Barren and Unfruitful, or over-run with Tares and Noxious Weeds, fhall be abundantly Cultivated, and Inriched, and Productive of a Glorious Harvest: Wherein 'tis provided, that thofe Souls, which had Otherwife been expofed an Easy Prey to Evil Spirits and Evil Men, fhall be reduced from the Snares and Captivity of Satan, and become at once the Witneffes, and the Inftruments of the Glory of God: Wherein 'tis provided, that Thofe, whofe Voices had Otherwise been turn'd into Strains of Profaneness and Blafphemy, and all Iniquity, fhall be qualified to bear a Bleffed part, as your Ears have heard this Day, in Melodious and Moving Sounds of Praises and Thankf givings to God, Preludes to the Tranfporting Hallelujahs, which fhall be fung by the Choir of Heaven, before the glorious Throne of God for ever: Wherein 'tis provided, that the various Circumftances of Benefit in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord, fhall be properly and diligently Applied and Improved, for the Furtherance of the Gofpel; and that the Temples of the Holy Ghost may

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be multiplied: Wherein 'tis provided, that Those who, even in the Land of Promise, might yet continue Strangers anto the Covenant of Promife, fhall be taught betimes the Neceffity of Building Chriftian Lives upon Chriftian Principles, that they may not Dishonour God, by Denying or Neglecting that Faith, which he hath required as the neceffary Foundation of Morality under the Gospel, and the indispensable Condition of Salvation: Wherein 'tis provided, that the Glory of God may shine forth in This great Article of it, the Effect of This Gracious Promise, which the Holy Spirit hath laid great Stress upon, All shall know me, from the leaft of them unto the greatest of them: And, wherein 'tis provided, not only that the Doctrines of the Gospel may be Inculcated and Embraced at prefent, but that They may be handed down with Advantage to Succeeding Generations. God is pleased to express a particular Approbation and Acceptance of that Sollicitude for his Honour, which Abraham teftified, by Tranfmitting a Senfe of Religion to his Pofterity. Shall

I hide from ABRAHAM that thing which I do, feeing that all the Nations of the Earth fhall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his Children and his Houfhold after him, that they keep the Way of the Lord.

There is indeed this Difference betwixt Your Endeavours to Propagate Religion, and Thofe of Abraham, That Yours do want the Support of Paternal Authority, which his had: But there is This difference alfo, that Your Sollicitude in Promoting God's Honour, and Deriving the Bleffings of Religion upon Times to come, cannot poffibly be the more Binding or Confirm'd by the Additional Ties of Natural Affection, as the Patriarchs poffibly might, The Children which you are Qualifying to convey Religion with Safety and Succefs unto Pofterity, are Yours purely by Adoption,

But ftill the Honour of God, though it be your Principal Aim, is not the Sole Inducement to your Glorious Enterprizes and Defigns. You are pursuing fome Other Ends, but Those fuch as, next to God's Honour, fhould lie upper

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most in the Purposes of all Wife and Good Men, and do both Juftifie and Demand your Zeal. For Your Profpects are, the special Advantages of Those, whom you take into your Protection, and the General Benefits of the Community.

That the Defigns and Management of the Charity-Schools are Juftly calculated for the Special Advantage of Thofe who are so happy as to be taken into them, cannot be doubted, and will not want to be proved, till it fhall cease to be Universally Granted by Mankind, that Knowledge and Industry, Good Manners and Modefty, Probity and Piety, and all kinds of Virtue, with the Bleffed Confequences of them, in This and a Future State, are Preferable to Ignorance and Idlenefs, Rudeness and Impudence, Dishonesty and Impiety, and all Kinds of Vice, together with those Varieties of Mischief and Misery, which flow from These Impure Foun tains, and muft Unavoidably flow from them for Ever.

And if any Nation under Heaven fhould be fo far removed from the Common Senfe of all Other Nations under Heaven, as not to perceive that its Profperity and Glory do very much depend upon a Defign adapted, with no lefs Prudence than Piety, to the Extirpation of Vice and the Advancement of Virtue; fuch a fingular Race of Men would not eafily be thought to Deserve fo High a Bleffing, which they know not how to Efteem.

If Virtues be, in the Nature of Things, the firmeft Sinews of Society; and moreover that Kingdom, which provides most Effectually for the Support and Honour of Religion, hath the best Title to Divine Favour; what Bleffings may we not expect from Heaven, if this Beautiful Branch of Charity should but Spread and Flourish, and the Shadow of it become a Sacred Shelter to the Land?

This Defign is of fo Great Confequence to Religion, perhaps of Greater Confequence than any other Defign which hath been fet on Foot fince the Reformation, that if it should happily be efpoufed

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