with the first. Would you have them abide under the shadow of the Almighty? Inculcate his fear and his love in their hearts. Would you be able to say as Jesus Christ did, "Holy Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me, that they may behold thy glory; keep them through thy name?” Put yourself now into a condition to enable you then to say to God as Christ did, I have given them thy word, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

To neglect the education of our children is to let loose madmen against the state, instead of furnishing it with good rulers or good subjects. That child intended for the church, what will he become, if he be not animated with such a spirit as ought to enliven a minister of religion? He will turn out a trader in sacred things, and prove himself a spy in our families, a fomenter of faction in the state, who, under pretence of glorifying God, will set the world on fire. That other child intended for the bar, what will he become, unless as much pains be taken to engage him to love justice as to make him know it, or to make him not disguise it as well as understand it? He will prove himself an incendiary, who will sow seeds of division in families, render law-suits eternal, and reduce to indigence and beggary even those clients, whose causes he shall have art enough to gain. And that child, whom you have rashly determined to push into the highest offices of state without forming in him such dispositions as are necessary to eminent posts, what will be become? A foolish or a partial judge, who will pronounce on the fortunes and lives

of his fellow-citizens just as chance or caprice may impel him: a public blood-sucker, who will live upon the blood and substance of those whom he ought to support: a tyrant, who will rase and de populate the very cities and provinces which he ought to defend.

The least indulgence of the bad inclinations of children sometimes produces the most fatal effects in society. This is exemplified in the life of David, whose memory may truly be reproached on this article, for he was one of the most weak of all parents. Observe his indulgence of Amnon. It produced incest. Remark his indulgence of Absalom, who besought him to allow his brethren to partake of a feast, which he had prepared. It produced an assassination. See his weak fondness of the same Absalom, who endeavoured to make his way to the throne by mean and clownish manners, affecting to shake hands with the Israelites and to embrace and kiss them, (these are the terms of scripture,) and practising all such popular airs as generally precede and predict sedition. This produced a civil war. Remark how he indulged Adonijah, who made himself chariots, and set up a retinue of fifty men. The sacred his torian tells us, that his father had not displeased him at any time, in saying, why hast thou done so? 1 Kings i. 6. This produced an usurpation of the throne and the crown.

To neglect the education of your children is to furnish them with arms against yourselves. You complain that the children, whom you have brought up with so much tenderness, are the torment of your

life, that they seem to reproach you for living so long, and that, though they have derived their being and support from you, yet they refuse to contribute the least part of their superfluities to assist and comfort you. You ought to find fault with yourselves, for their depravity is a natural consequence of such principles as you have taught them. Had you accustomed them to respect order, they would not now refuse to conform to order: but they would perform the greatest of all duties; they would be the strength of your weakness, the vigour of your reason, and the joy of your old age.

To neglect the education of children is to prepare torments for a future state, the bare apprehension of which must give extreme pain to every heart capable of feeling. It is beyond a doubt, that remorse is one of the chief punishments of the damned, and who can question, whether the most excruciating remorse will be excited by this thought; I have plunged my children into this abyss, into which I have plunged myself?

Imagine a parent of a family discovering among the crowd of reprobates a son, whom he himself led thither, and who addresses to him this terrible language. "Barbarous father, what animal appetites, or what worldly views inclined you to give me existence, to what a desperate condition have you reduced me? See, wretch that you are, see these flames which burn and consume me. Observe this thick smoke which suffocates me. Behold the heavy chains with which I am loaded down. These are the fatal consequences of the principles you gave me. Was it not

enough to bring me into the world a sinner, was it necessary to put me in arms against Almighty God? Was it not enough to communicate to me natural depravity, must you add to that the venom of a pernicious education? Was it not enough to expose me to the misfortunes inseparable from life, must you plunge me into those which follow death? Return me, cruel parent, return me to nothing, whence you took me. Take from me the fatal existence you gave me. Shew me mountains and hills to fall on ine, and hide me from the anger of my judge; or, if that divine vengeance which pursues thee, will not enable thee to do so, I myself will become thy tormentor; I will forever present myself, a frightful spectacle before thine eyes, and by those eternal howlings, which I will incessantly pour into thine ears, I will reproach thee, through all eternity I will reproach thee with my misery and despair."

Let us turn our eyes from these gloomy images, let us observe objects more worthy of the majesty of this place, and the holiness of our ministry. To refuse to dedicate our children to God by a religious education, is to refuse those everlasting pleasures, which as much surpass our thoughts as our expres+ sions.

It is a famous question in the schools, whether we shall remember in heaven the connections we had in this world? Whether glorified spirits shall know one another? Whether a father will recollect his son, or a son his father? And so on. I will venture to affirm, that they who have taken the affirmative side,

and they who have taken the negative on this question, have often done so without any reason.

On the one side, the first have pretended to establish their thesis on this principle, that something would be wanting to our happiness, if we were not to know in a future state those persons, with whom we had been united by the tenderest connections in this present world.

On the other hand, if we know, say the partizans of the opposite opinion, the condition of our friends in a future state, how will it be possible, that a parent should be happy in the possession of a heaven, in which his children have no share; and how can he possibly relish pleasure at the right hand of God, while he revolves this dreadful thought in bis mind, my children are now, and will for ever be tormented with the devil?

It should seem, the proof and the objection are equally groundless. The enjoyment of God is so sufficient to satiate a soul, that it cannot be considered as necessary to the happiness of it to renew such connections as were formed during a momentary passage through this world. I oppose this against the argument for the first opinion: and I oppose the same against the objection, for the enjoyment of God is every way so sufficient to satiate a soul, that it can love nothing but in God, and that its felicity cannot be altered by the miseries of those with whom there will then be no connection.

A consideration of another kind has always made me incline to the opinion of those who take the affirmative side of this question. The perfections of