do every thing for us
that is necessary, and that we are never to overlook, on this account,
the necessity of the influence of the Holy Spirit.

To shew in what the education, which under these limitations I am going
to propose, may consist, I shall revive the controversy between the
philosophical moralists and the Quakers, as described in the eighth
chapter of the first volume. The philosophical moralists contended, that
knowledge was to be preferred, as being more to be relied upon than
prohibitions: that prohibitions were often causes of greater evils than
they were intended to prevent; that they themselves were friends to
occasional indulgencies; that they saw nothing necessarily or inherently
mischievous in the amusements of the world; that it was not wise to
anticipate danger by looking to distant prospects, where the things were
innocent in themselves; that ignorance of vice was no guardian of
morals; that causes, and not sub-causes, were to be contended against;
and that there was no certain security but in knowledge and in a love of
virtue. To this the Quakers replied, that prohibitions were sanctioned
by divine authority; that as far as they related to the corrupt
amusements of the world, they were implied in the spirit of
Christianity; that the knowledge, which should be promotive of virtue,
could not be inculcated without them; that knowledge again, if it were
to be acquired by the permission of occasional indulgences, or by being
allowed to pass through scenes which might be dangerous to virtue,
would be more ruinous than ignorance by a prohibition of vice; that
ignorance of vice was an essential in Christian morals; and that
prohibitions therefore were indispensably necessary, and better to be
relied upon, than any corrupt knowledge, which might arise from an
acquaintance with the customs of the world.

This then was the state of the controversy, as described in the first
volume. And in this state it was left. But, to explain the education
which I have in view, I shall now bring it to a conclusion.

I must observe then, that the philosophical moralists had the advantage
of the Quakers in this controversy, inasmuch as they supposed that
knowledge was a better safeguard to morals than a mere ignorance of
vice; but they failed in this, that they permitted this knowledge to be
acquired by passing through scenes which might not be friendly to
virtue. Now this latter permission is inadmissible in a Christian