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for Cesar, but Cato is for Pompey." Yes, the approbation of Cato is preferable to that of the gods! I mean those imaginary gods, who frequently usurp the rights of the true God.

SERMON LV.

BAD EDUCATION.

1 SAMUEL iii. 12, 13.

In that day, I will perform against Eli, all things which I have spoken concerning his house; when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him, that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not.

In fine, the martyr for morality is rewarded THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF A by the prerogatives of martyrdom. It would be inconvenient, in the close of a sermon, to discuss a question that would require a whole discourse; I mean that concerning degrees of glory, but that, if there be degrees of glory, the highest will be bestowed on martyrs, will admit of no dispute. This, I think, may be proved from many passages of Scripture. St. John seems to have taken pains to establish this doctrine in the Revelation: "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessel of a potter shall they be broken into shivers," chap. ii. 26, 27. This regards martyrs, and this seems to promise them pre-eminence. "Behold I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God," chap. iii. 11, 12. This regards martyrs, and this seems to promise them pre-eminence. "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God," chap. vii. 13-15. This regards martyrs, and this also seems to promise them pre-eminence.

THESE words are part of a discourse which God addressed to young Samuel in a vision, the whole history of which is well known to us all. We intend to fix our chief attention on the misery of a parent, who neglects the education of his children: but before we consider the subject in this point of view, we will make three remarks tending to elucidate the history. The crimes of the sons of Eli, the indulgence of the unhappy father, and the punishment of that indulgence, demand our attention.

Observe the crimes of the sons of Eli. They supported their debaucheries by the victims which the people brought to the tabernacle to be offered in sacrifice. The law assigned them the shoulders and the breasts of all the beasts sacrificed for peace-offerings: but, not content with these, they seized the portions which God had appointed to such as brought the offerings, and which he had commanded them to eat in his presence, to signify their communion with him. They drew these portions with fleshChristians, perhaps your minds are offended hooks out of the caldrons, in which they were at the gospel of this day. Perhaps you are boiling. Sometimes they took them raw, that terrified at the career which we have been they might have an opportunity of preparing opening to you. Perhaps you are inwardly them to their taste; and thus by serving themmurmuring at this double martyrdom. Ah! selves before God, they discovered a contempt rather behold "the great cloud of witnesses" for those just and charitable ends which God with which you are compassed about, and con- had in view, when he ordained that his minisgratulate yourselves that you fight under the ters should live on a part of the sacrifices.— same standard, and aspire at the same crown. God, by providing a table for the priests in his Above all, "look unto Jesus, the author and own house, intended to make it appear, that finisher of faith, who endured such contradic- they had the honour of being his domestics, tion of sinners against himself;" and who, as and, so to speak, that they lived on his revethe same apostle Paul speaks, not only "en-nue. This was a benevolent design. God also, dured the cross," but also "despised the shame." Hark! he speaks to you from the goal, and in this animating language addresses you, "If any man hear my voice, I will come in to him. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I The excesses of the table generally prepare also overcame, and am set down with my Fa- the way for debauchery; and the sons of Eli ther in his throne," Rev. iii. 20, 21. Happy having admitted the first, had fallen into the you, if you be accessible to such noble motives! last, so that they abused "the women that asHappy we, if we be able to say to God, in sembled at the door of the tabernacle of the that solemn day in which he will render to congregation," chap. ii. 22; and to such a deevery one according to his works, "I have gree had they carried these enormities that the preached righteousness in the great congrega- people, who had been used to frequent the holy tion. Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O place only for the purpose of rendering homLord, thou knowest; I have not hid thy righte-age to Almighty God, were drawn thither by ousness within my heart, I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation, I have not concealed thy loving kindness! Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord!" God grant us this grace. Amen.

by appointing the priests to eat after they had sacrificed, intended to make them understand that he was their sovereign, and the principal object of all the ceremonies performed in his palace. These were just views.

the abominable desire of gratifying the inclinations of his unworthy ministers. Such were the crimes of the sons of Eli.

