speak honourably of it It 's a great work saith he for it is not for man but for the Lord God such is the work of the Ministry it is to bear the name of God before the children of men and by sowing the seed of the Word to be instruments of bringing forth those fruits of righteousness that are for the glory of God Luk. 8. 15. Phil. 1. 11. Col. 1. 6. Thus is God the Alpha and Omega of the Ministers Office 2. By the subject matter of it for the work of a Minister of the Gospel is to preach the high hidden and manifold wisdom of God and that among those that are perfect who alone can receive are capable of such heavenly mysteries It is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ In sum It is to preach Christ that mens eyes may see that King in his beauty This is Angels work Luk. 2. 10 11 14. yea Angels wonder and sweetest study Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. 3. By the object of it as to men and that is their everlasting salvation 1 Tim. 4. 16. Obad. v. 21. How did men honour in the Old Testament their temporary Saviours How have men still honoured Physitians and bodily Saviours Hence Paul was honoured with many honours Act. 28. 10. If they be thus esteemed out of the principles of nature that save mens lives how much more should they be reckoned of out of the principles of grace that are Instruments to save mens souls unto which soul-salvation bodily cures do but hold the Candle to shew in a small degree how great it is as we see our Saviours own bodily healings which were but obscure expressions to mens sense of his soul-healing vertue Mat. 8. 17. Thirdly It 's their work that is besides the work and worth thereof they are called to it If others uncalled to that Office do the work the honor is not due it appertaineth not to them any more then the work doth Who commends a busie body in other mens matters But if they be duly called and the Word of Reconciliation be committed unto them as the Lords Ambassadours then they are to be highly esteemed both because of the work and the right they have to administer it All this is cold comfort for such as are call'd to the Ministry and yet are careless of doing their Office for the worth is joyned to the work and the doing of the work insomuch that Idol-shepheards fall under the most heavy and dishonorable judgements And unsavoury Salt is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghil when it hath once lost its savour it is thence-forth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot So great is the infamy of Ministers that are the Salt of the Earth when they are quite destitute of Ministerial vertue Mat. 5. 13. Luk. 14. 35. Yet let all take heed of contemning the Office because of the person say not if you see some or many bad These be your Ministers But so manage the dis-estimation of ill-deserving Ministers as alwayes to preserve the estimation of the ever-honourable Ministry Having thus opened the Text I shall shut up all with an earnest Exhortation to Christians to make conscience of performing the duty which it doth so manifestly and fully mind them of In this Exhortation because our desire is not to have an estimation forced but flowing from light and love I shall therefore speak in the Apostles language We beseech you Brethren know those that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you Know them 1. As the great gift of Christ who when he ascended up on high gave gifts unto men Amongst the rest he gave some to be Pastors and Teachers to continue to the end of the world Not only the abilities of Ministers are Christs gift to his Church but their Office according to the old Prophesie I will give you Pastors Let none therefor call in question the wisdom or love of Christ as if he knew not what was best for his Church or were loth to give it but prize the gift for the Giver and consider how much they are like to stead you whom he hath left in his stead Christ is the great gift of God and Ministers the great gift of Christ 2. As Ambassadours for Christ in whom God is pleased to treat with you and by them in Christs Name to offer conditions of peace unto you yea God doth as it were beseech you by us to accept of his terms and to be reconciled to himself Unto Ministers is committed the Word of reconciliation that you may enjoy and be happy in the work of reconciliation O How beautiful to a sin-sick-soul that labours under the sad sense of Gods anger are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace 3. As your great comforters in your most grievous afflictions It is the misery of misery that there is no more any Prophet but though the Lord give you the bread of affliction and the water of affliction and your Teachers be not removed into a corner but your eyes behold your Teachers how great cause is there to say Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear Mat. 13. 16. The sight of Christ in the Gospel-Ministry makes believing souls not only desirous to depart out of the world in peace but willing to live in the world in trouble Phil. 1. 24. 4. As your soul-guard and defence against false Teachers who like subtile Foxes deceive first and like grievous Wolves devour after A Minister is an Over-seer that people may not be over-seen and over-reached by Church-cheaters that by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 18. even as of old the Serpent beguiled Eve 2 Cor. 11. 3. 5. As the Charers and Horsemen of Israel as your Life-guard and the best Militia of the Nation who do not only prevail in the behalf of a weak Church over every Amalâ—k and so procure their peace but so wrestle as to prevail with God it is not hainous to say over God Hos 12. 4 in the behalf of a sinful Church and so obtain their pardon How often had Israel been burnt up by the fire of Gods anger had not Moses stood in the gap and the Ministers of the Lordwept and prayed between the Porch and the Altar The last and best refuge is Go to Isaiah Isai 37. 3. 6. As the Angels of the Churches and the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23. Yea the Galatians did not over-do their fault was to give over when they received Paul as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Gal. 4. 14. O how far short do Ministers now come of Paul which makes us tremble to speak of these high things but yet the Gospel-Ministry being for substance
are divers young ones that are not such After all this I shall say and may truly say with the Apostle I write not these things to shame you or as if I thought there were not the like or greater cause of complaint in other places but I write them as to my beloved Sons and Daughters to warn you and to stir up both my self and you that it may be yet better by our making the best use we can of the little and uncertain remainder of time of our being together as Pastor and People I gladly pass from this which is displeasing to me but I thought needful for you to affect you with your estate that you might never rest till you be in a good estate And come now to the third and more comfortable thing which is matter of Praising God whereof there is much and that Not only because I hope and know that the great God without whom Ministers can do nothing are nothing hath been pleas'd to make my Ministry profitable to divers neighbouring Parishes at my first coming hither less provided for but especially for the good effect of it among you of this Congregation The same Lord of the Harvest that hath brought I may say laborious preaching into this place where there was so little so long time before hath blessed it here also so far as that I doubt not divers are gone to Heaven that have enjoyed it and are going thither who now enjoy it Not so many God knows as were to be wished but so many as that it sufficiently appeareth that God had a gracious work to do when he sent his Word hither upon the souls of poor people in this place I shall not here forget that which may confirm what I have said and be a sign of the hearty entertainment of the Gospel which is That you did so generally lovingly and earnestly desire my return unto you after I had been for some longer time absent and when I was much desired otherwhere This new Invitation I took as a second Call and a new encouragement to settle with you and therefore forsaking all other I have kept my self or rather God hath kept me only unto you to spend and be spent for you Here also I do with comfort remember your greater respect to the Lords-day more knowledge of and preparation for the Lords-Supper then is to be found in every place where the Word hath been together with some more reverence of the presence and service of God in the publike Assembly you do not use to over-run the blessing as divers that make it a common but it is a very profane custom to go away before the Blessing be pronounced but abide the whole time of divine Service Jacob said I will not let thee go from me They do well that say and resolve Lord I will not go from thee before thou blesse me But amongst and above divers other things there is great cause of blessing God for your constancy in attending Gods Word and Ordinances in the late Erroneous and Congregation-scattering times wherein so many Christians have lamentably and fearfully faln from the truth and wayes of God from whom I know you have not wanted tentations to depart with them upon the pretence of greater light and more holiness from that written Word of God which they that leave or cross and contemn have no morning-light in them and with a reverend and unfained respect whereunto the greatest godliness and holiness is ever-joyned for it is a doctrine according to godliness