Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	church_n	keep_v	silence_n	2,518	5	9.9816	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23744	The ladies calling in two parts / by the author of The whole duty of man, The causes of the decay of Christian piety, and The gentlemans calling.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.; Henchman, Humphrey, 1592-1675.	1673 (1673)	Wing A1141; ESTC R3510	135,212	264

their concerns in that point when he substitutes that as a suppletory ornament to the deckings of Gold Pearl and costly Array 1 Tim. 2. But I fear this now will be thought too antiquated a dress and an Apostle be esteemed no competent Judg in this Science which is now become so solemn a thing that certainly no Academy in the World can vie numbers with the Students of this Mystery Yet when they have strein'd their art to the highest pitch an innocent modesty and native simplicity of Look shall eclipse their glaring splendor and triumph over their artificial handsomness on the other side let a Woman be decked with all the embellishments of Art nay and care of Nature too yet if boldness be to be read in her face it blots all the lines of beauty is like a cloud over the Sun intercepts the view of all that was otherwise amiable and renders its blackness the more observable by being plac'd neer somwhat that was apt to attract the eyes 8. But Modesty confines not its self to the face she is there only in shadow and effigie but is in life and motion in the words whence she banishes all indecency and rudeness all insolent vauntings and supercilious disdains and what ever else may render a person troublesom or ridiculous to the company Nor does she only refine the language but she tunes it too modulates the tone and accent admits no unhandsome earnestness or loudness of Discourse the latter whereof was thought so undecent in Carneades tho in his public Lectures that the Gymnasiarch reproved him for it and sure if 't were not allowable in a Philosopher in his School 't will less become a woman in ordinary converse and if we consult Prov. 7. 11. and 9. we shall find loudness and clamor in women coupled with such other epithets as will surely not much recommend it A womans tongue should indeed be like the imaginary Music of the sphers sweet and charming but not to be heard at distance 9. And as Modesty prescribes the manner so it does also the mesure of speaking restrains all excessive talkativeness a fault incident to none but the bold the monopolizing of discourse being one of the greatest assumings imaginable and so rude an imposing upon the company that there can scarce be a greater indecency in conversation This is ingeniously exprest by our divine Poet Herbert A civil guest Will no more talk all then eat all the Feast He that engrosses the talk enforces silence upon the rest so is presumed to look on them only as his auditors Pupils whilst he magisteriously dictates to them which gave occasion to Socrates to say It is arrogance to speak all and to be willing to hear nothing It is indeed universally an insolent unbecoming thing but most peculiarly so in a woman 10. The ancient Romans thought it so much so that they allowed not that sex to speak publicly tho it were in their own necessary defence insomuch that when Amesia stood forth to plead her own cause in the Senate they lookt on it as so prodigious a thing that they sent to consult the Oracle what it portended to the State and tho these first severities were soon lost in the successes of that Empire Valerius Maximus could find but two more whose either necessity or impudence perswaded them to repete this unhandsom attemt 11. And this great indecency of Loquacity in Women I am willing to hope is the reason why that Sex is so generally charged with it not that they are all guilty but that when they are it appears so unhandsom as makes it the more eminent and remarkable Whether it were from that ungracefulness of the thing or from the propension Women have to it I shall not determin but we find the Apostle very earnest in his cautions against it 1 Cor. 14. 35. he expresly enjoins Women to keep silence in the Church where he affirms it a shame for them to speak and tho this seems only restrain'd to the Ecclesiastical Assemblies yet even so it reaches home to the gifted Women of our age who take upon them to be Teachers whereas he allowed them not to speak in the Church no not in order to learning tho a more modest design then that of teaching But besides this he has a more indefinit prescription of silence to Women 1 Tim. 2. 11. Let Women learn in silence and again v. 12. to be in silence The Apostle seems to ground the Phrase not only on the ●…feriority of the woman in regard of the crea●…ion and first sin v. 13 14. but also on the presumtion that they needed instruction towards which silence has alwaies bin reckoned an indispensible qualification the introductory precept in all Schools as that wherein all attention is founded If som women of our age think they have outgon that novice state the Apostle supposes and want no teaching I must crave leave to believe they want that very first Principle which should set them to learn viz. the knowledg of their own ignorance a science which so grows with study and consideration that Socrates after a long life spent in pursuit of Wisdom gave this as the sum of his learning This only I know that I know nothing This proficiency seems much wanting to our female Talker who in this seem to confute the common maxim and give what they have not by making their ignorance visible to others tho it be undiscernable to themselves and to such we may not unfitly apply the Sarcasin of Zeno to a talkative Youth their ears are faln into their tongue 12. But besides this assuming sort of talkativeness there is another usually charged upon the Sex a meer chatting pratling humor which maintains it self at the cost of their neighbors and can never want supplies as long as there is any body within the reach of their observation This I would fain hope is most the vice of th●… vulgar sort of Women the education of the Nobler setting them above those mean entertainments Yet when 't is remembred that St. Paul 1 Tim. 5. 13. makes Tatling the effect of Idleness it may not unreasonably be feared that where there is most of the Cause there will be som of the Effect And indeed it would puzzle one to conjecture how that round of formal Visits among Persons of Quality should be kept up without this That their Visits should be only a dumb Shew none will suspect among women and when the unfashionable themes of Houswifery Piety c. are excluded there will not remain many Topics of Discourse unless this be called into supply And this indeed is a most inexhaustible reserve it having so many springs to feed it that t is scarce possible it should fail And when 't is farther considered how apt a minister it is to Envy Spleen Revenge and other feminine Passions we cannot suppose it can be unacceptable where any of those bear sway But I believe it is not more