LECTURE VI.

FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

EXODUS, XX. 12.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

THE moral law is summed up in two comprehensive precepts: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

It is supposed, that on the two tables of stone the commandments were so disposed, that the four we have already considered, as comprising our duties to the Lord our God, were written on the first table; and the six, which remain to be considered, on the second. The commandments of the second table are directed to every case in which it is natural to desire the love of our fellow-creatures,-including all that is dear to the heart, or essential to the interests of a human being, in all the possible circumstances of his condition. You would have all men to act towards you as becomes your relative character and situation; you would have them to avoid whatever might endanger your life, embitter your domestic comforts, injure your property, blast your reputation, or in any other way prevent your happiness, or interrupt your peace.

He who has so constituted you that such should

be your natural, powerful feelings, addresses these feelings as they exist in your mind, and in every other, making that the duty of each which promotes the happiness of all. But there are other feelings,pride and independence, the love of aggrandisement, the vehemence of lust and passion,-the strong propensity to gratify ambition or vanity, at a terrible expense to the enjoyments or the interests of others. These are the criminal excesses of the former, the melancholy proofs of our depravity. In the sober estimate we form, and in the wishes we foster respecting the conduct of others towards ourselves, we seldom fall below the true standard. What you thus judge or feel to be the duty of your fellow-creature to yourself is his duty; it is, therefore, yours. The state of mind in which you lawfully desire that he should think and feel towards you, is the state of mind he ought to cherish; it is, for the same reason, that which you ought to cherish towards him. "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets."

The fifth commandment addresses the social affections, and requires the cultivation of those sentiments, and the display of those virtues, which are both the strength and ornament of families and communities. It demands gratitude to benefactors, and kindness to dependents, respect for superiors, and condescension to inferiors,-confidence in the alliances of friendship,-fidelity and honour in the connexions of commerce, the dignified discharge of high and public functions,-the tribute of loyalty, respect, and patriotism to the civil institutions and political authorities of the country.

To discuss, and to apply the endless ramifications of this most extensive subject would require many volumes. Having suggested that the commandment does include the honourable discharge of every relative obligation,-whether domestic or commercial, civil or political,-we must proceed to a more full

and distinct consideration of those which are positively mentioned.

The wisdom and goodness of God are remarkably discovered in the provision he has made for the formation of the human character:-and the position of this commandment excites a train of most useful reflections on the subject. Next in order and importance to the relation sustained by the Creator, is that of parents to their children; and there is a beautiful resemblance of the one to the other:-in the care and interest, the tenderness and authority of a parent, we behold a faint image of the superintendence, compassion, and government of God. It would appear, from the system of the divine dispensations, that upon the conduct of parents to their children it is intended the maintenance of spiritual religion in the world should chiefly depend; as by the habits they encourage, and the authority they exert, the character is formed, that bias is given to the mind which will influence its future pursuits, and affect its final destiny. The connexion of this commandment with those which precede it, is, therefore, of the highest moment:-for if the true God is to be acknowledged, worshipped in spirit, and held in reverence; if his Sabbath is to be devoutly observed, it is of infinite consequence that the earliest movements of the human spirit should be so guided, and the first indications of desire and of will so controlled, as to fix the impression of divine authority, and to imbue the mind with those ideas, and encircle it with those imaginations, by which the remembrance of God may be preserved.

To accomplish this, as it is the sublimest object of this relation, is the highest of parental duties. It is eminently for the attainment of this object that so strong an affection is implanted in the hearts of parents, and that such extensive authority is committed to their hands. So essential is this design to the duties of the parent and to the happiness of the child, that the dependence of children on their

parents is entire, long continued, cherished by the kindest intercourse and most endearing assiduities, felt in the wants of every day and every hour,-exactly at the season when the mind is most susceptible of solemn thoughts and vivid associations; when these thoughts and associations may influence every power of the soul; when they are most tenaciously grasped, and most faithfully retained; and when, on all these accounts, they are most likely to be wrought up into the elements of every feeling, chastening every excitement of desire, and softening every impulse of the passions:-thus imparting to the character the steadiness of principle and the dignity of religion.

The aspect of this relation on the welfare of society is no less deserving of regard than its subserviency to the spiritual interests of the individual. If parental duties are conscientiously performed, society, in all its connexions and interests, is sure to reap the advantage; and there appears to be a view to this advantage in placing the commandment which requires obedience to parental discipline before those which enforce the remaining duties of mortals to each other.

The benefits accruing to the world from the enlightened government of families need not be described. It is apparent, on a moment's reflection, that if families were governed on the christian principles of the ten commandments, social harmony would be unimpaired, national felicity would be complete the surmises of jealousy, the grasp of avarice, the fierceness of revenge, the intrigues of policy, the pinings of envy, the madness of dissipation, the encroachments of tyranny, the tumults of rebellion, the insolence of power, the fawning of flattery, the insinuations of calumny, the inventions of malice, would give place to the things which are pure and true, and just and honourable, and lovely, and of good report.

All the efficacy of domestic discipline, to produce

such results, is derived from the religious principles which it is the means of implanting in the minds of children. Neither the affection nor the authority of a parent can curb the passions and subdue the waywardness of the human heart:-yet God requires them to be diligently exerted, in dependence on his blessing, for regulating the views, restraining the actions, and exercising the hopes and fears of our children. Parental government is God's institution; it is adapted to the purposes for which he has appointed it; the most powerful motives are exhibited, in his word and in his providence, to induce parents to remember the subserviency and responsibility of the relation they sustain; and the efforts they are thus inclined to make are employed by him as means for the accomplishment of his own designs. Should parents neglect their appropriate duties, their guilt, whatever be the consequences, is upon their own heads, though God, who is as rich in instruments as he is boundless in compassion, may employ other means to attain the object they had abandoned, and repair the injuries they have done. But when their influence is vigorously exerted, and, in answer to their prayers, divinely blessed, religious principles are implanted in the hearts of their children. They will acquire a habit of cautious self-government,— from a conviction of God's omniscience; a fear of yielding to temptation,-from a conviction of his ineffable holiness; a love of equity,-from a conviction of his unbending justice; a tender and practical regard to the happiness of their fellow-creatures,from a conviction of his immeasurable goodness; a spirit of gratitude, humility, and forbearance,-from a conviction of his unspeakable mercy, through Jesus Christ, to them, as ruined sinners. These convictions, producing their natural effects, are religious principles, such as parents are to inculcate. When these principles are carefully nurtured in the minds of children, they will lead to the perception of the most delicate moral distinctions; they will