backed by such Authority I became uncapable of fearing any Sensures or despairing of good Success CHAP. I. Wherein the Case is briefly stated and all those Texts of Scripture alledged which relate to it Together with the Arguments and Inferences which result from them § 1. IT will not be necessary to spend much time in any elaborate stating of the Case which I have undertaken For it is agreed on all hands that where there is a natural Inability or any bodily Infirmities in the Mother real and not meerly pretended that might have a pernicious Influence on her Nursery God who by his Providence hath caused those Impediments doth in such cases dispense with this Duty § 2. So that this is the Case Whether all Mothers be their Quality what it will who are neither disenabled by any natural Defect nor contracted Infirmity are bound in Duty to give Suck themselves to their own Children This I affirm and shall endeavour to evince both from the Holy Scriptures recommending it as a Duty the mischievous Consequences of neglecting it and the Insufficiency of all the usual Plea's which are made for such neglect Which three general Heads shall limit my ensuing Discourse § 3. I begin with the Holy Scriptures And because I intend all possible plainness without the Affectation of any artificial Method I shall offer some Passages to Consideration in the same order as they lye in our Bibles and make some obvious Remarks upon them and such Inferences as they will fairly bear as I proceed § 4. And to begin with the Old Testament the first passage we meet with to this purpose is in Gen. 21.7 where Sarah saith Gen. 21.7 Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given Children Suck For I have borne him a Son in his Old Age. We have Sarah a Nurse as well as a Mother though she were the Wise not of a mean Peasant but of a mighty Prince a Prince so Potent that the neighbouring Kings courted his Alliance A Prince abounding in Wealth and Power the Master of a numerous Family out of which he could number 318 Men fit to bear Arms and all born in his House Now the Wise of such an one could not want Conveniencies among so many Child-bearing Women that were in her Family for the Nursing of her Son by another she might have pleaded either State or Business to have excused her self from the Employment especially being grown into years which made her less able to undergo the Fatigue of such an Office and having Beauty beyond what was ordinary at her Years the decay of which by the Toil and Watchings incident to a Nurse she might have fairly pleaded But waving all these Plea's she includes it her Duty to Nurse the Fruit of her own Womb. For her words imply so much Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah should have given Suck For I have borne him a Son q. d. It is I doubt nor the Mothers Office who bears the Child to give it Suck since then I have borne Abraham a Son I must give it Suck and Nurse it for him Had it been usual in those times for vertuous Mothers to decline this Office she would not have inferred her Nursing a Son for Abraham from her bearing of one whereas the one implying the other intimates a necessary Consequence of the one from the other And I do with the greater Confidence urge this Argument because it is St. Ambrose's Note on this Verse De Abrah l. 1. c. 7. The Moral use of this is that Women are provoked to remember their Dignity and to give Suck to their Children This is the proper Grace the Honour of a Mother whereby she may recommend her self to her own Husband However this is certain that this Pious Mother whom the Apostle proposes as a Pattern to her Sex and exhorts all Wives to imitate that will do well 1 Pet. 3.6 and discharge Faithfully the Duties of their Relations she not only Nurses her Son her self but plainly intimates that she thought it her Duty to do so though she might have pleaded as many Excuses as most of them can who decline this Office They then that neglect the Duty and have no better Pretences for such their neglect than those which she waved as insufficient are faulty at least on this account that they refuse to imitate Sarah whom the Apostle tells Wives they must follow if they will do well § 5. The next Text is in Gen. Gen 49.25 49.25 where the Patriarch Jacob having foretold the numerous increase of the Tribe of Joseph that like a Fruitful Vine Gen. 49.22 whose Branches spread over the wall it should multiply into two Tribes he assures him that the God who had preserved and prospered him notwithstanding his many Afflictions from his Brethren at first and the Egyptians afterward V. 25. should Bless his Posterity with Blessings of Heaven above Blessings of the Deep that lieth beneath Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb i.e. He would provide for him an Inheritance fertile and well watered with Fountains and Rivers and a numerous Posterity to enjoy it Where it is to be observed that the Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb are conjoyned and a Promise made to this Tribe that in order to its Increase the Wives should be Fruitful to bear and Careful to Nurse their own that God would bless it with such Women as both would bear a numerous Off-spring and nourish their own Off-pring with their own Breads Whence the Inference is obvious that as a Fruitful Wife is a Blessing so when she Nurses her Children she is a double Blessing to a Family And as it is the Duty of every one to be as great a Blessing as she can be to her Family so such Women must need be faulty who after God hath given the Blessings of the Womb refuse to compleat the Felicity by the Blessings of the Breast The ten thousands of Ephraim Deut. 33.17 and the thousands of Manasseh are the effects of these Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb and intimates to us that it is a likely way to obtain a numerous Posterity such as Joseph's was for Fruitful Mothers to become themselves Careful Nurses § 6. In Exod. 2.7 8. when Pharaoh's Daughter sends to seek out for a Nurse for Moses Exod. 2.7 8. whom she found exposed her Maid called the Childs Mother and to her she committed the little Nursery Now this may be considered either as the Act of the Royal Princess the Contrivance of the Mother or a Dispensation of Divine Providence If we suppose that Pharaoh's Daughter sent on purpose to enquire out the Mother of the exposed Infant we may conclude she thought her the fittest to Nurse it If it be rather thought that the Mother laid her Daughter to watch and be ready if any such occasion should happen to call her rather than another we have a commendable Instance
THE Compleat Mother OR An Earnest Perswasive to all Mothers especially those of Rank and Quality to Nurse their own Children A partu statim excipit lactandi cura Atque hic quidem crat omni Machinarum genere pugnadum adversus Pravam consuetudinem sed mirum quam vulgo receptam quà Matres Infantulos suos conductitiis mulieribus tradunt nutriendos Erasm de Matrimonio Christiano p. 398. Nil tam praeter Naturam quam ut Mulier quod genuit recuset alere Idem Eras ibid. Sine eam totam integram esse Matrem sui Filii Permit her to be the whole Compleat Mother of her Son A. Gell. Noct. Att. l. 12. c. 1. By HENRY NEWCOME A. M. and Rector of Tatten-hall in the County Palatine of Chester LONDON Printed for J. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. Imprimatur Humf. Hody R. in Ch. P. ac D. D. Johanni Div. Provid Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Dom. Aug. 18. 1694. THE CONTENTS The Introduction THE Author's Motives to this Vndertaking viz. Compassion for Children injured by being Nursed by Strangers Charity to such Mothers as are reproach'd for doing their Duty The Sense of his own Obligations to oppose the Luxury of the Age And hopes that such a plain Discourse may meet with some Success p. 1 Chap. I. The Case is briefly stated and all those Texts of Scripture are alledged which relate to it Together with the Arguments and Inferences which result from them p. 15 Chap. II. The great Mischiefs which Mothers by transferring the Nursing of their Children to other Women threaten their Families with both in point of Succession and that Mutual Affection which ought to be among the several Branches of it p 47 Chap. III. The Inconveniencies resulting to the Children themselves which are Nursed by Strangers in respect of their Bodies either through the Nurses want of Care the Unsuitable Nourishment or Contagious Diseases transmitted in her Milk 62 Chap. IV. The Mischiefs which may be propagated from Mercenary Nurses to the Minds of Children p. 76 Chap. V. The Common Plea's for Nursing Children abroad Together with the Insufficiency of them and the True Causes thereof p. 86 The Conclusion A Pathetick Address to all both Fathers and Mothers that they will admit the Preceding Particulars into their Serious and Impartial Consideration p. 98 THE INTRODUCTION § 1. CUstom like an impetuous Torrent makes its way through the firmest Inclosures and furiously throws down all the Bulworks of Laws and the most Sacred Obligations that obstruct its passage Like a mighty Tyrant it usurps upon Truth and Duty and awes all into a Compliance with its violent Government Men live as Seneca observes not by Reason but by Imitation De beata vita c. 1. whence it comes to pass that they fall upon one another by heaps as so many Blind-men into a Ditch It were easie to instance in many things strangely unreasonable which being recommended by Custom have passed not only without Controle but with Applause I wish there were not too many popular Vices in our own Nation to prevent the labour of such an undertaking Vices which though they have nothing to justifie them besides their Commonness have even by that alone been able hitherto to baffle the most vigorous Attempts against them To mention no more how many good Laws have been made how many rational and elaborate Discourses have been published both from the Pulpit and the Press against Common Swearings Intemperate Drinking Black-mouth'd Perjury and Bloody Revenge And yet with little other effect hitherto than to give us so many the more Instances of the Triumphs of Brutish Custom over Reason and Religion And to convince us that all such Attempts are as hopeless as for one with ten thousand Luk. 14.31 to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand Where the Assailant is more likely to be condemned for his Rashness than applauded for his Courage and Resolution § 2. It may then be justly wondred at how I come to be so daring as to oppose my weak Arms against such a mighty Current or to undertake the controling of a Custom which hitherto hath prevailed against all endeavours of Authority Reason and Eloquence far greater than I can pretend to This I mean of Mothers declining to Nurse their own Children and putting them off to Strangers Annius Minutius the Roman Censor is said to have took notice of it as a strange Prodigy in his time extreamly ominous to Rome that a Roman Lady refusing to Nurse her own Child gave Suck to a Puppy that her Breasts might with more safety be dried up by artificial Applications But it is a thing too common to pass for a Prodigy among us though I fear not less fatally ominous for Persons of the best Quality to run the greatest Hazards and submit to the most unhandsom Methods for drying up their Suck rather than to become Nurses to their own Children And I find a most refined Pen than whom none in this Age could have been more likely to have succeeded Ladies Calling Part 2. Sect. 2. §. 