Can they say that his apostles, who lived in the humble spirit of their Master, did therefore cease to be laborious and active instruments of doing good to all the world?
A few such reflections as these, are sufficient to expose all the poor pretences for an education in pride and ambition.
9. *Paternus lived about two hundred years ago; he had but one son, whom he educated himself in his own house. As they were sitting together in the garden, when the child was ten years old, Paternus thus began to him.
The little time that you have been in the world, my child, you have spent wholly with me: and my love and tenderness to you, has made you look upon me as your only friend and benefactor, and the cause of all the comfort and pleasure you enjoy: your heart, I know, would be ready to break with grief, if you thought this was the last day that I should live with you.
But, my child, tho’ you now think yourself mighty happy, because you have hold of my hand, you are now in the hands, and under the tender care of a much greater father and friend than I am, whose love to you is far greater than mine, and from whom you receive such blessings as no mortal can give.
That God whom you have seen me daily worship; whom I daily call upon to bless both you and me, and all mankind; whose wondrous acts are recorded in those scriptures which you constantly read. That God who created the heavens and the earth; who brought a flood upon the old world; who saved Noah in the ark; who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; whom Job blessed and praised in the greatest afflictions; who delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians; who was the protector of righteous Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and holy Daniel; who sent so many prophets into the world; who sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind. This God, who has done all these great things; who has created so many millions of men; who lived and died before you was born, with whom the spirits of good men that are departed this life, now live; whom infinite numbers of angels now worship in heaven. This great God, who is the Creator of worlds, of angels, and men, is your loving Father and Friend, your good Creator and Nourisher, from whom, and not from me, you received your being ten years ago, at the time that I planted that little, tender elm which you there see.
10. I myself am not half the age of this shady oak, under which we sit; many of our fathers have sat under its boughs; we have all of us called it ours in our turn, though it stands, and drops its masters, as it drops its leaves.
You see, my son, this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon, and all the stars appear in their turns. If you was to be carried up to any of these bodies at this vast distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you, as the stars that you see here are above the earth. Were you to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height without any top, and the same depth without any bottom.
And yet, my child, so great is God, that all these bodies added together, are but as a grain of sand in his sight. And yet you are as much the care of this great God, and Father of all worlds, and all spirits, as if he had no son but you, or there were no creature for him to love and protect but you alone. He numbers the hairs of your head, watches over you sleeping and waking, and has preserved you from a thousand dangers, which neither you nor I know [♦]any thing of.
[♦] duplicate word ‘any’ removed