or not able or not willing to discharge them As for their Husbands they may give Counsell Nor to give good Counsell to their husbands Gen. 21.12 and advice unto them Who in case the Counsell be good ought to receive it from their hands Abraham must hearken to the Counsell of his wife Sarah concerning her servant Hagar More then this They may admonish them putting them in minde of their duties I and of their faults too sometimes so it be done not in an imperious way but with due observance and respective acknowledgement of duty and subjection They may and ought to hold forth their light communicate their knowledge to them if ignorant instructing them in the wayes of God that they may bring them home unto Christ or if brought home that they may further build them up 1 Cor. 7.16 1 Pet. 3.1 How else should the believing wife save her unbelieving husband as Paul giveth her hopes of it but by her godly conversation and wise Instruction This they may do to their Husbands and this they may do to others And that not onely to those of the same Sex as Paul requires of Matrons that they should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor to instruct others in a privare way Tit. 2.3.4 Teachers of good things viz. To young Women So it followeth That they may teach the young women to be sober or wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they were to do both by example and instruction also as occasion was offered But to Men also in a private way Thus did Briscilla communicate her knowledge in the way of Christ unto Apollo◠who was then though otherwise a learned man a novice and new beginner in Christianity Shee and her Husband Aquila expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly Act. 18.26 But this they did in a private way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They took him unto them And thus indeed Women may teach and instruct others both Women and men communicating the knowledge which God hath given them in a private way Wherein God is pleased sometimes to own and blesse their indeavours making them effectuall for the converting of some and confirming and building up of others Cornelius à Lapide writing upon the 12. verse of this Chapter giveth diverse instances for it wherewith I shall not trouble you All this Women may do But to teach publickly But to teach publickly or to exercise any publick Administration in the Church this they may not do This as it seemeth some in Saint Pauls time began to do Some being indued with extraordinary gifts as of Prophesie c. as we read of Philip the Evangelists four daughters Act 21.9 all Prophetesses they took upon them to speak in the publick Congregations And herein as Estius conjectures they might possibly be imitated and followed by some others A like practise whereunto hath been taken up by some of that Sex in after Ages Epiphanius amongst his Heresies Epiphan Haer 49. The Error of the Quintillian in admitting women to Ecclesiasticall offices Vide Danaeum de Haeres tells us of a certain Sect known by the name of Quintilliani so called from one Quintilla a pretended Prophetesse who in honour of their great Grandmother Eve and of that act of hers in eating of the forbidden fruit which they highly magnified as being the most beneficiall act to her posterity that ever was in as much as it made way for the bringing a Saviour into the world directly contrary to this of the Apostle who here censures it for a high and heinous Transgression they would have women admitted to the Ministerie to be Presbyterae and Episcopae shee-Presbyters and shee-Bishops allowing them not only to Preach but also to Administer the Sacraments The latter of these it hath been and yet is permitted by the Church of Rome viz. That Women may in case of a pretended necessity administer a Church Sacrament the Sacrament of Baptisme And I shall not need to tell it you how the former hath been of late time practised by some of that Sex Instance in that notorious Mistris Hutchinson of New-England who under a colourable pretext of repeating of Sermons held a weekly Exercise whereby in a little time she had impoysoned a considerable part of that Plantation with most dangerous and detestable desperate and damnable Errors and Heresies Now this it is that the Apostle here interdicts and prohibits inforcing his Inhibition with this Argument in the Text The woman for ever suspended from the exercise of any office or gift in the Church The woman at the first being deceived she was in the transgression Taking upon her to be a Teacher at the first she thereby seduced her husband and undid all her posterity From thenceforth therefore in regard of the ill successe of that her first teaching as Chrysostom and some others after him inforce the Argument all of that Sex are for ever suspended from the exercise of any such office or gift in publick Chrysost Hom. 9. in 1 Tim. Cum malê cessit decendi mumes quod