'The congregation and the minister are one,' says Dr.Parker.

'There are men we could not sit still and hear; they are not the proper ministers for us.

There are other men we could hear always, because they are our kith and our kin from before the foundation of the world.' Happy the hearer who has hit on a minister like the minister of Mansoul, and who has discovered in him his everlasting kith and kin.

And happy the minister who, owning kith and kin with Boanerges, has two or three or even one member in his congregation who likes his minister best when he likes himself worst.
But what about the fasting all this time?
Was it all preaching, and was there no fasting?
Well, we do not know much about the fasting of the prophets and the apostles, but the Puritans sometimes made their people almost forget about fasting, and about eating and drinking too, they so took possession of their people with their incomparable preaching.

I read, for instance, in Calamy's _Life of John Howe_ that on the public Fast-days, it was Howe's common way to begin about nine in the morning and to continue reading, preaching, and praying till about four in the afternoon.