Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

Of Reverence to Parents.

And first it is certain whatever can be signified by honour and fear and reverence is the duty of children;* 1.1 that is, so far as to think honoura∣bly of them, to speak well of them, to conceal their faults, to excuse them to others, to comport themselves with reverence and great regard before them.

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Above all things have your parents in honour: and this is to be express'd ac∣cording as the parents shall require, and according to the customes of the nation and the most pious and obedient in it; for vultu quoque laedi pieta∣tem, was an old rule, A child may be rude and undutifull in his very looks; and he deserves to be punished with blindnesse, qui parentum vultus torvo visu despexerit, & elatis oculis laeserit pietatem, saith S. Hierom, who by proud looks and scornfull eyes is impious to his parents. But this duty is well describ'd by Theophilus to Autolycus, Sanctum & laudabile censetur, non solùm apud Deum sed & apud homines, videlicet ut in simplicitate & absque omni malitia subjiciamur parentibus. Children must be subject to their parents without all malice perversenesse, and in all simplicity, that is, ••ngenuity of words and manners. And when Ptolemy asked one of the 72 translators of the Bible how a son should pay due thankfulnesse to his parents, he was answer'd, Si nullâ re illos tristitiâ affeceris, If you grieve them in nothing. That's the surest measure.

The next thing that is also certain in this is,* 1.2 that all the good Coun∣sels and precepts of holinesse and wisedome which the parents give, it is ne∣cessary the children should observe; and besides that the not observing them is a sin against the special Commandements, it is also a sin of disobedience, and a rebellion against the Fathers authority. So the Father in the Comedy urges his authority,

Feceris par tuis caeteris factis,* 1.3 Patrem Tuum si percoles per pietatem. Nolo ego cum improbis te viris, Gnate mi, neque in via, neque in foro ullum sermonem exequi. Haec noctes diesque tibi canto ut caveas …..meo modo, & moribus vivito antiquis: Quae ego tibi praecipio, haec facito: haec tibi Si mea Imperia capesses, multa bona in pectore consident.

Keep good company, avoid the debaucheries of the present times, live as I command, and as your forefathers did live; and if to these purposes you sub∣mit to my government, good things shall dwell within you.

But we find amongst the Ancients some little instances of this honour and reverence besides obedience specified.* 1.4 The Ancients would not with∣out leave goe from the presence of their Father: so he in the Comedy,

—neque latebrosè me abs tuo Conspectu occultabo—* 1.5

* They would not conceal from their parents the entercourses and acci∣dents of their youth, their amours, their mistresses, their designes of mar∣riage, their little plots, and advantages or disadvantages.

Quae fert adolescentia Ea ne me celet consuefeci filium:

that is, they accounted it part of the honour due to their parents, to tell them truth in all things where they were interrogated, or suspected.

Nam qui mentiri aut fallere insuerit Patrem,* 1.6 aut Audebit, tanto magis audebit caeteros.

He that lies before his Father dishonours him, and commits two sins; he transgresses two commandements. * Adde to this, they counted it impie∣ty to steal any thing from their parents.* 1.7

Egon' Patri surripere possim quidquam tam cauto seni? Atque adeo si facere possem, pietas prohibet.

That is, whatever was a single injury if done to a stranger,* 1.8 was double if committed against their parents: for as to doe good to them was piety as well as charity, it was religion and justice too; so to doe any evil to them is to doe them dishonour, and expressely against the fifth Commandement. These are the first general measures, and the indication of very many par∣ticulars.

But there is one great measure more,* 1.9 and that is, that specification of the duties of this Commandement which we find in the laws of Nations and the consent of all wise men, and particularly of those with whom we doe converse, and by whom we are governed. For our parents have a double power over us, one by the law of Nature, and the other by the Ci∣vil law; that is, there are some duties which children doe owe to their pa∣rents, which are primely and indispensably necessary, others which are spe∣cifications and instances of a general duty, but such which may suffer in∣crease and diminution, but are necessary by virtue of a Divine Commande∣ment when they are bound upon us by the laws of our Country; because these are of the nature of those things whose natures can be chang'd by be∣coming laws, and are reduc'd under the Category of their proper ver∣tues. The particulars I shall draw out of the laws of Nations, from the Civil and Canon laws, reducing them to distinct rules shall describe their several obligations of the conscience: and they relate to the other two parts of parental power, signified by Castigation and Piety.

Notes

• * 1.1

  6.
• * 1.2

  7.
• * 1.3

  Plaut. Trinum. Act. 3.
• * 1.4

  8.
• * 1.5

  Trinum. ubi supr.
• * 1.6

  Terent. Adelph Act. 1. Scen. 1.
• * 1.7

  ibid.
• * 1.8

  Prov. 28. 24.
• * 1.9

  9.