at first concealed, next emitting a few sparks, and at last bursting into a gleat blaze, unless it be prevented in time. Whence do they derive so great an infection? Can we doubt it, my brethren? They derive it from us, and by communcaiting our nature we communicate our depravity. It is impossible, being our children, that they should not be depraved, as we are, for, to use the language of scripture, their fathers are Amorites and their mothers are Hittites, Ezek. xvi. 13. Here I wish I could give you some notion of this mortifying mystery; I wish I could remove the difficulties, which prevent your seeing it; I wish I could shew you what a union there is between the brain of an infant and that of its mother, in order to convince you that sin passes from the parent to the child.

What! can we in cool blood behold our children in an abyss, into which we have plunged them; can we be sensible that we have done this evil, and not endeavour to relieve them? Not being able to make them innocent, shall we not endeavour to render them penitent? Ah! victims of my depravity, unhappy heirs of the crimes of your parents, innocent creatures born only to suffer, methinks, I ought to reproach myself for all the pains you feel, all the tears you shed, and all the sighs you utter. Methinks, every time you cry, you reprove me for my insensibility and injustice. At least, it is right, that, as I acknowledge myself the cause of the evil, I should employ myself in repairing it, and endeavour to renew your nature by endeavouring to renew my

own.

This reflection leads us to a third. To neglect the education of our children is to be wanting in that tenderness, which is so much their due. What can we do for them? What inheritance can we transmit to them? Titles? They are often nothing but empty sounds without meaning and reality. Riches? They often make themselves wings, and fly away, Prov. xxiii. 5. Honours? They are often mixed with disagreeable circumstances, which poison all the pleaIt is a religious education, piety and the fear of God, that makes the fairest inheritance, the noblest succession, that we can leave our families.

sure.

If any worldly care may lawfully occupy the mind of a dying parent, when in his last moments the soul seems to be called to detach itself from every worldly concern, and to think of nothing but eternity, it is that, which hath our children for its object. A christian in such circumstances VOL. V.

C

finds

finds his heart divided between the family, which he is leaving in the world, and the holy relations, which he is going to meet in heaven. He feels himself pressed by turns between a desire to die, which is most advantageous for him, and a wish to live, which seems most beneficial to his family. He says, I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, Phil. i. 23, 24. We are terrified at that crowd of dangers, in which we leave these dear parts of ourselves. The perils seem to magnify as we retire from the sight of them. One while we fear for their health, another while we tremble for their salvation. My brethren, can you think of any thing more proper to prevent or to pacify, such emotions than the practice of that duty, which we are now pressing as absolutely necessary? A good father on his death-bed puts on the same dispositions to his children as Jesus Christ adorned himself with in regard to his disciples immediately before the consummation of that great sacrifice, which he was about to offer to the justice of his Father. The soul of our divine Saviour was affected with the dangers, to which his dear disciples were going to be exposed. Against these gloomy thoughts he opposed two noble reflections. First, he remembered the care, which he had taken of them, and the great principles, which he had formed in their minds; and secondly, he observed that shadow of the Almighty, under which he had taught them to abide, Psal. xci. 1. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, John xvii. 6. 12. 16. This is the first reflection. Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those, whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I ani, ver. 11. 15. 17. This is the second reflection.

These two reflections are impenetrable shields, and a parent should never separate them. Would you be in a condition to oppose the second of these shields against such attacks as the gloomy thoughts just now mentioned will make

upon

upon your hearts on that day, in which you quit the world and leave your children in it? endeavour now to arm yourself with the first. Would you have them abide under the shadow of the Almighty? inculcate his fear and his love in their hearts. Would you be able to say as Jesus Christ did, holy Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me, that they may behold thy glory; keep them through thy name? put yourself now into a condition to enable you then to say to God as Christ did, I have given them thy word, they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

To neglect the education of our children is to let loose madmen against the state, instead of furnishing it with good rulers or good subjects. That child intended for the church, what will he become, if he be not animated with such a spirit as ought to enliven a minister of religion? He will turn out a trader in sacred things, and prove himself a spy in our families, a fomenter of faction in the state, who under pretence of glorifying God, will set the world on fire. That other child intended for the bar, what will he become, unless as much pains be taken to engage him to love justice as to make him know it, or to make him not disguise it as well as understand it? He will prove himself an incendiary who will sow seeds of division in families, render law-suits eternal, and reduce to indigence and beggary even those clients, whose causes he shall have art enough to gain. And that child, whom you have rashly determined to push into the highest offices of state without forming in him such dispositions as are necessary to eminent posts, what will he become? A foolish or a partial judge, who will pronounce on the fortunes and lives of his fellow citizens just as chance or caprice may impel him: a public blood-sucker, who will live upon the blood and substance of those whom he ought to support: a tyrant, who will rase and depopulate the very cities and provinces, which he ought to defend.

