A Treatise of Family Instruction, Chapter 4 · Section 11
SECT. 11. The Plea of ſuch as ſay they have no ſpare time to inſtruct their Families, becauſe they are poor, or have much buſineſs, or are often abroad, anſwered.
Object. 11 THere are many will plead, They have no ſpare time to inſtruct their Families; ſome becauſe they are poor, others becauſe they are often from home, a third ſort becauſe they are full of buſineſs, who are ready to ſay, On the week days we muſt attend our worldly occaſions, and on Lords days we muſt attend publick Ordinances, and take ſome time for our private Communion with God, ſo that we can find no time to inſtruct our Families.
Anſw. 1. Do you not find time to eat and drink with your Children? If you can find time notwithſtanding all your buſineſs to eat and drink with your Families, if you had as great a delight in the word of God as Job had, you would alſo find time to inſtruct them out of the word of God; for he eſteemed Gods word more than his food, yea more than his neceſſary food, Job 23.12. I have eſteemed the words of his mouth more than my neceſſary food. Are not your Childrens Souls infinitely better than their Bodies? And will you then ſpend all your time in providing for their Bodies, and ſpare no time to inſtruct their Souls? Your Childrens Souls are in as great danger to periſh without Inſtruction, as their Bodies without Food and Rayment; their Bodies will die if they have no Food prepared for them, ſo will their Souls if they be without Inſtruction: Prov. 5.23. He ſhall die without inſtruction, and in the greatneſs of his folly he ſhall go aſtray: Hoſ. 4.6. My People are deſtroyed for want of Knowledge.
2. Suppoſe you are poor, your Poverty ſhould be ſo far from keeping you from teaching Gods Word unto your Children, that you ſhould be the more diligent to ſtudy Gods word your ſelves, and to teach the ſame unto your Children: And that for ſeveral Reaſons: As,
Firſt, Gods Word will help you and your Children to bear your Poverty with Patience and Contentment. The Apoſtle Paul exererciſed much patience in his Afflictions, Neceſſities, and Diſtreſſes, and the help which he had to bear his Neceſſities with patience, was from the Word of God, 2 Cor. 6.4, 7. Increaſing in the knowledge of God, will ſtrengthen a man with all might to ſuffer all ſorts of afflictions, with all Patience, Long-ſuffering, and Joyfulneſs, Col. 1.10, 11.
Secondly, If you be poor, and can leave your Children nothing, you have the more need to leave them inſtructed in the Word of God; and if you leave them well inſtructed in the Word, you leave them a good portion, better then if you left them thouſands of pounds in Silver or Gold; Pſal. 119.72. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thouſands of Gold and Silver.
Thirdly, By laying up Gods word in your hearts, and teaching it your Children, and practiſing it in your Lives and Converſations, you may come to be deliver'd from your Poverty, and be bleſſed with Riches: Prov. 10.22. The bleſſing of the Lord it maketh rich; and who are more likely to obtain this Bleſſing, then they that treaſure up Gods word in their hearts, and teach it to their Children? Job 22.22, 24. Receive I pray thee the Law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart; then ſhalt thou lay up Gold as duſt, and the Gold of Ophir as the ſtones of the brook: Prov. 24.4. By knowledge ſhall the Chambers be filled with all precious and pleaſant Riches.
Fourthly, If the Lord ſhould ſee it beſt for you and your Children to be kept in a poor and low condition, and ſhould deny you the Riches of this world, yet by converſing much with the word of God, and inſtructing your Children in the knowledge of the Scriptures, both you and your Children may come to be rich in faith; and by being rich in faith, both you and they ſhall become great Heirs, Heirs of a Kingdom; Heirs not of an earthly, but which is far better, of an heavenly Kingdom, Jam. 2.5. Hath not God choſen the poor of this world rich in faith, Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promiſed to them that love him?
3. Multiplicity of Buſineſs is not a ſufficient Plea for the neglect of this duty of Family-Inſtruction: For,
Firſt, Next to the working out of our own ſalvation, we can have no Buſineſs of greater importance than the training up our Families in the knowledge and fear of God.
Secondly, A good man muſt order all his affairs with diſcretion, ſo as one Buſineſs may not hinder another; eſpecially that which is of leſſer moment muſt not hinder that which is of greater concerment.
Thirdly, When a man hath an heart for this work, he will eaſily find time to do it. Want of time may be pretended, but want of an heart to the work, is the real cauſe why it is neglected.
Fourthly, No men can have more or greater Buſineſs than Kings, who have the Affairs of an whole Kingdom lying upon their hands; yet David, who was a King, found time to teach his Children, Prov. 4.3, 4. yet he had much other Buſineſs beſides governing the Twelve Tribes of Iſrael, who were a very numerous People; as, preparing Materials to build the Temple, compoſing of Pſalms, fighting of Battels, there being both Civil Wars, and War with forraign Enemies in his days, &c.
