my raging out-cryes which have given an evill example of impatience unto others a scandall to â—…y religion It was thy pleasure to free mine â—nfant from the tyrannie of sinne it was thy â—ove it was thy mercy to take him that so hee â—ight sinne noe more Lord unto thy will 〈◊〉 submit my will and for thy love for thy mercy for thy goodnesse I praise thee I blesse â—hee I magnifie thee my Lord and my God Vipe I besiech thee from mine eyes all eares of discontent remove from mine heart he excesse of sorrow and make mee walke in â—…y vocation with cheerefullnesse and in my â—eligion with setlednesse resolution The â—ortalitie of my child hath taught mee the â—…ailty even of my selfe graunt therfore blesâ—ed God that the longer I live the better I may â—…ow both in grace and goodnesse that so when his painfull life shall have an end I may â—eete thee my God with comfort thee my Iesus with joy and rejoycing and my deceased child together with the rest of the quire of Saints with heavenly Halelujahs and sing praise Reu. 5.13 and honour and glory unto thee who sittest upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever mere Amen subject 18 THE EIGHTEENTH SUBjECT Teares of a wife for the sicknesse of her husband The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lordâ— consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray LOrd how various is the condition of mortalls Sometimes wee are sick and sometimes wee are well Sometimes in sicknesse wee draw neere to the grave and sometimes againe wee are in hope of recoverie T is thus ô 't is thus with my dearest husband Hee who was my comfort and joy in his health is now my griefâ— and sorrow in his sicknesse The extreamitie oâ— his anguish enforceth my teares and those conflicts of his betweene life and death doe pierce mee even to the soule I am mee thinks so divided in my teares that I cannot well determine whether the greatest number of them â—re shed for the torments which hee suffereth â—r for the losse of mine owne content or for the â—aines which love and loyaltie enforce mee to â—ake or for feare of his departure All of them â—ow from the springs of love and are readie â—o convert mee into a gliding streamâ—… When Eve was arraigned for enticing her 〈…〉 â—o the act of disobedience Gen 3.16 it was part of her â—unishment that her desire should be subject â—nto her husband and hee should rule over her Mee think's I could be well contented to under goe this servitude so that my husband might not under-goe this sicknesse Alas his â—isease is growne so violent that it even darkeâ—eth his reason and maketh him desire hee knoweth not what I would gladly obey him â—n whatsoëver hee commandeth but that I must not yeeld unto all his desires in this time of his weakenesse I must now obey the Physitian 's order and follow those directions which hee prescribeth O the miserie of sicknesse which so enfeebleth the braine that it un-man's a husband and pretendeth to free the wife from the yoke of obedience Now my desires must not be subject to my deerest husband if hee requireth that which may hinder his recovery yet howsoever my desires shall be for him when they may not be to him for I will begge of the Lord to ease him of his miserie and to restore him to health O mee think's I am not as I should be because I want the comfort and direction of my head Hee poore man iâ— growne as feeble by sicknesse as I am by sexe and allthough the torment be his yet the sorrow is mine When I remember the unâ—kindnesse of the Amalekite to his sick servant I cannot choose but wonder at the greatnesse of the inhumanitie 1. Sam. 30.13 The master left his sick Egyptian when the enemie pursued as if it hâ—d beene a high offence to want his health Io sicknesse wee have a certaine tryall of a friend Hee that onely affecteth us in health leaveth us in weakenesse is but a pretender to friendship and truely loveth us not O who would leave a languishing man that knoweth not how to helpe himselfe Mee think's I rejoyce though in my greatest perplexitie that God-hath given mee both power and abilitie to comfort my deerest I howerly visit him though not without teares and when I most endeavour to be a comforter unto him even then alas I am enforced to weepe Thus his very potiens are mixed with the drops that distill from mine eyes and at every turne I am so sensible of his miserie that I doe in a manner embalme him alive with mine aboundant teares allthough I yet have hope of his recoverie 2. King 8.7 When Benhadad the King of Assyria was sick hee sent Hazaël to meete Elisha the man of God and enquire of the Lord by him saying Shall I recover of this disease vers 8. Mee think's I could gladly performe that office of Hazaël but where shall I meete with-such a Prophet as Elisha Alas it is not in the power of man to limit our times it is God alone who numbereth our dayes I must therfore leave my curiositie and submit to his pleasure And yet in my submission I cannot leave weeping for even nature alloweth mee a freedome to mourne David grieved when his very enemies were sick for so hee saith As for mee Ps 35.13 when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloth I humbled my soule with fasting How much rather may I be allowed to grieve for my friend for my husband Who knoweth but that my sinne may be the cause of his miserie By my teares of sorrow I will therfore strive to remove the cause It is in the power of my Redeemer both to forgive mee and to recover him But alas so long as hee is sick I cannot be well So long as the head is troubled the body must needs be disturbed Hee is my head and I am his glory 1. Cor. 11.3 vers 7. Alas what comfort can I receave when my head is sick What glory can hee take in the wife of his bosome when the violence of his paine depriveth him of my society But why doe I utter these words of discontent as if it were in the power of man to recover my beloved It is god alone that sendeth sicknesse and that sendeth health on him therfore alone will I depend and in him alone will I hope Saint Paul relateth that Epaphroditus was sick Phil. 2.27 nigh unto death but God saith hee had mercy on him and not on him onely but on mee allso lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow My deare husband is sick as was Epaphroditus yea and for ought that I know hee may be sick unto death too but I will trust in the Lord that hee will have mercy upon him and restore
may passe from miferie to eternall happinesse Heare Lord have mercy both upon mee and mine and graunt my petitions for the worthinesse of that most mercifull and most blessed sonne of a woman thine onely begotten Iesus Christ my Lord and onely Saviour Amen soliloquy 2 2. ly Teares of a woman after her deliverie from the paines of Child-birth The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray A Woman Io 16.21 when shee is in travell hath sorrow because her hower is come but as soone as shee is delivered of the child she remembreth noe more her anguish for joy that a man is borne into the world O how truely doeth my heavenly Iesus describe both his mercy and my comfort I who ere while was full of anguish and teares am now with comfort brought againe to my bed I who had allmost despaired of mercy in the midst of my sufferances have found a deliverer Mee think's I could weepe because I wept so much and grieve because my cryes did savour of distrust Many teares did I shed through the anguish which I suffered but have I none left of sorrow for offending in my pangs I will begge for pardon at the hands of him who sent mee this ease and then I will thanke him for his bountie in sending mee this child Prettie infant the beginning of his cryes was the end of mine and the beginning of his trouble was the end of my labour O how did I long to see him whom I now embrace How did I wish to be delivered of him whom yet againe I receave Hee is parted from my wombe to be caried in mine armes and he who before was the burden of my bowells now is made the delight of mine eyes Now with a greater comfort I hope then the first sinner embraced the first that ever was borne I may rejoyce and say I have gotten a man from the Lord. Gen 4.1 1. Chr 4.9 Gen 35.18 True it is that I might call him a Iabez because I bare him with sorrow I might name him Ben oni because hee was the sonne of mine affliction and sorrowes but I will rather with Iacob call him Benjamin the sonne of my right hand O how gratious was my God unto mee in that hee sent mee a mid-wife to helpe mee neighbours to comfort mee a house to cover mee a fire to warme mee and now a bed to ease mee The mother of my Lord had not an house but a stable onely Lu 2.7 for there was noe roome in the Inne Her holy child was layed but in a manger whereas mine is in a cradle yet I am wicked I am sinfull and uncleane yea and this babe is not borne without originall pollution But I will begge of the Lord that with Simeon I may take up my Iesus in mine armes vers 28 or rather in my heart and I will beseech him that as I desire to embrace him in my soule so hee will embrace mee in the armes of his mercy Mee think's when I remember how hardly the Israëlites were used by the Egyptians when the midwives were commanded to slay the males Ex 1.16 I cannot choose but tremble at the miseries of the women It might seeme a sinne in them to desire sonnes seeing they knew that their birth was but a stepp to their graves Those mercifull hands which brought them into the world were commanded to be the executioners of the innocent babes The women were to be as cruell in their murders as the King was in his commands and yet such bloody acts were to be called executions and not styled murders They had a command to put in practise what was so horrid and barbarous whereupon they were perplexed to thinke that either they must necessarily disobey authoritie or else destroy those who had not offended It is true that if God had commanded it the act had beene righteous Gen. 22 2. Abraham not onely may but must be the priest to sacrifice his sonne his onely sonne Isaak when God requireth it But if God forbiddeth what man commandeth wee must be more ready to suffer then to obey those commands When wee dare not doe what wee are unjustly commanded wee must dare to suffer what shall be unjustly inflicted on us O how grievously was Iochebed perplexed in her miseries Ex 2.3 when for feare lest her Moses should be slaine according to the decree shee was enforced to expose him to the brinke of the river That child whom shee could noe longer hide shee was faine to cradle up in an arke of bull-rushes Thus shee who durst not keepe her infant adventured upon a trade which shee never had learned but her directour was his preserver Surely the teares which shee shed for feare of his death did perswade the river to carie him alive for shee so bribed the torrent with the droppes from her eyes that it tooke more compassion then the heart of the tyrant One word of that King might have saved at once both her sorrowes and her feares Mee think 's the very river might have taught him to melt for his cruelty but where grace is wanting every thing that should check the petulancie of sinne doe's but give vigour to the execution thereof There was a sorrowfull mother weeping for feare of the death of him who might peradventure have cost her her life and there was a child too crying as if it had beene either sensible of the cruelty of the salvage tyrant or else struck with compassion for the tender mother The cryes of both were so lowd and so just that they pierced the clowdes and were heard up to heaven and the daughter of the King was moved to save what her father in his fury did seeke to destroy The child was found by Pharaoh's daughter and ignorantly as well as compassionately shee put him to nurse to his indulgent mother O what cannot God doe when hee decreeth to act His justice is severe and potent Ps 145 9. but his mercy which is over all his workes is full of goodnesse and wonder Hee who preserved Moses hath saved this infant and I hope hee hath chosen him for a vessell of honour Zacharias was promised that hee should have joy and gladnesse in Iohn the Baptist Luc. 1.14 I will hope for the like in this new-borne babe and I will begge of my Lord that hee may be beloved of him Him I must magnifie for the deliverance of my selfe and him I must thanke both for the shape the life of my child My wombe might have proved the grave of mine infant and my selfe the sepulcher of a child unseene I might have dyed in the birth of this which I embrace and the litle infant ignorant of my cryes might unwittingly have beene the destroyer of his mother Or else I might have lived
child by grace and adoption I am sure that hee will be my father by providence and protection Hee it is who sayd that hee would leave in the midst of Ierusalem Zeph 3.12 an afflicted and poore people but with all bee promised that they should trust in the name of the Lord. Hee that correcteth mee for mine offences intendeth my conversion the fault is in my selfe if it turne to my ruine Hee taketh away earth that hee may give mee heaven for both hee seeth I cannot graspe at once Thus hee at once both punisheth mee for mine offences and provideth for my happinesse Yet though hee punisheth hee doeth it not hastily nor yet un-expectedly if I justly consider it First hee threatneth before hee scourgeth and warneth mee to obey before hee chastiseth Thus by his Prophet Is 20.3 hee saith Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and bare foote three yeares for a signe and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia vers 4. So shall the King of Assyria leade away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives young and ould naked and barefoote even with their shame un-covered to the shame of Egypt Mee hee threatned too before hee thus visited mee but mine eares were deafe I stopped them and refused to hearken to the voyce of the Lord. Every sicknesse of mine owne or my friends every losse of mine owne or my neighbours was a menace â—…om the All-mighty Often did I see his â—…gments upon others but I minded them â—…t as if it nothing concerned mee what fell â—ot on my selfe Children of Princes doe â—eldome feele the smart of a rodde but are â—errified by the stripes which others receave Thus the Lord dealt with mee when hee scourged others but I pittied not them nor yet my selfe just it is therfore that none should now commiserate my case in the depth of my distresse Yet when I consider that this my poverty come's from God mee think's it is a testimomie as much of his love as of his severitie I know assuredly that his servant Iob did suffer more then my calamitie amount's unto yet hee repined not at his losses but glorified his maker Iob. 1.21 The Lord gave say's hee and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Thus if I magnifie him who sendeth this correction I shall not sinne in my sufferance vers 22 nor charge him foolishly Mar. 10 25. Hee who sayd It is easier for a Camel to goe thorow the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of God even the same Lord said to the young man in the Gospel If thou wilt be perfect Mat 19 21. goe and sell that thou hast and give to the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow mee Had I thought of heaven in my seeming prosperitie I should not so much have beene tormented with this present losse But I who before neglected the poore am ranked now in the number of them I who expected my heaven upon earth have here my hell that I may have heaven hereafter Why then should I murmur at this blessing from God and deeme this a losse which is sent for my advantage Surely if I doe but endeavour to vallew the joyes of eternitie I shall rejoyce at my deliverance from the possessions of the world Such hast did Zacheus make from the tree when my Saviour did promise to become his guest and with such contempt of the world did hee entertaine my Redeemer Lu 19.8 that hee said unto him Behould Lord the halfe of my goods I give to the poore and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him fowre fould That Sycomore tree which never before or since had fruite bare then a publicane ripened for Christianitie Unwilling should I have beene to have performed either of the promises of Zacheus when I enjoyed those vanities which I termed goods for I ever was as slow to the acts of charitie as to those of justice But what I kept from others is now taken from mee and what I was un-willing to restore is returned to the owner Shall I therfore reine at him because hee required his owne Shall I murmur at him for that fault which is mine Hee found mee false and would trust mee noe longer Must this his know ledg redound to his dishonour Shall I blame him for his discoverie of my false-hood and negligence and not rather ingeniously confesse the guilt of my wickednesse 'T is I 't is I that am unjust 't is hee 't is hee that is righteous and yet though I am unjust and hee is righteous my sinnes are punished to my greater advantage I am now in this povertie made liker unto him for to the Scribe hee said The foxes have holes Mat 8.20 and the birds of the aire have nests but the sonne of man hath not where on to lay his head House hee had none yea and friend hee had none for even those did crucifie him whom hee came to redeeme One of his disciples became a traitour and when hee came to his owne Io 1.11 his owne receaved him not When hee was hungrie instead of figges hee found nothing but leaves Mat 21 19. and at another time hee contented him selfe with a piece of a broyled fish Luc 24 42. and an hony-kombe When hee was thirstie hee was offered vineger to drinke Io 19.29 Mat 27 28.31 and never was it knowne that his garment was changed save when the Iewes put on him the skarlet roabe and when they had mocked him they tooke't from him againe The disciple is not above his master c 10.24 nor the servant above his Lord. If hee be my master I shall be contented with my povertie if hee be my Lord I shall rejoyce in my losses Povertie is the liverie which his servants weare but this povertie is seated more in spirit then in purse for those hee pronounced truely blessed and to them hee promised the kingdome of heaven Mat 5.3 The poore that are wicked hee double hate's both because they neglect their common dueties and for contemning that poverty which hee send 's for a blessing Those who have least of temporall goods should most be busied about things eternall The rich have some plea for neglecting his service because they are busied in managing their estates but the poore have noe pretence for failing in their dueties to whom God hath afforded nothing for their hinderance Is 66.2 To this man will I looke saith God hin selfe even to him that is poore Yet hee stayeth not here but farther describeth what poore hee intendeth and saith Even him that is of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Prov 19.1 It is onely the poore man walking in his integritie who is better then hee that is perverse in his lipps The prophet doeth promise that The meeke shall increase their joy
for your sinnes vers 29 And yee shall eate the flesh of your sonnes and the flesh of your daughters shall yee eate This was threatned and this was inflicted the sad storie whereof is obvious to every willing eye according as it is recorded in sacred Writt 2. King 6.25 A greate famine there was in Samaria and behould they besieged it untill an Asse's head was sould for fourescore pieces of silver and a fourth part of a Kabbe of dove's dung for five pieces of silver vers 26 And as the King of Israel was passing by upon the wall there cryed a woman unto him saying Helpe my Lord vers 27 ô King And hee said If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee Out of the barne floore or out of the wine-presse And the King said unto her vers 28 what ayleth thee And shee answered This woman said unto mee Give thy sonne that wee may eate him to day and wee will eate my sonne to morrow vers 29 So wee boyled my sonne and did eate him And I said unto her on the next day Give thy sonne that wee may eate him shee hath hidden him O what a famine was this which instructed nature to become unnaturall The lives of the mothers were preserved onely by the deaths of their issue The children in recompence for the milke they had sucked were enforced to pay the tribute of their blood Those bellies which harboured the children unborne were made the tombes of the murdered children They which were a burden once to the parent were now the nourishers The famine did make the innocent guilty to prevent the hands of crueller executioners the mothers did friendly betray them to their murder They expresse their love in preserving them from starving and so at once were mercifull to the babes in borrowing their lives and carefull for themselves to prevent their destruction Lord what a horrid act was this when the child which was tenderly beloved of the parents was greedily chewed in the teeth of the mother Our off-spring are bound by the commandement of God to render us honour but yet not thus â—o dye for our lives yet these innocents were obedient before they knew it and became the preservers of them that had nourished them In the place where first they receaved life they preserved life by the deaths of themselves Thus did their mothers most truely set them at their hearts but more in affection to themselves then their issue The children dyed that they might not dye they were murdered that they might not be starved They were dandled to their destruction by the hands of their parents and yet the act did appeare rather care then cruelty Lam 4.10 The hands of the pittifull women saith the Prophet have sodden their owne children they were their meate in the destruction of the daughter of my people Yet their flesh was not sensible of the fiercnesse of the fire nor did they feele the teeth of their greedie parents The bellies of the unnaturall became their graves and yet if there the dead had receaved their rest then their inhumanitie might have seemed to be pitie Those who once required the assistance of a mid-wife were a second time delivered of their deceased burdens But was there noe Prophet among them left to intreate Was there none to intercede to the All mighty for them c 2.20 Shall the women eate their fruit and children of a spanne long The head of an asse was the ransome af a child and the dung of the doves a repreever af the infants But when the heads of the beasts had beene devoured by the people the very women themselves were transformed in to beasts Yea that cruelty which the beastes would have stood amazed at the greedie starvelings blushed not to practise O mee think's the remembrance of the doves should have heightened their affection and not the dung of the doves have ushered in their murders This was a famine wich I tremble to remember and it grieveth mee to thinke that my sexe was so cowardly Had the ould and the young expired together I should have thought the women indulgent mothers This famine was worse then that which Rabshakeh threatned to Ierusalem for hee menaced but the feeding on the dung of themselves but here was served in the very fruit of their loynes Yet that other was terrible too even in the threat when railing Rabshakeh said unto Eliakim Shebna and Ioah 2 King 18.27 Hath my master sent mee to thy master and to thee to speake these words Hath hee not sent mee to the men that sit on the wall that they may eate their owne dung and drinke their owne pisse These these were famines which are more dreadfull in their relationâ— then mine is in the sufferance yet seing they were universall they were the easier to be borne Miserie hath some comfort if it be â—ot singuler The sufferance is easier when â—…ce it grow'es generall If the whole world â—ere reduced to the same distresse as now â— suffer I should ease my complaint by the sufferance of others But is not this an argument of uncharitable wickednesse when 〈◊〉 grieve not so much at my particular durance as I repine because the penurie is not univerfall While others have I may hope for reliefe but if the famine were generall I could not expect it This is the wickednesse of most which sulfer that they vailew their miseries more by comparison then justice and deeme themselves the more unhappy because every one else is not so low as they I must therfore take heede that I neither offend in my sufferance nor repine because I am singular If I take this hunger as a chastisement from God I may hope to be relieved in his owne good time Let mee enquire into the cause of this my visitation and so I may be instructed how to demeane my selfe In the depth of this affliction I cannot choose but behould an angrie Lord. Hee ô hee is offended who said in the Psalmes Every beast of the forrest is mine Ps 50.10 vers 11 vers 12 and the cattell upoÌ„ a thousand hills I know all the fowles of the mountaines and the wild beastes of the field are mine The world is mine and the fullnesse thereof Hee hath enough I see to give though hee deemeth mee not worthie enough to receave I am afraid that I formerly thanked him not for what I had and therfore now hee decreeth that I shall wish to have It hath beene commonly his custome thus to punish those that offended To disobedient Israel hee threatned this and allso the sword Deut. 28.48 by the mouth of Moses saying Thou shalt serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakednesse in want of all things Againe of impenitent Israel hee saith by his Prophet Is 9.20 Hee shall snatch on the right hand and be hungrie and hee shall
eate on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied they shall eate every man the flesh of his owne armes Touching Ierusalem hee said by his Prophet Ezekiel Eze 4.10 Thy meate which thou shalt eate shall be by weight twentie shekels a day from time to time shalt thou eate it vers 11 Thou shalt drinke allso water by measure the sixth part of an Hin from time to time shalt thou drinke vers 12 And thou shalt eate it as barley cakes and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man vers 13 in their sight And the Lord said unto him Even thus shall the children of Israel eate their defiled bread among the Gentiles whither I will drive them Among other curses which Israël should endure for rebellion and disobedience the fore-runner of famine was not the least Deut 28.39 Thou shalt plant vine yards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather of the grapes for the wormes shall eate them Among other punishments sent upon idolaters the Prophet terrifieth them with this above all When they shall be hungrie Is 8.21 they shall frett themselves and curse their King and their God and looke up-wards Here was allmost all the miserie that man could suffer the wickednesse that hee could act in this present world Hunger was sent as a punishment for idolatrie and rebellion blasphemie and impenitency were the effects of the punishment Hunger produceth rebellion they curse their King rebellion blasphemie they curse their God and blasphemie both impudence and impenitencie they looke up-wards towards heaven as if they were not ashamed The curse which should happen to the enemies of Sion was accounted greate because they should be resembled to people that are hungrie c 29.8 As when a hungrie man dreameth and behould hee eateth but hee awaketh and his soule is empty or as when a thirstie man dreameth and behold hee drinketh but hee awaketh and behould hee is faint and his soule hath appetite So shall the multitude of the nations bee that fight against mount Sion But what is the cause why the anger of the most high is commonly discovered in the curse of famine What moveth the Lord to punish his creatures with this pining destruction Whence ariseth his wrath that his vengeance is so terrible Alasse alasse I neede not wonder that his furie is so fierce if I doe but remember how justly hee punisheth Hee smiteth not before wee offend hee punisheth not before wee transgresse When our sinnes are so impudent as to provoke his displeasure how can hee choose but awake Ps 78.65 as one out of sleepe like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine For iniquitie onely doeth hee visitt hee visiteth our offences with the rodde Ps 89.32 and our sinne with scourges For this did hee give Israël cleanesse of teeth Amos. 4.6 in all their citties and want of bread in all their places yet they returned not unto the Lord. 2. Sam 21.1 For Saul and for his bloodie issue because hee slew the Gibeonites therfore there was a famine in the dayes of David three yeeres yeere after yeere and it ceased by the execution of seaven of Saul's sonnes Is 5.13 Therfore saith God my people are gone into captivitie because they have noe knowledg and their honourable men are famished and their multitude dryed up with thirst This is the punishment for sinne and yet upon repentance the Lord is as willing to remove it from us as when wee offended hee was just in sending it His promises were gratious to the Gentiles which should be fullfilled by Christ as his Prophet relateth them Is 49.10 They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heate nor Sun smite them for hee that hath mercy on them shall leade them even by the springs of water hee shall guide them Yet let mee not too much forget my selfe Though this famine be one of the weapons with which the Lord doeth commonly fight and wound his enemies I must not therfore conclude that they all are forsaken and hated who endure this affliction I must not conclude that Because with this hee punisheth his enemies therfore with this hee correcteth not his saints This were but to frame an argument to urge mee to despaire and to judge my selfe with greater severitie then the Lord himselfe I hope will judge mee Every scourge which hee taketh in his hand may be for chastisement to the godly as well as a judgment to the wicked Though this must bring mee to a sight of my sinnes yet it may not enforce mee to a distrust of his mercies Though sometimes the godly dye under an affliction yet they know that they shall live by the merits of Christ Wee have noe more freedome from punishments here then the worst of reprobates Yea our portion is greater and bitterer here then theirs 1. Cor. 11.32 but wee are chastened of the Lord that wee might not be condemned with the world There is a greater deale of difference betweene corrections judgments The beloved child may be wounded as deepe yea deeper then an enemie but the deeper his Wound the surer is his cure To the godly they are afflictions to the reprobate torments to the godly chastisements upon the reprobate revenge At the famine in Samaria 1. King 18.5 good Obadiah went into the land unto all fountaines of water and unto all brookes to sieke for grasse that hee might save the horses and mules alive When the Prophet Ieremiah was cast into the dungeon Ier 38.9 hee was like to dy for hunger in the place for there was noe bread in the citty 1. Cor. 4.11 The holy Apostles did both hunger and thirst and were naked and buffeted and had noe certaine dwelling place They were in wearinesse 2. Cor. 11.27 and painefullnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold Act 10 9. and nakednesse When Saint Peter went up upon the house to pray the vision appeared to him while hee was hungry vers 10 Saint Paul professed that hee had learned both how to be abased Phil. 4.12 and how to abound Every where in all things hee was instructed both to be full and to be hungrie both to abound and to suffer neede Gen. 12 10. When a famine was in the land where Abraham dwelt hee was enforced to goe downe into Egypt to sojourne there for the famine was grievous in the land Many saints and servants of God have drunke very deepe of this cup of afliction Why should I then be too much dejected and complaine so of want as if God had forgotten mee How know I to the contrarie but it may be his pleasure even by this affliction to bring mee to humilitie and so unto glory It is my part to thanke him for his visitation and not to repine at his correction Plenty is commonly the ground
Lu 15.14 vers 16 I am brought into want and faine would fill my belly even with the huskes that swine doe eate but noe man giveth them unto mee vers 17. Though I know that many hired servants have bread enough and to spare and yet I am ready to perish with hunger Though thus I know my miserie yet I skarce remember the cause But I will begg of my heavenly father vers 17 that I may come unto my selfe and then that my selfe may come unto him I know that hee is angry and his wrath is terrible but if I absent my selfe his displeasure will increase The longer I strive to keepe out of his sight the more will be his severitie and the more grievous my punishment vers 18 I will therfore arise and goe to my father and say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven vers 19 and before thee and am noe more worthy to be called thy child make mee as one of thy hired servants Iob 42.6 Ps 102.9 Ps 80.5 I will abhorre my selfe in dust and ashes As David did so will I I will eate ashes as it were bread and I will have plenteousnesse of teares to drinke I will mourne for my sinnes which have caused this judgment and with my teares in mine eyes compunction in my heart and humilitie in my soule I will fall on my knees before his footestoole and pray unto him and say The Prayer ALl-mighty and all-sufficient Lord God who by thy power diddest lay the foundations of the world and by thy providence doest guide protect the things therein conteined be pleased to looke upon the sorrowes and sufferances of thy distressed servant Thou knowest my wants before I aske and seest how low I am brought with hunger The inferiour creatures thou fillest with plenty but mee thou sufferest to pine with famine Shall not the cryes of the hungrie pierce thine eares Shall the soule of the emptie be despised by it's maker Heare Lord Ps 30.10 and have mercy ô be thou my helper Thou knowest how I groane under the burden of this affliction and wilt thou allways know it and never remove it where are thy mercies which thou shewedst to thine Israelites Where is they goodnesse which was manifested to he widdow of Sarepta Thou canst not decrease in thy mercies nor forget thy compassion The stomack crye's and the belly cryes and a poore languishing soule cryes unto thee ô Lord in the depth of distresse O my father shut not up thy mercifull eares to my prayers but heare mee in heaven and succour mee with thy reliefe Thy store will not be lessened nor thy treasure diminished by sparing to mee a morsell of bread Lord if it may stand with thy good will preserve mee from death and deliver mee from this famine or else arme mee with patience that I may under-goe thy chastisement with comfort and content O thou Saviour of the world to whom the cursed Iewes gave gall to eate Ps 69.21 and when thou wert thirstie even vineger to drinke doe thou ease my griefe and hearken to my complaint Thou in thy humanitie diddest seele the wants of these out-ward things and knowest what griefe and anguish I suffer To Samaria thou sentest plenty beyond expectation 2. King 7.18 in the space of a night Thou art neither confined to time nor tyed to the meanes thou canst send mee comfort even above my hopes Lord either send mee plenty or blesse my want that so I may willingly submitt to thy pleasure and patiently suffer what thou hast decreed Though my body languish for want of sustenance yet fill thou my soule with the riches of thy goodnesse Amos. 8.11 2. Chr. 15.3 O let mee never be cursed with a famine of thy word Let mee never be as once the Israëlites were without thee the true God without a teaching Priest and without law Howsoëver thou disposest of the outward man let not my soule want it's spirituall nourishment whereby it should be fed to a life immortall It was thy meate ô Christ Io 4.34 to doe the will of him that sent thee and to finish his worke Graunt ô Iesus that I may follow thy stepps and make it my foode and my delight to fullfill thy commandements Let mee not labour here for the meate that perisheth c. 6.27 so much as for that meate which endureth to everlasting life My body is thine dispose of it as thou pleasest My soule is thine preserve it in holinesse Lord be gratious to mee thy child Gen. 43 29. and comfort mee now in this greate extreamitie that so I may neither offend thee in my sufferance nor despaire of thy providence but that wholly relying upon thy gratious goodnesse I may suffer with thankfullnesse whatsoëver thou pleasest and then that my sufferances may end in happinesse Heare mee blessed God and help mee for the worthinesse of thy Sonne in whose name words I farther call upon thee saying Mat. 6.9.10.11.12.13 Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy Kingdome come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our dayly bread and forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us and leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evill for thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen THE THIRD SOLILOQUIE Treating of thirst both bodily and ghostly THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray THe Prophet bewayling the distressed estate of afflicted Sion complainth thus Lam. 4.4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roofe of his mouth for thirst the young children aske bread and noe man breaketh it unto them They that did feede delicately are desolate in the streetes vers 5. they that were brought up in scarlet embrace the dunghills Grievous was that miserie the infants endured who neither knew how to complaine nor where to be satisfied Their tongues which in time might relate the storie were scorched with the drought and heate of thrist Those litle members which as yet were not un ruely found a punishment as if they had offended The mothers lamenting the torments of the young ones offered them drinke from the fountaines of their eyes but so un-able was that offering to please the innocents that their thirst increased by that which should quench it Surely the miserie was greate which the babes could not utter since mine is so severe that I thinke it ineffable The more I complaine the more thirstie I am for the motion of the tongue increaseth the drought Iam. 3.6 The tongne that is un-ruely is set on fire of hell but mine is silent and yet it scorcheth That litle moisture which is left in my mouth is growne so glutenous
