LETTER III.

ON KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY.

CHILDREN,

WHEN I last lodged in this place, in my journey up to London, I sent you from hence divers instructions concerning your Speech; and how you should manage it; and required you to take copies of it, and to direct your practice according to it. I forgot to inquire of you, whether you had taken copies of it, but I hope you have; and I do again require you to be careful in observing those, and my former directions given to you, some in writing, and many more by word of mouth. I have been careful, that my Example might be a visible direction to you; but if that hath been defective, or not so full and clear a pattern of your imitation, espe

cially in respect of my different condition from yours, yet I am certain that those Rules and Directions, which I have at several times given you, both in writing, and by word of mouth, have been sound, and wholesome, and seasonable; and therefore I do expect that you should remember and practise them: and though your young years cannot yet, perchance, see the reason and use of them; yet assure yourselves, time and experience will make you know the benefit of them. In Advice given to young people, it fares with them, as it doth with young children that are taught to read, or with young school-boys that learn their grammar rules: they learn their letters, and then they learn to spell a syllable, and then they learn to put together several syllables to make up a word; or they learn to decline a noun, or to form a verb; and all this while they understand not to what end all this trouble is, nor what it means. But when they come to be able to read English, or to make a piece of Latin, or to construe a Latin author, then they find all these rudiments were very necessary, and to good purpose; for by this means they come to understand what others have written, and to

know what they knew and wrote, and thereby improve their own knowledge and understanding. Just so it is with young people, in respect of counsel and instruction: when the father, or the minister, or some wise and understanding man, doth sometimes admonish, sometimes chide and reprove, sometimes instruct, they are apt to wonder why so much ado, and what they mean, and it is troublesome and tedious, and seems impertinent; and they are ready to say within themselves, that the time were better spent in riding, or hunting, or merriment, or gaming; but when they come to riper years, then they begin to find that those instructions of the ancient are of excellent use, to manage the conversation, and to direct the actions, and to avoid inconveniencies, and mischiefs, and miscarriages, to which they are subject without the help of these counsels. And therefore it hath been my practice, to give you line upon line, and precept upon precept, to enable you to steer and order your course of life through an evil and dangerous world; and to require you to be frequent in reading the Scriptures, with due observation and understanding, which will

make you wise for this life, and that which is to come.

I am now come well to Farrington, from whence I wrote to you my former instructions concerning your Words and Speech; and I now intend to write something to you of another subject, viz. your OBSERVATION OF THE LORD'S-DAY, commonly called Sunday and this I do for these reasons.

1. Because it hath pleased God to cast my lot so, that I am to rest at this place upon that day; and the consideration, therefore, of that duty, is proper for me and for you: it is opus diei in die suo, the work fit and proper for that day.'

2. Because I have, by long and sound ExPERIENCE, found that the due observance of this day, and of the duties of it, hath been of singular comfort and advantage to me; and I doubt not but it will prove so to you. God Almighty is the Lord of our time, and lends it to us; and as it is but just we should consecrate this part of that time to him, so I have found, by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observation of the duty of this day, hath ever had joined to it a blessing upon the

rest of my time; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me and on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week hath been unsuccessful, and unhappy to my own secular employments; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes, in my own secular employments the week following, by the manner of my passing of this day and this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience.

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3. Because I find in the world much Looseness, and Apostacy from this duty. People begin to be cold and careless in it, allowing themselves sports, and recreations, and secular employments in it without any necessity; which is a sad spectacle, and an ill presage. It concerns me, therefore, (that am your father) as much as I may, to rescue you from that sin, which the examples of others, and the inclination and inconsiderateness of youth, are otherwise apt to lead you into.

I shall therefore set down unto you particularly (and not in generals only) these things;

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