N00500:123
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.
III. But her Fear of Displeasing her Husband, most remarkably appears in the Peace that she preserves with him; and her Antipathy to all Con•ention, unless it be That of, Provoking one another to Love and Good Works. A Susan she is, that is, A Lilly; but never, A Briar, to him; nor will she give him cause to call her, Barbara. She will have no such Passion towards her Husband as may make her worthy to be called, A Fury; but if he be himself in a Passion, she strives with the Soft Answers of Meekness, to Mollify it first, and so to Overcome […]: She is a true Rachel, that is to say, A Sheep under the greatest Exasperations. A Reverend Person seeing once a Couple that were very Choleric, yet live most lovingly and peaceably together, demanded of them, Whence it was? and the man made him this Answer, Sir, When my Wife is in a Passion I yield unto her; and when I am in a Passion, she yields unto me; so that we never are in our passionate Fits together! The Good Woman will make it her Endeavour to attend the last part of this Contrivance, and will give small or no Occasion for the First. The Mariners count i• Bodes w•ll to see Two Fire-Balls appearing in a Ship together; bu• our Good Woman counts Two Fire Balls in an House together to B•de Ill as the worst of Omens; nor will she be a party to maintain a Civil War within the Walls of her Dwelling. She thinks that if there be nothing but Fire! Fire•• ⟨p. 82⟩in the House, 'tis a sign that God, Who is, The God of Peace, is not graciously present there; as the Jewish Rabbins have noted upon the Hebrew Names of Ish, an Husband, and Ishah, a Wife; out of which if you take the Two Letters which make the Name of Joh, there will remain only Esh, •sh, that is, Fire! Fire! The old Heathen took the G•ll from the Nuptial Sacrifices, and threw i• behind the Altar, to intimate, That all Bitterness is to be thrown away by all Married People; Mercury, or Good Language, is to stand by Venus And this Woman accordingly, puts away, •ll Bitterness, Anger, Clamour, and Evil-Speaking; She is a Right Rebekah, which carries, The Blunting or hindering of Contention, in the signification of it; and a Right Shelomith, which is to say, A Peaceable One.