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hearts of finners in his hands, and can turn them as the rivers of water are turned.-We hope that no difcouraging circumstances may move your hearts or the hearts of those who may engage

truft that we have already feen good effects of miffionary labors, in these parts; and we further truft that we have many praying fouls among us, that join with you and all the faints of Chriftendom in crying to God day and night for the effufion of the ever bleffed Spirit of all grace. Oh ! that millions and millions of finners may bow to the fceptre of king Jefus.-We pray God to fmile on your endeavors, and put the means into your hands, further to promote the caufe of our great redeemer, in these and other parts of this vineyard-Hoping and believing that you will not ceafe to pray, with us, for the profperity of Zion, and the converfion and falvation of finners, we fubfcribe ourselves yours in the faith and fellowship of the gofpel.

of Miffionaries acting under your | God of all grace, who hath the directions. While we behold how beautiful on thefe our mountains, are the feet of those that bring unto us good tidings, that publish peace, that fay unto our Zion, thy God reigneth: We are constrained to meet their bleffed labors within this important work. We this language of infpiration "Break forth into joy, fing together ye waste places of Jerufalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerufalem The Lord hath made bare his holy arm."-By thefe doings among us, we have the moft comfortable evidence that the bowels of many faints are refreshed; and we hope and truft the obdurate hearts of fome finners are melted. Oh! let us praise and magnify the riches of divine grace. While we behold the fervants of Jefus Chrift among us, difpenfing their labors in the gofpel, men that have hazarded their health, their wordly intereft, their characters, and left many dear friends and connexions for the cause of religion, we feel ourfelves in duty bound to pray for them, while we give all the praife and glory to God. It gives us pleasure to reflect that we can give ample teftimony to the zeal, the faithfulness, the prudence and the exemplary conduct of thofe miffionaries, who have labored among us under the order and direction of your board. At the fame time, we truft it will be no fmall fatisfaction to you to hear this good report of them. It is highly probable that fome of them have had to encounter oppo fition from the shafts and irony of fteeled infidels, and oppofers of the doctrines of distinguishing grace. For these things our hearts are grieved, and our earneft prayers, with yours, are directed to that

JAMES MURDOCK. JOHN B. PRESTON. To the Miffionary Society of the State of Connecticut.

ORDINATION.

WAS Ordained in the meeting-houfe at Windham, County of Greene and State of NewYork, on Wednesday the 14th of September, 1803, the Rev. Henry B. Stimpfon, to the paftoral charge of the church in that place. The feveral parts were performed by the following gentlemen: Rev. David Harrowar of Walton, Delaware County, made the introductory prayer; Rev. Samus! Fuller of Reaffel

aerville, Albany County, preach-Here raife aloud th' enraptured voice, ed the fermon, from 1. Cor. i. 21; "And ftrike th' immortal lyre. Rev. David Porter late of Spen-6." Here pleasure ever springs ; "Here joy forever grows; "And bleffednefs in endless ftreams, "In full completion flows." 7. But where's my chofen good, In whom I still confide; My hope, my warm defire? Oh where's My great unerring guide? 8. In yonder world of woe, When anxious care oppress'd, "Twas he reviv'd my drooping foul, And cheer'd my pensive breast. 9. And when my faith arose On promises of grace, The heaven I hop'd was to behold The beauties of his face.

certown, and now preaching at Catskill, made the prayer during the impofition of hands; Rev. Beriah Hotchkin of Greenfield, gave the charge; Rev. Fee Townfend of New-Durham, gave the right hand of fellowship, and Rev. Ezekiel J. Chapman, late miffionary to New-Connecticut, and now preaching at Canton, made the concluding prayer. It is pleafing to remark, that, a large concourfe of people were prefent on the occafion, and appeared fpecially attentive and folemn during the whole tranfac

tion.

POETRY.

COMMUNICATED AS ORIGINAL,

10. If this fhould be denied,
My finking foul would mourn;
Tho' joy and blifs around me fmile,
I ftill fhould be forlorn.

II. No angel high in power,
Nor Saints in heavenly drefs,

Nor fongs, nor fruits, nor blifsful ftreams,
Without my God can blefs.

