little occasion to press you with the Authority of the Text and to insist upon it that 't is King Solomon inspir'd by God that says That he that spareth the Rod hateth his Son It will be somewhat clearer by considering the other Clause in the Text and seeing what are the effects of Love which is early Chastisement He that loveth his Son chasteneth him betimes I have already made appear that Love and Hatred in these cases can only be securely judged of by the Effects not by the Feelings Motions and Affections of the Parents Heart but by the Fruits and Consequences of which the Children must be sensible themselves and all the World be Judges For the ground of all this mischief is that Parents commonly consult with no body but themselves to know if they love their Children and finding quickly by the Reply their Hearts make that they love them as they love their Eyes they rest contented with the Answer and use them indeed as tenderly whereas they should enquire of Strangers and of wise Men impartial and unprejudic'd they should take their Informations from Reafon and good Sense from the Experience of the Aged and such as study more particularly this Affair and they would shew them by the effects alone whether they lov'd or no the Marks and Tokens of Affection would be visible in Manners and Instruction beyond the Power of being deceived and if this be too much let them learn the Truth from the Pity of some and the Reproach of others and from the common Rumours of the Neighbourhood Every body but themselves will tell them that Love of Children must appear by its Effects and Fruits and no other thing can possibly convince another of that Love though they themselves are never so persuaded that they do and to confirm it could be content to die But of this enough already and also what it is to chasten it remains that I say a word or two of the proper Season and that is betimes he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes either betimes with respect to his Age or with respect to his Faults First with respect to his Age. It is in every thing of great Importance how we begin what Grounds we lay and what Foundation 't is we build upon if this be not right the rest is but Time and Pains mispent and will end in Loss and Disappointment It is as a Man that sets out false every step that he proceeds is so much out of his way and he must return and begin again And so it is with the Journeyings of Life if in our early Youth we set out false fall into evil Practices or be corrupted with pernicious Maxims it is either a great chance that we never see our Errour at all but blindly still proceed at all adventure or if we do we find our selves constrain'd to begin a-new to return to the place from whence we first fet out to our intollerable trouble and vexation What a deal of human Life is spent not in weaving a new web but in unravelling the old not in learning new Lessons of Truth and Vertue but in unlearning those of Vice and Falshood in forgetting of evil Principles and laying down old Prejudices in stripping our selves of our accustom'd Habits in parting with our old Acquaintances in forsaking our old Friends and in a manner tearing out our Vitals and rending of our Hearts asunder all which might in great measure be prevented by an early Seasoning in the ways of Goodness It was in prospect of this that one of the Ancients would have Children accustom'd to love and praise with delight all vertuous Actions and detest all Vices even before they attain'd the Use of Reason he would have them constantly observe know them compleatly and form in their Minds perfect Idea's of them and observing that Children are first of all affected with the Sense of Pleasure and of Pain he would have them used though never so little and young to take or think there is no Pleasure but in Goodness Vertue Temperance Justice and the like nor feel or think there is any great Pain but in those things that are truly evil Vice and Sin The thing is carried certainly too high and the Lesson too refin'd and subtil to be put in practice but the thing he means is this that the Preventions and Prepossessions of Vertue Goodness and Religion should answer at least the Prejudices of our natural Corruption and that Propensity and Inclination to Folly and to Sin we bring along with us into this World that the Artificial Principles of Education might be of equal poise with our original Corruption till the use of our Understanding bear down the Scale on the right side and if it be better to prevent than cure an Evil to save from Danger than deliver out of it then it is better to begin betimes with chastening of our Children to make them wise at our expence to let them know no Sin but by description to hinder them from making an Experiment so very unprofitable at best and fatal in the Event most commonly But Secondly betimes is also to be understood with respect to the Fault the first respecting Age would if 't were possible prevent the evil this latter is