' Direl'litinsah~utper/onalfofllng, 383 refpeCl: thereto, you may put up that petition: until / him, in faith, , Pfal. lxxxvi. 17. ' Shew me a token for good.' · Thus far of perfonal fafiing and humiliation. - C H A \ P.. III. tJf Family-Fafl:ing and Humiliation, in particular. ) ' ~w· Herein the fubfiaqce of this duty_, which is the - fame in all religious fafis whatfoever,cloth con– fifr, is already declared. And tqere being n11a- -ny things common tofamily-fajls, withperfona/ ones, of which Y'e haye treated at large; it remains only to add here fome _few things peculiar to family-faj}ing. And, Firj}, 'As to the Divine lVarrant for it, one may be fatisfied upon thefe grounds. Firfl, Forafmuch as every Chrifiian family ought to be a church, Rom. xvi. S· to receive ~11 ordinances appointed of God, and.c0mpetent to them in theirfa– mily, capacity: and that religious fafiing is an o~dinance 'of Divine appointment, in the nature Y'hereof there is nothing to hinder its being performed by a "family, in theirJ;:amily capacity: it is evident, that fami!y-fajling antl humiliation, is a part of family- · w~rfhip; namely, dan extraordinary part thereof, to be ocaafional!y perform~d. Accordingly, itis prorriifed as an effeCt of the pouring out of the Spirit, Zech. xii. , 12. ' The land lhaJl mourn, every family apart.' We · have alfo a plain infrance of it, in Effber's ~ family, on. the oc~afion of the mifchievous decree againfi: the jews, procure.d by Haman, Efih. iv. 16. ' I nlfo and my maidens will fafi: likewife.' And the failing of the Jews, on the fame occafion, in every province tuhi- . therfoever that decree came, mentioned Ver. 3· .feems , to have been mofily, ifnot altogether, of the f.1me . kind 1 to wit, family1afting; not only, in refpeCt of B b their_ • .
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