by a total neglect And for some Masters of Families I know not all Circumstances considered but the use of a good Form may be more advisable and more for the good of those with whom they joyn than to pray without One. All things should be done for Edifieation and for those to use a Form who cannot otherwise do so well is for Edification And Experience will prove that some cannot do so well without one I deny not but the Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Supplication and ready to assist and enable us in some measure to pray so that if you neglect not the Gift that is in you you would increase in this and other Gifts by Exercise The Holy Scriptures will furnish you with Matter and Expressions and if you study your own Hearts and observe the state of your Family you will be competontly able to apply them And God will afford you that Assistance of his Holy Spirit which is needful As in the Case of Moses he excuses himself from speaking to Pharoah as God would have him because he was not cloquent but slow of speech The Lord said to Moses Exod. 4.11 Who veaketh the Dumb to speak Who hath made Man's Mouth Have not I the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy Mouth teach thee what thou shalt say His Call to speak to Pharach was Extraordinary and so was his promised Assistance from God Yours to Family Prayer is Ordinary and the Ordinary Help and Assistance you therein need you may likewise expect It is a greater Disconragement to others from the daily Worship of God in their Families that they are often composed of such Persons as care not to joyn in such Duties Or they are such Scoffers that it is a scruple whether they should be suffered to be present if they were willing Some had rather pray alone than indeavour or desire such Company they think they had better leave them out than have their presence who will not heartily joyn in the Requests that are made to God and who desire not his Grace or seek his Favour To such it may be said That it is the Duty even of wicked Men to pray to God and you know not what success their joyning with you may be attended with Some have dated their first Conviction and Conversion from Family Prayer and Instruction You knowing the Sins of those in your Family should be very serious in the Confession of Sin and God may touch their Hearts and give them Repentance However if you look to your own Hearts and do not regard Iniquity there the Wickedness of others in the Family shall not be laid to your Charge while you do what lies in you for their Recovery The Presence of Judas with our Lord and Saviour when he prayed with his Disciples did not render them unacceptable to God For I know says Christ to his Father thou hearest me always If you are sincere in your Worship the Presence of unworthy Persons will not obstruct your Acceptance with God Another Man's Unbelief will not prejudice thy Faith If you should scruple to pray in your Families on that account What think you of a Minister's Prayer in the Publick Congregation If any neglect Family Worship on this Pretence they are most likely to be such as refuse to come to the Lord's Table because of the Admission of supposed unworthy Persons But how is it that they come to hear the Word and join in publick Prayer in the Congregation while this Objection is stronger there than with reference to Prayer in their own Houses The Authority of Parents as to their Children is so manifest and their Duty to oblige them to join in the Worship of God is so plain that it is principally as to scornful or stubborn Servants that this Objection speaks And as to them unless they prove much otherwise than you thought they would you were greatly to blame in admitting such And after trial of other Means for their Conviction and Cure if they can be removed you ought to do it Psal 101.4 5 7. A froward Heart shall depart from me a Slanderer will I cut off He that telleth Lies shall not tarry in my sight or dwell in my House But where is the Authority of the Head of a Family all this while Should they not observe your Orders in Matters of Trade and Business you would quickly let them know you were their Masters And does that Relation signify nothing to them while they dwell under your Roof and are imployed in your Service Doth not the Fourth Commandment suppose a Master's Authority to bring his Family to worship God with him And your Concern for their Souls chligeth you to endeavour it There is one very common Objection that I fear has too much of sad Truth for the Foundation of it viz. That many of those who pray in their Families and read the Holy Scriptures there and keep up the Externals of Religion beyond their Neighbours do yet live no better than such as pray not their Children are no better than other Mens Children their Servants are no better than other Mens Servants they themselves no better than their prayerless Neighbours They are one thing on their Knees and another on their Feet They are as vain and worldly as proud and passionate as hard to the Poor as false in their Dealings as revengeful and inexorable as others c. Would to God there were no ground for this Objection Wo be to the World because of such Offences but wo be to them by whom they come Who can tell what unspeakable Mischief such do who keep up the Worship of God in their Families and yet walk disorderly in their daily Conversations Who begin with God in the Morning and keep Company with the Devil all the