The fourth chapter contains fome obfervations on the true ground of the duty of parents towards their children, and on its general nature and offices. The doctor obferves that the authority of parents is one of the greatest and most important trufts that the fovereign wisdom of the eternal parent of the universe, has thought fit to vest in mankind; and therefore, that the right execution of this truft, by a confcientious performance of every part of parental duty, may justly be ranked among the chief obligations of religion; among the firft, in order of nature, and the most diffufive, and momentous, in their confequences. He fhews that the provident care of parents for their children, in the firft irrational, and abfolutely defenceless, ftage of human life, is an inviolable law of nature, and one of its wifeft, and most important, institutions; and that, if we rise higher, to the ftage when reafon begins to open, when confcience, and the firft dawning fenfe of morality discovers itself in children, the right difcharge of the parents duty will appear to be of ftill greater moment, because this is the fcene for nurturing the understanding, and laying the foundation for good and useful manners.

He observes farther on this subject, that parents can properly demand no reverence, no gratitude, or honour, on account of the inftrumental communication of being to their children; and that their first discharging, at least in the greater and more effential inftances, their natural obligations, is what chiefly conftitutes the tie of duty on the part of the children.

In the fifth chapter our author proceeds to the confideration of a subject, of all others, the most important, viz. The proper education of children; in treating of which he not only fhews great knowledge of human nature, but the most ardent concern for the happiness of mankind, and the interests of virtue and true religion. After fome general reflections to fhew the neceffity of removing the impediments to a proper education, and of preventing the growth of noxious weeds, that will fuffocate the feeds of wisdom, and virtue, in their very birth, he examines the following question, viz. Whether the rigorous and compulfive, or the mild, ingenuous, and liberal education, be the preferable courfe? He obferves very juftly, that extreme severity in paternal government, like tyranny of all other kinds, depresses and breaks the fpirits; begets a pufillanimous, abject, flavish mind; enervates the force of refolution; damps emulation and ardor, the chief springs of wife and virtuous improve

ments;

ments; that it raifes a prejudice against virtue in fome tempers, fcarce poffible to be ever afterwards fubdued; and that inftead of bending others to compliance, it renders them more stiff and obftinate, through a disdain of rigour, and an oppofition to tyrannical power. To reduce and conquer obftinacy, he allows that the feverer method, and even the infliction of corporal punishments, may be often right and fit; nay farther, that they feem to be the only means of quelling and controuling an intractable fpirit, that is averse to all reafon, and incapable of receiving impreffions from it : but obferves that these, with respect to the whole, are rare inftances, and perhaps ever likely to be fo; the firft temper of youth being, in the main, foft and flexible, if it be not hardened by an over-fond and indifcreet indulgence. As rigid discipline, though it may repel, is not fo likely to cure and reform, a perverfe and evil temper, our author prefers the gentle, mild, and perfuafive method of education; and recommends it to parents to inculcate ftrongly on the minds of their children, the infamy of ignorance and vice, the reafonable character of wifdom, the intrinfic excellence and amiableness of religion, and to nourish and ftrengthen, as much as poffible, their fenfe of ingenuity and honour.

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He now proceeds to fhew the vast importance of a religious education. Nothing elfe, fays he, can be fo worthy of our folicitous care, and feady attention. If the foundation be, here, rightly laid, we provide, in the fureft manner, for our childrens future honour, and their happiness throughout the whole period of their existence; not for a low, fleeting, animal, but for a reasonable, moral, immortal life. We take the only method, to render all their other accomplishments, of learning, extenfive knowledge, polite addrefs, engaging and ingenuous manners, in the highest degree graceful, and beneficial; to refine their difpofitions, enoble their views, fit them for offices of fociety and friendship and urge them from the fublimeft of all motives, and motives of the most certain and conftant efficacy, to laudable and great pursuits.

In a word, fo far as the best principles, and the utmost precautions, of human prudence can avail, we guard thofe tender branches of the family (whom the God of nature, the univerfal parent, has especially committed to our tutorage, while they are credulous and unexperienced) against the dangerous fnares of life; and thofe exceffes of vice and falfe pleasure, which impair the health, and corrupt the manners of youth, often to fuch a degree, that they

are never, afterwards, recover'd to a due strength and vigour, either of body or mind. And thus the rational workmanfhip of God is render'd in a manner abortive, and stifled in its very birth. It is prevented, not by any direct fault of its own, but before it becomes capable of diftinguishing, rightly, between good and evil: it is prevented, I fay, merely through its misfortune, in having been intrufted to the conduct of unnatural and faithlefs guardians, from fo much as afpiring after any improvements of virtue and religion, and from ever thinking in earnest, how it may best attain the end of its creation.

And from hence, it undeniably follows, that no man deferves, to fuch a degree, the character of a father, abfolutely Savage and cruel, as he, who entirely neglects to inftruct his children in the knowledge, the grateful adoration, and ferious reverence of God and the eternal momentous principles of virtue and true religion. Such an one, who has no concern at all about their chief intereft, in time, and to eternity, muft (if he himself believes that there is a God, and that man, as to his mind, is of nobler extract, and allowed to form more extended profpects than a brute) be quite a barbarian, alienated from the tafte and feelings of humanity, and hardened against the tendereft fympathies of nature.

