have the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth may you be richly stor'd with grace and come behind in no gift thoroughly furnished for every good work yea and fill'd with all the fulness of God but withall be very humble great in value and usefulness but little in your own eyes that will not be to your loss but much to your advantage for God gives grace to the Humble and no less to your Honour Humility eclipseth and obscures no Mans glory but sets a singular lustre and gloss upon it making it shine with a greater brightness Holy and Humble Paul was one of the most Eminent Servants God ever had in the World and his speaking of himself as being less than the least of all Saints detracted nothing from his real worth nor did it hinder his being equal with the chief of the Apostles if we may speak of a chief among them among whom our Lord appointed a Parity at that time there was no such thing as a Pope I would not speak one word to swell or puff any of you up if you study and know your selves as you ought you will soon find defects infirmities corruptions enough to keep the best of you down yet I cannot but say you are my Joy and Crown and as I do every day make mention of you in my Prayers so I can and frequently do bless and give thanks to my God upon my remembrance of you and that upon sundry accounts which I speak of for your encouragement and the promoting your farther progress I have reason to hope it is the true grace of God in which you stand and as you have a Name to live so you have been made partakers of the Life it self for as you do all make a good and excellent Profession so I know none of you that stain and contradict it by a scandalous walking You have been stedfast in shaking and falling Times some did indeed go off in the Days of sore Persecution not having on the whole Armour of God nor being able to indure Hardship as the good Souldiers of Jesus but they were few so few that we did not miss them we do not want them the Lord grant that they may find Mercy of the Lord at the great Day I shall be glad to meet them in Heaven You have received and owâ—â—d me as an Angel or Messenger of God and the delight you take in my Ministry hath evidenced it self and still doth by your constant attendance upon it In this Sceptick Age you have been Wise to Sobriety in this Erroneous Age you have been sound in the Faith neither admiring the pretended new Lights nor falling in love with those old rotten Errours which some have dig'd out of their Graves In this dividing Age you have kept the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace you are not for taking up a Yoke of Bondage but for standing fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free yet no Friends to Licenciousness While you flee to the Gospel for Relief and Comfort you own the Law for your Rule you do not divide Christ but take him just as God hath exalted him and doth offer him Prince as well as Saviour and not only to be an underling to pay your Debts and bear your Burdens and die for your Offences but likewise to be a King upon his Throne Commanding and Ruling you And as you rely only upon him for Righteousness so you desire to imitate and follow him in his Holiness and to shew forth his Vertues who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light Am I mistaken in any of you as to these things I hope I am not the Lord grant I may not I know of no wild Notions nor loose Opinions among you may there never be any but all of you have as one said Heads well-hearted and Hearts well-headed and so a soundness throughout May you approve your selves to God and Men being good Christians good Subjects good Citizens good Husbands and Wives good Parents and Children good Masters Mistresses and Servants good Friends and Neighbours filled with the Holy Ghost and Goodness and all the Fruits of Righteousness Love God Father Son and Spirit with a supreame intire and most intense love think the most vehement flame of your love too cold here Love the Church of God study seek and pray for her good Love all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity though in some things they differ from you let not that cause any alienation in Affection so long as they hold the Head count them Brethren and be dear over them as such love one another help one another quicken strengthen comfort one another provoke one another to Love and good Works rejoice in one anothers Mercies sympathize with one anothers Afflictions bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ. Most dearly Beloved my Mouth is open to you and my Heart enlarged The great God knows I do as really desire and pray for the Prosperity and Salvation of you all and of all yours as I do mine own and in the following Sermons I have commended no other things to you than what I believe and know to be both your Duty and Interest and would my self be found in the practice of if we call our selves Christians let us be Christians Israelites and Israelites indeed what signifies the Name without the thing Gird up I beseech you gird up the Loins of your Minds make no trifling Objections listen not yield not to any wicked Temptations but apply to your Work act for God in your Places to the utmost shine bright in your own Sphere keep your Hearts continually in an holy frame fit for Communion with God in Duty be not now backward to it nor hereafter weary of it Though you have but a little stock of Knowledge and Parts fall to Trading and you will increase it Be not discouraged because you cannot do what you would God accepts of the Will when the Disciples were offended with a good Woman Christ's plea for her was She hath done what she could The Lord told his Servant he had been faithful in his little and thereupon gave him an entrance into his Joy Your little will find great acceptance and be rewarded with great Blessings so it be your Best In short would you stem the Tide of Profaneness which breaks in upon us with fury Would you save the Life of Practical Religion which is brought very low and in a deep Consumption Would you be instrumental for the preserving of a Seed to serve the Lord Would you be able to give a good account of your selves in the Day when God shall come to Reckon with you And do you desire the present and future welfare of those precious Souls which are committed to your Care then observe the Rules and follow the Counsels of God which are given in this Book And the God of Heaven accept you in the Beloved grant your
12.1 2. not only for encouragement but likewise for direction Now he had a Family his Twelve Disciples were his Family and he prayed and gave thanks at his Meats and also at other times and he prayed not only for them but with them Luke 9.16 As he was alone praying his Disciples were with him Here is a seeming contradiction that Christ should be said to be alone and yet his Disciples with him but there is no real one for that word alone must be understood as intimating no more than the multitudes being departed from him when the Miracle of Feeding Five Thousand Men with Five Loaves and Two Fishes had been wrought they having what they came for the filling of their Bellies and satisfying their Curiosity withdrew themselves and went away and they being gone he went to Prayer which was a work he greatly delighted in and in and at that Prayer his Disciples were with him I hope it may without vanity be said That in what I have spoken to you upon this Subject there is enough said for the satisfaction of any sober serious and consciencious Christian that the setting and keeping up of the Family-worship of God is the Duty of those that are the Masters or Governours of Families Wilful Cavillers against plain Truths are not worthy nor fit to be dealt with time and pains bestowed upon them is meerly thrown away Therefore as for those wicked Persons who are either of Atheistical Principles not believing but denying the Being of a God or of desperately Profane Spirits that value neither his Love nor his Wrath and so have no fear of him before their Eyes I do not now in these Discourses go about to perswade them another course must be first taken with them them I leave to the great and mighty God begging that he would have Mercy upon them in convincing them that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and that there is a day coming when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1.7 8 9. So we have done with the first thing propounded viz. That Family-worship is a Duty the second part of the work before us is to prove that there is very great and cogent reasons for our performance of this Duty and that it is using the Apostle Paul's expression no other than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your reasonable service That which is to be done by rational Creatures and is most consonant and agreeable to the Principles and Dictates of right Reason and I doubt not but this will appear evidently to you if you will duly consider and weigh the Arguments which we shall draw from these Four Topicks 1. From God 2. From Governours of Families 3. From the Families themselves 4. From the Publick You will find that there do Obligations rise from all these many and strong ones for the enaging and binding you hereunto the good Lord grant we may study the Obligations and answer them by a suitable practice First You are to set up Religious Worship in your Families upon the account of the most great and glorious God who alone is the proper Object of it unto whom it is to be performed And here are three things which