Imatges de pàgina
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divert even to facred ufes what is required for the relief and comfort of a parent in want, the holy treasury is defiled by our gifts, and loaths the offenfive offering,

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But though Almighty God will not allow any honour offered to himself to excufe the neglect of our parents; yet our kindness to them, will ftand us in great ftead, when He calls us to account for our forgetfulness of Him; and vifits us for our tranfgreffions. Hear me your Ecclus iii. father, O children, and do thereafter that ye may be fafe. For the Lord hath given the father honour over the children, and hath confirmed the authority of the mother over the fons. Whofo honoureth his father maketh an atonement for his fins: and he that honoureth his mother, is as one that layeth up treasure. My fon, help thy father in his age, and grieve him not as long as he liveth. And if his understanding fail, have patience with him; and defpife him not when thou

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art in thy full ftrength. For the relieving of thy father shall not be forgotten: - in the day of thine affliction it fhall be remembered; thy fins alfo fhall melt away, as the ice in the fair warm weather.

But we are not left to rely wholly on the authority of the Son of Sirach, or of any man; God himself in the express words of this commandment has been pleased to promise, that he will bless those that keep it; and this in a manner peculiar and remarkable. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The long and happy poffeffion of the land of Canaan, was the reward proposed to the Jews for the keeping of Deut. v. all God's commandments. You shall walk

33.

in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you; that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall poffefs. And yet in the folemn delivery

of

of the ten Commandments, the reward is not fubjoined to the whole; but annexed, it seems, to one distinguished precept: as if respect to this one of the divine laws had a fuperiour efficacy in drawing down that bleffing, which indeed was only due to the observance of all.

Nor is this reward a confideration of no weight even to Chriftians.

First, Children that obey their parents are the most likely to do well and profper, to live long and happily, according to the natural course of things. The whole of life is apt to take it's colour from the employment of our youth; and that employment of it which is the most agreeable to our parents, will commonly be most to our advantage.

Secondly, St. Paul alleges as obligatory and yet in force this very commandment, with the promise annexed to

it.

Ephef. vi. it.

2,3.

Honour thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promife, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayeft live long upon the earth. Dutiful children may yet hope for the bleffing of God even in this life: he ftill interpofes in favour of those, who are obedient to this commandment.

Thirdly, Or fuppofe the rewards offered to Chriftians were only the bleffings of the world to come; the promise here fubjoined to this commandment may ftill be made use of, and applied with great justness for their encouragement. Is it of no confequence, to know what virtues are most acceptable in the fight of God, because He reserves his recompence to the day of Judgment? If obedience to parents was entitled to an eminent fhare of God's favour, when the tokens of it were temporal; may we not truft, that he ftill views this amiable virtue with the fame eye; and will diftinguish it in a proportionable

tionable degree, but with much greater honour, when he makes us citizens of the new Jerufalem, and receives us into everlasting habitations?

Laftly, As the willing obfervance of this law is peculiarly pleafing to Almighty God, fo the violation of it is eminently offenfive to Him, and will be attended or followed by an exemplary vengeance.

4.

According to the law of Mofes, to which our Saviour refers us, a fignal outrage against parents was capital. God Matth.xv. commanded, faying, Honour thy father and Exod.xxi. mother: and he that curfeth father or mother, let him die the death.

17.

18, &c.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Deut. xxi. fon, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chaftened him, will not hearken unto them; all the men of his city fhall stone him with ftones that he die:

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