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in lesser things? Certainly it is. For if the thing directed be little, it is more easily complied with, and therefore to disobey argues a greater irreverence. Besides, these lesser things take in the generality of the parents' directions, and of the child's duty. Honour for parents will approve itself by a readiness to conform to their will in the whole of the children's conduct; and the excellent proof of it is a being pleased in doing or forbearing in the whole of the conduct as will please the father and mother, whether the matters be great things or small. Consider, then, has it been your study to please your parents in all things? to behave yourself as you knew they would have you? and has this accompanied you in their absence as well as in their presence? and that also when you could be sure they would never know what you did? And have you done this not out of constraint, but cheerfully? I know not what your conduct may have been in this respect but there is a manifest self-willedness of conduct in many children. They want to please themselves in all things; when they are restrained from it, you may see by their faces, if not hear from their mouths, that they are dissatisfied; and they will do what they will when their parents are out of sight. What I am now speaking of is the more to be regarded, because it is in this general desire of pleasing parents, rather than in any particular act, that the honouring them, that is, the honouring God's authority in them, doth consist. And it is easy to see, that if there be this general desire to please and obey parents in the whole conduct, a conformity with their will in more interesting cases will not be wanting: as, on the other hand, such children as have no regard to please their parents in the generality of their behaviour, cannot from a sense of duty, but only through fear or interest, comply with their will in more important particulars.

Such now is the duty of children. And you may see how exactly it corresponds in every particular with God's design in putting his authority into the parents' hands, for his own glory in the religious education of children. If parents are authorized and required to train up their children in the ways of godliness, then it must be the child's duty to reverence his parents as bearing authority for that end, to observe their religious instructions, to conform to their religious discipline, to submit to their needful

corrections, to yield himself to their disposals, and in all things to be guided by their will. This is plain, otherwise the design of the commandment is frustrated; and therefore, whenever we have departed from such an honouring of our parents, we have broken the fifth commandment.

But

But you may say, My parents do not or did not use their authority over me with this religious design you are talking of; they took no pains to make me acquainted with a covenant God; I had no good instructions from them; and when they corrected me it was to indulge their own passions; all their disposals and directions, at best, tended only to my worldly happiness; yea, and they have set me an ill example, by neglect of family-worship, and private worship in their own closets (for I know that ordinarily they have spent no time there), by sabbath-breaking, company-keeping, drunkenness, swearing, passion, and the like. And doth not such a conduct in my parents discharge me from the duty I owe them? Must I honour such parents as these? Doubtless you must. No misconduct in them toward you will justify any irreverence in you toward them: for God saith, Honour thy father and mother,' without any limitation. you say, how can I honour them when they are wicked? Why, if they were good, the reason of your honouring them, considered as parents, is not because they are good, but because they are parents, and because God has put authority upon them as such. So you see that the authority God hath put upon them makes them honourable whether they be bad or good. And were they good, to honour them for that, and not for the authority God hath put upon them, were to go beside the commandment. Here lies the difficulty, to honour parents solely from the consideration because God has put authority upon them and in this view it is just as difficult to honour good parents as bad ones. But how must I honour bad parents? Just as you would honour good ones. You must reverence them in your heart; you must obey them in all lawful things; you must study to please them; you must speak respectfully to them; you must not speak disrespectfully of them. You say now your parents are bad? Well then, have you honoured them in this manner? Have you reverenced them in your heart? Or have you not licentiously taken advantage of their faults to

slight them in your mind? Have you obeyed them in all lawful things? Or have you not set up for your own master? Have you studied to please them, and always to do so for consciencesake? Have you behaved respectfully to them, and that even when they were behaving unkindly to you? And if you have warned them of their faults, has it been with modesty and trembling? Have you covered those faults as much as you might, not uncovering their nakedness, nor speaking lightly of them to others? Have you prayed for them; and also endeavoured by the meekness and humbleness of your demeanour to win their souls ?

I have now suggested matter enough of inquiry upon the duty of children; and therein I suppose of humiliation. It were greatly to be wished that parents and children would lay to heart what has been said on this important subject: which, as I observed in the beginning, has the nearest connexion with our estate towards God, and a religious regard to which is among the most substantial proofs of an interest in Christ Jesus.

SERMON XXXV.

GALATIANS iii. 24.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

ALTHOUGH the subject undertaken from these words was designed for the Sundays in Lent, yet it will be improper to leave the consideration of that commandment we had entered upon unfinished. Therefore I will go on with the fifth commandment, already begun with, and submit to your consideration and examination those several other relative duties it enjoins; having already spoken to the duties of parents and children.

A second part of duties, required by the fifth commandment, are those regarding masters and servants.

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First, of the duty of servants. You must consider we have all a twofold calling; a general calling, and a particular calling. The general calling is that which is common to us all, the profession of Christianity. The particular is that special station of life, or course of employment, in which we are engaged. Now as there can be no contradiction between these two, if our special calling be an honest one; so it is the most important proof of our being really Christians, that we faithfully serve God therein I say, when the main thing we have in view is to serve and glorify God in our special calling, then we do most of all approve ourselves true members of Christ as well because such special calling is the very place allotted us in which we should serve God in our generation, as because our special calling must in a manner engross all our time. What is advanced thus in general I now particularly apply to the matter before us, the case of servants.

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The first duty of servants is to consider themselves servants of God in that their calling. Servants,' saith St. Paul, in the sixth chapter to the Ephesians, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ: not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.' Here, you see, servants are required to do their duty in their calling with singleness of heart, as unto Christ; not as if they had no more to do but to please their masters; but with good will and cheerful readiness doing their business, because God expects it of them; and to please and glorify him. This is the main qualification of a good servant; and without this none shall be so accounted in the sight of God, however diligent, faithful, and careful to please their earthly masters, they may be; for in truth such are not serving God, but themselves. Nay, but indeed it cannot be imagined that such will faithfully and honestly serve their masters upon earth. Sense of duty to God, as members of Christ's body, and serving the Lord in that calling, will carry servants through all the duties and all the discouragements that attend this station of life. Such will not be eye-servants, but, seeing God's eye ever looking upon them, will be ever as diligent in the master's absence as in his presence; such will not more squander their master's goods than they will squander his time, but will make the most of all for the master's benefit, as being put in trust by God; nor will such be discouraged and fall into murmuring under the hardships and unkindnesses which either their masters put upon them, or at least servants will be apt to think they do. If the desire of pleasing God be wanting, and the greatest aim is to please the master, and serve their own interests, the best servants otherwise in the world will gain nothing in God's account, for Those that despise me, saith the Lord, shall be lightly esteemed. Nor upon strict inquiry will they be found either careful as they ought of their master's interests, or diligent as they should be at their labour; most of all, they will not endure with a proper spirit those hardships or unkindnesses they have to contend with. They will be secretly fretting under them, and ready to utter passionate and irreverent

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