Observe 2. One special sin God visits for, is idolatry and image-worship. " Visiting the iniquity of the fathers." Most of God's envenomed arrows have been shot among idolaters, Jer. vii. 12., " Go now into my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it." God, for Israel's idolatry suffered their ar- my to be routed, — their priests slain, — the ai-k taken captive ; and we never read that the ark returned to Shiloh any more. Je- rusalem was the most famous metropolis of the world ; there was the temple, Ps. cxxii. 4., " Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord." Yet, for their high places and images, their city was besieged and ta- ken by the Chaldean forces, 2 Kings xxv. 4. Wlien images we're set up in Constan- tinople, the chief seat of the Eastern em- pire, this city — which was in the eye of the world impregnable — was taken by the Turks, and many cruelly massacred. Then the Turks in their triumphs reproached the idolatrous Christians, causing an image or crucifix to be carried through the streets in contempt, and throwing dirt upon it, cried, " This is the God of the Christians !" Here was God's visitation for their idolatry. God hath set special marks of his wrath upon idolaters ; at a place called Epoletium, there ])crished by an earthquake 350 per- sons, while they were offering sacrifice to idols. Idolatry hath brought misery upon the Eastern churches, it removed the gol- den crndlesticks of Asia. This iniquity God visits for.
Observe 3. Idolatrous persons are enemies not only to their own souls, but to their
children : ' Visiting the iniquity of the fa- thers upon their children.' As an idola- trous father entails his land of inheritance, so he entails God's anger and curse upon them. A jealous husband, finding his wife liath stained her integrity, may justly cast off her and her children too, because they are none of his. If the father be a traitor to his prince, no wonder if all the children suffer. God may visit the iniquity of im- age-worshippers upon their children.
Quest. But is it not said, " Every one shall die for his own sin ; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father ?" How then doth God say, He " will visit the iniquity <f the fathers upon the children ?"
Ans. Though the son be not damned for his father's sin, yet he may be severely punished, Job xxi. 19., " God layeth up his iniquity for his children ;" that is, God lays up the punishment of his iniquity for his children ; the child smarts for the fatlier's sin. Jero- boam thought to have established the king- dom by idolatrous woi'ship, but it brouglit ruin upon him and all his posterity, 1 Kings xiv. 10. Ahab's idolatry wronged his pos- terity, they lost the kingdom, and weie all beheaded, 2 Kings x. 7., " They took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons." There God visited the iniquity of the father upon the children. As a son catcheth an hereditary disease from his father, the stone or gout ; so he catcheth misery from him, his father's sin ruins him.
Use \st. If so, then how sad is it to be the child of an idolater ? It had been sad to have been one of Gehazi's children, who had leprosy entailed upon them, 2 Kings V. 27., " The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever." So it is sad to be a child of an idolater, or image-worshipper ; his seed are exj)osed to God's heavy judgments in this life; " God visits the iniquity of the fathers \\\>- on their children." INIethinks I hear God speak, as, Isa. xiv. 21., " Prepare slaugh- ter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers."
Use 2d. See what a privilege it is to be the children of good parents ; the parents are in covenant with (}od, and God lays up mercy for their posterity, Prov. xx. 7., " The just man walketh in his integrity.
OF THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.
his children are blessed after him." A re- ligious parent doth not procure wrath, but helps to keep off wrath from his child ; he seasons his child with religious principles, he prays down a blessing on his child ; he is a loadstone drawing his child to Christ by good counsel and example. O what a privilege is it to be born of godly religious parents ! St. Austin saith, that his mother Monica travailed with greater care and pains for his new birth than for his natural. Wicked idolaters entail misery on their posterity ; God " visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children ;" but religious parents procure a blessing upon their chil- dren ; God reserves mercy for their pos- terity.