The Godly Lady of the House

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Daniel Featley, The Summe of Saving Knowledge:

Wherefore I haue thought fit not to confine Deuotion to her chamber, but to giue her the liberty of her house, and so not onely fasting, and praying with, but examining also, and Catechizing of those that vnder her roofe, come within her walke. Euery godly Parent, Tutor, and Master of a Family, resoluing with Iosua, that He and his house will serue the Lord, calleth those that vnder his charge sometimes to an account.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Thomas Manton, Epistle to the Reader of the Westminster Standards (originally written by Richard Baxter):

The Author having bewailed the great Distractions, Corruptions, and Divisions that are in the Church, he thus represents the Cause and Cure : Among others, a principal Cause of these Mischiefs is the great and common Neglect of the Governors of Families, in the Discharge of that Duty which they owe to God for the Souls that are under their Charge, especially in Teaching them the Doctrine of Christianity. Families are societies that must be sanctified to God, as well as Churches ; And the Governors of them have as truly a Charge of the Souls that are therein, as Pastors have of the Churches. But, alas, how little is this considered or regarded ! But while negligent Ministers are (deservedly) cast out of their Places, the negligent Masters of Families take themselves to be almost blameless. They offer their Children to God in Baptism, and there they promise to teach them the Doctrine of the Gospel, and bring them up in the Nurture of the Lord ; but they easily promise, and easily break it ; and educate their Children for the World and the Flesh, altho' they have renounced these, and dedicated them to God. This Covenant-breaking with God, and Betraying the Souls of their Children to the Devil, must ly heavy on them here or hereafter. They beget Children, and keep Families, merely for the World and the Flesh ; but little consider what a Charge is committed to them, and what it is to bring up a Child for God, and govern a Family as a sanctified Society. O how sweetly and successfully would the Work of God go on, if we would but all join together in our several Places to promote it ! Men need not then run without sending to be Preachers : But they might find that Part of the Work that belongeth to them to be enough for them, and to be the best that they can be imployed in. Especially Women should be careful of this Duty; because as they are most about their Children, and have early and frequent Opportunities to instruct them, so this is the principal Service they can do to God in this World, being restrained from more publick Work. And doubtless many an excellent Magistrate hath been sent into the Common-wealth, and many an excellent Pastor into the Church, and many a precious Saint to Heaven, through the happy Preparations of a Holy Education, perhaps by a Woman that thought her self useless and unserviceable to the Church. Would Parents but begin betimes, and labour to affect the Hearts of their Children with the great Matters of everlasting Life, and to acquaint them with the Substance of the Doctrine of Christ, and when they find in them the Knowledge and Love of Christ, would bring them then to the Pastors of the Church to be tried, confirmed and admitted to the further Privileges of the Church, what happy well-ordered Churches might we have?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

John Trapp, Annotations Upon the Old and New Testaments:

A prudent wife commands her husband by obeying him as Sarah.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Thomas Gataker, A Good Wife -- God's Gift:

A good wife being. . . The best Companion in Wealth; the fittest and readiest Assistant in worke; the greatest comfort in crosses and griefes;. . . And the greatest Grace and Honour that can be, to him that hath her.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Daily worship, in common, encourages children to acts of devotion. It reminds them, however giddy or careless they may be, that God is to be adored.

--- J. W. Alexander, Thoughts on Family Worship.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

George Swinnock, quoted by I.D.E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury, p. 179:

A gracious wife satisfieth a good husband, and silenceth a bad one.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Satan plots incessantly to destroy conjugal happiness, for he knows it is a great gift.

-- Martin Luther

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

John Dod and Robert Cleaver, A Godly Form of Household Government: for the Ordering of Private Families, According to the Direction of God's Word:

The wife, her duty is, in all reverence and humility, to submit and subject herself to her husband in all such duties as properly belong to marriage. Secondly, therein to be an help unto him, according to God's ordinance. Thirdly, to obey his commandments in all things which he may command by the authority of an husband. Fourthly and lastly, to give him mutual benevolence.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Richard Adams, "How Child-Bearing Women May Be Best Supported Against and In Their Travail," in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 3, p. 547:

(i.) Faith doth express itself in meditation. -- And so, bringing the soul to contemplate upon God, doth (as wax is softened and prepared for the seal) make the heart soft for any sacred chapters or signatures to be imprinted upon it. Hereby an handmaid of the Lord, "when she awakes, is still with him" in heartening soliloquies. (Psalm cxxx. 18.) The good woman, seriously thinking on the sentence of the Almighty, that "sorrow should be multiplied in her conception, and bringing forth children," (Gen. iii. 16,) reflects upon herself, and considers well, how her portion of afflictions in a federal state is allotted to her by Divine disposal; and thereupon tastes some sweets in their bitterness, and resolves to submit thereunto, as her duty; and finding herself to have been "barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ," (2 Peter i. 8,) to bring forth "fruit unto holiness, which ends in eternal life." (Rom. vi. 22.) Instances of such fruitful meditation may be seen in Mr. Oliver's "Present,"* fore-cited, chap. v.

* A Present to be Given to Teeming Women, by Their Husbands Or Friends: Containing Scripture-directions for Women with Child, how to Prepare for the Hour of Travel [sic]. Written First for the Private Use of a Gentle-woman of Quality in the West, and Now Published for the Common Good. By John Oliver. (1688)