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30

for man to regain the favor of God is to mortify his appetite. Adam offended by eating; we must remedy the evil consequences of the offence by fasting. Our author refers also to various instances both in the Old and New Testaments, in which punishment had been averted, and spiritual and temporal blessings, obtained by fasting. God, moreover, by testifying his favorable acceptance of fasts observed in consequence of voluntary vows, thereby declared his will, and rendered such fasts obligatory in future. This favorable acceptance supplied the place of a positive command. Tertullian, however, 32 is met in the very outset by a perplexing objection. "If fasting was designed to be the means of recovering God's favor, how came it to pass that, after the deluge, the liberty respecting food was not curtailed, but extended? That man, who was originally confined to a vegetable diet, was then allowed to eat flesh?" To this question Tertullian returns an answer, for which few of his readers could, we think, have been prepared.-At first the liberty respecting food was enlarged, in order that

33

33 Compare de Cultu Fœminarum, L. ii. c. 10. De Exhortatione Castitatis, c. 8.

35

man might have an opportunity of evincing a greater desire to please God, by a voluntary abstinence from those kinds of food which he was permitted to take. 34 Afterwards when the law was given, a distinction was made between clean and unclean animals; for the purpose of preparing mankind for the fasts which in due season they would be required to observe under the Gospel.-One argument urged by Tertullian in favor of fasting is, that it fitted the Christian to encounter the bodily hardships to which the profession of his faith exposed him. 36 Another is grounded on the natural tendency of fasting to render the intellectual and moral faculties vigorous and active; whereas a full stomach weighs down the soul, rendering it unfit for contemplation, and devotional exercises, and intercourse with heaven. This remark our author confirms by the examples of Moses and Elias; who fasted forty days and forty nights, when they were admitted to the Divine Presence.

37

From this treatise and from other parts of Tertullian's writings we learn, that the fasts

34 c. 5. Compare adv. Marcionem, L. ii. c. 18.

observed by the Church in his day were I. 38 The Paschal Fast, which consisted in a total abstinence from food (Jejunium) during the interval between Christ's passion and resurrection. This was considered as obligatory upon all Christians. II. Stationary Days, 39 Dies Stationarii, Wednesday and Friday in every week; on which a half-fast (semi-jejunium) was kept, terminating at three in the afternoon. These were 40 voluntary fasts, and observed on the authority of Tradition; Wednesday being selected, because on that day the Jews took counsel to destroy Christ; and Friday, because that was the day of his

38 Certe in Evangelio illos dies jejuniis determinatos putant, in quibus ablatus est sponsus (Matt. ix. 15.) et hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum, abolitis legalibus et propheticis vetustatibus. De Jejuniis, c. 2. Compare c. 13. sub in. c. 14. De Oratione, c. 14.

39 Cur Stationibus quartam et sextam Sabbati dicamus? De Jejuniis, c. 14. Sic et Apostolos observâsse, nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum et in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum; proinde nec stationum, quæ et ipsæ suos quidem dies habeant, quartæ feriæ et sextæ; passivè tamen currant, neque sub lege præcepti; neque ultra supremam diei, quando et orationes fere hora nona concludat, de Petri exemplo, quod Actis refertur, c. 2. See also de Oratione, c. 14. where our author supposes the word statio to be borrowed from the Military art. Si statio de militari exemplo nomen accipit; nam et militia Dei sumus. Tertullian uses the expression trium hebdomadum statione in speaking of Daniel's fast (c. 10.) De Animâ, c. 48.

40 See de Jejuniis, c. 13. sub in. Bingham, Book xxi. c. 3. Sect. 2. from Augustine, Ep. 86. or 36. ad Casulanum.

erucifixion. "The reason assigned for terminating the Statio at the ninth hour was, that

42

Peter is said in the 12 Acts of the Apostles to have gone with John into the temple, at that hour. "But whence," asks Tertullian, who contended that the Statio ought to be prolonged till the evening, "whence does it appear that the Apostles had on that day been keeping a fast? The example of St. Peter might be more plausibly alleged for terminating the fast at the sixth hour; for in another Chapter we are told that he went up to pray at that hour, and became very hungry, and would have eaten." III. Xerophagiæ, days on which it was usual to abstain from flesh and wine; in imitation perhaps of the restraint which "Daniel is stated to have im

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posed upon himself. These 15 fasts were not enjoined by the Church, but were voluntary exercises of piety on the part of individuals; and 46 some of the orthodox appear to have objected to them altogether, on the ground

46 Xerophagias vero novum affectati officii nomen et proximum Ethnicæ superstitioni, quales castimoniæ Apim, Isidem, et Magnam Matrem certorum eduliorum exceptione purificant. De Jejuniis, c. 2. See also c. 16.

that they were borrowed from the heathen superstitions.

The difference between the orthodox and Montanists, on the subject of fasting, appears to have consisted in the following particulars. With respect to the Jejunium, or total abstinence from food, the former thought that the interval between our Saviour's death and resurrection was the only period during which the Apostles observed a total fast; and consequently the only period during which fasting was of positive obligation upon all Christians. At other times it rested with themselves to determine whether they would fast or not. The 47 Montanists on the contrary contended that there were other seasons, during which fasting was obligatory; and that the appointment of those seasons constituted a part of the revelations of the Paraclete. With respect to the Dies Stationarii, the Montanists not only pronounced the fast obligatory upon all Christians, but prolonged it until the evening; instead of terminating it, as was the orthodox custom, at the ninth hour. In the observance of the

48

47 De Jejuniis, cc. 1, 13.

48 De Jejuniis, c. 1. Quod Stationes plerumque in vesperam producamus.