well I could relate sad instances of some whom I have known who after the commission of some foul sin have in my presence expressed as credible serious repentance as ever I could desire yea have to my seeming been in utter despair for the present so that I have been not a little troubled to get them to believe that their sins were pardonable and their souls not past remedy when at last they began to apprehend any hope they have upon a sudden ere I was aware made vows Never more to come near such and such companions and places of temptation yea have also seconded these their vowes with immediate earnest prayer to God in secret for his assistance and yet have to my knowledge risen from their knees and gone immediately to the same wicked practice and been as deeply plunged as before and then been in the same trouble again make the like vows again and relapsed in like manner again This I say I have known and seriously considering of the matter I cannot assign any other cause thereof then this That those vowes were unwarrantable Tileni syntag disp 43 in tertium praeceptum p. 267. and God would not be intreated to give his blessing to that for which he had never given his command For though in the Old Testament there is as clear examples of paying Vowes as of offering a Sacrifice yet in the New Testament he who commissioned his Ministers to teach us to observe whatsoever he had cōmanded though he is graciously pleased to condescend to many particulars that might seem of less concernment yet gave no instruction to his Apostles or Ministers to prescribe making Vowes as a help to holiness or a remedy against sin or temptation So that unless it were agreeable to his will it will hardly conduce to his glory Besides when we vow any thing it must be either a thing commanded and necessary or uncommanded To vow to do a thing commanded of God is needless For his command layes a greater obligation upon us already And if the thing vowed be uncommanded then it is not necessary and consequently it must be dangerous to lay our selves under a necessity of doing that which our great Law-giver never made necessary For this vow of unnecessary things must be either absolute or conditional An absolute vow layes us under the snare of impossibilities yea under the danger of sin a conditional vow carries with it the danger of inconstancy such vows being seldome held of much force because circumstances may so often vary that they may quickly seem discharged of their vowes As for instance Suppose you make a vow If God shall recover you to give so much to the poor to read so many chapters a day to pray so often or the like This is an absolute vow And now if Providence render it impossible to give so much without great prejudice to your family-necessities or to read or pray so often without danger of your health or omitting some more necessary and seasonable good in this case you cannot possibly keep your vow without sin If your vow be conditional to give so much if you can spare it to read and pray so much if you have leisure and strength this is needlesly vowed for you are already bound by your vow in Baptism and by the common bonds of Religion to give what you can to the poor and to serve God with all your might and to redeem your time for him And t is better to doe what we do for God out of consciencious obedience to his Law then out of superstitious observation of voluntary vows For who hath required this at your hands Perkins cas of cons lib. 2. c. 1. qu. 2. page mihi 97. The Papists do exceed all other Sects in variety of Religious vows not onely abounding in the use of them but in the grossest abuse making vows of Continency regular obedience c. to be meritorious above all other good works commanded in the morall Law The very naming of such bold impiety is sufficient to render it ridiculous to all that have the Law of God written in their hearts Wherefore to conclude this businesse of vows I say with a (a) B. Hals contemplat lib. 10. p. mihi 173. reverend Author speaking of the unhappy vow of Jephta The conscience shall never find peace in any way but that which we see before us and which we know safe both in the kind and circumstances There is no comfort in Peradventure I may please God Therefore be very cautelous of making any vows and seriously consider and candidly accept my opinion herein that the safest way is to let them alone But now t is time to shew you what I do mean by these Religious purposes I mean that you should consider seriously how defective you have been in prosecution of those Religious ends that the Gospel and your holy profession doth mind you of and that you would firmly purpose and resolve with your selfe to endeavour to do more for God than yet you have done As for instance suppose your resolutions be of avoiding some evil or some occasion or appearance of evill or somthing that doth hinder that which is good as to resolve supposing you are by your quality concerned herein to abridge your selfe of some of your gallantry to be more frugall in your apparell and not to be a slave to the people of this Generation nor to follow every ridiculous and apish fashion of this World 1 Tim. 2.9.10 To spend lesse time in your tedious deessing and trimming every morning and to redeem some of it Exod. 38.8 for the beholding your sins in the glasse of the Law and Christ in the glasse of the Gospel that you may trim your soul and adorn it after the likenesse of Christ or to spend lesse time and money in gameing or to be more seldome in idle visits Melius est habere malorum odiū quam consortium Bern. de mode bene vivendi serm 60. espeeially of such as will not endure in their company any talke of God whether in good sort or in bad as the Jesuits once prohibited but are wholly addicted to such evil communication as corrupts good manners Or if you would resolve upon any thing positively good or praise worthy and of good report as To be more constant frequent laborious in your closet Devotions Prov. 31.27 to be more carefull of your family that it may not be a cage of nuclean birds and a habitation of Devils but a houshold of faith wherein all wickednesse shall at least hide its head and the duties of Religion and Profession of Godliness have more countenance and reputation or to be more severe to your children I abhor cruelty and passionate hasty corrections I meane to get free of that accursed fondnesse whereby so many children have been curses to their parents on earth and cursed firebrands in hell at their death Remember old Eli and be not partaker of
