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ality in contracts, obedience to magistrates, submission to superiors, respect for laws, loyalty to kings:-and here, above all, it is, that they catch that true spirit of the gospel, which, meliorating all things, makes submission to superiors voluntary, by rendering superiors gracious,-respect for laws natural, by making laws just, and loyalty to kings pleasant, by making kings good.

ON

FAST DAY.

February, 1808.

1)

SERMON VI.

JOEL I. VERSE XIV,

Sanctify ye a fast; call a solemn assembly ; gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of the

Lord our God, and cry unto the Lord.

FASTING has, in all ages, and among all nations, been an exercise much in use in times of mourning and affliction. There is no example of fasting, properly so called, before the time of Moses; yet it is presumable, the Patriarchs had recourse to that religious exercise, since we see that there were very great mournings among them; such as that of Abraham for Sarah, and Jacob for his son, Joseph. Moses enjoins no par

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ticular fast, in his five books, excepting that on the solemn day of expiation, which was generally, and strictly, observed. "On the tenth day of the seventh month, ye shall afflict your souls." After the time of Moses, examples of fasting were very common among the Jews. Joshua, and the elders, remained prostrate before the ark, from morning until evening, after the children of Israel were defeated by the men of Ai. The eleven Tribes, which had taken up arms against that of Benjamin, seeing they could not hold out against the inhabitants of Gibeah, fell down upon the ark, upon their faces, and, in this manner, continued until the evening without food. The very heathens, sometimes, fasted; and the king of Nineveh, terrified with the preaching of Jonas, made an order, that not only man, but beast also, should continue without food from the rising to the setting of the sun. And the Jews, in the times of public calamity, made even children at the breast fast. It does not appear, from the practice of our Saviour, and his disciples, that he instituted any particular fast, or enjoined any to be kept out of pure devotion; but when the

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