A plain and serious address to the master of a family, on the important subject of family religion. By Philip Doddridge, D.D.

A plain and serious address to the master of a family, on the important subject of family religion. By Philip Doddridge, D.D.

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Title page

A plain and serious Address, &c.

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A plain and serious Address, &c.

SIR,

YOU may easily apprehend, that the many interruptions to which personal visits are liable, make it difficult for ministers to find a convenient time, in which they may apply themselves suitably and largely to those comitted to their care, or at least, if they resolve to do it, will necessarily make their progress through large congregations very slow. I therefore take this method of visiting you while alone, and of addressing you on the very important subject of Family-Religion. For your own sake, and the sake of those dearest to you, I entreat you to give a calm attentive hearing. And I would particularly desire, that if it be by any means practicable (as with a little contrivance and resolution I hope it may) you would secure one hour on the morning of the Lord's day after you receive it, not merely to run over this letter in a cursory manner, but deliberately to weigh and consider it, and to come to some determination, as in the sight of God, that you [...] will not, comply with the pe [...]ition which it brings; if I may not rather say, with the [...]mand which in his name it makes upon you.

As I purpose to deliver it to every master of a family under my stated care, or to every mistress [Page]where there is no master (that no offence of any kind may be taken, which it is in my power to prevent) I know it will come to many, who have long been exemplary f [...] [...]heir diligence and zeal in the duties I am recommending; to many, whom their own experience hath instructed in the pleasures and advantages which flow from them; an experience which will enforce them more effectually than any thing which it is possible for me to say. Such will I hope, by what they read be confirmed in pursuing the good resolution they have taken, and the good customs they have formed; and will also be excited more earnestly to endeavor to contribute towards introducing the like, into other families over which they have any influence, and especially into those which may branch out from their own, by the settlement of children or servants. In this view, as well as to awaken their thankfulness to divine grace, which hath inclined them to the discharges of their duty in so great, yet so frequently neglected, an article of it, I hope the heads of praying families will not peruse this letter in vain. But it is intended as an address to those, who have hitherto lived in the omission of it: And if there were but one such master of a family under my care, I would gladly submit to the labor in which I am now engaging for his sake alone. To such therefore I now turn myself; and Oh that divine grace might engage every one of such a character to hear me with [Page]attention, and might inforce upon his conscience the weight of reasons, the evidence of which the lowest may receive, and to which it is impossible that the highest should find any thing solid to object!

Oh my dear friend, whoever you are (for I know not one under my care to whom I may not address that appellation) give me leave to tell you plainly, that while I write this I have that awakening scripture in my view: Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon THE FAMILIES THAT CALL NOT ON THY NAME. I appeal to you as a man of ordinary sense and understanding (as it needs no more) to judge whether this do not strongly imply that it may be taken for granted, every Family which is not a heathen family, which is not quite ignorant of the living and true God, will call upon his name. Well may it then pain my heart, to think that there should be a professed Christian Family, whom this dreadful character suits. Well may it pain my heart, to think of the divine fury, which may be poured out on the heads and on the members of it: And well may it make me desirous, to do my utmost to secure you and yours, from every appearance, from every possibility, of such danger. Excuse the earnestness with which I may address you. I really fear, lest while you delay, the fire of the divine displeasure should fall upon you: And as I adore the patience of God in having thus long [Page]suspended the storm, I am anxious about every hour's delay, lest it should fall the heavier.

I will therefore, as plainly and seriously as I can, endeavour to convince you of your duty, if peradventure you are not already secretly convinced of it; as truly I believe, most who neglect it, under the regular administration of gospel ordinances, are.

I will then touch on a few of the objections, which have been pleaded to excuse in some degree so shameful an omission. And this will naturally lead me to conclude with a few hints, which may serve by way of direction, for the proper introduction and discharge of the services to which I am endeavouring to engage you.

I mean not to handle the subject at large, which would afford abundant matter for a considerable volume; as indeed several volumes have been written upon it by divines of different denominations, who, however various in other opinions, agree here; as what intelligent christian can disagree? But I mean to suggest a few plain things, which it is evident you have not sufficiently considered, and which if duly weighed, may be the blessing of God answer my present purpose. Now the arguments I shall propose will be such, that if you will not regard them, little is to be hoped from any other: For surely the mind of man can discover none of greater and more universal importance; though I readily acknowledge, that many others might inforce them with greater energy and address. [Page]Yet if the most earnest desires of succeeding can add any of the proper arts of persuasion, they will not be wanting here. And I would fain speak, as one who considers, how much of the glory of God, how much of your own happiness, and that of your dear children, for time and eternity, depend on the success of what I am now to lay before you.

