N00500:130
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.
The Virtuous MOTHER.
The Vertuous MOTHER.
THE Apostle Wills, That the Younger Women, Marry, and B•ar Children; and as tis too soon for them t• Bear Children till they Marry, so tis Ordinarily Expected, that they will Bear Children when they Marry. If a Virtuous Wife be Denied the Blessing of Children her Not Bearing is not a Trial that she can not Bear. She humbly, addresses •he God of H•aven, like Ha••ah, for that Gracious and Powerful Word of His whi•h makes Fruitful, as Remembering, That Children a•e an Heritage of the Lord, and the Fruitful Womb is Hi• Reward; But she will not Imp•••en••y ••ng, like R•c•el. Give me Children or […], Lest •he Die by her having of those Children. Much less, will she have so Little Wit as to suspect her own Eternal Happiness, because of her Natural Barrenness, like those mistaken little Women who have thus argued from that Scripture, She shall be saved i• Childbearing; ⟨image ?⟩Very fine indeed! as if Childbearing were no less a Condition in the Covenant of Grace, than Repenting and Believing! But her Natural Barrenness is rather improved by her as an Occasion of her Eternal Happiness, by the Spiritual Fruitfulness whereto she is thereby Excited and Assisted; it causes her to be more Fruitful in all the good Works of Piety and Charity; more Fruitful in her Endeavours otherwise to Serve her Generation after the Will of God; more Fruitful in all thse things whereby, The Heavenly Father may be Glorified: and she will Consider with her self What Service for God, and His People, and my own Soul, have I now a Leisure for?