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
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
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
take out the sting of sin by repentance and then afflictions cannot hurt you In you health remember your sin and God will in judgement remember mercy And I therefore subjoyn this duty of repentance next after prayer because Ps 66.18 Hab. 1.13 if we regard iniquity in our hearts he heareth us not but is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity So that if we pray without repenting hearts we do but mock God and deceive our selves We cannot draw nigh to him in truth nor will he draw nigh to us in mercy unless we withdraw our selves from iniquity and be at the greatest elongation from sinne that can be But this repentance must be universal for all sin (a) Spencers things new and old p. 298 1117. For one leak will sink a ship one wound strikes Geliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar one Dalilah will do Sampson as much mischief as all the Philistines one wheel broken disorders a whole clock one vein's bleeding if not stanched will let out the life one flie will spoil a whole box of ointment by eating one apple Adam lost Paradise one Achan was a trouble to all Israel one Jonah if faulty is a lading too heavy for one ship So one sin causes too much injury to God and brings too much guilt and burthen upon the conscience b (b) Vliss-Aldrov Ornithol l. 14. If seven thieves enter the house (a) Tho Stapletoni prompt morale six of them being overcome and the seventh lie lurking in some corner the Master of that house is still in danger If the bird or the mouse be held in the snare though but by one leg their whole body is in danger Thus all sin and the least sin must be repented of Pharaoh would let the people go after he had endured many plagues Exo. 1026. so as they would leave their sheep and their cattel behind them So Sathan would keep something of sin in us which may be as a pledge of our returning to him again And we would willingly when we are convinced of the necessity of repentance yet roll some sweet morsel under our tongues and be excused in one or two of our incurable sins but if we will in earnest forsake the Egyptian bondage of sin we must resolve with Moses that not a hoof shall be left behind us but all iniquity put away out of our hands and all our ungodly words left off and all our wicked thoughts forsaken and all imaginable wickedness mourned for and by degrees relinquished (c) Hyer Drexelii Gymnas paen As the Dove feares every feather of the Eagle and the skin of a Lion stuffed with straw will make the lesser beasts to keep a distance so all the circumstances occasions reliques and appearances of sin must be bewailed suspected and avoided For as a woman delivered of her child is not out of danger while the after-birth remains so a repenting soul discovering confessing and forsaking some sins is not yet safe if there be a reserve of other sins And while your body is yet in any strength you should set about this necessary work of repentance without delay For the bitternesse and weight of sin must be tasted and felt one time or other d so that as a Landlord takes a greater fine of his Tenant at first and the lesse rent afterwards So the more time care and tears you spend in repentance at first the less it will cost you to renew it afterwards But if you still put it off till your travel comes suddenly upon you at best you run a great hazard and lade your self with such a burthen and incur your soul into such danger from which it will be more difficult to be delivered then from the peril it self of child-bearing So that if your body and soul should both miscarry and die together God is just Ezek. 33 4. and your blood will be on your own head for your former neglect of the time and space of repentance Besides this which chiefly concerns your self the consideration of the child which you carry in your womb should quicken you to repentance as soon as you feel it quick within in you For as the fancy and longing of a woman with child doth sometimes make such strange impressions on the child in the womb that it carries some sign thereof after its birth and as the hurt bruise or fall of a woman in that condition makes her child sometimes imperfect monstrous cripled or deformed to the day of its death so you should fear lest the sin of your soul by nature transmit some like foul disposition and leave some such spot on your child as shall be a stain to his name and a blemish to your family Lest your corruptions prove innate qualities in him lest you have eaten sowre grapes Ezek 18.2 and your childrens teeth be set on edge You should also take care to prevent the curse of God on your child for your sake Think with your self if God should say to me as to Hagar Gen. 16.11 12. Behold thou art with child and shalt bear a son and he shall be a wild man his hand will be against every man and every mans band against him Would you not count your self unhappy in being the mother of so desperate a child Have you not also read what God sayes of Ephraim Hos 9.11 12 13. Their glory shall flee away as a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception though they bring forth children yet I will bereave them they shall bring forth children to the murtherer The meaning is that the judgements of God should light on their posterity in a most severe and dreadful manner his curse should be