Every Man to confesse that his own Sin is the cause, though not alwaies the occasion, of punishment. [ 1180]
IT is said of Prince Henry,* 1.1 that delitiae generis humani, that darling of Man∣kind, (as it was once said of Titus Vespasianus) whose death was then to this Kingdom as so much of the best blood let out of the veins of Israel; When it was told him, That the sins of the People caused that affliction on him; O no, said he, I have sins enow of mine own to cause that: So should we all confesse, though God take occasion by another Man's sin, or by the neglect of another person to fire my house,* 1.2 yet the cause is just, that it should be so, and that I my self have deserved it, whatsoever the occasion be; God had cause against the seventy thousand that dyed of the Plague, though Davids sin were the occasion, yet the meritorious cause was in them; therefore whensoever it pleaseth God to lay his hand of anger upon us, though another may be the occasion, yet Ille ego qui feci, let every Man in particular acknowledge, that it is he that hath sinned, and so justifie God in his sayings, and clear him when he is judged.