What I desire and intreat of you is, that you will honour and acknowledge God in your families, by calling them together every day to hear some parts of his word read to them, and to offer for a few minutes at least, your united confessions, prayers and praises to him. And is this a cause, that should need to be pleaded at large by a great variety of united motives? Truly the petition seems so reasonable, and a compliance with it from one who has not quite renounced religion might seem so natural, that one would think the bare proposing it might suffice. Yet experience tells us, it is much otherwise. Ths letter will come into the hands of some, who, though they maintain a public profession of religion, have been again and again exhorted to it in vain, and that perhaps for succeeding years. I might say a great deal to upbraid such especially, on account of this neglect; but I rather chuse to intreat to the future performance of the duty; humbly hoping, that, criminal as former negligence has been, a gracious God will mercifully forgive it, to those who repent and desire to reform.

[Page] And oh that I could engage you to this, by representing in the plainest, kindest, and most affectionate manner, the reasonableness, and advantage of this duty! for if it be reasonable, if it be evidently advantageous, there are numberless general precepts of Scripture, which must comprehend and enforce it, if it were less immediately supported than it is by particular passages; which yet, as I shall presently shew, do many of them strongly recommend it to us.

Consider, sir, for I address myself to every particular person, seriously consider the apparent reasonableness of family religion. Must not your consciences presently tell you, it is sit that persons who receive so many mercies together, should acknowledge them together? can you in your own mind be satisfied, that you and your nearest relatives should pay no joint homage to that God, who hath set you in your family, and who hath given to you, and to the several members of it, so many domestic enjoyments? your Creator and theirs, your Preserver and theirs, your daily Benefactor and theirs? can it be right, if you have any sense of these things each of you in your own hearts, that the sense of them should be concealed and smothered there, and that you should never join in your grateful acknowledgment to him? can you imagine it reasonable, that when you have a constant dependence upon him for so many mercies, without the concurrence of which your family would be a scene of misery, [Page]you should never present yourselves together in his presence, to ask them at his hand? upon what principles, is public worship to be recommended and urged, if not by such as have their proportionable weight here?

Indeed the force of these considerations hath not only been known and acknowledged by the People of God in all ages; we have not only Noah and Abraham, Joshua and David, Job and Daniel, each under a much darker dispensation than ours, examples of it: but we may venture to say, that wherever there has been a profession of any kind of religion, it has been brought into private houses as well as public temples. The poor heathens, as we certainly know from the remaining monuments of them, had their Lares and their Penates, which were houshold images, some of them in private chapels, and others about the common hearth, where the family used to worship them by frequent prayers and sacrifices. And the brass, and wood, and stone, of which they consisted, shall (as it were) cry out against you, shall rise up against you and condemn you, if while you call yourselves the worshippers of the one living and Eternal God, and boast in the revelation you have received by his prophets and by his Son, you presume to omit an homage, which the stupid worshippers of such vanities as these failed not to present to them, while they called them their Gods. Be persuaded then I beseech you, be consistent in your [Page]conduct. Either give up all pretences to religion or maintain a steady and uniform regard to it, at home as well as abroad, in the family as well as in the closet, or at Church. But the reasonableness of this duty, and the obligations which bind you in conscience to the practice of it, will farther appear, if you consider,

The many advantages, which will, by the divine blessing, attend a proper discharge of it. And here, I would more particularly represent the good influence, which family devotions are likely to have, upon the young persons committed to your care, upon your own hearts, and upon the advancement of a general reformation, and the propagation of religion to those that are yet unborn.

Consider in the first place, what is most obvious, the happy influence which the duty I am r [...]mmending might have upon the young members of your family, the children and servants committed to your care. For I now consider you, [...] parent and a master. The Father of a [...] is a phrase, that comprehends both [...]; and with great propriety, as humanity obliges us to endeavour to take a [...] care of all under our roof. And [...],

You [...]ught to consider your servants, in this view, with a tender regard. They are probably in the flower of life, for that is the age which is commonly spent in service; and you [Page]should recollect how possible it is, that may be if rightly improved, the best opportunity their whole life may afford them for learning religion, and being brought under the power of it. If your servants are already instructed in it, by being brought up in families where these duties have been maintained; let them not, if they should finally miscarry, have cause to impute it to you, and to testify before God in the day of their condemnation, "that it was under your roof that they learnt the neglect and forgetfulness of God, and of all that their pious parents, perhaps in a much infecrior station of life to you, had in earlier days been attempting to teach them; to teach them, in moments taken from labour, or from repose almost necessary for their subsistence. On the other hand if they came to you quite ignorant of religion (as if they came from prayerless families, it is probable that they do) have compassion upon them, I entreat you, and endeavour to give them those advantages which they never yet had; and which it is too probable, as things are generally managed, they never will have, if you will not afford them.

