between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." God follows the same rule in the dispensations of his providence that he has always followed, in making the sins of a former generation the reason or occasion of punishing a succeeding generation, that approve and follow their wicked example. There is a threatening of this nature now divinely recorded, and is yet to be executed. It is a threatening to mystical Babylon for the blood of saints found in her hand. She is doomed to destruction, because in her will be found "the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth." It is very criminal and dangerous for a present generation to approve and imitate the evil examples of those who have gone before them and perished.

5. It appears from what has been said, that it highly concerns the present generation to discountenance and restrain all open vices and immoralities that are spreading and prevailing among them. If those who are now on the stage of action do not employ their power, influence and example to check and restrain abounding iniquities and destructive practices, they will expose not only themselves, but future generations to personal and national calamities, which may sink them in temporal and eternal ruin. The present generation are living not only for themselves, but for generations to come. Those who are now on the stage of life are laying a foundation for the happiness or misery of millions who are coming after them. Their sins, like the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, may be the means of corrupting generations after generations. But if they restrain the growing corruptions of the present times, and exhibit examples of piety and virtue, they may avert the judgments, and draw down the blessings of Heaven in respect to themselves and their posterity for ages to come. These solemn and weighty motives God exhibits before the minds of all who have the Bible in their hands, to live a holy, exemplary and useful life. For he has forewarned them of the serious and important connection between their virtues and the virtues of future generations, and between their sins and the sins of future generations, and of the happy consequences of their obedience, and the fatal consequences of their disobedience and abuse of his patience. The inspired writers of both the Old and New Testaments, mark the most important periods of time, and the most important events that took place from Adam to Christ, by the succession of one generation of mankind after another. The sacred history of the world therefore seems to have been designed to teach us what great influence one generation of men has had, and will have upon another. It is

easy to trace the successive generations in our nation; and almost as easy to trace the influence which one generation has had upon another in this country. And if we view the present generation according to the analogy of past generations, it presents a melancholy prospect. Are we approving and following the piety and virtue of our forefathers, and setting as good examples to our posterity as they have left for us? No one will presume to say it. The truth is, we are setting examples that may be dangerous, if not fatal, to the next generation. Do we reverence God's word, God's sanctuary, God's day, or God's name, as the generations before us have done? Do we maintain that family religion, family government, and family instruction, which they maintained? Do we practice the virtues so necessary to promote the peace, harmony, and happiness of civil and religious society, and restrain the vices so detrimental to all our civil and religious interests, that they did? Are we not relaxing all civil and religious obligations. and restraints, and paving the way to discords, contentions, anarchy, and confusion in church and state? If these things are true of the present generation, what will be the character and state of the next generation, and the generations following, unless we return to the God of our fathers, and practice the public and private, civil and religious virtues they practiced, and restrain the present prevailing vices and impieties? The present generation of mankind, in this and every part of the world, will probably have as great and extensive influence upon the next generation, as any one generation of mankind ever had upon another; yea, much greater. There is more knowledge, more zeal of every kind, and more civil and religious exertion, apparent in this generation, than have ever appeared in any former generation, from Adam to this day. The movements of this generation will very likely draw down the greatest blessings or the greatest judgments upon the world. If we do not reform, but become more and more corrupt, the blood of all past generations may be required of this. The prospect before us is extremely dark and alarming, and presents the most powerful motives to repentance and reformation. There is no doubt but great and glorious things are in reserve for this guilty world; but there may be great and awful events before such things take place. This was the case, when Christ denounced in the text the tremendous judgments coming upon his own degenerate people. And they did come before the gospel was preached all over the world. And there is great reason to think, that tremendous judgments will fall upon this or the next generation, before the gospel shall be preached

to all the present nations of the earth, and the world shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.

