BV 4526 .H4 
 
 Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714 
 
 A church in the house 
 
CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 OR 
 
 FAMILY RELIGION. 
 
 BY REM. MATTHEW HENRY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 NOTE TO THE READER 
 
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 inner margins are extremely narrow* 
 
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A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE 
 
 OR 
 
 FAMILY RELIGION 
 
 BY REV. MATTHEW HENRF, 
 Author of the Commeatary oa tlie Bible. 
 
 Among the salutations presented by the 
 Apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, 16 : 19, was that from Aquila and 
 Priscilla, and the church in their house. Some 
 very good interpreters, I know, understand 
 this of a settled, stated, solemn meeting of 
 christians held at their house for public wor- 
 ship ; and they were glad o? houses to meet in, 
 where they wanted those better conveniences 
 which the church was afterwards in her pros- 
 perous days accommodated with. When they 
 had not such places as they could wish, they 
 
4 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 thankfully made use of such as they could get. 
 
 But others think it is meant only of their 
 own family and the strangers within their 
 gates, among whom there was so much piety 
 and devotion that it might well be called a 
 church, or religious house. Thus the ancients 
 generally understood it. Nor was it only Aqui- 
 la and Priscilla whose house was thus celebra- 
 ted for religion, (here and Rom. 16 : 5,) but 
 Nymphas also had a church in his house, Col. 
 4 : 15, and Philemon, 5 : 2. Not but that oth- 
 ers, to whom and from whom salutations are 
 sent in Paul's epistles, made conscience of 
 keeping up religion in their families ; but these 
 are mentioned probably because their families 
 were more numerous than most of those other 
 families were, which made their family devo-, 
 tions more solemn, and consequently more 
 noticed. 
 
 In this sense I shall choose to interpret it, 
 and hence to recomjneTid fcwiih/ 7'eligimi, un- 
 der the idea of a clmrcli in the liouse. When 
 we see your public assemblies so well frequent- 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGIOiV. 5 
 
 ed we cannot but thank God and take cou- 
 rage ; your diligent attendance on the ministry 
 of the word and prayers is your praise, and I 
 tmst, through grace, it redounds to your spiri- 
 tual comfort and benefit. 13ut my subject at 
 this time will lead me to inquire into the state 
 of religion in your private houses, whether it 
 flourish or wither there ? Whether it be on 
 the throne, or under foot there ] Herein I 
 desire to deal plainly and faithfully with your 
 consciences, and I beg you will give them 
 leave to deal so with you. 
 
 The pious and zealous endeavors both of 
 magistrates and ministers for the reformation 
 of manners and the suppression of vice and 
 profaneness, are the joy and encouragement of 
 all good people in the land, and a happy indi- 
 cation that God has yet mercy in store for us. 
 "If the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he 
 would not have showed us such things as 
 these." Now I know not any thing that will 
 contribute more to the furtherance of this good 
 work than the bringing o^ family religion moi-e 
 1* 
 
6 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 into practice and reputation. Here the refor- 
 mation must begin. Other methods may check 
 the disease we complain of, but this, if it might 
 universally obtain, would cure it. Salt must 
 be cast into these springs, and then the waters 
 would be healed. 
 
 Many a time, no doubt, you have been urged 
 to this part of your duty ; many a good sermon 
 perhaps you have heard, and many a good 
 book has been put into your hands with this 
 design, to persuade you to keep up religion in 
 your families, and to assist you therein : but I 
 hope a further attempt to advance this good 
 work, by one who is a hearty well-wisher to 
 it, and to the prosperity of your souls and fami- 
 lies, will not be thought altogether needless, 
 and that by the grace of God it will not be 
 wholly fruitless : at least it will serve to re- 
 mind you of what you have received and heard 
 to this purpose, that you may hold fast what is 
 o^ood, and reoent of what is amiss. Rev. 3 : 3. 
 The lesson then which I would recommend 
 is this : 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 7 
 
 The fun)ilio3 of Christians should bo little Churches : or, 
 Wherever we have a house, God sliould have a Church 
 in it. 
 
 TTnlia]>py contests there have been, and still 
 are, amonof wise and g^ood men about the con- 
 stitution, order, and government of churches ; 
 God by his grace heal these breaches, lead us 
 into all truth, and dispose our minds to love 
 and peace ; that while we endeavor herein to 
 walk according to the light God has given us, 
 we may charitably believe that others do so 
 too ; lonofinof to be there where we shall be all 
 of a mind. 
 
 But I am now speaking of churches concern- 
 ing which there is no controversy. All agree 
 that masters of families, who profess religion 
 and the fear of God themselves, should, ac- 
 cording to the talents they are intrusted with, 
 maintain and keep up religion and the fear of 
 God in their families, as those who must give 
 account : and that families, as such, should 
 contribute to the support of Christianity in a 
 nation, whose honor and happiness it is to be a 
 
8 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 christian nation. As nature makes families 
 little kingdoms, (and perhaps oeconomics, or 
 rules of the household, were the first and most 
 ancient politics ;) so grace makes families little 
 churches ; and those were the primitive church- 
 es of the Old Testament, before *' men began 
 to call upon the name of the Lord " in solemn 
 assemblies, and " the sons of God came to- 
 gether to present themselves " before him. 
 
 Not that I would have these family church- 
 es maintained in competition with, much less 
 in contradiction to public religious assemblies, 
 which ought always to have the preference : 
 " The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than 
 all the dwellings of Jacob," Psalm 87 : 2, and so 
 must we ; and must not forsake the assembling 
 of ourselves together, under color of exhorting 
 one another daily at home. Far be it from us 
 to offer any thing that may countenance the 
 invading of the office of the ministry, and the 
 usurping or superseding of the administration 
 of the ordinances. These family churches 
 (wliich are but figuratively so) must be erected 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 9 
 
 and maintained in subordination to those more 
 sacred and solemn establishments. I proceed 
 to show, 
 
 I. What that family religion is which 
 ^vill be as a church in the house. Churches 
 are sacred societies, incoi-porated for the honor 
 and service of God in Christ ; devoted to God, 
 and employed for him ; so should our fami- 
 lies be. 
 
 1. Churches are societies devoted to God, 
 called out of the world, taken in out of the 
 common to be inclosures for God : he hap set 
 them apart for himself; and because he has 
 chosen them, they also have chosen him, and 
 set themselves apart for him. The Jewish 
 church was separated to God for a " peculiar 
 people, a kingdom of priests." 
 
 Thus o?ir houses must he cliurclics ; with our- 
 selves we must give up our houses to the Lord, 
 to be to him for a name and a people. All 
 the interest we have, both in our relations and 
 In our possessions, must be consecrated to 
 God ; as under the law all that the servant had 
 
10 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 was his master's for ever, after he had consent- 
 ed to have his ear bored to the door-post. 
 When God effectually called Abram out of Ur 
 of the Chaldees, his family assumed the ap- 
 pearance of a particular church ; for, in obedi- 
 ence to God's precept, and in dependence on 
 God's promise, they took all the substance 
 they had gathered, and the souls they had got- 
 ten, and put themselves and their all under a 
 divine conduct and government. Gen. 12 : 5. 
 His was a great family, the father of it was the 
 father of all them that believe ; but even little 
 families, jointly and entirely given up to God, 
 so become churches. When all the members 
 of the family yield themselves to God, sub- 
 scribe with their hands to be the Lord's, and 
 surname themselves by the name of Israel, — 
 and the master of the family, with himself, 
 gives up all his right, title, and interest in his 
 house, and all that belongs to it, to God, to be 
 used for him, and disposed of by him ; here is 
 a church in the house. 
 
 More than once in the Old Testament we 
 
OR FAMILY IlELIGION. 11 
 
 read of the dedication of private houses. Il is 
 spoken of as a common practice. Deut. 20 : 5. 
 ** \VTiat man is there that hath built a new 
 house, and hath not dedicated it ?" that is, ta- 
 ken possession of it, in doing which it was 
 usual to dedicate it to God by some solemn 
 acts of religious worship. The 30th Psalm is 
 entitled, *' A psalm or song at the dedication 
 of the house of David." It is a good thing 
 when a man has a house of his own, thus to 
 convert it into a church, by dedicating it to the 
 service and honor of God, that it may be a 
 Bethel, a house of God, and not a Bethaven, 
 -a house of vanity and iniquity. Every good 
 christian who is a householder, no doubt does 
 this habitually and virtually; having first given 
 himself to the Lord, he freely suiTenders all 
 he has to him ; but it may be of good use to do 
 it actually and expressly, and often to repeat 
 this act of resignation, '* This stone which I 
 have set for a pillow shall be God's house." 
 Gen. 28 : 22. Let all I have in my house, and 
 all I do in it, be for the glory of God ; I own 
 
12 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 him to be my great Landlord, and I hold all 
 from and under him : to him I promise to ren- 
 der daily praises and thanksgivings ; and to do 
 the services, the easy services of gospel obe- 
 dience. Let holiness to the Lord be written 
 upon the house and all the furniture of it, ac- 
 cording to the word which God has spokenr. 
 Zech. 14 : 20, ^. Let God by his providence 
 dispose of the affairs of my family, and by his 
 gTace dispose the affections of all my house- 
 hold, according to his will, to his own praise. 
 Let me and mine be only, wholly, and for 
 ever his. 
 
 Be persuaded, brethren, thus to dedicate 
 your houses to God, and beg of him to come 
 and take possession of them. If you never did 
 it, do it to-night with all possible seriousness 
 and sincerity. " Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, 
 and the King of Glory shall come in." Bring 
 the ark of the Lord into the tent you have 
 pitched, and oblige yourselves and all yours 
 to attend it. Look upon your houses as tem- 
 
OR FAMILY RELKilON. 13 
 
 pies for God, places for worsMp, and all your 
 possessions as dedicated things, to be used for 
 God's honor, and not to be alienated or pro- 
 faned. 
 
