Ìn AN /TUMBLE ATTEDIPT, &C. you derived to them vicious inclinations from Adaln the first, transgressor, and are you not under the strongest obligations to seek the renewal of their nature by divine grace? Are they come into this world by your means, under the unhappy circum- stances of mankind, as criminals and strangers to God, and do Younot feel yourselves underpowerful engagements to bring them acquainted with the God that made them, and lead them into the methods of his love ? Do you think yourselves bound to provide food and raiment for them, because you are the instruments of bringing them into this mortal state, and under these necessities of nature; and are you not as much obliged to take care of their immortal interests, since you are also the occasion of bringing their souls into being ? For when a son of Adam is born accord= ing to the common law of nature, there is an immortal creature brought into existence, and a life of eternal duration is begun. You who have taken some care daily, that your children should be early acquainted with the common affairs of this perishing life; but have you been as deeply solicitous to acquaint them with the concerns of their immortality ? Have you sought out any tender moments of address to impress their consciences with an awful sense of God and religion? to let them know their sin and dam- ger in a state of nature, and to lead them to Jesus the only Sa- viour of souls? Have youwatched the moments when they have begun to manifest the first young effortsof reason, and have you then endeavoured to make them sensible of the important things of religion, and proceeded by degrees as their age would bear; to lead them into a larger knowledge of truth and duty ? Have you taken notice of those seasons when their consciences have 'been first uneasy under a sense of sin, and endeavoured to im prove that conviction, and to carry on the work of God? You have taught them, and they have learned to know their own na- tural wants of food and raiment, and relief under pain, and to address their parents on earth for supplies; and have you never let them know what their spiritual . wants,are, nor instructed them in plain and easy language to ask a supply of their Father who is in heaven ? You have greater advantages for this purpose than ministers or teachers of any kind ; the fondness of a mother's love, and the authority of a father's voice, mixed with becoming tender- ness, are suited to make deep and lasting impressions upon their offspring in early years ; have your parental love and autho- rity been duly employed to this divinepurpose ? Have you endea- voured to diffuse the knowledge of God among your younger household, and have you made perpetual and fervent addresses to the God of alt grace upon their account? Have your secrettham= hers been witnesses of your wrestlings with God in prayer for their salvation ? And besides all .this, have you set before them
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