remove do it the sooner the better Let not meer secular advantages keep thee there It is better being out of the warm Sun than out of Gods blessing And you that are fixed as a Wife Child an Apprentice count the want of Family-duty as your Affliction and groan under it as such and in your private addresses beg down if possible Mercy and Grace upon them Pray heartily for them who will neither pray for you nor for themselves the godly Wife for the ungodly Husband the gracious Child for the profane Parent and the Religious Servant for the Wicked Master or Mistress yea wrestle mightily in Prayer for them and with Iacob weep as well as make supplication and be sure to live up to the Laws of the Relations you stand in filling up your days with the duties of your places that though they will not practise Godliness they may see the power of it in its influences upon you If the Wife be peaceable and quiet loyal and loving respecting and reverencing her Husband the Children very dutiful and obedient the servants submissive diligent and faithful every one walking in the fear of God giving no cause of quarrelling with you or blaspheming Religion for your sakes In a word let your whole conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ. You see I have spent a great deal of time and taken no small pains in studying preaching and writing out all this discourse Oh! that it may not be in vain but all the better that have heard or shall read it to that end the good Lord accompany it with his Spirit and blessing bring you to this work keep you at it and help you so to manage your selves and families that after a Life of Prayer on Earth you may be taken up to a Life of Praise in Heaven where all your Wants shall be supplied all your Prayers answered and all your hopes accomplished then you will see the Word was your best rule the Ministers of Christ your real Friends and Religion your grand Interest when fury shall be poured out upon them that know not God and Hell shall receive the Families that call not upon his Name where there shall be no end of their torment and pain nor of their roaring cursing and blaspheming of that holy and righteous but terrible God whom they would not be persuaded to love seek and serve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A POSTCRIPT HAVING said so much as I have done in this Book to the graver sort of Persons your Parents and Governours dear young ones and that not only for their sakes but yours also I have judged it fit to accompany that advice and counsel to them with a few words to you because you likewise are very nearly and greatly concerned and all means possible are to be made use of for the preventing your present miscarriage and eternal ruine You are now in the Morning of your Age and prime of your strength you have set forth and entred upon that Journey which will certainly bring you to your last home where you must take up your everlasting abode from whence there can be no remove and that will be either Heaven or Hell the Glorious Mansions above or the Bottomless Pit below where it is absolutely necessary for you to take heed to your ways and ponder all your goings to set out right at first and then to go straight on without turning either to the right hand or to the left otherwise you will be lost for if the way be not good the end cannot be peace as for such as turn aside unto their croâ—ked Paths the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity Psal. 125.5 It is too evident that multitudes of young ones through corrupt inclination and bad conduct have gone out of the way of life betimes and could never find it afterward Having made an early choice of Sin they grew harden'd in it and there being a judicial Tradition of them to the power thereof they went on to commit it with greediness living and dying its Votaries and Vassals and is it not sad to consider may it not well be matter of bitter lamentation that such Excellent Noble Creatures should be spoiled such precious immortal Souls should be irrecoverably lost that such sweet and lovely Blossoms should be utterly blasted that they who once were the hope of their Parents and might have been the Ornaments and Blessings of their Country should prove burthens and curses to them both God forbid that any of you should be so too for we have too many such already Therefore I pray God that you may and desire that you would be serious betimes get alone sit down and consider what you are where you are whether you are going what is for your interest and what against it labour to know and knowing mind those things which belong unto your peace youth will not always last nor the pleasures of it which you do now count so very sweet and delicious and run such desperate ventures for the enjoyment of A Sickness may quickly be sent of God and cover your faces with a dismal paleness pick the Marrow out of your Bones suck all the Milk out of your Breasts and convert all your strength into weakness faintness and tremblings your smiles may be turned into frowns your mirth into mourning your laughter into heaviness and your songs into sighs groans and shrieks Your own Consciences may arm against you as your enemy and God may so appear as to be your terrour and you may be then made to possess the iniquities of your youth when all the honey is spent and nothing but the sting left the pleasure is over and only the guilt remains whereby you are bound over to the suffering of the judgment written If you be not wise in this condition you may live and die and then you will see cause to wish you had never been born O! be you I beseech you be ye your own friends provide for your own peace and