Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts

Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.

First; There may be either such miserable slaughters as that parents might even wish that they never had any children.

Or secondly, they may live under such cruel tyranny for their souls and bodies.

Or thirdly, they may be drawn from God by false religion, and so may be in a condition worse than if they had not been born.

Hence parents to whom God denies children or takes them away, they should quiet themselves in God's dispose, especially in such times as these are: it may be God has taken away your children to deliver them from greater evils: as in the house of Jeroboam, there was but one child that had any good in it, and says God, That child shall die, and gives the reason, Because it had some good in it. So that God takes away many that he has the most love to, and lets others to live that he has not so much love to.

Yes, (some may say) If I were sure that their souls were safe, though God does take them away, if I were sure of their salvation, then I would be content.

That's true indeed, if your children were saved, what hurt is that to be taken away here and received to Heaven, and there to live for ever with Christ, not to sin, or sorrow more: but however you may satisfy your selves in these three things.

First, that they are under an indefinite promise, though not a universal.

Secondly, suppose he should not be saved, then it were better that he should be taken away than to live to sin more against God, he might have lived to have done a great deal of mischief in the world if he were one that God did not intend to save, and therefore quiet your self; however God sees further than you do, either when he denies the children, or takes them away in such times as these are.

Further, in times when public evils are threatened, they are good times to die in; if better not to be born in evil time, then certainly it is no great evil to die in evil times. Good men are taken away from the evil to come. As if a woman had her breast to be lanced or cut off, would not the tender father take the children out of the room in the mean time? Who knows but God may have the breast of his Church (our Mother) even to be cut off for a time, yet may suffer heavier things than ever she has done, and if God shall take away his tender children that will not be able to bear such a sight as that, what great evil is it? As we read of God towards Moses, when God's glory was to pass by, he puts Moses into the hole of a rock; and truly the graves of the saints are but as the holes of the rock till the glory of God's justice passes by a people.

And thirdly, if the sins of parents may be the cause of such things to children as better they had not been born, let those that have children take heed that they lay not up such wrath for an inheritance for their children, as that their children afterwards should even wish they never had been born of such parents, especially if parents be careless in the education of their children not to bring them up in the fear of the Lord, hereafter their children may curse the time that ever they were born of them, and say, Oh! that I rather had been of the offspring of vipers, or the generation of dragons than that I had come of such parents, Oh! that my mother had had a miscarrying womb, or that she never had had breasts to give me suck. Certainly this will be the voice of many children against their parents one day: look to it that there be never a father nor mother in this place that may give cause to their children thus to wish they had never been born of such parents. And certainly if the enduring of sorrows and misery in this world may put them into such a condition, what then will sin and being the authors of miseries to others do? Those children that are abominable and wicked in their lives, and are causes of mischief to others, how much cause is it that it had been said, that it had been better his mother's womb had miscarried: as it was said of Judas, that it had been better that he had never been born: and so it may be said of abundance at this day, what abundance of evil are some at this day the cause of to others? What woful disturbances, distractions and calamities do some men bring upon a nation? Had it not been better that their mothers' wombs to have miscarried, and their breasts not to have given them such?

And again, what horrible wickedness are some guilty of? How many mothers this day have cause to say, Oh! that my womb had miscarried of such a child! Oh that my breasts had never given such a child suck! Oh that ever one should come out of my womb to do so much mischief, to take up arms to fight against his country, to fight against the saints, to bring in slavery and tyranny, that ever any out of my womb should have a hand in such a mischievous way as this is! Oh! these breasts of mine every time I look upon them, I wish they had never given such a one suck, for it may be they will suck my blood too. Certainly if ever there were a time to wish their wombs had miscarried, and their breasts never given suck, these are the times many may do so. And this seems to have allusion to that which Christ says in (Luke 23:19): Blessed are the wombs that never bear, and the paps that never gave suck. I say, concerning many particulars in the kingdom in this time, it might have been said, Oh! blessed had the womb been that such men were in, had they never been born, and the paps that they sucked, that they had never given suck. This would not have been an interpretation, but a good prayer, if it could have been foreseen, if any prophet could have foreseen this, that you should have been a child, and he should have been an actor in so much mischief as has been done in this kingdom of late, if any prophet could have foreseen this, you would have said Amen to his prayer, Lord give this woman a miscarrying womb and dry breasts that she might never have born nor given suck to such an one. It follows.