ingenious persons consider of that passage of the Gospel Luke 11. 1. where in the first place we find our Saviour was at Prayers and that it was not secret Prayer but with his Disciples is more than probable since they were present at them and accordingly when he had concluded one of them asks him to instruct them how to pray Now if this be acknowledged then here is our Saviours Example for what we are discoursing of forasmuch as the Disciples with whom he was at Prayer were his Family But that which I observe further is they ask him to teach them to pray as John taught his Disciples that is to prescribe them a form wherein they who were his Family might join together as the Family or Disciples of John did or not only to pray severally or secretly but in Conjunction and Society and this our Saviour gratifies them in by prescribing to them the well-known and admirable form in which these two things are further remarkable to this purpose first that the Prayer is in the plural number which renders it far more probable that it was intended for a social office For though some other account may be given of his using that number yet nothing is so natural as this reason which I have intimated Secondly The very petitions themselves if they be considered will incline a man to think that though the Prayer was contrived with infinite wisdom to fit other purposes yet it was primarily intended for the use of a Family or Society especially such an one as this of our Saviours Disciples was but so much for that 2. The next instance of Family Duty is the sanctification of the Lords Day and other days and times set apart for his service As for the Lords Day though it be undoubtedly true that as the Jewish Sabbath which is our Saturday is not obliging to Christians at all so neither are we bound to observe any day with that Sabbatical nicety and strictness which for special reasons was required of that people yet that the first day of the Week or the Lords Day be observed piously and devoutly is recommended to us by the constant practice of the Christian Church And the sanctification of it principally consists in this that we make it a day peculiar for the offices of Piety and Devotion as other days are for common and secular affairs for though the business of Religion must be carried on every day of our lives and that be a profane day indeed in which God hath not some share allowed for his service yet as God hath not required that it be the whole work of those days but after a little of the time be consecrated to him the residue be applied to the common affairs of Life so on the Lords Day we are allowed to consult our infirmity to provide for necessity and to do works of humanity or mercy but the proper business of the day is Religion and to that the main of it must be applied And there is great reason for this namely by this interruption of the course of Worldly affairs in some measure to take our hearts off from them for we should hardly avoid sinking absolutely into the cares and business of this life if we went on in a continual course and were not obliged at certain intervals of time to retreat from them and betake our selves to things of another nature by which means also we begin to practise an Heavenly Sabbatism and inure our selves by degrees to those spiritual imployments which we are to enter upon and be everlastingly performing in another World Let therefore the pious man thus sanctify the Lords Day by applying it to holy uses that is besides publick worship to reading Meditation singing of Psalms and grave Discourses of Religion and let him according as he hath Warrant from the fourth Commandment oblige all those within his Gates to do so too and not only restrain his Family from common labours but from lightness and folly tipling and gossipping idle visits and impertinent talking of News and use his indeavour to ingage them to be as much in earnest about the service of God and their Souls on that day as they are about their business or pleasure on other days As for other holy days set apart by the appointment of the Church there is very good use to be made of them too for besides that the great Festivals are the ignorant mans Gospel and bring to his mind all the great passages of our Saviour and his Apostles it is certain also that God hath not so strictly tasked us to the labour of six days as that he will not be better pleased if we now and then apply some of them to his honour and make a sally towards Heaven but then the observation of these days is not to be made merely a relaxation from servile work nor much less a dispensation for looseness and profaneness but God must be served on them with greater diligence than can be ordinarily expected on other days And this is another branch of the pious mans duty in his Family 3. There is another thing I would mention in the third place amongst Family exercises which I do not call a necessary duty but would offer it to consideration whether it be not adviseable in some cases for the promotion of Family Piety that in every Family where it can be done some persons should be incouraged to take notes of the Sermons which are preached in the Church and repeat them at home forasmuch as this course would not only afford a very seasonable and excellent entertainment for the Family in the intervals of publick worship on the Lords Day but would also be very advantagious both to Minister and People For the Minister it would incourage him to study and to deliver weighty things when he saw his