A confession of faith made by common consent of divers reformed churches beyond the…A confession of fayth made by common consent of diuers reformed churches beyonde the…

The more sharply the Church of Christ reprehendeth gluttony, drunkenness, ¹lasciviousness, and all intemperance, the more earnestly it commendeth christian fasting: For fasting ²is nothing else but an abstinence, and temperance of the godly, with chastening of our flesh, as present necessity requireth, whereby we humble our selves before God, and withdraw ⟨image 130⟩from the flesh her nourishments: that it may easelier and wittynglier, obey the spirit. Wherefore they fast ³not, who have no regard of these things, but think they fast, if but once a day they fill their belly, and for a certain prescript time, abstain from certain meats, thinking for this works sake, they please God, and do a good deed. Fasting is the aide and help to all godly men, to pray the feruentlier, and to live the vertuouslier. That fast pleased not God (as we ⁴may read in the Books of the Prophets) wherein the Jews fasted from meat, and not from their wickedness. There is a Public, & a Private fast. Our forefathers kept in time paste, ⁵Public fasts, in lamentable times, and when the Church was afflicted. They abstained altogether from meat until evening, spending the time in the mean season, in holy prayer, and worshipping of GOD, and in repenting for their since. This did little differ from mourning. Often mention is made hereof in the Prophets, specially ⟨p. 85⟩in the second of Joel: Such a fast ought to be kept, even in these our days, the Church being in so great danger. Private fasts are observed of each man, as every man feeleth the ⁶virtue of God his spirit, to be plucked from him: For so long he abstaineth from the nourishment of the flesh, as he perceiveth God his spirit to be withdrawn from him.