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
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
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
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
plentifull are Histories of the ancient practices of many Nations especially the Romans in appropriating the office of chief Priest to their Kings and Emperours as an honour not befitting any meaner person Yea among Christians the Prince of Anhalt and other persons of honour have ambitiously accepted and happily performed the Ministerial Office And no doubt but one reason why the Ministry is of no higher esteem is because divers selfish needy persons seek the Priesthood meerly for maintenance and so are tempted by their indigency to unsuitable courses and dishonourable shifts and are uncapable of being so beneficent as they would or should be and also are the less regarded because extracted from the meanest of the people And no doubt this is one reason why the Nobility and Gentry are more feared then loved more envied then esteemed because they mind their own honour but not at all the honour of God they love their â—ase their pomp their lusts and excess of riot but as for the tranquillity or atility of the Church they are meer Gallio's Just it is with God that they should be of mean parts and illiterate Ign oramusses as many of them are seeing if they had eit her parts or learning they would scorn to employ them for the service of God in his Church Therefore till I can hear or imagine any reason to the contrary I shall here propose it as a thing commendable in any person of quality be they never so great to entertain such thoughts in their minds of devoting their child to God as did Hannah And I doubt not but if any of them who are less mancipated to the common follies would cease a while to idolize themselves and suffer reason and conscience to speak 2 Cor. 8.8 they would consider better of it But this I speak not by commandement And therefore it is not a Precept but a counsel Much less should any be so far besotted with Popish perswasions or Jesuitical delusions as to think a child not dedicated to the Lord unless it be dedicated to a Monastick life Though Sampson Judg. 13.5 while yet in the womb was appointed to be a Nazarite yet not by his parents choice but by the command of the Angel Therefore let them onely take such a course as have the like warrant Well then by dedicating it to God I mean that which is the indispensable duty of all Christian parents viz. partly in purposing while the child is yet in the womb that if it safely enter into the land of the living and come to years of maturity they will use all possible endeavors that it may be the Lords Eph. 6.5 by bringing it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord partly by serious prayers to God in its behalf that it may be separated to him from the womb Thus I say should every mother beg of God that as it is mine by nature so it may be thine by grace that as I have received from thee so thou wouldst be pleased to accept my dedication of it to thee again Some women have such prayers and purposes when their travel fills them with pain and threatens them with danger but if once delivered they mind them no more Wherefore let your duty herein take an earlier date that it may make better impression in your heart And assure your self if you thus purpose and desire that your child may be set apart for God and become holy to the Lord it shall be with you as with David 2 Sam. 7.12 13 14 15. he dedicated much for the Temple and purposed to build an house for God though he lived not to accomplish his desire yet he lived in his son and was blessed with a Solomon who did afterwards happily accomplish it so I say Whether you live or not yet because it is in your heart as soon as ever the child was in your womb to devote it to the Lord this is doubtless thank-worthy with him you shall be blessed in your posterity Ps 35.13 and your prayes shall return into your own bosome For either your child shall live long in the land and enjoy the fruit of your early prayers or enter with you into Heaven where you shall enjoy him in glory for ever having your joy herewith augmented that God took him so soon CHAP. VIII Care of her own health the duty of a woman with child THough care of the body may seem to be a matter of so small moment as scarce to deserve a chapter by it self yet the truth is it is a duty of so great concernment that it must not be excluded but distinctly considered by child-bearing women Certain we are that life and health must be reckoned among those talents which God doth intrust them with Because the health of the body contributes much to perfect all operations of the mind but women with child have a far greater reason to be mindful of their health viz. not onely for their own sakes but the good of the infant that is yet unborn If therefore some grave Authors have thought it necessary Charon of Wisdome that the Father himself should observe divers rules of temperance both in body and mind if he expect towardly and comely children Magirus Phys How much more requisite is it that the mother who contributes far more to the body and disposition of the child then the Father because the child for many moneths receives such nourishment as the womb where it lies affords I say how much more doth it concern her to use all possible caution and discretion to keep her self in a healthy and well-ordered plight that she may afford the better nutriment to the fruit of her womb I question not but their care herein is as effectual to the strength of their child as the warmth of the Sun and inriching the soil is to any fruit And as fruit that ripens kindly is gathered the easier and comes off without tearing the branch on which it grows so the child the more strength it receives from the mother as the root and the more vigorous it grows by all additional helps the easier and speedier will its passage into the world be Dr. Gouge of Domest Duties p. 516. This is one reason say Expositors if not the chief reason why the Angel layes so strict a charge upon the wife of Manoah when she was with child with Sampson to abstain from wine and strong drink because he was to de a Nazarite and therefore must not have his temper and constitution infected with a natural liking to that which he was prohibited the use of By which you may perceive what influence the meat drink desires and delights of the mother have upon the future disposition of the child Wherefore learn it as a special duty to forbear all excess in meats and drinks use no violent recreations take no needless journies incumber not your body with much labour nor your mind with much anxious care sorrow and
A PRESENT FOR Teeming VVomen OR Scripture-Directions for Women with child how to prepare for the houre of TRAVEL Written first for the private use of a Gentlewoman of quality in the West and now published for the common good By John Oliver less then the least of all Saints Gen. 3.13 And the Lord God said unto the woman What is this that thou hast done And the woman said the Serpent beguiled me and I did eat Ver. 16. Vnto the woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children 1 Tim. 2.14 15. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was first in the transgression Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in the faith and charity and holiness with sobriety LONDON Printed by Sarah Griffin for Mary Rothwell at the Fountain and Bear in Cheapside 1663. TO The ever Honoured My truly noble and vertuous Friend The Ornament of her Countrey and Glory of her Family Mrs. BRIDGET SEYMOUR of Hanford-house in the County of DORSET I Crave your pardon for so long detaining that which you have so desirously expected And now that I do expose it to publick view when I cast about in my thoughts to whom to dedicate it I could not but retain a grateful memory of the many noble favours whereby your worthy relations viz. your (a) Mrs. An. Philips of Montacute Mother and your (b) Mrs. Ma. Speake of Whitlackinton both in Somersetshire Aunt did ever oblige me Neither must I be so irreligious as not to have a more then ordinary respect for that (c) Prov. 31.30 Phil. 1.3 4 5 6 7. c 4.14.16 1 Thes 1.2 3 4 5 6. 2 Thes 1.3 4. Philem. 