absolutely the fact: for no Christian is absolutely destitute of selfexamination. But, so far as this destitution exists, be, who is the subject of it, will cease to keep his body and spirit in subjection; to grow in grace; to acquire peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Why do sinners refuse to examine themselves; and to gain the blessings to which this conduct gives birth? Plainly because they are too slothful, or too much alarmed at the thought of uncovering the mass of sin and guilt in their hearts. Thus they would rather decline every hope of good, than encounter the labour of searching themselves, or turn their eyes upon the dismal prospect within. The latter is the usual and predominant evil. The picture is too deformed; too dreadful; and, sooner than behold it, they will run the hazard of damnation. But is not knowledge always better than ignorance? Is not truth always more profitable than delusion? To know the truth, in this case, might prove the means of eternal life. To continue ignorant of it cannot fail to terminate in their ruin. What folly can be more complete than to hazard this tremendous evil, rather than to encounter the pain of looking into ourselves: a pain, abundantly overpaid by the profit, which is its certain consequence. Such persons hoodwink themselves; and then feel safe from the evils of the precipice, to which they are advancing, because they cannot see their danger. They make the darkness in which they grope, and stumble, and fall.

3. These observations also teach us, that this neglect is inexcusable.

Meditation on every moral and religious subject is always in our power. Every man is able to look into himself; and into every moral subject, concerning which he has been instructed. Nor is the performance of this duty attended with any real difficulty. The motives to it are infinite. God has required it: our own temporal and eternal interest indispensably demands it. The benefits of it are immense. Sloth only, and a deplorable dread of knowing what we are, can be alleged in behalf of our neglect.

But to how low a situation must he be reduced, how forlorn must be his condition, who can plead for his conduct, in so interesting a case, no reasons but these! Can these reasons excuse him even to himself? Will they excuse him before the bar of God? What can even self-flattery, with her silver tongue, allege in his behalf, but that he is too slothful, or too indifferent to the command of God. This is worse than the wretched plea of the unprofitable servant in the parable. Even he was able to say, that he thought his Master was an austere man, and hard in his requisitions.

But whatever may be thought of these excuses, let no sinner pretend, that he has laboured for eternal life, until he has thoroughly examined his heart, and devoted himself to religious con

templation. This is a duty, which every man can perform; a duty, to which every man is bound; a duty, in the way of which, reason can find no obstacle. He, who will not perform it, ought therefore to say, that he will not; and to acknowledge, that he val ues the indulgence of his sloth, or the sluggish quiet of self-ignorance, more than the salvation of his soul.

SERMON CXLVII.

THE ORDINARY MEANS OF GRACE. THE DUTY OF EDUCATING
CHILDREN RELIGIOUSLY. OBJECTIONS.

PROVERBS xxii. 6.—Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

THE next subject of inquiry, in the order proposed, is
The Religious Education of Children.

In a former discourse, I observed, that the word train originally denotes to draw along by a regular and steady course of exertions; and is, hence, very naturally used to signify drawing from one ac tion to another by persuasions, promises, and other efforts, continually repeated. The way, in which a child should go, as was also observed in that discourse, is, undoubtedly, the way, in which it is best for him to go; particularly, with respect to his eternal well-being. With this explanation, the text will be seen,

1. To enjoin upon parents the Religious Education of their Chil

dren.

II. To teach the Manner, in which this duty should be performed. III. To promise a Blessing to such, as faithfully discharge this duty; and thus to present powerful Motives to the performance. These I shall examine in the order proposed.

The duty, enjoined in the text, has by multitudes of mankind been strenuously denied. "Children, religiously educated," say these persons, "will, regularly, he biassed to one side of the case, and equally prejudiced against the other. Should they, then, believe in the divine revelation of the Scriptures, and adopt any one of those numerous systems of doctrines and precepts, which have existed in the Christian world; their belief would spring from prejudice only, and not from candour, investigation, or evidence. Consequently, it will be destitute alike of solid support and useful efficacy. Children would, therefore, be incomparably better situated, were they permitted to grow up without any extraneous impulse with respect to religion; and, being thus unprejudiced, would select for themselves, with much more probability, whatever is true, and right."

To oppose this scheme will be the design of the following discourse and in the progress of the opposition, all the proofs of the propriety of performing this duty may be advantageously alleged. As the scheme is addressed to Christians; the arguments against it must be also addressed to Christians. I observe, then,

1. That the mind, when uneducated, is a mere blank with respect o all useful knowledge; and, with respect to the knowledge of moral subjects, as truly, as any other.

