Anf-03 vi.iv.xxii Pg 37
1 Cor. iv. 7.
Why, by your ostentation of yourself, do you judge others? Is it that, by your boasting, you invite others unto good? Nay, but even you yourself run the risk of losing, if you boast; and you drive others unto the same perils! What is assumed from love of boasting is easily destroyed. Be veiled, virgin, if virgin you are; for you ought to blush. If you are a virgin, shrink from (the gaze of) many eyes. Let no one wonder at your face; let no one perceive your falsehood.8909 8909 i.e. as Muratori, quoted by Oehler, says, your “pious” (?) fraud in pretending to be married when you are a virgin; because “devoted” virgins used to dress and wear veils like married women, as being regarded as “wedded to Christ.”
You do well in falsely assuming the married character, if you veil your head; nay, you do not seem to assume it falsely, for you are wedded to Christ: to Him you have surrendered your body; act as becomes your Husband’s discipline. If He bids the brides of others to be veiled, His own, of course, much more. “But each individual man8910 8910 i.e. each president of a church, or bishop.
is not to think that the institution of his predecessor is to be overturned.” Many yield up their own judgment, and its consistency, to the custom of others. Granted that virgins be not compelled to be veiled, at all events such as voluntarily are so should not be prohibited; who, likewise, cannot deny themselves to be virgins,8911 8911 i.e. “are known to be such through the chastity of their manner and life” (Oehler).
content, in the security of a good conscience before God, to damage their own fame.8912 8912 “By appearing in public as married women, while in heart they are virgins” (Oehler).
Touching such, however, as are betrothed, I can with constancy “above my small measure”8913 8913
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 4
VERSE (7) - 1Co 12:4-11; 15:10 Ro 9:16-18 Eph 3:3-5 2Th 2:12-14 1Ti 1:12-15
