seriousness ought to be opposed to levity, so devotion to formality. This latter evil is to be carefully guarded against, and the rather as the frequency and shortness of these periodical exercises too often prove an occasion of it. How have the most sublime duties of religion with many people, in a course of time, dwindled into a form! And when this has come to be the case, services that are in their own nature and tendency most rational, improving, and entertaining, have become irksome and burdensome. This therefore should be particularly dreaded in regard of the duty we are recommending, because, as we have observed, the temptation to it is so considerable. I am sensible, indeed, it is scarce to be expected, that every one in a family should have a real taste for the exalted pleasures of devotion; and in such case decency and attention is the most we can look for. But more than this is to be expected of those who have entered into the spirit of religion; and such we suppose to be their character who preside on these occasions. The heads of families, therefore, more especially, should be on their guard, lest formality, to which they are liable in a degree as well as others, steal upon them at unawares; and so, like the fly in the pot of ointment, spoil the savour of these pleasant exercises. And of this evil they should be the more jealous, because it will beget a dulness and insipidness in their manner of conducting family worship, which will tend to confirm the prejudices of young people and servants against it. And thus, by the way, we are enabled to account for the disuse into which this most reasonable and important duty hath fallen. Formality begets dullness, dullness weariness, weariness disgust, and disgust neglect. O therefore, if we have religion at heart, let us endeavour to diffuse the sweet and enlivening spirit of it through these short exercises! Let us read, and hear the Scriptures read, with all the attention and eagerness of those who believe and know them to be the word of God. Let the fragrant incense of genuine gratitude and love perfume our praises, deep coutrition of heart accompany our confessions, and ardent desires ascend with our petitions. Thus family worship will not be a task, but a most pleasing and cheerful service.

In fine, great care ought to be taken that our deportment through the day be agreeable to the solemn professions we thus

make morning and evening. The dignity of our character as Christians should be expressed by an upright, serious, and manly behaviour; and the loveliness of it by our good-nature, benevolence, and cheerfulness. Having officiated at the altar of our God, we should preserve a suitable decorum of conduct both at home and abroad; and not suffer the holy vestments in which we have sacrificed to be polluted with sin. Like David, we should walk within our house with a perfect heart, and with a pleasant countenance; and so give proof to all that family worship is no way inimical, but most friendly to our real happiness, -It remains that we now,

THIRDLY, Consider the objections that are usually urged against a regular attention to this duty, and endeavour to obviate them.

After what has been said, it is presumed no one will be so hardy as to maintain, that God has not required this service at our hands. We have clearly proved that it is a dictate of nature, that the Scriptures have enjoined it, and that it tends to promote both our temporal and spiritual welfare. The objections, therefore, we have to combat are of a practical kind. We shall rank them under three heads, those which result, first, from a total disaffection to religion; secondly, from a criminal indifference to it; and, thirdly, from a very censurable kind of timidity and weakness.

1. Men who have no sense of religion, and who yet have not thrown off the public profession of it, do many of them object, that "the practice is now-a-days so singular, that it would expose them to the contemptuous sneer of their neighbours and acquaintance."

An objection this which one would think a man of sense and spirit should be ashamed to make. What! will you justify your omission of a duty, which the light of nature and revelation teaches, by the general neglect of those around you? This sort of reasoning might be urged in favour of all manner of wickedness and villany. Must we follow a multitude to do evil? No surely. Neither should we then follow a multitude in the omission of what is good and praise-worthy. But this objection, proceeding from pusillanimity, is an imputation upon your resolution as well as your understanding. What shameful cow

ardice, to suffer yourselves to be laughed out of your duty, by people who have not sense enough to disguise their contempt of religion with even the shadow of a reason! Void of all manly courage, you are less deserving of the authority you hold in your house, than the meanest servant in it. But the impiety of the objection is the main consideration. The language of it is, that you had rather obey men than God, endure his frowns than theirs. And think you that this will not awaken the resentments of Heaven against you? Yes, the day, the awful day, is coming, when it shall be told in the hearing of angels and men, that the sneer of a contemptible infidel had more weight with you than the disapprobation of him who made you.

2. Others, more through a criminal indifference to religion than a dread of the censure of the world, object that their affairs are so circumstanced that they cannot conveniently worship God in their families.

