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
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
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
â—â—perbissiâ—oruÌ„ origo Plin. nat â—ist l. 7. c. 7. The child in my womb is made of the like substance as I was And though I now have growth strength beauty or comelinesse yet I was once imperfect enough when I was newly begotten of man and conceived in the womans womb Alas how vile are those materials of which my body was made Scripture draws a veyl of modest and metaphorical expressions over this unsightly act of generation And when I consider oh my soul the poor original of my body Alas what preheminence have I herein above a beast what cause to abhorre all thoughts of pride and to walk humbly all my dayes If the Peacock let fall his plumes when he beholds his black feet have not I cause to be cast down with a less esteem of my self Phil. 3.21 when I consider my vile body In nothing more vile then in its first coagulation of ignoble matter MEDITATION 5. Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh Job 10.11 thou hast fenced me with bones and sinews Though in regard of the matter and manner of my generation my body is no better then a bag of flegm a lump of blood a moistened clod of earth yet when I raise my mind to the work of my Creator who fashioned me round about covered me in my mothers womb and formed me in the lowest parts of the earth I have then no cause to say to my Father what hast thou begotten or to my Creator why hast thou made me thus If I may in every creature see some prints and footsteps of the wisdome power and goodnesse of God in their formation production and conservation of their kind in a continual succession for the use of man how much more cause have I to search out this work of God in which there is as much of excellency curiosity and exactnesse of skill as in all the creation besides Much is said by Philosophers Physicians Anatomists c. concerning this great secret of Nature the Child in the Womb. They speak with much probability and rational conjecture of the manner and matter of generation conceptions of the very day when the womb by its natural heat begins to operate towards it when it receives its first change into a fleshy substance what day the brain heart and liver begin to be distinguished and when it receives a humane shape in other parts though the whole be no bigger then a small flie Also how it is nourished and in what place and posture it lies if male and in what if female What day it receives by the gift of God a living soul and when it begins to stir and calcitrate in the womb c. But the further I dive and search into this matter the more I am at a loss still new questions do arise which I cannot resolve Ps 139.6 Even this knowledge is too wonderfull for me Solomon hath put a question which I think himself could hardly answer Knowest thou how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child Eccls 11.5 Therefore oh my soul let mesing that song of David and if possible with Davids heart I will praise thee Psal 139.14 15 16 17. for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them But I must not I cannot here leave off this delightful Meditation but must again praise the Lord for that he hath not executed the curse of Adam to the uttermost upon us Though sin hath robbed us of many most desirable perfections yet there is that left with which and for which we may glorifie God If we survey the frame and building of this earthly tabernacle we shall find that rare fitness of every part and that symmetry of the whole that we cannot but say its builder and maker is God What shall I say of the several members and particles of our bodies of the scituation of the more noble parts and subordination of the rest of the influences of the higher parts on those that are less noble of the many channels of conveyance whereby the inner parts transmit bloud strength and spirits to the exteriour and most remote What of the beauty strength tenderness majesty and singular faculties of some parts of the contiguities and artificial connexion of all parts what of the sagacity of the five senses the mixture of the four elements the correspondence our bodies have with all creatures the resemblance of the three regions yea of the three heavens c. For which causes Man is called a little world the measure of all things the pattern of the Vniverse the miracle of miracles c. Yea mans body is yet in regard of its majesty strength beauty and noble faculties of its several parts in some measure after the image of God (a) 2 Chr. 16.9 Dan. 9.18 Psal 34.16 Job 40 9. Psal 74.3 Isa 49.16 c. And God himself is pleased to represent his perfections and operations by several parts of the body of man If therefore the serious prying into any one part take up the time and study of the learned insomuch that Galen was turned from Atheism in studying the secrets of mans body and presently praised and acknowledged our Creatour then oh my soul let that which made him a Christian make me a more thankful Christian that I may more zealously glorifie God with my body and may hereafter have