CHAPTER IV. I$1it I will not say, that a child ought to believe nonsense and impossibility, because his father bids him ; for so far, as the im- possibilityappears, he cannot believe it ; nor Will I say, he ought to assent to all the false opinions of his parents, or to practise idolatry and murder, or mischief, at their command ; yet a child knows not any better way to find out what he should believe and what he should practise, before he can possiblyjudge for himself, than to run to his parents, and receive their sentiments and their directions. You will say, This is hard indeed, that the child of a hea- then idolater, or a cruel cannibal, is laid under a sort of neces- sity by nature of sinningagainst the light of nature. I grant it is hard indeed, but it is only owing to our original fall and epos- tacy : the law of nature continues asit was in innocence, namely, that a parent should judge for his child; but, if the parent judges ill, the child isgreatly exposed by it, through that uni- versal disorder that is brought into the world by the sin of Adam, our common father; and from the equity and goodness of God we may reasonably infer, that the great Judge of all will do right ; he will balance the ignorance and incapacity of the child, with the criminal nature of the offence in those puerile in- stances, and will not punish beyond just demerit. Besides, what could God, as a Creator, do better for chil- dren in their minority, than to commit them to the care and in- struction of parents; none are supposed to be so much con- cerned for the happiness of children as their parentsare ; there- fore it is the safest step to happiness, according to the original law of creation, to follow their directions, their parents' reason acting for them, before they have reason of their own in proper exercise ; nor indeed is there any better general rule in our fal- len stateby which children are capable of being governed, though in many particular cases it may lead them far astray fromvirtue and happiness. If children by providence be cast under some happier in- structions, contrary to their parents' erroneous opinions, I can- not say it is the duty of such children to follow error, when they discern it to be error, because their father believes it ; what I said before, is to be interpreted only of those that are under the immediate care and education of their parents, and not yet arrived at years capable of examination ; I know not how these can be freed front receiving the dictates of parental authority in their youngest years, except by immediateor divine inspiration. It is hard to say, at what exact time of life the child is ex- empted fròm the sovereignty of parental dictates. Perhaps it much juster to suppose, that this sovereignty diminishes by de- grees as the child grows in understanding and capacity, and is
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