take out the sting of sin by repentance and then afflictions cannot hurt you In you health remember your sin and God will in judgement remember mercy And I therefore subjoyn this duty of repentance next after prayer because Ps 66.18 Hab. 1.13 if we regard iniquity in our hearts he heareth us not but is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity So that if we pray without repenting hearts we do but mock God and deceive our selves We cannot draw nigh to him in truth nor will he draw nigh to us in mercy unless we withdraw our selves from iniquity and be at the greatest elongation from sinne that can be But this repentance must be universal for all sin (a) Spencers things new and old p. 298 1117. For one leak will sink a ship one wound strikes Geliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar one Dalilah will do Sampson as much mischief as all the Philistines one wheel broken disorders a whole clock one vein's bleeding if not stanched will let out the life one flie will spoil a whole box of ointment by eating one apple Adam lost Paradise one Achan was a trouble to all Israel one Jonah if faulty is a lading too heavy for one ship So one sin causes too much injury to God and brings too much guilt and burthen upon the conscience b (b) Vliss-Aldrov Ornithol l. 14. If seven thieves enter the house (a) Tho Stapletoni prompt morale six of them being overcome and the seventh lie lurking in some corner the Master of that house is still in danger If the bird or the mouse be held in the snare though but by one leg their whole body is in danger Thus all sin and the least sin must be repented of Pharaoh would let the people go after he had endured many plagues Exo. 1026. so as they would leave their sheep and their cattel behind them So Sathan would keep something of sin in us which may be as a pledge of our returning to him again And we would willingly when we are convinced of the necessity of repentance yet roll some sweet morsel under our tongues and be excused in one or two of our incurable sins but if we will in earnest forsake the Egyptian bondage of sin we must resolve with Moses that not a hoof shall be left behind us but all iniquity put away out of our hands and all our ungodly words left off and all our wicked thoughts forsaken and all imaginable wickedness mourned for and by degrees relinquished (c) Hyer Drexelii Gymnas paen As the Dove feares every feather of the Eagle and the skin of a Lion stuffed with straw will make the lesser beasts to keep a distance so all the circumstances occasions reliques and appearances of sin must be bewailed suspected and avoided For as a woman delivered of her child is not out of danger while the after-birth remains so a repenting soul discovering confessing and forsaking some sins is not yet safe if there be a reserve of other sins And while your body is yet in any strength you should set about this necessary work of repentance without delay For the bitternesse and weight of sin must be tasted and felt one time or other d so that as a Landlord takes a greater fine of his Tenant at first and the lesse rent afterwards So the more time care and tears you spend in repentance at first the less it will cost you to renew it afterwards But if you still put it off till your travel comes suddenly upon you at best you run a great hazard and lade your self with such a burthen and incur your soul into such danger from which it will be more difficult to be delivered then from the peril it self of child-bearing So that if your body and soul should both miscarry and die together God is just Ezek. 33 4. and your blood will be on your own head for your former neglect of the time and space of repentance Besides this which chiefly concerns your self the consideration of the child which you carry in your womb should quicken you to repentance as soon as you feel it quick within in you For as the fancy and longing of a woman with child doth sometimes make such strange impressions on the child in the womb that it carries some sign thereof after its birth and as the hurt bruise or fall of a woman in that condition makes her child sometimes imperfect monstrous cripled or deformed to the day of its death so you should fear lest the sin of your soul by nature transmit some like foul disposition and leave some such spot on your child as shall be a stain to his name and a blemish to your family Lest your corruptions prove innate qualities in him lest you have eaten sowre grapes Ezek 18.2 and your childrens teeth be set on edge You should also take care to prevent the curse of God on your child for your sake Think with your self if God should say to me as to Hagar Gen. 16.11 12. Behold thou art with child and shalt bear a son and he shall be a wild man his hand will be against every man and every mans band against him Would you not count your self unhappy in being the mother of so desperate a child Have you not also read what God sayes of Ephraim Hos 9.11 12 13. Their glory shall flee away as a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception though they bring forth children yet I will bereave them they shall bring forth children to the murtherer The meaning is that the judgements of God should light on their posterity in a most severe and dreadful manner his curse should be upon them in the womb and appear in their