his people, in their exti'aordinary humiliations, do the same, that nature may not put grace to shame. Thirdly, By this abstinence, especially from food, we tame and subdue our wanton flesh, and so have a greater advantage for mor- tifying those sensual lusts which receive the fuel that feeds and inilames them. A full body is a mellow soil for such lusts to grow rank in. If the body be kept high, carnal lusts will not be easily kept low. What else made Paul keep down his body by fasting and watching, which he did often, but that he might have the fuller blow at those lusts that received strength from it ? Indeed, a pampered horse is most likely to cast his rider. And the Holy Spirit using the body as well as the soul in the work, this bridle of fasting is of excellent use to curb it. Fourthly, This abstinence from food is required to sharpen our spirits, and en- liven the powers of the soul in this duty, wliich are pressed down with the charge of the stomach. A full body makes heavy eyes and drowsy spirits, and what can then be expected but yawning prayers, especially when we are to continue longer than ordinary at the work ?
Section II. — Who are they that are called to the practice of this duty of ex- traordinary praj'er? The command comprehends all that by age are enabled to understand the nature of this duty, when any extraordinary occasion occurs for the performance of the same. We find it required of a church and nation. It is the magistrate's duty, when there is a national cause, to call his subjects to the pvdjlic practice of it, (Joel ii. 15; Nehem. ix. 1,) and he that refuses his call thereunto, makes himself an offender both to God and man. Lev. xxiii. 29. It reacheth to private families ; Esther and her maidens keep a religious fast together, Esther iv. 16; yea, it is a duty bound upon single persons, and reacheth to the closet. Matt. vi. 17, 18 : ' But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret.' The circumstances of the place shew that'it is meant of a secret fast in the closet. We have them altogether in one place ; Zech. xii. 12 : ' The land shall mourn ;' that is, there shall be a national fast: ' Every family apart, the house of David apart,' and 'the house of Nathan apart,' &c. — the fast shall be domestic : 'and their wives apart ;' that is, a per- sonal, secret fast in the closet. But is not this extraordinary prayer and fasting too austere and rigid a duty for gospel times ? Where doth Christ command his people in gospel times to macerate their bodies with such severities as these ? Joy and praise better becomes the freedom and liberty of the gospel. Such vvijd stuff hath been invented by some in our loose times. These are a new sort of saints, which the world hath hardly been acquainted with before these unhappy daysofoiu-s; they would be in heaven before their time, and leave no tears upon their cheeks for Christ, at death, to wipe away. If any of these could live without sin and suffering, they would have some colour for their plea ; though even then, being yet in the body, they should owe those tears to their brethren which they need not drop for themselves. The apostle bids us ' weep with those that weep, and mourn with those that mourn.' Thus did Nehemiah fast for his afflicted brethren in Jerusalem, when his own affairs were prosperous enough, being surrounded with the beams of the Persian emperor's favour. But there are none in mortal flesh free from sin, or exemjited from sorrow ; and therefore a moiu'ning habit maj' sometimes become the best of saints on earth. ' They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses,' Matt. xi. 8. Glorified saints, who dwell in the King of heaven's court, are always clad with joy ; but this on earth is the saint's holiday suit ; as he hath now and then his rejoicing days, so he wants not his days for mourning. ' The days will come,' saitb our Saviour of his disciples, ' when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast,' Matt. ix. 15 ; and surely they lived in gospel times. If these merry professors had been with Paul, to see how he mortified his body and chastised himself with fasting, they surely would have chid hiiri, and thought him ignorant of his Christian liberty. The worst I wish these deluded souls is, that they who are so much for joy here, may meet with no mourning in another world. It is but an ill sign, when men quarrel with a duty for its strictness, and slip the yoke off their necks because the wanton flesh says it is uneasy. These are like Ephraim, whom the prophet compares to an heifer that loveth to tread the corn but not to plough, which is hard, hungry work. A thanksgiving day, that brings a feast with it, this they like, and are content it should pass for a gospel
WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPrLICATION. 7O3