§7Processimus itaque iam ad exempla, uti reuoluamus utilitatis efficacia potestates istius officii, quod etiam iratum deum homini reconciliat.
We have thus proceeded now to examples, so that we may review the efficacy of utility and the powers of this office, which reconciles even an angry God to man.
deliquerat Israel in aquatione apud Maspha congregatus a Samuele, sed ita statim delictum ieiunio diluit, ut periculum proelii simul fugerit.
Israel had sinned in the matter of the water when gathered at Mizpah by Samuel, but so immediately washed away the sin by a fast that they escaped the danger of battle at the same time.
cum maxime Samuel offerebat holocaustum (in nullo magis procuratam audimus dei clementiam quam in abstinentia populi) et allophyli proelio admouebant, ibidem dominus intonuit uoce magna super allophylos, et confusi sunt et corruerunt in conspectu Israelis, et processerunt uiri Israel ex Maspha et persecuti sunt allophylos et usque Bethor ceciderunt, pastos impasti, armatos inermes.
While Samuel was especially offering the holocaust (we hear of God's clemency being procured in nothing more than in the abstinence of the people) and the foreigners (Philistines) were moving to battle, on that very spot the Lord thundered with a great voice over the foreigners, and they were thrown into confusion and fell in the presence of Israel; and the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the foreigners and struck them down as far as Bethor—the unfed striking down the fed, the unarmed the armed.
hae erunt uires ieiunantium deo. caelum pro eiusmodi militat.
This will be the strength of those who fast for God; heaven fights for such as these.
habes formam praesidii etiam spiritalibus bellis necessariam.
You have the form of protection necessary even for spiritual wars.
perinde cum rex Assyriorum Sennacherib compluribus iam ciuitatibus captis Israeli per Rapsacen blasphemias et minas intentaret, nihil aliud illum a proposito in Aethiopias auertit.
Likewise, when the king of the Assyrians, Sennacherib, having already captured many cities, was directing blasphemies and threats against Israel through Rabshakeh, nothing else turned him from his purpose toward Ethiopia.
dehinc quid aliud centum et octoginta quatuor milia de exercitu eius per angelum absumpsit quam Ezechiae regis humiliatio? siquidem duritia hostis adnuntiata uestem scidit, saccum induit eodemque habitu seniores sacerdotum ad deum per Esaiam adire iussit utique ieiunio preces prosequente.
Furthermore, what else destroyed one hundred and eighty-four thousand from his army by an angel than the humiliation of King Hezekiah? Indeed, when the hardness of the enemy was announced, he rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, and in the same habit commanded the elders of the priests to go to God through Isaiah, with a fast certainly accompanying the prayers.
neque enim cibi tempus in periculo nec saturitatis cultus in sacco.
For there is neither time for food in danger, nor the practice of satiety in sackcloth.
semper inedia maeroris sequela est sicut laetitia accessio saginae.
Hunger is always the sequel of sorrow, just as joy is the addition to fattening.
per hanc maeroris sequelam et inediam etiam ciuitas illa peccatrix Niniue de exitio praedicato liberatur.
By this sequel of sorrow and hunger even that sinful city Nineveh was freed from the predicted destruction.
satis enim paenitentia scelerum commendauerat ieiunium triduo functam, etiam pecudibus enectis, quibus iratus deus non erat.
For repentance of crimes had sufficiently commended the fast performed for three days, even to the killing of the beasts (by hunger), with which God was not angry.
Sodoma quoque et Gomorra euasissent, si ieiunassent.
Sodom and Gomorrah too would have escaped, if they had fasted.
hoc remedium agnoscit et Achab.
This remedy Ahab also recognizes.
cum illi post transgressionem et idololatriam et necem Nabuthae propter uineam interempti a Iezabel exprobrasset Helias: qualiter occidisti et hereditatem possedisti: in loco quo sanguinem Nabuthae canes delinxerant, tuum quoque delinguent, destituit semetipsum et saccum carni suae imposuit et ieiunauit et dormiuit in sacco.
When, after his transgression and idolatry and the murder of Naboth killed because of the vineyard by Jezebel, Elijah reproached him: "How hast thou killed and possessed the inheritance? In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, they shall lick thine also," he cast down himself, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth.
et tunc sermo domini ad Heliam: uidisti ut reueritus sit Achab a facie mea: pro eo, quod reueritus est, non superducam laesuram in diebus ipsius, sed in diebus filii eius superducam eam, qui non erat ieiunaturus.
And then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Seest thou how Ahab hath humbled himself before my face? Because he hath humbled himself, I will not bring the evil in his own days, but in the days of his son I will bring it," who was not going to fast.
ita ieiunium in deum reuerentiae opus est, per quod Anna quoque ambiens uxor Helcanae retro sterilis impetrauit facile a deo inanem cibo uentrem filio implere et quidem propheta.
