of many And seeing they that sow plentifully shall reap plentifully 2 Cor. 9.6.7 8 9 10 therefore put it not off till your last Will or til your recovery from travell but while you have opportunity do good to all but especially to the houshold of faith Doe something for the poore according as God hath blessed you in your estate and as you can obtain your husbands consent unlesse you have a considerable allowance at your own disposal I say do some such eminent work of charity 2 Cor. 8.24 as may give a proof of the truth of your love to Christ and though it cannot expiate any former sins Christ onely can do that yet may in a sense recompence what hath been defective in this kind and may cause the poore while you live to give you a disciples reward Mat. 10.41 42. and to blesse you in the name of the Lord and may also enable you the better when after the resurrection you shal be examined whether you have cloathed the naked fed the hungrey Mat. 25.35 36 37 c visited the prisoners c. to give up your account with joy and not with grief In the next place alienate your heart and affections from all things below heaven Heb. 1â— â— cast off every weight of worldly desires and begin to part with that in your affections which you may shortly part with in person Look upon all your comforts as dying comforts upon your body as a dying body upon your house and estate as fading vanities which you must shortly forsake Let not your care about any of these take up that time Lamen 1.9 and those thoughts which you had need at this season to imploy otherwise And that you may the more clearly rid your hands of these things let me advise you whenever your are with child if you have any thing considerable of your own to dispose to make your Will betimes Isa 50.4 Gal. 6.10 set your house in order and then commit your Relations to the blessing of God all other things to the pleasure of his providence And if there be any thing in your mind to speake to any whom you love by way of exhortation advice admonition or reproof doe it speedily and with all your might Leave as strict a charge as you can upon all that belong to you to live soberly righteously and godlily Your last words to them if seriously and heartily uttered with prayer to God for his Blessing may stick more in their minds then many a Sermon which they have carelesly heard When the Patriarchs drew near their end they gave many grave and pious instructions to their Relations which are therefore left upon record that those that fear God might imitate them that so they may die the death of those righteous persons Num. 23.10 See the 14 15 16 and 17. cap. of John and their latter end be like theirs Our Saviour Himself when he saw the hour of his sufferings to approach spent his time wholly in comforting teaching and establishing disciples in instituting and administring the Sacrament of his Supper and in prayer for them and all his people to the end of the world Yea thus the Saints and Martyrs in all ages have left us innumerable examples of their pious and mooving Speeches when they were going hence Thus a Candle when t is at the last point and ready to go out gives a sudden flash and a clearer shine So you should endeavour that your last words may be your best words Rev. 2.19 and your last works your best works Having thus eased your heart as much as may be from all other cares and made this faire progresse in your preparation what remains but that you look Death in the face suffering no day to passe without serious thoughts upon your latter end that so by frequent meditation you may make death more familiar and lesse terrible to you Yea that by a right understanding of the nature of death you may be willing to be dissolved with Paul and ready to say with old Simeon Luk. 2.29 Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Wherefore look upon Death not as represented to a Sinner by blind and fearful Nature but as represented in the Scriptures to a Believer sweetned conquered and altered by the Death of Christ Well then Death hath its harbingers sickness and pain which are commonly more troublesome then Death it self It brings a dissolution of the frame of Nature a putrefaction of the Body in a land of darkness Job 10.22 a departure of the soul into an unknown estate in another world But what is there in all this hurtful All the messengers and forerunners of death which torment and destroy our bodies cannot hinder a Believer from rejoycing and saying with David Ps 119.54 Thy statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage And well may they sing on their sick beds yea on their death-beds whom the Lord himself doth attend Gen. 49.18 to make their beds in their sickness Old Jacob fainting under a three-fold burthen of sickness of age the care of his posterity refresheth himself by turning to the Lord and waiting for his salvation As for the dissolution of the frame of Nature it impairs not your blessedness nor can cause a disunion from Christ Nor life nor death nor any other thing can separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 8 39 As when Christ died though the comforting influences of his Divine Nature were suspended or less visible yet the hypostatical Union remained inseparable So in our death the local separation between body and soul is not a final disunion much less can there be a cutting off the mystical Union of our persons with Christ Therefore though wicked men die in themselves and die without Christ as they lived out of him yet the servants of God die in Christ Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 Rom. 14. â— 7 8. Phil. 1.23 they die to the Lord yea into the Lord viz. so as to be more nearly joyned to him then before There is in every member of Christ a divine Nature not subject to death or dissolution Therefore though as the children of Men they die yet as the children of God they live Though as the children of Adam they return to the earth yet as the members of Christ they return to God And though their bodies die because severed from their soul yet it liveth in death because it is still joyned to the Lord. God is the God of Abraham yet not the God of the dead Every Atome and unknown scattered parcel of a believers dust are deposited in the hands of a faithful Creator So that though they be dead yet their life is hid with Christ in God And as for the darkness and putrefaction of the Grave it matters not its putrefaction must be that the garments of
