Men may fancy, they are only guilty of gluttony, who eat till they surfeit their bodies. They may think those only guilty of drunkenness, who drink till they have lost their senses. But there is a much surer rule to go by; whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. All therefore in eating and drinking that is not to the glory of God, is offered to something that is not the glory of God; it is offered to the corruption and sensuality of our natures. It is the sin of intemperance; and is indevotion too, when indulged at a time that keeps us from the public worship of God.
XIV. *Indeed a constant course of full feeding is the death of the soul, and every day that is a day of such happiness, is a day lost to religion.
When a man has rejoiced himself with full eating and drinking, he is like any other animal, disposed only to play or idleness. He has no more feeling of sin than he has of hunger, and can no more perceive himself to be a miserable fallen creature, than he can perceive himself to be a beggar.
For this course of sensual enjoyments, is as contrary to a true sense of sin, as it is contrary to a state of beggary and want; and a man in such happiness, can no more feel the weight of sin, than he can feel himself in the misery of poverty.
XV. I know some object, that fasting is not an universal duty; but fit for some particular cases, and particular constitutions.
To this I answer, if by fasting you mean an entire abstinence from food, for such a space of time, in this sense it is not an universal duty.
But this is quite a wrong notion of it. For the fasting whereof I speak is not any fixed degree of abstinence from all food: but, such an exercise of abstinence and self-denial as is proper to every one’s particular state.
Now in this sense fasting is as constant and universal a duty as repentance.
For as repentance is an universal duty, because the reason of it is common to all men; so is fasting, because sensuality, and fleshly lusts, is the universal corruption of all men.
It is no fixed degree of sorrow that is the common repentance of all men. It is no fixed form or length or hour of prayer, that is the common devotion of all men. Yet are these constant and universal duties.