welfare and instead of working out your Damnation with joy jollity and self-pleasing chuse to work out your Salvation with fear and trembling since all the pleasures of Sin are but for a season do you seek out for and make sure of those which are at Gods right hand for evermore and since this life will be but short when drawn out to its greatest length do you lay hold upon that which is quite out of the reach of death that life which came from God and will be perfected in him And know how great a number soever the Prodigals and Profligate Youths of the present Age do amount to yet if you will be serious and truly religious you will not be alone there have been many choice and excellent Persons that went before you the Names of some together with their Character you meet with in the Sacred Records an Isaac who loved Meditation a Iacob that was set for the blessing and by a Vow bound
no gap to be found in it which an Enemy could enter in at till God afterward for wise and holy ends gave leave This must of necessity be a good Hedge because it was of God's own making thou hast set it and it also was a large Hedge fetching a great compass for it took in all it was about him his person thou hast set it about him about his Soul and his Body about his Graces and his inward Comforts his Life and Health and Strength and about his House the Habitation it self and all within Doors Wife and Children and Servants and all his Goods yea and about all that he had though at never so great a distance from home his Fields and his Cattel his Grass and Hay and Corn his great things and his little things too his Camels and Oxen yea and his Asses and Sheep and Lambs all that he had and the Scripture adds it was on every side He could look no way but he might see Salvation so that neither Devil could come at him nor any other Enemy without Divine permission Indeed afterward as that Chapter tells us when the Devil that inveterate and implacable Enemy falsly accus'd and charg'd that good Man telling God that he had all along been no better than a Mercenary and that a change of Providence would make a change in him if Providence did but frown upon him he would quickly fall a Cursing of God a very touch would turn him God did for the glory of his own Grace and the vindication of his Servants honour give the Devil leave to try what he could do by himself and his Instruments at the same instant resolving to allay the bitterness of the Cup to support him under the burden and at last to bring him off with honour and without loss or any cause of complaint which was at last done for Iob 42.12 God blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning yet he then had a Blessing and that a great one there was not only protection but likewise a benediction for Satan could not but acknowledge that God had blessed the work of Job 's hands and that he experienced the power of that blessing and reap'd the fruit of it for his substance was increased in the Land by all which you may plainly see that the Father of Lies though his design was to bespatter Iob did yet speak truth when he said Job did not serve God for nought and as he did not so no body else ever did nor ever shall God is too good and gracious to suffer that such a reproach shall never cleave to his glorious Majesty The other Instance which I told you I would bring for the proving of this that Family-worshipping of God may be a singular means to keep off present Judgments is a tremendous and very remarkable Providence which while I was studying upon this Subject I happily met with in Polanus his Syntagma liber 5. cap. 22. de terrae motu And it is this In the Year of our Lord 1584. there was an Earthquake in Switzerland in the Territory of Bern in which one Hill being removed out of its place and violently carried and dasht against another did overwhelm and bury an whole Village that consisted of fourscore and ten Houses not any of them being spared and escaping save only the part of one House in which the Master of the Family with his Wife and Children were together at that very time upon their bended Knees praying and seeking of God IV. Setting up the Worship of God in Families is the way to promote your own Interest in them for God hath made a most sweet and gracious connexion of his own glory and Mens good so that in seeking the former they find the latter in keeping God's Commandments there is great reward upon seeking first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness other things shall be added cast in as an overplus Folly Sin makes Men and Women cheap and contemptible Godliness puts a Beauty upon them makes their Faces shine and renders them amiable considerable truly great in the Eyes of those that know them But it may be some of you do think your selves not at all concerned here and that you need not take any care nor bestow any thoughts upon this for your Interest is great and safe enough and you can well enough secure and maintain it with the greatest ease are not you the Master and the Mistress and have not you the Purse and the whole power in your hands And are not all under your Roof under you so that if any of them will not know their places nor keep their distance If they will not be observant of your orders obedient to your commands nor carry towards you with a due respect you can make them smart for it by pinching them in their comforts making them feel the weight of your hand and if that will not do by turning them out of Doors Let them affront or slight you if they dare Very well my Friends this is great and you are somebody at least in your own Eyes and it must be granted that all this you may do and being done