that it bindeth my tongue to an un-willing silence My body burneth Ps 69.3 Ps 137 6. my throate is dryed my tongue cleaveth to the roofe of my mouth ô I burne I frie and know not where to be releived Did the drunkards who are mighty to powre in wine Is 5.22 and those who are men of strength to mingle strong drinke but know the miserie which I endure they would spare from their excesse as much as would comfort mee For their owne sakes they would spare the abuse of that creature for want whereof I now complaine Hab 2.15 The Prophet pronounceth a woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke that putteth his bottell to him maketh him drunken allso that hee may looke on his nakednesse But I doe cry woe unto my selfe because I have noe neighbour to give mee drinke Here is none that putteth his bottell to my mouth It is not the gust of the wine nor the strength of the drinke nor the pleasantnesse of the liquour that I doe covet The limpid water would be better then wine yea the springs or the fountaines would make mee rejoyce But where ô where are those pleasant potions Where are those snakie rivers which curle and wind themselves in their sporting wreaths Alasse alasse I aske noe more then what beggars disdaine and yet my desires are not fullfilled Mine eyes doe lament the greatnesse of my sinnes and my charitable teares doe wooe mee to give them rest in my mouth as if repentance in this had taught them mercy But when I thankfully accept their friendly courtesie insteed of comforters they become my tormentours These brackish rivelets may refresh my soule but they can never cure the thirst of my body Mee think's they are some-what like the wife of Heber who entertained Sisera in a friendly manner as hee did imagine for shee covered him in her tent Iud 4.18 vers 19 and when hee said unto her Give mee I pray thee a litle water to drinke for I am thirstie Shee opened a bottell of milke and gave him drinke and covered him But when hee committed his wearied limbes to a sweete repose vers 21 shee tooke a naile of the tent and tooke a hammer in her hand and went softly to him and smote the naile into his temples fastened it into the ground and hee dyed Thus my teares doe offer mee reliefe and like unto Iaël they offer mee milke instead of water but with their saltnesse they increase my drought and fasten mee to the ground in my burning flames Yet Ps 42.5 why art thou so cast downe ô my soule and why art thou so disquieted within mee Hope thou in thy God vers 7. for I will yet praise him who shall be the helpe of my countenance and my God Ps 43.5 All his waves and stormes doe goe over mee and yet I cry for water in the middest of the waves I cry and by my cryes I increase my miserie yet cry I must I am enforced to it by my fires by my drought and yet hope I will too even in my God will I hope for I am invited unto it by his mercy Hee promised to his servants by the mouth of his Prophet saying Is 41.17 When the poore and needie sieke water and there is none their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will heare them I the God of Israël will not forsake them I will open rivers in high places and fountaines in the middest of the valleys vers 18 I will make the wildernesse a poole of water the drie land springs of waters Now ô my God is the time that I looke for the fullfilling of this promise for water I sieke but none I find I am poore needie my very tongue faileth for thirst and upon thee therfore doe I call I am sure that my God cannot promise more then hee can nor will hee promise more then hee will performe Time was when the Israëlites pitching in Rephidim Ex 17.1 vers 2. there was noe water for the people to drinke Wherfore the people did chide with Moses and said Give us water that wee may drinke And Moses said unto them Why chide yee with mee Wherfore doe yee tempt the Lord vers 3. And the people thirsted there for water and the people murmured against Moses and said Wherfore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children vers 5. and our cattell with thirst And the Lord said unto Moses Goe on before the people and take with thee of the Elders of Israël and thy rod wherwith thou smotest the river take in thine hand and goe Behould I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb vers 6. and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drinke And Moses did so in the sight of the children of Israël Thus I thirst as did the Israëlites but I will not murmure as did the Israëlites because the God of Israël is my God I may not displease him with repining at my sufferings lest with his rod hee smite mee as did Moses the stone All that I can hope for must come by my prayers and my patience through the merits of my saviour It is not Meribah or Massah my temptation vers 7. or my chiding that will prevaile for my comfort Hee may give mee water and then punish mee with fire O what doe those damned soules in the infernall flames suffer Lu 16.24 where Dives begged of Abraham to have mercy on him and to send Lazarus that hee might dippe though but the tippe of his finger in water and coole his tongue because hee was tormented in the flames If I compare my sufferings with my desert I shall the easier endure this gentle fire This cannot be comparable to the fire of hell and that I have deserved yet suffer but this The mercifull Lord so sanctify this sufferance that the fire which I merit may be extinguished by my teares assisted with the blood of the Lamb un-spotted and then I shall rejoyce in this chastisement At Kadesh once in the wildernesse of Zin there was noe water for the congregation Num 20.2 vers 7. vers 8. and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and Aaron thy brother and speake yee unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth it's water and thou shalt bring forth water to them out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation and their beastes drinke vers 9. vers 10 And Moses tooke the rod from before the Lord as hee commanded him And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and hee said unto them Heare now yee rebells must wee fetch you water out of the rock vers 11
must be subject in every thing Tit. 2.4 Eph. 5.24 1 Cor 7.34 Eph. 5.33 1 Pet. 3.6 1 Cor. 14.35 c. 7.10 Tit. 2.5 Col. 3.18 1 Pet. 3.1 I must care how to please him I must reverence him I must obey him as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord I must be instructed by him I must not depart from him but must be discreete chast a keeper at home good obedient unto him that the word of God be not blasphemed To hin indeede I must submitt my selfe as unto the Lord but this submission must not be servile for it must be onely so as it is fitt in the Lord. Him I must love for hee is my selfe To him I must be subject as the inferiour parts are unto the head I must care how to please him both for the performance of my duety and for the quietnesse and content which will ensue upon it I must reverence him for hee is my superiour I must obey him for hee is my Lord I must be instructed by him for hee is my teacher I must not depart from him 1 Cor. 7.4 because the power which formerly I had over my selfe is resigned up to his will and pleasure I must be discreete because I am a wife chast because I must be a loyall wife a keeper at home because a house-wife good and obedient that the word of God be not blasphemed Submission is required joyned with love to avoyd anger and contention Prov. 21.19 for Solomon hath decreed that It it better to dwell in the wildernesse then with a contentious and an angrie woman Subjection and reverenceare arguments of a meeke 1 Pet 3.4 Prov. 9.13 and quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price for a clamorous woman is styled foolish Obedience is due to those that are our instructers seeing therfore our sexe is guiltie of ignorance 1 Tim. 2.11 wee are commanded to learne in silence with all subjection for if wee are wise in our owne conceits Prov. 26.12 the wise man saith there is more hope of a foole then of such Discretion is allso required in our sexe for long agoe did Solomon say c. 11.22 As a jewell of gold in a swine's snowt so is a faire woman which is without discretion Certainly those who submitt to their husbands who love them are subject to them carefull to please them reverence them obey them are willing to be instructed by them depart not from them and are truely discreete conscience will preserve them chast civilitie will keepe them at home and religion will make them good Ps 119.5 O that our wayes were made so direct that wee might keepe these statutes When I consider of this bond which unite's mee to my husband how can I choose but blesse my God for his ordinance When I looke upon the pledges of our mutuall love those children which God doeth send for our comfort how can I choose but magnifie his blessing Though many are the infirmities of a woman many dueties belong to a wife many cares and pangs belong to a mother yet our infirmities are aften redressed by mariage our dueties are our delight being guided and comforted by our carefull Lords and our cares and pangs are richly rewarded in our obedient children O how gracious is our God unto us who governeth us by those who are made our selves and to increase our love and obedience to our husbands giveth us the lively resemblance of both in our tender off-spring These children whom I would have obedient unto mee doe put mee in mind of that obedience which I owe to my husband and much more of that which all of us owe to our bountifull God That sacred tye of holy wedlock putteth mee in mind of the infinite love of Christ to his church Hee hath blessed mee with the first and shall I not labour to be a worthy and a thankfull partaker of his love in the last The first I enjoy though I deserve it not the last I am offered yet zealously and religiously enough I embrace it not If I neglect my love and duety to my husband I cannot expect the love of Christ Alasse by sexe I am fraile and not willing to obey by paines I am froward and not fitt for advice by sinne I am haughtie and not apt for submission Nature enclineth us to love but unlesse that love be regulated by religion it often either is sullied with impuritie or clegenerateth into hatred O what shall I provide to answer my God when hee shall stricktly examine mee concerning my duety first to himselfe next to him whom hee hath made my Lord and lastly to them who are my tender and parcelled selfe Certainly obedient enough I cannot be to God dutifull enough I can scarcely be to my husband loving and carefull enough I can hardly be of my children All of us faile in some thing or other and I feare that I am the weakest of all Every sinne displeaseth my God o what shall I doe to appease his wrath Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord Mic. 6.6 and bow myselfe before the high God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings with calves of a yeere old vers 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rammes or with ten thousand rivers of oyle Shall I give my first-borne for my transgressions Ps 51.16 vers 17 the fruite of my body for the sinne of my soule Alasse hee desireth not sacrifice hee delighteth not in burnt offering The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart hee will not despise To my Lord therfore will I hasten whom I have offended to my God will I addresse my selfe whom I have displeased by my manifold neglects and insteede of rivers of oyle I will swimme unto him in rivers of my teares My heart I will teach to groane so lowde that it shall be heard to heaven Each teare which I shed shall proceede from a heart so humbly sorrowfull that they shall seeme to have the faces of Angells in reflexion and I will pray that those teares may be accepted by the Angel of the covenant Mal 3.1 If through my indiscretion contentions have arisen betweene my head and the members I will meekely justifie the words of the King Solomon and not onely resemble but have even the same to which hee compareth mee Pro 27.15 I will have a continuall dropping in a very rainie day Mine eyes shall droppe and my heart shall droppe and from them both shall issue as it were water and blood that with my teares I may wash the sacrifice of my God and my heart may be made an accepted offering Mat 7.25 Yet shall not the raine descend onely and the floods come but the winds allso shall blow From mine eyes shall the raine descend and the floods of my teares shall come and then from my heart the winds shall blow From my heart I will
send out sight of sorrow 1. King 19.11 and the Lord shall be in the wind And with that wind shall be an earth-quake my enlivened earth shall quake with feare of the judgments of my God so the Lord shall be likewise in the earth-quake And with that earth-quake shall be fire vers 12 even the fire of love and zeale together so the Lord shall be in that fire And with that fire shall be a still small voyce and unto the Lord shall that voyce be directed for to him will I looke and pray and say The Prayer All-mighty Lord ever-lasting father who hast beene pleased to vouch safe mee the blessings of this life and to give mee my desires both in a husband and children be pleased to give mee a thankfull heart for these thy mercies It is thy goodnesse and not my merit that I have receaved from thee these blessings of thy bountie Iustly ô most justly mightest thou at once deprive mee of these comforts because I have neglected my obedience to the one and my care of the other Humbly ô my God and with a bleeding heart I confesse my faylings and am sorrie for mine offences Lord be gracious to mee thy servant It is thy hand alone which hath preserved mee from the foule offences which many commit for without thy protection by nature I am noe better then that strange woman Pro 2.17 who forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God By nature I am carnally worse by farre then were Aholah and Aholibah spiritually who committed whoredomes in their youth Eze 23 3. Lord make mee ever acknowledg this thy protection and testifie my thankfullnesse in my industrious care to performe my dutyes Be thou stil the protectour and the gracious defender both of mee and mine Blesse him whom thou hast sett over mee and graunt that hee may dwell with mee according to knowledg 1. Pet. 3.7 that so wee being heires together of the grace of life our prayers may not be hindered As thou hast made mee a fruitfull vine by the walls of his house so make mee endeavour to be fruitfull in good workes Ps 128.3 Col 1.10 Ps 128 3. Ps 52.8 Prov. 19.14 c 5.18 Ps 141.3 Prov. 11.16 c 12.4 c 14.1 c 31.10 vers 30 and increase to be fruitfull in good Workes and increase in the knowledg of thee my God Let those Olive branches about my table be every one of them like a greene Olive in the house of thee ô my God and trust in thy mercy for ever and ever Make mee to my husband a prudent wife as sent from thee that hee may rejoyce with mee the wife of his youth To this purpose set â watch ô Lord before my mouth and keepe the doore of my lippes Make mee a gracious woman retaining honour that I may be a crowne to my husband a wise woman labouring to build up my house and familie and a vertuous woman fearing thee Heare mee ô my God and graunt mee my petitions for the worthinesse of him who is an indulgent husband to his Spouse the Church even Iesus Christ my onely Lord and Saviour Amen subject 10 THE TENTH SUBJECT Teares of an Aged woman The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray THe dayes of our age are three-score yeeres and ten Ps 90.10 saith David and if by reason of strength they be foure-score yeeres yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soone cut off and wee flee away Lord how true diddest thou speake by the mouth of that Prophet True I find it who have now accomplished the number of so many yeeres My strength is labour not because of any paines which I take but onely by reason of the paines which I suffer Age hath beene allwayes freed from worke because it suffereth more in a languishing weakenesse then the young and lustie doe in their travells Num 8 24. From twentie and five yeeres old and upward the Levites were required to wayte upon the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation vers 25 And from the age of fiftie yeeres they were to cease wayting upon the service thereof and to serve noe more God will have the best of our time yea all for his service But alasse the custome is too common among us to serve our selves at least untill fiftie and it may be then or not so soone wee thinke upon God But why should wee not rather render the yeeres of our strength to the God of our strength Ps 43.2 The fault which I complaine of is too frequent among others but can I excuse my selfe from the guilt thereof I now beginne to thinke upon the service of my God when through age I am noe more able to serve my selfe Every thing disturbeth and tormenteth my aged limbes even my very apparell becometh a burden O why doe people so fondly desire to live to be aged Have the gray haires delight or the parched and dryed body any pleasure Alasse noe I find it hath not This this is the time which the Preacher speaketh of Eccl 12.2 Now the Sunne and the light and the moone and the starres are darkened and the clowdes returne after the raine The beautie of the countenance which shined like the Sunne the skiecolloured eyes the apples of those eyes which sparkeled like the Starres are growen dimme and obscure The eye-lidds are filled with waters like a swollen cloude labouring in the deliverie of it's mournefull burden Pleasures and delights and joyes and merriments have now with-drawne the lustre of their glory and paines and dolours and griefes and sadnesse have benighted my feeble and crazie body Now the keepers of the house tremble vers 3. and the strong men bowe themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that looke out of the windowes be darkened My knees which were the supporters of this walking dust begin to creeckle and tremble under their oppressing burden Mine armes and hands have forgotten their stedfastnesse and quake and faint in the execution of their just commands The teeth which prepared the meate for the stomack are fled away from their narrow chambers and left the open doores the hollow gummes in trust to mock my desires Those eyes which once could dazell the spectatours sate proudly in their thrones darting their rayes upon their desired objects have now the curtaines of age drawne over their flames and the vayle of antiquitie eclipseth their glory Now the doores are shut in the streetes vers 4. and the sound of the grinding is lowe and here is rising up at the voyce of the bird and the daughters of musick are brought low My feete are afflicted with lamenesse that they cannot any longer carie mee into the streetes The sound of the grinding
1. King 2.2 Iob. 17.1 My breath and my spirits allmost are spent my dayes are neere extinct and now the grave is ready for mee doe thou ô my God prepare mee for thy selfe With thee I long and desire to live To thee I desire to sing praises with the glorified Saints in thy celestiall Paradise O free mee from the burden of the flesh and the fetters of sinne and graunt that when I shall render thee an account of my yeeres I may behold thy face with comfort and joy Let me with desire attend the time of my change and the hopefull expectation of a happie resurrection Come ô my God and free mee from the bondage of sinne and corruption that I may sitt at thy right hand for ever and ever Heare mee ô father and graunt my petitions through the meritorious death of the Lord of life even Iesus Christ my onely mediatour and redeemer Amen subject 11 THE ELEVENTH SUBjECT Teares of a Barren woman The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray WHen God had created Adam and Eve hee blessed them Gen 1.28 and said Be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth This was a blessing in the time of innocency but did it remaine a blessing after the fall Yes doubtlesse for long after the breach of the first commandement the Psalmist determined that Children are an heritage of the Lord Ps 127 3. and the fruit of the wombe is his reward Yet though it remaineth a blessing it is not without the societie of a punishment for so the Lord said unto the woman Gen 3.16 I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children This sorrow is an effect of sinne and not a sorrow for sin Yet surely it hath something in it above or beside a punishment for the first offence for neither is the sorrow in it selfe a sinne as is allwayes that which is onely worldly which beginneth continueth and endeth in griefe nor doeth this sorrow conclude in either sin or shame Io 16.21 or griese but as our Saviour saith As soone as shee is delivered of the child sh◠remembreth noe more the anguish for joy that a man is borne into the world The paine is a remembrancer of originall corruption but the issue is a continuance of the blessing in Paradise This paine I am freed from whilest I continue barren but then I want the blessing and the joy which accompanie the paine But why doe I complaine Why doe I disturbe my selfe for want of that which might become my tormentour All children are not blessed all are not elected to be heires of salvation Mat 20 16. Many indeede are called but few are chosen Doubtlesse Cain and Ham and Esau and Iudas and many millions besides did cost their mothers many bitter throwes and torments and cryes yet reaped not their parents that joy which others have receaved Is it not then better for mee to content my selfe with this state which I am in then to be the mother of a child which might be a fire-brand of hell All are not chosen to be vessells unto honour 2. Tim. 2.21 The way to destruction is a beaten roade My torments would be greater were I the mother of a child for feare that my child should dishonour my God then they could be with bringing that child into the world The cares of parents are full of trembling and disquietnesse allways suspecting ill accidents or diseases or which is worse a second death to befall their issues Reu 21 8. From these I am freed whilest I continue fruitlesse and I enjoy the societie of a husband without the disturbance of children But yet mee think's I rest not satisfied for barrennesse was ever accounted a reproach therfore Elizabeth upon her conception sayd Luc 1.25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with mee in the dayes wherein hee looked on mee to take away my reproach among men Gen 16 4. Thus when Hagar had conceaved by Abram her mistresse Sarai was despised in her eyes But alasse what 's this A litle reproach it may be among men but such as cannot continue long not longer at most then my life shall last and then it will cease or at least not trouble mee Surely it is not so contemptible in the eyes of my God for if so it were then Iob would not put it as a marke of the wicked Iob 24 21. that Hee evill intreateth the barren that beareth not And yet I suspect that some grievous sinne is the cause of mine affliction for barrennesse hath beene often sent as a curse and fruitfullnesse as a blessing How happie was the wife of Terah in her faithfull Sonne Abraham How happie was Iochebed in her meeke Sonne Moses How happie was Elizabeth in Iohn the Baptist But how most happie of all was the virgin Mary in her holy child Iesus prononnced so by he◠cosijn Elizabeth who sayd unto her Blessed art thou among women Luc 1.42 and blessed is the fruit of thy wombe This blessing mee thinks I seriously long for though I cannot expect a child of such excellency as was Abraham or Moses or Iohn the Baptist But why doe I thus disturbe my selfe about that which is not in my power to amend or alter Fruitfullnesse hath not allways beene a token of mercy sometimes it hath spoken the wrath of the All-mighty 2. Sam. 11.5 Bathsheba indeede was free from barrennesse but her child by King David was the spurious issue of a defiled bed Such sinister practises have beene the faults of diverse who have rather chosen to dishonour God then to be despised by men But this remedie would prove farre worse then the disease if I should seeke to be pregnant by the wayes of wickednesse Thus to become a mother I should dishonour my husband and which is infinitely worse my Lord and my God Thus should I desclayme the protection of God my father and the love of mine indulgent husband and all in a wicked and lustfull curiositie to take away my reproach among men Yea thus by endeavouring to salve my credit I should more deepely wound it and to avoyd a contempt for what I cannot helpe I should be branded with infamie which I could never wipe off Conscience and obedience to the lawes of my God forbid the thought of so dangerous a cure loyaltie and affection to my husband deny it love and desire of vertue chide it yea and care of my good name doeth plainly prohibit it I had rather continue for a time a reproached Elizabeth then be a lustfull Bathsheba to be the wife of a King It lyeth in the power of him who is omnipotent to make mee if hee pleaseth a joyfull mother I will not despaire while I live upon the earth because I
know that my God is powerfull who dwelleth in heaven This barrennesse may peradventure be sent mee in mercy allthough so heavily I take it for a judgment It may be I should faile in the duety of patience in the time of my travell or of love and care in the education of my children or I might be too fondly guiltie of doating on them so idolatrously robbe my God of his honour to conferre it wickedly on the issue of my loynes Moreover who knoweth what times of trouble may come upon the land or what destruction and desolation may be sent upon my countrie If persecution or warre should enforce mee to flee I can the better escape now I am free from children For this very cause my blessed Redeemer foretelling the distruction of the citty of Ierusalem sayd unto the women Daughters of Ierâ—salem weepe not for mee Lu 23.28 vers 29 but weepe for your selves and for your children For behold the dayes are comeing in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombe that never bare and the pappes that never gave suck So this barrennesse may bring content in that it freeth mee from cares and various perturbations although if it might seeme good in the eyes of my God most willingly would I embrace the trouble that I might increase his Kingdome I will resolve howsoëver to submit my selfe to the greate disposer and will hope that it may be his pleasure to send mee my desires Time was when the Gentiles knew not God which made the Psalmist so magnifie God for his mercies to Israël Ps 147.19 when hee sayd Hee sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israël vers 20 Hee hath not dealt so with any nation neither have the heathen knowledg of his law Then had the Gentiles a spirituall barrennesse for they were barren of religion and yet the Prophet comforteth them Is 54.1 saying Sing ô barren thou that didest not beare breake forth into singing and cry alowd thou that didst not travell with child for more are the children of the desolate then the children of the maried wife saith the Lord. This Prophesie is fullfilled to the joy and rejoycing of my selfe and many millions more for the song doeth noe longer runne in the phrase of the Psalmist Ps 76.1 ves 2. In Iudah is God knowne his name is greate in Israel In Salem allso is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion Noe noe Lu 2.32 hee who was the glory of the people Israel did come to be a light to lighten the Gentiles Thus the Gentiles which had not beene a people Rom. 9 25. were called to be the people of the most high God shee who had not beene beloved did through his mercy become the beloved of God and shee that was barren through ignorance and infidelitie grew the faithfull spouse of the most high Why should I then give over my hopes Hee who made a fruitfull church even of the heathen which knew him not Is 54.3 can if hee pleaseth make mee a fruitfull mother of children verf 5. Her maker is her husband the Lord of hosts is his name and her redeemer is the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall hee be called I am one of the members of that church which hath Christ to her husband I will therfore never despaire either of his power or mercy I dare not repine as Rachel did when shee bare Iacob noe children and envyed her sister Gen 34 1. vers 2. I dare not say to my husband as shee did to hers Give mee children or else I dye lest his anger should be kindled against mee and hee should answer mee as Iacob did her and say Am I in God's steed who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the wombe I know it is God who giveth and I know it is God who withholdeth these mercies I dare not be too inquisitive into a reason in nature lest I dis-honour him who is the God of nature I may and I will desire this blessing at the hands of him who giveth liberally Iam 1.5 and upbraideth not Yet lest my petitions should be empty if they rise not with teares I will weepe for my sinnes which have caused his displeasure and yet I will weepe in hope that hee will be reconciled unto mee Of every judgment I must find the cause in the wickednesse of my selfe I want the comfort and content of children because I my selfe have beene a child disobedient to my God But I will bewayle my sinnes and bemoane my condition and allthough hee cannot be ignorant of my servent desires yet I will lay open to him the griefe of my heart Gen 25 21. Isaak intreated him for his wife because shee was barren and hee was intreated of him and Rebekah his wife conceaved And shee had two children which strugled together in their mother's wombe ver 22 At the prayer of Elisha the good Shunamitish woman conceaved 2. King 4.17 Gen 20 17. and bare a sonne at that very season that Elisha had sayd unto her according to the time of life Faithfull Abraham prayed unto the Lord and the Lord healed Abimelech and his wife and his mayd servants and they bare children vers 18 for the Lord had first closed up all the wombes of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abrahams wife The Lord did promise unto Israël upon obedience saying There shall nothing cast their young Ex. 23.26 Deut. 7 12. nor be barren in thy land Another promise was made unto them by God himselfe when hee sayd It shall come to passe if yee hearken to these judgments and doe them Thou shalt be blessed above all people there shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattell Againe they were promised by the mouth of Moses saying It shall come to passe c. 28.1 if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voyce of the Lord thy God to observe and to doe all the commandements which I command thee this day vers 11 the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods in the fruit of thy body and in the fruit of thy cattell and in the fruit of thy ground in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee But I have not such an Isaak to intreate for mee as Rebekah had nor such an Elisha as the Shunamitesse had nor such an Abraham as Abimelech had What then I have the promise of my God if I be a true Israëlite indeede Io. 1.47 such a one as Nathaniel was in whom was noe guile If I obey my God and hearken to his judgments and doe them If I hearken diligently unto the voyce of the Lord my God to observe and to doe all the commandements which hee commandeth mee to doe then I may expect the blessing which was promised unto Israël The promises of God are made upon conditions