28. if either Reason Eloquence or a more charming strain of extraordinary Piety be of any force declining to attack this prevailing Custom through meer Despair of convincing by any thing that could be said § 3. But upon mature Consideration I can find no reason why Impudence and Obstinacy should protect any Sin from a just Reproof Nor can I think it a justifiable piece of Modesty to decline the defence of a good Cause meerly for the Multitude and Confidence of its Opponents It was brave in the Stripling David to assault the monstrous Gyant with his Sling and a few Stones and the Success was answerable to his Courage And why may not I relying on the same God hope for as good Success from these my slender Endeavours since the Cause I undertake though it deserve the best is sufficient to give Victory to the meanest Advocate Leaving therefore the Event to God's Providence I am encouraged to assault this stubborn and inveterate Custom 1. By an hearty Compassion for the Infants which suffer by it 2. For a necessary Vindication of those few honourable Ladies who have had the Vertue and Courage by their Practise to confront it 3. And by the Sense of my own Duty as a Clergy-man to appear against the Luxury of the Age. § 4. For the first I am not ashamed to own a peculiar Inclination in my self to love and delight in the Conversation of little Children among whom I have always found a most agreeable Diversion Nor need I since our Blessed Lord himself gave encouragement to bring such little ones to him was pleased to take them in his Arms and to propose their Innocence to our Imitation And as this hath induced me to spend all my vacant Hours among Children for their Improvement as well as the gratifying of mine own Inclinations so it makes me the more Impatient at all those
who betray any Aversion or are guilty of any Unkindness toward them And since the Children of our Nobility and Gentry are justly reputed to be the Hopes of the next Generation it is reasonable to be most concern'd for them who in their Infancy generally are more Unhappy than the Sons of Country Peasants The Poor Tenants Child is for the most part nursed in its own Mothers Bosom and cherished by her Breasts whilst the Landlord's Heir is turn'd out exil'd from his Mothers embraces as soon as from her Womb and assigned to the Care of some Stranger who hath no other Endearments toward it than what are owing solely to her Interest And such as work for Wages are usually not so careful how they do their Work as to get their Stipend nor is a Mercinary Nurse much concerned how the Infant Improves provided she have a good place of it Thus the Infants of the best Families are most hardly used and vast numbers of them undoubtedly destroyed And sure I need not despair of Pardon even from those Ladies who are most concerned in the ensuing Reproof since it is the result of my real and hearty Compassion for their dear Children § 5. Besides Secondly I have observed that those Ladies who contrary to this prevailing Custom have undertaken the Nursery of their own Babes have oft met with unhandsom Reflections and bitter Taunts from others of the contrary Practise which makes the Vindication of them a necessary piece both of Justice and Charity A Lady that will condescend to be a Nurse though to her own Child is become as Unfashionable and Ungenteel as a Gentleman that will not Drink Swear and be profane but dares be out of Fashion in leading an exactly vertuous and sober Life Apd if ever you saw the Modesty of such an one assaulted by the Railery and Scorn of a Company of Debauchees when he happens to fall among them You may imagine the need those few Ladies have of Courage and Resolution who by Nursing their own Children expose themselves to the Taunts and Derision of the many who decline that Office and look upon themselves to be upbraided by their Examples § 6. And when I observe those few Ladies who best discharge their Duties exposed to the Scoffs of such as neglect theirs and on the other hand reflect on the Unhappiness of those poor Infants whose Mothers make it a Punctilio of State to cast them off to the Care of Strangers I cannot but believe it a good Office and a few hours well bestowed to attempt the Vindication of the best Mothers and to plead with those that are otherwise the cause of those helpless Innocents who are not able unless in their inarticulate cries to speak for themselves Especially § 7. Since thirdly the consideration of my own Obligations as a Clergyman encourage me in this undertaking For in the Book entitled Cap. 13. De Matrimonio Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum which was composed by eight Bishops whereof Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley were two eight Divines and as many Civil and Common Lawyers in pursuance of an Act of Parliament and intended for the Government of the Reformed Church of England and the Rules of Ecclesiastical Courts I find this passage A Custom too soft and delicate hath prevailed among Wives to discard their Off-spring from their own Breasts and hire them out to be nursed by Strangers which thing for the most part being without any probable Causes but only from an over-indulgent Fondness of their own Bodies it comes to pass that to ease themselves they shuffle off the Honourable and Natural Pains of educating their own Children and since this inhumane and degenerate Sloathfulness of Mothers is the cause of many Evils we think it the Duty of Preachers to exhort Mothers not to desert their Off-spring which they have borne nor to deny those the benefit of their Breasts whom they lately nourished in their Womb and sustained with their own Bowels Now since our Reformation after it was brought to good Perfection in respect of Worship and Doctrine was hindred by the Death of King Edward from receiving the Consummation which was intended in respect of Church-Government and Ecclesiastical Laws this Book which gives us the most authentick account what was intended cannot but be of great Authority with all that value the Judgment of our first Reformers So that I may from this conclude not only that it is every Preachers Duty to exhort Mothers to Nurse their own but also that it is the Duty of Mothers to comply with their Exhortations and that if they do otherwise they betray an unjustifiable Contempt of these learned and pious Reformers of and Martyrs for our Holy Religion § 8. To these Motives of my present undertaking I will add one more viz. The hopes of routing this unnatural Custom and doing a deal of good thereby I am sure I have a very good Cause and all the strength of Reason and Religion on my side and the Impulses of Nature to boot I have also the more courteous and tractable Sex to deal with who I may promise my self cannot all be obstinate against the Evidences of their Duty and the Inclinations of Natural Affection And why should I despair of rescuing so great a part of Mankind from the Tyranny of an impudent Custom who seem ready to accept of Liberty and to wait for some kind Deliverer to unloose their Fetters Shall I doubt of a candid Reception from that Sex whom Nature hath molded for Courtesie and the Impressions of Religion and Compassion Especially since as Themistocles is said to have prevailed in his Addresses to Admelus King of the Molossi by bringing the King's Son in his Arms I bring their own Children with me to second my Persuasions by their prevailing Intercessions or indeed not so much to intercede for me as to Petition for themselves § 9. But if any rebellious Lust if Luxury Pride or Avarice dare to appear against me I have the Ensigns of Divine Authority to awe them Evidences I mean from the Holy Scriptures and the Law of Nature to command their Submission And though those Books are said to be most fatally Destructive which convince of Duty and yet fail of persuading to it yet what I have to propose seems to me so likely not only to convince but also to persuade that I hope it will do no harm but Service to the World To conclude this Introduction though these Reasons prevailed to engage me to compose the ensuing Discourse yet for some Months I kept it by me and could not persuade my self to publish it till I met with his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Sermons about the Education of Children lately publish'd wherein he recommends this as the first and most natural Duty incumbent on Parents toward their Children and argues against the general neglect of it as one of the great and crying Sins of this Age and Nation And when I found my self
