Comfort in them. Nor let us think it fufficient, to reftrain them from fpending the Day ill; but to the best of our Power and Understanding, encourage and affift them to spend it well. And God grant, we may allemploy in fo right a Manner, the few Sabbaths, and few Days, which we have to come on Earth; that we may enter, at the Conclufion of them, into that eternal Sabbath, that Reft, which remaineth for the People of God", in Heaven.

"Heb. iv. 3, 9.

LECTURE

H

The Fifth Commandment.

PART I,

XXII.

AVING explained the Precepts of the firft Table, which fet forth the Duty of Men to God; I now come to those of the second, which express our several Obligations one to another.

Now the whole Law, concerning these Matters, is briefly comprehended, as St. Paul very juftly obferves, in this one Saying, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself". Our Neighbour is every one, with whom we have at any Time any Concern, or on whofe Welfare our Actions can have any Influence. For whoever is thus within our Reach, is in the most important Sense near to us, however diftant in other Refpects. To love our Neighbour, is to bear him Good-will; which of Course will difpofe us to think favourably of him, and behave properly to him. And to love him as ourselves, is, to have, not only a real, but a ftrong and active Good-will towards him; with a Tenderness for his Interefts, duly proportioned to that, which we naturally feel for our own. Such a Temper would moft powerfully reftrain * Rom. xiii. 9.

us from every Thing wrong, and prompt us to every Thing right; and therefore is the Fulfilling of the Law, fo far as it relates to our mutual Behaviour.

Behav

But because, on fome Occafions, we may either not fee, or not confefs we fee, what is right, and what otherwife; our Saviour hath put the fame Duty in a Light fomewhat different, which gives the fafeft, and fulleft, and clearest Direction for Practice, that any one Precept can give. All Things, whatsoever ye would that Men fhould do unto you, even fo do ye unto them. ing properly depends on judging truly; and that, in Cafes of any Doubt, depends on hearing with due Attention both Sides. To our own Side we never fail attending. The Rule therefore is, give the other Side the fame Advantage, by fuppofing it your own; and after confidering carefully and fairly, what, if it were indeed your own, you should not only defire (for Defires may be unreasonable) but think you had an equitable Claim to, and well-grounded Expectation of, from the other Party, that do in Regard to him. Would we but honeftly take this Method, our Miftakes would be fo exceeding few, and flight, and innocent, that well might our bleffed Lord add, For this is the Law and the Prophets.

Yet, after all, there might be Difficulty fometimes, especial to fome Perfons, in the Application of a Rule fo very general. And therefore we have, in the Commandments, the reciprocal Duties of Man to Man branched out into fix Particulars: The firft of which, contained in the fifth Commandment, relates to the mutual Obligations of Superiors and Inferiors; the reft, to thofe Points in which all Men are confidered as Equals.

It is true, the Precept, now to be explained, mentions only one Kind of Superiors. Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy Mother. But the Cafe of other Superiors is fo like that of Fathers, that moft of them have occafionally

Ver. 10,

Matth, vii. 12.

the

the very Name of Father given them in moft Languages; and therefore the Regard, due to them alfo, may be very properly comprehended, and laid before you, under the fame Head. It is likewife true, that the Duty of the Inferior alone is expreffed in the Commandment; but the correfponding Duty of the Superior is, at the fame Time, of Neceffity implied: for which Reafon I shall difcourfe of both; beginning with the mutual Obligations of Children and Parents, properly fo called, which will be a fufficient Employment for the prefent Time.

Now the Duty of Children to their Parents is hereexprefled by the Word Honour, which in common Language fignifies a Mixture of Love and Refpect, producing due Obedience; but in Scripture Language it implies further, Maintenance and Support when wanted.