to put a speedy stop to it to hinder it from growing any farther the first Advice is to take all care imaginable that no corrupt or noxious Weeds should spring up in that pure and tender Soil the second is to root them out betimes if once they come so that to chasten betimes is to see that Punishment do constantly attend the Crime before it be forgotten and before an evil habit be contracted by the frequent repetition of evil Acts. First Before it be forgotten as well that it may not appear to proceed from a delight in Punishment or to be the effects of studied and deliberate Cruelty as also that the Fault being fresh in Memory the Justice and Reasonableness of the Infliction may the better appear and make the deeper Impression on the Mind and raise the greater Aversation and Abhorrence of the Thing that Impunity may not breed Security in Sin and that Children may not argue as older People often do that because Sentence is not speedily executed against an evil Work therefore their Hearts should be fully set in them to do Evil. 'T is a false and vicious Way of Arguing but because 't is obvious natural and too too easie it should be silenc'd quickly and convicted of its Falsehood that it may not impose on them a second Time But Lastly and most especially for fear of evil Habits being contracted the Dread of Punishment is the most natural Restraint upon the Mind t is the most powerfull Motive to Obedience the very Life of all Laws and without which they would be but a dead Letter and all the Reason in the World they should be so for who would obey against his Interest or who would practice against his
inclination without fear and who would fear without Punishment according therefore to the Degrees of Impunity which Men can find or fansie will their Obedience to the Laws or Disobedience prove And so it is even in the smallest Matters that relate to Children they naturally incline the wrong Way and are kept strait by forcible Coercion the Dread of Punishment is the Restraint that lies most powerfully upon them 't is the Consideration of that that is their Motive to Obedience and the Discouragement that keeps them from offending and he that removes that Bar lays them expos'd and open to every Danger and Temptation But nothing does this more effectually than suffering them to sin at first without Reproof and Punishment this strangely lessens the Guilt and Horrour of their Faults within their own Minds gives them Degrees of Confidence in Wickedness and makes them think it no such hainous Matter and venture on it frequently and freely till it at last becomes habitual and is rooted firmly in them and then the Danger is a thousand times the greater and the Pains of remedying all these Mischiefs infinitely more So that allowing that they must some time or other root these Evils out free them from the Bondage and Captivity of their Lusts and Passions and rid them of all their bad and foolish Principles and set them in the Ways of Virtue and Sobriety again allowing I say that this must needs be done that they cannot possibly be Safe or Happy withont it nay that they must be miserable here and more than so hereafter Allowing of all this it is demonstrable that it is not only a Piece of the greatest Wisdom to set about it betimes but of the greatest Mercy and Compassion in the World even in the Judgment of the tenderest and most pittying Mother 'T is like putting one to Death to save a Hundred by the Terror of the Example which may be Justice to the Offender but is in truth a Kindness to the rest If one Reproof and Admonition will prevent the Occasion of twenty more each one as sharp and terrible it would be Cruelty to spare it If an early restraint of undue Liberty will prevent Licentiousness hereafter which must be restrain'd with Chains and Dungeons who would not think it a Mercy to be restrain'd betimes It is better sure to break us of our Wills betimes and to deny us our Satisfactions in small and trifling Things before we can have set our Hearts upon them than to let our Wills and Inclinations gather Strength and our Affection settle and grow firm 〈◊〉 and then begin to fall upon us the one is only as the bending the other as the breaking of an Arm. A little Pain and Trouble and Uneasiness will serve at first to set us right again when a Continuance in our Evil State and a contracted Habit will require a great deal of Patience and put us to a great deal of Torment A little Care and a little Strength will serve to keep a young and tender Graft in uprightness and order which if permitted to grow awry for some time must suffer violence and great distortion before it will be strait again The older we grow in evil Practices and evil Maximes the older they grow too and take the faster hold and root the deeper in us and consequently are remov'd with greater difficulty So that allowing that there is an absolute Necessity of their being removed at length it is plain and manifest beyond denyal that it is not only better both