ingenious persons consider of that passage of the Gospel Luke 11. 1. where in the first place we find our Saviour was at Prayers and that it was not secret Prayer but with his Disciples is more than probable since they were present at them and accordingly when he had concluded one of them asks him to instruct them how to pray Now if this be acknowledged then here is our Saviours Example for what we are discoursing of forasmuch as the Disciples with whom he was at Prayer were his Family But that which I observe further is they ask him to teach them to pray as John taught his Disciples that is to prescribe them a form wherein they who were his Family might join together as the Family or Disciples of John did or not only to pray severally or secretly but in Conjunction and Society and this our Saviour gratifies them in by prescribing to them the well-known and admirable form in which these two things are further remarkable to this purpose first that the Prayer is in the plural number which renders it far more probable that it was intended for a social office For though some other account may be given of his using that number yet nothing is so natural as this reason which I have intimated Secondly The very petitions themselves if they be considered will incline a man to think that though the Prayer was contrived with infinite wisdom to fit other purposes yet it was primarily intended for the use of a Family or Society especially such an one as this of our Saviours Disciples was but so much for that 2. The next instance of Family Duty is the sanctification of the Lords Day and other days and times set apart for his service As for the Lords Day though it be undoubtedly true that as the Jewish Sabbath which is our Saturday is not obliging to Christians at all so neither are we bound to observe any day with that Sabbatical nicety and strictness which for special reasons was required of that people yet that the first day of the Week or the Lords Day be observed piously and devoutly is recommended to us by the constant practice of the Christian Church And the sanctification of it principally consists in this that we make it a day peculiar for the offices of Piety and Devotion as other days are for common and secular affairs for though the business of Religion must be carried on every day of our lives and that be a profane day indeed in which God hath not some share allowed for his service yet as God hath not required that it be the whole work of those days but after a little of the time be consecrated to him the residue be applied to the common affairs of Life so on the Lords Day we are allowed to consult our infirmity to provide for necessity and to do works of humanity or mercy but the proper business of the day is Religion and to that the main of it must be applied And there is great reason for this namely by this interruption of the course of Worldly affairs in some measure to take our hearts off from them for we should hardly avoid sinking absolutely into the cares and business of this life if we went on in a continual course and were not obliged at certain intervals of time to retreat from them and betake our selves to things of another nature by which means also we begin to practise an Heavenly Sabbatism and inure our selves by degrees to those spiritual imployments which we are to enter upon and be everlastingly performing in another World Let therefore the pious man thus sanctify the Lords Day by applying it to holy uses that is besides publick worship to reading Meditation singing of Psalms and grave Discourses of Religion and let him according as he hath Warrant from the fourth Commandment oblige all those within his Gates to do so too and not only restrain his Family from common labours but from lightness and folly tipling and gossipping idle visits and impertinent talking of News and use his indeavour to ingage them to be as much in earnest about the service of God and their Souls on that day as they are about their business or pleasure on other days As for other holy days set apart by the appointment of the Church there is very good use to be made of them too for besides that the great Festivals are the ignorant mans Gospel and bring to his mind all the great passages of our Saviour and his Apostles it is certain also that God hath not so strictly tasked us to the labour of six days as that he will not be better pleased if we now and then apply some of them to his honour and make a sally towards Heaven but then the observation of these days is not to be made merely a relaxation from servile work nor much less a dispensation for looseness and profaneness but God must be served on them with greater diligence than can be ordinarily expected on other days And this is another branch of the pious mans duty in his Family 3. There is another thing I would mention in the third place amongst Family exercises which I do not call a necessary duty but would offer it to consideration whether it be not adviseable in some cases for the promotion of Family Piety that in every Family where it can be done some persons should be incouraged to take notes of the Sermons which are preached in the Church and repeat them at home forasmuch as this course would not only afford a very seasonable and excellent entertainment for the Family in the intervals of publick worship on the Lords Day but would also be very advantagious both to Minister and People For the Minister it would incourage him to study and to deliver weighty things when he saw his words were not likely to perish in the hearing and be lost in the air but be reviewed and considered of by which means one Sermon would be as good as two and might serve accordingly For the People it would put the most ordinary sort of them upon considering and indeavouring to remember and make something of that which is delivered to them when they observe that some of the ablest of the Congregation think it worth their pains to take so exact notice of it as to write it down at least they would be ashamed to snore and yawn when others are so intent and serious And as for the Family in which the repetition is made they would have further occasion to observe with what clearness and evidence the doctrine was inferred from the Text opportunity to weigh the arguments used to inforce it and be put upon making application of all to their own Consciences But I foresee several objections such as they are will be made against this it will be said this course is unfashionable and puritanical that experience hath discovered that writing after Sermons hath taught men to be conceited and captious and