The least indulgence of the bad inclinations of children sometimes produces the most fatal effects in society. This is exemplified in the life of David, whose memory may truly be reproached on this article, for he was one of the most weak of all parents. Observe his indulgence of Amnon. It produced incest. Remark his indulgence of Absalom, who besought him to allow his brethren to partake of a feast, which he had prepared. It produced an assassination. Sec his weak fondness of the same Absalom, who endeavoured

to make his way to the throne by mean and clownish manpers, affecting to shake hands with the Israelites and to embrace and kiss them (these are the terms of scripture,) and practising all such popular airs as generally precede and predict sedition. This produced a civil war. Remark how he indulged Adonijah, who made himself chariots, and set up a retinue of fifty men. The sacred historian tells us, that his father had not displeased him at any time, in saying, why hast thou done so? 1 Kings i, 6. This produced an an usurpation of the throne and the crown.

To neglect the education of your children is to furnish them with arms against yourselves. You complain that the children, whom you have brought up with so much tenderness, are the torment of your life, that they seem to reproach you for living so long, and that, though they have derived their being and support from you, yet they refuse to contribute the least part of their superfluities to assist and comfort you. You ought to find fault with yourselves, for their depravity is a natural consequence of such principles as you have taught them. Had you accustomed them to respect order, they would not now refuse to conform to order: but they would perform the greatest of all duties? they would be the strength of your weakness, the vigour of your reason, and the joy of your old age.

To neglect the education of children is to prepare torments for a future state, the bare apprehension of which must give extreme pain to every heart capable of feeling. It is beyond a doubt, that remorse is one of the chief punishments of the damned, and who can question, whether the most excruciating remorse will be excited by this thought; I have plunged my children into this abyss, into which I have plunged myself?

Imagine a parent of a family discovering among the crowd of reprobates a son, whom he himself led thither, and who addresses to him this terrible language, "Barbarous father, what animal appetites, or what worldly views inclined you to give me existence, to what a desperate condition have you reduced me? See, wretch that you are, see these flames, which burn and consume me. Observe this thick smoke which suffocates me. Behold the heavy chains, with which I am loaded down. These are the fatal consequences of the principles you gave me. Was it not enough to bring me into the world a sinner, was it necessary to put me in arms against Almighty God? Was it not enough to communicate

to

to me natural depravity, must you add to that the venom of a pernicious education? Was it not enough to expose me to the misfortunes inseparable from life, must you plunge me into those, which follow death? Return me, cruel parent, return me to nothing, whence you took me. Take from me the fatal existence you gave me. Shew me mountains and hills to fall on me, and hide me from the anger of my judge or, if that divine vengeance, which pursues thee, will not enable thee to do so, I myself will become thy tormentor; I will for ever present myself, a frightful spectacle, before thine eyes, and by those eternal howlings, which I will incessantly pour into thine ears, I will reproach thee, through all eternity I will reproach thee with my misery and despair."

Let us turn our eyes from these gloomy images, let us observe objects more worthy of the majesty of this place, and the holiness of our ministry. To refuse to dedicate our children to God by a religious education, is to refuse those everlasting pleasures, which as much surpass our thoughts as our expressions.

It is a famous question in the schools, whether we shall remember in heaven the connections we had in this world? Whether glorified spirits shall know one another? Whether a father will recollect his son, or a son his father? And so on. I will venture to affirm, that they, who have taken the affirmative side, and they, who have taken the negative on this question, have often done so without any reason.

On the one side, the first have pretended to establish their thesis on this principle that something would be wanting to our happiness, if we were not to know in a future state those persons, with whom we had been united by the tenderest connections in this present world.

On the other hand, if we know, say the partizans of the opposite opinion, the condition of our friends in a future state, how will it be possible, that a parent should be happy. in the possession of a heaven, in which his children have no share; and how can he possibly relish pleasure at the right hand of God, while he revolves this dreadful thought in his mind, my children are now, and will for ever be tormented with the devil?

It should seem, the proof and the objection are equally groundless. The enjoyment of God is so sufficient to satiate a soul, that it cannot be considered as necessary to the hap

piness