did immediately occur to my thoughts and which I do now offer to your Consideration I. God is the Author and Original of our Families They had their Being from God and therefore they should pay Homage and perform Service unto him this is that which doth without all Controversie lay an Everlasting Engagement upon particular Persons high and low young and old to serve God to love him with all their Hearts to fear him all the day and to worship him because he made them Children are to honour their Father and Mother but God much more because God was the principal efficient of their Being their Earthly Parents no more than Instruments in his Hand And if it be a good way of arguing in David and so in us to say as he did Psal. 119.94 I am thine save me and verse 73. Thy hands have made me and fashion'd me give me understanding It cannot but be as strong and if we be ingenuous as forcible and taking an Argument on God's side for him to say to us You are mine you were wonderfully made formed and fashioned by my wisdom and the hand of my power therefore do you serve me It is full out as good an Argument for Duty as it can be a plea for Mercy do not the Rivers send back their Waters to the Sea from which they received them And shall not Man return praise and service to God from whom he received life and strength all that he is and hath I desire you to take notice what a loud and earnest call there is and how much importunity the Prophet useth in Psal. 100. 1 2. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands Be joyful be chearful it is lawful for you to be so it is allowed you to be so and if you be gracious of all persons in the World you have the greatest right to Joy only see that your Joy be directed to God and terminated in God Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Well he goeth on vers 2. Serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing Do not go to his work as Bears to a Stake nor meerly as to a Task but as to your Recreation as to your Meat and Drink so Christ did be sure that your duty be your delight And yet again he adds Enter into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his Name We should labour to have our hearts greatly raised and enlarged in our serving of God that we have such a God so glorious so good and that he is pleased to admit us into his Service and employ us about it But why all this what reason is there for it doth any one here ask that Question let him know yea and let all men know So saith the Prophet in verse 3. Know ye that the Lord He is God He alone is God Let others be what they will never so great and high and good there is not a God among them Iehovah is God of whom and thro whom and for whom are all things It is He that hath made us and not we our selves The Hebrew reads it in the Margin His we are And Mr. Ainsworth tells us the Chaldee keeps that reading It is He that hath made us and his we are He hath the best Title to us the Supream Soveraign Right We are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture And since we are his Creatures we should be his Servants we
us'd to it that they must needs bungle at it and let me ask you my Friends are these Persons liberal to God Nay are they not very beggarly and penurious who will give him a visit upon that day which he hath reserved wholly and entirely for himself and set about it the Hedge of a command to keep all secular Affairs from intruding or breaking in upon it But they will not part with any of that time which he hath allowed them for the dispatch of their own business but their Work and Recreations their Eating Drinking and Sleeping shall ingross it all in short the Language of their practice is this they will pray a little when they have nothing else to do or when there is nothing else that they may do but the Law commands them to shut up their Shops and to lay by their worldly Trades but my Friends is this fair Do not you rob God of some of his time Why then will you not return him some of your own Do not you commit too many sins upon a Sabbath-day and will you not do some duty upon a Week-day Do you mingle sin with your holy things and will you not mingle Prayer and holy Thoughts with your earthly things Is this to continue instant in Prayer Is this to pray without ceasing Is this paying due homage to the Lord of your time and comforts Is this enough for depending Creatures who cannot live a day without God no not a moment The truth is Love to God should draw us frequently that we may have Communion with him and necessity might drive us that we may have supplies from him all your Springs are in him with him is the Well of Life therefore let down your Bucket of Prayer often that you may draw Water with joy You may observe that in the Lord's Prayer which Christ gave his Disciples for an excellent pattern or example by which we all should draw up ours he teacheth us to say Our Father that speaks Communion and a joining together in Prayer one Saint one Child of God may go alone to the Throne of Grace and say Father or O my Father but Our Father speaks Society and Fellowship in the duty That there are more Suitors more concerned than one And further observe that there our Lord bids us say Give us this day our daily bread from whence we may gather these three things First He bids us pray for Bread Temporal good things are to be sought of God The Dew of Heaven yea and the Fatness of the Earth Provision for our Souls and Food for our Bodies too we are to seek God and rely upon him in and for the greatest things and also the least In every thing by Prayer and Supplication we are to make our Request known to God We cannot get our Bread unless God gives it to us Secondly He bids us pray for Bread not for Dainties not Sweet-meats not Venison not Varieties Necessaries are to be sought not Superfluities nothing to feed our Pride nor to spend upon our Lusts. Feed me said wise and holy Agar with food convenient for me that which is suitable to the place in which thou hast set me Seek not great things for your selves for those great things may prove great snares Thirdly He bids us to say Give us this day our daily Bread We are to pray for Bread for to day supplies for to day and we are to say that or something to the same purpose every day He doth not bid us pray that God would give us Bread for this Week or for this Month or for this Year or for twenty Years to come but give us this day and we are to say so to morrow as well as to day and the day after that as well as to morrow and so it is to run thorough the whole course of Life Every day we are to say Give us this day c. that is as we desire to have our Bread of God every day we must ask it every day daily Bread and daily Prayer must go together God doth love to answer the occasions of his People and to supply their wants He giveth meat to them that fear him because he is ever mindful of his Covenant Psal. III. 5 but he stands upon his honour and expects to be owned and therefore said he would be sought to by the House of Israel to do it for them I have read this Story of an Heathen whose Name I cannot for the present call to mind that when he had at any time passed a day without doing some Act of Charity or Mercy he would in the evening sit down bemoaning himself and cry out perdidi diem I have lost a day Truly it is so here thou mayest at night with bitterness of Soul reflect upon that day which thou hast spent without Family-Prayer and say perdidi diem I have lost a day and he that knows the shortness the uncertainty the worth of time and how much depends upon the right improvement thereof will reckon the loss of a day to be a very great loss and we are wont to say one loss seldom goes alone what thou dost lose besides that God only knows what communion with God what answers what manifestations of Divine Love what communications of Grace what Blessings therefore I beseech you all to make Conscience of Praying in your Families every day And if at any time through forgetfulness or surprize of any kind or being oppress'd with business crowding in upon thee thou art so hindered that thou canst not perform thy duty but the Season is as it were violently wrested out of thy hands bewail the loss sigh and mourn over it let God see thou art afflicted for it and not pleas'd with thy self or the avocation and long for another opportunity in which thou mayest go and appear before thy God and when once it comes welcome it with gladness and lay hold upon it thy Soul being like the Chariots of Amminadib and then confess thy former omission and beg thy Father to cast the Mantle of his love over it and then double thy diligence and thy heaâ— then spend the more time and put forth the greater strength then do thou follow the harder after God and keep the closer to him and let it be thy desire to make up that which was lacking before that so neither thy God may lose his honour nor thy self nor thy Family the good and benefit of a duty but like the Sea what Religion loseth at one time it may gain at another IV. Be sure that you Pray in your Families Morning and Evening I would not have you from hence conclude my design is to render you so strait lac'd as not to pray oftner than so to do this and take up with doing it making that your stint your allowance resolved not to exceed no no it is your interest to study liberal things in your dealings with God for by liberal things you shall stand you cannot be
