and who will abandon all these Freinds to joyn themselves to lewd persons and to seek out companions of their debauches and dissolution What comfort can he expect when he shall be seized on by the inconveniencies of old age And what help can he hope for in his Infirmities from them who have not obeyed him and who have sleighted him when he was yet in the vigour of his days and could have made himself feared But to make use of such only Reasons as Piety furnishes us withall what advantage can a Father draw from a Life all Innocent and Holy if he be condemned by God for having neglected the Education of his Children think not that I of my self do advance this astonishing proposition It proceeds from Saint Chrysostome who after he had made it most evidently appear That every one is no less obliged to procure to the utmost of his power the salvation of his Neighbour than his own and that the negligence of other mens sins is the greatest of all crimes concludes that they who shall have neglected the good Education of their Children ought with much more reason dread to be rigourously punished for that sole sin notwithstanding that otherwise they lead a virtuous and well regulated life He proves this Verity by a History of the Old Testament which is known to the whole world 't is that of the High Priest Heli who was of himself a very good man and who as it appeared in the Disasters which befell him had a great submission to the will of God and a most ardent zeal for Religion but for having contented himself to reprehend with meekness two very wicked Sons of his and to represent to them the heynousness of their crime without opposing himself with all the care and force as he was bound to do drew down the indignation of God upon himself and his whole Family His two Sons were slain on the same day The Wife of the elder of them lost her life in the pains of Childing before her time The Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Enemies And he himself unable to support such sad News fell backward out of his Chair brake his brain pan and there died So that forty years employed in the government of Gods people with all the justice and all the integrity imaginable could not hinder Heli from perishing in a miserable manner for having not laboured in the Education of his Children with that force and vigour which God demanded of him This Negligence defaced all his Virtucs and obscured all his brave actions And this sin as St. Gregory observes could not be expiated in the sequel of ages either by Oblations or by Sacrifices By this it may be seen that Fathers and Mothers who neglect to chastise their Children and to oblige them to serve God render themselves really their Parricides and Murtherers For although these of this High-Priest even now mentioned were killed by the Enemies yet it may be said that he was himself the prime cause of their Death since his negligence in chastising them diverted the succour of God from them and put them in the power of them who bereft them of their life 'T is thus says St. Chrysostome that we our selves treat our Children with more Inhumanity than Barbarians would do because all their cruelty can extend it self only upon the liberty of their bodies whereas we by our evil conduct reduce their Spirits into the servitude of Vices and suffering them to follow their passions render them bondslaves to the Devil himself Can it then be wondred at that God punishes with such severity the little care Parents have of the Education of their Children and can we be surprized to see so much rigour used towards them who are the cause of the crimes they commit because they did not correct them nor stifled their passions in their birth and furthermore because in the judgement of the same great Doctour although these Children should afterward come to acknowledg themselves and to get out of the way of Vice to walk in that of Virtue and that by a pure effect of Gods Mercy they should renounce the Maxims of the World to follow them of Christ Jesus their parents will not nevertheless escape a most rigorous chastisement if they neglected their Education because they shall be censured to have contributed as much as in them lay to their Childrens ruine and destruction Now if faults which Parents commit in this Education draw upon them such great evils if in the sentiment of all the holy Fathers and of all the Doctours all the Imperfections and all the crimes which Children shall contract by their negligence shall be imputed unto them and if their punishments are augmented proportionably as the same Imperfections and the same crimes shall be multiplied in them who descend from them what Glory think you is prepared to crown the labours of such Parents as had no other ambition than to have Christian Children nor other desires than to imprint deeply in their soul the fear of Gods Justice and the acknowledgement of his Mercy But how much soever Fathers are interested in the Education of their Children whether because of the just apprehension of the Punishments which are prepared for them if they neglect it or because of the comforts both temporal and eternal which they hope from them if they apply themselves with care to their Education yet 't is of greater consequence to Mothers and to say better it is to them of the highest necessity I insist not upon this that their Sex being less proper to command and that finding themselves subject to great Infirmities in old age they ought to have a greater care to instil into their Children even in their tender Infancy an acknowledgement and a respect for themselves