5. When a parent doth any thing which is sordid and unworthy, that which casts disgrace upon himself and his family — as to cozen or take a false oath — this is to pro- voke the child to wrath. As the child should honour his father, so the father should not dishonour the child.
6. When parents lay such commands upon their children, as their children cannot per- form without wronging their conscience. Saul commanded his son Jonathan to bring David to him, I Sam. xx. 31., " Fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die." Jonathan could not do this with a good conscience ; but was provoked to anger, v. 34., " Jona- 'tlran rose from the table in fierce anger." Now, the rojuson why parents should show their prudence in not provoking their chil- dren to wrath is set down. Col. iii. 21., " Lest they be discouraged." This word <//.«coMrcr^«/ implies three things : (1.) Grief. The parents' provoking the child, the child so takes it to heart, that it causeth imma- ture death. (2.) Despondency : the pa- rents' austerity dispirits the child, and makes it unfit for service ; like members of the body stupified, which are unfit for work.
(3.) Contumacy and refractoriness: the child being provoked by the cruel and unnatural carriage of the parent, grows desperate, and oft studies to irritate and vex his parents, which, though it be evil in the child, yet the parent is accessary to it, as being the occasion of it.
7. If you would have honour from your children, pray much for them. Not only lay up a portion for them, but lay up a stock of prayer for them. Monica prayed much for her son Austin ; and it was said, it was impossible a son of so many prayers and tears should perish. Pray that your chil- dren may be preserved from the contagion of the times; pray that as your children bear yonr images in their faces, they may bear God's image in their hearts ; pray they may be instruments and vessels of glory. This may be one fruit of prayer, that the child may honour a praying parent.
8. Encourage that whicli you see good and commendable in your children. Virtus laudata crescit. Commending that which is good in your children, makes them more in love with virtuous actions ; and is like the watering of plants, which makes them grow more. Some parents discourage the good they see in their children, and so nip vir- tue in the bud, and he^p to damn their chil- dren's souls. They have their children's curses.
9. If you would have honour from your children, set them a good example ; it makes children des})ise the ])arents, when the pa- rents live in a contradiction to their own precepts ; when they bid their children be sober, yet they themselves ^^'ill be drunk ; they bid their children fear God, yet are themselves loose in their lives. Oh ! if you would have your children honour you, teach them by an holy example. A father is a looking-ghiss, whicli the child oft dresseth himself by ; let the glass be clear, and not spotted. Parents should observe a good deco- rum in their whole carriage, lesi they give occasion to their children to say to them, as Plato's servant, " My master hath made a book against rash anger, but he himself is passionate ;" or, as a son once said to his father, " If I have done evil, I have learned it of you."
OF THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.
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OF THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.
ExoD. XX. 13. Thou shall not kill.
IN this commandment, ^st. Is a sin for- bidden, viz. murder, " Thou shalt not kill." 2d. A duty implied, " To preserve our own life, and the life of others."
I. The sin forbidden, murder: ' Thou shalt not kill.' VYliere two things are to be understood, 1*^. The not injuring another. 2d. Ourselves.
\st. In this, " Thou shalt not kill," is meant the not injuring another. 1. We must not injure him in his name. 2. In his body. 3. In his soul.
1. We must not injure another in his name. " A good name is a precious bal- sam ;" it is a gi'eat cruelty to murder a man in his name. We injui*e others in their name when we calumniate and slander them. 'Twas David's complaint, Ps. xxxv. 11., " They laid to my charge things that I knew not." The primitive Christians were traduced for incest, and killing their children, as Tertullian, Dicimur infanticidii, incestus rei. This is to behead others in their good name ; this is an irreparable in- jury ; no physician can heal the wounds of the tongue.