Day after What Stumbling-blocks do they lay in the way of ignorant Children and ungodly Servants and Neighbours who are acquainted with it They tempt them to be Atheists and deny God and make them question the Reality of Religion But whatever Hypocrisie any such may be guilty of in such like Duties it will not discharge you from the Obligation to perform them sincerely You may as well refuse to join in publick Worship because some constant Hearers are no better than some of those who stay away and turn their Backs upon all such positive Institutions However it is not the Fruit of their praying but the want of Seriousness and Sincerity which provokes God to leave them to the Power of Temptation It is not long of Christ and of the Holy Scriptures and of Religion and of Christianity that any professing Christians are so bad No Ruler was ever so severe against Sin as Jesus Christ no Law was ever so strict in the forbidding Sin as the Laws of Christ The Rule is streight and the Christian Religion is not to be blamed because some that profess it are not true to their own Profession They condemn themselves and dishonour
or yours can be in They that cannot read or will not read or have not so much time to read may be profited by your reading the Holy Scriptures in your Family with them The Singing of Psalms or Hymns in Christian Families where there are enough who are able to joyn in that part of Worship is also a very commendable and excellent part of Family-Religion Col. 3.16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Especially on the Lord's Day And that I would next speak of because I am perswaded that no Family-Religion can be duly kept up without the Sanctification of the weekly Sabbath What the Jews said falsly of Christ we may apply truly enough to many a Parent and Master This Man is not of God for he keepeth not the Sabbath Day and takes no Care that his Family with him do so You have many helps to understand the Nature of the Duty and of your Christian Deportment on that Day in publick private and secret You would do well the Night before to make some Preparation for the Solemnity of that Day and in the Morning to possess your Souls with the Consideration of the Privilege you enjoy in such weekly Seasons of approaching to God and paying Homage to him Serious Godliness has never been found to flourish in any Soul or in any House as to any Person or any Family where the strict * See my Lord Chies Justice HALES's Contemplations 8o. Vol. 1. Directions to his Children touching the keeping of the LORD's DAY Observation of the Lord's Day has been neglected If you begin with God in secret that will prepare you for Family-Worship the private Worship of God in your Families will fit you for the publick and your careful serious Attendance on that will help you to return to the Worship of God in your Families and Closets You ought to methodize and time these Duties so as one may not interfere with the other Sanctify the whole Day to God improve every part of it make it not shorter than the other Days of the Week as many do by rising later and going to bed sooner Bring as many of your Families to the publick Worship with you as you can When Elkanah went to sacrifice to the Lord he and all his House went with him 1 Sam. 1.21 And if you recollect and repeat to them aferwards the Substance of what you and they have heard preached it may promote their Attentiveness in hearing assist their Memories to retain what they heard and quicken your own Affections That by reading the Holy Scriptures by Catechising by repeating Sermons c. your Children and Servants may be instructed in the Knowledg of God his Nature and Works and Will in the Knowledg of themselves the Immortality of their Souls the Nature of Sin our first Apostacy and the sad Effects of it our Redemption and Recovery by Jesus Christ his Person his Offices his Ordinances and Sacraments his Promises Faith in him the Covenant of Grace the Properties and Privileges of Believers the Rewards and Punishments of the next Life c. In short do but spend that Day as knowing how small a part of every Week one Day is to be solemnly imployed in preparing for an Eternal State do but imploy that Day under the Sense of the Value of Immortal Souls your own and others And think how near the Judgment-Day may be when you must be accountable to God for all your Time and especially such sacred Time Do but spend that Day as believing the Good or Evil Influence it will have upon all the other Days of the Week The Affairs of your Souls will thrive or not thrive as the Lord's Day is sanctified or neglected The Souls of your Children and Servants if not minded then are unlikely to be minded on the other Days of the Week And oftentimes it is found that even your civil and secular Affairs do prosper or not according to your Care or Remisness in sanctifying the Lord's Day Moreover you ought not only to pray with your Families and worship God with them but to observe the Necessities of every one in particular and heartily to pray for them in secret You would have more Comfort in your Family-Relations and God more Glory from them did you more fervently beg of God the Grace which you and they do need Monica the Mother of Austin had gracious Answers to her Requests to God both for her Husband and her Son How can you strive with God in Prayer for your own Souls and not remember to do the like for those whose Souls are committed to your Care