1. AND you shall find both the one and the other of these insisted upon in the seventh Chapter of the Prophet Zachary , out of which I will take the foundation and ground-work of my ensuing discourse . For the understanding of which , you must remember how God for their sins had forsaken his house , and left his heritage , and given the dearly beloved of his soul into the hand of their enemies , as Jeremiah speaks , cap. 12.7 . These enemies were the Chaldeans , whose Prince Nebuchadnezzar God had raised up for to destroy many Nations , and among the rest Judea ; the people of which he carried captive unto Babylon , after he had burnt their chief City and the Temple of the Lord with fire . In consideration of which calamities , those Captives appointed certain Fasts to be kept at some set times in the year , both as sad commemorations of the ruine that God had brought by sundry steps upon them , and as a means to atone him , and procure his return to them . In the Law of Moses we read but of one Fast commanded by God to his people , which was in the same moneth with one of these that I am going to mention ; viz. on the tenth day of the seventh moneth , as you may find , Lev. 16.29 , 31. Lev. 23.27 , &c. This is the time mentioned by Saint Luke , Act. 27.9 . when he saith the Fast was past , and so sailing was become dangerous , i.e. it was about that time that we call Michaelmas , when great flaws use to be upon the Seas , which makes them rough and tempestuous . It is called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , L. de Sept. & festis . the Feast of the Fast , and the Sabbath of Sabboths . The neglect , or rather hypocritical observance of which Sabbath , or day of rest , is reproved very sharply in the 58. of Isaiah through the whole Chapter . Where by Sabbath , vers. 13. is to be understood this fasting day , on the tenth day of the seventh moneth , and not the seventh day of the week , as will appear to him that will take the pains to compare that Chapter , with those places in Leviticus just now cited . But as there were many occasional Fasts which private men kept as they had need ; and as there was no moneth in the year ( if we may believe the Hebrew Calendar ) wherein they did not observe some stated Fasts in remembrance of some sad things that had befaln that Nation in former times ; and as the second and fifth dayes of every week were Fasting dayes for Religious persons ( which the Pharisee boasts that he observed , Luke 18.12 . ) So in conformity to this usual practice , their Rulers did appoint four Fasts to be solemnly observed every year , which are all mentioned together , Zach. 8.19 . and were in remembrance ( as both antient and modern , Christian and Jewish Interpreters conjecture ) of so many several remarkables in their ruine . The Fast of the fourth moneth was in memory of the first breach made in the wall of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans , of which we read , Jer. 52.6 , &c. The Fast of the fifth in memory of the burning of the Temple , which in that moneth happened , ( Jer. 52.12 . ) as the burning of the second Temple by Titus did also . That of the seventh was in memory of the slaughter of Gedaliah by Ismael , of which we read , Jer. 41. And that of the tenth was either in memory of the beginning of the siege , which proved to be so fatal to them , which fell out to be in that moneth , 2 King . 25.1 . Jer. 52.3 . Ezek. 24.1 , 2. or else because in that moneth Ezekiel and they of the first captivity had the news brought to them that Jerusalem was taken , Ezek. 33.21 . For I take it to be very frivolous which some of the Jews say , that the Fast of the fourth moneth was kept , because in it Moses broke the Tables of stone ; and the Fast of the fifth , because in it they were prohibited to go from Kadesh-Barnea , which was the shortest way to the Land of Canaan , &c. There being no reason then for to be given , why they should not have been still observed , after they came out of captivity ; whereas the people were in doubt ( as we shall see presently ) whether they should keep these Fasts any longer . But before I pass any further , it will not be amiss to take notice on what places in the Law they built this practice . And you read in Numb. 10.9 . that if they were going to war with an enemy that oppressed them , they are bid to blow an alarm with Trumpets , and God would remember to save them . This they understand to be a command for proclaiming a Fast , and calling Assemblies ( See Joel 2.15 . ) that they might humble themselves when they were in distress , and turn Gods wrath away from them . And then because it is said , Levit. 26.40 . that in the Land of their captivity they should confess their sins , and the sins of their forefathers , they concluded ( as Ainsworth there observes out of Maimony ) that they ought to humble themselves on certain dayes of the year , for the sins and miseries of their fore-fathers , as well as their own ; and so they appointed these Fasts which are here mentioned in Zachary for that purpose .

