not materiall to the businesse in hand it sufficeth that the expression takes it for granted that to be childlesse was a curse and a reproach in Israel So that 2 Sam 6.25 of Michal the daughter of Saul who mocked David it is mentioned as a memorable and severe judgment that she had no child to the day of her death 6 God hath in his Scriptures ever taken to himself the praise of this work and his people have ever acknowledged it as his gift mercy when they conceived and bare children Thus the wives of Jacob. Thus Jacob himself answering his brother Esau Gen. 30.6.17.22 c. 35.5 these are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant Thus Hannah Elizabeth and others still their phrase is God opened their wombs Psal 113.9 Faecundicas foeminarum casta vota filios desiderantium ad quem pertinent nisi ad Dominum Deum Aug. Enarr in Psal 66. God rolled away their reproach God gave them children c. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyfull mother of children Seeing therefore by this cloud of Scripture-testimonies 't is evident that women are not with child but by the mercy and gift of God I must adde a few inferences from what I have said 1 That none be dejected at a state of barrennesse though among the Jews it was esteemed so great an affliction If the age of one or both parties render you not uncapable you may with modesty and moderation make your request known to God and then rest satisfied in his pleasure concerning you For though the posterity of Abraham did all desire that the promised seed might come of them as some do uncertainly conjecture and had also too high esteem of temporal blessings and carnal apprehensions of promised blessings did much possesse the mind of the generality yet we are now under a better testament containing exceeding great and precious promises of things Spiritual If therefore we stick too much on the letter of old-Testament promises we shall commit as great an errour in our faith as the Jews by resting in the bare letter of the precepts ran into gross error in their practice God never delighted in their most glorious and costly ceremonies unlesse they gave him their hearts and now he accepts of internal worship with simplicity and spirituality of mind without any further desire of those pompous observations So let us learn to worship God without their Rites John 4. Rom. 14. and to love God though without their mercies Let us count riches and posterity nothing without God and God sufficient without either of them If Christ be ours every thing needfull is ours If we be the Sons and Daughters of God it shall be no unhappinesse if we have neither Sons nor Daughters of our own There is then no curse in what we have no need of what we have not Dr. Gouge of domest duties a Where naturall impossibilities doe hinder the fecundity of the wombe they should also if known have hindred marriage But when the sterility is meerly accidentall from some such present prevailing infirmity as discomposes the body of either party it may by the blessing of God upon medicinall helps be lawfully and success fully removed But when the cause is unknown and unfruitfullnesse seems meerly judiciall viz. immediately inflicted by the hand of God in that case prayer is the Proper course that he who shuts the womb Luke 1.13 Psal 10.17 Psal 145.19 as he did the wombs in the house of Abimelech would open them again as he did theirs upon the prayer of Abraham It may be he will grant thy petition as he hath done of some that for above twenty years in a state of marriage went childlesse yet at last he made the solitary to dwell in families and gave them children like olive plants round about their table Or perhaps he will not yet answer thee Perkins Cas of consc lib. 2. c. 6. qu. 4. Reinolds on Hos 14.1.2 Serm. 1. p. 53. 1 John 5.15 to exercise thy faith prayer and dependence in waiting upon him or perhaps he will deny thee this mercy at last to exercise thy patient submissivenesse to his Will and thy heavenly-mindednesse and wisdom in seeking some better blessing Sure it is thy prayers shall returne into thine own bosom with some answer of peace and if we aske aright we shall receive (c) Deus non sempèr audit ad voluntatem vel voluptatem at Sempèr exaudiet ad salutem Isidor de summo bono l. 3 c. 3. according to Gods choice if not according to our own He hath variety of blessings which like the stars of heaven differ from one another in glory Therefore blesse his name if by this providence he promote in thy heart humility saith patience or any other grace (d) Ward â—n Mat. 8. pag. 451. seeing its better to be fruitfull in grace then fruitfull in children If he give us his favour (e) Bonus qui non triâ—uit quod â—olumus ut â—ribuat quod malimus Aug. epist 34. that 's a blessing of more value The Angels neither marry nor are given in marriage yet have happinesse enough in God Let him be to thee worth ten Sons In a word I say of these certain cares and uncertain comforts that he who hath none of them hath lesse incumbrance here and lesse to reckon for hereafter 2. T is an an addition to the mercy when God gives children in a state of marriage T is a mercy to be