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 expressed, am I or any Christian bound to counterfeit Christ's actions as the ape counterfeits the act or work of man? He himself requires no such obedience of his true followers, but saith to the apostles, "Go and preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, commanding them to observe and keep all that I have commanded you."

But where the papists are so diligent in establishing their dreams and fantasies, they lose the profit that here is to be gathered—that is, why Christ fasted those forty days; which were a doctrine more necessary for Christians that to corrupt the simple hearts with superstition, as tho the wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, had taught us no other mystery by His fasting that 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 causes 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