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nature. If, therefore, there are any things, or any ways, that corrupt our minds, support our vanity, increase our blindness, or nourish sensuality; all these are as necessarily to be avoided, as it is necessary to be holy.

If there are any denials or mortifications that purify and enlighten the soul, that lessen the power of bodily passions, that raise us to a heavenly affec- ! tion, and make us taste and relish the things that be of God, these are as necessarily to be practised, as it is necessary to believe in Jesus Christ.

So that the matter comes to this; if there are no indulgences in eating to do us harm, then fasting is of no use; but if there are, if they enslave the soul, and give it a sensual taste, then we are as much obliged to abstain from what does us this harm, as we are obliged to pray for any thing that can do us good.

No Christian that knows any thing of the Gospel, can doubt whether fasting be a common duty of Christianity, since our Saviour has placed it along with secret alms and private prayer, When thou fasteth, anoint thy head, and wash thy Matt. vii. 15. face, that thou appear not unto men to

fast, but to thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

So that the same instructions, and the same reasons, are given for private fasting, as for secret alms and private prayer,that thy Father,which seeth in secret, may reward thee openly. Now as it is manifestly entitled to the same reward, it is manifestly put upon the same foot as private prayer, and as equally acceptable to God.

Eating and drinking are the common support of life; but then, as they are the support of a corrupt life, the nourishment of a disordered body that weighs down the soul, whose appetites and tempers are in a state of enmity with the life and purity of

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the soul, it is necessary that we take care so to support the life of the body, as not to occasion the sickness and death of the soul.

The fail of man consists very much in the fall of the soul into the dominion and power of the body, whose joy, and health, and strength, is often the slavery, Weakness, and infirmity of the soul.

How far our bodies affect our habits, or ways of thinking, may be seen by the difference between sickness and health, youth and old age. These different states of the body alter the whole turn of our minds, and give us new ways of thinking, all owing to the different strength of bodily appetites and tempers. No sooner is the body weakened by any occasion, but the soul is more at liberty, speaks higher for itself, and begins to act more reasonably.

What is the reason that a midnight reflection goes generally deeper than a thought at any other time? No reason can well be assigned, but the peace and tranquillity of the body, which gives the soul a liberty of seeing farther into things than at any time.

The difference between the same man, full and fasting, is almost the difference of two persons; a man that, in the morning, finds himself fit for any meditations, is, after a full meal, changed into another creature, fit only for idle amusements, or the yawnings of an animal.

He has not only created a dulness in his soul, but has perverted its taste, for he can be pleased with a romance, or impertinent history; at the same time he has no relish for a book of devotion, that requires less attention.

mention this to show, that fasting has a nearer relation to all religious tempers than is generally thought; and that indulgent, or full feeding, does not only dull the mind, but more particularly gives it a dullness towards the things of religion. If it were not thus, a book of religious reflexions would

be as acceptable at such times as those other books which require as much, or more attention.

And the reason of this is plain, because all our tempers and desires are always suitable to the state we are in; if we are in a state of sensual joy, feeling the happiness of a full stomach and heated blood, we relish or desire nothing but what suits with it. For this reason plays and romances, and vain diversions, can entertain a man that has eat as long as he could; but lectures upon morality, or discourses upon death and judgment, would tire him into sleep. What we observe of the jaundice, that it makes us see all things yellow, is, in a certain degree, true of every state of the body; it makes us conceive things, with some degree of likeness, to the condition it is then in. Every alteration in the body gives some alteration to our way of conceiving the same things.

As he, therefore, that would see things in their proper colours, must first cure himself of the jaundice; so he that would apprehend things according to their natures, must take care that his body be so ordered as to have as little a share as possible in his judgments.

When a man has his stomach full of wind, and feels no pleasant enjoyinent of his body, you can hardly propose any thing to him that will appear reasonable; do but stay till his stomach is altered, till he has had a full and cheerful meal, and he will be as naturally in a better temper as any other animai that has filled its belly.

When men have been unreasonably out of temper, through the mere motions of the body, I believe they often condemn themselves afterwards; but then they do not consider that the contrary state is a state of the same slavery to the blind motions of the body, and liable to the same condemnation. For if a full and pleasant meal makes us so gay and cheerful, as to laugh and be pleased with

the vainest things, we are then as unreasonable, and as mere slaves to our bodies, as when a cold or empty stomach shall make us angry at every thing.

For it is as great a contradiction to reason and wisdom to be pleased with things or persons, because our body is in a state cf joy, as it is to be angry and displeased at things or persons, because an easterly wind, or an indigested meal has sowered our spirits.

Now both these states are equally states of slavery to the body, equally expose our folly, and have the same contrariety to religion. A man is as far from religious wisdom, when full feeding has made him merry, vain, and trifling, as when a contrary state of body makes him sour, angry, and fretful.

It is the business, therefore, of religion, to put an end to these states of slavery, to deliver man from the blind laws of flesh and blood, and give him a wisdom and constancy, a taste and judgment suitable to the reason and wisdom of the laws of God; to fill our souls with such principles of peace as may give us habits of tranquillity, superior to the changeable tempers of our bodies.

Now fasting, as it is a denial of bodily indulgences, as it disciplines the body into a state of obedience, and contradicts its appetites, is the most constant and universal means of procuring liberty and freedom of mind.

For it is the love of our body, and too much care of its enjoyments, that makes us too sensible of its demands, and subject to its tempers. Whatever we nourish and cherish, so far gains an interest in us, and rules us in the same degree that it has got our affections. Till therefore religion has entered us into a state of self-denial, we live in a state that supports the slavery and corruption of our natures. For every indulgence of the body in eating and drinking is adding to its power, and making all our ways of thinking subservient to it.

A man that makes every day a day of full and cheerful meals, will, by degrees, make the happiness of every day depend upon it, and consider every thing with regard to it.

He will go to church, or stay at home, as it suits with his dinner, and not scruple to tell you, that he generally eats too heartily to go the afternoon ser

vice.

Now such people are under a worse disorder of body, than he that has the jaundice, and have their judgment more perverted than he that sees all things yellow.

For how can they be said to perceive the difference of things, who have more taste for the preparations of the kitchen than for the joys and conforts of the house of God; who choose rather to make themselves unfit for divine service, than to baulk the pleasures of a full meal? And this not by chance, or upon some unusual occasion, but by a constant intended course of life.

Let such people deal faithfully with themselves, and search out their spirit. Can they think that they are born again of God, that they have the Spirit of Christ, who are thus subject to the pleasures of gluttony? Can they be said to treat their bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost, who make them unfit for the holy service of public worship? Can they be said to offer their bodies unto God as a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice? Can they be said to love God with all their heart, and all their soul, or to have forsaken all to follow Christ, who will not so much as forsake half a meal for the sake of divine worship?

I know it will be thought too severe that I have called this gluttony, because it is the practice of numbers of people of worth and reputation; but I hope they will turn their dislike of the name into a dislike of the thing; for it is certainly gluttony, as picking of pockets is stealing.

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