Love Things of good Report which are apt to procure to the Persons that do them and to the Religion which they profess good Esteem and Commendation Now I dare appeal to all the World whether those few Persons of Quality and Honour are not generally looked upon with a Veneration and Esteem who having broke through an unreasonable Custom and preferred the good of their Children before a Fantastick Privilege of Greatness become Nurses to their own Off-spring Who doth not approve of this as an Action becoming the Gravity of a Chast Lady In whose Eyes is it not a Spectacle most Lovely What vertuous and sober Persons but think it very Praise-worthy From this general Precept of Christianity therefore we must conclude this generally to be the Duty of Christian Matrons § 16. That of the Apostles 1 Thess 2.7 is not here to be omitted 1 Thess 2.7 We were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherisheth her Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where two things are observable First That the Mother is here stiled a Nurse for it is her own Children not anothers whom the Nurse is said to Cherish Whence it seems that the Apostle taking it for granted that the Mother is her self the Nurse implies it the Duty of all Mothers to undertake that Office Secondly That St. Paul chooses to express his own mild and gentle Behaviour toward the Church by a Mother Nursing her own Which implies that the Mothers Care is the greatest and her Carriage the most Tender toward her Nursery who is influenced by Natural Affection and not meerly by hopes of Reward It would have been a Disparagement to the Apostles mild and tender Behaviour towards them to have compared him with a Mercenary Nurse that looks to anothers Child for hire and is rarely so careful of it as its own Mother to whom Nature dictates the most compassionate Concern for its welfare § 17. Hitherto in the next place belongs the Character which the Apostle gives of a Widow indeed 1 Tim. 5.10 who is to be maintained by the Churches Charity He requires among other Virtues that she be well reported for good Works and that she have brought up Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word denotes Nursing Children Our Lexicons cite Aristotle for the use of it and it is obserable that he uses the Verb from which this is compounded to denote this peculiar Office of the Mother in his Oeconomicks which because it gives us the Judgment of that great Philosopher Arist Oeco l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.18 is in the Margent of our Bibles rendred Suffered them as a Nurse beareth the Child And by Dr. Hammond Carried them as a Nurse who concludes the right reading to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do the Office of a Nurse who not only bears the Child in her Arms but feeds and sustains it too as God did the Israelites in the Wilderness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also rendred a Nurse in the Text aforecited 1 Thess 2.7 I will here transcribe As to their Children saith he both Parents equally contribute to their Generation but their Offices are peculiar as to their future Improvement The Mothers Office is to Nurse and the Fathers to Educate or Correct In the Judgment then of St. Paul those Widows who had nursed their own Children were reputed to have done a good Work and they that had not done so were judged for that very reason unworthy of the Churches Charity And as we may very well presume the Apostle would not have exempted any indigent Widow from that Privilege for no Fault but that it was a thing Scandalous and of very ill report for any Christian Matron not to have nursed her own Children § 18. I shall only add That among the Duties of the younger Women such as are not yet past Child bearing they are to be taught That they love their Children Tit. 2.4 For if it be considered that Nursing their own Children is a very proper and natural Testimony to maternal Love and the most likely means not only to express but increase their natural Affection toward them I see not how they can evade the Obligation of this Precept For the Law of Love obliges a Mother to all proper Means and Ways of testifying and maintaining her Love and consequently to this The greatest Ladies are bound to love their Children as well as the meanest Beggar and consequently to neglect no proper means of shewing and cherishing it So that unless they deny Nursing of them to be such they must hence conclude it to be their Duty § 19. But before I put an end to this Chapter it is requisite that I take notice of some passages which seem to discountenance the Cause I have been pleading for least my pretermitting of them should make any to fancy it was not for the Weakness but Cogency and Weight of the Objection that is raised from them I mean those Texts which mention some Nurses who were not the Mothers of the Children whom they Nursed Such was Deborah Gen. 35.8 Ruth 4.10 Rebecca's Nurse Naomi who became Nurse to her Grandson by Ruth Mephibosheth's Nurse 2 Sam. 4.4 2 Kings 11.2 who let him fall as she sled and Joash's Nurse that was hid with him § 20. Now in answer to these Instances I shall only offer these things 1. That in some cases it is so far from being a necessary Duty that it is not possible for the Child to be nursed by