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and the fuperior privileges of the gofpel. "Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be "moved, let us have grace whereby we may ferve "God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. "For our God is a confuming fire i." He manifefted himself, in this character, under the law. The difpenfation under which we live, is very different with respect to immediate temporal tokens of divine indignation. But we ftill ferve the fame God. His holinefs is invariably the fame, even although it is not manifefted by fuch difplays of his juftice. But even thefe have not been wanting under the New Teftament. What affecting monuments of divine difpleasure were Judas Ifcariot, and Ananias and Sapphirak! God fet them up, in the very dawn of the gospel-church, as beacons to deter us from tampering with his juftice. For even our God is a confuming fire. Such temporal judgments are far lefs frequent under this difpenfation. But for this we may see a sufficient reafon. The eternal ftate is more clearly revealed and in this the fire of divine juftice will burn with far greater heat, than ever it did in temporal punishment. Therefore faith the apoftle, in the paffage formerly referred to;" See "that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, "much more fhall not we efcape, if we turn away "from him that fpeaketh from heaven!"

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SECT.

i Heb. xii. 28, 29.

k Acts i. 18.; v. I.—II.

1 Heb. xii. 25.

SECTION V.

On Divine Justice, in vifiting the Iniquities of Fathers upon their Children.—Children punished for the fins of Parents.-Parents punished in their Children.-Iniquity vifited on thofe efpecially who continue in the wicked courfes of their Progenitors. Some fins more remarkably vifited on fucceeding generations, than others.This vifitation extends farther than to temporal punishment.-Something in human conduct analogous to this procedure of Divine Juftiec.-Objections anfwered.

THE Juftice of God, like every other perfection of his nature, is incomprehenfible. We often find reafon to exclaim; "His judgments are a

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great deep!-How unfearchable are his judg"ments, and his ways paft finding out!" But we need not wonder that our weak and depraved reafon fhould be loft in the contemplation of that adorable perfection, which is employed in the punifhment of fin; as there is an extent in its evil, which we cannot comprehend.

The divine conduct, in vifiting the iniquities of fathers upon their children, is one of thofe awful difplays of juftice, which it feems to be a fpe

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cial design of revelation to fet before us in the moft confpicuous light. With a fincere defire to discover" the mind of the Spirit," let us humbly inquire into the doctrine which the Holy Scriptures contain on this important fubject.

1. It is confiftent with divine juftice, to pu nish children for the fins of their parents, although they have had no hand in thefe. This principle is established by a great variety of facts. For the crime of Ham, the curfe was entailed on his pofterity by Canaan m. Some think that the curfe extended to all the pofterity of Ham, and that Canaan is particularly mentioned, becaufe this history being immediately written for confirming the faith of the Ifraelites, the prophecy of Noah was to them a prelude of victory over the Canaanites, and of the poffeffion of their land. Others fuppofe that Canaan was fingled out by the Patriarch, under the influence of the Spirit of infpiration, as having been immediately concerned with Ham in the crime which he committed. But of this we have no evidence whatfoever. Admitting it to be confiftent with juftice to punish children for the iniquities of their fathers, God, in his adorable fovereignty, might entail the curfe in a special manner upon one branch of the pofterity of Ham. It has been faid, that the curfe was not "pronounced upon Canaan for his father "Ham's tranfgreffion ;" that "fuch arbitrary "proceedings are contrary to all our ideas of the

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"divine perfections ;" that "the curfe upon Ca"naan was properly a curfe upon the Canaanites; *that God foreseeing the wickedness of this people, (which began in their father Ham, and

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greatly increased in this branch of his family), "commiffioned Noah to pronounce a curfe upon them, and to devote them to the fervitude and mifery, which their more than common vices "and iniquities would deferve ;" and that “this "account was plainly written by Mofes, for the "encouragement of the Ifraelites "," &c.

It cannot well be doubted, that the curfe efpecially respected the pofterity of Canaan, and that it was recorded for encouraging the Ifraelites to obey the command of God, by entering into their land. But we certainly do violence to the language of Scripture, and afcribe the greatest impropriety of conduct to the Spirit of infpiration, if we deny that the curfe upon Canaan was meant as a punishment of the crime of Ham. Such is the connexion of the hiftory, as neceffarily to imply this. "And Ham the father of Canaan faw "the nakednefs of his father, and told his two "brethren without.-And Noah awoke from his "wine, and knew," as would feem, by immediate revelation, "what his younger fon had done "unto him. And he faid, Curfed be Canaan; a "fervant of fervants fhall he be unto his bre"thren." We are not merely to confider the defign with which this account was "written by "Mofes," but the defign with which the curfe

Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, differt. 1.

was

o Gen. ix. 22. 24, 25.

was primarily pronounced by Noah under the impulfe of the Spirit. And furely nothing can be more plain, than that the curfe was denounced against the pofterity of Ham, as the punishment of his iniquity. It feems totally incongruous to the character of "the Spirit of revelation," who is also the "Spirit of wisdom," to connect, in the language of prophecy, the punishment of the pofterity of Ham with the crime of their ancestor, if there was no connexion of a judicial nature. We do not perceive the propriety of Noah's "pro"nouncing a curfe" on this occafion, if it had no prefent effect. There is, indeed, juft as much reafon for fuppofing, that Shem and Japhet were perfonally excluded from the blefling, as that the curfe had no immediate relation to Ham, but wholly refpected his pofterity.

Among the first-born in the land of Egypt, who were cut off by the deftroying angel, there were doubtlefs many who had never finned in their own perfons. They were immediately punished for the unbelief and obduracy of their parents. The children of Achan perished with him". No one, who believes revelation, can doubt the account given us of the 'punishment of the perfidy of Saul to the Gibeonites, firft on the nation, and afterwards on his pofterity. Nor can it be doubted, that God approved of the fevere fentence paffed, at the inftance of the Gibeonites, on the feven fons of Saul. For it is faid, that, in confequence of their execution, "God was entreated "" for

P Joh. vii. 24.

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