Ten Sermons, Sermon 3
At Grantham Linc. 19. Iun. 1621.THE THIRD SERMON.
3 KINGS 21.29.
—I will not bring the euill in his dayes: but in his sonnes dayes will I bring the euill vponupon his house.
§. 1. The doubts proposed.I Come now this third time to entreate of this Scripture, and (by Gods helpe) to finish it. Of the three parts whereof, heretofore propounded, viz. 1. Ahabs Humiliation; 2. the Suspension of his iudgement for life; 3. and the Deuolution of it vponupon Iehoram; the two former hauing beene already handled: the last only now remaineth to bee considered of. In the prosecution whereof; as heretofore wee hauehave cleared Gods Holinesse, and Truth: so wee shall be now occasioned to cleare his Iustice, from such imputations, as might seeme to lye vponupon it from this Act. And that in three respects; accordingly as Iehoram, who standeth here punishable for Ahabs sinne, may be considered in a threefold reference to Ahab: that is to say, either relatè, as the sonne of Ahab; or disparatè, as another man from Ahab; or comparatè, as a man a4 King. 3.2.not altogether so bad as Ahab. Now what bQuisquam est hominum, qui fuisse illum [Iouem] Deum credat, tàm iniustū, tam impium, nec mortulium saltem constituta seruantem; apud quos nefas haberetur magnum, alterum pro altero plect… & aliena delicta aliorum ceruicibus vindicari? Arnob. contr. Gent. lib. 7.Iustice first to punish the sonne for the father? or indeed secondly, any one man for another? but most of all thirdly, the lesser offender for the greater?
It is not a matter of so much difficulty,§. 2. for resolution whereof as at the first appearance it seemeth, to cleere these doubts; if all things thereto appertaining bee duly and distinctly considered. The greatest trouble will bee, (the things being of more variety than hardnesse,) to sort them in such manner, as that we may therein proceed orderly and without confusion. Euermore, we know, Certainties must rule Vncertainties; and cleare truths, doubtfull: it will bee therefore expedient for vsus, for the better guiding of our iudgements, first to lay downe some Certainties; and then afterwards by them to measure out fit resolutions to the doubts; and then lastly from the premises to raise some few instructions for our vse.
The first Certainty then,§. 3. the first Certaintie. and a maine one, is this. Howsoeuer things appeare to vsus, yet God neither is, nor can be vniust; as not in any other thing, so neither in his punishments. aRom. 3.5.6.Is God vnrighteous, that taketh vengeance? God forbid: for then how shall God iudge the world? bGen. 18.25.shall not the Iudge of all the earth doe right? Indeed the reasons of his Iustice oftentimes may bee, oftentimes are vnknowne to vsus: but they neuer are, they neuer can be vnrighteous in him. If in a deepe point of Law, a learned discreete Iudge should vponupon sufficient grounds giuegive sentence, flat contrary to what an ordinary by-slander would thinke reason, (as many times it falleth out;) it is not for the grieued party to complaine of iniustice done him: hee should rather impute what is done, to want of skill in himselfe, than of Conscience in the Iudge. Right so, if in many things Gods proceedings hold not proportion with those characters of Iustice and Equitie, which our weake and carnall reason would expresse; wee must thence inferre our owne ignorance, not his iniustice. And that so much the rather; because those matters of Law are such as fall within the comprehension of ordinary reason, whereas the wayes of God, are farre remoued out of our sight, and aduanced aboue our reach: and besides an earthly Iudge is subiect to misprision, mis-information, partiality, corruption, and sundrie infirmities that may vitiate his proceedings; whereas no such thing can possibly fall vponupon the diuine Nature. Dauid hath taught vsus in the Psalme, that cPsal. 36.6.the righteousnesse of God is as the great mountaines, and his iudgements as the great deepe. A great mountaine is eath to bee seene; a man that will but open his eyes cannot ouerlooke it: but who can see into the bottome of the Sea, or finde out what is done in the depths thereof?Whatsoeuer wee doe then; let vsus beware wee measure not dEsay. 55.8.9.his wayes by our wayes, nor his workes by our workes: howsoeuer they seeme to swerue from the rules of our wayes and workes; yet still ePsal. 145.17.the Lord is righteous in all his wayes, and holy in all his workes. Though we cannot fathom the deepes of his iudgements, (for fIoh. 4.11.the Well is deepe, and wee hauehave not wherewithall to draw;) yet let the assurance of the righteousnesse of all his proceedings stand firme and manifest as the mountaines, which can neither be remoued nor hid, but stand fast rooted for euermore. This wee must rest vponupon as a certaine Truth; howsoeuer, whomsoeuer, whensoeuer, God punisheth, he is neuer vniust.
The second Certainty. §. 4. The second Certainty; concerning temporall,To speake of Punishments properly; no temporall euill is simply, and de toto genere a punishment. By temporall euills I vnderstand all the penall euils of this life, that doe or may befall vsus from our bodily conception to our bodily deaths inclusivè; hunger, cold, nakednesse, sicknesses, infirmities, discontents, reproaches, pouerty, imprisonments, losses, crosses, distresses, death, and the rest: in a word, all that aEccles. 1.13.sore trauell, which God hath giuen to the sonnes of man, to be exercised therewith, and that bSirac. 40.1.heauy yoke which is vponupon the sonnes of Adam, from the day that they goe out of their mothers wombe, till the day that they returne to the mother of all things. I say none of all these are properly and de toto genere to bee accounted punishments. For to make a thing simply and properly and formally a Punishment, there are required these three conditions: 1. that it bee painefull, and grieuous to suffer; 2. that it be inflicted for some fault; 3. that it bee inuoluntary, and against the sufferers will. That which hath but the first of these three conditions, may be called after a sort (and truely too) Malum Poenae, a kinde of Punishment. But foreign and properly, that Euill only is a Punishment, wherein the whole three conditions concurre. Now these temporall Euills, though they hauehave the two first conditions; all of them being grieuous to suffer, all of them being inflicted for sinne: yet in the third condition they faile, because they are not inuoluntary simply, and perpetually, and de suo genere inuoluntary: (to omit also a kinde of failing in the second condition; not but that they are euer inflicted for some sinne deseruing them; but for that, there are withall other ends, and reasons for which they are inflicted, and wherunto they are intended, besides and aboue the punishment of the offence.) It may not bee gainesaid indeed, but these things are inuoluntary sometimes in the particular, and especially to some men, euen the least of them: but simply and vniuersally such they are not; since by other-some men, the greatest of them are willingly and cheerefully, not only suffered, but desired. Not but that they are grieuous to the best. (It must needes bee some griefe, as to the Merchant, to see his rich lading cast ouer-board, and to the Patient to hauehave an old festered sore searched and sindged; so to the Christian, to hauehave Gods correcting hand lye heauy vponupon him in some temporall affliction: The Apostle telleth vsus plainely, cHeb. 12.11.No affliction for the present is ioyous, but grieuous. But inuoluntary it is no more in him, than those other things are in them. As therefore the Merchant, though it pittie his heart to see so much wealth irrecouerably lost, yet getteth the best helpe and vseth the best speede he can to empty the vessell of them, for the sauing of his life; and as the Patient, though dest planè quasi saeuitia, medicina de scalp…ll…— Non tamen secari ideirco malum: quia dolores vtiles affert—vlulans ille, & gemens & mugiens inter manus medici, postmodum easdem mercede cumulabit. Tertullian in Scorp. cap. 5.hee smart when the wound is dressed, yet thanketh and seeth the Surgion for his paynes, in hope of future ease: so the Christian, though these temporall euills somewhat trouble him, yet he is willing to them, and he is cheerefull vnderunder them, and he acknowledgeth Gods goodnesse in them, and returneth him thankes for them; because hee knoweth they are sent for his future good, and that they will at the last eHeb 12.11.yeeld them the peaceable fruite of righteousnesse when they shall hauehave beene sufficiently exercised therby. See fAct. 5.41.Peter and Iohn reioycing, when they suffered for the name of Iesus, and St Paul so farre from fearing, that gPhil. 1.23.hee longed after his disolution; and the blessed Martyrs running to a faggot, as to a feast. Verily, Gods children see great good in these things, which others account euills: and therefore they take them not as bare punishments sent to afflict them; but as glorious tryalls to exercise them, as gracious corrections to humble them, as precious receipts to purge, and recouer, and restore, and strengthen them.