sibi usurpavit Eva rereliquae muliercs â docendi munere abstineant Hening Com. in Tex 1 Cor. 14.34 ver 35. Allegations for Women-Preachers cleared Psal 60.11 A point wherein the Apostle is very precise and punctuall as it seemeth the necessity of those times required it Writing to his Corinthians he giveth an expresse order about it 1 Cor. 14. Let your Women keep silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speake c. And in the ver following It is a shame for women to speak in the Church A shame because not onely against a positive Lavv but against the order of nature Henceforth then no more Women Preachers Object No it may be said What say we then to that of the Psalmist Psal 68.11 where he maketh mention of Women Preachers The Lord gave the word great was the company of Preachers In the Originall the word is feminine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Annunciatricum as Montanus renders it shee-Preachers Women-Evangelists publishers of glad tidings Ans To this let Mr. Aynsvvorth returne the Answer who will tell us that however the vvord there be Feminine yet the sense is Masculine and is to be understood of men as both the Chalde and Septuagint there render it for which he giveth some parallel instances of like nature But take the word literally and strictly then it is to be understood only of such Women as were wont to sing songs unto God after the obtaining of any great Victory or publick Deliverance Exod. 15.20 Iudg. 5.1 1 Sam. 18.6.7 which was usuall for women then to do As we may see in Miriam Exod. 15. and Deborah Judg. 5. and the Women of Israel who came out to meet King Saul and David after the slaughter of the Philistines 1 Sam. 18. No warrant then for Women 〈…〉 Object Why but was not Miriam and Deborah and Huldah and some others
Many amongst us carried away with specious outsides of new wayes even the faire and beautifull outside of them I meane those specious glosses those goodly stiles and titles which are put upon them Never a one of them but is set out with some of them As namely that which is so common in the mouthes of some amongst us though separated from us viz. the Church way A word which I must professe as it is impropriated to that one particular way I cannot hear but as I do a harsh and jarring sound which sets my teeth on edge In as much as this one word so applied and used it at once strikes thorough the sides of all the Churches of Christ that ever were in the Christian world as if never any of them were in a Church way till this last age and now onely some few of them And of like kinde are those other of Gods way and Christs way and the Cause of God and the Government of Christ and the Godly party and the close walking people which two latter tearms what ever truth there may be in them yet they do not so well become their own mouths Now these goodly stiles and titles and compellations they do marvelously take many simple and well meaning souls who as I cannot therein blame them would willingly be in the best way with the best company specially when they are on the other side set off with such foule and opprobrious tearmes as are cast upon the wayes of other Churches and the members thereof which are different from or opposite to that way of theirs as if they were all Antichristian having the marke of the beast upon them opposers of Christs kingly Government and what not Now with this outside are many taken even as the Woman at first was with the outside of the Apple But alas what a weaknesse is it to be thus taken He that should adventure to taste of what is in an Apothecaries box because he espieth the name of some soveraigne Cordiall on the outside of it might sometimes finde that saying to be too true Extra remedium intus venenum that there is medicine without but poyson within A word for the last and I have done with this use 3. The third thing in the Apple which inticed the Woman 3. A supposed property in the Apple of giving wisdome to those which eat it Knowledge gained by imbracing new wayes oft times like that of the womans was a supposed property of making those wise that should eat of it viz. by the augmentation of their knowledge And surely such a supposed property it is that wines much upon some inticing them to the affecting of new wayes because thereby they expect such an increase in knowledge as in this way which we are in they cannot expect to attaine unto But what knowledge that may be for my own part I know not neither can I conjecture unlesse it be such a knowledge as the Woman attained to by eating of the Apple a knowing of good and evill and that not by a more excellent science but by a miserable experience from which kinde of knowledge the good Lord deliver us and his Churches You now see by what wayes and meanes the first Woman this good Woman the best of Women came to be deceived Now let not all these any of these fall to the ground You have heard to