THE CURSED FAMILY OR A Short Tract Shewing the Pernicious Influence of Wicked Prayer-less Houses upon this Church and Kingdom Humbly Tender'd By way of Subserviency to His Majesties Royal Proclamations and Acts of Parliament for Preventing and Punishing Immorality and Prophaness The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked But he Blesseth the Habitation of the Just Prov. 3. 33. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heatben that know thee not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name for they have Eaten up Jacob and devoured him and consumed him and have made his Habitation Desolate Jer. 10. last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Ep. ad Eph. Pietas est cognoscere Deum cujus cognitionis haec summa est ut eum colas Nec tantum hoc in Templo putes tibi else faciendum sed domi in ipso etiam cubili tuo Lact. By Thomas Risley Master of Arts and sometime Fellow of Pembrook-Colledge in Oxford With a Prefatory Epistle by the Reverend Mr. John Howe London Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1700. A PREFACE TO THE Reader THE Author of this Discourse Christian Reader is a Person tho' of real Value who yet hath so very Low an Esteem of himself as to think my Recommendation may give some advantage to this his Performance They are indeed very Accidental Circumstances that make this difference very often between some and others in the Eye of the World Otherwise that might well be said which was in that great Instance I have need to come to thee and comest thou to me It is evident to those who know him that the many years heretofore wherein he drew Academick Breath and liv'd an Ornament to the Society whereof he was long a Member were not trifled away There he past his time as a Recluse more acquainted with his Study than the Theater He closely pursu'd his design more to acquire solid useful Knowledge and Learning than Fame And since in his long Rural Recess his design hath been the same and his way of Living hath little differ'd in a Chosen Obscurity contented rather to Shine to Himself than the World Yet the Urgency of Conscience and a desire to do good to the Soules of Men hath wrung from him this short TREATISE An Off-spring that hath much of the Parents Image appearing with no Ostentation of Learning But wherein may be seen a Pious Mind tinctur'd by much Study and Converse with Books an Acquaintance with the Literate World which begot an habit that is rather by his Speech unwarily bewray'd than designedly shewn The Scope and Drift of the Discourse shews him a Man of Thought and Prospect discovers thoughts intent upon the present Age but not confin'd to it making from it an Estimate of the sad Tendency of things and their gloomy Aspect upon the future While Christian Families Baptiz'd in so great and venerable Names and that should if any be Seminaries of Religion and Vertue are so commonly the Seed-plots of all Impiety and Wickedness and the Numerous Fountains whence Miseries and Curses are diffused among a Christian People My little leasure allow'd me not throughly to peruse it But its scope and the Spirit wherewith by glances I perceive it is Writ makes me hope Reader it may be of much use Thine in our common Saviour John Howe THE AUTHOR'S Epistle To all Heads of Families from the Father of Mercies through Jesus Christ in whom all the FAMILIES of the Earth are blessed Holiness here and Happiness hereafter My Brethren Hearers Neighbours and Relations CHrist hath taught us who is our Mediator how far to extend our Prayers not onely to our Fiends but to our Enemies and Persecutors And will Christ who also is ordain'd Judge of the World take it well at the Great Day That Parents make not continual Prayers Morning and Evening for and with their Children and the rest of their Families Are not Children the divided pieces of your selves Will not that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Affection a tye spun out of your own Bowels move you to take care of their Souls as well as their Bodies You are not onely Parents Natural but Christian and have Promised in the Presence of God and his Church that your Children should be Vertuously brought up to lead a Godly and Christian Life O remember your Promise made at their Baptism and do not Unchristen them by your Breach of Covenant O Pray That God would make you instrumental for their Spiritual well-being as he hath for their Natural being Beware of Poysoning the Soules of your Children whose Bodies you have nurst at your breasts and fed at your Tables How can such Parents answer it at the great day of Appearance who by wicked Examples teach their Children to Curse and Swear Lye Cheat Break the Sabbath and to make no reckoning of Religion Be not deceived for if you be not Christians in your own Houses whatever profession you make in the House of God your Christianity is unsound Assure your selves that if Christianity were possest of your Hearts