it be jarring in their ears so long as it is musick in his know thou hast to deal with a good Master the God of all grace who if there be a willing Mind doth accept according to what a Man hath and not according to what he hath not The poor Publican was very short he had much to desire yet little to say his dejected looks and sorrowful gesture spake more than his Tongue did but though he was short yet he was sweet we read but of one Petition that he put up to God God be merciful to me a Sinner but he accompanied it with his heart and it came before God as incense who sent him home to his house justified Luke 18.13.14 God took away the filthy garments he came in and put on him a Robe of Righteousness The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite Heart O God thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 despise it no no he is so far from that that he requires it and approves it and will bind it up A broken Prayer from and with a broken Heart makes Melody in Heaven God will count it his delight Alas he seeth not as Man sees looks not at the flourishes of words but at the life fervency and Zeal of the Soul for those flowers may be strewed upon a dead and rotten carcass Indeed if a Man bring the Torn and the Sick and the Lame for an Offering to the Lord when he hath better it shall not be accepted Malach. 1.13 but if that Torn and Lame and Sick be the Male of the Flock if it be the best he hath God will receive it graciously and have respect to the Person and to his Offering and Grace will say he hath done what he could as our Lord pleaded for the Woman when his Disciples did absurdly trouble her Mark 14.8 Not only those Richer Persons who brought Gold and Silver and Silk and Precious Stones to the service of the Tabernacle were welcome but those also who came with their Goats-Hair and Badgers-Skins if they had no better I am willing to hope that by what hath been said the mouth of this Objection is stopt the edge of this Argument blunted and so this untoward rub removed which lay in the way of thy Duty therefore I beg earnestly of thee that thou wouldest defer no longer but get up break thro' all opposition and since God hath said seek ye my face let thine heart answer thy face Lord will I seek Before I go off from this Subject I shall direct my Discourse to two sorts of Persons First I would speak something to you whose hearts God hath touched so that you love your work and do it making Family-Prayer your every day business I bless you in the name of the Lord and the God of Heaven bless you while I beg it for you may he bestow it abundantly upon you and pour it out till you be rich in blessings the good Lord strengthen your hands and hearts more and more in this work and encourage you by his gracious answers may you find by frequent and large experience that he hath not said to you seek ye my face in vain The Lord teach you to pray and assist you by his Holy Spirit the Lord send you help from the Sanctuary and strengthen you out of Sion remember all your Offerings grant you according to your own hearts and fulfill all your Petitions which are according to his Mind and Will may you by the Bucket of Prayer draw Water with joy out of the Well of Salvation let him never turn away your Prayer nor his Mercy from you Secondly Do you also suffer the word of exhortation who have your lines cast in those Families in which there is Prayer and the Worship of God do you take special notice of it as a choice mercy and accordingly value it and bless the Lord for disposing you so graciously planting you not in a dry and barren Wildâ—erness where there is no Water but in a Paradise an Eden that is so well water'd You that are Wives and Married to Praying Husbands do you bless God and you Children who have been begotten by Praying Fathers and you Servants who work for and wait upon Praying Masters let all that is within you bless his Holy Name and see to it that you improve the Mercy lose not such a Season such an Opportunity Oh! how much good may you get how much the better may you be in case you be not wanting to your selves and who can tell how much Mercy such an Husband such a Father such a Master may obtain how many Blessings he may procure at the hand of God for you read what the Queen of Sheba said to King Solomon in the 1 of Kings 10.8 Happy are these thy Men and happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and that bear thy Wisdom She had seen the House he had built and the ascent by which he went up to the House of the Lord and the Meat at his Table and the sitting of his Servants and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel but there was something above all this that she admired She did not look upon the happiness of his Servants as consisting in beholding the greatness of his State and Honour and the Splendour and Glory of his Court or in feeding every day upon his Royal Dainties and Drinking his Generous Wines but in hearing of his Wisdom I may as well yea and much more say of you in case you are your own Friends happy thrice happy are you who live in such a Family though as the lowest and meanest Members of it in which you may every day hear the Master of it speaking to God and conversing with Heaven and every day perfuming the House with the precious Odours of his gracious and holy Prayers So much may suffice to be spoken concerning that great and excellent Work of Family prayer and Oh! that it may not be in vain as to any of you if it be you must answer for it another day But that is not all Christians the whole of your work doth not lye in Prayer this you must do and not leave the rest undone no none of it undoneâ— I remember the holy Apostle Paul speaking of Epaephras whom he calls a Servant of Christ and of them a Citizen of Colos a Member of their Church and Teacher much set for their good saith Col. 4.12 He always labour'd fervently for them in Prayer that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God which is a great thing and deserves our utmost endeavours and his so labouring in Prayer for them to this end spake him a good Man and a singular Friend of theirs and it is my Hearts desire and my frequent Prayer that it may be so with you And this should be the Desire and Prayer the Care and Endeavour of every one of you who are Godly Parents and Religious Governours
dare non potest Man is too weak to perform the Law and the Law cannot give him strength In a word Man being now fallen corrupted infeebled and throughout depraved he cannot possibly keep the Law and therefore that cannot justifie him But there is another Covenant rightly called a better Covenant which God hath been pleased to make better for us as the case stands for it containeth in it better Promises Heb. 8.6 and is in the hand of a Mediatour Jesus Christ our fast Friend a Covenant by which David saw all his Salvation secur'd and in which he summ'd up all his desire knowing it to be everlasting ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23.5 In this Covenant as in all there is a mutual stipulation it hath its requiries and its promises by it Man is ingaged to believe in Jesus Christ with all his heart to accept of him and close with him as he is by the Father and himself offered in the Gospel to receive him in all his Offices as Prophet to Teach and as King to Govern and Command as well as Priest to Attone and Interceed and Bless and thereupon it promiseth Salvation it requires repenting of Sin and forsaking it and thereupon it promiseth Mercy and the blotting out of Transgressions it requires returning to God and the performance of sincere obedience and to every one that doth so God engageth himself to be their God for this is a Covenant of Reconciliation he engageth to pardon their Sins so fully so abundantly that they shall be as if they had never been white as Snow and to receive them into favour and to love them with an everlasting love and to give them grace and glory Crowning at length and satisfying them with happiness All those that have not laid hold upon and are not in this Covenant of Grace are to this day under the Covenant of Works and so in a state of Damnation and all those that are in the Covenant of Grace must come up to the terms of it Let Men in this erroneous teachie froward quarrelsom Age say what they will and make never so much noise the Covenant of Grace hath its Conditions though blessed be God what it requires it gives and we must carefully look that we come up to the terms of it and that there be in us an answerableness to its requiries if ever we would share in the blessings of it He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned repent and your Sins shall be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord but except ye repent ye shall all perish Christ will be the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that they obey him but he shall at the Great Day be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel And then it will appear that Obedience and Holiness are something that to fear the offending of God and a diligent care of pleasing him were other manner of things than many mistaken Persons do now take them to be Let your Families know that impenitency doth bind upon Men and Women the guilt of all their Sins and that without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord and that Christ came to save from Sin as well as Wrath and to Redeem not only from Hell and Condemnation but likewise from a vain and vicious Conversation 1 Pet. 1.18.19 Sixthly Frequently put those who are Members of your Families and under your charge in mind of their being in Covenant with God and of their having been Baptized and so received