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SERMON X,

ON FILIAL DUTY,

EXODUS XX. 12; Or,

The fifth COMMANDMENT.

Honour thy Father and thy Mother; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

WHOEVER confiders that these are the

words of God, and recollects the awful manner in which they were delivered: whoever reflects upon that " morning" which was ushered in with "Thunders and Lightnings," and other demonftrations of tremendous power; when power; when "Mount Sinai quaked greatly," and all the people that were in the Camp trembled:"-whoever, I fay, reflects upon thefe circumstances of grandeur

grandeur and fublimity, which preceded the Promulgation of the Commandments, must regard them with the profoundest Reverence,-must be impreffed with an awful idea of their Authority, and be led to confider them as Precepts of unfpeakable Importance-delivered from Heaven.

From Heaven, indeed, they came,—and from the immediate mouth of God. They are of Divine Origin, and form the noblest Compendium of human duty. Would we direct our Conduct by them ;-would we compare our Lives and Actions with these infallible rules, we fhould never deviate from the path of Rectitude, without being made fenfible of our error.

When we repeat them, or hear them repeated, it is not enough that we pray after each of them, that God will “incline our hearts to keep this Law ;"-we must also use our own Endeavours to keep it: and earnestly intreat him that he will write them deeply upon the tablet of our hearts,

They are all of them, fave one, directed against fome evil propensity in our nature; and this one (fo diftinguishable from the reft) requires (one would think) what na

ture

ture would induce us to perform, without à precept. But melancholy experience convinces that this is not the cafe. The first great Law of Nature and of Gratitude is fometimes-(I fear too often) cruelly transgreffed, and disregarded! The bonds of affection are rudely torn afunder; and the cries of Nature are occafioned by thofe very perfons who should administer Comfort, and contribute to Felicity!

For these reasons we find a Command of God, which to uncorrupted Nature would doubtless be unneceffary: a Command, which enjoins us to love and honour those who gave us being.

-Do you, my young Friends! require it? Do thofe among you, who are still bleffed with Parents, need an awful Injunction to make you love them?——Were I to judge from the feelings of my own heart (which ftill treasures the Remembrance of two departed ever-honoured Parents) you do not. I cannot fuppofe you fo devoid of filial Piety, or natural Affection.

But, as prevention is better than cure ;as it is a more pleafing circumftance to preferve you dutiful, than it would be to reprove

you,

you, were you not so,-I request your serious attention to an Addrefs upon that fubject which the text fo plainly fuggests to us." Honour thy Father and thy Mother: that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

These words naturally form two divifions. They point out the Persons we are to honour our Father and Mother,-and the Confequence or Reward of our discharging this duty, a happy prolongation of our Existence in the land which the Lord our God giveth us. This laft Circumstance, however, may not be the cafe ;-may not be the Confequence of a faithful discharge of the duty. Yet it certainly has a tendency to prolong our days; because it implies many other duties and virtues, which directly lead to Health, to Comfort, and Longevity.

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But, my young Friends, if filial duty be not a mean of your living long," it will, most affuredly, be a mean of your living happily.Whatever Sacrifices you

make to

please your Parents (confiftent with Virtue and Reafon) whatever Connexion you forbear to form, where the Perfon is unwor

thy,

thy, unprincipled, and bafe,-whatever guilty indulgences you abftain from, or improper affociates you abandon, in compliance with their Wishes and Commands,your conduct will certainly contribute to your Welfare and Happiness; will afford you abundant Cause to rejoice in your Obedience, and thereby, not improbably, prolong your days.

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of

Such a Conduct, I know, is promised to be rewarded with long life in the text, on account of the following law in the Jewish ritual, which will convince you how hateful the Crime of Difobedience is, in the eye the Almighty. Thus fays the infpired Legiflator : If a man have a stubborn and rebellious Son, which will not obey the voice of his Father, or the voice of his Mother: then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place. And they fhall fay unto the elders of the city," This our Son is ftubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice." And all the men of the city fhall ftone him with stones that he die."*

* Deut. xxi.

Here,

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