SECTION V. .53 the master perform it with a clear head and a pious heart in the evening, ifhe indulges his amusements in public drinking-houses tiffnear eleven o'clock at night, or till the hour of midnight ap- jproaches? Is not evening worship very often utterly neglected by this means ? Is there any such thing as devotion paid to God hi themorning, even in those families whose affairs and circumstan- ces would admit of it, if there were a sincere desire in the mas- ters to maintain it ? I grant there are some employments, conditions and cases Of life, where it is hardly possible for the household to meet toge- ther in the morning; but I am well assured there are many fami- lies wherein this piece of religion is neglected, who can make no sufficient apology or just excuse for it. It is with pleasure that I remember that elegant reproof given to a degenerate age in a sermon preached, but I think never published, by the late Bishop Burnet: In the days of our fethers, said he, when a person 'came early to thedoor of his neighbour, and desired to speak wits the master of the house, it was as common a thing for the ser- rant to tell him with,freedom, ,n, master is at prayers, as to answer now that he is not stirring. This eminently refers tothe days of the puritans, or the time before the restoration. In which words there was a short, a gentle and a comprehensive rebuke given to three or four vices,at once, viz. to the waste of daylight in sleep, to disorderly hours, to the neglect oï family devotion, and to the being ashamed even of the domestic forms ofreligion and godliness : all which now prevail so muchamongst sis. But if this neglect has so much overspread the families of the established chur ch, have not the dissenters lost their religion also in a sad proportion ? Will you complain that our fathers did not always maintain the decency in their expressions in family worship, which becomes persons addressing the great God, and that you are not capable 'of expressing yourselves with a due degree of propriety and de- cency in addressing God while others are present, and therefore you entirely omit the duty : But give me leave to ask, Is it not better to honour God in your household by daily acknowledg- ment of his mercies, and committing yourselves daily to his care and blessing, though you cannot do it with such accuracy as you desire, than to forget God entirely, and never acknowledge him at all ? Besides, asyou have oftenheard from :ne, and I repeat it again, the worship of God in various forms of prayerprecompos- ed and fitted to the common circumstances of morning and even- ing, is infinitely preferable to the neglect of family religion, and the taking no notice of God in your house. Nov there are many such books for daily devotion written bÿ some of the divines of the established church, where the sense and expressions are pro- per and pious : I wish some of our brethren among the dissenters D 3
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