have the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth may you be richly stor'd with grace and come behind in no gift thoroughly furnished for every good work yea and fill'd with all the fulness of God but withall be very humble great in value and usefulness but little in your own eyes that will not be to your loss but much to your advantage for God gives grace to the Humble and no less to your Honour Humility eclipseth and obscures no Mans glory but sets a singular lustre and gloss upon it making it shine with a greater brightness Holy and Humble Paul was one of the most Eminent Servants God ever had in the World and his speaking of himself as being less than the least of all Saints detracted nothing from his real worth nor did it hinder his being equal with the chief of the Apostles if we may speak of a chief among them among whom our Lord appointed a Parity at that time there was no such thing as a Pope I would not speak one word to swell or puff any of you up if you study and know your selves as you ought you will soon find defects infirmities corruptions enough to keep the best of you down yet I cannot but say you are my Joy and Crown and as I do every day make mention of you in my Prayers so I can and frequently do bless and give thanks to my God upon my remembrance of you and that upon sundry accounts which I speak of for your encouragement and the promoting your farther progress I have reason to hope it is the true grace of God in which you stand and as you have a Name to live so you have been made partakers of the Life it self for as you do all make a good and excellent Profession so I know none of you that stain and contradict it by a scandalous walking You have been stedfast in shaking and falling Times some did indeed go off in the Days of sore Persecution not having on the whole Armour of God nor being able to indure Hardship as the good Souldiers of Jesus but they were few so few that we did not miss them we do not want them the Lord grant that they may find Mercy of the Lord at the great Day I shall be glad to meet them in Heaven You have received and owâ—â—d me as an Angel or Messenger of God and the delight you take in my Ministry hath evidenced it self and still doth by your constant attendance upon it In this Sceptick Age you have been Wise to Sobriety in this Erroneous Age you have been sound in the Faith neither admiring the pretended new Lights nor falling in love with those old rotten Errours which some have dig'd out of their Graves In this dividing Age you have kept the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace you are not for taking up a Yoke of Bondage but for standing fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free yet no Friends to Licenciousness While you flee to the Gospel for Relief and Comfort you own the Law for your Rule you do not divide Christ but take him just as God hath exalted him and doth offer him Prince as well as Saviour and not only to be an underling to pay your Debts and bear your Burdens and die for your Offences but likewise to be a King upon his Throne Commanding and Ruling you And as you rely only upon him for Righteousness so you desire to imitate and follow him in his Holiness and to shew forth his Vertues who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light Am I mistaken in any of you as to these things I hope I am not the Lord grant I may not I know of no wild Notions nor loose Opinions among you may there never be any but all of you have as one said Heads well-hearted and Hearts well-headed and so a soundness throughout May you approve your selves to God and Men being good Christians good Subjects good Citizens good Husbands and Wives good Parents and Children good Masters Mistresses and Servants good Friends and Neighbours filled with the Holy Ghost and Goodness and all the Fruits of Righteousness Love God Father Son and Spirit with a supreame intire and most intense love think the most vehement flame of your love too cold here Love the Church of God study seek and pray for her good Love all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity though in some things they differ from you let not that cause any alienation in Affection so long as they hold the Head count them Brethren and be dear over them as such love one another help one another quicken strengthen comfort one another provoke one another to Love and good Works rejoice in one anothers Mercies sympathize with one anothers Afflictions bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ. Most dearly Beloved my Mouth is open to you and my Heart enlarged The great God knows I do as really desire and pray for the Prosperity and Salvation of you all and of all yours as I do mine own and in the following Sermons I have commended no other things to you than what I believe and know to be both your Duty and Interest and would my self be found in the practice of if we call our selves Christians let us be Christians Israelites and Israelites indeed what signifies the Name without the thing Gird up I beseech you gird up the Loins of your Minds make no trifling Objections listen not yield not to any wicked Temptations but apply to your Work act for God in your Places to the utmost shine bright in your own Sphere keep your Hearts continually in an holy frame fit for Communion with God in Duty be not now backward to it nor hereafter weary of it Though you have but a little stock of Knowledge and Parts fall to Trading and you will increase it Be not discouraged because you cannot do what you would God accepts of the Will when the Disciples were offended with a good Woman Christ's plea for her was She hath done what she could The Lord told his Servant he had been faithful in his little and thereupon gave him an entrance into his Joy Your little will find great acceptance and be rewarded with great Blessings so it be your Best In short would you stem the Tide of Profaneness which breaks in upon us with fury Would you save the Life of Practical Religion which is brought very low and in a deep Consumption Would you be instrumental for the preserving of a Seed to serve the Lord Would you be able to give a good account of your selves in the Day when God shall come to Reckon with you And do you desire the present and future welfare of those precious Souls which are committed to your Care then observe the Rules and follow the Counsels of God which are given in this Book And the God of Heaven accept you in the Beloved grant your
in gracious discourses and pouring out your Souls to God in prayer Now faith famous Mr. Perkins upon this very place if it be the duty of men to pray every where then certainly in their Families where God hath set them in so near a Relation one to another Thirdly We are commanded to pray continually or to pray always as in that fore-mentioned Ephes. 6. Praying always with all prayer Which words of the Apostle we are not to understand as if praying must ingross and take up all our time and we had nothing else to do but live Drones like a company of lazy Beggars that will not work though they are able Prayer indeed is a very considerable part of a Christians duty yet it is but a part There are various duties which he hath to perform and much other work of the Lord in which he ought to abound There is reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Word serious meditation and self-examination as well as prayer There is instructing of Youth and Catechizing of Children and exhorting one another and provoking one another to Love and to good works as well as praying Yea and there is tending of the Shop and working in the Trade and looking to the Children and washing of the house and providing for the Family and several other things and must be done We must have respect to all Gods Commandments and labour to fill up our places and to stand compleat in all the will of God concerning us Therefore when the Apostle speaks of our praying always understand it thus pray in every thing for so we are required to do in another Scripture Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing i. e. with a distrustful care with a solicitous and anxious care with a distracting disquieting care But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God Pray in great things as believing the greatness of God's Power and pray in little things as believing also the extensiveness of his Care Pray over thy Calling because it is not the diligent hand alone but the Divine Blessing with it that makes rich Pray over your Meat and Drink and go not to your Tables as Swine to their Trough knowing that Creatures cannot befriend or serve you any further than as they are commissioned and assisted by God When Ministers go to study let them pray because it is the Spirit of Truth that must lead them into all Truth They will make sad work of it if God be not with their heads in studying their Sermons and with their mouths in delivering them And when People come to hear let them pray under and after all our Labours they will learn nothing to purppose they will not be wise to Salvation unless they are taught of God Thus to pray alway is to pray in every thing Again To pray always is to pray in every condition When you are High as knowing you are neither out of the reach of Trouble nor too good to serve and wait upon God And when you are Low as knowing you are not out of the reach of the Everlasting Arms but still there is hope in Israel concerning you Pray in Sickness and in Health too for it is God that must remove the former preserve and continue the latter Pray in Advrrsity for it is God that must support and comfort under that and Prosperity for it is God that must sanctifie that and give you an heart and wisdom to improve it Pray in Trouble that God would not be a Terrour to you in Danger that he would be a Defence to you and the Rock of your Refuge and in Peace that your Halcion days may neither be overcast nor abus'd By Prayer in Adversity shew your trusting in God and believing no case to be desperate which he will please to undertake and by Prayer in Prosperity shew to others your dependence upon God and your expectations being wholly from him and that you live more upon a Father in Heaven than you do upon any or all the Creatures here below Once again Pray always that is pray daily pray every day This is to be not only a Sabbath days work as I am inform'd some penurious strait-lac'd Professors make it no no it ought 〈◊〉 to be your every day-work Sure I am there is a great deal of reason for it We do commit sin and contract much guilt every day therefore it becomes us to repent and confess and it concerns us to sue out our pardon every day We have our Dangers visible and invisible Dangers every day therefore should be daily hiding our selves under our Fathers gracious wing and craving the Divine Protection We have Mercies every day a continued succession of them an innumerable number of them they follow us they load us they compass us about therefore we should have our Sacrifices of Praise and as persons of ingenuity pay our thankful acknowledgments to God every day Further we have our Wants every day we want our daily Bread and our daily Pardon we want daily Supplies Our Cistern would soon be empty if God should cut off the stream of his goodness we want daily Supports and should quickly drop into the Grave yea into nothing if God should withdraw his hand and let go his hold of us And we want a daily blessing without which all our contrivances are vain and all our endeavours fruitless If God do not say go and prosper we had as good sit still and therefore there is very great reason why we should have our daily prayers We are commanded by our Saviour to pray and not to faint for this end he spake a Parable Luk. 18.1 and by the Apostle to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 that is to pray daily which was signified and taught by the daily Sacrifice under the Law concerning which you may read in Exod. 29. It is said in the 42 verse This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering thorow-out your Generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there unto thee This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering this what If you look back to the 38th and 39th verses you will see This is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar two Lambs of the first year day by day continually the one Lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other Lamb shalt thou offer at Even Where you may take notice of this that the offering up of these two Lambs every day is called a continual Burnt-Offering And Mr. Answorth upon the place tells us that daily Sacrifice signified the continual sanctification of the Church through Faith in Christ the Lamb of God by whose mediation we and our actions are accepted of God and likewise he there tells us the Hebrew Doctors say the continual Sacrifice of the Morning did make atonement for the sins that were done in the night and the Evening Sacrifices made atonement for iniquities
