A12367:84
A preparative to marriage The sum whereof was spoken at a contract, and enlarged…A preparatiue to mariage The summe whereof was spoken at a contract, and inlarged…
A preparative to marriage The sum whereof was spoken at a contract, and enlarged after. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of the Lords Supper, and another of usury. By Henry Smith.A preparatiue to mariage The summe whereof was spoken at a contract, and inlarged after. Whereunto is annexed a treatise of the Lords Supper, and another of vsurie. By Henrie Smith.
London: printed by Thomas Orwin for Thomas Man, 1591
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The first duty is the mothers, 1that is, to nurse her child at her own breasts, as Sarah did Isaac: & therefore Isaiah joineth the nurses name and the mothers name both in one, and calleth them nursing mothers: showing that mothers should be the nurses. So when God chose a nurse for Moses, 2he led the handmaid of Pharaohs daughter to his mother, as though GOD would have none to nurse him but his mother. After, when the Son of God was borne, his father thought none fit to be his 3nurse but the Virgin his mother. The fountains of the earth are made to give water, & the breasts of women are made to give suck. Every beast, and every foul, is ⟨p. 100⟩bred of the same that did bear it, only women love to be mothers, but not nurses. Therefore if their children prove unnatural, they may say thou followest thy mother, for she was unnatural first in locking up her breasts from thee, and committing thee forth like a Cuckoo to be hatched in the Sparrows nest. Hereof it comes that we say, he sucked evil from the dug, that is, as the Nurse is affected in her body or in her mind, commonly the child draweth the like infirmity from her, as the eggs of a Hen are altered under a Hawk: yet they which have no milk can give no milk; but whose breasts have this perpetual drought? Forsooth it is like the Gout, no beggars may have it, but Citizens or Gentlewomen. In the 9. of Hosea, dry breasts are ⟨p. 101⟩named for a curse; what lamentable hap have Gentlewomen to light upon this curse more than other? Sure if their breasts be dry as they say, they should fast & pray together that this curse might be removed from them.
The first duetie is the mothers, 1that is, to nurse her childe at her owne breasts, as Sara did Isaak: & therefore Esaiah ioyneth the nurces name and the mothers name both in one, and calleth them nurcing mothers: shewing that mothers should bee the nurces. So whē God chose a nurce for Moses,