The True Christians T est, Part 2 · Meditation 14
MEDITAT. XIV. Of the Diſpoſers of Children to Callings.
WHen Children are grown up to a convenient Age, Parents or Guardians uſe to diſpoſe of them to Trades or Services, or beſtow them in Marriage.
They that diſpoſe of them to no Employment or Calling, nor engage them in no Liberal Science, or Honeſt Study, whereby they may be ſerviceable Members of Church or Commonwealth, becauſe they need no ſuch thing to live by, and think it is accompliſhment enough for them to be able to Court, to Compliment, to Entertain, to Game, like a Gentleman; are, in the judgment of Divines, ill Stewards of the Bleſſings of God, and ſad Managers of ſo great a Talent as Children are. And that they are ſeverely accountable for ſuch Careleſneſs, Cruelty, and Injuſtice.
But they that do not talk like Divines, do generally cry, That it is very Impolitick; for by learning Nothing, they come to learn two of the greateſt Vices in the World, Luxury and Idleneſs; and in one of them, I had almoſt ſaid all others, For what is it not an Inlet to? Beſides, it is impolitick not to have ſome Employment, or Art, or other, to which one may have recourſe in the greateſt Extremity, which Extremity who knows but may befal him? It was well for the King of Syracuſe, that he had a little more Learning than his Neighbors, that he might at leaſt turn School-Maſter, when he was Un-King'd.
The Steward in the Goſpel needed not to have betaken himſelf to the Knaviſh ſhift of gratifying his Lords Debtors, if he had been well educated in his Youth. So that to educate Children in ſome Art or Science, is Pious and Politick; but yet the Piety of it is ordinarily and eaſily ſpoiled.
For what is predominant, think we, God or the World, with thoſe Parents, who with meer reſpect to a Livelihood, or out of a more plentiful Livelihood, diſpoſe of their Children to Imployments, in their own Nature unlawful; in the management whereof their Souls ſhall as certainly die, as their Bodies live. Theſe do, in effect, bind them Apprentices to the Devil, and, as the Poet ſpeaks, Propter vitam vivendi perdunt cauſas.
Perhaps it will be thought there are few ſuch Imployments, but ſome there are ſure enough, perhaps more than will be commonly confeſt. What ſhall we think of the Trade of thoſe young Females, Alunt quae corpore corpus, as the Poet ſpeaks; and of the care of thoſe Parents, who, rather than not be Panders, will mercenarily proſtitute their own Wives, which are members of themſelves; or deliver up their own Daughters, the Fruits of their own Bodies, to the Bodies of other men? I cannot excuſe, but yet, methinks, I cannot but pity righteous Lot, and the old hoſpitable Gibeonite, who, to reſcue their Male Gueſts, offered to expoſe their Females; Maidens that had not known Men, to the Luſts of the Sons of Behal.
For ought I know, it was in juſt judgment of God, that Lot was left to commit Inceſt with thoſe Daughters of his, whom he was ſo forward to proſtitute to other men: But to play the Pander or the Pimp for money, is ſure filthy Lucre, if there be any in the World; and to ſell at the ſame time both Humane Souls and Bodies, muſt needs be the Merchandize of Babylon. What is predominant with thoſe Parents or Guardians think we, who, although they do not diſpoſe of Children into Callings and Imployments abſolutely unlawful, yet into thoſe that are apparently dangerous and enſnaring, and which a well confirmed Chriſtian can ſcarce manage ſafely: Or commit them to the Tuition of ignorant, carnal, prophane Maſters, that can teach them nothing that is good, ſave their Trades; and it is ten to one, will teach them many things which are naught: Or that diſpoſe of their Children as Servants, into ſuch Families, where they ſhall never have either Precepts or Examples to lead them to Vertue, many Temptations and Inducements to Sin and Senſuality; and in the mean time Employment only for the Hands, and Entertainment only for the Back and Belly.
Whether theſe People be acted by a worldly Spirit, or by the Spirit of God, is eaſie for any man, whoſe eyes are open, to diſcern. For do not they proclaim, that they prefer the Body, before the Soul; and meer Living, before Living well? Although this be not down-right deſtroying them, becauſe the grace of God may miraculouſly intervene, and preſerve the poor Children in the midſt of Fire, yet it is no Thanks to theſe mercileſs Tyrants that put them in; for they devote them to deſtruction. I do not ſee but that they are as much guilty of Murder as David, and of a worſe Murder than he (whom yet the kindeſt Divine that I have met with, would never undertake to excuſe) who, though he did not fall upon Uriah himſelf, yet placed him in the Fore-front of the Battel, and then deſerted him. And therefore the Spirit of God, the beſt Caſuiſt, ſayes plainly, That he ſlew him with the Sword of the Children of Ammon. And although theſe Parents do not themſelves put out the eyes of their Children, yet if they diſpoſe of them into an Enemies Countrey, and let in the Philiſtines up on them to do it; if they reſign them up wholly to an ignorant, carnal, and graceleſs Society, they are as treacherous as Delilah, though ere while they were fond of them, and hugg'd them in their Boſomes, and dandled them upon their Knees.