and my petitions to God must be likewise upon conditions when I begge of him but temporall blessings His blessings descend not unlesse they be called downe by my religious obedience nor may I pray for the blessings which concerne this life but with this condition If they may stand with his pleasure In his power it is to graunt the suite which so earnestly I make I wish it may be his pleasure to fullfill my desires Barren Sarai was promised a sonne and Isaak was borne Gen. 21 2.3 Lu 1.7 vers 57 Gen. 29 31. c 30.22 vers 23 Though Zacharias and Elizabeth were stricken in yeeres and Elizabeth was barren yet they were blessed with Iohn the Baptist. Though Leah was hated by reason of her barrennesse yet wee reade that the Lord did open her wombe God remembred Rachel and hearkened unto her and opened her wombe and shee conceaved and bare a sonne and sayd God hath taken away my reproach The wife of Manoah the Danite was barren Iud. 13.2 vers 3. vers 14 yet the Angel of the Lord appeared unto her and sayd unto her Behold now thou art barren and bearest not but thou shalt conceave and beare a sonne And the woman bare a sonne called his name Samson and the child grew and the Lord blessed him 1. Sam. 1.10 Barren Hannah was in bitternesse of soule for want of a child when Peninnah her fruitfull rivall provoked her sore to make her fret vers 6. vers 20 because the Lord had shut up her wombe and shee had a sonne whom shee named Samuel Thus may God if hee please looke upon my reproach and send mee a child which I may dedicate to his service I will therfore follow the stepps of Hannah the devout vers 15 I will weepe with her and I will fast with her and with her will I powre out my soule before the Lord. Who knoweth but my teares may prevayle through the merits of my Redeemer and my sobbs and sighes may draw downe a blessing Ps 30.8 On my knees therfore will I goe unto the Lord and gett mee unto my Lord right humbly I will weepe and pray and mourne and pray and sigh and pray and praying I will say The Prayer HEeavenly King father of mercies Ps 72.5 thou who tookest mee out of my mother's wombe but hast denyed unto mee the fruit of mine vouchsafe to looke upon the reproach of thy servant I know that my sinnes doe stoppe the current of thy mercies but it is thine honour that thou art a forgiver of offences Forgive my sinnes the cause of thy curse and heale the barrennesse of thy despised hand-mayd 1. Sam. 1.11 O Lord of hosts if thou wilt indeede looke upon the affliction of thine hand-mayd and remember mee and not forget thine hand-mayd but wilt give unto thine hand-mayd a man-child then I will give him unto thee all the dayes of his life Thou knowest that I am a woman of a sorrowfull spirit and out of the aboundance of my complaint vers 16 and griefe doe I pray unto thee Send mee I beseech thee a Samuël even such a child as I have asked of thee if it may stand with the pleasure of thee my Lord and King that may bring honour unto thee and comfort unto thy petitioner I shall never bee satisfied untill thou hearest my supplications Pro. 30 15. Either graunt my desires or arme mee with patience that in all things I may serve thee with quietnesse Mat 4.28 and content The earth thou hast made to bring forth fruit of her selfe and it is as easie for thee to blesse mee with increase But if thou hast otherwise determined in thy secret will howsoever graunt that I may never conceave wickednesse in my heart Act 5.4 to whom thou denyest the conception of a child Iam. 1.15 Let not lust conceave in mee lest it bring forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bring forth death Say unto my heart as effectually as once thou didst unto the fig-tree Mat 21 19. Gal 5.22 vers 23 Heb. 12 11. let noe such fruit grow on thee hence forth for ever but let mee allways produce the fruits of the spirit against which thine Apostle assureth mee that there is noe law Let this thy chastening yeeld unto mee the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse since I am exercised therein so shall I willingly submit to thy pleasure and beseech thee to graunt mee comfort and joy in that blessed sonne of a happie woman even Iesus Christ my onely Lord and Saviour Amen THE TWELFTH SUBjECT Teares of a child-bearing woman 1 At the time when she beginneth to fall in travell 2 After her deliverie I st Her teares when she beginneth to fall in travell The Soliloquie consisting of three parts viz 1 The cause of the sorrow and the confidence of the sorrowing 2 The greatenesse of the pangs hazards and feares of a travelling woman 3 Consolation and comfort for a woman in the bitternesse of her travell The first part of the Soliloquie treating of the cause of the sorrow and the confidence of the sorrowing THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my King and my God for unto the will I pray VVHen David confessed his actuall crimes hee forgot not the guilt of originall corruption therfore he professed saying Behold I was shapen in iniquitie vers 5. and in sinne did my mother conceave mee By the corruption of nature even Saint Paul himselfe was not without sinne that dwelled in him That which is borne of the flesh is flesh Rom 7 17. Io. 3.6 as my Saviour himselfe did tell Nicoden us and this flesh concludeth us all to be carnall Rom 7 14. and sold under sinne This originall stayne is the ground of all our actuall impieties justly therfore is the birth of a child accompanied with the torments and sorrowes of the mother left women should forget the tast of the apple I will greatly multiply thy sorrow Gen 3.16 and thy conception sayd the Lord unto Eve in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children O this heavie chastisement doth now approach to make mee sensible of my sinfull beginning As I caused the teares to flow from the eyes of my groaning mother so now even in mine eyes doe they likewise arise through the pangs which doe seize on mee by reason of my babe Lord what a trembling possesseth every joynt of mee and when I hope for ease by changing my seate or lying on my Couch or attempting to walke even in every place doeth the sharpnesse of the paine increase its strength and though I multiply my cryes yet mine anguish ceaseth not O what miserable perplexities are wee weake and sinfull women involved in Wee who can worst endure are most afflicted and allthough our tempers and constitutions conclude us weaker by farre then our husbands
yet our sorrowes doe greatly exceede their sufferances Certainly wee suffer more because wee were first in the first offence and for our forwardnesse both to consult with the Serpent and to tempt the man our portion is the greater in pangs and throwes Wee are driven to such extreamities that either wee must be tormented in our issue or else reproached for our barrennesse Surely had Eve but beene sensible of the least smart of a travelling woman shee would have continued in integritie for feare of the punishment Gen 2.17 Our first parents were threatned but with dying the death in the day they did eate of the tree of knowledg but I mee thinks doe find that that curse is increased for death will not come without the societie of paines There is something of that punishment in the paines which prepare us for the entertainment of death something in the very instant of the soul's departure and yet unlesse our mercifull Redeemer take pitty upon us the greatest of all will be in a second death Of the first paines I am now made most accurately sensible in the second I must agree with the children of Eve but from the last I have an assured hope that my God will deliver mee Oh my paines my paines grow stronger and stronger What shall I doe Strengthen mee ô Iesus and enable mee to suffer with constancy and patience what I must endure for a child Elizabeth was not come to the hower of torment when Lu 1.24 vers 25 hiding her selfe for five moneths together shee rejoyced and sayd Thus hath the Lord dealt with mee in the dayes wherein hee looked on mee to take away my reproach among men Yet are these pangs more desireable then the reproach of barrennesse not for themselves but for their happie event Barrennesse produceth shame and discontent but fruitfullnesse produceth sorrow with comfort The barren desire what they partake not of the fruitfull may have content in that which causeth their torments By us the kingdome of heaven is increased by them the world seemeth ready to expire But whence doth this fruitfullnesse accrow unto us If it were onely and meerely from our selves then I suppose that none would be barren If it be a blessing sent from God I wonder at the wicked for the Psalmist saith They are full of children Ps 17.14 and leave the rest of their substance for their babes But I neede not wonder if I either consider the fore-goeing words where the Prophet saith They have their portion in this life or if I remember that it is in the power of God even from them to produce some vessells of honour Israël was threatned by Moses saying Deut 28.15 It shall come to passe if thou wilt not hearken unto the voyce of the Lord thy God that Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body vers 18 O how full of horrour assuredly was this to the women of Israël that those children should be sentenced to eternall weeping for whom their mothers had cryed in the anguish of their births Such ô such there are and allways shall bee even to the end of the world as shall draw teares from the eyes of the weaker parent both in the extreamitie of the throwes and in the feare of their destruction Surely such wieked children as those if any shall have cause to expostulate as did the patient Iob Iob. 3.11 vers 12 and cry Why dyed I not from the wombe Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the beliy Why did the knees prevent mee or why the beeasts that I should suck c 10.18 Wherefore hast thou brought mee forth out of the wombe Oh that I had given up the ghost and noe eye had seene mee Or they may say as once did the Prophet Ieremiah Cursed be the day wherein I was borne Ier. 20.14 vers 15 let not the day wherein my mother bare mee be blessed Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father saying A man-child is borne unto thee making him very glad vers 16 And let that man be as the citties which the Lord overthrew and repented not and let him heare the cry in the morning and the showting at noone-tide vers 17 because hee slew mee not from the wombe or that my mother might have beene my grave and her wombe to be allways greate with mee vers 18 Wherfore came I forth out of the wombe to see labour and sorrow that my dayes should be consumed with shame But I will hope better things of mine and beseech my God that it may be like unto Paul who speaketh of himselfe saying Gal 1.15 vers 16 God did seperate mee from my mother's wombe and called mee by his grace to reveale his sonne in mee c. Oh my paines grow sharper and sharper and are strong remembrancers of the pollution even of conception But there is a conception as well Spirituall as Carnall I must therfore examine Whether the wombe of my heart hath not conceaved sinne Iob. 15 35. Is 33.11 for these pangs arise not without foregoeing wickednesse The hypocrites sayth Iob doe conceave mischiefe The enemies of the church sayth the Prophet Isaiah shall conceave chaffe If therfore with the hypocrites c. 59.4 I have conceaved mischiefe I feare that with them too I have brought forth-vanity and my belly hath prepared deceit If with the sinfull Iewes I have not called for justice nor pleaded for trueth if I have trusted in vanity and have spoken lyes then I feare that with them too I have conceaved mischife and brought forth iniquity If with the enemies of the church I have conceaved chaffe then I feare that with them too I have brought forth stubble and I may justly suspect that my breath as fire shall devoure it Ps 7.14 If which the ungodly I have travelled with iniquity and have conceaved mischiefe then I feare that with them too I have brought forth falsehood Thus if I have joyned with the hypocrites if with the enemies of the church if with the sinfull Iewes if with the ungodly or if I have trusted in vanity what then can I looke for but that having conceaved all kind of abominations I should with the wicked man travell with paine all my dayes Iob. 15.20 Thus I must confesse I have beene forward in the conception of all manner of evill and the production hath beene even as quick as the thought Ex 1.19 I may say of my selfe as the Mid-wives sayd once to angry King Pharaoh concerning the Hebrew women I have beene lively and have beene delivered of my grievous crimes ere any midwife came in unto mee I have beene both father and mother and mid-wife and nurse and every thing else to bring the abortive bratts of impietie into the world What now can I expect therfore but that I should dye in anguish and that my child which I goe with should be at once both mine
issue and my destroyer But I will hope for better and I will pray for better for I have a good and a mercifull God in whom I will trust To him I will fly both for remission comfort and succour I know that hee is offended with the sinfull progenie of my corrupted heart Ex 1.16 but to appease him I will destroy them all as the Mid-wives were commanded to doe by the Hebrew males Ps 137.9 I will gaine hapinesse by such an execution as was required upon the daughter of Babylon for I will take them and dash them both the greate and the litle ones against the stones Or if that will not destroy them I will use them as the Allmighty did the chariotts and the bost of Pharaoh I will cast them into the sea Ex 15.4 vers 5. vers 1. and the depths shall cover them The sea shall be my teares in which I will sinke them so deepe even the horse and his rider the heart that hath conceaved and the sinne that hath beene borne that they shall never rise againe Or if this yet will not suffice vers 4. I will use them as the Lord did the chosen Captaines of the King I will drowne them in the red sea even in the blood of my blessed Reedemer where they shall be sunke so deepe that it shall be quite forgotten that ever they were Thus shall my God be appeased and shall visit mee in love so that I shall not neede to feare when my throwes increase because I will depend on the rock of my salvation I will resolve with confidence and a setled mind that allthough hee slay mee Iob 13.15 yet will I put my trust in his mercy and I am assured that hee will send mee a happie issue to my tryalls and afflictions part 2 The Second part of the Soliloquie treating of the greatnesse of the pangs hazards and feares of a travelling woman SAint Iohn in the Apocalyps telleth us Rev. 12 1. that There appeared a greate wonder in heaven A woman cloathed with the Sunne and the Moone was under her feete and upon her head was a crowne of twelve starres vers 2. And shee being with child cryed traveâ—ing in birth and pained to be delivered That woman is the Church styled a woman both because shee is fruitfull and by reason of her subjection to Christ her husband The Moone is under her feete the pompe and prosperitie of the world is placed farre beneath her affections Her crowne of starres is the twelve Apostles This woman this Church is with child shee conceaveth by faith shee cryeth out in her devotions shee is pained in her sorrowes and severall afflictions and shee is delivered when her children are receaved into glory If Saint Iohn did liken her pangs unto the pinching throwes of a travelling woman it must needes be imagined that her paines were grievous Oh I feele I feele what her torments were resembled unto Such paines doe now beginne ginne to seize on mee as the greatest in the world have beene described by these Ier. 13.21 Such were threatned to Iudah Shall not sorrowes take thee as a woman in travell Such to Lebanon O inhabitant of Lebanon c 12.23 that makest thy nests in the Cedars how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee the paine as of a woman in travell Such to Babylon Is 13.6 Howle yee for the day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a destruction from the All-mighty Therfore shall all hands be faint vers 7. and every mans heart shall melt and they shall be afraid vers 8. they shall be inpaine Ier 48.41 Kerioth is taken and the strong holds are surprised and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs Such to Edome c 49.22 The heart of the mighty men of Edome shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs Such to Ephraim Hos 13 12. vers 13. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up his sinne is hid the sorrowes of a travelling woman shall come upon him And such to the ungodly when our Saviour shall come in the clowdes When they shall say 1. Thes 5.3 Peace and Safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travaile upon a woman with child and they shall not escape Such as these were inflicted on those Kings that were assembled and passed by the citty of the great King on the north sides of the mountaine of holinesse Ps 48.6 Feare tooke hold upon them there and paine as of a woman in travaile Such on Sion Wee have heard the fame thereof Ier. 6.24 our hands wanâ— feeble anguish hath taken hold of us and paine as of a woman in travaile c 4.31 And againe I have heard a voyce as of a woman in travell and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child the voyce of the daughter of Zion that bewayleth her selfe that spreadeth her hands saying Woe is mee now for my soule is wearied because of murderers Such on Damascus Damascus is waxed feeble c 49.24 and turneth herselfe to flee and feare hath seized on her anguish and sorrowes have taken her as a woman in travell c 50.42 Such on the King of Babylon Every one of the people of the North shall be put in aray like a man to battell against thee ô daughter of Babylon vers 43 The King of Babylon hath heard the report of them his hands waxed feeble anguish tooke hold of him and pangs as of a woman in travell Such on the Prophet Isaiah bewayling the captivity of the people Is 21.3 My loynes are filled with paine pangs have taken hold upon mee as the pangs of a woman that travelleth I was bowed downe at the hearing of it I was dismayed at the seeing of it And such on the people of God when they were caried into captivity c. 26.16 Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them vers 17 like as a woman with child that draweth neere the time of her deliverie is in paine and cryeth out in her pangs so have wee beene in thy sight ô Lord. O these sorrowes these pangs and paines this faintâ—esse of hands this melting of heart this anguish this wearinesse of soule this feeblenesse this turning to flee this paine of the loynes this bowing downe this dismaying and this â—…ying out in pangs is now my portion Deepe shall I drinke of this cup of trembling Is 51.17 it is allready at my mouth I quiver and quake at the bitternesse thereof Faine would I delay it faine would I forget what I must endure it I shift from place to place from seate to seate I wring my hands I tremble in my cold and fainting sweates Faine would I buy it off and be contented to offer the service even of
and this child have dyed so should the teares which I had shed through the extreamitie of my pangs be seconded with more for the losse of my desires In all these mercies I must looke up to my Redeemer and acknowledg him the father and donour of these blessings I will therfore magnifie him for his goodnesse and praise him for his loving-kindnesse Ps 106 1. I will give thankes unto the Lord for hee is gratious because his mercy endureth for ever The Prayer O Mercifull God heavenly father who hast now most especially made knowne unto mee Eph 3.20 that thou art able to doe exceeding aboundantly above all that wee aske or thinke make mee thankfully rejoyce in the worke of thy love and thy tender mercie Thy favours are greate and wonderfull in sparing the life of my selfe mine infant in freeing mee from my pangs and him from the darknesse of the silent wombe Thine ô Lord is the power by which I am delivered thine is the mercy by which I am safely returned unto my bed thine is the worke of the frame and fashion of this my babe thine therfore shall be likewise the glory for ever and ever Graunt blessed Father that I may never sorget thy goodnesse but expresse my thankfullnesse in my new obedience Make mee carefull in the performance of what service I promised thee in the extreamitie of mine anguish As thou hast given mee the fruit of my body to the joy of my heart so give mee the fruit of righteousnesse sowen in peace Iam 3.18 vers 17 Give mee the wisedome which is from above that is full of good workes without hypocrisie Lord make mee thy servant by grace and make this child thy child by adoption and mercy Give mee comfort in his life for the sorrowes which I endured at his birth Gal 1.15 Seperate him from the wombe as thou didst Saint Paul that hee may be a chosen vessell of sanctification and honour Teach mee innocency and simplicitie by the example of this infant and make mee hereafter teach him goodnesse and righteousnesse by the power of thy grace Make us allways children in wickednesse 1. Cor. 14.20 1. Pet 2.2 Gal 4.19 but not in understanding that so as new borne babes wee may desire the sincere milke of thy word that wee may grow thereby Let thy sonne Christ be formed in this litle infant that as it hath beene preserved by thy power and providence in the first birth so it may feele thy mercy and grace in the second Lord give a blessing to whatsoëver shall be used for the recovery of my strength that I may allways praise thee both in prosperitie and adversitie Give thy blessing to the meanes for the nourishment of this child Give it strength that it may live to receave the seale of thy mercy in the laver of Baptisme and doe thou be present with thy blessing when the signe shall be administred Lu 2.52 O let it live if it be thy blessed will and grow up in wisedome and in stature and in grace both with thee and with men that so I may magnifie thy name for making mee an instrument to propagate the number of thine elect who am the weakest and the unworthiest of women Increase thy Kingdome daâ—ly Take pittie upon all that suffer afflictions especially on those women who are in labour of children Give them comfort in the time of their miseries ease from their torments joy in their desired issue and thankfullnesse for thy blessings Lord graunt that both I they may sing praises to thy name for the greatnesse of our deliverances and expresse our thanks in our godly lives that when this painfull life shall have an end wee may sing tryumphantly in eternall glory through Iesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour Amen 13. THE THIRTEENTH SUBJECT Teares in the time of a generall Pestilence The Soliloquie Consisting of sixe severall parts and treating of 1 Mourning by example in a publike calamitie 2 Severall causes of God's visitations 3 Sinne especially the cause of the Pestilence 4 Severall examples of dreadfull Pestilences 5 God's threatning before his visitation 6 The duety of a Christian decreeing both to whom and for whom wee ought to pray in the time of Pestilence The first part of the Soliloquie treating of mourning by example in a publike calamitie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray THe heart of the wise is in the house of mourning Eccl 7.4 saith Solomon but the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth Is the heart then sometimes in a pilgrimage from the body Or is the body required to visit the sick yea though the disease be infectious Or are wee allways by command Ps 42.3 to imitate the Prophet whose teares were his meate day and night The heart indeede is often from home and is least where it liveth most where it loveth The sick must be visited or else my Saviour will complaine as hee doth in the Gospel saying I was sick Mat 25 43. Iob 2.11 and yee visited mee not When Iob's three friends heard of the evill that was come upon him they came every one from his owne place for they had made an appointment together to come to mourne with him and to comfort him vers 13 So they sate downe with him upon the ground 2. King 13.14 and mourned seaven dayes and seaven nights When Elisha was fallen sick of his sicknesse wherewith hee dyed Ioash the King of Israël came downe unto him and wept over his face and said O my father my father the charet of Israel and the horse-men thereof c 8.29 When wicked King Ioram went to be healed in Iezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah Ahaziah the sonne of heboram King of Iudah went downe to see him in Iezreel because hee was sick Thus doe I reade of a holy Patient visited by friendly mourners a holy Prophet visited by a weeping King a wicked King visited by another as wicked as himselfe All these were visiters or visited but I doe not find that the diseases were infectious Noe I must therfore imitate the best of them in my charitie to others but I may not forget charity to my selfe Willfully to runne into apparent danger is desperately to tempt the keeper of Israel What shall I then doe The passing bells informe mine eares of the mortalitie of my neighbours yet I cannot I must not visit them What I say shall I doe What course shall I take Charitie commandeth mee compassion hasteneth mee to the dying Christians that by my advice or at least by my prayers I might expresse my commiseration And yet when I am just at my doore provided resolved intended to goe even then mine owne health the health of my familie and which is
greater them all these the feare of displeasing my gratious protectour bring mee back againe and keepe mee at home I would not be un-charitable but I must not be desperate Well then I am resolved what I will doe I will with Solomon goe to the houses of mourning the houses of the visited yet not in body but in mind and in purse I will pittie them and I will send reliefe unto them I dare not goe in person but I will goe in affection and for my neighbours groaning under the evill of punishment and for my selfe burdened with the evill of sinne I will feede upon my teares day and night I must grieve for my selfe in particular and yet I must not be so unkindly coveteous as to keepe my teares onely for my selfe In publike calamities those who shed noe teares may be justly suspected to have noe bowells I find my selfe not un-apt to weepe for I am prompted to that by the weakenesse of my disposition And yet I suspect my selfe I am jealous of my selfe that my teares doe rather flow from my feare of infection then from a fellow-feeling of the miseries which the infected suffer To heighten therfore my mourning and to justifie it by my compassion I will propose to my selfe the examples of others such as I find recorded in the word of my God example 1 When the destruction of the Iewes was neere at hand the Lord called upon them by the mouth of his Prophet saying Consider yee Ier 9.17 and call for the mourning women that they may come and send for cunning women that they may come And let them make hast vers 18 and take up a wayling for us that our eyes may runne downe with teares and our eye-lids gush out with waters vers 19 for a voyce of wayling is heard out of Zion How are wee spoyled c. The women were commanded to heare the word of the Lord vers 20 and their eares to receave the word of his mouth they were to teach their daughters wayling and every one her neighbour lamentation vers 21 For death was come up into their windowes and entered into their pallaces to cutt off the children from without and the young men from their streetes vers 22 Even the carkeises of men did fall as dung upon the field and as the handfull after the harvest-man and none did gather them The case is now with us as it was then with the Iewes Alasse how are wee spoyled too How is death come up into our windowes by the infectious aire How doe our children dye and our young men fall Our children which know not the cause and our young men that trusted in the strength of their youth O how doe the carkeises of men fall as dung upon the open field as the hand-full after the harvest man and yet there are none to gather them up They perish without because either there is not roome enough left with in doores for them or not people alive to attend them in their sicknesse or not people of strength enough to un-lock the doores or not meanes for their sustenance if they enter in Thus necessitie driveth them into the fields and there mortalitie seizeth upon them where noe person is found to burie their bodies noe bearers to carie them to the surfeited earth noe friends to bewayle the losse of their lives and noe Christians to cover them from their gazing spectatours the verie fowles of the aire and the beastes of the field What heart would not breake what eye would not weepe what soule would not lament for this sad visitation Lam 1.16 For these things with Ieremiah will I weepe mine eye mine eye shall runne downe with water because the comforter which should relieve our soules is farre from us example 2 The Lord hath throwne downe Ierusalem saith the Prophet and hath not pittied Lam 2.17 and hee hath caused their enemie to rejoyce over them hee hath sett up the horne of their adversarie vers 18 Their heart cryed unto the Lord O wall of the daughter of Zion let teares runne downe like a river day and night give thy selfe noe rest let not the apples of thine eyes cease Arise vers 19 cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches powre out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord lift up thy hands towards him for the life of thy young children that faint in the topp of every streate vers 1. Even thus hath the Lord covered us allso with a clowde in his anger as then hee did the daughter of Zion and cast downe from heaven unto the earth the beautie of our Israël and remembred not his foote stoole in the day of his anger An enemie destroyeth and rejoyceth over us but such an enemie it is as neither can heare nor will spare The verie aire which was created to coole the flames of our scorching hearts is so poisoned with the infection that the more wee make of it the lesse wee our selves are made by it the closer wee seate it even to and in our hearts the neerer doth the infection approach our spirits The corrupted aire shall be therfore cleansed by the thick groanes that shall flye from my heavy heart and be purified with the thunder of my lowdest cryes With Moab in the prophesie Is 15.2 vers 3. I will howle over Nebo and over Medeba In the streetes let every one gird himselfe with sack-cloth on all their heads let there be baldnesse on the toppes of our houses and in our streetes let every one howle â—er 48.4 weeping aboundantly for wee are destroyed for our litle ones have caused a cry to be heard Oh our sucklings that cry for milke from the breast suck in destruction when they expect their nourishment For these things with Ierusalem I will weepe sore in the night in this night of a generall affliction Lam 1.2 my teares shall be on my cheekes because among all our lovers there is none to comfort us example 3 At the finall desolation of the house of Israël Eze 7.16 the Prophet tould them that They that fled away of them should escape and should be on the mountaines like Doves of the valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquitie All hands should be feeble vers 17 and all knees should be weake as water vers 18 They should allso gird themselves with sack-cloth and horrour should cover them and shame should be upon all their faces and baldnesse upon their heads Lord what a time of mourning should here be What a time of horrour Destruction is threatned and whom destruction missed mourning should over-take feeblenesse should follow weakenesse should pursue horrour should cover Oh that verie time is come now upon us that prophesie is fullfilled in our Israel Here is noe sword to slay us noe fierie engines of a hellish invention to murder us noe men to take us captives
Ioel. 1.9 The meate-offering and the drinke-offering the participation of the holy Communion through feare is cut off from the house of the Lord the Priests the Lord's Ministers doe mourne Hos 4.3 The land mourneth and every one that dwelleth therein languisheth with the beastes of the field and with the fowles of the heavens Therfore with Ezâ—… I will goe into the chamber Ezr 10 6. and when I am come thither I will eate noe bread nor drinke water for I will mourne because of the transgressions of us all Or with Nehemiah I will sitt downe and weepe Neh 1.4 and mourne certaine dayes and fast and pray before the God of heaven example 6 The Lord God of hosts did threaten to touch the land of Israel Amos. 9.5 and it should melt and all that dwelled therein should mourne and it should rise up wholly like a flood and be drowned as by the flood of Egypt Thus hath hee threatned us allso and hath hee not brought it to passe See Ps 97.5 See how the land melteth yea melteth like waxe at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of the whole earth Needes must the land the hearts of the inhabitants of the land melt at his presence seeing the Apostle styleth him a consuming fire Heb 12 29. O how all doe mourne that dwell in the land The parents lament the sicknesse of the child the wife of the husband the servant of the mistresse all mourne all lament It may now be truely sayd that the whole land is drowned for what eye is not dimmed with teares What house is not filled with teares What streete is not washed with teares If he saltnesse of water will cause a barrennesse of the earth what fruite can possible our land produce which is thus moistened thus watered with the brine of our teares And yet mee think's the earth appeareth as greedie as ever for it speedily devoureth whatsoever is sprinkeled on it by the sorrowes of the inhabitants The infected cry and the languishing cry and shall not my teares much rather trickle downe my cheekes allthough my doore is not yet converted into pasture nor my walkes overgrowne with the springing grasse O yes much much rather yea and with the more courage will I weepe by how much the more I retaine my strength to weepe I heare Ier 4.31 mee thinke's the voyces of the visited as of a woman in travell and their anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child bewayling themselves and spreading their hands and each of them saying woe is mee now for my soule is wearied because of this murdering sicknesse Is 22.4 Therefore will I take up the resolution of the Prophet Isaiah and whosoever shall come to divert my teares to them I will say Looke away from mee I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort mee Or with Ieremiah my soule shall weepe in secret places Ier 13.17 for their paines and mine eye shall weepe sore and runne downe with teares because the Lord's flock is thus destroyed The Second part of the Soliloquie treating of Severall causes of God's visitations I Mourne and I mourne and all out of a sense of the generall sufferance I mourne and I mourne by president But doe I find the cause of our distresses The ground of our sicknesses Pestilence is not the onely arrow that is shot from the All-mighty when his revenge is stirred up and yet every punishment is termed a stroake a stripe a plague When the Lord intended the spoyle of the Egyptians by the children of Israel that which in others would have beene deemed theft or at the least a cozenage was in the Israelites but justice and done in obedience to him who is Lord of all Ex. 12.36 when they spoyled the Egyptians of their jewells which yet they but borrowed vers 35 And yet this to the lenders is termed a plague for the Lord said unto Moses Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh c. 11.1 and upon Egypt afterwards hee will let you goe hence When the firstborne of Egypt were decreed to be slaine for the stubbornesse of the King the execution of that decree was styled a plague for God tould the Israelites by his servant Moses c. 12.13 saying The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where yee are and when I see the blood I will passe over you and the plague shall not bee upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt When the children of Israel had longed after the flesh-pots of Egypt and cryed and murmured against Moses and Aaron saying c. 16.3 Would to God wee had dyed by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when wee sate by the flesh-pots and when wee did eate bread to the full for yee have brought us forth into this wildernesse to kill this whole assembly with hunger then I find the Lord was intreated for flesh but that flesh proved the destruction of the people and that destruction is called a plague For Num. 11.33 while the Quailes were yet betweene their teeth saith the text yere the flesh was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord smote the people with a very greate plague Consumption is allso sayd to be a plague for so saith the Prophet Zech. 14.12 This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem Their flesh shall confume away while they stand upon their feete and their eyes shall consume away in their holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth Thus every judgment is truely a plague and from God it cometh and upon men weake men mortall men and women it cometh but it is for their sinnes it is for their transgressions Every one groane 's under the affliction but few for the cause Wee are angrie with the rodde and wee are angrie with the Correctour and yet wee quarrell not with our selves for meriting such yea more yea greater yea more tormenting more continueing punishments I will therfore looke into the sacred page yet once againe I will looke into the roll of that booke Eze 2.9 and with Ezekiel I will spread it before mee and find written therein the Lamentations vers 10 and mournings and woes I will find the punishments and I will find out the offences too I will mourne with them with us with every one that is visited with them for our selves I will prye into the causes of our maladies seing I know that God will not be angry without a cause Ps 89.30 Wee doe first forsake his lawes and walke not in his judgments wee first prophane his statutes vers 31 and breake his commandements vers 32 before hee visiteth our transgression with the rodde and our iniquity with stripes example 1 Wherfore did the Prophet Ieremiah cry
