66 e%í Re/tráint of Exhorbitant Paßion, or, Parents in theirchildreus mi(eriesthorld remember- King. 17. fins. r i g,i Objeff.r. Deus. ,4.se.: Eztkat.so. Anfw. Objcff Anjmer Ram414 -0 ,11. Anfiner. will begracious tomet He cxprcfc not only the patty andAffeaion of a natural Fe- ther to a Child, but piety alío, arifing from the fenfe of his guilt. He was guilty of fin, and by fin he had brought this forrow upon himfeif, and Therefore Who knew_ eth whether the Lord will begrncieste to me, in feeling to nie the pardon of my in this way, in adding this mercy as a farther atfurance of his love, in granting me the forgivenefs of my fin. God had told him by Nathan, that his fin was pardoned, though he told him the Child thould die : It may be by the Caine mercy he will rcleafe me from this fentence of death upon my Child, whereby he releafed me from the guilt of my fn before. Here ( I fay ) is the fënfe of his own fin. The point I note hence is ; That 'parents in the miferies that befaltheir Chi!- Iren, (head call their own fin to remembrance. All the forrowes, and Gckneffes, and pains, and miferies that befall Children, thould prefent to Parents the remero- brance of their own fin. It was the expreffion of the Widdow of Sarepta to the Prophet Eliah ; Art them come totall my fins to remembrance and to a myChild 1 P If , fl y y She raw her fn in the death of her Child ; So I fay in all the Affritlions and Crates that befall Children, the Parents thould call to remembrance their onn fin. But force men will here fay ; There f emeth to be no need of filch a courfe, for God ha eh ;aid plainly, That the Childfhallnot diefor the ¡in of the Parent. And after God cicareth hisown ways from inequality and injutlice by that argument, The Son fh41 not bear the iniynity of the Father. Therefore what rearm is there that parents fhould call their fins to remembrance, in the miferies that befall there Children ? I anfwer e Thoughhe fay,T be Child (hall not die for the Parents fin, yet we muff underfland it aright, for what doth he mean by the fins of the Parents ? And what dothhe mean by death? By fns of the Parents, he meaneth thofe fns that are fo the Parents, as that the Children are not at all guilty of thofe fans a Then the Children 111111 not die Bydeath, he meaneth (as the word fignifìeth) the deliruaion of nature. So Death (hall not befall the Child for that Gn that himfelf is not guilty of. But how then come little Children to die before they have committed any fin a6lu- ally r was this for their own fin, or for thetin of their Parents ? I anfwer, for their own tin theydie, For the Soul that ánnetb it the die, and all Children have finned : They brought fn into the world, andfin brought death (ás the Apatite fpeaks ) therefore death reigneth over all, even over theft that have mot pined according to the irnilitude of Adam's 7rantgrefon; that is, that have not finned as tually as Adam had done, yet neverthelefs they die becaule they have fin upon them, they have the corruption of nature: In fin they were born, and ix ins'. quitstheir Mother conceived them, and thewages of(in is death e Therefore they die or their own fin. But what if Temporal judgments and aftliiions befall them, is this for their own fin, or for the fin of their Parents s I anfwer for both ; both for their own, and for the finof their Parents : For as death, fo all the miferies of this life are fruits of Original fin, which is an inheritanèe in the perron of every Child bynature, as loonas it is born : But yet if the fin of he Parents be added to it, that may bring temporal judgments. There are many inflamesand examples of this, howGod hath vificed upon the Pofterityof wicked Perlons, the fins of their Fathers, according to that threatning in the fecondCom- mandment. And this you (hall fee, 6116. in godly Children of wicked Parents, or in ungodly Children ofgodly Parents, Suppofe a was leave agreac deal ofwealgh to his Children, and have one that fears God among} them : It essay pleafe (hod to lay Come lofs or cross upon him, to the undoing of him, he may utterly be impo- verifhed, and beggered, and deprived of all that means that his Father left him by Ilnrighteoufnefs ; Hegetteth anHeir, andin bic hand is nothimg(faithSalemon) that la,
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