A09432:984
A godly and learned exposition of Christs Sermon in the Mount
A godly and learned exposition of Christs Sermon in the Mount: preached in Cambridge by that reverend and judicious divine M. William Perkins. Published at the request of his executors by Th. Pierson preacher of Gods word. Whereunto is adjoined a twofold table: one, of special points here handled; the other, of choice places of Scripture here quotedA godly and learned exposition of Christs Sermon in the Mount: preached in Cambridge by that reuerend and iudicious diuine M. William Perkins. Published at the request of his exequutors by Th. Pierson preacher of Gods word. Whereunto is adioyned a twofold table: one, of speciall points here handled; the other, of choise places of Scripture here quoted
Cambridge : Printed by Thomas Brooke and Cantrell Legge, printers to the University of Cambridge, 1608Cambridge : Printed by Thomas Brooke and Cantrell Legge, printers to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge, 1608
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Thus much of fasting in general: now I come to Christs doctrine of fasting here propounded. And first, of his reformation of the abuses thereof then used among the Jews: When ye fast look not as the hypocrites, &c. Quest. How doth this agree with the commandment of God, Joel. 1. 13, 14. where he bids them howl and cry in their fast, which cannot be without a mournful countenance; and indeed in a true fast rightly celebrated, the sorrow of the heart must needs be testified by some convenient signs and gesture in the body. Ans. Christ doth not here simply condemn a sorrowful countenance in fasting, when as just occasion of sorrow therein is offered; for yNehemiah looked sad: but only the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who when they fasted had a sad countenance, without a sorrowful heart; for all their heavy looks, they had no broken spirits: this therefore Christ saith, carry ⟨p. 333⟩not a sad and heavy look, when thou hast no sorrowful mourning heart; mind not thy outward countenance, in respect of thy heart and conscience. For they disfigure their faces, &c. This also may seem not blame-worthy, for Gods children have in their fasts divers ways disfigured their faces, and been approved: Ezra yplucked off the hair of his head and of his beard: and zJoshua and the Israelites fell to the ground upon their face, and put dust upon their heads, which could not but disfigure their faces. Answ. The Pharisees are blamed for disfiguring their faces, in divers respects, and that justly; for first, this was the chief and only thing they looked to in their fasts, even the outward show thereof, which God hateth. Again, the word translated disfigure, 4signifieth the very abolishing of their favour and visage, which is far more then the ancient Jews ever used to do; they indeed humbled their bodies, and testified their sorrow, which God approved: but they sought not to deform their natural complexion, they pined not themselves to make their faces pale, that so men might the better take notice of their much fasting, as these Pharisees did: and such were they in Pauls time, who spared not their bodies,