banish it out of all their Dwellings Their very Greatness Their Honour which should oblige them to honour God most for having honoured them so much above their Fellows makes them to think it below them to condescend so far as to instruct their own Children and much less their Servants They did not think it below them to beget their Children in Sin and consequently to serve the Devil and yet they think it below them to bring up their Children in the Service of the Living God They did not think it beneath them to make their Children the Firebrands of Hell and the Children of Wrath and yet they think it beneath them to make their Children the Children of Light and the Heirs of Heaven And here now I know very well that these Gentile-Men as they think themselves do charge us with Ill-Breeding for telling them of theirs so Publickly But whatever they Think of it we know otherwise We know whom we have believed We know our selves guilty of as great a Fault in not telling them of their Faults as they are in committing them And therefore we are forc'd to tell them further That this is not all the Rudeness and Incivility that these Civil Men these Men of Good Manners and Good Breeding are guilty of For it is not enough for them to think it below them-themselves to bring Religion into their Families but they would have all others think it so too They would have all others to run into the same excess of Riot with themselves They neither go to Heaven themselves nor suffer others to go thither by their Good Will But if their Cups their Roaring their Revelling and Clamorous Balling and Quarrelling do perhaps permit them at sometime to over-hear their Godly Neighbours either a Praying or a Singing of Psalms or a doing any other Christian Duty in their Families the least they say is That they are disturbed by them and that they can have no quiet in their Houses for their silly whining and in plain Terms that they are a Company of rank Hypocrites and Fanaticks But Oh good God what Times are we now fall'n into when Sobriety Gravity and Family-Duties shall be enough to Un-Church a Man What Times are we now fall'n into when Men are counted Sinners for following the Example of the Blessed Jesus who expounded All those things to his Family in Private which he had taught them in Publick Mark 4. 34. What an Age is this that we now live in When Men are counted Sinners for doing as the Primitive Christians did for making their Houses to be the Houses of God and for turning them into so many little Churches and Assemblies of the Saints of God Rom. 16. 5. 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Philem. 2. And you do not know but that in one of these Little Hutts your Lot the Pawn of your Peace the Pledge of your Safety and the Hostage of your Security your Lot may dwell Once more What an Age is this that we now live in When Men shall be counted Hypocrites for doing those Family-Duties and making such a necessary Provision for the Souls of their Children and their Servants which if they do not make St. Paul tells them expresly They deny the Faith and are worse than Infidels And if Men are grown to such an extravagant and such a monstrous Height of Impiety as to reckon that to be no Breach of Duty but rather a commendable Action which makes them Denyers of their Faith yea and makes them worse than the very worst Infidels Good God! What will the end of these things be And thus I have done But do not you think that you also have done with what you have now heard Your Work does but Begin when mine is Ended Your Work is to Do and Practise what I have deliver'd according to God's Word and not to Judge and to Censure it For if thou judge the Law thou art not a Doer of the Law but a Judge Jam. 4. 11. Your Work is to Do and not Only to Hear Do you therefore make a Solemn Vow unto the Lord But make it Now Make it before you stir from hence Joshua gives you and the thing it self requires no longer time to consider of it For says he Chuse you this day whom you will serve If you will chuse at all you must chuse out of hand you must chuse to day even Now. Now therefore do you All make a Solemn Vow unto the Lord That if you have neglected Family-Duties hitherto you will never neglect them for the time to come But whatever others may do in their Families As for Vs as for All Vs that are here present we and our Families will serve the Lord yea we will serve him against all Opposition to the contrary And let all the People say Amen Lord Jesu Amen and Amen Postscript THIS Discourse was Made Preached and Printed for the benefit of all Men whether they Dissent from or Conform to the Excellent Order of the Church of England Which End that it may the better obtain I am to acquaint you with a Question proposed to me since I Preached it and the Answer that I gave my Friend that