ROOT 20 D But plenteous Avon strives tiro The first to be at sea; and faster her to his darby, adria Sens Clear Kessilgum comes in, with Hergum by Drayton Poly-olbion, song 9. bug Jest to doit sidston A" stay aids bodied Seianus hearing this answere was nothing pleased, not so much in regard of the marriage, as because he feared Tiberius's secret suspicions; the rumour of the people; and enuie which grew fast vpon him 1991 owl to abrosqiny Greneway. Tacitus, fol. 103.d ទេ។qន ន reverend man, that man, that graz'd his aldub sig s scattle stod of (Sometime a blisterer, that the ruffle knew abus wol stro juq bofcourt, of city, and had let go by nied mod 900 to bus broThe swiftest hours) observed as they flewu onojabad diw snowards this afflicted fancy fastly drew. ad no 19nions rabbid od elwod srl Shakspeare, Lover's Complaint. 591 Balon J2918919 90 ad tug And if thou tell'st the heaule story right,oid dis19 094T Vpon my soule, the hearers will shed tearest silt to 979 1970 bold and sun shed fast-falling teares, alas, it was a pittious deed 9 lbbim od lug of mobeHenry HiwFirst Past, foll 1522 dos a Now to Marina b bend your mind to be Whom our Fast-growing scene must find owt sit bren 19blorAd Tharsus, Jesumem mssed. Pericles, act iv. sc. 1.28 adz ted Here the rude clamour of the sportsmen's joy, Yu Hait Tas JuoThe gun fast-thundering, and the winded horn, notabead Jentoft Would tempt the Muse to sing the rural gamed T bus ano dem bas gaina silt of 25motebe Thomson, Autumn, d aidread the next letters from Halland, will bring us air account of the duke'sh army being cut off in the whole, con in part. All my predictions are now verifying too fast. abro ed vs de

งา 101 Chesterfield. Works, yol iv, p. 45, book ji, lett. 28.lt Oft the wet web is steep'd, and often rais'd, cu o தினை ப Fast-dripping, to the river's full-strain'd strength, ar beWring out the latent water. b 910 970s band sadni 1979 75 Dyer. The Fleece, book it

And sinewy arms of men, wassy bankioli Joa

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Mallet. Amyntor and Theodora

FAST,U. Goth. fastan ; A S. fæst-ans FAST, 79.11 Sw. fasta; D. vasten; Ger. fasten, FASTER, jejunare ; which (Wachter thinks) FASTING, is the verb, Fasten, servare, to keep, FASTINGLY, to guard, to secure, applied to the FASTING DAY. keeping or observing a rite of the church; observare and jejunare, he remarks, are frequently found synonymous in ecclesiastical writers. Applied to the peculiar rite of abstaining from food, as a religious observance, and then extended to such abstinence from any cause. To fast, then, will mean

"

To observe or keep, sei abstinence from food; and thus, consequentially, to forbear from food; to abstain from food mot hot 207 2007

His flesshe wolde haue charged him with Tatnesse, but that the wontonnesse of his wombe with trauaill and fasting he adaunteth, and in riding & goyng trauayleth myghteliche his youthe. 999 R. Gloucester, p. 482. n. 7. The PV any gole bus si am 9 Vigiles and fastyng dayes. fortheremore to knowe And fulfille po fastinges.

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Piers Plothman. Visión, p. 159. But whaone thou fastist anointe thin heed, and waische thi face: that thou be not seen fastyng to men, but to thi fadir that is in hidlis, and thi fadir that seeth in hidlis schal yelde to thee.

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Wiclif. Matthew, ch. vi. But y, when thou fastest, annoynt thyne head, and wash thy face, appeare not vite men how y thou fastest: but vnto thy father yit which is in secrete & thy father which seith in secrete shal rewarde the openlye Tom Too is a Bible, Anno 1551. Ta hungur and thirst, in manye fastings, in coold and nakidnesse Wieli 2 Corynthians, ch. xi

Chaucer The Persones Tale, vol. ii. p. 385. And when thei wene all shall be wele, 5900 Thei ben downe throwe at lasten 101 67 Than am I fed of that faste, se OS fot And taugh, of that I see them loure.

