consults the word of God for satisfaction in this point, he will there see the effect of intemperance on the passions. Lot gets drunk, and commits incest with his daughters. Esau sells his birthright for a morsel of meat, and becomes a fornicator and profane person. David, after a full meal, falls immediately into temptation, and commits adultery. St. Paul advises us, 'not to walk in rioting and drunkenness;' nor in, what are the almost necessary consequences, 'chambering and wantonness, strife and envying. Those who live in pleasure on the earth, who are wanton, who nourish themselves as in the day of slaughter,' are noted by St. James, as 'grievous oppressors.'

If he is not convinced of the expediency and duty of mortification, let him hear the words of our Saviour: Enter in at the strait gate. He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.' Let him also hear St. Paul: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. I chasten my body, and I bring it into subjection, lest, after I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live; make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.'

Pursuant to these divine authorities, all those holy men, who have ever been distinguished among Christians for the exalted goodness of their lives, have been as remarkable for ruling over their appetites and passions with a severe and heavy hand. When wars or other public calamities threaten us, we see the nation flies to fasting, as the most powerful enforcer of prayer, as that which, according to St. Basil, furnishes it with wings. To fast and humble ourselves before God, is the surest means to turn away national judgments, as may appear by the cases of Ahab, Esther, and the Ninevites.

Whosoever is sincerely concerned at the violence of his passions, and willing to restrain them, will see sufficient reason, in what hath been said, to persuade him, that selfdenial may possibly answer his intention herein; and this persuasion ought at least so far to prevail on him, as to make him resolve on a trial, which, if he is not made of other

VOL. II.

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materials, and cast in a different mould, from the rest of mankind, must be attended with success.

Without the assistance of God, use what means we will, it is presumption to hope for a victory over ourselves. But before we can hope for the Divine grace, we must shew a willingness to do that which is in our own power. Besides, we cannot expect that God's Holy Spirit should take up his abode with us, while his enemy the flesh is countenanced and supported by all the tenderness for it we can possibly indulge it with.

If, however, the sincere Christian shall once begin thus to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make his paths straight and smooth,' he will have all the reason in the world to depend upon the assistance of God, in finishing so good and gracious a work; for there is nothing a man can do so acceptable in the sight of that most compassionate Being, as subduing his unruly passions to the divine will. Such a sacrifice of self-love to God, such a denying of ourselves to please him, is the most agreeable and glorious offering we can make him. All afflictions contribute to a good life, but that most, which we voluntarily lay on ourselves, through a hatred to sin, and a sincere desire of approving ourselves dutiful servants in the eyes of so good a Master. Our heavenly Father is better pleased to see his children afflict themselves for their faults, than to be obliged to lay his rod on them; and what he approves of, he will bless and assist.

We are however to consider, that God is far from approving of mortification, merely for its own sake. He delights not in the afflictions of his creatures. He hath filled the world with objects fitted to entertain our senses and passions; and while we enjoy them innocently, and with a due sense of gratitude to him, he is as well pleased with our enjoyments, as he was with those of our first parents, before they fell. Nor does he accept of them as the punishment or atonement of our sins, having appointed the blood of Christ for the one, and eternal misery for the other. He only approves of them, when they are applied to the curbing and reforming the irregularities of the passions. For this reason, till our fasts reach the mind, they are no fasts in respect of religion, or in the sight of God. • If in the

day of our fast we find pleasure,' or if, what is worse, like the Pharisee in the parable, we think ourselves, on account of our mortifications, better men than others, or even presume, as he did, to boast of them in our prayers to God, we have his own word for it, that they are an abomination in his sight.' We are therefore, according to the admonition by Joel, to sanctify our fast; that is, to make it the instrument of reformation in ourselves, and of charity towards others.

A man cannot call fasting an act of self-denial, till he can say, his belly is himself. If the belly only,' says St. Bernard, has offended, let the belly only fast; but if all our members, and affections, and the soul itself, have sinned, let them all share in the austerity. Let the ear fast from its itch of impertinent news and vain conversation; the tongue, from detraction and idle words; and, above all, let the soul fast from its love of vice, and its fleshly will.' 'The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but justice and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' 'We ought so to chasten our bodies,' says Maximus Taurinensis, ' as, at the same time, to feed our souls with all the virtues. Let therefore destructive luxury, and odious contention, and cruel oppression, fast. Let the poor be fed, provided it is not with the spoils of the poor. To what purpose is it to abstain from meat, when that which is more filthy than the vilest kind of meat, reproach, detraction, lies, and oaths, are all the time issuing from our mouths? Are we not sensible, that not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth?'