O that my Son may live to thee O that my Daughters may not die for ever O that my Servants may not serve the Devil O that there may not be a Son of Perdition nor a Daughter of Belial under my Roof Have mercy on me O Lord says the Woman of Canaan unto Christ For my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil A certain Man at another time comes kneeling to him saying Lord have mercy upon my Son for he is a Lunatick and sore vexed For oftentimes he falls into the Fire and oftentimes into the Water Such Prayers had success for the Cure of bodily Evils and may rather be hoped to have so for spiritual ones If the Case of your Children resemble this that any of them fall sometimes into the Fire of Lust sometimes into the Water of Drunkenness sometimes into this Sin sometimes into that being hurried and led captive by the Devil beg that God would dispossess Satan and that he would have mercy on them and bring them to themselves You know not what effect your Prayers may have while you live nor of what Advantage a Stock of Prayers laid up may be unto your Children after your Death The largest Portion the fairest Inheritance or Estate you can leave them may be a much less Kindness Your Interest in the Covenant and hearty Prayers for their Salvation is a Treasure they cannot sufficiently value Whereas a wicked Father lays up Iniquity for his Children as you have the Expression Job 21.19 20. He may store up Riches and God treasures up Wrath And upon Imitation of their Father's Sins God fills up the Measure of their Judgment Luke 11.48 50. While you neglect not Family and secret Prayer in these respects you must likewise remember to observe what Answers God at any time gives to such Prayers What serious Impressions are made on the Minds and Hearts of Children or Servants how their Knowledge and Grace do increase and grow what Convictions the Spirit hath wrought on any of them who is reformed c. and how God hath prospered your secular Indeavours how he favours your Diligence in your Calling but especially how he rewards your Faithfulness to the Souls of Inferiours If any of your Children
and Family I and the Men of my House will serve before the Lord That is the Men who dwelt with him in his House And we read of Cornelius Acts 10.2 that he was a devout Man one that feared God with all his House and gave much Alms to the People and prayed always He was a Roman Captain over the Italian Band which attended the Roman Governour 's Person as his Life-guard and therefore probably of that Nation This Cornelius is said to be a Devout Man Whether he were a Proselyte to the Church of Israel or no is doubtful be sure not a Proselyte of the Covenant or of Justice for such were Circumcised If he were an Uncircumcised Proselyte or a Proselyte of the Gate he was not incorporated into the Commonwealth of Israel The Apostle Peter had a Vision first to authorize him to go to him And the Christians of the Circumcision exprest their Resentment for his Conversation with him till they knew his Warrant Acts 11.3 Yet this Roman this Souldier this Centurion was accepted of God as being prepared to believe in Christ assoon as he should be revealed to him He was a devout and good Man and not only good himself but chose such to be in his Family as feared God He was full of good Works and constant in Prayer and God testified his Acceptance of him Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up as a Memorial before God Vers 4. Of a Truth I perceive says the Apostle that God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness shall be accepted Vers 39. Here is a surprizing Example of a devout Souldier a devout Roman spreading Religion in his Family One that feared God with all his House and prayed always The Fear of God is an usual Expression comprehensive of all Divine Worship 2 Kings 17.36 37. Let all the Earth worship him Psal 66.4 Let all the Earth fear him Psal 67.7 And Prayer being the principal part of it we may suppose that as he feared God and all his House so he prayed with all his House unto God And he himself seems so to explain it I prayed to God in mine House at the ninth Hour or with my Houshold as it may be rendered He afterwards called together his Kindred and his near Friends when Peter came but mentions not the calling of his Houshold as what was usual and supposed And the praying always or continually can hardly bear a less Sense than the doing of it every Day As the daily Sacrifice which God appointed the Jews is called the continual Sacrifice which was offered Morning and Evening Dan. 8.11 So Mephibosheth is said to eat Bread at the King's Table continually 2 Sam. 9.7 that is at Meal-time every Day Nature and Scripture both seem to concur to recommend Morning and Evening as the proper Season for Prayer It is good to give Thanks unto the Lord and to sing Praises to thy Name O most High to shew forth thy Loving-kindness every Morning and thy Faithfulness every Night Ps 92.1 2. God is to be worshiped by all Persons and all People Ps 22.27 28. Ps 66.4 and by Social Worship Psalm 34.3 Acts 12.12 The general Nature of Worship and all the Essentials of true Divine Worship is found in the Worship of God by Families as such The Object the End and the Rule is the same And since there are many Commands in Scripture concerning Divine Worship and this part of it Prayer in particular which are of general Extent such as of praying always and giving thanks always and continuing in Prayer and Thanksgivings with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit every where lifting up holy hands in every thing giving thanks c. 