Introduction. Modesty to Be Observed Not Only in Its Essence, But in Its Accessories.
Perfect Modesty Will Abstain from Whatever Tends to Sin, as Well as from Sin Itself. Difference Between Trust and Presumption. If Secure Ourselves, We Must Not Put Temptation in the Way of Others. We Must Love Our Neighbour as Ourself.
Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious.
Concerning the Plea of “Pleasing the Husband.”
Some Refinements in Dress and Personal Appearance Lawful, Some Unlawful. Pigments Come Under the Latter Head.
Of Dyeing the Hair.
Of Elaborate Dressing of the Hair in Other Ways, and Its Bearing Upon Salvation.
Men Not Excluded from These Remarks on Personal Adornment.
Excess in Dress, as Well as in Personal Culture, to Be Shunned. Arguments Drawn from I Cor. VII.
Tertullian Refers Again to the Question of the Origin of All These Ornaments and Embellishments.
Christian Women, Further, Have Not the Same Causes for Appearing in Public, and Hence for Dressing in Fine Array as Gentiles. On the Contrary, Their Appearance Should Always Distinguish Them from Such.
Such Outward Adornments Meretricious, and Therefore Unsuitable to Modest Women.
It is Not Enough that God Know Us to Be Chaste: We Must Seem So Before Men. Especially in These Times of Persecution We Must Inure Our Bodies to the Hardships Which They May Not Improbably Be Called to Suffer.
Elucidation.
