human parents may require something improper of us: in which case it would be our duty to disobey them, that we might obey One who cannot require any thing improper; answering them perhaps as Peter and John made bold to answer "the rulers of the people and elders of Israel" before whom they were convented at Jerusalem in such a case, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." (Acts iv. 19.) But such cases are not so likely to occur between human fathers, whether natural, spiritual or civil, and their children or subjects, as cases of remiss or negligent authority,-cases, I mean, in which the parent, priest or magistrate may omit to exercise in time that mild authority which is so little troublesome to any one, while it equally conduces to the vigour of government, as well as the genuine liberty and general happiness of the subject. And excepting that case, namely of obeying men in aught that is morally wrong, or as the apostles told the council, of hearkening unto men more than unto God, I know of measure for honouring and obeying our parents, pastors and masters" within the bounds of possibility. There are bounds that some would either tacitly or openly prescribe, which God does not admit: consequently in observing them we should offend both ways, that is, in respect both of God and man. Thus, for example;

3. Having two parents, a father and mother, whom we are bound by the law of God to honour alike, we are apt to honour sometimes one, sometimes the other mostgenerally the one that indulges us most, and is consequently our greatest enemy. "Honour thy father and thy mother," (Exod. xx. 12,) says the law, making no distinction. For thou art equally related to both: therefore honour both alike; except it shall so happen, that they differ unfortunately, when thou canst not obey both. But even then we may serve them both in some measure, and hold to the one without despising the other. The one to which thou must hold is that which holds to God, if thou

canst know which. It is not unprecedented for one ambitious parent to lower the authority of the other parent with a view to increase its own: therefore every suggestion of the father against the mother, or of the mother against the father should be received with caution. Faults too may be exposed without persons: and in so nice a case especially, it is desirable they should, as far as possible, be thus exposed.

4. Mothers have not been so much accounted of in general among heathen and barbarous nations as among the Jews, and those who take after them also in other respects: the benefit of which is still felt in Christendom. But among the ancient Jews especially the example of Jacob does not appear to have been lost, nor the example of their first historian in recording it either. One is surprised almost at the consideration which wives and mothers seem to find in sacred history; being there mentioned as explicitly almost as their husbands and sons, as if their character was a key to transactions in which they do not appear. And is it reasonable in private life, that she from whom one draws one's first breath and nourishment, and it may be what is as good, the most amiable if not the most glittering side of one's character,-the gentle dame, humble, pious, patient in tribulation, with no more faults than one's father, who made herself of no reputation while living, is it right, or reasonable, I ask, that she should sink into oblivion as soon as she leaves the scene of her sorrows while the father is quoted, and it may be deservedly among their common offspring? Is she now to be "clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind," or "like a broken vessel ?" Forbid it justice! forbid it gratitude! forbid it the expanding heart and freer breath-free spirits, and the sweetest half of filial piety, or duty.

5. And if thou shouldst be so singularly unfortunate, that thou canst neither honour nor obey either father or mother on account of their opposition to One whom thou art bound to prefer to all earthly relations, thou mightest love

them still, thou mightest endeavour to reclaim them to God, if it please him "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children:" (Luke i. 17:) and at any rate, it will be thy duty to maintain them, if they require, and thy means be equal to their maintenance. As we say, A man must be just before he is generous; it would not become any man's duty, to relieve his own father at the expense of his creditors; much less, to make a fraudulent assignment of what he withholds from them to his father or a friend ostensibly with a view to benefit them, but in effect only to benefit himself, and cheat his creditors. The people of Jerusalem had, as it seems, in our Saviour's time a way of cheating their own fathers on this principle, by dedicating their property to sacred uses and holding the same in trust as it were for God: whereas the commandment says, "When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord, thy God, THOU SHALT NOT SLACK TO PAY IT FOR THE LORD THY GOD WILL SURELY REQUIRE IT OF THEE; and it would be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee." (Deut. xxiii. 21, 22.) As we may apply what is necessary and what we can afford to our heavenly Father's service, or earthly either, without vowing when we have the spirit or inclination, and not well without it in any case, only this part of vowing what we will do may seem rash and presumptuous; but to vow to God with the fraudulent intention of cheating both him-our Father which is in Heaven and likewise our parents upon earth, is infamous. And yet there wanted not casuists among the godly in those days, and even of " the most straitest sect of the Pharisees," who could pretend to justify this impious breach of the commandment; as our Saviour reminds them. "For (says he) God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye

made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." (Mat. xv. 4-6.) So,

6. It is not unusual in the world, to find those who consider the title of father and mother extinct and their authority at an end, as soon as either partly or entirely by their means themselves shall have become independent of their farther assistance. I can only say with respect to such persons, that however desirable it may be for children to be able to help themselves, and however politic for a father to put them in a way of doing it as soon as possible in other cases, it seems a pity in this that they should ever have become so independent.

7. With regard likewise to those who, if they ever think it necessary to honour their parents while they are alive, can excuse themselves from this duty after they are deceased, and some of them think no more of their parents from that period perhaps, than as if they never had any; I must say that such is a very pitiful performance; it is not the duty commended in my text, as a part of the return that we owe to our father and mother. As the worldly part of the present generation seem to think themselves quit of the passing by independence, so the gayer part may think themselves quit of the past by death. And if so, the commandment to honour our father and mother can be but of a temporary and short duration. But the more reflecting and disinterested will be apt to observe this commandment in its full extent, though almost insensibly, as long as they live; honouring all "the dead who die in the Lord," with an especial feeling of gratitude toward those to whom they owe their existence through any number of generations. I do not mean to say, that hereditary prepossessions are always of that virtuous and enlightened cast: for I know that too often they are mere ebullitions of pride and self love; so is likewise too frequently, even the outward worship that men pay to God most high. And that must needs be owned a wretched mistake; when piety toward either God or man becomes party-spirit: that

is not like the piety commended in my text. For the proud are not accustomed to observe either the example or precept of any ancestor they may be pleased to boast, and often they know not why, till some one is pleased to tell them; but the family of Jonadab did: and therefore said "the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever."

§ 2. What I have now alleged in the few remarks that I have made may serve to give you a general idea of the subject of filial duty, or at least a pattern of my conceptions on the subject: it remains for me to remark also, as I proposed, in the second place on the Reward of that duty; being related to the subject, not as a part, but as a consequence: for which the word of God, or as we should say, Honour-humanly speaking, is engaged in my text, "Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." Albeit this declaration or appointment of long life by the Lord of hosts may be regarded in the case as only a particular confirmation of the general promise that he made by Moses to the duty of honouring our parents when he said by him, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee;" (Exod. xx. 12;) and may be regarded as the general scope of the reward to be proposed on this occasion. Whereupon it may be pertinent to observe that

1. The advantage of living any how a due time upon earth, or long enough to answer the end of our earthly existence, is not proposed by God either here or in his holy commandment as an occasional reward, but as the end which he has ordained to be a natural or necessary consequence of filial duty duly performed. "That thy days may be long" is the chief respect of the reward beyond any mode of life, or provision for the same, that can be thought of: it being, as our Saviour says, that "the life is