AN

ADDRESS

TO

YOUNG PERSONS

AFTER CONFIRMATION.

SIXTH EDITION.

MY YOUNG FRIEND,

THE Minister of your parish has, I have good confidence, fully explained to you the nature of that rite which has now been performed; and you, on your part, have considered, I hope, as seriously as your age and ability will permit, it's importance with respect to yourself. By the care of your Parents, you were baptized in your infancy; and were thereby made a member of the Church of Christ, at an age when you were incapable of giving your consent thereto: by a continuance

of

of the same care, you have been instructed in the principles of that religion, into which you were initiated by baptism; and you have this day signified that consent, which at your baptism you could not give. You have signified your belief of the truth of the Christian religion; and bound yourself to live according to it's precepts. You would, indeed, have been bound to obey the precepts of the Christian religion, as far as they had come to your knowledge, though you had not been brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him. Confirmation does not lay upon you any new burden; you were not, before confirmation, at liberty to commit any action which you knew to be sinful; and you are not now, after confirmation, restrained from any action which you know to be innocent. Out of a sincere desire to promote your everlasting welfare, I have thought fit, on this occasion, to give you a word of advice; I shall never have so good an opportunity of doing it, nor can it at any time be more useful to you than

at

at present; for your mind is, I trust, at present free from vice, and disposed to every thing that is good; and you will soon be tempted, both by the customs of the world, and your own appetites, to many things which are evil. May God sanctify this my feeble endeavour to serve you!

I BEGIN my advice with recommending it to you in the strongest manner to let no day pass without thinking of God, and offering up your prayers to him.-Your Parents, I hope, have not omitted to accustom you to this duty; if they have, though it will not become you to upbraid them for their neglect, yet it will certainly become you not to follow their example; you must do more for yourself in this particular than they have done for you. The education of many young persons is extremely ill suited to promote their present happiness as men, or their future happiness as Christians. Great numbers, especially in the lower classes of life, are S wholly

VOL. II.

wholly neglected from their very infancy; permitted to contract habits of swearing, lying, thieving, drinking, sabbath-breaking; of idleness, debauchery, and rudeness, without correction or reproof. From habits acquired at an early age, the future quality of a man's life, as to virtue or vice, is, generally, and almost necessarily derived; how deplorable then is the condition of those children who are suffered to grow up in ignorance, dishonesty, intemperance, and profaneness; whose parents are too. wicked to restrain them, too stupid to instruct them! Others, in the higher ranks of life, are instructed with care in languages, in history, in philosophy, in music, in dancing, in every accomplishment which may fit them for a proper appearance in the world. Parents think the education of their children is properly finished, when they have acquired these modish qualifications, none of which are of any worth, when put in competition with a knowledge of religion. That is either wholly neglected, or it is

taught

taught them in an improper manner; they are instructed by rote, in their nursery, in a few of it's doctrines, but they are not, when they come out of it, familiarized to the practice of it's duties; they are not taught to love and regard the Gospel of Christ as the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth*, as the one unerring rule by which they ought to regulate every thought, word, and action of their future lives. This kind of religious knowledge tends to improve the heart, and is entirely different from that which consists in knowing the rise and progress of particular doctrines and sects; in being acquainted with the most noted objections to the truth of Christianity; in understanding how to obviate them; and in comprehending a variety of explanations, which interpreters have affixed to difficult passages of Scripture: yet, alas! this curious, wrangling, speculative, and unfruitful sort of knowledge, is the only one which is taught those young persons who are instructed

* Rom. i. 16.

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