ple, though that principle is an error. But in those, who really do believe in God, it is a violence done to their own reason, and a downright contempt of his providence. They are led into this great folly and sin by want of consideration. They have principles, but they have not thought and prudence enough to apply them; so they are of no other use, than to bear witness against their practice. They have a religion to talk about, or to dispute for. It is in vain to look for it in their closets, in their families, in church, or in their hearts: it is only to be found in their memories, where it was lodged when they were children, with other disagreeable lessons. These people, of all others, are the hardest to be reasoned into the practice of religion, because they have got an habit of acting against principle, and making themselves easy, by a kind of composition between religion on the one side, and their interests and pleasures on the other.

But there are other believers, who lay no great stress on prayer, being persuaded, that God leaves the world to second causes; and that therefore a knowledge of those causes, and a dextrous management of them, is the grand secret of prudence, and the only scheme by which a man may contribute to his own happiness. This was the opinion of the Epicureans, who denied a Providence, and said, if there were such a being as God, that he left nature to itself, and took his pleasures above the clouds, without ever looking through them, to see what is doing here below. This notion is altogether inconsistent with reason, and destructive of religion. First, it is inconsistent with reason; because the unavoidable fallibility and infirmity of all created beings require the continual care and support of him that made them; and, as he is ever present to all his works, his infinite goodness must be supposed to interest him in the necessary support and repair of nature. We cannot conceive an employment more agreeable to the Divine Being, than that of providing for the happiness of his creatures; and this he seems to have reserved for himself and his angels, by creating the world in such a manner, as to require his providential care of it. Some deficiencies are immediately supplied, and some evils soon redressed. Others are reserved for certain periods, either stated, or occasional. And though second causes are

employed for these purposes, yet are those causes moved by the First Cause, and used only as the instruments of his will, to carry such succours, and make such changes, as the good order of things may require.

Again, the notion just now mentioned is destructive of all religion, and therefore altogether improper for the mouth of any, but an epicurean, as that sect of philosophers very well knew. God is the only author and teacher of religion; and since he has not made the knowledge of his will a part of our nature, we must either be ignorant of it, or else be instructed by him. But had God left us to ourselves, and to other second causes, his will could not have been revealed, nor our redemption wrought.

Since then God is not only the judge of all the earth, but the governor among the nations; since he that made the eye must see, and he that made the ear must hear,' why should we not bring our wants before him? Since he is merciful he must pity our distresses. Since he is infinitely wise and powerful he can easily find means to relieve them. For this reason shall prayer be made ever unto him, and daily shall he be praised.' For this reason the man, who is taught in Christ, and is wise unto salvation,' implores his assistance in every thing. He recommends his labours by day, and his rest by night, to the protection of God; and never thinks either himself, or his family, safe, till, by earnest prayers, he has put them under the guardianship of Providence. He is sensible, that the power of prayer is as the power of God; because it prevails with God, and engages his power in our behalf. This his daily experience teaches him, and the word of God supports his experience. When he sees the wrath of God, that was ready to fall upon the idolatrous Israelites, turned away by the prayer of Moses; when he sees the prayer of Joshua arresting the sun, and stopping the course of nature; when he sees the prayer of Elisha prevail over death, and restore to life the son of the Shunamite: when he sees the prophetical declaration of God reversed, and the life of Hezekiah prolonged by prayer; when he sees Daniel come alive out of the lion's den, after having trusted to prayer, in defiance of the greatest power on earth; he cannot entertain the least doubt concerning the force of prayer. His confidence is still increased by the

parable of the importunate woman, and the unjust judge, by the promises, the merits, and intercessions of Christ. The command, to pray always,' adds duty to his hopes, and makes his prayer an act of obedience, as well as a means of preservation. That his family may learn to trust in God, and to call upon him; that their prayers may have the greater force; that God may be present among them, and his fatherly providence watch over them; he gathers them together, and, uniting all their devotions in one request, and one voice, gives them all the weight and power that prayer can have. He feels the good effects of his piety, in the agreeable reflections he makes on the discharge of his duty, in the peace and security with which he fortifies himself and his affairs, in the daily blessings which descend upon his family, in return for their daily services, in the patience and firmness in bearing the unavoidable afflictions of life, which his continual devotions, and his entire dependance on God, have given him.

