an Heaven for the good no other than the Habitation of his own Holiness and Glory in which there are many Mansions and Crowns and Thrones with unconceivable Felicity in his presence a fulness of Joy and at his Right Hand Pleasures for evermore and besides that an Hell for the wicked a bottomless Pit where there is a gnawing Worm that shall never die and a Fire burning that is unquenchable in which they shall for ever fry scorch and burn without being ever consumed and consequently they shall have weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Secondly Instruct them concerning the miserable lost and undone condition of all Man-kind by reason of the Fall of the first Man That when God had formed Man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life so that he became a living Soul he was pleased not only to make him upright and in his own Image induing him with all Natural Excellencies and Perfections befitting one who was to have Communion with his Creator and Dominion over this Inferiour World and to put him into a state of Happiness appointing Paradise for the place of his Residence or Royal Seat but also to enter into a Covenant of Friendship with him thereby binding Man to a continuance in a course of Personal and Perfect Obedience to his great Lord and thereupon by promise insuring to him an endless duration of his Life and Happiness but withal threatning that in case of failure and disobedience He should die the death viz. Temporal Spiritual and Eternal That this Covenant was not made with Adam alone but with all Mankind who were to descend from him and were considered as being then in his Loins and He as the great Parent and common Person representing them and so Adam breaking the Covenant by transgressing the Law of his Creation and in particular that positive Law which commanded him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil All Mankind sinned in him and fell with him in that first Transgression and so all the World is be-become guilty before God and obnoxious to his Justice and Wrath all the World is become filthy and abominable Primitive Righteousness is lost and the Primitive Order broken and we are all unclean all of us by principle and disposition Children of disobedience and all by Nature Children of Wrath. And bring this home to them and let them know that it is as much their Case as the case of any persons in the World that they have the guilt of sin upon them the sentence of Death denounced against them a vile Heart and Nature within them the Seed and Principle of all sin which renders them prone to all manner of evils even the vilest and most monstruous This will tend to the hiding Pride from them and preventing those high towering Conceits which they are ready to hugg and swell with through their self-unacquaintedness this may awaken them to the greater vigilance and care and bring them to keep a stricter Eye upon their hearts and this may keep them from being much taken with and doting upon those trifling childish vanities and youthful follies which the Souls of others are so much addicted and devoted to while they hear there are things of infinitely greater importance and nearer concernment unto which they must attend Thirdly Make it much your business to convince them of the evil of Sin In order to their loathing it and themselves for it before God do you as much as you can set it before them in its ugliness and deformity look upon it in the Glass of God's Law and of Christ's Blood and then draw its picture and shew it to them History tells us this of the Lacedemonians that when they saw a filthy drunken Sott stagger and reeling in the Street vomiting like a Dog falling and tumbling in the Mire like a Swine they would run into their houses and fetch their young Children to the door that they might behold how much he was unman'd how like a Beast he made himself and by the way know it is far better to be a Beast than to be like a Beast that so they might betimes learn to abhor and detest that brutish practice Do you do the like I mean make unto them a true representation of the odiousness of Sin in general yea and of some Sins in particular specially those which are most rampant raging and abounding in the times in which they live and those Sins too with which they are most in danger of being infected paint them out in the blackest Colours that you can as black as Hell for indeed so they are You cannot disparage Sin beyond its demerit you cannot speak too bad of it you cannot make it look worse than it is As we cannot exceed nor rise too high in the commendation of God our greatest words are too little our highest thoughts are too low Angelical conceptions of God are infinitely short of his Perfection He is exalted above all blessing and praise So on the other side we cannot speak too much in the dispraise of Sin our greatest anger against Sin is not hot enough and our sharpest words against Sin are not keen enough There is not to be found so great an evil in all the World as Sin is Afflictions are not so bad as Sin Poverty Plague Fire Sword Famine all the desolations that be made in Towns Cities Countreys not matter of so great Lamentation as Sin They are Physick to cure this the Disease to destroy they are Fire to purifie this is Filth to pollute Death it self doth only kill the Body Sin ruins the Soul Death sends the Body to a Bed of Dust but Sin if unpardoned unmortified sends both Soul and Body into a Bed of Flames The Devil himself is not so bad as Sin For he was an excellent Creature a glorious Angel There never was any thing of goodness in Sin nor ever will He was the Workmanship of God himself but God had no hand in the making of Sin It was Sin that turned him into a Devil Hell is not so bad as Sin For though it be a place of gross utter Darkness yet there is seen the Purity and Holiness of God in his hatred of Sin the Justice and Righteousness of God in the condemning and punishing of Sin there he declares his Wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness but there is no good not the least good in Sin it is a meer Anomia disobedience to and transgression of such a Law as is holy just and good it is evil throughout only evil and that continually Sin is evil in its Nature being contrary to the pure holy infinitely perfect and glorious Nature of God There is nothing in all the World contrary to God but Sin and what Sin hath made so It s Nature is so bad that nothing can rectifie it nothing can mend it nothing make it good It is so bad that God would not allow it a
needful work for the Lord's sake apply to it with diligence and chearfulness what your hand findeth to do herein do with all your might And since your planting and watering will turn to no account unless God give the increase begin and second all these holy endeavours with prayer Beg of God that he would open their understandings and hearts that he would work together with you and by you and that he would be pleased to out-do you that he would work that in them and for them which you cannot III. Considâ—r seriously whose your Children and Servants are they are yours yea and they are God's as well as yours God's more than yours First They are yours Your Children are yours by Nature begotten or born of you parts of your selves from you under God they had their Being Your Servants are yours by Compact or Covenant And here let us call again to mind what was said before they are both your Charge and therefore they ought to be your Care you are to look to them you will look to your Money and Goods and not lose them if you can help it The Countrey-man will look to his Corn and Cattel that he may not lose them and is there not reason for as great care here and greater too Our Saviour said It is the will of him that sent me that of all whom he hath given me I should lose none and I am sure it is so here It is the will of him that sent you into the World that of all whom he hath given you you should lose none There may be indeed as there was in Christ's Family so in yours a Son a Daughter of Perdition who lose themselves who will ruin and destroy themselves and their Blood will be upon their own heads But have you a care that you do not lose them through your wilful carelesness and neglect For as I have said they are your Charge and believe me the Charge of a Family is a great Charge of mighty weight and importance as all the World all ranks and degrees of Men will find it when that day shall come in which the Eternal God will reckon with them You know that if any one come by an untimely Death whether it be in the City or in the Countrey the Coroners Inquest must be called and sit upon the Body who ought to make a strict and impartial Enquiry about it that the Murderer might be discovered and brought to condign Punishment because there is not only