4.5 6 7. Rev. 2.2 3 9 19 c. Acts 9.36 true piety and goodness wherein they excel But when I remember that you have so fairly written after their copy (d) 2 Joh. 1.4 3 Joh. 3 4 5 6. that the vertues of both are visible in you so that any thing redounding to your just praise will tend also to their honour and seeing your first pregnancy gave me this occasion of presenting you with my thoughts on this subject in a short scheme which I have now thus enlarged and you were pleased as your courteous manner ever was to accept it with that thankfulness as if it had been some greater matter and as if it had been of some use to you in that condition Therefore I humbly crave leave of those my obliging friends to dedicate this piece to you onely And had I no other errand to appear in print this were enough to tell the world for their imitation that he must travel far and seek long among our Nobility and Gentry that shall finde any of more ingenuity of more devotion to God more obedience and reverence to Parent more courtesie and reality in affable conversation more prudence and modesty in your speeches and deportment more respect to pious Ministers more happy in your memory to retain what you heard more pious in your retention to commit it to writing next day for your private use then you were in your single estate and the flower of your age a season wherein others of your quality doe minde some lesser things in jest but nothing in earnest This made you amiable in the eyes of all that knew you but especially to him who is now your yoak-fellow Rob Seymour Esq of Hanford in the County of Dorset a Gentleman of whose worth many say so much that I need say nothing And indeed in the judgement of all that know you what can be said more for the proof of his wisdome (a) Prov. 18.22 Ch. 19.4 Ch. 12.4 then his making such a choice Yet I doubt not but his (b) Eph. 5.25 ad 33 Mar. 19.5 1 Pet. 3.7 tendernesse and faithfulnesse to you and his most happy immunity from the gentile vices of this degenerate age will give you reall cause of continuall thankfulnesse to that good providence which first wedded your hearts together But that which addes to your fame and doth indeed crown all is (a) Perseverantia tantùm electorum est Bern. Ser. parv Serm. 61. 1 John 4.0 19. Cant. 5.16 your perseverance Your married estate hath not marred your pious disposition Your love to husband and children not alienated your love from him who loved you first and is himself altogether lovely Your commands and cares over your own servants hath not made you negligent of your Master in Heaven nor your domestick family-affairs diverted your conscience from living (b) Eph. 15 16. as a member of the houshold of Faith and the family of God Go on I beseech you for I know your Christian wisdome and modesty will turn my commendations into admonitions I beseech you I say to go on and to let the world see that Piety is not inconsistent with c Gratias deo qui harum rerum gloriae transitoriae gloriosum in vobis est operatus contemptum Bern ep 23. Gallantry that it is not absolutely impossible for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle that one may be a Gentlewoman or a Lady yet Elect that noble dispositions do yet remain in some noble breasts that some there may be who are both rich in the world and rich towards God And let me further intreat you to be alwayes learning that lesson which can never be too exactly learnt viz. (a) Esto rebus ac facultatibus tuis in vitâ hâc uti velis dummodo tui vel moriens non obliviscaris ad ejus cultum atque honorem referendam tibi substantiam tuam memineris cujus te munere accepisse cognoscis Salvianus ad Eccles cath lib. 2. p. 407. to know how to abound and how to be full how to use this world as not abusing it and to rejoice as if we rejoiced not for the time is short It is but a little time ere he that shall come will come Wherefore the Lord burn up within us the remainders of our dross and tin that when this drossie degenerate world shall be consumed by fire 2 Pet. 3.7 ad 14. there may not be found so much of the world in our hearts as shall make us fit fewel for everlasting burnings He give us more believing apprehensions and lively affections after the everlasting enjoyment of himselfe in that Heaven of heavens where they neither marry Mar. 12.25 nor are given in marriage 2 Cor. 5.16 Rev. 7.16 where they know none after the flesh where they hunger and thirst no more where they have perpetual light yet no use of Sun or Moon Rev. 21.27 or any sublunary comforts but are as the Angels of God i e. fully at rest in their desires because with the Lord 1 Thes 4 17. Ps 16.11 who is the center of spirits in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are such
and the woman bring forth children with much pain and travel and with great danger Yea O mercifull Father this pain is not a sufficient punishment for the grievous transgressions wherewith we and our fore-fathers have transgressed thy most holy will The punishment is in respect of our demerits too smal but in respect of our weaknesse too great for us without thee to endure Wherefore as I acknowledge O mercifull Father this travel in child-birth which now approacheth to be a just reward of my manifold sins so I acknowledge also thy ready Arm of defence stretched out over me and over all them that call upon thee in faith Grant therefore O dear Father that I may pray in faith and patiently wait for that time of my travel that I may thankefully and constantly endure it when it shall be present knowing that though I then feel some tast of the reward of sin yet I feel not all and that little which I then feel thou dost presently reward with comfort and gladnesse when a child is born into the world The which comfortable and glad issue grant me O Lord if it be thy good pleasure and having received such fruit of my body grant me moreover wisedom and strength to bring it up in thy fear and to travel as it were again with it till it be born again into a heavenly life to the glory of thy holy name and my greater joy that so it may finally in Christ Jesus be partaker of those blessings which thou dost plentifully rain down upon the faithfull and their seed for ever And because I am not worthy to present this my suit to thy heavenly Majesty of my self a most wretched and sinfull woman I offer it in the name in the righteousnesse and in the strength of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ praying furthermore as he taught us to pray Our father c. They are also mentioned in the publick luturgy but where else I remember not Sure I am that all big-bellyed women had need to remember themselves and to consider the things that belong to their peace before they be hid from their eyes Luk. 19.42 For if women will make no other preparation for lying in then what is common if they onely get linnen and other necessaryes for the child a nurse a midwife entertainment for the women that are called to their labour a warme convenient chamber c. Which things I confesse every one according to their ability should be mindfull of in time for as I have shewed in a distinct Chapter in this Book Gravidae orpora cuaredebent â—ens item aruÌ„ quieâ—em desiâ—erat Quae him proâ—eantur à â—atre in â—jus utero â—â—ntinentur â—â—mentum â—piunt ut â—rerrâ ea â—ae gigâ—ntur ex 〈◊〉 Arist 〈◊〉 lib. 7. women in this condition should be very careful of their bodies while they are with child and very careful of providing all possible helps and conveniences against their lying in But all these may prove miserable comforters they may perchance need no other linnen shortly but a winding sheet and have no other chamber but a grave no neighbours but worms or if they be delivered while yet they retain such unwillingnesse of mind to prepare for death as we say of all other deliverances granted to the ungodly they are delivered (a) Rich. Rogers his seven treatises treat 6. c. 10. p. 193. edit 4. in anger not in favour with Gods curse not with his blessing and are in all likelyhood reserved to the greater condemnation when their sin is repined Whereas if they would seek the Lord while he may be found Psal 32 6.1 Chron. 28.9 Cant. 3.1 Heb. 12.17 Isa 55.6 Luk. 10.42 if they would mind diligently the one thing necessary if they would speedily fly to Christ for refuge than they are safe for whether they live or die their souls cannot miscarry But of these things I have spoken more at large in the Book it self And now Reader let me draw to a conclusion You must not expect from me the common complements of some writers as that I should extenuate the worth of this Book because 't is mine (a) Siquidem tam inbecillia sunt hujus temporis judicia ac penè tam nulla ut nec qui legunt non tam considerent quid legant quà m cujus legant ij tam dictionis vim atque virtutem quà m dictatoris cogitent dignitatem Salvian Salomo Epo p. 334. or tell the Reader that it is unworthy of his view needs his pardon and was wrested from me by the importunities of no man knows who that else I should above all things have shund to appear in Print c. No Let such strange dissemblers study a truer Apology for their false Apologie When they have said never so much to their own disparagment who believes them Neither can I understand how any honest man can Print a Book and yet professe that he thinks none will be the wiser or better for reading of it Let me therefore onely say this to the Reader that I have in this piece as small as 't is taken pains and well considered of what I have written The matter of it is generally Scriptural and there is that truth of God in it that commands your Christian regard And God is my witnesse how often I implored his assistance in composing it and his blessing on it when finished That my labour will be accepted of the Saints is my greatest hope but for praise or commendation from others I am not sollicitous In a word I send it (a) Mens enim boni studii ac pii voti etiamst affectum non invene rit coepti operis habet tamen praemium voluntatis Salvian praef in lib. de gub dei p. 3. abroad with this confidence that it will by Gods blessing do good to some And I have this assurance that there is nothing in it that can be hurtfull to any that will either rightly take it or let it alone Farewell in the Lord. Thy souls friend J. O. Salvian prefat in Lib. de gubern Dei Pag. 2. 