the Seal or Token of the Covenant inculcate this in your Discourses with them I hope that all your Children and Servants to you I now speak who are Members of this numerous Congregation have been made Partakers of that great and precious Ordinance and you ought to tell them of it again and again for by that means you may do them much good in making them serious and thoughtful let them know from you that they were not by their Parents left at liberty to chuse whether they would be the Lords or not whether they would serve him or not whether they would bow their necks to the yoke of Christ or be the Sons and Daughters of Belial But their Parents whose they were and who had a right to dispose of them did in conscience of their own duty and in dear love to them bind them to God betimes they did devote and consecrate them to God they did as it were Seal Indentures between them and God so that now they are Gods Covenant People his Covenant Servants And tell them that being in Covenant with God they shall have all the good of the Covenant all the Mercies and Blessings of it in case they do not deal falsely therein they may rejoyce in it as that which is security enough they may live upon it and that comfortably in the worst times and they may plead it with God and say with David remember thy word unto thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope But that it will be sad and dreadful for them to sin against it I mean wilfully sins in them are of a deeper die and have a louder voice than the Sins of others in the World and by them God is justly more provoked meerly to break one of Gods Commandments is nothing near so bad as to break Covenant with God that is an accent upon the head of Sin and doth greatly aggravate it and those Persons that are guilty thereof may expect and with trembling think how severe God will be at last and what fierce wrath he will pour out upon them when he comes to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant Labour to convince them what a dismal thing it would be for them to withdraw themselves from God whose they were by Covenant for them who had been in their Infancy by their Parents given up to God now to run cross to them and to null what they had done as much as in them lies and to give up themselves to Sin and to the Devil and to sell themselves to do evil this is a throwing dirt in the face of their Parents as if they had chosen ill for them and bound them to a bad Trade and an hard Master and this is a reproach to God as if he had been a Wilderness to them and a Land of Darkness and they had found iniquity upon him and this cannot but be an high provocation and must needs raise storms of wrath and fury Seventhly Be very much and often commending to them the Service of God and the Yoke of Iesus Christ that they may not be prejudiced by wrong notions nor mis-led by misapprehensions of him as the unprofitable Servant pretended to be who looking upon his Lord as Austere and made up altogether of Severity therefore would do nothing for him but e'en buried
profess Religion and have joyned themselves in Communion with those who do really desire and aim at the greatest strictness and most exact holiness so that there is apparent necessity of doing what we can towards the reviving of this excellent practice which hath been by so many so unkindly so sinfully shut out of doors And to this end I shall do these two things First I shall prove that the setting up of the Worship of God and Religious Exercises in Families is a Duty Secondly Lay down some Arguments by which this may appear your reasonable Service We begin with the former That Family-worship is a Duty and that I prove by these three things The Practice of the Heathen The Precepts of the Scripture And the Practice of Saints I. This was the Practice amongst the Heathens though they had no more than the dim Light of Nature yet by that they did see this to be their Duty These not having the Law written were a Law to themselves and have done by Nature many of the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.14 And among others this We find they had their Lares their Penates such as they counted and called their Houshold-Gods and unto them they did offer up Sacrifices in their Families and unto them they did together perform acts of Religious Worship And therefore Prayer to God in Families is a part of Natural Worship because discovered by Natural Light and for the shameful neglect thereof the poor blind Heathen will rise up against multitudes of the Men and Women of this untoward Generation Shall they be more liberal to their Gods of Dung than we are to the Lord of Glory Shall they do more for the Honouring of their false Gods than some of us do for the living and true God who made Heaven and Earth and who is the Author of your Being the God of your Comforts and the Father of all your Mercies by the Hand of whose Power ye were made and upon whose Cost ye spend How sore and dreadful punishment will you deserve if the very Heathen shall condemn you If they were more observant of their Idols than you are of God it will be unspeakably more tollerable for them in the Day of Judgment than for you Think upon and apply to your selves what the Apostle Paul said to the wicked Jew Rom. 2.27 Shall not Vncircumcision which is by Nature if it fulfil the Law Iudge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law The clearer that Light is which men do enjoy if they rebel against it the greater is the Sin which they commit the greater is the guilt which they contract and therefore the fiercer that wrath which they deserve II. Family-Worshiping of God is the matter of the Precept It is a burden if any will be so vile as to think or call it so which the great God whose we are hath bound upon us Let me particularly instance in Family-Prayer which sweet and precious Incense I would gladly have all your houses perfumed daily with It must be granted that it is not expresly commanded in Scripture not totidem verbis in so many words but it is included in express commands and from those commands by necessary consequence it will appear to any one that doth not shut his own Eyes to be the Mind and Will of God concerning us For observe First We are expresly commanded to make use of all Prayer Take notice of that word All all Prayer i. e. all kinds of holy Prayer Ephes. 6.18 The Apostle had before told them they must wrestle with Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in high places and having thereupon counsell'd them to make sure of a sufficient strength being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and Armour of Proof the whole Armour of God he doth here in this Verse advise them to a wrestling with God and indeed it is excellent advice for he that can like a Prince wrestle with God in a way of Supplication will come off a Conqueror when he is called out to wrestle with Devils in a way of Opposition Observe the words Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Mark that with all prayer Now there are many sorts of Prayer namely Ejaculatory Prayer in which the holy Soul shoots out a Dart to Heaven and on a sudden lifts a Request up to God which may be done at any time and in any place in Company at Dinner in the Street as you are walking in the Shop as you are working or trading and in this way you may sweeten and sanctifie your worldly Affairs by mingling spiritual and gracious thoughts with them Thus while good old Iacob had his Sons before him and was telling them what should befal them in the last days in the midst of it his Soul got on the wing and mounted up to Heaven in that short but sweet expression Gen. 49.18 I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord and there is stated fixed prayer when a person doth at appointed times and in a solemn manner set it self to pour forth its Requests before God and make its desires known to him There is Publick Prayer in the Congregations and Assemblies of the Saints when not only two or three but scores hundreds thousands are met together in the Name of Christ and the Minister as the Mouth speaks to God and the hearts of the People go along with him by a real consent and to his Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings add their Amen And there is Secret Prayer performed in the greatest retirement when a person hath withdrawn himself from all company and no body seeth nor hears but God alone and so it can be more free and open not hiding its groans from him but spreading all its desires before him and acquainting him with that which it would not have any one in the World besides to know And then there is Family-Prayer wherein the Governour gets the Children and Servants and all the Members thereof together and goeth with them to the Throne of Grace in order to the paying of their Homage unto God and the obtaining from God a blessing upon himself and upon them Now this kind of Prayer is in that Scripture required as well as any other God doth here by the Apostle require our praying with all prayer and if with all prayer then with Family-prayer Secondly We are commanded to pray every where 1 Tim. 5.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every place not only in the Temple and in the Synagogue but every where in any place where it is convenient and you may be safe As God is no respecter of Persons so not of Places as Beggars go up down scattering their Vermin in all places and at every door so you should every where be scattering your Treasure
