Works of John Bunyan Volume II Part 161

The law of Christ is, "Is any sick among you? let him [and the woman is included in the man] call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him," &c. And to this injunction there is a threefold promise made. (1.) "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick." (2.) "And the Lord shall raise him up." (3.) "And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him" (John 5:14,15).

And considering, that this advice is seconded with so much grace: I think it best in all such cases, as in all other, to make the word of G.o.d our rule.

Objection.

"But women have sometimes cases, which modesty will not admit should be made known to men, what must they do then?"

Answer.

Their husbands and they are one flesh, and are no more to be accounted two. Let them tell their grief to them. Thus Rachel asked children of her husband, and went not to a nest of women to make her complaint to them (Gen 30:1). Or let them betake themselves to their closets, with Rebecca (Gen 25:20-23). Or if they be in the a.s.sembly of the saints, let them pray in their hearts, with Hannah.

And if their pet.i.tion be lawful, I doubt not but they may be heard (1 Sam 1:13).

Our author, perhaps, will say, I have not spoken to his question; which was, "Whether women, fearing G.o.d, may meet to pray together?

And whether it be lawful for them so to do?"

But I answer, I have: with respect to all such G.o.dly women as are in the churches of the saints (1 Cor 14:33-35 compared with vv 15-17). And when he has told us, that his question respected only those out of churches, then will I confess that I did mistake him.

Yet he will get nothing thereby, forasmuch as his question, to be sure, intends those in special. Also his arguments are for the justifying of that their practice. Now the reason why I waved the form of his question, was, because it was both scanty and lean of words, as to the matter of the controversy in hand: also I thought it best to make it more ample, and distinct, for the edification of our reader. And if after all, Mr. K. is not pleased at what I have done, let him take up the question, and answer it better.

The man perhaps may fly to the case of utter necessity, and so bring forth another question, to wit, whether, if the men of a church should all die, be murdered, or cast into prison: the women of that church may not meet together to pray? And whether it be not lawful for them so to do? But when he produceth a necessity for the putting of such a question, and then shall put it to me; I will, as G.o.d shall help me, give him an answer thereto.

But, may some say, Our women in this do not what they do of their own heads, they are allowed to do what they do by the church.

I answer, No church allowance is a foundation sufficient to justify that which is neither commanded nor allowed by the word. Besides, who knows not, that have their eyes in their heads, what already has, and what further may, come into the churches, at such a gap as this. And now to give the reader a cautionary conclusion.

Caution 1.

Take heed of letting the name, or good show of a thing, beget in thy heart a religious reverence of that thing; but look to the word for thy bottom,[12] for it is the word that authorizeth, whatever may be done with warrant in worship to G.o.d; without the word things are of human invention, of what splendour or beauty soever they may appear to be. Without doubt the Friars and Nuns, and their religious orders, were of a good intent at first, as also compulsive vows of chast.i.ty, single life, and the like. But they were all without the word, and therefore, as their bottom wanted divine authority, so the practice wanted sanct.i.ty by the Holy Ghost. The word prayer is, of itself, in appearance so holy, that he forthwith seems to be a devil that forbids it. And yet we find that prayers have been out of joint, and disorderly used; and therefore may by one, without incurring the danger of d.a.m.nation, be called into question; and if found without order by him, he may labour to set them in joint again (Matt 6:5-8, 23:14; James 4:3).

I am not of the number of them that say, "What profit should we have if we pray unto G.o.d?" (Job 21:15). But finding no good footing in the word for that kind of service we have treated about above, and knowing that error and human inventions in religion will not offer themselves, but with wiped lips, and a countenance as demure as may be, and also being persuaded that this opinion of Mr.

K. is vagrant, yea a mere alien as to the scriptures, I being an officer, have apprehended it, and put it in the stocks, and there will keep it, till I see by what authority it has leave to pa.s.s and repa.s.s as it lists, among the G.o.dly in this land.

Caution 2.