destruction as soon as they were born Insomuch that the Prophet being exceedingly troubled at the thought thereof prays in the next words Hos 9.14 Give them O Lord what wilt thou give them give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts That is seeing of two evils unavoidable the least is most eligible let it please the Lord if he will not remove yet to alter or mitigate his curse If I may not pray for good to this people let me intreat for a more tolerable evil Let them therefore O Lord rather not conceive or bring forth then to see them butchered and slain by their merciless enemies or exposed to such heavy calamities as might make them to wish that they had never been or that our wombs had been their graves Now seeing this is threatned them for their sins and is written for your admonition fear therefore lest God do so to you Hos 14.1 2. and more also And for the prevention of these miseries on your unborn infants take with you words and turn to the Lord that bee may take away all iniquity and receive you graciously But in this practice of repentance you must take heed and beware of
things and holy is his name And whence is this to me that the grace of Christ should come to me MEDITATION 7. Rebecca conceived Gen. 25.22 23. and the children strugled within her and she said If it be so why am I thus that is if I am heard of God in my request and am with child by his blessing whence is this strugling this painful conflict and strange unquietness of the fruit of my womb And she went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said unto her Two nations are in thy womb c. So when I look into my self and observe the commotions that are in the womb of my heart I conclude Surely there are two nations within me the flesh with all its motions lucting against the spirit and its grace Gal. 5.17 and the Spirit with its gracious influences alway striving against the sinfulness of my carnal part Now blessed be God that seeing sin will yet keep possession that it hath no quiet abode within me but meets with reluctancy and opposition from my spirituall part But oh wretched creature that I am how often is evil present and prevalent with me how many are those pangs of sorrow those sighs and grones that my mischievous and restless corruptions cause within me But if it be so that the power of the most High hath overshadowed me and true grace be implanted in my soule then I shall seek to the Lord that he would cause the better part in me to be the more prevailing part that he would water and give encrease to these tender beginnings and give me at last a safe and happy deliverance from this body of death MEDITATION 8. If men strive and hurt a woman with child Exod. 21.22 23. so that her fruit depart from her and yet 〈◊〉 mischief follow he shall be surely punished c. Women with child are liable to many dangers A fall a bruise an accidentall stroke a fright a strain the taking somewhat that proves expulsive or the disappointment of somewhat they longed for these and such other contingencies are noxious to them and often-times cause abortion or the mischance of her fruit departing from her Such was the case of the Church when it was with child with many Converts Rev. 12.2 3. the great red Dragon watched the destruction of her and of her fruit And thus is with every repenting soul What security soever there be among those careless women that are at ease Isa 32.9 10 11. how little inward care or sorrow they feel while they forget God how unacquainted soever with the hurt and smart of sin or Satans striving with them before they are acquainted with God yet no sooner do they espouse themselves to Christ and conceive purposes of holy living and begin to be fruitful in any grace but they shall have many adversaries in the world and especially the god of this world striving against them to afright them to tempt them to receive such principles company suggestions as may quench their graces or to deprive them of that Spiritual food they long for or to intice them to straine their consciences or some way or other to cause them to fall that they may be wounded bruised c. and the fruit of grace depart from them But oh my soul hath God such care of the unborn infant as to provide a speciall law in its behalfe and will he not much more take care of that grace which he hath begotten in my Soul Oh my God keep me that the Evill One touch me not MEDITATION 9. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children As the first general curse Gen. 3.16 In dying thou shalt dy brought not onely the pains of death but intended also all the miseries of our life so this particular curse upon women brings not only pain in travel but comprehends all the infirmities of Child-bearing I find that the child in my womb brings many weaknesses and aches upon me but oh how sad and deplorable are those deeper sicknesses and maladies which I have brought upon it It s body partaking of my substance partakes unavoidably of my natural pollution It s Soul though it come immediately from the Father of Spirits yet I know not how is upon its infusion into this tender infant subjected to the common misery of the Children of Adam who having lost the image and likenesse of God sinne and corruption must needs follow I am an unclearne vessel Psal 58.3 sa 48.8 and how can any clean thing come out