feminism

Bishop Ussher, 1645, On Husbands & Wives As Superiors & Inferiors by Shane D. Anderson

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Following the common biblical and catholic paradigm, Bishop Ussher’s Twenty-fifth Head of doctrine in his influential A Body Of Divinity, Being The Sum And Substance Of The Christian Religion (1645), describes the various privileges, duties, and violations taught by the fifth commandment using the paradigm of “inferiors and superiors.” This is the same paradigm the Westminister assembly, influenced as it was by Ussher, adopts in its discussion of the fifth commandment.

In this post, I simply would like to provide the reader an easily accessed excerpt of this wholesome teaching on the family from our early Reformed father. May Christ be praised in the churches.

Who are private Superiors, and Inferiors? They are either in the Family, or in the Schools.

What is the duty of Superiors in a Family? First, To provide for the Household the things belonging to their Soul, by a familiar catechizing and examintion; and to go before them in Prayer accordingly; the Householder being therein to be the Mouth of his Family. Second, To provide the Necessaries belonging to this present Life; as Food and Raiment both sufficient and agreeable to every ones place and estate, ( Gen. 18. 6, 7, 8. Prov. 27. 23, 24, 25. & 31. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 8.) with convenient Government.

What is the duty of Inferiors in a Family? To submit themselves to the Order of the House: and according to their Places and Gifts, to perform that which is commanded by the Governors thereof, for the good of the Household, Gen. 39. 2, 3, 4.

What are the differences of Superiors and Inferiors in a Family? They are either natural, as Husband and Wife, Parents and Children: or otherwise, as Masters and Servants, Ephes. 5. & 6. Col. 3. & 4.

What are the common duties of the Husband and Wife each to other? Mutual and conjugal love one towards another: yet so, as the Word presseth love at the Husband's Hands more than at the Wives; because Men are commonly more short of that Duty, Ephes. 5. 25.

Wherein must this Conjugal Love be declared? First,. By mutual help, Gen. 2. 18. Second, By due benevolence, ( 1 Cor. 7. 3. ) except by consent for a time, that they may give themselves to Fasting and Prayer, 1 Cor. 7. 5. 2 Sam. 11. 11.

What are the sins common to the Husband and the Wife? 1. Want of Love. 2. Betraying one another's Infirmities. 3. Discovering each others Secrets. 4. Jealousy. 5. Contention.

What is the duty of the Husband towards his Wife? First, An entire love unto her, to cherish her, as he would cherish his own Flesh, and as Christ does his Church, Ephes. 5. Second, To provide for her that which is meet and comely during his Life: and then also that she may be provided for after his Death, if it so fall out. Third, To protect her, and defend her from all Evil. Fourth, To dwell with her, as one of Knowledge, 1 Pet. 3. 7. Fifth, To give honor to her, as the weaker Vessel, ( Ibid. ) that is, to bear with her infirmities. Sixth, To govern and direct her.

What are the special sins of the Husband? 1. Not dwelling with his Wife. 2. Neglect of edifying her by Instruction and Example. 3. Denying her comfortable Maintenance, and Employment.

What is the Duty of the Wife to the Husband? First, Subjection, in a gentle and moderate kind and manner, Eph. 5. 22. For albeit it be made heavier than it was from the beginning, through the transgressions: yet that Yoke is easier than any other domestic subjection. Second, Obedience: wherein Wives are oft short, as Husbands in Love, Ephes. 5. 33. 1 Pet. 3. 1-6. Third, She must represent (in all Godly and commendable Matters) his Image in her behavior, that in her a Man may see the wisdom and uprightness of her Husband, 1 Cor. 11. 7. Fourth, She must be an helper unto him, ( Gen. 2. 18. ) as otherwise, so by saving that which he bringeth in, Prov. 31. 11-12. 1 Tim 3 11. Finally, She must recompense her Husbands care over her, in providing things necessary for her Household, and do good for her Husband all the days of her Life, ( Prov. 31. 12. ) that so he may be unto her, as it were, a veil and covering before her eyes. Gen. 20. 16.

What are the sins of the Wife, in respect of her Husband? . 1. Failing in reverence: which appeareth in froward looks, speech, or behavior. 2. Disobedience in the smallest Matters. 3. Disregarded of her Husband’s Profit.

