O enter not into judgment with thy servant for having had other gods before thee! but have mercy upon me, and incline my heart to keep this law. And hast thou charged me, O sovereign God, to bow down and worship before thee? to pray without ceasing, to meditate on thy word, to observe thy ordinances? What then shall I answer for all the slights I have put upon thy word and ministry, thy worship and sacraments, for all my sloth, coldness, negligence, and formality, in calling upon thy name? Are all my breaches of covenant-vows, all my disrespectful approaches to and neglects of thy word, all my lifeless wandering prayers; are these all noted in thy book of remembrance against me? Then, Lord, have mercy upon me, for my sins against thy second commandment are more in number than the hairs of my head. And hast thou also charged me to have respect unto and glorify thee in all the words of my tongue, and all the actions of my life? Requirest thou of me so to speak, and so to act, as that in all thou mayest be glorified; and that everywhere, and in all places, it should be made manifest in me that I am thy servant, thine only; my conduct always such as that in all things thou mayest be honoured, and the whole world know me to be thy servant? So thou chargest, and I confess that thy charge is holy, just, and good; so thou oughtest in all things to be magnified. But how far have I been from bringing this just tribute of glory to thy name! My conduct, how often has it been disgraceful to my profession, vain, carnal, worldly, conformed to the ways and customs of an evil generation! And this tongue, how continually hath it spoken idly, or lightly, or rashly, or angrily, or wantonly, or profanely! Lord, thou knowest there is no end of my transgressions; thy mercies only are more in number: have mercy upon me, O my God, and incline my heart to keep this law. Also it is thy commandment that I should remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy; that I should cease from my worldly cares and business, not to pass the consecrated hours in idleness or pleasure, or intemperance, but by exercises of private and public worship that I should sanctify the day wholly to the Lord. But how often have worldly things employed my hands, how much more often my tongue, how most of all my thoughts, in these sacred hours! and even when I have ceased

from worldly affairs, how little have I ceased from my own pleasure! what unprofitable conversations, what needless visitings, what idle wanderings, lie upon the records of my memory!

best, how little have I sanctified thy day by sacred meditation and heavenly employments; how little laboured to ascend unto the rest above, and pass the hours with an exalted Jesus, to the glory of thy name and the spiritual advantage of my immortal soul! Mercy, Lord, mercy upon a miserable sabbath-breaker! How infinitely indebted am I to the blood of Christ, that cleanseth from all sin !" After such a review of these first commandments, more immediately regarding God, it will be easy to conclude we shall not be found guiltless in those of the second table, which are then only kept, when observance of them arises from a sense and a discharge of that duty we owe to God required in the first. Nevertheless, in order to favour that selfrighteous scheme so pleasing to our hearts, that we might think well of ourselves, it has been the customary manner to explain the commands of the second table in a literal sense, and even to take no notice of what the four first commandments enjoin: insomuch that the person who has abstained from the three gross acts of murder, adultery, and theft, has been ready to say, 'I have kept all the commandments from my youth,' and am certainly free in this matter: than which nothing leads more directly to detain souls in a damnable security. To remove this soul-ruining mistake, there needs no more than to open the law in its true spiritual sense, as our Lord, in opposition to such destructive teachings, has taught us to do: and then the whole world is found guilty before God, as has been abundantly made manifest to your own consciences in opening the commandments already spoken to. With the same design I proceed now to submit to your inquiry what the fifth commandment requires of us.

Honour thy father and mother. This is the first commandment regarding the duty we owe one another; and is deservedly set in the first place, because it is the sum of all those duties we owe to our neighbour, and so of the largest latitude and extent, its observance or non-observance also being of the greatest importance to the church of God. From whence you may easily see, that a regard or disregard to this commandment will

beyond all other things manifest the state and condition of our souls. When our regard to God is carried into and regulates our temper and conduct in the various relations we bear to each other as superiors, inferiors, and equals, it will be certain and evident we have the honour of his government at heart. But if our pretences to piety and devotion have not so happy an effect upon our behaviour one toward another, and, while we are exact and diligent in attendances on worship, we are stubborn inferiors, haughty superiors, and self-willed equals, it is plain our proud hearts have never been humbled, we are not endued with the mind of Jesus, nor partakers of his spiritual kingdom; and all our religion is vain. Thus much was needful to be said in general. I come now to open this commandment for examination and humiliation. And the extent of it being great, it will demand more of our time.

