improved his Stewardship in this particular Lastly In a Family there are commonly some who under the general relation of Friends or Acquaintance are either resident in it or at least hospitably entertained by it now as this lays an obligation upon the persons treated so it gives some authority to him who treats them and consequently as such a Master of a Family is in some measure answerable towards men for the scandals and misdemeanours of his Guests so is he much more responsible to God for any profaneness they shall be guilty of towards his Divine Majesty For as I said before every man being King in his own Family may give Laws to it and oblige those who are under his protection to pay him Allegiance and to serve and worship God with him especially he ought to do this because the fourth Commandment requires at our hands that we use this authority not only over our Sons and Daughters our Man-Servants and Maid-Servants but over all those that are within our Gates But so much in the general let us now consider in the second place the particular duties of Religion in a Family of which in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. Of Family Duties in special IN the first place I look upon it as the duty of every Family that besides Closet-Devotions of which I have spoken before and besides publick Worship of which I shall speak anon once a day at the least they join together in Prayers to God I say once a day at the least in favour of mens occasions and the peculiar circumstances of some Families were it not for which it would be very fit that there should be Prayers Morning and Evening as is the general practice of most pious Families but certainly it is wonderfully decent that all the members of every Family should once in the day meet together and with one heart and one mouth glorify God and pay their homage to the great Master of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth and it is very strange if any excuse should be pleaded or admitted in this case For as I said before every several Family is a peculiar Body or Society which hath its distinct circumstances effects and consideration it hath its respective needs to be supplied and therefore hath occasion to make proper and peculiar requests to God as that he will be pleased to continue it in health to settle concord and unity amongst the several members of it that the whole may enjoy prosperity and safety from Thieves from Fire and other dangers And every such Society hath also proper and peculiar mercies to give thanks to God for as namely for success in affairs for quiet habitation that they are not molested with ill Neighbours nor vexed with Law-Suits for hopeful Children faithful Servants c. for in several of these respects a man may be well and comfortable in his own person and yet be unhappy in the Society and contrarywise the Society or Family may be happy in the general and yet a particular person may be in ill circumstances and therefore there is just reason of addresses and acknowledgments to God in relation to the Family and by the whole Family in Conjunction as well as by every single person apart and in his Closet And though perhaps there may be some Family wherein there is no person who can aptly and properly represent the peculiar concerns of it to the Almighty and it may be also there is no form of Prayer at hand that will express all the respective circumstances of such a Society yet they may lift up their hearts and voices together in a general form and supply with their thoughts and affections whatsoever is wanting in the expressions And as there is just ground and reason for such family worship so there is good cause to expect it will be singularly successful when the whole community joins together and present themselves and their tribute of praise before the Lord no question but the very manner of doing it as well as the matter will be highly acceptable to him and when with prostrate bodies devout hearts and hands and eyes lift up to Heaven they combine together to importune and as it were besiege the Almighty they cannot fail of a blessing or however it is a mighty satisfaction to the minds of all such persons and a great security to them that they have thus jointly and solemnly commended themselves to the divine protection Besides that this course is an effectual means to conciliate peace and love and kindness between all the members of this body and to knit their hearts to one another when they are thus accustomed to unite their hearts and join their hands in Gods service and conspire to pray with and for each other which is the greatest indearment of affection Perhaps some man will now say there is no express Scripture which requires of men this daily office of Family Prayer To which I answer first what if it were so yet nevertheless it is a duty seeing there is so apparent reason for it For God who considered that he gave Laws to reasonable men did not think himself bound to prescribe every thing in particular especially in natural worship where the reason of man might supply him with direction what was fit to be done in such a case Besides secondly as I discoursed in the former part of this Treatise it is a stingy and narrow-soul'd trick and an argument of no true love to God and goodness to stand upon so strict terms in our piety as to require an express command in particular for that which is admirably good in the general and hath also been the general practice of all good men as this hath been But after all I would in the last place crave leave to ask those men a plain question who insist upon more express proof of Family Prayers and it is no more but this Whether they think there is any such thing as publick worship required of men if they do then let them remember there was a time when there was no more publick Society than that of Families namely at the first planting of the World and then either publick worship must be this of Families or none at all and to inlighten them in this case let them consider that passage Gen. 4. 26. when Seth had Enos born to him it is said then began men to call upon the name of the Lord that is so soon as there began to be a Family in the pious line of Seth then presently they set up Gods worship in it Now this was not the beginning of secret worship for no doubt but Seth was careful of that before Enos was born nor was it properly publick or Ecclesiastick worship for in that minority of the World there neither was nor as yet could be any Church established in such a sense therefore it must follow that Family worship is as antient as the being of Families themselves Or let pious and
