to promote, not to waste and scatter their substance : to assist, not to defraud them. Whoso robbeth his father or mother, and saith, it is no transgression, the same is a companion of a destroyer, Prov. xxviii. 24. This, saith one, as far excels your wronging another, as parricide is a greater crime than man-slaugher, or as Reuben's incest was beyond common fornication. God never meant you should grow up about your parents, as suckers about a tree, to impoverish the root *. But for a child, out of covetousness after what his parents have, secretly to wish their death, is a sin so mon- strous, as should not be once named, much less found among per- sons professing Christianity. To desire their death, from whom you had your life, is unnatural wickedness: to dispose of their goods, much more of yourselves, without their consent, is (ordinarily) the greatest injustice to them. Children are obliged to defend the estate and persoas of their parents, with the hazard of their own. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemy in the gates. Psal. cxxvii. 5.
Sixthly, x\nd more especially, requital of all that love, care, and pains they have been at for you, is your duty so far as God enables you, and those things are requitable, 1 Tim. v. 4. " Let thera " learn to shew piety at home, and requite their parents.1' The word is avrirtzXapysiv, and signifies to play the stork, to imitate that creature of whom it is said, that the young do tenderly feed the old ones, when they are no longer able to fly abroad and provide for themselves. Hence those that want bowels of natural affection to their relations, are said to be asooyoi, Rom. i. 30. worse than storks. Oil, it is a shame that birds and beasts should shew more tenderness to their dams, than children to their parents.
It is a saying frequent among the Jews -f-, " A child should rather " labour at the mill than suffer his parents to want +." And to the same sense is that other saying, " Your parents must be sup- " plied by you if you have it ; if not, you ought to beg for them, " rather than see them perish/' It was both the comfort and honour of Joseph, that God made him an instrument of so much succour and comfort to his aged father and distressed family, Gen. xlvii. 13. And you are also to know, that what you do for them, is not in the way of an alms, or common charity. For the apostle saith, it is but your requiting them, and that is justice, not charity. And it can never be a full requital. Indeed the apostle tells us,
* Filius ante diem pairios inquirit in annos. Ovid. Metam. lib. 1
The son impatient enquires into his father's years, f Vel in pbstrino luborare ft Hum debere, ut parentibus subveniat. $ Honor audi pure ntcs si babes ; si non habes. potius vinidicandum.
388 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SEltM. XXXI.
2 Cor. xii. 14. That parents lay up for their children, and not children for their parents, and so they ought ; but, sure, if pro- vidence blast them, and bless you, an honourable maintenance is their due. Even Christ himself took care for his mother.
Secondly, You have had a brief account of the duties of this rela- tion ; next, let us consider how Christ's example, who was so sub- ject to them in his life, Luke ii. 51. and so careful to provide at his death, enforces all those duties upon children, especially upon gracious children. And this it doth two ways, both as it hath the obliging power of a law; and as he himself will one day sit in judgment to take an account how we have imitated him in these things.
First, Christ's example in this hath the force and power of a law, yea, a law of love, or a law lovingly constraining you to an imita- tion of him. If Christ himself will be your pattern, if God will be pleased to take relations like yours, and go before you in the discharge of relative duties ; Oh, how much are you obliged to imitate him, and tread in all his footsteps ! This was by him intended as a precedent, or pattern, to facilitate and direct your duties.
Secondly, He will come to take an account how you have answer- ed the pattern of obedience, and tender care he set before you in the days of his flesh. What will the disobedient plead in that day ? He that heard the groans of an afflicted father or mother, will now come to reckon with the disobedient child for them; and, the glorious example of Christ's own obedience to, and tenderness of his relations, will, in that day, condemn and aggravate, silence and shame such wretched children as shall stand guilty before his bar.
Inference 1. Hath Jesus Christ given such a famous pattern of obedience and tenderness to parents ? Then there can be nothing of' Christ in stubborn, rebellious, and careless children, that regard not the good or comfort of their parents. The children of disobedience cannot be the children of God. If providence directs this to the hands of any that are so, my heart's desire and prayer for them is, that the Lord would search their souls by it, and discover their evils to them, whilst they shall read the following queries.
First Query, Have you not been guilty of slighting your parents by irreverent words or carriages ; the old man or woman ? To snch I commend the consideration of that scripture, Prov. xxx. 17. which, methinks, should be to them as the hand-writing that ap- peared upon the plaister of the wall to Belshazzar. " The eye " that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, " the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles u shall eat it." That is, they shall be brought to an untimely
SEIIM. XXXI. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 389
end, and the birds of the air shall eat that eye, that had never seen but for that parent that was despised by it.
It may be you are vigorous and young, they decayed and wrink- led with age : but, saith the Holy Ghost, " Despise not thy mo- m ther when she is old," Prov. xxiii. 22. Or when she is wrink- led, as the Hebrew signifies. It may be you are rich, they poor ; own, and honour them in their poverty, and despise them not. God will requite it with his hand if you do.
Second Query, Have you not been disobedient to the commands of parents ? a son of Belial is a son of wrath, if God give not re- pentance to life. Is not this the black brand set upon the Hea- thens, Rom. i. 30. Have not many repented this upon a ladder, with a halter about their necks ? Wo to him that makes a father or mother complain, as the tree in the fable, that they are cleft asunder with the wedges that are cut out of their own bodies.