whence soever obtained; our realizing, useful sense of religious things, of every kind; our attainment of desirable habits, both of thinking and feeling; our knowledge of ourselves; our best preparation to turn from sin, and to advance through superior degrees of holiness; and our self-government, peace of mind, and solid enjoyment. Each of these benefits is sufficiently great to justify the remark, which has been made above: and all of them, united, place Religious Meditation in a light, eminently strong, clear, and affecting. As a mean of salvation it holds a high rank, a place of distinguished importance. Most reasonably, most kindly, then, are we required to prove ourselves, to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, obedience, and kingdom, of God. Most mercifully are we directed to ponder the path of life; for the natural, the proper, the inestimable, consequence is, that all our ways will be ordered aright.

2. The same observations teach us the pre-eminent Folly of those, who neglect Religious Meditation, especially the examination of themselves.

In the minds of these persons, instructions from abroad will be like furniture, thrown into a garret; out of place, and out of use; incapable, until it shall have been arranged in its proper order, of being applied to any valuable purpose. In these minds also, nothing good will be either strongly felt, or habitually exercised. Every moral, every valuable, thing, whether a truth, a precept, or an affection; will, in such minds, float at random, as the down of the thistle through the atmosphere. In the moment of its appearance it will vanish. The best purposes, the firmest resolves, of such minds, are mere abortions; and exist only to expire.

Men of this character can never become possessed of self-knowledge a kind of knowledge so useful, so excellent, that even the Heathen supposed the precept, enjoining it, to have descended from Heaven. If they are deformed by sin; if they are in the most imminent hazard of ruin; they can never know this, as it ought to be known. They can neither understand, nor feel, their real guilt, their real danger, or the real necessity of providing for their escape. They are, therefore, utterly unprepared to turn from the error of their ways, and to save their souls alive.

There are in the Christian world men, who, under the influence of strong convictions of conscience, and with the aid of that anxious investigation of themselves, which always accompanies such. convictions, have by the influence of the Holy Ghost been turned from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God; and who, yet, have afterwards become lukewarm in religion, and, with a Laodicean spirit, in a great measure ceased to commune with their own hearts. All these persons linger at the point, where they originally stood; and yield up both the means, and the hopes, of improvement in the Christian character. I do not intend, that this is

absolutely the fact: for no Christian is absolutely destitute of selfexamination. But, so far as this destitution exists, he, who is the subject of it, will cease to keep his body and spirit in subjection; to grow in grace; to acquire peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Why do sinners refuse to examine themselves; and to gain the blessings to which this conduct gives birth? Plainly because they are too slothful, or too much alarmed at the thought of uncovering the mass of sin and guilt in their hearts. Thus they would rather decline every hope of good, than encounter the labour of searching themselves, or turn their eyes upon the dismal prospect within. The latter is the usual and predominant evil. The picture is too deformed; too dreadful; and, sooner than behold it, they will run the hazard of damnation. But is not knowledge always better than ignorance? Is not truth always more profitable than delusion? To know the truth, in this case, might prove the means of eternal life. To continue ignorant of it cannot fail to terminate in their ruin. What folly can be more complete than to hazard this tremendous evil, rather than to encounter the pain of looking into ourselves: a pain, abundantly overpaid by the profit, which is its certain consequence. Such persons hoodwink themselves; and then feel safe from the evils of the precipice, to which they are advancing, because they cannot see their danger. They make the darkness in which they grope, and stumble, and fall.

3. These observations also teach us, that this neglect is inexcusable.

Meditation on every moral and religious subject is always in our power. Every man is able to look into himself; and into every moral subject, concerning which he has been instructed. Nor is the performance of this duty attended with any real difficulty. The motives to it are infinite. God has required it: our own temporal and eternal interest indispensably demands it. The benefits of it are immense. Sloth only, and a deplorable dread of knowing what we are, can be alleged in behalf of our neglect.

But to how low a situation must he be reduced, how forlorn must be his condition, who can plead for his conduct, in so interesting a case, no reasons but these! Can these reasons excuse him even to himself? Will they excuse him before the bar of God? What can even self-flattery, with her silver tongue, allege in his behalf, but that he is too slothful, or too indifferent to the command of God. This is worse than the wretched plea of the unprofitable servant in the parable. Even he was able to say, that he thought his Master was an austere man, and hard in his requisitions.