that is which requires true godliness and stirs up and brings men thereunto But by such tentations many have departed To that God be glory who is able to keep you and hath kept you from so falling Jude v. 24 25. I have little more to say O that I could take off some of that which I have said that is all former Complaints by seeing that done at last which hath not been done at first I mean by seeing those that have lien in ignorance become at length knowing Christians those that have been wordly minded spiritual Christians those that have been loose and given to drinking sober Christians and those who have been only sober truly godly Christians O that they that are old too like Nicodemus that dreamed of entring into his Mothers womb again might be so far awakened and enlightened as to enter as it were into the womb of the Church and know experimentally what the great mystery of Regeneration means by having Christ through the travail of the Ministery formed in them to the glory of God the sealing of the Ministry and the salvation of their pretious Souls in the day of Jesus Christ unto which they do so much hasten and for which they must prepare now or perish then And to speak yet again O that you that are younger would make conscience of remembring your Creator in the dayes of your youth and make it your business to grow in grace as you grow in years not being ever the elder the lower but the taller Christian It 's a miserable thing when a young man grows in nothing but in height or in hair O how that grows in these dissolute dayes or in strength or in wit without having the wit to grow in the knowledge and fear of God I say this is a miserable and most dangerous thing for young men may die as well as old if the Tower of Siloe fall it kills the youngest on whom it falls as well as the oldest In those lead-mines wherein many of you labour how many younger and stronger men have perished on a sudden Now if they that dye whether they be old or young do not live in Jesus while they live how shall they die in Jesus when they die and then how shall they live with him when they are dead And Is it your mind that the Lord Jesus should be in one place and you when you are dead and may die to morrow in another and that a contrary place He in glory and you in torment and that for evermore Beloved I am perswaded better things of you and pray for better things in you even things that accompany Salvation though because I would have you to hear I thus speak I shall speak but once more and I hope they that hear worst will hear me Are you sure there is an Heaven Do you believe there is an Hell Do you know the Soul is Immortal and never dieth as the Body doth And are you further perswaded that where this never-dying Soul lodgeth and lyeth the first night after your death whether it be in Heaven or in Hell there it and you must lodge for ever I say Do you think all these things to be true Let me then beseech you to shew your selves Christians or to shew your selves Men and live not securely in that loose course walk not stubbornly in that wide way which will certainly bring
wherewith all Saints are fed both Men and Angels for even the Angels desire and stoop low to look into it 1 Pet. 1. 12. and a Table is as it were spread for them in the Church by which the manifold wisdom of God is known unto them Take therefore every day some part of this heavenly Manna this Angels food to support you in the Wilderness of this World till you come to eat it new as our Saviour saith of the Sacrament that is in a new and glorious manner to partake in the life that is held out in it in the heavenly Canaan CHAP. II. Instructions for a profitable Receiving of the Lords Supper I Now come to the second thing that is Plain Instructions for a reverent and profitable receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper It may perhaps seem much to some that I should be so sollicitous about this Ordinance and therefore for their satisfaction and the confirmation of the duty of Sacrament-preparation I shall give account of it in the ensuing reasons First Preparation to the Lords Supper is to be stood upon because it is very needful and suitable to the care of the Church of God in ancient and purer times that they who have not at all as yet received that Sacrament should give an account of their knowledge and faith before they receive it for though a necessary fundamental and more remote right thereunto be presupposed in their Baptism yet because they themselves were then uncapable of making any promise and profession in their own persons therefore their clear full and next right to partake in the Lords Supper ariseth from their declaration with their own mouths of their knowledge of consent unto and true purpose to perform what their Baptism bindeth them unto or was then promised by others in their behalf Without this though I grant it may be in several wayes required and performed how shall their fitness for this Ordinance we speak of be discerned or the Church whereof they are Members and with which they are to communicate be so well satisfied But in this it being learnedly and largely spoken to by others I shall not need to move any further This only I add that for the help of the weaker sort of those of whom I here speak to give a reason of their faith and fitness for the Lord Table I have composed these ensuing Directions Secondly Another reason may be taken from the weight that the Scripture lays on this work of Sacrament-preparation in 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 30. Where may be noted first a precise Precept for Examination Let a man examine and so and not otherwise let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup which shews that a special distinct Preparation is required for that Bread and that Cup that is that distinct Ordinance Secondly This command is charged upon the Conscience by laying before the Unworthy Communicant two heart-affecting and affrighting things 1. On the one side the greatest sin and the most horrible guilt For whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. How high is that Lord How dreadful therefore is that Guilt 2. On the other side there 's the greatest danger and saddest doom For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body that is eternal damnation without repentance and temporal judgement though that be prevented For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Thus is that great Precept of Examination before Sacrament-participation environed as it were on both hands that it may be more effectually guarded against all gain-sayers urged on all Communicants and observed by all Christians to strike into their hearts a reverence of that Ordinance Here I do not deny but there are the same things for substance set before us in regard of the hearing of the Word whilest it is said He that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. and he that heareth and lets it slip shall not escape Heb. 2. 1 2 3. and therefore People had need not only to hear but to take heed how they hear and prepare for it Eccles 5. 1. But yet I do not find that so much is spoken all at once and so fully spoken and so fearfully spoken concerning mis-hearing only as concerning this mis-receiving the reason whereof may be as I humbly conceive because in unworthy partaking of the Lords Supper there is a cumulative abuse or a double in that is not only the Sacrament is abused but that Word of God also is contemned which makes it a Sacrament as also because the Body and Bloud of Christ though offered also in the Word yet are not in such a manner presented as in the Lords Supper as will further appear in the next reason Mean while to close up this Christians may consider that when God is pleas'd to speak more plainly precisely distinctly more fully and dreadfully then he justly expects that what he saith should affect us more and be of more effect with us Read Jer. 25. 30. Amos 3. 6. 8. Deut. 1. 42 43. with Numb 14. 41. to the end Thirdly A serious Preparation proper to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ is the rather urged because the same thing that is Christ with all his benefits is offered unto us in a different way in the Word and Sacrament which makes it a distinct Ordinance and so imposeth a peculiar preparaton for it which I do not at all speak to set one Ordinance of God against another or to lessen the reverence of the Word Preached which is that great Ordinance of God whereby men are converted and saved or to give way to an unprepared coming to the Word which I fear is the fault or many who seem to come with high reverence to the Sacrament but what I say is only to put Christians in mind that every distinct Ordinance of God is to have its due and distinct respect and therefore that there is some other and further good frame of heart to be endeavoured when the Sacrament is to be received then when the Word only is to be heard and that because that I may come to the matter I intend Christ with all his benefits is offered in the Sacrament very particularly or singularly and very plainly and sensibly First There is a peculiar particularity or particular dealing and distribution in Sacrament-administration In preaching we speak generally yet comprehending particular persons but not singling them out whereas in the Sacrament Christ is offered personally that is to particular persons and is put as it were Sacramentally into every ones hand Now when God deals with particular persons hand to hand offering them so great a gift as Christ is there is therefore more reason of reverence and of care that
