enter into that relation and not learne the duties of it How will you that are to be a Husband dwell with your wife according unto knowledge if you suffer nothing to dwell with your selfe but ignorance And how will you that are to be a wife submit your selfe to your own husband as it is fit in the Lord if you doe not know the Lord And how will both of you live together as Heires of the grace of life when through the ignorance that is in you you are meere strangers to a life of Grace Or how will you teach your children and servants what you would never be perswaded to learne your selves Marriage we know is common to mankinde and Heathens may enter into it but this we are constrained to let you know that if persons professing Christianity expect that we should have any hand in the celebration of it between such among them as neither know their duty to God nor to one another nor will be perswaded to learne it whether it be a duty incumbent upon us to doe it we must at least take Time to consider Qu. What if we understand the principles of Religion well enough already Sol. Yet you ought by your Example to incourage others to let us that are your Ministers know it that wee may blesse God for you propound you as patternes to the rest and receive from you an Evidence of your fitness for the Lords Supper which if duly qualified you ought to partake of and wee to administer We hope we need not use more arguments with persons that know they have soules to prevaile with them for a compliance with us in those things that so apparently tend to their salvation Secondly For private Conference with the Heads and Governours of families wee have seriously and sadly considered the ignorance of many under a long enjoyment of the meanes of knowledge and the prophaneness of more under as long an enjoyment of the meanes of Grace And having nothing to adde to our publique ministeriall labours as a further meanes of your proficiency in grace and knowledge but a more familiar way of personall instruction by Private Conference wee doe hereby offer our selves also to this service of your soules and in the name of Christ whose Messengers we are in this errand beseech you to accept of it and that it may reach the end that both wee and you ought to aime at wee desire 1. That wee may meet you either at your houses asunder or a greater number of you together at such Times and places as wee shall appoint for that purpose or if any inconvenience be found in what wee shall offer you would be pleased to propound a better methode your selves and wee shall readily comply with you in it ance shall refuse to be perswaded to the duties wee have mentioned assure your selves that even this paper shall be a witnesse against you at the day of Judgement which is sent you the Lord knowes to no such purpose by Yours in the service of the Gospel Robert Tuchin Minister of Newport John Barnes Minister of Whippingham Edward Buckler Minister at Calbourne Robert Dingley Minister of Brixton James Creswick Minister of Fresh-water John Martyn Minister of the Gospell at Yarmouth Vincent Sparke Minister of Shalfleete Josh Tompkins Minister at Brooke Simon Pole Minister at West Cowes Tho Clarke Minister of Gods-hill William Harby Minister of Shanklin Martin Wells Minister of Yaverland William Bicknell Minister of the Gospel at Newport Richard Beminster Minister of Wotton Matthew Hearne Minister of Lawrence Luc. 24 47. Deut. 32. 7 10. Isa. 30. 26. Rom. 6. 23 Acts 4. 12. Heb. 12. 14. Acts 5. 31. Luk. 19. 14. 1 Tim. 2. 4. Exod. 20. 10. Psal. 119. 9. Mercer Jansen in Pro. 31. 26. 2 Joh. 1. 4. Joh. 21. 15. Joh. 3. 6. Job 25. 4. Joh. 3. 3 5. Gen. 5. 3. Coloss. 3. 10. Eph. 4. 24. Eccles. 6. 3. Psal. 58. 8. V. 3 5 11 12. Junius in loc. Basil Doron l. 2. p. 95. Matth. 8. 9. Eph. 6. 5. Coloss. 3. 22. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Titus 2. 9. Gen. 18. 19. Gen. 35. 2 3 4. Josh. 24. 15. Exod. 20. 10. Apoc. 20. 12. 2 Thes. 1. 8. Isa. 27. 11. Pro. 13. 13. Chemnit Har. Evang. 6. 15. Zanch. Vol. 3. Tom. 8. p. 580. Eâ—cles. 12. 1. Acts 21. 16. 1 King 18. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psal. 119. 60. Rom. 16. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 7. Coloss. 3. 18. Eph. 4. 18.
