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27 - Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse VII - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount Discourse seven. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a
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  Speaker 1: sad countenance, For they disfigure their faces, that they may
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  Speaker 1: appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you,
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  Speaker 1: they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
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  Speaker 1: thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not
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  Speaker 1: unto men to fast, but unto Thy Father, which is
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  Speaker 1: in secret. And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall
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  Speaker 1: reward thee openly. Matthew six sixteen eighteen. It has been
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  Speaker 1: the endeavor of Satan from the beginning of the world
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  Speaker 1: to put asunder what God hath join'd together, to separate
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  Speaker 1: inward from outward religion, to set one of these at
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  Speaker 1: variance with the other. And herein he has met with
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  Speaker 1: no small success among those who are ignorant of his devices.
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  Speaker 1: Many in all ages, having a zeal for God but
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  Speaker 1: not according to knowledge, have been strictly attached to the
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  Speaker 1: righteousness of the law, the performance of outward duties. But
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  Speaker 1: in the meantime wholly regardless of inward righteousness, the righteousness
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  Speaker 1: which is of God by faith, and many have run
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  Speaker 1: into the opposite extreme, disregarding all outward duties, perhaps even
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  Speaker 1: speaking evil of the law, and judging the law so
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  Speaker 1: far as it enjoins the performance of them. It is
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  Speaker 1: by this very device of Satan that faith and works
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  Speaker 1: have been so often set at variance with each other,
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  Speaker 1: and many who had a real zeal for God have
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  Speaker 1: for a time fallen into the snare. On either hand,
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  Speaker 1: some have magnified faith to the utter exclusion of good works,
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  Speaker 1: not only from being the cause of our justification, for
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  Speaker 1: we know that man is justified freely by the redemption
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  Speaker 1: which is in Jesus, but from being the necessary fruit, yea,
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  Speaker 1: from having any place in the religion of Jesus Christ. Others,
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  Speaker 1: eager to avoid this dangerous mistake, have run as much
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  Speaker 1: too far the contrary where and either maintained that good
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  Speaker 1: works were the cause at least the previous condition of justification,
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  Speaker 1: or spoken of them as if they were all in
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  Speaker 1: all the whole religion of Jesus Christ. In the same manner,
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  Speaker 1: have the end and the means of religion been set
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  Speaker 1: at variance with each other. Some well meaning men have
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  Speaker 1: seemed to place all religion in attending the prayers of
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  Speaker 1: the church, in receiving the Lord's supper, in hearing sermons
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  Speaker 1: and reading books of piety, neglecting meantime the end of
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  Speaker 1: all these, the love of God and their neighbor. And
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  Speaker 1: this very thing has confirmed others in the neglect, if
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  Speaker 1: not contempt, of the ordinances of God, so wretchedly abused
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  Speaker 1: to undermine and overthrow the very end they were designed
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  Speaker 1: to establish. But of all all the means of grace,
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  Speaker 1: there is scarce any concerning which men have run into
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  Speaker 1: greater extremes than that of which our Lord speaks in
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  Speaker 1: the above mentioned words, I mean religious fasting. How have
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  Speaker 1: some exalted this beyond all scripture and reason, and others
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  Speaker 1: utterly disregarded it as it were, revenging themselves by undervaluing
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  Speaker 1: as much as the former had overvalued it. Those have
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  Speaker 1: spoken of it as if it were all in all,
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  Speaker 1: if not the end itself, yet infallibly connected with it,
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  Speaker 1: these as if it were just nothing, as if it
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  Speaker 1: were a fruitless labor which had no relation at all.
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  Speaker 1: There too, whereas it is certain the truth lies between
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  Speaker 1: them both. It is not all, nor yet is it nothing.
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  Speaker 1: It is not the end, but it is a precious means.
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  Speaker 1: Thereto a means which God himself has ordained, and in
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  Speaker 1: which therefore, when it is duly used, he will surely
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  Speaker 1: give us his blessing. In order to set this in
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  Speaker 1: the clearest light, I shall endeavor to show, first what
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  Speaker 1: is the nature of fasting, and what the several sorts
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  Speaker 1: and degrees thereof. Second, what are the reasons, grounds, and
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  Speaker 1: ends of it? Thirdly, how we may answer the most
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  Speaker 1: plausible objections against it? And fourthly, in what manner it
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  Speaker 1: should be performed. I shall endeavor to show first what
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  Speaker 1: is the nature of fasting, and what the several sorts
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  Speaker 1: and degrees thereof. As to the nature of it, all
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  Speaker 1: the inspired writers, both in the Old Testament and the New,
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  Speaker 1: take the word to fast in one single sense, for
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  Speaker 1: not to eat, to abstain from food. This is so
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  Speaker 1: clear that it would be labor lost to quote the
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  Speaker 1: words of David, Neemiah, Isiah, and the prophets which followed,
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  Speaker 1: or of our Lord and his apostles, all agreeing in
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  Speaker 1: this that to fast is not to eat for a
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  Speaker 1: time prescribed to this other circumstances we usually joined by
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  Speaker 1: them of old which had no necessary connection with it.
