Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A19016
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The Countesse of Lincolnes nurserie
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Lincoln, Elizabeth Clinton, Countess of.; Lodge, Thomas, 1558?-1625.
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1622
(1622)
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STC 5432; ESTC S116629
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10,084
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30
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THE COVNTESSE OF LINCOLNES NVRSERIE AT OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and IAMES SHORT Printers to the famous Vniversitie 1622. TO THE RIGHT HONOVrable and approved vertuous LA BRIGET COVNTESSE OF LINCOLNE FOR the better expressing keeping in memorie my Loue and your Worthines I doe offer vnto your LA the first worke of mine that ever came in Print because your rare example hath given an excellent approbation to the matter contained in this Booke for you haue passed by all excuses and haue ventured vpon doe goe on with that loving act of a loving mother in giving the sweete milke of your owne breasts to your owne childe wherein you haue gone before the greatest number of honourable Ladies of your place in these latter times But I wish many may follow you in this good worke which I desire to further by my kinde perswasion And such women as will vouchsafe to read this little short treatise may be put in minde of a duty which all mothers are bound to performe and I shall be glad if any will consider and put in practice that which is both naturall and comfortable I hope they will at the least commend with me such as do this good deede and no more speake scornefully of that which is worthy of great praise and for my part I thinke it an honour vnto you to doe that which hath proued you to be full of care to please God and of naturall affection and to bee well stored with humility and patience all which are highly to be praised to giue praise to any person or thing deseruing praise I dare doe it for this louely action of yours I can with much thankefulnesse praise God for all his gracious guifts of grace and Nature wherby he hath inabled you to doe the same desiring also with my heart that you may euer and euery way honour God who hath honoured you many wayes aboue many women and I reioyce that I can beare witnesse that God hath adorned you with fayre tokens of his loue and mercy to your soule As the practise of true Christian religion dedicating your selfe to Gods seruice answerablenesse to all holy commands of the holy God which are Testimonies of Gods loue and doth challenge a very great esteeme from me amongst the rest that can truly iudge and rightly discerne what is best I am full of thoughts in this kinde or of this matter yet I say no more but this Goe on and prosper Hold fast all that is good Trust in God for strength to grow and continue in faithfull obedience to his glorious Majesty And I wil not cease to intreat the Lord of Heauen to powre aboundantly all Blessings of heauen and earth vpon you and your Children as they increase in number Your LA in the best and fastest loue ELIZABETH LINCOLNE TO THE COVRTEOVS chiefly most Christian Reader THE Generall Consent of too many mothers in an vnnaturall practise most Christian Reader hath caused one of the Noblest and Fairest hands in this land to set pen to paper As ashamed to see her sex farther degenerate desirous for the glory thereof to haue all both rightly knowe and answere their kind hath made Honour it selfe stoop to these paines which now shee sends thee to pervse Three things easily Inuite to Read what to view is offred Eminency or Interest in the Author Rarity in the handled Matter Breuity in the quicke dispatch These three meet in this won The Author so Eminent in Honour thou canst hardly be anciently Honourable and not be interested in her Honours acquaintance scarcely not Alliance Next for the Rarenesse a peculiar tract of this subiect I belieue is not in thine hands Lastly it s so briefe as I am perswaded it smoothly gliding thee along in the reading Thy sorrow will be it lands thee so soone What may giue satisfaction to a Reader let me acquaint thee next is here to be found These are two things Vsefulnesse of the subiect Fulnes for the prosecution If method and soundnesse can make Full this is Full. What not alone Confirmation vshering in the Assertion but Refutation for vshering out Obiections can doe to making Sound and Through this is Such The Accommodation to these particulars Gentle Reader I leaue to thy selfe least I become tedious whilst am honoring Breuity The pay assure thy selfe will bee larger then the promise The Wine much better then the Bush. This one word and I le stand out of the gate thou mayest goe in If Noble who readest likenesse is Mother Nurse of liking this comes from Nobility Approue the rather and practise If meaner blush to deny what Honour becomes speaker to perswade to president to lead the way to And so I either humbly take my leaue or bid farewell Blest is the land where Sons of Nobles raigne Blest is the land where Nobles teach their traine To Church for blisse Kings Queenes should Nurses be To state its blisse great Dames Babes nurse to see Go then Great booke of Nursing plead the Cause Teach High'st low'st all it's Gods and Natures lawes THOMAS LODGE THE COVNTESSE OF Lincolnes Nurserie BEcause it hath pleased God to blesse me with many children and so caused me to obserue many things falling out to mothers and to their children I thought good to open my minde concerning a speciall matter belonging to all childe-bearing women seriously to consider of and to manifest my minde the better even to write of this matter so farre as God shall please to direct me in summe the matter I meane Is the duty of nursing due by mothers to their owne children In setting downe whereof I wil first shew that every woman ought to nurse her owne childe and secondly I will endeavour to answere such obiections as are vsed to be cast out against this dutie to disgrace the same The first point is easily performed For it is the expresse ordinance of God that mothers should nurse their owne children being his ordinance they are bound to it in conscience This should stop the mouthes of all replyers for God is most wise and therefore must needs know what is fittest and best for vs to doe to prevent all foolish feares or shifts we are giuen to vnderstand that he is also All sufficient therefore infinitely able to blesse his owne ordinance and to afford vs meanes in our selues as continuall experience confirmeth toward the obseruance thereof If this as it ought bee granted then how venterous are those women that dare venter to doe otherwise and so to refuse and by refusing to dispise that order which the most wise and allmighty God hath appointed and in steed thereof to chuse their owne pleasures Oh what peace can there be to these womens consciences vnlesse through the darknes of their vnderstanding they judge it no disobedience And then they will driue me to proue that this nursing and nourishing of their own children in their own bosomes is Gods ordinance They are