16. Such solemn penitential fasts were also in use in the primitive Church, when the Christians met together, and in any great public calamity humbled themselves before the Lord. Not, surely, to obtain remission of sin by such performances, as so many meritorious acts of devotion; but by a contrite, sober, and humble heart, to deprecate the judgments that were ready to break in upon them. And such fasts might with propriety still be observed. 17. Fasts such as these, accompanied with true repentance, would prove an impregnable wall and fortification against all our enemies; a sovereign medicine in all pestilential diseases; and a safeguard about all our estates and possessions. An example of this we have in Job, who, whenever his children had spent any day in mirth and feasting, “offered up unto God prayers and sacrifices for them” (Job 1:4, 5); and thus, as it were, fortified his house by prayer against the insults of wicked men and devils. 18. In great public calamities the Lord looks out for such men as may, like a bulwark, oppose his wrath when ready to make a breach. “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.” Ezek. 22:30, 31. We may also remember, on this occasion, the intercession of Abraham. Gen. 18:23. 19. Thus the prophet Daniel was a wall of defence when he made confession to God of the sins of all the people. Dan. 9:4, 5, etc. And the prophet Joel, in very moving terms, describes such a penitential fast: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.” Joel 2:15-17.