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
was to be admitted so here young ones think the day is their own when they can say I heard my Father or my Master speak such a word or I saw him do such a thing and from thence they strongly conclude that without all peradventure they may speak and do the same where as poor Creatures they are greatly mistaken that is a very sorry Plea a weak pitiful Argument that cannot justifie them nor will it satisfie God if the thing done be amiss your doing it will not bear them out when the matter comes to be tryed before the Judgment-Seat of Christ nay your Example alone is so far from being sufficient to justifie them that your command will not do it I do indeed know it hath been said If Superiors command what is unlawful Inferiors are bound to obey them and in such a case Though the Superiors shall be damned for their command yet the Inferiors shall be saved for their Obedience but it is a Cursed Opinion we are bound to obey God rather than all the Men in the World their Examples are not for us to follow nor doth their commands oblige us to active Obedience when they run cross to the Law of God and the Wrath of God hath broken out and will still break out against Persons and People for such their Obedience Hos. 5.11 12. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the Commandment therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a Moth and to the House of Judah as Rottenness Wherefore I advise and beseech you that ye would be holy that so ye may be exemplary be you sure to keep the way of God that they may safely tread in your steps do you follow Christ that ye may with boldness call upon them to be followers of you I cannot but again mention that resolution of David and desire you to remember it and make it your fixed resolve too Psal. 101.2 I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way I will walk within my House with a perfect Heart do you the same Behave your selves graciously that is behaving your selves wisely walk in the Scripture-way for that is the perfect way then you may humbly invite God to come unto you and comfortably hope that he will Do this I say in your House in your Families and before your Domesticks where and with whom you do most frequently and intimately converse and in order to the more firm fastening of this Resolution and your better putting it in practice I advise you often to call to mind that excellent Question propounded by the Apostle Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 3. ver 11. Seeing all these things shall be dissolved all what things All those things that he had spoken of in the former part of that Chapter all these things that are within your sight your Families shall be dissolved your nearest and dearest Relations Civil Conjugal Natural shall be dissolved the Union between your Souls and Bodies shall be dissolved those two old dear Friends must part the whole Frame and Fabrick of Nature must be dissolved The Heavens i. e. these visible Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat for the Lord Jesus will be revealed from Heaven in flaming Fire the Earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up what Works Gods Works and Mens Works well what then One Question I would ask you and have you to ask your selves that is this What are you Are you fire proof Are you Gold Can you endure the Burning Can you dwell with devouring Fire and not be devoured by it Another Question is What should you be Take it in the same Apostles words What manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness not of the ordinary make and common size of Professors See that you be Saints of the first rate let your godliness be of the highest pitch and most lovely complexion See that you be excellent and eminent for your Holiness that every step of your way be no other than a walking with God that every one of your actions be right and regular and that your whole Conversation all the windings and turnings of your Lives be plain and evident demonstrations of your holiness and godliness Fourthly Be humble and meek in your Deportments As you are commanded to put on Christ that lie may be visible in your Tempers and Lives and others may love Christum habitantem in vobis Christ dwelling in you so you are commanded to be cloathed with Humility This should be the upper Garment and through this your Graces and Gifts all your Excellencies and Accomplishments will shine with the greater and more taking Beauty I must and do most readily grant there is a distance between the Rulers and the Ruled between Parents and Children Masters and Servants Mistresses and Maids Nature it self teacheth it and God himself hath order'd it and Superiors should know their places and be known in them it is fit it becomes them yea it is their duty and they ought not to part with any of that honour and power and authority with which God hath invested them so to do would be sin And on the other side Inferiours are to understand themselves and to know their places and to keep their distance There is an honour owing from Children to Parents and they ought most chearfully to pay it There is a fear a reverence an awe due from Servants to their Masters and Mistresses and they are bound with all readiness to give it they sin if they do it not they must not think to be as the Proverb hath it hail Fellows well met the Sacred Scripture knoweth no such thing the Great and Holy God doth not allow it see how his Will in this matter is revealed in his Word Eph. 6.1 2. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right honour thy Father and Mother that it may be well with thee and thou maist live long upon the earth ver 5. Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. The like you may read in Col. 3.20 21 22. And again 1 Tim. 6.1 Let as many Servants as are under the yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed God is not the God of Confusion but of Order and it is his Will that Order should be maintained and kept up in Churches and Nations and Families Yet notwithstanding all this it is the duty and very becoming of Superiours as to be low in their own Eyes so to be humble in their Behaviour toward those below them and to condescend to those who are of low degree Christ Iesus was Master though he took upon him the form of a Servant he was Lord of all yea the Lord of Glory yet he was meek and lowly and it
their hands and there are too many that will be one day found with their hands full of blood there are some Men among us that do corrupt and taint the Judgments of their Children and Servants and Poyson their Minds with their Cursed Doctrines and Damnable Heresies I ask no pardon for that expression as too harsh and severe for it is Scripture Language and by their sinful practices and vile debaucheries which are as bad as Rats-bane and they shall be sure to answer for it Others there are that do starve their Souls by not teaching them the way and fear of the Lord not instilling good Principles into them by not setting holy Examples before them which they should imitate not taking them by the hand and leading them in the ways of Righteousness the midst of those Paths of Judgments in which they ought to go by living themselves like so many Heathens and Brutes and teaching others to do the same bringing them up for Hell and fitting them for destruction as if they had taken up a resolution that they would not serve the Lord nor go to Heaven no nor any that belong to them if they can prevent it and these Men likewise shall answer it to God Such shall be dealt with in the same manner as God threatned he would do with the Prophet in case of his being false to his trust and unfaithful to those unto whom he was sent You may see it in Ezek. 3.17 18 Son of Man I have made thee a Watchman to the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me People are in eminent danger of being seduced by False Teachers of being prevailed against by Temptations of Satan and his instruments Ministers must watch over them they must go themselves to God for light teaching instruction and be faithful in teaching when taught and in giving out what they have received Now mark when I say unto the Wicked thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his evil way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thy hands which saith Erasmus is fulmen non verbum not a word but a Thunder-bolt Duty is safe as long as that is done by Ministers they are out of danger out of harms way they shall be accepted and rewarded by God whatever the issue be as to the people among whom they labour Isa. 49.5 Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorius in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength but neglect and carelesness is damnable it brings upon Ministers the guilt of other mens blood and the loss of their own Lives and Souls and believe it so it will upon you who are Parents and Masters of Families Oh consider it my dear Friends Beloved and longed for seriously consider it you are as I formerly said and without doubt you your selves know Prophets in your own Houses there you are to Teach and Rule God hath made you Watchmen to your own Houses and it is your business to study their peace and safety and to seek their good it is your business to acquaint them with their Duty that they may do it and to warn them of their danger that they may avoid it you are to cause your light to shine before them that so in your light they may see light you are to instruct them that they may not be naught for lack of knowledge you are to shew them and go before them in the way that they should go that they may not wander and go directly to Hell because they had none to direct them in a word you are to make use of all means possible that both you and yours may prove and approve what is the good acceptable and perfect will of God and so be and at last found to be wise unto Salvation But if you if any of you have been and will continue to be slothful careless negligent and wanting to your duty herein your Children and Servants may die in their ignorance and iniquity but verily you shall not escape unpunished for their blood shall be required at your hands the holy and righteous God will require it who is the great avenger of blood And here are two things that I lay before you First Your wretched neglect of Family-Duties may bring upon you the Curse of your Children and Servants I have known some when they have for their flagitious Lives been Condemned to the Gallows and not far from Execution laid their ill life at the Parents door crying out of the fondness of their Mothers for winking at and concealing of their faults and of the neglect of their Fathers giving them no better Education and setting before them such wicked and abominable examples and what do you think they and others in the same case with them are and will be doing for ever in the other World in the anguish of their Souls and the midst of intolerable Torments when such poor Creatures come to be cast upon a bed of flames and in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone when they come to feel the sinking weight and scorching heat of the wrath and indignation of a provoked God they will certainly curse themselves for their former follies and wicked courses and they will curse their Old Companions whom now they take so much pleasure in and will wish they had never seen their faces yea and they will curse you too and we may rationally conclude their passionate breaking out into such expressions as these I might have done better had I been Educated and brought up better I might have done my duty to God had my Parents or my Master done their duty to me I might have been kept from the path of the Destroyer and cleansed my way and come to a Blessed Eternity had I been taught to take heed unto my self and to my way according to the word Had my Father and my Master instructed me I might have known as much and done as well as those that are now saved and in Heaven But instead of taking pains to make me good their great desire and design was to make me Rich and Great in the World and so they have made me miserable I have all my days taken wicked Courses because they never took any care to instill into me right and holy Principles Had I but seen or heard them reading the Holy Scriptures and other good books themselves or to their Families I might have taken them up and read them too and got the knowledge of God and my self and my duty but they were for Romances and Plays and Cards the Devils Books and so we spent and lost our time and our selves too Had I heard them Praying in their Families seeking the face and favour of God begging his Spirit and Grace I might have prayed too and sought God too and beg'd the
in it Academia an University for the Learning in it as well as Curia a Court for the grandure and state of it And if you your selves are of God and have in you any real goodness it will be your comfort to have such Families also The Apostle Iohn that beloved Disciple who lay in the bosom of our Lord and there contracted an holy heat in his Epistle to the Elect Lady tells her He rejoyced greatly when he found of her Children walking in the Truth It must needs then be as great if not a greater joy to you to see your own Children walking in the Truth For you Fathers to see the Children that you begat and you Mothers to see the Children that you brought forth and that both of you brought up with so much care and tenderness and cost walking with God and going on Heaven-ward The same blessed Apostle in his third Epistle which he sent to Gaius his Host saith I have no greater joy than to hear that my Children walk in Truth By them he meant those that were his Spiritual Children that he had begotten unto God by the Gospel And it is indeed a very great comfort and joy to all the Faithful Ministers of Christ to see that they have not run in vain nor laboured in vain that the precious Seed which they have sown hath taken root in some of their Hearers hearts so that they are turned to the Wisdom of the Just and to the Faith of the Gospel and brought over unto God and then that there is not only an embracing of the Truth but a walking in the Truth a coming under the power of the Gospel and a living up to the Rules of he Gospel a sound Conversion at the first and ever after a suitable Conversation for in this Ministers have their great end in this they have the Seal of their Ministry these persons are now their hope and they will be their Ioy and Crown of rejoycing in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his coming yea for the present they are their Glory and Ioy 1 Thes. 2.19 20. Now I say if this doth afford so much joy to godly Ministers to see their Spiritual Children walking in the Truth that they have no Joy in the World comparable to it surely we may conclude that the Joy of gracious and holy Parents must needs equal if not exceed it when they see their Families their Servants especially their own natural Children walking in the Truth of God and in the Waies of God and chearfully engaging together with them in the Service of God counting none of his Commands grievous but his Yoke easie and his Burden light VII The setting up of the Worship of God in your Families and a faithful performance of Religious Duties there is the way to prepare you for a dying well the way to die in peace and with comfort and with an holy confidence to resign up and commit your Souls unto God as to a faithful Creator He that hath walked with God in his integrity in this World need not fear any evil when the time is come for his walking in the Valley of the shadow of Death for there God will be with him and there his Rod and his Staff shall comfort him Psal. 23.4 First You must die I need not tell you that for your information though you have need to hear of it often for the promoting of your preparation Too many put far away the evil day though it be at the very door and