out Ier 23.9 and say Mine heart within mee is broken all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath over-come because of the Lord because of the word of his holinesse Here I find the Prophet in a strange and fervent passion in a trembling exstasie yet not too greate if I consider the cause if I weigh the verse that immediately ensueth For the land saith hee is full of adulterers vers 10. for because of swearing or cursing the land mourneth the pleasant places of the wildernesse are dryed up and their course is evill and their force is not right Was Ierusalem thus visited for swearing and cursing Was Samaria thus burnt up with drought for adulterie Lord what then hath not this land deserved An oath in every tongue causeth a crosse upon every doore Vncleanenesse in every person causeth the fowlest sores in every patient The sinns are universall the punisbment must needes therfore be as universall The punishment is become generall ô that our sorrow would grow as generall This disease may be cured by lotion For my part therfore I will be the first that shall steppe into Bethesda Io 5.2 for I have layne the longest in my sinnes long have I allso wayted for the salvation of my God I will imitate the Prophet Ieremiah and cry out with him and as truely as hee Mine heart is broken example 2 Why did the Prophet Micah resolve to Wayle and to howle to goe stript and naked Mic 2.8 to make a wayling like the Dragons and mourning as the Owles vers 3. Was it not because the Lord was comeing forth out of his place comeing downe to tread upon the high places of the earth Was it not because the mountaines should be vers 4. molten under him and the valleys be cleft as waxe before the fire and as the waters that are powred downe a steepe place Here was destruction for Samaria and ruine for Ierusalem vers 5. but all this was for the transgression of Iacob and for the sinnes of the house of Israel The graven images were the sinnes of the people idolatrie incensed the wrath of the All mighty Well might hee punish when the worke of men's hands robbed him of his honour whose worke-man-ship wee are Well might hee resolve to be knowne the mighty God in his revenge whom they would not acknowledge to be God when hee forbore them But is it not just so with us as it was with them vers 5. Is not Samaria the sinne of Is not Samaria the sinne of our Iacob Are not the high places of Iudah our Ierusalem Here is wrath and wrath and plague and plague but is not idolatrie still in our gates The God of the Patriarch saith unto us Gen. 35.2 as Iacob did unto his house-hould and to all that were with him Put away the strange gods that are among you If therfore wee have still a noise of the beades of the chaplets pretended to be consecrated at Rome if wee have pictures worshipped crucifixes adored prayers not understood and other footesteps of the heathen remaining amongst us I cannot choose but remember what our incensed Creatour saith by his Prophet concerning the sinnes of the Iewes Ier. 9.9 Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord Shall not my soule be avenged on such a nation as this Lord where thou art not truely worshipped thou wilt be dreadfully feared Though this sinne be not generall though not universall amongst us is it not to be found in private Doeth it not lurke in private closetts Is it not harboured in some secret hearts Io 3.30 It hateth the light because it is not the trueth but yet our sinnes may multiply in the darke untill they have brought us to the land of darkenesse O that with Iacob wee would all arise Gen 35.3 and goe up to Bethel and make there an alter unto our God then wee know hee would answer us in our distresse This is our plague this is our punishment which now doeth rage amongst us and is not that our sinne Is not that our iniquitie What remaineth but that so farre as lyeth in mee I should strive to appease the wrath of my God I will therfore endeavour to blunt his arrow that it may stick noe more when hee shooteth it at us I will pray unto him to remove at once both the sinne and the punishment I will doe as did Micah I will wayle and howle I will wayle like the Dragons and mourne like the Owles example 3 When Ezra had confessed the sinne of the people weeping Ezra 10.1 and casting himselfe downe before the house of God there assembled unto him out of Israël a very greate congregation of men and women and children and the people wept very sore What ayled the Priest to cast himselfe downe and the people so sorely to weepe were they not come out of captivitie Were they not busied in reedifying the house of the Lord Were not their burnt offerings and their sacrifices made unto the God of Israël What now should deject them What should dismay them The Lord questioneth Cain the murderer Gen 4.6 the fratricide saying Why is thy countenance fallen If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted vers 7. And if thou doest not well sinne lyeth at the doore Thus might Iudah and Benjamin be likewise examined They had a sinne that lay at the doore yea neerer clâ—ser to them if possible might be even in their beds Ezr 9.1 in their bosomes They had not seperated themselves from the people of the lands and from doeing according to their abominations but they had taken of their daughters for themselves vers 2. and for their sonnes yea the hand of the Princes and rulers had beene chiefe in this trespasse Yet for all this their punishment was not hitherto come upon them to the full They had yet but a sprinkeling of it onely some droppes or at most but a gust a small storme a shewer or two of raine When the Lord was angry the clowdes frowned they knitt their browes and as it were in the aboundance of their compassion c 10.9 they dissolved into teares for the sinnes of the people But more vengeance was expected therfore the children of the captivitie turned away their wives vers 14 that the fierce wrath of God for this matter might be turned from them If such a sinne as this be the cause of this our dreadfull visitation wee ought allso with them to sit in the streete of the house of God trembling vers 9. because of this matter Whether this or whatsoëver else is the cause of this contagion the sinne of this land for my part I will resolve with the same Ezra to sit astonied at the sinnes of the land c 9.4 and with the people I will tremble at the words of the God of Israël because of the transgressions of
hungrie cry when they buy of the rich and are cozened by the rich when they suffer in the cozenage and suffer likewise in the publike in the generall punishment for the cozenage For this our land mourneth for this our people are visited our houses are shut up our streetes are not frequented ouâ— markets not filled and yet the hungry lament and the thirstie doe mourne The poore can neither buy for their money not be imployed in their willing labours to earne them money Is 59.11 nor live without money Wee roare all like Beares and mourne sore like Doves Wee looke for judgment but there is none for salvatien but it is farre from us Therfore with the oppressed I will cry and with the visited allso I will cry I will cry with the oppressed for right and I will cry with â—…e visited for health How long Lord â—ow long wilt thou punish us c. 44.22 O remove â—…ur sinnes like a cloude blott out as a thick cloude our transgressions and as a cloude our sinnes returne unto us for thou hast redeemed us part 3 The Third part of the Soliloquie shewing that Sinne especially is the cause of the Pestilence THe diseased ignorant of the kind of their maladies cause the Phisitian 〈◊〉 consult with their pulses to examine their â—rine and by symptomes to find out the â—ause of their disturbance So should the sick soule allso or else the ignorance of the sinne may hinder the cure Generall complaints have beene made by men groaning under the burdens of severall visitations but doeth the Pestilance come by the same rules and arise from the same causes Surfeits and Consumptions and Feavers and Palsies and Plurisies and other such sicknesses may have their causes in nature and their remedies oftentimes by physick but neither is the cause of the Pestilence so cleere in nature nor is the cure thereof so easie by physick Or if it be yet is this disease more infectious more mortall and therfore more dreadfull then any of the rest It shall therfore be my first care to find out the cause in my soule before I looke upon the effects thereof in the bodies of sinfull mortalls I will examine our times by those of our ancestours and see whether this generall contagion doeth not rather proceede from the mallice of the soule then from the aire dyet or whatsoever else the Phisitians conjecture at The men which Moses had sent to spie out the land of Canaan returned 1. Num 14.36 and made all the congregation to murmur against Moses by bringing up a slaunder upon that land of promise those very men that did bring up that evill report upon the land vers 37 dyed of the plague before the Lord. What Of the plague Of the Pestilence There were but ten of those spies and those ten onely dyed Wee have the Pestilence too but it contenteth not it selfe with ten ten and ten and ten but hundreds dye hundreds are visited thousands complaine every one feareth But was their disease the same as ours Was not theirs an inflammation of their tongues and wormes issueing out of them as a just recompenseâ— because with their tongues they had lyed Or was it not some other extraordinarie plague from the hand of God Or was it not that Pestilence which was threatned when the Lord said unto Moses vers 11 How long will this people provoke mee and how long will it be ere they believe mee for all the signes which I have shewed among them vers 12 I will smite them with the Pestilence and disinherit them and will make of thee a greater nation mightier then they Whatsoever their disease was though I cannot determine it yet will I consider the cause thereof The cause was a sinne a grievous sinne a lye and the effect of this was a sinne a grievous sinne it was murmuring O thus have wee allso added sinnes unto sinnes Wee allso lye wee lye grievously desperately impudently Like unto Iob's friends wee are forgers of lyes Iob. 13.4 Ps 40.4 Ps 58.3 Ps 62.4 Eze. 24 12. Hos 10 13. wee turne aside to lyes wee goe astray so soone as wee be borne and speake lyes wee delight in lyes and wee have wearied our selves with lyes justly therfore now doe wee eate the fruit of lyes And yet not contented with this wee murmur too Against our superiours wee murmur for not governing us according to our licentious and sinfull desires against the rich wee murmur because wee floate not in their plentie yea even against God himselfe wee murmur because hee graunteth not our sinfull desires Thus in every thought and in every word wee either find a sinne or make a sinne For this our lying for this our murmuring wee are now visited wee are now stricken wee are as those spies were destroyed of the destroyer 1. Cor. 10.10 The rebellious Israëlites were threatned by Moses that Every sicknesse 2. Deut. 28.61 every plague which was not written in the booke of the law them should the Lord bring upon them untill they were destroyed vers 62 And they should be left few in number whereas they were as the starres of heaven for multitude These were the menaces these were the threats to the children of Israël but among all these sicknesses where is that which reigneth among us Hath God prepared a new punishment for us such as the Israëlites never suffered nor the law ever mentioned nor skill ever cured Doubtlesse thus God could afflict us but hee chuseth rather to punish us as hee did others that so wee might find out the cause as others have done Hee was pleased to tell the Israëlites the cause of their plague which hee would send upon them vers 62 even Because they would not obey the voyce of the Lord their God Iust thus hee punisheth us as hee punished them even untill wee are allmost quite destroyd and hee telleth us our sinne our offence too by his word by his ministers by our owne consciences even that wee refuse to obey the voyce of the Lord. Iust therfore most just it is that seeing wee have wee doe wee will thus sinne even thus yea thus severely likewise wee should be punished Yea wee deserve it in a farre greater manner in a sarre greater measure Hee who threatned those that would walke contrarie unto him and would not hearken unto him Lev 26 21. that hee would bring seaven times more plagues upon them according to their sinnes Hee who by Moses threatned them that If they would not observe to doe all the words of that law which are written in that booke Deut 28.58 that they might feare this glorious name The Lord thy God vers 59 Then the Lord should make their plagues wonderfull and the plagues of their seede even greate plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance The selfe-same God hath found us walking contrarie unto him and therfore hath
cleere though man should judg thee Under this thy heavie wrath wee groane ô Lord wee cry wee howle for sicknesse increaseth death approacheth yea such a sicknesse and such a death as maketh us feare both our selves and our neighbours because wee have not feared thee the Lord of hosts Thou seest ô Lord our afflictions even that our houses are made our prisons and our sores our companions Our streetes are turned into pastures our townes into wildernesses and for our backwardnesse in our devotions our very doores instruct us to addresse our selves unto thee and to beseech thee Lord to have mercy upon us Our dayes are consumed in sorrowes and languishing and our nights in weeping and mourning Thou woundest us and wee cry thou smitest us and wee roare thou plaguest us and wee are troubled wee are dismayed Our Golgothaes are surfeited with the dead and our habitations infected with the living Wee flye from place to place from countrie to countrie yet wee flie not from thy presence wee avoyd not thy judgments What shall wee doe What shall wee doe Is there noe balme Ier 8.22 ô Lord in Gilead Is there noe physitian there Why then is not the health of the daughter of thy people recovered Thy sonne thy mercifull sonne thy sweete sonne Iesus was sent to bind up the broken hearted Is 61.1 vers 2. and to open the prisons to them that were bound and to comfort them that mourne and hee was not backward in the performance of this for which hee was sent Mat 4.23 c. 15.30 for hee healed all manner of sicknesse and all manner of diseases among the people At thy feete therfore ô Iesus thou best physitian wee cast our selves downe A multitude wee are that lye at thy feere Cure us ô Christ heale us ô Iesus as thou didest the multitude Lu 6.19 Mat 14 14. A whole multitude once did seeke to touch thee for there went vertue out of thee and thou healedst them all Thou wert moved with compassion and didst heale their sick Many didst thou cure of their infirmities and plagues Luc 7.21 Is 59.1 Behould thy hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither is thine eare heavy that thou canst not heare The number of petitioners cannot deterre thee Mat. 3.10 the multitude of suitors cannot molest thee for thou hast healed many therfore with the multitude in the gospel wee presse upon thee that wee may but touch thee for thou hast vertue in thee thou hast power to heale O Lord heare ô Lord forgive ô Lord heale us of our grievous wounds In the depth of thy furie when thou didst resolve to be revenged of a rebellious people it was yet thy promise that thou wouldest leave a few from the sword Eze 12 16. and from the famine and from the Pestilence that they might declare all their abominations among the people where they should come that they might know that thou art the Lord. Vs thou hast plagued us thou hast punished so sorely so grievously that but few of us are left yet ô Lord now at last looke in mercy upon us ô Lord let this remnant findthy compassion O cure us O heale us ô helpe us for thy mercie 's sake When thou wert angrie with Egypt Is 19.22 thou didst threaten to smite it but even at that very instant thou didst likewise promise to heale it and that they should returne unto thee their Lord and that thou wouldest be intreated of them Ier 33.6 Thou didst proclaine unto Iudah that thou wouldest bring it health and cure and wouldest cure them and reveale unto them aboundance of peace and trueth Thou didst promise unto Zion that thou wouldest restore health unto her c 30.17 and heale her of her wounds because shee was called an out-cast by the people saying This is Zion whom noe man seeketh after These were thy promises even in the midst of thy threatnings and wilt thou be worse unto us then thou wert unto Egypt or Iudah or Zion True it is that thou expectest our conversion Ioel. 2.12 thou commandest us to turne unto thee with all our hearts and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning To thee therfore ô God though formerly wee have not yet now doe wee turne Wee turne unto thee both our weeping eyes and our dejected countenances and our wringing hands and our bended knees and our mournefull voyces and our groaning hearts Mercifull God behould our teares and view our countenances and looke upon our hands and strengthen our knees and hearken to our voyees and comfort our hearts The Priests ô Lord vers 17 even thine owne Ministers doe weepe betweene the porch and the altar and they say Spare thy people ô Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach Ezra 10.1 Our Ezra's pray and confesse and weepe and cast themselves downe before thine house and the people assemble themselves unto them both our men and our women and our children for wee all weepe very sore Num 2.56 Wee weepe as the Israëlites did before the doore of the tabernacle of the congregation when twentie and fowre thousand of them dyed of the Pestilence Thus wee mourne thus wee weepe our eyes our hearts our very soules doe weepe ô let us tast of thy love let us feele thy compassion Make us to boast of thy praise as thy servant David did Ps 30.2 when hee cryed unto thee and thou didst heale him Thou hast beene wrath with us as thou wert with the Iewes for their coveteousnesse Is 57.17 and thou hast smitten us thou hast bid thy selfe and hast been angry yet wee have gone on frowardly in the wayes of our hearts But ô our God doe thou make us as penitent as those lewes and then say unto us as thou didst unto thy Iudah vers 18 I have seene thy wayes and I will heale thee I will leade thee allso and restore comforts unto thee and to thy mourners Alas wee mourne and yet wee are punished wee grieve and yet wee are plagued and all because our iniquities doe testifie against us Ier. 14.7 but for thy name's sake ô Lord be pleased to spare us vers 8. O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land and as a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarrie but a night vers 9. Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied as a mighty man that cannot save Thou ô Lord art still in the midst of us and wee are called by thy name therfore wee pray thee 1. King 8.37 vers 38 leave us not O here is a Pestilence in our land and wee make our prayers and supplications vers 39 and streetch forth our hands to ward thine house Heare therfore in heaven thy dwelling place vers 40 and forgive that wee may feare thee and walke in thy wayes all the dayes of our lives Or if
the throne of my God Be sure thou doest it for I will have a watch over my mouth and at the doores of my lipps that I may be certaine thou offend nor As for the rest of my selfe since I cannot stay now to give every part a charge in particular I shall command them onely to attend the pleasure of my royall guest Onely my thoughts I must commit to the tuition of my heart allthough it formerly hath beene false unto mee and desirous I am that they may be pressed pressed downe with greate and heavie burdens But I charge thee ô my Heart if ever thou hopest to be mine owne deere Heart that thou suffer not an imagination not a thought to come neere thee but what shall be commended unto thee by religion and what thou shalt dispatch to thy Maker And now I am prepared for thee Wellcome ô my God If my roomes are not cleane enough for thee I must intreate from thee both direction and assistance to cleanse then If any dust of wickednesse hath flowne about in the sweeping of them I will now give my mind to wash my chambers with the teares of mine eyes and that I know thou delightest in O thrice well-come blessed God Wellcome ô well-come my deerest Redeemer O how truely did the Kingly preacher affirme that Eccl 7.2 It is better to goe to the house of mourning then to goe to the house of feasting for that is the end of all and the living will lay it to heart My house is shut up indeede it is shut up for the infection for feare of the infection for feare lest others should infect my familie or for feare lest my familie should be insectious to others But what of all that I am not the first that ever was shut up I am not the onely one that ever was shut up Lev 13 4. vers 5. The Leper in the law was to be shut up seaven dayes and at the seaven dayes end when the Priest looked on him if the plague in his sight were at a stay and spreaded not in the skinne hee was to shut him up yet seaven dayes more This shutting up was rather for his cure then intended for his hurt Gen 7.16 Noah was sayd to be shut up in the Arke but it was for his preservation and so may I be likewise Ieremiah was shut up too Ier. 32.2 yea in a prison allthough his jayle was the house of the King and yet even at that time hee was visited by the best by one better then the King even by God himselfe for hee often spake to him in the time that hee was shut up c 33.1 Thus am I shut up even in a prison made of my dwelling I hope that my God will speake comfortably unto mee I will hope that hee hath shut mee up as a jewell in a cabinet in his care in his tender compassion If so I am sure that noe evill shall come in unto mee for hee is holy hee is true hee is powerfull who hath mee in keeping Reu 3.7 Hee hath the key of David hee openeth and noe man shutteth and hee shutteth and noe man openeth True it is that sometimes hee shutteth out as when hee shutteth out from his eares the prayers of his people Thus the faithfull complaine by the mouth of the Prophet Lam 3 8. When I cry and showte hee shutteth out my prayers Sometimes hee shutteth up and that in judgment too as Hee shutteth up the eyes of idolaters Is 44.18 that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand And sometimes man shutteth too even when hee is forsaken of God for so saith the wise King A violent man shutteth his eyes to devise froward things Prov 16.30 And againe God is sayd sometimes in judgment to shut up even heaven it selfe as in a time of drought Therfore Moses adviseth the Israëlites saying Deut 11.16 Take heede to your selves that your heart be not deceaved and yee turne aside and serve other Gods and worship them vers 17 And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you and hee shut up the heaven that there be noe raine and that the land yeeld not her fruit and lest yee perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you But sure I am that allthough hee should shut mee up in judgment yet hee whose compassions faile not Lam 3.22 Hab 3.2 vers 5. in the midst of judgment will remember mercy I know that in former times hee hath beene angry and then before him went a Pestilence and burning coales went forth at his feete I know that once when the people of Israel had offended then the sword was without Eze 7.15 and the Pestilence and the famine within hee that was in the field was threatned that hee should die with the sword and hee that was in the citty famine and Pestilence should devoure him I know that Elijah Prophesied against Iehoram in writing saying 2. Chr 21.12 Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast not walked in the wayes of Iehoshaphat thy father nor in the wayes of Asa King of Iudah vers 14 Behould with a greate plague will the Lord smite thy people and thy children and thy wives and all thy goods vers 15 And thou shalt have greate sicknesse by disease of thy bowells untill thy bowells fall out by reason of the sicknesse day by day Iob 11.10 And I know allso that if hee cut off and shut up or gather together none can hinder him But what then What though hee hath shut mee up Shall I therfore rage and rave like one distracted c. 30.29 vers 30 What though I am a sister to Dragons and a companion to Owles VVhat though my skinne should be black upon mee and my bones be burnt up with heate c. 3.3 Should I therfore cry Let the day perish wherein I was borne and the night in which it was sayd There is a child conceaved O noe I will rather resolve with afflicted Iob Though hee slay mee yet will I trust in him c. 13.15 Why should I offer to be dismayed That God which dwelleth in the heavens hath taken up my house and is come to sojourne with mee upon earth I will speake in the phrase of a King But will God indeede dwell on the earth 1. King 8.27 Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot conteine thee how much lesse this house of mine which thou now doest visit O what a happinesse it is to have God for our visitant Though hee cometh in wrath yet is hee well-come O let mee have my God any way rather then not have him at all If hee should not sometimes be angry with mee I should suspect that hee loved mee not but if for ever hee should be angry with mee I should feele that hee loved mee not Hee is never angry with mee but when I am not angry with my selfe I will
soone therfore appease his anger by revenging my selfe upon my selfe for the sinnes which I have committed against his glorious name And if I cannot be revenged enough I will cry for anger even for anger that I cannot punish my selfe enough for displeasing him who thus honoureth my roofe When the Israelites were to eate the Paschall lanb Ex 12.7 they were commanded to take of the blood thereof and to strike it on the two side-posts and on the upper doore-post of the houses wherein they did eate it vers 13 And the blood saith the Lord shall be to you for a token upon the houses where yee are and when I see the blood I will passe over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt O here is comfort now in the midst of affliction here is joy in the depth of sorrow See there there is that token there is the blood on the doore or at least the representation of it for the red Crosse is there It is to mee for a token or a memoriall of the blood of that innocent Lamb without spot that was slaine that was crucified on the Crosse for the sinnes of the elect Now Lord doe what thou pleasest spare or strike it shall be all one to mee so long as thou givest mee a firme assurance that hee hath suffered for mee I vallew not my flesh I care not for this lumpe of walking dust let it be blowne away let this muddewall be throwne downe it is noe matter I am content so long as I am sure that the anger of my God will be appeased by the blood of my Redeemer and that so soone as my soule shall be freed from the prison of my flesh I shall for ever sit on the right hand of my Iesus Sure I am that allthough my house be shut up because of the infection yet my Christ will cleanse my soule with his blood Therfore World farewell shut up whom thou pleasest Thy companie is not so good nor thy courtesie so greate as to command my joy Allthough my house here be shut up yet hee which is faithfull hath promised that the gates of that new Ierusalem Reu 21 25. which is above shall not be shut at all by day and that there shall be noe night there O let mee begge of my Lord my Land-Lord yea my guest my friend my brother my father that seeing I am a woman a fearefull woman wonderfully afraid especially of a serpent c 20.2 or a dragon hee will be pleased to lay hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devill and Satan vers 3. and bind him and cast him into the bottomlesse pit and shut him up and set a seale upon him that hee may deceave mee noe more O how contentedly then shall I mourne How joyfully shall I grieve for all the offences that ever I committed Well now my God is pleased to speake to my conscience away will I goe in private all alone and cry in a corner I will weepe by my selfe away I will goe and separate my selfe from my familie yea even from him who is my head and my Lord that I may the more freely weepe This I will doe and this I may doe for when Ierusalem had her great mourning not onely every familie mourned apart Zech 12.12 but even their wives allso mourned apart So will I I will mourne apart too But because I must not offer to offer unto my God such a present as a litle poore botle of teares Ps 56.8 and say nothing to him when I render it humbly therfore upon my knees will I fall and thus will I say unto him The Prayer GLorious and ever-living Lord God Ps 75.5 who doest suffer the wicked to live in prosperitie to be in noe trouble like other men nor to be plagued like other men but hast tould us that whomsoever thou lovest thou doest chasten Heb 12 6. and scourgest every child whom thou receavest vouchsafe I beseech thee to sanctifie this affliction which thou hast layed at this time upon mee and mine 1. King 17.18 Thou art come ô my God to call my sinnes to remembrance ô let mee not frustrate thine intent not repell the motions of thy blessed Spirit My selfe and my familie are now shut up from the lewde temptations of the seducing world Lord make mee at this time to looke into my selfe into mine owne wicked and sinfull heart which hath beene so long shu◠up even from mine owne selfe from mine understanding and my knowledge This o Lord is thy time to speake let it I beseech thee be my time to heare My house is become a house of thy correction and my selfe familie are the offenders whom thou art pleased to chastise Ier 10.24 Ps 88.7 Lord correct us but with judgment not in thine anger lest thou bring us to nothing Thy wrath at this time lyeth hard upon us and thou afflictest us with all thy waves Thou hast put our acquaintance farre from us vers 8. thou hast made us to be an abomination unto them wee are shut up and cannot come forth Ps 38.11 Our lovers and our friends stand aloofe from us and our neighbours stand afarre off Ps 88.9 By reason of this affliction mine eye mourneth Lord I call dayly upon thee Ps 69.15 Ps 73.14 Ps 69.3 and stretch out mine hands unto thee O let not the water-flood over-flow us neither let the deepe swallow us up and let not the pit shut her mouth upon us All the day long are wee plagued and chastened every day I am wearie of crying Ps 69.3 my throate is drie my sight even faileth for wayting so long upon thee my God Ps 78.39 Ps 91.3 O consider thy distressed servants that wee are but flesh that wee are even a wind that passeth away and cometh not againe Deliver us o Lord from the snare of the fowler from the noisome Pestilence Either send unto us or else be thou thy selfe unto us a staffe as well as a rodde Ps 23.4 Ps 91.5 a supporter as well as a correctour that so wee may not be afraid for the terrour by night vers 6. nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the Pestilenee that walketh in darkenesse nor for the destruction that wasteth at moone-day Prepare us o Lord for those heavenly mansions where thy Sonne sitteth at thy right hand making intercession for us Heare him pleading for our remission and inter-ceding for our pardon Out of his wounds have issued that pretious balsamome which is able to cure the sinnes of the whole world In him be pleased to be reconciled unto us since our times are in thine hands Ps 31.15 Lord either spare us for thine honour or else receave us to thy mercy Let the health of our bodies make us mindfull to labour for the health of our soules and