of her Pious and Tender Concern for her Son and carnest desire to Nurse it her self rather than any other should ease her of that Burden and do that work for her But if besides either the Princess or the Mothers Intention God by his wise Providence determined the Messenger to apply her self to the Mother rather than any other Woman we have the plain Determination of God himself that the Mother is fittest to Nurse her own Child and that it was best for this Infant whom he intended for extraordinary Service to have the advantage of the most suitable Nurse And it is further observable that tho God would have Moses trained up in Learning by the Egyptian Doctors that he might be better qualified for the great Charge he was hereafter to undertake yet he would not have him Suck Milk from an Egyptian Nurse which might have some bad Influence upon his Constitution and his Manners § 7. Numb 11.12 Moses thus expostulates with God Have I conceived all this People Have I begot them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as properly spoken of the Mother as of the Father And Conception being peculiar to the Mother it seems more reasonable to render it in Analogy thereto Have I brought them forth or brought them forth That thou shouldest say unto me Carry them in thy Bosom as a Nursing Father or * There is no word in the Original for Father only the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Masculine which yet the 72 render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for most part is Feminine and signifies a Nurse And considering that Frequently in Hebrew one Gender is put for another It may well be rendred a Nurse here as more suitable to Conception and bring forth in the clause foregoing as a Nurse beareth the Sucking Child to the Land which thou swarest unto their Fathers Where Mosess Argument stands upon this Foundation that whosoever hath conceived and brought forth ought to become Nurse to the Sucking Child and carry it in her Bosom Unless this be granted his Argument is invalid and nothing to the purpose the whole force of which seems to depend on that Supposition Judge then whether is more reasonable to charge Moses with an Absurdity or those Women with an Immorality who neglect the Duty which he takes for granted He thought himself not obliged like a Nurse to bear that froward People in his Bosom because he had not conceived them nor brought them forth Thereby evidently implying that the Mother who hath conceived and brought forth the Infant ought however froward it may be to become its Nurse and Suckle it in her Bosom § 8. If we turn over to 1 Sam. 1.22 23. we find 1 Sam. 1.22 23. that after Hannah by her Prayers had obtained a Son she resolves to lay aside all other business that she might attend this important one the Nursing of her Samuel She was a Woman of great Piety who constantly went with her Hushand to the Sanctuary at the Feasts Yet knowing how much God prefers Mercy before Sacrifice she resolves to do so too staying at home to Nurse her Son as what she apprehended more acceptable to God than to appear at his Tabernacle with an Offering and leave her Child at home to some Mercenary's Care Whence we may conclude that even the Pretences of Piety which of all others are the most plausible are not sufficient to excuse Mothers from this piece of Charity and that if their Nursery should detain them for that time from a constant Attendance on God's publick Worship he will in such a case dispence with their absence and accept their Charity toward their Infants instead of Devotion to himself Persons of Quality indeed may have such assistance that there can be no necessity of their confinement from Gods House especially since none of them but are much nearer to a Church than Ramah was to Shiloh Bunting's Travel of Patriarchs which is computed to be twelve Miles so that ordinarily they cannot have that Plea to make Yet if any be in such Circumstances that either the publick Worship of God or the Nursing her Child must be neglected she hath here a president to determine the case in favour of Charity against the specious Objections of Devotion And it is further observable that Hannah's Nursing of her first Son was so far from hindring Fertility that it rather procured a Divine Benediction which multiplied her Posterity to three Sons and two Daughters 1 Sam. 2.21 sufficient to rescue her from her Rivals Taunts and rank her in the Catalogue of fruitful Mothers So vain is that popular Pretence that Nursing is an Impediment to Fruitfulness and to be declin'd by great Persons for the better securing of Succession by a numerous Posterity for if those bear faster who dry up their Breasts they that Nurse their Children commonly bear longer and bring more up to an Healthful Maturity which comes to pass partly through their greater Care and partly through Gods Blessing on their exemplary Piety § 9. There is a Story in 1 Kings 3.21 of two Women of an infamous Character 1. Kings 3.21 being stiled Harlots nor will I take the advantage some Interpreters give me to soften that Denomination into Victuallers but will suppose them to have been bad Women yet observing something remarkably good in one of them it is the more to be took notice of Now it is evident that the one of these Harlots was a tender Mother though she had been an unchast Woman and loved her Child very well however she came by it and it is recorded of her that she her self gave it Suck Which is an Argument that though she had not Vertue sufficient to secure her Chastity yet she was not so overgrown with Vice as to have obliterated Natural Affection The better of these two Harlots hath the Character of a Fond Mother and her pleading before King Solomon that she rose to give her Child Suck is an Intimation that this was a Duty of good Esteem in those days and that it would make something for her that she had done so And how can those Mothers pretend Affection to their Children who attain not to the Tenderness of this good-natur'd Harlot sect 10. In the Book of Job Job 39.16 c. 39.16 there is an elegant Description of the Ostriches stupid neglect of her young ones wherein this is especially took notice of That she hardened her self against her young ones as though they were not hers Whereby the Spirit of God intimates it to be an Aggravation of Hard-heartedness to deal hardly with those that are young especially where natural Relation obliges to a tender Regard And that the nearer any come to resemble the Ostriches Obduracy in neglecting to take care of their Off spring the more unnatural and cruel they may be justly deemed And if it be a piece of Hardship to turn off a tender Infant to a Mercenary Nurse as I
doubt not but in the sequel of this Discourse will be manifest those Mothers must be accounted more Vnnatural than the Ostrich because they have not so much Stupidity § 11. In Psal 29.9 the Psalmist says Psal 22.9 Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my Mothers Breasts Now hope is an act of Reason not to be exerted by an Infant not yet arrived to the Exercise of Reason yet here in a Poetical stile attributed to such an one to intimate that the Care God takes of Infants and the early Provision he hath made for them by filling their Mothers Breasts as soon as they have left her Womb is an Argument that Mankind is under the Care of God's Providence and of sufficient force to engage even Infants to hope in God if they were capable And hence it is evident that it is the Intention of the God of Nature in furnishing the Mother with full Breasts to oblige her to minister thereby to his Providence for the Preservation of her Child Moreover the Psalmist's using such a Phrase as this doth not only imply that he was nursed by his own Mother but also that it was usual in those days for Mothers themselves to perform that Office The Practise of our Age would scarce allow us to express the time of Infancy by hanging on the Mothers Breasts wherein so few enjoy that Priviledge And if we grant that such Idioms of Language are founded on the prevailing Customs of Nations we may conclude from this Phrase and that of Solomon's who expresses a Brother Periphrastically by one that sucked the Breasts of his Mother that it was in those days very common Cant. 8.1 and accounted most reasonable that the Mother should Nurse at her Breasts all the Children she had born in her Womb. § 12. The Prophet Jeremiah exaggerates the Extremity of Famine in Jerusalem by this Circumstance that it had made Mothers Cruel to their Infants and uncapable of giving them Suck Lam. 4.23 Even the Sea-monsters draw out the Breasts Lam. 4.23 they give Suck to their young ones but the Daughters of my People is become Cruel like the Ostriches in the Wilderness It 's true it seems to be not so much from the Hardness of their Hearts as of the Times that the Daughters of Jerusalem do not that for their Off-spring which the very Sea-monsters do for theirs and which no Creature on the Land is so much a Brute as to neglect except the Ostrich whose stupidity is such that she leaves her Eggs in the Sand and takes no further care of them no nor of her young ones neither after the heat of the Sun and of the Sand hath hatched them And nothing certainly but the Extremity of Famine could make the Daughters of Jerusalem so Cruel that no Monster at Sea no Brute on Land can parallel them except the Ostrich How then can they excuse themselves who neglect their Children as much out of Luxury and in the midst of Plenty as those Israelites did through Famine The Prophet thought this an Instance fit to exaggerate the great Misery of a Famine that it constrained Mothers to that which Nature most abhors We may then reasonably conclude That he would have passed a very severe Censure on those Mothers that become Cruel in the midst of Plenty and for that very reason too because they abound with Plenty They are more unnatural than Sea-Monsters that draw out their Breasts to their young ones whilst these turn theirs off to some mean and Mercenary Neighbour § 13. I shall conclude my Observations out of the Old Testament Hos 9.14 with that passage of the Prophet Hos 9.14 Give them O Lord What wilt thou give them Give them a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts For whether he pray for this as a Blessing for Israel that they may not be more miserable in the common Slaughter of their Country for their Fertility as our Lord Christ pronounces such comparatively Happy in the Destruction of Jerusalem that were barren and had never born Luke 23.29 and whose Paps had never given Suck Or whether he denounce it as a Curse that their Women should be Barren and punished with a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts which way soever we understand it it affords us this Conclusion that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures makes dry Breasts as well as a miscarrying Womb the Periphrasis of Barrenness thereby declaring it equally unnatural for a Mother by artificial Applications to dry her Breasts as to force Abortion and that where God gives a fruitful Womb he expects ordinarily that the Breasts should give Suck God gives dry Breasts as a Curse to some as an Affliction to others but they that invite that whether Curse or Affliction to themselves by voluntary Applications love not Blessing therefore it shall be far from them Thus have I lead you through the Old Testament and shewed you the laudable Examples it gives Mothers for Nursing their Children and the plain Intimations at least of the Divine Pleasure that they should do likewise § 14. I proceed to set before you such passages of the New Testament as are of the same Importance and furnish us with some Proofs of the case proposed In the Gospel we read of a Woman who in a Rapture of Admiration at Christ's Discourses cries out Luke 11.27 Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast Sucked Which shews that she took it for granted that the Mother of our Lord gave him Suck And upon this evidence and because we find that Joseph in his Flight with his Holy Infant into Egypt took none other with him but the Blessed Virgin it hath been unanimously agreed that she was the Nurse as well as the Mother of Christ And since this Virgin not only for the Nobility of her Extraction tho now sunk into a meaner Fortune but especially for the Purity of her Manners hath justly been reputed the Glory of her Sex none can have an Example more worthy of her Imitation God chose not saith one of the Ancients any ordinary Woman to be the Mother of Christ Apud Just Mart quaest resp ad Orthod q. 136. p. 375 but one that excelled all other Women in Vertue whom he therefore pronounces Blessed for her Vertues for which he vouchsafed her to be his Mother And such eminent Vertues in this Royal Virgin recommend her as a fit Example for the best and the greatest of her Sex to imitate § 15. In the next place it may be observed That the Christian Religion hath adopted into Law and Duty all those things which generally approve themselves to the unprejudiced Reason of Mankind Phil. 4.8 to be things Honest Lovely and of good Report Things honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grave 1 Tim. 3.11 or becoming Chast and Vertuous Matrons Things Lovely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are generally Grateful to all wise and vertuous Persons and apt to procure
