SERMON XXXIV.

FAST DAY-1805.

ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. vi. VER. 16. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the Hypocrites.

To render our services truly acceptable to God, it is necessary we should thoroughly understand the nature of the duty we owe him, that we may not err through ignorance of what is right, or run into extremes that may make our endeavours of no ef

fect, and defeat the

tended to answer.

purpose they are inWe are called upon

this day, by the royal command, to perform

two of the most solemn acts of humiliation before God-Fasting and Prayer: to endeavour by these expressions of penitence and contrition to atone, in some measure, for our past offences; to deprecate the anger of the Almighty, and if possible to prevail upon his merciful goodness to bestow a blessing upon our future undertakings.

With regard to the first mark of our contrition, that of fasting, there are two extremes which we must be careful to avoid-too much confidence in the frequent use of it on the one hand, and too fatal a neglect of it on the other. From the words of the, text it is evident, the nature of this duty is liable to be mistaken. The Pharisees in our Saviour's time plunged into the errors of making too great a display of their zeal, and incurred the imputation of hypocrites.

Though it may appear extraordinary, and

almost improbable, that we can be too often engaged in this virtue, if it is at all necessary, it is no less true, when we come to examine it with more attention, that we may practice it so frequently as to render it too habitual, and like other habits which become familiar to us by constant exercise, it may be regarded with less attention, be less rigidly adhered to, till by degrees it will lose the nature of a penance, and retain only the mere outward shew and semblance of a religious act.

Without wishing to cast any censure upon the conduct of our Catholic Brethren in this respect, we must be blind not to observe the abuses which have gradually crept into that part of the religion of the Romish church. The very frequent and general injunctions to fast, and the indulgences granted to so many individuals, to obtain an easy relaxation of those injunc

tions, on the slightest pretences by pecuniary fines, have degraded one of the most solemn acts of religion, to a regular system of human policy; some regard it as a matter of constitutional convenience, others as an act of bodily temperance, but very few shall we find who observe it in the strict religious sense of actual mortification and self-denial. Thus the wisest institutions degenerate into abuse, and the ordinances of God become subject to the will and pleasure of man. It is probably with a view to avoid this extreme, that in our church, fasting is seldom enjoined except upon particular occasions of solemnity and devotion; but in consequence of this indulgence, this liberty of thinking for ourselves, and having the power to dispense with the performance of this duty, without any penalty annexed to the omission of it, we are apt to run into an opposite extreme, and treat it as a matter of indifference, till by gradual neglect and

indolence we easily reconcile ourselves to give it up so entirely, as to fast only as the hypocrites do, observing the formal and stated times to impose on the world, and substitute the shadow for the substance.

Very specious and plausible are the arguments by which men flatter themselves they convince others as easily as they impose upon their own consciences. "Can "God," say they, "take delight in our "mortifications ?"-can it be any gratification to the Author and Giver of all good things, that his creatures should eat fish instead of flesh on particular days of the week? No!-absurd indeed would be the idea of glorifying God by a change of diet, which might be merely constitutional, and to some appetites afford a luxurious pleasure instead of a rigorous penance. Let those who argue thus weakly, (and preposterous as it may seem, too