Nebuchadnezzar's army. Even there they maintained their abstemious habits; and Jeremiah, acting by the command of the Lord, took occasion, from this circumstance, to convey appropriate instruction and admonition to those amongst whom he ministered. He conducted the Rechabites in a body to the Temple; and set before them pots full of wine, and cups, and invited them to drink. They declined; and assigned as a reason for their habitual abstinence from wine, and for their other habits, the command of their ancestor Jonadab. "Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the Lord. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.".

From this passage, let us endeavour, by God's help, to derive the instruction which it is calculated

to convey. The approbation of God is here implied, if not of the peculiarities themselves, by which the descendants of Jonadab were distinguished, yet of the principles and practices, with which they were in this case connected; and, especially, of the respect to parental authority, shewn, first, by Jonadab's children, and afterwards by their descendants through successive generations.

We hence take occasion to remark, that one of the greatest benefits-I may indeed say, almost the greatest benefit, which pious parents can confer upon those to whom they certainly wish to do good-is, to transmit to them, so far as is possible, that piety towards God, and obedience to His commands, wherein they have themselves differed from an ungodly world; and to guard the bequest from injury, by such securities as it is in their power to place around it. Piety towards God is not hereditary -it does not run in the blood: alas! no. The only inheritance which is invariably transmitted to every child of man, is, that taint of corruption, that infection of nature, which we all derive from our first parents. We were all born in sin, children

of wrath, and heirs of corruption; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean*"? But though piety towards God is not hereditary, so as to be naturally transmitted from parents to children; there are means which God has appointed, and to which He has promised His blessing, for the transmission of it. "Train up a child," it is written, "in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from itt.” The Law given by God, through Moses, to the Israelites, was not given for the use of that generation only; but was a sacred deposit, to be transmitted by them, unimpaired, to the next generation; and so on from generation to generation:-"These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up t." They were to set up memorials of their national deliverances ; to attend at the stated ordinances of divine worship; to take their children with them; to encourage them to ask questions respecting what they saw and Deut. vi. 6, 7.

* Job xiv. 4.

+ Prov. xxii. 6.

We

were

heard of religious observances:-" When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt unto thy son, say Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: and the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us*." The Israelites were, moreover, expressly commanded to avoid intimate connexion, and especially to make no marriages with the people of the land which was given to them for an inheritance:-"Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto

* Deut. vi. 20-25.

thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly +." Doubtless, it was principally owing to the neglect of these plain commands of God respecting the religious instruction of their children, and to their carelessness respecting intercourse with idolaters; that the piety of the generation who took possession of the land of Canaan was soon succeeded by general neglect of the worship and commands of God, and even by idolatrous worship and practices. Revivals of religion took place from time to time, both under the government of the Judges, and in the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah: but there was neither that continuity nor depth of religious intelligence and piety, in the successive generations of the descendants of Abraham, which there certainly would have been if the heads of families, generally, had imitated his example of whom the Lord testified: "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the + Deut. vii. 3, 4.