be perswaded of very many that both the Mother Nurse of their miscariages is their ignorance being never yet possessed of so much illumination as throughly to perceive the filthy and damnable nature of sin the necessity of an interest in Christ and of that work of grace by his Spirit upon their souls without which no man shall see the Lord Our Charity prevailing with us at least to think that if the generality of men were able to see the wrath of God and the torments of hell in every sinne they would not doat upon it and to see Christ exalted to be a Prince to give repentance and remission of sins they would not by their wilfull impieties send so many messages to him every day that they will not have this man to reign over them If they knew more they would live better if they did not see so little they would not sin so much they would not so constantly go out of their way did they not go in the dark Your selves Brethren are our witnesses that in the course of our Ministry we have made it much of our businesse to informe mens judgments being very sure of this that unlesse we could have a knowing people we should never have a gratious people as we are to blesse God for any the least successe of his Gospel to this purpose we are also deeply to be humbled that it hath been no more that very many are ignorant still and not able to evidence themselves owners of so much knowledge as may be presumed to let in Christ by Faith into their souls our deep sense of which hath brought us together put us upon our prayers to God and a mutuall contribution of advice and councell to one another what further course to take that by the blessing of God might promote your edification at a better rate be a way to a speedier implantation of Light and Grace in your souls and make room in your heads and hearts for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our publick preaching To which end and purpose for every one of us to revive and constantly to practise the too long neglected duties of Private Conference and Catechizing in our respective Charges is a course which we have apprehended to promise us the most comfortable successe We have therefore unanimously agreed and resolved to adde to our more publick ministeriall labours the faithfull serious and constant discharge of these duties that by laying out our talents as many ways as they may possibly be improveable for the good of all we may by the grace of Christ going along with us be instrumentall in saving some Now our endeavours shall be to instruct By 1. Chatechizing all within our respective Charges that are under the Government of others 2. Private Conference all the rest Not that we would be understood to exclude any that are reducible to either of these ranks from the benefit of both or so much as an intimation to mean it not to be the duty of all to submit to both but have thus propounded it out of a condescention to that weaknesse of too much force upon most mens Spirits which suggesteth it to be a matter of shame for persons that are aged to be Catechized but never inclineth them to so much as the least blushing that they have need of it So your selves being able to testifie that we are in a manner necessitated to this method we shall beg the conjunction of your prayers with ours for a blessing from Heaven upon it and in as few words as we conveniently may bespeak your compliance with us in it And First as to the Catechizing of all that are under the Government we mean the domesticall Government of others We have a request to make To 1 The Governing party 2 The Governed 1. To Masters Mistresses and such as have the care of others in their families committed to them our earnest desire is that no neglect of yours may bring upon you the guilt of accessaries to the obstruction of so good a work which you will by no means be able to prevent but by contributing what you can to the promotion of it by teaching your children and servants the grounds and principles of Religion at home that they may at least remember them and by causing them to come under our publick examination at the Church that we may see whether they do and give them further instructions that they may profitably understand them That the means of bringing persons to Christ and heaven is to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth or that it s your duty to endeavour the bringing of your families by the same way to the same end We will not be so uncharitable as to think you have any need to have it proved and what fitter way can you attempt the discharge of this duty in then by Catechizing them If you were to fill t is an old a common but very pertinent similitude and perhaps may stick by you a company of exceeding narrow mouth'd Glasses the likeliest way to do it is by taking them singly in your hands and dropping into each by little and little as it will goe down and not by setting them altogether and throwing great quantities of water upon them But this together with your duty about it and the many arguments you have to discharge it we shall offer you more at large in these following Considerations which we shall crave leave to presse as the Duty concerns your 1. Whole family 2. Children 3. Servants 1. In relation to your whole family 1. Consider Whether God hath not committed unto you a guardianship over the souls of your families and it be not upon that account your duty to take care for the discharge of theirs T is a comprehensive instance which you have in Exod. 20 10. That your sons daughters men and maid-servants keep the Sabbath holy is an injunction laid immediatly upon you you must remember that they do Sanctifie it and this is not done but by spending the whole time