with her father-in-law Gen. 38.38 2. Rahab an harlot Heb. 11.31 3. Ruth who came of Moab the son Levi by incest with his own daughter Gen. 19.37 4. Bathsheba and she was guilty of adultery Why is all this but to shew that free grace is no respecter of persons except it be to have most tender regard to the most miserable object and to pardon those most readily who see themselves most guilty and to wash them as white as snow whose sins were of a scarlet dye And for your further increase of faith I would advise you if you can conveniently have it that you would with all humility and earnest desires of favour with God go to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ where you may see Christ crucified for you and may receive such symbols and pledges of his good-will towards you as will be so many Seals to his Promises and there you shall find his flesh to be meat indeed Joh. 6.53 54 55.56 and his blood drink indeed He is the living bread which shall strengthen your heart and his love is stronger then wine and shall make glad your heart I doubt that the seldome or careless use of this blessed ordinance is one great cause why so many Christians are of weak faith And if with other endeavours and inquiries for comfort this were more frequently and rightly used we should find their strangeness from God which is the chief cause of their fears to cease and delight in him and love to him and consequently peace of conscience to encrease by this neerer converse and communion with him Mary Magdalene as they say being near her end came and received the Body and Blood of our Lord in the place of their Christian assembly and there comfortably exspired before the Table of the Lord. Also peruse Davids Psalms and as you easily may take notice of those especially that contain complaints of Sin Fear Calamities and also praises to God for hearing and delivering and promises of the like mercy of God to all his people in their several exigencies And sing these Psalms leisurèly and considerately alone by your self You will find the voice to quicken your meditation upon the matter the matter to affect your heart and the blessing of God to attend his owne ordinance who hath commanded us to admonish our selves (a) Eph. 5.19 in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Besides it is most unquestionably pleasant to those good Angels who are ministring Spirits to attend you for good But if you are not satisfied by Promises Sacraments Psalms c. then look beyond all these to the goodness of God which is infinite His goodness is the fountain of the Promises and therefore it is that the streams make glad the people of God Now it is an acceptable work of Faith if we cannot see a Promise speaking directly to us or are not able to apply them yet even then to cast our selves upon infinite goodness to trust in the name of the Lord Isa 50 10. Psal 9.10 and to stay our selves upon our God For his Goodness contains more in it then Promises do express It never entred into the tongues of men or Angels fully to express the heighth and depth and length and breadth thereof Let this therefore keep you in a dutiful and quiet expectation of comfort that there is mercy with God an inexhaustible treasure of mercy riches of grace an overflowing fulness which can as well cease to be as to be faithful and compassionate Isa 57.15 in dwelling with the contrite and humble to revive the hearts of the humble and to revive the spirits of the contrite ones CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child THough trusting in God exclude not the use of means and Gods providence over us doth not discharge us from provision for our selves and preventing what we can of the danger and hurt of any approaching evil yet it surely excludes our trust in any thing besides him And therefore whatever estate friends helps strength you have yet trust not to these For God onely brings to the birth and gives strength to bring forth Rachels Midwife could bid hen be of good comfort but she could not give her the comfort of a happy deliverance Miserable comforters are Midwives Neighbours and Kindred if God withhold the fruit of the womb And if he speak the word after others have tormented the labouring woman and tried themselves with fruitless endeavours and at last given over any hopes of success I say if he speak the word she shall so on be delivered for He shutteth and none can open he openeth and none can shut he letteth and none can work he worketh and none can let He can let out the imprisoned infant raise up the fainting mother bring strength out of weakness and life out of death Wherefore furnishing your self with such promises as he hath made to his people in all their extremities strengthen your faith hope in the Lord and quietly wait for his salvation Among the many promises of this kind I shall mention a few which are obvious and leave you to observe the rest in your own private reading His anger endureth but a moment in his favour is life Weeping may endure for a night Ps 30.5 but joy cometh in the morning For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth Isa 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the soules which I have made Like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103.15 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are but dust By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Isa 27.9 and this is all the fruit to take away his sin When we are judged 1 Cor. 11.32 we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world For our light affliction 2 Cor. 4.17 which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more eternal and exceeding weight of glory He maketh sore Job 5.13 and he bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole He shall deliver thee in six troubles Ver. 19. yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee Behold Ps 33.18 the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine The righteous cry Ps 34.17 and the Lord heareth them and delivereth them out of all their troubles God is our refuge and strength Ps 46.1 a very present help in trouble Fear thou not Isa 41.10 for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse For God hath comforted his people Isa 49.14 and will have
