THE Woman-Preacher OF SAMARIA A Better Preacher and more Sufficiently Qualified to Preach than any of the Men-Preachers of the Man-made-Ministry in these Three NATIONS Quia non cognovi literaturam introibo in potentias Domini Psal 71. v. 15. So the Ancient Latine and so the Septuagint in some Copies and so the Hebrew it self being rightly Translated In English thus Because I know not Letters I will enter into the Powers of the Lord. By George Keith Printed in the Year 1674. THE Woman-Preacher OF SAMARIA COme hither all you Men-Preachers of a Man-made-Ministry in the three Nations whether Conformists or Nonconformists unto the present way of the Ministry and Worship in these Nations Established by an Humane Law who cry out against Womens Preaching and Speaking and say Women ought not to Preach There should not be Women Preachers They should keep them to the Affairs within the House and not meddle with our holy Function Behold a Woman-Preacher the Woman of Samaria Iohn 4. who may be an Example unto you all and the best of you and most Learned and Qualified of you all have need to learn of her how to Preach This Woman of Samaria may be your School-Mistress to teach you to Preach and it were good for you to learn of her who though being dead yet speaketh unto you Verily she is a witness for God unto the true way of Ministry and Preaching against you all and against all your false and invented ways Oh for shame let alone your crying out against Women-Preachers while you are short exceedingly short of this Woman-Preacher of Samaria and first of all learn the true silence and to have that mouth in you stopped which God hath never opened that the true mouth which is of his opening you may come to witness or else for ever to be silent that him you may know to open your Mouths who hath the Key of David who shutteth and no man openeth and openeth and no man shutteth The Woman then left her Water-pot and went her way into the City and saith unto the Men Come See a Man which told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ Then they went out of the City and came unto him c. Iohn 4.28 29 30. Here she Preached Christ in few words but very effectually and with good success Come See a Man that told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ These were her words few and short but very material and Pertinent and very powerful and effectual as appeared by the good success her words had upon the men of the City for it is said Then to wit after her speaking to them they went out of the City and came unto him and v. 39. it is said And many of the Samaritans of that City believed on him for the saying of the Woman which testified he told me all things that ever I did but v. 41. it is said and many more believed because of his own Word But How came this Woman to be a Preacher of Christ First Who taught her Secondly Who called her Verily she was not taught by Men nor by Men was she called but by Christ. She had not been learned at the University neither got she her Ordination either by the laying on of hands of a Bishop or company of Men called a Presbytery yea we find no hands that Christ laid upon her in the outward but spoke unto her and talked with her and she with him So then she was taught of Christ himself that he was the Messiah or the Christ. She had heard of the Messiah that was to come but she knew not that he was come or who he was yea for some time though he was speaking unto her she did not know him to be the Christ but when he said unto her I that speak unto thee am he then she believed and went her way into the City and Preached him unto the men of the City So first of all she was taught Christ by Christ himself she was taught immediately and being thus taught she believed on him and then she went and Preached him This is an excellent Pattern and Example unto all true Ministers and Preachers of Christ First to be taught by himself before they go Preach him unto others Secondly to believe on him and having both heard himself and from his own word and testimony believed on him then to Preach him unto others And this same Method Paul followed who of a Persecutor of Christ became a Preacher of him First he was taught Christ by Christ himself and that inwardly Christ was revealed in him When it pleased God said he to reveal his Son in me that I should Preach him to the Gentiles And Secondly he was a believer in him as he said himself We having received the same Spirit of Faith we believe therefore we speak and said David I believe therefore have I spoken And what sort of Faith was this Was it onely an Historical Faith which Hypocrites and ungodly Men have whereof Paul and David spake Nay surely it was the true saving renewing and sanctifying Faith and according unto this none ought to preach who have not a measure of true and saving Faith and who are not truly in some measure Sanctified and renewed and by being Sanctified and renewed through Faith by the operation of the Holy Spirit are fitted and prepared for the work of the Ministry Now by these two qualifications of a true and right Preacher of Christ let us try the Ministers and Ministry of those called Preachers in these Nations both Conformists and Non-Conformists Both of them affirm and hold it as their Principle That true and saving Faith is not necessary unto a Mans being a Preacher It 's true they say if he be a true Believer and godly Man he will be the better Preacher but a true and Lawful Preacher he is and ought to be followed and heard and maintained though he be not in the least a godly Man or true Believer if he be a Scholar and can Preach in a Form of Sound words if he have Latine Greek and a little Hebrew and Logick and such like Natural Arts and Sciences it is enough to qualifie him to be a Preacher and this Principle Iames Durham a great Presbyterian expresly holds in his Book called An Exposition upon the Revelation in his digression concerning the Ministry and I my self have had sundry debates with both Conformists and Non-Conformists so called touching this same thing both affirming that true Faith and Piety was not needful to a Mans being a Preacher but that Letter Learning was needful so that he could not be a Preacher without Letters but he could be a Preacher without Faith and Piety Oh abominable Doctrine And this same Rule both follow in their trying of mens qualifications unto the Ministry they try what knowledge they have in strange Languages and Arts and Sciences Natural and what they can say upon plaâ—es of
