go to Heaven without them Who will not hinder their Inferiours from serving God Whereas you have much to do of Positive Duty to * See Mr. Baxters's Saints Rest Part. 3. Chap. 14. Sect. 16. inform their Minds to furnish their Memories to rectify their Wills to quicken their Affections to keep tender their Consciences and restrain their Tongues and watch over their outward Carriage to make them hate Sin and love Holiness and prize the Bible and delight in the Ordinances and Institutions of Christ and like good Company and dislike all others c. And to what End hath God given you The Authority of Parents or Masters if not to prevent Sin and to promote Holiness in your Families Humane Nature is so corrupt that unless in some few with whom the Spirit of God begins very early and the Effects of Holy Baptism are discovered in Childhood there need to be great Restraints put upon it by those who have Power and Authority over Young People Your Authority must be kept up lest you should be despised by those that you should Rule Labour therefore to understand the Nature Use and Extent of that Authority with Relation to all in your Family And the more you grow in Knowledg and Holiness and walk according to the Gospel-Rule the better will you preserve your Authority among all your Inferiours Humility and Wisdom and circumspect Walking will enable you to do them the more good in the use of that Power which God has given you The Indulgence and Allowance of Children in what is sinful you know did highly provoke God in the case of Eli and how dear did it cost him That his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not â— Saâ— 3.13 You must not let Wickedness dwell in your Tabernacle Job 11.14 or in those of your Family They will observe your Orders and regard your Commands if you do not indiscreetly lose your Authority by not keeping your distance or suffering them to be too bold with you or on the other hand making them too strange so as to be fearful and discouraged I here speak especially of Children If what you resolve upon and order in commanding what is good or forbidding what is evil you see be punctually observed still managing all with Affection and Love and manifesting the Honour of God and the Interest of their Souls and Salvation to have been your greatest Motive And remember that Commendation when they do well is as needful as Reproof and Correction when they sinfully transgress which also ought to be without Partiality or the causeless cockering or countenancing of one above the rest The like may be said though with some difference with respect to Your Servants Be Just Compassionate and Loving to them but lose not your Authority as a Master Be Faithful and Affectionate in your Counseling of them for the good of their Souls But if they be refractory and stubborn and slight your Advice and go on in Sin and wax worse and worse and deride serious Godliness in their fellow-Fellow-Servants you must use other Methods or get rid of them as soon as you can You are to take care that Wickedness dwell not within your House without Admonishing and Reproving of it You must warn them who are anruly and of others have Compassion making a difference Some must be rebuked sharply others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire Jude 22 23 Verses As to those who have Trades and Families but God hath not blessed them with Children or hath taken them away by Death their Care and Labour and Trust is thereby lessened and they ought to be the more careful with respect to their Servants They have many Considerations to keep them from Repining or Sorrowing much for the want of Children upon the Account of the Duty the Pains the Care and Grief of Heart which they are freed from For in this dissolute Age how few Children answer the Hopes Desires and Pains of Parents Or prove Comforts to them when they grow up If God had given you Children or prolonged their Lives what a Life of Trouble and Sorrow might They probably have passed in this World besides the constant Fear you would have had of their Sin and Damnation which may be put in the Ballance against the Vncertain Comforts of those who have Children abstracting from that Consolation which arises from the faithful discharge of Duty to them More particularly it is advisable with Family Prayer to joyn Serious Reading of the Holy Seriptures every Day and frequent Catechizing or Instructing of Inferiours in the Principles of Religion Abraham had such Trained Catechized Servants in his House These things that I command thee says God to his Antient People shall be in thy Heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children Deut. 4.9 chap. 11.19 Teach a Child in the way he should go and when he is Old he will not depart from it Prov. 4.4 chap. 22.6 2 Tim. 1.3 Acquaint them by little and little with the great Doctrines of Christianity give them Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept as they are able