LETTER VII.

Thofe profeffed Chriftians are inexcufable, who flight public worship and the inftitutions of religion. The great importance of a careful education of children, and the bad effects of neglecting it. The example of a perfonage of high character and diftinction recommended.

SIR,

INow fend you fome few additions to the fecond volume of the View of the Deiftical Writers.

1

LETTER
VII.

In P. 661. 1. 12. notice is taken of fome persons who profess to believe the Gospel, and yet live in an habitual neglect of its public wor ship, and facred inftitutions. After institutions put a full ftop, and add as follows without breaking the line. But that fuch a neglect is becoming general among us, beyond the example of former times, cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer. There fcarce ever was an inftitution more wifely and beneficially calculated for preserving and promoting the interefts of religion and virtue in the world, than that of fetting apart one day in a week from worldly bufineffes and cares, for the folemnities of public.worship, and for inftructing

Y.4

LETTER ftructing the Chriftian people in the knowlege
VII. of religion, and exhorting them to the practice

of it, and yet, many there are that would take
it ill not to be accounted Chriftians, who seem
to affect an open neglect, or even contempt of
it. But it is not easy to conceive, what rea-
.fonable excufe or pretence can be alleged for
fuch a conduct. Will they, in good earnest,
aver, that they look upon it to be a reflection
upon their fenfe, or unworthy of their quality,
to pay their public homage to their Maker and
Redeemer? And to make open profeflions of
their regard to that religion, which yet they
would be thought to believe? Or, have they
fuch an averfion to the exercises of religion,
that the spending an hour or two in folemn acts
of adoration, in prayer and thanksgiving, and
in receiving inftructions and admonitions from
his holy word, is a weariness which they cannot
bear? But what is this, but to avow the great
degeneracy of their own minds, and their want
of a proper temper and difpofition for the
nobleft exercifes, which beft deserve the atten
tion of reasonable beings? Or, do they pretend
a high regard to moral virtue, as an excufe for
neglecting pofitiye inftitutions? But will any
man, of the leaft reflection, who knoweth the
ftate of things among us, take
upon him
to declare, that the growing neglect of the or
dinances of religion hath contributed to the
promoting the practice of virtue? Or, that mens
morals are generally mended, fince they be-

came

VII.

came more indifferent to thofe facred folemni- LETTER ties? Nothing is more evident to any one, who impartially confiders the nature of those divine inftitutions and ordinances, which are appointed in the Gospel, than that a due obfervance of them according to their original institution, befides its being a public avowal of our religious ho mage, and of our faith in God, and in our Lord Jefus Chrift, hath a manifeft tendency to pro mote our moral improvement, and to exercife and ftrengthen those good affections and difpofitions which naturally lead to a holy and vir tuous practice.

And as there are too many profeffed Chriftians, who openly neglect the inftitutions of religion, there are others who seem to flatter themselves that a mere outward attendance on divine ordinances, and the keeping up a form of religion, will be alone fufficient, though they at the fame time indulge themselves in a practice contrary to the rules of virtue and morality. But all expedients for reconciling the practice of vice, of diffoluteness, or difhonefty, with the faith and hope of the Gospel, are visibly abfurd and vain. The most inconsistent of all characters is a wicked and vicious Chriftian.

In p. 668. 41. 13. from the bottom, after impure add as follows, without breaking the line:

The general neglect of the education of children, and of family order and religion, is one of the most unhappy symptoms of the great degeneracy of the prefent age, and which gives

us

VII.

LETTER us melancholy profpects of the fucceeding one. For what can be expected from those who are bred up under parents, that take no care to inftil worthy principles into their minds, and in families where they fee no figns of religion, or the fear of God? Unnatural parents! who seem to make the real welfare and happiness of their children the least of their concern; or, if they take some care to adorn their bodies, and form their outward behaviour, neglect the culture of their better parts, their minds, or at least take no care to train them up to a juft sense of religion and morals, or to a taste for what is truly laudable and excellent! Unhappy children! in whom, for want of proper early instruction and difcipline, irregular paffions and appetites, and evil habits are daily gathering strength, till at length they are turned out, unfurnished with good principles, or worthy fentiments of things, into a world full of temptations and fnares. Is it to be wondered at, if such persons become an eafy prey to wicked and impious seducers, and are foon drawn into prophaneness and infidelity, into diffoluteness and debauchery, which, where it prevails, tends to corrupt or to extinguish true probity and public fpirit, and every noble and generous affection and fentiment? And in that cafe, the higher their condition is, and the greater their affluence of fortune, the more pernicious is the contagion of their example; and thofe who otherwife might have been the orna

ment