tyrs death, with a simplicity, force, and pathos which, engaging the conviction of your understanding and the interest of your affections, will lead you to resist the solicitations of heresy, however insinuating the form in which it may allure you

Finally, then, brethren, remember that though to hear the word of God with those humble, holy, reverential, and obedient dispositions which its sacred and interesting nature demands, is an important object for which you appear in this sacred temple, to offer to the God who made and redeemed you, the homage of your hearts, in its prayers and praises, is a duty, for which no attention, however earnest, to the word here read in preached sermons, will be accepted as a commutation. That infinite and eternal Being who is the source of all excellence and glory, requires our homage, not as necessary to his all-perfect happiness, but because it promotes the perfection and happiness of our own natures. With the services of his church, the mean and pledge of his covenanted mercy and grace to our sinful race, he hath connected our advancement in holiness and virtue, and our preparation for his heavenly kingdom. Vain is our hope of ever taking part in the praises of heaven, if we do not delight in the worship of God on earth. And what will avail us all the enjoyments of the present life, if, at the awful close of it, our souls, destitute of devout affections, must be banished from the presence of God? Let us then be per- . suaded to omit no opportunity of uniting with holy sincerity in the services of the church, and those graces and virtues will be quickened and strengthened in our souls, by which we shall be prepared for enjoying the ineffable and everlasting bliss of the

heavenly courts. We have reason to bless God, that in his good providence we enjoy a form of service so admirably fitted to all the purposes of devotion —so reverential in its adorations-so humiliating in its confessions-so consoling in its exhibitions of God's grace and mercy in Jesus Christ his Son -so various, so pertinent, and so affecting in its supplications-so enlivening in its strains of praise. Of those to whom much is given, much will be required. In proportion to the excellence of the means of worship which we enjoy, will be our guilt and our condemnation, if we neglect them, or fail to improve them. Let us then delight to enter the courts of the Lord, to confess our unworthiness, to invoke his forgiveness, to supplicate his favour, and to magnify his name. And especially when his holy table presents to us the memorials of his mercy and the pledges of his everlasting favour, in the symbols of the body and blood of him who died for us, let us not refuse to come to the holy celebration-but in the mercy, the grace, the consolation, the holiness which this sacred feast conveys to the penitent and faithful, receive that spiritual nourishment which strengthens to everlasting life; and then this house of God will be the gate of heaven.

SERMON XIV.

TO PARENTS.

DEUTERONOMY vi. 7.

Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy childreu.

THE statutes and the judgments, the commandments and the ordinances which God gave unto Israel, the people were thus commanded to "teach diligently unto their children." The injunction is most earnestly and forcibly expressed. "These words which I command thee this day," says the divinely commissioned legislator of Israel, "shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." He had previously expressed the same injunction-"Teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;" and he afterwards urges the solemn admonition-"Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

The injunction of the legislator of Israel is afterwards ranked among those maxims which the inspired wisdom of one profoundly acquainted with

human nature dictated. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old," (generally, without doubt, is meant; for no maxim applicable to human nature is without exception,) "he will not depart from it."* And it is the admonition of a divinely commissioned apostle, that parents should "bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."+

To urge the duty which these precepts enjoin, would at any time be proper: it is particularly seasonable now, when your attention is directed to the public method of instruction by catechizing which the church prescribes, and when an opportunity will soon be afforded of presenting your children for receiving the holy ordinance of confirmation.

There must be wisdom in these admonitions, as to the religious education of children; there must be efficacy in the system which they prescribe-for they are the voice of inspiration; and whether or not we see the reasons of them, let us remember, that, as the command of our divine Lawgiver, they are binding upon us. That instruction in worldly knowledge is necessary, no one would be guilty of the gross absurdity of denying for a moment; and can that knowledge which is, above every other, important, be an exception? Must the various facts and truths of secular science be early displayed before children, and must they be kept in ignorance of those which concern their nature and character as spiritual and immortal beings? Must they early be taught to serve, to love, to fear, to obey, and to thank their earthly parents and bene

* Prov. xxii. 6.

† Eph. vi. 4.

factors; and must no emotions of reverence, of love, of fear, of gratitude, no act of obedience be directed to their heavenly Father, to their almighty and merciful Saviour? And must they be instructed in the various arts of advancing themselves in that world in which, at the longest, their sojourn is so short; and no attention be paid to the means of securing their happiness, and averting their misery, in that world in which they must live for ever? The case is too plain to admit of a moment's doubt; and the importance of urging the religious education of children is increased in proportion as, at the present day, the disposition to enlarge their worldly knowledge and accomplishments excites the apprehension that religious instruction may thus be excluded, or not receive its due share of attention.

Some of the particulars in which the religious education of children consists, I propose to lay before you now, and at some subsequent opportunity.

1. Their dependence upon God, and their obligations to serve him, should be diligently impressed upon them.

The sentiment of dependence may be easily excited in the young mind. Accustomed to derive every thing from the bounty and care of their parents, children may be made sensible that they are indebted for all their enjoyments to other exertions than their own. They should be taught that the supreme power from whom every good thing comes, is that almighty Being who made them and all things, and whom, therefore, they are bound to revere and serve. When their hearts are softened by the attentions and caresses of parental VOL. II.

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