But, in how trifling a point of light must such persons view. this duty! Consider, I beseech you, what has been said of its nature, utility, and importance; and tell us whether you can seriously think, that every other business ought to take the precedence of this. Do you from day to day go without your food and rest, and excuse the neglect by saying, that you have not convenient time for the one or the other? If you were sensible, as you ought to be, that your success in worldly business depends upon the favour of Providence, and that what you get cannot be properly enjoyed without the divine blessing; and especially if you were duly sensible of the vast importance of your best interests, and of those of your family; you would blush at making so frivolous an excuse. A firm persuasion that there is a God, and that he requires this service at your hands, would bear down before it much greater obstructions than you have to complain of. Be the hurries of business what they may, is there no time to be redeemed from rest, and other sensual gratifications, for the worship of him to whose goodness you owe all your enjoyments? It is no long tedious service that is required of you. And your habitation must be very strait and inconvenient indeed, if it will not admit of some place to which you and your children may retire, to offer a few petitions

to Heaven. Think with yourselves whether these excuses will bear a serious reflection. Can you lay your hand on your heart, and say, your conscience is satisfied with them? If not, will they avail you any thing on that great occasion, when you will be called to a strict account for these neglects? O realize that awful day! It is quickly approaching. The warnings you have received, the examples of praying-families around you, the evils your children and servants suffer through these criminal omissions of yours, and even the regard that Pagans themselves have in their way paid to this duty, will all rise up in judgment against you. O be entreated then to give no longer heed to these frivolous objections, but to set about this business immediately, with all the attention and seriousness which its importance demands!-But there is one more objection,

3. And lastly, which as it proceeds not from a contempt of religion or indifference to it, but from timid bashfulness and weakness, deserves to be treated with tenderness and pity. It is this: "I would gladly worship God in my family, but am not qualified to conduct the service in a decent, agreeable, and edifying manner."

If this objection arises from an apprehension, that by engaging in this duty you will hazard your reputation for good sense and elocution, in the opinion of your children and servants, it is a very censurable one. It is an argument of a weak mind. For what though you do fail in ease and propriety of expression, the authority you hold in your family ought surely to make you superior to any apprehensions of this sort from those who are so much your inferiors. And it is an argument of some defect too in your religious character. For a regard to the great God, who requires this duty of you, and in whose presence it is to be performed, ought to subdue the first risings of pride in your breast.

But you insist that "you really have not the gift of prayer." Let me beseech you to consider what prayer is. It is the offering our desires to God. Words are of no account in regard of him: it is the sincerity, humility, and fervency of our spirit he looks at. In regard of others, however, words are necessary: but if they are plain and intelligible, that is enough. Now, possessed of suitable desires and affections, and having overcome that timidity we just spoke of, you will not be at so great a loss

for words as you are ready to imagine. You feel your wants both temporal and spiritual, your own and those of your family: where then is the great difficulty of enumerating them either more generally or particularly, and of earnestly entreating God to supply them? You feel and enjoy those blessings you have received: where then, I may add, is the great difficulty of reciting and acknowledging them with expressions of gratitude and praise?-Further, the way to obtain a freedom of praying in your family, is to accustom yourself to free prayer in your retirements. He who regularly maintains intercourse with God in his closet, will soon find himself qualified for it in his family. But even admitting that you cannot, after all, summon together resolution enough for the profitable discharge of this duty, you are not justified in the neglect of family-worship: for there are forms of prayer which you may use, and which it is infinitely better to use, than wholly to neglect this important service. And now this objection removed, permit me to entreat you, as you tender the honour of God, the prosperity of your family, and your own comfort, to erect immediately an altar in your tent, and to offer thereon, with pure hands and fervent lips, daily sacrifices of prayer and praise to Heaven.

Before we put a period to this discourse, you will allow me to detain your attention a moment to two religious exercises, not yet mentioned, which come within the idea of Family worship. The one is ordinary, and the other extraordinary. As to the former, it is the asking a blessing, and returning thanks at our meals. This is a very natural duty, and pretty generally practised among sober people. How fit, when we sit down at our tables, to beg of God to command his blessing on the food his providence has prepared for us! And when we rise, to make our grateful acknowledgments for the refreshment we have received! Nor are we without sufficient authority in Scripture for this practice. The apostle exhorts us, in general, Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all to the glory of God a. And in another place tells us, that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God, and prayer b. Our Saviour's example too has added a pleasing and

a 1 Cor. x. 31.

b 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.