Christian Prayer and Fasting

He that undertakes to enumerate the benefits of fasting may, in the next page, also reckon all the benefits of physic, for fasting is not to be commended as a duty, but as an instrument; and in that sense no man can reprove it, or undervalue it, but he that knows neither spiritual arts nor […]

15. Let not intemperance be the prologue or the epilogue to your fast, lest the fast be so far from taking off anything of the sin, that it be an occasion to increase it; and, therefore, when the fast is done, be careful that no supervening act of gluttony or excessive drinking unhallow the religion […]

14. All fasting is to be used with prudence and charity; for there is no end to which fasting serves but may be obtained by other instruments; and, therefore, it must at no hand be made an instrument of scruple; or become an enemy to our health; or be imposed upon persons that are sick […]

13. When the fast publicly commanded by reason of some indisposition in the particular person cannot operate to the end of the commandment, yet the avoiding offence, and the complying with public order, is reason enough to make the obedience to be necessary. For he that is otherwise disobliged, as when the reason of the […]

12. When the principal end why a fast is publicly prescribed is obtain by some other instrument, in a particular person — as if the spirit of fornication be cured by the rite of marriage, or by a gift of chastity — yet that person so eased is not freed from the fasts of the […]