live as if they were to live always but the Scripture hath told us It is appointed unto all men once to die Heb. 9.27 This is God's Appointment his Order and Decree which shall not be reversed what God hath appointed man cannot avoid We must all die once and it is our great concern and wisdom to make sure that we shall not die twice that over us the second death shall have no power that the first will experience plainly proves We see persons die though at several Ages and in various manners yet one after another they drop into the Grave which is the House for all the Living and when our turn comes we also must among the rest take up our abode there until the Morning of the Resurrection Now since we all must of necessity die our business is to make as sure as we can of dying well Many are for an easie death but I would have you be for an happy death It is indeed difficult and troublesom to croud thorow a strait and narrow Gate but it is no great matter though you be pinched and pained and greatly put to it for a while so that you find it an entrance into the glorious Kingdom of your God and Saviour But then know Secondly Those that neglect duty cannot rationally expect to die comfortably How can they think to be admitted into the Joy of their Lord who have been unfaithful in their little and hid their Talents in a Napkin They that have lived without God in the World and in the neglect of him it will be very hard and unpleasant to them to think of departure hence and going into the othe World where if they have not God welcoming delighting and satisfying them they shall meet with nothing but misery and torments if they are not admitted into the bosom of his Love they shall be thrown into the flames of his Wrath. How was it possible that the unprofitable Servant could look his Master in the face with any comfort he had all along hard thoughts of him and in the end no hope of any good from him He had been indeed intrusted with a Talent but though he had not embezzeld and squandred it away yet he buried it it lay dead upon his hand there was no improvement of it for his Masters Interest and by that means he undid himself for ever The losing of his time was no less than the losing of his Soul Every one of you my Friends that is the Master or the Mistress of a Family have a Talent committed to you by the great God and for it you must be accountable there is a day coming wherein your Lord will reckon with his Servants what other Talents you have of Knowledge Gifts Interest Estate and the like you know best but for certain you have a Talent of Power and Authority put into your hands you had need be very careful how you manage it let me ask you what do you do with your Talent What do you do Ask your selves the question if you do not serve your Generation according to the Will of God If you do not Trade with your Talent for the honour and glory of God you will be cast into outer darkness where you shall have torment and sorrow enough here you had business enough which you would not do there you shall have misery enough from which you shall not escape here you will not give glory to God in an holy activity for him
durable To get that knowledge of God and Iesus Christ which is life eternal and to be well stored with those Graces and that everlasting righteousness of Christ which will accompany them to the Tribunal and to be much busied and employ'd about those works which will follow them in glorious Rewards for otherwise it had been better for them they had never been Born Secondly Do you know the Souls of your Children and Servants are as precious as yours Whatever difference there may be in your Bodies as to their stature and strength and comeliness and beauty yet your Souls are the same and theirs come not into the World more corrupt guilty and depraved than yours Original Sin is the same in all the Sons and Daughters of Adam their Souls are as precious as yours for First The same God made them Ezek. 18.4 Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so also the soul of the son is mine and as the Soul of the Master so also the Soul of the Servant and as the Soul of the Mistress so the Soul of the Maid they are all Gods as he is the Creator of them and the Lord of them and the Supream Judge of them And he hath a respect to them all as they are the work of his hands as an Artist hath to a curious piece of his own making Secondly Their Souls have the same Faculties and Powers that yours have Understanding Memory Conscience Will Affections they are intelligent and rational Souls though they have not had the same opportunities means and advantages for their accomplishments which some of you have had and slighted and not improved as you ought Thirdly Their Souls cost as great a price to redeem as yours supposing them to be some of Christ's purchased ones God did not set several Rates upon the Souls of Men nor did the Lord Jesus pay a greater Ransom for the Soul of David a King than he did for the Soul of Lazarus a Beggar not a greater for the Soul of the Master than for the Soul of the Servant for the Soul of the Mistress than of the Maid but the very same both the one and the other did stand him in no less than his Heart-blood and he rejoiceth over the one when Converted Sanctified and brought into his Fold and under his Government as the other and he will at last as much welcome the one into his heavenly Kingdom and as abundant an entrance into it shall be ministred to the one as to the other Fourthly Their Souls may have the same Capacities and allowing them the like advantages for improvement and the like opportunities for action they may be as useful in the World while they live and very serviceable bringing a great deal of glory to God and doing a great deal of good to Man Valleys are usually fertile when lofty Mountains are barren and those that are poor in this World are frequently rich in good works and they are receptive of as great Preferment Happiness and Glory in the World to come They may and will be as quick and nimble in their flight to Heaven they may as sweetly and comfortably enjoy God and be as much fitted and prepared for the Divine Presence and Bliss and for a setting upon the Right Hand of Christ as the Master or the Mistress nay some of them may be advanced to an higher degree of Glory and Eternally shine with brighter Beams but on the contrary if these their precious Souls do not go to Heaven they must be packt down to Hell if they are not Sav'd they must be Damned if not taken up to the Enjoyment of God then they are Companions for Devils if not Timber for the Building then Fewel for the Burning if they be not taken up into the Arms of Divine Love they will be the miserable Objects of Divine Wrath and Fury and lye restless and roaring under unsufferable Torments in which they can have no relief not so much as a drop of Water to cool their Tongue and from which they shall have no deliverance And now O ye Fathers and Mothers and ye Masters and Mistresses what are ye made of Have you Hearts harder than a Rock Are you worse than the Sea-monsters and like unto the Ostriches in the Wilderness Where are your Mercies Where your Bowels Where the yearning and the soundings of them Will you not pity these precious Souls Have you no kindness nor compassion for them Do you not desire their good Will you not seek their good Will not you do what in you lies to prevent their everlasting ruin and destruction It is no wonder that Devils who beâ—ool'd themselves into endless misery and are inraged against God and implacable Enemies to Men envying them the possibility of being saved it is I say not any matter of wonder at all that they do what they can to ruin them and to bring them into the same misery with themselves but will you do nothing to prevent it Will not you do what you can to spoil the Devils design and to secure these precious Souls from the Snare of the Devil or deliver them out of it What! Not you who have curam animarum the care and charge of Souls lying upon you not you to whose oversight they are committed Not you who are Responsible for them and will at last be call'd to an account will you let them perish without endeavouring to save them and let them go down to Hell without labouring to stop them in their Career Will you stand by and see them drown without reaching forth an helping Hand For God's sake be not so cruel so hard-hearted put on Bowels put on Bowels Will it not be a bitter reflexion to you at the last when the matter is out of your hands and past remedy Will it not grieve you Will it not go to your very Hearts In short will it not be a Sword in your Bones and a tormenting Sting in your Consciences when you shall think such a Child of mine and such a Servant of mine are now lost irrecoverably everlastingly lost and they may thank me for it they were grosly ignorant and I took no care to teach them they went on in a course of sin and I did not endeavour to reclaim them and they have now fatally miscarried but it is thorough my fault as well as their own had I done what I might have done had I done what it was in the power of my hand to do possibly it might never have come to this as Ioseph's Brethren in their distress said one to another Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our brother so may you say I am guilty verily I am guilty concerning these my Children and these my Servants and really it is strange to me that you do enjoy any peace that you can walk about in quietness in the day and rest in the night and are not scar'd with frightful Apparitions I ascribe it meerly to the patience
him and my Patience shall no longer wait upon him Do not therefore in this or the like case consult with flesh and blood make not carnal Reason your Counsellor listen not to Objections though never so seemingly fair and plausible for there is no sufficient Argument to be brought against any thing which really is a matter of Duty whether you owe it to God or Man All this while I have been speaking to you altogether in generals but now I shall descend to particulars and here with all the earnestness that I possibly can use I shall exhort you to these three things and give you some Directions for your help in the doing of them 1. To pray with your Families 2. To teach and instruct your Families 3. To set them a good Example in your own Lives and Conversations in order to the keeping or banishing sin and profaneness out of them together with the promoting of Morality and Godliness in them I shall begin with the great Duty of Family-prayer and oh that I might through the Grace of God persuade you all into the practice of it Oh that from this very day there may not be found one prayerless Family among you For I do not doubt to affirm that which is a prayerless Family is also a graceless Family Where there is no seeking of God there is no love to him no fear of him And that Family which is void of the Grace of God is without his Blessing and though there may be outward Plenty and Grandeur in it and the Sun of worldly Prosperity may shine upon it yet it stands open and exposed to the Wrath and Indignation of God who is and cannot but be angry with it every day seeing himself slighted and neglected by his own Creatures who live upon him and receive their All from him And there is standing upon Record in the Sacred Scriptures a dreadful Prayer against those Families which do not pray let those that are guilty read it and tremble for as it was indited by the Spirit of God so it shall be fulfilled by the Iustice of God Ier. 10.25 Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name The Families that do not call upon God's Name do not know him for as those that know his Name will put their trust in him so they will seek him and they may very well be reckoned Heathen-Families though they are Christian by a verbal Profession Christians in Name but Heathens in practice and over these Families there hangs a great black Cloud of Divine Vengeance which at one time or another will disgorge and empty it self upon them there shall not only be some little small drops of Anger but the pouring out of Fury and methinks danger should be enough to drive you to Duty though he is not ingenuous not of a right temper who is moved by no other consideration I would have you walk with God and in the way of your Duty not for wrath only or chiefly but for Conscience sake not only that you might avoid being bound in Chains of Wrath but because you are allur'd and drawn with the cords of kindness Though we may and should use all the Arguments we can muster and those of all sorts for the persuading of our dull and heavy hearts that are so backward unto that which is spiritually good to that end therefore consider you have Family-sins and therefore ought to joyn together in your confessing of them mourning over them and humbling your selves before God for them and you have Family-sorrows and afflictions and therefore should be joynt-suitors to God both for the sanctifying of them to you and for the removal of them from you and you have Family-mercies in which you do all share and of which you tast the sweetness and therefore you should all bear your parts in a Song of Praise and chearfully joyn together in your acknowledgments of them and thankful returns to the God that gives them And withal be sure of this that if you do exclude Family-prayer you shut out God himself and at the same time you open the door to the Devil and let in together with him a croud of sins and by conseqence of mischiefs Therefore I beseech you mind and resolve upon the great and excellent work of Family-prayer yea and make Conscience of performing it And in order to the better management thereof I shall give you these following Directions which I desire you to observe and the good Lord grant you an heart to follow them I. Live in the performance of Secret Prayer When you are in your Retirements be upon the ascent when you are alone be with God You that are Parents and Masters of Families do this your selves and heartily commend it to all under your care your Servants and your Children which are in a capacity of doing it which you will not find to be any detriment or loss to you For this you have an express Command from our dearest Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 6.6 Thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which seeth in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly He doth not here take you off from praying with others but he puts you on praying by your selves that is not to be neglected and this is to be done therefore do you allow them time for it who are under your roof Let the Husband pray by himself and the Wife by her self the Children apart and the Servants apart It was a dreadful thing when in the 8th of Ezekiel the Lord in a Vision carried the Prophet from place to place and in them all he shewed him abominations in one place there was the Image of Iealousie in another place the form of creeping things Beasts and all the Idols of the House of Israel pourtray'd upon the Wall in a third place Women weeping for Tammuz and in a fourth place there were others worshipping the Sun toward the East Idolatry was committed in all those places hereupon God threatens to dwell with them in Fury But how sweet will it be when God looks into your houses and sees the Husband praying in one room and the Wife in another a Child upon his knees pouring its supplications out before him here and a a Servant doing it there this is the way to have him dwel with you in mercy and according to the exceeding riches of his Grace I desire you that are Servants to redeem some time for this work though you have enough to do your heads and hearts and hands full yet get some minutes for this for so you may comfortably expect that when you are about the business of your Calling God will strengthen you the more for it and bless you the better Wrest some time out of the hand of sleep Wrestling with God is better than an idle slothful lazying It is a thousand
