in Scripture being framed according to Scripture cannot be justly condemned but I must add one thing more and that is that formal praying which idle Christians by the abuse of forms may soon fall into can never be justified The third family-Family-duty is Repetition of Sermons which being carefully done is the preservative of a right Religion for why are people ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth or are easily carryed from it but because they take Ministers words without Ministers grounds and so when other Teachers bring them a new Doctrine they like the last and the new Teacher and sell the former and the old truth whereas if they did review what they hear and as the noble Bereans search the Scriptures quoted by Ministers and so find by examination that what they have heard is founded on the Word of God and upon the credit of a divine Testimony they would not change their mindes having grace in them because it is impossible for God to change His nor can any word come from Him that is not perfect and of perpetual verity This recalling and repeating of Sermons and endevouring that the Houshold may see how they agree with Scripture hath ever been the character of more Religious Families and a great means to make all in it especially if they be called to give account of what they have heard and heard again to profit in Religion For as he that repeateth a matter separateth very Friends to wit because the repetition makes it fresh in memory causeth a greater observation and leaveth a greater impression so he that repeateth profitable matters edifieth very Weaklings and helpeth much the hearers to understand mark and mind what hath been formerly delivered But whilest I thus persuade you to repetition the saying of an excellent Servant of God comes to my remembrance which is this in effect that as Kine and Sheep return not to their owners grass and hay but milk and fleece and flesh so Sermons are not to be returned and represented only by reading notes but Christians are to repeat them in their lives by being sound in opinion growing in grace and godly in all their carrage The last duty is Singing of Psalms to be used principally on our Lords Sabbath day but every other day needful because every day hath its mercy for which God is to be praised or if it hath its affliction in that also God is to be blessed and there are Psalms sutable to every affliction to sanctifie it unto us by ministring matter of Instruction and to bear up our spirits in it by affording matter of Consolation It is every day likewise a profitable Exercise because the Book of Psalms containeth in it abundant matter of heavenly meditation and spiritual edification And as it is both needful and profitable so it is an exercise very pleasant for it awakeneth the soul quickneth the spirits cheareth up the heart and generally reviveth both the inward and the outward man Other duties are a Christians work This is his holy recreation begun here and to be compleated in heaven I cannot leave this without reciting what Mr. Beza that hath done such eminent service to the Church of God relateth of himself it 's this When by the goodness of God I hnd willingly forsaken my Countrey and all that I had that I might freely serve Christ it came to pass at my first entry into the publick assembly of the Christians that the company did sing this that is the 91 Psalm by the singing whereof as though I had heard God himself calling me particularly I felt my self so comforted that I have kept it since that time most dearly graven in my heart and I may truly witness this before God that I have received marvellous comfort by it both in sickness and in sorrow not only by meditating it when I was smitten with the Pestilence and the same plague had infected my Family even four times but also in other most grievous tentations Let all profit by his experience and observe their own Thus have I given a Summary account of the matters handled in this Treatise Concerning each of which I earnestly desire the Reader to cast his eye upon the Margent to search the Scriptures alleaged and weigh the Reasons annexed for I shall easily grant that a mans constitution is apt to insinuate it self into his meditation and discourse perhaps too much for in every constitution as there is a vertue or an help to vertue so a danger also and divers other things may lead a man aside before he is aware Albeit therefore I am not conscious to my self of offering any thing but that which as far as my understanding reacheth is right and do abhor to impose upon the consciences of men which God alone can bind yet let the Reader in the reading of mine or any mans words else set still before him the Word of God The manner of Writing which is the other thing I mentioned I have spoken somewhat to in the former Epistle It is not so plain and perspicuous as in regard of the common sort of Christians I intended but the Babes of Christ will here find milk that is many things fitted to their capacity and if there be any stronger meat it will suit better with more mature Christians All men know or may know that Ministers are necessitated to extend such abilities as God hath given them to the utmost which is hardly done without some obscurity for the pleading of the causes of God And that because as flesh and bloud riseth up in arms mustereth all its forces against the truth of God so doth it also against the way of godliness whereby tho the adversaries thereof cannot destroy it yet they prevail so far as to darken it and to cast so many mists before mens eyes that it is not easie for the ordinary Traveller to discern the right way nor for their Guides to clear it up unto them However I hope they that have good and honest hearts will hereby receive some good and from others that write of the same things they may receive more and by humble and faithful Prayer to God with diligent studying of his Word most of all I crave pardon for being so tedious in this Epistle which because it may serve not only for an introduction but as a Supplement also to that which followeth the Reader may please the rather to bear with it I have nothing now to do but to leave with Christians this one necessary Admonition that is not to content themselves with those outward exercises of Religion that they shall here find urged but to study and by these helps to strive after the power of Godliness For though a man cannot be Pious and Religious without observing the external means of Godliness the principal whereof was the Sanctification of the Sabbath as one that was not so good a friend to the Sabbath as he
several Churches if it were not the duty of Christians to whom they wrote to read them Hence the Apostle Paul after he had written to the Ephesians speaks thus Whereby when ye read which shews they were to read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Unto this purpose the same Apostle otherwhere saith When this Epistle is read among you cause that it may be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and mark what follows and that ye also read the Epistle from Laodicea Now it 's true that those Epistles were to be read before the Churches in their publick meetings but for the same reason for which they were to be read to them they were if they could have them in private to be read by them that is that they might the better make use of them Of this nature also is that other Scripture wherein the Apostle chargeth the Thessalonians that this Epistle be read to all the holy brethren whence Calvin observes that the Papists are more stubborn then the Devils because by so high an adjuration they will not be charmed from forbidding the People the reading of Scriptures Secondly The nature of this writing is such as strongly requires the reading of it for what is Scripture but a Letter of the Creator to the Creature Hos 8. 12. When Adam sinn'd saith Austin we in him were cast out as exiles into this world Accordingly David saith I am a stranger upon earth Heaven is our Countrey from thence Christ the Essential Word hath in these last dayes come to us and from thence God hath still sent and a long time written his Letters to his Church and People Now the law of friendship imposeth upon every man the reading of a friends Letter and duty and loyalty exacts from every Subject the reading of the Letters of his Prince and the highest duty the reading of the Letters of the highest God Many in these dayes are eager I mean a great deal more forward then fit to receive the Token that is the Lords-Supper who are careless of reading the Letter with which that token is sent and to which it is annexed Now to contend in a stomachful way for the Token and to be altogether remiss as divers such are in reading the Letter is not only an unkind thing but unreasonable for the Letter directs to the end and the profitable use of the Lords tokens that being well used they may be truly love-tokens to us when otherwise a Sacrament may be like Judahs pledge a condemning token I speak not this to diminish the sincere desires of any to the Sacrament but to kindle their desires to the Word that by the reading and observing thereof they might come fitly and freely to the Lords Table Thirdly The use and profit of Scripture perswadeth much to the reading of it and that both in regard of others and our selves 1. In regard of others that we may teach and admonish them better which is the duty of Christians one towards another as Paul sheweth Col. 3. 16. but especially of Governours as Parents and Masters These words that I command thee shall be in thine heart saith the Lord by Moses Deut. 6. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Now How shall this be done the memories of most being so frail unless they that are over others do by often reading keep those things in mind themselves which they are and ought to teach those under them Ephes 6. 4. Gen. 18. 10. 2. In regard of our selves This the Apostle minds us of when he tells us that the Scriptures known we may say the Scriptures read that being a special way whereby to know them are able to make a Timothy and so any other man wise to Salvation and more particularly they are profitable for doctrine that is to teach the truth for reproof that is to convince and check error for correction that is to curb vice for instruction in righteousness that is for direction to a good life And in another place for consolation Rom. 15. 4. Never would so many be damned for want of wit be so destitute of the Truth be so bewitched as they are with errors be such incorrigible servants to sin be so free from and void of all righteousness and goodness and lastly at such a loss for comfort when any waves arise but that Scripture is so little read and reverenced For the last of these that is matter of comfort Austin writing to one in a time of great calamity thus concludes his Epistle God will comfort you much more abuadantly if you read his Scriptures most earnestly with which we may joyn that of Chrysostom who writing on those words of Paul Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly first cals to his hearers and saith You whose imployment lies in the world and that have wife and children to govern hear how the Apostle enjoyns you especially to read Scriptures and that not barely to read them and as by the way but with great diligence And afterwards he adds even as a rich and monyed man is able to bear a loss so a man rich in Scripture-knowledge can easily bear poverty or any calamity yea he can better bear it saith he then a rich man can bear worldly losses for if he have many of them his riches will be more and more diminished but he that is rich in heavenly knowledge is never the less rich though he suffer never so much The same holy Father is very full in shewing in general the great profit that is to be had by the reading of Scripture as that it clears and calms the heart reforms the tongue gives wings to the soul to flie up even into heaven it self Do not lose saith he so great gain nor bring your Bibles hither only but take time to read the Scriptures at home And in another place If thou wouldest know how great advantage ariseth from divine Scripture then diligently examine what a vast difference there is in thy heart and soul when thou standest in the Church and when thou art at a Play or standest in the Theatre It s the same soul and yet how well is it affected in the one place and how much corrupted in the other I am the more willing to recite these things that Christians may see in these sad dayes wherein so many slight Scriptures what a reverent and honourable account there was of them yea and of the reading of them by the most eminent men in ancient times Fourthly The examples of Gods servants recorded and recommended in Scripture is a reason of reading Scripture for we may read their piety in the reading of it the Eunuch a man of so great authority under the Queen
and will arise from despising and persecuting a faithful Ministery of which therefore let all beware that love the common peace Psal 122. 6. 4. As it shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom at the last day then for Gospel-contemners so they that receive and reverence it shall find mercy at that day when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe and mark why because our testimony the testimony of Labourers among them was beleived In that day shall we rejoyce in Christians and to they in us if we have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Phil. 2. 16. To conclude this let it be your care dearly beloved Christians now God hath wrought such wonders for our peace and settlement to make some amends for that shameful contempt that hath been poured on the Ministers of Christ of late by your double honour And as for those many that have departed we are more willing to say have been carryed from us and against us by the distemper of the times what shall we say but as the holy Prophet sometimes did though with some alteration Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel Let it be known that we are thy servants and that thou hast brought the heart of this people back again 1 King 18. 36 37. CHAP. IV. Of the Observation of the Lords-day or the Christian Sabbath THe Christian Sabbath as our Church calleth it that is the Lords-day being a matter of so great importance both in respect of Christians and of Christianity as that the name of the Lord of Glory is imprinted upon i And the Primitive Christians accounted it their glorious character And the Catholick Church hath still owned it and in the best of times most acknowledged it to be a day wholly dedicated to the remembrance and service of God our Saviour I shall therefore after what hath been already spoken concerning other parts of godliness endeavour according to my ability to add something briefly and summarily concerning this great day and the duties thereof and that so as to stir up Christians to the due observation of that day and performance of those duties For this purpose I shall make choice of a portion of Scripture that fully declares the danger of profaning the Lords Holy-day It is that which is written Neh. 13. 17 18 Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them What evil thing is this that yee do and profane the Sabbath day Did not your Fathers do thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath It is easie here before I go any further to foresee this Objection That a Text in the Old Testament speaking of the Jews Sabbath is improper for the establishing of the observation of the New Testament Sabbath Unto which I answer 1. More generall That whatsoever things were written afore time they were written for our learning and examples of divine Justice such as this Scripture declareth to be inflicted for profaning that which was Gods holy day then are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come to terrifie all men from offending in the like kind as here from abusing and applying to common use his consecrated time and solemn day 2. More particularly The fourth Commandement being as a remarkable part of the Moral and Eternal Law of God still in force for the holy observation of a Sabbath every week of Gods appointment unto the end of the world it will from thence follow that any thing spoken in the Old Testament concerning the Weekly Sabbath in use then if it be not proper to the Jewish people nor to the Jews Sabbath day but be prescribed in the fourth Commandement as common to each weekly Sabbath of Gods institution doth still remain in its full strength to bind the people of God in all Ages briefly What belonged to the Jews Sabbath as a Sabbath and not as that Sabbath is still in force for every Sabbath I mean for any weekly day which God appoints for his day of rest and holiness Hence it followeth also that what we find in the Old Testament about the Sabbath approved that 's for our imitation what we find reproved and punished that 's for our restraint and warning This morality of the fourth Commandement and its common aspect both on the Old and New Testaments weekly day being purposely and strongly proved by others I shall not here speak further of it but hasten to a brief opening of the Scripture before recited wherein it appeareth that amongst other gross abuses mentioned in the former and latter part of this Chapter the Sabbath also was very provokingly profaned and that in Jerusalem it self the Lords City wherein the Temple was the Lords House and wherein God himself s resided that they hid their eyes from the Sabbath in his eye-sight and by the profanation thereof he was profaned among them Ezek. 22. 26. If any ask How all this came to pass Nehemiah himself gives an account of it when he saith All this while was not I at Jerusalem v. 6. The presence of a good Governour prevents impiety And Nehemiah being once come Sabbath profanation is non-pluss'd and overcome They came no more on the Sabbath v. 21. But as when Moses was absent the Calf was made so Nehemiah going after his first coming to Jerusalem and the building of the walls thereof into Persia again there were in that his absence from Jerusalem many profanations crept in which he when he returneth most zealously reformeth In particular when he saw in Judah the violation of the Sabbath and that it was made a very Market-day v. 15. his eyes affected his heart and his zeal discovers it self 1. In vehement speaking for he testified and contended against the profaners of that day v. 15. and with the Nobles that should have prevented and obviated such profananation v. 17. 18. 2. In resolute acting taking order 1. For the shutting and guarding of the Gates of Jerusalem against buyers and sellers within the City v. 19. 2. For restraining them that lodged about the wall who might continue buying and selling in the Suburbs v. 20. 21. 3. He gave charge to the Levites also to keep the Gates to wit of the Temple Nehemiah's own servants being appointed to keep the City-gates that so nothing might be wanting on their part to keep the day and house of God from profanation v. 22. The result and conclusion of all which is an humble applying of himself to the mercy of God for the remembring of him as he by the grace of God was zealous in remembring the Lords holy day where his confidence is also implyed and this contained that The Lord will mercifullly remember them who remember dutifully the Lords day In