But I would especially, if I might be allowed to borrow the pathetic words of Job, intreat you by the children of your own body. I would now as it were present them all before you, and beseech you by all the bowels of parental affection (which I have myself so strongly felt) that to all the other tokens of tenderness and [Page]love you would not refuse to add this, without which many of the rest may be worse than in vain.

Give me leave to plead with you, as the instruments of introducing them into being. O remember, it is indeed a debased and corrupted nature you have conveyed to them. Consider that the world, into which you have been the means of bringing them, is a place in which they are surrounded with many temptations, and in which, as they advance in life, they must expect many more, so that in plain terms, it is on the whole much to be feared, that they will perish in the ignorance and forgetfulness of God, if they do not learn from you to love and serve him. For how can it be expected they should learn this at all, if you give them no advantages for receiving and practising the lesson at home?

And let me further urge and intreat you to remember, that these dear children, whose tender age, and perhaps amiable forms and dispositions, might attract the affection and solicitude of strangers, are committed to your especial and immediate care by God their Creator. And he has made them thus dependent upon you, and others that have in their infancy and childhood the care of them, that there might be hereafter a better opportunity of forming their minds, and of influencing them to a right temper and conduct. And can this by any means be effectually done, if you do not [Page]at proper times call them together, to attend to the instructions of the word of God, and to join in solemn prayers and supplication to him? at least is it possible it should be done any other way with equal advantage, if this be not added to the rest?

Family worship is a most proper way of teaching children religion, as you teach them language, by insensible degrees; a little one day and a little another; for to them line must he upon line, and precept upon precept. They may learn to conceive aright of the divine perfections, which they hear you daily acknowledging and adoring them: Their hearts may be early touched with pious remorse for sin, when they hear your confessions out before God: They will know what mercies they are to ask for themselves, by observing what turn your petitions take; your intercessions may diffuse into their minds a spirit of love to mankind, a concern for the interest of the church, and of their country; and what is not, I think, by any means to be neglected, sentiments of loyalty towards those in authority over us, when they hear you daily invoking the divine blessings upon them: And your solemn thanksgivings for the bounties of providence, and for benefits of a spiritual nature, may affect their hearts with those gracious impressions towards the gracious author of all, which may excite in their little breasts love to him, the most noble and genuine principle of [Page]all true and acceptable religion. Thus they may become christians by insensible degrees, and grow in the knowledge and love of the truth, as they do in stature.

By observing your reverent and solemn deportment (as reverent and solemn I hope it will always at such seasons be) they may get some notion of an invisible Being, before they are of age to understand the definition of the term God; and may feel their minds secretly impressed with an humble awe and veneration, before they can explain to you their sense of it. And whatever instructions you give them concerning his nature and his will, and the way of obtaining his favor by Jesus Christ, all your admonitions relating to the importance of that invisible world we are going to, and the necessary preparation for it will be greatly illustrated by the tenor of your daily devotions, as well as by those excellent lessons which the word of God, when solemnly read to them morning and evening, will afford. Nor is it by any means to be forgotten, that while they hear themselves, and their own concerns, mentioned before God in prayer, while they hear you earnestly pleading for the divine blessings upon them (especially if it be in expressions wisely varied, as some particular occurrences in their lives and in yours may require) it may very probably be a means of moving their impressible hearts; as it may powerfully convince them of your deep and tender concern for their [Page]good, and may add great weight to the instructions you may address to them: So that it may appear, even while you are praying for them, that God hears. And indeed I have known some instances of excellent persons, who have dated their conversion to God, even after they had begun visibly to degenerate, from the prayers, from the serious and pathetic prayers, which they have heard their pious fathers, perhaps I might add their pious mothers, presenting before God on their account.

Indeed were this duty properly attended to, it might be expected, that all christian families would, according to their respective sizes and circumstances, become nurseries of piety; and you would see in the most convinsing view, the wisdom of providence, in making human infants so much more dependent on their parents, and so much more incapable to shift for themselves, than the offspring of inferior creatures are.

