contrariwise 2 Kin. 4.14 it was a miserable blank in the Shunamites estate that she had no child 2 Kin. 20.3 And this is conceived to be one cause why Hezekiah melted into teares when he received the fatall message Even because he had no heire-male his Son Manasses being yet unborne And Abraham himselfe complaines of a great defect amidst all his fulnesse Gen. 15.2 Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childlesse And therefore there was a provision made in the judiciall Law Deut. 25.5 6. That if a man dyed without issue his brother should raise up seed unto him that so his name might be revived and kept alive in Israel Children are nothing else but Parents multiplied Bena Banah aedificavit est enim totius structura seu aedificatio parentum and do in some sense immortalize and perpetuate them especially Sons which have their name originally from a word which signifieth to build because they beare up the name and are a support to the Family Therefore the Church prayeth Psa 144.12 That our Sons may be as plants grown up in their youth that our daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a Palace When the Father dyeth the Child riseth up in his roome and so Parents have a kind of resurrection in their Children A fourth Reason may be this Reason 4 Scripture upon some accounts reckoneth up steriâ—ity and barrennesse as a curse And who is not utterâ—y unwilling to bespit in the face with a Curse Doubtlesse that may seeme a strange Petition the Prophet puts up in the peoples behalfe Give them O Lord Amos 9.14 what wilt thou give them Give them a miscarrying wombe and dry breasts Comparing it with the context you shall find so great is Ephraim's sin that the Prophet is almost ashamed to pray for such a people and seemes very doubting what he should pray for yet foreseeing the fearefull plagues that were to fall he supplicates a mitigation That rather than women with child should be ripped up by the enemy or they should bring forth to the slaughter and see as Zed kiah did their Children murdered before their eyes 2 King 25.7 he prayeth to God to make them barren A paralell place is that of David who in his great straight chose to fall into the hand of God 2 Sam. 24. rather than into the hand of men That is a lesser judgement rather than a greater And yet this was a sore one three daies pestilence by which there fell seventy thousand men Even so the Prophet as if he should have said O Lord this do I beg in behalfe of this people thou wilt thus much remit the stroke It is the lesser judgement of the two not to have children at all than after they are borne bred and growne to maturity to have them slaughtered and therefore seeing the decree is gone forth give give in mercy O Lord give this mitigation of barrennesse So that the Petition serves to aggravate the ensuing judgements It is a most miserable case when that which is in it selfe a curse is to be prayed for as a blessing Coniah's curse is thus threatned Write ye this man childlesse Jer. 22.30 I do not conceive Coniah dyed without issue Ver. 28. the contrary being apparent but that he had a curse which was equivalent to being childlesse and therefore very great for so it followeth in the next words A man that shall not prosper in his daies for no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the Throne of David and ruling any more in Judah And this must not only be spoken but written Litera scripta manet Write ye this man childlesse as a notable judgement to be left on record to Posterity And this was Michals punishment for vilifying her husbands person Because she conceived contempt against him in her heart she never conceived child in her wombe Therefore saith the Text Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death That is 2 Sam. 6.23 she was punished with perpetuall barrennesse Doubtlesse among the Jewes want of children was a reproach both to man and woman This may be gathered from that of the Psalmist Psa 127.5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them viz. his Family well fraught with hopefull children which are those polished shafts they shall not be ashamed but they shall speake with the enemies in the gate 1 Sam. 1.6 Thus Hannah her Adversary provoked her sore for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her wombe and she cals her barrennesse her affliction O Lord of hosts Ver. 11. if thou wilt indeed looke on the affliction of thine handmaid c. And Elizabeth being with child after a long time of sterility bespeakes her selfe on this wise Thus hath the Lord dealt with me Luk. 1.25 in the daies wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men I would not have any gracious heart stumble at this truth so as to hurt it selfe Good men and women may be destitute both of Children and Nephews And yet this is not so great an affliction to them because God comes in and makes up this want with a far more precious supply A worthy Grectan being mortally wounded by the Spartans a friend told him he much lamented that he dyed without Issue To whom he replied my famous victories are as so many children to renew my memory But here is more for if God have denied any of his the benefit of Children yet he hath given them a name better than of Sons and Daughters Isa 56.6 They are called the children of God Mat. 5.9 They have right and priviledge to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 And John speaks it with admiration Behold 1 Joh. 3.1 what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! He that hath the Spirit of Adoption and is heaven-borne that can call God Father and speake to Christ as his brother and is allied to all the Saints shall find a fulnesse in this spirituall relation A name on earth how honourable soever is perishable But a name written in heaven shall never wither but flourish for ever It is no great matter to him or her that wants Children if they themselves be the adopted ones of God But to a wicked man it must needs be a curse because he hath nothing to make up this vacuum and relieve this want He that at once is both Childlesse and Christlesse too hath reason to weepe for his Children and not be comforted because they are not Reason 5 Last of all to touch the ultimate Period of this Point frequent it is for the first-borne to be the first Dolens profere and to fit highest in Parents esteeme And there is reason with due limitation it should be so Gen. 49.3
