AN ESSAY TOWARDS THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF CHARITY SCHOOLS, Particulars among Protestant Dissenters. THE good education ofchildren is an important duty of parents, and a very valuable blessing to the rising age ; yet there are great multitudes of parents, in the lower ranks of life, who are so igno- rant, that they are incapable of instructing their own ehildren well in the knowledge of things, that belong to this world or another : Or, if they have knowledge, yet some are so exceeding poor, that they can 'hardly withhold time enough from earning their bread, to spend in the careful education of their sons and their daughters : And among these poorer parts of mankind, there are others, who are too careless in. this important concern, though the welfare of their children, here and hereafter, seems to de- pend upon it: And there are great numbers also who die in poverty, and leave their youngoffspring behind them untaught, and grievously exposed. What must be done in this case ? must all those children, who are so unhappy as to be born of poor or ignorant parents, grow up like the brutes of the earth, without education ? Must they be abandoned to the wilderness of their own nature, and be let run loose and savage in the streets ? Shall nocare be taken to inform their minds, to curb their sinful passions, and to make them speak and act like reasonable creatures, and live useful to the world ? When we see or hear of such unhappy objects as these, methinks our compassion and charity for these young crea- tures of our own species, should work powerfullywithin us, to reach out the hand of bounty, to train 'them up to some degrees of knowledge, and to the practice of virtue, and put them in a way to support by honest labour : Or, at least our zeal for the honour of God, for the good of our country, and for the welfare of the succeeding age, should inspire us with some sentiments of liberality, in order to redress this grievance, and prevent the growing mischief. Those that are blessed with a good competence of the things of this life, and have no children of their own, seem to be in- vited by Providence to take these opportunities of doing good to the miserable and distressed orphans, who have lost their parents, and the children of the poor and needy, who cannot maintain and instruct their own offspring. Those also who feel the tender sen-
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