should have been notes well yet all outward duties lose their end and their estimation yea they serve as sad witnesses against them that use them most if the reality of Religion and the power and exercise of grace doth not appear in their conversation for The exercises of Religion are for the exercise and are not to be performed much less to be rested on in stead of Godliness but to nourish Godliness and to stead us in the way of Holiness When Paul plants and Apollo waters the Lord give the increase And so sanctifie unto you these poor labours that thereby one cubit may be added to your spiritual statute May I attain that end and obtain your earnest prayers for the passing of the little remainder of my pilgrimage here in fear and faith and faithfulness you will abundantly recompence him who is and shall remain Yours sincerely in the service of the Gospel as long as God shall think fit to imploy so unworthy a servant William Thomas The Contents of the several Parts and Chapters of this Treatise The First Part. Of Christian-Duties CHAP. 1. A Call to Reading of Scripture Which is urged 1. FRom Scripture-Commands pag. 1. 2. From Scripture-Reasons drawn from the end nature use and profit of the written Word of God 5. 3. From Scripture-examples and the efficacy of that duty 8 4. From that blessedness whereunto the Reading of Gods Word is Gods way 11. 5. By answering Objections made against it 11. to 16. 6. By two motives provoking to it 18. CHAP. II. Instructions about the Lords Supper Wherein 1. Reasons of sollicitousness for Sacrament-Preparation are rendred viz 1. Imitation of the antient Church 21. 2. Christs strict command for it ibid. 3. The distinction of that Sacrament from other Ordinances 23. 4. The judgement of the Church of God 26. 2. A short Catechism followeth of the general grounds of Religion 32 3. A larger Catechism is added concerning the Lords Supper 37. CHAP. III. Of the Estimation of Ministers Where the Scripture on which it is grounded to wit 1 Thess 5. 12 13 is 1. Recited and explained briefly 2. More largely insisted on by declaring how Ministers are 1. To be known in their places viz. by a knowledge 1. Of Observation 48. to 52. 2. Of Approbation 3. Of Imitation 2. To be esteemed viz. 1. For the degree very highly set forth in seven Evidences of it 53. to 56. 2. For the nature and quality of it in love 57. 3. For the ground of it for their works sake Where is shewed 1. That men seem to esteem Ministers when it is neither in love nor for their works sake 59. 2. What reason there is why they should be esteemed for their works sake pag. 60. 3. The grounds and motives to this estimation 63. to 68. CHAP. IV. Of the Lords-day Sabbath Where 68. 1. The Scripture chosen to treat upon viz. Neh. 13. 17 18. is 1. Vindicated 69. 2. Explained 2. The Sabbath-subject is treated on in general And therein three things handled 1. The Rest required on the Sabbath and why and with what allowances 72. 2. The thing intended in that Rest viz Holiness both in publike and private duties 75. 3. The extent of the Rest and Holiness viz. for a whole day notwithstanding Objections 81. 3. How the fourth Commandement is in force for observing one day in seven for ever is declared with objections answered 85. to 92. 4. The Lords day is proved to be of Divine Institution 92. to 97. 5. An Exhortation is annexed for the due esteeming and observing of the Lords-day-Sabbath urged From 1. The necessity of it 97. 2. The commodity 100. 3. The commendation 102. to 105. 4. The judgements of God on Sabbath-profaners 105. to 108. 5. The blessing of God on Observers 108. to 118. 6. A conclusion inciting to Lords-day-love 118. to 131. The Second Part. Of Family-duties CHAP. I. Of Family-Catechising And therein 133. 1. Several Texts of Scripture in the Old and New Testament are brought to prove it And the common objection of taking Gods Name in vain by Catechising little Children is answered 137 2. Arguments are added to confirm it As 1. The necessity of it 144. 2. The profit both in regard of 1. Children 146. 2. the Church of God 148. 3. And the motives to perswade to it viz. 1. Examples of godly Parents in Scripture 149. 2. The benefit of children 152. 153. 3. The profit of Parents themselves CHAP. II. Of Family-Prayer Where there is p. 155. 1. Proofs for it and the establishing of it 1. On Scripture-grounds in four Propositions viz. 1. The general doctrine of Scripture binds in all particulars rightly deduced from it Which Proposition is 1. Confirmed by divers instances 157. to 160. 2. Made use of by reciting general Scripture-grounds for Family-Prayer viz. 1. Gods greater glorry 161. 2. Our greater good 162. Wherein an Objection is answered drawn from the incapacity of several Members of Family for that duty 163 164. 2. Approved examples of Scripture are binding in those things wherein the case is alike whereof use is made by reciting and illustrating divers Scripture examples tending to the confirmation of Family-Prayer 165. to 168. 3. Every Promise of Scripture contains in it a virtual command 168. 4. And every Threatning a real prohibition of the thing threatned which is made use of by opening that Scripture-threat Jer. 10. 25. 169. 2. On Scripture reasonings viz. Because 1. God requires Society-service as well as single 172. 2. There are many common concernments of Families that require joynt Prayer 173. 3. The persons neglecting and causes of the neglect of this duty are both sad 174. to 177. 2. A declaring of the time to be allotted to it Where is shewed that it should be 1. Every day 177. 2. More particularly Morning and Evening 179. CHAP. III. Of Family-Repetition of Sermons Where are laid down 182. 1. Grounds of Scripture for Sermon-Repetition The first Scripture Jer. 36. 2 6. where writing Sermons as an help to Repetition is argued for 182. to 187. The second Scripture Col. 4. 6. 187 2. Reasons thereof 1. In General 188. 2. More Particularly in regard of our selves and others 189. CHAP. IV. Of Singing Psalms namely in Families Wherein 192. 1. Objections against Singing of Psalms are answered 192. to 195. 2. The Exercise it self is pleaded for 1. More generally from Scripture which 1. Declareth it to be necessary and profitable pag. 195. 2. Giveth rules that it may be profitable 3. Sheweth it to be used in Christian Meetings 2. More particularly and with respect to Families 1. Because the use of it is so profitable 196. to 199. 2. No where limited to Publike Meetings 3. Confirmed by our Saviours example 4. Called to by Family-mercies 5. Justified from Ephes 5. 18 19. Â 3. With Reasons annexed it being an Exercise 1. Making much for the glory of God 2. For the spiritual profit of right Performers For it is an Exercise 1.
read Scripture in regard of their many and pressing imployments Answ 1. They who frame this Objection had need to take heed that it be not made a protection for omitting Prayer also and so letting pass some dayes without having any thing to do with God such may know that it is to be but peny-wise to be so thrifty of time for worldly business as to have no leisure to look up to God If they did read Scripture well they would find such good Husbandry put under the head of Vanity for Except the Lord build the House keep the City and so carry on and prosper mens affairs it is in vain to rise early to sit up late or to bestow a mans labour in them A man had better gain some time from his sleep then to have no time for the service of God and to leave some business undone then to have all ill-done or to be undone because he prospers so well without God Prov. 1. 32. 2. I answer That although Christians will find it both profitable and needful to set apart certain times and that ordinarily every day for reading Scripture lest there be a loss of the duty for want of an appointed time to do it in yet I shall not prescribe any particular time nor how much of Scripture any should read at that time the division of the Scriptures into Chapters will help that way but that which I press as necessary is the thing it self and that every Christian be a serious Reader of Scripture I deny not but some are so hurryed with the necessary occasions of their Calling that it is not easie for them to have a time perhaps in a whole day to read a Chapter I mean to have a time at times and on some days but yet at other times they may and by enjoying a freer opportunity make themselves and their souls some recompence in regard of former omissions which I advise them to do and withal wish them to remember that it is as hath been said the mark of a blessed man to meditate in Gods Word day and night and that David that was still taken up with the persecutions of a King that is of Saul or with the imployments of a King when he was King himself and a man of War also yet was very much in the meditation of the Law of God yea it was his meditation all the day that is he took all occasions to exercise his thoughts in it reading it no doubt as Kings were commanded to do Deut. 17. 19. and then reading it in his heart in his recurrent meditations according to all opportunities There is but one thing that hinders Davids imitation and the following of so good an example and that is the want of Davids affection which breathes and breaks out in this holy exclamation O how I love thy Law and thence follows his meditation all the day Love desires union and longs to be much with the thing loved Gods great complaint is I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing Divers now a dayes look strangely upon Scripture their countenance as it is said of Laban in regard of Jacob is not towards it as it was yesterday and the day before but would they claim kindred of it and say unto Wisdom thou art my Sister and to Vnderstanding thou art my Kinswoman and so grow into an holy familiarity with it then as neer kinred love to look much one upon another so would they look often and with delight into the Book of God and by the frequent reading of it supply themselves with the matter of that heavenly meditation which the Scripture marks in and makes the marks of the choisest servants of God I come now to the Objections of the other sort and which ordinary people use to make to whom I do especially direct this discourse Object 2. We hear the Scriptures read in the Congregation and may not that suffice for us who must of necessity follow our Callings that we may live in the world Answ 1. We cannot but think that the Eunuch coming to Jerusalem to worship Act. 7. 27. heard the Scriptures read there that being one part of the service performed at their Feasts as is expresly declared at the Feast of the Passover when it is said that Hezekiah spake comfortably to the Levites that taught the good knowledge of God In which teaching reading is presupposed for we find it express'd otherwhere and namely that in the Feast of Trumpets the Law was brought before the Congregation and was read from the morning until the mid-day And it is more like it was read at the Feast of Pentecost to which the Eunuch came because in that Feast they remembred the singular benefits of the Lords giving of the Law in Mount Sinai unto them at that very time and their freedom from the cruel Laws of the Egyptians under which they had lived before But though the Law were thus read and heard read in publick yet a good man though a great man is not content to sit and hear the Word read in the Congregation which is I grant a great duty Neh. 8. 3. but he reads also in private yea the Eunuch returning from the Feast and the Reading there reads also sitting in his Charet and Philip is sent to joyn himself to the reading-Charet Answ 2. As for those that say They are imployed all the week in worldly business they ought to know that they have so much the more need to read Scripture that in the crowd of earthly cares and concernments they may not lose their God and their Souls It 's true that ruder people are ready to resolve that it is to be left to Ministers and Monks as Chrysostom relates their words to read Scripture I have wife and children and houshold care sayes one and another why do you press me to read it Now it 's true that it doth most and very highly concern Ministers to read Scripture And that not only for guarding themselves against those Errors which men of better parts then hearts ensnare novices in by abusing their own Reason and Gods Word but also that they be throughly furnished for every good work belonging to them as they are men of God for which though they may be competently enabled and so as to make a good shift by searching the Scripture as they have occasion for their business yet they will never be so compleatly habituated for it unless the ordinary reading and study of Scripture be made their business Ministers therefore are in special bound to give themselves to reading and meditating Scripture that their profiting may appear to all yea that 's in a manner their whole work But this will not excuse People for not reading Scripture unless their mind be that Ministers should be wise to Salvation and not themselves
application Such a work was the infirm mans carrying his bed on the Sabbath when Christ had healed him The bearing of burthens on that day for worldly lucre is one of the things that Nehemiah here contends against but that mans carrying his bed became a religious action by being an appurtenance of the Miracle and an open declaration to all men who on that day did more flock together of the grace and power of God by which he was cured under this head may be comprehended those bodily provisions that are truly needful and helpful for our more able and vigorous performance of religious duties or for the glory of God some other way 2. Works of necessity to wit real not feigned and present and apparent not possible only and which may be or not be To this we may refer the Disciples plucking and eating the ears of corn whom Christ excuseth because at that time they as David needed sustenance And add thereto the other plain instance of a Sheeps falling into a pit Matth. 12. 11. which they that so quarrel'd with our Saviour made no scruple to pull out on the Sabbath day 3. Works of mercy as the healing of the woman bound by Satan Lo eighten years Luk. 13. 15 16. A Saviour so merciful would not stand upon healing on the Sabbath day in a case so pitiful for The Sabbath is made for man Mar. 2. 27. that is the rest of the Sabbath is to give place to mans relief And though God propound to us his example of rest on the seventh day for our resting yet we have his example of working also for mans benefit for saith Christ my Father worketh hitherto no Sabbath day excepted to wit in the preservation government and for the good of his Creatures Thus of the first thing belonging to a Sabbath to wit rest Secondly The thing further and chiefly required and which is intended in this rest is holiness Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy wherein is contained 1. A reverent opinion of it to wit as the Lords holy and honourable day There will never be a good observation of it in our practise without an estimation of it in our judgement Men will not leave the world with which nature closeth nor close with God in those holy things which nature is opposite to and in the best too averse from I say they will not do this on a day and that every week which they care not for on which they see no divine character and in the service whereof they expect no divine blessing 2. A dear affection to it calling it a delight and loving to be in the spirit on that day Revel 1. 10. No delight is the companion of contempt but Delight is so far from despising service that it doubleth it 3. An holy imploying of the rest and bestowing of our selves in the duties belonging to such a day This is well express'd in those considerable Articles of Ireland thus The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and mark what followeth to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises both publike and private Publike exercises are the principal In reference to which publike worship especially the Sabbath is as I conceive said to be a Sign that is an open declaration Whose we are and whom we serve Jona 1. 9. Act. 27. 23. For it doth not follow from the word Sign that the weekly Sabbath is a typical Ceremony If it were so then it should be a sin to observe a Sabbath now since all Ceremonies end in Christ in whom notwithstanding the Christian Sabbath begins as to the day and by whom it is confirmed as it is a weekly day which the fourth Commandement requireth because he declareth that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it It is not therefore a ceremonial sign any more then the signs in the Sacraments are ceremonial but rather a moral and real sign and demonstration how things stand between God and his people which will further appear by looking more narrowly into that place of Ezekiel where it is called a Sign for thus the Prophet expresseth it I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them which words are also mentioned and applyed to the weekly Sabbath Exod. 31. 13. 15 16 17. When the Sabbath is said to be a sign the meaning is as some do most probably expound it that it is a document or an instructing Sign and that between God and his people me and you saith the Lord it teacheth and sheweth that which is common to us both to wit on my part that I am your Creator and Sanctifier on your part that you are a people by Me created and sanctified And that it is thus an instructing sign appears by the words following that ye may know as if the Lord had said Look on the Sabbath as a monument of the relation between me and you I would have you know and observe it so to be Upon a nearer view of the words it will be found a teaching sign of these three lessons 1. That God is the Lord that is that Lord who is the only true God Jer. 10. 10. and that because he hath made the Heaven and the Earth v. 11 12. Which the observation of a Sabbath that is resting a seventh day every week in relation to six dayes work clearly holdeth forth for it is in imitation of that God who in six dayes made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh who can be no other then the true God and Lord of all The second lesson is that this great Lord is the God of his Church or a God in Covenant with them for thus the Lord speaks I am the Lord your God Hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a sign between me and you that ye may know and learn this lesson that I am your God for Why do they wait upon him a whole day every week but to shew that they own him as their God and that they believe he owns them as his people Hence the Scripture saith They sit before thee as my people and hear thy words The third lesson is that he is the Lord that sanctifieth them which may be understood two wayes 1. Of a sanctification to himself by a separation from the world so as to enjoy the priviledg of his Covenant and so the Scripture speaks Ye shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine Lev. 20. 26. Exod. 33. 16. 2. And also of an internal renovation and sanctification in spirit and soul and body 1 Thess 5 23. by the Word preached on that day through the
operation of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 2. Act. 20. 32. 26. 18. So that God hath not only made the Sabbath an holy day but also makeeth men holy by his Ordinances on that day principally dispensed I have been the longer in this because hereby it appeareth what a necessity there is of a weekly Sabbath as being a most signal Declaration and Representation of what God is in himself that is the maker of Heaven and Earth his distinguishing character and what he is to his Church that is a God in Covenant with them and every way a Sanctifier of them and that 's their distinguishing character Exod. 33. 16. Isa 63. 19. Now to return to the thing in hand since the Sabbath becomes of this use especially by the general and solemn meeting of Gods people together to Publike Service as Prayer Reading the Scripture Preaching administration of the Sacraments c. therefore the rest and leisure we have on that day is principally to be bestowed in and sanctified by such duties And therefore the Sacrifices appointed for the Sabbath day were full double to those appointed for every day for the Sabbath being a sign of more then ordinary favour from the Lord he required greater testimonies of their thankefulness and sanctification And the Prophet Ezekiel speaking of the state of the Church in the time of the Messiah under the figure of legal Ordinances mentioneth a yet greater oblation to be offered on the Sabbath day signifying that in the time of the Gospel the spiritual service should exceed the legal the grace of the New Testament being greater then that of the Old Now if we bring this greater service to the great day of service that is the Lords day it will fairly follow that the rest of that day should be fill'd up with holy duties especially in publique for in those duties the Sabbath is most a sign of the relations betwen God and us Private duties also are necessary because the whole day cannot be spent in publike service conveniently and yet it is to be spent holily Before we come to the Congregation therefore considering how holy a God that is before whom we come and how serious a service that is about which we come there is great need to spend some time in repentance especially of the sins committed the week before for how can we stand before God in our sin Ezra 9. 15. And since God requires the heart How much need is there to purge it for he endures not a filthy heart but cryes out upon it Mat. 23. 25. nor will the seed of the Word prosper in it How much need also to adorn it with humility faith fear of God holy desires and affections for God likes not an empty heart but requires to be greatly feared in the Assembly of his Saints to come with hungring thirsting and the desire of new-born-babes and especially with faith without which neither Gods Word to us nor our words in Prayer to him can ever profit Heb. 4. 2. James 1. 