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

unto our disobedience, we have joined stubbornness, and the Boils and Botches of our rebellion, being ugly in thy sight, do through the putrefaction & festrednesse of them, cast out such stink, as the earth which ⟨p. 73⟩we tread upon, the waters which we drink, and the air which we breath, are tainted and poisoned with the infection of them. Yea Lord, taught by the wonderful justice of thy righteous Law, we charge upon our heads all the sins of our Fathers and Grandfathers, to the uttermost of our generations which are past: as those whereunto we are juster inheritors, then unto any Lands or Goods that they have left us. Whereby it falleth out against us, that our sins touch the Clouds; yea, break into the Heavens of thy Majesties own residence: whose measure being already (as it seemeth) filled, there remaineth nothing, ⟨p. 74⟩but that it should be turned upon our heads. whereupon we make against our selves an other confession, that we are unworthy of all the benefits of this life, or of the life to come: both those which we either have, or yet hope to enjoy, from the greatest to the smallest; from the kingdom of heaven, to one only drop of Water. That we are worthy of all the Plagues, which either have heretofore ceased, or been yet possessed of us. Yea if thou shouldest ransack all the hid, and secret treasures of thy fearful judgments, which in thy Law thou threatenest against the breakers thereof, not only to the razing and sweeping ⟨p. 75⟩us from the face of the earth, but also to the throwing of us headlong into the bottomless pit of hell: yet would we therein also acknowledge thy righteous judgements: for unto us belongeth shame & confusion of faces, but unto thee, glory and righteousness. All which both guilt of sin, and desert of punishment, notwithstanding, (O father of mercies, and God of all comfort) we trusting unto the Promises which thou hast made us in Jesus Christ, are bold through him, humbly to call for the performance of them. And first we humbly desire thee, to forgive us all our sins. Thou hast said, that if we confess our sins, thou art ⟨p. 76⟩faithful to forgive us them. We acknowledge the debt, cancel therefore the Obligation: let not the multitude of them prevail against us; but where our sin hath abounded, let thy grace more abound;