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. XII. That these Maxims and these Advices are principally to be followed in the Education of such children as are de∣signed for the World.

IF all Christians are obliged, as un∣doubtedly they are, to tend to the same perfection; it is also an un∣doubted truth, that there ought to be no difference in their Education:

and I say not only, that there ought to be an equality among them who are designed to leade a common life, and them who are consecrated to a more particular profession of piety: but there is no doubt that one ought to apply a greater care in the Edu∣cation of the first than of the second; and that if Parents are concerned fot the publick interest, for the glory of their children, and for the salvation of their souls: they are not to neg∣lect any of the Maxims, nor any of the Advices, which we have drawn from the Scripture and from the Fa∣thers, in the Education of them whom they designe for the World.

To make you comprehend how much the interest of Common-wealths and Kingdoms is ingaged in the per∣fect Education of such as are to fill up the Dignities, and to possess the most eminent Employments; I need only conjure you, * 1.1 after a Father of the Church, to cast a view upon them who have

introduced into the World all the Disorders which now reign therein, and to consider who they are that follow them: Whether they are such as have learned to live in a repose and in a retrait; or such as invent new pleasures and new divertise∣ments: They who subsist honestly of their own patrimony, and are satis∣fied with the conveniences which God hath given them; or they who only study to enrich themselves with the goods of the poor: They who are content with a mean train and a moderate table, and with what serves only for necessity; or they who will have a magnificent train, and a sumptuous table open to all commers. And to speak more Christi∣anly, whether they who live with great meekness and great modesty, who think only of submitting them∣selves and of suffering themselves to be directed, who esteem themselves the last of men, and seek the least ho∣nourable places, who have always

before their eyes the Vanity of the world, and the nothing of creatures; or they who look to be respected, and who render themselves terrible by their injustices and by their vio∣lences; who will command every one, and omit nothing to usurp the Ma∣gistracies, scarcely remembring any longer that they are men, so strange∣ly are they puffed up with pride, and so full are they of self-esteem and vanity.

Now if they are these later who overturn estates, who trouble fami∣lies, who cause the murders, the slaveries, and all the miseries which we see and lament; and if they ar∣rived not at this extremity of in∣justice, but because their parents neglected their Education: is it not evident that it is the interest of Kingdoms, that every Father of a Family should follow the Rules we have proposed, that so by faithfully practising them they may bring their children to embrace the documents

of the Fathers of the Church and of the Doctours of the world; and as Saint Chrysostom says,

That they may by their care render them spark∣ling lights to shine amidst the dark∣ness which Vices have spread a∣broad in the World, and to shew the way of Heaven to so many un∣happy wretches who go astray?

And this, Sister, is the second motive upon which the truth I have advanced is established, and upon which is grounded the obligation of Parents, to educate, according to the Maxims of the Church Fathers, those Children whom they design for the World. For it is certain, that Vir∣tue hath this advantage, to make it self esteemed by its own enemies, and that if it hath not sufficient al∣lurements and charms strong enough to gain all mens hearts, yet it hath power and strength enough to draw their admiration.

See we not, that sweetness and hu∣mility in Artists contents more than

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their adress and their industry? If there is a Judge who will not be corrupted, is he not desired by all sorts of persons to be the arbitratour of their life and fortune? And they who have the least Ambition and the least love for Offices and Commands, are they not (says St. Chrysostom,) most welcom in the Courts of Sove∣rain Kings and Princes?

Do not fear that the modesty of your Daughters in their dress, that their reservedness in company, that the little entercourse they have with young Gallants, will render them less esteemed or less sought for in Marriage. Their simplicity, their meekness, their affection for such things as concern the good govern∣ment of a Family, and their con∣tempt of worldly ornaments, will make them better known than strut∣ting and vanity: And if men for their diversion seek such as live ac∣cording to the Maxims of the world, they will not have for wives but such

as follow the laws of the Gospel, such as love retiredness, and such as have no inclination to the Modes and Pomps of the World.

This fidelity to follow the Maxims of the Holy Fathers in the Educati∣on of those Children whom we de∣signe for the World, is it not ad∣vantagious to purchase them the love and esteem of all people; but it is even more necessary for the salvati∣on of their souls, than for that of those Children whom they designe for Cloysters and for retrait. The sole comparison which St. Chrysostom makes use of is sufficient to prove this.

Even as, * 1.2 (says this Father,) he who stays always in the Haven stands not in so much need of a Pi∣lot well experienced, of so great a number of Mariners, and of a Vessel so well equipped, as he who is always at Sea, and who must pro∣vide to resist the windes and the tempests: so he who is designed

for the solitude being to leade a quiet life and exempt from troubles and turmoils, hath no need of such great strength and so many lights, as he who is to sustain the most powerful shocks of the Flesh, of the World, and of the Devil.

Now if these irreconcilable ene∣mies of mens salvation raise their strongest batteries against Children in their tenderest age: they who in∣troduce them into the World with∣out having taught them in that ten∣der age to contemn pleasures, Rich∣es, and Honours, do they not expose them naked and unarmed to the cru∣elty of the said Enemies?

We must therefore train them up to the combat from their Infancy, discover to them the crafts and cun∣ning of their enemies, teach them the means to surprize and to defeat them, make them know that it is almost impossible to conserve perfect health amidst the contagion, and that living in the world they must

always conquer or always be con∣quered.

How can they defend themselves from Ambition, seeing all others greedy to make themselves great, unless they are strongly perswaded of the small solidity which is found in the establishment proposed by the world? Can they keep themselves to an indifference amidst the affected complacencies and the allurements of Women, who will strive to gain their freindship in order to get pos∣session of their persons and of their means, unless they are perfectly convinced of the obligation they have to adhere to God alone, and to pre∣fer him before all things? Or rather being not solidly setled in Piety and in the fear of God, will they not suf∣fer themselves to be carried a way by Example and by custom; and losing by the Vicious habits so contracted their eternal salvation, will they not make an unhappy experience of the truth of these words of St. Je∣rome:

That it is very easy to become like the wicked, * 1.3 and to imitate in a short time the Vices of them to whose Virtue one cannot at∣tain?

Notes

• * 1.1

  St. Chry. l. 3. cont. vituper. vitae Monas.
• * 1.2

  S Chry. ho. 21. in Ephes.
• * 1.3

  S. Jerom. ad Letam.