influence; but this is not the case in respect to religion. They cannot repent, reform, and grow in grace, without his gracious presence and influence; love, repentance, faith and growth in grace, are the fruits of his spirit. Paul may plant and Apollos water in vain, if God give not the increase. A degenerate people need to be deeply impressed with a sense of absolute dependence on God, for spiritual, undeserved, and unpromised blessings. Hence, 6. A time of religious declension is a time for all the sincere faithful friends of God to seek unto him for his gracious, renewing, sanctifying and quickening influences. A people seldom become so universally degenerate, as to have no men of genuine piety among them. This was never the case in degenerate Judah and Ephraim. Though Elijah once thought that he was the only true Israelite in the nation, yet he was mistaken; for there were then many other Israelites indeed, who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. This was not the case in Christ's day; there were Simeon and others, who were the servants and worshippers of the true God. In the general declension in the churches of Asia, there were individuals who kept the faith, and maintained and adorned their christian profession. This is undoubtedly the case in the most degenerate churches in this land, and in the degenerate church in this place. It is upon these persons this subject loudly calls, to rise and call upon God to work effectually upon the hearts of this people, and bring about a thorough and general reformation. God heareth not sinners. They are the only persons whose prayers he will hear, and has promised to hear. He hath not said to the seed of Jacob, "seek ye me in vain." It was in answer to the prayers of Hezekiah, Josiah, Jehoiada, and other reformers, that God reformed his degenerate people, before he sent them into captivity. And it was owing to the prayers of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, that he poured out his spirit upon them before and after their return from captivity. The command is, " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and the promise is, "They shall that love thee." But you may prosper when is the time to begin to pray more fervently and especially for a reformation in this place? The answer is plain; to-day. It is the very business of this day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, to pray for a reformation here in particular. There are plain and powerful reasons why you should seek unto the Lord to-day, to come and rain down righteousness on this people. ask 1. The honor of God requires you to do it. 2. The good of souls requires you to do it. 3. Your own vows and engagements require you to do it. SERMON XX X I. SUSPENSION AND INFLICTION OF JUDGMENTS. OCTOBER 3, 1824. VERILY I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this GOD is a being of perfect rectitude, as well as of perfect wisdom; but yet we find some things in his word and providence, which are not easy to reconcile with either his wisdom or rectitude. Of this kind is the passage I have read, which contains a truth and a fact, that are involved in no little obscurity. The connection of the text is this. "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation." Luke expresses the same thing in still stronger terms. "That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation." These are Christ's declarations. The question is, how could the blood, that is, the punishment due to all preceding generations, be required of this? If this generation had sinned, they deserved to be punished. If this generation had sinned as much as any former generation had sinned, then they deserved to be pun ished as much as any former generation. If this generation had sinned as much as all the former generations put together had sinned, then they deserved to be punished as much as all the former generations put together deserved. This is plain and intelligible; and had this alone been asserted in the text, the passage would have been plain and easy to be understood. But how this generation should deserve to be punished for the sins of any former generations is hard to conceive; and if this generation did not deserve to be punished for the sins of former generations, it is equally hard to conceive why they should be punished for the sins of all former generations. The text, however, seems to imply, that this generation should be actually punished for the sins of all former generations. By this time, perhaps, every one sees there is a difficulty in the text; which it is my present purpose to clear up. And, in order to this, I shall proceed gradually, and lay down several plain and undeniable propositions. 1. It is not right that God should punish one generation for the sins of another. This is next to self-evident; but if it needs any illustration, it may easily be given. We know it is not right that a present generation should be punished for the sins of a future generation. What possible guilt can the present generation derive from a future generation? Suppose God now knows all the sins that the next generation after this shall commit; and suppose he now knows that their sins will be enormously great; and suppose they shall surpass, in number and guilt, the sins of all former generations; can this knowledge of the next generation justify God in punishing us for their sins? How can God justly punish us for the sins of a generation that are gone off from the stage of life, any more than he can justly punish us for the sins of a generation that have not yet come upon the stage of life? Though we have committed as many and as great sins as the generations that are dead and gone; yet their sins are no more our sins, than our sins are their sins; and, by consequence, we no more deserve to be punished for their sins, than they deserved to be punished for our sins before we existed. It is true, we may approve of the sins of a generation that are dead and gone, which are recorded in the Bible; but we cannot approve of the sins of a future generation that we know nothing about. This, however, makes no difference in the case, because our approbation of a former generation's conduct is our sin and not theirs. So that it remains true, that God cannot, in justice, punish one generation for the sins of another. 