SERMON UPON PSALM CXXVII. 3. 91
God will show the fallacy of it by blasting that greatness : Job xx. 10, ' His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.'
[2.] How far godly parents are blessed in their posterity.
(1.) Good men convey many a temporal blessing to their relations; as God blessed Ishmael for Abraham's sake : Gen. xvi. 10, ' And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude ; ' Gen. xxi. 13, 'And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.' They have the blessing of Ishmael, if not the blessing of Isaac.
(2.) They are without scruple children of the covenant, in visible re- lation to God, and in better case than the seed of infidels ; not merely as the offspring of your bodies, nor as deriving grace from you by generation ; but because you have dedicated yourselves and all that you have to God. They are capable of ordinances : Kom. ix. 16, ' For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump also is holy ; and if tbe root be holy, so are the branches.'
(3.) If they die before tbey come to the use of reason, you have no cause to doubt of their salvation. God is their God . Gen. xvii. 7, ' I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee ; ' compared with Gal. iii. 14, ' That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' And they never lived to disinherit themselves. As we judge of the slip according to the stock, till it live to bring forth fruit of its own, so here.
(4.) If they live to years of discretion, they have greater advantages of being godly than others. Partly as your dedication doth oblige you to greater care in their education : Eph. vi. 4, ' Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Partly as God tendereth them more means with respect unto the covenant : Acts iii. 25, 26, ' Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed; unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you.' You are ' children of the covenant,' therefore ' unto you first,' &c. Partly as the grace of the covenant runneth most kindly in the channel of the covenant : Rom. xi. 24, ' How much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree ? '
(.5.) If they take to their parents' covenant, and fear and love God, their blessings are increased. David urgeth that : Ps. cxvi. 16, ' 0 Lord, truly 1 am thy servant : I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid.' When they are serious, they have a greater holdfast upon God : 2 Chron. vi. 42, ' Ptemember the mercies of David thy servant.'
Well, then, out of all, you see it is such a blessing as is dispensed in the way of a reward, yet it is such a blessing as may be turned into a curse. It is a door whereby God may let in blessing or cursing upon us ; and though they are an happiness, yet not our main happiness, but dispen.sed sometimes as rewards and sometimes as punishments.
92 SERMON UPON PSALM CXXVII. 3.
Use 1. To reprove those who are not thankful for children, but do grudge, and look upon it as a burden, when God blesseth them with a numerous issue. These murmur at that which is in itself a mercy. When we want them, we value them ; when we are full of children, we are full of distrust and murmuring. It was counted an honour to be a father in Israel. Surely those that fear God should not count an happiness to be a burden : Ps. cxxviii. 3, 4, ' Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.' God maketh his people ' families like a flock,' Ps. cvii. 41.
Use 2. Reproof to those who do not acknowledge and improve this mercy.
1. Those who do not acknowledge this mercy. Surely parents should acknowledge God in every child given to them. Much of his provi- dence is seen in giving and withholding children. We have songs of thanksgiving very frequent in scripture upon this occasion. It is a thing wherein God will have his bounty taken notice of by solemn praises ; and for every child God should have a new honour from you. What hath been done to the Lord for this ? Therefore do not look upon the birth of a child as a natural thing ; see God in it. When Rachel fell out with Jacob about her barrenness, * Am I,' saith he, ' in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ? ' Gen. XXX. 2. Specially confederate parents should acknowledge this mercy. It is a mercy that, when a sinner is taken into favour, God will accept of our actions, which are the fruit of our souls, that the evil that is in all these should not outweigh the little goodness which is in them ; nay, that they should not only be accepted, but rewarded. But further, that he should make a covenant with the fruit of our body, if you consider your natural sinfulness, it is wonderful that your children should be holy and God's portion. Grace, like a mighty river, will be pent within no banks, but overflow all that a man hath. God loveth not to take a single person, but grace cometh to our houses : Acts xvi. 31, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and. thy house.' Doth the faith of the master of the family save the family ? Occasionally it doth, as it giveth a title to the means of grace. Therefore this should be acknowledged with all thankfulness : 2 Sam. vii. 19, ' Thou hast spoken also concerning thy servant's house, for a great while to come.'