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
desire Young ones to consider of who are entring into the World and setting upon House-keeping lay this down as an undeniable Maxim that it is best beginning with God so to do is both duty and wisdom That Man who doth not carry God along with him is like to miscarry by the way and at last lie down in sorrow He opens his door to the Devil that will bring very bad company along with him who at his first entrance upon House-keeping shuts God out and turns his back upon him or at least doth not invite him It is not feasting not eating and drinking together tho' that is lawful and friendly but Prayer that will prove the best House-warming Secondly As it is good beginning with God so it is as good holding on To be weary of well doing argues a bad temper of Soul to throw up duty is sin and shews plainly that a person was never upright in it never hearty to it never really tasted the sweetness of it Iob 27.10 Will the Hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God No neither and because not the former therefore not the latter because God is not his delight Prayer will not be his constant business he hath in his heart no suitableness to God and therefore no pleasure in his Service but such as have been sincere in it will be stedfast and indeed they will never find any reason for the giving of it over God is as full and free as ever he was the Trade of Godliness as safe and sure and the returns as considerable God can with as much cause and boldness appeal now to those that shall desert him and throw up Religious Exercises as formerly he did to ungrateful Israel Ier. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have followed after vanity and are become vain He well knew tho' he could charge vanity and folly upon them and make good the charge yet they could not justly charge iniquity upon him And so again verse 37. Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel or a Land of Darkness No no not a Wilderness but a fruitful Field not a Land of Darkness but a Goshen a Sun of Righteousness and such as have been indeed his Servants have continued firm and faithful liking him too well and loving him too dearly to leave him Will ye go away said Christ to his Disciples Peter desired not time to consider of it but had his Answer ready which he immediately returns in the names of them all Ioh. 6.68 Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life Ioshua had served and followed God for a great many years He was now grown old and his Experiences of God's care and goodness had more multiplied and encreast to a far greater number than his days and thereupon he saw abundant reason for resolving to continue in his Service And so did holy Polycarp the Disciple of St. Iohn for being tempted to deny Christ and return to Heathen Idolatry he briskly replied I have served my Master Christ now these fourscore years and all along found him a good Master to me therefore I will not leave him now And if you will believe David he assures you they are all of the same mind Psal. 84.4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee they are and will be so always delighting in his Work and always commending and glorying in their Lord. But yet for the further opening to you the duty it self I must acquaint you with two things which are incumbent upon the Governours of Families and which they are bound carefully to look after viz. 1. That God be served in their Families 2. That they and their Families do together serve him First It is the duty of Family-Governours to take care that there be the Service and Worship of God in their Families that they themselves do serve the Lord and that their Children do serve him yea and that also their Servants do serve him That as the precious Ointment poured out upon the Head of Aaron ran down to the skirts of his Garments so Religion and at least the outward practices of Piety may sweetly descend from the Head of the House to the inferiour and meanest Members of it You Masters Mistresses and Parents ought to take care not only that your Children be respective and obedient to you nor only that your Servants be faithful to you and industrious in their working for you but likewise that both the one and the other do perform their duty to God as well as to you and be far more ready to pass by a failure in them with respect to your selves than to bear with a contempt and neglect of God Do not only see to the feeding and cloathing of your Children and Servants but as they are capable of receiving it do you feed their Minds with Knowledge and exercise them unto Godliness and let it not be your desire only or chiefly that they may live well and comfortably but that they may live holily that they may live like Christians as well as like Men. The Apostle's charge is this Rom. 12.17 Provide things honest in the sight of all men Now I will appeal to your Consciences whâ—â—her it be not so to fear and serve God to pray and seek God to worship God to perform duty to God this cannot but be honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good very good amiable and becoming in the sight and account of all men except those that are Atheists and because of their being Atheists do not deserve the name of Men but have forfeited the name since they contradict the very Light of Nature and run counter to the dictates of Reason and are sit to herd only among the Beasts And if that notion be true which some have embrac'd and I do not reject that it is not Reason so much as Religion which is the specifical Difference and doth distinguish between a Man and a Brute because there is something of Reason to be found in Brutes at least call it by what name you please some shadow of Reason some Resemblance something that may claim a little Kindred whereas there is not to be found in them any thing that looks like Religion no appearance nor footsteeps of it then we may very well say without being guilty of injustice or doing a real injury That Atheists do deserve with Nebuchadnezzar to be driven from among Men until they have with him learnt to own praise extel and honour the King of Heaven all whose works are Truth and his ways Iudgment and those that walk in Pride he is able to abase but at the present they are degenerate and no better than Beasts in the mapes of Men. For they deny a Being to him by whom all things are to him who is the Fountain of all Being and the Author of their own they do not only cast off a
Religious Life and live without all acts of Divine Worship but also they do as much as in them is take away the Object of it in whom they live and move and have their Being and by this one thing open a wide and effectual door to Villanies of all sorts But from the Scripture last named it is evident to all those that do believe the Scripture that it is your duty to provide things honest such things as are good and lovely See that all in your Families be honest that they be honest to you and to one another and to the Great God that they give unto every one their due unto God his due that they do not rob God nor with-hold from him that which is meet and that is Worship Honour is not so due to Parents nor Service to Masters as Worship is to God Ier. 10.5 Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee it doth appertain The fear of God is there put not only for the Holy Affection of fear which we should keep up all the day and carry with us into every place but likewise for all Divine Worship which upon all accounts he may challenge at our hands It appertains to him he hath an undoubted right to it For God to crown Man at first with Glory and Honour and make him have Dominion over the works of his hands was an Act of Goodness For God to spare fallen sinful Man to keep him out of Hell and afford him any comforts of Life is an Act of Mercy Lam. 3. It is of the Lords Mercies we are not consumed But for Man to Own and Honour God to Fear Seek Serve and Worship God is an Act of Iustice. And let men provide what they will for their Families for their Wives Children and Servants let them see to it that they have all things richly to enjoy Yet if in this one particular they be negligent and careless if they do not see to it that those who Live with them do Serve and Worship God they do not provide that which is Honest. Observe the Resolution of Holy David and imitate his Example Psal. 101.6 Mine Eyes shall be upon the Faithful of the Land i. e. Good Men that will be every way faithful to me and to my God as well as to me Men that do not only profess him but will be true to that Profession Men that call him Master and will serve him as such that they may dwell with me he would delight in their company and count them the Ornaments of his House He that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me The perfect way is the way of God's Commandments the Scripture way the way of Holiness and Duty the way Everlasting He that walketh in such a way is a Man for me such an one I like and such an one I will chuse such an one shall serve me as will serve my God as well as me And he had said before verse 4. that He would not know a wicked person You must not understand it of a common ordinary knowledge a nuda scientia bare naked knowledge for in that sense he did and could not but know many too too many but he would not know a wicked person so as to countenance him not so know him as to make him his choice and have fellowship with him He that doth not fear God that will not mind serve and worship God that is without God in the World may well be branded for a wicked Man in all companies let him go for such an one And saith David I will have nothing to do with that sort of men such a person shall be none of my Familiars none of my intimate Acquaintance he shall be none of my Family none of my Court. And it would be well for the World if all Princes would say the same and be as good as their word if they would not know wicked persons fewer wicked persons would be known Were there no wicked men in Favour at Courts there would be fewer in the Cities and fewer in the Countreys But when they swarm at a Court they flie about and like Locusts overspread and cover the face of a Land Secondly It is the duty of those who are Governours of Families to take care and so to order things that they and their Families together do serve and worship God I say that they do it together that it be their joynt act and that all concur to the making up of an holy Harmony It is not enough that there is some Worshipping of God in the Family but besides over and above that there ought to be an holy Family-Worship David saith Psal. 133.1 Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to walk together in Vnity It is a very commendable and lovely thing to see the same among Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants Mistresses and Maids it is sweet dwelling together in Vnity but it is far more pleasant and delightful to God and all good Men to see them dwelling and walking together in Piety As to live together and love together and eat and drink together without any quarrels or contentions so to read the Sacred Scriptures and other good Books together and pray together and sing Psalms together and put forth other Acts of Religion In short how good and how pleasant is it to see them living together not only a natural and civil Life in Love and mutual Kindness but likewise a gracious and holy Life in all goodness So much may suffice for the opening to you what I mean by setting up the Worship of God in Family Now a person would think that such as live in London where there is so much Light and plenty of Gospel-means specially such as own a God and call themselves Christians should not need many Arguments either to convince them that this is a Duty or to persuade them to the performance of it but they would of themselves at the very mentioning of the thing assent to the goodness and reasonableness of it that all those who do profess their believing that there is a God and their own standing in Relation to him and having an Interest him as their God should at their hearing of Family-Worship cheerfully acknowledge it to be his due But alas alas whatever the Light doth plainly discover and whatever their well-informed and awakened Consciences do suggest to them how many are there among us that imprison the Truth and hold it in unrighteousness and by consequence how great is the number of them who live in the great if not total neglect of this excellent work And I do not now speak of Atheists nor of those who are scandalously wicked and prophane for it is not to be wondred at in them since they have no fear of God before their Eyes But I and others of my Brethren are greatly mis-inform'd if the guilt hereof doth not cleave to some yea to many of those who
12.1 2. not only for encouragement but likewise for direction Now he had a Family his Twelve Disciples were his Family and he prayed and gave thanks at his Meats and also at other times and he prayed not only for them but with them Luke 9.16 As he was alone praying his Disciples were with him Here is a seeming contradiction that Christ should be said to be alone and yet his Disciples with him but there is no real one for that word alone must be understood as intimating no more than the multitudes being departed from him when the Miracle of Feeding Five Thousand Men with Five Loaves and Two Fishes had been wrought they having what they came for the filling of their Bellies and satisfying their Curiosity withdrew themselves and went away and they being gone he went to Prayer which was a work he greatly delighted in and in and at that Prayer his Disciples were with him I hope it may without vanity be said That in what I have spoken to you upon this Subject there is enough said for the satisfaction of any sober serious and consciencious Christian that the setting and keeping up of the Family-worship of God is the Duty of those that are the Masters or Governours of Families Wilful Cavillers against plain Truths are not worthy nor fit to be dealt with time and pains bestowed upon them is meerly thrown away Therefore as for those wicked Persons who are either of Atheistical Principles not believing but denying the Being of a God or of desperately Profane Spirits that value neither his Love nor his Wrath and so have no fear of him before their Eyes I do not now in these Discourses go about to perswade them another course must be first taken with them them I leave to the great and mighty God begging that he would have Mercy upon them in convincing them that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and that there is a day coming when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1.7 8 9. So we have done with the first thing propounded viz. That Family-worship is a Duty the second part of the work before us is to prove that there is very great and cogent reasons for our performance of this Duty and that it is using the Apostle Paul's expression no other than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your reasonable service That which is to be done by rational Creatures and is most consonant and agreeable to the Principles and Dictates of right Reason and I doubt not but this will appear evidently to you if you will duly consider and weigh the Arguments which we shall draw from these Four Topicks 1. From God 2. From Governours of Families 3. From the Families themselves 4. From the Publick You will find that there do Obligations rise from all these many and strong ones for the enaging and binding you hereunto the good Lord grant we may study the Obligations and answer them by a suitable practice First You are to set up Religious Worship in your Families upon the account of the most great and glorious God who alone is the proper Object of it unto whom it is to be performed And here are three things which did immediately occur to my thoughts and which I do now offer to your Consideration I. God is the Author and Original of our Families They had their Being from God and therefore they should pay Homage and perform Service unto him this is that which doth without all Controversie lay an Everlasting Engagement upon particular Persons high and low young and old to serve God to love him with all their Hearts to fear him all the day and to worship him because he made them Children are to honour their Father and Mother but God much more because God was the principal efficient of their Being their Earthly Parents no more than Instruments in his Hand And if it be a good way of arguing in David and so in us to say as he did Psal. 119.94 I am thine save me and verse 73. Thy hands have made me and fashion'd me give me understanding It cannot but be as strong and if we be ingenuous as forcible and taking an Argument on God's side for him to say to us You are mine you were wonderfully made formed and fashioned by my wisdom and the hand of my power therefore do you serve me It is full out as good an Argument for Duty as it can be a plea for Mercy do not the Rivers send back their Waters to the Sea from which they received them And shall not Man return praise and service to God from whom he received life and strength all that he is and hath I desire you to take notice what a loud and earnest call there is and how much importunity the Prophet useth in Psal. 100. 