Love Things of good Report which are apt to procure to the Persons that do them and to the Religion which they profess good Esteem and Commendation Now I dare appeal to all the World whether those few Persons of Quality and Honour are not generally looked upon with a Veneration and Esteem who having broke through an unreasonable Custom and preferred the good of their Children before a Fantastick Privilege of Greatness become Nurses to their own Off-spring Who doth not approve of this as an Action becoming the Gravity of a Chast Lady In whose Eyes is it not a Spectacle most Lovely What vertuous and sober Persons but think it very Praise-worthy From this general Precept of Christianity therefore we must conclude this generally to be the Duty of Christian Matrons § 16. That of the Apostles 1 Thess 2.7 is not here to be omitted 1 Thess 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherisheth her Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where two things are observable First That the Mother is here stiled a Nurse for it is her own Children not anothers whom the Nurse is said to Cherish Whence it seems that the Apostle taking it for granted that the Mother is her self the Nurse implies it the Duty of all Mothers to undertake that Office Secondly That St. Paul chooses to express his own mild and gentle Behaviour toward the Church by a Mother Nursing her own Which implies that the Mothers Care is the greatest and her Carriage the most Tender toward her Nursery who is influenced by Natural Affection and not meerly by hopes of Reward It would have been a Disparagement to the Apostles mild and tender Behaviour towards them to have compared him with a Mercenary Nurse that looks to anothers Child for hire and is rarely so careful of it as its own Mother to whom Nature dictates the most compassionate Concern for its welfare § 17. Hitherto in the next place belongs the Character which the Apostle gives of a Widow indeed 1 Tim. 5.10 who is to be maintained by the Churches Charity He requires among other Virtues that she be well reported for good Works and that she have brought up Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word denotes Nursing Children Our Lexicons cite Aristotle for the use of it and it is obserable that he uses the Verb from which this is compounded to denote this peculiar Office of the Mother in his Oeconomicks which because it gives us the Judgment of that great Philosopher Arist Oeco l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.18 is in the Margent of our Bibles rendred Suffered them as a Nurse beareth the Child And by Dr. Hammond Carried them as a Nurse who concludes the right reading to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do the Office of a Nurse who not only bears the Child in her Arms but feeds and sustains it too as God did the Israelites in the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also rendred a Nurse in the Text aforecited 1 Thess 2.7 I will here transcribe As to their Children saith he both Parents equally contribute to their Generation but their Offices are peculiar as to their future Improvement The Mothers Office is to Nurse and the Fathers to Educate or Correct In the Judgment then of St. Paul those Widows who had nursed their own Children were reputed to have done a good Work and they that had not done so were judged for that very reason unworthy of the Churches Charity And as we may very well presume the Apostle would not have exempted any indigent Widow from that Privilege for no Fault but that it was a thing Scandalous and of very ill report for any Christian Matron not to have nursed her own Children § 18. I shall only add That among the Duties of the younger Women such as are not yet past Child bearing they are to be taught That they love their Children Tit. 2.4 For if it be considered that Nursing their own Children is a very proper and natural Testimony to maternal Love and the most likely means not only to express but increase their natural Affection toward them I see not how they can evade the Obligation of this Precept For the Law of Love obliges a Mother to all proper Means and Ways of testifying and maintaining her Love and consequently to this The greatest Ladies are bound to love their Children as well as the meanest Beggar and consequently to neglect no proper means of shewing and cherishing it So that unless they deny Nursing of them to be such they must hence conclude it to be their Duty § 19. But before I put an end to this Chapter it is requisite that I take notice of some passages which seem to discountenance the Cause I have been pleading for least my pretermitting of them should make any to fancy it was not for the Weakness but Cogency and Weight of the Objection that is raised from them I mean those Texts which mention some Nurses who were not the Mothers of the Children whom they Nursed Such was Deborah Gen. 35.8 Ruth 4.10 Rebecca's Nurse Naomi who became Nurse to her Grandson by Ruth Mephibosheth's Nurse 2 Sam. 4.4 2 Kings 11.2 who let him fall as she sled and Joash's Nurse that was hid with him § 20. Now in answer to these Instances I shall only offer these things 1. That in some cases it is so far from being a necessary Duty that it is not possible for the Child to be nursed by its own Mother As if she die in Child-bed or lye under some natural Inability from the want of Nipples or Suck And in such cases recourse must be had to some other means for the Infants Preservation And for what appears to the contrary this may be the occasion of the Substitution of some of the Nurses abovenamed Joash's Nurse it 's probable supplied the Office of his deceased Mother for his Aunts Care about his Preservation makes it likely that his Mother was either dead before or was Murdered in the universal Butchery of the Royal Family by Athaliah 2. Some of those before named were dry Nurses Assistants only not Substitutes to the Mother Such doubtless was Naomi whose Age and long Widowhood makes it very unlikely that she should be able to give her Grandchild Suck And Pareus from Jacob's solemn Mourning at the Death of Deborah concludes her to have been called Rebecca's Nurse because she had assisted her in the Nursing of her Children and not as if she had given her Suck and that for this reason Jacob after his Mothers Death had taken her into his own Family 3. If it be granted most probable as to me it seems to be that Mephibosheth's Nurse gave him Suck and was substituted in the room of his Mother this will be no disadvantage to our Cause For as it was his great Unhappiness to lose his Mother
betimes so it was a greater to be committed to such a Nurse as by her Carelesness perhaps made him a Cripple to his Death Lastly I cannot upon the whole remember one Instance out of the Holy Scriptures of any either good or bad Mother who did her self deliver her Child to another to Nurse nor is it probable that any of the Nurses instanced above were made such by the Mothers of the Children themselves whilst they were living and therefore they reach not to Patronize their Case who ordinarily do so § 21. Thus I have given a just and impartial account of the Testimonies of the Holy Scripture both of the Old and New Testament which respect our present subject and if they have been impartially considered they must needs have satisfied you that those Mothers are most conformable to the Dictates of God's Spirit in his Word who themselves Nurse their own Children And all the Favour I desire of any Mother upon the Survey of the forementioned particulars is to allow her own Conscience to determine whether God hath not in his Word plainly enough declared this to be her Duty And then I hope none will be so Vain or Impious as to oppose Custom or the Privilege of her Rank to such indisputable Authority and plain Convictions of her Duty CHAP. II. Wherein are manifested the great Mischiefs which Mothers by transferring the Nursing of their Children to other Women threaten their Families with both in point of Succession and that Mutual Affection which ought to be among the several Branches of it § 1. MY proposed Method leads me how to the second part of my undertaking viz. To consider and represent the Mischievous Consequences which frequently result from Mothers exposing their Children to be nursed by other Women and cannot otherwise be so surely prevented as by discharging this Office themselves And they either respect the Family or the Child First The whole Family may suffer great prejudice by this unreasonable Custom And that both in point of Succession and that mutual Affection which ought to be among the several Branches of it and is necessary to its flourishing Prosperity § 2. 