upon them in the womb and appear in their destruction as soon as they were born Insomuch that the Prophet being exceedingly troubled at the thought thereof prays in the next words Hos 9.14 Give them O Lord what wilt thou give them give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts That is seeing of two evils unavoidable the least is most eligible let it please the Lord if he will not remove yet to alter or mitigate his curse If I may not pray for good to this people let me intreat for a more tolerable evil Let them therefore O Lord rather not conceive or bring forth then to see them butchered and slain by their merciless enemies or exposed to such heavy calamities as might make them to wish that they had never been or that our wombs had been their graves Now seeing this is threatned them for their sins and is written for your admonition fear therefore lest God do so to you Hos 14.1 2. and more also And for the prevention of these miseries on your unborn infants take with you words and turn to the Lord that bee may take away all iniquity and receive you graciously But in this practice of repentance you must take heed and beware of
the leaven of Popery for you need not make auricular confession to a Priest nor seek Popish absolution from a Confessor nor expect their injunction of some tedious or ridiculous penance nor esteem penance a Sacrament nor undertake a fruitless or idolatrous pilgrimage or think to satisfie God by some good works for any sin past nor be at cost to purchase an indulgence or to buy a pardon from that man of sinne Onely be faithfull and just in confession to God 1 Joh. 1.9 Psal 38.13.32.5 Isa 33.24 and he will be faithful to forgive Yea as soon as thou resolvest in thine heart with David no longer to conceal thy transgressions but to acknowledge them to God he will forgive Renew this practice as often and with as much sorrow and contrition as you can and the Father of mercies will surely heare thee bemoaning thy self Jer. 31.18 wil remember thine iniquity no more And therefore abound in secret mourning Psal 85.8 Isa 32.6 till thou hearest what God will speak he will speak peace to his people but let them not return again to folly Make it therefore thy chief aim in repenting to be renewed in the inner parts to have a new heart Ezek. 36.26 2 Cor. 5.17 Eph. 4.24 and a new spirit that so all old things may passe away and all things become new Whereas if you spend never so much time and strength in confession lamentation and supplication and yet your heart unchanged you will notwithstanding return with the swine to her wallowing in the mire How many such penitents hath the Church been pestered with many men in sickness many women when neer their travel have seemed serious converts and have uttered many penitential desires and purposes both to God and man but when once they are delivered they forget their obligations to God and suffer seven Worse devils to enter Mat. is 45 And therefore make as sure work with your deceitful hearts as you can by mournful confession severe mortification more holy conversation c. (a) Thus should good women make amends for their first offence Eve no sooner received an ill motion but she delivers it to Adam so they should no sooner receive good but they should impart it Bish Hall's Contemplation lib. 10 p. 195. Communicate your zeal to others reprove rebuke exhort and warn your family night and day with tears bring forth fruit meet for repentance that others may see you have been with Jesus This do and continue doing while you yet are upon your legs and while you have breath in your nostrils and then you shall find your labour not in vain in the Lord but a means to support you under bodily labour Then you shall see of the travel of your soul when God shall assist you in the hour of travel Therefore gird up the loyns of your mind be intent and sedulous in this great work of making peace with God and he will deliver you in that critical hour Psal 50. â—â— and raise you up that you may glorifie him CHAP. IV. Reading of Scriptures the duty of women with child (a) Qui valt cum Dee semper esse semper debet erare legere Ang de â—emp Ser. â— GOd gave no small gift to the world in giving the light of the Sun which among visible creatures is the highest emblem of his own Essence and glory without which the whole earth would languish and be worse then a howling wilderness But it was a greater to give to our souls understanding and immortality whereby we transcend all sublunary creatures and are capable of communion with God and his Angels without which we could never aspire to Heaven above but must have been slaves to the meanest creatures upon earth And yet it was a far richer benefit to mankind to give us the written Word and the greatest next to Jesus Christ the essential Word which the Father of Lights could have bestowed on the world in comparison of its greater glory the light of the Sun hath no glory By this our understandings are made wise and our immortality made happy The Scriptures are the mysteries of Gods eternal counsel the protraicture of those infinite perfections that lay hidden in his breast from all eternity the written copy of that Law God which was originally written in the heart of Adam the onely supreme rule of good and evil They contain such knowledge as will enlarge ravish and transform a teachable and studious soul In the volumn of this book it is written of Christ that God of Gods Psal 40. â—â— that