3. OMnes enim in Scriptis suis causas tantùm egerunt suas propriis magis laudibus quà m aliorum utilità tibus consulentes non id facere adnisi sunt ut salubres ac salutiferi sed ut scholastici ac diserti haberentur Itaque scripta eorum aut vanitate sunt tumida aut falsitate infamia aut verborum foeditatibus sordida aut rerum obscoenitate vitiosa Vt verè cum ingeniorum tantùm laudem aucupantes tam indignis rebus curam impenderent non tam illustrasse mihi ipsa ingenia quà m damnasse videantur Nos autem qui rerum magis quam verborum amatores utilia potiùs quam plausibilia sectamur nequeid quaerimus ut in nobis inania seculorum ornamenta sed ut salubria rerum emolumenta laudentur in scriptiunculis nostris non leno cinia esse volumus sedremedia quae scil non
not materiall to the businesse in hand it sufficeth that the expression takes it for granted that to be childlesse was a curse and a reproach in Israel So that 2 Sam 6.25 of Michal the daughter of Saul who mocked David it is mentioned as a memorable and severe judgment that she had no child to the day of her death 6 God hath in his Scriptures ever taken to himself the praise of this work and his people have ever acknowledged it as his gift mercy when they conceived and bare children Thus the wives of Jacob. Thus Jacob himself answering his brother Esau Gen. 30.6.17.22 c. 35.5 these are the children which God hath graciously given thy servant Thus Hannah Elizabeth and others still their phrase is God opened their wombs Psal 113.9 Faecundicas foeminarum casta vota filios desiderantium ad quem pertinent nisi ad Dominum Deum Aug. Enarr in Psal 66. God rolled away their reproach God gave them children c. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyfull mother of children Seeing therefore by this cloud of Scripture-testimonies 't is evident that women are not with child but by the mercy and gift of God I must adde a few inferences from what I have said 1 That none be dejected at a state of barrennesse though among the Jews it was esteemed so great an affliction If the age of one or both parties render you not uncapable you may with modesty and moderation make your request known to God and then rest satisfied in his pleasure concerning you For though the posterity of Abraham did all desire that the promised seed might come of them as some do uncertainly conjecture and had also too high esteem of temporal blessings and carnal apprehensions of promised blessings did much possesse the mind of the generality yet we are now under a better testament containing exceeding great and precious promises of things Spiritual If therefore we stick too much on the letter of old-Testament promises we shall commit as great an errour in our faith as the Jews by resting in the bare letter of the precepts ran into gross error in their practice God never delighted in their most glorious and costly ceremonies unlesse they gave him their hearts and now he accepts of internal worship with simplicity and spirituality of mind without any further desire of those pompous observations So let us learn to worship God without their Rites John 4. Rom. 14. and to love God though without their mercies Let us count riches and posterity nothing without God and God sufficient without either of them If Christ be ours every thing needfull is ours If we be the Sons and Daughters of God it shall be no unhappinesse if we have neither Sons nor Daughters of our own There is then no curse in what we have no need of what we have not Dr. Gouge of domest duties a Where naturall impossibilities doe hinder the fecundity of the wombe they should also if known have hindred marriage But when the sterility is meerly accidentall from some such present prevailing infirmity as discomposes the body of either party it may by the blessing of God upon medicinall helps be lawfully and success fully removed But when the cause is unknown and unfruitfullnesse seems meerly judiciall viz. immediately inflicted by the hand of God in that case prayer is the Proper course that he who shuts the womb Luke 1.13 Psal 10.17 Psal 145.19 as he did the wombs in the house of Abimelech would open them again as he did theirs upon the prayer of Abraham It may be he will grant thy petition as he hath done of some that for above twenty years in a state of marriage went childlesse yet at last he made the solitary to dwell in families and gave them children like olive plants round about their table Or perhaps he will not yet answer thee Perkins Cas of consc lib. 2. c. 6. qu. 4. Reinolds on Hos 14.1.2 Serm. 1. p. 53. 1 John 5.15 to exercise thy faith prayer and dependence in waiting upon him or perhaps he will deny thee this mercy at last to exercise thy patient submissivenesse to his Will and thy heavenly-mindednesse and wisdom in seeking some better blessing Sure it is thy prayers shall returne into thine own bosom with some answer of peace and if we aske aright we shall receive (c) Deus non sempèr audit ad voluntatem vel voluptatem at Sempèr exaudiet ad salutem Isidor de summo bono l. 3 c. 3. according to Gods choice if not according to our own He hath variety of blessings which like the stars of heaven differ from one another in glory Therefore blesse his name if by this providence he promote in thy heart humility saith patience or any other grace (d) Ward â—n Mat. 8. pag. 451. seeing its better to be fruitfull in grace then fruitfull in children If he give us his favour (e) Bonus qui non triâ—uit quod â—olumus ut â—ribuat quod malimus Aug. epist 34. that 's a blessing of more value The Angels neither marry nor are given in marriage yet have happinesse enough in God Let him be to thee worth ten Sons In a word I say of these certain cares and uncertain comforts that he who hath none of them hath lesse incumbrance here and lesse to reckon for hereafter 2. T is an an addition to the mercy when God gives children in a state of marriage T is a mercy to be kept in a single estate from the unclean libidinous practices of beastly sinners (f) Mat. 22.30 and to be at last happily entred upon that state of matrimony which God appointed and hath sanctified as his ordinance 1 Cor. 7 2 3 4 5. for preventing of fornication and 't is also I say a greater blessing when he is pleased to Crown the chast embraces of wedlock with a hopefull conception Oh how dreadfull are the scripturee-xamples of many women whom God having partly or totally left to their vile affections and inordinate lusts having prostituted their chastity brought shame upon Israel and disparaged the innate modesty of the female sex grew at last past feeling and spent their life in common whoredome till their sin was come to a ripeness But alas in these last days 2 Tim. 3.1 3. the sin of incontinency is grown more perillous by its commonness and also by the impunity of our intemperate Grandees whose example herein gives a law to others And surely those who are priviledged from punishment here shall find it a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb 10.31 Heb. 13.4 who hath said whoremongers and adulterers I will judge i.e. though the secrecy of their actions the potency of their persons or the negligence of Magistrates may secure them for a while yet there is nothing so secret but is under his eye nothing so great but is under
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