What Duties come in the next place to be considered? Those of Natural Parents, who are specially mentioned in this Commandment: whereunto also are to be reduced all in the right Line ascending, and their Collaterals; as also Fathers in Law, and Mothers in Law.

What are the Duties of Natural Parents towards their Children? They are either common to both Parents, or in particular to either of them.

What are the common Duties of both of Parents? They do either respect the things of this Life, or of that which is to come.

What care are they to have of the Souls of their Children, to fit them for the Life to come? 1. To make them Members of the visible church by Baptism. 2. They are to catechize and instruct them in Religion, as they are able to receive it: and to bring them up in nurture and the fear of God, Ephes. 6. 4. 3. They are to pray to God to bless them, and guide them in his Fear.

What is required of them for the things of this Life? First, To mark the wits and inclinations of their Children; and as far as their own ability will reach to apply them accordingly, in due time, to some good, honest, and godly Calling: that so being trained up in such a Trade as they are fittest for, they may not afterwards live idly without any Calling, Gen. 4. 2. Prov. 20. 11. & 22. 6. Second, To provide for them a Godly Marriage (if it please God) in time convenient, 1 Cor. 7. 36. Third, Not only to maintain them, during their abiding in their House, but also to lay up and provide somewhat for them, that they may live honestly afterward. And therefore are they to distribute their Goods among their Children: and what they have received from their Ancestors, to leave the same (where it may be done lawfully) to their Posterity, 2 Cor. 12. 24. 2 Chron. 21. 3. Prov. 19. 14.

What special regard is here to be had by Parents to the Eldest Son? That since God hath honored him with that dignity, as to be their strength, ( Gen. 49. 3. ) he should also be honored by them (at the least) with a double portion, ( Deut. 21. 17. ) as by the rest of the Brethren, with honor: yet so, as he fall not from his honor by some horrible sin, Gen. 49. 4.

What are the common sins of Parents? 1. Negligence in not instructing their Children early in life. 2. Not correcting them till it be too late: or doing it with bitterness, without Compassion, Instruction, and Prayer. 3. Giving them ill example. 4. Neglect of bringing them up in some lawful Calling. 5. Not bestowing them timely, and religiously in Marriage. 6. Light behavior before them, and too much familiarity with them; whereby they become vile in their eyes. 7. Loving beauty, or any outward parts, more than God's Image in them.

What is required of the Father in particular? To give the name unto the Child, Gen. 35. 18. Luke 1. 62, 63. For notwithstanding the Mothers having sometimes given the Name, yet that hath been by the Father’s permission.

What special Duty is laid upon the Mother? To nurse the Child if she be able, Gen. 21. 7. 1 Sam. 1. 23. Lam. 4. 3, 4. 1 Thess. 2. 7, 8. 1 Tim. 2. 15. & 5. 10.

So much of the Duty of Parents to their Children.

What is the Duty of Children to their Parents? It is either general or special, viz. in the case of Marriage.

What are the general Duties? First, To reverence them: and to perform careful obedience to them in all things that they command: by the example of our Savior, who was subject to his Parents, Luke. 2. 51. Second, To pray for them. Third, So to carry themselves, while they are under their Parents tuition, and after they are departed from them, as they may cause their Parents (in their good bringing up) to be commended, Prov. 10. 1. & 17. 25. & 31. 28. Fourth, To be an aid unto them, as well as they be able, and to help them with their Bodies, when they are in distress, Ruth. 1. 16. & 2. 17, 18. Fifth, To repay their Parents care over them, by being ready to relieve them, if they stand in need of relief, and want any thing wherewith God hath blessed them, 1 Tim. 5. 4. Gen. 45. 11. & 47. 12.

What are the contrary sins of Children, in respect of their Parents? 1. Disobedience. 2. Murmuring at their Parents’ Chastisements. 3. Condemning them for any default of Body or Mind. 4. Unthankfulness, in not relieving them, not standing for their deserved credit, etc.

What is the special Duty of Children to their Parents, in case of Marriage? That they ought not so much as or attempt to bestow themselves in Marriage, without their Parents direction and consent; especially Daughters, Gen. 24. & 21. 21. & 27. 46. & 28. 9. Judg. 14. 2. 1 Cor. 7. 36, 37, 38.

