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looking into a book of accounts in one of their vestries, I observed, so much set down for the dinners of the ministers on the fast-day!' And I am informed there is the same article in them all. And is there any doubt but the people fast just as their ministers do? But what a farce is this! What a miserable burlesque upon a plain Christian duty!"

NOTE XIX.-Page 57.

A few striking instances of the success of fasting, are mentioned in the Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, M. A. "There is something remarkable in the manner wherein God revived his work in these parts, (Barnard Castle.) A few months ago, the generality of people in this circuit were exceedingly lifeless. Samuel Meggot, perceiving this, advised the Society, at Barnard Castle, to observe every Friday with fasting and prayer. The very first Friday they met together, God broke in upon them in a wonderful manner; and his work has been increasing among them ever since. The neighbouring societies heard of this, agreed to follow the same rule, and soon experienced the same blessing." (Wesley's Works, vol. iv. p. 152.)

"We observed Friday, the 28th, (November, 1757,) as a solemn fast; and from this time the work of God revived in Bristol. We were indeed brought very low. A society of nine hundred members was shrunk to little more than half the number. But God now began to turn our captivity, and put a new song in our mouth." (Ibid. vol. iii. p. 314.)

66

Friday, the 16th, (February, 1759,) being the public fast, I preached at five in Wandsworth, at nine and three in the Church at Spitalfields, and at half-past eight in the Foundery. Every place of public worship was crowded on this, as on the two preceding fast-days; and it is plain, even outward humiliation has been a mean of outward blessings." (Ibid. p. 355.)

"We observed Friday, the 19th, (December, 1760,) as a day of fasting and prayer, for our king and country, and the success of the Gospel. And part of the answer immediately followed, in the remarkable increase of believers, and in the strengthening of those who had before attained that precious faith, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." (Ibid. vol. iv. p. 31.)

NOTE XX.-Page 61.

To adduce particular instances, would swell a Note beyond the bounds allotted it. The reader is therefore referred to Orton's Life of Doddridge, the Biographia Britannica, the Biographia Evangelica, and other similar works.

NOTE XXI.-Page 67.

Though excessive rigour is not to be recommended, as a matter of curiosity it may be gratifying to observe, in a few instances, with how little food human life can be preserved to a great length of years. It is indeed surprising to what a great age the primitive Christians of the East, who retired from the persecutions into the Desarts of Arabia and Egypt, lived, healthful and cheerful, on a very little food. Cassim assures us, that the common rate for twenty-four hours, was twelve ounces of bread, and mere water; with this, St. Anthony lived a hundred and five years; Janus the Hermit, a hundred and four; Arsenius, tutor of the Emperor Arcadius, a hundred and twenty; St. Epiphanius, a hundred and fifteen; Simeon the Stylite, a hundred and twelve; and Romauld, a hundred and thirty! Abstinence, however, is only to be recommended, as it means a proper regimen; for, in general, when severely exercised, it must have bad consequences. At the same time, it may not be deemed impertinent to remark, that, in the opinion of the late Dr. Cheyne, most of the chronical diseases, the infirmities of old age, and the short lives of Englishmen, are owing to repletion, and may be either cured, prevented, or remedied by abstinence.

The above-mentioned Simeon spent no less than thirty-seven years on the top of a pillar, or rather, on the top of five pillars, of six, twelve, twenty-two, thirty-six, and forty cubits in height. He obtained his surname from the Greek word, Eruλos, a column. Among the Latins, his followers were called Sancti Columnaris, or Pillar Saints. Among other mortifications practised by Simeon, on his exalted dwellingplace, one was, to make frequent genuflexions; and he made them so quickly, it is said, and in such numbers, that a person, who one day spied him from some distance, and attempted to count them, grew tired, and left off when he had told two thousand. How strange that such a man should have disciples!

"We are

That the early Christians often resorted to unnecessary and unscriptural austerities, various writers inform us. told, in the book of Theodoret, that St. Janus, of Nisibe (who was afterwards made a bishop), had voluntarily deprived himself, during his whole life-time, of the use of fire. He lay upon the ground; he never wore any woollen clothes, but only used goat-skins to hide his nakedness.

"It is related in the same book, that St. Julian only ate bread made of millet, and that he abstained from the use of almost every kind of drink. St. Martinius never ate but once in a day, and that very sparingly too; so that he constantly endured the tortures of hunger and thirst. He had, besides, a disciple who never touched either bread or meat.

"St. Eusebius used to wear an iron chain round his body. Some used to feed upon herbs and roots only. St. Theodosius, the bishop, used to wear a hair cloth round his body, and iron chains at his hands and feet. St. Zeno never rested upon a bed, nor looked into a bed. Macedonius, during forty years, never used any other food than barley. Bishop Abrahames never tasted bread during the whole time he was a bishop. Some of the hermits used to wear iron shoes, and others were constantly burdened with cuirasses, inwardly armed with points. Some would willingly expose themselves to the scorching heat of the sun in summer days, and to the nipping cold of winter evenings; and others, as it were, buried themselves alive in caverns, or in the bottom of wells; while others made their habitations, and in a manner roosted, upon the very tops of columns." (Memorials of Human Superstition, c. vii. p. 112.)

Well may Christians pray, "From all blindness of heart; from pride, vain glory, and hypocrisy, Good Lord, deliver us!"

FINIS.

R. Clay, Printer, 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate.

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