Let me then intreat you, my dear friend, to look on your children the very next time you see them, and ask your own heart, how you can answer it to God, and to them, that you deprive them of such advantages as these? advantages, without which it is to be feared, your care of them in other respects will turn to but little account, should they be ever so prosperous in life. For what is prosperity in life without the knowledge, and fear, and love of God? what, but the poison of the soul, which [Page]swells and kills it? what but the means of making it more certainly, more intolerably miserable; when all its transient and empty amusements are passed away, like a [...], when one awaketh? In short, not to mention the happy influence it may have on their temporal affairs, by drawing down the divine blessing, and by forming their minds to those virtues which pave the way to wealth and reputation, health and contentment, which make no enemmies, and attract many friends; it is, with respect to the eternal world, the greatest cruelty to your children thus to neglect giving them those advantages which no other cares in education itself exclusive of these can afford: And it is impossible, you should ever be able to give them any other equivalent. If you do your duty in this respect, they will have reason to bless you living and dying: and if you neglect it, take care that you and they come not, in consequence of that neglect, into a world, where (horrid as the thought may now seem) you will forever be cursing each other. And thus I am falling insensibly, because so natu [...]ally, from what I was saying of the concern and interest of those under your care, to your own, so far as it may be distinguished from theirs.

Let me therefore press you to consider, how much your own interest is concerned in the matter; the whole of your interest, both spiritual and temporal. Your spiritual interest is infinitely [Page]the greatest, and therefore will begin with that. And here let me seriously ask you, do you not need those advantages for religion, which the performance of family duty will give you, added to those of a more secret and a more public nature, if peradventure they are regarded by you? these instructions, these adorations, these confessions, these supplications, these intercessions, these thanksgivings, which may be so useful to your children and servants, may they not be useful to yourselves? may not your own hearts have some peculiar advantage for being impressed, when you are the mouth of others in these domestic devotions, beyond what in a private station of life it is otherwise possible you should have? Oh these lessons of religion to your own souls, every morning and evening, might be (if I may be allowed the expression,) either the seed, or foretaste, of salvation to you. Nay, the remoter influence they may have on your conduct, in other respects, and at other times, when considered merely in the general as religious exercises performed by you in your family, is to be recollected as an argument of vast importance.

A sense of common decency would engage you, if you pray with your family, to avoid a great many evils, which would appear doubly evil in a father or a master, who kept up such religious exercises in his house. I will not now, sir, speak of yourself, for I would not offend by supposing any thing grossly bad of [Page]you. But do you imagine, that if reading the scripture and family prayer were introduced into the houses of some of your neighbours, drunkenness and lewdness, and cursing and swearing, and profaning the Lord's day, would not, like so many evil demons, be quickly driven out? the master of the family would not for shame indulge them, if he had nothng more than the form of duty kept up; and his reformation though only external, and at first on a kind of constraint, would carry with it the reformation of many more, who have such a dependence on his favour as they would not sacrifice, though by a madness very prevalent among the children of men they can venture to sacrifice their souls to every trifle.

And may it not perhaps be your more immediate concern, to recollect, that if you prayed with your family, you would yourself be more careful to abstain from all appearance of evil? you would find out a way to suppress that turbulency of passion, which may now be ready to break out before you are aware, and other imprudences, in which your own heart would check you by saying, "does this become one, that is by and by to kneel down with his domestics, his children and servants, and adore God with them, and pray against every thing which displeases God, and makes us unfit for the heavenly world? I will not say this will cure every thing that is wrong; but I believe you are already persuaded, it [Page]would often have a very good influence. And I fear, it is the secret desire of indulging some irregularities without such a restraint, that, infamous as such a victory is, hath driven out family prayer from several houses where it was once maintained, and hath excluded it from others. But if you have any secret disinclination of heart rising against it in this view, it becomes you seriously to take the alarm; for, to speak plainly, I have hardly known a blacker symptom of damnation, than a fear of being restrained in the commission of sin.

After this it may seem a matter of smaller importance, to urge the good influence which a proper discharge of family duty may have upon your own temporal affairs; both by restraining you from many evils and engaging you to a proper conduct yourself, and also by impressing your children and servants, with a sense of religion. And it is certain, the more careful they are of their duty to God, the more likely they will be to perform their duty to you. Nor can any thing strengthen your natural authority among them more than your presiding in such solemnities, if supported by a suitable conduct. But I would hope nobler motives will have a superior weight, and therefore waving this topic, I intreat you as the last argument to consider,

The influence it may have on a general reformation and on the propagation of religion to those who are yet unborn. You ought to [Page]consider every child and servant in your family, as one who may be a source, not only of life, but (in some degree) of character and happiness to those who are hereafter to arise into being: yea, whose conduct may in part affect those that are to descend from them in the following generation. If they grow up while under your eye, ignorant of religion, they will certainly be much less capable of teaching it to others; for these are the years of discipline, and if they be neglected now, there is little probability of their receiving after-instruction. Nor is this all the evil consequence; for it is highly probable that they will think themselves authorised by your example to a like negligence, and so you may entail heathenism under disregarded christian forms, on your descendants and theirs in ages to come. Whereas your diligence and zeal might be remembered and imitated by them, perhaps when you are in your grave; and the stock which they first received from you, might with rich improvements be communicated to great numbers, so that one generation after another might learn to fear and serve the Lord. On the whole, God only knows what a church may arise from one godly family, what a harvest may spring up from a single seed; and on the other hand, it is impossible to say, how many souls may at length perish by the treacherous neglect of a single person, and to speak plainly, by your own.

