Reply. There is no one, whe- | yourselves as Noah did in the old world, and as Lot did in Sodom. You may be inftrumental of reforming others by your example. A few religious families generally ftrike a damp upon the loose who are near them, and check them in their career. ther he pray or not, who does not practife evil. There is not a juft man upon earth that doeth good and finneth not. When we charge our neighbor with having no proper fense of what he is doing while in family prayer, we ought to be cautious left we be guilty of the rafh judging which is condemned in the fcriptures. A difpofition to fufpect the fincerity of every one we meet, does not discover a good temper in us. But if you should meet with reproaches and fufferings for righteoufnefs' fake, you will have the approbation of your own confciences, and what is infinitely greater, the approbation of God. If you are called to be fingular in the ways of piety, and if you meet with fcoffers every day, the period will foon come when you fhall receive a glorious reward in heaven, and when hypocrites, unbelievers, mockers, and cavillers of every kind, will be filled with fhame, and held up as objects of everlastcontempt. OBJECTION IV. "I am fo diffident that I cannot lead in family prayer." But let us fuppofe the work which the objector can intend which is, That fome praying heads of families are falfe to their engagements, and fraudulent in their dealings. What relief can you prayerlefs heads of families find here? It is a melancholy fact that the best things in life have been perverted to bad purposes by wick-ing ed men. What does this prove? Not the badness of the thing perverted, but the badnefs of the man who is guilty of fuch abuse. Should your hypocritical neighbor go on to hell after all his feeming devotion, what relief will this afford you, when you must give account of yourself to God? Will you dare plead then the hypocrify of others, to fave you from the condemnation of the prayerlefs? Remember that each one is to be judged in the next world according to his own character, and not according to the character of another. The diffidence of which you complain is a difficulty which most labor under, in their first entrance on this duty. If you labor to overcome it, you will find it to decrease. It will diminish by a continued course of praying. Éndeavor to fet the fear of God before your eyes; which can carry you above the flavish fear of man. Be fervent in your fupplications to Him who helpeth our infirmi ties, and you will rife above overwhelming difcouragements in addreffing the throne of grace. prayer is not acceptable from the terms in which it is clothed, but from the temper of the heart which the fupplicant poffeffes. Further, you may be able to pray in a manner which is for the edification of your domeftics, though you are not for the edification of a large affembly. I do not believe that the objection arifing from a want of gifts, ever prevented the head of a family from maintaining focial prayer in his house, when he was really roufed to a sense of his duty. : It is granted that all good men are not equally gifted in prayer. But thofe of the fmalleft gifts may perform to the edification of their families, by treasuring up in their minds the prayers uttered in the fcriptures. I know that fome perfons are offended with a pro. pofal of any kind which countenances a form of prayer. But their objection is groundless. If they object against confining public bodies to a fet form of words; prescribed by the authority of the church, they, in that cafe, ftand on good ground. But the cafe before us is of a different nature. . This only respects the cafe of an individual who is deficient in the gift of prayer, and is laboring to remedy his deficiency by laying up in his mind the adorations, confef fions, petitions, thanksgivings, &c. recorded in the book of God. A man may use the fame words in his prayer continually, and yet pray with the fpirit. He may vahis language in every prayer, and yet may not be acceptable to God. Our Saviour did not direct his difciples to lifelefs prayers, and yet he gave to them a form of prayer, or a fummary of the petitions which they were daily to offer up to their heavenly Father. Jefus Chrift, when in his agony VOL. IV. No. 11. in the garden, repeated a former prayer in the fame words. Wę know that he was heard; and therefore may conclude that mere man may be acceptable to God, though he be confined in his devotions to a form of words. The objection against family prayer from a want of gifts, it appears, is not infurmountable; and it is hoped that no one will dwell upon it, fo as to prevent his compliance, with a reasonable, fcriptural and important duty. OBJECTION VI. "I am an impenitent finnerThe facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: I can not therefore in confcience pray to God by myfelf; far lefs can I confent to lead in the devotions.of others, as in family prayer." I fuppofe, my friend, that you feel yourself to be strongly forti fed by an objection which is in the mouths of many at the prefent time. I fhall not be able to drive you from your imaginary ftrong hold, unless God by his fpirit speak to your heart. I re queft you to confider the fellow ing things, 1. If the plea of impenitence will avail to excufe you from prayer, it will excufe you from the performance of every other duty s and fhould you remain impenitent to the day of your death, you will be found without guilt. Your plea for the neglect of pray er proceeds on the ground that you do not think yourself to deferve punishment. What an aw ful ftate are you in, while con tending with God?