your God promised you so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things until he have destroyed you from off this good Land which the Lord your God hath given you Chap. 23. 15. After this he calls them together a second time and gives them a brief historical account and deduction of the great Mercies of God to them and their Fathers from the days of Abraham whom he had called out from among his Idolatrous Kindred and Countreymen unto that Day From the consideration of all which he earnestly exhorts them to renew their Covenant with God and for his particular satisfaction before he left the World solemnly to promise that they would for ever serve God and forsake the service of Idols Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth And put away the Gods which your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And then in the Text by a very elegant Scheme of Speech he does as it were once more set them at liberty and as if they had never engaged themselves to God by Covenant before he leaves them to their free choice And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom ye will serve whether the Gods whom your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell Not that they were at liberty whether they would serve the true God or not but to insinuate to them that Religion ought to be their free choice And likewise that the true Religion hath those real advantages on its Side that it may safely be referr'd to any considerate Man's choice If it seem evil unto you as if he had said If after all the demonstrations which God hath given of his Miraculous Presence among you and the mighty obligations which he hath laid upon you by bringing you out of the Land of Egypt and the House of Bondage by so outâ—tretched an Arm and by driving out the Nations before you and giving you their Land to possess If after all this you can think it â—it to quit the service of this God and to worship the Idols of the Nations whom you have subdued those vanquished and baffled Deities If you can think it reasonable so to do but surely you cannot then take your choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom ye will serve And to direct and encourage them to make a right choice he declares to them his own Resolution which he hopes will also be theirs and as he had heretofore been their Captain so now he offers himself to be their Example But whether they will follow him or not he for his part is fix'd and immovable in this Resolution But as for ME and my house we will serve the Lord. In effect he tells them I have proposed the best Religion to your choice and I cannot but think nay I cannot but hope that you will all stedfastly adhere to it It is so reasonable and wise so much your Interest and your Happiness to do it But if you should do otherwise if you should be so weak as not to discern the Truth so wilful and so wicked as not to embrace it Though you should all make another choice and run away from the true God to the worship of Idols I for my part am stedfastly resolved what to do In a case so manifest in a matter so reasonable no Number no Example shall prevail with me to the contrary I will if need be stand alone in that which is so evidently and unquestionably Right And though this whole Nation should revolt all at once from the Worship of the true God and join with the rest of the World in a false Religion and in the Worship of Idols and mine were the only Family left in all Israel nay in the whole World that continued to worship the God of Israel I would still be of the same mind I would still persist in this Resolution and act according to it As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. A Resolution truly worthy of so great a Prince and so good a Man In which he is a double Pattern to us First Of the brave Resolution of a good Man namely That if there were occasion and things were brought to that extremity he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion As for ME I will serve the Lord. Secondly Of the pious Care of a good Father and Master of a Family to train up those under his Charge in the true Religion and Worship of God As for me and MY HOUSE we will serve the Lord. I shall at this time by God's assistance treat of the First of these namely I. Of the brave Resolution of a good Man that if there were occasion and things were brought to that extremity he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of God's true Religion Chuse you this day says Joshua whom ye will serve but as for ME I will serve the Lord. Joshua here puts the Case at the utmost extremity That not only the great Nations of the World the Egyptians and Chaldeans and all the lesser Nations round about them and in whose Land they dwelt were all long since revolted to Idolatry and pretended great Antiquity and long Prescription for the Worship of their false Gods But he supposeth yet further That the only true and visible Church of God then known in the World the People of Israel should likewise generally revolt and forsake the Worship of the true God and cleave to the Service of Idols Yet in this Case if we could suppose it to happen he declares his firm and stedfast Resolution to adhere to the Worship of the true God And though all others should fall off from it that he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion But as for ME I will serve the Lord. In the handling of this Argument I shall do these two things First I shall consider the matter of this Resolution and the due bounds and limits of it Secondly I shall endeavour to vindicate the reasonableness of this Resolution from the Objections to which this singular and peremptory kind of Resolution may seem liable First I shall consider the matter of this Resolution and the due bounds and limits of it 1st The matter of this Resolution Joshua here resolves that if need were and things were brought to that pass he would stand alone or with very few adhering to him in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion And this is not a mere Supposition of an impossible Case which can never happen For it may and hath really and in fact happen'd in several Ages and Places of the World There hath been a general Apostacy of some great part of God's Church from the Belief and Profession of the true Religion to Idolatry