in gracious discourses and pouring out your Souls to God in prayer Now faith famous Mr. Perkins upon this very place if it be the duty of men to pray every where then certainly in their Families where God hath set them in so near a Relation one to another Thirdly We are commanded to pray continually or to pray always as in that fore-mentioned Ephes. 6. Praying always with all prayer Which words of the Apostle we are not to understand as if praying must ingross and take up all our time and we had nothing else to do but live Drones like a company of lazy Beggars that will not work though they are able Prayer indeed is a very considerable part of a Christians duty yet it is but a part There are various duties which he hath to perform and much other work of the Lord in which he ought to abound There is reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms hearing the Word serious meditation and self-examination as well as prayer There is instructing of Youth and Catechizing of Children and exhorting one another and provoking one another to Love and to good works as well as praying Yea and there is tending of the Shop and working in the Trade and looking to the Children and washing of the house and providing for the Family and several other things and must be done We must have respect to all Gods Commandments and labour to fill up our places and to stand compleat in all the will of God concerning us Therefore when the Apostle speaks of our praying always understand it thus pray in every thing for so we are required to do in another Scripture Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing i. e. with a distrustful care with a solicitous and anxious care with a distracting disquieting care But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God Pray in great things as believing the greatness of God's Power and pray in little things as believing also the extensiveness of his Care Pray over thy Calling because it is not the diligent hand alone but the Divine Blessing with it that makes rich Pray over your Meat and Drink and go not to your Tables as Swine to their Trough knowing that Creatures cannot befriend or serve you any further than as they are commissioned and assisted by God When Ministers go to study let them pray because it is the Spirit of Truth that must lead them into all Truth They will make sad work of it if God be not with their heads in studying their Sermons and with their mouths in delivering them And when People come to hear let them pray under and after all our Labours they will learn nothing to purppose they will not be wise to Salvation unless they are taught of God Thus to pray alway is to pray in every thing Again To pray always is to pray in every condition When you are High as knowing you are neither out of the reach of Trouble nor too good to serve and wait upon God And when you are Low as knowing you are not out of the reach of the Everlasting Arms but still there is hope in Israel concerning you Pray in Sickness and in Health too for it is God that must remove the former preserve and continue the latter Pray in Advrrsity for it is God that must support and comfort under that and Prosperity for it is God that must sanctifie that and give you an heart and wisdom to improve it Pray in Trouble that God would not be a Terrour to you in Danger that he would be a Defence to you and the Rock of your Refuge and in Peace that your Halcion days may neither be overcast nor abus'd By Prayer in Adversity shew your trusting in God and believing no case to be desperate which he will please to undertake and by Prayer in Prosperity shew to others your dependence upon God and your expectations being wholly from him and that you live more upon a Father in Heaven than you do upon any or all the Creatures here below Once again Pray always that is pray daily pray every day This is to be not only a Sabbath days work as I am inform'd some penurious strait-lac'd Professors make it no no it ought 〈◊〉 to be your every day-work Sure I am there is a great deal of reason for it We do commit sin and contract much guilt every day therefore it becomes us to repent and confess and it concerns us to sue out our pardon every day We have our Dangers visible and invisible Dangers every day therefore should be daily hiding our selves under our Fathers gracious wing and craving the Divine Protection We have Mercies every day a continued succession of them an innumerable number of them they follow us they load us they compass us about therefore we should have our Sacrifices of Praise and as persons of ingenuity pay our thankful acknowledgments to God every day Further we have our Wants every day we want our daily Bread and our daily Pardon we want daily Supplies Our Cistern would soon be empty if God should cut off the stream of his goodness we want daily Supports and should quickly drop into the Grave yea into nothing if God should withdraw his hand and let go his hold of us And we want a daily blessing without which all our contrivances are vain and all our endeavours fruitless If God do not say go and prosper we had as good sit still and therefore there is very great reason why we should have our daily prayers We are commanded by our Saviour to pray and not to faint for this end he spake a Parable Luk. 18.1 and by the Apostle to continue instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 that is to pray daily which was signified and taught by the daily Sacrifice under the Law concerning which you may read in Exod. 29. It is said in the 42 verse This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering thorow-out your Generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there unto thee This shall be a continual Burnt-Offering this what If you look back to the 38th and 39th verses you will see This is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar two Lambs of the first year day by day continually the one Lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other Lamb shalt thou offer at Even Where you may take notice of this that the offering up of these two Lambs every day is called a continual Burnt-Offering And Mr. Answorth upon the place tells us that daily Sacrifice signified the continual sanctification of the Church through Faith in Christ the Lamb of God by whose mediation we and our actions are accepted of God and likewise he there tells us the Hebrew Doctors say the continual Sacrifice of the Morning did make atonement for the sins that were done in the night and the Evening Sacrifices made atonement for iniquities
Here is a good Man and he chuseth to walk in a good way Dr. Iermin in his Paraphrastical Meditations upon the place hath these words There are several Walks of Men in this World one walketh in his pleasure as it were in the walks of a Garden another walketh in his profit and he walketh as it were up and down the Exchange another walketh in his trouble and he walketh as it were in a Wood another walketh in his poverty and he walketh as it were in a Desart another walketh in his beastly lusts of drunkenness and uncleannness and he delighteth to walk as it were in mire and dirt but the just man walketh in his integrity and he walketh as it were in the holy Temple but that his walk is to walk still on and not to turn back till he come to the end of his Life Much care is taken and many means are used that men may leave their Children in an happy condition but he that walketh in his integrity takes the most proper compendious and effectual course to bring himself to blessedness and his Posterity too so saith the wisest of men in this Text His Children are blessed after him Supposing that they tread in his steps and walk in their integrity as he had done in his before them And Children blessed of God are their Parents blessings and will be the joy of their hearts and the staff of their Age yea and Servants may be blessings also to the Families in which they live and therefore are not to be slighted nor opprest nor abused You read in the word of Truth that the house of Laban was blessed for the sake of Iacob and the Master how bad and unjust soever he had been in other things was ingenuous in acknowledging he had by experience found it so And the like is recorded of the House of Potiphar Gen. 39.5 It came to pass from the time that he had made him Overseer in his house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph ' s sake and the Lords's blessing was upon all that he had both in the house and in the field Now teaching them the knowledge and fear of God by your instructions and alluring them to the practice of Godliness by your Religious Examples together with prayer is the way to make yours such VI. To set up the Worship and Service of God in your Families is an excellent way to get and maintain peace in your own bosoms while you live and how sweet that is those do very well know and being consulted will tell you who have felt the Lashes of an enraged Conscience and a Worm within gnawing and tearing them day and night What would not such poor Creatures give what would they not do to be delivered from the frights it puts them in and the pain it causeth And I must needs say it is in my account just matter of wonder how any body can and that any one of those do enjoy themselves a day an hour who live in the constant and shameful neglect of God their Maker and of their duty this way Methinks there should be always Nemesis à tergo a dreadful sound in their Ears they should be ashamed and blush to think of God or lift up their faces toward Heaven ashamed to look Man in the face since they have so