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
call to mind the inâ—xpressible Benefits of this Death the Pardon and Forgiveâ—ess of all the Sins which they repent of and forsake the Hope and good Assurance of which Pardon and Peace and God's Favour is as much the Life the Strength and Comâ—rt of the Soul as Bread and Wine are the Support and Comfort of the Body Upon this Knowledge of the End of the Institution and of the Benefits that we receive by Christ's Death it remains only that the young ones be acquainted with the Preparation that is necessary to their coming to the Lord's Supper which they will find in the Answer to the last Question of the Catechism which contains the whole of what they are to do They are to examine themselves whether they repent them truly of their former Sins whether they steadfastly purpose to lead a new and better Life for the time to come whether they have a lively Faith in God's Mercy through Christ i. e. Whether they verily believe that God was so exceeding Merciful and Gracious to Mankind that for the Sake of Christ's Obedience Death and Sufferings he will certainly forgive the Sins of such as shall repent and leave them and whether in full perswasion of this Mercy and these Gracious Promises they set about Repentance Whether they thankfully remember Christ's Death i. e. Whether upon the consideration and remembrance of the mighty and amazing Miseries to which their Sins exposed them and from which the Death of Christ alone has freed them they do not call to mind this great Deliverance with the greatest Joy and Thankfulness and bless and magnifie the Name of God who hath wrought this wouderful Redemption for them by the Death of Christ his dear and only begotten Son And Lastly whether they are in Charity with all Men. This is the Preparation and all the Preparation that is necessary to the coming to the Lord's Supper And if People would be content to learn wherein this Duty consists in the shortest plainest and the surest Method they would go no farher than the Church-Catechism or if a little farther it should be but to the Communion-Service in which they will be sure to find all that is needful or convenient for them to know or do before and at and after this Holy Sacrament I have neither Authority nor Intention to discommend or disallow the use of other Books that treat of these Matters but you will take it on my Word I hope that the shortest and the plainest Rules of Direction are still the best that wherein soever other Books differ from this they are not to be depended on And that multiplicity of Books is apt to beget Confusion As far therefore as you will let my Judgment weigh with you I recommend it to your Care that you let the Church Catechism be the Ground and Foundation of what your Children are to know of the Christian Religion and that other good Books be call'd in as Helps to their Devotion only or to explain the Particulars contain'd therein if they be difficult Whilst you are teaching and your Children learning all these Things you must be sure of all Things in the World to go before them with a good Example that is to recommend impress and make your Lessons Credible They will understand believe and practice better if they see you live as you teach them to live Let them know you pray to God constantly with your Family that you love and exercise Truth and Honesty and Justice in all your Dealings let them hear and see you chide your Servants and Dependents for every Lye they tell and every Fraud and Falshood they are guilty of let them never hear you swear or curse or speak any Thing disrespectfully of God or Providence or Holy Scriptures or any thing of Religion and they will then believe you are in earnest and be more careful of doing as you bid them and more fearful of offending Let them see you go your self to Church upon the Lord's Day and as many of the Family as can be spar'd with your Convenience and there behave themselves as becomes the Servants of God in his own House and more immediate Presence And let them never see even in the after Part of that good Day any thing Light Extravagant or Rude but something of Respect and Honour shewn to the good Exercises that are over and to the Day devoted by the Church of Christ to God's Service Away with that severe sullen morose Religion with which some Judaizing and mistaken Christians pass that Day on one Hand and that prophane contemptuous court-like Observation of it on the other but let a decent Christian and good natur'd Carriage temper these Extreams that your Children may neither dread the approach of Sunday above other Days nor yet long for it as a Day of Sloth and Idleness I hope I may without Offence take this Occasion to desire such of the Separation as are within my Parish to take all Care they can that both their Children and their Servants go along with them to the Places where they serve God themselves or to some other certainly and require an Account of their so doing that the Liberty of absenting themselves from their Parish-Churches indulg'd to them by Man's Law be not turn'd to the Libertinism of serving God no where and Irreligion and Prophaneness find those People whom the Church looses We must indeed on all sides be sollicitous lest he who sowes Division amongst us reap the Fruits thereof and be the greatest Gainer of this in earnest there was never greater need than now for Christianity and good Morality had never more or greater Enemies and therefore all our joint Endeavours will be little enough to oppose the soft Insinuations of their secret Underminers and the most impudent and bold Attacks of their avowed and open Adversaries I am sorry we can date the mighty Growth and Progress of these Mischiefs within the Compass of so few Years when we were hoping still for better Things But let this evil State provoke us to a greater Care and Zeal in the Defence of Vertue and Religion for the future You must all of you help to make this ugly Digression pertinent and useful by taking all imaginable Care to breed up a Generation better than the present and such as may do these wicked Days all the Disgrace and Shame they can by a most firm adherence to the Christian Faith by a lively Sense of Virtue and Religion in the Soul made manifest by a most Virtuous and Religious outward Practice I have done you see an unusual Thing in fixing a Preface to a Sermon but it was to make the Sermon more yours than any one 's else and if the Sermon be better read for the Sake of the Preface or if the Preface gain its end without the Sermon I shall obtain the Point I aim at and will answer for the absurdity or newness of the Method You know I am every way your Debtor in