things and holy is his name And whence is this to me that the grace of Christ should come to me MEDITATION 7. Rebecca conceived Gen. 25.22 23. and the children strugled within her and she said If it be so why am I thus that is if I am heard of God in my request and am with child by his blessing whence is this strugling this painful conflict and strange unquietness of the fruit of my womb And she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb c. So when I look into my self and observe the commotions that are in the womb of my heart I conclude Surely there are two nations within me the flesh with all its motions lucting against the spirit and its grace Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit with its gracious influences alway striving against the sinfulness of my carnal part Now blessed be God that seeing sin will yet keep possession that it hath no quiet abode within me but meets with reluctancy and opposition from my spirituall part But oh wretched creature that I am how often is evil present and prevalent with me how many are those pangs of sorrow those sighs and grones that my mischievous and restless corruptions cause within me But if it be so that the power of the most High hath overshadowed me and true grace be implanted in my soule then I shall seek to the Lord that he would cause the better part in me to be the more prevailing part that he would water and give encrease to these tender beginnings and give me at last a safe and happy deliverance from this body of death MEDITATION 8. If men strive and hurt a woman with child Exod. 21.22 23. so that her fruit depart from her and yet 〈◊〉 mischief follow he shall be surely punished c. Women with child are liable to many dangers A fall a bruise an accidentall stroke a fright a strain the taking somewhat that proves expulsive or the disappointment of somewhat they longed for these and such other contingencies are noxious to them and often-times cause abortion or the mischance of her fruit departing from her Such was the case of the Church when it was with child with many Converts Rev. 12.2 3. the great red Dragon watched the destruction of her and of her fruit And thus is with every repenting soul What security soever there be among those careless women that are at ease Isa 32.9 10 11. how little inward care or sorrow they feel while they forget God how unacquainted soever with the hurt and smart of sin or Satans striving with them before they are acquainted with God yet no sooner do they espouse themselves to Christ and conceive purposes of holy living and begin to be fruitful in any grace but they shall have many adversaries in the world and especially the god of this world striving against them to afright them to tempt them to receive such principles company suggestions as may quench their graces or to deprive them of that Spiritual food they long for or to intice them to straine their consciences or some way or other to cause them to fall that they may be wounded bruised c. and the fruit of grace depart from them But oh my soul hath God such care of the unborn infant as to provide a speciall law in its behalfe and will he not much more take care of that grace which he hath begotten in my Soul Oh my God keep me that the Evill One touch me not MEDITATION 9. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children As the first general curse Gen. 3.16 In dying thou shalt dy brought not onely the pains of death but intended also all the miseries of our life so this particular curse upon women brings not only pain in travel but comprehends all the infirmities of Child-bearing I find that the child in my womb brings many weaknesses and aches upon me but oh how sad and deplorable are those deeper sicknesses and maladies which I have brought upon it It s body partaking of my substance partakes unavoidably of my natural pollution It s Soul though it come immediately from the Father of Spirits yet I know not how is upon its infusion into this tender infant subjected to the common misery of the Children of Adam who having lost the image and likenesse of God sinne and corruption must needs follow I am an unclearne vessel Psal 58.3 sa 48.8 and how can any clean thing come out of me Oh my soul what need have I to be sanctified throughout both in Body and Soul and Spirit And Oh my God repair by thy grace what sin hath made so defective in me and mine MEDITATION 10 Our blessed Saviour and Great Prophet Jesus Christ foretelling the miseries that should shortly come on Judea Jerusalem sayes Wo unto them that are with Child Mat. 24.19 Lu. 23.29 and to them that give suck in those days And in another Evangelist Behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never have and the paps that never gave suck And indeed of all persons none more miserable in the time of War than women with child or women that give suck because their care is double and their persons uncapable of flying and shifting for their lives as those who are single may and do And of all murthers none more horrible in all its circumstances 2 Kin. 8.12 Lam. 5.11 then to rip up women with child Wherefore oh my soul let me be thankfull to my God that there is peace in our borders and any quietness and safety in my habitation and that I am free from those terrours and affrights with which many others in a time of common calamity are undone Oh how many Women with their unborn infants have been butchered in many places in ages past and martyred by blood-thirsty Papists in these later ages of which histories are too plentiful And if there be now any in my condition in any place especially among Christians that is exposed daily to the rage of a devouring Sword the Lord be pleased either to restrain the Enemy and the Avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 6.10 or to avenge the cause of the murthered that according to thy own Law they may not go unpunished but may give life for life Yea Lord hear the crie of the oppressed and give their adversaries blood to drink for they are worthy MEDITATION 11. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed whithin you Where any place is blest with a painfull Minister and Pastour after Gods own heart Gal. 4.19 they have in them much of the Apostle's temper For when I consider their painfull studies their sighes and teares their spending their spirits in ardent Prayers and laborious Preaching their compassionate exhortations passionate supplications and their giving themselves wholly to these things 1
