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

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

AND is not that of reason the same? Will rea son justify punishing some men for other men's

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

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

As individuals mankind are solely accountable for the parts which they act personally. 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 Christ; 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 sent to punish the sins of the community to which they belong. They often are fo. Personal rectitude is not designated 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 administration in the government of the world, is the design of the following difcourse: 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 states.

In discussing 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 issuing 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 sufferings and death in confequence of their fin. And the sentence hath been ex. ecuting upon them from that period to the present time. Mankind have gone through life forrowing; and "death hath reigned even over those, who have not finned after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion." Neither have discriminations 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 respecting other families, as appears from facred history, and from the general history of the human race. Countless examples might be

adduced.

THE murder of Abel was not punished solely on Cain, but also on his family. The ground curfed for his fin, did not yield to them its strength; and they were deprived of those religious inftructions which they would no doubt have received, had their father dwelt " in the presence 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 also on his children and rested on them till the extinction of his race by the deluge.

SIMILAR were the consequences which followed the fins of Ham and Esau: But these more properly rank under the head of communities: But instances of families which have fuffered, yea perished, by judgments sent to punish the fins of their heads, often occur.

WHEN sundry of the princes of Ifrael rebelled against God in the wilderness, and attempted a fubverfion of the government which God had instituted for his people, they did not perish alone, but their families perished 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 stood in the doors of their tents, and their wives, and their fons, and

their little ones. ed the congregation, and foretold the manner of their death, "the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses-and they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them ; and they perished.*

And as foon as Mofes had warn

To these might be added the families of Achan, Eli, Saul, Jeroboam, Baafha, Ahab and others. No special personal 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 house, 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 residue of the family were afterwards destroyed with the sword to punish the fin of the father, " who had finned and made Israel to fin."

THE divine administration is still the same. In later ages instances might be adduced, especially among princes, of families extirpated (after a term of family probation, which had been abused by wickedness and dishonored by crimes) to punish family guilt. But these might be more liable to be disputed than those recorded in facred history,

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