I speak not merely of the pleasure arising from the consciousness of discharging present duty, and a probable view of future success; such a satisfaction may attend those actions, which are in themselves most painful and mortifying. But I refer to the entertainment immediately flowing from the employment itself, when rightly managed. This is undoubtedly one of those ways of wisdom, which are ways of pleasantness, as well as a path, which in its consequences is peace and happiness*: It is a commandment, in keeping of which there is great reward+. The God of nature has wisely annexed a secret unutterable delight, to all our regular cares for the improvement of our rising offspring. We rejoice to see our tender plants flourish, to observe how the stock strengthens, and the blossoms and the leaves successively unfold. We trace with a gradually advancing pleasure, their easy smiles, the first efforts of speech on their stammering tongues, and the dawnings of reason in their feeble minds. It is a delightful office to cultivate and assist opening nature‡, to lead the young strangers into a new world, and to infuse the principles of any useful kind of knowledge, which their age may admit, and their circumstances require. But when we attempt to raise their thoughts to the great Father of Spirits, to present them, as in the arms of faith, to Jesus the compassionate Shepherd, and teach them to enquire after him; when we endeavour to instruct them in the principles of divine truth, and form them to sentiments of prudence, integrity and generosity; we find a pleasure superior to what any other labour for their improvement can give. On this occasion, my friends, I persuade myself I may appeal to the repeated experience of many amongst you. Do you not find, that the sweetest truths of christianity, which are your hope and your joy in this house of your pilgrimage, are peculiarly sweet when you talk them over with your children? Do you not find, that your instructions and admonitions to them return into your own bosom with a rich increase of edification and refreshment? Thus while you are watering these domestic plantations, you are watering also yourselves; and from these *Prov. iii. 17. + Psal. xix. 11. The generous purpose in the glowing breast. § Prov. xi. 25. THOMPSON'S SPRING, p. 57. holy converses with your children, you rise to more endearing communion with your heavenly Father: God by his Spirit visiting your souls in the midst of those pious cares, and giving you immediate comfort and strength, as a token of his gracious acceptance, and perhaps as a pledge of future success. This leads me to urge the religious education of children, II. By the probability there is, that it will be attended with such success, as to be the means of making them wise and good. This is the arrangement urged by Solomon in the text, train up a child in the way in which he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Being early initiated into the right way, he will pursue it with increasing pleasure; so that with regard to the prosperity of the soul, as well as of the body, his path will be like the morning light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day*. It is true, this assertion is to be understood with some limitation, as expressing the probability, rather than the certainty of the success; otherwise experience would contradict it in some melancholy instances. Would to God there were none untractable under the most pious and prudent methods of edu cation; none, who Like deaf adders stop their ears against the voice of the most skilful charmers†, and have been accustomed to do it from their infancy! Would to God there were none of those, who appeared to set out well, and seemed eager in enquiring the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, who have forgotten The guides of their youth, and the covenant of their Gods, and are to this day wandering in the paths of the destroyer, if they are not already fallen in them! But do you throw by every medicine, which some have used without being recovered by it; or decline every profession, of which there are some who do not thrive? What remedy must you then take? What calling must you then pursue? The application is obvious. It would be folly to pretend to maintain, that religious education will certainly obtain its end; but let me intreat you to consider, that it is in its own nature a very rational method, that it is a method which God has appointed, and a method which in many instances has been found successful. Attend seriously to these remarks, and then judge whether prudence and conscience will not oblige you to pursue it. * Prov. iv. 18. +Psal. lviii. 4, 5. VOL. II. D Jer. 1. 5. § Prov. ii, 17. house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up*. And elsewhere, Thou shalt teach them to thy sons, and thy sons sons +: Plainly recommending a care of more remote, as well as immediate descendants, of grand children, as well as children. Thus when God Established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, he commanded the fathers, that they should make them known unto their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born, that they should arise and declare them to their children; that so religion might be transmitted to every rising age. You cannot be ignorant of such passages as these, which need no comment to explain them, and consequently you cannot but know, that the religious education of children is a divine institution, as well as in itself a most rational attempt: After which you will not wonder to hear, 3. That it has in fact been attended with very happy success. into We acknowledge, that the great God does not confine himself to work by this way; and that he sometimes displays his sovereignty in visibly turning out of it. We acknowledge, that he sometimes leaves those, who had been, as it were, born and brought up in his family, to forsake it in a very scandalous manner while he seems to go into the territories of satan, ignorant, carnal, profane families, and takes