I consider here only their spiritual interest and I say that the means which a Mother hath to sanctify her self are reduced in a great measure to the Christian Education of her Children 'T is St. Paul who teaches us this Truth when after he had spoken of the modesty which Christian Women ought to use in their cloaths and of the wariness they should observe in their Words particularly in Assemblies as to what concerns points of Doctrine and the Interpretation of the holy Scriptures he adds 1 Tim. 2.15 They shall be saved by the Children they shall bring into the World by procuring that they remain in Faith in Charity in Sanctity and in a well regulated life As if he should say to Christian Women according to the explication of St. Chrysostome My Sisters do not thrust in your selves to procure the glory of God and the salvation of your Neighbour by publick Instructions A woman medled once only with teaching and she ruined the whole World yet do not you afflict your selves for this mischief and let not your heart sink at this reproach God hath given you a means to repair this injury which you have all received in the
person of the first Woman and he presents to you another occasion to save your selves to wit the Education of your Children whom you ought to consider as so many helps he affords you to arrive at his glory Eve alone shall not be saved by the means of her Children but all they of her Sex shall not gain Heaven but by the care they have taken in the Education of them whom God hath bestowed on them in Faith in Charity and Innocency 'T is upon this ground that the same Apostle will have the first thing upon which Widows are to be examined when they were to be chosen for the Churches Ministry to be In what manner they have educated their Children As if the most evident mark of the Sanctity of a Mother were that of her Children and that it was needless to seek any other proof of her fidelity towards God and of her zeal for the good of the Church but her fidelity and her zeal to see that the conduct and the conversation of her Children was solidly Christian The foundation of all this is that Children in their low age are much more frequent with their Mothers than with their Fathers and that Fathers have right to repose themselves upon them untill their riper years And thus it belongs to them to watch particularly over their Children in their Infancy as from whom God will demand a more exact account of these years the most important of our lives As Children have almost always their Mothers before their eyes may we not presume that they do nothing but what they have seen them do that they have entred into all their ways and to make use of S. Chrysostoms terms that 't is as it were by necessity that they are become their likes And moreover since nothing can be hid from Mothers concerning the secret Inclinations of their Children because they have been witnesses of all their cries of all their plays and of all their motions may one not without injustice attribute to them all the unhappy effects which have followed the Passions that they suffered to encrease in their hearts and are they not cause of the crimes which they hindred them not to commit by not opposing themselves to the bad customes which they contracted under their government CHAP. V. Wherein particularly consists the Obligation which Parents have to endeavour the Christian Education of their Children WHat we have hitherto said sufficiently shews the Obligation which Fathers and Mothers have to labour with care to bestow on their Children a Christian Education since we have made it manifest that this Education is one of the principal Duties of persons engaged in Marriage and that they are highly obliged especially the Mothers to be very careful and faithful therein But because one cannot be too clearly convinced of this verity we must my Sister more fully establish it by shewing that it is that which God particularly exacts of Parents To be perswaded of this there needs no more but to consider on one side the submission of wills to Fathers and Mothers wherein God will have Children to live the feelings of love and acknowledgement which he commands them to have for them and the recompences he promises them to encourage them to honour them and on the other side the Authority which he gives Fathers and Mothers over their Children and the rigour wherewith he revenges the contempt they receive of them It was not enough says St. Chrysostom that God in the designe he had to recommend to parents the good Education of their Children imprinted in their heart a natural inclination which should so powerfully draw them as that they could not without using violence to themselves disobey him he would moreover that Children should have great respect towards their parents thereby to render them more dear and more agreeable and that their Obedience and their Love might be as so many charms which should allure them to take special care of them in their Infancy And since nothing more strongly engages us not to neglect business than the confidence they have in us and the absolute power they give us could God impose a sweeter necessity upon Fathers and Mothers in regard of their Children than in making them their Masters and by entrusting them with their Education to imprint on their foreheads the authority which is necessary to succeed therein By revenging so severely the injuriries done by Children to them who brought them into the World and punishing them with death when they offend them doth he not sollicit them not only to educate them in the fear