't will be hard to obey all these Commands and yet live in the neglect of Family-Prayer For by the Light of Nature we may from hence be able to determine the Performance of this Duty to be every Day as a proper Time and in every House as a proper Place for it But if it were only permitted us we are greatly wanting to our own Interest to neglect it These general Rules and Precepts do at least warrant and make lawful our Praying together every Day We have leave to pray together and shall we not use it What if God should have forbidden us if he should put any of our Families under an Interdict and say You shall not pray to me I will not receive a Sacrifice from you Your Neighbours may pray to me every Morning and Night I 'll hear them and accept them As for you you shall have no Family-Altar or Sacrifice Who would not be griev'd to be forbidden such a daily Privilege Who would not then use it if they might And because the Evening and Morning do make one Day as the Beginning and the End do comprehend the whole he that prays every Morning and Evening may be said to pray continually to pray always to pray without ceasing Doth not the Light of Nature which instructs us in the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul oblige us to endeavour the good of those in our Families And as one proper means of their spiritual Welfare it may direct the Master of a Family to pray with them there being Family-Sins to be confessed by us and forgiven by God there being many Temptations every day to be resisted Wants to be supplied Duties performed Graces exercised Crosses prevented Mercies acknowledged c. in Families as such with respect unto all these Family-Prayer and Worship is an excellent Means Some of those who had not the Advantage of Scripture-Revelation have yet had their Houshold-Gods The Eastern Nations had their Teraphim the Egyptians Greeks and Romans had their Lares and Penates a Sort of Family-Gods to rule preserve and defend them in their Houses whom they worshiped and sacrificed unto in their Houses and several of them had a particular Room set a-part for an Oratory to that purpose The Heathen Poets Hesiod Homer and others mention their daily Sacrifices to their Gods every Morning and Evening that they might prosper and succeed by their Favour in all their Affairs and their Practice may be urged for our Conviction It seems a Prescription of the Law of Nature that every Society wherein Men do unite and joyn according to the Mind of God should own their Dependance on him by some Worship common to that Society and as performed in the Name of it especially is it so as to an Houshold or Family which is the Foundation of all other Societies Hence there were Sacrifices peculiar unto Families before the Law wherein the Father of the Family was the sacred Administrator So Job offer'd Burnt-Offerings for himself and Family Chap. 1.5 and Jacob for his Gen. 35. And such Family-Sacrifices were famous among the * An Eminent Instance hereof the Roman Historian gives us in C. Fabius who when Rome was sack'd by the Gauls and the Capitol
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
he built Altars and offered Sacrifices That dreadful Curse imprecated or denounced rather and predicted upon the Families that call not upon God's Name though principally meaning Tribes of People and by calling on the Name of God worshiping the true God in opposition to Idolatry yet deserves to be considered because by parity of Reason it may extend to the lesser Societies where the True God is not owned and worshiped God has also promised to bless the Habitations of the Just and he has often owned by his Providence his acceptance of Family-Religion and Worship When all the Old World had neglected God and corrupted their Ways the true Religion continued but in the Family of Noah He and his were saved from the Universal Deluge when the rest were swept away by the Flood Agreeable to this is a Passage frequently mentioned to this purpose in Suitzerland in the Canton of Bern Anno Christi 1584 when a whole Village consisting of ninety Houses were overturned by an Earth-quake there was but one Family excepted and but one half House preserved and in that half of the House that was preserved the Master of the Family was earnestly praying to God with his Wife and Children while the Earthquake destroyed all his Neighbours For the Instruction and Teaching of Children and Servants as a part of Family-Religion there are sufficiently express Scriptures To bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord To train them up in the way wherein they should go And consequently to teach them to pray to God and praise him And the Example of a Parent or Master is one of the best ways of teaching them The Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 5.8 That he that doth not provide for his own House and Family hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel He that doth not provide Food and Raiment for those of his own Houshold comes under this Character And if he be so bad who takes no care of the Welfare of their Bodies what shall we think of him who has no Concern for their Souls not to instruct them in their Duty to God not to pray with them not to read the Holy Scriptures to them He it may be feeds and clothes