Christian Prayer and Fasting

7. When fasting is an act of mortification, that is, is intended to subdue a bodily lust, as the spirit of fornication, or the fondness of strong and impatient appetites, it must not be a sudden, sharp, and violent fast, but a state of fasting, a diet of fasting, a daily lessening our portion of meat and drink, and a choosing such a course diet, which may make the least preparation for the lusts of the body. He that fasts three days without food will weaken other parts more than the ministers of fornication; and when the meals return as usually, they also will be served as soon as any. In the meantime, they will be supplied and made active by the accidental heat that comes with such violent fastings: for this is a kind of aerial devil the prince that rules in the air is the devil of fornication; and he will be as tempting with the windiness of a violent fast as with the flesh of an ordinary meal. But a daily subtraction of the nourishment will introduce a less busy habit of body; and that will prove the more effectual remedy.

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