I will judge you, O house of Israel! every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. But this view of the subject is still vague and imperfect. To show to its full extent, the truth of this precept, and the justice of the inference, we must enter more minutely into its details, and consider, First, That the ways of God are the ways of light; those of the house of Israel were ways of obscurity and darkness. Secondly, The ways of God are ways of justice; those of the house of Israel, were ways of blasphemy and calumny. Lastly, The ways of God are ways of mercy and compassion; those of the house of Israel were ways of revenge and despair. From each of these divisions we may draw this exhortation, "Be ye converted, and live." It is true, that while we still bear in mind that these words were originally addressed to the Israelites, we shall be more anxious to apply them to the Christians of the present time, and now propose to consider, whose meaning could only be decyphered by superior minds; and if he had condemned us, because we knew not things, which were placed beyond our reach, we might have remonstrated against so unjust a dispensation; but on the contrary, he has brought his laws to the level of our capacity; he has spoken, explained, and entreated. Is not then the way of God, an enlightened way? Is it not an equal way? But we shall see, if we consider farther, that the way of the house of Israel is unequal; it is a way of darkness; and I deplore that we are formed on so imperfect a model, for what was the conduct of the house of Israel? Or rather, what is our conduct? Like the Israelites of old, who lost themselves in speculating on the imputations which they pretended were cast on them of the sins of their fathers, we forsake the plain path, and entangle ourselves in the labyrinths of controversy. We are ingenious in raising difficulties, in forming new systems, and above all in agitating useless questions. First, That the ways of God are the ways We inquire, why, if God loves justice, does he of light; by which I mean, that there is no per- permit sin to enter the world? Why if he son educated in the Christian religion, who can wishes us to remain virtuous, does he imbe ignorant of the conduct of God towards plant in us dispositions opposed to virtue? men, who does not know that he will regulate Why, if our future state of happines or misery our future state, according to the manner in depends on our thoughts, actions, and motives, which we have fulfilled our duties, and obeyed does he say that he has fixed it from all eterhis commandments here: or the sincerity of our nity? Why, if we are weak and feeble when repentance when we have transgressed them, we ought to do good, are we exhorted to strive or through the weakness of our nature lost to conquer this weakness, and surmount this sight of them. He has expressed himself so feebleness? Why, if we inherit sin from our distinctly on this point, that the most limited ancestors, are we reproached with it, as if it capacity may understand, without difficulty, were our own work, and the object of our what is his will. He has declared it to men choice? In this manner we argue, reply, write, under different dispensations. Some had only dispute, declaim, heap answer upon answer, the light of nature, to others he gave the law, objection upon objection; volumes multiply to on others he shed the bright beams of the an indefinite extent: and thus we lose in idle gospel. He has also employed various means speculations, time that might be employed to for their instruction. Some he has taught by advantage in action and practice. Hence orithe light of reason; some by supernatural reve-ginate party-distinctions, scholastic disputalations; some by traditions; some by the ministry of the patriarchs; some by that of the prophets; some by his apostles, and his ministers, their successors in the church. He has also proposed to men different motives; sometimes he has urged the remembrance of past favours; sometimes, the hope of future benefits; sometimes, he terrifies by his threatenings; at others allures, by his gracious promises: at one period he speaks aloud in his judgments, at another by his mercies. But what is the end proposed in all these different dispensations, these various motives? all tend to one grand point, to show us, that there are but these two ways of attaining heaven, by perfect obedience, or by sincere repentance. This is the object of all God's threatenings, promises, mercies, and chastisements; the sum of the predictions of his prophets; the warnings of his ministers; the preaching of his apostles, and the testimony of his saints. This is the lesson taught by the law of nature, revelation, and tradition: and of this none can be ignorant, unless they are wilfully so. Thus we see that the way of God is equal and well ordered; if he had hidden truths, important to our welfare, beneath the impenetrable darkness of his counsels, if the eternal rules for our conduct were written in hieroglyphics, tions, and hatred disguised under the mask of zeal in the cause of religion. From this has proceeded all the persecutions of the church in past ages, and this spirit would still engender persecution, if the wisdom of God did not set bounds to theological zeal. "O house of Israel, are not my ways equal; are not your ways unequal?" Is not this principle clearly demonstrated' is it not a self-evident conclusion, that all which influences our practice, all which