Howe, John

Mr. Howe speaks of this as one of the ways, by which we may hope that the Spirit poured out will produce the better state of religion which we are expecting, namely, by means of family-order more generally and vigorously set on foot among the professors of Christianity. And certainly we cannot reasonably entertain strong hopes of the revival of the power of godliness either in our own age or the succeeding, till this necessary part of the form of it becomes general among Christians. As long as a customary neglect prevails in seasoning the rising age with proper instructions in the families to which they belong; while our youth, that sprung from parents or are intrusted with masters who bear a Christian name, grow up altogether disused from the daily exercises of social piety; the seed of the church will soon be lost among the men of the world, and religion must die away without some very supernatural reviving. - p. iv.