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Father of mercies! So, may your dying pillows be made easy by the tenderest offices of filial affection! And so, may you each have the transporting pleasure, on the great day of account, of thus addressing your Judge, "Behold here am I, O Lord, and the children thou hast graciously given me !"

It might now very naturally be expected, that we should close this discourse with an address to children, especially to those who owe to their parents the inestimable advantages of a pru dent, virtuous, and religious education: but we forbear at present, as this will be the subject of the next discourse.

DISCOURSE VI.

DUTIES OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS.

EPH. VI. 1-3.-Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother, (which is the first commandment with promise) that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

THE artless simplicity and commanding authority with which the moral precepts of the Bible are enjoined upon us, must, I think, strike the mind of every attentive reader with pleasure. Nothing could be more natural than for the apostle, after he had held up to the view of the Ephesians the exceeding riches of the grace of God in Christ, to persuade them to the duties of benevolence. A gospel that originates in supreme love, cannot surely be believed, felt, and enjoyed, without impelling men to every office of kindness which the light of nature teaches and enjoins. Upon these grounds he had recommended not only the more general and public duties of social life, but those particularly of husbands and wives, which we have considered at large in a former discourse. And as families arise out of the conjugal relation, which give existence to another species of du ties, essentially important to the welfare of society, these duties

too he explains and enforces. Parents he exhorts to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and children, in our text, to behave themselves with all becoming reverence and duty towards their parents. The business of education, than which there is not any duty of greater consequence to the world and the church, we have largely treated in the preceding discourse. And we now go on to lay open the various offices of filial piety, and our obligations to them.

It is to Children the admonition in the text is addressed. In which denomination are included both males and females, of every rank and condition of life; sons and daughters in law; adopted children; and even illegitimate children too, for there is a duty owing from them to their parents however unworthy and dishonourable a part such parents may have acted a. And by Parents are meant both father and mother, as it is particularly expressed in the commandment which the apostle quotes. Honour thy father and thy mother. Which shews that parental authority is not confined to the father only. Be the paternal rights what they may, there are maternal rights also: and these draw after them duties and respects from children to the mother, as well as the former to the father. And it is further to be observed, that obedience and reverence are due not to immediate parents only but to their parents also, that is, grandfathers and grandmothers, and indeed to all in the ascending line, that is, uncles and aunts.

Now the duties enjoined on children in our text to their parents, are all comprehended in the two ideas of Obedience and Reverence.

First, Obedience. Children obey your parents. That is, listen to their instructions, and be obedient to their commands. In the early part of life, when children are totally incapable of governing themselves, absolute and unlimited obedience is required. When reason opens, and they can discern good and evil, they are still to be obedient in all things, so far as is consistent with a good conscience. And ever after, on the liberal grounds of friendship, they are to accommodate themselves to

a Indeed by the law of Solon children basely born were not obliged to maintain their parents, In such high reputation_did civilized pagans hold the marriage-relation.

the wishes and views of their parents, provided these do not clash with the duty they owe to superior authority. This limitation some think is expressed in the words immediately subjoined— Obey your parents in the Lord; that is, so far as is consistent with the regard you owe to the authority of God. Or perhaps the apostle's intention may be, to point out the piety which should mingle itself with their duty. "Obey them in obedience to the divine command: have regard to Christ in your obedience, and to them as his disciples and servants." And so all the pleasing qualifications of affection, cordiality, and cheerfulness, are included in the admonition.

Secondly, Reverence. Honour thy father and mother. That is, cherish in your breasts the most affectionate esteem for their persons and characters; behave yourselves towards them in the most respectful and dutiful manner; and speak of them with all possible honour and reverence. But some think by honouring our parents is meant providing for their comfortable support, when advanced in life, and incapable of subsisting themselves: this, however, is most certainly included in the phrase, “Make the latter part of their days as easy and happy to them as you

can."

The duties thus enjoined on children to their parents the apostle enforces by various considerations.