it may turn to account but all this doth not will not make things so sure nor strengthen your interest so much as you may imagine no no be assured of this that when all is done your having the Power and the Purse in your hands will not befriend you at so great a rate nor so effectually secure to you the love and fear and awe of those with whom you have to do as exemplary Piety a Religious Life and putting the Duties of Godliness in practice I well know some Spirits are very rugged and boisterous not easily drawn and bowed to their Duty all means must be used and all little enough but this is certain it is no prudence when others are applied to omit the best The Smith would shew much folly in spending his time and tiring himself in beating and knocking of cold Iron when by putting it into the Fire till it be red hot he may form and fashion it as he pleaseth It is a gross Errour in Men proceeding much from Pride and Brutish Passion and plainly discovers their Ignorance to conceive that their huffing and hectoring their ranting and raging at their Children and Servants will procure them such a respect and esteem among them as Holiness will do and Prayer and living in a consciencious discharge of the Duties of their Places and that upon a Threefold Account First It is the way to engage God on your side who hath said He will honour those that honour him Do Men study to exalt God they themselves shall be exalted if his Name be precious to them theirs shall be so to him I will honour them saith God he will do it himself and that by taking them up at last to Heaven and cloathing them there with everlasting glory yea and he will make others honour them too
those good Men whom after a Life of Service God takes away from hence would you know what becomes of them whither it is that they go into what state they are put He tells you Isa. 57.2 They enter into peace they rest in their beds every one walking in his uprightness i. e. every one having walked in his uprightness while he was here they professed Religion and were true to that Profession they owned the Interest of God yea and to their power they served that Interest they have studied uprightness and integrity they have been faithful to God in their Generation and in their several places and when such do come to die they have no reason to be afraid of dying no reason for them to draw back and be unwilling to go say to them it shall be well with them they shall enter into peace into a compleat and perfect peace they shall live in peace and enjoy themselves in peace they were here sometimes fear round about buth henceforth they shall be peace round about and they shall rest in their Beds Poor hearts they had but a little rest while they were here a great many fears and a great deal of care and but a little rest alas it was broken and disturbed by Enemies without and by Sins within Head and Heart were discompos'd and out of order at sometimes there is no soundness in their flesh nor rest in their bones Psal. 38.3 But when once Death hath cast them into their last sleep they shall have placidam quietem a sweet and pleasant rest their Bodies for a time and but for a time in a Bed of Dust for that is not intended for the place of their abode they only Inn there by the way yet it is made easie for them and safe and perfum'd for it is the place where the Lord himself lay but their precious and immortal Souls shall rest for ever in a Bed of Spices in a Bed of Love in the Bosom of Abraham in the Arms of Jesus Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord not only the Martyrs that die for him but all Believers that die in him in the Faith of Christ in obedience to him in a state of Union to him and Communion with him for their works do follow them all their works of Charity and all their works of Piety all the good they have done abroad in the World and all the good they have done at home in their Families none shall be forgotten none dropt nor lost by the way but all shall follow them and in Heaven meet them in great glorious and inconceivable Rewards so that the Lord Jesus shall be both glorified in them and admired by them VIII You having made it your work and business to serve and worship God in and with your Families and brought them cheerfully to join with you therein you may leave them with the far greater hope and by consequence with the greater comfort And while they are mourning and sighing and weeping because they must now part with you yet you may be glad and rejoice because hereafter you shall meet with them in a better place and state and here again take into your Consideration these few things First That all these things must be dissolved You now see it is so as to many of these things and believe it will be so as to all the rest Death doth travel up and down and mows people down apace and will pursue his bloody work till he had snapt asunder the nearest and dearest Relations broken up all Houses and put an end to Families It would not by wise persons be counted incongruous at a Marriage-feast to have a Death's-head set upon the Board nor to dash your sweetest Contentments and Delights with dying Thoughts think my Friend often think that Husbands and Wives must part the Conjugal Knot shall be loosed Parents and Children must part sooner or later but how soon none of us do know the great God in whose Hand our Times are that lock'd that up among his Treasures and no Man hath a Key to let him into the knowledge of it the certainty of the thing doth engage us to diligence and our ignorance of the time is a strong Argument for our doubling of that diligence Secondly That will be a very sad parting which will be in