plentifull are Histories of the ancient practices of many Nations especially the Romans in appropriating the office of chief Priest to their Kings and Emperours as an honour not befitting any meaner person Yea among Christians the Prince of Anhalt and other persons of honour have ambitiously accepted and happily performed the Ministerial Office And no doubt but one reason why the Ministry is of no higher esteem is because divers selfish needy persons seek the Priesthood meerly for maintenance and so are tempted by their indigency to unsuitable courses and dishonourable shifts and are uncapable of being so beneficent as they would or should be and also are the less regarded because extracted from the meanest of the people And no doubt this is one reason why the Nobility and Gentry are more feared then loved more envied then esteemed because they mind their own honour but not at all the honour of God they love their â—ase their pomp their lusts and excess of riot but as for the tranquillity or atility of the Church they are meer Gallio's Just it is with God that they should be of mean parts and illiterate Ign oramusses as many of them are seeing if they had eit her parts or learning they would scorn to employ them for the service of God in his Church Therefore till I can hear or imagine any reason to the contrary I shall here propose it as a thing commendable in any person of quality be they never so great to entertain such thoughts in their minds of devoting their child to God as did Hannah And I doubt not but if any of them who are less mancipated to the common follies would cease a while to idolize themselves and suffer reason and conscience to speak 2 Cor. 8.8 they would consider better of it But this I speak not by commandement And therefore it is not a Precept but a counsel Much less should any be so far besotted with Popish perswasions or Jesuitical delusions as to think a child not dedicated to the Lord unless it be dedicated to a Monastick life Though Sampson Judg. 13.5 while yet in the womb was appointed to be a Nazarite yet not by his parents choice but by the command of the Angel Therefore let them onely take such a course as have the like warrant Well then by dedicating it to God I mean that which is the indispensable duty of all Christian parents viz. partly in purposing while the child is yet in the womb that if it safely enter into the land of the living and come to years of maturity they will use all possible endeavors that it may be the Lords Eph. 6.5 by bringing it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord partly by serious prayers to God in its behalf that it may be separated to him from the womb Thus I say should every mother beg of God that as it is mine by nature so it may be thine by grace that as I have received from thee so thou wouldst be pleased to accept my dedication of it to thee again Some women have such prayers and purposes when their travel fills them with pain and threatens them with danger but if once delivered they mind them no more Wherefore let your duty herein take an earlier date that it may make better impression in your heart And assure your self if you thus purpose and desire that your child may be set apart for God and become holy to the Lord it shall be with you as with David 2 Sam. 7.12 13 14 15. he dedicated much for the Temple and purposed to build an house for God though he lived not to accomplish his desire yet he lived in his son and was blessed with a Solomon who did afterwards happily accomplish it so I say Whether you live or not yet because it is in your heart as soon as ever the child was in your womb to devote it to the Lord this is doubtless thank-worthy with him you shall be blessed in your posterity Ps 35.13 and your prayes shall return into your own bosome For either your child shall live long in the land and enjoy the fruit of your early prayers or enter with you into Heaven where you shall enjoy him in glory for ever having your joy herewith augmented that God took him so soon CHAP. VIII Care of her own health the duty of a woman with child THough care of the body may seem to be a matter of so small moment as scarce to deserve a chapter by it self yet the truth is it is a duty of so great concernment that it must not be excluded but distinctly considered by child-bearing women Certain we are that life and health must be reckoned among those talents which God doth intrust them with Because the health of the body contributes much to perfect all operations of the mind but women with child have a far greater reason to be mindful of their health viz. not onely for their own sakes but the good of the infant that is yet unborn If therefore some grave Authors have thought it necessary Charon of Wisdome that the Father himself should observe divers rules of temperance both in body and mind if he expect towardly and comely children Magirus Phys How much more requisite is it that the mother who contributes far more to the body and disposition of the child then the Father because the child for many moneths receives such nourishment as the womb where it lies affords I say how much more doth it concern her to use all possible caution and discretion to keep her self in a healthy and well-ordered plight that she may afford the better nutriment to the fruit of her womb I question not but their care herein is as effectual to the strength of their child as the warmth of the Sun and inriching the soil is to any fruit And as fruit that ripens kindly is gathered the easier and comes off without tearing the branch on which it grows so the child the more strength it receives from the mother as the root and the more vigorous it grows by all additional helps the easier and speedier will its passage into the world be Dr. Gouge of Domest Duties p. 516. This is one reason say Expositors if not the chief reason why the Angel layes so strict a charge upon the wife of Manoah when she was with child with Sampson to abstain from wine and strong drink because he was to de a Nazarite and therefore must not have his temper and constitution infected with a natural liking to that which he was prohibited the use of By which you may perceive what influence the meat drink desires and delights of the mother have upon the future disposition of the child Wherefore learn it as a special duty to forbear all excess in meats and drinks use no violent recreations take no needless journies incumber not your body with much labour nor your mind with much anxious care sorrow and
tam ociosorum auribus placeant quà m aegrotorum mentibus prosint magnum ex utraquere caelestibus donis fructum reportaturi The CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF a state of Pregnancy page 1 CHAP. II. Prayer the duty of women with child p. 19 CHAP. III. Repentance the duty of women with child 26 CHAP. IV. Reading of Scriptures the duty of women with child 34 CHAP. V. Meditation the duty of women with child 41 CHAP. VI. Resignation to God the duty of women with child 60 CHAP. VII Dedication of the child to God the duty of women with child 64 CHAP. VIII Care of her own health the duty of a woman with child 68 CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented 71 CHAP. X. Prepation for death the duty of godly women when with child 80 CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thankfulness after their deliverance is also the duty of women with child 93 CHAP. XII The labour for faith in Christ or if they have faith to endeavour to exercise it in trust and dependance upon God for pardon of sin is also the duty of women with child 100 CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child 110 CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of travelling women 129. Reader Some faults will escape take what care we can those that are are very few and they onely in mis-spelling wherefore I thought not worth the while to trouble my self to note them or thee with naming them A PRESENT FOR Teeming Women c. CHAP. I. Of