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  Speaker 1: Such were the neglect of their apparel, the laying aside
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  Speaker 1: those ornaments which they were accustomed to wear, the putting
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  Speaker 1: on mourning, the stirring ashes upon their head, or wearing
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  Speaker 1: sackcloth next their skin. But we find little mention made
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  Speaker 1: in the New Testament of any of these indifferent circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: nor does it appear that any stress was laid upon
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  Speaker 1: them by the Christians of the Purer ages. However, some
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  Speaker 1: penitents might voluntarily use them as outward signs of inward humiliation.
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  Speaker 1: Much less did the apostles or the Christians contemporary with
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  Speaker 1: them beat or tear their own flesh. Such discipline as
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  Speaker 1: this was not unbecoming the priests or worshipers of Baal.
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  Speaker 1: The gods of the Heathens were but devils, and it
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  Speaker 1: was doubtless acceptable to their devil God when his priests
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  Speaker 1: in one Kings eighteen twenty eight cried aloud and cut
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  Speaker 1: themselves after their manner, till the blood gushed out upon them.
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  Speaker 1: But it cannot be pleasing to him, nor behume his followers,
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  Speaker 1: who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
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  Speaker 1: As to the degrees or measures of fasting, we have
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  Speaker 1: instances of some who have fasted several days together. So Moses, Elijah,
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  Speaker 1: and our blessed Lord, being endued with supernatural strength for
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  Speaker 1: that purpose, are recorded to have fasted without intermission forty
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  Speaker 1: days and forty nights. But the time of fasting, more
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  Speaker 1: frequently mentioned its scripture is one day from morning till evening.
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  Speaker 1: Ness was the fast commonly observed among the ancient Christians.
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  Speaker 1: But beside these they had also their half fasts semija junior,
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  Speaker 1: as to Tullian styles, them on the fourth and sixth
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  Speaker 1: days of the week, Wednesday and Friday throughout the year,
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  Speaker 1: on which they took no sustenance till three in the afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: the time when they returned from the public service. Nearly
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  Speaker 1: related to this is what our church seems peculiarly to
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  Speaker 1: mean by the term abstinence, which may be used when
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  Speaker 1: we cannot fast entirely by reason of sickness or bodily weakness.
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  Speaker 1: This is the easing, little, the abstaining, and part the
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  Speaker 1: taking a smaller quantity of food than usual. I do
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  Speaker 1: not remember any scriptural instance of this, but neither can
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  Speaker 1: I condemn it, for the scripture does not. It may
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  Speaker 1: have its use and receive a blessing from God. The
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  Speaker 1: lowest kind of fasting, if it can be called by
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  Speaker 1: that name, is the abstaining from pleasant food. Of this
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  Speaker 1: we have several instances in scripture besides that of Daniel
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  Speaker 1: and his brethren, who, from a peculiar consideration, namely that
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  Speaker 1: they might not defile themselves with the portion of the
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  Speaker 1: King's meat, nor with the wine which he drank a
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  Speaker 1: daily provision of which the King had appointed for them,
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  Speaker 1: requested and obtained of the Prince of the Eunuch's pulse
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  Speaker 1: to eat and water to drink. Daniel one ate, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: from a mistaken imitation of this, might spring the very
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  Speaker 1: ancient custom of abstaining from flesh and wine during such
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  Speaker 1: times as were set apart for fasting and abstinence, if
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  Speaker 1: it did not rather arise from a supposition that these
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  Speaker 1: were the most pleasant food, and a belief that it
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  Speaker 1: was proper to use what was least pleasing at those
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  Speaker 1: times of solemn approach to God. In the Jewish Church,
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  Speaker 1: there were some stated fasts, such was the fast of
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  Speaker 1: the seventh Month, appointed by God himself to be observed
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  Speaker 1: by all Israel under the severest penalty. The Lord spake
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  Speaker 1: unto Moses, saying on the tenth day of this month,
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  Speaker 1: there shall be a day of atonement, and ye shall
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  Speaker 1: afflict your souls to make an atonement for you before
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  Speaker 1: the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that
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  Speaker 1: shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall
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  Speaker 1: be cut off from among his people Leviticus twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: twenty six. After ages, several other stated fasts were added
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  Speaker 1: to these. So mention is made by the Prophet Zachariah
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  Speaker 1: of the fast not only of the seventh, but also
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  Speaker 1: of the fourth, of the fifth, and of the tenth
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  Speaker 1: month Zachariah eight nineteen. In the ancient Christian Church, there
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  Speaker 1: were likewise stated fasts, and those both annual and weekly.