despair As they must needs mourn bitterly who mourn without hope so they must needs die dismally who die without hope and what can be thought more likely than that such will be the death of those who in the days of their Health and Prosperity have forgotten God and liv'd without him in the World who have made it their work to sin together and to dishonour God together and profane his Name and abuse his good Creatures together If these believe there is a God and a Resurrection and a Judgment to come in which all Persons shall receive according to what they have done in the Body whether it be good or whether it be evil they may have such thoughts as these forcibly breaking in upon them I and my Family after we have lain a while and slept in the Dust shall rise again and we shall meet again but where Oh where shall we meet We shall meet at the Judgment Seat of Christ there to hear that Condemning Sentence pronounced upon us Go ye cursed we shall meet in Hell where we must make our Eternal abode we shall meet in Torments which will be both intolerable and eternal that so as we have sinned together we may smart together and burn together in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and that which will render these thoughts more grievous and painful to them may be this that their Children and Servants coming thither will be the aggravation of their own misery since they were so much the cause of it which as some think was the great nay only reason why the rich Glutton of whom you read in Luke 16. being in Hell was so unwilling that his Five Brethren should come into that place of Torments it was not out of good nature and love to them for there is no such thing in Hell it was not out of a desire to prevent their misery but the aggravating of his won he having contributed so much to their ruin and destruction by his vile and wicked Example But then Thirdly Those of you who can at a dying hour look upon your Relations as having walked with you in the ways of God likely to follow you into a blessed Eternity may leave them with joy All of you that have made God your choice and his glory your end that have made Religion your principal business and Family-duty your work and been constant in the dispatch of it you may part with comfort and leave one another with joy though there will be a shower Bowels will yearn and Love will melt the Heart and make it drop Tears yet there need be no storm within you that are
Righteousness do decay and wear off Now if the Nurseries be not minded if the young Plants there be not carefully and duely tended what will become of the Orchard and Vineyard in a little while From hence we may not without good reason conclude that private Family-care is necessary for the promoting of publick and common good Therefore I beseech you to look to your Nurseries take care of your Families Seventhly I would ask not only those that are truly gracious but likewise them that are sober and serious are you not ashamed of and troubled at those crying Abominations that are among us Can Forreigners that come hither and understand what is pure Religion and undefiled before God even the Father and do observe the Miscarriages of Men I say can they look upon this as Immanuel's Land when they see it so over-run with Weeds Briars and Thorns can they think it to be the Garden of the Lord or rather some of the Wilderness of the World some of the Devils waste might not Heathens and Pagans say they are become like some of us yea and worse than many of us The good Lord look upon us in mercy and doth it not affect and afflict you that it is thus after all the Gospel-Light that hath shined among us and after all the means that God hath used for our Resormation in a mixt way of Mercy and Judgement of Kindness and Severity I do very well know there are almost every where great complaints of Prophaneness and Debauchery and truly those complaints are not without great cause for Sin gross Wickedness doth abound in all places both in City and Country if the Court be free I shall rejoyce there are bad reports of Camp and Fleet Wickedness hoth broken in like a flood as if it would deluge us and prevail against all Piety yea and against all Morality too filling all places with Atheism and Brutishness and without doubt Men in High Places did draw up the Flood-gates for the furthering an Antichristian design Popery and Prophaneness are near a kin let men have a liberty to do what they will i. e. to commit all uncleanness with greediness and an hundred to one they will be content that those who are uppermost should chuse their Religion for them yea and also inferiour Magistrates and under Officers have pav'd its way Blessed be they of the Lord who have offered themselves willingly to give a check and stop to it and blessed be those Magistrates who encourage and assist them therein and Oh! that the work may prosper in their hands but in the mean time have not you private Men had an hand in it You do cry out against Publick Houses Taverns and Alehouses and as I hear so I believe not without much cause though some of them are in good hands and care is taken that good Orders be observed in them yet certainly the wickedness of others yea of many others is exceeding great they are the Devil's ground in which he sets his Nets and lays his Snares for the catching of his unwary Prey they are the Devils School in which Men follow his Trade and by both together young ones are taught it there it is that modesty is put off and sober Principles pluck'd up by the Roots and they learn the Mysteries of iniquity and commence Masters of that Black Art But you who do complain of these Publick-Houses look