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Ministers shall exhort their Flock to observe modesty in their Apparrel; they themselves in this, and all other things, giving good Example; abstaining from all bravery in Cloaths, themselves, their Wives, and Children.
The Ancient Doctors of the Church have been very careful in recommending to Christians the Modesty pre∣scrib'd in our Discipline; especially to Women, which more commonly transgress its Laws, than Men do.
Clement of Alexandria neglects no pains to induce them to the practice of this Vertue; * 1.1 for having alledged these words of St. Paul, In like maner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobrie∣ty; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works, 1 Tim. 2.9, 10. After this, I say, this Ancient Doctor sheweth, That seeing Apparrel was only given us but for a Covering, there ought not to be any super∣fluity in it; that the holy ornament of the hands is not Bracelets, but a readiness we should have to distribute our Goods to those which are in distress, and the care one should take in conducting ones Family; that that of the feet is a promptness to do good, and a walking in the ways of Justice; that modesty and pudor are the Chains and Collars which God himself has made, and that there is no other real Ornament, but that of Wisdom; that Women ought not to suffer their Ears to be bor'd to hang Jewels in them, but to have them ever open to hear the Instructions shall be given them, and turn their eyes to the Contemplation of heavenly things; and in the same Treatise, he speaks so much against needless and super∣fluous dressing and apparrel, that I on purpose forbear reciting all he says, satisfying my self to observe in gene∣ral, that he fears not to affirm, That under the delicacy of these worldly Dresses, there is found not the Image of God, but that of the Devil. Tertullian speaks in the same terms, exhorting Christian Women to shew by the mode∣sty of their Apparel, the difference there is betwixt the Servants of God, and those of the Devil; he will have them to be an Example to those who do not profess the Gospel; and that God might be glorified in their bodies, by going cloathed suitable to modesty and shamefac'd∣ness; and that when they go out of their Houses, they
should be adorn'd with Rayment of Prophets and Apo∣stles, with probity, chastity, and innocence; by this means obtain for themselves the blessing of God. St. Cy∣prian follows the steps of Tertullian, whom he stiles his Master; and he condemns with no less severity than the other, all the superfluous Ornaments of the Age, and all those worldly Dresses, which, saith he, * 1.2 serve to no other end, but to hide what God has form'd in Man, and to disco∣ver what the Devil has invented. I should be over-tedious to transcribe what has been said on this Subject by Saint Chrysostom, that golden Tongue of the Ancient Church; Read only his 8th Homily on the 2d Chapter of the 1st to Timothy, and one shall see the manner he treats of it, and with what Eloquence he declaims against the pride and sumptuousness of Apparel, the niceness of Dresses; against painting, curling the Hair, Pendants in the Ears, Pearls, and all sorts of Jewels; to all which things he opposes shamefac'dness, modesty, and decency; the use and pra∣ctise whereof he earnestly recommends. Isidorus of Pel∣lusia has very judiciously observ'd, * 1.3 That these outward Ornaments are prejudicial to a beautiful Woman, and to one that is not so; to the one, because it reproaches her with her ugliness; and the other, because people are taken up in talking of her Ornaments, and say nothing of her self.
Lib. 2. Padag. c. 12. p. 211, 212. Paris. 1641.
De habit. Virg. p. 165. Paris. 1666.
L. 5. Ep. 200. Paris. 1638.