for as on the one side we ought to behave our selves stoutly and bravely when it pleases God to lay it upon us so on the other side ought we to be as cautious and timorous of drawing it upon our selves the first of which is seldom separate from the last for he that knows how to encounter a danger will not ordinarily thrust himself into it and usually those who are so stupid and fool-hardy as to run themselves into difficulties shew as little courage and conduct in conflicting with them as they did discretion in the adventure upon them and no wonder seeing in such a case they put themselves out of Gods protection trusting to themselves and then they cannot in reason expect other than to be deserted by his grace in such unwarrantalbe enterprizes Let the piously disposed man therefore not be so fond as to try experiments upon himself lest he buy his knowledge of his own weakness at the cost of too great an hazard Let him not go too near sin in confidence that he can divide by an hair and come off clever enough For instance let him not nibble at an Oath nor mince the matter of profaneness nor drink to the highest pitch of sobriety nor go to the utmost extremity of justice in his dealings for he knows not the deceitfulness of his own heart nor considers the slippery ground he stands upon that will thus venture to the very brink of his liberty Nor let him provoke Enemies to himself by intemperate zeal as if a good man should not meet with opposition enough without his own procuring nor the World had malice enough unless he inflamed and exasperated it especially let him not thrust himself into lewd Company in confidence of his own integrity and stability for he hath no sufficient apprehension of the power and malice of the Devil who by any of the aforesaid imprudences tempts him to tempt himself nay nor doth he seem to hate and abominate sin so absolutely as he ought to do that loves the Vicinage and Neighbourhood of it What the wise man therefore advises Prov. 5. 8. concerning the whorish woman is very applicable to this Case Remove thy way far from her and come not near the door of her house and so also he saith of flagitious men chap. 4. 14 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away for he that goes ordinarily to the brink of a Precipice is in great danger sometime or other to fall in and he that nibbles at the bait will one time or other be taken with the hook 6. Sixthly and lastly as a discreet man and concerned for Eternal Life ought not to be over-daring and confident in his approaches towards sin and danger so neither ought he on the other hand to be timorous and strait-laced in things eminently and unquestionably good whether it be in instances of devotion towards God or of self-denial and mortification of himself or in acts of Charity towards others for in all these there is such a scope and latitude as that a brave and noble spirit of Christianity may and will distinguish it self from a narrow and stingy temper in the discharge of them For Example such a man as we speak of neither will nor ought to confine his Devotions to such strict and precise measures as that he that falls short of them will be guilty of an omission of his duty but will contrarywise find in his heart to spend something more than ordinary of his time in Prayers and Meditation and such other acts of immediate worship He will not stick to apply somewhat more than the just tenth or tythe of his increase to the incouragement of Religion nor will he grudge to deny himself upon weighty occasions some of that pleasure which at other times he can allow himself without sin or if occasion be he will give alms not only out of the superfluity of his estate but to the utmost of his ability perhaps beyond his convenience for these things though generally considered they are not matters of express duty yet do they not cease to be good merely because they are not commanded so long as the species and kind of them is commanded and besides such extraordinary expressions of obedience to a general command are very fit to demonstrate our love to God our gratitude for his unspeakable bounty towards us and our value of the Kingdom of Heaven seeing that by such instances especially we shew that we love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength and that we think nothing too dear for the assuring our selves of Eternal Life And though it would not be expresly a sin to omit any one of the instances of the several kinds aforesaid yet it must be a palpable argument of a narrow heart towards God to yield no such instances at all and cannot but proceed from very culpable superstition to be afraid of so doing nay more for a man to be barren of such fruits and careless of such performances is a great point of folly and imprudence towards our selves in respect of the comfort which our hearts might receive by such generosity for although by no after act of ours how excellent soever it be possible for us to make any proper amends to the Divine Majesty for our former offences and omissions yet by such expressions as these we speak of we shew our selves sensible of those miscarriages and that we are under remorse for them and we give proof that we truly love God though we have offended him and desire to obtain his favour by the most costly oblations Upon all which accounts it seems very adviseable that he who sets his Face towards Heaven should indeavour to open and inlarge his heart this way and not suffer himself to be cramped and contracted by any odd opinions to the contrary Whereas therefore some men seem to fansie a frugal way of Religion and accordingly inquire for the minimum quod sic as we say or the lowest degree of saving grace as if Heaven and Hell were divided by an hair and they would be at the trouble of no more piety than would just carry them out of danger They are to be admonished that they seek after impossibilities and contradictions for it is in truth as if they should say they would have fire without heat Religion without Devotion Piety without Affection Holiness without Zeal or that they desire to fear God but have no inclination to love him To speak plainly the lowest degree of goodness is never sought after but in an ill temper of mind and by a cowardly and hypocritical heart nor can it be found with comfort for the essence of grace is no more discoverable without the fruits than a body without its accidents and therefore there are but two ways of obtaining true comfort in our Souls viz. either by our daily
