Customs and Prejudices to the Infection of others It cannot reasonably be expected that Persons when they come abroad in the World should ordinarily prove better than their Education Whereas as one observes a Religious Family is on the contrary a diffusive Blessing like a Stock of Bees which sends forth Swarms and Honey into Neighbouring Parts Especially as the Members hereof come hereafter to have Families of their own Therefore to shut Religion out of Families or not promote it there is the means to thrust it out of the World This has been observed by the very Pagans as the proper way for a private Man to be a Publick Good and serviceable to the Welfare of his Country viz. by ordering things well at home with Wisdom and Care in his own House and Family And there is hardly any thing whereby so much Evil is done to the Publick as by the Carelesness of Parents in the Instruction of their Children and the Negligence or ill Examples of Masters with respect to their Servants Among some of the Heathens a Penalty has been laid upon the Parents when the Children were ill-conditioned and they might be sued in the Courts of Judicature if they neglected the Education of their Children And how much the Safety Pleasure and Comfort of our Lives depends upon the faithful Discharge of Relative Duties Experience will teach us What greater Comfort can a Parent or a Master have than to see the Success of his Endeavours for the Good of those under his Roof A natural Parent may say it as well as a spiritual one I have no greater Joy than to see my Children walking in the Truth It is said of Abraham Heb. 11.9 that he dwelt in Tents with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same Promise How comfortable is it when Father Son and Grandson are all Heirs of the same promised Salvation Especially if God bless your Endeavours towards it that they who come from your Loins may serve the Lord. There is a double Blessing where the Father is Godly and the Son so likewise To see them alive to God who were dead in Sin will revive the Heart of a Religious Parent as it did old Jacob's to know that his Son Joseph was alive To have Wife and Children bear the Image of God and our Servants to obey and serve and please their Heavenly Master and by our Faithfulness and Care and Diligence to be brought to know and love and worship and honour him and be accepted with him What an unspeakable Delight must this be when the Savour of Religion descends from the Head to all the Members of the Family as the precious Ointment poured on the Head of Aaron ran down to the Skirts of his Garments You then may and will love them with a higher kind of Love than bare natural Affection In short you will love your Husbands Wives and Children and holy Relations with another sort of Love than other Persons do theirs It is a more fervent more pure more faithful more comfortable Love which is superadded by Religion and results from their Love to God and Participation of his Image You love them as the Friends and Brethren of Christ as Heirs of the same Inheritance as begotten again to a Divine Life by the same Spirit as born of the same Immortal Seed of the Word as nourish'd by the same Spiritual Food as under the same Bond of the Covenant as of one Houshold of Faith as Souldiers under the same Colours and Banner of Christ as called to the same blessed Hope of the Gospel as Travellers to the same Heavenly Country and Coheirs of the same glorious everlasting Kingdom You cannot love your unsanctified Relations in this manner whatever Natural or Civil Bonds of Union there may be between you and them It will please you doubtless to see them thrive and prosper in the World whom you tenderly love but it must much more do so to see them faithful to God live to his Glory and ripen for Heaven Whether you live or die you may then comfortably resign them and trust them with God who loves them better than you and will be sure to take care of them With what Pleasure can you think of the Sin and Misery which they escape What Wickedness such a Child would else have committed on Earth and what Torments he must have endured in Hell if he had been wicked Their Love Honour and Obedience to you which the Grace of God will teach them will also add to your Joy in your Health and Sickness or old Age they will pray for you And if they die you can look forward to the everlasting Happiness of their Souls as well as your own and the hopes of meeting them with Comfort in the Day of Reckoning And what an Honour is it to any Family to have serious Godliness transmitted from Father to Son and from the Son to the Grand-Child To be able to say My God and my Father's God and my Grand-father's God 2 Tim. 1.5 as Pliny reports * Dr. Manton on Heb. 11. p. 551. it was counted a great Honour and Felicity that in one Family of the Fabii there were three Presidents of the Senate one after another and in one House of Curio's there were three Orators one after another Besides how