N00500:125
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.
V. And this Thriftiness is accompanied with such a Fidelity to her Husband, as that she will not give a Lodging to the least straggling or wandering Thought of Disloyalty to his Bed; lest by her par•ying with wicked Thoughts, the Devil should insensibly Decoy her to the D•e•s which God will Judge She is a Dove, that will ••oner Die than leave her Mate; and her Husband is to her, The Covering of her Eyes, a• such a ra•e, that she sees a Desirableness i• […], which she will not allow her self to behold or suppose in any other; neither will she •ook upon Another, any more than the Wife of Tigranes, who after the Wedding of Cyr•• ▪ ⟨image ?⟩whom every one did commend as the Rar••• Person in all the Company, being by her Husband asked, What she Thought of him? answered roundly, In truth I looked at no Body there, but you, my Husband. A Wanton had as good •at Fire, as go to Enkindle any False Fire •r Fools•Fire in her holy Breast; she accounts Adultery to be as the Law of M•ses adjudged it, A Capital Crime; and if the Egyptians of old, cut off […] Nose of the Adulteress, Or, if the Athenians tore her in pieces with wild Horses, rather had she undergo the Pain of such things than Commit the Crime. She is a Gertrude, or All true, in the Marriage Covenant. Yea, She will even Abstain from all appearance of Evil; and as 'tis abominable unto her to Entertain the least groundless and causeless Jealousy of •er Husband, or to Torture and Expose her own Soul by the uneasy Frenzy of uncharitable •urizes concerning him, so she will not give him the least opportunity to Think hardly of her self. She will not therefore be too much from Home, upon Concerns, that perhaps o him are Unaccountable: but if he Angels do Enquire, where she is, he Husband may Reply, as once Abraham did, My Wife is in the Tent. Although her Husband be not such an Egyptian as to deny her Shoes; yet her usg of them is, as if like a Scythian, she had the Axle-tree of the Chariot which carred her Home after her Wedding, burned at the Door; and she is willing to be painted as the Wive of the Ancients were, with a Snail under her Feet. She affects to be an Esther that is, A idden One. But if a foolish and froward