to receive and bear it Acquaint them betimes with the Word and Works of God When you sit in the House or walk by the Way or lie down or rise up by asking them Questions and putting them upon asking you Abraham's Example is approved and recommended by God in this matter Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord. Never diel any Age afford better Helps for Catechizing than this there being so many excellent Catechisms or Summaries of Christian Religion already printed and easy to be had If any of you want a Method for Regular Catechizing in your Families as suppose upon a Lord's-day Evening or once a Week let me mention one which is practised by many with good Success in some Counties of this Nation viz. Let the Master of the Faly begin with a short Invocation of God praying for his Presence Assistance and Blessing and then ask the younger sort Three Questions out of the Assemblies Catechism and upon each of the three Answers ask the explicatory Questions in Mr. Joseph Allen's Catechism or Mr. Lye's so that by answering Yes or No you will perceive whether they understand the matter treated of After this read The fuller Explication of those Three Questions in some larger Catechism as that of Mr. Thomas Vincent and then close with a short Prayer and if you can Sing a Psalm All which may be done in an Hour and you will find it very profitable both for younger and elder People The reading of the Holy Scriptures frequently in your Families as well as in your Closets upon the Week-days as well as upon the Lord's-day I hope I need not use many Arguments to recommend Deut. 11.18 They are able to make us wise unto Salvation and they are suitable to every Case that you
how profitable how honourable and pleasant a Life that of serious Godliness is Hereby you remove or cure their Prejudices concerning practical Religion as a melancholy burdensome thing And take heed what Books they read and what Company they keep lest their Minds be poysoned and corrupted by ill Principles and their Hearts inticed and drawn to Sin and so all your Instructions fail of Success Without such Care 't is in vain to put up Bills to Ministers Week after Week to pray for your dead Children whose Souls you your selves do murder by your Negligence or ill Example But your Counsels and Discourse back'd by a Holy Example to inforce them may do much good and will if these go together For if Inferiours see you to be unjust deceitful drunken wanton cruel c. all your serious Talk will do them harm rather than good Especially if you do not carry it well in your Relations to them if Parents be very passionate and hasty with their Children if Masters be barbarous and hard-hearted to their Servants and remember not how it was with them when they were Servants I mean not so much how they fared as how they desired and wish'd to have been used under their Apprenticeship And of all the serious things which may be proper to be recollected there is hardly any thing of greater Moment than to instil often into their Minds the value and worth of Time That they may be brought to hate Idleness and not care to mispend one Hour But as they grow more capable of improving it may be still imployed You cannot insist too often upon the Brevity and Vncertainty of our little Time on Earth the Swiftness and Irrecoverableness of it and the Consequence of redeeming it well or ill in order to our future Account The Devil is almost sure of those who are brought up in Idleness and put no value upon their precious Time Urge this therefore to Inferiours and help them to improve their Time and to begin every Day with secret Prayer alone and to imploy the other part of it in what is suitable to their Age Capacity Condition and Relation You would do well to put them upon secret Prayer to advise your Children and Servants and charge them to pray alone every Day as well as be willing to join in Family-Prayer You ought also to teach them by Word and by Example to beg a Blessing on their Food at the usual Seasons of Refreshment and seriously to return Thanks afterwards We depend on God for our Daily Bread And our Blessed Saviour did never eat himself or feed others at his Table but he blessed and gave thanks Mark 8.6 7. So the Apostle Acts 27.25 and by Prayer and Thanksgiving is every Creature sanctified 1 Tim. 4.3 4 5. It will be of great Moment in order to a religious well-ordered Family to be very careful whom you admit to dwell with you The Case may be so stated it is true that you must dwell with such as scorn and despise Family-Religion and Worship But take heed lest you sinfully chuse such Relations and such Inhabitants It may be David thought that Michal whom he knew came of a bad Stock might be prevailed with by him to join in the Worship of God and in time be brought over to what he desired but she despised him in her Heart and mocked at his Zeal and proved a Snare and a Cross and made him repent his Choice Wo to him who