mystery we must consider man in a twofold view--as an individual and
as the member of a community.

As individuals mankind are solely accountable for the parts which they
act personally. In the judgment of the great day, they will only be
judged for the use which they shall have made of the talents committed
to them here--"We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to
that he hath done, whether good or bad,"

But every individual is a member of the human race, and of some
community. The race, as such, and the larger branches of it, the
nations and empires into which it is divided, are amenable to the
Supreme Governor, and liable to punishment, if in their public
characters, they rebel against him. And righteous individuals, may be
involved in the judgments sent to punish the sins of the community to
which they belong. They often are so. Personal rectitude is not
designated by an exemption from national calamities. Discriminations
will eventually be made in its favor, but not here. Here "all things
come alike unto all, and there is one event to the righteous and the
wicked."

To _shew such to be the general rule of the divine administration in
the government of the world, is the design of the following
discourse_: Which will explain the text.

The world, and the communities into which it is divided, have their
probation no less than persons; and there are reasons in which God
enters into judgment with them and adjusts retributions to their moral
states.

In discussing the subject, we shall treat, _first of families, then of
larger communities, and of the world_.

The first family of our race affords an example to our purpose. Before
that family was increased by a single branch issuing from it, it
rebelled against God, and God entered into judgment with it, and
punished its sin upon it. And the punishments was not restricted to
the offending pair, but extended to their race in common with
themselves: All were doomed to sufferings and death _in consequence of
their sin_. And the sentence hath been executing upon them from that
period to the present time. Mankind have gone through life sorrowing;
and "death hath reigned even over those, who have not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression." Neither have discriminations
been made in favor of the saints, but they have been involved in the
general calamity, and groaned with the r