I shall more briefly touch upon these few things but do you ponder them First The Glory of God was the end he aimed at in all that he makes and doth Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself And well he might for there is none higher than himself none better He made all for himself as Heaven for that is his Throne so Earth for that is his Footstool And as other Creatures so intelligent rational Creatures as Angels so Men and as Persons so Families all of them for himself all for his glory and is there not reason that they whom God hath made should mind and pursue that which they were made for Those that do not live to that purpose do not live to good purpose and if they do not live to that end for which God made them will at last miss of that Reward which they are now so forward to promise themselves Secondly Other Creatures do in their kind honour God not only the irrational Creatures but also the inanimate ones the Heavens and the Firmament Psal. 19.1 The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work So do the Day and the Night vers 2. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge yea and they go up and down doing it they compass Sea and Land doing it vers 3 4. There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard their Line is gone out through all the Earth and their Words to the end of the World And it would certainly be a shame and reproach to us if any of our Families should be mute and silent and bring him no glory Thirdly God doth expect glory from us This is the Tribute he looks should be paid him by us Mal. 1.6 A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master if I then be a Father where is my honour and if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Hosts God hath been graciously pleased to put himself into all endearing Relations to his People There you read of his being both a Father and a Master and those that desire to be his Children must resolve to be his Servants and in order to an happy enjoyment of the Priviledges there must be a cordial and chearful performance of the duties We must honour him as a Father and fear him as a Master Now the fear of God doth contain in it as that inward filial and holy affection of the Soul so the outward Worship of God and they that do not so fear him do not honour him Nay let your Profession be never so great and your pretences to Religion never so high your not having his Worship in your Families is no other than so far a practical disowning and renouncing him Fourthly The Honour of God is to be dearer to us than our own Interest This should be laid at the foot of that Iohn the Baptist was most freely willing to decrease so that Christ might increase to dwindle away and vanish into a worthless inconsiderable nothing so that Christ might be exalted in the hearts of Men and it should be so with us and with all upon whom his Name is called The design of honouring God and lifting up of his Name should be uppermost and run through our whole course and be the main principal scope of all our Actions as is evident from that Scripture Precept 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God As all our Affections should meet in God as the only Center so all our Actions should be directed to his glory as the supream ultimate and most noble end But are they obedient to this Command do they walk according to this excellent Rule who do not set up the Worship of God in their Families no they are far from it they live in a direct contrariety Instead of doing all to the glory of God in their Families they do nothing they mind their own things but mind not regard not the things of God and Iesus Christ they do neither seek after God nor live unto him and what is this but vile ingratitude and most sordid baseness what is it but brutish selfishness When men are confin'd to and wrapt up in themselves do not look above nor beyond themselves they eat and drink they wake and sleep for themselves they dress and deck and finifie themselves they labour and toil and trade for themselves they scrape and hoard and lay up for themselves and in this they are unwearied and unsatisfied never think they are fine enough nor rich enough nor great enough but all this while the great God is most shamefully forgotten and neglected he is not in their thoughts nor in their designs Fifthly The Glory of God is to be sought and promoted by us to our utmost Our best is his due therefore he calls for the Heart the whole of it and for the Male of the Flock Our All is his due we have it from him and we owe it to him Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Might Where you have the Object of your Love the most proper and principal Object of it God and the Reasons why we should love him the one is his own Nature because He is the Lord Iehovah who hath his Being of himself gives Being to all things that are and accomplishment to his Word and Promises the other is his Relation to us or our Interest in him He is thy God thine in a Covenant of Grace Again there you have the Manner of your Love or the Degree of it how high it must reach how far extend to all all thy Heart to which the Scripture ascribes Understanding Wisdom and Faith all thy Soul which is the seat of the Will and Affections and with all thy Might love him as well as we can blow up our Love to God unto the hottest and most vehement flame Love him with all your ability Let your Love to God go as far as your Authority reacheth and the Power of your Hand and there let your Love express it self Honour him in your House and with your Substance By all these things it doth evidently appear the Glory of God should be exceeding dear to us and industriously served and promoted by us Now I will appeal to you in the case who are Heads of Houses and ask this one Question What better way can you take What course can you think of that will be more proper and probably successful for the advancing of the Honour of God than the setting up of his Worship and Religious Exercises in your Families What can you do more toward it what better What is there within the compass of your Power that hath a fairer a more promising aspect and tendency to this great noble End How can you better serve the Interest of God and Godliness And
way whether ever they sate up so long at prayer or reading the Scripture Unto such persons I would only say these few things First As touching the Game it self I will not take upon me peremptorily to determine that playing at Cards is utterly unlawful Yet I do very well remember that in former times when Professors liv'd more up to the Rules of Religion than most now do and did not allow to themselves that latitude which many in our days take Cards were counted so by many godly learned Ministers and gracious Christians and accordingly were then call'd The Devil's Books and the use of them for play was a thing of bad report and to have a pack of them in the house was then reckoned scandalous It is true one of no small esteem for Learning and Piety whose Name I forbear to mention hath written for it but I humbly conceive he had better have spar'd his pains So pitiful a Cause did not deserve so Learned a Pen so great a Patron and what he and others have said is not satisfactory but still sub judice lis est the matter is disputable and there are more against it than for it And I am sure in matters questionable such things as will admit of a debate it is the wisdom of those who love their own Souls and desire to approve themselves unto God by an holy exact walking before him to forbear there may be sin in using but for certain there is no danger in letting them alone Though you are not sure there is Poison in a Glass of Wine yet if you do suspect it you will not drink of it Perhaps the company will jeer and laugh at you for your over-niceness and let them till they be weary better so than to have your own Consciences raging and storming at you for your over-boldness It is not good to rouze a sleepy Lion a little matter will do it But then Secondly As to any other Game which is evidently lawful and concerning which no dispute hath been raised among good men Nature doth require and God doth allow Recreations The Bow that always stands bent will grow to be a Slug. And there are Recreations in themselves very innocent and harmless that tend much to the health of the Body and not to the detriment or prejudice of the Soul yet even in these you must manage your selves with wisdom for otherwise you may sin in them What the Apostle Paul saith of the Law 1 Tim. 1.8 We know that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully I may say in the present case we know that Recreation is good if a man use it lawfully but withal we know that the greatest danger of real sincere Christians lieth inter licita among things lawful and though the Recreations which you use are lawful in themselves yet you may sin in the using of them and that many ways particularly in the using them out of season and by being too long at them Time is too precious a Jewel to be thrown away Thirdly I desire you seriously to consider whether Gaming be a good preparative for any holy duty We have been wont to blame those that would upon the Lord's-day come reeking out of their Beds to Publick Ordinances and if I be not mistaken they are as worthy of blame who immediately go from their sports to the Service of God Is this my Friends is this the way for People to get themselves into a fitness for duty their hearts into a serious solemn spiritual and holy frame Is this the way to qualifie you for an appearance in so great and glorious a Presence as is that of God and for engaging to so important and momentous a work as is that of Prayer You that love Recreations do not love them too well and you that use them let it be without abusing them do not make Play your work but use it moderately as becometh those who were sent hither for higher and nobler purposes than to sport upon Earth as Leviathan doth in the Sea and as becomes them who knows the shortness uncertainty and preciousness of Time and that your everlasting welfare and happiness in the other World depends upon a due improvement of it and as becomes those who believe you must at last render an account thereof unto the God that gave it to you And I also advise you to take special care that there be a sufficient interval or space of time between your Recreation and your Duty that so you may call your thoughts in which you had given leave to ramble and raise your Affections up which had been too much deprest and sunk to Objects so mean and low and that by holy Meditation spiritual Divine Contemplations you may recover your former warmth and chafe your selves into a due heat and be fervent in spirit serving the Lord remembring it was in the flame of Manoahs Sacrifice that the Angel did wonderfully Fourthly You that are Parents I do earnestly desire you to think with your selves and that seriously whether you are kind to your Children in playing at Cards doth this speak your love to them and care of them Is this the way to keep them from the path of the Destroyer and to bring them up for God Doth this tend to the making of them gracious or serious Do you think in your Consciences that you would be willing Death should come and find you so employed that Death should come and take you at Cards Or do you think in your Consciences that you do herein set your Children a good Example Really this deserves your thoughts for as we Ministers are to be Examples to the Flock so you Parents and Governours ought to be to your Families What manner of persons then should you be in all holy conversation in all the actions of your Lives and are you so exemplary when you play at Cards as it becomes and concerns you to be Possibly some of you think you have enough to say for your selves viz. that you do not make a Trade of it nor a common practice you do it but at one time of the year when the Nights are long and you know not how otherwise to pass away the time but by the way do not say so for that proclaims your egregious weakness and folly what have so great work to do and so much of it yet know not how to pass away the time or you satisfie your selves with this that you do not play for Mony at least not for much so that upon that score you are much at a pass whether you win or not and this may be but you cannot tell what your Children may do after you you do shew them the way and lead them in it but they may shortly go a great deal farther than you your selves either do or dare to do because they see you play at Cards they conclude it lawful and that they may do so too and accordingly do for Children are imitating Creatures
