3. And how unfaithful is the present generation! children imagine that they are at liberty to rob their parents, which Solomon records as exceedingly destructive, Prov. xxviii. 25. To support parents, and to requite them," as Paul admonisheth, 1 Tim. v. 4, appears so strange to many children, that they imagine with the Pharisees, that parents ought not to look for any advantage from their children : they will sooner suffer them to depend upon the publick alms, than sustain them, or if they will not be so shameless, they will reach them a fragment or a morsel; but with what coldness and contempt! If they can rob the magistrates of toll and tribute, they will not scruple to do it, provided they can only conceal it. Preachers have no reason to complain in this province; but it is sufficiently known how they fare elsewhere, and that they are obliged to perform their labour with grief. It would be hard to decry all our servants, as faithless; but it is sufficiently known that some are unfaithful through slothfulness and carelessness about matters which require their attention: yea, some have declined so far, that they rob their masters and mistresses, like Onesimus, though he was afterwards converted, and O, that all unfaithful servants would endeav our to become so happy!

4. We ought to submit ourselves to the good instruction and correction of parents with due obedience. But if ye had given heed to their instructions in your youth, would ye not have been wiser now? but ye have cast them behind your backs. How sullenly did ye behave, when they either bade, or admonished you to do any thing, so that they were obliged to chastise you; and O, that they had done that oftner! folly would not then perhaps have holden you captive, as it doth. And when they chastised you, how angry did ye become, yea, were more hardened than before! Reflect on your youth, that ye may see that heathenish abomination, even "disobedience to parents," Rom. i 39, and may be ashamed. How disobedient are men also to the magistrates! how many evil thoughts rise up in their hearts against them! If ye only durst, and were not afraid that they would punish you, ye would rebel against them, no less than Korah and his company. Ye ought surely to submit to the instructions and reproofs of your preachers, with due obedience; for they seek not yours, but you: but how backward are men to this!"they say to the secrs, see not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us," Isaiah xxx. 10, 11. Do persons behave in this manner toward their parents,

magistrates, and preachers we need not then wonder that servants are also so stubborn and wayward, contrary to what the apostle saith, Titus ii. 9. There are still servants, who are obedient, but it is not from obedience to the Lord, but "with eye-service, as menpleasers," Eph. vi. 6.

5. Do men behave in this manner, when their parents, magistrates, preachers, and others are competent, we may then easily conceive how they conduct, when they have weaknesses and infirmities. Will not children, subjects, hearers and servants, as if they were the proper offspring of Ham, sport then with those weaknesses and infirmities, and report them to others, and expose father and mother, and all who are set over them, to contempt and hatred ?

We may see then, and we need not search for it industriously, how it happens that families and civil communities are so sinful and and disorderly, yea, that the church is clothed with the filthy garb of worldly mindedness, corruption, and indifference. Or do ye think that ye are not guilty in these respects? Ye surely know better. It is well known to you, that ye have not done all that God requires of you in obedience to him. I repeat it, think on your conduct in your youth and in your childhood: imagine not that because this or that was done by you in your childhood, it was therefore no sin: ye were then also subject to the Lawgiver. And do not presume that the Lord hath forgotten and forgiven your iniquities, because they were com. mitted by you a long time since, and because ye yourselves have forgotten them. David, a man after God's own heart, who trusted in the Lord from his youth, as he saith, Psalm lxxi. 5, 6, was troubled in his manly years on account of the sins of his youth," Psalm xxv 7. And if ye have not yet been converted and reconciled to God, your whole life hath been without God, and sinful, and all those sins lie yet upon you, and ye have reason to think that the Lord hath a lively remembrance of them, that he will upbraid you with them, as he did Judah and Israel, when he said, Jer. xxxii. 30. "For the children of Israel, and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth."

Perhaps ye will say, I know that I have conducted badly enough, but what shall I do now? it is indeed so, and what hath been done cannot be undone, and ye forget upon this, according to your old custom, your grievous and manifold sins. But friends, this will not obtain the pardon of your sins for you; and therefore pause a while here, and hearken to what I will say unto you, that ye may be humbled, reconciled to God, and changed. (a) Those sins of yours are exceedingly abominable; for they have been committed against

the most high God; against his express command, and particularly against the first command of the second table against his promise and love, with which he would allure you, and which ye have despised; against natural equity; and ye have also shown, that ye were degenerate, corrupt and unnatural. (b) Ye are cursed on account of these sins, and all who hear and observe it must assent to it. "Cursed is he that setteth light by his father and mother and all the people shall say Amen," according to the register of curses, which was to be proclaimed from mount Ebal, before all Israel, Deut. xxviii. 16. (c) Ye have long since forfeited your lives: for a long life is promised only to children, who obey their parents. Ye are still alive, but it is no blessing to you; for the Lord is not your covenant God; the Lord ills. your life with bitter things on account of the iniquities of your youth, and your present iniquities.