or composed Speeches or Discourses they shall make Merchandise of you And so it is seen at this day for as they make their Sermons by Art and take great pains as they say to Compose and Frame them so they make Merchandise of them and sell them unto the people for Money yea cause people to give them Money over and over again for the same and thus they they beguile them and make Merchandise of them also so did not this Woman she did not go home and study what she should say but she spoke what freely rose in her heart as the Lord taught her and though her words were but few yet they are very material and weighty and came no doubt from the Wisdom of God revealed in her for her own wisdome could never have taught her such excellent words and so excellently to prove that he was the Christ from her own experience He hath told me all that ever I did is not this the Christ 10. Her Preaching had this good effect They came unto him saw himself and heard him and as some believed because of the Womans saying so it is said Many more believed because of his own word and then their Faith had sure footing and found the right Foundation to wit his own word then they generrally came to hear himself and so believed because they heard himself as they declared themselves yet she was an occasion unto them by her speaking But whom hath these of the Man-made-Ministry brought this length that they are come unto Christ himself and heard him and seen him nay both Teachers and People cry out generally this is not to be expected in this Life all Vision and Revelation is ceased And no doubt as they came unto him outwardly and heard him and saw him outwardly so they came unto him and heard and saw him inwardly otherwise they could not have believed in him nor loved him as they did nor been blessed by him if they had not seen him and heard him with another eye than the outward which many heard him and saw him him with who remained Unbelievers and were not blessed And so now by these Ten Instances it is manifest how this Woman-Preacher of Samaria was a better Preacher than any of the Men-Preachers of the Man-made-Ministry who called the men of Sychar out of the City unto Iacob's Well to see Christ now Sychar signifieth Drunkenness and doth fitly answer unto the natural and unconverted state and now Iacob's Well Typefieth the Spirit of Christ which is the Well of Living-water in true Believers and so out of the natural state and Spirit of this World she called them unto the Spirit of Christ there to come unto him and to see him The 29th of the First Month 1673. Post-script BUT say the Men-Preachers of the Man made-Ministry Women ought not to Preach because the Apostle expresly saith But I suffer not a Woman to teach nor to Vsurp Authority over the Man but to be in silence To which I say first what if I should understand by the Woman in this place the flesh as Bernard an Ancient Father in the Church who is of great account both among them called Papists and Protestants doth understand it for thus he writeth about five hundred years ago In sermone de septem Spiritibuâ— Fol. 87. Edit Paris Ad Spiritum enim debet fieri Conversio Carnis ut serviat ipsa non serviatur ei ut dicat Spiritus servo sno veni veniat fac hoc faciat illud sic enim erit uxor nostra sicut vitis abundans salvabitur per geuerationem filiorum qui sunt opera bona si fuerit ipsa quidem in lateribus domus nostrae i. e. in abscondito humili loco anima vero resideat in medio tanquam domina tanquam Pater familias tanquam Iudex That is in English For the Flesh ought to be Converted unto the Spirit that she may serve and not be served that the Spirit may say unto his Servant come and it cometh do this and it doth it for so our Wife shall be as a fruitful Vine and shall be saved by bearing of Children which are good works if she be indeed in the sides of our House that is in a secret and low place but let the Soul remain in the midst as a Mistress as a Master of the Family as a Judge Behold how Bernard understandeth by the Woman which Paul suffereth not to teach our flesh and Paul speaking of this Woman that she shall be saved in Child-bearing Bernard expoundeth these Children to be good works notwithstanding she shall be saved saith Paul in Child-bearing or in bearing of Children if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety 1 Tim. 2.12 13 14 15. And that the Apostle saith if they continue what is to be understood by these words Whether outward and Natural Children or such Children as Bernard expoundeth to be good works Or is a Woman saved by bearing outward and Natural Children to wit Male or Female Children or can the Faith and Holiness of these Children save the Woman I have made use of the Authority of Bernard in this place not as if I would have People believe this Exposition simply or mainly because Bernard hath said so But indeed because the Men of the Schools and those called Clergy-Men lay such weight upon the Authority of the Fathers who commonly say We are to receive the Exposition of the Scripture from the Fathers and if the Expoposition of a Scripture be called in question we are to hear what such an Ancient Father as Bernard or Agustine or Ierome saith upon it and that is to determine the Case if especially the Scripture it sâ—lf say nothing to the contrary Let them hear therefore Bernard in the Case and leave off their proud and insolent words against the People called in derision Quakers as if they understood the Scriptures all contrary to the mind of the Ancient Fathers for let this be told them that not onely in this particular but in most of all the things of weight wherein we differ from the present Clergy-men so called we have the Ancient Fathers more on our side than they have as it may be made appear if God permit in due season And also let those weak and illiterate Man made-Ministers who pretend so much to Learning and reading and yet have so little of it forbear their frothy jearings and mockings of our Friends as touching the meaning of the Scriptures lest in so doing they be found mockers of them whom they call their Fathers of whom either mediately or immediately they borrow or rather steal any thing they have to say though oft knowing neither what they say nor whereof they affirm I have had an occasion given me not long ago by some of these Men to return them this advice some of them going about to represent it as a most ridiculous and inconsistent Exposition to expound by the
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