So that it is not any of the temporall evills of this life;§. 5. and Eternall punishments. but much rather the euerlasting paines of hell, wherein the just reward and punishment of sinne properly and especially consisteth. aRom. 6.23.The wages of sinne is Death: the proper wages of sinne eternall death. For so the Antithesis in that place giueth it to be vnderstood, viz. of such a death as is opposed to Eternall life, and that is Eternall Death; [The wages of sinne is death: but the gift of God is Eternall life.] Rom. 6. By the distribution of those Eternall punishments then, wee are rather to judge of Gods righteousnesse in recompencing sinners; than by the dispensation of these temporall euills. It was a stumbling blocke to the bforeign. Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet; at Cato paruo: Pompeius nullo. Credimus esse Deos? Vario. See Plat. de leg. Cic. 3. de Nat. deor. Senec. de prouid. Aug. 3. de lib. arb. 2. Menand. apud Stob. Serm. 104.heathen to see good men oppressed and vice prosper: it made them doubt; some whether there were a God, or no; others nothing better, whether a prouidence, or no. But what maruell, if they stumbled, who had no right knowledge either of God, or of his prouidence; when Iob, and Dauid, and other the deare children of God hauehave beene much puzzled with it? Dauid confesseth in Psal. 73. that cPsal. 73.23.his feete had welnigh slipped, when hee saw the prosperity of the wicked: and certainty downe he had beene, had hee not happily stepped dIbid. 17.into the Sanctuary of God, and there vnderstood the end of these men. Temporall euills, though they be sometimes punishments of sinne: yet they are not euer sent as punishments, (because sometimes they hauehave other ends and vses, and are ordinabilia in melius;) and secondly, they are neuer the onelyonly punishments of sinne; because there are greater and more lasting punishments reserued for sinners after this life, of which there is no other vse or end, but to punish; since they are not ordinabilie in melius. If we will make these temporall euills the measure, whereby to judge of the Iustice of God, wee cannot secure our selues from erring dangerously: Gods purposes in the dispensation of these vntounto particular men being vnsearchable. But those euerlasting punishments are they, wherein Gods Iustice shall be manifested to eueryevery eye, in due time; at that last day, which is therefore called by St Paul Rom. 2. eRom 2.5.the day of wrath, and of the reuelation of the righteous iudgment of God. Implying, that howsoeuer God is just in all his iudgements and acts of prouidence, euen vponupon earth; yet the Counsells and Purposes of God in these things are often secret, and past our finding out: but at the last great day, when fIbid. 6.he shall render to eueryevery man according to his workes his euerlasting recompence; then his vengeance shall manifest his wrath, and the righteousnesse of his iudgement shall be reuealed to eueryevery eye in the condigne punishment of vnreconciled sinners. That is the second Certainety; Temporall euills are not alwayes, nor simply, nor properly, the punishments for sinne.
If any man shall be yet vnsatisfied,§. 6. the third certainety; that all Euills of Paine and desire to hauehave Gods Iustice somewhat farther cleared, euen in the disposing of these temporall things: although it be neither safe, nor possible for vsus, to search farre into particulars, yet some generall satisfaction we may hauehave from a third Certainety: and that is this. EueryEvery euill of Paine, whatsoeuer it be, or howsoeuer considered, which is brought vponupon any man, is brought vponupon him euermore for sinne, yea and that also for his owne personall sinne. EueryEvery branch of this assertion would be well marked. I say first, [EueryEvery Euill of Paine, whatsoeuer it be,] whether naturall defects and infirmities in soule or body, or outward afflictions in goods, friends, or good name; whether inward distresses of an afflicted, or terrours of an affrighted conscience; whether temporall or eternall Death; whether euills of this life, or after it: or whatsoeuer other euill it be, that is any way greiuous to any man; eueryevery such euill is for sinne.
§. 7. …owsoeuer considered,I Say secondly, eueryevery euill of paine, howsoeuer considered: whether formally, and sub ratione poenae, as the proper effect of Gods vengeance and wrath against sinne; or as a fatherly correction and chasticement, to nurture vsus for some past sinne, or as a medicinall preseruatiue, to strengthen vsus against some future sinne; or as a clogging chaine to keepe vnderunder and disable vsus from some outward worke of sinne; or as a fit matter and obiect whereon to exercise our Christian graces of faith, charity, patience, humility, and the rest; or as an occasion giuen and taken by Almighty God, for the greater manifestation of the glory of his Wisedome, and Power, and Goodnesse, in the remoueal of it; or as an act of Exemplary iustice, for the admonition and terrour of others; or for whatsoeuer other end, purpose, or respect it be inflicted.
§. 8. are for the si…neI say thirdly, EueryEvery such euill of paine, is brought vponupon vsus for sinne. There may be other ends, there may be other occasions, there may be other vses of such Euills: but still the originall Cause of them all, is sinne. [aPsal. 39.11. When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sinne.] It was not for any bIoh. 9.2.3.extraordinary notorious sinnes, either of the blinde man himselfe, or of his parents, aboue other men, that he was borne blinde. Our Sauiour Christ acquitteth them of that, Ioh. 9. in answer to his Disciples, who were but too forward (as God knoweth most men are,) to iudge the worst. Our Sauiours answer there, neuer intended other, but that still the true cause deseruing that blindenesse was his, and his parents sinne: but his purpose was to instruct his Disciples, that that infirmitie was not laid vponupon him rather than vponupon another man, meerely for that reason because he (or his parents) had deserued it more than other men; but for some farther ends which God had in it in his secret and euerlasting purpose, and namely this among the rest, that the workes of God might be manifest in him, and the Godhead of the sonne made glorious in his miraculous cure. As in Nature, the intention of the csee Arist. 2. Phys.End doth not ouerthrow, but rather suppose the necessity of the Matter: so is it in the workes of God, and the dispensations of his wonderfull prouidence. It is from Gods Mercy, ordering them to those Ends he hath purposed; that his punishments are good; but it is withall from our sinnes, deseruing them as the Cause, that they are iust; euen as the raine that falleth vponupon the earth, whether it moisten it kindly, and make it fruitfull, or whether it choake and slocken and drowne it; yet still had its beginning from the vapours, which the earth it selfe sent vp. All those Euills, which fall so daily and thicke vponupon vsus from heauen, (whether to warne vsus, or to plague vsus,) are but arrowes which our selues first shot vp against heauen, and now drop downe againe with doubled force vponupon our heads. Omnis poena propter culpam: all Euills of paine, are for the euills of sinne.