hath a Philistin in his Bosom as Samson had Marriage is the turning-point of Life Your future Religion and your Eternal Interest are greatly concerned therein We find the Wickedness and Ruin of several of the Kings of Israel laid at this Door that they married into a wicked Family Such a One he had a Wife of the House of Ahab and was quickly drawn off from God by one who had a wicked Ahab to her Father and a curfed Jezabel to her Mother and she stirr'd him up to work Wickedness 1 Kings 21.25 A due Care on this Account is to be had in the Choice of Servants also Such are to be preferr'd who by Education and as far as you can judge by Inclination too will be willing to serve God and rejoice in the Helps they may have to do so in a religious Family And how orderly and beautiful is Family-Worship where all in the House do heartily join in it You complain you cannot bring your Servants to do what you desire as to Matters of Religion when it may be you had nothing of Religion in your Eye in the Choice of Servants It may be for a small Sum less with an Apprentice or for the same Wages to another Servant you might have had one whose Education and Inclinations would have been more incouraging and who would thank God to enjoy such Advantages for the Knowledg and Service of God as he might have in your House Servants also in disposing themselves and Parents in the disposing their Children ought to consider this A wicked Master will commonly chuse wicked Servants and make them worse When a Ruler of an House or Town or Country hearkeneth to Lies or is otherwise wicked all his Servants are wicked Prov. 29.12 Such a one can't endure the constant Reproof that is given him by the good Conversation even of a Servant And therefore will desire no more Religion in a Servant than not to be unfaithful to his Trust I wish there be not some Masters even amongst those who would be accounted Religious who are shy of chusing Servants that have the Character of being so contrary to David's Practice Psal 101.4 5 7. It is true some that have been well educated have proved very ill afterwards and Masters have found themselves mistaken after all their Care in this Matter But if they did their Duty to make the best Choice and use the best Endeavours they could they may have Peace and Quiet in their own Minds when they meet with a Disappointment which otherwise they cannot They ought to look to it whom they admit into their Families unless they value their particular Calling above their General one For who can tell the Mischief that one bad Servant may do in a House One Sinner destroys much good as one Joseph may bring a Blessing upon a Family and upon all that his Master hath in the House You can hardly expect that God should succeed you with a Blessing in what you undertake when you care not with what Tools you work or whom you imploy And in the Nature of the thing there is little reason to hope that they who are false to God and to their own Souls will ordinarily be faithful to you We read of those who were no good Men viz. Laban and Potiphar c. who have thrived the better for taking good Servants into their Families but I no where read of a good Man that was the better for a wicked Servant We have sad Experience every Day to the
Family Religion IN THREE LETTERS TO A FRIEND By JOHN SHOWER LONDON Printed by J. D. for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1694. Of Family Religion The FIRST LETTER SIR THE Substance of what I lately preach'd concerning Family Religion and Worship I now send you at your Desire in Three Letters The First recommends the Duty with the Grounds of it The Second answers some Objections and Difficulties as to the Practice The Third directs the manner of Performance c. The Success of these plain Discourses through the Blessing of Heaven was beyond Expectation to bring the daily Worship of God into several Houses where before there was none and to have it constant where it was perform'd but seldom and uncertainly and to be now every Day instead of once a Week and every Morning and Evening instead of Prayer at Night only Divers of our Brethren in this City can say the like and I hope more of the good Effects of our Agreement to preach on this Subject about the same time It was seasonable to more than we imagined And there may be divers who have since begun to worship God in their Families who are asham'd to own that they neglected it so long Tho not a few with humble Thankfulness to God have acknowledg'd their Conviction and Reformation of that Neglect Many Servants and Apprentices assure us that God is now daily worship'd and the Holy Scriptures read in the Families where they live who had no such thing before save only on the Lord's-Day I had no thoughts at first of publishing any thing on this Subject because there is a great deal to this purpose already printed in * Mr. Gurnal 's Christian Warfare Mr. Swinnock's Christian Man 's Calling Mr. Baxter 's