Four useful discourses viz. ... /Four usefull discourses viz. ... /

The Third Note from the Blessing that here the Entertainers of the Gospel shall have,¹ is this: That where there is but any one in a Place, or in a Family, that shall Entertain the Gospel, the whole Family shall be the better for that one. And the Note is Raised from this Particle, It: Your Peace shall rest upon it. He doth not say, Your Peace shall rest upon him only, though that's true, It shall rest upon him principally: But he saith, Your Peace shall rest upon it: That is, If a Son of Peace be in the Family, your Peace shall rest upon the Family; that is, there shall be some good come unto the Family, by reason of any one Son of Peace that's there: If there be but one that doth Entertain the Gospel, the Family may come to have a Blessing by that. If it be but a poor Servant, or poor Child that shall receive the Gospel, there may come a great deal of good to the Family, by such a Servant; but if it be a Governor of the Family, then the Blessing will be more. For we find in the Gospel often, where ⟨p. 203⟩the Governor of the Family Believed, it is said, that the whole Household did believe and were Baptized: And we find often in the Gospel of Believing Families, and indeed there is a greater Blessing of God upon a Family, where the Governors are Believers, than we are aware of: A Blessing, I say, upon the Family: That let there be any Governor, or any that is a Son of Peace, the Family is the better for it; God many times will spare them the rather, because of them. In Isa. 65. 8. Thus saith the Lord, as the new Wine is found in the Cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a Blessing is in it: So will I do for my Servants sake, that I may not Destroy them all. Many times in a place where there are a great many Ungodly ones, yet if there be but a few that are Godly, as the new Wine in the Cluster, the Lord saith, Destroy it not, for a Blessing is in it. There are some good Grapes there, though a great many Rotten ones; and a Blessing is in it, and therefore Destroy it not: So saith God many times of a Family, where there are some good ones, Destroy it not, saith God, for a Blessing is in this Family. It is very observable, that which we read concerning the House of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 14. 10. compared with ver. 13. In ver. 10. There the Lord Threatens, that He will bring Evil upon the House of Jeroboam, and will Cut off from Jeroboam, &c.