word It is very probable the Allegory of the wretched Infant was grounded upon some known custome Ezek. 16. Nay experience hath spoken how many poore Infants have tasted death from the cruell hands of their Strumpet-mothers who have twice dipped their soules in sin making amends for uncleannesse by committing murder But Such is the affection of Parents in the flesh that Scripture useth it as some short measure and scantling of the love of him who is the Father of Spirits to his adopted ones Psa 103.13 Like as a father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him Mal. 3.13 And I will spare them as a man that spareth his own Son that serveth him Surely none except Parents know or can be sensible how deare a child is Nay further when God would give a full and affectionate answer to his peoples lamentable but groundlesse complaint he corrects their distrust by this fit similitude Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her wombe Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee O sweet comfort to Saints Parents which are otherwise of perverse natures yet they will not neglect their Children and is it possible that the Lord the fountaine of mercy should empty himselfe of his fatherly affection and neglect his people Quantò mollior sexus tenerior affectus Ambr. Duplex est causa physica moralis Weemes Great is the love of a Father but far more tender is the affection of a mother Hence it is rendred by some as one cause why God hath placed the womans dug in her breast That she might impart her affection more to her child by giving it suck with her dug which is so neare her heart The love which she beareth to the little one that she nourisheth and suckleth at her breast is almost unutterable What care doth she use What restlesse nights doth she endure Nay love to her little one maketh her cleane forget her selfe So neare are Children to Parents that they are called Children of their loynes and are said to proceed out of their bowels So said David of his vip'rous Son Absalom 2 Sam. 16. Behold my son which came firth of my bowels seeketh my life So that we may call our spirituall children Philem. 12. as Paul doth his spirituall Son Onesimus nostra viscera our bowels I read that upon a turbulent sedition in Thessalonica Theodosius commanded that seven thousand should be put to death A Merchant there having two Sons put into the Calender of those that should be executed their good old Father put up a supplication for his two Sons The Souldiers pittying him told him they could not save both for then the Emperours number would not be fulfilled but they would spare one choose which he would The poore Father almost like a distracted man looking rufully on both could not tell which to choose So that while he delayed both were slaine Thus the naturall mother though an harlot seeing her Child in danger to be divided 1 Kin. 3.26 her bowels were hot and yearned upon her Son And David about Absalom after all his unnaturall villany yet Absalom is a Child 2 Sam. 18. Deale gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom and againe Is the young man Absalom safe And it is very observable in Job that he sate still and did abide the boisterous blasts of all those lossefull tidings as being not very much moved untill he heard of the death of his children But O then Children dead So soone as the report of this touched his eare it struck him to the heart Ten children in the morning and now a child esse man Oh now he startles now he stirs now the poore pale father is brought to his knees Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head and fell downe upon the ground Other losses may go skin-deep but these go heart-deepe Children are unto Parents like unto Teeth painfull both in breeding and parting Reason 3 Thirdly Psal 49.11 It is most naturall to have an eye to the preservation of Posterity Although that ought not to take up our innermost thoughts This care we see not only in the reasonable creatures but in the unreasonable also yea even in birds of Prey and wild beasts who are yet carefull in this behalfe howsoever otherwise they be of cruell and animosious natures Psal 84.3 Thus the Sparrow finds her an house and the Swallow a nest for her selfe where she may lay her young Likewise the Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreading abroad her wings taketh them and beareth them on her wings That is she carrieth them with such tendernesse and at such an height as none may reach them to do violence unto them Nay further see the force of natures instinct even the sea-monsters draw out the breast Lam. 4.3 they give suck to their young ones What piteous out-cries and cheating circuits makes the poore Lapwing And all is to divert the Passenger from her young So carefull are creatures to preserve the products of their own kind And this care must needs be more superlative in the reasonable Creature unlesse horribly degenerated Moreover God threatens this to a wicked man as a very great judgement to put out his light and expunge his name from among the living Job 18.16 17 19. As Bildad in Job very elegantly His roots shall