the fact, they are required to review their conduct, that they might fee their fin and folly. You fay that you have fafted, but have you performed this duty according to the commandment, to heal your divifions, to allay your animofities, to remove your differences, and to forfake your wicked ways? The fafts which you have folemnized ferved to promote purposes the very reverse of thefe, fuch as contention, with every evil work; therefore they have not been acceptable to God, but are deferving of fharp reproof. From the very face of this charge it appears, that there fubfifted among thofe against whom it was brought, parties at variance one with another, and that each blamed the mifconduct and fins of the other, as the cause of their diftreffes, from which they had not been delivered. In confequence whereof, thofe devotional exercifes, which should have been the means of eftablishing reconciliation and harmony, became a bond of contention, and added new force to the voice of faction. People in general, inftead of judging themfelves, which is the proper bufinefs of a faft day, unjustly condemned their brethren who differed from them, injured, infulted, and wickedly endeavoured to afflict and oppress them. Ye fhall not faft as ye do this day, &c. Your fafts have not been fo obferved, that you can expect God will regard and accept of your confeffions and fupplications. You fhall not continue to do in time to come as you have done in time paft; you fhall be deprived of fuch favourable opportunities as you have enjoyed, or you thall improve them to better purposes, being divested of your hypocrify and vanity, whereby you have been induced-To make your voice to be heard on high. In this manner, affuming the appearance of extraordinary fanctity and fervent devotion, which you were defirous thould be noticed, you acted, whilft devoid of correfponding difpofitions of mind. The Lord God, highly dif pleafed at their diffimulation in his fervice, and their vain vain oftentation of penitence, whereof they were really deftitute, folemnly declares, that they fhould not be allowed much longer to continue their hypocritical fafts. By this confideration we ought to be excited to study fincerity and uprightnefs in all our profeffions of repentance, and to take heed that they be the genuine expreffions of unfeigned humiliation and contrition, left God be provoked to deprive us of the advantages we enjoy. 5. Is it fuch a faft that I have chofen? a day for a man to afflict his foul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrufh, and to fpread fackcloth and afhes under him? wilt thou call this a faft, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Ifaiah inquires of the people he now addreffes, if they indeed imagined that God would regard and accept of the fafts which were obferved in the manner above mentioned. To fuppofe that God, who requires to be worthipped in spirit and in truth, approves and takes pleasure in the external fervices performed by thofe who are devoid of fuitable difpofitions of mind, is highly unreasonable and abfurd. If you foolishly think, that by abstaining for a short time from animal gratifications, whilft the foul is fubject to the dominion of fin, and is not purified from vicious affections, you can pleafe God, you must admit either that God does not regard the heart, and that he is indifferent as to the ftate of mind the per-, fon is in who engages in his fervice-or that external homage, fuch as proceeds not from the heart, meets his approbation, and is all that he requires. Such extravagant notions are abfurd in the extreme, and inconfiftent with the character of Jehovah, and the declarations contained in the holy Scriptures. Some of the fafts no doubt, mentioned in the Old Testament, as that of the Ninevites, were not such, in all refpects, refpects, as God requires, yet were they gracioufly regarded by him, and proved the means, through the Divine clemency, of averting for a time deferved calamities. Their humiliation feems to have been fincere, and joined with an afflicting fenfe of merited awful judgments, which were followed with temporary exemption from the miferies they had incurred. A day for a man to afflict his foul, or, as the Hebrew words may denote, to afflict his foul for a day, fo as 'to be diftreffed and grieved on account of his undu'tiful and ungrateful conduct toward God, who had daily loaded him with benefits; and his return to folly after folemn confeffions, proteftations, and 'many warnings and admonitions.'-To bow down bis head as a bulrufb, which during a ftorm bends to the ground, and after the tempeft ceases, again rifes to its ordinary height. In like manner, thofe who are here reproved, during a faft-day feem to be deeply humbled for fin, though their hearts on that account are not dejected; but when the day is paft, they affume a new appearance, they return to their former line of conduct, and become as proud and vain as ever they were before.