The Christian education of children: according to the maxims of the Sacred Scripture, and the instructions of the fathers of the church / written and several times printed in French, and now translated into English.

CHAP. XI. At what age these Maxims and these Ad∣vices are to be applied.

AS to the time, my Sister, when you ought principally to reduce into practise all these Maxims and all these advices, it is that time which commonly seems least proper for the acquisition of virtue, and to know its excellence and its beauty: I mean that of Infancy.

This is that which the holy Ghost himself insinuates unto us by the mouth of Solomon, who says, Pro. 32.11, That one may easily judge of the Inno∣cence and of the virtue of a young man by the things to which he is affected in his Infancy. He would signify hereby that Parents and they who are enchar∣ged with the Education of children, will be unexcusable, if the children be∣come not vertuous under their con∣duct; since they might easily prevent

their disorders by applying wholsome remedies to the first accesses of their evils, and that they might have weeded out in their tenderest years the seed of all those bad productions, which then begin to bud forth and appear.

And it is this which Ecclesiasticus declares yet more smoothly, when he says: Eccles. 7.25. You have chil∣dren, instruct them and curb them from their Infancy: Where you see Sister, that Gods holy spirit makes an allu∣sion to trees, and that he will give us to understand, that as we prune and bend trees whilst they are yet young, lest by overlong delaying it, they may be apter to be broken than bended: so children, who in the langage of the Royal Prophet, Psal., 107.4. are round about the ta∣ble of their Parents as new Plants of the Olive-tree. are to enter under the discipline of their Fathers and Mo∣thers, as soon as they leave the arms of their Nurses; and that they are

no less to be taught how to march towards Heaven, than they are in∣structed to go upon the Earth. So that as they are informed to render to their Parents and to such persons as present themselves before them, the little marks of respect and of honour whereof they are then capa∣ble, although they know not the reasons why they should prefer them before others; so they are to be ac∣customed to render to God little testimonies of Piety, and to practise weak actions of virtue although they cannot comprehend the obligations they have to his Divine Majesty, nor the excellence of virtue.

We are not to expect, says St. John Chrysostom, till our children are great, to imprint fear into them: but we are to regulate them, instruct them, and form them from their Infancy, and then they will never need our threats or our severity. We carry

our selves towards them in such sort as if a Physitian having said no∣thing to a sick person whom he saw fallen into a languishing con∣dition, and having prescribed him no remedies for his cure whilst they were capable to have their effect, ordains him a great number after the noble parts were corrupted by the disease, and that he was be∣come incurable.

All the evill we see, (says he in another place, ) pro∣ceeds from our own laziness and from our negligence, and because we strive not to inform our chil∣dren in piety in their most tender years: We take much care and pains to have them instructed in the profane Arts and Sciences: we procure for them with all our pow∣er advantagious employments in the Court and in the Camp: We hourd up Wealth for them: We get them Freinds: In brief, we do

all we can to render them conside∣rable in the world, but we take no care to acquire them the favour and love of the King of Angels, nor to make them obtain one day an honourable rank in the Court of Heaven.

And surely did parents timely accustom their children to the yoak of a holy discipline whilst they are yet young; did they take pains to bring them by little and little to their duty, when they first begin to be froward and hard to be ruled; if they strove to cure the diseases of their soul when they have not yet taken root, and to pull up their passions before they are grown strong, we should have nothing to do with laws, nor with judgements, nor with punishments and chastise∣ments: For the Law, (as St. Paul says) is not made for the Just: but because we neglect their Education, we enwrap them in a world of mi∣series, and oftentimes we our selves

deliver them up to the Executio∣ners, and throw them headlong in∣to hell.

In Christianism it is the Maxim of a wise and discreet conduct to do all and to omit nothing which may strengthen us against the assault of vices. But the means, Sister, to suc∣ceed in so holy an enterprise, is, in the lowest age of your children to seize upon all the avenues of their spirit and of their heart, and to render virtue the absolute Mistress there, by a prompt banishment of every thing which may make there the least vicious impression.

True it is, that children are not capable to distinguish virtue and vice, having not yet the use of rea∣son.

But yet, as a famous Divine observes, they may contract accor∣ding to the Idea's and the Fancies which they receive by their parents education, a certain inclination which will much help them or much hurt them, (when coming

to the use of their liberty they must apply themselves to vice or to vir∣tue,) in making a good or bad choice; and (as St. Basil says) that at the same time when reason shall dictate unto them the good they ought to do, the habit and the custom will facilitate the execution.

And think not, Sister, that this is little considerable. For if in the judgement of St. Thomas and several other Divines, Man is bound by a natural precept and upon pain of Mortal sin to convert himself to God as soon as he hath the perfect use of reason; it cannot be but that which serves for a disposition to so important an action, must be of high∣est consequence.

What Father is there, who know∣ing his son to be in danger of loosing his life, or to fall into the hands of Enemies if he passes such a way, en∣deavours not to put him in safety,

and to secure him from the dangers which threaten him? And what Mother is there, whose Daughter be∣ing loaden with precious Jewells, watches not with much care for fear lest Robbers should bereave her of them?

We cannot doubt but that the devil employs all his industry to make a childe lose the grace of his Baptism, and that he endeavours to determine him at first to make choice of Vice. And since he hath no stronger Wea∣pons to conquer us than our own inclinations, can it be doubted but that he will easily bring about his designe if he findes those of a childe totally inclined to vanity and to the love of Worldly pomps and plea∣sures?