home lay your hands upon your hearts and ask your own Consciences what you have done and what you have left undone Is there not the neglect of God and the duties of Godliness in your houses there is no Drunkenness nor Whoredom no Cursing and Swearing that you do allow that is well but withall there is no Praying nor Reading the Scripture nothing of the Service and Worship of God there and by that means you do not as you ought Principle your young ones against the Vices of the Times and so you leave them too naked and open to the assaults of Temptation This I would have imprest upon your thoughts that the making of good Families is the way to make a good City and a good Kingdom Let every one make it his business to set up Religion at home and then we shall all be sure to find it when we go abroad If all our Families were good we should have good Princes and good Parliaments good Magistrates and good Ministers and good People good Husbands Wives and Children good Friends and Neighbours it would indeed be Aurea Aetas a Golden Age. Eighthly and lastly The consciencious performance of Religious duties in Families is an excellent means for the rendering of Publick Ordinances more successful I am persuaded there would much more good come of that precious Seed which the faithful Ministers of Christ scatter in their several Congregations were Masters and Mistresses of Families careful before they come to prepare the Soil for the Seed and after it is sown careful to cover it with Prayer and to water it with suitable discourses and exhortations Thorough the Divine Goodness and Bounty there is in this City and near it a great deal of excellent Preaching Confident I am no Place in the World can shew such plenty Heavenly Manna doth abundantly fall about our Tents Whatsoever there is of a scarcity as to Bread for the Body there is no Famine here oh that in every poor Countrey there were none neither of hearing the Word of the Lord. We have it upon the Lord's day and the week days too every day in the week one where or other within your reach blessed be God for it the joyful sound is continually in our Ears It would be a thousand pities that such admirable plenty of a thing so precious as the Everlasting Gospel should do any hurt and that any should wax wanton and instead of the Bread of Life be hankering after Mushrooms and Kickshaws or that they should grow nice and curious not relishing plain Truths and the Simplicity of the Gospel unless it be dress'd and sauc'd to their humour and serv'd up to them in words which Man's Wisdom teacheth Though I fear we have among us too many of that mind mark how they live and what becomes of them but be that how it will it must be granted that this place where God hath cast our Lines is a Goshen a Valley of Vision and a great many People are much very much for hearing of Sermons they run up and down to Lectures and some of them will hear four Sermons and much good may they do them It is a great encouragement to the Servants of God and a ground of hope that they shall catch some of them for their Master He hath made them Fishers of Men and the Fisher-men love to cast their Net where there is a great Shoal But I would say to these who do so much frequent Sermons two things First By way of Advice Look to your whole Duty and labour to stand compleat in all the
tender Babes so that they will be quiet and give you no disturbance in the work that so you may First Present your selves before the Lord offering and dedicating them to him Secondly Enter them early and from the Cradle in his Service Thirdly Beg a Blessing from God upon them though they cannot beg one for themselves If you will consult the Scriptures you will find that God's ancient People the Iews did bring sometimes their Children with them to the great Congregations Take two instances of it one of them you have in Deut. 29.10 11. All Israel did appear before the Lord when Moses made a Covenant with them in the Land of Moab Now read what Moses there said to them Ye stand all of you this day before the Lord your God your Captains of your Tribes your Elders and your Officers with all the men of Israel your little ones your Wives and thy stranger that is in thy Camp from the hewer of thy Wood unto the drawer of thy Water Not only the Males but the Females not only the great and honourable Men but the meanest not only the Fathers but the Children not only those that were grown up but the little ones were brought before the Lord to enter into Covenant with him and into the Oath which the Lord their God made with them that day So when in Ezra 9. the Princes came to that holy Man and told him the people of Israel and the Priests and the Levites had not separated themselves from the people of the Lands but taken their Daughters for themselves and for their Sons also so that the holy Seed had mingled themselves with the people of the Lands the good Man upon the hearing thereof rent his Garment and his Mantle and pluck'd off the Hair of his Head and of his Beard and sate down astonied at the Evening Sacrifice he fell upon his Knees and spread out his Hands unto the Lord his God blushing and professing himself ashamed to lift up his Face to God because of that great trespass which had been committed by the people though he himself was not guilty of it Now consult Ezra 10.1 and you find there when he had prayed and when he had confessed weeping and casting himself down before the House of God there assembled unto him a very great Congregation of men and women and children for the people wept very sore The poor Children were brought as Persons concern'd as those who were obnoxious to the stroke of