it would be Practised in your Houses Is not Sin the Plague of the Heart Is it not of an active infecting prevailing nature Is not Sin allways with us and diffuseth it self into all places where we live Doubtless Sin follows Men whithersoever they goe to Church Market and home again What would you have Religion to be What is Christianity Must Religion be a Stranger or some soft Guest who comes but seldom to see you whose company after a while becomes fastidious What would you make of true Piety What would you have Christianity to be A despised Inferiour to stand or fall to come or goe at your pleasure taken in cast out used a little and then laid aside It cannot be such a Thing But true Religion and Christianity is That Thing which breaths Heavenly Regenerating Renewing Recreating Influences It is That same Ancient Sacred Awsom Thing which pierceth the Soul the Heart Conscience and by the Power of God changeth the whole Man-Lastly O all you Heads of Families be not deceived if you and your Housholds be Religious and Christians Indeed that Religion will Bear the Image of Holiness and Righteonsness making not onely your Houses but your Soules and Bodies Temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in If what is here written in this Short Tract By Way of Motive prevail with any One Family in a Parish or any one Member of a Family so Precious is the Soules Salvation to become Practisers of Piety in their Houses I shall rejoyce that I have not Run in vain nor Laboured in vain through Jesus Christ or Saviour to whom be Glory for ever Amen T. R. THE Cursed Family CHAP. 1. The General Nature of Families and of Christian Families Relatively consider'd as Members of the Church AMong the very Beasts of the Field Natural Instinct of the Dumb Creature teacheth Moral Duties in Families Fowls of
weigh not in God's Ballance That Man that is a Real Christian in his Family bears the Image of his Maker and therefore Raised to the Highest Pitch of Honour in this World The Righteous is more excellent then his Neighbour Prov. 12. 26. Tell me can there be a greater Reproach to Heads of Families in the best part of Christendom than to be Prophane and Irreligious in their Dwellings What a Cursed shame is it that thy House should be an Increase of a Sinful Generation that Wickedness should Survive in thy Posterity when thou art turned to Dust and that it should be alive in thy House and in Hell too How great is thy Stain and Stench left behind thee What a Plague Sore is this which neither Long-lived-Time nor Ever-abiding Eternity can wear away What a Parent a Christian Parent and yet Ungodly Careless of Heaven Covetous of the Earth and Prodigal of thine own as well as thy Childrens Salvation This is to be Parent to the Bodies of thy Children and Destroyer of their Souls Let the World Honour Parens Corporum Pernicies animarum its own with Monuments and Golden Letters Yet know that the Name of the Wicked shall Rot Prov. 10. 7. What can be more for the Raising of thy Name O Christian Parent then to serve God in thy Family whereas Vice and Ungodliness is the Blot of True Honour and Reverse the Coat-Armour of every Dignified Person in our English Church and Kingdom If it were possible to be Wicked alone without Infecting others it would not be so Infamous as to make others to Sin as do all Wicked Families That Jeroboam made Israel to Sin is the Standing Monument of his Infamy God threatneth Baasha to make his House like the House of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat i. e. A Base Ruined and Vile House 1 Kings 16. 3. And may not all Wicked Heads of Families fear least the Lord punish them and their Posterity after them for their sins and make them as vile in Ages to come as they have been wicked in times past 2. Is your Health dear unto you O ye 2. In their Health wicked Prayer-less Families Is it better then your Goods It is not in Mercy to wicked Men it is lyable to God's Curse Thy Body O wicked Man is a Fair House but the Plague is in it even the Plague of thy own Heart 1 King 8. 38. Can'st thou say from thy heart thou art in good Health and wast never sick of Sin Nusquam pejus quam in Sano Corpore Aeger Animus habitas and never knewest the Physitian of Souls Mat. 9. 