13. Secondly, gold and silver are rudimentary objects produced by the command of God; whereas children are creatures in the production of which the all-sacred Trinity instituted special council, and formed them with His own fingers.
14. Thirdly, gold and silver are fleeting and transitory things; children are an immortal inheritance. For although they yield to death, yet they neither return to nothing, nor become extinct; they only pass out of a mortal tabernacle into immortal regions. Hence, when God restored to Job all his riches and possessions, even to the double of what he had previously taken away, he gave him no more children than he had before; namely, seven sons and three daughters. This, however, was the precise double; inasmuch as the former sons and daughters had not perished, but had gone before to God.
15. Fourthly, gold and silver come forth from the earth, children from our own substance; being a part of ourselves, they consequently deserve to be loved by us, certainly not less than we love ourselves; therefore God has implanted in the nature of all living things so strong an affection towards their young that they occasionally prefer the safety of their offspring to their own. If any one transfer such affections to gold and silver, he is, in the judgment of God, condemned as guilty of idolatry.
16. Fifthly, gold and silver pass away from one to another as though they were the property of none, but common to all; whereas children are a peculiar possession, divinely assigned to their parents; so that there is not a man in the
worthy a theologian’s time; but I thank Christ, my everlasting love, for inspiring me with such affection towards His lambs and for regulating my exertions in the form set forth in my educational works. I trust that when the winter has passed they will bring forth some fruit to His church.”
