A Family Well-Ordered, Address
An Address, Ad Fratres in Eremo.
Syrs!
A Little Book to assist, The Education of Children, is now in your Hands. But can they be well Educated, if their Parents never send them to SCHOOL? This is a point, that seems now to call for some Inculcation.
A Good School deserves to be call'd, the very Salt of the Town, that hath it: And the Pastors of every Town, (who are, Sal Terrae,) are under peculiar obligations, to make this a part of their Pastoral Care, That they may have a Good School, in their Neighbourhood. A woful putrefaction threatens the Rising Generation; Barbarous Ignorance, and the unavoidable consequence of it, Outrageous Wickedness will make the Rising Generation Loathsome, if it have not Schools to preserve it. But Schools, wherein the Youth may be able Masters be Taught the Things that are necessary to quality them for future Serviceableness, and have their Manners therewithal well formed under a Laudable Discipline, & be over & above Well Catechised in the principles of Religion, Those would be a Glory of our Land, & the preservatives of all other Glory. The Minister, that shall give his Neighbours no Rest, until they have agreeable Schools among them, and that shall himself also at some Times Inspect & Visit the Schools, will therein do much towards Fulfilling that part of his Ministry, Feed my Lambs; & his Neighbours under his Charge, will (whatever they think of it!) have cause to Bless God, for this Expression of his Faithfulness.
But these are not the only persons, to whom this matter belongs; The Civil Authority, & the whole Vicinity, cannot be True to their own Interest, if they do not say, We also will be with thee. When the REFORMATION began, in Europe, an hundred and fourscore years ago, to Erect Schools every where, was one principal concern of the Glorious & Heroic Reformers; & it was a common thing even for Little Villages of Twenty or Thirty Families, in the midst of all their Charges, & their Dangers, to maintain one of them. The Colonies of New England were planted on the Design of pursuing that Holy Reformation; & now the Devil cannot give a greater Blow to the Reformation among us, than by causing Schools to Languish under Discouragements. If our General Courts, decline to contrive and provide Laws for the Support of Schools; or if particular Towns Employ their Wits, for Cheats to Elude the wholesome Laws; little do they consider how much they expose themselves to that Rebuke of God, Thou hast destroyed thy self, O New England. Would we Read, in the ancient Histories, how zealous the more discreet Pagans were to maintain Schools among them; it might put us Christians to the Blush, among whom 'tis common for Schools to starve and sink; & a mind sordidly covetous, Witholds more than is meet, but it tends unto what is Infinitely worse than poverty.
Syrs, What will be the Issue of these Things? The Issue will be, That, Si Ecclesia desideret pastorem, facilius Impostorem, inveniet quam pastorem; Et Res publica pro Doctore Juris, Juris Tortorem; Et pro medicis, mendici, pro praeceptoribus, Deceptores sese offerent. But least thro' the want of Schools, there should in a little while, be scarce one man in a place able to construe this Description of the Fate so lowing upon that want, I will transcribe in plain English, the first Article of the, Prognostications upon the Future State of New-England, lately published: Where Schools are not vigorously and Honourably Encouraged, whole Colonies will sink apace, into a Degenerate & Contemptible Condition, & at last become horribly Barbarous: And the first Instance of their Barbarity will be, that they will be undone for want of men, but not see & own what it was that undid them. You will therefore pardon my Freedom with you, if I Address you, in the words of Luther.
If ever there be any Considerable Blow given to the Devils Kingdom, it must be, by Youth Excellently Educated. It is a serious Thing, a weighty Thing, and a thing that hath much of the Interest of Christ, and of Christianity in it, that Youth be well trained up, and that Schools, & School-Masters be maintained. Learning is an unwelcome guest to the Devil, & therefore he would fain starve it out. But we shall never long retain the Gospel, without the help of Learning. And if we should have no Regard unto Religion, even the outward prosperity of a people, in this World, would necessarily require Schools & Learned men. Alas, that none are carried with Alacrity & Seriousness, to take care for the Education of Youth, and to Help the World with Eminent and Able men.
But the Freedom with which this Address is made unto you, is not so great as the Fervour that has animated it. My Fathers, and Brethren, If you have any Love to God, & Christ, & Posterity; let Schools be more Encouraged. If you would not betray your Posterity into the very Circumstances of Salvages, let Schools have more Encouragement. But in the Anguish, the Despair, of Success to be otherwise found by this Address, I will Turn it from you, unto the Almighty Hearer of Prayer.
AND, O thou Saviour, and Shepherd of thy New-English Israel: Be Entreated Mercifully to look down upon thy Flocks in the Wilderness. Oh, give us not up to the Blindness and Madness of neglecting the Lambs in the Flocks. Inspire thy People, and all Orders of men among thy People, with a just care for the Education of Posterity Let Well-Ordered, and well-instructed, and Well-maintained Schools, be the Honour and the Defence of our Land. Let Learning, and all the Helps and Means of it, be precious in our Esteem and by Learning, let the Interests of thy Gospel so prevail, that we may be made wise unto Salvation. Save us, O our Lord JESUS CHRIST; Save us from the Mischiefs and Scandals of a… Uncultivated Off-Spring; Let this be a Land of Light, until Thou, O Sun of Righteousness, d… thy self arise unto the World with Healing in thy Wings.
Amen.
THE END.
End of the text · Cotton Mather, A Family Well-Ordered (1699)