SECTION VII. 217- of principles for practice, but rather in the head or memory as a set of phrases. Ilow many persons are there who have been trained up from their infancy by religious parents in the knowledge of that accurate composition the Assembly's Catechism, and could re- peat it from end to end when they were very young ; but they pronounce it for the most part like so much Greek or Hebrew? Perhaps if they had been bred up to read and speak Latin from their early years, they might have someconfused notion or idea of the meaning of several of the terms derived from the Latin sooner than some of their school-fellows ; but there are but few sentences or whole answers that they could pronounce with understanding, or knew what they meant ; their tongues have repeated them every Lord's-day in a mechanical manner, without a meaning ; nor had they ever acquired any acquain- tance with religion by all this labour of the memory in those earlier years, had it not been for the care which their parents have taken to instruct them by various methods of conversa- tion; and by talking with them in plainer terms and easier forms of words than the questions and answers of that cate- chism, though it be so comprehensive a body of divinity ; and the reason is, because it it fitter for youths, or for men, than for young children. Perhaps it will be urged then, i0 Why may not the Assem- bly's Catechism be still taught children in their younger years, and let their parents expound it to them i" But I desire it may- beconsidered, --l. That few parents or masters of families have such a happy skill in definitions of words, as readily to explain the sense of all the harder words and phrases in that catechism in very easy terms, and to bring them down to the understanding of children ; they that try will find it no easy matter ; for if it were so easy for every parent to do it, whyhave so many divines laboured in expounding it, and published their expositions ? -2. In this method the young child will not learn any whole scheme or system of his religion in several years, if he must not arrive at it till he has got by heart all the answers in the assembly's catechism, together with the explication and meaningof all -the terms and phrases in it for the explaining of the answers, to make young children understand them, will sometimes be much larger than the answers themselves. And,-3. It is surelymuch better to teach the child a catechism whish is shorter in itself, that lie may learn the whole early, and which is composed of such easy and familiar ideas and terms, as he can understand without so much need of explaining. But I proceed to the next inconvenience of teaching children sentences so far above their understanding. V. May we not have just reason to fear that the holy timings
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