its own Mother As if she die in Child-bed or lye under some natural Inability from the want of Nipples or Suck And in such cases recourse must be had to some other means for the Infants Preservation And for what appears to the contrary this may be the occasion of the Substitution of some of the Nurses abovenamed Joash's Nurse it 's probable supplied the Office of his deceased Mother for his Aunts Care about his Preservation makes it likely that his Mother was either dead before or was Murdered in the universal Butchery of the Royal Family by Athaliah 2. Some of those before named were dry Nurses Assistants only not Substitutes to the Mother Such doubtless was Naomi whose Age and long Widowhood makes it very unlikely that she should be able to give her Grandchild Suck And Pareus from Jacob's solemn Mourning at the Death of Deborah concludes her to have been called Rebecca's Nurse because she had assisted her in the Nursing of her Children and not as if she had given her Suck and that for this reason Jacob after his Mothers Death had taken her into his own Family 3. If it be granted most probable as to me it seems to be that Mephibosheth's Nurse gave him Suck and was substituted in the room of his Mother this will be no disadvantage to our Cause For as it was his great Unhappiness to lose his Mother
Interposition of other Objects soon weans her from that poor Exile who becomes abroad almost as much forgotten as if it had been laid in the Grave It is not rare to observe That Foster-Children are more dear to their Nurses than their Mothers and Mothers for the most part are fondest of those whom they have nursed themselves And it is too common an Observation That some Ladies shew a greater Fondness toward their Dogs than their Children Ladies Calling Part 2. Sect. 2. § 26. Shewing those to all Comers when in many days Converse one shall hear nothing whence it may be known that they have any Children Concerning which we have a remarkable Story in Plutarch Plut. In Pencl How that Cesar once seeing some Strangers at Rome who were People of Quality carrying up and down with them in their Arms and Bosoms young Puppy-dogs and Munkies and hugging and making much of them took occasion to ask Whether the Women in their Country were not used to bear Children By that Princely Reprimand gravely reflecting upon such Persons as spend and lavish that Affection and Kindness which Nature hath impleated in us on Brute Creatures though it be due and owing only to humane Nature those of our own Kind Now there can no account so likely be given of any Womans greater Fondness of Brutes than of their own Children but that these being nursed abroad their Dogs are more conversant with them than they I must confess what a. Learned Man objects that many Ladies Towerson on the Commandm p. 237. who place their Children abroad are very tender of them and sometimes more Fond than Women of meaner Birth and Fortunes who for the most part Nurse themselves Nor would I therefore be understood to intend the foregoing Censure for all Mothers that decline this Office In some nay in many I hope Duty and natural Affection triumph over this Temptation However it is a Temptation that prevails on too many and they that are Wise will for that reason conclude it best and safest to avoid it St. Ambrose made this Observation Amb. de Abr. l. 1. c. 7. That Mothers generally love those best whom they have Suckled at their own Breasts Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3. Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 496. And Plutarch concludes this the principal Intention of Nature in giving the Mother a Capacity of being a Nurse and in placing her Breasts so conveniently for the embracing of her little Nursery that she may receive fresh Endearments every Moment from those intimate Embraces * Nay God himself supposes this apt to create a great Tenderness in the Mother when he says Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her Sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb When the Woman makes the Son of her Womb her Sucking Child or her own Nursery it is a thing next to impossible that she should fail in the Affection and Care of a Mother toward it And if this be granted as a most likely means to increase the Mothers Love to her Child she that exiles her little ones takes the way hugely to cool if not quite extinguish it § 5. Secondly This is the way to alienate the Childs Affections from its Mother Some Grammarians derive the Latin word Lac Milk from lacio to allure as concluding no way so likely to allure the Child to love its Mother as Nursing it with her Milk She performs indeed but half the Office and consequently earns but half of that Love which otherwise is due to a Mother who only bears her Child and then turns it off And I never yet met with any one Instance to contradict the Observation of a Learned Prelate to this purpose viz. That many cruel Tyrants have killed their Mothers Bishop Taylor 's Grand Example p. 21. § 10. yet none ever offered Violence to his Nurse And this shews that bearing in the Womb is not so inviolable an Obligation to Love as Nursing at the Breast We read of one of the Gracchi returning to Rome from his Victories in Asia that he presented his Mother with a Jewel of Silver and his Nurse with