1 2. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands Be joyful be chearful it is lawful for you to be so it is allowed you to be so and if you be gracious of all persons in the World you have the greatest right to Joy only see that your Joy be directed to God and terminated in God Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Well he goeth on vers 2. Serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing Do not go to his work as Bears to a Stake nor meerly as to a Task but as to your Recreation as to your Meat and Drink so Christ did be sure that your duty be your delight And yet again he adds Enter into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his Name We should labour to have our hearts greatly raised and enlarged in our serving of God that we have such a God so glorious so good and that he is pleased to admit us into his Service and employ us about it But why all this what reason is there for it doth any one here ask that Question let him know yea and let all men know So saith the Prophet in verse 3. Know ye that the Lord He is God He alone is God Let others be what they will never so great and high and good there is not a God among them Iehovah is God of whom and thro whom and for whom are all things It is He that hath made us and not we our selves The Hebrew reads it in the Margin His we are And Mr. Ainsworth tells us the Chaldee keeps that reading It is He that hath made us and his we are He hath the best Title to us the Supream Soveraign Right We are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture And since we are his Creatures we should be his Servants we
and it was overgrown with Thorns and Nettles cover'd the face thereof He saw it and more than so he looked upon it wistly curiously again and again and he consider'd it he laid it to his Heart and he consider'd it well and thereupon he received instruction Oh that you would do the like as to those things which you do find in the Scriptures and in the holy Discourses of your Faithful Ministers against sin and for duty and in particular for Family-duty consider them well that so you may receive instruction And the good Lord without whom we poor Worms can do nothing grant that what hath been and shall be said to this purpose may be accompanied with his holy Spirit and so come with such a power upon your Souls as that his glory may be a gainer and his worship may be carefully and constantly performed for the future in those Families if there be any such in this numerous Congregation in which hitherto it hath been shamefully neglected I. You that are Governours of Families Masters or Mistresses are charged with them Your Families are your Charge God hath committed them to your Care and Government as they are to act for you so you are to care for them Kings have a great power and that maketh some of them Oppressive and Tyrannical They have great Honour and that makes them Proud and Lofty but all of them have a great Trust the whole Kingdom is committed to them and they should not only indeavour to secure their own Prerogative but also publick good the peace welfare and prosperity of their people this they are all of them bound to do and those that do it are great Blessings Ministers also have a great Charge as it is an honourable so it is a weighty thing to be a Minister of Jesus Christ for the Churches of which they be Pastors are committed to them they are to look to the Flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers and they are to watch for the Peoples Souls that they may feed them with understanding and sound knowledge and also preserve them from those that lye in wait to deceive and from every path of the destroyer and O that while we do all with the Apostle Paul Magnifie our Office we may all be careful to fulfil our Ministry and do the work of our Office And so that I may return to the business before us Masters and Mistresses of Families have no small Charge no little Trust for their Families are committed to them the Family is a Body bigger or less and the Master is the Head of it and he should rule order and influence all the Members thereof they have both a power and a trust a power and so set over them a trust and so charged with them and as they would not be deprived of their power so they ought not to betray their trust you that are Rulers of Families will be known in your places it is fit you should be so I pray be good in your places and as you will maintain your Authority and make use of your power be true to your trust too some of you will say in some cases that you will not abate an Ace stand as much upon it and be as exact here you will be Kings in your own Houses you ought to be so God hath made you so but be Prophets and Priests also in such a manner take and keep and use the Iurisdiction as that labouring in Prayer in the Word and Doctrine may not slip through your Fingers As Magistrates so Ministers and Parents and Masters ought to rule in the fear of God For you are to remember that you are intrusted with the Souls of your Families as well as with their Bodies and you ought to seek and endeavour the good of their Souls as well as the good of their Bodies I mean both of their Children and of their Servants yea and more too because the Soul is best and the welfare and comfort of the Body depends upon the happiness of the Soul Indeed the Soul may be in a thriving condition Godward but the Body crazy and wasting the Soul may be of an healthful Constitution but the Body sickly and weak as is clear from that of Paul 2 Cor. 4.16 Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day and that this was the case of Gaius I am very apt to conclude from that kind and friendly wish of Iohn in his third Epistle I wish that thy body may prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But if the Soul be void of Knowledge and Grace if there be not a saving Light in the Head nor the Law of God in the Heart the Body will come to lye down at last in misery and sorrow cocker and pamper it never so much care and cark for it as you will the issue will at last be dreadful the compositum i e. the whole Man will come to ruin Hos. 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge not only deformed as a Person is for want of an Eye but destroyed cut off utterly ruined and undone and ought not the greatest care be taken for the prevention of that We read in 1 Tim. 5.6 If any man provide not for his own specially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel Though he doth not deny the Faith in words yet he doth in deeds he hath practically renounced Christianity by his not living up to the Laws and Rules thereof and he is worse than an Infidel by his falling short of them He is defective and wanting in that which they perform though he lives in a Valley of Vision though he sits under the bright and glorious Beams of the Sun of Righteousness display'd in the Everlasting Gospel yet he is outdone by the very Heathen who have no more than the dark glimmering Light of Nature which is like a Candle burnt down to the Socket so that it is the Duty of all Parents and Masters to provide for their own Houses But here the Question will be What are they to provide What All that is convenient for them according to that Prayer of Holy and Wise Agur in Prov. 30.8 feed me with food convenient for me To be sure they must provide things necessary if it be in their power but necessary for what only for the Body Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Lodging Mony and Wages are these all the things that are necessary and convenient for them is this the supplying of all their need is this all that the Lord requires and expects at their hands surely no it is true this is a part of their duty but it is the least and lowest part this he provides for the Brute but not for the Man for the Cabinet but not for the Jewel they should so provide for them as that it may be well with them every way to all
intents and purposes their Families have precious Souls as well as comely Bodies craving Souls as well as hungry Bodies and they should so provide for their Souls as that it may not be their fault if it be not well with their Souls and that both in time and to Eternity in the 2 d of Peter 1 2 ver the Apostle Peter speaking of God saith His Divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto Life and Godliness O let us learn to admire and endear this God who is so gracious and liberal unto us now let us be followers of him as dear Children this is an excellent Copy for us to write after who are House holders let us provide for ours all that is necessary for this their Temporal Life yea and all that is necessary for Godliness But now can any one tell how they provide for the Souls of their Families which are under their Government and committed to their care who do not set up the Worship of God in their Families who do nothing towards their instruction and sanctification nothing towards the making of them understanding gracious and holy Are those Families well provided for in which there is no serving of God no religious exercises no Praying no Catechising nor reading of the Scriptures no Repeating of Sermons no Singing of Psalms no holy Discourses about God and Jesus Christ and the things of God no Holy Instructions nor good Councils nor provoking one another to love and good works we shall indeed sometimes hear people say of such or such a Man O he is a Man of a generous Spirit a brave House-keeper but ask them wherein how doth that appear the Answer is by his keeping a good Table a great Table he buyeth the best Meat the Market doth afford and a great deal of it so that the Servants have enough and to spare and you may see many poor lying at his door who are relieved there and this is indeed good and commendable and it is to be desired that all whose Estates will reach it were such they would be no losers by it it is one way to bring down a blessing upon their Callings and the works of their hands but give me leave to tell that Man if this be all if he stop here and his brave House-keeping amount to no more than this in a word if he doth not set up the Worship of God in his Family he is a pitiful a miserable House-keeper his House is the way to Hell though he keeps a Great Table yet he keeps a wicked House a godless graceless House he fills Bodies and starves Souls his Dogs have as much reason to commend him as his Wife and Children and Servants Well that is the first thing and oh that it may abide with you who are Governours of Families sit down and think seriously upon it that your Families are your charge you are charged with the Souls of your Families God hath put them into your hand and committed them to your care and therefore you are obliged to look after them and as God hath given them to you so it is your duty to train and bring them up for God But this will meet us again in the way of this Discourse and then I shall speak something more to it II. You are accountable for your Families as charged with them so responsible for them We read in the 25th of Matthew 14 c. of a Man Travelling into a far Country who called unto him his Servants and delivered unto them his goods to one five Talents to another two and to a third but one after a time he returned and reckoned with them God hath committed to every one of us some Talents to some more to some fewer and he will reckon with us all for them and enquire what we have done with them one hath a Talent of Parts another of Power another of Interest a fourth of Riches do not you let them lie dead upon your hands but be good Husbands Trade with them my Friends trade with them for God and know as God will reckon with you for your Talents so for Persons that are committed to your Charge and as God said to Cain Gen. 4.9 Where is Abel thy Brother so he will say to thee where is thy Wife where thy Son where thy Daughter where is thy Man Servant where thy Maid Masters of Families are accountable both for the Bodies and the Souls under their roofs First they are accountable for the bodies that are in their Families you know they are so not only to God but likewise to the Magistrate and to the Law So that if any of them doth miscarry and dies a violent death there is a very strict search made into it the Coroners Inquest sits upon the body all suspected Persons are called and examined and the great Question is How did this Person come by his death though it be the meanest Servant in the House the Scullion or Kitchin-Boy yet it is not past by nor is it fit it should No Murtherer ought to be Pardoned that is a standing Law which binds in all Ages and Places Gen. 9.6 who so sheddeth Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed let the man destroyed have been never so poor and mean and despicable for his outward Condition and let the Murtherer be what he will tho' a person of never so great Quality as they Phrase it yet he must die for it God hath said by Man shall his blood be shed If the Master himself was the cause of his Servants death he shall answer for it and life shall go for life blood for blood if he Poisoned the meanest Servant he had or if he starved him it must be so and that Scripture tells you the reason of the thing lieth in this because Man was made in the Image of God and there was afterward another Law made Numb 35.31 Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murtherer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death so that as the Iewish Doctors say though he could give all the Riches of the World and the Avenger of Blood were perswaded into a willingness to pass it by yet it could not be done Let Magistrates therefore consider what they do when they Pardon Murtherers whom God himself hath devoted to destruction But Secondly they are accountable for the Souls that are in their Families for God doth highly value the Souls which he hath Created and as carefully and curiously looks after Souls as his Law enjoyns and requires Men in place of Power and Authority to look after the Bodies of Men and to judge and avenge their blood when it hath been shed by wicked and cruel hands and when they do miscarry as too many do thousands myriads millions do he will make inquisition for their blood and see how it came to pass and if their Parents or Masters be guilty of it he will require it at