from thence persons, whom he erects as trophies of free, surprising, and (as Mr. Howe justly expresses it,) "unaccountable grace.' But you well know, that these are more rare and uncommon cases: And though some of you, my friends, are and I hope you will never forget it,) happy instances of the singular divine goodness; yet most of you, as I apprehend, were from your childhood trained up in the knowledge of God, and are living monuments of the success which has attended the care of parents, or masters in this particular. The greater part of those, who have of late been admitted to your communion, have, to my certain knowledge, mentioned it with thankfulness; and I rejoice to think, how many of the rising generation amongst us, (if even a child may be known by his doings, are like to encrease the number, and give us an encouraging hope that they will at length be set as olive-plants around the Lord's table, as well as yours. I persuade myself it is so elsewhere, and think I may pronounce it with some confidence, that the families of God's children are, generally speaking, the nurseries of his church. Solomon, no Deut. vi. 6, 7. + Deut. iv. 9. Psal. Ixxviii. 5, 6. || Prov. xx. 11. doubt, had observed, that a good education had generally been successful, or we could by no means account for the remark in the text; and a very accurate writer of our own age and nation has carried it so far as to say, "That of all the men we meet with, nine parts in ten are what they are, good or bad, useful or not, according to their education*." I hope you are by this time convinced, that, humanly speaking, there is great probability, that religious educatiou may be the effectual means of promoting serious piety in the rising age; which was the second argument by which I was to recommend it: An argument, which may be greatly strengthened, by observing, III. That the success, which we may so reasonably expect, is a matter of very high importance. It is of evident importance-to the honour of God, and the support of religion,-to the present and future happiness of your children, and to your own comfort both in life and death. Weighty and comprehensive thoughts! which I shall briefly toucht, and to which I beg you will renew your attention. 1. The honour of God, and the interest of a Redeemer, is greatly concerned in the behaviour of your children; and consequently in your care of their education, which is like to have so great an influence upon it. We live in a dying world. Our fathers, where are they? Sleeping in the dust, as we must shortly be. We are sure, that in a little, a very little while, these places must know us no more§: And when we are mouldering in the house of silence, who must fill our places in the house of God? Who must rise up in our stead for the support of religion amongst those that succeed us? From whom can it be expected, but from our children? Yet how can we expect it from these, in the neglect of a method, which comes recommended by so many advantageous circumstances? "Yes," you will perhaps be ready to say, "God will take care of his own cause, and almighty grace will do what we have not attempted, because we knew that we could not accomplish it." Almighty grace can indeed do it; and almighty power can Of * Locke on Education, §. 1. I omit many things which might be said on these heads, because I have opened them more largely in a sermon on this very subject, The Importance of the Rising Generation, which is the first of those sermons to young persons, which are now reprinted in the same form as these. these stones, on which we tread, raise up children to Abraham*. But shew me your warrant from the word of God for expecting it, either in the one case, or in the other. You will possibly answer, "He has promised to be ever with his churcht, and that The gates of hell shall not prevail against it‡; but that One generation shall arise and declare his mighty works unto anothers, and that the kingdom of his Son shall continue As long as the sun and the moon endure." Blessed be his name for these encouraging promises, which shall no doubt be accomplished. But where has he engaged, that this kingdom shall always continue amongst us? Such passages as these will no more prove, that the gospel shall never be removed from Great-Britain, than they would once have proved, that it should never be taken away from Pergamos or Thyatira, or any other of the Asian-churches, which have so many ages ago been given up to desolation. Now let me intreat you, for a few moments, to dwell upon that thought; what if the gospel should be lost from amongst your descendants! what if in the age of these little ones, or the next that shall succeed to theirs, the house of the Lord should be forsaken, and his table abandoned? What if the ministry should be grown into disuse, or the servants of Christ in it should have nothing to do, but to bear a fruitless testimony against an unbelieving generation, till, when their hearts are broken with so sad an office, the gospel here die with them, and religion be buried in their graves? Is it a thought easily to be supported by a true Israelite, that the ark of the Lord should thus be lost, and God should write upon us Icabod, the sad memorials of a departed glory! It would surely be peculiarly melancholy, that religion should die in the hands of those who were the children of the kingdom. And were not yours so? In this respect, my friends, permit me to say, that I am witness against some of you. When you have offered your children to baptism, you have delivered them into my hands, with an express declaration of your sincere desire, that they might be devoted to God; and have received them again with a solemn charge and promise to bring them up for him, if their lives should be continued. And as for those of you, who do not practise this institution, I doubt not, but many of you are equally faithful in dedicating your infantoffspring to God, is it not then reasonable to expect them both, Mat. iii. 9. + Mat. xxviii. Psal. Ixxii. 5. Mat. xvi. 18. |