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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A60133 Family religion in three letters to a friend / by John Shower. Shower, John, 1657-1715. 1694 (1694) Wing S3666; ESTC R33838 45,661 120

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instruct them and assist them in This their most Important Concern It might be hoped that if Parents did their part in the use of God's first appointed Means to sanctify their Children he would usually bless their Indeavours in order to his saving Grace And when serious Religion is once got into a Family it has been observed for your Encouragement that ordinarily the Grace of God doth not soon leave it tho there may be some sad Interruption yet it appears many times again in Grand-Children and Great Grand-Children as in the Seed of good Jehoshaphat and others 2 Chron. 20.21.22 Chap. Jotham had Ahaz but Ahaz had Hezekiah and if not in the direct Line yet collaterally So that by this means you may transmit Religion to Posterity from Generation to Generation as Sin is propagated from Father to Son and from one wicked Family diffused to many others And you perpetuate your own Name and Honour too for Godly Children occasion their Parents to be called to Memory By beholding Timothy's Piety the Apostle is minded to remember his Mother and Grandmother Eunice and Lois 2 Tim. 1.5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned Faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grandmother Lois and thy Mother Eunice and I am perswaded that in thee also The Piety and Care of holy Women is recorded with Honour Acts 16.1 Behold a certain Disciple was there named Timotheus the Son of a certain Woman which was a Jewess and believed but his Father was a Greek Such is the fingular Usefulness of the holy Government of Families to reform the World and destroy the Kingdom and Interest of the Devil that there is hardly any thing that Men have more Objections against or more Evasions and Excuses to extenuate the Noglect of their Duty or perswade themselves it is none than in this Case One of the most common and prevailing Cavils is this That if they bring their Children and Servants to the Publick Worship to be taught by the Minister there is no positive express Scripture for the Worship of God in their Families to call them together to pray with them and read the Scriptures c. But in how many other cases is it granted that the want of a positive express Command will not conclude such or such a Thing to be no Duty The Baptism of Infants the Sanctification of the first Day of the Week as the Christian Sabbath the Admission of Women to the Lord's-Table and other Instances may be given which may be proved to be Matter of Duty without positive express Command The Apostle is said to confound the Jews dwelling at Damascus proving out of the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.21 it must be by the Harmony of the Holy Scriptures and by Deductions from express Texts for he did not bring any one particular Scripture out of the Old Testament to prove in so many Letters that Jesus was the Christ Nor did our Lord in his Proof of the Resurrection of the Dead against the Pharisees out of the Old Testament Mat. 22.37 There are no such words as the Resursurrection of the Dead mention'd in that Passage from which he proves it I am the God of Abraham c. 'T is an Argument of a very perverse Mind to insist so much upon positive Scriptural Proof of that as our Duty which must be acknowledged to be so much for our Benefit and Advantage and for the Publick Good There is reason enough to believe that they who pretend there is no express Scripture for this kind of Duty would little mind it if there were never so many and never so express for if Men were true to God and their own Souls in those things for which we have the most positive and express and repeated Authority of the Holy Scriptures they would not raise such a Scruple There is an express Command to Repent of Sin and to Believe on Christ and to make your Calling and Election sure to Redeem your Time and walk Circumspectly to do good unto all to pray every where and all sorts of Prayer and in every Calling Station and Relation therein to abide with God to live by Faith upon the invisible World to prepare to die and to remember the Judgment-Seat of Christ before which we must be made to stand to answer for all we have received and done in the Body c. there are Express Scriptures about these things And did we believe them remember them and obey them we should soon see Reason and Evidence sufficient for all that Duty of worshiping God and promoting Religion in our Families which I would now press I know there be some Arguments used from Scripture upon this Subject which many think will not conclude all that which they are brought to prove As that because we read of the Church of God in such a Man's House Rom. 16.5 when it is likely there were no common Assemblies of Christians at Rome that therefore every House should be as a Church by daily Prayer and Praise to God For the House of God is an House of Prayer and a Church is God's House I will not urge this because a House might be called a Church only on the Account of the Church sometimes assembling for Divine Worship in such a Man's House I grant the smallest Congregation of the Faithful met to worship God may bear the Name of a Church However I do not believe this Argument because I believe it true of many in this City and Nation and wish I had no ground for it that they have had frequent Meetings in their Houses for Prayer and Preaching and divers Christians have resprted to the Worship of God there and yet the Master of the Family lived in the neglect of Family Prayer and the daily Worship of God in his House Neither will I urge the Example of our Saviour Christ his praying with his Disciples Though much may be gathered from his Pattern as having a Family whereof he was the Master and his Twelve Apostles Members Constant Residence in one House is not necessary to constitute the Relation between the Head of a Family and the Members of it We read of his instructing 'em praying with 'em and praising God by singing together c. But I will not lay too much stress on this Example because though our Blessed Lord did occasionally pray with his Disciples as we find in several places of the Gospel-History yet his Case and ours are vastly different What was suitable for his Disciples was not proper for him He could not ordinarily be their Mouth in Prayer for what they daily needed He could not for himself ask the Forgiveness of Sin and the Mortification of Lust and the Increase of Grace c. But there is enough from the Holy Scriptures to convince those that will seriously consider it of the Duty of Family Religion and Prayer as a part of it For Instance we read of Joshua that he resolves for himself