Yet by all that I have said, I never meant to intimate in the least, but that believing women are saints as well as men: and members of the body of Christ. And I will add, that as they, and we, are united to Christ, and made members of his mystical body, the fulness of him that fills all in all, so there is no superiority, as I know of, but we are all one in Christ. For, the man is not without the woman, nor "the woman without the man, in the Lord,"

(1 Cor 11:11) nor are we counted "as male or female" in him (Gal 3:28; Eph 1:23). Only we must observe that this is spoken of that church which is his true mystical body, and not of every particular congregation of professing Christians. The churches of Christ here and there are also called his body. But no church here, though never so famous, must be taken for that of which mention was made afore. [13]As Christ then has a body mystical, which is called his members, his flesh, and his bones (Eph 5:30), so he has a body politic, congregations modelled by the skill that his ministers have in his word, for the bearing up of his name, and the preserving of his glory in the world against Antichrist. In this church, order and discipline, for the nourishing up of the true mystical body of Christ, has been placed from the foundation of the world.

Wherefore in this, laws, and statutes, and government, is to be looked after, and given heed unto, for the edification of that which is to arrive at last to a perfect man: to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (1 Cor 12:27-30; Eph 4:11-13).

Now, where there is order and government by laws and statutes, there must, of necessity, be also a distinction of s.e.x, degrees, and age. Yea, offices and officers must also be there, for our furtherance and joy of faith. From which government and rule our ordinary women are excluded by Paul; nor should it, since it is done by the wisdom of G.o.d, be any offence unto them.

In this church there are ofttimes many hypocrites, and formal professors, and heresies, "That they which are approved may be made manifest" (1 Cor 11:19). These therefore being there, and being suffered to act as they many times do, provoke the truly G.o.dly to contend with them by the word; for that these hypocrites, and formal professors, naturally incline to a denial of the power of G.o.dliness, and to set up forms of their own in the stead thereof (Mar 7:6-9; 2 Tim 3:5).

And this is done for the sake and for the good of those that are the true members of the body of Christ, and that are to arrive at his haven of rest: from whom those others at last shall be purged, and with them, all their things that offend. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear let him hear" (Matt 13:43).

This church, that thus consisteth of all righteous, that are so in G.o.d's account: they are to have a house in heaven, and to be for G.o.d's habitation there. Who, then, shall be governed by their head without those officers and laws that are necessary here. And both at last shall be subject to him, that sometime did put all things under Christ, that G.o.d may be all in all (John 14:1-3; Eph 2:21; 1 Cor 15:23-27). Wherefore, my beloved sisters, this inferiority of yours will last but a little while. When the day of G.o.d's salvation is come, to wit, when our Lord shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of G.o.d, these distinctions of s.e.xes shall be laid aside, and every pot shall be filled to the brim. For with a notwithstanding you shall be saved, and be gathered up to that state of felicity if you continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety (1 Tim 2:15).

Caution 3.

I doubt not at all of the lawfulness of women's praying, and that, both in private and public: only when they pray publicly, they should not separate from, but join with the church in that work.

They should also not be the mouth of the a.s.sembly, but in heart, desires, groans, and tears, they should go along with the men. In their closets they are at liberty to speak unto their G.o.d, who can bear with, and pity them with us; and pardon all our weakness for the sake of Jesus Christ.

And here I will take an occasion to say, there may be a twofold miscarriage in prayer, one in doctrine, the other in the frame of the heart. All are too much subject to the last, women [more easily] to the first. And for this cause it is, at least so I think, that women are not permitted to teach, nor speak in a.s.semblies, for divine worship, but to be and to learn in silence (1 Cor 14:33-35, 15:33). For he that faileth as to the frame of his spirit, hurteth only himself: but he that faileth in doctrine corrupteth them that stand by. Let the women be alone with Rebecca in the closet; or, if in company, let her, with Hannah, speak to herself and to G.o.d; and not doubt, but if she be humble, and keep within compa.s.s, she shall be a sharer with her brethren in the mercy.

Caution 4.

Nor are women, by what I have said, debarred from any work or employ, unto which they are enjoined by the word. They have often been called forth to be G.o.d's witnesses, and have borne famous testimony for him against the sons of the sorceress and the wh.o.r.e.[14] I remember many of them with comfort, even of these eminent daughters of Sarah, whose daughters you also are, so long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement (1 Peter 3:1-6). What by the word of G.o.d, you are called unto, what by the word is enjoined you do; and the Lord be with you.