words were not likely to perish in the hearing and be lost in the air but be reviewed and considered of by which means one Sermon would be as good as two and might serve accordingly For the People it would put the most ordinary sort of them upon considering and indeavouring to remember and make something of that which is delivered to them when they observe that some of the ablest of the Congregation think it worth their pains to take so exact notice of it as to write it down at least they would be ashamed to snore and yawn when others are so intent and serious And as for the Family in which the repetition is made they would have further occasion to observe with what clearness and evidence the doctrine was inferred from the Text opportunity to weigh the arguments used to inforce it and be put upon making application of all to their own Consciences But I foresee several objections such as they are will be made against this it will be said this course is unfashionable and puritanical that experience hath discovered that writing after Sermons hath taught men to be conceited and captious and
is not so to be understood as if the obligations of Religion extended no further than to acts of worship or address to God for it is as much our duty to manage our selves well towards others for Gods sake as towards him for his own sake And therefore as hath been intimated heretofore true Piety in its just dimensions comprizes no less than a worthy discharge of our selves in all those relations Divine Providence hath placed us in Now next to our obligations to our Creator and Preserver and next to our concern for the better part of our selves our own Souls a man stands related to his Family so nearly that he is wanting in both the former that is negligent of this Almighty Wisdom and Goodness pronounced it not fit for man to be alone and therefore the first provision he made against the uncomfortable state of solitude was to enter him into the Society of a Family partly that in so near a station they might mutually relieve and help one another in difficulties entertain one another by Discourse and improve one anothers reason partly that in this Conjunction they might fortify one anothers Spirits against all ill accidents or the enterprizes of wicked and malicious Spirits more powerful than themselves but principally that they might mutually provoke and inflame one anothers hearts to admiration love and reverence of their great Creator And this end is so great and the injunction of it so strict that every man in this Society stands charged with the Soul of another and is accountable for it at least so far that he cannot be excusable that doth not indeavour to bring those with whom he so intimately converses and upon whom he hath so many opportunities to a sense and regard of God and Religion And this especially concerns those that are heads of Families forasmuch as by virtue of their place they have always been accounted not only Kings and Governours but also Prophets and Priests within their peculiar sphere and province Accordingly we find it to have been the constant care and practice of all good men in all Ages to train up those of their Families in the knowledge of the true God and the exercises of true Religion particularly God himself testifies of Abraham Gen. 18 19. that he knew he would command his children and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord c. And Job 1. 5. we find it to have been the continual care of that holy man to sanctify his Children and Family and daily to intercede with God for them by Sacrifice Deut. 6. 6. it is an express injunction upon the Children of Israel that they not only keep the laws of God in their own hearts but that they should teach them diligently to their Children and talk of them when they sate in their houses and when they walked by the way c. that is that they should convey and imprint a sense of God and his Religion upon the minds of those they familiarly conversed with And so great is the authority and influence of Governours of Families and so powerful is good example in this particular that Josh 24. 15. Joshua undertakes for his Family that they should serve the Lord whether other people would do so or no. David often declares his zeal for the maintenance of Religion in his Family so far that he resolves those persons should be excluded his House that made no Conscience of God and most remarkably 1 Chr. 28. 9. he gives this solemn charge to his Son Solomon Thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imagination of the thoughts if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever And for the times of the New Testament there is abundant evidence that it was the constant practice of all those who had a sense of Religion in their hearts to set it up in their Families also of which the testimonies are so many and so ready at hand that it is needless here to recite them and the success was commonly answerable to the indeavour from whence it comes to pass that Acts 10. 