because we find the book of their law enjoined it upon them as the will of God concerning them; but then we find not only these, but nations that never had a revelation, attending to it with the greatest strictness and punctuality. Where are we to look for the origin of the practice among these people? How are we to account for the observance of fasts by Greeks, Romans, Persians, Chinese, Indians, &c. to whom the word of inspiration was never sent? The reader is at liberty to form whatever opinion probability may suggest, but the writer has no hesitation in saying that he believes the practice in these various nations originated in traditionary accounts of its obligation, handed down generation after generation by the various branches of the patriarchal families, from which those nations sprang. This, to his mind, is a satisfactory explication of the fact of the general prevalence of fasting, and is the only plausible way he has found of accounting for the universality of the practice.

What then is the result of this investigation? Why, that fasting has been attended to as a religious observance by the Jews in all their successive generations from the time of Moses to this day. That it was practised by Jesus Christ, and though, for a special reason, suspended during the short time of his personal ministry on earth, yet its abuses were corrected, and the rite itself was recommended by him. That the Apostles and primitive Christians fasted. That established churches, Greek, Latin and Reformed, have all acknowledged it as a duty, and enjoined its observance. even heathen nations, both barbarous and refined, have frequently or regularly fasted. That Mahomedanism strictly enforces it on all its professors. In short, that Jew and Gentile, Turk and Christian, agree to admit it as a duty! It therefore comes

That

recommended by all the authority that universal practice can bestow. Such being the case, it has a powerful claim to our most serious attention, I therefore proceed,

Secondly, TO EXPLAIN ITS NATure.

The English verb "to fast," is derived from the Gothic fastan, or from the Saxon fæstan, and appears to be equivalent to them in its import. A fast is termed by the Jewish writers D, and by the Greeks noris, from the privative particle v not, and oli to eat; or from v and ouros, equivalent to no wheat, no bread. The derivation of the word, shews us the nature of a fast, viz. that it is a total abstinence from food, or, in other words, that it is not to eat.

Some of the fasts mentioned in Scripture, were involuntary, and arose from necessity; such was that of the people who followed Christ into the wilderness, and of whom he said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." (Matt. xv. 32.) Such also was that of the ship's company that sailed with St. Paul, when he was sent a prisoner to Rome. "This day is the fourteenth day, that ye have tarried, and continued fasting, having taken nothing." (Acts xxvii. 33.) In general, however, the fasts mentioned in the word of God, consisted of a voluntary abstinence from food, for purposes strictly religious; and were perfectly free from those compromises by substitution, which the cold spirit of modern piety has invented.

The fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus Christ, for forty days each, were altogether miraculous and extraordinary. In all that time they took no

food, and therefore, without supernatural aid, they must have died of hunger. The folly of a few wild enthusiasts, who have sacrificed their lives by attempting a forty days fast, has proved that unassisted human nature cannot endure it.* The Legislator, the Prophet, and the Saviour, however, not only survived it, but seem to have been exempt from any of those morbid affections which excessive fasting generally induces.

In ordinary cases, the Jews appear to have fasted from morning till evening. Thus we read, that Joshua and the elders of Israel rent their clothes and fell with their faces to the earth, before the ark of the Lord, "until the eventide." (Josh. vii. 6.) Thus also, when the eleven tribes of Israel took arms against the tribe of Benjamin, and were defeated, "all the children of Israel, and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even." (Judges xx. 26.) In those passages in which fasting is said to have continued several days, we understand that the fast was kept from the morning till the evening of each day, (unless the contrary is specified, as in the fast appointed by Esther, (Est. iv. 16.) where it is said they were to fast night and day,) but that they took food in the interval between each evening and the rising of the sun next morning. This is the way the modern Jews and the Mahomedans keep their great fasts.+

Among the early Christians, fasts were of three different sorts, and distinguished by as many names. These are distinctly mentioned by Epiphanius, Victorinus Petavionensis, Dionysius Alexandrinus, and others. The first of these was the fast observed on Wednesdays and Fridays, which was called the Fast of Stations. This continued till

• See Note XII.

+ See Note XIII.

the ninth hour, that is, till three o'clock in the afternoon; on which account Tertullian calls it the Half Fast of Stations: Stationum semijejunia.

The second sort of fast was observed in Lent, and was strictly called Jejunium, or a Fast. It lasted until the evening. This seems to have been the kind of fast observed on occasions of humiliation," in times of necessity and danger;" and, by the more devout, the Station of Friday was converted into a full fast, as they were at liberty on that day either to "keep a station, or observe a fast." Vict. Pet. De. Fab.

The other sort of fast was called by the Greeks, VéρOEσs, and by the Latins, superposition, and continued, according to Valesius, till cock-crowing the next morning. This fast was observed on the eve of great festivals, and is recommended by Victorinus Petavionensis to be observed on a Saturday. "Let Superposition," says he, "be done on Saturday, lest we should seem to observe the Jewish Sabbath."

The rituals of some churches make a distinction between fasting and abstinence. By the former they mean a total forbearance from food, and by the latter a forbearance from the more gross or pleasant food, as flesh and wine. Notwithstanding the high authority by which this distinction comes recommended, one cannot help more than suspecting that it is one of those compromises with conscience which "fleshly wisdom" has devised. There is but one place in the English Bible in which the word "abstinence" occurs, and this is very far from supporting that sense of the word alluded to above. It may be found in the account of Paul's perilous voyage. (Acts xxvii. 21.) The Apostle and his companions in tribulation, had either taken no food, or very little, because partly

of the hurry necessarily attending a storm at sea, and partly by reason of the strong feeling produced by the prospect of instant destruction. It by no means appears that there was any thing religious in this abstinence, but that it arose out of necessity; much less does it appear, that it was an act of selfdenial, with respect to the more delicate articles of food; such articles, indeed, were not likely to be found among prisoners in a sea voyage.

It is amazing that a mere change of dishes should have ever been regarded as answering the purposes of a fast. To the generality of persons, the occasional substitution of fish for flesh, especially with the auxiliaries of rich sauces, &c. and supported by a host of delicate pastry and confectionary productions, is an agreeable change, and a mere burlesque on mortification. Could we lose sight of its profanity, there would be something ludicrous in the idea of a person toiling to repletion at these delicate viands, and then rising from the table with a full conviction of having kept a fast!*

The inefficacy of the change generally made, will appear from a remark of the pious Bishop Hall: "All experience shews," says he, "that oil, wine, and shell fishes, are more powerful to stir and influence nature than other duller liquors, and viands of flesh, which are of more gross and heavy nourishment; neither was it for nothing that the Mythologists feigned Venus to be bred of the sea. The ingenuity of Lindanus can confess how little these kinds of fasts differ from the most exact gluttonies: Jejunia nostra vini copiâ natant; piscium varietate carnium superant delicias: our fasts swim with abundance of wines, and a variety of fish more delicate than flesh."

That spurious kind of fasting above mentioned, was as much unknown to the early Christian

* See Note XIV.