VII.

fubmiffive to the wife and falutary fyftem SERMON propofed for us.

If fuch is the care of parents, is it too much to ask of children that their affection should be correfpondent? that they should anticipate their duty, and obey as it were before they are commanded? Is it too much to ask of them, that their obedience, should not only be a filent fullen compliance with an authority from which they cannot extricate themselves; but a ready, a cheerful confent, even in the most indifferent things; believing that parents mean every thing for the beft, and act from motives of the trueft affec-. tion? I am fure that there is not a child in this affembly, who does not think that he ought to be dutiful on the simple principle of doing as he would be done by.

Do you, then, who are fo happy as to have parents (and how happy that is you

VII.

may tell, by comparing yourselves with poor children who have no parents), go from hence with this leffon, that you can have no pretenfions to be the children of God, that you have hearts formed for no generous virtues, unless you honour your

father and your mother, who have a claim to it both by right and gratitude. It is your duty (more especially while you are young) to comply with their inclinations, which are almoft always in your favour, though you may not be able to understand them; and to yield to their judgment, which by age, knowledge, and experience must be better than yours. To fhew ill humours to thofe who are your fuperiors and benefactors, to thwart their plans by obftinacy, and to provoke their paffions by oppofition; these are not mistakes, but criminal perverfenefs of difpofition; they are not errors, but crimes, of youth, which

VII.

which you will fhed tears for in your old SERMON age. All parents indeed are not equally pleasant in their manners towards their children; and it is poffible that the degree of affection may alfo vary: ftill, however, it is your duty to treat them with respect, to bear piously with all their infirmities; and if they have defects, or even faults, to conceal them more diligently than you would do your own.

I have hitherto confidered filial duty principally as it belongs to our infant years. I fhall proceed in another difcourfe to confider it, as it relates to more advanced life, when we are no longer attached by neceffity; but by piety, by honour, affection, and gratitude.

Before I conclude, however, I think it my duty to inform thofe children, who are the objects of this charitable inftitution,

that,

SERMON that, though orphans, they are not unin

VII.

terested in the subject which I have been difcuffing.

It is true (and you are almost all old enough to have a tear for your misfortune),

that the mother at whose breaft

you

have

been nurfed he has been untimely fnatched away from you by the ftroke of death; and in her last moments, when the heart was ftruggling against the pang which was to fever the foul from the body, ftill he hung upon her dear little ones, whom the left unguarded to buffet with the ftorms of the world.

Deprived of the careful folicitude of a mother, and then most in want of a father's protection, that alfo you have loft. He too hath laid his aching heart in the cold grave, and his trembling tongue faintly lifped out a prayer for his poor, forfaken orphans.

But

But although you have been left on SERMON

the wide world orphans and fatherless, yet God hath not deserted you. Behold he hath raised you up many parents. To these you owe a prefent comfortable fubfiftence; to these, the means of inftruction; and (which is of the highest importance) to these you are indebted for the falvation of your immortal fouls. ~ To them therefore you are to transfer all that general reverence and gratitude (the particular inftances of which cannot indeed be here applied) which, under other circumstances, would have been due to your natural parents. The fame bleffings attend upon your duty to your superiors and benefactors here, as would have belonged to you, had an opportunity been afforded you of testifying it to your natural Your education here, and all

parents.

the

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