2. Now the people being returned out of that captivity after seventy years humiliation , they sent their messengers to the Priests , to enquire whether they should keep the Fast of the fifth moneth any longer , Zach. 7. ver. 2 , 3. And they not being able , it seems , to resolve the Question , came to this Prophet , as you may gather from ver. 5. where he speaks not only to all the people , but the Priests also , in Answer to this enquiry . The reason why they make mention of that Fast only among all the four , was this ; because the building of the Temple was now in hand , in memory of whose destruction , this Fast ( as hath been said ) was observed ; and so they might well think that the cause of that mourning was ceased , and they had reason rather to rejoyce . But before the Prophet comes to determine the case , and to tell them , that the dayes should still be observed , only with a change of them from Fasts into Feasts ( as it is chap. 8.19 . ) he gives them to understand what a true Fast is , lest afterwards their dayes of mirth should be to no better purpose then their dayes of sorrow ; and lest they should think that such humbling of themselves had purchased their deliverance . And he tells them plainly , that they were much mistaken , if they imagined that God had been served by them in the fifth or seventh moneth either , any better then by their fore-fathers , whose Fasting is in the fore-mentioned place ( Isa. 58. ) undervalued and slighted , as unworthy of his least regard . And this he doth in the fifth verse , and those that follow , wherein he grants , that they had indeed observed many dayes of humiliation , but yet absolutely denies that they had in the least done him any pleasure , or satisfied any of his desires . When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh moneth , even those seventy years , did ye at all fast unto me , even unto me ? or as it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did you fast your fast to me , I say to me ? which is a phrase like that in Hag. 1.4 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it a time for you , I say for you ( who are newly delivered by me ) to dwell in your seiled houses , and this house lie waste ? So here , did you fast to me , I say to me , who have often declared to you , that I care not for these outward performances , unless they be accompanyed with the hearty forsaking of sin ? Sure you cannot think it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Aben-Ezra interprets it ) because of me , for my sake , for my glory , or to do any thing really pleasing unto me . Did I command any such Fast as this unto you ? ( for so it may be rendred , by putting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) who bid you fast on this fashion ? When you did eat and drink ( as it is ver. 6. ) did you any thing else but satisfie your selves therein ? The same kind of action is your fasting , and I am no more pleased with it , then with your eating and drinking . If you had bestowed your time the quite contrary way , it had been as gratefull to me , as all your fasting dayes . This is the sense of the Prophets sharp answer , which being proposed by way of question , is a most peremptory and undenyable assertion , that they had not pleased him but themselves , with all their labour ; for he appeals to their own consciences , and makes them Judges in the case . Do you your selves now tell me ( saith God ) in your own sober thoughts , whether you can believe that not eating , weeping , howling , and such like things , are fasting unto me ? No , you have been told often enough of this , and it is not the first time that you have been informed of your duty in this particular . Nunquid non sunt verba quae locutus est Dominus , &c. ( as the vulgar renders those words , ver. 7. out of the Hebrew ) Are not these the words which the Lord hath cryed by the former Prophets , when Jerusalem was inhabited , and in her prosperity ? Have not I told your Fathers by all my servants , while you were in this Land , before your captivity , that such kind of service is not acceptable to me ? And yet you their children are in the same mistake , and come confidently to me , telling me of your performing that , which I alwayes upbraided them withall . Methinks your own hearts should reprove you , and spare me a labour of giving you any further answer .

