2. _Family godliness._ He that hath set up Christ in his heart, will be sure to study to set him up in his house. Let every family with you be a Christian church; every house a house of prayer; every houshold a houshold of faith. Let every housholder say, with _Joshua_, _I, with my house, will serve the Lord_, and with _David_, _I will walk within my house with a perfect heart_. _First_, Let religion be in your families, not as a matter by the by, but the standing business of the house. Let them have your prayers as duly as their meals. Is there any of your families, but have time for their taking food? *Wretched man! Canst thou find time to eat, and not time to pray? *_Secondly_, Settle it upon your hearts, that your souls are bound up in the souls of your family. They are committed to you, and (if they be lost through your neglect) will be required at your hands: Sirs, if you do not, you shall know that the charge of souls is a heavy charge, and that the blood of souls is a heavy guilt. O man, hast thou a charge of souls to answer for, and dost thou not yet bestir thyself for them, that their blood may not be found in thy skirts? Wilt thou do no more for immortal souls, than thou wilt do for the beasts that perish? What dost thou do for thy children, and servants? Thou providest meat and drink for them, and dost thou not the same for thy beasts? Thou givest them medicines, and cherishest them when they are sick, and dost thou not so much for thy swine? More particularly. 1. Let the solemn reading of the word, _and singing of psalms, be your family exercises_. See Christ singing with his family, his disciples, _Matthew xxvi. 30._ _Luke ix. 18._ 2. _Let every person in your family be duly called to an account of their profiting by the word heard or read, as they are about doing your own business._ This is a duty of consequence unspeakable, and would be a means to bring those under your charge to remember and profit by what they receive. 3. _Often take account of the souls under your care, concerning their spiritual estates._ Make enquiry into their conditions, insist much upon the sinfulness and misery of their natural estate, and upon the necessity of regeneration, in order to their salvation. Admonish them gravely of their sins; encourage beginnings. Follow them earnestly, and let them have no quiet for you, till you see in them a saving change. This is a duty of high consequence, but fearfully neglected by some. Doth not conscience say, Thou art the man? 4. _Look to the strict sanctifying of the sabbath by all of your housholds._ Many poor families have little time else. O improve but your _sabbath days_ as diligently in doing your Maker’s work, as you do the other days in doing your own work, and I doubt not but you may come to some proficiency.