be dried up beneath and above shall his branch be cut off His remembrance shall perish from the earth and he shall have no name in the street He shall neither have Son nor Nephew among his people nor any remaining among his dwellings And the Psalmist Psal 34.16 The face of the Lord is against them that do evill to out off the remembrance of them from the earth And againe Psa 109.13 Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their name be blotted out And Solomon threatens him not with a rotten house or body but a rotten name Pro. 10.7 The name of the wicked shall rot Marke shall rot The rot we say is an evill disease where ever it lights whether amongst herds or flocks But never so ill as when it lighteth on mens names or memories that either they are mentioned with disgrace as a rotten thing or not remembred at all Also God promiseth this to his people as a grand favour and great incouragement to obedience that he will multiply and keepe alive their off-spring Abraham the friend of God is blessed with a numerous Posterity like to the Sand upon the Sea shore or Stars of heaven It was no small piece of King Davids happinesse that he saw his Son Solomon sit upon the Throne of Israel before his death And that promise made unto Christ is one of the glorious things of the Gospell He shall see his seed Isa 53.10 And
none of the best even for the sakes of their godly Parents although long before deceased Read these places Gen. 26.24 1 Kings 11.12 32.34 1 King 15.4 2 King 8.19 2 King 19.34 Isa 37.35 Cap. 45.4 c. Not that I in the least impute these allaies of judgement and mixtures of mercy to the merit or worth of their Predecessors but to the promises of God made unto them who also endued them with care and good conscience to keep the condition annexed thereunto This is plaine out of Psal 89.20 forward And the Saints in their wrestlings with God have pleaded it as a strong Argument Thus Moses Exod. 32.18 and 2 Kings 13.23 So that in some cases the Child that is unborne may blesse God that he had a religious Father or Grandfather And if so ye may eftsoone guesse what is like to follow upon the contrary Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul saith David 2 Sam. 9.1 remembring his promise that I may shew him kindnesse for Jonathan's sake And afterwards thus saith he to Mephihosheth Feare not Ver. 7. for I will surely shew thee kindnesse for Jonanathan thy Fathers sake Even thus Children may receive much kindnesse from the King of heaven for their godly Parents sakes Surely a man may be either blessed or cursed not only personally but also in his posterity The blessings of Children are the blessings of Parents and Childrens punishments may be Parents punishments Psal 109. The Psalmist shews sufficiently in those his imprecations that wicked men are plagued in their Children Thus Cham was cursed in his Son Canaan marke the Text not cursed be Cham but cursed be Canaan Gen. 9.25 And contrariwise bounty and kindnesse to Solomon is called bounty and kindnesse to David his Father 1 Kin. 3.6 And Joseph was blessed from his Father in his two Sons Manasseth and Ephraim So saith the Text He blessed Joseph how did he blesse him Gen. 48.15 16. The Angell which redeemed me from all evill blesse the Lads Object But Scripture tels us Ezek. 18.20 Gal. 6.5 The Son shall not beare the iniquity of the Father But every man shall beare his own burden I answer Sol. Here is no contradiction for 1. The Proposition is most true if it be taken away by regeneration 2. The Son shall not beare it in reference to eternall punishment Ver. 4. The soule that sinneth it shall dye God will never send a Child to hell for the Parents sin 3. Neither as I conceive shall the iniquity of the Father devolve upon the Child except he imitate his Fathers iniquity But ye must know 1. Children are Parents goods as is plaine in the case of Job which may justly suffer loss for the owners sake 2. Children are as it were a part of Parents so that when they are punished Parents are punished and this is a more cutting Corrasive and torment to Parents 3. Parents sin is ost a cause of Childrens fin For God in his just judgement may curse a wicked mans Posterity by leaving them to themselves Mat. 23.32 that so they may fill up the measure of their Fathers And when the Child hath not only sins which belong to his owne individuall person but also revives his Fathers by approbation and imitation then the sin is made his own As a man catching the plague dyeth of his own disease wherever he had the infection So that we Object may conclude Children are very proclive to tread in Parents steps And when they appeare to be their Children not only naturally but morally In such case it is usuall for the jealous God To visit the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him Now Fathers and Mothers be not as Zipporah once said bloody Parents For your Childrens sake looke to your selves That none of yours when you are dead and in your graves may have cause to curse your dead ashes say Woe alas that ever I was born the wretched Child of so unworthy a Parent See to your God Disobedience to the most High will render you very unnaturall and unmercifull to your Children Sinning Parents do what they can to make their Children miserable It was Sampsons Plea unto his Charge for firing the Philistines Corne Judg. 15.11 As they did unto me so have I done unto them Beloved take heed how ye deale with God Psal 18.26 With the froward he will shew himselfe froward Lev. 26. If ye walk contrary unto him then will he also walk contrary unto you If ye provoke him whom you ought to love most he will bereave you of that which ye love most If ye have one Child dearer to you than another by one meanes or other he will deprive you of it If