in manners then for a woman to forget her sucking child verily this makes some of our proudest Dames more vile then the beasts that perish And therefore let all persons of honour cease hereafter to glory in their shame and let them think it their duty when God makes them mothers to make themselves nurses imitating the example of Sarah who though a Lady of great (a) Engl. Annot. on Gen. 11. esteem riches and honour though aged and weak yet refused not this motherly office And they that upon any account but plain necessity i.e. want of strength or milk do neglect this duty whether for laziness lust pride or loving the fashion more then their children they deserve that God should curse them with a miscarrying wombe and dry breasts Hos 9.14 But there is another folly too common and that is if they have a great charge of children already to wish and resolve to have no more and to be cast down with grief and anxious care if they find themselves with child again Alas what is this but to repine at Gods mercies and to murmure at his blessings what greater dishonour can we put upon the Word of God Ps 127.5 which sayes Happy is he that hath his quiver full of them Besides who knows but that this last child may be an eminent instrument to Gods glory a vessel of use in his generation and a blessing to the whole family But so much for the first point That it is a mercy to be with child CHAP. II. Prayer The duty of women with child I Have been longer then I intended on the first Chapter to prove that it is a mercy for women to be with child I shall endeavour to be more brief in the things following which are the severall duties that pertain to women in that estate If they make any conscience of fitting themselves for their travell or would have any hope of Gods assistance therein I shal desire them to give heed to the Scripture-rules here gathered by my serious care for their direction and consolation And I shall begin with that which they must begin with go on with and end with Dr. Gonge of domest duties tr 6. p. 580. and that is Prayer And seeing there be many requisites that concur to render a prayer acceptable I shall instance in some few and pass by the rest which are many and are largely handled by other Authors You must be carefull to direct your prayers to the right object that is to the whole Trinity To God the Father in the name of Christ by the assistance of his Spirit (a) Perkins cas of consc lib. 2. c. 4. q. 1. Not but that on some occasions it is both lawfull and proper to invoke the second or third person of the trinity but usually we are to aske of the Father in the name of Christ and to such asking is his promise made But that which I chiefly aime at is to warne you to call upon God onely (b) Cobbets treat of prayer Part 3. ch 12. p. 541. Mat. 28.19 Joh. 16 23. and not upon any Saint or Angel as the manner is is among Idolatrous Papists whose devotions are divided among so many Saints that 't is no easy matter to reckon their meer nāes Let it suffice us that this their folly hath nothing of warrant from the Scripture but is meerly derived (c) Perkins ubi supra c. 6. qu. 1. § 2 from the practice of those vile heathens who not liking to retaine God in their knowledge became vain in their imaginations (d) Aug. de Civ Dei l. 8. c. 18.21 lib. 9. c. 9.17 As the Ethnicks had several Gods and Goddesses appropriated to several Countries sciences callings and diseases so have the papists assigned a particular Saint for all occasions (e) Dr. Beard of Antichrist tr 2. part 3 c. 3. p 340 341. c. Lucina was called upon by the Heathens to give deliverance from the pains in child-birth and the Papists have given this office of chief midwife to St. Margaret (f) also Nascio Partunda Aegeria and many more Rosses view of all religions § 4. pag. 126 And the better to colour the business they tell us a story in theirs Legenda aurea which with many other of like credit were taken out of that lying Greeke Simeon Metaphrastes that this St. Margaret suffering Martyrdom under Dioclesian (g) Medes apostacy of the latter times p. 129. 130. as she was preparing to die prayed to God that whosoever should worship the Tabernacle of her Body and build an oratory in her name and therein offer spiritual sacrifice yea that who should read or remember her name might have remission of sin and deliverance from all evill with much more to the same purpose And presently there was a great Earthquake and the Lord Himself with a host of holy Angels standing by her said to her be of good cheere and feare not for I have heard thy prayers I have fulfilled and will in due time fulfill whatsoever thou hast asked even as thou hast asked it But if this Goddesse be not sufficient yet they have their Lady Mary for an universal mediatrix to whom they without the least shame of their wretched blasphemy attribute as much as to God the Father and Jesus Christ as may be seen by their many