[Page] These, sir, are the arguments I had to plead with you, and which I have selected out of many more: And now give me leave seriously to ask you, as in the presence of God, whether there be not on the whole an unanswerable force in them? And if there be, what follows, but that you immediately yield to that force, and set up family-worship this very day. For methinks, I would hardly thank you for a resolution to do it to-morrow, so little do I expect from that resolution. How can you excuse yourself in the continued omission? Bring the matter before God. He will be the final judge of it: and if you cannot debate the question as in his presence, it is a sign of a bad cause, and of a bad heart too; which is conscious of the badness of the cause, and yet will not give it up, nor comply with a duty, of your obligations to which you are secretly convinced, and yet in effect say, "I will go on in this sin, and venture, the consequence." Oh it is a dreadful venture, and will be found in effect provoking the Lord to jealousy, as if you were stronger than he.

But perhaps there may arise in your mind some objections, which may in some degree break the force of this conviction, and which in that view it may be expedient for me to discuss a little, before I dismiss the subject, and close my address to you. You may perhaps be ready to object,

[Page] 1. "That family-prayer is not in so many words commanded in scripture; and therefore however expedient in some cases, it cannot be so universal and so important a duty, as we represent it."

I answer plainly, that it is strongly recommended in scripture, and consequentially commanded; as there are precepts, which plainly include, though they do not particularly express it. And I appeal to yourself in this matter. When God is represented as giving this reason to his angels for a particular favor to be bestowed on Abraham because be knew, that be would command his children and houshold to keep the way of the Lord, that he might obtain the blessing promised; did he not intend to declare his approbation of the care he took to support religion in his family? And can it be supported in a total neglect of prayer? Again, do you not in your conscience think, that the spirit of God meant, that we should take Joshua for an example, when he tells us that he resolved and publicly declared the resolution, that he and his house would serve the Lord; which must express a religious care of his family too? Do you not believe, that this blessed spirit meant it a commendation of Job that he offered-sacrifices for all his children; sacrifices, undoubtedly attended with prayers; when he feared lest the gaity of their hearts in their successive feasting might have betrayed them into some moral evil? And was it not to do an honor to David, that the [Page]Scripture informs us, that he we [...] home to bless his houshold; that is, to perform [...] me solemn act of domestic worship when he had been spending the whole day in public devotions; What think you of the example of Daniel who prayed in his house, with his windows open towards Jerusalem, and would rather run the risque of being cast into the den of Lions, and being torn in pieces by those cruel beasts, than he would either omit or conceal it? And do you think, that when our blessed Lord, whose whole life was employed in religious services, so frequently took his disciples apart to pray with them, that he did not intend this as an example to us, of praying with those under our special care or in other words, with the members of our own family, who are most immediately so? Or can you by any imaginable artifice delude yourself so far as to think, that when we are solemnly charged and commanded to pray with all prayer and supplication, this kind of prayer is not included in that apostolical injunction.

On the whole, the question lies in a very little room.—Have I proved by what I have said before, that family-prayer is a reasonable thing? That it has a tendency to promote the honor of God, and the interest of religion, and your own salvation, with that of those who are committed to your care? If you are really convinced of this, then all the general precepts which require the love of God and your neighbor, all that recommend a regard to the interest [Page]of Christ, and a concern for our own everlasting happiness, bind it in this connection as certainly upon us, as if it had been commanded in words as express as those, in which we are required to enter into our closets, and there to pray to our father which is in secret.

And I will farther add, that if the care of family religion be (as I suppose every man's conscience will secretly testify that it is) a proper part of religious education, then all those many passages of scripture which recommend this, must in all reason be understood as including that. But perhaps you may be ready to plead,

2. "That it is generally neglected."

