Notwithstanding it be a certain duty to pray in your Families, yet I doubt, when death shall come to drag you out of your houses, it will find some of you guilty of neglecting of it to your dying day; but yet I hope some may be Prevailed with. What! have you neglected it? and will you all do so still? God forbid. When you sin, you act like men; but when you go on in sin, you act like Devils*. I shall propound a few considerations to urge you to it; and I entreat you in the name of the great eternal God, before whom you and I must shortly stand, and be judged, to weigh them seriously, and if you find there is no reason in them, throw them by, and look for, and enquire after, better; but if there be, resolve in the fear of God to buckle to your duty. It is time†, it is high time to reform. Did you sin when you were young? and will you go on in riper years? What do you come to Sermons for? to hear what Ministers can say upon such a Question? to discern their parts? or to mend your own hearts and lives? Do you come to hear, that you may hear? So you may, and go to Hell when you have done; or do you come to hear, that you may practise and obey? so you must, if you are men for Heaven. I charge you therefore here before the Lord, and by Jesus Christ that shall shortly judge both you and me, that your Families be no longer prayerless Families. If I put you upon work that God doth not require from you, then tell me so when you and I shall meet and stand at God's Judgment Bar: But if it be no more than what you owe to God, neglect it at your peril. Sirs, the day is coming, and it hastens, when you will, you must be serious. If thou diest within a week or two, within a day or two, or whenever thou shalt leave this world, if the next hour after thou art not of this mind*, that thou shouldst have prayed in thy Family, then say I did needlessly call thee to it; but if thou shalt then see it was thy duty, thou shalt also see (when it is too late) that thou didst befool thy self, and make thy self guilty before God in thy neglecting of it. Be wise therefore, before it be too late, and mind this work while thou hast time and opportunity. To this purpose, press your backward hearts with these things following.
Notwithstanding it be a certain duty to pray in your Families, yet I doubt, when death shall come to drag you out of your houses, it will find some of you guilty of neglecting of it to your dying day; but yet I hope some may be Prevailed with. What! have you neglected it? and will you all do so still? God forbid. When you sin, you act like men; but when you go on in sin, you act like Devils*. I shall propound a few considerations to urge you to it; and I intreat you in the name of the great eternal God, before whom you and I must shortly stand, and be judged, to weigh them seriously, and if you find there is no reason in them, throw them by, and look for, and enquire after, better; but if there be, resolve in the fear of God to buckle to your duty. It is time†, it is high time to reform. Did you sin when you were young? and will you go on in riper years? What do you come to Sermons for? to hear what Ministers can say upon such a Question? to discern their parts? or to mend your own hearts and lives? Do you come to hear, that you may hear? So you may, and go to Hell when you have done; or do you come to hear, that you may practise and obey? so you must, if you are men for Heaven. I charge you therefore here before the Lord, and by Jesus Christ that shall shortly judge both you and me, that your Families be no longer prayerless Families. If I put you upon work that God doth not require from you, then tell me so when you and I shall meet and stand at God's Judgment Bar: But if it be no more than what you owe to God, neglect it at your peril. Sirs, the day is coming, and it hastens, when you will, you must be serious. If thou diest within a week or two, within a day or two, or whenever thou shalt leave this world, if the next hour after thou art not of this mind*, that thou shouldst have prayed in thy Family, then say I did needlesly call thee to it; but if thou shalt then see it was thy duty, thou shalt also see (when it is too late) that thou didst befool thy self, and make thy self guilty before God in thy neglecting of it. Be wise therefore, before it be too late, and mind this work while thou hast time and opportunity. To this purpose, press your backward hearts with these things following.
- *Humanum est errare, perseverare diabolicum.
- †—fecimus & nos Haec juvenes, esto, desisti, nempe nec ulira Fovisti errorem; breve sit quod turpiter cud•s. Quaedam cum prima resecen ur crimina barba. Juven. Sat. 8.
- *Res ipsa fidem dictis dabit. Serò sapiunt •h•yges.