what end it is that they are held forth unto us in sacred records and that use let all of us make of them looking upon them as exemplary to us to the intent that none of us should be deceived as she also was deceived And so I have done with the former Branch of the Text so far forth as it concerneth the weaker Sex Passe we now to the latter Branch which informes us that the Woman was not onely deceived but being deceived she vvas in the transgression that is the cause and originall of Adams transgression by whose meanes he was seduced to the ruine of himselfe and all his posterity Vse 2 And was she so wherein may this be usefull to the Daughters of this Mother To this let the Apostle himselfe return the answer A double lesson for the weaker Sex I presume you will not take it amisse from his hands the remembrance hereof as he applieth it should reach those of that Sex a double lesson 1. Of Silence 2. Of Subjection Silence not to take upon them to preach or teach or speak in the publike Subjection not to usurpe Authority over their Husbands but to be subject to them Both these lessons you have laid downe by the Apostle himselfe in the two verses next save one before the Text. Let the Woman learn in silence vvith all subjection But I suffer not a Woman to teach nor to usurpe Authority over the man And the two verses following are as I told you in the entrance upon the Text reasons and arguments for both So much that first particle imports For. For Adam vvas first formed then Eve And Adam vvas not deceived but the Woman c. The Woman Posterior in ordine prior in culpâ saith Primasius upon it she was last in order but first in Error For this double reason must she learn this double lesson viz. to learne in silence and be in Subjection I shall look upon each as standing in reference to the Text. 1. 1. Woman must learn in silence In the first place Women must be silent viz. In the publick Congregations where they must hear and learn in silence not taking upon them the exercise of any office or gift in publick So are we to understand the Apostles injunction and inhibition Not as if women were hereby interdicted Women not forbidden to read or confer of the scriptures Rhem. Annot. in 1 Tim. 2.12 and prohibited either to read the Scriptures or to confer of them So it seemeth the Doctors of Rhemes would fain have it whose note upon the 12. verse of this Chapter runs thus In times of Licentiousnesse Liberty and Heresie women are much given to reading disputing chatting and jangling of the holy Scriptures that is their Language c. An impious glosse A sense which never came into the Apostles thoughts to forbid any whether men or women the reading or talking of the Scriptures which so it be done with modesty and sobriety with a desire to benefit themselves or others is not only lawfull but commendable A thing which Jerome in his time as Doctor Fulk tells those his adversaries highly commended in many vertuous and godly women Amongst others he exhorteth one Laeta a godly Matron that she would season the tender tongue of her young daughter with godly Psalmes This women may do Read the Scriptures and confer of them Nor to instruct their families And more then this They may and ought to teach and instruct their families to Catechise children and servants I and to performe other Family-duties with them in case the husband be absent
A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR GOOD WOMEN Held forth by way of Counsell and Advice to such of that Sex and Quality as in the simplicity of their Hearts are led away to the imbracing or looking towards any of the dangerous Errors of the Times specially that of the SEPARATION As it was lately presented to the Church of God at Great-YARMOUTH BY JOHN BRINSLEY 2 COR. 11.3 I fear least as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupt from the simplicity that is in Christ Octob. 9. 1645. Imprimatur JA CRANFORD London Printed by John Field for Ralph Smith at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill neer the Royall Exchange 1645. To all the well affected but ill advised of the weaker Sex who are either turned or turning from the way of the Church of Christ in Old England to the refined Error of seperation Specially those in the Town of Great Yarmouth Daughters of Jerusalem TO you is this Glasse presented with a Request That you will vouchsafe to look into it and that with an Eye not prejudiced against it Possibly you may here see more of Satan and your selves his wiles your weaknesse then before you were aware of If any shall herein espy some spots and blemishes discovered not becoming the face of profession let them not blame the Glasse which represents things as they are but themselves or others who have given the ground to these Reflections For my own Intentions in holding forth this Glasse they are such as I can approve unto God sincere and candid As for aspersing of Religion