every one Apart by yourselves Which I know none that own the Christian Name who do not pretend to But may Accustom your selves to Pray also Conjunctly and all together in your several Families Which is that part of the Service of God that my thoughts and Endeavours are now at work to Engâ—ge all whom I can prevail with to set upon it and to shew their Zeal and Fidelity in it 'T is not the Manner of doing that I am now Prescribing Nor the Set Time in particular when you shall do it But my chief Business is to Propose and Recommend the Thing it self And so to Quicken your Care and Win your Consent that it may be Daily and Duly done And my Application is First to the Masters that have the Inspection and Conduct of Families For the Houses have no Ears And O that I may not find some of the Owners as Deaf as if they had none 'T is You Sirs that must Set the Fashion to your People and not only Tell them of their Duty but go before them in it 'T is your Example that will go furthest either to Deboch or to Reform your Houses And you cannot do Well or Ill but it will be like to Affect the Rest as well as your selves And of the same Strain as the Master is much thereafter use to be the Children and the Servants For they will think themselves Concern'd to Write after his Copy if but to be the Easier under him and the more Acceptable to him So that you shall not only Answer for your selves but for all the Members of your Families that were Hurt or Bettered by you According as you go in and out among them and lay the Patern before them It may be as much as their Souls are worth And they may have cause to Bless you or to Curse you for ever They now so much Depend upon you and are so much Determined by you That what you Are and what you Do goes for Law with them and has the greatest Influence upon them to make them Be and Do Alike If you then that should be the Stays and Guides of your Domesticks are Swearers Drunkards Brawlers or Muck-woâ—ms without any Savour of God's holy Religion and no Lovers of Prayers but Cold and Listless to set them Forward even Loathing any thing which Looks that Way and Introducing somewhat in its Room more to your Mind but less to your Credit O what Disorderly wretched Houses then are you like to have And who can expect that thy Son and thy Daughter thy Man-servant and thy Maid servant should be much Better When thou who shouldst go to Pray with them and shut up the Day with the Worship of him that gave it Instead of doing them any Good Lyest only as a Log in their way to Stumble and Hurt them When there is nothing of God to be seen in thee beyond thy Human Shape Nothing of God to be Heard from thee but in thy Oaths and Curses O how Deadly then is thy Case when thou art in thy Blood and the Blood of all the Souls too that are under thee and so Abused by thee will he upon thee Such a Master such a Father Thy Servants and thy Children may feel the Plague of thy Ungodliness upon them to all Eternity As a great Oak Falling Crushes down all the Underwood before it So thy Falls and Miscarriages are fatal Breaches upon thy whole Family Thou art the Ignis Fatuus that Leadest them out of the way ' and Teachest them to Transgress Thou art the Jeroboam that makest them to Sin Thou hast the Charge of them But so Betrayest the Trust that instead of being the Better they are all the Worse for thee and will rise up in the Judgment against thee The Lord give thee Eyes to see thy Case and a Heart first to Judge thy self and Grace to Repent and Amend the matter before thou Fall and thy House Fall upon thee and sink thee into the deepest Damnation never to get up again O that thou maist Remember thy self and thy Accounts and Turn to the Lord and walk more Regularly and piously in thy House To Repair some of the Mischief that thou hast done and yet to Benefit the Souls that have been so much Dâ—mnisiâ—d by thee For thou art a Vain man to stand Rallying at thy House and complaining of Stubborn Children or Treacherous Servants when thou wilt not give thy Example nor thy Prayers to make them Better Though by this means for ought thou knewest Thou might'st be the happy Instrument of their Conversion and Salvation But Blessed Souls That set a quite contrary Patern And instead of Leading others into Sin are all for Helping them out of their Sins And thus Serve the Lord and Assist their Ministers in Turning many to Righteousness and by their Examples and their Interest by their Speaking and their Doing Guide their Neighbours in the Progress to Heaven Quicken their Families to Seek the Lord Trace them out a fair Path of his holy Worship and Encourage and set them forward in all the ways of Sobriety Charity Decency Godliness and Honesty A Comfortable Account shall they have and a Sentence full of Joy from the Lord. Their Families their Neighbours shall rise up and