tinuance of their joy, as the supposed means of confirming their childrens' health, are become an everlasting spring of their mourning.

And as those midnight recreations are badly suited to fit us for the duties of the civil life, so they are worse suited to fit us for, or rather they are more apparently opposite to the duties of religion. The religion of the closet is neglected, the beautiful regularity and order of the family is broken; and when the night has been turned into day, a good part of the next day is turned into night, while the duties of the morning, both to God and man, are unperformed. Those who have frequented these assemblies know all this, and are my witnesses to the truth of it. Nay, the very practice itself, at those unseasonable hours, tells all the world how much they prefer these dangerous amusements to the worship of God in the evening, and in the morning, and to all the conveniences and decorum of familygovernment. Besides, if I speak to Christians, have you not found that the indulgence to this sort of diversions, which are usually practised in those unseasonable assemblies, leads the mind away insensibly from God and religion, gives a vanity to the spirit, and greatly abates the spiritual and heavenly temper which should belong to Christians? Hath it not taken away the favour of godliness and tincture of piety from some younger minds? And do elder Christians never suffer by it? Let it be further considered what sort of company you mingle with in those midnight assemblies. Are they most frequented by the wise and pious, or by the more vain and vicious part of mankind? Do they tend to fill your mind with the most improving notions, and your your lips with the most proper conversation? Do you that frequent them never find your piety in danger there? Does strict religion and prayer relish so well with you after those gaudy nights of mirth and folly? And do you then, when you join in those assemblies, practise the commands of God, to abstain from all appearance of evil, and to shun the paths of temptation? Can you pray for a

ears and

blessing

blessing on your attendance on these midnight meetings? Or can you hope to run into the midst of those sparks and living coals, and yet not be burned, nor so much as have your garments singed? Are not parents very generally sensible that there are dangerous snares to youth in those gay diversions? And therefore the mother will herself go along with her young offspring, to take care of them, and to watch over them; and perhaps there is scarcely any place or time which more wants the watchful eye of a superior. But here let me ask, is this all the reason why the mother attends those scenes of vanity? Has she no relish for them herself? Has she no gay humours of her own to be gratified, which she disguises and covers with the pretence of a parental solicitude for the virtue and honour of her offspring? Are there no mothers who freely lead their children into those perilous places, where soul and body are in danger, and are really their tempters, under a colour of being their guardians?

You will plead, perhaps, that some of these things are proper for the improvement of young people in good breeding and politeness. They must be brought into company, to see the world, and to learn how to behave with becoming decency. Well, suppose these assemblies to be academies of politeness, and that young people attend there upon lectures of good breeding, Is there no other time so fit as midnight to polish the youth of both sexes, and to breed them well? May not an hour or two be appointed, at more proper seasons, by select companies, for mutual conversation and innocent delight? Can there be no genteel recreations enjoyed, no lessons of behaviour taught by day-light? Can no method of improvement in good breeding be contrived and appointed, which shall be more secure from temptations and inconveniences? Are there none which are more harmless, more innocent, of better reputation among persons of strict piety, and which make less inroads on the duties of life, both solitary and social, civil and religious?

Shall I inquire once more, what is done at many of those midnight

midnight assemblies, before the dance is begun, or when it is ended, and what is the entertainment of those who are not engaged in dancing? Are they not active in gaming? Are not cards the business of the hour? Are not children educated, by this means, in the love of gaming? And do they not hereby get such a relish of it as proves afterwards pernicious to them? Now, if gaming be not a practice fit to be encouraged, what encouragement do those assemblies deserve, where gaming is one of the chief diversions or business?

But it is time to put an end to this sort of discourse. I beg pardon of my readers for having drawn it out to so great a length: for I have said too much on this subject for those who have no inclination to these criminal and dangerous diversions: and I wish I may have said enough to do good to those who have.