Fifthly, They that have moſt Buſineſs, if they take a view of their time, ſhall find that much of their time is loſt and miſ-ſpent, either in idleneſs, or vain unprofitable Diſcourſe, or unneceſſary thoughts and cares about the affairs of this life, or in ſome other kind. Do but ſpend ſo much time in Family-Inſtruction, as you have been uſed to ſpend unprofitably, and you ſhall find time enough for this work.
4. Suppoſe you be full of Employment, that you can find no ſpare time on the week day, to inſtruct your Families, yet on every Lords day, wherein you are to lay aſide all your worldly Buſineſs, you may find time and leaſure enough to inſtruct your Families.
If you ſay, On the Lords day we muſt attend upon the publick Worſhip and Service of God, and we muſt take alſo ſome time for private Communion with God, ſo that we have no ſpare time on the Lords days.
I anſwer,
It is true, it is our duty to attend upon the Publick Worſhip and Service of God, Jam. 1.19. Let every man be ſwift to hear: And in ſo doing, we may expect Chriſts preſence with us, Matth. 18.20. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midſt of them. It is our duty alſo to keep up private Communion with God, to pray to God in ſecret, and to read and meditate on the word of God when we are alone, but both theſe may be done; we may attend on Gods Ordinances in publick, and alſo perform ſecret and Cloſet-duties, and yet have time ſufficient for to inſtruct our Families every Lords day.
5. That the plea of other buſineſs may not take you off from teaching your Families the word of God; conſider how acceptable this work is to Jeſus Chriſt. No work or buſineſs doth more pleaſe him, than to ſee us learning his word our ſelves, and teaching our Families what we have learnt. When Chriſt came to Martha's Houſe, ſhe received him, and took great care and pains to entertain Chriſt, and thoſe that came with him, and this was a very good and pious work; but Mary ſat at Jeſus feet, and heard his word. Hereupon Martha goes to Chriſt, and complains that Mary had left her to ſerve alone: But what anſwer did Chriſt give her? It was this, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful, and Mary hath choſen that good part which ſhall not be taken away from her, Luke 10.38, 39, 40, 41, 42. Where we ſee Chriſt commended Mary's choice, who ſat at his feet, and heard his word, above Martha's, who received him into her houſe, and provided for his entertainment and his followers. And yet how good a work was it to receive and entertain Chriſt! There was coſt, and care, and pains attending this work. And as Chriſt is highly pleaſed with ſuch as give their minds to hear and learn his word, more than with thoſe that were able and willing to feaſt him and his Apoſtles; So alſo it is a very acceptable work unto Chriſt, to ſee us inſtructing and teaching our Families; which doth plainly appear from his anſwer to the man out of whom the Devils departed, when he deſired to be with him, Luke 8.38, 39. Now the man out of whom the Devils were departed, beſought him that he might be with him; but Jeſus ſent him away ſaying, Return to thine own Houſe, and ſhew how great things God hath done unto thee: The man deſired that he might be with Chriſt. Now to follow Chriſt, this was a good work, it might have conduced very much to the good of his Soul, for to have ſat under Chriſts Miniſtry, and to have heard his Doctrine; poſſibly the man deſired this to expreſs his gratitude, by miniſtring to Chriſt, and attending his perſon, to do ſuch ſervice on all occaſions as he ſhould command him; yet the Lord Jeſus chuſeth rather to ſend him home to his own houſe to inſtruct his Family, than to anſwer his deſire in ſuffering the man to be with him, which ſhews the great acceptance that this work hath with Chriſt, in that he choſe rather to have this man go home and inſtruct his Family, than to attend upon and miniſter to his own perſon.
6. As for ſuch whoſe occaſions call them to be much abroad, and to tarry long from home, I ſhall only hint two or three things:
1. When you are at home, be the more diligent and frequent in teaching your Children and Servants, by how much the oftner your occaſions neceſſitate your abſence from your Families.
2. Let your Charge at home cauſe you to diſpatch your Buſineſs abroad with what expedition you can, that you may haſten to your Families; and withſtand all ſollicitations of one or other that would detain you from returning with all convenient ſpeed to your own home.
3. Make up by Prayer what you cannot do by perſonal Inſtruction: Be earneſt with God to take the care of them, and to teach them in your abſence.
4. If your occaſions do neceſſitate you to be often and long abſent, depute ſome perſon in your abſence that may do this work for you: Or if you have none that you can depute in your room, allot them ſuch tasks as you ſhall ſee meet to exerciſe themſelves withal whilſt you are detained from them, and at your return take an account how they have improved their time therein.
7. If nothing that hath been ſaid will prevail with you to lay aſide this vain excuſe, I have no ſpare time to do this work; I ſhall only adde this further, That God will find a time to puniſh, and pour out his wrath upon thoſe perſons that can't find a time to perform Family-Duties, as to inſtruct them, to pray with their Families, &c. Jer. 10.25. Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen that know thee not, and the Families that call not upon thy Name.