 2. There are three things necessary to the 
 well being of a church, and which are most 
 considerable in the constitution of it. Those 
 are doctrine, icorsJup, and 'discipline. Where 
 the truths of Christ are professed and taught, 
 the ordinances of Christ administered and ob- 
 served, and due care taken to put the laws of 
 Christ in execution among all who profess 
 themselves his subjects, and this under the con- 
 duct and inspection of a gospel ministry, there 
 is a church : and somethino: answerable here- 
 unto there must be in our families, to denomi- 
 nate them little churches. Masters of families, 
 who preside in the other affairs of the house, 
 nmst go before their households in the things 
 of God. They must be as prophets, priests 
 and kings in their own families ; and as such 
 they must keep up family doctrine, family wor- 
 
 2 
 
..14 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 ship, and family discipline : then is there a 
 church in the house, and this is the family re- 
 ligion that I am persuading you to. 
 
 (1.) Keep up family doctrine. It is not 
 enough that you and yours profess to own the 
 truth as it is in Jesus ; care must be taken and 
 means used that you and yours be well ac» 
 quainted with that truth, and that you grow in 
 that acquaintance, to the honor of Christ and 
 his holy religion, and the improvement of your 
 own minds, and theirs who are under your 
 charge. You must deal with your families as 
 men of knowledge^ 1 Pet. 3:7; that is, as men 
 who desire to grow in knowledge yourselves, 
 and to communicate your knowledge for the 
 benefit of others, which are the two good pro- 
 perties of those who deserve to be called men 
 of knowledge. That you may keep family doc- 
 trine, 
 
 You must read the Scriptures to your fami- 
 lies, in a solemn manner, requiring their attend- 
 ance on your reading, and their attention to it; 
 and inquiring sometimes whether they under- 
 
OB FAMILY RKLKilON'. 15 
 
 Stand what you read 1 I hope none of you are 
 without Bibles in your houses, store of Bibles, 
 a Bible for every member : thanks be to God 
 we have them cheap and common in a lan- 
 guage that we understand. The book of the 
 law is not such a rarity as it was in Josiah's 
 time. We need not brino^ this knowledore 
 from afar, nor send from sea to sea, and from 
 the river to the ends of the earth, to seek the 
 word of God ; no, the Word is nigh us. When 
 Popery reigned in our land, English Bibles 
 were scarce things ; a load of hay, it is said, 
 was once given for one torn leaf of a Bible. 
 But now Bibles are every one's money. It is 
 better to be without bread in your houses than 
 without Bibles, for the words of God's mouth 
 are and should be to you more than your ne- 
 cessary food. 
 
 But what will it avail you to have Bibles in 
 your houses, if you do not use them 1 — to have 
 the grjcat things of God's law and gospel 
 wiitten to you, if you count them as a strange 
 thing? You look daily into your shop-booka, 
 
16 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 and perhaps converse much with the news- 
 books, and shall your Bibles be thrown by as 
 an almanac out of date 1 It is not now penal 
 to read the Scriptures in your families, as it 
 was in the dawning of the day of reformation 
 from popery, when there were those who were 
 accused and prosecuted for reading in a certain 
 great heretical book called an English Bible. 
 The Philistines do not now stop up these wells, 
 as Gen. 26 : 18 ; nor do the shepherds drive 
 away your flocks from them, as Exod. 2:11 ; 
 nor are they as a spring shut up, or a fountain 
 sealed. You have great encouragements to 
 read the Scripture ; for notwithstanding the 
 malicious endeavors of atheists to vilify sacred 
 things, the knowledge of the Scripture is still 
 in reputation with all wise and good men 
 You have also a variety of excellent help to 
 understand the Scripture, and to improve your 
 reading of it ; so that if you or yours perish 
 for lack of this knowledge, as you certainly 
 will if you persist in the neglect of it, the guilt 
 will lie at your own doors. 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 17 
 
 Let me, therefore, with all earnestness press 
 it upon you to make the solemn reading of the 
 Scripture a part of your daily worship in I'-our 
 families. When you speak to God by prayer, 
 he willing to hear him speak to you in his 
 word, that there may be communion between 
 you and God. This will add much to the so- 
 lemnity of your family worship, and will make 
 the transaction the more serious and impres- 
 sive, if it be done in a right manner ; which 
 will conduce much to the honor of God and 
 your own and your family's edification. It 
 will help to make the word of God familiar to 
 yourselves, your children and household, that 
 you may be ready and mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures, and may thence he thoroughly furnished 
 for every good word and work. It will like- 
 wise furnish you with matter and words for 
 prayer, and so be helpful to you in other parts 
 of the service. 
 
 If some pai-ts of Scripture seem less edifying, 
 let those be most frequently read that are most 
 80. David's Psalms are of daily use in devo- 
 
18 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 tion, and Solomon's Proverbs in conversation ; 
 it will be greatly to your advantage to be well 
 versed in them. And I hope I need not press 
 any christian to the study of the New Testa- 
 ment, nor any christian parents to the frequent 
 instructing of their children in the pleasant 
 and profitable histories of the Old Testament. 
 When you only hear your children read the 
 Bible, they are tempted to look upon it as no 
 more than a school-book ; but when they hear 
 you read it to them in a solemn religious man- 
 ner, it comes, as it ought, with more authori- 
 ty. Those masters of families who make con- 
 science of doing this daily, morning and even- 
 ing, reckoning it part of the duty of every day, 
 I am sure have comfoft and satisfaction in so 
 doing, and find it contributes much to their 
 own improvement in christian knowledge and 
 the edification of those who dwell under their 
 shadow ; and the more, if those who are able 
 expound, and others read some plain and pro- 
 fitable exposition of what is read, or of some 
 part of it. 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 19 
 
 It is easy to add under tliis head, that the 
 seasonable reading of other good books will 
 contribute very much to family instruction. Tn 
 helps of this kind we are as happy as any people 
 under the sun, if we have but hearts to use the 
 helps we have, as those who must give an ac- 
 count shortly of them among other talents with 
 which we are intrusted. 
 
 You must also catechise your children and 
 household. Let them learn some good cate- 
 chism by heart, and keejD it in remembrance ; 
 and by familiar discourse with them help them 
 to understand it, as they become capable. It 
 is an excellent method of catechising, which 
 God himself directs us to, Deut. 6 r^? ; to teach 
 our children the things of God, by talking of 
 tiiem as we sit in the house and go by the 
 way, when we lie down, and when we rise up. 
 It is good to keep up stated times for this ser- 
 vice, and be constant to them, as those who 
 know how industrious the enemy is to sow 
 tares while men sleep. If this good work be 
 not kept going forward, it will of itself go 
 
20 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 backward. Wisdom also will direct you to 
 manage your catechising, as well as the other 
 branches of family religion, so as not to make 
 it a task and burthen, but as much as may be a 
 pleasure to those under your charge, that the 
 blame may lie upon their own impiety, and not 
 upon your imprudence, if they should say, 
 ''Behold what a weariness is it !" 
 
 This way of instruction by catechising be- 
 longs in a special manner to the ** church in 
 the house ;" for that is the nursery in which 
 the trees of righteousness are reared that af- 
 terwards are planted in the courts of our God. 
 Public catechising will turn to little account 
 without family catechising. The labor of min- 
 isters in instructing youth, and feeding the 
 lambs of the flock, proves to many labor in 
 vain, because heads of families do not do their 
 duty in preparing them for public instruction, 
 and examining their improvement by it. As 
 mothers are children's best nurses, so parents 
 are or should be their best teachers. Solo- 
 mon's father was his tutor, Prov. 4 : 3, 4, and 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 21 
 
 he never forgot the lessons his mother taught 
 him, Prov. 31 : 1. 
 
 The early consecration of your children in 
 prayer and faith to God, as it lays a strong and 
 lasting obligation upon them to live in the fear 
 of God, so it brings you under the most power- 
 ful engagements imaginable to bring them up 
 in that fear. The child you gave up to God, Ji^ 
 God as it w^ere gave back to you, w^ith the 
 same charge that Pharaoh's daughter gave to 
 Moses' mother, Tahe this cMld and 'nurse it 
 for me ; and in nursing it for God you nurse 
 it for better preferment than that of being 
 called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It is 
 worth observing, that he to whom God first 
 did the honor of covenanting blessings upon 
 his seed, was eminent for this part of family- 
 religion : " I know Abraham, that he will com- 
 mand his children and his household after him 
 to keep the way of the Lord." Gen. 18 : 19. 
 Those, therefore, who would have the comfort 
 of God's covenant with them and their seed, 
 and would share in that blessing of Abraham 
 
22 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 which comes upon the Gentiles, must herein 
 follow the example of faithful Abraham. The 
 covenant of grace is forfeited, if care be not 
 taken with it to transmit the means of grace. 
 To what purpose are they discipled if they be 
 not taught ? God expects that they should be 
 brought up for him. 
 
 Consider what your children are now capa- 
 ble of, even in the days of their childhood. 
 They are capable of receiving impressions now 
 which may abide upon them while they live ; 
 they are turned as clay to the seal, and now is 
 the time to apply to them the seal of the Liv- 
 ing God. They are capable of honoring God 
 now, if they be well taught ; and by their join- 
 ing, as they can, in religious services with so 
 much reverence and application as their age 
 will admit, God is honored, and you in them 
 present living sacrifices, holy and acceptable. 
 The hosannas even of children well taught 
 will be the perfecting of praise, and highly 
 pleasing to the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Consider what your children are designed 
 
OR FAMILY' RELIGION. 23 
 
 for, we hope, in this world ; they must be a 
 seed to serve the Lord, which shall be account- 
 ed to him for a generation. They are to bear 
 up the name of Christ in their day, and into 
 their hands must be transmitted that good thing 
 which is committed to us. They are to be 
 praising God on earth when we are praising 
 him in heaven. Let them then be brought up 
 apcordingly, that they may answer the end of- 
 their birth and being. They are designed for 
 the service of their generation, and to do good 
 in their day. Consult the public welfare, then, 
 and let nothing be wanting on your part to 
 qualify them for usefulness, according to their 
 place and capacity. « 
 
 Consider especially what they are designed 
 for in another world : they are made for eter- 
 nity. Every child you have has a precious and 
 immortal soul that must be for ever either in 
 heaven or hell, according as it is prepared in 
 this present state ; and, perhaps, it must re- 
 move to that world of spirits very shortly : and 
 will it not be very mournful, if, through your 
 
24 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 carelessness and neglect, your children should 
 learn the ways of sin, and perish eternally in 
 those ways 1 Give them warning, that, if possi- 
 ble, you may deliver their souls ; at least that 
 you may deliver your own, and may not bring 
 their curse and God's too, their blood and your 
 own too, upon your heads. 
 
