backed by such Authority I became uncapable of fearing any Sensures or despairing of good Success CHAP. I. Wherein the Case is briefly stated and all those Texts of Scripture alledged which relate to it Together with the Arguments and Inferences which result from them § 1. IT will not be necessary to spend much time in any elaborate stating of the Case which I have undertaken For it is agreed on all hands that where there is a natural Inability or any bodily Infirmities in the Mother real and not meerly pretended that might have a pernicious Influence on her Nursery God who by his Providence hath caused those Impediments doth in such cases dispense with this Duty § 2. So that this is the Case Whether all Mothers be their Quality what it will who are neither disenabled by any natural Defect nor contracted Infirmity are bound in Duty to give Suck themselves to their own Children This I affirm and shall endeavour to evince both from the Holy Scriptures recommending it as a Duty the mischievous Consequences of neglecting it and the Insufficiency of all the usual Plea's which are made for such neglect Which three general Heads shall limit my ensuing Discourse § 3. I begin with the Holy Scriptures And because I intend all possible plainness without the Affectation of any artificial Method I shall offer some Passages to Consideration in the same order as they lye in our Bibles and make some obvious Remarks upon them and such Inferences as they will fairly bear as I proceed § 4. And to begin with the Old Testament the first passage we meet with to this purpose is in Gen. 21.7 where Sarah saith Gen. 21.7 Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given Children Suck For I have borne him a Son in his Old Age. We have Sarah a Nurse as well as a Mother though she were the Wise not of a mean Peasant but of a mighty Prince a Prince so Potent that the neighbouring Kings courted his Alliance A Prince abounding in Wealth and Power the Master of a numerous Family out of which he could number 318 Men fit to bear Arms and all born in his House Now the Wise of such an one could not want Conveniencies among so many Child-bearing Women that were in her Family for the Nursing of her Son by another she might have pleaded either State or Business to have excused her self from the Employment especially being grown into years which made her less able to undergo the Fatigue of such an Office and having Beauty beyond what was ordinary at her Years the decay of which by the Toil and Watchings incident to a Nurse she might have fairly pleaded But waving all these Plea's she includes it her Duty to Nurse the Fruit of her own Womb. For her words imply so much Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah should have given Suck For I have borne him a Son q. d. It is I doubt nor the Mothers Office who bears the Child to give it Suck since then I have borne Abraham a Son I must give it Suck and Nurse it for him Had it been usual in those times for vertuous Mothers to decline this Office she would not have inferred her Nursing a Son for Abraham from her bearing of one whereas the one implying the other intimates a necessary Consequence of the one from the other And I do with the greater Confidence urge this Argument because it is St. Ambrose's Note on this Verse De Abrah l. 1. c. 7. The Moral use of this is that Women are provoked to remember their Dignity and to give Suck to their Children This is the proper Grace the Honour of a Mother whereby she may recommend her self to her own Husband However this is certain that this Pious Mother whom the Apostle proposes as a Pattern to her Sex and exhorts all Wives to imitate that will do well 1 Pet. 3.6 and discharge Faithfully the Duties of their Relations she not only Nurses her Son her self but plainly intimates that she thought it her Duty to do so though she might have pleaded as many Excuses as most of them can who decline this Office They then that neglect the Duty and have no better Pretences for such their neglect than those which she waved as insufficient are faulty at least on this account that they refuse to imitate Sarah whom the Apostle tells Wives they must follow if they will do well § 5. The next Text is in Gen. Gen 49.25 49.25 where the Patriarch Jacob having foretold the numerous increase of the Tribe of Joseph that like a Fruitful Vine Gen. 49.22 whose Branches spread over the wall it should multiply into two Tribes he assures him that the God who had preserved and prospered him notwithstanding his many Afflictions from his Brethren at first and the Egyptians afterward V. 25. should Bless his Posterity with Blessings of Heaven above Blessings of the Deep that lieth beneath Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb i.e. He would provide for him an Inheritance fertile and well watered with Fountains and Rivers and a numerous Posterity to enjoy it Where it is to be observed that the Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb are conjoyned and a Promise made to this Tribe