Directory Yet Supplem to the Morning-Exercise at Cripplegate Some of Dr. Manton 's Sermons Mr. O. H 's Family-Altar c. other Practical Books from whence I have had Assistance and some others of my Brethren I did hope would be prevailed with to print their Sermons and am glad to hear that it is now doing or resolved to be done But you and others who do constantly attend my Ministry do hope to profit further by the Perusal of those things which in the Delivery were of some use This is reason enough to me for appearing again so soon in Print I may say in this case as one whose Name I honour doth upon somewhat a like Occasion that as in all the Removes of my Life I have been still led to that place which was most remote from my own Thoughts and never design'd or contriv'd by my self So it hath been as to what I have published there hath been for the most part some unexpected Providence and Occasion sufficient to satisfy me that I ought to do it while those Writings which I most affected have been stifled in the Conception and those which I have most labour'd in are like to be buried in the Dust Hereby I am made to know that God is the Disposer of all In this first Letter I shall collect the Substance of what may recommend and prove the Duty of Family Religion and Worship at least what I think is sufficient to do so tho it be not all that can be said I begin with the Necessity of it in order to a National Reformation There is not a more common Subject of Complaint than the growing Corruption of Manners and the Prevalency of Debauchery and Irreligion among us We must shut our Eyes and stop our Ears if we are not acquainted with it Who is not sensible of the Justice and Truth of such a Complaint All serious People profess to bewail the want of Reformation and many are apprehensive of impending Judgments upon that Account But what Hope of a National Reformation if it begin not in Families If they who have the Care and Government of these lesser Societies will not faithfully do their part neither Magistrates or Ministers can expect Success in doing Theirs Nations will be wicked and Churches will be corrupt and Cities will abound with all manner of Impurity if particular Families out of which the Members are all composed be disordered and irregular They who are not taught the Knowledg and Fear of God betimes no wonder if they run into Atheism and Debauchery as they grow up That so many are thus corrupted in Principles and Conversation must needs be very much owing to the Neglect and Miscarriage of Parents and Heads of Families Reformation must therefore begin in Families And a whole Street would soon be made clean by every Man's Care as to his own House and sweeping before his own Door The Psalmist began that in his own Family which he design'd should reach to his whole Kingdom Psal 101. Is it strange if they who have lived many Years in such Families where God was not worshipped where there was little or no Concern about Religion it may be not so much as the Form and the Shew of it if they are ignorant and careless dissolute and profane when they come to have Families of their own If they be as little solicitous for the Souls under their Care as their own Parents and Masters were of theirs during their Minority If there be no reading the Holy Scriptures no instructing of Children and Servants no Prayer and Praise offered to God in the Family as such how unlikely is it that such who are brought up in their Youth in such Houses should afterwards be Exemplary for Religion in their own It lies more upon Parents and Masters to recover and preserve serious Godliness in the World than either upon the Civil Magistrate or the most diligent and faithful Ministers of Christ in their places And whence can we hope for any useful Magistrates or faithful Ministers if they are not formed to be capable of being such by the wise and good Instruction of holy Parents and the Blessing of God thereupon in their tender Years It is certain they are like to profit little by the preaching of the Word if they have not Understanding and prepared Minds by the Instructions of Parents and Masters at home at least little in comparison of others who have had that Advantage One great reason why People do not better understand Sermons and profit more by them is because they never well understood their Catechism It is in vain therefore to talk against the Badness of the Times and the Looseness of the Age unless you will resolve that Reformation shall begin at home and every one be at the pains to Reform his own little Family It is from thence that Wickedness doth spread and diffuse it self over a whole Kingdom One ignorant atheistical erroneous or wicked Family may do much to corrupt defile and destroy several others when the Branches thereof are separated As by a Son going into one Family and a Daughter into another and a Servant into a third They carry and communicate their evil Principles and
