of Youth, the Public will foon fee and feel the happy Effects of it. Permit me therefore to remind all Parents of the Duty they owe to God, their Country, and their Children, to take care that thofe, who are by the Laws of God and Man committed to their Government, be virtuoufly educated, and inftructed in the Way of the Lord. This God requires of you; his Creatures they are, whom you call your Children: they owe Obedience to him in the first place, and it is his Authority which you exercise over them; and if they perish for want of timely Inftruction and Correction, he will require their Souls at your Hands.

Parents have a Trust likewife reposed in them by their Country. There is nothing of greater Confequence to the Public, than that the Youth of the Nation fhould be trained up to Virtue and Industry; that the Seeds of Religion fhould be fown betimes in their Hearts, and cherished by proper Encouragement. These are the only Methods from which we can have any Hopes to see our Country fupplied with honeft and worthy Men, It is but reasonable to expect from Parents, that they should out of natural Affection feek to promote the Happiness of

I

their

their Children; and fince the fame Čare, which is neceffary to form them to be good Subjects, is alfo neceffary to lay the Foundation of their own Happinefs and Profperity in the World, this Care is wholly entrusted to Parents; who ought to look upon *themfelves as refponfible to their Country for the future Behaviour of their Children.

*

But farther: If Parents would but confider the Condition of thofe Children whom they have brought into the World, they would find themfelves obliged, by the strongeft Ties of natural Affection, to guard them against the certain Miseries of this Life, and of the next, by feafoning their Minds with Principles of Virtue and Religion. How wretched, do you think, are those Parents, who live to fee their Children made miferable by Vice? And what an Addition must it be to their Misfortune, if it is attended with this Reflection, that it was want of early Care in them, which led the Way to this Ruin and Misery? How often is it, that Men remember with Deteftation the Negligence and Indulgence of their Parents, when either they find themselves useless to the World and themselves, for want of that early Care which should have been bestowed on them;

them; or exposed to Mifery, to an untimely End, or to a Life of Shame and Reproach, by thofe evil Inclinations, which grew headstrong in them for want of being pruned in their tender Years!

You fee then what ftrong Obligations Parents are under to be diligent in the Dif charge of this Duty; which they owe to God, their Country, and their Children: And we might promife ourfelves happy Days to come, were there a Performance anfwerable to these Obligations. In many Cafes indeed Parents are disabled from discharging this Duty, through Ignorance and Poverty; and what must become of fuch Families, where the Fathers and Mothers can scarcely, with all their Labour, provide Food and Raiment; fo far are they from being able to attend to the Education and Inftruction of their Children? And this Neceffity of many poor Families among us gave rife to the Inftitution of public Schools, maintained by Contributions for the Inftruction and Education of the Poor. An Inftitution which, however serviceable to the Poor of our Coun

try, is calculated to promote nobler Views than those of private Interest and Advantage

to

to any one Set of Men, and tends directly to the public Good, and the Benefit of all.

The Paffions of Men confidered, it is not to be expected, that those who are permitted to go wild and untamed in their Youth, fhould prove harmless, much less useful and beneficial to Society, in their more advanced Years. Neceffity is a great Temptation to Wickedness, and leads Men to use Fraud or Violence to fupport their Vices; and if they have nothing but their corrupt Affections to direct them, can it be hoped that they should withstand these Temptations? Idle and undifciplined Boys commonly prove loose and vicious young Men, and often fall a Sacrifice to the Severity of the Law before they become old ones. Thieves and Robbers must be punished, or the Innocent must be ruined; fo far the Rigor of the Law is justified: But is it not a deplorable Cafe, and to a Chriftian Country a great Reproach, that great Care should be taken to punish Wickedness, and little or none to prevent it? And yet this is the Cafe where the Inftruction of the Poor is neglected, and they are left to pursue the corrupt Inclinations of Nature to their own Deftruction. This Mischief is in fome Measure provided for by the Charity-Schools;

and

and by breeding up the Poor to be honest
and diligent, the Rich are faved from the
Violence of wicked neceffitous Men; the
Poor are refcued from Wickedness, and the
Punishments due to it; and so many useful
and beneficial Hands are gained to the
Public.

1

Farther, Not only the good Order and Peace of civil Society is provided for by thefe charitable Inftitutions, but also the Peace of the Church of Chrift; by training up Youth to be orderly and well behaved Members of it: An End which every Chriftian, who has any Regard for his holy Profeffion, must take Pleasure in promoting. But carry this Confideration into its remoter Confequences, the Happiness to which many Souls may arrive through the Influence which a pious Education may have upon the whole Course of their Lives; and nothing will be wanting to give us a juft Conception of the Usefulness of this Defign, or to encourage us to be liberal and generous in contributing to the Support of it. If every Gift bestowed for the Honour of God, or for the Good of our Country, or for the fake of a poor Brother, fhall have its Reward; how abundantly fhall this Charity be recompenfed,