1. Love to thofe, of whofe Flesh and Blood we are, is what Nature dictates to us, in the very first Place. Children have not only received from their Parents, as Inftruments in the Hand of God, the Original of their Being; but the Prefervation of it through all the Years of helplefs Infancy; when the needful Care of them gave much Trouble, took up much Time, required much Expence; all which, Parents ufually go through with fo cheerful a Diligence, and fo felf-denying a Tenderness, that no Return of Affection on the Childrens Part, can poffibly repay it to the full; though Childrens Affection is what, above all Things, makes Parents happy. Then, as Life goes on, it is their Parents that give or procure for them fuch Inftruction of all Kinds, as qualifies them, both to do well in this World, and be for ever bleffed in another; that watch over them continually with never-ceafing Attention, confulting their Inclinations in a Multitude of obliging Inftances, and bearing with their Perverfenefs in a Multitude of provoking ones; kindly reftraining them from a thoufand pernicious Follies, into which they would otherwife fall; and directing their heedlefs Footsteps into the. right Way; encouraging, rewarding, and, which indeed is no lefs a Benefit, correcting them alfo, as the Cafe

Cafe requires; full of Sollicitude all the while for their Happiness, and confuming themselves with Labour and Thoughtfulness for these dear Objects, to improve, fupport, and advance them in their Lives, and provide for them at their Deaths. Even thofe Parents, who perform thefe Duties but imperfectly, who perhaps do fome very wrong Things, do notwithstanding, almost all of them, fo many right and meritorious ones; that though, the more fuch they do, the better they should be loved; yet they that do leaft, do enough to be loved fincerely for it, as long as they live ".

2. And with Love must ever be joined, fecondly, due Refpect, inward and outward. For Parents are not only the Benefactors, but in Rank the Betters, and in Right the Governors of their Children; whofe Dependance is upon them, in Point of Intereft, generally: in Point of Duty, always. They ought therefore to think of them with great Reverence, and treat them with every Mark of Submiffion, in Gesture, in Speech, in the Whole of their Behaviour, which the Practice of wife and good Perfons hath established, as proper Inftances of filial Regard. And though the Parents be mean in Station, or low in Understanding; ftill the Relation continues, and the Duty that belongs to it. Nay, fuppofe they be faulty in fome Part of their Conduct or Character, yet Children should be very backward to fee this; and it can very feldom be allowable for them to fhew that they fee it: From the World they fhould always conceal it, as far as they can; for it is fhocking beyond Measure in them to publish it. And if ever any Thing of this Nature must be mentioned to the Parents themfelves, which Nothing but great Neceffity can warrant or excufe; it fhould be with all poffible Gentlenefs and Modefty, and the most real Concern at being obliged to fo unnatural an Office.

3. Love and Refpect to Parents will always produce Obedience to them: a third Duty of the highest Im

• See Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates, 1. 2. c. 2.

portance.

portance. Children, for a confiderable Time, are utterly unqualified to govern themselves and fo long as this continues to be the Cafe, must be absolutely and implicitly governed by thofe, who alone can claim a Title to it. As they grow up to the Ufe of Understanding indeed, Reafon fhould be gradually mixed with Authority, in every Thing that is required of them. But at the fame Time, Children fhould obferve, what they may eafily find to be true in daily Inftances, that they are apt to think they know how to direct themselves, much fooner than they really do; and fhould therefore fubmit to be directed by their Friends in more Points, and for a longer Time, than perhaps they would naturally be tempted to wifh. Suppofe, in that Part of your Lives which is already paft, you had had your own Way in every Thing, what would have been the Confequences? You yourfelves muft fee, very bad ones. Why, other Perfons fee, what you will fee also in Time, that it would be full as bad, were you to have your Way now. And what all who are likely to know, agree in, you fhould believe, and submit to. Your Parents and Governors have at least more Knowledge and Experience, if they have not more Capacity, than you. And the Trouble which they take, and the Concern which they feel about you, plainly fhew that your Good is the Thing which they have at Heart. The only Reason why they do not indulge you in the Particulars that you with, is, that they fee it would hurt you. And it is a dreadful Venture for you, to think, as yet, of trufting yourselves. Truft therefore to those, whom you have all Manner of Reafon to truft: and obey them willingly, who by the Laws of God and Man, have a Right to rule you; and, generally speaking, a Power to make you obey at laft, be you ever so unwilling.

Not that Children are bound to Obedience in all Things without Exception. Should a Parent command them to lie, to steal, to commit any Wickedness; God commands the contrary; and He is to be obeyed, not

Man.