proposed it The Question was this How I would have Family-Duties performed by the Common-Prayer-Book or by a Prayer of ones own making or any ones else And The Answer was this The Church of England had not decided either way and consequently had left it indifferent and accordingly I had done so too And therefore so it were but gravely devoutly and affectionately performed it was not very material whether the one way or the other And the Reasons of this Answer are these First of all There is no Learned and Sober Dissenter that I can hear of who reckons the Common-Prayer-Book or any other Set-Form of Prayer of itself simply unlawful so the Matter of it be good and the Expressions plain full and significant For otherwise so many Learned and Pious Men among them had never Printed any Family-Prayers nor had the Directory been ever made And therefore even according to the Dissenters themselves A Set-Form is lawful as well as a Prayer of ones own making Secondly The Authors of the Common-Prayer-Book did never design it for the use of Private Families For otherwise A Form of Prayer to be used in Private Houses every Morning and Evening had never been Printed with our Bibles after the Singing Psalms And Bishop Patrick is express in the Preface to his Devout Christian That the Reverence due to the Common-Prayer-Book will be best preserved by imploying it only in the Publick Divine Service or in the Private where there is a Priest to Officiate And therefore even according to the Church of England it self A Prayer of any ones making may be as well if not better used in Private Families than even the Common-Prayer-Book it self Thirdly The 55 Canon does command all Ministers before their Sermons to move the People to joyne
A SERMON Of the Absolute Necessity of Family-Duties Preached to the UNITED PARISHES OF St. Mary Woolnoth St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw IN LOMBARD-STREET By DAVID JONES Student of Christ-Church Oxon. JER 10. 25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name For they have Eaten up Jacob and Devoured him and Consumed him and have made his Habitation desolate LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap-side and Brab Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Corn-hill 1692. Josh 24. 15. If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will Serve But as for me and my House we will Serve the Lord. THese words were spoken by Joshua to the Children of Israel and they do acquaint us First of all That the Service of God may have a great many Prejudices and Objections rais'd against it For It may seem evil to some Men to serve the Lord. Secondly They inform us that though the Service of God may have so many Prejudices and Objections rais'd against it Yet its Excellence is so far beyond all things in the World that it may be safely put to any Mans Choice whether he will serve God or no. The difference between Religion and Irreligion is so great that no reasonable Man can be at a stand which to chuse God is sure which way the choice will go And therefore he says Chuse you this day whom you will serve And therefore they give us to understand Thirdly That If notwithstanding the Excellence of Religion Men will be so wilfully blind as to chuse Irreligion before it Yet it is the Duty of every Joshua it is the Duty of every Master of a Family to ingage both Himself and his Family to serve God against all Opposition to the contrary For If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. These Three Heads of Discourse would take me up Four Sermons at least And therefore the next Lords-Day being the last time that I shall Preach from this place I shall now treat only of the last Proposition which is most Vseful for and most Neglected by most Men. In treating of which I shall shew you from Joshua's Example That Every Master of a Family is indispensably bound in Conscience to bring up his Family in the Service of God And the Reasons of this are such as these First of all The Law tells us Deut. 20. 5. That every Man was bound to Dedicate or to Consecrate or to Sanctifie his House unto the Lord. And the reason of the thing tells us that it being impossible to Sanctifie the Walls of a House there being no Sanctification properly so called in Stone Brick and Timber Therefore to Sanctifie a House unto the Lord is nothing else but to be careful for the Instruction of a Man's Family and to bring it up in the Service of God that so his House may be God's House his Children God's Children and his Servants God's Servants For indeed if a Man does not instruct his Family at Home all the Week long their going to Church on the Lord's-day does them little or no good For the Master does them as much and more harm in his own House than the Minister did them good in God's House The Masters bad Example out-does