of me Oh my soul what need have I to be sanctified throughout both in Body and Soul and Spirit And Oh my God repair by thy grace what sin hath made so defective in me and mine MEDITATION 10 Our blessed Saviour and Great Prophet Jesus Christ foretelling the miseries that should shortly come on Judea Jerusalem sayes Wo unto them that are with Child Mat. 24.19 Lu. 23.29 and to them that give suck in those days And in another Evangelist Behold the dayes are coming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never have and the paps that never gave suck And indeed of all persons none more miserable in the time of War than women with child or women that give suck because their care is double and their persons uncapable of flying and shifting for their lives as those who are single may and do And of all murthers none more horrible in all its circumstances 2 Kin. 8.12 Lam. 5.11 then to rip up women with child Wherefore oh my soul let me be thankfull to my God that there is peace in our borders and any quietness and safety in my habitation and that I am free from those terrours and affrights with which many others in a time of common calamity are undone Oh how many Women with their unborn infants have been butchered in many places in ages past and martyred by blood-thirsty Papists in these later ages of which histories are too plentiful And if there be now any in my condition in any place especially among Christians that is exposed daily to the rage of a devouring Sword the Lord be pleased either to restrain the Enemy and the Avenger Psal 8.2 Rev. 6.10 or to avenge the cause of the murthered that according to thy own Law they may not go unpunished but may give life for life Yea Lord hear the crie of the oppressed and give their adversaries blood to drink for they are worthy MEDITATION 11. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed whithin you Where any place is blest with a painfull Minister and Pastour after Gods own heart Gal. 4.19 they have in them much of the Apostle's temper For when I consider their painfull studies their sighes and teares their spending their spirits in ardent Prayers and laborious Preaching their compassionate exhortations passionate supplications and their giving themselves wholly to these things 1
trouble Give not way to immoderate passion the vehemency whereof may much distemper and endanger you in that condition For if by these or any other follies there happen a mischance or the death of both the mother and the child unborn as too often it hath happened surely the bloud of the child shall be required at their hands their own bloud also shall be upon their own heads Now judge how much guilt and danger lies upon careless wanton women who will not observe that moderation and prudential care their condition calls for I say how much sin and misery lies upon them if they perish by their own negligence and heedless irregularity Hos 4.2 Psal 9.12 Jer. 26.15 Ps 51.14 Of all sins none more crying then Murther of all murthers none more desperate then Self-murther and of all self-murthers none more detestable then to murther her self and child at once this I say they are inexcusably guilty of who by any of the courses above-mentioned or any other course do hasten their own death and render the birth of their child difficult or impossible CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented THat this must not be delayed I have already shewed in the Epistle to the Reader I shall now shew you how it must be performed not to insist largely upon this common Theme which every Funeral Sermon and devotional Treatise do present us with considering very briefly the heads of such principal duties as may not safely be omitted by them that would be at any certainty concerning their future estate If you be unconverted and have lived in pleasure been ignorant carelesse and impenitent then consider that it is now high time to awake out of sleep Rom. 13 1â— Ps 90.12 Deut. 32.29 and to number your dayes and consider your latter end You have no peculiar priviledge that can exempt you from the lot of many others Be you never so great and rich strong and healthy have you been the mother of never so many children have you abundance of all things for your conveniency together with the most skilful and famous Midwife yet neither these nor any other helps can deliver you from going down to the pit Therefore seeing it must needs be proper to expect death let me ask you how are you provided for immortality What earnest have you of any inheritance in Heaven If you hope that God will pardon you and accept you yet what reason can you render of the hope that is in you 1 Pet. 3.15 if because he is merciful then how have you applied your self to him for mercy have you constantly sought him diligently pleased him c For if the righteous shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly appear Luk. 13.24 If many who strive to enter shall not be able how impossible then must salvation needs be to the negligent In a word if Pharisees Hypocrites Votaries and those that have done many good and mighty works shall be shut out how much more shall they be excluded that never had either the form or power of godliness that lived in gross ignorance and prophaneness so that their sins are open before hand 1 Tim. 5.24 Well you will say What shall we do