the opposition of it and laugh at or rather pity the rest of the World that could be so servilely blind as seemingly to conspire in the belief of so monstrous an Absurdity And in like manner if any Church should declare that Images are to be worshipped or that the Worship of God is to be performed in an unknown Tongue and that the H. Scriptures which contain the Word and Will of God and teach men what they are to believe and do in order to their eternal Salvation are to be lock'd up and kept concealed from the People in a Language which they do not understand lest if they were permitted the free use of them in their Mother Tongue they should know more of the Mind and Will of God than is convenient for the common People to know whose Devotion and Obedience to the Church does mainly depend upon their Ignorance Or should declare that the Sacrifice of Christ was not offer'd once for all but is and ought to be repeated ten Millions of times every Day And that the People ought to receive the Communion in one kind only and the Cup by no means to be trusted with them for fear the Profane Beards of the Laity should drink of it And that the saving efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest without which the Receiver can have no benefit by them These are all of them so plainly contrary to Scripture and most of them in Reason so absurd that the Authority of no Church whatsoever can oblige a man to the belief of them Nay I go yet further that being evidently contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel though an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven should declare them we ought to reject them And for this I have St. Paul's authority and warrant who speaking of some that perverted the Gospel of Christ by teaching things contrary to it Though we says he or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again though an Apostle though an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which ye have received let him be accursed Gal. 1. 7 8 9. You see he repeats it over again to express not only his own confident assurance but the certainty of the thing And here is an Anathema with a witness which we may confidently oppose to all the Anathema's which the Council of Trent hath so liberally denounced against all those who shall presume to gainsay these New Doctrines of their Church which are in truth another Gospel than that which our B. Saviour and his Apostles taught And yet on their Side there is neither an Apostle nor an Angel from Heaven in the Case To give but one Instance more If Bellarmin shall tell me as he expresly does That if the Pope should declare Virtue to be Vice and Vice to be Virtue I were bound to believe him unless I would sin against Conscience And if all the World should say the same that Bellarmin does namely that this Infallible Declarer of Virtue and Vice were to be believed and followed yet I could not possibly be of their mind for this plain and undeniable Reason because if Virtue and Vice be all one then Religion is nothing since the main Design of Religion is to teach men the difference between Virtue and Vice and to oblige them to practise the one and to refrain from the other And if Religion be nothing then Heaven and Hell are nothing And if Heaven be nothing then an infallible Guide thither is of no use and to no manner of purpose because he is a Guide no whither and so his great Office ceases and falls of it self And now lest any should think me singular in this Assertion and that thereby I give a great deal too much to the single Judgment of private Persons and too little to the Authority of a Church I will produce the deliberate Judgment of a very Learned Man and a great Assertor of the Church's Authority concerning the matter I am now speaking of I mean Mr. Hooker in his deservedly admired Book of Ecclesiastical Policy His words are these I grant says he that Proof derived from the Authority of Man's Judgment is not able to work that Assurance which doth grow by a stronger proof and therefore although ten thousand General Councils should set down one and the same Definitive Sentence concerning any Point of Religion whatsoever yet one Demonstrative Reason alledged or one Testimony cited from the Word of God himself to the contrary could not chuse but oversway them all In as much as for them to be deceived it is not so impossible as it is that Demonstrative Reason or Divine Testimony should deceive And again For men says he to be tyed and led by Authority as it were with a kind of Captivity of Judgment and though there be Reason to the contrary not to listen to it but follow like Beasts the first in the Herd this were Brutish Again That the Authority of Men should prevail with Men either against or above Reason is no part of OUR Belief Companies of Learned Men though they be never so great and Reverend are to yield unto Reason the weight whereof is no whit prejudiced by the simplicity of the Person which doth alledge it but being found to be sound and good the bare Opinion of men to the contrary must of necessity stoop and give place And this he delivers not only as his own particular Judgment but that which he apprehended to be the Judgment of the Church of England I have produced these clear and positive Testimonies of so learned and judicious a Person and of so great esteem in our Church on purpose to prevent any misapprehension as if by this Discourse I intended to derogate from the Authority of the Church and her just and reasonable Determinations in things no wise contrary to plain Reason or the Word of God And beyond this pitch no judicious Protestant that I know of ever strain'd the Authority of the Church I proceed now in the Second place to vindicate the Reasonableness of this Resolution from the Objections to which this singular and peremptory kind of Resolution may seem liable as Obj. 1. First it may very speciously be said that this does not seem modest for a man to set up his own private Judgment against the general Suffrage and Vote And it is very true as I said before that about things indifferent a man should not be stiff and singular and in things doubtful and obscure a man should not be over-confident of his own Judgment and insist peremptorily upon it against the general Opinion But in things that are plain and evident either from Scripture or Reason it is neither immodesty nor a culpable singularity for a man to stand alone in the defence of the Truth Because in such a Case a man
