N29515:230
Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easy way to…Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easie way to…
Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easy way to spell & read true English. : Containing the father's godly advice; directing parents in a right and spiritual manner to educate their children. : With a Christian catechism, wherein all the chief principles of true Christianity are clearly opened. : Together with many other things both pleasant and useful for the education of children. / Written by Benj. Keach.Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easie way to spell & read true English. : Containing the father's godly advice; directing parents in a right and spiritual manner to educate their children. : With a Christian catechism, wherein all the chief principles of true Christianity are clearly opened. : Together with many other things both pleasant and useful for the education of children. / Written by Benj. Keach.
New York: printed by Will. Bradford, 1695
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Child. My dear Father, I can hold out no longer, my Heart is smitten and my Soul trembles; the Lord in mercy lead me in the Path of Life to the Springs of living Water, that I may drink thereof and never die: I am resolved to take your Advice.
Faith. The Eternal God grant thee strength that thou mayst do as thou hast Promised. And now, my Daughters, I have something further to say to you, Observe well what Counsel I have given your Brothers; for 'tis to you as well as to them: But since I see those of your Sex are in these evil days, so exceedingly addicted to Pride, I do fore-warn you of it; For my part, while ye are under my Roof, I will never suffer you to wear foolish and antic Garbs and Fashions: 'Tis a shame that Parents professing Godliness, should be allured by the Divil to please their Children's natural and pernicious Appetites; by which means they become mere Slaves to Lucifer, by sending their little Daughters to School to learn to Dance (as Herodias did) where they are taught the hellish Mode of naked Breasts and Shoulders, Antic and ⟨p. 40⟩Fantastic Garbs, Spotting, Patchings and Paintings, Towers, Bulls, Shades, Curlings and Crispings and other Curiosities of the Devil's devising; as to deck their Fingers with Rings, their Ears with Jewels, their Neck with rich Bracelets or Necklaces of Gold and Pearl, whereby they seem rather like little Morris Dancers, than the young Off-spring of Christian People: And thus being bravely dressed up and the sparks of Pride kindled in them, they go with stretched out Necks and haughty Hearts, that in a short time they are too high and proud to know themselves: And thus growing wanton, the Devil teaches the• other hellish Inventions, viz. How to make set Faces, to cringe A-la mode de France, the sober Smile the quaintest Dialect to humour ⟨p. 41⟩Discourse well, to get rolling Eyes, to cast amorous Glances, to read Love-Romances, and frequent Play-Houses, and also to get store of filthy and obscene Draughts or Pictures, decored with all sorts of allurements, and the secret Discharges of Venus's lascivious Mysteries, painted with the true Colours of Ovid's Works; as the disguising of naked Gods, and Venus dallying with Adonis, Tarquin at strife with Lucretia, and such-like wanton Objects, with Pretty conceits to encourage the unwilling, and warm the cold humour of their Ravage. God deliver you, my Daughters, from this Poisonous Infection and Epidemical Disease? I charge you to dread it more than the Plague, as ever you do hope to enjoy the Favour of God, and