A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

In the precept we are 1. To consider the Object, Father and Mother: 2. The Duty, honour. 1. Again, concerning the first, it is to be considered that this Command in its scope respecteth ⟨p. 313⟩the duty that we owe to all Relations, whether they be above us, inferior to us, or equal with us: This is clear from Christs summing all the second Table, and consequently this command with the rest, in that comprehensive general. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self; and therefore our Neighbour in general must be the object of this Command, as well as of the rest, and so it taketh in all the duties of honour that every one oweth to another, whatever be their place; there is a duty of honour and respect called for from every one to every one: And so Eph. 5.22. it is pressed upon Wives toward their Husbands; and 1 Pet. 3.7. upon Husbands towards their Wives, which must be comprehended here: Thus Father and Mother are here to be largely and synecdo •h scaly understood, one sort of Relations being in a figurative manner put for all the rest. 2. Under them are comprehended all Superiors for place, in Church or Common-wealth, who in Scripture get the Title of Fathers, as Magistrates, Supreme and Subaltern, Ministers and all Church-Officers, Teachers, Overseers, and all in the place of Fathers, 1 Cor. 4.15. yea, they who are to be esteemed, as such for gifts of Learning, Wisdom, Grace and Piety, Acts 7.2. or for their worldly means and outward estate, as Joseph was, Gen. 45.8. or for their age, and the reverence due to them on that account, 2 Kings 2.12. in a word, any sort of em •nencie putteth one in that roll of Fathers largely taken, though they be not properly such. 3. We are called in the first place to look to the duties of this relation, as it is domestic, such as of a Master over the Servant, of a Husband over the Wife, &c. and then cometh the carriage of one toward another in general, and though most properly the duties of Parents, mediate or immediate, over their Children or Nephews, be here pointed at, which is most literal, yet the former also is included, all particulars of that kind being by a figure comprehended under one.