a Girdle of Gold giving this reason for the preference of the latter Roderic de Castro de Mulier morbis That when his Mother after his Birth cast him off his Nurse took him forsaken as he was to her Breasts and cherished him in her kind Embraces This is manifest that Love desconds more strongly than it ascends so that it is not likely that the Childs Affections towards its Parents should exceed theirs towards it And therefore such a Mother hath reason to expect the least Love from her Children who hath shewed the least toward them Perhaps whilst she is in Prosperity and stands in no need of their Love Interest may oblige them to carry civilly toward her Yet it is to be suspected that they have no such grounds in Nature as will maintain a constant Fervour of Affection against the Frowardness or Misfortunes of an Unnatural Mother I do not affirm this to be a constant Effect of that Cause for sometimes perhaps the Mothers After-care may make amends for the first Unkindness Sometimes extraordinary good Nature in the Child may conquer the Resentments of this early Neglect or the Influences of Divine Grace may triumph over this Temptation It is enough for my purpose that it is a Temptation a Temptation which oft prevails on a Graceless Child to requite hits Mothers Rejection of him with the like Unkindness And this is reason enough to oblige all Mothers to prevent it by their early Care and Tenderness in Nursing § 6. Thirdly As the Happiness of Families very much depends upon the mutual Love of the several Branches of it among themselves so the Mothers refusing them that common Nourishment which were likely to promote it is too justly chargeable with the Mischiefs which result from their mutual Unkindnesses We read of Scipio Asiaticus that though he rejected the Importunity of his Brother Africanus in behalf of ten Soldiers who were condemned for offering Violence to the Vestals yet he pardoned them at the request of his Foster-Sister And being asked the reason why he did more for his Nurses Daughter than for his own Mothers Son he returned this answer I esteem her rather to be my Mother who brought me up than her that brought me forth and then forsook me Which shews both that his Nurse had more of his Love than his Mother and also her who sucked the same Milk than he who had lain in the same Womb. Plut. In Catone I remember Plutarch reports of Cato that wise Roman that as he obliged his Wife to give her Children Suck with her own Breasts so also to let the Children of his Slaves Suck her too that by partaking of the same Nourishment a Natural Affection might be instilled into them toward his Son And the frequent Instances of many
and Game oft till after Midnight But if the bare Proposal of this Plea do not convince and shame them that use it I must despair of prevailing with them But since I am sure there cannot be a better Argument to this Duty than that it may be a means to restrain them from those Faults I will not Despair § 6. But that those Ladies who have no better Plea's for the Neglect of this Duty than these which so evidently convict them of Luxury and too great a Fondness of their own Ease will by a Serious Reflection upon this Consideration persuade themselves rather to discharge this Duty for the future toward their Children than to expose themselves to just Censure by such Apologies for their Neglect For to conclude this first Cause what is the true difference between a Modest Wife and an Adultress But that the first desires to bring forth a Child to the World to be a Servant of God a Citizen to the Commonwealth and an Object for her Charity and Diligence whilst the latter aims at no more than the gratifying of her lend Inclinations and base Lusts And I need not to say how near those Mothers come to this latter Character who after the Consummation of Marriage and the Birth of a Child as if Lust were all they intended decline the Labour and the Charity it gives them an opportunity to exercise towards it and transfer them all upon another § 7. Secondly There is another Plea used for the declining of this Office which is the result of Avarice as the former is of Luxuryr and made use of by the Trading part of the Nation as those by the Gentry The Nursing of a Child is looked on as too great a Confinement to the Wife who by her Inspection over the Houshold Affairs or Attendance in the Shop may save her Husband much more than the Hire of a Nurse amounts to But granting this if as hath been shewed Nursing be the Mothers Duty no prospect of gaining by the neglect can supersede her Obligation to it And if I understand the Nature of Covetousness it is such a Love of Gain as this that draws one to the neglect of any Obligation which is not consistent with his Profit The Question is not Whether it may be as Conducive to your Temporal Interest but whether it be as Consistent with your Duty to put out your Child to a Stranger as to Nurse it your self And if Avarice be excluded from the Consult you must conclude that other business ought to give place to this which is so properly the Business of a Mother For unless you love your Child too little and your Gain too nmch you will be sensible that if your Infant be spoiled or suffer any Prejudice in Body or Mind you can be no Gainers though your Domestick Business or