6 7. O how empty do we go away from Ordinances either because full of that which we ought to lay aside or void of that which we ought to provide when we come into Gods presence what need therefore of preparation And After we have been before God in Publike Exercises we are not left at liberty to do and speak as we please for it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God still and therefore must have continued in it that rest which is the body of it and that holiness which is the soul of it As therefore before the Publike Service we are to get a stomack and then feed on the heavenly Manna at it so we are to ruminate and chew the cud after it that is we are to consider what God hath said to us meditate and ponder upon it We should be in the spirit on the Lords day that is taken up with spiritual Meditations Rev. 1. 10. or spiritual Conference such as our Saviour used with the men of Emmaus on the day of his Resurrection sutable to what he did before on the Jews Sabbath when going into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread he teacheth one good lesson to the guests that were bidden another to him that bade him them he teacheth Humility and him Charity And a third that sate at meat with him and in him all other men Piety and providence that no worldly encumbrances hinder from spiritual Ordinances It 's true that Christ spake of good things every day but we being taken up with other things on our ordinary dayes have the more need to follow his holy example in speaking of things godly on the Sabbath day Wherein we are not so free to talk of what we list as some may imagine for if there be a liberty for working-day words and any every-dayes discourse how will the rest of that day be holy If two or three hours be spent in worldly talk or tales and not in Christian Colloquies and Communications such as Paul so persisted in on the Lords day Where will the holiness of those hours be found and What distinction will there be for that time between that and the working dayes Unto these godly Meditations and Conferences are to be added holy Actions As 1. Works of Piety Reading Praying Admonishing Singing Psalms Catechising children and servants And in special repeating the Sermons preached for the good of the Family or of other Christians who finding how frail their memories are will be glad of such an assistance 2. Works of Charity as laying up or laying out for the use of the poor as God prospereth us visiting and helping the sick spiritually and outwardly as our Saviour used to heal on the Sabbath day yet not so as to make more work then we need but doing any good to poor creatures which will not be so much for God's glory and the winning of others to Religion who are at leisure to look out that day or for their comfort that are in distress if it be not on the Lords day done and dispatch'd Hitherto of the Rest and Holiness of the Sabbath Thirdly There remaineth to be considered the extent of this rest and holiness which is for a whole day for the Commandement saith Remember the day of rest to keep it holy There is some question when the Christian Sabbath begins some will have it to begin in the evening and so the night shall be first and the day after Others I conceive more probably hold that it beginneth in the morning because then and that very early when it was yet dark Joh. 20. 1. our Saviour was risen and in his Resurrection that work which gave occasion of the institution of the day was finished and so the Lords day is reckoned from morning to morning or as some account it from midnight to midnight conceiving that the morning
Law written with his own finger in full force to the end of the world a weekly Sabbath If any ask and would know further What need there is of it The answer may be 1. That the Lord hath need of it that the work of Creation and Redemption may be remembred and our Creator and Redeemer publiquely and solemnly served and glorified 2. That man hath need of it for the Sabbath was made for man that is both for his spiritual and corporal good It was not without need that God made the Sabbath either for himself or for us Indeed but one thing is needful and that is to sit at Christs feet and hear his Word as it ought to be heard Which though it may be done other dayes yet not so fully and hopefully as on that day when all other things are laid aside to apply our selves wholly to the concernments of our Souls On other dayes there is more of Martha that is the world is mixt and is a partner but on this day with Mary we choose if we have Maries grace the good part and provide to attend upon the Lord without distraction On other dayes our hearts like the Jews garments hang loose on this day if we mind our duty we gird up the loins of our mind and so may run as Elijah before Ahab when he had girded up his loins the way of Gods Commandements 1 King 18. 46. Psal 119. 32. On other dayes the Moon is between us and the Sun I mean earthly and sublunary things stand between us and the Sun of Righteousness whereby there is an Eclipse that we can not so fully enjoy him but now on the Lords day if we be Christians we should if wise we will if good and faithful we shall tread the Moon under our feet and as in Solomon's Royal and Incomparable Throne the footstool was of gold so being taken up on that Ascension-day to Mount Tabor we shall make the most golden world our foot-stool and the necessary supports thereof like Zacheus his Sycomore-tree helps being under us to see Jesus the better that having a full view of him and fellowship with him of his fulness we may receive grace for grace Some men talk of an every-dayes Sabbath but as to make every man a Magistrate is to take away Magistracy and to let every man be a Minister is to take away the Ministry so to make every day a Sabbath is to say No day shall be a Sabbath They may call every day a Sabbath because we are to rest and abstain from sin every day but herein they deceive themselves in that they do not consider that on the Sabbath day we must not only abstain from sinful things albeit then we should abhor them most but from those things that are not sinful on other dayes but lawful and needful and which it is a sin not to look after as the works of our ordinary Callings for look how a Subject that is called to wait on his Prince is not only to leave his good Fellows and that loose and vain company which he ought alwayes to separate himself from but also his Wife Children whole Family and all his domestick affairs which out of this case and when there is no such Call it is his sin to be unnecessarily absent from and his duty to abide with and take care of and so when our Lord calls us to wait on him a whole day together as he doth on the Lords day all other things are for that time to be laid aside save only those which our Lord alloweth us though at other times lawful and necessary When two good things are to be done and both cannot be done our reason will tell us that it is necessary for that time to leave the less and apply our selves to the greater which being well considered will amount to this that it is necessary that there earthly things should be for a convenient time with-drawn from that is that there should be a weekly Sabbath for that 's the most convenient time to give up our selves intirely to those things that ought to be highest in our account to wit the honour and service of our God and the salvation of our souls It 's a poor plea to say I must needs go see my Ground when God calls to his Supper but it 's a good pleading of necessity to say I must needs goe see my God Psal 63. 2. Now whereas on working dayes the world doth as it were cover our faces with a vail and cast dust on the divine Glass on the Lords day by laying aside earthly things and thoughts the covering is put away from our face as from Moses face when he left all to appear before the Lord that we may see the King in his glory yea so see him as to become glorious our selves with that sight For we all to wit who by admirable grace have received the Spirit of God with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of God are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. The Commodity of the Christian Sabbath What is said of Godliness may be said of the Day of God which is the Nurse of Godliness that it is profitable to all things I mean being spiritually observed for otherwise the bodily exercise profiteth little The weekly Sabbath like the Vine whose Wine cheareth God and Man yeeldeth much assistance for the performance of the duties of the first and second Table 1. Of the First Table Of the first Commandement for therein is an acknowledgement of God our Creator as the only true God maker of Heaven and Earth in the proportion of time that is in observing a Sabbath every seventh day after our six dayes work And an acknowledgement also of God our Saviour in our particular Sabbath-day in these Gospel times That of the Prophet is very observable They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths that is they slight them as Hos 8. 12. And what followeth And I am profaned among them that is dishonoured accounted as nought among them as if I were not a God Dutch Annot. Of the Second Commandement Because the Worship of God required in that Commandement is on that day most improved and heightened As being 1. More extended because all both Superiours and those under them and within their Gates are then to wait on God in the way of his Worship Hence it is conceiv'd that whereas these two Ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father and shall keep my Sabbaths are joyned together the reason thereof may be this because Fathers and Mothers and Governours to whom the fourth Commandement is directed not only but eminently are to see that their Children and Servants keep the Lords Sabbaths and Children and Servants should so far fear and reverence them as herein to be ruled by them and so there will be a
large in all godliness of life all the days of the week and of our life only with this difference that things lawful on other days by the allowance of Scripture and needful also are on the Sabbath-day unlawful because of the distinction made in the fourth Commandement between the Rest and holiness of that weekly day and the work and imployment of the six working-days On all days we should be sober righteous and godly but on the Lords-day we should be in the Spirit more high more ghostly more heavenly and as Moses when he was with God in the Mount more resplendent by the beauty of Holiness Thus of the Sabbath-duty I come now as the Text leads me 3. To the Sabbath Promises ver 14. In the opening of these Promises I shall proceed the better by taking along with me an Observation brought to my hand which is this As the Precepts before are Evangelical so the Promises here are not Jewish or earthly but heavenly for the good things mentioned in the former verse are the operations of the Spirit of God unto which the good things of this world being far inferior they are not so sutable a reward nor is it for Him that is most liberal so to reward them Yet there is no cause of excluding those outward comforts which the letter of the Text in the latter part of the verse layeth before us and which are other-where promised to those that hallow the Sabbath-day the contrary evils whereunto came as hath been shewed on the Jews when they did profane it But it 's true that worldly commodities and contentments are not here promised only the first promise is very spiritual nor chiefly but rather when these outward things are mentioned sutable to the Ear and to the Heart and to the state of a Jew and which God was ready to perform to them in the letter I say when these things are mentioned in the Old Testament higher and more spiritual things are usually meant yea a reward reaching to Eternity which through Jesus Christ our Lord is given to the sincere and spiritual observers of Gods Commandements whereof this of the Sabbath is one and therefore the good promises laid down here may well be taken in that extent whereof there is the more reason because the later promises here specified are in the tenour of them and as they stand in the letter proper to the Jewish people and therefore either this Scripture must not be for our use or else some other thing must be meant then the words in themselves express I shall therefore take the Promises as they lie in the Text and take in all the commodity and comfort whether outward or spiritual that may be truly collected from them to encourage all men in the Sabbath duty and consequently in the pursuit of all Religion which is the thing that is intended in and which ariseth from the holy observation of the Sabbath-day Now whereas Pleasure and Preferment and Profit are the great Motives to make men to do willingly what is desired or required of them all these are here set before us as the reward of Sabbath-Piety 1. Pleasure Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord This is a special and most spiritual promise unto that man to whom the study of Vertue and Sanctification of the Sabbath is a delight the Lord himself shall be in stead of all delights which may be said to be especially by a more abundant fellowship with God on that day wherein we lay all aside that we may associate and solace our selves with Him This delightsom Communion with God is enjoyed three wayes 1. In the Ministery of the Word whereby we have fellowship indeed with Ministers but truly their fellowship and so that fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and what 's the effect of it but delight and full joy For the goodness of Gods House is very satisfying and by hearing the Word we eat that which is good and the soul delights it self in fatness 2. In the duty of Private Meditation wherein the faithful soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness by the remembrance of God 3. In Prayer for delight in the Almighty is accompanyed with lifting up the face to God to look for every good thing from Him when on the contrary the hypocrite that delighteth not himself in him will not always call on him but others are joyful in the House of Prayer Isa 56. 7. In such wayes as these God makes his faithful servants to drink of the River of his delights having to do with God their exceeding joy Psal 43. 4. And the delight is more large and full by those many considerations of one kind and another by which this great Lord makes himself most amiable and wholly delectable to those that are acquainted with him as the great benefit of his Providence which makes them resolve to own him and set up their Rest in him together with his safe and sweet protection not only from outward but spiritual Enemies and Evils which makes them sit under his shadow with great delight unto which we may add their outward enjoyments the comfortable use whereof being well sum'd up is nothing else but a delighting themselves in the great goodness of God Briefly the light of Gods countenance the benefit of his counsel here and the assurance of his glory hereafter make his most afflicted servants upon serious consideration and Sanctuary information exceedingly to rejoyce and glory in him and to do as they do who would take their fill of delight one with another and that is to shut all others out and say None but Thee Psal 73. 24 25. Thus the duty and reward have both one name Delight in the Sabbath of the Lord is the duty and Delight in the Lord of the Sabbath is the reward O How poor and base are the delights of those men unto whom the holiness of the sabbath-Sabbath-day yea by the same reason of any day is a heavy and ill-belov'd business They can delight in a Dinah they have what they would have when they walk in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings And they that are something better yet rejoyce and delight in a thing of nought as Wealth Power Policy their delights at best are but the delights of the sons of men Eccles 2. 8. not of the sons of God for They say The desire of our soul is to thee and the remembrance of thee This is a well-grounded well-placed and hopeful delight for it is in Him that is Almighty al-sufficient a profitable delight for it 's a very great absurdity and Atheism to say It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God I say to say so deliberately and not in some great tentation It is a sweet delight for it is in him that is altogether
Praying Act. 12. 12. are called by the name of Church And then it will shew that it was then the use of Christians to perform religious duties in their Families wherein they were glad to have others accompany them as it is with godly Housholders at this day The third Position Every promise of Scripture made to any duty contains in it a vertual command as every command contains a promise else if that be not done which is the condition of the promise the promise will lie unperformed and so come to nothing Now the promise is that If two agree together on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them in Heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my Name saith Christ there am I in the midst of them It 's true that as the words stand in the Context they have a respect to Church-discipline and are in their more particular Application a Confirmation of that but yet the words being general they are justly applyed to the religious meetings of Gods people in a generality As otherwhere therefore saith Calvin God promiseth to lend a gracious ear to the private prayers of every one of his Servants so here Christ adorns and honours publike Prayers with a singular Promise that thereby he may more earnestly draw us to a regard of them which may appear because Christs speech is so large as that he saith touching any thing they shall ask so that he doth not appropriate the promise to that particular case which is there spoken to but extendeth it to any other thing which shall be presented to God according to his will in the united Petitions of his united Servants Hence I argue that if there be two or three more or fewer in a Family if they will challenge the benefit of this promise they must come together yea by this gracious promise they are call'd together to pray and seek God together for it is union in duty and particularly in Prayer that our Saviour in that Text and Promise doth allure and encourage us unto And what two or three are there who have any acquaintance with God that would be without more of God for want of coming and praying together the more to enjoy him The fourth Position Every dreadful threatning contains in it a real and a moving forbidding of that which will bring upon us the thing threatened Now the Scripture saith Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and the Families which call not upon thy Name who if they be not Heathens yet in that they are like Heathens Here it may be said and I shall grant it that the word Families in Scripture is an expression of Nations for at one time it was said to Abram In thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed and at another time all the Nations of the Earth but withall I add that it is an expression and description of Nations as they are distributed as all Nations are into Families and Housholds and so the curse lies as upon such Nations so on all Families not calling upon God as the subordinate bodies of those Nations yea therein it lies most heavily upon the whole Nations Object The Prophet Jeremiah speaks there of Idolaters that call not on the true God Answ I deny not that but here let it be observ'd that the thing which the Prophet mentions is not the worshipping of false gods but the not-worshipping or the not-calling upon the true God which is a thing that nor only Heathens are guilty of but bad men in the Church also withal it is to be marked that he names Families and fixeth the curse on them under this title of not calling on the name of God If then other Families agree with them in their description that is that they do not know and own God in calling upon his Name let them consider whether they be not under the danger of this Imprecation I know there is a further reason of the Curse added in the conclusion that is because they eat devour and consume Jacob but yet the subjects of the curse are such as know not God and call not on his Name And this and opposing and oppressing the Servants of God go together not only out of the Church but in it I am loth to speak over-severely of Families wherein for want of Instruction and acquaintance with the necessity of such a duty Prayer is wanting but let all men mark when there is a persecution Whether Prayerless-Families be not the Persecuting-Families though all of them be not such In this the Scripture is clear which speaks of corrupt men in the Church just as Jeremy speaks of Heathens here describing them to be such as know not God for they say There is no God and that eat up Gods people as bread and call not upon the Lord so that the neglecting of all Religion set forth by calling on God and the hatred and opposition of godly men go together To conclude this What are the Housholds of Christians Are they not or should they not be Families fearing God And the fear of God with all a mans house and praying to God always are joyned together as the casting off fear and restraining Prayer before God though ill applyed to Job elsewhere are Again Should not the particular Houshold of Christians be like the whole Household Housholds of faith And if they be so then surely they will be Praying-Families for trusting in God and pouring forth the heart before him go together From all this it followeth that calling on the Name of the Lord is not only that which putteth a difference between the Church and Heathens and between persons converted and unconverted but which we may observe at this day that which makes a remarkable difference between Housholders fearing God and acquainted with Religion and those that are not such I do not say that all that have Prayer in their Family are truly good but certainly their goodness is very young and very immature that have it not and they have very much cause to inquire Whether they have any at all that care not to have it In such ways as these God calls upon us to call upon Him together with our Family Though it be not said in so many words that every Christian Housholder is to pray with his Houshold yet this is really said in Scripture that they are to glorifie God in their Families And that they are to serve God in their Families by performing that duty of Prayer wherein the whole service of God is held forth And that they should bless their Housholds and take the best course which is the course of Prayer with them to procure Gods blessing upon them If such things as these will not serve to make Housholders godly they will sure serve to make them inexcusable for