disparaging the weaker Sex discouraging of any in their holy indeavours of going before others in the profession and power of godlinesse sadding the spirits of any that are truly godly or opening the mouthes of any that are profanely wicked my heart smiteth me not with the guilt of any of them That which first put this subject into my hand was chiefly a tender respect to the peace and welfare of this place where God hath cast me Where I could not without a deep resentment take notice how many of the weaker Sex being by degrees distasted with the publike Ordinances came at length to be quite weaned from them No more owning that Ministery or those means which to some of them had been heretofore the avowed and acknowledged power of God to their salvation For your sakes were these meditations first conceived And for your sakes are they now brought forth to a more publike view That so what you would not vouchsafe to heare with the eare you may yet have opportunity to see with the eye May the eyes of any of you be hereby opened so as you may see the error of these your wandrings and be perswaded to returne againe to the fold from which you have strayed I should account it an acceptable service both to God and You. However I shall acknowledge it no small recompence that some others may be stayed from following after you In the experience and hopes whereof with my hearty prayers unto God for them and you I sit downe and rest Yarmouth Yours in the service of Christ JOHN BRINSLEY A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR GOOD VVOMEN 1 TIM 214. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression THis Text is Scripture and such a portion of Scripture as is but too proper for the times wherein we live Other Apology I shall need none for my taking it up and handling of it in this place To make way to the words Look but a little back into the Chapter and you shall meet with a parcell of Apostolicall Canons partly concerning Men partly Women The former you have in the 8. ver Coherence I will therefore that men pray every where c. The latter in the four verses following Wherein the Apostle orders the female Sex First touching their Apparell ver 9 10. In like manner also that the women adorne themselves in modest apparell c. Then touching their demeanour in the publike worship and service of God ver 11.12 Wherein as Henimgius resolves those two verses we may take notice of a double Injunction and a double Prohibition Two things commanded and two things prohibited The things injoyned are that women should hear and learn 1. Silently then submissively Let the women learn in silence with all subjection ver 11. The things prohibited are First their Publick teaching Secondly their usurping authority over their husbands I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe Authority over the man ver 12. And both these the Apostle presseth by a twofold Argument The former taken from mans precedency in his Creation ver 13. For Adam was first formed then Eve The woman was made after the man and for the man And therefore for her to take upon her the office of Teaching or to usurpe authority over the man what were it but to invert the course and order of nature The latter taken from the Womans priority in her defection That you have in the words of the Text And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression In which words for our better handling of them Division we may take notice first of the Negative then of the Positive part of them The former concerning the first Man denying him to have been deceived And Adam was not deceived The latter concerning the first woman affirming her first to have been deceived then to have been in the transgression But the woman c. Three clauses yeelding us three distinct Propositions or Conclusions 1. Adam was not deceived 2. The woman was deceived 3. Being deceived she was in the transgression Touch upon each and but touch upon them by way of Explication Illustration that so I may make way to Application which is the main thing which at present I aime at And Adam was not deceived No How came he then to fall 1. How it is said that Adam was not deceived How came he to adventure upon the eating of that forbidden fruit the core whereof yet sticketh in the throats and hearts of all his posterity to this day Ans Diversly resolved To this is answered variously Six or seven resolutions such as they are I finde returned to it by the Iesuit Estius Estius Com. ad loc I shall only single out two or three of them such as I finde most approved of by Orthodox Expositours 1. Adam was not deceived that is say some not formally not properly 1. He was not deceived properly and formally Propriè nemo decipitur nisi â decipiente saith Estius Properly and formally no man is said to be deceived but by a Deceiver who must be such a one as hath animum fallendi a minde and purpose to deceive so was the woman deceived by the Serpent or rather by Satan in the Serpent intending to deceive her But so was not Adam deceived The woman in tendring the Apple unto him she had no