Beautiful and Pleasant a Thing is a Religious Well-ordered Family How Comfortable is it to dwell in such an House Where God is Worshiped and his Laws observed and his Day sanctified his Word read his Authority owned and his Laws made the Rule Where it is an Honour and not a Reproach to eschew Evil and do Good God promises to bless the Habitations of the Just and how sweet will his Presence be unto such Whereas to live in a House where the Name of God is never used but in jest or scorn or prophane Oaths where the Inhabitants are as so many Brutes that live from day to day as if they had no Souls to save no World but this to mind and no Expectations beyond the Grave where Worldliness and Sensuality filthy Talk and Intemperance c. have infected Superiours and Inferiours Who would dwell in such a House There cannot generally be Peace and Union Love and Concord in such Mens Dwellings Family Jars Contentions and Sorrows are occasioned by Sin which Family Religion would do much to prevent and cure If Children are a Grief to their Parents and Thorns in their Eyes as a Wicked Son is the Calamity and Shame of his Father and Heaviness to his Mother they may thank themselves as of their own Planting if they did not with Love and Diligence with Wisdom and Faithfulness seek their Salvation If Servants neglect their Duty to you how can you wonder when you have neglected yours to them You must bear the Fruit of their Sin if you do not teach them the Principles of Religion which should make them better and teach them to keep a good Conscience by giving them your
own Example But if your Endeavours should not succeed for their Conversion and Salvation you will yet have much more Peace than otherwise as having done what you could towards it Whereas without such Indeavours it must be an afflictive piercing Thought when any of them Die or when you your selves must to consider that you did no more to prevent their Damnation and that such and such through your Unfaithfulness are like to Perish for ever who sprang from your Loins or went to Hell out of your House Moreover what Evidence can you have of your own Piety and Sincerity towards God if you do not thus indeavour the Spiritual and Eternal Good of those under your Charge Abraham would command his Children and his Houshold after him that they should fear the Lord. Joshua resolves to engage all his House to serve the true God with him though a General and a Great Man did not think it beneath him to own Religion before all the World and endeavour to promote it He would not serve the True God alone if he could prevail with Others to join with him Proposeth his own Example to the whole Nation and that as far as in him lay all his Family at least should be Religious Cornelius was a devout Man and feared God with all his House We may without being uncharitable suspect the soundness of their Religion who are unconcerned for the spreading of it in their Families How is it consistent with Faithfulness to your own Souls to have litle or no Care concerning theirs If you are wanting in using the means for their Salvation you shake the ground of Hope concerning your own And Family Prayer and Instruction and the Holy Examples of Good Men in their Houses is one of the First Means which God commonly makes use of to Convince and Turn and Sanctifie such as were Ignorant and Carnal At least Education making the first Impression on their Minds whatever Change may be afterwards made by free Conversation somewhat of the first good Tincture is like to abide Ordinarily I say through the Blessing of God this may be hoped for tho it must be confessed that where the Advantages of Education are misimproved it is observed many of the Children and Servants who have been bred in good Families prove worse than others If they forsake God he hath said He will forsake them and cast them off for ever It is a Judicial Act in God when Children cast off the God of their Fathers If they turn Apostates they many times run deeper into Sin and further from God than others as Cain Cham Ishmael Esau Eli's Sons Absolom yea Solomon Rehoboam Manasseh and few comparatively recovered The Light and Means they sin against provokes God to abandon them Upon the same grounds we may give an account why there are more Atheists in such places where the Christian Religion is professed and the Power of it rejected than among any other sort of Men even than there were among the Heathens themselves For * See to this purpose Dr. Owen of Spiritual-Mindedness 4o. Chap. 8. God hath designed to Magnifie his Word above all his Name above all other ways of the Revelation of himself to the Children of Men. Therefore where this is despised and rejected Reason or the Light of Nature shall not have the same Power and Efficacy as on them who never enjoyed the Light of the Gospel or so much of it From the same Reason that the Children of Professors are sometimes irrecoverably Profligate there is more Common Housty and Justice to