far put off Man as to neglect the great Work of Man ashamed to shew their heads in their own houses where they live like so many brutes contrary to the dictates of Nature and where the very stones and timber may be swift and loud witness against them Methinks they should never see Wife nor Child nor Servant without such bitter reflections as these these poor creatures have a love for me but they have a cause to hate me now they shew me respect but the day will come when they will curse me for they are like to be undone by me I bring them up in Ignorance Irreligion and Atheism I live without God in the World and so do they through my means they are not like to come at last to Heaven because they do not walk in the way that leads thither and it is my fault who do not teach them that way nor go before them in it I am a bloody Husband to my Wife an unnatural Father to my Children a cruel Master to my Servants when their Parents bound them to me they did little think what a wretch I am I do not take any care of their precious and immortal Souls and indeed how can it be thought that they should be kind and compassionate towards the Souls of others who are cruel to their own it is not likely Charity should be active abroad when it doth not begin at home Methinks such Persons as these should every day feel a tormenting sting within them and go up and down in pain and that their Consciences should be very uneasie and often in a day reproaching them and flinging dirt in their faces yea flashing Hell Fire in them I do not wonder that many of these Men do not care to be alone not much at home but love to be abroad with their boon Companions as bad as themselves among whom they may lay their Trouble with their Liquor but they will get but little by this this is but casting Conscience into a sleep for a time that will awake again and rouze and roar when they come to themselves Conscience will return to its work and strike up again Is this thy Love to her that lies in thy bosom dost thou dwell with her as a Man of knowledge or an Heir of the Grace of Life are these thy bowels to thy Children which came out of thy Loins hast thou a mind to bring them up for the destroyer and to be fewel for everlasting burnings And is this thy mercy to thy Servants didst thou take them to corrupt them if they had any good thing in them toward the Lord God of Hosts wouldst thou utterly quench it and if they were bad thou takest a course to make them seven times more the Children of the Devil than before Thou wouldest have them O Man please thee and wilt thou not shew them how they may walk so as to please God Thou wouldest have them to mind thy Shop and wilt not thou mind their Souls Thou wouldst have them take pains in thy House but thou wilt take none for their Welfare and Salvation It is far better to be such persons Horses and Dogs than to be their Children and Servants for then they would be better look'd after And this I doubt not but I may safely affirm if such Men as these have any peace in such a way as this they are either grosly ignorant and know not the Judgment of the Lord nothing of Religion to purpose or they are very Atheists such in Judgment as well as in Practice or their Consciences are fear'd as with an hot Iron or wholly
benumm'd are cast into a profound sleep and have no fear of God before their Eyes And let them know that sooner or latter the present Calm will be followed with a most terrible Storm the Wrath of God and the Rage of Conscience will cause it and that will blow away all your comforts and throw down all your hopes and who can tell but it may carry you to Hell with the People that forget God But on the other side an hearty Love to the Name Honour and Interest of God and the setting up of his Worship and Service in your Families from such an excellent and holy Principle is the direct and ready way to a sweet inward peace the way to have a Calm and Serenity in your Souls though the Clouds may be black and the Storms great which are upon your Tabernacles Let things issue how they will in your Families as to your Children and Servants whether they do get good or no whether they go to Heaven or to Hell yet this will be a quieting and comforting consideration to you that you in some good measure have done your duty I have been much taken with those words of Samuel to Israel after they had rejected the Lord from being King over them and he had made Saul King 1 Sam. 12.23 As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way O! do you so my dear Friends let it be the same with you set this excellent Copy before you and write after it frequently considering with your selves what an hearty reviving Cordial it will be when you are able to say to your Families Blessed be God I have not ceased to pray for you many a Petition I have put up and many a Tear I have shed in my Closet nor have I ceased to pray with you your selves are my Witnesses how frequent and earnest a Suitor I have been to God on your behalf I have been pleading and wrestling every day morning and evening and I have also been teaching you the good and the right way that of Truth and Holiness that of God's Commandments the Scripture way which is good because it is clean and pure and right because it brings to Heaven and Happiness all those that travel and are undefiled in it And yet further it will make the Cordial much more strong and prove a singular addition to your comfort when you are able to say I have not only shewn and taught you that good and right way but I have likewise taken you by the hand and led you into it You and I have had a communion in holy Duties We have gone to the House God in company and at home we have walked in the way of God in company How chearfully may you converse together and go about the work and business of the day after you have in the morning offered up your Sacrifice unto God and how may you at night part with one another in peace and lye down to rest in your Beds after you have desir'd the spreading of the Divine Wing over you and committed your selves to the protection of that God who is the Keeper of Israel and doth neither slumber nor sleep If there be not wilful commission of known sins nor a wilful omission of other known duties but a sincere desire and endeavour of approving your selves to God in all holy Conversation a due and constant care of performing Family-duties will afford you great peace so that nothing need to offend you And let me add this that constancy in this work will be a soveraign Antidote against many of those things that cause convulsions and broils and disorders in too many houses What passions are there in them and how unruly and exorbitant by which all is put into a flame What discontents what animosities what quarrels and contentions that people are so far from enjoying one another that they cannot enjoy themselves by means whereof the nearness of the Relation becomes a great aggravation of the affliction but joynt-fellowship in Family-duties and execises of Religion may very much help in this case both to the purpose of preventing those feuds if you do but consider that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting As you must pray in Faith so in Love You must not in wrath pray to him that is the God of Love It will also help to the repairing of a breach and healing of a wound when there is one made if you duly consider that of our Saviour Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift Reconciliation must go before supplication if we would have audience with God How can you think your Father should be pleased if you live at variance with his Children Peter would have Love between Husband and Wife that their prayers might not be hindered 1 Pet. 3.7 They that quarrel together will not be fit to pray together Observe Iames his method laid down for general observance among Christians Iam. 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed Seek peace with one another by confession and then peace with God by prayer But to return this Family-serving of God will promote inward peace in them that are Governours it cannot but be a comfort to you to think that while other houses have been the sink of sin yours have been the dwelling places of the most High Others have been Bethavens houses of vanity yours have been Bethels the houses of God in others there hath been the serving of divers lusts and fellowship with Devils and the unfruitful works of darkness but in yours there hath been the serving of God and a fellowship kept up with the Father and with his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In a word while other houses have been the Synagogues of Satan yours have been the Temples of the Living God and the Churches of Christ. As we do find godly Religious Families dignified in the Scriptures and honoured with the illustrious name of Churches Thus Paul Rom. 16.3 bids them greet Priscilla and Aquila his helpers in Christ Iesus and also verse 5. the Church that was in their house And again in Col. 4.15 He ordered them to salute Nymphas and the Church that was in his house i. e. the Family which was Christian and Godly and besides their joyning together in Manual Labour and houshold business did unite and joyn together in the Worship and Service of God And I have read that in the last Century before this the House of George Prince of Anhalt for the good Orders that were observed therein was said to be Ecclesia a Church for the Religion