was wont to spend from the ninth hour of the day till Sun set in reading the old-Testament He mentions also one Silvia a noble Lady that dedicated part of every night to reading rhe Bible and of one Cecilia a Romane Lady who when at home never let her Bible goe out of her hands when she went abroad alwayes carried it in her bosome when she was in company alwayes made it her discourse Thus saith he she lived a chaste Virgin and died a stout Martyr being so ravished with the sweetnesse of Christ by daily reading something of him that she willingly endured the bitternesse of her last torments out of the desire she had to be with Christ (b) More of this nature in his Epistles to Eustochium Salvina Celantia and other Ladyes Hierom likewise wishes one Lady to whom writes to hang these jewels always at her ears and to Furia a widow he gives this advice to reade chiefly the holy Scriptures and after them some learned writers who were known to be sound in the faith How much he abhorred the reading of idle Romances and obscene Poets is well known by other passages of his He also relates at large the great love Marcella a noble widow had to the Scriptures and of the Lady Paula (a) Hier. in Epitaph Paulae that she caused all her maid servants to learn frequently some portion of the Psalms or other Scripture by heart (b) Theodoret de naturâ hominis lib. 5. The like of Gorgonia sister of Nazianzen in his Orat. funebri in Gorgon And another Ancient giving some account of the knowledge and piety then abounding in all Christians sayes thus Ye may commonly see not onely the teachers and rulers but the meanest artificers understand the principles of our Religion and not only learned women but also such women as live by their labour Seamsters maid servants c. can reason of the Holy Trinity and of the Creation of the world and of the Nature of mankind a great deal more skilfully then either Plato or Aristotle were ever able to do Thus he Cyrill contra Julian lib. 6. l. 7 c And we find that wicked apostate Julian objecting it against the Christians as an absurd thing among them that they permitted their women and children to read the Scriptures So that we see whose followers the Papists are in finding the same fault with Protestants now And were there no other argument this might suffice with a religious mind that as Tertullian said it could not but be some great good which Nero condemned so it cannot but be a singular profit to all men women and children to read daily in the Book of God seeing Julian and the Pope and all the instruments of Satan do so much oppose it T is therefore to be bewailed that whereas in the times of former persecutions men would travel by night many miles to one that could acquaint them with any part of the Scripture in the English tongue and would give twenty shillings for a new-Testament and a load of Hay for the Epistle of St. James the Word of the Lord being precious in those dayes and yet now that Bibles are cheap 1 Sam. 3.1 and children are more generally taught to read then in former ages yet I say is a lamentation that Protestants had need he exhorted to read the Scriptures Let me therefore conclude this point with my earnest intreaty to all readers especially the afflicted women that expect that dreadfull affliction in child-bearing to be more constant in reading the Scriptures The Scriptures being (a) Basil in Psal 1. as one sayes a shop of medicines from whence you may fetch a remedy for every malady and danger There you may see as I shewed you in the beginning of this book what was the practice of pious women when barren what when with child what songs of thanksgiving when delivered what course they took for the education of their children c. God also hath commnaded you to search the Scriptures and hath promised to give understanding to them that search for wisedom John 5.39 Prov. 2.4.5 c. If you understand not pray to him and you shall understand For the meek he will teach his way and satisfy the desire of every hungry soul (a) Aug 9. Chrysost contra anomaeos hom 3. and in Gen. hom 35. Origen in Exod. hom 9. It cannot be say the Fathers that any with earnest study and diligence reading the Scriptures should be left destitute and for although we lack the instruction of man yet will God himself enter into our hearts and cast a beam of light into our minds open things that are hidden become our teacher of such things as we know not He reveals that to women and children which he hides from the wise and prudent (b) Origen in Num. hom 27. in Josh hom 20. And as reading the Scripture angers the Papists so it angers the Devil and rejoyces the good Angels that attend us yea t is a delight to Christ Himself He looks down from heaven to see if there be any that understand and do good and seeke after God Psal 14.2 Rev. 2.2 ch 9. c. and he sayes to every member of the Church I know thy works T is also comfortable to you selves 't will give you a sight of sin that you may be humbled and of a Saviour by whom you may be reconciled to God T will direct you to every good work 't will season your mind with holy thoughts furnish you for every condition that so when your time of pain approaches Rom. 15.4 you may through patience and consolation of the Scripture have hope Onely remember to read the book of God with more reverence then any other book The jewes are curious even to superstition in handling the Sacred volumne and keeping it cleare esteeming it a prodigious mischance if any of them let his Bible fall to the ground (a) Rosse his view of all religions p. 482. And the Moscovites touch not this Book without solemne bowing even to the ground these things are needlesse but needfull it is that when we reade the Bible we cōpose our hearts to an awfull and attentive frame remembring that our maker and preserver and redeemer doth then acquaint us with the Law by which we must live here Prov. 2.3.4.5 Psal 119. and by which we shall be judged hereafter therefore lift up a prayer to him as David often doth for more quick understanding and a more obedient heart and do not huddle it over as a taske and then lay it aside as a burthen but chew upon it as thy food yea charge it upon thy memory and repeat and (b) Perkins cas of consc lib. 2. c. 7. p. 71. digest it often in thy meditation that it may at last take hold of they heart and work in thee that which is well pleasing in the sight of God But of meditation
I shall now speak in the next place CHAP. V. Meditation the duty of women with child IT cannot be but women with child when they begin to grow big and unweldy must be taken off from such manual imployments in which they were busied before and must allow themselves some rest and retirement therefore they should labour to make a good use of that time they have for prayer and reading and meditation c. Meditation being then most in season when other things are out of season and hath herein the advantage of other duties that it requires onely the inner to be imployed therein Idlenesse is alway dangerous especially the idlenesse of our minds If the Devil find the soul idle hee 'le soon imploy it And therefore were it onely to prevent the incursion of sinfull and troublesome thoughts in our solitary seasons and also as one sayes (a) Bolton Gen. dir p 71. lest our spirits like milstones wanting grist grate themselves with vexation feares discontents and waste themselves in a fruitless endless melancholy I say were it only to avoid this grand inconvenience it were safest to have alway some choice head or other of pious profitable matter to busie our heads and hearts about Nothing being more known among Christians then the precepts and presidents of this kind in Scripture Nothing more frequent in the writings and Sermons of Divines Therefore I shall not meddle with the duty in general but as it properly concerns women with child And for the better direction of those who are willing to make use of the help offered them I shall present them with thirteen Meditations which they may enlarge upon at their pleasure not doubting but that divers of them are able to adde many others as pertinent and profitable as these MEDITATION 1. (a) J. Planâ—avit Floâ—il Rabbinicum Deut. 27.12 Ps 104.28 1 Sam. 2.6 Acts â—6 4 Gen. 30.22 The Rabbines have a notion that there are four special Keyes which the Lord reserveth in his own power 1. The Key of Rain 2. The Key of Food 3. The Key of the Grave 4. The Key of the Heart To which may be added the Key of the Womb. God hath opened my womb oh that my heart were opened also Nature hath locked it against God and my customary sins have caused me instead of opening when Christ knocketh to adde more bolts to keep him out But oh that he who hath the key of David who openeth and none can shut would break open or lift up the everlasting gates of my soul Rev. 3 7. that the King of glory might come in and sup with me Then should I have more cause then yet I have to rejoyce in him for opening my womb and opening to me the treasures of raine and food yea then I should not care how soon a grave were opened for my body if my heart were first opened by the grace of Christ MEDITATION 2. There is a different generation and conception The children of Adam are generally propagated by ordinary generation but Sampson Jephtah c. had wonders accompanying their conception The elect of God who are in due time regenerate are supernaturally born and conceived not of flesh and bloud but of the Will of God Joh. 1 1â— Jesus Christ as to his humane nature was not begotten but miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin as to his Divine nature he was not conceived but eternally begotten by the God and Father of all things Though I am not like to be the Mother of a Prophet or a Judge in Israel though I have no miraculous or supernatural conception but am with child through Gods blessing by my husband in a state of matrimony yet I hope defire and pray that God would prepare some singular blessing for the fruit of my womb Oh that it might as was Saint John be sanctified from the womb and be filled with the holy Ghost that we may have joy and gladness Luke 1.14 15. and many may rejoyce at its birth Oh that it might please God so to bless this unborn child that it may grow and wax strong in the Spirit and may become so eminent in holiness of life Luk. 1. â—0 Lu. 11.27 that others may say Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck MEDITATION 3. And this is the sixth moneth with her who was called barren Luk. 1.36 It is most probable she was called by way of reproach the barren wife and therefore not much set by but rather vilified by the mothers in Israel God hath restrained the wombs of some from bearing but hath made mine fruitful Whether the barrennesse of some good women which I know be to them a curse I know not but oh my soul how great a curse is spiritual barrennesse and how cursed a creature do I then deserve to be Jer. 4.22 I am wise to doe evil though none teach me or tempt but to doe good I have no knowledge I have strong affections to love my friends self c. to hate my enemies and to be vext at worldly crosses and fear temporal dangers but how weak is my love to God hatred of sin and fear of his all-seeing eye I have done many things for my credit profit health ease c. but how barren am I 2 Pet. 1.8 and unfruitfull in the work of the Lord and how little affected with the concernments of my soul I have plenty of words for carnall company and can without study or help vent my passions with much fluency and readinesse if my servants or inferiours displease me but the Lord knows and my foul is confounded to remember that when fit occasion and opportunity have been offered yea a necessity laid upon me of reproving or admonishing my relations or acquaintance of inciting and quickning my family to true godliness I have many a time said little or nothing I have quenched the fire of zeal that burned within me I have by my needless silence seemed to own what my soul abhorrs yea when I have purposed and resolved to speak with serious earnestness in Gods behalf my heart hath been barren of fit matter my tongue hath wanted words and I have stood mute and silent as if possessed with a dumb devil Now whence is this If I be married to Christ and implanted into him Mic. 2.7 why is it thus surely I am not streightned in him but in my self Wherefore oh my soul go to him who onely worketh both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure And never cease importuning him till he quicken me by his Spirit and cause me know and enjoy the vertues and powers of my Saviour Then shall I bring forth my fruits unto holinesse Rom. 6.22 and my end shall be everlasting life MEDITATION 4. Hast thou not poured me out as milk Job 10.10 and curdled me like cheese Miseres â—â—que etiam â—udeâ— aestiâ—â—antem â—â—am fiâ—â—rivola aâ—antium
Tim. 4.15 Coloss 2.1 I conclude that surely they have many agonies and conflicts in their hearts for us Wherefore Oh my soul while I carefully expect the hour of my own travell how much am I to blame that I so little so seldom or never consider the travell of my Ministers soul often have I been pricked in conscience by his goad and nails Eccl. 12.11 often wounded by the sword of the Spirit bruised and smitten down by the hammer of the word and surely his stimulating reproofs his keen admonitions and knocking terrours proceeded from his longing desire of my conversion But when he hath after long striving been in hopes of my returne how have I by relapses and fresh miscarriages vext his righteous soul and quencht his new conceived hopes of me yea like those inconstant Galatians I have caused him again and again to travell with me in birth How just were it with God to plague me with a tedious painfull and fruitlesse travell and to make me read my sin and feel its bitternesse in so suceable a punishment But Oh my God remit the evills I have committed work in me what thou hast required and compleat in me what thy grace hath begun Let not the guide of my soul labour in vain but let him see of the travell of his soul and let me be among those children of whom my pious teacher shall hereafter say Lord here am I and the children which thou hast given me Then also shall I with more confidence expect to have benefit by his prayers for me when my body is in travell if God shall thus blesse and answer him in his prayers and travell for the new birth of my soul MEDITATION 12. I find it frequent in Scripture that the most dreadful judgements on the wicked are thus exprest Psal 48.6 Isa 23.4 Jer. 48.41 c. 49.42 c. 50.43 that Anguish shall take hold of them as of a woman in travel and that sudden destruction shall come upon them as upon a woman in travel and they shall not escape Wherefore oh my soul as Abraham when he had promise of a child Gen. 18.14.22 did presently intercede as far as he durst in behalf of wicked Sodom so let me ever remember to pray for the worst of men though perhaps they scorn and despise me and my Prayers Oh my God deale not with them after their sins but cause the wickednesse of the wicked to come to an end Psal 7.9 that the wicked themselves may not come to a sad end So persecute them with thy tempest make them afraid with thy storm that they may seeke thy face Oh Lord. Psal 83.15 And in whatever place or nation thy judgments shall enter yet if there be but a few righteous persons among them spare them from totall destruction and let not thy wrath come upon them to the uttermost MEDITATION 13. I find also that the sorrows of the people of God when God seemes to forsake them John 16 21.22 Jer. 6.24 c. 22.23 c. 30.6 Isa 26.17 18. c. 37. 3 the calamities of the church when God is pleased to correct them and the miserable disappointment of a Church hoping for reformation and endeavouring in vain for a deliverance from idolatry and oppression are also expressed by the pain and misery of women in travell Now Oh my soul how can I but observe two things from hence The one is that 't is surely the will of God that I should not confine my care to the concernments of my private condition but should labour for a publick Spirit such as was in that good woman 1 Sam. 4.19 20 21. the wife of Phinebas who was with child and near to be delivered and when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken and that her father in law and her husband were dead she bowed her selfe and travelied for her pains came upon her And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said fear not for thou hast born a son but she answered not neither did she regard it And she named the child Jchabod saying the glory is departed from Israel because the Ark of God was taken and because of her father in law and her husband And she said the glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken Blessed woman worthy of everlasting fame and imitation She took no comfort in her deliverance though she had a son while the Church of God was not delivered Oh that the same mind might be in me that I might learn also to be more affected with the affairs of the Church That if women may not be common actors of publick affairs yet we may be specially mourners for publick miseries Alas what is my danger to the universall danger my travell to the travell of the Church what comfort to me to have many children except I might see the good of Gods chosen Psal 106. â— what content have I in being delivered from my pains unlesse God deliver Israel from all its troubles Psal 37.40 what delight had Abraham in all his mercies while he went childlesse or I in all my children if the children of God be comfortlesse Oh my God blesse me out of Zion and thus let me be blessed as those are that feare the Lord Psal 128 3 4 5 6. let me not onely be a fruitfull vine but let me see the good of Jerusalem all my dayes Let me not only see my childrens children but peace upon Israel But from the manner of holy Writ to compare almost all miseries whether inward or outward whether of good men or of bad to the pains of women in travell as the fittest embleme of extreme conflicts and agonies I must needs conclude that there is no sorrow like unto that sorrow and no evill like that sin that caused it no danger like that danger and therefore no Saviour like him who can deliver from it Wherefore while my life hangs in suspense my soul is distracted between fear and hope my mind is appall'd my heart melts and is even faint when I consider that hour of torment approaching Let me yet further inquire Oh my soul what duties are yet behind in order to making my peace with God and let nothing hinder or divert my present religious and heavenly imployment till I have brought my mind into some setled posture ready to abide whatever shall happen So much for the duty of Meditation now to the rest CHAP. VI. Resignation to the will of God the duty of Women with child TO submit and resign our wills to the will of God in all things is a most desirable and comfortable temper in any man or woman T is indeed the sum of most duties and a compendium of many virtues He that can thus receive the Kingdome of God as a little child Mark 10.15 with Selfe denyal and humble dependance on our Father in heaven he shall in time by thus subjecting himself