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to que Gower. Conf Am. book ii, fol, 29 Nowe harken what "difference ought to be betwene youre fastes, and theyrs, yf ye wil haue them acceptable to the father, and profitable to yourselves. It is not the forbearing of the meat that commendeth fastyng vnto Gods but the pure and cleaue affeccion of the minde, feruently desiring to please God only be bu Udallon or Matthew, ch. vi, Thyncke ye thys fast pleaseth me, that a man should chasten him selfe for a a daye, and to wrythe his head about lyke an hoke in an heerry cloth, and to lye vpon the earth, at m

seuen dayes fasting and trauel of hymselfe and hys people through In the which, (for as much as he [Moses] first rested ther after the deserrtes of Arabia) he hallowed the seventh day, and called it after the manner and vsage of the countrie, the Sabboth day, commaundyng it to be kept Fastyng-day for euer after to the worldesend, because that day had made an end of all their trauill and hunger. Arthur Goldyng. Justine, book xxxvi. fol. 138. Some with a whip their pamper'd bodyes beate, Others in fasting live, and seldom eate.

Browne. Britannia's Pastorals, book i. song 5.
I have even wearied heav'n with pray'rs, dried up
The spring of my continual tears, even stary'd
My veins with daily fasts.

Ford. Tis Pity She's a Whore, act i. sc. 2.

I see Moses the receiver of the law, Elias the restorer of the law, Christ the fulfiller of the old law and author of the new, all fasting forty dayes: and these three great fasters I finde together glorious in Hall. Cont. vol. i. fol. 870. Of the Vaile of Moses.

6. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickednesse, to undo the heavi burdens and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye every yoke.

7. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out, to thy house? when thou seest the laked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh. suit to 'bban adt Bible, Modern Version, Isaiah, ch. lviii

For months together these creatures of sufferance, whose very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, without sedition or disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by an hundred a day in the streets of Madras.

Burke. On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts.

Others there are, and not a few,
Who place it in the bug-bear view!
Think it consists in strange severities:
In fastings, weepings and austerities.

Dodsley. Religion, a Simile.
Tillotson in a fast-sermon on a thanksgiving occasion, 31st January,
1689, says, Twenty-years agone.
Tooke. Diversions of Purley, vol. i. p. 467.

The only FAST appointed by Moses was that on the Day of Expiation, (Lev. xvi. 29;) and although the Of the Jews. Jewish Fasts afterwards became very numerous, they must all, with this single exception, be considered of private institution. Of the miraculous Fast of Moses himself, (Exod. xxxiv. 28,) of Elijah, (1 Kings, xix. 8,) and of our Saviour, (Matt. iv. 2,) it is scarcely necessary to speak in this place. We find three instances of occasional Fasting in the Old Testament: 1. by Joshua and the Elders, after the defeat of Israel by the men of Ai, (Josh. vii. 6.) 2. By the eleven Tribes after their defeat at Gibeah, (Judges, xx. 26.) 3. By David over his sick child, (2 Sam. xii. 16;) and Zechariah (viii. 19) has mentioned four Fasts, (one of them that of the Day of Expiation,) as if they were generally observed. Ezra kept a Fast at the river of Ahava, (viii. 21;) part of Daniel's humiliation was Fasting, (ix. 1 ;) a Fast proclaimed for all the residents in, and visitors to Jerusalem is noticed by Jeremiah, (xxxvi. 9 ;) and Joel prescribes a Fast when announcing the judgments of God, i. 14.

Lewis, in his Antiquities of the Hebrew Republic, (iv. 15,) has given from the Rabbi Maimonides (Taanith. ii.) many particulars concerning the Jewish Fasts. They were kept

"When they are afflicted by their enemies in a siege, by the sword, pestilence, a hurtful beast, locusts, the caterpillar, mildew, blasting, abortions, diseases, scarcity of bread, and drought. These public Fasts were not appointed for many days successively; because it was impossible to observe them with a proper severity; but upon the second and fifth days of the week, that by that intermission they might the better give themselves up to mortification and abstinence; for upon these solemn seasons they never refreshed themselves with eating till the evening; and their public Fasts began an hour before the sun was down, and continued strictly till midnight the following day; but they were allowed to indulge freely before they entered upon the time of Fasting. Upon these days sackcloth was worn next the skin, the clothes were rent, which were expressions of the greatest heaviness and sorrow. All public diversions were forbidden, no shoes were worn; there was no washing the hands or face, no bathing of the body, no anointing with oil, but ashes were sprinkled upon the head; they lay down in the dust, the Temple and Synagogues were thronged with votaries, the

Scriptures were read with a loud voice, their prayers FASTS. were long and lamentable, their conversation grave and full of the business of the day, their countenance dejected, with all the outward signs of the most serious devotion and repentance.