12 Ah! It were better that thy Bodily Health were turned into a lingring Consumption Palsy Dropsy Stone Collick Gout or any painful Disease having health in thy Soul then to live without it in Swearing Cursing Lying Stealing Sabbath-breaking Pride Covetousness Idleness Uncleanness Oppression Questionless there is a Secret Curse running in the veins of an Healthy Body which is spent in the Pursuit of Sensual Contentments Health the Best Thing next to Grace for want of the Blessing of Allmighty God is the Worst Thing in the World next to a Life in Hell How many give the First Fruits of their Youth to Vanity and Wildness How many at Ripe Age for want of God's Grace run out of Prodigality into Covetousness thinking to make Amends by a Thrifty Sin for an Unthrifty Life or mistaking Exchange of Sins to be Amendment of Life What Comfort in that Health which is the Undoing of the Soul to all Eternity What Comfort in that Health that cannot that will not be at leasure nor spare time nor a little of its strength and vitals for Holiness and Heaven What Comfort in that Health which is subject to the Inordinacy of Sense and thereby denies the Soul its Rational and Religious Liberties for God's Worship either in his House or in their own Houses What Comfort in that healthy Body which is made a sink of Sin and slave to every noisom Lust Certainly this Corporal Health and Strength is worse then brutish for the Beast Feeds Works Resleth Playeth for the benefit of Man but a Wicked Healthy Man is not onely an Enemy but a Curse to himself and to all that partake with him in his Sin And now speak What greater Curse then thus to abuse Corporal Health for the sake of which in time of Sickness so many Friends and Relations stand Weeping and Sighing and so many Messangers and Doctors are employed VVhat a Curse is it VVhat an Absurd piece of VVickedness and Folly to part with That at any vile Rate for the Recovery of which thou art VVilling to Have Every thing though at the Highest Rate VVhat a Curse is it to Sacrifice That to the Devil and the VVorld which in Holy Baptism thou hast solemnly Dedicated and Devoted to God's VVorship VVhat a Bitter Curse is it to VVork out thy Damnation with that Health wherewith God hath commanded thee to work out thy Salvation 3. The Wicked Mans prolonged Life 3. In Long Life is a Curse to him The sinner being an hundred years old shall be Accursed Isa. 65. 20. As he fills his days and years so he fills up the measure of his sins His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall go down with him into the dust Job 20. 11. Solomon saith A wicked Man prolongeth his life in his wickedness Eccles. 7. 15. Such a Life will prove like it self as Heavy of Curses as it hath made Light of Sinning O what a misery is it for an Old Sinner to begin to Live when he is ready to Dye What a woefull thing is it to find Governours Quidam tunc incipiunt vivere cum desivendum est c. Sen. Ep. 23. of Families in their Gray Haires taking pleasure to discourse of the sins of their youth Doe they not hereby recommend those sins to be committed by their children which they by reason of their Impotency cannot commit And is not this a sign of God's Curse impending over their Families in respect of Long Life O what a Judgment is it That Long Life is still growing Riper and Riper for Destruction to all Eternity The Amorites were not cut off because their Iniquity was not yet full Gen. 15. 16. O what a Curse is it to be an Old Gray-headed Sinner a Swearer Drunkard Sabbath-breaker Scorner of Religion O what a sad thing is it to see strong sins in feeble Age Sins in the Meridian when Life is Setting What a deplorable thing is it That Gospel-time the most precious time in the World should have ever have suffered so Great a Loss by thee and Thou so great a Punishment When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angles in flameing fire takeing Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall he punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
be not darkness Luke 11. 34 35. 6. The very Works of Wicked Mens 6. Their Vocation and Employments Callings are lyable to God's Curse 1. His Natural Actions when he eateth or drinketh he feeds a Body of sin and maketh provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Every creature of God is good c. It is sanctifyed by the Word and Prayer 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. The fruit of his Body is cursed c. Deut. 28. 18. 2. His Civil Actions The Ploughing of the Wicked is sin Prov. 21. 4. He is cursed in the City and in the Field Deut. 28. 16. His Buying and Selling is cursed His Building and Planting Deut. 28. 30. 3. To be sure his Religious Actions are no better The Prayers of the wicked are abomination to God Prov. 15. 8. He that-turneth away his ear from hearing the Law even his Prayer shall be abomination Prov. 28. 9. 2. God's Curse is extended to Persons 2. God's Curse extended to Persons Governed Governed in Wicked Houses In the Second Commandment Exod. 20. 5. Visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me And shew mercy c. And God justly punisheth Wicked Parents and Wicked Children of Wicked Parents There be many instances hereof in Scripture both in private Persons and Families and in whole Kingdoms and Churches Ahab and his House Jeroboam and his Posterity 2 Kings 9. 7 8 9. compared with the 1 Kings 14. 10 11. Gehazi and his Seed 2 Kings 5. last The Egyptians were plagued in their First-born Exod. 11. 5 6. The Jews and their Children are under the Wrath of God to this day Matt. 27. 25. 1 Thess. 2. 