2. it is said of Cornelius that he was not only a devout man and prayed to God always but that he feared the Lord with all his house i. e. his Example Prayers and instruction prevailed upon all those that were under the influence of them to bring them to at least a profession of piety also upon which account it is further observable that generally when any Governour of a Family imbraced the Christian Faith and was converted to that Religion it is said that such an one believed and all his house or he and all his house were baptized namely because truly good men did not fail by their example and endeavours to bring those over to the same Religion which themselves were heartily perswaded of and accordingly we see it often come to pass in these times wherein we live that several persons very heartily bless God that his providence disposed them into such or such pious Families wherein the foundation of their eternal happiness hath been laid by the means of the instructive and exemplary devotion which they have there been under the advantages of upon consideration of all which reasons examples and incouragements and several others which might with great ease have been added let no good Christian be of so monastick a spirit as to extend his care no farther than his own Cell and to think he hath acquitted himself well enough when he hath discharged the offices of his Closet and hath kept Religion glowing in his own heart but think it his duty to take care that his light shine quite through his House and that his zeal warm all his Family In order to which we will here consider these three things First Of the several members which usually a Family consists of and which are concern'd in its discipline Secondly The several duties of piety which especially become and concern a Family And thirdly By what means the members of a Family may be brought to comply with all those duties 1. First The ordinary relations of a Family especially as it signifies those which dwell or converse together under the same roof are Husband and Wife Parent and Children Master and Servant Friend and Friend and all these I take to be comprized in those several passages of the Acts of the Apostles where it is said that such a man and all his house were converted or baptized for there are great interests of Religion which intercede between every of these as for the relation of Husband and Wife as it is the nearest and strictest that can be so consequently it is of mighty importance to their mutual comfort and a wonderful indearment of affections when both the relatives are animated with
tells us there is a time for every thing so let every man who would promote Religion in his Family appoint set hours for Prayer and all the offices of Devotion and then it will neither be difficult to obtain the constant observance of them nor so ordinary to perform them carelesly and formally 6. Sixthly and lastly It will be the wisdom of every Master of a Family who would bring those which are under his care and tuition to an uniformity in Religion and the worship of God and to seriousness and heartiness therein that he express all tender affection to them and regard of them when any of them happen to be sick or under any adversity and by that means make to himself an opportunity of obliging them to take his counsel and follow his direction in all other cases We use to say he that will gain an interest in any man so that he may be useful to him or compliant with him in his prosperity must lay the foundation of his Friendship in that mans adversity For no man knows who are his Friends till he hath occasion to make experiment of them which cannot be done but in adversity for every man is a Friend to him that hath no need to him but he that like the good Samaritan deserts us not in our greatest difficulties him we have just grounds to value and confide in Now above all kindnesses men are most sensible of those which are done to their Bodies and they commonly take the measures of all Friendship and sincerity from thence and therefore he that will win upon the minds of men must first oblige them in their bodily interests Besides as we observe that all inferiour Creatures are most tractable and docible at such times as wherein they are lowest and can least help themselves so mankind is most disposed to take advice and most obedient to counsel when he is at a non-plus in his affairs and especially when the vanities of this World which dazled his Eyes before begin to vanish and there seems to be but one way left with him that is to prepare for another life he will then freely admit of Discourse of the other World and be glad to comply with all serious advice in order thereunto These seasons of adversity therefore are by no means to be let slip by him who is tender of the Souls of those who are under his charge To which add that forasmuch as it is the constant method of all the Zealots and Emissaries of false Religions to insinuate themselves into sick and calamitous persons to the end that by such an opportunity they may gain Disciples to their party and they too frequently find this subtilty successful the consideration hereof ought to awaken the diligence and incourage the hopes and indeavours of all those that sincerely desire to save their own Souls and those that are imbarqued with them to apprehend and improve such opportunities to better purposes especially seeing that in such seasons men are as capable of good principles as of bad if there be not as much shameful and supine carelessness on the one side as there is commonly vigilance and application on the other And so much for Family-Piety CHAP. VI. Of publick Piety and particularly of governing a mans self in relation to the Church and publick assembly of Christians AS it is certain we were not born for our selves so neither is it a sufficient discharge of our duty that we be useful in our private Family or amongst our Kindred and Relations only but that we express a zeal of Gods glory and the good of Mankind answerable to