a state of Pregnancy IT is observable that the great God who is equally infinite in all his Attributes yet hath styled himself rich in mercy glorious in holinesse Psal 86.15 Eph. 2.4 Exod. 15.11 Surely he needs neither riches nor glory He was rich enough to Himself and glorious enough in Himself from everlasting But behold His good Will towards men and the communicative nature of infinite goodness Mercy enricheth us Holiness glorifies us By Mercy we partake of his Gifts by Holiness we partake of his Nature By Mercy we enjoy him by Holiness we love him resemble him and glorifie him for ever Now seeing these two transcendent perfections do eternally cohabite in the nature of God and mutually concur to the benefit of man it is most requisite that our minds should be filled with the thoughts influences of both That is that each Mercy of God should promote our Holiness and that Holiness should encrease our sense of Mercies It being therefore my present business that women with child may be in a holy frame and thereby fitted for the houre of danger approaching I thought good to mind them of this first that 't is a mercy of much value to be with child in a state of Matrimony That this is a mercy will appear plainly by these few considerations 1. 'T is one end of marriage that there might be a succession of generation after generation that the race of mankind may not be confused and disorderly as among Beasts nor extinguished 1 Thes 4.4 nor dishonoured but may continue in a legitimate line and that God might have a holy seed Mal. 2.15 2. That it might appear to be a Mercy God hath by Angels Revelations and Miracles at sundry times of old assured some good women that he would give this blessing to their wombs Thus in Gen. 17.16 I will bless her give thee a son also of her Gen. 17.16 17. yea I will bless her and she shall be a mother also of nations Though upon this strange promise we find Abraham full of wondering ver 17. and Sarah his wife laughing ch 18 12. Both questioning at first how this could be yet afterwards God doth renew his promise and they lay aside any further doubt and the word of the Lord spoken by angels was falfilled Gen. 21.1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said and did unto Sarah as he had spoken For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him We find of the Patriarchs also that they found favour with God in like manner concerning the fruit of their womb ever acknowledging it as the gift of God and adoring the gracious providence of the (a) Nihil de generationibus aut seminibus nvscitur si ea non operetur Deus Aug. in Ps 118. Gen. 28. God and Father of all men When they blessed their posteriy they carefully inserted this in their propheticall prayers This last blessing of a dying Patriarch though it be sometime or in some part expressed in form of petition yet in the intent and effect thereof alway amounted to a prediction Thus Isaac to Jacob God Almighty blesse thee and make thee fruit full and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people Thus Jacob to Joseph Joseph is a fruitfull bough Chap. 49. 22.25 even a fruitfull bough whose branches run over the walls The Almighty shall blesse thee with the blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the breast and of the womb In which places God is still mentioned as the original of this blessing and the supreme efficient cause of the pregnancy of the womb and increase of posterity It was the same God that sent his Angel to the wife of Manoah Judg. 13.3 to tell her that she should conceive and bear a son 'T is out of question that to these persons it was a mercy to have issue yea a publick blessing to many generations for the seed of Abraham was the onely visible Church on earth the onely people that turned from Idols to serve the living God And Sampson the son of Manoah was in his time the onely Judge and Champion of Israel and Type of Christ But it seems doubtfull whether therefore all other parents can call their children Blessings or indeed whether the faithfull have any such cause to promise themselves comfort in their posterity without some like revelation or testimony from heaven as they had To this I answer that all the seed of Abraham I mean that continue in the faith of Abraham have exceeding great and precious promises to rest satisfied in that extend to them all in all ages I mean Gods promises of giving and blessing children to them 3. And that shall be my third proof If God promise distinctly and frequently that they shall see their posterity and their seeds seed then we must thankfully enumerate it among his rich favours to mankind This was the blessing to Adam in innocency God blessed them Gen. 1.28 and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And to Noah Gen. 9.1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth This blessing was given them as the common parents and stocks of whom
in manners then for a woman to forget her sucking child verily this makes some of our proudest Dames more vile then the beasts that perish And therefore let all persons of honour cease hereafter to glory in their shame and let them think it their duty when God makes them mothers to make themselves nurses imitating the example of Sarah who though a Lady of great (a) Engl. Annot. on Gen. 11. esteem riches and honour though aged and weak yet refused not this motherly office And they that upon any account but plain necessity i.e. want of strength or milk do neglect this duty whether for laziness lust pride or loving the fashion more then their children they deserve that God should curse them with a miscarrying wombe and dry breasts Hos 9.14 But there is another folly too common and that is if they have a great charge of children already to wish and resolve to have no more and to be cast down with grief and anxious care if they find themselves with child again Alas what is this but to repine at Gods mercies and to murmure at his blessings what greater dishonour can we put upon the Word of God Ps 127.5 which sayes Happy is he that hath his quiver full of them Besides who knows but that this last child may be an eminent instrument to Gods glory a vessel of use in his generation and a blessing to the whole family But so much for the first point That it is a mercy to be with child CHAP. II. Prayer The duty of women with child I Have been longer then I intended on the first Chapter to prove that it is a mercy for women to be with child I shall endeavour to be more brief in the things following which are the severall duties that pertain to women in that estate If they make any conscience of fitting themselves for their travell or would have any hope of Gods assistance therein I shal desire them to give heed to the Scripture-rules here gathered by my serious care for their direction and consolation And I shall begin with that which they must begin with go on with and end with Dr. Gonge of domest duties tr 6. p. 580. and that is Prayer And seeing there be many requisites that concur to render a prayer acceptable I shall instance in some few and pass by the rest which are many and are largely handled by other Authors You must be carefull to direct your prayers to the right object that is to the whole Trinity To God the Father in the name