Obj. THe wicked Children of godly Parents, are found to be re∣spected for their Fathers, as the Lord suffered the wicked Kings of Judah, to sit upon the Throne for their Father Davids sake.
Ans. It is not denyed, but that God may bestow temporall bles∣sings upon the Children of the righteous, although they be wic∣ked, but that is generall or particular; God sometimes is mer∣cifull, as he was to Davids posterity, for some reasons best known to himself, but this promise in generall certainly holdeth not, but where the children imitate their fathers piety.
Obj. If this should be meant of shewing mercy to the vertuous seed, and vengeance to the wicked race, they should be respected or punished for their owne piety or sin, and not for their parents.
Ans. The condition of them that love me, and of them that* 1.1 hate me, is not understood of the particular, but of the exem∣plary vertues or sins of the Children, where they imitate their Parents; and so they are both their Parents, Origine, & exemple, in respect of the originall, and example, and the Childrens in imitation, so that mercy is extended to the righteous seed of the* 1.2 righteous, in a double respect, viz. both for their exemplary vertues of their Fathers, whom they imitate; and of their own righteous∣nesse, and this without limitation, even to a thousand generati∣ons, not that there shall be so many generations in the world, but to shew that Gods mercy shall never be drawne dry. And so the wicked race of the ungodly is also punished in a double man∣ner