humility and shame, cast thyself down at his feet, and cry out, Oh where can I find punishment enough to be avenged on myself, and tears enough to wash away mine offences! O Lord, I am that great enemy of thine, who has committed most wicked and abominable offences before thy face. I acknowledge myself guilty before thee; I beseech thee, O Lord, to cast the mantle of thy mercy over me, thy poor, wretched, miserable creature, and let the greatness of thy goodness overcome and cover my wickedness. Let the most sweet and loving Father rejoice at the coming home again of his prodigal son; let the Good Shepherd rejoice at the recovery of his lost sheep. Oh, how happy and joyful shall that day be, when thou shalt cast thine arms about my neck, and give me the sweet embraces and kisses of peace! I will now take arms against myself therefore, and be more cruel and rigorous against myself than any other; I will loathe and despise myself, and from henceforth the face of sin shall be more hideous to me than hell; and I shall desire to be despised and punished of all creatures, forasmuch as I have despised the Creator of them all. I am contented that all dishonours, reproaches, and punishments, do run upon me on every side, so that by them I may be brought to my most sweet and merciful Lord. And as for all honour, pleasure, and worldly delights, they shall be quite banished away from me, insomuch as the very names of them shall be heard no more in my house; I will seek nothing else but the honour of my Lord God, and the contempt and confusion of myself.—— Hitherto, or almost to this effect, are the words of the devout and ancient father.

SECTION XXII.

OF FAMILY WORSHIP.

HERE I shall commend unto you the advice of a reverend divine. Let family worship be performed constantly and seasonably, twice a-day, at that hour which is most free from interruptions, not delaying it without just cause. Be sure it be reverently, seriously, and spiritually done. If greater duty hinder not, begin with a brief invocation of God's name, and craving of his help and blessing through Christ, and then read some part of the Holy Scripture in order; and either help the hearers to understand and apply it, or if you are unable for that, then read some profitable book to them for such ends, and earnestly pour out your souls in prayer. Pretend not necessity against this duty, for it is but unwillingness, or negligence, that makes men remiss in family worship. The lively and constant performance of family duties, is a principal means to keep up the power and interest of godliness in the world, all which decays when these grow dead, slight, and formal.

Those families wherein this service of God is performed, are, as it were, little churches, yea, even a kind of paradise upon earth. And for this purpose, St. Paul, writing to Philemon, greets the church that is in his house, Philem. 2. And in like manner he sent salutations to the church of Corinth, from Aquila to Priscilla, and the church that was in their house, 1 Cor. xvi. 19. But where family worship is not used, but either for the most part, or altogether

neglected, those families may be termed no better than companies of profane and graceless atheists, who as they deny God in their hearts, so they are described by this, that they do not call upon the name of the Lord, Psa. xiv. 4. And the prophet

prays thus unto God: "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name," Jer. x. 25.

Many parents take care only to enrich their children, to make them great and honourable in the world, to leave them large portions and estates, to provide rich connexions for them, but take no care to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord nay, many parents are afraid their children should prove religious; some parents cannot abide their children, whom they see to look a little towards Sion. Such parents, as one says, are the devil's children. But every parent ought to say of his children according to nature, as St. John did of his spiritual children, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth," 3 John 4.

SECTION XXIII.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A CALLING AND BUSINESS.

It becomes every one to be truly diligent, and well employed in some lawful calling. God himself, both Father and Son, are said to work, John v. 17, and will admit of no loiterers. He that will have his penny, must work in his vineyard, Matt. xx. 9. "And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit

unto life eternal," John iv. 36. No man, therefore, must be idle, or ill employed: he must work the works of God; that is, such as God sets him about, and approves, without picking and choosing his own work he must work while it is day, before "the night cometh, when no man can work," John ix. 4.

Let me advise thee, O Christian, to improve time and business, that even thine idleness, (if I may so call thy vacant hours,) that is, thy necessary rest and leisure, may not be without some diligence, because they tend to fit thee for business. When thou liest down to sleep, let it be to this end, that thou mayest rise, and go about thy work, not to pamper sloth h; if thou eat, do it to the same end as Elijah did, to walk in the strength of thy food the way that God sends thee, and not to gratify thine appetite. And when God puts thee at any time upon doing his will, be thou never better pleased than when God gives thee thy hands full of work, nor more restless, than when God does not employ thee.

the

It is the diligent hand that maketh rich; and soul of the diligent shall be made fat," Prov. x. 4; xiii. 4. If thou walk in God's way, thou art in God's keeping; but if thou straggle from the way of duty, thou art like enough to meet with a lion, as the disobedient prophet, 1 Kings xiii. 24; or with a storm, a wreck, a whale, as fugitive Jonah, to swallow, not to save, Jonah i. 17. But if thou walk diligently in thy calling, thou art within the hedge and pale of Providence, and under the guard of the holy angels, Psa. xxxiv. 7. Idleness is the enemy of health, the consumption of thrift, the foil of virtue, the hindrance of wisdom, and the hatred of God.

No man ever had larger possessions than Adam, who was the only absolute monarch of the whole

H

world; nor was any mere man more noble, for he is styled, "the son of God," Luke iii. 38. If any exceeded him herein, it was only Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and "Heir of all things,' Heb. i. 2. Yet God would not that either Adam in paradise, in the state of innocence, or his own Son appearing in our flesh, should be without a calling, or idle in it.

How many are there of the gentry, that are possessed with this opinion, that they must live at the height of their estates, and spend all their time in pleasures and idleness, no way conducing to the common good, but much to the prejudice of it; as if God, like Augustus, had built an Apragopolis, a city void of business, and a nursery of idleness and profaneness.

Multitudes there are in the city, that like the Athenians, find little to do, but to busy themselves to hear and tell news. Others spend most of their time in plays, and in visits, in the study of the times, fashions, modes, and compliments, erecting, as it were, an academy of idleness, to busy all vain persons; like that office set up at Rome by Tiberius, styled, "a voluptatibus." But this will be the doom of all idle persons; (6 Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; where shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth," Matt. xxv. 30. Every one, though ever so great and honourable, stands in God's family as a servant; as David professes himself to be, Psa. cxvi. 16. Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, Heb. iii. 5 ; and servantsare not idle. Every one must serve in some particular calling, wherein he must abide with God, whether it be in the magistracy, ruling with God, that is, for God, and being "faithful with the saints" Hos. xi. 12;