12. But lo! this face unvails:
My foul diffolves with love:

TO THE EDITORS OF THE EVANGEL- My heart exults in biifs complete,

1.

W

ICAL MAGAZINE.

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THAT heavenly voice is that
Which calls my foul away?

I leave, I leave this dark abode,
And fee immortal day."

2. What glories ftrike my fenfe?
What is this happy ground?

This chryftal ftream, this fruitful tree
And yon melodious found?

3. "This is the heavenly plain;
"The blisful feats
you fee:

The river this of life, and this." "The vivifying tree.

4. "This water's ever freth:
"This fruit forever new:
"And he that takes this living food,
Shall live immortal too.

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Enjoy'd in heaven above,

13. These myfteries now unfold,
And all in him I fee;

He is the flowing ftream of life,
The ever fruitful tree...

14. Here reft, my joyful foul,
And to this fountain come;

Be this thy portion, this thy heaven,
Thy everlafting home.

15. Here let me fing his praife,
Or in angelic form

Launch'd forth upon feraphic wings,
His great commands perform.

16. But lo! the fcene withdraws;
I fink to earth again,

To run my tiresome pilgrimage
Thro' deadly fares of fin.

17. Yet fhall I rife and tafte
Perpetual joys and true,
Exceeding far the pleafing fhades
I've feen in vifion now,

Donations to the Miffionary Society of Connecticut.

Sept. 22. A Friend of Miflions,

Oa. 10.

Do.

do.

From a Friend of Miffions 400 copies of a Sermon to Children.

D. C.

Ι Ο

20

THE

Connecticut Evangelical Magazine.

[PUBLISHED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS.]

VOL. IV.]

DECEMBER, 1803.

God glorious in vifiting the iniquities of fathers upon their children.

Thoughts on Luke xi. 49-51. "Therefore faid the wifdom of God, I will fend them prophets and apoftles, and fome of them they fhall flay and perfecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was fhed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation: From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perifhed between the altar and the temple : Verily I fay unto you, it fhall be required of this generation."

IT

T has been thought, that the fentiment contained in thefe words, must be very different from the common acceptation of fuch expreffions, or that it is difficult to reconcile it with divine juftice. An attempt will now be made, to Show the true fentiment expressed, and to fhow that this mode of divine adminiftration is confiftent with perfect rectitude, and is exceedingly glorious.

It is conceived, that the fentiment here expreffed by Jefus Chrift is, that that generation of the Jews would perfecute the VOL. IV. No. 6.

[No. 6.

| church of God, and that in con fequence of this guilt, by which the measure of their iniquities would be full, God would bring upon that nation the most dreadthem the more awful and exemful judgments; and would render plary, on account of all the guilt

of this kind which had ever been contracted, from the foundation of the world, vifiting upon them the iniquities of all former perfeifeftation of his abhorrence of all cutors, and giving a decided manthis kind of wickednefs, by the effects of his wrath

upon

them;

and that the then prefent generation should not pass away, until all these things should be accomplished. Or in other words, that in confequence of their perfecutions, God would bring them to a reckoning for all former perfecutions.

Several things will be noticed to show that this is the import of the words under confideration.Firft: This appears from the words themfelves. They form a plain correct fentence, perfectly intelligible; there is no ambiguity in the expreffion, it is capable of no other conftruction. Our Lord Bb

and [twenty years before it was fent, God threatened the world on account of their great wickednefs, that his fpirit should not al

meant that the Jews fhould underftand that fuch judgments would be poured out upon them, as fhould give a public manifeftation of divine wrath, for all former perfe-ways ftrive with man, but that cutions.

