we wonder, that their guardian angels con-tinually behold the face of our Father in heaven? Why thould we wonder, that fuch a ftrefs is laid on their education in the holy fcriptures, and that our rifen afcending Lord fhould have given it fo particularly in charge to his Apoftle Peter, to be peculiarly attentive to this, as one of the highest proofs of his love to him: Simon Peter lovest thou me? Feed my lambs.*

6. If such is the value and importance ofchildren, can parents, can masters, can the clergy ever be fufficiently attentive to the unfpeakable important bufinefs of their religious education?

7. Parents, more efpecially, are obliged to this duty by a number of the weightieft motives and confiderations. (1.) They have been the immediate inftruments of bringing their children into a tempting, infnaring world, and have tranfmitted to them an hereditary taint of corruption, the feed of guilt and of mifery. (2.) Providence has fo ordered it, that children are continued in a helpless ftate under the care of their parents, that they may have a fufficient time and opportunity to form them for usefulness in this life, and glory in that which is to come; and has implanted a strong storge or natural affection in their heart towards their children, which fhould powerfully

*Matth. xviii. 1o, Mark x. 16. John xxi, 15..

prompt them to this duty. (3.) Their own comfort and the good of human fociety, fhould alfo powerfully incline parents to cultivate the minds and hearts of their children with the greatest affiduity.

8. Three things feem of prime importance in the education of children, instruction, government and example.

(1.) Inftruction fhould be begun as foon as children are capable of receiving it, which is generally very early in life. The plainest and most practical truths fhould first be inftilled into the tender minds of children, and that in the plainest and most familiar manner, with fuch a seriousness and solemnity as is not forbidding and disgusting, but which may rather convey pleasure and amusement to the mind. And parents ought to improve their own understandings, that they may be better qualified properly to inftruct their children; which is no eafy talk to the wifeft.

(2.) In the article of government, parents fhould attentively study the tempers and difpofitions of their children; as upon fome ingenious tempers, gentle reproofs will have a better effect than ftripes, and with others it is abfolutely neceffary to ufe severe. reproof, and the rod of correction. In vernment, it is beft to begin with mildness in all children, as correction is a duty which is managed well with great difficulty: When

In go

correction is found neceffary, it should not be inflicted rashly, without duly weighing the nature of the crime and its true demerit. The greatest severity in punishing fhould be for immoralities; indiscretions fhould be paffed over with a light correction. A child should never be punished for dullness or other natural infirmities. In correcting no figns of revenge or violent passion fhould ever appear, but the child who is corrected fhould be made fenfible, that it is done with reluctance, and purely for its own good; and much care fhould be taken, to give it a deep conviction of the evil of the crime, for which it is chaftifed.

(3.) All the inftructions and corrections of parents will avail nothing, but rather make matters worse, if their examples are vicious and immoral.

VOL. II.

1

ESSAY LIX.

THE CONSTRAINTS OF CHRIST's LOVE:

A SERMON.

FROM IId. CORINTHIANS, v. 13, 14.

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is ta GOD: Or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of CHRIST constraineth us.

IT feems evident by the whole tenor of this epiftle, that the holy and zealous Apoftle had not a few enemies in the church of Corinth, and those too fuch as he might leaft of all have expected—his fellow profeffors and fellow teachers of chriftianity. Thefe vain-glorious teachers, instead of building upon the Apoftle's foundation, and fupporting and confirming his authority over his beloved converts, endeavored by every trick of artifice and calumny to overturn and fubvert it. They reprefented him to the Corinthians as mean and contemptible, as light and inconftant, as proud, overbearing and imperious, as a fubverter of the law, yea, as a drownright madman. They put a bad conftruction on all his words and

ons, preferred themfelves before him, and endeavored by every art to raife their own credit on the ruins of his apoftolical authority and reputation.

Such treatment as this could not but ly affect the good Apoftle, not only as feened to cool and weaken the affections

beloved Corinthian converts towards him; but more efpecially, as it was likely to prejudice their minds against the important doctrines of the gofpel which he had, with great labor, zeal and fincerity, preached amongst them. And hence it is, that we find fo great a part of this epiftle employed in St. Paul's vindication of his own character and conduct, as an Apoftle of CHRIST; in reclaiming the Corinthian church from an undue attachment to these Judaizing teachers,―andin rekindling proper regards to thofe diftinguifhing and unadulterated doctrines of the gofpel, which he had, in the courfe of his miniftry, propagated a mongst them.

As that peculiar fervency and ardor with which this eloquent Apostle of the Gentiles profecuted the gofpel miniftry, feems to be one of the great quarrels which his enemies had against him, he makes a noble and fpirited apology to the Corinthians for his conduct in this respect, from the 10th verfe to the end of the chapter; alledging the grandeur and importance of the doctrines which