ordinarily grant them Deliverance and Consolation here. Thus the Pfalmist, immediately after his above-mentioned Triumph, had Cause to subjoin, Thou didst turn thy Face from me, and I was troubled. But it follows, Then cried I unto thee, and gat me to my Lord right humbly. Thou turnedst my Heaviness into Joy: thou hast put off my Sackcloth, and girded me with Gladness. Nor was this a fingular Mercy to him, or confined to the more worldly Jewish Dispensation : but our blessed Redeemer hath given a general Promise to his Disciples, that they, who seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, shall have all Things needful added unto them; and shall, even when molested with Perfecutions, receive now in this Time an hundred Fold of what they undergo, as well as in the World to come eternal Life. Perfecutions indeed, more or less, the Apostle hath told us, all shall suffer, that will live godly in Chrift: and partly on that very Account. But in these, they shall be enabled to take Pleasure, even when they are the heaviest : • Ver. 7. * Matth. vi. 33. P Ver. 8. 9 Ver. 12. 2 Tim. iii. 12. 2 Cor. xii. ro: and and usually they are very light, compared with the Calamities, which the wicked bring on their own Heads. The natural Tendency of Christian Virtues is to Happiness; of Sin, to Mifery: God hath appointed this Tendency, and he will make it effectual. If Nations, in the Midst of their Wealth and Tranquillity, will not shew they are sensible, that he bestows them, he will justly prove it by taking them away. And if those Persons, whom he hath raised to fuperior Honours, and favoured with Marks of distinguished Goodness, will ungratefully forget, by whose Power and for whose Service they were thus exalted and blessed, he can easily make them know by unexpected Judgements, that the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men", and doth according to his Will in the Armies of Heaven, and amongst the Inhabitants of the Earth. But Princes and their People, joining together in thankful Obedience to the Laws of their great Benefactor, will be happy in themselves and each other, will shine as Lights in the World*; and, to speak in the Language of the Prophet, upon all their Glory there shall be a Defence. * Phil. ii. 15. * Dan. iv. 25. y If. iv. 5. For For God will fave Sion, and build the Cities of Judah. The Posterity also of his Servants shall inherit it ; and they, that love his Name, shall dwell therein. Their Children shall continue, and their Seed be established before bim. Pf. lxix. 36, 37. • Pf. cii. 28. SERMON SERMON XIV. MATTH. vi. 16. Moreover, when ye faft, be not as the Hy pocrites. THE HE Practice of Fafting from a Principle of Religion has been thought of by different Persons in so very different a Manner; some placing it amongst the highest Duties, whilst others account it mere Superstition: and a great Part of those, who observe it the most rigidly, are so little improved by it in true Goodness: that, I hope, discoursing on this Subject may be useful in general, as well as particularly seasonable at present, to direct your Judgement and Behaviour in Relation to it. And therefore, I have chosen to treat of it from Words of the greatest Authority; those of our blessed Sa viour: which contain, VOL. V. U I. A I. A Supposition, that religious Fasting II. A Caution against using it amiss : I. A Suppofition, that religious Fafting would be used amongst his Followers: which indeed he must suppose of Course, unless he forbad it; because the Custom had very long been, and was then, universal in the World. Not only the People of the great City and Empire of Nineveh, as we read in Scripture, but the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, almost all Nations, of whose Religion we have any particular Accounts, appear to have been led, either by Nature or antient Tradition, to abstain from their Food, on certain Occafions, as an Exercise of Piety. The Jewish Law could not be the Original of an Observance, that had spread fo wide: especially, as that Law appoints but one single Day in the whole Year to be kept as a public Fast, and gives no Orders for private Fafting at all. Yet we find, from the early Times of their Commonwealth downwards, many other public Fafts observed by them, as Exigencies required : we find the Prophets approving and enjoining them, |