The First Day of Lent, commonly called, Ash

Wifd. xi. 23, 24. Ez R. XVIII. 30. Exod. xxxiv. 7. Pfal. li. 10, 17. Luke xxiv. 47.

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Wednesday.

The COLLECT.

Lmighty and everlasting God, who hateft nothing that thou haft made, and dost forgive the Sins of all

them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our fins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness, through Jesus Chrift our Lord.

PARAPHRASE.

12. God still invites you to return to him, but then this must be

Amen.

For the EPISTLE.

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Joel ii. 12.

Urn ye even to me, faith the Lord, with all your heart, and with fafting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

17. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them fay, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine beritage to reproach, that the Heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

17. Let the Priests intercede for the People in the Holy place, and humbly beseech God, that he will not give up his own Inheritance to

the mercy of Idolaters and Enemies, but, for the fake of his own Honour, prevent those impious Reflections, which their Insolence will be apt to make on such an occafion, as if he had not Power to protect and defend them. (Deut. ix. 28. Pfal. lxxix. 8, 9, 10.)

Afh-Wednesday; Or, The First Day of Lent.

16.

The GOSPEL.

St. Matth vi. 16.

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Sad

HEN ye faft, be not as bypocrites, of a
countenance: for they disfigure their
faces, that they may appear unto men to

faft. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.

PARAPHRASE.

16. Let not your faftings be formal and Vainglorious, like those difsemblers, who upon fuch occafions, either cover

their Faces with a Veil, or by Melancholy Looks and Gestures, draw the obfervation of others. These Fasters have farther recompence to expect.

no

17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine bead, and wash thy face.

17. Do not thou therefore, when humbling thy felf thus for thy

Sins, forbear thy Ornaments, usual upon common Days

18. That thou appear not unto men to faft, but unto thy father which is in fecret: and thy father which feeth in fecret shall reward thee openly.

18. Not at all follici tous, whether Men take notice of thy Fafts or not; but careful to re

commend thy self to God, who is privy to thy most retired Devotions; and shall make thy Reward publick for those good actions, which thou hast kept fecret.

19. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth, where moth and ruft doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

19. Let it not be thy business to heap up Treafures in this World, for all fuch are

liable to decay, and may be taken from thee.

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20. But by Acts of Mercy and Piety, (at the Times of Fafting especially) lay up Treafures in Heaven, which thee.

20. But lay up for your selves treasures in beaven, where neither moth nor ruft doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor fteal.

can neither be spoiled, nor perish, nor be taken from

21. For where your treasure is, there will your beart be

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21. This is necessary to draw off thy AffeAions from this World. For wherever that is which thou valuest most, there thy Defires and Mind will likewise center; In earthly Things, if those, upon heavenly, if these, be the Treafure thou esteemest, and preferrest in thy Choice.

COMMENT.

THISis the Day

is the Day, that enters us into that Seaforn of Devotion and Humiliation, so folemnly observed, in the former and purer Ages of the Christian Church. A Seafon of more than ordinary Instruction heretofore, for informing new Converts in the Principles of Religion; that so they might come throughly qualified at Eafter, to enter into Covenant with God by Baptifm. A Seafon of Penance and strict Difclpline; for putting Them to publick Shame, whose open and notorious Breaches of that Covenant had given publick Scandal. And a Seafon of Recollection and Repentance to All; Who, though they had not reflected such Dishonour upon their Holy Profeffion, yet, by examining the State of their own Souls, would find occafion more than enough, for the Austerities usual at this Time: to humble themselves for their Sins, to fubdue the Flesh and its Appetites, to crucify themselves to the World and its Pleasures, to abstract and exalt their Affections, and thus, in a Spiritual Sense, to die and rise again with their Saviour and Lord. The commemorating whose Death and Refurrection, this Seafon, and such religious Observance of it, were very reasonably efteem'd a fit Preparation for, and Introduction to.

The

The Coming in of the World into the Faith, and the charitable Care of admitting to Baptifm Children of Believers early, and of administring that Sacrament at all Times of the Year without diftinction, have fuperfeded the first of these Ufes, in proportion as the Number of the Adult, who want it, and whose aEtual Sins require actual Repentance, is diminished. That This End of the Lent-Fast is not now answered, is our Happiness: that the Second is not, is our unfpeakable Misfortune. Our Church, in the Service of this Day, calls upon us to lament the Loss, and to with the Reftitution, of that wholesome Discipline, which partly the Abuses of fome later Ages, and partly the Degeneracy of the present, have rendred ineffectual and impracticable. But the Third Use I mentioned will always continue; For this we shall ever have Need, ever Opportunity. The Chafstising our selves is always in our power; and ought to be in practice so much more, as the decay of publick and judicial Chastisement hath left us more in our own Hands. And a due preparation for the Lord's Supper at Eafter calls for the fame previous Care, in great measure, which that for Baptifm did heretofore. Thus we in some degree may make our Profit of this Holy Seafon, to all the Purposes above-mentioned. And, had not a very punctual Obfervation of it been still expected from us, the Church would not have chofen these Scriptures now to employ us. Both which I thought expedient to treat upon at once; that fo I may from thence be able, in One View, to set out the several Ingredients of a thorough and folemn Repentance, together with the Reasons for, and Usefulness of, Each of them.

Now Those, as is manifest from the Scriptures appointed for the Epistle and Gospel for the Day, are First, Sincerity. Secondly, Sorrow for our past Faults. Thirdly, Abstinence. Fourthly, Earnest Prayer. Fifthly, Almf

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Almsgiving. And, Sixthly, As a Qualification common to, and necessary to recommend all the rest, That every one of these be free from Oftentation and Vainglory. Upon Each of which my Design is so to treat, as First to explain the Nature of the Duty, and Then to fhew our Obligation to it.

1. I begin with Sincerity, implied more especially in thofe Two Commands, Turn ye even unto me, faith the Lord, with all your heart, and Rent your heart, and

Lev. i. 6. Job i. 20.

ii. 12.

Ezra ix. 35.

2 Chron. xxxiv. 27.

Jerem. xxxvi.

24.

Matth. xxvi.

65.

Mark xiv. 63.

not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. That Renting of the Garment was a Ceremony customary with the Jews, to express their Grief, either for fome great Calamity that had befallen them, or for fome heavy Judgment which they at that time were in dread of, is evident from a great many Texts in Scripture. Nor does it appear from any one Text, I know of, that God hath ever disapproved of our expreffing Grief upon Religious accounts, by the fame outward Teftimonies, as are used in common Cafes. But this indeed he absolutely disallows: that Men, upon fuch Occafions, should put on a shew and face of Grief, where it is not; or should rest in the Sign, as if that alone were fufficient, without regard to the thing it was intended to fignify. This is the Prophet's, this our Saviour's Meaning; that God is not to be impofed upon with Pomp and Forms: That the rending of the Heart is what he expects ; and, that a Garment rent, where That is not, can be of no account with him. That there are fome Circumstances, when the outward Guife of Sorrow may be dispensed with, nay may be wisely, and much better let alone. So that the Inward Sorrow is not always of lefs, is fometimes of more value, because the outward Signs of it are wanting. But the Outward is never of any value at all, where the Inward is wanting.

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