fragments of prayers to her in their missals rosaryes and our Ladyes Psalter And lest any should doubt of present help from the Virgin they tell many wicked unclean stories of her not fit to be transcribed and among the best this is one (a) Vincent hist lib. 7. c. 86. That a holy Abbesse notwithstanding her vow and pretence of chastity was as the manner is in their unneryes got with child and the Virgin Mary came and plaid the midwife for her and sent the bastard by two Angels to a certain hermite to be brought up (b) witness the Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbone in Portugal p. 1. Sure this bastard had good luck to escape the common cruelty of those Nuns who use for the most part to kill and then to convey into some secret place their base-borne infant But I hope the very naming of these foul absurdities will alienate any Christian heart from praying to St. Mary or St. Margaret in this or any other extremity but rather let them resolve with the woman of Canaan to come to Christ Of whom (a) Vshers Answ to the Irish Iesuit p. 416. Epiphan har 78. Chrysostome observes three or four times that she came to Christ without any mediator and had a happy answer And b another Ancient reckons the worship of the blessed Virgin or any other Saints a doctrine of devils Sure it is that the Son of God who hath one Will and one Essence with the Father and whom God heareth alway John 14.13 ch 16.16.13.24 hath graciously authorised us to aske in his name with exceeding great and
precious promises that it shall be given them that they shall find and that it shall be opened unto them And as sure I am that there is none in heaven be sids him nor any other name given under heaven 1 Tim. 2.5 for there is but one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus Heb. 7.25 who is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them He is the way the truth and the life The way whereby our prayers have accesse into the Fathers presence the truth whereby the Fathers Will is revealed to us and the life whereby we enjoy the glory and presence of God for ever Now who would desire to walke by star-light when the Sun shines at noon day or to be beholden to the borrowed righteousnesse of any Romish Saints when the Sun of righteousnesse himself is risen with healing in his wings If our Saint-worship were tolerable methinks it should have been in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets but our adversaries the Papists do confesse that this Doctrine and practice was then altogether unkown And if the Israel of God did never petition Abraham Isaac or Jacob Noah Daniel or Job to intercede for them much lesse doth this foolery become us to whom a Saviour is born and to whom a Son is given Isa 9 6 Heb. 10.14 who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified i. e. hath made perfect provision for his Saints that their prayers shall through him be received while they live and their souls received when they die Therefore let others if they will not be disswaded fetch a compasse about by the mediation of canonized Saints Eph. 4.21 Heb 4.14 Iohn 6.45.14.6 but let us who have received the truth as it is in Jesus hold fast our profession and goe by him onely to the Father In a word They that expect the least crumb of comfort by the mediation of Saints shall speed no better then Dives in beseeching Abraham for a drop of water to coole his tongue in hell Luk. 16.24 But leaving these wretches to their incurable folly let us proceed T is not sufficient for women or any other to pretend a good heart towards God but they must also offer him the calves of their lips Rom 8.26 I confess the chief requisite of a praying Christian is to lift up the heart to God in desires and groans that cannot be uttered to flie to him for help in distress and to make him our rock of defence As the Israelites when affliction was upon them they remembred that God was their rock and the most high God their redeemer Psal 78.35 (a) Perkins cases of Consc lib. 2. c. 5. Of this the Apostle speaks Pray continually that is mentally but I say this is not all we must glorifie God with our bodies and spirits which are his we must lift up our hands with our hearts to God in the heavens Lam 3.41 Isa 62.7 we must bow our knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and not keep silence but utter our requests with our tongues and open our mouths that our lips may utter his praise and that we may with verbal expressions quicken our selves in making our requests known to him with supplication and prayer We must offer our strong cries and smite on our breasts with the Publican and bemoane our selves with Ephraim and seek the Lord with weeping and with supplication As for the many qualifications required in the Person and Duty I shall summ them up in the words of a most learned Divine (b) Dr. Reynolds on Hos 14. â— p. 13. Job 11.13 Luke 15.17 18. God is so holy and jealous of his worship that he expects there should be preparation in our accesses to him Preparation of our persons by purity of life preparation of our services by choice of matter preparation of our hearts by finding them out 2 Sam. 7.27 Isa 64.7 Ps 57.7 8. 