the Accounts of Reason to will the End and to be guilty of the Evil in a great Degree And so we are said to will a great many things in Scripture not that we will them properly but that we do those things from whence the others naturally and necessarily follow So God expostulates in Ezek. 18. 31. and 33. 11. Why will ye die O house of Israel Not that the Israelites will'd or desired to die for that 's a thing incredible if not impossible in the hardest Sense of that Word but that they willed such things as would unavoidably bring that Death and most inevitably ruine them So in Psal 106. 24. Yea they despised that pleasant land Not that they dispised or rejected the Land of Canaan it felf but rejecting the only Means God had appointed to bring them thither which were Faith and Trust in him and Patience and Obedience to his Laws they are said to despise the Land it self So in Pro. 17. 19. He that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction i. e. He that liveth above his Fortune and Condition or that openeth wide the Flood Gates to Iniquity seeketh Destruction the meaning is that such a One shall find Destruction he is as One that seeks and makes Inquiry after it and he shall surely find it So that Men are not charged with the Mischiefs only they intend directly but with such also as are like to follow whether they intend them or not nay tho' they should intend the contrary He who takes the natural and ready Means to any End is strongly guilty of the evil Consequence altho' he should not only not design that End and Consequence but hope and wish it might not come to pass because neither Hopes nor Wishes nor Designs can hinder natural or moral Causes from producing natural and moral Effects But neither is it only so in acting but in permitting also he is said upon the same Account and Reason to be guilty of the Evils that ensue whose Duty it was and in whose Power it was to have prevented them but did not It were cruel and unjust to charge a Man with all the Evils he should by Duty prevent but could not for want of Power And it is not always reasonable to charge a Man with the Eviis he could by his Power have prevented but did not because he was not oblig'd in Duty because the Signification of Power in such a Case is to be determin'd by the convenience of Time and Place and Person and a great many other Circumstances of which a Man is only able to judge himself But where Power and Duty meet together there the Obligation is unquestionable and the Neglect of doing what we should and conld is inexcusable The Application of these Rules to the Case in Hand is I think as evident as the Reason of those Rules It is plain from the Light of Nature and the use of Reason as well as God's Determination in Scripture that a Parent is oblig'd to educate his Children in the best and most religious Manner possible to instruct them in all that 's Good and warn them of all that 's Evil and it is as plain from the corruption of our Nature the perversness of our Wills and from lamentable Experience that unless this Care be taken Children will unavoidably be ruin'd and therefore he who neglects this Education which he might and should look after is properly enough said to undo his Children and as he who should designedly ruine his own Children would deservedly be said to hate them so may he also who neglects their Education if such Neglect be the natural and ready Way to Ruine though he don't design that Ruine and though that Neglect do not proceed from Hatred yet he is said and properly enough both to undoe and hate them Now the Evils that proceed from a careless or from bad Education from want of good Instruction of Reproof Restraint or of due Chastisement in any Kind are Infinite and Pernicious they are Numberless and they are Intolerable I believe it were hard to reckon up any considerable Calamity that has befallen a Kingdom City Family or private Person but might be justly charg'd upon this Head in some Measure The Reasoning of Plato is both just and excellent upon the Education of Cyrus and his Son Cambyses Darius and his Son Xerxes and the following Kings of Persia and shews the exact and perfect Correspondence betwixt the Ways of bringing up those Princes and the Quality and Fortune of their Government and Kingdoms whilst they liv'd Cyrus having been brought up still in painful and laborious Exercises and in a handsome kind of Equality of almost all Things betwixt himself and his Companions his Reign was full of Glory and Success and every thing that 's Good and Laudable But whilst himself was reaping Palms and Crowns of Victory he left the Education of his Son to the Ladies who brought him up in the luxurious softness of the Medes where no body durst speak a word of Truth or Honesty for fear of wounding his Ears which were us'd to nothing but to compliment and flattery And hence it came that the Reign and Government of this soft Prince was full as Infamous and Unfortunate both to himself and People as that of his brave Father had been Glorious Wise and Happy unto both Darius Hystaspes afterwards ascended the Throne and as his Education had not been in the Delights of a Court but Hard and Rough in Labours and Fatigues so his Reign resembled in a Manner that of Cyrus both for Glory and for Conquest But whilst he and his Compeers were spreading every where the Persian Honour by their Gallantry and brave Atchievements Xerxes his Son was left in Womens Hands and from them had just such another Education as Cambyses had and reigned accordingly leaving where'er he came the shameful Marks of a prodigious Power put into the Hands of an ambitious Mad-man Darius was indeed a great deal more to blame than Cyrus because he avail'd not himself of so notorious an Example of Miscarriage nor procur'd a better Education for his Son but that 's not the only Use that we may make of these great Instances one cannot choose but see and lament too that the Fate and Fortune of great Empires the Wellfare and the Ruine of so many Hundred Thousands should depend upon the Care and the Neglect of a Parent upon the Improvement or the Sottishness of one Body But this would not touch us so near we think if it were not also true in lesser Matters and as fatal to private Families The good or evil Education of Children does not only affect themselves but all the Stock and Kindred more or less there is hardly any body so inconsiderable but some body may be bettered and some body prejudiced by him there is no body stands so single and remote but if he falls there is some one hurt besides himself directly or indirectly which as it is a