kept in a single estate from the unclean libidinous practices of beastly sinners (f) Mat. 22.30 and to be at last happily entred upon that state of matrimony which God appointed and hath sanctified as his ordinance 1 Cor. 7 2 3 4 5. for preventing of fornication and 't is also I say a greater blessing when he is pleased to Crown the chast embraces of wedlock with a hopefull conception Oh how dreadfull are the scripturee-xamples of many women whom God having partly or totally left to their vile affections and inordinate lusts having prostituted their chastity brought shame upon Israel and disparaged the innate modesty of the female sex grew at last past feeling and spent their life in common whoredome till their sin was come to a ripeness But alas in these last days 2 Tim. 3.1 3. the sin of incontinency is grown more perillous by its commonness and also by the impunity of our intemperate Grandees whose example herein gives a law to others And surely those who are priviledged from punishment here shall find it a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb 10.31 Heb. 13.4 who hath said whoremongers and adulterers I will judge i.e. though the secrecy of their actions the potency of their persons or the negligence of Magistrates may secure them for a while yet there is nothing so secret but is under his eye nothing so great but is under
the Scriptures peruse your Charter read the last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ and pick out and observe such promises as will sufficiently reach you in this or any condition imaginable In so great variety as the storehouse of Scripture affords I shall set only some few before your eyes Promises of pardon of sin Let the wicked forsake his way Isa 57.7 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I will cleanse them from all their iniquities Ezek. 37 23. and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have transgressed and whereby they have sinned against me I even I Isa 43 25. am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember thy sins Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse Heb. 8.12 and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Be it known unto you all Act. 13.38 men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sins Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden Mat. 11.28 and I will give you rest Surely he hath born our griefs Isa 53.4.5 and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors To him give all the prophets witness Act 10.43 that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins And Act. 13.39 by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses We are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3.25 through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for remission of sins that are past Many other places of this nature you may turn to at your leisure As Isa 33.24 Mat. 12.31 James 5.15 Psal 130.4 Dan. 9.9 Exod. 34.7 Luke 1.77 Luke 24.47 Mat. 26.28 John 20.23 Rom. 4.25 Rom. 5.16 18. Rom 8.33 And if you think your sinns greater then ordinary yet be not so weak as to count that any bar or impediment to saving grace To Omnipotency there is nothing great nothing difficult to infinite love nothing is troublesome or can be a hinderance God who commands us to forgive till seventy times seven can as easily forgive a thousand talents as a hundred pence What is our Bucket to his Ocean If you give your hope and your soul for lost Luk. 19.10 yet he came to seek and to save that which is lost He delighted to cure the most desperate diseases when he was upon earth And he usually healed body and soul together and told them that their sinnes were forgiven them as well as that they should arise and walk Many of those sinners that Christ shewed mercy to were most infamous and to mens seeming as unlikely to have been saved as any of that generation What think you of Mary Magdalene out of whom our Saviour cast seven devils and of that woman that washed his feet with her teares Luke 8.2 who though a notorious known sinner an harlot yet had all her sins forgiven her Luk. 7.37 38 39 c. our Saviour largely defending and explaining the freeness of his grace to her What of the woman taken in adultery whom our Saviour did not condemn but with charge to sin no more dismissed her in peace John 8.10 11. â— Titus 3.3 4 5 7. What think you of the Apostle himself who thus speaks For we our selves were sometime foolish and disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasure living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us That being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life 1 Pet. 4 3. What of Peter and the converted Jewes who had walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquettings and abominable idolatries and in the former lusts in their ignorance 1 Pet. 1.3 4 c. yet of such sinners he sayes Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead It were endless to heap up all examples in this kind You shall doe well to see what the Colossians were when they lived and walked in fornication Col. 3.5 6 7. 