1. The Families of the Great and the Rich especially are in danger to be injured hereby in the Succession None are so much concerned as Persons of Honour and Estates to preserve the Succession of both to their own Off-spring nor are any in so much danger as they to be injured that way The poor Man needs not fear a Supposititious Brood for who will be desirous to obtrude a Child on him to inherit Beggary But if a poor Tenant have a fair Opportunity to thrust her own or Friends Child into the room of her Landlords Heir or can contrive to make him pass for the Son of a Wealthy Tradesman it requires a deal of Honesty to withstand the Temptation Now if it be considered how mutable the Countenance of an Infant is what Alterations a few days make in the Lineaments of its Face it may be judged no hard thing to deceive the most Critical Mother after a Months absence So that either if the Nurse have a mind to make her own Child or be hired to make some others a Fortune or if she have Overlaid her Nursery and to conceal the Crime cloath some other about the same Age in its Spoils perhaps the most curious Inspection may not be able to discern the Cheat. I am sure the boorish and degenerate Rudeness of some who pass for the Children of very Polite Ingenious and good humoured Parents give too much cause to suspect them Changlings Nor is this a bare Supposition without any Instances for Valerius Maximus tells us Val. Max. l. 9. c. 15.3 That in the Reign of Augustus one pretended to be the Son of his Sister Octavia affirming That by reason of his great Weakness he had been changed for the Nurses own Son It 's true the Cheat succeeded not yet Octavia's putting of her Son off to be Nursed by a Stranger gave an opportunity to attempt it And perhaps the reason that so few Nurses art detected in such like Attempts is because they frequently succeed better being detected only where they fail Yet one remarkable Instance more there is How Arthebar or as others call him Artabanus King of Epirus was more successfully imposed on having his Child changed at Nurse and the Son of a mean Knight introduced into his Family Which Treason the Nurse at length though too late discovering occasioned a Bloody War wherein both Pretenders were slain and the Kingdom it self Usurped by Alexander the Brother of that Olympias who was Alexander the Great 's Mother And to prevent such Supposititious Bastardies Lycurgus the Famous Spartan Law-giver enacted That the noblest Spartan Women even their Kings Wives should at the least Nurse their eldest Son And Plutarch reports That the second Son of Themistes the seventh King of the Lacedemonians succeeded his Father only because he had been nursed by his own Mother whereas the eldest had sucked the Breasts of a Stranger Now as the Mothers Nursing her self is a sure way to prevent any such Cheat of the Nurse so it is a Security to the Husband that she hath not her self to escape the Infamy of Barrenness Consented to the introducing of anothers Child into his Family And it is the Note of St. Chrysostom upon Gen. 21.7 That therefore Sarah give Suck to make it more credible that she was truly a Mother least any by reason of her Age should have suspected the Child to have been Supposititious For the Milk in her Breasts might satisfie the most Distrustful that Isaac was her genuine Off-spring and that beyond all Expectation she was become a Mother Hence I conclude that the Quality of any Woman is so far from being a reasonable Excuse from undertaking this part in the Education of her Child that it rather increases her Obligation For the greatest Care ought to be taken in preventing the Obtrusion of a Spurious Issue on the Families and Successions where there is the most Danger § 3. 2. I come to shew Secondly That as it is necessary to the Happiness of every Family that there be mutual Indearments between the several Branches of it So the putting of Children out to be nursed by others is a very likely way to hinder them and the contrary to promote them which I shall manifest in these three Particulars viz. In respect of the Mothers Affection towards the Child The Child 's towards its Mother and The Children of the same Parents towards one another § 4. First It is very unlikely that those Mothers who transfer the Nursing of their Children to others should ordinarily love them as tenderly as those that make them their own Care A Gell. l. 12. c. 1. ad fin When the Infant is exil'd from its Mothers sight that warmth of Love which receives new Vigor from the frequent view of its Object cools by degrees and languishes whilst the
great Persons Kindness and Liberality toward their Foster-Brothers is an Argument how prevalent this Method is of propagating the Streams of Love from the common Fountain of the Breast among all the partakers of it And the too common Observation of Fraternal Discords as it is matter of Melancholly Consideration so it ought to oblige Mothers to neglect no means any way likely to prevent them especially to joyn them all at her Breasts that they may be more united in their Lives § 7. Thus have I demonstrated how much the good of Families obliges all Mothers especially Persons of Quality to Nurse their own Children that they may more surely prevent all Opportunities of wronging their own Heir of alienating themselves from their Children or their Children from them or from one another CHAP. III. In which is contained an account of the Inconveniencies resulting to the Children themselves that are Nursed by Strangers in respect of their Bodies either through the Nurses want of Care the unsuitable Nourishment or Contagious Diseases that may be transmitted in her Milk § 1. I Come now Secondly to represent the Mischiefs that threaten the Children themelves which are deserted by their own Mothers to be Nursed by Strangers It is a pretty Observation which St. Ambrose makes on Gen. 9.25 where Cham's Curse is expressed in his Sons name Cursed be Canaan viz. That it is a greater Punishment to wicked Cham to be Cursed in his Race than in his own Person The Wounds which tender Parents receive in the Miseries of their Children are much more sensible than their own personal Calamities This Consideration then in all reason should touch all Mothers in the most sensible part and be of the greatest force with them viz. That others Nursing of them is likely to be extreamly prejudicial to their Children both in respett of their Bodies and their Minds § 2. I shall in this Chapter shew how the Health of the Childs Body is endangered by putting it to a Stranger to be nursed and that these several ways Either by her want of Care intending it by yielding it unsuitable Nourishment or by transmitting Diseases to it § 3. A Mercenary Nurse is not likely to take so much Care of the Child as its own Mother In our Bibles we read of Mephiboshesth's Mishap received from his Nurse who letting him fall out of her Arms as she fled made him ever after unable to go And who sees not how many carry about them to their death the Marks of their Nurses Carelesness And no wonder for Natural Affection will make the Mother more watchful over and patient with the Frowardness of her own Babe than she can expect an Hireling to be De Educ lib. P. 3. The Mother is fittest to Nurse saith Plutarch because she will treat the Child with more Compassion and Care as being influenced by an inward Tenderness which bears date from its first being Whereas the Love of a Nurse is only Subdititious the result not of Nature but of Wages It is reasonable to expect the Mistress of the Family more careful of her own Domestick Affairs than any of her Mercenary Servants since the first is obliged by a greater Interest than the latter so that where the Mistress is Negligent we do not ordinarily expect the Maid should be more Industrious And where the Mothers Love can suffer a Child to be exposed whom Nature hath interested in its Welfare none can wonder if a Stranger neglect it For indeed how can it be expected that an Hireling should endure all the Tediousnesses and Inconveniencies attending the Nursing of a little helpless perhaps Froward Infant when the Mother to whom Natural Affection should have endeared the Employment out of Softness and Luxury declines it as a Burden Or why hath God generally inspired the Mother with a greater Tenderness toward the Child but for this very end That thereby she may be enabled to digest more easily the little Vnhandsomnesses as one phrases it which others Will nauseate Bishop Taylour's Grand Example and submit to those Fatigues that none else will for its Preservation whilst her Care and Patience are doubled by her Affection There are frequent Tragical Instances of Infants Overlaid by Sleepy and Careless Nurses which much more rarely happen where the Mother undertakes this Province her self Methinks then it is very reasonable thus to argue She is fittest to Nurse the Child who loves it best and if the Mother is not ashamed to have it said That any Woman should love her Child better than her self she must be concluded fittest to Nurse it and she ought to undertake that Office which requires so much Vigilance and Patience Care and Tenderness as can be expected only from the greatest Love Nothing is more common than for Mercenaries to let the poor Babe Cry it self weary without regarding it whilst the Mothers Ears would have so affected her Heart as to send her in all haste to quiet it The Mother ordinarily will spare no Pains to keep it Neat and Clean whilst Nurses generally are so Negligent that Nastiness oft breeds Diseases and the keeping of the Child Dirty is a sure Preludium of its Funeral When Dust is laid to Dust and Ashes to Ashes § 4. And here I cannot forbear to translate a passage out of a learned Physician Dr. Walter Harrys in his Tract De acutis Morbis Infantum viz. That a worthy Divine the Rector of Hayes about twelve Miles from London with great Grief told him that his Parish being large and populous and scituate in a very wholsome Air at his first coming thither was replenished with Infants sent abroad to be Nursed yet in the compass of one Year he had buried them all except two And that the same number of Nurseries being again twice supplied through the Mercenary Diligence of those Women out of London he had again this same Year laid them all in their Graves before their time A. D. 1689. So that by this account the Citizens seem to put out their Children not so properly to be Nursed as to be Murdered And I see not how they can be thought to have a due regard of their Childrens Lives who after such fair warning given them by a Physician that Practises among them and seems peculiarly concern'd for the good of Infants resolve still to run this Hazard and prefer their own Ease before their Childrens Life § 5. But if the Child nursed by a Stranger be not killed by her neglect yet secondly it may be very much injured in its Health by the unsuitable Nourishment which it derives from her Breasts Galen de sanit tuend l. 1. c. 7. Avicen l. 1. Fen. 3. Senner de curat inf part 1. c. 1. It is agreed upon by ancient and modern Physicians that the Nourishment which Infants receive in the Womb is of the same Nature with the Milk which soon after the Birth Nature provides for it in the Breasts And it is another approved