of Christ by the assistance of his Spirit (a) Perkins cas of consc lib. 2. c. 4. q. 1. Not but that on some occasions it is both lawfull and proper to invoke the second or third person of the trinity but usually we are to aske of the Father in the name of Christ and to such asking is his promise made But that which I chiefly aime at is to warne you to call upon God onely (b) Cobbets treat of prayer Part 3. ch 12. p. 541. Mat. 28.19 Joh. 16 23. and not upon any Saint or Angel as the manner is is among Idolatrous Papists whose devotions are divided among so many Saints that 't is no easy matter to reckon their meer nāes Let it suffice us that this their folly hath nothing of warrant from the Scripture but is meerly derived (c) Perkins ubi supra c. 6. qu. 1. § 2 from the practice of those vile heathens who not liking to retaine God in their knowledge became vain in their imaginations (d) Aug. de Civ Dei l. 8. c. 18.21 lib. 9. c. 9.17 As the Ethnicks had several Gods and Goddesses appropriated to several Countries sciences callings and diseases so have the papists assigned a particular Saint for all occasions (e) Dr. Beard of Antichrist tr 2. part 3 c. 3. p 340 341. c. Lucina was called upon by the Heathens to give deliverance from the pains in child-birth and the Papists have given this office of chief midwife to St. Margaret (f) also Nascio Partunda Aegeria and many more Rosses view of all religions § 4. pag. 126 And the better to colour the business they tell us a story in theirs Legenda aurea which with many other of like credit were taken out of that lying Greeke Simeon Metaphrastes that this St. Margaret suffering Martyrdom under Dioclesian (g) Medes apostacy of the latter times p. 129. 130. as she was preparing to die prayed to God that whosoever should worship the Tabernacle of her Body and build an oratory in her name and therein offer spiritual sacrifice yea that who should read or remember her name might have remission of sin and deliverance from all evill with much more to the same purpose And presently there was a great Earthquake and the Lord Himself with a host of holy Angels standing by her said to her be of good cheere and feare not for I have heard thy prayers I have fulfilled and will in due time fulfill whatsoever thou hast asked even as thou hast asked it But if this Goddesse be not sufficient yet they have their Lady Mary for an universal mediatrix to whom they without the least shame of their wretched blasphemy attribute as much as to God the Father and Jesus Christ as may be seen by their many fragments of prayers to her in their missals rosaryes and our Ladyes Psalter And lest any should doubt of present help from the Virgin they tell many wicked unclean stories of her not fit to be transcribed and among the best this is one (a) Vincent hist lib. 7. c. 86. That a holy Abbesse notwithstanding her vow and pretence of chastity was as the manner is in their unneryes got with child and the Virgin Mary came and plaid the midwife for her and sent the bastard by two Angels to a certain hermite to be brought up (b) witness the Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbone in Portugal p. 1. Sure this bastard had good luck to escape the common cruelty of those Nuns who use for the most part to kill and then to convey into some secret place their base-borne infant But I hope the very naming of these foul absurdities will alienate any Christian heart from praying to St. Mary or St. Margaret in this or any other extremity but rather let them resolve with the woman of Canaan to come to Christ Of whom (a) Vshers Answ to the Irish Iesuit p. 416. Epiphan har 78. Chrysostome observes three or four times that she came to Christ without any mediator and had a happy answer And b another Ancient reckons the worship of the blessed Virgin or any other Saints a doctrine of devils Sure it is that the Son of God who hath one Will and one Essence with the Father and whom God heareth alway John 14.13 ch 16.16.13.24 hath graciously authorised us to aske in his name with exceeding great and
precious promises that it shall be given them that they shall find and that it shall be opened unto them And as sure I am that there is none in heaven be sids him nor any other name given under heaven 1 Tim. 2.5 for there is but one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus Heb. 7.25 who is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them He is the way the truth and the life The way whereby our prayers have accesse into the Fathers presence the truth whereby the Fathers Will is revealed to us and the life whereby we enjoy the glory and presence of God for ever Now who would desire to walke by star-light when the Sun shines at noon day or to be beholden to the borrowed righteousnesse of any Romish Saints when the Sun of righteousnesse himself is risen with healing in his wings If our Saint-worship were tolerable methinks it should have been in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets but our adversaries the Papists do confesse that this Doctrine and practice was then altogether unkown And if the Israel of God did never petition Abraham Isaac or Jacob Noah Daniel or Job to intercede for them much lesse doth this foolery become us to whom a Saviour is born and to whom a Son is given Isa 9 6 Heb. 10.14 who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified i. e. hath made perfect provision for his Saints that their prayers shall through him be received while they live and their souls received when they die Therefore let others if they will not be disswaded fetch a compasse about by the mediation of canonized Saints Eph. 4.21 Heb 4.14 Iohn 6.45.14.6 but let us who have received the truth as it is in Jesus hold fast our profession and goe by him onely to the Father In a word They that expect the least crumb of comfort by the mediation of Saints shall speed no better then Dives in beseeching Abraham for a drop of water to coole his tongue in hell Luk. 16.24 But leaving these wretches to their incurable folly let us proceed T is not sufficient for women or any other to pretend a good heart towards God but they must also offer him the calves of their lips Rom 8.26 I confess the chief requisite of a praying Christian is to lift up the heart to God in desires and groans that cannot be uttered to flie to him for help in distress and to make him our rock of defence As the Israelites when affliction was upon them they remembred that God was their rock and the most high God their redeemer Psal 78.35 (a) Perkins cases of Consc lib. 2. c. 5. Of this the Apostle speaks Pray continually that is mentally but I say this is not all we must glorifie God with our bodies and spirits which are his we must lift up our hands with our hearts to God in the heavens Lam 3.41 Isa 62.7 we must bow our knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and not keep silence but utter our requests with our tongues and open our mouths that our lips may utter his praise and that we may with verbal expressions quicken our selves in making our requests known to him with supplication and prayer We must offer our strong cries and smite on our breasts with the Publican and bemoane our selves with Ephraim and seek the Lord with weeping and with supplication As for the many qualifications required in the Person and Duty I shall summ them up in the words of a most learned Divine (b) Dr. Reynolds on Hos 14. â— p. 13. Job 11.13 Luke 15.17 18. God is so holy and jealous of his worship that he expects there should be preparation in our accesses to him Preparation of our persons by purity of life preparation of our services by choice of matter preparation of our hearts by finding them out 2 Sam. 7.27 Isa 64.7 Ps 57.7 8. 