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. uncleanness covetousness c. The Corithians when they were Fornicators Idolaters Sodomites Thieves Drunkards c. yet now are washed sanctified justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And was it for their sakes onely that God shewed mercy to them No but also to encourage us when heavy laden with sin to expect the like For so the Apostle more then once doth assure us Eph. 2.1 2 3 4 5 c. As when he speaks of the Ephesians and himself and all believers that in times past they were over-ruled by the Devil and the world and their own lusts fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ To the same purpose is that other excellent passage of his This is a faithfull saying 1 Tim. 1.25 16. and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners whereof I am chief Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Mr. Love his Zealous Christian To conclude this I shall onely adde the observation of a blessed Author In the Genealogie of Christ there are but four women mentioned and they are all branded with a mark of infamy in Scripture-story The first is Thamar Mat. 1.3 she was incestuous for she lay
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
his power And therefore in that day of vengeance the works of darknesse shall be brought to light 1 Cor. 4.5 Isa 2.17 and the loftinesse of man shall be brought low and they who were on earth inflamed with lust 1 Cor. 6.9 shall smart for ever in the flames of hell unless with tears of repentance they quench these fires of concupiscence and with water drawn out of the wells of salvation quench those otherwise everlasting burnings Isa 2.3 Isa 33.14 But to return to my purpose I mentioned before the dreadfulness of the examples in this kind recorded in Scripture and verily when I read the Polygamy of Lamech a murtherer I wonder not but considering the polygamy of the Patriarchs of David and the licentious excess of Solomon I stand amazed at their irregularity Gen. 4.19 and Gods connivance and longanimity When I read the incest of Absalom and Herod I wonder not but when I think of Lot Judah and the incestuous Corinthian my soul trembles We count their condition sad 1 Cor. 5 1 2 c. B. Halls Contempl. l. 10. p. 182 who vow a single life and enter themselves under sinfull and needless bonds of perpetual virginity as the cloystered Nuns among the Papists and theirs yet sadder who by the rigour of unwise parents Perkins Case of cons l. 2. c. qu. 3. p. 89 Judg. 11.36 37. or by some remediless accident are kept all their life from marrying as was the daughter of Jephtah and others whose conditions are represented in sacred story as most sad and deplorable But they are most generally pitied and lamented of all who desiring to possess their vessels in sanctification and honour are surprized by some lecherous villain ravished and defloured A judgement a sometimes threatned in Scripture Psal 78.63 Isa 13.16 Lam. 5.11 Zech. 14.2 as a fruit of Gods greater indignation against that people whom he thus leaves to the licentious power of barbarous enemies See the places in the margine Yet I count them most miserable who having yielded their bodies to venereous abuses in their youth are with child by whoredom and are either disappointed of marriage with their wicked lover or marry not till their shame appears For who can expresse their manifold feares cares and sorrows one while perhaps they hide their sin as long as they can but still while they muse a fire burns within them and they feel the pangs of an accusing conscience before they feel the pangs of their travel Unlesse their hearts be harder then the nether milstone which if it be their misery is the greater Sometimes they contrive wayes of preventing its birth by wicked adventuring on such expulsive receipts as may prevent their shame Or perhaps they are plodding how to make away the infant as soon as it is born or at best to expose it secretly that the Parish may keep it Or if it be safely born and the parent acknowledge it yet while it lives 't is an (a) Bishop Halls contempl lib. 10. p. 162. indelible monument of their infamous transgression For which cause (b) Engl. Annot. on Gen. 19.36 even for their future shame God suffers unlawfull commixtions to take effect I could willingly have enlarged on this point and given exhortations warnings and directions to women in this sad condition but perceiving that my little treatise begins to swell beyond my expectation I shall pretermit it for the present intending if God will to write distinctly and purposely of that subject because I know not of any that hath done it only what I have already said may give just occasion to chast virgins to pray for the gift of continency and to honest women when with child to praise God for preserving them from the sin and misery aforementioned and granting them conception by their own husbands in the comfortable estate of Matrimony For we have all alike wicked hearts and therefore ought to give glory to God 1 Cor. 4.7 who onely makes us to differ 3. Though it be a choice mercy yet it is not to be interpreted as a sure token of Gods love No man knowes Gods love or hatred by any external comforts They are