The master's praying with his family, will teach them how to pray when by themselves. The confessions he makes, petitions he puts up, and mercies he acknowledgeth in his family duty, are an excellent means to furnish them with matter for their devotion. How comes it to pass that many servants and children, when they come to be themselves heads of families, are so unable to be their relations' mouth to God in prayer, but because they have in their minority lived in prayerless families, and were kept in ignorance of this duty, whereby they have neither head nor heart, knowledge nor affections, suitable for such a work? Again, he is a king in his house, to rule his family in the fear of God : as the political magistrate's duty is to set up the true worship of God in his kingdom, so he is to do it in his house : he is to say with Joshua, ' I and my house, we will serve the Lord.' Would it be a sin in a prince not to set up the public worship of God in his kingdom, although he served God himself in his palace? Surely, then it is a sin in the governor of a family not to set it up in his house, though he prays himself in his closet. Lastly, he is a priest in his own house, and where there is a priest there must be a sacrifice ; and what sacrifice among Christians, but the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving ? Thus David went from public ordinances to perform private duty with his family, — * Then David returned to bless his household;' that is, saith one upon the place, he returned to worship God in private with them, and to crave a blessing from God upon them.
Section IIL — The practice of saints in all ages hath been to have a religious care of their families. Good Joshua promised for himself and his house, that they would serve the Lord. If he meant the inward worship of God, he pro- mised more than he was able to perform, in regard of his family, for he could not thrust grace into their hearts : we must therefore understand him, that it should not be his fault if they did not, for he would use all means in his power to make them : he would set them a holy example, and take care they should not live without the worship of God in his family. We find Elisha praying with his servant, 2 Kings iv. 33, master and man together ; queen Esther and her maids keeping a private fast in her family, Esther iv. 16. Now it were un- charitable to think, that she was a stranger to the ordinary exercise of this duty, who was so forward to perform the extraordinary, and put others also upon it. Surely this gi-acious woman did not begin her acquaintance with this duty now, and take it up only in her present strait. That were a gluttonous fast indeed, that should devour the worship of God in her family for all the year after. Cornelius's family religion is upon record. Acts x. 2 : ' A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.' Mark, he was a devout man, and feared God with all his house. Fear is often put for the worship of God. God is called the 'fear of Isaac,' Gen. XXX. 53 ; that is, the God whom Isaac worshipped. ' Him shall ye fear and him shall ye worship,' 2 Kings xvii. 36. 'And ye shall not fear other gods,' ver. 37; that is, ye shall not worship or pray unto them. Thus we may conceive Cornelius was a devout man, and feared God with his house. Surely he that was so merciful to the poor at his door, to refresh their pinched bowels with his alms, could not be so cruel to his relatious' souls within his house, as to lock up his religion in a closet from them.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THREE OBJECTIONS AGAINST THIS DUTY IN FAMILIES ANSWERED.
But what necessity is there, that a family must meet jointly to worship God together? Will it not serve if every one prays for himself in his closet? — A family is a collective body ; as such it owes a worship to God. It is he that ' setteth the solitai'y in families,' Psa. Ixviii. 6 ; and as their founder, will be vouched by them : ' Pour out thy fury upon the families that call not on thy name,' Jer. x. 25. It holds in domestic worship, as well as national, for he looks for the one as well as the other. There are familj' sins, and these are to be confessed by the family, as national sins by the nation. There are family wants, and they require the joint supplications of the family. There are family employments, and those call for the united force of the family to pull down a
WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION. 687