the full extent of our capacity and let our light so shine out before men that we may provoke as many as are within our reach to glorify our Father which is in Heaven Now every private man is in some measure concerned in the Neighbourhood and Parish wherein he dwells and whereto he belongs and therefore should so far at least dispense the influence of his zeal for God and Religion for Almighty God who hath appointed the bounds of mens habitation having thus setled every man in his station expects that he should look upon this as his proper sphere and adorn it as his peculiar Province No private man hath any just reason ordinarily to prompt him to go beyond this forasmuch as if every good man would do his part within these bounds the whole World would be amended and he that is remiss and negligent in this cannot easily satisfy himself that he hath demonstrated such love to God as becomes him nor can he expect to reap all those comforts and benefits which otherwise by a conscientious discharge of himself in this particular might redound to him Now that which we mean by the relation to a Neighbourhood or a Parish hath a double consideration First As every Parish is or ought to be a branch or member of the Church Secondly As it is a branch or member of the Commonwealth Accordingly there is a double obligation lies upon every man that is within the bounds of it and from thence arise duties of a different nature for brevity and perspicuity I will distinguish them by the names of Ecclesiastical and Civil Piety and then shew what each of them comprehends beginning with that which I call Ecclesiastical Piety or the discharge of such publick duties as especially concern the Society of a Church And this consists in these few following particulars 1. That a man join himself to and carry himself as a member of the Church and not out of pride phantastry or contempt separate himself from it or schismatically set up Factions and Conventicles against it It is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ established the Society of a Church that is appointed that all those who would be his Disciples should not content themselves singly and particularly to believe on him but should all be obliged to associate themselves and make up a body or spiritual corporation wherein they were to hold Communion with each other as members as well as with him their head The ends and uses of this institution were very many and great for besides that by this means order and unity is promoted which is very beautiful in the Eyes of God himself our Lord hereby provided that the truth of Christianity might be jointly held up in the World and the several members of this Society become mutually more helpful and comfortable to each other and also that by a constant method of Christian intercourse here they may be fitted for Eternal Friendship and Society in Heaven In subserviency to all these ends publick Officers were appointed in the Church to govern and to instruct the several members of it which it were plainly impossible for them to do unless their numbers were almost infinite and equal to that of the people if it had not been that the people were to join together and become a common flock for those Officers to govern and
instruct Moreover it was also the intention of our Saviour that this Church of his should be but one and Catholick imbracing all the true Believers all the World over and therefore it is called his Body and his Spouse from whence it follows that every man who will partake of the benefits which flow from him must be a part of this Body and thereby hold Communion with him by Conjunction with that which is otherwise impossible to be done than by joining with that part of the Catholick Church where it hath pleased the Divine Providence to settle our abode and habitation that is in the Parish and Neighbourhood where we dwell for without this though it 's possible we may retain the fame Faith in our hearts with the Catholick Church yet we cannot perform the offices of members nor serve the ends of such a Society The result is therefore that it is ordinarily every Christians Duty to communicate in all the offices of Christianity to submit to the Officers to be subject to the censures ahd to comply with the orders of that part of the Church amongst which the Divine Providence hath placed him I say ordinarily because it may happen that the Society of Christians amongst whom a man lives may be heretical in their Doctrine or Idolatrous in their Worship and then it will not be his sin but his duty to separate from them but bating that case and where the Doctrine is sound and the worship free from Idolatry I see not what else can acquit him of Schism that separates or what can be sufficient to dissolve the obligation of joining with the Catholick Church by Conjunction with that particular Society or Member of it where he is placed Therefore let not the good Christian without flat necessity suffer himself to be alienated from the particular Church lest by so doing he lose the comforts and benefits of the Catholick Church but let it be his care and indeavour so far as it is in his power that there may be but one Church in the World as was the intention of our Saviour to this purpose let him not hearken to the fond pretences of purer Ordinances and double refined worship or to the vain boasts of greater edification in other Assemblies for besides that a man may justly expect most of Gods blessing upon those means which are most his duty to apply himself