[493:2] Joshua vii. 6; Esther iv. 1; Isaiah lviii. 5; Ezek. xxvii. 30.
[494:1] See a "Memorial concerning Personal and Family Fasting," by the pious Thomas Boston. Edinburgh, 1849.
[494:2] Matt. ix. 15.
[494:3] Lev. xxiii. 27.
[494:4] The text Matt. ix. 15 was urged in support of this observance. See Tertullian, "De Jejun." c. ii.
[494:5] "Wednesday being selected because on that day the Jews took counsel to destroy Christ, and Friday because that was the day of His crucifixion."—Kaye's Tertullian, p. 418. As Wednesday was dedicated to Mercury and Friday to Venus, this fasting, according to Clement, signified to the more advanced disciple, that he was to renounce the love of gain and the love of pleasure. Kaye's "Clement," p. 454.
[495:1] These Xerophagiae, or Dry Food Days, were even now objected to by some of the more enlightened Christians on the ground that they were an import from heathenism. Tertullian, "De Jejun." c. ii.
[495:2] Col. ii. 23.
[495:3] Thus Cyprian, Epist. liii. p. 169, speaks of a penance of three years' duration.
[496:1] Socrates, v. c. 19.