to the Divine will in doing or suffering grow very like the Angels and Saints in heaven and shall himself enjoy that tranquility and undisturbed serenity as will be a kind of heaven upon earth The truth whereof will especially appear in this particular case of suffering any dangerous and painfull afflictions There was nothing more commendable in old Eli than that pious sentence of his when he heard of the ruine of his house 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good There was never more grace expressed in fewer words than in those of our Saviour's Luke 22.41 Mat. 26.42 not my will but thine be done Considering that his pangs agonies and torments were a thousand times greater than the pains of a woman in travell yea equall in substance to the pains of hell Wherefore be not sollicitous overmuch for your bodily life or the life of your child much lesse should you be too eager in desiring one of such a sex as some will wish for a Boy others for a Girle and that with strange discontent at the very thoughts of being disappointed But the example of Rachel may be a warning to you all She made account to die with melancholy and sorrow if she had not children Gen. 30.1 c. 35.16 17 18. and she had her desire but it cost her her life As you may do well to reade in the story it selfe So what she longed for she perished by T is reported of Agrippina Nero's Mother that she prayed her son might be Emperour The oracle told her that if he came to be Emperour he would kill his Mother she replyed desperately let him kill me so I may but see him Emperour first Occidat modo imperet Sueton And the event prooved accordingly for he caused her to be ript up that he might see the inside of that womb wherein he first lay I have read also of a woman that took on excessively for her child that was like to die and the Minister telling her that she did very unwisely for perhaps the child if it lived might prove so great a crosse to her that she might have cause once to wish that he had now died She madly answered that so her child might live she did not care though he should hereafter come to Hanging Accordingly he did live and was in time for robbery or murther hanged indeed This folly would have seem'd ridiculous to some heathens who knew not the will and wisedom of God so clearly as we may Plutarch relates of Cleobis and Biton that in the absence of the horses they drew their Mother's Chariot to the temple themselves for which obedient Act of theirs she prayed that they might be rewarded with the greatest blessings that could possibly happen from God to Man but so it happened that they were both found dead in their beds next morning News being brought to their Mother of this supposed misfortune she replyed I will never account my selfe unfortunate Spencer's Things new and old pag. 670. in being mother to such sons whom God hath invested with immortality for their pious and obedient actions If a pagan woman had so good an esteem of the providence of an unknown God how inexcusable are you if by a heart of unbelief or self-love you depart from him in your faith or prescribe to him in your prayers How dishonourable to his wisedom and dangerous to your selves is passionate importunity for any temporall blessing T is lawfull I confesse to pray for life and safe deliverance as for daily bread for David Hezekiah yea Christ himselfe did thus petition the Author of life It being naturall to every living creature to desire the continuation of its own Being But we must moderate our desires herein English Annot. on Gen. 35 18 with expresse reference to Gods good Will Yea with that holy indifferency as to be pleased without that gift which it shall not please God to bestow (a) Doct. Gonge on the Lâ—rds prayer p. 94. Seeing as one sayes there is a necessity of yielding to Gods Will because it cannot be resisted and there is equity in so doing because it cannot be better'd Wherefore when blind nature which cannot see beyond mortality at least not see far into immortality shall fill you with earnest desires of longer life yet let the reverence you owe to the gracious Providence and infallible Word of God of which I shall say more in the following Chapters cause you to yeild to his blessed Will Cast up all events consider what may happen and resolve as David did If I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord 2 Sam 15.25 26. he will bring me again and shew me both the ark and his habitation but if he thus say Behold I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me what seemeth good unto him Say with them in the Acts the will of the Lord be done Say with that good woman I have somewhere read of who being asked in her sicknesse whether Acts 21.14 if God should referre it to her to live or dye which she would chuse I would choose neither but ee'n referre it to him again If God call for the life of your child yield it up as quietly as Abraham did Isaac If he shall call for the life both of you and your child let your heart be ready to answer Lord here am I and the child which thou hast given me CHAP. VII Dedication of the child to God the duty of women with child VVHen I say it is your duty to dedicate your child to God before it is born I do not mean a dedication to some office in the house of God as Hannah did by Samuel for I suppose she did it by some propheticall instinct equivalent to a Revelation But yet this I must needs say in short That it were in my judgement a commendable purpose in any parents poor or rich that if their child prove hopefull and ingenious he shall be wholly set apart for the service of God in his Church It being so known a practice among Heathens Jewes and ancient Christians if they had any thing of singular worth to dedicate it to God And our Gentry and Nobility are herein guilty of a most irreligious and ignoble practice I mean to count their son and heir or any of their children that are well shaped and towardly above the office of the Ministry as if it would be a perpetual dishonour to their family to set him a-part for God But if there be any of their children mis-shapen make him a Scholar and if he be a Dunce use their interest to get him some preferment that requires no employment Surely the first author of the Priesthood God himself appointed it to the first-born as his peculiar honour above the rest of his brethren and for special provocations against God they lost it and it was conferred by divine favour on Levi. And how
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
among their cattel none should be barren or cast their young Exod 23.26 And though sometimes the voice of the Lord maketh the Hindes to calve that is Terrible claps of thunder cause some beasts to cast their young sooner than ordinary Yet his providence doth generally watch over every beast of the forest to cause them to bring forth their fruit in season Job 39.1 2 3. and to cast out their sorrows even the wild goats of the rock partake of this benefit from him And men also are generally carefull of beasts in this condition as Jacob took speciall care of Labans cattle that they did not cast their young Gen. 31.38 33.13 and in driving his own cattel when he met his Brother Esau he was mindfull to go such a pace as might not hurt any creature with young David when a shepheard expresses that Calling by following the ews great with young Implying that his care of them was double to what he had of therest of his flock Hence it is that when God would set forth to us the mild and gracious conduct of the Captain of our salvation Jesus Christ 't is thus expressed sa 40.11 He shall feed his flock like a sheep-heard he shall gather the Lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young That is shall use like tendernesse and indulgence to the weak and infirm as all sober men do to creatures that are with young Now Is a good man mercifull to his beast and is not our good God mercifull to his children in that condition Doth God take care for fouls fishes and beasts even every beast of the forest and doth he not much more take care of you O ye of little faith Hath he not implanted