does not oppose his own single and private Judgment to the Judgment of Many but the common Reason of Mankind and the Judgment of God plainly declared in his Word If the generality of men should turn Atheists and Infidels and should deny the Being of God or his Providence the Immortality of mens Souls and the Rewards and Punishments of another World Or should deny the Truth of the Gospel and of the Christian Religion it would not certainly be any breach of modesty for a man to appear single if no body else would stand by him in the resolute defence of these great Truths In like manner when a whole Church though never so large and numerous shall conspire together to corrupt the Christian Religion so far as to impose upon Mankind under the name of Christian Doctrines and Articles of Faith things plainly contrary to the Sense and Reason of Mankind and to the clear and express Word of God why must a Man needs be thought immodest if he oppose such gross Errors and Corruptions of the Christian Doctrine And what reason have the Church of Rome to talk of modesty in this Case when they themselves have the face to impose upon Mankind the belief of things contrary to what they and every man else sees As they do in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation And to require of them to do what God hath expresly forbidden as in the Worship of Images besides a great many other Idolatrous Practices of that Church To deny the People the free use of the H. Scriptures and the publick Service of God in a known Tongueâ— contrary to the very end and design of all Religion and in affront to the common Reason and Liberty of Mankind Obj. 2. Secondly It is pretended that it is more prudent for private Persons to err with the Church than to be so pertinacious in their own Opinions To which I answer that it may indeed be pardonable in some Cases to be led into mistake by the Authority of those to whose Judgment and Instruction we ought to pay a great deference and submission Provided always it be in things which are not plain and necessary but surely it can never be prudent to err with any number how great soever in matters of Religion which are of moment merely for Numbers sake But to comply with the known Errors and Corruptions of any Church whatsoever is certainly damnable Obj. 3. Thirdly It is pretended yet further that men shall sooner be excused in following the Church than any particular Man or Sect. To this I answer that it is very true if the matter be doubtful and especially if the Probabilities be equal or near equal on both Sides But if the Error be gross and palpable it will be no excuse to have followed any number of Men or any Church whatsoever For here the competition is not between Men and Men but between God and Men And in this Case we must forsake all Men to follow God and his Truth Thou shalt in no wise follow a Multitude in a known Error is a Rule which in Reason is of equal obligation with that Divine Law Thou shalt in no wise follow a Multitude to do evil or rather is comprehended in it because to comply with a known Error is certainly to do Evil. And this very Objection the Jews made against our B. Saviour and the Doctrine which He taught that the Guides and Governours of the Jewish Church did utterly differ from Him and were of a contrary mind Have any of the Rulers say they believed on him What will you be wiser than your Rulers and Governors What follow the Doctrine of one single Man against the unanimous Judgment and Sentence of the Great Sanhedrim to whom the Trial of Doctrines and pretended Prophets doth of right belong But as plausible as this Objection may seem to be it is to be considered that in a corrupt and degenerate Church the Guides and Rulers of it are commonly the worst and the most deeply engaged in the Errors and Corruptions of it They brought them in at first and their Successors who have been bred up in the belief and practice of them are concern'd to uphold and maintain them And so long a Prescription gives a kind of Sacred Stamp even to Error and an Authority not to be opposed and resisted And thus it was in the corrupt State of the Jewish Church in our Saviour's Time And so likewise in that great Degeneracy of the Christian Church in thâ— Times of Popery their Rulers made them to err Insomuch that when Martin Luther appeared in opposition to the Errors and Superstitions of that Church and was hard prest with this very Objection which the Pharisees urg'd against our Saviour he was forc'd to bolt out a kind of unmannerly Truth Religio nunquam magis periclitatur quà m inter Reverendissimos Religion says he is never in greater hazard and worse treated than amongst the most Reverend meaning the Pope and his Cardinals and all the Romish Hierarchy who had their dependance upon them Obj. 4. Fourthly it is Objected That as on the one hand there may be danger of Error in following blindly the Belief of the Church so on the other hand there is as great a danger of Schism in forsaking the communion of the Church upon pretence of Errors and Corruptions Very true but where great Errors and Corruptions are not only pretended but are real and evident and where our Compliance with those Errors and Corruptions is made a necessary Condition of our Communion with that Church In that Case the guilt of Schism how great a Crime soever it be doth notâ— fall upon those who forsake the Communion of that Church but upon those who drive them out of it by the sinful Conditions which they impose upon them And this is truly the Case between Us and the Church of Rome as we are ready to make good and have fully done it upon all Occasions and they have never yet been able to vindicate and clear themselves of those gross Errors and Corruptions which have been charged upon them and which they require of all their Members as necessary Conditions of Communion with them here and of eternal Salvation hereafter For we do not object to them doubtful matters but things as plain as any are contained in the Bible as every body would see if they durst but let every body read it The Worship of Images is there as plainly forbidden in the Decalogue as Murther and Adultery are The Communion in both Kinds is as express an Institution of our Saviour as any in all the New Testament and even as the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper it self only that Church pretends to a Dispensing Power as a Priviledge inherent in theâ—â— Church and inseparable from it And to add but one Instance more Publick Prayers and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue are as plainly and fully declared against by St. Paul in a long Chapter upon this