the formal acting of a part with the observance of abundance of nice Rites Ceremonies and Punctilio's that it is not a thing which looks beautifully and promises fairly in publick but is forgotten or laid aside at home nor is it immured in a Closet and never sufferd to take the air in Conversation to say no more that it is not mere morality nor mere devotion but both these in Conjunction together with all that is brave and noble and wise and good all that can better the minds and tempers and lives of men and all that can improve the state of the World all this is within the Verge of Religion especially the Christian Religion For so the Apostle intimates Phil. 4. 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest or grave whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely or friendly whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think of these things i. e. Count them branches of Christianity for true Religion is nothing less nothing I mean of no narrower extent than a wise and worthy conduct and manage of a mans self in all those Relations we stand in namely towards God our Neighbour and our selves This I take to be the true notion and the just Province of Religion but I can neither think it possible to handle all the parts of so vast a subject in this short Treatise nor indeed do I apprehend the discoursing of them all to be equally necessary to those for whose use I principally intend these Papers Therefore omitting but not excluding all other branches of Religion I will here only speak of these three things First Of secret Devotion or those acts of Piety which are transacted only between Almighty God and a Mans own Soul Secondly Of private Piety or the exercises of Religion in every particular Family Thirdly Of the more publick acts of Religion and concerning a mans governing himself so as to consult the honour and service of God in the Parish wherein he lives I begin with the first viz. of secret or Closet Devotion That this is an essential branch of true Religion and a necessary and universal duty appears by the command of our Saviour Mat. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy father who is in secret c. in which words it is not our Saviours meaning to forbid or put a slight upon all but Closet Devotion for he himself frequently prayed publickly and taught his Disciples so to do nor though he speak of a Closet doth he intend to confine this duty to the strict formalities of a Closet but that it may be done in the Fields or in any recess or place of secrecy whatsoever as he himself practised nor lastly though he use the word Prayer only doth he make that strictly taken to be the whole office of secret Piety for it is usual in the Scripture and in common speech also to express all the acts of immediate worship by the name of Prayer whether they be Praises or Adorations or Confessions or Thanksgiving or Meditation or Self-Examination all therefore which our Saviour here intended was to represent the necessity of secret Devotion as well as publick and to press that upon his Disciples which the hypocrisy and ostentation of the Pharisees had laid aside because in truth they sought not Gods glory but their own And this is further recommended to us by the universal practice of all good men in all Ages and Countries of the World and of whatsoever opinion or perswasion otherwise There have perhaps been those who under some pretence or other have neglected Family worship and those also who have been abased by some scruples into an omission of publick worship but I verily think that none but flat Atheists or gross Hypocrites which are much the same thing could ever dispense with themselves in the common and habitual neglect of secret worship for a man cannot believe there is a God or much less have any worthy apprehensions of him but it naturally puts him upon some act or other of adoration towards him Acts of publick worship are to the Soul as exercise is to the Body it may live and subsist though not long and healthfully without it but secret Devotion is like the motion of the heart and lungs without which a man is presently choaked up and destroy'd if his heart do not move towards God and as it were by circulation return in praises all those benefits which it continually receives from him it is stifled by repletion and if by Prayer he do not breathe out his griefs and as it were ventilate his spirits he is strangled by his own melancholy for the publick performance of religious offices cannot make a supply in these Cases because every man hath his secret sins to confess to God which it is ordinarily unsafe to make other men privy to and his peculiar infirmities and temptations his griefs and burdens which it is in vain to lay open to men seeing only God can relieve them and every man hath received sundry personal mercies and savours from the hands of God in answer of his Prayers which require a personal acknowledgment to the Divine Goodness And the opening of a mans heart in any of these Cases is commonly attended with such affections and passionate expressions as would be indecent to the Eyes of men though they are very becoming towards God in respect of which last thing we find 1 Sam. 1. 13. Hannah was thought to be drunk by the holy and wise man Eli the Priest when yet as the truth appear'd afterwards he saw in her only the devout symptoms of a sorrowful Spirit Besides these acts of secret worship are very necessary in order to publick worship both as they dispose and fit a mans heart for it before he enters upon it by composing the thoughts and raising the affections and as they make application of it afterwards pressing home upon the Conscience the instructions there received and improving and confirming into a stable resolution those good affections and inclinations which were stirred up by it insomuch that that man will either have no mind to Gods publick service or no suitable temper in it or be little the better after it that hath not first fitted and prepared his heart for it by secret Devotion And herein lies the true reason as well of the lamentable unprofitableness as of the common irreverence of publick performances because men rush into Gods House without the due Preface of secret preparation and they turn their backs upon God when they depart from the Church never attending to or improving those good motions which the spirit of God had kindled in them Moreover these devout offices of Religion though they are by no means to supplant and supersede the publick as we have intimated already and shall demonstrate at large by and
