whofe favour their temporal and everlafting happinessdepends. Erect an altar, Sirs, to God under the tent he has pitched. Dare not adopt any worldly fchemes, or enter into any domeftic connection, without first confulting him. Having him for your friend, all will be well his arm will protect you from every danger, and his hand pour upon you every needful good thing.

2. How great is the condefcenfion and goodness of the ever-bleffed God, in deiguing to dwell under our humble roofs !

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Will be indeed, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, take up his abode with men? What heart among us but glows with gratitude and love at these joyful tidings! Let us, my brethren, at the head of our several families, in a transport of devout affection, welcome this kind and generous guest into our houses. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors of the heart, and the King of Glory fhall come in*." Let us give him the enter tainment he demands, even that of cordial love and unreferved obedience. Let us prefent him the facrifices he requires, even thofe of daily prayer and praife; remembering what he himself hath graciously faid, "Whofo offereth praife, glorifieth me: and to him. "that ordereth his converfation aright, will I fhew "the falvation of God t." And let us tremble at the thought of fo demeaning ourselves in the habitations he has thus honoured, as ever to provoke him to depart thence.

3. and lastly, If the prefence of God with his people here renders their dwellings fo light, fecure, and happy;

happy; how glorious must that houfe be which he has prepared for their reception above!

It has often been obferved that an habitation wherein virtue, friendship, and piety reign, is a lively emblem of the heavenly ftate. But the latter infinitely excels the former. That houfe on earth which is most devoted to God, has yet more or lefs of imperfection, forrow, and fin in it. But thefe evils are held at an eternal distance from those bright manfions, in which our heavenly Father refides above. There, in due time, his whole family whom he hath redeemed with the blood of his Son, will be affembled together. The most perfect knowledge, purity, and love, shall prevail among them. His presence, without an intervening cloud, shall gladden all their hearts. And, in the character of kings and priests, they fhall be employed in acts of the most exalted and rapturous devotion, to him that fits on the throne, and to the Lamb, for evermore.

DIS

DISCOURSE III.

FAMILY WORSHIP.

ROM. xvi. 5.

Likewife greet the Church that is in their houfe.

W

E have laid before you, in the former dif courfe, the duties of Family religion in general; that of Family worship merits a more particular difcuffion. To this purpose we have chosen the words just read, as the mode of language the apoftle here uses will very naturally lead us into a pleafing view of this fubject.

Indeed it is not absolutely certain that the little affembly here fpoken of, is to be understood reftrictively of the family of Prifcilla and Aquila, as poffibly other perfons might occafionally meet with them in their houfe for religious worship. But that the whole Chriftian church at Rome are intended is unlikely and it is the more fo, as a great number of perfons are mentioned in the following verfes who belonged to other households. And it is remarkable, that in an epistle written from Ephefus to Corinth, the

:

apostle

apoftle, having addreffed the falutations of these fame perfons, (who happened at that time to be at Ephefus) and of the church in their houfe, he immediately adds, “All the brethren greet you *" From whence it should feem natural to conclude, that the family (or church in the house) of Aquila and Prifcilla, and the church of Ephesus, are clearly distinguishable from each other +. But I do not mean to lay the ftrefs of the argument respecting our obligations to family worship on the words of the text, or on paffages of a fimilar nature. Other evidence we have to adduce. Yet, as the text will admit of the fenfe we have given it, we may be allowed to accommodate it to the purpose we have in view ‡.

* 1 Cor. xvi. 19, 20.

That the first epistle to the Corinthians was written, not from Philippi, (as is faid in the note added to the epiftle in our Bibles) but from Ephefus, Dr Whitby has, I think, clearly shewn in the preface to his commentary on that epistle.

Wolfius, in his Curæ philologicæ, obferves on this paffage, "Sunt qui exiftimant, per Ecclefiam, quæ ad domum hujus vel illius effe dicitur, intelligi tantum familiam domefticam numeroforem. Theophylactus : 8τως ησαν ετοι ευδοκιμοι, ωςε τον οικον αυτων παντα ποιησαι πιςες τετες γας εκκλησίαν ωνόμασε. Similiter alii patres apud Suicerum, Tomo I. Theufari, p. 1051. Vitringa tamen hic intelligere mavult fideles, qui ad ædes membri Ecclefiæ nobilioris foliti fint congregari. Hæc enim expofitio maxime fatisficere videtur fignificationi receptæ vocis xxλna ficut præterea conftat, primos fideles in aedibus privatorum Ecclefiæ membrorum conventus fuos agere confueviffe. Ita Act ii. 46. cap. v. 42. Cumque privati unius cedes non caperent tantam hominum multitudinem, quanta Ecclefiam Hierofolymitanam conftituebat, non potuit non fieri quin plures ad hoc inftitutum deftinarentur." But Dr Whitby feems clearly of opinion, that where a whole family was converted to the Christian faith, such family was called a church. See his notes on the text, and on I Cor. xvi. 19

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Aquila and Prifcilla, to whofe family we confider the falultation in our text directed, were originally Jews, born in Pontus, and by occupation tent-makers. It is very probable, from feveral circumftances, which we shall not mention, that they were people of confiderable wealth. Where, and by what means, they were converted to the Chriftian faith; we are not told. But it is evident, from the reception the apofile met with in their house at Corinth, and Apollos afterwards at Ephefus, from the attention they paid to the latter, whom," it is faid, "they took unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfect"ly," and particularly from the honourable mention made of them in this context, and in the Corinthians, that they were perfons of distinguished charac-. ters for knowledge, benevolence, and piety. The a postle tells us, in the verfes preceding the text, that "they were his helpers in Chrift Jefus ; that they "had for his life laid down their own necks; and "that to them, not only he gave thanks, but alfo all "the churches of the Gentiles." What led them first to Rome is not certain; but it feems they left that place, upon the edict published by the Emperor Claudius for banishing the Jews from that city, and came to Corinth, a city of Greece +. From thence they removed to Ephefus, where they refided when the apoftle writ his firft epiftle to the Corinthians, in which he tranfmits their falutations to that church, defcribing their family by the fame terms as in our text. And afterwards they returned to Rome, for at that place it feems they were when the apostle fent this epiftle

Acts xviii. 26.

Ibid. ver. 1, 2.