and in the submission they owe to them lest Justice should take them from them but moreover to nourish them in the respect and in the fidelity which they owe to him who is truly their Father And what a confusion must it needs be to parents to see that God hath taken so much care to hinder their Children from affronting them and that they have taken so little care that these same Children should be hindred from treading under their feet his Commandements and his Ordinances But if that which God hath done in favour of Parents permits them not to neglect this Education that which he hath done for their Children doth not less indispensably oblige them to employ therein all their Vigilancy and their whole industry What then The Son of God shall annihilate himself for their love he shall have laboured so many years and suffered so many torments to sanctify them and Fathers and Mothers would not humble themselves to instruct them or use the least violence to themselves to form them in Virtue He who needs no creature made himself poor and rendred himself obedient even to death thereby to give them example and to encourage them to contemn the World and to labour for Eternity and they whose very Salvation is advanced by the means of their Children shall they not think of shewing them the way to Heaven and endeavour to withdraw them from that which leads them to eternal punishments He hath made them members of his Body in order to make them partakers of his Glory and they who have had the happinesse to procure this good for them shall they not take care to procure for them all the Spiritual Health and all the necessary proportion to encrease in Christ Jesus who is their Head and to receive from him by being united to him the encrease which he communicates as St. Paul says to all the parts of his Body by the efficacy of his influence Certainly there 's nothing more unjust nor more punishable than this conduct nor is there any thing which Fathers and Mothers ought not to do to avoid it They are to educate for God their Children as he commands them because his sole possession can make them happy They ought to do it because the exactness of his Justice will render them responsable for all the faults these their Children shall commit by their negligence They ought to
God have all of them received displeasure in some of their Children Adam had the grief to see his younger Son murdered by his elder Brother Adam and to see that elder Son by a just judgement of God to be a Vagabond and Fugitive upon the earth for the punishment of his crime Of the three Sons of Noah Noah one of them discovered to his Brethren with contempt the undecent posture wherein he had found his Father in his drunkenness instead of hiding it from himself through respect as did his Brethren which drew upon his other posterity the malediction of his Father and that of God What displeasure had Isaac for the dissention which was between Jacob and Esau Isaac and which obliged him to banish Jacob many years from him and to send him into Mesopotamia till such time as Esau's anger was appeased Did not Esau marry strange Women against his will against which he had so great an aversion that he expresly recommended to Jacob not to imitate therein his Brother and never to take a Wife among the children of Canaan Jacob had the affliction to see four of his Children fall into a great crime Jacob. of which Joseph who was his youngest accused them before him He had the displeasure to hear that Reuben who was hiâ—â—â—â—est Son had abused Bala one of his Wives The indiscretion of Dina his only Daughter was the cause that she was carried away and ravished by Sichem who was a young Lord of his Neighbourhood Simeon and Levi two of his Children entred into a confederacy without his leave and against his will to revenge this fact and killing all the subjects of that Prince exposed their Father as he himself complained to the hatred of all his Neighbourhood All the world knows the affliction which the jealousy of his Children against Joseph caused him to undergo and the sorrow he had for the captivity of Benjamin whom he so tenderly loved Aaron saw two of his Sons who were consecrated to the service of the Altar Aaron punished with death for having committed a fault in the exercise of their ministery and he was so lively touched therewith that he could not eat that day of the meats which had been offered in Sacrifice nor apply himself as he ought to the functions of his Priesthood because as himself says he had his heart and his spirit overwhelmed with sorrow for this loss The great Priest Heli Heli. who was a very holy man had two very wicked Sons who after they had caused him much displeasure by the disorder of their life made him dye with grief when he was informed in what manner they were slain and the dreadful chastisement they had drawn down from Heaven by their crimes upon the whole people of Israel Samuel had but two Sons whom he had established Judges of the people Samuel But they were no sooner raised to that dignity but they suffered themselves to be corrupted with presents and appeared so self-interessed and so unjust that all the people rejected them and demanded a King of Samuel to place in their stead What displeasures did not David receive from his children David Ammon his eldest Son committed an Incest with his Sister Thamar Absalon his second Son slew Ammon at a banquet to revenge the injury done to his Sister and this Wretch having recovered the friendship of his Father studied secretly to raise the people against him then openly declaring himself