But this of the women's meetings; since, indeed, there is nothing for its countenance in the word, and since the calling together of a.s.semblies for worship is an act of power, and belongeth to the church, elders, or chief men of the same: let me intreat you to be content, to be under subjection and obedience, as also saith the law. We hold that it is G.o.d's word that we are to look to, as to all things pertaining to worship, because it is the word that authorizeth and sanctifieth what we do.

Caution 5.

WOMEN! They are an ornament in the church of G.o.d on earth, as the ANGELS are in the church in heaven. Betwixt whom also there is some comparison, for they cover their faces in acts of worship (Isa 6:2; 1 Cor 11:10). But as the angels in heaven are not Christ, and so not admitted to the mercy-seat to speak to G.o.d, so neither are women on earth, [but] the man; who is to worship with open face before him, and to be the mouth in prayer for the rest. As the angels then cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, with faces covered in heaven: So let the women, cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, with their faces covered on earth: Yea, thus they should do, because of the angels. "For this cause ought the woman to have power," that is a covering, "on her head, because of the angels" (1 Cor 11:10). Not only because the angels are present, but because women and angels, as to their worship, in their respective places, have a semblance. For the angels are inferior to the great man Christ, who is in heaven; and the woman is inferior to the man, that truly worships G.o.d in the church on earth.

Methinks, holy and beloved sisters, you should be content to wear this power, or badge of your inferiority, since the cause thereof arose at first from yourselves. It was the woman that at first the serpent made use of, and by whom he then overthrew the world: wherefore the women, to the world's end, must wear tokens of her underlingship in all matters of worship. To say nothing of that which she cannot shake off, to wit, her pains and sorrows in child-bearing, which G.o.d has riveted to her nature, there is her silence, and shame, and a covering for her face, in token of it, which she ought to be exercised with, whenever the church comes together to worship (Gen 3:16; 1 Tim 2:15; 1 Cor 11:13; 1 Tim 2:9).

Do you think that G.o.d gave the woman her hair, that she might deck herself, and set off her fleshly beauty therewith? It was given her to cover her face with, in token of shame and silence, for that by the woman sin came into the world (1 Tim 2:9). And perhaps the reason why the angels cover their faces when they cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, in heaven, is to shew that they still bear in mind, with a kind of abhorrence, the remembrance of their fellows falling from thence. Modesty, and shame-facedness, becomes women at all times, especially in times of public worship, and the more of this is mixed with their grace and personage, the more beautiful they are both to G.o.d and men. But why must the women have shame-facedness, since they live honestly as the men? I answer, In remembrance of the fall of Eve, and to that the apostle applies it. For a woman, necessity has no law, to shave her head, and to look with open face in worship, as if she could be a leader there, is so far from doing that which becomes her, that it declares her to have forgot what G.o.d would have her for ever with shame remember.

Caution 6.

In what I have said about the women's meetings, I have not at all concerned myself about those women, that have been extraordinary ones, such as Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Anna, or the rest, as the daughters of Philip the evangelist, Priscilla, the women that Paul said laboured with him in the gospel, or such like; for they might teach, prophecy, and had power to call the people together so to do. Though this I must say concerning them, they ought to, and did, notwithstanding so high a calling, still bear about with them the badge of their inferiority to them that were prophets indeed. And hence it is said, under pain of being guilty of disorder, that if they prayed in the church, or prophesied there, with their head uncovered, they then dishonoured their head (1 Cor 11:5).

The prophetesses were below the prophets, and their covering for their heads was to be worn in token thereof, and perhaps it was for want of regard to this order, that when Miriam began to perk it [15] before Moses, that G.o.d covered her face with a leprous-scab (Num 12:10). Hence these women, when prophets were present, did use to lie still as to acts of power, and leave that to be put forth by them that were higher than they. And even Miriam herself, though she was one indeed, yet she came always behind, not only in name but worship, unless when she was in her own disorders (Num 12:1).

And it is worth your farther noting, that when G.o.d tells Israel that they should take heed in the plague of leprosy, that they diligently observed to do what the priest and Levites taught them, that he conjoins with that exhortation, that they should "remember what G.o.d did unto Miriam by the way" (Deut 24:8,9). Intimating surely that they should not give heed to women, that would be perking up in matters of worshipping G.o.d. Much less should we invest them with power to call congregations of their own, there to perform worship without their men.