by yet in some respects they are more acceptable to God than the other forasmuch as they are founded upon an acknowledgment of his Omniscience and demonstrate the great and intimate sense we have of the Divine Majesty and consequently of this they give the greatest assurance to our own hearts of our sincerity and so are the most comfortable for publick Devotion may possibly have a great alloy of secular interest and may owe it self in a great measure to the authority of Laws or to publick fame and reputation but he that worships God in secret where and when no Eye is privy but only that of God Almighty is secure to himself that he can have no mean or sinister end in so doing nothing can move him to this but the mere reverence of God and therefore our Saviour in the forementioned passage Mat. 6. 6. lays an Emphasis upon those words thy father which is in secret and adds this incouragement of such addresses to God thy father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly Upon all which considerations let the man who either values Gods glory or his own improvement Peace and Comfort or indeed who makes any pretence to Religion strictly make Conscience of and constantly practise secret Devotion The nature extent manner instances and circumstances whereof I am now further to explain in the following particulars 1. And I begin with that which is so universally acknowledged and so principal a part of Divine Worship that as I noted before it is ordinarily put for the whole I mean Prayer to God touching the secret exercise whereof let the good Christian take these following Directions First Let him not fail Night and Morning at least solemnly and devoutly to pray to God Divers holy men we read of who according to the greatness of their zeal or urgency of the occasion for it have prescribed to themselves stricter measures than this particularly David saith he would worship God seven times in a day and Daniels custom was to do it three times a day Dan. 6. 10. as seems also to have been that of the Primitive Christians but less than twice a day I cannot find to agree with the practice of any good men unless either sickness disabled them or some very extraordinary occasion diverted them and it is wondrously fit and decorous that we who owe our whole time to God should pay him the tribute of devoting those critical periods of it I mean Evening and Morning to him especially in consideration of the peculiar circumstances these two points of time are attended with namely in the Evening having finished the course of that day and reflecting upon our infirmities in it we cannot but observe by how many failings we have justly incurred Gods displeasure if he should severely animadvert upon us and therefore have great cause to deprecate his anger and to make our peace with him and we must needs also be sensible both how many dangers we have escaped by his Providence and how many instances of blessing we have received from his goodness and therefore have reason to praise and magnify his name nd especially being then also to betake our selves to sleep when above all times we are out of our own keeping and are exposed to a thousand dangers from thieves from malicious men from violent Elements of Wind Fire and Water from the enterprizes of evil spirits and frightful Dreams and our own foolish Imaginations in which and sundry other respects no man knows what a night may bring forth and in consideration of which he is a stupidly secure and fool-hardy person that doth not think it highly to be his interest by peculiar addresses to recommend himself and all his concerns to the watchful Eye of Providence which neither slumbers nor sleeps And in the Morning having not only by the guard of holy Angels been preserved from all those dangers which might have surprized us in the dark and when our senses were so lockt up that we could not help our selves but refreshed and recruited in all our powers by that admirable divine Opiate sleep nothing less can become us than to consecrate anew all these restored powers to our Creator and Preserver by hearty Adorations Besides this we are then sensible that we are now entring upon a new scene of business where we shall be exposed to innumerable accidents dangers difficulties and temptations none of which we are match for without divine assistance and have therefore need to implore his grace and good providence before we encounter them so that it is not timidity or superstitious fear but just wisdom not to dare either to go to Bed or to set our foot out of doors till we have recommended our selves to Almighty God by Prayer And by so doing as aforesaid we maintain the juge sacrificium and in Gods gracious interpretation are said to pray continually and to consecrate our whole time to him and besides we keep up a lively and constant sense of him upon our hearts Secondly Let him be sure that these duties be done fervently as well as constantly and frequently not formally and customarily without life and feeling of what a man is about or with wandring thoughts and distracted affections but with the greatest vigour and intention of mind that is possible for if a mans heart be flat and remiss in these special approaches to God he will be sure to be much worse and even loose and Atheistical upon other occasions for these secret duties are the special instruments and exercises of raising our hearts towards Heaven and as it were the nicking up of our Watch to that cue in which we would have it go In the more publick offices of Religion the credit and reputation of it is principally concerned and therefore they ought to be performed with all gravity and solemnity but the very life and soul of piety lies in these secret duties and therefore they ought to be discharged with the quickest sense and most inflamed affections insomuch that a man must not think he hath acquitted himself when he hath repeated such or so many Prayers until he find also his heart warmed and his temper of mind raised and improved by them to this purpose therefore let him in the entrance upon these retirements place himself under the Eye of God and be apprehensive of the immediate presence of the Divine Majesty that this may give check to all levity of spirit and wandering of thoughts and make him grave and reverential let him also all along be sensible of the great value and necessity of those things which he either begs of God or returns thanks for that this may render him ardent in his desires and affectionate in his praises and whilest he perseveres in these duties let him join with them reading and meditation not only to fix his mind but to prevent barrenness and to impreganate and inrich his Souls with divine notions and affections To this end Thirdly Let him take care