Head of Angels that King of Kings whose Incarnation is the Mysterie of Mysteries and whose work of Redemption is the summe of all Mercies In a word in them is an exact map of the heavenly Canaan an exact delineation of the way thereunto and a full account of the deeds and evidences of our inheritance therein How abominable then is the blasphemy of the apostate Papists (a) B. Jewels reply to Hard. Art 15. fol. 518. who equal the Pope or a Councel or Traditions with the Scripture and speak dishonourably of the authorityand sufficiency of the sacred Volumn Doctor Jackson on the Creed lib. 2. sect 1. ch 1. pag. 238. ad 405. And how intolerable is that bloudy crew Alphonsus Castrens de punit haeret lib. 3. Cap. 6. which will inflict the most cruel deaths on those of the Laity that procure a Bible in their vulgar tongue (b) Scripta divina haereticorum fraudes convincit furta detegir Tertul. lib. de Trin. unwilling they are that their folly should be made manifest to all men and women knowing that ignorance is the mother of their idolatrous devotions But to leave controversies let me go on and remember those women to whom I speak that it is their duty to read their happiness to enjoy 1 Basil by his Nurse Macrina Bas cp 74. 〈◊〉 Polycarp ad Philippenses Origen in Levit hom 9. August in Psal 33. Heron. in Coloss 3. Chrysost in Joh. â—om 1. â—libi saepiùs and should be their delight to peruse the holy Scriptures Certain we are that God commanded all Parents to teach their children the words of his Law and that accordingly Solomon was instructed by his Mother Apollos by Priscilla Timothy by his Grandmother Lois 2 Both the Greek and Latine Fathers did use with all vehemency to exhort their hearers to get them Bibles and read the Scriptures at home and to talke of them to each other without exception of sex or age Yea saith a Popish writer lest women should be thought to be excluded from the study of the Scriptures there is a tradition that (a) M. Maâ—ulus Spalatens de vitâ per exempla religiose instit l. 2. cap. 5. Trap. on Luk. 1 51. And doubtlesse the elect Lady to whom St. John wrot an Epistle might as lawfully read other Scriptures as that Ep. the Mother of our Lord
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
godly women when with child YOu that have tasted the goodness of the Lord and have given up your selfe to him must upon this occasion sequester your self awhile from all the incumbrances of secular affairs and deny your self of the usual attendance of any company and entring into your chamber shut the door and give attendance to these things Commune with thy own heart Ps 4.4 77.6 and let thy spirit make diligent search after those secret sins that yet lurk in thy bosome rub up thy memory of former sins even those committed in the dayes of thy ignorance and vanity remember the wormwood and gall I mean how sin was to thee upon thy first conversion Lam. 3.40 Prov. 20.27 remember thy relapses any time since into sins formerly confessed and bewailed and consider thy unfruitfulness and unsuitable returns to God for his rich mercy in Christ how little thou hast adorned his Gospel but rather rendered Godliness less amiable by thy frequent miscarriages In a word examine thy senses members thoughts and inward parts of all their several evils and renew thy repentance in that serious and humble manner the Lord requires For your sins are in some respects more provoking to God than the wickednesse of the wicked More dishonourable to his name more grievous to his holy Spirit more displeasing to the good Angels more advantageous to the evill Angels more scandalous to the world and more unbeseeming your principles and heavenly hopes Therefore as David having sinned against God Recordari vol o tranactas fóeditates meas carnales corruptiones animi non quòd eas amem sed ut amem te Deus meus Augustin in Confess lib. 2. c. 1. wrote many penitentiall Psalms and shed many a tear day and night And Solomon having finned foulely after God had appeared to him wrote his recantation and penitentiall review of his life in the Book of Ecclesiastes And the woman after she was pardoned washed our Saviours feet with her teares and spent as histories tell us many years after in bewailing her sins So go you and do likewise remembring the holy Apostle who sometimes shames himselfe for the sins of his unconverted estate sometimes bewails the remainders of corruption that abode within him And renew also your resolutions of better obedience and more circumspect walking in all manner of conversation Chide your heart for its deceitfullnesse charge your soul to be more mindfull of the vows of God that are upon you Double upon your selfe all possible obligations to recover what you have lost and to stir up in you those things that are ready to dye Thus you should persevere in the work of confession lamentation and supplication till you find some such answerable effect in your heart as may assure you that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Cor. 15.58 As our book of Martyrs relates of that famous Martyr Mr. John Bradford that he could not leave a duty till he had found communion with Christ in the duty i. e. till he had brought his heart into a more holy frame He could not leave Confession till he had found his heart touched broken and humbled for sin nor Petition till he had found his heart taken with the beauty of the things he desired nor could he leave Thanksgiving till he had found his