the Knowledge of God and Duty to him and to Civil Governors, which fhould be the chief fubftance of thefe Lectures: for we find even under the Strictneffes of the Jewish Sabbatizing, our bleffed Savior himself went to a Feast at the House of a Pharifee, Luke xiv. I. and he taught them there Good-manners and Civility as well as Morality, viz. that they should not fit down in the chief Place left they should be removed with fhame to fome lower, Room. And it is certain that all the Books of Mofes were read in their Synagogues on the Sabbath-day, wherein now and then the Laws of their Civil Government and Rules of their Civil Life fill'd up whole Chapters, and employ'd a confiderable part of the time of their Attendance. But we must remem, ber indeed that God was their King, and therefore Sacred and Civil Affairs were inter mingled.

And if fuck Days as fome Perfons repute facred fhould be appointed by the State for thefe Lectures, perhaps 'tis proper that the Chriftians or the Jews in fuch a Nation fhould be content to take other hours of the fame Saturday or Sunday to worship their God upon his own appointed Day, with what they suppose to be his own instituted F 2 Forms

Forms or peculiar Modes of Worship: always fuppofing, as before hinted, that the reading the Laws of the Land, or rather fhort Abstracts of them, take up but a small part of that time which is fuppofed to be facred.

VIII. However if any Princes or any Governors would fhew themselves to be Fathers of their People, fhould they not with all tenderness and care appoint fuch times and seafons for these publick and establish'd Lectures, as might not give offence to the Confciences of any of their Subjects as far as poffible? Nor fhould the Penalties or very fmall Fines for the Absence of any of their Subjects at fuch appointed Seafons exceed what a tender Father would fee neceffary for the Welfare of the State to inflict on his Son, who would willingly serve and obey him in those things, which yet a mistaken Confcience and his Sense of Duty to God hardly permits him to perform.

And in all these things let it be still obferv'd and inviolably maintain'd, that no Law fhould ever be enacted nor any Penalty of any kind establish'd, but what appears neceffary for the Good of the State or the publick Civil Welfare; beyond which the Authority

I.

State, and of the Magiftrates thereof.

Τ

HUS far then we have proceeded,

and it appears that the knowledge of a God, and of the Duty of Obedience to Governors in Civil Things according to the Laws of the Land, together with moral Duties that are neceffary to the Welfare of the Community and the Support of Government, ought to be taught to all the People, and I think the People ought to attend and learn fomething of them.

II. It must be always granted and allow'd in all Governments, that during the State of Infancy or Minority every Perfon born in the Nation, and especially every Child of a Member of the Community, is to be esteem'd fo far a Member of it, as to receive Protection

Note, this Section as well as this whole Treatise was written a long time before the A&t about reading the Law made against the Murderers of Captain Porteous in Scotland was framed or thought of.

tion from the Government, upon the Allegiance of its Parents; and to enjoy all thofe Privileges which a Minor is capable of.

III. But what if we should fuppofe this Membership arifing from his Parents, together with the Privileges thereof should cease when he arrives at age? I enquire then, whether it may not be a very proper thing that every Perfon or at least every Man, at the age of twenty-one Years should in fome Court of Justice or before fome Magiftrate be required by Law to declare or profess this his Veneration of a God, and his obedient Regard to thefe Moral and Civil Laws, (which 'tis fuppofed he has learnt in the great and general Articles of them) fo far as they are confiftent with his Duty to God; and this in order to become a perfonal Partaker of the Privileges of the Government for the rest of his Life, and to be made a complete Member of the State.

Is it reasonable that any Man fhould enjoy all the Privileges of any Society who will not oblige himself to the general and neceffary Rules of the Society? And would not fuch a Law be more likely to perfuade and con train Parents to take fome Care that their Children should be acquainted with these things

things which are fo neceffary to the Welfare of Mankind and of the State?, and that the fhould have fome tolerable knowledge of them before they arrive at the age of Man, when the Law calls upon them to become complete and perfonal Subjects of theState? I

IV. Does it not feem very neceffary alfa, that all who are conftituted Magistrates or Officers in the State, fhould not only profefs thefe things at the time of their being invefted in their Office, but that they should alfo be Perfons who to all appearance practife according to their Profeffion? For how fhall we fuppofe thofe Perfons will be fit Guardians or Executors of the Civil or Moral Laws, who themselves manifeft by their Practice that they have no regard to them? Is it not evident that a Man who abufes the Name of God by profane Swearing and Curfing, who is given to Drunkenness or Lewdnefs, Cheating and Lying, Acts of Violence and Oppreffion, or any fcandalous Crime which interferes with the Good of Mankind and the Welfare of a Government; I fay, is it not evident that fuch a Man fhould never be made a Magiftrate or Officer for the Execution of the Laws of the Land? Is not this of vaftly greater importance than to enquire

into