our polluted flesh may be changed into one without spot This Tabernacle which our sins have defiled like the Lepers house must be pulled down 1 Cor. 5.1 that at the day of the restitution of all things it may be made a more glorious body Untill which day it rests in the Grave as in a bed of sleep and finds darkness in a dormitory not inconvenient And though the soul depart from all the delights and society of men and no eye can see whither it flies and into what habitations it enters though the state of departed souls be a mysterie which reason may talk of but never fully discover yet by Faith we look at the things that are not seen even the things that are eternal We know saith the Apostle that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Whither I go ye know Joh. 14.4 saith Christ and the way ye know We know that there is a perfecting of the spirits of just men that there is an Abrahams Bosome a Paradice a Right hand of God and many mansions in our Fathers house where they who have believed do enter into rest R. Bolton General Direction c. p. 54. 'T is therefore our idleness of spirit our slowness of heart to consider that makes the state of the dead unknown and undesirable and the joyes of the world to come to be in a manner fabulous and incredible But surely it would much adde to your peace and joy in believing Rom. 5.13 if you would oftener lift up the eyes of your minde to the Heaven of Heavens and by Faith enter into the Holy of Holies and by the Scituation Mansions Treasures and Delights of the heavenly Jerusalem and you shall soon see that the present state of Glory which you enter into at death not to speak of that far greater measure at the Resurrection is such as may abundantly cure all sad apprehensions concerning your departure What shall I say of your immunities from all temporall evils from that vanity and vexation of spirit which doth perpetually elude and discruciate the mind Present evils are innumerable and future evils are unavoidable Sufficient to every day is the evil thereof and yet we know not but the morrow may bring forth greater What a comfort is it to be in a perpetual Ark of safety wherein we may swim above all waters To be taken up out of this miry pit and to be taken away from the evil to come to be out of the reach of hellish tongues and bloudy hands for the dead know nothing at all that is their senseless bodies and glorified souls know no misery from all the world can do against them though the Papists accurse and burn their bones for Hereticks yet they are not touched with the feeling of any infirmity the dead neither know nor care any thing at all what men do for them or against them here upon earth Also what a blessedness is it to be delivered from the temptation of ill company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alludit ad pomaputrida male olentia quae faetore nos turbant c. Zanch. in Eph. 4.29 and the contagion of the a rotten breath of wicked men and the vexation that is caused to every righteous Lot in seeing and hearing them Wo is me saith David that I sojourn in Mesech Also to be free of Satans importunate suggestions to escape him who is in these last dayes come down with great wrath because his time is but short Verily if one knew what opposition the host of evil angels that fill the regions of the aire do make against the free ascent of a gracious soul to Heaven it must needs be that the joy they conceive of their safe arrival by the conduct of good Angels must be very great this last instance of Satans mad and malicious endeavours being fresh in their memories But content must it needs adde to see the Daughter to destroy the Mother of Mischief I mean that whereas Sin is the first Parent of Death Death onely puts an end to all our sins Sampson slew many Philistines in his life but at his death he slew the Lords themselves So we may mortifie some sins in our life but at death we triumph over our Master sinns yea all our sins Yea let me yet adde that it is no small part of our gain by Death to be freed from all laborious Graces and Duties such as Fear Hope Repentance Watchfulness Self-denial c. Confession Humiliation Praying Hearing Receiving Sacraments c. For all these argue Imperfections Wants and Corruptions abounding in us In short after death they come to judgement have their absolution from God himself and shall see all debts crossed out of his book of remembrance are admitted to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob have fellowship with the innumerable company of Angels understand the mysteries they now believe â— Pet. 1.8 whom having before not seen yet they loved but now rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory But all this contains but that present state of Glory which they immediately possess after death But at the Resurrection when body and soul are reunited the sentence of Absolution more publickly pronounced the wicked condemned time finished and their whole persons admitted to fulness of glory and happiness then I say there is a great addition made to their felicity then their souls shall no longer cry How long Lord holy and true as they did before while their bodies were under corruption the Church under persecution but shall be fully satisfied with the perpetuity of that blessedness and perfection God hath crowned them with But I list not here to enter into so large a field as the state of Glory after the Resurrection Many others have written largely of it and what I have before spoken of the state of departed Souls presently after their going hence does I think more properly belong to such considerations as may help to prepare you for death that you may not be in bondage with the fear thereof but having rightly understood it as now represented may say with more assured confidence then wicked Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thank fulnesse after their deliverance is also the duty of Women with child HEre you must rightly understand what I do not mean in this direction as well as what I do mean Know therefore that I do not desire to draw you into rash vowes no nor indeed to any vows at all I observe it too comon among afflicted persons perhaps 't is so also among women with child to make many vowes that if ever God deliver them they wâ—â—l leave such a sin abound in such a duty decline such and such temptations read so much and so often c. But I have also observed that such vowes seldome end
