trouble Give not way to immoderate passion the vehemency whereof may much distemper and endanger you in that condition For if by these or any other follies there happen a mischance or the death of both the mother and the child unborn as too often it hath happened surely the bloud of the child shall be required at their hands their own bloud also shall be upon their own heads Now judge how much guilt and danger lies upon careless wanton women who will not observe that moderation and prudential care their condition calls for I say how much sin and misery lies upon them if they perish by their own negligence and heedless irregularity Hos 4.2 Psal 9.12 Jer. 26.15 Ps 51.14 Of all sins none more crying then Murther of all murthers none more desperate then Self-murther and of all self-murthers none more detestable then to murther her self and child at once this I say they are inexcusably guilty of who by any of the courses above-mentioned or any other course do hasten their own death and render the birth of their child difficult or impossible CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented THat this must not be delayed I have already shewed in the Epistle to the Reader I shall now shew you how it must be performed not to insist largely upon this common Theme which every Funeral Sermon and devotional Treatise do present us with considering very briefly the heads of such principal duties as may not safely be omitted by them that would be at any certainty concerning their future estate If you be unconverted and have lived in pleasure been ignorant carelesse and impenitent then consider that it is now high time to awake out of sleep Rom. 13 1â— Ps 90.12 Deut. 32.29 and to number your dayes and consider your latter end You have no peculiar priviledge that can exempt you from the lot of many others Be you never so great and rich strong and healthy have you been the mother of never so many children have you abundance of all things for your conveniency together with the most skilful and famous Midwife yet neither these nor any other helps can deliver you from going down to the pit Therefore seeing it must needs be proper to expect death let me ask you how are you provided for immortality What earnest have you of any inheritance in Heaven If you hope that God will pardon you and accept you yet what reason can you render of the hope that is in you 1 Pet. 3.15 if because he is merciful then how have you applied your self to him for mercy have you constantly sought him diligently pleased him c For if the righteous shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly appear Luk. 13.24 If many who strive to enter shall not be able how impossible then must salvation needs be to the negligent In a word if Pharisees Hypocrites Votaries and those that have done many good and mighty works shall be shut out how much more shall they be excluded that never had either the form or power of godliness that lived in gross ignorance and prophaneness so that their sins are open before hand 1 Tim. 5.24 Well you will say What shall we do to be saved and to inherit eternal life I answer You should first look over the ten Commandements and consider what sins are there forbidden and what duties are there required For by the law comes the knowledge of sin Ro. 3.20 1 Joh 3.4 If you have some brief expositor by you it will much help I knew one that when he was at the Vniversity and had serious thoughts of his ways took M. Bifield his 6. Treatises a little book of small Price but of excellent use wherein there is such an enumeration of sins against the several commandments 2 Cor. â—â— 5 6. as descends to all particulars fit to be expressed in print and having in several sheets of paper transcribed it and all along inserted what particular sins he could remember And he found that it brought many sins to his remembrance which otherwise he had well-nigh forgotten set apart a day of fasting in secret on purpose and there spread them before the Lord with mourning and with supplication and found very much comfort therein Now though I prescribe not this particular course to every one yet I say a serious comparing our lives with the rule of holinesse is the one thing necessary to lay a right foundation of repentance Well when you thus have spent some good time in searching and trying your ways and have discovered greater and greater abominations in your heart and life Then spend also some thoughts about the unreasonablenesse unprofitablenesse unthankfulnesse and iniquity of every sin Consider what wrong sin does to the honour of Gods Attributes and of his Law His Holiness requires nothing but what is good his Wisdome what is fit and his Mercy what is comely and beneficial for us Shall we break such a Law wherein Holiness Wisdome and Mercy appears If any thing be difficult he offers the help of his Grace to all that bewail their weaknesse And whatever his Law be yet surely he is our Creator and therefore by all bonds of Reason and Nature we owe obedience to him whose we are Again consider the injury done to Christ by piercing him with our Sins by despising his Bloud that onely and costly remedy and dishonouring his Name as if he were not sufficient to save or as if his Grace gave liberty to Sinne. Also consider the perjury every sinner is guilty of in violating our Baptismal engagement and making slight account of all other renewed stipulations we have made to God since What shall I say of the shame and mischief sin brings upon us in this life It deprives of Gods Image Favour and gracious Presence robs us of that primitive innocency righteousness with which the humane Nature was at first dignified above all sublunary creatures and degrades us to a condition in many respects worse then that of the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 20. Eccles 3.18 yea it makes us children of the Devil and children of wrath it fills the creature with vanity under which it groans and travels in pain it fills our life with crosses our family with troubles our bodies with diseases our consciences with disquiet Sin makes travel painful death dreadful and hell intolerable so that it is a boundless and endless evil And should not such considerations as these awaken you May it not trouble you to consider with your self thus If I die with all this load of sin upon me it will surely sink me deep enough into the burning lake And alas if I live till the full time of my travel come which is very uncertain yet how little a while is it before that fatal hour may sever my soul from my body My soul which is invisible and