tells us there is a time for every thing so let every man who would promote Religion in his Family appoint set hours for Prayer and all the offices of Devotion and then it will neither be difficult to obtain the constant observance of them nor so ordinary to perform them carelesly and formally 6. Sixthly and lastly It will be the wisdom of every Master of a Family who would bring those which are under his care and tuition to an uniformity in Religion and the worship of God and to seriousness and heartiness therein that he express all tender affection to them and regard of them when any of them happen to be sick or under any adversity and by that means make to himself an opportunity of obliging them to take his counsel and follow his direction in all other cases We use to say he that will gain an interest in any man so that he may be useful to him or compliant with him in his prosperity must lay the foundation of his Friendship in that mans adversity For no man knows who are his Friends till he hath occasion to make experiment of them which cannot be done but in adversity for every man is a Friend to him that hath no need to him but he that like the good Samaritan deserts us not in our greatest difficulties him we have just grounds to value and confide in Now above all kindnesses men are most sensible of those which are done to their Bodies and they commonly take the measures of all Friendship and sincerity from thence and therefore he that will win upon the minds of men must first oblige them in their bodily interests Besides as we observe that all inferiour Creatures are most tractable and docible at such times as wherein they are lowest and can least help themselves so mankind is most disposed to take advice and most obedient to counsel when he is at a non-plus in his affairs and especially when the vanities of this World which dazled his Eyes before begin to vanish and there seems to be but one way left with him that is to prepare for another life he will then freely admit of Discourse of the other World and be glad to comply with all serious advice in order thereunto These seasons of adversity therefore are by no means to be let slip by him who is tender of the Souls of those who are under his charge To which add that forasmuch as it is the constant method of all the Zealots and Emissaries of false Religions to insinuate themselves into sick and calamitous persons to the end that by such an opportunity they may gain Disciples to their party and they too frequently find this subtilty successful the consideration hereof ought to awaken the diligence and incourage the hopes and indeavours of all those that sincerely desire to save their own Souls and those that are imbarqued with them to apprehend and improve such opportunities to better purposes especially seeing that in such seasons men are as capable of good principles as of bad if there be not as much shameful and supine carelessness on the one side as there is commonly vigilance and application on the other And so much for Family-Piety CHAP. VI. Of publick Piety and particularly of governing a mans self in relation to the Church and publick assembly of Christians AS it is certain we were not born for our selves so neither is it a sufficient discharge of our duty that we be useful in our private Family or amongst our Kindred and Relations only but that we express a zeal of Gods glory and the good of Mankind answerable to the full extent of our capacity and let our light so shine out before men that we may provoke as many as are within our reach to glorify our Father which is in Heaven Now every private man is in some measure concerned in the Neighbourhood and Parish wherein he dwells and whereto he belongs and therefore should so far at least dispense the influence of his zeal for God and Religion for Almighty God who hath appointed the bounds of mens habitation having thus setled every man in his station expects that he should look upon this as his proper sphere and adorn it as his peculiar Province No private man hath any just reason ordinarily to prompt him to go beyond this forasmuch as if every good man would do his part within these bounds the whole World would be amended and he that is remiss and negligent in this cannot easily satisfy himself that he hath demonstrated such love to God as becomes him nor can he expect to reap all those comforts and benefits which otherwise by a conscientious discharge of himself in this particular might redound to him Now that which we mean by the relation to a Neighbourhood or a Parish hath a double consideration First As every Parish is or ought to be a branch or member of the Church Secondly As it is a branch or member of the Commonwealth Accordingly there is a double obligation lies upon every man that is within the bounds of it and from thence arise duties of a different nature for brevity and perspicuity I will distinguish them by the names of Ecclesiastical and Civil Piety and then shew what each of them comprehends beginning with that which I call Ecclesiastical Piety or the discharge of such publick duties as especially concern the Society of a Church And this consists in these few following particulars 1. That a man join himself to and carry himself as a member of the Church and not out of pride phantastry or contempt separate himself from it or schismatically set up Factions and Conventicles against it It is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ established the Society of a Church that is appointed that all those who would be his Disciples should not content themselves singly and particularly to believe on him but should all be obliged to associate themselves and make up a body or spiritual corporation wherein they were to hold Communion with each other as members as well as with him their head The ends and uses of this institution were very many and great for besides that by this means order and unity is promoted which is very beautiful in the Eyes of God himself our Lord hereby provided that the truth of Christianity might be jointly held up in the World and the several members of this Society become mutually more helpful and comfortable to each other and also that by a constant method of Christian intercourse here they may be fitted for Eternal Friendship and Society in Heaven In subserviency to all these ends publick Officers were appointed in the Church to govern and to instruct the several members of it which it were plainly impossible for them to do unless their numbers were almost infinite and equal to that of the people if it had not been that the people were to join together and become a common flock for those Officers to govern and