Let us observe next the indulgence of the parent. He did not wholly neglect to correct his

sons, for the reproofs he gave them are record-violent death of Eli; all these events are fully ed in the second chapter. "Why do ye such known. things?" said he to them, "for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Do not so my sons, for it is no good report that I hear." To perform a duty of such importance with so much indifference, was equal to an encouragement of the sin. Eli made use of petitions and exhortations, when he ought to have applied sharp reproofs, and alarming threatenings. He censured and rebuked, when he ought to have anathematized and thundered: accordingly, after the Holy Spirit had related the reproofs which Eli, in the words just now cited, addressed to his sons, he tells us in the text, by a seeming contradiction, but in words full of truth and good sense, that Eli "restrain

ed them not."

Observe thirdly what terrible punishments this criminal indulgence drew down upon the guilty father, the profligate sons, and even the whole people under their direction. A prophet had before denounced these judgments against Eli, in order to engage him to prevent the repetition of the crimes, and the infliction of the punishments. "Wherefore honourest thou thy sons above me?" said the man of God. "I said, indeed, that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but behold the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart. And this shall be a sign unto thee, thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas in one day shall both of them die," chap. ii. 29, &c.

I hasten to the chief design of this discourse. The extreme rigour which God used towards Eli, and the terrible judgments with which he punished the indulgence of this unhappy parent, seemed 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 show 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 does a kind Providence watch over the formation of our infants, and adjust all the different parts of their bodies?

With what marvellous care does 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 marvellous care does 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 supply 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 These threatenings were accomplished in all their parents, and to call them to their succour their rigour. The arm is in Scripture an em- by a language more eloquent and more pablem of strength, and when the prophet threat-thetic than the best studied discourses? ened Eli, that the Lord would cut off his arm, and the arm of his father's house, he meant to foretell that the family of this priest should fall into decay. Hophni and Phinehas perished in battle when the Philistines conquered the Israelites. Ahitub and Ichabod, the sons of Phinehas, lived only a few years after the death of their father. If we believe a tradition of the Jews, this threatening was accomplished many ages after it was uttered. We are told in the Talmud, that there was at Jerusalem a family, in which no one outlived the eighteenth year of his age; and that a famous Rabbi found by inquiring into the origin of that family, that it descended from Eli. A rival, Zadok, was made high priest instead of Abiathar, a descendant of Eli. We are able to prove by very exact registers that the high priesthood continued in the family of Zadok not only from the building of the temple to the destruction of it, that is to say for the space of four hundred years, but even to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. The rest of the misfortunes of Eli, the victory obtained by the Philistines, the taking of the ark, the confusion which brought on the labour and the death of the wife of Phinehas, who expired, "saying, name the child Ichabod, for the glory is departed from Israel," chap. iv. 19, &c. the

With what astonishing care does 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, consummation of that great sacrifice, which he that they should not be depraved, as we are; for, to use the language of scripture, their "fa- The soul of our divine Saviour was affected was about to offer to the justice of his Father. thers are Amorites and their mothers are Hitt- with the dangers to which his dear disciples ites," Ezek. xvi. 13. Here I wish I could give were going to be exposed. Against these you some notion of this mortifying mystery; I gloomy thoughts he opposed two noble reflecwish I could remove the difficulties which pre- tions. First, he remembered the care which vent your seeing it; I wish I could show you he had taken of them, and the great principles what a union there is between the brain of an which he had formed in their inds: and seinfant and that of its mother, in order to con- condly, he observed that "shadow of the Alvince you that sin passes from the parent to the mighty, under which he had taught them to child. What! can we in cool blood behold our chil-name unto the men which thou gavest me. abide," Ps. xci. 1. "I have manifested thy dren in an abyss, into which we have plunged While I was with them in the world, I kept them; can we be sensible that we have done this them in thy name, and none of them is lost but evil, and not endeavour to relieve them? Not the son of perdition. They are not of the world, being able to make them innocent, shall we not even as I am not of the world," John xvii. ( endeavour to render them penitent? Ah! vic- 12, 16. This is the first reflection. tims of my depravity, unhappy heirs of the am no more in the world, but these are in the "Now I crimes of your parents, innocent creatures, born world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep only to suffer, I think I ought to reproach my- through thine own name those whom thou hast self for all the pains you feel, all the tears you given me, that they may be one, as we are. I shed, and all the sighs you utter. Methinks, pray not that thou shouldst take them out of every time you cry, you reprove me for my in- the world, but that thou shouldst keep them sensibility and injustice. At least, it is right, from the evil. Sanctify them through thy truth, that, as I acknowledge myself the cause of the thy word is truth. Father, I will that they evil, I should employ myself in repairing it, and also, whom thou hast given me, be with me endeavour to renew your nature by endeavour-where I am," ver. 11, 15, 17. This is the seing to renew my own.

