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SECT. 2. DIRECTIONS FOR THE KEEPING A RELIGIOUS FAST.

By way of preparation to a religious fast, do thus: Take but a moderate supper the night before: for if a man glut himself over night, he will be more unfit for the duty of humiliation the next day, and it differs in effect little from breaking of fast next morning.

When you commend yourself to God alone by prayer that night (as every good Christian doth) then set yourself in a special manner to seek the Lord, as the saints of God; in the beginning of their fasts, have done; 2 Chron. xx. 3. Dan. x. 12; proposing to yourself the end of your intended fast; remembering this, that if the chief occasion and end be your own private good, that you forget not others, nor the public; or if it be the public, yet mind also your own private; for until you have renewed your own peace with God, your fasting and praying will prevail little for the public. And God having joined the public with our private good in prayer, we must not disjoin them in our fasting. Resolve with yourself, to the utmost of your power, to keep a religious fast unto God, according to his will; for this cause in your prayers add serious petitions to God for his grace to assist you therein.

When you awake that night, let not your thoughts be upon worldly business, much less upon any evil thing; but let them be holy, such as may tend to the assistance of the holy duties of the next day.

Also, if necessity hinder not, arise early on the day of your fast. It is most agreeable to a day of fasting, whereon your flesh is to be subdued, that you allow not yourself so much sleep as at other times. It is probable, that for this cause some lay on the ground, others in sackcloth, in the nights of their fasts, 2 Sam. xii. 16; not only to express, but to assist their humiliation, by keeping them from sleeping over much, or over sweetly, Joel i. 13.