palate is so much disgusted with this sort of entertainment before. hand, that he either disrelishes or neglects whatever solid and wholesome food is set before him in the sermon that follows: I will not say there is nothing of this folly owing to the influences of his education; but it is hard, if not impossible, to amend or prevent all the faults of this kind in the education of children, by the best and wisest of parents*.

Since I have occasion, in this place to mention the education of children, amongst the persons of the established church, and those that have separated from it, I could scarce excuse it to my own conscience, if I should neglect to make this solemn remark on both, viz. that there is something very dangerous that is early impressed on the minds of children of the one party and the other, and they unhappily learn it from the different respective catechisms, in which they are instructed.

7

The children who are educated in the church of England, as soon as they have learned to answer "what is their name?" they are immediately told in the Dext answer, that in their baptism, "they are made the members of Christ, the children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven." This arises from the doctrine they are generally taught, that baptism and regeneration are much the same thing, or that all men are regenerated by being baptised; whereas in scripture, baptism is but an emblem and representation of such a change of the heart, as regenration requires and implies; and for want of this distinction, the children usually grow up through all their stations in life, without enquiring whether they bave had any such real change in their souls, as includes in it repentance for sin, and a turn of soul towards God and godliness, whereby a man is bora again and becomes a new creature. And this necessary change, upon which the favour of God, and an interest in the salvation of Christ, and the kingdomof heaven depend, is very grossly and shamefully neglected by them through their whole lives, they always supposing as they have been taught, that all this work is done in baptism.

And for this reason many divines of the church of England have heartily wished that either these words in the catechism were a little altered, or that this answer should never be taught to children without explaining the meaning of it. Among the dissenters, one part of the education is usually learning the catechism, written by the assembly of divines at Westminster, Now in the 19th answer it is said, “That all mankind by their fall,—are under the wrath and curse of God, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of bell for ever:" And some persons have been so grossly unwise, as to assert under this influence, that there are children of a span long suffering the vengeance of God in hell, for their interest in the Sin of Adam. Now the very hint of such a notion frights children terribly, and while they are required to love God with all their hearts, it gives them a very terrible and cruel notion of the great and blessed God, who has ordained young children to these everlasting torments for the sin of Adam. There are some that deny this answer, and renounce this doctrine roundly.

Indeed there is one author that has endeavoured to explain it in a moderate way, and to make ajust distinction upon this subject, and that is in the last question of a book called the "ruin and recovery of mankind." There it is shewn that all good christians, by their faith in Christ, are become the children of Abraham, and that they and their infant children have an interest in the promise made to Abraham, Gal. iii, 26, 29. viz. that God would be their God, and the God of their seed," which gives abundant hope for the children of good parents dying in infancy, that they are translated to the blessedness of heaven, and the hope of a joyful resurrection by the covenant of Abraham. And it is the children of the wicked, who have never accepted of the covenant of grace, are left under the curse, that is, of temporal death, which Adam had incurred for himself and his posterity, and that without any prediction or promise of any resurrection at all. Now I speak of those who never sinned actually, nor enjoyed a state of personal' trial for themselves in this world. "See the original writer." When these things will be corrected in the education of children, of the one side or the other, it is only the providence of God can determine.

These things joined together, put a strong bias upon the judgment of the man, and it is exceeding difficult to be removed; and it is evident that his prayers, his practice in religion, his secret acts of devotion, are all regulated by the instructions he has received from his parents or some of his teachers: This makes his spirit grow uneasy under ceremonious forms, and he is quite untuned for devotion by the very sound of the organ. These things must needs have a mighty force on the minds of young sincere creatures beginning their course of religion and christianity, to establish them in the non-conformist way. And I might also add, how rude and indecent a thing the plain and natural worship of the dissenters appears to one, that has been bred up to ornament and ceremony in the several parts of worship in the established church. By education and custom a particular form of religion is so mingled with their nature, and wrought into their constitution that you might as soon alter their palate, and change their taste of meats, as you can persuade their souls to dislike the ministry under which they have been brought up, and to forsake the mode of worship to which they have been trained. They are so positive they are in the right, that they never had any thought of calling these things to a new examination.