Will of God Hearing is not the whole work of a Christian The Scripture indeed saith Hear and your Souls shall live but if you would live you must do something more than hear Your much hearing is a sign of a good Appetite but there are some Bodies that have a caninum Appetitum a greedy ravenous Appetite and yet are meer Skelletons nothing but Skin and Bone You that have so great an Appetite will do well to look to it that you also have a good Concoction Under the Law those Beasts were by God declared clean that did chew the Cud. Hear and then ruminate do not only let Truths come crouding into your Ears for then one may thrust out another but ponder them in your hearts as Mary the Mother of our Lord did and hide them there as David did You should spend some considerable time in meditation that so what Truths you have heard you may chafe in and work upon your hearts Secondly I would speak unto you by way of Question thus When you spend all your time in hearing abroad what is done at home Where are Family-duties who is it that prays there who teaches and catechizes the young ones there Know O Soul no good thing is thy duty out of season nor art thou to prog for thy self by robbing thy house And know this also we that are Preachers of the Gospel have but little hope of doing much good upon your Children and Servants by our Labours in the Church if you who are Governours over them and have the power will be careless and negligent and do nothing at home How can we think that they will follow our counsels when you will not second them Alas their weak leaking Memories let them slip and their corrupt Natures reject them There had need be Precept upon Precept Precept upon Precept Line upon Line Line upon Line here a little and there a little and all little enough yea and all too little unless accompanied and set home by the All-conquering Power of the Eternal Spirit God indeed can do his work alone needs neither you nor us but as he did by his own Word without Means and Instruments call the World out of nothing and raise Lazarus out of his Grave so he can by the same Power in the same Way convert most obstinate Sinners and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just or if he please to make use of Ministers for that end he can make them prosperous He honours us by imploying us and if he will doubly honour us by making us successful no difficulty shall be insuperable no opposition an impediment great Mountains in our way shall sink into Plains and Iron-Gates shall be opened His concurrence is enough alone through God the Weapons of our Warfare will become mighty so that strong holds shall be demolished and imaginations cast down carnal reasonings silenced and subdued together with those high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and every thought brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 And therefore though some though many of you stand idle with your hands in your bosoms we will into the Vineyard and follow our business as long as we have any being sure our Labour shall not be in vain something will come of it Though Israel be not gathered yet shall we be glorious But as Paul said in another case Phil. 4.17 We desire fruit that may abound to your account and to the account of yours even the Salvation of you all the Conversion of the Youths and from thence Comfort to the Parents And as we love our work so we would do it with delight and we shall do so when you set your hands to it because when all hands are at work we may the more hope that God will work together with us and that his Spirit and Blessing shall accompany our joynt-endeavours and while we prophesie upon dry Bones he will cause breath to enter into them so that they shall live Up therefore I beseech you up and be doing come ye forth to the help of the Lord and of his Servants against that gross Darkness those corrupt Principles that are in the Minds of Young ones and those potent Lusts that are in their Hearts Do you teach as well as we that they may know the Lord do you back our wholesom and holy Counsels that they may follow them And while the Masters of the Assemblies come with their Nails of Truth which were given by one Shepherd even Jesus Christ who is the great Shepherd of the Sheep and take much pains for the driving of them home in order to the uniting them to God by Faith and to one another by Love do you who are Parents and Governours come with your Hammers and do what you can toward the fastening of them I am now at length come to the end of this discourse wherein I undertook to prove That setting up the Worship and Service of God in our Families is no other than our reasonable service Whether I have performed what I undertook you will judge and what evidence there is in the proof if I do not mistake you will find it clear and full And now my dear Friends may I hope I am indeed very willing to hope and I shall be exceeding glad to hear that by all these pains that I have taken and all these Arguments which I have used some of you who have been altogether strangers to this work hitherto and liv'd in the total neglect thereof have been persuaded the doing thereof is without question your duty and that therefore it is your present yea your fixed Resolution through the Grace and Assistance of God to set upon the doing of it And that since you are convinced and satisfied about it in your Judgments and your own Consciences do vote and plead for it you will take it into your practice The good Lord grant it may be so And I bless his Name I do hear something to that purpose and that these Labours have not been in vain oh that I might hear more and more that so my Joy both in the Lord and in you might be increased Will you begin this Evening I say this Evening for delays in Soul-matters are by no means to be allowed Whatsoever is Duty ought to be done and if it ought to be done why not presently Possibly you think afterward will be soon enough but God is not of your mind He saith in Psal. 95. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts and when God saith to day what art thou that thou shouldst say to morrow Come my Friends that sooner the better Hath not the great Majesty of Heaven waited long enough upon you for his Service and Honour oh do not make him wait any longer It is a dangerous thing to abuse Mercy and tire out Divine Patience Wo be to that Man concerning whom God saith My Spirit shall no more strive with
desire him to fulfil them for my sake And to the doing hereof he doth encourage us by a gracious promise of success both that he himself will fulfil such desires such Prayers For this he gives them his word and we may be sure he will be as good as his word Iohn 14.13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son or by the Son whom he hath raised with his own right Hand and constituted the sole Mediator and for our greater assurance and comfort he repeated it in the next Verse If ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it not only take care that it shall be done but I my self will do it which is a strong Argument and clear Evidence of Christ's being God since he doth the work of God in hearing and answering of Prayer And he likewise tells us in Iohn 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you only you must necessarily suppose that what you so ask must be according to his Will and for our Good 1 Iohn 5.14 This is the confidence which we have of him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us we shall be sure to obtain it to have the Petitions we desire of him There is a certainty of speeding when we pray aright in the Name of Christ and with Faith in that Name that which so goeth up in a Cloud of Prayer shall descend in a Shower of Mercy there is nothing shall hinder it none on Earth none in Hell can and none in Heaven will for the Father and Christ are one one in Nature and one in Will both are perfectly agreed as in other things so in this of fulfilling such Prayers you shall have your desire Christ will do it and so will the Father both will consent both concur and co-operate This is as a late worthy Divine hath observed part of that Glory which God hath put upon Christ all must be done in his Name Prayer ask in my Name Church-meetings when two or three are met together in my Name Church-censures 1 Cor. 5 4 5. In the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan Ministers are to Preach in his Name and to Baptize in his Name therefore whensoever you pray to the Father be sure that you do it believingly in the Name of Christ both in publick and in private both when you are by your selves alone and when with your Families and that First For your own sakes that when you knock it may be opened to you and you may have what you ask and find what you seek that instead of being with anger rejected your Prayers may be graciously received and be sanctified by the Golden Altar and being accompanied with the Incense of our Blessed Advocate may come up as so many Odours and find the desired acceptance and do it Secondly For your Families sake that by this means they may be put upon Enquiries after this precious Lord Iesus for this will be to them an occasion of asking you and others concerning him who and what he is And so they may come to some knowledge of him whom to know is Life Eternal as the way to it and the beginning of it they may know him as the one and only Mediator between God and Man as the great Master of Requests that is at the Fathers Right Hand ready to receive all the Petitions of his poor but dear People and as ready to expunge the faults and supply the defects of them and so to present them to the Father and