§. 9. of the sufferer.I say fourthly; All such Euils are for our owne sins. The Scriptures are plaine. a1 Pet. 1.17.God iudgeth eueryevery man according to his own workes. bGal. 6.5.EueryEvery man shall beare his owne burden, &c. God hath enioyned it as a Law for Magistrates, (wherein they hauehave also his example to lead them;) that cDeut. 24.16.not the fathers for the children, nor the children for the fathers, but eueryevery man should be put to death for his own sin. Deut. 24 If Israel take vp a Prouerbe of their owne heads, [dEzek 18.2. &c. Ier. 31.29. The fathers hauehave eaten sowre grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge;] they doe it without cause, and they are checked for it. The soule that sinneth, it shall dye: and if any man eate sowre grapes, his owne teeth, (and not anothers for him) shall bee set on edge thereby. For indeed, how can it bee otherwise? or who can reasonably thinke, that our most gracious God, who is so ready to take from vsus the guilt of our owne, should yet lay vponupon vsus the guilt of other mens sinnes? The only exception to be made in this kinde, is that alone satisfactory punishment of our blessed Lord, and Sauiour Iesus Christ: not at all for his owne sinnes, (farre be the impietie from vsus, so to imagine; for e1. Pet. 2.22.hee did no sinne, neither was there any guile found in his mouth:) but for ours. He fPsal. 69.4. Non rapui, & exsolvebam: non peccaui, & poenas dabam. Aug. ibi.paied that which he neuer tooke; it was gEsay 53.5.for our transgressions that he was wounded, and the chasticement of our peace was laid vponupon him. Yet euen those meritorious sufferings of his, may be said (in a qualified sense) to hauehave been for his own sinnes: (although in my iudgement, it bee farre better to abstaine from such like speeches, as are of ill and suspicious sound, though they may bee in some sort defended.) But how for his owne sins? His owne by Commission? By no meanes: (God forbid any man should teach, any man should conceiue so; the least thought of this were blasphemy:) but his owne by Imputation. Not that hee had sinned, and so deserued punishment: but that he had hdelictorum susceptor, non commissor. Aug. in Psal. …8.taken vponupon him our sinnes, which deserued that punishment. As he that vndertaketh for another mans debt, maketh it his owne, and standeth chargeable with it, as if it were his owne personall debt: so Christ becomming surety for our sinnes, made them idelicta nostra sua delicta secit, vt iustitiam suam nostram iustitiam faceret. Aug. exp. 2. in Psal. 21.his owne, and so was punishable for them, as if they had beene his owne personall sins; k1. Pet. 2.24.who his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his owne body vponupon the tree, 1. Pet. 2. That hee was punished for vsus, who himselfe deserued no punishment; it was, because l2. Cor. 5.21.he was made sinne for vsus, who himself knew no sinne. So that I say, in some sense the assertion may bee defended vniuersally, and without exception: but yet I desire rather it might bee thus; Christs onelyonly excepted, all the Paines and Euills of men are brought vponupon them for their owne sinnes.
These three points then are certaine: and it is needfull they should bee well vnderstood and remembred;§. 10. The fathers sinnes punished in their children: because nothing can be obiected against Gods Iustice in the punishing of sinne, which may not bee easily remoued, if wee hauehave recourse to some one or other of these three Certainties, and rightly apply them. All the three doubts proposed in the beginning, hauehave one and the same resolution: answer one; and answer all. Ahab here sinneth by Oppression: and yet the euill must light, though not all of it, (for some part of it fell, and was performed vponupon Ahab himselfe,) yet the main of it vponupon his sonne Iehoram. [I will not bring the Euill in his daies, but in his sonnes daies will I bring the Euill vponupon his house.] It is not Iehorams case alone: it is a thing that often hath, and daily doth befall many others. In Gen. 9. when Noahs vngracious sonne Ham had discouered his Fathers nakednesse: the old man (no doubt, by Gods speciall inspiration) laieth the curse not vponupon Ham himselfe, but vponupon his sonne Canaan, [aGen. 9.25. Cursed bee Canaan &c.] And God ratified the curse, by rooting out the posteritie of Canaan, first out of the pleasant Land, wherein they were seated; and then afterwards from the face of the whole earth. Ieroboams b3. King. 15.19.30.Idolatrie cut off his posterity from the Kingdome; and the c1. Sam. 2.33—35.wickednesse of Ely his sonnes, theirs from the Priesthood, of Israel. Gehasi with the bribe he took, purchased a d4. King. 5.27.leprosie in fee-simple to him and his heires for euer. The Iewes, for stoning the Prophets of God, but most of all for crucifying the Sonne of God, brought bloud-guiltinesse not onelyonly vponupon themselues, but vponupon their children also, [eMat. 27.25. His bloud be vponupon vsus, and vponupon our children.] The wrath of God therefore comming vponupon them f1. Thes. 2.16.to the vtmost, and the curse of God abiding vponupon their posterity euen vntounto this day: wherin they still remaine, (and God knoweth how long they shall) a base and despised people; scattered almost eueryevery where, and eueryevery where hated. Instances might bee endlesse, both in priuate persons and families, and in whole Kingdomes and Countries. But it is a needlesse labour to multiply instances in so confessed a point: especially God Almighty hauing thus farre declared himselfe and his pleasure herein in the second commandement of the Law; that hee will not spare in his gExod. 20.5.iealousie sometimes to visit the sinnes of fathers vponupon the children, vntounto the third and fourth generation.
There is no question then de facto, but so it is;§ 11. and how this may stand with the Iustice of God. the sinnes of the fathers are visited vponupon the children: but de jure, with what right and equity it is so, it is (as S. Chrysostome speaketh) aChrysost. in Gen hom. 28.foreign, a question famous, and much debated. The considerations, which I finde giuen-in for the resolution of this question, bAugustin. qu. 42. in Deuter. Theophylact in Ioh. 9. Peter. 14. in Gen disp. 4. Aquin. 1.2. qu. 87.8 Sasb. quodlib. 3.by those that hauehave purposely handled it, are very many. But multitude breedeth confusion: and therefore I purpose no more but two only, vntounto which so many of the rest as are materiall may bee reduced; and those two grounded vponupon the certainties already declared. The former concerneth the Nature of those Punishments, which are inflicted vponupon the children for the fathers sinnes; the later, the condition of those children, vponupon whom such punishments are inflicted.
As to the first. The punishments which God bringeth vsually vponupon the children for the fathers sinnes, are only temporall and outward punishments.§. 12. Consid. 1. such punishments are only temporall, not spirituall. Some hauehave beene plagued with infectious diseases: as a4 King. 5.27.Gehazies posterity; and b2 Sam. 3.29Ioabs also, if that curse which Dauid pronounced against him tooke effect, as it is like it did. Some hauehave come to vntimely and vncomfortable ends: and Dauids children c2 Sam. 13.29Ammon and d2 Sam. 18.15Absalon; and the eNum. 16.37.33.little ones of Dathan and Abiram, and others. Some hauehave had losses, and reproaches, and manifold other distresses and afflictions in sundry kindes, too long to rehearse. And all these, temporall iudgements their fathers sinnes might bring vponupon them: euen as the faith, and vertues, and other graces of the fathers doe sometimes conueigh temporall blessings to their posterity. So Ierusalem was saued in the siege by Sonacherib, for fEsay. 37.35.Dauids sake many yeares after his death; Esay 37.35. And the succession of the Crowne of Israel continued in the line of g4 King. 10.30.Iehu for foure descents; for the zeale that hee shewed against the worshippers of Baal, and the house of Ahab. So then, men may fare the better; and so they may fare the worse too, for the vertues, or vices of their Ancestors. Outwardly, and temporally they may: but spiritually, and eternally they cannot. For as neuer yet any man went to heauen for his fathers goodnesse; so neither to hell for his fathers wickednesse.