Yet scarce can you have made or thought of this objection, but you will see at the first glance, that this must turn upon yourself, rather than on the whole appeal favourable to your cause. It is the reproach of our age, if it be indeed generally neglected. And if it be generally excluded from the families of the rich and the great (who too frequently set the fashion, where they are most apt to set it wrong) let it rather awaken a generous indignation in our breast, to think that it is so excluded. At least, let it awaken a holy zeal to exert ourselves so much the more, as it is certain that no association in vice can secure those that join in it: for it is expressly said, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. So will your obedience be the more acceptable, [Page]in proportion to the degree in which it is singular. Were there not one praying family in the whole nation, in the whole world, methinks it should instigate you to the practice rather than tempt you to the neglect, and you should press on as ambitious of the glory of leading the way, for what could be a nobler object of ambition, than to be pointed out by the blessed God himself, as Job was; of whom he said, with a kind of triumph, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the land, or even on the earth? But blessed by God, this supposed universal neglect is far from being the case. Let it however rejoice us, if God may say, "There are such and such families, distinguishable from those in the neighborhood on this account; as prevalent as the neglect of family prayer is, they have the resolution to practise it, and like my servant Daniel fear not the reproach and contempt which profane and ungodly men may cast upon them, if they may but honor me and engage my favor, I know them; I h [...]arken and hear, and a book of remembrance is written before me for them that fear me, and think on my name." Nor should you urge,

3. "That you have so much business of another kind, as not to be able to attend to this."

I might cut the objection short at once, by applying to your conscience, whether you have not time for many other things which you know to be of less importance. How many hours [Page]in a week do you find for amusement, while you have none for devotion in your family? And do you indeed hold the blessing of God so very cheap, and think it a matter of so little importance, that you conclude your business must succeed the worse, if a few minutes were daily taken solemnly to seek it together? Let me rather admonish you, that the greater your business is, the more need you have to pray earnestly, that your hearts may not be engrossed by it. And I would beg leave further to remind you, that if your hurry of business were indeed so great as the objection supposes (which I believe is seldom the case) prudence alone might suggest, that you should endeavor to contract it. For there are certain boundaries, beyond which a wise and faithful care cannot extend; and as an attempt to go beyond these boundaries has generally its foundation in avarice, it often has its ends in poverty and ruin. But if you were ever so secure of succeeding for this world, how dear might you and your children pay for that success, if all the blessed consequences of family religion, for time and for eternity, were to be given up as the price of that very small part of your gains, which is owing to the minutes you take from these exercises, that you may give them to the world? For you plainly perceive the question is only about them, and by no means about a strenuous application to the proper duties of your secular calling through the day. And if you [Page] will be rich upon such profane terms, as are here supposed (for truly I can call them no better than profane) you will probably plunge yourself into final perdition, and may in the mean time pierce yourself through with many sorrows; while religious families learn by blessed experience, that the blessing of the Lord, which they are so often imploring together maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow with it; or that a little with the fear of the Lord is better than great treasure, with that intermingled trouble, which in the neglect of God must necessarily be expected. But I conclude that yet more will be objecting,

4. "That they want ability for a work of this kind."

To this I must in the first place reply, that where the hearts is rightly disposed, it does not require any uncommon abilities, to discharge family worship in a decent and edifying ma [...] ner. The heart of a wise man and good man i [...] this respect teacheth his mouth, and addeth knowledge to his lips; and out of the fulness of it, when it is indeed full of pious affections, the mouth will naturally speak. And if it speak naturally, and in the man properly, it is enough.— There is no need at all of speaking elegantly. The plainest and simplest language, in addresses to the Majesty of heaven, appears to me far preferable to labored, pompous and artificial expressions. Plain short sentences, uttered just as they rise in the mind, will be best understood by them that join with you. And it [Page]should on such occasions be our endeavor, to let ourselves down, as much as possible, to the understanding of the least and meanest of them. And this will in itself be more pleasing to God, than any thing which should proceed from ostentation and parade.

I must also desire you to consider, how many Helps you may easily procure. The Scripture is a large and noble magazine of the most proper sentiments, and most expressive language; which, if your will attend to with a becoming regard, will soon furnish you for every good word and work, and most apparently for this. And besides this, we have in our language a great variety of excellent forms of prayer, for families as well as for private persons; which you may use, at least at first, with great profit. And if it be too laborious to you to learn them by heart, or if having learnt them you dare not trust your memory, what should forbid your reading them reverently and devoutly? I hope I shall give no offence to any good christian by saying, but on this occasion I should offend my conscience by not saying, that I have long thought an irreconcilable aversion to forms of prayer, even of human composition, as vain a superstition, as a passionate attachment to them. And if any had rather, that a family should be prayerless, than that a well chosen form should be gravely and solemnly read in it, I think he judges as absurdly, as if he would rather see them starving to [Page]death, than fed out of a dish whose materials or shape are disagreeable to him. The main thing is, that God be reverently and sincerely adored, that suitable blessings, temporal and spiritual, be sought from him for ourselves and others, and cordial thanksgivings returned to him for the various gifts of his continual bounty; And if this be done, the circumstances of doing it, though I cannot think them quite indifferent, are comparatively of small importance. I know by sure experience, in a great variety of instances, that it is very possible for christians of no extraordinary genius, and with a very low education, to acquit themselves honorably in prayer without the assistance of forms: And they who at first need them may, and probably, if they seriously set about it would soon outgrow that need. But if they did not, God might be glorified, and families edified, by the continued use of such helps. And on the whole, if it be indeed come to this, that you would rather sacrifice all the benefits of family-prayer, than submit to the trouble of reading, or appointing another to read, a well composed address, which perhaps, with a small portion of scripture before it might not take up one quarter of an hour's time, indeed, you must be condemned by God, and your own conscience. In such a view both must testify, that it is neither want of leisure, nor want of ability, that prevents your discharging your duty, but a stupid indifference about [Page]it, or rather a wretched aversion to it; the natural consequence of which might, if a little reflected upon, be sufficient to throw the most careless and arrogant sinner into an awful alarm, if not a trembling consternation.