their ungodliness As it will never serve to excuse the excess of intemperate and immodest men and women that God hath not told them how much they shall eat or what clothes they shall put on so neither will it serve to excuse their defects in Prayer or any other Christian duty that God hath not spoken particullarly and punctually of it for they ought to reverence the General Rules and as neer as may be to mould their carriage according to the mind of God and herein be like the Angels who do not only obey the precise Precepts of their glorious Lord and God but delight to fulfill all his pleasure and what they conceive by any hint they have from Him to be acceptable to Him Beneplaciti nomine laetum hilare obsequium exprimit ac si dixisset Angelos non solum Dei Praeceptis obsequentes esse sed libentèr cum summa oblectatione accipere ejus nutus ut ejus bene placitis obtemperent Calv. in Psal 103. 21. Thus for the grounds of Scripture whereon Family-Prayer is founded I come now to some Reasons agreeable unto Scripture which may further perswade to this duty I shall insist upon three only First God requires homage and service not only from single Persons but from Societies and Companies of men As 1. From a Land and Nation as appears from the Lords calling of his People the Jews to the three solomn Feasts ordinarily besides the New-Moons wherein Families used to joyn together in Sacrificing And to the duty of Fasting both yearly and on extraordinary occasions Joel 2. 15 16. 2. From particular Churches in the New-Testament which according to the will God were to joyn in spiritual worship and in the duty of Prayer 1 Tim. 2 1 2. 1 Cor. 11. 4. with 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. 3. From particular Companies partaking in the same favour If ten Lepers be cured and but one return to give thanks Christ saith Where are the other nine being not content that less then ten should joyn together in thanksgiving for the mercy that ten receive Experience tells us how agreeable this Society-service is to right reason for a King coming to the Vniversity looks for Vniversity and a kind of Universal entertainment And coming to a Town-corporate expects not only significations of love and loyalty from single persons but humble addresses also from the Corporation Since therefore every Family is an united Body that Body and Society should own and acknowledge God in the performance of united Service else the Lord may say This and that person served me but I had no service from the Family Secondly This reason and this duty is the rather to be urged from a further reason which is this wheresoever there are common concernments or common causes of seeking to God there should be a common and joynt feeking and therefore in Families for there are there sins wants mercies and afflictions wherein the whole Family in concern'd 1. Sins which though committed by some or by one only yet endanger the whole Houshold as we know Achan's sin did and therefore for the glorifying of God and the preventing of their general suffering it behooves all of them with one consent to acknowledge the sin committed by any of them in which way they may hope for reconciliation such as Abigail found with David when being not guilty her self she confessed the folly of her guilty Husband 1 Sam. 25 25 34 35. It 's wisdom for the Father of a Family to be like Aaron that is to take a course for an atonement for himself and his Houshold which will be best done in Job's way that is by calling the Family together sanctifying them offering the sacrifice of a broken heart and flying to the Sacrifice of a broken Christ Job 1. 5. 2. Wants Family-wants there are and ever will be as want of health of strength of ease perhaps of bread Here all should joyn together to beg of God what is wanting because there will be a common comfort in the enjoying of it and by their common Prayer they are the more like to obtain it as hath been shewed before 3. Mercies As peace protection health plenty wherein the whole Family partaking the Governour thereof hath great reason to say to all that are under his roof O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together God loves to hear the voyce of Rejoycing not only in the Closets and Chambers but in the Tabernacles of the righteous And therefore gave this command to his people of old Thou shalt rejoyce in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee and unto thine house Deut. 26. 11. 4. Afflictions If but one person in a Family being under the hand especially an heavier hand of God the whole Family susters The more reason therefore there is to joyn together that by the joynt petition of all that may be removed which is grievous to all Even Nature will teach that coming with one accord is the most likely way to remove high displeasure This may in part shew that to omit Family-Prayer is not only an ungodly thing but an unreasonable and a great disadvantage as well as a defect Thirdly I reason further for this duty from the persons that neglect calling upon God with their housholds and from the reason of that neglect 1. The persons neglecting this Duty are usually men less fearing God less acquainted with Religinn and cold in the profession and practice of it For as for gracious and grown Christians there is we may say a common instinct of piety and holy impulsion of heart that puts them upon this duty Insomuch that the looking up of Housholders with their houshold unto God seems not so much to require Reason to inforce it as a vigorous Religion which will certainly infer it 2. As to the causes of the neglect they are the more considerable because the truth is that this question Whether Housholders ought to perform the duty of Prayer with those belonging unto them will be most plainly answered by another Question which is this What good reason can any man give why he doth not especially why he will not pray in his Family Now the causes of the neglect will as I conceive be found such as these 1. In lower and poorer people ignorance and unacquaintedness with Religion They are loth to be persuaded to do what they find it will be hard to do and which they see in themselves little ability to perform And yet this will not excuse them because there are so many helps for Prayer as will prove their fault to be want of hearts to that duty That therefore which such are to do is to follow on to know the Lord and then they shall know and get such ability from that which God speaks to them as to be able
to the worse place but on the contrary Strive to enter in at the straight-gate and go in that narrow way though it be against the hair I mean your own corrupt and undoing hearts by walking wherein you shall assuredly come at last to the better place and possess that everlasting life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For this purpose I have written these following Directions and Admonitions as not knowing what Guides or Goads you will have unto that which is good when I am gone but the better you observe these and all other godly Instructions the more hope you may have to have more of them mean-while I leave these with you which if you have not other helps will be the more needful and if you have other helps will make them the more useful That I might be more profitable to you I have endeavoured plainness yet I confess there is not so much of it as I intended or desired for all men have not that gift of making known their mind to others in a plain and familiar way And besides that something must be yielded to more ripe Readers and in divers things the matter hath carryed me above the capacity of many of you but the better use you make of that which you do understand the sooner you will understand the rest and you being acquainted so long with my way of teaching and manner of speaking may know and find out better then others what my meaning is To conclude Remember that what our Saviour long since said to prove himself the Messiah is fulfilled to you which is this The poor have the Gospel preached to them or they are the persons that are Gospel-lized that is the Gospel is theirs with all the comforts of it but know also that this is not meant of the poor in state only but which a poor state oft is and ever should be an help unto of those that are poor in spirit that though they have lived honestly among their neighbours see themselves undone without a Saviour and therefore when they have little or nothing else or whether they have or no make sure to have Him labour you to be in the number of those that are thus spiritually poor as by the providence of God many of you are outwardly low It 's a lamentable thing when they that have little in this world shall have nothing in the world to come not so much as a drop of water to cool their tongue in that place of torment That it may not be so with you Let me beseech you to study your Souls to esteem the words of Gods mouth whether you read them or hear them more then your necessary food to account one thing necessary which is to sit at Jesus feet and hear his Word from those whom he sends to speak to you This will not hinder you from labouring for your living for the Word of Christ binds you to it but it 's necessary to know there is a more necessary labour that is to know what God would have done first and to do it after For your assistance wherein I desire you to make conscience of the holy Exercises of Religion which are here commended unto you that so you may be furnished for bringing forth the fruits of godliness in your whole conversation Consider what I have said and the Lord give you understanding in all things and so bless unto you these and all other Instructions that you may thrive in knowledge grow in grace and persevere in faith and obedience that I may rejoyce in you and you in me in the day of the Lord Jesus Unto whom I commend you and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified And so remain Your intirely-well-wishing Pastor willing to spend and be spent and now almost spent with and for you William Thomas The EPISTLE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Dear Christians ALbeit the ensuing Instructions were purposely framed for my own Charge yet finding them to grow under my hand to a more full Treatise then was at first in my thoughts and that now they are like to come into many hands I conceive it needful to say something by way of Preface that what I have written may be more useful to any that shall think fit to read it That which I have to say concerneth the matter handled and the manner of writing The matter is wholly practical save that necessity hath compelled me for the establishing of practical Truths to mixe here and there that which is something controversal All as you may see is referred unto two heads that is Christian and Family-duties Of each sort there are four I shall before-hand give you a tast of them all The first of the first sort is the reading of the Scriptures which may well be put in the first place because the written Word is not only the Foundation of our Faith and the well-spring of saving wisdom but also the ground of Godliness the guide of Practise and a divine Directory for the performance of every good duty whereby not only the Minister and Man of God but the People of God the Sons and Daughters of the Lord God Almighty are educated unto and throughly furnished for every good work For the Scriptures are composed not as the writings of Heathens for vain-glory but for mens Salvation and the Spirit of God hath written them in a plain language that all may easily see what is said at least as far as fufficeth for the guiding of their faith and carriage and the safety of their souls and that no simple men as Chrysostom speaks might make this excuse that the Scriptures are hard for though there be difficulties therein to take down mens pride yet there is enough so plain that not only Gods workman that is the Minister but any workman may see the way to Heaven if he have eyes to see it for to see requires sight as well as light In the next place there is more particular Instructions given concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that not without need For where Salvation lies at the one end and Damnation at the other there 's great need of Direction that where we seek for the better of these we may not find the worse In the handling of this Subject I have been constrained unto a little further search both to give an account of my own sollicitousness about that Sacrament and withall by reason of the different perswasions of some learned and godly men who I hope will candidly interpret my Discourse because I have endeavoured to speak according to the sense of Scripture the consentient judgement of the Church of God and with declaration of due respect to those from whom I somewhat dissent This Sacrament-doctrine I have in the close
one and the same time is so remarkably heightened 3. If there must be a weekly day of Gods own Institution whether there be any other day of the week that can lay so good a claim to that sacred Institution and that hath such a divine Character put upon it as the first day of the week on which our Saviour rested from all his work and compleated the Redemption of Man-kind in his glorious Resurrection on which our great Lord hath set his own Name and that recorded in Scripture wherein also the holy Observation thereof is presented in Christian meetings and such acts and exercises as suit with the solemn time of Christians assembling themselves together And which is generally confest to be an Apostolical Prescription and so amounts to a divine Institution 4. This day being divinely instituted whether God will not be that day better served and the spiritual profit of Christians better provided for by making it an intire day of Rest holy to the Lord and to spiritual uses or by mixing our work with Gods and Play with Piety Such things as these and more weighty communications of better Writers being seriously considered will I doubt not work on those who desire to walk with God willingly and thankfully to sequester themselves from all other things to enjoy a blessed communion with their Lord every Lords-day and one day in seaven to be as it were in Heaven Thus of the first part of this little Tractate and of the Christian duties therein contained The Second part treateth of Family-duties I begin with Family-Catechising an exercise exceeding needful useful that they that are young may be acquainted with God betimes and thereby if they die sooner may be fitter for his Kingdom and fitter for his service if they live longer God would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth but as blind Pastors and People so blind Housholders and Housholds fill hell And mean while make the World much worse then else it would be For Families are the original of all other greater Societies and want of Religious Education there is the cause why there are so few good servants for how shal an ignorant Son or Daughter that hath no knowledge or conscience be a good Servant And why there are so few good Wives and Husbands for how shall they be good together that were never bred up to be good asunder Yea is it not from hence that there are so many less sound or less godly Ministers namely because they have not been so trained up as young Timothy was who from a child had known the holy Scriptures It s true that sometimes Religion is in the house and yet not in the heart at least of most in the House but if it be in the heart I am sure it will be in the house Yea as there shall be occasion in every house for the grace that is in a sincere and right heart is like the oyntment of ones right hand which bewrayeth it self being ever un-satisfied unless it disperse and send abroad the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place especially the Vicinity but most of all the Family I proceed from this to the thing I principally aimed at and indeed only intended when I first set upon this work namely to set forward the Duty of Family-Prayer For though God will do much for the house of Israel and for every house in Israel yet his Will is to be sought that he may do it for them Heaven is a rich storehouse and we have a Joseph there that is willing to nourish us lest we and our houshold and all that we have come to poverty yet it s necessary for us to go thither with our suits and supplications as the sons of Jacob went into Egypt with their sacks that so opening our mouths wide the Lord Jesus may fill them Ther 's treasure enough in God's House for us and for our houses but when God hath put a Key into our hand that is Prayer to open the door we must either turn the Key or not expect the Treasure men lust and have not labour and have not fight and scramble for the world and yet they have not or have not in mercy Hos 13. 11. because they ask not Now because some weak Christians may say with Jeremy Behold I cannot speak I cannot pray for I am a child therefore I thought it would be profitable for their help and education as it were to the duty of Prayer to put some Prayers into their hands thought it be God only that must put a spirit of Prayer into their hearts This is a course that heretofore hath found acceptance but now it needs an Apology considering that in late times Forms have been so much out of request that God's external Ordinances and holy Institutions of one kind and another have passed and suffered reproach and that with divers of better report heretofore but None but God knows who are his under the contemptible name of Forms of Religion too low for Christians of the upper Form Now if any yet there be that count themselves above Ordinances I must leave them as far above my persuasions But as for modest Christians who howsoever they may be somewhat doubtful about the use of Forms of Prayer yet are teachable and capable of satisfaction I shall endevour to give it them And therefore I willingly acknowledg and would have both those of my own Charge and other Christians to know that such Forms are not so properly intended for grown and exercised Christians albeit they being humble will know they may receive help and improvement from them but they are composed for young Beginners and for them also not to tie them up but to train them up as they use to do little Children to go first by a Form that leaving the form which was a great help at first they may go at length on their own legs without leaning on such Supports Blessed Bradford that high and humble Martyr when he was in Prison wrote a prayer for his Mother that she might learn how to pray for him and desired her to get it by heart and to say it dayly and he wrote another for all her house to make use of in their Evening Prayer Unto which I add that although poor and low yea the lowest Christians may and should take more liberty in private between God and themselves and not be afraid or backward to groan out their desires before the Lord yet the assistance and supplies of Prayers made to their hands is for such needful to enable them to appear before others and to be their mouth in the duty of Prayer I say needful that neither the service may be contemptible to those that be bad nor unprofitable and tedious to those that be better Briefly Formes of Prayer whereof the eaâ—e many
