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let them be as bad as they will, it is scarce possible they can be so bad as they are instructed they may be, or worse than they are told their superiors are? And is there no danger that all this, to mention only one supposeable course of it, may raise somewhat like that levelling spirit, upon atheistical prin ciples, which, in the last age, prevailed upon enthusiastic ones; not to speak of the possibility, that different sorts of people may unite, in it, upon these contrary principles? And may not this spirit, together with a concurrence of ill-humours, and of persons who hope to find their account in confusion, soon prevail to such a degree, as will require more of the good old principles of loyalty and of religion to withstand it, than appear to be left amongst us?

What legal remedies can be provided against these mischiefs, or whether any at all, are considerations the farthest from my thoughts. No government can be free, which is not administered by general stated laws; and these cannot comprehend every case, which wants to be provided against; nor can new ones be made for every particular case, as it arises and more particular laws, as well as more general ones, admit of infinite evasions; and legal government forbids any but legal methods of redress, which cannot but be liable to the same sort of imperfections, besides the additional one of delay; and whilst redress is delayed, however unavoidably, wrong subsists. Then there are very bad things, which human authority can scarce provide against at all, but by methods dangerous to liberty;

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nor fully, but by such as would be fatal to it. These things show, that liberty, in the very nature of it, absolutely requires, and even supposes, that people be able to govern themselves in those respects in which they are free; otherwise their wickedness will be in proportion to their liberty, and this greatest of blessings will become a curse.

III. These things show likewise, that there is but one adequate remedy to the forementioned evils, even that which the apostle prescribes in the last words of the text, to consider ourselves "as the servants of God," who enjoins dutiful submission to civil authority as his ordinance; and to whom we are accountable for the use we make of the liberty which we enjoy under it. Since men cannot live out of society, nor in it, without government, government is plainly a divine appointment; and consequently submission to it, a most evident duty of the law of nature. And we all know in how forcible a manner it is put upon our consciences in Scripture. Nor can this obligation be denied formally upon any principles, but such as subvert all other obligations. Yet many amongst us seem not to consider it as any obligation at all. This doubtless is, in a great measure, owing to dissoluteness and corruption of manners; but I think it is partly owing to their having reduced it to nothing in theory: whereas this obligation ought to be put upon the same foot with all other general ones, which are not absolute and without exception: and our submission is due in all cases, but those which we really discern to be exceptions to this general

ficial behaviour might perhaps avail much towards quieting our consciences, and making our part good in the short competitions of this world; but what will it avail us, considered as under the government of God? Under his government "there is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves."* He has indeed instituted civil government over the face of the earth, "for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise," the apostle does not say the rewarding, but, "for the praise of them that do well."+ Yet as the worst answer these ends in some measure, the best can do it very imperfectly. Civil government can by no means take cognizance of every work, which is good or evil: many things are done in secret; the authors unknown to it, and often the things themselves : Then it cannot so much consider actions, under the view of their being morally good or evil, as under the view of their being mischievous, or beneficial to society; nor can it in any wise execute judgment in rewarding what is good, as it can, and ought, and does, in punishing what is evil. But "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." +

* Job xxxiv. 22.

+ 1 Pet. ii. 14.

t Eccl. xii. 14.

SERMON IV.

PREACHED

IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF CHRIST-CHURCH,

LONDON,

On Thursday, May 9. 1745;

Being the time of the Yearly Meeting of the Children educated in the Charity Schools, in and about the Cities

of London and Westminster.

PROV. xxii. 6.

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.

HUMAN creatures, from the constitution of their nature, and the circumstances in which they are placed, cannot but acquire habits during their childhood, by the impressions which are given them, and their own customary actions. And long before they arrive at mature age, these habits form a general settled character. And the observation of the text, that the most early habits are usually the most lasting, is likewise every one's observation.

Now, whenever children are left to themselves, and to the guides and companions which they chuse, or by hazard light upon, we find by experience, that the first impressions they take, and course of action they get into, are very bad; and so, consequently, must be their habits, and character, and future behaviour. Thus, if they are not trained up in the way they "should go," they will certainly be trained up the way they should not go; and, in all probability, will persevere in it, and become miserable themselves, and mischievous to society: which, in event, is worse, upon account of both, than if they had been exposed to perish in their infancy. On the other hand, the ingenuous docility of children before they have been deceived, their distrust of themselves, and natural deference to grown people, whom they find here settled in a world where they themselves are strangers, and to whom they have recourse for advice, as readily as for protection; which deference is still greater towards those who are placed over them: these things give the justest grounds to expect, that they may receive such impressions, and be influenced to such a course of behaviour, as will produce lasting good habits; and, together with the dangers before-mentioned, are as truly a natural demand upon us to "train them up in the way they should go," as their bodily wants are a demand to provide them bodily nourishment. Brute creatures are appointed to do no more than this last for their offspring; nature forming them, by instincts, to the particular manner of life appointed them, from which they

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