to whom shall I goe To what physitian or Chyrurgion shall I repaire Lev. 13.2 I reade that if any man of the house of Israël had in the skinne of his flesh a rising or a swelling or a bright spott and if it were in the skinne of the flesh like the plague of Leprosie then hee was to be brought to Aaron the Priest or unto one of his sonnes the Priests vers 3. and the Priest was to looke on the plague in the skinne of the flesh and then to proceede according to order Thus under the Law the Priests were the Physitians both for the body and the soule where upon the Prophet Ieremiah complained and accounted it as a greate judgment upon the people for their sinnes that From the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealt falsely Ier. 6.13 vers 14 they healed allso the hurt of the people sleightly Hence allso another Prophet reproved them Eze. 34.4 because The diseased they had not strengthened neither had they healed that which was sick neither had they bound up that which was broken Under the Gospel allso the Apostles were likewise Physitians for both Mat. 10.1 for when Christ had called unto him his twelve Disciples hee not onely gave them power against un-cleane Spirits to cast them out but allso to heale all manner of sicknesses and all manner of diseases Doubtlesse by this I am likewise taught into whatsoëver sicknesse I fall Psa 110.4 Mal. 4.2 Make use of the prayer which followeth the next Meditation whatsoëver disease I am visited with first of all to goe to the Priest to the Minister of God first to examine my soule before I looke for the cure of my body To the Priest will I therfore goe to the chiefe Priest to the high Priest to the chiefest and highest that ever was even to him who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek and humbly will I besiech him to teach mee to feare his name and then I know that hee who is the Sunne of righteousnesse will arise with healing in his wings and will make mee goe forth and grow up as calves of the stall 2. Teares of the visited being marked with the Tokens The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray THere is a time to kill saith Solomon and a time to heale Eccl. 3.3 O that time to kill is now come upon mee but I know not how so much as to hope for the time of healing for here I find the tokens of death the markes of my mortalitie This flesh this sinfull flesh of mine which hath beene so washed so unguented so smoothed and coloured according to the choycest witt of art and industrie hath now the staines in it of a contagious sicknesse Where are now those admirers of comelinesse those idolatrous doaters upon the beawtie of women Let them come and learne the vanitie of their opinions chide their simplicitie by these tokens of vengeance O what a fraile thing is woman easily deluded into a beliefe of her beawty and as easily stricken with her owne deformitie But what doe these spotts meane to die my flesh and strike such a deepe tinture in a smoothed sknne Are diseases blind that thus they fasten every where without either choyce or exception Vaine woman as I am why doe I spend these minuits these few and winged minuits alotted unto mee in such impertinent quaeres These blewish staines tell mee that I must provide to answer for my sinnes yea shortly speedily before him who dispatched them hither unto mee Death approacheth mortalitie knocketh at my burdened heart Lord how heavie is my soule Even as if it were allready at the greate tribunall and pleaded guiltie of millions of enormities They have corrupted themselves saith Moses by the Israëlites Deut 32.5 their spot is not the spot of God's children they are a perverse and crooked generation Is there a spot then which even the children of God may be subject unto Why then may not these be some of those spotts and my selfe be one of those children of God Lord how willingly how greedily doeth every one strive to dye the death of the righteous How easilie are wee apt through ignorance to dwell in the letter of the text when wee should rather prie into a farther intent of the blessed Spirit That spot of the children of God is not seated in the body but in the soule and that spot in the soules of the Israelites was chiefely Idolatrie True it is that even the righteous have their stainei too vers 15 16.17 but not such bloaches not such greate and fowle spots or howsoever not of such a deepe tincture not dyed so in graine as are those of the wicked for they are washed out with the teares of sorrow through the blood of the Lamb. O that my spotts were onely in my skinne and not in my soule and that I could truely justifie my selfe in the language of Iob. Iob. 31.6 vers 7. Let mee be weighed in an even ballance that God may know mine integritie If any blott hath cleaved to my hands But alas I cannot I dare not Yet if I could but come to a sight of my sinnes and be truely humbled for them then am I sure that hee who taught Iacob how to increase his flock of the speckled and the spotted Gen. 30.39 Is 1.18 would easily make mee white as wooll But how or upon what grounds can I expect his mercy feeing all that I can suffer is not punishment enough for all that I have trespassed Heb. 9.22 Without shedding of blood is noe remission sayth the blessed Apostle What comfort then can I expect or what mercy can I hope for seeing that my blood my life is not of vallew enough to suffer what my sinnes have merited much lesse to purchase remission of my sinnes What now shall I doe What hope can I have that my body should be freed from these spots of my disease when I know not how to be freed from the pollutions of my soule By the Mosaicall law If any one of the common people sinned against any of the commandements of God concerning things which ought not to be done Lev 4.27 vers 32 A Lamb without blemish was to be his offering and so the atonement was made for the sinne vers 35 and it was forgiven Here yet was some ease for a distressed soule the sinne was forgiven through the blood of the Lamb. But what hope have I of remission That Law doeth noe longer stand in force nor will the blood of a common Lamb be accepted for the least the smallest offence Yet Cheere up O my drooping soule Let my fainting spirits and my sorrowfull heart take comfort in the middest of my deepe distresse for there is
a Lamb Heb 9.28 an innocent Lamb a Lamb without blemish which once was offered to beare the sinnes of many I am one of those many who have sinned and why then should I not be one of those many too whose sinnes hee hath borne Lord make mee one of thy children through the merits of thy Sonne and cleanse the pollutions of my Soule by the blood of that Lamb even that Lamb of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Io 1.29 But whilest I thus meditate upon the staines of my soule my body biddeth mec to looke upon these un-wonted blemishes Lord how blewish they appeare Surely if those doaters upon our sexe should see these spotts they would forget their idolatrie and tremble at the judgment When Mordecay was cloathed in his blew and white Est 8.15 it is sayd that hee went in royall apparell The apparell of my skinne mee thinks doeth seeme to resemble the covering of his body for here is the ancient white which nature conferred and here is the blew come now too sent mee from God It is royall apparell because it is sent mee by the King of glory and it is well come too 2. Cor. 1.3 because that glorious King is the father likewise of mercies and the God of all consolation Prov 20.30 The blewnesse of a wound cleanseth away evill saith the wise King Solomon Surely hee meant not such a wound such a spot as is each of these for allthough these are blew yet certainly they cleanse not or if they doe cleanse their cleansing concerneth nothing but my soule they put mee in mind of that duety for my time is short and suddenly shall my poore soule bid fare-well to this corrupted to this spotted body but as for this body it cannot be cleansed it may be ruined by these blewish wounds Christ saith to his church Thou art all faire my love Cant 4.7 there is noe spot in thee and Saint Paul telleth mee how it cometh to passe that it is freed from spotts for Christ saith hee gave himselfe for it Eph. 5.25 that hee might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word vers 26 that hee might present it to himselfe a glorious church not having spott vers 27 or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Of this church am I a member a poore weake unworthy member and yet I have my spotts my corruptions in my soule which these in my body peepe out to remember mee of But why did I not keepe the commandements without spot 1. Tim. 6.14 and unrebukeable Why have I not kept my selfe un-spotted from the world Iam 1.27 O for this for this very cause am I now thus visited am I now thus stained and noe more am I able to take these prints out of my flesh then the Ethiopian is able to change his skinne Ier. 13.23 or the Leopard his spotts Yet I have comfort in my redeemer 1. Pet. 1 18. in him who hath redeemed mee not with corruptible things as silver and gold from my vaine conversation vers 19 but with the pretious blood of himselfe as of a Lamb without blemish and without spott Though my body therfore decay yet I have a confidence that my soule shall live I have an assurance of that for hee who bringeth mee to a sight of these spotts hath given mee likewise a sight of my sinnes his name be for ever magnified for it and mee think's they appeare a thousand thousand times more loathsome more ugly in my soule then these doe in my body They are ten million of times more certainly mortall in their owne condition to my soule with out the mercy of my Iesus then these are to my body Yet if it might be safe for mee to expostulate with my God I would say unto him in the lauguage of the Prophet Ier. 15.18 Why is my paine thus perpetuall and my wound in curable which refuseth to be healed Wilt thou be alltogether unto mee as waters that fayle Hast thou utterly rejected mee c. 14.19 Hath thy soule loathed mee Why hast thou smitten mee and there is noe healing for mee I looke for peace and there is noe good and for the time of healing and behould trouble But if I should thus expostulate in the phrase of the Prophet yet must I howsoëver conclude with the Prophet and say vers 20 I acknowledg ô Lord my wickednesse and the iniquity of my fathers for wee have sinned against thee Yet mee thinks these spotts will as hardly goe out of my mind as out of my body The expresse word of God to the Israelites was Yee shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead nor print any markes upon you Lev. 1◠28. I am the Lord. And good reason there was for this prohibition for they were very apt to be led by the heathens among whom it was a custome at the death of their friends to lament and cutt themselves it was their manner allso to make incisions in their flesh to fill up the wounds with Stibium or inke But I alas doe find here such prints and markes in my flesh as the very heathen themselves would have stood amazed at yet these are notcarved by the violence of my selfe but by the finger of my God I must therfore content my selfe and rejoyce at the sight of them Iam 1.17 since they proceede from him who is the father of lights allthough they presage darknesse unto mee for every good guift and every perfect guift is from above This guift does not seeme in it selfe to be either good or perfect but upon second more serious cogitations if my true repentance ensue upon them I shall find that they will hasten mee to the best good to the chiefest perfection even to the Kingdome which is purchased for mee by the blood of my Redeemer Iob 16.12 Alas I cannot choose but cry out with Iob and say I was at ease but hee hath broken mee asunder hee hath allso taken mee by my neck and shaken mee to pieces and set mee up for his marke Or with Ieremiah Lam 3.12 Hee hath bent his bowe and set mee as a Marke for the arrowe Or with Iob againe through the extreamitie of my sorrow I am enforced to expostulate with my God Iob 7.20 say Why hast thou set mee as a marke against thee so that I am a burden to my selfe But I will silence my selfe in his words againe and say I have sinned What shall I doe unto thee ô thou preserver of men When it pleased the All-mighty to preserve his children in the citty of Ierusalem when the rest should be destroyed hee commanded a man that was cloathed with linnen Eze 9.2 vers 4. and had a writer's inke-horne by his side to goe thorow the midst of the citty thorow the midst of
Ierusalem and to set a marke upon the fore-heads of the men that sighed and that cryed for all the abominations that were done in the midst thereof A marke I have too yea more then one and one and one though not in my fore head and they are set on as if they proceeded from the inke of the writer but woe is mee I have either not cryed at all or not enough either for mine owne sinnes or for the abominations of Ierusalem how then can I hope to escape the destruction And yet hee that spared them if hee please can spare mee likewise for his hand is not shortned Is 59.1 that it cannot save neither is his eare heavie that hee cannot heare 2. King 20.1 When Hezekiah was commanded to set his house in order and it was tould him that hee should die and not live vers 2. hee turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore vers 3. vers 5. and presently Isaiah was sent unto him to tell him Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayer I have seeno thy teares behould I will heale thee and I will adde unto thy dayes fifteene yeeres vers 6. Hee may be pleased to say unto mee too as hee did unto Hezekiah for I allso weepe yea I weepe very sore and I allso pray yea I pray heartily Ps 22.19 and say Be not thou farre from mee ô Lord ô my strength hast thee to helpe mee But Hezekiah was more righteous then I am 2. King 20.3 for hee walked before the Lord in trueth and with a perfect heart and did that which was good in his sight Rom. 7 18. Num 12.13 whereas in mee dwelleth noe good thing But Miriam was a woman as I am yea and sinfull and yet when shee was Leprous Moses cryed unto the Lord for her and sayd Heale her now ô God I besiech thee and shee was shut out from the campe but seaven dayes vers 15 and was healed O but shee had a Moses to pray for her whereas I alas have none I have noe such Moses to pray for mee But what shall I therfore remaine quite destitute of all hopes Shall I despaire of the goodnesse and the tender mercies of the most high Noe I may not I must not for that would but increase my sinne adde to my torments The woman in the Gospel who for twelve yeeres space had an issue of blood Mar 5.25 and had suffered many things of many physitians and had spent all that shee had and was nothing bettered vers 26 vers 27 but rather grew worse shee onely came behind my Iesus vers 29 and touched his garment and straight way the fountaine of her blood was dryed up and shee felt in her body that shee was healed of that plague vers 33 VVith that fearing and trembling woman therfore will I in like manner fall downe before him and tell him all the trueth I will confesse unto him all my sinnes or at least so many as possibly I can call to my remembrance Who knoweth but that hee may say unto mee as hee did unto her vers 34 Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole goe in peace and be whole of thy plague I am resolved to take noe repulse The whole multitude even the multitude of my sinnes shall not hinder mee though they rebuke mee that I should hould my peace but with the blind man in the Gospel I will cry so much the more Lu 18.39 Iesus thou sonne of David have mercy on mee Or if that prayer be too short while hee shall prolong my time I will compose and settle my selfe to a larger forme earnestly fervently zealously I will pray unto him and say The Prayer O Eternall and most mercifull Lord God whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sunne and yet thou vouchsafest to looke with thine eye of providence even upon the meanest of the children of men Lu 1.48 Ps 38.9 reguard I besiech thee the low estate of thine afflicted hand-mayd Thou knowest all my desires and my groaning is not hid from thee To thee the pollutions of my poore soule are more naked and open then these spotts in my flesh are obvious to my sight The fowlenesse of my corruptions have conspired with the infectious ayre to cause these staines in my skinn and by them I am commanded to prepare for my dissolution Lord if thou hast decreed by these meanes to free mee from this world of paine and miserie be pleased to translate mee from hence to the joy of thee my Lord and Master Mat. 25 23. Give mee ô my father a sight of mine imperfections make mee loath them and tremble at them more then I doe at these messengers of death Weane mee from the love of sinne by the consideration both of thy displeasure mine owne mortalitie These spotts appeare like so many eyes which seeme to stare mee in the face and would affright mee with horrour and all because I had not allways a consideration that thine eyes in every place doe behould the evill Prov. 15.3 and the good Blessed God give mee a sight of my corruptions and a detestation of them Ps 51.9 and then turne thou thy face away from my sinnes and blot out all mine iniquities Speake peace and health unto my wounded soule which every minuit expecteth thy coming Lord thou art a God who canst not abide to behould unrighteousnesse looke not therfore with thy wrathfull eye upon mee who am all sinne and pollution but upon thy Sonne and his sufferings Or if thou canst not choose but looke upon mee first cloath mee with the righteousnesse of that immaculate Lamb so shalt thou see mee with love and delight I shall behould thee with unspeakeable joy Prepare mee o my God that I may be a fit guest to be called and invited to the supper of the Lamb. Reu 19.9 Seale unto my soule the remission of mine offences and then make mee willingly to resigne up my body to thine owne disposing Yet thou mayest speake the word if so thou pleasest and thy servant may be healed Mat. 8.8 Luc. 17 15. There was a Leper in the Gospel who fell downe at thy feete ô Iesus giving thee thunks vers 16 and with a lowde voyce glorifying thy name because thou hadst healed him It is as easie for thee to restore mee in like manner Hos 5 13. as thou didst that Leper When Ephraim saw his sicknesse and went to the Assyrian Iudah saw his wound and sent to King Iareb there was found noe healing nor curing of the wounds but those that come unto thee shall find that thou art both able willing to heale all those that are broken in heart Ps 147 3. and to give medicine to heale their sicknesse for unto Israël thou diddest proclayme thy selfe The Lord that
healeth Ex 15.26 Psl 6.2 Have mercy therfore upon mee ô Lord for I am weake ô Lord heale mee for my bones are vexed Ps 41.3 Ier 17.14 Strengthen mee now upon my bed of languishing make thou all my bed in my sicknesse Heale mee o Lord and I shall be healed save mee and I shall be saved for thou art my praise c 30.12 O let not my bruise be incurable though my wound be grievous Let mee have one to pleade my cause vers 13 even that Holy One thine onely begotten Sonne that hee may bind mee up and give mee healing medicines Thou art hee who didst promise Iacob to correct him in measure vers 11 though not to leave him altogether unpunished Thou rebukest mee for my sinne Ps 39.11 and makest my beauty to consume away like as it were a moath fretting a garment These Markes in my flesh doe cause a trembling even in my spirit Rev 13.17 Ps 86.16 Lord graunt that upon my soule be not found the marke of the beast but the marke of thy sonne that hee may owne mee for his O turne thou unto mee and have mercy upon mee give thy strength unto thy servant and save thy distressed hand-mayd Shew now some good token for good vers 17 that it may appeare unto the world that thou Lord doest helpe mee and comfort mee But if in thy secret purpose thou hast decreed at this time to gather mee unto my fathers make mee with joy comfort to render mine account unto thee the Lord of heaven earth Looke not upon the sinnes and offences of my misse-led life but rather looke upon my Redeemer's death Is 53.5 who was wounded for my transgressions bruised for mine iniquites the chastisement of my peace was layed upon him by his stripes therfore let mee be healed In the midst of the streete of thy throne ô God Reu 22.2 of either side of the river of life there is a tree of life bearing twelve manner of fruits and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations O my God let mee but come to tast of those fruits let mee but be shaded under the leaves of that tree of life Ps 41.4 Ps 103 1. Be mercifull unto mee heale my soule for I have sinned against thee Then shall my soule blesse thee O my Lord and all that is within mee shall praise thy holy name who forgivest all mine iniquities vers 3. and canst heale my diseases Into thine hands I commend my spirit Ps 31.5 for thou hast redeemed mee ô Lord thou God of trueth The Spirit and the bride say Come Reu 22.17 therfore let mee who now heare it say Come Let mee heare thy voyce ô God Gen 3.8 in the coole of the day not in the heate of thy displeasure And thou ô my Iesus who for such sinners wert made a sacrifice on the altar of the crosse how downe thine eare as thou didst upon the tree and heare and fullfill the desires of thy wounded supplicant Come ô Iesus and embrace mee in thine armes hide mee in thy wounded side from the wrath of thy father In thee alone doe I trust to thee alone doe I flee succour mee helpe mee save mee O Christ The world I leave to thee I come At the doore of thy mercy doe I knock I call I cry Lord protect mee Iesus comfort mee Strengthen my faith and confirme my hope As my earthly body draweth neerer to the earth so doe thou draw my soule up neerer unto thee who art the father of spirits Heb 12 9. O God make speede to save mee O Lord make hast to helpe mee Finish soone these dayes of sinne and then let mee enter into thy celestiall paradice and that for his sake in whom alone thou art well pleased even Iesus Christ my onely Mediatour and Redeemer Amen subject 16 THE SIXTEENTH SUBjECT Teares of a Mother for the sicknesse of her child The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray IT shall come to passe saith Moses to the house of Israel if thou wilt not hearken to the voyce of the Lord thy God Deut 28.15 to observe to doe all his commandements and his statutes which I command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee vers 16 Cursed shalt thou be in the citty and cursed shalt thou be in the field Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store vers 17 yea Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body c. vers 18 What all these curses from heaven for the sins of poore distressed mortalls O what a multitude of evills doe our sinnes deserve What punishment doeth not iniquitie cry for It cryeth for the curse of the citty the decay of trading the curse of the field whole rivers of blood in furious battailes the curse of the basket and the store the dearth of provisions Yet all these are but outward punishments and reflect onely upon the baser the worse part of our selves the body but Cursed shall be the fruit of the body oh this biteth like a Serpent stingeth like a Cockatrice Prov 23.32 The fruit of my body Is afflicted with sicknesse but is the sinne of the parent the cause of his affliction Yes yes my conscience acknowledgeth the guilt let my tongue be as ready to confesse it and my heart to repent of it But how standeth this with the justice of the Creatour Gen 18.25 Shall not the judg of all the earth doe right The Prophet Ezekiel telleth mee from God that The sonne shall not beare the iniquity of the father Eze 18 20. Mich 7 6. Ier 9.20 neither shall the father beare the iniquity of the sonne but the soule that sinneth it shall dye Else the daughter might rise up against her mother as saith the Prophet and the women by reason of the vengeance due for their sinnes might teach their daughters wayling c 31.29 Rom 3 4. if the sowre grapes which the parents have eaten should set their childrens teeth on edge But let God be true and every man a lyar that hee may be justified in his sayings and may over-come when hee is judged Hee it is who hath threatned to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him The sinne is mine Ex 20.5 but the punishment is mine infant's againe the sinne is mine infant's and the punishment is mine And yet farther The sinne is of and from both and the punishment is inflicted upon both His sufferance is my sorrow and his paines my distresse Lord what a due reward of sinne is punishment My child as yet it may be knoweth not sinne and yet is hee punished
hee knoweth not for what I know sinne yet I stand not affrighted not amazed at the punishment thereof Mat. 5.44 I am commanded to love mine enemies but doubtlesse sinne is excepted for such an enemie I am bound to hate Ps 139 22. Ps 97.10 O that I could hate it right sore even as mine enemie It is the Psalmist's charge O yee that love the Lord see that yee hate the thing that is evill Could I thus doe it would bring peace to my selfe and likewise might bring health to my babe Oh I now feele the sting of my sinne piercing his body and the malignitie of my corruption breaking out in his disease Adam in innocency knew noe paine but by reason of his fall diseases are become the fruit of the fruit 2. King 5.27 vers 23 Gehazy for sinne was visited with the disease of Naaman the Syrian and his two talents of silver and two changes of raiment burdening his conscience more then the bodies of his servants 2. Chr 21.18 vers 4. bought him the Leprousie The fire that Iehoram felt in his bowells made him sensible of the punishment for his want of compassion to his brethren whom hee slew with the sword Ex 9.10 The hardnesse of Pharaoh's heart made the ashes to turne into boyles and blaines in his body 1. Cor â—1 30 The Corinthians not discerning the Lord's body were therfore stricken with sicknesse weakenesse and death Hee that was encompassed by the bulls of Basan Ps 22.12 Ps 38.8 vers 3. complained that hee roared for the disquietnesse of his heart but with all hee saith There is noe health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sinne Lord how thou doest use mee and my child as Gideon did once the Elders of the citty Iud 8.16 thou doest scourge mee with briers and thornes of the wildernesse Gen 3.18 The earth for the sinne of man was cursed with the production of them and wee for sinne are scourged with that curse Yet the briers and the thornes scratch but the body of my languishing infant but they even teare the soule of mee his sad sorrowfull mother Yet I fast with David 2. Sam. 12.22 and I weepe with David and I cry with David Who can tell whether God will be gratious to mee that the child may live This litle lumpe of sinfull clay lyeth at the mercy of him that is the potter It is framed it is shaped into a body into a vessell but diseases would crack it sicknesse would breake it At the taking of a besieged towne that would not yeeld though the men were to be smitten with the edg of the sword Deut 20.14 yet the women and the litle ones were appointed to be spared Lord I am one of those women my child is one of the litle ones Conquer thou but spare take us but preserve us Thy mercy to heathen could not be greater then it can be to Christians Lord what shall I doe The infant still cryeth and still the parent weepeth Sicknesse enforceth the cryes of the child and the cryes of the child enforce the parents teares O how my bowells yerne and burne and frie with in mee and yet noe ease doeth come to my sweetest babe noe comfort to my languishing child I reade that Christ did chide his disciples for rebuking those who brought the litle ones unto him and hee sayd Suffer litle children Mat 19 13. vers 14 and forbid them not to come unto mee for of such is the Kingdome of heaven To him to him therfore will I goe and tender this youngling But alas how can a begging present be acceptable unto him With what confidence can I give him this child when the offering is onely a guiftlesse guift Mine intent is not to loose but to gaine to give but not to leave my child to offer him to God but in hope that hee will spare him a litle while with mee And his indeede hee is hee hath beene his ever since hee was offered unto him in the temple Rom 6 4. ever since hee was buried with him by baptisme But perhaps hee hath since that time beene lost and strayed from him I will therfore take him in mine armes and cary him home againe I will carie him by water for now it is highflood 't is a spring-tide mine eyes are full Wee will swimme together to my Iesus of him I will begge I will cry for I will prevaile for his pardon I know that my Saviour will heare and hee will be ready allso to forgive Hee will forgive my child that ranne away from him and hee will forgive mee my running with my child and when hee hath forgiven hee will certainely remitt the eternall punishment it may be the temporall likewise But how dare I who am the greatest delinquent to goe with my child the lesser sinner How dare I to shew my face to him or appeare in his presence His child it is true I am as well as my babe but I have allso offended him as much as my babe yea more a thousand thousand thousand million of millions of myriads of times more then hee This child as yet doeth know noe malice noe guile noe hypochrisie noe enuie noe evill speaking but I alas not onely know all but allso I harbour all I foster all I embosome all and yet my God saith unto mee by the mouth of his Apostle as well as unto others 1 Pet 2 1. Laying aside all malice and all guile and hypochrisies and envies and evill-speakings vers 2. As new-borne babes desire yee the syncere milke of the word that yee may grow thereby His child I am but woe is mee I have not this long while sucked of the breasts the two testaments or not eagerly or not so understandingly as hee commandeth mee to doe when hee sayth Be not children in understanding 1. Cor. 14.20 howbeit in malice be yee children O how infinitely worse am I then this my child Hee is humble but I am prowde and haughty and high-minded Mat. 18 2. yea though I know that Christ called once a litle child peradventure just such a litle child as mine is and set it in the midst of his disciples and sayd verely I say unto you vers 3. Except yee be converted and become as litle children yee shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven vers 4. Whosoever therfore shall humble himselfe as this litle child the same is greatest in the Kingdome of heaven The least mee think's I faine would be I would faine be greatest the greatest in the Kingdome yea the greatest in the Kingdome of heaven but the first I like not so well it suites not so well with wy disposition I would not be humble Though I am as litle as was Zacheus Lu 19.4 yet I would be as high as was Zacheus too yea though
I climb up into a tree for it Yea I doe climb and into a tree too O it is the tree of mine owne pride and vanitie which beareth leaves goodly broade shadowing leaves but it beareth noe fruit at all nothing but keyes and those keyes are fitted onely for the wide gate that leadeth to destruction Mat. 7.13 they will never un-lock the gates of heaven This child is young hee is a babe a babe in age a babe in growth I am a babe not in age not in growth but such a one as the Corinthians were to whom the Apostle wrote 1. Cor. 3.1 and sayd that hee could not speake unto them as unto spirituall but as unto carnall even as unto babes in Christ My child is young and tender and simple apt to be led with trifles to stragle abroad with children to be caried any whither at the pleasure of her to whose charge hee is left I am a child too a verier child then mine owne apt to be tossed to and fro Eph. 4.14 and caried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wayt to deceave And now what shall I doe I am the verier child of the two the most sinfull of the two and yet my child is afflicted with sicknesse and to mee noe other punishment is at present alotted but the griefe which I have for the sicknesse of my child Hee still cryeth still must I therfore cry Hee groaneth and I must allso groane Yea I doe groane I groane in spirit that my Iesus may cure the diseases of my soule I groane too for my child my prettie sweete babe that my Iesus may howsoever cure the infirmities of his soule and if hee so pleaseth recover allso the health of his body This must be the way to him I must thus goe Io. 14.6 Ps 30.8 for hee himselfe hath styled himselfe the way I will therfore cry unto the Lord and get mee unto my Lord right humbly I will goe to the gate of the physitian the gate of mercy and there I will knock and call and cry for entrance I will fall upon my knees and wring my hands and smite my breast Is 38.14 and weepe and mourne like a Crane and chatter like a Swallow even untill mine eyes faile with looking upward and thus will I say unto him The Prayer GReate God whose power is irresistable and whose pleasure is the rule of thy servant's obedience bow downe thine eare to my sad intreaties Thou hast stricken mee with sorrow who have not mourned for the cause and by the sicknesse of mine infant thou hast taught mee the frailtie of our mortall bodyes I see that all flesh is as grasse 1. Pet. 1.24 and the glory thereof but as the flowre of the field Mine impenitent heart I must confesse deserveth thy justice and my sinfull life this punishment of my tender infant But thou ô Lord art mercifull though I am sinfull and art apt to forgive those that truely repent O my God I desire to be sorrowfull for mine offences and earnestly I besiech thee to give mee true contrition for all my sinnes Iob. 7.20 O thou preserver of men remitt both my sinnes and the punishment which is justly due unto mee for them that I may rejoyce in thy mercy and magnifie thee for thy goodnesse Looke gratiously upon this child who feeleth the scourge though gently of thy justice due both for his and for my transgressions O let not thy wrathfull displeasure continue upon him nor my greater crimes cause an addition unto his torments Thy servant David confessed his sinnes and submitted to thy rod but yet hee cryed concerning his people 2. Sam. 24.19 and sayd These sheepe what have they done I dare not justifie this thy patient but I must needes acknowledg that for mine iniquities as well as for his thou thus doest wound him But ô thou who didst once command Mat. 19 14. that litle children should be brought unto thee didst prefer them for patternes both of innocency and humilitie shew now thy power in the weakenesse of this child Enable him with patience to endure thy visitation and direct mee to the meanes which may conduce to his recoverie if thou in thy secret decree hast so determined it Ps 6.2 Have mercy upon him ô Lord for hee is weake ô Lord heale him and free him from his sufferings Thou art hee that tookest him out of my wombe Ps 22.9 Ps 9.13 Ps 41.2 and canst as easily if thou pleasest lift him up now from the gates of death Preserve him ô God if it may be thy heavenly pleasure and keepe him alive that hee may be blessed upon earth ô heale his soule and raise him up againe Give a blessing to the meanes which shall be used for his recovery Ps 119 91. Ps 56.8 that all things in their order may be knowne to serve thee O let the teares of mee thine afflicted supplicant be put into thy botle and let the cryes of mee thy mournefull hand-mayd who beg for this infant be heard in the eares of thee the Lord of hosts Thou thy selfe didst weepe ô Christ Io. 11.35 for the death of Lazarus take compassion therfore on the weeping mother of this diseased child O let not my teares be shed in vaine but mercifully free this infant from his anguish and sufferings Yet howsoëver thou hast decreed righteous father not my will Mat 26.39 Ier 10.24 but thy will be done Onely let mee besiech thee to visit him in mercy and not in thy fury lest he be consumed and brought to nought Make him able to beare what thou determinest to send and in thy good time raise him out of this miserie Lord give mee allso a willing submission to thy holy pleasure that so I may neither discover too much fondnesse of affection to this my beloved issue when I see him subject to frailtie and mortalitie nor too immoderately grieve if thou receavest him to thy selfe Forgive whatsoëver is amisse in him and let his soule de deare and pretious in thy sight O Let thy mercy pleade against thy severitie let thy gratious promises be had in thy remembrance and let thy Christ be heard in his intercession both for mee and mine To thy will ô Lord make mee readily submitt to thy holy pleasure make mee willingly yeeld Thine is this infant Ps 39.13 and thou lentest him mee ô spare him a litle that hee may recover his strength before hee goe hence and be noe more seene To thy pleasure ô heavenly father I willingly refer him besieching thee to send him thy grace while hee shall remaine upon earth and after that receave him into glory for the worthinesse of thine onely begotten Sonne Iesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour Amen subject 17 THE SEAVENTEENTH SUBjECT Teares of a Mother for the death of her child The Soliloquie THE EjACULATION Psal 5.
vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray WHen all wept Luc 8.52 and bewayled the litle daughter of Iairus my Iesus forbad their teares saying Shee is not dead but sleepeth O sweete comfort to the lamenting mother whose onely daughter should returne from the dead Shee that had shed the teares of sorrow for the losse of her joy was then to shed teares of joy for the recoverie of the deceased But I weepe and weepe Lam 1.2 and continually weepe the teares are on my cheekes for my child is dead I have noe hope of receaving him againe to life I alas am not the wife of a ruler of the temple I have noe Iesus here in the flesh to worke such a miracle for mee My poore child is dead and hopelesse and helplesse as I am there is noe recovering there is noe recalling him Yet stay howsoever I will call I will cry mee think's hee should not be dead who knoweth but my sweete babe may heare mee Who knoweth but my Redeemer may awake him againe The daughter of Iairus was dead to her parents but shee was not dead to the Messias Hee who will one day awake the dead and rowze them from the graves can now if hee pleaseth speake as powerfully to my babe My Saviour can for hee himselfe is neither dead nor sleepeth True it is that once hee dyed yea hee dyed for mee and so for mine infant too but hee rose againe and from thence-forth can die noe more Rom 6 9. death hath noe more dominion over him This living Saviour of mine may if hee please restore my dead child I will call him peradventure hee may awake Sonne ô my sonne my child my love my joy my dearest infant where art thou Where strayest thou Whither wanderest thou Returne returne litle Saint and cheere up the drooping spirits of thy fainting mother What noe answer Noe speech Not so much as a groane or a sigh Will this frozen clod of earth be noe more â—he carkenet of his immortall soule Oh hee s fled hee 's gone hee 's past re-call alas what shall I doe Is this the blessing of the womb â—o enjoy a child for a yeere or two and then â—o have it hasten to the womb of the earth Is this the joy the delight that women have in the fruit of their bodies Gen 3.16 onely to conceave in sorrow to travell in anguish and when they are delivered after a yeare or two to be bereft of them in a moment Could not thousands of kisses and dandlings and dauncings nay could not sckreeches and groanes and cryes call back my child Alas noe I see they could not all was in â—aine Hee who called Lazarus from the grave hath called my litle one to the grave His soule is with him and nothing now but his body is left with mee From him I would not pluck him mee think's if I might for hee 's at peace with him From mee mee thinks I would not have had him call him for hee knoweth how I loved him and yet his will not mine must be fullfilled O that I could so rest satisfied with the rest of my sweete infant But why doe I onely wish so I must likewise practise it Act. 5.29 lest happily as Gamaliel sayd unto the Iewes I be found even to fight against God I will therfore resolve with David and say 2 Sam. 12.23 Now hee is dead wherfore should I fast Can I bring him back againe I shall goe to him but hee shall not returne to mee I shall goe when hee who keepeth my child in his armes shall be pleased so to embrace mee likewise and to seate mee in his Kingdome by my dearest child Why then should I enuy my litle one the joyes of eternitie If I weepe too much I may discover a discontent at his highest preferement If I truely loved him I shall never enuy him allthough I shall desire that to those heavenly mansions I may certainly follow him Young hee was while mine hee was very young tender weake and yet as young as hee was hee now is suddenly growne older then my selfe hee is my better hee is my senior and hath gotten before mee into glory Yea and his passage thither was fayre and gentle too if I consider his sinnes which hee suffered for onely in his sicknesse His rich soule espied a crevise a chinke a flaw in his muddie earth made by his disease and so escaped flew away even with the wings of that dove that blessed Spirit Ps 55.6 which David panted for and wished for and cryed for saying O that I had the wings of a dove Gen. 7.1 King 13.24 2. King 2.24 Num 21 6. Gen 19 24. for then would I flee away and be at rest Had my child beene drowned as was the ould world or torne in pieces by Lyons as was the disobedient Prophet or by Beares as were the fortie and two children that mocked Elisha or stung with Serpents as were the murmuring Israëlites or burnt with fire and brimstone as were Sodome and Gomorrha or swallowed up quick by the yawning num 16.33 act 12 23. gaping devouring earth as were Corah Dathan and Abiram or had hee beene smitten by the Angel of God and eaten up of wormes of vermine as was Herod Agrippa then my griefe indeede might have beene increased my sorrowes might have beene multiplyed yet at length if it had beene so I ought to have beene contented at length if I belong unto him to whom my child is gone I must have taken up the resolution of patient of holy of devout Iob and have sayd The Lord gave Iob. 1.21 and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. But my God hath beene more mercifull both to mee and mine for hee made much of my child and finding him a litle froward a litle wayward a litle unquiet hee gently layed him downe to sleepe Hee sent a gentle disease to rock him to sing him to sleepe And seing that hee thus gently thus securely sleepe's in God even in that God who never sleepeth surely whilest I awake I will sing and give praise My glory shall awake Ps 57.8 my Lute and Harpe shall awake all my joyes all my pleasures all my contents shall awake and praise him and magnifie him for ever And yet for all this my resolution for all my serious purpose thus to doe I find that in my musick I stop upon a fret That sudden sigh stole from my heart unawares It may be that it was ashamed to stay there and so slanke away What another Nay this is too much King Solomon telleth mee that there is a time to weepe Ecc 3.4 but hee doeth not tell mee that that time must continue so long as I continue here upon earth What though I am a traveller I
must some-times rest What though I am an exul a stranger a sojourner here as all my fathers were I must have a lodging I must have a chamber I must have a roome and in that roome and in that chamber I may I must have some rest Yea and I must have some delight in it too and that not onâ—e alone but continually for so I am commanded by the Apostle Phil 4.4 who saith Rejoyce in the Lord allways and againe I say rejoyce Diverse indeede for diverse causes have wept but they have not allways wept Gen 27.38 Esau lifted up his voyce and wept but it was for the losse of his father's blessing The Elders of Ephesus wept Act 20 38. 2. Chr 35 25. yea they all wept sore but it was sorrowing most of all for the words that Paul had spoken unto them that they should see his face noe more A mourning I reade of that was in Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo when Ieremiah lamented and all the singing men and the singing women spake of their King in their lamentations and made them an ordinance in Israel That was for Iosiah who was slaine by the armie of Pharaoh Necho in the valley of Megiddo In Ramah was a voyce heard Ier 31.15 lamentation and bitter weeping Rachel weeping for her children because they were not This mee thinks come's home close neere to mee This was for the captivitie of Iudah and Benjamin or it was for the infants slaine by that bloody that presecuting Herod Here are children lamented so farre the cause of the weeping complyeth with mine But neither is my child slaine by a murderer nor yet is hee lead into captivity Noe Eph 4.8 hee who did leade captivitie captive hath freed my sonne from the fetters Rom 8 21. from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of â—he sonnes of God My child was not slaine as were all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof Mat 2.16 from two yeares ould and under Noe Hee who was slaine for him hath saved him Hee who hath swallowed up death in victory Is 25.8 Hos 13 14. hath ransomed him from the power of the grave and redeemed him from death Lord though I am a weake though a sinfull woman make mee for ever to praise thee for this thy goodnesse Ps 107 8. and to declare the wonders that thou hast done both for mee and mine When the woman of Samaria came to draw water at Iacob's well my bountifull Iesus freely gave her to drike of the living water Io 4.14 which became in her a well of water springing up into ever-lasting life I am such a woman as shee was mine eyes have resembled the mouth of Iacob's well and though the well be deepe even deepe as my heart yet some-thing I have had to draw the water with My child mine infant hath drawne and drawne untill I am even allmost drawne drie And in this agonie and in this distresse my Christ hath come to cleanse my well to sanctifie my teares and to ease mee of my griefe 1. King 3.26 My bowells indeede did yearne upon my child as that woman 's did whose issue should have beene divided for the satisfaction of the harlot My child is divided though hers were spared The better part of him the soule is gone it is gone to God for his it is it is his owne share nothing but the earth of him remaineth with mee But I will I must be thankfull and though I find a reluctance in my chillowed heart yet the Prophet forbiddeth weeping for the dead Ier 22.10 and bemoaning of them Let mee begge for patience for submission for content and say The Prayer BLessed Lord God Ps 68.20 unto whom belong the issues from death vouchsafe to heare the cry of thy mourning hand-mayd Thou wert pleased once to blesse mee with increase and to make mee a joyfull mother of my now dead infant But oh that that very child which was framed and fashioned by thee is now come unto thee The first that sinned was a woman tempted by the Serpent Gen. 3.13 and that Serpent in his temptation stung so deepe that it hath reached now even to the fruit of my wombe for the sinnes of my selfe Yet Lord looke downe in mercy upon mee though a sinfull woman though the most unworthy of my sexe Mat. 15.28 even farre inferiour to that woman of Canaan for herfaith was greate but I alas have noe faith at all or but a weake one or but a dead one otherwise the promises of my Redeemer would controul my passion and the assurance of his mercies would dry up my teares Thou ô Lord hast freed mine infant from the burden of the flesh yet I goe heavily for it as if it were lost in my despaire Thou hast crowned it with immortalitie and yet my passion declareth that I mourne as if it were lost Ps 38.9 O Lord God thou knowest all my desires and my groaning is not hid from thee Thou seest how my teares doe flow through mine infirmitie thou hearest my sighs which arise from my dis-content I confesse it I am sorrowfull for it I am ashamed of it Act. 7.60 Lord lay not this sinne to my charge Thou hast taken nothing but thine owne O be pleased so to make mee thine owne by grace and then shall I be assured in thine owne due time to be receaved into glory Allay the heate of my passion by the pleasant gales of thy refreshing Spirit Graunt that my teares may be kept for my sinnes my sad laments for my deplorable condition through my many offences My heart is heavy for the losse of my child ô Lord lighten it ô Lord ease and comfort it with thy heavenly grace Ps 94.19 In the multitude of sorrowes which I have in my heart let thy comforts ô Lord refresh my soule My child thou knowest was deare unto mee because it was thy pleasure to lend him unto mee Hee was and hee is deere unto thee and thou hast expressed thy love in delivering him fron the evill 1. Thes 1.10 2. Tim 2.11 from the wrath to come Hee is deal in Christ Lord let mee be dead with Christ that I may allso live with Christ My child is dead because hee was sinfull but his uttermost farthing was discharged by Christ O thou who art rich in mercy Eph 2.4 for the greate love wherewith thou hast loved man-kind graunt that I may not dye in sinne but to it that so I may be quickened together with thy Sonne Make mee to yeeld my selfe unto thee Rom 6 13. as those that are alive from the dead and my members as instruments of righteousnesse unto thee my God Forgive my excesse of love to him that is gone my excesse of teares and sighs that have beene caused by his departure my want of patience and submission to thy holy pleasure and
dyed shee vers 19 poore soule being greate with child when the storie of these sad accidents was related unto her bowed her selfe and fell in travaile for her paines came upon her yea at length when shee was delivered of her Ichabod vers 21 she gave up the ghost Thus the Priests fell by the sword Ps 78.64 and noe widow was left to make lamentation True it is that my affliction is greate in the death of my husband yea so greate that herewith the slanderous enemie of the Psalmist was severely cursed Ps 109.9 Let his children be fatherlesse and his wife a widow yet is it farre better to see him goe downe to the grave in peace then that hee should have lingered in continuall miserie Ier 22.12 Shallum the sonne of Iosiah King of Iudah was caried captive by an enemie into another land and dyed there which the Prophet confidering speaketh and saith vers 10 Weepe not for the dead neither bemoane him but weepe for him that goëth away for hee shall returne noe more nor see his native countrie This might have beene the portion allso of my beloved but since it was not though my losse be greate yet must not my sorrow be too greate Immoderate griefe for those that are dead was the practise of heathens it becometh not the children of God The Israelites were forbidden it even by God himselfe who saith unto them Lev 19 28. Deut 14.1 Yee shall not make any cutting in your flesh for the dead nor print any markes upon you I am the Lord. And againe Yee are the children of the Lord your God yee shall not cut your selves nor make any baldnesse betweene your eyes for the dead The Gentiles indeede at the death of friends were so trans-ported with sorrow that they cut themselves Ier 16.6 made themselves bald in the greatnesse of their lamentations They carved their flesh and marked themselves for idolatrie yea they allso cut their skinnes when a friend deceased and the wounds they filled up with either Stibium or inke or what colour they pleased which remained in the flesh when the skinne was growne over In all their sorrowes such kinds of inscisions were ordinarie testimonies of the griefe of their hearts Ier 41.5 Thus the fowre score men that came from Shechem from Shiloh and from Samariah had their beards shaven and their clothes rent and they had cut themselves and had offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the house of the Lord. Thus when the Priests of Baall did call on the name of their Idoll 1. King 18.28 they cryed alowd and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancers 'till the blood gushed out upon them Yet though it was the practise of the Gentiles it may not be of Christians nor might it be of the Israëlites they therfore punished it with many stripes And just it was that when their violent hands had un-naturally beene stained with the blood of their owne bodies the hand of justice should draw blood in the punishment of such a cruell offence The Iewes might not cut themselves at the death of a friend noe though of a father because they were not fatherlesse while the Lord was their God The infidells indeede had noe share in the most high and therfore were fatherlesse when their sires deceased but it was not so with Israel nor is it so with mee I have a father which is in heaven Mat 6.9 to whom my husband is gone before mee I have a husband too which is in heaven even the same who was a husband to Iudah and Israël I have a head too which is in heaven Ier 31.32 even my Saviour Christ Eph 5.23 who is the head of the Church I have a brother too which is in heaven even my elder brother Iesus Christ Why then should I grieve that my husband is dead since hee is but gone to the place where my treasure is layed up Mat. 6.20 and where my immortall father and head and brother have crowned him with immortalitie My God hath taken him that I may know where to find him Whilest hee continued upon earth his imployments did often deprive mee of his societie but now is hee seated in a place of rest to which when I come wee shall never be seperated Whilest hee was here my affection unto him indeede was greate and that was my duety but yet I feare that I offended in the excesse Had I not loved him too much I should not be immoderate in my sorrow but even by these teares I am taught the sinfullnesse of my passion For this sinne therfore will I strive to weepe even for the trespasse of my weeping I should never have beene so offensively sensible of this my losse nor so vaine in my laments if I had allways remembred that hee was created mortall and had therfore trusted in him who is immortall If I doe love my God more then I did my husband I shall find both comfort and content in his mercy Lord how fraile and weake am I that I cannot discharge the debt of nature but I must bring in question the power of grace I cannot grieve for the death of my departed husband without discovering some diffidence some distrust in my God But I will pray unto the Lord to for give the excesse of my love to my deceased husband the excesse of my teares for the death of my husband and to convert these teares into dropps of sorrow for my hainous offences To him will I hasten to him will I speedily addresse my selfe and mournfully will I cry and begge and pray and say The Prayer FAther of mercies and God of all consolation Ioa 11.25 vers 26 thou who art the resurrection and the life in whom whosoëver believeth shall live though hee were dead and in whom whosoëver liveth and believeth shall not die eternally send downe thy grace into my sinfull soule that I may magnifie thy name for delivering thy servant from the miseries of this life and for inthroning him in the celestiall â—erusalem where I doubt not but hee reigneth Thou knewest his sufferances and the sharpenesse of his sicknesse in mercy didst release him of his miserie to crowne him with glory Thy favours were infinite in his spirituall comforts when his body languished through the extreamitie of his disease By thy scourge thou taughtest him how thou abhorrest sinne yet I doubt not but thou hast freed him from the torments of hell through the sufferances of thy Sonne For thy goodnesse to him thy name be glorified and I humbly besiech thee to extend thy mercy likewise unto her who honoureth thee for it Thou knowest Lord the distresse of my soule for want of him whom thou hast taken from mee Thou seest mine affliction and thou numberest my teares O be gratious unto mee thine unworthy servant and send mee comfort in the midst of these sorrows Give mee grace
ceremeniall law yea a Priest himselfe was allowed these acts so naturall and pious Though touching the Nazarites the command was strickt which the Lord delivered unto Moses Num. 6 1. vers 2. saying Say unto the children of Israel when either man or woman shall seperate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to seperate themselves unto the Lord vers 6. all the dayes that hee seperateth himselfe unto the Lord hee shall come at noe dead body vers 7. hee shall not make himselfe un-cleane for his father or for his mother for his brother or for his sister when they dye because the consecration of his God is upon his head Yet whereas the law said Eze 44 25. The Priests shall come at noe dead person to defile themselves it ran with this exception But for father or for mother or for sonne or for daughter for brother or for sister that hath had noe husband they may defile themselves And againe concerning the common people the law provideth saying Num 19.16 Whosoever toucheth one that is slaine with the sword in the open fields or a dead bodie or a bone of a man or a grave shall be uncleane but the time of his un-cleanesse was to continue but seaven dayes That law hath now noe power to oblige us who are under the Gospel I may touch my dead parent and embrace him yea and kisse him at least in my thoughts when I cannot come to his body And so I will and if there remaine any un-cleanesse in my cogitations I will purifie I will wash it away with the bath of my teares Allthough my sorrowes cannot call him from the grave yet they have power both to discover mine affection and to satisfie my desires Heb 11 35. In ancient times women had their dead raised to life againe This indeede is too much for mee to expect yet it will not be too much for mee to mourne with those women who were afterward thus comforted But then I must be just in my mourning As my love may lawfully be shewed in my teares so must my religion be manifested in my moderation It was a curse upon the Iewes which the Prophet pronounced when hee said Men shall not teare themselves for them in mourning Ier. 16.7 to comfort them for the dead neither shall men give them the cupp of consolation to drinke for their father or for their mother I must not exceede the bounds of modestie in my cryes lamentations but I must drinke rather of the cupp of consolation and hearken to the advice and counsell of my comforters Nature indeede may be seene in a teare and heard in a sigh but if those teares be too many or those sighes too frequent or too lowde my very sorrowes may be sinfull for my want of patience Hee for whom I grieve is better then my selfe and his condition is full of joy and delight why then should I mourne too excessively as if hee were lost why should I grieve too immoderately as if I despaired of a father Hee is gone to a place where hee is freed from sorrowes and can dye noe more onely I am on earth in a valley of teares but I shall have a time to dye too and be gathered unto him In heaven saith Saint Iohn there shall be noe more death Reu. 21.4 neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine for the former things are passed away My Redeemer saith that they which shall be accounted worthy to obtaine that world Luc. 20 35. the resurrection from the dead neither marrie nor are given in mariage neither can they dye any more vers 36 for they are equall unto the Angells and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection VVhy then should I lament for him who needeth not my sorrowes and my teares are but a fruitlesse disturbance of my selfe If I am troubled at the losse of a friend so deare I must rather labour to be beloved of my God who is so good I shall one day learne with holy Iob Iob. 17 14. to say to corruption Thou art my father and to the worme Thou art my mother and my sister There is yet something earthly therfore which I shall acknowledge a parent but I must take heede that nothing upon earth doeth make mee an idolater The house of Israel was once so sottish as to say to a stock Ier 2.27 Thou art my father to a stone Thou hast brought mee forth This were a stupid madnesse in mee if I should so dis-honour the memorie of my father as to make the timber succeede him in my reverence But more impious it would prove if I should reject my heavenly father and insteed of him I should honour as Israel did a stock or a stone The greater that my losse is in my deceased parent the more must be my obedience to the father of lights Iam. 1.17 Heb. 12 9. Hee who is and must be the father of my spirit did lend unto mee for a time the father of my flesh Hee hath allso taken from mee my naturall parent that my thoughts may be ever fixed upon him with whom hee dwelleth If my trust be in God my comforts will abound my sorrowes will decrease If my name be written among the righteous my share shall be equall to theirs in the protection of my God Hee hath ever beene mercifull to them that were fatherlesse so that they relyed on his providence and served him with faithfullnesse Ps 27.10 Ps 68.5 When my father and my mother forsake mee saith the Psalmist then the Lord will take mee up a father of the fatherlesse is God in his holy habitation O that I might have the honour to be his child that so I might justly call him father O that I could truely say unto him Thou art my father my God Ps 89.26 Is 63.16 Ier. 3.19 2. Cor. 6.18 and the rock of my salvation O that I could faithfully say Thou ô Lord art my father my Redeemer thy name is from ever-lasting O that I could call him my father and not turne away from him His mercies are greate his promises are full of comfort I will be a father unto you and yee shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord All-mighty O what shall I doe that I may be sure to be adopted into the number of his children Alas as I am I have but litle hope of it for hee is pure but I am un-cleane but I will wash my selfe with my teares of repentance and beseech his Sonne to cleanse mee with his blood Hee is righteous but I am sinfull but I will confesse my wickednesse Ps 38.18 and be sorrie for my sinnes and then I am sure hee will aboundantly pardon Lord though I have beene thine enemie thou canst make mee thy friend though I have hated thee thou canst incline mee to love thee though I have beene rebellious thou
canst make mee thy child O be pleased to hearken to the intercession of mine advocate pleading for mee to the intercession of thy Christ who was obedient to thee to the intercession of my Iesus who was crucified for mee In him be reconciled unto mee for I am well assured that like as a father pittieth his children Ps 103 13. so thou Lord doest pittie them that feare thee This ô this is the way where in I must walke Thus yea onely thus shall I have a father both dead and alive Hee who is dead shall not b◠immoderately bewayled because hee that is ever living shall wipe the teares from mine eyes Mine exchange shall be full of advantage For him who was willing to helpe mee yet was not able for him who loved mee but imperfectly and left mee irresistably I shall have a father whose will cannot be opposed whose power noe creature is able to resist whose love is in perfection and who is not subject either to change Dan 7.9 Ps 90.2 Ps 22.9 or dye Hee is the ancient of dayes hee is God from ever-lasting and world without end If I could say with David Thou didst make mee hope when I was upon my mother's breast as well as I can say with him Thou art hee that tooke mee out of my mother's wombe vers 10 if I could say that thou art my God from my mother's belly as well as I can say that I was cast upon thee from the wombe if I could say that I had allways served thee then should my praise be of thee continually Ps 71.6 and then should I be safe under the shadow of thy wings Hos 14 3. Ashur shall not save us saith Israel wee will not ride upon horses neither will wee say any more to the worke of our hands Yee are our God's for in thee ô God the fatherlesse findeth mercy In God doe the fatherlesse find mercy Ps 35.14 Why then doe I how downe my selfe thus heavily mourning for my father whereas I am assured if I serve and obey the righteous Lord that when my father and my mother forsake mee Ps 27.10 then the Lord will take mee up Hee that is dead was but the weake though the loving instrument to bring mee to life but hee that is living yea and liveth for ever and ever is the God both of power and mercy hee therfore for ever shall be my father Mal 2.10 Have wee not all one father Saith the Prophet Hath not one God created us Yes yes hee is a father to all by creation but hee will not be a father to all by regeneration Lu 12.32 His flock is but litle his children are not many I will therfore strive to be one of the smallest number for those alone shall inherit salvation His mercies were ever greate to the godly his compassions never failed the fatherlesse if they honoured him When David was promised that hee should have a Sonne even then the Lord did allso promise to be a father unto him 1. Ch◠17.13 I will be his father saith the Lord and hee shall be my Sonne I will not take my mercy away from him as I tooke it from him that was before thee But what shall I doe to gaine his protection How shall I perswade him to call mee his child If I love the memorie of my father more then I love him then I cannot possibly be worthy of him for so saith my Saviour Mat 10 37. Hee that loveth father or mother more then mee is not worthy of mee I will therfore strive to honour my God with the strength of my love in heart and in soule and that I may the better doe it I will imitate my dead father in all that was just and righteous in him but whereinsoever hee failed I will decline his stepps 1 King 22.52 Ahaziah was plagued because hee did evill in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and of his mother 2. Chr 22.3 Hee walked in the way of the house of Ahab for his mother was his counseller to doe wickedly It is not the losse of a parent which can prevaile for a blessing upon the child unlesse in the stead of him that was earthly hee be made a father who is Lord of heaven Hee looketh not on our afflictions with the eye of compassion unlesse wee looke up to him with the eye of faith and devotion Our miseries are but judgments unlesse wee amend and doe but prophesie unto us a destruction at hand When Ieroboam was fatherlesse hee was called to the congregation 1. King 12.20 c 11.26 and they made him King over Israel but hee whose hand at first was lifted against the Crowne and not content with that did afterwards put it forth against the man of God c 13.4 had it justly dryed up so that hee could not pull it in againe unto him Thus the losse of an earthly father could not protect a wicked orphane c 14.9 but hee who did evill above all that were before him and had gone and made other Gods and molten images to provoke the Lord to anger and had cast the Lord behind his back even upon his house was evill to be brought vers 10 The Lord will cutt off saith the text from Ieroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam as a man taketh away dung 'till it be all gone But on the contrarie I find that unto the godly a father of the fatherless Ps 68.5 and a judge of the widowes is God in his holy habitation 1. King 7.13 vers 14 Hiram the Sonne of a widow of the tribe of Naptali whose father was a man of Tyre the same was filled with wisedome and understanding and cunning to worke all workes in brasse and was therfore sent for by King Solomon to build his house Gen 25 11. Est 2.7 After the death of Abraham it is said that the Lord blessed his Sonne Isaak After the death of Esther's father Mordecai the Iewe tooke her shee being his uncle's daughter for shee had neither father nor mother Hee tooke her for his owne daughter and afterward the Lord so blessed the orphane that shee came to sit upon the royall throne c 7.3 vers 17 Ps 10.14 and to be the preserver of her nation Thus the poore who commit themselves to God doe find assuredly that hee is a helper of the fatherlesse Hee executeth their judgment so saith Moses Deut 10.18 The Lord doeth execute the judgment of the fatherlesse By Moses allso hee forbiddeth the people saying Yee shall not afflict any widow Ex 22.22 or fatherlesse child Iob accuseth his pretended friends of an high offence when hee chargeth them Iob. 6.27 Is 10.2 saying Yee over-whelme the fatherlesse By the Prophet Isaiah a woe is
