death! Our anſwer, hereunto is, that we do acknowledge, that rule, Deut. 24: 16, to be morall, and therefore perpetually binding, viz., that in a particular act of wickedneſs, though capitall, the crime of the parent doth not render his child a ſubject to puniſhment by the civill magiſtrate; yet, upon ſerious conſideration, we humbly conceive that the children of notorious traitors, rebells, and murtherers, eſpecially of ſuch as have bin principal leaders and actors in ſuch horrid villanies, and that againſt a whole nation, yea the whole Iſrael of God, may be involved in the guilt of their parents, and may, ſalva republica, be adjudged to death, as to us ſeems evident by the ſcripture inſtances of Saul, Achan, Haman, the children of whom were cut off, by the ſword of Juſtice for the tranſgreſſions of their parents, although concerning ſome of thoſe children, it be manifeſt, that they were not capable of
being co-acters therein.
Samuel Arnold,
John Cotton."
September 7th, 1670.
The Rey. Increaſe Mather, of Boſton, offers theſe ſentiments on the queſtion, in a letter to Mr. Cotton, October 30, 1676.
"If it had not been out of my mind, when I was writing, I ſhould have ſaid ſomething about Philip's ſon. It is neceſſary that ſome effectual courſe ſhould be taken about him. He makes me think of Hadad, who was a little child when his father, (the Chief Sachem of the Edomites) was killed by Joab; and, had not others fled away with him, I am apt to think, that David would have taken a courſe, that Hadad ſhould never have proved a ſcourge to the next generation."