the Loss of a Relation or a Servant but also the King hath lost a Subject Bring this to the present case before us here is such an one a Soul lost in this Family and there is another lost in that Family and so in a great many more the Lord only knows how great the number of them is How many thousand of Souls do every day drop into Hell If people would give themselves leave seriously to consider it it would make their hearts to ake and dissolve into Tears and peradventure it is nay I do not in the least question but it is the case of some of your Families You have lost a Child and you a Daughter and you a Servant in that sense in which the compassionate Father said concerning his Prodigal This my Son was lost he was dead He was dead in trespasses and sins the poor mournful Father had lost him and the Devil taken him up for a Stray but these of yours are lost beyond the possibility of a recovery their Souls are lost for ever they are dead and dead in sin their Bodies are laid in the Grave in a Bed of Dust and their Souls are gone down to Hell and there laid upon a Bed of Flames which Divine Justice hath prepared for them and the Breath of the Lord like as a stream of Brimstone doth feed But now here God hath lost a Creature one that was the work of his own hands and you may be sure that He will make Inquisition for Blood How did this Soul and that Soul come thus to miscarry was it their own doing was it through their own folly and madness because they would not hearken to the Voice of their Teachers or was it through the neglect of those to whose care and tuition they were committed The guilt of every ones Blood shall be laid some where and God will lay it where it ought to lie and there is as you may gather from what hath been said reason why God should thus proceed because Secondly They I mean your Children and Servants are God's as well as yours nay they are more God's than yours He indeed gave them to you as Iacob told his Brother These are the Children which God hath graciously given to thy Servant But when he gave them to you he did not alienate them from himself nor part with his own Right but reserves that whole and entire to himself He so gives them to us that still they are his Yea they are more his than ours And so it is with all our other Enjoyments Take one Scripture or two for the proof of this first as to our Enjoyments some Men think their Estates are their own and their Money their own so that they may do with them whatsoever they please but it is no such matter we are but Stewards God is the Lord of all For this see Hos. 2.8 9. I gave her Corn and Wine and multiplied her Silver and Gold They were his and he gave them to her But observe now he retain'd a propriety in them and therefore upon her misemploying and abusing them he threatned to take them away I will return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and recover my Wooll and my Flax. They were hers by vertue of God's donation but they were his also and now she should know as much for he will turn her out and take the Possession of all again This consideration should make all wary that they do not sin with their Enjoyments nor maintain their Lusts at God's cost nor with God's allowances make provision for the Flesh and it should also teach rich Men to do good with what they have and quicken them to acts of Piety and Charity Your Estates are yours but they are God's too and therefore as you ought to use them for your own good and comfort so you must lay them out for God's honour and for God's poor for the Sovereign right in your Estates is in God and it is the same as to your Children God lays his claim to them Ezek. 16.20 21. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredoms a small matter that thou hast slain my Children and delivered them to cause them to pass thorough the fire for them Mark it the Lord grants they were her Children but he doth also call them his Children he
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
committed in the day Now by a parity of Reason we may affirm that praying every day Morning and Envening is praying always or continuing instant in prayer And truly this is the least you can do if you would be grateful if you would bring glory to God if you would be exemplary in your places and to do this is good So the holy Prophet assures us in Psal. 92. which he intituled A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day vers 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy Name O most High This is good there is all good in it honest and profitable and pleasant good it is a paying of God what we owe to him and it will bring over advantage to us and it carries a great deal of sweetness along with it But when is it good to do this upon a Sabbath-day the Lord's-day yes it is good then it is very good then it is then specially in season because that day is given us not so much for the outward rest of the Body as for the inward and spiritual refreshing of the Soul that being taken off and set at liberty from the Labours and Toils of the World we may be wholly taken up with and imployed about the Service and Worship of God but though this be good singularly good upon our Sabbath-days yet it is not good only then for it is always good at other times as well as then so the same Psalmist assures us in the next Verse To shew forth thy loving-kindness in the morning and and thy faithfulness every night Mark that word every every night and by consequence every morning day by day in the morning because then the mind is more fresh and free and lively not yet intangled with nor deprest and fetter'd with secular Affairs but more fit to wait upon God and engage to holy works which call for and deserve the best and happiest frame And in the night the pleasant peace stilness and silence whereof doth render it very accommodate to and proper for the most sacred serious and solemn exercises In the morning prayer should open the door to business give your first visit to God who is your best Friend and at Evening let Prayer lock up the door and draw the Curtain Before the Body lies down in its Bed let the Soul return unto its Rest. This is a most excellent way for you to enjoy your selves and your God too a most excellent way to bring down from Heaven a Blessing upon your Labours in the day and to put a sweetness and refreshing into your sleep at night In this way you commit your selves and your all to God and engage God for you III. Family-worshipping of God hath been the practice ef Holy men in all Ages Saints standing upon Record in the Scriptures have soughâ— and served God in their Families and with them and so have all others in succeeding Generations who have been sound both in Head and Heart and acted by right Principles They have loved the work and delighted in the performance of it out of Conscience and Choice As for those Persons whose Heads have been Flie-blown and their mnds corrupted with Errour they are to be the Objects of our Compassion and Pity and the good Lord cause his Light to shine into their Minds in order to their better information and the reducing them from the Errour of their way but their practices are by no means to be made use of as your Directory or followed as your Pattern For if any have imbibed false notions it is no wonder that their lives and actions are crooked and irregular shamefully deficient in some things and no less extravagant in others Let us look to the precious and eminent Saints of God those that lived and died in the Faith and obtained a good report You are commanded to be followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises who are now possessed of those great things which they before lived in the belief and joyful expectation of who were here graciously accepted of God and are now received and glorified by him Let you and me my dearly Beloved follow them and tread in their steps Keep the same way now for it is the way Everlasting and turn not aside from that neither to the right hand nor to the left and equal their pace make as much haste as the best of them did considering that your time is as uncertain as theirs and it may be shorter only walk with circumspection not blindfold avoiding those things which were blame-worthy in them for even they were but Men and that imperfect Men compast about with infirmities having in them flesh as well as spirit Imitate them therefore in that which was good in them and will be so in you and in nothing else I may very well apply that of Paul to the present case and let you and me mind it as our Rule Phil. 4.8 Whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and were so in them in all or in any of them think of those things and go you and do the like so long as they wrote fair imitate them but beware of their blots I am and oh that all professing Religion