For he is the inftrument of communicating a being, weak, helpless, ignorant, unapprehensive of danger, in a great degree (for a confiderable time, after reafon has first began to display itself) and yet exposes it to innumerable fatal hazards of its virtue and peace. Inftead of endeavouring to point out to it its duty, and the paths that lead to happiness, its most pernicious exceffes, and the high road of dishonour and mifery, he is stupidly infenfible of its most preffing exi gencies, and acts as if he had directly propos'd it to him. felf as his chief end in being the Jecondary caufe of its existence, to leave it to shift as it could, deftitute of proper admonition and culture, amidst the many chances that lay against its right conduct; or, which amounts to much the fame, to devote it to probable vice, fhame, and infelicity.

And is not fuch a behaviour exceffively fhocking to reafon! to benevolence! to all honeft fober thought! to rude nature, as well as to refinements of philofophy, and the divine illuminations of the Chriftian religion! if children may be thus neglected, the whole human race must have been defign'd, in the first flage of their lives, when they ftand in need of the moft officious attendance, and careful cultivation, to be deferted and abandon'd; and confequently, to

be

be placed, hy nature, in thofe diftrefs'd and forlorn circumftances, to which, in all countries, pretending to civility, and just regulations of government, only the children of the meaner and poorer part are expofed in that fate, towards which, the pity of the generous mind fooneft relents, as one of the most deplorable of all others, and as having a fingular claim to its fuccour and relief.

Having enforced, both on the principles of natural and revealed religion, the parent's obligation to discharge this part of his duty, our author concludes this chapter with fuggefting a few hints of a proper model for religious and christian education. And in the first place, fays he, it is a rule of great importance, that the religious inftruction of children be plain and intelligible; not only adapted to their age and capacities of reafon, but to their real degrees of reason, and actual proficiency in knowledge. To teach them by rote, things of which they have no understanding, is exactly the fame with giving them no inftruction at all; nay, it may, fometimes, be attended even with worfe confequences; because the impofing upon them the learning of words, from which they can derive no information, no ideas at all, may infuse into their minds an early deep impreffion that religion is a thing entirely arbitrary, from which they can, reasonably, expect no more folid advantage than a flave has in obeying the will of a tyrant- i. e. the being merely exempted from punishment, without any rational hope of a reward. If they are obliged, for example, in the firft rudiments and exercises of their reafon, to learn and retain the following words' viz." that juftification is an act of God's free grace, "wherein he pardoneth all our fins, and accepteth us as righte"ous in his fight, only for the righteousness of Chrift, imput"ed to us, and received by faith alone"-(without enquiring, at prefent, whether this be a fcriptural doctrine or not) moft certain it is, that they might, almoft, as well have been taught the pronunciation of a sentence in Greek or Arabic, as a neceffary article of true religion, becaufe, in both cafes, they are obliged to learn fomewhat, the fenfe of which they are entirely ignorant of; and which the parent, the inftructor himself, is generally unable to explain.

And from hence, it neceffarily follows, that the inftruction, in principles of religion, fhould be progreffive and gradual, as the understanding grows mature and ripe for receiving it. To overload a tender mind, breaks its force of genius, difcourages its application, and may fix an inveterate breiudice againft religion itself. Many parts, especially of

the

the doctrines and evidences of revealed religion, children feem, at first, to be not capable of comprehending: it is scarce poffible, therefore, that these should establish any good principles and difpofitions in their minds: And, because they experience nothing of this kind, they may, perhaps, be led to conclude that there is nothing of real moment in these things, and be difcouraged, ever afterwards, from engaging in a ferious difquifition into fuch apparently dry unprofitable speculations; against which, by wrong management, they have been early prepoffefs'd, as perplex'd and intricate, and of but little importance to their happiness.

Another rule, therefore, to be obferved in religious education is, to begin with thofe first principles, on which all religion, whether natural or revealed, is founded: and by which alone its authority can be fupported and maintained. From their own fenfes and experience, as foon as they become capable of exertions and operations of reafon, youth may have easily instilled and established in their minds the general notion of a firft caufe. They have a fentiment derived from nature, and confirmed by the weakness and dependance of their infant state, that they were not the authors of their own existence: they will foon admit this also of their parents, whom they fee to be of the fame kind with themselves, though advanced to higher degrees of strength and perfection in human nature.

They will, therefore, without much difficulty, admit the idea of an univerfal parent, prefiding over, and governing all mankind; that they are bound to pay him a fupreme reverence; that they owed to him, in their defencless state of infancy, all the fupports and accommodations of life; that his government is mild and gracious, and his punishments when he is obliged to correct, neceffary, and intended for thir good; that he is a witnefs to all their follies; and that whatever excesses they are either afhamed or afraid to commit, in the presence of their earthly parents, they should be much more folicitous not to indulge themselves in under his conftant notice and inspection. These fundamental principles of all religion may be explained and deeply fixed in the minds of children, as foon, almoft, as they are capable of being inftructed in any branch of knowledge.

But their more explicit knowledge of the character and perfections of God would be beft infufed by degrees; and may, perhaps, be more properly communicated, as curiofity prompts them to enlarge their views, and in answer to the queflions which general difcourfes on thefe fubjects will natu

rally