all its primitive perfections restored at the Resurrection when God shall raise it in honour and incorruption and make it like the glorious body of Jesus Christ MEDITATION 6. Anatomists themselves are utterly to seek what reason to give for the opening and shutting of the womb But though I know not the natural causes hereof yet I find by the effects that the child is quick within me And oh that I could say with like certainty that though I know not the way of the Spirit or how grace comes in and sin goes out how Christ enters and Satan is dispossessed yet I feel by the effects that whereas lust did once conceive and bring forth sin yet now grace conceives holy motions and brings forth religious actions that whereas my heart was a cage of unclean spirits and barren of goodness yet now Christ is formed within me now I feel by happy effects that grace is quick within me and quickens me to every good work Psal 103.1 Wherefore blesse the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy name Luk. 1.43.49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great
things and holy is his name And whence is this to me that the grace of Christ should come to me MEDITATION 7. Rebecca conceived Gen. 25.22 23. and the children strugled within her and she said If it be so why am I thus that is if I am heard of God in my request and am with child by his blessing whence is this strugling this painful conflict and strange unquietness of the fruit of my womb And she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb c. So when I look into my self and observe the commotions that are in the womb of my heart I conclude Surely there are two nations within me the flesh with all its motions lucting against the spirit and its grace Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit with its gracious influences alway striving against the sinfulness of my carnal part Now blessed be God that seeing sin will yet keep possession that it hath no quiet abode within me but meets with reluctancy and opposition from my spirituall part But oh wretched creature that I am how often is evil present and prevalent with me how many are those pangs of sorrow those sighs and grones that my mischievous and restless corruptions cause within me But if it be so that the power of the most High hath overshadowed me and true grace be implanted in my soule then I shall seek to the Lord that he would cause the better part in me to be the more prevailing part that he would water and give encrease to these tender beginnings and give me at last a safe and happy deliverance from this body of death MEDITATION 8. If men strive and hurt a woman with child Exod. 21.22 23. so that her fruit depart from her and yet 〈◊〉 mischief follow he shall be surely punished c. Women with child are liable to many dangers A fall a bruise an accidentall stroke a fright a strain the taking somewhat that proves expulsive or the disappointment of somewhat they longed for these and such other contingencies are noxious to them and often-times cause abortion or the mischance of her fruit departing from her Such was the case of the Church when it was with child with many Converts Rev. 12.2 3. the great red Dragon watched the destruction of her and of her fruit And thus is with every repenting soul What security soever there be among those careless women that are at ease Isa 32.9 10 11. how little inward care or sorrow they feel while they forget God how unacquainted soever with the hurt and smart of sin or Satans striving with them before they are acquainted with God yet no sooner do they espouse themselves to Christ and conceive purposes of holy living and begin to be fruitful in any grace but they shall have many adversaries in the world and especially the god of this world striving against them to afright them to tempt them to receive such principles company suggestions as may quench their graces or to deprive them of that Spiritual food they long for or to intice them to straine their consciences or some way or other to cause them to fall that they may be wounded bruised c. and the fruit of grace depart from them But oh my soul hath God such care of the unborn infant as to provide a speciall law in its behalfe and will he not much more take care of that grace which he hath begotten in my Soul Oh my God keep me that the Evill One touch me not MEDITATION 9. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children As the first general curse Gen. 3.16 In dying thou shalt dy brought not onely the pains of death but intended also all the miseries of our life so this particular curse upon women brings not only pain in travel but comprehends all the infirmities of Child-bearing I find that the child in my womb brings many weaknesses and aches upon me but oh how sad and deplorable are those deeper sicknesses and maladies which I have brought upon it It s body partaking of my substance partakes unavoidably of my natural pollution It s Soul though it come immediately from the Father of Spirits yet I know not how is upon its infusion into this tender infant subjected to the common misery of the Children of Adam who having lost the