Son of God with power and so that person in and by whom that which God had promised before in the holy Scripture was fulfilled and that 's it which makes the mercies of David sure mercies We find also a yea rather put upon the Resurrection Christ being thereby a Conquerour and our Justifier Rom. 4. 25. when as if Christ were not risen we were yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15. 17. All this may shew of how great weight the Resurrection is in the work of our Redemption and therefore how worthy it is to have a day set a part for the rememberance of it and therein for the remembrance of the Redemption it self and of our glorious Redeemer And that it was for that reason so set apart the testimony of St. Augustine is clear who thus witnesseth The Lords-day was declared to Christians or declared to be the Christians day by the Resurrection of our Lord and from that time it began to have its Festivity or to be the Christians Festival 2. We find A divine name or denomination The first day of the week being generally agreed upon to be that day which is called the Lords-day Rev. 1. 10. If we would know why it is called the Lords-day the like name given to the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ may inform us It s true it may be said to be the Lords-day because our Lord rose on it and so the Eucharist the Lords Supper because our Lord is remembred in it But besides this As we know the Sacrament to be the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the remembrance of his Passion So we have great cause to think that the first day of the week is called the Lords-day because our Lord appointed and took order to have it set apart for the remembrance of his Resurrection and our Redemption for the Lords-day doth not only imply an acting on it but an owning of it for his use even as the old Sabbath day being said to be the Sabbath day of the Lord Exod. 20. 8 10. was so called because God did appropriate it to himself as the special time of his service And this is the more confirmed because the Service of God was already used among the Christians on that day instead of the Sabbath as all the ancients Doctors witness and is to be gathered besides from Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. in which places we find Christians assembling together and provision made for Collections for the Poor as on the day already known to be consecrated to God for such uses yea it is very probably conceived that since John could not be in his banishment present in body in the publick Congregation he therefore set himself to holy meditations that he might be present with them in spirit and whilest he was thus intent on Soliloquies with God as he was most fit for so he was suddenly taken with that divine rapture wherein those heavenly Revelations that the Scripture records were communicated to him In brief Nothing hath this Title Dominical in Scripture but either Christs day or Supper to shew that is taken alike in both saith a Bishop of great note Now we know that being applyed to the Supper it implies an Institution any why it should not do so also being applyed to the Day we know not 3. We find as hath been touched in that next before a divine Practice and Observation for it was observed as the noted day for Christian Assemblies and Exercises by the Apostolical Churches Act. 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and therefore it was ordained to be so by the Apostles for who else guided those Churches I have given order saith the Apostles for those Collections that were on that day because their meetings were on that day for publike works of Piety and Charity Now If it were ordained by the Apostles then was it ordained by the infallible Spirit of Christ for what else guided the Apostles in their Church-constitutions I add lastly that if the Apostles directed the Churches to this day as being guided by that extraordinary and un-erring Spirit that they had then it was ordained and appointed by Christ himself for of that guiding Spirit it is that our Saviour saith He shall not speak of himself that is not of himself only without the Father and the Son but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak And again He shall receive of mine take of mine and shew it unto you Joh. 16. 13. 14 15. So that Athanasius that excellent light in the Church of God is like to be found as right as resolute in pronouncing roundly and plainly that the Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day For the confirming of which that the translation of the Sabbath from the Jewish day to the first day of the week was by the Lord himself or divine Authority I thus argue The seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation was expresly commanded the people of God in the Old-Testament therefore the people of God in the New-Testament could not desist from the Observation of that day making it a working-day and take up a new day and make it of a working-day a perpetual holy day and that in all the Churches as this day hath been still continued in the Church-Catholick I say this could not be done unless by a new command of like authority either formal or virtual that is either in express words or collected by necessary and convincing arguments and evidences And this appears because every Law bindeth till it be repealed and repealed it cannot be but by an Authority equal to that by which it was first made especially with taking another day into its place and priviledge Who could so change the Sabbath but Christ himself the Lord of the Sabbath Unto this I add for further confirmation of the divine authority of the Christian Sabbath the constant observation of the Lords-day unto this day by the Christian Church which Christian Church if it have not observed a right day that is a day appointed of God for his Sabbath every week then hath it neglected in all this time and stands guilty of not observing the fourth Commandement for that Commandement requireth as hath been proved a weekly day of Gods appointment to the end of the world That which remaineth for the closing up of this necessary part of Christianity is An Exhortation to the reverent Estimation and Observation of the Christian Sabbath From 1. The Necessity 2. The Commedity 3. The Commendation of it 4. The Threats and Judgements of God denounced and executed on profaners of the Sabbath 5. The Promises Priviledges and Blessings assured to the reverent Observers thereof 1. The Necessity of a Sabbath Wherein it might suffice to say that the only wise God who never did any thing whereof there was no need instituted in the beginning of the World and afterwards prescribed in the
vile and vain thoughts when we are alone from idle words when we are in company and from an empty carriage and unprofitable expence of time whether we be alone or in company And since thou hast appointed man to labour and the day to labour in Keep us we pray thee from idleness and neglect of our Callings from infidelity and depending on our labour and industry from discontent if we live hardly by it and from intemperance state-pride covetousness and worldly confidence if we thrive and prosper in it Let all our dealings through thy grace O God that art the God of all grace be just and equal without over-reaching and as there shall be occasion let us be charitable according to our ability without grudging And be pleased to set and keep our hearts in so good a frame that notwithstanding our worldly occasions We may be watchful to do and ready to receive any spiritual good and let our desire be to be in that company that will give occasion of both with the shunning not only of wicked but unprofitable Society Enable us we humbly pray thee to adorn our Profession by providing for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men Let thy fear O God who art great and terrible be upon our hearts and before our eyes all the day long that so we may presume to do nothing which it will or should grieve us to think upon at night Let there be cause rather to bless thee in the Evening as for thy goodness toward us so for some goodness in us and that the day hath not passed without using our Talents so as to bring in some advantage to our great Lord mean-while being here before thee to confess how good thou art every way unto us we would not go out of thy presence without praising thee our most merciful God for ordaining such peace for us as that we may with safety both abide at home and go abroad about all our occasions It is of thy great goodness that we are not forced to go in by-ways for fear of violent men but the high-wayes are freely occupyed and we have cause to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages who now dwell without fear in such undefenced places In special we bless thee our gracious God for that Government whereby we enjoy this peace and liberty humbly beseeching thee to settle still amongst us and ever to preserve over us a religious and righteous and rightful Magistracy for our present tranquillity and felicity And ever to establish amongst us an able and faithful Ministry for the saving of our souls and our everlasting happiness in the day of the Lord Jesus for whom we bless thee in whom we enjoy and joy in thee and to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit we acknowledged to be due and desire from our souls to give all Glory Majesty Dominion and Power now and evermore Amen A Family-Prayer for the Evening O Most holy and most glorious Lord God we poor and polluted creatures acknowledge our selves altogether unworthy to be admitted into thy presence so much as to confess our sins yet since thou