pray for personal favours, should lead his family to the throne of grace that they may obtain domestick mercies. The same reason that induces an individual to acknowledge his transgressions, tells his family that they should make joint confession of their sins: for the sins of the domestick relations, alas! are manifold, and none of them perhaps more general and crying than the neglect of that very domestick religion for which I am contending. The same reason that induces an individual to make thankful mention of the loving kindness of the Lord experienced in his own person, informs his family that they should unitedly praise the fountain of all good, nor be unmindful of the author of their common happiness, the rock of their common salvation. The same reason that induces an individual to study the things which belong to his everlasting peace, and that of all men, forbids his family to remain in ignorance respecting these things, warns them to seize every opportunity of acquiring instruction, and convicts him of most criminal negligence, who though appointed by nature and by nature's God, to be their protector, their guide, their teacher, and their priest, withholds the faithful lesson it is his incumbent duty to give, sleeps over their soul's damnation, nor leads them up to God, their rest.

holy scripture How honoura

Numerous are the examples on record in of the conscientious discharge of this duty. ble is that testimony given to the fidelity and loyal piety of Abraham by the mouth of heaven itself! "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord."* What magnanimity appears in the resolution of the illustrious Hebrew chief, addressed to the assembled tribes of his country who had so often followed his banners to battle and to conquest. Whatever you shall determine; whether to listen to my admonitions, and maintain unshaken fidelity to the God of Israel, or traitorously to transfer your service to the

Genesis, xyiii. 19.

idols of the nations, however this may be, "as for me,” your general, "and my house, we will serve the Lord;"* who delivered our fathers from slavery, and under whose auspices, I have so often led you to victory. Again, it is recorded of David, that after certain solemnities of publick national religion celebrated with that splendour which usually attended the Hebrew worship, and in which the king himself bore a principal part, he "returned,” in pious duty, "to bless his household." From these instances, allow me to remark in passing, the extreme vanity of the opinion, which I am afraid is sometimes entertained, that family religion is beneath the attention of men of a genteel and liberal spirit. Mean pride! contemptible presumption! that sets itself against the rights of God! The virtues of kings and princes and victorious captains, surely cannot be beneath the prac tice of a gentleman!

The text affords an additional instance of "one who was a devout man," one, "who feared God with all his house, and prayed to God alway;" that is, who led his household to the throne of the heavenly grace at all proper and convenient. seasons. Indeed, so reasonable and evident is the principle of this duty, that Cornelius might have imbibed it in the school of Heathenism. Every reader of ancient history must remember the Lares, and Penates, the household gods, to whom prayers and sacrifices were offered up in families that knew not the true God. And shall it not be more tolerable at the day of judgment for them, than for Christians, who, although God has manifested himself to them, raise no domestick altar in honour of his name?

The advantages resulting from the faithful and steady discharge of this duty are manifold. It throws a lustre on the most elevated rank, and lifts the house of humble poverty into a temple for the Most High. It calls down upon our families the merciful regards of him whose favour is life and whose loving kindness is more desirable than life. If any

* Joshua, xxiv. 15. †2 Samuel, vi. 20.

one part of our deportment more than another can influence the Almighty to bless us in our children, to enrich our basket and our store, and to prosper and establish our temporal and domestick concerns, unquestionably it is this. For God has peculiar blessings in store for the habitations of the just, for the families that call upon his name.

Domestick religion is ordinarily productive of domestick love and harmony. In its nature, it cannot but be a peacemaker. It is the best reconciler of family differences; the best cement of family attachments. It sanctifies the endearments of connubial affection; inspires the infant mind with that veneration for the parental character which, next to piety to God, is the first and noblest of human virtues; enhances the value of children in the parent's eye who considers them as young immortals whose everlasting destinies are. in no small measure committed to his care; and who shall live in the world of spirits while the beloved forms they now inhabit, and on whose tender charms they gaze with pardonable rapture, shall moulder in the dust-softens the asperities of the superiour towards his servant and dependent, and so moulds the heart and temper of the inferiour, that he will most generally obey not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. Did these obvious truths receive due attention; were they suffered to influence the conduct of men; family infelicities, now, I fear, too frequent, would give place to a tranquillity, a serene blessedness, approaching nearer to the joys of heaven than any thing which this earth can afford.

Domestick religion affords the most consoling reflections to a parent and a master in the hour of death. Who would not give worlds at such a time for the right of saying, with our blessed Saviour, "I have manifested thy name to them which thou gavest me." "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them.” "Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me!"*

John, xvii. 6, 8.

But where shall I find language, my brethren, to describe the raptures of the rising dead followed into God's presence by the blessings of those to whom they have given a second birth in the regeneration of the soul, those whom they present at the feet of the throne, saying, "behold us Lord and the children whom thou hast given us!"

You have been viewing the advantages resulting from the performance of this duty. It is time now to consider the disastrous consequences arising from the neglect of it.

What reasonable and candid man will censure the equity of the Most High in blasting all family comforts to those who take no pains to make their families devoutly sensible of the source whence their common comforts flow?' Who would not expect domestick judgments where domestick . mercies are never thankfully acknowledged? Who is so ignorant of the ways of providence as to wonder at the inquietudes of a house where family religion is unknown, and the voice of social prayer unheard? No, "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the irreligious.” "He will pour out his fury upon the Heathen and upon the families that call not on his name.”*

The neglect of family religion has a most deadly influence on the church at large. While the spirit of piety is extinct in the domestick circle, it is in vain that you wish and pray for a revival of it in the ecclesiastical assemblies. Bar the inhospitable doors of your houses against the God of heaven, and do you imagine he will honour your temples. with his presence? Alas! when I reflect on our lamentable dereliction of the usages of our pious forefathers in this respect, I no longer wonder at the decay of the spirit of true religion amongst us; I can no longer wonder at our base conformity with a vain and wicked world. If there be any pub- · lick spirit yet left, if there be any love of God who is the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof, if there be any love. of Christ and of the church, no longer neglect the offices of doméstick religion.

Jer. x. 25.

It is said of those who neglect to provide for their own, and especially for those of their own household, that they 'have denied the faith and are worse than infidels. If this be true of persons who are remiss in consulting for the temporal sustenance and comfort of their dependents, how much more of the man who gives no diligence to ensure the eternal salvation of his household, notwithstanding the admonition to train up his children in the way they should go that when they are old they may not depart therefrom; notwithstanding he is commanded to "bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?" Without your stated instructions, expect not that your children will be wise unto salvation. Expect not that they will make it their concern to worship God, if you set them not the example; if you do not persevere in praying, I do not say for them, as this they cannot always know, but before and with them; if you do not lead their devotions up to Heaven. Not more true is it that the pastors of the church shall account for their people, than that every parent shall account for his child, every master for his dependent. If they perish through your neglect "their blood will be required at your hands.”* Look for a moment within the black veil that covers the realms of torure. Fix your regards on the wretched vic. tims of eternal justice. See you none, not one-whose looks strike reproach into your very souls? Behold thy dependent, unhappy master. From ignorance he advanced to vice, and has at length finished his career in perdition. Had he breathed in thy service the air of religion; had he seen aught in thy family to distinguish it from those profane houses that know not God; like Onesimus of old, he` might have been a son and member of the church on earth, and a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, where is he; now, where shall he ever be?

Behold thy child, unhappy father; given thee to be "thy. joy and crown," and in return solemnly devoted to God.

• Ezek. iii. 17. 18. † Phil. iv. 1.

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