-And to fpread fackcloth and afhes under him, which was contidered of old as the ceremonial part of repentance. The practice was anciently adopted in time of great affiction and forrowful lamentation, on account of prevailing iniquity and impending judgments, as a badge of deep humiliation and felf-abasement *. In this manner they pretended that they were much grieved because of their tranfgreffions, when in truth they felt no compunction of foul, no godly forrow for the fins they had committed.-Wilt thou call this a fast, &c. Doth fuch a fuperficial obfervance of a day, fet apart for the exercises of genuine repentance, deferve this defignation? Do you really imagine, that a portion of time appropriated to the folemn fervice of God, fpent in this manner, can be accept *Job xlii. 6. able able in his fight who hath pleasure in uprightness, and knoweth all things? Do you indeed suppose, that external profeffions of humility, deftitute of contrite hearts, can be well-pleafing to the Lord, who requires truth in the inward parts? A day wafted in hypocritical acts of devotion does not deferve the name of a faft day, and instead of being acceptable, must be an abomination to the Lord, who hates every fpecies of diffimulation.-Recollect feriously, my friends, in what manner you obferved the fait days which of late were appointed for promoting pious purposes, and if they have proved fubfervient, through the Divine bleffing, for advancing your best interests. 6. Is not this the faft that I have chofen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppreffed go free, and that ye break every yoke.. The exercises suited to an acceptable fast are particularly defcribed, from whence it is evident, that the external profeffion of penitence is unavailable in the fight of God, unless accompanied with corre-. fponding good difpofitions, and the practice of thofe duties which are connected with fuch a profeffion. If you wish to know in what manner a faft ought to be obferved, full information is given in this and the verfe that immediately follows, to which you fhould carefully attend. True repentance is to be manifested by a hearty renunciation of former fins, and the faithful performance of the oppofite duties. The former of thefe is mentioned in this, and the latter. in the next verfe. Let us confider them in the order in which they ftand.-The faft that God hath chofen, of which he approves and graciously regards, is defigned To loofe the bands of wickedness. Wickednefs may here denote criminal indulgence in fin, the avowed practice of every fpecies of tranfgreffion, and an obfti nate nate oppofition to the authority and the fervice of Jehovah. Iniquity hath its cords, and wickedness hath its bands, whereby those who are under its influence are confined to its fervice, and unhappily restrained from fubjection to God.Corrupt inclinations, vicious paffions, foolish pretexts joined to falfe maxims, ftrong attachments to prefent advantages, form the bands whereby wickednefs retains her votaries under her control, and conftrains people to yield obedience to her dictates. On a fast day these bands ought to be loosed, and broken afunder; former intimate connection with finful gratifications fhould be diffolved, that, being freed from the fetters of iniquity, they may participate of the glorious liberty of the children of God.-To undo the heavy burdens. The words must be understood, not in their literal, but in their figurative ferife, in order to know the true meaning of the expreffion, and to learn one important design of a fast day. Sins of various kinds, which are a heavy oppreffive load, are doubtlefs the burdens here intended. In this view the king of Ifrael confidered them, in the pfalm he wrote to bring to remembrance, where he fays, Mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a "heavy burden; they are too heavy for me.' They deprive those who fubmit to bear their enormous weight of real freedom, they prevent true enjoy. ment, they occafion much labour and toil, they fubject to fervitude and oppreffion, and often give much uneafiness both to foul and body. A chofen faft is intended to undo these burdens, by feparating them from each other, and removing them from off those who had been entangled and diftreffed by them, that they may walk at liberty in keeping God's precepts. And to let the oppressed go free. People may be oppreffed in their perfons, by confinement and rigorous exactions of hard labour; in their reputations, by unmerited reproaches; in their eftates, by being: forcibly or fraudulently fpoiled of their goods; and in * Pfal. xxxviii. 4. their |