would be for the reviving of the old godliness Primitive Government in Churches and Primitive Godliness in Christians are like old Gold the best Ier. 6.16 Thus saith the Lord stand there in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest to your Souls The old way is the good way meddle not with new upstart Doctrines and Practices that is best which is eldest Now then come we to the Business before us upon enquiry we shall find that the setting up of Prayer and other Religious Exercises in the Family was the good old way that way in which those precious Saints walked here upon Earth who at last got safely to Heaven and whose Prayers are changed for Eternal Allelujahs I will not multiply Instances but bring three or four out of the Old and New Testaments and in the Mouth of so many Witnesses I hope you will look upon the thing as evident and established First I Appeal to you Was not this the way in which this great and excellent Person Joshua walked He was a Person that God put great Honour upon he was the Man that must give Israel Possession of the Land of Promise and this was his way He had walked in it and he was not ashamed to own it before all Israel both the good and the bad yea to declare openly unto them his fixed and immoveable resolution of persevering therein This is plain in the Text As for me and my house we will serve the Lord not I alone but I and they too I with them whoever was or would be of his
I do earnestly desire you to spend now and then a little time in thinking seriously with your selves what sad wretched miserable Families those are in which there is a great many Creature-comforts Epicurean Provisions for the Table and the Belly there is eating and drinking to excess if not to drunkenness there is Cards and Dice Chambering and Wantonness a great deal of Mirth and Jollity Vanity and Folly but there is no Praying there no Reading of the Scriptures there is great dressing of Meat and decking of the Body but in the midst of all this there is no duty done to God no Honour brought him no care taken for precious and immortal Souls I do pity them and oh that my Soul might weep in secret for their sinful neglect And I do earnestly desire them to remember and lay to heart that which God hath spoken and will certainly stand to He will make that word of his good to the comfort of his People and confusion of his Enemies 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed From whence it is plain that God takes special notice of Persons their Spirits and Actions and as they carry toward him so will he to them That Tree may expect to fall under a blasting withering Curse from which the Lord Iesus doth gather no Fruit. III. My third and last Reason shall be drawn from the equity of the thing Family-worship is God's due as you heard before the Prophet said Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee it doth appertain it doth of right belong to him Man cannot lay claim to any Comfort or Blessing as due to him from God for any thing that he hath done for all is Mercy than the least of which Man is less yea the best of Men but God may lay claim to fear and honour and service as due to him from Man and I may say the same in the present case what Family is there that should not serve and worship thee O thou King of Nations O thou King of Saints for to thee it doth appertain It is too true and a sad truth it is that too many Families in England yea and in London do not do it and I am afraid when all is said that can be said will not worship God they are setled upon their Lees but what Family is there that should not do it There is none not the greatest not the poorest not those that have most leisure not those that have most business not those that live in the greatest fulness and splendor nor those that are forced to earn their Bread with their hard labour and in the sweat of their Brows The more any have the more abundant they should be in praises and the more any want the more frequent and fervent they should be in prayers whatever their case and condition is still they do owe this to God I may very well call it and House-â—ent which they are bound to be continually paying to their great Landlord and for a neglect or default therein he may justly turn them out of Doors cast them into the open Street yea bring them to a Dunghil and Morsel of Bread I am not censorious nor do I charge any one but this is apparent many that have been topping Men yea and made a great Profession have come to nothing to a Goal the Mint the White-friers they have broken scandalously and by that means have made Religion to stink in the Nostrils of those who are no Friends to it and I would advise them to reflect upon time past and consider whether they were not wanting to or remiss in Family-duties and if they were let them humble themselves and justifie God and say Righteous art thou O Lord why should they think that God would bless and prosper them to the enabling them to pay their Debts to Men if they do not make any Conscience of paying that Tribute which they owe to him but that is only a serious and seasonable hint by the way I am to shew you that Family-worship is due to God and it is so upon these accounts First Vpon the account of their Being I before proved that they are of God he made you and them too Now the Prophet saith Psal. 145.10 All thy works shall praise thee O Lord our Families are his work and therefore they should praise him Secondly Family worship ought to be conscienciously and constantly performed to God upon the account of those Mercies which they do receive from God We have personal Mercies preservation and supply health and strength food and raiment and these do engage us to personal services Iacob thought so when Gen. 28.20 21 22. He vowed a vow saying If God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my fathers house in peace the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and he accordingly did afterward there Build an Altar which was for the Service and Worship of God Now by a parity of Reason Family-mercies do oblige unto Family-worship Alas what miserable Houses would ours be if God should not look after them and befriend them how would they be exposed should he withdraw his protection and not cover them with his Wing How would they be straitned and pinched did not he reach out to them his Hand of Bounty they soon would turn into Houses of Mourning and Places of Confusion it is God that by his shining upon our Tabernacles makes them comfortable and pleasant to us and doth commend and sweeten our Communion together so that we lye down and rise up and live in peace therefore it is fit and highly becoming that we should serve and worship him together Those that are drawn with the same Cords of Kindness should draw in the same Yoke of Obedience Methinks the Father should of his own accord without a Monitor say to his Family as in Psal. 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together Thirdly Family-worship is due to God upon the account of his continuing and repeating his Mercies to our Families How much doth he do for them And how unwearied is he in doing We deserve nothing we have forfeited all yet his compassion doth not fail nor is the Stream of Mercy cut off Must you not say have ye not reason to say he daily loads you with his Benefits and he causeth Mercy and Goodness to follow you It is his Mercy that maketh us dwell in safety and sets an Hedge about us and our Houses and about all that we have on every side else we should become a prey to the Sons of Violence or fuel to the greedy devouring Flames It is he that continueth the peace of our Families else a perverse froward Spirit would be conjur'd up
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