much mildnesse and tendernesse as may be And to that end I shall baulk and decline Vses of Reprehension which yet the Text gives a fitting occasion for and the inordinate practises of some amongst us have too justly merited of whom I may say and that but too truly That they have been and are but too willing to be deceived Betaking my self onely to Instructions and Directions which I shall direct first to the one Sex then to the other Beginning with that which the Text directly and properly leadeth me to the weaker Sex the Woman Concerning whom it informs us First Application to Women that she was Deceived And secondly That being deceived she was in the Transgression Each usefull Vse 1. Use 1 Was it the Woman that was so deceived at the first Then let those of that Sex learn hence to be for ever jealous of themselves Let them be for ever jealous of themselves least they be deceived Being Conscious of their own naturall infirmity and weaknesse withall of their naturall pronenesse and propensity to be deceived and misled let them be for ever jealous over themselves cautelous and wary least they also should be deceived That they are naturally more prone to be deceived and misled Women naturally more prone to be deceived had former ages never yielded any evidence for it the present times would afford but too many instances of it not to go out of those walls within which our selves live How many of Eves Daughters do we daily here see following their Mother Praestigiatricem ne sinito vivere Exod. 22.18 being deceived drawn aside to the imbracing of the Errors of the times some one way some another The Woman is deceived Prestigiatrix potius nominatur quià proctiniores sunt ad hoc sietas ex infirmitate mulieres Iun. ad loc I wish I might speak it in the Language of the Text and say that The Man were not It cannot be denyed some also of that Sex are gone along with them being carried away with the stream But blessed be God the number of them is not considerable As it was at the first so now it cannot be hid The Woman the Woman she is deceived Now surely thus it would not be were there not a naturall aptitude Speciall Caution in them required and inclination in that Sex to be deceived Taking notice hereof be excited in the name and fear of the Lord to be the more wary the more circumspect over your selves which if you be not The first Woman the best of Woman he that deceived your great Grandmother a good Woman as good nay take it not amisse if I say better then the best of you such I am sure she was when Satan first met with her will also deceive you Hereof the Spirit of God giveth you warning by setting before you this fatall miscariage of your first Parent The Woman the first Woman she was deceived And wherefore is this Recorded Why even as the Apostle saith of the Murmurings and Lustings of the Israelites in the Wildernesse and the consequents of them 1 Cor. 10.6 These things were for our Examples that we should not lust as they also lusted we should not murmur as they also murmured So may I say of Eves being deceived This stands upon Record for your Example for your Admonition to the intent that you should not be deceived as she also was deceived Q. As she was deceived Why How was that How the first Woman came to be deceived The Resolution of this Question will prove very usefull for our present designe and purpose As the Mother was deceived so are her Daughters As the first Woman was deceived at the first so are many of that Sex deceived at this very day Looking upon the one you shall see the other But how was the first Woman deceived Ans To shew you how will you go along with me with your Patience and Attention I shall lead you through the severall Doors at which this deceit brake in upon her And as I go along I shall still shut and bar them after me that the like deceit may not break in upon any of you at any of them These Doors The wayes means of her deceiving reduced to three Heads these wayes and means I mean whereby the Woman came to be deceived are many I shall reduce them all to three Heads They were either in the Woman her self or in the Instrument or in the Object In every of these we shall meet with some particulars suiting very fitly with our present purpose All which you shall finde laid down in the beginning of that one Chapter the third of Genesis 1. Look upon the Woman her self and see what there was in her that occasioned this her deception 1. In the woman her selfe In her take notice of three or four particulars 1. Her dislike of and discontentednesse with her present condition God had made her after his own Image 1. Causlesse discontentednesse with her present condition both Holy and Happy So she was and so she might have been had she but known her own happinesse