to be saved and to inherit eternal life I answer You should first look over the ten Commandements and consider what sins are there forbidden and what duties are there required For by the law comes the knowledge of sin Ro. 3.20 1 Joh 3.4 If you have some brief expositor by you it will much help I knew one that when he was at the Vniversity and had serious thoughts of his ways took M. Bifield his 6. Treatises a little book of small Price but of excellent use wherein there is such an enumeration of sins against the several commandments 2 Cor. â—â— 5 6. as descends to all particulars fit to be expressed in print and having in several sheets of paper transcribed it and all along inserted what particular sins he could remember And he found that it brought many sins to his remembrance which otherwise he had well-nigh forgotten set apart a day of fasting in secret on purpose and there spread them before the Lord with mourning and with supplication and found very much comfort therein Now though I prescribe not this particular course to every one yet I say a serious comparing our lives with the rule of holinesse is the one thing necessary to lay a right foundation of repentance Well when you thus have spent some good time in searching and trying your ways and have discovered greater and greater abominations in your heart and life Then spend also some thoughts about the unreasonablenesse unprofitablenesse unthankfulnesse and iniquity of every sin Consider what wrong sin does to the honour of Gods Attributes and of his Law His Holiness requires nothing but what is good his Wisdome what is fit and his Mercy what is comely and beneficial for us Shall we break such a Law wherein Holiness Wisdome and Mercy appears If any thing be difficult he offers the help of his Grace to all that bewail their weaknesse And whatever his Law be yet surely he is our Creator and therefore by all bonds of Reason and Nature we owe obedience to him whose we are Again consider the injury done to Christ by piercing him with our Sins by despising his Bloud that onely and costly remedy and dishonouring his Name as if he were not sufficient to save or as if his Grace gave liberty to Sinne. Also consider the perjury every sinner is guilty of in violating our Baptismal engagement and making slight account of all other renewed stipulations we have made to God since What shall I say of the shame and mischief sin brings upon us in this life It deprives of Gods Image Favour and gracious Presence robs us of that primitive innocency righteousness with which the humane Nature was at first dignified above all sublunary creatures and degrades us to a condition in many respects worse then that of the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 20. Eccles 3.18 yea it makes us children of the Devil and children of wrath it fills the creature with vanity under which it groans and travels in pain it fills our life with crosses our family with troubles our bodies with diseases our consciences with disquiet Sin makes travel painful death dreadful and hell intolerable so that it is a boundless and endless evil And should not such considerations as these awaken you May it not trouble you to consider with your self thus If I die with all this load of sin upon me it will surely sink me deep enough into the burning lake And alas if I live till the full time of my travel come which is very uncertain yet how little a while is it before that fatal hour may sever my soul from my body My soul which is invisible and
mercy upon his afflicted But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Can a woman forget hâ—â— sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palmes of my hands c. Because he hath set his love upon me Psal 91.14 15. therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my name He shall call upon me and I will answer him Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee Isa 26.3 because he hath trusted in thee Cast thy burthen upon the Lord Ps 55.22 and he shall sustain thee Truly my soul waiteth upon God Ps 62.1 â— from him cometh my salvation My soul wait thou onely upon God for my expectation is from him With many other like places Now what can we expect for higher assurance then such re-iterated promises of that God with whom it is impossible to lie David therefore who was more then ordinary experienced in variety of afflictions and the comforting power of the VVord under them tells us I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And thus plead with God Remember thy Word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope And again This is my comfort in mine affliction for thy Word hath quickned me Let me here crave leave to transcribe a few sweet passages out of an excellent Author than whom none hath written more judiciously piously and plainly Mr. Ball 's Treat of Faith par 2. ch 7. p. 318. in our English tongue a The godly are allowed to live by Faith in times of affliction when calamities of all forts compasse them about For Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come God hath promised 1 Tim. 4.8 Rom. 8.28 1 Cor. 10.13 Act. 27.25 that all things shall work together for good to them that love him and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able And it is our duty to believe God that it shall be even as he hath told us The godly have had this confidence in former times whose practice is both a token of our priviledge and a pattern of our duty What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Psal 56.3 Psal 23.4 I will fear no evil For thou art with me thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me God is hereby much glorified that we rely upon him as our rock of defence all-sufficient Saviour and surest friend in time of distresse It being one of his most royal titles Psal 68.5 9.9 10.14 to be a refuge for the oppressed a help to the poor strength to the needy c. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you Confidence in God doth the more binde and oblige him as it were to do us good Psal 37.40 If a friend rely upon our faithful promise we take our selves bound not to frustrate his expectation at a dead lift The Lord will never leave the soul destitute which trusts in him The faithful have promised themselves help because they trusted in the Lord Psal 57.1 143.8 9. And to hope in God and to have God for our help are linked togâ—ther in Scripture Ps 146.5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God After serious humiliation of the soul Faith brings tidings that God will look down from Heaven in mercy and bring help in fittest season If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled Deut. 4.29 31 32. and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my covenant with Jacob Mich 7.8 9. c. When I fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me This dependance on the Promises which Faith worketh is absolute without limitation of time measure of affliction or manner of deliverance All these it referreth to the good pleasure of his Will and reposeth it self securely on his faithful Word and Providence Fear rides post to out-run Danger and Folly would soon dispatch our mourning part to be in the house of laughter but he that believeth maketh not haste knowing that Gods truth never faileth his wisdome chuseth the fittest meanes and season and his Compassion is readiest when to sense and reason it is furthest off Thus he But seeing these Promises forementioned are general and you would willingly see perhaps something more expresly fitted to your own condition therefore I shall subjoyn a few other Scriptures which may abundantly satiafie in this case Hearken unto me Isa 46.3 4 O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which 〈◊〉 born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb And even to your old age I am he and even to hoary hairs will I carry you and will deliver you Fear not Zacharias Luke 1.13 14. for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall beare thee a son and thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth A woman John 16.21 when she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of a child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world Through faith in him that promised Sarah received strength to conceive and to bring forth Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childhearing Heb. 11.11 if they continue in the faith and charity and holiness 1 Tim. 2.15 with sobriety This last place is most full and remarkable for the Apostle had said immediately before that the woman was first in the transgression Now this transgression deserved all misery pain and torment both here and hereafter without any hope of end or deliverance but see the goodnesse and mercy of our God! saith he notwithstanding her sin God will save her notwithstanding the curse God will bless her For the curse that came upon women at first is wonderfully moderated and the rigour thereof abated even from the first denunciation thereof Though God had newly cursed the earth yet he had respect to Abel and his offering Though he cursed man yet it is not an onely curse but a command and is a blessing annext In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Here is indeed a curse that their labour should be wearisome but a command that they should labour and a promise that in so doing they should have bread to eat So I say is the curse upon women I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
tam ociosorum auribus placeant quà m aegrotorum mentibus prosint magnum ex utraquere caelestibus donis fructum reportaturi The CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF a state of Pregnancy page 1 CHAP. II. Prayer the duty of women with child p. 19 CHAP. III. Repentance the duty of women with child 26 CHAP. IV. Reading of Scriptures the duty of women with child 34 CHAP. V. Meditation the duty of women with child 41 CHAP. VI. Resignation to God the duty of women with child 60 CHAP. VII Dedication of the child to God the duty of women with child 64 CHAP. VIII Care of her own health the duty of a woman with child 68 CHAP. IX Preparation for death the duty of those women with child who never yet repented 71 CHAP. X. Prepation for death the duty of godly women when with child 80 CHAP. XI To resolve upon some special return of thankfulness after their deliverance is also the duty of women with child 93 CHAP. XII The labour for faith in Christ or if they have faith to endeavour to exercise it in trust and dependance upon God for pardon of sin is also the duty of women with child 100 CHAP. XIII Trusting in the Lord for deliverance the duty of women with child 110 CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of travelling women 129. Reader Some faults will escape take what care we can those that are are very few and they onely in mis-spelling wherefore I thought not worth the while to trouble my self to note them or thee with naming them A PRESENT FOR Teeming Women c. CHAP. I. Of a state of Pregnancy IT is observable that the great God who is equally infinite in all his Attributes yet hath styled himself rich in mercy glorious in holinesse Psal 86.15 Eph. 2.4 Exod. 15.11 Surely he needs neither riches nor glory He was rich enough to Himself and glorious enough in Himself from everlasting But behold His good Will towards men and the communicative nature of infinite goodness Mercy enricheth us Holiness glorifies us By Mercy we partake of his Gifts by Holiness we partake of his Nature By Mercy we enjoy him by Holiness we love him resemble him and glorifie him for ever Now seeing these two transcendent perfections do eternally cohabite in the nature of God and mutually concur to the benefit of man it is most requisite that our minds should be filled with the thoughts influences of both That is that each Mercy of God should promote our Holiness and that Holiness should encrease our sense of Mercies It being therefore my present business that women with child may be in a holy frame and thereby fitted for the houre of danger approaching I thought good to mind them of this first that 't is a mercy of much value to be with child in a state of Matrimony That this is a mercy will appear plainly by these few considerations 1. 'T is one end of marriage that there might be a succession of generation after generation that the race of mankind may not be confused and disorderly as among Beasts nor extinguished 1 Thes 4.4 nor dishonoured but may continue in a legitimate line and that God might have a holy seed Mal. 2.15 2. That it might appear to be a Mercy God hath by Angels Revelations and Miracles at sundry times of old assured some good women that he would give this blessing to their wombs Thus in Gen. 17.16 I will bless her give thee a son also of her Gen. 17.16 17. yea I will bless her and she shall be a mother also of nations Though upon this strange promise we find Abraham full of wondering ver 17. and Sarah his wife laughing ch 18 12. Both questioning at first how this could be yet afterwards God doth renew his promise and they lay aside any further doubt and the word of the Lord spoken by angels was falfilled Gen. 21.1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said and did unto Sarah as he had spoken For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him We find of the Patriarchs also that they found favour with God in like manner concerning the fruit of their womb ever acknowledging it as the gift of God and adoring the gracious providence of the (a) Nihil de generationibus aut seminibus nvscitur si ea non operetur Deus Aug. in Ps 118. Gen. 28. God and Father of all men When they blessed their posteriy they carefully inserted this in their propheticall prayers This last blessing of a dying Patriarch though it be sometime or in some part expressed in form of petition yet in the intent and effect thereof alway amounted to a prediction Thus Isaac to Jacob God Almighty blesse thee and make thee fruit full and multiply thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people Thus Jacob to Joseph Joseph is a fruitfull bough Chap. 49. 22.25 even a fruitfull bough whose branches run over the walls The Almighty shall blesse thee with the blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the breast and of the womb In which places God is still mentioned as the original of this blessing and the supreme efficient cause of the pregnancy of the womb and increase of posterity It was the same God that sent his Angel to the wife of Manoah Judg. 13.3 to tell her that she should conceive and bear a son 'T is out of question that to these persons it was a mercy to have issue yea a publick blessing to many generations for the seed of Abraham was the onely visible Church on earth the onely people that turned from Idols to serve the living God And Sampson the son of Manoah was in his time the onely Judge and Champion of Israel and Type of Christ But it seems doubtfull whether therefore all other parents can call their children Blessings or indeed whether the faithfull have any such cause to promise themselves comfort in their posterity without some like revelation or testimony from heaven as they had To this I answer that all the seed of Abraham I mean that continue in the faith of Abraham have exceeding great and precious promises to rest satisfied in that extend to them all in all ages I mean Gods promises of giving and blessing children to them 3. And that shall be my third proof If God promise distinctly and frequently that they shall see their posterity and their seeds seed then we must thankfully enumerate it among his rich favours to mankind This was the blessing to Adam in innocency God blessed them Gen. 1.28 and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And to Noah Gen. 9.1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them be fruitfull and multiply and replenish the earth This blessing was given them as the common parents and stocks of whom
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