2. Concerning which we may take an estimate, by those other expressions of our lawgiver, concerning alms; which we without further scrutiny know to be commandments, because, in other places, they are positively expressed: and therefore if we can find it so concerning fasting, this inquiry will be at an end. Now concerning this I will not only observe, that the three great heads and representatives of the law, the prophets, and the gospel,-Christ, Moses, and Elias, who were concentrated and enwrapped in one glory upon Mount Tabor, were an equal example of fasting,-which, in their own persons, by a miracle, was consigned to be an example and an exhortation to fasting to all ages of religion; and each of them, fasting forty days upon great occasions, told to them who have ears to hear, what their duty is in all the great accidents of their life; but that which is very material to the present inquiry, is, that this supposition of our blessed Lord, "When ye fast," was spoken to a people who made it a great part of their religion to fast, who placed some portions of holiness in it, who had received the influence of their greatest, their best, their most imitable examples for religious fasting; and the impression of many commandments, not only relative to themselves, as bound by such a law, but as being under the conduct of religion in general. Such was the precept of the prophet Joel; "Thus saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me, with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." Now whatever the prophets said, that related to religion abstractedly, or morally, all that is evangelical (as I proved formerly in this book): besides, there was a universal solemn practice of this exercise, under Joshua, at Ai; under the Judges, at Gibeah; under Samuel, at Mizpah ; under David, at Hebron: fasts frequently proclaimed, frequently instituted; at the preaching of Jeremy and David, of Joel and Zachary, before the captivity, under it, and after it: in the days of sorrow and in the days of danger; in their religion solemn and unsolemn; after they had sinned and when they were punished; at Jerusalem among the Jews, and at Nineveh amongst the Gentiles: now because it is certain, that all this could not be confined to the special religion of the Jews, but was an expression and apt signification and instrument d Joel, ii. 12. Chap. 2. rale 5.

of a natural religion, our blessed Saviour needed not renew this and efform it over again into the same shape, but had reason to suppose the world would proceed in an instance, whose nature could not receive a new reason and consequent change in the whole.

3. This heap of considerations relates to that state of things, in which our blessed Saviour found this religious exercise at his coming. Now if we consider what our blessed Saviour did to it in the gospel, we shall perceive he intended to leave it no less than he found it; for, (1.) He liked it and approved it, he allowed a time to it, a portion of that by which God will be served; and he that gave us time only to serve him, and in that to serve ourselves, would not allow any time to that, by which he was no way served. (2.) We cannot tell why Christ should presuppose that a thing was to be done, which God did not require to be done: such things Christ used to reprove, not to recommend, to destroy, not to adorn by the superfetation of a new commandment. (3.) These words he speaks to his disciples in the promulgation of his own doctrine, in his sermon upon the mount, which is the great institution and sanction of the evangelical doctrine,-and therefore left it recommended and bound upon them by a new ligature, even by an adoption into the everlasting covenant. (4.) He represents it equally with those other of prayer and alms, which, in this excellent digest of laws, he no otherwise recommends, but as supposing men sufficiently engaged to the practice of these duties: "When ye pray, enter into your chamber," and "When ye pray, say, Our Father," and "When ye fast," be sincere and humble. (5.) He that presupposes, does also establish; because then one part of the duty is a postulate, and a ground for the superstructure of another; and is sufficiently declared by its parallels in the usual style of Scripture." My son, when thou servest the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation:" so the son of Sirach :—and again: "When thou hearest, forgive f;" and again: "When thou art afflicted, call upon him:" which forms of expression suppose a perfect persuasion and accepted practice of the duty; and is more than a conditional hypothetic; si jejunatis' hath in it more contingency, but cum jejunatis' is an expression of f 1 Kings, viii. 30.

confidence, and is gone beyond a doubt. (6.) That exercise which Christ orders and disposes, which he reforms and purges from all evil superinduced appendage, is certainly dressed for the temple and for the service of God; now this of fasting Christ reforms from its being abused, as he did prayer and alms; and therefore left it in the first intention of God, and of a natural religion, to be a service of God, like that of bowing the head, or going to worship in the houses of prayer. (7.) To this duty he promises a reward: our heavenly Father that seeth thy fasting in secret shall reward thee openly: that is, its being private shall not hinder it from being rewarded; for God sees it, and likes it, and loves it, and will reward it.