But upon Satans tampering with her she took some dislike that she was not so well so holy so happy as she might have been and as another was she was not as God Again God had placed her in Paradice where she had what ever her heart could desire the free use of all the choice Fruits of the Garden Only there was one Tree which she might see but not touch at least not taste of the Tree of Knowledge And hereupon being instigated by Satan she groweth discontented and that discontent was the first step to her fall and ruine All which may be and by Expositors generally is collected from Satans Suggestions and her Replies to them in the six first verses of that Chapter Now beloved in the Lord is it not the very self same door that the Errors of the Times do ordinarily first break in at upon those which are deceived by them Applied to the present state of the times whether Men or Women The Errors of the times breaking in at the same door They first fall into dislike with their present state and condition Notwithstanding that they are well yet they are not so well so well as they would be and as they apprehend some others to be True indeed they do injoy many precious Liberties and Immunities They do or may partake in all the Holy Ordinances of God Word Sacraments Prayer Onely there is one Ordinance which the Church at present hath not the exercise of viz. Discipline Government And when it hath it yet they conceive this I speak of Men for Women never yet challenged it it shall not be put into their hands they may no more touch it then Vzzah might the Ark or Eve the Apple And hereupon they grow Discontented and fall into dislike with the present state of the Church and that discontent
which we read of Women Teachers A. True they were so but that was extraordinary and therefore ought not to be drawn into president Dr. Fulk Annot in Rhem. 1 Tim. 2.12 unlesse it be in extraordinary Cases In which cases as Doctor Fulks tells his adversaries of Rhemes God hath sometimes made use of Women as publick instruments of great service to the Church even for the converting of great Nations Object Why but Paul himself seemeth to give allowance to such Women-Preachers 1 Cor. 11.5 explained and that in an ordinary way 1 Cor. 11. where he tels his Corinthians that every woman which prayeth or prophecieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head So that it seemeth he did not disallow the practise though he condemned the manner Ans To this it is variously answered The Apostle saith Calvin and P. Martyr there takes occasion onely to censure the manner yet not giving any allowance to the practise it self which afterwards he expresly forbids Others conceive that here he speaks of private praying and prophecying 1 Cor. 14.24 not in the Church but at home Others that he speaks only of women being present at the publick prayer and prophecy performed by others Others that he speaketh there of such as were inspired with an extraordinary spirit of Prayer and Prophecy So the Ancients generally carry it And that seemeth to be the most probable Sure we are that in an ordinary course the Apostles prohibition is expresle Women may not teach in publick And were there no other Reason for it this alone might be sufficient to silence them The woman by her taking upon her to teach at the first became the Instrument of Seduction and Author of Transgression to her husband and consequently of ruine to him and all his posterity Henceforth then no more Women-Preachers A point wherein Master Calvin seemeth to be very zealous and earnest averring this Quaerc calum quodammodo terrae miscebitur si docendi jus accipiant mulieres Calv. in v. 12. for women to take upon them the office of Teaching to be no lesse then a mingling of Heaven and earth together an inversion of the course and order of nature But for my self I shall spare my heat in this cause not knowing whom to spend it upon in or belonging to this place If any such there be I shall say no more but Partem aliquam ventireferatis ad aures I wish this truth might finde some conveyance to their ears and hearts Passe we to the second of these Lessons which is Women must be in subjection that women should be in subjection not usurping Authority but submitting to it and that whether Ecclesiasticall or Civill not taking themselves exempt from either True indeed in some cases they are exempt from some formall obligations as of late they were from the Nationall Covenant which Men are ingaged in Yet are they never the more exempt from Obedience to which though they be not formally yet they are vertually bound Even as it was in Circumcision the Females were Circumcised in the Males So may I say of Obligations of this nature and particularly of this late Covenant The Females Covenanted in the Males Women in their Husbands to whom I am sure they ought to be subject That is the subjection which the Apostle here principally aymes at though not excluding other Not usurping Authority MulÃer naturâ hoc est ordinariá Dei lege ad parendum nata est Calv. in 1 Tim. 2. v. 11. 