SERMON I.

On the Formation of the Minds of Children.

GOD, thou haft endowed us with understanding

and reason, and thereby granted us great prerogatives over the other inhabitants of the earth. Yes, thou haft thus made us capable of elevating our minds to the knowledge of thee, and of being hereafter admitted to the fociety of fuperior fpirits. Thou wilt that we should here cultivate our understanding and our reason, as far as the imperfections and infirmities of our prefent condition allow, and learn to employ them in fuch manner as to become wife and happy. Oh preferve us from degrading our fouls, from difregarding our prerogatives and leaving our faculties unemployed; from debafing ourselves, by an entirely fenfual and carnal life, to a level with the brute creation, and thereby render ing ourselves unqualified for being and becoming what, according to the defigns of thy wisdom and benignity, we ought to be and to become. Teach

VOL. I.

B

us

us rather to recognife the dignity of our nature, and to act confiftently with it. Grant that we may faithfully use all the means and opportunities for becoming more intelligent and wife, and for making farther progrefs in the knowledge of truth. But grant us alfo the grace to be as ufeful to our brethren, in this respect, as we at all times can be, every one according to his ftation and calling. Vouchsafe especially to thofe among us, to whom thou haft committed the culture of the minds and the hearts of children, fuch a portion of light, of zeal and fidelity, as is neceffary to the discharge of the duties incumbent upon them. Give them a clear perception of the importance of their office, that they may contend with the utmost prudence and refolution against the difficulties attendant on it. Bless, to this end, the instruction we are now about to receive on this head, and hearken to our prayer, for the fake of thy fon, our faviour, in whose name we farther addrefs thee, faying: Our father, &c.

Train

PROV. xxii. 6. .

up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.

PARENTAL affection being fo natural and fo powerful an inftinct; parents fo readily confenting to facrifice their own happiness to that of

their children, and in fome measure to live rather for them than for themselves it is really furprising, that they are not more concerned about their education, or that they fall into so many and fuch grand mistakes in respect to it. Doubtless the reason of this lies not fo much in the want of tenderness and affection, as in the wrong and incompetent notions generally entertained of education. That is, this duty is but too often confined to the care of providing for the life and the health of the children; of teaching them fome mechanical works and arts; loading their memory with a multitude of words which they do not understand; instructing them in the rules of external propriety of behaviour and politeness; warning them of the groffer enormities which are followed by punishment and difgrace; divesting them of their natural fimplicity and open'nefs of heart, and inftilling into them the arts of referve, diffimulation and flattery; communicating to them a few notions, for the most part falfe, of the occupations, the pleafures and advantages of focial life; and rendering them dexterous in fome method of gaining a livelihood, or managing their hereditary eftates and maintaining their rank. In thefe refpects. the generality of parents are not wanting either in pains or expence for promoting what they term the benefit of their children, and in fact they thus do contribute much to their welfare. May we not therefore have reafon to hope that even this might be done in a still more profitable manner, if men had juster

B 2

jufter conceptions of what belongs to education? It is this that has moved me to fhew you, in feveral difcourfes, what is peculiarly requifite in the education of children, and how we are to fet about it. It principally confifts in the forming of their minds and their hearts, and in the best method of leading them to religion and to chriftianity. To-day I fhall confine myself to the first head, and discourse of the forming of the minds of children in general, and without regard to religion and christianity.

Probably the observations I intend to make on this fubject, may appear too dry and unentertaining to many. Probably others will deem them fitter for the lecture of a philofophical than that of a christian teacher. The attentive hearer, with whom useful instruction is of more account than fleeting amusement, will eafily obviate the former of these objections; and the latter is founded altogether on a prejudice, to which we shall pay no regard if we are rationally devoted to religion and virtue. Chriftian faith and christian virtue prefuppofe the proper, the best use of our natural capacities and endowments. All that promotes and facilitates the latter, promotes and facilitates the former likewife; and certainly neither infidelity nor vice would commit fuch ravages among mankind, if more pains had been bestowed in their infancy and childhood on the due forming of their mind and heart. We will therefore pass on to the fubject itself without farther hefita

tion.

To