise stripped and turned alive under the ice of a river which runs through the city, by villains, who make a harvest from the luxury and security of the time. And if Greece and Russia seem too far from belief, the latin Church will afford nearer infamy. In Guazzo of civil conversation, you shall red of those who like the Pagan Priests whip themselves with vizzard-faces, but so as they are proud to be known. In Castilions Courtier, who hath been therefore blurred by the Index expurgatorius, you shall likewise find a strange jolly preparation to the demureness of Lent, come è vzanza di Roma, according to the vsance and custom of Rome, you shall find strange masks and base Pageants represented with all sluttishnesse, and rotten eggs, to the pleasing spectacle of great. Counts and holy Cardinals standing to take the view in bay windows. Were it not to move laughter in a place of earnest I would translate unto you the whole Scene as 'tis there performed betwixt Bernardo Bibiena a gentleman worthily addicted to the scorn of monks, and a Quirie of the cardinal of S. Peters stable in Monks habit.  
In the Comment of Daniello vpon Dante, I read also of one Vanni and his companions, how after their own riot in the common luxurious jollity of this time in one Carnouall evening they robbed the Church of Pistoia, and got away all their treasury and rich Copes. If in scattered places, and by the way, wee read of such sacrilege and paganism and riots in this preface of Lent, what abominations do they know, who live to see them? the stuffing Bacchanals of France on Fat-Tuesday, the like carnes liendas or tollendas in spain, and those Carnouals of italy. Better still to keep flesh then to make such foul Farewell, and that you imagine not any popish Land free from this scandal, they be the words of Busbequius in his third Epistle. Quo tempore apud nos etiam. In this time with us also, even in the best ordered Cities, not in Leaguers onely, omnia perstrepunt ludo, all are in a noise and hurly with plays and moriscoes, and songs and clamorous feasts, and drunkenness and furious madness. In so much, saith he, as in his return from us, it was the belief and a relation of a Turkish ambassador unto to the great Sultan, that on certain dayes all the Christians were even as mad as Bacchus Priests and as he thought on wednesday they did again recover their wits and health, with a certain kind of ashes sprinkled on their heads in the Church.  
It forces me to stay longer in this bog and marrasse of Lent. Those who are better acquainted with ecclesiastical antiquity, shall find that th●se manners also haue been an inveterate disease of the church. I am sure 'tis the complaint of St. basil. It being then the fashion not to fast the Saturdayes and sundays of Lent, such words he uses unto his auditory. {αβγδ}, like fellow-travelers, saith he, who purpose a long journey, to day they furnish their bodies with wine, against the other five of fast, {αβγδ}. In those two they drank as if they would take reuenge of the other five before hand; and in these five they drank water, that in these two again they might carovie with more capable stomachs. Lent in his quarter and time was even but a quarrel betwixt starving and drunkenness. It will be nothing tedious, if I yet repeat his own words, {αβγδ}. Compare the evening of this day with to morrows work. In one you may see the city like a ship riding in a faire quiet harbour, after a storm at Sea: again, {αβγδ}. See the countenance of men to day; see the same to morrow. Now they are swelled, springing forth a due of faint sweat; their eyes are most, prominent, almost deprived of sight with a cloud of indigested humours rising from their drowned stomacks. To morrow you shall see all countenances more composed, grave, of natural colour, promising, considerate, of quick apprehension, having within nothing offensive to trouble or darken the sight and powers of the soul. Such is the business of Lent, of faint authority, of foul practise. And what shall wee then say? I must first say that I haue not much belief in the many panegyrics of Lent which I find in ancient and modern writers. If they be not excessive, hear first and then judge as you please.  
In many Countreyes they haue close rooms heated with ovens to make men sweat out all the filth of their bodies. They bee in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Rusland, Turkey, and barbary. They are called Bath-Stoues, bagni, bagnari. To them the married rise from their beds to wash of the night; to them the quarreler goes to refresh the weariness of his limbs, the sick man for cure, and they that are well for prevention of diseases, and peradventure with some reference to this, they be the words of St. Chrysost. in his first Lent-Homely, on Genesis, {αβγδ}, like a loving father God the universal father of all families, he hath appointed the physic of this Fast, {αβγδ}, the cure and remedy of Lent, {αβγδ}, by it as in a Bathstoue to purge and wash of all the spongy uncleanness of those sins which in the whole course of the year before wee haue gathered about our souls, and bodies. Wherefore Saint basil also tells his auditory, that in all Churches God hath appointed Angels to writ up the number of so many heads as by their leanness and paleness of fasting may seem to yield themselves his patients.  