16. The Wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost Achan's Sin brought punishment upon himself and Family Joshua Chap. 7. Yea all Israel fares the worse for his sin And there were three years Famine in the end of Davids time for Saul and his bloody House 2 Sam. 21. 1 2. How this may consist with the Justice of God Is thus Resolved 1. †A great Question Answer'd in many Particulars The Punishments which God bringeth upon the Children for the Fathers sins are onely Temporal and Outward Punishments * See Bishop Sanderson 's Three Sermons ad pop p. 372 373 c. 380 c. Sometimes they are smitten with Infectious Diseases as Gehazies Posterity some come to untimely ends as Ammon and Absalon and the little Children of Dathan and Abiram Posterity may fare better or worse for the Vertues or Vices of their Ancestors i. e. Outwardly and Temporally but Spiritually and Eternally they do not For as never yet any Man went to Heaven for his Fathers Goodness so not to Hell for his Fathers Wickedness 2. Children most times tread in their Fathers Steps and continue in their Sins and so draw upon themselves their Punishments Certain it is that most times sins pass along from the Father to the Son and so downward by a kind of Lineal Descent from Parents to Children whole Families being tainted with the special Vices of their Stock either by Nature Example or Education * Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit nos nequiores mox daturos progeniem vitiosiorem Therefore Parents ought to beware of Constitution-Sins in themselves which follow the predominant humours of their Bodies and Souls and of shewing bad Examples for want of good Education If we should observe some Families for several Generations Descending we may see Whole Generations of Ryotous Drunkards Swearers Sabbath-breakers Worldlings Persecutors Oppressors Unclean and Filthy Persons Superstitious and Idolatrous Families and such like And thus the Curse of God descends upon Posterity 3. It is to be noted for our better understanding how justly God punisheth Children for sins of Wicked Parents and Governours that between Head and Members Governours and Governed whether in Kingdoms or Churches or Families there is such an Union that whereas we look upon them severally they are but One as One Body Magistrates are Civil Fathers Ministers are Ecclesiastical and Parents of Families over and besides are Natural Fathers Now where there is Union there is Communion suited to the Relative State of Things and Persons in respect of Rewards and Punishments The whole Person of Man is Punish'd for one part Tongue or Hand for as they Act for the Whole so they make it obnoxious And so it is with Magistrates and Rulers in respect of those under Government For as in the Body Natural there is a Locomotive Faculty guided and commanded by Superior Principles of Sense and Reason to go forth and bring home those things which are suitable to it So in every Body Politick there are Inferiour Instruments guided by Superiour Powers which by doing their part in an Evil Work whether in their own Persons or in their Representatives become guilty and so lyable to punishment 4. Observe That Achan's sin was publickly and solemnly prohibited and the Punishment threatened fully known to all of his Family in which if there were Infants or Children short of years of Discretion yet they cannot be said to suffer unjustly because of that natural contagion of sin drawn from the Loines of their Parents and because of some actual sins committed 5. In Answer This Punishment which involved the Posterity of Achan ought not to be lookt upon so properly the Punishment of Children as the Punishment of Parents because the suffering of Children being so near and dear to them rendered this Dispensation more notable and exemplary to all Israel and smart and afflictive to Achan which was the intent of it 6. God sometimes turns that into a Fatherly Chastisement which was a Punishment in the Predecessor Innocent Posterity sometimes suffers for Guilty Ancestors but such Visitations may have kindness in them 7. We must beware of questioning God's Judicial * Judicia Doi occulta sunt nulla injusta Proceedings or examining them by our own Measures of Mans Reason Laws or Tribunals And now having in Seven Particulars shewed That it is consistent with the Justice of God to punish Posterity for Predecessors sins with Temporal Punishments let all Parents take heed of shewing Evil Examples to their Children of Swearing Cursing Sabbath-breaking Cheating Stealing Oppressing Coveting least they by following their steps as they are in danger suffer Eternal Judgments O let all Parents beware of Breaking their Baptismal-Covenant and causing their Children to break it thereby undoing themselves and their Children to all Eternity unless Mercy prevent them 2. The Curse of God on Wicked Houses 2. General Thing the Extent of God's curse on Things Temporal piritual falleth upon Things as well as Persons Things are Two-fold 1. Temporal 2. Spiritual Which are in order to Eternal 1. On Things Temporal God is highly displeased when he punisheth sinners with Prosperity The Rich Mans full Table served up with his Musick and Songs Soul Soul thou hast much goods
