ponding obligation of knowing his will, of giving just and exact impressions of it to the subjects of their government, and of enforcing obedience. They must themselves bear the burden of all those sins committed by their children and servants, which it was in their power to prevent; and be answerable also for their failure of all that obedience, of all those valuable attainments, and of all that usefulness, which they had the power to secure. They are stewards, and must give account.

2. The design of this constitution may be inferred from its nature, and from the ends which, so far as its laws are observed, it is found to answer. It is intended directly to promote the happiness of those who live under it. We are formed for social intercourse and mutual aid. We have affections and wants which cannot otherwise be met; and in a well-regulated family, that intercourse and aid are afforded more perfectly than anywhere else in the present world. The unity of interest and affection; the mutual confidence and sympathy; the religious communion, and the true liberty, in the very best sense of the word, which belong to to such a family; conspire to make it the dearest refuge and solace of a good man, to be found on this side heaven. And even as it is perverted by sin, who is there, that does not associate with the thoughts of home, his sweetest earthly enjoyments? What arms men for the fight; what sustains them in the shock of battle; what reconciles them to sufferings and dangers, like the defense of their homes? What is the main object of the cares and toils of life; what, of human legislation, and all the machinery of government, but the blessings clustering about every man's home? What, indeed, is the happiness of a state, a nation, a world, but the happiness of the individual homes that belong to it? Accordingly, when God promised to the world the great blessing, which, as comprehending every other, commends his love to us, he promised it, to take effect by this medium: saying to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." It was by blessing its families, that he would bless the world.

But there is a specific and appropriate design in an arrangement so peculiar, the support and education of successive generations, in their dependent years. Man is born helpless; and he is not less dependent for the purposes of his intellectual and moral existence, than for the nurture of his earthly frame. Without knowledge and experience; driven by craving appetites and ungoverned passions; and prone to all sin, if left to himself; short and miserable is his course. At the same time, he has a mind capable of being formed to all that is excellent, happy, and glorious; and he is cast on those to whom he owes his birth, to form the impressions, and to mold the views, the feelings, the aims, the character of that mind. To him, their word is truth, their will is law, their smile

is joy, and their frown is woe. God designed that it should be so; and for this end, formed the domestic state. Hence those mysterious ties of affection. Hence the sway of parental authority and example. Here it is, in fact, so far as the design of God is answered, that successive generations, as they come into being, are cast upon the bosom of love, and encircled with the arms of tenderness; here, that they are nurtured and guarded in their years of helplessness and danger; and here also, growing up under the influence of parental wisdom and experience, of brotherly and sisterly affection and intercourse, of kind discipline and moral restraint, together with those advantages of the school and the sanctuary, which families alone unite to establish and support; that they are formed to whatever amiable sympathies and kind affections,-whatever industry and economy, useful knowledge and practical skill, dutiful submission and social order,-whatever pure religion and immortal hopes, the world enjoys. Blot out families, or break up the constitution which God has ordained for them, and all these blessings are gone.

The children of a family may be considered in the two-fold relation of members of civil society, and subjects of the moral government of God: and to qualify them for happiness and usefulness in both these relations, is the design of the domestic constitution. As members of civil society, they are to take the places of those who have gone before them, in the various connections of social life, with their multiplied duties and offices. To their care, these weighty interests are to be committed, and, by consequence, the interests of unborn generations, as dependent on them to transmit the inheritance of a well-regulated community,-interests which the counsels and labors of ages have been employed to secure, and which millions of treasure and seas of blood have been poured out to attain and preserve. It is evident at a glance, that, as families are the elements of states and nations, they decide their character. Nor is it less so, that in a well-regulated family, the future members of society are prepared to perform, spontaneously, the offices most essential to its welfare. By the habit of dutiful submission to parental authority, they are trained to render the same submission, in all the other departments of life, to superiors. By their mutual attachments and cheerful offices, as brothers and sisters, they are formed to the sympathies, and accustomed to the offices, which bind neighbors and citizens together, as equals. And when there are servants in the family, or if there are none, when "the younger" are taught to "submit themselves to the elder," they are prepared to show the respect and kindness due to men in society, as inferiors. Here is "the world in miniature; or rather, in the bud and blossom of its being."

Here it is, that every connection of future life is presented before us: here every future affection of the heart, and every future form of duty, are called to their earliest efforts; and these, confessedly, are the most important. Here, in their first elementary school, provided by infinite wisdom, are the actors in all the future affairs of life, whether great or small, who will fill the world with blessings, or with mischief, when our heads lie low in the dust.' p. 59.