2 Chr. 30.19 1 Joh. 5.14 2 Sam. 7.25 Rom. 8.36 Aug. ep 105. ep 121. c. 15. Hos 12.4 Am. 7.1.7 Mat. 15.24.27 Mr. Parre his Abba Father D. Wilkins his Gift of prayer Mr. Cobbet his practical disc of prayer stirring them up fixing them fetching them in and calling together all that is within us to prevail with God And a little after he addes We must attend to Gods will as the rule of our prayers to his precepts promises for the matter of our prayers to the guidance of his holy Spirit as the life and principle of our prayers without which we know not what to ask Prayers thus regulated are most seasonable and soveraign duties in times of trouble The key which openeth a door of mercy the sluce which keepeth out an innundation of judgements Jacob wrestled and obtained a blessing Amos prayed and removed a curse The woman of Canaan will not be denied with a denial As for other circumstances conditions modes and concomitants of Prayer as Faith Humility Sincerity Importunity Patience c. I shall refer the Reader to those many English Authors which have purposely and profitably handled this subject and so crave leave to go on to what follows CHAP. III. Repentance the duty of women with child REpentance is never out of season except with Esau and Judas we go about it too late 'T is the common duty of all whether married or unmarried whether with child or not to renew the daily practice of Repentance but as the Scriptures abundantly testifie it is most especially requisite when afflictions are felt or feared and dangers approach so that it must needs be seasonable for women in this condition to renew their repentance without delay For whereas it is unsafe to trust to our former repentance lest it be found defective and unsound therefore the surest course is to repent again and again Who among the daughters of Eve can remember the sin of her who was first in the transgression without shame and sorrow And yet while you blame her folly in eating the forbidden fruit the guilt thereof without repentance will redound upon your selves Her sin was turning from the Creator to the Creature Repentance is a returning from sin self the world and the tempter to God And while you carry a burthen in your wombs then if ever you had need to be eased of the heavier burthen of sin which cannot be done without repentance You must repent of the miscarriages of your lives if you would be provided against the danger of a miscarrying womb You must willingly endure the pangs of repentance if you would safely bear the pangs of your travel You must use your self to godly sorrow in the time of your strength if you expect any comfort from God in the hour of your pain You must humble your self before God if you desire that God should then raise you up You must
Tim. 4.15 Coloss 2.1 I conclude that surely they have many agonies and conflicts in their hearts for us Wherefore Oh my soul while I carefully expect the hour of my own travell how much am I to blame that I so little so seldom or never consider the travell of my Ministers soul often have I been pricked in conscience by his goad and nails Eccl. 12.11 often wounded by the sword of the Spirit bruised and smitten down by the hammer of the word and surely his stimulating reproofs his keen admonitions and knocking terrours proceeded from his longing desire of my conversion But when he hath after long striving been in hopes of my returne how have I by relapses and fresh miscarriages vext his righteous soul and quencht his new conceived hopes of me yea like those inconstant Galatians I have caused him again and again to travell with me in birth How just were it with God to plague me with a tedious painfull and fruitlesse travell and to make me read my sin and feel its bitternesse in so suceable a punishment But Oh my God remit the evills I have committed work in me what thou hast required and compleat in me what thy grace hath begun Let not the guide of my soul labour in vain but let him see of the travell of his soul and let me be among those children of whom my pious teacher shall hereafter say Lord here am I and the children which thou hast given me Then also shall I with more confidence expect to have benefit by his prayers for me when my body is in travell if God shall thus blesse and answer him in his prayers and travell for the new birth of my soul MEDITATION 12. I find it frequent in Scripture that the most dreadful judgements on the wicked are thus exprest Psal 48.6 Isa 23.4 Jer. 48.41 c. 49.42 c. 50.43 that Anguish shall take hold of them as of a woman in travel and that sudden destruction shall come upon them as upon a woman in travel and they shall not escape Wherefore oh my soul as Abraham when he had promise of a child Gen. 18.14.22 did presently intercede as far as he durst in behalf of wicked Sodom so let me ever remember to pray for the worst of men though perhaps they scorn and despise me and my Prayers Oh my God deale not with them after their sins but cause the wickednesse of the wicked to come to an end Psal 7.9 that the wicked themselves may not come to a sad end So persecute them with thy tempest make them afraid with thy storm that they may seeke thy face Oh Lord. Psal 83.15 And in whatever place or nation thy judgments shall enter yet if there be but a few righteous persons among them spare them from totall destruction and let not thy wrath come upon them to the uttermost MEDITATION 13. I find also that the sorrows of the people of God when God seemes to forsake them John 16 21.22 Jer. 6.24 c. 22.23 c. 30.6 Isa 26.17 18. c. 37. 3 the calamities of the church when God is pleased to correct them and the miserable disappointment of a Church hoping for reformation and endeavouring in vain for a deliverance from idolatry and oppression are also expressed by the pain and misery of women in travell Now Oh my soul how can I but observe two things from hence The one is that 't is surely the will of God that I should not confine my care to the concernments of my private condition but should labour for a publick Spirit such as was in that good woman 1 Sam. 4.19 20 21. the wife of Phinebas who was with child and near to be delivered and when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken and that her father in law and her husband were dead she bowed her selfe and travelied for her pains came upon her And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said fear not for thou hast born a son but she answered not neither did she regard it And she named the child Jchabod saying the glory is departed from Israel because the Ark of God was taken and because of her father in law and her husband And she said the glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken Blessed woman worthy of everlasting fame and imitation She took no comfort in her deliverance