that in order to its Increase the Wives should be Fruitful to bear and Careful to Nurse their own that God would bless it with such Women as both would bear a numerous Off-spring and nourish their own Off-pring with their own Breads Whence the Inference is obvious that as a Fruitful Wife is a Blessing so when she Nurses her Children she is a double Blessing to a Family And as it is the Duty of every one to be as great a Blessing as she can be to her Family so such Women must need be faulty who after God hath given the Blessings of the Womb refuse to compleat the Felicity by the Blessings of the Breast The ten thousands of Ephraim Deut. 33.17 and the thousands of Manasseh are the effects of these Blessings of the Breast and of the Womb and intimates to us that it is a likely way to obtain a numerous Posterity such as Joseph's was for Fruitful Mothers to become themselves Careful Nurses § 6. In Exod. 2.7 8. when Pharaoh's Daughter sends to seek out for a Nurse for Moses Exod. 2.7 8. whom she found exposed her Maid called the Childs Mother and to her she committed the little Nursery Now this may be considered either as the Act of the Royal Princess the Contrivance of the Mother or a Dispensation of Divine Providence If we suppose that Pharaoh's Daughter sent on purpose to enquire out the Mother of the exposed Infant we may conclude she thought her the fittest to Nurse it If it be rather thought that the Mother laid her Daughter to watch and be ready if any such occasion should happen to call her rather than another we have a commendable Instance
of her Pious and Tender Concern for her Son and carnest desire to Nurse it her self rather than any other should ease her of that Burden and do that work for her But if besides either the Princess or the Mothers Intention God by his wise Providence determined the Messenger to apply her self to the Mother rather than any other Woman we have the plain Determination of God himself that the Mother is fittest to Nurse her own Child and that it was best for this Infant whom he intended for extraordinary Service to have the advantage of the most suitable Nurse And it is further observable that tho God would have Moses trained up in Learning by the Egyptian Doctors that he might be better qualified for the great Charge he was hereafter to undertake yet he would not have him Suck Milk from an Egyptian Nurse which might have some bad Influence upon his Constitution and his Manners § 7. Numb 11.12 Moses thus expostulates with God Have I conceived all this People Have I begot them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as properly spoken of the Mother as of the Father And Conception being peculiar to the Mother it seems more reasonable to render it in Analogy thereto Have I brought them forth or brought them forth That thou shouldest say unto me Carry them in thy Bosom as a Nursing Father or * There is no word in the Original for Father only the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Masculine which yet the 72 render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for most part is Feminine and signifies a Nurse And considering that Frequently in Hebrew one Gender is put for another It may well be rendred a Nurse here as more suitable to Conception and bring forth in the clause foregoing as a Nurse beareth the Sucking Child to the Land which thou swarest unto their Fathers Where Mosess Argument stands upon this Foundation that whosoever hath conceived and brought forth ought to become Nurse to the Sucking Child and carry it in her Bosom Unless this be granted his Argument is invalid and nothing to the purpose the whole force of which seems to depend on that Supposition Judge then whether is more reasonable to charge Moses with an Absurdity or those Women with an Immorality who neglect the Duty which he takes for granted He thought himself not obliged like a Nurse to bear that froward People in his Bosom because he had not conceived them nor brought them forth Thereby evidently implying that the Mother who hath conceived and brought forth the Infant ought however froward it may be to become its Nurse and Suckle it in her Bosom § 8. If we turn over to 1 Sam. 1.22 23. we find 1 Sam. 1.22 23. that after Hannah by her Prayers had obtained a Son she resolves to lay aside all other business that she might attend this important one the Nursing of her Samuel She was a Woman of great Piety who constantly went with her Hushand to the Sanctuary at the Feasts Yet knowing how much God prefers Mercy before Sacrifice she resolves to do so too staying at home to Nurse her Son as what she apprehended more acceptable to God than to appear at his Tabernacle with an Offering and leave her Child at home to some Mercenary's Care Whence we may conclude that even the Pretences of Piety which of all others are the most plausible are not sufficient to excuse Mothers from this piece of Charity and that if their Nursery should detain them for that time from a constant Attendance on God's publick Worship he