SERMON III. ON THE PRESENT STATE OF EDUCATION. ISAIAH, chap. xxviii. verfes 9, 10. Whom fhall be teach knowledge? and whom For precept must be upon precept, precept IN pursuing the plan which I have pro- Preached at the Afylum, March 11, pofed for this holy feafon, viz. to examine into the present state of religion amongst 1792. us, I come now to fpeak upon the very important fubject of EDUCATION. The prefent mode of Education I take to be at once a caufe, and an evidence, of the decrease of religion. As the ground of my obfervations, I affume, as granted, the pofition of a celebrated Writer on this fubject: "That of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their Education *." Our first habits stick by us through the remainder of our lives; or, at leaft, are thrown off with a painfulness of perfeverance, or by a ftrength of conviction, very rarely to be met with. This is acknowledged to be the cafe in bad habits; and it is equally true in the important articles of faith and morals. There is no difficulty in shaking that faith which was never yet established, or in perverting that practice which was never yet directed right. But when we have been *Locke on Education. taught taught the high authority of religion, and the duties of virtue, the modesty of our principles will be long difgufted with the fneer of the infidel, and proof against the temptations of the profligate. What we at first, perhaps, imbibe by imitation, we become attached to by habit, and gradually comprehend the principles of, with the progrefs of reafon. We acknowledge the neceffity of teaching elements to children, which they cannot at present understand; but which the memory is stored with to be brought into future use. The firft fteps of Education are entirely of this nature. We teach the youthful mind, with infinite patience and perfeverance, the principles of those arts or fciences, which are to be their future ornament, or the means of their future "maintenance; and are content to lead them on, step by step, before they are able to III. SERMON comprehend and apply the first rules which they have learnt. It is equally neceffary to teach the elements of religion: in this way; to inftruct young people in the grounds of their faith, by teaching. them the history of man, as a being created by, and derived from, God, and by imprinting on their memories the account of man's fall and redemption ;-To instruct them farther in the nature of their practice, as a neceffary fruit of their faithas confifting of duties commanded by God, which are to be exercised towards Him, towards our neighbour, and towards ourfelves;-To inftruct them in the general heads of thefe duties, in the reasons, authority, and neceffity on which they are founded; in their respective degrees and variations; and, finally, in their particular application. Thus then, in religion, there is a great deal for a man to believe and to do; do; but before he can either believe or perform, he must comprehend; and, before he can comprehend, he must be inftructed. In another point of view, than as an indifpenfable article of knowledge, it is abfolutely neceffary that the mind should be 'prepared for religion as early as it is poffible. Our fallen nature is contrary to the purities of religion; the Chriftian religion is defigned to correct this unhappy corruption; we must apply its powers, therefore, before the corruption has overspread and infected the whole mind, and before it is grown inveterate by time, habit, and example. The whole commerce of life is adverse to spirituality; early principles and early habits, therefore, are particularly neceffary to establish a predilection for that which every thing we meet with, in the paffage through life, SERMON |