jj2 Of the Divine Warrant . done in fecret ; and therefore it is to be kept fecret; contrary ro the praClice of the hypocritical PhartfteJ; who made it their bufinefs to propale their fecret de– votions. The outwarQ f]gns offailing are comme 11 .. ded in the cafe of pu~lick bfis:Exod.xxxiii. 4· Jonah iii. 8. Jotl ii. 15, r6, 17. In like manner the Apofile . Paul gives a direction about this duty; 1 r Cor. vii. 5· ~ Defraud you not one another; except it be with con- ' fent for a time, that you may give youdelves to fafi- • jng and prayer:' where the con1ent mentioned as ,neceffary, determines the fitfi to be perfonal ; foraf– n1uch as, in the cafe of publick fafis, th~t matter is predetermined by a !upcrior authority; and in the cafe of family fafis, it follows of courfe, on the ap::. "' pointmertt of fuch a £1fi. . . . . Secondly, 'Tis promifed that the faints fhall per– form this duty, Zech. xii. 10. ' I will pour upon the houfe of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jernfa ... ]em, the Spirit of grace and of fupplications. ·ver. 12. And the land fhall mpurn, every family apart– and their wives ap~rt.' Thus, in virtue of the grace of the coveNant, this duty is made the matter of a promife, even as other duties of holy obedience are. Accordingly our Lord promis'd it, in the cafe of his difciples in particular, Mat. ix. 15. ' l'he days will come when the Bridegroom fhall be taken fi·om them 1 and then !hall they fafi :' to wit, perfonally : for it was not th·e negleCl of the publick tafi appointed and flated in the law, Lev. xxiii. 27,--32. that they were taxed for ; bot the negleCt of pedonal fafii,ng, ufed by the difciples of John, upon the occafion of their MaHer, The fri~nd of the Bridegroom, his being .. taken from them; and alfo ,byrthe Pharijees, out of their fuperfiitious and vain-glorious difpofition; Mat. ix. I 4• · with Luke xviii. 12. Thirdly, It is recommended onto us bY. the prac– tice of the faints mentioned in Scripture. It was, as we have already feen, praetifed by David 1 a man according \ \I /
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