TO THE

HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND

RICHARD,

LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD,

A STRENUOUS PATRON OF WHATEVER TENDS TO PROMOTE

THE EFFICIENCY OF THE CHURCH,

FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE IGNORANT,

AND FOR THE EDIFICATION OF ALL

IN SCRIPTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICAL PIETY,

THIS SERMON,

HONOURED BY HIS APPROBATION AND PUBLISHED AT HIS

REQUEST,

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE PREACHER.

PROVERBS Xxii. 6.

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

THE general subject involved in this injunction, (which is indeed no other than the early education of children,) may be viewed under relations as numerous, as the duties of parents, guardians, and instructors, and as various, as the diversities which exist in the conditions both of the teachers and the taught. Branching off from persons to things, these relations would, if they were pursued, lead our thoughts to the matters which should be inculcated, to the methods which should be adopted, to the ends and objects which should be proposed, in the training up of a child in the way he should go.

In so extensive a field, and amidst topics so many and so momentous, it is no small satisfaction to find, in this occasion and in this spectacle, and in the solemnities which have given to each a religious character, many a special motive, and many a welldefined principle, to determine the course of my argument. For, what is this occasion, but one, appointed for the manifestation of the deep concern felt by the ministers and members of our Church, for the

diffusion of Christian knowledge, and other suitable and useful information, among the children of the poor? And what is the gratifying spectacle, which is here presented to our solicitude and hopes, but the children of the humbler classes from the circuit and suburbs of this city, who, by your assistance, are trained up, both in the knowledge that is to make them wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ, and subject to that holy direction and control, in such other matters of elementary learning, as are best calculated to fit them for their future services and situations in life, and enable them to gain their daily bread with credit to themselves, and for public as well as personal advantage. And with respect to these solemnities, (solemnities, which have clothed our anniversary with the beauty which belongs to holiness, and which, with God's blessing, will sanctify the works of our hands, as well as the meditations of our hearts,) what are these solemnities, but acts of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, such as were deemed in the primitive and apostolic ages meet accompaniments to the ministrations of charity, and were for the most part coupled and combined with them. Prayers and alms, the supplications of the pious.and the gifts of the charitable, have been ever wont (both under the Law and under the Gospel) to ascend together, as memorials, to the throne of mercy. By these combinations, (as means of grace,) offices of benevolence are converted into services of religion, and every kindly