SERMON V. PROVERBS xxii. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go E DUCATION is of fuch obvious and SERM. extenfive importance, that it hath, at all times, engaged the attention of those who have been moft eminent for ability and virtue: Many treatifes have been written to promote and improve it, and various plans have been formed to fmooth the road of science, and facilitate the progrefs of youth. All the effects that were expected have not, perhaps, been produced; V. SERM. duced; but the labours of the intelligent, V. by rendering this an object of univerfal regard, have contributed to the diffusion of that general knowledge, and those liberal modes of thinking, which now distinguish and adorn the majority of mankind. Yet, while it hath been the study of the learned to diffeminate information, and the care of the benevolent to found fchools and feminaries for intellectual attainments, it is to be lamented, that the most noble and most necessary branch of wisdom hath been much neglected. The fole occupation of fome thousands is to inftruct the young in languages, arts, and fciences, while an equal number are employed to polish the exterior and regulate the deportment: But religion is, too generally, efteemed unfit to exercise the tender mind; those laws which give understanding to the fimple, have been represented as too folemn and severe for childish gaiety and innocence, innocence, or too dark and mysterious for SERM. childish apprehenfion. Or, where this prejudice hath not been entertained, other concerns are accounted of greater moment. The man of fuperior rank is chiefly folicitous to qualify his offspring for pre-eminence and dignity; though, by their birth, they are entitled to much, they are incited to acquire more. They are led to the fountains of claffic knowledge, and conducted through the gardens of eloquence: Their memories are stored with the tranfactions of former ages, and their minds enriched with the laws and policy of nations; while an artificial glofs is given to their manners, that they may dazzle the fancy, when they cannot convince the judgment. this the parent hath a view only to temporal advantages, and thinks of nothing beyond his great object, to see them shine in the fenate and rife to the fummit of G In all power V. |