Is it that thou mayest please thy husband? Then do it at home. But here the reverse is the
case. For if thou wouldest please thine own husband, please not others; but if thou please
others, thou wilt not be able to please thine own. So that thou shouldest put away all thine
ornaments, when thou goest to the forum or proceedest to the church. Besides, please not
thy husband by those means which harlots use, but by those rather which wives that are free
employ. For wherein, tell me, doth a wife differ from a harlot? In that the one regardeth one
thing only, namely, that by the beauty of her person she may attract to herself him whom
she loves; whilst the other both ruleth the house, and shareth in the children, and in all
other things.
Hast thou a little daughter? look to it lest she inherit the mischief, for they are wont to
form their manners according to their nurture, and to imitate their mothers’ behavior. Be
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a pattern to thy daughter of modesty, deck thyself with that adorning, and see that thou
despise the other; for that is in truth an ornament, the other a disfigurement. Enough has
been said. Now God that made the world, and hath given to us the ornament887 of the soul,
adorn us, and clothe us with His own glory, that all shining brightly in good works, and
living unto His glory, we may send up glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit, now and always, &c.
887 [The word κόσμος denotes order and ornament, and so the world, as being orderly and beautiful.—J.A.B.]
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Colossians 3:18-25