will save Sion, and build the cities of Judah.-The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it; and they, that love his name, shall dwell therein*. Their children shall continue, and their seed be established before himt.

*Psalm Ixix. 36, 37.

+ Psalm cii. 28.

SERMON XIV.

MATTH. VI. 16.

Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites.

THE practice of fasting from a principle of religion has been thought of by different persons in so very different a manner; some placing it amongst the highest duties, whilst others account it mere superstition and a great part of those, who observe it the most rigidly, are so little improved by it in true goodness: that, I hope, discoursing on this subject may be useful in general, as well as particularly seasonable at present, to direct your judgment and behaviour in relation to it. And therefore, I have chosen to treat of it from words of the greatest authority; those of our blessed Saviour: which contain,

I. A supposition, that religious fasting would be used amongst his followers: When ye fast.

II. A caution against using it amiss: Be not as the hypocrites.

I. A supposition, that religious fasting would be used amongst his followers: which indeed he must suppose of course, unless he forbad it; because the custom had very long been, and was then, universal in the world. Not only the people of the great city and empire of Nineveh, as we read in Scripture, but the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, almost all nations, of whose religion we have any particular accounts, appear to have been led, either by nature or ancient

tradition, to abstain from their food, on certain occasions, as an exercise of piety. The Jewish law could not be the original of an observance, that had spread so wide: especially, as that law appoints but one single day in the whole year to be kept as a public fast, and gives no orders for private fasting at all. Yet we find, from the early times of their commonwealth downwards, many other public facts observed by them, as exigencies required: we find the Prophets approving and enjoining them, and directing how they are to be solemnized: we find the most exemplary in goodness amongst them taking this way of humbling themselves before God in secret, not only on personal and domestic, but national accounts, and graciously accepted in so doing.

The same usage continued to our Saviour's days. For we read in St. Luke*, of Anna the Prophetess, that she served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Indeed by this time, over and above several yearly fasts, appointed by authority +, the stricter sort observed two every week voluntarily. And not only the Pharisees, but John's disciples also, fasted often§. Nor doth our blessed Lord condemn any part of these things: but, leaving the frequency of fasting to public and private prudence, regulates only the manner of it; and by so doing, plainly treats it as a practice intended for perpetual use. It is true, he doth not, in so many words, command his disciples to fast: he only saith, When ye fast. But so he had said just before, when thou dost thine alms||, when thou prayest¶. Yet these are certainly duties of Christianity. And had he not designed, that fasting should be considered in some degree as a

*Luke ii. 37.
§ Matth. ix. 14.

Zacch. viii. 19. || Verse 2.

Luke xviii. 12. ¶ Verse 6.

duty also; he would never have promised a reward to the right performance of it, as he doth in the next verse, but one, after the text. And besides, he not only fasted himself, in a manner quite beyond our imitation, but declared, that though then his disciples did not fast, yet after he was taken from them, they should*: which they verified accordingly. Cornelius indeed was not yet a Christian, when he fasted to the ninth hour + but that was amongst the means of his becoming one. We read in the following chapters of the Acts, that congregations, under the guidance of Prophets and Apostles, fasted on more occasions than one. St. Paul enjoins private persons to give themselves at times to fasting and prayer §. The whole Christian church, from the beginning, hath both esteemed and practised it not a little: and to this day both the ecclesiastical and civil powers continue to prescribe it.

If then we have any regard to the example and experience of good persons, to the injunctions and commands of our earthly superiors, or to the authority of Scripture itself; we cannot think fasting an observance to be either blamed or slighted. But for yet fuller satisfaction, and indeed for our direction also, let us inquire more particularly, what its meaning and uses are.

One very useful meaning is, to express our sorrow for having offended God, and our sense of not deserving the least of his favours. By some it hath been thought, that our first parents introduced it, as a penitential memorial of their eating the forbidden fruit: which indeed it might very properly express. But without insisting on this, for which we have no Matt. ix. 15. + Acts x. 30. § 1 Cor. vii. 5.

↑ Acts xiii. 2, 3. xiv. 23.

warrant, abstaining for some time from our daily food signifies, most naturally, that we are unworthy of it; and can take no comfort in it, whilst we are under the divine displeasure. And as anciently, every thing of importance was denoted, especially in the Eastern countries, by actions as well as words; this was probably the original purpose, for which men used fasting. And it was then sometimes extended to children, and cattle; in token, that the parents and owners of them had forfeited the dearest blessings, and most valuable conveniences of life*. It is true, a proper confession in words would have expressed the same thing, that this ceremony doth, and somewhat more clearly, unless it were explained by words. But in all likelihood it usually was: or if not, the difficulty of understanding it cannot be accounted great. And where it is appointed by authority, or prevails by custom, as the established method of signifying humiliation, we are as much bound to comply with it, as with any other appointment or custom; and should be as justly thought disobedient or unsociable, if we refused: even though it had no peculiar advantages to compensate for its being of less obvious meaning: whereas indeed it hath considerable ones. For words alone are far from carrying with them that energy and influence upon the mind, which the superadded solemnity of such an abstinence must, even in private cases; and much more, when whole assemblies, and cities, and countries, join in it. But above all, when either persons or nations have been remarkably wicked, such moving and afflicting acknowledgments of it are singularly adapted to produce more powerful and lasting impressions on those, who make use of them; and by * Joel ii. 16. Jonah iii. 7, 8. Judith iv. 10.