take out the sting of sin by repentance and then afflictions cannot hurt you In you health remember your sin and God will in judgement remember mercy And I therefore subjoyn this duty of repentance next after prayer because Ps 66.18 Hab. 1.13 if we regard iniquity in our hearts he heareth us not but is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity So that if we pray without repenting hearts we do but mock God and deceive our selves We cannot draw nigh to him in truth nor will he draw nigh to us in mercy unless we withdraw our selves from iniquity and be at the greatest elongation from sinne that can be But this repentance must be universal for all sin (a) Spencers things new and old p. 298 1117. For one leak will sink a ship one wound strikes Geliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar one Dalilah will do Sampson as much mischief as all the Philistines one wheel broken disorders a whole clock one vein's bleeding if not stanched will let out the life one flie will spoil a whole box of ointment by eating one apple Adam lost Paradise one Achan was a trouble to all Israel one Jonah if faulty is a lading too heavy for one ship So one sin causes too much injury to God and brings too much guilt and burthen upon the conscience b (b) Vliss-Aldrov Ornithol l. 14. If seven thieves enter the house (a) Tho Stapletoni prompt morale six of them being overcome and the seventh lie lurking in some corner the Master of that house is still in danger If the bird or the mouse be held in the snare though but by one leg their whole body is in danger Thus all sin and the least sin must be repented of Pharaoh would let the people go after he had endured many plagues Exo. 1026. so as they would leave their sheep and their cattel behind them So Sathan would keep something of sin in us which may be as a pledge of our returning to him again And we would willingly when we are convinced of the necessity of repentance yet roll some sweet morsel under our tongues and be excused in one or two of our incurable sins but if we will in earnest forsake the Egyptian bondage of sin we must resolve with Moses that not a hoof shall be left behind us but all iniquity put away out of our hands and all our ungodly words left off and all our wicked thoughts forsaken and all imaginable wickedness mourned for and by degrees relinquished (c) Hyer Drexelii Gymnas paen As the Dove feares every feather of the Eagle and the skin of a Lion stuffed with straw will make the lesser beasts to keep a distance so all the circumstances occasions reliques and appearances of sin must be bewailed suspected and avoided For as a woman delivered of her child is not out of danger while the after-birth remains so a repenting soul discovering confessing and forsaking some sins is not yet safe if there be a reserve of other sins And while your body is yet in any strength you should set about this necessary work of repentance without delay For the bitternesse and weight of sin must be tasted and felt one time or other d so that as a Landlord takes a greater fine of his Tenant at first and the lesse rent afterwards So the more time care and tears you spend in repentance at first the less it will cost you to renew it afterwards But if you still put it off till your travel comes suddenly upon you at best you run a great hazard and lade your self with such a burthen and incur your soul into such danger from which it will be more difficult to be delivered then from the peril it self of child-bearing So that if your body and soul should both miscarry and die together God is just Ezek. 33 4. and your blood will be on your own head for your former neglect of the time and space of repentance Besides this which chiefly concerns your self the consideration of the child which you carry in your womb should quicken you to repentance as soon as you feel it quick within in you For as the fancy and longing of a woman with child doth sometimes make such strange impressions on the child in the womb that it carries some sign thereof after its birth and as the hurt bruise or fall of a woman in that condition makes her child sometimes imperfect monstrous cripled or deformed to the day of its death so you should fear lest the sin of your soul by nature transmit some like foul disposition and leave some such spot on your child as shall be a stain to his name and a blemish to your family Lest your corruptions prove innate qualities in him lest you have eaten sowre grapes Ezek 18.2 and your childrens teeth be set on edge You should also take care to prevent the curse of God on your child for your sake Think with your self if God should say to me as to Hagar Gen. 16.11 12. Behold thou art with child and shalt bear a son and he shall be a wild man his hand will be against every man and every mans band against him Would you not count your self unhappy in being the mother of so desperate a child Have you not also read what God sayes of Ephraim Hos 9.11 12 13. Their glory shall flee away as a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception though they bring forth children yet I will bereave them they shall bring forth children to the murtherer The meaning is that the judgements of God should light on their posterity in a most severe and dreadful manner his curse should be upon them in the womb and appear in their destruction as soon as they were born Insomuch that the Prophet being exceedingly troubled at the thought thereof prays in the next words Hos 9.14 Give them O Lord what wilt thou give them give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts That is seeing of two evils unavoidable the least is most eligible let it please the Lord if he will not remove yet to alter or mitigate his curse If I may not pray for good to this people let me intreat for a more tolerable evil Let them therefore O Lord rather not conceive or bring forth then to see them butchered and slain by their merciless enemies or exposed to such heavy calamities as might make them to wish that they had never been or that our wombs had been their graves Now seeing this is threatned them for their sins and is written for your admonition fear therefore lest God do so to you Hos 14.1 2. and more also And for the prevention of these miseries on your unborn infants take with you words and turn to the Lord that bee may take away all iniquity and receive you graciously But in this practice of repentance you must take heed and beware 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
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
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
tam ociosorum auribus placeant quà m aegrotorum mentibus prosint magnum ex utraquere caelestibus donis fructum reportaturi The CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF a state of Pregnancy page 1 CHAP. II. Prayer the duty of women with child p. 19 CHAP. III. Repentance the duty of women with child 26 CHAP. IV. Reading of Scriptures the duty of women with child 34 CHAP. V. Meditation the duty of women with child 41 CHAP. VI. Resignation to God the duty of women with child 60 CHAP. VII Dedication of the child to God the duty of women with child 64 CHAP. VIII Care of her own health the duty of a woman with child 68 CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented 71 CHAP. X. Prepation for death the duty of godly women when with child 80 CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thankfulness after their deliverance is also the duty of women with child 93 CHAP. XII The labour for faith in Christ or if they have faith to endeavour to exercise it in trust and dependance upon God for pardon of sin is also the duty of women with child 100 CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child 110 CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of travelling women 129. Reader Some faults will escape take what care we can those that are are very few and they onely in mis-spelling wherefore I thought not worth the while to trouble my self to note them or thee with naming them A PRESENT FOR Teeming Women c. CHAP. I. Of a