in the private and publique exercises of Gods worship and service And how many principles of Religion must be knowne before this can be done and we cannot doubt of your easie grant of this consequence that if you must see your families doe those duties which they can never doe except they be instructed then must you be their instructors unlesse you can suppose there may lye a strict obligation upon you to accomplish such an end which leaves you under no engagement at all to use the meanes 2 Consider How speciall an eye of favour God carries towards those Heads of families who lay out their care that all under their roof may know and serve him Friendship with God is the choicest evidence of his favour communication of secrets the highest declaration of friendship and this will the Lord bestow upon Abraham a peculiar share in being a person that would command his houshold to keep
2. In relation to your Children Though what we have said of Catechizing as a duty to your whole family we know you will conclude doth concerne the fruit of your own bodies the choicest part of it yet we shall crave leave to presse it more particularly and to beseech you againe to lay it to Heart 1. How expressely God layes it upon you as a duty 2. How many Engagements there be upon you conscientiously to discharge it For the former because what we are desiring of you is a duty consisting of two branches 1. To Catechize them your selves 2. To send them being thus prepared to be further instructed and taught to understand the grounds of Religion unto us we are willing to let you see both parts of the duty 1. For your Catechizing them at home we shall adde to what hath been said already 1. Those precepts of the Scripture where this charge is laid upon parents in expresse Tearmes we shall but name the places and leave them to your meditation and practice Deut. 4. 9 10. and Chap. 6. 6 7. and Chap. 11. 19. Exod. 12. 24 26 27. Exod. 13. 8 14 15. Josh. 4. 6 7 21 22. Psal. 78. 5 6. Joel 1. 3. Eph. 6 4. Pro. 22. 6. 2. The Example of parents fearing God whose practice of this duty is upon record as Abraham Gen. 18. 19. David 1 Chron. 28. 9. which we hope you will beleeve was written for your Instruction And lest you that are Mothers should think your selvs excused we beseech you to consider that as a child must receive the instruction of his father so he must not forsake the Law of his mother Pro. 1. 8. She is described to be a vertuous woman that openeth her mouth with wisdome Pro. 31. 26. that teacheth her children their duty both to God and man Not only did Solomons father teach him Pro. 4. 4. but we have the Prophesie also that his mother taught him Pro. 31. 1. Timothy knew the holy Scripture from a child 2 Tim. 3. 15. and you cannot doubt of the contribution his mother yea and his Grandmother afforded to this Timely acquaintance of his with the Things of God when you reade the Character you have of them Chap. 1. 5. under the hand of an Apostle And that John the Evangelist found of her children walking in Truth had not so much redounded to the praise of that Elect Lady to whom he writes his Second Epistle if she had not instructed them in the way Augustine writes of his mother Monica that she planted precepts of life in his minde by her words watered them with her teares and nourished them by her example You will we doubt not look upon these holy women who Trusted in God as very worthy to be imitated in so great a duty 2. For sending your children to us we shall briefly offer you the duty of it in these particulars 1. We are to feed the Lambs of Christ as well as his sheep they are part of our charge who are to watch over their soules as well as yours 2. That the Sabbath be sanctified by the children is by an expresse Law of God charged as a duty upon the parent of which already from Exod. 20. 10. 3. A great part of the sanctification of this day is in coming solemnly together to waite upon God in the duties of his worship and particularly to heare his word and to be instructed by it What wee ought to beleeve concerning God and what duties God requires of us This your Christianity will not give you leave to doubt of 4. This duty you cannot discharge as to your children but by causing them to beare a part in all the publique duties of that day which they are capable of and particularly to be that way instructed both as to faith and manners in which they are likeliest to receive most benefit and we need not tell you again that this is to be Catechized For the Second How many Engagements there be upon you to perform this duty have we any need to say a jot more then this that they are our children how many motives doth this deare and tender relation wrap up in it we had no intention to leave a volumne with you and so shall but consider 1. The need they have to have this course taken with them Do they not come into the world with soules altogether as naked as their bodies nothing but filth upon the one nothing but sin upon the other and the wages even of this sin is eternall death Rom. 6. 