" but the Quakers conceive, that this charge of the Apostle has
no allusion to preaching. In these early times, when the Gospel
doctrines were new, and people were eager to understand them, some of
the women, in the warmth of their feelings, interrupted the service of
the church, by asking such questions as occurred to them on the subject
of this new religion. These are they whom the Apostle desires to be
silent, and to reserve their questions till they should return home. And
that this was the case is evident, they conceive, from the meaning of
the words, which the Apostle uses upon this occasion. For the word in
the Greek tongue, which is translated "speak," does not mean to preach
or to pray, but to speak as in common discourse. And the words, which
immediately follow this, do not relate to any evangelical instruction,
which these women were desirous of communicating publicly, but which
they were desirous of receiving themselves from others.
[Footnote 116: 1 Cor. 14.34.35.]
That the words quoted do not relate to praying or preaching is also
equally obvious, in the opinion of the Quakers; for if they had related
to these offices of the church, the word "prophesy" had been used
instead of the word "speak." Add to which that the Apostle, in the same
epistle in which the preaching of women is considered to be forbidden,
gives them a rule to which he expects them to conform, when they should
either prophesy or pray: but to give women a rule to be observed during
their preaching, and to forbid them to preach at the some time, is an
absurdity too great to be fixed upon the most ordinary person, and much
more upon an inspired Apostle.
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