the Assemblies of Gods Servants 3. And more particularly let him not neglect the opportunities of receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as often as they are presented to him unless some weighty occasion hinder or disable him It is well known to have been the use of the primitive Church to administer this holy Sacrament as often as it held any solemn Assembly for divine worship and the Christians then as duly received it as they came to Church nor did the frequency of it abate their reverence to it but highly increased it rather And this office they therefore called the Communion because it was the symbol of a compleat member of the Church and the fullest instance of that Society To have been kept from it by any accident was then looked upon as a great Calamity but to be debarred from it by the censure of the Church was as dreadful to them as the Sentence of Death They sought to be restored to it with tears with prostrations in SackCloth and Ashes with all the intercession of their Friends and all the interests they could make There was no need in those times to use arguments to convince men of the duty or repeated exhortations to press them to the performance of it the Ministers of the Church had no trouble in answering objections against it or removing impertinent scruples about it much less was there any occasion to urge the observance of it by humane Laws for they remembred it was instituted by their Saviour on the same night in which he was betrayed for the Commemoration of his Passion and recommended to their observance by the most obliging circumstances they found the constant solemnity of it setled in all Churches by the Apostles and they were well aware of the unspeakable comforts of it Now the reason of all these things holds as much in these times as then saving that men are not so conscientious and devout as they were for in the first place it hath been the custom of the Church in all times since to make this Sacrament the badge and cognizance of her members until of late those have pretended to be Churches where there was neither Order nor Unity neither Sacraments administred nor indeed persons qualified to administer them and it 's great pity and shame that such an unhappy novelty should prescribe against all Antiquity And then secondly as for the institution of this Sacrament by our Saviour it is manifest that he did not deliver himself by way of counsel and advice so as to leave it to our discretion or courtesy to observe this Sacrament or omit it but by express and positive command Do this in remembrance of me and therefore there is no room for the cavil against mixt Communion as if we were excused from celebrating the Lord's Supper because others do it unworthily which is as much as to say because some do it as they should not I may chuse whether I will do it at all But as I said here is an express command that we do it and therefore we have no liberty to omit it upon any such pretence And upon the same account it will be in vain to pretend I am not prepared for it and therefore must be excused for when our Lord hath made it our duty to do it it is our duty also to do it as we should do and the neglect of one duty will not excuse another i. e. our sin of unpreparedness will be no apology for our sin in total omission of the Sacrament The whole truth is here are two things required of us one expressed and the other implied the express duty is that we celebrate the memorial of our Saviours Passion the implied duty is that this be done with such preparation as agrees with so sacred a mystery both these therefore are to be performed for as my coming to the Sacrament will not excuse my coming unpreparedly so much less will my unpreparedness excuse my not coming at all But of the two it seems far the more pardonable to come though somewhat unpreparedly than not to come because of unpreparedness for that is neither to come nor prepare neither I say though neither ought to be done yet it is plainly better to offend in the point of an implied duty than of an express one but especially it is more tolerable to commit one sin than both as he that comes not to the Lords Supper at all notoriously doth But then thirdly for the comforts of this holy Sacrament those are so vastly great that the man is as well insensible of his own good as of the honour of Christ Jesus who willfully neglects the Lords Supper For in the first place by commemorating the Passion of our Lord in that holy Feast we not only perform an office of obedience and gratitude to our Saviour but we strengthen our Faith in the efficacy of his Death and Sacrifice for the expiation of sin which affords the greatest relief to our guilty Consciences that can be And together herewith we melt our own hearts into contrition fears and sorrow for those sins of ours which required such an atonement For who can consider what his Saviour suffered and look upon him whom we have pierced and not mourn heartily for his sin and his danger Again by eating and drinking at the Lords Table we are made sensible of the happy estate of Friendship with God which we are now restored to by the intercession of our Lord Jesus Moreover by commemorating his Death and the ends and effects of it we fortify our own minds against the fear of Death and by feeding upon his body and blood we have the pledges of our own Resurrection and Immortality and to say no more though in so copious and comfortable a subject by partaking of his body and blood we become united to him and partake of the same spirit that was in him And now after all this who will make that an excuse for omitting the Sacrament that they do not find or observe that either themselves or others profit by it What is it no profit that we have done our duty and exprest our gratitude to so great a Benefactor Is it no profit to see Christ Crucified before our Eyes and to see him pour out his heart blood for Sinners Is it no profit to be made ingenuously to weep over our own sins Is it no priviledge no comfort to be admitted to the Lords Table in token of Friendship and reconciliation with him Certainly there is no body but profits something more or less by these things and if there be any man who doth not profit greatly by them he must needs have a very naughty heart indeed and had need to prepare himself and go often to the Sacrament that it may be mended But however let the good Christian gladly imbrace all opportunities of this holy solemnity and not doubt to find comfort by it 4. As for the other offices of the Church such as Prayers