Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

SECTION VIII.

¹Such whom God hath spared alive (in this time of great Morality) may be considered in an Economical capacity, as Persons constituting of Families; and these may be considered as Governors, or those that are Governed: ⟨p. 177⟩and surely all our Families are concerned to inquire what Improvement those that are left in Families should make of Gods Signal preservation of them: Hath God swept away some Families wholly, not a person left, and spared yours? doth not this call for some return you should make to God? Hath not God visited your Family, and taken away some of your Children, or some Servant, or some Friend out of your house, and hath spared you; hath given life to so many whom he hath so eminently preserved: When God hath sent the Plague into your house, he gave it Commission to fetch such a one (in your house) to his or her eternal state; but, gave it a Charge, it should not seize upon you, or, if it did, it should not kill you: and, doth not this call aloud to you, in all your Families, for speedy thorough Reformation? Consider the dismal devastations made in some Families; the total subversion of others: and yet, that God should keep any Families in the midst of his burning wrath; should not this make every person inquire, What would the Lord have me to do? Now, the Governors should bethink themselves, What is our Duty? and, the Children whom God hath continued to their Parents, What would God have us to do? &c. There is not a Member in a Family but is greatly concerned to study what is the Duty which he should excel in, according to the capacity and relation he standeth in, in that Family: And that, after such Family-Visitation there may be Family-Reformation, I shall consider,