Part 16

3. *Another reason or ground of fasting is this. Many of those who now fear God, are deeply sensible how often they have sinned against him, by the abuse of these lawful things. They know, how much they have sinned by excess of food; how long they have transgrest the holy law of God, with regard to temperance, if not sobriety too: how they have indulged their sensual appetites, perhaps to the impairing even their bodily health; certainly to the no small hurt of their soul. For hereby they continually fed and increased that sprightly folly, that airiness of mind, that levity of temper, that gay inattention to things of the deepest concern, that giddiness and carelessness of spirit, which were no other than drunkenness of soul, which stupified all their noblest faculties, no less than excess of wine or strong drink. To remove therefore the effect, they remove the cause: they keep at a distance from all excess. They abstain, as far as is possible, from what had well nigh plunged them in everlasting perdition. They often wholly refrain; always take care to be sparing and temperate in all things.

4. *They likewise well remember, how fulness of bread, increased not only carelessness and levity of spirit, but also foolish and unholy desires, yea, unclean and vile affections. And this experience puts beyond all doubt. Even a genteel, regular sensuality, is continually sensualizing the soul, and sinking it into a level with the beasts that perish. It cannot be exprest what an effect variety and delicacy of food have on the mind as well as the body: making it just ripe for every pleasure of sense, as soon as opportunity shall invite. Therefore on this ground also every wise man will refrain his soul, and keep it low; will wean it more and more from all those indulgences of the inferior appetites, which naturally tend to chain it down to earth, and to pollute as well as debase it. Here is another perpetual reason for fasting: to remove the food of lust and sensuality, to withdraw the incentives of foolish and hurtful desires, of vile and vain affections.

5. Perhaps we need not altogether omit, (altho’ I know not if we should do well, to lay any great stress upon it) another reason for fasting, which some good men have largely insisted on: namely, the punishing themselves for having abused the good gifts of God, by sometimes wholly refraining from them: thus exercising a kind of holy revenge upon themselves, for their past folly and ingratitude, in turning the things which should have been for their health, into an occasion of falling. They suppose _David_ to have had an eye to this when he said, _I wept and chastened_, or punished _my soul with fasting_: and St. _Paul_, when he mentions _what revenge_ godly sorrow occasioned in the _Corinthians_.

6. A fifth, and more weighty reason for fasting, is, that it is an help to prayer: particularly, when we set apart larger portions of time for private prayer. Then especially it is, that God is often pleased to lift up the souls of his servants, above all the things of earth, and sometimes to wrap them up, as it were, into the third heavens. *And it is chiefly, as it is an help to prayer, that it has so frequently been found a means in the hand of God, of confirming and increasing not one virtue, not chastity only, (as some have idly imagined, without any ground, either from scripture, reason or experience) but also seriousness of spirit, earnestness, sensibility and tenderness of conscience; deadness to the world, and consequently the love of God and every holy and heavenly affection.

7. Not that there is any natural or necessary connexion, between fasting, and the blessings God conveys thereby. But he will have mercy _as_ he will have mercy: he will convey whatsoever seemeth him good, by whatsoever means he is pleased to appoint. And he hath in all ages appointed this, to be a means of averting his wrath, and obtaining whatever blessings we from time to time stand in need of.

How powerful a means this is, to avert the wrath of God, we may learn from the remarkable instance of _Ahab_. _There was none like_ him, _who did sell himself_; wholly give himself up, like a slave bought with money, _to work wickedness_. Yet when he _rent his cloaths and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and went softly: the word of the_ Lord _came to_ Elijah, _saying, Seest thou how_ Ahab _humbleth himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days._

It was for this end, to avert the wrath of God, that _Daniel_ sought God, _with fasting and sackcloth and ashes_. This appears from the whole tenor of his prayer, particularly from the solemn conclusion of it. _O_ Lord, _according to all thy righteousnesses_ (or mercies) _let thy anger be turned away from thy holy mountain――Hear the prayer of thy servant, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate.――O_ Lord, _hear! O_ Lord, _forgive: O_ Lord, _hearken and do, for thine own sake_, Dan. ix. 3, 16, &c.

