Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A48935
|
The good order of truth justified wherein our womens meetings and order of marriage (by some more especially opposed) are proved agreeable to Scripture and sound reason / by an old and true friend to liberty of conscience, but not to disorder, William Loddington.
|
Loddington, William, 1626?-1711.
|
1685
(1685)
|
Wing L2803; ESTC R21478
|
11,744
|
15
|
THE Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED Wherein our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage by some more especially opposed are proved agreeable to Scripture and Sound REASON By an old and true Friend to Liberty of Conscience but not to Disorder William Loddington Formality not Form feeds the Spirit of Persecution So the Service of the House of the Lord was set in Order 2 Cor. 29.35 Though I be absent in the Flesh yet am I with you in Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ Col. 2.5 Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1685. The Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED UNITY in Spirit is the true and firm Foundation of Love and Fellowship All Vniformity and Conformity not springing from this is but Hypocrisie Where there is Unity in the Life and Spirit of Christ there will be Uniformity if no Temptation hinder in the visible Life and Order answerable to the measure received Do men gather Grapes or Grape Leaves of Thorns The Sap puts forth the same Leaf as well as Fruit in every Branch Yet the comparison holds no further than to the faithful because Men may counterfeit but Trees cannot Outward appearances beget a Name as to outward Fellowships He shall by men of the World be reputed a Quaker that is conformable to their Language and Gesture but the true Quaker or rather true Christian takes his Measures from better Foundations There are Vertues Behaviours or Operations of mens Spirits discernable to the Spiritual more or less and according as they feel Unity in these they joyn together to exalt his Glory who brought them to a sence of Life Immortal into which the Hypocrite cannot enter though from this men may fall Never more need to watch and pray that we be not deceived for Truth was never more lively counterfeited nor never did the Mystery of Iniquity work more plausibly to break Sion's Peace What more hated than Imposition What more nauseous than Formality What more ridiculous than impertinent Ceremony The Serpent knowing all this covers himself in some places with pretences for Moderation and Liberty of Conscience as it were in opposition to all Imposition when indeed it s to bring in Bondage to corruption But the Daughter of Babylon is known though decked with Pearls and fine Array glorious words of Truth This Spirit never had a fairer advantage because so many have turned Persecutors under pretences of Conformity to Religious Order and Government so that many Arguments now brought in behalf of good Order though sound and rational yet are slighted because formerly some Persecutors have made use of them to a wrong end Hence strong Delusions get over such as receive not the Love of Truth that they may be saved Yea some who I believe did in love receive it yet not keeping to it are drawn into opposition to its Order whereby Divisions and Offences arise contrary to the peaceable Doctrine of Christ Jesus our Lord. Two things are principally pretended to be the subjects of their Dissatisfaction viz. our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage But alas if these two things were removed other Dissatisfactions would spring up and others after them till and Order and Government were dissolved They know not what Spirit it is which makes them stumble give it an Inch and it will take more Nay some have even lost all their Profession of Religion by doing so Now because I am verily perswaded in my own Spirit that good Words and fair Speeches deceive many simple hearts I feel a freedom for their sakes some are so far gone pure Reason doth not reach them to write something of what the Lord not man nor by Man opened to me about these matters that after my searching and trying them I might be established glory to his Name in his blessed Truth and enabled in some measure to give a Reason of my Hope and Practice 1. As to the First then this Question in my Understanding contains the whole matter Q. Whether it be agreeable to Scripture for our Women Friends to meet by themselves or to sit speak and act equally with men in Meetings of Business of an outward or temporal nature or tendency Answ I put Scripture in the Question because I know its a common Objection That Womens Meetings are not to be found there Is not this plain limiting the Spirit of the Lord to those only times when that was written as if nothing of Order hereafter may or must be necessary and expedient but what was so in those days There is a general Rule not the worse because Superstition hath abused it in 1 Cor. 14. That all things be done Decently and in Order but the particular Circumstances of Decency and Order are left to the judgment of Christians in every Age a the Lord shall direct them But to come closer to the Question it s very clear to me that our Womens Meetings are plainly agreeable to the scope and fence of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 13.3 where he weightily argues and earnestly presseth us to take notice of it saying I would have you to know That the Head of the Woman is the Man If so then if our Womens Meetings consist with the Headship they are justified by this Scripture but such Meetings as are destructive to it and take it away cannot be lawful That the first are consistent with this Headship and the other destructive appears by what follows If Women be taken into Mens Meetings appointed for outward or temporal Concerns with equal freedom to sit speak and act with them then I see no Headship man hath For if he hath any it must be either in Temporal or Spiritual matters In Spirituals he hath none for the same Apostle Gal. 3.28 affirms That Male and Female are all one in Christ that is in services purely spiritual relating only to Christ and the Soul such as Prayer and Prophecy Therefore in 1 Cor. 11. equal freedom is given to the Woman as much as to the Man to Pray and Prophecy But on the other hand Women Friends meeting by themselves may without the least suspition of usurping Authority over the Men confer and reason together how to serve Truth in their places in such things as are most proper and suitable for them still submitting to the Wisdom of God in the Mens Meetings Whereas being mixed together if a man should make a motion about any business and a Woman should stand up and signifie her dislike of it though in most mild and tender words would not any Man yea an Unbeliever if he should come in and hear it would he not conclude the Women in such Meetings had as much Power as the Men Let none Reply It matters not what Vnbelievers say for Paul himself was very careful that nothing might be done in the Church of Christ that might stumble Unbelievers as hereafter will be noted from 1 Cor. 14. Wherefore he knowing Man's Headship to be owned