 I know that you cannot give grace to your 
 children, nor is a religious life always the re- 
 result of a religious education ; " The race is 
 not " always "to the swift, nor the battle to the 
 strong :" but if you make conscience of doing 
 your duty by family-instruction, if you teach 
 them the good and the right way, and warn 
 them of by-paths ; if you reprove, exhort and 
 encourage them as there is occasion ; if you 
 pray with them, and for them, and set them a 
 good example, and consult their souls' welfare 
 in your arrangements for them, you have done 
 your part, and may comfortably leave the issue 
 and success with God. 
 
 (2.) .Keep wp family icorship. You must not 
 only as Prophets teach your families, but as 
 
OR lAMri.Y RELIGION". 25 
 
 Priests must go before them, in offering the 
 spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise. Here- 
 in likewise y(^u must tread in the steps of faith- 
 ful Abraham, whose sons you are while thus 
 you do well ; you must not only, like him, in- 
 struct your household, but, like him, 3'ou must 
 with them call on the name of the Lord, the 
 everlastinof God. Gen. 21 : 33. Wherever he 
 pitched his tent, there he built an altar unto 
 the Lord, Gen. 12 : 7, 8 ; 14 : 4, 18, though 
 he was yet in an unsettled state, only a stranger 
 and a sojourner; though he was among jealous 
 and envious neighbors, for the Canaanite and 
 the Perizzite dwelled then in the land, yet, 
 wherever Abraham had a tent God had an 
 altar in it, and he himself served at that altar. 
 Herein he has left us an example. 
 
 Families, as such, have many eiTands at the 
 throne of grace, which furnish them with mat- 
 ter and occasion for family-prayer every day ; 
 errands which cannot be done so well, in se- 
 cret, — or, public, — but are fittest to be done 
 by the family in concert, and apart from other 
 
26 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 families. And it is good for tliose who lead in 
 family- devotions, ordinarily to dwell most upon 
 the concerns of those who join in their family- 
 capacity, that it may be indeed a family-prayer, 
 not only offered up in and by the family, but 
 suited to it. In this and other services we 
 should endeavor not only to say something," 
 but something to the purpose. 
 
 Five things especially you should have upon 
 your heart in your family-prayer, and should 
 endeavor to bring something of each, more or 
 less, into every prayer with your families. 
 
 You ought to make family -acknowledgments 
 of your dc'pendaiice tipon God and his 'providence. 
 Our great business in all acts of religious wor- 
 ship, is to give unto the Lord the glory due 
 unto his name ; and this we must do in our 
 family- worship. Give honor to God as the 
 founder of families by his ordinance, because 
 " it was not good for man to be alone ;" as the 
 founder of your families by his providence, for 
 he it is *' who buildeth the house and setteth 
 the solitary in families." Give honor to him as 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 27 
 
 the o^vner and r#er of families ; acknowledge 
 that you and yours are his, under his govern- 
 ment, and at his disposal, " as the gheep of his 
 pasture." Especially adore him as the " God 
 of all the families of Israel," in covenant re- 
 lation to them, and having a particular concern 
 for them above others. Jer. 31 : 1. Give honor 
 to the great Redeemer as the head of all the 
 churches, even those in your houses ; call 
 him the Master of the family, and the great 
 upholder and benefactor of it ; for he it is in 
 whom all the families of the earth are blessed. 
 Gen. 12 : 3. All family-blessings are owing to 
 Christ, and come to us through his hand by his 
 blood. Own your dependance upon God, and 
 your obligations to Christ for all good things 
 pertaining both to life and godliness ; and make 
 conscience of paying homage to your chief 
 Lord, and never set up a title to any of your 
 enjoyments in competition with his. 
 
 You ought to vcid^e family -confessions of your 
 sins against God; those sins you have contract- 
 ed the guilt of in your family-capacity. Wo 
 
28 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 read in Scripture of the iniquity of the liouse^ 
 as of Eli's. 1 Sam. 3 : 13, 14. Iniquity visited 
 upon the children ; sins that bring wrath upon 
 families, and a curse that enters into the house 
 to consume it, with the timber thereof, and the 
 stones thereof. Zech. 5 : 4. How sad is the 
 condition of those families who sin together ^"^ 
 and never pray together J who, by concurring^ 
 in frauds, quarrels, e,iid excesses, by strength- 
 ening one anotiier's hands in impiety and pro- 
 faneness, fill the measure of family-guilt, and 
 never agree together to do any thing to obtain 
 mercy from God. 
 
 And even religious families, that are not 
 polluted with gross and scandalous sins, yet 
 have need to join every day in solemn acts and 
 expressions of repentance before God for their 
 sins of daily infirmity. Their vain words and 
 unprofitable conversation amo^g themselves ; 
 their manifold defects in relative duties, pro- 
 voking one another's lusts and passions, in- 
 stead of provoking one another to love and to 
 good works : these ought to be confessed and 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGIOX. 29 
 
 bewailed by the family together, tliat God may 
 be glorified, and what has been amiss may be 
 amended for the future. It was not only in a 
 time of great and extraordinary repentance 
 that families mourned apart, (Zech. 12 : 11,) but 
 on the stated returns of the day of expiation 
 the priest was particularly to make atonement 
 for his household. Lev. 16 : 17. In many 
 things we all offend God and one another; 
 and a penitent confession of it in prayer to- 
 gether will be the most effectual way of recon- 
 ciling ourselves both to God and to one an- 
 other. The best families, and those in which 
 piety and love prevail most, yet in many 
 things come short, and do enough every day 
 to bring them upon their knees at night. 
 
 You ought to offer up family -thanksgivings 
 for the blessings which you, with your fami- 
 lies, receive from God. Many are the mercies 
 which you enjoy the sweetness and benefit of 
 in common; of which, if wanting to one, all the 
 family would be sensible. Has not God made 
 a hedge of protection about you and your 
 
 houq^s, and all that you have 1 Job, 1 : 10. 
 
 3* 
 
30 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 Has he not created a defence upon every 
 " dwelling-place " of Mount Zion, as well as 
 upon her assemblies 1 Isa. 4 : 5. The dreadful 
 alarms of a storm, and the desolations made, 
 as by a fire, once in an age, should make us 
 sensible of our obligations to divine Providence 
 for our preservation from tempests and fire 
 every day and every night. ''It is of the Lord's 
 mercies that we are not consumed," and buried 
 in the ruins of our houses. When the whole 
 family comes together safe in the morning from 
 their respective retirements, and when they re- 
 turn safe at night from their respective em- 
 ployments, there having been no disaster, no 
 *' adversary," no evil occurrence, — it is so rea- 
 sonable and as I may say so natural for them 
 to join together in solemn thanksgivings to 
 their gi'eat Protector, that I wonder how any 
 who believe in a God and a Providence can 
 omit it. Have you not health in your family, 
 sickness kept or taken from the midst of you 1 
 Does not God bring plentifully into your hands 
 and increase your substance 1 Have you not 
 your table spread, and your cup running over, 
 
V OR FAMILY RELIGION. 31 
 
 and manna rained about your tents ? and does 
 not the whole family share in the comfort of 
 all this *? Shall not then the voice of thanks- 
 giving be in those taberaacles where is the 
 voice of rejoicing 1 Ps. 118 : 15. Is the vine 
 by the house-side fruitful and flourishing, and 
 are the olive plants round the table green and 
 growing ? Are family-relations comfortable and 
 agreeable, not broken nor embittered, and shall 
 not God be acknowledged herein, who makes 
 every creature to be what it is to us 1 Shall 
 not the God of your mercies, your family-mer- 
 ries, be the God of your praises, your family- 
 praises, and that daily ? 
 
 The benefit and honor of your being chris- 
 tian families, your having in God's house, and 
 within his walls, a place and a name better than 
 that of sons and daughters, and the salvation 
 this brings to your house, furnishes you with 
 abundant matter for joint thanksgivings. " You 
 hath he known above all the families of the 
 earth," and therefore he expects in a special 
 manner to be owned by you. Of all houses, 
 the house of Israel, the house of Aaron and 
 
32 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 the house of Levi have most reason to bless 
 the Lord, and to say, '* His mercy endure th 
 for ever." 
 
 You ought to present your family-fetitions 
 for the mercy and grace which your families 
 need. Daily bread is received by families to- 
 gether, and we are taught not only to pray for 
 it every day, but to pray together for it, saying, 
 Our Father^ give it us. There are affairs and 
 employments in which the family is jointly 
 concerned, and therefore should jointly ask 
 of God wisdom for the management of them, 
 and prosperity therein. There are family-cares 
 to be cast upon God by prayer, family-com- 
 forts to be sought, and family- crosses which 
 they should together beg him to sanctify and 
 remove. Hereby your children will be more 
 effectually possessed with a belief of, and re- 
 gard to the divine Providence, than by all the 
 instructions you can give them ; which will look 
 best in their eye when thus reduced to prac- 
 tice by your daily acknowledging God in all 
 your ways. 
 
