49

Xerophagia the 19 Montanists abstained-not only from flesh and wine, like the orthodoxbut also from the richer and more juicy kinds of fruit, and omitted all their cus→ tomary ablutions. Montanus appears to have enjoined only 50 two weeks of Xerophagiæ in the year but his followers were animated by a greater love of fasting than their Master; for 51 Jerome says, that, in his day, the Montanists kept three Lents; one of them after Whitsunday.

We have already observed that, in Tertullian's time, the bishops exercised the power

49 De Jejuniis, c. 1. Quod etiam Xerophagias observemus, siccantes cibum ab omni carne, et omni jurulentiâ, et vividioribus quibusque pomis, ne quid vinositatis vel edamus vel potemus. Lavacri quoque abstinentiam, congruentem arido victui. See also cc. 9, 10. where Tertullian defends the practice of the Montanists, as strictly conformable to the practice of holy men under the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, In the first Book against Marcion, c. 14. fish is mentioned as holy diet.

50 Duas in anno hebdomadas Xerophagiarum, nec totas, exceptis scilicet Sabbatis et Dominicis, offerimus Deo. De Jejuniis, c. 15.

51 Illi tres in anno faciunt quadragesimas, quasi tres passi sint Salvatores. Ad Marcellam, Ep. 54. Et ex hujus occasione testimonii Montanus, Prisca, et Maximilla etiam post Pentecosten faciunt quadragesimam, quod, ablato sponso, filii sponsi debeant jejunare. In. Matt. ix. Bingham infers that each of these Lent Fasts continued for two weeks. Book xxi. c. 1. Sect. 157.

52 Chap. IV. p. 236. De Jejuniis, c. 13.

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of appointing days of fasting, whenever the circumstances of the Church seemed to require such outward marks of sorrow and humiliation; and 53 that the councils or general assemblies, which were held in Greece for the purpose of regulating the affairs of the Church, were opened by a solemn fast.

Ecclesiastical history abounds with proofs of the tendency of mankind to run into extremes; and thus to convert institutions, which in their original design and application were beneficial and salutary, into sources of the most pernicious errors and abuses. Were we required to produce an instance in confirmation of the truth of this remark, we should without hesitation refer the reader to the subject which we have been now considering. Fasting, as it was originally practised in the Church, was regarded as a means to a moral end: as a means, peculiarly fitted both to the circumstances and to the nature of man, of nourishing in him those feelings of contrition and self-abasement, and of enabling him to acquire that mastery over his sensual appetites, which are essential elements in the composition of the Christian character. When, at the season appointed by the Church for the 53 Chap. IV. p. 245. De Jejuniis, c. 13.

commemoration of the Passion of Christ, its members, amongst other external observances designed to express their lively sense of their own unworthiness, and of the deadly nature of sin which could be expiated only by so great a sacrifice-abstained also from their customary meals and recreations; surely the most enlightened reason must approve the motive of their abstinence; and admit as well its suitableness to the fallen condition of man, as its tendency to encourage a devout and humble temper. To these considerations we may add that, from the mixed constitution of man's nature and the intimate union which subsists between his soul and body, the occasional restraints, which the primitive Christians voluntarily imposed upon themselves in respect of food and amusement, could scarcely fail to have a beneficial operation upon their character; were it only by interrupting for a time their ordinary habits, and reminding them that the objects of sense possessed neither the sole, nor the principal, claim to their attention. A life of habitual indulgence, even when that indulgence leads not to positive excess, is favorable neither to intellectual nor spiritual improvement. It enfeebles our mental powers: it deadens our moral perceptions: it tends especially to render us selfish and

regardless of the wants and feelings of others> But when experience also tells us that such a course of life terminates almost invariably in excess, no further argument can be wanting to prove the reasonableness and utility of occasional abstinence-if used only as a means to an end-to invigorate the moral principle within us, and to promote humility of temper and purity of heart. Unhappily, however, for the Church, from the propensity of the human mind to run into extremes-from an increasing fondness for the tenets of the Platonic philosophy-and an indiscriminate imitation of what is recorded in Scripture of holy men, who, being placed in extraordinary circumstances, were never designed to be held up as examples, in all points of their conduct, to ordinary Christians-from the combined operation of all these causes; fasting, instead of being considered as a salutary discipline, or as a means to holiness, came to be regarded as holiness itself. The piety of men was estimated by the frequency and severity of their fasts. In proportion as they subjected themselves to greater privations and hardships, they acquired a higher reputation for sanctity. A species of rivalry was thus excited; new and strange methods were invented of macerating and torturing their bodies; till at

length extravagance in practice led to error in doctrine; fasts and mortifications were regarded as meritorious in themselves-as procuring by their intrinsic efficacy remission of sin and restoration to the favor of God.

To the same causes, which led men into the errors now described respecting the merit of fasting, may be traced the erroneous opinions which were gradually introduced, respecting the superior sanctity of the monastic and eremitical modes of life. No man, who has reflected upon the constitution of his own nature and believes that he is destined to exist in a purer and more spiritual state,, can doubt the utility, or rather necessity, of occasional retirement and seclusion; for the purposes of self-examination, and of securing to religion that paramount influence over the thoughts and affections, which is liable to be weakened, or even destroyed, by a constant intercourse with the world. Here then was a reasonable motive to induce Christians, wisely anxious for their own salvation, to withdraw themselves, at stated intervals, from worldly pleasures, and cares, and occupations. The frequency with which those intervals recurred would depend in each case upon the temper of the individual. Men of an