spirit enlarged and his soul quickened in the return of praises (a) Nunquam abs te absque te recedo Bernard Medit. Like that of devout Bernard who saith of himselfe that he never went away from God without God This is indeed the genius of every Saint who have known by experience how good t is for them to draw nigh to God And you have surely found God in the duty if you find your heart more out of love with your selfe and the world more humbled for sins past more afraid of every appearance of evil for the future and more delighting in all those duties that may promote your graces and weaken your corruptions in you But remember that the duties of humiliation confession supplication must be therefore delighted in because they leade us to God And then do we serve him aright when we have learned to delight not in our services but in God Wherefore raise your heart to that heavenly frame of thank fulnesse and praise to God Rev. 19.5 Luk. 2.13 for the eternall contrivances of his wisdome and purposes of grace in giving Jesus Christ Psal 33.1 for the fulnesse of his promises the freenesse of his covenant the sufficiencie of his word the blessed operations of his Spirit the transforming power of his grace Yea let all that is within you blesse his holy name for pardon of sin Psal 103.1 2 3. Psal 139.14 Rev. 15.3 for all other benefits whether deliverances from evill or giving you any thing that pertains to life and godlinesse for any good hope through grace of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled 1 Peter 1.3 4 5. reserved in the heavens for you to which you are kept by the power of God And really when I consider that the whole world lyes in wickednesse I cannot but praise God in your behalf who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light and numbred you among the faithfull The Lord adde to your number inable you by cheerfull and thankfull submission to Christs easy yoke to shew forth his praises Another good step towards your preparation for death would be not onely to get a heart truly penitent for sin and thankfull to God 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4.8.13 Col. 3.14 1 Tim. 2.15 1 Pet. 4.8 2 Pet. 1.7 Rev. 2.19 but also charitable towards all men that is to be of an inoffensive and courteous disposition to the wicked affectionate to the godly and compassionate to the needy But I meane especially this last of having bowels of mercy to them that be in want which by way of eminency is commonly called Charity as charity in the Greek is called grace Implying that there is no grace without charity no evidence of the truth of our charity without liberality For t is utterly a fault among many rich Ladies and gentlewomen who yet professe religion that they care not what they lay out in foolish gaming immodest dresses exotick garments c. But as if God had no right in any of their wealth they are loath to understand the duty of charity or to part with any thing considerable to pions uses except some small matter to them whom they cannot for shame deny ◠Tim. 6.17 18. Now the Apostle hath directed us to charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in God that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to commucicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Let this full Scripture serve instead
with her father-in-law Gen. 38.38 2. Rahab an harlot Heb. 11.31 3. Ruth who came of Moab the son Levi by incest with his own daughter Gen. 19.37 4. Bathsheba and she was guilty of adultery Why is all this but to shew that free grace is no respecter of persons except it be to have most tender regard to the most miserable object and to pardon those most readily who see themselves most guilty and to wash them as white as snow whose sins were of a scarlet dye And for your further increase of faith I would advise you if you can conveniently have it that you would with all humility and earnest desires of favour with God go to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ where you may see Christ crucified for you and may receive such symbols and pledges of his good-will towards you as will be so many Seals to his Promises and there you shall find his flesh to be meat indeed Joh. 6.53 54 55.56 and his blood drink indeed He is the living bread which shall strengthen your heart and his love is stronger then wine and shall make glad your heart I doubt that the seldome or careless use of this blessed ordinance is one great cause why so many Christians are of weak faith And if with other endeavours and inquiries for comfort this were more frequently and rightly used we should find their strangeness from God which is the chief cause of their fears to cease and delight in him and love to him and consequently peace of conscience to encrease by this neerer converse and communion with him Mary Magdalene as they say being near her end came and received the Body and Blood of our Lord in the place of their Christian assembly and there comfortably exspired before the Table of the Lord. Also peruse Davids Psalms and as you easily may take notice of those especially that contain complaints of Sin Fear Calamities and also praises to God for hearing and delivering and promises of the like mercy of God to all his people in their several exigencies And sing these Psalms leisurèly and considerately alone by your self You will find the voice to quicken your meditation upon the matter the matter to affect your heart and the blessing of