—The confideration that you are an impeni tent finner, furnishes a strong ar gument for feeking God by hum ble prayer, as well as in the use of other means, that you may obtain mercy. Eec 2. You act inconfiftently with yourself. You restrain prayer before God, because you are an impenitent finner. Why do you not ftop plowing? The plowing of the wicked is fin. Why do you eat and drink, fince you are commanded to do thefe, and whatever you do, to the glory of God? If you do not perform the common offices of life out of a fupreme regard to the divine glory, you fin in the performance of them. Why are you so much afraid of finning against God in prayer, while you have no fear of it in fo many other things, in which you are equally commanded to feek his glory? Would you, if your houfe was on fire neglect to extinguish the flame because that you are an impenitent finner? Oh! be affured that you are travelling in a crooked path, and that a deceived heart has turned you afide. While you are, every moment, in danger of hell-fire, you flatter yourfelves that you muft not pray to God for efcape; and that any thing is a duty rather than atten. tion to the concerns of your foul. 3. You have not that reverence for God which you may fuppofe you have, while you urge a fcruple of confcience against praying to him. If you had a true reverence for God, how could you prefume to use the gifts of providence without asking his leave? You do use them in this manner, while you neglect to pray to God. You neither acknowledge his hand in any thing, nor afk of him a bleffing, nor his leave to ufe any thing in your prayerlefs ftate. Does fuch conduct as this evidence a reverential fear of the Moft High? Are you impelled to fuch behavior by a tender confcience ? Suppose a neighbor of yours comes to your granary before your eyes, and takes from it bread-corn for himself and family, and should reply to your expoftulation, "I can't in confcience afk you for it, but the grain I must have;" would you think that he conducts as he does from a fcrupulous regard to your character? Or, suppose he takes your horfe and rides to a diftant town, and pleads, when you call him to an account, that he could not in confcience afk you for the loan of your beaft, would you not either think him to be a deranged man; or under the influence of a very corrupt difpofition? Now apply the cafe of your neighbor to yourself. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. The beafts of the field and of the foreft, and the cattle upon a thousand hills are his. They are his in the stricteft fenfe; as he is their Creator, and conftant preferver. He openeth his hand and fatisfieth the defire of every living thing. Creatures cannot be yours only in a very limited fenfe; but they are the Lord's in the highest fenfe poffible. You are daily using fome or other of the creatures of God, for your fubfiftence and comfort; and are, as a prayerless man, neither afking his leave to use them, nor his bleffing in the use. How is it that if your confcience be fo tender that you cannot ask leave to take the bleffings of providence for your ufe, that your confcience will fo quickly permit you to lay your hands upon them without paying any acknowledgment to their divine author? How does it happen that conscience is fo tender in the one cafe, and fo unfeeling in the other? We should certainly think that a man who fcrupled to ask another for a fa vor, would equally fcruple to take and discountenancing wickedness for his ufe what he wifhed for, from its tendency to hand reliwithout asking leave. How afgion down to the fucceeding gen tonishing is the blindness of man in the concerns of religion? 4. Prayer, whether of the fecret or focial kind, is not, like some other duties, limited to qualified fubjects; but the performance of it is enjoined upon all men without delay. A perfon cannot be admitted to the Lord's Supper, according to divine rule, unless fome character be formed in him which conftitutes his next or immediate right. He is, for inftance, to have knowledge to difcern the Lord's Body, and is to examine himself as to his motives, *before he comes to the communion table. But prayer does not fuppofe a good character previoufly formed, any more than reading the Bible, and an attendance on public worship. The impenitent finner therefore, may be called upon to pray as his next duty, be his prefent character what it may. Should you feel alarmed, as many impenitent finners have done, your fcruples of confcience would inftantly vanish. You would, while you realized that you finned in every thing, be engaged in prayer, both