Upon the whole, fasting, with other acts of mortification, rightly managed, and properly applied, help to purify the heart, to raise it above the world, and open it to the motions of the Holy Spirit. They add surprising vigour to the resolution of a Christian, in his war with the flesh; or at least, which answers the same end, they greatly enfeeble the enemy. They dry up the sink of our vices,' says St. Cyprian, 'and so extinguish the Etna of our passions, that the neighbouring mountains are no longer scorched by that furnace of infernal fire. They cast out devils, and, as St. Chrysostom observes, raise us, for the time, above a dependence on earthly food, to the life of angels.' We are, by nature, half angel, half brute. We must rise towards the one, or sink

towards the other, and, at length, associate to all eternity, either with angels or devils. To feed, to strengthen, to exercise, the spiritual part of us, is to rise. To feed, to strengthen, to exercise, the brutal, is to sink, and be lost for ever. 'We lost the innocence and dignity of our nature by eating,' says St. Athanasius,' and must restore ourselves by abstinence.'

A man may say, although I feed well, I hope, by reason and resolution, to keep down my inordinate desires. Vain are the hopes of such a person. The saints and hermits, with all their amazing mortifications, found this no easy task, such is the corruption of human nature, since the fall, in which the soil of the earth, and the soul of man, fell under a like curse. Much labour and violence must be used to both, or they will produce no fruit; and, after our utmost pains and skill, we must expect, along with the crop, to see tares, briars, and thorns, shooting up every day. Men feed themselves up, through an unhappy indulgence to their desires, with hopes of travelling downward, through a broad smooth road, to heaven, and entering into it by a wide and open gate. Although our Saviour gives a contrary account of that journey, yet flesh and blood, relying more on hope in themselves, than faith in him, would needs endeavour to make it a mere jaunt of pleasure. Even those who think self-denial necessary, are often too tender of themselves to put it in practice. They will fast to get rid of a slight bodily disorder; and yet will not do as much to be cured of disorders that threaten the soul with eternal death. O astonishing! that a short, uncertain, miserable life, should seem to a thinking being, more worthy to be preserved and provided for, than that which is eternal, and may be rendered infinitely happy. A man may be as indulgent to his internal enemy as he pleases; yet he may assure himself, the corruptions of flesh and blood are not to be cured by delicate, but severe methods; not to be rubbed with soft cloths and napkins, but rather with the potsherd of Job.

'Nobody hears,' says St. Augustin, the tempter, saying within him, What do you mean by your fasting? Why do you defraud your own soul? You punish yourself; you are your own tormenter: he is a cruel master you serve, if he is pleased with your misery. Answer him thus,' says that

writer: I torment myself, that God may spare me; I suffer, that God may forgive, and that the flesh may hang less heavily upon my soul; knowing well, that the victim must be flayed and mangled, before it is laid on the altar.'

The sickness, which hath been bred out of delicacies, can sometimes be purged away only by bitter or nauseous medicines. Shall we still continue to think the delicacies good, and the medicines evil? No; all is not good that pleases, nor all evil that gives pain. Now, nothing but good is the object of choice; and therefore we ought, after having carefully distinguished the real, from the seeming, good or evil, to embrace that which is good, not that which is pleasant, and shun that which is evil, not that which is painful. If then luxury, and riot, and voluptuousness, are condemned, both by Scripture and experience, as hurtful to the soul, let us, like rational creatures, detest and avoid them, be they ever so grateful to our corrupt inclinations. If, on the other hand, temperance and mortification are, by the word of God, and the trials that have been made of them, found to be highly instrumental in promoting the virtue and real happiness of mankind, let us, in the name of God, as becomes men of sense and Christians, determine to be at all times temperate in all things; and, when occasion requires, if our constitutions will bear it, to mortify the deeds of the flesh, be it ever so irksome to the brutal part of our nature.

And may God, of his infinite mercy, accept our sacrifice herein, and, by the power of his Holy Spirit, crown our warfare with a glorious victory, and an eternal triumph, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom, in the unity of the ever-blessed Trinity, be all might, majesty, dignity, and dominion, now and for evermore. Amen.