Tippling-houses should pick and pilfer any one Member of a Congregation from the House of God These profane Families do break Covenant which they made in Baptism whereby they were Solemnly Admitted into the Church of God Engaging to Renounce the Works of the Devil the World and the Flesh and to continue in the Communion of Saints to love fear and worship that God who made them for that end and into whose Name they were Baptized Father Son and Holy Ghost Are not these the notorious Enemies to Christianity whose Life is a Flat Contradiction to their Baptism Are they not Enemies to the Church as well as to themselves who willfully and wickedly Uniformity of Religion in Publick requireth Family Cnformity in Divine Worship and Service in Private Excommunicate themselves from God's Ordinances All Ungodly Families do contract the guilt of that Foul Sin of Separation by their Sabbath-breaking For if they be for Real Membership with the Church of Christ why do they not hold fast their Christian Profession in Publick Why do they not Keep their Baptismal Covenant to holy and constant Fellowship with Christ and his Church in their Families Why do they not set up Religion and Christianity in their Houses that they might partake of Heavenly Promises and Blessings of the Spirit of Christ by Prayers and Praises Reading the Scriptures and Catechizing All which Duties stand Obliging them as they be the genuine and proper fruits and Evidences of that Mystical Union and Holy Communion which is between Christ and all sound Christians and Church-Members For He is not a good Church-man that is not a good Christian at Home He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God Rom. 2. two last Verses What profit will there be at the Day of Judgment of Names of Christians and live like Insidels and Heathens What Shall God's Grace abound to us in this Age of his Church by breaking down the Middle-Wall of Partition between Jew and Gentile to make his Church Catholick And shall we set up a Partition-Wall between God's House and our own and not permit Religion to dwell there O let not any Professor confine Religion within Church-walls seeing That the Congregation of the Faithful is made up of Believing Families and seeing That a Right Belief in the Church-Assembly will bring forth the Fruits of Holiness in thy Family And all Parents and Masters of Families now under the Gospel ought to be more Useful for the Spiritual concerns of all under their Care then those Parents under the Law And that because of clearer discoveries and more plentiful Effusions of Grace I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your daughters shall Prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see Visions also upon the servants and the handmaids I will pour out my spirit Joel 2. 28 29. To rule and keep House as Christians presupposeth 1. The Natural Ruling of Houses i. e. to do that which Nature dictates namely to Feed Cloath Harbour and defend those under their Charge 2 Cor. 8. 21. 2. It presupposeth the Ruling of Houses in a Moral sense as Reason commands i. e. to Govern in a deliberate way by imparting ingenuous and vertuous Education that Children be taught to Read to be Just Dutiful Modest Diligent Temperate that Servants partake of Free not Servile Government as Reasonables not as Animals which labour in another kind to pay Wages not onely truly but equally in a fit proportion to their particular Employ For Nature teacheth Rewards in General but Reason enjoyneth an equal distribution of Rewards Therefore 3. To Govern Families in a Christian manner is most Excellent even as Reason is above Sense and Faith above Both. Christian Family-Discipline must Instruct Discipline of Christian Families Correct and Govern like it self namely to attain unto promote and persevere in all Christian Duties towards God and Man wholly devoting themselves to Instituere Corrigere Regere Christ to be his Faithful Servants for ever And this will cast out two great Enemies to all Order as well as Domestick i. e. Anarchy and Tyranny O that it might be consider'd that God will reckon with all Governours of Families both for not Using and Abusing their Talents of Authority Then the Blind Heads of Families who put out their own Eyes willfully refusing to know their Duty both in Single and Married Life then the Prodigal Sensualist and Covetous Mammonist who have wanted no knowledge of their Duty must come to Account for taking no Care for the Souls of their Children O that Parents would consider whether there be any thing in this World which deserves their Care and Diligence more then their own Salvation and their setled and constant Prayers to God for the Salvation of their Childrens Souls O ye