5. Perhaps we need not altogether omit, (altho’ I know not if we should do well, to lay any great stress upon it) another reason for fasting, which some good men have largely insisted on: namely, the punishing themselves for having abused the good gifts of God, by sometimes wholly refraining from them: thus exercising a kind of holy revenge upon themselves, for their past folly and ingratitude, in turning the things which should have been for their health, into an occasion of falling. They suppose _David_ to have had an eye to this when he said, _I wept and chastened_, or punished _my soul with fasting_: and St. _Paul_, when he mentions _what revenge_ godly sorrow occasioned in the _Corinthians_. 6. A fifth, and more weighty reason for fasting, is, that it is an help to prayer: particularly, when we set apart larger portions of time for private prayer. Then especially it is, that God is often pleased to lift up the souls of his servants, above all the things of earth, and sometimes to wrap them up, as it were, into the third heavens. *And it is chiefly, as it is an help to prayer, that it has so frequently been found a means in the hand of God, of confirming and increasing not one virtue, not chastity only, (as some have idly imagined, without any ground, either from scripture, reason or experience) but also seriousness of spirit, earnestness, sensibility and tenderness of conscience; deadness to the world, and consequently the love of God and every holy and heavenly affection. 7. Not that there is any natural or necessary connexion, between fasting, and the blessings God conveys thereby. But he will have mercy _as_ he will have mercy: he will convey whatsoever seemeth him good, by whatsoever means he is pleased to appoint. And he hath in all ages appointed this, to be a means of averting his wrath, and obtaining whatever blessings we from time to time stand in need of. How powerful a means this is, to avert the wrath of God, we may learn from the remarkable instance of _Ahab_. _There was none like_ him, _who did sell himself_; wholly give himself up, like a slave bought with money, _to work wickedness_. Yet when he _rent his cloaths and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and went softly: the word of the_ Lord _came to_ Elijah, _saying, Seest thou how_ Ahab _humbleth himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days._ It was for this end, to avert the wrath of God, that _Daniel_ sought God, _with fasting and sackcloth and ashes_. This appears from the whole tenor of his prayer, particularly from the solemn conclusion of it. _O_ Lord, _according to all thy righteousnesses_ (or mercies) _let thy anger be turned away from thy holy mountain――Hear the prayer of thy servant, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate.――O_ Lord, _hear! O_ Lord, _forgive: O_ Lord, _hearken and do, for thine own sake_, Dan. ix. 3, 16, &c.