be as constant in my prayers as the man â—as constant in his attendance at the poole At â—y gate ô Christ I must I doe continually â—e Thy blood ô Iesus is the onely Bethesda â—r my distressed soule Lord leade mee into â—…at poole of blood by the hand of faith and then I shall not distrust the effect of that â—ver O cleanse my soule and then I shall willingly submit to thy pleasure for my body But still ô still my paines increase and my flesh consume's I pray and I begge and I beseech and yet I find noe ease noe reliefe The continuance of my sicknesse doe's but â—each mee the ignorance of the Physitians or â—he deadnesse of the druggs and potions I am dyeted and I am physicked and my body is become the very shop of an Apothecarie and yet I find noe ease noe comfort 'T is true that thirtie and eight yeares continuance of a maladie hindered not Christ from curing with a word But if it had remained longer could hee have done the like Yes surely why not Hee himselfe could as well have dooâ— that as have given power to his Apostles tâ— restore the Criple who had beene fortie yeaâ—… lame This was done by Peter and Iohn for the man that was above fortie yeares ould Act 14 22. c 3.2 and had beene lame from his mother's wombe even on him was shewed this miracle of healing I may hope for some favour too from the hands of my God for though to mee it might appeare allmost a miracle that I should recore yet with God it is as easily effected by a word as was the greate creation of heaven and earth I will therfore submit to his pleasure and 〈◊〉 upon his goodnesse Hee is a God of mercy an tender compassion hee is the greate Physitia both of soule and body hee hath allways delighted in acts of charitie It was his promise upon some conditions to heale a whoâ—… land 2. Chr 7.14 for his owne words are If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face and turnâ— from their wicked wayes then will I heare from heaven and will forgive their sinne and wiâ—… heale their land I am one of the people ô Christ that is called by thy name for a Christian I am though a sinfull and a feeble Christian and thou hast humbled mee with this thy visitation and grace thou hast given mee I blesse the for it to humble my selfe in the consideration of mine iniquities and to pray and to seâ—… thy face Lord perfect thy good workes and make mee turne from mine iniquities and then heare mee from heaven and forgive my sinne and if it may stand with thy eternall decree heale thy servant Hee hath likewise shewed his mercy even in healing of waters 2. King 2.21 for his Prophet Elisha went forth to the spring of un-wholesome waters and cast salt in there and said Thus saith the Lord I have healed these waters there shall not â—e from thence any more death or barren land So the waters were healed vers 22 according to the saying of Elisha the Prophet Lord I have waters too that require thy helpe for they are un-wholesome they are sinfull I weepe and I lament my teares runne downe on my cheekes Lam. 1.2 and all either with extreamitie of anguish or feare of death or despaire of thy power to restore mee to health few of them are for my sinnes few of them for my transgressions But some hope I have that thou wilt likewise heale these waters for allready thou hast cast some salt into them I find by my tast that they are brackish that they are brinish Lord let mee be noe longer a barren land but make mee fruitfull in good works Col 1.10 Ps 1.3 that I may be like unto a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruite in due season and then though this leafe for a time may faile though the flower of my body may be cropped or mowed for the harvest yet I know that my Redeemer will not cast it into the fire but will make it spring up hereafter in eternall glory Hee hath allso healed the persons of diverse of his people Ps 107.20 for so saith the Psalmist Hee sent his word and healed them delivered them froÌ„ their destructions Is 19.22 So Isaiah prophesieth concerning Egypt saying The Lord shall smite Egypt hee shall smite and heale it and they shall returne even to the Lord and hee shall be intreated of them and shall heale them O what comfortable words were these to Egypt Hee may if hee please cheere mee up allso with the like for hee hath allready smitten mee and in his loving kindnesse hee hath so sanctified this affliction that by it hee hath made mee to returne unto him O Lord now if it be thy pleasure be thou intreated of mee heale mee This God is the same God who speaketh by the mouth of Moses and saith See now that I Deut 32.39 even I am hee and there is noe God with mee I kill and I make alive I wound and I heale neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand This is the same Lord whom Hannah did magnifie in her thankfull Song and said The Lord killeth and maketh alive hee bringeth downe to the grave 1. Sam. 2.6 and bringeth up This is the same God of whom Iob his servant professeth and boasteth saying Hee maketh sore Iob. 5.18 and bindeth up hee woundeth and his hands make whole This is the same Lord VVhom David commandeth his soule to magnifie and saith Ps 103 1. vers 2. Blesse the Lord ô my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy name Blesse the Lord ô my soule and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseafes vers 3. and who redeemeth thy life from destruction vers 4. this God is the same God who alone hath power over soule body can if hee pleaseth preserve them both Hee it is whose mercies were promised to his Church when by his Prophet hee said The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne Is 30.26 and the light of the Sunne shall bee seaven fold as the light of seaven dayes in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroake of their wound Hee it is who giveth such Euangelicall promises to penitent Iudah and saith I have seene his wayes and will heale him c 57.18 I will leade him allso and restore comforts to him and to his mourners I create the fruite of the lipps peace peace to him that is farre off vers 19 and to him that is neere saith the Lord and I will heale him This is hee who inviteth Israel to come unto him and saith Returne yee back-sliding Children and I will heale your backsliding
meete thee my God and my mercifull Redeemer O God comfort mee O Christ strengthen mee O Iesus save mee Prepare mee for the happie hower of my deliverance from this world and then bring mee out of this valley of teares to those waters of comfort where I may sing tryumphantly to the honour of thy name through Iesus Christ my Lord and my Redeemer Amen subject 25 THE TWENTIE-FIFTH SUBjECT Teares of a mother on her death-bed blessing her children The Soliloquie Consisting of two parts viz 1 Her preparation to blesse them 2 The blessing it selfe ending in a prayer part 1 The First part of the Soliloquie being her preparation to blesse them THE EjACULATION Psal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words ô Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voyce of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray CHildren are an heritage of the Lord saith the Psalmist Ps 127.3 and the fruit of the wombe is his reward True indeede they come from the Lord and happy are they if they returne unto him Gracious hath my God beene to mee in the loane of my issue but unlesse hee shall be pleased to adde grace unto nature his blessing will be fearfully converted into a curse Weakenesse possesseth my body faintnesse my spirits 2. Tim. 4.6 and the time of my departure is neere at hand Goe I must yea and I am willing and joyfull to meete my God but oh the thought of my children disturbeth my mind and the consideration of what may become of them filleth my dying heart with cares and anxjeties If they live not in the feare of him who lent them unto mee my poore issue may become the fewell of hell What shall I doe If I should live I would take such care by the blessing of my God as that I might be a meanes to nurture them up in the feare of the most high but if I am taken away from them who can tell what their education may prove Strangers may governe them and such people for ought I know may undertake their tuition as may neglect the care of religious instructions and suffer them to runne head-long to the gulfe of perdition O what a curse would it prove beyond expression if that part of my selfe which is divided into litle ones if those which cost mee so many pangs and throwes should be disobedient to my God and so be sentenced to the flames of eternall horrour Alas I can doe noe more then what the Lord will permit mee While I am here I am bound both by nature and grace to endeavour my utmost for their holy advantage but when I shall be dissolved lye in the cold clods of my mother earth then can noe more care be expected from mee Ah my poore infants litle doe they thinke how they will misse their mother and wish mee alive againe as if they envyed my happinesse Hither and thither they may be tossed and tumbled and which is worst of all they may be brought up in ignorance or in lewdnesse and sensualitie Mee think's I see the frownes of a stepmother and the knitted browes menacing nothing but crueltie and tyrannie and then mee think's they weepe in one corner and lament in another bemoane their hard happ in the losse of my selfe Their hungrie bellies may be pinched with famine their bodies with cold and their backs with stripes when I shall not either heare or see or know it my head being layed in the low and silent grave Helpe they may call for when none will have the pittie to render them helpe So they may want and cry and be beaten and cry and be turned out of doores and cry when yet neither mercy will heare nor charitie hearken to the complaints of the motherlesse But why doe I spend so many of these swift minuits of my short continuance in such pensive melancholick and distrustfull thoughts and feares of what may happen True it is that these and others yea and worse inconveniences may happen to their bodies and yet they may prove the children of the Most high That ô that is all that I aime at for though I would not willingly have them suffer in their bodies yet I would not for a thousand worlds that they should suffer in their soules Hunger and thirst and stripes and nakednesse may be endured and in time either age or wealth or friends may free them from these out-ward sufferances but ignorance and ungodlinesse without the infinite mercies and goodnesse of my Redeemer will be punished with torments that shall never have end O what shall I doe then for my poore distressed children Grieve I doe but I feare that I offend in it mourne I doe but I doubt it is more then indeede I ought God is not weake or ignorant or impotent Hee hath beene a father to mee from the time of my conception and shall I yet distrust in his providence and protection of my children This were either to suspect his power or to deny his mercie I know it is his desire that they should be heires of salvation and I know that hee can effect whatsoever hee desireth To him therfore I will leave them to his care and tuition I will referre my tender and beloved plants And that hee may the more willingly become their guardiaen when I shall leave them while I live I will beseech him with abundance of my teares to admitt them his servants The wife of Zebideus made a bolder request to my gracious Redeemer Mat 20.21 for shee be sought him that those her two sonnes might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left in his Kingdome vers 22 Shee poore woman as Christ replyed did not know what shee asked Shee knew not that the Kingdome of Christ was celestiall but dreamed of an earthly diademe and glory Her request was therfore the fuller both of boldnesse and ambition whom noe place would serve for those her children but what was highest and next to supreamest majestie Yet mee thinks I cannot much blame her for her love to them whom so dearely shee had bought There is noe earthly love to be compared to the love of a woman nor is any womans love to be compared to the love of a mother Surely David did not know how strong this passion of love is in the weaker vessells when hee said The love of Ionathan to him was wonderfull 2. Sam. 1.26 passing the love of women Wee mothers are like unto the charet of King Solomon whereof though the pillars were of silver Cant 3 10. and the bottome of gold and the covering of purple yet the midst thereof was paved with love for the daughters of Ierusalem Is 49.15 Can a woman saith God forget her sucking child that shee should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe 'T is very rare indeede and yet it is possible for hee himselfe doeth say that they may forget Yet
seldome is love forgotten in the mother of children Cant. 3 6. in whom it is commonly as strong as death vers 7. for many waters cannot quench it neither can the floods drowne it Much therfore I cannot blame the wife of Zebedeus for the fervency of her affection to her beloved Sonnes All that shee erred in was both in the thing shee requested and in the person to whom shee tendered her petition Surely without offence I may likewise besiech my mercifull Saviour that hee will be pleased to undertake the protection of my young ones It is a petition more proper for mee then her's was for her for shee was living and might have beene a comfort unto them but I am dying I am leaving the world I lye drawingon and wayting for that blessed hower of my Saviours comeing All that is left mee now to doe is onely to blesse them before my departure and this is the best legacie that I can bequeath unto them I must I will blesse them by the leave and favour of my God yet not as from my selfe but onely from God not as thinking that my power can purchase their happinesse but praying to him that his blessing may prosper them Thus by faith did dying Iacob blesse both the Sonnes of Ioseph Heb. 11 21. and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staffe Thus old Isaak said unto Esau his Sonne Gen. 27 2. vers 3. Behold now I am old I know not the day of my death now therfore take I pray thee thy we opons thy quiver and thy bowe and goe out to the field and take mee some venison vers 4. and make mee savourie meate such as I love and bring it to mee that I may eate that my soule may blesse thee before I dye Thus Isaak blessed Iacob and said c 28.3 God All-mighty blesse thee and make thee fruitfull and multiplie thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people c. 49.28 Thus Iacob blessed the twelve tribes when hee spake unto them and blessed them every one according to his blessing hee blessed them c 31.55 Thus Laban even in the time of his health rose up early in the morning and kissed his Sonnes and his daughters and blessed them and then departed and returned to his place Yea thus even Moses who was but a leader of the people and not so neerely linked unto them by the bonds of nature blessed them and sayd Deut. 1 11. The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as yee are and blessed you as hee hath promised you Thus the same Moses againe drawing neere to the time of his leaving the world c. 33.1 with his blessing did blesse the children of Israel before his death Thus when the dayes of David drew neere that hee should dye 1. King 2.1 hee gave a charge and a blessing to his beloved Sonne Solomon And noe marveile since it is most true that hee whom God blesseth is blessed Num 22.6 and hee whom hee curseth is cursed The blessing of a parent is nothing but a prayer to the giver of good things Iam. 1.17 that hee may be pleased to send his blessing on their issue Mee thinks therfore the words of Samuel which hee sayd unto the people doe take a deepe impression in my breast 1. Sam. 12.23 for hee sayd God forbid that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you With leave then of my God I will see my children and I will kisse them as Laban did his and I will likewise blesse them The Lord direct mee in my prayers for them and the Lord accept my prayers grant my requests which I shall make unto him for them part 2 The Second part being the benediction or blessing it selfe ending in a prayer MY deerest children yee whom I love in the tender yerning bowells of affection draw neere and attend to the words of your dying mother A weake woman yee see I am but yet sinfull I am which peradventure yee see not O weepe not my prettie ones doe not pierce and breake my troubled heart with your sad laments I must dye my litle ones and goe to a better place whither yee I hope shall one day follow mee Wee came not together into the world nor shall wee goe together out of it In vaine doe yee shed those teares of sorrow for allthough nature teacheth you to bewayle my departure yet grace will teach you to moderate your mourning My heart even bleede's to leave you behind mee fearing lest yee will forget the commandements of your God I should be sorrie to have just cause to say unto you as Moses did to the Levites yet I will put you in mind of his words Deut. 31.27 Behold sayd hee while I am yet alive with you this day yee have beene rebellious against the Lord vers 29 how much more after my death I know that after my death yee will utterly corrupt your selves and turne aside from the way which I commanded you and evill will befall you in the latter dayes because yee will doe evill in the sight of the Lord Heb. 6.9 to provoke him to anger through the worke of your hands But I am perswaded better things of you and things that accompanie salvation though I thus speake O my deare ones hearken unto the words which I shall say They must be my legacie unto you heare mee with patience and treasure up in your memories the last speech of your fainting your dying mother How deare yee cost mee before yee had life and what pangs and torments I suffered for you before yee were heard or seene in the world yee cannot imagine nor I expresse Yet all was forgotten for joy that yee were borne Ioa 16.21 and hoping that yee would adde unto the quire of Saints To this purpose I have laboured and taken care for the nourishment both of your soules bodies and for your sustentation so much as in mee lay from the breast to this instant O what sad and perplexed thoughts have I had for you in the day times and how many howers have I borrowed from my sleepe in the nights to thinke what would become of you if yee should not be obedient to the commandements of my God! To the same God they are best knowne O how often upon my knees have I prayed for your happinesse and wept and mourned when yee have done what yee ought not To him is it best knowne to whom I now am goeing Sometimes when yee have offended I was enforced to correct you but each stripe which yee receaved did cut mee into the heart In many things yee failed because yee were young and in many things I failed too because I am a weake and a sinfull woman If at any time yee thought that I did not my duety take heede that hereafter yee remember it not to my dishonour Ponder in your
and rent my heart and amend my life Ioël 2.13 and faithfully rely upon the passion of my Redeemer I may then assure my selfe that hee will correct mee with judgment Ier 10 24. and not in his anger I know that dye I must but in him I earnestly desire to dye When I was in health I thought not of mortalitie and therfore now I am in sicknesse I can skarce so much as hope for immortalitie But I will beseech him to spare mee a litle that I may repent Ps 39.13 before I goe hence and be noe more seene I faine would live not that I might adde to my sinnes but that I might be sorrie for my sinnes I would faine continue here a litle longer that so I might make my peace the surer Long I have continued in wickednesse ô my God spare mee a litle time to spend in contrition If I may enjoy my life but for a litle longer space I will resolve by the grace of my God to dedicate it wholly to the service of him and that I may in some measure make up my repentance before my departure I will beseech him if it may stand with his immutable decree to lend mee a litle more time wherein by his grace I may labour my reconciliation with him My time of death indeede seemeth to draw nigh and yet I doe not consider or at least I have not considered that all this time which I have lived I have beene truely dead Surely thus I have beene for so saith King Solomon Prov. 21.16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remaine in the congregation of the dead Thus have I beene dead even in trespasses and sinnes justly therfore now my life doeth hasten away Eph 2.1 and my death approacheth I am now layed upon my bed of sorrow Not as the un-chast Amnon was 2. Sam. 13.5 who lingered after an un-cleane enjoying of his sister Tamar onely counterfeiting a sicknesse Nor like the coveteous Ahab 1. King 21.4 who vexed himselfe because Naboth had denyed to sell him his vine-yard 2. Sam. 4.7 Nor like Ishbosheth ready to be slaine by a Rechab and a Baanah unlesse my sinnes and my sicknesse the effect of my sinnes be that Rechab and that Baanah But languishing I lye allmost despairing of recoverie by reason of the weakenesse of my neere consumed body and spirits through the sharpnesse of my disease Is 14.11 My pompe is even brought downe to the grave and the noise of my violls the worme is spread under mee and the wormes are ready to cover mee But let mee say with holy Iob Iob 10 20. Are not my dayes few Cease then ô my God and let mee alone that I may take comfort a litle vers 21 Before I goe whence I shall not returne even to the land of darknesse and the shadow of death A land of darknesse vers 22 as darknesse it selfe and the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darknesse There is noe worke nor device Eccl. 9.10 Ps 6.5 knowledg nor wisedome in the grave whither I am goeing In death there is noe remembrance of thee ô my God in the grave who shall give thee thank 's Ps 115.17 Is 38.18 The dead praise not thee ô Lord neither any that goe downeinto silence The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that goe downe into the pit cannot hope for thy trueth vers 19 The living onely the living hee shall praise thee the father to the children shall make knowne thy trueth Thou thy selfe hast professed that thou art not a God of the dead Matt 22.32 Ps 88.10 vers 11 but of the living wilt thou then shew wonders to the dead Shall the dead arise and praife thee Shall thy loving kindnesse be declared in the grave Or thy faithfullnesse in destruction vers 12 Shall thy wonders be knowne in the darke And thy righteousnesse in the land of forgetfullnesse Consider then Ps 13.3 Ps 69.15 and heare mee ô Lord my God lighten mine eyes that I sleepe not in death Let not the water-flood over-flow mee neither let the deepe swallow mee up and let not the pit shut her mouth upon mee Heare mee ô Lord vers 16 for thy loving kindnesse is good turne unto mee according to the multitude of thy tender mercies 1. Sam 2.6 Thou art hee who doest both kill and make alive who bringest downe to the grave 2. King 4.20 bringest up againe When the Shunamite's child had sate on his mother's knees untill noone vers 21 it then departed but shee went up and layed him on the bed of the man of God vers 32 and shut the doore upon him and went out And when Elisha was come into the house behold the child was dead and laid upon his bed vers 33 hee went in therfore and shut the doore upon them twaine and prayed unto thee my greate and powerfull God vers 35 And the child neezed seaven times and the child opened his eyes Mat 9.18 When the ruler of the Synagogue worshipped my Saviour and sayd My daughter is even now dead but come and lay thine hand upon her and shee shall live vers 25 Then hee went in and tooke her by the hand and the mayd arose O my God to thee I submit my selfe doe with mee as thou pleasest In thy power it is to spare mee for a while It will not be harder for thee to restore mee to health then it was to restore the dead unto life Faine I would live longer that I may repent more Lord if it be thy pleasure adde yet some more dayes unto my life restore mee to health and make mee praise thee for thy mercies Longer I would not live unlesse thou shalt be pleased with my life to renew mine obedience and yet dye I would not unlesse thou shalt first be pleased to give mee a sense of my sinnes and a sorrow upon that sense and a comfortable and contenting joy upon that sorrow Thou art the potter and I am the clay allready thou hast made mee and it is now in thy power either to breake mee into sheards or to preserve mee whole I who have cryed so much in the extreamitie of mine anguish doe now beseech thee with my teares to spare mee Mat. 8.8 O speake the word onely and thy servant shall be healed But yet howsoëver I submit to thine owne good pleasure Lord if it may be thy will let the skill of my Phisitians and the power of my medicines and whatsoëver shall be administred unto mee take a blessing from thee if thou shalt restore mee againe to thee and to thy service will I devote my life My time shall be thine my dayes thine my thoughts my words and mine actions thine So shall thy mercy be magnified and thy praise I will be for ever singing and will
out all the land every man's sword is against his brother the Lord pleadeth against us with blood vers 22 vers 18 and with fire and with brimstone His fury is upon his face vers 19 and a great shaking is in our land The covers of our souldiers are iron their weopons are iron and their hearts are allso iron so hard are their hearts that they kill without remorse and they pillage and plunder without pitty or commiseration The baggs that swelled with unjust gaine and moneys purchased by extortion fraud now wonder at their owne emptinesse and in their shrivell'd and pursed cheekes seeme to mourne for their falling away Eccles 5.16 This is a sore evill that in all points as the deceaver came so shall hee goe and what profit hath hee that hath laboured for the wind The plunderers suck downe his swollen purse and leave nothing but a be and naked skinne and by a new law of gaâ—… they teach by the way of violence how toâ— in an hower as much as hee in his age câ—…scrape up by falshood And when hee looker with an heavy and wish-full eye upon his departing moneys never to be re-called â— deepe sigh tell 's him 't is well that some meâ—nes are found to awaken his conscience So hee spends his drooping dayes in wishing that hee were as innocent as many that are 〈◊〉 poore and it may be that by the losse of his coyne hee gaines some religion Those againe whose honest care and thriftie labours had beene so blessed that their moneys had increased yea even by diminishing and had multiplied for their charity finding now the uncertainty of what the world falsely account's a treasure part with their money with as deepe but not a coveteous sigh anâ— that out of a consideration that the emptinesse of their coffers will be burdensome one day to their new but fellonious possessours They grieve that rapine should be more powerfull then innocency yet content themselves with the certaine assurance of treasures in heaven The surly robber in the interim with a crustie conscience rejoyceth at the purchase of his owne destruction and to shew that hee hath as litle care of his issue as he hath of his soule consume's in riott what his children may beg for The lowest spoake is now come to be the highest in the wheele and that which was the uppermost is turned to the ground The â—rich are become poore and those who formerly were of a low esteeme now pride it in the feathers of other birds Solomons observations is come to passe in our dayes Eccles 10.6 vers 7. the rich sit in low place yea and wee see servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth Ier 12.12 The spoilers are come upon all high places for the sword of the Lord doth devoure from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land noe flesh hath peace Wee sowe wheate vers 13 but wee reape thornes wee put our selves to paine but noe profit come's of it and wee are even ashamed of our revenues because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Our bloody victories are mixed both with joy and sorrow for even our very conquests tryumphs are mournfull The more wee slay the fewer kindred and friends and acquaintance are left us and much of that blood which wee draw from others is part of that which runneth in our owne veines Iacob and Esau brethren of the same wombe contend for the birth-right and many a man strive's to supplant to surprise to destroy his kinsman his brother yea and his owne father Our tongues are become prisoners and are kept close under the roofes of our mouths and within the grates of our teeth yea and that in the compaâ—… them who are or should be deerest unto and all for feare of trecherie and discover The prudent are enforced to keepe silence because is an evill time Amos. 13. Mic 8.5 Wee dare not trust a friend 〈◊〉 put confidence in a guide wee keepe 〈◊〉 doores of our mouths from them that lies our bosomes vers 6. The sonne dishonoureth the fathâ—… the daughter riseth up against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law Brother delivereth up brother to death Mat 10 21. and the father the child and the children rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death Five in one house are divided Luc 12 52. vers 53 three against two and two against three The father is divided against the Sonne and the sonne against the father the mother against the daughter aâ— the daughter against the mother the mothâ—… in law against the daughter in law and the daughter in law against her mother in law and a man's foes are those of his owne household Mat. 10 36. Mal. 4.6 The Lord God of heaven amend these wicked times and turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers Ps 69.22 Is 29.21 Ier 48.43 vers 44 Our very tables become snares before us and that which should have beene for our well-fare is become a trap A man is made an offender for a word and a snare is layd for him that reproveth in the gate Feare and the pit and the snare are upon us hee that fleeth from the feare falleth into the pit and â—…e that getteth up out of the pit is taken in the â—…are the yeeres of our visitation are upon 〈◊〉 The spoiler is come upon every city vers 8. and noe â—…ty escaped the vallies allso perish and the â—aines are destroyed c 15.7 The Lord doeth fanne 〈◊〉 with a fanne in the gates of our land hee â—…th bereave us of our children hee doth destroy â—s people because wee returne not from our wayes Our widowes are increased to us above the sand â—f the seas vers 8. the Spoyler at noone day is brought â—pon us Shee that hath borne seaven languisheth vers 9. â—hee hath given up the ghost her sunne is gone downe while it was yet day and the residue of â—…s are delivered to the sword before our enemies c 6.26 O that wee would gird our selves with sackcloth and wallow our selves in ashes and make our selves mourning as for an onely sonne most bitter lamentation for the spoiler suddenly cometh upon us Isa 21.2 Ier 48.10 The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously and the spoiler spoileth Yea and the word is given out among us Cursed be hee that keepeth back his sword from blood and yet few of us doe consider that the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite c 51.56 Amos. 5.18 Woe unto them that desired this day of the Lord. To what end is it for them Alasse the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light vers 19 As if a man did flee from a lion and a beare mett him in the way or went into the house