his Children and Servants as a kind Father and Master and as an English-Man but carries it to their Souls like a Barbarous Indian or a Careless Insidel As much more worth as the Soul is than the Body so much worse is that Man that is careless of the Souls in his Family than he that is careless of their Bodies Such a one the Apostle says has denied the Faith he cannot with any Face pretend to be a Christian How shameful then is it for Men to be admitted to the highest Privileges of Christians I mean to the Table of the Lord and yet neglect the Worship of God in their Families We find in Exod. 12.47 48. that no Proselyte might presume to come to the Passover unless his whole House as well as himself were circumcised and professed the Jewish Religion If this Law as well as its Equity were still in force how few would now come to the holy Sacrament He that doth not provide for his own is worse than an Infidel He that would suffer their Bodies to starve and does not give them sufficient proper Food deserves this Censure and Reproach much more doth he who neglects their Souls It is not indifferent to you whether your Children and Servants be sed and clothed and have necessary Provisions or no whether they be nourished or whether they be starved And is it nothing to you whether they be saved or damned You would not be accessory to the Murder of their Bodies and will you not be as careful to avoid the like and greater Guilt with reference to their Souls If Parents had no Trust and Charge commited to them from God who saith All Souls are mine with relation to the Souls of their Children if Maâ—…ers were to give no Account to God of their Servants but whether they gave them Food and Wages c. they might be concerned as to these things But you are Stewards intrusted with the Care of their Souls as well as their Bodies And it will be sad hereafter for a Child to say before the Bar of Christ There stands my cruel Father or Mother who never prayed with me or instructed me in the Matters of Religion and so I minded it not The like for a Servant he lived so many Years with such or such a Master and never had any Assistance from him to further his Salvation Certainly as to Children Parents are more especially obliged as having greater and nearer Obligations to them than any Ministers or Pastors can have to their People Your Children are Parts of your selves and if you are not concerned for their Souls you are unnatural and cruel to them It is from you their immediate Parents that they receive their corrupted Nature their Pollution and Misery and therefore you are bound to endeavour their Recovery and Cure You will also condemn your selves in being sollicitous for their Bodily Welfare which most are to an excess while you neglect the Salvation of their Souls And by your Care of their Souls you provide for their Bodily Welfare too God hath promised to bless the Posterity of his Servants Tho the Church was continued in the Line of Isaac yet God promised to bless Ishmael for the â—ake of his Father Abraham I will make him a great Nation for he is thy Seed Gen. 21.13 But remember they must die and they are capable of Grace and Immortality and will you only provide for them as you do for your Beasts Plutarch taxing the Abuse of Parents who strive to leave their Children Rich and not Vertuous saith they do like those who are sollicitous about the Shoe but neglect the Foot They depend on you for their Maintenance and Livelihood and so you have an Advantage to promote their Good they will hearken to your Counsels when they will not regard what a Minister can say You have an Interest in their Affections joyn'd with an Authority over them they are with you in their tender Years and so your Work is the easier This is well described by an eloquent * Bishop Jer. Taylor 's Discourse of Baptism 4 â— 1653. p. 54 55. Pen. God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his Children and Parents have great Power by strict Education and prudent Discipline to form the Minds of Children to Vertue Joshua did undertake for his Houshold I and my House will serve the Lord and for Children we may better do it because till they are of perfect Choice no Government in the World is so great as that of Parents over their Children They rule over their Understandings and Children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely And it is a rare Art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the
Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. They are Persons obliged by a superinduced Band they are to give them Instructions and holy Principles as they give them Meat It is certain Parents may better stipulate for their Children than the Church can for Men or Women They may be Hypocrites and the next day may change their Resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that Children can do when they come of Age and it is much in the Parents whether the Children shall do any such thing or no For Education can introduce a Habit and a kind of second Nature against which Children cannot kick unless they do some Violence to themselves and their Inclinations And altho it fails too often whenever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less Influence into the Event than in the present Case This would succeed oftner if Parents were faithful in their Duty to them while young It would commonly succeed if you begun betimes according to the Comparison which one makes of