the Sabbath take no long Journeys on it from doing thy pleasure on my Holy Day Honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words Indeed the Weekly Sabbath lays a claim to all the things here spoken of nevertheless I suspect that a Fasting Sabbath is here more peculiarly intended A Fast is no less than twice in one verse Lev. 23.32 called a Sabbath and why may not that be the Sabbath more especially meant throughout the whole fifty eighth Chapter of Isaiah An Expression twice used in the verse newly quoted namely Doiâ—â—â— thy pleasure and Finding thy own pleasure on the Sabbath occurs in the third verse In the Day of your Fast you find pleasure which finding of pleasure is opposed unto the Affliction both of Spirit and of Body wherein we are to Judge our selves on such a Solemnity Because we do not Fast with a due conformity to the Edicts of Heaven therefore as of old Pompey Siezed the Jewish Temple on their Fast-Day and Sosius on their Fast-Day took the City so we in this Land have on oâ— near our Fast-Dayes often felt such Rebukes of Heaven that it has become the just Astonishment of many that have wisely observed it and it should be the Humiliation of us all But now conform to this Expectation of Heaven on your Fast Then shalt thou Delight thy self in the Lord for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it III. That our Humiliation may bâ— Quickeneâ— Let us Humbly Awfully and Mournâ—â—ily Consider the most Humbling Circumstances which the Mighty Hand of God hath brought us into Iâ— was the Counsel in 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the Mighty Hand of God Wicked and Hurtful men have been called The Hand of God see Psal 17.14 It may be Nero a Mighty man Raised by God for the Vexation of mankind may be more particularly designed in that passage The Mighty Hand of God And by a French Nero have we also been so vexed that we have cause to Humble our selves under what we have Endured from that Mighty Hand But indeed there is the Mighty Hand of God in all Afflictive Dispensations of His Providence and now O Let us Humble our selves by Considering how much the Dispensations of His Mighty Hand have Humbled us The Circumstances of Affliction are Humbling Circumstances It was said of the Afflicted in Psal 107.39 They are brought Low through Affliction It was said by the Afflicted in Psal 39 8. We are brought very Lâ—w. An Afflicted people may say as the Afflicted Paul said My God Humbles me Afflictions keep under our Aspiring Spiâ—its and make us feel and own our own wretchedness But Oh! what Afflictions has this poor people been Humbled withal It was a Prophecy concerning The Daughter of Zion in Isa 3.26 She being Desolate shall sit upon the Ground When Zion was Desolate by the Roman Conquest unto which this Prophecy might Extend there were Coins made in Commemoration of that Conquest and on those Coins there was a Remarkable Exposition of this Prophecy On the Reverse of those Medals which are to be seen unto this Day there is A Silent Woman sitting upon the Ground and leaning against a Palm-tree with this Inscription IUDAEA CAPTA Nor was any Conquered City or Countrey before this of Judaea ever thus drawn upon Medals as A Woman sitting upon the Ground Alas If poor New-England were to be shown upon her old Coin we might show her Leaning against her Thunder-struck Pine tree Desolate sitting upon the Ground Ah! New England Upon how many Accounts mayst thou say with her in Ruth 1 13. The Hand of the Lord is gone out against me An Excellent Minister who dyed among us a Young Man Considerably more than Twenty years ago It was Mr. John Eliot the younger when he lay on his Death-bed and was Drawing his Presagious Breath had these Memorable Expressions My Lord Jesus Christ hath been a Great while preparing a Mansion which is now ready for me He will quickly take me as He did John by the Right Hand and present me unto the Father who has Loved me with an Everlasting Love As for New England I believe that God will not Unchurch it but He will make a Poor and Afflicted People in it Boston and the Massachuset Colony is Coming Down Coming Down Coming Down a pace Expect sad and sore Afflictions but Oh! Get an Interest in the Lord Jesus Christ and you may Live on That all the World over So spoke an Eminent Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was just Entring into the Joy of His Lord. Now this Praediction we have seen very terribly Accomplished It has been Strangely and Sadly Accomplished ever since the Time that it was uttered And in almost all our Concerns our Story hath been that in Judg. 2.15 Whithersoever they went out the Hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and they were greatly Distressed We have been Humbled with an Annual Blast upon our Daily Bread until at last the very Staff of the Countrey ha's been broken for Two