art pleased to offer thy self unto us in Jesus Christ under the name of a Father assuring us that If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins we are therefore bold in him to come before thee confessing O Father that whereas at first we were made very good and very like God Now through our own fault and fall every one of us is shapen in Iniquity and in sin did our mother conceive us And besides this corruption of nature enough of it self to condemn us Against Thee Against thee only for there is but one Law-giver have we sinned in the whole course of our lives Justly O Lord mayest thou draw up an heavy charge against us for our sins of omission upon which our Saviour will pass his last Sentence for we cannot but acknowledge that we have left made light of and like leaking vessels let slip many Sermons Our fruits after much seed sowen have been so few that we deserve our stripes should be many unto which this other evil is added that we have often sleighted the Lords Supper either by not caring to receive it or by neglecting to prepare for it We have idled away also or profaned many Sabbaths at least we have gone heavily under the service of that day which we should call a delight And whereas heart-searching is exceeding needful for the well-ordering of our hearts and lives we confess that many examinations of our hearts and wayes for which thou hast hearkened we have neglected yea though this duty of Prayer by our selves and in our Families be so needful so beneficial and such an al-sanctifying service yet for a long time either we have been very careless and mindless of it or else careless and heartless in it But besides all these omissions and neglects of duty we do further confess that we have committed much evil and been guilty of much Rebellion against thy Majesty yielding ordinarily unto Satans temptations who never ceaseth to put fair colours upon the forbidden fruit rushing often into evil company and partaking with them in the unfruitful works of darkness and when we have been alone sadly and securely satisfying the lusts of our evil and distempered hearts especially in the evils more pleasing and sutable to our sinful natures In regard of all which and all other our many and great transgressions we deserve O most just God to be deprived of all thy blessings and to be laden with thy judgements as we have laden thee with our sins But whilest we are displeased with our selves for them and it is in our hearts desire not only to confess them but forsake them and turn to thee from them We beseech thee O Father of Mercies in the Name and for the merits of Jesus Christ to be merciful to us sinners laying every one of our sins for we are not able our selves to bear the least of them upon that Lamb of God on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquity of us all freeing us also of thy free grace from all those evils which are either on us or due unto us for the same And that we may be hereof assured Give us we pray thee that most excellent grace of Faith without which the Word of Promise and of Pardon cannot profit that thereby receiving the forgiveness of our sins our spirits may rejoyce in God our Saviour which since we cannot do but in the Publicans way who said God be merciful to me a sinner that is in a way of repentance therefore do thou O Lord work and if any thing of godly sorrow be already wrought do thou more and more work so
one and the same time is so remarkably heightened 3. If there must be a weekly day of Gods own Institution whether there be any other day of the week that can lay so good a claim to that sacred Institution and that hath such a divine Character put upon it as the first day of the week on which our Saviour rested from all his work and compleated the Redemption of Man-kind in his glorious Resurrection on which our great Lord hath set his own Name and that recorded in Scripture wherein also the holy Observation thereof is presented in Christian meetings and such acts and exercises as suit with the solemn time of Christians assembling themselves together And which is generally confest to be an Apostolical Prescription and so amounts to a divine Institution 4. This day being divinely instituted whether God will not be that day better served and the spiritual profit of Christians better provided for by making it an intire day of Rest holy to the Lord and to spiritual uses or by mixing our work with Gods and Play with Piety Such things as these and more weighty communications of better Writers being seriously considered will I doubt not work on those who desire to walk with God willingly and thankfully to sequester themselves from all other things to enjoy a blessed communion with their Lord every Lords-day and one day in seaven to be as it were in Heaven Thus of the first part of this little Tractate and of the Christian duties therein contained The Second part treateth of Family-duties I begin with Family-Catechising an exercise exceeding needful useful that they that are young may be acquainted with God betimes and thereby if they die sooner may be fitter for his Kingdom and fitter for his service if they live longer God would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth but as blind Pastors and People so blind Housholders and Housholds fill hell And mean while make the World much worse then else it would be For Families are the original of all other greater Societies and want of Religious Education there is the cause why there are so few good servants for how shal an ignorant Son or Daughter that hath no knowledge or conscience be a good Servant And why there are so few good Wives and Husbands for how shall they be good together that were never bred up to be good asunder Yea is it not from hence that there are so many less sound or less godly Ministers namely because they have not been so trained up as young Timothy was who from a child had known the holy Scriptures It s true that sometimes Religion is in the house and yet not in the heart at least of most in the House but if it be in the heart I am sure it will be in the house Yea as there shall be occasion in every house for the grace that is in a sincere and right heart is like the oyntment of ones right hand which bewrayeth it self being ever un-satisfied unless it disperse and send abroad the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place especially the Vicinity but most of all the Family I proceed from this to the thing I principally aimed at and indeed only intended when I first set upon this work namely to set forward the Duty of Family-Prayer For though God will do much for the house of Israel and for every house in Israel yet his Will is to be sought that he may do it for them Heaven is a rich storehouse and we have a Joseph there that is willing to nourish us lest we and our houshold and all that we have come to poverty yet it s necessary for us to go thither with our suits and supplications as the sons of Jacob went into Egypt with their sacks that so opening our mouths wide the Lord Jesus may fill them Ther 's treasure enough in God's House for us and for our houses but when God hath put a Key into our hand that is Prayer to open the door we must either turn the Key or not expect the Treasure men lust and have not labour and have not fight and scramble for the world and yet they have not or have not in mercy Hos 13. 11. because they ask not Now because some weak Christians may say with Jeremy Behold I cannot speak I cannot pray for I am a child therefore I thought it would be profitable for their help and education as it were to the duty of Prayer to put some Prayers into their hands thought it be God only that must put a spirit of Prayer into their hearts This is a course that heretofore hath found acceptance but now it needs an Apology considering that in late times Forms have been so much out of request that God's external Ordinances and holy Institutions of one kind and another have passed and suffered reproach and that with divers of better report heretofore but None but God knows who are his under the contemptible name of Forms of Religion too low for Christians of the upper Form Now if any yet there be that count themselves above Ordinances I must leave them as far above my persuasions But as for modest Christians who howsoever they may be somewhat doubtful about the use of Forms of Prayer yet are teachable and capable of satisfaction I shall endevour to give it them And therefore I willingly acknowledg and would have both those of my own Charge and other Christians to know that such Forms are not so properly intended for grown and exercised Christians albeit they being humble will know they may receive help and improvement from them but they are composed for young Beginners and for them also not to tie them up but to train them up as they use to do little Children to go first by a Form that leaving the form which was a great help at first they may go at length on their own legs without leaning on such Supports Blessed Bradford that high and humble Martyr when he was in Prison wrote a prayer for his Mother that she might learn how to pray for him and desired her to get it by heart and to say it dayly and he wrote another for all her house to make use of in their Evening Prayer Unto which I add that although poor and low yea the lowest Christians may and should take more liberty in private between God and themselves and not be afraid or backward to groan out their desires before the Lord yet the assistance and supplies of Prayers made to their hands is for such needful to enable them to appear before others and to be their mouth in the duty of Prayer I say needful that neither the service may be contemptible to those that be bad nor unprofitable and tedious to those that be better Briefly Formes of Prayer whereof the eaâ—e many