1 Cor. 14.34 Gen. 3.16 Not Ecclesiasticall Authority A Woman Head of the Church A Popish Cavill against Queen Elizabeth refuted Estius in 1 Tim. 2.12 Monstrum borrendum Corn. â Lap. ibid. So he explains himself in the twelfth verse of the Chapter I suffer not a Woman to teach nor to usurpe Authority over the Man Not to usurpe Authority in what kinde soever All such usurpation saith Calvin is against the Law of nature in as much as the Woman saith he Ad parendum nata est was made to obey Which is no more then what the Apostle himself saith in that forenamed place 1 Cor. 14.34 where speaking of Women he tells us that They are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law They may not then usurpe Authority Not Ecclesiasticall Authority in the Church Object No say our Adversaries of Rome Why then did you allow a woman to be the head of your Church It is an obvious blot Romish Commentators writing upon this of the Apostle cannot misse it Estius and Cornelius â Lapide both hit it What saith the latter may not a Woman teach in the Church Much lesse may she Rule it And if neither Teach nor Rule How is it then that a Woman should be the Head of a Church This they exclaim against as a most prodigious and unheard of monstrosity Ans Bishop Iewels Defence of the Apolog. part 6 cap. 11. divis 1. To this let our renowned Bishop Jewel return them an Answer as he hath done to their Mr. Harding taking up the same Quarrell who will tell them that as for this Title so much exclaimed against be it what it will Statute Anno 26. Hen. 8. c. 1 Stows Chron. 1. We devised it not The device was their own their Forefathers even the Romish Clergyes in their Convocation who first bestowed this strange stile upon that Famous Prince King Henry the Eight and that as it may be probably conjectured purposely to bring him into the talk and slander of the world 2. Our Princes use it not 3. They claim it not However as he chargeth it upon his Adversarie their Queen Mary did both both own it and use it yet Queen Elizabeth did neither No more do her Successours To be the Head of the Church or a Church in propriety of speech is a title peculiar only unto Christ whose Body the Church is And therefore however as he saith it may also in sober meaning and good sense be sometimes applied to some principall member Videntur mihi istae mulieres caput fuisse Ecclesiae quae illic erat Chrysost in Epist ad Philip. Hom. 13. or members of a Church as he brings in Chrysostome speaking of some Women at Phillippi and calling them the Head of the Church there yet in a proper sense it cannot be challenged by any Man much lesse Woman Who whether she may be the Head of a Civill State or no some have made it a Question Calvin being as I Conjecture seasoned with the principles of the Salique Law in France which forbiddeth a Woman to inherit the Crown in that Kingdom Whether a woman may be the Head of a civill State seemeth to be somewhat earnest against it But who so readeth but the stories of Israels Deborah and Englands Elizabeth may see by experience that a Kingdom may flourish and be happy under such a Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnes prudentes semper instar portenti repudiarunt Calv.
in 1. Tim. 2. v. 11 Neither is this to be looked upon as any inverting of the roder of Nature for a Princesse to wear the Crown to which she is born and to Rule over her Subjects more then for the Mistresse of a Family to rule over her Children and Servants This the Woman may do in as much as God hath made them subject to her and consequently can be no usurpation But to usurpe Authority over the man Women may not usurp Authority over their husbands but must be subject 1 Pet. 3.1 Eph. 5.22 Col. 3.18 over her Husband this the Apostle Paul and Peter will by no means allow In this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of necessity she must be subject Yee Wives saith St. Peter be in subjection to your own Husbands 1 Pet. 3.1 Wives submit your selves to your own Husbands saith St. Paul Eph. 5.22 Repeated again Col. 3.18 Reason And great Reason it should be so This being the Law of the creation that the Woman who was made after the man The Law of the womans creation A penalty inflicted upon the woman for seducing the man viz. stricter obedience Minus liberalis conditio parendi Calv. in Text. Gen. 3.16 and for the man should be subject to him Seconded with a penalty inflicted upon her upon her defection in regard of that ill office which she did unto him at the first in seducing him Being deceived saith the Text she was in the Transgression Hereupon she is injoyned though still as free and ingenuous yet a stricter kinde of subjection and obedience then formerly Henceforth saith the Lord to the Woman Gen. 3. Thy desire shall be subject