SERMON VI. ON FEMALE VIRTUE, WITH DOMESTIC AND 1 TIM. ii. 8, 9. I will-that women adorn themselves with Sobriety. PROV. XXXI. 10. 31. Who can find a Virtuous Woman? For her price is far above rubies. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her Works praise her in the gates. To divert fancy, to gratify desire, and in general to be a sort of better servants, are all the purposes for which some suppose your sex designed. A most illiberal supposition! The least degree of refinement or candour will dispose us to regard them in a far higher point of light. They were manifestly intended to be the mothers and formers of a rational and immortal offspring; to be a kind of softer companions, who, by nameless delightful sympathies and endearments, might improve our pleasures and soothe our pains; to lighten the load of domestic cares, and thereby leave us more at leisure for rougher labours, or severer studies; and finally, to spread a certain grace and embellishment over human life. To wish to degrade them from so honourable a station, indicates a mixture of ignorance, grossness, and barbarity. But the men who think in this manner, do themselves irreparable wrong, by putting it out of their power ever to enjoy the tenderest sentiments and most delicious feelings of the heart. He that has a true taste of happiness will choose, for his own sake, to cherish the kindest opinion of the female desti nation. Yet what shall we say? Are there not many women who seem to have entirely forgotten it themselves ; to have relinquished at least the most valuable part of their claim, and to have conspired with those male tyrants in sinking their own importance? How often do we see them disfigured by affectation and caprice! How often disgraced and ruined by imprudence? What shameful inattention to the culture of their minds, in numberless instances! What perversion, in not a few, of excellent understandings, through a levity that passes for innocent, because not polluted by vice, nay for agreeable, because accompanied with youth! Who that is a well-wisher to the sex, can forbear to be mortified on finding such multitudes so ungainly in their manners, so unentertaining in their discourse, so destitute of every solid and useful improvement, in a word, so totally devoid of all that can confer significance, or beget esteem; not to speak of downright worthlessness, proceeding from bad principles or wicked company? With respect to these indeed, as well as the. rest, I am willing to believe, that they are frequently occasioned by vacancy of thought, and want of occupation which expose the mind to every snare; and that, in many cases, all this evil might, through God's blessing, be happily prevent ed by an early and diligent application to Female Accomplishments. Such there fore I will proceed to recommend, as a farther means of maintaining the Sobriety enjoined by our apostle. Not that I propose to confine myself to this single view. Every other laudable and beneficial purpose, which those accomplishments are calculated to serve, will concur to enforce them. They may be divided into three classes, Domestic, Elegant, and Intellectual. As to the first, I must remind you, that how much soever they may be now neglected by many women as below their notice, no height of rank or affluence can justify such neglect. The care of a household all ages and nations have agreed to consider as an indispensable part of female employment, in every situation that admits it. The passage from which I have taken one of my texts deserves on this occasion your particular attention, As it exhibits perhaps the most beautiful picture. that was ever drawn of the Virtuous Woman, in a sphere of activity which you all hope to fil, and for which you ought to qualify yourselves as much as possible in your present condition; I will read the whole, together with a short paraphrase which I have borrowed chiefly from the pious and learned bishop Patrick, but without adhering to his dic tion. Verse 10. "Who can find a virtuous Woman? "her price is far above rubies." Such a person, says the mother of Lemuel; (a young prince for whose welfare she was most tenderly solicitous ;) such a person as I would recommend for a wife is too hard to be found; one endowed with true worth and piety, who deems nothing beneath her that can any way become her station; one, in short, possessed of those various and excellent qualities that fit her for adorning it, and render her infinitely more valuable than all the pearls or precious stones, with which so many women are fond of being decked. 11. "The heart of her husband doth safely trust " in her; so that he shall have no need of spoil.” In her personal honour and fidelity, and also in her economy and prudence with regard to all affairs at home, her husband reposes such perfect confidence, that he can go abroad, and attend to public business, without the smallest anxiety about his domestic concerns, or the least temptation to enrich himself at the expense of other men. 12. "She will do him good, and not evil, all the "days of her life.' She will not only return his love with equal affection, but endeavour to ensure and heighten his esteem by every engaging and respectable virtue. She will not only avoid whatever might provoke or displease, but study to deserve well of him by promoting his interest, and raising his reputation; and that not merely by starts, or in transient fits of good humour, but uniformly and constantly every day of her life. 13. “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh "willingly with her hands." To Her idleness is so hateful, that her husband has no occasion to excite her to industry. Of her own accord she sets up a linen and woollen manufacture, to which she applies her hands so readily, as well as so dextrously, that it is apparent she delights in the work. 14. "She is like the merchants' ships: she bring"eth her food from afar." Her application and ingenuity enable her to maintain her family without expense, by exchanging the product for foreign commodities, when necessary, on terms no less advantageous than if her husband fitted out a fleet of merchant ships to fetch them directly from distant countries. 15. "She riseth also while it is yet night; and BL giveth meat to her household, and a portion to "her maidens." With such spirit and vigour does she proceed, that, instead of indulging herself in overmuch sleep, she rises before break of day, to make provision for those who are to go abroad to work in the fields, and to set her maidens their several tasks at home. 16. "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: "with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vine"yard." So far is she from wasting her husband's estate, that by her frugality and capacity she is continually improving it; first purchasing a field fit for corn, when she meets with one that on due inspection she finds worth the price, and then from the fruit of her own labours adding to it a vineyard, which she takes care to have well planted. 17." She girdeth her loins with strength, and "strengtheneth her arms." As she is quick in her orders to those about her, so she bestirs herself with the utmost activity, declining no pains or exertion proportioned to her strength, which is increased by constant exercise, and which, with the cheerfulness, expedition, and utility that attend it, she prefers to all the decorations and delicacy of indolent beauty. 18. "She perceiveth that her merchandise is "good: her candle goeth not out by night.". Her labour indeed she finds so wholesome, and her traffick so profitable, that she does not always conclude her work with the day; but often continues it |