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  Speaker 1: Of the former sort was that before Easter, observed by
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  Speaker 1: some for eight and forty hours, by others for an
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  Speaker 1: entire week, by many for two weeks, taking no sustenance
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  Speaker 1: till the evening of each day of the latter those
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  Speaker 1: of the fourth and sixth days of the week observed
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  Speaker 1: as Epiphanius rites, remarking it as an undeniable fact in
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  Speaker 1: hole te ulcoimunoi, in a whole habitable earth, at least
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  Speaker 1: in every place where any Christians made their abode. The
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  Speaker 1: annual fasts in our Church are the forty days of Lent,
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  Speaker 1: the Ember days at the four seasons, the rogation days,
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  Speaker 1: and the vigils or eves of several solemn festivals, the
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  Speaker 1: weekly all fridays in the year except Christmas Day. But
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  Speaker 1: beside those which were fixed in every nation fearing God,
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  Speaker 1: there have always been occasional fasts appointed from time to
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  Speaker 1: time as the particular circumstances and occasions of each required.
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  Speaker 1: So when the children of Moab and the children of
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  Speaker 1: Ammon came against Jehoshaphat to battle, Jehoshaphat set himself to
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  Speaker 1: seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah
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  Speaker 1: Second Chronicles twenty verses one to three. And so in
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  Speaker 1: the fifth year of Jehoikim, the son of Josiah, in
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  Speaker 1: the ninth month, when they were afraid of the King
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  Speaker 1: of Babylon, the princes of Judah proclaimed fast before the
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  Speaker 1: Lord to all the people of Jerusalem Jeremiah thirty six.
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  Speaker 1: And in like manner, particular persons who take heed unto
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  Speaker 1: their ways and desire to walk humbly and closely with
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  Speaker 1: God will find frequent occasion for private sessions of thus
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  Speaker 1: afflicting their souls before their father, which is in secret.
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  Speaker 1: And it is to this kind of fasting that the
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  Speaker 1: directions here given do chiefly and primarily refer. I proceed
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  Speaker 1: to show, in the second place, what are the grounds,
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  Speaker 1: the reasons and ends of fasting. And first, men who
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  Speaker 1: are under strong emotions of mind, who are affected with
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  Speaker 1: any vehement passion, such as sorrow or fear, are often
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  Speaker 1: swallowed up therein, and even forget to eat their bread.
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  Speaker 1: At such seasons. They have little regard for food, not
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  Speaker 1: even what is needful to sustain nature, much less for
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  Speaker 1: any delicacy or variety, being taken up with quite different thoughts. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: when Paul said, I am sore to stress test, for
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  Speaker 1: the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed
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  Speaker 1: from me, it is recorded he had eaten no bread
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  Speaker 1: all the day, nor all the night on Samuel twenty eighth,
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  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty. Thus, those who were in the ship with
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  Speaker 1: sent Paul, when no small tempest lay upon them, and
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  Speaker 1: all hope that they should be saved was taken away,
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  Speaker 1: continued fasting, having taken nothing no regular meal, for fourteen
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  Speaker 1: days together Acts twenty seven thirty three. And thus David
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  Speaker 1: and all the men that were with him, when they
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  Speaker 1: heard that the people were fled from the battle, and
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  Speaker 1: that many of the people were fallen and dead, and
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  Speaker 1: Saul and Jonathan, his son, were dead, also mourned and
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  Speaker 1: wept and fasted until even for Saul and Jonathan, and
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  Speaker 1: for the house of Israel two Samuel one twelve. Nay.
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  Speaker 1: Many times, they whose minds are deeply engaged are impatient
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  Speaker 1: of any interruption, and even loathe their needful food, as
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  Speaker 1: diverting their thoughts from what they desire should engross their
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  Speaker 1: whole attention. Even a soul, when on the occasion mentioned before,
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  Speaker 1: he had fallen all along upon the earth, and there
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  Speaker 1: was no strength in him, yet said I will not
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  Speaker 1: eat till his servants, together with the woman, compelled him. Here,
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  Speaker 1: then is the natural ground of fasting. One who is
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  Speaker 1: under deep affliction, overwhelmed with sorrow for sin, and a
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  Speaker 1: strong apprehension of the wrath of God, would, without any rule,
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  Speaker 1: without knowing or considering whether it were a command of
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  Speaker 1: God or not, forget to eat his bread, abstain not
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  Speaker 1: only from pleasant but even from needful food, Like Saint Paul, who,
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  Speaker 1: after he was led into Damascus, was three days without
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  Speaker 1: sight and did neither eat nor drink Acts nine nine YEA.