image and likenesse of God sinne and corruption must needs follow I am an unclearne vessel Psal 58.3 sa 48.8 and how can any clean thing come out of me Oh my soul what need have I to be sanctified throughout both in Body and Soul and Spirit And Oh my God repair by thy grace what sin hath made so defective in me and mine MEDITATION 10 Our blessed Saviour and Great Prophet Jesus Christ foretelling the miseries that should shortly come on Judea Jerusalem sayes Wo unto them that are with Child Mat. 24.19 Lu. 23.29 and to them that give suck in those days And in another Evangelist Behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never have and the paps that never gave suck And indeed of all persons none more miserable in the time of War than women with child or women that give suck because their care is double and their persons uncapable of flying and shifting for their lives as those who are single may and do And of all murthers none more horrible in all its circumstances 2 Kin. 8.12 Lam. 5.11 then to rip up women with child Wherefore oh my soul let me be thankfull to my God that there is peace in our borders and any quietness and safety in my habitation and that I am free from those terrours and affrights with which many others in a time of common calamity are undone Oh how many Women with their unborn infants have been butchered in many places in ages past and martyred by blood-thirsty Papists in these later ages of which histories are too plentiful And if there be now any in my condition in any place especially among Christians that is exposed daily to the rage of a devouring Sword the Lord be pleased either to restrain the Enemy and the Avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 6.10 or to avenge the cause of the murthered that according to thy own Law they may not go unpunished but may give life for life Yea Lord hear the crie of the oppressed and give their adversaries blood to drink for they are worthy MEDITATION 11. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed whithin you Where any place is blest with a painfull Minister and Pastour after Gods own heart Gal. 4.19 they have in them much of the Apostle's temper For when I consider their painfull studies their sighes and teares their spending their spirits in ardent Prayers and laborious Preaching their compassionate exhortations passionate supplications and their giving themselves wholly to these things 1
therefore lesse minded while my vile body hath been pampered and delicately kept and then I must appear before an impartial Judge whose eyes are as flames of fire and how shall I shall escape or endure his sentence of condemnation who have neglected so great salvation Oh Eternity that amazing word Heb. 2.3 that astonishing thing who can number the millions of years contained in Eternity Who can spie either bank or bottom in the Ocean of eternity Well if I were not certain but had onely a suspicion that my soul shall have eternal recompences according to its works yet why should I adventure upon sin If there were neither Hell nor Heaven yet sin is hatefull and filthy in it self and holiness and righteousnesse is most eligible and amiable for it self So that were I never so much an infidel yet reason will tell me that onely piety can beget in my minde true tranquillity But surely my Creator is true and therefore will in another world bring every work into judgement Eccles 12.14 and by rewards and punishments vindicate for ever that honour of his holiness which is so little regarded upon earth Having with such things as these brought your mind to consider of the nature and danger of your sins endeavour in the next place to set your self to weeping supplication and fasting but still as your weakness will beare for God will have mercy and not sacrifice and therefore an unseasonable or intolerable measure of religious melancholly which may endanger your body is from the devil that murtherer acknowledge your offences and seek the face of God And be not slight or weary in this work but the more your heart draws back and the sooner it would give over as if you had now done enough the more suspect your self and stir up your self to call upon God Do not this work by halves but bring it to some good issue and while your heart is in any serious temper and conscience begins to accuse listen to it lest God give you over to final impenitency and unbelief and then seven worse devils will enter and you will soon be ripe for Hell Wherefore I tell you again you must upon the sight of your sins bend your knees to the Father of Mercies flying to Christ for refuge and laying hold upon the horns of the Altar plead the all-sufficiency of that sacrifice that Christ offered condemning your self again and again and casting your selfe upon the rich and free grace of God in Jesus Christ Resolve with seriousness and sincerity to live in newness of life Gal. 5.16 and to walk not in the flesh but in the spirit And seeing of your self you can do nothing exactly and acceptably good yet let me tell you by the way you may doe more then you doe by your own strength and the help of that common assistance God hath