2 Chr. 30.19 1 Joh. 5.14 2 Sam. 7.25 Rom. 8.36 Aug. ep 105. ep 121. c. 15. Hos 12.4 Am. 7.1.7 Mat. 15.24.27 Mr. Parre his Abba Father D. Wilkins his Gift of prayer Mr. Cobbet his practical disc of prayer stirring them up fixing them fetching them in and calling together all that is within us to prevail with God And a little after he addes We must attend to Gods will as the rule of our prayers to his precepts promises for the matter of our prayers to the guidance of his holy Spirit as the life and principle of our prayers without which we know not what to ask Prayers thus regulated are most seasonable and soveraign duties in times of trouble The key which openeth a door of mercy the sluce which keepeth out an innundation of judgements Jacob wrestled and obtained a blessing Amos prayed and removed a curse The woman of Canaan will not be denied with a denial As for other circumstances conditions modes and concomitants of Prayer as Faith Humility Sincerity Importunity Patience c. I shall refer the Reader to those many English Authors which have purposely and profitably handled this subject and so crave leave to go on to what follows CHAP. III. Repentance the duty of women with child REpentance is never out of season except with Esau and Judas we go about it too late 'T is the common duty of all whether married or unmarried whether with child or not to renew the daily practice of Repentance but as the Scriptures abundantly testifie it is most especially requisite when afflictions are felt or feared and dangers approach so that it must needs be seasonable for women in this condition to renew their repentance without delay For whereas it is unsafe to trust to our former repentance lest it be found defective and unsound therefore the surest course is to repent again and again Who among the daughters of Eve can remember the sin of her who was first in the transgression without shame and sorrow And yet while you blame her folly in eating the forbidden fruit the guilt thereof without repentance will redound upon your selves Her sin was turning from the Creator to the Creature Repentance is a returning from sin self the world and the tempter to God And while you carry a burthen in your wombs then if ever you had need to be eased of the heavier burthen of sin which cannot be done without repentance You must repent of the miscarriages of your lives if you would be provided against the danger of a miscarrying womb You must willingly endure the pangs of repentance if you would safely bear the pangs of your travel You must use your self to godly sorrow in the time of your strength if you expect any comfort from God in the hour of your pain You must humble your self before God if you desire that God should then raise you up You must
â—â—perbissiâ—oruÌ„ origo Plin. nat â—ist l. 7. c. 7. The child in my womb is made of the like substance as I was And though I now have growth strength beauty or comelinesse yet I was once imperfect enough when I was newly begotten of man and conceived in the womans womb Alas how vile are those materials of which my body was made Scripture draws a veyl of modest and metaphorical expressions over this unsightly act of generation And when I consider oh my soul the poor original of my body Alas what preheminence have I herein above a beast what cause to abhorre all thoughts of pride and to walk humbly all my dayes If the Peacock let fall his plumes when he beholds his black feet have not I cause to be cast down with a less esteem of my self Phil. 3.21 when I consider my vile body In nothing more vile then in its first coagulation of ignoble matter MEDITATION 5. Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh Job 10.11 thou hast fenced me with bones and sinews Though in regard of the matter and manner of my generation my body is no better then a bag of flegm a lump of blood a moistened clod of earth yet when I raise my mind to the work of my Creator who fashioned me round about covered me in my mothers womb and formed me in the lowest parts of the earth I have then no cause to say to my Father what hast thou begotten or to my Creator why hast thou made me thus If I may in every creature see some prints and footsteps of the wisdome power and goodnesse of God in their formation production and conservation of their kind in a continual succession for the use of man how much more cause have I to search out this work of God in which there is as much of excellency curiosity and exactnesse of skill as in all the creation besides Much is said by Philosophers Physicians Anatomists c. concerning this great secret of Nature the Child in the Womb. They speak with much probability and rational conjecture of the manner and matter of generation conceptions of the very day when the womb by its natural heat begins to operate towards it when it receives its first change into a fleshy substance what day the brain heart and liver begin to be distinguished and when it receives a humane shape in other parts though the whole be no bigger then a small flie Also how it is nourished and in what place and posture it lies if male and in what if female What day it receives by the gift of God a living soul and when it begins to stir and calcitrate in the womb c. But the further I dive and search into this matter the more I am at a loss still new questions do arise which I cannot resolve Ps 139.6 Even this knowledge is too wonderfull for me Solomon hath put a question which I think himself could hardly answer Knowest thou how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child Eccls 11.5 Therefore oh my soul let mesing that song of David and if possible with Davids heart I will praise thee Psal 139.14 15 16 17. for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God how great is the summe of them But I must not I cannot here leave off this delightful Meditation but must again praise the Lord for that he hath not executed the curse of Adam to the uttermost upon us Though sin hath robbed us of