your Shop should be better attended § 8. Lastly I humbly recommend it to the Consideration of all Mothers especially Persons of Quality whether by adhering to this unnatural Custom they do not shew themselves Guilty of a great deal of Pride You think it below you to stoop to the Office of a meaner Mother and therefore as a piece of State and Punctilio of Honour turn off the Drudgery of Nursing to another For if this were not a very prevailing Motive the Great and Honourable would not be so universally conformable to this unreasonable Custom But may they not as reasonably conclude it too great a Condescention to become a Mother as a Nurse For there is the same equality between the most Honourable Lady and her Child as between the meanest Beggar and hers and there is no more reason why the best should think Scorn to Nurse her own at her Breast than to bear it in her Womb. Let then those whom God hath advanced into a Superior Rank in the World learn to have Modest Thoughts of themselves and they will be ashamed to let such vain Punctilio's of Honour and Greatness influence them Let such remember that the Laws of God and Nature equally oblige the Lady as the Beggar the City as the Country Dame and they will resolve not to plead the Fantastick Privilege of their Quality against the Good of their Children and their own Duty God expects that the greatest Lady when she becomes a Mother should do the Duties of a Mother and she certainly thinks of her self more highly than she ought to think whoever is so Vain as to fancy it below her to do her Duty And if Luxury Avarice and Pride be the true Causes of this Customs universal Prevailence whatever are the Pretences it must needs be concluded inexcusably Sinful Which was the last thing I undertook to prove The Conclusion Wherein a Pathetick Address is made to all both Fathers and Mothers that they will admit the preceding Particulars into their Serious and Impartial Consideration § 1. IT only remains that I wind up this Discourse with a Serious Admonition to all those whom God hath honoured with the Title of Parents that they will allow it an Impartial Consideration § 2. And first I shall speak to all Mothers because they are Primarily and Principally concern'd And methinks the very name might supercede the Repetition of all other Arguments For what is the Import of a Mother Why is the Earth stiled the common Mother of all things but that it Nourishes all that it produceth And do not all other Beings the same whether Animate or Inanimate Do not Grapes hang on the Vine and Fruits on the Trees that produced them taking their Increase from the Sap of the Wood to which they owe their Original And among Animals Doth not the Lamb know its own Dam and run to her Dug among a Thousand in the same Flock Nay even Savage Lions and Bears stand tamely to be Sucked by their young Cubs The Philosopher Favorinus was then in the right A. Gell. l. 12. c. 1. when he stiled her but half a Mother who Nourishes in her Womb what she knows not and consequently doth not yet love but casts it off as soon as she knows it and first begins to love it Nay she is not to be reputed so much as half a Mother since the Nurse doth longer communicate Constituent Nourishment to her Child from her Body in Twelve Months than the Mother in Nine And how Ladies would you resent it if your Child should refuse to call you Mother or own any other Woman to be more its Mother than you If this would grieve or vex you methinks you should be asham'd that any other should have done more of the Office of a Mother for it than your self § 3. Next to your relation to your Child let me remind you of your Religion which recommends the greatest Charity to Strangers and Enemies And how can it be consistent with your Profession of Christianity which obliges you to love your Enemies to be desective in your Love to our nearest Relations Look then unkind Mothers look
great Persons Kindness and Liberality toward their Foster-Brothers is an Argument how prevalent this Method is of propagating the Streams of Love from the common Fountain of the Breast among all the partakers of it And the too common Observation of Fraternal Discords as it is matter of Melancholly Consideration so it ought to oblige Mothers to neglect no means any way likely to prevent them especially to joyn them all at her Breasts that they may be more united in their Lives § 7. Thus have I demonstrated how much the good of Families obliges all Mothers especially Persons of Quality to Nurse their own Children that they may more surely prevent all Opportunities of wronging their own Heir of alienating themselves from their Children or their Children from them or from one another CHAP. III. In which is contained an account of the Inconveniencies resulting to the Children themselves that are Nursed by Strangers in respect of their Bodies either through the Nurses want of Care the unsuitable Nourishment or Contagious Diseases that may be transmitted in her Milk § 1. I Come now Secondly to represent the Mischiefs that threaten the Children themelves which are deserted by their own Mothers to be Nursed by Strangers It is a pretty Observation which St. Ambrose makes on Gen. 9.25 where Cham's Curse is expressed in his Sons name Cursed be Canaan viz. That it is a greater Punishment