expounds these words of fasting; and so also do Theophylact and St. Ambrose. And of the advantages of it in this respect, St. Cyprian, St. Basil, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, and in the office for Prime the whole Church sings, " Carnis terat superbiam potus cibique Parcitas." [1]
Another advantage is, that we honour God by our fasts, because when we fast for His sake, we honour Him: thus the apostle Paul speaks in his Epistle to the Romans: " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." (chap, xii.) In the Greek, "reasonable service," is, reasonable worship: and of this worship St. Luke speaks, when mentioning the prophetess Anna: " And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day." (chap. ii. 37.) The great Council of Nice in the V. Canon, calls the fast of Lent, "a clean and solemn gift, offered by the Church to God." In the same manner doth Tertullian speak in his book on the "Resurrection of the Flesh," where he calls dry, unsavoury food taken late, " sacrifices pleasing to God:" and St. Leo, in his second sermon on fasting saith, " For the sure reception of all its fruits, the sacrifice
- ↑ Moderation in food and drink, tames the pride of the flesh.
