When sundry of the princes of Israel rebelled against God in the wilderness, and attempted a subversion of the government which God had instituted for his people, they did not perish alone, but their families perished with them, though no intimations are given that they were all partakers in their sin—­yea, though it is more than intimated that some of them were not capable of partaking in it —­“They came out and stood in the doors of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones.”  And as soon as Moses had warned the congregation, and foretold the manner of their death, “the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses—­and they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth doted upon them; and they perished.” *

* Numbers xvi. 27-33.

To these might be added the families of Achan, Eli, Saul, Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab and others.  No special personal guilt was found on many members of these families.  They died to expiate family guilt.  We know of none chargeable on Abimelech, or the other priests who were slain by order of Saul.  The sins of Eli and his house, were punished upon them, agreeably to the divine denunciation, first by a nameless prophet; afterwards by Samuel.  In one of the sons of Jeroboam, “were found good things toward the Lord God of Israel:”  Therefore was he removed by an early death, and the residue of the family were afterwards destroyed with the sword to punish the sin of the father, “who had sinned and made Israel to sin.”

The divine administration is still the same.  In later ages instances might be adduced, especially among princes, of families extirpated (after a term of family probation, which had been abused by wickedness and dishonored by crimes) to punish family guilt.  But these might be more liable to be disputed than those recorded in sacred history.  Though we think it evident, from common observation, that the curse of heaven usually rests on the descendants of those who cast off the fear of God and harden themselves in sin, and that God visits the iniquities of fathers on their children.

We turn our attention next to larger communities.  Here we find the divine administration regulated by the same rules.

Morals are as necessary to larger communities as to families, or individuals, alike required of them.  And they are equally amenable to HIM who is over all, and receive like returns from his impartial hands, according to their works.  The chief difference made between communities and persons, respects the time and place, in which they are judged and rewarded:  Respecting the former, they take place in this world; respecting the latter, in that to come.  Persons will live again after death.  Communities, as such, exist only here.  Here therefore communities must be remunerated [sic].  They are so.  God tries them, and proportions retributions to their moral state.  “Righteousness exalteth a nation;” but wickedness degrades and destroys it.  The strength and happiness of a people are proportioned to their morals, and increase and diminish with them.