§. 13. An Obiection; with the first,If it be obiected; that for any people or person to suffer a aAmos 8.11.famine of the word of God, to bee depriued of the vse and benefit of the sacred and sauing ordinances of God, to be left in vtter darkenesse without the least glimpse of the glorious light of the Gospell of God, without which (ordinarily) there can be no knowledge of Christ, nor meanes of Faith, nor possibility of Saluation; to be thus visited, is more than a temporall punishment: and yet this kinde of spirituall iudgement doth sometimes light vponupon a Nation or people, for the vnbeliefe, and vnthankfulnesse, and impenitencie, and contempt of their Progenitors whilest they had the light: and that therefore the Children for the Parents, and Posterity for their Ancestrie are punished not only with temporall, but euen with spirituall iudgements also. If any shall thus obiect, one of these two answers may satisfie them. First, if it should bee granted, the want of the Gospell to be properly a spirituall iudgement; yet it would not follow that one man were punished spiritually for the fault of another. For betwixt priuate persons, and publike societies there is this difference: that in priuate persons, eueryevery succession maketh a change, so that when the father dyeth, and the sonne commeth after him, there is not now the same person that was before, but another; but in Cities, and Countries, and Kingdomes, and all publike societies, succession maketh no change; so that when bEccles. 1.4.one generation passeth, and another commeth after it, there is not another City, or Nation, or People than there was before, but the same. If then the people of the same land should in this generation bee visited with any such spirituall iudgement, as is the remoueall of their Candlesticke, and the want of the Gospell, for the sinnes and impieties of their Ancestors in some former generations: yet this ought no more to bee accounted the punishment of one for another; than it ought to be accounted the punishing of one for another, to punish a man in his old age for the sinnes of his youth. For as the body of a man, though the primitiue moysture bee continually spending and wasting therein, and that decay bee still repayred by a daily supply of new and alimentall moysture, is yet truely the same Body; and as a Riuer fed with a liuing spring, though the water that is in the channell be continually running out, and other water freshly succeeding in the place and roome thereof, is truely the same Riuer: so a Nation or People, though one generation is euer passing away, and another comming on, is yet truely the same Nation or People after an hundred, or a thousand yeares, which it was before.
§. 14. and second answer thereunto.Againe secondly; the want of the Gospell, is not properly a spirituall, but rather a temporall punishment. Wee call it indeed sometimes a spirituall Iudgement, as wee doe the free vse of it a spirituall Blessing: because the Gospell was written for, and reuealed vntounto the Church, by the spirit of God; and also because it is the holy ordinance of God, and the proper instrument whereby (ordinarily) the spirituall life of Faith and of Grace is conueighed into our soules. But yet properly and primarily, those only are aEpli. 1.3.spirituall blessings, which are immediately wrought in the soule by the spirit of God, and can neuer be lost where they are once placed, and are proper and peculiar to those that are borne againe of the spirit: and all those on the contrary, which may bee subiect to decay, or are common to the reprobate with the elect, or may turne to the hurt of the receiuer, are to be esteemed temporall blessings, and not spirituall. And such a blessing, is the outward partaking of the word and ordinances of God: the want thereof therefore consequently, is to be esteemed a temporall iudgement, rather than spirituall. So that, notwithstanding this instance, still the former consideration holdeth good: that God sometimes visiteth the sinnes of the fathers vponupon the children with outward and temporall; but neuer with spirituall and eternall punishments.
Now, if there could no more bee said to this doubt, but only this; it were sufficient to cleere Gods Iustice: since wee hauehave beene already instructed, that these temporall iudgements are not alwayes properly and formally the punishments of sinne.§. 15. Temporall euils of children though not properly; For as outward blessings are indeed no true blessings properly; because Wicked men hauehave their portion in them as well as the Godly, and they may turne (and often do) to the greater hurt of the soule, and so become rather Punishments, than Blessings: so to the contrary, outward punishments are no true punishments properly; because the Godly hauehave their share in them as deepe as the Wicked, and they may turne (and often doe) to the greater good of the soule, and so become rather Blessings, than Punishments.
If it be yet said; But why then doth God threaten them as Punishments, §. 16. are yet after a sort punishments to the Fathers: and how.if they be not so? I answer. First; because they seeme to be punishments, and are by most men so accounted for their grieuousnesse, though they bee not properly such in themselues. Secondly; from the common euent; because vt plurimùm and for the most part they proue punishments to the sufferer, in case hee bee not bettered, as well as grieued, by them. Thirdly, because they are indeed a kinde of punishment, though not then deserued, but formerly. Fourthly, and most to the present purpose; because not seldome the aforeign. Chrys. in Gen. hom 29. Filij bona valetudo, felicitas, patrimonium perti…et ad patrem. Felicior futurus, si saluum habuerit filium; infelicio…, si amiserit. Senec. 5. de benes. 19. Nihil interest, in se quis veritus fuerit, an in liberis: cùm pro affectu parentes magis in liberis terreantur. l. 8. S. haec quae. ff. 4.2. Quod metus causa.father himselfe is punishment in them, who through tendernesse of affection taketh very much to heart the euills that happen to his childe; sometimes more, than if they had happened to himselfe. See Dauid b2 Sam. 18.33.weeping and puling for his trayterous sonne Absalon, when hee was gone; more c2 Sam. 19.5.6.affectionately, than wee finde hee did for the hazzards, of his own person and of the whole State of Israel, whiles he liued. For if it be a punishment to a man to sustaine losses in his cattell, or goods, or lands, or friends, or any other thing hee hath: how much more then in his children, of whom he maketh more account than of all the rest, (as being not only an image but euen a dNaturâ pater & filius eadem esse persona penè intelligitur. l. vlt. Cod. 6.26. de impub. —pars quodammodo corporis eius. l. 22. Cod. 11.47. de agric. & cens.part of himselfe;) and for whose sakes especially it is, that he maketh so much account of the rest? The Egyptians were plagued not only in the blasting of their corne, the murraine of their cattell, the vnwholsomenesse of their waters, the annoiance of vermine, and such like; but also and much more in the death of their eExod. 11.5.6.first-borne: that was their last, and greatest plague. The newes of his children slaine with the fall of an house, did put Iob (though not quite out of patience, yet) more fThen Iob arose, &c. Iob 1.20.to the tryall of his patience, than the losse of all his substance besides; though of many thousands of Oxen, and Asses, and Sheepe, and Camels. Now if no man charge God with iniustice, if when a man sinneth he punish him in his body, or goods, or good name, or in other things: why should it be suspected of iniustice, when hee sinneth, to punish him in his children? at least there, where the euill of the children seene or foreseene, redoundeth to the griefe and affliction of the father? And so was Dauids murther and adultery iustly punished in the losse of his incestuous sonne Amnon, and of his murtherous son Absalon. VponUpon which ground, some thinke that clause [gExod. 10.5. vntounto the third and fourth generation] to hauehave beene added in the second Commandement, respectiuely to the ordinary ages of men; who oftentimes liue to see their children to the third, and sometimes to the fourth generation, but very seldome farther: Implying, as they thinke, that God vsually punisheth the sinnes of the fathers vponupon the children, within such a compasse of time, as they may in likelyhood see it, and grieue at it; and then what euer euill it be, it is rather inflicted as a punishment to them, than to their children. This in part satisfieth the doubt: that the punishments which God layeth vponupon the children for the fathers sinnes, are only temporall punishments, and consequently by our second ground not properly punishments.
But yet for so much as these temporall euills, §. 17. Consid. 2. The children that ar… punished for their fathers sins(be it properly, be it improperly,) are still a kind of Punishment; and we hauehave beene already taught from the third ground, that all euils of punishment, whether proper or improper, are brought vponupon men euermore and onelyonly for their owne personall sinnes: the doubt is not yet wholly remoued, vnlesse we admit of a second Consideration; and that concerneth the condition of those children, vponupon whom such punishments are inflicted for their fathers sinnes.