Upon the whole, I conclude it is the duty of parents, who would give their children a good education, to see to it that children, in their younger years, do not indulge such recreations as may spoil all the good effects of the pious instructions, the prayers, and care of their parents. Otherwise, if you encourage them in such recreations, you are building up those vanities of mind, and those vicious inclinations with one hand, which you labour to prevent or to destroy with the other.

SECT. X.

Of the proper Degrees of Liberty and Restraint in the Education of a Son, illustrated by Example.

So weak and unhappy is human nature, that it is ever ready to run into extremes; and when we would recover ourselves from an excess on the right hand, we know not where to stop till we are got to an excess on the left. Instances of this kind are innumerable in all the affairs of human life; but it is hardly more remarkable in any thing than in the strict and severe education of our fathers a cen

tury

tury ago, and in the most profuse and unlimited liberty that is indulged to children in our age.

In those days the sons were bred up to learning by terrible discipline: every Greek and Latin author they conversed with was attended with one or many new scourges, to drive them into acquaintance with him; and not the least misdemeanour in life could escape the lash, as though the father would prove his daily love to his son by never sparing his rod, Prov. xiii. 24. Now-a-days young master must be treated with a foolish fondness, till he is grown to the size of man; and let his faults be ever so heinous, and his obstinacy ever so great, yet the preceptor must not let him hear the name of the rod, lest the child should be frightened or hurt; the advice of the wisest of men is utterly forgotten, when he tells us "that due correction shall drive out the folly that is bound up in the heart of a child," Prov. xxii. 15. Or else they boldly reverse his divine counsel, Prov. xiii. 24. as though they would make the rule of their practice a direct contradiction to the words of Solomon, namely, He that spareth the rod loveth his son, but he that hateth him chastens him betimes.

In that day many children were kept in a most servile subjection, and not suffered to sit down, or to speak in the presence of their father, till they were come to the age of one and twenty. The least degree of freedom was esteemed a bold presumption, and incurred a sharp reproof. Now they are made familiar companions to their parents, almost from the very nursery; and therefore they will hardly bear a check or rebuke at their hand.

In the beginning of the last century, and so onward to the middle of it, the children were usually obliged to believe what their parents and their masters taught them, whether they were principles of science, or articles of faith and practice: they were tied down almost to every punctilio, as though it were necessary to salvation; they were not suffered to examine or inquire whether their teachers were in the right, and scarcely knew upon what grounds they

were

were to assent to the things that were taught them; for it was a maxim of all teachers, that the learner must believe: Discentem operte credere. Then an ipse dixit, or Aristotle said so, was a sufficient proof of any proposition in the colleges; and for a man of five-and-twenty to be a Christian and a Protestant, a Dissenter or a Church-man, it was almost reason enough to say that his father was so. But in this century, when the doctrine of a just and reasonable liberty is better known, too many of the present youth break all the bonds of nature and duty, and run to the wildest degrees of looseness, both in belief and practice. They slight the religion which their parents have taught them, that they may appear to have chosen a religion for themselves and when they have made a creed or belief of their own, or rather borrowed some scraps of infidelity from their vain companions and equals, they find pretences enough to cast off all other creeds at once, as well as the counsels and customs of their religious predecessors.

:

"The practices of our fathers (say they) were precise and foolish, and shall be no rule for our conduct; the articles of their faith were absurd and mysterious, but we will believe nothing of mystery, lest our faith should be as ridiculous as theirs." In their younger years, and before their reason is half grown, they pretend to examine the sublimest doctrines of Christianity; and a raw and half. witted boy shall commence an infidel, because he cannot comprehend some of the glorious truths of the gospel; and laughs at his elders and his ancestors for believing what they could not comprehend.

The child now-a-days forgets that his parents are obliged, by all the laws of God and nature, to train him up in his own religion, till he is come to the proper age of discretion to judge for himself; he forgets, or he will not know, that the parent is intrusted with the care of the souls of his young offspring by the very laws of nature, as well as by the revealed covenants of innocency and of grace. The son Row-a-days forgets the obligations he is under to honour