as the first Woman was Seventhly Such Women as transgress the Law and not come to be under Grace as said Paul They are to be under Obedience as also saith the Law so read the words going before and behind in both places and you may observe that a seven fold sort of Women are not permitted by Paul to speak in the Church and as is said no doubt there were of all these sorts of Women among them of Corinth and Ephesus who were not permitted to speak who had need of these Instructions for commonly such particular Instructions are not given concerning such things where there is not need or where none are guilty But what if Paul had said so concerning all the Women at Corinth and Ephesus where Timothy at this time was when he wrote to him concerning Women that he did not permit them to speak will it therefore follow that no Women are to speak in any Case in the Church I will put you in mind of one of your School Rules which is this a particularibus ad universale non valâ—t consequentia i. e. from particulars unto universal the consequence is not valid therefore though it had not been permitted either unto some or all of these two particular Churches of Corinth or Ephesus to speak because they might at that time being but young not have the requisite qualifications it will not follow that Universally all Women every where else ought not to speak yea these called Presbyterians may remember how they have both allowed and countenanced Women both to Pray and speak of their Experiences in their private Meetings and yet they cannot deny but their private Meetings are a Church for inded a Church according to the Greek and Latin word is nothing else but a Convention or gathering of the People whether few or many so that Three Six or Twelve is as really a Church as 300 600 or 1200. And further let us once more take notice of the Apostles words and we shall find that they do not signifie an absolute forbidding of Women in any case to speak teach or Preach in the Church I permit or suffer not a Woman said he to teach in the Church but if they will learn any thing let them ask their Huâ—bands at home For the better understanding of which I am to remember you that even according unto Pauls own words there was in that day a two-fold manner of speaking in the Church One by Commandment another by permission and this distinction Paul himself useth writing unto the Corinthians when he said as touching some particular things 1 Cor. 7.6 But I speak this by permission said he and not of Commandment also in divers other places he writeth thus I say not the Lord now this sort of speaking was used in the Church in two particular Cases 1. In the propounding or asking of a Question for there were in the Church some who asked Questions and some who Answered the Unlearned Asked and the Learned Answered which is the most proper way of Catechising 2. This sort of speaking to wit by Permission was used in the Church in matter of Advice and Counsel relating to the affairs of the Church where men according to the Wisdome given them of God finding the Spirit of the Lord present with them enlightning them and directing them might speak their mind in Cases by way of Counsel and Advice as seeing the Expediency and use of it for a certain time though they were not to enjoyn it as a Command And Paul himself useth this same Distinction destinguishing betwixt things lawful and things expedient so that some things may be lawful which are not expedient and some things may be both lawful and expedient and yet not commanded of God and a man as immediately taught by the Spirit of the Lord in his heart may see both the lawfulness and expediency of a thing and may speak by the spirit of the Lord moving him in the Church concerning both the lawfulness and expediency of that thing and yet he may say I speak not this by Commandment as if what he said were a Commandment unto them yea the Spirit of the Lord may command and move him to declare unto them that the thing in hand before them is not a Command but an Expedient thing and fit to be done at that time Now in these two Cases of speaking by Permission in the Church as first in that of asking Questions and secondly in that of giving Advice or Cousel simply by a permission if they would contend that Women ought not to speak in the Church all that they can pretend with any shew or colour of Reason at most is That Women are not to speak in the Church by permission if they speak they are not to do it by permission but by commandment whereas it is permitted unto Men at times to speak in the Church by permission when not by commandment an unlearned man may be permitted to ask a Question in the Church which is not permitted unto a Woman nor is it needful for she may ask her Husband at home But if the Spirit of the Lord Command or move a godly and Spiritually Learned Woman to speak in this case she is the Lords more than her Husbands and she is to speak yea though the Husband should forbid her for she ought rather to obey God than Man And in Christ Iesus there is neither Male nor Femalâ— but all are one in him as the Apostle said So both these Cases are in a matter of Freedom or Permission not in a matter of Necessity or Command therefore though Women may not speak by permission which Men may do yet they may speak by Command as when the Lord commandeth or moveth them by his Spirit And that Women spake in the Church is most evident from the second Chapter of Acts which was a very solemn time and also a very solemn Convention for the Scripture saith Expresly Acts 1.14 that among the Apostles Mary with other Women were present and it is said Acts 2.4 And they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance So here the Women were filled with the Holy Ghost and spake as the Apostles did for it is said so of them all universally and it appeareth further that the women spoke in this solemn Assembly from the Apology of Peter which he made in the defence of the womens Prophecying or speaking out of Ioels Prophecy where it was Prophecyed by Ioel that the Lord would pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh both Male and Female Sons and Daughters Men Servants and Maid-Servants and they shall Prophecy and so that Prophecy was eminently fulfilled at that time as at other times afterwards And also before this time the Lord made use of women to witness speak or declare and that unto the eleven Apostles that Christ was risen from the dead Luke 24.9 10. And was not this Convention a Church And did not the Lord after his Resurrection first of all appear unto a woman to wit Mary Magdalene And did not he command her to speak unto the Apostles and Instruct them concerning his Resurrection Go said he unto my Brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Yea and not onely the Scripture but also the Church History telleth us of women who taught and Instructed Men as particularly that woman who converted the Nation of the Iberians unto the Christian Faith as Eusebius relateth FINIS