years together and an horrible Cry for Bread Bread hath been heard in our Streets We have been Humbled with such Losses by Sea Land that Strangers afar off take notice of it Concluding Surely Almighty God is in ill Terms with that Country We have been Humbled by the Angels of Death shooting the Arrows of Death with direful Repetitions of Mortality in the midst of us We have been Humbled by a Barbarous Adversary once and again let loose to Wolve it upon us and an unequal Contest with such as are not a People but a Foolish Natiâ—n We have been Humbled by all Adversity vexing us in our Going out our Coming in and in the Constant Miscarriages of our most Likely Expeditions We have been Humbled by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts Darkning our Land when Evil Angels broke in among us to do those Amazing Things of which no Former Ages give a parallel We have been Humbled by the Ireful and the Direful Rebukes of Heaven upon all our Precious and Pleasant Things But above all by Spiritual Plagues whereto we are abandoned The Plagues of a Blind Mind and an Hard Heart and an Astonishing Unfruitfulness under all the Means of Grace and a Stupid Insensibility of the Causes for which the Manners in which the Almighty God is Contending with us have Siezed upon us Some of our Seers have a mist before their Eyes Some of our Churches fall asleep till they are stript of their Garments under the Sharpest Chastisements of Heaven we grow worse and worse with such a Swift Apostasy that if we Degenerate the Next Ten Years as the most Impartial observers do say that we have done the Last God be Merciful unto us What a Swift Destruction are we likely to be overwhelmed withal Now there is a Loud Voice in all these things the Voice of them is Be Humbled O
be a Canaan for the Rest the Peace the Plenty which would be therein vouchsafed unto us II. The Exercises of a Sacred Fast have a particular and peculiar Character of Humiliation in them and we are to Humble our selves with Fasting before the Lord. Thus the Psalmist of old manifested his Humiliation in Psal 35.13 I Humbled my Soul with Fasting There is that Call Now and Often perhaps not often enough heard thro' the Province in Joel 1.14 Sanctify a Fast Call a Solemn Assembly Gather the Elders and all the Inhabitants of the Land into the House of your God and Cry unto the Lord. And I perswade my self that we generally concur in the General Principle hitherto Espoused by the Church of God in every Generation That a Religions Fast is a Needful Duty pro Temporibus et Causis as Tertullian long since well stated it on Just and Great Occasions for it That Merry Sect who Explode Fasting as a thing not Agreeable to our Gospel Times appear not among us We know that Fasting hath in all Agâ—s been esteem'd a Duty incumbent on the People of God We find such Fasting used in Elder Times Judg. 20.26 and 1 Sam. 7.6 Both more publickly 2 Chron. 20.30 and Ezr. 8 21. And more privately 2 Sam. 12.16 Neb. 1.4 What tho' these things were in the Dayes of the Old-Testament I hope the Old Testament is not become Apocâ—ypha with any of us But in the New-Testament also we have a Praediction of our Fasting Math. 9.15 Yea and a Praescription for it Mâ—th 6.16 For dâ—ing it more pubâ—ickly we have 〈◊〉 Wâ—â—rant Act. 14.23 and more privately too 1 Cor. 7.5 Yea we are told that there are certain Blessings which cannot now be obtained but in such a way Mar. 9.29 And I am sure of one thing more when the Apostles and the Believers in the Primitive Times were most Filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ then it was that they were most in Fasting before the Lord Now if our Fast be such a Fast as the Lord hath chosen we shall therein Humble our selves most acceptably most profitably most efficaciously And because the Right Performance of this Duty is a thing of great Consequence in Christianity 't is what is frequently required and much Weal or Wo will follow upon the management of it I will set before you the Rules of that Sacred Fast wherein we are to Humble our Souls Having first Praepared our selves for our Fast as one would for an Extraordinary Sabbath we have these things to do First There is the Internal Humiliation of our Fast The Duties of Praying Repenting and Believing are the Soul of that Fast wherein we are to Humble our Souls and we are to Labour in those Duties The Duties of a Fast are those in 2 Chron. 