contend with their Masters they have saith he not only reason to despise and dislike them but unless they amend to rid their hands of them and put them out of their Houses Therefore we have cause to conclude Iobs meaning was this Fourthly When any Servant had matter of complaint as to any Household grievance he gave them free liberty to acquaint him with it they needed not be afraid to present their case to him whom they should find to be their Patron as well as their Master and as ready to do them right as to expect service from them as the same Author saith Sometimes Servants complain that their Reward or Wages is too little sometimes that their Work is too much and lieth too hard or heavy upon them When Iobs Servants contended with him about those or any such matters he did not bid them hold their tongue or get them gone much less did he say as Pharaoh did there shall be more work laid upon you that you may labour therein but he heard them patiently and gave them redress if their Complaints were just which many Masters would not do or else he convinced them by his Wisdom and the weight of his Arguments that their Complaints were causeless and unreasonable which most Masters could not do He was always willing and ready to rectifie whatever was amiss and to remove every thing that was really a grievance go ye and do likewise It is past dispute that Masters and Mistresses have a place above their Servants God himself hath by the all-disposing hand of his wise Providence set them upon the upper ground and they have a power over their Servants so long as they continue such but yet they are not to abuse them nor trample them under their feet no no you ought to be humble meek and lowly though never so great so high and rich The Sun is a glorious Creature and much above the Earth yet how comfortable is it to the things therein how kind and benign its Beams and Influences be you so in your Places not only righteous to them but courteous not Labans not Nabals To this end frequently remember and consider that as you are Persons in Authority so you are under Authority you your selves have a Master too you are above your Servants but there is a God in Heaven who is infinitely more above you and hath Persons Times and Things in his own hand and at his own dispose and doth make frequent turns and changes in the World and it is his delight to abase the Proud If any of you will pride it in the place of Masters and Mistresses God can easily and he quickly may bring you down into the place rank and condition of poor Servants and such an alteration will be very uneasie to you unless God brings your Spirits down to your Condition it will be very uneasie a strait Shooe drawn upon a big foot pincheth it and puts it to pain Fifthly Be loving and Kind in all your Carriages Love like Varnish puts a beauty and gloss upon all things and like Sugar or Honey a sweetness into them it is a most glorious representation of God to us the Scripture saith he is Love It was an excellent Chariot which King Solomon made for himself Cant. 3.9 10. of the Wood of Lebanon there was sweetness the Pillars thereof were Silver and the bottom was Gold and the covering of it of purple there was Richness and Princely State but what follows sets off and commends all the rest the middest of it was paved with Love for the Daughters of Ierusalem Yes had there been no love there one might as well have rode in a Cart as in Solomons Chariot Love goeth with the Holy Soul to Heaven and there it is perfected and there it eternally abides and is the Heaven of Heaven it is the brightness of its glory and the sweetness of all its delights Faith and Hope are two excellent Graces and of singular use here but they will both cease Faith being swallowed up of Vision and Hope most gladly resigning its place to Fruition but Love remains Heaven would not be Heaven without Love call that place Hell where Love is not that House Hell where Love dwells not You that are Husbands and Wives be loving and kind to one another in your looks and in your lips let there be the law of kindness that will strengthen your interest in your Family and power over it as well as sweeten your own life and Relations whereas your quarrels and contentions do and will render you mean cheap and contemptible in the eyes of your Inferiours Some may think it great to ride Master and to have their will but they lose much more in their honour than that comes to Therefore if at any time there happen a disagreement between you keep it close and private between your selves not suffering it to take air if there be a spark of discontent kindled put it out with all speed and let it not break forth into a flame Be also kind and loving to your Servants and to your Children when you give out your Orders to them do not do it in an imperious way some think it becomes them to speak altogether in thunder but let them remember that it pleased the great God to speak to his Servant Elijah in a still voice To command with Love is the most likely way to be obeyed with delight and cheerfulness When you Teach and Instruct them do it with gentleness the moderate Rain doth more sweetly soak into the Earth and refresh the Fruit of it than Thunder-Showers which falling with violence lay the Corn and the Grass and damnifie both it is better to instill into them knowledge and good Principles than to knock and beat them in Love doth most sweetly unlock and open the ear and makes a free and easie passage for Instructions and Councels to enter in and it doth mollifie and soften the heart so that it is rendred more ready to receive impressions more faithful and careful to retain them When you do reprove them as reprove them you must when they do deserve it silence in such a case is sinful He that suffers Sin to rest upon his Child or Servant brings guilt upon himself and becomes a partaker with him in his evil deeds He that doth not reprove for Sin encourageth in it and for not reproving shall be reproved But whensoever you do reprove let it be done in Love Adam had disobeyed God in eating the forbidden Fruit God did not wink at it resolved to punish him for it and did yet he came to him in the cool of the day Always dip the Nail in Oyl for that is the way to make it drive best and pierce deepest otherwise the Board may split or the Nail bow and break through a stubborn resistance When you are angry with them moderate your passion and mingle it do not stir up all your wrath but in the midst thereof remember
Here is a good Man and he chuseth to walk in a good way Dr. Iermin in his Paraphrastical Meditations upon the place hath these words There are several Walks of Men in this World one walketh in his pleasure as it were in the walks of a Garden another walketh in his profit and he walketh as it were up and down the Exchange another walketh in his trouble and he walketh as it were in a Wood another walketh in his poverty and he walketh as it were in a Desart another walketh in his beastly lusts of drunkenness and uncleannness and he delighteth to walk as it were in mire and dirt but the just man walketh in his integrity and he walketh as it were in the holy Temple but that his walk is to walk still on and not to turn back till he come to the end of his Life Much care is taken and many means are used that men may leave their Children in an happy condition but he that walketh in his integrity takes the most proper compendious and effectual course to bring himself to blessedness and his Posterity too so saith the wisest of men in this Text His Children are blessed after him Supposing that they tread in his steps and walk in their integrity as he had done in his before them And Children blessed of God are their Parents blessings and will be the joy of their hearts and the staff of their Age yea and Servants may be blessings also to the Families in which they live and therefore are not to be slighted nor opprest nor abused You read in the word of Truth that the house of Laban was blessed for the sake of Iacob and the Master how bad and unjust soever he had been in other things was ingenuous in acknowledging he had by experience found it so And the like is recorded of the House of Potiphar Gen. 39.5 It came to pass from the time that he had made him Overseer in his house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph ' s sake and the Lords's blessing was upon all that he had both in the house and in the field Now teaching them the knowledge and fear of God by your instructions and alluring them to the practice of Godliness by your Religious Examples together with prayer is the way to make yours such VI. To set up the Worship and Service of God in your Families is an excellent way to get and maintain peace in your own bosoms while you live and how sweet that is those do very well know and being consulted will tell you who have felt the Lashes of an enraged Conscience and a Worm within gnawing and tearing them day and night What would not such poor Creatures give what would they not do to be delivered from the frights it puts them in and the pain it causeth And I must needs say it is in my account just matter of wonder how any body can and that any one of those do enjoy themselves a day an hour who live in the constant and shameful neglect of God their Maker and of their duty this way Methinks there should be always Nemesis à tergo a dreadful sound in their Ears they should be ashamed and blush to think of God or lift up their faces toward Heaven ashamed to look Man in the face since they have so far put off Man as to neglect the great Work of Man ashamed to shew their heads in their own houses where they live like so many brutes contrary to the dictates of Nature and where the very stones and timber may be swift and loud witness against them Methinks they should never see Wife nor Child nor Servant without such bitter reflections as these these poor creatures have a love for me but they have a cause to hate me now they shew me respect but the day will come when they will curse me for they are like to be undone by me I bring them up in Ignorance Irreligion and Atheism I live without God in the World and so do they through my means they are not like to come at last to Heaven because they do not walk in the way that leads thither and it is my fault who do not teach them that way nor go before them in it I am a bloody Husband to my Wife an unnatural Father to my Children a cruel Master to my Servants when their Parents bound them to me they did little think what a wretch I am I do not take any care of their precious and immortal Souls and indeed how can it be thought that they should be kind and compassionate towards the Souls of others who are cruel to their own it is not likely Charity should be active abroad when it doth not begin at home Methinks such Persons as these should every day feel a tormenting sting within them and go up and down in pain and that their Consciences should be very uneasie and often in a day reproaching them and flinging dirt in their faces yea flashing Hell Fire in them I do not wonder that many of these Men do not care to be alone not much at home but love to be abroad with their boon Companions as bad as themselves among whom they may lay their Trouble with their Liquor but they will get but little by this this is but casting Conscience into a sleep for a time that will awake again and rouze and roar when they come to themselves Conscience will return to its work and strike up again Is this thy Love to her that lies in thy bosom dost thou dwell with her as a Man of knowledge or an Heir of the Grace of Life are these thy bowels to thy Children which came out of thy Loins hast thou a mind to bring them up for the destroyer and to be fewel for everlasting burnings And is this thy mercy to thy Servants didst thou take them to corrupt them if they had any good thing in them toward the Lord God of Hosts wouldst thou utterly quench it and if they were bad thou takest a course to make them seven times more the Children of the Devil than before Thou wouldest have them O Man please thee and wilt thou not shew them how they may walk so as to please God Thou wouldest have them to mind thy Shop and wilt not thou mind their Souls Thou wouldst have them take pains in thy House but thou wilt take none for their Welfare and Salvation It is far better to be such persons Horses and Dogs than to be their Children and Servants for then they would be better look'd after And this I doubt not but I may safely affirm if such Men as these have any peace in such a way as this they are either grosly ignorant and know not the Judgment of the Lord nothing of Religion to purpose or they are very Atheists such in Judgment as well as in Practice or their Consciences are fear'd as with an hot Iron or wholly