relates to the sentiments of the heart in matters of religion, is infinitely more important than idle speculation and mere profession, an attachment to a form that leaves the mind unimpressed? I acknowledge that there are errors, so great as to be incompatible with the true fear of God; and dogmas of such a nature, that it is impossible to attend to them, without overturning religion altogether. They give an idea of God directly opposed to his perfections. But in this place I do not speak of these misrepresentations and errors, but of the questions started by the house of Israel, and the groundless objections raised among ourselves in the present day; and I affirm, that it is ridiculous to neglect the practical parts of religion, and to be absorbed (to use such an expression,) to waste the capacity of the mind on the study of curious and useless questions, to the neglect of essential and indis- | given a right judgment, but why judgest thou pensable duties. God has intimated to us, that not thyself also. For like as the ground is these points are of minor importance, when given unto the wood, and the sea unto his compared with practical duties, by being less floods, even so they that dwell upon the earth explicit in his declarations, less clear in his ex- may understand nothing but that which is upon planations concerning them. We cannot sup- the earth; and he that dwelleth upon the heapose that a God infinitely wise and good, who vens may only understand the things that are delights in the welfare of his creatures, would above the height of the heavens. hide in darkness those precepts, and those truths, which are intimately connected with their salvation, while he threw light on those that have no relation to their present and future happiness or misery. Let us apply this fable to ourselves; let us forsake this unequal way, and embrace an equal way; let us quit the paths of darkness, and walk in the brilliant paths of light; and let not our inability to understand certain abstruse parts of religion, prevent us from acquiescing in plain truth, that we must be converted, if we would live. "Turn ye, and live." Secondly. The ways of God are the ways of justice; those of the house of Israel were ways of calumny and blasphemy. Here we recur to the proverb, which we find at the be He has then arranged each in its own place, and given its proper importance to practice, while he has left some scope for speculation: the practical parts of religion must be regarded as the essentials; the speculative parts as mere accessories. A man, who in his spiritual life should neglect the great duties attached to his profession, or sacrifice them to these unim-ginning of the chapter from which the text is portant researches, is like one, who in the natural life, should neglect to take food, till he had studied its nature, and perfectly understood the effect it would take, and its connexion with the body. taken, and which gave the chief occasion for the words that we are explaining; "Our fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." The meaning of this proverb is obvious; the Jews therein intimate that God punishes posterity for the sins of their an that time, for crimes committed by their fathers, in which they had no share. This proverb was very common among them. The Jews taken captive with Jehoiachim used it in Babylon: those who remained in Judea employed it also. And while Ezekiel expostulat Besides, if we allow the desire of penetrating into hidden things to be in itself praise-wor-cestors; that they were actually suffering at thy, and we make a considerable progress in the knowledge of them, we shall still understand them but imperfectly, and be guilty of great rashness in pushing our researches beyond a certain limit. Here appears an important difference between a person of an exalted mind, and one of a meaner capacity. A meaned with the former, in the words of the text, capacity is easily overcome by what are called Jeremiah addressed a similar warning to the the great difficulties in religion; the mysteries latter, in the xxxist chapter of his prophecies. of the decrees of God; his eternity and his om- It is difficult to trace the origin of so odious an nipresence. On the other hand, a superior idea. There are, however, some passages of mind feels that all these difficulties carry their Scripture from which it must have been inferred. solution with them; when he meditates on ab- God had declared not only that he was a jeastruse subjects, he does it with the full convic- lous God, but that he would "visit the sins of tion that he can never perfectly understand the fathers upon the children, unto the third them, and he stops when he has pursued them and fourth generations;" and had justified in to a certain length. I here recollect a remark- several instances this idea that he had given of able passage in the fourth Book of Esdras. himself. When Moses had addressed to him The author there represents himself as raising that fervent prayer contained in the xxxiid the same objections and difficulties respecting chapter of Exodus, by which this lawgiver the conduct of God towards his people, and de- averted the punishments due to the Israelites siring an angel to explain them to him. The for the idolatry of the golden calf, God anangel satisfies him by relating the following in-swered, "In the day when I visit, I will visit genious fable: I went into a forest into a plain, and the trees took counsel, and said, Come, let