I apprehend, that the most plausible objections have now been canvassed; for I suppose, few will be so weak and cowardly as to plead,

5. "That their domestics will not submit, to the introduction of such orders as these."

But as it may be secretly thought of, where it would not be pleaded, especially where these duties have unhappily been omitted when families were first formed, and in their most flexible and pliant state, I will bestow a few words on this head.

And here I must desire, that you would not rashly conclude this to be the case, with respect to your own. Do you think so unkindly of your domestics, if they be not extremely wicked indeed, as to imagine they would be secretly discontented with spending a little time daily in hearing the word of God, and being present at your domestic devotion; much less should you allow yourself to think, till it appears in fact, that they will have the arrogance openly to dispute so reasonable a determination as this. Perhaps on the contrary, they are even now secretly wishing that God would put it into your heart to make the attempt; and thinking with a kind of tender regret, "Why are we denied such a blessing, when [Page]the members of this and that family in the neighborhood are favored with it?"

But if it be indeed as you suppose, that they would think of it with a secret aversion and come into it with apparent reluctance, if they can be induced to come into it at all; you would do well to reflect, whether this profaneness and perverseness may not in a great measure at [...], be owing to that very neglect which I am now pressing you to reform? Which if it be, it ought certainly to convince you in the most powerful and effectual manner, of the necessity of endeavoring to repair as soon as possible the mischief already done. And if there be really an opposition, you ought to let any in whom you discover it, know, that your measures are fixed, and that you cannot and will not resign that just authority, which the laws of God and man give you in your own house, to the petulancy of their humor, or the impiety of their unhappy temper.— Make the trial whether they will dare to break with you, rather than submit to so easy a condition, as that of being present at your hours of family worship. If it be a servant that disputes it, you will no doubt think it a great blessing to your family to rid it of so detestable a member, in that relation. And if it be a child, grown up to years that should be years of discretion, that sets himself against this reformation (and it is not possible that any others should oppose you) though it is certain, that [Page]such a son of Belial be, he must be a great grief to your heart, you will be delivered from a great deal of distress which the sight of his wickedness must daily give you, by refusing him a place in your own family, which he would only disgrace and corrupt, and leaving him to practise those irregularities and scandals which always go along with such a presumptuous contempt of religion, any where else than under your own roof.

I can think of but one objection more, and that is,

6. "That you may not know how to introduce a practice which you have so long neglected."

But this is an objection so very soon removed, that I hope if nothing else lie in the way, your family will not continue another week in the unhappy circumstances in which your negligence has hitherto kept it. I were unworthy the name of a minister of the gospel, if, whatever my other engagements are, I were not willing to give you my utmost assistance, as soon as possible, in so good a work as the reformation of this great and lamentable evil. Far from thinking it a trouble to visit you and spend an hour with you on such an occasion; who would not esteem it a refreshment, and a blessing, to come and inform your domestics, when gathered together for this purpose, how wise and happy a resolution you had taken, to represent the reason they have to rejoice in it, [Page]and to bless God who had inspired you with it? And how sweet a work would it be to perform it, as for the first time imploring the blessings of Providence and grace on you and yours, and intreating those assistances of his holy Spirit, which may qualify you more abundantly for discharging your peculiar part in it, and may render it the successful means of planting, or of supporting and animating a principle of true religion in every soul under your care? Nor would the joy and delight be confined, to the minutes spent with you at such a season: It would be carried home to the study, and to the house of God: And the very remembrance of it would for years to come, encourage to other attempts of usefulness, and strengthen our hands in the work of the Lord.