ye love your Children love your God If ye desire to keep them keep in with God he gave and he can take away at pleasure The best way to keep our Children is to serve him who gave us our Children See to your Children That ye carefully performe those Parentall Offices towards them which God in Scripture calls for at your hands We shall particularize some of the prime viz. First then Let Patents have a care they do not provoke their children This the Apostle prohibits most plainly Eph. 6 4. And ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath And againe Col. 3.21 Fathers provoke not your children to anger Some Copies adde above what is fitting So that Parentall power hath its limits Docter Davenant observes Davenant an Colos that Parents may abuse their authority and provoke their children severall waies 1. By denying them necessaries which by the Law of God and nature they ought to afford them according to their power As food raiment c. A sin so foule as the Apostle blusheth not one bit to say 1 Tim. 5.8 Such a one hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidell 2. By burdening their Children with wicked and unjust commands Such was that of Saul 1 Sam. 20.31 when he commanded his Son Jonathan to fetch his innocent friend David that he might be slaine 3. Parents may irritate and provoke their Children when they do passionately and undeservedly affect them with contumeâ—ious and disgracefull language And thus Jonathan in his Fathers rage is called Ver. 30. Son of the perverse rebellious woman Reproachfull Language leaves a sting behind it very difficult to be endured 4. And lastly by immoderate chastisement Which is when the grievousnesse of the punishment exceeds the greatness of the crime Thus the same Saul casts a Javelin at his own Son for defending innocent David whereupon the Text saith Ver. 33. Jonathan arose from thetable in fierce anger And it is too ordinary for fathers of the flesh to chasten their children according to their own pleasure The reason which the Apostle annexeth to this prohibition is Lest they
to sorrow Oh! Quis fando abstinet à lachrymis In these divisions of Reuben here are deep impressions of heart The seamelesse Coat of Christ is sadly rent Those polished and living stones of Zion lie scattered in the dust It is even the time of Jacobs trouble This is Zion whom no man seeketh after Her waies begin to mourne and her Gates to waxe desolate Her precious Sons comparable to fine Gold how are they esteemed as earthen Pitchers Mine eye affecteth mine heart Wo is me my mother that thou hast borne me Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace For these things I weepe and mine eye mine eye runneth downe with water Secondly if ye would moderate present sorrow meditate some moderating considerations This is a very effectuall meanes and much to this purpose may be couched under these three following particulars viz. First meditate and consider Gods Soveraignty There is nothing we have but God hath both the chiese interest in it and sole dispose of it 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Surely neither wife child nor any thing else from a morsell of bread to a drop of water Nay from a thread to a shooe-latcher God may say of any of us here before him most justly as once Benhadad said most unjustly Thy Silver and thy Gold is mine 1 King 20. thy wives also and thy children even the goodliest are mine And every one of us must needs answer as â—â—d the King of Israel My Lord according to thy saying I am thine and all that I have Or in those words of Laban Gen. 31.43 These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and all that thou seest is mine All we have is Gods You that this day mourne for your only Son and are in bitterness for your first-borne consider upon what termes God gave this child Even upon the same that Pharaoh's daughter delivered Moses to his own mother saying Take this child away Exod. 2.9 and nurse it for me Marke what God saith Nurse it for me Suppose any of you should put forth your child to nurse and at the expiration of the time should send for the child If then the Nurse should deny you your Child or grumble to part with it would it not highly displease you What an unworthy and irrationall woman is this would ye say that hath the face to detaine from me my own naturall child Parents in this case you are only your childrens nurses and you do but nurse them for God they are his children O grudge not God his own grumble not repine not when God sends death to your houses to fetch home any Son or Daughter of his from nurse And doth not this soveraignty and supremacy in God render him also the sole disposer of all we have Omnia ex nutu arbitrioque dei aguntur Yes surely either to give or take away either to kill or keepe alive O man who art thou that repliest against God Rom. 9.21 hath not the Potter power over the clay This did silence Job in all his losses Job 1.21 he was dumbe before the shearer when he was shorne to his naked skin stripped of all and why The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Thus Aaron when his Sons were so sadly slaine by fire from the Lord Aaron hold his peace Lev. 10.3 there was silence in his Spirit Thus Eli when the ruine of his house was reported It is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 Let him do what seemeth him good And afflicted David upon this consideration is as mute as a Fish I was dumbe saith he I opened not my mouth Psa 39.9 because thou didst it It was Gods Act and therefore he had not a word to say Thus Hezekiah What shall I say for God himselfe hath done it Isa 38.15 And the Church I will beare the indignation of the Lord. Mic. 7.9 O Parents it is God that takes away your Children therefore take heed of heart-tumuâ—ts