CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

3. All those sins that Inferiors do commit for want of thy care and instruction, will be thy sins, and thou wilt be the cause of their damnation; That Rule in morality is also true in Divinity, qui non dat vitam, aufert; Ezekiel must be judged guilty of the Israelites sins, and God will require their blood at his hands if he do not his duty to them, Eze. 3.18. And therefore Paul protested he was free from their blood, because he had made known all the Counsel of God Act. 20.26. Who then will be able to stand under this burden? Hast thou not sins of thy own? but thou must have thy Children's sins, thy Servants sins also to lie upon thy back as an heavy burden: Will Christ at the day of Judgement condemn men, because his poor Members were sick and they visited them not? They were hungry and they fed them not; And will he not much rather be provoked because there have been sick, sinful, wicked persons under thy care, drunkards and thou didst not admonish, Swearers and thou didst not frown on them; Shall God make Inquisition for the blood of the body upon Murderers? And will he not for the blood of Souls? Shall Abel, though dead, speak and cry Vengeance, and shall not Children, Servants, Inferiors damned in hell, cry out, saying, It was the negligence, the profaneness of my Superiors that hath brought me hither: Were not men stones and Rocks, these Considerations would make them melt and tremble.

3. All those sinnes that Inferiors do commit for want of thy care and instruction, will be thy sinnes, and thou wilt be the cause of their damnation; That Rule in morality is also true in Divinity, qui non dat vitam, aufert; Ezechiel must be judged guilty of the Israelites sinnes, and God will require their bloud at his hands if he do not his duty to them, Eze. 3.18. And therefore Paul protested he was free from their bloud, because he had made known all the Counsell of God Act. 20.26. Who then will be able to stand under this burthen? Hast thou not sinnes of thy own? but thou must have thy Childrens sinnes, thy Servants sins also to lie upon thy back as an heavy burthen: Will Christ at the day of Judgement condemn men, because his poor Members were sick and they visited them not? They were hungry and they fed them not; And will he not much rather be provoked because there have been sick, sinful, wicked persons under thy care, drunkards and thou didst not admonish, Swearers and thou didst not frown on them; Shall God make Inquisition for the bloud of the body upon Murderers? And will he not for the bloud of Souls? Shall Abel, though dead, speak and cry Vengeance, and shall not Children, Servants, Inferiours damned in hell, cry out, saying, It was the negligence, the prophanesse of my Superiors that hath brought me hither: Were not men stones and Rocks, these Considerations would make them melt and tremble.