7.14 My People shall then Humble themselves and Pray and Seek my Face and Turn from their wicked wayes For men to think that they Serve God by a Fast wherein they do nothing but Fast from Corporal Sustenance and they draw not near to God in Devotions all the Day long 't is a plece of Ignorance yea more than one Commandment of God is broken by this piece of Ignorance When we Celebrate a Fast we are in more than ordinary Prayers to Acknowledge our own Sinfulness and the Greatness and Justice of God in Chastising our Sinfulness and we are to Supplicate those Favours of Heaven which our Sins our Wants and our Fears make Necessary for us The Thing which we have to do on a Fast is what the Praying Daniel did in Dan. 9.3 I set my Face unto the Lord God to seek by Prayer and Supplications with Fasting And haing thus Quoted the Ninth Chapter of Daniel I may Remark That there are Three Nâ—nths which admirably well describe the Task of a Fast unto us the Ninth Chapter of Ezra the Ninth Chapter of Nehemiah and the Ninth Chapter of Daniel When the Fast comes Remember Christians to consult those Three Chapters with Lively Meditations thereupon A Day of Fast is to be a Day of Prayer As in Act. 13.3 so elsewhere Fasting and Praying are what God has joyned and here Man may not separate them Would you hear what you have to Do when a Fast is to be kept The words of an Order for a Fast once ran so in Jon. 3.8 Cry mightily unto God Prayer 't is That whereof the Jewes in one of their Ancient Adagies tell us Nulla est pulchrior virtus hac ipsa There is no vertue like it It is beyond all Oblations But Repenting and Believing as well as Praying must signalize our Fast Reconciliation with God is the End of a Fast without Repenting and Believing this Reconciliation is not applied unto us A Fast is but a Form an Hungry and Empty Form if we do not therein heartily Repent of our Miscarriages Thus we are advised in Isa 58.6 7 8. Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To Loose the Bonds of Wickedness On a Fast Let us be those Ephraimites who shail bemoan themselves Thou hast Chastised me O Lord and I was Chastised Turn thou me and I shall be Turned On a Fast Let us take those Directions in the midst of our Lamentations Let us Search and Try our ways and Turn again unto the Lord. A Fasting Day must be a Soul grieving Day and a Sin killing Day or 't is nothing Our Fast are to Slay our Lusts those are the Beasts which are then to be slaughtered Indeed when ever a Fast recurrs we should go the whole Work of Conversion over again Our Fast will notably be Ciâ—us virtutis if we do so Again The Satisfaction and Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ must on a Fast â—e Repaired unto and we must Beâ—â—eve in it for our Atonement It was the â—ite appointed for a Fast in Lev. 16.27 â—0 The Blood of the Sin Offering must be â—rought in to make Atonement On that Day all the Priest make Atonement for you to â—eanse you that you may be clean from all â—ur Sins before the Lord. Our Lord Jesus â—hrist is our Priest What He hath done â—r our Atonement must be this Day â—ith a strong Faith Laid hold upon A Fast is a Day of Expiation but we know it is only the Lord Jesus Christ that hath by His Unknown Sufferings as the Greek Church at this Day expressâ—s it made Expiation for our Sins Hence on a Fast we must Renew the Dependance of our Souls on the Obedience which our Lord Jesus Christ our Surety hath yielded unto God for us Our Sin has procured the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ In a Fast our Faith is to Feed upon it A Fasting Day is with Faith a Feeding Day In our Fasts we are to Imitate the Action of the Molossians who seeking the Kings Good will unto them took the Son of the King into their Arms and presenting themselves thus before him said Syr For the sake of this your Son we hope you
'l be favourable to us Thus Let us present our selves before the Eternal King of Heaven on our Fast with His Only Begotten His Dearly Beloved Son in the Arms of our Faith and plead Oh! for the Sake of this thy Son do Good unto us But then Secondly There is the External Humiliation of our Fast when we Humble our selves in a Fast we are to Abstain from all our Secular Pleasures and Affayrs that we may the better go thorough our Duties Like Silly Children we know not when to Feed and when to Forbear Feeding But our Good God in His Word has taught us We are Taught that we must sometimes have a Day for Fasting which must be a Day of Restraint upon us and this Restraint must Extend unto the Dimensions of a Sabbath Of a Fast it is prescribed in Lev. 23.32 It shall be unto you a Sabbath of Rest and ye shall Afflict your Souls from Evening unto Evening shall ye Celebrate your Sabbath The Design of the Abstinence thus to be used on a Fast is not only that we may be more free for the several Spiritual Employments which are then incumbent on us our Lord like a wife Falconer will by keeping of us a little Sharp fit us for the Highest Flights in our Prayers but also to Show and Speak the Humiliation of our Souls in those Employments T is a Ceremony of Gods Appointment a Symbolical Ceremony which God Himself hath appointed and a part of Worship whereby we are to Signify That we 〈◊〉 our selves utterly unworthy of all those Blessings which we now