Parents Would you be Blessings or Curses to your Families Would you have your Children prosper in this World and for ever perish in the next Would you dispose well of them here upon Earth and not be afraid least they miss of Heaven through your Carelessness The Lord in Mercy awaken you to set up Religion and Christianity in your Houses to Instruct Correct and Rule your selves first and then your Families as becometh Christians least God's Curse denounc'd against Wicked Mens Houses pursue you here and Rest upon you for ever hereafter The NATURE of which CURSE is handled in the next CHAPTER CHAP. III. Of the CURSE of the Lord on Wicked Houses TO Curse according to the General What it is to Curse and what is Cursing Sense of the Hebrew and Greek imports to Abandon Renounce Abdicate and Abhor as a Detestable Thing to Excommunicate and Cast out of God's Church from his Ordinances as a vile Prophane Person Cursing and Execration doth not onely signifie a Substraction of God's Blessing but an Infusion of his Curse upon Wicked Persons and Families as they have deserved for their sin both in this Life and in the Life to come To Bless is with God to make Blessed and to Curse is to make Cursed To Say Cursing and Blessing only from the Lord. and to Doe is all one with God to Speak a Curse and Inflict it a Blessing and Confer it And as it is God's peculiar to Bless so to Curse How shall I Curse whom God hath not Cursed or how shall I Defie whom the Lord hath not Defied Numb 23. 8. No Heathen Gods nor Evil Spirits nor the Devil himself whom they Invocate as Chief can send Curses upon any one without Commission from the Allmighty For Wicked Houses to be under the What it is for Wicked Houses to be under the Curse of God Curse of God! Is to be without his Gracious Keeping and Fatherly
laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry could not make way for his comfortable departure out of this World But God said to him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be requered of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Luke 12. 19 20 Let it not seem strange that Wicked Families prosper in the World and encrease in Riches and yet be Cursed in their basket and their store Houses Lands Livings Cattel Corn in City and Countrey We may not judge of comfort in Temporal Things from the Quantity thereof A Mans life consisteth not in the Abundance of the things which he possesseth Luke 12. 15. * Non donum sed animus dantis Look not at the Gift so much as the Good Will of the Giver not at the Bulk but at the Blessing In the revenues of the Wicked is trouble Prov. 15. 6. What profit or pleasure in that abundance which will not suffer the Rich to sleep And what comfort to Feast and Surfet thereby A little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked Psal. 37. 16. †Magnas inter opes inops bene est cui De us obtulit parca quod satis est manu Hor. Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 16. If it were possible that all the Delights of Men did run into the Wicked Man's Cistern yet a Frown from God's offended Countenance would make all bitter to him The Hand-Writing set before Carousing Belshazzar made him Astonisht and his Heart sunk in the height of his Mirth What made Cains Countenance fall the Second Man and Heir Apparent to the World Was it not because God had not respect to him and to his Offering Gen. 4. 5. If we come nearer and view the Wicked Man's Life in his Wealth and Prosperity we shall find him obnoxious to God's Curse in Temporal Things 1. By his Desire Three Things bring God's Curse upon Temporals 2. By his Use. 3. And his value of Riches 1. By his Inordinate Desire which as it is without Measure so it is without Content with his Condition It is an Heathenish temper to be set upon the World It Inordinate Desire of Riches Sed quae reverentia legum qui◠me ius pudor est unquam properantis avari Juv. Sat. 14. wants neither Sin nor Misery to hast to be Rich. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare 1 Tim. 6. 9. And he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him Prov. 28. 22. What a Curse is it to make the Mammon of this World a Christians God Ah what a Curse is this Projecting for thick Clay and wearying himself for very vanity Habb 2. 6. 13. What a Curse is it to be a Friend of the World and the Enemy of God James 4. 