Teacching 199 to 202. 2. Quickning 3. Comforting 3. Commended to Christians in way of Exchange for all other delights 202. 3. Some advice is given that singing may be more profitable viz. 1. By marking the matter of the Psalm while it is singing 204. 2. By conferring of it after ibid. 4. Lamentation for the neglect and negligent performance of this duty with a close quickning thereunto In the close 204. to 208 A Family-Prayer for the Morning 209 A Family-Prayer for the Evening 214. A shorter Prayer for the Morning 220. A shorter Prayer for the Evening 224. Prayers for Children for Morning and Evening 228. to 231 ERRATA PAg. 4. marg r for c. 4. read c. 5. t read Job 10. 34. And u dele p. 6 m. b r. 1 Thess 5. 27. p. 7. line 11. r. Gen. 18. 19 m. a r. 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. p. 13. l. 14. for marks r. mark l. 22. r. Act 8. 27. p. 16. l. 27. r. Joh. 16. 19 29. p. 19. m. g r. Job 24. 17. p 20. l. 26. for we r. you p. 25. m. h r. Lam. 3. 51. p. 29. l. 34 for discerning r. not discerning p. 36. m. r r. Matth. 25. p. 37. l. 25. for Ordinance r. Ordinances p. 61. m. c r. Gen. 47. 6. p. 69. l. 21. r. more generally p. 79. m. g r. 1 Pet. 2. 2. h 1 Pet. 2. 1. p. 80 l. 7. for him r. them p. 90. l. 12. for sixth r. six p. 116. l. 7. put out not p. 143. l. 24. put in and of Chapters read c. p. 159. l. 32. for risled r. ruled p. 160 l. 17. r. in a manner p. 165. l. 3. put in meerly because c. p. 171. l. 7. r. particular Housholds p. 180. l. 19. for in r. at p. 181. l. 23. for and r. I p. 188. l. 18. for nourishing r. nourisheth p. 199. l. 22. for was r. as The Preface IT is one of those faithful and joyful sayings of Scripture that are worthy of all acceptation that Godliness is profitable to all things having the promises of the life which now is and that which is to come But then we must consider that as Godliness hath the Promises so the Promises will have Godliness and bind those that have them to cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God The promoting of this Holiness is the purpose of this Treatise which propoundeth recommendeth and pleadeth for divers such Christian and family-Family-duties as are the wayes and means appointed of God for the improving of godliness Thereunto the Reading of the Word which in the first Part and place is mentioned much availeth because the Doctrine of the Word is the Doctrine which is according to godliness it is the ground and guide of godliness As also an often and prepared receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the spiritual nourishment whereof is for the growth of Godliness The Ministry likewise makes much for Piety for that 's the School of Godliness And the religious observing of the Lords-day-Sabbath for that 's the support of the Trade of Godliness as Market and Fair-dayes are of ordinary Trading The four Houshold duties described in the Second Part aim at no other but the very same end that is the advantage and advancement of Godliness For By Family-Catechising Godliness spreadeth By Family-Prayer it and every thing else prospereth By Repetition of Sermons as by whetting it is sharpened hath a better edge And by singing of Psalms it is sweetned for thereby not only the heart is more holy but all other good exercises and assistances of godliness are less heavy I hope therefore that they that look after godliness and in vain do they look for heaven who look not after it will accept of these Helps for albeit I willingly grant that some of these means of godliness may be used by those that are not truly godly Hypocrisie being the Ape of Sincerity yet I may boldly affirm on the other side that all that are truly good will be afraid to omit them and none but they can well use them Joh. 15. 5. I shall not detain the Reader with a longer Preface having said so much already in the precedent Epistles but hasten to that which comes first in order to be handled The First Part. CHAP. I. The sum of this Chapter is nothing else but A Call to Christians c. as in the next page PART I. CHAP. I. A Call to Christians to the Reading of Scripture IT is a true and a useful Observation that Every man hath as it were two men one inward the other outward The inward man is the Soul made after the Image of God The outward man is the Body made out of the dust of the Earth These two men live and subsist by a different nourishment the body by receiving natural food the soul by reading and receiving the Word of God which goes in Scripture under the name of Nourishment for it speaks of being nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine He that neglects the nourishment of his body neglects himself and his life he that neglects the nourishment of his Soul neglects his God whose Image shines most especially in the Souls of men Shall we take so much care of the body which is to be laid in the Grave and devoured of Worms and suffer the immortal Soul as the basest Slave to pine away for want of the food of the Word of God That you that are of my charge wherein also I speak to every other Christian Reader may not be guilty of so unreasonable a sin I shall endeavour to stir you up to the reading of the Soul-sustaining Word of God by setting before you both Scripture-Commands and Scripture-Reasons perswading and pressing you thereunto 1. Scripture-Commands Reading Scripture is injoyned on Magistrates Ministers and all Christians generally First on Magistrates For this is the charge recorded in Scripture concerning the King When he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom he shall write him a Copy of this Law out of that which is before the Priests the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life Object That Command is for the Kings not for me Answ 1. It 's more wise to say If a King must read the Law whose imployments are so many and weighty then I much more who may gain time better 2. Wheresoever a command is confirmed by a general reason that binds all there the command it self hath a general binding force and reacheth as far as the reason doth Now the reason of the Kings reading the Law is of that nature for this it is That he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of the Law and the Statutes to do them that his heart be not lift up above his brethren which
wherewith all Saints are fed both Men and Angels for even the Angels desire and stoop low to look into it 1 Pet. 1. 12. and a Table is as it were spread for them in the Church by which the manifold wisdom of God is known unto them Take therefore every day some part of this heavenly Manna this Angels food to support you in the Wilderness of this World till you come to eat it new as our Saviour saith of the Sacrament that is in a new and glorious manner to partake in the life that is held out in it in the heavenly Canaan CHAP. II. Instructions for a profitable Receiving of the Lords Supper I Now come to the second thing that is Plain Instructions for a reverent and profitable receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It may perhaps seem much to some that I should be so sollicitous about this Ordinance and therefore for their satisfaction and the confirmation of the duty of Sacrament-preparation I shall give account of it in the ensuing reasons First Preparation to the Lords Supper is to be stood upon because it is very needful and suitable to the care of the Church of God in ancient and purer times that they who have not at all as yet received that Sacrament should give an account of their knowledge and faith before they receive it for though a necessary fundamental and more remote right thereunto be presupposed in their Baptism yet because they themselves were then uncapable of making any promise and profession in their own persons therefore their clear full and next right to partake in the Lords Supper ariseth from their declaration with their own mouths of their knowledge of consent unto and true purpose to perform what their Baptism bindeth them unto or was then promised by others in their behalf Without this though I grant it may be in several wayes required and performed how shall their fitness for this Ordinance we speak of be discerned or the Church whereof they are Members and with which they are to communicate be so well satisfied But in this it being learnedly and largely spoken to by others I shall not need to move any further This only I add that for the help of the weaker sort of those of whom I here speak to give a reason of their faith and fitness for the Lord Table I have composed these ensuing Directions Secondly Another reason may be taken from the weight that the Scripture lays on this work of Sacrament-preparation in 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 30. Where may be noted first a precise Precept for Examination Let a man examine and so and not otherwise let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup which shews that a special distinct Preparation is required for that Bread and that Cup that is that distinct Ordinance Secondly This command is charged upon the Conscience by laying before the Unworthy Communicant two heart-affecting and affrighting things 1. On the one side the greatest sin and the most horrible guilt For whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. How high is that Lord How dreadful therefore is that Guilt 2. On the other side there 's the greatest danger and saddest doom For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body that is eternal damnation without repentance and temporal judgement though that be prevented For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Thus is that great Precept of Examination before Sacrament-participation environed as it were on both hands that it may be more effectually guarded against all gain-sayers urged on all Communicants and observed by all Christians to strike into their hearts a reverence of that Ordinance Here I do not deny but there are the same things for substance set before us in regard of the hearing of the Word whilest it is said He that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. and he that heareth and lets it slip shall not escape Heb. 2. 1 2 3. and therefore People had need not only to hear but to take heed how they hear and prepare for it Eccles 5. 1. But yet I do not find that so much is spoken all at once and so fully spoken and so fearfully spoken concerning mis-hearing only as concerning this mis-receiving the reason whereof may be as I humbly conceive because in unworthy partaking of the Lords Supper there is a cumulative abuse or a double in that is not only the Sacrament is abused but that Word of God also is contemned which makes it a Sacrament as also because the Body and Bloud of Christ though offered also in the Word yet are not in such a manner presented as in the Lords Supper as will further appear in the next reason Mean while to close up this Christians may consider that when God is pleas'd to speak more plainly precisely distinctly more fully and dreadfully then he justly expects that what he saith should affect us more and be of more effect with us Read Jer. 25. 30. Amos 3. 6. 8. Deut. 1. 42 43. with Numb 14. 41. to the end Thirdly A serious Preparation proper to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ is the rather urged because the same thing that is Christ with all his benefits is offered unto us in a different way in the Word and Sacrament which makes it a distinct Ordinance and so imposeth a peculiar preparaton for it which I do not at all speak to set one Ordinance of God against another or to lessen the reverence of the Word Preached which is that great Ordinance of God whereby men are converted and saved or to give way to an unprepared coming to the Word which I fear is the fault or many who seem to come with high reverence to the Sacrament but what I say is only to put Christians in mind that every distinct Ordinance of God is to have its due and distinct respect and therefore that there is some other and further good frame of heart to be endeavoured when the Sacrament is to be received then when the Word only is to be heard and that because that I may come to the matter I intend Christ with all his benefits is offered in the Sacrament very particularly or singularly and very plainly and sensibly First There is a peculiar particularity or particular dealing and distribution in Sacrament-administration In preaching we speak generally yet comprehending particular persons but not singling them out whereas in the Sacrament Christ is offered personally that is to particular persons and is put as it were Sacramentally into every ones hand Now when God deals with particular persons hand to hand offering them so great a gift as Christ is there is therefore more reason of reverence and of care that
double honour There 's a sad saying for bad Ministers and that is that they are made contemptible and base before all the people by the Lord of Hosts himself I shall now somewhat more largely insist on the duty of people towards Ministers which is 1. more general viz. to know them 2. More particular so to know them as to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake This precept of knowing the Lords labourers may be laid open in three particulars 1. know them with observation 2. with approbation 3. with imitation First know them with observation or with good consideration for they are said not to know that do not consider first God sayes They regard not they consider not and then they have no knowledge so that this knowledge hath in it a considerate taking notice of those that labour in the work of the Ministry As to name some particulars there should be an observing of their calling doctrine and carriage 1. Of their calling for a right and religious respect to Ministers is founded in knowing and observing that God hath called them to an office distinct from all other offices and which it is not lawful for any to meddle with but such as are duly called To omit other parts of a Ministers calling it were well if it were known That the preaching of the Word belongs to them only yet I shall not deny but that in some extraordinary cases as in time of persecution and when Ministers cannot be had and on some special occasion as for tryal of those that are towards the Ministry and with some extraordinary caution that is there being hearers able and appointed to judge of what they speak I say in such cases something may be granted and there may be some allowance to speak in publick given to persons uncalled or not yet called But ordinarily and when there is a setled state of things a Ministers calling is distinct from all other callings as to the matter of publick preaching as appears evidently by those Scriptures which present the preaching of the Word as the principal and most considerable part of a Ministers work for to them it is that Jesus Christ who hath all power given him giveth out power and commission to go and teach as well as administer the Sacraments so that others may no more teach as Gods officers do then baptize yea Paul saith Christ hath sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel that is not chiefly to baptize for otherwise the Apostles were both to teach and baptize but Preaching was their chief work And the name of those whom Christ hath given to his Church for continuance are Pastors and Teachers that 's their distinct office all Saints are not such but there are some such for the perfecting of the Saints and the work of the Ministery so that their work lies in teaching they are men that labour in the Word and Doctrine that 's their great business And to them the Word of reconciliation is committed not to all nor any other unless they can prove themselves the Lords Ambassadors Against this it may be objected That Christians also are to teach and admonish Unto which I answer 1. That it doth not appear in Scripture that it is committed to them to declare all the counsel of God to the people of God which yet is a Ministers work Act. 20. 27. Nor can they be ordinarily able to do it being not educated to it and having or being such as ought to have other callings so that they cannot give themselves wholly to this work as a Minister is bound to do and therefore cannot sufficiently and constantly perform it especially considering that when it comes to be looked upon as a common priviledge to appear in publick teaching the more insufficient will step up first 2. Nor is it any where required of private Christians to open and apply Scripture to a Congregation met together for the solemn worship of God for then it were a an in them not to do it and would cast many under a great and long guilt 3. Though they may and ought to teach as it is a Christian duty yet they neither may nor can preach with Ministerial authority and as in Christ's stead because they be not Ambassadours they have no call to it nor commission for it And others being commanded to whom it appertaineth even that excludes them It may be said It pertaineth not to thee O private Christian though a King Thou art not separated from the Congregation of Israel to preach to a Congregation If it be said That they profess they preach only as gifted Brethren and challenge not to themselves the calling and authority of Ministers To this I answer That notwithstanding this there are two evils attend their preaching a loss and a danger 1. There is a loss in it if there be any in office to teach and that because they have no such promise of direction assistance and blessing as called Ministers have for doing good to those to whom they speak so their heaâ—ers are losers 2. And a danger also for if they happen to deliver any thing unsound as such divers times do either through ignorance or faction then common hearers as we see by sad experience in these late times will be more ready to receive an Error from them then a Truth from a Minister and when they have received it they do so eagerly run away with it that there will hardly be any prevailing means to get it out For such is the corruption of nature and so doth Satan put on because it makes for his Kingdom that an uncalled person is by many better accepted then one called and the novelties and curiosities which such use to vent take more with them then the solid doctrine and plam and saving truths delivered by the Lords Messengers But may some say It is not good that the Church should want the benefit of their gifts I answer That besides the making use of them in their Families a duty I fear too much neglected by those that are forward to shew themselves in publick they have further liberty and opportunity to exercise them in Christian meetings and conferences And yet there also is a danger for weak Christians that have honest hearts are soon missed by men high in their parts but not right in their judgement nor low in their hearts if there be not Ministers or others sound in the faith present in the meeting to prevent infection Unto this I add That if there be indeed any private Christians that are eminently gifted the Press is open though the Pulpit be shut Thus far of the first thing that is of knowing Ministers with a knowledge of observation in regard of their calling wherein I have been more large because of the experience we have had
