N00500:102
Ornaments for the daughters of Zion. Or The character and happiness of a virtuous…Ornaments for the daughters of Zion. Or The character and happiness of a vertuous…
Ornaments for the daughters of Zion. Or The character and happiness of a virtuous woman: in a discourse which directs the female-sex how to express, the fear of God, in every age and state of their life; and obtain both temporal and eternal blessedness. / Written by Cotton Mather ; [Four lines in Latin from Tertullian, followed by a six line translation into English]Ornaments for the daughters of Zion. Or The character and happiness of a vertuous woman: in a discourse which directs the female-sex how to express, the fear of God, in every age and state of their life; and obtain both temporal and eternal blessedness. / Written by Cotton Mather ; [Four lines in Latin from Tertullian, followed by a six line translation into English]
printed by S.G. & B.G. i.e for Samuel Phillips, 1692
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.
BUT it is possible the Women to whom I write, may find their Hearts Complying with the Proposals of the Blessed Saviour, when they see those Proposals more distinctly laid before them. It is therefore Desired, FIRST, That you would Renounce all other L•v•rs besides the L•rd Jesus Christ. It is the Demand of our Lord Jesus, in Hos 3 3. Thou shalt not Play the Harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. You have indeed given your First L•ves, unto the Idols of your Souls; but O where are your Wonderments that the S•n of God should not be Averse after all, to make You, His! Although the Priest of old, might no• M••ry a Widow; yet our Magnificent High Priest. JESUS, is willing to Marry a Soul that ha's been fearfully Vitiated and Prostituted; Thou hast Play•d the Harlot with many L•vers, yet Return again unto me, saith th• Lord. But that which the Lord now Expects of you, is, to forsake and shake off, all the Old Oppressors of your Soul: forever. Unto the Fl•sh now say, I will not have thy L•sts to be my Laws any more! Unto the World n•w say, I will not seek my Chief Good among thy Vexatious Vanities any more! And unto the Devil say, I will no more be among thy Slaves, whom thou Leadest Captive at thy w•ll! Resolve, that if ever these Other Lords do after this Obtain any thing from you, it shall be by the Violence of a Rape, which you will ⟨image ?⟩never cease Crying to Heaven for Help against. And it is, THEN, Desired, That you would Receive the Lord Jesus Christ, With and For all His Mercies. Receive Him, with the Wish of your Souls, To be by Him Furnished and Provided with all manner of Good, and by Him to b•ing forth Fruit unto Him. Receive Him freely, fully, firmly, hoping to Live on Him, to Him, and with Him World without End. Fall down like Mary in the Garden crying out, Rabboni; O my Lord! my Lord! With a Transported Affection say uno Him, Lord, Be thou mine, make me Thine, and let my Jesus be for ever the Beloved of my Soul! and upon your own Souls lay that Chage Continually, Hearken, O Daughter; He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him! But Receive Him also very Thankfully for, if when the Servants of David came to Abigail, saying, David sent us unto the, to take thee to him, o Wife, tis reported in