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  Speaker 1: When the storm rose high, when a horrible dread overwhelmed
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  Speaker 1: one who had been without God in the world, his
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  Speaker 1: soul would loathe all manner of meat. It would be
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  Speaker 1: unpleasing and irksome to him. He would be impatient of
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  Speaker 1: anything that should interrupt his ceaseless cry, Lord, save or
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  Speaker 1: I perish. How strongly is this expressed by our Church
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  Speaker 1: in the first part of the Homily on Fasting. When
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  Speaker 1: men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin, see
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  Speaker 1: damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with
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  Speaker 1: the eye of their heart the horror of hell, they tremble,
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  Speaker 1: they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart,
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  Speaker 1: and cannot but accuse themselves and open their grief unto
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  Speaker 1: Almighty God and call unto Him for mercy, this being
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  Speaker 1: done seriously. Their mind is so occupied, taken up partly
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  Speaker 1: with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to
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  Speaker 1: be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that
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  Speaker 1: all desire of meat and drink is laid apart, and
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  Speaker 1: loathsomeness or loathing of all worldly things, and pleasure cometh
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  Speaker 1: in place, so that nothing then liketh the more than
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  Speaker 1: to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words
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  Speaker 1: and behavior of body, to show themselves weary of life.
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  Speaker 1: Another reason or ground of fasting is this, many of
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  Speaker 1: those who now fear God are deeply sensible. How often
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  Speaker 1: they have sinned against Him by the abuse of these
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  Speaker 1: lawful things. They know how much they have sinned by
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  Speaker 1: excess of food, how long they have transgressed the Holy
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  Speaker 1: law of God with regard to temperance, if not sobriety too,
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  Speaker 1: How they have indulged their sensual appetites, perhaps to the
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  Speaker 1: impairing even their bodily health, certainly to the no small
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  Speaker 1: hurt of their soul. For hereby they continually fed and
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  Speaker 1: increased that sprightly follow that aeriness of mind, that levity
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  Speaker 1: of temper, that gay in attention to things of the
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  Speaker 1: deepest concern, that giddiness and carelessness of spirit, which were
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  Speaker 1: no other than drunkenness of soul, which stupefied all their
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  Speaker 1: noblest faculties, no less than excess of wine or strong drink.
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  Speaker 1: To remove therefore the effect they remove the cause. They
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  Speaker 1: keep at a distance from all excess. They abstain as
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  Speaker 1: far as possible from what had well nigh plunged them
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  Speaker 1: in everlasting perdition. They often wholly refrain, always take care
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  Speaker 1: to be sparing and temperate in all things. They likewise
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  Speaker 1: well remember how fullness of bread increased not only carelessness
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  Speaker 1: and levity of spirit, but also foolish and unholy desires.
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  Speaker 1: Yea unclean and vile affections. And this experience puts beyond
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  Speaker 1: all day out even a genteel regular sensuality is continually
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  Speaker 1: sensualizing the soul and sinking it into a level with
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  Speaker 1: the beasts that perish. It cannot be expressed what an
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  Speaker 1: effect variety and delicacy of food have on the mind
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  Speaker 1: as well as the body, making it just ripe for
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  Speaker 1: every pleasure of sense, as soon as opportunities shall invite. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: on this ground also every wise man will refrain his
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  Speaker 1: soul and keep it low. Will wean it more and
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  Speaker 1: more from all those indulgences of the inferior appetites, which
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  Speaker 1: naturally tend to chain it down to earth and to
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  Speaker 1: pollute as well as debase it. Here is another perpetual
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  Speaker 1: reason for fasting, To remove the food of lust and sensuality,
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  Speaker 1: to withdraw the incentives of foolish and hurtful desires, of
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  Speaker 1: vain and vile affections. Perhaps we need not all together omit,
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  Speaker 1: although I know not if we should do well to
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  Speaker 1: lay any great stress upon it. Another reason for fasting,
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  Speaker 1: which some good men have largely insisted on, namely the
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  Speaker 1: punishing themselves for having abused the good gifts of God
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  Speaker 1: by sometimes wholly refraining from them, thus exercising a kind
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  Speaker 1: of wholly revenge upon themselves for their past folly and ingratitude,
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  Speaker 1: in turning the things which should have been for their
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  Speaker 1: health into an occasion for failing. Thus suppose David to
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  Speaker 1: have an eye to this when he said I wept
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  Speaker 1: and chastened, or punished my soul with fasting and sent poor,
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  Speaker 1: when he mentions what revenge godly sorrow occasioned in the Corinthians.
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  Speaker 1: A fifth and more weighty reason for fasting is that
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  Speaker 1: it is an help to prayer, particularly when we set
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  Speaker 1: apart larger portions of time for private prayer. Then especially
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  Speaker 1: it is that God is often pleased to lift up
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  Speaker 1: the souls of his servants above all the things of earth,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes to wrap them up as it were into
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  Speaker 1: the third heavens. And it is chiefly as it is,
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  Speaker 1: and help to prayer, that it has so frequently been
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  Speaker 1: found a means in the hand of God of confirming
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  Speaker 1: and increasing not one virtue, not chastity only, as some
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  Speaker 1: have idly imagined, without any ground either from scripture, reason
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  Speaker 1: or experience, but also seriousness of spirit, earnestness, sensibility, and
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  Speaker 1: tenderness of conscience, deadness to the world, and consequently the
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  Speaker 1: love of God and every holy and heavenly affection. Not
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  Speaker 1: that there is any natural or necessary connection between fasting
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  Speaker 1: and the blessings God conveys thereby. But He will have mercy.