unto it is also evident that if such suggestions be attended to it will be flatly impossible that there should ever be such a thing as unity or order in the Christian Church nay these conceits will not only distract and confound the order of the Church but they serve to fill mens heads with endless disputes and their hearts with perpetual scruples about purity of administrations so that they shall rest no where but under pretence of soaring higher and higher shall ramble from one Church to another till at last they cast off all Ordinances as the highest attainment of spirituality Nor let him give ear to any peevish insinuations against the Church and publick worship upon account that there are some Rites or Ceremonies made use of which are only of humane institution for it is not only reasonable to hope that God will be well pleased with humility peaceableness and obedience to humane Laws but certain that there is no Church in the World that is or can be without some observances that have no higher original than humane institution But against these and all other such like principles of separation let him indeavour to secure himself First by dismissing the prejudices of Education and the unnecessary scrupulosities of a melancholy temper and above all acquit himself of pride and pragmaticalness and then he will easily and comfortably comply with any sound part of the Christian Church In pursuance whereof 2. He must diligently frequent all the publick offices of Religion in that Society whether it be Prayers Preaching or reading the word of God or Administration of the Sacraments c. For it is a mighty shame that a man should pretend to be of the Church who cares not how little or how seldom he comes at it and who slights the advantages of its Communion For such a man however he may hector and swagger for the notion of a Church manifestly betrays that all is but humour or interest and no true principle of Christianity at the bottom and really he doth more dishonour to that Society than the professed Schismatick doth or can do For besides that he incourages them in their contempt of it and discourages good men in their zeal for it he foments the suspicion of Atheistical men that Religion is but a politick trick to catch silly persons with whilest those that are privy to the plot keep out of the bondage of it I need not adde That he defeats the institution of our Saviour that he baulks his own Conscience if he have any and aggravates his own Damnation which are all very sad things On the other side the blessings and comforts of frequenting the offices of the Church are so many and great that it is not imaginable how any man who is convinced of the duty of Communion in general should be able to neglect the particular instances of it For besides that the Church is Gods House where he is especially present and where we meet him and place our selves under his eye and observation and from whence he usually dispenses his favours it is a great furtherance of our zeal and piety to be in the presence of one another where the example of holy fervour and devotion in one powerfully strikes and affects others There is also an extraordinary majesty in the word of God when it is not only fitted to our peculiar condition but authoritatively pronounced and applied to our Conscience by Gods Messenger Above all in Prayers when our Petitions and requests are not only put up to Almighty God by his own Minister appointed for this purpose but our weakness is relieved our spirits incouraged and we are inabled notwithstanding our private meanness or guilt to hope for acceptance and success in our desires by the concurrent Devotions of so many holy men as there join with us in the same suit and in the same words and whose united importunity besieges Heaven and prevails with Almighty Goodness for a blessing Wherefore let no man permit the private exercises of Piety it self such as Prayer reading or Meditation to supersede or hinder his attendance upon the publick offices of the Church seeing that as these yield more publick honour to the Divine Majesty so they are more effectual for our own benefit much less let sloth or too great eagerness upon the affairs of the World make us forget or neglect them but least of all let any lukewarm indifferency or Atheistical carelessness seise upon any man in this particular but let the man who glories to be of the Christian Church be sure to be found there in
especially let him remember to frequent them constantly and intirely By constancy of attendance upon publick worship I mean that he should not only apply himself to it on the Sundays or Lords Days but every Day of the Week if there be opportunity and by intireness of Gods Service I understand it to be his duty both to go at the beginning and to join in it both Morning and Evening that by all together he may not only sure himself and his own Conscience of his heartiness and sincerity but demonstrate to all about him the great sense he hath of the moment of Religion and that he looks upon the serving of God as of greater consequence than all other interests whatsoever As for the first of these viz. the frequenting the publick Prayers every day where they are to be had it is observable in the character of Cornelius Acts 10. 2. that amongst other instances of devotion it is said of him that he prayed to God always which cannot well be understood of any thing else but his daily frequenting the publick Prayers because his private Prayers could not be so well known as to make his Character But most expresly it is said of all that believed Acts 2. 