to wicked Cham to be Cursed in his Race than in his own Person The Wounds which tender Parents receive in the Miseries of their Children are much more sensible than their own personal Calamities This Consideration then in all reason should touch all Mothers in the most sensible part and be of the greatest force with them viz. That others Nursing of them is likely to be extreamly prejudicial to their Children both in respett of their Bodies and their Minds § 2. I shall in this Chapter shew how the Health of the Childs Body is endangered by putting it to a Stranger to be nursed and that these several ways Either by her want of Care intending it by yielding it unsuitable Nourishment or by transmitting Diseases to it § 3. A Mercenary Nurse is not likely to take so much Care of the Child as its own Mother In our Bibles we read of Mephiboshesth's Mishap received from his Nurse who letting him fall out of her Arms as she fled made him ever after unable to go And who sees not how many carry about them to their death the Marks of their Nurses Carelesness And no wonder for Natural Affection will make the Mother more watchful over and patient with the Frowardness of her own Babe than she can expect an Hireling to be De Educ lib. P. 3. The Mother is fittest to Nurse saith Plutarch because she will treat the Child with more Compassion and Care as being influenced by an inward Tenderness which bears date from its first being Whereas the Love of a Nurse is only Subdititious the result not of Nature but of Wages It is reasonable to expect the Mistress of the Family more careful of her own Domestick Affairs than any of her Mercenary Servants since the first is obliged by a greater Interest than the latter so that where the Mistress is Negligent we do not ordinarily expect the Maid should be more Industrious And where the Mothers Love can suffer a Child to be exposed whom Nature hath interested in its Welfare none can wonder if a Stranger neglect it For indeed how can it be expected that an Hireling should endure all the Tediousnesses and Inconveniencies attending the Nursing of a little helpless perhaps Froward Infant when the Mother to whom Natural Affection should have endeared the Employment out of Softness and Luxury declines it as a Burden Or why hath God generally inspired the Mother with a greater Tenderness toward the Child but for this very end That thereby she may be enabled to digest more easily the little Vnhandsomnesses as one phrases it which others Will nauseate Bishop Taylour's Grand Example and submit to those Fatigues that none else will for its Preservation whilst her Care and Patience are doubled by her Affection There are frequent Tragical Instances of Infants Overlaid by Sleepy and Careless Nurses which much more rarely happen where the Mother undertakes this Province her self Methinks then it is very reasonable thus to argue She is fittest to Nurse the Child who loves it best and if the Mother is not ashamed to have it said That any Woman should love her Child better than her self she must be concluded fittest to Nurse it and she ought to undertake that Office which requires so much Vigilance and Patience Care and Tenderness as can be expected only from the greatest Love Nothing is more common than for Mercenaries to let the poor Babe Cry it self weary without regarding it whilst the Mothers Ears would have so affected her Heart as to send her in all haste to quiet it The Mother ordinarily will spare no Pains to keep it Neat and Clean whilst Nurses generally are so Negligent that Nastiness oft breeds Diseases and the keeping of the Child Dirty is a sure Preludium of its Funeral When Dust is laid to Dust and Ashes to Ashes § 4. And here I cannot forbear to translate a passage out of a learned Physician Dr. Walter Harrys in his Tract De acutis Morbis Infantum viz. That a worthy Divine the Rector of Hayes about twelve Miles from London with great Grief told him that his Parish being large and populous and scituate in a very wholsome Air at his first coming thither was replenished with Infants sent abroad to be Nursed yet in the compass of one Year he had buried them all except two And that the same number of Nurseries being again twice supplied through the Mercenary Diligence of those Women out of London he had again this same Year laid them all in their Graves before their time A. D. 1689. So that by this account the Citizens seem to put out their Children not so properly to be Nursed as to be Murdered And I see not how they can be thought to have a due regard of their Childrens Lives who after such fair warning given them by a Physician that Practises among them and seems peculiarly concern'd for the good of Infants resolve still to run this Hazard and prefer their own Ease before their Childrens Life § 5. But if the Child nursed by a Stranger be not killed by her neglect yet secondly it may be very much injured in its Health by the unsuitable Nourishment which it derives from her Breasts Galen de sanit tuend l. 1. c. 7. Avicen l. 1. Fen. 3. Senner de curat inf part 1. c. 1. It is agreed upon by ancient and modern Physicians that the Nourishment which Infants receive in the Womb is of the same Nature with the Milk which soon after the Birth Nature provides for it in the Breasts And it is another approved