Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	hair_n	nature_n	wear_v	1,532	5	9.6915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95727	Practical piety, or, The pastor's last legacy to his beloved people directing how to walk with God in these apostatizing times. : With two most serious exhortatory epistles to satisfie the Christian readers, concerning the whole work. : To which is added morning and evening prayers for private families. / By that reverend divine, Mr. William Thomas, late rector of the Church of Ubley, in the County of Somerset, after his 44 years labours in the ministry in that place.	Thomas, William.	1681 (1681)	Wing T987B; ESTC R184982	206,212	270

and argues unanswerably against the ungodly unsober and worse then Heathenish drinking of Healths and clean cuts off dissolute and drunken Meetings and all such use of the c●●●tures as is either dishonorable to the Creator or bringeth no glory at all to him Lastly that I may speak of one thing more because it is in every ones eye we cannot tell men just how long they oughr to wear their hair but it doth not therefore follow that if instead of wearing their hair on their heads or necks they wear it as far as they can get it to go on their backs shoulders and breasts that they may do this without any Divine controul For we can tell them that things Indifferent are to be governed and limited by those things that are not Indifferent if therefore mens long hair arise from pride vanity of minde and an affectation of being fine as they think that way then its sure unlawful for though there be an indifferency in the cutting and ordering of the hair yet Pride is no indifferent thing Or If men do it in compliance with others that in these dayes use so much to exceed that general rule Be not conformed to this World will in the just extent thereof give a check to it Or If it be of ill report and an offence to the wise and godly it doth in that regard thwart with those Rules which require us to do things of good Report and in things indifferent to give no offence to any And moreover we can tell them what the Apostle saith and what Question he propounds for better order amongst the Christians at Corinth which is this Doth not even nature it self teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame to him Let men consider how they will answer the Apostle whose words whatsoever shuffle men make are at least thus far convincing that Men are not to wear their hair so long as to confound the Sexes and transform themselves into Women wearing an ornament which take it in such a length and extent is proper to Women and so as it were deny their Sex which God forbad in the Law If it be said For Men to wear hair as long as Women is indeed a fault but not otherwise To that I answer 1. That Men cannot wear because they cannot have ordinarily hair so long as Women Nature will not afford it them having given Women a moister temperature to nourish that hair which is their distinguishing ornament and glory 2. I answer further That it is a very bad Character for any man to come next to that though he come not fully up to it which is absolutely naught and unnatural If it be said again That the Apostle speaks of that which is against nature not absolutely but according to the custom of those times and places unto which he directs his speech when in other Countreys it was otherwise To this I answer 1. That it doth not follow that it is not against nature strictly taken to wear very long hair because some Nations have let their hair grow extreamly long for who knows not that not only Heathens but divers Christians do that which is against the dictate and direction of nature 2. I add further with Beza that the Jews and people of God did not use so to nourish their hair as appears by the Law of the Nazarites not to cut their hair which shews that others usually did so and therefore that of Absolom was extraordinary and his way and end makes his example sad 3. If we have recourse to Custom only yet we may very well say it hath not been the Custom in England for Men to wear their hair so excessively long as appears by the Lord Comwel's imprisoning a Serving-man meerly for such excess but now indeed it grows to be a Custom and so invades the whole Nation that not only every youth in a manner but every child is put into that fashion I speak not of what is moderate and modest but of a general excess this way evidently declaring that though we have been so long of late under the hand of God and still are under such hazzards notwithstanding Gods admirable working for our settlement by the return of our gracious King as should humble our hearts and keep them in a modest frame yet we are become more bold more high and a more distempered and dissolute people then heretofore And here let it be observed that at the same time that is in the late times when men grew to be so horrid and illimitable in their hair they were extreamly extravagant also in their heads and conceits and as they would have such a length and latitude of hair granted them as should only not quite raze out the distinction of Sexes so they pleaded for such a liberty of Opinion as should only not raze and force up the very foundations of Religion As if it were injustice to tie Subjects to any Laws of the Nation save only to fundamental Laws or else as if every law of Men and of State were to be obeyed and the laws of God and of Conscience to be dispensed with according to every mans several sense and interest But as Prodigals that sell their Woods will shortly sell their Lands so they that will sell truths of Superstruction when they should buy every truth and sell none will be like to sell all at last even the truths of the Foundation as divers of late have done and leave themselves nothing to live upon and walk by but false lights and true fancies If this be a Digression the exorbitances of the times yea the excesses and offences that present themselves in every poor Countrey-Congregation have drawn it from me Howsoever I am sure I am not altogether gone beyond my purpose which was and is to shew that the general rules of Scripture and the determinations of Ministers according to and in vertue of those general rules are binding in particular Cases This being before hand observed we may take notice of some general Scripture-grounds tending to the establishing of Family-prayer particularly Gods glory and our own good 1. Gods glory All we do should be as much as may be for the glory of God Now it is more for Gods glory that a whole Family should be on their knees together then that there should be here and there a single Suitor for as in the multitude of people is the Kings honour so in the multitude of Praying people is the honor of the King of Heaven Hence David studying the glory of God saith O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together And Paul is still earnest for Saints joynt-supplications because when they help together in Prayer then for the gift bestowed by the means of many Persons thanks is given by many And as he that offereth praise to God glorifieth him so by many thanksgivings to