state of Pregnancy IT is observable that the great God who is equally infinite in all his Attributes yet hath styled himself rich in mercy glorious in holinesse Psal 86.15 Eph. 2.4 Exod. 15.11 Surely he needs neither riches nor glory He was rich enough to Himself and glorious enough in Himself from everlasting But behold His good Will towards men and the communicative nature of infinite goodness Mercy enricheth us Holiness glorifies us By Mercy we partake of his Gifts by Holiness we partake of his Nature By Mercy we enjoy him by Holiness we love him resemble him and glorifie him for ever Now seeing these two transcendent perfections do eternally cohabite in the nature of God and mutually concur to the benefit of man it is most requisite that our minds should be filled with the thoughts influences of both That is that each Mercy of God should promote our Holiness and that Holiness should encrease our sense of Mercies It being therefore my present business that women with child may be in a holy frame and thereby fitted for the houre of danger approaching I thought good to mind them of this first that 't is a mercy of much value to be with child in a state of Matrimony That this is a mercy will appear plainly by these few considerations 1. 'T is one end of marriage that there might be a succession of generation after generation that the race of mankind may not be confused and disorderly as among Beasts nor extinguished 1 Thes 4.4 nor dishonoured but may continue in a legitimate line and that God might have a holy seed Mal. 2.15 2. That it might appear to be a Mercy God hath by Angels Revelations and Miracles at sundry times of old assured some good women that he would give this blessing to their wombs Thus in Gen. 17.16 I will bless her give thee a son also of her Gen. 17.16 17. yea I will bless her and she shall be a mother also of nations Though upon this strange promise we find Abraham full of wondering ver 17. and Sarah his wife laughing ch 18 12. Both questioning at first how this could be yet afterwards God doth renew his promise and they lay aside any further doubt and the word of the Lord spoken by angels was falfilled Gen. 21.1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said and did unto Sarah as he had spoken For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him We find of the Patriarchs also that they found favour with God in like manner concerning the fruit of their womb ever acknowledging it as the gift of God and adoring the gracious providence of the (a) Nihil de generationibus aut seminibus nvscitur si ea non operetur Deus Aug. in Ps 118. Gen. 28. God and Father of all men When they blessed their posteriy they carefully inserted this in their propheticall prayers This last blessing of a dying Patriarch though it be sometime or in some part expressed in form of petition yet in the intent and effect thereof alway amounted to a prediction Thus Isaac to Jacob God Almighty blesse thee and make thee fruit full and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people Thus Jacob to Joseph Joseph is a fruitfull bough Chap. 49. 22.25 even a fruitfull bough whose branches run over the walls The Almighty shall blesse thee with the blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the breast and of the womb In which places God is still mentioned as the original of this blessing and the supreme efficient cause of the pregnancy of the womb and increase of posterity It was the same God that sent his Angel to the wife of Manoah Judg. 13.3 to tell her that she should conceive and bear a son 'T is out of question that to these persons it was a mercy to have issue yea a publick blessing to many generations for the seed of Abraham was the onely visible Church on earth the onely people that turned from Idols to serve the living God And Sampson the son of Manoah was in his time the onely Judge and Champion of Israel and Type of Christ But it seems doubtfull whether therefore all other parents can call their children Blessings or indeed whether the faithfull have any such cause to promise themselves comfort in their posterity without some like revelation or testimony from heaven as they had To this I answer that all the seed of Abraham I mean that continue in the faith of Abraham have exceeding great and precious promises to rest satisfied in that extend to them all in all ages I mean Gods promises of giving and blessing children to them 3. And that shall be my third proof If God promise distinctly and frequently that they shall see their posterity and their seeds seed then we must thankfully enumerate it among his rich favours to mankind This was the blessing to Adam in innocency God blessed them Gen. 1.28 and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And to Noah Gen. 9.1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth This blessing was given them as the common parents and stocks of whom
not materiall to the businesse in hand it sufficeth that the expression takes it for granted that to be childlesse was a curse and a reproach in Israel So that 2 Sam 6.25 of Michal the daughter of Saul who mocked David it is mentioned as a memorable and severe judgment that she had no child to the day of her death 6 God hath in his Scriptures ever taken to himself the praise of this work and his people have ever acknowledged it as his gift mercy when they conceived and bare children Thus the wives of Jacob. Thus Jacob himself answering his brother Esau Gen. 30.6.17.22 c. 35.5 these are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant Thus Hannah Elizabeth and others still their phrase is God opened their wombs Psal 113.9 Faecundicas foeminarum casta vota filios desiderantium ad quem pertinent nisi ad Dominum Deum Aug. Enarr in Psal 66. God rolled away their reproach God gave them children c. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyfull mother of children Seeing therefore by this cloud of Scripture-testimonies 't is evident that women are not with child but by the mercy and gift of God I must adde a few inferences from what I have said 1 That none be dejected at a state of barrennesse though among the Jews it was esteemed so great an affliction If the age of one or both parties render you not uncapable you may with modesty and moderation make your request known to God and then rest satisfied in his pleasure concerning you For though the posterity of Abraham did all desire that the promised seed might come of them as some do uncertainly conjecture and had also too high esteem of temporal blessings and carnal apprehensions of promised blessings did much possesse the mind of the generality yet we are now under a better testament containing exceeding great and precious promises of things Spiritual If therefore we stick too much on the letter of old-Testament promises we shall commit as great an errour in our faith as the Jews by resting in the bare letter of the precepts ran into gross error in their practice God never delighted in their most glorious and costly ceremonies unlesse they gave him their hearts and now he accepts of internal worship with simplicity and spirituality of mind without any further desire of those pompous observations So let us learn to worship God without their Rites John 4. Rom. 14. and to love God though without their mercies Let us count riches and