be found among civilized Heathens and Mahumetans than among false and degenerate Christians Their Hearts are judicially hardened and their Eyes blinded And the Contempt of Gospel Light must needs beget and leave on the Mind such a depraved corrupt Habit as cannot but incline unto the worst of Evils 2 Pet. 2.21 And as all Atheism springs from a Resolution not to see things Eternal and invisible to Sense where-ever Men are resolved not to see the greater the light is which shines about them the faster they must close their Eyes It is not therefore to the Disparagement but Honour of the Gospel that so many avow themselves to be Atheists in those places where the Truth of it is known and professed For none can have any inclination thereto till they have rejected the Gospel which immediately exposeth them to the worst of Evils They take shelter from their Fears in downright Atheism which alone pretends to give them security against the Light of Divine Revelation And what means can be used for the recovery of such The most rational Arguments to prove the Being and Existence of God may be of good use to shame and expose their foolish Pretences But Men under the Power of Atheistical Thoughts are insnared into them by a Love of some Lust and a desire to live securely in Sin and no Arguments from Reason are like to prove an effectual Cure to the Predominant Love of Sin and an Habitual Course in it where Men have rejected the Means and Motives unto that end declared in Divine Revelation Parents however have sufficient encouragement to hope for success in their faithful Endeavours There be many can speak of God and praise him as their Fathers God from Age to Age. If they neglect their Duty to Children which is ordinarily the reason why so many miscarry they cannot challenge God for not performing his Covenant-Promise but must condemn themselves But whatever the Success be every Parent and Head of Family is obliged to Honour God and Promote Religion and do what good he can for the Souls of others within his Sphere This all in their several Places are bound to endeavour as they have opportunity You must be faithful to Christ and his Interest in every Relation and in every Capacity If you are obliged to serve and worship God in a single Capacity as Private Persons by virtue of the same Dedication of your selves to Him you are bound to serve and Honour him in every Relation as Husbands Parents Masters and Heads of Families in every State and Condition according to your Capacity And by Family Prayer and Worship God hath greater Honour than by Secret Prayer tho therein you may more particularly and largely express the state of your own Soul And of how great Consequence to the Eternal Salvation or Ruine of Souls is your Care or Unfaithfulness herein How can you serve the Devil more effectually than by furthering the Damnation of all under your Roof through the neglect of your Duty to them And without giving them Assistance and Help to a Holy Life they will have continual Temptations to Sin In that House wherein God is not served honoured and worshiped the Devil's Interest will prevail And since they have an Everlasting Happiness to attain and Endless Misery to escape they will have little reason to thank you for whatever else you can teach them or do for them if you will not
go to Heaven without them Who will not hinder their Inferiours from serving God Whereas you have much to do of Positive Duty to * See Mr. Baxters's Saints Rest Part. 3. Chap. 14. Sect. 16. inform their Minds to furnish their Memories to rectify their Wills to quicken their Affections to keep tender their Consciences and restrain their Tongues and watch over their outward Carriage to make them hate Sin and love Holiness and prize the Bible and delight in the Ordinances and Institutions of Christ and like good Company and dislike all others c. And to what End hath God given you The Authority of Parents or Masters if not to prevent Sin and to promote Holiness in your Families Humane Nature is so corrupt that unless in some few with whom the Spirit of God begins very early and the Effects of Holy Baptism are discovered in Childhood there need to be great Restraints put upon it by those who have Power and Authority over Young People Your Authority must be kept up lest you should be despised by those that you should Rule Labour therefore to understand the Nature Use and Extent of that Authority with Relation to all in your Family And the more you grow in Knowledg and Holiness and walk according to the Gospel-Rule the better will you preserve your Authority among all your Inferiours Humility and Wisdom and circumspect Walking will enable you to do them the more good in the use of that Power which God has given you The Indulgence and Allowance of Children in what is sinful you know did highly provoke God in the case of Eli and how dear did it cost him That his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not â— Saâ— 3.13 You must not