good and evil, between the right hand and the left.” That God has respect to this is abundantly manifest from the above words addressed to John, and from other passages of sacred writ.
10. Secondly, they are the pure and dearly purchased possession of Christ; since Christ, who came to seek the lost, is said to be the Savior of all, except those who by incredulity and impenitence shut themselves out from being participators in His merits. These are the purchased from among men, that they may be the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb; having nob yet defiled themselves with the allurements of sin; but they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. And that they may continue 80 to follow, they ought to be led, as it were, with the hand by a pious education.
11. Finally, God so embraces children with abounding Jove that they are a peculiar instrument of divine glory, as the Scriptures testify, “From the lips of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thine enemies; that thou mayest destroy the enemy and avenger.”[1] How it comes to pass that God’s glory should receive increase from children, is certainly not at once obvious to our understanding; but God, the discerner of all things, knows and understands, and declares it to be so.
12. That children ought to be dearer and more precious to parents than gold and silver, than pearls and gems, may be discovered from a comparison between both of these gifts from God: for first, gold, silver, and such other things, are inanimate, being only somewhat harder and purer than the clay which we tread beneath our feet; whereas children are the lively image of the living God.[2]
