take any care of immortal spirits? Must they be afraid to teach their children the best way they know to everlasting life, for fear lest they should believe and practise it before their reason is ripe enough to choose a religion for themselves? Will they let them trifle away their childhood and youth without the knowledge and love of God, for fear they should learn it too soon, or lest they should build their faith and practice too much upon the superior age, character, aud authority of their parents?

But let us enquire a little, What was this superior age and knowledge, this superior character and authority of parents designed for, if not for the care, instruction and government of their tender and ignorant offspring? And can we imagine this paternal authority, instruction, and government, should reach to every other part of the child's conduct, and exclude his religion? Must the parent give him the best instructions he can in the affairs of this perishing life, and refuse or neglect it in the things of everlasting moment and divine importance? Is it not infinitely better that children should know and serve God, because their parents teach them to do it, than that they should be utterly ignorant of God, and live in a stupid neglect of him and his service. Can a religious parent satisfy himself with this philosophical pretence of not biassing the judgment of his children, and let them go on, and die before they arrive at manhood, in a state of shameful ignorance and rebellion against their Maker? Are children entrusted to the affection and care of parents by the God of nature, for so deplorable an end as this? And will the life and soul of the child never be required at the parent's hand?

There may be many hours and seasons of life when parents may give notice to their children as they grow up to maturity, that religion ought to be a matter of their rational choice. They may be taught to examine the principles they received from their education, and to settle their faith and practice upon solid grounds. But in the mean time children ought to have some notices of the great God who made them instilled into their minds from their very infancy. They ought to be led into that religion in which their parents hope to obtain acceptance with God, and happiness in the world to come. This is the universal voice of nature, and it reclaims aloud against those humorous, slothful, or cruel parents, who bring their children into a dangerous world, and into a state of existence which has no end; and yet take no care to inform them how to escape the dangers of this world, nor how to seek the happiness of their endless existence.

This is the solemn appointment of heaven by express revelation. The command of Moses, the divine lawgiver, the Proverbs of Solomon, the wisest of men, and the sacred epistles of St. Paul, the greatest of the apostles, all concur and repeat this advice, To teach the words of God to children diligently, to train up children in the way they should go, and to educate them in the nurture and admonition of the true religion. See Deut. vi. 6, 7. Prov. xxii. 6. Eph. vi. 4. And surely if parents had but that just share of tenderness and affection for their young sons and their daughters that nature requires, or that scripture enjoins; if they did but look upon them as little parts of themselves, they could not forbear to acquaint them with the things that belong to their everlasting welfare. I might add this also as a final consideration, That if parents take no care to inform their children of the duty they owe to God, they will quickly find that children will pay very little duty to their parents; and they will read their own crime of shameful negligence toward God, in the rebellion of their offspring against themselves.

SECTION II.

OF INSTRUCTING CHILDREN, PARTLY BY REASON, AND PARTLY BY THE AUTHORITY OF

THE PARENT.

BUT I will suppose parents are convinced of their duty to their children in this respect, though some doubts may remain whether they should begin this work of instruction from their very infancy. Now I know no reason why this blessing should be withheld from children when they are first capable of receiving it. As soon as the young creatures begin to make it appear that they have understandings, and have learned the use of words, they may lay out the early exercises of reason in the things of religion. Children of ordinary capacity, at three years old, or a little more, may be taught to know that the heavens and the earth, and the birds, and the beasts, and the trees, and men and women, did not make themselves; but that there is some Almighty Being that made them all, though they cannot see him with their eyes: And they may be instructed in a way of easy reasoning in some of the most evident and most necessary duties which they owe to the great God, whom they see not, almost as soon as they are taught the duties of love and obedience to their parents whom they see daily. By little and little they may be informed and made to see that they are sinful creatures, that they have offended the great God that made them, that they cannot save themselves from his anger; and thus they may be led to some acquaintance with Jesus Christ the only Saviour.

It is certain that we ought to teach children and ignorant persons the knowledge of religion in a rational way, as far as they are capable of receiving it; though I confess it is not an easy matter to make them understand the grounds and reasons of every part of that religion which they may be taught to believe and practise. There are some things therefore that in these younger years of life a child must take entirely upon the credit and authority of the parent or master, such as, the immortality of the soul, the future state of rewards and punishments, and the truth of the christian religion. The Bible is the sacred book which contains the religion of christians; but it is impossible to lead young children into those arguments whereby we prove the authority of the Bible. This therefore must be taken upon trust, and the child's faith of it must be built upon the testimony of his parents and teachers till he is capable of examining these things for himself.