distinguished alike to the good and bad to the just and to the unjust (a) Lud. vives in Aug. de Civ Dei l. 15. c. 8. A learned man reports of a town in Spain consisting of a hundred families all inhabited by the seed of one old man then living so that the youngest knew not what to call him the Spanish tongue having no expression higher then the great Grandfathers Father To reckon up the numerous issue of some prolifical parents mentioned in profane Histories is as needless as easy Scripture also doth abundantly satisfie in this Psa 17.14 that the wicked also are full of children so that outward blessings do not alway make a blessed man (b) Spencers things new and old p. 107. But lest they should be accounted evil God sometimes gives them to his people and lest they should be accounted our chief good he sometime bestows them upon the wicked 4. I cannot see how those women can be mindfull of the mercy of God in granting them conception that (a) Quid est hoc contra naturam imperfectum ac dimidiatum matrem genus peperisse statim abjecisse aluisse in utero sanguine suo nescio quid quod non viderit non alere autem nunc suo lacte quod videat jam viventem jam hominem jam matris officia implorantem c. Aul. Gell. noct Atr. lib. 12 cap. 1. either refuse without necessary impediment to nurse their children themselves or count many children a burden and are therefore grieved if having many children already they find themselves with child again Doth not (b) 1 Cor. 11.14 Lam. 43. even nature teach us that the sea-monsters draw out their breasts and give suck to their young doth not the Lion with infinite pains and hazard seek prey for his young ones doth not the Halcyon sit close on her egs (c) Vliss Aldrovandi Ornithol l. 20 Plin. nat hist lib. 20. cap. 32. and while the weather holds fair ply their nourishment with all diligence whence good dayes are called Halcyon days Is this therefore their thankfulness to God for so great a mercy to refuse to embrace in their arms and nourish at their breasts the fruit of their womb when God joyned the blessings of the breast and the blessings of the womb together (d) Charon of wisdom lib. 3. cap. 14 p. 4 8. Doth the God of Nature make Ladies and Gentlwomen without breasts or doth he give them breasts in vain or will they immodestly go with naked breasts and yet be ashamed to use Is it not a prodigie in nature Rom. 1. Isa 49.15 Ps 131.2 Exod. 2.9 Mat. 2.11 to see a woman without breasts and is it not as foul a defect to be without natural affection what greater soloecism
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
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
his sins lest you be partaker of his plagues Or if you resolved to take more notice of your godly neighbours about you who are made as the offscouering of the world and to make it more manifest that your delight is in the Saints and that you hate them that hate the Lord yea hate them with perfect hatred and count them your enemies Or if you would remember who have provoked and offended you by slandering you or otherwise and now shew your selfe courteous and loving to them especially requiting them good for evill and never remembring or upbraiding them with their offensive miscarriages towards you Or if you would resolve to spare somewhat more from your super fluities (a) Divitis â—uperfluae Pauperi sunt necessaria alieâ—a retinet qui ista tenet Aug in Ps 147. and sinfull expences for the preservation of the lives of many starving poor and to that end alway keep a stock by you to lay out as occasion shall require for pious ases (b) R. Bolâ—ons Gen. Direct p. â—62 Exod. 35. â—5 yea if you sought out objects of your charity and sent to some of the more modest poor to know how 't is with them that you might buy or make cloaths for the naked as Dorcas did and every good woman Acts 9 3â— Prov. 31.20 as Solomon describes her should doe and get food for the hungry physick for the sick harbour for the destitute imployment for the diligent c. This was a motive to Peter to raise up Dorcas that she had cloathed the poor widows And this sayes one was the practice of the blessed Virgin who having great gifts from the three wise men (a) Supponendum est quod illa munera pauperibus erogaverat N. Hanap Patr. Hierosul virtutuÌ„ vitiorum exempla cap. 125. p. 166 Levit. 5.7 that followed the star yet bestowed all on the poor and shortly after at her purification had but two turtle Doves or two young Pigeons to offer which was by Gods appointment the manner of the poorer Jews who were not able to buy a lambe Thus I have given divers instances of such particulars as you may make the matter of pious Resolution And if in these or any other of like nature you fix your intentions of abounding more and growing more fruitfull in every good work it will be doubtlesse thank-worthy with God if he see your heart thus firmly bent to observe that precept of his Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me How would you glorifie God when he delivers you What by a meer verbal acknowledgement and not by some signall testimony of your thankefullnesse and some sureable return for so great a mercy Wherefore