ry is departed from Israel, chap. iv. 19, &c. the violent death of Eli; all these events are fully known.

I hasten to the chief design of this discourse. The extreme rigour which God used toward Eli, and the terrible judgments with which he punished the indulgence of this unhappy parent, seem to offend some who have not attended to the great guilt of a parent, who neglects to devote his children to God by a holy education. I am going to endeavour to remove this offence, and, in order to do so, I shall not confine myself to my text, but shall treat of the subject at large, and shew you, as our time will allow, first, the crimes and miseries of a parent, who neglects the education of his family; and secondly, the means of preventing them. We will direct our reflections so that they may instruct not only heads of families, but all our hearers, and so that what we shall say on the education of children, by calling to mind the faults committed in our own, may enable us to correct them.

To neglect the education of our children is to be ungrateful to God, whose wonderful power created and preserved them. With what marvellous care doth a kind providence watch over the formation of our infants, and adjust all the different parts of their bodies!

With what marvellous care doth a kind providence provide for their first wants: for at first they are like those idols, of which the prophet speaks, they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not, they have feet and cannot walk. Frail, infirm, and incapable of providing for their wants, they find a sufficient sup

ply in those feelings of humanity and tenderness with which nature inspires all human kind. Who can help admiring that, at a time when infants have nothing that can please, God enables them to move the compassion of their parents, and to call them to their succour by a language more eloquent and more pathetic than the best studied discourses?

With what marvellous care doth a kind providence preserve them amidst a multitude of accidents, which seem to conspire together to snatch them away in their tenderest infancy, and in all their succeeding years! Who but a Being almighty and all-merciful could preserve a machine so brittle, at a time when the least shock would be sufficient to destroy it?

With what astonishing care doth a kind providence provide for those wants, which old age incapacitates us to supply! Who can shut his eyes against all these wonders without sinking into the deepest stupidity, and without exposing himself to the greatest misery?

To neglect the education of our children is to refuse to retrench that depravity which we communicated to them. Suppose the scriptures had not spoken expressly on the subject of original depravity, yet it would argue great stupidity to question it. As soon as infants discover any signs of reason, they discover signs of depravity, and their malice appears as their ideas unfold themselves. Sin in them is a fire at first concealed, next emitting a few sparks, and at last bursting into a great blaze, unless it be prevented in time. Whence do they derive so great an infection? Can we doubt it, my brethren? They derive it from

us, and by communicating our nature we communicate our depravity. It is impossible, being our children, that they should not be depraved, as we are, for, to use the language of scripture, their fathers are Amorites and their mothers are Hittites, Ezek. xvi. 13. Here I wish I could give you some notion of this mortifying mystery; I wish I could remove the difficulties which prevent your seeing it; I wish I could shew you what a union there is between the brain of an infant and that of its mother, in order to convince you that sin passes from the parent to the child.

What can we in cool blood behold our children in an abyss, into which we have plunged them; can we be sensible that we have done this evil, and not endeavour to relieve them? Not being able to make them innocent, shall we not endeavour to render them penitent? Ah! victims of my depravity, unhappy heirs of the crimes of your parents, innocent creatures born only to suffer, methinks, I ought to reproach myself for all the pains you feel, all the tears you shed, and all the sighs you utter. Methinks, every time you cry, you reprove me for my insensibility and injustice. At least, it is right, that as I acknowledge myself the cause of the evil, I should employ myself in repairing it, and endeavour to renew your nature by endeavouring to renew my own.

This reflection leads us to a third. To neglect the education of our children is to be wanting in that tenderness, which is so much their due. What can we do for them? What inheritance can we transmit to them? Titles? They are often nothing but empty sounds without meaning and reality. Riches? They

often make themselves wings and fly away, Prov. xxiii. 5. Honours? They are often mixed with disagreeable circumstances, which poison all the pleasure. It is a religious education, piety and the fear of God, that makes the fairest inheritance, the noblest succession that we can leave our families.

If any worldly care may lawfully occupy the mind of a dying parent, when in his last moments the soul seems to be called to detach itself from every worldly concern, and to think of nothing but eternity, it is that which bath our children for its object. A Christian in such circumstances finds his heart divided between the family, which he is leaving in the world, and the holy relations, which he is going to meet in heaven. He feels himself pressed by turns between a desire to die, which is most advantageous for him, and a wish to live, which seems most beneficial to his family. He says, I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, Phil. i. 23, 24. We are terrified at that crowd of dangers, in which we leave these dear parts of ourselves. The perils seem to magnify as we retire from the sight of them. One while we fear for their health, another while we tremble for their salvation. My brethren, can you think of any thing more proper to prevent or to pacify such emotions than the practice of that duty which we are now pressing as absolutely necessary ? A good father on his death-bed puts on the same dispositions to his children as Jesus Christ adorned himself with in regard to his disciples immediately be

fore the consummation of that great sacrifice, which he was about to offer to the justice of his Father. The soul of our divine Saviour was affected with the dangers to which his dear disciples were going to be exposed. Against these gloomy thoughts he opposed two noble reflections. First, he remembered the care, which he had taken of them, and the great principles which he had formed in their minds; and secondly, he observed that shadow of the Almighty, under which he had taught them to abide, Psal. xci. 1. 1 have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, John xvii. 6, 12, 16. This is the first reflection. "Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Father, 1 will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am," ver. 11, 15, 17. This is the second reflection.

These two reflections are impenetrable shields, and a parent should never separate them. Would you be in a condition to oppose the second of these shields against such attacks as the gloomy thoughts just now mentioned will make upon your hearts on that day, in which you quit the world and leave your children in it? Endeavor now to arm yourself