posterity nothing without God and God sufficient without either of them If Christ be ours every thing needfull is ours If we be the Sons and Daughters of God it shall be no unhappinesse if we have neither Sons nor Daughters of our own There is then no curse in what we have no need of what we have not Dr. Gouge of domest duties a Where naturall impossibilities doe hinder the fecundity of the wombe they should also if known have hindred marriage But when the sterility is meerly accidentall from some such present prevailing infirmity as discomposes the body of either party it may by the blessing of God upon medicinall helps be lawfully and success fully removed But when the cause is unknown and unfruitfullnesse seems meerly judiciall viz. immediately inflicted by the hand of God in that case prayer is the Proper course that he who shuts the womb Luke 1.13 Psal 10.17 Psal 145.19 as he did the wombs in the house of Abimelech would open them again as he did theirs upon the prayer of Abraham It may be he will grant thy petition as he hath done of some that for above twenty years in a state of marriage went childlesse yet at last he made the solitary to dwell in families and gave them children like olive plants round about their table Or perhaps he will not yet answer thee Perkins Cas of consc lib. 2. c. 6. qu. 4. Reinolds on Hos 14.1.2 Serm. 1. p. 53. 1 John 5.15 to exercise thy faith prayer and dependence in waiting upon him or perhaps he will deny thee this mercy at last to exercise thy patient submissivenesse to his Will and thy heavenly-mindednesse and wisdom in seeking some better blessing Sure it is thy prayers shall returne into thine own bosom with some answer of peace and if we aske aright we shall receive (c) Deus non sempèr audit ad voluntatem vel voluptatem at Sempèr exaudiet ad salutem Isidor de summo bono l. 3 c. 3. according to Gods choice if not according to our own He hath variety of blessings which like the stars of heaven differ from one another in glory Therefore blesse his name if by this providence he promote in thy heart humility saith patience or any other grace (d) Ward â—n Mat. 8. pag. 451. seeing its better to be fruitfull in grace then fruitfull in children If he give us his favour (e) Bonus qui non triâ—uit quod â—olumus ut â—ribuat quod malimus Aug. epist 34. that 's a blessing of more value The Angels neither marry nor are given in marriage yet have happinesse enough in God Let him be to thee worth ten Sons In a word I say of these certain cares and uncertain comforts that he who hath none of them hath lesse incumbrance here and lesse to reckon for hereafter 2. T is an an addition to the mercy when God gives children in a state of marriage T is a mercy to be kept in a single estate from the unclean libidinous practices of beastly sinners (f) Mat. 22.30 and to be at last happily entred upon that state of matrimony which God appointed and hath sanctified as his ordinance 1 Cor. 7 2 3 4 5. for preventing of fornication and 't is also I say a greater blessing when he is pleased to Crown the chast embraces of wedlock with a hopefull conception Oh how dreadfull are the scripturee-xamples of many women whom God having partly or totally left to their vile affections and inordinate lusts having prostituted their chastity brought shame upon Israel and disparaged the innate modesty of the female sex grew at last past feeling and spent their life in common whoredome till their sin was come to a ripeness But alas in these last days 2 Tim. 3.1 3. the sin of incontinency is grown more perillous by its commonness and also by the impunity of our intemperate Grandees whose example herein gives a law to others And surely those who are priviledged from punishment here shall find it a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb 10.31 Heb. 13.4 who hath said whoremongers and adulterers I will judge i.e. though the secrecy of their actions the potency of their persons or the negligence of Magistrates may secure them for a while yet there is nothing so secret but is under his eye nothing so great but is under
Tim. 4.15 Coloss 2.1 I conclude that surely they have many agonies and conflicts in their hearts for us Wherefore Oh my soul while I carefully expect the hour of my own travell how much am I to blame that I so little so seldom or never consider the travell of my Ministers soul often have I been pricked in conscience by his goad and nails Eccl. 12.11 often wounded by the sword of the Spirit bruised and smitten down by the hammer of the word and surely his stimulating reproofs his keen admonitions and knocking terrours proceeded from his longing desire of my conversion But when he hath after long striving been in hopes of my returne how have I by relapses and fresh miscarriages vext his righteous soul and quencht his new conceived hopes of me yea like those inconstant Galatians I have caused him again and again to travell with me in birth How just were it with God to plague me with a tedious painfull and fruitlesse travell and to make me read my sin and feel its bitternesse in so suceable a punishment But Oh my God remit the evills I have committed work in me what thou hast required and compleat in me what thy grace hath begun Let not the guide of my soul labour in vain but let him see of the travell of his soul and let me be among those children of whom my pious teacher shall hereafter say Lord here am I and the children which thou hast given me Then also shall I with more confidence expect to have benefit by his prayers for me when my body is in travell if God shall thus blesse and answer him in his prayers and travell for the new birth of my soul MEDITATION 12. I find it frequent in Scripture that the most dreadful judgements on the wicked are thus exprest Psal 48.6 Isa 23.4 Jer. 48.41 c. 49.42 c. 50.43 that Anguish shall take hold of them as of a woman in travel and that sudden destruction shall come upon them as upon a woman in travel and they shall not escape Wherefore oh my soul as Abraham when he had promise of a child Gen. 18.14.22 did presently intercede as far as he durst in behalf of wicked Sodom so let me ever remember to pray for the worst of men though perhaps they scorn and despise me and my Prayers Oh my God deale not with them after their sins but cause the wickednesse of the wicked to come to an end Psal 7.9 that the wicked themselves may not come to a sad end So persecute them with thy tempest make them afraid with thy storm that they may seeke thy face Oh Lord. Psal 83.15 And in whatever place or nation thy judgments shall enter yet if there be but a few righteous persons among them spare them from totall destruction and let not thy wrath come upon them to the uttermost MEDITATION 13. I find also that the sorrows of the people of God when God seemes to forsake them John 16 21.22 Jer. 6.24 c. 22.23 c. 30.6 Isa 26.17 18. c. 37. 