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  Speaker 1: As he will have mercy, He will convey whatsoever seemeth
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  Speaker 1: him good, by whatsoever means he is pleased to appoint,
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  Speaker 1: And He hath in all ages appointed this to be
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  Speaker 1: a means of averting His wrath and obtaining whatever blessings we,
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  Speaker 1: from time to time stand in need of. How powerful
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  Speaker 1: a means this is to avert the wrath of God,
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  Speaker 1: we may learn from the remarkable instance of Ahab there
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  Speaker 1: was none like him who did sell himself wholly, give
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  Speaker 1: himself up like a slave bought with money. To work wickedness.
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  Speaker 1: Yet when he rent his clothes and put sacloth upon
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  Speaker 1: his flesh, and fasted, and went softly, the words of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord came to Elijah, saying, seest thou, how ahab
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  Speaker 1: humbleth himself before me. Because he humbleth himself before me,
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  Speaker 1: I will not bring the evil in his days. It
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  Speaker 1: was for this end to avert the wrath of God
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  Speaker 1: that Daniel sought God with fasting and sacloth and ashes.
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  Speaker 1: This appears from the whole tenor of his prayer, particularly
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  Speaker 1: from the solemn conclusion of it. O Lord, according to
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  Speaker 1: all thy righteousness or mercies, let thy anger be turn'd
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  Speaker 1: away from thy holy mountain. Hear the prayer of thy servant,
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  Speaker 1: and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that
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  Speaker 1: is desolate. O Lord, here, O Lord, forgive, O Lord,
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  Speaker 1: hearken and do for thine own sake Daniel nine three
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and sixteen. But it is not only from the people
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of God that we learn when his anger is moved
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: to seek him by fasting and prayer, but even from
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the Heathens, when Jonah had declared yet forty days and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Nineveh shall be overthrown. The people of Ninemah proclaim'd are
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: fast and put on sacloth, from the greatest of them
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: unto the least. For the King of Nineveh arose from
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: his throne and laid his robe from him, and covered
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: him with sacloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it to be proclaim'd and publish'd through Nineveh, that neither
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: man nor beast heard, nor flock taste anything. Let them
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: not feed nor drink water, Not that the beast had
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: sinned or could repent, but that by their example man
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: might be admonished, considering that for his sin the anger
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of God was hanging over all creatures. Who can tell
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: if God will turn and repent and turn away from
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: his fierce anger, that we perish not. And their labor
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: was not in vain. The fierce anger of God was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: turned away from them. God saw their works, the fruits
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of that repentance and faith which he had wrought in
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: them by his prophet. And God repented of the evil
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: that he had said he would do unto them, and
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: he did it not. John three, verse four. And it
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: is a means not only of turning away the wrath
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: of God, but also of attaining whatever blessings we stand
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in need of So when the other tribes were smitten
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: before the benjaminights, all the children of Israel went up
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: into the House of God and wept and fasted that
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: day until even and then the Lord said, go up again,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand. Judges twenty,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: verse twenty six. So Samuel gathered all Israel together when
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: they were in bondage to the Philistines, and they fasted
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: on that day before the Lord. And when the Philistines
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: drew near to battle against Israel, the Lord thundered upon
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: them with a great thunder and discomfited them, and they
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: were smitten before Israel one Samuel seven, verse six. So
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Ezra I proclaimed a fast at the river Ahava, that
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: him a right way for us and for our little ones.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And he was entreated of us Ezra eight, verse twenty one.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So near Maiah I fasted and prayed before the God
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: of Heaven, and said, prosper, I pray thee thy servant
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this man. And God granted him mercy in the sight
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of the king. Near Mayah one verses four to eleven.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: In like manner, the apostles always joined fasting with prayer
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: when they desired the blessing of God on any important undertaking.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Thus we read in Acts thirteen, they were in the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, as
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: they ministered to the Lord and fasted, doubtless for direction
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: in this very affair, the Holy Ghost said, separate me
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And when they had a second time fasted and prayed
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and laid their hands on them, they sent them away
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Acts thirteen, verse thirteen. Thus also Paul and Barnabas themselves,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: as we read in the following chapter, when they returned
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: again to Lystra, Aconium and Antioch, conforming the souls of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the disciples, and when they had ordained them elders in
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: their every church and had prayed with fasting, commended them
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: to the Lord. Acts fourteen, verse twenty three. YEA, that
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: blessings are to be obtained in the use of this means,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: which are no otherwise attainable. Our Lord expressly declares in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: his answer to his disciples, asking why could not we
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: cast him out, Jesus said unto them, because of your
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: own belief. For verily I say unto you, if ye
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Howbeit this kind of devil goeth out not by prayer
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and fasting matt seventeen, verse nineteen, these being the appointed
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: means of attaining that faith, whereby the very devils a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: subject unto you, these were the appointed means. For it
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: was not merely by the light of reason or of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: natural conscience, as it is called, that the people of
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: God have been in all ages directed to use fasting
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: as a means to these ends. But they have been
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: from time to time taught it by God himself, by
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: clear and open revelations of his will. Such is that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: remarkable one by the prophet jol. Therefore, saith the Lord,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: turn you to me with all your heart, and with fasting,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and with weeping and with mourning. Who knoweth if he
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: will return and repent and leave the blessing behind him.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Blow the trumpet in Zion sanct a fire fast call,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a solemn assembly then will the Lord be jealous over
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: his land and will pity his people. Yea, I will
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: send you corn and wine and oil. I will no
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: more make you a reproach among the heathen Jol two