46. that they continued daily with one accord in the temple which must needs principally have reference to this duty of publick Prayer and it is very hard if any man be so put to it that he cannot spare one hour in a Day to do publick honour to the Divine Majesty or rather it is a great sign of unbelief in his providence as well as want of love to him if a man cannot trust God so far as to hope that such a time spent in his service shall be recompensed by his blessing upon the residue of the Day or however a good Christian will be well contented and gladly sacrifice so much of his secular interests as this comes to to the Divine Majesty As for the second point viz. going at the beginning of Prayers it is a shameful neglect which several persons are guilty of who will not altogether be absent from the Church but yet will come commonly so late that they not only lose part of the Prayers but enter very abruptly and irreverently upon that which they partake of It is possible a man may sometimes be surprized by the time or diverted from his intention by some emergency but to be frequently tardy is an argument that he loves something better than God and his worship For doubtless a good Christian would ordinarily choose rather to stay for the Minister than that the publick office should stay for him and thinks it fitter to spend a little time in preparing and disposing his heart for the duties of Religion than either to enter into the divine presence rudely or to serve him only by halves And as for the third branch of this instance of Devotion viz. the resorting both to Morning and Evening Service it is observable Acts 3. 1. that the Apostles were at the temple at the hour of Prayer being the ninth hour which is both a proof of their frequenting the Evening Service as well as that of the Morning and also an example of observing the just and stated times of publick worship and surely it will become every good Christian to be lead by such a precedent especially seeing the Gospel worship which we resort to is so much more excellent and comfortable than the Jewish was which those holy men thus carefully frequented as we shall see by and by 5. In the next place it is to be minded that in all these publick approaches to Gods House we are to express a great reverence towards the Divine Majesty by which I do not only mean that we ought in our hearts to think worthily of him and prostrate all the inward powers of our Souls to him but that in our outward man in our carriage and bodily deportment we express an awful regard to him by all such gestures and signs as according to the common opinion of men are taken to betoken the highest reverence and observance such as standing kneeling bowing and prostrations of our selves before him For though the heart be that which God principally looks at yet forasmuch as he made our bodies as well as our Souls and we hope he will save both he therefore expects we should glorify him both with our souls and with our bodies which are his and which he hath bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. And indeed there is such a nearness and sympathy between our bodies and spirits that they ordinarily move by consent and draw one another into compliance Insomuch that he who truly bows his Soul to God can scarcely forbear at the same time to bow his knees to him also and he on the other side that bows his knee to him is by that very motion of his body in some measure put in mind to entertain reverential thoughts and affections towards him And this care of bodily worship is the more important in publick service and especially in Gods House because as I noted before then and there his honour and grandeur is concerned and any indecent carriage in such a case is an affront to him and exposes him to contempt in the eyes of men and therefore that carriage which in secret worship might admit of excuse will in publick be intolerable profaneness Wherefore let not the pious man be affrighted by any one out of the expressions of bodily reverence under the notion of superstition which is become a Bugbear by which weak men are made afraid of every instance of a decorous or generous Devotion There can be no culpable superstition in our worship so long as we have the true object for it and whilest we use not such expressions of our Devotion as he hath forbidden but this of bodily reverence is so far from being forbidden that it is expresly required in the holy Scripture and hath been constantly practised by all holy men Nor let the phancy of a spiritual worship required under the Gospel beguile any man into a contempt or neglect of bodily reverence for it is plain that although the Christian Religion raises mens inward Devotion higher yet it abates nothing of outward adoration but rather when it requires the former should be more intense and affectionate it supposes the other should be answerable because it is natural so to be for this being the accessory cannot but follow the principal It is true there is a possibility that more stress may be laid upon the shadow than the substance and some men may hope to complement God Almighty out of his right to their hearts by the addresses of their bodies but the fault in this case is not that there is too much of the latter but too little of the former and the good Christian therefore will be sure to join both together and as he will come to Gods House with the most elevated affections so he will