III. The performance of duties towards men, in- stead of extenuating, as many suppose, the guilt of neglecting God, is in reality a great aggravation of it.
I. There is no duty of earthly dependents towards their superiors, which does not exist in an infi- nitely higher degree towards the Governor of the universe.
Reason, no less than Revelation, teaches us that a child owes subjection to his parent, and a servant to his master : nor is there any one so depraved as to controvert this general position, however indisposed he may be to act conformably to it in his own parti- cular situation. What the laws of nature inculcate in the one case, is established by a particular compact in the other : and an habitual infringement of it is considered as a subversion of social order, and an inlet to universal anarchy. Still however there are limits, beyond which no human authority extends : and, when these are exceeded, resistance, rather than obe- dience, is our duty. But God's claim to honour and obedience knows no bounds. He is, in some sense, the Father of our bodies, which could not exist with- out his creating hand : but in a more eminent manner is he " the Father of our spirits ;" because he forms them without the intervention of human agency, and endues them with powers which matter could not generate. Being the Creator of all, he is also, of necessity, the Lord of all ; to whom every faculty and every power should be consecrated. The honour which we pay to parents is but a faint shadow of that reverence with which we are to approach him, and of that profound respect, which we are to entertain for his person and character, his word and will. The obedience which we yield to earthly superiors, relates chiefly to outward acts : but God has a right to con- troul our inmost thoughts. We are to believe every thing he says, because he says it ; to love every thing he does, because he does it ; and to execute every thing he enjoins, because he commands it. We not only may, but must, inquire into the injunctions of