of Chrift's own words, we fee that it is an abfol lute abftinence from both meat and drink, and bodily gratification, for a certain time. The parti-s cular time was very early fixed; fo foon as in the council of Chalcedon, one of the first four general councils of the church. The members of this af fembly confifted of 630 of the ancient fathers; and it was there determined, that the practice was truly godly and apoftolical, when used according to fcrip tural purity. All the vain and worldly abufes of this holy cuftom which had crept into the church, even in those early times, were totally reformed, and it was refolved, that every perfon, as well in private, as a public faft, fhould not be reckoned to keep the faft in purity, unless abftaining from every kind of food till after the hour of evening prayer. Having a law fo pofitive for the use of fafting in the primitive church, nothing further can be required to prove its ufage among Chriftians as well as Jews.

Good works, then, are evidently of various kinds; fome are in the very effence of their nature purely good; fuch as to love God above all things, and to love our neighbour as ourselves to honor our parents; to fubmit to those who are placed in lawful authority over us; to do juftice to all mankind, and the like. Other works there are, which confidered merely in their own particular quality, are of an indifferent nature, neither good nor bad; that is, they can only be properly called good, fo far as they tend to produce good, which is not from any abfolute virtue they poffefs independent of the end they are calculated to accomplish; and, by parity of reasoning, if the end they aim at is evil, they, of course, must be esteemed as evil likewife. Of this kind, intrinfically, is this good work of fasting. In itself it is a matter of indifferent confequence; but becomes profitable, or the contrary, according to the principle that directs it. For example, if we faft with this notion, that our abstinence, or any

other

other good works, have fufficient power to render us perfect and good, and deferving of heaven, this is a falfe and wicked fuppofition; and a faft of this kind is fo far from being acceptable to God, that it feems even to exclude the necessary sense of his mercy, after all we can do, and to lower the effential merits of Chrift's death and fufferings. I cannot afford you a stronger proof of this truth, than by defiring you to attend to the fubject of the following celebrated parable, Luke xviii. 10, 11, 12, 13. Two men (faith our Lord) went up into the temple to pray; the one a pharifee, and the other a publican. The pharifee food and prayed thus with himself God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I faft twice in the week I give tythes of all that I poffefs. And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up fo much as bis eyes to heaven, but fmote upon his breaft, faying, God be merciful to me a finner! Now, in the person of this pharifee, Chrift meant to defcribe to the world, the common notions of a perfectly juft and righteous man, fuch a character as is not ftained with the foul crimes of extortion, injuftice, fraudulent arts, knavery in trade, fornication, adultery, and such grofs vices. The Pharifee, I fay, was a very different character from all this, guilty of no fuch base practices. Nay more, instead of leaving undone many pofitive acts of duty, the neglect of which defervedly ftamped others as tranfgreffors, he did more than the letter of the law required; for he fafted twice in the week, and gave tithes of all that he had. In the eye of the world then, such a perfon as this would have a juft claim to uprightness, for what other outward actions could be expected from him to form the apparent character of righteoufnefs? As mortals we may fafely say none. notwithstanding all this, we find our Holy Savior preferring the poor publican without fafting, before this man with all his frequent and punctual absti¬

But

nence

nence, and other regular performance of the law. And why? The reafon is very clear. It was becaufe this publican had obtained the end of all thefe good works, in which the Pharifee, (notwithftanding all his diligence) was wanting. For first, having no outward good works to boast, he threw himself upon God's mercy, only confeffing his unaworthiness; whereas the Pharifee manifeftly placed the hopes of his falvation to the value of his own works, not acknowledging that after we have done all, we have done no more than is our duty, and that we are at beft but unprofitable fervants* But he thought himfelf fure of mercy in confequence of his fafting and his deeds, as being free acts of his own, that merited God's regard; not confidering the true defcription of man's righteoufnefs, as given by the prophet Ifaiah, Ixiv. 6. and that our moft perfect actions do ftand in need of infinite mercy. And indeed the very title of the parable,