call them Blessed Yea God even their own God shall Bless them and make them enjoy the Fruits of their Labours and of his Grace and Bounty in the Heavenly never-ending Glory O that you would all so lay this to heart as to think your selves more Concern'd in the Godly Regulation of your Families and the narrow Circumspection of your own Conversation among them For this is the main Indication and Discovery of what a man is By his Conduct and Behaviour at Home and the Rules and Orders that he keeps in his House Because Men Abroad usually go upon their Guard and are more Reserv'd and Demure in strange Company So Concealing themselves as to appear Other and Better than really they are But where they may be Bold among their own People There they are wont to shew themselves in their proper Shapes and Colours That you may then Judge according to Truth Here take better Notice of your selves And that you may also rightly Instruct and Edify Others Take better Heed to your own Ways For they will Watch the Steps of your Feet more than Mind the Words of your Advice and there Venture to Slight the best of your Counsel where they see you take the Liberty to Run out another way Nor yet think it all to set some good Examples for them to Follow Letting them see That you are not Hypocrites abroad and Devils at Home But use all the Interest and Authority you have with them to do them Good and to make them such as God would have them For so you know The Lord commended that great Father of the Faithful Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will Command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall
of Others when the Devotion is your own And you do it not in this manner to save your Labour but because you think another has Exprest it better for you than you can do for yourselves But when such as these are all the Helps you have and you think it enough to have them And there let them lie by Idle in your Houses they may so little Befriend you as to prove some of the Books opened in the Judgment to bring in Evidence against you for such Supine Oscitance and Shameful Laziness that you would not so much as be at the Pains to use them And who will then regard your Complaints of the Cold if you May and Will not go to the Fire You are like to continue still Indisposed if you will not endeavour to Read and Meditate and Pray your selves into a better Temper There is one Case yet which this will not come down to and that is among such of the poorer Sort as can neither Read themselves nor have any in their little Families that can Such may plead the Inability for which you may think there is no Remedy Yet have I heard a Man pray with Fervency and Propriety of Speech that did not know a Letter of the Book And he that ordains Strength out of the Mouths of Babes and Suckâ—ings can make the Illiterate herein to exceed the Scholars But where he is not pleased to make up the Educator's Neglects with such Extraordinary Gifts yet they that cannot Read may notwithstanding without Book know their Sins and Confess them and for Christ's Sake beg Pardon of them and Power against them And for Grace to be pleasing unto God and by his Goodness to be Provided for here and Saved for ever And when they do but this heartily as to the Lord they shall be heard without their Much-speaking And further than this they may Learn a Prayer by the help of others And I scarce know how any that Frequent our Churches can Escape the Learning and Remembring some of those Prayers which they have heard so many hundred times over And if they do but carry away the Confession with which we begin at Church and the Prayer of our Lord and here and there a short Collect they may make a Service of this at Home as Good in the sight of Heaven as that of their better Accomplisht Neighbours because it is the Best that they can offer And now by these means all may be so helpt out that none shall find any Excuse for his Impiety from his Inability 4. Some would justify their Neglect of Family Prayer for want of Company Either others Abroad to Accompany them in it or such Partners at Home as are fit for it 1. They plead the want of Company Abroad It is a thing so out of Use in Multitudes of Families yea and many that are of Good Reputation and well Esteemed in the World but here and there a Few that keep it up and appear for it and are constant in it And would you have us then to Upbraid our honest Neighbours with our Pretensions to be Wiser and Better than the rest Would you persuade us to be so Unfashionable and Singular as to Expose ourselves to Censure and Laughter I hope the Omission is not so Common nor the Practice such a Rarity as the Objection intimates And that it is not yet grown such a Scandolous thing for a Family of Christians to Joyn daily together to give the highest Honour they are able to their