A potacio[n] or dry[n]king for this holy time of le[n]t very co[m]fortable for all…A potacio[n] or dri[n]kynge for this holi time of le[n]t very co[m]fortable for all…

TO tarry long in the enco my & praise of fasting, as it were but a vain thing so doth not the scarceness of time suffer it. Howe can it any otherwise than be a thing of high excellency & much virtue, seeing that God himself was the first ⟨image 43⟩institutor & Author of it, prescribing ¹it unto our prime parent Adam in Paradise, which if he had observed, none of us all had fallen from that joyful state into this cala mitouse misery. Did not Moses fast forty days, that he might be ²made worthy to receive y• Tables of the law? Did not the people of Israel many times fast when they had displeased God, to recover and win again his favour, and at divers other times? Did not Hell as also fast. xl. days? Did not Jehoshaphat ³command a solō fast to his people, Did not queen Esther with certain ⁴other Jews fast three days & three nights, when there was a command meant given to destroy all the Jews? Did not the king of the Ninevites, when Jonah threatened ⁵them subversion, command both man & beast, & all that ever dwelt in the City to fast? Did not Dani ⟨image 43⟩⁶ell many times fast, and neither ⁷eat nor drink? Did not Esdras so likewise? As I may pass over many of the old Testament, did not Christ the Son of God in the new law fast forty days & forty nights? Did not John Baptiste give himself to much & continual fasting? Did not the Apostles after Christs Affensiō fast? Is there not a certain kind of devils, which is not cast out but by prayer ⁸