single Argument as any one thing in all his Epistles These things are plain and undeniable and being so are a full justification not only of the Church of England in the Reformation which She thought fit to make within her self from the gross Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome but likewise of particular Persons who have at any time for the same Reasons withdrawn themselves from Her Communion in any of the Popish Countries Yea though that single Person should happen to be in those Circumstances that he could not have the Opportunity of holding Communion with any other Church that was free from those Errors and Corruptions and which did not impose them as necessary Conditions of Communion For if any Church fall off to Idolatry every good Christian not only may but ought to forsake Her Communion and ought rather to stand single and alone in the Professâ—on of the pure and true Religion than to continue in the Communion of a corrupt and Idolatrous Church I know that some Men are so fond of the Name of a Church that they can very hardly believe that any thing which â—ears that glorious Title can miscarry or do any thing so much amiss as to give just occasion to any of her Members to break off from Hâ—r Communion What the Church err That is such an Absurdity as is by many thought sufficient to put any Objection out of countenance That the whole Church that is that all the Christians in the World should at any time fall off to Idolatry and into Errors and Practices directly contrary to the Christian Doctrine revealed in the H. Scriptures is on all hands I think denied But that any Particular Church may fall into such Errors and Practices is I think as universally granted Only in this Case they demand to have the Roman Catholick Church excepted And why I pray Because though the Roman Church is a Particular Church it is also the Universal Church If this can be and good sense can be made of a Particular-Universal Church then the Roman Church may demand this high Privilege of being exempted from the Fate of all other Churches but if the Roman-Catholick that is a Particular-Universal Church be a gross and palpable Contradiction then it is plain that the Church of Rome hath no more pretence to this Privilege than any other Particular Church whatsoever And which is yet more some men talk of these matters at that rate as if a man who thought himself obliged to quit the Communion of the Church of Rome should happen to be in those Circumstances that he had no Opportunity of joining himself to any other Communion he ought in that Case to give over all thoughts of Religion and not be so conceited and presumptuous as to think of going to Heaven alone by himself It is without doubt a very great Sin to despise the Communion of the Church or to break off from it so long as we can continue in it without Sin But if things should once come to that Pass that we must either disobey God for company or stand alone in our obedience to Him we ought most certainly to obey God whatever comes of it and to profess his Truth whether any body else will join with us in that Profession or not And they who speak otherwise condemn the whole Reformation and do in effect say that Martin Luther had done a very ill thing in breaking off from the Church of Rome if no body else would have joined with him in that honest Design And yet if it had been so I hope God would have given him the Grace and Courage to have stood alone in so good and glorious a Cause and to have laid down his Life for it And for any man to be of another Opinion is just as if a man upon great deliberation should chuse rather to be drowned than to be saved either by a Plank or a small Boat or to be carried into the Harbour any other way than in a Great Ship of so many hundred Tuns In short a good man must resolve to obey God and to profess his Truth though all the World should happen to do otherwise Christ hath promised to preserve his Church to the end of the World that is he hath engaged his Word that he will take care that there shall always be in some part of the World or other some persons that shall make a sincere Profession of his true Religion But He hath no where promised to preserve any one Part of his Church from such Errors and Corruptions as may oblige all good men to quit the Communion of that Part yea though when they have done so they may not know whither to resort for actual Communion with any other sound Part of the Christian Church As it happened to some particular Persons during the Reign and Rage of Popery in these Western Parts of the Christian Church The Result from all this Discourse is to confirm and establish us all in this Hour of Temptation and of the Powers of Darkness in the well-grounded Belief of the necessity and justice of our Reformation from the Errors and Corruptions of the Roman Church And to engage us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering And not only to profess and promise as Peter did to our Lord though all men forsake thee yet will not I But if there should be Occasion to perform and make good this Promise with the hazard of all that is dear to us and even of Life it self And whatever Trials God may permit any of us to fall into to take up the pious Resolution of Joshua here in the Text that whatever others do WE will serve the Lord. I will conclude my Discourse upon this First Particular in the Text with the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Philippians chap. 1. v. 27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Stand fast in one Spirit be of one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel In nothing terrified by your Adversaries which to them is an evident token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God And thus much may suffice to have spoken to the First thing in the Text namely the pious Resolution of Joshua that if there were Occasion and things were brought to that extremity he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of God's true Religion Chuse you this Day whom ye will serve but as for ME I will serve the Lord. I should now have proceeded to the Second thing and which indeed I chiefly intended to speak to from this Text namely the pious Câ—re of a good Father and Mâ—ster of a Fâ—mily to train up those under his Charge in the Râ—ligion and Worship of the true God As for Me and MY HOUSE we will serve the Lord. But this I shall not now enter upon but defer it to some other Opportunity Consider what ye have heard and the Lord give