 You desire that God will give wisdom and 
 
OR FAMILY RELiraOX. 33 
 
 f2^race to your chiklreTi, you " travail in birth 
 again till you see Christ forraed in them," you 
 pray for them ; it is well, but it is not enougli; 
 you must pray with them ; let them hear you 
 pray to God for a blessing upon the good in- 
 instructions and counsels you give them ; it 
 may perhaps lead them to pray for themselves, 
 and increase their esteem both of you and of the 
 good lessons you teach them. You would have 
 your servants diligent and faithful, and this per- 
 haps would helj) to make them so. Masters do 
 not give to their servants that which is just and. 
 equal, if they do not continue in prayer with 
 them. They are put together, Col. 4 : 1, 2. 
 
 There are some temptations which families, 
 as such, lie open to. Busy families are in temp- | 
 tation to worldliness and neglect of religious 
 duties; mixed families are in temptation to 
 discord and mutual jealousies; decaying fami- 
 lies are in temptation to distrust, discontent, 
 and indirect courses to help themselves : they 
 should therefore not only watch, but pray to- 
 gether that they be not overcome by the temp- 
 tations they are exposed to. 
 
34 A CnURCII IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 There are family-blessings which God has 
 promised, and for which he will be sought un- 
 to, such as those on the house of Obed-edom 
 for the ark^s sake; or the mercy which the 
 apostle Paul begs for the house of Onesipho- 
 rus. 2 Tim. 1 : 16. These joint blessings must 
 be sought by joint prayers. There is a special* 
 blessing which God commands upon families 
 that dwell together in unity, Ps. 133 : 1, 3, 
 which they must seek for by prayer, and come 
 together to seek for it, in token of that unity 
 which qualifies for it. Where God commands 
 the blessing we must beg the blessing. God 
 by promise blesses David's house, and there- 
 fore David, by prayer, blesses it too. 2 Sam. 
 C : 20. 
 
 You ought also to make family -i7ifer cessions 
 for others. There are families you stand relat- 
 ed to, or which, by neighborhood, friendship or 
 acquaintance, you become interested in, and 
 concerned for ; and these you should recom- 
 mend in your prayers to the grace of God, and 
 your family that are joined to you in the rela- 
 tion should join you in those prayers. Evil 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 35 
 
 tidings perhaps are received from relations at a 
 distance, which are the grief of the family; God 
 must then be sought unto by the family for 
 succor and deliverance. Some of the branches 
 of the family are, perhaps, in distant countries 
 and in dangerous circumstances, and you are 
 solicitous about them ; it will be a comfort to 
 yourselves, as well as of advantage to them, to 
 make mention of them daily in your family- 
 prayers. The benefit of jDrayer will reach far, 
 because He who hears prayer can extend his 
 hand of power and mercy to the utmost corners 
 of the earth, and to them that are afar off upon 
 the sea. 
 
 In the public peace likewise we and our 
 families have j^eace ; and therefore if we forget 
 thee, O Jerusalem, we are unworthy ever to 
 stand in thy courts or dwell within thy walls. 
 Our families should be witnesses for us that 
 ^vc pray daily for our land and the prosperity 
 of all its interests ; that praying every where 
 we make supplication for our rulers and all in 
 authority. 1 Tim. 2 : 3, 8. That we bear upon 
 our hearts the concerns of (lod's church 
 
36 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 abroad, especially the suffering parts of it 
 Thus keeping up a spiritual communion with 
 all the families that in every place call on the 
 name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 In a word, let us go by this rule in our fami 
 ly-devotions ; whatever is the matter of oui 
 care, let it be the matter of our prayer ; and 
 let us allow no care which we cannot in faith 
 spread before God : and whatever is the mat 
 ter of our rejoicing, let it be the matter of our 
 thanksgiving ; and let us withhold our hearts 
 from all those joys which do not dispose us for 
 the duty of praise. 
 
 Under this head of family-worship I must 
 not omit to recommend to you the singing of 
 fsalms in your families, as a part of daily wor- 
 ship, especially Sabbath worship. This is a 
 part of religious worship which participates 
 both of the word and prayer ; for therein we 
 are not only to give glory to God, but to teach 
 and admonish one another; it is therefore very 
 proper to make it a transition from the one to 
 the other. It will warm and quicken you, re- 
 fresh and comfort you ; and perhaps if you 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 37 
 
 have little children in your houses, they will 
 sooner take notice of it than of any other 2>aTt 
 of your family devotion ; and some good im- 
 pressions may thereby be fastened upon them 
 insensibly. 
 
 (3.) Keep up family -discipline, that so you 
 may have a complete church in your house, 
 though a snrall one. Reason teaches us that 
 every man should bear rule in his own house. 
 Esth. 1 : 22. And since this, as well as other 
 power is of God, it ought to be employed for 
 God ,•• and they who so rule must be just, ruling 
 in his fear. Joshua looked further than the 
 acts of religious worship when he made that 
 pious resolution, "As for me and my house, 
 we will serve the Lord." Josh. 24 : 15. For 
 we do not serve him in sincerity and truth, 
 which is the service he speaks of, ver. 14, if 
 we and ours serve him only on our knees, and 
 do not take care to serve him in a rclii^ious 
 life. Those only who have clean hands and a 
 pure heart are accounted the generation of 
 them that seek God. Ps. 24 : 4, 6. And with- 
 
 4 
 
38 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 out this, those who pretend to seek God daily 
 do but mock him. Isa. 58 : 2. 
 
 The authority God has given over your chil- 
 dren and household is principally designed for 
 this end, that you may thereby engage them 
 for God and. godliness. If you use it only to 
 oblige them to do your will, and so to serve your* 
 pride ; and to do your business, and so to serve 
 your worldliness ; you do not answer the great 
 end of your being invested with it : you must 
 use it for God's honor, by it to engage them 
 as far as you can to do the will of God and 
 mind the business of religion. Holy David not 
 only blessed his household, but took care to 
 keep good order in it, as appears by that plan 
 of his family discipline which we have in the 
 101st Psalm, a psalm which Mr. Fox tells us 
 that blessed martyr Bishop Ridley often read 
 to his family, as the rule by which he resolved 
 to govern it. 
 
 You are made keepers of the vineyard; be 
 faithful to your trust, and carefully watch over 
 those who are under your charge, knowing 
 you must give account. 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 
 
 Countenance every tli'ina; that is Q;ood and 
 praiseworth }j in your children and domestics, { 
 It is as much your dutyto commend and en- V 
 courage those in your family who do well, as to 
 reprove and admonish those who do amiss ; and 
 if you take delight only in blaming that which 
 is culpable, and are backward to praise that 
 which is laudable, you give occasion to suspect 
 something of an ill nature, not becominsr a 
 good man, much less a good christian. It 
 should be a trouble to us when we have a re- 
 proof to give, but a pleasure to us to say with 
 the apostle, "Now I praise you." 1 Cor. 11 : 2. 
 
 Most people will be easier led than driven, 
 and we all love to be spoken to kindly : when 
 you see any thing that is hopeful and promis- 
 ing in those under your charge, any thing of a 
 towardly and tractable disposition, much more 
 any thing of a pious affection to the things of 
 God, you should contrive to encourage it. 
 Smile upon them when you see them set their 
 faces heavenwards, and take the first opportu- 
 nity to let them know you observe it, and are 
 well pleased with it, and do not despise the day 
 
40 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 of small tilings. This will quicken them to 
 continue and abound in that which is good, it 
 will encourage them against the difficulties 
 they see in their way, and perhaps may turn 
 the wavering, trembling scale the right way, 
 and effectually determine their resolutions to 
 cleave to the Lord. When you see them for-, 
 ward to come to family- worship, attentive to 
 the word, devout in prayer, industrious to get 
 knowledge, afraid of sin, and careful to do 
 their duty, let them have the praise of it, for 
 you have the comfort of it, and God must have 
 all the glory. Draw them with the cords of a 
 man, hold them with the bands of love ; so 
 shall your rebukes, when they are necessary, 
 be the more acceptable and effectual. The 
 great Shepherd gathers the lambs in his arms, 
 can-ies them in his bosom, and gently leads 
 them ; and so should you. 
 I Discounte7iance every thing that is evil in your 
 f household. Use your authority for the pre- 
 venting of sin and the suppressing of every 
 root of bitterness, lest it spring up and trouble 
 you, and thereby many be defiled. Frown upon 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 41 
 
 every thing that brings sin into your families> 
 and introduces ill words or ill practices. Pride 
 and passion, strife and contention, idleness and 
 intemperance, lying and slandering, these are 
 sins which you must not connive at, nor suffer 
 to go without a rebuke. If you return to the 
 Almighty, this among other things is required 
 of you, that you " put away iniquity," all ini- 
 quity, these and other like iniquities, "far from 
 your tabernacle." Job, 22 : 23. Make it appear 
 that in the government of your families you 
 are more jealous for God's honor than for your 
 own authority and interest ; and show your- 
 selves more displeased at that which is an 
 offence to God, than at that which is only an 
 affront or damage to yourselves. 
 
 You must indeed be careful not to provoke 
 your children to wrath, lest they be discou- 
 raged ; and as to your domestics, it is your duty 
 "to forbear or moderate threatening :" yet you 
 must also with holy zeal and resolution, and 
 the meekness of wisdom, keep good order in 
 your families, and set no wicked thing before 
 
 their eyes, but witness against it. "A little 
 
 4* 
 
42 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Be afraid 
 of havmg wicked servants in your houses, lest 
 your children learn their way, and get a snare 
 to their souls. Drive away with an angry 
 countenance all that evil communication which 
 corrupts good manners, that your houses may 
 be habitations of righteousness, and sin may, 
 never find shelter in them. 
 
 II. I come now to offer some motives to 
 persuade you thus to turn your families into 
 little churches. And O that I could find out 
 acceptable words with which to reason with 
 you, so as to prevail ! Suffer 7ne a little, and I 
 will show you what is to be said on God's heliaify 
 which is worth your consideration. 
 