Rule among them that a sudden Alteration of Diet is oft Fatal always dangerous especially to the Infirm and such as are unable to resist any violent Impressions If then we consider the waxen Tenderness of Infants to use Galens Expression on as well as Argument and the Moisture of their Constitution Galen de temper l. 2. c. 1. which makes them very susceptible of new Impressions we must conclude that a change of Diet immediately upon their Birth is likely enough to have a dangerous Influence upon them Now there is as great Variety in Constitutions as Faces and consequently it will be as hard to find a Nurse of the same Temperament with the Mother as endued with the same Features So that the fatal Consequences of Strangers Nursing may be imputed not always to their Negligence but sometimes to the great difference in the Constitution of the Mother and the Nurse For Galen peremptorily concludes That the Child which draws its own Mothers Breasts uses not only the most accustomed but also the most proper aliment for it Galen de san tuend l. 1. c. 7. Avicen l. 1. Fen. 3. c. 2. And Avicenna That this it can best digest and therefore it is most convenient for it so that if any Indisposition seize on it the Mothers Breast is most conducive to its Cure And it is moreover to be observed That for the most part those Mothers who decline this Office are of a delicate and finer Mold and Mercenary Nurses are generally robust and of a courser allay And though the latter may be the more Healthful yet her Milk may for that reason be the less suitable to the Constitution of an Infant conceived and nourished hitherto in a Body more Fine and Tender Brown Bread may be strong and wholsome Food yet not fit to be prescribed on a sudden to an infirm and delicate Stomach which hath been long inured to Gruels and Pannado's And if such unsuitable Diet oft prove Fatal to the Adult there is more reason to fear lest it never prove otherwise to Tender Infants § 6. But the Danger is much greater Lest Mercenary Nurses transmit some desperate Contagion into their Nurseries The Mothers Distemper is the most plausible Pretence for her declining of this Office And all conclude it very reasonable that in that case she forbear to Nurse lest her Infant Suck Death from her Breasts whose Womb gave it Life and she propagate her Diseases to it together with her Milk impregnated with the vicious Qualities of her Blood But then the Argument is as strong to oblige an Healthful Mother to Nurse least she should commit it to a Mercenary infected with some latent Disease The Right Reverend Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury in his Letters assures us Dr. Burnet's Let. 4 p. 248. That one Mr. Gody Minister of St. Gervais in Geneva had a Daughter then sixteen Years old who having a Nurse extraordinary thick of Hearing spake all the little words that Children do at a Year old but was Deaf at two years old Which he concludes was caused by some Vapor the Nurses Milk was charged with which was propagated to the Child when she began to Suck more strongly and to take greater quantities of that corrupted Nourishment But this though a very unhappy Infirmity is very tolerable in comparison of what other Infants have by this means been infected with For there is a Story in Dr. Ambr. Parey Par. de Lue Ven. c. 2. a Famous French Chyrurgion to this purpose so remarkable that I cannot but judge it worthy to be transcribed § 7. A certain very good Citizen of this City of Paris granted to his Wife being a very Chast Woman that conditionally she would Nurse her own Child of which she was lately delivered she should have a Nurse in the House to ease her of some part of the Labour By ill-hap the Nurse they took was troubled with the Venereal Disease wherewith she Presently infected the Child the Child the Mother the Mother her Husband and he two of his Children who frequently accompanied him at Bed and Board being ignorant of that Malignity wherewith he was inwardly tainted In the mean while the Mother when she observed that her Nurse-Child came not forward but cried almost perpetually she asked my Counsel to tell her the cause of the Disease which was not hard to be done for the whole Body thereof was replenished with Venereal Scabs and Pustles the hired Nurse and the Mothers Nipples were eaten in with virulent Ulcers Also the Fathers and the two other Childrens Bodies whereof the one was three and the other four Years old were troubled with the like Pustles and Scabs I told them that they had all the Lues Venerea which took its Original and first Off-spring by malign Contagion from the hired Nurse I had them in Cure and by Gods help healed them all except the Sucking Child which died in the Cure But the hired Nurse was soundly lashed in the Prison and should have been whipped through all the Streets of the City but that the Magistrate had a Care to preserve the Credit of the Unfortunate Family § 8. Now if it be considered how common this Disease is in our Debauched Age we may conclued it is only to be imputed to the Secrecy of Physicians and Chyrurgions that we have not fresher Instances of this Nature And this will be sufficient to caution all Mothers that are Healthful rather than run the hazard of such a Misfortune to undergo the Fatigue of Nursing themselves And thus you see how many ways a Mercenary Nurse endangers the Life and Health of your Children And if it be an antedated Murder by causing Abortion to hinder the Propagation of a Man it cannot be a less Crime after he is born and registred among Christians to suffer him to die and contribute any of these ways to his Murder CHAP. IV. Wherein are shewed the Mischiefs which may be propagated from Mercenary Nurses to the Minds of Children § 1. HAving in the former Chapter shewed what Harm a Child may receive in its Body by an hired Nurse I come in this to represent the Ill Influences such an one may have on the Mind of her Nursery And this Ladies will deserve your more Serious Consideration by how much the Soul of your Child is better than its Body especially since by the Improvements or Mis-improvements of the Mind Persons of Quality become extraordinary Useful or Pernicious Remernber it 's not a Plow-man but a Nobleman or a Gentleman that may be spoiled and that two ways Either by the Diminution of the Childs Parts or the Depravation of his Disposition or his Manners § 2. First The Nourishment received from the Breasts of a Mercenary Nurse may debase the Spirit and diminish the Parts of a Child The Faculties of the Humane Soul in their Operations depend very much upon the Disposition of the Body in its united State If then the Temper of
the Body may be altered by Diet the Operations of the Mind may thereby be improved or impaired Be the Hand never so Skillful the Musick will not be equally Melodious when it strikes on a bad as on a good Instrument David himself saith one could not have charmed Saul's Melancholly Spirit with the Strings of his Bow Bishop Taylour's Grand Example p. 22. or the Wood of his Spear as he did with his Harp If the Soul of a Nightingal were in the Body of an Owl its Harmonious Warbling would be changed into hideous Screaking Or if the Humane Soul should according to the Fancy of Apuleius be lodged in the Body of an Ass it would not be able to speak or argue rationally as it doth in the Body of a Philosopher being condemned to an Instrument not tuned for such noble Harmony Now whatever Temperament of Body a Child hath received from the Mother if it be depraved by the Nurse that Alteration may deprave its Parts and hugely impair the Operations of its Mind And when a Sucking Child draws its Nourishment longer from the Body of a stupid Nurse than it did whilst an Embrio from the Substance of an ingenious Mother there is great reason to fear least that have a greater Influence in forming its Constitution than this especially happening whilst it is Young and Tender and very susceptible of new Impressions § 3. Caus Holy Court l. 1. § 8. p. 29. Causin tells us That in the History of Germany there is a Story of a Child taken in a Forrest and presented to the Landtgrave of Hesse which having been bred among Wolves learn'd to go on four feet to Hunt divide the Prey and sleep with them and was in every thing but his shape become a perfect Wolf And may not Ferity and Stupidity be derived from the Breasts of Brutish Women as well as from Wolves which if any look upon the preceding Relation as a Fable rather than an History may pass for the Moral of it § 4. I acknowledge the great Parts and brave Souls of many young Gentlemen who have run an Hazard in drawing their first Nourishment from strange Nurses But it may be these fell into the hands of some whose Parts and Spirits were above their Fortune Or perhaps though their Parts be great yet they might have been more Considerable had they enjoyed the same Advantages at the Breast as in the Womb. And any Diminution of their Parts as well as the total loss of them is to be deplored and whatever hath any probable Tendency thereto avoided Besides there are some Instances of Children in great Families falling infinitely short of their Parents Ingenuity and every Mother may reasonably fear least hers prove another of them if she venture on this Method for their Education which in frequent Instances proves Pernicious It is reported of Alcibiades Plut. in Alcib whose Parts were advanced so far above the ordinary pitch of his Country-men that he drew his first Nourishment from the Breasts of a Spartan Woman Id. in Lycur And the brave Spirits of those Dames made other Grecians ambitious to purchase Nurses from Sparta for the Improvement of their Childrens Spirit I leave it therefore Ladies to your Consideration whether it be safe to suffer your Children to Suck the Breasts of any Woman less Ingenious than your selves much less such stupid Women as in respect of Parts and Spirits you would be very loath to have them resemble least your generous Plants set in a barren and cankered Soil degenerate and become Unfruitful § 5. But Secondly It ought further to be considered Whether the Suck of a Mercenary Nurse may not corrupt the Disposition of the Infants Soul and deprà ve its Manners For whosoever impartially considers it will find great reason to fear least the Child imbibe the Nurses ill Conditions together with her Milk Though Vertue is a Supernatural Perfection added to our Nature in this State of Depravation by the Influences of Divine Grace yet some Inclinations to it may be owing to the Temper of the Body and propagated by a Communication of Spirits in the Nourishment Much more may Vicious Dispositions which are Natural and depend more upon the Temper of the Blood and Spirits The Peevishness the Lust the Pride the Stubbornness or Baseness of a Nurse receive great Encouragement from the Constitution of her Body which being in some measure propagated to her Nursery gives it also a great and Unhappy Propensity to the same Vices This so far prevailed with the Mother of St. Bernard Guil. Abb. in vit Bern. l. 1. c. 1. that she would not let her Son draw any Breasts but her own least he should draw from them some Contagion of Vice And the common Proverb which expresses an Inveterate Habit of Vice By drinking it in with the Mothers Milk being grounded on universal Consent gives great Authority to this Notion § 6. And Dion Cassius gives this account of the Prodigious Cruelty of Caligula who was the Son of the Famous Germanicus and Agrippina