that he tempt not himself to flatness by an affected length of these holy duties for though it be a sign of an indevout temper to be too compendious and concise in them as if we grudged the time spent in Gods Service and although it be also irreverent towards God to be so short and abrupt as if we briefly dictated to him what we would have done yet it is to be guilty of the same fault to be impertinently tedious with him as if he could not understand us without many words or would be wrought upon by tedious importunity Besides all this it is to be considered that often when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak and that our bodies cannot always correspond with our minds now in such a case to affect the prolonging of our Devotions is to lose in the intention what we get in the extension of them for it will be sure either to make us go unwillingly to our duty or to perform it very superficially in either of which circumstances it is not likely we should be pleasing to God or be able to make any comfortable reflections afterwards upon such performance The measures of Devotion therefore are not expresly prescribed by God but are to be determined by a prudent respect to the peculiar constitution of the person the condition of his affairs and the extraordinariness of the occasion and to go about to exceed these bounds is an argument of intemperate zeal which is never acceptable to God and is so far injurious to a mans self that it manifestly hinders what it pretends to promote To these I add Fourthly Let not the devout man be very curious or sollicitious about the from or expressions of his secret duties I mean whether his Prayers be read out of a Book or be the present conceptions of his own mind so long as they are offered up from an understanding Soul and an humble and affectionate heart for these are all the things that God looks at and wherein his honour is directly concerned and therefore as he hath no value for eloquence of speech on the one hand so neither hath he for strength of memory or for pregnancy and variety of phancy on the other but only as I said that we worship him with our understanding and do not like Parrots utter words whereof we have no sense or notion that we bring an humble and contrite spirit as sensible of the infinite distance between him and us and an heart seriously affected with his presence and the nature and value of the things we are conversant about It is true that a composed form is most sutable to publick worship where as I noted before the dignity and credit of Religion is concern'd and that perhaps in private duties our present conceptions may most please and affect our selves but our acceptance with God especially in these secret duties depends neither upon the one nor the other but upon those inward dispositions of the Soul aforesaid Wherefore let no man cheat himself into an opinion that those heats of phancy or transports of affection which sometimes happen in conceived Prayer are instances of real and extraordinary devotion or that because the use of a form or Book may perhaps be destitute of such flights therefore those duties are dead and formal forasmuch as those services may be most acceptable to God which are less pleasant to our selves since it is not those sudden flashes but a constant and even servour of piety which he hath regard to And this leads me to another advice namely Fifthly Let the pious man think himself obliged to pray without ceasing and that he is never to lay aside or intermit the regular course of a daily devotion upon any pretence whatsoever but especially not upon the absurd pretext of awaiting the motion of the spirit for although it be true that the Spirit of God ceases not to move men to their duty the way of the Spirit of God is not to move sensibly and to make violent impressions upon us and therefore he that suspends the performance of his duty till he is so jogged and stirred up to it will never pray at all and indeed what reason can there be to expect such a thing or what need of it in the case of a known duty if it were the will of God to put us upon some extraordinary service then it were reasonable to expect some special mandate or impulse upon our spirits from him which might both warrant the enterprize and quicken us in the prosecution but in ordinary duties the motion of the holy spirit in the Scripture is and ought to be sufficient and he that will not be stirred up by that doth but pretend to wait for a spirit in excuse of his own Atheism Unbelief or intolerable slothfulness and in so doing lays himself open to an evil spirit whose design it is to check and withdraw men from Religion and this is matter of sad and common experience that from waiting for the motion of the spirit men very usually grow first to frequent omissions then to carelessness of their duty and at last to a total neglect of it Therefore let not any man slight a regular and methodical Devotion as a meer formal and customary thing since this is the very attainment of Piety when that which is matter of duty becomes also in a good sense customary and habitual and he that out of such a temper performs the duties of Religion constantly and reverently gives far greater proof of sincere Christianity than he that seems to himself to do them with greater heat and transport but needs from time to time to be jogged and provoked to the performance Sixthly To all these I adde in the last place that it is very advisable though not absolutely necessary that in these secret Devotions a man should where it may be done with privacy and without oftentation or such other impediment pray vocally and audibly for although God knows our hearts and observes all our thoughts and the motions of our affections before we express them and therefore needs not that we should interpret our minds to him by words yet it is fit we should imploy all the powers and capacities we have in his service our Bodies as well as our Souls and our Lips as well as our hearts Besides though we cannot affect God with the tone and accents of our Speech yet we often times affect our own hearts the more and raise them a note higher in concord with the elevation of our Voices but that which I principally intend is this viz. by the harmony of our tongue and voice our hearts are as it were charmed into the greater composure and intention upon that we are about And so whereas it is the usual complaint especially of melancholy and thoughtful persons that their hearts are apt to rove and wander in these secret duties of Religion by this means we have it very much in our power to keep
