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mong Perfons of ftrict Piety, and which make lefs Inroad on the Duties of Life, both folitary and focial, civil and religious?

SHALL I enquire once more, what is done at many of thole Midnight-Affemblies, before the Dance is begun, or when it is ended, and what is the Entertainment of those who are not engaged in Dancing? Are they not active in Gaming? Are not Cards the Bufinefs of the Hour? Are not Children educated, by this Means, in the Love of Gaming? And do they not hereby get fuch a Relish of it, as proves afterwards pernicious to them? Now if Gaming be not a Practice fit to be encouraged, what Encouragement do thofe Affemblies deferve, where Gaming is one of the chief Diverfions or Bufinefs?

BUT it is Time to put an End to this Sort of Difcourfe. I beg Pardon of my Readers for having drawn it out to fo great a Length: For I have faid too much on this Subject, for those who have no Inclination to these criminal and dangerous Diverfions; and I wish I may have faid enough to do good to those who have.

UPON the whole, I conclude, it is the Duty of Parents who would give their Children a good Education, to fee to it that Children, in their younger Years, do not indulge fuch Recreations as may fpoil all the good Effects of the pious Inftructions, the Pray

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ers, and Care of their Parents. Otherwife, if you encourage them in fuch Recreations, you are building up thofe Vanities of Mind, and thofe vicious Inclinations with one Hand, which you labour to prevent or to destroy with the other.

SECT. X.

Of the proper Degrees of Liberty and Refraint in the Education of a Son, illuftrated by Example.

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weak and unhappy is human Nature,

that it is ever ready to run into Extremes; and when we would recover ourfelves from an Excefs on the right Hand, we know not where to ftop till we are got to an Excefs on the left. Inftances of this Kind are innumerable in all the Affairs of human Life; but it is hardly more remarkable in any Thing, than in the strict and fevere Education of our Fathers a Century ago, and in the most profuse and unlimited Liberty that is indulged to Children in our Age.

IN thofe Days the Sons were bred up to Learning by terrible Difcipline: Every Greek and Latin Author they converfed with, was attended with one or many new Scourges,

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to drive them into Acquaintance with him; and not the leaft Mifdemeanor in Life could efcape the Lafh: As though the Father would prove his daily Love to his Son by never fparing his Rod. Prov. xiii. 24. Nowa-days young Mafter must be treated with a foolish Fondness, till he is grown to the Size of Man; and let his Faults be never fo heinous, and his Obftinacy never so great, yet the Preceptor must not let him hear the Name, of the Rod, left the Child fhould be frighted or hurt; the Advice of the wifest of Men is utterly forgotten, when he tells us, that due Correction fhall drive out the Folly that is bound up in the Heart of a Child, Prov. xxii. 15. Or else they boldly reverse his divine Counsel, Prov. xiii. 24. as though they would make the Rule of their Practice a direct Contradiction to the Words of Solomon, (viz.) that He that Spareth the Rod loveth his Son, but he that hateth him chaftens him betimes.

IN that Day many Children were kept in a moft fervile Subjection, and not suffered to fit down, or to fpeak, in the Presence of their Father, till they were come to the Age of one and twenty. The least Degree of Freedom was esteemed a bold Presumption, and incurred a sharp Reproof. Now they are made familiar Companions to their Parents, almost from the very Nursery; and

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therefore they will hardly bear a Check or Rebuke at their Hand.

In the Beginning of the laft Century, and fo onward to the Middle of it, the Children were usually obliged to believe what their Parents and their Mafters taught them, whether they were Principles of Science, or Articles of Faith or Practice: They were tied down almoft to every Punctilio, as though it were neceffary to Salvation; they were not suffered to examine or enquire whether their Teachers were in the right, and fcarce knew upon what Grounds they were to affent to the Things that were taught them; for it was a Maxim of all Teachers, that the Learner must believe: Difcentem opertet credere. Then an ipfe dixit, or Ariftotle faid fo, was a fufficient Proof of any Propofition in the Colleges; and for a Man of five and twenty to be a Chriftian and a Proteftant, a Diffenter or a Churchman, it was almost Reafon enough to fay that his Father was fo. But in this Century, when the Doctrine of a just and reasonable Liberty is better known, too many of the present Youth break all the Bonds of Nature and Duty, and run to the wildest Degrees of Loofeness, both in Belief and Practice. They flight the Religion which their Parents have taught them, that they may appear to have chofen a Religion for themselves: And when they have made a Creed or Belief of

their own, or rather borrowed fome Scraps of Infidelity from their vain Companions and Equals, they find Pretences enough to caft off all other Creeds at once, as well as the Counfels and Customs of their religious Predeceffors.

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"THE Practices of our Fathers (fay they)

were precife and foolish, and fhall be no Rule for our Conduct; the Articles of "their Faith were abfurd and mysterious, "but we will believe nothing of Mystery, " left our Faith fhould be as ridiculous as "theirs." In their younger Years, and before their Reafon is half grown, they pretend to examine the fublimeft Doctrines of Christianity; and a raw and half-witted Boy fhall commence an Infidel, because he cannot comprehend fome of the glorious Truths of the Gospel, and laughs at his Elders and his Ancestors, for believing what they could not comprehend.

THE Child now-a-days forgets that his Parent is obliged by all the Laws of God and Nature, to train him up in his own Religion, till he is come to the proper Age of Difcretion to judge for himfelf; he forgets, or he will not know, that the Parent is intrufted with the Care of the Souls of his young Offspring by the very Laws of Nature, as well as by the revealed Covenants of Innocency and of Grace. The Son now-a-days forgets the Obligations he is under to honour

and

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