trust is able to raise us and will raise us hereafter out of our graves how much easier is it to him to raise us out of our present danger and affliction Wherefore God himselfe is pleased to satisfie us once for all to tell us that women with child cannot be so hard put to it but he can deliver them For when he would expresse his all sufficient Power in giving the Israelites such a deliverance as they scarce could believe or expect thus he doth express it Jer. 31.8 I will gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind and the lame the woman with child and her that travelleth with child together That is though in your return from captivity so long a journey to Jerusalem you may think of many impossibilities as We being poor and helplesse how is it possible but that teeming and labouring women must miscarry and perish by the way Oh saith God I can strengthen them give them a speedy easy delivery and make them even in that condition without long stay and losse of time able to go forward till they come into their own Land So then I say If your apprehensions of danger in your travell do any way discourage your faith Zechariah 8.6 Job 5.9 Rev. 15.3 yet let Gods alsufficiency put life into it If to be delivered be marvellous in your eyes yet it is not marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts But though we all acknowledge this in the notion D. Preston of Gods attributes p. 196. yet how few are there whose hearts are possessed with the power of this truth As it is one thing to hear a thing in the notion as for a man to think what he would do if he were a Pilot or a Captain and another thing to have it in the reall managing as when he is brought to fight So it is here It is one thing to say I believe God is Almighty and another to thing rest upon it For not onely the stub born Israelites did distrust God in the wilderness and weak women as Martha and Mary John 11.21 questioned Christs power to raise Lazarus because he had been four dayes dead but no less a man then Moses himself questions how God could provide for six hundred thousand in the wilderness Wherefore Numb 11. strive with your unbelief give to God the glory of his Power Wisdome and Mercy fix the apprehensions thereof deeply upon your heart and pray to the Author and Finisher of Faith to help your unbelief Conclude with the wife of Manoah after you have mourned and prayed with any hope of acceptation Surely if the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have accepted a sacrifice at our hands Labour for the faith of those men and women of old of whom it is written that by faith out of wekness they were made strong and women received their dead to life Yet let not the thoughts of Gods all sufficiency pass without one improvement more which I shall give you in the words of a singular Divine If God be All sufficient then learn to be content with God alone for all destrable comforts are in him as the effects are in the cause as when Christ promises that If any leave house Mark 10.28 29 30. or Brethren or Sisters c. for his sake and the Gospel they shall receive an hundred fold now in this life Houses Brethren and Sisters c. They shall receive the very same things that is they shall find the comfort of all these things in God Therefore consider what heaven is Do you think that there you shall have a worse condition then here you have a variegated appetite full of multiplicity you want many comforts and conveniences but when you come to Heaven you do not lay aside your nature but desire still And yet there you shall have none but God alone so that if all this vanity were not to be found in him you could not be happy even in Heaven it self Therefore he saith that he will be all in all Wherefore comfort your selves with these words CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of traveling women I Know very well that 't is far more easie to prescribe patience to others then to exercise it to our selves And therefore if I tell women in this condition that it would become them to be less clamorous and vociferous in their outcries and scrieches they will soon reply that if we knew what they endured we would not much blame them (a) Gen. 3.16 Jer. 13.21 ch 20.23 ch 30.6 ch 49.24 ch 50.43 Isa 21.3 Hos 13 13 Micah 4.9 10 Isa 13.8 John 16.21 1 Thes 5.3 Psal 48.6 Rev. 12.2 I grant indeed that the pains of a woman in travel are alwayes expressed in Scripture as the fittest comparison to set forth the greatest pains imaginable as may be seen in the places quoted in the margin And that the same word in the Original signifies both pains in travel and pangs of death as critical Annotators do observe on Isa 26.17 Psal 18.4 Psal 116.3 And that in Scripture the time of travell is commonly expressed by crying out Isa 26.17 chap. 42.14 And therefore I would not have any pious women to mis-interupt me as if I counted it no less then sinful to utter their complaints and outcries in the midst of their torments but I would think it commendable in any of them if they would so arm themselves with patience before-hand that they might abate somewhat of those dreadfull groans and cryes which do so much discourage their friends and relations that are near them and do much amaze the hearts and weaken the hands of those standers by that they become the less helpful to them But this is a small matter to what I intend Give your self what liberty and ease you will by pouring out your groans so you look to the chief thing that is that your heart be all the while in a believing praying humble patient submissive frame To help your patience herein you must know that my meaning is not that you should read meditate or perform any laborious duty at that time but what I now mention as useful to you in that case you must consider of before that hour and so possess your mind with the grounds and principles of patience that patience may then have in you its perfect work To which end consider that Sin is the procuring cause of all sufferings therefore if we understood felt considered the weight desert filth and future evil of sin how could we have the face to complain of any evil but that or to make any other outcry but that of the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death How emphatical are those words of the Prophet Why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his iniquities That is seeing you are but a creature a