God speaking in Psal. 91. of one that loves him that loves his Name and Interest speaks of many things that he will do for him and among the rest he promiseth to honour him and he will be as good as his word it shall be done both in Time and to Eternity Secondly This is the way to instill into your Families right Principles that fear and respect which you have with them upon the other account is altogether forc'd you do by meer violence extort it from them and so it is not kindly nor will it be lasting they will reverence you before your Face but what will they do behind your Back Multiply very hard thoughts of you and speak as hard words against you where they safely may but in this way of holy Duty you take a course to rectifie their Spirits and sow in them those Seeds that may and in all likelihood will spring up to your own comfort and advantage for while you do endeavour to teach them the good will of God concerning them and to instill into their Hearts the love and fear of his holy Name they will at the same time and with the same pains and labour be taught to pay that reverence and fear which they owe to you shew them the way to honour God and they will thereby learn to give that honour which is due to you and it is to be hoped that what they do now will proceed from an inward Principle and what doth so is of all things the most durable and like to hold Thirdly Religion acted to the Life carrieth a Majesty along with it It was the Image of God instampt upon Man at first that did so excellently fit and qualifie him for the Government of this inferiour World it was this shining in his Countenance that struck an awe upon the other Creatures and made them submit to him As soon as Sin had defac'd that Image and he faln short of the glory of God they threw off the Yoke and grew stubborn and rebellious the more this Image is restored to Men the more there is of God appearing in them the more they live to God and walk with him the more will they recover their lost honour a Crown upon the Head a Sword a Scepter in the Hand will not render a Person so truly honourable as Religion will This strikes an awe even upon carnal Men when in the Company of such and often restrains them and keeps them from those exorbitances into which their own cursed Lusts would hurry them if this doth not gain you their Hearts so that they shall be knit to you it will commend you to their Consciences Let Men think and say and act as they please there is no such probable no such effectual way for the working in the minds of people a real and permanent goodness for the making of Children loving and dutiful and of Servants industrious and faithful as is an instilling into them the Principles of Religion and teaching them the good fear of the Lord when this is once done your Hearts may trust in them and you will find them devoted to the pleasing of you and set for the promoting your Interest that will preserve them from running into such sins as others do not stick at it will make them tremble at that which others will commit with greediness they shall not be supinely careless and negligent in your business nor shall they be Companions of Fools running with them into excess of Riot they shall not pilfer and steal from you that they may have wherewith to gratifie and fulfil a Lust they shall not embezzle your Goods nor betray the Trust you repose in them they dare not do these things there is a Conscience within that restrains them an Eye above which awes them You have two famous instances in Scripture for the proof of this which I shall mention the one of a great Man the other of a poor Servant The former is that of good Nehemiah What made him so excellent a Governour and so tender over the people studying their ease and comfort he had precedents enough to justifie him in another manner of Carriage toward them Neh. 5.14 15. For twelve years I and my brethren had not eaten the bread of the Governours He made not use of that which was his just allowance The former Governours which had been before me were chargeable to the people and had taken of them bread and wine besides forty pieces of silver yea even their Servants bare rule over the people so that this Oppression was grown to be a custom Why did not he keep it up The people having been accustomed to such a load would not have kicked now that was not it he did not fear the people but he fear'd God who alone was more than they and that was it that kept him from such practices as he tells us in the same Verse So did not I because of the fear of God The other instance is that of Ioseph who was indeed of a most Noble Descent the best Family in all the World but having fallen under the heavy displeasure of his envious Brethren they sold him and at this time he was a poor Servant nay of the worst sort a Slave and what would not such an one do to recover his liberty or to enlarge his comforts His Mistress burnt in Love to him and was earnestly set for an unlawful Enjoyment and thereupon tempted him to a compliance with her Lust. Carnal Reason now might have suggested here is a fair opportunity offered for advantaging your self a refusal will inrage her if you do not yield to her Love you kindle her Wrath and that will make the House too hot for you but if you do comply with the motion and accept her tender'd kindness you may be sure of a Friend you engage her favour and who knows but by having that you may recover your liberty however you may promise your self much from it but this would not take Ioseph had been taught better in his Fathers House and he had not forgot all he had brought from home with him such a Principle as was his preservation from t his fiery Dart an excellent Antidote against this insinuating Posyon and that was a Spirit of ingenuous gratitude and holy fear Gen. 39.8 9. My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in his house than I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou wast his Wife how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God! You see here the power of good Principles and the blessed effect of Family Religion Whereas the neglect of this is of as malevolent influence and pernicious consequence An House where there is not holy instructions and exercises is like a Field or Garden not cultivated that will be over-run with Weeds When Masters of Families neglect their Duty to God they set their Children and Servants a wretched
our Translation he will command and they shall keep I must acknowledge my self to be singular and alone in the Notion having consulted some Learned Expositors upon the place and found none that take any notice of it but as those that repair to them know that is no strange nor unusual case therefore I will with humble modesty communicate my thoughts to you and submit them to the judgment of such as are able I look upon these latter words not only as Predictory foretelling what the Event would be what his command would produce and how it would work but also Promissory and so securing that good and desireable issue Abraham will teach his Children and his Houshold after him and saith God they shall keep the way of the Lord since Abraham will do his Duty I will succeed and prosper him in the doing of it he shall not lose his labour nor take pains to no purpose The truth is God will not suffer his faithful Servants to be totally disappointed and lye down in their shame at last let things issue how they will they shall not lose their reward in their Duty they shall have peace their endeavours shall be accepted and themselves shall be admitted into their Masters joy Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength Isa. 49.5 but very often God gives them to see the desires of their hearts so that they attain the end which they propounded to themselves as here since Abraham will see to it that his Children and his Household be taught God would see to it that they should learn and practice what they were taught He would set up the worship of God in his Family and maintain it there as long as he liv'd and God would so influence and order their Spirits that they should keep it up after him they should love and honour and serve God after his example and after he was dead and gone godliness should be posteritiz'd in his Family V. This one thing is the High-way to a Blessing to have the favour of God together with the pleasant fruits of that favour do but you in the sincerity of your hearts and from a gracious Principle perform your Family duties and set up the worship of God there and you may comfortably expect that God in his great goodness and mercy will pour down his blessing upon your Families and make your Family a blessing unto you First The Blessing of God shall be upon your Family it shall be upon you who are the Parents and Masters and upon yours as well as you like that precious Ointment which being poured out upon the head of Aaron from thence descended to the Skirts of his Garment there is a notable place to this purpose a place which hath a double aspect a terrible frowning one upon the wicked but a smiling and comfortable one to the godly Prov. 3.33 The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the Iust. Let us well consider this Scripture The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked he doth not say the Curse is impendent and hangs over it nor that it is at the door ready to draw the latch but it is already in it hath made its entry and taken possession and as it is in it it spreads and goes all over it it goes into every room and mingles it self with every thing there it lights and abides upon the man and upon all that he hath if you go into the Mans House you may possibly see what will dazle your eyes there is costly Furniture Rich Hangings Great Cupboard-Heads of Plate Garments of Silk Sattin and Velvet wrought with Gold Tables spread with variety of the greatest Dainties as the Psalmist saith Psal. 73. They have more than heart can wish but there is no fear of God there instead of that there is a great deal of debauchery and prophaneness ranting roaring gaming healthing cursing swearing obscene filthy talk and as foul actions Hell it self is broke out there is the smoak the fumes of that bottomless pit and there is the curse of God too that Flying-Roul mention'd Ezek. 5.2 the length whereof is twenty Cubits and the breadth thereof ten and saith that Text it shall enter into the house and remain there it takes up its abode and it is not idle and unactive works indeed gradually and oftentimes insensibly no body perceives it but it works effectually it shall consume the House with the Timber and Stones thereof it hath strong and sharp teeth that can bite stones in pieces Psal. 37.35 36. I have seen the Wicked in great power spreading himself like a green Bay-Tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but loe he could not be found But let us go to the other part of the Text and see what report that makes us He blesseth the Habitation of the Righteous Observe now there is righteousness in the habitation a good man dwells there and out of the good Treasure of his heart he brings forth good things there hath been a gracious Principle Divinely inspired into him and it is his desire and endeavour to act suitably to that Principle in his House you may see not only sobriety but also righteousness towards Man and yet more than so there is godliness a making conscience of performing all that duty which they owe to God now as there is righteousness there is a blessing there too God hath blessed that man and his house in turning them from their iniquities in giving them such a Spirit and that blessing doth abide it shall never be revok'd nor revers'd God will say in this case as Isaac did with respect to Iacob Gen. 27.33 I have blessed him yea and he shall be blessed and that is not all neither the Text saith He blesseth his habitation he hath not only done it but he goeth on still to do it the old blessing remains firm and valid and God is pleased to add new ones to it and will continue doing so till he at last be what Moses said of Nepthali Deut. 33.23 satisfied with favour and full of the blessing of the Lord what may we not say of such an House Godliness is there and God himself will be there too for he is nigh unto all that call upon him that call upon him in truth He looks upon others afar off and keeps his distance but he is near these he stands at their right hand he dwells in them and with them in their heart and house and where ever he dwells the house is the better for him he always brings enough with him to make him welcom He saith peace be to this house and mercy be to this house yea and salvation be to this house he will quiet this house when there is a storm and comfort it when there is trouble and uphold it when it is
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
hereafter he will extort it from you in a way of Vindicative Justice if you will not apply your selves to praying and reading the holy Scriptures with the teaching and instructing of your Children and Servants in the things of God you may well tremble to think of fiery indignation and of the dismal effects of it weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth which will be the portion of your Cup to all Eternity unless you do seasonably repent and reform and make your peace with God for what reason have they to promise themselves a comfortable Reward who do now live in the neglect of their Duty But then on the other side Thirdly When your Hearts have been upright with God and sound in his Statutes and walked as David resolved to do within your Houses with a perfect Heart and behaved your selves wisely in a perfect way then you need not tremble at the nearest approaches of the King of Terrours It is indeed a solemn thing to die and as it is a taking the compositum in pieces as it is the parting of those two old Friends the Soul and Body which had lived together long in great intimacy and close union Nature startles at it and they seldom are divided without an agony and struggling But yet such a Person as I have now described need not fear but as he can look back with comfort so he may look forward with boldness as Paul did 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. I am now ready to be offer'd and the time of my departure is at hand Well Paul thou art now ready to be gone but what didst thou do while thou wast here I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and what dost thou now please thy self with That hencefort there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which God the righteous Iudge will give unto me at that day and not to me only but to all them that love his appearing and who are they that can love his appearing as a Iudge surely none but they that have been obedient to his commands and done his work as he was their Lord and Master when you have served your Generation according to his Will you may be as willing to fall asleep as a weary Man is at Night after a hard days labour when he hath finished his work in short when you have been faithful in your little much more when you have been always abounding in the work of the Lord you may be sure that your labour shall not be in vain but you shall receive your reward even that Gift of God which is Eternal Life To this purpose I would have you consider two things First The account our Lord and Saviour could give of himself and what thereupon he did expect and ask of his Father Both these we meet with in Iohn 17.4.5 The account which he could give of himself was this Father I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do He glorified his Father in and by finishing his work Now let it be your care and mine to tread in the steps of our Lord and to write after so excellent a Copy set us by so great a Person and so dear a Saviour though we cannot equal him that is a thing impossible for us poor weak sinful Creatures to do yet let us imitate him as much and as far as we can and the good Lord help us so to do and if we will up and be doing God will be with us Will you therefore endeavour it Oh do glorifie God upon earth you have too much dishonour'd him by your sins against him by your disobedience to him by your preferring worthless trifles