and Family I and the Men of my House will serve before the Lord That is the Men who dwelt with him in his House And we read of Cornelius Acts 10.2 that he was a devout Man one that feared God with all his House and gave much Alms to the People and prayed always He was a Roman Captain over the Italian Band which attended the Roman Governour 's Person as his Life-guard and therefore probably of that Nation This Cornelius is said to be a Devout Man Whether he were a Proselyte to the Church of Israel or no is doubtful be sure not a Proselyte of the Covenant or of Justice for such were Circumcised If he were an Uncircumcised Proselyte or a Proselyte of the Gate he was not incorporated into the Commonwealth of Israel The Apostle Peter had a Vision first to authorize him to go to him And the Christians of the Circumcision exprest their Resentment for his Conversation with him till they knew his Warrant Acts 11.3 Yet this Roman this Souldier this Centurion was accepted of God as being prepared to believe in Christ assoon as he should be revealed to him He was a devout and good Man and not only good himself but chose such to be in his Family as feared God He was full of good Works and constant in Prayer and God testified his Acceptance of him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up as a Memorial before God Vers 4. Of a Truth I perceive says the Apostle that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness shall be accepted Vers 39. Here is a surprizing Example of a devout Souldier a devout Roman spreading Religion in his Family One that feared God with all his House and prayed always The Fear of God is an usual Expression comprehensive of all Divine Worship 2 Kings 17.36 37. Let all the Earth worship him Psal 66.4 Let all the Earth fear him Psal 67.7 And Prayer being the principal part of it we may suppose that as he feared God and all his House so he prayed with all his House unto God And he himself seems so to explain it I prayed to God in mine House at the ninth Hour or with my Houshold as it may be rendered He afterwards called together his Kindred and his near Friends when Peter came but mentions not the calling of his Houshold as what was usual and supposed And the praying always or continually can hardly bear a less Sense than the doing of it every Day As the daily Sacrifice which God appointed the Jews is called the continual Sacrifice which was offered Morning and Evening Dan. 8.11 So Mephibosheth is said to eat Bread at the King's Table continually 2 Sam. 9.7 that is at Meal-time every Day Nature and Scripture both seem to concur to recommend Morning and Evening as the proper Season for Prayer It is good to give Thanks unto the Lord and to sing Praises to thy Name O most High to shew forth thy Loving-kindness every Morning and thy Faithfulness every Night Ps 92.1 2. God is to be worshiped by all Persons and all People Ps 22.27 28. Ps 66.4 and by Social Worship Psalm 34.3 Acts 12.12 The general Nature of Worship and all the Essentials of true Divine Worship is found in the Worship of God by Families as such The Object the End and the Rule is the same And since there are many Commands in Scripture concerning Divine Worship and this part of it Prayer in particular which are of general Extent such as of praying always and giving thanks always and continuing in Prayer and Thanksgivings with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit every where lifting up holy hands in every thing giving thanks c. 't will be hard to obey all these Commands and yet live in the neglect of Family-Prayer For by the Light of Nature we may from hence be able to determine the Performance of this Duty to be every Day as a proper Time and in every House as a proper Place for it But if it were only permitted us we are greatly wanting to our own Interest to neglect it These general Rules and Precepts do at least warrant and make lawful our Praying together every Day We have leave to pray together and shall we not use it What if God should have forbidden us if he should put any of our Families under an Interdict and say You shall not pray to me I will not receive a Sacrifice from you Your Neighbours may pray to me every Morning and Night I 'll hear them and accept them As for you you shall have no Family-Altar or Sacrifice Who would not be griev'd to be forbidden such a daily Privilege Who would not then use it if they might And because the Evening and Morning do make one Day as the Beginning and the End do comprehend the whole he that prays every Morning and Evening may be said to pray continually to pray always to pray without ceasing Doth not the Light of Nature which instructs us in the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul oblige us to endeavour the good of those in our Families And as one proper means of their spiritual Welfare it may direct the Master of a Family to pray with them there being Family-Sins to be confessed by us and forgiven