And first;§. 18. either first, by 1. Nature, it is considerable, that children most times treade in their fathers steps, and continue in their sinnes: and so draw vponupon themselues their punishments. And this they doe especially, by a threefold conueiance of sinne from their Parents; viz. Nature, Example, and Education. First, Nature: and this is seene especially in those sinnes, that are more sensuall than other, and doe after a sort symbolize with the predominant humour in the body. It is plaine from experience, that some sinnes (especially the pronenesse, and inclination vntounto them) doe follow some complexions and constitutions of body, more than others; and arise from them: As Ambition, Rage, Rashnesse, and turbulent entermedling in other mens affaires, from Choler; Wantonnesse, and Licentious Mirth from Bloud; Drunkennesse, and Lazinesse from Fleagme; Enuy, and Sullennesse, and implacable thirst of Reuenge from Melencholy. And these kind of sinnes (to note that by the way) doe oftentimes proue our master-sinnes; such as Diuines vsually call our bosome, and darling, and beloued sinnes, (Peccatum in delicijs) because naturally we hauehave a stronger pronenesse and inclination to these, than to other sinnes. And therefore wee ought to pray against, and to striue against, and to fight against these sinnes, and to auoyd the occasions of them, especially and aboue all other sins. And if it shall please God so to strengthen vsus with his grace, and enable vsus by his spirit, as to hauehave in some good measure subdued these sinnes in vsus, and denied our selues in them: it is to be comfortably hoped, that we hauehave wrought the maine and the masterpiece of our Mortification. But to returne where I was; as colour and fauour and proportion, of haire and face and lineament: and as diseases and infirmities of the Body; so commonly the abilities, and dispositions, and tempers of the mind and affections became hereditary, and (as we say)aforeign. Euripid. apud Stob. Serm. 88. runne in a bloud. Naturae sequitur semina quisque suae. An euill bird hatcheth an euill egge; and one bforeign. Egdor. ibid.viper will breede a generation of vipers.
Secondly, We are (God knoweth) but too apish:§. 19. 2 Example; apt to be led much by examples, more by the worst, most by the nearest.—aIuuenal. Satyr. 14. Velociùs & citiùs nos Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica. Young ones wil doe, as they see the old ones doe before them: and they will on; non quâ eundum, sed quâ itur; not as their father biddeth them, but as he leadeth them.bIuuenal. ibid. Si nociua senem inuat alea—If the c—probum patrem esse oportet, Qui gnatum suum probiorem, quàm ipsus fuerit, postulet. Plat. in Pseud.father be giuen to swearing, or gaming, or scoffing, or whoring, or ryot, or contention, or excesse in drinke, or any thing else that naught is: let him counsell and aduise his sonne as often and as earnestly as he can; hee shall find one cursed example, (without the singular merciemercy and grace of God) to doe more hurt vponupon him, than a thousand wholesome admonitions will doe good.dIuuenal. vbi Supra.—fugienda patrum vestigia ducunt, Et monstrata diu veteris trahit orbita culpae.
§. 20. 3. or education,A third meanes of conueying vices from parents to children is Education: when parents traine and bring vp their children in those sinfull courses, wherein themselues hauehave liued and delighted. So couetous worldlings are euer distilling into the eares of their children precepts of parsimony and good husbandry, reading them lectures of thrift, and inculcating principles of getting and sauing. aIuuenal. Satyr. 14.Sunt quaedam vitiorum elementa: his protinus illos imbuet, & coget vitiorum ediscere sordes. Idle wandring Beggars traine vp their children in a trade of begging and lying, and cursing, and filching, and all idlenesse and abominable filthinesse. And idolatrous parents how carefull they are to nuzzle vp their Posterity in Superstition and Idolatry; I would our protest Popelings, and halfe-baked Protestants, did not let vsus see but too often. Wretched and accursed is our supine carelessenesse; if these mens wicked diligence, (whose first care for the fruite of their bodies, is to poyson their soules, by sacrificing their sonnes and daughters to Idols;) shall rise vp in iudgement against vsus, and condemne our foule neglect, in not seasoning the tender yeeres of our children with such religious, godly and vertuous bEph. 6.4.informations, as they are ca…ble of.
§. 21. tread in their fathers steps;How euer it be, whether by Nature, Example, or Education, one, or more, or all of these: certaine it is, that most times sinnes a—re…lit ad authores genus, Stirp…m que primam degener sanguis refert. Senec. in Hippol. act. 3.passe a long from the father to the son, and so downeward, by a kind of lineall descent from predecessours to posterity; and that for the most part with bforeign ▪ Homer. Odyst. β.advantage and encrease: whole families being tainted with the speciall vices of their stocke. Iohn Baptist speaketh of cMath. 3.7.a generation of vipers: and if wee should but obserue the conditions of some families in a long line of succession; might wee not espie here and there, euen whole generations of Drunkards, and generations of Sweareres, and generations of Idolaters, and generations of Wordlings, and generations of seditious, and of enuious, and of riotous, and of haughty, and of vncleane persons, and of sinnes in other kindes? This vngodly king Ahab; see how all that come of him, taste of him, and hauehave some spice and relish of his euill manners. Of his sonne Ahaziah, that next succeeded him in the kingdome of Israel, the Text saith in the next Chapter, that d3. King. 22.52.he walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother. And another Ahaziah king of Iudah, the grand-child of Iehosaphat by the fathers side, and of Ahab by the mothers; drew infection from the mother, and so trode in the steps rather of this his wicked grandfather Ahab, than of his good grandfather Iehosophat: and of him therefore the Scripture saith remarkeably in 4. King. 8. e4 King. 8▪27.He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did euill in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab, for hee was the sonne in Law of the house of Ahab. Little doth any man thinke, what hurt he may doe vntounto, and what plague he may bring vponupon, his posterity, by ioyning himselfe or them in too strict a bond of nearenesse with an ill or an idolatrous house or stocke. Here, we see, is Ahabs house taxed, & not his person onelyonly: euen the whole familie, and broode, and kin of them, branch and roote. And that Iehoram also who is the son here spoken of and meant in my Text, did f4 King. 3.2.Patrisare too as well as the rest of the kindred, and take after the father, (though not in that height of impiety, and idolatry, as his father) is plaine from the sequele of the Story. And so doing, and partaking of the Euills of sin with his father; why might he not also in justice partake of the Euills of punishment with his father?
§. 22. or secondly are possessors of something from their fathers with Gods curse cleauing thereunto.Secondly, the sinnes of the fathers are visited vponupon the children sometimes, as possessours of something which their fathers left them, with Gods curse cleauing vntounto it. As in the Law, not onelyonly he, that had an aSee Leuit. 15.2—11.issue of vncleanenesse, made them vncleane that touched him; but euen the saddle or stoole hee sate vponupon, the cloathes hee wore, the bed whereon he lay, any vessell of earth or of wood that he did but touch, was enough to bring legall pollution and vncleanesse vponupon any other person, that should but touch them: So, not onelyonly our fathers sinnes, if wee touch them by imitation; but euen their bforeign. Euripid.lands and goods and houses and other things that were theirs, are sufficient to deriue Gods curse vponupon vsus, if wee doe but hold them in possession. What is gotten by any euill and vniust and vnwarrantable meanes, is in Gods sight and estimation no better than stollen. Now stollen goods, we know, though they hauehave passed through neuer so many hands before, that man is answereable for, in whose hands they are found, and in whose custody and possession they are. God hateth not sinne onelyonly; but the very monuments of sinne too: and his curse fasteneth, not onelyonly vponupon the agent; but vponupon the bruite and dead materialls too: and where theft, or oppression, or periury, or sacriledge hauehave layed the foundation, and reared the house; there the cZach. 5.4.Curse of God creepeth in betweene the walls and seelings, and lurketh close within the stones and the timber, and as a fretting moath or canker, insensibly gnaweth asunder the pins and the ioynts of the building, till it hauehave vnframed it, and resolued it into a ruinous heape: for which mischiefe there is no remedy, no preseruation from it, but one; and that is, free and speedy Restitution. For any thing we know, what Ahab the father got without iustice, Iehoram the sonne held without scruple. We doe not find, that euer hee made restitution of Naboths vineyard to the right heire; and it is like enough hee did not: and then betweene him and his father there was but this difference; the father was the thiefe, and he the receiuer; which two the Law seuereth not either in guilt or punishment, but wrappeth them equally in the same guilt, and in the same punishment—dforeign. Phocyl. foreign. And who knoweth, whether the very holding of that vineyard might not bring vponupon him the curse of his fathers oppression? it is plaine that e4 King. 9.25.26.vineyard was the place, where the heauiest part of that curse ouertooke him.