broken cisterns lying vanities before him mend now and for the future make it your business to glorifie him you were made for that it was the end of your Creation you were sent hither into the World for that whatever other business your hand findeth here to do this is the main and principal this doth deserve and call for your best thoughts and utmost diligence and do you glorifie him by finishing the work which he hath given you to do There is none of you but God hath given work as he casts your Lines and carves your Portions so he hath cut out your work I beseech you study it labour to know what it is and knowing it mind it set about it speedily without delay and follow it close neglect no part of it but finish it as far as you are able you cannot do all because so much of your time is already lost and your strength is so much impair'd and corruptions do so greatly clog you and your spiritual and carnal Enemies will so resist and hinder you that you cannot do all you should and will need pardon for your miscarriages and failings in what you do yet do all that you can not only the work of your general Calling as you are Christians but also the work of every particular place station and relation in which the Divine Providence hath set you whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastick Publick or Domestick Art thou a Sheriff of Justice in the Countrey a Mayor Alderman a Common-Council-Man or Constable in the City Do thou the duty of thy Place Art thou a Minister of the Gospel Do thou thine Preach the Word be instant in Season and out of Season art thou a Child a Servant Be thou obedient industrious faithful art thou an Husband a Wife a Parent a Master or Mistress the Head and Governour of a Family Do thou thine Walk within thy House with a perfect Heart rule in the fear of God He that is not good in his Relation is not good at all he that is not a good Husband a good Master is not a good Man much of the power of godliness doth consist and discover it self in the performance of Relative Duties See then that much of your care be employed about this and see that your places be not empty of Duty nor your Families void of Religion Now observe what our Savior did hereupon expect and say Father glorifie thâ—u me with thy own self Here hath been my work where now is my glory So when you have finished the work which God gave you to do when you have walked with God and lived to God when you have improved your Interest your Power and your All for God then you may say Father do thou accept of me and receive me and glorifie thou me my work is done now let me have my rest always remembring that you are not to expect this upon the score of Merit but only as a Reward of Grace for our Lord hath taught us to call our selves unprofitable Servants when we have done all that is commanded us what are we then now we fall so short and perfect not one piece of work that is put into our hands Secondly Consider that good account which the Prophet gives of
owns that she did bear them but saith thou didst bear them to me as it was then so it is now as the Cattel upon a thousand Hills are his so the Children of a thousand Families yea of all the Families upon the Earth particularly of his Covenanting People Ier. 31.1 I will be saith the Lord the God of all the Families of Israel and they shall be my people He is the God of all the Children of those Families they are his Children remember and consider it your Children are God's Children they had their Being from him he formed them he brought them forth and brought them up and carried them in Arms and taught them to go and put them out to you to Nurse and you are to look after them and take care of them and bring them up for him you are to see to it that they have the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So for your Servants they are not only your Servants but his too they were his Servants before they were yours and his more than they are yours and more bound to obey and please him than you so that if your Will thwart Gods and your Commands be contrary to the Commandments of God they are not to do them they are more bound to God than they are to you and they expect more from him than they do from you and have a greater and more necessary dependance upon him than they have upon you and therefore they owe him more service than they do you Psal. 119.19 All are thy Servants Kings and Princes are his Servants David was free to own it O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant And Oh that they would all lay their Crowns at his Feet and serve him by ruling for him You that are Masters and Mistresses are his Servants as proud as some of you are and how high soever you hold your Heads yet know you are but Servants though really it is not your disparagement to be God's Servants but your Honour so that you are good and faithful Servants and I beseech you look to that And I say your Servants are God's Servants too yea and what the Angel said to Iohn I may to you notwithstanding the civil distance which is now between you they are your Fellow-servants as you will find at the last and great day when you come to be stript of all these outward pre-eminencies and to stand upon even ground with them only your account will be greater Sit down I beseech you and think of this once and again those that are bound to you are also bound to God and will you teach them your Business and not that which God hath given them to do Will you take care to make them good Shopkeepers and not to make them good Christians Will you call upon them and urge and press them to do your work yea and beat them too in case they do it not and will you not regard their doing or neglecting of the work of God Shall it be nothing to you though they forget God and let his work lye dead upon their hands and serve the Devil and diverse Lusts all the Year round You your selves do not serve God as you ought if you do not promote what you can your Servants serving him for so to do is part of your business it is the duty of your place Besides let me here add this further if the Parents of those who are bound to you be gracious themselves and do indeed fear God they did expect much from you when they did bind them to you they had a good Opinion of you as of Persons truly Religious and of your Families as Religious and that their Sons would meet not only with sobriety there but also with the practices of Piety and they did promise themselves that they had disposed well of their Children and chosen such Masters for them as would take special care of them as to their Souls and go on to build upon that good Foundation which they themselves had already laid and that you would be not only giving them an insight into your Callings but also shewing them the good way in which they ought to walk and go before them in it they did promise themselves that you would provide not only Meat and Drink wholesome and sufficient Diet for their Bodies but also that Food which would help to the nourishing of their Souls to Eternal Life In that hope and for that end they committed them to you and if you be careless herein if you do not pray with them nor instruct and counsel them you disappoint their expectations you frustrate and deceive their hopes you are false to your trust and it is impossible that you should ever answer it to God or them and yet answer for it you shall but to your cost except you repent and reform IV. Remember and consider that those who are of your Families and under your care are excellent and noble Creatures How low soever their outward condition is and how far soever they are beneath you upon worldly accounts yet they were made by the same hand are of the same original the Master-pieces of the Creation in this inferiour World and here I will more particularly offer these few things to your thoughts First They have Souls as well as you Souls to save as well as Bodies to feed Souls that quicken and actuate their Bodies and render them capable of being serviceable to you and be their Bodies never so amiable and lovely never so robust and well built never so lively and active yet without the Soul they would be no other than useless Carcases lumps of Clay both unprofitable and unsavoury and these Souls being the better and by far the more noble part are to be principally respected to be sure not totally forgotten and neglected and a Trade is to be driven with Heaven for them as well as one upon Earth for the Body and though it be no great matter whether they be great and rich in the World yet it is necessary that they be rich in Faith and good Works and toward God and since there is another World beside this and when they go out of this World they immediately pass into that and they must continue there to all Eternity without a remove or any alteration it is absolutely necessary that they be well provided before they go and lay up Treasures in Heaven As for the things of this World they must leave them all behind them though they have gotten never so much Riches take to themselves Wings and often fly away they leave their owners in a pitiful plight however their owners must at last leave them Death when once it comes will make an Eternal separation so Iob knew and said Iob 1. Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither Hence it follows that they are nearly and everlastingly concerned to look after those things which are better and more
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
Righteousness do decay and wear off Now if the Nurseries be not minded if the young Plants there be not carefully and duely tended what will become of the Orchard and Vineyard in a little while From hence we may not without good reason conclude that private Family-care is necessary for the promoting of publick and common good Therefore I beseech you to look to your Nurseries take care of your Families Seventhly I would ask not only those that are truly gracious but likewise them that are sober and serious are you not ashamed of and troubled at those crying Abominations that are among us Can Forreigners that come hither and understand what is pure Religion and undefiled before God even the Father and do observe the Miscarriages of Men I say can they look upon this as Immanuel's Land when they see it so over-run with Weeds Briars and Thorns can they think it to be the Garden of the Lord or rather some of the Wilderness of the World some of the Devils waste might not Heathens and Pagans say they are become like some of us yea and worse than many of us The good Lord look upon us in mercy and doth it not affect and afflict you that it is thus after all the Gospel-Light that hath shined among us and after all the means that God hath used for our Resormation in a mixt way of Mercy and Judgement of Kindness and Severity I do very well know there are almost every where great complaints of Prophaneness and Debauchery and truly those complaints are not without great cause for Sin gross Wickedness doth abound in all places both in City and Country if the Court be free I shall rejoyce there are bad reports of Camp and Fleet Wickedness hoth broken in like a flood as if it would deluge us and prevail against all Piety yea and against all Morality too filling all places with Atheism and Brutishness and without doubt Men in High Places did draw up the Flood-gates for the furthering an Antichristian design Popery and Prophaneness are near a kin let men have a liberty to do what they will i. e. to commit all uncleanness with greediness and an hundred to one they will be content that those who are uppermost should chuse their Religion for them yea and also inferiour Magistrates and under Officers have pav'd its way Blessed be they of the Lord who have offered themselves willingly to give a check and stop to it and blessed be those Magistrates who encourage and assist them therein and Oh! that the work may prosper in their hands but in the mean time have not you private Men had an hand in it You do cry out against Publick Houses Taverns and Alehouses and as I hear so I believe not without much cause though some of them are in good hands and care is taken that good Orders be observed in them yet certainly the wickedness of others yea of many others is exceeding great they are the Devil's ground in which he sets his Nets and lays his Snares for the catching of his unwary Prey they are the Devils School in which Men follow his Trade and by both together young ones are taught it there it is that modesty is put off and sober Principles pluck'd up by the Roots and they learn the Mysteries of iniquity and commence Masters of that Black Art But you who do complain of these Publick-Houses look home lay your hands upon your hearts and ask your own Consciences what you have done and what you have left undone Is there not the neglect of God and the duties of Godliness in your houses there is no Drunkenness nor Whoredom no Cursing and Swearing that you do allow that is well but withall there is no Praying nor Reading the Scripture nothing of the Service and Worship of God there and by that means you do not as you ought Principle your young ones against the Vices of the Times and so you leave them too naked and open to the assaults of Temptation This I would have imprest upon your thoughts that the making of good Families is the way to make a good City and a good Kingdom Let every one make it his business to set up Religion at home and then we shall all be sure to find it when we go abroad If all our Families were good we should have good Princes and good Parliaments good Magistrates and good Ministers and good People good Husbands Wives and Children good Friends and Neighbours it would indeed be Aurea Aetas a Golden Age. Eighthly and lastly The consciencious performance of Religious duties in Families is an excellent means for the rendering of Publick Ordinances more successful I am persuaded there would much more good come of that precious Seed which the faithful Ministers of Christ scatter in their several Congregations were Masters and Mistresses of Families careful before they come to prepare the Soil for the Seed and after it is sown careful to cover it with Prayer and to water it with suitable discourses and exhortations Thorough the Divine Goodness and Bounty there is in this City and near it a great deal of excellent Preaching Confident I am no Place in the World can shew such plenty Heavenly Manna doth abundantly fall about our Tents Whatsoever there is of a scarcity as to Bread for the Body there is no Famine here oh that in every poor Countrey there were none neither of hearing the Word of the Lord. We have it upon the Lord's day and the week days too every day in the week one where or other within your reach blessed be God for it the joyful sound is continually in our Ears It would be a thousand pities that such admirable plenty of a thing so precious as the Everlasting Gospel should do any hurt and that any should wax wanton and instead of the Bread of Life be hankering after Mushrooms and Kickshaws or that they should grow nice and curious not relishing plain Truths and the Simplicity of the Gospel unless it be dress'd and sauc'd to their humour and serv'd up to them in words which Man's Wisdom teacheth Though I fear we have among us too many of that mind mark how they live and what becomes of them but be that how it will it must be granted that this place where God hath cast our Lines is a Goshen a Valley of Vision and a great many People are much very much for hearing of Sermons they run up and down to Lectures and some of them will hear four Sermons and much good may they do them It is a great encouragement to the Servants of God and a ground of hope that they shall catch some of them for their Master He hath made them Fishers of Men and the Fisher-men love to cast their Net where there is a great Shoal But I would say to these who do so much frequent Sermons two things First By way of Advice Look to your whole Duty and labour to stand compleat in all the