many most desirable perfections yet there is that left with which and for which we may glorifie God If we survey the frame and building of this earthly tabernacle we shall find that rare fitness of every part and that symmetry of the whole that we cannot but say its builder and maker is God What shall I say of the several members and particles of our bodies of the scituation of the more noble parts and subordination of the rest of the influences of the higher parts on those that are less noble of the many channels of conveyance whereby the inner parts transmit bloud strength and spirits to the exteriour and most remote What of the beauty strength tenderness majesty and singular faculties of some parts of the contiguities and artificial connexion of all parts what of the sagacity of the five senses the mixture of the four elements the correspondence our bodies have with all creatures the resemblance of the three regions yea of the three heavens c. For which causes Man is called a little world the measure of all things the pattern of the Vniverse the miracle of miracles c. Yea mans body is yet in regard of its majesty strength beauty and noble faculties of its several parts in some measure after the image of God (a) 2 Chr. 16.9 Dan. 9.18 Psal 34.16 Job 40 9. Psal 74.3 Isa 49.16 c. And God himself is pleased to represent his perfections and operations by several parts of the body of man If therefore the serious prying into any one part take up the time and study of the learned insomuch that Galen was turned from Atheism in studying the secrets of mans body and presently praised and acknowledged our Creatour then oh my soul let that which made him a Christian make me a more thankful Christian that I may more zealously glorifie God with my body and may hereafter have all its primitive perfections restored at the Resurrection when God shall raise it in honour and incorruption and make it like the glorious body of Jesus Christ MEDITATION 6. Anatomists themselves are utterly to seek what reason to give for the opening and shutting of the womb But though I know not the natural causes hereof yet I find by the effects that the child is quick within me And oh that I could say with like certainty that though I know not the way of the Spirit or how grace comes in and sin goes out how Christ enters and Satan is dispossessed yet I feel by the effects that whereas lust did once conceive and bring forth sin yet now grace conceives holy motions and brings forth religious actions that whereas my heart was a cage of unclean spirits and barren of goodness yet now Christ is formed within me now I feel by happy effects that grace is quick within me and quickens me to every good work Psal 103.1 Wherefore blesse the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy name Luk. 1.43.49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great
things and holy is his name And whence is this to me that the grace of Christ should come to me MEDITATION 7. Rebecca conceived Gen. 25.22 23. and the children strugled within her and she said If it be so why am I thus that is if I am heard of God in my request and am with child by his blessing whence is this strugling this painful conflict and strange unquietness of the fruit of my womb And she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb c. So when I look into my self and observe the commotions that are in the womb of my heart I conclude Surely there are two nations within me the flesh with all its motions lucting against the spirit and its grace Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit with its gracious influences alway striving against the sinfulness of my carnal part Now blessed be God that seeing sin will yet keep possession that it hath no quiet abode within me but meets with reluctancy and opposition from my spirituall part But oh wretched creature that I am how often is evil present and prevalent with me how many are those pangs of sorrow those sighs and grones that my mischievous and restless corruptions cause within me But if it be so that the power of the most High hath overshadowed me and true grace be implanted in my soule then I shall seek to the Lord that he would cause the better part in me to be the more prevailing part that he would water and give encrease to these tender beginnings and give me at last a safe and happy deliverance from this body of death MEDITATION 8. If men strive and hurt a woman with child Exod. 21.22 23. so that her fruit depart from her and yet 〈◊〉 mischief follow he shall be surely punished c. Women with child are liable to many dangers A fall a bruise an accidentall stroke a fright a strain the taking somewhat that proves expulsive or the disappointment of somewhat they longed for these and such other contingencies are noxious to them and often-times cause abortion or the mischance of her fruit departing from her Such was the case of the Church when it was with child with many Converts Rev. 12.2 3. the great red Dragon watched the destruction of her and of her fruit And thus is with every repenting soul What security soever there be among those careless women that are at ease Isa 32.9 10 11. how little inward care or sorrow they feel while they forget God how unacquainted soever with the hurt and smart of sin or Satans striving with them before they are acquainted with God yet no sooner do they espouse themselves to Christ and conceive purposes of holy living and begin to be fruitful in any grace but they shall have many adversaries in the world and especially the god of this world striving against them to afright them to tempt them to receive such principles company suggestions as may quench their graces or to deprive them of that Spiritual food they long for or to intice them to straine their consciences or some way or other to cause them to fall that they may be wounded bruised c. and the fruit of grace depart from them But oh my soul hath God such care of the unborn infant as to provide a speciall law in its behalfe and will he not much more take care of that grace which he hath begotten in my Soul Oh my God keep me that the Evill One touch me not MEDITATION 9. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children As the first general curse Gen. 3.16 In dying thou shalt dy brought not onely the pains of death but intended also all the miseries of our life so this particular curse upon women brings not only pain in travel but comprehends all the infirmities of Child-bearing I find that the child in my womb brings many weaknesses and aches upon me but oh how sad and deplorable are those deeper sicknesses and maladies which I have brought upon it It s body partaking of my substance partakes unavoidably of my natural pollution It s Soul though it come immediately from the Father of Spirits yet I know not how is upon its infusion into this tender infant subjected to the common misery of the Children of Adam who having lost the image and likenesse of God sinne and corruption must needs follow I am an unclearne vessel Psal 58.3 sa 48.8 and how can any clean thing come out of me Oh my soul what need have I to be sanctified throughout both in Body and Soul and Spirit And Oh my God repair by thy grace what sin hath made so defective in me and mine MEDITATION 10 Our blessed Saviour and Great Prophet Jesus Christ foretelling the miseries that should shortly come on Judea Jerusalem sayes Wo unto them that are with Child Mat. 24.19 Lu. 23.29 and to them that give suck in those days And in another Evangelist Behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never have and the paps that never gave suck And indeed of all persons none more miserable in the time of War than women with child or women that give suck because their care is double and their persons uncapable of flying and shifting for their lives as those who are single may and do And of all murthers none more horrible in all its circumstances 2 Kin. 8.12 Lam. 5.11 then to rip up women with child Wherefore oh my soul let me be thankfull to my God that there is peace in our borders and any quietness and safety in my habitation and that I am free from those terrours and affrights with which many others in a time of common calamity are undone Oh how many Women with their unborn infants have been butchered in many places in ages past and martyred by blood-thirsty Papists in these later ages of which histories are too plentiful And if there be now any in my condition in any place especially among Christians that is exposed daily to the rage of a devouring Sword the Lord be pleased either to restrain the Enemy and the Avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 6.10 or to avenge the cause of the murthered that according to thy own Law they may not go unpunished but may give life for life Yea Lord hear the crie of the oppressed and give their adversaries blood to drink for they are worthy MEDITATION 11. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed whithin you Where any place is blest with a painfull Minister and Pastour after Gods own heart Gal. 4.19 they have in them much of the Apostle's temper For when I consider their painfull studies their sighes and teares their spending their spirits in ardent Prayers and laborious Preaching their compassionate exhortations passionate supplications and their giving themselves wholly to these things 1
our polluted flesh may be changed into one without spot This Tabernacle which our sins have defiled like the Lepers house must be pulled down 1 Cor. 5.1 that at the day of the restitution of all things it may be made a more glorious body Untill which day it rests in the Grave as in a bed of sleep and finds darkness in a dormitory not inconvenient And though the soul depart from all the delights and society of men and no eye can see whither it flies and into what habitations it enters though the state of departed souls be a mysterie which reason may talk of but never fully discover yet by Faith we look at the things that are not seen even the things that are eternal We know saith the Apostle that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Whither I go ye know Joh. 14.4 saith Christ and the way ye know We know that there is a perfecting of the spirits of just men that there is an Abrahams Bosome a Paradice a Right hand of God and many mansions in our Fathers house where they who have believed do enter into rest R. Bolton General Direction c. p. 54. 