This reflection leads us to a third point. 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.

cond reflection.

shields, and a parent should never separate These two reflections are impenetrable 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 chil dren in it? endeavour now to arm yourself 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 keep them through thy name?" Put yourself be with me, that they may behold my glory; now into a condition to enable you then to say to God as Christ did, "I have given them to thy word, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

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 has our children for its object. A Christian in such circumstances finds his heart divided between the to let loose madmen against the state, instead To neglect the education of our children is family, which he is leaving in the world, and of furnishing it with good rulers or good subthe holy relations, which he is going to meet in jects. That child intended for the church, heaven. He feels himself pressed by turns be- what will he become, if he be not animated tween a desire to die, which is most advan-with such a spirit as ought to enliven a minister tageous for him, and a wish to live, which seems of religion? He will turn out a trader in sacred most beneficial to his family. He says, "I am things, and prove himself a spy in our families, in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de-a fomenter of faction in the state, who, under part, and to be with Christ, which is far better; pretence of glorifying God, will set the world nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more need-on fire. That other child intended for the bar, ful for you," Phil. i. 23, 24. We are terrified what will he become, unless as much pains be at that crowd of dangers, in which we leave taken to engage him to love justice as to make these dear parts of ourselves. The perils seem him know it, or to make him not disguise it as to magnify as we retire from the sight of them. well as understand it? He will prove himself One while we fear for their health, another an incendiary, who will sow seeds of division while we tremble for their salvation. My bre-in families, render law suits eternal, and reduce thren, 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 before the

to indigence and beggary even those clients,
whose causes he shall have art enough to gain.
And that child, whom you have rashly deter-
mined to push into the highest offices of state
without forming in him such dispositions as are
necessary in eminent posts, what will he be-
'come? A foolish or a partial judge, who will

pronounce on the fortunes and lives of his fel-world a sinner? was it necessary to put me in low citizens just as chance or caprice may im- arms against Almighty God? Was it not enough pel him: a public blood-sucker, who will live to communicate to me natural depravity? must upon the blood and substance of those whom you add to that the venom of a pernicious eduhe ought to support: a tyrant, who will raze cation? Was it not enough to expose me to the and depopulate the very cities and provinces misfortunes inseparable from life? must you which he ought to defend. plunge me into those which follow death? Return me, cruel parent, return me to nothing, whence you took me. Take from me the fata! existence you gave me. Show me mountains and hills to fall on me, 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 for ever 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.”

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 be truly 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 historian 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 a 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.

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 expressions.

It is a famous question in the schools, whether we shall remember in heaven the connexions 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 assert, 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 connexions in this present world.

On the other hand, if we know, say the partisans 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 his mind, my childres are now, and will for ever be tor

To neglect the education of children is to prepare torments for a future state, the bare ap-mented with the devil? prehension 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; 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 you have 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. These are the fatal consequences of the principles you gave me. Was it not enough to bring me into the VOL. II.-4

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 connexions 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 connexion.

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 God are here concealed under innumerable veils. How often does he seem to countenance iniquity by granting a profusion of favours to the contrivers of the most infernal

schemes? How often does he seem to declare | such a master, and saying to him, "behold me, himself against innocence by the misfortunes and the children which God hath given me," which he leaves the innocent to suffer? How Heb. ii. 13. often have we seen tyrants on a throne, and good people in irons? Does not this awful phenomenon furnish us with an irrefragable argument for the doctrine of a general judgment and a future state? Which of your preachers has not frequently exhorted you to "judge nothing before the time," 1 Cor. iv. 5; at the end of the time comes "the restitution of all things," Acts iii. 21, which will justify Providence?