us go and make war against the sea, that it may depart away before us, and that we may make us more woods. The floods of the sea also in like manner took counsel, and said, Come, let us go up and subdue the woods of the plain, that there also we may make us another country. The thought of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it. The thought of the floods of the sea came likewise to nought, for the sand stood up and stopped them. If thou wert judge now betwixt these two, whom wouldst thou begin to justify? or whom wouldst thou condemn? I answered and said, Verily it is a foolish thought that they both have devised, for the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea also hath his place to bear his floods. Then answered he me, and said, Thou hast their sin upon them." From this expression the Jews thought, that if God extended his pardon to those who were guilty of this idolatry, he would reserve his vengeance for a future period, and throw the sin and punishment of it on posterity. In the works of one of the Jewish writers there is this remarkable passage, "There is affliction thou art suffering at this time, O Israel! that is not increased by the idolatry of the golden calf." The holy Scriptures furnish numerous instances, in which we see the children sharing the punishment due to the crimes of their pa rents. In some cases we even see the punishments fall on the children, while the fathers were altogether exempt from suffering. The family of Achan were included in the judgment of their father. The descendants of Saul were punished for his perfidy towards the Gibeonites. The child born to David, by Bath sheba, died a premature death, to expiate a crime of adultery, for which he could not be held responsible. But the most remarkable circumstance in the subject now under consideration, is, that the two great divisions of the Jews, that of the ten tribes, and that of the kingdom of Judah, are sometimes represented as the penalty due to crimes committed by men who had ceased to live before they happened. Hear what the prophet Ahijah said to the wife of Jeroboam, "Go tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people İsrael, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee, and yet thou hast not been as my servant David. Therefore, behold I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam; him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city, shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field, shall the fowls of the air eat, and he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam." This relates to the captivity of the ten tribes; and we find the same judgments pronounced against the kingdom of Judah. "Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem, and Judah, and I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria," 2 Kings xxi. 11-13. Thus there seemed to be some foundation for the proverb, "The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Because we cannot reconcile the doctrine of imputed crime, with the rewards offered as incentives to virtue, should we renounce the practice of virtue? Let us examine ourselves, my brethren, let us inquire what are our thoughts of God, whether they are consistent with the humility we ought to possess; let us defend our sentiments with more modesty, and recollect, that the best solution of the difficulties in religion and Providence, is a conviction, and confession, that we are weak and shortsighted, that our capacity is limited, and we are mistaken. 2. We should consider the import of the declarations against which the house of Israel so insolently rebelled. When God declared that for the sin of Manasseh, he would in after ages bring destruction on Jerusalem, did he say, that the subjects should be involved in everlasting misery for the crimes of their king? I candidly acknowledge, my brethren, that this appears severe; and, at first view, unjust. If one commit a crime fifty years ago, and for this crime, his son shall be condemned to eternal torments while he escapes unpunished, I own that, whatever is my idea of Divine omniscience and omnipresence, as well as of the weakness of my own understanding, I could hardly persuade myself to regard as a transcript of the Divine will, a book in which such a doctrine was held out, unreservedly and without restrictions. But to put the case in a different light, we will suppose that a king committed a crime, and that his posterity shall at a future period suffer some temporal chastisement; in this we see no shadow of injustice; the difference between this, and the first mentioned case, is wide. God can make no amends to man whom he shuts up in eternal misery, but he can amply compensate the trouble endured by him, who is involved in the temporal calamities of a rebellious people. A nation may be compared to the human body; it has its seasons of youth, manhood, and old age. God may It is not necessary in this place to discuss the visit in old age the sins committed in youth. abstruse and difficult doctrine of original sin. If he in mercy spared his people during the first We are accused by some theologians of not en-years of their rebellion, he is obliged by his tering at sufficient length on this subject, and of keeping it enveloped in obscurity; but if we attempted to contradict the false and pedantic ideas, and to correct the mistakes prevalent, we should find ourselves involved in difficulties, and should probably render little service to the cause we undertook to advocate. We are well convinced that means would not be wanting to justify religion from any apparent contradictions, but we leave this task to other hands; we are not here to treat of original sin, our concern is with the line of conduct that God pursued with regard to the people to whom the prophet was speaking; and in this view the way of the Israelites was a way of calumny and blasphemy, in opposition to the way of God, which was one of justice and equity. But this reproach was in itself a spot of guilt; and in this second point of view the way of God is equal, and the way of Israel unequal: that the way of God is a way of justice, and that of the house of Israel a way of blasphemy and calumny. 