Matt. vi. 16 — 18. Moreover lohen y'e fast, he not, as the hypo- crites, of a sad countenance : for they disfigure their faces, that they may ojrpear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto
1320.] DIRECTIONS RESPECTING FASTING. Sl.'j
you, They have their reward. But thou, ivhen thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, hut unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
IN temporal concerns, men rarely, if ever, confound the means with the end : they expect not the end, but in the use of the means ; nor do they use the means, but in reference to the end : they put both in their proper place, subordinating the one to the other ; and using the one in order to the other. But in religion, nothing is more common than either to separate or confound them : to separate, by expecting the end without the means ; or to confound them, by resting in the means, as if they were the end. For instance : God has appointed fasting as the means of advancing our souls in holiness ; but whilst some expect to attain holiness without any such self-denying exertions, others rest in the duty itself, and make that their righteousness. Of the former description are the generality of Christians at this day : of the latter were the Pharisees of old, against whose errors our Lord is guarding his disciples throughout the whole of this sermon on the mount. In the foregoing chapter he has rectified our views in relation to sin : he now rectifies them in relation to duty.
In considering the words before us, we shall notice,
I. What is implied in them —
It is obvious, that, whilst our Lord gives us direc- tions how to fast, he intimates,
] . That fasting is a duty —
[Of this dierc can be no doubt. Some indeed have thought, that the only fast required of us was to abstain from the commission of sin : but, by the same mode of interpreting other parts of this chapter, they will set aside prayer and alms- giving ; both of which are required here, not by a positive pre- cept, but by implication only, precisely as fasting is required in the text.
Under the Jewish economy there was an annual fast, which all were bound to observe with great strictness, namely, that on the great day of atonements On particular occasions other
^ Lev. xxiii. 26 — 31.