Example and teach them to neglect their Duty to them by their not owning and honouring of God they teach them to disesteem and disrespect themselves for it is but just a righteous thing with God that what measure they meet out should be meeted out to them again by their Irreligion they teach their Children and Servants Atheism by their Looseness they teach them Profaneness by their playing at Cards at home they teach them Gaming abroad by which the Estates they laboured for are brought to nothing and their Children to a Morsel of Bread if not to the Gallows at last This is no more than what such Masters and Parents do deserve no more than what they bring upon themselves and no more than what God hath threatned for he hath said They that despise him shall be lightly esteemed where observe it is not said God himself will lightly esteem them though that is certain he will do so for they shall not stand in his presence he will put them away like dross and say cast them out of my sight but he will likewise so order it that they shall be lightly esteemed by others God will expose them to the contempt of others yea to the contempt of their own Families their own Relations their own Children and Servants Take an instance of this Nabal was a very rich Man and very great but a very bad walker and of an ugly temper and though all fear'd him none lov'd him he was a burden to his own House what did one of his Men think of him and say too behind his back 1 Sam. 25.17 He is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him yea and Abigail his prudent Wife though she would have covered his shame yet she could not no nor give him a good word vers 25. Let not my Lord regard the men of Belial for as his name is so is he Nabal is his name and folly is with him He both is a Fool and acts like one Whereas your setting and keeping up the Worship of God in your Families your Exemplary and Gospel-conversation your close and humble walking with God will put a singular beauty and lustre upon you and make your Faces shine in the Eyes of others and commend you to their Consciences so that they who are under your Government and do understand themselves will freely submit to your conduct and order obeying not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake such thoughts as these will at sometimes be making their way into their minds and repeating themselves It was the great goodness of God and tender love of our Parents that cast our Lines in such a Family where our Master is a good Man and our Mistress a gracious Woman both of them Persons fearing God they seek our good taking care not only for our Bodies providing Food for them when well and Physick when sick and teaching us the Mystery of our Calling but they look after the welfare of our Souls too that we may be holy here and happy hereafter know and serve God in time and enjoy him to Eternity how much are we obliged by this to take care of their business to lay our selves out in their Service and be good in our Places and study to please them well in all things if they have in them any spark of ingenuity if any sense of kindness if any love to themselves they cannot but now and then yea frequently have such workings in their Minds Object But here some may be ready to step in and say Doth not experience prove the contrary have not others nay have not you your self seen it otherwise Rebellious Children and unfaithful wicked Servants in those Houses where there is constant praying and reading and other Religious Exercises To this I answer First By granting it is so too too often so it is most certain and no less sad than certain and worthy to be matter of great Lamentation that there are some very bad Persons to be found in very good Families There was a Bloody Cain in Adam's Family whom his immediate Parents loss and ruin could not make wise and an unnatural Ham in Noah's whom a Deluge of Waters could not wash from his filthiness a scoffing Ishmael in Abraham's notwithstanding all the care and pains he took in teaching and commanding his Children there was Iudas a Traytor an Incarnate Devil in the Family of Christ himself who spake and liv'd as never Man did A Weed may be found in the choicest Garden a Serpent was in Paradise which may become relief to those gracious Parents that have degenerate and graceless Children Pity them bemoan them weep over them do your utmost to reclaim them and to turn them to the wisdom of the Just but consider this is not your case alone David was a Man after God's own Heart yet what a dismal company of Children had he Of whom I do not remember one good except Solomon who notwithstanding all his wisdom was none of the best But Secondly This I may lay down as I believe without fear of a contradiction that for the greater part those Families which the Rulers of them are careful to make Bethel 's houses of God thorough practices of Piety and actions of Religious Worship are the Seminaries of Virtue and true Religion These are the Gardens in which Christ hath his precious Plants these the little inclosures where he reaps his richest Crops I do not indeed deny but as the Wind bloweth where it listeth so doth the Divine Spirit who is a most free Agent and chooseth what Objects he pleaseth to work upon Lepers in Israel may have their loathsome Disease continuing upon them when Naaman a Syrian shall meet with a Cure There was in the House of wicked Ieroboam who made Israel to sin a good Abijah in whom there was some good thing found toward the Lord God of Israel God had his Saints in the House of a Monster Bloody Nero but it was to an Abraham that he promised he would be a God and to his Seed It is in such Houses there is found the Seed to serve him which shall be accounted to him for a Generation It is these that travel in birth for their Children and Servants that they might be brought forth to God and have Christ formed in their Hearts and unto these God grants the seeing of the travel of their Souls to their satisfaction That precious Seed which they sow in holy Discourses prudent and pious Counsels and Religious Examples God is pleased to water with his Blessing so that it shall root and spring up and bring forth fruit But Thirdly Let us cast our Eye again upon and take another view of that Scripture which we have already made use of Gen. 18.19 where you have God speaking thus I know Abraham that he will command his Children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Observe the phrases or words as they lye in
benumm'd are cast into a profound sleep and have no fear of God before their Eyes And let them know that sooner or latter the present Calm will be followed with a most terrible Storm the Wrath of God and the Rage of Conscience will cause it and that will blow away all your comforts and throw down all your hopes and who can tell but it may carry you to Hell with the People that forget God But on the other side an hearty Love to the Name Honour and Interest of God and the setting up of his Worship and Service in your Families from such an excellent and holy Principle is the direct and ready way to a sweet inward peace the way to have a Calm and Serenity in your Souls though the Clouds may be black and the Storms great which are upon your Tabernacles Let things issue how they will in your Families as to your Children and Servants whether they do get good or no whether they go to Heaven or to Hell yet this will be a quieting and comforting consideration to you that you in some good measure have done your duty I have been much taken with those words of Samuel to Israel after they had rejected the Lord from being King over them and he had made Saul King 1 Sam. 12.23 As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way O! do you so my dear Friends let it be the same with you set this excellent Copy before you and write after it frequently considering with your selves what an hearty reviving Cordial it will be when you are able to say to your Families Blessed be God I have not ceased to pray for you many a Petition I have put up and many a Tear I have shed in my Closet nor have I ceased to pray with you your selves are my Witnesses how frequent and earnest a Suitor I have been to God on your behalf I have been pleading and wrestling every day morning and evening and I have also been teaching you the good and the right way that of Truth and Holiness that of God's Commandments the Scripture way which is good because it is clean and pure and right because it brings to Heaven and Happiness all those that travel and are undefiled in it And yet further it will make the Cordial much more strong and prove a singular addition to your comfort when you are able to say I have not only shewn and taught you that good and right way but I have likewise taken you by the hand and led you into it You and I have had a communion in holy Duties We have gone to the House God in company and at home we have walked in the way of God in company How chearfully may you converse together and go about the work and business of the day after you have in the morning offered up your Sacrifice unto God and how may you at night part with one another in peace and lye down to rest in your Beds after you have desir'd the spreading of the Divine Wing over you and committed your selves to the protection of that God who is the Keeper of Israel and doth neither slumber nor sleep If there be not wilful commission of known sins nor a wilful omission of other known duties but a sincere desire and endeavour of approving your selves to God in all holy Conversation a due and constant care of performing Family-duties will afford you great peace so that nothing need to offend you And let me add this that constancy in this work will be a soveraign Antidote against many of those things that cause convulsions and broils and disorders in too many houses What passions are there in them