in the general. · . 323 namely, 4nna, that £he ' ferved God with failings and prayers night an~ day/ Luke ii. 36, 37· As to the quantity of time, to be fpent in perfonal or family-fafiing and humiliation ; the duty, I judge, i s to regulate it; and npt it to regulate the duty. The family fail: ofEflher with her maidens, obferved at– fo by all the ]e·ws in Shujhan, lafied three day£, Efih . iv. 16. We read of the fajling·day, ]er. xxxvi. 6 . Sometimes, 'twould feem it was but a part c;>f a day, that was fpent in fuch exercife; as in Cornelius his perfonal fafi, which feems to have been over before · the ninth hour, that is, ~efore three a-clock in the afternoon, Acts x. 30.. ' Four days ago I was failing until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my houf~,' before which time of the fourth day, Peter, to whomCornelius faith this, might be come ; there being but 36 miles from ]oppa to Ceforea, whither. he came on the fecond day after he fer out from ]op– pa, Ver. 23, 24. Compare Ver. 8, 9, 17. Much a– bout that time of the day, Daniel got the anfwer of his prayers, made in his perfonal fafi, namely, ' A- ~bout the t~me of the evening oblation,' or the ninth hour, Dan. ix 21. And the people being ' affembled with fail:ing,' Neh. ix. r. they ' read in the book of the law, one fourth part of the day, and another fourth part they confeffed and worfhipped.' Ver. 3· So 'they con'tinued in the work fix hours : from nine a-clock in the morning, as it would feem, till three · afternoon : that is, fi·om the time of the morning fa– crifice, to the evening facrifice, with which tbe work feems to have been clofc:d, as, it may be prefumed, they fpent the morning in private preparation for the publick duty. · . Wherefore I judge, that none are to be folicitons, as to what quantity of time, more or lefs, they fpend in thefe e:&ercifes, fo that the work of the time be 1 done. Na,y, I very much doubt, men lay a fnarc for thcmfclves, in tying chemfelves to a certain -z· 3 qu'mti-.
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