Scripture but never one word they question them concerning the work of God in their hearts or concerning their Faith and Piety But alas how can they try them concerning the work of Grace in their Hearts seeing they acknowledge thâ—â— have not a discerning themselves whereby to know them surely and infallibly yea they affirm there is no such discerning in these dayes as whereby men can be known to be truly gracious And doth not sad Experience shew it that the generality of those Preachers have not true Faith and Piety their Lives and Conversations are so gross and Carnal Yea do not many of themselves see it and have they not complained of it And yet doth not this Principle of theirs That wicked Men may be Preachers and ought to be Received lay a Foundation for a wicked 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being laid with their own Hands will not wicked Men come in thick and throng And will not thâ—se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have all like themselves If they can have a wicked Man will not the wicked prefer him to another that but seems to be a godly and may or may not be and thus in process of time the whole Ministry will consist of ungodly men the wicked being still preferred by the wicked and carrying it by most Votes as among them called Presbyterians or by the Authority of the Bishop as among the Episcopal Oh! for shame never say that you are for a godly Ministry while you both lay such a Foundation for the ungodly And Secondly as both sorts hold that true Faith and Piety is not necessary to a Mans being a Preacher so they hold that immediate revelation and to be immediately taught by Christ himself is not necessary either to his being or better being yea they wholly exclude it and affirm that all immediate Revelation and Teaching by Christ himself so as to teach Men the Truths of the Gospel is ceased since the Apostles dayes and is no more to be expected while the World lasts so Iames Durham concerning Prophecying in his afore said Book and in the first Page of that Book he saith God hath spoke his last words to his Church by Iohn in the Revelation and so the Church nor any in the Church is not to hear any word from God or Christ himself nay he hath spoken his last words sixteen hundred Years ago Oh gross blindness and darkness Is the Lord wholly absent from his Church Or if he be present with her and in her doth he never speak himself Hath he lost the power of his Speech or his willingness to speak that he hath been so long silent Surely nay as it is written Our God will speak and not keep silence he is not so unkind nor hard-hearted as those Men would make him so as not to speak himself And as concerning the immediate Teachings of Christ who is such a Stranger unto them and their Principles who know not that they deny them and are Enemies unto them and that one of the main things of Controversie betwixt them and us lyeth here they say the immediate Teachings of Christ are all ceased since the Apostles dayes We say not and we are Witnesses of the contrary in our Experience who witness the New Covenant fulfilled they shall be all taught of the Lord that is immediately else what doth the new excel the old and first Covenant in For under the old they were taught of the Lord mediately as by Moses and the Prophets but under the new they are taught of God himself who dwelleth in them and walketh in them and is their Teacher Shepheard and Husband And now How can these Men be taught of the Lord himself or immediately to Preach Christ who deny the thing it self How can we have Charity unto them to believe they are so taught while they deny that any are so taught in those days And then what is their Preaching of him it is but by hearsay and report they are all short of this Woman She both heard Christ himself and saw himself which none of them as they confess have ever done they say they have never seen him nor heard him nor spoken with him and yet they preach whereas she both heard him and saw him before she Preached him and thus did John and the Apostles Preach him That which was in the beginning which we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears and our hands have handled of that Word of Life we declare unto you for the Life was manifested and we have seen it and delare it unto you that you may have fellowship with us c. Now which of the two ways of Preaching are the best to Preach only from a hearsay by others or from a fight and hearing of Christ himself Surely this was the best and therefore this Woman is a better Preacher than all your University men and Doctors amd Batchelors she learned more of Christ from himself in that small time perhaps not one hours length than your Doctors and University men have yet learned for all their many years Studying labouring Reading and Hearing As Christ upbraided the Jews that they had neither heard his Fathers Voice nor seen his shape so it may be said of them yea they say it themselves they have neither heard him nor seen him Alas for such Teachers What should men hear them for they can tell us no more of him but as they have heard it from men or read it in the Seripture and all their knowledge is fron the Scripture and all have the Scripture as well as they and so without them by the Scripture may know as much of Christ as they and save both their pains and their Money And as concerning this Woman it is manifest that as she heard him and saw him outwardly so she both heard him and saw him inwardly and was taught by his spirit in her heart for had she not been inwardly taught and heard inwardly she could not have believed on him which she did neither had the outward hearing and seeing made her blessed for many heard and saw him outwardly and yet were not blessed But said Christ to his Disciples Blessed are your eyes for they see and blessed are your ears for they hear this was inwardly they both heard and saw inwardly and this made them blessed whereas others heard and saw outwardly and therefore were not blessed as the Disciples and this Woman was Yea that she was taught inwardly and that more largely and fully than by what she heard outwardly it doth manifestly appear from her words in that she said He hath told me all things that ever I did now this could not be outwardly for he told her but some things outwardly as concerning her Husbands that were dead and how the man she had was not her Husband and certainly in so small a time as they had together words outwardly could not have told her the half yea not the hundred part of all that ever she did she was