and how unruly and exorbitant by which all is put into a flame What discontents what animosities what quarrels and contentions that people are so far from enjoying one another that they cannot enjoy themselves by means whereof the nearness of the Relation becomes a great aggravation of the affliction but joynt-fellowship in Family-duties and execises of Religion may very much help in this case both to the purpose of preventing those feuds if you do but consider that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting As you must pray in Faith so in Love You must not in wrath pray to him that is the God of Love It will also help to the repairing of a breach and healing of a wound when there is one made if you duly consider that of our Saviour Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift Reconciliation must go before supplication if we would have audience with God How can you think your Father should be pleased if you live at variance with his Children Peter would have Love between Husband and Wife that their prayers might not be hindered 1 Pet. 3.7 They that quarrel together will not be fit to pray together Observe Iames his method laid down for general observance among Christians Iam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed Seek peace with one another by confession and then peace with God by prayer But to return this Family-serving of God will promote inward peace in them that are Governours it cannot but be a comfort to you to think that while other houses have been the sink of sin yours have been the dwelling places of the most High Others have been Bethavens houses of vanity yours have been Bethels the houses of God in others there hath been the serving of divers lusts and fellowship with Devils and the unfruitful works of darkness but in yours there hath been the serving of God and a fellowship kept up with the Father and with his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In a word while other houses have been the Synagogues of Satan yours have been the Temples of the Living God and the Churches of Christ. As we do find godly Religious Families dignified in the Scriptures and honoured with the illustrious name of Churches Thus Paul Rom. 16.3 bids them greet Priscilla and Aquila his helpers in Christ Iesus and also verse 5. the Church that was in their house And again in Col. 4.15 He ordered them to salute Nymphas and the Church that was in his house i. e. the Family which was Christian and Godly and besides their joyning together in Manual Labour and houshold business did unite and joyn together in the Worship and Service of God And I have read that in the last Century before this the House of George Prince of Anhalt for the good Orders that were observed therein was said to be Ecclesia a Church for the Religion
more unfit and unwilling to morrow Convictions will wear off and the heart will grow harder and corruption stronger and the Devil will clap the faster hold and the Spirit of God may withdraw and move no farther strive no more and where are you then Thou saidst seek ye my face and my heart answered thy face Lord will I seek So David here was a sudden compliance he did not stand arguing and questioning he did not take time but immediately arose and girded himself to the work O! that it may be so with you strike Man Woman strike while the iron is hot as soon as the wind blows spread your Sails I beg of you yea with utmost importunity I beg that you would go home to day and do it do not dare to lie down in your Beds this night without the performance of Family-duty considering that it is Duty which I am calling you to it is not a thing indifferent I do not think it worth my while to contend for matters of that nature but this is none of them this is not a point of liberty no no it is Duty and Duty must be done Duty is Debt you owe it to God to your Families and Debts must be paid otherwise Divine Justice will Arrest you and you shall answer for it Now seeing it must be done the sooner it is done the better you do not know how soon you may die it may be too night and I am sure it is best and safest for you that when ever Death comes it should find Faith in you and you in the way of your Duty Blessed for ever blessed is that Servant whom when his Lord cometh he shall find so doing But I shall now proceed as indeed it is high time to a third head of Arguments drawn from your Children who are near and ought to be dear to you unto whom you were in the hand of God Instruments of conveying life and being Children that are parts of your selves that are your selves in a second Edition whose welfare therefore and happiness you are by all imaginable bonds obliged while you live to study and promote even as your own They likewise will in part be drawn from your Servants particularly your Apprentices who are under your roof and committed to your care and imployed for some time in your service and about your work And here I desire you seriously to ponder upon these following Particulars and to lay them close unto your hearts and wisely judge what there is of strength in them what a rational inforcement of this holy practice upon you 1. Think with your selves what they are by Nature both your Children and your Servants more particularly your Children because the nearness of the Relation doth strengthen the engagement upon you And here we will consider them both as to their Bodies and their Souls and that in three Particulars We will begin with their Bodies and outward Man which are indeed but dust but the Workmanship of Gods hands wonderfully made now First Some of them peradventure are objects of pity in the eyes of all that behold them some are defective and imperfect an integrating part is missing others of them are crooked or their Members are misplac'd or very much deformed so that Spectators turn away their faces from them as from loathsom and odious Creatures not fit to be exposed to the sight of any others of them are lame in their hands or feet one or both or blind others of them came excellent out of the hands of God and the wombs of their Mothers but since a disease hath seised them as the Small Pox or the Scrofulous Humour which have made sad work in them and utterly defac'd their Beauty digging pits and making seams in their faces distorting their mouths eating off a finger from this hand and another from that and so devouring them by piece-meal Now let me ask you is not this enough to draw out your compassions toward them and to cause the sounding of your Bowels could you be content that there should be no sound part in them but all throughout nothing but botches and boyls and putrifying Sores would you have their Souls as bad as their Bodies would you be content that they should have ignorant blind Souls crooked and perverse Souls ugly filthy and deformed Souls that as nice and curious Persons cannot abide to look upon them so the great and holy God should not endure to look upon them neither but say cast them out of my sight my mind cannot be towards them Methinks you should bestir your selves to the utmost and do all that in you lies that the loveliness of their Souls may compensate and make an abundant amends for the deformity of their Bodies look out for the best Beauty for them that Wisdom and Grace and Holiness may make even their faces to shine yea that their beauty may be perfect through Christs comeliness put upon them But Secondly There be some of your Children which are amiable and pleasant to behold curious pieces of God's Work Sons that are Plants of Renown and Daughters as Corner-Stones polished after the similitude of a Palace as you read in Psal. 144.12 They have bodies of a comely stature and exact shape Limbs of a due proportion Countenances lovely and lively in which you see excellent Features and admirable Complexion the Lilly and the Rose having met and concurr'd to render them accepted and desirable in the eyes of men and certainly this is a great Mercy for which you and they have cause to bless God only let them have a care they do not abuse it to Pride and Wantonness Besides this fair out-side this well-built Tabernacle of Clay they are inwardly adorned with good Tempers smart brisk and exquisite Parts which greatly accomplish them and render them fit for Converse so that all who know them are delighted with their Conversation And now sit down yet Parents sit down and consider is it not a thousand pitties that such Tabernacles should stand empty or be possess'd with an evil Spirit Is it not pity such Bodies should have in them wicked and vile Souls that those lovely persons who have so much without to commend them to Men should have nothing within to commend them to God Would it not be sad if these Persons who have almost Angelical Countenances should be no other than Cages of unclean Lusts Sinks of Sin Habitations of Divels meer painted Sepulchres fair to the eyes but within there is nothing but filth rottenness and a stink Oh how much better is it for them to resemble and take pattern by the King's Daughter mentioned Psal. 45.13 who hath not only her garments of wrought gold but is likewise all glorious within This is the way for them to become precious in God's sight and honourable this is the way for Jesus the Lord of Glory and King of Saints greatly to desire their Beauty though he himself is the cheifest of ten thousands and deserves to