Samaria come to Elisha his house when the famine was so extream in Samaria and sate with him no doubt to hear what comfort he could give them And this is an honour to be looked upon as one of a thousand Job 33. 23. as one that hath the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to the weary soul Isai 50. 4. 3. For Prayer Jam. 5. 15. as they did to Isaiah that he might midwife them as it were when they knew not what in the world to do nor was there any strength to bring forth This is an honour to be esteemed Masters of requests such as Ministers are or ought to be Gen. 20. 7. Isa 62. 6 7. Ezek 14. 14. 4. In yielding obedience and being subject to them in the Lord This God expresly requireth Heb. 13. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 16. And not to hear obediently is to despise He that despiseth you saith Christ to wit in not hearing despiseth me If Ministers speak not according to the Word nor they nor an Angel from Heaven is to be esteemed and obeyed but if they give commandements by the Lord Jesus then he that despiseth despiseth not man but God It was a great Kings great unhappiness and sin that he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord How much better did they that so obeyed the words of the Lord delivered by a man of God even when they had gathered an Army of an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men and that to regain a Kingdom as utterly to desist from that design I grant such Messages were extraordinary but Gods Word is Gods Word still 5. In incouraging and comforting them as Hezekiah did the Levites 2 Chron. â—0 22. And godly men Paul Col. 4. 11. This is done more particularly 1. By a Christian receiving and entertaining of them as there is occasion with gladness such receiving and holding in reputation go together Phil. 2. 20. so it is said of Timothy See he be with you without fear and then let no man despise him 2. In looking to them especially in their low estate as Obadiah hid and fed the Lords Prophets 3. In standing by them when they are in a suffering condition for the Church of God which when some did not Paul prayes for a pardon for it was a great sin but when One siphorus did it he prayes for a reward for it was a great duty and honour to Paul 6. In giving them maintenance which is expressed in Scripture by the name of Honour To honour Father and Mother is to do for them to relieve and maintain them Mar. 7.10 11 12. This ought to be an encouraging maintenance that they may be encouraged as Hezekiah speaks in the Law of the Lord i. e. in doing their duty To with-hold dues is but to be peny-wise for it makes God to shut up windows even the windows of Heaven yea it raiseth a cry which reacheth to Heaven for sure The hire of the labourer which reapeth down the Lords sields if it be kept back by fraud cryeth and the cry entreth into the eâ—rs of the Lord of Sabboth Jam. 5. 4. And the return from Heaven is Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me Mal. 3. 9. Here 's no room to dispute whether Tithes be due by divine right an incouraging maintenance is due by divine right and Tithes with us are that maintenance and that may suffice 7. In not receiving lightly and hastily any accusation against them 1 Tim. 5. 19. They should rather be pleaded for as Michaiah was by Jehosaphat when a King spake against him and in that way Christians should save Ministers and ought to discharge them of a more unhandsome pleading for themselves 2 Cor. 12. 11. 8. In shewing a regard and doing honour to those that have deserved well of the Church of God even after their death as they buryed Jehoiada in the City of David among the Kings because he had done good to Israel both towards God and towards his house 2 Chron. 24. 16. So the old worse Prophet laid the carcass of the young better Prophet in his own grave with mourning and lamentation and gave order that himself might be buryed in the same Sepulchre concerning whom also Josiah of whom he prophesied gave this charge Let no man move his bones A convincement of this may be observed in the hypocritical honour that the Scribes and Pharisees did the dead Prophets in garnishing their Sepulchres And in other like them who commend some faithful Ministers when they are dead that they may save their credit whilest they hate those like them being yet alive If any think much that so much is spoken of this argument and Ministerial advancement they may please to remember whose words they are that are recorded written in this Text Are they the words of God or are they not And withall to consider that howsoever the Lords labourers know it to be their lot to be made the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things and therefore prepare for and submit to such a condition yet Christians Edification and Salvation is laid up in Ministers Estimation for Who will be advised by him that he thinks to be a fool or ruled by him whom he takes to be a Tyrant or one that loves to take upon him or be admonished by him whom he accounts one that affects to be a fault-finder Now if the counsel and instructions of Ministers be not reverenced nor their directions obeyed nor their admonitions regarded how shall people be edified or saved I proceed now to the next thing viz. 2. The nature and quality of this Estimation It must be in love That general precept may be applyed to this purpose Let all your things be done with charity but that in Titus comes nearer Greet them that do not only prize us but love us in the faith so did they that wept sore over Paul and kissed him both signs of love Nor is it without cause that love is put in as an ingredient into the estimation of Ministers for there may be a great estimation without a gracious affection For it may arise 1. From convincement to wit of the respect due unto them in their places especially if they be men above others dignified Or 2. From contentment and satisfaction in regard of their greater parts and abilities if they be men better gifted and more accomplished 3. From morality and a love of vertue to wit if they be men of an unblameable life of an amiable carriage given to hospitality c. Thus even Herod feared that is reverenced John and was an observant hearer of him no marvel he being a man famous among the people and of great account and one of an excellent spirit and rare ability and power
speak honourably of it It 's a great work saith he for it is not for man but for the Lord God such is the work of the Ministry it is to bear the name of God before the children of men and by sowing the seed of the Word to be instruments of bringing forth those fruits of righteousness that are for the glory of God Luk. 8. 15. Phil. 1. 11. Col. 1. 6. Thus is God the Alpha and Omega of the Ministers Office 2. By the subject matter of it for the work of a Minister of the Gospel is to preach the high hidden and manifold wisdom of God and that among those that are perfect who alone can receive are capable of such heavenly mysteries It is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ In sum It is to preach Christ that mens eyes may see that King in his beauty This is Angels work Luk. 2. 10 11 14. yea Angels wonder and sweetest study Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. 3. By the object of it as to men and that is their everlasting salvation 1 Tim. 4. 16. Obad. v. 21. How did men honour in the Old Testament their temporary Saviours How have men still honoured Physitians and bodily Saviours Hence Paul was honoured with many honours Act. 28. 10. If they be thus esteemed out of the principles of nature that save mens lives how much more should they be reckoned of out of the principles of grace that are Instruments to save mens souls unto which soul-salvation bodily cures do but hold the Candle to shew in a small degree how great it is as we see our Saviours own bodily healings which were but obscure expressions to mens sense of his soul-healing vertue Mat. 8. 17. Thirdly It 's their work that is besides the work and worth thereof they are called to it If others uncalled to that Office do the work the honor is not due it appertaineth not to them any more then the work doth Who commends a busie body in other mens matters But if they be duly called and the Word of Reconciliation be committed unto them as the Lords Ambassadours then they are to be highly esteemed both because of the work and the right they have to administer it All this is cold comfort for such as are call'd to the Ministry and yet are careless of doing their Office for the worth is joyned to the work and the doing of the work insomuch that Idol-shepheards fall under the most heavy and dishonorable judgements And unsavoury Salt is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghil when it hath once lost its savour it is thence-forth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot So great is the infamy of Ministers that are the Salt of the Earth when they are quite destitute of Ministerial vertue Mat. 5. 13. Luk. 14. 35. Yet let all take heed of contemning the Office because of the person say not if you see some or many bad These be your Ministers But so manage the dis-estimation of ill-deserving Ministers as alwayes to preserve the estimation of the ever-honourable Ministry Having thus opened the Text I shall shut up all with an earnest Exhortation to Christians to make conscience of performing the duty which it doth so manifestly and fully mind them of In this Exhortation because our desire is not to have an estimation forced but flowing from light and love I shall therefore speak in the Apostles language We beseech you Brethren know those that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you Know them 1. As the great gift of Christ who when he ascended up on high gave gifts unto men Amongst the rest he gave some to be Pastors and Teachers to continue to the end of the world Not only the abilities of Ministers are Christs gift to his Church but their Office according to the old Prophesie I will give you Pastors Let none therefor call in question the wisdom or love of Christ as if he knew not what was best for his Church or were loth to give it but prize the gift for the Giver and consider how much they are like to stead you whom he hath left in his stead Christ is the great gift of God and Ministers the great gift of Christ 2. As Ambassadours for Christ in whom God is pleased to treat with you and by them in Christs Name to offer conditions of peace unto you yea God doth as it were beseech you by us to accept of his terms and to be reconciled to himself Unto Ministers is committed the Word of reconciliation that you may enjoy and be happy in the work of reconciliation O How beautiful to a sin-sick-soul that labours under the sad sense of Gods anger are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace 3. As your great comforters in your most grievous afflictions It is the misery of misery that there is no more any Prophet but though the Lord give you the bread of affliction and the water of affliction and your Teachers be not removed into a corner but your eyes behold your Teachers how great cause is there to say Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear Mat. 13. 16. The sight of Christ in the Gospel-Ministry makes believing souls not only desirous to depart out of the world in peace but willing to live in the world in trouble Phil. 1. 24. 4. As your soul-guard and defence against false Teachers who like subtile Foxes deceive first and like grievous Wolves devour after A Minister is an Over-seer that people may not be over-seen and over-reached by Church-cheaters that by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. even as of old the Serpent beguiled Eve 2 Cor. 11. 3. 5. As the Charers and Horsemen of Israel as your Life-guard and the best Militia of the Nation who do not only prevail in the behalf of a weak Church over every Amalâ—k and so procure their peace but so wrestle as to prevail with God it is not hainous to say over God Hos 12. 4 in the behalf of a sinful Church and so obtain their pardon How often had Israel been burnt up by the fire of Gods anger had not Moses stood in the gap and the Ministers of the Lordwept and prayed between the Porch and the Altar The last and best refuge is Go to Isaiah Isai 37. 3. 6. As the Angels of the Churches and the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23. Yea the Galatians did not over-do their fault was to give over when they received Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Gal. 4. 14. O how far short do Ministers now come of Paul which makes us tremble to speak of these high things but yet the Gospel-Ministry being for substance
fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Albeit therefore I shall easily grant that we have great cause to desire God to be merciful to us in this thing that our delight in Sabbath-duties is so dim yet it doth not follow from thence that there is none If God should take away Sabbaths from us I doubt not but that in all good Christians the grief would prove the delight for no man is grieved to lose what he never lov'd nor took any pleasure in I say it is thus in all good and truly godly and especially greatly-godly persons for as the man is so is his delight No marvel if the men of the world say When will the Sabbath be gone No wonder if the holy and strict observation thereof be unto carnal people and persons that savour not the things of God like Saul's Armour to David they cannot tell how to go with or undergo matters of so spiritual a nature for they never prov'd them they were never us'd to such things But on the other side the same spiritual observation of the Lords-day unto a spiritual Christian is like Jonathan's robe and his garments even his Sword his Bow and his Girdle to the same David which no doubt he us'd and wore with much delight they being great testimonies of Jonathan's singular love to him and signs and symbols of the Covenant made with him as also the Lords-Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof are great tokens of his special love to us and a sign of his holy Covenant made with us Ezek. 20. 12. O why should not the Lords-day be our delight Is there not full joy in fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ in the Preaching and with the Preachers of the Gospel Is not Christ who is observed to appear on that day again and again to his Disciples after his Resurrection and is still in the Assemblies of the Saints and in the Ministry of his Servants I say Is not He the desire and the delight of all Nations And who is it that is the Comforter and solace of Saints but that holy Spirit with whom the Servants of God have much to do on that day in heavenly Meditations So that if the whole Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost can minister any delight unto us then may we call the Sabbath a delight for therein God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier doth eminently appear and operate This is a day very useful and subservient to all the necessities of our souls If we be ignorant in any thing or in many things on this day we are all taught of God It 's a Soul-enlightning day If we be as we are Strangers in the Earth on this day we are most taught the way to our Countrey It 's a Soul-guiding day Psal 73. 17 24. If we hunger and thirst after Righteousness the spiritual Manna falls from Heaven and water comes out of that Rock which is Christ principally upon this day It 's a Soul-satisfying day If we languish under spiritual diseases or lie low under outward calamities on this day the Lord offereth Medicines in the Ministry for all our Maladies It 's a Soul-restoring-day Christ heals still on Sabbath days And that I may once conclude could we be in the Spirit upon the Lords-day as we ought to be or as we might be for I do not mean extraordinarily as John was but having our hearts taken up with and heightned in the pure spiritual observation of it we might have then a fair sight yea a sweet sense of that unspeakably glorious Sabbath which right and real Saints shall shortly celebrate all together in the heavenly Canaan where there remaineth a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God Heb 4. 9. The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Family-Duties AFter the four Christian-duties spoken of in the fore-going part I shall now proceed to four other Family-duties the first whereof because Religion is rooted in knowledge may well be Family-Catechising I say Family-Catechising for I shall not here speak of Catechising in its general extent but only apply my self to it as it is a duty belonging to Christians in their several Families which godly Exercise I shall endeavour to assist and perswade unto by Texts of Scripture first and some Arguments and Motives after Texts of Scripture to prove Catechising in Families a duty It is not my purpose here to mention every Text of Scripture that gives strength to this necessary duty but shall content my self with the naming and with the opening of two Texts in the Old-Testament and one in the New The first in the Old Testament is Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For the opening of this Scripture and the awakening of Conscience to a due consideration of it there comes to be considered in the first place Who it is that speaks in it even the Eternal God by his Servant Moses that was faithful in all his house Remember that it is He that saith Keep these words that I command thee this day But How must Parents keep them For to Parents and every Parent God here speaks and in answer to that question saith These words shall be in thine heart yet are they not only to be in the hearts of those that have Families but in their houses therefore it is added Thou shalt teach them thy children Nor was this a Ceremonial Precept or a Commandement given peculiarly to the Jews for their assistance in the remembrance of the Law of God as their Phylacteries fringes and fastning the Law to their door-posts but it was and is a moral and perpetual Precept binding us in Gospel-times as well as them and therefore the very same things that we read in this Text we find also in the New-Testament That is 1. That the Word of Christ must dwell in us which is all one with this here Let it be in thine heart And 2. That it must be in our houses also for Parents are required to bring up their children in the nurture and information of the Lord In obedience therefore to this standing Command they to whom God hath given children should say as the Psalmist doth Come ye children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord And when the children be come together the Spirit of God in the Text we have in hand teacheth in what manner they are to be taught saying Thou shalt teach them diligently and in the margent of our Bibles it is Thou shalt whet or sharpen which is well and plainly expressed in the Text by teaching diligently but yet the word in the Original doth
as in this and things of the like nature Carnal-reason stands upon its guard and will yield to no more then needs it must and men devoted to the World and the Flesh are very witty to keep out of their Houses this kind of Devotion in as much as it seems to be a disadvantage and impediment to their better beloved wayes I shall therefore lay before the Religious Reader such Considerations as I conceive most material for the urging and establishing of this holy Exercise Wherein all I have to say may be summed up into Grounds of Scripture and Reason agreeing with Scripture Scripture-grounds I shall put into the four following Positions The first Position General Rules and Doctrines of Scripture are binding in all those particulars that are rightly drawn and deduced from them In this way our Saviour proves the Resurrection of the body to wit from this general ground of Scripture that God is the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob and he is not the God of the dead but of the living Hence it followeth that Abraham Issac and Jacob must of necessity live and that everlastingly God being their God for evermore because the Covenant is an everlasting Covenant yet their bodies are now dead therefore to make good the promise of their eternal enjoyment of God in their living persons consisting of body and soul their bodies shall certainly and unquestionably be raised In the same manner also Paul resolveth the Corinthians in the matter of Mariage putting a difference between what God spake from himself by express Command and what he spake by him as a faithful Minister according to the mind of Christ in a case where there was no precise and special Precept Concerning the first he saith Not I command but the Lord that is it is the plain will of Christ as appears by his words Mat. 5. 31 32. 19. 