It is a grievous reflection, that instances of this kind are so rare. The generality of families have fallen away from God, and his service, have given up their dependence upon him, and sought for protection and support from riches, from policy, from worldly power; not one of which, nor all united, can avail any thing, without God; who wields them as so many instruments of his will, who 'putteth down one, and setteth up another,' who, with a resistless hand, controls and governs all things.

The infidelity of the times has banished religion out of most families. It has set up some to scoff at this, as well as other Christian duties; while it enters into others, under the mask of moderation, and renders their zeal too cold and feeble to resist ridicule. We may discover the depth of Satan in this libertine spirit, by the behaviour of those who maintain, that we have no need to support a priesthood, when every man has a right, and ought to be a priest in his own family. These very persons, who, for certain self-interested ends, contend for this right, are so far from living, in any respect, like priests, that they discover not the least signs of religion in their lives and conversations, or in their families. That priestly function, which they may, and ought to exercise in their families, I mean reading prayers to them, and

instructing them in the principles and duties of religion, they shew no sort of inclination to. They not only despise the very thoughts of having prayers in their houses, and even grace at their tables; but they laugh them out of the families of other weak men, who are guided by little else, in matrers of the last importance, than the mode; whose narrow understandings afford them but one rule for their clothes, and their religion.

As this contempt for family prayer is the effect of infidelity in people of fashion, so it is the cause of that ignorance among the vulgar, which, next to libertinism itself, is the scandal of this age and country; and, in all probability, will prove the ruin of the latter. Were the lower people, who have the fewest means of instruction, accustomed to hear a form of prayer pronounced once or twice a day, in their houses, they would, in a little time, and insensibly, learn that form by rote; so that, whatsoever principles or duties it contained, they would soon commit them to memory, and could afterward teach and explain them to their children. But, while they hear little or nothing of God and religion in their families, it is no great wonder if they at last almost lose sight of both. Were the principles of religion wrought into the forms of their devotion, and their devotions mixed with their daily business, as the chief, and that on which the success of all the rest, in a good measure, depends, it would scarce fail of having excellent effects on their piety, their knowledge, and the honesty and regularity of their lives. By this means, at the same time that the master of a family discharged the duty of domestic prayer, he might also at once go near to execute the other, of instructing his children and servants.

But it is not only the ignorance of religion, and that in the poorer families, that is, in so great a measure, to be charged on the neglect of family worship the miseries and distresses that afflict families of all kinds, do, in all probability, spring chiefly from this troubled fountain. The uncommon disasters and judgments, that fall so remarkably on ungodly families, sufficiently shew the danger of living without God. The furious grief, the racking impatience, the sullen murmurs, the wild and impious distraction, that in such families are observed to attend the common and or

dinary afflictions of life, shew but too plainly, that as they have forsaken God, so God has forsaken them, and given them over to their own miserable infirmities, when they most need his assistance. The way of the Lord have they not known,' and, like 'true backsliders in heart, they are filled with their own ways.' Is it any wonder, that 'God should pour out his fury on these heathens, who know him not, and, upon those families, who call not on his name?'

The poor, who do not worship God in their families, instead of learning by their poverty to humble themselves before God, to pray to him, who alone is merciful enough to hear, and able to deliver; instead of learning to hate a world in which they have so small a portion, and so little pleasure, and to turn their hearts, and place their confidence in God; have forgot their dependence on him, have set their affections on things below, and put their confidence in unsanctified labours, and unjust arts. Surely they are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.'

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As for the rich, who, though they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God, have nevertheless neglected this duty, their ingratitude is as great as their folly. No favours can oblige them, no bounties tie them to God. They have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.' They have discharged themselves and their families from the service of God. They are grown proud, and deny him, and say, who is the Lord? If they live and become old, yea, and are mighty in power; if their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes; if their houses are safe from fear, and God lays not his rod on them; if their bull gendereth and faileth not, and their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf; if they send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance; if they take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ; if they spend their days in wealth, and, by an easy death, go down in a moment to the grave;' do they therefore say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways?' Do they therefore say, What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, should we and our families pray unto him?' Might not one rather expect, that they should