by God there being many Temptations every day to be resisted Wants to be supplied Duties performed Graces exercised Crosses prevented Mercies acknowledged c. in Families as such with respect unto all these Family-Prayer and Worship is an excellent Means Some of those who had not the Advantage of Scripture-Revelation have yet had their Houshold-Gods The Eastern Nations had their Teraphim the Egyptians Greeks and Romans had their Lares and Penates a Sort of Family-Gods to rule preserve and defend them in their Houses whom they worshiped and sacrificed unto in their Houses and several of them had a particular Room set a-part for an Oratory to that purpose The Heathen Poets Hesiod Homer and others mention their daily Sacrifices to their Gods every Morning and Evening that they might prosper and succeed by their Favour in all their Affairs and their Practice may be urged for our Conviction It seems a Prescription of the Law of Nature that every Society wherein Men do unite and joyn according to the Mind of God should own their Dependance on him by some Worship common to that Society and as performed in the Name of it especially is it so as to an Houshold or Family which is the Foundation of all other Societies Hence there were Sacrifices peculiar unto Families before the Law wherein the Father of the Family was the sacred Administrator So Job offer'd Burnt-Offerings for himself and Family Chap. 1.5 and Jacob for his Gen. 35. And such Family-Sacrifices were famous among the * An Eminent Instance hereof the Roman Historian gives us in C. Fabius who when Rome was sack'd by the Gauls and the Capitol
by a total neglect And for some Masters of Families I know not all Circumstances considered but the use of a good Form may be more advisable and more for the good of those with whom they joyn than to pray without One. All things should be done for Edifieation and for those to use a Form who cannot otherwise do so well is for Edification And Experience will prove that some cannot do so well without one I deny not but the Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Supplication and ready to assist and enable us in some measure to pray so that if you neglect not the Gift that is in you you would increase in this and other Gifts by Exercise The Holy Scriptures will furnish you with Matter and Expressions and if you study your own Hearts and observe the state of your Family you will be competontly able to apply them And God will afford you that Assistance of his Holy Spirit which is needful As in the Case of Moses he excuses himself from speaking to Pharoah as God would have him because he was not cloquent but slow of speech The Lord said to Moses Exod. 4.11 Who veaketh the Dumb to speak Who hath made Man's Mouth Have not I the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy Mouth teach thee what thou shalt say His Call to speak to Pharach was Extraordinary and so was his promised Assistance from God Yours to Family Prayer is Ordinary and the Ordinary Help and Assistance you therein need you may likewise expect It is a greater Disconragement to others from the daily Worship of God in their Families that they are often composed of such Persons as care not to joyn in such Duties Or they are such Scoffers that it is a scruple whether they should be suffered to be present if they were willing Some had rather pray alone than indeavour or desire such Company they think they had better leave them out than have their presence who will not heartily joyn in the Requests that are made to God and who desire not his Grace or seek his Favour To such it may be said That it is the Duty even of wicked Men to pray to God and you know not what success their joyning with you may be attended with Some have dated their first Conviction and Conversion from Family Prayer and Instruction You knowing the Sins of those in your Family should be very serious in the Confession of Sin and God may touch their Hearts and give them Repentance However if you look to your own Hearts and do not regard Iniquity there the Wickedness of others in the Family shall not be laid to your Charge while you do what lies in you for their Recovery The Presence of Judas with our Lord and Saviour when he prayed with his Disciples did not render them unacceptable to God For I know says Christ to his Father thou hearest me always If you are sincere in your Worship the Presence of unworthy Persons will not obstruct your Acceptance with God Another Man's Unbelief will not prejudice thy Faith If you should scruple to pray in your Families on that account What think you of a Minister's Prayer in the Publick Congregation If any neglect Family Worship on this Pretence they are most likely to be such as refuse to come to the Lord's Table because of the Admission of supposed unworthy Persons But how is it that they come to hear the Word and join in publick Prayer in the Congregation while this Objection is stronger there than