to their fhare; yet if fo much of this world's good is allotted them as it is for their real advantage to have, and if, having been useful and happy in life, they die in honour and peace, the words of our text may be faid, in the general and substantial import of them, to be made good to them. And that this is a fact in regard of thofe who obey their parents in the Lord, that is, obey them from a sense of duty to God, is capable of clear proof. Such perfons may be ftyled pious or godly, and we are affured that "godlinefs hath. "the promise of the life that now is, and of that which "is to come *."

It is the will of God then, children, that you obey your parents. Be perfuaded, therefore, to your duty. You believe that there is a God, that he governs the world, that profperity and adverfity are at his dispofal, that you must die, and that your happiness in a future ftate depends upon his favour. Will you then, dare you, be wilfully difobedient to fo great a Being who can make you miferable in this world, and who can deftroy both foul and body in hell? But rather let me intreat you, by the mercies of God, to render a cheerful obedience to his will-by the mercies of a God, who, in the character of a tender and indulgent Father, deigns to pardon the numerous offences of us his undutiful but penitent children, for the fake of the obedience and death of Chrift his only begotten and well-beloved Son.And now, to all the ar guments we have drawn from the law of nuture, and the exprefs command of God, I have only to add thofe which refult,

III. From example.

Here

* Tim. iv. 3.

Here to illuftrate is to perfuade: to hold up to your view inftances of filial piety, is at once to inftruct you in your duty, and to allure you to it. And thanks be to God! degenerate as the world is, hiftory, both profane * and facred, furnishes examples enough

* The character of Pius Æneas, which Virgil fo repeatedly gives the hero of his poem, on account of his filial attention and duty to his father Anchises, cannot fail of giving pleasure to a reader of fenfibility, ---Epaminondas, the Theban general, amidst the flattering applause he received on the victory he gained over the Spartans at Leuftra, faid, “My joy chiefly confifts in knowing, that my father and mother will hear of my victory. By the tears of his mother Veturia the brave Coriolanus was pre-. vailed on to grant peace to Rome, though at the hazard of fuffering the refeatment of the Volci, whofe troops he commanded in the fiege of that city. "Ah! my mother," faid he " you dif "armá me! Rome is faved, but your fon is undone." Plut. in Coriol.-In the dreadful profcription that took place in Rome on the arrival of the Triumvirs, Octavianus, Anthony, and Lepidus, there was an Oppius, who saved his old and infirm father, by carrying him on his shoulders to the fea-fide, and escaping with him into Sicily; for which generous action he was afterwards raifed to the Ædilethip, and otherwife munificently rewarded by the Roman people. There was alfo, on the fame occafion, an Hofidius, who eluded the fearch that was to have been made after him by an artifice which filial tenderness fuggefted; the fon spread a report that his father had laid violent hands on himself, and to make the fit the more credible, spent his fortune in performing lis obfequres The Chinese are faid to be a people remarka- . ble for filial piety: and I remember to have somewhere met with a friking inftance of it. "A Mandarine having been condemn. ed to death for fome crime committed by him in his office, his fon, a child of only fifteen years, befought the emperor that he might fuffer in his fead. The emperor moved with this uncommon instance of filial affection, gave the father his life. And he would have conferred fome tokens of honour on the fon, but the fon declined them, faying, he would not accept any distinction which should recal to him the idea of a guilty father."

to our purpose. We will content ourselves here with citing a few from scripture, big 9 and Jw 19dcat

The reverence which Shem and Japhet expreffed for their father's honour failed not to draw a blefling upon them; as did the contrary behaviour of Hami curfe upon his family The entire confidence which Ifaac placed in his father Abrabum, "and the ready" fubmiffion he yielded to his will on the most trying" occafion, were tempers truly admirable, and fignally rewarded by heavent. Jacob acted as became one who had received the bleffing at the hand of his venerable! parent, when he paid fo dutiful a regard to his com-! mands, in the alliance he contracted with the family of Laban.And it was commendable in Esau, whatever might be his character in other refpects, to forbear marrying the daughters of Canaan, because he' faw they pleafed not faae his father ..