3. By which you clearly see , that this was one of the ineffectual courses that their sick Nation took for their recovery , viz. outward fasting and abstinence from food , whereby they much afflicted themselves . Very severe and rigorous they were in this thing , so that they refrained not only from the delicacies , but all the ordinary refreshments of nature . And so punctual and nice they were in these austerities , that they tell us , to the afflicting of the soul ( by which phrase the great Fast is described , Lev. 16. ) there were four things required beside forbearing all their food , viz. abstaining from and laying aside their bathes , their ointments , their wives , and their shooes ; i. e. every thing which might be a pleasure and delight to their bodies . And these may seem to be included in that phrase , ver. 3. of the 7. of Zach. Shall I weep in the fifth moneth ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) separating my self as I have done these many years ? So serious they were , and scrupulous in this matter , that they thought they could not in conscience leave off these exercises , till they knew Gods mind about it . Would not we have taken them for very pious folks ? Would they not have passed among us for persons of a very tender conscience ? And yet the Lord tells them , that if they had taken their repast , followed their callings , annointed their heads , done as they used at other times , they had equally given him content , and found as much acceptance with him , who looked for other kind of fasting , as the Prophet tells us , in the 9 , 10 , 11. ver. of the same Chapter . As a Physitian keeps his patient to a thin diet , and takes his ordinary food from his table , that he may starve the ill humors ; so did they think to work a cure upon their souls , and by meer fasting from corporal food , to make them well ; Not considering that the fast of the soul consists in an abstinence from those things that are hurtfull to it , as the fast of the body is the forbearance of such meats as feed its diseases . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in cap. 58. Isa. When their enemies were upon them ( saith Procopius ) they thought by bodily fasting to pacifie God , and make him favourable to them ; abstaining from meat , but not from spiritual wickedness . And so all their severities amounted to a labour about nothing , because whilest they would not for a world touch a bit of bread , they swallowed any unlawful gains , they tore the flesh , and gnawed the very bones of the poor , as shall be manifested , before I leave their story . While they would not moisten their mouthes with a sip of drink , they drunk in iniquity like water , and were filled with it to a strange excess , and it broke out like a sore disease . While they pined their bodies , they suffered their lusts , the body of sin , to be fat and well-liking . While they took down their flesh , and made their faces look thin ; that which the Scripture calls flesh , was lusty and strong , pampered and high fed . Their Pride was not starved , their big and ambitious thoughts were not taken down ; their inordinate , covetous desires were not impaired ; their luxurious appetites were not retrenched ; nothing that was unreasonable in them was paired off , moderated or abated : No , all sorts of sins were never more nourished and made more hungry and ravenous , then when fasting and its concomitants could in gross the name and reputation of Religion to themselves . And so their Fasts were to no more purpose ( not being thus designed ) then if they had been feeding their corps with a plenty of more then ordinary cheer .

4. I need not tell you that the world hath ever since made use of the same remedy , as a cure for all their surfets of sin and wickedness . As the Master many times sins , and his Man suffers for it ; so do men use their bodies , beating them with fasting and hunger , as if they were in the fault , and not their souls . This present generation hath been so laborious and zealous in their publick and private , their weekly and monethly humiliations ; that few ages can parallel them , either in sins , or such kind of sorrows . We have blown the trumpet so loudly , and proclaimed Fasts so frequently , that we have made the world ring of them , and heaven ( I fear ) deaf with them . Seeing we intended no more by them , then what the Jews performed , they have proved but like the vulgar medicines which people take from their neighbours in bodily diseases , that leave them as sick as they were before , if not in a far worse condition . Men sin still at such an height , and grow so confident in it , that any judicious person may discern , they are grown more sick by their remedies , and like to die by their Religion . They could not be more licentious and intemperate in their desires then they are , if they had done all this pennance on purpose to purchase a licence to live as they list . And having their hearts so leavened with Jewish superstition , they had as good have gone and made a feast , invited their neighbours , and passed that time away merrily , which they spent only upon a sad ceremony . For if we consider the meer simple act either of the one , or the other of these things , they have no goodness in them : but as they are designed by us to certain purposes which are good , so they become acts of Religion .

5. And then fasting from food is good and profitable , when it works upon our souls , as Physick doth upon our bodies , purging out the foul humours , making us clean , and rendring us fit for action and employment . And first in respect of the time past , it is to be used as an act of sorrow and grief for our ingratitude ; and our emptiness should make us feel , that all our mercies come from Gods fulness . It should testifie our anger and displeasure against our selves , and be an act of revenge upon our selves for the abuse of those good things which God hath given us leave to feed on to our refreshment , but which we have fatted our selves withall to an excessive fulness and wantonness . We should make it an expression of our repentance , and disclaiming of our former courses ; an acknowledgement that we deserve not a mouth full of meat , but rather to have our daily bread taken from our tables , and not so much as the scraps and fragments of that plenteous provision left behind , which God blesses our Tables withall . And when it looks back with such an austere countenance upon our inordinate enjoyments ; when it confesses our unworthiness , chides our unthankfulness , afflicts and chastises us for our former follies ; then there is some good in it , and this soure sauce may make us hereafter relish all divine blessings better . But this is not all the good it must do us ; for if we return again to our former course , it is but a mock-repentance , and a gluttonous abstinence . For it is nothing but fulness , that makes some men fast ; and their fasting doth but prepare them for the greater fulness .