though she had a son while the Church of God was not delivered Oh that the same mind might be in me that I might learn also to be more affected with the affairs of the Church That if women may not be common actors of publick affairs yet we may be specially mourners for publick miseries Alas what is my danger to the universall danger my travell to the travell of the Church what comfort to me to have many children except I might see the good of Gods chosen Psal 106. â— what content have I in being delivered from my pains unlesse God deliver Israel from all its troubles Psal 37.40 what delight had Abraham in all his mercies while he went childlesse or I in all my children if the children of God be comfortlesse Oh my God blesse me out of Zion and thus let me be blessed as those are that feare the Lord Psal 128 3 4 5 6. let me not onely be a fruitfull vine but let me see the good of Jerusalem all my dayes Let me not only see my childrens children but peace upon Israel But from the manner of holy Writ to compare almost all miseries whether inward or outward whether of good men or of bad to the pains of women in travell as the fittest embleme of extreme conflicts and agonies I must needs conclude that there is no sorrow like unto that sorrow and no evill like that sin that caused it no danger like that danger and therefore no Saviour like him who can deliver from it Wherefore while my life hangs in suspense my soul is distracted between fear and hope my mind is appall'd my heart melts and is even faint when I consider that hour of torment approaching Let me yet further inquire Oh my soul what duties are yet behind in order to making my peace with God and let nothing hinder or divert my present religious and heavenly imployment till I have brought my mind into some setled posture ready to abide whatever shall happen So much for the duty of Meditation now to the rest CHAP. VI. Resignation to the will of God the duty of Women with child TO submit and resign our wills to the will of God in all things is a most desirable and comfortable temper in any man or woman T is indeed the sum of most duties and a compendium of many virtues He that can thus receive the Kingdome of God as a little child Mark 10.15 with Selfe denyal and humble dependance on our Father in heaven he shall in time by thus subjecting himself
to the Divine will in doing or suffering grow very like the Angels and Saints in heaven and shall himself enjoy that tranquility and undisturbed serenity as will be a kind of heaven upon earth The truth whereof will especially appear in this particular case of suffering any dangerous and painfull afflictions There was nothing more commendable in old Eli than that pious sentence of his when he heard of the ruine of his house 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good There was never more grace expressed in fewer words than in those of our Saviour's Luke 22.41 Mat. 26.42 not my will but thine be done Considering that his pangs agonies and torments were a thousand times greater than the pains of a woman in travell yea equall in substance to the pains of hell Wherefore be not sollicitous overmuch for your bodily life or the life of your child much lesse should you be too eager in desiring one of such a sex as some will wish for a Boy others for a Girle and that with strange discontent at the very thoughts of being disappointed But the example of Rachel may be a warning to you all She made account to die with melancholy and sorrow if she had not children Gen. 30.1 c. 35.16 17 18. and she had her desire but it cost her her life As you may do well to reade in the story it selfe So what she longed for she perished by T is reported of Agrippina Nero's Mother that she prayed her son might be Emperour The oracle told her that if he came to be Emperour he would kill his Mother she replyed desperately let him kill me so I may but see him Emperour first Occidat modo imperet Sueton And the event prooved accordingly for he caused her to be ript up that he might see the inside of that womb wherein he first lay I have read also of a woman that took on excessively for her child that was like to die and the Minister telling her that she did very unwisely for perhaps the child if it lived might prove so great a crosse to her that she might have cause once to wish that he had now died She madly answered that so her child might live she did not care though he should hereafter come to Hanging Accordingly he did live and was in time for robbery or murther hanged indeed This folly would have seem'd ridiculous to some heathens who knew not the will and wisedom of God so clearly as we may Plutarch relates of Cleobis and Biton that in the absence of the horses they drew their Mother's Chariot to the temple themselves for which obedient Act of theirs she prayed that they might be rewarded with the greatest blessings that could possibly happen from God to Man but so it happened that they were both found dead in their beds next morning News being brought to their Mother of this supposed misfortune she replyed I will never account my selfe unfortunate Spencer's Things new and old pag. 670. in being mother to such sons whom God hath invested with immortality for their pious and obedient actions If a pagan woman had so good an esteem of the providence of an unknown God how inexcusable are you if by a heart of unbelief or self-love you depart from him in your faith or prescribe to him in your prayers How dishonourable to his wisedom and dangerous to your selves is passionate importunity for any temporall blessing T is lawfull I confesse to pray for life and safe deliverance as for daily bread for David Hezekiah yea Christ himselfe did thus petition the Author of life It being naturall to every living creature to desire the continuation of its own Being But we must moderate our desires herein English Annot. on Gen. 35 18 with expresse reference to Gods good Will Yea with that holy indifferency as to be pleased without that gift which it shall not please God to bestow (a) Doct. Gonge on the Lâ—rds prayer p. 94. Seeing as one sayes there is a necessity of yielding to Gods Will because it cannot be resisted and there is equity in so doing because it cannot be better'd Wherefore when blind nature which cannot see beyond mortality at least not see far into immortality shall fill you with earnest desires of longer life yet let the reverence you owe to the gracious Providence and infallible Word of God of which I shall say more in the following Chapters cause you to yeild to his blessed Will Cast up all events consider what may happen and resolve as David did If I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord 2 Sam 15.25 26. he will bring me again and shew me both the ark and his habitation but if he thus say Behold I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me what seemeth good unto him Say with them in the Acts the will of the Lord be done Say with that good woman I have somewhere read of who being asked in her sicknesse whether Acts 21.14 if God should referre it to her to live or dye which she would chuse I would choose neither but ee'n referre it to him again If God call for the life of your child yield it up as quietly as Abraham did Isaac If he shall