the Daughter of M. Agrippa two as Vertuous and Generous Persons as Heathen Rome could boast of That to the end he might be of a Martial Disposition they committed him to a Masculine Nurse one that was Hairy on the Face like a Man drew the long Bow run at the Ring managed the great Horse and was in all things most Cruelly and Mischievously inclined And from such a Nurse he became so in love with Blood that he not only delighted to be present at the Execution of Criminals but would lick the very Blood of the Weapons wherewith they were executed And Tiberius who was such a Monster for Leachery is said to have been Nursed by one no less famous for Unchastity than the other for Cruelty And I knew a Gentleman who had been very Sandalous in his Life for Whoredom and confessed in my presence that his first Debauch was at Fourteen with and through the Enticements of his Lustful Nurse Who would not think his Parents to blame for turning him off to such a Monster Since from his Mother perhaps he might have Sucked a more Happy Constitution she being a very Chast and Vertuous Woman § 7. Consider then Ladies what Assurance you have that the Mercenary Nurse is not of a Vicious Disposition and conclude it your Duty not to put off your Child to any other unless one from whom it may imbibe better Qualities than from your selves And since few of those Nicer Dames who decline this Office think better of others than of themselves I hope they will not be so unkind as to venture their Children abroad where they may be likely to draw in a Disposition to those Vices which they most abhor I am much inclined to subscribe to the Opinion of Wise Cato Plut. in Catone That for the most part Noble Matrons are endued with more Vertuous Inclinations than the meaner sort And methinks for that reason they ought not
to place out their Children with any Women of baser Allay and less Vertuous Dispositions § 8. And thus I have given you an account of the probable Mischievous Consequences of Nursing Children abroad which are sufficient to persuade all that truly love their Family or their Children to forego that unjustifiable Custom Unjustifiable I say for I am sure none can justifie themselves either in point of Prudence or Duty if they still adhere to it And this leads me to the last part of my undertaking which shall be the subject of the next Chapter The Insufficiency of the common Excuses alledged by those that decline the Nursing of their own Children CHAP. V. In which are mentioned the Common Plea's for Nursing Children abroad Together with the Insufficiency of them and the true Causes thereof are represented § 1. I Come now in the last place to remonstrare that the Causes for which the generality of those Mothers that are capable and able refuse to Nurse are so far from excusing that they more evidently demonstrate and aggravate to their Fault in so doing For whatever Plea's are framed for them they may be resolved into some of these three Sins Luxury Covetousness or Pride § 2. First Some of them proceed from and convince them of Luxury For hitherto it is reasonable to reduce the pretended Fears of diminishing their Beauty and prejudicing their Health by the disturbance of their Rest and other Toils incident to the Care of an helpless Infant For I dare appeal to any one who impartially considers it whether any thing but Luxury dictates this Pretence For first There is neither Reason nor Experience on their side who pretend Nursing to be the Decay of a Womans Health or Beauty The contrary is generally observed That it helps the Appetite and Digestion which is more likely to preserve both than destroy either Morton Phthisiol l. 1. c. 7. I find it confirmed by the Experience of Learned Physicians that oft Consumptive Persons have been cured by Nursing their Children and such as at other times have looked Meagre and Pale whilst they have Nursed have been Plump Fleshy and of a vivid Complexion Whereas on the other hand in drying their Breasts Women very commonly run apparent Hazards of destroying not their Health only but their Lives The unnatural stopping up of these Fountains occasions the corrupting of the Milk and that corrupted Milk infecting the Blood oft raises such a Ferment as produces a Fevor or some other Fatal Distemper And none can think it Prudence to throw themselves into immature Death to avoid Wrinkles § 3. Again Secondly Granting that the Nursing of half a dozen Children should decay the Glory of the Face a Year or two sooner How could Beauty be better bestowed than in such a Work of Piety toward her own Family and Posterity Nor do I see how those Ladies can justifie themselves against the Charge of Vanity and Luxury who prefer the colour of their own Face before the advancing of such important Interests Did you ever see a vain Fop so enslaved to his neat Cloaths that he declined Business most proper and necessary for fear of some little spot falling on them or any rude Motion to disorder his Garniture There is as much Vanity in being a Slave to a fair Skin as to a gawdy Suit The miraculous Beauty of Sarah in her old Age and of the Blessed Virgin in Youth were neither so overvalued as to deter them from being Nurses So that those may be concluded to value too highly the Smoothness and Superficial Glory of their Skin who prefer it before the greatest Good of their Posterity § 4. And Thirdly For such as decline Nursing For fear of having their Rest disturbed or being other ways overloaded there needs no other Argument than their own Apology to convince them of Softness and Luxury For what would any one judge of a Mother whom he should hear wishing that some one could undergo the Sicknesses attending her Conception the Toil of bearing her Child in the Womb and the Throes of Travel in her stead Would he not conclude That such an one had deeply imbibed the Counsel which Epicurus is said somewhere by Arrian to have given his Scholars to enjoy the Pleasures of Marriage but by all means avoid the trouble of Children Now if such a Wish argue too much Sensuality How can they avoid that Imputation who by throwing off as much of the Pains of a Mother as they can make it apparent that it is only from the Necessity of Nature that they decline no more One that turns off her Child to be Nursed by a Stranger for fear of taking Pains with it by Day or being disturbed by it in the Night evidences thereby that she carried it in the Womb Forty Weeks and underwent the Pangs of Child-birth only because Nature in those cases could not admit of a Substitute There is no Vertue in enduring those Pains for your Child which you cannot avoid And there are some Pains God hath so contrived that they may be avoided these I mean that attend the Nursing of it that by a voluntary undertaking of them you may make it appear how little you value your Ease when it stands in Competition with your Duty For doubtless she loves her Ease too well who will not undergo those Labours for her own Child which he expects another should take for Wages Our Holy Religion as it requires the great est Charity in all its Professors so it prescribes Labours of Love and consequently allows not of that over-great Tenderness to our selves which is inconsistent with a Laborious Charity especially to the most natural and nearest Objects of a Mothers Charity her own Children § 5. Lastly The Pretence of Inability to Nurse is oft reducible to this Head of Luxury It is the common Plea of those Mothers who put their Children out to Nurse that either they want Nipples or Milk And though this may be really the case of some few yet I am persuaded not of all that pretend it Such dry Breasts as one observes are like the Gout which is frequent among the Rich but a stranger among the Poor Few of those Women who are too Poor to hire a Nurse but they are able to Nurse themselves and I make no question but many of our Rich and Honourable Dames who pretend to want Suck or Nipples would have had both if their Fortunes had been less Now in all such Luxury is the real Motive though a Natural Inability be the Pretence * I might here add one Particular more reducible to this Head which though many are ashamed to plead hath yet a great Influence on them in declining their Duty I mean the Restraints that the Discharge of it would bring on them They cannot Dress exactly according to the Mode if to give Suck they must be called so oft to open their Breast Nor will this be consistent with the Liberty they take to Revel
and Game oft till after Midnight But if the bare Proposal of this Plea do not convince and shame them that use it I must despair of prevailing with them But since I am sure there cannot be a better Argument to this Duty than that it may be a means to restrain them from those Faults I will not Despair § 6. But that those Ladies who have no better Plea's for the Neglect of this Duty than these which so evidently convict them of Luxury and too great a Fondness of their own Ease will by a Serious Reflection upon this Consideration persuade themselves rather to discharge this Duty for the future toward their Children than to expose themselves to just Censure by such Apologies for their Neglect For to conclude this first Cause what is the true difference between a Modest Wife and an Adultress But that the first desires to bring forth a Child to the World to be a Servant of God a Citizen to the Commonwealth and an Object for her Charity and Diligence whilst the latter aims at no more than the gratifying of her lend Inclinations and base Lusts And I need not to say how near those Mothers come to this latter Character who after the Consummation of Marriage and the Birth of a Child as if Lust were all they intended decline the Labour and the Charity it gives them an opportunity to exercise towards it and transfer them all upon another § 7. Secondly There is another Plea used for the declining of this Office which is the result of Avarice as the former is of Luxuryr and made use of by the Trading part of the Nation as those by the Gentry The Nursing of a Child is looked on as too great a Confinement to the Wife who by her Inspection over the Houshold Affairs or Attendance in the Shop may save her Husband much more than the Hire of a Nurse amounts to But granting this if as hath been shewed Nursing be the Mothers Duty no prospect of gaining by the neglect can supersede her Obligation to it And if I understand the Nature of Covetousness it is such a Love of Gain as this that draws one to the neglect of any Obligation which is not consistent with his Profit The Question is not Whether it may be as Conducive to your Temporal Interest but whether it be as Consistent with your Duty to put out your Child to a Stranger as to Nurse it your self And if Avarice be excluded from the Consult you must conclude that other business ought to give place