though it concern Magistrates more then others yet all have need enough to nourish humility especially that are in any higher place and order and that he turn not aside from the commandement to the right hand or the left These being the reasons why Kings are required to read Scripture Who shall exempt himself from it for Are notall bound to fear the Lord yea all the Inhabitants of the world are to stand in awe of him And doth not the Scripture require of all to walk in all the wayes that God hath commanded without turning aside to the right hand or the left What is spoken therefore to the King doth for the same common reasons concern all as if a King be perswaded to eat and drink that he may have strength when he goeth on his way as Saul sometimes was no man sayes That belongs to a King and not to me but every man for the same reason eats and drinks likewise This is put out of question because there is an express command to gather men women and children to hear the Law read upon the very same account that the King is called to read it that is that they might learn to fear God and observe to do all the words of that Law It 's true that Great-men and Gentlemen have some greater cause in regard of their greater tentations to exercise themselves in the reading of Scripture as that their hearts may not be lift up though God knows that divers of them who need it most use it least the more they have to answer for but it no way followeth that because a man that hath a great journey to go had need to eat more as Elijah had that therefore he may let eating and drinking alone that stayes at home 3. It may further be added that a motive to perform a duty if it be common to all is a good plain proof that the duty belongs to all and so it is here for the King is encouraged to read the Law and to observe it by proposing to him this end That he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel which is other-where assured to all the people of God on the same ground according to their place and quality and in the land which they possess Deut. 5. 33. 6. 2. Secondly The reading of Scripture is enjoyned on Ministers for to them it is said Give attendance to reading It is not said indeed to the reading of Scripture but though that be not expressed yet that it is meant appears by the following words to exhortation to doctrine that therefore is the reading principally at least intended which is helpful to a Minister for the two great parts of his Ministery Exhortation and Doctrine and what that is we find by the Apostle writing to Titus which applyeth it to the faithful Word and tells him that that Word is to be held fast and therefore to be read that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Object Great reason a Minister should read Scripture but that proves not that People are bound to do it His work lies there theirs other-where Answ It proves not indeed that they should give such and so much attendance to reading as a Minister ought to do but yet it proves sufficiently they should attend it because it belongs to all Christians as well though not as much as to a Minister to exhort and admonish which is done best in the words of Scripture yea they that have spent some good time in Religion ought to be teachers of others also I do not mean as intruding to the office of Preaching but in a way of charity and brotherly assistance And moreover since it belongs to Saints to contend for the faith committed to their trust it will follow from thence that they should have some convincing skill also for the better maintaining of the truth of God which is to be had by reading and searching the Word of God by which Aquila and Priscilla were enabled to instruct Apollo and that old Confessor spoken of in the Ecclesiastial Story to convince that subtile Philosopher that opposed Christianity in those times Thirdly The reading of Scripture is commanded the People of God generally for unto them it is said Remember the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgements The intent of which Scripture is this that since they were to be many years without Prophets to preach to them Malachi being the last Prophet of the Old Testament therefore that they might neither lose their Religion nor forget their consolation they should diligently read and study the Scriptures which are called the Law of Moses not as excluding the Prophets for under the name of the Law the Prophets are also contained insomuch that what was written in the Psalms and in the Prophet Isaiah is said to be written in the Law but as making the Law whereof the Prophets were the Interpreters and Appliers the sum of the Old Testament-doctrine to be remembered and therefore to be read the often reading thereof being the best way to keep it in mind and that by the generality of Gods people when their Teachers were gone Unto this we may add that when there were again Teachers in Israel yet our Saviour saith and he saith it to the Jews generally Search the Scriptures Joh. 5. 39. meaning the Scriptures of the Old Testament And they that are bound and commanded to search a Book are sure therewithal bound and commanded if they can to see and read it We say He 's well read in a Book that hath well searched it And for the New Testament and Gospel-Word the Apostles counsel and command to Christians is Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly Now though the Word may dwell plentifully in a good Hearer yet by hearing and reading both it must needs dwell in him more richly Experience shews that religious Readers are rich and ripe in Scripture-knowledge Thus for Scripture-commands Now for Scripture-reasons for Scripture-reading First The Scriptures are written for the use of the whole Church either for their use or to leave them without excuse and therefore it 's urg'd as a great aggravation of Israels sin I have written to himthe great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing God might have continued to make known his mind as at first he did by tradition and delivering his Will by word of mouth from one to another had it not been for this as for one reason that by writing the Word of God might be more exposed to the veiw of Ministers and People that both might read it and so the better study it and meditate upon it And wherefore did the Apostles write their Epistles to
such a gift from such a giver be not taken with unwashen hands and hearts We find that when Joseph and Esther were to appear personally before Kings he shaved himself and changed his rayment and she put on her royal Apparel And shall we make our personal approach to God without some special testimony of the low thoughts we have of our selves and the high thoughts we have of Him Well may it then be said Offer it now to thy Governour When that poor woman that was heal'd of her bloudy issue was hid amongst a great company it was well enough but when she saw she was not hid but singled out to look Jesus Christ in the face then she came trembling and falling down before him Much cause have we to do the like considering what we are and what Christ is from whose hands as it were though by the Ministry of mean men we come each of us to take into our own hands things of so high a nature Secondly In the Sacrament Christ is offered more plainly and sensibly then in the Word though in the substance both Ordinances agree Indeed in the sound of the Gospel Christ appears and is set forth to the sense of hearing by faithful Teachers very evidently and as it were to the eye but not properly to the eye as in the Sacrament for when Paul tels the Galatians that Christ was set forth before their eyes his meaning is only this that Jesus Christ was clearly held forth to them by his Preaching as that is which is set before mens eyes which shews that things exposed to the eye are most evident and most operative for it is the eye that in a more special manner affects the heart Whence it is that Moses makes this a great argument to move the people to obedience that he did not speak to them that had not seen but to such as had seen the great acts of the Lord Deut. 11. 2. 7. Now God offering himself to us in the Sacrament in a more plain and familiar way setting us as it were at his Table and setting before our eyes all the good things of his House this ministreth an argument of more abundant reverence for Whence was it that Moses and Joshua were commanded to put off their shoos from off their feet Exod. 3. 5. Josh 5. 15. but only because God shewed himself and set himself before their eyes in a more plain and perceptible manner then at other times Unto which may be added that other command given to Moses when the Law was to be delivered Go unto the People and sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their clothes for the third day the Lord will comedown in the sight of all the People Exod 19 10 11. See 2 Chron. 7. 