call for the life both of you and your child let your heart be ready to answer Lord here am I and the child which thou hast given me CHAP. VII Dedication of the child to God the duty of women with child VVHen I say it is your duty to dedicate your child to God before it is born I do not mean a dedication to some office in the house of God as Hannah did by Samuel for I suppose she did it by some propheticall instinct equivalent to a Revelation But yet this I must needs say in short That it were in my judgement a commendable purpose in any parents poor or rich that if their child prove hopefull and ingenious he shall be wholly set apart for the service of God in his Church It being so known a practice among Heathens Jewes and ancient Christians if they had any thing of singular worth to dedicate it to God And our Gentry and Nobility are herein guilty of a most irreligious and ignoble practice I mean to count their son and heir or any of their children that are well shaped and towardly above the office of the Ministry as if it would be a perpetual dishonour to their family to set him a-part for God But if there be any of their children mis-shapen make him a Scholar and if he be a Dunce use their interest to get him some preferment that requires no employment Surely the first author of the Priesthood God himself appointed it to the first-born as his peculiar honour above the rest of his brethren and for special provocations against God they lost it and it was conferred by divine favour on Levi. And how
trouble Give not way to immoderate passion the vehemency whereof may much distemper and endanger you in that condition For if by these or any other follies there happen a mischance or the death of both the mother and the child unborn as too often it hath happened surely the bloud of the child shall be required at their hands their own bloud also shall be upon their own heads Now judge how much guilt and danger lies upon careless wanton women who will not observe that moderation and prudential care their condition calls for I say how much sin and misery lies upon them if they perish by their own negligence and heedless irregularity Hos 4.2 Psal 9.12 Jer. 26.15 Ps 51.14 Of all sins none more crying then Murther of all murthers none more desperate then Self-murther and of all self-murthers none more detestable then to murther her self and child at once this I say they are inexcusably guilty of who by any of the courses above-mentioned or any other course do hasten their own death and render the birth of their child difficult or impossible CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented THat this must not be delayed I have already shewed in the Epistle to the Reader I shall now shew you how it must be performed not to insist largely upon this common Theme which every Funeral Sermon and devotional Treatise do present us with considering very briefly the heads of such principal duties as may not safely be omitted by them that would be at any certainty concerning their future estate If you be unconverted and have lived in pleasure been ignorant carelesse and impenitent then consider that it is now high time to awake out of sleep Rom. 13 1â— Ps 90.12 Deut. 32.29 and to number your dayes and consider your latter end You have no peculiar priviledge that can exempt you from the lot of many others Be you never so great and rich strong and healthy have you been the mother of never so many children have you abundance of all things for your conveniency together with the most skilful and famous Midwife yet neither these nor any other helps can deliver you from going down to the pit Therefore seeing it must needs be proper to expect death let me ask you how are you provided for immortality What earnest have you of any inheritance in Heaven If you hope that God will pardon you and accept you yet what reason can you render of the hope that is in you 1 Pet. 3.15 if because he is merciful then how have you applied your self to him for mercy have you constantly sought him diligently pleased him c For if the righteous shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly appear Luk. 13.24 If many who strive to enter shall not be able how impossible then must salvation needs be to the negligent In a word if Pharisees Hypocrites Votaries and those that have done many good and mighty works shall be shut out how much more shall they be excluded that never had either the form or power of godliness that lived in gross ignorance and prophaneness so that their sins are open before hand 1 Tim. 5.24 Well you will say What shall we do to be saved and to inherit eternal life I answer You should first look over the ten Commandements and consider what sins are there forbidden and what duties are there required For by the law comes the knowledge of sin Ro. 3.20 1 Joh 3.4 If you have some brief expositor by you it will much help I knew one that when he was at the Vniversity and had serious thoughts of his ways took M. Bifield his 6. Treatises a little book of small Price but of excellent use wherein there is such an enumeration of sins against the several commandments 2 Cor. â—â— 5 6. as descends to all particulars fit to be expressed in print and having in several sheets of paper transcribed it and all along inserted what particular sins he could remember And he found that it brought many sins to his remembrance which otherwise he had well-nigh forgotten set apart a day of fasting in secret on purpose and there spread them before the Lord with mourning and with supplication and found very much comfort therein Now though I prescribe not this particular course to every one yet I say a serious comparing our lives with the rule of holinesse is the one thing necessary to lay a right foundation of repentance Well when you thus have spent some good time in searching and trying your ways and have discovered greater and greater abominations in your heart and life Then spend also some thoughts about the unreasonablenesse unprofitablenesse unthankfulnesse and iniquity of every sin Consider what wrong sin does to the honour of Gods Attributes and of his Law His Holiness requires nothing but what is good his Wisdome what is fit and his Mercy what is comely and beneficial for us Shall we break such a Law wherein Holiness Wisdome and Mercy appears If any thing be difficult he offers the help of his Grace to all that bewail their weaknesse And whatever his Law be yet surely he is our Creator and therefore by all bonds of Reason and Nature we owe obedience to him whose we are Again consider the injury done to Christ by piercing him with our Sins by despising his Bloud that onely and costly remedy and dishonouring his Name as if he were not sufficient to save or as if his Grace gave liberty to Sinne. Also consider the perjury every sinner is guilty of in violating our Baptismal engagement and making slight account of all other renewed stipulations we have made to God since What shall I say of the shame and mischief sin brings upon us in this life It deprives of Gods Image Favour and gracious Presence robs us of that primitive innocency righteousness with which the humane Nature was at first dignified above all sublunary creatures and degrades us to a condition in many respects worse then that of the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 20. Eccles 3.18 yea it makes us children of the Devil and children of wrath it fills the creature with vanity under which it groans and travels in pain it fills our life with crosses our family with troubles our bodies with diseases our consciences with disquiet Sin makes travel painful death dreadful and hell intolerable so that it is a boundless and endless evil And should not such considerations as these awaken you May it not trouble you to consider with your self thus If I die with all this load of sin upon me it will surely sink me deep enough into the burning lake And alas if I live till the full time of my travel come which is very uncertain yet how little a while is it before that fatal hour may sever my soul from my body My soul which is invisible and
