st Jesus, had taught us no other mystery by His fasting than the
abstinence from flesh, or once on the day to eat flesh, for the space of
forty days. God hath taken a just vengeance upon the pride of such men,
while He thus confounds the wisdom of those that do most glory in
wisdom, and strikes with blindness such as will be guides and lanterns
to the feet of others, and yet refuse themselves to hear or follow the
light of God's word. From such deliver thy poor flock, O Lord!

The uses of Christ's fasting these forty days I find chiefly to be two:
The first, to witness to the world the dignity and excellence of His
vocation, which Christ, after His baptism, was to take upon Him openly;
the other, to declare that he entered into battle willingly for our
cause, and does, as it were, provoke his adversary to assault Him: altho
Christ Jesus, in the eternal counsel of His Father, was appointed to be
the Prince of Peace, the angel (that is, the messenger) of His
testament, and He alone that could fight our battles for us, yet He did
not enter in execution of it, in the sight of men, till He was commended
to mankind by the voice of His heavenly Father; and as He was placed and
anointed by the Holy Ghost by a visible sign given to the eyes of men.
After which time He was led to the desert, and fasted, as before is
said; and this He did to teach us with what fear, carefulness, and
reverence the messengers of the Word ought to enter on their vocation,
which is not only most excellent (for who is worthy to be God's
ambassador?) but also subject to most extreme troubles and dangers. For
he that is appointed pastor, watchman, or preacher, if he feed not with
his whole power, if he warn and admonish not when he sees the snare
come, and if, in doctrine, he divide not the Word righteously, the blood
and souls of those that perish for lack of food, admonition, and
doctrine shall be required of his hand.

But to our purpose; that Christ exceeded not the space of forty days in
His fasting, He did it to the imitation of Moses and Elias; of whom, the
one before the receiving of the law, and the other before the
communication and reasoning which he had with God in Mount Horeb, in
which He was commanded to anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king
over Israel, and Elisha to be prophet, fasted the same number of days.
The events that ensued and followed this supernatural fasting of these
two servants of God, Moses and Elias, impaired and di