DISC. country found, in which the children are as III. above described, of one thing we may be abundantly certain, that fuch a country can not long continue Chriftian. They who are now children, will in a few years become men and women; they will foon compose the great body of the Public: of what kind will that Public be? And how much more depraved still will be the descendants of that Public! In fuch a nation, matters muft go on from bad to worse, till the wrath of God break forth, and there be no remedy. The inhabitants will either fall by the fword of the enemy, or be led away into captivity, or confumed by civil diffenfions, biting and devouring one another. For wife and most important reafons therefore it was, that when "God established a teftimony in Jacob, “and appointed a law in Ifrael, he com"manded the fathers that they should "make them known to their children; "that the generation to come should know

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them, even the children which should be "born; who should arife and declare them "to their children; that they might set

III.

"their hope in God, and not forget the DISC. "works of God, but keep his command"ments "."

But

Had this divine injunction been obeyed, religious knowlege would have been regularly transmitted by parents to their children, from generation to generation. that knowlege once loft (as from various causes it has been loft) by parents, ignorance muft thenceforward be transmitted in the place of it. In the present state of things among us, many are the parents, who can neither teach their children, nor afford to pay for their being taught. How melancholy, and in the end how fatal to fociety must be the confequences, unless the cause be taken up by the charitable and well difpofed !-Bleffed be God, it has been taken up by Britons, in a manner unknown to any other age or nation. At the yearly meeting in the Cathedral of the metropolis, 6000 poor children, neatly clothed in the uniform of their refpective fchools, are feen

• Pf. lxxviii. 5.

arranged

DISC. arranged in rifing circles, and heard foundIII. ing forth together the praises of God. Struck with what they faw and heard (and I fuppofe the like never was feen or heard), two noblemen of the kingdom of Portugal, and confequently of the Romish perfuafion, were overheard to exclaim, at one of these folemnities-" This is life indeed"We never lived before !"—" Out of the “mouth of babes and fucklings was praise "thus perfected!"

Children clothed and inftructed in other parts of the kingdom, cannot meet in this world; but all, if they make a proper ufe of what they learn, will meet in the next, to give thanks to God, and acknowlege the kindness of their benefactors. A more powerful confideration cannot be urged (and therefore no other needeth to be urged) to all parties concerned in thefe charities, to perform their respective dutiesthose who have ability, to give liberally; those who teach, to do it with fidelity; those who learn, with diligence.

encourage

DISCOURSE IV.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SEA.

WE

PSALM XCV. 5.

The Sea is his, and he made it,

IV.

HEN man was firft formed, crea- DISC. tion was his book, and God his preceptor. The elements were fo many letters, by means of which, when rightly understood, and put together, the wisdom, power, and goodnefs of the great Creator became legible to him.

The proficiency made by Adam under his heavenly teacher, appears from the circumftance of his impofing upon the creatures,

VOL. III.

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when

DISC. when they were brought to him for that

IV.

purpose, names expreffive of their natures; a talk which he could never have performed, unless, by the affistance of his divine guide, he had first been introduced to an intimate acquaintance with those natures.

Happy the times, when all knowlege thus lay in one volume; when the pursuit of wisdom, was attended by pleasure, and followed by devotion! For who doth not find delight in contemplating the works of the Lord? Who, when he hath duly contemplated the works, can forbear to praise the Workmaster ?

The great and learned champion of the Roman church, who spent the best part of his life in fifting the difputes between the catholics and protestants, compofed, towards the close of his days, a small treatise upon the afcent of the foul to God by meditation on the creatures, which, from thenceforth, he made his conftant companion, and was wont to fay, it was more fatisfac