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: verse twelve. Nor are they only temporal blessings which God
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: directs his people to expect in the use of these means.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: For at the same time that he promised to those
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: who should seek him with fasting and weeping and mourning,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I will rest store you the years which locust hath eaten,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the canker worm, and the caterpillar and the palmer worm.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: My great army he subjoins. So shall ye eat and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Ye shall also know that I am in the midst
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And then immediately follows the great Gospel promise, I will
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and your young men shall see visions. And also upon
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the sermons and upon the handmaids. In those days, I
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: will pour out my spirit Joel two verses twenty eight
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: to twenty nine. Now, whatsoever reasons there were to quicken
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: those of old in the zealous and constant discharge of
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: this duty, they are of equal force still to quicken us.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: But above all these have a peculiar reason for being
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: in fastings, often, namely the command of Him by whose
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: name we are called. He does not, indeed, in this
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: place expressly enjoin either fasting, giving of arms, or prayer.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: But his directions how to fast, to give arms, and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to pray are of the same force with such injunctions.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: For the commanding us to do anything thus is an
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: unquestionable command to do that thing, seeing it is impossible
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to perform it thus if it be not performed at all. Consequently,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: the saying give arms, pray, fast in such a manner
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: is a clear command to perform all those duties, as
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: well as to perform them in that manner, which shall
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: in no wise lose its reward. And this is still
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: far the motive and encouragement to the performance of this duty,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: even the promise which our Lord has graciously annexed to
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the due discharge of it, Thy Father, which seeth in secret,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: shall reward thee openly. Such are the plain grounds reasons
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and ends are fasting. Such our encouragement to persevere therein,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding abundance of egibjections which men wiser than their Lord
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: have been continually raising against it. The most plausible of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: these I come now to consider. And first, it has
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: been frequently said that a Christian fast from sin and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: not from food. This is what God requires at his hands.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Now so he does, but he requires the other also.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Therefore this ought to be done, and that not left undone.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Few your argument in its full dimensions, and you will
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: easily judge the strength of it. If a Christian ought
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: to abstain from sin, then he ought not to abstain
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: from food. But a Christian ought to abstain from sin,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: therefore he ought not to abstain from food. That a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Christian ought to abstain from sin is most true. But
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: now does it follow from hence that he ought not
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: to abstain from food. Let him do both the one
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and the other. Let him, by the grace of God,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: always abstain from sin, and let him often abstain from
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: food for such reasons and ends, as experience and scripture
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: plainly show to be answered thereby. But it is not better,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: as it has secondly, been objected to abstain from pride
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and vanity, from foolish and hurtful desires, from peevishness and
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: anger and discontent, than from food. Well, our question it is.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: But here again we need to remind you of our
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Lord's words. These things ought ye to have done, and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: not to leave the other undone. And indeed the latter
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: is only in order to the former. It is a
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: means to that great end. We abstain from food with
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: this view that, by the grace of God conveyed into
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: our souls, through this outward means, in conjunction with all
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the other channels of His grace which He hath appointed,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: we may be enabled to abstain from every passion and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: temper which is not pleasing in His sight. We refrain
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: from the one, that, being endued with power from on high,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: we may be able to refrain from the other. So
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: that your argument proves just the contrary to what you designed.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: It proves that we ought to fast, For if we
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: ought to abstain from evil tempers and desires, then we
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: ought thus to abstain from food. Since these little instances
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: of self denial. Other ways God hath chose wherein to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: bestow that great salvation, But we do not find it. So,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: in fact, this is a third objection. We have fasted
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: much and often, by what did it avail? We were
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: not a whit better. We found no blessing therein. Nay,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: we have founded a hindrance rather than a help. Instead
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: of preventing anger, for instance, or fretfulness, it has been
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a means of increasing them to such a height that
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: we could neither bear ourselves nor others. Now this may
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: very possibly be the case. It is possible either to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: fast or pray in such a manner as to make
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you much worse than before, more unhappy, and more unholy.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Yet the fault does not lie in the means itself,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: but in the manner of using it. Use it still,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: but use it in a different manner. Do what God
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: commands as he commands it, and then doubtless his promise
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: shall not fail. His blessings shall be withheld no longer.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: But when thou fastest in secret, he that seeth in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: secret shall reward thee openly. But it is not mere superstition.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: So it has been fourthly objected to imagine that God
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: regards such little things as these. If you say it
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: is you condemn all the generations of God's children. But
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: will you say these were all weak, superstitious men. Can
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: you be so hearty as to affirm this? Both that
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Moses and Joshua of Samuel, and David of Jehosaphat, Ezra, Nehemiah,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and all the prophets yea of a greater than all,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the son of God himself. It is certain, both our
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Master and all all these his servants did imagine that
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: fasting is not a little thing, and that he who
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: is higher than the highest doth regard it of the
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: same judgment is his plane. Were all his apostles after
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with wisdom,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: when they had the unction of the Holy One teaching
