Marriage with a Defense of the 32nd Article of the Church of England, Chapter 6
CAAP VI. Of the loſs of Children.
IF God have given you Children, and taken them away again, yet be not like Rachel, weeping for her children, becauſe they are not; Rather with Job ſay, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, bleſſed be the name of the Lord, Job 1.21. Better, I think, to have had Children, though we ſee them go before us to their grave, than to have been always Childleſs; for hereby God hath taken away the reproach and curſe of Barrenneſs, and hereby you have helped to fill Heaven, and your Children are not loſt, but gone, or ſent thither before you. Job who had all his other goods doubled, had not a double number of Children; and this reaſon ſome give of it, becauſe theſe were not loſt, Job ſhould meet with them again in Heaven. If your Children dye in the womb, and never ſee the Sun, the Sun in the viſible Heavens, yet may they for ever ſee the Sun of Righteouſneſs in the higheſt Heavens; and ſurely 'tis a pleaſant thing always to behold this Sun, in the viſion and fruition of whom conſiſts ſo much of our happineſs. What though your children dye in the womb, or go out of the world preſently after they are born into it, yet may they ſee God, notwithſtanding the opinion of the Father, that Duras Infantum Pater; and not withſtanding the hard-heartedneſs of the pretended Mother-Church of Rome, in this a Step-Mother, rather than a true Mother to her Children. The Hebrew Children that dyed before the eighth day; and conſequently before they were circumciſed, and thoſe Bethlemitiſh Children that were baptized in their own blood; and that child that being born, was alſo baptized and buried in the flames, being thrown into the fire again, the arms of that Midwife that delivered the Martyred Mother of a live child, doubtleſs were not excluded Heaven for want of a Sacrament, which they did in no wiſe neglect or contemn, but could not have; theſe being comprehended in the Covenant made and ſealed to, and with their Parents had a right and title to the heavenly inheritance, were of with God, and co-heirs with Chriſt.
Again conſider, That God may have taken away your Children from the evil to come on the place where they lived. When Storms, Tempeſts and Troubles are abroad, you Parents call home your Children, and ſo doth God. God ſaith by his Providence in theſe caſes to his Children, though your Children alſo, Come my Children, enter into your Chambers, and ſhut the door, till all theſe calamities be overpaſt. 'Tis a common ſaying, Quem diligit Dous moritur Juvenis, he whom God loves, dyes young; and ſometime, and in ſome caſes, God calls the ſins of Parents to remembrance, and ſlays their Children. If ſo it be, this is a Lamentation, and ought to be for a lamentation: But upon your Repentance, God may give other Children in room of them he hath taken from you, or himſelf be better than ten Sons, than all Sons and Daughters could be unto you. Learn of Aaron the Prieſt of the Lord, who when he had loſt Nadab and Abihu, both in one day, and after an extraordinary manner, did not ſay, If it be ſo, why is it thus? but ſaith the Text, And Aaron held his peace, Levit. 10.3. he was dumb, and opened not his mouth, becauſe God had done it. Jonah was angry becauſe God had ſmitten and withered the Goard, that came up in a night, and periſhed in a night, but Aaron acquieſced in Gods handy-work, though he ſlew his two Sons by fire in an extraordinary manner, in all this Aaron ſinned not, nor charged God fooliſhly. Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? Who will ſay unto him, what doſt thou? If thou art either barren, or by the death of thy child childleſs, thou mayeſt do well to educate others Children, you may adopt ſome Kinſman, or Friend, or Neighbours Child, and cultivate them, and ſow the ſeeds of Virtue and Learning in them, and make ſuch your heirs; elſe make the Church, or Poor your heirs, and do not prodigally therefore waſte your Eſtates, or live idly and waſtefully.
Again, If you have no Child, be humbled under the want of this bleſſing, for Children are ſo, and then encreaſe and abound more in your Devotions towards God; the leſs you are to care for the things of the world, the more reaſon you have, and the more care you ſhould have, how to ſerve and pleaſe God, 1 Cor. 7.