8. But it is not only from the people of God that we learn, when his anger is moved, to seek him by fasting and prayer; but even from the Heathens. When _Jonah_ had declared, _Yet forty days and_ Nineveh _shall be destroyed, the people of_ Nineveh _proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them unto the least. For the king of_ Nineveh _arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through_ Nineveh, _Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing. Let them not feed, nor drink water._ (Not that the beast had sinned, or could repent: but that by their example man might be admonished, considering that for his sin, the anger of God was hanging over all creatures.) _Who can tell, if_ God _will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?_――And their labour was not in vain. The fierce anger of God was turned away from them. God _saw their works_, (the fruits of that repentance and faith, which he had wrought in them by his prophet;) _and_ God _repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them: and he did it not_, Jon. 3, 4, &c.

9. And it is a means not only of turning away the wrath of God, but also of obtaining whatever blessings we stand in need of. So when the other tribes were smitten before the _Benjamites, [108]all the children of Israel went up unto the house of the_ Lord, _and wept and fasted that day until even_; and then the Lord said, _Go up again; for to-morrow I will deliver them into thine hand_. So _Samuel [109]gathered all Israel together, when they were in bondage to the Philistines, and they fasted on that day before the_ Lord: and when _the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, the_ Lord _thundered upon them with a great thunder, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel_. So _Ezra; [110]I proclaimed a fast at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our_ God, _to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones――and he was entreated of us_. So _Nehemiah; [111]I fasted and prayed before the_ God _of heaven, and said, Prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man_. And God granted him mercy in the sight of the king.

10. In like manner, the apostles always joined fasting with prayer, when they desired the blessing of God, on any important undertaking. Thus we read, _Acts_ xiii. _There were in the church that was at_ Antioch _certain prophets and teachers――As they ministered to the_ Lord _and fasted_, (doubtless for direction in this very affair) _the Holy Ghost said, Separate me_ Barnabas _and_ Saul, _for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had_ (a second time) _fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away_, ver. 1, 2, 3.

Thus also _Paul_ and _Barnabas_ themselves, as we read in the following chapter, when they _returned again to_ Lystra, Iconium _and_ Antioch, _confirmed the souls of the disciples_; and _when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, commended them to the_ Lord, ver. 23.

Yea, that blessings are to be obtained in the use of this means, which are no otherwise attainable, our Lord expresly declares in his answer to his disciples asking, [112]_Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind_ (of devils) _goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting_: these being the appointed means of attaining that faith, whereby the very devils are subject unto you.

11. These were the _appointed_ means. For it was not merely by the light of reason, or of natural conscience, (as it is called) that the people of God have been in all ages directed, to use fasting as a means to these ends. But they have been from time to time taught it of God himself, by clear and open revelations of his will. Such is that remarkable one by the prophet _Joel_, [113]_Therefore thus saith the_ Lord, _turn you unto me, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning――Who knoweth if the_ Lord _will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Then will the_ Lord _be jealous over his land, and will spare his people. Yea, I will send you corn and wine and oil――I will no more make you a reproach among the Heathen._

Nor are they only temporal blessings which God directs his people to expect in the use of these means. For at the same time that he promised to those who should seek him with fasting, and weeping, and mourning, _I will render you the ears which the grashopper hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpiller and the palmer-worm, my great army_, he subjoins, _So shall ye eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the_ Lord _your_ GOD――_Ye shall also know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the_ Lord _your_ God. And then immediately follows the great gospel-promise, _I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit._

12. Now whatsoever reasons there were to quicken those of old in the zealous and constant discharge of this duty, they are of equal force still to quicken us. But above all these we have a peculiar reason for being _in fastings often_, namely, the command of him by whose name we are called. He does not indeed in this place _expresly_ enjoin, either fasting, giving of alms, or prayer. But his directions how to fast, to give alms, and to pray, are of the same force with such injunctions. For the commanding us, to do any thing _thus_, is an unquestionable command, to do that thing; seeing it is impossible to perform it _thus_, if it be not performed _at all_. Consequently, the saying, give alms, pray, fast in _such a manner_, is a clear command to perform all those duties, as well as to perform them in that _manner_, which shall in no wise lose its reward.

And this is a still farther motive and encouragement, to the performance of this duty; even the promise which our Lord has graciously annexed to the due discharge of it: _Thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly_. Such are the plain grounds, reasons and ends of fasting; such our encouragement to persevere therein, notwithstanding abundance of objections which men, wiser than their Lord, have been continually raising against it.