benumm'd are cast into a profound sleep and have no fear of God before their Eyes And let them know that sooner or latter the present Calm will be followed with a most terrible Storm the Wrath of God and the Rage of Conscience will cause it and that will blow away all your comforts and throw down all your hopes and who can tell but it may carry you to Hell with the People that forget God But on the other side an hearty Love to the Name Honour and Interest of God and the setting up of his Worship and Service in your Families from such an excellent and holy Principle is the direct and ready way to a sweet inward peace the way to have a Calm and Serenity in your Souls though the Clouds may be black and the Storms great which are upon your Tabernacles Let things issue how they will in your Families as to your Children and Servants whether they do get good or no whether they go to Heaven or to Hell yet this will be a quieting and comforting consideration to you that you in some good measure have done your duty I have been much taken with those words of Samuel to Israel after they had rejected the Lord from being King over them and he had made Saul King 1 Sam. 12.23 As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way O! do you so my dear Friends let it be the same with you set this excellent Copy before you and write after it frequently considering with your selves what an hearty reviving Cordial it will be when you are able to say to your Families Blessed be God I have not ceased to pray for you many a Petition I have put up and many a Tear I have shed in my Closet nor have I ceased to pray with you your selves are my Witnesses how frequent and earnest a Suitor I have been to God on your behalf I have been pleading and wrestling every day morning and evening and I have also been teaching you the good and the right way that of Truth and Holiness that of God's Commandments the Scripture way which is good because it is clean and pure and right because it brings to Heaven and Happiness all those that travel and are undefiled in it And yet further it will make the Cordial much more strong and prove a singular addition to your comfort when you are able to say I have not only shewn and taught you that good and right way but I have likewise taken you by the hand and led you into it You and I have had a communion in holy Duties We have gone to the House God in company and at home we have walked in the way of God in company How chearfully may you converse together and go about the work and business of the day after you have in the morning offered up your Sacrifice unto God and how may you at night part with one another in peace and lye down to rest in your Beds after you have desir'd the spreading of the Divine Wing over you and committed your selves to the protection of that God who is the Keeper of Israel and doth neither slumber nor sleep If there be not wilful commission of known sins nor a wilful omission of other known duties but a sincere desire and endeavour of approving your selves to God in all holy Conversation a due and constant care of performing Family-duties will afford you great peace so that nothing need to offend you And let me add this that constancy in this work will be a soveraign Antidote against many of those things that cause convulsions and broils and disorders in too many houses What passions are there in them and how unruly and exorbitant by which all is put into a flame What discontents what animosities what quarrels and contentions that people are so far from enjoying one another that they cannot enjoy themselves by means whereof the nearness of the Relation becomes a great aggravation of the affliction but joynt-fellowship in Family-duties and execises of Religion may very much help in this case both to the purpose of preventing those feuds if you do but consider that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting As you must pray in Faith so in Love You must not in wrath pray to him that is the God of Love It will also help to the repairing of a breach and healing of a wound when there is one made if you duly consider that of our Saviour Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift Reconciliation must go before supplication if we would have audience with God How can you think your Father should be pleased if you live at variance with his Children Peter would have Love between Husband and Wife that their prayers might not be hindered 1 Pet. 3.7 They that quarrel together will not be fit to pray together Observe Iames his method laid down for general observance among Christians Iam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed Seek peace with one another by confession and then peace with God by prayer But to return this Family-serving of God will promote inward peace in them that are Governours it cannot but be a comfort to you to think that while other houses have been the sink of sin yours have been the dwelling places of the most High Others have been Bethavens houses of vanity yours have been Bethels the houses of God in others there hath been the serving of divers lusts and fellowship with Devils and the unfruitful works of darkness but in yours there hath been the serving of God and a fellowship kept up with the Father and with his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In a word while other houses have been the Synagogues of Satan yours have been the Temples of the Living God and the Churches of Christ. As we do find godly Religious Families dignified in the Scriptures and honoured with the illustrious name of Churches Thus Paul Rom. 16.3 bids them greet Priscilla and Aquila his helpers in Christ Iesus and also verse 5. the Church that was in their house And again in Col. 4.15 He ordered them to salute Nymphas and the Church that was in his house i. e. the Family which was Christian and Godly and besides their joyning together in Manual Labour and houshold business did unite and joyn together in the Worship and Service of God And I have read that in the last Century before this the House of George Prince of Anhalt for the good Orders that were observed therein was said to be Ecclesia a Church for the Religion
upon Earth to Sun your selves in his Beams to solace your selves in his Arms to Delight your selves in that fulness of Joy which is in his presence and to bathe your selves in that River or rather Ocean of Pleasures which is at his Right Hand for evermore You that have walked in the same way shall come to the City of God the heavenly Ierusalem of which the Lord and the Lamb are will be the everlasting light and having set your Hand to the work of God and having had your Heart in it you shall enter into the same rest You that have mourned together and together mingled your Groans and Tears and poured out bitter Complaints against your Sins and your Selves shall then rejoice together and that with exceeding Joy because of your own and each others thorough Cure and perfect Health You that have confest your faults together both Heart and Life-sins shall then be deliver'd from them and triumph over them all You that have prayed together upon Earth and with all the power of your Souls Besieged the Throne of Grace shall in Heaven sing praises together even Eternall Allelujahs and to make the Consort compleat and that melodious Harmony the more ravishing you shall be joined with an innumerable Company of Angels and all the Saints that were Redeemed unto God by the Blood of the Lamb. Oh! how deliciously sweet will it be to your Souls who have been the Father of a gracious Family or the Mother of it if at the last and great day when the whole World shall be summon'd to appear and give up their account to God you shall be able to say Lord here am I and the Children which thou hast given me these thou gavest to me in thy goodness and these I gave up to thee in Covenant and accordingly I brought them up for thee I am not ashamed to own them for mine and I trust that in Christ thou wilt be graciously pleased to call them thine now thou art making up thy Jewels these I did carefully teach thy fear and did also lead them in the way that thou didst chuse and they were willing to learn and ready to follow they were my hope when but little and my comfort when grown up and now Lord we present our selves before thee in hope of being accepted by thee and finding favour and then our Lord Jesus shall look upon you with a gracious Eye and say I know you you are some of my old Friends and Acquaintance you did rejoice and work Righteousness and remembred me in my ways and in those ways I did meet with you Come ye blessed of my Father you are welcome to me and you will be so to him inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world you have been industrious seekers and now you shall be successful and happy finders you have been running the Race now you shall receive the Prize you have been sowing in Prayers and Tears and a Consciencious performance of Duty and now you shall with joy reap the Harvest your Faith shall be swallowed up of Vision and your Hope of Fruition This is no more my dearly Beloved than what you and such as you may with good ground hope for and live in the joyful expectation of and the lively hope of it may very well allay the bitterness of Death and afford you that comfort which may through Christ keep your Souls in perfect peace even when you are in the greatest agonies and strugglings with the King of Terrors When you are ready to draw your latest Breath and to bid farewel to all the world and to set up your Sails for the other world and to shoot the Gulf your Conscience can bear you witness that you have heartily submitted your selves to God and believingly closed with the Lord Iesus Christ renouncing all confidence in the Flesh and making mention of his Righteousness as that only by which you must be justified yet that you have not had an idle and unactive Faith but endeavoured to walk in all the Ordinances and Commandments of the Lord blameless and that you have been sincerely desirous to improve your interest and power for the honour of God and accordingly have order'd and brought up your Family for him and so have spent your time together in his fear and service I say you may hereupon chearfully commit your own Souls to him as to a faithful Creator and also your Children to him them you may leave in his Hand as the proper Objects of his Covenant Love and Fatherly Care hoping that you shall meet again in his Blessed Presence and live for ever in his Kingdom and Glory You see I have brought from your selves you that are Masters Mistresses Parents Heads and Governours of Families Eight Arguments for your setting and keeping up in them the Worship of God and Religious Exercises and upon every one of them I have insisted long and enlarged much that if it be possible I might convince your Judgments and work upon your hearts and affections Now the question is what you think of and say to these things For mine own part though I do not and hope never shall overvalue any of my own labours yet I would set a great estimate and high price upon all the truths of which I am sure these things which I have brought to you are some how much soever they may taste of the Earthen Vessel in which they come to you yet know assuredly they are of God And let me add it is a common Saying and a true one that Interest governs the World though it is no less common and true that men are greatly mistaken about their real and grand interest placing it where it is not But I say if your own interest have any place and power with you if you would secure and promote it you will find not only good but abundant reason for the doing of that which I am pressing upon you viz. Setting up the Worship of God in your Families And if any of you have hitherto been strangers to it I earnestly beseech you to shew your selves persons of teachable and tractable Spirits easie to be intreated and evidently to manifest your fear of God and love to your selves by your speedy doing it take not up with some inclinations towards it or good purposes or resolutions for the future but up and be doing fall presently to practice for Gods sake and for your own sake and for your Families sake do not defer and put off do not say you will do it afterward for though that should stop the mouth of a sleeping lazie Conscience it will by no means please an holy God Besides that is no other than a wretched fallacy and base cheat that a malicious Devil and a treacherous deceitful heart would put upon you that Old Saying carrieth a great truth in it Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit He that is not fit and willing to day will be