1. Admitting that our understanding is not sufficiently illuminated, to comprehend how God can, consistently with justice, punish posterity for crimes committed by their forefathers, are we on that account to accuse him of iniquity? Because we do not understand the motives which influence the Divine dispensations, shall we take upon ourselves to condemn them? justice, to punish them severely, when their posterity, far from repairing the crimes of their ancestors, become partisans in them. There is one evil which naturally and unavoidably results from this law, that if among this guilty nation, there be an individual, who abhors from his heart, and abstains in practice from their wickedness, he will perish with them; but such a one God will abundantly repay. The same stroke which brings destruction on the guilty, shall crown the righteous with glory; in his life it will draw him off from temporal things, by depriving him of the object of his wishes, but it will render him more meet for eternal joy. The same stroke which precipitates the wicked into the deepest recesses of infernal torments, will open the gates of heaven to the just, and admit him to an eternity of bliss. God expressly declared to the Israelites, that although he commonly punished the children for the sins of their fathers, thus visiting them on the third and fourth generations, he would not do so in their case. If the condemnation pronounced, on account of the sin of Manasseh, appeared un justly severe, he revoked it in their favour; he declared to them that he would forget the sins of their king, and all their idolatry, and act toward them as if this wicked monarch had promoted instead of endeavoured to destroy religion and virtue. He might have thus addressed them: "You complain of my conduct in punishing the children for the sin of their fathers, you charge it with injustice; I will punish your sin by acting differently towards you. I will judge you according to your ways. In those days they shall say no more, “The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge," Jer. xxxi. 29, 30; "and to him that hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel; hath not defiled his neighbour's wife; neither hath oppressed any; hath not withholden the pledge; neither hath spoiled by violence; but hath given his bread to the poor, and covered the naked with a garment. But again. The soul that sinneth, shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father; neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him," Ezek. xviii. 15. 20. But was it just, was it reasonable, that a nation guilty not only of sins, but of crimes of the blackest dye, and the most aggravated nature, a people chargeable with, and actually committing at that time, all the abominations with which God reproached their forefathers, and who, according to the language of Jesus Christ, "filled up the measure of their fathers," Matt. xxiii. 32; given to idolatry, lasciviousness, and covetousness, forgetful of God, and who neglected his worship; was it reasonable, I inquire, that a people of this description should seek so anxiously, should spend their time in making fruitless researches into the history of former generations, for the causes of the punishments they endured? Was there not sufficient reason in their own sinful and guilty conduct, for the infliction of scourges still more dreadful? How did they dare, who, to recall the language of their own proverb, had the sour grape still between their teeth, and far from loathing and abhorring it, made it their delight, to say, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?" "Put the case to your consideration, my brethren, in another form; let us suppose we ourselves in inquiring the causes of the Divine judgments which fall continually on us, were to look back to the first ages of this nation, to examine the characters and conduct of our first conquerors, by what unjust and cruel means they attained the object of their ambition; with what sinister views they framed our constitution; how many widows and orphans they oppressed; how they polluted the holy places, and profaned the sanctuaries; how insensible they were to the sufferings of the church; how all their plans were formed without regarding the prosperity of religion; how worldly was their policy; how they persecuted the ministers and servants of God, who boldly and zealously reproved their crimes And were to trace back to them as did the Jews, the severe dispensations of God, we should then be involved in the same guilty and blasphemous conduct as they were. But do we suppose we should be gainers, if God were to forget the crimes of our fathers, and to judge every one according to his own works? My brethren, let the blind and misguided heathens say, Delicta majorum immeritus lues, Romane. O ye innocent Romans, ye must expiate the sins of your ancestors. Far from supposing that the house of Israel were suffering for the sins of their fathers, let us remember the words of Jeremiah, and apply them not only to the children of Israel, but view them as pointing to us also. "And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us, or what is our iniquity, or what is our sin, that we have committed against the Lord our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have not kept my law, and ye have done worse than your fathers; for behold ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favour." 