as it provokes us to address our selves to him upon all occasions to pray to him to trust in him to walk humbly and thankfully before him And it is of mighty advantage to our selves as it strengthens and fortifies our weak spirits by the contemplation of that mighty providence we are under and that we are protected by a wise and good and powerful Being whom nothing can be too hard for and who is liable to no surprize or mistake as it assures us that nothing befals without him and therefore every thing is ordained for wise ends and shall be turned to good in the conclusion this also inables us to be contented in every condition secure against all fears and to arrive at such an evenness of spirit that we shall not be tost with every accident hurried by every emergency but possess our selves in patience and tranquility And consequently this must needs be a very worthy entertainment of our retirements and such as deserves and requires the application of our minds to it that we may be under the power of this perswasion and be able to answer to our selves the atheistical objections against it to give some account of the intricacy and obscure passages of Providence without some skill in which it will be very difficult if not impossible to walk either piously or comfortably but by this exercise we hold continual conversation with God we live and walk with him he is always at hand to us to awe us to support and comfort us and our hearts become not only a Temple where we solemnly offer up our services at set times to him but an Altar where the holy fire never goes out but sends up constantly the sweet odours of Prayers and Praises to him 4. Another exercise of secret Devotion is to premeditate our conversation and so to forecast the occurrences of life that we may conduct our selves both with safety to our Souls and to the best advantage of our spiritual interests forasmuch as he that lives ex tempore as we say and unpremeditately will neither be able to avoid the dangers which will be sure to encounter him nor to improve the opportunities which may offer themselves to him In our converse in this World we must expect temptations from the Devil allurements from sensual objects provocations from the folly or malice of evil men vexations by unhappy accidents and above all abundance of evil examples to debauch and corrupt us and that man will most certainly be surprized by some or all of these that doth not forecast them and arm himself against them and therefore a wise man will not adventure to go abroad and take in the infectious air of the World till he hath antidoted himself against the danger by the advantages of retirement and the secret exercises of Devotion To this purpose he will before he goes out of his Closet not only consider the common Calamities of the World the reigning sins of the Age but the especial difficulties of his calling and profession and the peculiar infirmities of his own temper and withal will forethink and prepare himself against such efforts as by reason of any of these may be made upon him If he can foresee that he shall unavoidably fall into evil Company he will first indeavour to warm and affect his heart with the quicker sense of Religion that he may not only take no hurt himself but if it be possible imprint some sense of good upon those he converses with If any thing be likely to happen that will strike him with melancholy he will first go to God by Prayer for strength and constancy of mind and indeavour to fix his heart so intently upon another World as that the occurrences of this may not discompose him If he be likely to meet with that which may provoke him to anger he will compose himself to as great a coolness as possibly he can that no passage may inflame him If any allurement to sensuality present it self he will consider how he may retreat into grave Company or earnest business that so he may decline that which is not easily to be withstood And on the other side concerning opportunities of doing or receiving good forasmuch as every wise man is sensible that the seasons of things are no more in his power than the time of his life is that no enterprize succeeds well which is not nicked with a fit season and that it is impossible to recal it when it is slipped by therefore the pious man will forethink what may offer themselves probably in such circumstances as he stands in lest he should overlook them when they present and so he lose an advantage of doing glory to God or good to men and of promoting the interest of his own Soul and accordingly will dispose his heart in secret to apprehend them and to improve them he examines his capacity and stirs up his attention and projects the means either how he may reap some benefit by good and wise Company or how he may seasonably interpose a word on Gods behalf in common Conversation or how he may do some good thing that will turn to account another day 5. But if either by the neglect of such opportunities as aforesaid the pious man omit the doing of some good he might have done or by security of conversation he fall into any of those dangers he ought to have watcht against then there is a fifth great work for private Devotion for in this case there lies a double care upon him first that he slight not his danger and secondly that he despair not of remedy but be both deeply sensible of his miscarriage and also rise again with indignation and resolution First That he slight not his fault as generally men do by the plea of Example or the pretence of humane infirmity and so harden himself in his sin but feel a deep remorse and conceive a mighty displeasure against himself for it Secondly That on the other side he aggravate not his guilt to such a degree as to preclude repentance by despairing of the divine mercy but presently flee to the grace of the Gospel and implore Gods Pardon with setled purposes never to offend in the like kind again Now neither of these are done as they ought to be but in retirement viz. when a man hath opportunity of dealing impartially between God and his own Soul and therefore especially because the occasions of them often happen are justly reckonable as a part of Closet Devotion and accordingly they are represented by the holy Psalmist Psal 4. 4. Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own hearts in your chamber and be still c. Wherefore let every man that hath any sense of God upon him be throughly perswaded to set some time apart for this purpose that he may romage his own heart and find out all the evils of his life and when he hath discovered any particular guilt upon his Soul let him not forsake