SECTION III.

SHORT SUMMARIES OF RELIGION ARE NECESSARY FOR THE IGNORANT.

NOR yet is it enough to teach children to read, and then to put the Bible in their hands, and to tell them, Here lies your religion, and you must find it out as well as you can. The great God who has ordained the holy scriptures to be the perfect rule of our faith and practice, and sufficient of itself without the help of human traditions, hath also appointed that in all the successive ages of mankind there should be some teachers and instructors of others, to point out to them what use is to be made of these sacred volumes. Parents, by the laws of nature and scripture, are vested with this office: They must teach children how to draw their religion out of the Bible, and render the

knowledge of divine things more easy, by shewing them how to distinguish the most useful parts of scripture from the rest, and which are the most necessary doctrines and duties of religion, as they are derived from the word of God. Without such helps as these, the more ignorant and illiterate part of mankind might turn over the leaves of their Bible a long time, before they could collect for themselves any tolerable scheme of their duty to God, or their fellow-creatures. I knew a person, who falling under sensible convictions of her want of religion and piety toward God, and having been told that the Bible was the book whence she was to learn her duty, reasoned thus with herself; Where shall I find the beginning of my duty to God, but in the beginning of this book? And so she betook herself to read several of the first chapters of Genesis. She laboured and wearied herself in that search with very small advantage, till by the information of other christians, and attendance on the ministry of the word, she was led into the knowledge of the chief principles of the christian religion, which are scattered up and down in several parts of the word of God.

We must consider that the Bible is a large book, and it contains the history of mankind, and particularly of the church of God from the beginning of the world. Herein are recorded the several discoveries of the mind and will of God in every age, according to the necessities and occasions of men. Some of these rules of duty, which were given to the church of God in ancient ages, are now antiquated and abolished; such are the sacrifices and ceremonies of the patriarchal religion from Adam to Moses, and the more numerous rites of the levitical law. Many of the doctrines and duties of piety are also intermingled so much with the historical and prophetical writings, that an unlearned and ignorant person needs some kind hand to point out those places where these important truths and duties lie; and such a friendly hand would still give greater assistance to the ignorant enquirer, by gathering together in one view, and in proper order, the more considerable and necessary articles of faith and practice, as they lie promiscuously scattered abroad in this large volume of the scriptures.

This is the great design of the bodies of divinity and systems which have been drawn up in larger or lesser forms by learned men in several ages; nor is it any derogation from the honour of scripture, when we propose these systems for the instruction of those who are ignorant; for we own all their authority to be derived from the word of God. I know not how to set this matter in a more agreeable light, than the late Rev. Mr. Matthew Henry has done in a sermon of his, preached almost twenty years ago. "Bear us witness," saith he, "we set up no other rule of faith and practice, no other oracle, no other touchstone or test of orthodoxy, but the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament; these only are the fountains whence we fetch our knowledge; these only the foundations on which we build our faith and hope; these the dernier resort of all our enquiries and appeals in the things of God, for they only are given by divine inspiration. Every other help we have for our souls, we make use of in subordination and subserviency to the scripture, and among the rest our catechisms and confessions of faith. Give me leave," saith he, "to illustrate this by an appeal to the gentlemen of the long robe; they know very well that the common law of England lies in the year book, and books of reports, in the records of immemorial customs, and in cases occasionally adjudged, which are not an artificial system drawn up by the rules of method, but rather historical collections of what was solemnly discussed and judiciously delivered in several reigns, pro re natâ, and always taken for law, and according to which the practice has

always been. Now such are the books of the scripture, histories of the several ages of the church, as those of the several reigns of the kings, and of the discoveries of God's mind and will in every age, as there was occasion; and these too are built upon ancient principles, received and submitted to before these divine annals began to be written.

"But though those are the fountains and foundations of the law, those gentlemen know that institutes and abridgments, collections of and references to the cases adjudged in the books, are of great use to them, to prepare them for the study of the originals, and to assist them in the application of them; but they are not thought to derogate from the authority and honour of them; such we reckon our forms of sound words to be. If in any thing they mistake the sense of the text, or misapply it, they must be corrected by it; but as far as they agree with it, they are of great use to make it more easy and ready to us. That which is intended in these forms of sound words, is not like the council of Trent, to make a new creed, and add to it what we have in the scripture, but to collect and methodize the truths and laws of God, and to make them familiar." Thus this pious writer makes it appear, that there are three valuable ends attained by framing such comprehensive systems of religion out of the word of God.