let Wickedness dwell in your Tabernacle Job 11.14 or in those of your Family They will observe your Orders and regard your Commands if you do not indiscreetly lose your Authority by not keeping your distance or suffering them to be too bold with you or on the other hand making them too strange so as to be fearful and discouraged I here speak especially of Children If what you resolve upon and order in commanding what is good or forbidding what is evil you see be punctually observed still managing all with Affection and Love and manifesting the Honour of God and the Interest of their Souls and Salvation to have been your greatest Motive And remember that Commendation when they do well is as needful as Reproof and Correction when they sinfully transgress which also ought to be without Partiality or the causeless cockering or countenancing of one above the rest The like may be said though with some difference with respect to Your Servants Be Just Compassionate and Loving to them but lose not your Authority as a Master Be Faithful and Affectionate in your Counseling of them for the good of their Souls But if they be refractory and stubborn and slight your Advice and go on in Sin and wax worse and worse and deride serious Godliness in their Fellow-Servants you must use other Methods or get rid of them as soon as you can You are to take care that Wickedness dwell not within your House without Admonishing and Reproving of it You must warn them who are anruly and of others have Compassion making a difference Some must be rebuked sharply others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire Jude 22 23 Verses As to those who have Trades and Families but God hath not blessed them with Children or hath taken them away by Death their Care and Labour and Trust is thereby lessened and they ought to be the more careful with respect to their Servants They have many Considerations to keep them from Repining or Sorrowing much for the want of Children upon the Account of the Duty the Pains the Care and Grief of Heart which they are freed from For in this dissolute Age how few Children answer the Hopes Desires and Pains of Parents Or prove Comforts to them when they grow up If God had given you Children or prolonged their Lives what a Life of Trouble and Sorrow might They probably have passed in this World besides the constant Fear you would have had of their Sin and Damnation which may be put in the Ballance against the Vncertain Comforts of those who have Children abstracting from that Consolation which arises from the faithful discharge of Duty to them More particularly it is advisable with Family Prayer to joyn Serious Reading of the Holy Seriptures every Day and frequent Catechizing or Instructing of Inferiours in the Principles of Religion Abraham had such Trained Catechized Servants in his House These things that I command thee says God to his Antient People shall be in thy Heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children Deut. 4.9 chap. 11.19 Teach a Child in the way he should go and when he is Old he will not depart from it Prov. 4.4 chap. 22.6 2 Tim. 1.3 Acquaint them by little and little with the great Doctrines of Christianity give them Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept as they are able to receive and bear it Acquaint them betimes with the Word and Works of God When you sit in the House or walk by the Way or lie down or rise up by asking them Questions and putting them upon asking you Abraham's Example is approved and recommended by God in this matter Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord. Never diel any Age afford better Helps for Catechizing than this there being so many excellent Catechisms or Summaries of Christian Religion already printed and easy to be had If any of you want a Method for Regular Catechizing in your Families as suppose upon a Lord's-day Evening or once a Week let me mention one which is practised by many with good Success in some Counties of this Nation viz. Let the Master of the Faly begin with a short Invocation of God praying for his Presence Assistance and Blessing and then ask the younger sort Three Questions out of the Assemblies Catechism and upon each of the three Answers ask the explicatory Questions in Mr. Joseph Allen's Catechism or Mr. Lye's so that by answering Yes or No you will perceive whether they understand the matter treated of After this read The fuller Explication of those Three Questions in some larger Catechism as that of Mr. Thomas Vincent and then close with a short Prayer and if you can Sing a Psalm All which may be done in an Hour and you will find it very profitable both for younger and elder People The reading of the Holy Scriptures frequently in your Families as well as in your Closets upon the Week-days as well as upon the Lord's-day I hope I need not use many Arguments to recommend Deut. 11.18 They are able to make us wise unto Salvation and they are suitable to every Case that you