have mercy upon us Ps 30.11 Ps 65.2 Ps 69.34 â—ord be thou our helper O thou that hearest â—rayer thou that hearest the poore and despisest â—ot the prisoners cause thou us to fast and â—ay and reade and weepe and repent as thou â—equirest Is 58.8 that our light may breake forth as the â—orning our health may spring forth speedily â—o our righteousnesse shall goe forth before us â—he glory of thee our Lord shall be our reward Mat 2.18 Oh how dolefull is this voyce which is heard in â—ur Rama this lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children â—nd will not be comforted because they are not Al-mighty God everlasting father Is 9.6 prince of â—eace thou who didst comfort thy disciples that in thee they might have peace Io. 16.33 Gen 8.11 because in the world they should have tribulation be pleased I beseech thee in mercy to send thy dove with the olive leafe of peace into this our distressed Kingdome When thy servant Solomon dedicated his temple to thy holy worship he prayed unto thee and sayd 1 King 8.33 When thy people Israel shall be smitten downe before the enemie because they have sinned against thee and shall turne againe to thee and confesse thy name and pray vers 34 and make supplication unto thee Then heare thou in heaven and forgive the sinne of thy people Israel and bring them againe to the land which thou gavest to their fathers Heavenly father wâ— are smitten downe before our enemies anâ— that because wee have sinned against thee but by thy grace wee turne againe to the and confesse thy name and pray and makâ— our supplications to thee in thy templesâ— Heare thou us in heaven and forgive thâ— sinns of thy distressed and back-sliding Israel compose our grievous divisions and destructions Mercifull father bow downe thine eare to mee the worst of all this thine Israel who in the name of our whole nation doe here beseech thee to be pacified with this broken Kingdome smitten downe with its owne bloody and sharpest sword Make us all 〈◊〉 turne againe unto thee and pray and maâ—… our supplications unto thee more frequentâ— and more fervently then formerly wee haâ—… done that thou mayst heare us and he alt our land O thou sword of the Lord hoâ— long will it be ere thou be quiet Ier 47.6 Put up thy sell into thy skabbard rest and be still O God of peace ô Prince of peace thou and thoâ— onely it is who makest warrs to cease in all the world Ps 46.9 when so thou pleasest who breakest the bowe and knappest the speare iâ— sunder and burnest the chariots in the fire O give thou unto us thy wounded people such rest on every side 1. King 5.4 c 8.57 that wee may have neither adversarie nor evill occurrent Doe thou o Lord our God be with us as thou wert with our fathers doe not leave us nor forâ—ke us Make us incline our hearts to thee vers 58 â—d walke in thy wayes and keepe thy comâ—andements and thy statutes and thy judgâ—ents which thou commandedst our fathers Thou o God art the God of peace thou Rom 15.33 〈◊〉 Christ art the Prince of peace thou o heaâ—enly and blessed Spirit art the Dove of â—eace o thou united Trinitie give peace in his our land that wee may lie downe Lev 26 6. and â—one may make us afraid O let not the â—word any longer goe through our land but doe â—hou walke among us and be our God vers 12 and let â—s be thy people Give peace in our time 〈◊〉 Lord let the righteous flourish Ps 72.7 yea and â—boundance of peace so long as the moone endureth Give the King thy judgments vers 1. 〈◊〉 God and thy righteousnesse unto the Kings Sonnes Let the mountaines bring forth peace vers 3. and the litle hills righteousnesse unto thy people O King of Kings and Lord of Lords doe thou in mercy direct and continue our Soveraigne Lord the King in the truth and purity of our religion without inclining either to the right hand or to the left Make him allways a Royall protectour a zealous professour and a constant practiser of the same Blesse him o thou God of blessings in his Royall Person blesse him in his Consort blesse him in his Issue blesse him in his Counsellers and blesse him in all his People even froÌ„ Dan to Beersheba Be propitious ô thou wonderfull Counsellâ— in an especiall and peculiar manner unto thâ— head and members of our high and most honâ—…rable Parliament Doe thou knitt and unâ— them doe thou guide and direct them in aâ— their counsells and consultations that they maâ— unanimously joyntly conclude upon such who some lawes as may tend to the suppression oâ— wickednesse and vice and the maintenance of thy true religion and vertue rooting up all atheisne and profanenesse all herefie and superstition all schisme and faction that both church and common wealth may be religiously and firmely knitted and tyed together in the unitie of the spirit Ps 85.11 by the bond of peace Let thy truth o Goâ— of truth flourish out of the earth and righteounesse looke downe from heaven Doe thou Loâ— shew thy loving kindnesse unto thy people vers 12 〈◊〉 let our land give it's increase Let thy peopâ—… dwell in peaceable habitations Isa 32.18 and in suâ— dwellings and in quiet resting places Cauâ—… thou us to beate our swords into ploâ— shares c 2.4 and our speares into pruning-hookesâ— and suffer us not to learne such civill warâ— any more c 11.5 Let righteousnesse be the girdâ— of our loynes and faithfulnesse the girdle of our reines vers 6. Let the wolfe allso dwell with tâ— lamb and the leopard lie downe with the kiâ— and the calfe and the young lyon and the fatling together and let a litle child leadâ— them vers 8. Let a sucking child play on the hole of â—he aspe and a weaned child put his hand on the â—ockatrice denne Breake thou the bowe Hos 2.18 and the sword and the battell out of the earth and make us to lie downe safely vers 19 Betroth us unto thee for ever in righteousnesse and in judgment and in loving kindnesse and in mercies O let us sit downe every one under our vines Mic 4.4 and under our fig trees let there be none en make us afraid Glory be to thee ô God in the highest Luc 2.14 Io 14.27 1. Sam. 25.6 2. Thes 3.16 Rom 5.1 Eph. 2.14 and on earth peace and good will towards men Suffer not ô eternall peace the hearts of us to be troubled neither let us be afraid Peace be both to us and peace be to our houses and peace be to all that wee have and that in and through him who is the Lord of peace Iustifie us all by faith that wee may have peace with thee
brought on us seaven times more plagues then formerly Hee seeth that wee feare not this glorious name The Lord our God therfore hath hee sent us greate plagues of long continuance and sore sicknesse of long continuance Thus I sitt and muse and consider of the sicknesse I heare the bells tolling even those bells which were wont to invite us to the temple that wee might know our sinnes at the mouth of the preacher and pray for remission of our sinnes by the helpe of the preacher the very selfe-same bells serve now to tell mee that one man lyeth languishing and desireth my prayers another man is departed and wanteth nothing but a funerall a third man is to be buried but a neighbourly and friendly companie is wanting Every stroake of a bell mee think's hitteth mee at the heart and biddeth mee to prepare for my last fare-well Every toul awakeneth my conscience and biddeth mee remember what my sinnes have merited Thus mine eares receave a sound and thus my trembling heart feeleth a throb a heating a panting for my particular sinnes which have beene some cause of this generall sicknesse Moses went unto the Lord 3. Ex 32.31 and sayd Oh this people have sinned a greate sinne and have made them Gods of gold But what followed The Lord plagued the people vers 35 because they worshipped the Calse which Aaron had made There was the sinne there was the punishment But was that plague the same as this which now doeth rave and rage amongst us Surely our sinnes are the same as were theirs for wee digge the entrailes of our mother earth and like the Augures the Sooth-sayers though they sayd noe sooth noe trueth at all wee conjecture wee divine by those entrailes yea and wee decree him who is rich to be a good man a fufficient man an honest man and what not Wee vallew the man for the gold wee worship him for it wee honour him for it And is not this to sinne with the Israëlites Wee doe very litle differ from those idolaters even nothing at all They made them Gods of gold and wee make gold our God Iustly therfore are wee thus punished by the true God because wee honour that which is noe God The Israelites had this very kind and sort of plague such a very pestilence as ours and for just such a sinne as this of ours Though Moses prayed for them yea though hee desired to be blotted out of the booke of God vers 32 rather then they should not be forgiven yet God decreed saying vers 33 Whosoëver hath sinned against mee him will I blott out of my booke Whosoëver hath sinned against him If hee should deale so with us who should people the land Who should inhabit our dwellings Who should enjoy our treasures Hee hath begun blotting indeede allready His inke is found in the blacknesse of every blaine in the blewnesse of every token in the rednesse of every crossed doore But will this blotting allwayes continue Will hee not stay his hand Will his wrath burne like fire for ever Ps 141.7 Our bones lye scattered at the graves mouth as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth vers 8. But mine eyes are unto thee ô God the Lord in thee is my trust Either blott not at all or onely blott out our offences Hide thy face from our sinns and blott out all our iniquities Say unto every one of us as thou diddest unto Iacob by the mouth of thy Prophet I Is 43.25 even I am hee that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne name's sake and will not remember thy sinnes The Fourth part of the Soliloquie consisting of Severall examples of dreadfull Pestilences LOrd what a hideous dinne is this in mine eares There was a groane able to have shaken even the earth it selfe had it beene imprisoned in the deepest bowells thereof What another Hearke There 's weeping too Oh this is the sad and wearisome life of us poore sinners who are caged and miewed up in our infected citties and townes and villages The diseased groane through the extreamitie of their paines and for want of comforts both of body and soule The sound are weeping for the miseries of the sick and long for the deliverance even of their whole familes from the burden of the flesh Some habitations are made both hospitalls and charnell houses where many a one lyeth sick and for want of helpe they sicken without hope they dye without comfort and they consume without interment Sometimes againe the mother who dandled her infant in her clasping armes is enforced in those armes to carrie it to the grave Sometimes the husband who deerely affected the wife of his bosome is enforced to make her the burden of his shoulders and to beare her dead corps to the devouring earth for want of friends neighbours to ease him of the burden Yea sometimes the children are enforced to assist their father in the cariage of their mother to her longest home O horrour horrour horrour Can pittie find noe enterance at the hearts of strangers Can compassionfind noe harbour in the bowells of neighbours Will none performe this act of pietie to key-cold woman to the carkeise of a woman but onely her husband the husband of her affection and her children the labour and the fruit of her wombe O how divers in the world would stand amazed at the sight hardly determine whether the dropps which fall from the faces of the bearers be the sweate of their browes or the teares of their eyes Oh what adreadfull time is this Did ever any age produce a paralell to this severe contagion Was it ever knowne that a Pestilence was so generall and so malignant Did ever any people drinke so deepe of the cup of sorrow astonishment Eze 23 33. vers 4. and desolation as wee doe Was ever Samaria or Aholah or Aholibah or Babylon or Ierusalem Ier 25.20 was ever the king of the land of the Philistines or Askelon or Azzah or Ekron vers 21 or Ashdod was ever Edom or Moab or Ammon or Tyrus or Zidon vers 22 was ever Dedan or Tema vers 23 or any other place so drunke with the cup of furie from the Lords hands as wee are Hos 4.18 Our drinke was formerly sowre with our whoredomes with our abominations now therfore wee have waters of gall to drinke Ier 8.14 c 23.15 c 25.15 Eze 39 17. vers 18 vers 19 Lam 1.12 wee are fed with wormewood and our cup is a cup of furie of trembling and of astonishment O the plague the plague it is that eateth our flesh and drinketh our blood it eateth the flesh of the mighty and drinketh the blood of Princes it drinketh even untill it is drunken with our blood Was there ever any sorrow like unto our sorrow where with the Lord doeth afflict us in this day of his fierce wrath But why doe I thus cry out Why
complaine I so mournefully as if our afflictions exceeded all that ever were sent upon the children of men If I consider our estate by it selfe I cannot choose indeede but conclude it miserable but if I weigh it with the Pestilences of former ages it will not perhapps appeare a burden so un-supportable Comparisons may peradventure ease my griese and lessen my torments therfore with David I will remember the dayes of ould I will meditate on all the workes of God Ps 143 5. It may be that Solomon may advise mee and comfort mee too where hee thus counselleth Eccl 7.10 Say not in thine heart What is the cause that the former dayes were better then these For thou doest not enquire wisely concerning this I will therfore consider the dayes of ould Ps 77.5 and the yeeres of ancient times Num 16.41 example 1 The children of Israël murmured against Moses and Aaron about the destruction of Korah Dathan Abiram and their accomplices saying Yee have killed the people of the Lord vers 46 and presently there was wrath gone out from the Lord the plague was begunne vers 49 So they that dyed of the plague were foureteene thousand and seaven hundred and all in a day beside them that dyed about the matter of Korah example 2 When Israel abode at Shittim the people committed whoredome with the daughters of Moab and Num 25.1 vers 3. Ps 106 28. vers 29 not contented with this high offence they allso joyned themselves unto Baal-Peor and did eate the sacrifices of the dead Thus they provoked the Lord to anger with their inventions and the plague brake in upon them Num 25.9 and those that dyed in the plague were twentie and foure thousand Their sinne was double it was whoredome both carnall and spirituall their punishment was therfore allmost double to that which was sent for murmuring example 3 When David sent for the Captaine of the hoast to number the people Ioab answered him fairely saying 2. Saâ—… 24.3 Now the Lord thy God adde unto the people how many soever they be an hundred fold and that the eyes of my Lord the King may see it but why doth my Lord the King delight in this thing vers 4. Notwithstanding the King's word prevailed against Ioab and against the Captaines of the boast and Ioab and the Captaines of the hoast went out from the presence of the King to number the people of Israel But what was the event thereof vers 15 The Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israël from the morning even to the time appointed and there dyed of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seaventy thousand men and all of them in the space of but three dayes vers 13 Here was yet a greater number then before and yet all of them fell for the sinne of one onely man but this one man was a King and for his eminent offence five times as many were slaine as when the multitude of people joyned in a murmuring Hee who by the people was acknowledged worth ten thousand of them c 18.3 now for his sinne became the destroyer of seaven times as many of them as hee was vallued at by them so greate was the anger of the Lord for a sinne so greate and committed by a person so greate so eminent example 4 The All-mighty threatned Ierusalem by the mouth of his Prophet that hee would make that cittie desolate Ier 19.8 and an hissing every one that passed thereby should be astonished and hisse c 49.17 because of the plagues thereof The same God threatned Edom allso by the same Prophet saying Edom shall be a desolation every one that goeth by shall be astonished and shall hisse at the plagues thereof The same God againe threatned Babylon by the same Prophet saying c 50.13 Because of the word of the Lord it shall not be inhabited but it shall be wholly desolate Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hisse at her plagues Thus I remember thy judgments of old ô Lord Ps 119 52. and receave comfort Comfesse I must indeede that wee have sinned with our fathers 2. Chr 6.37 wee have done amisse and dealt wickedly but are our punishments as greate as our fathers were Foureteene thousand and seaven hundred of them fell at one time twentie and fower thousand at another time threescore and ten thousand at a third time Lord what mighty numbers were here and yet wee feare when one dyeth wee tremble when ten wee runne when twentie wee are dismayed when an hundred wee are hopelesse heartlesse even allmost quite dead allready when a thousand depart But why should not wee expect as greate plagues as were sent upon any of our ancestours seeing that our sinnes are not lesse either in number or weight Wherein are wee better then Ierusalem or Edom or Babylon that wee are not yet as desolate as were they That every one that passeth by is not astonished nor hisseth at us as they did at them Hee who visited them doeth visit us Ps 89.32 hee visiteth our offences with his rod and our sinnes with his scourges Yet hee visiteth us not so sorely as hee did the Israelites when fowreteene thousand and seaven hundred of them dyed or not so severely as when twentie and fowre thousand of them were swept away or not so grie vously as when threescore and ten thousand of them were destroyed or not so terribly as Ierusalem Edom and Babylon for wee are not quite desolate or not so furiously as Nineveh to whom God spake by his Prophet saying Nah 3.19 There is noe healing of thy bruise thy wound is grievous all that heare the bruite of thee shall clapp the hands over thee Or howsoever not so remedilesly as the army of Pharaoh at Euphrates whom the Lord mocketh by the mouth of his Prophet saying Ier 46.11 Goe up unto Gilead and take balme ô virgin the daughter of Egypt In vaine shalt thou use any medicines for thou shalt not be cured Eze 12 18. This ô this maketh mee to eate my bread with quaking and to drinke my water with trembling and carefullnesse for feare lest our sinne-revenging God should punish us as hee hath done them O what mercies doeth hee not yet offer unto us What kindnesse doeth hee not yet afford us To our Physitians hee giveth knowledg to our medicines hee giveth vertue The herbes of the fields and the fruits of the trees and the flesh of the beastes doe yet offer themselves for our cure and our sustenance O that wee had but so much happinesse as to know the miserie which is due to our offences O that wee had but so much mercy from God as to know his mercy in his gentle visitation For this our miserie will I groane for these our sinnes I will lament for the mercy of my God I will pray and I will cry Heare Ps 30.10 Ps 60.11 ô Lord
minds that curse which wretched Ham the father of Canaan receaved from Noah when hee saw his nakednesse and tould his brethren Gen 9.25 Cursed said Noah be Canaan a servant of servants shall hee be to his brethren But because Shem and Iaphet tooke a garment vers 23 layd it upon their showlders and went backward and covered the nakednesse of their father and their faces were backward and they saw not their father's nakednesse therfore hee sayd Blessed be the Lord God of Shem vers 26 vers 27 and Canaan shall be his servant God shall enlarge Iaphet and hee shall dwell in the tents of Shem Canaan shall be his servant Consider with your selves that I am your mother Whatsoever imperfections yee have discovered in mee doe in some kind reflect even upon your selves for as your bodies were mine so my credit and good name you must account to be yours But I cannot thinke that yee will neede more advice for this which even nature it selfe should teach you to practise My time is but short my speech beginneth to saile mee I will not trouble you with much allthough something more I must say unto you which I hope yee will remember when I shall sleepe in the dust Your first and chiefest duety must allways be for the service of your God If yee will dayly observe the benefitts which hee sendeth you yee cannot choose but thanke him dayly for his blessings Let it be your care to ground your actions upon his written law Vnder-take nothing which is not warranted by his word and goe forward in nothing by unlawfull meanes or to a bad intent Beginne all in him and continue in him and end in him and hee himselfe will be your reward If yee allways preserve religion in your hearts yee will allways have quietnesse and content in your minds First make him your God and then distrust not his providence noe nor his love and compassion while yee remaine his children In whatsoever vocations yee shall leade your lives be sure that yee be conscionablie industrious and laborious in them then leave the event and the blessing to his good pleasure I would feine have you be his children much more then yee are mine for yee have nothing from mee but your sinne and corruption but from him you must expect both grace and glory If therfore yee strive to blesse and magnifie your God yee may be sure that your God will both blesse and glorifie you his children Prov. 10.22 Remember that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and hee addeth noe sorrow with it Take heede therfore to your selves let him be in all your thoughts for even for them yee must account at his greate tribunall Take heede unto your words that they give none offence either to God or man Ps 62.4 There is a sort of people who blesse with their mouths but they curse in their inward parts I would not have you be of the number of them Ps 109 17. for as they love cursing so it shall happen unto them they delight not in blessing therfore shall it be farre from them vers 18 As they cloath themselves with cursing like as with a garment so it shall come into their bowells like water and like oyle into their bones Take heede allso unto your actions that there be not wickednesse in the intent nor sinne in the prosequution of them for howsoëver they shall appeare in the eye of the world they will be stricktly justly examined by the righteous judg First be yee sure that yee blesse your God and then yee may expect a blessing from him Deut 8 10. When yee have eaten and are full then yee shall blesse the Lord your God 1. Chrâ— 29.20 Remember the congregation of Israël how they blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed downe their heads and worshipped the Lord. Neh 9.5 Remember how the Levites encouraged the people unto it and said unto them Stand up and blesse the Lord your God for ever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise Remember how the Psalmist moved them unto it when hee cryed Ps 66.8 O blesse our God yee people and make the voyce of his praise to be heard be thankfull unto him Ps 100.4 and blesse his name Remember how David resolved saying Ps 16.7 I will blesse the Lord which hath given mee counsell Remember how hee decreed saying I will blesse thee while I live Ps 63.4 I will lift up my hands in thy name Remember how hee encouraged his soule to this duety saying Ps 103 1. Blesse the Lord ô my soule and all that is within mee blesse his holy name vers 2. Blesse the Lord ô my soule and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities vers 3. who healeth all thy disease Remember how hee practised it when hee blesse the Lord before all the congregation 1. Chr 29.10 and sayd Blessed be thou Lord God of Israël our father for ever and ever vers 11 Thine ô Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glory and the victory and the majestie for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the Kingdome ô Lord and thou art exalted as head above all vers 12 Both riches and honour come from thee and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make greate and to give strength unto all Now therfore our God wee thanke thee vers 13 and praise thy glorious name And remember how Ezra blessed the Lord Neh. 8.6 the greate God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Thus if yee blesse him if yee love him if yee honour him if yee obey him hee will so blesse you that yee shall delight in his service and be filled with his goodnesse Carie in your minds those words of the Psalmist Ps 128.1 Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walkeeh in his wayes For thou shalt eate the labour of thine hands vers 2. happy shalt thou be Ier 17.7 and it shall be well with thee Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Gen. 25 11. Remember how after the death of Abraham God blessed his Sonne Isaak So hee may you and so hee will you when I your poore feeble mother am streched forth and returned to the earth if yee will heare his â—…yce and observe his statutes If so yee will â—oe Deut 14.29 then the Lord your God will blesse you in â—ll the workes of your hands which yee shall doe Hee who created man in his owne image both â—ale and female and blessed them Gen. 1.27 even the same Lord will
blesse you if yee be righteous vers 28 Ps 5.12 Ps 115.13 2. Tim 4.6 and â—ith favour hee will compasse you as with a shield Hee will blesse them that feare him both small and greate And now my children I have not much more to say to you for the time of my departure is at hand If yee doe heartily love your God I know that yee will affectionately love each other yee will be observant to your guardians and instructours yee will be courteous unto all Be not dismayed at any crosse or affliction at any losse or povertie which may fall upon you Mat 6.33 Deut 28.8 Ex 23.25 but seeke yee first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and then all other things shall be added unto you Then the Lord shall command the blessing upon you both in your store-houses in all that yee set your hands unto Hee shall blesse your bread and your water Deutâ— 28.3 and take away sicknesse from the midst of you Blessed shall yee be in the citty and blessed shall yee be in the field vers 4. Blessed shaâ— be the fruits of your bodies and the fruit of your grounds and the fruits of your cattell and the increase of your kine and the flocks of your sheepe vers 5. Blessed shall be your basket vers 6. and your store Blessed shall yee be when yee come in and blessed shall yee beâ— when yee goe forth c. 7.13 The Lord will love youâ— and will blesse you and multiplie you buâ— will allso blesse the fruit of the wombe unto you and the fruit of your land and your corne and your wine and your oyle and the increase of your kine and the flocks of your sheepe in the places where yee shall live c. 28.12 Hee will open unto you his good treasure the heaven to give the raine unto your land in his season and to blesse all the worke of your hands Gen. 49.25 and yee shall lend unto many and yee shall not borrow Hee shall helpe you and blesse you with the blessings of heaven above blessings of the deepe that lyeth under and blessings of the breasts of the wombe And that hee may thus blesse you the same Lord direct your hearts preserve you in his blessing All that I can doe now is to pray for you and my weakenesse will hardly permit mee to doe that yet so long as I can speake I trust I shall pray and in my petitions remember both my selfe and you While I am yet alive it is my duety to pray for you and it is your duety allso to pray for mee The Lord graunt that wee may all doe what hee requireth at 〈◊〉 hands Doe not yee grieve too much that I am so neere my rest for it is the decree of â—…y God and the longing expectation of my â—earied selfe The Lord give you patience to â—ndure this affliction and the Lord give mee â—atience and perseverance unto the end Now I goe the way of all the earth 1. King 2.2 Keepe yee the Charge of the Lord your God to walke in his wayes to keepe his statutes vers 3. and his commandements and his judgments and his â—estimonies as it is written in the Scriptures that yee may prosper in all that yee doe and whithersoëver yee turne your hands The Lord give you the blessing of Iudah Deut. 33.7 and â—eare your voyces and let your hands be sufficient for you and let him be an helper to you from your enemies and the Lord give you the blessing of Benjamin vers 12 The Lord cover you all the day long and dwell betweene your shoulders And the Lord give you the blessing of Ioseph vers 13 Blessed of the Lord be your land for the pretious things of heaven for the deaw and for the deepe that coucheth beneath vers 14 and for the pretious fruits brought forth by the Sunne vers 16 and for the pretious things put forth by the Moone and for the pretious things of the earth and fullnesse thereof and for the good will of him that dwelt in the hush The eternall God be your resuge vers 27 and underneath you the everlasting armes 2. Sam. 7.26 And now ô Lord God let it please thee to blesse the house of thy servant Vers 29 and with thy blessing letâ— familie of thy servant be blessed for ever Deut. 26.15 ps 67.1 Lâ—… downe from thine holy habitation from heare and blesse them O my God he mercifull uâ— them and blesse them and cause thy face to 〈◊〉 upon them And now with Iacob I have made an 〈◊〉 of commanding you Gen. 49.33 and ready I am to gathâ—… up my feete into the bed and to yeeld up the 〈◊〉 and to be gathered unto my fathers Onâ—… come yee neere my deere ones that I 〈◊〉 kisse you and that my cold and clammy haâ—… may be layed upon your heads that I may once more blesse you and dye Fare-well my prettie ones farewell the children of my deare affection 2. Cor. 13.11 I must leave you and I hope I shall leave my God with you who will be unto you a father of mercies and 〈◊〉 God of all consolation Once more fare-well 1. Pet. 3 8. 2. Tim. 4.23 Love as brethren and the God of love and peace be with you The Lord Iesus Christ be with your spirits Grace be with you all Amen subject 26 THE TWENTIE-SIXTH SUBjECT Teares of a dying woman wherein is set downe her religious exercises 1 A Soliloquie in which is set forth 1 A desire of life 2 The certaintie of death 2 A godly preparation against the minuit of death 3 A prayer of the sick 4 The consolation of the godly in the hower of death 5 The resignation of the soule into the hands of God exercise 1 â—he Soliloquie wherein is set forth part 1 1. A desire of life THE EjACULATION â—sal 5. vers 1. Give eare to my words o Lord consider my meditation vers 2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry my king and my God for unto thee will I pray VVHen Ahazia had fallen downe through a lattesse in his upper chamber 2. King 1.2 that was in Samaria and was sick of 〈◊〉 fall hee sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron whether hee should recover of that dangerous sicknesse Every one desireth a fore-knowledg of events that they might prevent those dangers which otherwise might ensue Herein mee thinks wee endeavour a kind of imitation of our maker labouring unjustly for his attribute of prae-science But if wee desire what hee forbiddeth wee seeke but our destruction in the pursuit of our desires Of some things hee often permitteth us a fore-knowledg and somethings againe hee hideth from us that so both by ouâ— knowledg wee may conjecture at what a blessing wee should have enjoyed had not Adam transgressed and allso that by our ignorance wee may