or implicite murmurings God hath all the keyes hanging at his own girdle both the key of the wombe and of the tombe and he will let in and out as he pleaseth and who may say unto him what dost thou Job 9.12 Methinks by this time we should not make such Idols of our selves or ours as for their deaths to grow discontented at the Lords appointment But that Argument should ever sway with us Fiat domini voluntas The will of the Lord be done Act. 21.14 Againe Confider in the second place childrens frailty Look unto the Rock whence they were hewn and to the hole of the pit whence they are digged and we shall find them to be neither Rocks nor Adamants neither Pearles nor Diamonds but the off-spring of sinfull and weake Parents Adam begat a Son in his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 after his Image God by creation made man in his Image but man by procreation begets one in his own Image not only like himselfe in condition as a man but in corruption as a degenerate man Genere non vitio Adae Chrisius Tert. In this the man Christ Jesus is only free and singular Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane not one Job 14.4 And who can bring a strong thing out of a weake not one That which is borne of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 The effect must needs answer to the cause and the Product to the Principle So that although Infants should neither live to imitate nor approve the actions of their Parents yet their death is deserved For though they be truly called Innocents in respect of actuall sin yet they are so in respect of Original From the very wombe they carry a depraved nature which prepares them to act evill We our selves hate creatures that are hurtfull though they never did hurt because of their pernicious natures The Scorpion hath his sting within him though he do not alway strike and the Serpent his venemous poyson though he do not yet hisse it out and disperse it For their final estate we meddle not but leave secret judgements to God If then our Children be weake and fraile dying and withering fin is the cause Sin is the sally-port that lets death into the world Rom. 5.12 Impatientia est quodammodo in Infantibus in cunabula tunc quanta mox incrementa Tert. Sin entred into the world and death by sin Look at your childrens birth and ye need not admire their death Birth-sin merits death-suffering Children have in them at first a bad stock and should they live there would be as bad an improvement This worme is bred in the Plant and this decay at the core of the most beautifull Apple Adam and Christ are as two
experiment of divine plagues As the joy of the godly cleareth more and more unto the perfect day of glory and happinesse so the wickeds sorrow waxeth darker and darker even unto the black midnight of eternall horrour The Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despaire prosecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed Brother it is so with thee and me We are but under the Crosse we might have been under the Curse Here is the losse of children it might have been the loss of Gods love Here is correction it might have been destruction Here is a mixture of mercy it might have been pure wrath God might have caused his indignation to rest upon us O woe to that man or woman whom divine fury laies hold upon this is the very dregs of the cup. We thinke our afflictions very bitter but consider God might have left us in a state of sin and condemnation and under wrath and then had we been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 8.13 In the gall of bitternesse Lastly The consideration of our past and future condition may be a great meanes to work our hearts unto submission Thinke what we once were and must againe ere long be and it may much quiet our spirits under whatsoever breach God makes upon us Two things first consider how camest thou into this world at thy birth Job tels thee Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers wombe Job 1.21 Not a rag to cover thee Not a morsell where with to sustaine thee Not a friend to minister unto thee So that let God take what he will he cannot leave thee more naked than thou wast Jacob when grown rich thus bespeaks himselfe Gen. 32.10 With my staffe I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands Gen. 32.10 I was like a poor footman I could have carried all my wealth with me and not have been over-laden though now I am come on and much encreased in estate But at thy comming into this world thou hadst not so much as a staffe or any thing to stay thy selfe upon O if many of us did but remember what once we were we should with more thankfulnesse be what we are And again consider how thou must go out of the world at death the same Author tels thee And naked shall I returne thither Whither to the earth out of which we were formed When death that grim Porter lets thee out of this world he will suffer thee to take nothing along with thee but a Coffin or a winding-sheet So that likewise whatever God deprives thereof thou hast as much and more than one day thou must have The Apostle brings in these as a strong argument unto contentment We brought nothing into this world 1 Tim. 6.7 8. and it is certaine we can carry nothing out Therefore let us be content 1 Tim. 6.7 8. Though friends are taken away by death and comforts seeme to faile yet be content with thy present lot Thou hast still as much and more that thou broughtest or shalt carry away Yet a little while and death will come to strip thee of all thou hast and leave thee more naked than in the day that thou wast borne O then cease murmuring and submit lay your hands upon your mouths beg of God a sweet composure of spirit and say The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. FINIS