his Innocence into Guilt. But no other Being whatsoever can do it. Nor Man, nor God, by any Constitution whatever, can poffibly make a Thing to be, what it is not; can make Innocence to be No-Innocence, or juftly account an innocent Perfon, continuing fuch, not innocent. Confequently no just Conftitution can PUNISH the Innocent, because PUNISHING implies that the Subject is not innocent. PUNISHING the Innocent is acting. directly against the eternal and immutable Nature of Things. Nor doth this Author, or R. R. in his Elay, give us one Inftance of innocent Pofterity PUNISHED for the Faults of Ancestors by the Laws or Conftitutions of any Nations upon Earth. Or, if any fuch Law were found, it must be judged false and unjuft. Both thefe Gentlemen flip in the Word PUNISH, without attending to its true Force, and confound it with SUFFERING; as if to fuffer and to be punijh'd were the fame Thing.

NOR in the Scripture-Inftances they have produced, is it faid, that the Crimes of Parents were PUNISHED upon Children, as they have unwarily affirmed; R. R. p. 121. Vind. p. 7, &c. The Facts they alledge in Regard to Ham's and Gehazi's Pofterity, and the Children of Dathan and Abiram* fuffering through

*R. R. and the Vindicator add the Children of Krah and Achan. But the Children of Korah died not,

Numb.

through the Sins of their Parents are allowed. But the Fact is one Thing, and the Reafon of the Fact is another. The Fact may be true, but the Reafon affigned for it falfe. It is Fact that the Children fuffered, but it is false that the Guilt of Parents was imputed to them, or that they were PUNISHED for their Crimes. Because this is contrary to exprefs Scripture, and the Truth and Reason of Things. On the other hand, Children in fuch Instances are evidently regarded as the Property and Poffeffions, the most dear and valuable ENJOYMENTS of Parents, and come under the fame general Confideration with Cattle, Land, Fruits of the Earth, &c. confequently in the Inftances alledged, the Parents only were punished by the Sufferings of the Children; which Sufferings had not refpect to the Sin of Pofterity, unless to prevent it, but only to the Sin of the Parents, how much or how long foever Pofterity might fuffer. This appears from feveral Paffages in Scripture. Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 22, 28, 29.---I will punish you seven times more for YOUR Sins.-Your Land shall not yield her Increase, --- and if ye walk contrary unto me, I will bring feven times more Plagues upon you, according to YOUR Sins. I will alfo fend wild Beafts among * C

you,

Numb. xxvi. 11. And it is a Question whether the Children of Achan were stoned with him: But if they were, they might be privy to the Father's Crime; for the accurfed Thing was hid in his Tent, where his Family lived, Joh. vii. 22. Vid. Patrick's Comment.

you, which fhall ROB you of your Children, and deftroy your Cattle. Here both Children and Cattle are confidered, not as Criminals, not as involved in Sin and Guilt, but as Poffeffions and Enjoyments. And tho' the Children and Cattle would fuffer, yet only the Parents and Owners would be punished. Ver. 28, 29.I will chaflife you feven times for YOUR Sins; and ye shall eat the Flesh of your Sons, and the Flesh of your Daughters fhall ye eat. Numb. xiv. 32, 33. As for you, who have murmured against me, your Carcafes they fhall fall in this Wilderness; and your Children fhall wander in the Wilderness forty Years, and bear YOUR Whoredoms, Deut. xxviii. 15, 18, 41. If thou wilt not hearken unto the Voice of the Lord thy God, curfed fall be the Fruit of thy Body, and the Fruit of thy Land-Thou shalt beget Sons and Daughters, but thou shalt not ENJOY them: for they fhall go into Captivity. 2 Sam. xii. 14. The Child also which is born unto thee, David, who haft done wickedly, fhall die. Ifai. xiii. 11, 16. And I will PUNISH the World for their Evil,and the Wicked for THEIR Iniquity, &c. Their Children also shall be dashed to pieces before their Eyes. Jer. xi. 22.—I will PUNISH THEM, the Men of Anathoth the young Men fhall die by the Sword, their Sons and their Daughters fhall die by Famine. It is thus that God vifits the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children. Jer. xxiii. 34.xxix. 32.-I will punish Shemaiah-and his

Seed.

;

Seed. In the Hebrew it is, I will vifit upon Shemaiah,—and upon his Seed. To visit doth not in itself fignify to punish, but is of a general Signification, and apply'd to Good as well as Evil. Exod. iii.16. Pfal. cvi. 4. Job xxxv. 15. Prov. xix. 23. A Perfon may indeed be punished who is vifited, because he is the proper Criminal; but those who are visited may not be punished, because they do not fuffer on Account of their own Sin, but only by way of Difpenfation and wife Appointment. Therefore the Vifitation of Shemaiah, the Parent, was of one Kind, and the Vifitation of his Seed of another. For the Scripture directs us to conceive, not that the Child is punished, but that the Sin of the Parent is punished in the Sufferings of the Child. In fhort, it is evident in all thofe Cafes, Children are confidered not as Criminals, involved in Guilt, but as Enjoyments. And as God has a Right to punish us in any of our Enjoyments, fo no Doubt this particular Inftance of punishing Parents in their Children, their dearest Comforts and Enjoyments, is wifely appointed for good Purposes. The fovereign Lord, who daily takes away the Lives of Infants, or of others, in what Way and whenfoever he fees best, and who often fuffers the Righteous to fall with the Wicked in publick Judgments, may cut off Children with rebellious Parents, to ftrike a deeper Terror into thofe that furvive, and to caution them more effectually C 2 against

against the like Offences. The Governour of the World, who has a Right to settle every Man's outward Condition as he pleases, may in much Goodness threaten and inflict worse TEMPORAL Circumftances, Poverty, Dilease, or a lefs honourable Situation upon the Posterity of vicious Parents, as the most powerful Motive to deter fuch Parents from Impiety and Wickedness; which by fuch a Difpenfation they are bound to abhor, as they value not only their own, but also the Profperity of those who are dearest to them, and for whofe Welfare they are above all Things folicitous. And this Constitution may likewife turn out very much to the moral Ad-. vantage of Pofterity themselves; efpecially if God forefees fuch Sins are likely to continue and spread in the Family. For as thus the Memory of the Sin will be moft effectually preferved among them, so it must be a much more powerful Motive againft Sin, and give them a deeper Hatred of it, when they know any TEMPORAL Evils are come upon them by the ill Conduct of a Progenitor. And therefore the Ifraelites are frequently directed to recollect, and in their Captivity and Affliction do recollect and confefs the Sins of their Fathers. See 2 Kings xxii. 11, 13, 2 Chron. xxix. 5---10. Neh. ix. 2, 34 to the End. Pfal. xcv. 8, 9. Jer. xiv. 20.---xliv. Lam. v. 7, 8, &c. 20, 21. Zech. i. 2, 3.--fay, when they know any TEMPORAL Evils

are