Justice and might perish in a common Calamity brought upon that sinning and God-provoking People So that it was no childish thing in them to bring their Children with them to such serious and solemn work there was much in it as might easily be shewn Now let these Examples prevail so far with you as to bring your Children with you to your Family-duties there present them before the Lord for though they can do nothing to the duty yet you cannot tell what God may do upon and in them he hath a way to their Hearts and can do that good work in them which neither they nor you do know now but both they and you may know it afterward Therefore though they cannot pray themselves though they cannot understand what you say in your Prayers yet let them be present at them there they are under the Eye of God and he may bestow upon them a look of love they are in the way of mercy and it may give them a visit the Prayers you cause to ascend may gather into a Cloud over you and when that pours down a shower of Blessings some drops may fall upon your little ones And since you should bring your little ones to Prayer it is plain that you ought to call those to it that are elder and grown up and have attained to the use and exercise of their Reason your Sons and your Daughters your Man-servants and your Maid-servants invite them to come in call them exhort them shew the goodness of it the excellency and necessity of it perswade them draw them with the Cords of a Man if they or any of them be careless refractory obstinate command them to come in compel them to come in use that power and authority with which God hath invested you Do not suffer any of them to absent themselves from one Prayer without just cause Let them not eat of your Bread nor live under your Roof who will not join with you in the service of your God You have in this Discourse heard and now read much concerning the noble and gracious Resolution taken up by that great and excellent Person Ioshua in the Text As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. I will do it and they shall I and all mine my House my whole House every Individual Person in it Let none serve you that will not serve your God as well as you For mine own part I never was a Friend to Impositions and I think and hope never shall be Not for Mens adding their Inventions to Divine Institutions and then requiring all to submit and comply with them Let themselves use them yea and all those that like them only may they grant liberty to such as are otherwise minded and count that worship best most pleasing most profitable and most glorious which is of God's own appointment But I am for requiring what God hath required it is the duty of Magistrates in Nations and of Governours in Houses to see that Gods Laws be observ'd and obey'd and therefore be you very careful in that respect and strictly command all under you to be constantly present If any of them will not let them know your displeasure and that you will not endure it whether they refuse to join with you out of a Spirit of Errour with which too many at this day are acted or out of a Spirit of Profaneness it is all one for that if they will not with you seek and serve the Lord let them not continue in your House nor tarry in your sight they are no other than Plagues in your Families and may spread the Infection others are in danger from them They are rotten Members cure them or cut them off bring all to Prayer III. Be sure to make Family-prayer the work of every day God loves your Company therefore be not strangers to him He never thinks you come to him too often why then should you go but seldom Do not content your selves with praying only upon the Lord's-day and bringing all your service of God within the compass of a Sabbath as if the other six days were so your own and for your own work that you must spare none of them for God This indeed as I have been informed is the manner of some among us upon a Lord's-day they will call their Families together and then they will do something for God but they must give me leave to think what they do then is pitifully shamefully done they are so seldom
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
Petition for the gracious supply of those wants and prevention of those dangers from all these things you may gather together a great deal of fit matter for Prayer only still beg of God that he would by his Spirit assist influence and enable you to make a right use of it IV. I dare assure thee that if thou wilt sincerely and in good earnest set thy self about the work God will not be wanting to thee do thou in obedience go out to thy duty and he will graciously come in to thy assistance our endeavours indeed and utmost activity lay no obligation upon him but his own grace and goodness do induce and move him David said Psalm 138.3 In the day when I cried thou answer'dst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my Soul Do thou O poor Soul take encouragement from thence direct thy Prayer to God and look up in the day that thou criest unto God he may answer thee too and afford thee that which at present thou labourest and groanest under the want of and as he strengthned David with strength in his Soul so he may bestow upon thee a competency of gifts and the assistance of his Holy Spirit God doth now by me call you out to the performance of this Duty Family Prayer but you complain of an unfitness for it and not without cause well remember God did once immediately call Moses out to a great work publick work to go and speak to Pharaoh and in the name of God to command him to let Israel go he was very unwilling to comply but as thou complainest of inability so