3. We observed in the former part of this discourse, that the ways of God were ways of mercy and kindness, and those of the Israelites, were on the contrary, ways of malignity and despair. This will lead us, in concluding this discourse, more closely to consider and meditate upon these delightful and consolatory words in our text, "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart, and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." The Israelites carried their fury and despair to so great a length, that when the prophets denounced upon them the judgments of God, they drew the inference, that they were condemned without hope of mercy. They regarded the Divinity as a cruel and unjust Being, who delighted to overwhelm them with misfortunes, instead of considering him in his true character, as a merciful and gracious God, who called them to repentance by his threatenings, and who declared to them, that in the riches of his mercy there was yet a way open to salvation; they rejected all the offers of his grace as deceitful words, and thought any acts of humiliation or repentance that they could attempt, to avert the divine anger, very unlikely to produce any effects on decrees already become irrevocable. There are in the sacred volume two passages, that point remarkably to this subject. The first that I shall notice, is in the eighteenth chapter of Jeremiah; God after having humbled the people by the predictions of their appoaching desolation, again proposed to them means to avert its dreadful consequences. He desired 416 THE CONDUCT OF GOD TO MEN, the prophet to suppose himself placed in the proposed by these judgments? All tend to the same conclusion. God sought for the just, for those who still remained faithful to him, or, rather he sought those penitent and humble sinners who, by their tears, their repentance, and return to God, obtained mercy, and averted the stroke of his justice. Thus we see, that God is full of compassion, as well as mercy; he showed his tenderness towards us as much, when he sent a mortality among our cattle, as when he preserved their life; when he sent floods of water over the country, as when he made it fruitful; when he shipwrecked our vessels, as when he filled their sails with a favourable wind and brought them safe into port. His loving-kindness is visible when he gives us over to our enemies, as well as when he crowns us with victory; when he delivers our possessions into the hands of others, as much as when he increases our wealth; when he sends national calamities as when he gives us prosperity. His favours, his judgments, all call upon us to repent, to be converted, that we may enjoy everlasting felicity. O highlyfavoured, beloved nation, if while his wrath was hot against thee, he still opened so many cities of refuge, when he was ready to overwhelm thee with his judgments, what is his favour now, he is loading thee with benefits. O highly-favoured nation, if God so powerfully protected thee during the years of thy rebellion, whilst thou wast lukewarm in his service, and living in the habitual neglect of his sabbaths, whilst thou wast harbouring in thy bosom his bitterest enemies and forgetting all his holy laws, in the dissipations of the world, how would he act towards thee if thou became grateful and sensible of his goodness? How would he distinguish thee with his mercy, if, amidst the rebellious spirit of the age, thou wast the open and declared friend of religion, and openly defended it from the attacks of its inveterate foes? if thou makest his sabbaths thy delight, attend diligently on his worship with fervour, devotion, humility, zeal, and all those feelings of self-abasement, which become human beings when approaching the throne of their Creator, to pay their adoration, and to praise him for their existence and happiness? What I have here remarked as applied to the nation is suitable also to every individual composing it; none has any reason to say, there is no hope, how shall we live? There is, I acknowledge, among us a class of sinners, who appear to have exhausted the stores of the Divine mercy, and seem to have reason for inquiring, how shal! we live? We would answer this question by another, Why will ye die? I would still oppose the mercy of my God to their terror and unbelief: yes, to the most guilty I would repeat this offer; let him, with all his objections, and as well as he is able, with all the reasons he has for despairing of pardon, let him look back on a life stained by the commission of crimes, and let him search into all the poisoned sources of despair, for any thing to justify this proposition; there is no hope, how shall we live? I will throw open to his view all the treasures of God's mercy, which will cure all his wounds, if he will resort to them; I will display the depths of the |