the Maxims of Honour will tell them, muft (in fpight of all Chrift's interdicts) be reveng'd? And this engages them in Quarrels, fometimes in Murders. Now none of thefe are incident to Women: they must in thefe and fome other instances attack temptations, violently ravish guilt, and abandon their Sex, the whole Oeconomy of their estate, ere they can diveft themselves of their innocency. So that God feems in many particulars, to have clofelter fenced them in, and not left them to those wilder excurfions, for which the customary liberties of the other Sex afford a more open way. In fhort, they have fo many advantages towards Vertue, that tho the Philofopher made it one of his folemn acknowledgements to God, that he had made him a Man, not a Woman: yet I think Chriftian Women have now reafon enough to invert that form, and to thank God that he made them Women, and not Men.

But we know advantages which are only in fpeculation, are looked on with fome diffidence, till there have been fome practical experiment made of them, I fhall therefore evidence the problem by demonstration and inStance; defiring my Readers to meafure the poffibilities of their arriving to eminent degrees of Vertue and Piety, by what others have attain'd to. I fhall not fetch examples of Morality from heathen Women, because I am now upon an higher strain; (yet many fuch might be brought to the reproach of many Women, who pretending to more, fall infinitely fhort of that:) tis Chriftian Vertue that I am now recommending, and which has been eminently exemplified in many of their Sex. How many Women do we read of in the Gofpel, who in all the duties of affiduous attendance on Christ, liberalities of love and respect, nay, even in zeal and courage, furpaffed even the Apostles themfelves? We find his Crofs furrounded,

rounded, his Paffion celebrated by the avowed tears and lamentations of devout Women, when the most fanguine of his Difciples had denied, yea for[wore, and all had forfaken him. Nay, even death it felf could not extinguish their love: we find the devout Maries defigning a laborious, chargeable, and perhaps hazardous refpect to his Corps. And accordingly, 'tis a memorable atteftation Chrift gives to their Piety, by making them the first witnesses of his Refurrection, the prime Evangelifts to proclaim thofe glad Tidings; and, as a Learned Man peaks, Apoftles to the Apoftles. Nor is the devotion of that Sex to be found only in the facred Records: the Primitive times have left us many Memorials of the like, and the Martyrologies are full of Female fufferers of all ages and conditions, who by the fervour of their Zeal, had overcome the timoroufness of their nature, and wearied the cruelty of their Perfecutours. And as Women helped to augment

augment the number of Martyrs, fo did they of Confeffors alfo, in a stout owning, and diligent practice of ChriStianity. Queens and Empreffes knew then no title fo glorious, as that of a nurfing Mother to the Church; they have often exchang'd their Palaces for little Cells and Oratories, and valued not their own Diadems, in comparison with their Saviour's Crown of Thorns. And tho' by a perpetual declination from that pristine Zeal, the inftances have in every Age grown lefs numerous, yet none has wanted fome very illustrious examples. Nay, even in our dregs of time, in this common decay of all good, there are, I doubt not, many who (according to their opportunities) tranfcribe the former Copies, live like people that know they muft live hereafter, and prefent us yet with fome Specimen of ancient Vertue. Nay, to Speak an impartial truth, 'tis not to be denied, but the reputation of Religion is more kept up by Women than

Men,

Men, many of this Sex countenancing it by their Practice, whereas more of the other do not only neglect, but decry it. And now, fince Women are compaffed about with fo great a Cloud of Witneffes, who by doing the thing give the fureft evidence that 'tis not unfeafible, why fhould any plead an impoffibility? In matter of Vanity and Pomp they are not fo easily difbeartn'd, no pattern of that kind can be fet, which will not be industrionfly imitated; nay, in the greatest inequality of materials for it. Why then fhould their emulation leave them, where only it could do them good? How comes it, that of those who bave equal principles of a Spiritual Being, fome live according to the Dignity of it, and others whom do Jo2 fee

do yet live as if they affented to that Philofopher's paradox, who faid, Women had no Souls; or at least were of the Pythagorean Sect, and looked upon themselves only as the Fails and Pri fons of former offending Spirits, which

they