tn thegeneral. . 32cj confe.ffion and the cove11anting are, both of,them, to be done prayer-ways, ns appears from Dan. ix. 4,--- 15. Neh. ix. 6,---38. But .befi.des, there mufi be prayers, fupplications, and petitions, made for what the perfon or fiunily . hath particubrly in view, in / their fafi, Pfalrn xxxv. 13· ' When they were fick, my clothing was C1ckcloth : I burpbled my foul with faHing, ~nd my prayer returned into mine own bp– fern., And indeed, the great end and deGgp. for which fuch fa!ls are to be kept, is, That thereby the par– ~ies may pe the m,ore fiirr'd up unto, and fitted for, :wrefiling with God in prayen ancnt the cafe which they have particularly at heart. So the Ninevites having their threatne~l overthrow at heart, it was or– ~ered, that ' man and beafl: jhould be covered with fackcloth, and cry mightily unto God,' Jonah iii. 8. That is, that the men fuould cry, in prayer, for pity and fparing : and to the end they might be moved to the ,greater fe-rvency in thefe their praying cries, it is provided, that they and their beafl;s too fhould be covered with fackcloth ; and, that their beafis, hav- , ing fodder and wat,er withheld from them on that occafi.on, fhould be made to cry for hunger and thirfr, even to ~ry ' unto God, namely, interpretatively, as the ' young ravens cry unto him/ Job xxxviii. 41. At wbich rate; the cri~s of the beafis, being mixed with the cries of men, would make the folemnity of that extraordinary moui·ning very great: and ' the hearts of men, bei'hg? every now ··and ·then during tha~ folemnity, pierced 'with the cries of the harmlefs brutes, would be fiirr'd up to amore earnefl, fervent, and importunate pleading with God for mc:rcy. Thus far of perfonal and family Failing and Humiliation, ill th_c general. . ,, CHAP.
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