Christ in the Home and in the Heart

Roger Clap (1609-1691), Memoirs, p. 48:

V. Another Thing which I Charge you to observe, is, To Worship GOD in your Families. Do not neglect Family Prayer, Morning and Evening. And be sure to Read some part of the Word of God every day in your Families, in ordinary Course. And be sure to Instruct your Families in the Grounds of Religion. And be yourselves Patterns, by your holy Lives and Conversations, unto your Children. And as you ought to follow and imitate good Examples in any godly Men or Women, so especially in your Parents: you ought to follow them as they followed Christ, and in nothing else. Where you have seen them missing the Rule, as doubtless you have often done: let them be your Warnings, not your Patterns. I say where I missed the Rule, in Word or Deed, (for I am a weak imperfect Creature, one of the worst of Men) be you sure to avoid that Rock, and follow me not in any Evil, but avoid it. And if you observed any Virtues in your Parents, (though they were but few) Imitate them in that which is Good, that God may be with you, as He was with your Fathers.