6 9. that they that are marryed should not part unless for that Adultery which God declares dissolves the marriage-bond one from another But now coming to another question to wit Whether the unmarried should marry and whether they that had virgins were bound to bestow them in marriage he expresseth himself thus I say v. 8. not the Lord and not I as v. 10. and more plainly v. 25. I have NO commandement of the Lord that is there is no particular and certain Precept in the Word of God to bind any particular man simply to Marry or not to Marry a single life being no where either commanded or forbidden yet saith he I give my judgement that is in a thing which in it self is indifferent I give my advice and counsel but withal signifyeth that what he saith is not to be looked upon as the judgement of an ordinary man that may be taken or left as men list but as the determination of a Minister and Apostle of Christ who obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful that is faithful to teach and declare as the Doctor of the Church the mind of God and that by the Spirit of God v. 40. to those that sought to him for his advice And therefore whilest he advised them unto that which in regard of the circumstances was most expedient they were bound to reverence and observe it from which counsel notwithstanding out of that case and if not clothed with such circumstances as he mentioneth they might recede without sin which cannot be said of an express Commandement of God But that which I would more especially observe is that Paul being sought by the Corinthians to inform them about Mariage doth not resolve them absolutely and enjoyn them either to Marry or not to Marry because he had no special word of God for it but he gives his judgement for taking the one course or the other according as he stated it And to come to my purpose he stated it according to those general grounds of Scripture by which as he was guided to give them a sound Answer so they were bound to a ready and reverend receiving of it For what doth he say or what grounds doth he lay but that Christians are not to enter into the Marryed estate 1. Wantonly fancying an high felicity in it and so longing vainly after it Nay saith the Apostle you must make account to have trouble in the flesh you must not think there 's all comfort in that estate and nothing else 2. Inconsiderately Never weighing though perhaps they be put in mind of them and acknowledge them yet I say never pondering nor weighing wisely the cares and crosses attending that estate especially in a time of persecution which the Apostle looked much at in what he speaketh and would have them before whom it now was to look at it also for in such a time the Church is so tossed to and fro that the very present necessity cries loud for their withdrawing from any thing that will add to their burthen as Marriage will if they may be without it without sin 3. Irreligiously that is without a serious and godly thinking of this own main thing that it is our duty to design and dispose our selves into that estate wherein we may attend upon the Lord without or with least distraction Now All these things are so sutable to the sense of Scripture and to Reason also enlightened by Divine Revelation that if men will not be thus ruled it shews they are not willing God should rule them It 's true indeed that Ministers now are not infallible nor to be compared with Paul as an Apostle but yet this may be inferred from Paul's way of answering the Corinthian Questions That any thing is binding truly that is deduced from the generals of Scripture rightly else could no use be made at all now of general Scripture-truths as to the deciding of particular cases because no man now is infallible and so men must be left to do what they list in those things that are not particularly and punctually defined and determined by the Word of God And How many such things are there wherein if we set aside the general sayings and declarations of the Word it will be hard for Ministers to know what to say To mention some familiar Instances We cannot tell Christian Women particularly what clothes they should wear or how they should dress themselves but we can tell them from God that they must adorn themselves in medest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety which shuts out as absolutely unlawful platted hair or gold or pearls or costly aray I say as absolutely unlawful so far and so used as they crosse that general rule of Modesty Shamefastness and Sobriety and arise from Pride Lightness Luxury and Intemperance Again we cannot say just how much men should eat and drink at a Meal or a Meeting but we may and must tell them and our selves that Whether we eat or drink it must be to the glory of God which strikes strongly at
case is alike For why are they written and recorded in Scripture but for our learning Rom. 15. 4. And why are they approved and commended in Scripture but for our imitation Sure it is a duty to follow the servants of God in any thing that is a part of their heavenly coversation such as Family-Piety is Act. 10. 2. Now we find in Scripture divers examples of Governours of Families joyning with their Houshold in the duty of Prayer And on that only I shall now insist to wit mens Praying with their Families the time when they should do it I shall speak to afterwards 1. Then we find that Abraham journying with all his Family did build an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him and called on the Name of the Lord The like we find in Jacob with his Houshold Gen. 35. 2 3 7. 2. We have the example of Job who sent and sanctified his Sons which some understand thus He prepaired them not only Ceremonially but Spiritually and namely by Prayers and then it sheweth that they joyned together in Praying Others understand it thus that he sent a Messenger to them and required them to sanctifie themselves that they might be present in an holy and pure manner at those Sacrifices which he as the Father and Priest of the Family intended to offer for them And if we take it so then it holds forth thus much that Job and his sons joyned together in Sacrificing with which Sacrificing Prayer was adjoyned as we see 1 Sam. 7. 9. 1 King 18. 24. Also we read of David's excuting himself by an yearly Sacrifice for all his Family of which howsoever David made a plea for the appeasing of Saul yet it shews that in those days Family-conjunction in Sacrificing and Praying was not unusual And when it is said Thus did Job continually or all the days to wit wherein his sons feasted every one his day Beza thereupon gives us this Note There 's no doubt saith he but that the dayly worship of God was also diligently observed in this most holy Family and that every seventh day at least was as God from the beginning of the world had ordained Gen. 2. 3. exactly sanctified 3. The example of Joshua is remarkable who thus declares his resolution As for me and my House we will serve the Lord which he speaks not of as his duty only but as proposing himself an example of that which was the peoples duty generally in their several houses and dwellings from whence ariseth this Argument Every Family in Israel was and by the same reason every Christian Family is bound to do with their Housholds what he did with his that is to serve the Lord or the only true God If any ask What is this to the duty of Prayer I answer He that saith I will serve God saith also I will pray to Him as to take an homely similitude he that saith I will be your Hinde saith I will plough your ground for the one comprehends the other as the main thing in it And so it is here Prayer is so special and comprehensive a service that it is put in Scripture for the whole Worship of God therefore they that resolve to come in to be the Servants of God express themselves thus Let us go to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts And when Atheistical men say What is the Almighty that we should serve him their next word wherein they explain themselves is And what profit shall we have if we pray unto him And indeed there is no other service wherein the whole Family is so reverently seriously and solemnly conjoyned and so directly make their address to God whose Servants they profess themselves to be as in the. duty of Prayer for that 's a looking of God in the face 4. It is expresly said of David that after he had been about the solemn Service of God that is the carrying of the Ark in publick he returned to bless his Houshold And what is that but in the name of the Lord to desire the blessing of the Lord upon them As when Isaac prayed earnestly for Jacob departing from him Esau resolves it into this that he had blessed Jacob. 5. We have the example of Esther who saith I also not resting there but I and my Maidens will Fast likewise which Fasting is still joyned with Prayer 1 Sam. 12. 16. Mark 9. 29. 6. Of the Nation of the Jews in Gospel-times of whom it is said that the Land shall mourn every Family apart that is there shall not only be mourning in a publick way but there shall be also with respect to the Crucifying of Christ private and Houshold-humiliation Families laying to heart their horrible sin which implyes Confession and Prayer and the bringing home of the National provocation to their own doors yea this is spoken of as that which shall be the practice of the most eminent persons The Family of the House of Nathan of Levi and of Shimei shall mourn apart And so all other Families generally It hath regard to the Jews mourning as then was in use amongst them as the Dutch Annotations observe 7. We read in divers Scriptures of the Church in such and such an House This is understood two ways 1. That such Houses are called Churches because therein the Church in those times used to meet for the Worship of God A learned man excepts against this and saith It is not like that Paul in that place of the Romans meaneth the Saints which met there for the publike Service of God by reason of the particular Salutation of divers of them following But if we take that meaning it will not hinder but help in what we have now in hand it being very unlike that they who entertained others into their houses to pray for Prayer was a main thing in their publike Meetings Act. 16. 13. would suffer their Houses to be without Prayer when they were absent 2. Many others understand it thus to wit that by Church in the House is meant the Inhabitants of the Family called a Church 1. Because of the largeness and numerousness of the Family making up a little Church 2. And because of the duties of Reading Catechising Prayer singing of Psalms and godly Discipline whereby the private Family resembleth the Church in their publike Church-worship If thus we understand the words then here is a plain example of performing the duty of Family-Prayer in the first Christians Families their houses being like Gods House Houses of Prayer Isa 56. 7. Perhaps that of Erasmus in his Annotations on Rom. 16. 2. might rightly compose the former difference for be tells us that the Christian Family and any other that came to them and joyned themselves with them as we find in the House of Mary many gathered together
for our learning and profit in every kind yea our duty is to labour to be so far like the holy Servants of God whose gracious speeches are recorded in Scripture as to be able to say truly in our measure and in regard of the saving substance of Religion the same things that they spake which they that cannot yet do or can less do by observing such sayings in their singing of Psalms have an help to do and by often repeating of them in their minds and mouths may come at length through the blessing of God truly and sincerely to profess in their own persons the like Piety Object There are in divers Psalms heavy Imprecations and Curses pronounced against sundry persons Must we How can we sing such things and curse Enemies Answ 1. Although it should be acknowledged as in part it is to be granted that such Imprecations or Praying fearfully against evil men be not for our imitation yet they are for our instruction For 1. They shew us the woful estate of the Enemies of God and of his People which such Prayers proceeding from the Spirit of God are a prophesie of 2. They serve to nourish patience and preserve comfort and constancy in the hearts of Gods people by observing that such men as have been found desperate Enemies to God and to them are mentioned in the Book of God as a cursed generation 2. Some imitation there may be in these times of the Imprecations that we find in Scripture in former times though with much caution charity and jealousie over our own spirits and that with respect not only to the Churches safety but Gods glory And the rather because of Scripture-Promises and Declarations which are the grounds of our Prayers Deut. 32. 35. Psal 139. 19. Yet we should still remember that we are not to pray personally that is to fix such fearful Prayers on such and such particular men albeit they in Scripture that had an extraordinary spirit of discerning did so as the Church also did against Julian seeing so much in him of the sin against the Holy Ghost I say we are not to single out particular persons and pray against them And especially we are not to turn Religion into Revenge and to direct our Prayers against our private Enemies though they have done us never so much wrong Nor must we be hasty in judging and then hard hearted in praying But yet all this hinders not but that in a generality we may pray that God would exercise his justice as He seeth good in cutting off the implacable and irreconcileable Enemies of himself and of his Church Albeit the thing in question here is Whether we may not in Reading or Singing take into our mouths the Imprecations recorded in Scripture making thereof that holy use which God would have us to make of that part of his Word which none that understand will doubt of In all such cases the duty of Reading and Singing is not to be left but they that perform it are to be instructed and if they are out of the way be rectified Having endeavoured to remove these rubs I shall now proceed to enquire what may be gathered from Scripture and what Arguments agreeable to Scripture may be produced to establish this heavenly Exercise First The Scripture will inform us that singing of Psalms is a necessary and profitable duty 1. A necessary duty because God requires it Ephes 5. 17 18 19. It is the will of God that on the one side Christians should not be drunk with Wine and on the other side be filled with the Spirit speaking to themselves in Psalms c. It is the Spirit of God that saith to the afilicted Pray and to the merry Sing Psalms Jam. 5. 13. 2. And a profitable duty because the Spirit of God declares unto us the benefit of it prescribing that the Word of God should dwell in us richly and then adding further teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms c. Now it 's true that teaching and admonishing may be referred either to the Word of God going before or to Psalms and Hymns following after but it comes all to one if the Psalms Hymns and Songs spoken of there be such as are recorded in Scripture for then they are a part of the Word of God and so the intent of the Apostle may be to shew that of every part of the Word of God and in particular of the Psalms and Songs thereof the rejoycing part use is to be made for our Edification thereby something may be added to our light in a teaching way and to our life and vigor in Piety in an admonishing way Secondly The Scripture gives excellent Rules also for Singing that it may be a profitable duty As that it be 1. With understanding Psal 47. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 14 15. 2. With the heart and affection not without the voyce but the meaning is that we should not please and content our selves with the outward sound without an inward sense 3. With grace in the heart Col. 3. 16. that is as I conceive with a godly and gracious frame of heart inwardly according as the matter of the Psalm is shewing it self in a graceful and dexterous demeanour in that duty outwardly as in a comely and reverent gesture a decent tune and tone so as that it may tend most to the Edification of the Company and the Reputation of the Duty and of such as perform it so the word grace seems to be taken Act. 4. 33. Col. 4. 6. 4. Vnto the Lord Ephes 5. 19. that is to the glory of God Psal 101. 1. Isa 5. 1. Thirdly The Scripture sets it forth as a Congregational duty or a duty to be performed in the Publike Meetings of Christians because we find the People of God still called to it by the commands of the Old-Testament pointing to the New Psal 100. 1 2 3. 4. 66. 1 2 3. 149. 1. Sing his praise in the Congregation of Saints And also we find it used in the New-Testament and in the Apostle Paul's time in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 14. 15 26. which appears also to be practised by Christians when they met together in after-times the end of their meeting being however many grievous accusations were rais'd against them to sing to Christ and to God and by a confederation among themselves to establish all good Discipline and suppress those wickednesses which were most falsely laid to their charge Tertul. Apol. cap 2. Now As to the performance of this duty in Families It is not my meaning nor ought to be to impose any thing further then the grounds of Scripture will conclude it And it 's possible there may be some Families at present or at some times not in a capacity for it yet that none may slight such a service and shut their doors against it I shall offer out of Scripture not only to invite but to induce
Christians to set and keep it up in their Families these considerations 1. The duty it self as hath been shewed before is evidently commanded as a duty much tending to Christian Edification 2. The command of Singing is no where limited to Publike Meetings but rather given forth in such a generality as to comprehend in the command the use of it in Christian Meetings of all kinds whether Church meetings or Family-meetings yea it is extended to every particular person Jam. 5. 13. Is any c. Besides that the profit and benefit of this holy Exercise argueth for the use of it every where where that profit may be had by it Zanchius therefore is resolute and saith he makes no doubt but that what the Apostle speaks both in the fifth to the Ephesians and in the third chapter to the Colossians of this duty is to be understood as well of those things that were to be sung in the Publike Meeting of the faithful as within their private Wals and their private Families where it is to be observed that this learned man speaks this as arguing for Singing in the Publick Congregation taking it for granted that the forecited places make for the use of it in private Families And how much good might be done in Families if the Word of Christ did so dwell in us as to be made use of in a way of conscientious domestical teaching For which the Psalms of David would supply much assistance But Christians have learned of late to preach in Publick without a calling with neglect of teaching their Families where their calling and charge lieth and divers shake off Singing both in publick and private 3. We find our Saviour Singing with his Family after the eating of the Passover which is the more to be observed because the Passoever was eaten in private houses the Family and Fraternity joyning together in the whole Celebration of it in the conclusion whereof they did use to sing from the 113. Psalm to Psalm 119. which they called their great Hallelujah This may mind us of doing the like in our private houses especially when God shall minister unto us more special occasion of glorifying his Name And godly Housholders have accordingly accustomed themselves to the use of this holy Exercise in their Families Why should nor others go and do so likewise it being so suitable to and such a declaration of the spirit of holy and lively Christians 4. Private Families enjoy many mercies God makes them laugh and be merry as he did Sarah Gen. 21. 6. and the Rule is Let such as are merry sing Psalms Jam. 5. 13. Agreeable hereunto is that of the Psalmist Psal 118. 15. The voyce of Rejoycing and Salvation is in the Tabernacles of the Righteous That Psalm speaks of the joy and salvation brought to Zion and the people of God by David's government which made them greatly to rejoyce and that not only in Publick and in Gods Tabernacle but in their own Tabernacles and private Habitations And what a mercy is it when God so orders things in Publick that we need not wander about weeping but may sit in our own houses singing This should make us to make the Lord our Song Psal 118. 14. 5. The Apostle writing to the Ephesians of this Exercise doth not speak of publick Meetings or of Singing in the publick Assembly at least appropriating his speech to that though it may be extended and applyed to that for he saith first Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess as alluding therein to immoderate Feasting in those times especially among unbelievers 1 Pet. 4. 3. which used to be in their houses not but that there was feasting also in their Idols Temples 1 Cor. 8. 10 and for some time in Christian Church-meetings 1 Cor. 11. 20 21 22. but ordinarily they feasted in private 1 Cor. 10. 27. and were then likest to exceed Now if the Apostle reason from excesses in private banquettings and the vain mirth there for a contrary carriage in Christians and a making of themselves merry with godly Hymns Psalms then it will follow that it is the purpose of the Apostle here to speak to Families and to such Christians as had Families requiring them to refresh themselves in their Meetings and Feastings there with spiritual and heavenly mirth which hath been especially heretofore when the times and hearts of Christians were better setled a very usual thing amongst godly and knowing Christians when they entertained their friends Thus doth this Scripture bring singing of Psalms into Families according to the occasions of rejoycing which God offereth them which though at times they more abound yet are never wanting No more should Christians be in this duty Phil. 4. 4. 1 Thess 5. 16 18. Thus for grounds of Scripture serving to set forward the service of Singing of Psalms I come now to Scripture-reasons confirming this duty First It is an Exercise making much for the glory of God That usual Preface Let us Sing to the glory of God such or such a Psalm sheweth that to be the intent of Singing and of those who seriously apply themselves to it Besides The thing it self that is the action of Singing speaks so much because it is exercised about that matter which makes much for the glory of God that is about the Word of God which setteth forth to the praise of God 1. His Names and Attributes as his Power Truth Mercy Psal 59. 16. 62 11 12. 138. 2. 2. His Promises and Threats Psal 1. 3 4 5. 12 5. 68. 20 21. 3. His Works which they speak of speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty because all his works praise him and therefore they set forth his praise because what he hath spoken in his Word was of promise or threatning those works make good and thereby he magnifieth his Word above all his Name shewing how upright he is and that there is no unrighteousness in him Psal 92. 15. Secondly It makes much for the spiritual benefit of those who rightly and religiously perform it Hence also the ordinary Introduction to this duty hath been Let us Sing to the Praise of God and our own Edification Particularly It edifieth and assisteth three ways For 1. It is as hath been shewed before out of Scripture a teaching Exercise teaching and helping us to know rightly believe firmly live holily and pray wisely and effectually 1. To know because many of the Psalms are Doctrinal wherein divine Doctrine as Moses saith in his Song Deut. 32. 2. drops as the Rain Psal 49. 3 4. More particularly The Psalms will teach us 1. What God is which is fully shewed by the Descriptions of his Greatness from Psal 95. to Psal 100. As also by the relation of his works Psal 9. 16. 46. 10. 48. 14. 68. 20. 2. What Christ is of whom divers Psalmes