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: them all things, they still approved themselves the ministers of
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: God by fastings, as well as by the armor of
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: righteousness on the right hand and on the left. After
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the bridegroom was taken from them, then did they fast
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: in those days, Nor would they attempt anything as we
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: have seen above, wherein the glory of God was nearly concerned,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: such as the sending forth laborers into the harvest without
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: solemn fasting, as well as prayer, But if fasting be
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: indeed of so great importance, and attended with such a blessing,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: is it not best, say some fifthly, to fast always,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: not to do it now and then, but to keep
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: it continual. Fast, to use as much abstinence at all
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: times as our bodily strength will bear. Let none be
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: discouraged from doing this by all means. Use as little
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and plain food, exercise as much self denial herein at
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: all times as your bodily strength will bear. And this
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: may conduce, by the blessing of God, to several of
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the great ends above mentioned. It may be a considerable help,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: not only to chastity, but also to heavenly mindedness, to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the weaning your affections from things below and setting them
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: on things above. But this is not fasting scriptural fasting.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: It is never termed so in all the Bible. It
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: in some measure answers some of the ends thereof. But
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: still it is another thing. Practice it by all means,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: but not so as thereby to set aside a command
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: of God and an instituted means of averting His judgments
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: and obtaining the blessings of His children. Use continually, then
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: as much abstinence as you please, which taken thus is
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: no other than Christian temperance. But this need not at
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: all interfere with your observing solemn times of fasting and prayer.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: For instance, your habitual abstinence or temperance would not prevent
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: your fasting in secret. If you were suddenly overwhelmed with
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: huge sorrow and remorse, and with horrible fear and dismay,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: such a situation of mind would almost constrain you to fast.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: You would loathe your daily food. You would scarce endure
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: even to take such supplies as were needful for the body,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: till God lifted you up out of the horrible pit
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: and set your feet upon a rock, and ordered your goings.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: The same would be the case if you were in
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: agony of desire, vehemently wrestling with God for his blessing,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: You would need none to instruct you not to eat
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: bread till you had obtained the request of your lips. Again,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: had you been at Nineveh when it was proclaimed the city,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: let neither man, nor beast, herd, nor flock taste anything.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Let them not feed or drink water, but let them
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: cry mightily unto God. Would your continual fast have been
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: any reason for not bearing part in that general humiliation,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Doubtless it would not. You would have been as much
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: concerned as any other not to taste food on that day.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: No more would abstinence or the observing of a continual
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: fast have excused any of the children of Israel from
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: fasting on the tenth day of the seventh month. That
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: shall not be afflicted, shall not fast in that day,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: he shall be cut off from among his people. Lastly,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: had you been with the Brethren in Antioch at the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: time when they fasted and prayed before the sending forth
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: of Barnabus and Soul, can you possibly imagine that your
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: temperance or abstinence would have been a sufficient cause for
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: not joining Wherein, without doubt, if you had not, you
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: would soon have been cut off from the Christian community.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: You would have deservedly been cast out from among them,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: as bringing confusion into the Church of God. I am
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: in the last place to show in what manner we
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: are to fast, that it may be an acceptable service
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: unto the Lord. And first, let it be done unto God,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: with our eye singuly fixed on him. Let our intention
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: herein be this and this alone, to glorify our Father,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: which is in Heaven, to express our sorrow and shame
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: for our manifold transgressions of His Holy law, To wait
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: things above, to add seriousness and earnestness to our prayers,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: to avert the wrath of God, and to obtain all
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: the great and precious promises which He hath made to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: us in Jesus Christ. Let us beware of mocking God,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: of turning our fast as well as our prayers, into
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: an abomba nation unto the Lord, by the mixture of
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: any temporal view, particularly by seeking the praise of men.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Against this, Our blessed Lord more peculiarly guards us, in
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the words of the text. Moreover, when ye fast, be
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: ye not as the hypocrites, such were too many who
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: were called the people of God of a sad countenance,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: sour affectedly sad, putting their looks into a peculiar form.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: For they disfigure their faces not only by unnatural distortions,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: but also by covering them with dust and ashes, that
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: they may appear unto men. To fast. This is their chief,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: if not only design. Verily, I say, unto you they
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: have their reward, even the admiration and praise of men.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: thy face, do as thou art accustomed to do it
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: any other times that thou appear not unto men to fast.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Let this be no part of thy intention. If they
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: know it without any desire of thine, it matters not
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: thou art neither the better nor the worse. But unto
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father, which
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But if we
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: desire this reward, let us beware secondly, of fancying we
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: merit anything of God by our fasting. We cannot be
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: too much warned of this, inasmuch as a desire to
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: establish our own righteousness, to procure salvation of debt and
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: not of grace, is so deeply rooted in all our hearts.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Fasting is only a way which God hath ordained, wherein
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: we wait for His unmerited mercy, and wherein, without any
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: desert of ours, he hath promised freely to give us
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: his blessing. Not that we are to imagine the performing
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the bar outward act will receive any blessing from God.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Is it such a face that I have chosen, saith
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the Lord? A day for a man to afflict his soul?