so Natural and so Reasonable a piece of Religion so meet and equal an acknomledgment of the constant and daily Care and Providence of Almighty God towards us begins to grow out of Date and use in a Nation professing Religion and the Belief of the Being and Providence of God Is it not a righteous thing with God to take away his Blessings from us when we deny Him this just and easy Tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving Shall not God visit for this horrible Ingratitude And shall not his Soul be avenged on such a Nation aâ— this Hear O Heavens and be ye horribly astonished at this I hope it cannot be thought misbecoming the meanest of God's Ministers in a matter wherein the Honour of God is so nearly concerned to reprove even in the Highest and Greatest of the Sons of Men so shameful and heinous a Fault with a proportionable Vehemence and Severity Secondly Another and that also a very considerable Part of this Duty consists in instructing those committed to our Charge in the Fundamental Principles and in the careful Practice of the necessary Duties of Religion instilling these into Children in their tender years as they are capable of them line upon line and precept upon precept here a little and there a little and into those that are more grown up by proper and suitable means of instruction and by furnishing them with such Books as are most proper to teach them those things in Religion which are most necessary by all to be believ'd and practis'd And in order hereunto we should take care that those under our Charge our Children and Servants should be taught to read because this will make the business of Instruction much easier so that if they are diligent and well-dispos'd they may after having been taught the first Principles of Religion by reading the H. Scriptures and other good Books greatly improve themselves so as to be prepared to receive much greater benefit and advantage by the publick teaching of their Ministers And in this work of Instruction our great care should be to plant those Principles of Religion in our Children and Servants which are most fundamental and necessary and are like to have the greatest and most lasting influence upon their whole Lives As right and worthy Apprehensions of God especially of his infinite Goodness and that He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity And a lively sense also of the great evil and danger of Sin A firm belief of the Immortality of our Souls and of the unspeakable and endless Rewards and Punishments of another World If these Principles once take root they will spread strangely and probably stick by them and continue with them all their Days Whereas if we plant in them doubtful Doctrines and Opinions and inculcate upon them the Notions of a Sect and the Jargon of a Party this will turn to a very pitiful account and we must expect that our Harvest will be answerable to our Husbandry We have sown the Wind and shall reap the Whirlwind But of this I shall have occasion to speak more particularly and fully in the ensuing Sermons concerning the good Education of Children And this work of Instruction of those that are under our Charge as it ought not to be neglected at other Times so is it more peculiarly seasonable on the Lord's Day which ought to be employed by us to Religious purposes and in the Exercises of Piety and Devotion Chiefly in the Publick Worship and Service of God upon which we should take care that our Children and Servants should diligently and devoutly attend Because there God affords the Means which he hath appointed for the begetting and increasing of Piety and Goodness and to which he hath promised a more especial Blessing There they will have the opportunity of joining in the publick Prayers of God's Church and of sharing in the unspeakable beneâ—â—t and advantage of them And there they will also have the advantage of being instructed by the Ministers of God in the Doctrine of Salvation and the way to Eternal Life and of being powerfully incited to the practice of Piety and Virtue There likewise they will be invited to the Lord's Table to participate of the H. Sacrament of Christ's most blessed Body and Blood which being the most Solemn Institution of the Christian Religion the frequent participation whereof is by our B. Lord in remembrance of his Dying Love enjoined upon all Christians we ought to take a very particular care that those who are under our Charge so soon as they are capable of it be duly instructed and prepared for it that so as often as Opportunity is offer'd for it they may be present at this Holy Action and partakâ— of the inestimable Benefits and Comforts of it And when the Publick Worship of that Day is over our Families should be instructed at Home by having the Scriptures and other good Books read to them and care likewise should be taken that they do this themselves this being the chief Opportunity that most of them especially those that are Servants have of minding the business of Religion and thinking seriously of another World And therefore I cannot but think it of very great consequence to the maintaining and keeping alive of Religion in the World that this Day be Religiously observed and spent as much as may be in the exercises of Piety and in the care of our Souls For surely every one that hath a true sense of Religion will grant that it is necessary that some Time should be solemnly set apart for this purpose which is of all other our greatest Concernment And they who neglect this so proper Season and Opportunity will hardly find any other Time for it Especially those who are under the Government and Command of others as Children and Servants who are seldom upon any other Day allowed to be so much Masters of their Time as upon this Day Thirdly I add further as a considerable Part of the Duty of Parents and Masters of Families if they be desirous to have their Children and Servants Religious in good earnest and would set them forward in the way to Heaven that they do not only allow them Time and Opportunity but that they do also strictly and earnestly charge them to retire themselves every Day but more especially on the Lord's Day Morning and Evening to pray to God for the Forgiveness of their Sins and for his mercy and Blessing upon them and likewise to Praise Him for all his Favours and Benefits conferred upon them from Day to Day And in order to this they ought to take care that their Children and Servants be furnish'd with such short Forms of Prayer and Praise as are proper and suitable to their capacities and conditions respectively because there are but very few that know how to set about and perform these Duties especially at first without some Helps of this kind Fourthly and lastly another principal Part of this Duty consists in giving good
