commandment, inasmuch as He not only declares that it is well pleasing
to Him, and that He has joy and delight therein; but also that it shall
be for our prosperity and promote our highest good; so that we may have
a pleasant and agreeable life, furnished with every good thing.
Therefore also St. Paul greatly emphasizes the same and rejoices in it
when he says, Eph. 6, 2. 3: This is the first commandment with promise:
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
For although the rest also have their promises contained in them, yet
in none is it so plainly and explicitly stated.

Here, then, you have the fruit and the reward, that whoever observes
this commandment shall have happy days, fortune, and prosperity; and on
the other hand, the punishment, that whoever is disobedient shall the
sooner perish, and never enjoy life. For to have long life in the sense
of the Scriptures is not only to become old, but to have everything
which belongs to long life, such as health, wife, and children,
livelihood, peace, good government, etc., without which this life can
neither be enjoyed in cheerfulness nor long endure. If, therefore, you
will not obey father and mother and submit to their discipline, then
obey the hangman; if you will not obey him, then submit to the
skeleton-man, i.e., death [death the all-subduer, the teacher of
wicked children]. For on this God insists peremptorily: Either if you
obey Him rendering love and service, He will reward you abundantly with
all good, or if you offend Him, He will send upon you both death and
the hangman.

Whence come so many knaves that must daily be hanged, beheaded, broken
upon the wheel, but from disobedience [to parents], because they will
not submit to discipline in kindness, so that, by the punishment of
God, they bring it about that we behold their misfortune and grief? For