 1. If your families be little churches, God, 
 will come to you and dwell with you in them; iov 
 he has said concerning the church, " This is 
 my rest for ever, here will I dwell." It is a 
 very desirable thing to have the gracious pre- 
 sence of God with us in our families, that pre- 
 sence which is promised where two or three 
 are gathered together in his name. This was 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 43 
 
 it that David was so desirous of. Ps. 101 : 2. 
 " O when wilt thou come unto me ! His pa- 
 lace, his court, would be as a prison, as a dun- 
 geon to him, if God did not come to him and 
 dwell with him in it ; and cannot your hearts 
 witness to this desire ?- you who have houses 
 of your own, would you not have God come to 
 you and dwell with you in them ? Invite him 
 then, beg his presence, court his stay. Nay, he 
 invites himself to your houses by the offers of 
 his favor and grace. BeJwld, he stands at your 
 door and knocks : it is the voice of your beloved, 
 open to him and bid him welcome ; meet him 
 with your " Hosanna, blessed is he that com- 
 eth." He comes peaceably, he brings a bless- 
 ing with him, a blessing which he will cause to 
 rest upon the habitations of the righteous. 
 Ezek. 44 : 30. He will command a blessing, 
 which shall amount to no less than life for ever- 
 more. Ps. 133 : 3. This presence and blessing 
 of God will make your relations comfortable, 
 your affairs successful, your enjoyments sweet ; 
 and behold by it all things are made clean to 
 you. This Avill make your family- comforts 
 
44 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 double comforts, and your family-crosses but 
 half crosses ; it ^vill turn a tent into a temple, a 
 cottage into a palace. ** Beautiful for situation, 
 the joy of the whole earth," are the houses in 
 which God dwells. 
 
 Now the way to have God's presence with 
 you in your houses is to furnish them for his 
 entertainment. Thus the good Shunamite invi- 
 ted the prophet Elisha to the chamber she had 
 prepared for him, by accommodating him there 
 with a bed and a table, a stool and a candle- 
 stick. 2 Kings, 4:10. Would you furnish your 
 houses for the presence of God, it is not ex- 
 pected that you furnish them as his tabernacle 
 was of old furnished, with blue, and purple, 
 and scarlet, and fine linen, but set up and keep 
 for him a throne and an altar, that from the 
 altar you and yours may give glory to him, and 
 from the throne he may give law to you and 
 yours ; and then you may be sure of his pre- 
 sence and blessing, and may solace yourselves 
 from day to day in the comfort of it. God will 
 be with you in a way of mercy while you are 
 with him in a way of duty ; "If you seek him 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 45 
 
 hd will be found of you." The secret of God 
 shall be in your tabernacle, as it was on Job's, 
 ch. 29 : 4, as it is with the righteous, Ps. 25 : 
 ] 4 ; Pro. 3 : 32, 33. 
 
 2. If you make your houses little churches, 
 God u'ill make them his sanctuaries ; nay, he will \^ 
 iiimself be to you as a sanctuary. Ezek. 11 : 
 IG. The way to be safe in your houses, is to 
 keep up religion and the fear of God in your 
 houses ; so shall you dwell on high, and " the 
 })lace of your defence shall be the munition of 
 rocks." Isa. 33 : 16. The law looks upon a 
 man's house as his castle : religion makes it 
 truly so. If God's grace be the *' glory in the 
 midst" of the house, his providence will make 
 a wall of fire round about it. Zech. 2 : 5. Sa- 
 lan found it to his confusion that God made a 
 hedge about pious Job, about his house, and 
 about all that he had on every side, so that he 
 could not find one gap by which to break in 
 upon him. Job. 1 : 10. Every dwelling-place 
 of Mount Sion shall be protected as the taber- 
 nacle was in the wilderness, for God has pro- 
 mised to create upon it a cloud and smoke by 
 
46 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, 
 which shall be a defence upon all the glory. 
 Isa. 4 : 5. If we thus dwell in the house of the 
 Lord all the days of our life, by making our 
 houses his houses, we shall be hid in his pavi- 
 lion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide 
 us. Ps. 27 : 4, 5. 
 
 Wherever we encamp under the banner of 
 Christ, the angels of God will encamp round 
 about us, and pitch their tents where we pitch 
 ours ; and we little think how much we owe 
 to the ministration of the good angels, that we 
 and ours are preserved from the malice of 
 evil angels, who are continually seeking to do 
 mischief to good people. There are terrors 
 that fly by night and by day, which they only 
 who abide under the shadow of the Almighty 
 can promise themselves to be safe from. Ps. 
 91 : 1, 5. Would you insure your houses by 
 the best policy of insurance, turn them into 
 churches, and then they shall be taken under 
 the special protection of Him who keeps Israel, 
 and neither slumbers nor sleeps ; and if any 
 damage come to them, it shall be made up in 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 47 
 
 grace and glory. The way of duty is without 
 doubt the way of safety. 
 
 Praying famihes are kept from more mis- 
 chiefs than they themselves are aware of. They 
 are not sensible of the distinction which a 
 kind Providence makes between them and 
 others ; though God is pleased sometimes to 
 make it remarkable, as in the story which is 
 credibly related of a certain village in the Can- 
 ton of Bern in Switzerland, consisting of ninety 
 houses, which in the year 1584 were all de- 
 stroyed by an earthquake, except one house, 
 in which the good man and his family were at 
 that time together praying. That promise is 
 sure to all the seed of faithful Abraham, " Fear 
 not, I am thy shield." Gen. 15 : 1. Wisdom 
 herself has passed her word for it, Prov. 1 : 33. 
 " Whoso hearkeneth to me," wherever he 
 dwells, he " shall dwell safely, and shall be 
 quiet from " all real evil itself, and from the 
 amazing, tormenting *' fear of evil." Nothing 
 can hurt, nothing needs alarm those whom God 
 protects. 
 
 3. If you have not a church in your house, 
 
48 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 it is to he feared that Satan will have a seat 
 there. If religion do not rule in your families, 
 sin and wickedness will rule there. " I know 
 where thou dwellest," says Christ to the angel 
 of the church of Pergamos, Rev. 2 : 13, ** even 
 where Satan's seat is;" that was his affliction : 
 but there are many whose sin it is ; by theii 
 irreligion and immorality they allow Satan a 
 seat in their houses, and that seat a throne. 
 They are very willing that the strong man 
 armed should keep his palace there, and that 
 his goods should be at peace ; and the surest 
 way to prevent this is by setting up a church 
 in the house. It is commonly said, that where 
 God has a church, the devil will have his 
 chapel : but it may more truly be said in this 
 case, where God has not a church, the devil 
 will have his chapel. If the unclean spirit find 
 the house in this sense empty, empty of good, 
 though it be swept and garnished, he " taketh 
 to himself seven other spirits more wicked than 
 himself, and they enter in and dwell there." 
 
 Teri'ible stories have been told of houses 
 haunted by the devil, and of the fear people 
 
OU lAMILV RELIGION. 49 
 
 have had of dwclHng in such houses ; verily 
 tliose houses in which rioting and drunkenness 
 reign, in whicli swearing and cursing are the 
 language of the house, or in which the more 
 spiritual wickednesses of pride, malice, cove- 
 tousness and deceit have the ascendency, may 
 truly be said to be haunted by the devil ; and 
 they are most uncomfortable houses for any 
 man to live in ; they are holds of foul spirits, 
 and cages of unclean and hateful birds, even as 
 Babylon the great when fallen. Rev. IS : 2. 
 
 Now the way to keep sin out of the house 
 is to keep up religion in the house, which will 
 be the most effectual antidote against Satan's 
 poison. When Abraham thought concerning 
 Abimelech's house, *' Surely the fear of God is 
 not in this place," he concluded no less but 
 " they will slay me for my wife's sake. Gen. 
 20 : 11. Where no fear of God is, no reading, 
 no praying, no devotion, what can one expect 
 but all that is bad 1 Where there is impiety 
 there will be immorality ; they who restrain 
 prayer cast off" fear. Job, 15 : 4. But if reli- 
 gious worship have its place in the house, it 
 
50 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 may be hoped that vice will not have a place 
 there. There is much of truth in that saying 
 of good Mr. Dod, " Either praying will make 
 a man give over sinning, or sinning will make 
 a man give over praying," There remains 
 some hope concerning those who are otherwise 
 bad, as long as they keep up prayer. Though* 
 there be a struggle between Christ and Belial 
 in your houses, and the insults of sin and Satan 
 are daring and threatening, yet as long as reli- 
 gion keeps the field, and the weapons of its 
 warfare are made use of, we may hope the 
 enemy will lose ground. 
 
 4. A church in the house will make it very 
 comfortable to yourselves. Nothing more agree- 
 able to a gi'acious soul than constant commu- 
 nion with a gracious God ; it is the One Thing 
 it desires, to ** dwell in the house of the Lord ;" 
 here it is as in its element, it is its rest for ever. 
 If, therefore, our houses be houses of the Lord, 
 we shall for that reason love home, reckoning 
 our daily devotion the sweetest of our daily 
 delights ; and our family-worship the most 
 valuable of our family- comforts. This will 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION, 51 
 
 sanctify to us all the conveniences of our house, 
 and reconcile us to the inconveniences of it. 
 What are Solomon's gardens, and orchards, and 
 pools of water, and other delights of the sons 
 of men, Eccl. 2 : 5, 6, 8, in comparison with 
 these delights of the children of God 1 
 
 Family-religion will help to make our family- 
 relations comfortable to us, by promoting love, 
 preventing alienation, and healing those that 
 may at any time happen. A family living in 
 the fear of God, and joining daily in religious 
 worship, truly enjoys itself; " Behold how 
 good and how pleasant a thing it is for breth- 
 ren" thus to ** dwell together ;" it is not only 
 like ointment and perfume which rejoice the 
 heart, but like the holy ointment, the holy per- 
 fume wherewith Aaron the saint of the Lord 
 was consecrated : not only like the common 
 dew of heaven, but like the dew which de- 
 scends upon the mountains of Sion, the holy 
 mountains. Ps. 133 : 1, 2, 3. The communion 
 of saints in that which is the work of saints, is 
 without doubt the most pleasant communion 
 here on earth, and the liveliest representation 
 
52 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 and surest pledge of those everlasting joys 
 which are the happiness of the spirits of just 
 men made perfect, and the hopes of holy souls 
 in this imperfect state. 
 