Offspring Good Children are the hopes of Posterity and we cannot leave the World a better Legacy than well-disciplin'd Children This gives the World the best Security that Religion will be propagated to Posterity and that the Generations to come shall know God and the Children that are to be born shall fear the Lord. This was the great Glory of Abraham next to his being the Friend of God that he was the Father of the Faithful And the careful Education of Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is so honourable to Parents that God himself would not pass it by in Abraham without special mention of it to his â—verlasting commendation I know Abraham says God that he will command his children and his Houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do Justice and Judgment Gen 18. 19. Fifthly Consider yet further the great Evils consequent upon this neglect And they are manifold But not to enlarge particularly upon them they all end in this the final miscarriage and ruin of Children Do but leave depraved corrupt Nature to its self and it will take its own course and the end of it in all probability will be miserable If the generous Seeds of Religion and Virtue be not carefully sown in the tender Minds of Children and those Seeds be not cultivated by good Education there will certainly spring up Briars and Thorns of which Parents will not only feel the inconvenience but every body else that comes near them Neglectis urenda filix innascitur Agris If the Ground be not planted with something that is good it will bring forth that which is either useless or hurtful or both For Nature is seldom barren it will either bring forth useful â—lants or Weeds We are naturally inclined to Evil and the neglect of Education puts Children upon a kind of necessity of becoming what they are naturally inclin'd to be Do but let them alone and they will soon be habituated to Sin and Vice And when they are once accustomed to do evil they have lost their Liberty and Choice They are then hardly capable of good counsel and instruction Or if they be patient to hear it they have no power to follow it being bound in the chains of their Sins and led captive by Satan at his pleasure And when they have brought themselves into this condition their Ruin seems to be sealed and without a Miracle of God's Grace they are never to be reclaimed Nor doth the mischief of this neglect end here but it extends it self to the Publick and to Posterity If we neglect the good Education of our Children they will in all probability prove bad Men and these will neglect their Children and so the Foundation of an endless Mischief is laid and our Posterity will be bad Members both of Church and Commonwealth If they be neglected in matter of Inâ—â—â—ction they will either be ignorant or â—rroneous Either they will not mind Religion or they will disturb the Church with new and wild Opinions And I fear that the neglect of instructing and Catechising Youth of which this Age hath been so grossly guilty hath made it so fruitful of Errors and strange Opinions But if besides this no care be taken of their Lives and Manners they will become burthens of the Earth and Pests of Human Society and so much Poison and infection let abroad into the World Sixthly and Lastly Parents should often consider that the neglect of this Duty will not only involve them in the inconvenience and shame and sorrow of their Childrens miscarriage but in a great measure in the guilt of it They will have a great share in all the Evil they do and be in some sort chargeable with all the Sins they commit If the Children bring forth wild and sowre Grapes the Parents teeth will be set on edge The temporal Mischiefs and inconveniences which come from the careless Education of Children as to Credit Health and Estate all which do usually suffer by the vicious and lewd courses of your Children these methinks should awaken your care and diligence But what is this to the guilt which will redound to you upon their account Part of all their wickedness will be put upon your score and possibly the Sins which they commit many years afteâ— you are dead and gone will follow you into the other World and bring new fewel to Hell to heat that 〈◊〉 hotter upon you However this is certain that 〈◊〉 must one Day be accountable for all their neglects of their Children And so likewise shall Ministers and Masters of Families for their People and Servants so far as they had the Charge of them And what will Parents be able to say to God at the Day of Judgment for all their neglects of their Children in matter of Instruction and Example and Restraint from evil How will it make your ears to tingle when God shall arise terribly to Judgment and say to you Behold the Children which I have given you They were ignorant and you instructed them not They made themselves vile and you restrained them not Why did not you teach them at Home and bring them to Church to the publick Ordinances and Worship of God and train them up to the exercise of Piety and Devotion But you did not only neglect to give them good Instruction but you gave them bad Example And lo they have followed you to Hell to be an addition to your Torment there Unnatural Wretches that have thus neglected and by your neglect destroyed those whose Happiness by so many bonds of Duty and Affection you were obliged to procure Behold the Books are now open and there is not one Prayer upon Record that ever you put up for your Children There is no Memorial no not so much as of one Hour that ever was seriously spent to train them up to a sense of God and to the knowledge of their Duty But on the contrary it appears that you have many ways contrived their Misery and contributed to their Ruin and help'd forward their Damnation How could you â—e thus unnatural How could you thus hate your own Flâ—sh and hate your own Souls How much better had it been for them and how much better for you that they had never been born Would not such a heavy Charge as this make every joint of you to tremble Will it not cut you to the heart and pierce your very Souls to have your Children challenge you in that Day and say to you one by one Had you been as careful to teach me the good knowledge of the Lord as I was capable of learning it Had you been but as forward to instruct me in my Duty as I was ready to have hearken'd to it it had not been with me as it is at this Day I had not now stood trembling here in a fearful expectation of the eternal Doom which is just ready to be pass'd upon me Cursed be the Man that begate me and
