I mean in not teaching them to govern their Passions is the true cause why many that have proved sincere Christians when they came to be Men have yet been very imperfect in their conversation and their Lives have been full of inequalities and breaches which have not only been matter of great trouble and disquiet to themselves but of great scandal to Religion when their light which should shine before men is so often darken'd and obscured by these frequent and visible infirmities 2 dly To the government of their Tongues To this end teach Children Silence especially in the presence of their Betters And assoon as they are capable of such a Lesson let them be taught not to speak but upon consâ—deration both of what they say and before whom And above all inculcate upon them that most necessary Duty and Vertue of speaking truth as one of the best and strongest bands of Human Society and Commerce And possess them with the baseness and vileness of telling a Lye for if it be so great a provocation to give a man the Lye then surely to be guilty of that Fault must be a mighty Reproach They who write of Japan tell us that those People though mere Heathens take such an effectual course in the Education of their Children as to render a Lye and breach of Faith above all things odious to them Insomuch that it is a very rare thing for any Person among them to be taken in a Lye or found guilty of breach of Faith And cannot the Rules of Christianity be render'd as effectual to restrain men from these Faults which are scandalous even to Nature and much more so to the Christian Religion To the Government of the Tongue does likewise belong the restraining of Children from lewd and obscene words from vain and profane talk and especially from horrid Oaths and Imprecations From all which they are easily kept at first but if they are once accustomed to them it will be found no such easy matter for them to get quit of these evil Habits It will require great attention and watchfulness over themselves to keep Oaths out of their common discourse but if they be heated and in passion they throw out Oaths and Curses as naturally as men that are highly provoked fling stones or any thing that comes next to hand at one another So dangerous a thing is it to let any thing that is bad in Children to grow up into a Habit. Thirdly As the principal and essential Parts of Religion and Virtue let Children be carefully bred up 1 st To Sobriety and Temperance in regard to themselves under which I comprehend likewise Purity and Chastity The government of the sensual Appetite as to all kind of Bodily pleasures is not only a great part of Religion but an excellent instrument of it and a necessary foundation of Piety and Justice For he that cannot govern himself is not like to discharge his Duty either to God or Men. And therefore St. Paul puts Sobriety first as a primary and principal Virtue in which men are instructed by the Christian Religion and which must be laid as the foundation both of Piety towards God and of Righteousness to Men. The Grace of God for so he calls the Gospel that brings Salvation unto all men hath appeared teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world It first teacheth us to live soberly and unless we train up Children to this Vertue we must never expect that they will either live righteously or godly in this present World Especially Children must be bred up to great Sobriety and Temperance in their Diet which will retrench the fewel of other inordinate Appetites It is a good Saying I have met with somewhere Magna pars virtutis est bene moratus venter a well manner'd and well govern'd Appetite in matter of meats and drinks is a great part of Virtue I do not mean that Children should be brought up according to the Rules of a Lessian Diet which sets an equal stint to all Stomachs and is as senseless a thing as a Law would be which should enjoin that Shooes for all Mankind should be made upon one and the same Last 2 dly To a serious and unaffected Piety and Devotion towards God still and quiet real and substantial without much shew and noise and as free as may be from all tricks of Superstition or freaks of Enthusiasm which if Parents and Teachers be not very prudent will almost unavoidably insinuate themselves into the Religion of Children and when they are grown up will make them appear to wise and sober Persons phantastical and conceited and render them very apt to impose their own foolish Superstitions and wild Conceits upon others who understand Religion much better than themselves Let them be taught to honour and love God above all things to serve him in private and to attend constantly upon his publick Worship and to keep their minds intent upon the several parts of it without wandring and distraction To Pray to God as the Fountain of all Grace and the giver of every good and perfectâ— gift And to acknowledge Him and to â—render Thanks to Him as our most gracious and constant Benefactor and the great Patron and Preserver of our Lives To be careful to do what He commands and to avoid what He hath forbidden To be always under a lively sense and apprehâ—nsion of his pure and all-seeing Eye which beholds us in secret And to do every thing in obedience to the Authority of that Great Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy and with an awful regard to the strict and impartial Judgment of the Great Day 3 dly To Justice and honesty To defraud and oppress no man to be as good as their word and to perform all their Promises and Contracts and endeavour to imprint upon their minds the Equity of that Great Rule which is so natural and so easy that even Children are capable of it I mean that Rule which our B. Saviour tells us is the Law and the Prophets namely that we should do to others as we would have others do to us if we were in their Case and Circumstances and they in ours You that are Parents and have to do in the World ought to be just and equal in all your dealings In the first place for the sake of your own Souls and next for the sake of your Children Not only that you may entail no Curse upon the Estate you leave them but likewise that you may teach them no Injustice by the Example you set before them which in this particular they will be as apt to imitate as in any one thing because of the present worldly advantage which it seems to bring and because Justice is in truth a manly Virtue and least understood by Children and therefore Injustice is a Vice which they will soonest practise and with the least reluctancy because
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