Both Tafidels and others, (for unhappily there are others, who adopt this scheme) will acknowledge the truth of the proposition, here asserted. I will, therefore, need no proof. What, then, will be the consequence of the omission contended for? The un educated child will grow up without any knowledge of moral subjects, until the season, allotted by God for instruction, and the oily useful season, is past: all future instructions will find his attachments, and his memory, pre-occupied; and will make, and leave, feeble impressions, little regarded, and soon forgotten. His passions and appetites, having, from the beginning, increased their strength by the mere course of nature, and the want of seasonable control, will effectually resist every attempt to communicate, and impress, such doctrines, as oppose their favourite dictates. The authority and influence of the parent also, which are indispensably necessary to infix all important lessons in the mind of the child, will in a great measure have ceased. Of course, the instruction, this given, will slide over the understanding, and leave no trace of their existence upon the heart.

Besides, the child will naturally believe, that things, so long untaught, cannot, in the parent's own view, be of any serious conse quence. Instinctively will he say, "If these things are true, and of such importance; why have I, hitherto, been kept a stranger to them? I might have died in my childhood, or in my youth. Had this been the case; where should I have been now? Did parental tenderness disregard the eternal well-being of my soul, and leave me to become an outcast of Heaven; merely because I had not arrived at adult years? Is, then, the eternal life of the soul, at twelve, or fifteen, of no value; and, at twenty-five, of infinite importance? Can it be, that I am destined to endless happiness, or misery; and yet that my father, and still more my mother, should have felt this vast subject, and loved me, so little, as to let me lie, to the present hour, in profound ignorance of this amazing desti nation? Had I died before this time, I had died for lack of vision. The things themselves are, therefore, not true. At least, they have never been seriously believed by those, from whom I derived my being." To these remonstrances, it is hardly neces sary to observe, there could be no satisfactory answer.

At the period proposed, therefore, the instructions in question would be useless. The mind, already grown up with those views only, which a savage entertains of moral subjects; few, gross, false, and fatal; would now be incapable of imbibing better; and in the chief concern of man, would continue, notwithstanding all the light, and all the blessings, of the Gospel, a savage for ever. 2. If children are not educated to just moral principles; they will, of course, imbibe those which are false.

The mind is by nature prone to wrong. By this I intend, that it is prone to forget God; to exercise towards him neither love, reverence, gratitude, nor submission; to be governed by selfish, and not benevolent, affections towards mankind; and to indulge pride, envy, wrath, sloth, lewdness, intemperance, and lightness of mind. In a word, it is prone to be impious, unkind, insincere, un just, and dissolute. These and the like things, notwithstanding the ingenious discoveries of Infidel Philosophy, I call wrong; because they are, beyond a doubt, dishonourable and displeasing to God, injurious to our fellow-men, and debasing to ourselves. They do no good; and produce all the evil which exists. That the human race are naturally prone to these things, is certain; because children evince their propensity to them as soon as they cominence moral action. Every man, who sees at all, sees some or other of these characteristics in every one except himself.

There are but two methods, in which these propensities may be either removed, or checked: the Grace and providence of God, and the labour of man: I mean the labour of man, especially, when in the best manner exerted, in the beginning of life, to edu cate children in virtue. That God may be expected to remove, or even to check, them, will hardly be admitted by most of the men, against whom I am contending. But they will universally acknowledge, that the labours of man are important to this end; and that they coincide in their efficacy, if he acts at all, with the agency of God. So far then, as these evils can be exterminated, or restrained, the labours of man are not only useful, but indispensable.

Childhood is the seed-time of life; the season, in which every thing, sown in the mind, springs up readily, grows with peculiar vigour, and produces an abundant harvest. In this happy season, the garden is fitted by the Author of cur being for the best cultvation. If good seeds are then sown; valuable productions may be confidently expected: if not; weeds of every rank and poisonous kind will spring up of themselves, of which no future industry will be able to cleanse the soil.

What is implanted in childhood takes deep root, also; and can never be eradicated in future life. The principles, established in this golden period, are regarded with more veneration and attachment, are retained longer, and are more powerfully operative, than any other. They reappear, after having been for a great length. of time invisible; and renew their energy, after having been supposed hopelessly extinct. Such, then, being, confessedly, the importance and strength of early instructions; how interesting must it be in the view of every sober man to prevent, while they can be prevented, the immense evils of wrong principles; and to secure, while they can be secured, the inestimable benefits of those which are right.