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spirit_n heart_n holy_a word_n 14,376 5 4.0513 3 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A39515 An Earnest exhortation from a minister to his parishioners to discharge the duty of morning and evening prayer in their families with a collection of prayers suited to those two seasons. 1700 (1700) Wing E97; ESTC R40391 8,417 18

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AN EARNEST EXHORTATION FROM A Minister TO HIS PARISHIONERS To Discharge the DUTY of Morning AND Evening Prayer IN THEIR FAMILIES WITH A Collection of PRAYERS suited to those two SEASONS WORCESTER Printed by S. Bryan An Exhortation to Family PRAYER ALTHO' Prayer in Our Families is a Duty that we owe to Almighty God and is both reasonable in it self and highly advantagious to us yet 'tis to be feared that there are too many Families amongst us who are fallen into such a thoughtless State as to go on in a daily Neglect of it That you may not persevere in this Sin which is the Occasion of many other for want of Arguments to diswade you from it or for want of Helps to enable you to Discharge it as you ought I have put this small Book into your Hand and that God may make it Effectual to perswade and assist you to Discharge this Duty which is so Advantagious to your Souls is the Prayer of him who sincerely and heartily wisheth their Salvation To make you sensible of the Benefit of Praying to God in your Family I desire you to consider First The many Dangers to which we are Exposed and that we cannot by our own Skill or Strength avoid them The Body is liable to a hundred Diseases and many Accidents as Fatal and the Soul to infinite Temptations from the World the Flesh and the Devil and the only Security we have against Dangers is God's Providence and against Temptation the Assistance of his Grace which because we daily want we must daily pray for and 'tis great Encouragement for us to do so 2dly Because Christ hath promised his Presence with us Mat 18. 19 20. Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them He will be always ready to hear and assist the Prayers of good Men in what Place or at what time soever they are made more especially when they are sent up with united Hearts and Souls A Third Encouragement to Family Prayers is that it promotes Religion in them for no Member thereof can wholly forget God and another World while they are every Day reminded of both in Prayer Children are hereby trained up from their Infancy in a Habit of Devotion and Servants have an Opportunity of serving God their great Master every Day and by this means Parents and Masters Discharge God's strict Command of bringing up their Children and Servants in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord hereby they Plant in their Hearts a true sense of Piety and Devotion and they when they come to be Parents and Masters will teach their Children and Servants the same There is a general Complaint and I would to God there were no reason for it that the Age we now live in is most abominably Wicked that there is not only a Decay of Christian Piety but Mens Hearts are set upon Wickedness and though we may wish and Pray for a Reformation of Manners yet it cannot be expected till we and our Families keep the Lord's-Day more Holy and till we set up in our Families constant Morning and Evening Prayer for by this means the Spirit of Religion will be transmitted at least to the Generations to come 4thly Family-Prayers are a great Check to all the vicious Members in them for they will put them in mind that there is a God and another World and that those who Expect to be happy hereafter must daily beg of God that they may live Holy Lives whilst they are here This is the great End and Design of all our Prayers And although Persons who have long continued in a Habit of Sin may not heartily join with their more pious Brethren yet they will be thereby put in mind that where daily Prayers are continued in a Family it is in order to preserve them from Dangers and Temptations and to secure their everlasting Happiness after the Troubles and Miseries of this Life are ended and they may be brought sometime or other to believe that 'tis not safe for them to continue in those Sins which they hear their Fellow Christians Pray so heartily against every Day that God would deliver them from The Sermons of Ministers are through Prejudice Carelessness and Hardness of Heart soon forgotten But when the Thoughts of God and another World are thus daily renew'd in their daily Prayers they will be some Check to the wicked Inclinations and wicked Courses of desperate Sinners and I question not but many of them have been restrain'd and some reform'd from their Wickedness by living in such Families where daily Prayers have been kept up Fifthly As Family-Prayers are thus useful to reform the bad Members of it so are they an Excellent Means of Confirming those that are good and to cause them to persevere and grow in Grace and so to fit them more and more for Glory The Hearts of Men are generally inclin'd to what is Evil and averse to what is Good they are daily exposed to the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil and too apt to be Overcome by them and therefore God hath made it our constant Work to watch and strive against them For the doing of this Effectually he hath enjoyn'd Reading and Meditating on his Holy Word and more especially daily Prayer for this Duty will be of the greatest Advantage to us as it tends to awaken our Care and Diligence in the Business of Religion and as it does if 'tis sincerely Perform'd effectually engage the Divine Assistance to second our Care and Endeavours and secure them from Miscarriage and without the aid of God's Spirit and his Blessing upon our Endeavours they will be ineffectual and signify nothing and this aid is not to be obtain'd without Prayer 'Tis this which invites this blessed Guest into our Souls and causeth him to enter in and dwell there and to make us more hearty and successful in our Endeavours after that Holiness without which we cannot see God And since our daily Prayers contain in them Confession of our Sins if we pray with Understanding and so as to mind what we are doing they will put us under a Necessity of daily Examination by which our Repentance will keep P●ace with our Transgression we shall have a better Knowledge of our Spiritual State and we shall be better prepar'd to render up our Accounts when God doth call for them Sixthly By keeping up daily Prayers in our Families we shall more readily and more devoutly attend upon the Publick Service in the Church where all good Christians are oblig'd to meet on the Lord's day with united Hearts to render thanks for those Benefits which we have received at his Hands to set forth his most worthy Praise to hear his most holy Word and to ask those things that are requisite and necessary as well for the Body as the Soul For 'tis the same Spirit of Devotion that doth make us fit both for Publick and Private Prayer and happy is that Soul