with reference to Prayer in their own Houses The Authority of Parents as to their Children is so manifest and their Duty to oblige them to join in the Worship of God is so plain that it is principally as to scornful or stubborn Servants that this Objection speaks And as to them unless they prove much otherwise than you thought they would you were greatly to blame in admitting such And after trial of other Means for their Conviction and Cure if they can be removed you ought to do it Psal 101.4 5 7. A froward Heart shall depart from me a Slanderer will I cut off He that telleth Lies shall not tarry in my sight or dwell in my House But where is the Authority of the Head of a Family all this while Should they not observe your Orders in Matters of Trade and Business you would quickly let them know you were their Masters And does that Relation signify nothing to them while they dwell under your Roof and are imployed in your Service Doth not the Fourth Commandment suppose a Master's Authority to bring his Family to worship God with him And your Concern for their Souls chligeth you to endeavour it There is one very common Objection that I fear has too much of sad Truth for the Foundation of it viz. That many of those who pray in their Families and read the Holy Scriptures there and keep up the Externals of Religion beyond their Neighbours do yet live no better than such as pray not their Children are no better than other Mens Children their Servants are no better than other Mens Servants they themselves no better than their prayerless Neighbours They are one thing on their Knees and another on their Feet They are as vain and worldly as proud and passionate as hard to the Poor as false in their Dealings as revengeful and inexorable as others c. Would to God there were no ground for this Objection Wo be to the World because of such Offences but wo be to them by whom they come Who can tell what unspeakable Mischief such do who keep up the Worship of God in their Families and yet walk disorderly in their daily Conversations Who begin with God in the Morning and keep Company with the Devil all the Day after What Stumbling-blocks do they lay in the way of ignorant Children and ungodly Servants and Neighbours who are acquainted with it They tempt them to be Atheists and deny God and make them question the Reality of Religion But whatever Hypocrisie any such may be guilty of in such like Duties it will not discharge you from the Obligation to perform them sincerely You may as well refuse to join in publick Worship because some constant Hearers are no better than some of those who stay away and turn their Backs upon all such positive Institutions However it is not the Fruit of their praying but the want of Seriousness and Sincerity which provokes God to leave them to the Power of Temptation It is not long of Christ and of the Holy Scriptures and of Religion and of Christianity that any professing Christians are so bad No Ruler was ever so severe against Sin as Jesus Christ no Law was ever so strict in the forbidding Sin as the Laws of Christ The Rule is streight and the Christian Religion is not to be blamed because some that profess it are not true to their own Profession They condemn themselves and dishonour
than it should be omitted These plain things I offer'd and recommended with Seriousness to remove the common Objections Pleas and Excuses for the neglect of Family-Religion and Worship and touching the Duty of the several Relations in Religious Families If any may be hereby confirm'd or convinc'd I know you will rejoyce with me and bless God I am Yours Of Family Religion The THIRD LETTER SIR WIthout farther Preface I continue to make good my Promise by sending you the Remainder of my Papers on this Subject containing some Directions and Counsels relating to Family Religion You who are Heads of Families are in the first place obliged to be very Careful and Circumspect Serious and Exemplary in your Lives you ought to take heed that you give no Example of Vice before Inferiours They will sooner Imitate you in what is Evil than Good Let them have no Incouragement or Countenance given them to Sin by any thing they see you do You will quickly lose all Authority and Power to reprove or suppress their Evils if your own Example countenance them in it It is altogether unlikely that Religion should thrive among Children and Servants where the Parent or Master gives a Pattern of Drunkenness or Lewdness of Injustice Deceit and Fraud or only keeps up the Worship of God to cloak his own Wickedness or serve some secular Design Wo to those Parents and Masters whose Children are Witnesses of their Impiety and like enough to follow them without a wonderful Grace to their eternal Ruine Never Parent had such a wicked Child said a bad Eather once to a Rebellious Son Yes Sir replied the Impudent Youth My Grandfather had Some have inquired for what reason the Prophet Elisha called for Vengeance