 Family-religion will make the affairs of the 
 family successful ; and though they may not in 
 every thing issue to our mind, yet we may by* 
 faith foresee that they will at last issue to our 
 good. If this beauty of the Lord our God be 
 upon us and our families, it will prosper the 
 work of our hands unto us, yea, the work of 
 our hands it will establish, or it will establish 
 our hearts in that comfort which makes every 
 thing that occurs easy. Ps. 90 : 17; 112 : 8. 
 
 We cannot suppose our mountain to stand 
 so strong but that it will be moved ; trouble in 
 the flesh we must expect, and affliction in that 
 from which we promise ourselves most com- 
 fort ; and when divine Providence makes our 
 houses houses of mourning, then it will be 
 comfortable to have them houses of prayer, and 
 to have had them so before. When sickness, 
 and sorrrow, and death come into our families, 
 (and sooner or later they will come,) it is good 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 53 
 
 that they should find prayer ascending, and the 
 family accustomed to seek God ; for if we are 
 to begin this good work when distress forces 
 us to it, we shall drag heavily in it. They who 
 pray constantly when they are well, may pray 
 comfortably when they are sick. 
 
 5. A church in the house will be a Qrood 
 legacy, nay, it will be a good inlicntance^ to 
 he left to your children after you. Reason di- 
 rects us to consult the welfare of posterity, and 
 to lay up in store a good foundation for those 
 who shall come after us ; and we cannot do 
 this better than by keeping up religion in our 
 houses. A family-altar will be the best legacy; 
 your children will for this rise up and call you 
 blessed, and it may be hoped they will be 
 praising God for you, and praising God like 
 you, here on earth, when you are praising him 
 in heaven. 
 
 You will hereby leave your children the 
 benefit of many prayers put up to heaven for 
 them, which will be kept, as it were, upon the 
 file there, to be answered to their comfort 
 
 when you are silent in the dust. It is time of 
 5* 
 
54 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 prayer, as we say of winter, " it never rots in 
 the skies." The seed of Jacob know they do 
 not seek in vain, though perhaps they Hve not 
 to see their prayers answered. Christians who 
 have made conscience of praying daily with 
 and for their children, have reason to hope that 
 the children of so many prayers will not perish 
 at last : thus encouraged, Joseph's dying word 
 has been the language of many a dying chris- 
 tian's faith, " I die, but God will surely visit 
 you." Gen. 50 : 24. I have heard of a dutiful 
 son who said he valued an interest in his pious 
 father's prayers far more than his interest in 
 his estate, though a considerable one. 
 
 You will likewise hereby leave your children 
 a good example, which you may hope they will 
 follow when they come into houses of their 
 own. The usage and practice of families is 
 commonly transmitted from one generation to 
 another. Bad customs are many times thus en- 
 tailed : they who burnt incense to the Queen 
 of Heaven, learnt it of their fathers. Jer. 44 : 
 17. And a vain conversation was thus received 
 by tradition. 1 Pet. 1 : 18. And why may not 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 55 
 
 good customs be in like manner handed down 
 to posterity ] Thus we should make known 
 the ways of God to our children, that they may 
 arise and declare them to their children, Ps. 
 76 : 6, and religion may become an inheritance 
 in our families. Let our children be able to 
 say, when they are tempted to neglect religion, 
 that it was the way of their family, the good 
 old way, in which their fathers walked, and 
 in which they themselves were educated and 
 trained up : and with this they may answer 
 him who reproaches them. Let family- worship, 
 besides all its other pleas for itself, be able in 
 your houses to j^lead parental example. And 
 though to the acceptableness of the service it is 
 requisite that it be done from a higher and 
 better principle than purely to keep up the 
 custom of the family, yet better so than not at 
 all : and the form of godliness may, by the 
 gi'ace of God, at length prove the happy vehi- 
 cle of its power ; and dry bones whilst un- 
 buried may be made to live. Thus " a good 
 man leaves an inheritance to his children ; and 
 the generation of the upright shall be blessed." 
 
56 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 6. A church in the house will contribute 
 very much to the prosperity of the church of 
 God in the land. Family-religion, if it prevail, 
 will spread religion over the land, and very 
 much advance the beauty and peace of oui 
 Zion. To this I hope we are all hearty well 
 wishers : setting aside the consideration of 
 parties and separate interests, and burying all 
 names of distinction in the grave of christian 
 charity, we earnestly desire to see ti-ue Chris- 
 tianity, and serious godliness in the power of it, 
 prevailing and flourishing in our land ; to see 
 knowledge filling the land as the waters cover 
 the sea; to see holiness and love giving law 
 and triumphing over sin and strife. We would 
 see cause to call our city " A city of righte- 
 ousness, a faithful city, its walls salvation and 
 its gates praise." All this would be effected 
 if family religion were generally maintained. 
 
 When the wall was to be built about Jerusa- 
 lem, it was quickly done by this expedient, 
 every one undertook to repair over against his 
 own house. See Neh. 3 : 10, &c. And if ever 
 the decayed walls of the gospel Jerusalem be 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 57 
 
 built up it must be by the same method. Every 
 one must sweep before his own door, and then 
 the street will be clean. If there were a 
 chiirch in every house, there would be such 
 a church in our land as would make it a praise 
 throughout the whole earth. We cannot better 
 serve our country than by keeping up religion 
 in our families. 
 
 Let families be well catechised, and then 
 the public preaching of the word will be the 
 more profitable and the more successful. For 
 want of this, when we speak ever so plainly of 
 the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, 
 to the most we do but speak parables. The 
 hook of the Lord is delivered to them who are 
 not catechised, saying, Read this, and they say 
 We are not lea'nied; learned enough they are 
 in other things, but not in the one thing need- 
 ful. Isa. 29 : 12. But our work is easy with 
 those who from their childhood have known 
 the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 If every family were a praying family, pub- 
 lic prayers would be the better joined in, more 
 intelligently and more affectionately, for the 
 
58 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 more we are used to prayer, the more ready we 
 shall be in that holy and divine art of '' enter- 
 ing into the holiest" in that duty. And public 
 reproofs and admonitions would be as a nail in 
 a sure place, if masters of families would second 
 them with their family discipline, and so clinch 
 those nails. 
 
 Religious families are blessings to the neigh- 
 borhood they live in, at least by their prayers. 
 A good man thus becomes a public good ; and 
 it is his ambition to be so. Though he see his 
 children's children, he has small joy if he do 
 not see peace upon Israel. Ps. 128 -. 5,Q>. And 
 therefore postponing all his own interests and 
 satisfactions, he sets himself to seek the good 
 of Jerusalem all the days of his life. Happy 
 were we if there were many such. 
 
 It remains to make some practical appli- 
 cation of the whole subject ; and I pray you 
 let my counsel be acceptable ; and while I en- 
 deavor to give every one his portion, let your 
 consciences assist me, and take to yourselves 
 that which belongs to you. 
 
OR FAMILY llELIGION. 59 
 
 1. Let those heads of families who have 
 hitherto lived in the neglect of family-rehgion be 
 persuaded now to set it up, and henceforward 
 to make conscience of it. I know it is hard to 
 persuade people to begin even a good work 
 to which they have not been used ; yet, if G od 
 by his gi'ace apply this word, who can tell but 
 some may be wrought upon to comply with the 
 design of it % We have no ill design in urging 
 you to this part of your duty : we aim not at 
 the advantage of a party, but purely at the 
 prosperity of your families. We are sure we 
 have reason on our side, and if you will but 
 suffer that to rule you, we shall gain our point ; 
 and you will all firmly resolve, as Joshua did, 
 that whatever others do themselves, and what- 
 ever they say of you, you and your houses will 
 serve the Lord. God put it into and keep it in 
 the imagination of the thought of your heart, 
 and establish your way therein before him ! 
 
 Proceed in the right method ; first set up 
 Christ upon the throne in your hearts, and then 
 set up a church for Christ in your house. Let 
 Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, and then 
 
60 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 let him dwell in your houses ; you do not begin 
 at the right end of your work if you do not 
 first give your own selves unto the Lord; God 
 had respect first to Abel, and then to his offer- 
 ing. Let the fear and love of Grod mle in your 
 hearts, and have a commanding sway and em- 
 pire there, and then set up an altar for God in* 
 your tents ; for you cannot do that acceptably 
 till you have first consecrated yourselves as 
 spiritual priests to God, to serve at that altar. 
 And when your hearts, like Lydia's, are 
 opened to Christ, let your house, like hers, 
 be opened to him too. Acts, 16 : 14, 15. Let 
 there be churches in all your houses ; let those 
 who have the stateliest, richest, and best fur- 
 nished houses, reckon a church in them to be 
 their best ornament : let those who have houses 
 of the greatest care and business, reckon fami- 
 ly-religion their best employment ; and not 
 neglect the one thing needful while they are 
 careful and cumbered about many things : nor 
 let those who have close and mean habitations 
 be discouraged ; the ark of God long dwelt in 
 curtains. Your dwelling is not so straight but 
 
OK FAMILY UELICilON. 61 
 
 you may find room for a church iu it. Ciiurch- 
 work is often chargeable, but you may do this 
 church-work cheap : you need not make silver 
 shrines, as they did for Diana, nor lavish gold 
 out of the bag, as idolaters did in the service 
 of their gods; Isa. 46 : 6; no, "An altar of 
 earth shall you make to your God," Exod. 
 20 : 24, and he vv^ill accept it. Church-work 
 is accustomed to be slow work, but you may 
 do this quickly. 'Put on resolution, and you 
 may set up this tabernacle to-night, before to- 
 moiTow. 
 
