PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

DUly of Parents 227
that the parents are bound to undertake this charge
themselves. Beside this plain inference, the Cl!feetion
of parents to their children, if it be instin('.tive,
and the provisillr.. which nature has prepared in the
persun of the mother for the ~ustt'ntation of the inrant,
concerning the existence and design of which
there can be no doubt, are manifest indications of the
divine ,,-ill.
From hence we learn the guilt Qf those, who run
away from their farililies, or (what is much the
same) in conseqllence of idleness or drunkenness,
throw ~hem upon a parish; or who leave them destitute
at their death, ,vhen, by diligence and frugality,
they niight have laid up a provision for their
support: also of those, who refuse or neglect the
care of their bastard off.~pring, abandoning them to
a condition in which they must eith~r perish or be.
ccme burthensome to others; for the duty of main..,
tenence, like the reason upon which it is founded,
extends to bastards, as well as to legi~imate children.
The Christian scriptures, although they concern
themselves little with maxims of prudeh\:e or economy,and
much less authorize woridly-mindednes> or
avarice, have yet declared in explicit terll1S tl1eir
judgment of the vbligation of this duty: "If any
provide not for his own, especially for those of his
o'\vn household, he hath denied the faith, arJ/j i$
worse than an infidel;" (1 Tim. v. 8.) he hat h dis ...
graced the Christian profession, and fallen shan. ill a
duty which even infidels acknowledgp..
II. Education. -
EducatitJn, in the most extensive seiise cf thE
. word, may compreheJ1~ every preparation th2t is
. xu~de in our yo~th for the sequel of our lives: and
in this sellse I use it.
Some such preparation is necessary for children of
all conditions, because, without it, they must be miserable,
and probably will be vicious, when they grow
up, eith(~r from want of the means of subsistence, or
from want of rational and inoffensive occupaticn.