Childhood and Youth to Water spilt on a Table it rune after you that way which you draw your Finger They may be prejudiced against a holy Life or settled in a way of Sin before they are capable of profiting by publick preaching But your teaching them at home as it may begin sooner so will prevail more and they will acknowledg your Teaching to be with more Authority than ours I fear saith a great * See more largely Mr. Baxter's Saints Rest Part 3. Chap. 14. Sect. 11. Divine that many of those who are otherwise good People do little understand or consider the Authority which their Teachers have over them from Christ They know it may be to value their Gifts but think not themselves bound to learn of them and obey them in the Lord by virtue of their Office However the Obligation of Ministers to teach you and your Children will not cancel your Duty of Teaching them at home no more than that because Magistrates must govern you and your Children you should therefore not govern your own Families How many yet misimprove all these Advantages to do the Devil's Work and teach their Children the way to Hell by inducing them to sin betimes by instructing them to be proud and revengeful to backbite and rail to speak filthily to curse and swear to scorn Holiness and the Word and Ministers and Ways of God How much worse says one are such Parents than the Devil himself As it is worse for a Mother to dash out the Brains of her own Child against a Wall than for a Wolf or a Dog or a Bear to kill her Child It is in your Hands to do them the greatest Kindness or Cruelty in all the World And if you saw a Burning Furnace much more the Flames of Hell what would you think of that Parent who could find in his heart to cast the Child into it or to put him into the hands of one that would If therefore you love them shew it in those things wherein their greatest Interest is concerned Do not say you love them and yet be so unmerciful as to damn them And what can you possibly do more to damn them than to bring them up in Ignorance and Sensuality and neglect of God The Devil damns none but by tempting to Sin and drawing them from Godliness for there is no other way to Hell But it is no great wonder for you do by Your Children but as you do by Your Selves You say you desire not to damn your selves but yet you do it So it is with respect to them Shall he that casts his Child into the Sea say he intends not to drown him Or he that sends him into a Pest-house or a Stews say he intends not to indanger his Health Or that trains him up in Thievery and Robbing say that he intends not to have him hanged It is all one in effect for the Law determins it and the Judge will take care to have it done As ever you would not be charged by God with the Murder of their Souls and have them cry out against you in everlasting Fire as the Means of their Ruine be now faithful and diligent for their Salvation It will be sad for those who dedicated their Children to God by Baptism in their Infancy that afterwards they should bring them up for the Devil the World and the Flesh as God complains Ezek. 16.20 Thou hast taken thy Sons and thy Daughters which thou hast born VNTO ME and these thou hast sacrificed to be devoured That Sin in the Israelites to sacrifice their Sons and their Daughters to Devils Psal 106.37 was less than that of Negligent and Prophane Parents who sacrifice not only the Bodies but the Souls of their Children to Satan and so bring them forth to the Murderer Hos 9.13 Upon the whole I hope I have said enough to recommend and urge the Duty till I hear what is further objected besides the want of express positive Scripture Some of the most considerable Objections I shall consider in the next Letter Let Conscience be faithful and if you admit of Conviction by what you have read take heed how you stifle it or delay to do that which you cannot deny but you ought to do I am Yours Of Family Religion The SECOND LETTER SIR I Am sensible that a great deal more might be said and more Methodically to prove and urge so important a Duty as Family Religion and Worship than what I have mentioned in the former Letter What is done in the midst of many Interruptions now a little and then a little cannot be expected should have that Beauty Order and Exactness of Method and Connexion which you may think necessary However I proceed to what I promised in answer to some Objections Only let me premise that it is foretold concerning the days of the Messiah when the Spirit of Grace and Supplication shall be poured out on the House of David and on the Inhabitants of Jerusalem when the Multitude of the Isles shall rejoyce and all Flesh shall see the Glory of the Lord That Holiness to the Lord which was the Inscription on the Mitre of the High Priest shall be upon the very Bells of the Horses and the Pots in the Lord's House or the Ordinary Pots in the Kitchins of the Temple shall be like the Bowls before the Altar * Zech. 12.10 chap. 14.20 21. which received the Blood of the Sacrifices Yea every Pot in Judah and Jerusalem shall be Holiness unto the Lord of Hosts That is the Utensils of Private Houses shall be dedicated to God every Family shall be a Temple wherein God shall be worshiped And as God required of the Jews a Continual Burnt-Offering or a daily Sacrifice of two Lambs the one in the Morning the other in the Evening It may be expected that so often at least he should be worshiped every Day in the Families of his People