A85486:69
The right wayThe right vvay
The right way: or A direction for obtaining good success in a weighty enterprise. Set out in a sermon preached on the 12th of September, 1648. before the Lords on a day of humiliation for a blessing on a treaty between His Majesties and the Parliaments commissioners. / By W. Gouge.The right vvay: or A direction for obtaining good successe in a weighty enterprise. Set out in a sermon preached on the 12th of September, 1648. before the Lords on a day of humiliation for a blessing on a treaty between His Majesties and the Parliaments commissioners. / By W. Gouge.
London: printed by A. Miller for Joshua Kirton, 1648London: printed by A. Miller for Ioshua Kirton, 1648
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.
In passing from the charge to the ends of giving it, we may observe a change of number. The charge about such a thing is thus set down in the singular number, I proclaimed: But the expression of the ends in the plural, thus, That WE might afflict OUR selves, &c. The former ⟨p. 7⟩act of proclaiming the fast, belonged only to the chief Governor, which at that time Ezra was to those Jews: but the later acts, of afflicting themselves, and seeking of God a right way, were common duties appertaining to them all; and for the good of them all: In which respect the number is justly and fitly altered, and these plurals used, WE, OUR, US.
In passing from the charge to the ends of giving it, we may observe a change of number. The charge about such a thing is thus set down in the singular number, I praclaimed: But the expression of the ends in the plurall, thus, That WEE might afflict OVR selves, &c. The former ⟨p. 7⟩act of proclaiming the fast, belonged only to the chief Governour, which at that time Ezra was to those Jews: but the later acts, of afflicting themselves, and seeking of God a right way, were common duties appertaining to them all; and for the good of them all: In which respect the number is justly and fitly altered, and these plurals used, WE, OVR, VS.
That which is here set down as one end of their fasting, 1in this phrase, That we might afflict ourselves, showeth the extent of a true fast. It must be a fast that may be felt: and that so far, as they who keep it, may find and feel a want of that which they have forborne. This may be one branch of a Christians self-denial, voluntarily to forbear that which nature requires, and not to afford unto it that which it craveth. Afflicting themselves here meant, extendeth both to mens bodies, and also to their souls: For a mens self doth not consist of body only. This extent of a fast is by the law thus expressed, Ye shall afflict your souls,