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PART III.

LECTURE III.

SECT. II.

Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children-In what sense to be understood-Not unjust-Necessary in a theocracy, as far as relates to temporal and national punishments-Chiefly denounced against idolatry-In this case not only just but merciful-Human tribunals not permitted by the Mosaic Law, to act upon this principle-Why-Analogous to God's general providence-A dispensation of mercy rather than severity—Limited in its extent and application.

PART III.

LECT. III.

"

SECT. II.

EXODUS, xx. 5, 6.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to "the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, "and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love and keep my commandments."

"me,

THE consistency and necessity of temporal sanctions in the Jewish Law, we have endeavoured to establish, in the last section: if with success, we derive from this a clear and easy answer to the objection which at first appears to arise from the denunciation, "That God would visit the sins of the "fathers upon the children, to the third "and fourth generation of them that hate "him; and shew mercy unto thousands in "them who should love him and keep his com"mandments." The only circumstance that makes

makes this denunciation appear severe or unjust, and this promise unreasonable, is the supposition, that the sanctions of a future state are understood; which it would certainly be repugnant to the divine justice to suppose, should be distributed according to such a rule as this. But this objection altogether vanishes, the moment we are convinced, that the reward and punishment here meant, relate only to outward circumstances of prosperity and distress, in the present life; because if such a sanction was necessary, in the particular system of Providential administration, by which God thought fit to govern the Jewish race, it is evident any inequality as to individuals, would be certainly and easily remedied in a fu

ture

*We cannot but believe this to be the case, in many instances of divine judgment recorded in the sacred history; as in the children of Achan involved in the punishment of his violation of the divine anathema,. (though it is possible they may have seen his conduct, and by concealing it, been partakers of his guilt), Joshua, vii. 24; and in the punishment denounced in consequence of the idolatries of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, involving their entire posterity. At least in the instance of Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, this recompence seems to be more than obscurely hinted at. On his falling sick, Jeroboam's queen disguises herself, and re

pairs

ture life; so that each should receive his final reward exactly according to his true merit, in the sight of God, and "thus the "Judge of all the earth do right."

Now it seems undeniable, that such a sanction was a necessary part of the Jewish polity, so far as this required a providential distribution of national rewards and punishments. These affecting the great mass of the people, and extending through such portions of time, as were necessary to give them their full efficacy in forming the national character, could not be confined within

the

pairs to Abijah the prophet; who, though blind with age, is enabled by God immediately to discover her, and to announce to her, that God would destroy the whole house of Jeroboam; and in particular, that the moment she entered into the city to her own door, her son should die; and it is added, *" And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury · him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, (i. e, obtain regular burial). " Because in him there is found

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some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the "house of Jeroboam." On this fact can we believe, the reflecting Jews even then understood, that the only recompence to this child's goodness was his dying of a disease rather than by the sword, and being regularly buried and mourned for, though he died prematurely, while his idolatrous father was permitted to reign twenty-two years. I acknowledge this narrative appears to me to supply an intelligible hint of a future state. Vide the next Lecture.

* 1 Kings, xiv. 13.

the limits of a single generation; or exclude from their operation each private family in succession, as the heads of that family might drop off, whose conduct had originally contributed to swell the mass of national guilt, or contribute to the progress of national improvement.

Thus, when it became necessary to chastise the Jewish idolatry, by a captivity of such a length, as might permanently reform it, which was the result of the captivity in Babylon, a period of seventy years was found scarcely adequate to this effect. Thus the sins of the parents were necessarily visited on the children to the third generation, so far as related to national suffering. Yet surely we cannot derive any impeachment against divine justice or mercy, from a dispensation, which placed the children of the guilty in a situation so favourable for their moral and religious improvement, by checking the crimes of their parents; while those individuals who though exempt from the national guilt, might yet be swept away in the overwhelming torrent of national calamity, would meet abundant compensation

for

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