in your clofet and family. Reft not upon an excufe which will, fooner or later, give you unfpeakable pain. A&t the rational part of those who daily call upon God. erations, from facts recorded in fcripture relative to the conduc of men highly approved of God, and from the example of Chrift in particular, in praying with his family. To thefe, add the dreadful state of families which continue prayerlefs thro' life. Upon them the Lord will pour out his fury, and cause them to feel the bitter fruits of their wickedness. The objections which have been brought againft this duty can have no weight with a ferious mind. Heads of families will not, if they act rationally, be deterred from the duty, because it is an old cuftom handed down by traditionbecause fome who pray in their houfes appear to have no proper fenfe of what they are doingbecause many live in the neglect of the duty-because they are diffident in their make; and because they have not the best gifts, and are deftitute of grace in their hearts. Thefe objections, with all others which may be brought, will vanish like the fhades of night before the approach of the morning fun, when God fhall fet fins in order before your eyes. your You ftand, my friends, in an important relation to pofterity. It will be remembered of you while your name is preferved among the living, whether your house was a Bethel, a house of God, or a houfe of Belial. Which of thefe reputations do you wish to leave among the living? Suppofe a fon of yours, fettled in family ftate, fhould be feized with dangerous fickness, his fears of future mifery should be alarm Impartially and seriously review the remarks which have now been offered to convince you of your duty, and to remove your objections. May you be excited to the practice of family devotion, by arguments drawn from family forrows and joys, from its benev-ed, and he fhould thus address olent tendency towards your do- you: "My father, I lived with meftics, in encouraging piety, you from infancy to manhood but I never heard a prayer from your lips. I felt encouraged by your example to fet out in the world without prayer. I have been setting the fame example before my little ones which you did before yours. But now I tremble at the confequences. Permit me, my dear parent, to fpeak plainly I greatly fear that you and I have the blood of fouls to answer for by our neglect. Oh, let us repent and reform without delay, and feek a pardoning God for mercy." beft tend to imprefs your own hearts and the hearts of your do mestics. Inftruct your households in the doctrines and duties of res vealed religion, while you are praying with them from day to day. Enforce your endeavors by a holy example.-Remember that without faith it is impoffible to please God. You must have the power as well as the form of godImefs, or you will perifh, after all your exertions to maintain order in your houfes. Adopt the refo lution of David, (Pfal. ci.) "E will fing of mercy and of judg ment: unto thee O Lord will I in a perfect way. Oh when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my houfe with a perfect heart." May you have fuch members of your households, as that you may be enabled to enjoy a little refemblance of the family in heaven, while you are pilgrims and ftrangers on the earth; and may all thofe bleffings come upon you, which are promised to the habitation of the juft ! Would not fuch an addrefs cut to the heart the prayerlefs Father, who is not dead to all tender feel-fing. I will behave myself wifely ings? Avoid all occafions hereafter, I entreat you, of laying yourselves open to fuch reproofs from the lips of a dying child. Begin family prayer without delay. If you neglect this duty any longer, Satan will take advantage from it, and will by himself and his emiffaries, labor to prevent the performance of it in any future period of your life. Look to God for help. Confefs to your domeftics your fin in living without prayer heretofore, and tell them, that you are refolved by divine grace to reform. Be engaged in the duty, which has been urged, and you will find that ten thoufand difficulties will vanifh. Take unto yourselves the whole armor of God. Pray always with all prayer and fupplication in the Spirit, and watch thereunto with all perfeverance. Let those who maintain family prayer, be encouraged to continue in the practice, with as few interruptions as poffible. In your devotion guard against all oftentation on the one hand, and against cold formality on the other. Let your morning and evening facrifices be performed in a manner which fhall QUESTION. Do faints ever lofe any degree of grace, or fantifica tion? Or, Is grace in faints ever diminished, fo that a lefs quantity is now poffeffed, than at a prece ding period? THIS being among the doubt ful fubjects, it does not become us to decide pofitively upon it; yet evidence, perhaps fatisfactory, may be produced that faints never lofe any, not the leaft degree, of that fanctification which they have attained. This is a fubject on which revelation only is to be confulted, and the evidence from revelation is to be obtained from two fources. |