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 wickedness2616
hath not
sat.”
2617
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.”
2618
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.”
2619
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.”
2620
And they do not understand that it
is in reference to concupiscence of
carnal sex
2621
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 do 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.”
2622
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.”
2623
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
mind2624
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 import
2625
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.
2626
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