3. When they saw the fire they bowed themselves c. But before I let this pass I have two things to subjoin that I may not be mis-understood First When I say that Christ doth in a special manner appear in the Sacrament to our senses so that we may be said in a sort to see him touch him and taste him and that therefore he expects from us an answerable preparation I do not here separate the Word and the Sacrament but take in the Word with it and the Sacrament as an appendix and an additional Ordinance to it and that such an Ordinance as hath its dignity working and being in and from the Word of Institution and Promise For what 's the Seal without the Writing But as affixed to it it is of much value The pressing therefore of special Sacrament-preparation no way derogates from the Word but rather heightens the estimation of it inasmuch as the Sacrament is founded on it And yet this dependance of the Sacrament on the Word hinders not the truth of that which Calvin affirms and confirms out of Austin which is that the Sacraments have this peculiar to them above the Word that they do represent unto us to the life the promises of God even as if they were pictured in a Table before our eyes Secondly When I plead for Sacrament-reverence I am far from allowing any thing which sheltering it self under the head of an high estimation of this Ordinance ariseth from or tendeth to Superstition or any way countenanceth or cometh near unto the idolatrous worship of the Papists wherewith they deifie and defile the Sacrament All that I move for is a reverent carriage of the body an aweful frame of heart and a knowing and affectionate preparation fuited and fitted to this Ordinance Fourthly The judgment of the Church of God in all ages perswades to a special care and consideration about this Ordinance scarce any Christian Church in the world in any age since Christ as a learned man observes that hath not impaled it In the ancient Church there was much strictness used and such sent away when the Communion was to be administred who had committed notorious sins and not sufficiently testified their repentance And when the Minister was about to reach out the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to the people he cryed with a lowd voyce Holy things to holy persons Accordingly our own Church ever since the Reformation hath provided that open and notorious livers should not presume to come to the Lords Table till their open declaring of their true repentance and amendment And if malice and hatred were perceived to reign betwixt any persons they were not to be suffered to partake of the Lords Table till it was known they were reconciled Thus it was formerly and of late further care hath been taken for the preventing of Sacrament-profanation and that Jesus Christ might have wise and holy Guests at his Table though Satan the Arch-Enemy of Reformation hath used all his art to pervert or frustrate such endeavours whom we hope God will out-work in his good time Now howsoever the prescripts and practise of the most eminent men in the Church of God be not a Rule to any man yet they shew what the judgment of discretion was about this Ordinance in their time which it is reasonably expected should so far prevail as to impose a modesty upon others that differ from them in their judgements especially coming far short of their attainments Chrysostom exceeds others in his holy zeal and professeth he will rather give up his soul and life then the Lords Body to any unworthily and will rather suffer his own blood to be poured forth then give up the most sacred Blood of Christ unless to a worthy Receiver I confess his words are very high and yet there are two things that may preserve that height of zeal from being contemned by those that are worse or censured by those that are better for he declares himself 1. To speak of very notorious sinners that in all things are like Dogs and Swine And 2. moving this Objection against himself How can I
we may not therefore shift or shake off the former threats and judgements as not belonging to these times but rather consider that Whatsoever things were written or acts of divine Justice recorded aforetime were written for our learning and all those things which befel the transgressors of the Law of the Ten Commandements in former ages of the World happened to them us Types that is they are our examples and warnings and plainly lay before us what we also must expect to suffer if we do as they did even we upon whom the ends of the world are come for like sin like judgement Nor can any just reason be given why judgements of old for the breach of the fourth Commandement should not be our admonitions as well as those for the breach of the second Commandement which Paul mentioneth because there is not only much of that which is positive and not so clearly natural belonging to the second as well as to the fourth Commandement but also it is evident that as the second Precept for the way of Religion so the fourth for the Day is written among the Ten words of the Moral and ever-abiding Law of God with the finger of God himself Exod. 31. 18. That which remaineth to incite to Sabbath-sanctity is 5. The blessing and promises of God annexed and assured to that Day and the Observers ther of It is said in the Commandement The Lord blessed the Sabbath day It 's true that he blessed that seventh day whereon he rested but not as a Seventh day but as a Sabbath day and so the blessing is entailed as it were and passeth from the Jews Sabbath on the Christian Sabbath Now what is the meaning of this blessing but that it was Gods mind that it should be honourable and glorious amongst and have singular priviledge preheminency above other days for which end therefore he sanctified it that is set it apart to be wholly consecrated to Him and to his holy Service In which way it is not only lift up and honored above other dayes and so a blessed day but is a blessed day also to the people of God by the use and benefit of his Ordinances Psal 65. 4. wherein a blessedness is laid up In regard of this Prerogative of the day of Rest and Holiness a Christian seeing that day approach hath great cause to say with an holy chearfulness Come in thou blessed of the Lord And they that appear before God on that day to receive soul-sustenance from him may say within themselves as David's servants that sought bodily relief Let us now find favour in thine eyes for we are come in a good day in the Lords great Feast-day wherein they of his Family even the whole Houshold of Faith are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house and are made to drink of the river of his pleasures It 's a day wherein we may be spiritually enriched for it is a blessed day the blessing of the Lord maketh rich It is a day wherein the people of God meeting and being united together in his service God commandeth the blessing Psal 133. 3. And wherein from our great Lord and head glorious high Priest the Oyl of Grace runs down abundantly as Aarons Oyl sometimes did to the very skirts that is to the very lowest of his true Members to make them joyful for it is the Oyl of gladness Psal 45. 7. and as the dew of Hermon to make them fruitful Psal 133. 1 2 3. The prerious promises inviting to and incouraging in the Sanctification of the Sabbath are presented to us from the mouth of the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58. 13. 14. which Text of Scripture is so often made use of in this argument of the Sabbath that I cannot leave it though I have spoken much more then I thought to have done already withour looking a little into it For which purpose I shall 1. Speak something to both the verses in general 2. And something to that Sabbath-Piety described v. 13. 3. And then come to the Sabbath-promises v. 14. 1. Of the Text in general Wherein two things lie in the way to hinder the use that divers godly and learned Writers have made of it for establishing the Lords Sabbath-day now the Lords day 1. Some hold that the Sabbath is here named by way of allusion and by a Synechdoche and that the thing intended and designed in that description v. 13. and so in the promise v. 14. is to take men off from their own wits and wayes and to stir them up to obedience and holiness in the whole course of their lives And the truth is that in the Sabbath all Religion is wrapt up for God is eminently acknowledged worshipped professed and praised as the three first Commandements require upon that day And all other Commandements are better observed by the good knowledge of God dispensed and dispersed then especially in the Ministry of the Word acquainting men with their duties towards God and Man But we may not mistake here for albeit it be supposed that all Religion is spoken to yet it doth not follow from thence that the Sabbath day in the setting forth whereof the Text is so full is to be excluded nay rather it is thereby the better established As when a Father takes order in his last Will that his Son shall go to the University his meaning is that his Son shall be a Scholar but withall his mind is that he shall go to the University because that 's the way to make him a Scholar and therefore he expresseth nothing but that for that contains the other So it is here We may observe casting our eye upon this whole chapter that as in the former part of it the Prophet shewed their Religion was not to be placed in fasting so here he declareth that the observation of the Sabbath is not to be placed in resting to which the Jews used to ascribe so much but in the spiritual sanctification of that rest which indeed hath and ought to have an influence and to extend its vertue into our whole life to make it the more holy But now mark that as the Prophet before in his Doctrine of a Fast and his disciplining of their Fast did not exclude the day of their Fast and the observation thereof but saith plainly In the day of your Fast v. 3. so neither doth he here where he delivereth the doctrine of the Sabbath shut out the day of the Sabbath but only sheweth that the Rest and leisure of that day is to be bestowed in spiritual things appertaining to the substance and tending to the furtherance of true Religion 2. Some others may say that if the Text be to be understood of the weekly Sabbath yet it speaks to the Jews only not to us and of their day not of ours Unto which it may suffice to say that as the fourth Commandement belongs to us
fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Albeit therefore I shall easily grant that we have great cause to desire God to be merciful to us in this thing that our delight in Sabbath-duties is so dim yet it doth not follow from thence that there is none If God should take away Sabbaths from us I doubt not but that in all good Christians the grief would prove the delight for no man is grieved to lose what he never lov'd nor took any pleasure in I say it is thus in all good and truly godly and especially greatly-godly persons for as the man is so is his delight No marvel if the men of the world say When will the Sabbath be gone No wonder if the holy and strict observation thereof be unto carnal people and persons that savour not the things of God like Saul's Armour to David they cannot tell how to go with or undergo matters of so spiritual a nature for they never prov'd them they were never us'd to such things But on the other side the same spiritual observation of the Lords-day unto a spiritual Christian is like Jonathan's robe and his garments even his Sword his Bow and his Girdle to the same David which no doubt he us'd and wore with much delight they being great testimonies of Jonathan's singular love to him and signs and symbols of the Covenant made with him as also the Lords-Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof are great tokens of his special love to us and a sign of his holy Covenant made with us Ezek. 20. 12. O why should not the Lords-day be our delight Is there not full joy in fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ in the Preaching and with the Preachers of the Gospel Is not Christ who is observed to appear on that day again and again to his Disciples after his Resurrection and is still in the Assemblies of the Saints and in the Ministry of his Servants I say Is not He the desire and the delight of all Nations And who is it that is the Comforter and solace of Saints but that holy Spirit with whom the Servants of God have much to do on that day in heavenly Meditations So that if the whole Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost can minister any delight unto us then may we call the Sabbath a delight for therein God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier doth eminently appear and operate This is a day very useful and subservient to all the necessities of our souls If we be ignorant in any thing or in many things on this day we are all taught of God It 's a Soul-enlightning day If we be as we are Strangers in the Earth on this day we are most taught the way to our Countrey It 's a Soul-guiding day Psal 73. 17 24. If we hunger and thirst after Righteousness the spiritual Manna falls from Heaven and water comes out of that Rock which is Christ principally upon this day It 's a Soul-satisfying day If we languish under spiritual diseases or lie low under outward calamities on this day the Lord offereth Medicines in the Ministry for all our Maladies It 's a Soul-restoring-day Christ heals still on Sabbath days And that I may once conclude could we be in the Spirit upon the Lords-day as we ought to be or as we might be for I do not mean extraordinarily as John was but having our hearts taken up with and heightned in the pure spiritual observation of it we might have then a fair sight yea a sweet sense of that unspeakably glorious Sabbath which right and real Saints shall shortly celebrate all together in the heavenly Canaan where there remaineth a rest or the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God Heb 4. 9. The Second Part. CHAP. I. Of Family-Duties AFter the four Christian-duties spoken of in the fore-going part I shall now proceed to four other Family-duties the first whereof because Religion is rooted in knowledge may well be Family-Catechising I say Family-Catechising for I shall not here speak of Catechising in its general extent but only apply my self to it as it is a duty belonging to Christians in their several Families which godly Exercise I shall endeavour to assist and perswade unto by Texts of Scripture first and some Arguments and Motives after Texts of Scripture to prove Catechising in Families a duty It is not my purpose here to mention every Text of Scripture that gives strength to this necessary duty but shall content my self with the naming and with the opening of two Texts in the Old-Testament and one in the New The first in the Old Testament is Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For the opening of this Scripture and the awakening of Conscience to a due consideration of it there comes to be considered in the first place Who it is that speaks in it even the Eternal God by his Servant Moses that was faithful in all his house Remember that it is He that saith Keep these words that I command thee this day But How must Parents keep them For to Parents and every Parent God here speaks and in answer to that question saith These words shall be in thine heart yet are they not only to be in the hearts of those that have Families but in their houses therefore it is added Thou shalt teach them thy children Nor was this a Ceremonial Precept or a Commandement given peculiarly to the Jews for their assistance in the remembrance of the Law of God as their Phylacteries fringes and fastning the Law to their door-posts but it was and is a moral and perpetual Precept binding us in Gospel-times as well as them and therefore the very same things that we read in this Text we find also in the New-Testament That is 1. That the Word of Christ must dwell in us which is all one with this here Let it be in thine heart And 2. That it must be in our houses also for Parents are required to bring up their children in the nurture and information of the Lord In obedience therefore to this standing Command they to whom God hath given children should say as the Psalmist doth Come ye children hearken to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord And when the children be come together the Spirit of God in the Text we have in hand teacheth in what manner they are to be taught saying Thou shalt teach them diligently and in the margent of our Bibles it is Thou shalt whet or sharpen which is well and plainly expressed in the Text by teaching diligently but yet the word in the Original doth
their ungodliness As it will never serve to excuse the excess of intemperate and immodest men and women that God hath not told them how much they shall eat or what clothes they shall put on so neither will it serve to excuse their defects in Prayer or any other Christian duty that God hath not spoken particullarly and punctually of it for they ought to reverence the General Rules and as neer as may be to mould their carriage according to the mind of God and herein be like the Angels who do not only obey the precise Precepts of their glorious Lord and God but delight to fulfill all his pleasure and what they conceive by any hint they have from Him to be acceptable to Him Beneplaciti nomine laetum hilare obsequium exprimit ac si dixisset Angelos non solum Dei Praeceptis obsequentes esse sed libentèr cum summa oblectatione accipere ejus nutus ut ejus bene placitis obtemperent Calv. in Psal 103. 21. Thus for the grounds of Scripture whereon Family-Prayer is founded I come now to some Reasons agreeable unto Scripture which may further perswade to this duty I shall insist upon three only First God requires homage and service not only from single Persons but from Societies and Companies of men As 1. From a Land and Nation as appears from the Lords calling of his People the Jews to the three solomn Feasts ordinarily besides the New-Moons wherein Families used to joyn together in Sacrificing And to the duty of Fasting both yearly and on extraordinary occasions Joel 2. 15 16. 2. From particular Churches in the New-Testament which according to the will God were to joyn in spiritual worship and in the duty of Prayer 1 Tim. 2 1 2. 1 Cor. 11. 4. with 1 Cor. 14. 14 15 16. 3. From particular Companies partaking in the same favour If ten Lepers be cured and but one return to give thanks Christ saith Where are the other nine being not content that less then ten should joyn together in thanksgiving for the mercy that ten receive Experience tells us how agreeable this Society-service is to right reason for a King coming to the Vniversity looks for Vniversity and a kind of Universal entertainment And coming to a Town-corporate expects not only significations of love and loyalty from single persons but humble addresses also from the Corporation Since therefore every Family is an united Body that Body and Society should own and acknowledge God in the performance of united Service else the Lord may say This and that person served me but I had no service from the Family Secondly This reason and this duty is the rather to be urged from a further reason which is this wheresoever there are common concernments or common causes of seeking to God there should be a common and joynt feeking and therefore in Families for there are there sins wants mercies and afflictions wherein the whole Family in concern'd 1. Sins which though committed by some or by one only yet endanger the whole Houshold as we know Achan's sin did and therefore for the glorifying of God and the preventing of their general suffering it behooves all of them with one consent to acknowledge the sin committed by any of them in which way they may hope for reconciliation such as Abigail found with David when being not guilty her self she confessed the folly of her guilty Husband 1 Sam. 25 25 34 35. It 's wisdom for the Father of a Family to be like Aaron that is to take a course for an atonement for himself and his Houshold which will be best done in Job's way that is by calling the Family together sanctifying them offering the sacrifice of a broken heart and flying to the Sacrifice of a broken Christ Job 1. 