vernment of their tender and ignorant Offfpring? And can we imagine this Paternal Authority, Inftruction and Government should reach to every other Part of the Child's Conduct, and exclude his Religion? Muft the Parent give him the best Inftructions he can in the Affairs of this perishing Life, and refuse or neglect it in the things of everlasting Moment and divine Importance? Is it not infinitely better that Children fhould know and ferve God, because their Parents teach them to do it, than that they fhould be utterly ignorant of God, and live in a ftupid Neglect of him and his Service? Can a religious Parent fatisfy himself with this philofophical Pretence of not biaffing the Judgment of his Children, and let them go on, and die before they arrive at Manhood, in a State of fhameful Ignorance and Rebellion against their Maker? Are Children entrusted to the Affection and Care of Parents by the God of Nature, for fo deplorable an End as this? And will the Life and Soul of the Child never be required at the Parent's Hand?

There may be many Hours and Seafons of Life, when Parents may give notice to their Children as they grow up to Maturity, that Religion ought to be a Matter of their rational Choice. They may be taught to examine the Principles they received from their Education, and to fettle their Faith and Practice upon folid Grounds: But in the mean time Children ought to have fome Notices of the

Great

Great God who made them inftill'd into their Minds from their very Infancy. They ought to be led into that Religion in which their Parents hope to obtain Acceptance with God, and Happiness in the World to come. This is the univerfal Voice of Nature, and it reclaims aloud against those humorous, flothful or cruel Parents, who bring their Children into a dangerous World, and into a State of Existence which has no End; and yet take no Care to inform them how to escape the Dangers of this World, nor how to feek the Happiness of their endless Existence.

This is the folemn Appointment of Heaven by exprefs Revelation. The Command of Mofes the divine Lawgiver, the Proverbs of Solomon, the wifeft of Men, and the facred Epiftles of St. Paul, the greateft of the Apoftles, all concur, and repeat this Advice, To teach the Words of God to Children diligently, to train up Children in the Way they should go, and to educate them in the Nurture and Admonition of the true Religion. See Deut. vi. 6, 7. Prov. xxii. 6. Eph. vi. 4.

And furely, If Parents had but that just Share of Tenderness and Affection for their young Sons and their Daughters, that Nature requires, or that Scripture enjoins, if they did but look upon them as little Parts of themfelves, they could not forbear to acquaint them with the things that belong to their everlasting Welfare. I might add this alfo as a final Confideration, That if Parents take no Care

to inform their Children of the Duty they owe to God, they will quickly find that Children will pay very little Duty to their Parents; and they will read their own Crime of fhameful Negligence toward God, in the Rebellion of their Offspring against themfelves.

SECT. II.

Of inftructing Children, partly by Reason, and partly by the Authority of the Parent.

BUT I will fuppofe Parents are convinced

of their Duty to their Children in this refpect, tho' fome Doubts may remain whether they should begin this Work of Instruction from their very Infancy. Now I know no Reason why this Bleffing fhould be with-held from Children when they are firft capable of receiving it. As foon as the young Creatures begin to make it appear that they have Underftandings, and have learnt the Ufe of Words, they may lay out the early Exercises of Reafon in the Things of Religion. Children of ordinary Capacity, at three Years old, or a little more, may be taught to know that the Heavens and the Earth, and the Birds, and the Beasts, and the Trees, and Men and Wo→ men, did not make themselves; but that there is fome Almighty Being that made them all, tho' they cannot fee him with their Eyes: And they may be inftructed in a Way of eafy

-eafy reasoning in fome of the most evident and moft neceffary Duties which they owe to the Great God, whom they fee not, almost as foon as they are taught the Duties of Love and Obedience to their Parents, whom they fee daily. By little and little they may be informed and made to fee that they are finful Creatures, that they have offended the Great God that made them, that they cannot fave themselves from his Anger; and thus they may be led to fome Acquaintance with Jesus Christ the only Saviour.

It is certain that we ought to teach Children and ignorant Perfons the Knowledge of Religion in a rational Way, as far as they are capable of receiving it; tho' I confefs it is not an easy matter to make them understand the Grounds and Reasons of every Part of that Religion which they may be taught to believe and practife. There are fome Things therefore that in these younger Years of Life a Child must take entirely upon the Credit and Authority of the Parent, or Mafter, fuch as, The Immortality of the Soul, the future State of Rewards and Punishments, and the Truth of the Chriftian Religion. The Bible is the facred Book which contains the Religion of Chriftians; but it is impoffible to lead young Children into thofe Arguments whereby we prove the Authority of the Bible. This therefore must be taken upon truft, and the Child's Faith of it must be built upon the Teftimony of his Parents and Teachers till

he

he is capable of examining these Things for himself.

SECT. II.

Short Summaries of Religion are necessary for the Ignorant.

NOR yet is it enough to teach Chil

dren to read, and then to put the Bible in their Hands, and to tell them, Here lies yonr Religion, and you must find it out as well as you can. The great God who has ordained the Holy Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of our Faith and Practice, and fufficient of itself without the Help of human Traditions, hath alfo appointed that in all the fucceffive Ages of Mankind there fhould be fome Teachers and Inftructors of others, to point out to them what ufe is to be made of thefe Sacred Volumes. Parents by the Laws of Nature and Scripture are vefted with this Office: They muft teach Children how to draw their Religion out of the Bible, and render the Knowledge of Divine Things more easy, by fhewing them how to diftinguish the most useful Parts of Scripture from the rest, and which are the most neceffary Doctrines and Duties of Religion, as they are derived from the Word of God. Without fuch Helps as these the more ignorant and illiterate Part of Mankind might turn over the Leaves of their Bible a long Time before they could collect

for