hath crowned your Conjugal Relation with Posterity but what is your Posterity but the Seed of evil doers Children of those that have corrupted themselves those pure Souls which were created by God were polluted and spoiled as soon as they entered into those bodies that came of you you did convey a cross froward depraved nature to your Children who therefore are so bad because they are yours It is said Gen. 5.3 Adam begat a Son in his Image and after his likeness not in the Image and likeness of God as Adam himself had been made at first but in his own Image in his Image not only as he was Man but also as he was lapsed Man his Son was like himself in Body and in Soul and in Sin and thus have the Sons of Adam done ever since Iob saith Iob 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Man being unclean cannot make himself clean let them wash in tears let them wash with Snow water he cannot fetch out the dirt the spots and stains he cannot wash himself clean and being himself unclean he cannot produce and bring forth that which is clean That which is born of the flesh is flesh weak flesh sinful flesh that water which is soil'd and muddied at the Spring cannot be pure and clear in the Stream Aethiopissae Filius nigrum ab eâ Colorem trahit The Son of a Blackmoor will be a Blackmoor too You know there are hereditary Diseases as the Gout Stone Spleen Lethargie which commonly run in the blood and are transmitted by the Parents to their Children Sin is one of them it is the worst of them it sticks close and descends from Parents to Children and that from Generation to Generation without interruption without exception unless that of our dear Lord Jesus who was to be holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners that he might be a Sacrifice and a Saviour and in order thereunto came into the World in an extraordinary way of generation being formed in the Womb of a Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost who over-shadowed her otherwise Sin doth inseparably follow Nature and never goeth out of the blood So that I may call Parents the Channels the Kennels the Common-Sewers in and through which all that abominable filth runs which defiles their otherwise lovely and desirable Children rendring them odious and abominable unto God And never carry your heads high because your Children are of a Noble or Gentile descent come of such a Family bear such account or because you can leave them a great Estate there is one thing alass that stains and spoils all that Glory viz. It is from you they have it that they are born Sinners And truly as there is a great deal of joy at the birth of an Infant because a Man-Child is Born into the World so there is reason why that joy should be upon this account somewhat allay'd and mingled with grief and sorrow that a Sinner is born into the World Secondly Let us consider you as the Heads Governours of Families are not your Families the worse for you you that are Husbands and Wives should be the better for one another and fill your Relations and carry in your places as those that are Co-heirs of the grace of life that you may have cause of blessing God you ever came together But reflect and curiously enquire are not you the worse for one another and are not your Children and Servants in some respects the worse for you both You that have no Religious Duties performed in your Houses are for certain very injurious to them by that your omission for you teach them Atheism neglect and contempt of God you teach them to live without God in the World like so many Brutes you do thereby teach them to neglect their precious and immortal Souls and to mind nothing but the concernments of a vile and perishing Body and the inferiour good things of a Transitory World But what do you think of your selves who are the best who walk most closely with God do you foot it so right that you do not sometimes tread awrie do you demean your selves with so much exactness that nothing amiss is to be discerned in you do you order your carriages and conversations with so much judgement and circumspection that they are without fault and blameless David saith Who can understand his errours and if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand and have you not read such passages as these in the Scriptures There is not a just Man upon Earth that liveth and sinneth not In many things we sin all If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There are too many graceless Persons in the World but there is not one sinless Person there are many holy Persons who have been washed and justified and sanctified but not one that is cleansed from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and who hath attained to a perfection in his holiness and can you think that your blemishes and miscarriages are invisible do not those that live and converse with you observe you yes they do and see more spots in your faces than you do in your own though you look in the glass and they will be exceeding apt to tread in your steps and to imitate you especially in that which is evil for unto that their own corrupt Nature doth incline and like a strong Bias carry them that way yea and your example shall be made use of and pleaded as their sufficient Warrant If they should be reproved by some sober judicious Persons for doing that which they should not they will justifie themselves thus I saw my Father or my Mother do so my Master or my Mistress do so and therefore I may do it too Poor things they do sometimes think of their Parents and Masters above that which is meet and not considering their imperfections and that body of Sin and Death which they carry about with them they do not in their following them make use of that caution which they ought to do Be serious my dear Friends be serious and consider whether your Children and Servants be not the worse for your Pride discovered in your haughty looks and lofty words and stately gestures and costly garbs and dresses the worse for your Passion shewn in sharpened Eyes furious Countenances and words like Swords and Daggers the worse for your mispence of time in vain visits frothy discourses games and recreations and lazy lying in Bed upon the Lord's Day till much of the morning is lost and a considerable part of the Publick Worship be over before you come into the Congregation In short are they not the worse for this and that and the other yea for many things which your own Consciences if you please to consult them and give them free leave to speak can and will inform you of far better than I can being every day
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
way whether ever they sate up so long at prayer or reading the Scripture Unto such persons I would only say these few things First As touching the Game it self I will not take upon me peremptorily to determine that playing at Cards is utterly unlawful Yet I do very well remember that in former times when Professors liv'd more up to the Rules of Religion than most now do and did not allow to themselves that latitude which many in our days take Cards were counted so by many godly learned Ministers and gracious Christians and accordingly were then call'd The Devil's Books and the use of them for play was a thing of bad report and to have a pack of them in the house was then reckoned scandalous It is true one of no small esteem for Learning and Piety whose Name I forbear to mention hath written for it but I humbly conceive he had better have spar'd his pains So pitiful a Cause did not deserve so Learned a Pen so great a Patron and what he and others have said is not satisfactory but still sub judice lis est the matter is disputable and there are more against it than for it And I am sure in matters questionable such things as will admit of a debate it is the wisdom of those who love their own Souls and desire to approve themselves unto God by an holy exact walking before him to forbear there may be sin in using but for certain there is no danger in letting them alone Though you are not sure there is Poison in a Glass of Wine yet if you do suspect it you will not drink of it Perhaps the company will jeer and laugh at you for your over-niceness and let them till they be weary better so than to have your own