I say again resolve if God deliver you to be more faithfull to your principles more usefull in your generation more alive to God more affectionate to Christ and his members more dead to the world more eminent in some particular service to God whereby you may shew forth his praise and acknowledge him in your works and shine with your light before men And thus having in some measure dispatched the duties before mentioned you may the more boldly addresse your self to what next follows viz to exercise and strengthen your faith CHAP. XII To 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 TO get faith and to get an interest in Christ are great words more commonly spoken than understood Know therefore that faith is not a beleeving that I am pardoned or that I have true grace and shall certainly be saved this is not the nature but fruit of justifying faith But Faith is a believing the Gospel which represents and offers Christ to us as the onely all sufficient Saviour and the receiving him as such Faith looks on Christ as revealed in his word to be our Priest Prophet and King or the way the truth and the life Accordingly it causeth us to renounce our own Righteousnesse to renounce our own Reason and to believe all mysteries of godliness upon his bare Word thus becoming fools that we may be wise in him and to deny our selves and renounce our own wills and all things that oppose themselves against Christ and to make his will our supreme rule in all our actions Thus faith receives Christ with all his benefits graces laws yea with his yoke crosse reproach counting the treasures of the world as nothing in comparison of the meanest and poorest things that appertain to Christ and have his name upon theÌ„ So that they who thus receive Christ believe in him are justified by him yield to Christ the chief interest in all that is theirs in their understanding by believing him in their affections by loving him in their wills by obeying him in their time strength estate and all things they are or have by serving him with their whole heart their whole soul and their whole strength all their dayes And such have doubtlesse an interest in Christ Wherefore if you doubt complain and torment your self with such inward feares as would all be removed if you once knew that you believed and had an interest in Christ then stir up your self now to receive him as he is offered be willing to be saved by him in his own way let his interest prevail in you above all other interests and you shall find that faithfull and obedient compliance with him will sooner bring comfort than meer complaints Be not then slothfull in this businesse but fervent in spirit seeking the Lord for increase of faith and help against your infidelity Doe not by a heart of unbelief depart in the least from him upon any termes but lay aside every sin that hath easily beset you else your complaints are not in earnest patiently persevere in well doing and in a way of holiness accept comfort Yet look not presently and too eagerly for a high measure of sensible joy and assurance for that is scarce a promised mercy given to a few who are most eminently holy and with them it doth not alwayes abide neither And if you are wholly without joy or peace in thus believing you are not streightned in God but in your selfe because you either retain some sin which grieves the Spirit or listen to temptations or cherish your fears and refuse to be comforted Wherefore for your further help consider the freenesse fulnesse suitablenesse and multitude of those exceeding great and precious Promises whereby you have all things that pertain to life and godlinesse promises of pardon and promises of deliverance promises to your soul and to your body promises of all needfull good and of all things working together for good in this life and promises of all good in the enjoyment of God who is the chief good and that with life everlasting Search then
This sorrow and pain is the Curse but it is presently sweetned with a promise of bringing forth So that notwitstanding the danger of this Curse Eve was through Mercy the Mother of many Children and notwithstanding you all inherit the same curse yet you are capable of the same blessing And in a word if you continue in Faith Charity Holiness and Sobriety you shall find that though you are a daughter of Eve yet you shall be saved To which purpose a Reverend Author (a) Bish Hall cont lib. 10. p. 186. hath these words Afflictions have this advantage that they occasion God to shew that mercy to us whereof the prosperous are uncapable It would not beseem a Mother to be so indulgent to a healthfull Child as to a sick It was to Manoah's wife that the Angel appeared not to her husband for that the birth of the child would cost her more dear then her husband As Satan layes his batteries ever to the weakest so contrarily God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that have most need As at the first because Eve had most reason to be dejected for that her sin had drawn Man into the transgression therefore the Cordial of God most respecteth her The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Thus far he And