3 the calamities of the church when God is pleased to correct them and the miserable disappointment of a Church hoping for reformation and endeavouring in vain for a deliverance from idolatry and oppression are also expressed by the pain and misery of women in travell Now Oh my soul how can I but observe two things from hence The one is that 't is surely the will of God that I should not confine my care to the concernments of my private condition but should labour for a publick Spirit such as was in that good woman 1 Sam. 4.19 20 21. the wife of Phinebas who was with child and near to be delivered and when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken and that her father in law and her husband were dead she bowed her selfe and travelied for her pains came upon her And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said fear not for thou hast born a son but she answered not neither did she regard it And she named the child Jchabod saying the glory is departed from Israel because the Ark of God was taken and because of her father in law and her husband And she said the glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken Blessed woman worthy of everlasting fame and imitation She took no comfort in her deliverance though she had a son while the Church of God was not delivered Oh that the same mind might be in me that I might learn also to be more affected with the affairs of the Church That if women may not be common actors of publick affairs yet we may be specially mourners for publick miseries Alas what is my danger to the universall danger my travell to the travell of the Church what comfort to me to have many children except I might see the good of Gods chosen Psal 106. â— what content have I in being delivered from my pains unlesse God deliver Israel from all its troubles Psal 37.40 what delight had Abraham in all his mercies while he went childlesse or I in all my children if the children of God be comfortlesse Oh my God blesse me out of Zion and thus let me be blessed as those are that feare the Lord Psal 128 3 4 5 6. let me not onely be a fruitfull vine but let me see the good of Jerusalem all my dayes Let me not only see my childrens children but peace upon Israel But from the manner of holy Writ to compare almost all miseries whether inward or outward whether of good men or of bad to the pains of women in travell as the fittest embleme of extreme conflicts and agonies I must needs conclude that there is no sorrow like unto that sorrow and no evill like that sin that caused it no danger like that danger and therefore no Saviour like him who can deliver from it Wherefore while my life hangs in suspense my soul is distracted between fear and hope my mind is appall'd my heart melts and is even faint when I consider that hour of torment approaching Let me yet further inquire Oh my soul what duties are yet behind in order to making my peace with God and let nothing hinder or divert my present religious and heavenly imployment till I have brought my mind into some setled posture ready to abide whatever shall happen So much for the duty of Meditation now to the rest CHAP. VI. Resignation to the will of God the duty of Women with child TO submit and resign our wills to the will of God in all things is a most desirable and comfortable temper in any man or woman T is indeed the sum of most duties and a compendium of many virtues He that can thus receive the Kingdome of God as a little child Mark 10.15 with Selfe denyal and humble dependance on our Father in heaven he shall in time by thus subjecting himself
godly women when with child YOu that have tasted the goodness of the Lord and have given up your selfe to him must upon this occasion sequester your self awhile from all the incumbrances of secular affairs and deny your self of the usual attendance of any company and entring into your chamber shut the door and give attendance to these things Commune with thy own heart Ps 4.4 77.6 and let thy spirit make diligent search after those secret sins that yet lurk in thy bosome rub up thy memory of former sins even those committed in the dayes of thy ignorance and vanity remember the wormwood and gall I mean how sin was to thee upon thy first conversion Lam. 3.40 Prov. 20.27 remember thy relapses any time since into sins formerly confessed and bewailed and consider thy unfruitfulness and unsuitable returns to God for his rich mercy in Christ how little thou hast adorned his Gospel but rather rendered Godliness less amiable by thy frequent miscarriages In a word examine thy senses members thoughts and inward parts of all their several evils and renew thy repentance in that serious and humble manner the Lord requires For your sins are in some respects more provoking to God than the wickednesse of the wicked More dishonourable to his name more grievous to his holy Spirit more displeasing to the good Angels more advantageous to the evill Angels more scandalous to the world and more unbeseeming your principles and heavenly hopes Therefore as David having sinned against God Recordari vol o tranactas fóeditates meas carnales corruptiones animi non quòd eas amem sed ut amem te Deus meus Augustin in Confess lib. 2. c. 1. wrote many penitentiall Psalms and shed many a tear day and night And Solomon having finned foulely after God had appeared to him wrote his recantation and penitentiall review of his life in the Book of Ecclesiastes And the woman after she was pardoned washed our Saviours feet with her teares and spent as histories tell us many years after in bewailing her sins So go you and do likewise remembring the holy Apostle who sometimes shames himselfe for the sins of his unconverted estate sometimes bewails the remainders of corruption that abode within him And renew also your resolutions of better obedience and more circumspect walking in all manner of conversation Chide your heart for its deceitfullnesse charge your soul to be more mindfull of the vows of God that are upon you Double upon your selfe all possible obligations to recover what you have lost and to stir up in you those things that are ready to dye Thus you should persevere in the work of confession lamentation and supplication till you find some such answerable effect in your heart as may assure you that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Cor. 15.58 As our book of Martyrs relates of that famous Martyr Mr. John Bradford that he could not leave a duty till he had found communion with Christ in the duty i. e. till he had brought his heart into a more holy frame He could not leave Confession till he had found his heart touched broken and humbled for sin nor Petition till he had found his heart taken with the beauty of the things he desired nor could he leave Thanksgiving till he had found his spirit enlarged and his soul quickened in the return of praises (a) Nunquam abs te absque te recedo Bernard Medit. Like that of devout Bernard who saith of himselfe that he never went away from God without God This is indeed the genius of every Saint who have known by experience how good t is for them to draw nigh to God And you have surely found God in the duty if you find your heart more out of love with your selfe and the world more humbled for sins past more afraid of every appearance of evil for the future and more delighting in all those duties that may promote your graces and weaken your corruptions in you But remember that the duties of humiliation confession supplication must be therefore delighted in because they leade us to God And then do we serve him aright when we have learned to delight not in our services but in God Wherefore raise your heart to that heavenly frame of thank fulnesse and praise to God Rev. 19.5 Luk. 2.13 for the eternall contrivances of his wisdome and