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. II. That the Education of Children is one of the most considerable employs of Christi∣anism: And of the first Errour which makes it to be neglected, which is, the mean Idea Parents have of the Christian Life.

THat which makes Parents con∣ceive ordinarily a low Idea of the Education of their Children, is, that they themselves have a very mean Idea of the Christian Life. And thus as the Life they propose to lead hath nothing of hard and painful, because it is all low and carnal, they do not also appre∣hend any great difficulties in the con∣duct

of children, because they have not for them any more noble & more hero∣ick aims than they have for themselves

It is therefore necessary, in order to know what it is to Educate Chil∣dren Christianly, that it be understood in the first place what it is to live Chri∣stianly; and above all it is necessary to be rid of an Illusion which deceives the greatest part of the World, per∣swading it self that none but Religi∣ous Persons are called to Sanctity; and that the common Life of Christi∣ans hath nothing that is labourious or painful.

To convince you of the contrary, it sufficeth, my Sister, to make you ob∣serve that the state of Christianism is a state of Sanctity and of Innocency; that all they who make profession thereof, ought according to the ex∣press words of the Gospel, to be per∣fect as their Heavenly Father is perfect; Mat. 3.48. and as St. Chrysostome well observes, that there ought to be no

other difference between the Religi∣ous and them who live in the World, but only that these engage themselves in the bonds of Marriage, whereas the Religious conserve all their Liberty, and have great advantages above Married persons for the more easy ac∣complishment of the promises of Bap∣tism.

And that no doubt may remain in your spirit concerning this point, and that you may entirely banish from thence this first Errour, which causes all the irregularities that slide into the manners of Christians; I will here simply translate what this great Do∣ctor of the Greek Church hath written in one of his Works, which he adresses to a faithful Father of Children.

This great Saint, after he had made appear, that persons engag'd in the world are no less obliged than the Religious to observe exactly the Com∣mandements of Christ Jesus which he hath given us in the Gospel; be∣cause there is no distinction in the

Words, and that for example he hath absolutely forbidden to Swear, or to be∣hold the Wife of ones Neighbour with criminal desires, concludes, that all the other Precepts of the Gospel, which are not addressed to one particular e∣state which is there expressed, extend themselves commonly to all the world: and that by consequence our Saviour having declared in general, that true Happiness consists in Pover∣ty of Spirit and in Tears, in the Hun∣ger and Thirst after Justice, in Per∣secutions and Sufferings; and that the Rich and such as live in the abun∣dance of all things, in the Diver∣tisements and applauses of the world, are truly unhappy; it is no more permitted to seculars than to Religi∣ous to fancy or acknowledge any other fountains of happiness then Poverty & Tears, Contempt and Sufferings; and that all Christians ought equally to de∣fy Riches, Pleasures, & Honours, as the most probable causes of their perdition.

Thus, adds he, this distinction

which is put between persons living in the world and them who renounce it, is a meer invention of men. The holy Scripture knows it not, but will have all Christians, and even them who are engag'd in Marriage, ob∣serve the same Rules and the same Institute as do the Religious. Hearken to what St. Paul says, and when I name St. Paul, it is as if I produc'd to you the words of Christ Jesus himself. This great Apostle writing to married persons who labour in the Education of their Children, doth he not require of them all the exactness and all the perfection of a retired and solitary life? For doth he not cut off from them all the pleasures they might take, either in the ornaments of cloathes, or in the delicateness of drinking and of eating, when he says: 1 Timothy 2.9. Behold the order I give you as to what concerns the Women; I desire that they should be clad modestly, and that their manner of cloathing and dressing themselves may breath nothing

but decency and chastity: that they wear no frizled hayr, nor ornaments of Gold or of Jewels, nor sumptuous habits; but that they be cloathed as may beseem Wo∣men who make profession of piety and who ought to make their piety appear by their manners and actions. And when he adds in the sequel speaking of widows: Chap. 3. v. 5. She who lives in delights, is dead according to the spirit although she be living according to the body. And in ano∣ther place, speaking of all the faithful in general: Having what is needful to live, and wherewith to cloath our selves we ought to be content: could he exact any thing more of Religious persons?