These and many such like are the persuasions concerning Lent in ancient times, and in ours there be also many who imagine no less. Let one speak for all. And verily, saith he, I haue sundry times had this cogitation in italy, that in great looseness of life and decay of discipline in those parts, it was the special great mercy and grace of God, that the severity of Lent should bee still preserved, lest otherwise the floods of sin growing so headstrong and out ragious, and having no where either bound, or bank to restrain them, might plunge that whole nation into such a gulf of wickedness, and bring them to the last extremity, which should leave neither hope for better, nor place for worse; yea, and I was so far from thinking the institution of Lent superfluous, that I rather inclined to like the custom of the greek Church, who haue beside their great Lent, three other Lents, every year. But instead of such persuasions and ecstatical eulogies of Lent, I must say, Non tantì emam poenitere. The repentance of Lent is not worth the looseness of the Carnouall, and the superstition of itself in any papistical territory; and I must rather say and beleeue with Cassianus and Socrates, {αβγδ}. That the use and precept of Lent is not so high as the age of Christ or his Apostles, and that a country frugal manner of life and diet doth more piously and innocently prepare Christians for the holy Sacrament of Easter, then any papal monastical Italian sadness, as wee may red at large in an Epistle of Budaeus to Germanus Brixius.  
Yet let no man mistake an error from me, who am rather a Scepticke in the greatest part of divinity, I prescribe no new laws to any Common-wealth. Those who please to retain Lent, let them retain it still in Gods name unto the end for which it may seem in elder times to haue been first ordained, to prepare men through sobriety abstinence, and prayer, for the great mystery and solemnity of Christs passion. I hear the voice of the Apostle. What art thou that judgest another mans seruant? unusquisque in sensu suo abundet. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. If any Common-wealth for their own good, with mature advice and order, shall, or haue thought fit to circumcise the number of forty dayes, or abrogate other manners of Lent.  
I hear again the Apostle {αβγδ}. Let no man therefore judge you in meate or drink. peradventure reason would bid me say with Erasmus, Cornarius, and Fuchsius that herrings and water are not healthy in the spring season, and that if Wednesday and Friday, or Friday and Saturday, which are many differences betwixt the greek and latin Church were more strictly observed for fast, the great Fast of Lent might bee of less necessity, although the due observance of that and Easter, according to the very time not rightly ordered be in the phantasy of Oswaldus S●brickenfuchsius the main cause of all the miseries and ca●amities of the Christian world. But heedless of these and the like censures, let people in all places frame themselves so nearly as they can in all Countreys unto obedience of those who sit in the chair of the Church. Non placet ab istis stare, saith Erasmus; I will never range myself in their opposite side; who scorn all Cannons and Constitutions of the Church, Ob hoc ipsum multa faciunt quia praeceptum est ne faciant. Many such crooked people there bee, who haue an envious spite against all order, and from every honest institution learn onely to make a new sin of rebellious obstinacy. As Tacitus speaks of the Iewes' novos citus contrariosque cateris mortalibus, They haue ever new rites and ceremonies of their own contrary to ours, Prophana illis omnia quae apud nos sacra. They stubborn●ly profane all things that order and discipline does any where keep holy. 'tis useful for us of Great britain venerari caniciem Quadragesimae, to reverence the gray hairs of Lent in her antiquity, and by that means preserve a greater store of young cattle for a more large supply of the following year, With us the abuses are not great, the superstition and deadly conscience is abated. And 'tis no impossibility for willing men to eat fish and butter, and eggs, and white-meats, and bacon in six weekes of the spring, and yet sufficiently maintain our health in a frugal and sparing diet. Man lives not by bread onely. I may add not by flesh onely to speak right in imitation of the evangelist, but by the power& efficacy of God in all his creatures. There bee many nations who feed not so well, they haue no flesh but fish for meate, and dried fish for bread, and horse-flesh without bread; and yet they live in health. And if length of yeeres be a blessing; they live as aged as we and go as lusty into their graues the period of all feeding, the resort of any diet by whatsoever, which is not always of the same delight and Estimation, As divinus hath admonished us in his book of the roman fishes; whereas, saith he, the old roman luxury sought all creeks, and banks, and coves of the sea, with their hooks and nets, to furnish their Tables with fish. Nos vero contra, our luxury is grown so different of taste, as if Law did not restrain appetite wee would feed willingly on nothing but Capons, and Pheasants, and partridge, after a foundation of beenes and ●●uttons. Tantum abest, Wee are so far from a lust of fish, vt quadragenis illis verni jeiunij diebus, neque deorum metu neque infamia permoti, aliquando ad vorandas carnes detestanda cupiditate rapiamur. That in the 40. dayes of Spring fast, without all fear of God or men. We are often carried away with a detestable lust of denouring flesh.  