purposes of grace in giving Jesus Christ Psal 33.1 for the fulnesse of his promises the freenesse of his covenant the sufficiencie of his word the blessed operations of his Spirit the transforming power of his grace Yea let all that is within you blesse his holy name for pardon of sin Psal 103.1 2 3. Psal 139.14 Rev. 15.3 for all other benefits whether deliverances from evill or giving you any thing that pertains to life and godlinesse for any good hope through grace of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled 1 Peter 1.3 4 5. reserved in the heavens for you to which you are kept by the power of God And really when I consider that the whole world lyes in wickednesse I cannot but praise God in your behalf who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light and numbred you among the faithfull The Lord adde to your number inable you by cheerfull and thankfull submission to Christs easy yoke to shew forth his praises Another good step towards your preparation for death would be not onely to get a heart truly penitent for sin and thankfull to God 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4.8.13 Col. 3.14 1 Tim. 2.15 1 Pet. 4.8 2 Pet. 1.7 Rev. 2.19 but also charitable towards all men that is to be of an inoffensive and courteous disposition to the wicked affectionate to the godly and compassionate to the needy But I meane especially this last of having bowels of mercy to them that be in want which by way of eminency is commonly called Charity as charity in the Greek is called grace Implying that there is no grace without charity no evidence of the truth of our charity without liberality For t is utterly a fault among many rich Ladies and gentlewomen who yet professe religion that they care not what they lay out in foolish gaming immodest dresses exotick garments c. But as if God had no right in any of their wealth they are loath to understand the duty of charity or to part with any thing considerable to pions uses except some small matter to them whom they cannot for shame deny ◠Tim. 6.17 18. Now the Apostle hath directed us to charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in God that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to commucicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Let this full Scripture serve instead
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
well I could relate sad instances of some whom I have known who after the commission of some foul sin have in my presence expressed as credible serious repentance as ever I could desire yea have to my seeming been in utter despair for the present so that I have been not a little troubled to get them to believe that their sins were pardonable and their souls not past remedy when at last they began to apprehend any hope they have upon a sudden ere I was aware made vows Never more to come near such and such companions and places of temptation yea have also seconded these their vowes with immediate earnest prayer to God in secret for his assistance and yet have to my knowledge risen from their knees and gone immediately to the same wicked practice and been as deeply plunged as before and then been in the same trouble again make the like vows again and relapsed in like manner again This I say I have known and seriously considering of the matter I cannot assign any other cause thereof then this That those vowes were unwarrantable Tileni syntag disp 43 in tertium praeceptum p. 267. and God would not be intreated to give his blessing to that for which he had never given his command For though in the Old Testament there is as clear examples of paying Vowes as of offering a Sacrifice yet in the New Testament he who commissioned his Ministers to teach us to observe whatsoever he had cōmanded though he is graciously pleased to condescend to many particulars that might seem of less concernment yet gave no instruction to his Apostles or Ministers to prescribe making Vowes as a help to holiness or a remedy against sin or temptation So that unless it were agreeable to his will it will hardly conduce to his glory Besides when we vow any thing it must be either a thing commanded and necessary or uncommanded To vow to do a thing commanded of God is needless For his command layes a greater obligation upon us already And if the thing vowed be uncommanded then it is not necessary and consequently it must be dangerous to lay our selves under a necessity of doing that which our great Law-giver never made necessary For this vow of unnecessary things must be either absolute or conditional An absolute vow layes us under the snare of impossibilities yea under the danger of sin a conditional vow carries with it the danger of inconstancy such vows being seldome held of much force because circumstances may so often vary that they may quickly seem discharged of their vowes As for instance Suppose you make a vow If God shall recover you to give so much to the poor to read so many chapters a day to pray so often or the like This is an absolute vow And now if Providence render it impossible to give so much without great prejudice to your family-necessities or to read or pray so often without danger of your health or omitting some more necessary and seasonable good in this case you cannot possibly keep your vow without sin If your vow be conditional to give so much if you can spare it to read and pray so much if you have leisure and strength this is needlesly vowed for you are already bound by your vow in Baptism and by the common bonds of Religion to give what you can to the poor and to serve God with all your might and to redeem your time for him And t is better to doe what we do for God out of consciencious obedience to his Law then out of superstitious observation of voluntary vows For who hath required this at your hands Perkins cas of cons lib. 2. c. 1. qu. 2. page mihi 97. The Papists do exceed all other Sects in variety of Religious vows not onely abounding in the use of them but in the grossest abuse making vows of Continency regular obedience c. to be meritorious above all other good works commanded in the morall Law The very naming of such bold impiety is sufficient to render it ridiculous to all that have the Law of God written in their hearts Wherefore to conclude this businesse of vows I say with a (a) B. Hals contemplat lib. 10. p. mihi 173. reverend Author speaking of the unhappy vow of Jephta The conscience shall never find peace in any way but that which we see before us and which we know safe both in the kind and circumstances There is no comfort in Peradventure I may please God Therefore be very cautelous of making any vows and seriously consider and candidly accept my opinion herein that the safest way is to let them alone But now t is time to shew you what I do mean by these Religious purposes I mean that you should consider seriously how defective you have been in prosecution of those Religious ends that the Gospel and your holy profession doth mind you of and that you would firmly purpose and resolve with your selfe to endeavour to do more for God than yet you have done As for instance suppose your resolutions be of avoiding some evil or some occasion or appearance of evill or somthing that doth hinder that which is good as to resolve supposing you are by your quality concerned herein to abridge