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God by prayer alone, be twice at least, in the day of your fast, besides your ordinary prayers in the morning and evening; and having thus obtained peace with God, through faith in Christ Jesus, you may, nay ought to pray for the good, or against the evil, which was the occasion of the fast, Ezra viii. 23, 2 Chron. xx. 3 - 6, &c.

But in praying you must in fervency of spirit cry mightly, Jonah iii. 8; striving and wrestling in prayer.

The extraordinary burnt-offerings and sin-offerings, besides the sin-offering of the atonement, to be offered on the solemn day of the fast, Numb. xxix. 7 - 12, under the law (which, as I told you, in the morality of it, is the standard of religious fasts,) does show, that a fast must be kept in manner as has been said; for hereby we prepare and sanctify ourselves, and seek to God in Christ; hereby we by faith lay hold on Christ, the only true sacrifice for sin; and hereby we do by him draw nigh to God, and in token of thankfulness do give ourselves to be a whole and living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service, Rom. xii. 1.

For your greater and more thorough humbling of yourself, and further exercise of your faith in God, and love to your brethren and church of God, something yet is to be added.

You must represent to your thoughts also the sins and evils that are already upon, or hanging over the head of your family and nearest friends, and of the town, country, or kingdom where you live, together with their several aggravations; lay them to heart, Psa. cxix. 136 - 158, Jer. ix. 1, xiii. 17; considering that they by sinning do dishonour God your Father, and do bring evil upon the souls and bodies of those whom you should love as well as yourself: and it is a thousand to one but that you are involved in their sins, and become accessary, if not by example, counsel, permission, or concealment, yet in not grieving for them, in not hating them, and in not confessing and disclaiming them sufficiently before God, These also bring common judgments upon church and state,