God to attend his owne ordinance who hath commanded us to admonish our selves (a) Eph. 5.19 in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Besides it is most unquestionably pleasant to those good Angels who are ministring Spirits to attend you for good But if you are not satisfied by Promises Sacraments Psalms c. then look beyond all these to the goodness of God which is infinite His goodness is the fountain of the Promises and therefore it is that the streams make glad the people of God Now it is an acceptable work of Faith if we cannot see a Promise speaking directly to us or are not able to apply them yet even then to cast our selves upon infinite goodness to trust in the name of the Lord Isa 50 10. Psal 9.10 and to stay our selves upon our God For his Goodness contains more in it then Promises do express It never entred into the tongues of men or Angels fully to express the heighth and depth and length and breadth thereof Let this therefore keep you in a dutiful and quiet expectation of comfort that there is mercy with God an inexhaustible treasure of mercy riches of grace an overflowing fulness which can as well cease to be as to be faithful and compassionate Isa 57.15 in dwelling with the contrite and humble to revive the hearts of the humble and to revive the spirits of the contrite ones CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child THough trusting in God exclude not the use of means and Gods providence over us doth not discharge us from provision for our selves and preventing what we can of the danger and hurt of any approaching evil yet it surely excludes our trust in any thing besides him And therefore whatever estate friends helps strength you have yet trust not to these For God onely brings to the birth and gives strength to bring forth Rachels Midwife could bid hen be of good comfort but she could not give her the comfort of a happy deliverance Miserable comforters are Midwives Neighbours and Kindred if God withhold the fruit of the womb And if he speak the word after others have tormented the labouring woman and tried themselves with fruitless endeavours and at last given over any hopes of success I say if he speak the word she shall so on be delivered for He shutteth and none can open he openeth and none can shut he letteth and none can work he worketh and none can let He can let out the imprisoned infant raise up the fainting mother bring strength out of weakness and life out of death Wherefore furnishing your self with such promises as he hath made to his people in all their extremities strengthen your faith hope in the Lord and quietly wait for his salvation Among the many promises of this kind I shall mention a few which are obvious and leave you to observe the rest in your own private reading His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life Weeping may endure for a night Ps 30.5 but joy cometh in the morning For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth Isa 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the soules which I have made Like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103.15 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Isa 27.9 and this is all the fruit to take away his sin When we are judged 1 Cor. 11.32 we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world For our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more eternal and exceeding weight of glory He maketh sore Job 5.13 and he bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six troubles Ver. 19. yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee Behold Ps 33.18 the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine The righteous cry Ps 34.17 and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their troubles God is our refuge and strength Ps 46.1 a very present help in trouble Fear thou not Isa 41.10 for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse For God hath comforted his people Isa 49.14 and will have
mercy upon his afflicted But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Can a woman forget hâ—â— sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. Because he hath set his love upon me Psal 91.14 15. therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my name He shall call upon me and I will answer him Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee Isa 26.3 because he hath trusted in thee Cast thy burthen upon the Lord Ps 55.22 and he shall sustain thee Truly my soul waiteth upon God Ps 62.1 â— from him cometh my salvation My soul wait thou onely upon God for my expectation is from him With many other like places Now what can we expect for higher assurance then such re-iterated promises of that God with whom it is impossible to lie David therefore who was more then ordinary experienced in variety of afflictions and the comforting power of the VVord under them tells us I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And thus plead with God Remember thy Word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope And again This is my comfort in mine affliction for thy Word hath quickned me Let me here crave leave to transcribe a few sweet passages out of an excellent Author than whom none hath written more judiciously piously and plainly Mr. Ball 's Treat of Faith par 2. ch 7. p. 318. in our English tongue a The godly are allowed to live by Faith in times of affliction when calamities of all forts compasse them about For Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come God hath promised 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 8.28 1 Cor. 10.13 Act. 27.25 that all things shall work together for good to them that love him and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able And it is our duty to believe God that it shall be even as he hath told us The godly have had this confidence in former times whose practice is both a token of our priviledge and a pattern of our duty What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Psal 56.3 Psal 23.4 I will fear no evil For thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me God is hereby much glorified that we rely upon him as our rock of defence all-sufficient Saviour and surest friend in time of distresse It being one of his most royal titles Psal 68.5 9.9 10.14 to be a refuge for the oppressed a help to the poor strength to the needy c. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you Confidence in God doth the more binde and oblige him as it were to do us good Psal 37.40 If a friend rely upon our faithful promise we take our selves bound not to frustrate his expectation at a dead lift The Lord will never leave the soul destitute which trusts in him The faithful have promised themselves help because they trusted in the Lord Psal 57.1 143.8 9. And to hope in God and to have God for our help are linked togâ—ther in Scripture Ps 146.5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God After serious humiliation of the soul Faith brings tidings that God will look down from Heaven in mercy and bring help in fittest season If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled Deut. 4.29 31 32. and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my covenant with Jacob Mich 7.8 9. c. When I fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me This dependance on the Promises which Faith worketh is absolute without limitation of time measure of affliction or manner of deliverance All these it referreth to the good pleasure of his Will and reposeth it self securely on his faithful Word and Providence Fear rides post to out-run Danger and Folly would soon dispatch our mourning part to be in the house of laughter but he that believeth maketh not haste knowing that Gods truth never faileth his wisdome chuseth the fittest meanes and season and his Compassion is readiest when to sense and reason it is furthest off Thus he But seeing these Promises forementioned are general and you would willingly see perhaps something more expresly fitted to your own condition therefore I shall subjoyn a few other Scriptures which may abundantly satiafie in this case Hearken unto me Isa 46.3 4 O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which 〈◊〉 born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb And even to your old age I am he and even to hoary hairs will I carry you and will deliver you Fear not Zacharias Luke 1.13 14. for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall beare thee a son and thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth A woman John 16.21 when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of a child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world Through faith in him that promised Sarah received strength to conceive and to bring forth Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childhearing Heb. 11.11 if they continue in the faith and charity and holiness 1 Tim. 2.15 with sobriety This last place is most full and remarkable for the Apostle had said immediately before that the woman was first in the transgression Now this transgression deserved all misery pain and torment both here and hereafter without any hope of end or deliverance but see the goodnesse and mercy of our God! saith he notwithstanding her sin God will save her notwithstanding the curse God will bless her For the curse that came upon women at first is wonderfully moderated and the rigour thereof abated even from the first denunciation thereof Though God had newly cursed the earth yet he had respect to Abel and his offering Though he cursed man yet it is not an onely curse but a command and is a blessing annext In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Here is indeed a curse that their labour should be wearisome but a command that they should labour and a promise that in so doing they should have bread to eat So I say is the curse upon women I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
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
trust is able to raise us and will raise us hereafter out of our graves how much easier is it to him to raise us out of our present danger and affliction Wherefore God himselfe is pleased to satisfie us once for all to tell us that women with child cannot be so hard put to it but he can deliver them For when he would expresse his all sufficient Power in giving the Israelites such a deliverance as they scarce could believe or expect thus he doth express it Jer. 31.8 I will gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind and the lame the woman with child and her that travelleth with child together That is though in your return from captivity so long a journey to Jerusalem you may think of many impossibilities as We being poor and helplesse how is it possible but that teeming and labouring women must miscarry and perish by the way Oh saith God I can strengthen them give them a speedy easy delivery and make them even