'T is therefore our idleness of spirit our slowness of heart to consider that makes the state of the dead unknown and undesirable and the joyes of the world to come to be in a manner fabulous and incredible But surely it would much adde to your peace and joy in believing Rom. 5.13 if you would oftener lift up the eyes of your minde to the Heaven of Heavens and by Faith enter into the Holy of Holies and by the Scituation Mansions Treasures and Delights of the heavenly Jerusalem and you shall soon see that the present state of Glory which you enter into at death not to speak of that far greater measure at the Resurrection is such as may abundantly cure all sad apprehensions concerning your departure What shall I say of your immunities from all temporall evils from that vanity and vexation of spirit which doth perpetually elude and discruciate the mind Present evils are innumerable and future evils are unavoidable Sufficient to every day is the evil thereof and yet we know not but the morrow may bring forth greater What a comfort is it to be in a perpetual Ark of safety wherein we may swim above all waters To be taken up out of this miry pit and to be taken away from the evil to come to be out of the reach of hellish tongues and bloudy hands for the dead know nothing at all that is their senseless bodies and glorified souls know no misery from all the world can do against them though the Papists accurse and burn their bones for Hereticks yet they are not touched with the feeling of any infirmity the dead neither know nor care any thing at all what men do for them or against them here upon earth Also what a blessedness is it to be delivered from the temptation of ill company 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alludit ad pomaputrida male olentia quae faetore nos turbant c. Zanch. in Eph. 4.29 and the contagion of the a rotten breath of wicked men and the vexation that is caused to every righteous Lot in seeing and hearing them Wo is me saith David that I sojourn in Mesech Also to be free of Satans importunate suggestions to escape him who is in these last dayes come down with great wrath because his time is but short Verily if one knew what opposition the host of evil angels that fill the regions of the aire do make against the free ascent of a gracious soul to Heaven it must needs be that the joy they conceive of their safe arrival by the conduct of good Angels must be very great this last instance of Satans mad and malicious endeavours being fresh in their memories But content must it needs adde to see the Daughter to destroy the Mother of Mischief I mean that whereas Sin is the first Parent of Death Death onely puts an end to all our sins Sampson slew many Philistines in his life but at his death he slew the Lords themselves So we may mortifie some sins in our life but at death we triumph over our Master sinns yea all our sins Yea let me yet adde that it is no small part of our gain by Death to be freed from all laborious Graces and Duties such as Fear Hope Repentance Watchfulness Self-denial c. Confession Humiliation Praying Hearing Receiving Sacraments c. For all these argue Imperfections Wants and Corruptions abounding in us In short after death they come to judgement have their absolution from God himself and shall see all debts crossed out of his book of remembrance are admitted to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob have fellowship with the innumerable company of Angels understand the mysteries they now believe â— Pet. 1.8 whom having before not seen yet they loved but now rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory But all this contains but that present state of Glory which they immediately possess after death But at the Resurrection when body and soul are reunited the sentence of Absolution more publickly pronounced the wicked condemned time finished and their whole persons admitted to fulness of glory and happiness then I say there is a great addition made to their felicity then their souls shall no longer cry How long Lord holy and true as they did before while their bodies were under corruption the Church under persecution but shall be fully satisfied with the perpetuity of that blessedness and perfection God hath crowned them with But I list not here to enter into so large a field as the state of Glory after the Resurrection Many others have written largely of it and what I have before spoken of the state of departed Souls presently after their going hence does I think more properly belong to such considerations as may help to prepare you for death that you may not be in bondage with the fear thereof but having rightly understood it as now represented may say with more assured confidence then wicked Agag Surely the bitterness of death is past CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thank fulnesse after their deliverance is also the duty of Women with child HEre you must rightly understand what I do not mean in this direction as well as what I do mean Know therefore that I do not desire to draw you into rash vowes no nor indeed to any vows at all I observe it too comon among afflicted persons perhaps 't is so also among women with child to make many vowes that if ever God deliver them they wâ—â—l leave such a sin abound in such a duty decline such and such temptations read so much and so often c. But I have also observed that such vowes seldome end
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
sinful creature and yet a living creature punished not destroyed punished for your iniquities which deserve far worse why should you complain seeing 't is the Lords mercy you are not consumed Suppose a Ship after a long voyage being come into harbour springs a leak the Master is somewhat troubled at it and is never quiet till it be stopped so that it is an evil to him yet he comforts himself in this that it did not happen to him when he was out at Sea that had been a great deal worse and might have proved the ruine of them all So there is this comfort in all our forrows that they happen to us in this life we feel they are upon us but blessed be God they are upon us here in this world so that by a sanctified use to be made of them they shall not be upon us in the world to come Consider also whose hand it is that inflicts these sorrowes upon