Do we say this from anger, and that we may cause you to despair? It is true we wish that every one of you said from Isaiah lvii. 10, "There is no hope, that he did not find the life of his hand, but was grieved," yet we do not say this from anger, or that we may deprive you of all hope of pardon and salvation, but that we may save you, and direct you to the good and holy way. Are yo then desirous of being delivered from destruction, (a) Lay your misery seriously to heart; to be so unconcerned about it is dedly to you. Therefore weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you," James v. 1. Alas, that with Ephraim, Jer. xxxi. 19, ye did, as 'confounded, "smite upon your thigh, on account of the sins of your youth." (b) Beware nevertheless of being, like Cain, terrified to such a degree, as to be driven from the Lord; but come to him with lowly humility, and with a confession of your abominations from your youth until this day, like Israel, who turning to the Lord, said, Jer. iii. 25, "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth unto this day." (c) Know that Christ the Son of God was cut off for such sins also out of the land of the living, and that he fulfilled this commandment also, when he And all this only, that he was subject to his parents, Luke ii. 51. might satisfy the justice of God, and purchase the forfeited life;" for him who knew no sin hath God made to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him," as Paul teacheth, 2 Cor. v. 21. (d) Be not nevertheless too ready to apply this to yourselves, but inquire whether he calls you also to his righteousness, and proffers it to you; yea, endeavour to obtain an assurance, that he invites you thereto, and that he is ready to impart all his

merits to you. He cries to you also, "Look unto me, and be saved, all ye ends of the earth," Isaiah xlv. 22. Therefore flee unto him, accept of him, and rest not, until he favours your souls with his righteousness. Hear what he hath foretold concerning our days, Isaiah xlv 24, "Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: to him shall men come." And thus, "Christ would be to you the end of the law for righteousness," according to Rom. x. 4.

Those who have taken their refuge to him, ought to make use of the law, and thus also of this commandment, for a rule of a thank ful life, and therefore,

1. Wonder, rejoice and praise him for preserving you so long alive, until his time of love to you was come. Hear how David cries out concerning this to the Lord, Psalm xxi. 4. " He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." He might have taken you away long ere now by a shameful death, your sentence was written from ancient times, and particularly, Prov. xxx. 17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." But the Lord hath spared you.

2. Let the love and the kindness of God to you induce you to honour your father and mother, and all who are set over you, with reverence, love, fidelity, obedience and patience. Do this nevertheless from an acknowledgment, that their authority over you was given them by God. "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers," saith Paul, Rom. xiii. 1. And thus also from obedience to the Lord, "Not with eye-service, as micnpleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart: with good will doing service to the Lord, and not to men," Eph. vi. 6, 7. Do it also in all things. "Ye children" saith the same apostle further, Col. ii. 20. obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord." We must nevertheless not do this, when they who are set over us command us aught that thwarts the command of God. 66 We must obey our parents, but it must be in the Lord,” Eph. vi. 1. "We ought to obey God rather than men," said the apostles, Acts. v. 29. We may "not love our father and mother more than Jesus," Matt. x. 37. We must sooner "hate our father and mother," Luke xiv. 26. See a noble example of this in the Levites, Exod. xxxii. 26, 27, 28, 29. Deut. xxxiii. 9. Neither ought they to be obeyed, when they command aught that militates against any official duty of their children. Solomon, although he bonoured his mother greatly, would nevertheless not hearken to her, when she spoke to him for Adonijah, who nourished insurrection in

his heart, 1 Kings ii. 17-23. The duties of marriage do also exempt children from this duty: it is the law of marriage, that " a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and that they twain shall be one flesh." Although children, who are married ought to hearken in many respects to the good advice of their parents. It is especially the duty of children, to inform their parents, and to ask their consent, when they are about to contract marriage. God hath given parents power" to take wives for their sons, and to give their daughters to husbards," Jer. xxix. 6.. Abraham undertook to provide a wife for his son Isaac, Gen. xxiv. and Samson asked a wife of his parents, Judges xiv. 1, 2.

But when God commands children to perform certain duties toward their parents, he then supposeth that parents owe also certain duties to their children; for the commands of the law must be understood in the most extensive sense, and must be explained recip rocally for instance, God forbids men to commit adultery, to kill, &c. as may be seen in the Hebrew original, but he doth then intend women also. Paul explaining the commandment before us, Eph. vi. 1-9 teaches that parents are obliged to perform certain duties to their children, and masters to their servants. The reason why the Lawgiver doth not express the duty of parents here, which consists not so much in honouring, as in loving their children, is because nature and their own bowels urge them to that love. All then, who are honoured with the name of father and mother, are obliged to conduct themselves well toward their children, and those over whom they are placed.

1. Parents ought to take a suitable care of their children, providing them with food and with necessaries; "If any man provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," saith Paul, 1 Tim. v. 8. He teacheth also that" parents ought to lay up for their children," 2 Cor. xii. 14. They ought especially to dispose their souls, their noblest part, to godliness, and salvation, and therefore to instruct them, according to their capacities, in the mysteries of God, and admonish them, as Solomon adviseth Prov. xxii. 6. and as Paul enjoins, Eph vi. 4. So Abraham acted, Gen. xviii. 19, and David, Prov. iv. 3, 4. Fathersinlaw, and mothersinlaw, guardians, godfa thers, and godmothers, and grandparents are obliged to do this also. See 1 Tim v. 4. But parents ought to enforce their instructions with a pious example, as Joshua said, "as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord," Joshua xxiv. 15. But inasmuch as Solomon saith, Prov. xxii. 15. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, bur

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