"1. Hereby," saith he, "the main principles of christianity, which lie scattered in the scripture, are collected and brought together; and by this means they are set in a much easier view before the minds of men. Our catechisms and confessions of faith pick up from the several parts of holy writ those passages, which though perhaps occasionally delivered, contain the essentials of religion, the foundations and main pillars upon which christianity is built, which we are concerned rightly to understand, and firmly to believe in the first place, and then to go on to perfection.

"2. Hereby the truths of God, the several articles of christian doctrine and duty, are methodized and put in order. It is true, the books of scripture are written in an excellent method, according to the particular nature and intention of them; but when the design is to represent the main principles of religion in one view, it is necessary that they be put into another method proper to serve that design, that we may understand them the more distinctly, by observing their mutual references to each other, their connexion with and dependence upon each other, and thereby they appear in their truer light and fuller lustre.

"3. Hereby the truths of God are brought down to the capacity of those who are as yet but weak in understanding."

In all this account of things, this worthy author has spoken so much of my sentiments, that I chose to set before the reader, in his own words, the several advantages of drawing up such little schemes of the principles of christianity.

SECTION IV.

CATECHISMS ARE THE BEST SUMMARIES OF RELIGION FOR CHILDREN.

Now among the various forms and methods, wherein the prime articles of our religion have been put together in a comprehensive scheme for the use of the unlearned, there is none so proper for children as that of catechisms. The way of instruction by question and answer, seems to be the plainest and easiest manner wherein the knowledge of religion

can be conveyed to the minds of those that are ignorant, and especially of the younger parts of mankind. This will appear in several respects.

1. Hereby the principles of christianity are reduced into short sentences, which are much more easy to be understood by children, as well as to be treasured up in their memories.

2. Hereby these divine principles are not only thrown into a just and easy method, but every part of them is naturally introduced by a proper question, and the rehearsal of the answer, which should never exceed three or four lines, is made far easier to a child, than it would be if the child were required to repeat the whole scheme of religion by heart without the interposition of another speaker.

3. This way of teaching hath something familiar and delightful in it, because it looks more like conversation and dialogue. It keeps the attention fixed with pleasure on the sacred subject, and yet continually relieves the attention by the alternate returns of the question and answer.

4. The very curiosity of the young mind is awakened by the question to know what the answer will be, and the child will take pleasure in learning the answer by heart, to improve its own knowledge, and to be able to answer such a question. And thus the principles of religion will gradually slide into the mind, and the whole scheme of it be learned without fatigue and tiresomeness.

I might have enlarged greatly upon each of these advantages which the catechetical method has for the instruction of children above and beyond all others. I profess myself therefore a constant friend to catechisms for the instruction of the ignorant.

SECTION V.

OF TEACHING CHILDREN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY LEARN BY HEART, AND OF THE USE OF DIFFERENT CATECHISMS FOR DIFFERENT AGES.

THE great question that now remains is this, What sort of catechisms are most proper for the use of children? The answer is very natural, and ever at hand: Surely such cate chisms must be best which they can best understand, supposing that all the articles of religion necessary for children are contained in them. The business and duty of the teacher is not merely to teach them words, but things. Words written on the memory without ideas, or sense in the mind, will never incline a child to his duty, nor save his soul. The young creature will neither be the wiser nor the better for being able to repeat accurate definitions and theorems in divinity, without knowing what they mean. Suppose a grown person, who knows no language but English, should get by heart the divinest doctrines, or most perfect rules of duty in French or Hebrew, what profit would he find by all this labour of his memory? Wisdom and goodness does not consist in such fatigues of the brain, and such a treasure of unknown words.

It is not enough to say, "This is the most complete system of divinity, this is the most perfect compendium of sacred truth, and therefore let the child be required to learn it." Whereas the child would learn sacred truths sooner and better by a less perfect system, which might contain only the A B C of religion to be instilled by degrees, than by having his little soul overwhelmed at once with a full and accurate discourse on the deeper points of christianity. Surely catechisms of religion for the instruction of