The Institution of Children in the Christian Religion, To the reader
To all Children of a Chriſtian towardneſſe: the feare of God, and eternall health in Ieſu Chriſt.
AS a certaine Noble and excellent King was neither aſhamed nor greeued to ride ſometimes on a rodde or ſtaffe for the inſtruction of his young Sonne: So neither am I aſhamed or greeued (good Chriſtian children) both to collect and frame for your ſakes, though with ſo ſlender a quill) and like ſtile, as beſt fitting your tender capacitie, certaine Chriſtian Inſtitutions, hoping yee will both accept the ſame, and gratefully eſteeme of my good meaning and louing affection therein expreſſed towards you. But I know well, it will ſeeme very ſtrange vntounto ſome, that I hauehave giuen this my collection the title of Contemplation: for that (after the opinion of the Philoſophers) contemplation, which is defined either the Godly motion of a diuine minde: or the diligent and deepe conſideration of heauenly things, doeth not properly appertaine vntounto children. Therefore as they placed the contemplatiue life, in the cōtemplatiue good, and the contemplatiue felicity in the contemplation of God: ſo the younger ſort (ſay they) hauehave not (as yet) attained to thoſe three things which are therevnto neceſſary: that is, Vnderſtāding, which is an Act of the higheſt power: Wiſdom which is the moſt noble habite: and God himſelfe, which is the worthieſt obiect. Whereof it was, that they reſerued the laſt age of mans life for the contēplation of diuine things, and wold that al the former ages ſhould be employed on ſome other Sciences, as from the which they might proceede and growe more able in the end to attaine to the conſideration of things diuine. But thoſe perſons neither begin where Chriſt commaundeth you to beginne, where he ſayeth foreign: Seeke ye firſt the kingdome of God: nor do they teach, as he teacheth when he ſaith, that the kingdome of God appertaineth to children.
And that indeede was no little cauſe that too many (the more pitty) applying themſelues to theſe terrene and worldly things (which Solomon worthelie comprehendeth within Vanities kingdome) hauehave moſt vainelye ſpent out the flower of their youth, and could neuer taſt the ſweeteneſſe of this thing ſo neceſſary and profitable for man in their life, beeing indeed cutte off, and vnhappily preuented by an vntimely death: for as it is a common thing for men once to dye: ſo neither dooth cruell death ſpare children, of the which too many in thoſe their vaine ſtudies and childiſh delightes, expect and looke for at the length, but all too late the moſt happie time of ſearching for and enioying thoſe heauenly and profitable exerciſes. Therefore, as it is good for you (deere children) to withſtand ſuch beginnings of miſchiefes, leaſt the medicine for the deſired cure be prepared and applyed too latelie: ſo ought yee to know, that it is not meete yee ſhould conſume the vertues of your minde in the onelye knowledge of thoſe earthly things: but rather to keepe the ſame preſerued for the vſe of things heauenlie and diuine, the which are euer more profitable and neceſſarie in your life; to the which yee are taught and inuited euen by the Lyons and Eagles, which when when they goe, doe turne their tallents inwarde, to the end they may not weare out, but be preſerued ſharpe and fit for the praye. And ſo ſhould yee likewiſe fill your greene veſſels with that wholſome Water whereof yee ſhould moſt long-ſomly reteine and keepe the ſent and ſauor, to the glorie of God, the benefit of his Church, and your owne health. Neither ought yee ſo much as imagine that the holy Contemplation of diuine things nothing belongeth to young children. Moreouer conſider what is taught you in the ſacred Scriptures: Solomon the wifeſt of all the Kings thus counſaileth you: Remember thy maker in the dayes of thy youth. And omitting other places, Chriſt Ieſus ſaith: Suffer little Children to come vntounto me, and forbid them not. Habel beeing thus ſchooled by his Parents Adam and Heuah, being yet but young, offered vp vntounto God a right acceptable Sacrifice. So Enoch in his childhood walked with God, and pleaſed him: ſo Iſaack the ſon of Abraham, and Iacob the ſonne of Iſaack, were religious and godly affected euen in their yong and tender yeares. Samſon being a Nazarite, was an abſteiner from his birth ſanctified vntounto God; Samuell, as yet but a little boye, was by Hannah his mother brought forth and dedicated to the Lord. Thus alſo both Dauid, and Solomon: thus Ioſiah and Daniel, and Ieremy, and Tobiah, and many others the children of God, whiles they were very young ſauoured of the holy religiō. Laſtly for a perfect example of your imitation, Chriſt Ieſus being yet but twelue yeares of age exhibited and declared himſelfe moſt learned in the diuine contemplation, euen in the middeſt of the learned doctors in Ieruſalem. Therefore hauehave I the ſooner, on theſe my briefe Inſtitutions impoſed the title of contemplation, the ſame being (indeede) godly contemplations, with the which if yee ſhalbe firſt ſeaſoned, yee ſhall (by the grace of God) proſper and proue more able to all vertues in the ſame Ieſus, who beeing the true vnderſtanding, wiſdome, Immanuell, is to bee ſought for, imitated and followed of all, aſwell children, as elder perſons, towardes the father Almighty in godly contemplation. Wherefore (good Chriſtian children) vſe you theſe contemplatiōs both godly and happily to your natural good, and to the eternall glory of the higheſt Iehouah.
And if it ſhall follow, that this my laboures ſhall be any thing profitable vntounto you, by the which the ſooner yee ſhall proſper (through the operation of the bleſsed Spirite) in the right Seruice of God and holye religion, I ſhall be during my life moſt glad and ioyfull thereof, and I will withall both freelie and thankefully acknowledge that I hauehave receiued that recompence and reward for thoſe my labours which thereof I might hauehave expected. And thus fare yee well, and proſper in all Godlineſſe in the Author of our ſaluation, and finiſher of our faith.
More yours then mine owne in Chriſt Ieſu. IOH: CARPENTER.