the Spirit of Worship. When you perform it fometimes at one Time, and fometimes at another, it does not tend to leffen their Efteem for it, provided it is not owing to any apparent Negligence in you, and that you go about it in a suitable Manner. Your Families will in general fee the Reasons of your not keeping to an Hour, will in fome Measure weigh them in their own Minds, and pass their Verdict on your Conduct: Therefore we should be careful how we act, fo as to keep in their Minds honourable Thoughts of Religion, and yet so as to avoid finking into Formality and Superstition. Thus, as to Closet Worship, we are not to pay any fuperftitious Regard to any particular Hour, but chiefly to regard the Manner in which we attend.

4. Examine feriously and thoroughly the Cafe, and take that Method that appears to you moft conducive to honour. God, and to promote your own and your Family's Good. Here I would be a little particular as to Morning and Evening Worship.

1. As to Morning Worship - As to the Closet; it seems to appear evident, that, if those Duties are profitabl performed, the beft Time is before we fet about the World. If we neglect these till after we have been engaged in our fecular Affairs, we shall find it a difficult Thing to perform them in a fuitable serious Manner, with a Mind free from Diftractions. It is fitteft that we fhould give God our firft Hours. 'Tis good to begin the Day with him. Watch over your Frames then, when you rife: And, if you would spend much Time with God in a Morning, and fo as may be for your Growth in Grace, and for your spiritual Advantage, use yourselves to early Rifing. O thou fluggish Chriftian! didst thou but know what fweet Communion fome have with God in the Duties of the Clofet, whilft thou art Лlumbering

flumbering upon thy Bed, it would certainly rouze and awake thee. Oh, the precious Moments that slide away, whilst thou art crying, A little more Sleep, a little more Slumber; it is Time enough to rife! No Wonder thou findeft thy Heart fo cold, and the divine Life fo feeble and fo languid in thy Soul. Thou haft but little Time to attend to it. Thou spendeft fo many Hours in Sleep, that, as foon as thou risest from thy Bed, thy Bufinefs calls for thy Attention; and fo thou must either neglect thy Clofet, or fadly curtail the Duties of it, and perform them in a cold and trifling Manner.

As to Family Religion in a Morning - Which appears the most fit and proper, to call the Family together as foon as poffible, or to defer it till after we have refreshed animal Nature, and fat down as a Family to our Morning Meal? The first certainly feems to be the most fuitable: Yet all Families are not in the fame Circumflances, and therefore cannot all do alike. I would not by this encourage you to an Indifference to, or a Neglect of these Duties, but leave it to your Prudence as to the Time. Seriously weigh the Matter; and, if you can call the Family together, or as many as can be fpared from the neceffary Affairs of Life, let it be done as soon as poffible, because your and their Minds are then freeft from Distractions: But, if you should meet with unexpected Interruptions, yet do not neglect the Worship, but catch the first Opportunity to attend to it.

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2. As to Evening Worship-Confider your Engagements in the Evening, and embrace that Time that may appear most convenient to yourselves and Families. As to yourselves in the Clofet-If you can spend some Time with God before you go out, let it be done; as this may be a Means of keeping you amidst any Temptations that may fall in your Way, and of keeping you.

from

from a Frame of Mind that may be difhonourable to God, and injurious to your own Souls. As to your Families, you may take the fame Method with them too, provided your Engagements appear neceffary, and attending to them would put off Family Worship to an unfeasonable Hour. If you have your Evenings in general to yourselves, it appears fitteft to worship God before the Evening Meal. Then your Spirits are freeft, your Bodies have least Fatigue; whereas, if you defer it to the laft Hour, you may be rendered unfit for it through the Hurries of the Day; and your Families, wanting Reft, may think it rather burdenfome, inftead of joining in it with any Degree of Pleasure and Willingness. This will be to offer the Halt and the Lame in Sacrifice to God: Therefore avoid this, if you poffibly can. But, if through fome unexpected Occurrences it cannot be prevented, then guard your Families against Heavinefs. If your Evenings are not your own, you must then embrace that Time that Providence offers you. Here don't mistake me: I would not encourage Perfons to a Habit of spending their Evenings abroad, to the Neglect of their Families and their Closets. But, as this cannot at Times be avoided, fo ufe that Prudence that becomes your Character as Christians.