for Parent and for Child that it be done betimes but that it is a Piece of Cruelty both in the one and to the other to deferr it till the vicious Habit is contracted and consequently that the Truth of the Proposition in the Text does visibly appear that he that loveth his Son chastneth him betimes And having done with that I am now to make Application of what hath been said and it shall be to the Parties here concern'd First The Parent Secondly The Children and to both in short First To the Parent To shew you the necessity there is of bringing up your Children under an early and severe discipline the Spirit calls the doing of it Love which is a Term so fit and so expressive that Nature seems to have appropriated it to Parents in such manner that they are fond of the Name even when they have not the Thing they would be thought to love even when they don't it lookes so like their own and what they should do and the Neglect of this he calls hatred a Term from which all Parents naturally abhor But that you might not be deceived and make your Judgments from the Passions and Affections of your own Hearts he describes this Love and Hate by such Effects as are not usually the Products of those Passions in the Hearts of Parents but such as are so in God's Accounts and wise Mens and Childrens themselves when they grow up to Years of Understanding and therefore that you should not set the movings of your Hearts and your own fond Opinions and conceits of Kindness against the Reason Judgment and Experience of the whole World and oftentimes your own But freeing your selves as much as may be from the Partialities of Nature and your Pâ—arental Prejudices deal with your own as freely and as wisely as you would with the Children of a Forreigner and Stranger believing there is need of equal Care and equal Rigour in treating with your own as you can visibly discern there is in treating with anothers This is the only true and lasting Kindness you can do them all other Tokens of your Love but that of good Discipline will die with you or may be taken from them by sundry Chances and Misfortunes This is the only Treasure and Possession you can leave them of which they cannot be depriv'd by Thieves and Robbers out of the Power of Chance and above the Reach and Malice of the subtilest and most formidable Enemy This alone without any other Accession often proves the Foundation of a lasting Happiness but every thing besides without this signifie at least nothing but are most commonly the Instruments of greater Mischief and the Occasions of greater falling And though it can't be done without reluctancy and some uneasiness on both Parts yet it must needs be done however It is but like removing Knives and Instruments of Danger out of their Way for fear of hurting them notwithstanding all their cryings and impatience after them or like the administring severe Physick to prevent a growing Sickness notwithstanding all their loathings and resistance Your Fondness seldom hinders you from this and yet severe and early Discipline is but an equal crossing of their Wills an exercising of their Patience and applying as uneasie Remedies to Evils much more dangerous and to effect a Good much more considerable than that of Health it self It is not easie to determine how far Childrens Faults are chargeable upon their
Motive to induce every Relation to see after the Improvement of Children as it falls in their Way so it is a special Argument to Parents to attend more heedfully to the well educating of their Children because the Wellfare and the Prejudice of so many other People does in a great Measure depend thereon But supposing the Evil were single that neither Common-wealth nor Family nor Parent were endamaged as they all are by want of Education yet the Evils that befall the Children are so intolerably many and pernicious both to Soul and Body that those may well be said to hate them that do not when they might and should prevent them Can we see a Man that has wholly renounc'd to Truth and good Faith so entirely possess'd with the Spirit of Falsehood Lying and Deceit that one knows not how to believe a Word he sayes nor how to trust him with the least Concern Can we see a Man so ignorant of God and Goodness of Religion and his Duty and of all Things Spiritual that one would think he were newly born into the World and had not yet attained the Use of Reason nor indeed the Use of Speech and Language and another so exceeding skilful in those Matters and of so sharp a Wit and penetrating Judgment that he knows very well that there is no such thing as God and Soul or any thing but gross substantial Matter modify'd with great variety Can we hear another talk so loudly and so frequently of God that his Mouth is fill'd with nothing else and yet at last it should be all in his Dishonour and Defiance in wounding Oaths in raging Blasphemies and dreadful Imprecations without Temptation without Pleasure without Profit and at last without his Knowledge and Design