[5]. Hier. contra Luciferian.
[6]. Act. viii. 15-17.
[7]. Cyp. ep. 70. & de oper. card. & unct. Chris.
[8]. Optat. Milev. contra Parm. l. 2.
[9]. Cyril. Catech. mystag. 3.
Confirmation not a
Sacrament.
The Roman Catholics, finding this Ceremony, now known by the Name of Confirmation, styled a Sacrament by St. Cyprian[[1458]], and St. Austin[[1459]], have thereupon raised it to that Rank, not reflecting that the antient Writers frequently make use of that Word to express no more than a sacred Ceremony, or Mystery. And truly were they to reckon among their Sacraments all the Ceremonies which the Fathers and other Christian Writers have distinguished with that Title, their Number would amount to Seventy rather than to Seven.
Why deemed formerly
unlawful to fast on
Sunday or Saturday.
With respect to the other Point, those who are ever so little versed in the Writings of the Fathers, must know, that from the earliest Times it was deemed unlawful, nay, and highly criminal, for a Christian to fast on Sunday or Saturday; on Sunday, because those Heretics, who denied the Resurrection of our Saviour, fasted on that Day, in Opposition to the Orthodox, who, believing it, solemnized the Sunday, the Day on which it happened, with Feasting and Rejoicings; on Saturday, because other Heretics holding the God of the Jews, and the Author of their Law, to be an evil Spirit, whom Christ came to destroy, fasted on the Seventh Day, thinking that by fasting they vilified the God of the Jews as much as the Jews honoured him by feasting[[1460]]. Among the antient Canons, known by the Name of the Apostolic Constitutions, we read the following Ordinance: If a Clerk shall be found to have fasted on a Sunday or a Saturday, let him be deposed; if a Layman, let him be cut off from the Communion of the Faithful[[1461]]. But that Canon must be understood only with respect to the East; for there was broached, and there chiefly prevailed, the Heresy that first introduced such a Practice. But in the West, where that Heresy was scarce known, some Churches, and the Roman in particular, observed both Fridays and Saturdays as Fast-days. |Friday from the
earliest Times a
Fast-day.| The Friday was, from the earliest Times, a Fast-day with all Churches, both in the East and the West; the Saturday was only in the West, and even there with very few Churches, which had borrowed that Custom of the Roman Church, as we are informed by St. Austin[[1462]]. Innocent therefore, desirous of establishing in all other Churches the Custom that obtained in his own, undertakes to prove, first, That all may, and, secondly, That all ought to observe Saturday as a Fast. |Saturday a Fast-day
in the Roman
Church.| That all may, he proves well enough; but the Reasons he offers to shew that they all ought, viz. Because Christ lay in the Sepulchre the Saturday as well as the Friday, and the Apostles fasted, as he supposes, on both Days, are manifestly unconclusive as to any Obligation. Besides, it was not because Christ lay in the Sepulchre, or because the Apostles fasted, but because Christ was crucified on a Friday, that a Fast was appointed to be observed on that Day. In Process of Time, the Custom of sanctifying both Days with a Fast took place in most of the Western Churches; and this Custom has been made in latter times a general Law, and one of the Commandments of the Church, which all Roman Catholics are bound to obey on Pain of Damnation. However, the Severity of it is so far relaxed, that, as they are only required to abstain from Meat, the utmost Riot and Epicurism in other Kinds of Food, and in Wine, may be, and are indulged on their Fast-days.