will in such a case dispence with their absence and accept their Charity toward their Infants instead of Devotion to himself Persons of Quality indeed may have such assistance that there can be no necessity of their confinement from Gods House especially since none of them but are much nearer to a Church than Ramah was to Shiloh Bunting's Travel of Patriarchs which is computed to be twelve Miles so that ordinarily they cannot have that Plea to make Yet if any be in such Circumstances that either the publick Worship of God or the Nursing her Child must be neglected she hath here a president to determine the case in favour of Charity against the specious Objections of Devotion And it is further observable that Hannah's Nursing of her first Son was so far from hindring Fertility that it rather procured a Divine Benediction which multiplied her Posterity to three Sons and two Daughters 1 Sam. 2.21 sufficient to rescue her from her Rivals Taunts and rank her in the Catalogue of fruitful Mothers So vain is that popular Pretence that Nursing is an Impediment to Fruitfulness and to be declin'd by great Persons for the better securing of Succession by a numerous Posterity for if those bear faster who dry up their Breasts they that Nurse their Children commonly bear longer and bring more up to an Healthful Maturity which comes to pass partly through their greater Care and partly through Gods Blessing on their exemplary Piety § 9. There is a Story in 1 Kings 3.21 of two Women of an infamous Character 1. Kings 3.21 being stiled Harlots nor will I take the advantage some Interpreters give me to soften that Denomination into Victuallers but will suppose them to have been bad Women yet observing something remarkably good in one of them it is the more to be took notice of Now it is evident that the one of these Harlots was a tender Mother though she had been an unchast Woman and loved her Child very well however she came by it and it is recorded of her that she her self gave it Suck Which is an Argument that though she had not Vertue sufficient to secure her Chastity yet she was not so overgrown with Vice as to have obliterated Natural Affection The better of these two Harlots hath the Character of a Fond Mother and her pleading before King Solomon that she rose to give her Child Suck is an Intimation that this was a Duty of good Esteem in those days and that it would make something for her that she had done so And how can those Mothers pretend Affection to their Children who attain not to the Tenderness of this good-natur'd Harlot sect 10. In the Book of Job Job 39.16 c. 39.16 there is an elegant Description of the Ostriches stupid neglect of her young ones wherein this is especially took notice of That she hardened her self against her young ones as though they were not hers Whereby the Spirit of God intimates it to be an Aggravation of Hard-heartedness to deal hardly with those that are young especially where natural Relation obliges to a tender Regard And that the nearer any come to resemble the Ostriches Obduracy in neglecting to take care of their Off spring the more unnatural and cruel they may be justly deemed And if it be a piece of Hardship to turn off a tender Infant to a Mercenary Nurse as I
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
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
doubt not but in the sequel of this Discourse will be manifest those Mothers must be accounted more Vnnatural than the Ostrich because they have not so much Stupidity § 11. In Psal 29.9 the Psalmist says Psal 22.9 Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my Mothers Breasts Now hope is an act of Reason not to be exerted by an Infant not yet arrived to the Exercise of Reason yet here in a Poetical stile attributed to such an one to intimate that the Care God takes of Infants and the early Provision he hath made for them by filling their Mothers Breasts as soon as they have left her Womb is an Argument that Mankind is under the Care of God's Providence and of sufficient force to engage even Infants to hope in God if they were capable And hence it is evident that it is the Intention of the God of Nature in furnishing the Mother with full Breasts to oblige her to minister thereby to his Providence for the Preservation of her Child Moreover the Psalmist's using such a Phrase as this doth not only imply that he was nursed by his own Mother but also that it was usual in those days for Mothers themselves to perform that Office The Practise of our Age would scarce allow us to express the time of Infancy by hanging on the Mothers Breasts wherein so few enjoy that Priviledge And if we grant that such Idioms of Language are founded on the prevailing Customs of Nations we may conclude from this Phrase and that of Solomon's who expresses a Brother Periphrastically by one that sucked the Breasts of his Mother that it was in those days very common Cant. 8.1 and accounted most reasonable that the Mother should Nurse at her Breasts all the Children she