The first he mentions is their fitness. Obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. It is just a: it is fit and reasonable in itself, what the light of nature teaches, and all nations and ages have acknowledged to be expedient. It is most decent and becoming to obey and reverence those, to whom under God we are indebted for our existence. It is on the grounds of equity and gratitude most naturally to be expected, that we should make every return in our power to those, who have shewn us all imaginable care and kindness. And a due regard to their instructions and authority, will in its consequences be greatly beneficial to us; as they are far better able on many accounts to direct and govern us, especially in our minority, than we are ourselves.

The next argument is taken from the express will of God, signified in the fifth commandment. This is one of those pre

ο Δίκαιον.

cepts of the moral law which the great God so solemnly pronounced on Mount Sinai, and which he writ with his own finger on the tables of stone. With an audible voice he said, Honour thy father and thy mother and it is his pleasure that that voice should be heard through all the world, and to the end of time. Wherefore children are to obey their parents in the Lord, that is, in obedience to the authority of the great God.

Here the apostle as he passes on observes, that this is the first commandment with promise. From hence the Church of Rome would insinuate, that the second commandment, which is so directly opposed to their doctrine and practice of worshipping images, is not obligatory under the gospel. "For, say they, that commandment hath a promise annexed to it; but the apostle tells us this is the first with promise: wherefore he hereby plainly annihilates that." But the reply is extremely natural. The promise added to the second commandment, (which indeed is rather an assertion than a promise) is no other than a general declaration of God's merciful disposition to all who love him and keep his commandments, and evidently relates to the whole law. Whereas the precept of which the apostle is here speaking, is the first and only one that hath a promise annexed to it peculiar to itself. It should here also be observed, that the language of the text establishes the authority of the decalogue or moral law, with respect to us Christians as well as the Jews, teaching us not only that we should make it the rule of our lives, but that we may and ought to be influenced in our obedience by a regard to the blessings it promises. And in respect to the precept before us, the apostle evidently meant, by styling it, the first commandment with promise, to draw an argument from thence to persuade children to a dutiful behaviour towards their parents. This, as if he had said, is a duty of the greatest consequence, the groundwork of all other social duties, and therefore distinguished from the rest by a particular mark of the divine favour.

And what is the promise, thus held up to the view of children? It is this-Honour thy father and mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. In Exodus it is expressed somewhat differently, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee a. And in a Exod. xx. 12.

Deuteronomy thus, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee a. The sense however is fully conveyed in the text, excepting the promised land's not being particularly mentioned. This omission some suppose was owing to a wish, to preclude all occasion of countenancing a vain confidence which at that time, prevailed much among the Jews, that they should not be dispossessed of their country b. But as this epistle was writ to the Ephesian church, which consisted of Gentile as well as Jewish converts, it should rather seem, the omission, which does not affect the spirit of the promise, was with a view to accommodate it to Christians in general. Now the plain import of it is this, that those who, in obedience to the divine authority, pay due respect to their parents, will be likely to enjoy worldly prosperity and long life. I say, likely, because the promise is so worded as to convey an idea of the direct tendency of dutifulness in children to promote their temporal welfare, which we shall largely shew hereafter is the case. But, considered as a positive promise, it was remarkably fulfilled in regard of the Jews. And however temporal rewards and punishments are not now dispensed in the manner they were among that people, who subsisted under a peculiar form of government; yet there are not a few instances of dutiful children, who have been distinguished by the smiles of Providence: and it is true of them all in regard of their best interests, that acting thus in the fear of God it is well with them in this life, and shall be well with them for ever in the life to come. Thus the apostle enforces this great duty by the law of nature, the express command of God, and the many advantages that attend the right discharge of it.-The text thus explained, we proceed more particularly to consider, FIRST, The various offices required of children towards their parents, and,

SECONDLY, Their obligations to these duties.

FIRST, AS to the duties which children owe to their parents. These we shall class under the three heads of Obedience -Reverence-and Support. Obedience I mention first, be cause the main expressions of it, especially in the absolute and unlimited sense of the word, are required of children in the b See Whitby in loc.

a Deut. v. 16.

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