among their cattel none should be barren or cast their young Exod 23.26 And though sometimes the voice of the Lord maketh the Hindes to calve that is Terrible claps of thunder cause some beasts to cast their young sooner than ordinary Yet his providence doth generally watch over every beast of the forest to cause them to bring forth their fruit in season Job 39.1 2 3. and to cast out their sorrows even the wild goats of the rock partake of this benefit from him And men also are generally carefull of beasts in this condition as Jacob took speciall care of Labans cattle that they did not cast their young Gen. 31.38 33.13 and in driving his own cattel when he met his Brother Esau he was mindfull to go such a pace as might not hurt any creature with young David when a shepheard expresses that Calling by following the ews great with young Implying that his care of them was double to what he had of therest of his flock Hence it is that when God would set forth to us the mild and gracious conduct of the Captain of our salvation Jesus Christ 't is thus expressed sa 40.11 He shall feed his flock like a sheep-heard he shall gather the Lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young That is shall use like tendernesse and indulgence to the weak and infirm as all sober men do to creatures that are with young Now Is a good man mercifull to his beast and is not our good God mercifull to his children in that condition Doth God take care for fouls fishes and beasts even every beast of the forest and doth he not much more take care of you O ye of little faith Hath he not implanted in all men a most tender regard to teeming women Whence came else that law of the Areopagites whose famous laws were patterns to many nations the like whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Aelian var. hist lib. 5. p. mihi 404. or at least the like custome we have in England that be a woman never so flagitious and unworthy to live yet if she be with child that shall priviledge her from the stroak of death till she be delivered and gotten to some strength I say the Father of mercy doth infuse this compassion into the minds of all men and not onely so but hath given a most severe Law for the sharp punishment of all men Exod. 21.22 23 24. that shall accidentally hurt a woman with child that they shall give life for life and limb for limb or what ever punishment the husband shall think fit Now what greater evidence would you have of the mercifull regard of our God and Saviour than the particulars I have here proposed So that it must needs be a thing unreasonable in you and displeasing to him not to trust in his name and to cast all your cares fears and burthens upon him To all which let me adde the consideration of his alsufficiency to help you in that condition and this you will find if well considered to be the surest support you can fix your thoughts upon All creatures by the instinct of nature and providential gubernation are apprehensive of approaching dangers and use the best means they can to secure themselves The subtile Foxes have holes the foolish Deer their thickets and the conies though a simple folk yet make they their holes in such rocks and precipices from whence no hand can pluck them The wary Bird espying the gun or snare of the Fowler mounts aloft and is safe from danger Wherefore when you grow bigger and bigger and your heart grows big with fearful expectations of your approaching danger should you not pray that God would lead you to the rock that is higher then you which Rock is Christ Should you not look upwards and ascend upwards daily in your thoughts that so you may get above the hurt and peril of any affliction yea of death it self Do you not observe that among creatures those are most active and powerfull that are furthest elevated and removed from gross matter You therefore extract distill c. that you may have the quintessence and vertue of any herb more compendiously and effectually usefull in your time of need You see also the water is more active then the dull earth the aire then the water the fire then either of the three and Angels excel men and all elements and all creatures in strength and God doth yet further exceed them then they do a worm Therefore to whom should you go but to him who onely hath the power of life and death It is both commendable and common in repenting sinners to count themselves with the Apostle chief sinners because of some peculiar circumstances they espy in their own sine which they have cause to think are not common to be found in the sins of others But it is more common then commendable in afflicted persons to aggravate their sorrows like those in the Prophet Behold and see Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. So perhaps you think there is none so like to miscarry and perish none ever more unlikely to live then you This is doubtless your folly For what improbabilities or seeming impossibilities can you labour under which many others have not been exercised with and delivered from There is no new thing under the Sun Unlesse you are resolved to believe nothing but your own unbelieving heart you may hear and know of many that have been as weak sickly bruised hurt diseased and sufficiently afraid yet have been safely delivered But be it so that your case is singular and worse then ordinary yet cannot you say with the Apostle I know whom I have trusted that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him Jer. 17.5 Believers trust not in an arme of flesh that is cursed nor do their hearts depart from the Living God but they trust in him whose Name is a sure Refuge whose Promise is a sufficient Security whose compassion is a sufficient Motive to do good and whose Power is allufficient to accomplish it Therefore 't is remarkable that in the Old Testament God did often exercise his hand maids with many improbabilities before they had any children As you may see in the Stories of Sarah Rebeceah Rachel Leah Hannah Elizabeth and others Now they considered not their own bodies though dead that is past the usual time of nature for child-bearing but trusting in him who was able to create that which was not or to quicken that which was dead they continued in the Faith and were the joyful mother of children We had a Cor. 1.9 saith the Apostle the sentence of death in our selves that we might learn not to trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead As if he had said the God whom we