 Would you keej) up your authority in your 
 family 1 You cannot do it better than by keep- 
 ing up religion in your family. If ever the 
 head of a family appears great, tiTily great, it 
 is when he is going before his house in the 
 service of God, and presiding among them in 
 holy things. Then he shows himself worthy of 
 double honor, when he teaches them the good 
 knowledge of the Loid, and is their mouth to 
 God in the name of God. 
 
 Would you have your family relations com- 
 fortable, your affairs successful, and give an 
 
 () 
 
62 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 evidence of your professed subjection to the 
 Gospel of Christ ] Would you live in God's 
 fear, and die in his favor, and escape that curse 
 which is entailed upon prayerless families 1 Let 
 religion in the power of it have its due place, 
 that is the uppermost place in your houses. 
 
 Many objections your own corrupt hearts ' 
 will make against erecting these churches, but 
 they will appear frivolous and trifling to a 
 pious mind that is steadfastly resolved for God 
 and godliness ; you will never go on in your 
 way to heaven, if you will be frightened by 
 lions in the street. Whatever is the difficulty 
 
 4/ 
 
 you dread, the discouragement you apprehend 
 in it, I am confident it is not insuperable, it 
 is not unanswerable. " He that observes the 
 wind shall not sow, and he that regards the 
 clouds shall not reap." 
 
 Be not loath to begin a new custom, if it be 
 a good custom, especially if it be a duty, (as 
 certainly this is,) which, w^hile you continue in 
 its neglect, you live in sin ; for omissions are 
 sins, and must come into judgment. It may be 
 that you have been convinced that you ought to 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 63 
 
 worsliip God in your families, and that it is a 
 good thing to do so ; but you have put it off to 
 some more convenient season. Will you now 
 at last take occasion from this a]ipeal to begin 
 it ? Do not defer so good a work any longer. 
 The present season is without doubt the most 
 convenient season. Begin this day ; lot this be 
 the day of your laying the foundation of the 
 Lord's temple in your house; and then consid- 
 er, from this day and onward — as God by the 
 prophet reasons with the people who neglected 
 to build the temple, Hag. 2 : IS, 19 — take 
 notice, whether God do not from this day 
 remarkably bless you in all that you have 
 and do. 
 
 Plead not your own weakness and inability 
 to perform family worship ; make use of the 
 helps that are provided for you. Do as well as 
 you can when you cannot do as well as you 
 would, and God will accept of you. You wil- 
 lingly write what is necessary for the carrying 
 on of your trade, though you cannot write so 
 fine a hand as some others can ; and will you 
 not be as wise in the work of your christieui 
 
64 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 calling to do your best, though it be far short 
 of the best, rather than not do it at all 1 To 
 him who has but one talent, and trades with 
 that, more shall be given ; but from him who 
 buries it, it shall be taken away. Be at some 
 pains to make the Scriptures familiar to you, 
 especially David's Psalms, and then you can-* 
 not be at loss for a variety of apt expressions 
 proper to be used in prayer, for they will be 
 always at your right hand. TaJce with you those 
 words, words which the Holy Ghost teaches, for 
 you cannot find more acceptable words. 
 
 And now, shall I prevail with you in this 
 matter] I am loth to leave you unresolved, or 
 but almost persuaded ; I beg of you, for God's 
 sake, for Christ's sake, for your own precious 
 soul's sake, and for the children's sake of your 
 own bodies, that you will live no longer in the 
 neglect of so great, and necessary, and comfort- 
 able a duty as this of family- worship. When 
 we press upon you the more inward duties of 
 faith and love, and the fear of God, it cannot 
 be so evident whether we succeed in our 
 en-and as it may be in this. It is certain that 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION, 65 
 
 you get no good by this appeal — but it is 
 wholly lost upon you — if after you have heard 
 it, or read it, you continue in the neglect of 
 family-religion ; and if still you " cast off fear, 
 and restrain prayer before God." Your fami- 
 lies will be witnesses against you that this 
 work was undone; and this Tract will be wit- 
 ness against you that it was not for want of 
 being called to do it, but for want of a heart to 
 do it when you were called. But I hope bet- 
 ter things of you, my brethren, and things that 
 accompany salvation, though I thus speak. 
 
 2. Let those who have kept up family-wor- 
 ship formerly, but of late have left it off, he 
 ■persuaded, to revive it. This perhaps is the case 
 of some ; you remember the kindness of your 
 youth and the love of your espousals ; time was 
 when you sought God daily, and delighted to 
 know his ways, as families who did righteous- 
 ness, and forsook not the ordinances of your 
 God; but now it is otherwise. The altar of 
 the Lord is broken down and neglected, the 
 daily sacrifice is ceased; and God has kept an 
 account how many days it has ceased, whether 
 6* 
 
66 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 you have or not. Dan. 8 : 13, 14. Now God 
 comes into your houses seeking fiiiit, but he 
 linds none, or next to none : you are so eager 
 in your worldly pursuits, that you have neither 
 heart nor time for religious exercises. You 
 began at first frequently to omit the service, 
 and a small matter served for an excuse to put, 
 it by, and so by degrees it came to nothing. 
 
 O that those who have thus left their first 
 love would now remember whence they are 
 fallen, and repent and do their first works. 
 Inquire how this good work came to be ne- 
 glected : was it not because your love to God 
 grew cold, and the love of the world prevailed 1 
 Have you not found a manifest decay in the 
 prosperity of your souls since you neglected 
 this good work ] Has not sin gained ground in 
 your hearts and in your houses 1 And though 
 when you dropt your family- worship you prom- 
 ised yourselves that you would make it up in 
 secret worship, because you were not willing 
 to allow yourselves time for both, yet have you 
 not declined in that also ? Are you not grown 
 less frequent and less fervent in your closet- 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 67 
 
 devotions too ? Where is now the blessedness 
 you have formerly spoken of? I beseech you 
 to lay out yourselves to retrieve it in time,\^ 
 Say as the penitent, Hos. 2 : 7, " I will go and 
 return to my first husband, for then it was bet- 
 ter with me than now." Cleanse the sanctuary, 
 and put away the strange gods : is money the 
 god, or self-indulgence the god that has gained 
 possession of thy heart and house ? Whatever 
 it is, cast it out. Repair the altar of the Lord, 
 and begin again the daily sacrifice and oblation. 
 Light the lam23S again and burn the incense. 
 Rear up the tabernacle of David which is fall- 
 en down, lengthen its cords and strengthen its 
 stakes, and resolve it shall never be neglected 
 again as it has been. Perhaps you and your 
 families have been manifestly under the re- 
 bukes of Providence since you left off your 
 duty, — as Jacob was while he neglected to 
 pay his vow ; I beseech you hear at length the 
 voice of the rod, and of Him who has appoint- 
 ed it, for it reminds you of your forgotten 
 vows, saying. Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell 
 there. Gen. 35 : 1. Let the place thou dwell- 
 
68 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 est in ever be a Bethel, so shall God dwell 
 with thee there. 
 
 3. Let those who are remiss and 7iegligent 
 in their family-worship be awakened to more 
 zeal and constancy. Some of you perhaps have 
 a church in your house, but it is not a flourish- 
 in »• church: it is like the church of Laodicea,* 
 neither cold nor hot; or like the church of 
 Sardis, in which the things that remain are 
 ready to die ; so that it hath little more than a* 
 name to live. Something of this work of the 
 Lord is done for fashion-sake, but it is done 
 deceitfully : you have in your flock a male, but 
 you vow and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt 
 thing : you grow formal in your accustomed 
 services, and bring the torn and the blind, the 
 lame and the sick for sacrifice ; and you offer 
 that to God which you would scorn to offer to 
 your governor : and though it is but little you 
 do for the church in your house, you think that 
 too much, and say, " Behold what -a weariness 
 is it !" You put it off* with a small and incon- 
 siderable scantling of your day, and that the 
 dregs and refuse of it. You can spare no time 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 69 
 
 at all for it in the morning, nor any in the even- 
 ing, till you are half asleep. It is thrust into 
 a corner and almost lost in a crowd of worldly 
 business and carnal conversation. When it is 
 done, it is done so slightly, in so much haste, 
 and with so little reverence, that it makes no 
 impression upon yourselves or your families. 
 The Bible lies ready, but you Ijave no time to 
 read : your households are otherwise employ- 
 ed, and you think it is no matter for calling 
 them in: you yourselves can take up with a 
 *' word or two of prayer," or rest in a lifeless, 
 heartless tale of words. Thus it is every day, 
 and perhaps little better on the Lord's day; 
 no catechising, no singing of psalms, or none 
 to any purpose. 
 
 Is it thus with any of your families 1 Is this 
 the present state of the church in your house % 
 My brethren, these things ought not so to he. 
 It is not enough that you do that which is 
 good, but you must do it well. God and reli- 
 gion have in effect no place in your hearts or 
 houses, if they have not the innermost and the 
 uppermost place. Christ will come no where to 
 
70 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 be a guest set behind the door. What comfort, 
 what benefit can you promise to yourselves 
 from such trifling services as these; from an 
 empty form of godhness w^ithout the powder 
 of it ? # 
 
 I beseech you make a business of your fami- 
 ly religion, and not a by-business. Let it be 
 your pleasure and delight, and not a task and 
 drudgery. Contrive your affairs so that the 
 most convenient time may be allotted both 
 morning and evening for your family- w^orship, 
 so that you may not be unfit for it, or disturbed 
 and straitened in it ; herein wisdom is profit- 
 able to direct. Address yourselves to it with 
 reverence and seriousness, and a solemn pause; 
 that those who join with you may see and say 
 that God is with you of a truth, and may be 
 struck thereby into a like holy awe. You need 
 not be long in the service, but you ought to be 
 lively in it ; not slothful in this business, be- 
 cause it is the business for God and your 
 souls, but fervent in sjyirit, fici'ving the Loi'd. 
 
