The First Exception

The First Exception.

One person will for this plea exempt himself. The inferiors in my family are very dull: 'tis an hard thing to beat into them, any sense of eternal concernments.

On this pretense it is, that poor Negroes especially are kept strangers to the way of life: they are kept only as horses or oxen, to do our drudgeries; but their souls, which are as white and good as those of other nations, their souls are not looked after, but are destroyed for lack of knowledge. This is a desperate wickedness. But are they dull? Then instruct them the rather; that is the way to sharpen them. 'Tis said in (Psalm 119:130), The entrance of your word gives understanding to the simple. Be they never so simple, you may increase their wit by God's Word. And are they truly dull? Then be not you so too; let your labor be equal to their dulness. We are told in (Ecclesiastes 10:10), If the iron be blunt, then a man must put to the more strength. You must be at the trouble to stoop to their capacities. Be you as plain, be you as brief in your instructions, as they are dull in their intellectuals. And be frequent, be patient in them; give line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Even Gutta cavat lapidem — a stone will receive the mark of the drop that shall often fall upon it.