CHAPTER XXIII. Bishop Andrewes on Repentance and Fasting-Andrewes and Neile on the King's Prerogative-Meric Casaubon-The Death of King James-Moderation of Andrewes-Fast Service-Richard Montagu -Death of Andrewes. BISHOP ANDREWES this year (1624) completed his doctrine of repentance in his Ash-Wednesday sermon, February 10th. The last five of the eight Ash-Wednesday sermons may be regarded as one treatise. The first of them, from the 2nd chapter of Joel, treats of repentance generally as a turning out of the way of sin to God, a sincere turning with the heart, and, for the manner of it, with fasting. This he commends not only as preventive of sin but as a correction of it, I wept and chastened myself with fasting. For "if in very sorrow we are to fast when the bridegroom is taken away, much more when we ourselves, by our sins committed, have been the cause of his taking, nay, of his very driving away from us. And must we then fast? Indeed we must, or get us a new Epistle for the day, and a new Gospel too." "But how fast? Two kinds of fasting we find in Scripture: 1. David's, who fasted, tasted neither bread nor aught till the sun was down; no meat at all: that is too hard. 2. What say you to Daniel's fast? He did eat and drink, but no meats of delight, and (namely) eat no flesh. The Church as an indulgent mother mitigates all she may; enjoins not for fast that of David, and yet he who can, let him receive 1 Psa. lxix. 10. it for all that. She only requires of us that other of Daniel, to forbear meat of delight (and flesh is there expressly named), meats and drinks provoking the appetite, full of nourishment, kindling the blood. And yet even this also doth the Church release to such as are in Timothy's case, have many infirmities. It is not the decay of nature but the chastisement of sin she seeketh. But this must not be hypocritically taken advantage of. Then weeping, and if we cannot weep, yet mourning is required. Mourning they call the sorrow which reason itself can yield. Complain and bemoan ourselves we can, and desire and pray for some portion of the grace of tears. O that my head were in full of water, and mine eyes fountains of tears. And we can humbly beseech our merciful God and Father, in default of ours, to accept of the strong crying and bitter tears which, the days of his flesh, his blessed Son in great agony shed for us. Our hearts must be rent, contrite, ground as it were to powder, to feel that it is a bitter and an evil thing to have turned away and forsaken the Lord. We must be angry with ourselves, or we are not truly grieved with ourselves. Indignation naturally seeks revenge. We must abhor ourselves for our sins, not from mere earthly principles, but for the manifold indignities offered by our sins to God, to the law of his justice, to the awe of his majesty, to the reverent regard of his presence, to the dread of his power, and to the long-suffering of his love. And let repentance be without delay. Now is the only sure part of our time." Then in the second discourse our prelate establishes the duty of fasting from our Lord's own injunction in the 6th chapter of St. Matthew, and this preceded by the constant practice of the Old Testament saints; the fast of Ai, under Joshua;' at Gibeah, under the Judges; at Mizpah, under Samuel; at Hebron, under David; of Jeremiah, before the Captivity of Daniel under it; of Zachary after it; at Jerusalem, of the Jews at the preaching of Joel, at Nineveh, 1 Josh. vii. 6. 4 2 Sam. iii. 36. ↑ Zach. vii. 5. 2 Jud. xx. 26. 5 Jer. xxxvi. 9. 8 Joel i. 14. 3 2 Sam. iii. 35. of the Gentiles at the preaching of Jonas.' And so the Christians at Antioch, the prophets of the New Testament there, as well as the prophets of the Old. So the rest of Christ's ministers shewed themselves such by this proof of fasting amongst others. And what themselves did, they advised others to do, to give themselves to fasting and prayer. In truth, it accompanied ever all great acts of devotion, whether for the deprecating of evil, or the obtaining of good. The He returns to treat of the time and circumstances. forty days' fast is sanctioned by Moses, Elias, and Christ, and God gave the same number to the people of Nineveh to repent in. We may here consider whether those go not a presumptuous length, who deny anything of an exemplary nature in the fast of our Saviour. As we take less pleasing meats, less luxurious and dainty, so we may diminish the quantity and put off the time. Cornelius fasted to three at noon, Peter to twelve at noon." The third discourse is, as we have seen, against hypocrisy. The fourth and fifth are upon the fruits of repentance. The fruits are works meet for repentance. For spiritual sins let us now bring forth prayer and works of devotion; for fleshly, bodily self-denial; for worldly, alms and works of charity, and compassion. 