It pleases the Bishop to speak as horribly of eating a little flesh in Lent, as Lerius could not, and does not more, nor any American history in description of brasil or Caribana, in their inhabitants feasting and grawing lusciously vpon the halfe-broyl'd arms and legs and paunches of their captive enemies. We are not so fierce of conscience in such matters as divinus and the Roman Consistory. Onely let us be modest and civil in our custom of Lent. Let us labour to correct our stomacks, if the body will not otherwise reign gently. Equo ferocienti subtrahendum est paululum, saith St. jerome. The wild unquiet horse must haue less provender. And let us bless God that we are born and bread in a Land, where 'tis not equal danger to open an egg and murder a man. For the one, there is Sanctuary amongst them, and many villainous cowards enjoy the privilege in spain and Italy.  
But I wonder much if a profane Lent Egge-eater, should not bee haled from any relief either of Altar or monastery. Nay, the Inquisition will persecute such crimes if they bee able, even after death on the very ghosts and spirits of the offenders. Quid igitur quòd audimus parochos nostros. Erasmus is a wise butcher in his own Dialogue. Why then, faith he, do wee hear our Parish-Vicars cry loud from their pews, Cras ieiunandum sub poenae aeternae damnationis, To morrow the Church bids a fast under pain of eternal damnation.  
I will now quickly conclude. If wee eat, let us eat so as wee neither oppress nor drown all virtue in our bodies with gluttony and drunkenness. If wee fast, let us so fast that wee do not pine and starve our virtue which requires an able and an active body. While monks, and Anchorites, and Eremites and the divell in a Iesuite, do boast perversely of a mortifying Lent, of whipping themselves, of looking fiercely like Basilisks, of kissing the earth thrice a day, of howling, of sighing, of beating their breasts, of going barefoot, of going ragged, of lying like dogges under benches and tables, and licking their meate out of the dust, of feigning dumnesse, deafness, blindness, of worms and nastiness in their teeth with fasting, let us live and be sober: for 'tis easier saith St. basil to persuade fast then sobriety, and they bee the safe words of the Apostle. The kingdom of God is not meate and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and ioy in the holy Ghost; and again, {αβγδ}, an ascheticall bringing of the body under with fast, {αβγδ}, 'tis a little available, {αβγδ}, but true piety, true Religion, which, as St. james would expound it, consists in comforting the afflictions of widows and orphans in cleannesse and innocency of life, {αβγδ}, 'tis an universal good, {αβγδ}, It hath promise both of this world,& the world to come. If it be Gods good pleasure here on earth, to begin his mercies unto us in health and fortune of this world, 'tis happy to haue the fruition of both; yet the ●ast will bee enough reward.  
Wee shall in the harbour of that world, quickly forget all the travails, and storms, and gusts and miseries of this poor mortality, which hoyses up fools, and makes wise men mad with an ouer-pressure of affliction, {αβγδ}, saith Epiphanius. And then the grossness of our bodies, which now must bee so often repaired with meat, shal be turned into a substance as passing and nimble as the soul; without surfet, without starving, as the Angels which are in heaven incorruptible, unchangeable, blessed for all eternity. And then I shall want no art of memory. This life God grant us all. Amen.  
FINIS.