 4. Let those who have a church in their house 
 be very careful to adorn and heautfy it in their 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION'. 71 
 
 conversation. { If you pray in your families, anrl 
 read the Scriptures, and sing psalms, and yet 
 are passionate and fro ward with your relations, 
 quarrelsome and contentious with your neigh- 
 bors, unjust and deceitful in your dealings, in- 
 temperate, or allow yourselves in any other 
 sinful way, you pull down with one hand what 
 you build up with the other. Your prayers 
 will be an abomination to God, and to^goo"n. 
 men too, if they be thus polluted." " Be not 
 deceived, God is not mocked." 
 
 See that you be universal in your religion, 
 tliat it may appear that you are sincere in it. 
 Show that you believe a reality in it, by acting 
 always under the commanding power and in- 
 fluence of it. Be not Christians upon your 
 knees and Jews in your shops. While you 
 seem saints in your devotions, prove not your- 
 selves sinners in your life. Having begun the 
 dny in the fear of God, bo in that fear all the 
 dny long. Let the example you set your fami- 
 lies be throughout good, and by it teach them 
 not only to read and pray, for that is but half 
 their work, but by it teach them to be meek 
 
72 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 and humble, sober and temperate, loving and 
 peaceable, just and honest; so shall you adorn 
 the doctrine of God our Savior; and those who 
 will not be won by the word, shall be won 
 by your godly life. Your family-worshij) is an 
 honor to you, see to it that neither you nor 
 yours be in any thing a disgrace to it. 
 
 5. Let tliose tolio arc setting out in the toorld 
 set U2^ a cliurcli in their house at first, and not 
 defer it. Plead not youth and bashfulness ; if 
 you have confidence enough to rule a family, I 
 hope you have confidence enough to pray with 
 a family. Say not, " The time is not come, the 
 time that the Lord's house should be built," as 
 thev did who " dwelt in their ceiled houses," 
 while God's house lay waste. Hag. 1 : 2, 4. It 
 ought to be built immediately; and the longer 
 you put it off the more difficulty there will be 
 in doing it, and the more danger that it will 
 never be done. 
 
 Now you are beginning the world, as you 
 call it, is it not your wisdom as well as duty to 
 begin with God? Can you begin better] Or 
 can you expect to prosper if you do not begin 
 
OR FAMILY IlELIGION. 73 
 
 llius'? The. fuller your heads are of care about 
 setting up house, and setting up shoji, and set- 
 tling in both, the more need you have of daily 
 ])rayer, that by it you may cast your care on 
 God, and gain wisdom and direction from on 
 liigh. 
 
 G. In all your removals be sure you tale the 
 *' church in your house^' almig iciiJi you. Abra- 
 ham often removed his tent, but wherever he 
 pitched it, there the first thing he did was to 
 build an altar. It is observable cuncerninj* 
 Aquila and Priscillu, of whose ])ious family 
 Paul speaks, 1 Cor. ]G : 19, that when he 
 Avrote his epistle to the Corinthians they were 
 probably at Rome ; for he sends salutations to 
 them thither, and there it is said they had a 
 church in their house. Ilom. IG : 3. But 
 when he wrote his epistle to the Romans they 
 were at E2:)hesus ; for thence it should seem 
 this epistle bore date, and here he sends salu- 
 tations from them ; and at Ephesus also they 
 had a " church in their house." As wherever 
 we go ourselves we must take our religion 
 with us ; so wherever we take our families, or 
 
74 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 part of them, we must take our f^imily-religion 
 with us ; for in all places we need Divine pro- 
 tection, and experience Divine goodness. " I 
 will therefore that men pray every where." 
 
 When you are in your city houses, let not 
 the business of them crowd out your family- 
 religion, nor let the diversions of your country- 
 liouses indispose your minds to these serious 
 exercises. That care and that pleasure are 
 unseasonable and inordinate which leave you 
 not both heart and time to attend the service 
 of the church in vour house. 
 
 . Let me here be an advocate also for those 
 families whose masters are often absent from 
 them, for their health or pleasure, especially 
 on the Lord's day, or long absent upon busi- 
 ness : and let me bear these absent masters to 
 
 o 
 
 consider with whom they leave those few 
 sheep in the wilderness, 1 Sam. 17 : 28, and 
 whether they do not leave them neglected" 
 and exposed^ Perhaps there is not a just 
 cause for your absence so much, nor can you 
 give a good answ^er to that question, ''What 
 doest thou here, Elijah?" But if there be a 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 7o 
 
 just cause, you ought to take care that the 
 ciuirch in your house be not neglected when 
 you are abroad, but that the work be done 
 when you are not at home to do it. 
 
 7. Let all members of families help to pro- 
 mote family-religion. If family-worship be not 
 kept up in the houses where you live, let so 
 much the more be done in your closets for 
 God and your souls : if it be, yet think not that 
 will excuse you from secret- worship : all is lit- 
 tle enough to keep up the life of religion in 
 your hearts, and help you forward toward 
 heaven. 
 
 Let the children of praying parents and the 
 servants of praying masters account it a gi'eat 
 privilege to live in houses that have churches 
 in them, and be careful to improve that privi- 
 lege. Be you also ready to every good work ; 
 make the religious exercises of your family 
 easy and pleasant to those who perform them, 
 by showing yourselves ready to be present, 
 and careful to attend to them ; for your back- 
 wardness and carelessness will be their great- 
 est discouragement. Let your lives also be a 
 
76 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 credit to good education, and make it appear 
 to all with whom you converse, that you are 
 every way the better for living in religious 
 families. 
 
 8. Let those who have not families , have 
 churches in their chambers, churches in their 
 closets. When every man repaired the wall 
 of Jerusalem over against his own house, we 
 read of one that repaired over against his 
 chamber. Neh. 3 : 30. Those who live alone 
 out of the way of family- worship, ought to take 
 so much the more time for their secret-wor- 
 ship, and if possible add the more solemnity 
 to it. You have not families to read the Scrip- 
 tures to, read them so much the more to your- 
 selves. You have not children and servants to 
 catechise, nor parents or masters to be cate- 
 chised by; catechise yourselves then, that you 
 may hold fast the form of sound words which 
 you have received. Exhort one another ; so we 
 read it, Heb. 3 : 13 ; exhort yourselves^ so it 
 might as well be read. You are not made 
 keepers of the vineyards, and therefore the 
 greater is your shame if your own vineyards 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 77 
 
 you do not keep. AVhen you are alone, yet 
 you are not alone, for the Father is with you, 
 to observe what you do, and to own and accept 
 you, if you do well. 
 
 9. Let those who are to choose a settlement^ 
 consult the welfare of their souls in the choice. 
 If a church in the house be so necessary, so 
 comfortable, then be ye not unequally j^oked 
 with unbelievers, who will have no inclination 
 for the church in the house, nor assist in the 
 support of it, but instead of building this house, 
 pluck it down with their hands. Prov. 14 : 1. 
 Let apprenticeships and other services be cho- 
 sen by this rule, that ** that is best for us which 
 is best for our souls ;" and therefore it is our in- 
 terest to go with those, and be with those, with 
 whom God is. Zech. 8 : 23. When Lot was to 
 choose a habitation, he was determined therein 
 purely by secular advantages, Gen. 13 : 11, 13, 
 and God justly corrected his sensual choice, 
 for he never had a quiet day in the Sodom 
 he chose, till he was burnt out of it. The Jew- 
 ish writers tell of one of their devout rabbins, 
 who being courted to dwell in a place 'which 
 
78 A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 was otherwise well accommodated, but had no 
 synagogue near, he utterly refused to accept 
 the invitation, and gave that text for his reason, 
 Psa. 119 : 72, "The law of thy mouth is bet- 
 ter to me than thousands of gold and silver." 
 
 10. Let religious families keep up friend- 
 ship and fellowship loiili each other, and as they 
 have opportunity assist one another in doing 
 good. The communion of churches has always 
 been accounted their beauty, strength and com- 
 fort, and so is the communion of these domes- 
 tic churches. We find here, and in other of 
 Paul's epistles, kind salutations sent to and 
 from the houses that had churches in them. 
 Religious families should gi'eet one another, 
 visit one another, love one another, pray for 
 one another, and as become households of 
 faith, do all the good they can one to another; 
 forasmuch as they all meet daily at the same 
 throne of grace, and hope to meet shortly at the 
 same throne of glory, to be no more as they are 
 now, divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel. 
 
 Lastly, Let those houses that have churches 
 in thefti, flourishing churches, have comfort in 
 
OR FAMILY RELIGION. 79 
 
 them. Is religion in tlic power ol'it nppermost 
 in your houses ] and are you and yours serv- 
 ing the Lord, serving liim daily ] Go on and 
 prosper, for the Lord is with you, while you 
 be with him. Sec your houses under tlve pro- 
 lection and blessing of heaven, and be assured 
 that all thinc^s shall work to^rether for [jood to 
 you. Make it to appear by your holy cheerful- 
 ness that you fmd God a good master. Wis- 
 dom's ways pleasantness, and her paths peace ; 
 and that you see no reason to envy those who 
 spend their days in carnal mirth, since you are 
 acquainted with better ])leasures than any they 
 can pretend to. 
 
 Are your houses on earth God's houses ? 
 Are they dedicated to him and emjiloyed for 
 him? Be of good comfort, his house in heaven 
 shall be yours shortly : Li ?n// Father's house 
 there are many mansions ; and there is one, you 
 may be sure, for each of you, who thus, hij a 
 patient continuance in well-doings seek for glory ^ 
 honor and immortalitij. 
 
 T HE END. 
 
GENERAL BOOKBINDINO CO. 
 
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