4 What a Curse is it to prefer the Creature before the Creator things seen before unseen Temporal before Eternal the Body before the Soul and Earth before Heaven Were it not just with God to disinherit all these Worldlings of True Happiness who place it here below Wicked Men are neither well full nor 2. The Use of Riches fasting they provoke God not onely in Desiring but in Using and Having Riches The truth is Wicked Men do not use Riches but their Riches use them And how why for Wantonness Luxury Pride Oppression Pleasures Ryot or Ostentation Thus that which God appointed to Apud me divitiae aliquem locum habent apud te summum Ad postremum divitiae meae sunt tu divitiarum es Sen. de Beat. Vita cap. 22. Help Maintain and countenance Vertue and Piety among Men and Christians is usurped to cherish and entertain Vice and Ungodliness to prefer themselves to high Places and make room for them in the World to commit greater sins Whereas Riches are the Servants of Good Men they are the Masters of Wicked Men. The good Man maketh his Riches subordinate to the Glory of God but the Wicked Man is in servitude to the Lusts of the Elesh the lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life Wicked Men in the sight of God have not a Sanctified right to these Temporal Things while they are out of Christ. And altho' they have an Indulgence from the common Bounty of Divine Providence to use Temporals and become Rich yet they want a comfortable Title to them And what comfort in the Having or in Using of these Temporals without the Grace and Blessing of God Is it not a Sigh of God's Wrath and Curse upon Mens Houses and Families when they suffer the World to Lord it over their Consciences Time Education Office Reason Souls and Bodies and all When the World hath Mens Knees Prayers Oaths Strength Wit Parts Memory when the Love of the World hath seised on God's Worship Sabbaths Ordinances and Ministry Is there not a Curse upon such abused Riches Is it not a sign of God's Displeasure when the World usurps Power over Spiritual and Heavenly things Is not this the Fruit of the Forbidden Tree Gen. 2. 17. compared with Chap. 3. 17 Every Good Man maketh use of his Riches as Joshua did of the Gibeonites makes them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House of God Joshua 9. 23. When as Wicked Men prefer the World to chief honour as Ahab did Benhadad who caused him to come up to his Chariot 1 Kings 20. 33. O what a sad The Abuse of Riches account is every Wicked Man like to make How will his abused Riches rise up in Judgment against him Many were his costly sins which he maintained many needless Visits many Chargeable Curiosities and Fancies many extravagant and uncomely Fashions in Apparel in Meats and Drinks all which are followed attended and waited on with many Temptations to Wantonness and many more Vices potent Enemies to the Life of Nature and much more to a Moral and Christian Life But what little good hath this Wicked Rich Man done to Church or State to Strangers or Relations or to his own Family where Cbarity should begin Have not Wicked Families of no small quality Adopted their sins as Ryot Oppression Pride Covetousness Uncleanness to Inherit their Estates and Disinherit their Posterity Where there is more Wealth without more Grace to manage this encrease it will prove a Curse in stead of a Blessing Therefore our Saviour exhorts To make to our selves Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon Luke 16. 9. i. e. to get Grace to use Riches to the honour of God not to maintain Intemperance and Ungodliness For the Day is coming when God will summon all such Persons and Families to give an account of their large portion of Worldly things and misimprovement thereof Luke 16. 11. Hos. 2. 8. 9. Riches are abused one of these two ways They are either Over-valued or Under-valued the Covetous are guilty of the one and the Prodigal of the other sin And this
we have cause to lament the weakness of it by reason the wickedness thereof It is most He is no good Church-man who is not good Christian at Home evident from Scripture that such Professors are not True Members of Gods Church which are not Living Members of Christ. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God Rom. 2. two last verses He is not a sound Christian that is Baptized except he be inwardly renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost The real Christian Is a New Creature Old things are past away behold all things are become New 2 Cor. 5. 17. And the New Creature hath put off his former Conversation the old Man which is corrupt according to the Deceitful Lusts And is renewed in the Spirit of his mind And hath put on the New Man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4. 22 23 24. It is for want of Religious Government in The mischief of irreligious families Households that the Lords Day is not better observed that few profit under the Word and that there are so few prepared Communicants at the Lords Table It is from hence That Ministers have slender Congregations and that Taverns Ale-houses Walks Fields Gardens Tatlinghouses in the Neighbourhood are more resorted to then the places of Gods Worship Oh! All you Careless Ignorant Worldly and loose Heads of Families let not this Aggravating Consideration Namely That your Family-wickedness overthrows Churches pass out of your thoughts till it please God to change you and reform your Families Are you Friends to the Church Set up the Practise of Piety in your Families which are the Nurseries of the Church This