is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it, Matt. vii. 14.

A reformation of the false ideas, which you form on the education of children, is, to speak, the first step, which you ought to take in the road set before you this day. No, it is not such vague instructions as you give your children, such superficial pains as you take to make them virtuous, such general exhortations as you address to them, it is not all this, that constitutes such a religious education as God requires you to give them. Entertain notions more rational, and remember the few maxims, which I am going to propose to you as the conclusion of this discourse.

First maxim. Delays, always dangerous in cases of practical religion, are peculiarly fatal in the case of education. As soon as children see the light, and begin to think and reason, we should endeavor to form them to piety. Let us place the fear of God in these young hearts, before the world can get possession of them, before the power of habit be united to that of constitution. Let us avail ourselves of the flexibility of their organs, the fidelity of their memories, and the facility of their conceptions. To render their duty pleasing to them by the ease with which they are taught to discharge it.

Second maxim. Although the end of the divers methods of educating children ought to be the same, yet it should be varied according to their different characters. Let us study our children with as much application as we have studied ourselves. Both these studies are attended with difficulties: and as self-love often prevents our knowing ourselves, so a natural fondness for our children ren

ders it extremely difficult for us to discover their propensities.

Third maxim. A procedure, wise in itself, and proper to inspire children with virtue, may sometimes be rendered useless by symptoms of passions, with which it is accompanied. We cannot educate them well without a prudent mixture of severity and gentleness. But on the one hand, what success can we expect from gentleness, if they discover that it is not the fruit of our care to reward what in them is worthy of reward, but of a natural inclination, which we have not the courage to resist, and which makes us yield more to the motions of our animal machine, than to the dictates of reason? On the other hand, what good can they derive from our severity, if they see, that it proceeds from humor and caprice more than from our hatred to sin, and our desire to free them from it? If our eyes sparkle, if we take a high tone of voice, if our mouths froth, when we chastise them, what good can come of such chastisements?

Fourth maxim. The best means of procuring a good education lose all their force, unless they be supported by the examples of such as employ them. Example is always a great motive, and it is especially such to youth. Children know how to imitate before they can speak, before they can reason, and, so to speak, before they are born. In their mother's wombs, at the breasts of their nurses, they receive impressions from exterior objects, and take the form of all that strikes them. What suc

cess, miserable mother, can you expect from your exhortations to piety, while your children see you yourself all taken up with the world, and its amusements and pleasures; passing a great part of your life in gaming, and in forming criminal intrigues, which, far from hiding from your family, you ex

pose to the sight of all mankind? What success can you expect from your exhortations to your children, you wretched father, when they hear you blaspheme your Creator, and see you living in debauchery, drowning your reason in wine, and gluttony, and so on.

Fifth maxim. A liberty, innocent when it is taken before men, becomes criminal, when it is taken before tender minds, not yet formed. What circumspection, what vigilance, I had almost said, what niceties doth this maxim engage us to observe? Certain words spoken, as it were, into the air, certain imperceptible allusions, certain smiles, escaping before a child, and which he hath not been taught to suspect, are sometimes snares more fatal to his innocence than the most profane discourses, yea they are often more dangerous than the most pernicious examples, for them he hath been taught to abhor.

Sixth maxim. The indefatigable pains which we ought always to take in educating our children, ought to be redoubled on these decisive events, which influence both the present life, and the future state. For example, the kind of life, to which we devote them, is one of these decisive events. A good father regulates his views in this respect, not according to a rash determination made when the child was in the cradle, but according to observations deliberately made on the abilities and manners of the child.

Companions too are to be considered as deciding on the future condition of a child. A good father with this view will choose such societies as will second his own endeavors, he will remember the maxim of St. Paul, Evil communications corrupt good manners, 1 Cor. xv. 33. for he knows, that a dissolute companion hath often eradicated from

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the heart of a youth all the good seeds, which a pious family had sown there.

Above all, marriage is one of these decisive. steps in life. A good father of a family, unites his children to others by the two bonds of virtue and religion. How can an intimate union bet formed with a person of impious principles, without familiarizing the virtuous by degrees with impiety, without losing by little and little that horror, which impiety would inspire, and without imbibing by degrees the same spirit? So necessary is a bond of virtue. That of religion is no less so, for the crime, which drew the most cutting reproofs upon the Israelites after the captivity, and which brought upon them the greatest judgments, was that of contracting marriages with women not in the covenant. Are such marriages less odious now, when by a profane mixture, people unite light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and idols? 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. Are such marriages less hateful now, when, by a horrible partition, the children, if there be any, are mutually ceded before hand, and in cool blood disposed of thus, the sons shall be taught the truth, the daughters shall be educated in error, the boys shall be for heaven, the girls for hell, a son for God, a daughter for the devil.

Seventh maxim. The best means for the education of children must be accompanied with fervent prayer. If you have paid any attention to the maxims we have proposed, I shall not be surprised to hear you exclaim, Who is sufficient for these things? 2 Cor. ii. 16. But, if it be the fear of not succeeding in educating your children, which dictates this language, and not that indolence, which tries to get rid of the labor, be you fully persuaded, that the grace of God will triumph over your great infirmities. Let us address to him the

most fervent prayers for the happiness of those children, who are so dear to us, and let us believe that they will return in benedictions upon them. Let each parent collect together all his piety, and then let him give himself up to the tenderest emotions towards his children. O God! who didst present thyself to us last Lord's day, under the amiable idea of a parent, pitying them that fear thee as a father pitieth his children, Psal. ciii. 13. O God! who thyself lovest thy Son with infinite tenderness and vehemence: O God! author of the tender affections, which unite me to the children thou hast given me, bless the pains I take in their education: disobedient children, my God, I disown: let me see them die in infancy, rather than go along with the torrent of general immorality, and run, with the children of the world to their excess of riot, 1 Pet. iv. 4. I pray for their sanctification with an ardor a thousand times more vehement than I desire their fortune: and the first of all my wishes is to be able to present them to thee on that great day, when thou wilt pronounce the doom of all mankind, and to say to thee then, Lord, behold here am I, and the children thou hast given me. May God excite such prayers, and answer them! To him be honor and glory for ever. Amen.