tial judgments; sooths them with profound veneration; repays to them all that fine care, which has averted the perils of infant life, and brought out an human being to the perfection of his reason, and the summit of his strength.

In handling this branch of christian doctrine, I shall endeavour, first, to shew what are the ordinary obstacles to a right perfor-. mance of this duty; secondly, to point out in what the duty principally consists.

To the repayment of those obligations which we owe to our parents, there is one very considerable, and very singular obstacle; the immensity of those obligations themselves. We have lived in such a constant state of protection from our parents, in the uniform reception of so much kindness, that their benevolence wants the effect of contrast to produce its just impression upon our minds; the benefits we experience from our neighbours awaken our attention, be-i cause they are actions superior to the ordinary tenor of their benevolence; but we do not notice the kindness of a parent, because

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he has been always kind; we are less sensible to his bounties, because we have never experienced any interruption of them for a single instant; they are like health, and strength, and youth; where custom blunts the edge of enjoyment, and the magnitude of the possession is only discovered by the misery of the loss. It is also a little in the genius of human nature, to think obligations burthensome, and to become careless of remuneration, when they are so great, that it is very difficult to discharge those obligations effectually, and to make that remuneration complete; thus, while smaller instances of friendship are repaid, with precision, and with pride, the greatest of all benefactors are sometimes treated with ingratitude from the very extent, and compass of their goodness.

Another circumstance, which blunts the sense of filial obligation is, that the kindness of parents, one of the most common of all virtues, appears so natural from every human being towards his offspring, that though it would be shocking to want it, it is considered as not meritorious to possess it. But observe, why this virtue

of parental kindness is common, because it is also common to receive a return for it in filial obedience; nature has laid the foundation; the expectation of reaping the sweets of parental kindness, justified by the feeling of all men, in all ages, has done much more. To deny the obligations which you owe to parents, because it is common in all parents to do good to their children, is to withhold the reward which principally makes that kindness so common; and to frustrate, as much as in you lies, this great commandment of Almighty God. consider to what the kindness of parents would soon be reduced, if it were generally claimed as a matter of right; and how soon, under the influence of compulsion, the most expanded benevolence would contract itself into the narrowest, and most inconsiderable limits.

For,

But the affection of parents, it may be urged, is a feeling of nature; therefore they have no merit in obeying it; but is not every act of Christian righteousness founded on some feeling of our nature ? İs compassion no virtue? Is courage, rightly

exercised, no virtue? Is gratitude no virtue? Is the fear of offending no virtue? All these qualities are provided for by nature,-all these qualities men call virtues,-all these qualities Christ taught, practised, and possessed; to deny merit to actions, because we are prompted to them by nature, is to put an end, at once, to all human virtues, because there is not a single one to which we are not carried by some original principle, of our nature. It must be observed, too, that, on every occasion, we are impelled by the constitution of our minds to two opposite system of actions; and that merit and duty consist in selecting the right propensity: Fear prompts us to fly, shame to remain, gratitude to remunerate, avarice to withhold, parental affection to cherish, selfishness to neglect. That man is righteous who, in the conflict of passions, subdues those feelings which God has given us to be subdued; and obeys those feelings which he has given us to be obeyed...

The sense of those obligations we owe to our parents, is frequently impaired by the lapse of time since those obligations have

been incurred; the season of infancy is past away like a dream; the langerous impetuosity of youth is subsided; we feel strong and wise, and forget the days of weakness, and the nursing father, and the nursing mother, of the times that are gone;

we remember these things no more; but they live in the memory of 'the' old, and it seemeth hard to them that they should no more be had in remembrance. on 951

These are some of the principal reasons which impede us in this duty of honoring our parents. Let us now see how this duty itself is to be performed.

There are few men, in the present stateTM of society, (softened as the human heart is by the gospel of Christ) who, on great, and glaring occasions, would be deficient in duty to their parents; who would suffer them to perish by want; or would refuse to rescue them from aggression. Such sort of occasions very rarely occur; and, therefore, he who comforts himself, that he would, in the cause of his parents, display this species of alacrity, should remember,