and to Bless and Profper the Pofterity of Good Men, for their Sakes.

1. As for the First: If God does not punish a Righteous Son for the Sins of his Father, then to vifit the iniquities of the Father upon the Children, must be confined only to fuch Children as inherit the Vices, and imitate the Wickedness of their Parents: That is, God has threatned to punish the Wicked Children of Wicked Pa

rents.

This, you'll fay, has nothing extraordinary in it; for God has threatned to punish all Wicked Men, whatever their Parents are: And if they are punished only because they are wicked; how is this to vifit the iniquities of their Fathers on them? But the Anfwer of this feems as obvious as the Objection; that the Wicked Children of Wicked Parents fhall be more certainly, and more feverely punished, than other Bad Men ordinarily are.

1. As for the Certainty of their Punishment: We know a great many Bad Men very often escape the Divine Vengeance in this World; for all Wicked Men are not punished here, as their Wickedness deferves: The Juftice of the Divine Providence, as I have already obferved, does not require a fudden and hafty Execution. Bad Men may be profperous many Years, and be feverely punished at laft; or may be profperous all their Lives, and go down to their Graves in Peace, and only answer for their Wickedness in the next World. But then God threatens, that a more speedy Vengeance shall overtake their Pofterity, if they are wicked; that God will then remember, that they

are

are the wicked Children of wicked Parents, and not exercise the fame Patience and Longfuffering to them. And this is, in a proper Senfe, to vifit the iniquities of their Fathers on them: For tho' they are punished only for their own Sins; yet the Iniquities of their Fathers are the Reafon, why God punishes them in this World for their Sins, and makes them the Examples of his Juftice, while other Men as wicked as themfelves efcape.

2. As for the Severity of their Punishments: No Man fhall be punished more than his own Sins deferve; but yet the wicked Children of wicked Parents may be, and very often are, punished more feverely than other wicked Men.

God does not punish all Bad Men alike: For the Punishments of this Life are more properly Acts of Difcipline, than Acts of Judgment; and therefore are not proportioned to the Nature of the Crime, but to the Circumftances and Condition of the Perfon, and to the wife Ends of Government: And if the wicked Children of wicked Parents are punished, tho' for their own Sins, yet the more feverely for their Fathers Sake; this is to bear the Iniquity of their Fathers. To understand this, we must observe, that the Scripture takes notice of a certain Measure of Iniquity, which is filling up from one Generation to another, till at last it makes a Nation, of Family, ripe for Deftruction: And altho' thofe Perfons, on whom this final Vengeance falls, fuffer no more than their own perfonal Sins deserved; yet because the Sins of former Generations, which they equal or outdo, make it Time for God utterly to deftroy them; the Punishments due to the Sins of ma

ny

ny Ages and Generations, are all faid to fall upon them. This Account our Saviour gives of the Deftruction of Jerufalem, 23. Mat. 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharifees, Hypocrites; because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the fepulchres of the righteous, and fay, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto your felves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets; fill ye up then the measure of your fathers fins.Wherefore behold, I fend unto you pro-. phets, and wife men, and fcribes, and fome of them hall ye kill and crucify, and fome of them shall ye Scourge in your Synagogues, and perfecute them from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood fhed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias Son of Barachias, whom ye flew between the temple and the altar. God may wait with Patience upon a wicked Nation, or a wicked Family; but when they fin on from one Generation to another, it all aggravates the Account; and when God fees it time to punish, makes the Punishment very fevere, or final.

adly, The Righteous Pofterity of good Men are rewarded alfo for their Fathers fake; for be fheweth mercy to thousands of them that love him, and keep his Commandments.

A Wicked Son may receive a great many Temporal Bleffings from God, for the fake of a Righteous Father; for it is evident from Scripture, that God fhews great Favour, and exercifes great Patience to bad Men, for the fake of the good; but the Promife is made only to the Righteous Seed of Good Men; for though it does not unbecome the Divine Goodness to shew Favour to bad Men, especially when it is for

the

the fake of the Righteous, which makes it the Reward and Encouragement of Virtue; yet it does not seem fitting to make any general Promife of Favour to them, which would be an Encouragement of Vice.

The Righteous Seed then of Good Men fhall be bleffed; but fo fhall the Righteous Seed of Wicked Men be; and what peculiar Privilege is this to the Good? I anfwer; When God promises to bless the Righteous Pofterity of Good Men, if it contain any thing peculiar, which God has not fo exprefly promised to other good Men, it must fignify a more certain and a more lafting Profperity in this World. All good Men are not profperous in this World, nor has God any where promised that they fhall be fo, no more than all wicked Men are visibly punished here; but as God vifits the Iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children, by executing a more fpeedy Vengeance on the wicked Children of wicked Parents; fo the Righteous Children of Righteous Parents fhall be more certainly profperous than other good Men; and the more uninterrupted Succeffions there are of fuch Righteous Parents and Righteous Children, the deeper root they fhall take, and be like a tree planted by the Rivers of waters, that bringeth forth bis fruit in his feafon; his leaf alfo fhall not wither, and what foever he doth fhall profper, 1. Pfal. 3.

This may fuffice for a fhort Representation of this Cafe; and as it is thus ftated, it is manifeft, That there is no Injuftice in it; let us then confider what wife Ends it ferves, both with refpect to Parents and to Children, and to the Juftification of Providence.

1. As to Parents: If they have any Natural Affection to their Children, this is a very pow erful Argument to reftrain them from Vice, and to excite them to Virtue: Moft of the Labour and Toil which Men undergo, is for the fake of their Children, to provide for them while they live, and to leave them in eafy and happy Circumftances when they die; to raise and perpetuate a Family, and to fecure them, as far as it is poffible, from all adverfe Events. But how fuccessful foever Bad Men may be in raifing an Eftate, they build upon a Sandy Foundation, and leave a very perishing Inheritance to their Children; especially if they raise an Eftate by Injustice and Oppreffion, by defrauding God and the Poor of their Portion, which many times makes it moulder away in the Hands even of a Righteous Heir. The more profperous a wicked Man is, the more likely is his Pofterity to be miserable, if he propagate his Vices to them; for God will at one time or other reckon with wicked Families, as well as Men; and that will be a Terrible Account, when the wickedness of his father shall be remembred before the Lord, and the fin of his Mother fhall not be blotted out, 109. Pfal. 14.

And what an Encouragement is this to Good Men, though they themselves fhould be unfortunate in the World, to know, That their Pofterity fhall reap the Rewards of their Virtue ; that if their Children fhould be Wicked, there is some reason to hope, that they may be more gently ufed, and it may be receive many Temporal Bleffings for their fakes; but if they be Righteous, they fhall then take Root, and flourifh in the Earth; that the little which the Righteous Man hath righteously got, fhall prove CC 2

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