out of thirty-two (which was the number that he had) would accept of it, the reft chufing rather to have their ears bored through by fo good a mafter, than to have their freedom. He turned a preacher himself, and spared neither labor nor pains that he might be of use to fouls; and, if alive, I fuppofe is ftill continuing to preach near Norfolk in Virginia, where I left him a few

years ago.

No. 1.

A WORD TO MOTHERS ON THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THEIR CHILDREN.

Printed by DODD & RUMSEY, for the "Female Society in Salem, for promoting Religious Knowledge."

TRAIN up a child in the

Should go," is the divine command, and the promife runs, "when he is old he will not depart from it." Examine, my dear reader, whether you have felt the authority of this awful injunction and diligently aimed at obeying it? You are in a certain fenfe the author of existence to your children; you have travailed in birth bringing them into the natural world; do you know what it is to travail in birth for their spiritual being, frequently and fervently wrestling with the redeeming Angel for his bleffing upon them. Like the woman mentioned in the gofpel have you often come to the compaffionate Saviour, expoftulating, Lord, have mercy on my daughter for She is grievously vexed, have pity on my fon, my daughter, for they are grievously vexed, they are born under the curfe of a broken covenant and are heirs of wrath by nature, have mercy upon them in pardoning their fins; let thy precious blood, dear Redeemer, be fprinkled upon their confciences purging the from dead works; may they become alive to God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift.

You have spent many painful, anxious hours in providing for their bodies, fecuring meat and drink and whatever was neceffary for the prefent life: What hours have you spent about their precious fouls and everlasting concerns? When

did you spend an hour in prayer with Ifrael's God for their converfion and falvation? The antient patriarch earneftly fupplicates, O that Ifhmael might live before thee; have you been frequently fupplicating, O that Timothy, that John, that James, that Mary, that Martha might live before thee, that the incorruptible feed might early take root in their hearts and fpring up, bearing fruit in their lives, producing love to God, love to their parents and charity to mien? What hours have you fpent with your children teaching them from the word of God their danger by nature, recommending Jefus as their only portion and entreating them in his name to be reconciled to God? What hours have you fspent covenanting with Jehovah in their behalf, faying "Lord, here am I and the children whom thou haft given me; they are thinc by creation and I now refign them wholly to thy gracious difpofal both for time and eternity; I defire not great things for them in this world, but, O may their fouls be faved in the glory of the Lord Jefus Chrift; I care little what toil, or poverty, or reproach may befall them in the prefent life, but I cannot endure the thought that any of them fhould be outcafts from heaven at laft or punifhed with everlasting deftruction from thy prefence. Thou haft directed, fuffer the little children to come anto me for of fuch is the kingdom of God; at thv command I now bring them and caft them upon thy free, fovereign mercy; there I will leave them at all hazards, I cannot take them away without thy bleffing?"

But does not the confcience of fome mother beer witnefs, while fhe reads thefe pages, that

he is an utter ftranger to fuch exercifes? She has perhaps fcarcely spent a thought about their fpiritual and immortal interefts; the can fuffer days and weeks to pafs without repeating a promife to them, or without offering up a prayer for them. Is this your kindnefs to your offfpring? Is not the great God who created the world and your children a proper judge of the value of both, and he has declared, a man is not profited if he should gain the whole world and lofe his foul. What profit is it therefore to your children fhould you acquire for them all riches and honors if you neglect their immortal fouls and fuffer them to perifh forever? Suppofe that one of these little ones whom you tenderly regard, who often captivates your hearts with a thousand expreffions of love; in whofe forrows you now sympathize, in whofe health and happinefs you rejoice, fuppofe one of thefe little ones fhould meet you at the left hand of the judge and addrefs you in the following language," O cruel, accurfed mother, inftrument of my exiftence, and through your neglect, inftrument of my damnation. Behold my dreadful condition, doomed here to the left hand of the judge as a mark of his indignation; as unfit for the fociety of good angels or men; behold the dreadful profpect which now hes before me, the Judge is ready to frown me from his prefence, holy angels ready to bind me hand and foot and the devouring flame ready to receive me; fee on yonder right hand of the Judge a companion of my childhood and youth, one that was born in the fame fettlement, that was taught in the fame fchool ftands now clad with the rightcoufnefs of Jefus, fhining

in all the beauties of holinefs, but I must be an eternal caft away, the abhorrence of God, the fcorn of angels, the sport of devils, and a prey to unquenchable fire; O that I had been born a brute or an ideot fince my understanding was never directed to the knowledge of Jefus,and its real interefts, or that I had perifhed in the womb and never faw the fun. True it is, you was diligent in promoting my outward welfare; you fed me when hungry, you cloathed me when naked, you fheltered me in the hour of danger, you fympathized with me in diftrefs, but you never told me that I was fhapen in fin, and thus a child of wrath by nature; you never told me that there was pardon in the blood of Jefus, nor urged me by all the value of my foul to flee from the wrath to come; now I must take an eternal farewell of all thofe little pleasures which I enjoyed on earth and be forever, and ever, and ever finking deeper and deeper in yonder burning lake. I therefore in the prefence of the affembled univerfe now charge, and will to all eternity charge my damnation to your indolence and neglect."

Surely no mother, who feels the bowels of compaffion to her offspring,could endure fuch a fight or falutation. Surely if fhe was an heir of glory herself, it muft, I had almoft faid, embitter heaven to think that fhe had brought a child into the world and then left it to perish eternally or if fhe was a caft away, its prefence in hell muft greatly aggravate her mifery.

My dear female readers, do not pronounce thefe hard fayings; the Lord God, in whofe prefence I write, is my witness that I act the part of a friend to you and your children, and that I