ני TO MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN. 101 ment is exceeding broad. To such, a true retirement to wait on God is known, and his words are found, and a remnant do eat them; and of the abundance of the heart cannot but tell of the goodness of God, and invite others to be partakers with them, that their joy may be full, and God have the glory of his own work out of the mouths of babes and sucklings;2 and the rather in regard of gospel-prophecy by Paul quoted from Isaiah to the Corinthians, that God would bring to nothing the wisdom of the prudent;3 that he hath made foolish the wisdom of this world, as to the mysteries of his kingdom, and it hath pleased him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I say, then, since these gospel-privileges are so plainly asserted by Scripture, and divers of them by the authors aforesaid, who is it will confine the experience thereof to men only? Shall men only experience the life of God in the soul ?4 Shall men only receive the gift of the Spirit? Shall none but men be regenerated by it? Shall no women experience this work? And believe with the heart, and with the mouth make confession to salvation ?5 But since I hope none are so uncharitable as to exclude women (for whom Christ died as well as for men) from these blessings, experiences, and enjoyments; so I hope none will exclude them from speaking thereof to the glory of God, as they find themselves called of God thereto. For since the promise was, Servants and handmaids shall prophesy, as well as, I will pour out my Spirit (1) Jer. xv, 16. (2) Mark xxi, 16. (3) 1 Cor. i, 19—21. (4) Title of the afore-mentioned Treatise. (5) Rom. x. 10. 102 THE GIFT OF PROPHECY PROMISED upon them;1 if the Spirit of God shall prepare and require them to declare the wonderful work of God to their souls, who shall forbid ? John says "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and do bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifest unto us.)"2 One great contest of our age having been, as before observed, whether this gift of God, which is eternal life, 3 be received in this day of restoration, we desire all may know this gift is bestowed through Jesus Christ our Lord, and many, to his eternal praise, are witnesses of it, both men and women; and that which was from the beginning, which they have heard, which their eyes have seen, and which they have tasted and been made partakers of, they cannot but declare of; that others may have fellowship with [them] whose fellowship truly is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 5 Here, in and by this heavenly gift, and the operations thereof in the humble souls of men, is the glory of the gospel appearing again; praying in the Spirit, praying with the Spirit, and with the understanding also, gospel prophesying, as the holy men of old; so many, now, speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost, not by the will of man. 6 I am sensible that this doctrine will seem uncouth to some men of most professions, who suppose prophesying, or as we call it, preaching, ought to be (1) Joel ii, 28. (2) 1 John i, 1, 2. (3) Rom. vi, 23. TO WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN. 103 restrained to certain sets of men educated at schools, and appointed thereto by the will of man; but what hath that brought forth of turning men (as above hinted) from darkness to light, from the power of satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, through faith that is in Christ Jesus. 1 Since, then, the gospel spirit is again manifest, those only that are sanctified and set apart of God to that work, and by him qualified, are the proper gospel-preachers; by him they only can be fitted; it is only the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb that was slain, can unseal the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which to others are as parables. Let men, therefore, wait on him first to learn, and then, if he requires it, to publish on the house-top [or openly] what they have learned in secret. The preaching of such (though plain) will be solid, experimental, and profitable to the edifying of the soul; their labour is and will be to turn men to God, to hear and learn of the Father, that men may come unto Christ, and enjoy his great salvation. Serious people need not wonder that our merciful God should, in this age, make use of unlearned men and women to tell of his gracious dealings to their souls, since it is witnessed to by Jeremy Taylor,— "And we have known whole nations converted by laymen and women, who have been builders so far as to bring them to the Corner-stone;"2 for which he quotes Socrat. lib. I. c. 19, 20; Sozom. lib. I. c. 14; Niceph. lib. XIV. c. 40. Before I leave this, of women's preaching, I am (1) Acts xxvi, 18. (2) Jer. Taylor's Liberty of Prophecy. 104 WOMEN'S PREACHING willing to mention a passage in Psalm lxviii, 11 :Dominus dabat verbum annunciatricibus magni exercitus; Arius Montanus, Dominus dabit sermonem annunciatricum exercitus multus; God will give the word, great shall be the company of she-publishers. It is said in the Margent, earum quæ annunciant, of women which publish it. Lyra Prophetica, by Bithner, reads, ham eb has seroth, annunciatrices, i.e. mulieres.1 He derives it from the Hebrew root; rem novam et lætam annunciavit-bono nuncio vitam afferens.2 So that these women-] -publishers were to be bringers of good tidings, vitam afferens. And I see no reason to doubt this prophecy to foretell the same gospelblessing as that of Joel ii. 29:-Upon servants and handmaids will I pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Yet here I desire to leave a charge and caution, that although the Spirit is now given-that neither men nor women do presume to speak in the name of the Lord, without the certain motion of the Spirit requiring them thereunto: lest, like the false prophets, they run when the Lord hath not sent them, and so the people not be profitted by them, but their own words become their burthen. And that none mix their own notions, or the notions of others, with what they deliver as the Lord's message, but that all who speak, may do it as the Lord's oracle, and stop where that stops. The praises of those to whom the Lord gives the word, whether men or women, will be comely in their mouths, whilst each one magnifies the Lord for his goodness and wonderful work3 to their immortal souls according to their experience. (1) Bithner, p 256. (2) Bithner, p. 204. (3) Psalm cvii, 8, 15, 21, 31. FORETOLD BY DAVID. 105 Here all these religious performances both of men and women, are natural (or proper) to them, according to the nature of the new man created of God in Christ Jesus. And these, as trees planted by the river of water, will be bringing forth fruit in due season, and their leaves also shall not wither.1 The services of such will be acceptable to God, being the produce of his own work, whereas the works of men, what they borrow from others, or as the prophet has it, stealing every man his word from his neighbour, having the line made ready to their hands, as this was not approved of God in the time of the law, so much less in the gospel-times; if that was the state of false prophets then, what must we call it now? And may we not here well apply the warning of the Lord,-Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherewith is he to be accounted of? CHAPTER XXXI. Preaching as moved by the Spirit not acquired by carnal men, nor carnal means. THE next thing I would show, is, that this exercise of true gospel-preaching is not acquired by carnalminded men nor carnal means, for it is a fruit of the Spirit; it is bestowed on those that are born of the Spirit, not of the will of man, or of the flesh; it is not an attainment of men unregenerate; they may (1) Psalm i. |