The Cursed Family, Title page – To the reader
THE CURSED FAMILY; OR, A Short Tract, Shewing the Pernicious Influence of Wicked Prayer-less Houses, upon this Church and Kingdom. Humbly Tender'd By way of Subserviency to His Majesties Royal Proclamations, and Acts of Parliament, for Preventing and Punishing Immorality and Prophaness.
The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked, But he Blesseth the Habitation of the Just,
Prov. 3. 33.
Pour out thy Fury upon the Heatben that know thee not, and upon the Families that call not on thy Name, for they have Eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his Habitation Desolate,
Jer. 10. last.
foreign.
Ign. Ep. ad Eph.
Pietas est cognoscere Deum, cujus cognitionis haec summa est, ut eum colas: Nec tantum hoc in Templo putes tibi else faciendum, sed & domi, & in ipso etiam cubili tuo.
Lact.
By Thomas Risley Master of Arts, and sometime Fellow of Pembrook-Colledge in Oxford.
With a Prefatory Epistle by the Reverend Mr. John Howe.
London, Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry. 1700.
A PREFACE TO THE Reader.
THE Author of this Discourse (Christian Reader) is a Person tho' of real Value, who yet hath so very Low an Esteem of himself, as to think my Recommendation may give some advantage to this his Performance. They are indeed very Accidental Circumstances, that make this difference, very often, between some and others, in the Eye of the World. Otherwise, that might well be said, which was in that great Instance; I have need to—come to thee, and comest thou to me? It is evident to those who know him, that the many years, heretofore, wherein he drew Academick Breath, and liv'd an Ornament to the Society, whereof he was long a Member, were not trifled away. There he past his time as a Recluse; more acquainted with his Study, than the Theater. He closely pursu'd his design; more to acquire solid, useful Knowledge, and Learning, than Fame. And since, in his long Rural Recess, his design hath been the same; and his way of Living hath little differ'd, in a Chosen Obscurity; contented rather to Shine to Himself, than the World.
Yet the Urgency of Conscience, and a desire to do good to the Soules of Men, hath wrung from him this short TREATISE. An Off-spring that hath much of the Parents Image; appearing with no Ostentation of Learning. (But wherein may be seen a Pious Mind, tinctur'd by much Study, and Converse with Books, an Acquaintance with the Literate World, which begot an habit, that is, rather by his Speech, unwarily bewray'd, than designedly shewn. The Scope and Drift of the Discourse, shews him a Man of Thought, and Prospect: discovers thoughts intent upon the present Age, but not confin'd to it: making, from it, an Estimate of the sad Tendency of things, and their gloomy Aspect upon the future. While Christian Families, Baptiz'd in so great, and venerable Names, and that should, if any, be Seminaries of Religion, and Vertue, are so commonly the Seedplots of all Impiety and Wickedness; and the Numerous Fountains whence Miseries and Curses are diffused among a Christian People!
My little leasure allow'd me not throughly to peruse it: But its scope, and the Spirit wherewith (by glances) I perceive it is Writ, makes me hope, (Reader) it may be of much use.
Thine, in our common Saviour, John Howe.
THE AUTHOR'S Epistle. To all Heads of Families from the Father of Mercies, through Jesus Christ, in whom all the FAMILIES of the Earth are blessed, Holiness here, and Happiness hereafter.
My Brethren, Hearers, Neighbours and Relations,
CHrist hath taught us (who is our Mediator) how far to extend our Prayers, not onelyonly to our Fiends, but to our Enemies and Persecutors. And will Christ (who also is ordain'd Judge of the World) take it well at the Great Day, That Parents make not continual Prayers, Morning and Evening for, and with their Children, and the rest of their Families? Are not Children the divided pieces of your selves? Will not that same foreign, or Natural Affection (a tye spun out of your own Bowels) move you to take care of their Souls as well as their Bodies? You are not onelyonly Parents Natural, but Christian, and have Promised in the Presence of God and his Church, that your Children should be Vertuously brought up to lead a Godly and Christian Life. O remember your Promise made at their Baptism, and do not Unchristen them by your Breach of Covenant! O Pray, That God would make you instrumental for their Spiritual well-being, as he hath for their Natural being. Beware of Poysoning the Soules of your Children, whose Bodies you have nurst at your breasts, and fed at your Tables. How can such Parents answer it at the great day of Appearance, who, by wicked Examples, teach their Children to Curse and Swear, Lye, Cheat, Break the Sabbath, and to make no reckoning of Religion? Be not deceived, for if you be not Christians in your own Houses (whatever profession you make in the House of God) your Christianity is unsound. Assure your selves, that if Christianity were possest of your Hearts, it would be Practised in your Houses. Is not Sin the Plague of the Heart? Is it not of an active, infecting, prevailing nature? Is not Sin allways with us, and diffuseth it self into all places where we live? Doubtless Sin follows Men whithersoever they goe, to Church, Market, and home again. What would you have Religion to be? What is Christianity? Must Religion be a Stranger, or some soft Guest, who comes but seldom to see you, whose company, after a while, becomes fastidious? What would you make of true Piety, What would you have Christianity to be? A despised Inferiour, to stand or fall, to come or goe at your pleasure, taken in, cast out, used a little, and then laid aside? It cannot be such a Thing. But true Religion and Christianity is That Thing, which breaths Heavenly, Regenerating, Renewing, Recreating Influences: It is, That same Ancient, Sacred, Awsom Thing, which pierceth the Soul, the Heart, Conscience, and by the Power of God, changeth the whole Man-Lastly, (O all you Heads of Families) be not deceived, if you and your Housholds be Religious, and Christians Indeed, that Religion will Bear the Image of Holiness and Righteonsness, making not onelyonly your Houses, but your Soules and Bodies, Temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. If what is here written in this Short Tract [By Way of Motive] prevail with any One Family in a Parish, or any one Member of a Family (so Precious is the Soules Salvation) to become Practisers of Piety in their Houses, I shall rejoyce that I have not Run in vain, nor Laboured in vain, through Jesus Christ or Saviour, to whom be Glory for ever. Amen.
T. R.