ing burnings. And if parents neglect these important points, from whom can children claim instruction, or to whom shall they look up for that information, which is necessary to guide their feet into the way of peace?

But this care ought not to be confined to our children alone, but ought to extend even to the lowest and most subordinate members of every family. For those who are committed to our charge, whether as apprentices or servants, being far removed from the eye and guidance of their parents and more immediate guardians, stand in need of a more particular observation, especially in the vicinity of the Metropolis, which we know by woful experience to be fertile in every species of temptation and danger.

Let therefore every master of a family, in the first place, imitate the conduct of Cornelius, by setting a good example, in his own person, of fearing God. For, though an irregular liver should reprove and discountenance in his domestics what

he

he practises himself, yet it is certain that his words will have but little weight against the more cogent power of example. For instance: With what authority can he rebuke drunkenness in his dependents, who utters his admonitions with inflamed eyes and a stammering tongue, and who is himself a nightly example of bestial intemperance? Again, with what countenance can a father reprimand his child, or a master his servant, for swearing, whom he daily overawes by the terror of execrable oaths? And the same is true in every other instance. For though a man should utter his precepts with the tongue of angels, yet, if the tenor of his life be in open contradiction to them, he would deservedly seem to those who heard him, but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

2dly. It is the duty of every master of a family to join good instructions to a good example, and to take every opportunity of instilling the sound and wholesome doctrines of the Christian faith. At the delivery of the law to the Jews of

old,

old, God himself gave this solemn and particular charge to every one present: "These words, which I command thee "this day, shall be in thine heart, and " thou shalt teach them diligently to 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." "Thou shalt teach them dili"gently to thy children:" and indeed, what diligence can be too much in the nurture and admonition of those, whom we have brought into a world full of cares and toils; through the innumerable hazards of which it will be difficult for them to steer their course aright, when armed and fortified by the best education and instruction? And again, what pleasure can equal that of fashioning these tender innocents, whilst, like the soft clay in the hand of the potter, they are susceptible of any impression we please to give them; of beholding them, like their Saviour, increasing in wisdom as they do in stature; and, like their guardian angels, shining in innocence and na

tive loveliness? And of all men happiest is that parent, who seeing the fruit of his instructions in the lives of a virtuous progeny, is able at the hour of death to adopt the language of our Saviour with respect to his disciples, "Of those which "thou hast given me, I have lost none.'

But if that should be the unhappy case of parents, which the Apostle complains of in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and which, I fear, is too general in the inferior ranks of the community; "That

when they ought to be teachers of "others, they themselves have need to "be taught which are the first principles " and oracles of God:" then let their own inability to instruct their families at home, at least prevail upon them so far as to bring them to the house of God; where, though they may not always hear enough to satisfy the itching ears of idle curiosity, they will seldom fail to hear enough to instruct them in the road to happiness. Should any, on the other hand, not plead want of knowledge, but rather want of leisure or inclination to instruct

instruct their families at home; I answer, they are therefore also more strictly bound to repair to the temple of God, with their sons and their daughters, their men servants and their maid servants, and the stranger within their gates, that God's house may be full, and that they may fall down, with united hearts and voices, before the Lord their maker.

3dly. Every parent and master should maintain a strict and orderly government in his house and among those committed to his care. I do not mean by this, that he should rule his children with a rod of iron, or, in the language of Scripture, be frantic among his servants. But as Scripture commands him to forbear threatning to servants, so reason warns him to avoid familiarity; and again, as the former instructs him not to provoke his children to wrath, so does the latter not to invite them on to insolence. For the improper indulgence of parents naturally creates the same rebellious spirit in children, as David's ill-timed fondness did in Adonijah, whom he never displeased at any