to back them with his own Intercession which is powerful and prevailing the Father heareth him always and this being accompanied with the Spirit and Blessing of God may prosper to the working in them some love and good liking of him and by consequence kindle in them some desires after an Interest in him as in one that is great and good as in one that they stand in absolute need of without whom they cannot be saved nor find favour with God but must everlastingly perish and be undone since there is nothing that can commend them to God but Jesus Christ no Wings that can secure them but those of this Sun of Righteousness nothing that can wash out their stains and filth but his Blood nothing that can cover their nakedness and shame but his Robe nothing that can make their Beauty perfect but his Comeliness put upon them In short in this way and with your help they may come to understand that it is not their good meanings nor their good doings not their civility and honest dealings with Men not their keeping clear of bad actions the gross pollutions that are in the World through Lust no nor their running in a round of duty that will justifie them but only the compleat perfect Obedience of Christ and his precious Blood as of a Lamb without spot and that it is not their Prayers though long and fervent that will prevail with God but only the Mediation and Intercession of Christ. And to this end I would give you this advice further content not your selves with a bare naming Christ in your Prayers but make an honourable mention of him after such a manner as this Our dear Lord Jesus Jesus who is the Lord our Righteousness who loved us and washed us in his own Blood and made us Kings and Priests unto God Jesus who dyed for our Offences and rose again for our Justification By frequent repetitions of such things in your Prayers and suitable Discourses at other times the Lord Jesus may become acceptable and precious to them through whom and for whose sake both you and they must become acceptable to God if ever ye be so Having spoken so largely to this Subject my earnest Request is that you all would set up and keep up this necessary and excellent duty of Morning and Evening-prayer every day in your respective Families carefully observing and putting in practice those Rules which have been laid down for the better performance of it and my hearty Prayer for you who do so is that you may have help from Heaven in the work and afterward receive such gracious answers and plentiful returns as may raise and fix in you a resolution of calling upon God as long as you live There is but one Objection against this holy practice which I judge worthy to be taken notice of and I will do what I can to silence the Objection and to do him good that humbly makes it Object Some poor Creature may put in and say Sir you have with much Importunity and Zeal stirred us up to the performance of Family-duties and in particular that of Prayer and I have with diligence attended to what hath been spoken and cannot but acknowledge there is much
the Morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered 4. Ionah 6 7. He joyed too much and his enjoyment was short over-loving a Child is over laying it It is as killing it with kindness Or Secondly If that Child hath been continued to them it hath been in wrath They have the life of it but they want the comfort of it for it hath proved naught and vicious and so been a Thorn in their side an Heart-break to them They had better while it was Young have followed it to the Grave than see it now notoriously wicked an Enemy to God and all goodness disobedient to them and galloping to Hell with full speed as if it thought it could not get thither soon enough Therefore upon all these accounts the advice which I give unto Parents is this observe the spirits and carriages of your Children and also of your Servants which of them do most fear God and respect you which of them are most tractable and diligent and let them have most love and respect who do deserve it best bestow your greatest cost upon that Soil which makes the best returns by this means they will have no just cause of quarreling you By this you will prevent envy discontent and breaches among them and also promote Piety and Goodness in your Families by stirring up in them all an excellent sweet and Friendly Emulation So that there shall be a striving together without wrath and bitterness how they may excel in Godliness and Virtue and in all those things which you require of them and which will render them acceptable and pleasant unto you this will sweeten and commend obedience to them it will encrease and add to their endeavours it will be as a Golden Spur to quicken their pace in the way that they should go Now for a Coronis or conclusion of this my Discourse upon this great and specially at this day necessary Subject of Family Duties I shall add some Miscellany Counsels and make a kind of Medley inviting whoever will to come and take and apply those of them to themselves which they shall judge most proper and pertinent to their case and the God of Heaven bless them to them First Look diligently lest any fail or fall short of the grace of God 12 Hebrews 15. You see there it is the Apostle's Advice it will be your wisdom to take and follow it see that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you else you are none of his and that you have been made partakers of his renewing sanctifying Influences without the Spirit of God you will never be fit for the Work of God Without Christ's breathing upon his Apostles and their receiving from him the Holy Ghost they could never have done the work of an Apostle so without Christs breathing upon you and your receiving his Spirit you will never rightly perform the work of a Christian. where there is not the Spirit of Grace there is not the Spirit of Supplication Nor will a person void of the Spirit and Grace be welcom to God nor his Service pleasing Such an one indeed may peform the External Duties of Reliligion and set up the Worship of God in his Family and it is no more than what he owes to God and to himself and to his House yet that which he doth will not be accepted if the man be bad what he doth cannot be good but is quite spoil'd by his doing it The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Though the Sacrifice for the matter of it be rich and costly yet God's soul loaths and abhors it because a wicked man brings it The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering 4 Gen. 4. first to the person and then to the thing Besides unless you have the Spirit and Grace you will not be constant in Duty a small matter shall take you off and stop you in your course the question is Will the hypocrite pray always will he always call upon God The Answer is easy and ready no he will not and the Reason is plain because there is not a spring to feed the stream not an inward principle to keep on the motion God complain'd of old That the people drew nigh unto him with their lips but their hearts were far from him Mark though there were appearances before God yet their hearts and God did never meet together in the Duty and therefore the day will most certainly come when there will be a parting between such people and their duties they never cordially and throughly agreed with God himself never came to a full closure with his terms never lov'd him for his holiness nor rejoyced at the remembrance of it and therefore for something or other they will fall out with his Works and Ways Consider my dearly beloved and again consider what the Scripture saith It is a good thing that the Heart be establisht with Grace Heb. 13.9 both with the Doctrine of Grace and with an internal Principle of Grace for the one will not do without the other nothing short of Grace can strengthen stablish and settle the Heart till Grace be infused into the Soul and becomes a new nature in it till it comes to be commander in chief the Heart of man will be fluttering and unstable off and on playing fast and loose with God it will look toward the holy Temple and take some steps in the Way of God and that with seeming life and vigour as much zeal for the Lord of Hosts as Iehu pretended to have but being only a preternatural heat it cools again and the man jades and tires But when once Grace comes in truth and with Power it fixeth the Soul and as when the Rulers of the People and Elders of Israel commanded the Apostles not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Iesus Peter and Iohn answered them thus we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.20 so when there is an holy frame wrought in any they cannot but wait upon God converse and walk with God they cannot but Read and Hear and Pray they cannot live a spiritual life without these spiritual breathings more than another life without natural breathing an holy fear will powerfully drive them to their duty a filial love will sweetly draw them to it and Faith will mightily encourage them in it while they do really and firmly believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him they cannot but be a seeking People while they do believe that let them be stedfast and immoveable and never so much abounding in the Work of the Lord their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord they cannot but be an industrious and diligent People and while they do believe that in the keeping of Gods Commandments there is great reward besides all that which shall be hereafter they will delight themselves greatly in them and it will be their