1

The many expreffions of filial duty and affection which occur in the ftory of Jofeph, must flrike every attentive reader with admiration and pleafure: nor can we fee him distinguished in fo extraordinary a manner as he was by the smiles of providence, without concluding that his piety to his father was highly pleafing to God. The love which good old Jácob bare to him in his tender years, was no doubt heightened by the fon's affiduous attention to conform to the will of fo indulgent a parent. And as he learned obedience by suffering, (for he was trained in' the fchool of affliction), fo he gave the most affecting proofs of it, when elevated to the higheft ftation," next to Pharaoh, in Egypt. How earheftly did he enquire of his brethren, when they came to buy corn

of

* Gen. ix. 20,---27. ↑ Gen. xxii. 1,---19. ‡ Gen, xxviii. 1 ̧---Qä

of him, after the welfare of his father!" Is your father well, the old man of whom ye fpake? Is he “yet alive * ??? What a tender meffage did he send to him by his brethren, entreating him to come down to Egypt, and affuring him that he should be near him, and he would nourish him, left he should come

to poverty!" What refpect did he fhew him by meeting him, in his chariot with his proper attendants, at Gohen and what ardent affection, by falling ou his neck and weeping on it for a confiderable time ‡ ! How did he pride himfelf in the honour of presenting his aged parent to Pharaoh and how happy was he in making him so princely a provifion for the remainder of his days! In short, filial affection, reverence, and obedience stamped his whole conduct to the end of life. When he prefented his children to their grandfather to receive his dying blefling, "he bowed him"felf with his face to the earth f." When he had performed the last tender office of clofing his eyes in death, he fell upon his face, and wept upon him, " and kiffed him ." And the dear remains of his venerable parent he failed not to attend to the land of Canaan, and to depofit them in the fepulchre of his ancestors, with every poffible expreffion of genuine forrow and affectionate respect.

So extraordinary a character as Mofes is not to be paffed over in filence, and the rather as a remarkable circumftance occurs in his story to justify the infe- [ rence, that he was particularly attentive to the duties? we have been recommending. The circumftance I refer to was the refpect he paid to Jethro his fatherin law, when he made him a vifit in the wilderness.

"Mofes

‡ Ch. xlvi. 29;. ()

10, 11.
Ch. I. I.

L5

66

Mofes went out to meet him, and did obeif66 ance, and kiffed him *." Nor did he content himelf with rendering him thefe external expreffions of regard: he listened to the prudent advice which Jethro gave him," and did all that he had faid +.” And thus were the duties of filial obedience, which he fo folemnly enjoined on the Ifraelites, exemplified in his own conduct,

The generous attention, too, of Ruth to her mother Naomi, amidst all that fad reverse of fortune which fhe faffered in a strange land, is not to be enough admired. Naomi was her husband's mother, a widow, childless, and reduced to poverty. In this deftitute ftate the refolves to return to her own country. And it might naturally be expected, confidering what is the manner of the world, that Ruth, having lost her husband, Naomi's fon, fhould have no great objection to the parting with his mother. But fuch is her attachment she will on no account leave her ‡. And how God rewarded her duty and piety the ftory at large relates he married into a wealthy family, became the mother of a numerous offspring, and had the great honour of standing on the lift of thofe from whom the Meffiah defcended.

>>David was as eminent for his magnanimity and geherofity, as for his fincere and fervent piety; and his attention to the fafety and repofe of his venerable parents, during the cruel perfecution he fuffered from the house of Saul, affords a ftriking proof of the one as well as the other.noDrivent as he was by that infatuated prince into the wilderness, he prefented an addrefs on their behalf to the king of Moab, entreating

him

* Exod. xviii. 7. § † † Ver. 24, xx a‡Ruthi. 16, 17.