by the Law of Nature commands the VVoman to be covered when she prayes or prophecies which Covering vers 10. is called Power on her Head because it was to signifie to all that should come into the Meeting that though she had equal freedom with Man to pray or prophecy yet nevertheless she still was to own and did own the Man's Power over her in visible or temporal things But the Man praying or prophecying is to be uncovered in testimony that there is no Power in any Creature above him And to answer all Objections in ease this his Epistle should come where People did wear no Coverings on their Heads then he directs them to Nature's covering to confirm this Headship The Womans Hair saith he vers 15. is given her for a Covering and she is not to cut it off nor the Man's to be worm of a length like the Womans for that would be a shame in Nature vers 14. for it would signifie he hath lost his Headship Thus we may observe how zealous the Apostle is in this matter there was no need to write this to distinguish their Sex for that was as plainly manifest by their other Garments in those days as well as ours This Headship of Man over the Woman being only in Temporals hinders not their Spiritual Unity So the Headship of God mentioned in the same Verse takes not away the Unity of God and Christ Jesus himself rightly divides this word of Truth for in John 10.29 speaking of his spiritual Power to save his Sheep he saith I and my Father are one But in chap. 14.28 relating to the concerns and sufferings of his Body then he saith My Father â—s greater than I. So Male and Female are all one in Christ that is in Spirituals but Man the Head in Temporals Obj. If any reply This Headship is only to be understood in Family Affairs Ans In granting this they grant the other also unless they will say Man is Head in some small private Concerns but in publick and weighty matters the Woman is to be his equal in Power This renders the Apostle very weak in writing so earnestly for so small a matter which indeed requires no Proof at all But further if this Objection were true then these Gestures of covering and uncovering the Head before commanded should only be used in private Family Prayer or Prophecy where the Headship thereby signified is only to be in force Obj. 2. But I have heard it hinted That Women might be with Men in Meetings of Business provided they were silent as if they were in such Meeting the Apostle relates to when he commands Women to be silent 1 Cor. 14.25 and 1 Tim. 2. Answ Then must they sit as useless Spectators not daring to speak what may open in their Understandings touching any thing among them But a little to explain these Scriptures there is not the least ground to suppose the Apostle diverted his Mind from Meetings of Worship to Meetings of Business when he said Let the Women be silent for in this 14th chapter he writing principally about Prophecy recommends some Circumstances necessary to be observed which he would have every man that thinks himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual to own as Gods commands vers 37. Two Scandals he labours to prevent 1st When any speak with Tongues which he would not forbid though he commends Prophecying in plain known Language before it that there should be an Interpreter ready or else it were better to be silent vers 28. and the Reason is in v. 23. Because if an unlearned Man or an Vnbeliever should come in he would say they were Mad. Mark how careful he is of Truth 's Honour that Unbelievers Mouthes might not be opened against it And 2dly he commands That Women should then be silent that is when any speak with Tongues above their Understanding it is not permitted unto them to speak in the Church that is by way of asking Questions there But if they will learn saith he that is if they have a desire to know the meaning of any thing there spoken in a Tongue unknown to them let them ask Mark ask at home For if a Woman should but ask or desire a Man in the Church to explain himself it might be apt to be taken for a Command by Unbelievers if they should come in and so that might occasion another Scandal That Christian Women did usurp Authority over the Men. Wherefore writing to Timothy he requires the same thing to be observed by the Women there telling him That they were to learn in silence with all Subjection or Quietness and not to teach or speak in any such way as might look like usurping Authority over the Men either in the Church or indeed in any other place for that would stumble even Unbelievers they could not endure that And so he gives two Reasons why Man is to have this Headship Because Adam was first formed v. 13. Secondly Because Adam was not deceived that is by the Serpent but the Woman being deceived was in the Transgression v. 14. And this in short is the plain sence and substance of these two Scriptures compared together which are so often mis-applyed to wrong ends and practices this day But now all this doth not forbid a Womens opposing a wrong Spirit if it shall dare to speak in the Church Woman or Child as well as Man in the movings of the Spirit of God may do that Nor doth it forbid a Womans Praying or Prophecying for then he had contradicted what in chap. 11. of the same Epistle he allowed of Thus the Scripture so plainly asserting Man's Headship by true consequence condemns all Practices that overthrow it And truly I often admire that some whom I know to be ingenious and rational in other things should not see how they cloud themselves at present nor foresee the future Inconveniences of such Meetings they contend for Obj. 3. I once heard a kind of arguing against this Headship from the state of Adam and Eve before the fall As if Truth 's Principles did lead us to joyn Man and Woman together now in ordering all things as they two did in Paradise Answ I own Truth presseth to that Perfection in Spirit He that is in Christ is a new Creature as to the spiritual part being baptized into that Spirit which knows no distinctions according to Flesh as of Jew or Greek Bond or Free Male or Female But to turn this into an Argument for outward things and to say if any one be in Christ his outward Body is a new Creature not of the same Flesh and Bones nor liable to the same Distempers as before and so to make void all distinction in the natural Sex States and Conditions is great Darkness and contains such Absurdities as run all into Confusion I shall say no more to this particular There is more light in one Sun than in many Stars Until this Principle of Man's Headship in Temporal things be