What Reason have you to persuade Children to this Duty? That seeing their Parents have taken such great pains and travel in bringing them up, they should reap some Fruits of their Labors in bestowing of them. Besides, they should give them this honor, to esteem them better able, and more wise to provide for their comfortable Marriage, than themselves are. Is this Duty required onfy of Children to their Natural Parents that beg at them? No: It is also in some degree required of Children to their Uncles and Aunts; or to any other under whom they are, and that be instead of Parents unto them, when their Parents are dead, Esther 2. 10, 20. Ruth. 2. 18, 23.

The Trident, Fog Dwellers, and our Christian Future by J. Landon

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God is doing a great work in our time. The Sun of Righteousness is burning away the fog of delusion that has clouded our churches for decades. This is the fog that has allowed us to claim biblical inerrancy and confessional fidelity on the one hand and yet accommodate the values of the Enlightenment and modernism on the other. And now that fog is clearing and the places where one can (whether naively or deceptively) insist on compatibility between light and darkness are fast disappearing.

With the evaporation of this fog, the evangelical and reformed churches are finally being forced, tangibly and concretely, to choose between Christ and Mammon, Molech, Leviathan, Demos, or whatever names you wish to give to the false god of this age. This god has a sharpened Trident, aimed at the heart of Christ’s churches, a new liberalism with three deadly barbs: racial Marxism, feminism, and sexual degeneracy.

Many false sons in her pale have long ago chosen the latter and have been trying to drag the institutions they have been members of along with them. They have taken up the Woke Trident and wield it against the churches in which they dwell. They will not rest until they have either converted or purged everyone. Others have long ago understood the stakes and chosen to stand on the Lord's side and reject the lies of the age. They in turn are rousing still others, and we are now finding and removing the compromises from our own hearts, families, and as able, churches. Eventually every Christian must stand with one faction or the other.

But for now there are those still in the middle, trying to preserve the old status quo and continue running the legacy denominations and institutions as if nothing is happening. They want both Christ and modernity. Or they want Christ but fear to go against the Trident. They will retreat to wherever they must go to remain in the fog. They insist on peace, peace- unless it is yesterday's battles being fought. Those battles no longer cost them much to fight. And if they can be mustered to fight over something besides those, it is usually a fight to shut up anyone that is forcing them to confront the present.

These include many of those insiders and big names about whom we have been scratching our heads of late. What are they up to? One day they offer some 'concerns' about critical theory or some other aberration. Are they coming around to reality, coming to join us? But then so often the next day they want to sideline anyone on their right flank that goes after the same target. So maybe they aren't coming to join us.

I think some are in the process of resolving the contradiction one way or the other. They may yet stand with us. I think others are just trying to make both sides stop reminding them of their mutually exclusive commitments. But they seem more irate with the ones on their right. Why? I suspect because they know the ones on their right are right. And they have less power to push back when rebuked. And they know they should be standing with them, and they are being put to shame by them. It's not easy living in the fog.

The committed fog-dwellers don't particularly like the Trident-wielders or their views, you see, but facing them head on will require them to step out of the fog and to commit not only for Christ, but against His enemies. They will have to get negative on things about which the culture feels very positively. They will have to look mean, intolerant, misogynist, nationalistic, and a host of other scary sounding things. And their lives will get much harder. They will not only have angry critics within their churches; they may even face the forces of culture, HR, and state. And so it is easier now to tone police the faithful that are taking a stand and pray the Trident only leaves a flesh wound. Maybe if they keep the peace hard enough, maybe if they discipline the unruly watchmen severely enough, maybe if they engage thoughtfully with the woke enough, the Trident will eventually just leave them alone in the fog.

But the Trident advances inexorably. It does not stop and it only moves in one direction- inward. It is barbed, it does not come out until its target is dead. Or until its target resolves to face the pain of removing it and tears it out.

Eventually there will be no fog left to hide in. Things are, as Dr. Dimble noted, "always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point." Foglings too, if they do not quit the church entirely, will take up their tridents and be obedient little wokelings, or else they will finally own the blood-red banner that streams afar, climb the steep ascent of heaven through peril, toil, and pain, and follow in His train.

Legacy denominations and institutions will likely be lost when it is all said and done. But there will remain a people, refined and strong, forged into new congregations, federations, schools, and communities, ready to face a very different world.

In short, we are all of us either getting woke or getting based. Now is the chaotic, messy sorting.