218 ON INSTROCTION BY CATECHISMS, of our religion, have not only been made the early aversion of children, but have been exposed to disreputation and contempt, by teaching them such a number of strange phrases which they could not understand ? How often have I heard children at four or five years old gabble over long sentences of divinity in such imperfect words and broken sounds, that it bath been sufficiently evident it was like a mere gibberish to them? They, were told indeed that this was their religion ; but they must needs acquire a strangenotion of religion by this means ; they must think reli- gion a very troublesome thing, which cost them so much nains without any pleasure ; and they might early begin to judge that religion was a very obscure and mysterious matter, since they could undestand so little of it ; and perhaps under this prejudice they never took pains tounderstand it, because from their infancy they were made to learn something as their religion which they could not understand. Now though I am firmly persuaded there are great and glo- rious mysteries in our religion, which could never have been known till they were revealed, and some of them do now far surpass our full comprehension - such as the doctrine of the bles- sed Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God, his satisfaction for our sins, and the operations of the holy Spirit on the minds of men, &c. yet in the main I am assured that religion is a very intelligible thing ; and as it is the most reasonable thing in the world, I am persuaded it ought to be let both into the memories and hearts of children in a reasonable way, that is, by Omit- understanding VI. Shall I add in the last place, if children are trained up touse words without meanings, they will get a habit of dealing in sounds instead of ideas, and of mistaking words for things, than which there is scarce any thing more pernicious to the rea- son and understanding of man ; nor is there any thing that tends more to corrupt and spoil the judgment in its early exercises. And particularly such a practice is likely to'have a more unhappy influence in matters of religion. When we are once taught to treasure up substantial articles of faith in syllables and phrases which we do not understand, at other times we shall be tempted to take mere phrases and syllables instead of articles of faith ; and this is the ready way, in our following years, to lead us to contend even for human phrases with furious zeal, as though they were the very substance of religion, whether there be any meaning that belongs to them or no. The result of all my discourse and argument tends to this one point, viz. That catechising is the best and happiest method for the instruction of children in the principles of religion, in the knowledge of God and their duty ; and whatsoever catechisms are impressed on the memories of children in their most tender
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