But whatever may be thought of these excuses, let no sinner pretend, that he has laboured for eternal life, until he has thoroughly examined his heart, and devoted himself to religious con

templation. This is a duty, which every man can perform; a duty, to which every man is bound; a duty, in the way of which, reason can find no obstacle. He, who will not perform it, ought therefore to say, that he will not; and to acknowledge, that he values the indulgence of his sloth, or the sluggish quiet of seif-ignorance, more than the salvation of his soul.

SERMON CXLVII.

MEANS OF GRACE. THE DUTY OF EDUCATING

CHILDREN

RELIGIOUSLY.-OBJECTIONS.

THE ORDINARY

PROVERBS xxii. 6.—Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

THE next subject of inquiry, in the order proposed, is
The Religious Education of Children.

In a former discourse, I observed, that the word train originally denotes to draw along by a regular and steady course of exertions; and is, hence, very naturally used to signify drawing from one action to another by persuasions, promises, and other efforts, continually repeated. The way, in which a child should go, as was also observed in that discourse, is, undoubtedly, the way, in which it is best for him to go; particularly, with respect to his eternal well-being. With this explanation, the text will be seen,

I. To enjoin upon parents the Religious Education of their Chil

dren.

II. To teach the Manner, in which this duty should be performed. III. To promise a Blessing to such, as faithfully discharge this duty; and thus to present powerful Motives to the performance. These I shall examine in the order proposed.

The duty, enjoined in the text, has by multitudes of mankind been strenuously denied. "Children, religiously educated," say these persons, "will, regularly, be biassed to one side of the case, and equally prejudiced against the other. Should they, then, believe in the divine revelation of the Scriptures, and adopt any one of those numerous systems of doctrines and precepts, which have existed in the Christian world; their belief would spring from prejudice only, and not from candour, investigation, or evidence. Consequently, it will be destitute alike of solid support and useful efficacy. Children would, therefore, be incomparably better situated, were they permitted to grow up without any extraneous impulse with respect to religion; and, being thus unprejudiced, would select for themselves, with much more probability, whatever is true, and right."

To oppose this scheme will be the design of the following discourse and in the progress of the opposition, all the proofs of the propriety of performing this duty may be advantageously alleged. As the scheme is addressed to Christians; the arguments against it must be also addressed to Christians. I observe, then,

1. That the mind, when uneducated, is a mere blank with respect o all useful knowledge; and, with respect to the knowledge of moral subjects, as truly, as any other.

Both Infidels and others, (for unhappily there are others, who adopt this scheme) will acknowledge the truth of the proposition, here asserted. It will, therefore, need no proof. What, then, will be the consequence of the omission contended for? The uneducated child will grow up without any knowledge of moral subjects, until the season, allotted by God for instruction, and the only useful season, is past: all future instructions will find his attachments, and his memory, pre-occupied; and will make, and leave, feeble impressions, little regarded, and soon forgotten. His passions and appetites, having, from the beginning, increased their strength by the mere course of nature, and the want of seasonable control, will effectually resist every attempt to communicate, and impress, such doctrines, as oppose their favourite dictates. The authority and influence of the parent also, which are indispensably necessary to infix all important lessons in the mind of the child, will in a great measure have ceased. Of course, the instruction, thus given, will slide over the understanding, and leave no trace of their existence upon the heart.

Besides, the child will naturally believe, that things, so long untaught, cannot, in the parent's own view, be of any serious consequence. Instinctively will he say, "If these things are true, and of such importance; why have I, hitherto, been kept a stranger to them? I might have died in my childhood, or in my youth. Had this been the case; where should I have been now? Did parental tenderness disregard the eternal well-being of my soul, and leave me to become an outcast of Heaven; merely because I had not arrived at adult years? Is, then, the eternal life of the soul, at twelve, or fifteen, of no value; and, at twenty-five, of infinite importance? Can it be, that I am destined to endless happiness, or misery; and yet that my father, and still more my mother, should have felt this vast subject, and loved me, so little, as to let me lie, to the present hour, in profound ignorance of this amazing destination? Had I died before this time, I had died for lack of vision. The things themselves are, therefore, not true. At least, they have never been seriously believed by those, from whom I derived my being." To these remonstrances, it is hardly necessary to observe, there could be no satisfactory answer.

At the period proposed, therefore, the instructions in question would be useless. The mind, already grown up with those views only, which a savage entertains of moral subjects; few, gross, false, and fatal; would now be incapable of imbibing better; and in the chief concern of man, would continue, notwithstanding all the light, and all the blessings, of the Gospel, a savage for ever. 2. If children are not educated to just moral principles; they will, of course, imbibe those which are false.