the Preachers good Preaching though he Preaches with the Tongues of Men and Angels The Master 's customary Swearing and Drinking and Cheating in his way of Trade every Day in the Week out-does a little short florid Sermon only once or twice a Week And that too perhaps design'd only to please a few itching Ears and not to sink down deep enough and to work upon their Hearts and Consciences The Masters neglect of Family-Duties which the Minister presses so home and upon his Conscience in Church makes the Servant imagin that the Minister is some Precise Rigid Puritan that would fain oblige Men to such things as God never obliged them to For else says the Servant My Master who is reckon'd such a Grave Prudent and Just Man in all other things would never be so unjust to God as to deny him the small Tribute of Family-Duties if he thought they were any way due to him And by this means the Master infects his Servant and the Servant infects his Servant when he has one and so on to the end of the World And thus as I take it the case now stands at this present time I would to God I were mistaken in it This Evil of neglecting Family-Duties is come to so great a Head that partly by the strength of Custom and Prescription which some Men impudently pretend for it Partly by the General corruption of Manners And Partly for want of frequent and affectionate Preaching against it it will be a very hard matter to convince Men of their Duty in this case And therefore notwithstanding it is my usual way to spend much time in the Application of my Discourses to the Hearts of Men yet at this time I shall be forced to apply my self wholly to your Judgments by endeavouring to Convince them of the Absolute Necessity of Family-Duties without ever applying my self to raise and to stir up your Affections which must be reserved to some other opportunity and some other Hand Secondly The Character that God gave Abraham was this I know him that is I approve of him I commend him for what I know in him I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment Gen. 18. 19. This was one of our Father Abraham's greatest Commendations And therefore without all doubt it made up the greatest or at least a very considerable part of his bounden Duty and Service And therefore also if ever we will be the true Sons of our Father Abraham We must do the Works of our Father Abraham and among the rest we are more especially bound to do this Work of his we are to command our Children and our Houshold after us We are to take care for them against that time when we shall be dead and gone lest our Memory should Stink and Rot among Men. We are in our Life-time to take care what shall become of them after our Death We are to command them to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment And we are to bring them up in the Service of God And therefore we find that when Christ had converted Zaccheus he said This day is Salvation come to this House forasmuch as he also is the Son of Abraham Luke 19. 9. Mark it all you Masters of Families Christ does not say this Day is Salvation come to this Man Himself But it is come to this Man's House also his whole House as well as himself was
well as he that spends his Estate upon Ease Luxury and Pomp. Men shall be damned not only for Cheating and Oppressing and grinding the Face of the Poor but also for not Assisting and not Relieving the Poor for not giving them Meat Drink Cloathing and Lodging when they stand in need of it as too many of them do in this cold Season of the Year as you heard this Morning from His Majesty's Gracious Letter to the Lord Bishop and the Lord Mayor of London on the behalf of the Poor in and about this City Which I would have you all Effectually to lay to Heart And therefore I beseech thee yea I beg of thee for Christ his sake and for thine own sake too that when thou hast taken so much care to keep thy self from Sins of Commission do not suffer thy self to be damned for Sins of Omission Thou that hast kept thy self from Doing Evil do not suffer thy self to be undone for not doing Good Thou that hast kept thy Family from Sin do not suffer thy self to perish for not bringing it up to Vertue It is the height of Misery to have watched for the Bridegroom till he was just coming and then in the very nick of Time to fall asleep and to be shut out for ever from the Marriage-Feast It is the utmost disappointment to fall short of the Prize within a step of the Races end There are Proverbs made on 't 'T is a disappointment beyond Expression beyond Thought beyond all things to go to the Devil in the sight of God and to be tumbled into Hell from Heaven-Gates And therefore thou that hast taken so much care with thy Family do not make thy self eternally miserable for not taking a little more care with it Thou that hast gone so far do not damn