truth (and Revelation does not forbid it)
in the delightful hope that they who have
already finished their course, and are now
receiving their reward, look down with
kindnefs and attention on us who are strug-
gling with fin, forrow, and infirmity; if
this, I fay, may be the cafe, how shall the
ardent prayers of the beatified parents af-
cend to the throne of Heaven, in behalf

of you, who have sheltered these poor
orphans, "fcattered in the wide world as
"budding branches, rent from the native
"tree," and (but for your munificence)
"thrown forth till they are withered * !"
-May fuch prayers be accepted, as a
fragrant odour, by the Almighty Parent
of the Universe, the Source of Infinite
Goodness; and may they defcend upon
each of you, fraught with a bleffing!
And in the awful day, when "the

* Spencer.

"trumpet

SERMON
VI.

trumpet fhall found, and the dead "fhall be raised," God of his infinite

mercy grant, that the fentence of final bleffedness may be paffed on these little ones, and on you, their benefactors and patrons !

SERMON VII.

ON THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN.

St. LUKE, chap. ii. verse 51.

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was fubject unto them.

AT this feafon of the year, when families are affembled together, perhaps there is no fubject on which I can more usefully employ your meditations, than on the great relative duty of children towards their parents. In recommending fo weighty an obligation to you, I have thought it expedient to engage your attention by the high example of our bleffed Lord; who,

in

SERMON

VII.

in the days of his incarnation, thought it neceffary to be fubject to his human parents till the moment of his public ministry for the falvation of loft finners. He has thereby given an illuftrious example of filial duty to all mankind: an example fo high as to have all the obligation of a command.

All the relative duties of men are neceffary to the dignity and the comfort of of society: they are parts of morality and virtue, because they intend good and happiness by the pureft means: they are parts of piety, because they are precepts both of the Law and the Gofpel; in both which they are thought to be of fuch confequence, that these offices are not only in general commanded, but even particular rules are given for the exercise of them. The duty of children to parents St. Paul calls in a more particular manner

piety;

piety;

"let them learn (fays he) firft to "fhew piety at home, and to requite

"their parents *.'
parents *.". And the Apostle has
certainly good reason for impreffing this
duty with the mark of peculiar fanctity.
The Almighty hath himself inftituted an
analogy between the relationship of chil-
dren towards their parents, and of man-
kind towards himself. Our duty to him,
and our duty to the human authors of our
being, are founded upon reafons very fimi-
lar; though in their degree they can never
be brought into any kind of comparison.
God is the firft caufe; and our parents
are under him the fecond. God has a
natural authority over us: as being the
original Author of our being; as preferv-
ing our infancy, informing our youth, and
providing for our manhood. Our parents

SERMON
VII.