Woman which Paul permitted not to speak the flesh for say they If the Woman be the flesh then who is the fleshes Husband Now let them hear Bernard a Man I am verily perswaded far excelling them both in Piety and Learning who saith the flesh is to be subject to the Spirit or Spiritual part in us and so she shall be our Wife a fruitful Vine in the sides of our House by which flesh is not to be understood sin or sinfull Concupiscence but the animal or inferior part of a Man which is the Creature of God and is of good use unto them who are Sanctified and renewed And as concerning the Woman mentioned by Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 2. v. 12 13 c. not onely Bernard as I have shewed but Augustine who Lived twelve hundred Years ago and one of the most Renowned Fathers in the Church in those dayes and who is of great account at this day both among Papists and Protestants doth by the woman understand the flesh and by her Children he doth understand good works for thus he writeth Libro de trinitate 12. upon the words of the Apostle to Timothy She shall be saved by bearing of Children In that Sex of Male and Female saith he the Apostle Paul from this may be understood to have figured the Mystery of something more secret his words in Latine run thus In isto Sexu Masculi Faeminae Apostolus Paulus occultioris cujusdam rei figurasse Mysterium vel hinc intelligi potest And again the same Augustine writeth thus Tractatu in Psal 83. Salva ergo erit Mulier quae in typo carnis accipitur per filiorum generationem id est si faciat opera bona That is in English the Woman therefore shall be saved which is taken in the Type of the flesh by the Generation of Children that is if she do good works I Answer secondly If I should so far condesâ—end or agree unto them as to take the words of Paul for Women in the common sense of speech what will they gain by it That no Women are to speak in the Church or that Women in no case are to speak in the Church if so why then are they sound so great and palpable transgressors themselves who not onely permit but command Women frequently to speak in their own Churches even in their most publick Assemblies And verily if the thing were not so publickly and ordinarily practised in this Land I should almost be ashamed to mention it the matter it self is so shameful a thing How is it I say to you I speak who are called Ministers of the Kirk of Scotland that ye not onely permit but command yea and force Women and that of the worst sort to wit Whores and Adulterous Women and who have committed Fornication again and again and that without any real signs of true Repentance to come in before the Face of the whole Congregation to speak And the place wherein they are appointed to stand is not much unlike to your Pulpits but that it is larger that it may hold three or four and I my self as many with me have seen it filled with as many as it could well hold and these unhonest Women are commanded to speak publickly in the Church yea the Preacher after he himself hath made an end calleth them by their particular Names one by one and bids them speak to the Edification of the Congregation and so they must all speak one by one to the Edification of all and those who are most impudent and least sensible either of their sin or their shame will readily speak most but in great Hipocrisie and deceit for you your selves know that a true Penitent is rarely to be found among them If you say This is not Preaching or Teaching but only a confessing of their sins and asking God Mercy and the like I answer Is not confessing their sins speaking and asking Mercy of God so that the Congregation may hear is not this speaking Now the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your Women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak So the Apostle useth this general word to speak And yet surely confessing of sin and praying for forgiveness so that the Congregation may hear is speaking yet it is permitted unto these Whorish and Dishonest Women at that time to exhort the People and warn them to beware of the snares of the Enemy and the like words and this iâ— a sort of Teaching and I my self have heard some of them who had learned the knack of it more than others spake by way of Exhortation and Instruction that she seemed to speak almost as well and to as good purpose as the Preacher himself Now let all Sober and Impartial People judge in this Case betwixt those Men and us they not onely permit but command dishonest Women who have been Whores to speak in the Church whereas we command no Woman at all to speak in the Church but this we say if God by his Spirit move or command a godly sober Religious Woman to speak in the Church we are not to forbid her yea we are to hear her and we may be both edified and refreshed by her Testimony it being the spirit of God which speaketh unto us in her and by her Yea That the Apostle did not forbid all Women in all cases to to speak is plain for in the same Epistle chap. 11. v. 5. he sheweth how the Woman is to be covered that Prayeth or Prophecyeth which plainly holdeth forth that some Women at least did both Pray and Prophecy in the Church in his day yea and ye your selves allow Women to Sing in the Church which is a sort of speaking and if they sing publickly in the outward hearing why may they not pray publickly in the outward hearing for both is a sort of speaking seeing in both they utter words What sort of Women then is it whom Paul doth not permit to speak in the Church in these two places above-mentioned 1 Cor. 14.34 and 1 Tim. 2.12 13. c. taking them for Women in the common litteral sence Verily let us but look into the Context or words going before in both places and that will clear it for they are such women as need to be taught themselves even First Unlearned Women Secondly Tatling Women that were not yet come to the true silence Thirdly Unruly Proud Women that were not come to the true subjection all which is implyed in these words Let the Women learn in silence with all subjection for no doubt there were such Women among them of Ephesus where Timothie then was who had need of these Instructions And Fourthly vain Women who were given to vain and gaudy Apparel such as Gold or Pearls or costly Array and were not yet come to be covered with the Spirit of the Lord. Fifthly Such as Usurped Authority over the Man Sixthly Such as were in the Transgression and deceived