had born in her Womb. § 12. The Prophet Jeremiah exaggerates the Extremity of Famine in Jerusalem by this Circumstance that it had made Mothers Cruel to their Infants and uncapable of giving them Suck Lam. 4.23 Even the Sea-monsters draw out the Breasts Lam. 4.23 they give Suck to their young ones but the Daughters of my People is become Cruel like the Ostriches in the Wilderness It 's true it seems to be not so much from the Hardness of their Hearts as of the Times that the Daughters of Jerusalem do not that for their Off-spring which the very Sea-monsters do for theirs and which no Creature on the Land is so much a Brute as to neglect except the Ostrich whose stupidity is such that she leaves her Eggs in the Sand and takes no further care of them no nor of her young ones neither after the heat of the Sun and of the Sand hath hatched them And nothing certainly but the Extremity of Famine could make the Daughters of Jerusalem so Cruel that no Monster at Sea no Brute on Land can parallel them except the Ostrich How then can they excuse themselves who neglect their Children as much out of Luxury and in the midst of Plenty as those Israelites did through Famine The Prophet thought this an Instance fit to exaggerate the great Misery of a Famine that it constrained Mothers to that which Nature most abhors We may then reasonably conclude That he would have passed a very severe Censure on those Mothers that become Cruel in the midst of Plenty and for that very reason too because they abound with Plenty They are more unnatural than Sea-Monsters that draw out their Breasts to their young ones whilst these turn theirs off to some mean and Mercenary Neighbour § 13. I shall conclude my Observations out of the Old Testament Hos 9.14 with that passage of the Prophet Hos 9.14 Give them O Lord What wilt thou give them Give them a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts For whether he pray for this as a Blessing for Israel that they may not be more miserable in the common Slaughter of their Country for their Fertility as our Lord Christ pronounces such comparatively Happy in the Destruction of Jerusalem that were barren and had never born Luke 23.29 and whose Paps had never given Suck Or whether he denounce it as a Curse that their Women should be Barren and punished with a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts which way soever we understand it it affords us this Conclusion that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures makes dry Breasts as well as a miscarrying Womb the Periphrasis of Barrenness thereby declaring it equally unnatural for a Mother by artificial Applications to dry her Breasts as to force Abortion and that where God gives a fruitful Womb he expects ordinarily that the Breasts should give Suck God gives dry Breasts as a Curse to some as an Affliction to others but they that invite that whether Curse or Affliction to themselves by voluntary Applications love not Blessing therefore it shall be far from them Thus have I lead you through the Old Testament and shewed you the laudable Examples it gives Mothers for Nursing their Children and the plain Intimations at least of the Divine Pleasure that they should do likewise § 14. I proceed to set before you such passages of the New Testament as are of the same Importance and furnish us with some Proofs of the case proposed In the Gospel we read of a Woman who in a Rapture of Admiration at Christ's Discourses cries out Luke 11.27 Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast Sucked Which shews that she took it for granted that the Mother of our Lord gave him Suck And upon this evidence and because we find that Joseph in his Flight with his Holy Infant into Egypt took none other with him but the Blessed Virgin it hath been unanimously agreed that she was the Nurse as well as the Mother of Christ And since this Virgin not only for the Nobility of her Extraction tho now sunk into a meaner Fortune but especially for the Purity of her Manners hath justly been reputed the Glory of her Sex none can have an Example more worthy of her Imitation God chose not saith one of the Ancients any ordinary Woman to be the Mother of Christ Apud Just Mart quaest resp ad Orthod q. 136. p. 375 but one that excelled all other Women in Vertue whom he therefore pronounces Blessed for her Vertues for which he vouchsafed her to be his Mother And such eminent Vertues in this Royal Virgin recommend her as a fit Example for the best and the greatest of her Sex to imitate § 15. In the next place it may be observed That the Christian Religion hath adopted into Law and Duty all those things which generally approve themselves to the unprejudiced Reason of Mankind Phil. 4.8 to be things Honest Lovely and of good Report Things honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grave 1 Tim. 3.11 or becoming Chast and Vertuous Matrons Things Lovely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are generally Grateful to all wise and vertuous Persons and apt to procure