Deny unto our selves and therefore of all other Blessings whatsoeever And the First Sin of man which Lay in Eating is to be considered as very particularly herein referred unto Now First A Fast is to be kept with an Abstinence from the Pleasures of this Life Our usual Diet must on a Fast be Abstained from It was therefore said in Esth 4.16 Fast and neither Eat nor Drink The very Term of a Fast implies thus much and it hath been of old said They that will not so Fast with the Children of God must Eat and Drink of the Furious Wrath of God with the Wicked There are indeed Cases of Necessity wherein our merciful God call for Mercy rather than Sacrifice and in those Cases doubtless the Abstinence may be somewhat Abated and Relaxed Some cannot Encounter a severe and a total Abstinence it would utterly Disable them for the Service of the Day the Severity may then be mitigated Yet our Abstinence must be such as to produce our Affliction Of a Fast it is said in Isa 58.5 It is a Day for a man to Afflict his Soul and it is said in Lev. 23.29 Whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be Afflicted in that same Day he shall be cut off from among his people We may not Eat or Drink so much nor may we Eat or Drink so well on such a Day as at another Time In the Fast of a Daniel we have this Abstinence observed ch 10.3 late no pleasant Bread neither came Flesh nor Wine into my mouth neither did I anoint my self at all And in Tertullians Time they had their Xerophagiae a Dry sort of Repast for such as found that a Rigid Fast was too hard for them But by consequence all other Delights of the Senses are then also to be avoided If you read Joel 2.16 and 〈◊〉 Cor. 7.5 You 'l find a particular prohibition of this Importance Hence likewise our Sleep is then to be Retrenched If we are inclinable to Sleep so long on a Fast as we do on another Day we are to Awakeâ— our selves with such a Call from God as that What meanest thou O Sleeper Arise and Caâ—l upon thy God! And it is not improper here to be noted That our Alms are to be one Concomitant of our Fasts It was said in Isa 58 7. Is 〈◊〉 this the Fast that I have Chosen Is it 〈◊〉 to deal thy Bread to the Hungry When we come to seek Mercy of God we should in Thankfulness for our Hope to find what we seek show Mercy to men In our Fasting we Deny to our selves our usual Nourishments and we should then Bestow on others at least as much as we Deny to our serves in Token of our Sense That we are more Undeserving of the Divine Bounty than any that we know in our Neighbourhood Our Alms are to go up with our Prayers as a Memorial we Remember who 's did so before God But there is yet one thing more to be added Fine Cloathes must in a Fast be Abstained from If there were no Scripture for this why might not meer Nature teach it unto us as well as unto the Ninivites But we have Scripture for it in Exod 33.4 The people mourned and no man did put on him his Ornaments I have seeâ— a Fault in this place and My Neighbours 'T is utterly a Fault among you That on a Fast many people will come to the Worship of God in as Gay Cloaths as if they were going to a Feast Methinks I hear the Holy Angels of God thus uttering their Indignation against such Offenders What will those vain people never have any sign of an Abased and an Afflicted Soul upâ—n them Truly to be arrayed in Gorgeous Apparrel on a Fast is very offensive unto God Rags are fitter than Robes for the Children of men therein to appear as Malefactors before God the Judge of all They that come to the Assembly in a splendid and flanting Attire on such a Day do but Affront the God whom they profess to Humble themselves before Would you Speed in a Fast Then be able to say if not with him in Psal 35.13 My Cloathing was Sackcloth when I Humbled my Soul with Fasting yet My Cloathing is Sober Modest Proper and very Humble And Secondly A Fast is to be kept with an Abstinence from the Affayrs of this Life The Works of our particular Vocations are to be laid aside when a Fast is Indicted and All Servile Labour on the said Day is Inhibited A Fast is to be kept with the strictness of a Sabbath It is Enjoined in Lev. 23.28 30 32. Ye shall do no work in that same Day for it is a Day of Atonement Whatsoever Soul it be that doth any work in that same Day the same Soul will I destroy from among his people It shall be unto you a Sabbath of Rest from Evening to Evening shall ye Celebrate it When the Services of the Congregation are over we are not presently at Liberty to do what we will Those persons do but help to Debauch the Land who take such a Liberty The Edicts of Heaven run so in Joel 2 14. Sanctify a Fast The whole Day of the Fast is to be Sanctified or set apart for Communion with God When we keep a Day we must keep it unto the Lord. The Expectation of our God is intimated unto us in Isa 58.13 Turn away thy Foot from