172 THE LIFE OF 



CHAP, creeter, constanter, than a number of men ; but such as wo- 

 XIII&amp;gt; _ men be of the worst sort, fond, foolish, wanton, Sec. Such 

 shall be your senators and rulers, that shall be neither able 

 to rule themselves nor you. 



1 Cor. xiv. 1 Tim. ii. where St. Paul forbade women to 

 speak in the congregation ; and that it was an unseemly 

 thing for them to speak. This the Apostle, he said, meant, 

 that though he ordained that every man in the assembly 

 ecclesiastical, about the word of God and prayer, should 

 have leave orderly and in his course to speak and utter, for 

 the interpretation of the Scripture, all that was revealed him 

 by the Spirit of God ; yet women, because they were not 

 meet, neither by nature nor study, to preach and interpret 

 Scriptures, he would not have to meddle with it there : and 

 then, from Primasius and Theophylact, added, that the chief- 

 est cause that moved Paul to take this order was the com 

 mon fault that then was in that sex. For being somewhat 

 instructed by this hearing of the Apostle in the mysteries of 

 salvation in the cross of Christ, they began to think some 

 what of themselves, and turned that was taught to edify 

 them with, to a jangling and tattling in the Church, when 

 they met ; so that the congregation was thereby disturbed. 

 For the avoiding whereof Paul meant to bridle them ; as 

 without doubt he would have done the men also, if they 

 had prophesied unorderly. And moreover hereby the Apo 

 stle not only debarred women from prophesying, but from 

 any public function in the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 



Knox brought this place to shew that the Scripture dis 

 allowed a woman s government : if not to speak in the con 

 gregation, therefore not to rule; thinking that it was a for 

 mal a minore ad majus. But Aylmer argued, that it was 

 not to be taken thus ; Paul forbade her the less for her un- 

 aptness, therefore he debarred her of the greater : but in 

 deed it was contrariwise, he forbade her the greater and 

 more chargeable function; which was the spiritual ministry, 

 and preaching : therefore it followed not, that he shut her 

 from the less, which is extern policy. And thus, as he 



