A25478:1269
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1676
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.
1. Is self-debasement. God complains of the Jews fasting, Isa. 58.5. they did hang down their heads like a bulrush, but their souls did not bow down within them. We call a fast day a day of humiliation, but we have the name but not the thing, if the soul be not humbled: What is it for the body to wear sackcloth, if Pride cover the heart; or to spread ashes under us, if the soul lye not down in the dust, or to fast from bodily food, if the soul be not emptied of self-fullness.
1. Is self-debasement. God complains of the Jews fasting, Isa. 58.5. they did hang down their heads like a bulrush, but their souls did not bow down within them. We call a fast day a day of humiliation, but we have the name but not the thing, if the soul be not humbled: What is it for the body to wear sackcloth, if Pride cover the heart; or to spread ashes under us, if the soul lye not down in the dust, or to fast from bodily food, if the soul be not emptied of self-fulness.
2. Godly sorrow. A fast day is for afflicting the soul, and how is the soul afflicted without true sorrow? The Hebrew word [Greek or Hebrew] that signifies a fast, is derived from a root that signifies to afflict, so essential is the afflicting the soul to the day. It was a charge against the Jews, Isa. 58.2. Behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure. What kind of pleasure it was, is not there mentioned, but it was some sinful pleasure that was not congruous to the day. Daniel speaks of his fast, ch. 10.3. I sat full three weeks mourning. As at our funerals, many enter the house of mourning and wear black, but there is no mourning within, nor no garment of heaviness covers their soul.
2. Godly sorrow. A fast day is for afflicting the soul, and how is the soul afflicted without true sorrow? The Hebrew word that signifies a fast, is derived from a root that signifies to afflict, so essential is the afflicting the soul to the day. It was a charge against the Jews,