Consciences raging and storming at you for your over-boldness It is not good to rouze a sleepy Lion a little matter will do it But then Secondly As to any other Game which is evidently lawful and concerning which no dispute hath been raised among good men Nature doth require and God doth allow Recreations The Bow that always stands bent will grow to be a Slug. And there are Recreations in themselves very innocent and harmless that tend much to the health of the Body and not to the detriment or prejudice of the Soul yet even in these you must manage your selves with wisdom for otherwise you may sin in them What the Apostle Paul saith of the Law 1 Tim. 1.8 We know that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully I may say in the present case we know that Recreation is good if a man use it lawfully but withal we know that the greatest danger of real sincere Christians lieth inter licita among things lawful and though the Recreations which you use are lawful in themselves yet you may sin in the using of them and that many ways particularly in the using them out of season and by being too long at them Time is too precious a Jewel to be thrown away Thirdly I desire you seriously to consider whether Gaming be a good preparative for any holy duty We have been wont to blame those that would upon the Lord's-day come reeking out of their Beds to Publick Ordinances and if I be not mistaken they are as worthy of blame who immediately go from their sports to the Service of God Is this my Friends is this the way for People to get themselves into a fitness for duty their hearts into a serious solemn spiritual and holy frame Is this the way to qualifie you for an appearance in so great and glorious a Presence as is that of God and for engaging to so important and momentous a work as is that of Prayer You that love Recreations do not love them too well and you that use them let it be without abusing them do not make Play your work but use it moderately as becometh those who were sent hither for higher and nobler purposes than to sport upon Earth as Leviathan doth in the Sea and as becomes them who knows the shortness uncertainty and preciousness of Time and that your everlasting welfare and happiness in the other World depends upon a due improvement of it and as becomes those who believe you must at last render an account thereof unto the God that gave it to you And I also advise you to take special care that there be a sufficient interval or space of time between your Recreation and your Duty that so you may call your thoughts in which you had given leave to ramble and raise your Affections up which had been too much deprest and sunk to Objects so mean and low and that by holy Meditation spiritual Divine Contemplations you may recover your former warmth and chafe your selves into a due heat and be fervent in spirit serving the Lord remembring it was in the flame of Manoahs Sacrifice that the Angel did wonderfully Fourthly You that are Parents I do earnestly desire you to think with your selves and that seriously whether you are kind to your Children in playing at Cards doth this speak your love to them and care of them Is this the way to keep them from the path of the Destroyer and to bring them up for God Doth this tend to the making of them gracious or serious Do you think in your Consciences that you would be willing Death should come and find you so employed that Death should come and take you at Cards Or do you think in your Consciences that you do herein set your Children a good Example Really this deserves your thoughts for as we Ministers are to be Examples to the Flock so you Parents and Governours ought to be to your Families What manner of persons then should you be in all holy conversation in all the actions of your Lives and are you so exemplary when you play at Cards as it becomes and concerns you to be Possibly some of you think you have enough to say for your selves viz. that you do not make a Trade of it nor a common practice you do it but at one time of the year when the Nights are long and you know not how otherwise to pass away the time but by the way do not say so for that proclaims your egregious weakness and folly what have so great work to do and so much of it yet know not how to pass away the time or you satisfie your selves with this that you do not play for Mony at least not for much so that upon that score you are much at a pass whether you win or not and this may be but you cannot tell what your Children may do after you you do shew them the way and lead them in it but they may shortly go a great deal farther than you your selves either do or dare to do because they see you play at Cards they conclude it lawful and that they may do so too and accordingly do for Children are imitating Creatures
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
a Child and spake as a Child Neither was it a thing to be blamed or wondred at what else was to be expected from him Though sometimes excellent Wisdom appears in Young ones as in Timothy who knew the Scriptures of a Child And Ambrose saith of Agnes Corpore juvencula animo cana fuit she had a youthful Body and an aged Mind Young Samuel had in Grace out-striped old Eli But saith Paul When I came to be a Man I put away childish things And it is greatly to be wished that all would do the same and not be Children all their days That when they write Man they would act like Men bidding an everlasting farewel to childish Tricks and childish Discourses childish Pleasures childish Actions and Carriages Yea and if there be any such things as manly follies have nothing to do with them How do any think to train and bring up their Young ones to the Wisdom and Discretion and holy Prudence of Men when they themselves are playing the Children before them Therefore as I said before be you grave and serious let Wisdom breath in all your discourses speak much the Language of Heaven let it be stampt upon all your actions for one act of folly will detract more from your Reputation than twenty prudent ones will be able to repair and make up again let it shew it self in all your Converses be so familiar as to know your place so let out your Love to Man as still to keep up your Fear of God so converse with Friends here as not to interrupt your Communion with your heavenly Father be so courteous as still to be Religious so sociable as to keep within those bounds which God hath set you I would not be understood as speaking one word no not a syllable against cheerfulness a sober and well regulated Mirth for it is not only allowed by God which is enough to prove its lawfulness but also commanded which renders it a Duty Eat thy Bread with a merry Heart rejoice with the Wife of thy Youth yea and of thy Age too and Paul doubles the Precept Rejoice evermore and again I say rejoice and the Psalmist tells us Praise is comely for the upright not Complaints but Songs not always Prayer but Praise the Garment of Praise is the Beautiful Garment which sits most neatly upon a Saints Back and with this they shall be Invested when taken up to Glory and admitted into the Joy of their Lord and this I desire them to consider who please themselves in a dejected melancholick Temper and think they never look well and as becomes them unless it be when they have a Cloud upon their Countenances and Tears trickling down their Cheeks and if ever they would speak properly it must be in sighs I wonder who told them so it must be no other than the Devil who is an inveterate and implacable Enemy as to their Holiness so to their Peace and Comfort Sure I am that alacrity and cheerfulness is your Friend and promotes the Health of your Bodies and furthers the lively vigorous motions of your Souls in their most noble Employments it is Health to your Navels and Marrow to your Bones and Oil to your Wheels And this is also sure that chearfulness doth become you it is most becoming because most proper for you most suitable to that God who is your Father to that Jesus who is your Head and Husband to that Covenant upon which you have laid hold to those Promises in which you are interested to those Hopes under which you are planted and to that safe sweet blessed state into which you by Grace are brought and that it doth become you is evident from hence because it doth belong to you Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart and it is fit you should reap that which Heavens Hand hath sown for you There are no Persons in the World that have such a Right and Title to Joy as Believers have wicked Men indeed have none at all no though they be Rich yet are commanded to weep and howl for the Miseries that shall come upon them Iames 5.1 For a Temporal Heaven they shall have an Eternal Hell And further it is sure that chearfulness is one way to commend Religion to others