But that which is the vpshot of all, and vntieth all the knots both of this and of all other doubts,§. 23. that can be made against Gods iustice, in punishing one for another,§. 23. Consid. 3. from the distinction of impulsiue Causes. ariseth from a third consideration; which is this. That the children are punished for the fathers sins, or indefinitely any one man for the sins of any other man; it ought to be imputed to those sinnes of the fathers or others, not as to the causes properly deseruing them, but onelyonly as occasioning those punishments. It pleaseth God to take occasion from the sinnes of the fathers or of some others, to bring vponupon their children, or those that otherwise belong vntounto them in some kind of relation, those euills which by their owne corruptions & sinnes they hauehave iustly deserued. This distinction of the Cause and Occasion, if well heeded, both fully acquiteth Gods Iustice; and abundantly reconcileth the seeming Contradictions of Scripture, in this Argument: and therefore it will be worth the while, a little to open it.
§. 24. The Impulsiue Cause what it is.There is a kind of Cause de numero efficientium, which the learned for distinctions sake call the Impulsiue Cause: and it is such a cause, as aquae principalem efficientem impellit ad efficiendum. Keckerm. 1. Syst. Log. 10.moueth and induceth the principall Agent, to doe that which it doth. For Example: A Schoolemaster correcteth a boy with a rod for neglecting his booke. Of this correction here are three distinct causes, all in the ranke of efficients; viz. the Master, the Rod, and the boyes neglect: but each hath its proper causality in a different kind and maner from other. The Master is the Cause, as the principall Agent, that doth it; the Rod is the Cause, as the Instrument wherewith he doth it; and the boyes neglect the impulsiue cause, for which he doth it. Semblably, in this iudgement which befell Iehoram; the principall efficient cause and Agent, was God, (as hee is in all other punishments and iudgements; bAmos 3.6.shall there be euil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it? Amos 3.) & here he taketh it to himselfe, [I will bring the euill vponupon his house.] The Instrumental Cause vnderunder God, was c4. King. 9.Iehu; whom God raised vp, and endued with zeale and power for the execution of that vengeance, which he had determined against Ahab and against his house; as appeareth in 4. Kings 9. and 10. But now, what the true proper Impulsiue cause should be, for which he was so punished, and which moued God at that time and in that sort to punish him; that is the point wherein consisteth the chiefest difficulty in this matter, and into which therefore wee are now to enquire: viz. whether that were rather his own sinne, or his father Ahabs sinne?
Whether we answer for this, or for that: we say but the truth in both: for both sayings are true;§. 25. Two sorts of impulsiue Causes; [God punished him for his owne,] and [God punished him for his Fathers sinne.] The difference only this. His owne sinnes were the impulsiue cause that deserued the punishment; his fathers sinne the impulsiue cause that occasioned it: and so indeed vponupon the point, and respectiuely to the iustice of God, rather his own sins were the cause of it, than his fathers; both because iustice doth especially looke at the desert, & also because that which deserueth a punishment is more effectually, & primarily, and properly the impulsiue cause of punishing, than that which onley occasioneth it. The termes whereby Artists expresse these two different kindes of impulsiue causes (borrowed from Galen, and the Physitians,) of aSee Keckerm. 1. Syst. Log. 10. called by Brulif Causa Dispositiua. & Excitatiua, apud Altenst. in dict. Causa.foreign, and foreign, would be excellent, and full of satisfaction; if they were of easie vnderstanding. But for that they are not so, especially to such as are not acquainted with the termes and learning of the Schooles; I forbeare to vse them: and rather than to take the shortest cut ouer hedge and ditch, chuse to leade you an easier and plainer way, though it's something about; and that by a familiar example.
§. 26. explained by a familiar example;A man hath liued for some good space in reasonable state of health; yet by grosse feeding, and through continuance of time, his body the whilest hath contracted many vitious, noisome, and malignant humours. It happeneth he hath occasion to ride abroad in bad weather; taketh wet on his feete or necke, getteth cold with it, commeth home, findeth himselfe not well, falleth a shaking first, and anon after into a dangerous and lasting feuer. Here is a feuer; and here are two different causes of it: an antecedent cause within, the abundance of noisome and crude humours, (that is ainterìores dispositiones, quae irritantur ab externis causis. Melancthon. causa dispositiua Brulifer.causa foreign); and the euident cause ab extra, his riding in the wet, and taking cold vponupon it, (and that is Galens bCausa externa irritatrix. Melancthon. causa excitatiua. Brulifer.causa foreign). Let vsus goe on a little, and compare these causes. The Physitian is sent for, the sicke mans friends they stand about him, and in commeth the Physitian among them, and enquireth of him and them how he got his feuer. They presently giuegive him such information as they can, (and the information is both true, and sufficient, so farre as it reacheth:) they tell him the one cause, the occasionall cause, the outward euident cause: [Alas, Sir, he rode such a iourney, such a time, got wet on his feete, and tooke cold vponupon it; and that hath brought him to all this.] That is all they are able to say to it: for other cause they know none. But by and by after some suruiew of the state of the Body, hee is able to informe them in the other cause, the inward and originall cause; whereof they were as ignorant before, as he was of that other outward one: and hee telleth them the cause of the malady is superfluitie of crude and noisome humours, rankenesse of bloud, abundance of melancholy, tough fleame, or some other like thing within. Now if it be demanded, which of these two is rather the cause of his sicknesse? The truth is, that inward antecedent cause within, is the very cause thereof; although perhaps it had not bred a feuer at that time, if that other outward occasion had not beene. For by that inward hidden cause the body was prepared for an ague: only there wanted some outward fit accident, to stirre and prouoke the humours within, and to set them on working. And the parties body being so prepared, might hauehave fallen into the same sicknesse, by some other accident as well as that; as ouer heating himselfe with exercise, immoderate watching, some distemper or surfeit in diet, or the like: But neither that, nor any of these, nor any other such accident could hauehave cast him into such a Fit, if the humours had not bin ripe, and the body thereby prepared to entertaine such a disease. So as the bad humours within may rather be said to be the true cause, and that cold-taking but the occasion of the Ague: the disease it selfe issuing from the hidden cause within; and the outward accident being the cause, not so much of the disease it selfe, why the Ague should take him, as why it should take him at that time, rather than at another, and hold him in that part or in that maner rather than in another.
§. 27. and applied to the present Argument.From this Example we may see in some proportion, how our owne sins, and other mens, concurre as ioynt impulsiue causes of those punishments, which God bringeth vponupon vsus. Our owne sinnes they are the true aCausa foreign, interna, antecedens, dispositiua.hidden antecedent causes, which deserue the punishments: our fathers sinnes, or our gouernours sinnes, or our neighbours sins, or whatsoeuer other mans sinnes, that are visited vponupon vsus, are only the bCausa foreign, exterterna, irritatrix, excitatiua.outward euident causes (or rather occasions,) why wee should bee punished at this time, and in this thing, and in this manner, and in this measure, and with these circumstances. And as in the former Example, the Patients friends considered one cause, and the Physitian another; they the euident and outward, he the inward and antecedent cause: so respectiuely to Gods Iustice, our owne sinnes onelyonly are the causes of our punishments; but in respect of his Prouidence and Wisedome, our fathers sinnes also, or other mens. For Iustice looketh vponupon the desert onelyonly; and so the punishments are euer and onelyonly from our owne personall sinnes, as wee learned from our third Certainty: but it is Prouidence, that ordereth the occasions, and the seasons, and the other circumstances of GODS punishments.
