CHAP. 34.
The sinnes of parents visited upon their children, ac∣cording to the rule of retaliation.
1 ALL the parties hitherto instan∣ced in, were visited by the rule of retaliation in their owne per∣sons, some of them not in their owne persons alone. But it is usuall with the supreme Iudge to visit the ou•crying sinnes of irreligious parents, upon their children, according to the former rule. And to this purpose the visitation of Ahabs, and of Iezabels bloody sinnes against Naboth▪ may, by *expresse warrant of Sacred Writ, be improved. But no Histories, profane or sacred, afford more fit instances for the proofe of this conclusion, than our owne Chronicles doe. It was a question a∣mongst the Heathen Philosophers, An res postero∣rum pertineant ad defunctos; Whether the ill or wel∣fare of posterity, did any way increase or diminish the happinesse of their deceased ancestors. The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Moralls. And I know no just cause or reason, why any Christian Divine, should either appeale from his determination, or revive the doubt. Yet if the affirmative part of the former question, were sup∣posed as true, or were it lawfull to imagine or feign such interchange of speech, or Dialogues, betwixt deceased Grandfathers, Vnkles, and their Ne∣phewes, Page 366 as our Saviour (I take it) not by way of reall history, but of fiction, doth betweene Abra∣ham and Dives; me thinks Edward the third, and Lionel Duke of Clarence might have taken up Io∣thams parable against Bullinbrooke and the House of Lancaster, If yee have dealt truly and sincerely with us, and with the prime stemmes of this royall stock, then rejoyce yee and your posterity in your devises: but if not, Let fire come out from among your selves, or from our stock, to devoure you, and to make your posterity curse your dealings with us. And in what region soever 〈◊〉 soule did in the third generation reside, it might have fra∣med its responsary unto this parable out of Adoni∣bezeks song, As I have done to you and yours, so hath the Lord requited me and mine. And had this or the like saying (upon the deposition of Bullin∣brookes heyre) beene daily rung into the eares of Edward the fourth,
2 Vnto Richard the second and his misleaders, it seemed a branch of plausible policy to banish his Page 367 cozen (Henry of Bullinbrook) this land; the vicinity of whose heroicall spirit was an heart-sore to this degenerate Prince. But what successe did the Counsell of the Lord award unto this jealous de∣vise? Bullinbrook by his presence amongst foraine Nations (which scarce knew him before) gained so much honour, and so much love with the chiefe Peeres of this Realme (which had knowne him before) by his absence, that Richard the second was taken in his owne feare, and his Crowne set upon Bullingbrookes head, with generall applause. But the lesse right he had unto it; the greater was his jealousie, lest Richard the second, or some other more principall stemme of the royall Stock might take it off againe. The only meanes, as he thought, for securing himselfe from this feare, and for set∣ling the Crowne upon the House of Lancaster, was, to put the poore deposed King to death; whose errours deserved pitie and compassion from every true English heart, if not for his Grandfa∣thers, yet for his heroicall Fathers sake, that Gideon which had brought so much honour to the Eng∣lish Nation. And after Richards death, the ma∣ster-piece of his policy was, to suffer Mortimer the lawfull heyre unto the Duke of Clarence, and now unto the English Crowne, to live a miserable Captive under the enemy, who had more reason to revenge himselfe upon the English by Mortimers death, than Bullinbrook had to murther Richard the second. This soule sinne of Bullinbrooke was visited upon the third generation. His grandchilde and heyre, Henry the sixt, a man more free from staine Page 368 of guiltlesse blood, than either Richard the second or Bullinbrooke had beene, is cruelly murthered by Edward the fourth, a stemme of Mortimers stock, and of Lionel Duke of Clarence. For though God hath sworne not to punish the children for their fathers offences; yet he hath professed it, as a rule of his eternall justice, to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children. And from the equity of this rule, many Princely Races have utterly determi∣ned and expired, in the dayes of such Princes as were most free from the actuall sinnes of their Ancestors, which were the causes of their expira∣tion; as is in other Meditations shewed at large.
3 But though it were just with God to visit Bullinbrookes sinne on Henry the sixt: did Edward the fourth commit no injustice by doing that which God would have done? yes; he did there∣fore most unjustly, because he did doe that, which God would not have done by him. And therefore the Counsell of the Lord, which overthrew the bloody devises of Bullinbrooke for setling the Crowne of this Kingdome on himselfe and his heyre males, did more speedily overthrow the de∣vise of Edward the fourth. God visits his sinne in the next generation upon his lovely and harmlesse Sonnes in their nonage, before the devises of their hearts were capable of any evill or mischiefe to∣wards men, and did visit them by the hands of their bloody uncle Richard the third, who, by their Fathers appointment, had practised butchery up∣on the House of Lancaster, that he might become a more skilfull slaughterman of the House of York. Page 369 Thus did blood touch blood, and for a long time run in the blood of his royall race, untill the issue was staunched by the blood of the cruell Tyrant slaine in battaile by Henry the seventh. All these instances mentioned in this, with some others in the former chapters, will fall under another more usefull consideration, in the Treatise of Prodigies. or Divine forewarnings betokening blood.