in that condition without long stay and losse of time able to go forward till they come into their own Land So then I say If your apprehensions of danger in your travell do any way discourage your faith Zechariah 8.6 Job 5.9 Rev. 15.3 yet let Gods alsufficiency put life into it If to be delivered be marvellous in your eyes yet it is not marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts But though we all acknowledge this in the notion D. Preston of Gods attributes p. 196. yet how few are there whose hearts are possessed with the power of this truth As it is one thing to hear a thing in the notion as for a man to think what he would do if he were a Pilot or a Captain and another thing to have it in the reall managing as when he is brought to fight So it is here It is one thing to say I believe God is Almighty and another to thing rest upon it For not onely the stub born Israelites did distrust God in the wilderness and weak women as Martha and Mary John 11.21 questioned Christs power to raise Lazarus because he had been four dayes dead but no less a man then Moses himself questions how God could provide for six hundred thousand in the wilderness Wherefore Numb 11. strive with your unbelief give to God the glory of his Power Wisdome and Mercy fix the apprehensions thereof deeply upon your heart and pray to the Author and Finisher of Faith to help your unbelief Conclude with the wife of Manoah after you have mourned and prayed with any hope of acceptation Surely if the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have accepted a sacrifice at our hands Labour for the faith of those men and women of old of whom it is written that by faith out of wekness they were made strong and women received their dead to life Yet let not the thoughts of Gods all sufficiency pass without one improvement more which I shall give you in the words of a singular Divine If God be All sufficient then learn to be content with God alone for all destrable comforts are in him as the effects are in the cause as when Christ promises that If any leave house Mark 10.28 29 30. or Brethren or Sisters c. for his sake and the Gospel they shall receive an hundred fold now in this life Houses Brethren and Sisters c. They shall receive the very same things that is they shall find the comfort of all these things in God Therefore consider what heaven is Do you think that there you shall have a worse condition then here you have a variegated appetite full of multiplicity you want many comforts and conveniences but when you come to Heaven you do not lay aside your nature but desire still And yet there you shall have none but God alone so that if all this vanity were not to be found in him you could not be happy even in Heaven it self Therefore he saith that he will be all in all Wherefore comfort your selves with these words CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of traveling women I Know very well that 't is far more easie to prescribe patience to others then to exercise it to our selves And therefore if I tell women in this condition that it would become them to be less clamorous and vociferous in their outcries and scrieches they will soon reply that if we knew what they endured we would not much blame them (a) Gen. 3.16 Jer. 13.21 ch 20.23 ch 30.6 ch 49.24 ch 50.43 Isa 21.3 Hos 13 13 Micah 4.9 10 Isa 13.8 John 16.21 1 Thes 5.3 Psal 48.6 Rev. 12.2 I grant indeed that the pains of a woman in travel are alwayes expressed in Scripture as the fittest comparison to set forth the greatest pains imaginable as may be seen in the places quoted in the margin And that the same word in the Original signifies both pains in travel and pangs of death as critical Annotators do observe on Isa 26.17 Psal 18.4 Psal 116.3 And that in Scripture the time of travell is commonly expressed by crying out Isa 26.17 chap. 42.14 And therefore I would not have any pious women to mis-interupt me as if I counted it no less then sinful to utter their complaints and outcries in the midst of their torments but I would think it commendable in any of them if they would so arm themselves with patience before-hand that they might abate somewhat of those dreadfull groans and cryes which do so much discourage their friends and relations that are near them and do much amaze the hearts and weaken the hands of those standers by that they become the less helpful to them But this is a small matter to what I intend Give your self what liberty and ease you will by pouring out your groans so you look to the chief thing that is that your heart be all the while in a believing praying humble patient submissive frame To help your patience herein you must know that my meaning is not that you should read meditate or perform any laborious duty at that time but what I now mention as useful to you in that case you must consider of before that hour and so possess your mind with the grounds and principles of patience that patience may then have in you its perfect work To which end consider that Sin is the procuring cause of all sufferings therefore if we understood felt considered the weight desert filth and future evil of sin how could we have the face to complain of any evil but that or to make any other outcry but that of the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death How emphatical are those words of the Prophet Why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his iniquities That is seeing you are but a creature a