23. What should not we doe that they may be borne againe 2. As our children are borne in sin so t is by our meanes we are instruments of it sin is conveyed to them thorow our Loines being sinfull our selves we beget them as Adam did Seth in our own likenesse after our Image How prevailingly should this move us to be instrumental in their cure as we have been in their disease to direct them to the righteousnesse of the Second Adam as we derived unto them the sin of the first that having begotten them after our own they may be begotten and borne againe after the Image of God and how great a part of that consisteth in knowledge and without which Righteousness and True Holiness the other parts of it are hoped for in vaine as long as it is life eternall to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. 3. The Ardency and strength of our affections toward our children and how many other wayes we are wont to expresse it by our longing for them before we have them Gen. 15. 2. Gen. 30. 1. 1 Sam 1. 10 11. our joy and contentment afterward Joh. 16. 21. the inestimable value we set upon them 2 Kings 4. 13 14 15 16 our industrious care to keep them Gen 42. 36 38. 2 Kings 4. 22 24 27 30. Luc. 8. 41 42. Joh. 7. 47 49. 1 Kings 14. 4. our extreame griefe when we lose them Gen. 37. 33 34 35. 2 Sam. 18. 33. and Chap. 19. 2 4 Mat 2. 18. our Sympathizing with them in all conditions smarting under their paine Mark 9. 22. Mat. 15. 22. and feeling the comfort of their welfare Gen. 45. 27 28. Look Beloved into your bowells or if you cannot finde them there look into the Scriptures we have here brought you and see if these be not the affections of parents towards their children and if these expresse themselves at such a rate so many other wayes Can there be a stronger motive to lay them out the best way upon their souls by taking care that they may be instructed unto the Kingdom of God Let us pause a while and argue the case with our selves a little or if you will let us catechize our selves upon this point and aske such Questions as these Did we long to have children and shall we now suffer them to perish Shall we contentedly see them in such a condition that
if they continue in it it had been good for them they had never been born If their souls be not filled with good is not an untimely birth better then they If our children be not brought to the knowledge of God and have no provision made them for eternity will not Davids Imprecations concerning wicked men serve us for wishes concerning them As a snaile which melteth oh that every one of them had passed away or like the untimely birth of a woman that they had never seen the Sun Shall we provide our selves a Temptation to curse our childrens day as Job cursed his own Job 3. Let the day perish wherein they were born and the night in which it was said they are conceived Let darknesse and the shadow of death staine it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blacknesse of the day terrifie it why died they not from the womb why did they not give up the ghost when they came out of the belly why did the knees prevent them or why the brests that they should suck To suffer them to perish for lack of knowledge may it not put us upon all this Were we so joyfull when we had them and shall we not tremble to think that when we shall have them no more the Devil will and can any thing else be their lot if for want of instruction they dy in no better a condition than they were born Did the Mother forget all the anguish of her travail for joy that they were borne into this world and will she not endeavour to provide against the swallowing up of all this joy by a just feare lest they should dy eternally in the next And for what but a land of darknesse can a condition of darknesse qualifie them Do we set so invaluable a rate upon them and shall not their immortall part be considered in the account Are we so carefull to keep them that we think no pain trouble cost too much to save their lives and shall we lay out none of all this to save their souls Do we grieve at such a rate when we lose them and shall we not strive to make our losse as easie as we can that when God doth take them from us he may take them to himself And have we any warrant to beleeve that God will take whom he doth not know or know those that were never taught to know him Can we Lament over every misery of theirs else and not be troubled at the misery of their Soules weep and pray and advise when they are sicke and not afford them a teare a prayer an instruction as they are sinfull Do we well to feel the pain of their bodies which they feel themselves and to be insensible of the blindnesse of their souls which they feel not Can we rejoyce at all other good that betides them and endeavour the procurement of it and have we no affections to bestow upon their best good Are we glad that they have health and