in all men a most tender regard to teeming women Whence came else that law of the Areopagites whose famous laws were patterns to many nations the like whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Aelian var. hist lib. 5. p. mihi 404. or at least the like custome we have in England that be a woman never so flagitious and unworthy to live yet if she be with child that shall priviledge her from the stroak of death till she be delivered and gotten to some strength I say the Father of mercy doth infuse this compassion into the minds of all men and not onely so but hath given a most severe Law for the sharp punishment of all men Exod. 21.22 23 24. that shall accidentally hurt a woman with child that they shall give life for life and limb for limb or what ever punishment the husband shall think fit Now what greater evidence would you have of the mercifull regard of our God and Saviour than the particulars I have here proposed So that it must needs be a thing unreasonable in you and displeasing to him not to trust in his name and to cast all your cares fears and burthens upon him To all which let me adde the consideration of his alsufficiency to help you in that condition and this you will find if well considered to be the surest support you can fix your thoughts upon All creatures by the instinct of nature and providential gubernation are apprehensive of approaching dangers and use the best means they can to secure themselves The subtile Foxes have holes the foolish Deer their thickets and the conies though a simple folk yet make they their holes in such rocks and precipices from whence no hand can pluck them The wary Bird espying the gun or snare of the Fowler mounts aloft and is safe from danger Wherefore when you grow bigger and bigger and your heart grows big with fearful expectations of your approaching danger should you not pray that God would lead you to the rock that is higher then you which Rock is Christ Should you not look upwards and ascend upwards daily in your thoughts that so you may get above the hurt and peril of any affliction yea of death it self Do you not observe that among creatures those are most active and powerfull that are furthest elevated and removed from gross matter You therefore extract distill c. that you may have the quintessence and vertue of any herb more compendiously and effectually usefull in your time of need You see also the water is more active then the dull earth the aire then the water the fire then either of the three and Angels excel men and all elements and all creatures in strength and God doth yet further exceed them then they do a worm Therefore to whom should you go but to him who onely hath the power of life and death It is both commendable and common in repenting sinners to count themselves with the Apostle chief sinners because of some peculiar circumstances they espy in their own sine which they have cause to think are not common to be found in the sins of others But it is more common then commendable in afflicted persons to aggravate their sorrows like those in the Prophet Behold and see Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow c. So perhaps you think there is none so like to miscarry and perish none ever more unlikely to live then you This is doubtless your folly For what improbabilities or seeming impossibilities can you labour under which many others have not been exercised with and delivered from There is no new thing under the Sun Unlesse you are resolved to believe nothing but your own unbelieving heart you may hear and know of many that have been as weak sickly bruised hurt diseased and sufficiently afraid yet have been safely delivered But be it so that your case is singular and worse then ordinary yet cannot you say with the Apostle I know whom I have trusted that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him Jer. 17.5 Believers trust not in an arme of flesh that is cursed nor do their hearts depart from the Living God but they trust in him whose Name is a sure Refuge whose Promise is a sufficient Security whose compassion is a sufficient Motive to do good and whose Power is allufficient to accomplish it Therefore 't is remarkable that in the Old Testament God did often exercise his hand maids with many improbabilities before they had any children As you may see in the Stories of Sarah Rebeceah Rachel Leah Hannah Elizabeth and others Now they considered not their own bodies though dead that is past the usual time of nature for child-bearing but trusting in him who was able to create that which was not or to quicken that which was dead they continued in the Faith and were the joyful mother of children We had a Cor. 1.9 saith the Apostle the sentence of death in our selves that we might learn not to trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead As if he had said the God whom we
trust is able to raise us and will raise us hereafter out of our graves how much easier is it to him to raise us out of our present danger and affliction Wherefore God himselfe is pleased to satisfie us once for all to tell us that women with child cannot be so hard put to it but he can deliver them For when he would expresse his all sufficient Power in giving the Israelites such a deliverance as they scarce could believe or expect thus he doth express it Jer. 31.8 I will gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind and the lame the woman with child and her that travelleth with child together That is though in your return from captivity so long a journey to Jerusalem you may think of many impossibilities as We being poor and helplesse how is it possible but that teeming and labouring women must miscarry and perish by the way Oh saith God I can strengthen them give them a speedy easy delivery and make them even in that condition without long stay and losse of time able to go forward till they come into their own Land So then I say If your apprehensions of danger in your travell do any way discourage your faith Zechariah 8.6 Job 5.9 Rev. 15.3 yet let Gods alsufficiency put life into it If to be delivered be marvellous in your eyes yet it is not marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts But though we all acknowledge this in the notion D. Preston of Gods attributes p. 196. yet how few are there whose hearts are possessed with the power of this truth As it is one thing to hear a thing in the notion as for a man to think what he would do if he were a Pilot or a Captain and another thing to have it in the reall managing as when he is brought to fight So it is here It is one thing to say I believe God is Almighty and another to thing rest upon it For not onely the stub born Israelites did distrust God in the wilderness and weak women as Martha and Mary John 11.21 questioned Christs power to raise Lazarus because he had been four dayes dead but no less a man then Moses himself questions how God could provide for six hundred thousand in the wilderness Wherefore Numb 11. strive with your unbelief give to God the glory of his Power Wisdome and Mercy fix the apprehensions thereof deeply upon your heart and pray to the Author and Finisher of Faith to help your unbelief Conclude with the wife of Manoah after you have mourned and prayed with any hope of acceptation Surely if the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have accepted a sacrifice at our hands Labour for the faith of those men and women of old of whom it is written that by faith out of wekness they were made strong and women received their dead to life Yet let not the thoughts of Gods all sufficiency pass without one improvement more which I shall give you in the words of a singular Divine If God be All sufficient then learn to be content with God alone for all destrable comforts are in him as the effects are in the cause as when Christ promises that If any leave house Mark 10.28 29 30. or Brethren or Sisters c. for his sake and the Gospel they shall receive an hundred fold now in this life Houses Brethren and Sisters c. They shall receive the very same things that is they shall find the comfort of all these things in God Therefore consider what heaven is Do you think that there you shall have a worse condition then here you have a variegated appetite full of multiplicity you want many comforts and conveniences but when you come to Heaven you do not lay aside your nature but desire still And yet there you shall have none but God alone so that if all this vanity were not to be found in him you could not be happy even in Heaven it self Therefore he saith that he will be all in all Wherefore comfort your selves with these words CHAP. XIV Patience in the midst of their pains the duty of traveling women I Know very well that 't is far more easie to prescribe patience to others then to exercise it to our selves And therefore if I tell women in this condition that it would