But these prospective members of civil society, are likewise accountable subjects of God's government. As soon as they are capable of knowing his will; indeed, as soon as they can understand the will, and feel the authority, of a parent, or have the feeblest sense of right and wrong, they begin to act as the accountable heirs of immortality; and as such, "every one that leaves the circle by death, passes into an eternity of torment or bliss." By nature they are sinful, prone to covetousness, envy, pride, self-will, anger, and every hateful passion. Yet, at the same time, they are susceptible of such moral impressions, as may, by divine grace, counteract and overcome those propensities, and form them "after the image of God, in knowledge and true holiness." For this end, they wait on parental influence. The sweet flowers of spring do not more eagerly unfold their leaves, to drink in the evening dew or the morning beams, than these blossoms for immortality open to receive from parental lips, parental looks, parental authority, and in a word, the parental character, that influence, which forms their own. For this purpose, mainly, is the domestic constitution designed. Every other object is subordinate, and, in the comparison, of no account. For this end, the endearments of domestic ties are so wonderfully formed; the unrivalled ascendency of parental influence is given; a system of government is delegated to parents more nearly resembling the moral government of God, than any other on earth and to bring successive generations under its fullest power, they all commence their course in the feebleness, dependence, and susceptibility of the infant state. It is to stay the current of sin, rolling down from age to age, bearing condemnation, death, and eternal ruin, in its course; to bring the fallen children of men under the gracious influences of a mighty Redeemer, that this wonderful economy is designed and made known. "Did he not make one? And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed."

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In this economy, how conspicuous is the kind and all-controlling providence of God! Were there no other evidence of this, the admirable provision for human wants, in the domestic economy, would be sufficient. How, in the denial of this superintendence, shall we account for the fact, that the numbers belonging to the different sexes are equal, or nearly so, and have been thus in all countries and ages?

How explain the origin of those exclusive affections everywhere found, by which two persons of the different sexes become so important to each other's happiness? To what other original cause shall we refer that mysterious bond, which subsists between parents and their children; and without which, the care of sustaining and training the latter would be an insupportable task; show how it comes to pass, that parents love their children so much more than children love their parents; or that children, growing up together, so entwine their affections about each other, that neither time nor distance can sunder them; and by this means, as they leave the paternal roof, to form new families, carry out with them into society the sweet charities of life? In these things, to say nothing of their bearing upon the higher and holier concord of heaven, who may not see the hand of an all-present, ever-working, and infinitely wise and benevolent God? And if, in these things, we may see the hand and loving-kindness of God, how proper it is, that united praises and thanksgivings, the morning incense and the evening homage,-go up before him, from every family under heaven!

3. That the main end of the domestic constitution may be attained, those who preside over its administration must be pious. Inferior ends may, in some desirable measure, be attained, if they are not pious; but how can those exert a religious influence, who are themselves without religion? How can those train up their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," who themselves know not the Lord? In the midst of christian society, they may adopt some of the customary forms of religious instruction; but the heart, like "the ointment of the right hand, bewrayeth itself." All who are conversant with them, perceive, that religion is not the main thing in their estimation; and therefore it will not, by their influence, be so regarded in their families. That religion may pervade the domestic circle, "the heart of the fathers must be turned" first to God, and then "to the children." The malady is in the heart, the heart of the fathers, and consequently in the heart of the family,—and there must the remedy be applied.

It is essentially important, that not one only, but both of those who are at the head of a family, possess, and preserve in constant vigor and activity, the spirit of piety. This should be understood and felt, as it is not by christians in general, in the formation of the marriage connection. God has said, "they two shall be one." That there must be a congeniality of temper and disposition; and some similarity in age and condition, all the world acknowledge. Can it be less important, that they be one on the subject of religion,-in comparison with which, all things beside are insignificant,-which should be the main business of life,--for which the VOL. VII. 25

conjugal relation in particular was principally designed? Common prudence would forbid us lightly to incur the hazard of a division here, in respect to the happiness of the present life. But in prospect of the life which is to come, who needs not the aid of companionship in the way? who can safely be exposed to the embarrassments, and the seductive influences, of the nearest earthly intimacy with one estranged from God? Or, with hearts divided here, how can it be expected, that they will unite their plans and labors, in a regular and exemplary support and observance of the ordinances of grace; in a steady, consistent, and efficient prosecution of the work of a religious education; in ordering their household in general, so that it shall be a dwelling-place for Him, "who loveth" not only "the gates of Zion," but also "the tents of Jacob." Were families merely secular societies, for secular ends, the consideration of religion, in their formation, might be unheeded. The parties might then agree to leave each other, on this subject, to his own choice, and cordially unite in prosecuting the objects of the relation. But they are not so; and the higher end of the domestic relation ought ever to be kept in view. Nothing, probably, has so much contributed to form a low view of the connection among professed christians, and thus to exclude from their regard the end for which God ordained it, as their light estimation of the apostle's restriction in its formation. In disregarding the restriction, they have first reduced the standard of family religion, in conformity to this world, and then have presumed on the practicability of duly conducting their families in affinity with the sons and daughters of the world. Nor do we see how there can be a radical reform in the families of the church, until her members shall practically acknowledge religion to be, as it really is, in the social relations, as well as the individual concerns, of life, "the one thing needful." Then will the restriction, "only in the Lord," be considered not bondage, but liberty.

4. Parents are solemnly bound to keep in view the main end of this constitution, as the object of all their labors, in the education of their children. We have anticipated this remark; but its importance entitles it to a distinct consideration. The late Dr. Scott, being inquired of, as to the regulation of his family, replied, with his characteristic humility, "There are few things which are looked back upon by me with less satisfaction, than my conduct towards my children, except in one particular, which appears to have been the grand secret, viz: that I have always sought first for them, as well as for myself, the kingdom of God and his righteousness." The propriety of such a view of the subject, is forcibly illustrated in the following remarks of Richard Watson, extracted by Mr. Anderson :

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