Habit alter the natural imperfection of his Speech and even in despite of Nature became the most eloquent Man perhaps that ever lived And this amounts even to a Demonstration for what hath been done may be done So that it is not universally true which Aristotle says That Nature cannot be altered It is true indeed in the Instance in which he gives of throwing a Stone upward you cannot says he by any Custom nay though you fling it up never so often teach a Stone to ascend of it self And so it is in many other Instances in which Nature is peremptory But Nature is not always so but sometimes hath a great latitude As we see in young Trees which though they naturally grow straight up yet being gently bent may be made to grow any way But above all Moral inclinations and habits do admit of great alteration and are subject to the power of a contrary Custom Indeed Children when they come to be Men should take great care that they do not owe their Religion only to Custom but they should upon consideration and due examination of the grounds of it so far as they are capable of doing it make it their Choice And yet for all that we must not deny the best Religion in the World this greatest advantage of all other It is certainly a great happiness for Children to be inclined to that which when they come to understand themselves they would make their Choice if they were indifâ—erent But an indifferency cannot be preserved in Children And therefore since they will certainly be biassed one way or other there is all the reason in the World why we should endeavour to byass them the better way Parents may often mistake about what is best but if they love their Children they cannot but wish and endeavour that they may be good and do what is best I come now to the last Head I proposed which was V. To endeavour by the most powerful Arguments I can offer to stir up and persuade those whose Duty this is to discharge it with great Care and Conscience If the foregoing Discourse be true what can be said to those who are guilty in the highest degree of the gross neglect of this great Duty Who neither by Instruction nor Example nor Restraint from evil do endeavour to make their Children good Some Parents are such Monsters I had almost said Devils as not to know how to give good things to their Children but instead of bread give them a stone instead of fish give them a serpent instead of an egg give them a scorpion as our Saviour expresseth it These are evil indeed who train up their Children for ruin and destruction in the service of the Devil and in the Trade and Mystery of iniquity Who instead of teaching them the Fear of the Lord infuse into them the Principles of Atheism and Irreligion and Prophaneness Instead of teaching them to love and reverence Religion they teach them to hate and despise it and to make a mock both of Sin and Holiness Instead of training them up in the knowledge of the H. Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto Salvation they do aedificare ad Gehennam they edify them for Hell by teaching them to prophane that Holy Book and to abuse the Worâ— of God which they ought to tremble at by turning it into Jest and Raillery Instead of teaching them to Pray and to bless the Name of God they teach them to Blaspheme that Great and terrible Name and to prophane it by their continual Oaths and Imprecations And instead of bringing them to God's Church they carry them to the Devil's Chappels to Playhouses and Places of debauchery those Schools and Nurseries of Lewdness and Vice Thus they who ought to be the great Teachers and Examples of Holiness and Virtue are the chief encouragers and Patterns of Vice and wickedness in their Children and instead of restraining them from evil they countenance them in it and check all forward inclinations to Goodness till at last they make them ten times more the Children of Wrath than they were by that corrupt Nature which they derived from them and hereby treasure up both for their Children and themselves wrath against the Day of wrath and the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God But I hope there are few or none such here They do not use to frequent God's House and Worship And therefore I shall apply my self to those who are not so notoriously guilty in this kind though they are greatly faulty in neglecting the good Education of their Children And for the greater conviction of such Parents I shall offer to them the following Considerations First Consider what a sad Inheritance you have conveyed to your Children You have transmitted to them corrupt and depraved Natures evil and vicious Inclinationsâ— You have begotten them in your own Image and likeness so that by Nature they are Children of wrath Now methinks Parents that have a due sense of this should be very solicitous by the best means they can use to free â—hem from that Curse by endeavouring to correct those perverse dispositions and cursed inclinations which they have transmitted to them Surely you ought to do all you can to repair that broken Estate which from you is descended upon them When a Man hath by Treason tainted his Blood and forfeited his Estate with what grief and regret doth he look upon his Children and think of the Injury which hath been done to them by his Fault And how solicitous is he before he dye to petition the King for favour to his Children How earnestly doth he charge his Friends to be careful of them and kind to them That by these means he may make the best reparation he can of their Fortune which hath been ruin'd by his Fault And have Parents such a tenderness for their Children in reference to their Estate and condition in this World and have they none for the good estate of their Souls and their eternal condition in another World If you are sensible that their Blood is tainted and that their best Fortunes are ruin'd by your sad Misfortune Why do you not bestir your selves for the repairing of God's Image in them Why do you not travel in birth till Christ be formed in them Why do you not pray earnestly to God and give Him no rest who hath reprieved and it may be pardoned you that He would extend his Grace to them also and grant them the Blessings of his New Covenant All your Children are begotten of the Bond-woman therefore we should pray as Abraham did O that Ishmael may live in thy sight O that these Sons of Hagar may be Heirs of a Blessing Secondly Consider in the next place that good Education is the very best Inheritance that you can leave to your Children It is a wise Saying of Solomâ—n Eccl. 7. 11. that Wisdom is good with an Inhâ—ritance but surely an Inheritance without Wisdom and Virtue