indifferent whether they have Grace glad they have an interest in the world indifferent whether they have an interest in Christ If we seriously Catechize our selves at some such rate as this and find how unable we are to answer that sin and folly which carries all our love to our children only to their outward concernments God might blesse it into a diversion of much of it towards their Souls and if the flame once break out at any rate this way we will not doubt but 't will sufficiently light and warm you in this great duty 4. The promise you made when your children were baptized was it not to instruct them in the knowledge of Christ to whom you dedicated them in that ordinance breach of promise specially breach of promise where the interest of Christ and of pretious Souls is so much concerned is not a sin of an ordinary magnitude We hope we shall not find one amongst you all that is incorrigibly guilty and so shall not upon the offer of any child to Baptisme hereafter be necessitated to demurre whether it be not our duty to deny it you or at least to defer it 3. In relation to your servants All that we have said already of the duty you owe to your whole Families as we have remembred you how special an interest your children have in it so we think it expedient to adde a little in particular reference to your servants to prevent any temptation you may have of supposing the care of their souls to be none at all of your concernment We shall lay what we have here to adde before you in a very few words 1. 'T is not for nothing that the title of father is bestowed upon Heads of Families in relation to more persons than the children of their bodies they are fathers to their servants 2 King 5. 13. you can never make that title good unlesse you excercise a fatherly care over them nor doth any care so well deserve this honourable appellation as a care of their souls which you can no way better expresse than by causing them to be instructed in the way to Heaven 2. They are advantageous members of your Families and in the sweat of their Browes doe ye eat much of your bread In the Inventory of mens estates are servants reckoned as a part of their riches Gen. 12. 16. and 24. 35. and 26. 14. and 30. 43. and 32. 5. 2 Kings 5. 26. Eccles. 2. 7. Shall they serve you and can you be carelesse whether they serve God or no that you pay them the wages of their work what will it profit them if you endeavour not to bring them to Christ that they may not receive the wages of their sins 3. Very much of your interest is wrapt up in their Piety we mean your interest as to outward things your affaires will prosper the better in their hands even wicked masters have found godly servants a great blessing pray read Gen. 39. 2. 3. and Chap. 30. 27. Philemon Ver. 10 11. and see if all that you have at home and abroad your Tillage your Cattle your Trading will not fare the better in case you teach your servants how to serve the Lord Christ as well as your selves 4. Set before your eyes the practice of the Saints Abraham had in his Family 318 Servants and they are all said to be his trained or instructed servants instructed and catechized in matters of Religion what ever you do for them if you leave out this do not even Publicans and sinners yea do not the Heathen which know not God the very same yea 5. Set the Catechizing of your servants in the things of God aside and doe ye more for them than ye do for your beasts have they victuals from you so have all your Cattle have they Clothing so have your Horses if they want it have they Lodging so have your Oxen yea your very Dogs do ye endeavour to procure them Remedies when they are sick
so you do for your Swine and are servants indeed of no more value than these have they not souls capable of blessednesse as well as you you differ not in stuffe but in use and that only by Gods ordinance from the poorest servant in your Family Ob. Our servants will not submit and what then shall we do Sol. 1. We hope they will we cannot think that any persons will be so base and low as to serve you that will by no means be perswaded to serve God or will submit to learn a Trade to live by but not to be saved by we hope at least better things Sol. 2. Have you Tryed have you set it before them and pressed it seriously frequently earnestly upon them as a duty if you have not we beseech you now to begin let them see what they owe to God to their own souls yea what obedience they owe to you Take the Scriptures in the margine and lay them home upon their consciences and in a way of prayer from God expect the issue Sol. 3. What are you wont to doe to make your servants comply in other things use the same authority in this if any will tell you though you have a coercive power over your servants in other matters yet you have none in this that you may compell them to learne how you may be served but not how themselves may be saved pray take Time to beleeve them till they have told you by what authority