with you and in you and keeping a Book of Accounts in which is inserted and recorded what it observes Now then ought you not to repair this damage to your utmost and since you have done and go on to do them so much hurt should you not do them all the good you can and be heartily glad when it is in your power to do it have you shewn them many things by which they have offended God and will you not shew them by counsel and practice those things that will please him I beseech you to bestir and lay out your selves and your all for the making of them amends and the recovering them out of that Snare of the Devil into which you have helpt to bring them In what I now say I do not put you upon impossibilities nor the doing of that which is without the reach of your power I do not bid you sanctifie them by forming Christ and planting Grace in their hearts I do not bid you raise them out of the Grave of Corruption and breath into their Souls the Breath of Spiritual Life that must be effected by the Arm of Omnipotency none else can do it none hath a Regenerating Power but he that hath a Creating Power but you may pray for them in your private Retirements and you may pray with them that God would be pleased to give them his Spirit and to work his Grace in them You may take your Children and your Servants with you and carry them to God and beg of him that he would pity and help them As you read when our Lord Iesus was here upon Earth Tabernacling among Men they came to him from all parts of the Land begging of him a Cure for themselves and their Children and their Servants as the matter did require Now Christ is in Heaven he hath the same power that you must needs believe and grant for here he was in his State of lowest Humiliation there he is in his State of highest Preferment and Exaltation After his Resurrection he told his Disciples all Power was given him both in Heaven and Earth and distance of place doth not hinder He can help afar off as well as at hand his Arm being long as well as strong There is no need of this great Physician leaving his Fathers Right Hand and coming down in Person to cure Diseased Souls by sending his Word he can heal them as he did formerly Psal. 107. v. 20. And his Glory hath not in the least detracted from his Mercy His Heart is now what it was as loving and tender his Bowels are not shrunk up nor do his Compassions fail Iesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 As his Hand of Power is not shortened so his gracious Ear is not grown heavy therefore go to him taking Faith along with you and say Lord my Children were born blind O! do thou anoint them with thine Eye-salve that they may receive their sight Open their Eyes that they may see wonderful things out of thy Law and the precious things of thy Gospel that they may see the sinfulness of Sin and the beauty of Holiness that they may see their own undone condition and the absolute need they have of Christ together with the all-sufficiency of his Righteousness and the riches of his Grace the sweetness of his Government and the easiness of his Yoke Go to him and say Lord my Children are grievously troubled with a Devil a proud Devil a lying Devil a disobedient stubborn obstinate Devil O that thou wouldest make thy Power known in the casting of him out Once more go to him and say Lord My Children have got the Leprosie of Sin it hath spread it self all over them O do thou say I will be ye clean My Children are Enemies in their Minds by wicked works Enemies to Thee and all that is spiritually good O do thou reconcile them that of Enemies to Thee they may become Enemies to Sin and for the time to come they may love thy Father thy Self and Spirit thy Truth and Ways Lord My Children are the Slaves of Satan and they delight in their Chain they serve divers Lusts and are pleased with their Bondage and count their Drudgery a Recreation O! let these Lawful Captives of the Mighty be delivered break their Chains asunder and bring them into the Liberty of thy Children and as they have yielded their members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now and for the time to come they may yield their members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Rom. 6.20 And what you do to this purpose for your Children do also for your Servants take them up in the Arms of your Love and Prayer and lay them at the foot of God and beg him that he would sanctifie and save them And as you can thus pray and plead with God for them so you can add hereunto if you will There are other things which you can do You cannot infuse into them a Principle of Grace but you may teach them the Principles of Religion you may shew the way in which they should walk though you cannot put that way in their hearts as we have that expression Psal. 84.5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee in whose heart are the ways of them You cannot bow their Wills to God's nor raise and spiritualize their Affections nor set them upon their proper Objects those things which are above but you may inform their Judgments You cannot write the Law of God in their hearts nor put his Fear into their inward parts but you may acquaint them with the Law of God and read the Bible to them and hear them read both it and other Othodox good Books but the Bible most and rather than the best Books in the World So again you cannot make them good but you may set a good Example before them and write a very fair Copy for them to imitate and invite them to tread in your steps saying to them as Paul did Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ and walk so as ye have us for an example It is certain all this is in your power you may do it and oh that you would Oh that you would abound in the doing of it considering how much you have done against them how greatly you have prejudiced them how much they have suffered through your means how much they have been tainted by you Really you are obliged to this this is no more than what you owe to these poor Creatures and if you are careless negligent and wanting herein you are unjust you with hold that which is meet and it tends to your own poverty and sorrow at the last it is in the power of your hand to do it therefore do not withhold it from them to whom it is due it is a Debt and that both of Charity and of Equity up then in your several Families and apply to this excellent
and goodness of God that since poor Creatures are for ever ruin'd thorough your sinful neglect their Ghosts after their death do not continually haunt you and dogg you from place to place and from room to room and undraw your Curtains and with a ghastly Countenance and dreadful Looks stare you in the Face for their Blood lyeth on you yea it is you that have been their Murderers you have Murder'd their precious Souls you have poyson'd them by your bad and heathenish Examples by your living in a wretched ungrateful forgetfulness of God and in a sinful vile neglect of his Worship and Service not having his glory in your Eyes nor his fear before them You have been the death of them by with-holding from them that which was their due Family-instruction which you were obliged to have given them and other Family-duties which you were bound to have perform'd with them V. And lastly I judge it worth while as to the business in hand to enquire of you that are Parents Whether your Children have not been dedicated and given up to God in and by Baptism And of you that are Masters and Governours of Families whether you do not believe that the Fathers and Mothers of those who are your Apprentices and Servants have also dedicated and given them up unto God I know there is room and reason enough at this day for such a Question because the Administration of that Ordinance unto the Infants of Believers themselves is by so many denied and decried and therefore I ask again whether they have been brought under the Bond of the Covenant And whether they have had the Seal of the Covenant ministred to them Have they not been Baptized I do heartily wish that the Children of all professed Christians were and whatever dust hath been raised and is continued I doubt not but when that happy time shall come wherein the Iews shall be converted and brought to the owning and believing in our dear Lord Iesus that Controversie will be happily determin'd and Infant-baptism found to be not of Men but of God But I ask now whether yours have been Baptized If they have then First Know and consider that God hath a special right and propriety in them A more special Interest in your Children and Servants and a more peculiar right to them than he hath in and to others in the World He hath a right to others to all by vertue of Creation and Preservation as they are the work of his Hands from whom they receiv'd their Being at the first and by whom their Being is continued and their Souls held in Life but he hath another superadded right to these viz. by vertue of Donation the Parents Gift they have a natural right to dispose of their Children and these have disposed of theirs to God which was an act of the highest Wisdom and dearest Love all indeed are Gods Servants and let them carry toward him accordingly but Persons Baptized are his Sealed Servants Secondly Not to train such up for God is not only cruelty to them yea prodigious and barbarous cruelty but likewise it is apparent injustice to God yea it is Sacriledge the worst of Sacriledge It is accounted and is a wicked thing to rob Churches of their Vestments and Ornaments and Plate but what is that to a robbing God of Men and Women and Children and delivering them up to Vanity and Sin and the Devil certainly that propriety which God hath in them your Children and Servants is a great obligation upon you to bring them up for him and to instruct them in his work and service and to make them join with you therein that by being well acquainted with it and us'd to it they may be expert at it that they may carry as becomes them and act in a sweet suitableness to that Relation in which they stand to God and be in the better capacity of setting up his Worship afterward in their Families when they come to have Houses of their own that by this means Religion may be posteritiz'd and descend among you from Generation to Generation and when you are gone down to your Graves there may not want those who will stand up in their day to serve own and honour the God of their Fathers Thirdly Would it not be a trouble to you if those that are yours should prove wicked Without peradventure if you are Christians indeed as you profess your selves if you have any real goodness in you and not meerly a vain shew and empty name if you have any Sense if any Bowels if any softness and tenderness of Heart it cannot but be very affecting to you and exceeding grievous to you to think that any of yours should prove Sons and Daughters of Belial Persons that know not the Lord and that fear not the Lord sure I am the very fear of such a thing hath made some gracious Persons go bowed down and in the bitterness of their Spirits nay would it not grieve you that any of your Servants who are Gods should turn Rebels against him or that any of your Servants who are Gods more than yours should prove desperate Enemies to him and instead of delighting in his Service and laying out their All for his Glory and the Interest of his Name of whom you have had so long and ample Experience and unto whom they also are so much engaged should absurdly turn their Backs against him and do the sordid filthy works of sin and drudge for a Devil and after all their pains receive no other wages than death yea the second death which will be followed with a Burial in Hell out of which there is no Resurrection and there is one thing more which I commend to you as worthy of your solemn and frequently repeated thoughts viz. That it will greatly add to your guilt and by consequence no less add to your affliction and horrour if it be imprest and set home upon your Consciences that this miscarriage of theirs did come to pass through any gross and wilful neglect of yours and was the bitter effect of your failure in point of duty which you did owe both to God and to them Let me tell you how light soever any that hear me or read this Book may make of these things now in this damnably Atheistical and Profane Age yet you will find them like a Talent of Lead yea heavier than a Mountain when God is pleased to set them home Unto what hath been spoken with reference both to your Children and Servants there is something which I would add with respect to your Children in particular and that is this Fourthly You that are Parents consider I beseech you and lay to heart your own actual dedicating and giving your Children up to God Have you not done it I ask you again have you not done it And that in the most sacred and solemn way of a Gospel Ordinance while others did satisfie themselves with giving their Children a Name as if