6. And therefore secondly , in regard of the time to come , it is to be an act of mortification , designed to the starving and pining of our lusts ; to the cutting off their provision , and withdrawing of their nourishment ; to the learning of sobriety and temperate living ; to the practising of self-denyal in our appetites , and crossing our own desires ; and in short , to the bringing the body into subjection , by taking away its provender , if it be an unruly beast that will not be governed . And so it is not a business of a day , or whose efficacy reaches but till night ; but it hath a design upon the whole life , wherein we are to abstain as carefully from all excess in pleasures , yea from all sin , as we do on that day from all our food . To this , that of the Father's doth most truly accord , who calls fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a symbol of death ; it being that which tends to the destruction of the body , and the taking away of its life . It should not only signifie that we are dying to all earthly things , but it ought to be an instrument of death , to take away the life of our lusts . And when it is so used , as not to be a whet-stone to sharpen our stomacks against the next meal ; but to be a knife to cut and slash off all the immoderation of our appetites , to wound and kill all our sins ; it is a thing very acceptable to God , and hugely serviceable to our souls . But let us here note two things , First , that it is to be used , not only to the mortifying of some , but of all our lusts and carnal affections . If we would fast holily and purely , we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , In Isa. 58.3 . as Cyril of Alexandria speaks ; relinquish and depart from our own wills , to chuse that which is pleasing to God , and to yield a neck most gentle , tractable and easily reined by his commands . We must withdraw the food of our appetites after vain glory and the praise of men , as well as after pleasures and fleshly entertainments . The swoln desires of honours and great heaps of worldly wealth must be diminished , no less then the intemperate cravings of the stomack , and the lower belly . We must make it an instrument to dull and blunt the edge of all our inordinate longings , and to fix such deadning considerations in us , as may take us quite off from pleasing our selves . So Clemens Alex. observes , that a Christian knows very well the secret meaning and enigmatical sense of fasting upon the fourth and sixth dayes of the week , viz. Wednesday and Friday , which are called after the names of Mercury and Venus , ( the Heathen Governors of Merchants and Lovers ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . L. 7. Strom. He thereupon learns to fast through his whole life , from covetousness and voluptuousness . The choice of those dayes , was to give him this secret document and remembrance , that he should pine and waste away his greedy desires of riches and pleasures , from whence spring all manner of evils . And indeed it is one excellent end of a Fast , if we intend thereby to enable our selves to exercise charity to the poor , and to give in Alms to them , what we deny to our selves . It is a sad thing if the Divine nature cannot teach us Christians so much tenderness , as good nature taught some Heathens . The people of Rhegium , Aelian . L. 5. var. hist. cap. 20. when their neighbours of Tarentum were besieged by the Romans , fasted every tenth day , and sent those victuals to them , which they should have eaten themselves ; in memory of which a Feast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or , the Fast , was ever after celebrated by them when their Town was relieved . A rare example of kindness , scarce now to be matched , which made me think good here to insert it . But beside , a Christian ( as Clemens also observes ) fasts not only according to the Law , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from all evil actions ; but according to the perfection of the Gospel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from all wicked thoughts and imaginations . These dayes give him notice , what he is to do every day of his life ; and the Gospel fast is so strict , that it will not let an evil thought or affection have its daily food , though they never grow so strong as to beget any evil actions : But it substracts their nourishment , and intends their mortification , and puts the soul upon cutting off all those luxuriances and excrescencies , of which a sprouting fancy is apt to be guilty , which no body observes . In short , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Orat. 2. de jeju . it is as Saint Basil hath defined it , an alienation and estrangement of the soul from all evil . But then ( secondly ) you must further note , that the use of it is to learn our appetites to feed upon spiritual things , upon God and all his holy truths . When the soul is at liberty from its attendance upon the necessities of the body , it should stir up its own hunger , and satisfie it self with its own proper nutriment . When it is not the palates Taster , it should labour so to taste and relish the sweetness of its own food , that ever after it may have a longing for it , and observe set times for its own repast . And so the bodies fast , should be the souls festival , wherein it not only relieves and refreshes it self for that present , but affects its palate also with such a delicious savour of Gods holy commands , that they seem sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb , and make the soul break for the longing that it hath unto those judgements at all times .