spiritual and temporal welfare ;-in rendering them such assistance, support, and consolation, as they may need in adversity, sickness, or old age, in requital for the care and pains they have bestowed on their children's early years. A proportionable respect is due to elder relatives, to guardians, and instructors,-to all who have in any degree contributed to the welfare and education of those, who in infancy and youth were incapable of self-guidance or self-improvement.

The duty of servants towards their masters is to respect and obey them;-to serve them faithfully, consulting their interests and honour as if they were their own ;-to behave towards them with civility and attention ;-to act in their absence, as if in their presence; to submit to their opinions, and bear with their temper;-to speak of them in becoming language, not magnifying their failings, or misrepresenting their words and actions ;-to be grateful for favours and protection ;—and anxious to repay them by diligence and honesty in their concerns.

The duty of subjects, or members of a commonwealth, is to yield honour and submission to the chief ruler and magistrates, whether it be to the king as supreme, or to them that are put in authority under him, to all whom the laws and constitution of the state invest with dignity and power;-to pray especially for them;-to pay cheerfully and strictly whatever tributes are legally imposed for the purposes of government and public use.

The duty of the people towards their ministers and ecclesiastical superiors, is to receive and listen to them as the messengers of the Gospel, authorized by Christ their master to declare the terms of salvation

all, high and low, rich and poor ;-to regard them

with benevolence for the sake of their holy office ;to seek their advice and instruction, and to attend to their admonition in all spiritual matters;-to beseech the Divine blessing on their labours ;-to make such competent provision for them, as that they who minister at the altar should be enabled to live by the altar; or, at least, to set apart, willingly and without contention or deceit, such portion, as the Law of God formerly assigned to his servants, and the law of the land awards in the present day;-to observe and submit to the Constitutions and Canons of the established Church.

$5. The duties to which superiors are reciprocally obliged are no less imperative than those of inferiors, for they are to be deduced by fair interpretation from the Commandment: and omission or transgression on the part of an inferior does not acquit the superior of his positive obligations, though it may, perhaps, loosen the ties of kindred or connexion, and diminish the right which is founded on the fulfilment of mutual engagements ;-as a child, by ill conduct may justly forfeit his inheritance, and a malefactor be deprived of the protection of the laws.

The duty, then, of parents is, in the first place, to ensure, so far as they are able, the spiritual welfare of their offspring, by taking them to the baptismal font, to obtain admission for them, as soon as possible, into the Christian Church, and by bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,by giving them good instruction in the faith, and setting them a good example in the righteousness of the Gospel,―by carefully teaching them to avoid what

ever may lead them into evil, and to follow whatever tends to good;-to treat them with good temper, forbearance, sedulous attention to their dispositions and their talents ;-to provide for their temporal prosperity, by giving them whatever is conducive to their advantage, according to ability, and an education adapted to their station in life, together with such habits of industry and sobriety as may, by God's blessing, promote their reasonable interests, and make them valuable members of society ;-to afford them in after life the benefit of experience, help, and counsel.

The duty of masters towards their servants is to behave to them with kindness and liberality ;-to take care that they enjoy proper opportunities of improving in religious knowledge, and of performing re. ligious duties;-to watch over their moral conduct, and to preserve them, as much as possible, from the danger of temptation and bad company ;-to impose no more upon them than they can undertake without injury to their health;-to pay them their wages regularly, and to encourage their fidelity and diligence by liberal remuneration.

The duty of princes and of civil magistrates, the ministers for good, deriving their authority from God himself, and ordained of God, is to be zealous for the dissemination and establishment of sound religion, as the only firm foundation for political security and glory;-to encourage all institutions calculated to improve the state of society, and assist the people in praiseworthy pursuits, by example and beneficial regulations ;-to exercise vigilance, justice, and impartiality, in the discharge of judicial functions,-disinterestedness, integrity, and discretion, in

guiding the affairs of state,-and firmness and discrimination in encouraging merit and discouraging vice, without respect of persons, of influence, or of rank.

The duty of Christian ministers is to be instant in season and out of season, in watching for the spiritual welfare of those who are entrusted to their care; -to preach the sound doctrine of the Gospel in faithfulness, boldness, meekness, and charity;-to instruct the young, visit the sick, comfort the afflicted, advise the perplexed, reason with the erring, encourage the faint-hearted, confute the unbeliever and schismatic, reside among their people, exercise charity with discrimination, and hospitality without extravagance ;-to condescend to the poor;-to discountenance the hardened and irregular ;-to be patterns of sober and religious living-carefully avoiding every thing, which, though really lawful, may give offence to weaker brethren.

§ 6. The sins of commission and omission against which this Commandment is evidently directed, are those of each of the classes above referred to, which prevent or impede the performance of their respective obligations. Such are-in children, disobedience, ingratitude,-want of affection, of reverence, and of readiness to afford aid and consolation to their parents: in parents, neglect of their children's instruction in religious and other learning;-inattention to their health, comfort, and disposition ;-hastiness of temper, undue severity, and injustice in the treatment of them ;-excessive indulgence in dress or frivolous. amusements ;-capricious preference of one to another;-greater regard to outward appearance, than,

to the inward qualities of the heart and mind: in servants, eye-service, or hypocrisy, disobedience, unfaithfulness, waste, dishonesty, idleness, ingratitude, insolence, and impatience of reproof: in masters, negligence with respect to the characters of servants, the not furnishing them with the opportunity of serving God in public, and the omission of family worship;-harshness of speech, or unkind manner towards them;-speaking or acting improperly or unadvisedly in their presence ;-depriving them of their hire; and being careless of their comfort: in subjects, the offences against their governors to be avoided, are principally disloyalty, sedition, disaffection towards the constituted authorities ;-refusal to pay taxes, or fraud in evading them in rulers and magistrates, despotism, cruelty, injustice;-pride, selfishness, sensuality;-the throwing of the weight of their favour and example into the scale of vice, and not into that of virtue in all professors of religion, contempt of the persons of their pastors, and disregard of their sacred office ;-rejection of their advice, and offence at their plain declarations of the word of Holy Writ ;-uncharitableness in judging of their actions, and regard rather to their talents, than to their piety and faithful discharge of their important trust: in ministers, the being time-serving, more anxious for the applause of men than for the approbation of God; the setting of an example to their flock of covetousness, frivolity, ambition, worldly-mindedness, instead of contentment, humility, sedateness, and devotion ;-the careless performance of religious offices, whether in public worship, or in private attendance on those who wish for, or have need of spiritual assistance.