Lord. I am willing to think with more Charity of a Christian Country And as much Truth as is in the contrary is I am sure as much Reproach to us and one of the worst things that could be said of us But the Universality of Sober Men have another Sense of the Matter and cannot but think the better of these Families that shew such Exemplary Piety as all the rest ought to Imitate And if any seem well to Pass without it they would be much more Praise-worthy with it Whatever else is commendable in them their Casting out the Worship of God casts a foul Blot upon them For tho here and there a Prophane Wretch foams out his own Shame in throwing Contempt and Derision on the Praying-Families and making their Seriousness his Sport Such Revilers of them may too late wish That themselves had been found among them when the Lord shall come with Ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon such Scoffers for all their hard Speeches which they have spoken against Him to Disgrace and Interrupt his Servants in the way where he put them and where it would better become those who profess the same Holy Religion to Follow them than to Object their Faithfulness against them and turn their Piety to their Infamy But if any here wonder at your Singularity you have much more Cause to wonder at their Impiety and let them Wonder on but for all that do you Pray on As you are taught by a very great Example Psalm 71.7 I am as a Monster to many But thou art my Strong Refuge I care not how Prodigious they accout the Practice as long as I find how Blessed is the Benefit You may as much Despise their mighty Numbers as they Despise your numerous Prayers and still think but so much the better of them because such as they are against them To Season your Houses with Religion and make it Familiar to your People if this be to Break the Custom it is such a Custom sure as has great need to be Broken What if Few do follow this way Has not our Lord told us That Few do find the Way to Life And has he not intimated the Reason to be because so few do Strive to Enter And is not the Chief of all our Striving in our Praying But is not all the Struggle in Prayerless-Fathilies quite of another Nature Alas all Careless Sinners are so far from striving to Enter in at the Strait Gate that they scarce set their Faces this way so much as to Seek after it And these I confess are a vast Number But yet such as are now for a Poll and Glory in being of the bigger Number will not find it for their Interest to stick to that way and there be Found when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shall come to Separate the Sheep from the Goats For though they had far more than they have on their Side the little Flock will then have the Infinite Advantage of them when their Father shall give them the Kingdom and at the sâ—me time Disown them that were Asham'd of him and thought his Worship a Disparagement to their Houses turning them over to the Master whom they Sâ—â—â—'d before Him and who had more of their Devetion than their Rightful Lord could ever get from them And upon whomsoever the Scorn and Confusion is now cast they shall then to their Cost find to whom it Belongs One thing under this
Hours they are at it even from Morning to Night for the Back and Belly but one Quarter of an Hour shall be grudg'd as too much to wait upon the Lord in any Holy Duty They have both Legs ready to run upon the World's Errands but when call'd upon Service to their Master in Heaven they are stark Lame and cannot Stir With what Vigorous Efforts will they bestir themselves to gain their worldly Points And though they meet sometimes with unfeisible things in the way to Bassâ—e their Attempts Yet again and again they are at it to try what they can make of it But when they should be taken up with God yea when it is to win Christ and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven here the Men of Might are as Weak as Water and nothing to be done let who will take all for them And is this do you think a hopeful Preparation for Heaven And like the Taking it even by Force Does it not indeed look more like a Concern and Endeavour all they can to Shun and Escape it Is this the seeking Glory Honour and Immortality by Patient Continuance in well-doing and the Fervency of Spirit in serving the Lord Can such Truants and Triflers in the Worship of God ever think this is the Way to come to him and to Live for ever with him Can they look to be regarded in the number of his Servants that will not so much as put themselves upon his Service And can they promise themselves all the Ease and Rest of his Kingdom and all the Welcome and Pleasures of his House that would never Labour in his Vineyard nor be at any Pains to do their Heavenly Father's Business Alas What 's all their Confidence worth to Reckon of having All when they will do even Nothing To think sure of getting to the Blessed End when they scarce tread a Step in the Way that leads thither Do they applaud themselves in the Negative Goodness and think it enough that they are not mischievous Plagues to their Neighbours and to say They do no Hurt Not to dispute the Truth of that Assertion which they would be hard put to it to make Good Yet Matth. 