it be jarring in their ears so long as it is musick in his know thou hast to deal with a good Master the God of all grace who if there be a willing Mind doth accept according to what a Man hath and not according to what he hath not The poor Publican was very short he had much to desire yet little to say his dejected looks and sorrowful gesture spake more than his Tongue did but though he was short yet he was sweet we read but of one Petition that he put up to God God be merciful to me a Sinner but he accompanied it with his heart and it came before God as incense who sent him home to his house justified Luke 18.13.14 God took away the filthy garments he came in and put on him a Robe of Righteousness The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 despise it no no he is so far from that that he requires it and approves it and will bind it up A broken Prayer from and with a broken Heart makes Melody in Heaven God will count it his delight Alas he seeth not as Man sees looks not at the flourishes of words but at the life fervency and Zeal of the Soul for those flowers may be strewed upon a dead and rotten carcass Indeed if a Man bring the Torn and the Sick and the Lame for an Offering to the Lord when he hath better it shall not be accepted Malach. 1.13 but if that Torn and Lame and Sick be the Male of the Flock if it be the best he hath God will receive it graciously and have respect to the Person and to his Offering and Grace will say he hath done what he could as our Lord pleaded for the Woman when his Disciples did absurdly trouble her Mark 14.8 Not only those Richer Persons who brought Gold and Silver and Silk and Precious Stones to the service of the Tabernacle were welcome but those also who came with their Goats-Hair and Badgers-Skins if they had no better I am willing to hope that by what hath been said the mouth of this Objection is stopt the edge of this Argument blunted and so this untoward rub removed which lay in the way of thy Duty therefore I beg earnestly of thee that thou wouldest defer no longer but get up break thro' all opposition and since God hath said seek ye my face let thine heart answer thy face Lord will I seek Before I go off from this Subject I shall direct my Discourse to two sorts of Persons First I would speak something to you whose hearts God hath touched so that you love your work and do it making Family-Prayer your every day business I bless you in the name of the Lord and the God of Heaven bless you while I beg it for you may he bestow it abundantly upon you and pour it out till you be rich in blessings the good Lord strengthen your hands and hearts more and more in this work and encourage you by his gracious answers may you find by frequent and large experience that he hath not said to you seek ye my face in vain The Lord teach you to pray and assist you by his Holy Spirit the Lord send you help from the Sanctuary and strengthen you out of Sion remember all your Offerings grant you according to your own hearts and fulfill all your Petitions which are according to his Mind and Will may you by the Bucket of Prayer draw Water with joy out of the Well of Salvation let him never turn away your Prayer nor his Mercy from you Secondly Do you also suffer the word of exhortation who have your lines cast in those Families in which there is Prayer and the Worship of God do you take special notice of it as a choice mercy and accordingly value it and bless the Lord for disposing you so graciously planting you not in a dry and barren Wildâ—erness where there is no Water but in a Paradise an Eden that is so well water'd You that are Wives and Married to Praying Husbands do you bless God and you Children who have been begotten by Praying Fathers and you Servants who work for and wait upon Praying Masters let all that is within you bless his Holy Name and see to it that you improve the Mercy lose not such a Season such an Opportunity Oh! how much good may you get how much the better may you be in case you be not wanting to your selves and who can tell how much Mercy such an Husband such a Father such a Master may obtain how many Blessings he may procure at the hand of God for you read what the Queen of Sheba said to King Solomon in the 1 of Kings 10.8 Happy are these thy Men and happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and that bear thy Wisdom She had seen the House he had built and the ascent by which he went up to the House of the Lord and the Meat at his Table and the sitting of his Servants and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel but there was something above all this that she admired She did not look upon the happiness of his Servants as consisting in beholding the greatness of his State and Honour and the Splendour and Glory of his Court or in feeding every day upon his Royal Dainties and Drinking his Generous Wines but in hearing of his Wisdom I may as well yea and much more say of you in case you are your own Friends happy thrice happy are you who live in such a Family though as the lowest and meanest Members of it in which you may every day hear the Master of it speaking to God and conversing with Heaven and every day perfuming the House with the precious Odours of his gracious and holy Prayers So much may suffice to be spoken concerning that great and excellent Work of Family prayer and Oh! that it may not be in vain as to any of you if it be you must answer for it another day But that is not all Christians the whole of your work doth not lye in Prayer this you must do and not leave the rest undone no none of it undoneâ— I remember the holy Apostle Paul speaking of Epaephras whom he calls a Servant of Christ and of them a Citizen of Colos a Member of their Church and Teacher much set for their good saith Col. 4.12 He always labour'd fervently for them in Prayer that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God which is a great thing and deserves our utmost endeavours and his so labouring in Prayer for them to this end spake him a good Man and a singular Friend of theirs and it is my Hearts desire and my frequent Prayer that it may be so with you And this should be the Desire and Prayer the Care and Endeavour of every one of you who are Godly Parents and Religious Governours
our heavenly Lord and Master hath cut out for us This is part of the description of a blessed Man that his delight is in the law of the Lord and in that law he doth meditate day and night Psal. 1.2 And it is the Will of God not only that you your selves should know them such Monopolizing is not grateful to the King of Glory but also teach them your Children Deut. 6.6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart to know them and to love them but to have them in their own Hearts was not all it was not enough no no read on thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest in the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up The Word of God is to be the matter of our Meditation and of our Discourses at all times and in all places I mean in the Morning and in the Evening at home and abroad This alone is excellent Food and to other discourse it is an excellent seasoning Paul in his Epistle to Timothy speaks of his having known the Scriptures of a Child ab incunabulis almost from his Cradle he did as it were suck them in with his Mothers Milk but how came that to pass By means of Parental Care the Teachings and Instructings of his Parents for certain of his Mother in that young and tender Age. Secondly Look diligently to the Catechising of them Blessed be God that Exercise hath been for some Years kept up in our Congregation and is now singularly well performed by my worthy Brother Mr. Alexander whom you have chosen and called to that and other Ministerial Work among you the Lord grant his Blessing both to him and to it that there may be much good fruit thereof seen and felt both in young and old and by the way I cannot pass it by in silence that it is some trouble to me there are no more of your Children and Servants brought into it and I cannot but reckon it a bad sign of proud or slothful unwillingness in them or else of a wretched neglect or carelesness in some of you But I advise and earnestly desire you as to be thankful for so not to rest in what is done here but come out to our help and do your duty at home teach you your Children and Servants their Catechism and examine them in it your selves In the Assembly's Catechism which is us'd in our Congregation and which I commend to your Family use you have a Body of Divinity summarily contained the main Fundamental Principles of Religion necessary to be known in order to Salvation methodically propounded and also brought into so narrow a compass that they will not oppress and burden the memory but if blessed of God mend both head and heart To the want of this we may I doubt not in part impute it that there among us so many wicked and profane persons so many Sons and Daughters of Belial so many ungodly impudent and debauched Young ones Hos. 4.1 There is no knowledge of God in the Land to be sure then there is a great deal of villany yes verse 2. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing Adultery they break out and Blood toucheth Blood Darkness being in the Mind the Works of Darkness will be in the Life an uninstructed Head an unsanctified Heart and a wicked Life go together through this means so many precious Souls go down to Hell and are for ever lost they perish for lack of knowledge for lack of this the Labours of Ministers are no more successful Want of Family-Instruction is one great reason of so much unprofitable Hearing 3dly Take all possible care that none under your Charge prophane the Lord's-day That is a day which God hath sanctified by chusing it out of the rest of the days and setting it apart for holy use and it is his will that all his People should sanctifie it too as he hath made it holy they must keep it so We are to call it a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and honour it or him i. e. Honour God by honouring the Sabbath not doing our own ways upon it nor finding our own pleasure nor speaking our own words There are ways and pleasures and words proper for that day but they must not be our own no nothing of our own it must be the way of God and the pleasure of God and the word of God that we are for upon that day and not our own Isa 58.13 Neither our corrupt sinful thoughts the froth or scum of our depraved Nature nor our worldly profits nor our sensual pleasures we must bring our thoughts our minds and hearts and strength with us but lay them at the foot of God devote them to his service and engage them entirely about his work Upon that day we are not of a due elevation till above our selves and above the World nothing of our own is to be minded or done by us save works of Necessity and Mercy It is God's day and therefore to be employed about the things of God thoughts of God discourses of God the Service and Worship of God should take up the whole of that holy day To do worldly business to follow bodily recreations upon that day is no less than Sacriledge a robbing of God Therefore take care of your Families as to this do not you set your Children or Servants about the affairs of your Callings on that day see also that they mis-spend it not themselves but in the performing acts of duty preparing to wait upon God in the way of his Publick Ordinances and thither do you carry them with you not suffering them to stay lazying sleeping or playing at home or to go rambling abroad whither they themselves please no no in this case put on the Spirit of Elijah and be very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts see that That day be kept for God and when you and your Families are at home exercise your selves and them unto Godliness The continuance of Religion in England doth under God very much depend upon a care of keeping the Sabbath Many years ago when I was a young Man Famous Mr. Newcomen of Dedham told me this passage This Question was put in the Conclave What is the best way to reduce England to the see of Rome To this every Cardinal was to give his Answer beginning at the youngest Many Expedients were propounded at length an old Fox stood up and said Take away their Sabbaths and that will effectually do it This Invention was hugg'd this Medium resolv'd upon and not long after came out the Book of Sports O holy Mother Church whose Interest is promoted by such unholy means And let me tell you I do never expect to see Religion flourishing nay not living long in that Family in which there is not due regard had to the Lord's-day Therefore
intreaties and so give forth and accompany the light with a due measure of heat by that means endeavouring to work upon their Hearts as well as upon their Heads that you may bring them to the knowledge of the Truth yea and to a receiving it in the love thereof to an understanding of the way wherein they ought to go and likewise to a sincere desire and fixed resolution through Divine Assistance of walking therein Whatsoever there is of wholesom and gracious Counsel which you apply to them be sure to chafe it in with a warm Hand it is sad to think how coldly some Ministers preach so that their Auditors may sit and freeze under them and also how some speak of God and the things of God in their Houses as if they were not concerned in them or rather as if they were ashamed of them do you so discourse of these things as become those who believe your selves and are affected your selves and do-know the Terrours of the Lord and are indeed in good earnest do what you can to convince them of these two things First That you have an high esteem and valuation of Religion and all that appertains and belongs to it The Truths of God and the Ordinances of God and the Day of God and the Ways of God that you do not look upon these things as trivial matters of none or but little importance but of a more excellent nature and higher concernment than any thing else in the World Again manage these Exhortations with so much prudence love and fervour as that they may be convinced Secondly That you are really and heartily set for the doing of them good and that your great aim is as the approving of your selves to God in the consciencious and faithful discharge of your duty so the doing of them good and the promoting of the Spiritual and Eternal welfare of their Souls and herein imitate David's example in the counselling of his Son Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever So much may suffice to be by me spoken as to these parts of your duty Family-Prayer and Family-Instruction the good Lord grant that what hath been declared and proved to be your duty may be forthwith and always put in practice by every one whose duty it is I now proceed to the third part of that Counsel which I purposed and promised to give unto you who are the Parents and Governours of Families and Oh! let it be acceptable to you and prevalent with you It is this Look wisely and carefully to your own Carriages and Conversations and be sure that you order them aright be circumspect curious exact think not that you may do what you please but labour to do what you should what becomes both your place and your profession in Psal. 123.2 the Prophet speaks of the Eyes of Servants looking to the hands of their Masters and the Eyes of a Maiden looking unto the hand of her Mistress for direction and supply for help and assistance I may likewise say the Eyes both of Children and of Servants are and will be upon the Lives and Actions of their Father and Mother of their Master and Mistress and therefore your Eyes should be very much upon your selves and I count it your wisdom and duty to weigh the words you speak in their hearing and the actions you do in their sight as well as in the hearing and sight of any other graver and greater Persons Never think it enough to speak to them good things as long as you