Can we see another vers'd in all the Species of Intemperance practis'd in all the Arts of Luxury and Wantonness and devoted wholly to excess a perfect Slave to his voracious Appetite and whose heart and Soul is in his Dish Another so intoxicated with the Love of Drink that if 't were possible to drown himself he would devoting both the Day and Night to that excess having no other Business nor other Pleasure and Diversion than Intemperance neglecting all Concerns forgetting all his Duty both to God and Man a Reproach to Nature Scandal to Religion Useless to all the ends and purposes of living and not only so but by his bad Example and the cursed Consequences of those Courses ruinous to himself and Family and a most pernicious Creature to the Commonwealth And another so enfeebled by his Lusts so debilitated both in Soul and Body by his exorbitant Indulgence to those brutal Longings that he is scarce the Shadow of a Man dull of Apprehension weak in Imagination failing in Memory and moap'd in his Understanding In a word as impotent of Mind as Body and whose Soul is as loose about him as his Limbs Can one see I say these and a thousand other Evils and Disorders with all their ugly Consequences reign and rage about the World continually and know at the same time they are the natural Consequences of a loose and careless Education and might in a great measure have been prevented by Advice Restraint and punishing betimes can one see and know this and doubt at the same time whether our Parents hated us or no who should and could but would not save us from them What could our greatest Enemy have done besides He would have taken the same courses for one that he exercises as he did Job with Sorrows and Afflictions he ruines a thousand by Indulgences it is the End he aims at which is our destruction and 't is no matter by what means he comes about it If Eutrapelus's Presents are sure to prove as fatal to a weak Mind as a Dagger in a Man's Heart or a Glass of Poyson in his Bowels what signifie the shews of Love and the Pretence of Friendship which prove as deadly as the Assaults of open Enmity What signifies it that the Child is the Delight of its Parents Eyes and the Idol of their Hearts the perpetual Object of their Thoughts and the perpetual Theme of their Discourse that they discern new Beauties dayly in it secret Charms and Excellencies undiscoverable to all the World besides hear Musick in his Voice and Wit in every Word and Grace and Comeliness in every Action If Care be not taken to render him as excellent indeed and to himself and as amiable to others by Vertue Goodness Sweetness and Humanity as he is to them by an abused Fancy All other Demonstrations are but Demonstrations of their own Fondness to and Love of their own self and end in their own Complacence and Delight If you would convince another of your Love it is he that must feel the effects of it in and upon himself as well as you It is otherwise like the Charity of good Words the wishing of Alms and Food and Raiment with which a Man may be starv'd with Cold and Hunger The Love that terminates in Fondness and the little trifling if no worse effects of that can no more properly be called the Love of ones Children than the bidding the hungry be filled the thirsty be satisfied and the naked be cloathed without supplying those Necessities can be call'd relieving them But the Parallel will hold no farther for he that relieves not the distressed does them at least no harm or injury whereas the Parent that with all this dotage takes not care to educate his Children virtuously and well does them the greatest injury and mischief in the World mispends the only proper time and season of their Improvement deprives them of all the Advantages and Opportunities of becoming useful to the Publick a Support to the Family a comfortable Relation and happy People themselves and not only so but exposes them defenceless destitute and naked to abundance of Hazards and Temptations to a contagious Air in the most sensible and tender Age to a vicious World with vicious Inclinations to combate with those Foes with whom our Hearts do naturally conspire to meet those Dangers we rejoice to run into to vanquish those Temptations which we seek and hunt for to resist those evils we had rather should prevail than be subdu'd to be left in a word to our selves to the Naughtiness of our own Hearts and the Dictates of unruly heedless Nature to engage with so many Sins and so many Snares as are commonly a match sufficient for the greatest Care and greatest Watchfulness and greatest Prudence together with the ordinary Supplies of God's Grace is to be ruin'd and undone without peradventure And if these are not true effects of Hatred if these are not the Tokens of the greatest Ill-will and the most improv'd refin'd Malice we are yet to learn what those Words mean And this I hope is so evident from the sense of the Thing from the reason of the Words and from the experience of the World that there is