as in this and things of the like nature Carnal-reason stands upon its guard and will yield to no more then needs it must and men devoted to the World and the Flesh are very witty to keep out of their Houses this kind of Devotion in as much as it seems to be a disadvantage and impediment to their better beloved wayes I shall therefore lay before the Religious Reader such Considerations as I conceive most material for the urging and establishing of this holy Exercise Wherein all I have to say may be summed up into Grounds of Scripture and Reason agreeing with Scripture Scripture-grounds I shall put into the four following Positions The first Position General Rules and Doctrines of Scripture are binding in all those particulars that are rightly drawn and deduced from them In this way our Saviour proves the Resurrection of the body to wit from this general ground of Scripture that God is the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob and he is not the God of the dead but of the living Hence it followeth that Abraham Issac and Jacob must of necessity live and that everlastingly God being their God for evermore because the Covenant is an everlasting Covenant yet their bodies are now dead therefore to make good the promise of their eternal enjoyment of God in their living persons consisting of body and soul their bodies shall certainly and unquestionably be raised In the same manner also Paul resolveth the Corinthians in the matter of Mariage putting a difference between what God spake from himself by express Command and what he spake by him as a faithful Minister according to the mind of Christ in a case where there was no precise and special Precept Concerning the first he saith Not I command but the Lord that is it is the plain will of Christ as appears by his words Mat. 5. 31 32. 19. 6 9. that they that are marryed should not part unless for that Adultery which God declares dissolves the marriage-bond one from another But now coming to another question to wit Whether the unmarried should marry and whether they that had virgins were bound to bestow them in marriage he expresseth himself thus I say v. 8. not the Lord and not I as v. 10. and more plainly v. 25. I have NO commandement of the Lord that is there is no particular and certain Precept in the Word of God to bind any particular man simply to Marry or not to Marry a single life being no where either commanded or forbidden yet saith he I give my judgement that is in a thing which in it self is indifferent I give my advice and counsel but withal signifyeth that what he saith is not to be looked upon as the judgement of an ordinary man that may be taken or left as men list but as the determination of a Minister and Apostle of Christ who obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful that is faithful to teach and declare as the Doctor of the Church the mind of God and that by the Spirit of God v. 40. to those that sought to him for his advice And therefore whilest he advised them unto that which in regard of the circumstances was most expedient they were bound to reverence and observe it from which counsel notwithstanding out of that case and if not clothed with such circumstances as he mentioneth they might recede without sin which cannot be said of an express Commandement of God But that which I would more especially observe is that Paul being sought by the Corinthians to inform them about Mariage doth not resolve them absolutely and enjoyn them either to Marry or not to Marry because he had no special word of God for it but he gives his judgement for taking the one course or the other according as he stated it And to come to my purpose he stated it according to those general grounds of Scripture by which as he was guided to give them a sound Answer so they were bound to a ready and reverend receiving of it For what doth he say or what grounds doth he lay but that Christians are not to enter into the Marryed estate 1. Wantonly fancying an high felicity in it and so longing vainly after it Nay saith the Apostle you must make account to have trouble in the flesh you must not think there 's all comfort in that estate and nothing else 2. Inconsiderately Never weighing though perhaps they be put in mind of them and acknowledge them yet I say never pondering nor weighing wisely the cares and crosses attending that estate especially in a time of persecution which the Apostle looked much at in what he speaketh and would have them before whom it now was to look at it also for in such a time the Church is so tossed to and fro that the very present necessity cries loud for their withdrawing from any thing that will add to their burthen as Marriage will if they may be without it without sin 3. Irreligiously that is without a serious and godly thinking of this own main thing that it is our duty to design and dispose our selves into that estate wherein we may attend upon the Lord without or with least distraction Now All these things are so sutable to the sense of Scripture and to Reason also enlightened by Divine Revelation that if men will not be thus ruled it shews they are not willing God should rule them It 's true indeed that Ministers now are not infallible nor to be compared with Paul as an Apostle but yet this may be inferred from Paul's way of answering the Corinthian Questions That any thing is binding truly that is deduced from the generals of Scripture rightly else could no use be made at all now of general Scripture-truths as to the deciding of particular cases because no man now is infallible and so men must be left to do what they list in those things that are not particularly and punctually defined and determined by the Word of God And How many such things are there wherein if we set aside the general sayings and declarations of the Word it will be hard for Ministers to know what to say To mention some familiar Instances We cannot tell Christian Women particularly what clothes they should wear or how they should dress themselves but we can tell them from God that they must adorn themselves in medest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety which shuts out as absolutely unlawful platted hair or gold or pearls or costly aray I say as absolutely unlawful so far and so used as they crosse that general rule of Modesty Shamefastness and Sobriety and arise from Pride Lightness Luxury and Intemperance Again we cannot say just how much men should eat and drink at a Meal or a Meeting but we may and must tell them and our selves that Whether we eat or drink it must be to the glory of God which strikes strongly at