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A67013 The great charity of instructing poor children A sermon preached at St. Botolph Aldgate; upon Lord's-day, Mar. 24. 1700. On the occasion of a charity-school newly erected in that parish. By Josiah Woodward, minister of Popler. Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712. 1700 (1700) Wing W3517; ESTC R221049 13,866 35

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and Vertuous Yea whence is it that all Men do not Naturally delight in God above all other Objects since He is undeniably the Best and most Excellent of Beings These are Demonstrations of the Corruption of Man and of the Necessity of Spiritual Regeneration by the Spirit of God bringing him to love and delight in God in the sincerity of his Soul e're he can be fit for Heaven and the nearer Presence of God Our Blessed Saviour hath delivered this with a double Asseveration John 3. 5. Verily Verily I say unto you Except a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The Spirit of Wisdom must clear up his Understanding and the Spirit of Holiness must mortifie his vile Affections and Passions and turn the Bent and Vigor of his Heart towards God as his Chiefest Good or he will not be fit for the Divine State and Work of Heaven but will be barr'd out of it by the Nature and Constitution of that All Pure and God-like State AND this our Natural State of Spiritual Ignorance is too gross and too deep to be removed and remedied by the best Light that Natural Philosophy and Humane Art and Study can supply us withal We need a Light from Heaven and Wisdom from Above to make us Wise unto Salvation For When in the Wisdom of God saith St. Paul concerning the conceited Greek Learning which was then in great Vogue and Esteem the World by Wisdom knew not God That is I conceive when God in his Infinite Wisdom saw that all the Humane Wisdom and Learning in the World would never bring them to the just and saving Knowledge of himself as a Righteous God yet pardoning and justifying a penitent Sinner It then pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching or by that plain but powerful Preaching of the Gospel which the Philosophers and Orators of those times accounted foolish to save them that believe MEN have indeed by the Light of Nature some Knowledge That there is a God and a Life to come But how imperfect this Knowledge is we see by the many absurd Opinions and barbarous Customs of all those Heathen Countries which are not bless'd with the Knowledge of the Gospel They frame to themselves most unworthy notions of God they know not how to worship or serve him aright they have no Apprehension of the only way of being reconciled to God by the Blood of his Son nor of becoming Good through the Sanctification of this Spirit Yea we find some of them profess'd Votaries to the Devil and doing Sacrifice to their worst Enemy by the most unnatural Murders and Barbarities Hence the Apostle concludes concerning the unregenerate Part of Mankind that they Walk in the Vanity of their Minds having their Vnderstanding darkened being alienated from the Life of God thro' the Ignorance that is in them Eph. 4. 18. WE may from all this assuredly discern what sort of Lives such Children are like to live who are not well Instructed Catechized and Govern'd in their Youth That which is born of the Flesh is flesh saith our Blessed Saviour John 3. 6. Carnal Principles will produce nothing better than a Carnal Life So then since Children have none but bad Principles and Inclinations of themselves what can we expect from them but the greatest Lewdness and the blackest Impieties except thro' the Grace of God and the Care of others they are better principled Especially if we consider How busie and crafty the Devil will always be to prompt them to all Wickedness whilst alas the poor Child is utterly Ignorant of his Devices So that a Youth without Instruction will be like a benighted Traveller walking alone in the midst of unknown Pits and Precipices 't is a Thousand to one but he falls into some of them to his utter Ruine BUT it is God's Will that it should be otherwise and it should be the Care of all that love and fear God to bring up their Children in the Knowledge and Service of their Creator in the Days of their Youth that they may shun the dreadful Case of the Text which leads me to the Second Observation viz. II. THAT good Instruction in Youth is God's appointed Means to bring People to the Saving Knowledge of Himself and the Attainment of Eternal Life God is pleased to call to Young People in the beginning of this Chapter to bow their Ear to Good Instruction that they come not to the Dreadful End foreshewn in the End of the Chapter INDEED the Time of Youth is the most proper Time in Nature for good Instruction Children are apt to catch at every Thing they hear and to retain it and repeat it Their Faculties are fresh and vigorous and they perceive themselves void of Knowledge and are greedy to take Information and soft and capable of any Impression They are also void of those Prejudices against Truth and Virtue which they are afterwards likely to take up And they are not now capable of such bodily Labour as is apt to hinder their Learning in their more Adult Years On all these Accounts the Time of Youth is the fittest of any for good Instruction and the properest Season to plant the Principles of Religion And that chiefly because 't is God's Time and must therefore of Necessity be the fittest and best The Commandments of God do often bind this Duty very awfully on the Consciences both of Parents to teach their Children and upon Children to mind the Instruction of their Parents and Tutors Parents are required to Train up their Children in the Way that they should go Prov. 22. 6. and Children are required to Obey their Parents in the Lord. Eph. 6. 1. Parents are to Bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Eph. 6. 4. And Children are commanded to Keep the Commandment of their Father and not to forsake the Law of their Mother Prov. 6. 20. AND these Injunctions are enforced by the highest Promises and Threatnings The Apostle tells us that the Fifth Commandment is the First Commandment with Promise That it may be well with thee and that thou mayst live long on the Earth Eph. 6. 2 3. And on the contrary it is threatned That The Eye that mocketh his Father or despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Vallies shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall cat it Prov. 30. 17. And suitably to all this we find the Mother and Grandmother of Timothy commended by the Spirit of God for instructing their Child in the Scriptures and Timothy is commended for his Proficiency suitable to his Education As we read in St. Paul's Epistles to him AND be it here Observed That if any one is not taught to Read and to know his Catechism in his Youth 't is a Thousand to One whether ever he learns either of these afterwards The Sensless Pride of an Ignorant Person is apt to disdain Instruction in these Things afterwards and they are utterly