54 AN HUMBLE ATTEMPT, &C. would not only encourage, but assist their flocks to offer up such morningand evening sacrifices in those families where now there is no prayer. 'Those Who find not in themselves sufficient courage Or ability to pray without these helps, may obtain excellent assist- ance by the prudent use of them. ,Where any peculiar circum- stances occur in families, which may occasion Cite omissionor change of a fewwords or sentences, or the inserting some new petitions, it will be found no difficult matter to those to practise this with decency and honour, who set about the work in good earnest, and seek for the assistance of tOe Spirit of God who is calleda Spirit of Supplication. I might enquire further under this head, Are you so diligent and solicitious that your children and servants should know and love God, as your ancestors have been ? Does it appear in their improvement in the knowledge and practice of christianity above their neighbours, that they belong to the family of a'protestant dissenter, whose character in a former age, was famous for edu- cation in all the strictest courses ofpiety and virtue ? Or are your households as ill-instructed, and as ignorant as any of your neigh- bours round about you ? What have you done in this matter more than others ? But masters of families, are not the only persons that fall under this head of admonition : I fear there are others in our age who continue from their early education to worship in general amongst protestant dissenters, and yet neglect the good customs of their ancestors : who sp,nd too many hours of life in public houses, who sometimes raising their spirits a degree above cheer- fulness, protract their mirth beyond the Midnight hour, and paci- fy their consciences with this pretence, that they have no family which wants or requires their presence at home ? But do not their closets miss them ? Do not their bibles want their perusal ? Dothnot Solomon wait for them with a word of reproof to those who tarry long at the wine ? Prov. xxii. 29, 30. Do not tire families where they dwell feel the inconveniences of such late watches ? Will not their own health of soul and body find the mischievous effects of it ? Will not their character suffer as the offspring of protestant dissenters, and the profession which they still make of nonconformity ? Will continue nonconformists to the church, and be so very conformable to the sinful world ? Is this to abstain from all appearance of evil? You will find many More pertinent enquiries on this subject in a Serious Ad- dress to those who unnecessarily frequent the Tavern, printed lately in New England. In the fifth place, may I mention frugality in expences and industry in their particular callings, as a remarkable pair of vir- tues among our predecessors the puritans and the protestant dis- senters our fathers ? , I mean particularly in this respect, that the
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