nothing, or sparingly, or with a grudging mind. Prov. xxiii. 4.-8. "eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats." Secondly, prodigality. Prov. xxi. 20. "there is treasure to be desired, and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up." Beneficence, whether private or public, when exercised on an extraordinary scale, is called MAGNIFICENCE. This is exemplified in David, 1 Chron. xxix. 2. "I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God, the gold for things to be made of gold. ... moreover because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of my own proper good," &c. and in the Jews who returned from captivity, Ezra ii. 68, 69. some offered freely for the house of God to set it up in its place; they gave after their ability unto the treasure of the work." Corresponding with beneficence is GRATITUDE, which is shewn in the requital, or, where this is impossible, in the thankful sense of a kindness. 2 Sam. ix. i. "David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" xix. 34, &c. "the king said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me-." 1 Kings ii. 7. "shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite." Opposed to this is ingratitude. Prov. xvii. 13. "whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house." Eccles. ix. 15. "he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man." CHAP. XV.-OF THE RECIPROCAL DUTIES OF MAN TOWARDS HIS NEIGHBOUR AND SPECIALLY OF PRIVATE DUTIES. THUS far we have treated of the virtues or special duties which man owes to his neighbour simply as such; we are next to consider those which originate in circumstances of particular relationship. These duties are either private or public. The private duties are partly domestic, and partly such as are exercised towards those not of our own house. Gen. xviii. 19. "I know him, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah." 1 Tim. v. 8. "if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Under domestic duties are comprehended the reciprocal obligations of husband and wife, parent and child, brethren and kinsmen, master and servant. THE DUTIES OF HUSBAND AND WIFE are mutual or personal. Mutual duties. 1 Cor. vii. 3. "let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband." The personal duties appertaining to either party respectively are, first, those of the husband. Exod. xxi. 10, 11. "her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish; and if he do not these three unto her," &c. Prov. v. 18, 19. "rejoice with the wife of thy youth." Esther i. 22. "every man should bear rule in his own house." 1 Cor. xi. 3. "I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man." Eph. v. 25. "husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church." Col. iii. 19. "husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them." 1 Pet. iii. 7. "likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel." The contrary is reproved Mal. ii. 13, 14, &c. "Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously-." Prov. v. 20, 21. "why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman?" 66 Personal duties of the wife. Prov. xiv. 1. “ every wise woman buildeth her house." xix. 14. "a prudent wife is from Jehovah." xxxi. 11, &c. "the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her." 1 Cor. xi. 3, &c. "the woman is the glory of the man; for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man." Eph. v. 22-24. wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Saviour of the body; therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." Col. iii. 18. "wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord." Tit. ii. 4, 5. "that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." 1 Pet. iii. 1, &c. "likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands," &c. The same is implied in the original formation of the woman: Gen. ii. 22. "the rib which Jehovah had taken from man, made he a woman ;" it cannot therefore be fitting that a single member, and that not one of the most important, should be independent of the whole body, and even of the head. Finally, such is the express declaration of God: Gen. iii. 16. "he shall rule over thee."9 Offences against these duties. Exod. iv. 25. " a bloody husband art thou to me.' Job ii. 9. "then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity?" &c. 2 Sam. vi. 20. "Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said," &c. Prov. ix. 13. "a foolish woman is clamorous." vii. 11. "her feet abide not in her house." xiv. 1. "the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." xix. 13. "the 9 My author and disposer, what thou bidd'st Paradise Lost, IV. 635. Was she thy God, that her thou didst obey Thou didst resign thy manhood, and the place To thy husband's will Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule. X. 145. Ibid. 195. -that See also Tetrachordon: But St. Paul ends the controversyindelible character of priority which God crowned him with.' Prose Works, II. 324, 325. See Book I. p. 29. 