5. 2. Wants Family-wants there are and ever will be as want of health of strength of ease perhaps of bread Here all should joyn together to beg of God what is wanting because there will be a common comfort in the enjoying of it and by their common Prayer they are the more like to obtain it as hath been shewed before 3. Mercies As peace protection health plenty wherein the whole Family partaking the Governour thereof hath great reason to say to all that are under his roof O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together God loves to hear the voyce of Rejoycing not only in the Closets and Chambers but in the Tabernacles of the righteous And therefore gave this command to his people of old Thou shalt rejoyce in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee and unto thine house Deut. 26. 11. 4. Afflictions If but one person in a Family being under the hand especially an heavier hand of God the whole Family susters The more reason therefore there is to joyn together that by the joynt petition of all that may be removed which is grievous to all Even Nature will teach that coming with one accord is the most likely way to remove high displeasure This may in part shew that to omit Family-Prayer is not only an ungodly thing but an unreasonable and a great disadvantage as well as a defect Thirdly I reason further for this duty from the persons that neglect calling upon God with their housholds and from the reason of that neglect 1. The persons neglecting this Duty are usually men less fearing God less acquainted with Religinn and cold in the profession and practice of it For as for gracious and grown Christians there is we may say a common instinct of piety and holy impulsion of heart that puts them upon this duty Insomuch that the looking up of Housholders with their houshold unto God seems not so much to require Reason to inforce it as a vigorous Religion which will certainly infer it 2. As to the causes of the neglect they are the more considerable because the truth is that this question Whether Housholders ought to perform the duty of Prayer with those belonging unto them will be most plainly answered by another Question which is this What good reason can any man give why he doth not especially why he will not pray in his Family Now the causes of the neglect will as I conceive be found such as these 1. In lower and poorer people ignorance and unacquaintedness with Religion They are loth to be persuaded to do what they find it will be hard to do and which they see in themselves little ability to perform And yet this will not excuse them because there are so many helps for Prayer as will prove their fault to be want of hearts to that duty That therefore which such are to do is to follow on to know the Lord and then they shall know and get such ability from that which God speaks to them as to be able
themselves competently and comfortably to speak in Prayer unto God for Revelation is the Rise of Supplication 2 Sam. 7. 27. 2. In worse persons Profaneness is an Enemy to Prayer and an aversness from the service of God yea not only a loathness but a loathing to look after religious duties Wicked men leave off to be wise and to do good and say of the offering of spiritual Sacrifices to God Behold what a weariness is it yea perhaps they are loth to stoop so low as to be so much Disciples and to bow down and kneel before the Lord their Maker in the presence of those belonging to their charge Psal 95. 6. being therein of Michals haughty mind 2 Sam. 6. 20. 3. Spiritual sloth and a lazy listlesness makes people unwilling to buckle with such a duty and to take the pains to furnish themselves for such a service They could find in their heart to pray in their Family but the soul of the stuggard dosireth and hath nothing Unto this backwardness in many Bashfulnefs is added in divers others and a natural fear and diffidence making them very unapt to appear and act in any solemn religious duty when they are in company This disease and holding off from so good an action should be corrected for the present by conscience of the duty and consideration of his calling to it who is the Governour of a Family and the using of the exercise will through Gods blessing in a short time work the cure and take off the difficulty Nicodemus that comes in the night at first appears at length in the light and owned a crucified Christ John 19. 38 39. 4. In many men Worldliness is a great impediment for so eager are men on their Earthly occasions and advantages that they cannot afford time for spiritual duties But let such consider that in this they are peny-wise and pound-foolish like a man that hath a Journey to go and is so hasty that he will not stay the making ready of his Horse or like Saul that said to the Priest With-draw thine hand He was so hasty and looked upon his occasions as so urgent that he thought it no wisdom to abide with God to wait his answer And again like Saul that was so eager of pursuit and revenge that he adjured the people that not a man of them should eat any food till the evening and so they were faint and could not make that flaughter they might have done among the Philistins He was so greedy of his ends that he lost his ends Even so they that are so greedy after the world that God can have none of their attendance either have not what they look for or have it not in mercy God is very gracious unto us but it is at the voyce of our cry Isa 30. 19. 5. In some men Atheism is the hinderance whereby men use to make light of such heavenly things as Hearing and Praying are A Farm a Wife or a yoke of Oxen may be the next reason but Atheism lies at the bottom for let all men examine namely when they cannot afford God a Prayer Morning and Evening whether this thought do not lodge in the heart of one and of another of them To go about my business will do me some good but Praying in my Family will do me none but only hinder me of so much time Now this wicked thought to wit that all time is lost that is bestowed in the Service of God and that they that pray not do as well as they that do I say this is down-right Atheism The bottom-bottom-cause of not calling upon God is that The Fool saith in his heart There is no God See for this Psal 14. 1 4 6. Job 21. 15. Mal. 3. 14. Upon the whole let every man enter into his own heart and consider what comfort there can be in refraining Houshold-worship and restraining Prayer on such reasons as these which yet upon sincere and serious consideration will no doubt be found the ordinary Pul-backs from so good a duty It remaineth now to enquire after the former proofs for Family-Prayer what time is to be allotted to this duty wherein I shall endeavour to shew two things 1. That it is to be used every day And that 2. Morning and Evening First The duty of Prayer is to be performed every day whereof while I speak in general it will have an influence into and by parity of reason argue for Family Prayer Reasons of dayly Prayer are many And they are already given and published I shall only recite some of them viz. 1. Because our Saviour Christ in that Prayer which we call the Lords-Prayer directs and commands us to ask our dayly bread every day Nor is there less but the same or a greater reason to desire every day other things that we dayly and dearly need as the forgiving of our dayly trespasses the not leading us into tentation when Satan layes dayly snares for us As also to give thanks which the conclusion of that Prayer teacheth for every days mercy Every day supplyeth new matter both of Petition and Thanksgiving and therefore it calleth us to make supplication to the Lord that he may do for us at all times as the matter shall require 1 King 8. 59. and to give him thanks Who dayly loadeth us with benefits Psal 68 19. 2. Because every day hath its evils and vexations which are to be sweetned with Prayer and made tolerable Mat. 6. 34. and its comforts also and contentments which are to be sanctified by Prayer and made profitable 1 Tim. 4. 5. 3. Because we know not whether we shall live till to morrow and therefore should not neglect God to day which may be our last day Men would pray all day long to day if they knew they should die to morrow and they do not know they shall not and therefore should not live as if they did and let alone God 4. Though we were never so sure of our lives yet we are to know that we live alwayes in the presence of God And shall a child be in the presence of his Father all day long and shew him no special reverence neither in the morning when he seeth him first nor when he leaves him last in the Evening 5. We find in Scripture that God hath had better children who have come before him twice thrice yea seven times that is very often in a day Daniel was eminent in this whose custom it was to pray three times a day and as he used to do so he did though he knew yea because he knew he was to be thrown into the Lions den for so doing He was so far from dissimulation that he seems glad of an occasion to own and acknowledge his God in the duty of Prayer though he perish himself 6. The command of praying without ceasing will not permit a days