Hence may wee learne to reconcile those places of Scripture,§. 28. The seeming Contradictions of Scripture which seeme to crosse one another in this Argument. In Ezekiel and Ieremy it is said, that aIer. 31.30. & Ezek. 18.20eueryevery man shall be punished for his owne sinnes, and that the children shall not beare the iniquitie of the fathers: and yet the same Ieremie complaineth as if it were otherwise, (Lam. 5.) bLam 5.7.Our fathers hauehave sinned, and are not; and wee hauehave borne their iniquities. Yea God himselfe proclaimeth otherwise, I am cExod. 20.5.a iealous God, visiting the sinnes of the fathers vponupon the children— Nor only doth he visit the sins of the fathers vponupon the children: but hee visiteth also the sonnes of Princes vponupon their Subiects; as d2. Sam. 24.17.Dauids people were wasted for his sinne in numbring them: yea and hee visiteth sometimes the sinnes euen of ordinary priuate men vponupon publike societies; eIos. 22.20.Did not Achan the sonne of Zerah commit a trespasse in the accursed thing, and wrath sell vponupon all the Congregation of Israel, and that man perished not alone in his iniquity? Now how can all this stand together?
Yes very well: euen as well, as in the act of punishing,§. 29. how to bee reconciled: Gods Iustice and his Wisedome can stand together. Marke then, wheresoeuer the Scripture ascribeth one mans punishment to another mans sinne; it pointeth vsus to Gods Wisedome and Prouidence: who for good and iust ends maketh choyce of these occasions, rather than other sometimes, to inflict those punishments vponupon men, which their owne sinnes hauehave otherwise abundantly deserued. On the contrary, wheresoeuer the Scripture giueth all punishments vntounto the personall sinnes of the sufferer, it pointeth vsus to Gods Iusti…e: which looketh still to the desert, and doth not vponupon any occasion whatsoeuer inflict punishments, but where there are personall sinnes to deserue them: so that eueryevery man that is punished in any kinde, or vponupon any occasion, may ioyne with Dauid in that confession of his, Psal. 51. aPsal. 51.4.Against thee hauehave I sinned, and done euill in thy sight: that thou mightest be iustified in thy sayings, and cleare when thou iudgest.
§. 30. with an exemplary instance thereof.Say then, an vnconscionable great one by cruell oppression, wring, as Ahab did here, his poorer neighbours vineyeard from him; or by countenanced sacriledge geld a Bishopricke of a faire Lordship or Mannor; and when he hath done, his prodigall heire runne one end of it away in matches, drowne another end of it in Tauernes and Taphouses, melt away the rest in lust, and beastly sensuality: who doth not here see, both Gods Iustice, in turning him out of that, which was so foulely abused by his owne sinnes; and his Prouidence withall, in fastening the Curse vponupon that portion, which was so vniustly gotten by his fathers sinnes? EueryEvery man is ready to say, It was neuer like to prosper, it was so ill gotten; and so acknowledge the Couetous fathers sinne, as occasioning it: and yet eueryevery man can say withall, It was neuer likely to continue long, it was so vainely lauished out; and so acknowledge the Prodigall sons sinne, as sufficiently deseruing it.
Thus hauehave wee heard the maine doubt solued.§. 31. The resolution of the …aine doubt; The summe of all is this. God punisheth the sonne for the fathers sinne: but with temporall punishments, not eternall; and with those, perhaps so as to redound to the fathers punishment in the son. Perhaps, because the sonne treadeth in his fathers steps; perhaps, because he possesseth that from his father, to which Gods curse adhereth; perhaps for other reasons best knowne to God himselfe, wherewith he hath not thought meet to acquaint vsus: but what euer the occasion be, or the ends; euermore for the sons owne personall sins, abundantly deseruing them.
And the same resolution is to bee giuen to the other two doubts proposed in the beginning:§. 32. applied also to the rest. to that, Why God should punish any one man for another? and to the third, Why God should punish the lesser offender for the greater? In which, and all other doubts of like kinde, it is enough, for the clearing of Gods Iustice, to consider: that when God doth so, they are first only temporall punishments which he so inflicteth; and those secondly no more, than what the sufferer by his owne sinnes hath most rightfully deserued. All those other considerations, as that the Prince and People are but one body, and so each may feele the smart of others sinnes and stripes: that oftentimes wee hauehave giuen way to other mens sinnes, when wee might hauehave stopped them; or consent, when wee should hauehave withstood them; or silent allowance, when wee should hauehave checked them; or perhaps furtherance, when wee should rather hauehave hindered them: that the punishments brought vponupon vsus for our fathers or other mens sinnes, may turne to our great spirituall aduantage, in the humbling of our soules, the subduing of our corruptions, the encreasing of our care, the exercising of our graces: that where all hauehave deserued the punishment, it is left to the discretion of the Iudge, whom he will picke out, the Father or the Sonne, the Gouernour or the Subiect, the Ring-leader or the Follower, the Greater or the Lesser offender, to shew exemplary iustice vponupon, as he shall see expedient. I say, all these, and other like considerations many, though they are to be admitted as true, and obserued as vsefull; yet they are such, as belong rather to Gods Prouidence and his Wisedome, than to his Iustice. If therefore thou knowest not the very particular reason, why God should punish thee in this or that manner, or vponupon this or that occasion; let it suffice thee that the Counsells and purposes of God are secret: and thou art not to enquire with scrupulous curiosity into the dispensation and courses of his Prouidence, farther than it hath pleased him either to reueale it in his word, or by his manifest workes to discouer it vntounto thee. But whatsoeuer thou doest, neuer make question of his Iustice. Begin first to make inquirie into thine owne selfe: and if after vnpartiall search, thou there findest not corruption enough to deserue all out as much as God hath layed vponupon thee, then complaine of iniustice, but not before. And so much for the doubts.
§. 33. The first inference.Let vsus now from the premises raise some instructions for our vse. First; Parents wee thinke hauehave reason to be carefull, (and so they hauehave) for their children; and to desire and labour, as much as in them lyeth, their wel doing. Here is a faire course then for you that are parents, and hauehave children to care for. Doe you that which is good, and honest, and right: and they are like to fare the better for it. Wouldest thou then, Brother, leaue thy lands, and thy estate to thy childe, entire and free from encombrances? It is an honest care: but here is the way. aIuuenal. Satyr. 14.Abstineas igitur damnandis: Leaue them free from the bforeign. Isocrat…s.guilt of thy sinnes; which are able to comber them beyond any statute, or morgage. If not the bond of Gods Law, if not the care of thine owne soule, if not the feare of hell, if not the inward checkes of thine owne conscience: cIuuenal. Satyr. 14.At peccaturo obstet tibi filius infans, at the least let the good of thy poore sweet infants restraine thee from doing that sinne, which might pull downe from heauen a plague vponupon them and theirs. Goe to then, doe not applaud thy selfe in thy wittie villanies, when thou hast circumuented and prospered; when Ahab-like thou hast dVers. 19. hîc.killed, and taken possession; when thou hast larded thy leaner reuenues with fat collops sacrilegiously cut out of the sides or flankes of the Church; and hast nayled all these with all the appurtenances, by sines, and vowchers, and entayles, as firme as Law can make them, to thy childe, and his childe, and his childes childe for euer. After all this stirre, cast vp thy bills, and see what a goodly bargaine thou hast made: thou hast damned thy selfe, to vndoe thy childe; thou hast brought a curse vponupon thine owne soule, to purchase that for thy childe, which shall bring a curse both vponupon it and him. When thy indentures were drawne, and thy learned Counsell feed to peruse the Instrument, and with exact seuerity to ponder with thee eueryevery clause and syllable therein; could none of you spie a flaw in that clause [with all and singular th' appurtenances,] neither obserue, that thereby thou didst settle vponupon thy posteritie, together with thy estate, the wrath and vengeance and curse of God, which is one of those appurtenances? Hadst thou not a faithfull Counsellour within thine owne brest, if thou wouldest but hauehave conferred and aduised with him plainly and vndissemblingly, that could hauehave told thee, thou hadst by thy oppression and iniustice ipso facto cut off the entaile from the issue, euen long before thou hadst made it? But if thou wouldest