secret, shall reward thee openly;" not for the act of fasting, however rigorous it may be, but by blessing it in its consequences, as a religious discipline, as a salutary act of self-denial tending to produce submission and patience, holiness in the heart, and righteousness in the lives of all those who fast in secret, as unto the Lord, and not as unto men.

If fasting then be a matter of so private and personal a nature, it follows, that it should be altogether discretionary. By discretionary, I mean that it is scarcely possible to lay down rules, or to appoint seasons and periods of fasting suited to every particular case. As the constitutions of men differ, as the passions of some are naturally more violent and unruly than those of others;-as evil habits have taken deeper root;-and the soul is more depraved from longer connexion with a polluted body, so much the more severe should be every kind of religious discipline and restraint. That body which has been the most rebellious, should require the most chastisement. But the extent or degree of this chastisement can be estimated only by the degree of guilt-and of this degree no man can judge for another-it is to be computed for himself only by the impartial judgment of every man's own conscience. Hence, it is evident, that to

fast must be, in a great measure, optional and voluntary, and with a proper end in view; and that to fast at such periodical times as may be prescribed by the fancy or caprice of another, and as a matter of servile and reluctant duty, (as all such fasts generally are) must be totally absurd because the times prescribed may not happen to accord with a consciousness of spiritual necessity in the persons required to observe them--and because the natural tendency of such an arbitrarily-imposed and illadapted service, must be to excite a hunger and a thirst after forbidden food, rather than "a hunger and a thirst after righteousness." It is, in short, nothing more than a mere suspension of natural appetite, which cannot fail to induce a return to former evil habits, by sharpening the sensual affections, during the intervals of such unprofitable restraints.-Wherefore, not to "fast as the hypocrites," must be to fast when occasion requires it, when we feel that the weakness of the spirit is in danger of being overcome by the intemperance of the flesh. One day of fasting with such an end in view, is self-correction in the true sense of the word. This is to act honestly by. the soul for its improvement, and not as "pleasing men," nor pleasing self, "but" as pleasing "God who trieth the heart." Nor let it be

said, that if every man is allowed to be a judge in his own case, few will condemn themselves, and fewer still chastise themselves in this manner; nor, that what is not appointed to be done at some particular time, will be done at no time; for it is better that a thing should never be done, than that it should be done in such a way as to defeat the only valuable end of its institution, deluding the victims of such folly into a belief that they are serving God, and doing a good work, whilst the Lord regards not the multitude of such idle sacrifices, and whilst the evil of a work done as this work generally is, may be estimated by the increase it makes to selfrighteousness, and by the proportion in which it detracts from that tenderness of conscience, and that lowliness in their own eyes, which are the characteristics of those who make a progress in righteousness and true holiness.

But a much better reply to this objection. may be found in a more minute examination of that expression in which the objection itself originates. It has been laid down as a position consequent on the whole of the preceding argument, that fasting should be altogether discretionary ;--that is, it should be directed,

in

every individual, by a pious and enlightened judgment, which shall weigh well the circum

stances of each particular case, and appropriate to it both the duration and the durance of such a discipline. But as the objection justly states, that no man is willing by nature, and of his own deliberate choice, to act with a discretion such as this; and as, in this avowal, it also admits that all men are sensual and selfish, "lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God," and as suffering, in every case, must be grievous, more particularly to the unfeeling and the impenitent ;-it follows, that to act with a discretion suited to the ends of spiritual discipline in this, or in any other way, there must be a strong sense of sin, and a desire after holiness;-there must be a certain progress in self-knowledge, and in the knowledge of divine things, that a man may be duly qualified to judge himself, and candidly to follow up that judgment, or that he may be capable of thus prescribing for himself, and of using with any profit, his prescription. To all others--to the formal professor, fasting is nothing more than temporary bondage ;-to the ignorant, it is a sort of sanction or an excuse to " go and sin" again;-to the self-righteous, it is an encouragement to hope against hope;-and to the sensualist, it is the type and anticipation of a future Purgatory! To these, and to all such as these, it is, at best, an antidote without the

apprehension of a disease, which instead of relieving the constitution by meeting and counteracting the approaches of evil, serves only to foment and to stimulate the latent seeds of it. Who then should fast? The awakened Christian. He who experiences a growth in grace, and is anxious to accelerate it, by wholesome correctives—he who still feels "sin warring in his members,” and threatening him with captivity to its ungodly dominion-he that reproves, and is willing to deny himself, and would make use of bodily mortification as auxiliary to a conquest over self. To such a person, and to such only, fasting is suitable, and cannot fail of becoming profitable. Enjoined by the decree of arbitrary and indiscriminating authority, it is the utmost folly ;and he who obeys such authority, and is actuated by no better motive, either blindly resigns his conscience and his reason to the guidance of another, which is degrading to the soul of man; or impiously disregards the injunction in the text, "when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites."

You perceive then, that fasting is a religious discipline of no ordinary kind, and not to be engaged in lightly or irreverently-that it is a spiritual exercise, peculiar to those who are already advanced in the kingdom of God ;