A75287:2725
Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The…
Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and public, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.
London: printed by John Field for Nathanael Webb and William Grantham, 1649London: printed by John Field for Nathanaell Webb and William Grantham, 1649
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.
1. The duties that more generally concern the nature of the day, are such as these:—
1. In the true spiritual Fast, there must be fasting from sin, or the forsaking of all our sins; for whiles we abstain from lawful things, we are admonished much more to abstain from all things that are utterly unlawful at all times: It is the Lords complaint, Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and smite with the fist of wickedness, ye shall not fast as ye do this day. It is plain,1 the Lord will endure no Fast of those that go on still in their wickedness.
2. The word and prayer must be added:1 I fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven, said Nehemiah:—And they stood up in their place, and read in the Book of the Law of the Lord their God, one fourth part of the day, and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God: But whereas prayer is a daily and ordinary exercise of the Saints, it is manifest, that by Prayer coupled with Fasting, is understood a special and peerless kind of Prayer, wherein two things are required: 1. Fervency of desire; now we must not only pray,2 but cry unto the Lord; yea, as the Ninevites speak, We are to cry mightily unto him: For the use of our outward abstinence, is but the wing of prayer, wherewith it might more easily fly up to heaven. 2. In such a prayer there should be an assurance of faith: The Lord hath made a gracious promise in many places to this Ordinance,