set before them bad examples for they will sooner do as you do than as you say Praecepta docent exempla trahunt Precepts do but teach Examples draw This was Christ's manner of teaching he said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly Learn this by my Doctrine yea and by my Disposition also in his Mind Life and Death he sets us an example that we should tread in his steps and since that was his way of teaching it should be ours That was a good saying Oh! that it were at this day true of all those upon whom the Name of God is called Non magna loquimur sed magna vivimus we do not only speak great things but we live great things we speak of Christ and we live Christ we speak of the Gospel and we live the Gospel we profess Godliness yea and we practice Godliness know for certain it is your practising that which is good that is the best and most probable way of commending it to others by this means they may be induced to believe that Religion is not meer notion but a reality that it is a thing practicable yea and that it is pleasant It is your drawing up in your own lives a beautiful lovely Picture of Religion that is the most likely way to make them full in love with it and make it your business to see to it that there be as few spots in it as possible for however some vain Persons do absurdly think spots in their Faces are their Ornaments and set them off yet sure all will believe and grant that spots in the Life are blemishes and a meer deformity Hence it is that Wives are commanded to carry as becomes them in their Conjugal Relation Being in subjection to their own Husbands and of a chast conversation coupled with fear that if any do not obey the word they may without the word be won by the conversations of their Wives 1 Pet. 3.1 2. And this Oh! this is that which I would gladly have among all upon whom the Name of Christ is called as for the wicked and profane of the Age if they hate to be reformed and are resolved upon their way they may go on He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still Rev. 22.11 Yes if he will let him and see what will come of it But I say as for Professors let them live up to the Principles of their Religion let them abstain from all appearance of evil let their Conversation be as it becomes the Gospel of Christ and in all things adorn the Doctrine of our God and Saviour let your Conversation be a God-honouring Conversation and a World-condemning Conversation and a Soul-winning Conversation Oh! the good that might by this be done how much might the Credit and Honour of Religion be retrieved which hath sunk and lost so much in this Degenerate Atheistical and Wicked Generation in which there is nothing more common though most unjust than for vile Wretches to take up all the dirt which they find in the Lives of some Professors and throw it in the Face of our
was his Will that all his Disciples should of him learn to be so Mat. 11.29 The highest Heaven is not so much above the Earth as the great and glorious God is above Angels and Men there is an infinite distance between him and us yet how low doth he stoop how wonderfully doth he condescend to his poor Creatures to Worms to Dust and Ashes to whom he looks with whom he dwells whom he gives leave to lay hold upon his strength to wrestle with him to come with boldness to his throne of Grace to whom he saith Ask me of things to come concerning my Sons and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa. 45.11 Mind these things and be astonished that so great a Majesty should so greatly bow to such pitiful shreds of Being Psal. 8.4 What is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Now certainly since the great God and our Saviour do thus stoop and humble themselves we cannot but conclude that Pride becomes no body but it is the shame and disgrace of all that are guilty of it and generally those Persons are highest in Pride who are lowest in Worth Pride and Frowardness turn Men and Women into Monsters yea into a kind of ugly Devils for as such they appear in the Eyes of those that have to do with them yea let their other accomplishments be never so great yet this one thing spoils all Such a Man is an Understanding Man a Learned Man a Wise Man an Active Man a very Useful Man this is an high Encomium but he is a Self-conceited Man a Proud Lofty Man it is a great blot in his Escutcheon Men do not like him and God will resist him whereas Humility is an Ornament wheresoever it is found but it sets them off most who are highest God delights to see such a Man he will dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble Spirit Isa. 57.15 And that is an evident sign he likes and loves them well and as he will dwell with him so will be good and liberal to them he will revive his spirit and give him grace Jam. 4.6 He hath a special favour for them he will smile lovingly upon them he will give forth plentifully of his Spirit unto them they shall have fresh influences and blessed assistances grace for grace Thus an humble Spirit renders you pleasing to God in and through Jesus Christ and a kind affable courteous behaviour will commend you to Men to all those with whom you Converse But while I am commending humility to Family Governours I would not have them to do any thing unworthy of that place in which God hath set them Stoop but not basely not below your place shew your selves humble and kind but do not make your selves mean and cheap Remember you are Parents and Master and Mistress and carry as such and let not Inferiours forget themselves nor turn kindness into wantonness and neglect there are due bounds and limits unto which they may go and beyond which they cannot pass without being Transgressors It is not fit that Servants should be all tongue in the presence of their Master or their Mistress or boldly mingle them selves with their Discourses yet they may be permitted to speak before them so that they open their mouths with wisdom in a due season and in a right manner It is not fit that Servants should usurp Authority or take into their own hands the reins of Government as if they had a right to dictate and give order no no their business is to do the work and not to cut it out yet they may sometimes and in some cases modestly shew their Opinion Servants are to be obedient to their Masters pleasing them well in all things not answering again not quarelling and murmuring against their Orders or Corrections not thwarting and contradicting them and thereby provoking their anger and indignation against them yet when they are spoken to they must not be sullenly silent but give respective answers yet when they have received wrong and are unjustly charged they may seasonably with due submission and soft words which turn away wrath assert their own innocency and clear themselves of that blame which was laid upon them An instance hereof we have in David 1 Sam. 24.8 9 10 11. When Saul looked behind him David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself and David said to Saul wherefore hearest thou mens words saying behold David seeketh thy hurt Behold this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee to day into my hand in the Cave and some bid me kill thee but mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lords Anointed Moreover my Father see yea see the skirt of thy Robe in my hand for in that I cut off the skirt of thy Robe and killed thee not know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand and I havâ— not sinned against thee thus he did and so Servants may humbly clear and vindicate themselves when innocent And Saul himself as bad as he was did hearken to him and owned his integrity saying thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil Before I pass on and leave this particular I shall propound to your consideration the practice of Iob who was a Mirrour of Patience and a Non-such for Piety He tells us it was far from him to despise the cause of his Man-Servant or his Maid Servant when they contended with him If I had done so saith he what shall I do when God riseth up and what shall I answer when he visiteth Iob 31.13 14. We must needs speak something to that word contended when they contended with me May Servants contend with their Masters and Mistresses they do often too too often contend among themselves one with another more shame for them but would Iob allow them to contend with himself if he did indeed we may admire his Patience but have no reason to commend his Prudence What therefore are we to understand by this their contending let Holy and Reverend Mr. Caryl answer the question which he doth in these Particulars First We are not to understand this of a bold and saucy contending doubtless Iob was a Wiser Man than to endure such unmannerly Servants in his House such sacucie carriage deserves and calls for sower returns nor Secondly Are we to understand hereby contention in a way of gainsaying thwarting him in his Orders and contradicting his Commands a Master who knows his place will not bear with that he is not to have them for his Controulers nor Thirdly are we to understand it of any unreasonable murmuring and dislike upon every trivial and frivolous occasion these things saith he are not to be permitted in any well-govern'd Family such as Iob was If Servants will thus
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
wrath To avoid that is their Duty and Interest but the Apostle knew what he did when he said Parents provoke not your Children unto wrath though you are above them older and stronger than they though they have their dependance upon you though you at present give them their Maintenance and must hereafter their Portion yet provoke them not do nothing to incense and inrage them A Wasp is a very little feeble Creature yet do not anger it for it hath a Sting Do not irritate your Children by too much severity remember the Authority you have over them is Parental therefore your Government should be sweet and easie you should so carry as to be both fear'd and lov'd at the same time and in order to that not rule with a Rod of Iron but draw and bind them to you with the Cords of a Man those of Reason and Kindness more particularly do not provoke your Children First Not by unreasonable requiries and hard commands lay not a Man's burden upon a Child's Shoulders exact not that which is above their ability to do Secondly Do not make unequal distributions of your kindnesses among them being all Honey to one and all Gall to another remember they are equally yours though your Affections may incline more to one than another yet conceal it as much as you can unless their goodness and obedience make an apparent difference Thirdly Provoke them not by giving them undue unreasonable Correction the Rod is sometimes as necessary as Bread but it must always be used with a prudent love let not your Rod be too smart nor your Hand too heavy convince them that your chastening of them is not for your pleasure but for their profit Fourthly Provoke them not by calling them reproachful Names as Fool Blockhead Rascal or the like which may expose them to the slight of others to the contempt of your very Servants while you hate their offences be tender of their Reputation Lastly Provoke them not by continual chiding and threatning finding fault with every thing they do overlook some smaller faults and wink at others knowing your selves are not blameless let not the Poyson of Asps dwell under your Tongues nor all your words be as sharp Swords but draw them to their duty keep them at it and encourage them in it rather by love than fear By provoking your Children unto wrath by all or any of these ways you create to your selves more grief and sorrow than you at present are aware of for by rigour and severity the minds of your Children may be alienated and estranged from you through your imprudent and unnatural Carriage it may come to pass that instead of loving reverencing and honouring you as Parents they will only fear and dread you as Tyrants so that in after-times when you shall need them as Staffs in your Hands for support they may prove Thorns in your sides piercing you thorough with many sorrows Well remember provoking your Children to wrath is forbidden therefore carefully avoid it Secondly In that Scripture there is an Injunction or something commanded that is the bringing of your Children up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. The Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nurture and admonition of the Lord. The former word Translated Nurture doth signifie such Education or Discipline as is convenient or fit for young ones made up of wise Instructions and needful Correction The latter word by our Translators rendred admonition may be looked on as being of a double import and signifying 1. A putting something into the Mind 2. A putting of the Mind into a right frame First then It is the Duty and should be the Endeavour of Parents to put something into the Minds of their Children to stock them well to instil and drop into them something that should be there something that will be proper for them and do them good that those choice and excellent Cabinets may be filled with Spiritual Riches with goodly Pearls yea the Pearl of Price in which by Nature as it is now corrupted there is nothing but filthy dross and dung Now there is in them nothing but Vanity and Folly false Notions wrong Conceptions of things and it is pity such vain Thoughts should lodge there a thousand pities they should continue and abide there labour to get them out by degrees as soon and as fast as you can that so instead of them and in their room you may happily introduce those things which are precious and of value viz. the Truths of God Right Orthodox and Saving Principles get into these narrow-mouth'd Bottles drop by drop as they are capable of receiving them the true Notion of things for good Principles do directly tend to the producing of good Practices and a Divine Light set up in their Understandings may keep them in the way of Peace and out of the path of the Destroyer for by means thereof they will be put into a capacity of discerning the way in which they ought to go Ignorance may be the Mother of a silly Devotion that O Papists we will grant you but God having told us His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge we cannot but look upon it as the Highway to Perdition Since without knowledge the Heart cannot be good we will not stick at concluding that without it the end cannot be peace Secondly It is the duty and should be the endeavour of Parents to put the Minds of their Children into a right frame to cast them into a due Mould and set them in a proper posture It is now a dark Mind there is blackness of darkness in it your work is to illuminate it and to set up there the Candle of the Lord. It is a corrupt Mind the Scripture tells us The Mind and Conscience is defiled your work and duty is to cleanse it and rid out all the filth that is there Now that I may afford you all the help that I can in order thereto I shall propound and offer some things to your Consideration and Practice speaking first more generally then more particularly in general I advise these four things First See carefully to it that the Holy Scripture be read in your Families The Bible is the Book of Books may as well be so called as the Canticles is the Song of Songs There is an inexhaustible Treasure for the inriching of the Mind and a Golden exact Rule for the ordering of the Life That is the most blessed and full Revelation of the Mind and Will of God concerning us whereby we may by Prayer and Study come to know what things we are to believe as God's Truths and what to practice as our own Duties what to reject as Errours and what to avoid as Sins There we have the great things of the Law for our Direction and the precious things of the Gospel for our Consolation these are able to make us wise for Salvation and thoroughly to furnish us for every good work which