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.