The World is mistaken about it and hath taken up a wrong notion of it which it holds fast viz. that it is a dull heavy mopish and melancholick thing that it is morose and ill-natur'd an Enemy to Manners and Mirth but that is a false notion a grand mistake it doth not forbid chearfulness but directs and orders it it teacheth Men to be merry and wise and I do heartily wish all that chearfulness were quite banished which is inconsistent with the Rules and Principles of our Religion The World would be far better without it what need is there of that Laughter which Solomon call'd Madness or what good comes of it away with all that Iesting which the Scripture calls vain It is a sad thing for Men to live Iesting and after that go to Hell in Earnest you will find it best to be Merry and Religious Râ—s severa est verum gaudium true joy is a severe grave and serious thing and let that measure your days let there be lightsomness but nothing of lightness solidity but no froth let your Families be witnesses of your Integrity and see nothing in your Conversation that is below understanding Men nothing unworthy of gracious Christians But this is not enough Thirdly Let your Carriages be holy Our Saviour said to his Hearers what do ye more than others Mat. 5.47 You that have received more than others must do more than others you that have been made partakers of Grace must out do and out go and out-shine those that have no more than Nature it is not enough for you that you do nothing contrary to the Divine Precepts that you do not point-blank run cross to the Rule of the Gospel Negative Religion will never commend you to God nor carry you to Heaven you must conform to those Precepts and walk up to that Rule so shall you have Peace and find Mercy I have hoped for thy Salvation and done thy Commandments not legally but Evangelically Psal. 119.166 Yea he that hath the Commandments of God in his Heart may have Salvation in his Eye He that leads a Life of obedience may live a Life of Hope and so godliliness richly pays for the pains it calls for therefore I say unto you walk in print so walk as to set Copies for others to write after so that you may say to them Walk so as you have us for an Example You do very well know how ready young ones are to produce you for their warrant and they think your Example is sufficient authority and should signifie as much as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did formerly in the Schools which stopt the Mouth of Contradiction no Argument to the contrary
meat and drink to do them and yet more when besides this Faith in God they themselves have tasted that God is gracious and had experience of that advantage which comes in by religious duties I Love the Lord said David because he hath heard my Voice He hath experience of Gods goodness and a love to him because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Psal. 116.1 2. His mercy to me hath drawn out my love to him and my love shall influence my obedience I love him and I will cleave to him and follow after him Secondly While you are young covet after those gifts which may in some good measure accomplish you for the filling up of your duties and places and the performance of every duty It is an excellent thing for Christians to be well furnished and youth is a golden season for that purpose as for those who are not studious while they are in the morning of their age there is too much ground of fear that they will continue Fools to their latter end It is indeed too apparent that some yea too many who have good natural parts and attained to some Knowledge and Learning are thereupon wretchedly self-conceited and puft up knowing neither themselves nor any body else their pride testifieth against them to their very faces and this is their folly and their shame they have no reason to swell for they are empty and the opinion they have taken up of themselves is far above their abilities when a Wise Man comes to fathom them he finds they are very shallow and their real intrinsick worth doth fall extreamly below that price which they set upon themselves On the other side there are many that pretend to nothing and indeed there is nothing which they may pretend to being altogether ignorant weak and poor their upper room is wholly destitute and unfurnished they are not able to discourse of God and the things of God they cannot pray but want both matter and words whereas they should be rich and increased in goods they are blind and wretched and poor and miserable and whereas they should be thoroughly furnished for every good work they are furnished for none at all And from whence doth this proceed but from their own gross neglect they have not meditated as they should nor read the Scriptures nor heard Sermons as they should they did not labour to stock and store themselves while they are young and so they come to be poor and beggarly when they are old they squandred away their Golden Age and now they are come to their Silver hairs their heads and hearts are little worth I do therefore now direct my Discourse to you young ones of both Sexes and would have you better to befriend your selves and as you do now learn your Trades and your Books and to manage Household business and labour to get betimes a good insight into your several Callings and so to understand them as that you may be able afterward to set them up and carry them on with Credit and to advantage go away and do the like as to Religion and the things of God Begin betimes to mind those things which do most deserve your minding now acquaint your selves with God look into your own hearts and States and study them well get the knowledge of your Sins and Wants when you read or hear or are in company with good Men see that it turn to account and you get something by it make something your own be continually laying up though it be but by little at at a time yet it may come to something The Evangelical Prophet hath this expression Isa. 42.23 Who among you will give ear to this who will hearken and hear for the time to come Truly that is excellent Husbandry very good for Men to be before hand will you study this really it is your best way it is your interest I would advise you to nothing but what doth one way or another make for your own interest this doth so to read for the time to come and to hear for the time to come and to this end consider what you do in other cases you will labour to get Money and Land for the time to come and some of you to stock your selves with Cloaths and Linnen for the time to come and give me if you can a Reason why you should not be as desirous to get Knowledge and Gifts and Grace for the time to come are not these things as good as the other are they not better O! do it then I beseech you do it be not Wise for your Bodies and Fools for your Souls Wise for time and Fools for Eternity See that you do things now in your single capacity while you have the greatest leisure and briskness of Parts that so when you come to be Married and have Families to order and govern you may be Workmen that need not be ashamed and able to do all your Work and Duty And have a treasury out of which you may bring forth good things new and old for the inriching of others whom it should be your desire and will be your comfort to see thriving under you A Christian rich in gifts and grace is most like to do good Thirdly Study well how things stand with your selves and with them that are yours Though I might also add with the Nation and Church of God which are the Body of which you are Members the Ship in which you have so great a venture and since you have a concernment in them you ought to be daily and earnest supplicants for them If I forget thee O Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Ierusalem above my chief Ioy. 137. Psalm 5 6. But that which I advise you at present is a care within doors see how matters stand with your Heart and with your House Be thou diligent to know the state of thy stocks and look well to thy herds 27. Proverbs 23. And if such diligence should be used such knowledge to be got of Flocks and Herds then Men should study and labour to understand their own state and the state of their yoak fellows and Children and Servants be strict observers of them and frequent in your inquiries concerning them and all that are under your charge and see how matters have been with you and them and how they are what are the providences of the day and the dispensations of God toward you and them This will supply you with matter of Prayer yea probably with variety of matter and he that hath good store of matter is most like to find good store of words to express it Though a full Vessel may for a time want vent yet when a little is given it runs apace at the tap This you may gather from those passages of Elihu Iob 23.18 19.20