is so very seldom in our thoughts Thirdly Because this Age is of all other the fittest and best to begin a Religious course of Life And this does not contradict the former Argument tho it seems to do so For as it is true of Children that they are most prone to be idle and yet fittest to learn so in the case we are speaking of both are true that youth is an Age wherein we are too apt if left to our selves to forget God and Religion and yet at the same time fittest to receive the impressions of it Youth is aetas Disciplinae the proper Age of Discipline very obsequious and tractable fit to receive any kind of impression and to imbibe any tincture Now we should lay hold of this golden Opportunity This Age of suppleness and obedience and patience for labour should be plyed by Parents before that rigor and stiffness which grows with years come on too fast Childhood and Youth are choice Seasons for the planting of Religion and Virtue and if Parents and Teachers sleep in this Seed time they are ill Husbandmen for this is the time of plowing and sowing This Age is certainly the most proper for Instruction according to that of the Prophet Isa 28. 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge Whom shall he make to understand Doctrine Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast For precept must be upon precept and linâ— upon line here a little and there a little And the sooner this is done the better only things must be instilled into them gently and by degrees It is a noted Saying of Aristotle That young Persons are not fit to hear Lectures of Moral Philosophy because at that Age Passion is so predominant and unruly By which I think he only means that the Minds of young Persons are least prepared to receive the Precepts of Morality and to submit to them but that he does not hereby intend that therâ—fore no care ought to be used to form the Minds and Manners of Youth to Virtue and Goodness He certainly understood the nature and power of evil Habits too well to be of that mind and consequently must think that the Principles of Morality ought with great care and diligence to be instill'd into young persons betimes Because they of all other have the most need of this kind of Instruction and this Age is the most proper Season for it And the less their Minds are prepared for it so much the more pains ought to be taken with them that they may be taught to govern and subdue their Passions before â—hey grow too sâ—iff and headstrong So that if the Seeds of Religion and Virtue be not planted in our younger years what is to be expected in old Age according to that of the Son of Sirach Ecclus 25. 13. If thou hast gâ—thered nothing in thy Youth how canst thou expect to find any thing in thine Age Young years are tender and easily wrought upon apt to be moulded into any fashion they are udum molle lutum like moist and soft clay which is pliable to any form but soon grows hard and then nothing is to be made of it It is a very difficult thing to make impressions upon Age and to deface the Evil which hath been deeply imprinted upon young and tender minds When good instruction hath been neglected at first a conceited Ignorance doth commonly take possesâ—â—on and obstruct all the passages through which Knowledge and Wisdom should enter into us Upon this Consideration the Work of Religion should be begun betimes because it is a mighty advantage to any thing to be planted in a ground that is newly broken up It is just the same â—hing for young persons to be enter'd into a Religious course and to have their Minds habituated to Virtue before vicious Customs have got place and strength in us For whoever shall attempt this afterwards will meet with infinite difficulty and opposition and must dispute his ground by inches It is good therefore to do that which must be done one time or other when it is easiest to be done when we may do it with the greatest advantage and are likely to meet with the least and weakest opposition We should anticipate Vice and prevent the Devil and the World by letting God into our hearts betimes and giving Religion the first seisine and possession of our Soulsâ— This is the time of sowing our Seed which must by no means be neglected For the Soul will not lye fallow good or evil will come up If our minds be not cultivated by Religion Sin and Vice will get the possession of them But if our tender years be seasoned with the knowledge and fear of God this in all probability will have a good influence upon the following course of our Lives In a word this Age of our Lives is proper for Labour and Conflict because Youth is full of heat and vigor of courage and resolution to enterprize and effect difficult things This heat indeed renders young persons very unfit to advise and direct themselves and therefore they have need to be advised and directed by those who are wiser and more experienced But yet this heat makes them very fit for practice and action for though they are bad at counsel they are admirable at execution when their heat is well directed they have a great deal of vivacity and quickness of courage and constancy in the way wherein they are set Besides that Youth hath a great sense of Honour and Virtue of Praise and Commendation which are of great force to engage young persons to attempt worthy and excellent things For hope and confidence strength and courage with which sense of Honour and desire of Praise are apt to inspire them are admirable instruments of Victory and Mastery in any kind and these are proper and most peculiar to Youth I write unto you young men â—aith St. John because ye are strong and have overcome the evil One And besides the spirit and vigor of Youth young persons have several other qualities which make them very capable of learning any thing that is good They are apt to believe because they have not been often deceived and this is a very good quality in a Learner And they are full of hopes which will encourage them to attempt things even beyond their strength because Hope is always of the future and the Life of young persons is in a great measure before them and yet to come And which is a good Bridle to restrain them from that which is evil they are commonly very modest and bashful And which is also a singular advantage they are more apt to do that which is honest and commendable than that which is gainful and profitable being in a great measure free from the love of Money which Experience as well as the Apostle tells us is the root of all Evil. Children are very seldom covetous because they have seldom been bitten by want Fourthly This is