This sorrow and pain is the Curse but it is presently sweetned with a promise of bringing forth So that notwitstanding the danger of this Curse Eve was through Mercy the Mother of many Children and notwithstanding you all inherit the same curse yet you are capable of the same blessing And in a word if you continue in Faith Charity Holiness and Sobriety you shall find that though you are a daughter of Eve yet you shall be saved To which purpose a Reverend Author (a) Bish Hall cont lib. 10. p. 186. hath these words Afflictions have this advantage that they occasion God to shew that mercy to us whereof the prosperous are uncapable It would not beseem a Mother to be so indulgent to a healthfull Child as to a sick It was to Manoah's wife that the Angel appeared not to her husband for that the birth of the child would cost her more dear then her husband As Satan layes his batteries ever to the weakest so contrarily God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that have most need As at the first because Eve had most reason to be dejected for that her sin had drawn Man into the transgression therefore the Cordial of God most respecteth her The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Thus far he And surely we cannot imagine any higher reason why God suffered the first sin to be and to bring so much sin and misery upon us but that the more miserable we are the more would the glory of his grace appear in pardoning and saving us in the second Adam And why would God have suffered sin to bring such pain danger upon women in travel but 't was his will that there should ever he while the world stands that most eminent object and instance of his delivering power For thus it hath pleased our Supreme Ruler and Creatour that his servants should be brought low that he may then help them Of this we have plentifull experiments in his providences towards men and women And if you would be armed against despondency and have your trust and hope in God confirmed you must make great reckoning of those happy experiences of Gods seasonable help which he hath at any time vouchsafed to you or others If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.3 that he hath heard your voice and your supplication what should hinder you from expecting the same mercy from him when you are in the like need if he see it to be for your good You cannot but know that many sinfull weak helplesse women have been delivered even without means have been raised up from the gates of death been satisfyed with long life and have seen their childrens children Whoso is wise and will observe these things Psal 109.43 even they shall under stand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. Tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5.4 and patience experience and experience hope If we have learned patience under former tribulations had experience of Gods remembring mercy in judgement this should produce hope in us of the like help from him for the future What other thing made the Apostle in great afflictions to stay himself upon God Ri. Rogers 7 treatises ch 18 tr 4. P. 518. and cast his care on him but this experience and long proof he had of Gods tender care over him Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver us 2 Cor. 1.10 in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us And again I was delivered out of the mouth of Lyon 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work and will preserve me to his heavenly Kingdom Yea long before him we find David thus reasoning 2 Sam. 17.36 37. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and the paw of the Bear will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And again Because thou hast been my help Psal 63.7 therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered Psal 22 4 5. they trusted in thee and were not confounded Many such excellent passages to this purpose you may observe in other places especially in the Psalms Psal 30. 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12. Psal 31.7 vers 22 23 24. The like passages in the 32 33 and 34 Psalms Josh 1.5 Heb. 13.5 6. as you may see in the places quoted in the margin And 't is observable that David makes his own experiences a ground for others confidence As doth also the Apostle when he quotes that promise made to Joshuah and applies it to every believer He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper And so St. James Because Elias who was a man subject to like passions as we are was heard for rain and again for dry weather therefore all Christians may expect much benefit in their sicknesse from the prayers of the faithfull Wherefore seeing Eve the first Author of your infirmities and Sarah Rebeccah Hannah Ruth and all others recorded in Scripture were women of like passions and infirmities with you and many of your neighbours who are as great if not greater sinners than your self have this usuall benefit of Gods delivering power and mercy therefore you may undoubtedly conclude and boldly say the Lord is my helper Consider also that God who is over all in all and through all extends his care herein to all his creatures There is nothing so difficult but 't is under his power nothing so small but 't is under his care His providence watcheth over the Fowls of the ayr and the Beasts of the field in producing their young And there is no more clearer argument that there is a providence of God over all the world than the conservation of the species and kinds of all creatures in a continuall succession Insomuch that we find a speciall expresse law in the behalf of Birds in the time of their incubation that while the Dam was sitting upon her egges or young ones Deut. 22.6.7 she must not be taken but let go free and this with a severe charge and promise of much good upon the observation of it And wherefore is such mention made of the Ostrich by the Lord himself Job 39.13 14 15 16 17. which leaveth her eggs in the earth and takes no farther care of them contrary to the nature of all other Birds but exposes them in the warme sand to the benefit of the Sun to hatch them I say Why is this mentioned but to intimate the power and care of God who delivers their eggs and young ones from being crushed and causes those Birds still to increase and multiply Again we find that God hath a care of the Beasts in this condition Therefore he promised the Isralites that