Note, 1. A good wife is a great blessing to a family. By a fruitful
wife a family is multiplied and replenished with children, and so built
up. But by a prudent wife, one that is pious, industrious, and
considerate, the affairs of the family are made to prosper, debts are
paid, portions raised, provision made, the children well educated and
maintained, and the family has comfort within doors and credit without;
thus is the house built. She looks upon it as her own to take care of,
though she knows it is her husband's to bear rule in, Esth. i. 22. 2.
Many a family is brought to ruin by ill housewifery, as well as by ill
husbandry. A foolish woman, that has no fear of God nor regard to her
business, that is wilful, and wasteful, and humoursome, that indulges
her ease and appetite, and is all for jaunting and feasting, cards and
the play-house, though she come to a plentiful estate, and to a family
beforehand, she will impoverish and waste it, and will as certainly be
the ruin of her house as if she plucked it down with her hands; and the
husband himself, with all his care, can scarcely prevent it.