i

4. Now for confirmation of all this, and that this was to this purpose so understood by the disciples and followers of our Lord: St. Paul was " in fastings often ;" and this was a characteristic note of the ministers of the gospel," in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience-in watchings, in fastings:" and when Paul and Barnabas were ordained apostles of the uncircumcision, they "fasted and prayed," and laid their hands on them, and so sent them away; and esteemed this duty so sacred, that St. Paul permitted married persons, axoλále, to appoint vacant times' from their endearments, that they may" give themselves to fasting and prayer:" and the primitive Christians were generally such ascetics in this instance of fasting, that the ecclesiastical story is full of strange narratives of their prodigious fastings.

k

5. Lastly, fasting is an act of many virtues; it is an elicit and proper act of temperance, and of repentance, and of humiliation, and of mortification of the flesh, with its affections and lusts; it is an imperate and instrumental act ministering to prayer, and is called a service of God: so the good old prophetess' served God day and night in fasting and prayer; and that which serves God, and ministers so much to religion, and exercises so many graces, and was practised by the faithful in both Testaments, and was part of the religion of both Jews and Gentiles, and was the great solemnity and publication of repentance, and part of a natural i Acts, xiii. 3, 4.

2 Cor. xi. 27.

1 Cor. vii. 5.

h2 Cor. vi. 5.

! Luke, ii.

religion, and an endearment of the divine mercy and pity; that which was always accounted an instrument of impetration or a prevailing prayer; which Christ recommended, and presupposed, and adorned with a cautionary precept, and taught the manner of its observation, and to which he made. promises, and told the world that his heavenly Father will reward it; certainly this can be no less than a duty of the evangelical or Christian religion.

6. But, although it be a duty, yet it is of a nature and obligation different from other instances. When it relates to repentance, it is just a duty, as redeeming captives is commanded under the precept of mercy: that is, it is the specification or positive exercise and act of an affirmative duty it is a duty in itself, that is, an act whereby God can be served; but it becomes obligatory to the man by other measures, by accidental necessities and personal capacities, in time and place, by public authority and private resolution. Not that a man cannot be said to be a true penitent unless he be a faster; but that fasting is a proper, apt, natural, usual, approved expression, and an exercise of repentance: it is more fitted to the capacities of men, and usages of religion, than any other outward act; it hath some natural and many collateral advantages more than other significations of it; and it is like bowing the head or knee in prayer, and is to repentance the same outwardly as sorrow is inwardly; and it is properly the penance or repentance of the body, which because it hath sinned must also be afflicted, according to that of St. James, "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness: humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord:" that is, 'repent ye of your sins:' for all these expressions signify but this one duty, and this great exercise and signification of it are so much a duty in the general, that it cannot be omitted without good reason, nor then neither unless it be supplied by something else, in its just time and circumstances.

7. In order to other ends fasting is to be chosen and preferred before instruments less apt, less useful, less religious, that is, before the imperate and ministering acts of any kind whatsoever; for it is the best in many respects, and remains such, unless it be altered by the inconveniences or healthlessness of the person.

RULE IX.

The Institution of a Rite or Sacrament by our blessed Saviour, is a direct Law, and passes a proper Obligation in its whole Integrity.

1. THIS rule can relate but to one instance, that of the holy sacrament of Christ's body and blood; for although Christ did institute two sacraments, yet that of baptism was under the form of an express commandment, and therefore for its observation needs not the auxiliaries of this rule. But, in the other sacrament, the institution was by actions, and intimations of duty, and relative precepts, and suppositions of action; as quoties feceritis,' and the like. Now whether this do amount to a commandment or no, is the inquiry; and though the question about the half-communion be otherwise determinable, yet by no instrument so certain and immediate as this.

2. In order therefore to the rule of conscience in this instance I consider, that an institution of a thing, or state of life by God, and by his Christ, is to be distinguished from the manner of that thing so instituted. When a thing is instituted by God, it does not equal a universal commandment; but obtains the force of a precept according to the subject-matter and to its appendant relations. Thus when God instituted marriage, he did not, by that institution, oblige every single person to marry: for some were eunuchs from their mothers' wombs, and some were made eunuchs by men; and some made themselves eunuchs for religious and severe ends, or advantages of retirement and an untroubled life. But "by this institution,' say the doctors of the Jews, 'every man was at first obliged;' and so they are still, if they have natural needs or natural temptations; but because the institution was relative to the public necessities of mankind, and the personal needs of man, therefore it was not a universal or unlimited commandment; but only so far as it did minister to the necessary end, so far it was a necessary commandment. It was not instituted for eunuchs; but for whom it was instituted, to them it was a remedy against sin, and the support of the world, and the original of families, and the seminary of the church, and the endearment of friendships,