"The same Rabbi, (Ib. ch. i.) speaking of the Fasts of private persons, gives an account of the occasions that obliged a man to Fast for private afflictions. If any that belonged to him be sick, or lost in the wilderness, or confin'd in prison, he was bound to Fast in his behalf. It was usual for a single person to devote himself to stated and repeated Fasts for the sake of Religion, even when there was no calamity or afflic tion of life to urge him to it; and those that did so observed the same days and severities as were used at those solemn times that were commanded by the public authority of the State.

"The public Fasts are disposed in the Jewish Calendar in this order:

"In the first Month of the Ecclesiastical Year (the month Ahib or Nisan) were appointed, upon the first day, a Fast upon the account of the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, (Levit. x. 1;) on the tenth, for the death of Miriam; and on the 26th, for the death of Joshua.

"In the second Month (the month Iyar) upon the tenth day, a Fast for the death of Eli, and because the Ark was captivated by the Philistines; upon the twentyeighth, a Fast for the death of Samuel.

"In the third Month (the month Sivan) upon the twenty-third day, a Fast because the revolted Tribes were hindered by Jeroboam from bringing their Firstfruits to Jerusalem.

"In the fourth Month (the month Tamuz) upon the seventeenth day, a Fast because the City was set on fire by the Chaldeans, (Jer. lii. 6.)

In the fifth Month (the month Ab) upon the ninth day, a Fast for the destruction of the Temple by the Chaldeans and the Romans after them. These Fasts of the fourth and fifth months are mentioned by the Prophet Zechariah as observ'd annually from the Desolation of Jerusalem to his time, which was seventy years, (Zech. viii. 19.) Upon the eighteenth day, a Fast because the Evening Lamp went out in the reign

of Ahaz.

"In the sixth Month (the month Elul) upon the seventeenth day, a Fast upon the account of the death of the Spies who brought an evil report upon the land.

"In the seventh Month (the Month Tisri) upon the third day, a Fast for Gedaliah, who was slain at Mispah, and all the Jews that were with him were scattered. Upon the seventh day, a Fast because of the sin of the Golden Calf.

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In the eighth Month (the month Marhesvan) upon the sixth day, a Fast for the misfortunes of Zedekiah, who had his children killed before his face, and then his eyes put out by the command of the King of Babylon. Upon the nineteenth day, a Fast to atone for the sins the People had been guilty of upon the account of the Feast of Tabernacles. Upon the twenty-third day, (1 Macc. iv. 46,) a Fast because the Sanctuary was made desolate and the Altar profaned by the Syrians.

"In the ninth Month (the month Cisleu) upon the seventh day, a Fast upon the account of Jehoiakim, who burnt the Book of the Prophecy of Jeremiah that was written by Baruch.

FASTS.

"In the tenth Month (the month Tebeth) upon the tenth day, a Fast, because in that month the Chaldeans began the Siege of Jerusalem.

"In the eleventh Month (the month Shebet) upon the fourth day, a Fast in memory of those just men who died in the days of Joshua. Upon the twenty-third day, (Judg. ii. 10,) a Fast because of the War between the other Tribes and that of Benjamin, occasioned by the death of the Levite's wife.

"In the twelfth Month (the month Adar) upon the seventh day, a Fast in memory of the death of Moses. There are many other Fasts to be met with at this time in the Jewish Calendar, which, because they relate to matters of small importance, and were instituted, it is supposed, since the destruction of their Nation and Government, deserve no mention in this place."

In the IIId Chapter of Jonah, the Prophet describes the rigid Fast which the King of Nineveh proclaimed after hearing the denunciation against himself and his people, and which succeeded in averting the wrath of Heaven; during its continuance neither man nor beast was permitted either to eat or drink any thing, they were both covered with sackcloth, and, as it is expressed with the energy of Eastern metaphor, they were to "cry mightily unto God."

The two days in the week on which the Pharisee (Luke, xviii. 12) boasted that he Fasted, were the second and the fifth, (Maimonides, Taanith. i.;) Monday, in memory of the ascent of Moses to Sinai; Thursday, of his descent. The Romans, who, from the contempt which they entertained for every thing connected with the Hebrew Polity and History, were perpetually mistaken as to Jewish customs, maintained that this People observed the Sabbath-day as a Fast. Ne Judæus quidem, mi Tiberi, writes Augustus to his successor, tam diligenter Sabbatis jejunium servat quam ego hodie servari, (Suet. Octav. 76;) and Justin, in the passage cited above from Goldyng's translation, not content with a blunder, proceeds to assign an equally blundering reason for it. Tacitus also, though not so wide of the mark, seems to imply the same reason, longam olim famem crebris adhuc jejuniis fatentur, (Hist. v. 4.)

