Matthew Poole and continuators on John 16:21

21 A woman, when she is in travel, hath for row, because her hour is come: but assoon as she is delivered of the child, she remembreth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world .

Our Lord compareth the state of the Church in this life, and more especially in those first and most furious times, to the state of a woman that is big with child, and in her travel; when he saith, she hath sorrow, that is great pain, because God when he cursed the woman for her transgression, made this her porsion, Gen. 3.16. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow, and thy conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and when her weeks are fulfilled, her hour is come to feel the effect of this curse, the fruit of the first womans transgression; but no sooner is she delivered of a child, but she forgetteth all her throws and pains, for joy of a child born into the World. Such (saith our Saviour to his Disciples) is your estate; you are as a woman in travail, so will all those that believe in me, be, to the end of the World.

Marginal references: I[illegible: 1 letter]a. 26.1[illegible: 1 letter] ▪