become them to be less clamorous and vociferous in their outcries and scrieches they will soon reply that if we knew what they endured we would not much blame them (a) Gen. 3.16 Jer. 13.21 ch 20.23 ch 30.6 ch 49.24 ch 50.43 Isa 21.3 Hos 13 13 Micah 4.9 10 Isa 13.8 John 16.21 1 Thes 5.3 Psal 48.6 Rev. 12.2 I grant indeed that the pains of a woman in travel are alwayes expressed in Scripture as the fittest comparison to set forth the greatest pains imaginable as may be seen in the places quoted in the margin And that the same word in the Original signifies both pains in travel and pangs of death as critical Annotators do observe on Isa 26.17 Psal 18.4 Psal 116.3 And that in Scripture the time of travell is commonly expressed by crying out Isa 26.17 chap. 42.14 And therefore I would not have any pious women to mis-interupt me as if I counted it no less then sinful to utter their complaints and outcries in the midst of their torments but I would think it commendable in any of them if they would so arm themselves with patience before-hand that they might abate somewhat of those dreadfull groans and cryes which do so much discourage their friends and relations that are near them and do much amaze the hearts and weaken the hands of those standers by that they become the less helpful to them But this is a small matter to what I intend Give your self what liberty and ease you will by pouring out your groans so you look to the chief thing that is that your heart be all the while in a believing praying humble patient submissive frame To help your patience herein you must know that my meaning is not that you should read meditate or perform any laborious duty at that time but what I now mention as useful to you in that case you must consider of before that hour and so possess your mind with the grounds and principles of patience that patience may then have in you its perfect work To which end consider that Sin is the procuring cause of all sufferings therefore if we understood felt considered the weight desert filth and future evil of sin how could we have the face to complain of any evil but that or to make any other outcry but that of the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death How emphatical are those words of the Prophet Why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his iniquities That is seeing you are but a creature a
pleasvres for evermore that they never thirst after the present delights of the sons of men but scorne the very thoughts of any mortal enjoyments I am much mistaken in my conceptions of Eternity if it prove not some addition to my joy before God for ever 1 Thess 2.19 20. Phil 2.16 if this book of mine whoever else disregard it may be as I hope it will an instrumental cause of reall addition to your grace a help to your joy in believing a support to you in the time of need But this I leave wholly to the powerful blessing of that God whose I am and whom I serve And God forbid that I should sin against him in ceasing to pray for you that you may be inwardly fill'd with all the fulness of God and may outwardly shine not in costly array but which becometh women professing godlinesse in good works 1 Tim 2.9 10. 1 Pet. 3.3 4 5. that the dayes of your tranquillity may be lengthened that you may see your childrens children and peace upon Israel Prov. 31.28 29. that wherein other daughters have done vertuously you may strive to excel them all that so your children may rise up and call you blessed and your husband also may praise you that you may patiently run your race and faithfully finish your course that when you have conflicted with all the dangers and inconveniences of your pilgrimage you may receive the end of your faith and in a good old age enter into rest If my tongue doe not alway use these very words yet my soul shall thus pray for you without ceasing till I my selfe shall cease to be till when I crave leave to subscribe Your ever devoted Servant in the things of Christ J. O. TO THE READER Good Reader I Have according to the the Authors desire perused this short Treatise and finde it pithy pious and plain Thou wilt find nothing therein that 's either Factious or Seditious but that which tends to advance true piety The Authors design being not to gratifie any discontented Party but to promote the power of Godlinesse in all And though the Title tell thee that this booke is more peculiarly intended for Child-bearing Women yet thou wilt finde that much of the matter contained herein will be profitable to any that shall read it seriously and improve it aright That it may Reader be of good use to thy Soule is the Prayer of Thine in our Lord Edw. Hicks D.D. Minister at Rood Church London TO THE Christian Reader SOME have disputed whether the invention of Printing and Guns have done more harme then good I shall not determine Onely this I dare say that where Guns have slain their thousands the Presse hath slain its ten thousands And the latter kind of slaughter is more deplorable because it reaches to mens Soules Of this misery there will be no end while controversies take up our time or novelties take with our fancy I having now some leasure whereof as even a Heathen said I must give an account I bethought my self wherein I might be most serviceable to my generation and bring most glory to my God and Saviour Therefore knowing that the Presse will reach those who are orherwise out of my reach I resolved in some lesser piece first to make an essay how any thing of mine would passe in the world And thinking it presumption yea something worse to transcribe and pick both method matter and words out of other authors pretending a new treatise upon a beaten argument which others had better handled before finding also by experience that some late needlesse Writers have done the Church more disservice by taking of the minds of men from more ancient Authors than reall service by putting plain truth only into a finer mode I did therefore conclude to accept of that for my theame which all Divines for ought I can finde have as with one consent left untoucht as if they had bequeathed it to me to handle So that I hope all ingenous Readers will be more candid did to me whatever imperfections their critical eyes may here discover considering * Iter eâ— non tritâ authoribuâ— viâ nec quâ pergrinari animus ex petat Nemo apuâ— nos qui id tentaveriâ— Plin. praes hist nar Jud. 14.18 2 Cor. 10.16 that I could not plow with another mans Heifer nor boast in another mans Line of things made ready to my hand but was forced to break the Ice my selfe to walke in an untrodden path and to spin the thread out of my own bowels And I hope that among the many women with child it may light into the hands of some that are serious humble and teachable whom I would in treat to peruse it diliberately if they please a chapter in a day seconding it with Meditation and Prayer and if they thus go through it in order I question not but if I never hear of them yet God shall soon hear their voice of thanksgiving for some benefit by it As for others I have this onely request to them that they would let it passe quietly till some abler head shall furnish the world with a better * Ego quod potui id feci nec impedio siquis in eodem circo currat a palmam Lips in Tacit. Which I should be right glad to see And saving my reverence to those abler heads I cannot understand why this point should be held so inconsiderable as to be below the studies of any of our voluminous learned Clarks who yet have the leasure and condescention to write polemicall Treatises about very small matters Surely Women in this condition have their peculiar duties and their peculiar motives to diligence in them and their number is considerable They are a worthy part of the Community then especially when breeding for much of the comfort of the present generation and the honour of God and future being of his Church in succeeding generations is concerned in those Infants yet un-borne We know that their dangers are many that their dayes are frequently shortned by travel that their souls are precious and therefore how precious should be * Cal. 6. â—0 to us any opportunity * Job 12.21 of acquainting them with God with their duty to him to their own souls and to the children they go with Surely our relation to or Acqaintance with some of them our Christian compassion that we owe to all of them doth oblige us not onely to wish their happy deliliverance but as occasion is offered to promote their preparation for travell And from this pious intention I suppose it was that Mr. Deering at the end of his works hath a Godly prayer fitted for Women with child and because I know not of any other that hath given any such I shall here transcribe it A Prayer before child-birth AL thy wayes are just Oh dear Father and thy judgments are true altogether For worthily doth man live in the sweat of his face