2. It is just that God should punish all generations for their own sins. All who have sinned deserve to be punished; and as all generations from Adam to Christ had sinned, so God had a right to punish all generations from Adam to Christ, according to their desert. It belongs to God, as the proprietor and governor of the world, to punish every generation from age to age, for their own sins; and no generation can have the least ground to complain, if God does give them the due reward of their own transgressions. Yet, 3. God might, if he had pleased, passed by the sins of all generations. Though God may punish men for their sins in this life, yet he is not bound in justice to punish them here. This world is designed to be a state of probation, and not a state of rewards and punishments. God has appointed a future day in which to judge, and a future state in which to reward and punish mankind. And he is not obliged to judge any before that day, nor punish any before they enter into that state. Accordingly we find that he has not, in fact, punished either persons or generations according to their deserts, in this world. Some very wicked men have lived and died in peace and prosperity; and some very wicked generations have come upon, and gone off, the stage of life without any signal marks of the divine displeasure. This led Solomon to consider and declare, that "the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath." God often passes by the more guilty, and punishes the less guilty sinners in this life. So that we cannot distinguish the greatest from the least sinners by their impunity or punishment in this world. This Christ has assured us by his reply to those "that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices:" "Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Scripture, reason and universal observation unite to prove, that God might have passed by all past generations with impunity. He has never been bound in point of justice to punish men in this world according to their deserts. He might have spared all generations from Adam to Christ from their deserved punishment. He has a right to wait till the day of judgment before he punishes any person or generation, according to the full demerit of their sins. 4. It is right that God should punish one generation and not another. If he has a right to punish all generations, or to spare all generations, then he certainly has a right to punish one generation and not another. He has always acted as a Sovereign in sparing, or punishing particular generations. There had been several generations before the Flood, but he continued his patience towards them all, except the last. Though he saw one generation after another becoming more and more corrupt, yet he waited till the last generation, before he involved them in one general ruin. The Egyptians, age after age, continued and increased in every species of iniquity and vile abominations; but God delayed to destroy them, until they had filled up the measure of their sins and provocations, in the days of Moses, when God poured out the vials of his wrath upon them. God treated the seven nations of Canaan in the same manner, and did not destroy them until they had ripened themselves for ruin. That generation of Israel which came out of Egypt, deserved to be destroyed with the Egyptians and Amorites; but yet God waited forty years before he caused them to perish in the wilderness. The ten tribes of Israel were extremely corrupt, when they revolted from God and turned unto idols; but yet he waited many years before he sifted them over the earth as grain is sifted in a sieve. Judah at the same time deserved to be cut off; but God only sent them into a long captivity to reform them, and never ruined them as a nation, until they had crucified and rejected the Lord of glory. Thus God has a right, and has always exercised that right, to punish one generation and not another. 5. When God does spare one generation and punish another, he always has some good reasons for both sparing and punishing. Though he might, in justice, punish every generation, and though he might, in goodness, spare every generation; yet, in wisdom, he may spare one generation, and punish another. He spares, or punishes, in this world, in order to answer some wise and good designs in this probationary state. Sometimes these wise purposes will be best answered by sparing, and sometimes by punishing. It was necessary that Judah should be spared till Shiloh came; and it was necessary that the ten tribes should be cut off before that important event. As God is the governor of the world, it becomes him to make the inhabitants of the earth know that he is the Lord; which he does most effectually by punishing them from time to time, for their iniquities. Accordingly we are told, "The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth." And he says |