III. 1. The most plausible of these I come now to consider. And, first, it has been frequently said, “Let a Christian fast from sin, and not from food: this is what God requires at his hands.” So he does: but he requires the other also. Therefore this ought to be done, and that not left undone.

View your argument in its full dimensions; and you will easily judge of the strength of it.

“If a Christian ought to abstain from sin, then he ought not to abstain from food:

But a Christian ought to abstain from sin:

Therefore he ought not to abstain from food.”

That a Christian ought to abstain from sin, is most true. But how does it follow from hence, that he ought not to abstain from food? Yea, let him do both the one and the other. Let him, by the grace of God, always abstain from sin; and let him often abstain from food: for such reasons and ends as experience and scripture plainly shew to be answered thereby.

2. “But is it not better (as it has, secondly, been objected) to abstain from pride and vanity, from foolish and hurtful desires, from peevishness, and anger, and discontent, than from food?” Without question it is. But here again we have need to remind you of our Lord’s words, _These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone_. And indeed the latter is only in order to the former; it is a means to that great end. We abstain from food with this view, that by the grace of God, conveyed into our souls, through this outward means, in conjunction with all the other channels of his grace which he hath appointed, we may be enabled to abstain from every passion and temper, which is not pleasing in his sight. We refrain from the one, that being endued with power from on high, we may be able to refrain from the other, so that your argument proves just the contrary to what you designed. It proves, that we ought to fast. For if we ought to abstain from evil tempers and desires, then we ought thus to abstain from food: since these little instances of self-denial are the ways God hath chose, wherein to bestow that great salvation.

3. “But we do not find it so in fact: (this is a third objection.) We have fasted much and often. But what did it avail? We were not a whit better: we found no blessing therein. Nay, we have found it an hindrance rather than an help. Instead of preventing anger, for instance, or fretfulness, it has been a means of increasing them to such a height, that we could neither bear others nor ourselves.” This may very possibly be the case. ’Tis possible, either to fast or pray, in such a manner, as to make you much worse than before; more unhappy, and more unholy. Yet the fault does not lie in the means itself; but in the _manner_ of using it. Use it still, but use it in a different manner. Do what God commands _as_ he commands it, and then doubtless his promise shall not fail; his blessing shall be with-held no longer: but _when thou fastest in secret, he that seeth in secret shall reward thee openly_.

4. “But is it not mere superstition (so it has been, fourthly, objected) to imagine that God regards such little things as these?” If you say it is, you condemn all the generation of God’s children. But will you say, these were all weak, superstitious men? Can you be so hardy as to affirm this, both of _Moses_ and _Joshua_, of _Samuel_ and _David_, of _♦Jehoshaphat_, _Ezra_, _Nehemiah_, and all the prophets? Yea, of a greater than all, the Son of God himself? It is certain, both our Master, and all these his servants, did imagine, that fasting is not a little thing, and that he who is higher than the highest doth regard it. Of the same judgment, it is plain, were all his apostles, after they were _filled with the Holy Ghost and with wisdom_. When they had _the unction of the Holy One, teaching_ them _of all things_, they still _approved themselves the ministers of_ God, _by fastings_, as well as _by the armour of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left_. After _the Bridegroom was taken from them, then did they fast in those days_. Nor would they attempt any thing, (as we have seen above) wherein the glory of God was nearly concerned, such as the sending forth labourers into the harvest, without solemn fasting as well as prayer.

5. “But if fasting be indeed of so great importance, and attended with such a blessing, is it not best, say some, fifthly, to fast always? Not to do it now and then, but to keep a continual fast? To use as much abstinence at all times, as our bodily strength will bear?” Let none be discouraged from doing this. By all means use as little and plain food, exercise as much self-denial herein at all times, as your bodily strength will bear. And this may conduce, by the blessing of God, to several of the great ends above-mentioned. It may be a considerable help not only to chastity, but also to heavenly mindedness; to the weaning your affections from things below, and setting them on things above. But this is not fasting, scriptural fasting: it is never termed so in all the bible. It in some measure answers some of the ends thereof; but still it is another thing. Practice it by all means; but not so as thereby to set aside a command of God, and an instituted means of averting his judgments, and obtaining the blessings of his children.