Thus fasting is a work of reverence toward God, through which Hannah also, the wife of Elkanah, formerly sterile, easily obtained from God to fill her belly, empty of food, with a son, and indeed a prophet.
sed non modo naturae mutationem aut periculorum auersionem aut delictorum obliterationem, uerum etiam sacramentorum agnitionem ieiunia de deo merebuntur.
But not only the change of nature, or the aversion of dangers, or the obliteration of sins, but even the recognition of mysteries (sacraments) fasts will deserve from God.
aspice Danielis exemplum.
Look at the example of Daniel.
circa somnium regis Babylonis omnes turbantur sophistae, negant ultra de praestantia humana posse cognosci.
Concerning the dream of the king of Babylon, all the sophists are troubled, denying that anything further can be known beyond human excellence.
solus Daniel deo fidens et sciens, quid ad demerendam dei gratiam faceret, spatium tridui postulat, cum sua fraternitate ieiunat, atque ita orationibus commendatis et ordinem et significationem somnii per omnia instruitur, tyranni sophistis parcitur, deus glorificatur, Daniel honoratur, non minorem dei gratiam et postea quoque relaturus anno primo regis Darii, cum ex recogitatu praedicatorum temporum ab Hieremia dedit faciem suam deo in ieiuniis et sacco et cinere.
Daniel alone, trusting in God and knowing what he should do to deserve God's favor, demands a space of three days, fasts with his brotherhood, and thus, with prayers commended, is instructed in both the order and the meaning of the dream in all things; the sophists of the tyrant are spared, God is glorified, Daniel is honored—he who was to receive no less favor of God also afterwards, in the first year of King Darius, when from the recollection of the times predicted by Jeremiah he gave his face to God in fasts and sackcloth and ashes.
nam et angelus missus ad eum hanc statim professus est causam diuinae dignationis: ueni, inquit, demonstrare tibi, quatenus miserabilis es, ieiunando scilicet.
For even the angel sent to him immediately professed this cause of divine favor: "I have come," he said, "to show you how far you are pitiable," namely, by fasting.
si deo miserabilis, leonibus in lacu fuerat horribilis, ubi quidem illi sex diebus ieiunanti prandium angelus procurauit.
If pitiable to God, he had been horrible to the lions in the den, where indeed an angel provided lunch for him when he had been fasting for six days.
§8Reddimus et cetera.
We return the rest also.
ad noua enim nunc documenta properamus.
For we are now hastening to new proofs.
in limine euangelii Anna prophetis, filia Phanuelis, quae infantem dominum et agnouit et multa super eo praedicauit expectantibus redemptionem Israelis, post egregium titulum ueteris et uniuirae uiduitatis ieiuniorum quoque testimonio augetur, ostendens, in quibus officiis adsideri ecclesiae debeat, et a nullis magis intellegi Christum quam semel nuptis et saepe ieiunis.
In the threshold of the Gospel, Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel—who both recognized the infant Lord and preached many things concerning Him to those who were waiting for the redemption of Israel—after the illustrious title of old and once-married widowhood, is enhanced also by the testimony of fasts, showing in what offices she should attend the church, and that Christ is understood by none more than by those once married and often fasting.
ipse mox dominus baptisma suum, et in suo omnium, ieiuniis dedicauit habens efficere panes ex lapidibus, etiam Iordanem uino fortasse manare, si ita uorator et potator fuisset.
The Lord Himself soon dedicated His own baptism, and in His own that of all, with fasts, having the power to make bread from stones, or perhaps even Jordan to flow with wine, if He had been a glutton and a wine-drinker.
immo nouum hominem in ueteris sugillationem uirtute fastidiendi cibi initiabat, ut eum diabolo rursus per escam temptare quaerenti fortiorem fame tota ostentaret.
On the contrary, He initiated the new man to the beating down of the old by the virtue of turning away from food, so that He might display him to the devil, seeking again to tempt him through food, stronger than all hunger.
prae- - stituit exinde ieiuniis legem sine tristitia transigendis.
He prescribed thereafter a law for fasts to be transacted without sadness.
cur enim triste, quod salutare? docuit etiam aduersus diriora daemonia ieiuniis proeliandum.
For why should that be sad which is salutary? He taught also that one must fight against more cruel demons with fasts.
quid enim mirum, si eadem operatione spiritus iniquus educitur, qua sanctus inducitur? denique, ut in centurionem Cornelium necdum tinctum dignatio spiritus sancti cum charismate insuper prophetiae festinasset, ieiunia eius legimus exaudita.
For what wonder is it if, by the same operation, the iniquus spirit is cast out by which the Holy Spirit is brought in? Finally, so that upon the centurion Cornelius, not yet baptized, the favor of the Holy Spirit with the gift of prophecy in addition might hasten, we read that his fasts were heard.
puto autem et apostolus in secunda Corinthiorum inter labores suos et pericula et incommoda post famem ac sitim ieiunia quoque plurima enumerat.
Moreover, I think that the apostle also, in the Second to the Corinthians, among his labors and dangers and inconveniences, after hunger and thirst, enumerates also very many fasts.