VI. The juftice of this procedure is admitted, according to the received principles of equity among men. In almost all nations, it is accounted juft that children fhould fuffer for the crimes of their parents. Debts defcend with property; and he who intermeddles with the property, is legally confidered as ferving himself heir to all the debt attached to it. Now, he who imitates, who juftifies, or who does not fincerely confefs and bewail the iniquity of his fathers, in like manner ferves himself heir to all the debt of guilt which they have contracted towards God. Is it just in man to fet fo fevere a ftigma on treafon and fome other crimes deeply affecting fociety, as to deprive the children, although perfonally innocent, of both the honours and the eftates enjoyed by their parents, and otherwife legally defcending to them? and fhall we fuppofe that fin, as committed against the Judge of the univerfe, is of fo much lefs importance, as to refufe to him the right of punishing it in a fimilar manner?

So far from quarrelling with the juftice of God, fhould we not rather admire his longfuffering and mercy in this procedure? Often he delays punishment from one generation to another, giving time for confideration and repentance. If" the "heart of the fons of men is fully fet in them to "do evil, becaufe fentence against an evil work is "not executed fpeedily," the blame is wholly their own, not God's. The riches of his goodness fhould produce an effect directly contrary; for it "leads to repentance.”

It

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It would feem, that at times God punishes the religious children of the wicked, for the fins of their parents; but eventually for their good, both for time and for eternity. For the fins of Jeroboam, God had threatened to "take away the "remnant of his houfe, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone." When Abijah, the pious fon of fo wicked a 'father, fell fick, God would not fpare his life, because of the vengeance he had denounced. But his affliction, we may be affured from the tenor of the divine conduct to all the heirs of falvation, was overruled in fubferviency to his eternal good. And even an early death was to him converted into a blefling in a temporal respect; as he was faved from the violence and ignominy that awaited all the rest of Jeroboam's feed. It was therefore foretold concerning him: "He only of Jeroboam fhall come to the grave, because in him there is found fome good thing toward the LORD God of Ifrael in "the house of Jeroboam (."

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Here I fhall only add, that in Scripture we have various examples of God's vifiting the iniquities of one or more individuals, if not duly punished, on a whole fociety. This was the cafe as to the tranfgreffion of Achan, and of Korah. This may affift us in thinking of divine juftice, as difplayed in visiting the iniquities of fathers on their children. For there is an analogy between the one and the other. A fociety, prefently exifting, is viewed as if individually one, because the vari

f 1 Kings xiv. 1. 10.-13.

ous

ous members have one common centre of union, are all parts conftituting one whole, and form one body in a civil or religious refpect. A family or nation is also viewed as one, in its fucceffive generations; both because of their natural relations, parents being continued in their pofterity; and also because of their collective unity, as they ftill conftitute the fame body, notwithstanding the change of individuals.

I fhall now confider fome objections that have been made to this doctrine.

1. It hath been objected, that it cannot be true, because it would imply a contradiction in the language of Scripture; efpecially as it is faid, "The "foul that finneth, it fhall die; the fon fhall not "bear the iniquity of the father ." But there is no contradiction between this and the precept. The fon here meant is not a wicked perfon; but one who, being come to years of difcretion, difapproves and forfakes the unrighteous way of his father. For it is declared; "When the fon hath "done that which is lawful and right, and hath

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kept all my ftatutes, and hath done them, he "fhall furely live h." Now, the threatening added to the fecond commandment refpects not righteous children, but those who, choofing and continuing in the wicked ways of their fathers, plainly declare that they are "haters of God:" and, as has been feen, although others have been punifhed,

nifhed, this is not the ordinary tenor of providential difpenfations.

It must alfo be obferved, that here a reply is made to the unjuft and infolent cavils of an obdurate people. They prefumptuoufly alleged, that God's way's were not equal. Afferting their own innocence, they pretended, that all the punishment brought on them as a nation, efpecially in their captivity, was for the iniquities of their fathers. Hence it became a proverb with them, "The fathers have eaten four grapes, and the "children's teeth are fet on edge.' To illuftrate the juftice of his procedure, God informs them, that he should proportion their punishment to their perfonal crimes. Here, then, God does not deny his right to vifit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children; but declares, that in dealing with this people, for fome time at least, he was willing to proceed with them, as if fuch a threatening had never been made. He does not tell what he might do, in ftrict juftice; but what he would do in fact, to filence their charges of injuftice. This is not the promulgation of a standing law, but of a temporary difpenfation for a particular reafon. It is an answer to the prefumptuous query of the Jews, "Doth not the fon bear the "iniquity of the father?" This anfwer at the fame time feems to intimate, that although in their present punishment, God had “recompenfed "into their bofoms their iniquities, and the iniquities of their fathers together," yet as far as VOL. II.

K

adults

adults at least were concerned, they fuffered no more than they would have done according to the demerit of their own crimes. They thought they were themselves innocent; but they had made the iniquities of their fathers their own, by treading in their fteps,

2. It has been afferted, that this kind of punishment was peculiar to the old difpenfation, and that it is abolished under the new. It has been faid by one learned writer, that "this punish"ment was only to fupply the want of a future "ftate ;" and that this "is evident from hence, "that towards the conclufion of this extraordi

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nary economy, when God, by the later prophets, "reveals his purpofe of giving them a new difpenfation, in which a future ftate of reward and punishment was to be brought to light, it is "then declared in the moft express manner, that "he will abrogate the law of punishing children "for the crimes of their parents. Jeremiah, fpeak"ing of this new difpenfation, fays: "In those

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days, they fhall fay no more, The fathers have "eaten a four grape, and the children's teeth are "fet on edge: but every one shall die for his "own iniquity, every man that eateth the four

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grape, his teeth fhall be fet on edge. Behold "the days come, faith the LORD, that I will make " a new covenant with the house of Ifrael,-not according to the covenant that I made with "their fathers," &c. The author referred to

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I Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 327, &c.

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