6. Use continually then as much abstinence as you please; which taken thus, is no other than Christian temperance. But this need not at all interfere with your observing solemn times of fasting and prayer. For instance; your habitual abstinence or temperance, would not prevent your fasting in secret, if you was suddenly overwhelmed with huge sorrow and remorse, and with horrible fear and dismay. Such a situation of mind would almost constrain you to fast: you would loath your daily food: You would scarce endure even to take such supplies, as were needful for the body, ’till God lifted you up _out of the horrible pit, and set your feet upon a rock, and ordered your goings_. The same would be the case if you was in agony of desire, vehemently wrestling with God for his blessing. You would need none to instruct you, not to eat bread, ’till you had obtained the request of your lips.

7. Again, had you been at _Nineveh_, when it was proclaimed throughout the city, _Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste any thing: let them not feed or drink water, but let them cry mightily unto_ God: would your continual fast have been any reason for not bearing part in that general humiliation? Doubtless it would not. You would have been as much concerned as any other, not to taste food on that day.

No more would abstinence, or the observing a continual fast, have excused any of the children of _Israel_, from fasting the tenth day of the seventh month, the great annual day of atonement. There was no exception for these in that solemn decree, _Whatsoever soul it shall be, that shall not be afflicted_ (shall not fast) _in that day, he shall be cut off from among his people_.

Lastly, had you been with the brethren in _Antioch_ at the time when they fasted and prayed, before the sending forth of _Barnabas_ and _Saul_, can you possibly imagine that your temperance or abstinence would have been a sufficient cause for not joining therein? Without doubt, if you had not, you would soon have been cut off from the Christian community. You would have deservedly been cast out from among them, “as bringing confusion into the church of God.”

IV. 1. I am in the last place, to shew, In what manner we are to fast, that it may be an acceptable service unto the Lord. And, first, let it be done _unto the_ Lord, with our eye singly fixed on him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven: to express our sorrow and shame, for our manifold transgressions of his holy law: to wait for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to things above: to add seriousness and earnestness to our prayers: to avert the wrath of God, and to obtain all the great and precious promises, which he hath made to us in _Christ Jesus_.

Let us beware of mocking God, of turning our fast as well as our prayer into an abomination unto the Lord, by the mixture of any temporal view, particularly, by seeking the praise of men. Against this our blessed Lord more peculiarly guards us, in the words of the text. _Moreover, when ye fast, be ye not as the hypocrites_ (such were too many who were called the people of God) _of a sad countenance_; sour, affectedly sad, putting their looks into a peculiar form. _For they disfigure their faces_, not only by unnatural distortions, but also by covering them with dust and ashes――_That they may appear unto men to fast_. This is their chief, if not only design. _Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward_; even the admiration and praise of men. _But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face._ Do as thou art accustomed to do at other times――_That thou appear not unto men to fast_, (let this be no part of thy intention: if they know it without any desire of thine, it matters not, thou art neither the better nor the worse) _but unto thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly_.

2. But if we desire this reward, let us beware, secondly, of fancying we _merit_ any thing of God by our fasting. We cannot be too often warned of this; in as much as a desire to _establish our own righteousness_, to procure salvation of _debt_, and not of _grace_, is so deeply rooted in all our hearts:――Fasting is only a way which God hath ordained, wherein we wait for his _unmerited_ mercy; and wherein, without any desert of ours, he hath promised, _freely_ to give us his blessing.

3. Not that we are to imagine, the performing the bare outward act, will receive any blessing from God. _Is it such a fast that I have chosen, saith the_ Lord: _a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?_ Are these outward acts, however strictly performed, all that is meant by a man’s _afflicting his soul? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the_ Lord? No surely. If it be a mere external service, it is all but lost labour. Such a performance may possibly afflict the body. But as to the soul it profiteth nothing.

4. Yea, the body may sometimes be afflicted too much, so as to be unfit for the works of our calling. This also we are diligently to guard against: for we ought to preserve our health, as a good gift of God. Therefore care is to be taken, whenever we fast, to proportion the fast to our strength. For we may not offer God murder for sacrifice, or destroy our bodies to help our souls.

But at these solemn seasons, we may even in great weakness of body, avoid that other extreme, for which God condemns those who of old expostulated with him for not accepting their fasts. _Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?――Behold in the day of your fast, you find pleasure_, saith the Lord――If we cannot wholly abstain, we may at least abstain from pleasant food; and then we shall not seek his face in vain.