*But here we must be very careful to obferve, that the publican is not juftified for having done no good works, or the pharifee condemned for having performed them. This would be to overfet the whole defign both of the gofpel, and the grace it was ordained to bring with it: But the publican's prayer was preferred, because it contained a confeffion of the consciousness of his neglect, and unworthiness on that account, which was in fact one kind of good work, arifing from the grace of true forrow of heart, and fenfe of fin; whereas the pharifee's prayer was rejected, becaufe he fpoilt all his obedience, by an uncharitable comparison and reflection upon the state of another perfon (I thank thee that I am not as this publican). Because he attributed undue worth to his own power and uprightnefs, Had he prayed thus, (all would have been well:)" Lord I bless thee for the light to fee the neceffity of keeping thy law, and for the power to affift my weak endeavour to obey it; yet I beseech thee, at the fame time that I experience this goodnefs, to pardon the imperfection of my very best works. I thank thee for fuch favor to me, who am by my own nature and difpofition as vile a finner, as the worst that lives: and, O Lord, have equal mercy on this publican here prefent, both to fhew him where he is wrong, and to help him to act fo as to please thee. Convince him that thou requireft righteousness, and that thou only art the author of any good that is in us; fo may he turn from the error of his ways, and give all the praife where it js due,"

con

convinces us that it is exactly agreeable to the cafe in point; for we are told, that it was fpeken unte. certain which trufted in themselves, that they were righteous, and defpifed others, Luke xviii. 9. The object then of all good works, you plainly fee, is to prove our ready obedience to God's laws; and the end of fafting in particular, is to humble us in our own eyes, and not to puff us up; and confequently this Pharifee's works not having anfwered this end, they were not pleafing in the fight of God, because he expected to be rewarded for their intrinfic merit; whereas he should not only have given God the glory for enabling him to do good, but have acknowledged that by his mercy alone we are juftified or accepted, and not in confideration of any thing that we can do of ourselves, not in just confequence of the effential value of our works.

Again, we have another mark given us when the motive of fafting entirely depriveth it of the quality of a good work, and that is in the vith of St. Matthew and 16th, where the hypocrites, the worst of all other characters, are thus diftinguished and rebuked: Moreover when ye faft be not as the hypocrites, of a fad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to faft. Verily I fay unto you they have their reward; that is, they have the praise and commendation of men like themfelves, but not of God, who can approve of nothing that is not governed by purity of intention. For though we were to faft as often and as rigidly as John the Baptift, St. Paul, or even the Ninevites, yet if our hearts are fullied with worldly and ungodly views, if any improper or unworthy end excites the work, fuch abftinence, fo far from profitting our everlasting welfare, will prove offenfive to the Deity; the certainty of which is evident from the following declaration of God himfelf, by the mouth of his holy prophet, (Ifaiah i. 14.) Your new moons and your appointed feafts my foul hateth, they are a trouble

unte

unto me, I am weary to bear them; and in the preceding and following verfes it is moft awfully expreffed how God abhorreth fuch mockery of folemn worship. Further, in the lviiith chap. and 3d and 4th verfes, he again expreffes himself moft plainly upon the very subject of public Fafting. He complains that when the people fafted, all their evil defires ftill remained; they found pleasure, and exacted all their labours; nothing can be more expreffive of the careless and infignificant fafting of the prefent times with numbers. Behold (faith the prophet) ve faft for ftrife and debate, and to fmite with the fift of wickedness; ye shall not fast in this manner to make your voice to be beard on high. Is it fuch a fast, (faith God) that I have chofen? Is it merely to spread fackcloth and afbes? (merely the outward form.) Wilt thou call this a faft, or acceptable day to the Lord? for a man only to afflict his foul, (to mortify and punish himself for a day.) And then, as if to cover the vain prefumptuous hypocrites with confufion, he proceeds by the mouth of the fame prophet, as alfo by his prophet Joel, to declare the true and only end of fuch humiliation. That it is not for the work's fake, but for the motive of the heart, that any fuch acts are acceptable to God. This is the faft that I have chofen, to loose the bands of wickednefs, to undo the heavy burthens, and to let the oppreffed go free. To prepare ourselves for acts of general mercy to deal out thy bread to the hungry, and to clothe the naked; to rend your hearts and not your garments; to forrow and mourn inwardly, and not in outward appearance only; to put away all finful thoughts and actions, to abftain from these most carefully, and direct our positive abstinence to such holy ends as God approves.

Now there are three particular ends to which, if our outward Fafting is applied, it certainly will prove acceptable to God and profitable to ourfelves.

VOL. I.

U

The