to thy Husband and he shall Rule over thee Why did he not so before Yes but now his Patent was inlarged and her liberty somewhat abridged And it was but Reason saith M. Calvin that it should be so that she who had given such pernicious Councell to her Husband Cato ibid. should ever after be under his Government that she who had been the Instrument to withdraw her Husband from his Allegiance to his God should thereupon forfeit her own liberty which accordingly she did and that both for her self and all her posterity A Point not unusefull to be considered A Lesson for high and imperious spirits of the Female Sex and sometimes seriously thought of by all of that Sex specially such as are of such high and imperious spirits if there be any such here let them take it home with them as if they were made only to Rule not at all to obey Their spirits will not stoop to any kinde of subjection specially to their Husbands whom it may be they look upon as Michal did upon her Husband David when she saw him dancing 2 Sam. 6.16 before the Arke dispising them in their hearts No they are resolved they will have their wills Let their Husbands say what they will they will do what they list not regarding their Counsels much lesse acknowledging their Authority It may be they stick not to usurpe Authority over them So did Jezabel over her husband Ahab He ruleth the Kingdom 1 King 21.8 and she vvill rule him not sticking to make bold with his name I and with his signet too signing what she pleaseth with it Such Spirits there have been and surely yet are in some of that Sex If their Husbands wear the Crown yet they will sway the Scepter If their Husbands be in places of Authority they will Rule with them if not over them Now as for such it will not be amisse for them often to reflect upon this fatall miscarriage of their first Mother which God hath purposely left upon record to humble them to bring down and keep down their spirits that they may not be lifted up within them above what is meet however not so as to put them upon any such unnaturall Ambition as to usurpe Authority over their husbands to whom they ought and must be subject Quest Wherein the woman must be subiect to her husband But wherein subject What in all things Ans Not so This subjection is not boundlesse and unlimited That were to make the man a Tyrant and the woman a stave neither of which ought to be Take the boundary therefore from the Apostle himself in that forenamed place Col. 3. where requiring wives to submit to their Husbands and giving a reason for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt oportet as it must be in regard of Gods Institution or Vt convenit as it is meet that it should be or Vt decet as it is seemly and comely for to be in regard of the order of nature withall he bounds and limits that their submission Col. 3.18 In the Lord. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Lord i.e. in the fear of the Lord with an eye to his Ordinance and in the Lord i.e. in what shal be required from God and for God not against him This is the common boundary which bounds and limits Subjects obedience to their Prince Childrens to their Parents servants to their Masters and so wives to their Husbands Shall any of them command any thing against God now the rule holds Better obey God then man Q. But what if it be against Conscience But what if it be against conscience Ans Conscience must be directed and regulated by the word otherwise it is not conscience but will which too often is mistaken for conscience or at the best an erronious conscience which must rather be rectified then satisfied In such cases where the evidence is not clear the safest course is to submit to this Ordinance which I am sure is clear viz. that women should be in subjection to their own husbands either in doing what they require or at least in not doing what they forbid I might here instance in some particular cases such as the scruples of the times bring to hand I shall only single out one and that I will but touch upon viz. The womans forsaking of that Church whereof her husband is a member Whether a woman may forsake the Church whereof her husband is a Member it being a true Church and joyne her self to another without his consent and joyning her self by Covenant to some other and that without his consent if not against his will In this case it must be acknowledged that could it be made good by clear evidence that that Church from which this departure is made were no true Church but Anti-Christian now there might be some plea for this their Separation But this being granted that that Church is a true Church such a Church as wherein salvation may be had in an ordinary way though possibly not so perfect as some other may be conceived to be now in this case for the wife to desert that Church and to joyne her self to another so as they who lie in the same bed and in the eye both of Gods Law and