In fine-Do not be overfcrupulous on the one hand, or negligent on the other. Don't think, because you cannot keep to a fixed Hour, or because through Interruptions you cannot fulfil your Refolutions, that you are criminal, provided the Souls of your Families lie upon your Minds, you defire to honour God in your Houses, and are enabled to attend to Family Duties in a serious, folemn, and inftructive Manner. And do not willingly indulge any Slothfulness or Negligence; but carefully guard against every Thing that

has

has a Tendency to dishonour God, and give those around you any trifling Thoughts of Religion. Having thus given you a few Thoughts upon this important Subject, I would close with a particular Address to different Sorts of Perfons. And,

1. To thofe that neglect Family and Clofet Religion. And are there any fuch amongst you? Do you call yourselves Chriftians? Do you make a Profeffion? What, and yet never pray, neither in Family nor Clofet? I pity you with my whole Soul. Permit me to expoftulate with you a little upon this Head. I dare not fay, you are not Chriftians, because you pray not in your Families; but I may certainly fay, that you act not as fuch. Oh, do you never confider the fad Example you are fetting before your dear Children and Servants? Do you never confider the Cruelty you are guilty of to their Souls? Do you never view that awful Day, when you muft give an Account of your Stewardship? Are you Profeffors, and yet nothing of God in your Families? Have your Servants feen as much in a Heathen Family as in yours? What a Dishonour are you, ye irreligious Parents and Mafters, what a Difhonour to the Chriftian Cause? Never complain of your Children's Wickednefs, your Servants Impiety: You never taught them better by an Example in the Family; you never prayed with them. And do you neglect Closet Religion too? I may then warrantably fay, you are no Christians, except in Name. Your Hopes of Salvation are all in vain: You are yet in your Sins. Oh, let me importune you to confider, before it is too late! Your Souls are perishing, starving, finking, and will foon be loft for ever, unless fovereign Grace plucks you as Brands out of the Burning. Oh, whilft you are crying Peace, Peace, how awful, if fudden Destruction should come

upon

upon you, as Travail upon a Woman with Child! Then you shall not, you cannot poffibly escape! Oh, that I could draw or drive you to your Knees !

2. I would address those who keep up Family Worship in Part, but not regularly. Some of you, perhaps, only attend on a Lord's Day. This Day you cannot let slip, without fhewing your Families that you have fome Regard for Religion, though all the Week you can flight it. And why is this? What, is Religion of no Importance on a Week-Day? Are your Families never to be put in Mind of God and Eternity in the Week? You perhaps cannot find Time. Your Engagements are fuch, that you cannot be at home till an unseasonable Hour; and then you are in a great Measure unfitted for it, and fo neglect it. Thus you will gratify an Inclination to Pleafure or Company every Evening, and neglect your own and your Family's Souls. Excuse the Liberty I take with you; it is, I hope, if I know my own Heart, out of a Regard to the Honour of my Redeemer, and tender Love to your Souls. Others attend every Evening, but not in the Morning. Your greatest Objection, I apprehend, to Morning Worship, is Want of an Opportunity. But, if you were to leave your Beds a little earlier, and manage your Affairs with Difcretion, you would foon fee the Vanity of this Excufe, and easily find Time for Morning Worship. Can you rationally expect the Blefsing of God upon you in the Day? Is it not worth asking for as a Family? Remember, an Excufe may pass with Man, but not with God. Can you tell him you have no Time? Oh, confider seriously this weighty Affair!

3. I would addrefs those that keep up the Worship of the Family Morning and Evening. And I would call upon you to examine your Ends and Views in all you do, to

inquire