our polluted flesh may be changed into one without spot This Tabernacle which our sins have defiled like the Lepers house must be pulled down 1 Cor. 5.1 that at the day of the restitution of all things it may be made a more glorious body Untill which day it rests in the Grave as in a bed of sleep and finds darkness in a dormitory not inconvenient And though the soul depart from all the delights and society of men and no eye can see whither it flies and into what habitations it enters though the state of departed souls be a mysterie which reason may talk of but never fully discover yet by Faith we look at the things that are not seen even the things that are eternal We know saith the Apostle that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Whither I go ye know Joh. 14.4 saith Christ and the way ye know We know that there is a perfecting of the spirits of just men that there is an Abrahams Bosome a Paradice a Right hand of God and many mansions in our Fathers house where they who have believed do enter into rest R. Bolton General Direction c. p. 54. 'T is therefore our idleness of spirit our slowness of heart to consider that makes the state of the dead unknown and undesirable and the joyes of the world to come to be in a manner fabulous and incredible But surely it would much adde to your peace and joy in believing Rom. 5.13 if you would oftener lift up the eyes of your minde to the Heaven of Heavens and by Faith enter into the Holy of Holies and by the Scituation Mansions Treasures and Delights of the heavenly Jerusalem and you shall soon see that the present state of Glory which you enter into at death not to speak of that far greater measure at the Resurrection is such as may abundantly cure all sad apprehensions concerning your departure What shall I say of your immunities from all temporall evils from that vanity and vexation of spirit which doth perpetually elude and discruciate the mind Present evils are innumerable and future evils are unavoidable Sufficient to every day is the evil thereof and yet we know not but the morrow may bring forth greater What a comfort is it to be in a perpetual Ark of safety wherein we may swim above all waters To be taken up out of this miry pit and to be taken away from the evil to come to be out of the reach of hellish tongues and bloudy hands for the dead know nothing at all that is their senseless bodies and glorified souls know no misery from all the world can do against them though the Papists accurse and burn their bones for Hereticks yet they are not touched with the feeling of any infirmity the dead neither know nor care any thing at all what men do for them or against them here upon earth Also what a blessedness is it to be delivered from the temptation of ill company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alludit ad pomaputrida male olentia quae faetore nos turbant c. Zanch. in Eph. 4.29 and the contagion of the a rotten breath of wicked men and the vexation that is caused to every righteous Lot in seeing and hearing them Wo is me saith David that I sojourn in Mesech Also to be free of Satans importunate suggestions to escape him who is in these last dayes come down with great wrath because his time is but short Verily if one knew what opposition the host of evil angels that fill the regions of the aire do make against the free ascent of a gracious soul to Heaven it must needs be that the joy they conceive of their safe arrival by the conduct of good Angels must be very great this last instance of Satans mad and malicious endeavours being fresh in their memories But content must it needs adde to see the Daughter to destroy the Mother of Mischief I mean that whereas Sin is the first Parent of Death Death onely puts an end to all our sins Sampson slew many Philistines in his life but at his death he slew the Lords themselves So we may mortifie some sins in our life but at death we triumph over our Master sinns yea all our sins Yea let me yet adde that it is no small part of our gain by Death to be freed from all laborious Graces and Duties such as Fear Hope Repentance Watchfulness Self-denial c. Confession Humiliation Praying Hearing Receiving Sacraments c. For all these argue Imperfections Wants and Corruptions abounding in us In short after death they come to judgement have their absolution from God himself and shall see all debts crossed out of his book of remembrance are admitted to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob have fellowship with the innumerable company of Angels understand the mysteries they now believe â— Pet. 1.8 whom having before not seen yet they loved but now rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory But all this contains but that present state of Glory which they immediately possess after death But at the Resurrection when body and soul are reunited the sentence of Absolution more publickly pronounced the wicked condemned time finished and their whole persons admitted to fulness of glory and happiness then I say there is a great addition made to their felicity then their souls shall no longer cry How long Lord holy and true as they did before while their bodies were under corruption the Church under persecution but shall be fully satisfied with the perpetuity of that blessedness and perfection God hath crowned them with But I list not here to enter into so large a field as the state of Glory after the Resurrection Many others have written largely of it and what I have before spoken of the state of departed Souls presently after their going hence does I think more properly belong to such considerations as may help to prepare you for death that you may not be in bondage with the fear thereof but having rightly understood it as now represented may say with more assured confidence then wicked Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thank fulnesse after their deliverance is also the duty of Women with child HEre you must rightly understand what I do not mean in this direction as well as what I do mean Know therefore that I do not desire to draw you into rash vowes no nor indeed to any vows at all I observe it too comon among afflicted persons perhaps 't is so also among women with child to make many vowes that if ever God deliver them they wâ—â—l leave such a sin abound in such a duty decline such and such temptations read so much and so often c. But I have also observed that such vowes seldome end