Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount Discourse VII · §61 · John Wesley

Proportion the fast

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Yes, the body may sometimes be afflicted too much, so as to be unfit for the works of our calling. This also we are diligently to guard against, for we ought to preserve our health as a good gift of God. Therefore care is to be taken whenever we fast to proportion the fast to our strength. For we may not offer God murder for sacrifice, or destroy our bodies to help our souls.

1771 text

4. Yea, the body may sometimes be afflicted too much, so as to be unfit for the works of our calling. This also we are diligently to guard against: for we ought to preserve our health, as a good gift of God. Therefore care is to be taken, whenever we fast, to proportion the fast to our strength. For we may not offer God murder for sacrifice, or destroy our bodies to help our souls.

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About this text

The seventh sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, on Matthew 6:16-18: fasting, what it is for, how it is abused, and how to keep it.

EditionPrinted in Wesley's 1771 Works, which do not say when he preached it

Wesley's own sermon in updated English wording. The 1771 panel is the text of the Works Wesley himself had printed in 1771. It is public domain.

Reference

Sermon 27 in the 1771 Works. Matthew 6:16-18.

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