some parting favour, entreated him to speak his mind: when, no less to her surprise, than sorrow and disgrace, he publicly addressed her with this severe but merited reproach: "Ah! cruel and unnatural parent! hadst thou justly punished me for the first act of thieving I committed when a child, instead of encouraging me in the fault, I had not now been brought to this most shameful and unhappy end." Here is a * The same sad consequences will ever be produced by any degree of bad example, disgraceful practice, or omission to check a dawning vice; and every injudicious indulgence that the inconsiderate parent may, through misplaced fondness, lavish on those thus training for irretrievable misfortune, will tend to foster evil habits, that may never be eradicated, but will increase the inherent propensity to evil, sully the character through life, and end in the desertion of their friends, and a state of shame and indigence. Instead of reverencing the memory of such unnatural parents, the unhappy victims of their senseless partiality will have to lament the hour of their birth, and execrate the womb that bore them. At the dread meeting of the wretched beings that were instrumental to this mutual misery through any of the baneful causes above described, the reproach will be as cutting as unavailing. The awful scene is most affectingly represented in the powerful language of an eminent Prelate of our Church, and I shall transcribe it as a valuable warning to all accountable for parental duties. "This is certain, that parents must one day be answerable for every neglect towards their children; and what will they be able to say to God, at the day of judgment, for all omissions of their duty, in matters of instruction and example, and restraint from evil? How will it make their ears plain but powerful rebuke to parents. The same error has been the ruin of thousands; how gall to tingle, when God shall arise terribly to judgment, and say to them, Behold, the children which I gave you, they were ignorant, and you instructed them not; they made themselves vile, and you restrained them not; why did you not teach them at home, and bring them to church, to the public ordinances and worship of God, and train them to the exercise of piety and devotion? and if disinclined to attend, why did you not exert your authority to compel them to do it? why did you leave them to themselves, and endanger them to become a prey to seduction of every kind, instead of keeping a watchful eye over their conduct and their companions? You did not only forbear to give them good counsel, but you set them bad example, and they have followed you to hell, to be an addition to your torment there. Unnatural wretches! that have thus neglected, and by your neglect destroyed those, whose happiness, by so many tender ties of duty and affection, you were commanded to promote. Behold! the books are opened, and there is not one prayer upon record, that ever you put up for the welfare of your children; nay, you have been, in many instances, regardless both of their temporal and eternal happiness! There is no memorial, no, not so much as of one hour, that ever was seriously spent to train them to a sense of God, and the knowledge of their duty: but, on the contrary, it appears, that by your own carelessness, and various ruinous habits, you have many ways contrived their misery, contributed to their ruin, and helped forward their damnation. How could you be thus unnatural? How could you thus hate your own flesh, and your own souls? How much better had it been for them, and for you, that they had never been born! "Will not such a heavy charge as this cause every joint of the guilty parents to tremble, and overwhelm them ing must be the feelings of their conscience, who can bring the lesson home! how wholesome is the warning lest the like cutting reproach should ever afflict themselves! One of the effects of false indulgence and neglect of early care, is idleness: this leads immediately to vicious company, tippling, and sabbath-breaking, and these prepare the vicious and headstrong youth for the commission of every kind of wickedness.-Nothing more rapidly assists the wiles of the tempter, than neglect of regular attendance on God's public wor with anguish inexpressible? will it not wound them to the heart, and pierce their very souls, to be challenged by a 'child in that day with such justly reproachful terms as these? "Had you been as careful to teach me the good knowledge of the Lord, as I was capable of learning, instead of familiarizing me to idle, low, artful, and vicious courses, it had not been with me as it is this day. I had not now been standing here, trembling in fearful expectation of the eternal sentence, just ready to be passed upon me. Cursed be the man that begat me, and the paps that gave me suck. It is to you that I in great measure owe my everlasting ruin!!!” -Would it not strike any of us with horror, to be thus challenged by an accusing offspring, at the great and terrible day of the Lord? but so it certainly will be, when the conviction of this criminal conduct is brought home to the self-condemning conscience. The state of the case is thus awfully represented, to awaken parents to a sense of their important duties in this respect, and terrify them out of the grossly wicked neglect, of which too many are so shamefully and anfeelingly guilty! ship. This is another great cause, both of people's continuing in ignorance, and of their being deserted by Him, whose providence has been pleased to appoint this happy means of grace in every parish (and without whose favour and protection, none must expect to advance in purity of life). Many, it is to be feared, are so far gone in vicious courses, that they find the difficulty of parting with them nearly equal to what the Prophet describes concerning the Ethiopian's change of colour, or the leopard of her spots; and are often driven to build a false hope in search of peace; but there is no peace, saith God, to those who continue in wickedness. They forsake the wholesome doctrines of deep repentance and reformation, which are the only sure effects of regenerating grace, which is faithfully promised to all in Christ's gospel, who earnestly desire it, and constantly proposed to them in the church of which they are members; and they lean on the broken reed of flattering but dangerous doctrines, which, in the end, will pierce all through with sorrows, who fondly and rashly trust to them. They listen with itching ears to things hard to be understood, which the ignorant wrest to their own destruction, under a colour of their favouring a disregard to relative duties, and encouraging a life of inactive faith. Because man, in his unregenerated state, could not possibly deserve the gift of eternal life, and an immaculate Saviour has purchased our redemption, they would gladly persuade themselves, there is no necessity for striving to work out our own salvation: whereas, our blessed Lord affirms, that heaven is taken by violence, and that, though he has supplied us with the armour and the arms, we must put on the one and use the other, or we shall never gain admittance. He declares that we must part with our sins, even those most dear to us, much more those that are injurious to all mankind; and, therefore, all doctrines that render men indifferent to the reformation of their lives, must be considered as antichristian. Our blessed Lord teaches, that strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. And why is this? Because the multitude will go on in the broad way—they will not stoop to enter in at the right gate, or strive to keep on the narrow but sure path of justice and holiness so that they can secure the necessary indulgences of the present life, they care not at whose expense it is, even though at the expense of their own souls. That we are saved by faith, is most sound and safe doctrine; but it must be a faith that convinces us that what the Scriptures declare is true, that we must follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. But it is impossible we can be at peace with our neighbour, while we are |