me leave, for once, to ftep out of my Profeffion fo far (though ftill keeping ftrictly within my Subject) as to lay before the Educators of Youth, thefe few following Confiderations; for I shall not, in Modesty, call them Inftructions.

1. As firft. Let them remember that excellent and never to be forgotten Advice, That Boys will be Men; and that the Memory of all bafe Ufage will fink fo deep into, and grow up fo infeparably with them, that it will not be fo much as in their own Power ever to forget it. For though indeed Schoolmasters are a fort of Kings, yet they cannot always pafs fuch Acts of Oblivion, as fhall operate upon their Scholars; or perhaps (in all things) indemnify themfelves.

2. Where they find a Youth of Spirit, let them endeavour to govern that Spirit, without extinguishing it; to bend it, to bend it, without breaking it; for when it comes once to be extinguished and broken, and loft, it is not in the Power or Art of Man to recover it: And then (believe it) no Knowledge of Nouns and Pronouns, Syntaxis, and Profodia, can ever compenfate or make amends for fuch a Lofs. The French, they fay, are extremely happy at this, who will inftruct a Youth of Spirit to a decent Boldness, tempered with a due Modesty ; which two Qualities in Conjunction,

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dò above all others, fit a Man both for Bufinefs and Address. But for want of this Art, -fome Schools have ruined more good Wits than they have improved; and even those which they have fent away with fome tolerable Improvement, like Men escaped from a Shipwreck, carry off only the Remainder of those natural Advantages, which in much greater Plenty they first brought with them.

3. Let not the Chastisement of the Body be managed fo, as to make a Wound, which fhall rankle and fefter in the very Soul. That is, @let not Children, whom Nature itself would bear up by an innate, generous Principle of Emulation, be expofed, cow'd, and depreffed with Scoffs and Contumelies (founded perhaps upon the Master's own guilt) to the Scorn and Contempt of their Equals and Emulators. For this is, instead of Rods, to chaftife them with Scorpions; and is the most direct way to stupify and befot, and make them utterly regardless of themselves, and of all that is Praise-worthy; befides that it will be fure to leave in their Minds fuch inward Regrets, as are never to be qualify'd or worne off. It is very undecent for a Master to jeft or play with his Scholars; but not only undecent, but very dangerous too, in fuch a way to play upon them.

4. And lastly. Let it appear in all Acts of Penal Animadverfion, that the Perfon is loved while his Fault is punished; nay, that one is Punished only out of Love to the other. And (believe it) there is hardly any one so much à Child, but has Sagacity enough to perceive this. Let not melancholy Fumes and Spights, and fecret Animofities pafs for Difcipline. Let the Master be as angry for the Boy's Fault, as Reason will allow him; but let not the Boy be in fault, only because the Mafter has a mind to be angry. In a word, let not the Mafter have the Spleen, and the Scholars be troubled with it. But above all, let not the Sins, or Faults, or Wants of the Parents be punished upon the Children; for that is a Prerogative which God has referved to himself.

These things I thought fit to remark, about the Education, and Educators of Youth in general, not that I have any thoughts or defires of invading their Province; but poffibly a Stander-by may fometimes look as far into the Game, as he who plays it; and perhaps with no less Judgment, because with much less Concern.

3. The third and last fort of Perfons concerned in the great Charge of instructing Youth, are the Clergy. For as Parents deliver their Children to the Schoolmaster, fo the VOL. V. D School

Schoolmaster delivers them to the Minister. And for my own part, I never thought a Pul pit, a Cushion, and an Hour-Glafs, fuch neceffary means of Salvation, but that much of the Time and Labour which is spent about them, might be much more profitably beftowed, in Catechizing Youth from the Desk. Preaching being a kind of Spiritual Diet, upon which People are always feeding, but never full; and many poor Souls, (God knows) too, too like Pharoah's lean kine, much the leaner for their full feed.

And how, for God's fake, fhould it be otherwife! For to preach to People without Principles, is to build where there is no Foundation, or rather where there is not fo much as Ground to build upon. But People are not to be Harangued, but Catechized into Princi ples; and this is not the proper Work of the Pulpit, any more than Threshing can pass for Sowing. Young minds are to be leisurely formed and fashioned with the firft plain, fimple, and fubftantial Rudiments of Religion. And to expect that this fhould be done by Preaching or force of Lungs, is juft as if a Smith, or Artist who works in Metal, fhould think to frame and fhape out his Work only with his Bellows.

It is want of Catechizing, which has been the true Caufe of thofe numerous Sects, Schifms,

Schifms, and wild Opinions, which have fo disturbed the Peace, and bid fair to destroy the Religion of the Nation. For the Confciences of Men bave been filled with Wind and Noise, empty Notions and Pulpit-tattle. So that amongst the moft Seraphical Illuminati, and the highest Puritan Perfectionifts, you fhall find People of fifty, threescore, or fourscore Years old, not able to give that Account of their Faith, which you might have had heretofore from a Boy of nine or ten. Thus far had the Pulpit (by accident) difordered the Church, and the Desk must restore it. For you know the main business of the Pulpit in the late times (which we are not throughly recovered from yet, and perhaps never fhall) was to please and pamper a proud, fenflefs Humour, or rather a kind of fpiritual Itch, which had then feized the greateft part of the Nation, and worked chiefly about their Ears; and none were fo over-run with it, as the holy Sifterhood, the Daughters of Sion, and the Matrons of the New Jerufalem (as they called themselves.) Thefe brought with them Ignorance and Itching Ears in abundance; and Holder-forth equalled them in one, and gratified them in the other. So that whatsoever the Doctrine was, the Application ftill ran on the sureft fide; for to give thofe Do#rine and Ufe-Men, thofe Pulpit-Engineers,

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