And oh my dear friend, whoever you are, be not ashamed, that a minister should on this occasion tell your children and servants, that you are sensible of your former neglect, and are determined in the strength of God to practise a duty, which it has indeed been criminal hitherto to omit. This is a mean and unworthy shame, and would prevent our reforming evils which are indeed shameful. It will be a glory to you, to be willing and solicitous to revive languishing religion; a glory to give to other families an example which, if they have the wisdom and courage to follow it, will undoubtedly bring them down a rich variety of [Page]blessings on themselves, and if followed by considerable numbers, on the public. At least, it will be an honor to you in the sight of men, and what is [...] more, in the sight of God, to have [...] the generous effort; and not to make the guilty neglect of former years, an excuse for [...] to neglect, what it rather [...] argument immediately to [...].

But I [...] means insist upon it, [...] be introduced into your family in the [...] manner I have recommended, use your own judgment, and purs [...]e your own inclination; so that it be but effectually and immediately done. You may perhaps think it convenient to call them together, and read over this letter to them; telling them at the conclusion, that your are in your conscience convinced there is reason in it which cannot be answered, and that therefore you are resolved to act agreeably to it. You may then proceed to read a portion of scripture and to pray with them in such a manner as you may think most expedient. But in whatever manner it be done, you will remember, that it must be with reverence and solemnity, and with unfeigned fervour of devotion, as in the sight of the heart- [...]ouching God.— And you will remember, that when once introduced, it must be resolutely and constantly carried on; for to cast out this heavenly guest, will in some degree be more shameful, than [Page]not to admit it. But I hope, sweet experience of the pleasure of these duties will be instead of a thousand arguments, to engage your adherence to them. May God give you resolution immediately to make the attempt! and may he assist and accept you, and scatter down every desirable blessing of providence and of grace, on you and yours! [...] this day (for I hope it will [...] very day) may become memorable in your lives, as a season from whence you may dare a prosperity and a joy hitherto unknown, how happy lo [...]ver you may have been in former years: For very imperfect, I am sure, must that domestic happiness be, in which domestic religion has no part.

How shall I congratulate myself, if inconsequence of the representation and address I have now been making to you, I may be the blessed instrument in the divine hand of inspiring you with such a resolution! What an additional bond will then be added to our friendship, while God continues us together in life! Yea, what an everlast [...]g Bond of a nobler friendship, in a future state; where it will be, before the throne of God my joy to have given such admonitions as these, and yours faithfully and obediently to have received them!

But if after all, you will not be persuaded, but will hearken to the voice of [...], and sloth and irr [...]ion, in defiance [...] many awakening and [...], you must answer [Page] [...] If your children and serv [...] [...] the neglect of God, and pierce [...] with those sorrows, which [...] such children, are like to [...] raise profane and [...] they prove the curse of their [...] as the torment and ruin of those must [...] related to them; the guilt is in past yours, and (I repeat it aga [...] you must answer it to God at the great day, that you have omitted the proper and appointed method of preventing such fatal evils. In the mean time, you must answer the omission to your own conscience which probably has not been easy in former days, and in future days may be yet [...] quiet. Yes, sir, the memory of this address may continue to torment you, if it cannot reform you: And if you do not [...] house of God, as well as exclude God and his wor [...] trom your own house, you will meet with new wounds; [...] new exhortations and admonitions will arm reflection with new reproaches. And in this uncomfortable manner you will probably go on, till what his been the grief and shame [...]f your life, becomes the afflict on of your dying bed; nor dare I presume to assure you, that God will answer your last cries for pardo [...]. The [...]est you can expect under the consciousness of this guilt is, [...] pass trembling to your final down; But whatever that doom be, you must acquit your minister who [...] given you this faithful warning; and this letter [...] transcribed as it were in the records of the divine Omniscience, shall testify that a master of so great importance hath not been wholly neglected, hath no been coldly and slightly [...]ged by,

Dear Sir,

your affectionate friend, and faithful servant in our common Lord, P. DODDRIDGE.

§

§

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A PLAIN AND SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THE MASTER of a FAMILY [...] FAMILY RELIGION.

[...]

Information about this book

Title statement

A plain and serious address to the master of a family, on the important subject of family religion. By Philip Doddridge, D.D.

Doddridge, Philip, 1702-1751.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2012-01.

ID [DLPS]

N28014

ID [TCP]

N28014

ID [STC]

Evans 37329

ID [NOTIS]

APY5172

ID [IMAGE-SET]

37329

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99032329

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 37329.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N28014)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 37329)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 37329)

Source

— A plain and serious address to the master of a family, on the important subject of family religion. By Philip Doddridge, D.D., Doddridge, Philip, 1702-1751..

Extent

36 p. ; 20 cm. (12mo)

Printed by Andrew Wright.,. Northampton [Mass.]: :: 1800.. (Running title: Family-religion recommended to the master of a family.)

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