Duty is of Great weight and Importance to the Interest of Reformed Religion and of the Church of England If professing Christians live in their Si ita Singuli id faciant quod pietatis est totum corpus facilâ— Sanabitur c. Synop. Bodini de Repub. lib. 1. c. 1. que 24. Houses in due Conformity to their Covenant in Baptism this through Gods Mercy will render our Church Beautiful as the Garden of the Lord And our Land as the smell of a Field which the Lord hath Blessed The Romans were as Careful to maintain their Vestal Fire as to preserve the Palladium as Pledges of Felicity to the Empire Signifying to us Christians that If Religion and Vertue Piety and Policy be Countenanc'd and defended and their Contraries Profaneness and Immorallity supprest and punished then the Lord will Build us and not Pull us down Plant us and not Root us up If we entertain the Life and Power of Christianity and Honesty in our Families Upon all the Glory shall be a Defence Isa. 4. 5. Quest. What think you of Errours and Heresies tending to the subverting of Christianity A. Quest. And what may we think of Parties and Sectaries Are they not greater Enemies to the Church then profane Families Answ. 1. Here is not intended a Comparative Answer Enquiry whether Damnable Errours and Heresies do more mischief in our Church then wicked Families but the main Business in hand is to shew that Profane and Wicked Families are Pernicious Enemies to both Church and Sate Sabbath-breaking Swearing Drunkenness Filthiness Coveteousness Oppression Pride Treachery Perjury Cursing Cheating Killing Stealing Lying and such like black infernal Sins in Families will without Reformation Ruin Kingdoms and Churches 2. Profane Scandalous Livers are Practical Atheists and Hereticks They profess that they know God but in good works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. Last 3. Moral Evils of Sin and Intellectual are Conjunct A foul Stomach hath an aking Head and corrupt Streams come from a corrupt Fountain St. Paul In Titus 3. 10. And 1 Cor. 5. 11. Joyns together Hereticks and Sensualists or Scandalous Persons in Families and Parishes as Fatal and Capital Enemies to the Church and equally obnoxious to Ecclesiastical and Civil Punishments 4. We have sad experience what Mischief Parties and Sectaries Rents and Schismatical Causes and Instruments have wrought among Christians even to oppose That Great Article of our Faith The Communion of Saints 5. He is no better then a Wicked Man that hatcheth Divisions and Covets to make separations and will not admit of healing Such were the Donatists whose Tumults were supprest by the Magistrate O that all Scandalous Profane Families in Parishes would sit down and set themselves as in Gods presence seriously considering that they are no more Living Members of Gods Church then the Dead Bodies in the Church Yard are Living Members of that Family whence they came to be Interr'd 3. Consider That Profane Families are 3. Aggravation of Family Impiety It rendereth the Ministry of Gods Word unprofitable great Enemies to the Ministry If Heads of Families would perform their Duties according to Gods command that is to set up Religion in Families Prayer reading the Word of God Catechizing shewing good Examples in the Week Day and upon the Lords Day causing their Families to keep it Holy both publickly and privately I say were their Families thus Governed the word Preach'd would take better effect upon them Is it likely that Preachers should do any good when Parents by open Profaneness pull down what they set up As if they were resolved to live as they do let the Minister say what he will Is it likely that the Ministry should prosper in a Congregation when most Families will do nothing towards it themselves by keeping Holy the Lords Day and serving and worshipping him in the Week Day Would Masters of Families take hold with the Minister Religion would enter into Families through Gods Blessing But O what little is done to help forward the salvation of Souls by Good Parents They ought to prepare and break up the fallow ground of their Families they ought to Root out the Weeds of Vice and pluck up corrupt Principles out of this little spot of ground that it may be fit to receive the Seed of the word with profit Jer. 4. 3 Hos. 10. 12. Governours of Families ought to make their Families Nurseries for the Church i. e. well Husbanded well disciplined and well taught In their own Houses Parents are both Magistrates and Ministers in a Subordinate way to the training up an hopeful Generation for Church and Kingdom Why do Ignorant Loose Worldly Careless Prayerless Families cast off their Duty upon sureties for the Christian Education of their Children Whereas they themselves stand Bound as they are Believers not only to Dedicate them to the Lord by Baptism but as their Childrens Sponsors To bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Eph. 6. 4. 4. The Barrenness of the ground upon