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Is it to bet down his head as a bulrush?
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Are these
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: outward acts, however, strictly performed, all that is meant by
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: a man's afflicting his soul? Wilt thou call this a
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? No? Surely,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: if it be a mere external service, it is all
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: but lost labour. Such a performance may possibly affect the body,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: but as to the soul, it profiteth nothing. Yea, the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: body may sometimes be afflicted too much so as to
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: be unfit for the works of our calling. This also
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: we are diligently to guard against, for we ought to
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: preserve our health as a good gift of God. Therefore,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: care is to be taken whenever we fast, to proportion
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: the fast to our strength. For we may not offer
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: god murder for sacrifice, or destroy our bodies to help
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: our souls. But as these solemn seasons, we may, in
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: great weakness of body, avoid that other extreme for which
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: God condemns those who have old expostulated with Him. For
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: not accepting their fasts. Wherefore have we fasted, say they,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: and thou seest not behold in the day of your fast,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: ye find pleasure, saith the Lord. If we cannot wholly
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: abstain from food, we may at least abstain from pleasant food,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: and then we shall not seek His face in vain.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: But let us take care to afflict our souls as
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: well as our bodies, that every season, either of public
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: or private fasting, be a season of exercising all those
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: holy affections which are implied in a broken and contrite heart.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Let it be a season of devout mourning of godly
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: sorrow for sin, such a sorrow as that of the Corinthians,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: concerning which the Apostle saith. I rejoice not that ye
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: were made sorry, but they ye sorrowed to repentance, for
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: might receive damage by us in nothing for godly sorrow.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Hekata theion lipe the sorrow which is according to God,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: which is a precious gift of His spirit, lifting the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: soul to God from whom it flows, worketh repentance to salvation,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: not to be repented of yea and let our sorrowing,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: after a godly sort work in us the same inward
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and outward repentance, the same entire change of heart renewed
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: and the same change of life, till we are holy
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: as He is holy in all manner of conversation. Let
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it work in us the same carefulness to be found
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: in Him without spot and blameless, the same clearing of
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: ourselves by our lives rather than words, by our staining
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: from all appearance of evil, the same indignation, vehement abhorrence
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: of every sin, the same fear of our own deceitful hearts,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the same desire to be in all things conformed to
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the wholly insectible will of God, the same zeal for
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: whatever may be a means of His glory and of
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: our growth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: and the same revenge against Satan and all his works,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: against all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit two Corinthians seven,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: verse nine. And with fasting, let us always join fervent prayer,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: pouring out our whole souls before God, confessing our sins
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: with all their aggravations, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: laying open before him all our wants, all our guiltiness
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: and helplessness. This is a season for enlarging our prayers,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: both in behalf of ourselves and our brethren. Our bewail
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the sins of our people, and cry aloud for the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: city of our God, that the Lord may build up
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Zion and cause his face to shine on her desolations.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Thus we may observe the men of God in ancient
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: times always joined prayer and fasting together. Thus the apostles
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: in all the instances sighted above, and thus our Lord
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: joins them in the discoss before us. It remains only
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: in order to our observing such a fast as is
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: acceptable to the Lord, that we had alms thereto works
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: of mercy after our power, both to the bodies and
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: souls of men with such sacrifice, as also God is
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: well pleased. Thus the Angel declares to Cornelius, fasting and
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: praying in his house, thy prayers and thine arms. I
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: come up from a memorial before God acts ten verse four.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: And this God himself expressly and largely declares, is not
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: this the fast that I have chosen to loose the
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and that thou bring the poor that are cast out
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to thy house. When thou seest the naked, that thou
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: own own flesh, then shall thy light break forth as
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: thy righteousness shall go before thee. Though glory of the
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: here I am. If when thou fastest thou draw art
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: be as the noon day. And the Lord shall guide
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: and like a spring of water whose waters fail not
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty eight, verse six, end of section twenty seven