thy self for not going one step farther Do not forfeit Heaven for one bad Action Do not forfeit Eternity for nothing for one Sin of Omission the Omission of Family-Duties Seventhly Self-love and Self-preservation oblige a Man to bring up his Family in the Service of God tho he himself has not God in all his Thoughts For Self-preservation obliges a Man to avoid a Pest-House or an House infected with the Plague It obliges him to avoid all violent Torments such as the Rack the Wheel and the Gallows and it never makes him over-fond either of Sword Fire or Faggot And yet the very same Principle that obliges a Man to avoid these and such like fatal Messengers of God's Wrath does much more oblige him to bring up his Family in the Service of God and to empty his House of all Bad Livers For if thy Servant be sick of any Catching Distemper dost not thou presently get him out of thy House lest Thou and thy Wife and thy Children and the rest of thy Family should catch that Distemper And yet is there any Distemper half so catching and half so mischievous as that of Sin And wilt not thou then much more get rid of a Sinful than a Sick Servant Especially seeing all his Sickness is only the effect of his Sinfulness And it is Charity and perhaps thy Duty to entertain thy sick Servant which thou art never bound to do to thy sinful Servant Dost thou harbor a Company of Thieves or Robbers in thy House if thou hast any thing by thee that is worth their stealing Dost thou harbor a Company of Adulterers or Fornicators in thy House if thou hast either a Chaste Wife or a Chaste Daughter or a Chaste Maid living with thee And yet wilt thou harbor a Company of Wicked Servants in thy House that will rob thee of thy very Soul and will bring the Curse and the Plague of God upon thee and all thy Family Yea wilt thou harbor a Company of Incarnate Devils in thy House For what our Saviour said of Judas I have chosen Twelve Disciples and behold one of them is a Devil is but too true of every other Wicked Man he is a Devil he is led or rather violently hurried on by the same Spirit that the Devil himself is led by And art not thou afraid to keep a Company of Incarnate Devils in thy House when a little Fire or Water or a few Thieves shall be ready to make thee at thy Wits end Eighthly Self-Interest obliges a Man to bring up his Family in the Service of God though he himself careth not for God And Interest certainly will do much in such a place as This when all other things fail Where Robbing of Orphans Oppressing Widows Grinding the Face of the Poor Griping Vsury and Suing out Pardons from the State for Extortion Where these and such like abominable Sins do reign at such a rate certainly Interest yea the very Name of it will pass for a stronger Argument than all the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit And therefore methinks that this Place of all others should be most remarkable for Family-Duties which advance their Interest even to an Hundred-fold For if a Man be bad himself yet if he have but a good Servant God will bless that bad Man for the sake of his good Servant For notwithstanding Potiphar was an Idolater and notwithstanding his Wife was an Adultress and would have committed a Rape upon her Chast Servant that preferred the Members of Christ before the Members of such a Lewd Harlot Notwithstanding all these Villanies that were enough to have undone a whole Kingdom and much more one House Yet still the Holy Ghost is express that the Lord blessed the Egyptians House for Joseph's sake And again The Lord blessed the House of Obed-Edom for the Arks sake And again The Lord blessed Laban for his Servant Jacob's sake And again The Lord cured Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie for his little Hebrew Maids sake And again The Lord saved all the Men that were with Paul in the Ship for Paul's sake And again The Lord would have saved all Sodom and Gomorrha for the sake of Ten Righteous Men. And in one word whatever a good Servant putteth his Hand to the Lord will prosper it in his Hand Psal 1. 3. And who then would be without a good Servant or some other good Man in his Family if he might be had either for Love or Mony if he might be had at any rate Especially seeing that even Self-Interest obliges a Man to get him such a one And therefore though a Man should be never so bad himself yet even his Interest would oblige him one would think to bring up his Family in the Service of God though he like the Unjust Judge in the Gospel cared neither for God nor Man nor did at all value either Heaven or Hell Lastly Good Manners and good Breeding and common Civility oblige a Man to bring up his Family in the Service of God though he himself has no Religion at all For there is no Man so ill-bred as to invite a Friend to take a Commons with him and yet provide