leaue thy posterity a firme, and secure and durable estate: doe this rather. Purchase for them by thy charitable workes, the prayers and blessings of the poore; settle vponupon them the fruites of a religious, sober, and honest education; bequeath them the legacie of thy good example, in all vertuous and godly liuing: and that portion thou leauest them besides, of earthly things, be it much or little, be sure it beeforeign. Chrysost. in Eph. hom. 2. well gotten; otherwise neuer looke it fforeign—foreign Pausan. in Corinthiacis.should prosper with them. g1 Cor. 5.6.A little leauen leaueneth the whole lumpe, and sowreth it: and a little ill gotten, like a gangrene spreadeth through the whole estate; and worse than aqua fortis, or the poysoned h— ardeo; Quantum nec atro delibutus Hercules Nessi cruorc. Horat. Epod. 17. see Sophocl. in Trachin.shirt that Dejanira gaue Hercules, cleaueth vntounto it, and feedeth vponupon it, and by little and little gnaweth, and fretteth, and consumeth it to nothing. And surely, Gods Iustice hath wonderfully manifested it selfe vntounto the world in this kinde, sometimes euen to the publicke astonishment and admiration of all men: that men of ancient families, and great estates; well left by their Ancestors, and free from debts, legacies, or other encombrances; not notedly guilty of any expencefull sinne or vanity, but wary and husbandly and carefull to thriue in the world; not kept vnderunder with any great burden of needy friends, or charge of children; not much hindered by any extraordinary losses, or casualties of fire, theeues, suretiship, or suites: that such men, I say, should yet sinke and decay, and runne behinde hand in the world; and their estates crumble and milder away, and come to nothing, and no man knoweth how. No question, but they hauehave sinnes enough of their owne, to deserue all this, and ten times more than all this: but yet withall, who knoweth but that it might, nay who knoweth not that sometimes it doth, (so legible now and then are Gods iudgements) come vponupon them for the greedinesse, and auarice, and oppression, and sacriledge, and iniustice of their not long foregoing Ancestors? You that are parents, take heed of these sins. It may be, for some other reasons knowne best to himselfe, God suffereth you to goe on your owne time; and suspendeth the iudgements, your sinnes hauehave deserued, for a space, as here he did Ahabs vponupon his humiliation: but be assured, sooner or later, vengeance will ouertake you or yours for it. You hauehave aHab. 2.9.coueted an euill couetousnesse to your house: and there hangeth a judgement ouer your house for it, as raine in the cloudes; which, perhaps in your sonnes, perhaps in your grand-childs dayes, some time or other, will come dashing downe vponupon it, and ouerwhelme it. Thinke not the vision is for many descents to come—de male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres: seldome doth the bExod. 20.5.third, scarce euer the fourth generation passe, before God visit the sinnes of the fathers vponupon the children; if hee doe not in the very next generation. In his sonnes dayes will I bring the euill vponupon his house.
§. 34. The second.Secondly; if not onelyonly our owne, but our fathers sinnes too may be, shall be visited vponupon vsus: how concerneth it vsus, as to repent for our owne, so to lament also the sinnes of our forefathers; and in our confessions and supplications to God, sometimes to remember them, that he may forget them, and to set them before his face, that hee may cast them behind his backe? Wee hauehave a good precedent for it in our publike Letany; Remember not Lord our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers! A good, and a profitable, and a needefull prayer it is: and those men hauehave not done well, nor justly, that hauehave cauilled at it. (O that men would be wise according to sobriety, and allow but iust interpretations to things aduisedly established; rather than busie themselues nodum in scirpo, to picke needelesse quarrels where they should not. What vnity would it bring to brethren, what peace to the Church, what ioy to all good and wise men!) As to this particular, God requireth of the Israelites in Leuit. 26. that they should aLeuit. 26.39.40.confesse their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers. bPsal. 106.6.Dauid did so, and cIerem. 3.15.Ieremy did so, and dDan. 9.5.Daniel did so: in Psal. 106. in Ierem. 3. in Dan. 9. And if Dauid thought it a fit curse, to pronounce against Iudas, and such as he was, in Psal. 109. [ePsal. 109.14. Let the wickednesse of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be done away:] why may we not, nay how ought we not, to pray for the remoueall of this very curse from vsus, as well as of any other curses? The present age is ri…e of many enormous crying sinnes, which call loud for a iudgement vponupon the land: and if God should bring vponupon vsus a right heauie one, whereat all eares should tingle; could wee say other, but that it were most iust, euen for the sinnes of this present generation? But if vntounto our owne, so many, so great, God should also adde the sins of our forefathers; the bloudshed, and tyranny, & grieuous vnnaturall butcheries in the long times of the ciuill warres, and the vniuersall idolatries and superstitions couering the whole land, in the longer and darker times of Popery: and if, as hee sometimes threatned to bring vponupon the Iewes of fMath. 23.35.36.that one generation all the righteous bloud that euer was shed vponupon the earth, from the bloud of the righteous Abel, vntounto the bloud of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias; so hee should bring the sinnes of our Ancestors for many generations past, vponupon this generation of ours: who could be able to abide it? Now, when the security of the times giuegive vsus but too much cause to feare it, and the regions begin to looke white towards the haruest: is it not time for vsus with all humiliation of Soule and Body to cast downe our selues; and with all contention of voyce and spirit to lift vp our prayers? and to say; Remember not Lord our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers: neither take thou vengeance of our sinnes: Spare vsus good Lord, spare the people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious bloud, and be not angry with vsus for euer. Spare vsus good Lord.
§. 35. the third inference.Thirdly. Since not onelyonly our fathers sinnes, and our owne; but our Neighbours sinnes too, (aliquid malum propter vicinum malum,) but especially the sinnes of Princes and Gouernours, (—aMorat. 1. Epis… 2. delirant reges, plectuntur Achiui,) may bring iudgements vponupon vsus, and enwrap vsus in their punishments: it should teach eueryevery one of vsus, to seeke his owne priuate in the common and publike good; and to endeauour, if but for our owne security from punishment, to awaken other from their security in sinne. How should wee send vp b… Tim. 2.1, 2.supplications and prayers and intercessions for Kings and for all that are in authority; that God would encline their hearts vntounto righteous courses, and open their eares to wholesome counsells, and strengthen their hands to just actions? when but a sinfull ouersight in one of them, may proue the ouerthrow of many thousands of vsus: as Dauid but by once numbring his people in the pride of his heart, lessened their number at one clap c2 Sam. 24.15threescore and ten thousand. If dIos. …8, 10.25Israel turne their backs vponupon their enemies; vp Iosuah, and make search for the troubler of Israel, firret out the thiefe, and doe execution vponupon him: one Achan, if but suffered, is able to vndoe the whole hoast of Israel; what mischiefe might he do, if countenanced, if allowed? The houre I see hath ouertaken me, and I must end. To wrappe vp all in a word then, and conclude: Thou that hast power ouer others; suffer no sin in them by base conniuence, but punish it: thou that hast charge of others, suffer no sin in them by dull silence, but rebuke it: thou that hast any interest in, or dealing with others; suffer no sinne vponupon them, by easie allowance, but distast it: thou that hast nothing else; yet by thy charitable prayers for them, and by constant example to them, stop the course of sin in others, further the growth of grace in others, labour by all meanes (as much as in thee lyeth) to draw others vntounto God; lest their sinnes draw Gods iudgements vponupon themselues and thee. This that thou mayst doe, and that I may do, and that eueryevery one of vsus, that feareth God, and wisheth well to the Israel of God, may doe, faithfully and discreetely in our seuerall stations and callings: let vsus all humbly beseech the Lord, the God of all grace and wisedome, for his Sonne Iesus sake, by his holy spirit to enable vsus. To which blessed Trinity, one only wise, immortall, inuisible, almighty, most gracious and most glorious Lord and God, be ascribed by eueryevery one of vsus, the kingdome, the power, and the glory, both now and for euer. Amen.