your selfe of some of your gallantry to be more frugall in your apparell and not to be a slave to the people of this Generation nor to follow every ridiculous and apish fashion of this World 1 Tim. 2.9.10 To spend lesse time in your tedious deessing and trimming every morning and to redeem some of it Exod. 38.8 for the beholding your sins in the glasse of the Law and Christ in the glasse of the Gospel that you may trim your soul and adorn it after the likenesse of Christ or to spend lesse time and money in gameing or to be more seldome in idle visits Melius est habere malorum odiū quam consortium Bern. de mode bene vivendi serm 60. espeeially of such as will not endure in their company any talke of God whether in good sort or in bad as the Jesuits once prohibited but are wholly addicted to such evil communication as corrupts good manners Or if you would resolve upon any thing positively good or praise worthy and of good report as To be more constant frequent laborious in your closet Devotions Prov. 31.27 to be more carefull of your family that it may not be a cage of nuclean birds and a habitation of Devils but a houshold of faith wherein all wickednesse shall at least hide its head and the duties of Religion and Profession of Godliness have more countenance and reputation or to be more severe to your children I abhor cruelty and passionate hasty corrections I meane to get free of that accursed fondnesse whereby so many children have been curses to their parents on earth and cursed firebrands in hell at their death Remember old Eli and be not partaker of
bearing it was burned quick I have set down these memorable instances in the very words of the Historian and I say the pains there mentioned are such as do well night equal the pangs of travel But those blessed women suffered for God Object and therefore had both his assistance acceptance But my pains are the meer fruit of sin of the curse And therefore what are these instances to the purpose What do they concerne women in travel All afflictions of whatever kind are the fruit of sin Answ T is sin that caused the emnity in the seed of the Serpent against the seed of the Woman 'T is by sin that we are born to trouble are of few dayes and full of evil 'T is sin that fills the creature with vanity under which the whole Creation grones and travells in pain together untill now Sin is the Mother and Nurse of our miseries So that if it be a sufficient reason for you to be dejected and impatient under your pains because they are the fruit of sin then there is the like reason for every afflicted person to complain and desponde and refuse to be comforted even Martyrs themselves for no crosse could befall us in life nor any violent death have been inflicted upon us if sin had not made so wide a gape at which all calamities do enter upon us Hence it is that the Church did alway acknowledge Gods justice in all the evils that came upon them And the Emperour Mauricious when bloody Villianes came and kil'd his wife and children before his face and then came to murther him also uttered no other words but these Righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy judgements But the main thing you speak of wherein they had the advantage is this that they suffered for God and so do not you But let me tell you that neither the punishment be it never so bitter nor the cause be it never so good do make a compleat Martyr without Patience If this patience be wanting that they be unquiet murmuring and clamorous under the hand of God I doubt they shall not be soon cannonized in Heaven as here upon Earth Their sufferings are not accepted if not patiently endured They do not dy to the Lord unlesse they lay down their lives and offer themselves a wiling sacrifice dying out of love to God not out of unwilling subjection to the violence of Man Want of Patience shewes want both of Faith and Love And if want these we are but as sounding brasse and rinckling Cymballs If there be any thing we keep from God and resign not up all readily and intirely to him we give him nothing but we love something more then him But if we part with a little willingly if we be chearfull givers of our money to the needy and honour the Lord with our substance this is thank worthy with God because 't is supposed that the mortified mind is alike ready when God requires it to part with the whole for Christ The same principle if a right principle act us that inclines us to give a penny must prompt us also to yield up all even life it self when God requires it And were there is this habitual forsaking of all in affection out of acknowledgement of Gods right to all we have this mental resolution is with God interpretative Martyrdom So then observe that in all our Actions or Sufferings for God we must not lay so much stresse on the thing it self as the principle and end aimed at by the doer or suffererer God alwayes accepts the will for the deed when impossibilites are the only bars to our per formance but he never accepts the most costly actions or sufferings without a willing minde The upshot of all is this that if we are sick with any naturall or adventitious malady pained with any hurtful or accidental casualty when we suffer any loss in our Estates or torments in our flesh if then our patience have its perfect work if we submit to the will of God and ly down under his hand as Isaac under the hand of Abraham trusting in his name and saying with Job though he kill me yet will I trust in him if we bear all cheerfully out of obedience to him who disposes and sanctifies all to his people this is acceptable with God this is suffering for God this is glorifying God in the fires and the Spirit of God and of glory shall rest upon such Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and be not wearied nor faint in your minds remembring that if you thus suffer in obedience to him you suffer for him and may lay hold therefore of Gods promises to the afflicted which do equally concern you with any other sufferers Again you have strange examples among the Papists what the women of that sect will inflict on their own tender bodies in their times of pennance Take but one instance Elizabeth Dutches of Turaine was wont at certain times Spalath 〈◊〉 lib. 3. c. 10.129 to provide most cruell scourges and taking three or four of her maids with her shut her self into her closet and gave to each of them a scourge in their hands and stripping her selfe naked commanded them to lay her on with lusty stripes and this she endured with such willing patience that she would never groan or cry under their lashes Now if those delicate Ladies can so patiently bear any the most unmercifull chastisements they lay upon themselves how much more should you bear the chastisement of your heavenly Father who is not insensible of the smart he puts you to and will not be unmindfull to give you an expected end Consider further how gracious our God is in his readinesse to support his people under all afflictions I have read of one a Theodorus a Martyr put to extreme torments Socr. Schol. lib. 3. c. 16. by Julian the Apostate and dimissed again by him when they saw him so invincible The historian sayes (b) Ruffin hist Eccles lib. 1. cap. 36. he met with this Martyr a long time after and asked him how he could bear such unsufferable pains he answered that at first it was grievous but after a while there seemed to stand by him a young man in white who with a soft handkercheif wiped off the sweat from his body and bad him be of good cheer insomuch that it was a punishment rather then a pleasure to be taken of from the rack sith when the tormentors had done the Angel was gone Thus when our friends can do little for us God can send his Angells who excell in strength to suggest comfort and minister help to us But however he himself will alwayes be with us to make our beds in our sicknesse to support our tyred bodies with his everlasting Arms and to uphold our souls with his free Spirit Thus our Saviour promises to all his people in whatever condition they be I will not leave you
