Two treatises. 1. The holy exercise of a true fast, described out of God's…

Wherein the better to correct our dullness & heaviness ⟨p. 37⟩to this so holy an exercise; let us remember, that it is to obtain some special grace at the hand of the Lord. Whereby it is given us to understand, that upon due holding of this Fast unto the Lord, there be excellent promises, and a most singular reward.¹ Whereof the place of Joel, as it spake before, for the commandment of all the Fasts, which the people of God used; so will it undertake for the promises, which the Lord hath made, to all those which submit them selves to the obedience thereof. The truth of which promises is so manifest in the Scriptures; as the Sun (at noon days) can be no clearer. For let all the ⟨p. 38⟩Fasts of the holy Churches, and of godly men laid out in Scripture, both of the old and new Testament, be^* turned over; and it shall be seen, that the end of their Fast (which kept it in any measure of trueth and simplicity) was a Feast, and the issue of their mourning, great rejoicing.³ For albeit the ordinary Prayers of the faithful, return not empty unto them again; yet having regard unto these, which are joined with this Exercise,⁴ they may worthily seem to be barren, which are otherwise fruitful; and to be blasted, which otherwise seem full cared. Yea, the Fast of the wicked king Ahab, ⁵joined with no true repentance, nor so ⟨p. 39⟩much as with any true knowledge how to serve the Lord, but performed in some sort only in keeping of the outward and bodily ceremony, went not unrewarded from the Lord. For even by the very shadow of his exercise, the execution of that judgment, which was awarded against him, touching his utter razing from the kingdom of Israel: was deferred until his sons days. Now, if the coming within the shadow of this exercise, doth heal some diseases: what will it do if we come to touch the body thereof? And if the leaves of it, have some virtue to preserve men from the vengeance of God; how sovereign is the