to this which is so properly the Business of a Mother For unless you love your Child too little and your Gain too nmch you will be sensible that if your Infant be spoiled or suffer any Prejudice in Body or Mind you can be no Gainers though your Domestick Business or your Shop should be better attended § 8. Lastly I humbly recommend it to the Consideration of all Mothers especially Persons of Quality whether by adhering to this unnatural Custom they do not shew themselves Guilty of a great deal of Pride You think it below you to stoop to the Office of a meaner Mother and therefore as a piece of State and Punctilio of Honour turn off the Drudgery of Nursing to another For if this were not a very prevailing Motive the Great and Honourable would not be so universally conformable to this unreasonable Custom But may they not as reasonably conclude it too great a Condescention to become a Mother as a Nurse For there is the same equality between the most Honourable Lady and her Child as between the meanest Beggar and hers and there is no more reason why the best should think Scorn to Nurse her own at her Breast than to bear it in her Womb. Let then those whom God hath advanced into a Superior Rank in the World learn to have Modest Thoughts of themselves and they will be ashamed to let such vain Punctilio's of Honour and Greatness influence them Let such remember that the Laws of God and Nature equally oblige the Lady as the Beggar the City as the Country Dame and they will resolve not to plead the Fantastick Privilege of their Quality against the Good of their Children and their own Duty God expects that the greatest Lady when she becomes a Mother should do the Duties of a Mother and she certainly thinks of her self more highly than she ought to think whoever is so Vain as to fancy it below her to do her Duty And if Luxury Avarice and Pride be the true Causes of this Customs universal Prevailence whatever are the Pretences it must needs be concluded inexcusably Sinful Which was the last thing I undertook to prove The Conclusion Wherein a Pathetick Address is made to all both Fathers and Mothers that they will admit the preceding Particulars into their Serious and Impartial Consideration § 1. IT only remains that I wind up this Discourse with a Serious Admonition to all those whom God hath honoured with the Title of Parents that they will allow it an Impartial Consideration § 2. And first I shall speak to all Mothers because they are Primarily and Principally concern'd And methinks the very name might supercede the Repetition of all other Arguments For what is the Import of a Mother Why is the Earth stiled the common Mother of all things but that it Nourishes all that it produceth And do not all other Beings the same whether Animate or Inanimate Do not Grapes hang on the Vine and Fruits on the Trees that produced them taking their Increase from the Sap of the Wood to which they owe their Original And among Animals Doth not the Lamb know its own Dam and run to her Dug among a Thousand in the same Flock Nay even Savage Lions and Bears stand tamely to be Sucked by their young Cubs The Philosopher Favorinus was then in the right A. Gell. l. 12. c. 1. when he stiled her but half a Mother who Nourishes in her Womb what she knows not and consequently doth not yet love but casts it off as soon as she knows it and first begins to love it Nay she is not to be reputed so much as half a Mother since the Nurse doth longer communicate Constituent Nourishment to her Child from her Body in Twelve Months than the Mother in Nine And how Ladies would you resent it if your Child should refuse to call you Mother or own any other Woman to be more its Mother than you If this would grieve or vex you methinks you should be asham'd that any other should have done more of the Office of a Mother for it than your self § 3. Next to your relation to your Child let me remind you of your Religion which recommends the greatest Charity to Strangers and Enemies And how can it be consistent with your Profession of Christianity which obliges you to love your Enemies to be desective in your Love to our nearest Relations Look then unkind Mothers look
Interposition of other Objects soon weans her from that poor Exile who becomes abroad almost as much forgotten as if it had been laid in the Grave It is not rare to observe That Foster-Children are more dear to their Nurses than their Mothers and Mothers for the most part are fondest of those whom they have nursed themselves And it is too common an Observation That some Ladies shew a greater Fondness toward their Dogs than their Children Ladies Calling Part 2. Sect. 2. § 26. Shewing those to all Comers when in many days Converse one shall hear nothing whence it may be known that they have any Children Concerning which we have a remarkable Story in Plutarch Plut. In Pencl How that Cesar once seeing some Strangers at Rome who were People of Quality carrying up and down with them in their Arms and Bosoms young Puppy-dogs and Munkies and hugging and making much of them took occasion to ask Whether the Women in their Country were not used to bear Children By that Princely Reprimand gravely reflecting upon such Persons as spend and lavish that Affection and Kindness which Nature hath impleated in us on Brute Creatures though it be due and owing only to humane Nature those of our own Kind Now there can no account so likely be given of any Womans greater Fondness of Brutes than of their own Children but that these being nursed abroad their Dogs are more conversant with them than they I must confess what a. Learned Man objects that many Ladies Towerson on the Commandm p. 237. who place their Children abroad are very tender of them and sometimes more Fond than Women of meaner Birth and Fortunes who for the most part Nurse themselves Nor would I therefore be understood to intend the foregoing Censure for all Mothers that decline this Office In some nay in many I hope Duty and natural Affection triumph over this Temptation However it is a Temptation that prevails on too many and they that are Wise will for that reason conclude it best and safest to avoid it St. Ambrose made this Observation Amb. de Abr. l. 1. c. 7. That Mothers generally love those best whom they have Suckled at their own Breasts Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3. Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 496. And Plutarch concludes this the principal Intention of Nature in giving the Mother a Capacity of being a Nurse and in placing her Breasts so conveniently for the embracing of her little Nursery that she may receive fresh Endearments every Moment from those intimate Embraces * Nay God himself supposes this apt to create a great Tenderness in the Mother when he says Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her Sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb When the Woman makes the Son of her Womb her Sucking Child or her own Nursery it is a thing next to impossible that she should fail in the Affection and Care of a Mother toward it And if this be granted as a most likely means to increase the Mothers Love to her Child she that exiles her little ones takes the way hugely to cool if not quite extinguish it § 5. Secondly This is the way to alienate the Childs Affections from its Mother Some Grammarians derive the Latin word Lac Milk from lacio to allure as concluding no way so likely to allure the Child to love its Mother as Nursing it with her Milk She performs indeed but half the Office and consequently earns but half of that Love which otherwise is due to a Mother who only bears her Child and then turns it off And I never yet met with any one Instance to contradict the Observation of a Learned Prelate to this purpose viz. That many cruel Tyrants have killed their Mothers Bishop Taylor 's Grand Example p. 21. § 10. yet none ever offered Violence to his Nurse And this shews that bearing in the Womb is not so inviolable an Obligation to Love as Nursing at the Breast We read of one of the Gracchi returning to Rome from his Victories in Asia that he presented his Mother with a Jewel of Silver and his Nurse with a Girdle of Gold giving this reason for the preference of the latter Roderic de Castro de Mulier morbis That when his Mother after his Birth cast him off his Nurse took him forsaken as he was to her Breasts and cherished him in her kind Embraces This is manifest that Love desconds more strongly than it ascends so that it is not likely that the Childs Affections towards its Parents should exceed theirs towards it And therefore such a Mother hath reason to expect the least Love from her Children who hath shewed the least toward them Perhaps whilst she is in Prosperity and stands in no need of their Love Interest may oblige them to carry civilly toward her Yet it is to be suspected that they have no such grounds in Nature as will maintain a constant Fervour of Affection against the Frowardness or Misfortunes of an Unnatural Mother I do not affirm this to be a constant Effect of that Cause for sometimes perhaps the Mothers After-care may make amends for the first Unkindness Sometimes extraordinary good Nature in the Child may conquer the Resentments of this early Neglect or the Influences of Divine Grace may triumph over this Temptation It is enough for my purpose that it is a Temptation a Temptation which oft prevails on a Graceless Child to requite hits Mothers Rejection of him with the like Unkindness And this is reason enough to oblige all Mothers to prevent it by their early Care and Tenderness in Nursing § 6. Thirdly As the Happiness of Families very much depends upon the mutual Love of the several Branches of it among themselves so the Mothers refusing them that common Nourishment which were likely to promote it is too justly chargeable with the Mischiefs which result from their mutual Unkindnesses We read of Scipio Asiaticus that though he rejected the Importunity of his Brother Africanus in behalf of ten Soldiers who were condemned for offering Violence to the Vestals yet he pardoned them at the request of his Foster-Sister And being asked the reason why he did more for his Nurses Daughter than for his own Mothers Son he returned this answer I esteem her rather to be my Mother who brought me up than her that brought me forth and then forsook me Which shews both that his Nurse had more of his Love than his Mother and also her who sucked the same Milk than he who had lain in the same Womb. Plut. In Catone I remember Plutarch reports of Cato that wise Roman that as he obliged his Wife to give her Children Suck with her own Breasts so also to let the Children of his Slaves Suck her too that by partaking of the same Nourishment a Natural Affection might be instilled into them toward his Son And the frequent Instances of many