Abraham commanded his houshold to keep the way of the Lord and whether a Civill authority to command without a power to cause obedience be of any signification What commission Jacob had to reforme his whole family or how Josua will be excused from rashnesse in that resolute undertaking that He and his House would serve the Lord And untill they have offered you an expedient how you shall observe that Law of seeing the Sabbath sanctified by your men servants and maid servants if God that hath made it your duty shall account it your sin to cause it to be put in execution But we hope as we said you will finde no such difficulty in a work of so much consequence and that you may not wee have a request 2. To all in our respective Parishes that are under the family-Government of others children and servants of both sexes of what age soever if capable of being instructed and our request is for the Lords sake for your souls sake and as you wiâ—l answer the contrary at your perill when the dead both small and great shall stand before God and Christ shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that doe not know him When He that made you will have no mercy on you and He that formed you will shew you no favour in case he finde you a people of no understanding when every despiser of knowledge shall be eternally destroyed that you would constantly use all Helps at home and present your selves in the methode and order we shall appoint you to us your respective Ministers in the Congregation to be Catechized and instructed in the necessary Grounds of Religion Consider 1. We are not setting up a New way of Teaching you but reviving an old one a way that the Church of God hath walkt in many ages before we were borne the Church of God both Jewish and Christian and in the Christian Church men of the choicest Character for learning and piety have discharged the office of Catechizers as Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Optatus Basil Augustine Ambrose Cyrill c. whose names we beleeve many of you have heard of as of men famous in their generations 2. It s a way of Teaching that Christ himselfe in his child-hood was pleased to Honour with his presence when he was Twelve yeares old his parents found him in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctours both hearing them and asking them Questions Luc. 2. 46. This as Learned men observe was a meeting for Catechizing and we will but offer it to your observation whether the 47 verse and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers affordeth not ground enough to beleeve that Christ himselfe was Catechized and gave answers to the Questions that were propounded to him Dare you entertaine so much as a dâ—eame of salvation by this Christ and yet despise that ordinance which he hath Honoured 3. How Honourable it is to remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth to know God betimes It is mentioned to the great credit of Mnason that he was an old Disciple one that had knowne and followed Christ a long time of Obadiah that he feared the Lord from his youth of Timothy that he had knowne the holy Scriptures from a childe of David that he made hast and delayed not to keep Gods Commandments of Andronicus and Junia that they were in Christ before Paul and it will be your Honour and happiness to be instructed in the wayes of God betimes Ob. But some of us are very young and we may stay a while it will be Time enough to learne what belongs to Religâ—on and the wayes of God hereafter Sol. 1. A child is to be Trained up in the way that he should walk Pâ—o 22. 6. Sol. 2. If you that can make this objection be not too young to be damned you cannot be too young to be Catechized those that are old enough to sin are old enough to perish and there 's no life eternall but to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh 17. 3. Ob. Some of us are at men and womens estate ready to be married and we are ashamed to come and stand among the little children to be Catechized Sol. 1. If you are ashamed that you have at this age need to be Catechized t is a good signe it proceeds we hope from a sense of your ignorance and a conviction of your sinne in neglecting this meanes of instruction all this while and we shall look upon it as an Argument that you will not goe on to sin against your consciences in neglecting it any longer 2. If you be ashamed to own and learne the Doctrine of Christ see what impressions will be upon your spirits after you have laid to heart that resolution of Christ which you finde recorded Luke 9. 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels 3. Whether doe you think it more advisable to goe to Hell with graver company or to Heaven with children or doe ye beleeve you shall ever meet them at the end with whom you are ashamed to be seen in the way 4. That you are ready to be married is an Argument that we would borrow of you to perswade you to be the readier to be Catechized will you