surely we cannot imagine any higher reason why God suffered the first sin to be and to bring so much sin and misery upon us but that the more miserable we are the more would the glory of his grace appear in pardoning and saving us in the second Adam And why would God have suffered sin to bring such pain danger upon women in travel but 't was his will that there should ever he while the world stands that most eminent object and instance of his delivering power For thus it hath pleased our Supreme Ruler and Creatour that his servants should be brought low that he may then help them Of this we have plentifull experiments in his providences towards men and women And if you would be armed against despondency and have your trust and hope in God confirmed you must make great reckoning of those happy experiences of Gods seasonable help which he hath at any time vouchsafed to you or others If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.3 that he hath heard your voice and your supplication what should hinder you from expecting the same mercy from him when you are in the like need if he see it to be for your good You cannot but know that many sinfull weak helplesse women have been delivered even without means have been raised up from the gates of death been satisfyed with long life and have seen their childrens children Whoso is wise and will observe these things Psal 109.43 even they shall under stand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. Tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5.4 and patience experience and experience hope If we have learned patience under former tribulations had experience of Gods remembring mercy in judgement this should produce hope in us of the like help from him for the future What other thing made the Apostle in great afflictions to stay himself upon God Ri. Rogers 7 treatises ch 18 tr 4. P. 518. and cast his care on him but this experience and long proof he had of Gods tender care over him Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver us 2 Cor. 1.10 in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us And again I was delivered out of the mouth of Lyon 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work and will preserve me to his heavenly Kingdom Yea long before him we find David thus reasoning 2 Sam. 17.36 37. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and the paw of the Bear will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And again Because thou hast been my help Psal 63.7 therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered Psal 22 4 5. they trusted in thee and were not confounded Many such excellent passages to this purpose you may observe in other places especially in the Psalms Psal 30. 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12. Psal 31.7 vers 22 23 24. The like passages in the 32 33 and 34 Psalms Josh 1.5 Heb. 13.5 6. as you may see in the places quoted in the margin And 't is observable that David makes his own experiences a ground for others confidence As doth also the Apostle when he quotes that promise made to Joshuah and applies it to every believer He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper And so St. James Because Elias who was a man subject to like passions as we are was heard for rain and again for dry weather therefore all Christians may expect much benefit in their sicknesse from the prayers of the faithfull Wherefore seeing Eve the first Author of your infirmities and Sarah Rebeccah Hannah Ruth and all others recorded in Scripture were women of like passions and infirmities with you and many of your neighbours who are as great if not greater sinners than your self have this usuall benefit of Gods delivering power and mercy therefore you may undoubtedly conclude and boldly say the Lord is my helper Consider also that God who is over all in all and through all extends his care herein to all his creatures There is nothing so difficult but 't is under his power nothing so small but 't is under his care His providence watcheth over the Fowls of the ayr and the Beasts of the field in producing their young And there is no more clearer argument that there is a providence of God over all the world than the conservation of the species and kinds of all creatures in a continuall succession Insomuch that we find a speciall expresse law in the behalf of Birds in the time of their incubation that while the Dam was sitting upon her egges or young ones Deut. 22.6.7 she must not be taken but let go free and this with a severe charge and promise of much good upon the observation of it And wherefore is such mention made of the Ostrich by the Lord himself Job 39.13 14 15 16 17. which leaveth her eggs in the earth and takes no farther care of them contrary to the nature of all other Birds but exposes them in the warme sand to the benefit of the Sun to hatch them I say Why is this mentioned but to intimate the power and care of God who delivers their eggs and young ones from being crushed and causes those Birds still to increase and multiply Again we find that God hath a care of the Beasts in this condition Therefore he promised the Isralites that