LI. Firft, to obedience and modefty; to diligence SERM. and fincerity; and to tendernefs and pity, as the general difpofitions to religion and virtue. Secondly, to the good government of their paffions, and of their tongue; and particularly to speak truth, and to hate lying as a bafe and vile quality; thefe being as it were the foundations of religion and virtue. Thirdly, to piety and devotion towards God; to fobriety and chastity with regard to themfelves; and to juftice and charity towards all men; as the principal and effential parts of religion and virtue. First, as the general difpofitions to religion and virtue, we must train them up, ift, To obedience. Parents must take great care to maintain their authority over their children ; otherwife they will neither regard their commands, nor hearken to and follow their inftructions. If they once get head and grow ftubborn and disobedient, there is very little hope of doing any great good upon them. 2dly, To modefty, which is a fear of fhame and difgrace. This difpofition, which is proper to children, is a marvellous advantage to all good purpofes. "They are modeft, fays Ariftotle, who are "afraid to offend, and they are afraid to offend "who are most apt to do it," as children are, because they are very much under the power of their paffions, without a proportionable ftrength of reafon to govern them and keep them under. Now modesty is not properly a virtue, but it is a very good fign of a tractable and towardly dif pofition, and a great prefervative and fecurity against VOL. IV. 5 Z Į. SERM. fin and vice: and those children, who are much LI. under the restraint of modefty, we look upon as moft hopeful and likely to prove good; whereas immodesty is a vicious temper broke loofe and got free from all reftraint: fo that there is nothing left to keep an impudent perfon from fin, when fear of fhame is gone: for fin will foon take poffeffion of that perfon whom fhame hath left. He that is once become shameless hath proftituted himself. Therefore preferve this difpofition in children as much as is poffible, as one of the best means to preserve their innocency, and to bring them to goodness. 3dly, to diligence, fine quâ vir magnus nunquam extitit; "without which, fays one, there never "was any great and excellent perfon." When the Roman hiftorians defcribe an extraordinary man, this always enters into his character as an effential part of it, that he was incredibili industriâ, diligentiâ fingulari, "of incredible industry, of fingular dili 66 gence;" or fomething to that purpose. And indeed a perfon can neither be excellently good, nor extremely bad, without this quality. The devil himself could not be fo bad and michievous as he is, if he were not fo ftirring and restless a spirit, and did not compafs the earth, and " go to and "fro feeking whom he may devour." This is part of the character of Sylla, and Marius, and Catiline, thofe great difturbers of the Roman ftate; as well as of Cefar and Pompey, who were much greater and better men, but yet gave trouble enough to their country, and at last diffolved the Roman commonwealth by their ambition and contention for fuperiority: This, I fay, enters into all their characters, that they were of a vigorous and indefatigable fpirit. So that diligence in it felf is neither a virtue nor a vice, but may be applied either way, to good or bad purposes; and yet where all other requifites do concur it is a very proper instrument and difpofition for virtue. "The Prov. x. 4. maketh rich;" Therefore train up children to diligence, if ever you defire they fhould excel in any kind. "diligent hand, faith Solomon, rich in eftate, rich in knowledge. "man diligent in his business? as the fame wise man 29. "obferves, he shall stand before princes, he fhall not "stand before, mean or obfcure men." And again, "The hand of the diligent fhall bear rule, but the Prov. xii. "flothful shall be under tribute." Diligence puts 24 almost every thing into our power, and will in time make children capable of the beft and greatest things. Whereas idlenefs is the bane and ruin of children; it is the unbending of their fpirits, the rust of their faculties, and as it were the laying of their minds fallow; not as husbandmen do their lands that they may get new heart and ftrength, but to impair and lofe that which they have. Children that are bred up in lazinefs are almoft neceffarily bad, because they cannot take the pains to be good; and they cannot take pains, because they have never been inured and accuftomed to it; which makes their fpirits reftive, and when you have occafion to quicken them and fpur them up to bufinefs, they will ftand ftock ftill. Therefore never let your children be without a calling, or without fome ufeful, or at leaft innocent 5 Z 2 employ SERM. employment that will take them up; that they may LI. not be put upon a kind of necessity of being vicious for want of fomething better to do. The devil tempts the active and vigorous into his fervice, knowing what fit and proper inftruments they are to do his drudgery: but the flothful and idle, no body having hired them and fet them on work, lie in his way, and he ftumbles upon them as he goes about; and they do as it were offer themselves to his fervice, and having nothing to do they even tempt the devil himself to tempt them, and to take them in his way. 4thly, To fincerity; which is not so properly a fingle virtue, as the life and foul of all other graces and virtues; and without which, what fhew of goodness foever a man may make, he is unfound and rotten at the heart. Cherish therefore this dif pofition in children, as that which when they come to be men will be the great fecurity and ornament of their lives, and will render them acceptable both to GoD and Men. 5thly, To tenderness and pity: which, when they come to engage in bufinefs and to have dealings in the world, will be a good bar against injuftice and oppreffion; and will be continually prompting us to charity, and will fetch powerful arguments for it from our own bowels. To preferve this goodness and tenderness of nature, this fo very humane and ufeful affection, keep children, as much as poffible, out of the way of bloody fights and fpectacles of cruelty; and dif countenance in them all cruel and barbarous ufage of creatures under their power; do not allow them to LI. to torture and kill them for their fport or pleasure; SER M. because this will infenfibly and by degrees harden their hearts, and make them lefs apt to compaffionate the wants of the poor and the fufferings and afflictions of the miferable. Secondly, as the main foundations of Religion and virtue, children must be carefully trained up to the government of their paffions, and of their tongues; and particularly to fpeak truth, and to hate lying as a bafe and vile quality. ift, To the good government of their paffions. It is the diforder of thefe, more especially of defire, and fear, and anger, which betrays us to many evils. Anger prompts men to contention and murder: inordinate defire, to covetoufnefs and fraud and oppreffion and fear many times awes men into fin, and deters them from their duty. : Now if these paffions be cherished, or even but let alone in children, they will in a fhort time grow headstrong and unruly, and when they come to be men will corrupt the judgment, and turn goodnature into humour, and the understanding into prejudice, and wilfulness: but if they be carefully obferved and prudently reftrained, they may by degrees be managed and brought under government; and the inordinacy of them being pruned away, they may prove excellent inftruments of virtue. Therefore be careful to discountenance in children any thing that looks like rage and furious anger, and to fhew them the unreasonableness and deformity of it. Check their longing defires after things pleafant, and use them to frequent difappointments in that kind; that when you think fit to gratify |