That this is the true fenfe of the words is further evident from the established and avowed principle of divine adminiftration, which God has adopted, and plainly and abundantly revealed in his word. This is the character which he gives of himself in the fecond commandment: I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, vifiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. The fame idea is here expreffed; if children hate God, the fins of their ancestors for three or four generations fhall be vifited upon them. God will remember those iniquities when punifhing their pofterity in temporal judgments, and deal with them the more feverely on that account. Befides there are a multitude of facts of this kind recorded in the bible.—Immediately after the apoftacy, God began his dealings with the world on this principle. "By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin, and fo death hath paffed upon all men, for that all have finned." It is a token of God's abhorrence of Adam's apoftacy, that all his pofterity begin their exiftence depraved in heart and prone to fin-fhapen in iniquity, and conceived in fin, and by reafon of their fin, death paffes upon all. This takes place in confequence of the firft tranfgreffion, and is an awful manifeftation of God's wrath on that account.-The next inftance of the kind, which fhall be here mentioned, was the univerfal deluge. An hundred

:

his days fhould be an hundred and twenty years. The earth had long been filled with violence; all flefh had corrupted their ways before God, and every imagination of their hearts was evil continually; yet the divine forbearance lafted; God prolonged their opportunity to become reconciled to him, until in an ordinary courfe of providence, millions died, and millions were born; and then God reckoned with the world, and brought into view all their former iniquities, and executed his vengeance for the whole upon that generation, in which millions were in childhood and infancy. And God's wrath appeared the more vindictive because he did not fpare even the brutal creation, but let loofe his indignation upon every thing which was not housed in the ark.

Sodom and the cities in its neighborhood, furnish another inftance of the kind. The inhabitants had long been notorious for wickedness, and God is reprefented as coming down to attend to it, and he has made them all enfamples to us, fuffering the ven geance of eternal fire. The infants perifhed with the older finners, and on account of their wickedness; the beafts were not fpared, and even the very land is faid to have become a poisonous bituminous lake, called the Dead Sea.

Egypt is alfo an example of the fame nature. Not only the first born, old or young, were all flain, but God poured kens of vengeance upon the fervants, the cattle and all vegeta

out his to

ters, but they fhould go into captivityfhould be given unto another people,-and that they fhould eat the fruit of their own bodies.' And thus their children would fuffer on account of the wickednefs of their parents, and of the nation at large: which has already come to pass.

fion; the fifh of the river died, and the foldiers, captains and the whole army were deftroyed. God reckoned with them as he had foretold to Abraham that he would do, when he faid, Know of a furety, that thy feed fhall be a ftranger in a land that is not theirs, and fhall ferve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years and alfe that nation whom they fhall ferve will I judge.' By this it appears, that all the afflictions of the Ifraelites for fev-ful judgments were denounced on eral generations, were remembered in judgment against the genera tion of Egyptians which lived in the days of Mofes. God had become weary of withholding, and brought his judgments upon them, for all the cruelties which Ifrael had received for ages paft.

The commiflion which God gave to Mofes and his fucceffors against the Canaanites, was to cut off every man, woman and child: and it was exprefsly given on account of the wickedness of those nations, which had been accumulating for ages. In the days of Abraham God faid, The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' And he gave this as the reafon why his pofterity fhould not poffefs their land which was prom ised, until the fourth generation. At that time it had become full, and divine forbearance could continue no longer. And God commanded his people to exterminate them all-root and branch. Here God vifited the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and reckoned with them for their national wickednefs, which had been increafing for ages...

The children of Korah and his party were all fwallowed up in the opening earth, on account of the fins of their parents. Fear

the pofterity of Eli, to remote generations, on account of the iniquity of his houfe, which continued to be accomplished till the reign of Solomon, when Abiathar was thruft out from being a prieft unto the Lord.

When Ifrael came out of Egypt, the Amalekites affaulted them, for which their posterity fuffered fo long after as the reign. of Saul.

Samuel alfo faid unto Saul, Thus faith the Lord of hofts, I remember that which Amalek did to Ifrael, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go, and fmite Amalek, and ut terly deftroy all that they have, and fpare them not; but flay both man and woman, infant and fuckling, ox and fheep, camel and afs.' Five of Saul's pofterity were alfo hanged for his perfidioufnefs to the Gibeonites; and there was alfo a famine upon all Ifrael on that account, after Saul had long been dead.

Another ftriking example of this nature is the plague which was fo fore upon Ifrael, in confequence of the fin of David in Mofes alfo folemnly admonish- numbering them. No fewer than ed Ifrael, That if they fhould feventy thoufand died. David rebel against God, the fruit of was fenfible that it was in confetheir bodies fhould be curfed-quence of his fins, as appears by they fhould beget fons and daugh- his interceffion that God would

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