Secondly, The prejudice of the mind in favour of the dissenters grows yet stronger, if Jonathan has found his soul awakened to a fear of hell, and been effectually convinced of sin by the terrors of the law under the preaching of some Boanerges, some son of thunder in a meeting house; and has been afterwards led gently into the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Saviour, and has been taught to apply himself unto him for salvation by humble faith. If the Spirit of God has made the preaching of pardon and grace, by a dissenting minister, effectual to calm the surges of his troubled conscience, and to lead him in the way of peace and holiness towards heaven, perhaps he feels his passions refined, his sinful appetites mortified, his temper changed from earthly and carnal, to spiritual and heavenly, how natural will his whole soul be carried out to love this ministry? And he would not willingly absent himself one day from the teachings of this Barnabas, this son of consolation; he despises all the finer flourishes of consequence, he can take no pleasure in the more polite, and perhaps more argumentative discourse of a doctor or bishop in the church of England; but where he has found light and food, and rest for his dark and distressed, and hungry soul, thither he will go constantly to worship, and he calls that the sanctuary of the Lord, without once enquiring whether a parish church may not be the sanctuary of the Lord too; nay perhaps his passion for the dissenters may rise so high as to deny the presence of God in the assemblies of the established church, or to allow very little of it there.

And by the same false method of reasoning may a churchman, whose soul has been brought to repentance and holiness by the ministry of the public church on which he has attended, almost hates the name of a non-conformist, and severely inveigh against them all as schismatics and foolish teachers, when perhaps he never ventured into a meeting-house, nor heard one sermon in any of their assemblies. So far is it possible for piety, ignorance and prejudice to meet in the same mind: But our God who knows the frame of human nature, looks down, and pities and forgives. A hearty tendency towards God, and a pursuit of heaven, is well pleasing in his sight; though perhaps the traveller, through ignorance, takes many a wrong step, and performs many a duty not exactly conformable to the directions of the word.

Now, though this argument be sufficient to determine him to be a christian, in opposition to other religions, because other religions have not this power to sanctify him, yet it ought not to be sufficient for ever to determine him to a particular party of ehristians, because it was not the particular opinions of that party, but the substantial and great doctrines of christianity or the gospel, which are professed and pretended to by both parties, that were so powerful to the turning of his heart towards God.

After all this discourse, I would not be understood as though I encouraged this laziness of men, and neglect of due and just reasoning; no, for reason is the talent that God hath given to be used in the affairs of religion, and he hath given us the rule of his own word for our determination, by which all our worship ought to be regulated, and not by human inventions; and men are highly guilty in their neglect hereof: But a gracious God will forgive, for he knows our frame and our frailty. I believe God doth accept of such inward, sincere and experimental arguments as vulgar christians use to make or keep themselves churchmen or dissenters, Calvinists or Arminiaus. If they feel their souls raised to a more heavenly frame, and effectually engaged to the love of God, religion and justice, by attending occasionally on a ministry different from their education, sometimes they will be ready to separate even from a true church to which they belonged, for want of knowing the guilt and terrors and damnation that -some men include in that hard word, schism; and I persuade myself that a gracious God will accept of their upright designs and their honest motives, will pardon their separation, though it should prove unwarrantable, and bless their new communion to the advantage of their souls.

Thirdly, But suppose a man should forcibly divest himself of all former aversions and inclinations to the separate or the established churches, and enter into a sober search, and solemn debate with himself about the merits of the cause; how few are

there, whose necessary affairs of life allow them time enougli to go through the study of these laborious and intangled controversies? How small a part of mankind that are born to secular affairs, can, in these few hours of leasure, find out the depth of some of these difficulties? Who is sharp enough on the sudden to distinguish truth in the midst of the clouds of dust that are cast on it by the litigious wrangle of all parties? The soul of many a tradesman is but just of a size with his shop and business, and hath not strength of parts or improvement to attain great and accurate knowledge in any thing besides; and those whose ingenuity is greater, may easily waste all the spare hours of their life in treading the mazes of dispute about forms and ceremonies, and at last find themselves bewildered: Now I question whether such a man's head would lie casy upon a dying pillow, who had spent his time among briars and thorns, and neglected the fruit of the tree of life, or tasted but very little of it; he has been dwelling upon the moss and the ivy, and not gathered the product of those eminent branches of our holy religion, whence he might have extracted sweet cordials for a languishing and fainting hour.

