206 ON INSTRUCTÍON BY CATECUIISvIS. easy matter to make them understand the grounds and reasons of every part of that religion which they may be taught to believe and practise: There are some things therefore that in these younger years of life a child must take entirely upon the credit and authority of the parent, or master, such as the immortality of the soul, the future state of rewards and punishments, and the truth of the christian religion. The bible is the sacred book which contains the religion of christians ; but it is impossible to lead young children into those arguments wherebywe prove the authority of the bible. This therefore must be taken upon trust, and the child's faith of it most be built upon the testimony of his parents and teachers till he is capable of examining these things for himself. SECT. I1L-Short Summaries of Religion are necessaryfor the Ignorant. Nor yet is itenough to teach children to read, and then to put the bible in their hands, and to tell them, Here lies your religion, andyou must find it out as well as you can. The great God has ordained the holy scriptures to he the perfect ruleof our faith and practice, and sufficient of itself without the help of human tradi- tions, bath also appointed that in all the successive ages of man- kind there should be some teachers and. instructors of others, to point out to them what use is to be made of these sacred volumes. Parents by the laws of nature and scripture are vested with this office : They must teach children how to draw their religion out of the bible, and render the knowledge of divine things more easy, by- shewing them how to distinguish the most useful parts of scripture from the rest, and which are the most necessary doctrines and duties of religion, as they are derived from the word of God. Without such helps as these the more ignorant and illiterate part of mankind might turn over the leaves of their bible a long time before they could collect for themselves any tolerable scheme of their duty to God or their fellow-creatures. I knew a person, who falling under sensible convictions of her want of religion and piety toward God, and having been told that the bible was the book whence she was to learn her duty, reasonecPthus with herself, Where shall I find the beginning of my duty to God, but in the beginning of this book ? And so she betook herself to read several of the first chapters of Genesis. She laboured and wearied herself in that search with very small advantage, till by the information of other christians and attendance on the ministry of the word, she was led into the .knowledge of the chief principles of the christian religion, which are scattered up and down in several parts of the word of God. We must consider thatthe bible is a large book, and it con- tains he history of mankind, and particularly of the church of
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