Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

THIS is predicated of the judgments of God on

those who had fhed the blood of his faints. The Savior declares that all the righteous blood which had been fhed on the earth from that of Abel down to the gospel day, fhould come on that generation!

BUT is not this unreasonable and contrary to the Scriptures?" Far be wickednefs from God and iniquity from the Almighty. For the work of man fhall he render unto him, and caufe every man to find according to his ways-The righteoufnefs of the righteous fhall be upon him, and the wickednefs of the wicked fhall be upon him." Such is the language of revelation.

AND is not that of reafon the fame? Will reafon juftify punishing fome men for other men's

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fins? Those who lived in the days of our Savior had no fhare in the murder of Abel, or of many others who had died by wicked hands. Thofe dire events had been accomplished before they had exiftence. How then could they be answerable for them?

To folve this mystery we muft confider man in a twofold view-as an individual and as the member of a community.

As individuals mankind are folely accountable for the parts which they act perfonally. In the judgment of the great day, they will only be judg ed for the use which they shall have made of the talents committed to them here-" We must all appear before the judgment feat of Chrift; that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad."

BUT every individual is a member of the hu man race, and of fome community. The race, as fuch, and the larger branches of it, the nations and empires into which it is divided, are amenable to the Supreme Governor, and liable to punishment, if in their public characters, they rebel against him. And righteous individuals, may be involved in the judgments fent to punish the fins of the community to which they belong. They often are fo. Perfonal rectitude is not defignated by an exemption from national calamities. Dif criminations will eventually be made in its favor, but not here. Here "all things come alike unto

all, and there is one event to the righteous and the wicked."

To fhew fuch to be the general rule of the divine adminiftration in the government of the world, is the defign of the following difcourfe: Which will explain

the text.

THE world, and the communities into which it is divided, have their probation no less than perfons; and there are seasons in which God enters into judgment with them and adjusts retributions to their moral ftates.

In difcuffing the subject, we shall treat, first of families, then of larger communities, and of the world.

THE first family of our race affords an example to our purpose. Before that family was increased by a single branch iffuing from it, it rebelled against God, and God entered into judgment with it, and punished its fin upon it. And the punishment was not restricted to the offending pair, but extended to their race in common with themselves: All were doomed to fufferings and death in confequence of their fin. And the fentence hath been executing upon them from that period to the present time. Mankind have gone through life forrowing; and "death hath reigned even over thofe, who have not finned after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion." Neither have difcriminations been made in favor of the faints, but they have been involved in the general calamity, and groaned with the rest of the creation.

In some respects this was an exempt cafe, but in the general diffusion of punishment on the various

branches of the family, it accords with the divine administration refpecting other families, as appears from facred hiftory, and from the general hiftory of the human race. Countless examples might be

adduced.

THE murder of Abel was not punished folely on Cain, but also on his family. The ground curfed for his fin, did not yield to them its ftrength; and they were deprived of thofe religious inftructions which they would no doubt have received, had their father dwelt "in the prefence of the Lord," or remained in the family of Adam which contained the church of God. Many of the evils which fell on that finner, fell alfo on his children and refted on them till the extinction of his race by the deluge.

SIMILAR were the confequences which followed the fins of Ham and Efau: But these more properly rank under the head of communities: But inflances of families which have fuffered, yea perifhed, by judgments fent to punifh the fins of their heads, often occur.

WHEN fundry of the princes of Ifrael rebelled against God in the wilderness, and attempted a fubverfion of the government which God had inftituted for his people, they did not perish alone, but their families perifhed with them, though no intimations are given that they were all partakers in their fin-yea, though it is more than intimated that fome of them were not capable of partaking in it-"They came out and flood in the doors of their tents, and their wives, and their fons, and

their little ones. And as foon as Mofes had warned the congregation, and foretold the manner of their death, "the ground clave afunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and fwallowed them up, and their houfes-and they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth clofed upon them; and they perifhed.*

To thefe might be added the families of Achan, Eli, Saul, Jeroboam, Baafha, Ahab and others. No special perfonal guilt was found on many members of these families. They died to expiate fam. ily guilt. We know of none chargeable on Ahim. elech, or the other priests who were flain by order of Saul. The fins of Eli and his houfe, were punished upon them, agreeably to the divine denunciation, first by a nameless prophet; afterwards by Samuel. In one of the fons of Jeroboam, "were found good things toward the Lord God of Ifrael:" Therefore was he removed by an early death, and the refidue of the family were afterwards deftroyed with the fword to punish the fin of the father, "who had finned and made Ifrael to fin."

THE divine adminiftration is ftill the fame. In later ages inftances might be adduced, especially among princes, of families extirpated (after a term of family probation, which had been abused by wickednefs and difhonored by crimes) to punish family guilt. But these might be more liable to be difputed than those recorded in facred hiftory,

* Numbers xvi. 27-33.