After St. Chrysostome hath thus run over all the Rules which St. Paul pre∣scribes to Married people, and the con∣duct which he ordains them to ob∣serve; whether for their Conversati∣ons, in which he not only forbids idle babling and the reciting of Fables and human Inventions, but moreover pleasant fancies and immoderate gaye∣ties; whether for the Meekness and

for the Charity which he enjoyns them to have towards one another, not suffering them to be transported in words against their Neighbour, Ephes. 4. and commanding them even to be so far affectioned to procure the good of all the World, as to abandon their proper Interests for the conserva∣tion of Peace with their Brethren: Af∣ter, I say, that he had made it appear how St. Paul imposes upon Married persons such Laws as the most solitary Monks have much ado to accomplish: he adds the words following.

What can we finde greater and more excellent than these Rules? And since St. Paul commands us to be above choler, clamours, desires of Riches, of good cheer, of magni∣ficence in Cloaths, of vain-Glory, and of other Pomps of the World; to have nothing to do with the Earth, and to mortify our Bodies: is it not evident that he requires no less perfe∣ction in all Christians, than Christ Jesus required in his Disciples? see∣ing

that he even ordains us to be so dead to sin, as if we were effectually buried and really dead to the World.

But to make you see that it is the designe of the Apostle; mark that the most powerful Argument he em∣ploys to exhort Christians to patience and Humility, is the obligation they have to render themselves conforma∣ble to Christ Jesus. Now if he doth not ordain us to take for the model of our Life the Religious, nor even the Apostles, but Christ Jesus himself; and if he threatens with such horri∣ble punishments them who imitate not this amiable Saviour, what rea∣son can any one have to pretend that there are States in Christianism more obliging than others to tend to a grea∣ter and higher perfection, since it is commanded to all the world, to at∣tain to the self same Salvation, that is to imitate Christ Jesus? Behold that which undoubtedly overthrows the whole Universe. People imagine that none but Religious are bound to live

well, and that others may live negli∣gently, they are deceived, this is not so: but all the World is obliged to fol∣low the same Maxims, and to enter into the same Reflections.

And fancy not, (says he), that it is I who advance this Verity: 'Tis Christ Jesus himself who teaches it: 'Tis he who is to judge the whole World, and who will judge it accor∣ding to the same Maxims; as suffici∣ently appears by the rigorous Sen∣tence he pronounced against the wicked Rich man, who is not tor∣mented, because he being Religious was cruel, but who burns in the flames which shall never be quench∣ed, because he had overmuch affecti∣on for the Pomps of the World, and that living in the abundance of Rich∣es and Pleasures, and being covered with Purple and sumptuous Gar∣ments, he despised and neglected to succour Lazarus, who was reduced to great misery.

Surely when our Lord says, come to

me all you who labour and who are bur∣dened, and I will ease you: Take my yoak upon you, and learn of me that I am meek and humble of Heart, and you shall find the rest of your Souls; he speaks not only to Religious persons but to all sort of people. When he enjoyns to enter into the strait way, he lays not this command only upon Reli∣gious, but equally upon all men. Jesus (these are the proper tearms of the Gospel) said to all; If any one will give himself to me, let him renounce himself; let him dayly bear his Cross; and let him follow me. And when he said, that if any one came to him, and that he did not hate his Father and his Mother, his Wife, his Bre∣thren, his Sisters, and even his own Life, by despising all these things when there is question of the service and of the glory of God, he could not be of the number of his Disci∣ples, that is to say, Christian; he did not except any Estate nor any Profession; even as he excepted not

any Father nor any Mother, when he said, that he who loved his Son or his Daughter more than him was not worthy to belong to him.

I conceive then, (concludes this great Doctor), that no one will be so bold nor so contentious, as to dare to deny (after such convincing proofs) that the Divine Laws do not equally oblige him who lives in the World, and him who is retired out of it, to the same perfection; and that in whatever estate Christi∣ans live, they are to beware of fal∣ling into such dangerous opinions as thwart these verities.

They who are thus perswaded, be∣gin, my Sister, to comprehend how difficult a matter it is to educate Children Christianly. For this Christian Education consisting in e∣stablishing them in a Christian Life, it must destroy in them all that is opposite to this Life; as the love of Honours, of Pleasures, and even of all unprofitable things. In such sort,

that as in effect the Christian Life of the common people of the World, ought not to be different from that of Religious persons in the Interiour Virtues, which make the Essence of Christian Perfection; it is also clear that in what concerns the ground of Virtue, the Education of Children ought not to be different from the In∣stitutions of Religious people, since in truth we are all Religious, of the General Religion of Christ Jesus.

Notes

• Chrysost. cont. vit. vitae. Mon. l. 3.