already given you and you may forbear many sins if you will A as appears by the different carriage of rude sinners when they are in civil or religious company they can then keep in their oaths and curses if they list and therefore do the best you may and blame God of backwardness to help you if you can seeing I say your own strength will not reach so far as to change your heart and life and bring you to be truly holy therefore improve the Covenant of grace wherein God doth promise to put a new heart within us Ezek. 36.25 26 27. and to cause us to walk in his statutes beg of him daily to work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure If you thus do let your travel come when it will and whatever become of your body your soul cannot miscarry If also you have wronged any by slander or unrighteous dealing resolve to make them speedy satisfaction If you have malice against any person or party whatever lay it wholly aside If you have been wronged by any in your name or otherwise forgive them Mat. 6.14.15 and so will your heavenly Father forgive you But if in any thing there happen a difficulty about restitution reconcilation c. which you are perplexed about take the advice of some pious and skilful Pastor an interpreter one of a thousand Job 33.23 24. who may shew to man his righteousness and who may guide your feet into the way of peace and obey their advice speedily Also if you be yet puzled about the right performance of your secret duties and doubt you have not taken the right way or that any doubts oppress your mind concerning the pardon of your sinnes then cast your eyes upon such as fear the Lord how much soever you despised or hated them before such as have mourned in secret for your pride and have earnestly longed for your conversion and are themselves practitioners in religious retirements With them are the secrets of the Lord. Ps 25.14 1 Cor. 2.15 Gal. 6.1 And therefore unbosome your self to them of such things as are meet to be revealed and hearken rather to their counsel then to the discouragements of Satan and get them to entertain you into their company and to remember you in their ordinary and daily prayers or in some more solemn address to God in your behalf And it is much to be hoped that the interest of these favourites in the Court of Heaven may facilitate your reconciliation and hasten from God an answer of peace However if after the use of these and such other meanes inward fears do still remain yet resolve in despight of the Tempter to continue in a way of duty and patiently wait upon that God for the joy of his salvation (a) Psal 40.1 1 Pet. 3.20 Ps 33.20 Hos 12.6 Isa 30.18 Lam. 3.25 26. who so long a time waited for your conversion The returning Prodigal though he might take many weary steps in his journey home yet when he draws near his journeys end his father meets him receives him and entertains him with joy So though you cannot in reason expect that God should presently upon your repentance give you assurance of pardon yet let it satisfie you that his Word doth assure you and if you expect any sensible joy he commonly reserves that best wine till the last when you draw nearer to your home in heaven you shall have a clearer fight of his reconciled face Wherefore to end this Mat. 22 11. Heb. 12.14 1 Tim. 2.15 Rom. 6.22 be you careful to put on the wedding garment of Holiness and whenever you die you shall have undoubted welcome to that perpetual Banquet in the Kingdome of Glory Thus I have given a short draught of what I should more largely have insisted upon for the conviction direction and consolation of them who have as yet done nothing or little to purpose in their turning to God But the intended brevity of this Treatise will not permit me to exspatiate on every point CHAP. V. Preparation for death the duty of
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
sinful creature and yet a living creature punished not destroyed punished for your iniquities which deserve far worse why should you complain seeing 't is the Lords mercy you are not consumed Suppose a Ship after a long voyage being come into harbour springs a leak the Master is somewhat troubled at it and is never quiet till it be stopped so that it is an evil to him yet he comforts himself in this that it did not happen to him when he was out at Sea that had been a great deal worse and might have proved the ruine of them all So there is this comfort in all our forrows that they happen to us in this life we feel they are upon us but blessed be God they are upon us here in this world so that by a sanctified use to be made of them they shall not be upon us in the world to come Consider also whose hand it is that inflicts these sorrowes upon you Your pangs and throws as they were procured by sin so they are disposed by the Lord. This made Job so patient The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away This made Eli submissive when Samuel told him of the ruine of his family It is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good Yea this made David so silent I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou Lord didst it So do you reason with