and by practising it they may fall in love with it for Childhood and youth are vanity and by consequence very apt to follow after vanity and in time they may come to love it so much as to consume and spend their time in it untill their purses be exhausted their Estates dwindled and shrunk into nothing and themselves with their Families reduced to beggery and a morsel of bread and at the same time their Souls are lost into the bargain and surely rather than that should come to pass it is a thousand thousand times more desirable that all the Cards in London in England yea in the World should with just indignation be Sacrificed in the Flames In short as to this I beg of you that you would do justly in giving to God the things which are Gods and let not Cards nor any other game hinder his Work and Service nor keep you from the performance of your Duty Many have been undone by gaming and thousands enrich'd by praying it was by this means that Iacob as a Prince had power with God and Men and did prevail Oh! that so much may suffice to be spoken to that complaint and Oh! that God would accompany it with his Spirit and Blessing There is another thing which is indeed the matter of a general Complaint and hath raised a great Cry that reached mine Ears and the Ears of many of my Reverend Brethren and that which renders it so much a Gravamen so grievous and afflictive to our spirits and those of other persons truly fearing God and concern'd for the Honour and Interest of our Religion which deserves to be dearer to us than our Lives is that it is the common yea daily custom not of the vile Debauchees of the Age the wicked and profane Crew from whom nothing is to be expected that savours of goodness and sobriety but even of sober Persons grave Citizens yea of Men eminent for their Profession Members of Churches worshipping God in that way which so many unjustly labour to fix a black brand of Infamy upon but our Heavenly Advocate will one day plead our Cause and bring forth the Righteousness of it as the Light But the thing is such Persons sitting so long as they do at Publick houses of one kind or another and spending there so much time that it is nine ten yea and often eleven of the Clock at night before they return to their home so deeply engaged are they in their Clubs and Discourses in telling and hearing of News I bless God I very seldom hear of Professors and Members of Churches being charged with Drunkenness Uncleanness or other gross Immoralities though I wish there were none of them guilty and do fear there be some who are Spots in our Communion yet this we can say we allow them not and if we did know them and there were just proof we should proceed against them according to Scripture-Rule Further to prevent my being mistaken I shall say these two things First I do not speak against mens inquiring after News or their being desirous to inform themselves concerning the State of Affairs and how matters go in the Nation and abroad and with the Church of God specially in such a time as this When the Army of Israel went out to War against the Philistines good old Eli could not stay at home but out he went and sate upon a Seat by the ways side watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God 1 Sam. 4.13 And I look upon it as a duty yea a necessary part of duty in us all that so we may be accordingly affected and the better understand how to order our Spirits and demean our selves and how to direct our Prayers and Praises unto God that so there may be no unseemly discord and jarring between God's Providences and our Prayers but an harmony and consent Secondly I do not speak a word against Citizens having their Clubs in order to the better and more prudent management of their Trades this I am a stranger to and therefore do not meddle with for any thing I know it may be convenient for them and profitable and more than so needful but for Men to sit in those places so long and keep from their own houses till it be so late is indeed blame-worthy and calls loudly for a reformation and oh that I could help toward it I will do my endeavour and in order thereunto offer some things to your consideration First if any of you who are here present before the Lord and are Husbands be guilty of this thing and make an ordinary practice thereof I beseech you when you are most calm and composed seriously to reflect upon it and think with your selves whether this be kindness to your Wives Is this walking answerably to that near intimate conjugal relation into which you did voluntarily and of your own choice enter promising to express all love and tenderness Is this living up to the Law and doing the duty of that Relation Is this being as good as your word Is this your love and kindness to her in whose Company and Converse you ought to delight above all others except Gods Is this to be a Comfort to her as you ought to be Think that while you are abroad Merry Jocund Pleasant Delighting your self with your Friends and Wine she for want of you is at home Melancholick Concern'd Afraid Troubled lest you should Contract any Guilt or come by any Hurt at least she is solitary and alone Secondly To that thought add another While I am here doth not my Family want me May you not be more useful and do much more good at Home than you are capable of doing in one of those Publick Houses What becomes of your own Vineyard which you are bound to keep Would it not turn to a better account and prove far more advantagious both to you and yours to be teaching of your Family commending God and Godliness to them giving them good Counsels instilling into them sound Principles reading to them your selves or hearing them read the Holy Scriptures and other good Books by which they may be richly furnished for good Works and made wise to Salvation or Catechising them about the main Fundamental Points of Religion and examining them as to their knowledge in the things of God for want of due care wherein while they are young many when they come to be grown up prove unstable Souls and an easie prey to them that lye in wait to deceive Possibly you do not and I will hope that you do not Drink to Excess in those Houses nor spend too much Money upon them who will not thank you for it afterward but what saist thou Conscience Speak out to them speak plain do they not spend too much time there May they not spend it much better at home and about something else Thirdly Suppose the great and holy God should come to you at such a time and in such a place would you
strength in those Arguments which have been us'd and urg'd for the pressing it upon us so that I am convinced of the goodness of the thing and own it to be my Duty and would be glad to do it if I could but I am not in a capacity my ignorance is exceeding great and my parts full out as little I have no such Gifts as other Men have and so tremble to think of undertaking so great and weighty a thing as this should I make an attempt for certain I should most shamefully miscarry and render my self ridiculous it is to be fear'd that this is really the case of too too many in this City yea and possibly of some in this Congregation Answ. To such an one I will answer in these following Particulars I. Thou who makest this Objection art a very great Object of Pity and I do heartily pity thee What! O Man canst thou converse in the World and discourse with thine Acquaintance manage thine Affairs and carry on thy Trade and yet not Pray Canst thou deal with thy Customers and not with thy God Thou hast scarce thy Fellow in any sort of Wretches there is not a poor Creature in Town or Countrey that wanteth Bread and hath a craving Stomach but he can beg though he doth not know one Letter in the Book yet he can ask for an Alms nor is there a Malefactor in danger of his Life but will find something to say for himself though he cannot make out his Innocency nor clear himself of the Crime laid to his Charge though he hath nothing to say why the Sentence of Death should not be past upon him yet he can fall down upon his Knees and say Mercy my Lord Mercy and canst thou not do as much when thy Case is as bad and worse Thy Soul Man is ready to starve and so are the Souls of thy Family all in extream necessity and canst thou not beg Thou art worthy of death and so are they Sentence hath been already past and hast thou not any thing to say for the staying of the Execution Thou and thy Family have a great number of great wants and canst thou not ask a supply when it may be had for asking Thou art a poor sorry pitiful Creature indeed if there be one in the World It is a thousand pities thou shouldest have a Family a Wife and Children who canst neither provide necessaries for their Souls nor beg for them Thou hast indeed but little very little love and kindness for thy self and Family in thy heart and as little brains in thy head who canst not go to God and speak a few good words for them II. Since thou dost not to this day know how to Pray I advise thee to learn to do it and that speedily for it is high time when thou wast young and little thou didst not know great A. but now thou canst read distinctly roundly yea and write a legible hand how came that about thou didst learn it So when thou wast first bound an Apprentice to thy Master thou couldest do nothing at thy Trade no not a stroak thou wast a very Ignoramus thou couldest not tell the Price of those Commodities which thou wast to deal in much less judge of their goodness nay thou couldest not so much as tell their Names but now thou art expert and skilful and there are very few Persons that can out do thee in thy business and how came this about thou didst learn it In the present Case go thou and do the like thou sayst thou canst not Pray I say go thou and learn to Pray be thou who thou wilt for thy Worldly Quality I am sure thou art not too good for it and I hope thou art not too old beg therefore of God that he would teach thee the Disciples desired this very thing of Christ Luke 11.1 Lord teach us to Pray as Iohn also taught his Disciples and without more ado he did it go you and do likewise fall upon your knees and say Lord I am a poor ignorant Creature I do not know how to Pray O! do thou teach me And for your comfort and encouragement know First It is the work of the Spirit to assist poor Souls in Prayer it is one of the works of his Office Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what to Pray for as we ought that is as much as thou canst say of thy self neither know how to Pray to Pray as we should nor what to Pray for but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Secondly God hath graciously promised this Spirit to his Church and Children and that under the very notion of a Spirit of Prayer Zech. 12.10 I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem a Spirit of Grace and Supplication He will give much of it he will pour it out Thirdly God is most ready to make good his Promises this in particular He is both faithful and free Luke 11.13 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Go therefore and beg of God that he would give this Spirit to thee III. Do thy endeavour making use of those means by which an ability to Pray I mean the gift of Prayer may be in some measure attained for we are not to please our selves with expecting much and doing nothing idle hopes are vain if you ask me what means you should make use of I briefly answer First Carefully observe others Godly Ministers and Christians when thou hearest them Pray mind how they pour out their requests unto God and get something out of their Prayers which is proper for thee as when Persons are in a Garden where they see variety of curious and pleasant Flowers they will pick one here and another there for themselves do the like with those apt and pertinent expressions which thou hearest from others make them thine own only in using them let tongue and heart go together Secondly Be very conversant in the holy Scriptures and there take notice of precepts and promises and turn them into Prayer begging that God would give what he commands and perform what he promiseth in particular acquaint thy self well with David's Psalms in which you will find abundance of excellent matter both for confession and petition for prayer and praise Thirdly Be much in studying your own and your Families State and consider how matters stand with you seriously think what sins there are and what afflictions what wants and what dangers and thereupon go to God and beg of him the pardon of those sins and power against them beg the sanctifying of those afflictions that they may be wholsom though bitter and out of the eater there may come Meat make a thankful acknowledgment of the Mercies you receive and give unto God the glory of them