'For the first Simon Magus went not through with his bargain; did but think the Holy Ghost had been ware for his money, all was but thinking; went no further than the Spirit. St. Peter prescribes him what to do, to fall to prayer; pray, saith he, if it be possible, this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. Prayer serves where it goes no further than thought. 'For the second, the king of Nineveh and his people, they fell to fasting on all hands. What was their sin? Nahum will best tell us that: he wrote the burden of Nineveh. This it was, Because of the fornications of the harlot. For that kind of fleshly sin, that was the proper fruit. 1 Jon. iii. 5. 41 Cor. vii. 5. 2 Acts xiii. 2, 3. 5 Acts x. 9, 13. 3 2 Cor. vi. 5. 'For the third, one example shall be the King of Babylon. He had been a mighty oppressor of his people. There have ye now a worldly sin. Break off thine iniquities with mercy to the poor, is Daniel's prescript to him." These make up the corrective or penal part of repentance. But most certain it is that he denies to the best of our works everything that is strictly of the nature of satisfaction. 'Shall we put them into the balance, to weigh the worthiness of our fruits with the unworthiness of our sins, and the consequent of our sins, the wrath of God? the dignity of the one with the indignity of the other, and think by their dignity to satisfy God's great indignation? I trow not. At this beam. no fruits of ours will hold weight; none so found worthy; no, not if we could, I say not, shed or pour out, but even melt into tears, and every tear a drop of blood. The honour of worthy in this sense belongs to the fruits of no tree but the tree of the cross of Christ; to his sufferings, and to none but his.' To apportion to each his proper works of repentance, that there may be no self-deception, he commends that the minister of God be consulted. So it was of old time. 'In the law every man was not left to himself. The offering for sin, which was to them a fruit of repentance, it was rated ever, ever taxed by the priest. According to his ordering, so it went: he made the estimate, how much was enough, what would serve. And here now in St. John's time-to St. John they come with their What shall we do?—and under the Gospel there we see, for the Corinthian St. Paul said, This much is enough, this shall serve his conscience may be quiet; I restore him to the Church's peace. And the canons penitential which were made in the times under persecution, the very best times of the Church, lay forth plainly what is to be followed and observed in this kind.' He witnesses the general neglect of casuistry of this kind, and laments over it. Truly it is neither the least nor the last part of our learning, to be able to give answer and directions in this point; but therefore laid aside and neglected by us, because not sought after by 1 Sermons, p. 253, 2nd ed. 1631. 2 p. 256, 2nd ed. 1631, and 4th ed. 1641. KK 3 Lerit. v. 18. you; therefore not studied but by very few, because it is grown out of request quite.' He who would faithfully treat both of repentance and the fruits of repentance, may well consult Bishop Andrewes' Manual for the Sick, edited by Dr. Drake in 1685.1 We find a sermon prepared to be preached on March 28th, Easter-day, from the 18th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the benediction toward the end of the chapter. It abounds in pious applications of the text, but embraces too many points to have been easily carried away by the auditory, the greatest perhaps of all the faults of that age of learned and truly able preachers. On May 29th, the day after the proroguing of Parliament, Mr. Waller, "going to see the King at dinner, overheard a very extraordinary conversation between his Majesty and Bishops Andrewes and Neile, who were standing behind the King's chair. His Majesty asked them, 'My lords, cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it, without all this formality in Parliament?' The Bishop of Durham readily answered, 'God forbid, Sir, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils.' Whereupon the King turned and said to Bishop Andrewes, 'Well, my lord, what say you?' Sir,' replied the Bishop, ‘I have no skill to judge of parliamentary cases.' The King answered, 'No put-offs, my lord, answer me presently.' 'Then, Sir,' said he, I think it lawful for you to take my brother Neile's money, for he offers it.' Bishop Andrewes' name frequently occurs upon committees of the Peers in this and occasionally the following year. On February 26th he was on a committee of privileges. On March 1st he had leave to be absent. On March 8th he was on a committee on the observance of the Lord's-day. On March 11th on the Bill respecting recusants made in the third of this reign. On March 12th on a committee to prevent the carrying of gold out of the country by bills of exchange, ‘and, as they conceive, by the Papists.' On March 1 And since by Pickering. 2 Nichols' Progresses of James I., vol. iii. p. 976. Andrewes, Biog. Brit. |