you Your pangs and throws as they were procured by sin so they are disposed by the Lord. This made Job so patient The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away This made Eli submissive when Samuel told him of the ruine of his family It is the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good Yea this made David so silent I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou Lord didst it So do you reason with your selves shall not I drink of the cup of trembling seeing 't is in the hand of the Lord my God who wil give me onely so much as shall profit me and not destroy me Shall I not stand under that cross that he hath laid on my shoulders and stoop to that yoke that he imposes on my neck Bears and Lions take blows from their keepers and shall not I bear any thing from my keeper and preserver Children take bitter physick from the Mother and hard blows from a Father and shall not I be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live I cannot I must not contend with my Maker I will therefore humbly bend to him lest he break me and I will not make my cross heavier by impatience then he hath made it by his providence Look also to the examples of patience which are such as will abundantly shame us if we murmure and repine at the hand of the Lord upon us God himself is pressed with our sins as a cart is pressed that 's full of sheaves yet is still patient and long-suffering to us-ward not willing that we should die and perish in our sins but turn and live The Lord Jesus endured innumerable injuries unspeakable agonies and intollerable grievances at his death yet as a sheep before the shearer so opened he not his mouth he did neither strive nor cry neither was his voice heard in the streets And alas what are yon pains in comparison of his The holy Spirit our sanctifier and comforter is exceedingly vexed and grieved at our yielding to many sins and corruptions yet forsakes us not utterly but waits all the day long knocking at the doores of our hearts and patiently expecting our reformation The holy Church of God hath been from the first planting thereof continually tossed to and fro with what tempests Satan could raise against them They have been continually assaulted with the wild beasts of the wilderness Heb. 11.36 37 38. stung with fiery serpents exposed to wants hardships dangers c. They have had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy c. Ecclesiastical Histories and Martyrologies are pregnant with most famous instances of the patience of the Saints under such torments as ordinary men have not the hardiness to inflict much less the patience to endure But 't is a tried rule then which none more certain that God never calls his people to any suffering but he will be with them to enable them to bear it But least you should think that the examples are all of the stronger sex I shall mention only a few whereas I could many more of the singular examples of womens patience in such paines as do I think equall the paines in travel Blandina a christian woman being brought before the Heathen Judges Euseb Ecl. Hist lib. 5 â—ap 1. for the Faith of Christ when as all her friends quaked for fear least at the time of her answer by reason of the frailty of the Flesh she should not be constant she was so replenished with grace from above that the Excutioners which tormented her by turns from morning to night fainted for wearinesse and ceased confessing themselves overcome and that they were no longer able to plague her with any more punishments wondring that she yet drew breath having her whole body rent in pieces and the wounds open they confessing withal that one of these torments was sufficient to cost her her life much more so many so great But this blessed Woman like a noble wrestler was renewed at her confession for as often as she said I AM A CHRISTIAN she was refreshed and felt no pain of her punishment Potamena Euseb l. â— c. 7. a chaste and most beautiful Virgin having suffered infinitely for the Faith of Christ last of all after great and grievous torments terrible to be spoken of together with her Mother Marcella was burned with fire Her body was first cruelly tormented with scourges and afterwards boyling pitch powred upon her from the crown of her head to the sole of her feet Quinta for refusing their Idols Cap 40. had her feet bound together and by them trailed and lugged along the streets which were paved with sharpe stones and being beaten against Mill-stones and sorely scourged she was brought to the Place of Execution and there put to death Mercuria an honest Matron Ibidem and Dionisia a very fruitfull women for child-bearing which Children notwithstanding she preferred not before the Lord when they had comfounded the Judge which used all kind of persuasions after they were so tormented that they were past all sence and feeling they were beheaded with the sword But Ammonarion a holy Virgin passed them all notably enduring all kind of torment saith the Author Theodosia a modest christian Maid of Tyrus not fully eighteen years old Euseb lib. 8. cap. 25. came to some christian prisoners who were at their tryal to comfort them and was forthwith haled by the catchpoles before their judge who presently scourged her bare sides with bitter and grievous lashes renting with the whip her white breasts and tender dugs to the bare bones At length this holy Virgin scarce breathing yet patient enough for all these punishments was throne in the Sea and their drowned Ennathus a christian Virgin was cruelly scourged and tormented Idem ib. cap. 27. and patiently