did he thou thinkest thy self unfit to be the Families mouth to God Moses thought himself unfit to be Gods mouth to Pharaoh Exod. 4.10 O my Lord I am not Eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy Servant but I am slow of Speech and of a slow Tongue far from being fit to be sent upon God's Errand to so Great and Proud a Prince but mark what God answered him ver 11. Who hath made Mans mouth or who hath made the dumb or deaf or seeing or the blind have not I the Lord therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say I that made the mouth can mend it I made the Instrument and can tune it I can supply the defects and cure the infirmities of it if it be a flow tongue I can quicken it I can put to it eloquence and nimbleness Bring this now to the case in hand it is thy duty to pray in and with thy Family thou art now loudly call'd to it the great God calls thee to it by me and I do not in the least question but if thou hast any sense of a Deity thine own Conscience hath called thee to it many and many a time before now and I pray thee to bethink thy self did no body else did thy Wife never desire it of thee did thy Child never beg it of thee did none of thy Friends who lov'd thee put thee upon it and hast thou not done it yet how inexorable art thou how hard thy heart What! so loath to come to thy duty yea to that which is thy priviledge as well as thy duty this is quite contrary to the Wisdom which is from above which is easie to be intreated take shame to thy self and mend now go home and in good earnest fall to the work and I dare say God will be with thy heart yea and with thy mouth too V. Practice will be accompanied with improvement use doth greatly facilitate things How aukwardly doth a Child move the feet when it first begins to goe who can observe it without a smile but yet in a little time it hath got the knack of it and can move them regularly nimbly and with strength and knows how to walk and run as well as others There are indeed difficulties in Duty but to the sincere Soul the difficulties wear off and the duty will grow easier and easier the way of the Lord being strength to the upright so that therein they go from strength to strength After that upon the Commandment of God Moses had once gone in to Pharaoh and spoken we do not read of his complaining any more no not though God told him that he would harden Pharaoh's heart yet as often as God ordered him he went not desisting till Pharaoh commanded him to see his face no more Therefore begin Man begin and see what will come of it fall to work you will find that your labour is not in vain The Scripture saith ye shall know if ye follow on to know the Lord and I may say ye shall pray better and better if ye will but follow on to pray by means hereof you will attain to a greater knowledge of God and more intimate acquaintance with him and your own hearts and you will find inward increases and growth in grace and a changing of you into his Image from glory to glory and that will help toward the production of a more holy boldness toward God and a greater Parrhesia liberty or freedom of Speech and your hearts will be more inlarged as Sin grows by acting it so doth grace yea and gifts too Trading tends to thriving to him that hath shall be given i. e. to him that useth what he hath as he should the consciencious performance of duty is the way to bring down from God a blessing upon your parts I will add but one thing more VI. Supposing thou shouldest never be able to do thy work so well as many of thy fellow Servants can yet do not lay it aside but do it as well as thou canst The Apostle Paul speaks of diversities of gifts and diversities of administrations and diversities of operations 1 Cor. 12. So there is a diversity of degrees in Gods conferring those gifts upon Men good and faithful Servants are not made equal as we read in the Lords intrusting them with Talents one had five another had but two yet both faithful and industrious the wicked and sloathful Servant had only one yet he should have traded with it though he had but little to do he ought to have been doing So it is here God is pleased to give large parts to some so that they have a quick and fertile invention and an answerable elocution they can speak their minds freely and cloath their conceptions with apt yea curious expressions so as to charm the ears and delight the hearts of those that joyn with them but thou art poor and barren â—at a great loss both for matter and words be humble upon this account and little in thine own eyes but not altogether discouraged but fall to thy work Man Trade with thine one Talent What though thou dost not Pray so as to raise the admiration and gain the applause of them that hear thee is it not very well if thou canst so pray as to find acceptance with God what though
the Morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered 4. Ionah 6 7. He joyed too much and his enjoyment was short over-loving a Child is over laying it It is as killing it with kindness Or Secondly If that Child hath been continued to them it hath been in wrath They have the life of it but they want the comfort of it for it hath proved naught and vicious and so been a Thorn in their side an Heart-break to them They had better while it was Young have followed it to the Grave than see it now notoriously wicked an Enemy to God and all goodness disobedient to them and galloping to Hell with full speed as if it thought it could not get thither soon enough Therefore upon all these accounts the advice which I give unto Parents is this observe the spirits and carriages of your Children and also of your Servants which of them do most fear God and respect you which of them are most tractable and diligent and let them have most love and respect who do deserve it best bestow your greatest cost upon that Soil which makes the best returns by this means they will have no just cause of quarreling you By this you will prevent envy discontent and breaches among them and also promote Piety and Goodness in your Families by stirring up in them all an excellent sweet and Friendly Emulation So that there shall be a striving together without wrath and bitterness how they may excel in Godliness and Virtue and in all those things which you require of them and which will render them acceptable and pleasant unto you this will sweeten and commend obedience to them it will encrease and add to their endeavours it will be as a Golden Spur to quicken their pace in the way that they should go Now for a Coronis or conclusion of this my Discourse upon this great and specially at this day necessary Subject of Family Duties I shall add some Miscellany Counsels and make a kind of Medley inviting whoever will to come and take and apply those of them to themselves which they shall judge most proper and pertinent to their case and the God of Heaven bless them to them First Look diligently lest any fail or fall short of the grace of God 12 Hebrews 15. You see there it is the Apostle's Advice it will be your wisdom to take and follow it see that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you else you are none of his and that you have been made partakers of his renewing sanctifying Influences without the Spirit of God you will never be fit for the Work of God Without Christ's breathing upon his Apostles and their receiving from him the Holy Ghost they could never have done the work of an Apostle so without Christs breathing upon you and your receiving his Spirit you will never rightly perform the work of a Christian. where there is not the Spirit of Grace there is not the Spirit of Supplication Nor will a person void of the Spirit and Grace be welcom to God nor his Service pleasing Such an one indeed may peform the External Duties of Reliligion and set up the Worship of God in his Family and it is no more than what he owes to God and to himself and to his House yet that which he doth will not be accepted if the man be bad what he doth cannot be good but is quite spoil'd by his doing it The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Though the Sacrifice for the matter of it be rich and costly yet God's soul loaths and abhors it because a wicked man brings it The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering 4 Gen. 4. first to the person and then to the thing Besides unless you have the Spirit and Grace you will not be constant in Duty a small matter shall take you off and stop you in your course the question is Will the hypocrite pray always will he always call upon God The Answer is easy and ready no he will not and the Reason is plain because there is not a spring to feed the stream not an inward principle to keep on the motion God complain'd of old That the people drew nigh unto him with their lips but their hearts were far from him Mark though there were appearances before God yet their hearts and God did never meet together in the Duty and therefore the day will most certainly come when there will be a parting between such people and their duties they never cordially and throughly agreed with God himself never came to a full closure with his terms never lov'd him for his holiness nor rejoyced at the remembrance of it and therefore for something or other they will fall out with his Works and Ways Consider my dearly beloved and again consider what the Scripture saith It is a good thing that the Heart be establisht with Grace Heb. 13.9 both with the Doctrine of Grace and with an internal Principle of Grace for the one will not do without the other nothing short of Grace can strengthen stablish and settle the Heart till Grace be infused into the Soul and becomes a new nature in it till it comes to be commander in chief the Heart of man will be fluttering and unstable off and on playing fast and loose with God it will look toward the holy Temple and take some steps in the Way of God and that with seeming life and vigour as much zeal for the Lord of Hosts as Iehu pretended to have but being only a preternatural heat it cools again and the man jades and tires But when once Grace comes in truth and with Power it fixeth the Soul and as when the Rulers of the People and Elders of Israel commanded the Apostles not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Iesus Peter and Iohn answered them thus we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.20 so when there is an holy frame wrought in any they cannot but wait upon God converse and walk with God they cannot but Read and Hear and Pray they cannot live a spiritual life without these spiritual breathings more than another life without natural breathing an holy fear will powerfully drive them to their duty a filial love will sweetly draw them to it and Faith will mightily encourage them in it while they do really and firmly believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him they cannot but be a seeking People while they do believe that let them be stedfast and immoveable and never so much abounding in the Work of the Lord their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord they cannot but be an industrious and diligent People and while they do believe that in the keeping of Gods Commandments there is great reward besides all that which shall be hereafter they will delight themselves greatly in them and it will be their