40. And then that further
device of theirs, (if words can express it), how painfully
ridiculous is it, which they have invented for defense of their
long locks! “A man,” say they, “the Apostle hath forbidden to
have long hair: but then they who have made themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of God are no longer men.” O dotage unparalleled!
Well may the person who says this arm himself against Holy
Scripture’s most manifest proclamations, with counsel of
outrageous impiety, and persevere in a tortuous path, and essay to
bring in a pestiferous doctrine that not “Blessed is the man who
hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and in the way of
sinners hath not stood, and in the chair of noisome wickedness26162616 hath not
sat.”26172617 For if he
would meditate in God’s law day and night, there he should find
the Apostle Paul himself, who assuredly professing highest chastity
saith, “I would that all men were even as I:” and yet shows
himself a man, not only in so being, but also in so speaking. For
he saith, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child; when I became a man, I put away
childish things.”26182618 But why should I mention the
Apostle, when concerning our Lord and Saviour Himself they know not
what they think who say these things. For of Whom but Him is it
said, “Until we come all to unity of faith and to knowledge of
the Son of God, to the Perfect Man, to the measure of the age of
the fullness of Christ; that we be no longer babes, tossed and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, in sleight of men, in
cunning craftiness for machination of error.”26192619 With which sleight these persons
deceive ignorant people, with which cunning craftiness and
machinations of the enemy both they themselves are whirled round,
and in their whirling essay to make the minds of the weak which
cohere unto them so (in a manner) to spin round with them, that
they also may not know where they are. For they have heard or read
that which is written, “Whosoever of you have been baptized in
Christ, have put on Christ: where is no Jew nor Greek; no bond nor
free; no male nor female.”26202620 And they do not understand that it
is in reference to concupiscence of carnal sex26212621 that this is said, because in the
inner man, wherein we are renewed in newness of our mind, no sex of
this kind exists. Then let them not deny themselves to be men, just
because in respect of their masculine sex they work not. For wedded
Christians also who 524do this work, are of course not
Christians on the score of that which they have in common with the
rest who are not Christians and with the very cattle. For that is
one thing that is either to infirmity conceded or to mortal
propagation paid as a debt, but another that which for the laying
hold of incorrupt and eternal life is by faithful profession
signified. That then which concerning not veiling of the head is
enjoined to men, in the body indeed it is set forth in a figure,
but that it is enacted in the mind, wherein is the image and glory
of God, the words themselves do indicate: “A man indeed,” it
saith, “ought not to veil his head, forsomuch as he is the image
and glory of God.” For where this image is, he doth himself
declare, where he saith, “Lie not one to another; but stripping
off the old man with his deeds, put ye on the new, which is renewed
to the acknowledging of God, according to the image of Him who
created him.”26222622 Who can
doubt that this renewing takes place in the mind? But and if any
doubt, let him hear a more open sentence. For, giving the same
admonition, he thus saith in another place: “As is the truth in
Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old
man, him which is corrupt according to the lust of deception; but
be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man,
him which after God is created.”26232623 What then? Have women not this
renewal of mind in which is the image of God? Who would say this?
But in the sex of their body they do not signify this; therefore
they are bidden to be veiled. The part, namely, which they signify
in the very fact of their being women, is that which may be called
the concupiscential part, over which the mind26242624 bears rule, itself also subjected
to its God, when life is most rightly and orderly conducted. What,
therefore, in a single individual human being is the mind and the
concupiscence, (that ruling, this ruled; that lord, this subject,)
the same in two human beings, man and woman, is in regard of the
sex of the body exhibited in a figure. Of which sacred import26252625 the
Apostle speaks when he says, that the man ought not to be veiled,
the women ought. For the mind doth the more gloriously advance to
higher things, the more diligently the concupiscence is curbed from
lower things; until the whole man together with even this now
mortal and frail body in the last resurrection be clothed with
incorruption and immortality, and death be swallowed up in
victory.26262626
This book has been accessed more than 558230 times since July 13, 2005.