1Nevertheless, as I find that Grotius on this place hath observed, the Christian emperors, Theodosius the second and Justinian, men of high wisdom and reputed piety, decreed it to be a divorcive fornication, if the wife attempted either against the knowledge, or obstinately against the will of her husband, such things as gave open suspicion of adulterizing, as the wilful haunting of feasts, and invitations with men not of her near kindred, the lying forth of her house without probable cause, the frequenting of theatres against her husband's mind,' &c. Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, III. 256. See also v. 19. contentions of a wife are a continual dropping." xxvii. 15. xxi. 9. "it is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.” "it is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman." See also xxv. 24. Eccles. vii. 26. “I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her." Above all, adultery: Deut. xxii. 14, 20. "I took this woman, and when I came unto her, I found her not a maid....if this thing be true," &c. THE DUTIES OF PARENTS are inculcated Deut. iv. 9. "teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." vi. 6, 7. "these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." Prov. xiii. 24. "he that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Prov. xix. 18. "chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." xxii. 6. "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." v. 15. "foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." xxiii. 13, 14. "withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die: thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell." xxix. 15, 17. "the rod and reproof give wisdom." Lam. iii. 27, 28. "it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Deut. xxi. 18-20. "if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them." Eph. vi. 4. "ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Coloss. iii. 21. "fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.' The opposites are, first, unbounded indulgence; as that of Eli the priest, 1 Sam. ii. and of David towards his sons Absalom and Adonijah, 1 Kings i. 6. "whom his father had not displeased at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?" Gen. xxv. 28. "Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison." Secondly, excessive severity.2 1 Sam. xiv. 44. " thou shalt surely die, Jonathan." XX. THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN are prescribed Gen. ix. 23. "Shem and Japheth took a garmentxxiv. 15, &c. 'with her pitcher upon her shoulder-." xxix. 9. "Rachel came with her father's sheep." Exod. ii. 16. they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock." xviii. 7. "Moses went out to meet his father-in-law." 12. "honour thy father and thy mother." Lev. xix. 3. “ye 2 Milton has been accused of treating his children with severity, but the charge seems to have been unfounded. From one instance of his alleged harshness his character has been vindicated by Mrs. Hannah More, in her Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education. It seems indeed that there are good grounds for believing that Milton himself had reason to complain of the misconduct and inattention of his daughters. His nuncupative will contains the following passage:- The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having received no parte of it: but my meaning is, they shall have no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and what I have besides done for them, they having been very undutifull to me.' Milton's Poetical Works; Hawkins's Edition, p. cxv. Christopher Milton, the testator's brother, proves as follows in his examination respecting the validity of this will in the Prerogative Court. The said deceased was then ill of the goute, and what he then spoke touching his will was in a very calme manner; only [he] complained, but without passion, that his children had been unkind to him.'........ 'He knoweth not how the parties ministring these interrogatories frequent the church, or in what manner of behaviour of life and conversacion they are of, they living apart from their father four or five yeares last past; and as touching his the deceased's displeasure with them, he only heard him say at the tyme of declaring of his will, that they were undutifull and unkind to him, not expressing any particulars; but in former tymes he hath herd him complain, that they were careless of him being blind, and made nothing of deserteing him.' The testimony of Elizabeth Fisher, Milton's maid-servant, contains some curious additional particulars. 'This respondent hath heard the deceased declare his displeasure against the parties ministrant his children; and particularly the deceased declared to this respondent that a little before he was marryed to Elizabeth Milton, his own relict, a former maid-servant of his told Mary, one of the deceased's daughters, and one of the ministrants, that she heard the deceased was to be marryed, to which the said Mary replyed to the said maid-servant, that that was no news to heare of his wedding, but if shee could heare of his death that was something: and further told this respondent, that all his said children did combine together and counsel his maid-servant to cheat him the deceased in her markettings, and that his said children had inade away some of his bookes, and would have sold the rest of his bookes to the dunghill women, or hee the deceased spoke words to this respondent to the selfesame effect and purpose.' |