A line has often been cited from Juvenal as another evidence of this mistake of the Romans.

vi. 159.

Observant ubi festa mero pede Sabbata Reges, But the sarcasm of the Poet is here directed to a widely different object; namely, the taking off the shoes which the Jews, in common with other Orientals, practised in approaching holy ground. Martial (iv. 4) more directly refers to the accredited and mistaken notion concerning the Jews, when, among other evil smells, he notices that produced by the Jejunia Sabatriorum. If the Epigrammatist had lived long enough, he might have learned that the Jews not only do not Fast upon their Sabbaths, but that the Rabbis especially forbid Fasting on that day; and, moreover, he might have read in Sir Thomas Brown," that an unsavoury odor is gentilitious or national unto the Jews," (or, as he has before given it in plainer speech, "that Jews naturally stink, that is, that in their race and nation there is an evil savor,")" if rightly understood, we cannot well concede, nor will the information of reason or sense induce it:" and, as if he were directly controverting Martial's assertion in particular, he goes on,

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"They observe not only Fasts at certain times, but are FASTS. restrained unto very few dishes at all times.... so that observing a spare and simple diet, whereby they prevent the generation of crudities, and Fasting often, whereby they might also digest them, they must be less inclinable unto this infirmity than any other nation, whose proceedings are not so reasonable to avoid it." (Vulgar Errors, iv. 10.)

Herodotus (ii. 40) mentions, that the Egyptians of the prepared themselves by Fasting for the celebration, of Egyptians the great Festival of Isis.-So also, on a similar occasion, did the women of Cyrene, (Id. iv. 186.) On the sixteenth day of the Athenian Thesmophoria the free- Athenians. born women, by whom the rites were celebrated, kept a Fast (vnoτéla) sitting on the ground. So too, in the Eleusinian Mysteries, those who had been initiated only into the lesser rites did not taste food till the stars appeared; for which abstinence a reason has been prettily assigned by Ovid, namely, that Ceres, when in search of her ravished daughter, then first inadvertently broke her mourning fast, (the meal was a light one,) with a few poppy seeds.

Quæ quia principio posuit jejunia noctis,
Tempus habent Mystæ sidera visa cibi.
Fasti, iv. 535.

turies before the Christian æra, v. c. 561, some fearful Ceres also had her Fasts at Rome. Nearly two cen- Romans. prodigies were announced to the Senate. Showers of Jove's own Temple, and some shops round the Forum at Minturna, had been damaged by lightning, so also had two vessels in the river Vulturnus; but, above all, in the eternal City itself, two tame oxen had run up the stairs of a house in the region Carine, and mounted to the very roof. The unhappy beasts were ordered by the Aruspices to be burned alive, and their ashes to be cast into the Tiber, and a Senatusconsultum was passed, instructing the proper officers (decemviri) to consult the Sibylline Books. The response quennial Fast to Ceres. (Liv. xxxvi. 37.) It has been instructed them, among other things, to institute a quinthought, that even during the Augustan Age the Ro

stones had fallen both at Tarracina and Amiternum.

mans in general observed a weekly Fast to Jupiter on Thursdays, the day under his peculiar protection; and the opinion has been founded or supported on that passage in Horace in which the fond mother vows to Jove, that if her son recovers from his quartan ague he shall stand naked in the Tiber.

Illo

Gesner, however, in his note on these lines, with much greater probability refers them to the custom of the Jews, who (as we have before shown) Fasted on Thursdays, and whose superstitions were becoming prevalent anong many Romans.

Neither our Saviour nor the Apostles left any pre- Primitive cept respecting Fasting, although it is mentioned by Christians. the former in conjunction with Almsgiving and Prayer. It is probable, however, that it was early practised among the Christians as a private act of devotion; but no public Fast is spoken of in the most ancient times, save that on the day of Crucifixion In the IIId cen tury the custom became more prevalent, and it was considered of especial efficacy against the evil influence of Demons. (Clementin. Hom. ix sec. 9.) – (mm2 lak