OF

PENITENCE AND HUMILIATION,

ON

DAYS OF RETIREMENT

FOR THE

MORE SOLEMN EXERCISE OF REPENTANCE.

IN EIGHT SECTIONS.

SECT. 1. RELIGIOUS FASTING.-2. EXAMINATION.-3. CONFESSION.-4. RESOLUTIONS.-5. Prayer.-6. THANKSGIV INGS.-7. INTERCESSIONS.-8. CONCLUSION.

SECTION I.

PRECEPTS and DIRECTIONS for RELIGIOUS Fasting; with a PRAYER.

GIVE yourselves to fasting and prayer".

Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection".

a 1 Cor. vii. 5.

b 1 Cor. ix. 25-27.

A a

Jesus said, the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father Which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly".

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.

c Matt. ix. 15. d Matt. vi. 16-18. e Isai. lviii. 6-9.

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil 3.

They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth good seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him ".

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted '.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, for our little ones, and for our substance *.

So we fasted and besought our God for this; and He was intreated of us'.

Cornelius said, four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God".

Prayer for God's assistance and acceptance of our Humiliation.

O Almighty and ever-blessed God, Who art infinitely holy, and happy in Thyself, and of Thine abundant goodness hast given us a capacity, and made it our duty to imitate Thy holiness, in order to make us partakers of Thy happiness; I a wretched sinner, sorrowfully reflecting upon my life past,-how careless I have been to answer the end of my creation; how sluggish and inconstant in my endeavours to please Thee; and how eager in gratifying my own inclinations; what great portions of my time I have thrown away in vanity, and how little of it I have employed in working out my salvation ;-present myself now before Thee, sincerely desirous, and resolved through the assistance of Thy grace to retire for some time from the cares and pleasures of the world, in order to exercise a more solemn humiliation

Acts x. 30, 31.