Attention, confidence, fubmiffion, and obedience, are duties which no doubt Chrift may juftly challenge of us, fince he hath loved us, and redeemed us unto God by his blood. Efpoufed as we are to him, we are no more our own, but his. He is our head, he is our Saviour, and we are one with him. And what is his language to us? It is this, "Hearken, "O daughter, and confider, and incline thine ear; "forget alfo thine own people, and thy father's houfe. "So fha'l the king greatly defire thy beauty for he "is thy Lord, and worship thou him." The reafonableness of all this every individual that compofes the church of Christ readily admits; and affection fweetly inclines them to that fubmiffion which duty and intereft demand of them.

"

Ought not then the wife, remembering that she holds. the fame relation to her husband which the church, ftands in to Chrift, to conduct herself towards him in a fimilar manner? Since he is her friend, her guar dian, her head, her felf; fince he loves her with a tender, prevailing and conftant affection; and is willing to endure any hardships and fufferings for her fake; ought the not in return to love him, to repofe an entire confidence in him, to pay a respectful deference to his judgment and will in all things, and to fubmit herfelf unto him as unto the Lord? She ought. And to this fentiment the heart, as well as the hand, of every virtuous and pious wife will cheerfully fubscribe.

To clofe the whole. It may be prefumed from what has been faid, indeed it would be an unkind reflection to admit a doubt of it, that all who have drank into the generous and noble fpirit of the gof

pel,

Pfal. alv. 10, IL,

pel, whatever may be the temper and demeanour of others, will readily fall in with the duties we have been recommending. In obedience to the mild and gentle authority of Jesus Christ their Saviour and king, as well as to the dictates of their own reason, and the feelings of their own breafts; "every fuch husband "in particular will fo love his wife even as himfelf, and every fuch wife will affectionately reverence her "hufband."

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

T'

HE ferious attention of parents to the education

of their children, is a matter of the greatest importance. The prefent and future happiness of individuals, the welfare of fociety in general, and the progrefs of virtue and religion in the world, do all, under God, very much depend upon it. This has ever been the opinion of wife and confiderate men, and is the plain dictate of the Bible. Yet, through variouscaufes, too numerous to be mentioned here, this bufinefs is wholly neglected by fome, and very ill mad naged by moft. Nor can it be enough lamented, that too many, of whom nevertheless we would in charity hope that they fear God, are fadly defective in this point. What we propofe therefore is, to explain this duty, and enforce it with fuitable arguments. To which purpose we have chosen the words just read.us et Solomon was a wife man as well as a great king.

He

He had enjoyed the benefit of a pious education, and the people over whom he reigned, reaped no fmall advantage from the attention paid to him in his early years. To the inftructions of his father, it is probable, he owed much of that wifdom with which this book abounds. And with the fame affiduity and tenderness he had been himself taught, he teaches others, particularly his children and the youth of the rifing generation. To them fome of the first chapters are more immediately directed. And thus, deeply impreffed with an affectionate concern f for their best interests, he admonishes all fucceeding parents in our text, to copy after his example. Train up a child in the way be fhould go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

दे

The original words are very expreffive. Train up, inftruct, catechize, or initiate a child--in the way be fbould go, or, in the beginning of his way, at the mouth of it, as foon as he is capable of inftruction; or according to his way, that, is according to his ca pacity; or rather, as fome interpret the words, Infruct him in that courfe or manner of life which thou wouldst have him purfue. And when he is old, he will not depart from it; that is, impreffions received in his tender years will remain; having been put in the way he fhould go, he will not re cede or turn afide from it. The meaning is, he will not ordinarily depart from it for this, as well as all proverbial expreffions, is to be understood as admitting of exceptions. Some, no doubt, break over the mounds of education, violently, rend every pious and virtuous inftruction from their breaft, and impetuously precipitate themfelves into vice and ruin.

H

But

But it is not fo ufually: the advantage of a good edu cation is generally felt all through life to the latest, period of it.In difcourfing of this fubject we hall,

ཐཱ

FIRST, Make fome previous general obfervations r fpecting education: མཐཱ ༧ནྟི 1

SECONDLY, Point out the duties themfelves which parents owe to their children: and,

THIRDLY, Enforce thefe duties with fuitable argu

ments.

FIRST, The previous obfervations I have to make refpect--the right of parents to educate their children --the ends of education--and the feveral ages through which it extends to the final term of it.

རྣཟེར་

As to the right of parents to educate their children. It has often been obferved with great truth that among all the creatures that inhabit our world, none come into it in fo helplefs a ftate, and none require the affifiance and protection of others for fo long a term, as the human fpecies. This is a humiliating confideration. But we may be fure the all-wife and good Creator would not permit it fo to be, without providing the neceffary means for their confervation and fupport. This he hath done, and in a way truly admirable. A certain inftinct he has implanted in the breafts of parents towards their offspring, which effectually operates to the purpofe of fecuring them all the affiftance neceffary to their helpless ftate. Inftinct I call it, because it is not the effect of reafoning, but connatural to us, and scarce capable of being eradicated out of our nature. It is what d the Greeks call egy, and for which we want a word in our language. This inftinct prevails in the breaft