and to themselves? Nay, what can you do more wifely for your own Interefts, than to part with a prefent Sum for the fake of a most valuable Reversion, to lay up for yourselves, not the perishable Wealth of this World, that may from a Variety of Accidents flip away from your Hands, but Bags that wax not old, an imperishable Treasure in the Hea

vens ?

It has been afferted indeed by one that was no Friend to fuch

Charities, that this

Children will neither

render them more useful Members of Society, nor make them more virtuous and religious And he infultingly asks + "How

66

many are hanged at Tyburn that can "write and read, or rather how few that "cannot?" But is any Man after all fo lost to Reason, as to imagine, there is really Nothing in a fober and religious Education ? Grant that it fometimes fails of it's Effect, and produces no Habits of Virtue, 'Is it

+ Cato's Letter on Charity Schools.

not

not likelier that Children fhould forbear to do Evil, when they have been carefully taught to do well? What would this Gentleman advise? Not to teach Children Virtue, it feems, because it is fometimes infuf ficient to make them virtuous. Would he then teach them Nothing? Impoffible. The human Mind is impatient of a lazy Indifference. Active it is by the Neceffity of it's Nature; a Field it is that by due Cultivation may be made to produce the most valuable Fruits, and for want of it will cer tainly fpring up in Tares and Thistles. What remains then but to teach them Vice?! ----And Vice moft certainly they will be taught, if well disposed Chriftians interpose not to prevent it. Men of a ferious Turn are apt to lament the Degeneracy of the World, and to complain of the Times they live in as worse than any of the former. Without entering into the Confideration of this, it will eafily be granted, I fancy, that the Times are bad enough to need a Refor mation; and that the prefent Circumstances

of

1

if

of the Proteftant Religion, and our own Sicuation as a People, are critical enough to make us think seriously concerning it. And where can the Reformation begin with a fairer Probability of Success, than by a religious Care of young Children, and training them up to fober Virtue and true Piety?" If you would be holy," fay the be facred Books of the ancient Perfians, "you would be holy, inftruct your Children; "because all the good Works they perform "will be imputed to you." For the fame Reason alfo inftruct the Children of the Poor. With regard to the prefent World the, beft Service we can do to our Country is to people it with a righteous Offspring; and he is the beft Patriot who is moft in earneft to promote this Service; perfuaded that the Hope and Bleffing, or elfe the Curfe and Plague of the next Age, is depofited in his Hands, and depends on a due Care to teach Children keep the Way of the Lord, and to do Justice and Judgment. (Gen. xviii. xix.)

Hyde Lib. 24. C. 20.

The Charity therefore recommended to your Support is a moft rational and manly one; to provide for the religious Education of unhappy Children, whofe indigent Parents with their beft Industry are unable in any tolerable degree to make this moft neceffary Provifion for them. And a moft comfortable Charity it will be likewise to all, that in an honest and good Heart contribute chearfully to it's Support, especially in that dark and gloomy Time when they are walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death Riches profit Riches profit not in the Day of

Wrath. It will be fmall Matter of Comfort to you to recollect in your last Moments in how fair a Ground your Lot was fallen, what a goodly Heritage you are to leave behind you, and how much your Poffeffions exceeded your Neceffities. Death is to you an univerfal Wreck of all your Fortunes. You brought Nothing into this World, and it is certain you can carry Nothing out; (1. Tim. vi. 7.) Nothing inVOL. II. Bb

deed,

A voda" deed, but the Memory, and the Comfort

arifing from it, that in your Life-Time you did not confine your good Things to your own Enjoyment and Gratification, nor leave your poor Brethren unpitied and unaffifted under the heavy Load of their evil Things. When thofe Expençes, that were lavished on the Luxuries of Drefs and of the Table, or diffipated in Vice and Riot, are remem bered with infinite Remorfe and Confufion if you can look back on a wifer Employ ment of your Fortunes in feeding the hungry, inftructing the ignorant, and clothing the naked Members of Jefus Chrift; Hope will animate your Spirits, and fupply the Cor dial-Drop, that fhall fill you with Confola, tion in the Moments of Agony, even when you are failing. Whilft the Earth-Worm feels himself perishing without Hope; whilft the voluptuous close their Eyes in Despair, and open them no more but with the un. compaffionate rich Man in the fame Tor ments; whilft the felfish and hard-hearted, who had no Tear for Pity, no Hand for Charity,