This made St. Gregory the Great say,

That although we are piously to believe that the baptized children who dye in their Infancy, enter into the Heavenly Kingdom, yet we ought

not to imagine that all they who can speak are saved, because there are some of them against whom Parents shut Heaven gates by the bad Education they give them. The same Saint after he had related the dreadful chastisement which God laid upon a Father in the City of Rome for having suffered his Son of five years old to blaspheme the name of God, thunders out these asto∣nishing words: 'Tis thus that God would make known to this unhap∣py Father how highly he was cul∣pable, and that he would make him understand how by neglecting the Soul of this little Infant, he nou∣rished a great sinner for Hells eter∣nal flames. These are his own ex∣pressions.

And this undoubtedly made Sara whom the Apostle St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.2. proposes to all Christian Women for their pattern, resolve to urge Abra∣ham to drive Agar and her son out of his house; because she feared lest

Isaac should be corrupted by him, and lest they should contract bad customes together. And the resolu∣tion of this prudent Woman was so just, Gen. 11.12. that God approved it, having made known to Abraham, that he ought not to oppose a designe which was so discreet and so advan∣tagious to Isaac.

And surely even as a small stray∣ing which was not perceived in the beginning of a journey, carries one extremely astray from the place one intended to go, and as a little breach in a Damm being neglected, causes in the sequel great spoils and havocks: even so a small evil becomes mortal, if one applies not a prompt remedy; and that which in Infancy was only a simple affection for things indiffe∣rent, becomes in a more advan∣ced age a violent love for things pro∣hibited.

The fair Language of Graccus's mother contributed much to his Elo∣quence,

says S. Jerome. Hor∣tensius learned to speak well in his own house: and Alexander the Great could not quit the Vices of a Governour who had taught him in his Infancy, notwithstanding that he was otherwise very powerful, and had conquered the major part of the World: which shews how hard it is to blot out of the spirit of a young man the tinctures it hath ta∣ken in his Infancy; that it conserves almost always the first impressions it hath received; and that (as St. Ire∣neus says)

what one learns in that age be∣comes as it were the same thing with our Soul, and is chan∣ged (if we may say it) into its substance.

This made one of the most clear∣sighted among the Pagans to say,

That one of the things we should chiefly take care of in the Education of children whom we intend to leave a long time

in their Nurses hands, is concer∣ning the chusing of these Nurses. For, (says he,) they must be very wise: and we ought as far forth as may be to take such as have the best qualities, and whose man∣ners are best regulated. But although we ought principally to have re∣gard to their good conduct, we must not omit to examine their way of speaking: For they are the persons whom the children first hear, and whose language they strive to imitate: and naturally we retain much more firmly, what we learn in our tenderest years: just as a Vessel new-made conserves almost ever after the odour of the first liquor powred into it. It hap∣pens that even the bad qualities ad∣here much more strongly, and that Evil makes a deeper impression than good: yea, the good it self easily changes into evil, whereas it is ve∣ry seldom that vicious habits and customs turn into good ones.

This also made Plato ordain, that we should not only endeavour with much care and watchfulness to edu∣cate children well when they are three years old: but moreover he extremely recommends to Mothers that during the time of their being with childe they should keep them∣selves free from all sort of alterati∣ons; and generally he exhorts Fa∣thers and Mothers, to exempt them∣selves as much as may be from all passions; for fear lest communica∣ting to the bodies of their children such affections as reign in them, they should pass even to their souls; and lest their bodies being formed of a blood burning with choler, or in∣flamed with an unchaste Fire, or that being conceived in a bosom fil∣led with Pride and Vanity, their Souls should contract inclinations of Fevenge, Impurity and Ambition.

We also see, Sister, that God hath bestowed very particular Benedicti∣ons upon such Children as were con∣secrated

to him in their Mothers womb. Sampson, Samuel, and St. John Baptist in the Old Testament, St. Au∣gustin, St. Bernard, in the New, are authentick proofs of the advantages which are derived from this holy practise.

And it is most certain, that God des∣pises not so rational a devotion, and a so well regulated piety; but that on the contrary he lends his all-powerful hand to assist Fathers and Mothers who make such use of it, to make their children perfect Images of his own Son, and that he causes all things to contribute to their san∣ctity.

But to speak ingeniously of things as I conceive and apprehend them, (and God grant it may not be as it is commonly done,) there are many Fathers and Mothers who would be loath their children should receive so signal a Grace: and the most ra∣tional of them would willingly yeild

to follow these important Maxims in regard of those children whom they design to the Church or to Religion; but not in regard of those whom they look upon as the prop of their Family, and the Heyrs of their Ho∣nours, Offices, and Riches. Where∣fore one cannot too much endeavour to undeceive the World of an illusi∣on which is so criminal in its Prin∣ciples and so detestable in its effects and consequences.

Notes

• Chrystost. l. 3. cont. vitupera∣tores vitae Mo∣nast.
• Chrys. ho. 46. in 1. epist. ad Tim.
• S. Basil. in his great. R. Rule. 10.
• S. Greg. l. 4. Dial. c. 18.
• St. Jerom. in e∣pist. ad Latam.
• St. Ireneus in ep. ad Florin.
• Quintilian.
• S. Chry. l. 1. cont. vitupera. vitae M••nast.