his Closet and depart out of Gods presence till he have affected himself with deep sorrow and contrition for his sin and prostrated himself at the throne of grace with strong and earnest cries for pardon and until he have confirmed his heart in a resolution of watchfulness and more strict obedience for the time to come And let him do this often that he may not run up too big a score and so either his heart become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin or his Conscience be so affrighted with the greatness of his guilt that like a Bankrupt he be tempted to decline looking into his accounts because he can have no comfortable prospect of them or run away from God in a fit of desperation instead of running to him by repentance Let him I say do this often not by chance or unwillingly but frequently and periodically set times being appointed for it and though I would be loth to impose a burden upon the Consciences of men yet I think it ordinarily very adviseable that this be done once a month viz. whilest a man hath his past actions and carriage in remembrance and can take a just account of himself but especially it is very fit to do it against the time of the administration of the Holy Sacrament and then would be extraordinarily proper and seasonable for these two things Self-examination and partaking of the Lords Supper do marvellously suit and answer to each other the former preparing a mans heart for that sacred solemnity and that holy solemnity sealing to him the pardon of those sins he hath discovered and repented of in secret But whether this work of self-reflection and ransacking a mans own heart in secret be absolutely necessary to be done at certain times and periods it is wonderfully useful that it be seriously and conscientiously practised some time or other forasmuch as on the one side it is not conceivable how a man should be able to maintain an holy and comfortable Life without it so on the other hand it seems equally impossible that he should continue to be an evil man who habitually and sincerely practises it for as there is no way so effectual to preserve an estate from being squandred away extravagantly as the keeping constant and strict accounts of receits and expences so there is no method more powerful to restrain sin than this of self-examination the very searching into our hearts jogs and awakens Conscience and that being rowsed will be a faithful Monitor of all that was done amiss the mere prospect of which will make a man very uneasy by the fears and horrors that attend it the consideration of the silly motives upon which a man was induced to sin will fill him with ingenuous shame and indignation and the easiness which he cannot but find of withstanding such motions by the grace of God will provoke him to a resolution of amendment in a word the sight and knowledge of the Disease is a great step to the Cure and an heart well searched is half healed But this leads me to another instance of great affinity with what we have now been speaking of and which shall be the last excercise of secret Devotion which I will here make mention of viz. 6. Trial of our proficiency and growth in grace this is of great importance forasmuch as we have seen before the truth of grace is scarcely any otherway discernible but by its progress and in that it makes men daily better and better for the essences of things are indiscernible and a man may endlesly dispute with himself whether such or such a thing be a sign of grace and of spiritual life in him till he puts all out of controversy by the fruits and improvement of such a vital principle and therefore it is extreamly necessary if we will arrive at spiritual comfort that we make experiment of our selves in this particular which can no otherwise be done than by retirement into the Cabinet of our hearts and the diligent comparing our selves both with our selves and with the rules of the Gospel The common estimation of the World is a very fallacious and improper measure of divine life and as the Apostle tells us it is a small thing to be judged of men one way or other but if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God for they being privy to our ends and designs and to all our circumstances as well as to matter of fact cannot nor will not deceive us if they be secretly examined and therefore must be impartially consulted if we would indeed know our selves and be able to prejudge our own condition Now the testimony which our hearts can give us of our spiritual improvement is not to be grounded upon the increased length of our Prayers nor merely from the passion and earnestness of them for the former of these may be the effect of hypocrisy and the latter may proceed from some peculiar temper of body or outward accident nor upon our affectionate hearing of Sermons for the stony ground received the seed with joy as well as the good ground nor yet upon a more than ordinary scrupulosity of Conscience especially in smaller matters for this may proceed from Ignorance Superstition or Hypocrisy But the safest decision of this great case whether we grow in grace or no is to be made by examining our hearts in such points as these following viz. Whether we be more constant in all the duties of Religion than formerly Whether we be more exact and regular in our lives daily Whether our hearts be more in Heaven than they were wont and that we have arrived at a greater contempt of the World Whether we are more dead to temptation especially in the case of such sins as agree with our constitution and circumstances Whether affliction be more easy than it used to be and we can better submit to the yoke of Christ Whether we are more conscientious of secret sins and such as no Eye of man can take notice of and upbraid us for Whether we are more sagacious in apprehending and more careful of improving opportunities of doing good than heretofore In a word Whether we are grown more meek more humble and obedient to our Superiours c. If upon due inquiry oru hearts can answer affirmatively for us in such points as these then we may comfortably conclude that we have not received the grace of God in vain which being of unspeakable consequence to us to be substantially resolved of self-examination in the aforesaid particulars as the only way to arrive at it ought to have its share in our Closet Devotions CHAP. III. Of Family-Piety in general THough the consideration of Gods Almighty Power Wisdom Goodness and his other perfections together with our dependance upon him and obnoxiousness to him be the first reason and ground of religion as we have already shewed and so the Divine Majesty is the immediate and principal object of it yet notwithstanding this