Now, it should seem, this argument, which none but infidels and libertines deny, and which is generally received by all Christians, and by all philosophers, this argument, I say, favours, not to say establishes in an incontestible manner, the opinion of those who think that the saints will know one another in the next life. Without this how could we acquiesce in the justice of the sentence, which will then be pronounced on all? Observe St. Paul, whose ministry was continually counteracted. What motive supported him under so much opposition? Certainly it was the expectation of seeing one day with his own eyes the conquest which he obtained for Jesus Christ; souls which he had plucked out of the jaws of Satan; believers whom he had guided to eternal happiness. Hear what he said to the Thessalonians, "What is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy," chap. ii. 19, 20.

Now, this is the hope, this is the crown, which I propose to you, heads of families, to engage you to dedicate your children to God by a religious education.

It was this thought which supported one of the wisest of the heathens against the fears of death, I mean Cato of Utica. No man had a greater affection for a son, than he had for his. No man bore the loss with greater firmness and magnanimity. "O happy day, when I shall quit this wretched crowd, and join that divine and happy company of noble souls, who have quitted the world before me! I shall there meet not only these illustrious personages, but my dear Cato, who, I will venture to say, was one of the best of men, of the best natural disposition, and the most punctual in the discharge of his duties, that ever was. I have put his body on the funeral pile, whereas he should have placed mine there; but his soul has not left me, and he has only stepped first into a country where I shall soon join him."

If this hope made so great an impression on the mind of a pagan, what ought it not to produce in the heart of a Christian? What infinite pleasure, when the voice shall cry, "Arise ye dead," to see those children whom God gave you? What superior delight, to behold those whom an immature death snatched from us, and the loss of whom had cost us so many tears? What supreme satisfaction, to embrace those who closed our eyes, and performed the last kind offices for us? O the unspeakable joy of that Christian father, who shall walk at the head of a Christian family, and present himself with all his happy train before Jesus Christ, offering to him hearts worthy to serve

We have been speaking of the fatal consequences of an irreligious education; and now we wish we could put you all into a condition to prevent them. But, alas! how can some of you reduce our exhortations to practice? you disconsolate fathers, you distressed mothers, from whom persecution has torn away these dear parts of yourselves, ye weeping Davids, ye mourning Rachels, who, indeed, do not weep because your children "are not," but because, though they are, and though you gave them existence, you cannot give them a religious education? Ah! how can you obey our voice? Who can calm the cruel fears, which by turns divide your souls? What results from all the conflicts, which pass within you, and which rend your hearts asunder? Will you go and expose yourselves to persecution? Will you leave your children alone to be persecuted? Will you obey the voice that commands, "flee out of Babylon, and deliver every man his own soul," Jer. i. 6; or that which cries, "Take the young child?" Matt. ii. 20. O dreadful alternative! Must you be driven, in some sort, to make an option between their salvation and yours? must you sacrifice yours to theirs, or theirs to your own?

Ah! cruel problem! Inhuman suspense! Thou tyrant, is not thy rage sufficiently glutted by destroying our material temples? must you lay your barbarous hands on the temples of the Holy Ghost? Is it not enough to plunder us of our property, must you rob us of our families? Is it not enough to render life bitter, would you make eternity desperate and intole

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But, it is not to tyrants that we address ourselves, they are inaccessible to our voice, or inflexible to our complaints. It is to God alone, who turns them as he thinks proper, that we address our prayers. Hagar found herself banished into a desert, and she had nothing to support her but a few pieces of bread, and a bottle of water. The water being spent, her dear Ishmael was ready to die with thirst. She laid him under a bush, and only desired that she might not see him die. She rambled to some distance, wept as she went, and said, "Let me not see the death of the child," Gen. xxi. 16, &c. See, she cannot help it, she sits "over against him, lifts up her voice, and weeps.' God heard the voice of the mother and the child, and, by an angel, said unto her, "What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad. Arise, take hold of his hand, and lift him up, for I will make him a great nation." See what a source of consolation I open to you! Lift up the voice and weep. "O Father of spirits, God of the spirits of all flesh," Heb. xii. 9; Numb. xvi. 22. Thou Supreme, whose essence is love, and whose chief character is mercy, thou who wast touched to see Nineveh repent, and who wouldst not involve in the general destruction the many infants at nurse in that city, "who could not discern between their right hand and their left," John iv. 11; wilt not thou regard with eyes of affection and pity our numerous children, who cannot discern

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