Yet, will I say, notwithstanding all this, that if any of these high women had, but we never read that they did, separate themselves, and others of their own s.e.x with them, apart to worship by themselves: or if they had given out commandment so to do, and had joined G.o.d's name to that commandment, I should have freely consented that our women should do so too, when led out, and conducted in worship, by so extraordinary a one. Yea more, If any of these high women had given it out for law, that the women of the churches in New Testament times, ought to separate themselves from their men, and as so separate, perform divine worship among themselves: I should have subscribed thereto. But finding nothing like this in the word of G.o.d, for the sanctifying of such a practice: and seeing so many scriptures wrested out of their place to justify so fond a conceit: and all this done by a man of conceit, and of one that, as his sisters say, expects my answer: I found myself engaged to say something for the suppressing of this his opinion.

But to return to the good women in the churches, and to make up my discourse with them.

First, These meetings of yours, honourable women, wherein you attempt to perform divine worship by yourselves, without your men, not having the authority of the word to sanctify them, will be found will-worship, in the day when you, as to that, shall be measured with that golden reed, the law of G.o.d. And "who hath required this at your hand?" may put you to your shifts for an answer, notwithstanding all Mr. K. has said to uphold you (Isa 1:12; Rev 11:1).

Secondly, These meetings of yours need not be; there are elders or brethren in all churches, to call to, and manage this worship of G.o.d, in the world: if you abide in your subjection and worship as you are commanded.

Thirdly, These meetings of yours, instead of being an ornament to the church in which you are, are a shame and blemish to those churches. For they manifest the unruliness of such women, or that the church wants skill to govern them (1 Cor 14:23). Have you not "in your flock a male?" (Mal 1:14).

Fourthly, Suppose your meetings in some cases were lawful, yet since by the brethren they may be managed better, you and your meetings ought to give place. That the church together, and the brethren, as the mouth to G.o.d, are capable of managing this solemn worship best: consider--1. The gifts for all such service are most to be found in the elders and leading men in the church: and not in the women thereof. 2. The spirit for conduct and government in that worship, is not in the women, but in the men. 3. The men are admitted in such worship, to stand with open face before G.o.d, a token of much admittance to liberty and boldness with G.o.d, a thing denied to the women (1 Cor 11:4,5). 4. For that when meetings for prayers are commanded, the men, to be the mouth to G.o.d, are mentioned, but not in ordinary women, in all the Scriptures. Where the women and children, and them that suck the b.r.e.a.s.t.s are called, with the bride and bridegroom, and the whole land, to mourn: yet the ministers, and elders, and chiefest of the brethren, are they, and they only, that are bid to say, "Spare thy people, O Lord! and give not thine heritage to reproach" (Joel 1:13,14, 2:15-17). 5.

The word for encouragement to pray believingly in a.s.semblies is given to men. And it is the word that makes, and that sanctifies an ordinance of G.o.d: men, therefore, in all a.s.semblies for worship, should be they that should manage it, and let others join in their places.

Objection.

But the women is included in the man, for the same word signifies both.

Answer.

1. If the woman is included here, let her not exclude the man. But the man is [by them] excluded: The man is excluded by this woman's meeting from worship; from worship, though he be the head in worship over the women, and by G.o.d's ordinance appointed to manage it, and this is an excluding of the worst complexion (1 Cor 11:3).

2. Though the woman is included, when the man sometimes is named, yet the man is not excluded, when himself as chief is named. But to cut him off from being the chief in all a.s.semblies for worship, is to exclude him, and that when he for that in chief is named.

3. The woman is included when the man is named, yet but in her place, and if she worships in a.s.semblies, her part is to hold her tongue, to learn in silence; and if she speaks, she must do it, I mean as to worship, in her heart to G.o.d.

4. Nor, do I think, that any woman that is holy and humble, will take offence at what I have said; for I have not in anything sought to degrade them, or to take from them what either nature or grace, or an appointment of G.o.d hath invested them with: but have laboured to keep them in their place. And doubtless to abide where G.o.d has put us, is that which not only highly concerns us, but that, which becomes us best. Sisters, I have said what I have said to set you right, and to prevent your attempting to do things in such sort unto which you are not appointed. Remember what G.o.d did to Miriam, and be afraid.