qualifications puts a difference between men pions and profane sincere and hypocrites and so is like the Rain-bow a pleasant sight and a better sign I say such is singing Psalms a sweet Exercise in it self and as it is an act of godliness and a better sign if well acted that is of a godly person and one filled with the Spirit of God and by the same reason it will mark out a spiritual and distinguish it from a carnal Family Not but that a Family wherein there is the fear of God may be by reason of some impediments at a time or for a time without it but that 's a carnal Family that doth not like to have it and that cannot dwell pleasantly with it Now that these reasons may be of more weight and this Exercise of more use I would advise Christians to two things 1. Before they sing to view and weigh and by one or other of the company mention and declare the matter of the Psalm they intend to sing for which Mr. Beza his argument on every Psalm together with his Paraphrase opening the meaning thereof both which are set forth in English would be a singular help And as for such as cannot procure it let them at least consider the contents of the Psalm which Contents though they may in some places need a reveiw yet for the generality are so advisedly composed throughout the Bible in our last Translation that they give a great light to the Chapter or Psalm which they are let before to all those that discreetly observe them 2. When they have sung a little to discourse together as their ability will serve and time give leave of what they have sung by which means they will better both know and shew the meaning of that passage of the Apostle Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns because matter both of teaching and admonishing will be supplyed by observing what the Psalm offers to their considerations for the one or the other So shall this be sound an edifying Exercise when as otherwise a bare singing passeth without profit and spiritual commodity because without pondering and Christian-conference And here I cannot before I leave but lament 1. The great neglect of this duty by many whereby it comes to pass that it is so little regarded for the omission of duty is the Enemy of the duty and the Observation of it preserves the Estimation 2. The negligent performance of it by many others that do not neglect it but seem to affect it rather O how rare a thing is it in those that sing Psalms not to delight yea not to terminate their delight in themselves if there be a greater sweetness in their voyce or if they excel in skill in that vocal Musick when all the melody should be to the Lord But to speak of that which is most usual How many content themselves with keeping tune and carrying on the Exercise with others in a formal way without understanding the matter of the Psalm when they should sing with understanding or with seeking to understand And yet there is another fault which the best I think are not free from or if they be they may be well reckoned amongst the best and that is the not minding in their singing that which they do understand or at least not keeping their hearts to it still but contenting themselves to mark what they sing now and then and to do that at times and by starts which they ought to do at all times whilest such holy services are performed and the thing they have in hand is the holy Scripture It is easily observed that the Devil makes great gaps in duties by distractions and in this more then in other Exercises by the advantage he hath from the nature of the service wherein they that are imployed do so attend the tune and mark the Singers so please themselves with the outward and natural part of it if it be well performed and have such various and turbulent thoughts if there be any thing not decent in it that they are easily drawn from the substance of what they sing their hearts are alienated from what their mouths utter and so there is a failing in that main rule which is to make melody to the Lord in their hearts when better it is to be out of tune with the voyce then out of frame in the heart It 's necessary that the Eye and the Ear should be so far watched and disciplined as that they may not draw away the mind from meditation on the matter of the Psalm This meditation and heart-holding to the thing in hand is of such use in praying and praising God that both of them are expressed by the word meditation Hence Isaac is said to go out to meditate in the field at Even-tide or to pray The same word is also used when David speaks of singing and praising God I will sing to the Lord I will sing praise to my God and then it followeth My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord Nor is this Meditation requisite only in those Prayers and Praises which we conceive and compose our selves that we may frame them the better but we are also to be thoughtful in and to attend unto those that are already framed to our hand especially out of Scripture for which we have this rule given us to set our hearts to all the words thereof whether we hear them or read them or sing them still that 's the rule and the rather to be observed in Singing because the words spoken of in the fore-cited Scripture are the words of Moses Song Bernard speaks excellently to this purpose When thou singest saith he in the sight of God Psalms and Hymns let thy mind be busied about handle or have a hand in that which thou singest with thy voyce do not sing one thing and think another Agreeable to which is the godly advice of another holy man Let them that sing saith he attend not to the sound and noise but to the spirit of the words let the words be the leaders of their minds and souls to God And Austin plainly confesseth his sin when it so fell out as that he was moved more with the singing then with the thing sung and professeth that when it is so he had rather not hear him that sings Aug. confess lib. 10. cap. 33. But I must hasten Were these things searched considered what is amiss reformed and this Exercise conformed to Scripture-rules What sweetness would there be in it How much would Knowledge Holiness and Comfort be improved by it In a word What strong arguments might Christians make for Singing by making conscience how they sing I confess exactness in this duty is an hard work to the best but would be an happy work to all and is in some measure attainable by all To conclude the whole Let me beseech all serious Christians
to look upon Singing of Psalms as the Soul-support of David the sweet Psalmist of Israel in all his afflictions As the Cordial of wounded Consciences As the holy Fire to enkindle heavenly Affections As the Perfume of Prisons the Musick of Martyrs yea the work and pleasure of Saints and Angels in the Paradise of God And then how will they how can they neglect it After all I shall put down those short Prayers which I mentioned before when I spake of the duty of Family-Prayer but have thought it fittest to place them here that the Treatise might not be interrupted and that such as need them might more easily find them I say such as need them for they are framed only for the help of weak and well-minded Christians that would pray in their Families if they knew how And these Forms are put down not to tie them as if they should use no other or needed no more but to teach them that by this assistance they may set upon this duty and do something in it and by doing a little at first may be able to do more after and most and best at last A Family-Prayer for the Morning FAther of Mercies and God of all Comfort All thy works praise thee and thy Saints bless thee of that number we that are here before thee desire to be and therefore come into thy presence to acknowledge that all the good we have cometh from thee and therefore that all our praises are due unto thee Help us we beseech thee in an acceptable manner to pay this debt and to perform this duty of Thanksgiving wherein in the first place we wonder at the riches of thy free grace whereby thou hast been pleased from all Eternity to elect and choose a company of the sons and daughters of men for thine own portion fore-ordaining and appointing them to Grace here and to everlasting Glory in Heaven And we bless thee exceedingly for any testimony we have that we are in the number not only of the called which are many but of the chosen which are few We praise thee also for creating us after thine own Image and giving us life and breath for How could we have had an everlasting well-being hereafter if we had not had a being here But amongst and above all we give thee all possible thanks for that great and admirable work of Redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ for the Salvation of Mankind utterly lost and undone in and by the sin of our first Parents whereupon it is come to pass that whereas at first we were made righteous now there is none righteous no not one but our Understandings are full of darkness our Consciences of deadness and defilement our Wills of perversness our Affections of distemper our Conversation of disorder yea every way we carry about with us naturally abundant matter of condemnation nor can Men or Angels help us but blessed be thy Name O God that thou hast been so pitiful and of so tender mercy as to lay help upon One that is mighty and that is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him O How many be there that neither have nor hear of this mercy Great is thy goodness therefore which we do with all our hearts acknowledge that we live in thy Church and therein enjoy those lively Oracles and Ordinances wherein as all other truths necessary to Salvation are made known unto us so more especially the Doctrine and benefit of the great work of Redemption is fully revealed and freely offered and that with all powerful motives to perswade our hearts to accept of that gracious offer for our own good yet considering how many there are in the Church unto whom the Lord Jesus may say I would and ye would not we cannot but reckon it a singular favour that any grace is bestowed on any of us by the means of grace vouchsafed unto us and for any gratious change which thou hast wrought in us for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure But besides all these our hearts are glad our glory rejoyceth and our tongues that should be our glory by setting forth thy glory do with all our hearts praise thee for the unconceiveable glory and happiness reserved in Heaven for all those who through the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are begotten again unto a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which assureth us that all is done and suffered which was necessary to keep us from being undone and to recover us unto a state of perfect blessedness Mean-while we confess unto thy praise O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel how good thou art unto us even in this present evil world in that we have the benefit of our Understandings Senses and Members which divers want and of Health Liberty credit maintenance success in business recovery from sickness vouchsafed to us above many other of thy dear Servants We bless thee for preserving us in so many dangers for removing so many of our fears for granting so many of our desires and for not granting what we have desired amiss We praise thee for watching over us by thy good Providence from time to time in particular for the late mercy of the night past and the new mercy of the present morning for we are less then all thy mercies then a nights rest or a mornings refreshing yea our sin and unworthy walking before thee is such which here we freely confess unto thee as that it were just with thee that all thy favours should be turned into frowns and that thou shouldest do us hurt and consume us after thou hast done us good But with thee there is mercy that thou mayest be feared Let us have occasion to fear thee reverence thee and admire thee and to say Who is a God like unto thee how incomparably good is our God by pardoning the transgressions and continuing the comforts of such sinful and worthless creatures as we are Let it ever repent us O Lord of our ill dealing with thee but let it never repent thee of thy gratious dealing with us This day in special let thy goodness towards us appear in keeping us from any evil thing to which we shall be more inclined or more tempted and in making us ready to and able for every good word and work to which of our selves we shall be more unable indisposed and unprepared or wherein by tentation we shall be more hindred Guide us O Lord in the right way and therein Guard us let us undertake no business but what thou approvest and in that do thou bless and prosper us especially we humbly crave thy protection all the day in those works and wayes wherein there are more dangers and hazards Preserve us we beseech thee from
thee our Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Give us we beseech thee that Knowledge which is the Light of the Soul that Faith which is the Life of the Soul that Love which is the Heat and holy Fire of the Soul that Holiness and Meekness which is the Beauty and Ornament of the Soul and that Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul And thus prepare us for that glorious place whither our Fore-runner is for us entred and who hath given us assurance that where He is there shall also his servant be Nor do we pray for our selves only but as in duty we are bound for thy whole Church Thy Church is thy Treasure Lord where thy peculiar treasure is there let thine heart and peculiar favour be also Cast thine Eye of compassion on those therein that are under any special affliction Yea Look O thou All-seeing and All-pitying God into all corners of the World and shew thy self the God that comforteth those that are cast down In special manner Let the Eyes of the Lord our God be alwayes on this Land and the adjoyning Kingdoms from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year Make our gracious King a glorious Defender of the Faith Worship Wayes and Servants of Jesus Christ Let the Spirit of wisdom and the fear of the Lord rest on those Eminent Persons of his Majesties Privy Council ennoble with grace the whole Nobility Give a Spirit of Government and of Godliness to all in Authority that under his Majesty and his Magistracy we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Let thy Ministers O Lord be clothed with righteousness and so let thy Saints shout for joy As for our selves and others that live under the light Give us grace we beseech thee to live as lights in the world holding forth the Word of Life in our life that so thy faithful Labourers may rejoyce in the day of Christ that they have not run in vain nor laboured in vain Bless we pray thee all our Friends and all we ought to pray for whether Friends or Enemies especially bless those belonging to us with spiritual blessings in heavenly things yea minister to them and us and all thine all those good things of any kind which we have or should have asked either for our selves or them And now O Lord with humble thanks for the mercies of this day we commend our selves and all we have into thy gracious hands intreating thee to preserve us from the sins and sorrows of the night and to grant us that safe and quiet rest whereby our bodies may be restored and our spirits revived for the service of the day following And that for Christs sake thine only Son and our alone Mediator and Advocate In whose Name therefore and in the confidence of whose Intercession we come unto thee and to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God we render as is most due all Honour Obedience and Thanksgiving now and evermore Amen I shall only add two short Prayers for Children whereby they may be trained up to this necessary duty that so they may get much acquaintance with God by beginning betimes if they live longer and may not be without all acquaintance with God and Godliness if they die sooner A Prayer for Children for the Morning MOst high and holy God who hast set thy glory above the Heavens and yet out of the mouths of little Children yea of Sucklings hast ordained strong and powerful praise I bless and magnifie thy Name which is so excellent for that out of thine unspeakable love thou hast given to thy children and to their children Jesus Christ and together with him all things that I am born in thy Church that thou hast so provided for my bringing up that I may know of a child the holy Scriptures which are able to make me wise unto Salvation that by thee I have been holden up from the womb who have been no way able to look to my self And in particular for that thou hast kept me in safety this last night and raised me up comfortably this morning O Lord I confess I am a transgressor from the womb for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one And though I have lived but a while in the world yet I have sinned much so that it were just with thee suddenly to seize upon me and to take me out of this world before I am prepared for a better But Lord look upon me not as I am in my self but in Jesus Christ and in and through him pardon me who am so sinful Teach me who am so ignorant Sanctifie me who am so corrupt Make me to remember thee my Creator in the dayes of my youth Help me to hide thy Word in mine heart that I may not sin against thee but may thereby even while I am young clense and amend my wayes Order my steps in thy Word that no iniquity may have dominion over me And that I may not be wanting in any duty that thou requirest of me Grant me thy grace O God that I may be subject and obedient to my Parents and Governours tractable to my Teachers diligent in my business humble and gentle in my behaviour fearful to learn of any that which is evil and careful to learn of all that which is good Be pleased O Lord to strengthen and perfect my natural parts but especially vouchsafe that as I grow in years so I may grow in grace Protect and bless me I beseech thee this day throughout that in the evening I may praise thee for thy great goodness in Christ Jesus To whom with thee O Father and God the Holy Ghost be rendred all Glory Dominion and Service now and evermore Amen A Prayer for Children for the Evening O Most wise and gracious God I acknowledge my self a simple and sinful Creature I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me That foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child is fast bound in mine and that corruption which abides in all abounds in me which sadly shews it self in my backwardness and unwillingness in better things and my self-will and earnestness to walk in the wayes of mine heart and in the sight of mine eyes though for all such things thou wilt bring me to judgement Notwithstanding all this Be pleas'd O blessed Father to look upon me in thy Christ as thy child Unto me and into me let every good and saving gift come down from the Father of lights Give me so much understanding as to know my sin and judge my self for it so much repentance as to feel my sin and abhor my self for it and so much faith as to flie to Christ for pardon and power against