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
his sins lest you be partaker of his plagues Or if you resolved to take more notice of your godly neighbours about you who are made as the offscouering of the world and to make it more manifest that your delight is in the Saints and that you hate them that hate the Lord yea hate them with perfect hatred and count them your enemies Or if you would remember who have provoked and offended you by slandering you or otherwise and now shew your selfe courteous and loving to them especially requiting them good for evill and never remembring or upbraiding them with their offensive miscarriages towards you Or if you would resolve to spare somewhat more from your super fluities (a) Divitis â—uperfluae Pauperi sunt necessaria alieâ—a retinet qui ista tenet Aug in Ps 147. and sinfull expences for the preservation of the lives of many starving poor and to that end alway keep a stock by you to lay out as occasion shall require for pious ases (b) R. Bolâ—ons Gen. Direct p. â—62 Exod. 35. â—5 yea if you sought out objects of your charity and sent to some of the more modest poor to know how 't is with them that you might buy or make cloaths for the naked as Dorcas did and every good woman Acts 9 3â— Prov. 31.20 as Solomon describes her should doe and get food for the hungry physick for the sick harbour for the destitute imployment for the diligent c. This was a motive to Peter to raise up Dorcas that she had cloathed the poor widows And this sayes one was the practice of the blessed Virgin who having great gifts from the three wise men (a) Supponendum est quod illa munera pauperibus erogaverat N. Hanap Patr. Hierosul virtutuÌ„ vitiorum exempla cap. 125. p. 166 Levit. 5.7 that followed the star yet bestowed all on the poor and shortly after at her purification had but two turtle Doves or two young Pigeons to offer which was by Gods appointment the manner of the poorer Jews who were not able to buy a lambe Thus I have given divers instances of such particulars as you may make the matter of pious Resolution And if in these or any other of like nature you fix your intentions of abounding more and growing more fruitfull in every good work it will be doubtlesse thank-worthy with God if he see your heart thus firmly bent to observe that precept of his Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me How would you glorifie God when he delivers you What by a meer verbal acknowledgement and not by some signall testimony of your thankefullnesse and some sureable return for so great a mercy Wherefore I say again resolve if God deliver you to be more faithfull to your principles more usefull in your generation more alive to God more affectionate to Christ and his members more dead to the world more eminent in some particular service to God whereby you may shew forth his praise and acknowledge him in your works and shine with your light before men And thus having in some measure dispatched the duties before mentioned you may the more boldly addresse your self to what next follows viz to exercise and strengthen your faith CHAP. XII To labour for faith in Christ or if they have faith to endeavour to exercise it in trust and dependance upon God for pardon of sin is also the duty of Women with child TO get faith and to get an interest in Christ are great words more commonly spoken than understood Know therefore that faith is not a beleeving that I am pardoned or that I have true grace and shall certainly be saved this is not the nature but fruit of justifying faith But Faith is a believing the Gospel which represents and offers Christ to us as the onely all sufficient Saviour and the receiving him as such Faith looks on Christ as revealed in his word to be our Priest Prophet and King or the way the truth and the life Accordingly it causeth us to renounce our own Righteousnesse to renounce our own Reason and to believe all mysteries of godliness upon his bare Word thus becoming fools that we may be wise in him and to deny our selves and renounce our own wills and all things that oppose themselves against Christ and to make his will our supreme rule in all our actions Thus faith receives Christ with all his benefits graces laws yea with his yoke crosse reproach counting the treasures of the world as nothing in comparison of the meanest and poorest things that appertain to Christ and have his name upon theÌ„ So that they who thus receive Christ believe in him are justified by him yield to Christ the chief interest in all that is theirs in their understanding by believing him in their affections by loving him in their wills by obeying him in their time strength estate and all things they are or have by serving him with their whole heart their whole soul and their whole strength all their dayes And such have doubtlesse an interest in Christ Wherefore if you doubt complain and torment your self with such inward feares as would all be removed if you once knew that you believed and had an interest in Christ then stir up your self now to receive him as he is offered be willing to be saved by him in his own way let his interest prevail in you above all other interests and you shall find that faithfull and obedient compliance with him will sooner bring comfort than meer complaints Be not then slothfull in this businesse but fervent in spirit seeking the Lord for increase of faith and help against your infidelity Doe not by a heart of unbelief depart in the least from him upon any termes but lay aside every sin that hath easily beset you else your complaints are not in earnest patiently persevere in well doing and in a way of holiness accept comfort Yet look not presently and too eagerly for a high measure of sensible joy and assurance for that is scarce a promised mercy given to a few who are most eminently holy and with them it doth not alwayes abide neither And if you are wholly without joy or peace in thus believing you are not streightned in God but in your selfe because you either retain some sin which grieves the Spirit or listen to temptations or cherish your fears and refuse to be comforted Wherefore for your further help consider the freenesse fulnesse suitablenesse and multitude of those exceeding great and precious Promises whereby you have all things that pertain to life and godlinesse promises of pardon and promises of deliverance promises to your soul and to your body promises of all needfull good and of all things working together for good in this life and promises of all good in the enjoyment of God who is the chief good and that with life everlasting Search then