6. In the view of this subject, we may see what great benefit saints are to the world, in the several generations in which they live. Corrupt as the world has always been, there has never been one generation entirely destitute of some good men, who exerted their pious and powerful influence for the benefit of it. Adam, the father of all mankind, was a great benefit to the generation in which he lived; Seth was a great benefit to his generation; Enos was to his generation; Cainan was to his generation; Mahalaleel was to his generation; Jared was to his generation; Enoch was to his generation; Methuselah was to his generation; Lamech was to his generation; and Noah was eminently beneficial to the whole human race, in his generation. The lives of many other pious men are clearly delineated in the sacred history, and their extensive usefulness in their several generations recorded for the instruction of all future ages. Abraham was eminently useful not only to his own generation, but to his own nation and the world in general, while he lived; and he has been useful ever since his death to this day, and will be so to the end of time. Isaac and Jacob were blessings to their generations; Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Hezekiah, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were all extensively useful in their several generations. All the patriarchs, prophets and good men that ever have lived, have been real blessings to the generations in which they lived; they have been the light of the world and the salt of the earth; they have drawn down the blessings of God upon themselves and upon the world; and they have equally averted divine judgments from falling upon the ungodly, who hated, opposed, persecuted and slew them. We and all other men now living, considered as nations, or as individuals, are indebted to the good men who have gone off the stage for the blessings we now enjoy, whether public or private, temporal or spiritual. All the great and important events which have taken place from generation to generation, have been connected with the prayers and services of the good men who have lived in each generation.

7. In the view of this subject, we may see that sinners always have been and are the troublers of the world. They are the Achans, that have obstructed, and, in ten thousand instances, defeated the happy influence of the pious and the virtuous. Look at Nimrod, Pharaoh, Balaam, Jeroboam, Manasseh, Haman, and more modern enemies of all righteousness. What immense mischief have they done in their several generations! How much blood have they shed, and how many evils and calamities have they brought upon the world! Mi

nor sinners have all been united with them, and exerted all the influence they have had, in dishonoring God and injuring their fellow men. All sinners are by nature hostile to God and to the world. They have no right to say, as they often do, that it does not concern others how they feel, what they believe, or what sinful courses they pursue; for they are accountable to God only for their piety, or impiety. But no person can live in this world, without either doing good to himself and others, or doing evil to himself and others. Every man must be a friend or an enemy to God, and a friend or an enemy to the world; and an enemy to God and to the world is a troubler of the world. The connection between one person and another, and one generation and another, is very intimate, and infinitely interesting. This ought to be realized by both saints and sinners. Saints have reason to be concerned about sinners, and exert themselves for their temporal and especially their eternal benefit. And sinners have reason to be concerned about saints, who must necessarily do them good or do them harm. If their intercessions for them do not do them good, they will become intercessions against them. This was the effect of Elias's intercessions in a day of declension in Israel. Sinners in this generation need to take heed what part they act, because it will have a serious influence upon themselves, and upon the next and future generations.

This subject now calls upon parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Their instructions, restraints, examples, and prayers, may be the means of saving the souls of their children from death, and of preparing them to act a pious, wise, and useful part on the stage of life. But if they neglect their duty to their children, they may be sources of sorrow to themselves, and of great evil in the world, in generations to come. And what class of men have more declined in duty, than parents? And what class of men have more need of reformation? They are entreated to reform.

This subject calls as loudly upon children, as upon parents. Whether you have been well educated by your parents or not, your imperious duty is, to remember, love, and obey your Creator. If you have been well educated, you have no excuse for the neglect of duty; and if you have not been well educated, you are to be pitied and blamed for the neglect of duty.

SERMON XXXII.

THE USEFULNESS OF GOOD MEN.

NOVEMBER 12, 1826.

For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. — LUKE, vii. 5.

A NUMBER of men may unite together for a good, or a bad purpose. When they unite for a bad purpose, they are properly a combination; but when they unite for a valuable and important purpose, they are properly called a society. This word is always taken in a good sense, though used in a very extensive latitude. Society may signify ten men, or twenty, or twenty thousand, or as many millions as can be united. There is a gradation in societies from the smallest to the largest. A church is a society; and so is a town, or a county, or a province, or a state, or a kingdom, or an empire. The same man may be a member of one, or of more different societies. The centurion mentioned in the text, was a member of the Roman empire, a member of the province of Judea, and probably a proselyte of the Jewish church. One of this man's servants lay at the point of death. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him to come and heal his servant. These respectable men, in order to conciliate Christ to the centurion, represented him as an excellent member of society. "When they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them." This was a practical approbation of the amiable character of the centurion, which is worthy of the universal approbation of mankind in all ages,