“Therefore all God’s people are to keep the true fast of the Lord from debate and strife, and the fists of wickedness; that fast that breaks the bands of wickedness, and undoes every heavy burthen; breaks every yoke, and lets the oppressed go free; deals bread to the hungry, clothes the naked, and brings the poor that are cast out to his own house. Every one that keeps this true fast, their health shall grow, and when they call, the Lord will hear them; he will be their guide continually, satisfy their souls in drought, and make their bones fat; and they shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Now you, that keep not this true fast, when you call upon the Lord on your own fasting-days, does the Lord answer you, and say, ‘Here I am?’ Doth the Lord guide you continually? Are your bones made fat by him, and your souls satisfied in drought? Are you like a watered garden, and like a spring, whose waters fail not? But you that keep not this true fast, do you not want these waters, which fail not? so your souls are not satisfied in drought, but your bones are lean, and you hear not the voice of the Lord, who saith, ‘Here I am;’ so you lose the heritage of Jacob, and ride not upon the high places there; but come under. “Therefore every man and woman, shut your hearts against all manner of evil whatsoever, and trade not with Babylon’s merchants of confusion; but keep the supernatural day of Christ that is sprung from on high, that is kept by believing and walking in the light of Christ, and being grafted into him. This will bring you to the true fast, from feeding upon any evil, and to the true praying in the Spirit, as Christ and the apostles have taught. The fruit of the Spirit is love, &c. The birth of the Spirit is not a persecuting birth; but he that is born of the flesh, will persecute him that is born of the Spirit, because he will not follow the birth of the flesh, with its weak, beggarly elements, that entangles with its yoke of bondage, and its observing of days, months, times, fasts, feasts, and years; which the birth of the Spirit is to stand fast against in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made it free.