the same spirit of Religion and promote the eternal interest of one another As it is vastly mischievous and unhappy when those who are inseparably yoked together draw divers ways one towards Heaven and the other towards Hell in respect of which danger the Apostle advises those who are free not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers 2 Cor. 6. 14. for saith he what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what communion hath light with darkness what concord hath Christ with Belial and what part hath he that believeth with an infidel Yet because it is possible that light may prevail against darkness therefore when such an unequal Society is contracted he doth not think it a sufficient ground for separation for saith he 1 Cor. 7. 16. What knowest thou O Wife but thou maist save thy Husband or what knowest thou O man whether thou shalt save thy Wife especially since by the piety of one of the Parents the Children are sanctified and placed under the advantages of the Covenant of grace as he there adds v. 14. And seeing it is possible for one of these relatives to be so great a blessing to the other there is mighty reason they both should endeavour it out of self-love as well as charity and conjugal affection since it is both very difficult to go to Heaven alone and also equally easy and comfortable when those in this relation join hearts and hands in the way thither As for the relation of Parents and Children that is also very near and intimate and consequently their interest and happiness is bound up together for as it is a mighty advantage to have holy Parents in regard the Posterity of such persons ordinarily fare the better to many Generations as is assured in the second Commandment and therefore there is a double obligation upon Parents to be good and virtuous not only for the sake of their own Souls but also for the sake of their Children so on the other hand it is no less glory and comfort to Parents to have good and pious Children and therefore they are strictly charged to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and indeed he is worse than an Infidel nay worse than a Brute that can be content to bring them up to Hell and the Devil for they are part of our selves and a man that considers any thing can as well be willing to be damned himself as that they should be so if he can help it Now that there is much in their power this way appears by that charge of the Apostle last named as also by the observation of Solomon Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it for Children in their young and tender years are like Wax yielding and pliable to whatsoever form we will put them into but if we miss this opportunity it will be no easy matter to recover them to good afterwards when they are debauched by evil principles confident of their own opinions headstrong by the uncontrouled use of liberty and hardened by the custom of sinning And therefore it is observable that far the most part of good men and women are such as had the foundations of piety laid in their youth and very few are to be found who were effectually reclaimed afterwards But whilest Children wholly depend upon their Parents and their natures are soft and pliant when as yet they have not the hardiness to rebel nor the confidence to dispute the commands of their Fathers so long they may by the grace of God easily be wrought upon to good and which is very remarkable the influence of the mother is especially considerable in this case for so we find not only that King Lemuel Prov. 31. 1. remembred the Lessons which his mother taught him but as I have noted before Timothy was seasoned with grace by the instructions of his Mother Eunice and his Grandmother Lois 2 Tim. 1. 5. and many other instances there are of the successfulness of the Mothers pious indeavours But where Parents neglect their duty usually the Children perish and their blood will be required at the hands of careless Parents and which is more there is commonly this dreadful token of divine vengeance in this World that those who are careless of their duty both towards God and towards their Children in this particular feel the sad effects of it in the undutifulness contumacy and rebellion of those Children against themselves afterwards as if God permitted them to revenge his quarrel In the next place as for the relation of Master and Servants it is a mighty mistake to think they are meerly our slaves to do our will and that nothing is due from us to them but what is expresly bargain'd for since they are or ought to be Gods Servants as well as ours and must do him service as well as us and they are put under our protection and placed in our Families that they may be instructed in his pleasure and have the liberty to serve him of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is called So that properly speaking we and they are common Servants to one great Master only in different ranks as the one part after the manner of Stewards is allowed to have Servants under them and the other must do the inferiour business but still they are Gods Servants more properly than ours and must therefore have not only as I said liberty and leisure to serve our common Master but also instructions from us and incouragement so to do and he that denies them any of these might as justly deny them their Bread or their Wages nay more he that forgets to pray for them too remembers himself but by halves forasmuch as his interest is concerned not only in their health and prosperity but in their virtue and piety for it is evident that the better men they are the better Servants they will prove So St. Paul tells Philemon in his Epistle to him that he would be a gainer by Onesimus's Conversion for that he would be so much a more profitable servant henceforth as he was now become a better man such persons being not only the most faithful and trusty but by so much the more industrious as they are the more conscientious Besides that it is well known that Divine Providence often blesses a Family for the sake of a pious Servant as God blessed Labans substance for the sake of Jacob and the House and all the affairs of Potiphar for the piety of Joseph So that in short he loves himself as little as he loves God who doth not indeavour that his Servants should be sincerely religious And though it 's true it is not altogether in his power to make them so or to put grace into their hearts yet by virtue of his place and authority he hath mighty advantages of doing them good and will be sure to be called to account how he hath