42 LIFE AA'D CORRKSrONDENCE OF THE [l/Sl 



We 2"ive some extracts from the discourse : 



fcj' 



Frequent have been the days of humiliation and the fasts which our 

 Rulers, in their Piety, have recommended during a few years past, and 

 once at least every year (if not oftenerj hath beheld the inhabitants of 

 these States, in consequence of such recommendation, assembled and 

 ])rostrated, before the Lord, in Prayer and Fasting: and now at length, 

 through the impatience of our tempers, the deceitfulness of our hearts, 

 and the weakness of our faith, we are ready, perhaps, to take up the 

 complaint of the Jews, and in the language of despair, instead of the 

 voice of Godly sorrow and repentance, to argue the matter with our 

 great Creator, and to question his goodness and justice in the words of 

 my text. 



Tliese questions in this text are awful questions, and which He only 

 to v>liom they are addressed can answer. And therefore, since, by 

 his holy prophet, he has vouchsafed an answer to these and such like 

 questions, to the desponding Jews, in circumstances not unlike to our 

 own ; we cannot better employ our time, on this solemn occasion, than 

 by considering — 



First — The answer given by the prophet to these questions of the 

 Jews, and the reasons of the Almighty for the frequent rejecting of their 

 fasts. 



Secondly — How far our fasts may be chargeable with the like defects 

 in the sight of a just and all-seeing God? And how, through His 

 grace, our Prayers and Fastings, our Praises and Thanksgivings, may be 

 rendered more acceptable to Him? 



Although we have the Gospel in our hand, as the fulness of Divine 

 Light and Knowledge, to wliich no addition can be made in our mortal 

 state ; yet we are to adore that Providence which has given us the Old 

 Testament also, wherein is contained an account of the dealings of the 

 Ahnight}'. in ancient times, with his own chosen people; and from 

 whence lessons are to be derived, that with profit may be applied to the 

 instruction of mankind in all succeeding ages. 



Let us then consider the situation of the Jews, after they had been 

 first spoiled by the Assyrians, and afterwards by the Babylonians, as set 

 forth in the forty-second chapter of this prophecy, now claiming at- 

 tention. And truly melancholy and miserable it was. 



"This people (saith the prophet) is robbed and spoiled. They are 

 all of them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses ; They are for a 

 prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, restore. Who 

 among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear? Who 

 is there that, by the present judgments, will take warning, and strive to 

 avert the like judgments in the time to come." 



Think not that these judgments spring up from the dust, or have 

 come upon you without a cause. " For who was it that gave Jacob for 