your selves shall not I drink of the cup of trembling seeing 't is in the hand of the Lord my God who wil give me onely so much as shall profit me and not destroy me Shall I not stand under that cross that he hath laid on my shoulders and stoop to that yoke that he imposes on my neck Bears and Lions take blows from their keepers and shall not I bear any thing from my keeper and preserver Children take bitter physick from the Mother and hard blows from a Father and shall not I be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live I cannot I must not contend with my Maker I will therefore humbly bend to him lest he break me and I will not make my cross heavier by impatience then he hath made it by his providence Look also to the examples of patience which are such as will abundantly shame us if we murmure and repine at the hand of the Lord upon us God himself is pressed with our sins as a cart is pressed that 's full of sheaves yet is still patient and long-suffering to us-ward not willing that we should die and perish in our sins but turn and live The Lord Jesus endured innumerable injuries unspeakable agonies and intollerable grievances at his death yet as a sheep before the shearer so opened he not his mouth he did neither strive nor cry neither was his voice heard in the streets And alas what are yon pains in comparison of his The holy Spirit our sanctifier and comforter is exceedingly vexed and grieved at our yielding to many sins and corruptions yet forsakes us not utterly but waits all the day long knocking at the doores of our hearts and patiently expecting our reformation The holy Church of God hath been from the first planting thereof continually tossed to and fro with what tempests Satan could raise against them They have been continually assaulted with the wild beasts of the wilderness Heb. 11.36 37 38. stung with fiery serpents exposed to wants hardships dangers c. They have had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy c. Ecclesiastical Histories and Martyrologies are pregnant with most famous instances of the patience of the Saints under such torments as ordinary men have not the hardiness to inflict much less the patience to endure But 't is a tried rule then which none more certain that God never calls his people to any suffering but he will be with them to enable them to bear it But least you should think that the examples are all of the stronger sex I shall mention only a few whereas I could many more of the singular examples of womens patience in such paines as do I think equall the paines in travel Blandina a christian woman being brought before the Heathen Judges Euseb Ecl. Hist lib. 5 â—ap 1. for the Faith of Christ when as all her friends quaked for fear least at the time of her answer by reason of the frailty of the Flesh she should not be constant she was so replenished with grace from above that the Excutioners which tormented her by turns from morning to night fainted for wearinesse and ceased confessing themselves overcome and that they were no longer able to plague her with any more punishments wondring that she yet drew breath having her whole body rent in pieces and the wounds open they confessing withal that one of these torments was sufficient to cost her her life much more so many so great But this blessed Woman like a noble wrestler was renewed at her confession for as often as she said I AM A CHRISTIAN she was refreshed and felt no pain of her punishment Potamena Euseb l. â— c. 7. a chaste and most beautiful Virgin having suffered infinitely for the Faith of Christ last of all after great and grievous torments terrible to be spoken of together with her Mother Marcella was burned with fire Her body was first cruelly tormented with scourges and afterwards boyling pitch powred upon her from the crown of her head to the sole of her feet Quinta for refusing their Idols Cap 40. had her feet bound together and by them trailed and lugged along the streets which were paved with sharpe stones and being beaten against Mill-stones and sorely scourged she was brought to the Place of Execution and there put to death Mercuria an honest Matron Ibidem and Dionisia a very fruitfull women for child-bearing which Children notwithstanding she preferred not before the Lord when they had comfounded the Judge which used all kind of persuasions after they were so tormented that they were past all sence and feeling they were beheaded with the sword But Ammonarion a holy Virgin passed them all notably enduring all kind of torment saith the Author Theodosia a modest christian Maid of Tyrus not fully eighteen years old Euseb lib. 8. cap. 25. came to some christian prisoners who were at their tryal to comfort them and was forthwith haled by the catchpoles before their judge who presently scourged her bare sides with bitter and grievous lashes renting with the whip her white breasts and tender dugs to the bare bones At length this holy Virgin scarce breathing yet patient enough for all these punishments was throne in the Sea and their drowned Ennathus a christian Virgin was cruelly scourged and tormented Idem ib. cap. 27. and patiently