with the green sickness, or with the hip, are griped or qualmish, whether it be the queen, or any of the concubines, servants, or princesses, it is all put down, and taken for granted to be Zion's labour. Whereas some groan under a false conception: "they conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity; and their belly prepareth deceit." Others have been with child, and have laboured, and brought forth wind: they wrought no deliverance; nor were they delivered themselves, till the promise came; "Thy dead men shall live," Isa. xxvi. 18, 19. Some, who assume the name of queen, and lay claim to his Majesty's person, find all their glory and lustre vanish as soon as they put their hands upon their loins: their glory flies away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception, Hosea ix. 11. Others, after a deal of counterfeit labour, just to attract pity from the gossips, produce a snail that melteth away: it is an untimely birth, which never sees the sun, Psalm lviii. 8. All these, in the eyes some, pass for child-bearing women: preparations are made; kerchiefs and pillows are prepared, Ezek. xiii. 18; the garden of spices is robbed, Song vi. 2; cordial and consolation are flying about even for the dead, for such are not the bride; and every granny is condoling the hypocrite, till the abortive birth discovers the hypocrisy of the bond woman: then she that was full hires herself out for bread, 1 Sam. ii. 5; and, after that, becomes a pest, and a plague, if she can, to every

of

royal lodge in his Majesty's dominions. Ancient palaces, as well as modern, from the royal family of Abraham down to Solomon, and from Solomon to the latest regal reign of the Prince of Peace, the household hath been and will be pestered, more or less, with these strange women.

Shepherd. But you don't think, sir, that Weak Heart, Silly Dove, and Little Faith, are either children of whoredom, or a seed of falsehood. They are not born of fornication, are they? If they were the children of the concubines, or of the desolate which hath no husband, you would not have the charge and care of them, I should think; for the bread of his Majesty's household is not to be cast to dogs, nor to the bastards of Ashdod, Neh. xiii. 24.

Steward. True; these three children of the wood are not legitimate; they are the offspring and issue of Zion, Isa. xxii. 24; and are called the feeble ones of the house of David, Zech. xii. 8; and their feebleness is chiefly owing to the grannies and gossips that attended her Majesty in labour; who have neither patience to let the birth take its course, nor wisdom to watch and wait the events of Providence, who asks this important question, "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God?" The work should be left to him whose work it is; and his aid should be implored, and his time submitted to, who has fixed a time for

every purpose, a time to be born, and a time to die: but, instead of this, the birth is hastened; threatenings are used; fiery warnings are given; different counsels are taken; all sorts of pretenders are called in; endless advice, some right, and some wrong, is attended to; and violence is often used and, what with their different slops, wherreting tongues, and violent measures, they are forced before the decree brings forth, Zeph. ii. 2. I think, it is better to tarry too long, like Ephraim, in the place of the breaking forth of children, Hos. xiii. 13, than, like Ishmael, to make an appearance fourteen years before the time of the promise; for this breach is sure to be upon him that breaks forth, and his name must be called Pharez, Gen. xxxviii. 29.

Shepherd. We have got just such novices. among cattle as you have in the household. Some are running with food as soon as cattle bow themselves to bring forth their young, and to cast out their sorrows, Job xxix. 3; others with hot drinks, and some drenching them with a horn; which is only troubling them; for, when they are in pain, they cannot eat, only at intervals, when there is a little intermission. To get them into the barn in time, if the weather be cold, attend upon them, and pray, as the psalmist did, "that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets," is the best way of proceeding, in my judgment. And as it is with cattle, so it is, in this respect, with the human species. If the wo

man goes not her proper time, her offspring must of course be weakly.

Steward. It is the case with these. Weak Heart, Silly Dove, and Little Faith, are but seven months children.

Shepherd. I have heard, that all the honourable matrons, ladies in waiting, women of the childbed chamber, grannies, gossips, and nurses; in short, all who engage, either in the talkative or the active part, on those occasions, who use proverbs, and whose veracity must not be questioned without incurring displeasure, do affirm this proverb to be true, with one voice; namely, that a seven months' child generally lives, but an eight months' child seldom does. If these are allowed to give a portion to seven, and also to eight, the proverb deals life to the former, and death to the latter.

Steward. I doubt not of these little ones living for ever: yet such are to be pitied, because they were neglected. Poor Little Faith was entangled in his navelstring at his birth; which requires a sharp knife, but sharpness was not used, Tit. i. 13; 2 Cor. xiii. 10. You know, "there are that speaketh like the piercings of a sword; but the tongue of the wise is health." This cuts a child off from the wisdom of the flesh, and begets a fear in the heart which, as Wisdom saith, is health to his navel, and marrow to his bones, Prov. iii. 8. The ties of nature are strong; and the child that is entangled with them is sure

to savour of the old cask, and to be put behind. "Get thee behind me." said the King to Little Faith: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but these that be of men," Matt. xvi. 49. Hence the heavy complaint in the ancient recoris: And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut. Poor children thus entangled in the ties of nature must unavoidably draw nutriment from flesh and blood: and, where this is the case, the birth cannot be clear; for we are born. not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John i 13. Yea, and it is no uncommon thing, in our days, to see a bond-child assume the highest office in his Majesty's household; giving orders and directions to the whole family, with his navel string round his neck, instead of a ravishing chain, Cant. iv. 9; sticking to Hagar's knees, instead of Zion's lap; and cleaving to the first Adam, in preference to the second. Nor were the poor infants managed properly when they came: they should have been taken to the fountain opened for the house of David, with earnest importunities to be washed and suppled; and they should have been seasoned with salt, by the ministry of grace; and have been swaddled with the girdle of truth, which girds up the loins of the mind, and keeps them from staggering. But, poor babes! they fell into the hands of grannies that had no skill, and physicians of no value, and nurses of neither truth nor pity.