Fourthly, Again, how very few are there amongst the giddy race of men that can so far annihiliate their old opinions, and refrain so long from embracing new ones, till they have made a thorough scrutiny into the arguments and pretensions on both sides? Who can dwell for months together in the uneasy state of dubitation? Who is there that has power enough over his own thoughts, as to hold his judgment in suspense for a considerable season, till the matter in question be fairly debated and brought to an issue in the court of reason and scripture? How ready are we to incline our assent one way or another, as the various occurrences of life present shadows of argument for either opinion? A story of a wicked clergyman of the church will warp the inquiring soul of a plebian towards a meeting-house; and an old song of Charles the martyr will determine another's judgment against the cruel dissenters, and make him a complete churchman. A flash of rhetoric, a shew of reason, a warm sermon, and affections raised by a Tillotson at Westminster, or a Mead at Pinner's Hall, will immediately turn the mind from its equilibrium; and you know when a balance is just turned, though it be but by a grain of weight, it falls effectually on that side, and sometimes almost irrecoverably too.

When we have thrown off all old prejudices, it is not easy to secure ones self from new ones. When we have so far gained the victory over education and custom as to retain none of our ancient opinions, we are apt to fall insensibly under the power of the opposite doctrines, and become captives and slaves to new notions, merely because they are new. Novelty is as great a preju

dice to fair reasoning as antiquity; though perhaps not souniver sally prevailing. And there is many a giddy and headstrong youth that has hastily embraced maxims and practices contrary to those of his parents, to shew how bravely he has broke all the fetters of education, and to make it appear that he thinks freely. When we push the boat off from the shore where it has long stuck in the mud, it is hard to prevent its being stranded on the adverse side. It is exceeding difficult to keep the mind in this medium of suspense till right reason determine it; it is very troublesome to maintain the judgment in a poise till some weighty and solid argument sink one of the scales downward, and equitably decide the depending strife of opinions; there is need of continual caution and wary motions of thought: A doubting spirit is in pain, and willing to be released. We are very desirous to believe somewhat though upon slight grounds, that our souls may be at ease and fall to practice.

Fifthly, But suppose men should have leisure, and books and other advantages, joined with resolution and patience enough to endure the pain of dubitation, and the long fatigue of deep study and thoughtfulness; yet how small is the number of those that are capable to distinguish betwixt real and apparent reason; especially in subjects where the differences are of so nice and intricate a kind? How few understandings are so acute, how few judgments so solid and just, so well formed and well improved, as to determine controversies so long and so much darkened? Who can see through all the false shows and pretences of argument, and discern the true gold from that which only glisters ? Turn you eyes inward, my friend, and behold a soul there that has more knowledge and judgment than hundreds of the animals that are round about you, and that you are forced to converse with; and yet after all your unbiassed searches and labours, and earnest prayers, how hard a thing you find it to resolve the point, whether you ought to remain in the communion of a dissenting church, or become a separatist from them, and unite yourselves to the church of Englaud. Now, if all your leisure, your advatages, and your application, cannot fix your assent and practice, infer then how vain a thing it is to expect that reason and argument should constantly determine and govern a blind, a rash, a ruined and a wretched world.

I confess, in things of greater importance, and necessity to salvation, our directions lie so plain, as to lead the most stupid souls that are honest and sincere, to the knowledge of truth and duty, unless it be here and there a man who violently breaks through the very language of scripture, and runs into great errors or irregularity of practice: But in things of less moment, how impossible is it that the generality of mortals should build every lesser opinion of theirs upon solid foundations aud unsha