25.30 you may hear a dreadful Doom past upon a Man To be cast into outer Darkness where shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Not because he was a Stigmatized notorious Sinner but a Sloathful and Unprofitable Servant It was no part of his Inditement there That he had Murder'd or Robb'd or plaid any Villanous Pranks in the World But that he went and hid his Lord's Talent in the Earth He was Idle and good for nothing at any Holy Duties to Glorify and Serve the Lord. And so his Sloth and Negligence was his Bane and Damnation O Think of this and sadly think of it again all Prayerless-Families that Bury your Parts and Endowments so in the Earth that they are all lost to Heaven And when the God that Gave them should have the Use of them they are out of the way and no such thing to be heard of If you do not do a little more and better than you have done it 's doubt you will hear of another Greeting from the Lord than Well done Good and Faithful Servant 4. Worldliness is the common Cause of this Neglect and the utter Ruin of the Family-Religion Where Mammon is the Mistress God shall not be Owned and Attended as the Master of the House No by that time She is served his Part is gone This is his great Rival that stands in Competition with him for our Hearts and Service And how frequently is the Usurper aforehand with the Blessed Owner And comes and gathers up all the Rents and Dues And then at his Demand nothing's to be had all dispos'd of another way and goâ—le pâ—st the true Proprietor's Retrieving And then though he stretch forth his Hand all day long there 's nothing but Rebelling and and Gain-saying Either downright denying We will not have Him'â—â— Reign over us Or a Fraudulent Put-off When I have a convenient Season I will send for thee We are too Busy now it cannot be And to Morrow shall be as this Day and so the next and the next And this Injurious Invader seldom le ts go the Hold but rather strengthens the Interest by long Possession And no Wedging in Religion here among a Family of Worldlings They are still so Full the Vessel will contain no more They cannot hold their Hands and throw by the Rumble never so little And if any Office of Divine Worship is ever stirring among them they are Patients all the while as under the Ghirurgions Hands they bear it as a heavy Interruption to their more beloved Concerns and long to have it as soon as possible out of the way that they may get into their Element again And what is not quite turned out yet shall be so Run up in the Nurrows that it Dwindles all away into an Empty Formality And no body Gares for it No body gets any Good by it And alas How can the Wings mount up that are so loaded with thick Clay And when is it like to be better with them Though sometimes they may talk of Lessening the Business to Retrench the Encroachment yet how commonly is it but Talk For the Love of Riches is still a Temptation rather to Engulf and Overload themselves with more to lay further Snares for their Souls as if they were not Fast enough in already And then they are Snappish and Cross to be taken off What would you have us Beggars or turn our Houses into Monastries Indeed we would have you to be God's Beggars and to think yourselves more concern'd to lie waiting for his Favour than to Court the Smiles of the World and with such a wise and holy Care to Divide and Order your Time as to make Room still for God's Worship even without your Hindrance for the World Or where you must Pinch upon the one or the other Let it not be on God's Part. But be sure to have him first served and the World only us'd under Him and never to steal away the Service from him Nay we would not have you render your Condition worse than it is not to deprive yourselves of the Happy Benefits that you might have nor thus to Dispute yourselves out of the highest Privilege in the World As to cry you Serve God in your Ordinary Calling and that may suffice for you And let such Discharge the other Services here pleaded for that have fitter Opportunities for them And you shall not Envy them the Preferment I grant that you Serve God as well as yourselves and the Publick one way by serving your Generation in faithfully and usefully Discharging your several Places And let them be never so Mean and Servile you shall be as acceptable to God in them as if you were in the most Honourable Posts and the Highest Stations But yet sure you would not think that thâ—se poor Hindes which are