Honour thy father and thy mother. To honour is to own. the dignity, eminence, and authority, which God hath put on the objects to be honoured, and this both in an internal reverence of them in the mind, and by an external expression of it in conduct.

Thy father and mother: that is, not only thy natural parents, but all others whom God hath marked out and distinguished by dignity and excellency, as he has done thy natural parents. Where there is no dignity nor excellency, there is no place for reverence and honour.

On the other hand, all to whom God has given dignity and excellency are hereby equally, though more implicitly, enjoined not to use it to their own ends, but to the glory of God, and the benefit of those whom God has made inferior to them.

This is the general design of the commandment. And you see it takes in all the relations we stand in to one another as superiors and inferiors. I will open the principal of them for your examination. And,

I. The duty of children towards their parents, and of parents towards their children. This shall be the matter of our

present inquiry.

Previous to what will be said upon the duties of parents and children, I would observe there is such a thing as natural affection, which I suppose does not come within the scope of this

commandment. The Apostle indeed speaks of many, namely, parents and children, who were without this natural affection :* but then he is describing not persons transgressing this or any other part of the written law of God, but Heathens, departed from the light they had, and sunk in vice to that degree, as to have lost those very feelings and practices, which in common with other animals they were urged to by instinct. To say therefore that to be wanting in natural affection is a transgression of the fifth commandment, is not, I conceive, to understand the commandment rightly, which is not designed to bid us do that which we by the mere instinct of nature alone are inclined to do, and do actually without any thought of God's will in the matter, till, by the indulgence of our lusts, these our very natural instincts are destroyed, and we become more unnatural than the brutes; but this commandment requires of us that which we are not in the least degree by nature inclined to do, namely, as parents to use our authority over our children not for our own ends, but for God's glory in their spiritual welfare; and as children to honour our parents, because they bear the authority of God towards us and over us. Hence by the way it is easy to see,

First. That natural affection is no virtue, however in other respects good and desirable it may be; for you see it is but a mere instinct, and just no more than what is common to the beasts with us. Let not then parents or children, the former especially, in whom this natural instinct is strongest, mistake this for the duty they owe one to the other by virtue of this commandment; nor apprehend that because this natural affection does beget continual tenderness, diligence, and care, therefore the duty of parent or child is effectually discharged. The very worst parents or children, who have lost all sense of duty, will hardly be able altogether to extinguish this natural principle, which also is often found acting in the highest degree where there is not any thought of the child's salvation on one side, nor of the honour due to parents on the other.

Yet, secondly. We may see also, that if this natural affection be lost, it can only be in consequence of the most advanced measure of sin. Self-will and self-pleasing must have entirely

* Rom i. 31.

engrossed the soul, seeing not only all principles of religion are excluded, but also all natural principles are eradicated by it. And,

Thirdly. I would observe on this matter, that though this natural affection be a great help in doing many duties on either side, which would otherwise be exceedingly disagreeable and painful; yet on the other hand it is very apt to degenerate into a destructive fondness in parents towards children, causing the parent to indulge them in their humours, to give them their own will, not to endure to cross, much less to correct them; in short, to give up all authority, and to leave the child to do as he pleases, till being unrestrained he is grown peevish, wilful, desperate, intolerable to all, and a great grief of heart even to the fond parent, whose fondness has been indeed the main cause of the child's undoing. So you may see fondness is a vicious excess and abuse of natural affection that cannot be too much guarded against, especially by mothers, in whom natural affection is strongest, and who therefore are most liable to fall into this destructive way of indulging their children to please themselves. I do not stop to make answer to many excuses which fondness is ready to plead for itself; only I am desirous it may be observed that when I find fault with fondness I do not mean to blame natural affection, but only that it should be kept within its proper bounds. And what these are you shall now see, while I am describing,

First, The duty of parents towards their children, as required by this commandment. And that will be distinctly seen, if this one thing be carefully observed, that God by this commandment requiring children on pain of his wrath to honour their parents, does thereby himself expressly put a power into the parent's hands. Now, though parents must needs have a natural power over their children, in consequence of their begetting, nourishing, and caring for them, yet a divine additional power to enforce upon children all their obligations, by the express revealed authority of God himself, parents could not have, unless God had been pleased to give it them. But to what end must we suppose God has put so solemn a power into the hands of parents? What, to swell them up with pride, and that they may use it tyrannically over their children? God