to manage it is a very pernicious thing And yet how many Parents are there who omit no Care and Industry to get an Estate that they may leave it to their Children but use no means to form their Minds and Manners for the right use and enjoyment of it without which it had been much happier for them to have been left in great Poverty and straits Dost thou love thy Child This is true love to any one to do the best for him we can Of all your toil and labour for your Children this may be all the fruit they may reap and all that they may live to enjoy the advantage of a good Education All other things are uncertain You may raise your Children to Honour and settle a Noble Estate upon them to support it You may leave them as you think to faithful Guardians and by kindness and obligation procure them many Friends And when you have done all this their Guardians may prove unfaithful and treacherous and in the Changes and Revolutions of the World their Honours may slip from under them and their Riches may take to themselves wings and fly away And when these are gone and they come to be nipp'd with the Frosts of Adversity their Friends will fall off like leaves in Autumn This is a sore evil which yet I have seen under the Sun But if the good Education of your Children hath made them wise and virtuous you have provided an Inheritance for them which is out of the reach of Fortune and cannot be taken from them Crates the Philosopher used to stand in the highest Places of the City and to cry out to the Inhabitants O ye People why do you toil to get Estates for your Children when you take no care of their Education This is as Diogenes said to take care of the Shooe but none of the foot that is to wear it to â—ake great pains for an Estate for your Children but none at all to teach them how to use it that is to take great care to undo them but none to make them happy Thirdly Consider that by a careful and Religious Education of your Children you provide for your own Comfort and Happiness However they happen to prove you will have the comfort of a good Conscience and of having done your Duty If they be good they are matter of great Comfort and Joy to their Parents A wise Son saith Solomon maketh a glad Father It is a great satisfaction to see that which we have planted to thrive and grow up to find the good effect of our care and industry and that the work of our hands doth prosper The Son of Sirach among several things for which he reckons a Man happy mentions this in the first place He that hath joy of his Children Ecclus. 25. 7. On the contrary in wicked Children the honour of a Family fails our Name withers and in the next Generation will quite be blotted out Whereas a hopeful Posterity is a prospect of a kind of Eternity We cannot leave a better and more lasting Monument of our selves than in wise and virâ—uous Children Buildings and Books are but dead things in comparison of these living Memorials of our Selves By the good Education of your Children you provide for your Selves some of the best Comforts both for this World and the other For this World and that at such a Time when you most stand in need of Comfort I mean the Time of Sicknâ—ss and old Age. Wise men have been wont to lay up some praesidia Sâ—nâ—ctutis something to support them in that gloomy and melancholy Time as Books and Friends or the like But there is no such external Comfort at such a Time as good and dutiful Children They will then be the light of our Eyes and the Cordial of our fainting Spirits and will recompence all our former care of thâ—m by their present care of us And when we are decaying and withering away we shall have the pleasure to see our Youth as it were renewed and our selves flourishing again in our Children The Son of Sirach speaking of the comfort which a good Father hath in a well educated Son Though he dye says he yet he â—s as if he were not dead for he hath left one behind him that is like himself While he lived he saw and rejoiced in him and when he died he was not sorrowful Ecclus 30. 4 5. Whereas on the contrary a foolish Son is as Solomon tells us a heaviness to his Mother the miscarriage of a Child being apt most tenderly to affect the Mother Such Parents as neglect their Children do as it were provide so many pains and Aches for themselves against they come to be Old And rebellious Children are to their infirm and aged Parents so many aggravations of an evil Day so many burthens of their Age They help to bow them down and to bring their gray hairs so much the sooner with sorrow to the grave They do usually repay their Parents all the neglects of their Education by their undutiful carriage towards them And good Children will likewise be an unspeakable Comfort to us in the Other World When we come to appear before God at the Day of Judgment to be able to say to Him 〈◊〉 here am I and the Children which thou hast given me How will this comfort our Hearts and make us lift up our Heads with joy in that Day Fourthly Consider that the surest Foundation of the publick welfare and happiness is laid in the good Education of Children Families are increased by Children and Cities and Nations are made up of Families And this is a matter of so great concernment both to Religion and the Civil happiness of a Nation that anciently the best constituted Commonwealths did commit this care to the Magistrate more than to Parents When Antipater demanded of the Spartans fifty of their Children for Hostages they offer'd rather to deliver to Him twice as many Men so much did they value the loss of their Country's Education But now amongst us this Work lies chiefly upon Parents There are several ways of reforming Men by the Laws of the Civil Magistrate and by the publick Preaching of Ministers But the most likely and hopeful Reformation of the World must begin with Children Wholsome Laws and good Sermons are but slow and late ways The timely and the most compendious way is good Education This may be an effectual Prevention of evil whereas all after-ways are but Remedies which do always suppose some neglect and omission of timely care And because our Laws leave so much to Parents our Care should be so much the greater and we should remember that we bring up our Children for the Publick and that if they live to be Mâ—n as they come out of our hands they will prove a publick Happiness or Mischief to the Age. So that we can no way better deserve of Mankind and be greater Benefactors to the World than by Peopling it with a Righteous