то

THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH,

PRESIDENT,

AND TO

THE OTHER MEMBERS

OF

THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF VICE,

THIS

SERMON,

PREACHED AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE SOCIETY,

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THEIR FAITHFUL SERVANT,

R. LAND AFF.

SERMON VII.

GAL. vi. 9.

LET US NOT BE WEARY IN WELL-DOING.

REAT Cities have been properly

ᏀᎡᎬᎪᎢ

called the graves of Mankind: and they may with equal propriety be called the sepulchres of Virtue; the nurseries of Vice; the hot-beds of Corruption, physical, political, and moral.

An incessant contention for mastery subsists in every Civil State, and especially in every overgrown Metropolis, between the Laws on the one hand, and the Manners of the people on the other. This warfare commences with the very commencement of Government, and it ends only

LL 3

only with it's dissolution. It is carried on, during the existence of the State, with variable success, according to the varying talents of the Governors exerted in the enactment of laws more or less salutary, and the varying dispositions of the People to resist or to submit to the laws enacted; and it is not finally extinguished, till the general prevalence of profligate Morals puts an end to the Government itself.

There is no instance in sacred or profane History, of a rich, luxurious, immoral State ever reforming itself; it proceeds from bad to worse, till, in the course of God's providence, it's fall is accomplished by the sword, by famine, or by pestilence, Notwithstanding this, the fall of every State may certainly be retarded by whatever retards the progress of Vice.-Together with other means of retarding this progress amongst ourselves, there are Two which appear to be eminently useful,— The religious instruction of the People, -and the due execution of laws, adapted

to the circumstances of the times; neither so strict as to render the execution of them impracticable, nor so lax as to encourage the growth of any species of Immorality. The religious instruction of the People contributes to prevent the very existence of Vice-and a discreet execution of the laws curbs it's progress where it does exist.

We read of a Country in which the Education of the people was, from infancy, committed to the State. The children of individuals were considered as the children of the community and so much was the safety of the State supposed to be connected with the institution of it's citizens, that when Antipater demanded of the Spartans an hundred and fifty children to be delivered up to him as hostages, they offered to send him twice the number of grown-up men.

In our own and in all other European States, the domestic education of children has been preferred to that which the State could give them. But though the Legislature

LL 4

Legislature has conceded to the affection of parents the right of educating their offspring, and confided to parental care the performance of that duty, yet it neither has been or ought to have been inattentive to the moral and religious instruction of all the members of the community over which it presides. It would be an inequitable and barbarous policy in any civil Government, to punish the Vices of it's Subjects, if it had taken no pains to instruct them in Virtue. The office of the Civil Magistrate extends not merely to the punishment, but primarily and principally to the prevention of crimes. Now crimes are best prevented, and the foundations of good government are most securely laid, when piety towards God, a reverence for the laws, and a regard for virtue, are instilled, by proper authority, into the minds of the People.

Piety towards God is here mentioned as an essential part of education. Unhappily for the Land, every other part of Education is scrupulously attended

to,