Mercy even then let them see that you love them and that though their sinful Practices be odious to you yet their Persons are dear and all the fruit you aim at is the taking away their Sin and that you design your hottest anger for nothing else but a refining fire to separate their dross from them that afterwards they may come out like Gold When you chide them be sure it is not without a cause nor more than it doth deserve He is no Wise Man that for the roasting of an Egg makes a fire big enough to roast an Ox all that cost might have been saved and the thing better done In such a case a holy warmth is necessary and highly desirable but let not your tongue be set on fire with the fire of Hell no no let Grace be poured into your lips and out of them too mix your severest Chidings with convincing Discourses gracious Counsels and perswasive Arguments and while you would drive them from Sin at the same time draw them to Vertue and Godliness When you Correct them do it in Wisdom if Rods will do make no use of Scorpions yea and let Love lay on the Rod remembring God who contends in measure let them see clearly that your chastning of them is not for your pleasure but their own profit that they might be reduced from the errour of their way and made partakers of Gods holiness and when you Correct pray for them It is Gods Ordinance therefore beg a blessing of him upon his own Ordinance that through him it may prosper to the destruction of the corrupt Flesh and so the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 5.5 This is the ready way to gain them a most proper course to render all the means you use effectual upon them then will they look upon your very smitings as a kindness and upon your reproofs as an excellent Oyl that will not break their heads This is the way to make your Counsels theirs and to make them yet more your own by gaining their hearts As kindness makes subjection most easie to the inferiour and most pleasant the Yoak will not gaul if it be lin'd with Velvet so it commands with the greatest power it draws suaviter fortiter sweetly and strongly so that the Soul runs it allures and constrains too and at the same time it makes Government pleasant to the Superiour plucking Thorns out of the Crown and instead of them sticking it with Roses Whereas an imperious froward Lord or Master doth not only make his Family uneasie but himself too as their Yoak is heavy so his Seat will be hard and while he is all for Whip and Spur it will make both his arm and his heart ake to hold the Bridle Remember that Gods way is to draw with the Cords of a Man i. e. with rational Arguments for the convincing of the Judgement and with loving kindness in order to a moving upon and winning of the affections be ye followers of him as dear Children The more there is of love in your hearts and lives the more there is of God the more do you express and glorifie him and here let me add that which followeth hereupon or rather most sweetly accompanies it Sixthly Be not severe and rigid in your dealings with them but tender and compassionate It is said of the Egyptians that they made the Children of Israel serve with rigour and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in Mortar and in Brick and in all manner of service in the Field all their Service wherein they made them serve was with rigour Tyranny Violence Fierceness citra ullam clementiam aut misericordiam without any clemency or mercy Exod. 13.14 therefore Egypt is called an Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 but Israelites were forbidden to rule over one another after this manner If thy Brother be waxen poor and sold unto thee thou shalt not compell him to serve as a Bonds Servant Levit. 25.39 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour but shalt fear thy God ver 43. over your Brethren the Children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with rigour v. 46. ye shall not rack him with labour nor with blows nor with threatnings ye Masters forbear threatnings Ephesians 6.9 not altogether sometimes they may be necessary but do not use them always nor often Well then God would have you not rigorous and oppressive but tender be so then as to instance in some particulars In their Sickness let them have what you can afford and their case doth require give them convenient Lodging due Attendance with all that is necessary both for Food and Physick that so they may see their Lives are valued by you and precious to you and that it is your will they should not want any thing that is fit for them How did the good Centurion regard his sick Servant Luke 7.2 3. His Servant who was dear unto him was sick and when he heard of Iesus he sent unto him the Elders of the Iews beseeching him that he would come and heal his Servant By taking care of them under their Distempers you will gain their hearts yet more and engage them to take the greater care of your business when their health shall be restored them In their Work do not over-task them do not call them to that which you know they have not skill to do nor lay upon them such heavy burthens as are above their strength to bear though such Task-Masters have been found among Egyptians let there be none such among professed Christians It is more becoming the Servants of Pharaoh who is called a Dragon-Leviathan than the followers of Iesus who is the Lamb of God a Lyon indeed for strength in his defending of them but a Lamb for meekness in his dealings with them when he invites Men and Women to take his Yoak upon them he tells them it is easie and his burthen is light and whether it be so or no ask one of his Servants who did draw in it and was able to speak from his own experience and he hath past his word for it and left it upon Record that his Commands are not grievious And in their failings be ye merciful to them if you are only concerned bear as much as is fit but if God be concerned too make them know your deep resentment but withall do what you can to restore them with a Spirit of meekness trample not upon them when down but lend them your hand toward the raising them up again to Repentance And by it I would not have you as I said before wink at Sin either in your Children or in your Servants for who knows how great a matter a little fire kindles how many Unclean Spirits may follow one that was admitted and found entertainment before Besides to bear with Sin in them is the way to provoke the anger of God against your selves because you do not punish Sin in them God
will punish that neglect in you Yet even in that case you ought to act with prudence and Christian moderation and let the offending Parties find that while your wrath burns against their sin your bowels yearn over them As when God threatned Adam and Eve for their Disobedience yet he threw out to them a plank after the Ship-wreck and before he turned them out of Paradise he opened to them a door of hope in that early and most gracious Promise the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head And for the promoting of this tenderness in you consider your own obnoxiousness to God they have their miscarriages and you are not without but do offend in many things you did so when you were young as they are and to this day you are not faultless but if the Lord should be strict to mark iniquities you would never be able to abide it and therefore have need to go down upon your knees every day and humbly sue out your pardon and it is a plain case such as stand in need of a Pardon themselves should be very free to give it out to others and upon those terms only it is to be expected our Saviour having told us that if we forgive not men their trespasses neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses 6. Mat. 15. That King was justly severe with his cruel Servant who owed him Ten thousand Talents and upon his intreaty had that vast debt forgiven him but meeting with his fellow Servant who owed him no more than Five hundred Pence laid hold on him took him by the Throat and cast him into Prison whereupon his Lord was wrath and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due So saith Christ shall my Heaveâ—ly Father do also unto you if ye from your heart forgive not every one his brother their trespasses Matthew 18 23. So that your Lives your Pardon your Salvation depend upon this if you will shew no mercy you are not like to find any that measure which you meet to others shall be meeted out to you again neither is this forgiveness to be past to a Brother only but to an Enemy to a Servant upon profession of Repentance and the promise of amendment How Pathetically did the Apostle Paul plead with Philemon for his forgiving of Onesimus and receiving him again into his favour and Family who had before been an unfaithful Servant but was at that time a Penitent and Convert Eightly and Lastly In the measuring out of your love and kindness make no difference but where the merit and desert of Persons did make one first This is the way to encourage virtue without discouraging any one Indeed it is too common and ordinary a fault and too frequently visible in Families for Parents to be partial unequal yea and unjust in the distribution of their favours when by-standers are not able to give any no not the least shadow nor colour of Reason for it One Child and possibly that too none of the best shall be the Darling and have all the countenance and respect and all the attendance and abundance of good things given it when the others are slighted and neglected as if they were not their own or not worthy to be owned though they have cost the Mothers much sickness in breeding them and as much pain in bringing them forth and as much care and trouble in their rearing of them up yet after all they are looked upon as the refuse and off-scouring of the Family and whereas they have a right to the priviledges of Children they are debased to the condition of Servants if not of Slaves This I my self have been a mournful spectator of feeling in me the workings of those pâ—ssions of grief and displeasure which such a matter might well raise and as for those Parents which are herein guilty I desire them seriously to consider these few things which I shall but briefly touch upon First What a great discouragement this is to thâ—se poor neglected Children Hereby you damp their Spirits and take off their edge possibly they are dull and heavy already and you take a course to make them more so if they be naturally quick and lively they are the more apprehensive and sensible of your unkindness and that causeth the greater dejection Secondly You create in them a grudge against him who is your fondling And lay the foundation of a present and future if not a perpetual breach and he or she who is the object of your unequal love may for that very reason be the sole object of their envy and rage I suppose you know how Ioseph's dreams did incense his Brethren against him and how do you know but your dreaming or rather doating folly may have as diresul an effect of one kind or another Thirdly You do provoke those Children to be less respective and dutiful to you Truly Parents if they be wise will so carry as to get their Childrens love for as they depend upon you now so you may when they are grown up stand in need of them though now they are but little ones yet remember they may come to be Men and Women and be great supports and comforts to you when you can do little for your selves and it is not your bringing of them forth not their meer having a being from you that will endear you to them in case there be afterward an apparent defect in your love you will find their memories are tenacious I heartily wish this may never be your case but there is too much reason to fear it and if it should come to pass you will see cause to repent but alas then it will be too late the matter is past cure Fourthly This partial and unequal affection of Parents may provoke against them the Divine displeasure Yea and make them to feel the smarting effects thereof God may write his anger in such plain and leigible Characters that they may run and read their sin in the punishment As in another case when God saw that Iacob loved Rachel but not Leah or Rachel more than Leah he opened the Womb of Leah and gave her Power to Concieve and bring forth but shut up Rachels Womb and struck her with Barreness 29. Genesis 31. and I will appeal to you have not some of you known Parents herein chargeable the Father or Mother have set their Hearts too much upon one Child and their Affections have run with a strong and violent stream in that Channel and it hath issued in lamentation and woe one of these two things have followed thereupon Either First God hath taken away that Child from them They hugg'd it to death as the Ape doth her young ones Ionah was exceeding glad because of the gouâ—d that shadowed his head and in some measure helped and relieved him against the vehement scorching heat of the Sun here joyced with great joy he was overjoyed and what followed God prepared a Worm when
the Morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered 4. Ionah 6 7. He joyed too much and his enjoyment was short over-loving a Child is over laying it It is as killing it with kindness Or Secondly If that Child hath been continued to them it hath been in wrath They have the life of it but they want the comfort of it for it hath proved naught and vicious and so been a Thorn in their side an Heart-break to them They had better while it was Young have followed it to the Grave than see it now notoriously wicked an Enemy to God and all goodness disobedient to them and galloping to Hell with full speed as if it thought it could not get thither soon enough Therefore upon all these accounts the advice which I give unto Parents is this observe the spirits and carriages of your Children and also of your Servants which of them do most fear God and respect you which of them are most tractable and diligent and let them have most love and respect who do deserve it best bestow your greatest cost upon that Soil which makes the best returns by this means they will have no just cause of quarreling you By this you will prevent envy discontent and breaches among them and also promote Piety and Goodness in your Families by stirring up in them all an excellent sweet and Friendly Emulation So that there shall be a striving together without wrath and bitterness how they may excel in Godliness and Virtue and in all those things which you require of them and which will render them acceptable and pleasant unto you this will sweeten and commend obedience to them it will encrease and add to their endeavours it will be as a Golden Spur to quicken their pace in the way that they should go Now for a Coronis or conclusion of this my Discourse upon this great and specially at this day necessary Subject of Family Duties I shall add some Miscellany Counsels and make a kind of Medley inviting whoever will to come and take and apply those of them to themselves which they shall judge most proper and pertinent to their case and the God of Heaven bless them to them First Look diligently lest any fail or fall short of the grace of God 12 Hebrews 15. You see there it is the Apostle's Advice it will be your wisdom to take and follow it see that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you else you are none of his and that you have been made partakers of his renewing sanctifying Influences without the Spirit of God you will never be fit for the Work of God Without Christ's breathing upon his Apostles and their receiving from him the Holy Ghost they could never have done the work of an Apostle so without Christs breathing upon you and your receiving his Spirit you will never rightly perform the work of a Christian. where there is not the Spirit of Grace there is not the Spirit of Supplication Nor will a person void of the Spirit and Grace be welcom to God nor his Service pleasing Such an one indeed may peform the External Duties of Reliligion and set up the Worship of God in his Family and it is no more than what he owes to God and to himself and to his House yet that which he doth will not be accepted if the man be bad what he doth cannot be good but is quite spoil'd by his doing it The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Though the Sacrifice for the matter of it be rich and costly yet God's soul loaths and abhors it because a wicked man brings it The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering 4 Gen. 4. first to the person and then to the thing Besides unless you have the Spirit and Grace you will not be constant in Duty a small matter shall take you off and stop you in your course the question is Will the hypocrite pray always will he always call upon God The Answer is easy and ready no he will not and the Reason is plain because there is not a spring to feed the stream not an inward principle to keep on the motion God complain'd of old That the people drew nigh unto him with their lips but their hearts were far from him Mark though there were appearances before God yet their hearts and God did never meet together in the Duty and therefore the day will most certainly come when there will be a parting between such people and their duties they never cordially and throughly agreed with God himself never came to a full closure with his terms never lov'd him for his holiness nor rejoyced at the remembrance of it and therefore for something or other they will fall out with his Works and Ways Consider my dearly beloved and again consider what the Scripture saith It is a good thing that the Heart be establisht with Grace Heb. 13.9 both with the Doctrine of Grace and with an internal Principle of Grace for the one will not do without the other nothing short of Grace can strengthen stablish and settle the Heart till Grace be infused into the Soul and becomes a new nature in it till it comes to be commander in chief the Heart of man will be fluttering and unstable off and on playing fast and loose with God it will look toward the holy Temple and take some steps in the Way of God and that with seeming life and vigour as much zeal for the Lord of Hosts as Iehu pretended to have but being only a preternatural heat it cools again and the man jades and tires But when once Grace comes in truth and with Power it fixeth the Soul and as when the Rulers of the People and Elders of Israel commanded the Apostles not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Iesus Peter and Iohn answered them thus we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.20 so when there is an holy frame wrought in any they cannot but wait upon God converse and walk with God they cannot but Read and Hear and Pray they cannot live a spiritual life without these spiritual breathings more than another life without natural breathing an holy fear will powerfully drive them to their duty a filial love will sweetly draw them to it and Faith will mightily encourage them in it while they do really and firmly believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him they cannot but be a seeking People while they do believe that let them be stedfast and immoveable and never so much abounding in the Work of the Lord their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord they cannot but be an industrious and diligent People and while they do believe that in the keeping of Gods Commandments there is great reward besides all that which shall be hereafter they will delight themselves greatly in them and it will be their
meat and drink to do them and yet more when besides this Faith in God they themselves have tasted that God is gracious and had experience of that advantage which comes in by religious duties I Love the Lord said David because he hath heard my Voice He hath experience of Gods goodness and a love to him because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Psal. 116.1 2. His mercy to me hath drawn out my love to him and my love shall influence my obedience I love him and I will cleave to him and follow after him Secondly While you are young covet after those gifts which may in some good measure accomplish you for the filling up of your duties and places and the performance of every duty It is an excellent thing for Christians to be well furnished and youth is a golden season for that purpose as for those who are not studious while they are in the morning of their age there is too much ground of fear that they will continue Fools to their latter end It is indeed too apparent that some yea too many who have good natural parts and attained to some Knowledge and Learning are thereupon wretchedly self-conceited and puft up knowing neither themselves nor any body else their pride testifieth against them to their very faces and this is their folly and their shame they have no reason to swell for they are empty and the opinion they have taken up of themselves is far above their abilities when a Wise Man comes to fathom them he finds they are very shallow and their real intrinsick worth doth fall extreamly below that price which they set upon themselves On the other side there are many that pretend to nothing and indeed there is nothing which they may pretend to being altogether ignorant weak and poor their upper room is wholly destitute and unfurnished they are not able to discourse of God and the things of God they cannot pray but want both matter and words whereas they should be rich and increased in goods they are blind and wretched and poor and miserable and whereas they should be thoroughly furnished for every good work they are furnished for none at all And from whence doth this proceed but from their own gross neglect they have not meditated as they should nor read the Scriptures nor heard Sermons as they should they did not labour to stock and store themselves while they are young and so they come to be poor and beggarly when they are old they squandred away their Golden Age and now they are come to their Silver hairs their heads and hearts are little worth I do therefore now direct my Discourse to you young ones of both Sexes and would have you better to befriend your selves and as you do now learn your Trades and your Books and to manage Household business and labour to get betimes a good insight into your several Callings and so to understand them as that you may be able afterward to set them up and carry them on with Credit and to advantage go away and do the like as to Religion and the things of God Begin betimes to mind those things which do most deserve your minding now acquaint your selves with God look into your own hearts and States and study them well get the knowledge of your Sins and Wants when you read or hear or are in company with good Men see that it turn to account and you get something by it make something your own be continually laying up though it be but by little at at a time yet it may come to something The Evangelical Prophet hath this expression Isa. 42.23 Who among you will give ear to this who will hearken and hear for the time to come Truly that is excellent Husbandry very good for Men to be before hand will you study this really it is your best way it is your interest I would advise you to nothing but what doth one way or another make for your own interest this doth so to read for the time to come and to hear for the time to come and to this end consider what you do in other cases you will labour to get Money and Land for the time to come and some of you to stock your selves with Cloaths and Linnen for the time to come and give me if you can a Reason why you should not be as desirous to get Knowledge and Gifts and Grace for the time to come are not these things as good as the other are they not better O! do it then I beseech you do it be not Wise for your Bodies and Fools for your Souls Wise for time and Fools for Eternity See that you do things now in your single capacity while you have the greatest leisure and briskness of Parts that so when you come to be Married and have Families to order and govern you may be Workmen that need not be ashamed and able to do all your Work and Duty And have a treasury out of which you may bring forth good things new and old for the inriching of others whom it should be your desire and will be your comfort to see thriving under you A Christian rich in gifts and grace is most like to do good Thirdly Study well how things stand with your selves and with them that are yours Though I might also add with the Nation and Church of God which are the Body of which you are Members the Ship in which you have so great a venture and since you have a concernment in them you ought to be daily and earnest supplicants for them If I forget thee O Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Ierusalem above my chief Ioy. 137. Psalm 5 6. But that which I advise you at present is a care within doors see how matters stand with your Heart and with your House Be thou diligent to know the state of thy stocks and look well to thy herds 27. Proverbs 23. And if such diligence should be used such knowledge to be got of Flocks and Herds then Men should study and labour to understand their own state and the state of their yoak fellows and Children and Servants be strict observers of them and frequent in your inquiries concerning them and all that are under your charge and see how matters have been with you and them and how they are what are the providences of the day and the dispensations of God toward you and them This will supply you with matter of Prayer yea probably with variety of matter and he that hath good store of matter is most like to find good store of words to express it Though a full Vessel may for a time want vent yet when a little is given it runs apace at the tap This you may gather from those passages of Elihu Iob 23.18 19.20