An account of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persuasions appointedAn accompt of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persvvasions appointed

[In Evangelicis & Apostolicis literis, totoque Instrumento quod appellatur Testamentum Novum, animo id revolvens video preceptum esse jejunium: quibus, autem die•us non oportet jejunare, & quibus oport•at, precepto Domini vel Apostolorum non invenio definitum.] And that Christians abstinence in Lent was voluntary [quanto magis quisque vel minus voluerit, vel potuerit,] August. affirmeth, cont. Faustum Manich. lib. 30. cap. 5. And Socrat. ubi supr. saith, [ac quoniam nemo de care praeceptum literarum monumentis proditum potest ostendere, perspicuum est Apostolos liberam potestatem in eadem cujusque many, ac arbitrio permisisse: ut quisque nec metu, nec necessitate inductus ⟨p. 37⟩quod bonum sit ageret.] And Prosper de vit. Contempl. li. 2. C. 24. veruntamen sic jejunare, vel abstinere debemus, ut nos non jejunandi, vel destinendi necessitate subdamus, ne jam devoti, sed inviti, rem voluntariam faciamus.] And Cassianus, lib. 2. col. 21. cap. 30. saith, [In primitiva Ecclesia equal fuisse jejunium per totum annum: Ac frigescente devotione, cum negligerentur jei•nia inductum Quadrag. à Sacerdotibus. But when you come to describe your Fast, you make amends for the length, by making it indeed no Fast; [To abstain from meats and drinks of delight:] where neither the thing nor the delight is profitable to further us in our duty to God, is that which we take to be the duty of every Christian all the year, as being a part of our mortification, and self-denial, who are commanded to crucify the flesh, and to make no provision to satisfy the lusts of it, and to subdue our bodies: but when those meats and drinks do more help then hinder us in the service of God, we take it to be our duty to use them, unless when some other accident forbids it, that would make it otherwise more hurtful. And for fasting till Noon, we suppose it is the ordinary way of diet to multitudes of Sedentary persons, both Students, and Trades-men, that find one meal a day sufficient for nature: If you call this fasting, your poor Brethren fast all their life time, and never knew that it was fasting; But to command hard Labourers to do so, is but to make it a fault to have health, or to do their necessary work. We beseech you bring not the Clergy under the suspicion of Gluttony, by calling our ordinary wholesome temperance by the name of fasting. Sure Princes may feed as fully and delightfully as we;