on the Children that mocked him and stiled him Bald-pate 2 Kings 2.23 when many of them it is probable hardly understood what they said The Reason assigned is this because the Children learnt that Language from their Parents and God punished the Parents in the Death of the Children and both at once Some of the Heathens have been very wary and cautious not to speak an uncomely word in the presence of their Children Certainly the Head of a Christian Family is obliged to behave himself Wisely in an upright way and to walk within his House with a Perfect Heart Psal 101.2 and in all things to shew himself a Pattern of Good Works Tit. 2.7 A prudent grave chearful sincere Deportment as becometh Saints would recommend Religion and diffuse the savour of it to all about it But if you give them never so good Counsel they will sooner be influenced by a bad Life than by the best of Words All your good Precepts and Counsels will be as Water spilt on the ground if not accompanied by a good Example What you would reprove and amend in their Words or Actions let them be sure to hear nothing of it in your Discourse and see nothing of it in your Practice You must lead them the way in Humility and Charity in the Government of the Tongue Passions Appetite in the Redemption of Time in Prayer and love to the Holy Scriptures and the Ordinances of the Gospel c. How can a drunken or unrighteous Father or Master expect his Children and Servants should be sober and faithful Can you hope to teach them Sobriety and they see you are Intemperate or Meekness when they see you cannot govern your Passions They will sooner learn your Sin than your Trade And is not the Money given with such an Apprentice very ill bestowed One Two Three Hundred Pounds or more to have them taught to serve the Devil and damn their Souls by the Example of a wicked Master But such Masters shall have double Damnation Therefore let your own Example teach all your Relations that Holiness and Unblamableness in Tongue and Life which you desire they should learn and practise But besides your own Example you are obliged by all other ways to indeavour their Spiritual and Eternal Good You are worse than Insidels if you provide not what is Needful and Fit for them as to their Temporal Life much more if you neglect their Souls O look upon them with Pity and Compassion help them as knowing their Ignorance their Temptations and Danger Remember they must shortly die and be saved or perish for ever Use all Advantages you have to do them good Let them not be betrayed to eternal Ruine by your neglect Ministers by publick Preaching cannot do so much to further their Salvation as you and it is very little we can hope to do without your Assistance You can speak sharply enough sometimes of unfaithful Ministers who neglect the Souls of their People but consider not your own Guilt and dreadful Reckoning upon the like Account You expect more Duty sometimes from One Minister than Six can perform while you make no Conscience of neglecting your own Duty in your proper Sphere It will be a dreadful Meeting in the Day of Recompence to have your Children or Servants to accuse their Parents and Masters saying I was so many Years in my Father's House or I lived so long with such a Master who never concerned himself about my Soul I had never been a Servant of Sin and a Firebrand of Hell if he had done his part to prevent it The like will be true of ungodly Husbands and Wives who notwithstanding the Duty and Profession of the dearest Love do little or nothing to save one another from the Wrath to come O cruel Husband O cursed Wife It was long of You that I am now a lost undone Creature You never did any thing to assist my Salvation it was long of You that I came to this Miserable End You neither by Example or Discourse or Prayer or Admonition c. discovered any Care for your own Soul or for mine Yea how many in such Relations do much to hinder and obstruct the Happiness and Salvation of those whom they are most concerned and obliged to help For if the one be ungodly and the other be an awakened serious Christian the Latter shall commonly find the greatest Opposition and Difficulty and Hinderance in Religion from him or her who should have given the greatest Help and Assistance Remember therefore that besides Prayer in your House you have other Indeavours to use for the Salvation of those that live with you You mock God by praying for the conversion of Children and Servants if you do not otherwise indeavour it If you do not indeavour to convince them of their Sin and of their need of Christ and his Grace if you do not recommend him as the best Master and put them in mind of the uncertainty of this Life and of the certain Account they must give to God another day of all their Time and Talents c. And yet this neglect is now so common that they are reckoned Good Parents and Good Masters who will but give their Children and Servants leave to be good and