comfortlesse but I will come unto you Yea God will be not only nigh you but careful for you in the hour of your extremity to lay no more upon you then you shall be able to bear There was an host of Angels near enough though the Prophets man could not presently see them There was a sacrifice at hand though Isaac at present saw nothing but death before him Hagar when her bottle of water was spent sate down and wept Gen. 21.19 as if utterly undone her provision her patience her bottle and her hope were both out together Yet there was upon the very place sufficient supply though she did not perceive it till her eyes were opened when therefore your bodily eyes shall look round about and see your friends mourning and taking on leaving you as hoplelesse and you cannot see any one among them of whom you can say that person is able to help me yet with the eye of your faith you may see him who is invisible standing at your right hand and ready and able to deliver you Psal 90.30 when it comes even to the most desperate extremity The Poets have feigned a story of Pandora that she had a box given her Coel. Rhodig Var. lect l. 9. fraught and stuffed with all the miseries that might be onely Hope was placed in the bottom Epimetheus rashly opening it a swarme of miseries flew about his ears which he perceiving clapt the cover on the box again with all possible speed and so with much adoe saved hope sitting in the bottom Thus by the heedlesse folly of the first woman a whole army of miseries hath invaded the world and many sorrows have been inflicted upon travelling women But blessed be God that hath yet left us hope Psal 33.18.147.11 Heb. 6.13 that anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast Let us therefore keep our hope in all extremities yea against hope believe in hope as Abraham did Rom. 4.18 And carry our selves under our afflictions as those that have hope towards God Rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer Rom. 12.12 For God doth often delay his mercies that he may exercise these graces in us As some report of the Lyonesse that she leaves the young whelps so long till they have almost killed themselves with roaring and yelling and then she comes and relieves them by which meanes they become the more couragious and the more patient of hunger Thus God leaves Sarah to be childless Hannah to mourn in bitterness of Soul for want of children Elizabeth to be called barren Rachel to kill her self almost with fretting for want of children He leaves Jonah three dayes and three nights in the belly of Hell makes * Job 6.11 Job childlesse leaves him comfortlesse and helplesse as to any longer life leaves He man free among the dead and * Psal 38.2 3. ch David groaning and roaring under intollerable evil Yea the tribes of Jacob to be as so many dry bones Lazarus to be stincking in the grave * Act 27.20 Dorcas to be dead and lamented and all hope that they should be saved was gone from those that were in the ship with the Apostles * Hinc colligimus praeposterè facere eos qui aestimeant dei gentiam ex praesenti statu Atqui hoc vitiuÌ„ fereÌ„ ingentium est nobis a naturâ occupat sensus omnis nostros hinc tanta diffidentia hinc fit ut omnes dei proÌ„issiones apud nos frigeant Nam cum Deus aliquid promittit circuÌ„spicimus quomodo fieri possit si mentas nostrae comprehendunt modâ—â— curum repudiamus quicquid profectum est ex ore Dei c. Calvin in Jerem. 31.8 p. 2â—â— I say thus God leaves his people under pressing calamities and appearances of nothing but destruction that he may the more glorifie himself and comfort them in their deliverance and salvation at last Therefore seeing the times and seasons are in his hands and he hath made every thing beautifull in its season what is more becoming us then to wait his time as the husband-man patiently expects the time of harvest the marriner waits for wind and tide and the watch-man waits for the approach of the day And though it may come to a criticall extremity yet in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen But to draw to a conclusion Above all things labour before this hour come to lay hold on Christ by faith and then you will have the like comfort with that good woman in the Marian persecution who being brought before Bonner and tried concerning her faith he threatned that he would take away her husband saith she then Christ will be my husband I will take away thy Child she answered Christ is better to me than ten Sons I will strip thee of all thy outward comforts Yea but Christ is mine said she and you cannot strip me of him So let this settle and stablish your mind if Christ be yours all is yours as far as shall be for your good Though your travel may perhaps take away all strength from you yet it cannot take away Christ though it may cost perhaps the life of the child to save your life yea though it should cost your life also Yet still Christ is yours and therefore death is yours So that if God see it good for you for your family and relation that you should live longer he can command deliverance for you if otherwise yet good is the word of the Lord. Wherefore keep fast hold of Christ by faith and then though you passe through the valley of the shadow of death you need fear no evill for when your voice failes you the Lord will hear those groans that cannot be uttered when your eyes faile you the Lord will be a light unto you when your flesh and your heart faileth God shall be the strength of your heart and your portion for ever To him I leave you He supply in you by his own grace whatever is defective in these directions and helps I have given And blessed is she that believeth for there shall be a performance of those things that were told her from the Lord. Luk. 1.45 Lo this wee have searched it so it is heare it and know thou it for thy good Job 5.27 If any Reader find any good by it Give glory to God FINIS