and taking arms forced him to fly from Jerusalem abused his Wives in the sight of all the people and had the insolence to pursue him with his weapons in his hand and to give him battle Now if you desire to know why God permitted that these great men for whom he had done so many wonders and to whom he had testified so great love received notwithstanding such sensible displeasures from their children and that these children did so strangely degenerate from the Virtue and the piety of their parents it is easy to answer you that it is to teach Fathers and Mothers who have not the merit of these so illustrious men First that they are indebted only to Gods grace that their children cause not to them the same displeasures and that it would little avail them to have applied themselves with much care to the education of their children if he did not bless their endeavours Secondly that the greatest tryall which can befall a Christian Father and which God makes use of to prove his fidelity and his submission to the orders of his providence is to permit his children to fail in their duties and in what they are bound to render to God and that thus Fathers and Mothers ought to dispose themselves to support these sorts of afflictions and tryalls how hard soever they be with Christian dispositions when he shall please to send them Thirdly that as it is a matter of great difficulty not to commit some fault either in the manner of educating their children or in overmuch indulging them or finally in being too much tyed to them in a humane way God according to the immutable order of his Wisedom who punishes us by the same things whereby we have offended him makes use of children to chastise Fathers and Mothers for the faults they have committed upon their consideration Thus God punished the incontinence of David by taking out of the world the Son he had by Bathsheba and revenged afterwards the Adultery committed by him in secret with this Woman by the abuse which Absalon made of his wives in the open sight of all his people Finally God permits that parents should receive displeasure from their children not only to humble them and to try their fidelity and to punish the faults they may have committed in their Education but furthermore to purify the rational affection they have for them and to teach them to love them not because of the sweetness they finde in the submission and the respect they render them but because they belong to God For God will have them accustom themselves to look upon him alone in all they do for their children and to surmount all the difficulties which occur in the designe they have to bring them to his service even to suffer patiently the contempt they make of their advertisements and to pursue them by the example of St. Monioa St. Monica in spight of all their resistance till God hath touched their heart and till they have obtained their conversion by their tears and by their perseverance as that Saint obtained it for St. Augustin You will perchance tell me that I exact great things of you that I demand you should do all your actions in a spirit of Piety and Zeal for the interests of God that you should be perpetually employed to procure his glory in the children he shall please to give you and that by consequence I engage you to a continual Prayer since I propose unto you a conduct and Maxims which you cannot keep without being powerfully supported by him whose help we obtain by humble prayer All this is true Sister and I aver that to acquit your self worthily of the obligation you have to give your Children an entirely Christian Education you are to follow in this Education the Maxims of the sacred Scripture and the Advices of the Fathers of the Church to apply them from their tender Infancy to them particularly whom you de sign to live in the World to embrace the means which may enable you in this generous enterprise to overcome the oppositions which you shall meet therein and to imitate perfectly the excellent Idea's of the holy Education I have here traced to you in the conduct of God and that of his Church I avouch I say that to acquit your self worthily of all these Duties you stand in need of very powerful Graces and you ought to live in a continual search and in a profound adoration of the designes of God upon your Children You are very instantly to crave of him the use of his Lights to enter into the knowledge of their necessities you are to abandon your self to his spirit for the choice of such sentiments and feelings as you ought to instill into them and of the times when your chastisements and your instructions will be profitable unto them and you must pray unto him that since he who plants and he who waters is nothing he himself will give virtue to your Words that he will engrave in their hearts his Fear and his Love and that as he would make use of you to give them the Life of Body and to employ your cares to procure that of their Soul by Baptism he will also make use of you to conserve and strengthen in them his Spirit and his grace To conclude you are to propose to your self the attaining of a very high perfection and the faithfull practise of all the most Christian Virtues and to make it appear to the whole world by the Christian Education of your Children that you engaged not your self in Marriage upon humane considerations or upon any other score unworthy of Christianism but to make use of the terms of St. lib. of the good of Marriage c. 25. Augustin That you were not a Wife nor desire to be a Mother but for the love of Christ Jesus and for the interests of his Church FINIS